silentsurivor-blog

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Game Music Of The Week: Sonic The Hedgehog - Spring Yard Zone

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Anime OP Of The Week: Golgo 13: The Professional - Pray For You

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Game Music Of The Week: Persona 4 - Heaven

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Anime OP Of The Week: Fate/Stay Night - Disillusion

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Osaka-okan - 4

Nothing more to say. 

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Game Music Of The Week: Ys I & 2 - First Step Towards Wars

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Anime OP Of The Week: City Hunter - Angel Night

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Ai-Mai-Mi - 3

If they can just keep the random dialed to the right level I will forever enjoy this series.

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Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman - 2

I don't really get the appeal of Roman. The characters are boring, the artwork is too similar to other Monkey Punch works, and the story has absolutely nothing going on. The ending of the first episode gave me some hope that some crazy stuff was gonna go down in the next one, but clearly that wasn't the case. Something unexpected did happen within the last few minutes like last time, but it wasn't nearly as interesting and made me just think of how uninteresting it is.

As I get through more and more shows I will likely spend less time going into detail explaining why I'm dropping them. In the case of Roman, it really doesn't do anything particularly well. If there was a compelling reason, any reason at all, to stay tuned for the next episode then I might have just given it a pass, but I see absolutely no reason to continue.

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Game Music Of The Week: Zillion - Pure Stone [Theme]

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Anime OP Of The Week: Dirty Pair - Ru-Ru-Ru-Russian Roulette

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Oreshura - 2

Picking up where we left off last time, episode 2 of Oreshura continues the fake relationship of Eita and Masuzu as they try to keep Chiwa out of the loop. Masuzu decides to mess with Chiwa by pretending to help her become more popular after she becomes jealous, leading to some great JoJo references due to Masuzu's love of the series. While you kind of know where the characters are going to end up as the show goes on, Oreshura has fun along the way by giving you more character depth, explaining why Chiwa acts the way she does and why Eita is still her best friend.

My opinion is the same as when I finished episode 1 and I really hope that Oreshura's main plot point of the fake relationship doesn't hold it back from going to interesting places, which can happen with a lot of shows that begin with something they try to stick to while wasting a lot of opportunities with some of the great characters that break out as the story goes on.

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Ishida & Asakura - 2

One cannot simply read a review Ishida & Asakura. You must experience it for yourself.

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Oreshura - 1

Oreshura looks like yet another harem show. And normally, that would make me hate it. However, instead of just throwing the main character into a situation where a bunch of girls want to date him, instead Eita is someone who really doesn't care about relationships and only focuses on his goal of getting into med school. He ends up having to sit next to the new girl, Masuzu, and she ends up with a scheme for them to fake a relationship because of her annoyance with all of the boys in her class asking her out. To make Eita cooperate, she keeps a copy of his personal journal in order to blackmail him. That's simple enough, but let's add in the fact that Chiwa, Eita's best friend, is secretly in love with him and is too shy to confess it.

This all sounds very typical of romantic comedies, and in a way it is like others. But even though the situation is typical, the characters themselves are what set it apart. Masuzu is downright evil and doesn't really care about how Eita feels, and Eita himself is a huge asshole to Chiwa most of the time because he's only worried about doing well in school. Chiwa acts childish but has a serious side, and while she has a mild case of "female lead with ADD", she controls it well enough that it's only mildly annoying.

A-1 Pictures is animating this show so it looks pretty awesome. I really love the character designs and background work on Oreshura. I wasn't assaulted by bad CG in every scene involving some sort of movement of the main characters, which is always a plus for any show this season. I love the color scheme as well, and there are a lot of different and vibrant colors used in the OP and throughout the show in general.

I did not expect to like Oreshura at all. There is some fanservice, but it's not overly done and in your face, except for in the OP. So long as the character stay well-written, this show could be one of the few good ones this winter season.

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Osaka-okan - 3

This show is hit or miss, and this episode was definitely a miss. Nothing extraordinary or funny. At least the bad episodes aren't necessarily awful, they're just sorta boring. Either way I'll be watching every episode of the short-form shows so maybe next time I'll have something to say. The art is starting to grow on me, at least. My standards sure have dropped since the start of this season...

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MaoYu - 2

Picking up where the last episode ended, MaoYu's 2nd episode has the Hero and Demon King settling into their new temporary home as they try and fix the agriculture of the surrounding area. Compared to what else is going in the story, the main characters are boring and caught up in a slow quest to slowly fix the world while other people are involved in epic battles and political intrigue. The idea to do something different than the same old story is great and all, but all of these other things are window dressing to the romantic comedy that this show seems to be centered around.

While MaoYu definitely tries to have some sort of "realistic" approach to its fantasy world set during a war against demons and humans, it still has far too much pandering and fanservice for me to take it seriously. The fact that there is an entire scene based around the Hero laying his head on the Demon King's lap leading up to a big kiss that gets interrupted by commotion outside should give you an idea of where the characters are headed. I would totally be fine with the relationship aspect of this show if it wasn't at the forefront, but unfortunately it is.

Maou Yuusha is getting dropped, and I'm really not interested in what happens next so long as the Hero and the Demon King are written the way they are. There certainly were points in the first episode where you could see them setting it up for something much bigger, which is a shame.

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Kotoura-san - 1

Based on the promo images and very little I read about Kotoura-san, I really wasn't sure what to expect with this show. It looks very cutesy and simple, but it definitely throws a curveball within the first 4 minutes. Of course it is still defined as a comedy, so in vain of something like Welcome To NHK, Koutara-san bounces being dark and being utterly stupid. Or at least the first episode did. Who knows whether or not the show will continue down this path, because all indications point to it being less serious.

Anyways, Kotoura-san's titular character, Kotoura, is an ESPer who has had a rough life due to her powers. After the explanation of her younger life the show opens up right when she begins her first day at her new school, where she tries to hide the fact that she can read minds. She ends up sitting next to a popular student, Manabe, and soon Manabe becomes infatuated with Kotoura due to her serious disposition and the fact that she actively tries to ignore him. Of course this leads to wacky hijinks involving him trying to get closer. The episode ends with more character development in two minutes than any other show this season has had during their entire runtime. Then it goes back to being dumb, of course, but I'm cool with that.

Kotoura-san is visually appealing and has a lot of interesting colors thrown around. I think the animation itself was really nice, but again like every other show there's some shots with awkward 3D effects that just come off as looking cheap. Drawing more comparisons with NHK, the opening is crazy and insane, which contrasts heavily with the exposition of the show preceding it.

I really enjoyed what I saw here and am hoping that the story pans out to be more than every other romantic comedy.