review: Sengoku Basara 2 (anime)

[WARNING: May include spoilers!]

A sequel to Sengoku Basara anime, yet another adaptation of my favourite CAPCOM video game. Not gonna review much on the characters this time, but I’m just gonna say something about the newcomers.

Hideyoshi Toyotomi – historically, the second great ruler for the Sengoku Period was also known as ‘monkey’, hence his gorilla-ish looks. It is implied in the anime that he has a lover (not sure if it’s mentioned in the game cos I played the Japanese version) and was also Keiji Maeda’s acquaintance. Despite of seeming ridiculously brutal in front of his foes, he was somewhat kind to his beloved tactician.

Takenaka Hanbei – Toyotomi’s beloved masked tactician, who wears a purple mask and whips a chainsword thingy. Supposedly, he’s a great tactician though I think his kidnapping method is rather dirty. Can’t help thinking that this guy is gay, especially by the way he calls people by their first names.

Miyamoto Musashi – in popular belief, he’s a dual sword user and relatively strong. And in SenBasa’s case, he wields a wooden sword and an oar.

[miyamoto musashi, Sengoku Basara version]

Once again, I dislike the way each characters powers act like an atom bomb the DBZ style since it’s not even THAT explosive in the video game. And what’s with drying off the sea shore with a single punch?? Now that’s a bit too much. Now if only we can just do that in the game, destroy half the stage with just one swing.

However, this time I’m rather satisfied with the story and the character development (though I’m pretty sure they f*cked up history again). The rivals, Masamune Date and Yukimura Sanada are splitting ways, fighting their own battles yet still thinking of each other. Awww….

Ahem, anyway, Masamune Date sort of lost his “Right Eye” by Hanbei’s dirty trick, and henceforth his army grew weaker without Katakura Kojuuro’s intelligence. Poor Masamune is ‘nothing’ without his Right Eye :3 Meanwhile Sanada travels far away to form an alliance with another army, and along the way losing one of his ally forever, due to his narrow-minded leadership. Though regretting his actions, he still continued his journey as ordered by Shingen Takeda.

Okay, it’s been a while since I last watched this. I’m not sure what I can remember about the main storyline. I’ll just tell you about my favourite parts then. First is the episode where the ‘biker gang’ cooperates with the ‘pirates’, that sure was interesting! Then Yukimura Sanada versus Miyamoto Musashi! Also the return of Kotaro Fuuma and Matsunaga Hisahide. And also hints of characters that were going to appear in Sengoku Basara 3 (which is already out prior to this review). Nice way of introducing them, by the way.

[here comes another bishounen! Mitsunari Ishida :3]

OP SWORD SUMMIT WAS THE BOMB. It’s TM Revolution again wheeee~~~!! And… and my darling Takehito Koyasu again (as Sarutobi Sasuke) :3

Conclusion: I like it better than the 1st season ;D

Review: Occult Academy (anime)

This goes way back to the year 1999, and there’s actually a school known as the Occult Academy due to its history of having occult stuff happening around it. One day a teenage girl returns to the Academy to take her deceased father’s place as a principal, and somehow ended up dealing with a ‘zombie’ of her father. Once that is over, a naked man descended from the heavens claiming that he came from the future just to change something in the past in order to prevent the alien invasion predicted to happen in 21 July 1999.

God, I remember nothing of 1999 that I can relate whatever I've seen in this show. I remember fangirling to NSYNC and such... anyhow, here are the protagonists:

Maya Kumashiro – is the daughter of the former principal of Occult Academy, who died and she returned to the school to take his place as a principal while spitting her absolute hatred towards occult. In spite of being a teenager, she’s quite capable of organizing school matters with the help of a smitten secretary. She plans to get rid of the occult culture of the school, yet no matter how much she despises the supernatural, she’s the most knowledgeable about the espers. Geez 2010 sure spawned a lot of tsundere.

Fumiaki Uchida (aka Bunmei aka Abe Minoru) – The man who came all the way from the post-apocalypse future whose mission is to find the Nostradamus Key and destroy it. That way he can change the prophecy made my Nostradamus, where it is predicted that something from the sky is coming to attack earth. When he was a child, he used to be a child celebrity who can bend spoons. He disguises as the history teacher and developed a shallow attraction towards a waitress at a local restaurant.

[supporting characters whom I don't remember much except for the giant wrench and portable keyboard... and also their attempt to troll Maya involving aliens]

Occult Academy made good use of the Nostradamus Prophecy and "2012". The latter disturbs me a bit, and I never like the idea of time travelling and changing history. That aside, I enjoyed looking at the various supernatural things that appear in each episode. You have mothman, chupacabra, aliens and even white/black mages (that’s as far as I can remember). Not to forget the ‘near death’ experience episode, which was rather a different way for the character to tell the truth about himself and reveal his back story.

The character development is really impressive for a series that have only 13 episodes. It was annoying to see Bunmei getting all aroused towards that waitress b1tch, who became a recurring character and emerged as a quite important character in the end. Bunmei was initially just another useless male character to compare with the strong and intelligent Maya, but he had a rather heroic end :3. Maya on the other hand, started off as tsuntsun and genuinely hated the occult as well as that useless time agent. But after the near death experience episode, she began to understand him and opened up to him, as she realized how much alike they were. Not only that, her relationship development with other characters, more particularly her father and her childhood friend, is a great lesson for us *__*

But the main highlight of the show is not the occult stuff, but the comedic elements and how excessively crazy it can get. Especially THE FINAL BATTLE. Oh my God what the helllll!!?? It’s not what I call ‘worthy’ but yes, it’s an enjoyable show nonetheless. And I still dislike the idea of time travelling.

Unfortunately I don’t remember the OP and ED. As for the seiyuu, can you believe Maya is also Mio (K-On)? D:

The Solar Sytem (4chan style)

inb4 "this is old"

But I'm taking Physics so we do learn about outer space... (in nano-details kthxbai) but I'm not taking any astophysics subject cos I'm not really interested in what's out there. But now the theory of multiverse and the dark matter is making me intrigued.

So yeah let's do some revision on our solar system. This is basic science stuff so if you forgot I'm just gonna facepalm.jpg at you.

[WARNING: BEWARE OF FOUL WORDS. Do not try this at home!]

Credits to 4chan for the lulz expressions 8D

ISML 2011

You might be wondering why an anti-moe is actually giving a f*ck out of this competition.

It's not even a competition where you see these 'moe' girls fighting for the tiara, it's a popularity contest. Just like American Idol or Akademi Fantasia. Fans vote for their favourite female characters. And 'favourite' does not necessarily mean that it's the BEST female character in terms of attitude and development.

These otakus only like little girls who they think that needs to be protected. But I don't think irl they can even protect girls heh.

More info:
International Saimoe League 2011

Tbh I started participating since last year just to make Misaka Mikoto (To Aru Majutsu no Index) win instead of any of the K-On characters. But too bad Mio win. I'm fine with Mio but I don't see anything special about her. I don't really hate K-On, I just find it boring but the overratedness is making me despise it.

For this year, I'm hoping anybody other than K-On members win. I'd rather see one of the Infinite Stratos girls become the champion. Though personally I'd like see Yui (Angel Beats!), and Victorique (GOSICK) or maybe Elucia (KamiNomi) and Kuroneko (OreImo).

But seeing that Azu-nyan and Mio's getting the most votes in the first phase (even beating the so-called popular Charlotte Dunois of IS), I'm at the brink of giving up. Let's see how the other phases goes...

Review: Kaichou wa Maid-sama!

[WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS]

[don't be fooled my the promotional image. Sure looks disgusting to me...]

Kaichou wa Maid-sama (The President is a Maid!) is about a very stern female seitoukacihou President of Student Council who works part-time as a waitress in a maid café. For those who don’t know, it’s not the kind of maid you hire from Indonesia (no offense intended), but the kind of servant that is dressed in fancy French Maid costume. A particular community in Japan have this fetish therefore a maid café is opened to satisfy their fandom. Though the kaichou is oblivious to the fact that this interest comes from anime, she just had to work since her dad left her family with massive amount of debt. At least she didn’t sell her body. However, she had to keep this after school activity a secret in order to maintain her reputation at school. Until that gorgeous heartbreaker in school found out, that’s when she starts to get paranoid.

Misaki Ayuzawa – She worked her arse off to become the school president in order to be a representative of the girls welfare in that school. The school she enrolled to used to be a boys’ school, and when it turns into co-ed it’s hard for the girls to get used to the environment. Moreover that the school lacks testosterone but have that untrustworthy masculine aura instead. She’s obviously biased towards her female schoolmates, while she poses as a 'demon' towards the men. In order to help her mom who doesn't seem to be affected by the disappearance of her husband, she works as a waitress in the maid café where she’s known as Misa-chan. Misaki doesn’t give a crap about looking feminine, all that matters is that she’s happy with the way she is; a tsundere.

[kakkoi!!]

Takumi Usui – The hottest guy in school in the eyes of the blind girls who knew nothing of him yet straight away confess only ending up with tears. Honestly, I don’t see what’s so charming about this guy. I know even the manga version of him, he can’t even rival the bishounen-ness of the Host Club boys (Ouran) [NOT EVEN THIS]. In terms of personality, he’s rather bland to the point that his mischief doesn’t work at all. For some reason, he keeps Misaki’s secret for his own entertainment and becomes a regular at the maid café just to stalk Misa-chan. I gotta agree with Misaki that he’s a “perverted alien”. I’m always annoyed with the type of characters that are illogically perfect. But then again, Usui isn’t really the ideal man anyway. He doesn’t give a crap about other people unless Misaki is involved; I don’t see this as romantic but... "HE'S THE WORST"

[doesn't this makes you wanna punch him in the face??]

The Three Idiots – The only people other than Usui from Misaki’s school who knows of her dark secret. This comic relief gang became fans of Misa-chan right after she PWN’d them in the first episode. It’s hard to believe they were former delinquents and could even laugh about their sorry past.

Other characters include the BFFs, the fangirling cafe manager, a shota trap internet idol, J-rocker, a gynophobic (possibly) gay dude and a glutton childhood friend cum "a new challenger!".

Initially, I was impressed by how the story portrays a strong, independent girl with aikido skills to defend herself. Misaki is awesome in so many ways, and can almost pass of as a “Knight in Shining Armour”. This was further satisfied by the ‘Momotaro’ episode and the butler café challenge. Unfortunately, towards the end the story begins tumble like a rock rolling down a high steep. I’m not sure if it’s due to the fact that the tsundere weakness is gradually revealed, or it could be because of the subtle reverse harem. As for the ending, didn’t quite like the idea where the pair is somehow forced to participate in an activity for ‘couples’. I’m pretty sure this is overused, and to me it’s a lousy excuse to make them be together. And not to forget the idea where Misaki keeps getting fanboys now and then... Which is kind of typical for shoujo manga to make the heroine loved by plenty of weirdos regardless of her lack of qualities as a girlfriend/wife. I wasn’t satisfied with the final half of the season, and it’s really a disappointment because I had truly enjoyed the earlier episodes.

[Just one of those costumes this tsun is forced to wear cos everything needs MOE now... h-hey! what are you looking at?]

Nothing special about the OP and ED, but I’d like to point out that the ED sequence kept hinting Usui’s origins or past, but NEVER in the anime had it revealed anything about him. I’m pretty much angry about this too.

INB4 GOREADMANGA.

Nah, I’d rather not. I hate Usui anyway.

p/s: sorry can't help it but this is my favourite scene 8D
pps: honestly, I really do hate Usui. Stop calling me a tsundere DX

Review: Arakawa Under the Bridge

[WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS]

another late review. I'm so sorry but I'm on a roll now. I'm slowly closing in to the newer animes. Let me finish of my Spring 2010 first. No worries, I'm not otaku enough to watch every single anime that spawns every season.

Arakawa Under the Bridge revolves around delusional homeless people that lives along the Arakawa river (in Japan), and not too far from a particular bridge where the literally independent Kou Ichinomiya had his pants stolen. His perfect high class life as a son of a big company turns upside down when he had to become a resident of the 'village' after he was saved from being drowned by a self-proclaimed alien from Venus. This is due to his family policy of not being in debt to anyone (or else ASTHMA ATTACK), therefore he had to somehow repay the kind Venusian by becoming her lover.

The folks along the Arakawa river is not your average hobos. They're perhaps weirder than the patients in mental hospital, cos they somehow have a bit of sanity... or maybe they seem to have escaped from a mental hospital:

1. Recruit, aka Kou Ichinomiya is the man with the highest common sense and is most likely because he's a newbie. In spite of that, he's quick to accept challenges no matter how strange it is because of his ego. And he looks weirder than a clown doing those weird things in his white shirt and tie.

2. Nino, the kind Venusian who likes to fish whose name was taken from her PE clothing badge. She requests Recruit to become her lover when he insisted on repaying her good deed, but she has no idea what 'love' is really like... so expect some funny misunderstood moments involving this blonde bishoujo :3

[when the heroine saves the hero!]

3. Soncho, a man in a kappa suit... wait, he IS a kappa! My bad. He lives an immortal life and that's why he is seen as the mayor. He's responsible for giving people new names, and NO objections unless he is cool with it. And also the one organizing events, although he ends up slacking off.

4. Hoshi is the resident musician wearing a STAR mask (note that "hoshi" means "star" in Japanese) but his lyrics are lamer than those faggot Malay songs. He harbours feelings for Nino, and thus making Kou his archrival - and it's always my favourite part seeing them quarrel!

[history of Hoshi in a nutshell]

5. Sister first thing I love about him is the seiyuu (Takehito Koyasu :D), next thing is that he isn't ashamed to be dressed in a nun's costume. He's the resident preacher-cum-trainer of the village, and his teachings are obviously of another f*cked up religion. And I'm not making a typo calling Sister a "he". Just imagine a 100 times manlier version of Bridget (Guilty Gear).
6. Maria is a farmer who keeps all the milk sources for the villagers. Yeah it's a wonder why there are cows and sheep legally kept by the river. But don't be fooled by her pleasant looks, as her mouth holds a truckload of sarcasm. And THAT makes her my favourite!
7. Shiro a man who likes to walk on white lines. He brings around a white painter (the one used to paint on roads) so that he can walk on white things. If you wanna know why he's like this, you might wanna try watching u_u
8. P-Ko and I thought keeping cows by the river is strange... well, growing vegetables doesn't seem that strange but yea. She specially grows different veggies for her favourite people in her farm, especially cucumbers. Do you know what creature loves cucumber?? Almost forgot to mention that she's the Queen of clumsiness (yet one wonders how she rides the bike)
9. Metal Brothers are self proclaimed psychics and wear metal masks in fear of being tracked down by the military. They're always together and for some reason submit themselves to a little girl. Not so important, not even attractive in terms of shota =/
10. Stella is appeared as though she's Sister's foster daughter. A loli but not the kind of moe you moe-tard wants. Too bad she has a 'secret power' that destroys her cute image. Her desire to be strong is to impress Sister to the point she became an 'aniki' even to people older than her.

Save the other characters for the second season. They appear less in the first.

There isn't a definite plot in this anime, but it's just showing how a man who grew up in a family that prioritize perfection had to deal with people different from his society. And it's not about dealing with poor people, but with a bunch of weirdos living by the river... and not just his fish loving girlfriend. To be honest, I got sick of Kou still not being able to accept the weirdness of the people and culture. If I were him I'd just play along, but you see, he has his Ichinomiya family pride to uphold. Yet what makes me love this show is that how the jokes are easily comprehensive for a non-Japanese, as i know some shows likes to use too much puns and culture spoof that is hard to absorb even with subs. I have to say that I never had thoughts of dropping this anime is to see the character's pasts, but alas, there weren't much. A good reason to look forward to season 2 ne? (wait for the review then)

[imagine coming across this guy while walking by a river]

Now it's seiyuu's turn :3
Other than Takehito Koyasu as Sister, I'm delighted to hear Maaya Sakamoto acting as Nino. And also Miyuki Sawashiro not because of Maria, but her jazzy score for a special OP entitled "Think of a title yourself!". I don't really fancy the OP though it can be stuck in your head after a few episodes, but the ED. OH MY GOD the ED can make me cry (after knowing the translated lyrics). DO LISTEN: "Sakasama Bridge" by Suneohair

Arakawa Under the Bridge is one of the few animes which has an appealing and memorable background music. I dunno about you guys, but I like a few tracks like “Arakawa Ippatsu Taikai” and there's another one that seems to be missing from the album I downloaded *swt*

Well at least these hobos don't beg around the streets of Tokyo.

Review: Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu

[WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS]

I realized that it's about a year since Baka To Test to Shoukanjuu aired (short BakaTest), but I'm always late when it comes to reviews. Just don't give a fark, I just feel like writing. Anyway, before you start reading... I'm gonna have to warn you that it's a goddamn lame review :(

[disclaimer: image does not belong to me]

Studio: Silver Link
Original Author: Kenji Inoue
Literal meaning: Idiots and Tests and Summoned Beings

As the image shows, it's about a school life. And it's not an ordinary school life either cos in this school you can actually summon a chibi version of yourself to battle with others. But it's not easy to simply summon them, cos in order to have high Health Points (HP) and strong Attack Points you need to get high marks in your tests. And the story mostly revolves around the idiots of F class.

Of course, if the author had picked the A class students there wouldn't be any story, would it? Nah Special A can make it happen, and people from other classes worship them like gods. While the A class students in BakaTest are portrayed as arrogant b1tches.

Here's brief description on our beloved idiots:
1. Akihisa Yoshii - the protagonist and the main idiot of the story. He's not such a bad guy really, but IMO he needs to work a little harder. I mean, he's not THAT dumb when it comes to friendship and all. Well at least he knows how to cook.

2. Mizuki Himeji - Supposed to be in A class, but she was sick during a test that caused her to fail and be thrown into F class. When given a chance to retake a test to transfer into A class, she purposedly failed cos she wanted to stick to the F class just because the guy she likes is there. Stupid ne? Moreover, she fell in love with the guy who happened to be kind to her when she fainted. Pfff anybody could have done that! Double stupid.

3. Yuuji Sakamoto - The class representative. He's also supposedly a smart guy, but he's lazy so that's why he's in F. Doesn't really give a sh1t about being in that class either. That yandere who's obsessed with him is his childhood friend, but he is not comfortable with it. Probably cos he's gay with Yoshii.

4. Minami Shimada - An extremely abusive tsundere who has inferiority complex about her flat chest. After many years of staying in Germany, she has problems reading kanji, thus her most powerful subject is math. For some reason, she also likes the idiot Himeji likes. WHY AHH?? Anyways, unlike most typical tsunderes, she is a good cook! *_*

5. Kouta Tsuchiya - aka Muttsurini, the most perverted character in BakaTest and is not ashamed to display his perverted actions. His hobby is photography... ahem... "photography". His trademark is his tendacy to nosebleed, and his best subject is Health Education... unlucky for him not 'practically' yet.

5. Hideyoshi Kinoshita - THIS. IS. THE. LIMELIGHT. OF BAKATEST! For the first time I'm seeing moe-tards being gay over a guy. To be honest I love traps, Hideyoshi is one of my top 10 but not top 3, and he ain't the most appealing trap to me. It's funny that, he's one of the F class students while his twin sister is in A class. Though he isn't as smart as the latter, his acting skills is a great weapon to start a havoc between classes :3

And for those who have not seen him DON'T YOU DARE GOOGLE HIS IMAGE 8D.

(kinda wish he's in ISML)

The rest of the characters are from different classes, go watch the anime if you're curious about them. They're just as funny as these idiots!

[shoukanjuu DO WANT!]

Now then, as I watched this anime, I was reminded by my secondary school days. There wasn't any obvious conflict between classes, but I was aware that the lower grade classes see the upper classes as somewhat arrogant. In turn, the geniuses see them as... well, idiots. I can't remember how exactly I felt; I was in A class for long but I had a friend from each of the other classes. But one thing I remember is that, just like the classes in BakaTest, the classroom condition improves from F to A. The last two years of my school life, the top classes have their own personal classrooms, so we did not have to worry about the evening session stealing our belongings left in the desks.

Back to the story. Can't remember much though. I remember thinking "Why the hell am I watching this??" In the end I was more attracted to the theme used. Not only because of the video game influence, but also how universal it was. I mean, in one anime you can see a mixture of various stereotypes; Tsundere, yandere, trap... yaoi, yuri, brother complex, imouto-type etc, and all of them were non-canon but portrayed in a sarcastic way (at least, that was how I felt). That was actually the main reason why i liked BakaTest. Didn't regret picking it up. For those who have not, please watch this if you want something for teh lulz.

Not into the OP much but the EDs are LOVE. The sequences as well. Speaking of ED, I keep forgetting to download Baka go Home!

[oh yeah and imo Akihisa Yoshii as dress is cuter than Hideyoshi kthxbai. ]

Last but not least, "life is not all about grades" :3