final impressions

Review: Little Braver Single

June 7, 2010 by Chikorita157 10 Comments

General Information

Album Title: Little Braver

Artist: Girls Dead Monster (Singer: LiSA)

Catalog Number: KSLA-0055

Release Date: June 6, 2010

Tracks

Little Braver
Shine Days
Answer Song

General Thoughts

If you haven’t heard enough of the rather mediocre music from Girls Dead Monster, there is more! A few weeks back, there was a promotional video on Little Braver, but I didn’t take a look at it because I don’t want to go and spoil it. Several weeks later, the single is released. Have LiSA improved her rather mediocre and rather forgetful performance of the “Thousand Enemies” single? It’s only slightly better, but I am still not convinced if it’s good enough. LiSA seems to sound good on the lower notes, but she still goes slightly out of tune in some areas. Not as bad as Thousand Enemies, but that is saying too much about it. The songs are still pretty forgettable and made me wish that they had better singers singing these songs…

Little Braver is the song that was shown in the promotional video. It starts off with a calm intro and when LiSA enters. This is where the good composition gets drown out by the mediocre vocals. It does sound slightly better than Thousand Enemies, but it’s slowly goes downhill from there. The songs feel pretty dull and the higher pitches like with the previous album sounds slightly ever out of tune. Not only that, Little Braver is pretty forgettable several minutes after. Little Braver is an okay song, but it doesn’t try to go beyond the mediocrity of Girls Dead Monster.

The intro of Shine Days sounds pretty well like the intro to Alchemy and it’s a pretty upbeat song. This is probably the best song out of the whole single, but it’s hardly perfect. It still have several flaws like the slightly out of tune pitches on the higher octaves and it’s slightly dull. It’s an okay song, but still forgettable like the rest of the songs LiSA has sung. It’s worth mentioning that at 4:30, her vocals are barely audible…

Lastly, we have Answer Song, which is probably the most disappointing song out of the whole album. The performance of the song felt a bit messy and somewhat dull. I don’t feel any energy in this song, except mediocre singing that could put me to sleep. Probably the worst song I heard from LiSA.

I don’t know what they are getting at by not letting the seiyuu sing! I’m pretty sure Eri Kitamura and Miyuki Sawashiro are fully capable of singing, but no! Lets pick two amateur singers that doesn’t necessarily represent Japanese Indie scene and fuck up all 9 songs! Thats how I feel about the whole Girls Dead Monster thing and it’s a big disgrace. Jun Maeda does a wonderful job in composing these songs and these singers go out and ruin the work he worked hard for. It’s just like making a good game with good game play, story and graphics and the orchestra go and fuck the music up. Like I mentioned in my rant in the last paragraph of my Pure Pure Heart single review, they choose singers that can’t sing properly and resulted in the mediocre and disappointing performance of these songs. Girls Dead Monster will never reach the appeal of Houkago Tea Time because their songs continue to have flaws with the vocals, which make them rather forgettable. Houkago Tea Time is simply more polished, sounds better and the vocals don’t go out of tune so many times that it makes me cringe.

Not only that, there is more Girls Dead Monster singles that is coming out and what can you expect out of them after hearing the first 9 songs? More disappointment. They are making a mockery out of Girls Dead Monster and milking it what its worth from the hype. Believe me, My Soul, Your Beats!/Brave Song sounds like heaven compared to the mediocrity of all the Girls Dead Monsters songs combined.

Verdict

7.0/10

Category: Angel Beats!, ReviewsTag: final impressions, key, more disappointment, music, opinion, review, strawberry sundaes

Review: Pokemon HeartGold

June 5, 2010 by Chikorita157 6 Comments

Somewhat irrelevant to HeartGold, but whatever…

After three months and a few weeks, I have finally beaten Red, which people say that he is hard to beat. Well, I managed to beat him with minutes, so yeah… Since I completed pretty much everything in the main story, I will share my thoughts about Pokemon HeartGold.

Back when the original release of Pokemon Gold and Silver came out back when I was in 5th grade, I have played this game a lot. There was only 251 Pokemon back then and I also bought Pokemon Stadium 2 for a bit more fun with 3D battling. Fast forward to today when I am a college student now finished Diamond and Platinum, when the remakes of Gold and Silver was revealed, I wanted to play it. After the English release back in March, I have started playing it and the nostalgia factor came back.

People who have played this game will notice that most of the story and the maps are pretty much the same, with minor differences. These differences included updated mechanics since the Second Generation (basically, it has everything from Diamond/Pearl/Platinum), berry trees replaced with Apricorn trees (since the 4th Generation has a different berry system compared to the 2nd generation), Battle Frontier, Pokéathlon (essentially a sports version of the Pokemon Contests), Revival of the Safari Zone and other changes to music and graphics. If you compare the graphics to D/P/Pt to HG/SS, the newer remakes look slightly better. There are some minor changes to the story to take advantage of the new graphics and such.

If you played Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, you will immediately notice that the menu is moved to the touchscreen since there is no Poketch. This allows you to easily access your Pokedex, Pokemon list, Items, Save, etc. Another thing I liked is that you can lock on to using the running shoes without needing to hold B down. Another improvement is that you can set two key items for easy access. This made it easy to use the fishing rod without needing to unset the other item. The PokeGear is pretty much the same, except that you can store an unlimited amount of phone numbers. However, this can be annoying since your PokeGear will keep ringing at random moments after you get out of a building, defeat a Pokemon/Trainer, etc.

Like in Pokemon Yellow where you have Pikachu following you, in HG/SS, you can have any Pokemon walk with you, as long its on the first slot of the Party. This is where you can find accessories for the dress up mini game like in D/P/Pt and check your mood of your Pokemon.

The game is pretty easy since I used my other game to Effort Value train the Pokemon and send them back to the game. I managed to beat the first 8 Gym Leaders in 21 hrs and 47 mins, beat the next 8 Gym Leaders in several hours later. However, when it was time to train for Red, training got very frustrating. Compared to D/P/Pt, HG/SS does not have a VS Seeker. This meant that you had to rely on trainers that call you, weekly rematches of Gym Leaders depending on the day and the Elite Four. The lack of a VS Seeker is the biggest flaw in this game because they push the PokeGear so much for rematches that it becomes a gimmick. I liked it when I can battle trainers on demand since I can level up quicker and go on. Because of this, I had to resort to trading the Pokemon to my older games, train them and send them back. I even battled the Elite Four (I deposited my money before doing this) until I lose and I do it again over and over again. Eventually I managed to beat the stronger Elite Four’s Pokemon 6 times because my Pokemon were already on Level 70s to 90s. If I had the VS Seeker, it would have been done in no time and I see this as a flaw in the game. If HeartGold/SoulSilver is the only game you have, be ready for a long level grinding up to Level 82 or higher because if its below level 82, you won’t stand a chance against Red.

Talking about Red, he was incredibly easy (Beaten on the first try after 74 hours of playtime). I beaten his whole team with these Pokemon:

Kyou (f) – Dragonite at Level 91 – Adamant Nature
Kotomi (f) – Espeon at Level 83 – Timid Nature
Nagisa (f) – Milotic at Level 83 – Bold Nature
Sayuri (f) – Leafeon at Level 75 – Jolly Nature
Pidgey (Fly) and Geodude (Rock Climb) are used as decoy Pokemon and HM Moves

If you properly Effort Value train the Pokemon along with the right natures, you will stand a better change against Red’s Pokemon since I highly doubt Red’s Pokemon are EV trained.

Another flaw with the international release is that they replaced the slot machines with this incredibly hard Voltorb Flip. Basically, it’s a game of chance that involves no risk. I don’t really care about the games, but they took away the ability to buy coins. So, the only way to get coins is beating Voltorb Flip, which I found very frustrating, even with a helper. Eventually I gave up and bought the items in Platinum. Slot Machines replaced with Voltorb Flip was simply the worst change they made in the whole game.

Now to the positive aspects of the game… The Pokéathlon is the Sports version of the Pokemon Contest. There are five game modes (Speed, Power, Skill, Stamina and Jump) depending on each performance stat. You can raise these stats by blending Apricorns and giving the Apricorn shake to the Pokemon. Honestly, I only tried Speed and Jump since they are the easiest out of the five, but haven’t tried out the other three. They consist of three events that takes advantage of the touch screen on the DS. The games are okay, but they take some time getting use to. Once you get use to these events, they will go pretty easy.

If you notice, the cartage of the game is different from the others. This is because it contains an infrared sensor used by the PokeWalker. PokeWalker, as the name suggests allows you to send a Pokemon to level up by one and raise happiness. You can find items, catch Pokemon and send watts back to your game. Basically, the PokeWalker is like those Pokemon Pikachu gigapets that you walk around with and earn watts. I’m guessing that Nintendo and the creator of Pokemon wanted to get people off their butts and start exercising. However, there are always going to be some cheaters… On Youtube, I saw people taping their PokeWalkers to phonographs and fans. They even go so far to build a MindStorm device to have it shake the PokeWalker. That pretty much defeats the whole purpose of the PokeWalker and its pretty sad.

For me, I have used the PokeWalker a few times by bring it to college to generate watts. Ever since the Spring Semester was over, the PokeWalker is sitting by my bedside collecting dust. I rarely use it nowadays since I have a lot of stuff I bring with me when I go out.

Lastly, there are a few mechanics changes to this game. Breeding for Individual Values is a lot easier since you can just have a Pokemon hold a single-stat EV enhancing item and keep the IV of that Pokemon. Like with Platinum, additional moves that was previously unavailable for various Pokemon is now available. This allows for better move set building.

Overall, HeartGold is a great remake of the original games. There were some flaws, but I enjoyed the nostalgia factor and the pretty graphics and music. If you played Pokemon in the past or still like it, I recommend this game… Although there were a few things that bothered me about the game, it didn’t impact my enjoyment of the whole game and I will continue to play it as long as I can.

One last thing… If you want to do any online activities with my Pokemon Game, my friend code 0818 6384 1156. If you want to do a Battle, I only do Level 100 Singles with no Ubers and Hax Items. Contact me via my XMPP address or Twitter (as a Direct Message) if you want to arrange a battle (See “About chikorita157″ page for my contact information). I’m usually online throughout the summer at 10 AM to 11 PM Eastern Time.

Note: Fanart used in this post is made by わっこのやろう

Category: ReviewsTag: final impressions, opinion, pokemon

Review: Pure Pure Heart Insert Song Single

June 3, 2010 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

General Information

Album Title: Pure Pure Heart
Artist: Houkago Tea Time (Toyosaki Aki, Hikasa Youko, Satou Satomi, Kotobuki Minako, Taketatsu Ayana)
Catalog Number: PCCG-70075
Release Date: June 2nd, 2010

Tracks

1. Pure Pure Heart
2. Sakuragaoka Joshi Koutougakkou Kouka [Rock Ver.]
3. Pure Pure Heart (Instrumental)
4. Sakuragaoka Joshi Koutougakkou Kouka [Rock Ver.] (Instrumental)
5. Pure Pure Heart (Instrumental [-Guitar1])
6. Pure Pure Heart (Instrumental [-Guitar2])
7. Pure Pure Heart (Instrumental [-Keyboard])
8. Pure Pure Heart (Instrumental [-Bass])
9. Pure Pure Heart (Instrumental [-Drums])
…

Category: K-ON!, ReviewsTag: final impressions, music, opinion

Review: My Soul, Your Beats / Brave Song Single

May 24, 2010 by Chikorita157 3 Comments

General Information

Album Title: My Soul, Your Beats! / Brave Song
Artist: Lia, Toda Aoi, Maeda Jun
Catalog Number: KSLA-0054
Release Date: May 26, 2010

General Thoughts

When something gets animated, the theme song will get referred to as the national anthem.
– Ken from Seitokai no Ichizon

Typically, all the Key Anime Adaptations always had great opening and Eeding Themes (Tori no Uta, Last regrets, Megumeru, Toki wo Kizamu Uta, Light colors and others). Angel Beats is no exception to this, except the insert album songs from Girls Dead Monster since the vocals sound like they were amateurs. From hearing the songs over and over again, I think this is a pretty solid album overall with some tiny flaws (some minor screeches in a few areas in My Soul, Your Beats! and vocals being soft in Brave Song), but nothing that serious. Both songs have strong instrumentals and sound really beautiful, especially with Brave Song.

My Soul, Your Beats!

The intro of My Soul, Your Beats! has a simular feel to Toki wo Kizamu Uta (A Song Engraved in Time) from Clannad After Story… Heck, the vocals sound similar. From the song, I like how the piano and the guitar is played in the background as it gives this feeling of being blown away because of how powerful it is. Since it’s Lia, the vocals are solid. Nothing else to say about My Soul, Your Beats! as its a very good song. No need to recommend as most people will like this off the bat.

It’s worth noting that while I was listening to My Soul, Your Beats, I was comparing this song with Lia’s past opening themes with Key (Tori no Uta, Light colors, Toki wo Kizamu Uta). While My Soul, Your Beats is a good song, it lacks the emotional feel from these three songs. However, Brave Song conveys that feeling, which is the next song in the review.

Brave Song

Honestly, it took several listens for Brave Song to click in, but it has the feel of Chiisana Tenohira. It pretty much fits in with the whole premise of the show. The vocals from Toda Aoi seem to be a bit soft at first. After listening it a few times, it fits in well with the song although not as good as Lia. The strength of this song is the lyrics that can compare to Toki wo Kizamu Uta as it has emotions that’s not present in My Soul, Your Beats. Although most won’t get Brave Song from listening it to the first time, but after a few listens, it will click in. Maybe not like Go Go Maniac since I still can’t get over the screechy vocals from Toyosaki Aki.

By the way, Brave Song is the song that is played when the rocket goes off, which I found really strange.

Conclusion

From listening to both of these tracks, Jun Maeda should be proud that his Opening and Ending Themes are not ruined by mediocre vocals from marina and LiSA, but with more established singers. Lia delivered just like she alway do from all of her tracks I had listen to. Toda Aoi on the other hand isn’t as refined as Lia, but her performance of Brave Song turned out pretty good. Nevertheless, this is a solid single and is a recommended listen if you are watching Angel Beats or like Jun Maeda’s compositions.

Verdict

8.9/10, A-/B+, Outstanding

Category: Angel Beats!, ReviewsTag: final impressions, key, music, opinion

Game Review: CLANNAD SPELUNKER

May 22, 2010 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

Just don't ask why the hell I'm playing this…

On Wednesday during the week of finals, someone on Twitter was playing this game called CLANNAD spelunker, which is essentially a Clannad themed version of the original Spelunker on the Atari. If it has Clannad characters, it must not be that bad… you will be mistaken when I show how hard this game really is.

Warning: There is a lot of swearing when I made the post.

It is pretty odd to have a game such as spelunker and slap Clannad characters in it… Well, yes… it’s so out of place… Now to the gameplay:

Character Selection Screen

Although I can’t read Japanese, it doesn’t really matter since its pretty obvious. In Clannad Spelunker, you can play as Nagisa, Kotomi, Tomoyo and Yukine. I’n guessing that each character has different abilities… I don’t know… but whatever.

The Gameplay

The goal of this game is to explore caves, collect treasures and defeat enemies… Sound easy, right? You will find out sooner…

What? I just died from that jump? WHAT????!!!!!

That is fucking bullshit! I died from that fall? Yep, I did and it wasn’t that high… Note that when you lose a life, you go back to a place in the level… Note that when you hit a checkpoint, you will get sent back there when you lose a life

The game fools you in thinking the game is easy. Compared to the original spelunker which is one hit and game over, Clannad Spelunker gives you 4 tries and you can replenish them by collecting the hearts. Not only that, its pretty hard to get on the damn ropes that you will end up falling when I realized that I need to use the double jump. You are going to use the double jump a lot to get to these places. However, the controls feels like shit that you will end up doing a single jump and lose a life because of the fall. That is fucking horseshit!

In Super Mario Bros, you can jump further without dying even if you fall from a high platform, but in Clannad Spelunker you die from a high jump. The developers made the game feel so hard that nobody can beat it in one sitting or without saving. Believe me, you are going to die a lot in this game. And yeah, if you lose all your lives, there are NO continues…

Forgot to mention, there is a save function, but I have no idea how to use it.

Seriously, this enemy looks stock…

It seems that the makers of Clannad Spelunker are not creative. We get stock characters like ghosts, bats, blobs and witches. Can’t the developers be a bit more creative? They should have added dangos or starfish… but whatever… Not only that, they have insane amount of hit points. It takes 6 hits just to defeat that ghost. Not only that, if you don’t hit them fast enough, they get you and you die… and you know thats bullshit!

Fuck! That is not fair! I just respawned there and I died just like that… Thats bullshit!

An enemy right near the checkpoint. When you respawn, you get hit again and lose a life. That is just fucked up.

What is a wedding head dress doing in a cave? Also, it looks cropped out of somewhere.

After dying so many times in getting to that treasure chest, I finally get to it and what I found? A head dress? What the hell is a wedding head dress doing in a treasure chest? I would have thought there would be something like gold, but no. I think they had done this since it’s Clannad themed. This wedding head dress from what I recalled is from Kouko Ibuki from Fuuko’s Arc. I grabbed the key and bullshit…

Fuuuuuuck! I fell and now its game over… I was so close, but now I have to do that over again? F that!

I died… I gave up afterwards since I couldn’t even beat the first level!

What is this game intended for? Certainly not Clannad fans or fan of Key…. It disappoints everyone just because the game is too fucking difficult! Even with the four lives compared to the original, it’s still too fucking hard. It even compare to the difficulty to Transformers: Convoy no Nazo, which is known to be the most difficult Transformers game out there. Clannad Spelunker is on the same level difficulty as the latter. Clannad Spelunker just redefines the definition of Nintendo Hard, a game that is very difficult and gives no mercy.

What would be my suggestion? Stay the hell away from this game, unless you like dying every time you fall or hit an enemy… This game is basically trial and error. Every time you play, you will get better until you get stuck again… and believe me… you will die a lot and I mean it!

Overall Picture

Pros: It’s a Clannad themed Spelunker game!

Cons: Intense difficulty, poor controls, stock enemies, unfair respawning, no continues (without saving).

Verdict

6.2/10, D-, Below Average

Category: Clannad, ReviewsTag: final impressions, games, key, nintendo hard, opinion, strawberry sundaes

Review: iPad and Anime Blogging

May 18, 2010 by Chikorita157 2 Comments

I have finally decided to get myself an iPad, which some people say it’s a big iPod Touch or iPhone and seem to hate it so much. I played around with my 16 GB Wifi iPad, loading some Anime Blogs from Anime Nano and the functions on the iPad. I even Jailbroken the device. So far, my experiences with it is great and its better than any Netbook out there. It won’t replace my Macbook Pro anytime soon, but it will definitely kill netbooks or make them evolve into multitouch tablets without keyboards and trackpads.

Design/Connectivity

The iPad is really light and weighing only 1.5 pounds and almost just as thin as the iPod Touch. Here is a comparison between a iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch 2G, Nintendo DS, the Macbook Pro and the iPad:

iPad features a 9.7 inch LED display with IPS Technology. Most netbooks come with TN LCD panels and most of these netbooks uses CCFL backlighting, which makes them thicker and use a bit more power. There are some people that say the backlit display will hurt someone’s eyes and e-ink is better for long use! From using it for hours, it did not strain my eyes considering that it uses a IPS LCD panel. It also depends on the brightness, which the screen is set at.

Although the iPad only comes with a dock connector, there is a connectivity kit that is sold separately. It provides a USB connector that allows users to hook not only digital cameras, but USB Keyboards and headsets. Jailbroken iPads can use USB storage devices with some hacking. It also comes with an SD adapter to load pictures, but cannot play back video from it.

iPad also comes with Bluetooth. If you don’t like the touchscreen keyboard, you can pair a Bluetooth keyboard to the device. I own an Apple Wireless Keyboard which I paired with the iPad. It makes input a lot easier than the touchscreen keyboard.

The iPad is pretty minimalistic. The only controls is the volume, orientation lock and power/sleep button. This doesn’t matter much since the iPad is controlled mainly by the touchscreen.

Experience

iPad runs on iPhone OS 3.2, which is also used on iPhone and iPod Touch. However, iPad can now use iPad applications that feature more functionality than the iPhone/iPod Touch apps. I loaded Twitterriffic, a Twitter Client and some weather apps. They look amazing.

Youtube is also upgraded on the iPad too because of its big screen. Not only you can view videos in full screen, you can change the view to show other information while the video is playing. You can also play embedded Youtube videos within Safari without leaving the application like on the iPhone/iPod Touch.

MobileSafari is like the one on the iPhone, but upgraded. You can now add bookmarks to the toolbar for easy access. Since MobileSafari is based on Webkit, websites will load just as they would on the Web Browsers on your desktop/laptop. When I first unboxed the iPad, I loaded up Melative and the library updating works perfectly.

Some may be disappointed that there is a lack of Adobe Flash. This is because Flash is known to be a resource hog and the primary cause of browser crashes. Instead, HTML5 is implemented for video and stuff. Some sites are already adopting the service, but not all sites have it fully implemented.

How about WordPress on iPad? WordPress loads fine on the iPad. You can make new posts with the WordPress iPad application or the web interface. However, the visual editor does not work on the iPad nor uploading new content. This can be a problem if you want to upload pictures. The good thing is that you can write up new content and then add the pictures before publishing.

WordPress on iPad with Wireless Keyboard

The other functions on the iPad such as the iPod is just the same as seen on the iPhone/iPod Touch, but expanded. There isn’t much needed to be said about them.

The iPad comes with a full size keyboard on the touch screen, which is better than the netbook keyboard. I found that the landscape keyboard a lot easier to use, but I still need the time to get used to it. I won’t use it for prolonged use.

iPad also contains iBooks, which is a ebook reader. It allows buying of books from the device. It also allows users to import e-pub ebooks. So, if you want to import a translated light novel that wasn’t licensed yet, you can do so by converting it. I haven’t tried iBooks extensively, but it looks nice.

iPad at the moment does not have multitasking, although iPhone OS 4 will provide multitasking. Jailbreaking at the time being can give users the ability to multitask (with ProSwitcher or Backgrounder). I done this on my iPhone 3GS and I didn’t notice an impact on performance.

However, there is some things that the iPad cannot do. Viewing Fansubs is one of those things as they require a special player like mplayer to play them and iPad does not support MKV files. They need to be converted to be played on the iPad, which can be time consuming. If you want to watch Anime on Crunchyroll, it will work on the iPad, since they already have an iPad app.

Another thing the iPad won’t do is run desktop applications. Sure, iPad has an office suite and can do pretty much anything the App Store provides, but if you want to use a desktop application such as Photoshop, you still need a computer. Want to play computer games like Audiosurf, Half-Life 2, Portal or visual novels? You still need a computer for that.

Lastly, you are pretty much stuck what the AppStore provides. Unless you jailbreak your iPad, you are stuck with what you have. With a jailbreak, you can do pretty much what you want to do with it. I do this with all my devices so I can customize and add functionality that Apple won’t allow.

Battery Life so far is pretty good. For use at 50% brightness with volume set on high, the percentage didn’t drop so much… but still not sure it last 10 hours, although there are reports that it lasted more than 10 hours.

Conclusion

While the iPad can do most of the basic tasks such as surfing, music playing, viewing photos, email, Instant Messaging and Twitter, it still not a complete replacement for a Laptop/Desktop. iPad is the role model of what Netbooks should be. Traditionally, I found Netbooks completely stupid because they use a bloated OS like Windows and come with small keyboards and trackpads. The iPad will push competitors to change their model and start making netbooks that uses only a touchscreen, some form of Linux and using mobile processors like ARM. Several competitors are already doing this such as HP’s WebOS Slate and others.

While iPad won’t replace the computer since you can’t watch fansubs or run Photoshop on it. However, it will allow the full web experience without flash and allow you to make posts on your WordPress blog. So if you out often, you can take your iPad and make you blog post on your Anime Blog and then edit it later when you get back on the computer.

Would I recommend it? Probably, but before making fun of it irrationally and saying it is just a big iPod Touch, play around with it to see if it fits your needs.

Category: ReviewsTag: final impressions, iPad, opinion, review, unboxing

Review – Girls Dead Monster – Thousand Enemies

May 11, 2010 by Chikorita157 3 Comments

General Information

Album Title: Thousand Enemies
Artist: Girls Dead Monster (Singer: LiSA)
Catalog Number: KSLA-0052
Release Date: May 12, 2010

General Thoughts

The Crow Song Album and marina’s singing has proven to be mediocre because something was missing from the vocals… expression! As a result, the vocals sounded so dull and flat that it lessened the playing of these songs. If I were Jun Maeda, I would be crying in my sleep because the vocals ruined my music composition. With the new singer for Yui-nyan, do you expect a fangirl of Girls Dead Monster to sound better than the predecessor? I have to say that the vocals in this album sounds marginally better than the previous, but it is not perfect.

Thousand Enemies

If we compare the instrumentals from Crow Song and Thousand Enemies, there are some obvious differences. Crow Song had more energy, but not so good vocals. In Thousand Enemies, we have better vocals, but lacks that energy shown in Crow Song. So, there is a tradeoff here: more energy but not so good vocals or good vocals but lack of energy. Pick your poison! Also, I found something wacky with the vocals midway of the song (around 3 minutes in) in the following:

Mayotta toki ni ha kokoro no chizu wo atashi ni misete hoshii
Sore nara yukisaki sugu wakaru kara
Jibun ja wakaranai dake

Something doesn’t sound right with these lines. It seems that LiSA’s vocals for those phases went out of tune or something… Overall, it is a good sounding song, but not nearly as rememberable as Crow Song, despite the not so good vocals.

Rain Song

Rain Song sounds like a JPop Rock song. Comparison to Alchemy, this song seems to be more polished since we don’t have stuff like vocals going out of range. Like with Listen!!, they seem to play it safe after the big disaster they have with the vocals on the first single. Not perfect, but a good listen.

Highest Life

I can’t say that the albums aren’t consistent as it follows the pattern from the last single. Highest Life is a ballad but unlike My Song, this song is not an acrostic. Highest Life is a good song, but has flaws. In some instances, LiSA seems to go out of range for a few seconds, but not like marina, which seems to get the worse of the out of range vocals.

Overall, LiSA’s vocals seem to be a big improvement over marina’s mediocre vocals, but that is saying too much about the album. Comparing the instrumentals to Crow Song, the former had a lot more energy and excitement, but if we had better vocals, it would have given a better result. That excitement was simply not present in Thousand Enemies, but in return, we had better sounding vocals for the most part.

Lastly, I don’t get this… Why assign dedicated singers to these insert songs instead of using the voice actors? I’m guessing they want a professional to do it, but come on… you have to give them a chance!

Verdict

7.7/10, Good

Category: Angel Beats!, ReviewsTag: final impressions, key, music

Kobato – Final Review

March 28, 2010 by Chikorita157 4 Comments

Kobato is one of those CLAMP animes where it starts off slow until towards the middle/end where it gets all complicated and they end simple. Kobato is one of them, a naive girl sent on a mission to fill a bottle with a stuffed dog named Ioryogi. To get konpieto, you have to heal people’s hearts. Since Kobato is still an ongoing manga series in a shouen magazine (yes, Kobato is a Shouen anime, not Shoujo), there are going to be filler episodes. Although they managed to pull it off, only a few episodes were mixed bags, especially Episode 21. Yes, that episode…

Down to the story, which like mentioned earlier, Kobato needs to fill this bottle to the top with konpieto to go to some place she wants to go. To do that, you need to fill the bottle, but sometimes she fails to do so because she does other things besides doing that. On top of it, there are loan sharks who want to close down the nursery, soKobato attempts to help the nursery while finishing her mission. At least the first half was about that. Second half seems to use original material including the decision of closing down the nursery, which irked me a bit since Sayaka actually liked that loan sharker all along… and yeah… The last two episodes screams Clannad and then a few years passed and stuff… Overall, the ending redeemed itself to be at least a good story, but with a good number of flaws.

Some have pointed out that the character designs are different than the manga. Kobato is stupid than naive and Fujimoto is a jerkass more than ever. I can’t recall how many times Kobato said “You are so mean” and “meanie” because of it and it’s moe as well, which is why it’s Shouen. Anyways, throughout the story, Kobato seems to mature alot and towards the end. Fujimoto tries to push her away until that very last moment in Episode 23 and it’s obvious who is Kobato’s love interest is… since it’s romance after all. Besides the main characters and the children at the daycare, as usual, CLAMP loves to make cameos in their works. These include characters from Chobits, Wish, and Tsubasa Chronicles. Yep, that hows it goes.

Madhouse seems to have done a really good job with the animation. No wonder… They animated several CLAMP productions and some notable recent productions such as Summer Wars. Music for the most part is good, although the new ED was only used for the last few episodes… ouch…

Overall, Kobato is a good watch, but has flaws as mentioned. Some people may complain about the slowness and then the complicated plot towards the end, but nevertheless, shouldn’t really write it off so quickly. What the content has shown in the anime pretty much shown that it’s somewhat rushed since it only had 24 episodes, but if it was a bit longer and there was more manga content to work with, I think it would have done a little better. Anyways, if you still want more after this, read the manga. I’m pretty sure that the manga ending is going to be different from the Anime since of length constraints and allow for a bit more in depth storytelling.

Final Grade

8.7/10, B+

Category: Kobato, ReviewsTag: clamp, comedy, final impressions, Madhouse Studios, moe

Sora no Woto – Final Review

March 23, 2010 by Chikorita157 3 Comments

Unoriginal and Uninspiring”

If you have the sense or feeling that modern anime are heading this way, I don’t think not. Yes, anime adapted from source material can be viewed by some as that following quote I have used in a editorial against Miyazaki’s views* on modern anime, but a effort to change this tend comes in from of TV Tokyo, Aniplex and A-1 Pictures, called the Animeno Chikara project, or The Strength of Anime is a project where they produce completely original Anime and broadcast it. The first project they done with the project is Sora no Woto. People when they first saw the first shots of it accused it being a copy of K-ON! and that it’s going to be a moeblob show since the characters looks vastly similar. That wasn’t the case at all when I was blown away by the first few episodes of Sora no Woto and I liked the story and the setting. Hardly any moe at all, besides that Episode 8.

With original productions, you are left with a clean slate of expectations. With adaptations, the viewers expect that it will be close to the original source material and when they find out that they changed or left something out or that the series has too many fillers, they will start complaining and drive their expectations down. I had no expectations when I first watch this production and it leave me a very good impression, allowing one to have an open mind. Original productions, you don’t know what will happen next or expect how well it is going to be until the next episode, which makes people eager to want the next episode soon. Also, they allow the producers to become more creative and original as opposed to adaptions, where you have to stick to the source material and you are pretty much limited on what new characters or plot you can put into the series without making the viewers angry.

Anyways, since I finished the introduction, first I’m going to focus on the story. The story is pretty deep and takes place in a town called Seize in Helvetia after the war have finished. This is where Kanata gets sent to and she has a very optimistic view about the future. As time goes on, we learn more about legends, past stories from various people and also Princess Iliya!!! The episodes that I felt that had a very good impact is Episode 3, where Kanata gets ill and we first hear “Amazing Grace”, Episode 5, where Noel, Kanata, Kureha goes onto the field trip and we are first introduced to No Man’s Land, Episode 6 is Misho’s story, Episode 7 with Filicia, getting over her loss of her friends and the first time we see Princess Iliya, Episode 9 with Klaus not disappointing Kureha by saving her and her keeping her faith in him and finally the last two episodes. “Amazing Grace” and legends are the most important and underlining of the story, which is shown throughout the season and time after time. However, with the seriousness, the happy and cheery ending theme ever gets so inappropriate that it becomes a mood whiplash, pretty much seen in Clannad After Story and Elfen Lied for examples as they used happy ending themes after a serious episode at the end of the episode. The story even after 12 episode seems that they could of gone a bit more in depth, but due to length constraints, they unable to do so which is fine… but if it was a little longer, I think the story can hold up even stronger. (Keep in mind, we are also getting 2 bonus episodes, possibly tie up loose ends.)

Music was pretty much good overall. Despite Kanata’s absolutely horrible playing in the beginning, but ended up turning out good when Amazing Grace was played in Episode 12 and it just sounded great. The opening theme, Hikarino Senritsu is really good considering how well it fits to the overall setting and story. However, even though I liked the ending theme, Girls, Be Ambitious, it became inappropriate several times after a serious scene happens towards the end and BAM! we are hit with a happy and go lucky tune… I would rather for them to use the other track, but oh well. For the background music, I have no opinion yet since the OST isn’t out yet, but I’m sure down the line, someone will review it.

Now for Characters. Yes, they look very similar to the characters from K-ON!, but I feel that they are different. Why? Kanata is not much of a moeblob and in contrast to Yui, I can’t picture that kind of behavior from her. Noel is the only character that has absolutely no relation to K-ON! (yep, they cut out Ritzu) and more like Nagato, but towards the end, she seems to have more emotion than the latter. Also, the voice acting for these characters are great… The only problems is character development, well mainly because of time constraints… I can’t complain much, but it’s worth saying they didn’t copy everything from K-ON! at all or if we did, well… who knows… From all those characters, I see Rio, Filicia and perhaps Kanata to be the strongest in terms of character development.

Overall, I think Sora no Woto is a outstanding series and I would recommend for those with a open mind. This is not K-ON! and Strike Witches smashed together, but I think with it’s strong setting, great storytelling and the eyecandy, I can say that Sora no Woto is a very interesting series that pretty much kept me watching. Hopefully, this production will encourage some more studios to start pumping out good and original Anime that can catch the viewer’s attention and keep it interesting so that it keeps the viewer watching. This pretty much proves that studios can produce original and inspiring anime if they work at it. They should use Sora no Woto as a model (but don’t copy the story/setting) and try to use the tactics used to create an original story that viewers will probably like.

Don’t say that I’m finished with Original Animes, the next one up is Angel Beats, which I will cover when it starts next week…

Final Score

9.04/10

Notes

*I’m no way against Miyazaki’s works at all, I think he did a good job in producing movies that I did in fact enjoyed, but I just don’t agree with any of his politics and his views on Anime

Category: Reviews, Sora no WotoTag: A1 Pictures, aniplex, comedy, drama, final impressions, review

K-ON! – Episode 14 (OVA) Thoughts and Impressions

January 19, 2010 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

Seriously, does this patch go on the case or what? Nope... 😮

This is a rather refreshing episode to get back on the K-ON! mood since after all, there is another season… Wait? Another season of K-ON! So, more cake eating and tea drinking, cosplaying and beach scenes than actual practicing?

Hold up… We are not there yet. They decide to do a live performance at a Live House, although Azusa and Mio doesn’t want to, but they give in. With their first time, Yui is so excited for it that yeah… her usual personality. Sticking the backstage sticker all over the place, asking for help with the performance sheet and other things that causes the viewer to have a moe~ nosebleed. They got too excited and nervous, that they messed up the first rehearsal, but with the help of the other bands, they got it just right for the live performance. Ui, her friend, Nodoka and also Sawako…

After their performance, they partied all night until midnight, where they slept.. They go see the sunset without Sawako and Yui notices that Azusa’s tiger ears were still on… Moe~~~~~

What? Azusa is still wearing the tiger ears?

Overall, besides the moe, this was a very enjoyable and fun episode… a thing that relieves stress from college work. If you contrast with Sora no Woto, I can see the difference clearly… K-ON! is moe~, Sora no Woto is not… and difference in character designs… So yeah… this should make most people excited for another season… yet it feels so nostalgic. Can I survive another season after watching this? YES I CAN!

Verdict

8.7/10

Category: K-ON!Tag: comedy, final impressions, kyoani, moe, music

Seitokai no Ichizon – Final Impressions

December 27, 2009 by Chikorita157 1 Comment

Seitokai no Ichizon is one of those anime that you like or you don’t and is the black sheep of this season. People dismissed it as being a plotless reference show… or is it?

The anime proved itself to be a very enjoyable experience that have very funny moments and references that fit in nicely. In contrast to Lucky Star, Seitokai no Ichizon focuses less on the moeblob, high amounts of moe and Haruhi references that have been overdone. Seitokai had something that Lucky Star didn’t have… some plot and a male lead who wants to build a harem!

Content

Seitokai no Ichizon does not follow the light novel at all… well, some content came from the light novel, but it was a completely different experience. It seems that this kind of series are fit to be in Manga or Anime form than light novel form. The story of each episode consists of them doing stuff in the student council… except they don’t really work and talk about stuff, which can be on Anime, Manga, Boy’s Love, Gaming, H-games, Harems and etc. There are several references from notable anime like Suzumiya Haruhi, Lucky Star, Clannad, Higurashi, K-ON!, DragonBall, Full Metal Alchemist, Death Note and several others… and even visual novel stuff from Key for example (wow, I must be a Key fanboy at that moment) .

The more you know about other animes, the more you will enjoy it… although it’s subjective since you can still enjoy it without knowing all the references.

Animation

In contrast to Lucky Star, I liked the animation style of Seitokai no Ichizon more than Lucky Star for many reasons… It simply more appealing to the eye than Lucky Star and is more detailed… Of course, Lucky Star meant to have a simplistic style… but… your milage may vary on that one.

Characters

Most of the Student Council features mostly beautiful girls and Ken (also known as Key-kun, Ki-kun or Senpai) is the only male in the student council. He seeks to make the student council his HAREM… and also constantly annoying the others with his harem and bishoujo/H games fantasies.

Kurimu is the President and is very childish for her age and is the shortest. She reads children books (Red Riding Hood), eat “usa-maru” since it “taste like happiness” and works at a nursery just to act like a child. She is constantly teased by Ken because she looks like a loli and she is a pettanko, something she is NOT proud of. Kurimu helps Ken by suggesting him to play Bishoujo/H Games.

Chizuru is the secretary. Unlike Kurimu, she is tall and is well endowed, but she brainwashes Ken and Kurimu. She treats Kurimu as her sister and sometimes abuse her. However… She has a very cute side when she is dressed as a really cute sheep… and says Mokyu~… Something that everyone will go moe for… Chizuru heals Ken’s heart when they met in fall.

Minatsu is the Vice President and also a tsundere (with the addition of her twin tails). She is a tomboy and have great athletic skills and is into hot blooded, shouen action packed anime and manga. Minatsu tells Ken not to be lazy and work. She has a younger sister named Mafuyu.

Mafuyu is Minatsu’s younger sister and is the treasurer. She is a bishoujo, but is afraid of men, except Ken of course. She is into games and Boy’s Love. She imagines Ken with another male character she imagines, which causes Ken to go crazy. She also works on a gaming wiki, play games mainly on a Playstation Portable and operates a tsundere blog called “Organ Explosion!” Mafuyu helps Ken during the middle of winter in a chatroom (using the name Yuki) about her feelings and his. She eventually confesses her love to Ken, but is not willing to go on a date since she wanted things to stay what they are.

In addition… We have
Lilicia, who is the president of the Journalism Club and voiced by Noto Mamiko, which she had voiced Matsuri (sola), Haruka (Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu) and Kotomi (Clannad). Lilica writes tabloid articles on the student council because they don’t accomplish anything, except socializing and that she didn’t win a position. She gains interest in Ken after he said that the double-timing incident was true. She has a longer sister named Elise, which seems to like Ken and causes Kurimu to become very jealous… and being very mature for her age.

Music

Seitokai features a OP called Treasure, which sounds great… For the ED, there are several versions. One song called Mousou Fetish!, which is a cute sounding song which causes a earworm. The second is Ue Ue Shita Shita Hidari Migi Hidari Migi B A, a remix of Mousou Fetish with different lyrics and have a electronic feel… Funny on how they use the Konami Code as the title of the song. Lastly, we have Yurupa Wonderful, a hotblooded, rock remix with different lyrics. There are also songs with completely different lyrics for comedy effect. For example, Episode 11 with the president, Kurimu singing… with hilarious lyrics that can’t make you stop laughing… I am dead serious…

Overall, the songs sounded good..

Conclusion

Seitokai no Ichizon is one of the best comedies in the Fall 2009 season… Where Nogizaka Haruka Purezza fails, Seitokai succeeds… for some odd reason. Seitokai have some similarities to Lucky Star in terms of references, it’s no means the same since it’s all about harem, has a little more plot than Lucky Star and does not have too much moe and doesn’t go overboard with the damn Haruhi references (Haruhi is a bitch). The way they put the references made it so that it actually worked instead of putting it in random places. Most will find this anime very enjoyable, but for those who don’t like Lucky Star may not like it… so your milage may vary… but it’s a recommended series to look at if you not looking at too much moe and want a good comedy and/or mindless anime that you can easily enjoy…

Too bad there isn’t more… they should really make a second season, but the current trends how second season anime is run… I may think twice. :p

Verdict

Overall Grade: 8.79/10, B+

Attribution Information

Picture used in this post is made by まなK.

Category: Reviews, Seitokai no IchizonTag: comedy, final impressions, moe, review, Studio DEEN

Clannad – Kyou’s Arc – Final Impressions

December 24, 2009 by Chikorita157 1 Comment

If you have recalled, I have written a review about Kyou’s arc several months ago. However, the visual novel contained a lot more plot, which was missing… The actual Kyou’s arc in the visual novel is a big emotional roller coaster ride towards the end of her arc compared to the OVA… Well heres why…
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Category: Clannad, ReviewsTag: drama, final impressions, key, visual novel

Moments in Anime of 2009 – The Bad, The so-so and the Good…

December 10, 2009 by Chikorita157 1 Comment

2009 was a pretty dismal year for the economy in general, but not for Anime… I will be discussing several moments in Animes I watched that were good to the ones that are horrible. Let’s start with the bad, shall we.
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Category: Clannad, Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu, Seitokai no Ichizon, Suzumiya HaruhiTag: editorial, fandom, final impressions, review

Moments in Anime of 2009 – The Bad, The so-so and the Good…

December 10, 2009 by Chikorita157 1 Comment

Category: Clannad ~After Story~, Editorials, K-ON!, Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu, Seitokai no Ichizon, Suzumiya HaruhiTag: editorial, fandom, final impressions, review

Winter Comes Again. Time for Kanon Again?

December 7, 2009 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

I’ve always live in this town, but cold is cold. But I love this town… In winter, it’s covered by white snow… In spring, the streets are full of falling sakura petals… In summer, it’s noisy with cicadas… In autumn, I’m surrounded by the falling leaves and then, the snow starts to fall, and the winter that I love begins again. This town is nice, isn’t it?
– Nayuki Minase from the Kanon Visual Novel

Winter is a few weeks away and with the latest snow storm that hit where I live reminds me of something. What is it?
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Category: KanonTag: drama, final impressions, key, moe, visual novel

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu – Final Impressions

November 23, 2009 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

I have completed the first season nearly a week ago and it was a pretty good concept of a story which is pretty unique. In this story, they took a extraordinary nice guy and a high class girl who have one major flaw of being a otaku. That is just the surface of the story since Nogizaka Haruka is not entirely about otaku subculture in shows like Lucky Star. This twist, however makes things more interesting, but is it well executed? Let’s find out, shall we?

Content

The story is a typical romance story… a ordinary guy meets a girl. However there is a big twist in this story. Nogizaka Haruka, an ojou is the most unattainable girl in school with rejections up to the triple digits. Yuuto bumps into Haruka in the library after Yuuto returns the book and the magazine she took out revealed her secret, her love for Anime and Manga, which is viewed negatively for people of her class. However, Yuuto accepts her secret and will keep it as a secret. Throughout the series, the relationship between Haruka and Yuuto builds up with some help of Mika (Haruka’s sister), Nanami and Hazuki. Also with that, another girl is thrown in called Shiina which Yuuto accidently bumps into which causes her to gain some kind of a romantic desire of her becoming his boyfriend, although Yuuto only seems to like Haruka.

The series itself throws some references to other anime. The most references shown is Shakugan no Shana.

What this anime tries to shows the sad realization of how Otaku are viewed in real life. In real life, Otakus are viewed negatively because Otaku means house in Japanese, meaning that people who are otakus spend time watching and obsessing over anime, manga or playing games/visual novels and never leave the house, meaning that it can cause a lack of social skills. This is viewed when Yuuto tries to over up Haruka’s secret when a comiket catalog falls out of her bag when she fell and her father, Gentou which does not want her daughter to watch anime and read manga, but eventually allowed with the help of her mother.

There are some fanservice moments in Nogizaka Haruka, but nothing too excessive.

Animation

Diomedea did a pretty good job with animating Nogizaka Haruka, so there isn’t really much to comment here.

Characters

The characters in Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu is what you expect from a romance comedy, but not so much. I will talk about the most important characters, but besides from those, Nanami and Hazuki, Nogizaka’s maids who seems to be shown most of the story and help with Haruka and Yuuto and also help stop Gentou before his wife comes. Another is Ruko and Yukari, who seems to be alcoholics and finally, Haruka’s parents, Gentou, the hot headed father and Akiho, the seemingly beautiful, despite her age and intelligent mother.

Ayase Yuuto – The seemingly, extraordinary nice guy who seems to understand everyone’s feelings… This is somewhat the departure of the losers and jerks that are typical in harem/romance comedy anime, but there are some flaws that are more apparent in the second season with his character. Also, his personality seems to be more of a gentleman, although his class is lower than the jerkass Shutto, which in contrast is a spoiled brat and causing him at sometimes, being unworthy for being Haruka’s boyfriend, although he overcomes it, but the notion of him being a lower class than Haruka will be stuck in his mind for some time.

Nogizaka Haruka – The moe ojou and also have a terrible secret of being a Otaku, which is viewed negatively, especially in the higher class she is in. Haruka seems to be a very sweet character, which mainly causes most of the terribly sweet moments between Haruka and Yuuto. Although Haruka is really smart and is top of her class, she is somewhat a dojikko.

Nogizaka Mika – Haruka’s younger sister, but seemingly dirty for her age and already talking about sexual stuff? Mika in comparison is more easygoing and not as naive as Haruka… and even calls Yuuto, “Onii-chan.” It makes me wonder.

Amamiya Shiina – The second girl in Yuuto’s love triangle, although Yuuto does not have any romantic relationship with her and her being only a friend. With her bumping into him causes her to have a romantic interest with Yuuto.

Music

The music from Nogizaka Haruka was pretty good… We are presented with a pretty catchy opening theme which seems to have a fast pace and a ending theme with maids (seriously, who doesn’t like maids). The extra image songs not played in the anime sounded pretty decent, so no complaints.

Conclusion

The first season of Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu is a pretty good watch for those who are sick of a indecisive harems and romance comedies filled with too much fanservice and a jerky male lead. For those who are looking for a deep romantic story or a non-cliched romance anime, you may come off disappointed. Nogizaka Haruka is a pretty good comedy romance anime in my opinion so far… but I would say since I haven’t watched other yet.

Once you finish with the first season, I suggest taking a look at the second, although it’s somewhat weak in content and have a little more fanservice, but you may find it just as enjoyable.

Overall Rating

8.72/10, B+, Outstanding

Attribution Information

This image is from here

Category: Nogizaka Haruka no HimitsuTag: comedy, Diomedea, final impressions, moe

Clannad – Motion Film Final Impressions – Grade: 6.8/10

September 20, 2009 by Chikorita157 1 Comment

Wait, there is a Clannad Movie? I decided to watch it this Sunday afternoon and after watching 30 minutes of it, it’s nothing that special, but still continue to watch it anyway. Unlike the Clannad TV series which I could say Kyoto Animation did a great job of being faithful to the original source for both seasons, I can’t say for the movie. The Clannad Movie which was made by Toei Animation, who worked on the Air Movie and the first season of Kanon (before it was remade in 2006) released a month before Kyoto Animation’s version was aired on television.

My impression it… Not great, as expected since I have already completed Kyoto Animation’s version and now the movie feels inferior to the television series… Most Key/Clannad fans would feel this way because Toei Animation in the past aren’t that faithful to the original source, meaning the visual novel.
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Category: ClannadTag: comedy, comparison, drama, final impressions, key, movie, review, toei animation

Suzumiya Haruhi Second Season Final Impressions – Grade: F (5.93/10)

September 17, 2009 by Chikorita157 3 Comments

Once upon a time in May, we were excited that Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody was going to be aired after we waited a whole 3 years for a second season. The first new episode was well received. When June came around, Endless Eight aired and we thought that episode was the only one… We were mistaken by despair as Endless Eight repeated for most of the summer, which made fans go on a frenzy outrage by raging at Kyoto Animation, Kadokawa or even both. Some fans go so far and smash Haruhi figures and rip apart the light novels. We have thought that the series have finally jumped the shark and the whole series was ruined forever, but fortunately, Kadokawa wasn’t insane enough to do that, so it ended in the 8th episode and the week after that Sighs aired, which is apparently the lowest part of the light novel series because primarily, Haruhi becomes the biggest b$%#& in the whole world that everyone wants to have and/or avoid, until Kyon straightens her up and finally conclude the recording of the film, which was miraculously edited. After the airing of the last part of Sighs, it seems that most fans are in despair since Disapparence have disappeared (no pun attended).

In the review, I will be reviewing some positives, but mostly negatives because Kadokawa could have done better in managing this so that it won’t become a complete disaster like it is. Some Haruhiists may disagree, but this is my take… it’s F%$%ing horrible!

Content

This is the weakest point in the whole season, honestly… mainly because of Endless Eight. Rhapsody and Sighs (although good, but not very good) was the only arcs that did fine in this season. The rest is a disaster, because Endless Eight repeated more than 8 times which is completely unnecessary. I would rather watch K-ON! than watch this piece of s$%^ Endless Eight and that is my feeling on Endless Eight. Endless Eight in my opinion is a middle finger from Kadokawa saying, “HA! Do you want Disappearance, but you aren’t getting it!” Every time Endless Eight repeated, It makes my blood boil and want me to rage about Kadokawa again.

I found that the repeating of Endless Eight 8 times was completely unnecessary, it should have been at most 3 episodes and one loop. The light novel does not repeat it more than 3 times, so why should it repeat 8 times in the Anime. Thats because, Kadokawa is the biggest trolls on the planet.

Sighs was okay, but it’s nothing that hits home because some of the content was already presented in “The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina, Episode 00” in the first season. Sighs is just behind the scenes making of the movie, which some people may not find that interesting until towards the end of Sighs when Kyon finally blows up at Haruhi for smacking Mikuru around. Otherwise, Sighs is good and faithful to the original (hopefully) and also the same case with Rhapsody.

Characters

Theres not much to say, but the Sighs arc made me hate Haruhi forever… because she is a absolute b%$#& and why would anyone be around her if she is going to act that way… but she atleast shaped up…

The scene where Kyon flips out is probably a reason to admire the other character for taking Haruhi as being a jerk. Also, love the talking cat, which only talked briefly.

Animation

The animation was a disappointment just like Endless Eight. The animation and art style in Suzumiya Haruhi 2009 was mediocre/below average, mainly because, someone in Kadokawa decided… Hey, why not make it look like K-ON! The K-ON! art style works only with K-ON!, put it anywhere else and it surely won’t be well received… it would just be like using Lucky Star art style in something like Kanon… You sure get the fans raging…

The K-ONification of Haruhi was pretty much another debate that was happening throughout the whole season… Some may notice that the first episode had this treatment as well… If they going to use that art style, they should just rename the show, Haruhi-ON! and have the SOS-brigade eat cake and crumpets all day long and do moe stuff and of course, play music… oh wait… Thankfully it improved towards the end of the season, although there were faint elements from K-ON!

Music

The music was not great… Tomare was okay, but Super Driver is the WORST OP I ever heard (Yes, this tells you why it’s not good) and made my ears bleed. Personally, I’m not to fond with Hirano Aya’s singing, except the first season songs since most of her songs aren’t that great and she isn’t a great singer compared to other J-Pop artists.

Conclusion

Although Sighs and Rhapsody was good, Endless Eight, poor sounding OP, average to not good art style and the trolling of Kadokawa is what made the season downfall like a hubristic hero. Kadokawa’s arrogance with the amount of trolling they have done to the fans (for example, Second Season announcement in Newtype and showing the Nice Boat parody video) and hubris with the handling of the Haruhi Franchise after it became highly successful caused the franchise’s downfall as a whole with Endless Eight and Haruhi Franchise as a whole will never be at the height as it was three years ago ever again. It’s such a shame, really since I expected this season to be great, but it ended up to be a total disaster after Endless Eight repeated 8 times and I felt it was a waste of time repeating and reanimating Endless Eight because the resources can be used on adapting other interesting arcs, but Kadokawa had to blew it and give Kyoto Animation a bad rep because of it. If there is ever a third season, I will still watch it, but I won’t be expecting much after this disaster of a season.

This is why Haruhi 2009 got a big F, merely because it’s a big disappointment. If Endless Eight haven’t repeated so much and the art style was a bit better than what they shown, I would have give it a better or at-least a passing grade.

Overall Rating

5.93/10, F

Category: Reviews, Suzumiya HaruhiTag: comedy, failure, final impressions, Haruhi, Kadokawa, kyoani, strawberry sundaes

Suzumiya Haruhi Second Season Episode 14 – Sighs IV (END)

September 16, 2009 by Chikorita157 1 Comment

Finally, a episode where Haruhi doesn’t act like a complete jerk. The conclusion of Sighs is pretty good, but still there was a few things that bothered me about it.

As the SOS-Brigade wants to complete the movie, something happened the night while Kyon falls asleep while editing.
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Category: Suzumiya HaruhiTag: comedy, final impressions, Haruhi, Kadokawa, kyoani, moe

Air in Summer – Final Review

September 11, 2009 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

Air in Summer was essentially the extension of the Summer arc which covered parts in the Air Visual Novel that was abridged in the main TV series. The difference with Air in Summer that it is actually more lighthearted than the whole TV series.

This special mainly focuses on a more detailed escape from the temple at night, the relationship between Kanna and Ryuya more in depth (in the first part) and also the scene where Kanna lowers her Kimono to show her love towards him after hearing his story as Uraha instructed, but ended up as a failure (in the second part).

Content

Well, as you expect, Air in Summer looks out of place compared to the Air TV series since there isn’t really a whole lot of melodrama in the special. You might find that the two episodes to be rather enjoyable, to the fact that there is a lot of comedy, mainly in part of Kanna, who qualities almost resemble a tsundere.

As you expect, Air in Summer is a continuation of the Summer Arc with parts that were not covered in the TV series. Air in Summer pretty much clears up the ambiguity or the feeling that something is missing or rushed from the Summer Arc in the TV series. The special mainly put focus on the relationship between Kanna and Ryuya and Kanna learning about things in the outside world. Although, Kanna may be conceited and irritated easily (such as water being poured on her head and herself fighting with a chicken), she eventually warms up to Ryuya,

Characters

Like already presented, there are three characters in this arc:
Kanna, or Kannabi no Mikoto is a young girl which have wings on her back. She pretty much stays at the temple and believed to be the last winged being. She wanted to see her mother again so the three decided to escape the temple to go on a journey to find her mother. Kanna, being at the temple most of her life, have not experienced the outside world and learns from the other two.

Kanna, in my experiences of watching is a tsundere which vasty resembles Makoto Sawatari from Kanon since you know that Kanna seems to be naive and does not have enough knowledge of the outside world. She also irritated at Ryuya the most, although she eventually warms up to him, in contrast of Makoto warming up to Yuuichi after the 7th episode.

Then, you have Ryuya, which is a low-ranked, but skilled samurai which he protects Kanna. Like suggested, Ryuya resembles Yukito, obviously, but like with male leads, they sometimes are sarcastic which probably is why Kanna gets irritated with him most of the time.

Lastly, you have Uraha, which is a servent at the temple and also a friend of Kanna. The last thing you want to do is to get her upset by burning those ancient poems and say breakfast was tasty after burning the poems. Also, she tells embarrassing stories regarding Kanna.

Animation

Like with Air TV, Air in Summer Animation and Art style pretty much remained the same, since the special was aired several months after Air TV have finish airing.

Like with Kyoto Animation, the animation was great, considering it was 2005… but sure, the animation will surpass some of Kyoto Animation’s not so great art style to the likes of Lucky Star, K-ON! and Suzumiya Haruhi Second Season.

Music

Music sounded great, although, I don’t quite understand why they use the same exact OP and ED… although they change some of the OP animation for the special.

Conclusion

Air in Summer is a great way to ending Air’s bittersweet ending… since it’s just too lighthearted… The animation, story and the characters are great as expected with Key… The lightheartedness of Air in Summer may make some people prefer this over the main series. Overall, this is a recommended watch if you have finish watching Episode 8 of Air or already completed it.

Overall Rating

9.5/10, A

Category: AIRTag: drama, final impressions, key, kyoani, review, tsundere

Nintendo DSi Unboxing and Review

August 13, 2009 by Chikorita157 2 Comments

The Nintendo DSi I have sent away for have finally received in the mail. While North America have to wait several months to obtain one, the Nintendo DSi was released late last year in Japan. Nintendo DSi meant as a successor of the Nintendo DS Lite with new features including a bigger screen, two cameras, Wireless G and also WPA security compatibility, ability to use SD cards, plays and records sounds, and also buy downloadable games off the Nintendo DSi Store.

If you want a DSi, I suggest not getting rid of your old DS since it doesn’t have a GBA slot (so no more transferring Pokemon from your GBA games to your DS games)

Warning, rest of the review is image heavy.

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Category: ReviewsTag: final impressions, review, unboxing

Endless Eight is no longer Endless – Final Thoughts

August 6, 2009 by Chikorita157 4 Comments

Endless Eight with the airing of the ninth episode shown the ending when Kyon finally decides to have the group finish his homework at the cafe scene towards the end finally breaks the endless loop. Endless Eight is probably the worst, not because of the animation, but because of the repetition. This caused a mass outrage of Haruhi fans and also cause the rating of the show to nosedive to 7.28 just within a few weeks… but now that is over.
Endless Eight, because of the r repetition and how Kadokawa done it in the anime was horribly done. Although Kyoto Animation got the animation right towards the end, the lack of new content caused the arc to become very unwatchable and irritating. I would have done a 30-page long chapter with 2 episodes, 3-4 at the most, but they gone and decide to do 8 which is WAY TO MUCH and meanwhile irritating the whole fandom and causing some of them to give up on Haruhi all together. If they have done it within 2-3 episodes, the arc itself would not be as bad as it would.

Within the last 5 Episodes, the members at AnimeSuki have negatively voted majority of Endless Eight Episodes. Also, back where the episodes were aired, the reaction to the repetition of Endless Eight started to become negative. Atleast Kadokawa and Kyoto Animation have the sanity not to keep going on with the Endless Eight madness past Episode 9.

This is the rating breakdown on Haruhi S2 with the data gathered from the polls.

This doesn’t mean Kadokawa is off the hook, since I’m still angry about what they did with Endless Eight and remember the trolls they done with the first Episode of Haruhi-chan and Second Season being canceled. Although Endless Eight reduced my expectations drastically, I don’t except the rating of Haruhi S2 for what I see so far be any higher than a 7. Endless Eight… Worst… Anime… Arc… Adaptation… Ever… Just read the light novel for this one.

Hopefully when they Air Sighs in the next few episodes, hopefully it won’t turn out bad as the Endless Eight Fiasco.

Verdict

Endless Eight Arc: 4.275/10 (Average of all the ratings of the Episodes in the Endless Eight arc including Episode 9. Don’t complain about this score)
Episode 9: 7/10

Attribution Infomation

Fanart used in this post is made by chocolat.

Category: Suzumiya HaruhiTag: final impressions, Haruhi, Kadokawa, kyoani

What Anime songs you play with Audiosurf?

August 4, 2009 by Chikorita157 2 Comments

While one other Anime Blogger mentioned Audiosurf and Audiosurf his whole music collection… I actually did the same…

What is Audiosurf anyways?

Audiosurf and it’s purpose is to “ride your music.” Just put Rock Band/Guitar Hero and put it on a F-Zero track and you get Audiosurf. Like Dance Dance Revolution and Beat Mania, the blocks in Audiosurf represents the beats in the song and it’s automatically generated, so the tempo and the blocks are created according to the song you chose to play. There are various modes, but the most easiest to get the hang on is Mono, which you hit the color blocks and avoid the grey blocks. If you don’t hit any grey blocks, you get stealth bonus, which is 30% bonus. Also, there are puzzle modes like Pointman, which you have to match a cluster of color blocks (red and yellow matches give you the highest points while the others give you lower points). Other modes have similar concepts to Pointman, but have different abilities. Audiosurf also feature Ironmode, which makes the song even harder, but sometimes, you can earn even more points.

Audiosurf is relatively cheap ($10) off Steam and have unlimited replay value depending on how good is your music collection.

Audiosurf runs great with the highest settings if you have a decent graphics card (My Unibody Macbook Pro plays Audiosurf with good framerates at native resolution).

What are the best anime songs to play on Audiosurf?

Most of the time, songs with a downhill pattern and high traffic (150 or higher) gives you more of a enjoyable experience. If you still get a uphil pattern, suggest adding [as-steep] to the song title (Suggestion: Just make a copy of the MP3 file and add that tag at the end of the song title), but it will create a different scoreboard.

Lia

Most of Lia’s songs work great with audiosurf since most of her songs are trance, which most of the time create high traffic and downhill patern.
Suggestions:
– Tori no Uta – (Air Opening Theme)
– Light colors – (Tomoyo After Opening Theme)
– Toki wo Kizamu Uta (Clannad ~After Story~ Opening Theme)
– TORCH (Clannad ~After Story~ Ending Theme)

Ayana

Same as above, although Kaze no Tadori Tsuku Basho have higher traffic count.
– Last regrets
– Kaze no Tadori Tsuku Basho

Suzumiya Haruhi

Suggestions:
– God Knows
– Lost my music
– Yuki, Muon, Madobe Nite
– Bouken Desho Desho?
– Hare Hare Yukai (any version)
– Koi no Mikuru Densetsu
– etc.

Lucky Star

– Motteke! Sailor Fuku
– Kaeshite! Knee-socks
– Koi no Minoru Densetsu
– Kosutte! Oh My Honey
-Yuuchou Sentai Dajare Ranger

K-ON!

– Cagayake! GIRLS plus the Image Song
– Don’t say “lazy” plus the Image Song
– Fuwa Fuwa Time (both regular and Yui version)
– Tsubasa wo Kudasai
– Practically all the Character Image songs.

Others

– motto hade ni ne! (Kannagi Opening Theme, although adding [as-steep] makes it more interesting)
– Shiawase Sagashi (motto hade ni ne! Image Song)
– Shoujo no Gensou ZTS Remix (Remix of Shoujo no Gensou, Clannad…)
– Little Busters! (Little Busters! Opening Theme, duh!)
– Megmeru (Clannad Opening Theme, depending on what version)
– Any of Touhou songs and remixes
– Kumikyoku Nico Nico Douga (Pretty epic song and it’s 10 minutes long)

What songs you play in Audiosurf in your opinion that is Anime related that give you a enjoyable experience? If you don’t own Audiosurf yet, I suggest you to get it… it’s a awesome game (and it’s very addictive)!

Also, you can check out my recorded Audiosurf runs (mainly Anime and casual mono since Fraps kills the framerate alot) on my Youtube account.

Category: UncategorizedTag: final impressions, opinion, review

Mai’s and Sayuri’s Arc: VN and Anime Differences

July 19, 2009 by Chikorita157 4 Comments

Sayuri's laugh is probably the best thing from Mai's arc!

Instead of wasting my time watching Endless Eight and ending up with unnecessary rage, I decided to play more of the Kanon visual novel and now this time… Mai’s and Sayuri’s arcs. Although there are a few differences from the Anime and the VN concerning Mai’s and Sayuri’s arc, they managed to adapt the whole arc with some changes… ones that will be mentioned below (contains VN spoilers)
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Category: KanonTag: drama, final impressions, key, moe, visual novel