Category Archives: Anime

The Mindez Review – Hayate no Gotoku: Heaven is a Place on Earth

Posted by Mindez on 2011年12月18日 – 18時53分
Filed under Anime, General, Japan

On Friday, almost 4 months after the 58-minute-long Hayate no Gotoku movie, Heaven is a Place on Earth, was released in Japan, it was finally released on DVD. Within hours of it coming out, fansub group Commie were the first to get it subbed. Despite being a slightly cut down version (With the extended Blu-Ray release slated for February 2012), it’s finally out for the western world to see. Potential movie spoilers ahead in this post!

Hayate no Gotoku: Heaven is a Place on Earth

The Hayate series has always been a bit of a mess of timelines and characters, with season 1 taking liberties with seemingly random manga selection and season 2 attempting to fill in the gaps where manga has been skipped over. It’s good to see that the movie carries on this tradition, with random new characters such as Tsurugino Kayura, Nagi’s friend and devoted cosplayer (Which helps them immensely when it comes to filling in their ‘random references to other anime’ quota) and Suirenji Ruka, a dance idol from the manga who appears purely to sing the opening theme. And to make the timelines more confusing, this was actually Kayura’s first appearance. In recent chapters of the manga, she is introduced as a new character for the first time. So to summarise, the second half of the first season ran alongside the second season, but before the current manga and after the first half of the first season, and the current manga is running before the movie but after the two anime seasons. Everyone follow that? Me either.

The movie is, as you may expect from Hayate no Gotoku, pretty formulaic. The entire cast of main characters is persuaded to go travel into the countryside for a few days, Nagi gets bored, the characters get lost and find themselves in trouble. The particular brand of trouble this time being a carnival that Nagi, Kayura and the Hakuou Three Amiga manage to get trapped in as everybody outside the carnival forgets about their existence. Cue Hayate desperately trying to remember about Nagi and Nagi desperately trying to find a way out. And of course, this being Hayate no Gotoku, we can’t avoid lots of blatant misunderstandings between Hinagiku/Maria and Hayate. And of course, this being Hayate no Gotoku, they couldn’t resist putting some Hinagiku fanservice in. However, unlike the OVA, the fanservice was very sparse and not at all distracting.

In its favour, the ending payoff is definitely worth the build up, something that is incredibly important. I definitely feel that it was worth watching as a viewer of the series, for some teasers into Hayate’s past and some awesome and well made scenes towards the end. There are some great scenes throughout, mostly with Hinagiku (Despite not being a big Hina fan myself). But conversely, it didn’t feel like this needed to be a movie. This would have been a fantastic two-parter in a season, but it didn’t hold up spectacularly well on its own (Something that I think the producers realised as it was released in theatres as a double bill with Mahou Sensei Negima!: Anime Final). Bottom line is that if you enjoy the series, watch it. But if you haven’t seen Hayate, this is probably not the best place to start.

For that reason, I rate this movie 8/10. On par with the second season, no better nor worse, it can just be thought of as a quick mid-season two-parter episode. Roll on season 3!

JGaming – Pokémon plus Samurai? Sign Me Up!

Posted by Mindez on 2011年12月18日 – 04時22分
Filed under General, Japan, Pokémon, Video Games

Back in November, Nintendo made the announcement that a new Pokémon game would be announced before the end of the year. Yesterday, they followed through with that and now we know what the next DS Pokémon title is going to be. Is it Pokémon Gray, like everybody thought? No, in fact they have very clearly stated that there will not be a Pokémon Grey. In fact, it’s not even a new game in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series, or the Pokémon Ranger series, or a sequel to any of the standalone Pokémon games.

I can just imagine the pitch meeting. Everyone sitting around thinking of ideas. One guy suddenly snaps his finger and goes “Got it! Pokémon in FEUDAL JAPAN!” to which Tsunekaz Ishihara jumps up and shouts “Yes! This man is a genius!” and then there would be some brofists and high fives and they’d order pizza or something. I have a pretty good grasp of how these kind of meetings go, I think.

So without further ado, the trailer for Pokémon + Nobunaga’s Ambition on the Nintendo DS.

The game is slated for release some time in Spring 2012 in Japan. No immediate plans for a US/EU release. The game is a crossover between the Pokémon franchise and the Nobunaga’s Ambition franchise. Both have a significant number of games in their respective series’, and both are fairly popular in Japan. I can’t really say much for the popularity of Nobunaga’s Ambition outside of Japan, being from the UK we’ve actually never had a Nobunaga’s Ambition game, so I’d only heard of the series when this was announced. But it seems like an incredibly weird and incredibly unexpected crossover.

So, Nobunaga’s Ambition is a turn based strategy game where you have to conquer land, build armies and use them to battle your enemies. Pokémon is a game where you roam the world collecting cute monsters and use them to battle your enemies. So I guess there’s a FEW similarities – They’re both bloodthirsty battling simulators. Yeah, that pretty much sums up Pokémon.

From the looks of things, the gameplay seems very closely modelled off of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series, and in my opinion it probably will turn out to be simply Pokémon Mystery Dungeon with an overarching storyline set in feudal Japan. Which I don’t think is by any means a bad thing, I’m a fan of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games and I do think that it’s the story that lets those games down, so this definitely has the potential to take a good idea and making it better. And I think this game definitely has potential. I’ll certainly be importing it since it’ll probably take numerous years to see a European release.

And who knows, maybe next year we’ll see Pokémon + Professor Layton or Pokémon + Phoenix Wright. I could definitely see Layton and Phoenix Wright being awesome Pokémon trainers.

What I’m Watching (Winter 2011 Edition)

Posted by Navarr on 2011年10月28日 – 23時21分
Filed under Anime

What am I watching this season?

  • Ben-To (3/12)
    A fascinating anime where students and others fight over bento boxes that have a reduced price.
  • Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai (3/?)
    In this anime, a group of students start a club in order to make friends (since none of the three have any real ones).
  • Naruto: Shippuuden (233/?)
    Yeah…
  • Pokémon Best Wishes! (53/?)
  • Working’!! (4/?)
    I loved Working! and this is the second season.  It focuses around a small group of family restaurant workers.  Its based on a 4-koma manga.
  •  Chihayafuru (0/25)
  •  Kimo to Boku. (0/13)
  • Mirai Nikki (0/26)
  • Mashiroi Symphony (0/12)

The Mindez Review – Nichijou – Now It’s On

Posted by Mindez on 2011年10月16日 – 05時34分
Filed under Anime

Well. It seems another competitor has entered the ring. I was kinda expecting my last post to go totally unnoticed. But it seems that certain people still have this site buried in their RSS feeds or email notification lists and managed to see that I updated, and it seems that a certain Navarr-esque entrant has decided to compete for the latest post. With a Minecraft post, even (Which I consider to be cheating)! So I must find something else to post about. I’m not going to lie, part of me was justifying My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic as being just as otaku as Minecraft, and I was so tempted to make a random pony update. But I’m above that, so in its place I’ve actually mentioned SOMETHING JAPANESE (*cough cough*) and written a review of Nichijou. But I warn you, Navarr. You’re playing a dangerous game, and my threat of ponies is ever-present!

So I should probably get on with it.

Nichijou (日常) is Japanese for ‘everyday’. And honestly, I can’t think of a more perfect word to sum up this slice-of-life comedy series. Originating as a manga series in Shonen Ace in December 2006 by Keiichi Arawi, it was given the anime treatment by Kyoto Animation, airing 26 episodes between April 3rd and September 25th of this year. The same studio that brought such hits as Lucky Star, K-On! and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya – And it shows. The series meets the high standards that you would expect from the creator of all of these.

The actual ‘storyline’ (if you would go so far as to call it that) revolves around multiple intertwining groups of people, the main two being  a group of 3 high school girls, Mai, Yūko, and Mio, with their high school shenanigans, and an 8 year old professor who’s never actually named that somehow has the intelligence and resources to create an advanced high school aged robot called Nano and a talking cat called Sakamoto. Just like real life, right? There’s also a bunch of other colourful characters that have their own adventures, such as Kōjirō Sasahara, a posh kid that rides a goat to school, Tsuyoshi Nakanojō, a… kid with a natural mohawk, and Kenzaburō Daiku, president of the after-school ‘go-soccer’ club, a game for which the rules are… interesting, to say the least.

Okay, so you might have got from that that it’s not the easiest anime to describe. But the series takes the formula of ‘high school girls doing things’ and really lets the imagination flow, and in time the characters all become part of this world. The quickfire nature of the sketches means that if a particular sketch may not be to your liking then a funnier one is likely not that far off. However, this can act as a bit of a double-edged sword. The series doesn’t quite have the character development of other similar series’. The characters and personalities are the same from beginning to end, which can make it slightly harder to really get into the characterisation. I walk away from the series only really feeling that I’ve ‘connected’ with maybe one of the characters. The series has no persistence – For the most part, sketches could fit in any episode, and the world just resets to the state it was in before the sketch started at the end of it. This can make it easier to jump in to episodes, but means that the characters don’t really flesh out as much as one might hope.

Graphically, the series looks amazing. The colours are slightly washed out, which makes for a very nice visual style to watch. Audibly, the series is also amazing. All of the OPs and EDs are incredibly catchy and are now thoroughly embedded inside my head. There are a lot of voice actors that also worked on Lucky Star and Seitokai no Ichizon, which makes that well done as well. In terms of humour, that’s always going to be subjective. But I would definitely say that the series has a good balance between cheap laughs and long payoffs. Certainly a style of humour that I personally loved. The only real issue I have is that people may be turned off by the lack of persistence in the world, no episode is affected by any other – But that’s a common theme amongst anime, so it’s acceptable in this context. Overall, incredible, a must-watch for any fans of Azumanga Daioh, K-On!, Lucky Star, PaniPoni Dash or anything similar.

A solid 10/10 from me!

What I’m Watching This Season

Posted by Navarr on 2010年7月23日 – 02時53分
Filed under Anime
  • Asbobi ni Iku yo!
    a crazy anime about an alien that just wants to play and about a bunch of crazy people who want a movie-style first encounter.  Harem++
  • Bleach
    Borreeeddddd.
  • Fairy Tail
    Yup.. it’s still going…
  • Giant Killing
    I’ve recently taken an interest in sports anime.  I enjoyed Cross Game, and I’m enjoying Giant Killing.  I’m wondering how that will go?
  • Heroman
    I don’t care what anyone says about this anime.  I am enjoying it.
  • Hetalia World Series
    Yes, its hetalia.  Yes, it is hilarious.  NO I DONT HAVE ANY PAIRINGS DONT ASK.
  • Highschool of the dead
    Zombies?  Sign me up.
  • Hime Chen!  Otogi Chikku Idol Lilpri
    OH MY GOD MAKE ME STOP, PLEASE.
  • K-ON!!
    Wasn’t this supposed to be a music anime?  I miss the music.
  • Kaichou wa Maid-sama!
    The student president is a maid.  Yes.  She is also SO tsundere.  Hnngggg
  • Katanagatari
    I love this.  I love this with all of my soul.  It is original, it is amazing.
  • Mitsudomoe
    These kids are horrible!  I enjoyed Minami-ke, so that should explain why I’m watching this.
  • Naruto: Shippuuden.
    I am actually kind of enjoying shippuuden.  BELIEVE IT!
  • Ookami-san and Her Seven Friends
    The fairy tale theme is cliché and overdone, but still VERY cute.
  • Rainbow
  • Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin
  • Seitokai Yakuindomo
  • Sengoku Basara 2
  • Strike Witches 2
  • Tales of Symphonia: Tethe’alla Hen
  • Tono to Issho
  • Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru
  • Yumeiro Patissiere
    No, I don’t know why.

If Pokémon Was Only A Dream

Posted by Navarr on 2010年2月18日 – 20時57分
Filed under Pokémon
Tagged as ,

Introductory Note: A friend sent this to me over AIM and I felt that it had to be shared.  I ran a spell check on it and did a few small edits.  I pulled it from Cartoon Overanalyzations who in turn pulled it from *BellicoseBreakfast’s deviantArt who in turn made it legible from the “original” 4chan thread.  It is very deep, and very long.  We’ve inserted a page break after the fourth paragraph.  Following this introduction, is the edit in all of its glory for you to enjoy:

Have you ever noticed that the pacing, tone and story development of Pokémon changes after Ash is hit by lightning in the early episodes, how Ash and his world were relatively normal until after the incident?

I have a theory.

The accident with the bike put Ash into a coma. Days later he was found and was hurried to the hospital and treated with heavy medications, which is why Team Rocket became less menacing. The medication took effect and stabilized his coma dreams so that instead of being terrifying, they became idyllic, allowing him to live out his Pokémon master fantasies.

After the beginning episodes, the series is the result of Ash’s subconscious mind fulfilling his desires, as well as attempting to escape reality. Should Ash realize he’s in a coma, he would wake up, but suffer brain damage, so he must take down all of his mental barriers one by one until he can come to grips with who he is and escape his coma (since his mind will not allow him to escape until he’s come to terms with himself).

Read More »

First Impression: Idiots, Tests, and Summoned Beasts

Posted by Navarr on 2010年1月27日 – 20時00分
Filed under Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu
Tagged as ,

From Left to Right, Top to Bottom: Shimada Minami, Mizuki Himeji, Kinoshita Hideyoshi, and Tsuchiya Kouta playing cards

I spent a very decent amount of time procrastinating when it came to watching this anime.  If you’ve ever seen my Anime List, you’d know that I spend a very decent fraction of my time watching a LOT of anime for no particular reason.  Because I had been working with my step-father for some time, I had a good amount of catching up to do.  So I prepared the episodes but never watched them – until yesterday, that is.

For such a ridiculous concept, this anime is incredibly enjoyable.  Let me explain the very weak plot:

>Akihisa Yoshii is a very, very stupid character – though, with a very kind heart.  He is the “Idiot” of the animé.  He attends Fumizuki Academy, a school where instead of everyone being on an equal level, your class is chosen by the score you received on your entrance exam, and there are six different classes students are sorted into: A, B, C, D, E, and F.  The “A” class is, of course, the smartest of the smart and looks almost exactly the same as a Five Star Hotel whereas the “F” class is the lowest of the low – Wooden (broken or breaking) desks, walls where the air from outside floats right in, and traditional Japanese sitting mats without any stuffing inside them.

However, despite this sorting students are encouraged to promote their grades through an event they call an “Exam Summoning Battle,” or ESB for short.  During these battles, the students call forth “Summoned Beasts” whose HP/AP equal the combined score of the student’s Testing ability.  If the lower class can defeat a higher class at an ESB, they are permitted (though apparently not required) to switch class facilities.

Other than this climb to the top, the rest of the plot tends to focus on the love triangle between the females Mizuki Himeji (cute, innocent, withdrawn) and Shimada Minami (tomboyish, tsundere) and the main character Akihisa, of whom is too stupid to realize that either of the girl’s like him.

Overall, this is a very fun and relaxing anime with a lot of fighting, a quick bit of absolutely ridiculous perversion (without any actual fan-service & LOTS of nose bleeding), and some sort of a storyline.

Personally, I think if gg is subbing it, it has to be good of some caliber.

Konnichiwa!

Posted by 雪・松田 on 2010年1月27日 – 05時47分
Filed under Anime, General

I’m Alex, my friends call me Yuki; I’ll be posting here every now and then with information, tid-bits and quirks about Japan, sometimes about anime, sometimes just randomness. Check out my bio, or better still my own blog or website, if you would like to know more about me.

And on a more relevant note, my recommended Anime for today is: Hetalia (it’s also my Favourite anime).