Ok now while this isn’t anime related I really wanted to post this as i’m sure these bands aren’t as known as they should be. Dir En Grey and Versaillies. I’ve been listening to these guys for awhile now and i’ve been meaning to make a post about them. Chances are if you like anime, you have also taken a liking to the music played during the show be it OPs or EDs. On top of that you may also have started getting into other forms of japanese music. This is where these 2 bands come in. If you’re a fan of metal then you really should listen to them.

Dir En Grey

They are what I would call a heavy metal band but they could be classed as many things, including Visual Kei which they originaly belonged to before toning down their look a bit. They have 1 of the best music videos i’ve seen in awhile and by best I mean most twisted and disturbing even over throwing Marilyn Manson. Lets talk about the singer a bit. The singer in a band is argueably the most important person. He has to sing and people have to like his voice, he has to find a way to connect to the crowd and get their attention. This guy seems to have gone to the same showmanship school as Manson did as he has gathered some fame beyond just being a singer. according to Wikipedia… more…

Yes we have all seen the horrid photos of when cosplaying, which is dressing up to match an anime or game character, goes wrong and results in an image burned into your brain you can’t forget. It’s always a very traumatic event when you see a 150kg Misty or ugly-as-sin Konata. Not to point any fingers but these generally tend to be american people and end up looking like this

However that said, I thought it would be a pleasant change to see what happens when both american, and japanese cosplay succeeds…

Oh and please correct me if any of the characters names I use are wrong, i’m doing my best to remember them all since its 2am right now. Oh and also i’ll update this again tomorrow since imageshack is being annoying and won’t let me edit this with more photos i’ve found. Buu

EDIT – Ok so it’s the next morning and like I said, i’m going to update this with some more awesome cosplay i’ve managed to find.

more…

Over here there is a petition starting, asking the government to allow marriage to 2d characters with the following translated text.

“We’ve no interest in the 3D. If we could, we’d like to live in a 2D world. However, with current technology, this is not possible. So at the very least, can we have marriage to 2D characters legally recognised? If this were to come to pass, I intend to marry Asahina Mikuru.”

A few thoughts about this come to mind after reading about this…

1. This is both pathetic and sad on a level that is utterly amazing
2. Why would they ever think of signing something like this and submitting it to any government official?
3. If by some incredible stroke of luck this did get passed, what do you think the laws would be on the minimum age limit?
4. How would they deal with the millions of people who would want to marry the same character like Konata or Haruhi. Would they be married to all of them at once or is it a 1 character to 1 person type deal?
5. Finally, how would the honeymoon work? Would they have use 1 of those hugging pillows?

First of all what’s this news doing on an anime site? Well i’m not really sure but I had to post about something and this is the newest thing to happen of any interest to me besides me getting a new computer, so I figured that this at least has some form on anime to it in the way of Music Videos to the songs you can play. Regardless of all that, for those who actually own a PSP and play the game (and those who don’t, shame on you) you’ll be happy to know that the new game DJ Max Clazziquai has been released. I must admit to obtaining this game in less than reputable ways, and am partially a contributer to the following problem but this is just because i’m broke right now. I’ll be buying the game when I get money next week or so. So anyway, this is what was planned to happen.

The new DJ Max game was set to be released in 2 parts… sort of. There was to be a Beginner game this month, to introduce new people into the world of DJ Max. This game had the following features

– Eaiser modes of play such as 2 Button, and 4 Button FX in addition to the usual, 4, 5 and 6 button modes.

– 48 or so songs from mostly new artists, and the band (group? idk who they are) Clazziquai. I suppose this could be a Guitar Hero Aerosmith type deal only the korean version.

– Eaiser note charts for beginners to follow and play, although at the harder levels things heat up a little bit. They are ment to prove a challange to newer players.

This game is entirely noob friendly as the original did have a little bit of a learning curve for people who have never tried a game like this before. I love it even though i’m quite a decent player (I can finish every song in DJ Max Portable 2 except for Nightmare which is damn hard) Anyway part 2 was set to be released next month. Enter Black Square. This follow up was for the veterans of the series who wanted a challange. It included

– 8 button mode for people who have pet spiders to help them work the buttons. I can’t play 8B at all because my hands are so big, that even holding the psp without the game on is a bit uncomfortable

– Music from the first 2 DJ Max games, along with a ton of new songs from the classic people such as Nein, Planetboom, Croove and so forth totaling over 100 songs

– Harder note charts than Clazziquai for extra difficulty.

This was set to release next month in november sometime.

According to a rumor and a korean website, someone (not sure who, I doubt it would be the developers) are pissed off that Clazziquai was leaked/released onto the internet a day, or on the day that it was on sale. This shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone who knows how fast the game scene moves on the internet. Usualy games are out, and cracked before they are even avaliable in stores.

So what have they decided to do? Why put Black Square on hiatus of course. I have no clue as to why they would even think of doing this but according to some it’s their way of saying “buy the game or else we wont release part 2” This got me thinking. Can you imagine if another company did this?

We all know by now how Starcraft 2 will be released in 3 parts yeah? Imagine the shitstorm that would happen if they said “parts 2 and 3 are on hiatus for an unknown time until we are happy with sales because of people downloading the game” They would be burnt alive and hung for treason to gamer-kind. Ok mabye not that hard but you know what I mean. I guess since the DJ Max series is really a korea-first type game that they don’t really care about what other countries think about what they do.

Either way it seems the wait for the next DJ Max game will continue and be a bit of a long one. I hope i’m wrong on this and it is just a false rumor, or that the game will only be on hold for a few months.

Here are a 8 of the brilliant new songs which happen to be my favorites, with their background videos to go with them. Man the videos they have are so much better quality than their first and even their 2nd games. The first 2 looked like someone could have done it or better with a flash program and some time. These ones are really quality looking, Especialy First Kiss.

Flea – Ok I found this song last night while playing and without a doubt is my favorite song in the entire game. Bravo Clazziquai, you are now officaly awesome. Oh and this is also the opening video to the new DJ Max game so you have the credit screens before the song actually starts.

 

Eternity – This song is stunning to me. Its so peaceful, and yet has such a great beat to it and of course Miya (the singer in it) has her beautiful voice as always which makes it such a charm to listen to.

First Kiss – Such a nice feel to this song

Creator – I love this song so much. Deffinately in my top 4 songs

Night Stage – Another awesome song. I love the guy’s voice.

The Clear Blue Sky – I didn’t like this song at first but it’s grown on me

I Want You – Quite a bouncy song that I really enjoy listening to and playing.

Closer – Not a real fan of the video but the song is great to play even on the easiest setting. Only it’s ruined by that stupid rapper JC. God I wish they would give him the ass and not let him do any songs anymore. At least ones where he isnt the main singer. Just shut the hell up and stop ruining songs.

Honeymoon – Again this has a good beat to it and a catchy tune that i’m already humming to myself.

And that’s that. There is no shortage of gameplay videos to watch on youtube so if your even kinda interested in music games and own a PSP this is is a must have. This is the only reason I turn my psp on anymore

There are a lot of great moments in anime. These of course vary from person to person and 1 I never really hear or see all that much are sad moments. I don’t mean moments that you go “oh thats a shame”. No no no, that will hardly do at all. I’m talking about moments that bring you almost to tears or make you feel so depressed that you need to do something else to cheer yourself up. So why do a list about this then? Well because I can and these moments while indeed are sad, they are so wonderful in their own way that they deserve to be seen by all. These are in no particular order so lets get down to it shall we?

Clannad Episode 9 – Fuko’s Arc End

An incredible series converted from an equally incredible game that should be on everyone’s list to play. This episode was the most sad for me of the entire series. At least what I saw of the series. I stopped watching around episode 17 as I had just come off playing the Visual Novel, and refused to have the endings i’d played through, ruined for me by the show. Fuko is a girl who on the day of her opening ceremony at school, got into a car accident and was left in a coma. If my memory serves me correct, 3 years later, when the story takes place, her ghost shows up in school carving starfishes for everyone so they can celebrate her sister’s wedding. Long story short, at the very end there is a really tearful moment where she appears in front of her married sister, congradulates her and dissappears, making everyone forget all about her, with only deja vu type memories remaining. It’s such a sad yet touching scene where she finally gets her only wish granted, seeing her sister happyly married. 

At the very very end of the episode, we get a sweet moment where Tomoya is imaging Fuko coming up to him and offering him a starfish while she asks for him to be her friend. This is the happy ending for Fuko’s good ending. Now some of these story arcs have 2 endings. a Good, and True ending. Each different ending moments or tales that play out past certain intervals. Since the show is based on Tomoya eventualy choosing Nagisa as his girlfriend and future wife, the true ending could not be shown on tv. This is unfortunate as Fuko’s true ending is what stopped me from almost crying. Yes call me a wuss or whatever names you want, but ever since playing Kana: Little Sister i’ve almost, and have cried numerious times during anime. But that is another story all together. 

Fuko’s true ending goes like this; bearing in mind of course that it has been a long while since I played this, so details may be a tiny bit fuzzy or off, but are nearly spot on. Fuko and Tomoya go to the school at night (this is shown in the anime, but with Nagisa present) and they have a sort of celebration for her. Party hats and what not. Very cute. As the night goes on and both of them become tired, they decide to sleep at school. Tomoya sits down and fuko sits down beside him. They talk for a bit and after awhile Tomoya pulls Fuko onto his lap and hugs her. Here is where her endings split into 2 paths. You are given the option to kiss her, or stay hugging her. In the TV version you get the “keep hugging her” option. So Tomoya kisses her and finaly confesses he likes/loves her. They fall asleep together hugging. When Tomoya wakes up Fuko is gone and no one can remember her except for him. Of course he is sad but goes on with his life. I’m not sure how much longer, a girl runs into him in the halls at school. Fuko has woken up from her coma finaly (long story) and holds up a starfish for Tomoya and says “Will you go out with me?” And thus ends Fuko’s arc. Of course he would go out with her.

Since I can’t find a video of the ending i’m talking about, here is a short video of Fuko doing what she does best, Spacing out.

Oh and there is this AMV of Fuko’s whole story which should show you what she is like, and why she is my favorite Clannad character.

Kanon Episode 10 – Makoto Arc End

Another anime from the awesome story tellers Key, who are responsible for Clannad. In this episode, we see the close of an even sadder story than Fuko. Granted this is a little bit more supernatural than a ghost. Yuichi (the main character) found a little fox that was injured 10 years before the main stories of Kanon start. he rescued it and all summer long looked after it, nursing it back to health. When the summer break finished he released it back into the wild and said goodbye. 10 years later when the story starts. Runs into a girl called Makoto. She has no memories of anything but knows she hates Yuichi. Another long story short (key are very good at building romance, so just watch the series already) it turns out Makoto is the same fox that Yuichi took care of when he was a child and she has transformed into a human only for a brief period of time so she can be with him. 

Both Yuichi and Makoto fall in love together, and her time starts to run out in the world. She starts to revert back to her more fox like qualities like being unable to talk or remember things except for Yuichi. Seeing (and after being told what will happen by another person) what is happening, Yuichi decides to give Makoto what she wanted, which was to marry him and stay with him forever. They go to a hill where Yuichi has bought a wedding veil and puts it on her. He says the usual speech and they get “married”. As the sun starts to set Makoto starts to slowly fall asleep and before long, she disappears entirely from Yuichi’s arms leaving him all alone. I just cannot get over how much crap this guy goes through. This isn’t even the half of it. Of course due to the original material being a visual novel, he meets 3 or 4 other girls who all either dump him, or die on him. This guy has the worst luck in the anime dating world and he is THE single best male lead character in romance shows. Still, all the other girls pale in comparison to the epic tragedy that is Makoto.

Finding videos of the specific endings is kinda difficult so you’ll have to make do with this beautiful AMV that is about Yuichi and Makoto. The scenes of her finaly disappearing are in there shuffled amongst the build up between the 2. Enjoy

Elfen Lied Episode 8 and 9 – Lucy Finally Gives Up

This comes in 2 parts, and everyone who has seen this will know exactlly what I mean. This is deffinatly worthy of being on this list. But first a bit of backstory is required to get the full effect of this. Lucy is a Diclonius. Diclonius are humans with 2 small cat like ears on their heads and are able to controll what are called Vectors. Think of these as invisible (to humans) arms that can carry, block, cut or destroy nearly anything they come into contact with. Now since it has been awhile when I last watched this, I cannot remember if it is in a Diclonius’s nature to be destructive or just something that comes as a result of how they are treated. However  this flashback looks at Lucy starting off as a child that is picked on, made fun of and teased constantly about her horns. She is given horrible names like freak and animal. Even her own family aren’t very loving of her. Growing up this way is never easy, but since she is a diclonius it is a little different for her. She has this voice inside her head telling her to kill people, like a concious gone wrong. This could be her diclonius nature coming out but I do not remember exactly, but she is a nice person.

1 day she finds a little puppy out in the woods, or area she goes to be alone. She likes him and starts to look after him sort of. Feeding him and being friends with him. Meanwhile at school things are getting worse. The kids are beating her up trying to make her cry or get some reaction out of her and a girl steps in to stop them. She befriends Lucy and is shown the little puppy. A few days later the bullies at school corner Lucy after school I presume and pretty much tell her they intend to antagonize her again. But this time they have the puppy with them. Seems that “friend” (at least to me) was only nice to her in order to betray her. Lucy finaly starts to sees that humans will only hurt her. Lucy finaly fights back to try and save the puppy, the bullies take things too far and right in front of Lucy, kill the puppy by bashing it to death with a flower vase. This is a very disturbing, and sad scene where Lucy says 1 of the most memorable quotes in anime history.

“When you’re miserable, you need someone even more miserable than yourself”  

What happens next is a scene that everyone will remember. Lucy, for a brief moment snaps and in a shower of blood destorys everything in the room. Children, furnature you name it. After the carnage subsides the area looks like a slaughter house. 

Warning, this scene may be disturbing for some/most. The dog sound… aw man thats rough.

Understandably after this Lucy is upset and goes to her place to be alone. There she meets Kouta, the main character of the story as a boy. For the first time she meets someone who thinks she is great. He loves her horns and they become friends. They go to the zoo together and play all the time. She genuinely starts to like him… a lot. One day a festival happens and Lucy asks Kouta if he would go with her. Kouta has to turn her down however as he has already promised his cousin he would go with her. Lucy starts to worry and asks if his cousin is a boy or a girl. See where this is going? Kouta lies and says a boy and she is releaved. 

So she decides to go anyway, I suppose hoping to run into Kouta. Indeed she does only to find out Kouta’s cousin is a girl who is acting very close to him (Yuka loves him but that is another story). This finaly becomes to much to her and she has a breakdown right there in the street. She has a full conversation in her mind with her diclonius’s evil nature and finaly starts believing that humans only bring pain. She finaly snaps and decides to “change the world into her world”.

“No more. I can’t take it anymore. Friends or a place to stay… I don’t… have anything anymore”
“Kouta… Goodbye. I really liked you”

As in the last episode, there is a spray of blood and she clamly walks killing people that come to help her or are near her as she says 

“I’ll wipe you all out. Every damn last one of you”

With that, the good natured Lucy is gone, at least for now, and what follows is a lot of death involving her killing people as she goes from house to house slaughtering entire families just to take their house and food.

Again, finding actual scenes is kinda hard on youtube so you have this AMV that has all the scenes im talking about in it. Well at least the main ones. Also take note, this video has nudity, however brief it may be, and a bit of blood. If you’re not ok with that then don’t watch.

Well that is it for now at least. Its late so I should wrap this up. I may do another of these since these certainly weren’t the only moments I can come up with. Time will tell.

1 internet to whoever can guess where I got the title for this entry from. Hint: it’s a comedian. After an incident a few nights ago that isn’t really worth going into, I decided that I would write about things in the anime world that just piss me off. No more intro needed to this really.

Male Lead Characters

I know it must be slightly hard to come up with characters to populate an anime or manga series with but do creators really have to reach for the “Character Personality Creation For Dummies” book? Here is what i’m talking about. The typical male lead, which for repitition reasons I shall now call “ML’s”. How can you tell this guy from his elusive, well hidden cousins? Here is a few things to look for.

• Nervious around women.
• Totaly stupid.
• Utterly clueless about women.
• Perversion. Usualy for boobs. If not entirely he has a obsession about 1 or more parts of the female body

Characters guilty of this:

• Yuuto – Nogizaka Haruko no Himitsu
• Tsukune – Rosario+Vampire
• Saito – Zero no Tsukaima (however this is forgivable as he has moments that totally redeem himself)
• Yuichi – Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora
• Keitaro – Love Hina

All of the above characters are guilty of this crime against the anime world. The stupid male is so overused and it is about damn time we got some change happening. How can they go about correcting this bad choice? Easy, you call the stupid moron’s couisn; the compentant, awesome ML. This guy can talk to women, understand them and what is going on with them and to a certain extent their feelings and just generaly act like a normal guy would. He doesn’t stutter or get nervious when the ladies get close to him, doesn’t freak out when they hold his arm or spew forth pints of blood at the meet sight of cleavage. He is a normal person who the anime world is much to devoid of.

Characters guilty of being awesome like this:

• Tomoya – Clannad
• Yuichi – Kanon

I wish I could add more than 2 people to this list but I just havn’t seen an abundance of romance genre shows with awesome ML’s and these are the only 2 that come to mind right now to show how well done male protagonists can really be. Of course both of these series were based off of visual novels (1 adult, 1 not) of their perspective titles, however Key know how to make male characters seem authentic and 1 can only hope others take note of this. This part is getting way to long despite this being perhaps the 1 point I can’t stand about anime over all others so it’s about time we moved on to…

Tsundere Girls

For those who don’t follow japanese terms very well, a Tsundere character is a girl who is usualy very insultive, often physically abusive and very hard to get along with. However she is a nice girl at heart and will eventually become much more friendly after awhile. These type I have never understood myself. In shows like Zero no Tsukaima, the object of the ML’s affection is a rude, abusive, bitch of a character who physically beats the male lead on a daily basis on top of blowing him up with magic. Yes these girls have their nice sides but honestly if a woman was always beating you up, insulting you, throwing stuff at you and screaming at you, chances are you’re not going to fall in love with her are you? You’d call her a Crazy bitch and dump her ass and find someone better.

Now why can’t the ML’s seem to do this? Of course everyone wants to see the guy get the girl in the end but for once why can’t it be someone who you don’t expect? Someone who is nice to him and looks after him rather than giving him brain damage by kicking him in the head when they get mad? Just once i’d like to see this play out in a series.

Guy finds girl. Girl likes guy but is a tsundere so she is a total hag to him. He tries to put up with her crap but in the end he meets someone else that is genuinely nice and he says to the tsundere “i’m sorry, I can’t put up with you anymore. you always hurt me, yell at me, beat me and i’m sick of your shit. I found “X girl” who loves me, I don’t want you anymore”. Just totaly shatter her feelings to show her what’s what. These girls need a harsh slap upside the head in the spot most vunerable. Hit the weak point for massive damage! Sorry i’m back now. Perhaps that is too harsh of a view but still I would love to see it and i’m sure a lot of others would too.

High School Romances

Ok we get the idea already. Stop it. In high school you had learnt about girls and how awesome they are so you were on the look out for a girl friend. Since when did 99% of romance show need to use this setting as the backdrop? Why can’t their be settings were the story takes place at someones work, or their home, or… ANYTHING but a damn school. Out of all the shows ive seen that involve romance I can only think of 1 that didn’t abuse this, and actually had an honestly portrayed ML. That show was Koi Kaze which I throughly enjoyed however I do doubt that the topic of full-blood incest will sit well with the majority of people.

Also a point no one seems to realise is that there is no way people who aren’t even out of their teens live happyly ever after. How often does that happen these days? Yes I know this isn’t supposed to have any real connection to reality reasoning but the chances of 1 couple surviving until their 70s or whenever they die is just insane. Much less expect every show that has 1 of these couples to. We never see what happens 2 or 3 years later to see if they are still together. Yeah yeah nit picking but still. Think of it this way though.

Remember the old Die Hard movies? No i’m not talking about the latest one, but rather the first 3. In the original Holly, John’s wife, is taken hostage. He saves her and she falls in love with him all over again and they get back together. In part 2, John is going to the airport to meet her. Hijinx ensue and sure enough he saves her life yet again. Thats life saving act #2. In the third movie however she doesn’t talk to him anymore. He has become and alcoholic and he says it’s been months says he had talked to her. If saving a womans life TWICE isn’t enough to live happly ever after then what hope do 2 18 year olds have, when the biggest obstical they’ve overcome is them admitting they like each other?

Underused Character Personalities

While there is an overflow of overused mundane personalities, the ones that really deserve to be used more than just once or twice are often forgotten about until a show comes along that makes you remember why you liked those types in the first place. Examples.

Innocently Stupid

• No real surprise here but this girl is usualy stupid but in a way that is cute enough to like. She doesn’t mean to have dumb moments but they happen often enough for hilarity to partake. She can also be tricked into thinking something that isn’t right with little to no effort
• Best example: Kana – Minami-ke

Sincere and Caring

• This lady cares a lot for the people around her and is sometimes too nice to the point where you expect them to turn into a demon and eat someone. They love people and think nothing of going out of their way to do things for others, again to the point where it just seems unnatural.
• Best example: Akari Mizunashi – Aria

Shy but Sweet

• A rarity for characters but it does exist. Thes girls are quite shy around people and often get nervious but are very kind. Usually softly spoken too. Not much else needs to be said about this class really.
• Best example: Sora Kajiwara – Sketchbook ~Full Colors~

Strange and Unusual

• I think most people know what this means by now. Anyone who has seen the brilliant Azumanga Daioh will know who i’m refering to straight away. Yes my favorite anime girl of all time Osaka. She so personifies a potentialy epic personality that should be used again. However i’m sure if it was it would come under fire for trying to copy her trademark blank stare and downright strange, random thoughts. Actually on second thoughts perhaps this shouldn’t be used again as it was done so well mabye further use would only hurt.
• Best Example: Osaka – Azumanga Daioh

Well that about wraps it up from me. This post has gone on enough that any more would just be treading grounds on issues I already have, but in different forms so let me end by saying anime is in no way perfect, and I doubt it ever will be but damnit I still adore it.