A Certian Scentific Railgun Vol 1 Review

 

So i am actually reviewing another manga this time around?? Well I guess hell finally froze over due in part that I actually bought a hard copy for the first volume of Rail-Gun. Now Don't count me on doing a full review for every single volume that comes out for the series, however this is one of the few manga's that I will actually be following legally state-side as of now. My only small rant is not at the publishers for the manga Seven-Seas but at the company Funimation. As much as I love the company I just wish that the would announce an release date for the Rail-gun/Index DVDs/Bluray's already.

However due to some complications came up genon of Japan so the series will them setting on the title for awhile. However a legal stream at their site to in order to promote the series more which would greatly help with sales of the series down the road and being region restricted for Japan should not hurt sales that much due to reverse importing.... but that's just my opinion on this.

Now that my little rant is over for the time being lets get on with this. Rail-gun is a spin-off series from the popular light novel To Aru Majutsu No Index. The manga for rail-gun started in publication on April 2007 which is still on-going currently with six volumes out so far. As I just stated above Seven-Seas is doing the localization for the manga in the states.

From what I have read in the first volume they seem to be handling the localization quite well the translation also seems to be on par with everything I have seen so far as well for the series. The printed softback is also in decent quailty with fifteen page preview of the tord-dora manga as well. Normally I would go into more detail than this but I will save the major details for my review of anime when I am able to.

Shocking, isn't it??

Now lets move on to the main plot/story, To Aru no Railgun takes place in city called academy city that is mainly made up of students with a population of 2.3 million. The technology they have in the city is thirty to forty years far more advanced than any where else in the world. The main focus or study in the city is on esper or telekinetic powers and rates the students based on their abilities from level zero to level five, of course level five being the strongest possible, so powerful that only seven students even register at this level and our main fourteen year-old female lead Misaka Mikoto is ranked number three out the seven registered.

Her special ability is that of electrode master. Basically I am saying that she has the ability to shoot off huge volts off electricity from her body at high speed "up to a billion volts", warp sand into a steel like sword. Then there Misaka's special ability called the rail-gun In which she fires an arcade token three times faster than the speed of sound.

Misaka goes to an all girls private school named Tokiwadai Middle School which is on campus area and lives with her roommate Shirai Kuroko who is a level four teleporting esper, that happens to be one the most flamboyant lesbians I have seen in a long time. It's funny to see her get turned down from Misaka more than any male lead put together in recent history I can think of.

Kuroko also has a habit of calling Misaka oneesama, not due in fact that she is her older sister but out of respect Kuroko has for her. So what is the instal story about for the first volume?? It starts off really slow with a few crime bust from Kuroko because of her part in the student enforcement called Judgment, where main job is to enforce law/order with in academy city. "gee what happened to baseball or soccer?"

Who Knew??

It's not until chapter three or four is when things start to really heat up due to mystery bomber that solely attacks judgment remembers. This is where they introduce the third main female lead Uiharu Kazari that works along side kuroko at judgement. Uiharu is an esper as well but unlike the other two she is just a level one that has a little to no use with her ability. It's around this chapter that we see some development between the girls and Misaka realizes how hard it to work for Judgement by a mistake in identity, be warned some minor spoilers below

However it's not until the bomber nearly kills off Uiharu from using some kind of power up. This is when we finally get a sense of where the series gearing towards more action than just slice of life. In the main bombing just mentioned if no not for a certain Touma even Misaka would have been killed, even with her rail-gun ability. One huge plus I do give for Misaka is that, she doesn't take crap for no one and she is willing to fight/stand up to anyone even if she had no ability her-self "which makes a great role-model for younger to older teens"

The only other character that is worth mentioning as of now are Touma Kamijou who has the ability to negate, deflect any and all esper abilities with his right hand called "the imagine breaker". From time to time Misaka tends to get in to bouts with Touma because of his ability. Misaka is like most in the city don't realize that his arm is capable of stop the attacks but to be honest I think that's it's just more a of lover's quartile than anything else. 

You would have to be pretty damn dense not to see how Misaka feels about Touma, but of course she goes about it in a tsundere style. I will admit that Misaka is no where near as bad as recent characters with this trait, hell you could just say that she is your average teen-age girl w/ electric powers. However you might want to wear some rubber gloves on the first date unless your looking for sparks to start the mood.."

Well There Goes The Good Night Hug

In all honesty this initially starts off the same way the anime has so if you have seen that, then there is little reason for you buy or even read the first volume. However the manga is much more faster paced than it's T.V. counter-part but the same could be said of all manga, I will say this I rather enjoyed the first volume of the manga much more than the T.V. series I had to watch fan-subbed.. ahem moving on along is the story, characters and art any good? I would say that's it's above average, noting really great but not bad what so-ever. Hell I really enjoy this franchise in all honesty I am actually happy to own a legal piece of it. 

As far as recommendations go for this title is go. Well this is a mixed series that takes some time to establish the plot/characters over-time, it's a bit slow paced to the action but once it gets on the ball it's a blast to read. The manga however takes a different course from the t.v anime but still stays true to the sci-fi elements a lot and yes there is some fan-service in chapter one. However this is nothing that would stop any mainstream fans from reading it. I will also give Misaka props for wearing a pair of shorts under her skirt the up-skirt view of her panties".

The last few things I wish to add is that the first volume comes with seven full chapters "around 30 pages each" and cost as low as $7.88 depending where you want to buy it. I will provide a link to the cheapest place available. I know that most of you will say that this really wasn't a review just "info giving" but I hate to spoil to much for you, go out buy a copy and read it for yourself. However I do need to work on my impressions ...I loved it all I can say.

They only flaws I do wish to point are the generic/cliched settings that have been used over a million times already, however they quickly drop these move along past the main set-up to something that's really enjoyable to read with really likeable characters, settings and a hint of magic here or there. Well that's all she wrote on this review, I hope that you found this to be helpful and I might make this my bi monthly manga review if this keeps up, for those who have watched the anime feel free to watch the OP for season one part one below.

-Cecil The Dark Knight

Age Rating 13+

One Volume 192pgs

Soft-Back

Art 4/5

Story 3.5/5

Characters 5/5

Overall Rating 4/5

Snag a Legal Copy

Another Generic Romantic Comdey?? A Review of Mayo Chiki!

Mayo Chiki is an on going Light-Novel written by Hajime Asano, Illustrated by Seiji Kikuchi. The first was released on November, 21st 2009 and is still ongoing to till this day with eight volumes out total so far who are published by the company Media Factory There is also an ongoing manga written by the original creator Hajime and illustrated by Niito. The manga is being published monthly in the seinen magazine "Monthly comic alive" from Media Factory as well. The TV. anime is only slated to have twelve episodes as of now, this show started airing July 8, 2011 and is being broadcasted on "TBS" station in Japan.

This Is One Way To Wake Up

This anime is about our unfortunate male lead Kinjiro Sakamachi that lives at home with his little sister Kureha Sakamachi that has a lovely habit of beating the shit out of him every morning just for the hell of it. "I fell kind of sorry for the poor bastard." Their parents are over-seas working so there isn't any "parental figure" this time around either. "Now at least they where up front about it in the first five minutes into the episode." Our male lead is a second year high school that goes to a seemingly normal school.. with the one exception the school's principal's daughter Kanade Suzutsuki who throws off the "Rich-Girl Persona" with her own personal butler Subaru Konoe. who has a deep personal secret to keep from everyone in school.

Kinijro decides to go the empty part of the school building to use the rest-room, in order to 
calm him-self down after a near fatal exposure of his biggest secret. Which is the fact  he suffers from a unique condition called gynophobia or fear of the opposite sex. "It's so bad that he suffers a nose-bleed if he even touches a female". After Kinjiro washes his face and goes into what he thinks is an empty stall, what does he happen to see?? A pair of kitten printed panties on attached to the leg of the head butler for Kanade.

"Why don't people ever lock the damn door in Japan, I understand old houses but not the bath-room stalls??" So what does Kinjiro decide to do after seeing this?? He just walks off after shutting the door trying to pretend/forget what he saw, but of course it's not going to be that easy for him. Subaru comes out of the stall mad as hell "in a typical a typical tsundere hijinks" by asking Kinjiro if happened to see it or glimpse of her pantsu.

What do we have here?

So being the huge idiot that Kinjiro is of course he says with out realizing .. "If you haven't guessed that Subru's a girl then I feel sorry for you". So she happens thinks that secret that needs to be kept from everyone in order to stay a butler has been reveled. "why in the world they force some-one to do this is beyond me." Then comes in the obligatory one-sided fight, but it seems that for once a male lead can hold his own. It wasn't until a dramatic pause to where a "frog in the jar.. no I am not even kidding you", was going to fall on Subru's head" that Kinjiro shows his true skill by undoing her shirt, belt buckle, and pulling them open/down with in only a two second span, he accidentally squeezes her breast and realizes that he is finally a girl. Subaru laughingly flips out and smacks him upside the head in with a fire hydrant and we cue to the half-way minute mark. 

Well that's enough on the first episode if you don't want to watch it by the summary I have given you then I don't really can not blame you. It sounds oh so funny and has been done for much better over a ten year period of time. The only thing that really seemed to amuse me was Kanade's S/M play a thing for Kinjiro and Subaru. Kanade's wonderful sadist nature peeks a few guilty pleasures with in me as well which kept me watching the entire episode.

Rape Time??

The animation character designs are also very nice to look at, with only a few drops in overall quality  Everything seemed to flow pretty well and there was only a few notable drops in quality here or there, but not to the point that it would be really low key. The music however is just plain/generic, with nothing really new or surprising here with the expectation of few piano pieces to liven up the mood. The op is done quite well to where it shows vast different array of emotions with a nice catchy beat as well.

Now lets get to the main problem of the series which be the huge heap of tropes/cliches that has been rinsed/repeated for nearly ten years now. If you can personally list off the number of cliches into a small list just from my review then just don't even bother with this series. If you are a guilty pleasure fan such as myself then you may actually the first episode for this series and will continue on with the series. As of now there is now legal stream for this series so you have to look around for decent fan-sub group to watch the show. 

-Cecil The Dark Knight

Age Rating 16+

Animation 4/5

Music 3/5

Story 2.5/5

Characters 3/5

Overall rating 3/5

Some New/Recent Changes To The Site.

Okay this is going to be short and sweet, this is just to all of the people that can publish here or add content, I removed the navigation bar. So if you want to make a new post or add any new content please go here to the link below in order to do so. I am sorry for innocence this may/might have cause you but the bar was really getting on my nerves. I would actually remove the attribution or "powered by blogger bar as well " but it seems that can get me into to legal issues so...that's a no go everyone please enjoy this video of accelerator being a boss as a way for me to make it up to you.

Edit: I just went ahead and removed the powered by widget as well, cleaned up the site some more and just leave some feed back of what you think.

Main Sign In

-Cecil The Dark Knight

Another four girl anime?? Imperssons on Yuru-Yuri

I will state this for the record as of now, Personally I have nothing against female only cast anime nor do I hate the seinen genre either. However I do feel like they are making to many anime adaptions as of late thus over saturating the market. Now is Yuru Yuri a bad show?? That depends on how many of these shows you have seen before or even if your fan of moe~ anime then don't even bother with this series. I did state earlier that I was only going to review one moe~ anime but due to fact that it has been licensed Yuru Yuri will fill in that gap as of now, due in part that I need something sweet and nice to watch during my summer season. 

Yuru Yuri is about or main female leads Akari, Kyoko, Yui, and Chinatsu that go to an all girls private school. "where have i see this set-up before??"...Nope can't think of thing but this aside it starts off with our main female lead Akari getting woke up by her two senior class-mates Kyoko and Yui. The character introductions are short/quick which is something I really like for the genre of anime due in part it's the jokes/interactions that make this type of show watchable. Now there is a pretty dark joke early one where Kyoko walks into Akari's older sisters room "after she forgot to put on her out-fit for her first day of middle school', and well.. It was pretty damn funny  to see Kyoko's reaction.

Kyoko Walks In And See This

This Is Her Reaction to it.

Later that day or in the second half we get introduced to our other female lead Chinatsu who is in the same class as Akari but she didn't come to their club, "gee what a surprise". Chinatsu came to join the tea party club but it was disbanded due to lack of the members so Chinatsu decides to join their amusement club for the time being which has nothing to do with music by the way..."I swear I have seen this some where before..or maybe it's just me..." Well moving on from that I will say Kyoko happens to be one the better characters out due in part of how flamboyantly gay she is for Chinatsu " Hence the Yuri element/name". This plays off pretty funny in some of the skits where Kyoko tries to get Chinatsu but is always being cock-blocked by Yui..so you can tell where that's heading.

As for the main female lead Akrai?? She happens to be one the most plain, boring and ditzy characters out there and they are even willing to admit. Now per-say is she a bad characters?? No not really just your a-typical innocent/naive girl that always pops up in every anime now and then. Personally I don't hate her character what soever, but maybe it's due in part that it takes a-lot for me to actually hate an anime character. Fitting a stereo-type alone is not enough for me to hate a character it's how the director decides to play off that character in their role.

Yuru Yuri Op

I will also give props for the opening song for Yuru Yuri as well.. It's been a long time to where I actually had a song stuck in my head and the OP doesn't disappoint in that department. The rest of the music also plays off on the mood quite well while it's also not anything foreboding or overwhelming either, just a calm laid-back soundtrack. A bit of the down side is the the art-work, nothing really original or even groundbreaking here, however it is very pleasant to look at so at least my eyes aren't bleeding as if I was watching Twin Angel again.

That's about all I can add or say for this anime, if you like k-on, lucky star, azumanga daioh, a-channel, kana-memo and so forth you will like this show. If you hate anime with an all female cast or are not into to "cute girls doing cute things" then don't even bother with this series. There is no action, no fighting or save the world from an impending doom story. All Yuru Yuri happens to be is noting more than a slice of anime with huge yuri over-tones which as I sated before if it's not your thing, don't even bother. Peace out every-one and until next-time catch you later.

Cecil The Dark Knight

Age Rating:13+

Music: 4/5

Characters: 4/5

Story: 3/5 

Animation 3/5

Overall Rating: 4/5

 

Legal Stream

Gaming Accounts

 

Again this isn't anime/visual novel related so sorry to burst anyone's bubble not unless you wish to play school days with me.. Well I didn't think so but moving on these are just my standard three gamier accounts to add  and I will have the user names below. Nothing special or fancy just ask me what types of games you would like to play. I mostly play Jrpgs, action games but I do play the occasional Fps game such as Call of duty or Halo.

Xbox Live Account

PaladianCecil42

Steam Account

Narutoxhinata4ever

Psn Account

Alcurad_666

Well that's it  peeps, feel free to add me if you wish, so we can play some games or even chat. Okay I'll catch you guys around later and sorry for being so damn lazy this time around. Feel free enjoy this video clip from rail-gun/index