Fate|Stay Night


I just recently finished watching another anime series, Fate|Stay Night, and would like to spend some time sharing my thoughts. While I may not be the best at mentioning everything about the anime and my reflections on it, I will enjoy the opportunity to talk to you in person about it :D .

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.

xxxHolic / xxxHolic Kei

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!

Xenosaga: The Animation

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!

Trinity Blood

And so I finished watching another extremely well done anime. This time, it’s Trinity Blood.

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”.