More Sorries

I know it's been a long time since my last update, but with the holidays came computer upgrades. Yes, I got a new graphics card and 2 GB of RAM for Christmas. I love my parents. I've been using my newly acquired awesomeness to play The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (and the expansions) nearly non-stop. I must say the graphics look astoundingly better, with no lag in sight. In addition my best friend and brother from another mother Shaun has let me borrow his Wii. Of course this means that this year's Winter-een-mas was especially enjoyable for me. In the midst of all this I have somehow managed to fit anime, movies, and volunteering at the American Red Cross doing dishes an additional day into my schedule. Though I have no source of income, there is much to do and not enough time to do it.

Regaurding anime I have compiled a giant list of anime which I desire to watch before 2010 comes to a close. You may be thinking "why make a list so early?" I'll tell you why, because the list is freaking ginormous:

.hack // Legend of the Twilight Bracelet .hack // Roots .hack // Sign .hack// Liminality Afro Samurai Afro Samurai: Resurrection Blood+ Card Captor Sakura Clannad Clannad After Story Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 Death Note Devil May Cry Digimon Digimon Adventure 02 Digimon Tamers DN Angel Dragon Ball GT Dragon Ball Kai Final Fantasy VII: Denzel Final Fantasy VII: Last Order Fooly Cooly Full Metal Alchemist Fullmetal Alchemist: Blind Alchemist Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Gantz Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. Solid State Society Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Hand Maid May Hellsing Ultimate InuYasha InuYasha: Final Act Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne Love Hina Again Mobile Fighter G Gundam Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny Mobile Suit Gundam Wing Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz Naruto Movies Naruto Shippuuden Neon Genesis Evangelion Ouran High School Host Club Pokemon Ranma 1/2 Ranma 1/2 One Flew Over the Kuno's Nest Ranma 1/2 OVA Ranma 1/2 Special Ranma 1/2 Super Rozen Maiden Rozen Maiden: Ouverture Rozen Maiden: Traumend Rurouni Kenshin Rurouni Kenshin: Seisouhen Rurouni Kenshin: Tsuiokuhen Sailor Moon Samurai Champloo Samurai Jack s-CRY-ed Shaman King Shugo Chara Shugo Chara Doki Shugo Chara Party! Slayers Evolution-R Tales of Eternia Tales of Phantasia Tales of Symphonia Tenchi Muyo! TV The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya Trinity Blood Witchblade Yu Yu Hakusho Yu-Gi-Oh! Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Zatch Bell Zoids Zoids Fuzors

Yeah I need all the time I can get to finish that. If I'm lucky I'll finish before 2020. Anyways I'll update with some recommendations tomorrow. Laters ~~

My Recommendations List Episode II

Anime:
Dokkoida; for that crazy Fox Kids-type Saturday morning cartoon feel with some things for the more mature audience
Popotan; an adorable, weird, goofy, funny, kawaii-overdose ecchi (meaning tits) anime
Majutsushi Orphen (aka Orphen Season 1); for people who enjoyed magic anime like Slayers
World of Narue; Space girl comes to earth and falls in love with a boy, fun for everyone
Jigoku Shoujo; People get revenge on the evil jackasses who usually deserve it

Movies:
Blade Runner; For Sci-fi similar to The Fifth Element with Harrison Ford killing Replicants
9; An awesome animated steampunk movie produced by Tim Burton is like a cross between Fallout 3 and Little Big Planet (while that combination may seem sketchy, it actually works really well)
Bruno; While not as great as Borat (in my opinion) you still get some great moments from Sasha Baron Cohen

Music:
Chimaira; awesome brutal metal band recommended by my good buddy Chris
GWAR; my personal favorite metal band of all time
Moi Dix Mois; Gothic Japanese Metal band that preformed at AX 2009
Children of Bodom; Another recommendation by Chris, was unable to say no once I heard their metal renditions of 'Talk Dirty to Me' and 'Oops! I Did it Again;
Korpiklaani; Northern European metal that sounds like something Vikings would listen to if they were still around
Green Day; If you haven't heard of them, get out of your fucking cave. Their last two albums 'American Idiot' and '21st Century Breakdown' are epic

That's all for now. More to come... possibly.

Queen's Blade

Sorry for not posting in so long, procrastination is my worst enemy. Anyways on with the blog!

Today's anime review is Queen's Blade. This is an ecchi anime which means there are boob shots a-plenty. Needless to say there is fan service in generous portions. Now that we have the nudity aspect out of the way, let's get to the actual story shall we? The plot is that there is a tournament known as the Queen's Blade where women fight to be known as the strongest and most beautiful. Of course all of the characters I have seen in this anime are beautiful, but that's besides the point. There's some pretty great action in this anime, and it's a kind of fantasy medieval sort of setting. So far I am greatly enjoying this series and will soon be reviewing Queen's Blade: Gyokuza O Tsugu Mono. This anime gets an 8/10 and you can watch it here.

Flight of the Last Vampire

So I went to blockbuster yesterday and picked up some movies, as I am one to do. The movies that I'm reviewing are Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane and Blood: The Last Vampire. Neither of these movies were really that great. Both movies seemed to be fairly low-budget with casts of mostly unknowns. Flight of the Living Dead is pretty self explanatory, some sort of virus that was developed by the government to bring the dead to life is transported on a plane and eventually causes zombies to run a muck. 4/10 for only the fact that I love zombies so much. Blood: The Last Vampire is a 2009 live-action movie loosely based on the anime Blood+. I do mean loosely So loosely only the main character Saya is the only thing that's really in common. There is no other character from the anime in this movie, the plot is completely different and she even uses a different sword. It's not even the same as the 2000 animated movie by the same name that really launched the series. The effects weren't that great either, the "vampires" looked more like claymation of the late 80s/early 90s. Totally fucked that one up 1/10.

Apologies

Sorry for not updating in so long. My computer decided to quit reading my browser so I was forced to upgrade to Windows 7 (which is actually a great improvement over Vista). This fixed the problem I had with the internet, but the Windows 7 decided to block access to my CD/DVD-ROM drive, so I was unable to complete my Halloween movies. Two weeks after posting a plea for help on the Microsoft Answers forum, I have yet to receive an answer to my problem. So yes in the back of my mind I have been quite pissed the past few weeks. But I shall post reviews of A Little Snow Fairy Sugar, Blood: The Last Vampire (2009), Daphne in the Brilliant Blue, Inuyasha, Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and Miss Congeniality over the next few days. Until the next sunrise, good night.

This is the Post that Never Ends... Or does it?

Sorry for the lack of updates recently, I've been quite busy and will on,ly be getting more busy. I do have much to share though so strap yourself in for a long read.

First up, I want to tell you about Dragonball Kai. This anime is an HD re-release of Dragonball Z, celebrating it's 20th anniversary, but that's only the beginning. There are also new sound effects, some new dialogue voiced by the original cast, as well as new opening and ending sequences. Oh, and they are more closely following the manga and have cut all of the filler that was created for the show due to it being aired while the manga was still being released. I suggest you watch it if you are a fan of Dragonball Z. Watch here.

I've gotten back into playing on Byond and boy, has it changed quite a lot. It's not nearly as uniformly set out as it used to be. The coding system appears to be more advanced ergo the experience of the game play has improved. If you didn't know Byond is a free site that utilizes a free program to host user-created games. Many of these games are multi-player, allowing you to interact with others. Although this isn't necessarily a good thing because there are a lot of ass holes who play these games and they are more than happy to harass you. But that doesn't apply to all games. There are also some single player games that can be very fun depending on your interests. All of the games use a 2D format thus it is quite reminiscent of the old NES, SNES and Genesis consoles. Many of the more popular games are based on anime such as Bleach, Naruto and Dragon Ball /Z/GT as well as many devoted to Final Fantasy. There are even some Text-based games that are like an online Dungeons & Dragons experience (table-top D&D that is). I suggest trying it if you are into that sort of thing. Remember it's virus-free and costs nothing to play. To check it out go here.

Now to review some movies. Last week I had the opportunity to rent Coraline. Of course, I loved every minute of it. That sort of weird animation just really appeals to me. I'm sure most of you have seen it so I won't go into the plot. I give it a 9/10. Along with Coraline I rented this movie called Undead. It's a zombie movie that is quite over the top. It takes place in England or Australia, I'm not sure which because they all speak like the Brits and play cricket, but at one point there was the Australian national flag so that confused the hell out of me. I'm not even sure if they play cricket in Australia. Anyways the movie was okay for a b-movie, the effects were decent, the make-up was pretty good and I even got a few laughs out of it. The best part of it has to be the farmer-looking fisherman/gun salesman who uses 3 shotguns linked together. Pretty fucking sweet. This movie gets a 6/10.

I have also been reading through more of the manga I have listed on the right and am getting much closer to being caught up with Zombie Loan. It turns out that Zombie Loan is made by the same two women who are working on Shugo Chara (have I mentioned this before? If I have I'm saying it again), which explains the similar comedy. As soon as I am fully caught up with that I'll start taking a swing at reading Naruto again. If only I had an extension on my lifespan. That's all for today!

Ani-Mayday!

I decided to watch a few new anime today and the first I came across was AIKa: Zero. This anime must be entirely geared towards men due to the enormous amounts of fan service. In case you didn't know what fan service is it's when an anime uses panty shots, bra shots and almost nudity. In fact this anime does have breast nudity. I guess you could say it dances on the boarder of anime and hentai. There's only one episode out so the plot of the thing is still sketchy, I'll let you know how it turns out after a few episodes. You can watch it here.

Another one I've started watching is Bakemonogatari (which roughly translates as Ghost Story). It's got a unique style and story and at times can have really insane art (and I do mean insane as in crazy, lunatic, touched in the head, mentally unstable) at points, but I do enjoy that; it keeps you on your toes. There is also some fan service scenes in this anime too, but not to as much of an extent as AIKa: Zero it's really not much more than the typical anime geared towards a male audience. The story seems to partially revolve around an ex-vampire named Araragi and a girl named Sanjougahara. I've only watched a few episodes thus far but so far I am greatly enjoying it. You can start watching it here.

My Recommendation List Episode I

Today I am making recommendations. My first is the anime Azumanga Daioh. I greatly enjoy this anime and have watched it multiple times. It may be considered "girly" but I like it anyways and recommend it to any fan of slice-of-life high school anime. You can watch it here.

I also have to recommend Kung Fu Hustle to anyone who has not yet seen it. It is a fantastic action comedy by acclaimed Chinese director Stephen Chow. I must say it's quite hilarious and more than that the effects and fight scenes are amazing. Highly recommended to anyone who likes kung fu movies or Jackie Chan type films.

I also would like to make the recommendation of the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan for all my fantasy reading fans. It's got a Lord of the Rings type feel and is very well written. The final book is due to come out later this year. I recommend you pick up all of the books ASAP.

Anime, SDCC and a Webcomic

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days but I've been trying to catch up with anime like I said I was going to. I finally finished watching Slayers and Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid. I greatly enjoyed them both. I also caught up on The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya since I was 3 episodes behind. I can't wait until the "endless eight" episodes are over. It's getting tedious watching the same thing over and over but I'm sure that the end will justify the means.

During my anime watching I've discovered that there is currently a Shugo Chara! anime. This is both good and bad news; good in the sense that "yay there's an anime!" and bad in the sense that "damn I'll have to finish the Slayers anime and Full Metal Panic Fumoffu before I can really get to it!" However if any of you readers (I know there must be at least 2 of you) want to watch it you can click here.

Today I was also found a link to a preview of Left 4 Dead 2 in a tweet by one of the people I follow on Twitter, Tim Buckley, creator of the web comic CTRL+ALT+DEL (which I recommend for any gamer) to read it click here. To see the SDCC (San Diego Comic Convention) preview of Left 4 Dead 2 click here.

I must return to watching anime now, until next time, game on.

Jackie Chan is City Hunter

Well, due to a busy weekend I've been unable to reach my goal of finishing Slayers by the weekend but I should be able to finish it tonight. I've also decided to bust out some Game Boy Advance games to play for a bit.

I'm also concerned over the lack of a manga update for Kaichou wa Maid-sama the past few weeks. I want to read more damn it! Ahem, despite not really reading much manga this weekend I intend to pick it up again in the next few days. I do have a lot to read and as time goes on the amount only increases. Damn procrastination.

I should also mention that I watched the movie City Hunter this weekend. It was quite funny and very much like a manga/anime. When I went to add it on my Amazon wishlist I discovered that it was in fact based on an anime, which explains the humor. Did I mention Jackie Chan is in it and does a hilarious street fighter parody? I very much enjoyed it so for a comedy it gets 8/10.

The Wheel of Dead Bleach

New Bleach manga is out ^_^ and the Vizard kick some gillian ass. I've also been trying to finish the first Slayers iteration and I should be finished by this weekend, at which point I'll try and finish Full Metal Panic TSR. Is it just me or does Slayers use the same attack sound effects as Dragonball? They both came out around the same time so it kind of makes sense.

I have decided that tomorrow I'll be churning out some quality Left 4 Dead time in a little diddy I like to call "Left 4 Fridead". Yes I am a genius *inflates ego*. Unfortunately I am limited to only single player or I'd ask for my loyal readers (like I have any) to join me! Maybe when Left 4 Dead 2 comes out I'll actually have money to buy it with. Most likely not.

I'm slowly working my way through the 9th book in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan entitled Winter's Heart. I'm greatly enjoying it as I have the other books in the series. Soon I'll have to purchase the next two books so I'll be able to move on without worry. Anyways I want to catch up on the series before the final book comes out. As fans of the series know Robert Jordan died a few years ago leaving Brandon Sanderson to finish the series. It seems that Jordan had much of the book basically plotted out so Sanderson really just had to put it all together. And justly Robert Jordan has the bigger author font.

Run Ichigo Run

New Bleach anime is out today watch it here. It is another filler episode but the trip to the beach actually was a little bit part in the manga, although they did expand it. Plus a bunch of the Bleach girls are in swimsuits *drool*.

I got around to playing the last Civilization 4 expansion Beyond the Sword. Pretty good an even bigger expansion than the others, lots of new empires, mods, scenarios and wonders. Thoroughly enjoyed it 5/5.

I watched the movie Run Ronnie Run the other day based on the referral of my friend Justin. It was very funny with cameos out the wazoo including a one minute Mary Poppins spoof with Jack Black which you can see here. It was a great movie with David Cross as the star (he was in movies such as Alvin and the Chipmunks, Scary Movie 2 and Kung Fu Panda as Crane. He was also a character in arrested development) and mostly appeals to Mr. Show fans. I'd never seen that show before and I liked it so it's possible that you will too. As far as comedies go it's a 7/10.

Give Me a Hand this Metal is Kinda Heavy

I added yet another manga to the list today, does that make me crazy or just bored? I hope the latter. Anyways check out Yakitate! Japan in the feed bar. It's about a boy seeking to create a bread unique to Japan seeing as how there is already French bread, English bread and German bread. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the anime and just discovered the manga. It's quite funny and also pretty informative about food. Being a food lover lets me enjoy this manga twice as much.

Haven't Really gotten around to Civ 4's expansions yet, but I think I'll get to it tomorrow. I've decided to start with warlords because I just want to crush people.

I'm very into Moi Dix Mois lately. There music is just my style. It sounds very european, they usually have instrumental tracks, it's pretty awesome metal, there's bit of techno thrown in and last but not least it's a japanese band. What more could I ask for in a band? Besides GWAR playing a concert in my back yard not much.

Seeing as how I'm on the topic of music I might as well divulge my favorite genre: Metal. Of course Rock (along with most of it's sub genres) and Goth tally a close second. But I hate Christian rock, soft rock and country rock. Firstly I'm not a christian and I don't appreciate them pushing their beliefs in one of my favorite genres. Secondly soft rock is pussy music that's why it's called soft, also isn't the term soft rock an oxymoron? As for country rock, it just disagrees with my ears. Now if you truly appreciate rock and/or metal music you should go out and find a copy of Metal: A Head banger's Journey (buy it here). It is an excellent documentary tracing the roots of metal through blues, rock, classical and the like. I guarantee that it will be an enlightening experience.

Bleach Update, Slayers and FMP!

New episode of Bleach today and as I suspected it's a filler episode. It's unsurprising since the anime was catching up to the manga. Anyways you can watch the latest episode here. At least the manga will update on Friday. I hope to see Kensei and Hisagi fight together as well as other reunions.

I've also been watching Slayers recently. It is an older anime that I quite enjoy. Check it out here. There are also more recent continuations here and here. You'll have to search for Slayers Try somewhere else.

Another anime I've been watching is Full Metal Panic! I've almost finished the first series and I'll soon move on to TSR and Fumoffu. Until tomorrow see you later!