Another post I should probably have cut more of. Enh.
► - New Final Fantasy XIV screens. I've been really anxious for FFXIII (and spoiling myself despite that I promised not to), but I'm also really curious about XIV. It's been known for awhile that it'll be a new MMO and I'm really torn about that. On the one hand, it sounds awesome and just like what I've always wanted. On the other hand, I hate having to interact with other people when I play my game. What if I'm playing it badly!? What if they're going to bother me!? I just want to be left alone when I'm playing!!
But then I see these caps and, oh, man. WHY ARE YOUR GAMES SO PRETTY, SQUARE? (Seriously. Look how gorgeous this is. I want it so badly!)
► - Thanks to sharona1x2 posting about the new anime season, I decided to go browsing for what's coming up. I honestly didn't expect much because I just haven't been watching much anime, not even of the ones I was all keyboard mashing about! (To my shame, I haven't touched either Kobato or Fairy Tail. I'm glad to see both are animated, but maybe I've just been burnt on too many manga adaptations and I just prefer the manga now.) But some really jumped out at me that I'm interested in!
» Katanagatari is the one that caught my attention the most. The preview art looked really interesting, that kind of semi-stylized art that I'm really interested in and I'm hoping that, between the interesting looking story and the beautiful art, I might actually stay interested in this one. Plus, it's not a series where I know everything that's going to happen already! I downloaded the trailer and it looks beautiful so far, I already love both the main character (who has swordfights with his hands!) and the main mentor chick (who seems like a handful OF CRAZY, I already love her), which give me high hopes for this one.
» Dance in the Vampire Bund is one I'm a little less hopeful on, but still want to give a shot. I'm REALLY STRENUOUSLY HOPING that Mina wears a shirt more often than the trailer seems to imply (seriously, she looks like she's ten or twelve--DO NOT WANT, JAPAN) but other than that, she's a beautiful little vampire girl who is going to rule the underworld with her iron fist. If the art is as pretty as it looks, I could be casually interested in this one.
» Harukanaru Toki no Nakade 3: Owari Naki Unmei is the one I shrieked the loudest over. Harutoki3 is one of those series that I so badly wanted more information on (well, now I'm kind of a;sldkfjaslkj WHY ISN'T THERE MORE INFO ON HARUTOKI4!?, too) and now it is getting a TV series! MY BELOVED SERIES WHY CAN I NOT QUIT YOU? I'm hoping this series goes better than the last one, of course, but I have to at least give it a shot. Nozomi seems like an awesome main character and I want the chance to love her! (And for there to be more fanart. And maybe fandom might actually take to Harutoki this time.)
► - DAIGO to start in Little Shop of Horrors stageplay and siiiiiiigh why do stageplays so rarely get dvd releases/subs?
► - Some ARASHI stuff again!
♥ - Arashi's appeal (Mezamashi TV's 500 people survey) from aatash's journal!
This is beautiful. There are two things that made me pretty much laugh until I cried:
- Arashi's appeal is that they're so close to each other, so Arashi goes OH SHIT WE HAVE TO PLAY THAT UP NOW OR ELSE WE WON'T BE POPULAR and Jun of all people says, oh, right, they totally hold hands and stuff sometimes.
Not to be outdone, Ohno says, YEAH WE HOLD HANDS LIKE THIS and Sho tries to be the voice of reason. But then Aiba jumps in.
Aiba: We take baths together, you know.
Jun: You're disgusting!
Nino: For pete's sake, you need to fill in the details!!
Aiba: Why? Why??
Beautiful. Beautiful. That, right there, is Arashi for you. Aiba volunteers, hey, we take baths together, you know! :D Jun says OMG GROSS and nobody believes him. And Nino bitches that YOU CAN'T MISLEAD PEOPLE LIKE THAT, IDIOT. And Aiba deliberately doesn't understand why.
Beautiful.
But nothing beats Ohno's haiku for the next year. LOL cannot possibly cover how much I love that man's sense of humor.
♥ - Tokudane 2009.12.29 translation - As snatched from the ever-lovely aatash as well!
There is so much here that I don't even know where to start. Probably with the talk about their libido, when they try to classify what kind each of them have. Nino immediately volunteers that Aiba's libido is bright and strong. TRUER WORDS, NINOMIYA. ILU. (Also, the Aiba/Nino has been strong lately and it's beautiful, I hope it never stops.)
They banter for a bit. Then:
Aiba: What? I've got a bright libido?
Jun: So what, I've got a sullen libido??
LOL. I LAUGH REALLY HARD BECAUSE I'M PRETTY SURE THAT'S TRUE.
Also, Aiba freely admitting to being a terrible pervert is aces. It seriously never gets old when he talks about people's underwear or naked time being the first place his mind goes to or bragging about how good he is at opening the double-leaved porn pages in magazines or making fruits and vegetables look filthy JUST BY HOLDING THEM IN HIS HAND. I love you so very much, Aiba Masaki.
Although, nothing beats the conversation about boobs vs butts. I can't-- I can't even-- it's too beautiful to say anything else:
Nino: The other day, I was talking to someone about which we preferred, boobs or butts... and I made an absurdly strong argument for ... not boobs, but butts.
Aiba: Ah, that's pervy.
Sho: The bright libido guy sure likes to talk about this.
Aiba: Between boobs and butts, most people choose boobs, right?
Jun: I'd go for butts, too.
Aiba: Yeah, you're abnormal.
Nino: He really is number one.
Jun: HEY.
Ohno: Boobs aren't erotic?
Aiba: Boobs are more erotic, right?
Nino: Wait, are you talking about the presence of boobs?
Sho: Hang on, is it okay for us to keep talking about boobs?
Aiba: This early in the morning! This early in the morning...
I just... asd;lfkja;slkjalj dead. Dead on the floor and not moving anymore.
- Jun and Nino are ass men, BIG SURPRISE. I guess boobs still make you sad, huh, Matsumoto?
- Aiba sure likes talking about this, the others sure like to note.
- Wait, are we talking about someone HAVING boobs or NOT HAVING boobs? THANK YOU FOR ASKING FOR CLARIFICATION ON THAT, NINO. LOL LOL LOL.
P.S. NINOMIYA. WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WEARING!? TELL ME YOU'RE DOING THIS ON PURPOSE. THAT IS THE ONLY EXCUSE. EVER.
So, between reisha and capncosmo, I have been inspired to start watching tokusatsu again. For right now, I'm sticking with series that TVN has released in HD because I'm a newschool baby who likes her shiny as big as possible. Which means I stuck to Kamen Rider W (eps 2 and 3), Keitai Sousakan 7 (ep 23, which was double length), and Shinkenger (ep 5 or 6, because I was further along than I thought).
For me this is progress! Spoilers for any episode mentioned. Though, this'll be more generalized thoughts than anything.
Kamen Rider W: Both assured me that W was actually really knocking things out of the park, so that's what I started with, despite that I was feeling very "meh" about it way back when I watched the first episode. Part of my "meh" feeling was likely contributed to by my assumptions for what the show was going to be--I assumed it was going to be a fluffy little series that was only 20 episodes to go along with Decade, rather than making a full length series. But there's the idea that it's going to be a full length series? My interest immediately shot up, since that means it might actually develop a real storyline then!
I didn't really give W a fair chance before (but I was feeling burnt out by Decade, so I wasn't in the right frame of mind, either), but I'm trying this time and it's going better. I'm impressed that W has been laying the background for a real plot right from the beginning--the Sonozaki family interests me a lot and I'm kind of deeply amused by the Gaia Memory thing. I love that it's basically a flash drive with a USB port that you shove in your body to become a giant rubber suit monster that wouldn't look out of place on a sentai series. I love it deeply.
The characters are growing on me, too. Shoutarou has some hurdles to overcome, because I've never cared for the whole pulp novel/hard-boiled detective genre, like, ever. It's just not my thing. So, Shoutarou being so deeply entrenched in it makes it a little harder for me to like him.
Add to this, Akiko annoyed the crap out of me in the first episode, despite that I couldn't put my finger on why. How was she really all that different from Natsumi? Whom I loved pretty much instantly! I guess it was how I felt the dynamic between Tsukasa/Natsumi and Shoutarou/Akiko was introduced to us--both were bickering with each other right from the start, but with Tsukasa/Natsumi, I got the strong impression that there was history there. That, for all they snarked at each other, they cared deeply about the other, even if they'd never admit it. Since Akiko and Shoutarou had never met before, somehow the bickering grated on me here, like it wasn't either of their place to bicker that way (....that made sense in my head, okay) or the way it was set all wrong or something.
Somehow, eps 2 and 3 softened me up on Akiko, though. I'm not sure why, because I feel like I should feel the same way about her--especially following Shoutarou around with tailing their client's daughter and making a really, really loud racket the whole time. But I kind of loved her anyway! She's such a teenage girl and is clearly meant to be that I kind of came around on her.
I liked Phillip from the start, but that's just because he's kind of a snot sometimes. Or I get the feeling that he's a snot. Just the expressions on his face sometimes make me think he's kind of evil. I also like that they started to hint at his background, just as I was starting to wonder how he came about, how he has all the information on earth (so, he's basically a walking, talking Wikipedia, lolz), where he came from, who/what he is, etc.
Originally, I started this series because I was all set to ship Phillip/Shoutarou--they kind of handed the slashy subtext to you on a silver platter when they were first promoting it. And yet... I don't think I ship it yet? It could still go there, but right now, I'm just enjoying the trio as a gen relationship. I imagine they meant to imply Shoutarou/Akiko (which is my least favorite aspect of the trio so far) but I'll wait to see where they're going with it.
....there's not much else to talk about so far, even though I feel kind of badly just talking about ships and stuff. I swear, I do like KR for the plot sometimes! Honest!
Shinkenger: I'm still on the fence with this series. Whenever I watch it, I end up thinking that it's actually a pretty good series and I could really like this cast of characters and its endless ship possibilities. But, as soon as it's off the screen, I kind of forget about it again. Nothing much has really grabbed hold of me yet, aside from my ridiculous love for ShinkenRed.
I was talking with capncosmo about this and sort of realizing that almost all the toku series I ended up finishing were usually because I had some investment in an OTP of mine. I enjoyed things beyond shipping, of course, but it seemed to always come down to me needing that extra bit of motivation to actually keep going with a series. And, when I lost that OTP motivation, I tend to fall behind with a series.
Which is deeply frustrating for me because I don't want to be That Kind Of Fangirl, I want to be the kind who actually watches toku for stuff beyond the shipping! Because that's what I like best about Shinkenger so far--the enemies are awesome this year (so far?) and the characters have potential and the series just looks beautiful.
But it keeps coming back to being about shipping. Even the show kind of does it, despite that I know they're usually aiming for it to be gen interaction between two of the Shinkengers. Watching Chiaki and Kotoha interact in this episode (where Kotoha isn't bothered by the awful things people say to her, because she's so used to being called stupid and useless, while everyone else is blown back by the painful words, which gets under Chiaki's skin) I kept thinking, man, anyone who liked Green/Yellow this year would have been all over this episode!
And that's fine once in awhile. But the episode I (vaguely) remember watching before this was a Blue/Pink episode. Which I actually REALLY LIKED! I could totally be open to shipping that! But I do get kind of tired of feeling like that's what Shinkenger always boils down to and I'm not sure if I'm the one looking at it wrong or if the show really is writing the episodes that way on purpose.
(Also, knowing me, eventually I'll probably have to add my two cents about the whole feminism/lack of feminism in Shinkenger thing at some point. That should be fun for everyone!)
Keitai Sousakan 7: KS7 and I have this weird relationship. Sometimes I love it with an intensity that's ridiculous. Other times I have the worst trouble getting back into it. Something about the early 20s episodes just isn't working for me as strongly as the first dozen or so did, it feels like the sense of humor has been sucked out of the show. I forced myself to keep going, though, because TVN is releasing HD episodes and, hey, I'm a sucker for a pretty picture.
It... definitely went better this time, despite that it was a serious set of episodes, of course. Seven had been kidnapped and Keita was flipping out while trying to find him, then gets kidnapped as well, has some absolutely ridiculous scenes while he's chained up against the wall, and eventually saves the day. I... to be honest, as adorable as it is, as much as I do genuinely love Keita and Seven's friendship, I don't find myself that enthralled with those parts of the series.
Now, 01's attempts to understand humans and Buddy relationships and why he lost so many partners? That gets to me. 01 admitting defeat and Keita desperately pleading for them not to dismantle 01 and how you kind of realize that 01 just needs a good Buddy, not someone who's recklessly getting themselves killed or jumping off a building or whatever. I really wanted 01 to join their little team and have OT3 adventures of the hilarious kind. ....also, I kind of sort of ship 01/Seven. I KNOW IT'S WRONG BUT I CAN'T HELP MYSELF AHHHH SHUT UP STOP JUDGING ME.
(P.S. Kirihara and Third can come, too.)
I'm starting to see where Magira/Kirihara comes in for a lot of people and I... I am not opposed. But I'm not shipping it hardcore yet, either. I still want Keita/Kirihara like you wouldn't believe. (I often think, while watching, man, I don't trust fandom to write fic for them properly, so clearly I'd have to write it mys--as;dlfkjasl;kjas no shut up shut up shut up, before clamping down tightly on those thoughts.) Magira is hot and crazypants, though, and I'm all for making Kirihara's life just that much more difficult.
I will also say their little scuffle was pretty hot, with Kirihara getting the upper hand and wrenching around behind Magira to hold him in place. Yum. (I'm still never going to ship it as Kirihara/Magira, though. Sorry, dude, you can be as hot in pinning people in place as you want, but it's still not going to change my mind. :Db)
As touching as all the stuff with 01 was (and I get all meepy every time they show the flashbacks of him running after Buddy after Buddy, losing so many of them like that), I find myself hoping that it goes back to being light-hearted and funny soon, though.
And, finally, a quick bit of Muramasa game blogging. No real spoilers, since it's all stuff you could probably pick up just from reading the synopsis, but I'll cut anyway.
I've been playing for three hours now and I think I've gone up against two major bosses and I'm still working on uncovering everything. I'm not sure exactly how things work yet, but I'm getting the hang of things. The thing that I'm not sure enough about yet (and it's mostly because I'm too lazy to look it up properly) is Spirit. I know you raise your Spirit through food, but does it also get raised through leveling up? Or does that only affect your HP? Is Spirit only about making new weapons or does it help you in actual combat situations, like HP does or your weapons having enough power, too? How about the souls floating around? I know collecting them helps repair your swords when they're low on power, but do they help you out otherwise/if your swords are at full power already?
I kind of get stuck on comparing things a little too much to Odin Sphere--like, are the souls here the same as they were there? In Odin Sphere, you wanted to collect as many Phozons/souls as you could, because it would charge your weapon up to greater and greater levels. Do swords work the same way here? As far as I can tell, I don't think they do? But I haven't really gotten into forging swords much yet and I'm just starting to learn cooking. Which is easy enough by itself, of course, but is there any way to create food to be eaten later? To create Items that you can use in the middle of a fight if you need to? Or do you have to rely solely on what you can find/buy?
Aside from wondering about those questions, this game is amazing. I'm playing on Easy, of course, because I just want to play through the story the first time around, but it's pretty intuitive without being boring or too easy for me. I love that there's always a little flag at the end of your map to tell you where you want to be heading for, because otherwise I would get SO FREAKING LOST omg. And, honestly, a game like Muramasa isn't about trying to figure out where you're supposed to go next, it's about the gorgeous, gorgeous artwork and the amazing story and the fun gameplay.
My only complaint so far is that Momohime is not quite what I expected. When you see that the game has two characters you play as--Momohime and Kisuke--you see that one is female and one is male, which sounded pretty awesome! And, granted, Odin Sphere spoiled me for kickass ladies that you could play as, but it's still sort of frustrating that, sigh, Momohime isn't actually doing any of this herself. Jinkuro (a male character) is possessing her body and being the hardcore awesome fighter that you're playing as. Boo, game. I'd have preferred a hardcore ninja princess to play as!
That said, I actually really love Momohime herself, because she's shown some awesome inner strength. When she forcefully pushes Jinkuro out of her body because he was going to kill Yukinojyo? Awesome! And I love that you can kind of see him starting to respect her strength of character after that--even Kongiku has picked up on it and clearly REALLY DOES NOT LIKE Momohime (and says she'd be happy to let her foxes tear Momohime's soul apart if Jinkuro's becoming fond of her), every time you talk to her at a save point/shrine.
I also love that you can LEAVE A FIGHT ANY TIME YOU WANT. Generally, I try to finish the fights off because I want to get as much XP as I can, but sometimes I am just NOT IN THE MOOD to fight off more freaking Jounin and their stupid bombs and their smoke bombs that mean I have to chase them all over the place. Also, the little froggers can DIAF because they're hard to hit when they're rolled up in their little balls and I just want them to die already.
And I honestly cannot say enough good about the graphics for this game. Running through every area is a visual treat and I don't mind even when they're the same area because it's just so beautiful to look at and everything is softly blowing in the wind, all those beautiful golden fields or the gently waving blossoms on the trees, the little petals falling through the air even as you just stand there, or the snow-covered mountains that have all these amazing colors in them. Plus, I didn't even realize it until after I'd been playing for awhile, but HOLY CRAP NO INTENSE LOAD TIMES. THIS IS KIND OF AN AMAZING THING.
I was a little worried that the game would be shorter than Odin Sphere, because there you had five characters to play through, but here you only have two. But the world you need to travel through seems far more expansive, so I'm hoping that it'll last longer! I'm not sure how many hours I'll end up with by the time I'm done, but I'm hoping for about 60 or so. (That's a total shot in the dark, though. Man, I wish more game review sites would include gameplay time estimates like that, it would seriously help me figure out which games I want to get more often!)
So far, this game is living up to being a spiritual successor to Odin Sphere. It's amazing. ♥
But then I see these caps and, oh, man. WHY ARE YOUR GAMES SO PRETTY, SQUARE? (Seriously. Look how gorgeous this is. I want it so badly!)
► - Thanks to sharona1x2 posting about the new anime season, I decided to go browsing for what's coming up. I honestly didn't expect much because I just haven't been watching much anime, not even of the ones I was all keyboard mashing about! (To my shame, I haven't touched either Kobato or Fairy Tail. I'm glad to see both are animated, but maybe I've just been burnt on too many manga adaptations and I just prefer the manga now.) But some really jumped out at me that I'm interested in!
» Katanagatari is the one that caught my attention the most. The preview art looked really interesting, that kind of semi-stylized art that I'm really interested in and I'm hoping that, between the interesting looking story and the beautiful art, I might actually stay interested in this one. Plus, it's not a series where I know everything that's going to happen already! I downloaded the trailer and it looks beautiful so far, I already love both the main character (who has swordfights with his hands!) and the main mentor chick (who seems like a handful OF CRAZY, I already love her), which give me high hopes for this one.
» Dance in the Vampire Bund is one I'm a little less hopeful on, but still want to give a shot. I'm REALLY STRENUOUSLY HOPING that Mina wears a shirt more often than the trailer seems to imply (seriously, she looks like she's ten or twelve--DO NOT WANT, JAPAN) but other than that, she's a beautiful little vampire girl who is going to rule the underworld with her iron fist. If the art is as pretty as it looks, I could be casually interested in this one.
» Harukanaru Toki no Nakade 3: Owari Naki Unmei is the one I shrieked the loudest over. Harutoki3 is one of those series that I so badly wanted more information on (well, now I'm kind of a;sldkfjaslkj WHY ISN'T THERE MORE INFO ON HARUTOKI4!?, too) and now it is getting a TV series! MY BELOVED SERIES WHY CAN I NOT QUIT YOU? I'm hoping this series goes better than the last one, of course, but I have to at least give it a shot. Nozomi seems like an awesome main character and I want the chance to love her! (And for there to be more fanart. And maybe fandom might actually take to Harutoki this time.)
► - DAIGO to start in Little Shop of Horrors stageplay and siiiiiiigh why do stageplays so rarely get dvd releases/subs?
► - Some ARASHI stuff again!
♥ - Arashi's appeal (Mezamashi TV's 500 people survey) from aatash's journal!
This is beautiful. There are two things that made me pretty much laugh until I cried:
- Arashi's appeal is that they're so close to each other, so Arashi goes OH SHIT WE HAVE TO PLAY THAT UP NOW OR ELSE WE WON'T BE POPULAR and Jun of all people says, oh, right, they totally hold hands and stuff sometimes.
Not to be outdone, Ohno says, YEAH WE HOLD HANDS LIKE THIS and Sho tries to be the voice of reason. But then Aiba jumps in.
Aiba: We take baths together, you know.
Jun: You're disgusting!
Nino: For pete's sake, you need to fill in the details!!
Aiba: Why? Why??
Beautiful. Beautiful. That, right there, is Arashi for you. Aiba volunteers, hey, we take baths together, you know! :D Jun says OMG GROSS and nobody believes him. And Nino bitches that YOU CAN'T MISLEAD PEOPLE LIKE THAT, IDIOT. And Aiba deliberately doesn't understand why.
Beautiful.
But nothing beats Ohno's haiku for the next year. LOL cannot possibly cover how much I love that man's sense of humor.
♥ - Tokudane 2009.12.29 translation - As snatched from the ever-lovely aatash as well!
There is so much here that I don't even know where to start. Probably with the talk about their libido, when they try to classify what kind each of them have. Nino immediately volunteers that Aiba's libido is bright and strong. TRUER WORDS, NINOMIYA. ILU. (Also, the Aiba/Nino has been strong lately and it's beautiful, I hope it never stops.)
They banter for a bit. Then:
Aiba: What? I've got a bright libido?
Jun: So what, I've got a sullen libido??
LOL. I LAUGH REALLY HARD BECAUSE I'M PRETTY SURE THAT'S TRUE.
Also, Aiba freely admitting to being a terrible pervert is aces. It seriously never gets old when he talks about people's underwear or naked time being the first place his mind goes to or bragging about how good he is at opening the double-leaved porn pages in magazines or making fruits and vegetables look filthy JUST BY HOLDING THEM IN HIS HAND. I love you so very much, Aiba Masaki.
Although, nothing beats the conversation about boobs vs butts. I can't-- I can't even-- it's too beautiful to say anything else:
Nino: The other day, I was talking to someone about which we preferred, boobs or butts... and I made an absurdly strong argument for ... not boobs, but butts.
Aiba: Ah, that's pervy.
Sho: The bright libido guy sure likes to talk about this.
Aiba: Between boobs and butts, most people choose boobs, right?
Jun: I'd go for butts, too.
Aiba: Yeah, you're abnormal.
Nino: He really is number one.
Jun: HEY.
Ohno: Boobs aren't erotic?
Aiba: Boobs are more erotic, right?
Nino: Wait, are you talking about the presence of boobs?
Sho: Hang on, is it okay for us to keep talking about boobs?
Aiba: This early in the morning! This early in the morning...
I just... asd;lfkja;slkjalj dead. Dead on the floor and not moving anymore.
- Jun and Nino are ass men, BIG SURPRISE. I guess boobs still make you sad, huh, Matsumoto?
- Aiba sure likes talking about this, the others sure like to note.
- Wait, are we talking about someone HAVING boobs or NOT HAVING boobs? THANK YOU FOR ASKING FOR CLARIFICATION ON THAT, NINO. LOL LOL LOL.
P.S. NINOMIYA. WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WEARING!? TELL ME YOU'RE DOING THIS ON PURPOSE. THAT IS THE ONLY EXCUSE. EVER.
So, between reisha and capncosmo, I have been inspired to start watching tokusatsu again. For right now, I'm sticking with series that TVN has released in HD because I'm a newschool baby who likes her shiny as big as possible. Which means I stuck to Kamen Rider W (eps 2 and 3), Keitai Sousakan 7 (ep 23, which was double length), and Shinkenger (ep 5 or 6, because I was further along than I thought).
For me this is progress! Spoilers for any episode mentioned. Though, this'll be more generalized thoughts than anything.
Kamen Rider W: Both assured me that W was actually really knocking things out of the park, so that's what I started with, despite that I was feeling very "meh" about it way back when I watched the first episode. Part of my "meh" feeling was likely contributed to by my assumptions for what the show was going to be--I assumed it was going to be a fluffy little series that was only 20 episodes to go along with Decade, rather than making a full length series. But there's the idea that it's going to be a full length series? My interest immediately shot up, since that means it might actually develop a real storyline then!
I didn't really give W a fair chance before (but I was feeling burnt out by Decade, so I wasn't in the right frame of mind, either), but I'm trying this time and it's going better. I'm impressed that W has been laying the background for a real plot right from the beginning--the Sonozaki family interests me a lot and I'm kind of deeply amused by the Gaia Memory thing. I love that it's basically a flash drive with a USB port that you shove in your body to become a giant rubber suit monster that wouldn't look out of place on a sentai series. I love it deeply.
The characters are growing on me, too. Shoutarou has some hurdles to overcome, because I've never cared for the whole pulp novel/hard-boiled detective genre, like, ever. It's just not my thing. So, Shoutarou being so deeply entrenched in it makes it a little harder for me to like him.
Add to this, Akiko annoyed the crap out of me in the first episode, despite that I couldn't put my finger on why. How was she really all that different from Natsumi? Whom I loved pretty much instantly! I guess it was how I felt the dynamic between Tsukasa/Natsumi and Shoutarou/Akiko was introduced to us--both were bickering with each other right from the start, but with Tsukasa/Natsumi, I got the strong impression that there was history there. That, for all they snarked at each other, they cared deeply about the other, even if they'd never admit it. Since Akiko and Shoutarou had never met before, somehow the bickering grated on me here, like it wasn't either of their place to bicker that way (....that made sense in my head, okay) or the way it was set all wrong or something.
Somehow, eps 2 and 3 softened me up on Akiko, though. I'm not sure why, because I feel like I should feel the same way about her--especially following Shoutarou around with tailing their client's daughter and making a really, really loud racket the whole time. But I kind of loved her anyway! She's such a teenage girl and is clearly meant to be that I kind of came around on her.
I liked Phillip from the start, but that's just because he's kind of a snot sometimes. Or I get the feeling that he's a snot. Just the expressions on his face sometimes make me think he's kind of evil. I also like that they started to hint at his background, just as I was starting to wonder how he came about, how he has all the information on earth (so, he's basically a walking, talking Wikipedia, lolz), where he came from, who/what he is, etc.
Originally, I started this series because I was all set to ship Phillip/Shoutarou--they kind of handed the slashy subtext to you on a silver platter when they were first promoting it. And yet... I don't think I ship it yet? It could still go there, but right now, I'm just enjoying the trio as a gen relationship. I imagine they meant to imply Shoutarou/Akiko (which is my least favorite aspect of the trio so far) but I'll wait to see where they're going with it.
....there's not much else to talk about so far, even though I feel kind of badly just talking about ships and stuff. I swear, I do like KR for the plot sometimes! Honest!
Shinkenger: I'm still on the fence with this series. Whenever I watch it, I end up thinking that it's actually a pretty good series and I could really like this cast of characters and its endless ship possibilities. But, as soon as it's off the screen, I kind of forget about it again. Nothing much has really grabbed hold of me yet, aside from my ridiculous love for ShinkenRed.
I was talking with capncosmo about this and sort of realizing that almost all the toku series I ended up finishing were usually because I had some investment in an OTP of mine. I enjoyed things beyond shipping, of course, but it seemed to always come down to me needing that extra bit of motivation to actually keep going with a series. And, when I lost that OTP motivation, I tend to fall behind with a series.
Which is deeply frustrating for me because I don't want to be That Kind Of Fangirl, I want to be the kind who actually watches toku for stuff beyond the shipping! Because that's what I like best about Shinkenger so far--the enemies are awesome this year (so far?) and the characters have potential and the series just looks beautiful.
But it keeps coming back to being about shipping. Even the show kind of does it, despite that I know they're usually aiming for it to be gen interaction between two of the Shinkengers. Watching Chiaki and Kotoha interact in this episode (where Kotoha isn't bothered by the awful things people say to her, because she's so used to being called stupid and useless, while everyone else is blown back by the painful words, which gets under Chiaki's skin) I kept thinking, man, anyone who liked Green/Yellow this year would have been all over this episode!
And that's fine once in awhile. But the episode I (vaguely) remember watching before this was a Blue/Pink episode. Which I actually REALLY LIKED! I could totally be open to shipping that! But I do get kind of tired of feeling like that's what Shinkenger always boils down to and I'm not sure if I'm the one looking at it wrong or if the show really is writing the episodes that way on purpose.
(Also, knowing me, eventually I'll probably have to add my two cents about the whole feminism/lack of feminism in Shinkenger thing at some point. That should be fun for everyone!)
Keitai Sousakan 7: KS7 and I have this weird relationship. Sometimes I love it with an intensity that's ridiculous. Other times I have the worst trouble getting back into it. Something about the early 20s episodes just isn't working for me as strongly as the first dozen or so did, it feels like the sense of humor has been sucked out of the show. I forced myself to keep going, though, because TVN is releasing HD episodes and, hey, I'm a sucker for a pretty picture.
It... definitely went better this time, despite that it was a serious set of episodes, of course. Seven had been kidnapped and Keita was flipping out while trying to find him, then gets kidnapped as well, has some absolutely ridiculous scenes while he's chained up against the wall, and eventually saves the day. I... to be honest, as adorable as it is, as much as I do genuinely love Keita and Seven's friendship, I don't find myself that enthralled with those parts of the series.
Now, 01's attempts to understand humans and Buddy relationships and why he lost so many partners? That gets to me. 01 admitting defeat and Keita desperately pleading for them not to dismantle 01 and how you kind of realize that 01 just needs a good Buddy, not someone who's recklessly getting themselves killed or jumping off a building or whatever. I really wanted 01 to join their little team and have OT3 adventures of the hilarious kind. ....also, I kind of sort of ship 01/Seven. I KNOW IT'S WRONG BUT I CAN'T HELP MYSELF AHHHH SHUT UP STOP JUDGING ME.
(P.S. Kirihara and Third can come, too.)
I'm starting to see where Magira/Kirihara comes in for a lot of people and I... I am not opposed. But I'm not shipping it hardcore yet, either. I still want Keita/Kirihara like you wouldn't believe. (I often think, while watching, man, I don't trust fandom to write fic for them properly, so clearly I'd have to write it mys--as;dlfkjasl;kjas no shut up shut up shut up, before clamping down tightly on those thoughts.) Magira is hot and crazypants, though, and I'm all for making Kirihara's life just that much more difficult.
I will also say their little scuffle was pretty hot, with Kirihara getting the upper hand and wrenching around behind Magira to hold him in place. Yum. (I'm still never going to ship it as Kirihara/Magira, though. Sorry, dude, you can be as hot in pinning people in place as you want, but it's still not going to change my mind. :Db)
As touching as all the stuff with 01 was (and I get all meepy every time they show the flashbacks of him running after Buddy after Buddy, losing so many of them like that), I find myself hoping that it goes back to being light-hearted and funny soon, though.
And, finally, a quick bit of Muramasa game blogging. No real spoilers, since it's all stuff you could probably pick up just from reading the synopsis, but I'll cut anyway.
I've been playing for three hours now and I think I've gone up against two major bosses and I'm still working on uncovering everything. I'm not sure exactly how things work yet, but I'm getting the hang of things. The thing that I'm not sure enough about yet (and it's mostly because I'm too lazy to look it up properly) is Spirit. I know you raise your Spirit through food, but does it also get raised through leveling up? Or does that only affect your HP? Is Spirit only about making new weapons or does it help you in actual combat situations, like HP does or your weapons having enough power, too? How about the souls floating around? I know collecting them helps repair your swords when they're low on power, but do they help you out otherwise/if your swords are at full power already?
I kind of get stuck on comparing things a little too much to Odin Sphere--like, are the souls here the same as they were there? In Odin Sphere, you wanted to collect as many Phozons/souls as you could, because it would charge your weapon up to greater and greater levels. Do swords work the same way here? As far as I can tell, I don't think they do? But I haven't really gotten into forging swords much yet and I'm just starting to learn cooking. Which is easy enough by itself, of course, but is there any way to create food to be eaten later? To create Items that you can use in the middle of a fight if you need to? Or do you have to rely solely on what you can find/buy?
Aside from wondering about those questions, this game is amazing. I'm playing on Easy, of course, because I just want to play through the story the first time around, but it's pretty intuitive without being boring or too easy for me. I love that there's always a little flag at the end of your map to tell you where you want to be heading for, because otherwise I would get SO FREAKING LOST omg. And, honestly, a game like Muramasa isn't about trying to figure out where you're supposed to go next, it's about the gorgeous, gorgeous artwork and the amazing story and the fun gameplay.
My only complaint so far is that Momohime is not quite what I expected. When you see that the game has two characters you play as--Momohime and Kisuke--you see that one is female and one is male, which sounded pretty awesome! And, granted, Odin Sphere spoiled me for kickass ladies that you could play as, but it's still sort of frustrating that, sigh, Momohime isn't actually doing any of this herself. Jinkuro (a male character) is possessing her body and being the hardcore awesome fighter that you're playing as. Boo, game. I'd have preferred a hardcore ninja princess to play as!
That said, I actually really love Momohime herself, because she's shown some awesome inner strength. When she forcefully pushes Jinkuro out of her body because he was going to kill Yukinojyo? Awesome! And I love that you can kind of see him starting to respect her strength of character after that--even Kongiku has picked up on it and clearly REALLY DOES NOT LIKE Momohime (and says she'd be happy to let her foxes tear Momohime's soul apart if Jinkuro's becoming fond of her), every time you talk to her at a save point/shrine.
I also love that you can LEAVE A FIGHT ANY TIME YOU WANT. Generally, I try to finish the fights off because I want to get as much XP as I can, but sometimes I am just NOT IN THE MOOD to fight off more freaking Jounin and their stupid bombs and their smoke bombs that mean I have to chase them all over the place. Also, the little froggers can DIAF because they're hard to hit when they're rolled up in their little balls and I just want them to die already.
And I honestly cannot say enough good about the graphics for this game. Running through every area is a visual treat and I don't mind even when they're the same area because it's just so beautiful to look at and everything is softly blowing in the wind, all those beautiful golden fields or the gently waving blossoms on the trees, the little petals falling through the air even as you just stand there, or the snow-covered mountains that have all these amazing colors in them. Plus, I didn't even realize it until after I'd been playing for awhile, but HOLY CRAP NO INTENSE LOAD TIMES. THIS IS KIND OF AN AMAZING THING.
I was a little worried that the game would be shorter than Odin Sphere, because there you had five characters to play through, but here you only have two. But the world you need to travel through seems far more expansive, so I'm hoping that it'll last longer! I'm not sure how many hours I'll end up with by the time I'm done, but I'm hoping for about 60 or so. (That's a total shot in the dark, though. Man, I wish more game review sites would include gameplay time estimates like that, it would seriously help me figure out which games I want to get more often!)
So far, this game is living up to being a spiritual successor to Odin Sphere. It's amazing. ♥