Gigantic franchises with multiple iterations often have newcomers thinking to themselves, “Where exactly do I start?”
Usually, folks assume that every franchise that contain iterations that fall into the same in-universe “timeline” require them to start at the very beginning of its chronology. And usually, all it ends up being is one big incorrect assumption.
The SOS Brigade will be entering a baseball tournament!
Sup everyone! We’re entering one of the first volumes that comprise of “short” stories. In terms of this book, we have four:
The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya, the short story that this entire volume is named after, is sort of a filler. It’s a funny chapter about the SOS Brigade’s attempt at baseball, but nevertheless it’s really weak compared to the other Suzumiya Haruhi arcs, mostly because nothing truly jaw-dropping happens. It’s kind of justified though, since the chapter itself is actually the pilot of the series that was published two months in The Sneaker before The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya ever came out. So it’s only natural that the most we get from this story are very basic showcases of the cast’s personalities and nothing really spectacular. Also, just in case you were wondering, yes – it’s exactly the same as the anime.
Continue reading “Uguu Re-read! The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya”
問おう。貴方が私のマスターか？
If the banner change hasn’t tipped you off, I’ve been on a Fate/ kick lately.
Of all the big franchises to get hit by the so-called “dirty secondary” syndrome, I believe the Fate/ series is one that genuinely gets hit pretty hard by it. I’m not going to lie, I sound like a giant snobby prick for even using the term “dirty secondary”, but in Adaptation Land, if you’re one to actually care about media besides animation/movies enough venture into what’s often used as source material, you’ll find that the term often holds… well, some painful truth to it.
Although in Fate/stay night’s case, I blame it a little more on Studio DEEN than the fans themselves. Regardless, it’s utterly depressing seeing diehard fans of the Fate/Zero anime write off the original Fate/stay night as being inferior because of the DEEN anime and movie. I suppose ufotable’s new Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works anime is fixing that divide somewhat, but it’s still there to a certain degree mainly because UBW is only 1/3rd of the full experience. Plus, there are secondaries who recommend newcomers to start with F/Z, skip the Fate route – by this, they mean the DEEN anime – then watch the UBW anime (according to them, “the definitive adaptation”; it’s good, but not definitive – it’s only one route), and then after that, watch the upcoming Heaven’s Feel movie… and I’m like “no, that’s wrong, please stop for the sake of your own experience.”
While I did enjoy Fate/Zero and what it had to offer as a spin of the Fourth Holy Grail War, which was constantly and vaguely mentioned in F/sn, it’s merely a prequel at the end of the day (note: different from preceding work) meant as an expansion to an even greater tale that people are unfortunately diluting their own experience of. F/Z spoils more of F/sn than the latter does for the former, and I wish more people that are thinking of getting into the franchise had that in mind, instead of getting fed a bunch of crap from, well, dirty secondaries.
With the context and details that weren’t present in any of Studio DEEN’s animated adaptations, the visual novel is certainly one hell of a ride, even with the shoddy English fan-translation desecrating the Nasutext. I’m 21 now and dislike using the word “epic” to describe, well, anything. But here I find it the word extremely fitting, because it is fucking epic.
I mean, okay, as much as I loved it, it was far from perfect. Like the onslaught of info-dumps, diarrhea of the mouth, cooking scenes that make you hungry, etc. Art-wise, Réalta Nua PSVita should have updated the art to match Takeuchi’s current style. But the pros definitely outweigh the cons of Fate/stay night. Nasu’s world-building is excellent, so as a person who appreciates that kind of imagination in High Fantasy stories such as this, it’s no wonder that I enjoyed it so much.
Alright, enough with my unnecessarily long preambles, and onto the review!
Continue reading “Uguu Review! Fate/stay night (Visual Novel)”
Image Credit: かのら from Pixiv
誕生日おめでとう、 さくらちゃん!
I know it’s April 2nd in Japan right now, but it’s still April 1st here with all the April Fools shenanigans and whatnot. Of course, I don’t give much of a damn about any of that – I’d just like to dedicate this post to the birthday of one of the best female protagonists ever to grace the very existence of anime and manga. If there’s anything Cardcaptor Sakura-related, it’s pretty damn assured that I’ll post about it! 😛
That being said, I haven’t been posting all that much here because of classes (I’m always active on Twitter, though – so you’ll know if I’m actually dead or not). Rest assured, since it’s Spring Break, you’ll be seeing some final impressions on Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Ren, some after-thoughts on Kill la Kill, a full impression on the Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie trilogy, a few “nostalgia” posts here and there, and some other things I manage to finish up during my (otherwise) uneventful Spring Break in the near future.
Image Credit: Lewd artists from Ningen Modoki
I just woke up around thirty minutes ago. And, I had a dream that I can’t exactly describe. It was apparently real life, but it felt like a visual novel/anime. I was a bum student (the ones that are considered delinquents in Japan, like Tomoya Okazaki) and I had a teacher that believed in me (like Hiratsuka-<i>sensei</i> is to Hachiman). One thing lead to another, and I ended up interacting and falling in love with a very sweet innocent girl that brought out the good in me. I talked to her a lot and it made me happy.
All the while Key BGM (mostly from Air, Kanon, and Clannad, but I’m not sure if any were from Little Busters!) was playing in my head. The dream ended in me running in the rain to give her dango presents. I woke up, and for some reason, heard Philosophyz in my head even though I haven’t read Rewrite yet… I feel nonchalant for some reason, my stress is all gone. But for some reason (and I admit, it’s weird to say), I feel that I’d like to meet that girl again. 😦
(This is also the first time in a long while that I slept at a normal time and woke up at a reasonable time like a normal human being.)
Have you guys ever had anime-esque dreams? Did they make you happy, sad, etc.?
One of the things I love about anime conventions (or any convention for that matter) are the invasion of cosplayers. It was awesome seeing Downtown San Jose being infested and taken over by cosplayers and my fellow geeks and weebs. People might have been pissed by the traffic we caused and the endless lines we induced at restaurants, but we felt dominant! Made the city as “nigiyaka” (so to say) as San Fransisco is every night. It just made those four days and three nights so fun, and now that everything’s quieted down and returned to normal, I’m having post-con depression. 😛 I want Downtown Weebland again, dammit!
That being said, there were many great cosplays this year. I stopped to take a picture of almost every one of my favorite characters and shows whenever I came across them, but this is basically a list of my very favorite ones during the weekend. To those who didn’t make it into this blog post, I’d like to say that you definitely all made it to my Facebook albums. Just very wonderful memories overall.
My promise not to kill… This is my sakabatou!
I haven’t been posting because of the flu – I’ve had hellish nights during the past weekend.
I’m feeling better though, and no flu can possibly stop me from finally getting around to watching the Rurouni Kenshin live action movie. I was certainly hyped for this movie and I honestly lost my patience waiting for an eventual American screening – so I simply grabbed the Japanese Blue-ray and watched it anyway. Hell yeah!
It was the best thing I had. Sue me.
You know, some people say that I’m overly optimistic about VNs that I take on, and I think that’s true. See, I always do try to find the good even in the worst of things when it comes to VNs, but sometimes I throw it under the bus really quickly if the beginning/middle/one route isn’t really that good. Yet, I’ll almost always give it a try. I don’t try to be some sort of higher intellectual that knows the intricacies behind what makes writing beautiful or what makes everything flow so well. No, I’m just a guy. A Canadian guy. And a guy who has read a damn lot of visual novels.
See, now you are probably wondering where I’m going with this! Well, when I was a wee lad, I was just getting past a lot of entry level VN stuff. Moege, random this and that shenanigans, what have you. Fate/Stay Night was one of the first super-power VNs I ever got into. And I wasn’t expecting much. Foolish, I was. Stupid. Ignorant of all the real VNs out there. I picked up Fate/Stay Night expecting nothing really at all, but holy shit. Damn. Seriously, damn.I hate using the word epic that much, but that might be the only thing that describes the visual novel. Which might be why I always give something the benefit of the doubt, because giving Fate/Stay Night the chance blew my damn mind. And it was great.
So, discovering that Fate/Stay Night had an updated patch that I was totally negligent about when I first read it, I decided to re-read the tale and share the review with you all! Fun stuff.
I can sing Fate/Stay’s pros forever, I think. Yet even things I love have imperfections. Like the fact that what makes it awesome makes all the hypothetical what-ifs and jabbering seem terribly off-putting, so sometimes you can full into a lull when all you want is to keep getting to the next twist or hardcore part. The VN gets called overrated a lot. I don’t really see it, but I can see why it wouldn’t be amazing to everybody. Especially if you’re an artfag – the game’s a bit old.
Either way, F/SN will always be one of my favorites. Not out of nostalgia, either, out of simply just sheer “holy shit” factor. It’s pretty damn good. I mean, really good. Now, you might ask what I think of the anime. I think the anime isss….. bleghk. Bad in comparison. Does a pretty good stand-alone job, but not for me and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone if they ever planned on reading the original. Fate/Zero I’m also a bit iffy on. Shoving grimdark into my face over and over doesn’t make me like it anymore, but, either way, I can understand the attraction.
So, I’ve rambled on enough. Time for the Wahfuu Review of one of my favorites, F/SN!
On the agenda for our pilot episode, we have the upcoming Little Busters! anime, Spice & Wolf and other light novels, Da Capo III and other untranslated visual novels, Tales of Xillia being localized, and of course, plenty of extra topics because we can’t stop talking.
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As an anime/manga fan-artist, I keep myself updated on Wacom’s YouTube channel, a company which produces high-quality graphics tablets (of which I do not own, ARGH), and every so often they upload a video showcasing well-known artists using their tablets such as the Cintiq 24HD.
For fans of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Shakugan no SHANA, Another, various Unison Shift visual novels, etc. that also happen to be fans of their artwork, you have to be familiar with Noizi Itou, the illustrator and character designer for all of these works. Wacom’s recent video just happens to showcase her doing what she does best. So yeah, here’s a chance to see her skills in action through digital media. ^^
竜国の戦場 ~オタクSPOT~ 