In the past year, Compile Heart and Idea Factory has been expanding the Neptune franchise by making various spinoffs in order to reach a wider audience. Last year, they made an idol simulator, which left a disappointing taste in my mouth. This year, they released a strategy RPG featuring Noire (Chou Megami Shinkoku Noire Gekishin, 超女神信仰ノワール激神) and planning to release an action game, which is developed by Tamsoft, the makers of Senran Kagura at the end of this month. While I’m not interested in the latter, I decided to get this game since I enjoy Noire/White Heart’s personality. Since I’m close to half way done with this game (currently on Chapter 4), it’s time to reveal what I think about the game first hand.
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Weekly Anime Impressions – Summer 2014 – Week 6
Happy 25th Birthday!

It seems like yesterday since I turned 24 years old. Like last year, it has been a calm year thus far except for the couple big snowstorms. Not to mention, I have been focusing primarily on learning new vocabulary and Kanji from playing video games and memorizing them through flash cards. I am still planning to tackle grammar needed for JPLT (will focus on N3 next year) with the references I have since there are apparently not many good advanced level textbooks unless you want to learn from one that is only in Japanese.
As I turn 25 years old, I have a feeling that 1/4th of my life has already passed by me although I look younger than my actual age. During those years, I have been focusing mostly on education. After the fall semester, I will finally complete my master’s degree and find my first job. I have high hopes that I will get a good paying job, but it won’t be easy. Once I get a one, I don’t expect things to be drastically different depending on the workload. In fact, I will be able to cover more types of content and be able to attend Anime conventions. Not sure which one I will go to, but Otakon is a good possibility since it’s only about a 3-hour drive from where I live. I’ll figure it out once I get there.
With that, feel free to say Happy Birthday in the comments below. I will be streaming games today and tomorrow, so feel free to watch on Hitbox, if you want.
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Weekly Anime Impressions – Summer 2014 – Week 5
Changing Views on Legal Streaming and Decline of Episodic Blogging

For a while now, I have noticed a downward trend in the blogosphere since 2012 as episodic blogging is coming out of favor with bloggers either giving blogging or forego other types of content such as essays, analysis and reviews. With Hanner’s Anime Blog throwing in the towel just a few months ago, I wonder if episodic blogging has outlived its usefulness in an age where legal streaming is widespread. Furthermore, I think there are better ways to present an analysis rather than share than in 12 separate posts.
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Atelier Ayesha Plus – Final Review

Koei-Tecmo’s acquisition of Gust has left a bad taste in most fans’ mouths when they decided that they are not going to include dual audio in Atelier Ayesha (I shared my thoughts on this issue in an editorial about localization issues I wrote early last year). Not to mention, there has been reports that they poorly handled Escha and Logy localization. Eventually, I ended up just importing the Japanese copies of the game since I knew enough Japanese to understand most of the game.
Although I considered getting a Japanese copy of the game for the Playstation 3, I decided to wait since Gust in December announced a Plus version for the Vita. Since I finally finished the game, it’s time to share my overall thoughts about the game.
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Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya 2wei – Episode 4 – Revenge and Crazy Nurses
Weekly Anime Impressions – Summer 2014 – Week 4
Anime – Is it just an Advertisement for the Source Material?

Just recently, I shared my thoughts on why Game Freak should finally revamp the Pokémon Anime. While reading through some of the comments, I thought to myself if Anime is really a gloried infomercial or advertisement for a source material. If that were the case, would Anime necessarily lose creative merit because of this?
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Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya 2wei – Episode 3 – Kuro Goes Wild
Weekly Anime Impressions – Summer 2014 – Week 3 – Glasslip, Hanayamata and Free Eternal Summer Episode 3

I bet a lot of people are wondering why most Japanese songs have English words. They do it because it’s cute and cool.
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Nisekoi – Final Review
In the past few years, I have been bothered by most of the male leads from romantic comedies since most of them lack a backbone. After watching the first episode of Nisekoi, I knew it was going to be different.
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Atelier and the Art of Time Limits and Time Management

Ever since I regained my interest in Japanese Role Playing games back in 2012, besides the Tales of games (so far, I played some of Graces f and finished Hearts), I decided to give some of the Atelier games a try. When I started playing it, it differed from other Japanese RPGs not because it focuses less on combat, but rather more on the time management aspect. After playing five games from the franchise, I wonder what lessons I learned along the way in order to use the in-game time efficiently.
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Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya 2wei – Episode 2 – Illya’s Unlucky Day
Weekly Anime Impressions – Summer 2014 – Week 2 – Glasslip, Hanayamata and Free Eternal Summer Episode 2

Yep, love is already in the air and we are only in the second week of the summer anime season.
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No Game No Life – Final Review

For a long time, I consider gaming as one my main hobbies next to watching Anime. When I find out that No Game No Life focuses on two hikkimori siblings who are also gamers, I decided to watch it.
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The Stale State of the Pokemon Anime – Should Game Freak Finally Revamp the Anime?

Pokémon was one of the first shows besides Miyazaki films that helped me gain an interest in Anime. While I remained a fan of Pokémon (or Pocket Monsters) since my childhood, I gradually lost interest in the Anime in the mid 2000s because it got dull and bland.
After watching and reviewing Pokémon the Origin special late last year and reading this controversial thread on Bulbagarden Forums, I have a feeling that Game Freak should revamp the Pokémon Anime to be more like Origins and make Satoshi age or change the protagonist every few years.
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Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya 2wei – Episode 1 – Miyu and Illya Bonding Time
Summer 2014 Anime First Impressions Digest – Free 2, Glasslip, Hanayamata, Sailor Moon Crystal
With vacation coming to an end, I’m finally back to share my initial thoughts for most of the Summer Anime I will be watching.
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Love Live School Idol Project 2 – Final Review

Ever since the first season of Love Live School Idol Project aired last winter, the series has gained a considerable amount of popularity. Since I enjoyed the prequel, I was excited when a second season was announced since Muse will have a second chance of achieving their dreams and number one in Love Live.
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Fandom Rivalries and Fanboys – Are They Harmful to the Anime Fandom?

In the past, I shared my thoughts about the Anime Fandumb where fans become obsessive to the point where they berate people. Of course, there is another ugly aspect of the fandom that I haven’t touched upon: fandom rivalry and fanboys.
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Atelier Escha & Logy (Anime) – Final Review

Before I started playing Atelier Totori last year, I never heard of these games since it was not a traditional Japanese RPG. Instead of focusing on saving the world from an evil person, Atelier games focuses more on collecting ingredients, doing tasks, exploration and of course item crafting. Back in the 90s, these games were ground breaking as it introduced item crafting for the first time, which subsequently got added to other Japanese RPGs.
To commemorate Gust’s 20th anniversary, they decided to make their first anime adaption for the franchise starting with Atelier Escha & Logy. While I have shared my first impressions of the game last year, I wonder how the anime adaptation will fare?
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