Hanamaru Youchien – review

Pa pa, Pa pa, Panda neko~ Pa pa, pa pa, panda neko~!

CAKEY~! ❤

Our trio as adults

If only real kindergarteners were as entertaining as this. Gainax has produced a very solid and heart-warming series that should be seen by all who enjoy the slice-of-life genre. Note: if you feel that looking cool is very important, you probably may not want to watch this series in front of your friends. I’m also sure many people will disagree with my review. Hanamaru Youchien is just one of those series which you can really enjoy, or really hate.

OMGWTFBBQ THAT HELMET IS AWESOME

Hanamaru Youchien follows what I believe to be a love triangle between kindergarten first-yearer Anzu, her otaku-like teacher Tsuchida (Tsuchi) and his airheaded and not surprisingly, beautiful colleague Yamamoto. Now what may sound very shifty concept, isn’t half as bad as it sounds, and you will find yourself laughing and cringing in a positive sense at the misunderstandings and occurences that unfold.

Well I'm sure he ain't looking at babies...

Let’s start with the good: Seiji Mizushima fleshes out his characters very well. By the end of the series, all the main characters aren’t as one-dimensional as they first seem to be. Yamamoto is air-headed, but dedicates herself to her work tirelessly. While Tsuchi can be a douche at times, we do end up commending his efforts and his character  is given some depth. Some even say that the adults, especially the teachers at Hanamaru Kindergarten, are the best characters in the show, as each isn’t given a stereotype to follow. However, Tsuchi’s sister is just plain weird.

Nothing quite like the YMCA~

Personally, I must agree with the masses and say that the kids are the ones who steal the show. Koume is simply adorable, but the one character who shines above all is Hii. Her voice and personality are done fantastically, and she is by far the funniest and most interesting character in the series. Her costumes are also pretty awesome too.

Tsuchi was watching over the bewbies... I mean, babies...

The kindergarteners’ antics are pretty funny to watch too. They’re are a lot of humourous moments, but what really struck me were those few instances here and there that perfectly captured the mindsets and voices of those kids. It’s those moments that I’m sure will conjure up strong notions of nostalgia in some of the older viewers. There’s also a pretty gut-wrenching moment in one episode in the latter half that was well-executed.

Hanamaru Youchien's own 'Palmtop Tiger'

Graphically, Hanamaru Youchien is above average. Just. While everything we seen in the actual episode is solid, what stands out are the ED’s of the series, with each episode having its own very unique one accompanied by its own fitting song. The same can be said for the soundtrack. Applause for the production values.

It's okay, Tsuchi. We don't want your filthy magazines.

So what did Gainax screw up. For starters, the main problem I have with Hanamaru Youchien is that it constantly shifts between simple slice-of-life, and romance, and as a result we never get a solid development, nor conclusion to the latter. The characterisation of Yamamoto is also key to this, as she’s so damn air-headed, she wouldn’t realise the world ended if it really did.

*Belly slap*

That being said, the romance in this series is hardly a novel concept, and it can bore/frustrate some viewers. In addition, the other minor relationship in the series isn’t dealt with at all, and sometimes I wonder why they even had it in the series.

You talkin' to me?!

Overall, Hanamaru Youchien is a very enjoyable and well-paced 12 episodes. The humour isn’t forced like a Will Ferrel movie, and it has some very well-done moments. Just don’t expect something epic from this series. It won’t change your outlook on the world, nor will it change the face of anime. However what it will do is keep you hooked  and wanting a second season. Thankyou Gainax for the past few weeks~

Animation – 8.5/10

Sound – 8.25/10

Story -7.5/10

Characters – 9/10

Enjoyment -9.5/10

Overall – 8.55/10

As requested by a certain viewer, I have had all of the costumes Hii has worn in the series compiled. Enjoy~

Darker Than Black Gaiden 02

“Why are you scared… You should tell her yourself, as well. She’s no longer human anyway. Tell her to come quickly to my side.”

"I absolutely LOVE what they did to the decor!"

Hong Kong and it's bright city lights~

What an interesting episode. Though it was not as quickly-paced as the first in the OVA miniseries, it certainly developed Yin’s double-personality as herself and Izanami. This OVA series clearly linked the two proper DTB series together through familiar characters from both.

"HECK NO!"

As usual, action was fast and nicely choreographed. What’s unusual was that Hei actually didn’t end up killing anyone, which to me in a way, reflects his quasi-uselessness in Yin’s evolution. This episode clearly showed Hei as essentially being tossed around by his circumstances and Izanami’s toying. Kinda surprising since we’re used to seeing him in control, especially in most of his fight sequences.

No, you probably don't want to make him angry.

It’s nice to hear Misato Fukuen’s Yin/Izanami, and we heard a LOT of her this episode. What quite struck me was Izanami’s voice and character. It is totally different to Yin’s calm passivity, and it actually sounds rather sinister and chilling. Great job.

Say cheese~

Anyway it’s a very interesting episode plot-wise and I have little idea how the remaining 2 OVA episodes will turn out, especially with the return of Evening Primrose. Stay tuned~

Twiddledum, Twiddledee and the Queen of Hearts

No Qin. You =/= Cupid.

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier – live-action trailer impressions

“In the near future, Moscow, Russia, ultranationalists have violently seized power…” Wait, haven’t we heard this before…?

Russian attack drones - now coming in fashionable red

For some odd reason, this reminds me of Red Alert

Unfortunately still no gameplay of Future Soldier depicted. I’d probably expect some at E3 in June. However, we did get a sweet-looking live action trailer that displayed a few of the nifty gadgets that are in store for Future Soldiers. And it looks like there’s gonna be quite a few, seeing that Future Soldier is coming to PC, XBox 360, PS3 AND Wii.

This guy needs to smile more.

It also looks like Moscow will play a role in the single player campaign too. This is hardly surprising, since the Russians played huge roles in a lot of fps’s such as Modern Warfare 2 and Bad Company 2.  Russia will also feature in Splinter Cell’s co-op prequel. It remains to be seen whether they’ll actually invade America like in the first 2 blockbuster titles. To be honest, I think the Commies have copped quite enough of a beating from Western game producers. For some reason they fit the ‘perfect enemy’ profile.

The only phantom ops member who doesn't cloak is the sniper.... FAIL

This trailer clearly was aimed to flaunt a few of the nifty gizmoes to be accessed at our fingertips. We once again got to see the sexay cloaking action at work. We also got a glimpse of some pretty awesome shoulder-mounted rockets, no matter how impossible they be in real life, and we observed some drone-vs-drone action.

Not quite the headshot I was expecting....

What’s also good to note is that it seems that there’ll be quite a high chance that there’ll be co-op multiplayer. This isn’t too much of a surprise, seeing that previous installments did feature splitscreen 4-player co-op.

That's right. When you shoulder-mount something, that makes it over 9000 times cooler.

Production of Future Soldier looks like it’s steaming ahead. There definitely have the budget to cast a very Michael Bay-esque live-action trailer, and the result looks spectacular. However, I’m currently more interested in gameplay and multiplayer/co-op, and I’m sure there will be much more to see once Spinter Cell comes out and players receive their free entry to the Future Soldier online multiplayer beta. Stay tuned~

Now you see me...

Now you don't.

Demotivator of the week #10

Just goes to show how important context is. Catchy’all later for another week of updates! Will probably look at the new live-action trailer for Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, and reviews of Ookami Kakushi and Hanamaru Youchien when they come out XD

Ippius

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun – review

“I’m surprised this sh!t was so popular. Actually, I’m not.”

An anime series with only female characters? How could they screw it up?!

FINALLY. Railgun’s finished, so it no longer will take up precious bandwith! And what a journey it’s been: 24 episodes, mostly of filler substance, and some development here are there.

Face contourship win.

If you’ve been living in a hole for the past few months, Railgun is actually a sidestory to the even more popular and much more decent Toaru Majutsu no Index. It follows the character Misaka, one of the 10 level 5 espers in Academy City, an imaginary city where students rule and play with awesome powers. Her friends also get significant screen time: the crazy Kuroko, the pathetic Uiharu and the playful Saten.

Misaka clearly is the Batman

I’m not going to say that Railgun was totally bad. It had some VERY funny moments, most of which surrounded Kuroko’s almost obsessive ‘love’ for Misaka, her ‘onee-sama’. It also had some very good pointers and references to Index. In fact, I’ll tell you now: if you haven’t watched Index and you actually want to watch Railgun, you might just want to take a look at the sidestory’s parent.

It's the ribbons

The music isn’t too flashy. Besides the catchy OPs, the musical experience was largely forgetable. On the other hand, most of the voices were done pretty well, especially Shirai’s. In fact, I’m pretty sure Shirai would be the most popular character of the entire sidestory. Her personality is nailed fantastically. Toyosaki Aki does a solid job of Uiharu and the teachers that appear in Railgun are an amusing bunch.

KAMEYAMAYA!!!!!

Animation overall has been handled well. There are some instances of 3D work, but those are largely forgetable. The animators however have done a fantastic job of giving life to Misaka’s electrical powers. They’re fantastic to watch. However, ironically fights aren’t very exciting when you compare them to Darker Than Black S1 and even Katanagatari. I think the key in making fantastic fight scenes is nailing their duration, besides the obvious choreography, and it isn’t quite as well done in Railgun.

Never trust nerds with guns.

Character design is horrible. The characters never really change, and if they do, it’s so sudden that you’re left wondering what the hell happened. They’re also pretty generic, so if you’re looking for depth, GOOD LUCK.

Stop staring at me Uiharu. I hate you.

I won’t recommend Railgun to anyone who hasn’t watched Index, hands down. The story is disjointed and pathetic, and the filler material isn’t quite as funny as it should to maintain solid interest. Heck, even the ‘supposed’ fanservice episode was mediocre, and how hard can it be to give hungry adolescent males their dose of skin and bewbies. Index was a far better series and unlike Railgun, deserves a solid season 2 to finish off what it left behind.

Animation – 8/10

Sound – 8/10

Story -5.5/10

Characters – 6.5/10

Enjoyment -6.5/10

Overall – 6.9/10

MAN, I LOVE WHAT SHE DOES TO HER FACE!

LOL! I MEAN, LOOK AT THAT!

THANKYOU~

Wow we did it~ 1000 views! Thanks to all you loyal viewers out there! You make my toiling worthwhile and it brings great joy when I see the number of views I’ve received. Catchy’all later~

Ippius

Demotivator of the week #9

Another week gone and so much to write about, yet so little time >.<” If I have the time I’ll make a very brief review on God of War III. Seems like many anime series are starting to finish in preparation of next season’s, which should be better than this one just by looking at some previews. Catch y’all later~

Ippius

Final Fantasy XIII review

Worst birthday ever.

NO, I WANT COOKIE NAO!

Sazh: "What'chu lookin' at?!"

There are many things that Square Enix does well in FFXIII. It looks beautiful, it controls very well and the battles can get very exciting. However, Squeenix just never hits the nail on top of the head due to some very key faults that lie in the game.

Cid's airship.... I'M SERIOUS!

A lot of you have already heard about this, but I’m gonna say it anyway: Final Fantasy XIII is shockingly linear: no sidequests, no exploration, no back-tracking. We’re talking about a very visible unidirectional track on your map, with the occasional off-shoot that promises some booty. This game was clearly designed for a much wider audience and as a result, gamers who cherish those hours spent just bumming around will receive a significant slap in the face.

Some Metal Gear action right there~

At least Final Fantasy XIII has looks to be proud of. The cutscenes are spectacular, the character designs are perfect in appearance and the locales you roam around are amazing to behold. While they’re definitely not perfect, I guarantee that most people will be simply stunned by the graphics which clearly are the best of any FF game to date.

Don't forget to wear your sunnies!

However once players discover that there’s no going beyond the boundaries of your fated path, the sheen of Pulse and Cocoon quickly diminishes. I was seriously pissed off when I read in the Datalog how people often get lost in Gapra Whitewood. How can you freaking get lost when there’s only one track and there are even BRIGHT, SHINING BEACONS which tell you where to go.

FINALLY! Some open space!

You’d expect that the story in an FF game these days involves huge amounts of teenage-fuelled angst, a hefty dose of b/romance and some pretty full-on rebellion. FFXIII delivers on that as expected. It’s set in a world called Pulse where mechanical god-like beings called the Fal’Cie have created a haven for humanity, Cocoon, which floats above its harsher surface.

Go go chocobo!!!

Cocoon’s inhabitants are illogically afraid of all things Pulse due to a reason which takes too much effort to explain. The Fal’Cie mark certain individuals as l’Cie, people with magical power who must complete an unknown Focus, otherwise they’ll turn into a monster called a Cie’th. Our lady protagonist Lightning’s sister Serah is turned into one of these l’Cie, setting in a chain of events that drags all our heroes into the fray: Hope, Vanille, Snow, Fang and Sazh.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

It sounds better than it actually is and the flowery terminology Squeenix has used doesn’t help. The first few hours are shockingly slow and tedious, for all FFXIII’s opening glitter and fireworks. I do admit that the story does improve, but storytelling is affected by a severe lack of continuity. At some stage you’ll hop between groups travelling in different places for an hour or two, leading to some very poor plot maintenance.

Prepare the defibrillator/phoenix down! Lightning's having a heart attack!

The characters don’t help. I can find something to b!tch about concerning all the main characters bar one. Vanille, the ‘moe’ character of the group, just kept annoying me. She’s just too dainty and glitzy. Hope can be likened Shinji Ikari from Evangelion: he starts off as  a weak fag and develops some pretty annoying personality issues. Snow – ‘I’m so freaking awesome’ – Villiers is so block-headed. He’s a complete twat, only equalled in retardedness by his rebel group NORA. On one hand Lightning is often the ‘tough-guy’ soldier character in the group. However, her softer side isn’t executed very well, resulting in her rather weird personality.

"Oh sh!t."

The dubbing doesn’t help and it’s very average.  Initially Sazh sounded rather Caucasian. Fang’s iconic Australian accent doesn’t quite suit her, nor is it nailed effectively and Vanille’s imitation-‘moe’ voice really annoyed me. The soundtrack is good enough, even though it’s not composed by Uematsu this time round, and it tells. You get quickly sick of the same battle music playing over and over gain, and the tunes themselves aren’t extraordinarily special.

Squall and Rinoa, Tidus and Yuna, meet Snow and Serah

The battle system is surprisingly good, and even though you can only control one plot-determined character at a time early on, there is a great deal of micro-management needed, especially when tackling bigger enemies. For those who have played FFXII, you could liken it to an automated version of the Gambit System. You can switch your party’s job classes at any time using ‘Paradigm Shift’, and I found myself shifting quite often depending on the tide of battle.

Battle against Giant Tortoise.

However the ‘leveling’ system in FFXIII is relatively disappointing. Gone is your traditional exp farming. Instead, you earn ‘Crystogen’ points which you use in the ‘Crystarium’ to purchase stat upgrades and unlock abilities specific to different classes. Though in theory this should give you the liberty in choosing what abilities you want for your characters, and what job you want to max out, in reality, like the game itself, the system is very linear. There are no real options but to follow one linear path of progression per class, and there will come various points in the game where you might have maxed out a class at that stage, so the only choice you’ll have is to level up other classes.

Looks like the Helghan have invaded Cocoon.

One thing I absolutely loathe about the game is how simplistic levelling up weapons is. Essentially you jam in your weapon as many materials as you can. Different materials give you different amounts of exp, but they don’t give special abilities, or change the weapons in any way besides increasing their stats. That’s just poor, Square Enix.

Where IS the Batman?

Endgame:

Though I found FFXIII had several very big faults, I still found myself enjoying the game. It soaks up the time well and the environments are fantastic to see, even though it’s still only look but not touch. There are plenty of pretty lights to keep the bugs of the gaming audience fixated. The battles are engaging and probably one of the highlights of the game. FFXIII is nowhere near the definitive FF game, but I don’t see why, as a PS3 owner, this game shouldn’t be in my library. It’s just one of those games that must be experienced.

Yaag Rosch - this guy is actually awesome.

Story/setting: 8/10

Graphics: 9.75/10

Sound: 8/10

Gameplay: 8.25/10

Lasting value: 8.25/10

Overall: 8.45/10

Meet Stiria and Nix, the Shiva twins whom Snow... *ahem*... rides on.

Whoa. Awesome view.

Katanagatari – 03

Don’t continue this useless resisitance. Admit your defeat. Kyotouryuu cannot match up to Sentouryuu. That’s the simple truth.

Umbrellas - they hurt

Another excellent episode. It was good to see that episode 3 took itself seriously, compared to the more humourous previous 2 episodes.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

As usual there was a tonne of dialogue, and small bursts of action. I feel that it’s deliberately done to great effect, playing on the old shounen-“I’m gonna talk for 2 millenia then attack you” curse, but in this case, the dialogue gives depth to the characters presented.

Ah the innuendo...

It’s also good to see that our ‘villain’ this week isn’t as much of a point of comedy compared to our previous two. Even though she’s not the most original character, the producer gave her some depth and interest.

Not how I'd like to end the day...

The music is also surprisingly great and the scores during the fight scenes are especially well-executed. It’s gonna be a big bummer waiting for a month for the next release >_<”

What's the point of 1000 swords when they're TIED TO TREES

Durarara!! – 10

I hated living a normal life… I wanted to live in a way unlike everyone else. All the cards are in my hand. That’s why I…

Mikado after watching Avatar in 3D twice in a row

Out of all the episodes so far, this episode was one of the best, if not, the best. It combined its great bouts of humour with some serious plot advancement at the end of the episode, making it definitely cementing Durarara!! as a bloody fantastic watch.

Return of the puppet show~!

Episode 10 pretty much focussed on Mikado, and by the end of it, we see some pretty big character development. This is a welcome move at this point of the series and in my opinion, it was successfully executed. Ookami Kakushi also has a weak and shy main character, but unlike in Durarara!!, he has yet to change, and thus has remained the whiny b!tch viewers see him to be.

GTA Ikebukuro style~

I don’t want to spoil too much, but in an eggshell, we get a glimpse of what it’s like to be a member of the Dollars, Celty’s head goes missing again and Izaya has some very shifty business concerning Mikado. If you haven’t started watching Durarara!! you don’t know what you’re missing out on.

Yes, Sherlock...