Woot Subterranean Animism

Got the game running on someone elses computer and it looks pretty good. Takes a lot less to get up to full power… at least with mode 1 Reimu. The multiple modes is also a nice thing in a way. Would help me out more if I could read a little more of the menu. >.<; Can’t get past the second stage boss on Normal mode though so I don’t play too much, since I outright refuse to play Easy. I did like, part of what the Stage 2 boss does, I think… She fires those little pointy danmaku and you HAVE to graze. There’s no ifs, ands, buts, or going around you’ve got to try to squeak between two of them. Which is nice because typically there’s three ways around things, at least on normal mode. >.> But I can’t get past stage 2 boss’s… I don’t remember her name, first spell card -.-; The one where she fires those greenish blobs that follow you around the screen, -.-; I’m too used to not touching a freaking thing but no, sitting still is bad for your health against that move. Plus you have to keep an eye on where whatserface is or you time out -.-;

Not so sure how I feel about the new extra lives thing. When you knock out the health bar on a mini boss or a boss this little pink star pops up and if you grab it it gives you a piece of a star which are equal to lives… I kind of preferred the whole you’ve got three lives to work with and an extra one if you manage not to die too often thing. Not that it matters to me since I can’t beat level freaking two -.-;

Even Moar Saimoe

Get to it.

I didn’t forget any arena’s this time. >.<;

ARENA 01: [Sunohara Mei] Konjiki no Yami

ARENA 02: [Illyasviel von Einzbern] Kushieda Minori

ARENA 03: [Tsukimiya Ayu] Anya Alstreim

ARENA 04: Chiba Kirino [Misaka Mikoto]

ARENA 05: Hiiragi Kagami [Ryūgū Rena]

ARENA 06: Asahina Mikuru [Kamio Misuzu]

ARENA 07: Furude Rika [Shana]

ARENA 08: [Hakurei Reimu] Evangeline McDowell

ARENA 09: [Sanzen'in Nagi] Takamachi Nanoha

ARENA 10: Hinamori Amu [Index Prohibitorum]

ARENA 11: [Hiiragi Tsukasa] Suzumiya Haruhi

ARENA 12: Minase Nayuki [Kirisame Marisa]

ARENA 13: [Vita] Ibuki Fūko

ARENA 14: Chii [Saber]

ARENA 15: C.C. [Katsura Hinagiku]

ARENA 16: [Mizunashi Akari] Kawazoe Tamaki

ARENA 17: Fate Testarossa [Holo]

ARENA 18: Suigintou [Sakagami Tomoyo]

ARENA 19: Yagami Hayate [Shameimaru Aya]

ARENA 20: Kawasumi Mai [Nagi]

ARENA 21: Nagato Yuki [Izumi Konata]

ARENA 22: Shinku [Aisaka Taiga]

ARENA 23: [Ryōgi Shiki] Remilia Scarlet

ARENA 24: Sawatari Makoto [Kawashima Ami]

ARENA 25: [Patchouli Knowledge] Misaka Shiori

ARENA 26: [Furukawa Nagisa] Tōsaka Rin

ARENA 27: [Alice Carroll] Furude Hanyū

ARENA 28: [Kōzuki Kallen] Maria

ARENA 29: [Louise Vallière] Katagiri Yūhi

ARENA 30: Kinomoto Sakura [Fujibayashi Kyō]

ARENA 31: [Ichinose Kotomi] Suiseiseki

ARENA 32: [Kasuga “Ōsaka” Ayumu] Kurata Sayuri

Saimoe Again

It’s voting time again.

And crap now that I see this thing I notice I failed to vote in the Index vs C.C arena >.<; Now if C.C wins I’ll feel bad because I didn’t vote for Index. T^T

ARENA 01: [Furude Rika] Kawashima Ami

ARENA 02: Kawasumi Mai [Furude Hanyū]

ARENA 03: Mizunashi Akari [Kushieda Minori]

ARENA 04: [Nagato Yuki] Nagi

ARENA 05: [Kōzuki Kallen] Fujibayashi Kyō

ARENA 06: Ryōgi Shiki [Ryūgū Rena]

ARENA 07: Minase Nayuki [Aisaka Taiga]

ARENA 08: Alice Carroll [Katsura Hinagiku]

ARENA 09: Shinku [Izumi Konata]

ARENA 10: [Furukawa Nagisa] Kamio Misuzu

ARENA 11: [Louise Vallière] Kurata Sayuri

ARENA 12: [Vita] Sakagami Tomoyo

ARENA 13: [Hakurei Reimu] Takamachi Nanoha

ARENA 14: Suzumiya Haruhi [Ibuki Fūko]

ARENA 15: [Fate Testarossa] Katagiri Yūhi

ARENA 16: Hiiragi Kagami [Misaka Mikoto]

ARENA 17: [Illyasviel von Einzbern] Holo

ARENA 18: Hinamori Amu [Saber]

ARENA 19: [Hiiragi Tsukasa] Kawazoe Tamaki

ARENA 20: [Patchouli Knowledge] Evangeline McDowell

ARENA 21: C.C. [Abstained] Index Prohibitorum

ARENA 22: [Ichinose Kotomi] Anya Alstreim

ARENA 23: Kinomoto Sakura [Yagami Hayate]

ARENA 24: Tsukimiya Ayu [Shameimaru Aya]

ARENA 25: Chiba Kirino [Maria]

ARENA 26: Suigintou [Misaka Shiori]

ARENA 27: Asahina Mikuru [Remilia Scarlet]

ARENA 28: [Chii] Suiseiseki

ARENA 29: Sawatari Makoto [Konjiki no Yami]

ARENA 30: Kasuga “Ōsaka” Ayumu [Shana]

ARENA 31: [Sunohara Mei] Tōsaka Rin

ARENA 32: [Sanzen'in Nagi] Kirisame Marisa

Saimoe 2

Latest Saimoe Matchups

ARENA 01: Patchouli Knowledge [Takamachi Nanoha]

ARENA 02: Shinku [Nagi]

ARENA 03: C.C. [Saber]

ARENA 04: Alice Carroll [Index Prohibitorum]

ARENA 05: Chiba Kirino [Fujibayashi Kyō]

ARENA 06: Ibuki Fūko [Sakagami Tomoyo]

ARENA 07: [Sanzen'in Nagi] Aisaka Taiga

ARENA 08: [Hiiragi Kagami] Maria

ARENA 09: [Vita] Misaka Shiori

ARENA 10: [Kasuga “Ōsaka” Ayumu] Kawashima Ami

ARENA 11: [Hinamori Amu] Suiseiseki

ARENA 12: [Kōzuki Kallen] Yagami Hayate

ARENA 13: Sawatari Makoto [Tōsaka Rin]

ARENA 14: Louise Vallière [Shana]

ARENA 15: Mizunashi Akari [Holo]

ARENA 16: Tsukimiya Ayu [Kinomoto Sakura]

ARENA 17: Minase Nayuki [Izumi Konata]

ARENA 18: [Furukawa Nagisa] Remilia Scarlet

ARENA 19: [Ichinose Kotomi] Shameimaru Aya

ARENA 20: Ryōgi Shiki [Misaka Mikoto]

ARENA 21: Kawasumi Mai [Katsura Hinagiku]

ARENA 22: [Chii] Anya Alstreim

ARENA 23: Kawazoe Tamaki [Suzumiya Haruhi]

ARENA 24: [Hiiragi Tsukasa] Kushieda Minori

ARENA 25: [Hakurei Reimu] Kirisame Marisa

ARENA 26: [Illyasviel von Einzbern] Katagiri Yūhi

ARENA 27: [Fate Testarossa] Kurata Sayuri

ARENA 28: Suigintou [Evangeline McDowell]

ARENA 29: Asahina Mikuru [Ryūgū Rena]

ARENA 30: Sunohara Mei [Kamio Misuzu]

ARENA 31: [Furude Rika] Konjiki no Yami

ARENA 32: [Nagato Yuki] Furude Hanyū

Saimoe International

It’s Saimoe time again.
and randomly, my votes were ::

ARENA 01: Shameimaru Aya [Sunohara Mei]
ARENA 02: Tsukimiya Ayu [Alice Carroll]
ARENA 03: [Hiiragi Kagami] Suzumiya Haruhi
ARENA 04: [Misaka Mikoto] Minase Nayuki
ARENA 05: Furude Hanyū [Illyasviel von Einzbern]
ARENA 06: Ryūgū Rena [Sanzen'in Nagi]
ARENA 07: Nagi [Mizunashi Akari]
ARENA 08: Suiseiseki [Furude Rika]
ARENA 09: Konjiki no Yami [Vita]
ARENA 10: [Saber] Kasuga “Ōsaka” Ayumu
ARENA 11: [Maria] Shinku
ARENA 12: [Yagami Hayate] Kawasumi Mai
ARENA 13: Kawashima Ami [Ibuki Fūko]
ARENA 14: Anya Alstreim [Abstained] Sawatari Makoto
ARENA 15: Remilia Scarlet [Hakurei Reimu]
ARENA 16: [Index Prohibitorum] Louise Vallière
ARENA 17: [Kōzuki Kallen] Asahina Mikuru
ARENA 18: Takamachi Nanoha [Holo]
ARENA 19: Kurata Sayuri [Abstained] Misaka Shiori
ARENA 20: Fujibayashi Kyō [Nagato Yuki]
ARENA 21: Katagiri Yūhi [Abstained] Evangeline McDowell
ARENA 22: Chiba Kirino [Abstained] Ryōgi Shiki
ARENA 23: Ichinose Kotomi [Abstained] C.C.
ARENA 24: Katsura Hinagiku [Fate Testarossa]
ARENA 25: [Tōsaka Rin] Suigintou
ARENA 26: [Chii] Hinamori Amu
ARENA 27: Kinomoto Sakura [Furukawa Nagisa]
ARENA 28: [Izumi Konata] Hiiragi Tsukasa
ARENA 29: Kirisame Marisa [Kushieda Minori]
ARENA 30: [Shana] Sakagami Tomoyo
ARENA 31: [Kamio Misuzu] Patchouli Knowledge
ARENA 32: [Aisaka Taiga] Kawazoe Tamaki

Chrome Shelled Ahoge 2

I can’t help it I like the character okay?

Episode two is not quite as confusing. There’s still flashbacks, though not as many. The first one starts off and explains a bit. I guess each city, or Regios, has it’s own crazy academy thing. And these academy’s compete within themselves to decide a strongest platoon. Then these platoons compete in a giant capture the flag type exercise between the two cities. Nina, the blonde girl, was part of one of these raids back in the day.  And she lost and now she’s running her own little platoon trying to get back there.

Episode two features a smaller game of capture the flag between her platoon and another one run by someone else who was part of Nina’s team back then. And we get to see Layfon go badass… and proceed to piss off not only Nina, because he was hiding his skill… but the team psychokinesist Felli, for the opposite reason. Because both she and Layfon we’re brought into the military arts section because of her insane older brother, who runs the academy in that particular Regios. So I guess she wanted a small under achievers club… And he bailed out… so yeah I wasn’t expecting drama from this show, but the main male character has pissed off both main female characters, in the second episode…

Their weapons are kind of neat, Dite iirc. I wonder if we’ll find out ‘how they work’ because right now all we’ve seen is them change from cubey things into  a weapon that depends entirely on who is using the thing.

Currently the show is treading a fine line. It’s trying to tell more than one story at once… which doesn’t always work well. It could work out, but it could wind up something like Black Blood Brothers. Confusing and without a satisfying ending because there’s all this stuff left unexplained. Now if only I can stop spelling Layfon as Leifon…

Somewhat on time.

Yeah I know a little late, but earlier than last season right? This chunk I decided to pick up four shows and I have a couple others I’m passing for now until I hear something about them. But I’m only talking about three of them this post.

Asu no Yoichi:

When I picked this show up I was under the assumption that it was about a kid samurai in feudal japan. Probably because I only glanced at the description, and all I saw was a picture of Yoichi. I was partially correct, Yoichi’s been raised in the mountains and is ignorant of pretty much any technology beyond fire and bows and arrows. :p He spends all his time training and has gotten to the point where he needs to go train somewhere else, enter the city and modern life. Show promises to be very entertaining while providing a bit of action, and some fan-service on the side. Very much a comedy show and even if you’re not a big fan of ecchi, you should still get a few laughs out of this.

Also; the last name, and the name of the dojo, where Yoichi is staying is Ikaruga. One of the most epic shooting games ever contrived. No, not fps, more like Touhou. Or would Raiden and Aero Fighters be a better reference? Anyway, Ikaruga mentioned, we’ll continue.

Chrome Shelled Regios:

Well, I’m going to refer to this show as Chrome Shelled Ahoge. Because every other character seems to have at least one. There’s one scene where every non-background character has one, or more. anyway, episode one was very very busy. Seriously I lost count of how many times we did a time skip. We started out somewhere in the ‘future’ of the show, as far as I can figure. Either that or it was back in the past… you really don’t know. Unless you ready the light novels this show is based on. From there we’re booted either into the past or the future, depending on which was the case earlier, where a character from the time skip segment is now attending a school. There’s two separate uniforms, one for general studies and one for military arts. Stuff happens, violent stuff, funny stuff, confusing stuff… and then we time-skip again. Not to mention a couple shorter flashbacks to stuff that happened earlier in the episode. Almost made my head spin. :p I’ll save an opinion for when I ahve an idea what the crap is going on.

RideBack:

Probably the least informed choice this season. I picked it up entirely because of the picture I didn’t even read the blurb. It’s pretty much what I imagined. It’s about these things called RideBacks, which are a sort of half mecha half motorcycle. Ogata Rin is our main character and was a ballet protege. Until she twisted her ankle yada yada yada. Now she gets into this school, rather unclear as to what level school it is but I presume college level as another character is said to majoring in french. Due to a rain storm she takes shelter in a garage and sees this awesome red rideback, called Fuego. A guy from the garage lets her ride it a bit and then it goes berserk. Well, not quite literally. It just decides to stop listening and start running around. The cg for the mech is kind of meh, when it’s just sitting there. Those shots look blatantly cg. But the rest, when the things moving are very well done.

I’ll take this moment to voice a small opinion, becasue I never do that. The name for motor cycle mode is spread legs mode. Seriously… who came up with that, obviously they have no knowledge of the english language. Or at least the nuances that go with it. Because if you look at it from a perfectly innocent point of view it would sound rather fitting, and not the least bit dirty. But if you look at it with a slightly less innocent mind… I wonder if Japan does this on purpose sometimes. They know we watch their stuff as it airs… (See BPS) Anyway; some people after hearing about the show thought girls + motorcycles = fanservice. Which isn’t exactly true. Yes, Rin has rode the rideback in a dress. Yes, we did see panties. Once…. so far…

The fourth show I’ve picked up is Druaga – Sword of Uruk… but I haven’t watched any of that yet.

To Aru no Majutsu no Index

Well it seems the problems I was having with pictures last post must have been because I added comments to them. >.> anyway, onwards.

To Aru no Majutsu no Index: Hereafter referred to as Index… which will be confusing since a character is also Index. The show is set in this crazy city made up mostly of students several of  which are  ‘Espers’… people in possession of crazy “magic” powers. Except there’s real magic out there… which makes Grimoires and whatnot real. There’s a whole bunch that the church have destroyed, they did make some copies however and put them into an Index.

Or should I say put them in Index? :p She’s this little gray/silver/platinum/whatever the crap you want to call it haired girl; Who shows up hanging from the main character, Kamijou Touma’s, balcony railing. He then proceeds to feed her, debate with her and rip her clothes off.  No further explanation will be given. Oh, apparently she has a superb photographic memory.(Note: She’s the first picture up at the top.)

Touma is a student and a level 0 esper. The best you could be is 5. but his ability seems to be his right hand which nullifies any esper ability it comes into contact with. Much to the annoyance of Biribiri… I mean Misaka Mikoto.

Mikoto is a level 5 esper… and manipulates electricity, and tends to use this power to rail gun coins at people. Typically Touma since she has this one sided rivalry with him because she can’t seem electrocute him at all.

Then there’s my personal favourite.

Tsukuyomi Komoe. The teacher… no wait, let me rephrase. The loli teacher. She’s 135cm tall, so spaketh an article on wikipedia. Despite being short, and absolutely dfc AND frikking moe… she’s actually teacher aged. She drinks she smokes… she wears pajamas that have a hood with bunny ears on it. Yeah, she’s the second picture. I guess she likes to play up the loli card since she’s kind of got that going for her in spades. Complete with penalty games for misbehaving in class. And her class is a little… well… let us just say they don’t dislike her. She also has no esper skillz… probably because that’s some crazy class/experiment thing.

I don’t have much more to say having seen only two episodes. Suffice it to say I wish I’d picked this up a whole lot earlier.

Jushi~

Hansel Onii-san...

JUSHI!~

A couple pictures. I had some indecisiveness as to what picture of Gretel to post. I have ones with her in full costume and others… not so much. So I went with the one that didn’t look like all she was wearing was that apron thing she wears. >.>

Anyway I’ve had Otogi-jushi Akazukin kicking around on a DVD for a while now. I recall I was going to watch it a while back but I threw it into my player and it had some major a/v synch issues. (Yes, that implies it was xvid.) It’s got a lot of voice acting names in it. Kugimiya Rie, Tamura Yukari, Hiyama Nobuyuki. Yukari was in everything from Nanoha (Nanoha) to Higurashi (Rika) and Nobuyuki well… I recognized him right off the bat as being in Bleach (Ikkaku). I’m sure I don’t need to mention what Rie’s been in. :p

Anyway the shows a comedy/action/mahou. Well you could go mahou shoujo but… It really isn’t. It takes some elements from the genre though. The ‘Sweet Phone’ is used in tandem with some little card like things to summon weaponry or used to attack things, usually with magic/projectiles. But the rest of the magical girl genre doesn’t happen. Because anyone who has magic powers already had them when they appeared on the show. (So far). There’s no transformation sequences at all, which is not a complaint.

The storyline isn’t anything genius. Souta, the main male character,  lives by himself with his father. Not a bad way of putting it because his dad’s almost never around. He has a memory of his mother telling him a strange fairy tale about a brave hero and a king and some tasks that were given and ends with the world being split in two. One half for science the other half for magic.

Problem is no-one else knows this story and he’s never been able to find it in any books. On top of that he can talk to plants, and they talk back.  Not audibly for the viewer, just to him… So then all of a sudden he’s attack by a monster that calls him Elde’s Key. He’s then saved by a big blue wolf. A big blue talking wolf. Except there’s two monsters… and the wolf isn’t in the greatest shape. Enter a very badass looking Akazukin. Badass looking until A) she takes off the hooded cloak and B) You notice her foot step sound effects are way to freaking cute.  Akazukin translates as ‘red hood’ and as Akazukin is a loli erm I mean little… we’re to presume she is in fact little red riding hood. Or at least, the real version over in magical world. Oh did I mention she’s part of the three musketeers… whose symbol for some baffling reason is a four leafed clover?

Did I mention one of the bad guys is named Hansel, he has a sister, Gretel and his main minion is a cat person, I haven’t checked to see if this cat wears boots but… Oh and they all work for an evil witched named Cendrillon. Notice the theme? Ah, I forgot, Akazukin dual wields some swords called Grim Taler. Which is something else that kind of baffles the mind. Because if you notice, Akazukin wears a sort of half gauntlet on her left hand… yet she dual wields…  So either she’s a lefty and has a one handed weapon we haven’t seen yet, she fights predominantly left handed, or it’s just to look cool. Any, even all of which is entirely possible. Also; buttons, lots of buttons.

I mentioned the storyline is nothing epic. It isn’t, but it’s not bad. It’s good, but not great. It’s got some exciting moments and stuff but it’s not edge of your seat or anything.

Bafflement

I was puttering around my favorite anime list site. Because I do that and somehow wound up looking at the page for Shikibane hime: Aka. I checked my favorite anime tracker only to find out apparently Funimation [hereafter referred to as Funi] licensed it and sent this website a letter… well an email.
Supposedly they’re offering subtitled episodes on their website for free. I thought well, I know I’ve had my issues with Funi ever since I started getting into anime. This however is one of those things I’ve been saying Japan should do instead of selling rights to a north american company, which they did anyway. So this is very close… but no cigar.
Anyway, Funi is only telling a partial truth. The episodes are in fact available for free. To stream. To download it costs about 1.99, I presume in american currency. That there is the part that baffles me. You’re offering a streamed version, rather high quality might I add… for something streamed. And then in order to download said material… you’re demanding money… Bad idea, there’s a million and a half tools out there that’ll rip the video out of the stream box. I’m not sure what the quality of the download is like, but the stream is pretty good…
Of course we’d be bashing them if the stream quality wasn’t very good. :p The sub text was a little blah, but you can’t have each characters text colour coded to their hair in a show that isn’t as… chromatic as say Lucky Star.

But if you want to boost sales, lowering the price is a good idea. That’s typically the biggest complaint you get from people. Now, if only actual dvd prices would drop to a little more reasonable… and they’d add more extras. -.-;

And this is from someone who considers a show effectively ruined once North America gets their hands on it. ;p