It was Great!

I loved the very simple story of DMC. DMC stars Negishi, a boy who left his home to Tokyo to make his dream come real. He wants to be a guitarist and singer for a trendy band that plays Swedish pop music. But, to his dismay, he ends up being the frontman for indie death metal band DMC, a band notorious for their commitment to everything demonic and metal. Negishi’s onstage persona, Krauser II, is supposed to be a demonic emperor who claims to have raped, killed, and done everything wrong in the world to anyone who has crossed his way (including his parents). Yeah, this is not for those who like cutesy stuff in their anime. Negishi ends up touring across the country, trying to show his love to Aikawa (his unrequited lover), showing his supremacy as a musician, and prmoting his band as the best thing since sliced bread (since the president/manager forces him to). What was great about much of the story was that Negishi really wants to escape his current life, but whenever he tries to do so, hilarity ends up ensuing that pulls him deeper and deeper into the metal world, earning him thousands of more fans daily. Examples of this include: hanging himself, pseudo-humping everything, screaming curses, and pretty much anything else you can imagine. These funny moments I apprecaited very much, especially since I have been exposed to mostly action-based anime with very little humor these past months.

I must say one of the best parts of DMC was Krauser II (aka Negishi’s stage persona). I loved the fact that he would viscerally scream on and off the stage and would say the most insulting things to people. But as soon as he would say something awful, for example, to his unrequited lover, he would immediately try to cover it by saying something else. This type of situation played itself over and over again and I didn’t stop laughing the whole time. I also loved how he would just scream and try to relate everything that he was doing to the fact that he was supposed to be a demonic king from the underworld. Krauser II was the embodiment of everything I love about metal, and I see myself definitely making his costume in the future. I’m attached to the persona duality of Negishi, and I haven’t really let out my inner metal beast in a long time. Besides, it’ll be fun to learn how to do his facepaint and try to create a metal costume. And if people recognize me, I think it’ll be funny to try to say some of the stuff Krauser does, not to mention shredding the guitar with my teeth.

Another great aspect of DMC was that it featured everything that I enjoy about the metal world. It inculded all of the wonderful language: face melting, shredding guitars, double-bass drumming, swearing, demons, blood, sex, gore – all of these I find quite entertaining as a listener of metal. With an anime twist on this culture, it was even better and made me appreciate my love for metal even more. DMC also had all of the fashion of metal: armor, face paint, gloves, and all of the musical equipment. I wanna go out and buy a whole bunch of metal and goth-like clothing now to celebrate my love for metal and DMC. I’ll put some of that on my Christmas list.

I Need Moar!

The only complaint I have with DMC was that the episodes were very short and quick. Each episode was only around 12-14 minutes in length, much shorter than I am used to (but it did feel great to watch 4-6 episodes per night!). Every time I felt like I was getting into the flow of each episode, it would be over, and that made me sad. But I’ll definitely be going back to this anime – as, if you couldn’t tell – is now one of my favorites.

Overall, though, if you want some great laughs, comedy, and a heaping dose of metal in your anime, I’d definitely recommend this for your viewing time. Even if you aren’t into metal that much, I’d still say give it a time if you’re a fan of randomness helping the main character get through many of his troubles.

What I really enjoyed

In Gungrave, there’s a lot of action. And when I say action, I mean violence and fighting. Almost every episode, there’s people beating up each other (in a similar fashion to Fight Club), shooting tons of bullets, blood over the place, supernatural events, or gangs of mafia looting and killing vast amounts of people. If you like a lot of action, this will be your cup of tea (but be forewarned that you’ll have to wait to get satisfied – see below).

I also thoroughly enjoyed the main character, Grave/Brandon Heat. Brandon is a tough and physically fit man who is only motivated by a couple of simple stimuli: love for his girlfriend and the ability to protect his friends and the ones he loves (e.g. his girlfriend and Big Daddy). He also has the ability to completely decimate any enemy that comes his way with his fists and his pinpoint accuracy with any type of gun – whether that be his modified pistol/shotguns or a minigun. He completely rocks, and since I like to protect the ones I love and care for as much as I can, I have placed Grave on my list to make a costume for when I go to a con in the near future.

There were many elements of the main story and its theme that I also enjoyed a lot, too. I enjoyed how Brandon and many of the characters he met ended up changing their lives for the better through the power of protecting the ones you love and the friendship that is created through tight bonds and adversity. Just graduating from grad school and trying to pick up new friends here in Kentucky, and trying to maintain all of my friendships, this theme touched me on a very personal level. I’ll always have a place in my heart for friendship and anime that touch on these powerful themes. I also enjoyed how this anime blended mafia movies, action movies, gunslinging, and a love story (Brandon and Maria, his girlfriend). It was a unique combination that created a new experience every episode, and was interesting to watch and cheer on the main characters.

What I didn’t like as much

As much as loved this anime, which was a lot, there were some parts of this experience that I didn’t enjoy. For me, the biggest part of the anime that I didn’t like was the pacing. The frist episode featured a lot of great action, explosions, destruction, gunfire, and a whole bunch of epic epicness. Then the story did a very long backstory, which I understand why the writers did that, but there wasn’t much action during the revealing of the relationship between Brandon and his friend that would rise to power. At many times, it felt like going through mud, and I didn’t watch as much until the action picked back up within the last 10 episodes.

For me, I didn’t really end up enjoying the music in Gungrave as I thought I would. With a great mafia theme, I would have expected some great 1930s-style jazz or Italian music, but this wasn’t the case. There was mostly down-tempo ambient music with some bass and drums. Occassionally, they’ll slip in some fast drum beats during some of the action scenes, but mostly the music reflected the current flow of the anime: slow and steady, just like the revelation of the backstory. It kept me wanting more from the soundtrack.

Have a great one!

What was Win

The animation and humor also kept me watching the anime. The anime was vivid, and contained tons of color. They also transitioned from traditional drawing to the humorous type of drawing multiple times, which helped to reinforce the humorous aspects of the anime (like the tacos one of the main characters liked to eat, or how they always made the one dude in the club grab all the food). Not only was the animation done well, but they also included special effects like lightning and angel wings, which related to the type of player each character was (e.g. stealthy, attacking, defensive, demonic, etc.). This was pretty darn cool. Oh, and they also did some cool 3D animation of all of the Mahjong tiles when critical times in the game and the story took place.

I could have used less of…

Fanservice. Apparently I’m not the targeted type of viewer for this anime. There was a lot of jiggling. And there were many, many shots of legs and short skirts. Whenever a person was scared, a camera would instantly cut to legs, short skirts, and sweat. Or, when some of the girls would start running, the camera would cut to their short skirts or their anatomy jiggling. Some of the girls would also try to heckle the most endowed character by making her feel bad about her “fat”-ness. Yeah – not needed, in my opinion. There was all of the above to make the anime really fun to watch. But then again, like my friends at work say, I’m not 13, or watching anime for this type of pleasure.

So if you like that type of action as well, then this anime will have everything you’ll ever want. Even still – I’d say go grab this one and enjoy the epic Mahjong action. I’m waiting for season 2 to come out as see what happens next.

I just finished watching an anime which gave me a really powerful viewing experience. Elfen Lied was the anime I just finished and would like to share my thoughts on the experience.

An Interesting Story

This anime had a really cool premise. There’s this girl, Nyuu (also named Lucy), who escapes from a government facility after being experimented on. In the process of escaping, she uses her natural powers (called vectors, which look like a ton of hands) to rip apart anyone who came along her way. Almost free, she gets taken out by a sniper and finds herself on a beach where our main hero, Kouta, and heroine, Yuka, find Nyuu naked and take her back to their home. Kouta and Yuka then spend their time caring for Nyuu, all the while slowly becoming entangled in the search to find Nyuu, as she is a special type of “mutant” (called a Diclonius) destined to destroy the current human race through genetic superiority. Kouta and Yuka also find a little homeless girl and take her in, after learning about the horrible abuse she has endured through her whole life. The story also features many flashbacks to when Nyuu, Yuka, and Kouta were little and the festival that ended up having a large impact on their current relationship. The search to find Nyuu also embroils another Diclonius, Nana, who tries to bring Nyuu back to those who originally experimented on her, but ends up nearly dying – her arms and legs get ripped off. Nana also ends up finding her way to Kouta’s home as well and even more interesting situations tend to happen there as well. There are many, many battles that end up ensuing to bring Nyuu back, and I’ll leave it there for you to watch if you’re intrigued and want to see for yourself.

Fun and Some Not-So-Fun Aspects of the Anime

This anime is definitely geared towards those who like destruction, blood, and fanservice (I really, liked the story, destruction, and blood). For me, the fanservice kept getting in the way of the main story and its progression. There were times where Nyuu would do sketchy things, like make Kouta grab her, or there would be times where important information for the story would happen while she and other characters would be taking a bath. If that’s what you’re looking for, then you’re in luck. I liked the sound design and the pure and utter destruction that happened. The sounds of the violence and the results of it reminded me of the many video games I like to play that have funny sound effects linked to death (e.g. squishing sounds or screaming). This was one aspect that kept me watching – to see what other acts of destruction and insanity Nyuu would be doing next. And there was no sparing of blood. Lots and lots of it. I also did enjoy the relationship that evolved between Kouta and Nyuu, as it was born out of respect and friendship. But on the flip side, the relationship between Yuka (who ended becoming the most insecure person I have ever seen – every 5 minutes she was contemplating her status in life as a function of her unrequited love of Kouta) and Kouta. I also appreciated how Nana and the homeless girl ended up bonding and becoming close friends throughout all of the rough experiences they’ve had.

I also really enjoyed the music in this anime. It featured many different Roman and Germanic influences. The opening theme was sung in Latin, which was great (since I took Latin in high school), and was also used as a vital element of the story that tightened the relationship between Yuka and Kouta and Nyuu and Kouta. Something that I have grown to learn in watching anime is that when there is Latin and German involved, crazy and occult things will surely be going down. I haven’t watched enough to prove this yet, but I’ll certainly be keeping this theory developing.

If the Anime Were to Continue…

I was pretty let down by the conclusion of the anime. Without spoiling the ending for those who haven’t seen it, there was a screeching halt in the last episode, where some of the main questions were answered (e.g. which characters were saved and which were dead), but there was still an opening for more of the story to be written. For example, they showed the motivation for the bad guy (the typical destroying the world to save it excuse used in many games and anime), but the writers didn’t really do anything with it. They just left that out there and chose to end it on the battle of the different Diclonii.

I would want to know more about Nyuu/Lucy and Nana and how they would rebuild their lives after the battles they have endured, and also would like to see them stop the ultimate bad guy (sorry, forgot the name), because I don’t want to see madmen running companies that try to learn how to harness the powers of biology for evil. I would also just like to see Lucy fight some more, as bodies start to fly whenever she’s around, and the anime did a very good job at showcasing her ability to leave carnage wherever she went. I would also want to see Nana develop more as a character who could stand up for herself, and also take care of the friends she ended up having at the end of the anime.

Here’s hoping for a continuation of the story. Ultimately, though, I would recommend this to you if you don’t mind blood and fanservice.

I just finished watching another cool anime. This was one of the better ones I have seen in a while and I hope my thoughts will suggest that its worth watching for you as well. This time, I finished a series I randomly picked from my anime hard drive, Scryed.

A Cool Story

This may be one long paragraph – just letting you know in advance. Scryed is a story set in a world where there are people born with special powers that can manipulate matter and bend it/recreate in specific ways. This type of special person is called an alter. Alters are born naturally in a special area of Japan separated from the mainland after an incident 20 years ago. Now, the world is in chaos, as a special group of “policemen” in a group called HOLY are specially trained to control the “native alters” to make sure they don’t cause any trouble to those on the mainland. Our hero, Kazuma, is a native alter who is trying to work to make money to feed himself and the little girl whom he protects, Kanami. One day, after finishing a job, Kazuma gets roped into a battle where HOLY is rounding up some of the native alters. Kazuma wipes out a whole bunch of them until one of the toughest members of HOLY (who are all alter users), Rouhou, showcases his power and completely defeats Kazuma. After this point, Kazuma is taken to HOLY but completely destroys most of the place and escapes. After this point, without too many spoilers, many of the episodes feature the ongoing and escalating rivalry between Kazuma and Rouhou, with every landscape and building being destroyed in their path. The series also gets interesting when they reveal another person interested in the powers of alter users and starts to round them up to perform experiments on them. Rouhou and Kazuma then form a temporary alliance and do some major damage on him and his henchmen, for a wonderful viewing experience. I also thoroughly enjoyed the parallels between this story and the events that happened after 9/11, especially in how HOLY and the big bad guy round up people (for no reason reported to them) and the discrimination that happened in the story against the alters from the people in the mainland. It’s either irony or a pure coincidence, especially since the anime was released in late 2001 and ran through 2002. Or it could be that my mind formed a pure coincidence, but it was a good analogy that kept me interested on top of the action and characters in the story.

This is one I recommend watching for its epic characters, action, and story.

Kazuma and Cosplay

I have added Kazuma on to my list of characters I would love to make a costume and cosplay for. I deeply loved his persistence, strength, and commitment to protect Kanami and those who have been attacked by HOLY. I also liked that he wasn’t the perfect type of hero who has his own weaknesses, making him much more of a human and lovable kind of guy. In choosing Kazuma, I’ll have to stick to my exercise regimen I have picked up from a colleague of mine, which is already starting to show results. Also, when I get my Lilypad Arduino skills up even more, I can think about making the back rotator part of the costume actually work when I pose for the camera. I would also like to see, while at the con, if there any others who have seen this anime and strum up a conversation with them in a ridiculously cool Kazuma cosplay. I’m already looking forward to it.

Story

I especially liked the story. This anime featured Emiya Shirou as the main protagonist, who suddenly finds himself amidst a war for the Holy Grail. He becomes involved in the war, as he finds himself in a near-death situation and ends up summoning Saber, a magical servant who wields an invisible sword, and who will also listen to Shirou’s orders. Shirou also ends up befriending a fellow Master at school, Tohsaka Rin, who was my favorite character (not only can she wield a wide assortment of awesome magic – all in German – but she also had a very decisive and professional demeanor). They then travel around town trying to solve the mystery of a wide range of mysterious comas, and to also figure out how to end the war for the Holy Grail (trying to give no spoilers). I guess one of the other best parts of this anime was that it mirrored the traditions of Arthurian lore, and gave it a unique Japanese twist.

If you like magic in your anime and a well-written story that is very engrossing, I’d recommend you spending some time with this one. It’s worth your time. There’s a wide assortment of characters, costumes, action, and lore to absorb and enjoy. Enjoy also the lion, a symbol for Saber and Arthur.

For the Future

In the future, I’d like to cosplay Archer, the Servant of Tohsaka. I’d only end up cosplaying him if I had someone going with me as Tohsaka (it only makes sense – I’d want to enjoy the con with my “Master” and it would be a great group cosplay). To do Archer, I’ll need to not only make the main black suit, but also the red coat/covering of the suit, his ying-yang swords, his white hair, no makeup, work out to get his abs, not sure if he needs boots, and the gloves (there may be a cape in there as well). I’ll have to go back to episode 14 to fully get his costume specs, as that episode featured a ton of different angles for me to pick out for the details of his costume. I’d also like to cosplay him, as he is a very matter-of-fact personality, is always around when Tohsaka is around, gave Shirou the motivation he needed to be able to get through the tough battles, and oozes amesomeness. Here’s some pics to help remind me and you of how he is.

Another one of the anime series I finished watching and now be recommending to you are the 2 seasons of xxxHolic. While the title may have the adult characters XXX in them, this series is far from adult themed. On the contrary, it is mostly humor and Japanese-culture based.

The story follows protagonist Watanuki, a high schooler who is fed up with seeing strange spirits everywhere. On his way to school one day, he finds this mysterious fortuneteller and her store, and decides to go in. He wishes for the spirits to go away, and while he can’t see them anymore, his troubles are far from over, as he now has to work for the fortuneteller to work off this wish. The two other main characters, Doumeki and Himawari, also accompany him on his travels through Japan and the spirit worlds he gets roped into going. Watanuki also has to cook and do other chores for the fortuneteller, Yuuko, while proprietors come in and tell her about their troubles.

This series was very well done storywise, and has a very interesting artistic style – the arms and legs of all the characters are much longer in proportion to the rest of the body. The story left me wanting to know more about the culture of Japan, as it went in-depth about superstitions, cooking, and ghosts. It also even went into great depth on how to play Mahjong! The music and sound were pretty well done, but the aspect of this series I’ll remember most is how Watanuki’s mood can drop at the change of a hat – from swooning in love to great anger. The way he flails his arms and legs is quite funny as well (and is accompanied by a wonderful sound effect!).

It also left me putting a Mokona (the dancing animal in the video above) on my Christmas list, too. It kept getting drunk and wanting food – so funny. It put a big smile on my face.

Enjoy!

One of the anime series I just finished watching was Xenosaga: The Animation. This is an anime based upon the first video game of the trilogy in the Xenosaga series. I have completed the first of the series, and played most of the second. One of my friends recommended this to me, and now I recommend spending some time to watch this anime to you as well.

This anime follows Shion, a developer of technologies for artificial life in the future, as she finds herself on a ship that gets destroyed by an alien race, bent on eating humans. She is saved by her latest research project, KOS-MOS, a female robot equipped with power lasers, guns, and swords. Unfortunately, this robot can only act through commands and objectives – you can probably see some of the issues revolving around that. Anyways, they travel through space, along with a large and boisterous cast, as they try and stop a crazy Realian (artificial life form) from releasing more of the aliens upon the universe, while also trying to find the clues as to how the aliens got released into the world, an event called the Miltian Conflict.

Without giving any spoilers, this anime is very true to the first of the three games. It helped me to relive the first game, without the hours of boring grinding. The music and sound were also quite reminiscent of the game, and I have included the ending them, as I found it the best of the music in this anime. The anime also helped me to remember some of the backstory of these characters, and made me want to pick up the games again (which I think I will), just to be able to re-engage with the story again. If you get the chance to pick this up, it’s worth the time – and it’s only 12 episodes.

I’ll be trying to find the second and third seasons of this, as they match the other games in the series as well. Have a good one!

This story takes place after a “great war”, and there’s the Vatican and vampires left struggling to maintain balance in the world. The story follows Abel Nightroad and Esther Blanchett, a priest and nun in the special division of the Vatican’s squads (in this universe, the Vatican has armies and lots of people fighting for the Vatican). The story, full of twists and turns, ended on a cliffhanger in the anime due to the untimely death of the original creator, and I would personally vote for its continuation. I also liked how explosive and powerful Abel was, as he is a vampire who feeds on other vampires and gains power to be even more awesome.

In addition, the costumes, even though they are quite exquisite and fashionable, made me like the anime much more. I can’t put into words how awesome the costumes were – but I definitely think you should check out this anime. And there are even references to faith and Catholicism littered in here, which made me even more engaged with the story. The music added another level of interest for me, as it was mostly cello, violin, and orchestral music playing deep tones in a sad melody most of the time. It was just really, really good.

I leave you with my favorite song from the anime – the op, “Broken Wings”.

• Gurren Lagaan
  
  This was a great story and I thoroughly loved the music. Even though I am not a mecha person, I recommend this to everyone for a good watch. Synopsis: people find a mecha while digging and the series is about how this mecha changes their world and how the protagonists save the world with this mecha.
• Ah! My Goddess!
  
  This was a fun series which had mostly laughs and lots of “awwwww” moments. Synopsis: guy accidentally calls a phone number for the goddesses who protect the world and unfortunate souls. Guy wishes for lovely goddess to stay with him and the rest of the time follows their adventures. I highly recommend it for the laughs and good feelings you’ll have after watching it.
• Black Blood Brothers
  
  I was a little let down by this series, as the story wasn’t so great, but the premise was pretty good. The music and acting in this were only average. Synopsis: vampire gets called in to protect a city from another vampire in his past. Again, decent premise, but the execution wasn’t there. I originally saw this at AnimeNext and was pretty happy to watch it, but I guess the hype didn’t last by the time I got to watch it.
• Full Metal Panic!
  
  This was a very enjoyable series that was highly recommended from one of my good friends in my undergrad, and I recommend it to you as well. If you have seen the series Chuck, this anime has the same premise, except the genders of the characters are flipped. Synopsis: girl holds an item the bad guys want, and a male is sent from the army to protect her through good times, funny times, and serious times. Well worth the time to watch it.
• Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
  
  I went back to this classic after missing out on its many referneces in other parts of anime and otaku culture. And also it was highly recommended, which I found out for a good reason. I think HCI should watch this, as I think this is where computing is going to go. Quick Synopsis: Section 9 is called in to solve the mystery of the laughing man incident, but they find out this is a much larger puzzle than just an assassination.

I’ll also post more about the series which I watch when I complete them. Right now, I am watching Trinity Blood, and you should see my thoughts about it in a week or so. Keep it tuned.