Oh brilliant blade as cold as steel…
About a week or two ago Funimation released the dubbed version of the Tales of Vesperia prequel movie, and since playing Tales games has been a time-honored family tradition with my younger brothers since our exposure to Symphonia, it would be only right for us to see the movie. How did the jump to the big screen fare? Let’s find out!
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Spiderman is one of the most popular comic book characters, right up there with Superman and Batman. The iconic image of a man in a skintight webbed suit, slinging from building to building on silken spider thread is as well known to both children and adults as most works of popular art. But, despite it’s intense and lasting fame, can the franchise consistently produce quality material? After seeing the latest feature film, a “gritty” reboot of the franchise that follows the comics’ canon more closely, I’m not so sure.
Let’s not waste any time, and take a look at The Amazing Spiderman.
Previously on Final Fantasy 5 Four Job Fiesta 2012 Fridays, I defeated Garula and got the water crystal jobs. As luck (read: a random number generator) would have it, I got access to the Red Mage job. Now, the red mages are unique in that they’re mainly utility, though their offensive and defensive options are still much better than the thief’s. Red mages in FF5 can use low level black and white magics, as well as other types, such as time magic. I’m not sure if they can use low level summons as well, but even if they could, I probably wouldn’t bother.
Unfortunately, as a result of being a low-level hybrid, red mages can’t use high level spells. This means that come endgame, their spells don’t have much of a punch anymore. Fortunately, certain other aspects were created to offset this scaling problem. The first one is that red mages gain access to nearly every status spell under the sun. Granted, it’s harder to hit enemies with status effects in a Final Fantasy game than in, say, Baldur’s Gate. Despite that, there are bosses out there that have one or two status vulnerabilities; vulnerabilities that can usually tip the scales in your favor considerably. Continue reading »
When I say “New Moon” I’m not talking about that impending hot-mess that is the upcoming Twilight movie…
Nope – we’re talking about that seemingly timeless anime, Sailor Moon, getting a revamp for the summer of 2013 with a new series. The mastermind behind Sailor Moon, Naoko Takeuchi, recently confirmed this announcement over at a Nico Nico event (which can be found here, if you’re curious) and also mentioned that Momoiro Clover Z will be performing the new theme for a new Moon.
Under the simple title of “美少女戦士セーラームーン” (Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon), fans of the original series and those few lucky 90s kids who grew up with Sailor Moon on air will be pleased to her about this announcement. However, will this new Sailor Moon be coming to a Cartoon Network near you? Most likely if it is dubbed/subbed/released in America somehow it has a better chance of premiering on the new Toonami because it will be more closely following the manga.
Already Sailor Moon (at least the American releases) have been uh, “dubbed down” to be more suitable for younger audiences, but this new series has no such goals in mind to be “kid friendly”. Rather, fans of the original series (that means all you really early 90s manga fans) will perhaps be more appreciative of the series reboot that is meant to cater to their fond memories.
As for me–who grew up on the dub of Sailor Moon and only encountered the “real deal” halfway through middle-school and high-school–I am excited to see a reboot that will be much more faithful to the original, groundbreaking work, and I will be on the look-out for more info as the year progresses! (And if it’s not me, then definitely my dear friend starshine and well-known Sailor Moon fan will have more details, haha!)
Happy Independence Day everyone! So the season ended a while ago, but I didn’t figure to write this until today. Why? Well, I figured I’d eventually write reviews for all the anime I’ve watched, but considering my endless list, that’ll take forever. Plus, there’s no guarantee that I’ll even want to review some of the stuff I watched… So I decided to just jot down some of my thoughts on the anime I watched this season. Therefore, major spoilers alert! You’ve been given fair warning…
Spring 2012
Anyway, let’s just dig in! Itadakimasu~ Continue reading »
Wow, I’m really behind on this review. Even my most loyal readers probably don’t remember when I mentioned way back that I met the WWE wresteler Brimstone at ComiCONN and picked up some signed copies of the series he co-wrote titled Brimstone and the Borderhounds. Since then, I’ve been picking away at the titles, reading one every few months and then promptly losing the stack of comics somewhere. Now, however, I’ve finished the initial run and can comment on what was within. How did this independent series stack up compared to my usual fare?
Okay, this is something new I’ve decided to tackle this summer. I like to call myself a gamer, but I’ve never actually beaten a Metroid game. So, this summer I’ve taken it upon myself to run through… well, most of the Metroid games, and then review them for your pleasure here. The tentative list right now is Super Metroid, Prime 1-3, Fusion, and Zero Mission. To my knowledge the only ones I’m skipping is 1 (covered by Zero Mission essentially), 2 (I don’t even know where I’d find a copy of this) and Other M (ha). Well, expect these posts to be pretty sporadic in nature (and possibly extend past the summer) as I don’t have infinite time to play through these games, but for now I’ve beaten my first Metroid game. Considered by a lot of fans to be the best Metroid game, and I can kind of see why. Without further ado, I present you with… Super Metroid.
The box art... Surprisingly, this sums the game up pretty well. Much better than Megaman 1 did, anyway.
Summer’s here, and with that, is the new anime season! Now, I’ve been out of the loop for a while, and haven’t really been watching too much anime. In fact, it would probably take an insane amount of time to clear out my backlog. However, I recently found out that one of the new shows was based on a Romeo Tanaka light novel. Romeo Tanaka is renowned for his pretty remarkable visual novels (none of which I ever got around to, sadly). With such a prominent figure behind this project, I had to give the show a shot. I’m rather glad I did, since the first episode of Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita, also known as Jintai, was pretty surreal. Continue reading »
One of the best parts of life is basking in sweet, sweet irony. Last Fall, when DC relaunched all of its titles with their New 52 initiative, some comic fans denounced this choice as foolhardy. Some, especially the hardcore Marvel-fanboys, clung to their sacred rock, swearing that Marvel would never do something so bold and betray they fans in such a way. Well ladies and gents, the times have changed.
Today, Marvel announced that this fall there will be a relaunch of their universe. Aside from the new series that will inevitably follow (such as Uncanny Avengers and the creatively titled All New X-Men) there will be some revamps of well-known series like Avengers (no doubt following on the heels of the movie’s amazing success). Of course, Joe Quesada assures us not everything will change and things will be fine, I can’t really put much faith in the writer of “One More Day,” the storyline that actually got me to stop buying comics for 6 years.
Ultimately, I’m going to wait and see what happens before passing judgment. The new series could be great, terrible, or, most likely, a mix. Jean Grey is coming back…and we can all guess what kind of madness that entails. Regardless, this is definitely a bold move by Marvel. What do you think of the relaunch? Is it a good idea? What other series do you predict will come? What kind of changes do you think will occur?
If you want more details, Comic Vine has a great write up here.
As much of a giant Hello!Project fangirl as I am, there’s no denying that I love J-Pop on the whole and listen to a multitude of artists and groups. So when people tell me that they found this amazing new group that performed the Bodacious Space Pirates anime theme, called Momoiro Clover Z, I laugh a little inside. Cause I knew them back when they were just Momoiro Clover, had six members, and sang a cute little song called Pinky Jones. But ever since their most epic-sounding song, Mugen no Ai, they have reached a more international audience.
Today, we’re going to look the two major songs on their latest single, Otome Sensou, and figure out whether this group can keep up their Oricon chart topping hits or if its as good as it gets.
