Random Animé post #1

As you can quite easily tell, despite me making this blog for the great medium that is Animé, i've lacked a lot of articles. Thats not to say i've not got anything to talk about, far from it, its that i lack any general ability to write anything and get my thoughts over thoroughly. Mind you that said, animé hasn't exactly been that high up in my to do list either.

Its been nearly 5 years since i actually became a fully fledged animé fan, and its been quite an experience i think, not only has the medium brought a lot more for me to think about, its another way to watch the amazing thing that is creativity and imagination. No matter how many times i watch a series of anything, i'm always amazed at how much work must have been put into everything, regardless of how boring/generic a story maybe, the fact that they can get a general setting, an image of a future or past which may or may not occur, or just wants to go for amazingly over the top stuff, fascinates me. Ok fair enough it may not as much for those that can actually do forms of creative writing and/or draw something on the spot, but to me, its hard for me to imagine doing something to that degree. I guess in many respects, i shouldn't just give animé all the praise, as without the likes of Manga, i expect a hell of a lot of series would never have been created. From the ever popular Naruto to the every amazing Berserk, many of them wouldn't be here without manga.

So, why be more interested with Animé and manga than say..western cartoons and graphic novels/comics? To be honest, i'm not sure. They just seem to have a different form of creativity to that which we get here. I'm not saying i dislike what we have here, far from it, sit me in front of Looney Tunes or Tom & Jerry and i can tell you for a fact, i'll enjoy it, and still get a good laugh from it. Or give me Garfield, or maybe a Batman comic and i'll indulge in that until i've read it all. Its just that, the difference in creativity in many titles is fairly huge, and again, in some others, its obvious Western influence has had some form of impact. I guess you could just say, i like the Eastern style of things a tad better in this respect.

Well, i won't say its been exactly easy to indulge in animé and manga. As much as i'd love to watch and read so much more(seriously, i'm trying to juggle roughly 27 series at once anime wise, how i managed that and why is beyond me, its quite a feat though i must say) finding money to pay for this isn't as easy as 1, 2, 3. And neither is time for that matter to! Approach me a year and a half ago, and i'd probably say i could pick up series X or OVA Y, now, i'd add it to my wish list and pick it up when my budget isn't so damned strict. But such is the lows of being a student. I guess i can be a little more thankful manga has been the cheaper alternative to animé, as without it, i'd probably be bored stiff and studying all the time. My free time, when i got it, i filled up with a large amount of manga, mainly because it's so easy to pick up and start and despite being rather easy to get through, has a lot of content for me to think over.

I guess the question now is, now i've hit the second decade of me life, do i still plan to continue with the medium or not? Well at present i can safely say i have no intention of just leaving it. There is so much more for me to see, so much more left to fascinate me, i doubt i'll leave it anytime in the next 5 years either. I'll keep watching it regardless of what other people think on it, its a way for me to escape from everything and into a world full of massive amounts of creativity and imagination. What surprises might there be? What kind of thought provoking situations is there? What emotions may come into play? Thats why i watch/read the eastern quivalents to comics and cartoons, there is so much more to them in many respects, and it has me hooked for years to come.

Game of the Year 2008 - Predictable as ever.

Originally, my plan for this blog was to let me express my thoughts/feelings and personal opinion of manga, anime, but as getting the right motivation and rhythm of writing isn't coming easily for me, i'm gonna go off on a tangent here, just so i can get my footing.

As i expect a lot of gamers are well aware, at the end of each year most gaming sites/magazines and whatnot will set up their own Game of the Year awards, and as you'd expect, they all turned out. I was looking forward to these awards somewhat as well, what with a huge selection of amazing games this year, The World Ends With You, Persona 4, Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Little Big Planet, you name it...yet one title out of all of them stood above them, and to be honest, i don't think it should have for many reasons, that title is Grand Theft Auto IV.

As i have always done, though i wonder why, i read through GameSpots Game of the Year section, and surprise surprise, GTA IV didn't just take Game of the Year 2k8, it took 360 game of the year and PS3 game of the year. Obviously they are entitled to their own opinions, but this got me somewhat miffed. Now, before i go on, i should say i have never played GTA IV, and i honestly don't intend to go out and get it unless i see it going dirt cheap, but i cannot see it being that brilliant. Anyway, next i took a look into Gametrailers, hoping for something more, and there was more, some of the categories where good, and somewhat different too, but when it came down to the big three again, 360 PS3 and GotY, guess what took it? Yeap, you guessed it, GTA IV. Seeing a pattern here? Out of all those three categories, the only one i can see it deserving of even a spot in the nominations is the overall GotY. Now, i don't know about you, but usually when you get console specific awards, you'd want more exclusive games to take the spotlight, and sure enough the likes of LBP, Gears of War 2, Fable 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4 where all in the nominations, but a game which is not console exclusive took the top spot. I honestly think they should at least consider the fact that its going to be on other consoles and should let the games for specific consoles take priority, but instead they chose not too. You can probably tell but i'm sighing here, it is fairly pathetic.
Thankfully though, i took a look through IGN's awards, and even though the overall GotY is still to be announced, i'm certain its going to be far more harder to call than other wannabe gaming sites attempts at awards. PS3's award went to MGS4, in a way, though i don't own a PS3, i think thats quite rightly so too, that, LBP or Valkyria Chronicles from what i saw. Xbox's did go to Fallout 3 however, again one which is on various formats, but at least from what i've heard its decent. My only hope now is that the GotY is taken by something deserved of the spot, The World Ends With You, or Persona 4 are the main two that spring to mind.

I realise i've only really gone on about three different awards really, i guess i just wanted to get my point over about GTA IV, and how its a pain seeing the name plastered on every other site you see(gaming wise). The other awards for other consoles where a tad better, though i won't go and mention GameSpots stuff again, since it was fairly bad anyways. The likes of Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia did win for DS on Gtrailers, and World Ends With You(woo!) on IGN, PSP had Patapon and Crisis core(i need to double check this one), PC had Sins of a Solar Empire on both, the Wii, which i nearly forgot, had Smash Brothers Brawl and World of Goo, and the only PS2 one i saw i think had Guitar Hero win it. Not to bad overall there, but i just wish that sometimes there was a bit more variation with what wins it, and i bet a lot of others feel the same as well. I do have a line up which i could see being good for Game of the Year, so guess i'll call it:

Arby's Game of the Year Nominations

The World Ends With You - Nintendo DS
Persona 4 - Playstation 2
Little Big Planet - Playstation 3
Gears of War 2 - Xbox 360
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - PSP

I've only really added one from each major console, that i've played, and in a way gives a lot more variety as well. Of course, no GTA IV, as you'd hope, so its a lot more open to who wins. Next Year i expect a similar set of results from gaming sites, super supposedly awesome game A wins all awards it can be in, leaving games which deserve a chance of winning left to rot, and the rants start again.
I guess if i where to even guess what could happen with whats out now, Resident Evil 5 may take a couple, as could Street Fighter 4. Halo Wars as well which is due out next month, but bar that i don't really know what else at the moment, only time will really tell.

Characters and appearances - do they really matter?

Characters have always been amongst the main things which pull me into a series, mainly because they have so much to them most of the time, and, of course, no story could go forward without them. The thing is though, and its bothered me for a wee while now, is that should we really care whether or not a character looks cool or boring, ugly or beautiful?

Nowadays with so many art styles out there, its made me wonder what really attracts someone into a series now. I've always found that no matter how something looks artistically, so long as the storyline is of interest to me then i'd more than willingly watch it. Yet i know a few who would say that they would be put off from a series because of how it looked art wise, and it confuses me somewhat.

Probably a brilliant example of this would be One Piece, the series is probably one of the most entertaining i have ever watched, both hilarious and brilliant for action, yet its art style has always been..unique. Its one of those styles which grows on you, but at first glance you would think it was fairly bad. Character design is one of the things which sticks out in it, take Usopp for example(the guy with the long nose for those new to One Piece) He would never strike you as the best looking, yet his character is one of the more interesting ones in it. At first he appears as your general scaredy cat, running from every battle but when pushed will fight, but slowly changes as the story progresses. The most noticeable development in his character is in the Water 7 arc, i won't go into details why, but it adds to just why i like him so.

One style which does also baffle me is the one based around this "moé" genre/style...whatever you deem it as. Now i liked Kanon(the 2006 version), which is deemed a fairly moé series, but not for its artwork again, despite the fact that it in itself was fairly impressive. It was down to story and characters again. They aren't the most developed characters you will ever see, but they still have something to them which makes me like them, whether its their somewhat sarcastic humour or the wee phrases like "uguu" they have, it makes the show enjoyable. The character design is nice, yet again people will put some of them down, and the series down, because the characters look "moé". Now i'm not going to go into a debate about what a moé character is, i'm not 100% sure myself, but the main thing which i usually hear is the design of the eye's. Now i don't see the point in judging them from that, and to be honest, people that push a series away because of such a small trivial thing seem a little silly to me.

I'm not entirely sure how to really conclude, since i could probably go and use tonnes of other series to point out why a story or character should not be judged on appearances alone. Having not got round to seeing it yet, i expect Kaiba to be a good example, specially with its art style being one of the more unique ones i've seen in a long time, or perhaps use Dragonaut as an example, where despite its artwork being faily nice, the storyline and characters seem a little generic and bland.

Kurenai - Initial Thoughts

The Spring Season is already upon us, and despite the vast amount of series there is available, i've only started on two. Of course my enjoyment of Code Geass in its first season led me to carry on with its second series this season, but the other series i had no idea about, and i'm glad i decided to start it, is Kurenai.

Basically Kurenai is about a 16 year old high school student named Shinkurou Kurenai who takes on jobs which specialise in dealing with small fights and other squabbles, when one day a woman named Juusawa Benika brings a seven year old girl, named Kuhouin Murasaki from a noble family to his appartment and asks him to be her bodyguard.

The first thing that really struck me after both reading the synopsis for it and watching the first episode was, that it reminded me straight off of the somewhat unknown 2007 series, Seirei no Moribito, where a female bodyguard named Balsa was asked by the emperess of japan to act as a bodyguard to the son of the emperor, Prince Chagum, as he has the egg of the water spirit within him and the emperor, in fear of going into a season of drought, was to sacrfice him. The main difference though is that, up to episode 2 at least, Kurenai does not know who he is protecting Murasaki from or why he is protecting her.

Am i the only one that find's this looks like paper mario a little?

Straight into the episode, the animation and artwork is stunning, its extremely colourful and gives it a more mature feel to the show. That also goes for the opening and ending sequences as well. If you where walking in blind, you may wonder what to expect if you saw the opening, as the artstyle itself differs a lot from the artwork used throughout the episode, asides from that its nice and colourful again, and it remindes me ever so slightly of paper mario, as to why i'm not sure.

The characters themselves look to have a lot of depth to them, Kurenai for example has a traumatic past of which he lost both his Mother and Father, and he also has a 'unique' body due to its ability to heal at an unhuman speed. Murasaki as well, has to now come to terms with living as someone who is poor, instead of being in a noble family with servants to work for her. This does lead to a few arguments between Murasaki and Kurenai, which are both interesting and a little funny. Again, Murasaki reminds me a little of Chagum in Seirei no Moribito, as he has to deal with living outside of royalty, and instead as someone who has next to no money. As little as we see of them in the first two episodes, i can guess that the supporting roles within the story, like for example Yuuno Houzuki, who looks to be Kurenai's girlfriend or someone who is at least close to him, have a fair bit of depth to them and a story to tell themselves, of which i look forward to watching.

Overall though i have to say that Kurenai is indeed enjoyable, and the story itself is enough to keep me engrossed in the show throughout. If i where you, i'd go out and take a look into this as soon as you can, its something that shouldn't be missed.

Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu - Novels/Series

Before the great Suzumiya Haruhi becames a hugely recognised figure of anime worldwide, she started out in light novels. No doubt everyone has at least heard of her, and as of such, holds their own ideas for her on what they've seen, but even still not many have read the novels, or perhaps even heard of them. As far as the series goes, yes, the anime is certainly great to watch, but in my eyes, it lacks a certain something the novels have, i can't be sure what it is, but it does.

As of now, there is currently nine novels released in the land of the rising sun, and is due to have a tenth released at some point this year. The novels are now up to Haruhi and Kyon's Second year of high school, roughly half a year ahead of where the anime had ended. The anime series itself only actually covers at max, 2 novels, only one however fully, that being the first one, which just so happens to have the same name as the series, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu. The rest comes from the third novel, one chapter from volume 5 and two from volume 6. Strangely enough, they decided to just stick to Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu, even though its focusing on the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya - the fourth novel in the series.

A lot of people won't have a clue what they are walking into in this series, but a few will, like myself. If your looking for a comedy this time round, you will be somewhat disappointed. The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya focuses more on its Sci-fi genre and is, if you can deem it possible, slightly more darker than the last series. Bar that though, this novel happens to be my personal favourite of the nine out so far. As far as the novels go they are all engrossing, but this one i was pulled into and i sat reading through it start to finish.

Basically the jist of how it starts is: Kyon wakes up as normal on the 28th of December, expecting just another day at school with Haruhi and the SOS-dan, but when he gets there, Haruhi is nowhere to be seen, in fact noone at the school even knows of her even attending the school. Instead, in her seat sits someone Kyon never expected to see again.

Although yes, the series is focusing on the fourth novel, i don't see it as enough on its own to fill up a 24 or possibly 14 episode series on its own, so as for what else maybe included in the series, i'm not entirely sure. Although i would hope that a chapter in the third novel(the only one, in fact not to be used in the first series) would be animated as well, otherwise some people will wonder where the hell 'John Smith' comes into it. That chapter is Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody and basically, if this event didn't happen, the conclusion Disappearance has would have to be completely different. And even if i think on it, i can't really imagine the series taking a different route to what it has now. For example, trying to imagine the series without the SOS brigade, would just mean its not Haruhi at all.

New Season, any good?

New Season means new series off which to consume the majority of my free time with, but is there really anything worth watching? Well, i can't say for all, but for the few i've watched, i'd say yeah.

Clannad

After working my way through Kanon(2006) which i absolutely adored in the end, i found myself wanting too look into Clannad. Basic plot is around Tomoya Okazaki, who is a third year student also labelled a delinquent. He seems to dislike life, but he begins to change after meeting a girl named Nagisa Furukawa, also a third year student but one year older, She had to re-do the year due to being ill for 9 months.
I guess because the game was created by the same company as the kanon game, Key, it was bound to have many similar elements, which it does. One male protagonist and 5 female protagonists being the most obvious. After two episodes, it has the same feel as Kanon too, its a drama and also has a bit of a fantasy feel to it at the moment what with the beginning usually depicting a girl being the only person existing in the world, where there is no life or death. Whether this is in someones mind or something else completely i am yet to figure out but i'm looking forward to finding out.


Gundam 00

From one series to a completely different one, we see the next in the long line of gundam series to be aired and it looks to be promising at the moment. It has a little bit of a gundam wing feel to it which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but whether or not that was just for the first episode i'll need to wait and see. From what i can gather, instead of going with one side or the other, they are just one group versus everyone, at least from what i gather. I can't really say much else on this one, i need to really see the next episode to get a better idea, but i'd at least say give the first episode a look into.

Dragonaut - The Resonance

Decided to look into this series but had no idea what exactly to expect since i knew nothing of the series. I chose it out of random, and i think i may stick with it. Ok the story seems pretty straight forward, Jin Kamishina is the only survivor of a shuttle accident, and gets involved with the mysteries of dragons and the dragonauts, and meets a mysterious girl named toa, who saved him from falling to death. The series is apparently a mecha series, but from what i've seen so far, there hasn't been any, unless it comes into it in the next episode. But still, it is enjoyable at least, i don't think it'll be amazing by any means, but it maybe worth looking into.

ef - a tale of memories

Now, i don't really know how to go about explaining this one. Again like dragonaut, i thought i'd try it out randomly, yet i honestly can't say if its any good, or bad at all. Put simply, its weird, or at least it is too me. I found it a little confusing and i haven't really worked out the storyline as yet, but the music isn't too bad, i do quite like the opening.

Its only a a minority of the series out so far, but its ones i found may keep my interest for the season. I do intend to look into Genshiken season two as well, after enjoying the first series, i intend to watch this too, i just need to get the OVA's out of the way first. Its also a shame that we have to wait until next year for Code Geass Season two as well, but there should be enough to keep me from becoming bored for a while.

Welcome

I never thought that i would actually be writing my first ever blog post so soon, but here i am so welcome.

Since watching the first episode of Cowboy Bebop for the first time years ago, to this day, i've always wanted to state my point of view on what a series of anime has been like through my eyes, or explore not the series itself, but the development of some of the major, or minor characters of a series and how it really makes them who they are and how it effects those that are close to them. From the likes of Monkey D Luffy of One Piece with his determination to protect his nakama to Rock of Black Lagoon as he adjusts to life with the Lagoon company, i hope to express my thoughts on how they go through their changes and just what kind of impact it had on me.

Hopefully i'll be able to give you an idea of how a series is or maybe give a good insite into your favourite characters development in this blog, and hopefully it may have an impact on a few of you and may even pursuade you to look into new series which you may not have considered to look at before.