Demotivator of the week #15

It’s that time of week again~

Enjoy~ here’s to a another week of interesting updates!

Ippius

Iron Man 2

Just a quick pic I made after watching Iron Man 2. Go watch it NAO! It’s fantastic. Also go watch How I Met Your Mother, so you understand this reference.

Yojou-han Shinwa Takei (The Tatami Galaxy) – 01

“I am a god of the Shimogamo Shrine. My proper name is Kamotaketsunuminokami”

Flame wars are fun

This Buddha ain’t for world peace.

Some anime series make you think e.g. Hack//Sign. Some anime series screw with your head e.g. Ergo Proxy. Some anime series make you cry e.g. Clannad. Youjou-han Shinwa Takei looks to be an intriguing series that goes beyond the bounds of typical presentation, both in dialogue and animation.

Nor do I Watashi, nor do I....

Brief synopsis: “When a college dropout stops for a late night bite at a mysterious ramen stand, he crosses paths with a self-proclaimed deity of matrimony. This bizarre meeting sends the young man hurtling through a horrifying flashback to his not-so-glorious college days when the influence of a cruel new friend turned him from a hopeless romantic into a mischievous “black cupid.” (ANN)

I don't see why they couldn't use pandas. That would have made infinitely more sense >_>

Our lead is Watashi, who is pretty much a loser. While I found him slightly annoying near the end of the episode, he is genuninely an engaging character, like the rest of the cast, on one hand, yearning for that ‘rose-tinted campus life’, and on the other hand, afraid to make that all-important first step. Ozu, his best friend, is pretty funny at times, and his visual presentation only adds to his characterisation.

Ozu looks as if he has Downe syndrome. No, seriously. (No offence intended, of course)

Watashi’s love interest Akashi is well-characterised. Though she appears somewhat like a tsundere-type character, a softer side of her is also presented in the episode. Brownie points go to her seiyuu Maaya Sakamoto (who also voiced Shiki from Kara no Kyoukai <3) who adds flavour to her dialogue. In fact all the characters in Tatami Galaxy are voiced well, and display considerable skill.

Yeah, after watching this my expression was like Watashi's too.

It looks like visual experimentation is ‘in‘ this season (think Sarai-ya no Goyou and Katanagatari), and Tatami Galaxy shows a tonne of it. It’s a refreshing feeling to see what is essentially (or appears to be) rom-com animated in such an atypical fashion. It’s also to see such interesting characters in this genre, especially when you compare it to other mainstream romantic animes such as Kimikiss Pure Rouge (which was utterly terrible).

Warning to all plastic surgery patients - your face might just melt under strong heat.

One thing to note is the damn speed the dialogue goes at. If you don’t understand Japanese, you may find that you’re too busy focussing on reading the subs to really pay attention to what’s happening on the screen, which is *facepalm*/epic fail since there IS so MUCH emphasis on the animation. Nevertheless, if you don’t mind the quirky animation, keep Tatami Galaxy on your watchlist.

OP: The fantastic uplifting tune is equally matched with very active animation. Nice work Madhouse.

ED: My favourite ED of the season. The smooth, quirky and very catchy song is in synch with what’s happening on screen. The idea of using the college-living here is very cool.

What an awesome ED~

I'm desperately trying NOT to make any joke concerning bodily appendages at the moment....

Zenonia 2 – review

Who says the DS and the PSP can have all the glory?

Our cast of terribly-named warriors

Another cast shot...

Welcome to the world of Zenonia 2, arguably one of the best RPGs on the Itunes store, which is pretty good seeing that you’re competing with the likes of FF1, FF2 and Squeenix’s new release, Chaos Rings.

Enemies include spinning FACES.

The main character from the first game, Regret, has now been replaced by 4 new characters who have their own individual classes: Lu (not Loo) the paladin, Ecne (not Acne) the shooter, Morpice (not More Piss) the mage, and Daza (damnit why can’t you have a retarded name too!) the fighter. This gives the game a certain replayability, which is definitely a bonus.

Lock and load, muthaf*ckers~

Pimp Morpice knows where to get the 'goods'

So what makes Zenonia 2 so worth getting for its price of AUD $5.99? For starters, its graphical design is pretty nice to look at. Though it’s definitely not ground-breaking stuff, I liked the cute character designs. The expressions during dialogue are also pretty cutesy and funny initially, but they do get old quickly. However, MonsterEvil has done themselves a good deed by making your inventory visible in the map, effectively allowing the player to customise his/her own appearance.

Pimp Morpice is also a gold-digger

Gameplay is engaging and very hands-on (as expected from an Iphone/Ipod Touch app). However, trying to select spells and healing items often gets messy as the icons are annoying small, and if they’re placed together, you’ll inevitably end up selecting a move you don’t want, or choosing the wrong healing item. While the screen is fully customiseable, the icons do tend to get in the way on the map. Moving control and the action button, however, can be made see-through.

Some days you just don't want to get out of bed.

Zenonia 2’s story and mission-system are nowhere near breakthrough concepts in the genre. The mission-system itself is very standard and old-school: kill specific monsters to collect items from them and return back to base. The story is marginally better, but don’t expect Final Fantasy-type twists.

Ecne needs her morning coffee if she wants to face ninja's in the afternoon

I'd be happy too if I had access to 2-way portals.

The item-forging system is not bad. Like with many other RPGs you’ll need to collect recipes and the items listed in those. Nothing extraordinary. Nor is the mining system. However there are sometimes bugs which list items as differently to what they really are.

Morpice showing off his cool moves.

The soundtrack isn’t too bad. Each locale has its own distinct tune allocated to it. However the music does get repetitive. The soundeffects are pretty good overall.

Unlike Morpice, Ecne is terrible at bargaining.

What’s great are the boss battles. I thoroughly enjoyed these, even though they are pretty difficult to overcome. You WILL spend quite a lot of time farming enough exp to level up. However these are good things in such a game, as when you do finally beat that nasty bugger, victory certainly tastes honey-sweet. In addition, changes made to your stats are irreversible, so players will need to be careful in spending precious ability and levelling up points.

Ecne vs Lex (the icedragon, not Lex Luther the gigavillain)

Ecne vs Deodore (no, his primary moves do not involve deodorant)

What’s a nice addition to the sequel is a nifty PvP mode online and offline. Local play with friends is definitely the way to go for Zenonia 2 and matches are engaging for both the players and onlookers. I’m afraid, however, that this mode does have a tendency to get old.

Dumbledore makes a cameo! (I'm kiddin')

Overall Zenonia 2, though not quite a masterpiece in its own right, is a pretty fun ride. The controls, while imperfect and often clumsy, are easy to get a hang on, and customisability in both appearance and the menu is definitely a plus. The 4 classes also ensures that those who thoroughly enjoyed the first game, won’t get bored by this sequel. Gameplay and combat are fantastic. For $6 (not much if you think about it), much fun will be had with Zenonia 2, so I definitely recommend it.

Story/setting: 7.5/10

Graphics: 8.75/10

Sound: 7.5/10

Gameplay: 8.75/10

Lasting value: 8.5/10

Overall: 8.2/10

Ecne just bought her first Toyota. Oh what a feeling~

Katanagatari – 04

“Dancing like a butterfly, stinging like a bee, consume like a praying mantis and dying like a bug.”

Never underestimate flower power

What an atmospheric episode. Katanagatari continues to intrigue me with the direction it is taking, and the latest episode was, in one word, a blast.

Shichika chibified

It a total flip of the shounen genre, episode 4 totally disregards the preview we received at the end of episode 3, and almost completely focuses on Shichika’s sister Nanami, and her encounter with the Insect Squad of the Maniwa ninja corps. While this turn was unexpected, the resulting episode was still fantastic.

Moral of the story: cut your goddamn nails.

As usual of Katanagatari, the episode was laden with dialogue. In an unusual turn of events (but probably unsurprising to some), Nanami is shown to be quite the psycho, even making the Maniwani look positively bright. I guess this episode essentially centred upon the tragedy of the Insect Squad, and there was definitely quite a lot of dramatic irony in the fact that we, the viewers, knew which life direction they were heading towards, as we had seen the quick disposal of the previous members of the corps.

Seriously. What is with all this nature?!

Katanagatari has proved to be one of my favourite series this year, and it pains me that I’ll have to wait for a month for the next release~

Nanami's happy. Are you happy too?

Demotivator of the week #14

And just like that another good week of updates has passed. We breached the 2k barrier, so thanks for the views peepz and for the loyal commenters and readers (you know who you are!) ~ Always much appreciated!

Stay tuned for some pretty sweet posts next week!

Ippius

Marvel vs Capcom 3 – debut trailer impressions

“I don’t generally like fighting videogames. So when there’s one that comes across and I ACTUALLY want to buy it, it must be good…… right?”

Ryu vs Wolverine

HAAAAAAAAADOOOOUUUUUKEEEEEEN!!!!111oneone

10 years after the release of Marvel vs Capcom 2, its sequel was announced in Hawaii at the annual Capcom ‘show and tell’ day aka, the Captivate Press Show. And what do we get? We get a tantalising trailer showcasing 6 characters from the cast of at least 30.

Ironman clearly had a quick polish before entering battle.

So who’s confirmed? From the Marvel universe, we have Wolverine (no friggin’ duh), my favourite Marvel character, Iron Man, and Shrek aka. the Hulk. As for the Capcom squad, we have biceps-man Ryu, the twisted demon chick Morrigan, and Chris Redfield (from the latest Resident Evil). Looking at the silhouettes, it looks like Captain America, Dr Doom and Chun Li are also confirmed. I seriously can’t be screwed guessing who else is who, but that can be your optional homework.

Someone clearly likes his greens a bit too much 😛

Clearly there’s been quite the upgrade in terms of graphics when comparing to MvC 2. Looks like we’ll be enjoying 3D character models, most likely still in the 2D gameplay, as per usual with most fighters in the market. Stay tuned for more news in the coming months (and hopefully from E3).

For such big arms, he sure carries a tiny gun 😛

PS. From the silhouettes, it may be assumed that Felicia (Darkstalkers), Frank West (Dead Rising), Charlie (SF alpha) and Magneto are also included in the game.

Why can't I get a hug too?

Angel Beats! – impressions so far

My soul, your beats.

If only school was like that.

Most things end with death or destruction. Angel Beats starts off with it, and while it appears like it’s starting a little slowly, it shows marvellous potential for ending magnificently.

Girls with guns. Makes everything better.

According to MyAnimeList: “In a world after death, angels fight for their fate and their future. Yuri, the leader of the Shinda Sekai Sensen, rebels against the god who destined her to have an unreasonable life. On the otherhand, Tenshi, the chairperson of the student council for the world after death, battles against the SSS members. SSS members utilize armed weaponry to battle it out against the angels harnessing supernatural powers.”

News front: Ricki Martin is gay!

They forgot to mention the main character Otonashi, an amnesia-affected new-comer to Class 3S, voiced by the very capable Kamiya Hiroshi. The usually  strong sense of cynicism and sarcasm that is present in many of the character’s Hiroshi has voiced is also present here.

Otonashi's first rejection.

While many anime series employ a certain sense of gravitas when dealing with death, Angel Beats seems to mock it and play with its serious undertones. This is best seen in a surprisingly funny episode 2 where each squad member succumbs to various ingenious traps, with the rest of the survivors, bar Otonashi, mostly unfazed.

It's only awkward if you make it.

Angel Beats has an intriguing concept that begs to be watched. There are many questions left to be answered, and at a relatively short 13 eps long, this series looks like it’s gonna be a blast, especially with Maeda Jun’s tear-jerking story-telling habits.

That's not a slap on the face. That's a face five!

N.B. Angel Beats! also gets bonus points for having more ‘live performances’ than K-On S1. SUCK ON THAT MOE B!TCHES!

OP: Awesome song, and great visuals, very reminiscent of Clannad ~ After Story. ❤

ED: Looks like a pushover. I didn’t like the song either. But you might. If you like lullabies.

This guy calls himself Christ. I call him a huge douche.

Singularity – Last Resort trailer impressions

“I had good intentions, but they blinded me from the truth of what we created.”

Trust the Russians to screw up with time.

It’s always Russia’s fault. In Singularity, you play as an airforce pilot Nate Renko, who is sent to investigate Katorga-12, an island where experiments on element 99 have been conducted. Apparantly Einsteinium has some time-altering effects, and by some reason or another, you find yourself armed with a Time-Managing Device which you’ll need to use against Commies from the 1950s AND now. That’s right, the island is essentially a crack in time, switching between the 2 years.

Hammer and sickle!

From what we can see in the trailer, this looks like a morph between Bioshock 2 and Metro, but with time-spanking powers to beat those deranged critters and evil Russians alike. There have been 4 confirmed powers: Revert (rewind), Age (fast-forward), Stasis (freeze) and Impulse (shockwake). Multiplayer has also been confirmed. It all looks so interesting…

Send those evil Commies to an early retirement

Not. How many goddamn first-person shooters are there on the market these days?! I’m honestly sick of checking out my daily dose of videogame news, only to see yet another amazing, awesome-powers-filled block-buster shooter, which boasts some sort of multiplayer and/or co-op. They are all essentially the same game: (1) OMG I HAZ UBER POWAHS (2) WTF I CAN HAZ AMAZIN GUNZ IN MAH ARSENAL (3) I CEN USE BOTH AT SAEM TIEM!!!!111oneone

Shockwaves? Yes we can.

Sorry if I’ve offended the fps-loving community out there. These types of games sometimes just make me want to rant because there’s too many of them. Don’t expect a follow up 😛

That guy is burning up the dance floor!

House of Five Leaves – 01

“That composure… I’d like to smile as you do.”

Our main cast of zombies

According to MyAnimeList.net: ‘Masterless samurai Akitsu Masanosuke is a skilled and loyal swordsman, but his naïve, diffident nature has time and again caused him to be let go by the lords who have employed him. Hungry and desperate, he becomes a bodyguard for Yaichi, the charismatic leader of a gang called “Five Leaves” ‘

The red of the maple is pretty much the strongest colour you'll ever see in this series

While much can be said about the art style, which certainly produced a bad taste in many viewers (but not  in my mouth), Sarai-Ya Goyou was pretty interesting to watch. It has interesting and developeable characters and an interesting concept to boot, and the first episode established these well.

Metro hamaka ;P

The music used is also pretty fine and rather atmospheric. It’s rather perfect for this more-or-less slice-of-life-esque series (or so it seems so far). The dialogue used isn’t forced, and sounds pretty natural. This series looks like it’s going to be slow paced, and that should be fine with the 12 or so episodes that the House is going to consist of.

Awwww~ ❤

The only problem I feel may pop up concerns the direction Manglobe will take in directing House. Just from looking at the first episode, I’m really not certain whether this show wants to be witty, funny or purely slice-of-life. Only time will tell.

"Look Mum! It's a gypsy ronin!"

OP: relatively simple sequence. Lovely and gentle song though. Magic. The Kanji and watercolour artstyle look awesome too!

ED: very unusual and somewhat disappointing.

And then it suddenly dawned on Yaichi that he wasn't actually the prettiest criminal around...