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It's been a long time since I have posted, but here's a review for Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night

Preface: This ended up being longer than I intended, but that's alright. Forgive and grammar mistakes, lack of MLA formatting and lack of quotes to back up my statements. I may write something more formal later. There will be no TL;DR as this post is meant to expand upon things not to condense them.

Grab a drink you're in for a long read.

Alright so first of I have to say that collectively Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night has been one of my most pleasant viewing experiences ever. They easily fall into the same category of well written aesthetically pleasing and well delivered works as Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Baccano! and Darker than Black. They are mature and aesthetically pleasing, they treat the viewer with respect and they explore less traditional story telling methods that are appropriate to the media in which they are being represented. Except for the fact that Fate/Stay Night does none of those things as effectively as Fate/Zero. A somewhat harsh statement perhaps but it will be central to this review.

First off let us take a look at why I say that Fate Zero does these things. The first good example can be found in the characterization. While it is apparent from early in the series what will come to pass one is not obligated to like any character more or less than the others. Characters are developed by their actions and by dialogue more so than they are by narration or inner monologue. Focus tends to be spread evenly among them in many cases, and while there are established antagonists and protagonists your allegiance is not dictated by the word of god so to speak. It is a show that allows you to form your own opinions and come to your own conclusions as you move forward. Characters are sympathetic for the most part and one can easily understand their actions and motivations and in most cases relate to them, which is great considering that if you do dislike a character you are shit out of luck because they will be getting screen time until they are killed off.

Another unique facet of the show is that each party, be they a protagonistic group or antagonistic group, is antagonistic to each other. A group such as Waver and Rider could easily be considered focal to the story line, and yet in the event that they had reached the final round of the fighting they could have to fight against another clearly protagonistic group such as Kiritsugu and Saber, and if you are someone who has not been exposed previously to other incarnations of the franchise it is a very real possibility. This makes for a stressful and engaging experience. You feel fully immersed and you worry about and care for the characters. You invest yourself in the characters and you are made to take on their dreams as your own in a sense. After that when their hopes and desires are ripped away from the characters it makes you feel a real sense of loss. Not the loss of this character that you enjoy seeing. That can easily be mended by spin offs or even by re-watching the show, but real and substantial loss. You witness their failure and complete defeat, and their loss inspires different emotions based on the circumstances of their failure, be it horror, disgust, pity, or even optimism and pride.

Character relationships are also heavily explored and they bring the strengths and faults of the characters to light in a very believable way. Certain characters feed off of each other in a positive way, some do so negatively and others even serve to completely and totally deconstruct each other in the most effective and devastating way possible.

Now let us begin with Fate/Stay Night.

Where fate Zero branches and explores the motivations and experiences of other characters and brings you away from the main focus of the show in order to flesh out other characters Fate/Stay Night is linear to a fault. It gives no illusion that any other character is relevant or central to the main story line other than Emiya Shirou. He is a stereotypical shounen character thrust into a seinen anime, and no real effort is made with him. The pacing is off and triumphant and glorious victories feel like nothing more than plot inspired power ups in most cases.

Flawless wisdom from our protagonist. (It's bad subbing as well, but I couldn't very well leave this image out of this review could I?)

The characters assassin, rider, shinji, lancer and archer are given the absolute bare minimum as far as development goes. Given that they are all very interesting and compelling characters with unique looks and abilities this is very disappointing. This, I believe stems from Studio Deen's approach to the anime adaptation. In the case of a visual novel characterization is often handled in small doses. When a character sparks your interest and you are not satisfied with what you have learned about them you play another route in order to learn more. Deen's approach seems to have been to completely adapt a single route start to finish from the VN into an anime. This is a very safe, but ultimately not effective way of adapting something from one form of media to another. It causes such transgressions as open plot threads and dead end characters, and while the overall story line is engaging and interesting enough to bring tears to your eyes major character deaths can be overlooked with very little effort. Overall the show is adequate, but the issue is that to create something adequate is an injustice to the source material.

This is about as much character development we get from Rider. She like short skirts and long walks on the sides of buildings. 

"This character is kind of cool, let's get rid of him, no need to explain anything about him."

How can this be fixed in the upcoming adaptation? This is actually a very simple question to answer. Do not strictly follow the visual novel. If you would like to it will require three animes to adequately tell the story. Instead they should use the Visual Novel as a source of inspiration. The should look at each characters personalities and they should flesh them out and re-write the story in such a way that they can all be represented. I am not proposing anything too major, but I am sure the order of events can easily be changed in a way to make the show much less linear, and to let other characters be represented in a truly interesting way. Give Rider the interesting, character defining moments I am sure she has. Make Shinji something more than just a sack of shit punching bag. Expand on Archer's true identity a bit before you kill him off, it is nothing more than a disservice to fans to rise these questions in a viewers minds and then episodes later throw them aside with no satisfying resolution.

Finally I have to comment on the pacing. I must assume this is budget related, or related to the way that they were adapting the story, but it was bad. I honestly felt like nothing happened in the show until episode 17 and then suddenly everything just magically came into place and resolved itself. This is a major complaint, but can be easily fixed as well. Filler runs rampant in the show, when in all honesty the show is not long enough to warrant it given all of the things it needs to tell us. Every episode feels like 10 minutes of content stretched to take up 20 minutes of show time, as opposed to Fate/Zero where at the end of every episode I would think "Is netflix broken? There is no way that that was only 20 minutes, too much happened." All Fate/Stay Night really needs to do to remedy this is smooth out the character arcs for Tohsaka, Shirou, Saber, Archer and Sakura (Another character not given nearly as much development as she deserves) and add some type of character arcs for the others so they are not so stagnant. Show us the way that Shirou becomes stronger over time, don't just have him level up when plot demands. Build up relationships with the heroines over time, and make it apparent that they are meant to be competing interests. One cannot choose a route in an anime, so maybe develop relationships with the other heroines and spice in a little drama and even some infidelity. Make it moving, get back to the roots of the story as a visual novel, and make it work on television.

There's not much more I have to say about all of this, and it may come off as a little ranty, but that is fine. I think that Fate/Stay Night is wasted potential for the sake of security, but that should not be and issue in the upcoming series since the franchise has obviously been well and truly established and I have high hopes for the future.

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Soul Eater Anime Review

As someone who loves Shonens I am always looking for new ones to watch. When I came across Soul Eater there was no way I couldn’t watch it, especially when you consider its unique art style. I quickly found myself very engrossed in it and thoroughly enjoyed every moment of my initial viewing. Based simply off this I would recommend it, but there is a lot more to be said so just hold on while I try to say it. Unfortunately, this show is one of the many cases where an anime can totally diverge from the original source material. Personally I feel like it was very well done for the amount of material it had to work with and I find the changes relatively inoffensive. Some others, especially manga fans may dislike this though. Other small differences between the anime and manga exist, and it does have some slight pacing and filler issues, but really all shonens have these and they aren’t that bad. Other than this it does fall into some of those other anime trappings that can really bug some people, you know, fanservice, boobs that defy physics, that type of thing. As far as the animation goes, for a shonen it is really good. Obviously, while this show is a shonen it isn’t something like One Piece where it goes on forever. Since it’s shorter I can only assume that means that the animationg budget can get allocated better, which shows. There is also a unique art style with some obvious Western influences and the sound track is great. Beyond all of this more superficial stuff I would like to make a couple of remarks about the story as a whole. I feel there are certain things that are fundamentally wrong with Soul Eater that keeps it at the level of being a “Great” show. Don’tget me wrong, I love this show and really enjoy watching it, but there are some glaring problems with it that keep it from being “Amazing” in my own opinion. Several characters are rather lazily developed (or not developed at all, despite having what should be a defining moment) and some plot points are not really satisfied in the way I think would best suit the story. I say this having not read the manga very far past where the anime deviates from it, but some of my qualms with the series do seem to persist into the manga. Some, not all. Anyway, if you like fighting, shonens, good animation, unique characters, different styles of art, boobs, and a surprisingly strong female lead you should really check out this series.

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Durarara Review

After watching Baccano I immediately decided to jump right in to Durarara. (For anyone unfamiliar with why I am grouping these two together it is because they were both originally written as light novels by the same author) I figured that if it was half as good as Baccano it would definitely be worth watching. Usually the case is that it takes a lot to convince me to watch a show, but then after I watch it I thoroughly enjoy it. With Durarara however it took almost nothing to start watching it. I would definitely recommend it if you have seen Baccano and would like to check out this series. I would like to preface this recommendation however by saying don’t go into the show thinking “If this is half as good as Baccano I will love it” or “I’ve heard this show is like Baccano” The reason of course being that this show is not Baccano. It is something very different. I can’t really put my finger on it per-se, but if I were to highlight the most immediately apparent difference between the two it would be that Durarara does not do the jumping around that Baccano did. It is much more linear, and I feel that this fits with the plot better than the other method would, due to the pacing and the over arching feel present in Durarara’s plot.

Basically, the show is about a kid named Ryuugamine Mikado, who has just recently moved to Ikebukero in Tokyo from a smaller town so he could attend a good high school. As it goes on you find out that there are several mysterious and abnormal figures in Ikkeukero all working towards certain ends. Gang violence and the paranormal abound, a mysterious information broker uses his network of informants to manipulate the inhabitants of the city, and abductions and rumors of human experimentation pollute the air. Among all of this our characters are just trying to preserve a normal style of life in this ruthless city.

we have a unique cast of characters in this show as well.

Ryuugamin Mikado:

He is a timid youth, arguably the main character. He enjoys the company of his friends and is uncomfortable with violence and conflict.

Kida Masaomi:

Mikado’s long time friend from elementary school. He moved to Ikkebukero several years ago, and now the two have been reunited.

Sonohana Anri:

A friendly, but shy girl with huge “personality” she becomes friends with Kida and Mikado

Heiwajima Shizuo:

The most dangerous man in Ikkebukero. He possesses a short temper and unheard of level of strength. Piss him off and you might have him throw a vending machine at you like it’s a baseball.

Orihara Izaya:

An underground information broker from Shinjuku. He commonly comes to Ikkebukero for his twisted line of work. He takes a great interest in people and loves to see how they will react in different situations. He is the one thing in this world that Shizuo hates more than anything else.

The Black Bike:

The mysterious motorcycle and rider that speed around the city with no license plate of headlights. The bike and the rider’s outfit are pure black, as if they were formed from shadow. Who or what is this mysterious presence?

That’s a little taste of the main cast. They are as unique an interesting as humanly possible. There is nothing better than seeing the characters interact with each other in new and exciting ways. You get to see them all build and break down walls between each other, and secrets and drama abound. The most amazing part to me, however, is that no matter who is trying to kill or betray someone else, you just can’t help but love them all.

Now that I have discussed the series I would like to address the light novels. I adore them. They are everything that the anime is and more. I started reading at the fourth book because that is where the anime leaves off. They introduce even more characters, each as unique and loveable as the last, and tend to deal with some more over arching plot lines. Unfortunately I have only made it to the end of the 6th book because I cannot find a translation of the 7th one, but I am sure it’s out there somewhere waiting to be found.

I have made claims to my favorite anime and manga before, but I think I have made a real decision now. Basically, if II had to pick I would say that One Piece is my favorite anime, Kaibutsu Ojo is my favorite manga, and Durarara is my favorite light novel. That way I can have all three of my favorites on the same list without having to choose between them.

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Baccano and Durarara reviews

Well, I ended up with a lot more hours at my work than I thought this weekend. So instead of one Review have two. As a way to say sorry for being late on this.

I'll start off with Baccano because that seems like as good a place as any. In the past I had heard nothing but good things about Baccano, but I never really got around to watching it. I figured it couldn't really be as good as everyone made it out to be, or that it was over rated, or that the way it gives you bits of the story out of order was going to be cheesy. If you fall into this category all I can say is. "Stop reading this, and go watch Baccano right now." If not you should keep going in this review.

Before I talk about anything else I just want to give the people who don't know much, or anything about the show a little background. Basically it is about a large variety of characters, and set during the early 1930's. Most of the characters have some kind of mafia connections, or belong to the mafia themselves. In particular most of the show focuses on a certain tragedy that took place on the express train "The Flying Pussyfoot."

Baccano is an interesting anime, it has a really neat way of presenting its story to you, and, in my personal opinion even without its unique story telling method it would be a successful show. Essentially, you are presented with a clip where something happens, or two characters interact. Then, whether it be minutes later or whether it be in the next episode you are presented with another related clip that shows the effects of the last event on the character, or on a different character. During the first couple of episodes it is extremely overwhelming and you feel totally lost, but honestly it is a lot of fucking fun. The next greatest thing about this show is the characters. No one character is more important than the others. Sure some may be less important, but there is no "Main Character" They all feel great and really fleshed out. You just want to be friends with them, even if most of them would probably kill you.

Isaac & Miria:

Isaac and Miria are a crime duo of sorts, despite this they are the nicest people you will ever meet. Honestly if they tried to rob you it would probably end with you giving them whatever they were trying to steal from you. Don't mistake this for cleverness or ingenuity (they once stole a door off of a museum because they thought that if they stole the entrance no one would be able to enter, after all) The fact is, these are just two genuinely good people that you can't help but love.

Firow:

If this were any other series he would be the main character. He is a youth, recently come of age who seems to not only be friendly and likable, but also morally upright, despite being in a smaller mafia family.

Ennis:

She's a little bit awkward, not in a bad way or anything, like a foreigner or something. She is intertwined with most of the cast and is friends with Firow and Isaac & Miria. She's a fun character, and she has a few interesting things that center around her.

Lua Klein & Ladd Russo:

Ladd is a psychopath and Lua is in love with him. Ladd wants to murder everyone in the world and then kill Lua last. Lua wants to be murdered by Ladd.

Jacuzzi Splot & Nice Holystone:

These two are great. They are adorkable together, and Jacuzzi is an absolute wuss. He is a total loser, but he really likes his friends and he will do anything to protect people. It never gets old watching him cry like a baby while doing something totally badass. Nice is Jacuzzi's partner, and she is pretty awesome too. She is a total pyromaniac and has some really great moments in the show, especially interracting with the other characters.

There are more characters that I could talk about (hell I didn't even cover everyone in the opening song) but I would like to leave some surprises for you guys who haven't seen it.

All in all this series managed to keep me on the edge of my seat and in stitches the whole way through. I have to warn you though, despite the fact that it has a catchy upbeat theme song it is extremely violent. Viewer discretion is advised.

I don't really give ratings to animes, but if I did this one would be 100% across the board. 

Durarara review will be up shortly

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Sorry about that

Sorry it has been a while since i have posted anything. I know I am not tumblr famous or anything, but it does seem that at least a few people read what I post. This gives me a lot of satisfaction. So long as one person sees what I write I feel like I am not wasting my time. That's why I feel bad for taking a lengthy hiatus from posting. I've just had a lot going on lately and haven't had time. That being said I think I will be returning to regular posting. I have been able to read a lot of anime and manga lately in my small amounts of downtime so expect more series recommendations and reviews. I will hopefully be returning to my art as well. As time goes on I plan on expanding my artwork and starting on some really fun original content. I've also had a story floating around in my head for a while, so expect that to surface after a bit. Well that's all. I am infinitely grateful towards anyone who gives half a crap about the stuff I post. Love you all, now I have to go to work.  Expect a post about "Durarara" when I return home. I may or may not have some artwork up in the next couple of days. 

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Kaibutsu Oujo (Princess Resurrection) Manga Review

This is something I have been wanting to do for a very long time. I’ve been waiting to get my Manga volume I ordered off of Amazon, but unfortunately it’s taking a long time to get here, so I will just go ahead. 

I would like to preface this review for volume 1 of Princess Resurrection by saying that this is probably my favorite manga aside from One Piece. It is really well written, and just generally a good read. Enough gushing though…

The protagonist is named Hiyorimi Hiro he is a little of a sad sack. He’s young, ordinary, and not exceptionally brave or overly attractive. This sounds like a stereotypical protagonist for this type of show, except he is substantially harder to hate than this type of protagonist. Since the manga is mostly fighting based and the protagonist is easily the weakest of the main cast he usually serves as little more than a meat shield, but he makes a damn good meat shield and he knows it.

Next we have our lead female. She is named Hime, yes she calls herself Hime. She is a little bit of a badass. If there is one thing you know throughout this whole series it is that in every chapter she will kill something and she will kill it with anything from a Chainsaw to a Candle stand. She is a very strong lead, despite not being the “Main Character” the events of the story are based around her and she does serve to move the plot more than any other character.

There are more characters to introduce, but I can’t say much about them without major spoilers so they won’t be getting a dedicated spot i this review.

I love this Manga’s character designs. The really are amazing, and despite its heavy use of personality and story archetypes it is not boring or predictable in its nature. Best of all I actually care about the characters. So many potentially goo manga are ruined by terrible characters. 

Last of all the Manga is episodic in nature, but does a very good job of moving events forward in the overarching storyline in every chapter. The story line is not totally apparent in the first volume, but begins to reveal its self shortly after. While still mainly episodic the manga does develop story arcs and a clear end goal to the series.

Anyway, if you can’t tell I really do like this series a lot and recommend it to everyone. You should give it a shot, and if you don’t like it after the first volume you can move on to the next.

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This was brought to my attention on Reddit today.

Credit to Sanchodasloth for the image... All I can say is what the hell could it possibly mean.

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Time for my Nico Robin New World Figuarts Zero review.

First off, I have to say it looks really good on my nightstand. I have a neat, but pathetically small One Piece collection going on right now.

Not the most impressive collection on earth I know, but still it's mine and I love it.

As for the actual figure though, it looks amazing. It is painted very well and is a perfect size for me . It comes with Robin, a stand, and a little plastic thing for use when you want to display her without a stand, which I am using above,  and that's it. Nothing overly fancy and no interchangeable parts, but all of that is just sillyness that I would probably just lose anyway. 

The stand is pretty simple, it says Nico.Robin Dead or alive, and has some Japanese junk on it. I prefer to not use the stand, but it looks perfectly fine with it . Unfortunately she doesn't seem to stay on the stand very well but this shouldnt really be a problem. You probably won't be moving her around too much.

The pose is nice and fits Robin well. The box looks very nice, and I was surprised when I got it that it was printed in japanese. I guess it hasn't been licensed over here yet. As you can see I keep the stand in the box when it is not in use. You can't really see it on this picture, but there is some really funny Engrish on the box most notably their Slogan "Easy to collect & Cool Style" Nothing too poorly written, but just a little awkward, I like it though.

All in all this is a great looking figure, and you can't really beat the fact that it was only $20

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Got myself an awesome Figuarts Zero Robin figure today! I'll post pics and a review later

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One Piece chapter 695

Shit is definitely happening.

It feels like it has been forever since we have had a One Piece chapter, and generally speaking it was a pretty solid one. We had a great fight scene with franky at the beginning of the episode and plenty of baby 5 being totally ridiculous. 

First off we have Franky's hair back to the old way. Can't ever be disappointed by that.

The Franky Cannon was totally badass he is quickly becoming over powered, but I mean come on, he's our demoman amirite?

Baby 5 had herself a Reiri moment with this chapter. (hope someone out there gets this)

This made me laugh a lot we're getting some really good synergy between the G-5 marines, the Straw Hats and Trafalgar Law.

Like I said really good synergy. I am really hoping that everyone leaves on the Sunny, or we get a 3 way alliance from these guys. I can dream right?

we had a couple of moments of Law being a bit of a party pooper, but I am very sure that as he develops a closer relationship with the straw hats this will die down a little. Also maybe as his trust for them develops he will keep them in the dark about his real plans a little less. (Dat Nami sexy psycho face)

This made my year...

And Now let's all physically abuse Caesar.

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One Piece 580

A little late on this, but once again, we got a pretty solid episode. I'll try to get this review done as spoiler free as possible, so here we go. 

I really liked the dragon fight, but I found it really awkward... I feel like they played it for laughs more than they should have given how badass it could have been. The part where Luffy put the dragon's wing in his own mouth looked like it could have been from an old episode of "The Road Runner Show" and for a show that isn't strictly aa cartoon violence comedy it felt off...

We did get some really good faces this week, Usopp especially, I would have been disappointed if we had not, considering the potential that comes from something like this.

This one in particular was one of my favorites

Now, moving on from that I do like the new character that was introduced. I know who he is, but I won't say anything in interest of not spoiling anime only watchers. He was entertaining in the show, and the voice fit. I did however find his "Verbal Tic" extremely annoying, until I realized that Bu is the japanese sound effect for farting. Need I say more?

Finally, for the last part of the episode we had them all passing out on the Sunny before being gassed and kidnapped. I really enjoyed this scene. It was very expanded upon in the episode, but it felt fine and worked very well. In the final scene we see Sanji come out of the kitchen into the gas and realize what's going on. Given Sanji's "Secret Agent" status on the crew I found myself begging for him to make it out without getting knocked unconscious, even though I knew what would happen, and then I was devastated when he passed out right in front of the phone. All in all it was a very effective scene. 

Given the solid animation and artwork (Characters were more on model than last week, not that last week was bad as far as artwork goes) it was a very solid episode. It did feel more dragged than last week's episode, but generally speaking Punk Hazard is shaping up to be a great Arc.

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Alright, here's another drawing from this week's episode. Robin was just on fire this week.

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One Piece 579

… What can I say, it was great. I loved it. The episode was slow and the animation was still low budget, but the art work and the directing were a lot better. For once in a pretty long time I can’t wait for another episode to come out. unfortunately the episode didn’t end quite where I wanted it to. Presonally I would have loved to hear Kinemon’s fart talking in the anime. Speaking of the dragon (I know I haven’t actually spoken of it yet, that’s the joke) he was a lot derpier looking than I expected

But hell I can’t complain, half of what makes this series amazing is the sillyness and the art style. Sure he may not look badass to some people, but that is a motherfucking One Piece Dragon. 

As far as other strong points of this episode went there were quite a few.

First we have this

and this made me laugh

Robin, don’t you know that 87% of statistics are made up on the spot.

Usopp was great too, it was awesome seeing him back to his old chicken-y self. I loved the scene on the boat and generally speaking, if they’re going to try to stretch an episode that’s the way I’d like to see them do it.

Aside from this I wanted to address fan service in this episode. It was much less explicit and much more unobtrusive in this episode than it has been at certain points. I mean there are some points that catch your eye, but generally speaking it was tastefully done, especially when you compare One Piece to some other animes. Take this week’s episode of Fairy Tail for example. (I won’t be posting any gifs or screen shots from it, but if you want to check it out you should.)

.

Like this (dat jiggle)

This one caught my attention as well

This was pretty good too.

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Oi this is a blog, stuff and shit, you know the deal. Some of it's my stuff and shit, some stuff and shit on here is other people's. Generally speaking this blog will be pretty light on Shit, mostly stuff, but some may find its way on here