Just last month, the Anime and Manga Industry have started to crack down piracy of Anime and Manga. While I believe that these creators should get the credit they deserve and the industry made some progress in doing so with legal streaming sites, there are still some shortcomings, especially in regards to Manga. I think there are ways to fix it that would benefit the industry rather than fighting an endless battle on piracy.
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Weekly Anime Impressions – Summer 2014 – Week 8

It’s the last week before Fall Semester starts, so it’s time to enjoy what is left of my summer break.
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Atelier Shallie – Alchemists of the Twilight Sea – First Impressions

Last month, Gust finally released the third installment of the Dusk series, Atelier Shallie. Unlike the first two games in the Dusk series, it feels like a departure from the usual gameplay since this game feels more like Mana Khemia 2 since they replaced the time limit with a Life Task system. While there are some mixed reactions from the fans, here are my first impressions of the game.
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Hanayamata and Portrayal of Foreigners in Anime

When I watched the first episode of Hanayamata, I wondered how foreigners are portrayed in Anime stereotypically. I think there are several reasons why authors/creators decide to do so in their works.
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Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya 2wei – Episode 7 – Tsundere Illya Defends Her Older Sister Status
Weekly Anime Impressions – Summer 2014 – Week 7
Chou Megami Shinkoku Noire Gekishin Black Heart – First Impressions
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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