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Your Lie in April, an epitome of romance anime

Do you love music, chocolate, and pinkish cherry blossoms? Are you one of those people who enjoy bittersweet romance stories? Do you have a crush you dare not confess to, and need some motivation? If your answer is yes to any of the above questions, look no further, I've got the perfect anime recommendation for you.

"Your Lie in April", as its beautiful name suggests, is an emotional story about the friendships, lies and love among three childhood friends and a girl who eventually became close with them. Getting excited? Let's dive right into it!

Information and Statistics:

"Your lie in April" was aired from late 2014 to early 2015. The anime series is adapted from the manga and has 22 episodes. It has a rating score of 8.88 (that's pretty damn high) on MyAnimeList, and stands as No.35 on popularity with over 600,000 members in its fan group. The anime also won the 2016 Sugoi Japan Awards.

Synopsis:

Kousei Arima, the protagonist, is a prodigious pianist taught by his mother to become widely recognized since a young age. However, when his mother died, Kousei got dejected and avoided the piano for more than two years, living a colourless life without the music he once loved and leaving behind his fans and rivals. All this ends one spring in April, when an eccentric, blond girl with her own secrets comes into Kousei's life and makes his life colorful once again. Follow along and enjoy the flow of the story as Kousei Arima struggles through the ups and downs of his life as well as the relationship with the beautiful blonde who lifted up his drowning spirits.

My Personal Thoughts:

The gorgeous artwork will grab your attention from the very first episode. The emotional twists of the plot will keep you yearning for more and more episodes. I had to marathon the last 5 episodes or more because I couldn't withstand the heart breaking moments any longer T.T In conclusion, as I wrote in the title, this anime beautifully tells an exquisite and meaningful plot that'll leave you feeling sentimental for a few more days after finishing the series

The Emotional Ending

I'm not really going to describe the ending of the story here. But personally, I kinda felt like sh*t and cried my eyeballs out after the ending, but later realized on my own that the ending was actually reasonable (and astonishing). Your reaction of the ending will differ based on your personal taste, but watching the anime will nonetheless be a memorable part of your life. So, download or buy the anime series right now. Never forget to watch with at least 720 quality, although I recommend 1080 quality more if you watch with a big screen. Savor the experience. Thank me later.

OK, otakus. Time to say goodbye for now. See you in my next post! P.S. I tried to re-watch Your lie in April not long ago, but my heart is too fragile I can't even listen to the OST.

Please visit my website at  www.imxprs.com/free/hiroyuki/otaku-upgrade to discover even more awesome anime series and lovely anime characters.

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Sword Art Online, a masterpiece in more than 3 genres

Are you a fan of almost every anime genre? Or are you a picky otaku who spends all day reading anime recommendations and end up watching nothing by the end of the day? (<This one is me.) Whichever you are, Sword Art Online (SAO, in short) is a must-watch anime series that adapts the hugely popular light novel series written by Reki Kawahara.

Why should you watch it? Now, it's time to explain why I stated SAO is "a masterpiece in more than 3 genres". The anime series SAO not only covers major genres such as action, adventure, fantasy and romance but it also includes a wee bit of sub genres like drama, sci-fi, and game. By watching it, you'll get to see more than just exciting fight actions, such as heart-melting (yes, certainly more than "heart-warming") romantic scenes and tear-dropping tragic events. The wide range of genres it covers isn't all that is exceptionally attractive about this anime; the engaging plot line, the striking turns of events, the blood-boiling, touching OSTs that appear perfectly-timed, and the stunning character and scenery artworks all have the power to make you cry your hearts out.

Enough with my personal thoughts and praises. Let's dive into the discussion of this masterpiece right now! I can bet that more than 6 out of 10 otakus out there have watched SAO by the time I'm writing this; the others are newbie otakus who watch only what's currently airing on TV or those who don't like Action-adventure and fantasy at all.

Information and Statistics:

Sword Art Online anime adaptation was premiered in summer 2012. It currently stands as No.3 in Popularity on MyAnimeList, and has more than one million otakus in its fandom. There are 25 episodes in Sword Art Online and 24 in Sword Art Online 2. The light-novel series has 20 addictive volumes, and I suggest you read all of them, either before or after watching the anime series. The manga series have 10 adaptations of the light novel series, all of which are written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by different artists.

Synopsis:

The compelling introduction of Sword Art Online, as I cite from light novel series volume 1, is as follows:

“ A huge castle made of stone and steel floating in an endless sky. 

That was all this world was. It took a vagarious group of craftsmen one month to survey the place; the diameter of the base floor was about 10 kilometers — large enough to fit the entirety of Setagaya-ku within. Above, there were 100 floors stacking straight upwards; its sheer size was unbelievable. It was impossible to even guess how much data it consisted of.Inside, there were a couple of large cities along with countless small scale towns and villages, forests and plains, and even lakes. Only one stairway linked each floor to another, and the stairways existed in dungeons where large numbers of monsters roamed; so discovering and getting through was no easy matter. However, once someone made a breakthrough and arrived at a city of the upper floor, the «Teleport Gates» there and of every cities in the lower floors would be connected making it possible for anyone to move freely through these levels.With these conditions, the huge castle had been steadily conquered for two years. 

The current front line is the 74th floor.The name of the castle was «Aincrad», a world of battles with swords that continued floating and had engulfed approximately six thousand people. Otherwise known as...«Sword Art Online».”

The story takes place in the near future (around 2022) when Virtual Reality gameplay technologies advance to the level where all your sensations can be transferred into a virtual world so that you can get exceedingly realistic experience while playing. All you need to do is just lie down on bed, put on a device around your head, and control your virtual avatar in a virtual world with nothing but your thoughts. One day, a very popular VR game got released and the protagonist Kirito, along with 10,000 other thrilled players, logged into the beautiful virtual world Aincrad. Unfortunately, the players soon find themselves unable to log out of the game. To make matters worse, the game developer declared that players will be trapped inside Aincrad until they finish all 100 levels of the game, and that they would die in real life if they were killed inside the game.

Here's a trailer to get you pumped up.

[SPOILER ALERT] If you're like me, you're probably wondering if the story has a happy ending. The answer is YES. The story contains both fun and tragic twists and turns that'll make you cry out loud. But, I guarantee you'll be left feeling awesome in the end so just sit back and enjoy the series.​

And, friends, this is how a masterpiece story is crafted. I hope you'll enjoy the thrill and drama of Sword Art Online anime series as you progress through the plot together with the protagonists that'll remain in your heart perhaps forever. It's best to watch alone so you can enjoy the most epic scenes to the fullest, turn the volume up to max when the soundtrack kicks in, and cry out loud without any restraint. I also highly recommend you to marathon the series if you have enough time.

The Psychology of Sword Art Online

Considering thoroughly, Sword Art Online is more than just love and war. It serves as an ominous implication of the future of VR technology that'll potentially trap humans inside virtual worlds. What's more, SAO elegantly portrays the power of true love that helps us overcome even the biggest obstacles. In addition, it teaches us a moral, which can be described in Albert Einstein's quotes as follows:

Not satisfied?

Yes, I understand it isn't easy to be content with just 49 episodes of anime, 20 light-novel series, and 10 manga adaptations. Here's "Sword Art Online, The Movie- Ordinal Scale", the first SAO movie that was released in about 1,000 theatres worldwide on February 18, 2017. The story has a meaningful, heart-warming plot and an interesting AR fantasy. The theme song of the movie is "Catch The Moment", a new song by LiSA.

This is it for now, otakus. Peace out! See you in my next post! I'll be back soon enough... unless I cry a river and drown after re-watching SAO and re-reading the whole light-novel series. T.T

Please visit my website at  www.imxprs.com/free/hiroyuki/otaku-upgrade to discover even more awesome anime series and lovely anime characters.