Animes and RPGs used to be quite important to me, much more than they are now. So, I figure it will be quite fun to talk about some of them that were/are really significant to me. These are the ones that either spark off a certain interest in my life or ones that I can't stop remembering now and then. Starting from the most significant:

1. Inuyasha



Basically, a half-demon got sealed to a tree by his human lover due to a tragedy, and hundreds/thousands years later, that human's reincarnation traveled back to this era to unseal him. And thus began an adventure to destroy the greatest demon, or something...

This is the first anime I've ever watched, and it made me start watching anime in the first place. Although now that I think of it, it has pretty good character backstories but pretty shitty overall story, it was still really important to me at the age I was watching it. I think I was around primary 6, and it was one of the few things I looked forward to everyday. Oh, it has a nice OST too.

2. Legend of Dragoon



This is a Playstation role-playing game (RPG), and the first I've "played". Technically, I only played a portion of its emulated version, which then stopped working halfway through. But, I watched my brother play the whole thing when we still had a Playstation, and it was fun and made me love RPG and games. I don't even remember its storyline or characters and stuff. What I remember is that it has an interesting gameplay, in which it makes menu-based combat more interactive by implementing a system in which you have to press buttons at the right time in order to execute certain combos. I know it sounds very "been there done that", but at that time, I don't think it is. Also, I think it's applied in the right place in the right pacing, since, instead of pressing random buttons during cutscenes, it forces the players to press these buttons halfway through attacking, at very precise moments. That was fun. And then it had transformations, elements, and, most importantly, a very unique and diverse fictional world for players to explore. This also sparked my love for adventures in games/shows, which leads me to...

3. One Piece


I'm not going to talk much about this anime since I've already written an entire post about it. One Piece is so high up this list because it's still ongoing, and it's still the best manga I've ever read, and it still contains the best fictional adventure and fighting, and it's still full of heart, and no other anime/manga/game/show matches up.

4. Mai Hime



This is considered a magical girl anime, but if you're watching it with the expectations of seeing a Cardcaptor Sakura type of stuff, then your heart will be torn to bits. Mai Hime is about twelve girls who are forced to be Himes. Each Hime has a unique weapon and is able to summon a creature (they call it Child) each. Via a crisis, they bond by fighting by one another's sides. They are then forced to kill each other's Child until one remains, or else the world will be destroyed. The catch is, when a Hime's Child dies, the Hime's most loved one (boyfriend, best friend, mother, etc) will die as well. At first, none of the Himes wanted to fight, but human flaws kicked in, and they were soon out for one another's life in a heartbreaking fashion.

This is what is so beautiful about this anime. What's really behind the battle royale isn't the fact that the world will end if they don't fight; It's stuff like jealousy, paranoia, greed, bitterness, emotional imbalance, overprotectiveness, etc. To go with all that, this anime's OST is composed by one of my favourite OST composer, Yuki Kajiura. Although it's quite old, I really recommend this anime to whoever likes your heart broken, and whoever is able to handle quite a bit of melodrama.

When I write my own stuff, I always feel like incorporating some aspects of this anime, but it's not easy. Mai Hime never completely leaves my mind.

5. NANA



NANA is one of the only four shoujo animes I've watched (the other three being Peach Girl, Diamond Dust Drops, and Penguin Drum).

Two girls of the same age who share the same name (Nana) sat beside each other on a train which broke down. So, they chatted while the train tried to start up again. And then, fate brought them together again and they find themselves living together and forming a really close friendship. One of them is an aspiring singer, and the other has no dream other than being with her boyfriend. And then, after the aspiring singer starts realising her dream, and after the other Nana's boyfriend cheated on her, a bunch of stuff happens and these two girls find their friendship broken piece of piece, and they try to fix it in the midst of all the chaos in their lives.

This anime is devastating. Broken friendships just get to me so deeply, and that's what this anime is mostly about. I guess that's why there's still a place for it in my memory.

6. Final Fantasy XIII



I know that this PS3 game received super a lot of criticism for being boring, being melodramatic, being linear, breaking the Final Fantasy traditions, not having particularly interesting characters, not having a lot of stuff, having the flattest main character ever (which I agree), and being beautiful, cool, but hollow. A lot of it, I actually do agree. But this game had really good soundtrack which stuck with me for a while, and it houses my favourite character of all time: Oerba Dia Vanille.


Let's not talk about this game and just talk about Vanille. She has orange hair (and all orange-hair anime/game characters are annoying), has unrealistically squeaky voice, is weak in combat, and does nothing in particular throughout the game besides narrating and feeling guilty because she blames herself for the unhappy events of the game. As her redemption, she is the kindest character in the party, has the darkest background, and appears to be the most cheerful. This makes her a very divisive character, in the sense that some people absolutely hate her while some really love her.

Let's just say I relate very well to extremely passive characters (excluding Orihime from Bleach), and Vanille is one of them. Vanille also shares a lot of my own weaknesses, and what resonates with me is that she's so passive that she doesn't fix them. Instead, she inflates her strengths to unrealistic levels, and hides the darkness behind them. It's comforting that the writers of Vanille understands this mentality, and it's nice to watch this character struggle with how she handles stuff. I've hardly seen guilt, passivity, fear, weakness, and masking of self to be handled this way in any anime/show/game/manga. Personally, I find Vanille to be very relatable, though exaggerated.

So, yup, these are some animes and games that connected with me more strongly than others. The end.

Labels: anime/manga, games

Just finished watching this anime called "Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai!" yesterday. Its English name is something like "Even People with Adolescent Delusions of Grandeur Want to Experience Love!" It's a romance cum comedy anime, and it's one of the best I've watched for awhile.

The story revolves around this concept of adolescent delusions in which ordinary people think that that they are special have superpowers. Of course, it's just a delusion.


For instance, the above main character, Yuuta, used to have these delusions and saw himself as the 'Dark Flame Master'. Under the delusions, he conceptualised his own powers and saw the world as a fantasy kind of world. He also wore weird costumes to "fight enemies" and shout random "cool" phrases such as his favourite catchphrase "vanish into the embrace of dark flames!"

So, at the start of the series, he had so-called cured from this so-called disease and decided to be a normal human. He felt extremely embarrassed of his past delusions. On his way to becoming normal, he met Rikka, the female lead.


This girl has a serious case of the delusions, and she sees herself as "The Tyrant Eye". So, to conceal her powers, she put on an eye patch. So this is a love story between Yuuta and Rikka. As the story develops, Rikka's delusions become a problem and Yuuta is tasked to make Rikka normal.

However, it's more complicated than that. This adolescent delusion is actually something Rikka uses to cope with her problems. It is her passion and her life. Basically, Rikka isn't Rikka without this delusion.

Towards the end, it got really sad. I shan't elaborate for the sake of not spoiling the show. But the kind of sad isn't the tragic kind.

I feel so much after watching this anime. It has so many themes that I can relate to. The main one is about how people deal with what is real and normal, and what is mere fantasy. [spoiler]Sometimes people choose to lie to themselves because escapism is their hope.[/spoiler]

This anime taught me about myself too, since I'm into this whole fantasy and superpowers thing.

And Rikka's character is so lovable. She is shy, yet so weird and outspoken when it comes to her delusions. And so many weird things that she did were meaningful. She carries around this purple umbrella which she calls the 'Schwarz Sechs Prototype MkII'. This umbrella adds on so much to her personality, and she uses it at crucial moments for small things that make such big differences.

And then there's the love between Yuuta and Rikka. They are so similar, and they are just so made for each other. But this isn't really a cheesy show about the "perfect guy/girl". It is about saving the one you love from her depths.

There are other interesting characters too. I shall only elaborate on two of them.


This girl is Nibutani. In my opinion, she is a very relatable and realistic character. She puts on a perfect front, but behind this mask lies a mean, judgmental and irritable hypocrite. Behind this layer of her personality is another nicer side of her which she only reveals towards the end. It's funny to see what she's up to. Like Yuuta, she used to suffer from the adolescent delusions as well, and is trying her best to become a normal person too. She used to call herself "Mori Summer" and her catchline was "love is everything".


This is Dekomori, also known as Mjolnir Hammer. She is like Rikka - currently deluded - and is proud to be her servant. She is mostly a funny person to watch, but at the same time she is so relatable as well, towards the end. If you watch it, you'll know why.

So basically, this anime is so awesome. I cried like an idiot at the last episode. You should watch it if you have the time.

Labels: anime/manga

Yesterday I just finished watching this anime called "Mawaru Penguindrum", and I can't wait to talk about it. It's honestly a pretty tiring-to-watch anime because it's highly concentrated with symbolisms, but the key is not to expect all the answers. There's a lot to interpret from this show.

Penguindrum is about these 2 brothers whose sister died from illness and got revived by a mysterious spirit who tasked them to find the "penguindrum" to sustain her life. But the storytelling is very unconventional, so you don't see progress every episode. In fact, the story keeps jumping back and forth.


The characters are very engaging in my opinion. The girl on the left is Himari (the sister), followed by the brothers Kamba and Shoma. Right from episode one, their close family bond is already shown so clearly and you can feel their love with one another.


Then there's Ringo (center). At first, she just seems like a crazy half-yandere (yandere: a girl who's crazily and creepily obsessed with a guy) crazy over Tabuki (right) but as her backstory shows little by little, we start to sympathise with her and she eventually becomes a normal girl. She plays a rather small role at the crucial points but becomes important again in the end. My favourite character.

I also like Yuri's (left) character. All I can say is she has depth and is quite cool.


As Penguindrum is about "getting the penguindrum to save their sister", the show keeps us wondering what exactly is the penguindrum and how they are going to get it. Then in the show's openings, there are two very frequently shown objects: A pink diary and an apple with a sticker.

The pink diary belongs to Ringo. It was her sister's diary, but her sister died on the day she was born, so she religiously follows what is written in the diary in order to "become her sister". The apple is a symbol much talked about and referred to as "the fruit of fate".

Apparently, Ringo's sister is some great child whom everyone loves and who had saved Yuri and Tabuki's lives when they were younger.

Every character has a backstory. In fact, all of them are sad stories. Himari's story was the most touching, in my opinion. So as I have mentioned, you can feel Himari, Kamba, and Shoma's love for one another. As the story progress, their love become their source of pain, and as each backstory unfolds, secrets start to reveal. It's fun to see where each character plays a part. And what exactly is the penguindrum.

One of the main characters, Kamba, will be a mystery you may desperately want to find out about until the end. But you must be prepared to not get the answers. Many parts of this anime is very subtle, either just mentioned briefly or expressed through metaphors. Overall, it's a great anime to watch.

Labels: anime/manga

As a fan of One Piece, I must blog about this awesome anime like I did for some other. But, One Piece is such an elaborate anime that there will be too much stuff to talk about, so I shall just give a very positive review on 6 main things I like about it.

Characters
One big reason why I love this anime so much is because it has lovable and interesting characters.


Straw Hat Crew
Its characters does not just consist of humans. It has abnormal things like a human-reindeer, walking skeleton and cyborg as well and their existence are all explained in the story. The following are my favourite characters:


Monkey D. Luffy
Luffy is the main character. He's a complete idiot who, like most shounen male lead, is a genius in battle. The thing about this character is that just looking at the little selfish things he do makes you angry, but he is such an idiot that you forgive him. And then he does something at the crucial moments that saves his allies from their despair and such, and you can't help but love him.


Nami
Nami is a semi-useless but important character. She's manipulative, money-minded but kind and responsible. Manipulative characters are fun to watch, and her past is the second saddest out of all the characters, in my opinion. Actually my favourite character. You get to see how completely useless and even hindering she is at first and then how she slowly becomes more and more powerful and confident until she can eventually hold her own battles.


Usopp
Usopp is an insecure liar who sucks at lying. He's somewhat idiotic and cowardly but when the time comes for it, he becomes powerful in his own ways. Though weak, his skillful use of his weapons makes him a survivable fighter. He used to be my favourite character, until Nami became more powerful. Like Nami, it's interesting to watch him grow stronger and his cowardice and insecurity just adds tons of funny moments to him.


Nico Robin
Robin is a quiet and independent woman. She's mostly lonely and untrusting at first until when the Straw Hat crew saved her from her greatest enemy, which was a really touching moment. I like her because she has a very interesting to watch power: Sprouting random hands out of surfaces. Even though she is powerful, she hardly has any battles. Anyway, she has the saddest past.

Relationships
In my opinion, the thing that is most awesome about this series is not the characters, the plot, the theme, or even the world. It is the characters' relationships with one another. They are so close together and go through so much that you really feel that they are there, existing. Also, I feel that Oda (the mangaka) makes it even better by giving small character moments and character interaction moments here and there. That gave a very rounded understanding of their friendship.

I feel that this video shows it all:


Themes
One Piece carries a lot of themes. The most prominent ones are false justice and the things people do for friendship. Then there are others like discrimination, living in the shadows, dreams, and so on. Though this seem insignificant, they actually adds depth and meaning to the show. One Piece will not be the same without these themes.

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Friends
The theme about friendship is what draws me in the most. This picture is a symbolisation of Robin finding hope when her friends rescue her.

Powers
In the One Piece world, there are many people who can fight really well, and there are mysterious fruits that give people powers, called 'Devil Fruits'. Luffy ate a Rubber Fruit and can thus stretch his body like a rubber. Chopper the reindeer ate a Human Fruit and became half a human and half a reindeer. Their powers are interesting, and my favourite power is Nami's weapon. She does not have extraordinary strength and such but her weapon ('Clima Tact') and knowledge of climates and weather makes her seem like she can cast magic.

The World


Map of the world
In my opinion, this is the second most interesting thing about this show. Oda has mapped out the whole One Piece world. As it is a pirate show, he planned the seas, created organisations, and just created a world so believable and exciting. The best part is it is a series about pirates having adventure, so viewers get to explore the world together with the characters. There are so many interesting things about this world, such as the hidden world history, mystical climates, myths that usually go answered, and lots of unknowns and stuff. And nothing is blamed on "coincidence". There are, however, some mysteries left unanswered, which is a good thing when used sparingly.

Anyway, the world is made up of many islands and each island is a new thing to explore. References are made to real-life places, such as Venice the sunken city being made into a place called "Water 7".


Water 7
Plot
I'll have to say, along with characters, relationships, themes, world, and powers, the plot is so well thought out. It flows and it's nice. A lot of emotions - not just sad ones, but happy ones too. Every arc just constantly keeps me on the edge, like I want to find out what happen next. And almost every arc ends so epicly. The Straw Hats almost always gain or lose something in each arc, so each arc is essential. Another interesting thing is that something small introduced in, say, episode 100, can suddenly become really important in episode 400. Everything is planned, at least it looks so.

That's it for my ramblimg/review about One Piece. Go watch.

Pictures from:
http://mi9.com/wallpaper/one-piece-free-wallpaper-straw-hat-crew_92952/
http://www.zerochan.net/48718
http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=43300&show=100
http://www.theotaku.com/worlds/onepieceguide/view/19589/usopp/
http://www.animecharactersdatabase.com/character.php?id=12441
http://onepiece.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:Grand_Line
http://fluffybunnypwn.blogspot.sg/2011/04/new-writers.html

Labels: anime/manga

Labels: anime/manga

Are you a perfectionist?

A perfectionist is someone who wants no mistake. He does not like seeing things not completely right. I guess i'm sort of one, though not completely.

But Asahina from "Diamond Dust Drops" is a complete perfectionist:

Asahina is a character from a not-so-famous anime called "Kita-e ~ Diamond Dust Drops". She is the director in her school's film-making club and she has won lots of awards. As a result, expectations on her are high and she became a perfectionist through time. The filming crew must be perfectly disciplined. The actors' acting must be perfect too. Every little imperfection ticks her off. Whenever she is not satisfied something, she totally cuts it off.

As a result, her life became very stressful as she constantly felt pressurised. Her daily life included her worrying about her latest film project everyday, with her thinking thoughts like "What if i don't win the award this year?" She became too critical with senseless films and she became angry at the filming club everyday. Her perfectionism didn't only cause herself to feel stressed, but it caused the whole club to feel tense too. Deciding that they had had enough of Asahina's unreasonably high expectations, the filming club did something to piss her off on purpose: Destroy the film they had been working on. Asahina could not take it and left the crew, intending to do up a film herself. So, she asked her boyfriend to accompany her to different places to film sceneries. However, none of the sceneries seemed to be perfect enough for her, so she didn't get anything done. Her boyfriend tried to remind her about the true purpose of filming: To enjoy the process. However, Asahina scolded him and said he did not understand the pressure she had been going through. She said that she would be happy if her boyfriend would stop bothering her.

And the next day, her boyfriend is gone. She had lost everything.

That was when she found a documentary sort of thing which her boyfriend made of her on the shelf.

It showed how she used to admit that she's just a novice, the times when awards were just extras to her and she filmed because she enjoyed it, not because she wanted to win. Asahina was astonished by who she used to be. That was when she finally realised that she was blinded by perfectionism.

Due to her perfectionism, she had lost everything.

I guess the moral of the story is pretty clear. Perfectionism can cause great stress to you and the people around you. If you seek perfection in everything, chances are, like Asahina, you get blinded. You get blinded that things are not good enough and you forget how to be satisfied.

And satisfaction is the key to happiness.

So what happened at the end of the story? Asahina actually learnt her lesson, and she began letting go of perfectionism. From then on, she smiled more and her life became happier. She eventually reunited with her boyfriend.

Of course, perfectionism has its good points: Higher expectations, better result. But still, nothing can be perfect. We all have to learn to be satisfied with what we have right now.

We can do that by technical means such as listing down things you should be grateful for. We can do that by repetitive thought patterns, like saying thank you to the world every morning. We can do that by looking at the bright side of the world.

Let go of perfection, and live life imperfectly. This is the beauty of life.

Story: Kita-e ~ Diamond Dust Drops by Red Entertainment
Image: http://www.animetaku.com/anime/kita-e-diamond-dust-drops::419.html

Labels: anime/manga, preachy

I do not claim any part of this image to be drawn by myself. This is merely a fan-collage.
Bleach belongs to Tite Kubo.
One Piece belongs to Eiichiro Oda.
Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima.
Other credits:
http://www.otakureview.net/?tag=fairy-tail
http://www.channels.com/episodes/8390266
http://www.youtube.com

3 animes that i'm currently watching and enjoy watching :) They're ongoing series. I've merely placed these screenshots together and adjusted the brightness and contrast using photoshop.

Bleach is an anime/manga about soul reapers and their duties and stuff. No, it is not as you imagine if you haven't watched it before. It is nothing about scary cloaked beings with a scythe, but human-looking beings with a sword. It is a shounen manga, so it is mainly about fighting.
Synopsis: The family of Kurosaki Ichigo, a teenager who has the ability to see spirits, one day got attacked by a "monster" called "Hollow", Ichigo was saved by Kuchiki Rukia, a soul reaper. However, in the midst of saving him, Rukia got injured. Ichigo wants to save his family, so the only way he can do it is to use Rukia's sword to stab himself, and become a substitute soul reaper. So, he did...

One piece is an anime/manga about a person called Luffy and his journey to become the king of pirates. The story is simple, but it's the various arcs and the details that is captivating. It's like, the best anime i've ever watched. You can feel the characters' love and happiness for and with one another.
Synopsis: Gold D Roger was a pirate who had gained everything and thus became the king of pirates. However, he was publicly executed by the marines. Right before he died, he told all the people watching his execution that he had hidden the greatest treasure, One Piece, in a place called Grand Line, and he told anyone who want to to find it. This statement itself made many people become pirates. Luffy was one of them.

Fairy tail is about mages and magic. It's yet another nice series. The drawing style resembles One Piece's. I've heard it's because Hiro Mashima was inspired by One Piece.
Synopsis: Natsu Dragneel is a mage from the guild, "Fairy Tail", and he went to this town to find a dragon called "Igneel". There, he meets Lucy. After a series of events, Lucy was captured by some bad guys and Natsu went to save her. He then found out that Lucy wanted to be a fairy tail mage. So, he brought Lucy to the guild. And this starts Lucy's adventure as a fairy tail mage.

Okay, my synopses sound quite/very lame, but trust me that the animes are not as lame as i made them sound.

No, i'm not addicted. I just blog about things that i like.

Labels: anime/manga