Kyoto, Roppongi and anime figures

 Summer vacation is about over, school starts on Monday. It has been an eventful summer vacation though!

To start off I went with a classmate to a mixing party in Roppongi, where the objective for the party planners were to have foreigners and Japanese people around the same age meet. Lot of fun, and we ended up walking back to Shinjuku afterwards, drunk, haha.

 Also took a trip to Kyoto, rented some bicycles and just went all over. Kyoto really is a beautiful city with a lot of temples and shrines, but it still looks like a modern city near the center. Next time I think more on the outskirts of the city could be better.

 Also saw a collection display of anime figures in celebration of Kyoto station's 50th anniversary. Sadly wasn't allowed to take pictures but I did buy some memorabilia. Bought a Solid Snake (MGS1) figure, a small Yotsuba figure (from "Yotsubato!", a manga from the creator of Azumanga Daioh) and lastly Black Hanekawa from Bakemonogatari/Nekomonogatari (pictured).

Speaking of anime, I recently started Sword Art Online 2. The beginning of the series was a bit stupid but it has gotten quite good after episode 6. (I had been told this and wanted to know for sure, otherwise I would probably have dropped it earlier). I may make a post about this separately.

This Sunday is the Awaodori, so I'm going to catch that event and get some pictures. More pictures of the Kyoto trip is at my tumblr.

Recommendation: Dr. Koto & Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

I figured that today would be a good day to write about two of the things I wish more people knew about, because of how great these things are, in my eyes. The first to be mentioned is Dr. Koto's Clinic. I haven't read the manga version of it, but the live action TV show is amazing, and highly recommended. Do be warned though, as it may give you a severe case of the feels.

Dr. Koto is a series about a small village somewhere in the southern part of Japan, which the new doctor Kensuke Goto has just arrived to. A lot of the people don't trust him, because he's an outsider and a doctor. They've previously had good-for-nothing doctors who would either get drunk or give them wrong medicine and other malpractices. Nevertheless, he works diligently to help the villagers and improve the reputation doctors have on the island. It's a great story, with amazing characters, and I really wish more people knew of this series. 

Even if you're normally not a fan of live-action TV shows, do give this one a try. I did, with no prior experience to Japanese TV-shows, and I'm extremely happy I gave it a chance. It also has a pretty amazing ending song. 

The other series I want to talk about is Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Some may recognize it as the current banner on my blog. It's an anime series made by SHAFT that parodies everything and anything you could possibly come up with. A few of the running gags include attempted suicide which always fails followed by the line "What if I had died?!", stalking, blissful ignorance, preciseness, despair and tropes that are popular. 

It's something of a skit-comedy, meaning there isn't a particular strong story to follow. It's a series made to entertain with jokes. Because of this it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but give it a fair chance and you too might end up a fan of this amazing series.

Please give these two series a shot if you got the time. My next blog post might be a while, as my trip to Japan is coming up. Once I get settled in, you can expect content on this blog right from Tokyo! Until next time, stay safe!

The Big "What's Going On?" Update

Holy carp, it's been a long time since my previous post, and a lot has happened since last time! I've kind of struggled with making a post because of this. I also have a super-special announcement at the end of this post! Anyway, let's start of with something recent...

Holy Magicarp, the Demigod of Time

I went to the US, to Florida for the Daytona 500. For those not in the know, it's a big 200 lap race, with amazingly fast cars that are LOUD. We had tickets that allowed us on the in-field, and take a look at the pre-race checks and such. Got to see 30-something laps, then it started to rain heavily, they issued a tornado warning and shit, so we decided to go back to our rental house. The race continued on later in the evening, so we watched it on TV...

The Great American Race

I also got the chance to fire a gun for the first time at a gun range. That was amazing! I tried a Glock 20 (which had a helluva recoil, being made of plastic and firing 10mm bullets), and a .357 Magnum (which I felt had less recoil, maybe because of the weight an the heavy barrel). Definitely an experience to remember.

I bought a 3DS, Pokemon Y and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. So far I've only played Pokemon, and it's just been a big old Nostalgia trip for me. It's a great game, the new Exp. Share makes it easier to have your entire team at about the same level, reducing grinding time to almost nothing. Might make a more detailed post about these games later on in a different post.

So, for something a bit more exciting, that will have a big impact on this blog... I'm leaving for Japan by the end of the month. My housing arrangements should be in order, during these next two weeks my Visa application should hopefully be done and dealt with, and happy, scary times will be here! An ENTIRE YEAR in Japan! With no one I know on beforehand!

My feels. Nervous? Not at all! Looking forward to it though!

On to the super-special announcement: absolutelyanime (previously known as Blackragdoll), my friend Marius and I, made a podcast where we talk bullshit about anime! I would have it embed in here, but it's impossibly hard to find via the tools blogger has. Instead, have a link to it! Anime Talkathon's first episode!

As a bonus note, I recently watched the OVAs of Valkyria Chronicles 3 (all two of 'em). It's really, really great, but you kind of need to have played the PSP-game to know the relationships the people have, and a healthy dose of the first Valkyria Chronicles game (for PS3) to know who Squad 7 is would also be helpful. A really great OVA though, which I would recommend even so.

Until next time, stay safe and have fun!

Status Update: December

So I felt it was time for another post, this time a bit more of an update than a review or something like that. First things first: It's closing in on Christmas pretty quick! I've been busy trying to figure out what to give as presents, because I'm really bad at that. I guess I lack the creativity, as I've been asked myself what I want for Christmas only to disappoint with an answer like "I dunno". Anyway, Christmas is supposed to be a holiday to spend with your family, enjoy the best of the Christmas movies (I heartily recommend Die Hard, if you remain unconvinced here's 5 reasons Die Hard is the best Christmas movie ever ) and eat great food. I might however not have that chance this year, due to work.

On the other hand, I've received some great news! I've gotten accepted into the language school for my one-year Japan trip, and now I only gotta wait for my Student Visa, along with other paperwork to be done. I am seriously excited to go to Japan. I'll probably end up taking a lot of pictures, maybe making a few videos as well, who knows. I'll toss them up on this blog and attempt to make some sort of regular schedule for them by then. Not promising anything on a regular schedule as of yet. Another thing I wanted to mention real quick, is the weather. Normally at this point in December, we'd have loads of snow in Norway, and freezing temperatures of around -5 to -10 degrees Celsius at least. So far we've had two snowfalls, both being washed away by rain the days after with the warm weather. Today it's 5 degrees Celsius. I went out with a T-shirt and an open college-jacket today and still felt warm.

This looks so beautiful!

When it comes to anime I've finished watching Katanagatari, and considered doing a review of it. I scrapped that idea though, because it ended up just being me praising it to the stars and not having any negative things to say about it... It looks gorgeous, the story is great, funny and took some unexpected turns. Gave it a 10/10 on MAL, just because of how much it amazed me and kept me glued to the screen. I strongly recommend this series, as it gets my seal of approval.

Another series I've recently gotten into is Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai, or The World God Only Knows in English. This series came recommended to me by a friend, who thought the main character, Keima Katsuragi, reminded him of me because of his looks and his character. I'll admit, I'm a bit similar, and hold some of the same views, but nowhere near to the same extent as Keima! Anyway, even if the jokes sometimes hit a bit close to home, I'm thoroughly enjoying this series and will most likely watch the sequels when I get the time.

As a finishing note, I'd like to wish you, the reader, a merry Christmas and happy holiday!

Mini-review: Azumanga Daioh

As I hinted at back in the beginning of September I said I might do a mini-review on Azumanga Daioh when I finished it. Well, here it is!

Azumanga Daioh is a bit of a weird slice of life/comedy series. The pacing is a bit sluggish but it fits with the theme very well, as it is revolving around spending time with friends and taking it easy. For me it took some time to get used to the pacing and to get really into the series, but when I did it I got a lot more invested into this series.

Saying that though, it may not be just the pacing that will determine if you'll like it or not. You got to like the characters! A lot of the humor comes from the characters, and how they interact with each other. If you end up not liking one of the characters, it will most likely be detrimental to your enjoyment. This is where Tomo comes in to the picture for me.

"Time to annoy someone!"

As the series went on, she became more and more annoying. She would do stuff like throwing away house keys, annoy the other characters, and say rude things with no compassion towards others, and then act surprised when she hurt their feelings. She's also a slacker, despite being energetic! The only time she doesn't slack off is when she can do something that she knows will annoy someone, or make (what she thinks) is a good joke.

Kaori, unaware of the horror to come.

Employee of the Year?

I wonder if this is someone's OTP... O_o

Luckily though, this series balances out Tomo, with a magnitude of other great characters, like the teacher Kimura (which, for some reason has managed to not lose his job) and the student Kaori (often called Kaorin by Kimura). Kimura, despite being a happily married man, makes several (and somewhat creepy) advances at Kaori, like giving her a cute nickname, planting a sign in the flowerbed saying "Kimurin and Kaorin's flower garden" and dancing with her at the sports day festival, to name a few. This is luckily, all just played for laughs, and it is several times stated that he loves his wife and daughter.

Another great character I want to mention is Sakaki. She's tall (taller than many of the boys), and because of that has never considered herself as being able to be cute, and instead gives off an aura of "cool" in public. She loves animals (cats especially) but can't keep any because her mom is allergic. Seeing her luck with the cat she meets on her way to school several times, this is probably a good thing, as she gets bitten fairly often. This changes later on, when she is allowed to keep a wildcat, at another characters house.

"I've played GTA 5, I got this!"

The last character I'll go into some depth about is the teacher Yukari. Or rather, her driving skills. Yukari drives a car in the same manner as her personality is porttrayed. Reckless. Her car consists of dents and traded paint for the most part. She'll ignore traffic signs and pedestrians to get where she is going, fast. There's even a joke about how one of the characters got traumatized from riding in her car!

To wrap things up, Azumanga Daioh is a very good series that I'd recommend if you want something slower paced, and full of comedic relief, to take a break from the action or drama. If you enjoy the Slice of Life genre, this is a must watch, if you haven't already.

Final Verdict: 8/10

Pros:                                                                          Cons:
- Characters that work well together                               - Tomo can be annoying
- Clever and funny jokes                                                - The slow pace can require some
- Doesn't take itself too seriously                                     acclimatization

Horror themed mini-review: Jigoku Shoujo

That's right, got a new mini-review for you! To keep it in theme with the season we're in (with Halloween and all,) it's Jigoku Shoujo, or Hell Girl today!

First off, let me be brutally honest. If you're looking for horror in the form of Corpse Party, this will not satisfy that particular itch. No abundance of violent deaths to be seen here. This is gonna be a bit more of a "think about that for a second and say that isn't scary"-kind of deal. With that in mind, let's continue.

The story, unsurprisingly enough, revolves around Ai Enma, also referred to as Hell Girl. Ai, along with her three sidekicks, get requests from regular people at a website (called Hell Link) that can only be accessed at exactly midnight, and only if you have a strong grievance towards someone.

Your grievance shall be avenged.

We, as the viewer, get to
join in and watch Ai and her sidekicks work as different people submit names of people they want banished to hell. This is also the point where this stops being simple. Should you find, and submit a name to the Hell Link, Ai will visit you personally (within a second of submitting the name) and give you the following deal.

Would you untie the thread?

You accept the straw doll with a red thread. Now you got to confirm that you are serious about banishing someone to hell immediately. This is done by untying the red thread and banishing yourself to hell as well on the day you die, or you walk away. That's right. You thought this was gonna be an easy free ride to send someone you dislike to hell? You're wrong. You're sending someone into an eternity of pain, horror and who-knows-what-else immediately. The price to pay is that you will suffer the same fate on the day you die in the future. "Curses come home to roost" as Ai puts it. This is a question I really liked this series for asking. Just how much do you have to hate someone to see them sent to hell right this instant, and you with them at a later date?

About halfway in the series, the story changes a bit. Instead of just hearing about the stories of unlucky souls, we also get to know Hajime, a freelance journalist, and Tsugumi Shibata (Hajime's daughter). Hajime starts looking into the cases where people have mysteriously vanished (or as the viewer knows, been sent to hell), and at the same time Tsugumi begins to have these visions, where she momentarily sees something Ai is watching. Together they try to figure out why Hell Girl is banishing people to hell, if there is any way they can stop her, and why Tsugumi and Ai seem to have some sort of connection. I won't spoil anything, as this series is definitely worth a watch just to figure out what Ai's driving factor is, and how it all connects to Hajime and Tsugumi.

Final Verdict: 9/10
Pros:                                                                   Cons:
- Great characters                                                - Not as scary as I thought it was going to be
- Great use of suspense                                           for a horror series
- Big moral grey area with untying the
   red thread
- Great pacing.

Horror themed mini-review: Corpse Party

It's getting really close to Halloween, and I'm a fan of October as a whole being horror themed. With that in mind, I thought I'd do a mini-review of some horror-themed anime. The following is a mini-review of Corpse Party: Tortured Souls - Bougyakusareta Tamashii no Jukyou, and thus not fit for the squeamish or those with a heart-condition.

First things first. A lot of people might not know about this series, so I'll give you a quick introduction. Corpse Party started off as a PC game made with RPG-maker software back in 1996. It got a remake, named Corpse Party: Blood Covered back in '08, and Corpse Party: Blood Covered Repeated Fear for the PSP in February last year (which was when I discovered this gem).

Screenshot from the Playstation Portable version

 That's right, the game was deemed so good, it was not only remade once, but twice. It got a pretty big cult-following, so it's not to be unexpected. I mean, it's why we're here, talking about the recent anime adaption!

Hang on Kishinuma, let's save our progress first!

Having played the PSP version, I can't help but draw comparisons between the PSP version and the new anime version. This is however not a bad thing. The scenes are faithful to the game, they got the voice actors from the game to voice the anime, and they even threw in the save points (lit candles on the floor) at the same places! One thing the anime-series does very well is making sure the story flows along, not too fast, or not too slow. This was a problem I felt the PSP version had. The third and fourth chapters dragged on a bit and I wasn't as tensed up because of it. Making this a four episode OVA was definitely the right thing to do, as even if you watch all four of them continuously you will not get bored.

No quick deaths here. Massive pain ahead

It may be a bit late to mention, but if you want a horror story with a happy ending you've taken a wrong turn somewhere along the way. It's quite similar to the series Another in that respect. Half the tension is from figuring out who will make it, who doesn't, and how do the ones that don't survive, die? This is another place the anime mixes it up a little. The game has a ton of "Dead Ends" (or bad endings, if you will), and the anime version tried to get quite a few of those presented for the viewer. However, since it is a limited character pool, and they can't kill off the same characters multiple times, they change the Dead Ends slightly, so that the character survives (but not always, to keep you guessing).

Spoiler: He's not talking to his sister

Another thing to remember is that people surrounded by death, ghosts and constant fear, tend to end up somewhat unstable after a while. Even the living may end up being an enemy out to end your life!

When all is said and done, this is seriously a great anime, no matter if you've played the game or not. Give it a try, at most you've only spent two hours, which is nothing compared to the characters in this anime. Heavenly Host Elementary School awaits...

Final Verdict: 9/10

Pros:                                                              Cons:
- True to the games                                        - Some deaths are slightly changed (only matters if
- Great story                                                     you played the game and are super-loyal to it)
- Doesn't drag out, keeps the flow going
- Keeps blood/gore levels realistic
- No "sunshine and lollipops" ending