Dust off your photon cannon – Let Mecha March begin!!

Hey guys (and girls), March begins tomorrow so that means it’s time to dust off that photon cannon, grab your beam saber, and to suit up because it’s Mecha March! All this March I will be only watching mecha related anime. So if it has a giant robot or machines in it I’m probably going to try to watch it this month.

I’ve already had quite a head start on the original Mobile Suit Gundam 0079. I’ve been enjoying it a lot too despite it having a few weird episodes that makes me wonder just what were they thinking? Some of the shows that are on my top priority to watch include the following.

Ghost in the Shell
Escaflowne
Big O
Macross
Martian Successor Nadesico – The Prince of Darkness
Patlabor
Voices of a Distant Star

And many more I’m sure, but seeing how I watch anime at a snail’s pace as of late probably these will do fine. Feel free to add anything if you think it is better or worth seeing. Sieg Zeon!

Burn Up! – Everything I hate about 90s anime rolled into one 47 minute OVA

Oh, yes the 90s. I’m sure we all remember the 90s. It had some great stuff like Cardcaptor Sakura, Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, Tenchi Muyo, Utena, Gundam Wing, Fushigi Yugi, and many others I’m sure, but I think when fans reminiscence about the past they forget that there was actually a lot of garbage too in the 90s. Burn Up! a 1991 OVA is the next entry in the series of old OVAs that I feel like writing about.

Women can’t pilot a Gundam

Uh, no you’re not because you’re a woman and women are inferior. Get back to delivering food to the other passengers Frau. Amuro can do it just fine because he is a man.

Sometimes the women in Mobile Suit Gundam can just be so annoying. They need to learn their place.

Tokimeki Memorial 2 Nostalgia Review Disc 1 – Introduction

Well, this is finally the second part of a series of reviews I started nearly a year ago on the Tokimeki Memorial series. You can read my short rant on the first game in the series here, but I think you will find that this article will be much more enjoyable since Tokimeki Memorial 2 is the best game of the series hands down. If you would ask me what my favorite date simulation games is I would instantly reply saying Tokimeki Memorial 2. That is my favorite. Playing Tokimeki Memorial 2 was at least one of the first Japanese games that helped me just pick up on Japanese even if I didn’t know much of what was going on. I was able to pick up Katakana, Hiragana, and some of the more basic Kanji, vocab and grammar structures. It’s so easy to forget how certain things have helped me in that period before I actually started learning Japanese as a major.

Also, to me it is like the Final Fantasy 6 or Chrono Trigger when it comes to date sims. It was release in November of 1999, so it was a time when the Playstation was at its end and making way for the Playstation 2. Konami took what they did with Tokimeki Memorial in the 1995 release on the Playstation and only built on that to create an enjoyable and solid game.

Yukari Tamura concert in Nagoya aftermath – Stuff I bought plus some photos

I don’t have a scanner so no complaining! Enjoy some of the images from the photo book I bought at the concert. I love Yukarin so much!

Whoa, WordPress has a gallery function!? I had no idea.

This was on the back of the call book which is a thing they were handing out while I was waiting. I think it’s created by fans but I’m not sure. It has the kinds of things you shout or do during which ever song Yukarin is performing. I was rather surprised that the English wasn’t too bad, and it was then I knew Japanese Yukari Tamura fans feel the same way I do for her. It sums up my feelings rather well.

Yukari Tamura concert in Nagoya impressions- OMG I LOVE YOU YUKARIN

OMG that was a lot of fun. My ears are so shot, but it was a ton of fun.

Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro Na Novel – Mia Compilation Prologue

Prologue

“Princess, the Earth has become quite big!” Mia Clementis said with a voice of excitement as she gazed outside the window. The highway ship that ties the Earth and Moon together 6 hours already left the connection port. From the Moon’s capital, everyday Mia looked up at the Earth, but now from the space ship’s window the Earth was spread out.

“Aah, we’ll arrive soon.” Mia murmured anxiously with both hands clasped together. Traveling by the highway ship, the place where it leaves takes much time. For Mia this was her first time visiting the strange planet— Earth— where she was about to arrive. “I’m feeling somewhat uneasy and my heart has been beating fast.”

“Yes, me too.” Sitting next to Mia was a girl, Feena Fam Earthlight, she gave a small nod to display her agreement as she showed a graceful smile. “Eh? You too Princess?” “That’s right. Is something strange about that?” “No… When compared to me, I thought that you looked so calm, Princess.” Mia looked at her mistress surprised. As the Princess of the Moon Kingdom, it was said supposedly she came to Earth twice before.

From Mia’s doubt, Feena shook her head slowly. “Since I was still young when I came before… I don’t really remember most of the things from that time.” “Is that so?” At the same time a sound came on and in the guest room the lamp instructing to [Wear your seat belts] lit up. Soon, the ship seemed to start to make its descent as it pointed towards Earth. “We are going to be there shortly.” “Ye- Yes.”

When Mia hastily put on her seat belt, she once again tried to look outside the window to see what things were like. In sight no matter where there was a young and vivacious blue which with the exception of towns was different than the spread out wastelands of the moon. “Princess, that blue area is the ocean, right? All of it is water isn’t it?” “That’s right.” “…Amazing.” Mia murmured as she stared at the Earth.

Being close to the Earth was more beautiful than she imagined, to the extent of not losing interest even she would gaze at the Earth. However, as if being unkind to that girl, slowly the heat resistant shields came down. Sadly it covered completely the blue Earth from each window. “Aah… I’m not able to see anymore.” “We’re entering the atmosphere. When they put up the shields next time we’ll already be inside the atmosphere.” “Princess was the Federal Government capital visible? I think it might be the case that it is visible from this side, but still a map is different than the real thing.”

Feena sunk into her seat to get ready for arrival, in contrast Mia was still uneasy and would not settle down. With gentle eyes Feena watched over Mia while softly reminding her. “For now it is fine but when we descend to Earth don’t stand up too much, alright?” “Ah…Ye, Yes!” “Mia from here on, by my side please attend to me.” “I’m very sorry.”

Mia hastily lowered her head. It seemed that Mia was being too merry. Mia’s purpose to visit Earth was to attend to the studying abroad on Earth, Princess Feena, without fail. Furthermore, under the reasons of not wanting to impose trouble on the host family, Feena rejected other attendants.

In other words, the only one attending to Feena was Mia. By no means was the circumstances where you could be carefree. Remembering her situation, Mia was ashamed of being carefree which made her hang her head in shame. “But, while I go to the academy, trying to do some sightseeing of Earth would probably be fine.” Feena said comforting Mia who felt she had failed. “No, I will do my hardest to aid you and your surroundings, Princess. Cleaning… Laundry… Cooking. I’m worried that Earth will not have the same ingredients as the Moon, but somehow I will manage.”

“It’ll be difficult if you’re too ambitious from the start.” Immediately the cheerful Mia was brought back. Feena with a bitter smile looked at Mia. “Concerning the housework, the other party probably has their own conditions, and it is essential to discuss it with them, all right?” “Yes… Princess, the person you will be doing homestay with is an acquaintance of yours?” “Yes, the landlord came to study abroad on the Moon.”

“Is that so? Then you have peace of mind then.” Mia felt relief in her chest, and at the same time, slowly the window’s shields began to raise. Just then warm sunshine rays shined in. “Waaaa.” When Mia clung to the window once again like before… Below the sunlight reflected on the spread out ocean causing it to sparkle.

To Chapter 1

Completed March 2, 2009

Idolm@ster SP finally getting released today – Or maybe on the 19th as planned

Well, finally Idolm@ster SP for the PSP is seeing its release after a 3 week extension from a desire to improve the overall quality of the product. I’m not sure exactly if it is being released today but from experience it seems like things get released a day early than the actual release date for some reason in Japan. So, I will probably head over to Wonder Goo after classes since I don’t have afternoon class.

I really don’t know what to expect. I am a little saddened that it seems that you can only produce with one idol than having pairs and a group of three as I previously thought. All I see is one girl in all the images. Maybe I dreamt that I read you could do this, read something wrong somewhere or just assumed. Regardless, I’m sorry for whatever misinformation I might have given in that regard. I hope this doesn’t lower the overall enjoyment of the game. I have never experienced a pair or a group of 3 yet since I never got that far yet in the console version, but seeing how the PSP might not have this feature now. I might just have to buy that XBox360 off of Kelly. Yes, just to play the Idolm@ster games… But pairs and having a group of 3 looks so neat from the Youtube videos I’ve seen so far.

The Idolmaster is my favorite song out of all of the songs you can have them sing. Mostly because the lyrics are so shallow but actually all the lyrics are shallow of all the songs but no one is really paying attention to that anyway. Also, the song sum up the kinds of things a pop idol does and feels, I guess. My other favorites include First Stage and Go My Way. I rarely listen to the other ones which is going to be troublesome if I want to release other things. I guess I’m going to have to suck it up and try out the other songs even if they might sound horrible.

The Idolm@ster webpage has a little flash questionnaire for those that can’t decide which idol they want to produce. Totally irrelevant if you don’t know Japanese. Something that might be a little more relevant is they put up some things you can buy right away when purchasing the game, which can be viewed here. I never would have thought some of these things were actually all that cheap to buy off the shop, but for added content those prices are pretty reasonable.

One thing I hate is that I can’t buy points for the store once I return to America unless I buy cards off websites for ridiculous prices because you can’t buy these cards on wholesale. Instead someone has to physically buy them. It’s such a racket and Sony should just change their stupid policy. I mean, this is 2009 so stop trying to region lock stuff. There are fans overseas that like some stuff that aren’t released in their own country you know. I will probably just buy a ton of points in huge quantities before I return back to America so I can at least keep purchasing new content for a while longer when they release it, but I’ll probably have to be a little cautious about my purchases since I don’t just want to waste my points foolishly at that point.

Well, if it gets released today or on the 19th, I’m sure I will write up my impressions of it in the next few days or so. Looking forward to producing both Iori and Ritsuko, but also looking to try out Yukiho and Azusa.

Clannad After Story 18 – I cried over 9000 tears

Very good and emotional episode all the way through. I honestly cried from beginning to end.

Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen Impressions – I thought Dragon Quest games were hard?

When I went to Tokyo over the break I had gone to a store in Akihabara that sold English video games. I picked up the port of Dragon Quest 4 on the DS since I have been looking for a new game to play and being here in Japan I have gotten quite used to playing handhelds since that is all I basically have here gaming wise. I haven’t been too big on the Dragon Quest series which is typical of most American JRPG fans. The Final Fantasy series had a better footing in getting their games out in the Super Nintendo era unlike Enix who was struggling to localize games in America. I never played the original Dragon Quest games on the Nintendo or any of the fan translated unreleased games as ROMs later once I got a computer. I did play 1, 2 and 3 as ports on the Gameboy Color when they were first released, but I only beaten the first game. The thing is I wasn’t too big on handhelds as a kid and mostly played console systems. My logic was handhelds were mostly for when you’re traveling and playing it otherwise has no point. Glad I don’t think that way anymore.

I did pick up Dragon Quest 7 on the PS when that was released but was turned off by its boring introduction, and some what dated graphics. Later, I got Dragon Quest 8 on the PS2, and actually enjoyed that fairly well from what I played. The voice acting, which I heard, wasn’t in the original Japanese version was a great touch, and added detail to the already interesting looking cast of characters. I loved the updated graphics for the series, and made it look fresh and new despite the story and setting still being the same old things of the Dragon Quest franchise. Dragon Quest 8 is among the stack of games (along with Persona 3 Fes and Persona 4) that I want to make sure I am playing when I return back to America.

So, having only completed really only one Dragon Quest game and a good number of hours spent on the various games of the series, I wonder if I can give my thoughts properly because I don’t know the franchise as much as say the Final Fantasy series, but I will try.