Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Happy Leap Year Everyone~

It's Sakura's Big Brother's B-Day Today~
I will keep this as short/sweet as possible for everyone. Leap-Year is an unusual day or all around holiday, due to how it's scheduled in the calender for February which adds an extra day. I could go on about the details just read the wiki link for that, all I am asking is what are you doing to doing on leap year day?? Are you going to go out partying with friends, celebrate your b-day if you where born on Feb 29th?? What ever you are doing to day just kick back and have some fun everyone, catch you later~

Here is list of characters that where born on leap year:
Kabuto Yakushi, Naruto
Touya Kinomoto, Card Captor Sakura  

Sunday, February 26, 2012

A New Trend In Psp Visual Novel Endings??

Oremio Ayase's True Ending

I am not really sure if you have noticed the latest trend in direct from anime to visual novel endings. One thing I have noticed despite these games being all ages or rated "cero C" or "esrb T"  Is the type of endings they choose to throw in. Mind you i am not not personally morally outraged by this or offended. It takes a lot in this day/age to do that to my mental psyche due to the internet and the way life has treated in me general.

 Now for those who have chatted with me online I am a huge fan of Visual Novels. With titles such as Clannad, Umineko, Little Busters which all have psp ports in-case you are wondering. Only clannad has a pregnancy ending but we all know what happens with that route. Why are they pushing so hard to always have a pregnancy ending for ever PSP visual novel?? We all know the main demographic for these type of games but mind you there is also teens/young adults that play them as well.

This subject may or may not cause some stir some shit. Bandai-Namco always seems to release a visual novel for the psp as soon as the TV anime is done airing to sell more merchandise. Now the trend I have noticed is the type of endings that you get in newer vn's which results with main character getting love interest pregnant. Is this just a cry to say procreate already, or this some kind of fetish the developers have??

Now I am not sure if you are fan of these types of games or if this even shocking to you. I will admit the surprise ending for toradora still shocks me a bit. I will post a few screen caps below but tell me what do you think of this trend?? Does it morally offend you or is it something that intrigues you?? The latest game to do this was the visual novel for Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai. Hyper-links to buy the games are below, along with spoilers as well.



                  
















Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai Harem Ending















-Cecil The Dark Knight

Friday, February 24, 2012

Just A Small Rant on Localization

Well Look At The Time~

I wish to bring up an issue that has been eating away at me for the moment, so much so I might skip out on a product I actually want. Yes this is me stepping on a soap-box for bit, so if you rants there's the door so get the hell out. One reason is the localization or name changes for the series"bombshells from the sky" to "cat planet cuties". The other title that got lost in translation is "b gata h kei" to "yamada's first time". The synopsis is on there official page so please try to me that's not hook line for an old 80's porno movie. In all honesty this is my face after reading it.

I understand that funimation is in the business to make money off of a niche product and most titles are a gamble, I fully understand that. Anyone with half of a brain that took basic economics classes in high school would be able to figure this much. However why would you give titles that sound like some cheesy porno's then use descriptions like these?? 

Is the marketing so at this time bad at this time to where you need to lower to such low standards.?? Is making the series sound like it solely bases sex is the only thing that will sell these titles??  The dirty truth is yes, funimation actually needs to resort to levels to sell these titles even if they have decent stories, characters or plots. No matter how popular anime becomes on the net it is still marginally a niche product in the west.

Sadly still anime it's self has a bad rep for being only being porn,  from main stream American's point of views. In my opinion this only adds fuel that fire but whatever with misconceptions but it will diminish over time. I'm just a consumer at this point in time that is refusing to buy these series unless I can order them online secretly, and hope no one finds them. So do you have thoughts/opinions on small localization issues like this, or is not an issue for you at all???

Need I Say More..

All pics are that shown are related to the said series mentioned and their official trademarks/license companies. I do not own or have any copyrights to these pics it is all under the fair use clause.

-Cecil The Dark Knight.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

A Decent Way To Review "Short Guide By Me"

Am I Moe~ Enough??
So much has been going through my personal psyche as of late. With my parents getting a divorce after twenty fours of marriage, having to blow over 1500$ to pay off some bills losing a chance to get a car/job in the process. I realize that blogging about his and getting it off my chest will help, however I will save that for a later time. It's been eating me up inside for a long time now but again I will save my personal drama for later

The main focus of this article is for those who want to write reviews professionally or just for fun like I do to keep myself sane. Please keep in mind that you do not need to follow this model exactly, all I am doing is pointing out faults that I read in a lot of reviews personally Even my own personal writing suffers from this, I also give all credits to this Ann Podcast that pointed out things I really should have noticed along time ago.

Alright lets get this show on the road already. One huge thing that needs to be pointed about most reviews that I have read from crunchy roll or across the net is this. People are willing to say they love or hate series but are not willing to explain why you feel this way. Reviews are your opinion/experience with the product people want a clear reason why. This is very critical for starting up any review that you choose to do. 

Why do i love this series, What about this series hooks me in or pushes me away, Why do I hate him or her so much?? These simple questions alone can help build-up some strength for your review, however this alone isn't enough. Another thing I have done personally and noticed online is that people are to afraid to point any flaws or criticize any series that is really popular. Listen I  love Higuarshi to death however a huge flaw in that series is the pacing, with horrible deen quality artwork.

Please do not be afraid to point out any flaws no matter what the series is. I understand you might some black lash for it. Keep In mind it's suppose to be your Impressions not a copy/paste feed back on the forums. If you hated how the series ended point that out. If you hate the mc's love interest point that out as well, again you need explain why you feel this way or came to this conclusion. I explained back in my review of the school days visual novel, explaining why I do not hate matoko for what happens to him or any other character.

Next is the last and tricky of all issues with reviews which is scores. Personally now I hate them  now when i used to rely on them for everything. I would personally do what 90% of other readers usually do, which is to skim then go right for the score. you have no idea ho much this actually hurts when doing a review and I understand that numbers serve a purpose with the score. The biggest problem is that all readers care about is the numbers. A good example would be IGN.com. Say for example  if a game makes below a 7/10 on their average level most readers will not even read the review or bother with the game. 

This beats the point of doing a review in the first place. The overall purpose of doing a review is to show what you liked/disliked about the show or product. Number scores attached to that do not help in the least and only give people a quick sense of instant gratification so they can brag around saying on their favorite game in a franchise got a 9/10 while my game got a 7/10. Now there is some-one that manages to pull off doing reviews with out ever giving scores and people know if not he loved or hated the game based on that review. Head over to the escapist and watch any episode of zero punctuation to see what I am talking about.

Now should you use scores at all?? Well that's up to you in all honesty, I will personally keep using the 1 to 5 scale until my writing gets better. I do wish to add one more little tidbit of info, write up a short one to two paragraph synopsis before doing the full review. This helps give people what the series is based on, where to watch it and short summary of what it's about before reading your review. This is all the advice I can really give you all, If you choose to write let me know and I really need to follow my own examples soon. I will catch you all around later see ya~

Seven Deadly Sins~
 -Cecil The Dark Knight