July 6th, 2010
First Episode Impressions: Highschool of the Dead
Anime Relations: Highschool of the Dead
Hey, it's been a while since I've done a blog here on MAL but I want to make it up with something that I just started watching and it'll be a quick first impression of it.
So here we go... Highschool of the Dead
There's really not much to say as I've only seen the first ep and it was quite of a talked about show that got everyone excited, so much that it's now been licensed by Sentai Filmworks (hoping it'll come to Australia).
Now talking about the first episode, I have to get this off and say it was very exciting to watch. I'm not a big horror fan by any means but I've watched a decent amount of horror movies and played a decent amount of horror games to know what I think it's creepy and/or exciting.
The story is rather predictable, about a guy named Takashi who is a little down about his childhood girlfriend going out with another guy, until tragedy strikes as a zombie-infestation happens! Now he and a few others have to survive... Pretty predictable plotline but it works for this kind of show.
The art and animation is fine but since it's coming from Madhouse, I would have expected something a little along the lines of their past work like Death Note (which was directed by the same guy whose doing this), Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust and Pet Shop of Horror but the opening and ending credits as well as some of the transitions (with the filmgrain) is pretty sweet.
The sound on the other hand is quite good, with decent voice work (not that I can't tell perfomances through japanese VAs anyway) and some cool music that gives the show a fast-paced feel to it.
The only complaint I have to this show is that it's very fanservice-heavy. Not that I have a big problem with it but with the amount they show, it can be very distracting to watch.
Which kinda begs the question, for a genre that usually generates a ton of viewers in cinemas, TV shows, etc. no matter how good or bad it is, think that it needs fanservice to spice it up when the concept the show is rather easy to lure viewers in... Well, not all viewers that is. I dunno, I guess it may be a last resort sort-of thing.
Oh and I should mention that there was one character at the start of the show that kinda got on my nerves because of how annoyingly rude she was but I'm not gonna spoil it.
So anyway, I think it's pretty good from what I've seen in the first episode and I look forward to seeing more episodes.
First Impression Grade: B+
So here we go... Highschool of the Dead
There's really not much to say as I've only seen the first ep and it was quite of a talked about show that got everyone excited, so much that it's now been licensed by Sentai Filmworks (hoping it'll come to Australia).
Now talking about the first episode, I have to get this off and say it was very exciting to watch. I'm not a big horror fan by any means but I've watched a decent amount of horror movies and played a decent amount of horror games to know what I think it's creepy and/or exciting.
The story is rather predictable, about a guy named Takashi who is a little down about his childhood girlfriend going out with another guy, until tragedy strikes as a zombie-infestation happens! Now he and a few others have to survive... Pretty predictable plotline but it works for this kind of show.
The art and animation is fine but since it's coming from Madhouse, I would have expected something a little along the lines of their past work like Death Note (which was directed by the same guy whose doing this), Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust and Pet Shop of Horror but the opening and ending credits as well as some of the transitions (with the filmgrain) is pretty sweet.
The sound on the other hand is quite good, with decent voice work (not that I can't tell perfomances through japanese VAs anyway) and some cool music that gives the show a fast-paced feel to it.
The only complaint I have to this show is that it's very fanservice-heavy. Not that I have a big problem with it but with the amount they show, it can be very distracting to watch.
Which kinda begs the question, for a genre that usually generates a ton of viewers in cinemas, TV shows, etc. no matter how good or bad it is, think that it needs fanservice to spice it up when the concept the show is rather easy to lure viewers in... Well, not all viewers that is. I dunno, I guess it may be a last resort sort-of thing.
Oh and I should mention that there was one character at the start of the show that kinda got on my nerves because of how annoyingly rude she was but I'm not gonna spoil it.
So anyway, I think it's pretty good from what I've seen in the first episode and I look forward to seeing more episodes.
First Impression Grade: B+
Posted by Valkian24 | Jul 6, 2010 8:15 PM | 2 comments
Private Entry
April 13th, 2010
Vlog - Animania 2010
Hello everyone on MyAnimeList.net, I am back again and I apologise for taking so long on my 2nd part of my Favourite Anime/Manga blog.
But in the mean time, check out this vlog I made recently talking about what I did at this year's Animania in Melbourne.
Hope you all enjoy and look out for that second blog soon! Take Care everybody.
But in the mean time, check out this vlog I made recently talking about what I did at this year's Animania in Melbourne.
Hope you all enjoy and look out for that second blog soon! Take Care everybody.
Posted by Valkian24 | Apr 13, 2010 4:02 AM | 0 comments
Private Entry
March 27th, 2010
Favourite Anime/Manga (Part 1)
Hey everyone, It's me again. Time for another blog and it's something completely generic and downright redundant but I don't care XD
I'm going to talk a bit about some of my favourite anime/manga, just for you guys to know me a bit more. Its just gonna be a basic rundown of showing a picture and then discussing why I like this anime/manga a lot.
Simple as that and now I'll start off with the manga first, since there isn't much. :P First off...
Black Cat
Quite possibly my favourite manga ever. A Shonen Jump produced manga that doesn't go over 20 volumes like most of their previous works, the story about Train Heartnet getting into a crossfire with his old partner from Chronos, Creed Diskenth whose now a leader of the Apostle of the Stars, who plots to rebel against Chronos (the organisation that Train and Creed used to be a part of until a drastic confrontation that involved a death of a loved one).
While the story may not be that original and the art design is pretty standard, the depth of the story, the characters and the action scenes is what stands out. Train, his partner Sven and Eve are very interesting characters as stick together as one with their unique abilities/weapons such as Train's quick dodges and gun slinging action, Sven's tools of trade of creating different bombs, bullets for Train and his "Vision Eye" and finally Eve with the nanomachines placed inside her, she has the ability to grow wings, shoot out needles and form a shield with her hand.
Not to say that the Apostles of the Stars has some characters with unique abilities/weapons. Such as Kyoko being a Pyromaniac, Charden being able to manipulate his blood, Maro using gravity as his weapon and Creed equipped with the Imagine Blade.
There's more I can say about the characters but I'd just be droning on. It's just a very imaginative series of manga that I was surprised to see, in terms of characters and their abilities. It also showcases a bit of comedy and drama in the mix and it works very well to progress the story.
I've only seen 4 episodes of the anime series at the moment and while it is entertaining, it goes off in a different direction which kinda bothers me in a way but I still want to see more of it to see on how it goes. But all in all, I highly recommend the manga for some great action and characters.
Rosario + Vampire
Bit of a funny story with this one. A friend of mine, who lives in a different state, introduced me to the anime series and as bad as it may be, I still thought it was very amusing. But the manga however blows it out of the water as I was bothered to read it by the same friend again when I bought the manga.
A simple storyline with a creative concept involving Tsukune, an average school boy who then gets accidentally enrolled to Youkai Academy, a school for monsters trying to live in the human world. As he did fear for his life to leave the school but what keeps him from leaving was bumping into the love his life of a vampire named Moka Akashiya, who also has a thing for him...and his blood ;P
But it's not just Moka who's attached to Tsukune. Include Kurumu, a big-breasted succubus. Yukari, a child prodigy who is also a witch and Mizore, a Yuki Onna (Snow witch) who is also a stalker.
So it's your typical harem comedy with a supernatural twist and a pretty fun one at that. Granted, the story does get rather formuliac in the later volumes but the humour, the tense action-scenes (especially when Moka shows her true colours when her rosario is taken off) and the morales that each chapter shows. The characters are unique and fun to read about and the art of the manga looks pretty nice, ranging from something cute and cheery to something dark, Akihisa Ikeda has really done an impressive job when it comes to detail.
Be warned that the manga does get rather bloody and dramatic at times but I think that breaks away the comedy side for a bit that adds an interesting dynamic to the story and yes, like the anime... It does have fan-service but it's not as much as the anime series which crippled the show in a way. So all in all, if you want something a little different in a harem manga, this is quite worth a look and that's all I have to say about that.
Now I know there's other mangas that I would like to add but I haven't read enough to put them up as of now. But now, time for my favourite animes!
Ouran High School Host Club
Something that I wasn't keen on at first but after hearing a lot about it, I decided to give it a chance and after watching episode one, I just knew I had to get the DVDs for it. It is one of the funniest comedies I've seen with such a great cast.
Story is pretty simple about about a scholarship student at a prestigious academy for wealthy students. Haruhi Fujioka was trying to find a room where she can quietly study on her first day but as she finds what is labeled to be a music room, it's actually the school's host club, where beautiful looking boys entertain girls who have too much time on their hands. Being surprised as well as sorta played around with the members of the host club, she then accidentally breaks a vase which is worth 8 million yen. In order to pay back, she was forced to be their lap dog for a while but after noticing her manners (without even realising at first), the club's president Tamaki Suoh decides to have her as a member of the club to pay off her debt but then later finds out that she's actually a girl (that looks like a boy).
A very gender-bending like story that has quite a lot of comedy and some dramatic moments througout the series but it's the cast that steals the show. With Haruhi being intelligent around the host club members and being natural to the customers, but that's not to say the other characters aren't anything but fun with Tamaki being over-the-top, charming but hilariously idiotic at times. Kyoya, being calm and cool as the reliable vice president he is. The Hitachiin twin (Hikaru & Kaoru) being witty and silly most of the time as well as being smart here and there. Huni, the child prodigy who adores sweets a lot and Mori, the tall and silent type who's often around Huni as they do have a bit of history together but I won't spoil that.
With bright and colourful art and animation done by Bones, the show is definitely more intended for girls than it is for boys, but to me it doesn't matter, if I can watch it without feeling embarassed and find it fun, that's all that matters to me. The music is mostly violin work but it fits well with the setting of the show as it does come off looking rather prestigious for the most part. But as I've said before, the characters and the humour really make this show stand out.
While it's a shame that it's not exactly completed as the manga is still on-going (which I'm currently reading atm), but it ends nicely on a good note and it's fun while it lasts. Now, if they can only do a 2nd season, that would be awesome.
Well, that's it for part one of my Favourite Anime/Manga blog. I'm sorry that I didn't touch on most of the anime part yet but since this takes me a while to do so (and with a lack of a save feature on the blogs here), I have to split it in two parts.
So stay tuned and take care!
I'm going to talk a bit about some of my favourite anime/manga, just for you guys to know me a bit more. Its just gonna be a basic rundown of showing a picture and then discussing why I like this anime/manga a lot.
Simple as that and now I'll start off with the manga first, since there isn't much. :P First off...
Black Cat
Quite possibly my favourite manga ever. A Shonen Jump produced manga that doesn't go over 20 volumes like most of their previous works, the story about Train Heartnet getting into a crossfire with his old partner from Chronos, Creed Diskenth whose now a leader of the Apostle of the Stars, who plots to rebel against Chronos (the organisation that Train and Creed used to be a part of until a drastic confrontation that involved a death of a loved one).
While the story may not be that original and the art design is pretty standard, the depth of the story, the characters and the action scenes is what stands out. Train, his partner Sven and Eve are very interesting characters as stick together as one with their unique abilities/weapons such as Train's quick dodges and gun slinging action, Sven's tools of trade of creating different bombs, bullets for Train and his "Vision Eye" and finally Eve with the nanomachines placed inside her, she has the ability to grow wings, shoot out needles and form a shield with her hand.
Not to say that the Apostles of the Stars has some characters with unique abilities/weapons. Such as Kyoko being a Pyromaniac, Charden being able to manipulate his blood, Maro using gravity as his weapon and Creed equipped with the Imagine Blade.
There's more I can say about the characters but I'd just be droning on. It's just a very imaginative series of manga that I was surprised to see, in terms of characters and their abilities. It also showcases a bit of comedy and drama in the mix and it works very well to progress the story.
I've only seen 4 episodes of the anime series at the moment and while it is entertaining, it goes off in a different direction which kinda bothers me in a way but I still want to see more of it to see on how it goes. But all in all, I highly recommend the manga for some great action and characters.
Rosario + Vampire
Bit of a funny story with this one. A friend of mine, who lives in a different state, introduced me to the anime series and as bad as it may be, I still thought it was very amusing. But the manga however blows it out of the water as I was bothered to read it by the same friend again when I bought the manga.
A simple storyline with a creative concept involving Tsukune, an average school boy who then gets accidentally enrolled to Youkai Academy, a school for monsters trying to live in the human world. As he did fear for his life to leave the school but what keeps him from leaving was bumping into the love his life of a vampire named Moka Akashiya, who also has a thing for him...and his blood ;P
But it's not just Moka who's attached to Tsukune. Include Kurumu, a big-breasted succubus. Yukari, a child prodigy who is also a witch and Mizore, a Yuki Onna (Snow witch) who is also a stalker.
So it's your typical harem comedy with a supernatural twist and a pretty fun one at that. Granted, the story does get rather formuliac in the later volumes but the humour, the tense action-scenes (especially when Moka shows her true colours when her rosario is taken off) and the morales that each chapter shows. The characters are unique and fun to read about and the art of the manga looks pretty nice, ranging from something cute and cheery to something dark, Akihisa Ikeda has really done an impressive job when it comes to detail.
Be warned that the manga does get rather bloody and dramatic at times but I think that breaks away the comedy side for a bit that adds an interesting dynamic to the story and yes, like the anime... It does have fan-service but it's not as much as the anime series which crippled the show in a way. So all in all, if you want something a little different in a harem manga, this is quite worth a look and that's all I have to say about that.
Now I know there's other mangas that I would like to add but I haven't read enough to put them up as of now. But now, time for my favourite animes!
Ouran High School Host Club
Something that I wasn't keen on at first but after hearing a lot about it, I decided to give it a chance and after watching episode one, I just knew I had to get the DVDs for it. It is one of the funniest comedies I've seen with such a great cast.
Story is pretty simple about about a scholarship student at a prestigious academy for wealthy students. Haruhi Fujioka was trying to find a room where she can quietly study on her first day but as she finds what is labeled to be a music room, it's actually the school's host club, where beautiful looking boys entertain girls who have too much time on their hands. Being surprised as well as sorta played around with the members of the host club, she then accidentally breaks a vase which is worth 8 million yen. In order to pay back, she was forced to be their lap dog for a while but after noticing her manners (without even realising at first), the club's president Tamaki Suoh decides to have her as a member of the club to pay off her debt but then later finds out that she's actually a girl (that looks like a boy).
A very gender-bending like story that has quite a lot of comedy and some dramatic moments througout the series but it's the cast that steals the show. With Haruhi being intelligent around the host club members and being natural to the customers, but that's not to say the other characters aren't anything but fun with Tamaki being over-the-top, charming but hilariously idiotic at times. Kyoya, being calm and cool as the reliable vice president he is. The Hitachiin twin (Hikaru & Kaoru) being witty and silly most of the time as well as being smart here and there. Huni, the child prodigy who adores sweets a lot and Mori, the tall and silent type who's often around Huni as they do have a bit of history together but I won't spoil that.
With bright and colourful art and animation done by Bones, the show is definitely more intended for girls than it is for boys, but to me it doesn't matter, if I can watch it without feeling embarassed and find it fun, that's all that matters to me. The music is mostly violin work but it fits well with the setting of the show as it does come off looking rather prestigious for the most part. But as I've said before, the characters and the humour really make this show stand out.
While it's a shame that it's not exactly completed as the manga is still on-going (which I'm currently reading atm), but it ends nicely on a good note and it's fun while it lasts. Now, if they can only do a 2nd season, that would be awesome.
Well, that's it for part one of my Favourite Anime/Manga blog. I'm sorry that I didn't touch on most of the anime part yet but since this takes me a while to do so (and with a lack of a save feature on the blogs here), I have to split it in two parts.
So stay tuned and take care!
Posted by Valkian24 | Mar 27, 2010 5:45 AM | 2 comments
March 23rd, 2010
My first blog here
Anime Relations: Angel Beats!, Black★Rock Shooter (OVA)
Greetings everyone here on MAL with my very first blog here.
Now I already have a blog on Wordpress but I decided to do one here for the readers/friends here.
I'll mostly cover some anime/manga, gaming and other geek-related stuff (but mostly the first two things :P) here as my blog on Wordpress would also include that but also other related things like rants, thoughts, etc.
I would like to talk about one thing on this blog, an article on Japanator about some upcoming anime over in the spring time and I have two of them to talk a small bit about.
Angel Beats!
From what I understand, the series is based from a visual novel by the same people who Clannad, Air and Kanon. Shows that I haven't had the pleasure of viewing unlike a few others (although I'm interested in Kanon though).
The story sounds interesting and somewhat confronting though, being set in the afterlife about a boy who has no memory of his past and his asked by a girl who is a leader of a faction to rebel against god.
Uhh... What?! That crazy plot device about a faction rebelling against god (not to mention, with guns!) is just so ridiculous, I have to check this out. XD
Black Rock Shooter OVA
A friend of mine introduced this to me with little knowledge of what it was about but I was told it had some relation to Vocaloid, which I've heard but had no idea at the time (until now :P).
When I looked at the trailer that he gave me, I wasn't too impressed with the style at first but the action scene in the last few seconds of the trailer looked pretty cool.
So, I'm kinda interested looking into it and that's all I have to say about that.
And that's all I have to talk about. I'll probably do another blog here to talk about what I've been watching/reading lately.
Thanks for reading and take care everybody!
Now I already have a blog on Wordpress but I decided to do one here for the readers/friends here.
I'll mostly cover some anime/manga, gaming and other geek-related stuff (but mostly the first two things :P) here as my blog on Wordpress would also include that but also other related things like rants, thoughts, etc.
I would like to talk about one thing on this blog, an article on Japanator about some upcoming anime over in the spring time and I have two of them to talk a small bit about.
Angel Beats!
From what I understand, the series is based from a visual novel by the same people who Clannad, Air and Kanon. Shows that I haven't had the pleasure of viewing unlike a few others (although I'm interested in Kanon though).
The story sounds interesting and somewhat confronting though, being set in the afterlife about a boy who has no memory of his past and his asked by a girl who is a leader of a faction to rebel against god.
Uhh... What?! That crazy plot device about a faction rebelling against god (not to mention, with guns!) is just so ridiculous, I have to check this out. XD
Black Rock Shooter OVA
A friend of mine introduced this to me with little knowledge of what it was about but I was told it had some relation to Vocaloid, which I've heard but had no idea at the time (until now :P).
When I looked at the trailer that he gave me, I wasn't too impressed with the style at first but the action scene in the last few seconds of the trailer looked pretty cool.
So, I'm kinda interested looking into it and that's all I have to say about that.
And that's all I have to talk about. I'll probably do another blog here to talk about what I've been watching/reading lately.
Thanks for reading and take care everybody!
Posted by Valkian24 | Mar 23, 2010 6:20 AM | 4 comments