Anime Spring 2012 Reviews

Sankarea
Good presentation, but I have one complaint. The first half was excellent, but then there were a few too many episodes giving various characters backstories. That isn't wrong, but it felt like a bit too much backstory for me. Still, the presentation was very well done which mostly made up for the turn to backstories to delay main plot. Oh, and as for the plot, it's a zombie romance.

Zetman
Shounen. It felt way too rushed. The action scenes weren't bad, but the speed of the anime took away from it. There were times when I had no idea how the timeline was supposed to go, and that sort of ruined it. This might have worked well as a two or even four season anime, but in thirteen episodes it just doesn't work well.

Medaka Box
I found it very enjoyable. Main character is pretty much perfect, and a bit of a superhuman. It's simple entertainment, but I enjoy watching her do crazy things like run up a multiple story building and kick a metal baseball bat into shards. I look forward to the next season, but I may even pick up the manga if my patience gives out. Once again though, it isn't exactly an intellectual anime, it's just simple entertainment.

Accel World (first half)
First thing to note - it has one song that I really enjoy. The plot is ok at first, though it does have some points that are scientifically so wrong. Then there are parts that the show says are so statistically rare that I feel like it cheapens it a bit. It's an action anime, and it has a unique premise which gives it some points, but it's far from perfect. If you want shounen, it's fine, but if you want to think, just move on.

AKB0048 (first half)
Idol anime, in the far future, with mechas, space, and anti-entertainment troops. It's actually quite good. Reminds me a bit of Idolm@ster, in a good way. So far, I would certainly recommend it.

Jormungand
Guns, violence, and... actually that's about it. It's not bad, if you don't want to think too hard. They shoot people. I personally think they made some wrong choices with the music at times (OP is auto-tuned out of this world), but other than that, it was enjoyable. I legitimately wanted more when it ended - I guess the ending did seem a bit abrupt, so there could be more (too lazy to research it).

Tsuritama
A fishing anime. It has some unique antics, and it was fairly enjoyable. The plot was interesting enough to keep me watching. You aren't going to miss out on too much if you skip this, but there is a decent chance that you will enjoy it if you try it out.

Upotte!!
Girls, guns, fanservice. That's pretty much what it is - with an emphasis on the last one.

Lupin the Third - Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna
- I'm a bit behind, I'll fill this in when I finish it, but it's good so far.

Hyouka
- I'm a bit behind, I'll fill this in when I finish it, but it's good so far.

Shining Hearts - Shiawase no Pan
Dropped - it wasn't bad, but there wasn't enough content to keep me entertained for a whole season. There seemed like there was a bit of plot, but it was taking too long to get there.


Continuing Series:


Fairy Tail
This latest season is about the same as the standard formula, so it doesn't stand out too much so far. I think the other-world arc was my favorite so far.

Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? of the Dead
Humorous, but I feel like the first season was a bit better.

Naruto
Hey, non-filler again. Beginning a war. Not bad, but not amazing yet either.

Phi Brain
Second season seems to be following the same general formula as the first one while still keeping it fresh enough. If you liked the first season, you should enjoy this one as well.

Mushishi

This is a classic. A must see for many people, though not all. I highly recommend it. Now, before I go further, I will have to talk about the downsides to this anime. It is a bit slow, too slow for some people (a certain person who likes to watch stuff at 2x or 3x speed comes to mind), but if you have some patience, this will not be a problem. This anime doesn't have mechas, light-speed fight scenes, fanservice, or any of the other mindless entertainment many anime comprise only of (not insulting this kind of entertainment, I'm just saying Mushishi is different). So, what is Mushishi?

Mushishi is about Ginko, a mushishi, who deal with paranormal creatures. Honestly, that's about it, but this anime is less about plot, and more about feel. The whole presentation is a collection of short stories - one per episode. It gives a peaceful yet fulfilling feel to the viewer. One can get engrossed in the environment and simply enjoy it for what it is. If you haven't seen it yet, you should watch at least the first episode and determine if it is right for you.

Formatting

Anyone else have trouble formatting posts in blogger? To me it seems like my last post had a lot of inconsistencies in size, even if it looked fine in the editor.

Spring 2012 Anime First Impressions

Note that all of these are based only on the first one or two episode of the series.

Sankarea - Presentation is quite good. Not quite sure where the plot is going, possibly a romance between a guy and a zombie girl. It will be another episode or so before I really know what's going on.


Zetman - Decent action (a bit violent for some people's tastes). Plot seems like it isn't going to be very good. A bit confusing.


Medaka Box - Very good. Not exactly sure who I would recommend this for, but I can safely say I enjoy it so far. It's about a student council president who is pretty much perfect.


Accel World - I love the music. Has some interesting concepts, though turns out to be shounen.


Acchi Kocchi - Standard moe kind of comedy. Not very interested in this. [Dropped]


Lupin the Third - Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna - So far it's entertaining. Will wait for another episode to fully pass judgement on. (warning, a bit is NSFW)


Tasogare Otome x Amnesia - Has an odd plot, but how good it is very much depends on where the plot actually goes.


Jormungand - Gun action, kind of violent, I enjoy it. If you enjoyed black lagoon, I think you might like this.


Tsuritama - An anime about fishing and... maybe saving the world? So far I find it isn't that impressive, but it might get better.


Hyouka - Seems to be a mystery anime which is down to earth. It has potential, but I can't say for sure or not how good it is until further in the season.


Upotte!! - Cute girls doing cute things, but with a twist. Girls are actually guns... Like, they are guns, just just carrying guns (though they do that too). If you are interested in guns, you might like this.


Shining Hearts - Shiawase no Pan - Feels like an RPG like world, but with almost nothing happening so far. Main character bakes bread. That's... it.

More Quick Anime Reviews

Time for some quick reviews of anime from last season. I'm too lazy to find pictures now, so just look them up at images.google.com if you're interested.

Ano Natsu de Matteru - Pretty good romance with an alien, but there are a few plot points that are a bit... odd.

High School DxD - For the genre, sort of ecchi action, it's one of the best. So its up to you whether or not you think you would like the genre.

Another - Horror anime. Plot is ok. If you like horror anime, it's worth watching, mostly since there isn't too much in this genre already.

Nisemonogatari - Only watch if you've seen Bakemonogatari. It's similar, but with more fanservice. Iff you liked Bakemonogatari, you will probably like this.

Black Rock Shooter - I enjoyed it, though it was confusing. I think that maybe the OVA made a bit more sense, which is really saying something.

Guilty Crown - This has a lot of cliches. It's so over the top with action and... something. It's somewhat akin to Code Geass. It's worth checking out to see if you like it or not.

Senki Zesshou Symphogear - Plot... not that great. Parts of it were good, but it got less interesting as it approached the end. Basically, it started to get old before it was finished, which isn't very good for a 13 episode series.

Note that these are only the series that I finished from Winter 2011. Here are the ones I didn't finish:
Kill Me Baby - comedy, ok, but not that great. Might eventually finish it.
Inu X Boku Secret Service - romance, once again mediocre. May or may not finish it.
Mouretsu Pirates - the premise is good - space pirates, but the implementation was... so boring, and slow. Almost nothing happened for the first 5 episodes. Don't watch this unless you've already seen everything else.
Rinne no Lagrange - Mecha anime. Characters are ok, though sometimes annoying. Wasn't horrible, but it didn't really have enough to it.

Nintendo's E3 conference

Nintendo started with an orchestra going through tons of Zelda music. Quite a good beginning.

They announced some pretty good free stuff: 4 swords for the DSi, Excite Bike for the 3DS, and Pokedex (not exactly sure what it is) for the 3DS.

We got a quick look at a good amount of 3DS games, including a Mario game, Mario Kart, Luigi's Mansion 2, and Starfox, among others.  The best part, during the Starfox clip, "Do a barrel roll" was played.  My interest in the 3DS has recently very much increased.  Also, Cave Story 3D looks awesome. I hope it's more than just the same game with a graphical upgrade, and if it is, then I certainly want it.

Finally, Nintendo unveiled their new controller/console, the Wii U.  Yes, Wii U as in the sound a police car makes, or in horribly confusing sentences like: "Would you like to see my Mii on your Wii U?" (I'd recommend saying that out loud).  The reason why I wrote "controller/console" is because it was referred as both during the conference (mostly controller by Nintendo, though once Miyamoto said console, and console by other developers).

So, what is the Wii U?  It's basically another controller, with a screen in it.  It looks sort of like the Gamecube or Sega Dreamcast mods that put the entire system in a controller.  It has 2 joysticks, various buttons, a gyroscope sensor, and the screen is a touch screen.  It connects to the console, and they plan on having various types of games that you play on the tv and with the controller: it was shown that you could play on the tv, and then switch to the screen in the controller.  Also, it will allow for some multiplayer "asymmetrical gameplay."  Also, a new Super Smash Brothers game has been confirmed for the 3DS and the Wii U.

Basically, the Wii U seems a little gimmicky right now, but it has potential.  This is sort of how I felt about the 3DS last year, and I'm now wanting it a bit more, so it could work out.  Overall, Nintendo has a pretty good E3, especially if the Wii U turns out good.


Edit: I think the Wii U also comes with a new console, but it wasn't very clear during the conference, so I made my description somewhat ambiguous by saying 'console' and 'tv' instead of naming anything specific.

Portal 2 Levels

So, I've been making some Portal 2 levels - specifically 2 levels so far... one of which has both a coop and single player version.  They aren't very polished, and could use some tweaking of the textures, but I like them, and so far they have had good feedback (not sure how much of it was just being polite though).

So, reader(s) that have Portal 2, send me a message to test my levels if you haven't already, and if you have interest.

Also, for personal reference, the level files go into the folder:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\portal2\maps
or C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\portal 2\portal2\maps for 32 bit systems.


Also, to anyone else with interest in making levels, I'd be glad to help with the very small amount of knowledge that I have gained in the subject.