I’ve been doing alot recently. I mean, aside from schoolwork. Alot of anime, some reading, and a portion of new music as well. Hit the jump for lots of pictures and some opinions on the stuff I’ve been watching.

Anime

Baccano!

Baccano! is an anime that came out last year and completely passed me by. I can’t believe I missed it, as it is a gem of a show. Spanning 13 episodes and based off of a series of light novels in Japan, Baccano! focuses on a group of seemingly random and unrelated people. From the bumbling and lovable robbers, Isaac and Miria, to the sadistic Ladd, the characters are as varied and interesting as they come. While you may find it confusing at the beginning, stick with it, as everything slowly comes together and previously indecipherable messages suddenly make sense. Earlier scenes (the show jumps around in time and date, from 1711 to the 1930s) will fit into place and the character’s motivations clash or fit together perfectly.

In addition to having a great story and a good vocal cast, Baccano! excels in the realm of animation and style. From the awesome intro to the fast-paced battles, the series works well (I did however, notice a few places where the same animation was used twice. This however, happens rarely).

Simply put, Baccano! is a great series. Mafia, immortals, and a complex story all make for a delightful and fun show that’s worth your while.

D. Gray-man

Focusing on a group of exorcists that hunt down demons and creatures intending to destroy the world, D. Gray-man is an unique show based off of a hit manga. Centering mainly around Allen Walker and his friends, they go around the globe collecting valuable objects called Innocence that can give an Exorcist their powers. Of course, the villain, the Millennium Earl, is also attempting to destroy these before the Exorcists can get to them.

It’s really quite a good show, when it follows the main storyline. It’s still ongoing, currently at episode 77. However, earlier in the series it deviated into side plot and unnecessary filler plots that are useless to the story. If you plan of watching the series, it’d be a good idea to look up the filler episodes and avoid them. These episodes generally stink and even if they are cool, little help the progression of the main thread.

D. Gray-man is definitely enjoyable when on the main plot, however it occasionally feels drawn-out in some scenes, while others go by way too fast. Yet, the awesome design and fun characters keep me coming back. Definitely look into it, and if you like what you see, go for it.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Simply put, Gurren Lagann is pure awesome converted into TV format. Very few other shows I’ve watched have made me laugh, sniffle (real men don’t cry! …much), and yell “HECK YEAH!” all in the same episode. The show focuses on a young driller named Simon, his adoptive big brother of sorts, Kamina, and the red-haired rifle-wielder, Yoko. Eventually other characters become important as well, but for the most part, Simon stays as the focus of the show. In a nondescript future world, everyone lives underground, often terrified of earthquakes that might bring the cave roof down on them. However, one day, Kamina and Simon find a small face-like robot underground, along with a key for it. Moments later, a huge robot crashes through the roof of their cave, along with Yoko chasing after it. They use the small robot (later named Lagann) to defeat the intruder, which sends them onto even more crazy and exciting adventures.

In the simplest sense, Gurren Lagann is about giant robots fighting each other. However, the show knows not to take itself too seriously. It realizes that the whole idea is insane as it is, so why hold back? Physics are broken and gravity defied. It often parodies other gundam-like shows. It’s meant to be fun and silly, but it really does touch you at certain parts. Even the over-dramatic screaming and yelling in fight scenes is entirely on purpose. Basically, it initially sounds run-of-the-mill anime fodder, (giant robots and hot chicks) but it really turns into something awesome and incredibly fun. And I didn’t even get to mention the beautiful animation.

Claymore

Set in a fantasy world where shape-stealing monsters (Yoma) terrorize the land, the sole people who can combat the encroaching creatures are the Claymores. Women enhanced with the Yoma’s flesh and blood gain superhuman speed, strength, and healing ability. Using these powers, they protect humans. The series focuses on Clare, a Claymore, and her adventures. During the series, she is joined by a young man named Raki. They organization Clare works for is shadowy and nameless, giving her and the other Claymores assignments as they please (they are requested to rid a town of Yoma by the people there). While the Claymores are powerful, if they use too much of their Yoma powers, they will eventually fully turn into a monster themselves.

There’s lots of beheadings and slicing of various limbs in Claymore. Any desire for bloodletting will be fulfilled, to say the least. Oftentimes, important characters or skilled warriors will suddenly be beheaded or be chopped to pieces. It’s a very action-packed and serious show, but I did enjoy it, but only to a point. After episode 24, the anime diverts from the manga’s storyline and creates its own to finish the series. And it shows. The final episodes are really not that good, and desperately try to wrap things up, but leave many threads hanging. My advice would be to watch up to that point and then read the manga from there. Claymore at times is slightly weird or disturbing, but it portrays a unique struggle of human side vs. animal side and the need to resist primal urges.

Lucky Star

I’ll say it right now: if you consider yourself too manly to watch teenage girls discuss cake, anime, and daily life, don’t watch Lucky Star. It appeals to a small segment of people: otaku, ie, anime/manga fans. Plenty of in-jokes and plays on words abound, with regular humor all sprinkled in to create an overly-cute show about Konata, a blue-haired girl who obsesses over video games, anime, and manga. Neglecting her homework and working in a cosplay restaurant are her primary jobs.

The show simply follows Konata and her friends on their oddly ordinary lives. Sometimes whole episodes will be dedicated to them lounging around talking about the weather or how to eat a chocolate coronet. While often entirely “boring” in a sense, it’s equally hilarious. The series just has a loose sense of humor. Simple but funny, Lucky Star is a great show that will entertain any otaku (but if you’re already one, you’ve probably watched Lucky Star a gazillion times over by now). Is this moe?!

Books

Timeline

I had to read this book for literature class at school, and I actually enjoyed it, despite me normally hating time-travel stories. It’s not exactly new, so I’m sure most people know of it. Basically, from Jurassic Park creator Michael Crichton, comes a story about people who travel back in time to the middle ages. Well written and exciting, it’s a good book to enjoy over the summer. However, the ending is ridiculously cliched and is entirely predictable. Aside from that, however, the book stands as a fun adventure.

Music

Apocalyptica

4 cellos. And they play metal. From Metallica to their own stuff, Apocalyptica is about as unique as you can get. Awesome sound, awesome band.

Kiss by L’arc en Ciel

Kiss is the latest album from Japanese sensations L’arc en Ciel. The whole album is has cool sound — there are very few tracks on it I could even get close to saying I “dislike.” L’arc has always had great quality music, and their latest work is no exception.

Smash Bros. Brawl Soundtrack

Wow, over 300+ tracks of pure amazing from the greatest composers in the video game industry. You can’t go wrong here. Every genre of music aside from screamo and punk are covered in this album (yes, there is jazz, rock, harpsichord, and even the horrible Sonic songs!). Basically, this is the ultimate video game soundtrack. Not gonna put this one down for a while!

I’m sure you’ve read plenty of reviews about Brawl already. Everyone is completely fawning over the game. Hype is through the roof. Basically, wherever you go there is tons of Brawl news. That’s why this isn’t so much of a review as it is a description of the good and bad things in the game. After roughly three years of development and tons of anticipation, can the game stand up to the hype? Short answer: yeah, pretty much! For the boring, long answer, click through. (Also, beware of character spoilers.)

Stuff That’s Awesome:

Multiplayer. I played Melee for the entirety of it’s game-life (what, five years or so?) so with double-to-triple the content in Brawl, I think I’ll be playing this game for a while. With 35 playable characters to choose from, each unique and different in playability. Even the “clones” (characters that are similar in movesets and style) have much more varying differences this time. Ganondorf is slightly slower than before and now has several new moves that vary from Captain Falcon. The most disappointing thing would be the “triple-clone” of Fox, Falco, and Wolf. While they now are very different, they still feel like triplets: all similar with minor differences.

Stage Builder. It may be limited, but the stage builder is still freaking awesome. I’ve been frequently creating stages, both ones meant to be played… and some that are just meant to be funny. Best of all sharing stages with your friends and Nintendo is possible. Worst of all, to send a stage to your friend, you need both their Wii friend code AND their Smash Bros. friend code.

Screenshots. Whenever you pause the game in Brawl, you can take screenshots of the action and save them to an SD card or your Wii System Memory. Send them to your friends and do whatever you want with ‘em. Best part? Seeing Sonic glare at Wario’s behind or Toon Link glare at Kirby’s unhampered advances.

What Stinks:

Half-hearted Online Play. When playing with Friends, it’s great. Try to play with Anyone? Lag. I’m sure 80% of this is because of slow internet connections and heavy strain on Nintendo’s servers, but there’s still problems. Also, no way of communicating with your friends or adding random people you’ve played as friends is a major problem. Even Metroid Prime: Hunters had better online communication that SSBB and that’s a DS game. Come on Nintendo.

The Meh:

Subspace Emissary.The cutscenes are amazing and everything is really well-made. However, there’s still a small feeling of everything being shoehorned in. That, and the controls make some platforming difficult. There are some characters that I can ace a level with, but if I try playing with a different one, I suddenly fall and die. Every time. A full-fledged SSB game with a real story would be great, but not exactly the same. Also of note: Sonic’s role in the story is so bad, so completely inane, it makes almost no sense at all. Scratch that. It makes no sense AT ALL. This really is evidence of what Sakurai said: Sonic was only added to Smash last year (2007) in the summer/fall. Talk about cutting it close to a December release. This may be another explanation for the delay. Either way, Sonic needed a bigger part. Instead, he got this (spoiler alert):

Mario: Hey look! It’s the final boss!
Boss: Haha, I’ll kill you all!
Sonic: (zooms in) Hi guys! (punches boss) Was that cool? Am I in Smash Bros. now?
*insert final battle here*
Everyone: Yay!
The End

Overall, Smash is a great game. If you have a Wii, this is basically a required game. If you miss out now, you will probably be missing one of the greatest multiplayer games of all time. This game is a prime example of time and money put to good use. Those annoying delays weren’t for nothing. Smash will continue to be the perfect example of Nintendo fan-service and pure fun for years to come.

Yeah, this is… pretty much just a boredom breaker. Not sure what I think of it yet, but the general idea is: my own custom OS that doesn’t exist. I’m calling it KISS because, well, Keep It Simple, Stupid. That’s all. It’s supposed to be really simple and easy for ordinary people who don’t understand computers that well. Just clear, concise, and cool. Whoo, look, I’m already on a roll — I’m using alliteration.

Click on the trash icon to see everything you’ve deleted.

Click on the CP icon to see the computer options like your hardware and screen options.

Click on the windows icon to see all current windows. Hover your mouse over the icon and flick the scroll wheel to flip through windows quickly without clicking.

Click on the start button to show your icons in grid format. The ones you use the most are closer to the start button. Right-click the icon and hit “copy to desktop” to add an icon to your desktop if you want.

This one’s probably the least developed. Web browsing. And… yeah

The customization available.

And again.

That’s all for now.

Icons used from, here, here, and here. Otherwise they’re just the official icons for the programs themselves.

2-2 was… the crazy mysticism-filled case in which you once again defend Maya. But you meet Pearls, so it’s all good.

Since Capcom wasn’t sure if PW would continue as a series, they had to close most storylines while leaving a few open in case of a sequel. This case really felt epic the first time I played through it, because I, like Phoenix, KNEW Edgeworth wasn’t guilty. I hadn’t read spoilers, no, I don’t mean it that way. What I mean is that I became so enveloped in the story I began to feel the same way as Phoenix towards the other characters. Comforting Maya when she couldn’t get things right, defending Edgeworth to the last straw, and knowing von Karma did it, but not being able to prove it right away. He even tazered Maya and Phoenix and not a restraining order in sight.

Till tomorrow…

But he definitely did it. Murder. At least once. Maybe twice.

 or maybe,

Tell me, how can a person eat a t-bone steak… and not leave the bone? I think I know how! You ate the bone, too!

 Overall a pretty light-hearted PW case, but it’s only case that touches on the mob. However, Phoenix never has to deal with any retaliatory hit squads or anything like that.

But I beat 1-2, Turnabout Sisters. Forgot how sad it was when Mia died (even though she never really leaves the story, making her death virtually irrelevant). A Redd White making up words is splendiferous.

Anyway, today I’m focusing on the very first PW case, 1-1: The First Turnabout.

What a short case to begin. It seemed so much longer the first time I played it. Being Phoenix’s first case, we get to experience his nervousness and general anxiety about the case (and if it’s your first time playing, you get slightly nervous as well). It’s his best friend on the line, so of course he’s worried about failing, but his perseverance is one of Wright’s greatest traits.

The puzzles and contradictions present are blatantly obvious and fly in your face — but with good reason. Being a training case (the first case of each PW game is such) it has to guide any new players through the basics. The simplicity of it makes me smile: the first time I played it, I eventually got slightly stumped on the last time you have to present evidence. However, after I actually thought about it, as opposed to just looking at the surface of the problem, it hit me. You need to think in different ways to solve the cases, often.

The whole idea behind presenting evidence in PW is to flip things around: don’t think about HOW, think about WHY. Then the HOW falls into place, and vise versa.

Perhaps the fact that the PW games don’t let you off easily and force you to think is what makes them so enjoyable to me, aside from the wonderful writing and characters. When 80% of games out there are mindless trigger-pullers, it’s nice slow down and carefully think about a puzzle. How did he murder her? What’s the missing piece? Is he telling the truth?

Find the contradictions and everything becomes clear.