Finished* Odin Sphere, and I’m a full fledged fan of Vanillaware now. Muramasa: The Demon Blade was a game I enjoyed thoroughly, though I rather wish it had a more involving story. OS is kind of the opposite – the gameplay isn’t as tight, fast, and just plain fun as Muramasa‘s, but the story set in the (lightly) Norse-inspired fantasy universe with 5 characters whose paths all intertwine is absolutely fantastic. And, of course, there’s the visuals. At this point I can safely say that, to me, nobody in the gaming industry makes 2D games that look better than Vanillaware’s. What I wouldn’t give for an HD versions of these games…

Going to have to get GrimGrimoire too, and really interested in whatever they’re working on next.

If it wasn’t for how much other stuff I’m already planning on buying (including the Momohime figure that is supposed to be released this month), I’d probably very seriously think about getting this Gwendolyn figure:

*: By which I mean I played through about 2 hours on PCSX2, then downloaded a PS3 virtual memory card save and watched 6+ hours of cutscenes for the story. Protip: game plays better on a PS3 (and, I assume, real PS2) than emulator… the character response to inputs is already less-than-immediate, and adding slightly more input lag when playing on emulator makes it even worse to the point of being extremely annoying.

With the release of episode 15, it’s finally complete. And once again, it ended on a wonderful note, just like the TV episodes did. Truly one of the most unique and memorable romance series I’ve seen, and definitely one of my favorite series from the past few years.

… condensed into one, because I can’t be assed to spend the effort in doing this over 30 days. Found via Sakagami’s Tumblr.

Day 1 – Very First Anime

Doraemon
Watched this when I was a kid in China, dubbed in (what I can only imagine was) bad Chinese voice acting. Doesn’t matter though, because it remains one of the most charming and timeless series ever.

Day 2 – Favorite Anime Watched So Far

5 Centimeters Per Second
I had to think pretty long and hard about this, and I’m kind of surprised that this ended up being my choice. But I don’t think there’s any other that I could pick up and watch at any given moment and fall absolutely in love with all over again quite like it. Going to have to update my profile list!

Day 3 – Anime Crush

Arcueid Brunestud
Not sure if this technically counts since it’s really based more on the VN than the anime adaptation, but out of all the fantastic characters from “Nasuverse”, she’s the one I find most fascinating. And charmingly cute too. ^_^

Day 4 – Anime Ashamed To Have Enjoyed

Shingetsutan Tsukihime
I’m not really “ashamed” to admit it, but I know many anime fans like to hate on it and say that it doesn’t exist. But while it’s probably the weakest version of the Tsukihime story, it was actually the first version I was exposed to, and I enjoyed it enough that it set me upon my path into becoming a full-on no hold barred Type-Moon/Nasu fanboy.

Day 5 – Anime Character Most Similar To (Or Wish Were Like)

Takaki Touno
How much I identify with the way he holds onto feelings of time past is one of the biggest reasons I absolutely adore 5 Centimeters Per Second.

Day 6 – Most Annoying Anime Character

Takeuchi Itsuki
I pretty much hated the entire lot of characters of Initial D (even when discounting the fact that they may be the ugliest cast ever) except Bunta, and he was the worst of the bunch.

Day 7 – Favorite Anime Couple

Yukino Miyazawa & Soichiro Arima
There’s not much to Kare Kano beyond their relationship, but it’s one of my favorite series ever. She’s a wonderfully complex character, and while he’s slightly boring, he’s also very likeable. And together they really make the show.

Day 8 – Most Epic Scene Ever

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
I’m really not as big a fan of TTGL as many, but really, when the mecha grow to the size of universes and beyond… “epic” is really the only word to describe it.

Day 9 – Saddest Anime Scene

Full Moon wo Sagashite
When Mitsuki finally makes it to America, only to discover that Eichi has died – I’m not ashamed to admit that I had tears in my eyes as I saw the scene unfold. Still probably the most emotional I’ve ever been from watching anime.

Day 10 – Favorite Slice Of Life Anime

Kare Kano / His and Her Circumstances
As previously mentioned, the relationship between Miyazawa and Arima really makes this shine. The way the anime series ended wasn’t great, but overall I still loved it.

Day 11 – Favorite Mecha Series

Neon Genesis Evangelion
Close call between this and Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team, but I think the fact that Eva is its own story instead of being part of a larger universe gives it the edge. And if the rest of the Rebuild of Evangelion movies are as good as the first 2, that will probably lock this category down.

Day 12 – An Ecchi Picture From Favorite Series

N/A
Since this explicitly mentions series, I guess it’d have to be from .hack//SIGN. And though it’s been a while since I last re-watched (and so can be wrong), I can’t think of any ecchi scenes from it.

Day 13 – Cosplay of ‘Waifu’ / ‘Husbando’

N/A
I refuse to answer this because searching for an image would probably make me want to stab my eyes out. So let’s just pretend there’s a great Arcueid (who else) cosplay image somewhere out there and I linked to it.

Day 14 – Current (Or Most Recent) Anime Wallpaper

Messed around with the original wallpapers to make a multi-monitor wallpaper. Then later made a desaturated/spot-colored version, and decided to go with that.

Day 15 – A Cute Neko-Girl

Really not a big fan of catgirls, so just found one from the first series that came to mind which would have one (Nyan Koi).

Day 16 – A Kigurumi Cosplay Of Favorite Anime Character

Uh…this, I guess?
I really didn’t even know what this was, but I guess that’s fine. Oh, and obviously it’s Arcueid. Looks pretty weird/disturbing though. ¬_¬

Day 17 – Favorite Tsundere

Rin Tohsaka
Nobody else comes even close.

Day 18 – Something Moe

“Moe” is, of course, a very loosely defined term. So if I say this fits, it fits, dammit!

Day 19 – Mandatory Swimsuit Post

Uh… well, it’s Arcueid.

Day 20 – Favorite Shoujo Anime

Full Moon wo Sagashite
Ouran High School Host Club would probably be the only other viable choice, but this remains one of the most stirring anime I’ve ever seen emotionally as previously mentioned.

Day 21 – Best Yandere Character

Hitagi Senjougahara
The best character from Bakemonogatari, and one of the most fascinating character in quite some time. Plus, I really can’t think of many others who would qualify as yandere that I like at all… I guess Arcueid would kind of count, but she was never really completely crazy about killing Shiki.

Day 22 – Favorite Boy’s Love Couple (or Yuri Couple)

Haruhi Fujioka & Tamaki Suoh
Yes, I realize this technically isn’t either, but Tamaki is an idiot and doesn’t (seem to) realize that Haruhi is a girl, so I’m going to count it. And I can’t think of anything else, so…

Day 23 – Anime With Best / Most Intriguing Art

5 Centimeters Per Second
It’s pretty rare that I would tout visuals as a reason to enjoy a particular anime, but this is simply a visual tour de force. Beautiful beyond words, the detail that the world is rendered in is breathtaking.

Day 24 – Favorite Anime Hero / Heroine

Arcueid Brunestud
See Day 3. Since I don’t find her attractive just for the way she looks, everything applies here too.

Day 25 – Best Anime Villain

Johan
For an anime (and manga that the anime follows almost exactly) as long as it is, Monster moves at a great pace. And one of the main reasons is how well Johan’s character is developed and presented. Diabolical, cunning, and morbidly fascinating at the same time.

Day 26 – Favorite Harem Anime

Ah! My Goddess
One of my earliest anime, and one of the few harem anime where I actually like most, if not all, of the female characters. Keiichi is worthless though, but that’s par for the course for harem anime, right? =D

Day 27 – Favorite Anime Opening Theme Song

ステレオポニー – ツキアカリのミチシルベ (Stereopony -Tsukiakari no Michishirube)
Surprisingly easy choice, because most of the anime theme songs I love are ending themes or insert songs. Only other possible choice would be disillusion from Fate/stay night. Anyway, Darker Than BLACK S2 was kind of a disappointment, but this song was far and away the best thing in it.

Day 28 – Favorite Game-Based Anime

Fate/stay night
This category was originally favorite Pokemon, but I decided that didn’t deserve a category here, so changed it to this (in keeping with the game-related spirit). And… well, there could really be no choice but this. The anime didn’t cover nearly all of the story, but the great cast of characters are mostly all accounted for, and I have no issues with the focus on the Fate route.

Day 29 – Favorite School Uniform

Code Geass
Who the hell actually remembers all the anime uniforms they’ve seen in anime? This is probably the only one I can identify somewhat easily, so let’s go with it.

Day 30 – Anime Character Wanted To Cosplay

Totoro
Not sure I really want to cosplay as anyone/anything, period, but if I could get a well-made full-size giant Totoro costume (and somehow be able to see out it), I’d totally wear it.

This has turned from a personal blog to a personal review page… which is fine, but not quite what I was intending. So I guess I need to try updating this more frequently. It’s not the first time I’ve said this, but maybe this time it’ll actually happen!

For now, some random musings:

The new iPhone got announced at WWDC today. Nothing all that interesting or overwhelming, though the new ultra-high DPI screen is nice. I think I would still rather have an HTC EVO plus an iPod Touch for music though. But it’s nice that iPod Touch owners will get to upgrade to iOS for free this time. Speaking of which, that’s now the 3rd OS with that name, after Cisco’s router/switch OS and Nintendo’s Wii quasi-OS. But hey, the i is lower-case and that makes all the difference, right?

The NBA Finals are under way, and tied 1-1 after the 2 games in Los Angeles. Pau Gasol has played very well so far, and Andrew Bynum put in a terrific performance in game 2 as well. Kobe hasn’t been amazing in the series so far though, and Ray Allen’s lights-out 3PT shooting in game 2 (an NBA-record 8 threes) combined with Rondo’s triple-double to get them the win. Officiating has been pretty universally terrible, unfortunately. But Paul Pierce hasn’t played too well either, and KG just looks absolutely brutal on the court (which is unfortunate, as I still like KG a lot despite hating Boston). Lakers will have to win at least 1 in Boston (hopefully game 3), and hope they can hold court at home in games 6/7. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous, but this definitely is shaping up to be a good series.

There’s been so much buzz about conference re-alignment and expansion in college sports, much of it centered on the Big 12, that at this point it’s almost impossible to dismiss. Now, as a Longhorns fan I’m pretty content in knowing that however it shakes out, Texas will almost certainly be in a good position – being the biggest revenue generating athletic program in the country makes it the most desirable school for any conference. But the idea of being in a Pac-16, or even more outlandishly, in the Big 10/11/14/16 (or whatever it’ll end up being called) still takes some getting used to. And I can’t imagine what fans of the “lesser” schools are feeling. But the fact that something like this, which seemed so ridiculous back when it was written in February, is now very possible or even possibly likely, is amazing.

Most new anime coming out seem to be uninteresting. I put Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood on hold since it’s coming to an end and I figure I’ll just marathon through the 25 or so episodes from where I left off, so the only shows of this season that I care about are Kaichou wa Maid-sama, a decent silly romantic-comedy, and Angel Beats!, which has a few interesting characters. Also watching Arakawa Under The Bridge, but it’s actually gotten progressively less interesting as I watch more of it. The Maaya Sakamoto-voiced Nino-san is great, but doesn’t play as large a role in the story as I initially believed, and the rest of the cast are more just eccentric than interesting. Watched 1.11 and 2.22 of the Rebuild of Evangelion, and it’s great, but I’ll save that for a review post later.

Beat Super Mario Galaxy and one of the goals I set for myself in WipEout HD (will also talk about those in review post), and finding myself somewhat lacking in interest in playing anything else, despite a game of 3D Dot Game Heroes that I started and Super Mario Galaxy 2 waiting for me. Started playing Infinite Undiscovery, started regretting it almost immediately (even the intro FMV looks terrible – does anyone at Square know how to encode/compress video?), and lasted about 15 minutes before I quit – and will almost certainly never play again. Good use of $10! Then started Blue Dragon, and while it’s definitely a better game… Akira Toriyama character designs in 3D really doesn’t do it for me. Having a Japanese voice track is definitely nice, but the main character’s voice sounds anywhere between age 12 and 40, while the character looks about… 8. It’s just a weird experience. I might go back to it at some point later on, but I’m not counting on it. All this makes me wonder if the JRPG genre really is just dead to me. FFXIII is the first one I finished in ages, and none of the other current-generation JRPGs I’ve played (IU, BD, Eternal Sonata, etc.) I’ve gotten further than 5 hours in.

And finally, the lackluster support for ID3v2.4 is terribly annoying. Doesn’t get read properly by PS3 (boo), doesn’t get recognized by Windows Explorer (meh), and seems to often get corrupted when updated by iTunes (ugh). Mp3tag is a pretty nice piece of software that I’m using to clean up some tags, but it’s a very tedious process to use it to add lyrics. And all this because ID3v2.3 doesn’t support forward slashes in the artist field.