Anime Season {March 2013} First Impressions

LAAAAAATTTTEEEE!!! I know. No excuses. Just laziness this time. There’s alot of sequels and sci-fi this season; not that this is neccessarily a bad thing.

Probable Must Watches

Shingeki no Kyojin (aka. Attack on Titan)
The Manga of this is ludicrously popular; mostly for being dark, bloody, visceral and heavy. Crapsack future world where humans have been mostly eliminated by giants who eat people for lolz. The few survivors managed to do so by building a city with a huge wall that giants couldn’t see behind (apparently they’re pretty dumb). Of course, eventually, one of them happens to be taller than the wall, and goes on a rampage, eating the protagonists mother. He goes on a vengeance quest afterwards, vowing to elimate the giants from the world.

First attempt of a new studio too, so here’s hoping they can pull it off. I imagine it could end up a massive flop if they even think about rose-tinting it, though. Any censoring or plot alterations to remove the excessive violence will kill it dead. It needs to be at least as violent as Claymore and Muv-Luv Alternative to work.

Suisui no Gargantia

The protagonist has spent his life as part of the galactic human alliance fighting against an alien race called the Hideous (REALLY?!?) when in one battle he is suddenly sucked into a time-space wibble and thrown across the dimensions to land on Earth. Which was apparently mostly forgotten about long ago; and is now an oceanic lost world after the polar caps melted. He now has to learn to live in a suspiciously peaceful place along with a genki thing called Amy.

So, this is what happens if you put Waterworld and Urobuchi Gen together? Though I have to say Psycho-Pass was a bit of let-down from Gen considering his previous good works. As a result, I’m a little more suspicious of him now, rather than instantly paying attention. I also don’t believe for a minute (go on, surprise me, Gen) that this is going to stay peaceful. Ah well, it has some good potential, so…

Railgun Season II
Well yeah, this is of course going to be here, I’m a raving Index and Railgun fanboy for reasons I can’t quite discern sometimes. Though mostly I like Kuroko more than Misaka. Gotta love her raving lesbianism. Ahem, in any case, this season is covering the Sisters arc from Misaka’s perspective, which could be REALLY good, since it was arguably the best arc of the original Index. Besides, we get to see the point where our railgun starts crushing on Touma heavily from her point of view. And of course, Accelerator being a dick makes everything better.

Devil Survivor II The AnimationOh Really? I actually wasn’t aware that there ~was~ a second Devil Survivor game (goes to check~ OH right its usual thing of Europe being horribly screwed over with releases… apparently we’re getting it THIS MAY, over 14 months after America… and holy s**t we’re finally getting Overclocked as well, at the same time. Jeez, there might be a reason to dust off my 3ds, what with Fire Emblem 13 finally coming out as well).

Anyway, rants about nonsensical release dates aside I can say that anything Shin Megami Tensei related is usually at least decent. Although, I do wonder how they can present the multiple options in any given game and push them into an anime. Part of the appeal of the games (besides collecting and fusing demons) is making moralistic choices that are quite often selections between bad and worse. So anyway, I think it could turn out very well, but it could also flop.

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Cautiously Optimistic About

Hataraku Maou Sama
Japan loves shows about demon kings at the moment. This one is another exile; just prior to him conquering the world, of course. And now his admin, strategic and logistical skills from that event are now entirely useless, apparently, and he has to start a new conquering spree of earth by working in a family resturant… huh… Well anyway its a rather idiotic concept, but worse concepts have turned out better and I have a good feeling about it, so we shall see.

Nyaruko Season IIThe return of the cutest lovecraftian horrors to grace this earth. If the show had maintained its early season power; I’d be throwing this up in the Must Watches, actually, because gods alive the first episodes of the first season were comedic genius. Sadly it lost its momentum as it went along and nearly fell into generic harem territory by the end. Not that I don’t like Cthuga and Hastur; they were actually funny characters (especially Kuuko/Cthuga) but somehow I got the idea the show was trying too hard. Anyway; it still has good enough potential, so lets see.

Photo Kano
Considering the entire premise is “boy gets a camera, boy uses camera to get girls”, I ~really~ should slap this straight into the NO category. However, it is working off the rather excellent pedigree from Amagami; which was one of the few decent romance shows to grace our screens in recent years. We can only hope that it can follow up that act; and to do so, I do hope they use the same omnibus format with resets every few episodes, each block telling a different story. It was part of the reason its predecessor worked as well as it did.

Zettai Bouei Leviathan
I know, I should stop deluding myself into believing Mobile Games can be made into successful anime’s; so far I’ve been burnt by every similar prediction so far, but I can’t help it. And it’s Gonzo, so yeah. But… but dragon girls! It stars the personification of Bahamut, Jormungand and Leviathan out to stop evil aliens invading their world using meteors. I mean seriously, that concept is so idiotic I can’t help but chuckle at it. Go on, surpise me, be a sleeper hit on me, Zettai.

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May Possibly Look into

Red Data Girl
Can’t say the first teaser episode really inspired much of… well… anything in me. I know I’m supposed to feel sorry for her, but I think they’re playing that card too soon.

Aku no Hana
Could be interesting; but it sounds rather dark, which is not typically my cup of tea. Can’t say I’ve actually read the Flowers of Evil either so for once I don’t have much of a grounding on the literary side of things.

Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince
Seems a rather generic mecha show. Since that’s not my thing, the only reason its really in this category is because it has the director of Katanagatari.

Karneval
Fabulous guys everywhere; and the circus. Oh deaar… Still; the premise is mildly entertaining and I’m willing to give it a chance, at the very least.

Samurai Girls Season II
Though it had style, it had no substance. But who knows, maybe the second season will redeem it.

Ore no Imouto Kawaii Season II
Honestly, the adaptation of the first season was pretty dubious, especially with its direction choices. If I recall, the novels also become ponderous rather than light-hearted too as they go on, so I can’t place this season any higher, really.

Azazel-San Season II
Its short episodes and frankly disgusting sense of humour were marginally amusing, but I honestly don’t see myself tuning in for a second season.

Date A Live
Even though its based on a light novel; it just totally screams generic harem at the top of its lungs, so I’m afraid I can’t rank it any higher. I heard it starts funny and then loses it though, so I’ll at least look at it.

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No, Just NO!

Dansei Bunri no Crime Edge
What is the current trend with hair fetishes in Japan? Eeesh. Magical scissors too…

Mushibugyou
The Shinsengumi fight giant bugs… wait what?

Aiyura & Yuyushiki
I just don’t have any faith left in 4koma adaptations. That is all.

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Well, at least there’s not as much obviously suspicious stuff this season, but there’s also alot in the ‘meh’ category too, so whatever.

As always, my viewpoints are biased and have about a 15% chance of being totally wrong. I’ve also probably missed some things.

Well, even when you’ve been watching anime for as long as I have, things still surprise and dissapoint you; though my sensor for junk and jewels is more accurate than most.

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The Stormdaughter

Ho there. Been a bit of awhile again, eh? Honestly, though there’s not been much for me to report and I did take a bit of a break after releasing Shimaihen. However; over the last fortnight I’ve now started to compile some thoughts together for Aniventure EX, experimenting with a few new layout options and considering what could be upgraded for the joint book since just slapping the two together with some new artwork seems a bit of a cop-out option when I’m still hardly lacking in new and interesting ideas to throw in, and things (especially layout-wise) to improve.

If you’re an Aniventure player, please don’t hesitate to leave comments and ideas! I’m always looking for ways to improve the system and add things I may have otherwise missed.

In other news, here’s another new huge sketch for you, of Eryss Boltatt:

She’s from a short-lived mini-campaign of Aniventure I ran in January this year as a means to do a final test of the Racial/Mutational aspects ready for Shimaihen’s release. Sadly I had some grand ideas for the setting which kinda fell flat on their face and didn’t really work with my party that well, but alas. She’s the daughter of the Mayor of the township of Metamo, and the great-grandaughter of one of the five heroes of Zuway, Ririyanha the Stormborn. Blessed by the god Watson, she has powers over electricity.

Anyway, this is the first sketch I’ve tried scanning in from my A3 pad. Which honestly is a bit of nightmare!! She’s stitched together from 4 seperate scans! Not sure about how she turned out, actually. Someone observed her head somehow feels squashed and I guess that’s true. Nevertheless, I did enjoy adding in all the extra details and besides that I think it turned it pretty decent.

Here’s the wallpaper version:

This one was given a paintbrush filter after running a few processing passes in teh ‘shop. Looks kinda pretty.

Anyway, enjoy, and tune in again soon!

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Anime Season {January 2013} Two Week Summary

And here’s my thoughts of what’s going on with the current anime season, compiled into a handy table once more:

As I noted in the initial preview, there’s a lot of shows I wasn’t even going to attempt to bother watching with more than a cursory glance to see if I’d underestimated them. Fortunately, for the most part, I didn’t. From the frankly spastic tonal changes of Koutoura-san to the moe equivalent of cheap sausage-meat that is Love Live, I’m not going to even give these shows a space on the table. I somehow managed to get through GJ-Bu’s first episode though, so that’s on there, though I’m not going to follow it.

The only one truly underestimated was OsaShura; primarily because our main hero seems stronger spined than most, and Masuzu seems pretty awesome, though it’s setting many flags that I often recognise as death-flags for a show already, so I’m suspicious of it, but its got enough to keep my attention for now.

The surprisingly good dark horse was Mondaiji. I’m glad I didn’t instantly dismiss it; highly competent (even overpowered) leads who immediately come to an understanding with one another is a rare and beautiful sight. There’s hints of a bigger story being seeded too, and subtle touches, like the suggestion that our heroes are from different era’s/times.

Yama no Suzume kinda sabotages itself with its own shortness. Three minutes is really too short. But I suppose if you want a saccharine shot, go for it.

Tamako Market does indeed look like its generic KyoAni. Shame, as Hyouka was good; but all this really has going for it is the talking bird, which is relatively bemusing.

Season II of Boku wa Tomadachi ga Sukunai continues without missing a beat, as if it was never off-air at all, which is commendable. It’s still got a good sense of the absurd; though I have to say the first episode wasn’t one of its funnier ones.

Hair Detective Inaba has absolutely no sense of comedic timing, sadly. It seems to think a joke minute == a laugh a minute, which is not really the case. It is impressively derp-worthy that you can fast-scan to any point in the episode and have a good chance of going “Wut?” though; and it doesn’t take itself seriously at least.

Be Mine Hero… well it’s solid adaptation; and the director was at least conscious when they made it; since some good choices were made in explaining the material with various shots, rather than keeping the hardcore exposition. But the character art has indeed ended up as suspicious as I originally feared; and Maou’s ‘useless meat’ was given centre stage, whereas it was a side note in the original. That’s not unexpected, I guess, but its still a little dissapointing.

Finally, Sasami-san. Shinbo’s still on form, though he’s actually restrained himself for this one, I think (perhaps I wasn’t paying attention, but no over shoulder head-tilts were spotted!). Its also completely different to what was advertised, which is pretty surprising. After all, I completely didn’t expect the entire world to turn to chocolate and the sister trio having to fight off a hydra made of fudge in the first episode. Sasami herself is a bit odd too. Clearly a wielder of the ‘Significant Brother Lover’ and yet tsundere about it. Go figure.

And a reminder: this summary is just my opinion so far. A +0 tends to mean “you’ve got one more episode to prove yourself”, whereas a +1 means I’m interested, and +2 means I’m already bemused. -1 or worse tends to mean dropped. They rarely show up if I’m doing my initial impressions correctly though,  since I tend to have a decent sense of what is going to instantly be a bad idea, and what has some vague potential.

That’s about all for now. Hope you find this handy if you haven’t yet decided on a schedule for the new season.

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Anime Season {January 2013} First Impressions

Probable Must Watches

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha
(aka. ‘Be Mine, Hero!’ ‘I Refuse!’) I briefly mentioned this in the last post. The Manga is rather good; but I’m rather peeved that the art style for the anime adaptation looks pretty terrible. Its about the hero who goes to fight the final boss (the demon queen), only to find she’s not interested; and in fact carefully argues several lucid points to him that if he kills her, the world’s economy will collapse. So they decide to make up a story that they were both seriously wounded in a fight, and go off together to try and improve the economy and technology of the world in secret.

It has Spice and Wolf vibes to it; but is a little bit more action-oriented. However, if you don’t like discussions about medieval economics on a national level, you’ll probably be bored senseless. I like the fact that none of the characters actually have names in it (he is constantly referred to as ‘hero’, she as ‘demon queen’ or the ‘crimson scholar’; there’s ‘big maid’ and ‘little maid’, and his old compatriot is just called ‘female knight’ etc.). Also, our hero is stupendously powerful (like in Hagure Yuusha, he’s definately epic-level), as he demonstates later by single-handedly taking over a fortress, harrying an army, and soundly beating everyone in duals.

Anyway, if they pull it off right, it’ll be good. At least the background art in the PV’s seems ok.

Sasami-san at Ganbaranai
About a hikikomori girl who is utterly unmotivated; but is taken care of by her brother. She hates his attitude, but uses him as a window into the world she doesn’t want to step into with her patent program ‘Brother Surviellance Tool’. With this she discovers the sot is in a love square with three lovely sisters, and hijinks ensue.

Actually, normally I would have this lower on the list were it not for the magic words of “Akiyuki Shinbo”. They’ve let the crazy sod out of his cage again to head this project up, and thinking about it does have some similarities to Denpa Onna, doesn’t it? I expect it to be considerably like that; and as a result, it shifts way up into my must watch list.

Cautiously Optimistic About

Cuticle Tantei Inaba
Adventures of a were-doberman who arrests a mafia don who just so happens to be a goat, and then fights with that mafia’s henchmen.

No I’m not smoking anything, that is indeed the plot summary of this anime. It’s so obscenely ludicrous it just might work.

Frankly I really don’t have anything else relevant to say about it; so yeah….

Tamako Market
An unusual anime original from KyoAni. At the very least, you’re assured of some vague quality from them under most circumstances (K-ON, Hyouka, etc.) so this one can stay in the cautiously optimistic area of the list.

It’s naturally about a Market Street’s inhabitants. I like the chicken’s daft design.

Hmm, I appear to be strapped for words today on this section, go figure.

Boku wa Tomadachi ga Sukunai NEXT
(aka. I still don’t have any friends… just a harem)

Yeah, I know, I don’t normally post sequels, blah, blah. I really needed something to buff up this section, go figure. But if you didn’t experience the lunacy of the first season, you should go back and check it out. It’s decent. Here’s hoping season 2 will keep the same energy, and give us more UNIVERSE!!!! AND delicious MEAT!!!

May Possibly Look Into

Yama no Susume: Loli’s go mountain climbing. I want to put this in the No category, but for some reason I can’t dismiss it. Though frankly I don’t see how they can make mountain climbing interesting to watch (it’s something you do, not watch); a perverse masochistic part of me want’s to see them try, and that saves the show from instant grill.

Mondai-Ji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo?: Guy is summoned into an alternate world by a bunny-girl who wants to overthrow the devil along with a pair of girls. Sure; whatever. Sounds like a fap-fest to me, but things with weak plots like this can occassionally be entertaining, and its based on a light novel, so I’m not instantly dismissing it.

Vivired Operation: Loli’s in hotpants delivering newspapers on a hoverbike. Wait what? Actually, there is very little information on this, so this entry is purely here because the bike in the promo-image looks cool. Call me shallow if you like, its entirely true. Made by somebody associated with Strike Witches. It will therefore likely be a meaningless fap-fest, but oh well.

No, Just NO!

Amnesia: “The boy’s name is Orion, and calls himself a fairy.” What he does in his own time is up to him, BUT NEED I SAY MORE?

Mangirl: You killed me dead with “Japan’s cutest manga editors”. Please leave and collect your bounty. Let’s not even go near that Engrish title.

Ai Mai Mii: Not Strawberry eggs. Is that an octopus in your pot or are you just pleased to see me?

Love Live!!: Idols saving the world again. Merely an excuse for moe. Page me when you get to the point.

Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru: Harem. Generic. I’ll be reading the dictionary over here; I’ll get more jollies out of it, KTHXBYE.

Koutoura-San: I’m a psychic, hear me roar.

GJ-Bu: Another 4-koma chibi nonsense show without a plot. Please.

Senran Kaguya: Tits and Ninjas? You’ve met each other before right? Lets get along again this time!

!!EIGHT!! SHOWS IN THIS CATEGORY IS CRIMINAL.

What’s going on, Japan? Especially after such an exemplary Winter season, I think they must have assumed the apocalypse was really hitting yesterday night and not put any effort in.

Yeah, I have to say, it’s looking a bit grim this season. But at least we’ll still have at least Robotics;Notes, Psycho-Pass, and I think possibly Zetsuen no Tempest carrying on with us. That’s all for now. Tune in again soon.

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Detarame Super-Seasonal Xmas Sale: Aniventure for 99p and More!

That’s right! You can now buy the PDF of my Aniventure RPG system for JUST 99p / under $2!

Not only that, but there’s also 20% off the Paperback printcopy of the system, 5% off my 2013 calendar, and 5% off the Hardback printcopy!

MADNESS! What kind of lunacy is this!? It’s a special christmas gift to all of my loyal blog readers who for whatever reason felt that the old costs were a little too expensive and were holding out on picking something up.

Perhaps you want a cheap xmas gift for yourself or an anime/RPG affectionado in your family. Perhaps you were on a tight budget. And perhaps you just want to avoid a hammering from Eliza (she calls it “getting into the swing of Christmas”, whatever that means):

Whatever your reason, now is the time to pick something up, as this !!SPARTA!! class madness will only last until Boxing Day (26th December).

If you enjoy Aniventure already or end up liking it from this deal, please don’t hesitate to tell your friends in all corners of the globe about these limited time offers!

And if you buy the PDF and really end up liking it, please consider picking up a paper copy as well or donating to my Xmas fundraiser for Aniventure (Paypal button below).

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!Click to Save a Catgirl from Slavery!*

Donate whatever you like! Even send me 1 cent and a rude comment! At least I’ll get a laugh out of it! Every humble amount helps towards making Aniventure more shiny and happy, and saving homeless destitute unemployed catgirls from untimely heavenly smiting caused by the discussion of physics in Anime.*

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* = DISCLAIMER: Shiny-ness and happiness may not actually increase and I cannot actually guarantee the lives of unfortunate cat-girls, but of course any money raised from Aniventure sales and donations will, as usual, go to further development of the supplement, Shimaihen, to the purchase of ISBN numbers, and possibly to the commision of real artists far better than me. In all serious-ness, by clicking you are agreeing to donate to my cause under the assumption of christmas charity given to a complete stranger, understand you may never see any benefit, do so out the kindness of your own heart and waive any of your personal rights to complain about the matter. AND THANKYOU for doing so!

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Astaraye: Fabulous Fusilier

Yikes, its nearly been a month again since I posted last, I am getting lazy.

Anyway, here’s another new sketch of Astaraye, previously seen in her heroic form here, and now 550% more fabulous:

Well, see, recently in our third D&D 4th ed campaign in my setting Retoria, everyone finally reached Paragon. In Raye’s case, this has meant her becoming a Verunan Azure Fusilier. I then realised, after the fact, that their uniform on her would make her look hilariously fabulous, so I had to draw it. I even gave her the classic Lelouch/Zero pose and a Phoenix Feather in her Tricorn Hat to add to the fabulous factor already made pretty high by the double capes and uniform in general (however, she has dropped the long sleeves once worn by her sponsor, the pirate queen Lilliana LuGunther Veruna, in her youth).

Anyway, here’s the wallpaper crop:

In other news; I started a community succession game in Dwarf Fortress called Lakebones, the topic for which can be reached at Bay12 here. There is still space for about 3-5 supervisors and any number of migrants if you wish to join in. Don’t know what Dwarf Fortress is? It’s a hyper-real simulationist roguelike with the eventual goal of being to create and interact with everything in a fully proceedurally generated world. At the moment, the highlight is its Fortress Mode, but the Adventurer Mode part of it is certainly gaining in momentum. You can read about it at the Wiki here.

As for Aniventure Shimaihen, its still making good progress, and at current projections I should get it out before the New Year, though theres a growing chance I’ll have to slightly overshoot that and release in January 2013. At the moment, the bestiary is clogging me down a bit, and I may restructure it to be more lightweight (which, if I follow the idea I currently have means fewer creatures, but still about 80, rather than the original proposed 120~ish). In more positive light, the massive errata section is nearly done, and the mutations/create your own race section has basically been complete for some time; so I’d say its about 85% complete at this time, clocking in at around 120 A4 pages right now.

I’m also working on a companion Microsoft Excel character sheet for it with several (wonderfully complex) autocalculating features that I’ll release the full version of here at the same time as I let Shimaihen out. For now though, you can check out this Early Alpha Version 1A that has most of the complex bits done for the first page.

I’ll also get around to looking at the next anime season soon, probably posting the preview mid-December if I can manage it.

Lots of bits and bobs, eh? I guess that happens if you leave posting for a month! Anyway, stay tuned, thats all for now!

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