We now know what anime we are watching this semester (including the 2 series me and the others on the commitee decided on last week)
The lineup looks like this:
Baka ToTest: to Shōkanjū– 12 episodes
Angel Beats! – 13 episodes
My little sister can’t be this cute – 13 episodes
Toaru Kagaku no Railgun – 24 episodes(2nd half of series)
I had forgot that I had watched the first few eps of Angel Beats already, and I remember that I quite liked the idea of it. In fact, I don't know why I stopped watching it...out of these new ones, its probably the one I am most interested in. Railgun started off quite slowly from ep14 and 15, or maybe it was just that I was getting tired and bored towards the end when we showed it. We watch 2 episodes of each series each week, and ocassionally the odd random episode thrown in at the end if we have time. Today though....it was something rather wierd suggested by one of the members. Its called Koe de Oshigoto! Its rather ridiculously explicit, so its probably a good thing our president turned it off before it got too far in. We were kinda paranoid that someone from the uni would walk into the lecture theatre and get us expelled/take away the society privileges or whatever.
I'm quite liking the anime we are showing this time round, at least so far. We shall see how it goes. I might write some Impressions of them at some point. I'm also 2 episodes into Full Metal Panic, considering continuing it. So I might write about it also.
I'm getting a wierd sense of de ja vu about Angel Beats...I'm sure I wrote about it before. *checks*
Remember back a few months ago I said I had joined up with the Anime society at my uni and joined the commitee for it? Its a fairly good laugh, the society. Some of the people I get on with quite well on some level of mutual geekiness somewhere or another. I didn't really focus on watching many of the shows we screened last semester, even if I did go along to [most of] the screenings.
Now that our term has started up again, I'm gonna try and put forward some better suggestions for series to screen this semester. The way that it is decided what is watched is by a 'pilot battle' week and a commitee meeting, both of which are this week. We just had the screening of the series and the theme this time round seemed to be more obscure stuff, with a lot of quite interesting looking anime, as well as the usual comedy/ecchi stuff.
The list of episodes was like this:
Legendary Gambler Tetsuya
Mitsudomoe
Full Metal Panic
Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu
Sailor Moon Live action
Toaru Kagaku no Railgun
Kuragehime (The Jellyfish Princess)
Moribito - Guardian of the Spirit
Denno Coil
[I might be missing some, but I can’t remember]
Out of those, we ended up rechoosing Railgun as we never managed to finish it last semester, I forget how...and Baka to Test. I wanted FMP as well as Baka to Test, but I did enjoy Railgun and it'll be good to watch more of. So this Friday we'll have the last 2 series that'll be screened this semester.
Oh, for those of you interested in ongoing and new anime, Anime news network have their Winter 2011 Preview up here. They usually do these each season and I look at them ocassionally but never get round to watching anything. Maybe this time. I've more or less been out of anime for a while now, at least at home. I don't know why exactly, I just haven't been watching much recently. I'm thinking of starting up Full Metal Panic though.
So I'm now part of the Anime society at my Uni, Glasgow Caledonian's 'Cali Otaku' society. I've only been to the first 2 meetings of the year but I'm somehow already the club's Secretary. It was more or less down to me knowing the president from last time I was at uni in Glasgow. I met him through Glasgow Uni's Anime & Manga Society and mentioned to him the other week that I might be interested in either of the current commitee positions if he needed someone. The Uni's student association requires commitees of all it's societies and clubs it seems, at least if they wish to be funded by the association. So getting the positions filled was essential to the survival of the club.
There weren't that many people interested in being on the commitee, leaving me and another guy to get the 2 free positions, secretary and treasurer. We weren't really bothered about which position we each got, so I got given the secretary position even though I don't know that many people in the club yet.
I think I'll be quite good at the position though, as I am fairly organised with my notes, timekeeping and writing.
Anyway, they have series which run for the entire academic year (one screening per week) as well as some series which were decided upon today. Its something they've been doing for a few years from what I've heard. The members bring in 2 pilot episodes of anime or other shows like live action stuff. After they've all been shown, the members vote on what shows they would like to see shown throughout the year.
We ended up deciding on High School of the Dead (which I just finished on my own the other week) and Toaru Kagaku no Railgun. I voted for Railgun as well as Pani-Poni Dash. My choices after that would have been Hellsing (which I've seen, but is pretty damn awesome) or some Live action thing that was about a guy whose thoughts can be heard out loud. It was a cool idea, I can't quite remember the name of it right now...
Anyway, I don't know what the purpose of this post is. Just a bit of what is going on. I might post some more about uni stuff and how the club goes, as I'm slightly skeptical whether I will enjoy it or get on with people there. I may rant about stuff in the future.
Also, I may do an Anime Impressions post on High School of the Dead, as I'll end up seeing the first 12 episodes twice overall it seems... sigh T_T I dunno, I did enjoy it but at the same time I didn't like the way the story slowed down and ended rather dissapointingly. Edit: I forgot I did an early impressions post of it already a while back.
After a long period of being not that into anime or manga, I've slowly started watching some stuff again. Its kind of complicated why it fell out of favour with me, but the show I've been trying to force myself back in with (half-heartedly at least) is High School of the Dead; an ongoing series that a lot of people seem to be talking about.
So after I was showed some snippets by my friend I was quite interested in this, and so far I've watched the first episode. So because I can't comment on the majority of it, this will be my very initial impressions of it.
The opening, wow. XD Fanservicey to the max, I approve of this. I don't know if it portrays quite what the first episode was like though. I can't quite imagine the rest of the show leaning towards fanservice in a different way from what they did in the #1. Its basically just an occasional thing, they don't seem to go over the top on panty shots and whatnot. I hope it doesn't turn into a RosarioXVampire thing or anything...the 2nd season of that looked ridiculous. Like, I think over emphasis on random needless fan service can detract from anime at times. So far in this one, I've not seen too much to be worried about. Wow, in trying to find a pic from google the majority are really NSFW lol...
Ok so I was wrong, in ep2 they just introduced the Nurse, Miss Shizuka who seems to have impossibly big boobs and seems to be all about fanservice so far XD
Its a nice, brutal-a good introduction back into anime for me. I usually tend to go for either mecha shows, vampire, sci-fi stuff and the occasional comedy anime and I don't think I've ever seen a pure zombie anime. I don't know if there are many to be honest. I'm quite a fan of live action zombie stuff, so at least so far it seems like a breath of fresh air. It might get old as the series goes on, I'll have to see. Seems like good mindless fun and I'll enjoy watching the rest of it.
There are many places to stream it online, I'm currently using http://www.animeshippuuden.com/ I may have to acquire the episodes so I can play them on my big TV though...
Another Anime Impressions post for you, and its another relatively old series I've been watching (since I've got a huge backlog of anime, and not been keeping up with many new releases.)
I was drawn to this series well...because I am a sucker for some good sci-fi anime. It starts off introducing the characters through a mainly drama/romance type show, but brings in some really interesting ideas to do with parallel dimensions. It really builds up into something quite intriguing as it goes on.
The art style is something that is very different from many other anime. It is very stylised at times, like in some of the fight scenes where they purposefully use a sketchy, scribbly style. Think that one episode in the Animatrix with the skateboarding kid. Quite a few other shows use this style in fast, dynamic scenes for great effect.
The characters are quite nice in terms of design as well. I've seen some anime and western cartoons using this kind of sketchy shading and really unusual character ideas. The character of Atori in Noein jumps out at me, I like quite a lot of the characters from Lacrima, especially Karasu who just kicks ass. Here's a pic of Atori looking suitably maniacal:
In terms of story, as always I don't want to give away too much of the later story, but it is mainly about a bunch of school kids who are good friends and it goes on to develop their relationships, trials and hardships they go through. They have to deal with studying for exams to get into colleges (or some kind of middle school equivalent) and all kind of minor stresses kids have to deal with (*facepalm*), yeah so its inevitably got a bit of emo-ness coming from Yu (one of the main characters) early on, but thankfully as the series goes on, it gets less mindnumbing and peters out. Its got quite a Ghost in the Shell/Matrix idea when it comes to the alternate dimensions and how they pass between, so if you like that kind of thing, check this one out.
So what about my rating for this one? Aside from the slightly dissapointing ending (but many anime have quite poor endings, so I can forgive this one a bit, since it ain't too bad) there really aren't that many things I didn't like about it.
I'd give Noein a 8.5/10 just because it had a LOT of potential, and I had heard really good reviews but it never really got me addicted exactly and I reckon they could have done some more with the rich atmosphere they had built up. Perhaps a couple more episodes or a second season could have been very good for the series. Still, its recommended from me.
Some pretty cool news for Gundam fans hit not too long ago. They have got the go ahead for an anime series based on the Gundam Unicorn novels. I havent read the books, but I've seen gunpla of the Unicorn Gundam and it is awesome. They have a really good staff behind the show, so lets hope it is good. Source
Stupid layout...I can still not figure out how to make a bunch of images sit well in a post.
I hadn't watched any anime in a while, so decided to watch some of the mecha anime I have on my Hard Drive, cos I have tonnes of unwatched stuff, and since I'm working on some gunpla at the moment, I thought I'd watch a gundam series, Turn A Gundam.
So far I've watched the first 4 episodes and even though the animation is dated and the mobile suits have very strange and different designs, I like it so far. Its political like most gundam series, but its not throwing a lot of complex factions and organisations at me yet. I'll have to see how it unfolds as the series goes on.
In terms of gunpla (gundam model kits,) I've been working on the HG 1/144 Kerberos BuCue Hound
Its the first HG kit I've done in ages, I've not done any gunpla in months, so I decided to put a lot of time and effort into this one, giving this one a better paint job than the last few I did, which were the smaller SD kits. I always liked the style of this mobile suit, and this kit has a lot of complicated pieces in there, little bits of wire for example which confused me at first. I'm quite new to gunpla, and I didn't know what length of wire to cut cos I've not seen it in any of the kits I've done so far. I'm not too far through yet, but hopefully it looks good once I'm finished it.
Yeah, this is old, but I wanted to post it up here. Looks like a nice game! If they have some of what made Crisis Core good, they could be onto a winner here, Square Enix.
Will be getting a US release, it has some bizarre looking characters and outfits, but some nice graphics overall. I've heard the original wasnt amazing, so here's hoping this one is better. It will be an Xbox 360 title.
A few games I didn't expect to get PAL releases were announced at some point recently. Stuff like the innuendo heavy Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica for the PS2. I didn't think this would get a PAL release because of dwindling PS2 sales over here, but Koei Europe are releasing it here at some point. Its a good sign to see rpgs like this and Mana Khemia being released. I mean, even if they aren't the best games, its good to see companies bringing them out and getting more recognition. I'm tempted to get Mana Khemia on the PS2, but its still expensive and I got a few other games that would get bought before I got that.
Star Ocean: The Last Hope (Xbox 360) will be out here in June. I might have mentioned this, memory sucks...
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (DS) has a Q3 release date for us PAL gamers, according to www.eurogamer.net
This one looks pretty good, take a look at Atlus' site for some more on it. Americans will get it on 23/06/2009. I might import it if it gets decent reviews.
Muramasa: The Demon Blade (Wii) will be released in PAL territories sometime in November, apparantly. I cant remember if I found this out before, I knew it was coming to the US, but I wasnt sure if it would be seen here. Finally, another decent looking Wii game! My Wii is currently fossilised under layers of dust... I had meant to pick up No More Heroes, Okami and Baroque(I was very close to buying this one because it was about £7 in Game) but never got round to buying em. Too many games to play and not enough money was the main reason.
Anyway, there's been a trailer up for a while now for this game;
Dark Spire (DS) looks pretty cool, I'm a big fan of old school games, and rpgs with class systems and influences from old games. Its not gonna be everyone's cup of tea, but it looks good to me. Link
At the Tokyo Game Show 2006, Square Enix showed a trailer of a director's cut of the film, titled Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete for release on the Blu-ray Disc format. New scenes will be added to the film. The film will also benefit from high-definition video and audio that the Blu-ray format offers. It will also come with a playable demo of Final Fantasy XIII. The cut had formerly been expected to be released in mid 2007, but Square Enix announced at the Tokyo Game Show 2007 that they would postpone the product until 2008.[8]
At the 2008 Square Enix DKΣ3713 Party, it was announced that Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete would be released in March 2009 in Japan,[9] but it was delayed soon after and now has a release date of April 16, 2009. A separate bundle will be sold that includes a demo of Final Fantasy XIII. Both editions will include the first HD trailers of Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Final Fantasy Agito XIII, making them the first released HD trailers of the Fabula Nova Crystallis series. It has also been reported that the film will feature a 20-minute long extra movie on the disc which is an anime version of the "Case of Denzel" chapter featured in the On the Way to a Smile novella.[9] It has also been announced that Advent Children Complete will be released in North America on the 7th of June, 2009
I completed Luminous Arc (DS) last night, it was pretty good. I like the character designs and overall the game was fun, but had a few wee flaws. Still, worth the 3 quid or whatever I got the game for :P
Anyways, I started Tales of Symphonia (GC) this morning. About 3 and half hours into it now, and it looks really cool so far.
But the main character, Lloyd Irving seems really familiar to me...I think he reminds me of Vash the Stampede from Trigun (awesome anime! n_n)
At the moment I am playing two games(the others are kinda partially on hold)
The main two games I'm talking about are Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII(PSP) and Luminous Arc(DS)
Crisis Core is really impressive, its so well presented, voice acted, scripted(for the most part) and the graphics look really nice. They've also put a lot of thought into the main story, with minigames and different mission styles keeping it nice and fresh throughout. Its taking me a long time to complete the game however, as I am trying to complete all of the subquests or missions as they are referred to in the game. Apparantely there is a good reward for doing so but...they are very monotonous, as they are all basically the same A-B layout-kill the miniboss(es) to complete them. I am currently on a play time of 30:10:20, sitting on Lv44 at the start of Chapter 7 and 39% through the Missions. I am guessing I will 100% the missions around the 60 hr mark, but thats just an early estimate, I might get bored of them and not bother.
Luminous Arc is quite cool, I really like the character design and character building. Each of the characters actually have quite well developed personalities and you get to know each during the intermission bits between missions. The game is a tactical RPG a la Final Fantasy Tactics(I'm only comparing it to that because that was the first Tactical RPG I played. The battles arent exactly revolutionary, but they arent too bad either. One thing I noticed that I dont really like about the gameplay are the amount of near enough useless skills the characters will learn. I guess that happens in most RPGs, but it kinda annoys me sometimes. Its also quite easy to grind the challenge out of the game, especially with support or healing characters. Every time they use a skill or spell that aids another friendly character they get 30 XP, and in this game, similar to many other Tactical RPGs, the characters always require 100 Experience Points to level up, regardless of level. So currently, my healing characters and support characters are about 9 or 10 levels higher than my combat characters. Theres quite a lot to do in this game, but I'm still pretty sure its not a very long game(excluding the sidequests, of which I've only found 1 so far.)
I was at Auchinawa 08 the other weekend, an anime convention in Glasgow, running for the 2nd year now. I was at the first, which I think although it was in a better location(Central Station in Glasgow City Centre) this year it was better. This year it was at the Holiday Inn at Glasgow Airport, slightly harder to get to for us lot, but still pretty good. Me and some others from GUMAF-the Anime & Manga Society at Glasgow Uni stayed at the hotel for 2 nights. The Con ran Friday, Saturday and Sunday and was really fun but exhausting. I did my first cosplay for the event as well, I was L from Death Note. Kinda known as the lazy man's cosplay, but one of my favourite anime characters, so I dont care lol. There were at least 2 other Ls at Auchinawa, one of which had socks! L doesnt wear socks or shoes, so he automatically failed lol. Anyway...I am getting sidetracked...
Other awesome things that happened at Auchi 08 were some karaoke to anime openings, endings and other stuff. Pokemon opening=AMAZING! Disco, Yugioh tournament (which I won!) Cosplay Masquerade, Games Room and the dealers room(which had awesome stuff, but I had to resist the temptation to buy stuff due to my lack of income...
GUMAF - Pokemon!
Some stuff I've been listening to recently; Killswitch Engage, The Black Mages, Disharmonia Mundi, Castlevania soundtracks
Killswitch Engage - The Arms of Sorrow
And finally, one of the most amazing cutscenes I've ever seen in a video game.
My net has been much slower than usual for the past few days, so I havent been able to get on any sites or post here. It was taking ages to load up websites, but the connection was fine, according to the diagnosis I did and the unhelpful(read useless, timewasting) helpline.
It seems its back to normal now, which is good, but strange, as I didnt do anything to it to cause this, or fix it....
Anyway, i finished watching Gundam Wing and the OVA Endless Waltz finally. Seriously awesome stuff.
I've also been inspired by watching the series (and reading Sgt Frog lol) to start collecting gunpla (gundam model kits) and mecha action figures again. Got Revoltech 26: Eva 05 Wings Ver. Which I think is one of the best Revoltech figures if not the best.
Also got a few SD Gundam kits which are really good value for the price (less than £10 each on mech-a.com where I got em)
Work at uni is starting to pile up, I now have my essay for Palaeoclimates and 2 posters for my portfolio as well as the main thing this semester, my lab project. If I can get the minor stuff out the way asap I can concentrate on the lab project...stupid diatoms
Stupid layout...I can still not figure out how to make a bunch of images sit well in a post. 
