Gosick

Just finished Gosick.

I give it an 8/10.  I dropped this show after the first arc last year when it came out but decided to revisit it, and I'm so glad I did.  The story follows our hero, Kazuya Kujo, who is sent by Japan to Saint Marguerite Academy in the small (fictional) country of Sauville in Southern Europe.  The year is 1924, and the world is enjoying peace after the Great War.  Urban legends and horror stories are all the rage at the school, and Kazuya is quickly labeled the Black Reaper by the students due to his black hair and eyes.  Unable to fit in, Kujo is miserable.  He learns of another urban legend at the school, that of the Golden Fairy of the Tower, and one day stumbles onto the Fairy herself; a tiny girl with extremely long blonde hair who has taken up residence in the school's massive library tower.  Victorique de Blois spends her days atop the tower reading books and generally being bored, her impressive intellect solving crimes that the local (and incredibly popular) police inspector is unable to solve himself.  Kazuya and Victorique become involved in the case of the Queen Berry, and urban legend about a ghost ship, and its fateful cruise where most of its crew was mysteriously massacred.  The Queen Berry has suddenly reappeared, and Kazuya convinces Victorique to investigte the case, and the first arc of Gosick has begun.

Studio Bones did a great job with this show, especially with the presentation of the lead characters, however I'll admit that I may be a bit biased.  Saying I had a little crush on Victorique would be an understatement.  She and Kazuya, at first, share a relationship similar to Sherlock Holmes and Watson.  However, along the way Gosick becomes more than just a detective anime.  Victorique has a strong, defiant personality but her abraisive intelligence rubs almost everyone the wrong way.  Compounding the problem is her reclusive nature, and it's clear to see why so many rumors about her are created by the students.  Kazuya is a warm-hearted boy who always thinks of others before himself.  As a third son in a line of proud warriors, Kazuya is alienated by his father, who wants his son to follow in his footsteps but considers Kazuya too soft.  Naturally, Kazuya is unable to leave the Green Fairy to her lonesome ways, and is always trying to help cure her boredom.  Seeing the interaction between Victorique and Kazuya over the 24 episode span of the anime was one of the high points for me.  The overall story is also excellent, but I can't get into that here.

The animation is impressive.  Even most wide-angle shots are done well.  Victorique is always clothed in the goth-loli look, and her dresses are always detailed and extravagant.  Bones did a nice job of capturing the look of the early 20th century, especially with the archetecture of buildings and the general feel of the setting.

The OST is nice.  It's definitely something you'd expect from a story that takes place in the 1920s.  The OP "Destin Histroire" by Yoshiki Lisa and the EDs "Resuscitated Hope" by Lisa Komine and "unity" by Lisa Komine are great.

I'd recommend Gosick to anyone who likes detective stories or tales that takes place in the early 20th century.  I'd also recommend it to anyone who likes romance anime.  If you liked Gosick I'd recommend Karakuri Zoushi Ayatsuri Sakon, another excellent detective anime.

Summer WonFes, aka the Black Sister Dilemma

Ah, Wonder Festival, the magical bi-annual event where both the big PVC manufacturers and small garage kit circles come together to display their upcoming offerings.  I always pay close attention to every WonFes report graciously posted by Nekomagic, usually resulting in much want on my behalf.

This half, I was completely captivated by Spare Tail's offering of Black Sister, a side character from the JRPG Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2.  She's the game's precocious tsundere sister of Black Heart, and represents the PSP game system.  Naturally, I'm a fan.

That gun, that outfit, those drills.

Thus begins my dilemma.  I found this garage kit on Yahoo Auctions Japan and it seems to be a legit kit.  For 15,000 yen.  Add to that the deputy fee and shipping, plus the rather hefty fee of getting her commissioned to paint, and it comes out to be upwards of $500 in total.

I know the collector's motto is "Don't think, buy," but in this case, I'm trying my best to hold out.  With garage kits like these, oftentimes a PVC will come out by a large manufacturer that will be less of an assault on the bank account, however in this case I don't know if that'll happen.  The only character from this series that I know got a PVC figure is Purple Heart by QuesQ, and it wasn't a very well-made PVC.

The Grail.

At this point I have a few options:

1. Don't think, buy
2. Buy and wait to get her painted
3. Buy and learn to paint
4. Don't buy and wait for a PVC that might not come

The fourth option is the most perilous one, as I really want this figure.  I'll think on it.

C3: Cube x Cursed x Curious

Just finished C3: Cube x Cursed x Curious.

I give it a 6/10.  The story starts off with our protagonist, Yachi Haruaki, a high schooler who is immune to curses.  His traveling father sends him a mysterious metal box in the mail.  Due to their special skills, the Yachi family collects and effectively removes the curses from demonic tools, dolls, etc.  Assuming the package is just another cursed tool to be cleansed, Haruaki stacks the box in the basement with the rest of the items.  Of course, the box mysteriously morphs into Fear, your typical tsundere, flat-chested girl of petite stature later that night, surprising Haruaki who assumes that the noise coming from his kitchen is a burglar.  Fear is a cursed tool from the middle ages, and can summon a wide range of torture devices to assist her in combat.  Thus begins our cliche action/love triangle epic.

The story is pretty generic.  The entire experience reminded me of a slightly cheaper Shakugan no Shana.  I was actually surprised C3 was produced by FUNi, as the whole time I thought I was watching something from JC.  There's roughly three arcs spanning four episodes each, focusing mainly on outside forces trying to get their hands on Fear.  Almost any episode is mainly broken into a few parts: Fear making fun of Haruaki's friend Konoha's large breasts (which is such an old, stale humor device that I groaned every time it happened), Fear trying to fit in with everyone, and all the good guys fighting the bad guys.

The animation isn't great.  It gets the job done, but at times it's really sloppy.  Fear especially has some interesting expressions when she gets worked up during a fight.  This show isn't afraid of gore, and I can remember at least twice during the first 3 episodes where someone was dismembered.  At times during the show it looked like the art director was trying to pull some ef: Memories-style modern art thing, making the show just look disjointed.

The characters are pretty typical fare.  Fear the petite, flat-chested tsundere.  Konoha the childhood friend, a large breasted, megane tsundere (wow TWO tsunderes!).  Kirika the stern, cool class-rep with a soft spot for Haruaki.  Anything else would be moving into spoiler-land.  But, there's a few more characters thrown in there that follow an established mold.

The OST and OPs/EDs are largelly forgettable.

Looking back, it seems like I've written a totally negative review of C3, but it isn't all that bad.  It was entertaining enough for 12 episodes, it was just missing something.    I would recommend C3 to anyone who likes crazy fighting and likes some blood and gore and hasn't been totally jaded by the old breast jokes.  If you liked C3 you'd definitely like Shakugan no Shana, which is a similar yet superior anime, in my opinion.

Persona 4

Just finished Persona 4: The Animation.

I give it an 8/10.  This anime is based on the PlayStation 2 game of the same name by Atlus.  It follows Narukami Yu, a high schooler who has temporarily moved from the big city to his uncle's place in the sticks.  He attends the local high school as a transfer student and suddenly gets involved in a series of murder cases taking place in the small town of Inaba.

Aniplex really did a great job of getting the Persona game series' feel translated into an anime.  In the game, you must establish social links with those around you, usually involving hanging out in town with your friends, helping a stranger, or something similar.  Each social link is associated with a persona archetype, which are akin to tarot cards (ie The Fool, The Hanged Man, The Emperor, Death, etc).  By strengthening these bonds, you'll increase the power of your personas, which are used in battle to defeat shadows (enemies).  The core of the game is to make your personas as strong as possible to defeat the boss monsters at the end of every phase.  Each social link has its own storyline, so the game is pretty in depth.

Being that I haven't played Persona 4 (I've only played 3), I can't vouch for the story consistency, but I think Aniplex did well presenting an interesting plotline.  Each episode begins in the Velvet Room (veterans of the games will appreciate this), and then continues into the current arc.  The show consists of 25 episodes and is very well paced and I was alwlays interested to see what happened next.

The characters are excellent.  Yu is a great lead character and has some of the best one-liners I've ever heard in anime.  The supporting characters cover a wide range of personalities and backgrounds (from pop idol to child detective), and they all have their own shadows to defeat.  Being able to see the supporting character's shadow sides during their individual arcs was very interesting and sometimes pretty humorous (Kanji, lol).

The music is straight out of the games, so I really appreciated that.  Both OPs and EDs are chock full of Engrish, which was common in Persona 3 also.  But somehow it fits here, and I'll bet you'll find yourself humming along at least once.

The animation is very good, with the exception of a few wide angle shots.  Close-ups are done very well and the action sequences are well animated.  The character designs are.. trendy.. is the only word that comes to mind.  Fans of the games will see their favorite personas animated, and they all look pretty bizarre.

I would recommend Persona 4: The Animation to anyone who enjoys the Persona game series or likes anime in general.  I feel this anime could be enjoyed by anyone.  If you liked this anime I'd recommend C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control for a similar battle style and an unconventional storyline.

Hello everyone.  I'm about as new as you can get to blogging.  It took me over an hour to set this up... Scary that I've been into computers since the early 90s but am fairly uneducated when it comes to these things.

That being said, I'm migrating all my anime, VN, JRPG, figurine/doll discussions, and anything else relating to otaku culture from Facebook to Blogger.  I seriously doubt most of my friends and family wanted it popping up on their news feed every day anyway.

I hope you enjoy reading my random thoughts (sometimes I review in detail), but honestly I think this is mainly for me.  I've been watching anime since the late 90s, and have viewed over 325 anime series, OVAs and movies.  You can check out my myanimelist profile at  http://myanimelist.net/profile/Smallboss.