It’s been awhile since I posted about something related to anime so lets get going with this series that has just come to a close with it’s 2nd series. Now while there isn’t much difference between the two series i’m only going to be commenting on the 2nd, Rosario + Vampire Capu2. I suppose for those who don’t know this series I should begin with the plot, not that the anime follows or really has one.
Tsukune Aono is a painfully average high school freshman who is unable to get into any private school, due to his disappointing test scores. The only school he is finally accepted into turns out to be a secret school for supernatural monsters (youkai), who are disguised as humans. The first student he meets is the beautiful Moka Akashiya, who becomes his friend for an unusual reason; she is a vampire, and is attracted to the sweet taste of his human blood. Tsukune soon discovers that when he removes the “rosario” around Moka’s neck, she transforms into a super-vampire, stronger and more powerful than almost any other creature at the school. However, in this state, she has an entirely different personality, often cold and merciless.
Thanks again Wiki! So yes that is the general gist of the show. Tsukune is going to a school for monsters, when he himself is a human with no abilities at all. Along the way he befriends or rather I should say leads on 3 other ladies who, by law of harem animes, all want him and yet he doesn’t know what to do. I’m just going to rattle off a few points here as to why this show shits me.
Project ICE is a science fiction OVA with a possible hint of yuri. It came out 2007, but it seems it’s already forgotten. This anime could have been so much more, but there’s a constant feeling that the story was meant to be more. That feeling of being unfinished and limited is why you’ll never read many positive views about Project ICE.
So there’s three episodes that lead up to a confusing Neon Genesis Evangelion like ending. Some tragic event lead to human males to die out, but it wasn’t completely told or talked about. Bioterrorism and genetic engineering were possible so…make of that as you wish. With that said you know men were blamed for creating wars. Right about now you’re asking why is there action in this anime then? The surviving women cluster together and still deal with such threats. Then humanity decides engineering is the only since there’s no way for children to be born.
What happens afterward and the fall apart really deserves it’s own thoughts. The very being (or tool) that is created to save humanity is also a weapon and a virus of thought. Without fully spoiling it I can say it’s big and able to destroy everything.
Characters and animation are a bit mixed. None of the characters will grow on you and several were either annoying or poorly voice acted. There were some fairly impressive long distance shots of various events and the character design styled changed often. Expect anything from Revolutionary Girl Utena, shoujo, to a much more serious look. Hiromi reminds me of Kaze from Final Fantasy Unlimited, but at least she talks. Both of them have a cape, carry a fancy gun, and an eye patch.
Oh, hey. Final Fantasy Unlimited was like ICE in where you didn’t have enough budget. More images under the cut!more…
Like the mythbusters say, if it’s worth doing it’s worth overdoing. You would think that after 4 game releases in the Dj Max series that developers Pentavision would be running out of steam when it comes to their special editions. Well this was just released for pre-order (which I swiftly placed mine) today and judging from the looks of things they aren’t 1 bit. Every western game developer should take note that this is how special editions are done.
As you may of read here or else where the mind behind Kannagi, Eri Takenashi, had stopped writing/drawing the manga due to health reasons. There was a lot of speculation as to if this was the real reason or not due to the last chapters almost explosive ending for otaku. However a day or 2 ago there was a report of Eri being so sick that she was unable to even move her arms or hands. This serious illness, which is still as of yet undisclosed, no doubt scared people into thinking that she could very well die and Kannagi would remain an unfinshed series.
Thankfully after the great doctors work over in japan, she is recovering now after a successful surgery and while she is indeed recouperating, she has shown interest in resuming her work so if you’re following the manga series fear not! there shall be a few months break but then it will return as usual. Glad to hear she is getting better after this mystery illness. Wonder what it could of been?
On an unrelated note in order to stop this from being an extremely short post, for those who are interested, the Limited Edition Dj Max Black Square kit as shown in my last post is accepting pre-orders over at play-asia.com so if you’re a fan and have $85 US spare laying around you should pick it up as this wont last long
I wanted to try and keep non anime related posts to a minimum but after seeing this I really wanted to post a few things. This can also apply to anime DVDs as well so the same principal applies. Now days when a high profile game is released there is nearly always a “limited edition” version that is sold alongside it for extra money, but you get a few extras along with the game. Usually this involves a DVD you never watch, a CD with audio you hardly ever listen to and some other trinkets. It has always felt a bit flat for me when looking at this. They never offer any reason to fork out the extra money. Thankfully they are trying to rectify that with games such as Farcry 2 that are starting to pick up on the whole “limited edition means more bonuses with the game” However largely the western world is failing at this. They consider the above mentioned DVD and CD that come with the game enough reason to charge sometimes $30 or more than the game alone.
Then you go places such as japan or korea. They laugh at the idea of simple limited editions. Not only that but i’m pretty sure they understand that if you make said LEs really limited (sometimes in the 1000’s, sometimes in the 10,000’s) and add excessive extras that they will sell at an insane rate regardless of the price. This is where the DJ Max series comes in. They have just announced a LE version of the new game DJ Max Portable Black Square. Not only is this excessiveness in it’s pure form, but it is REALLY limited. We’re talking only 1500 made here. This is what i’m talking about… more…
