Not-so-surprise Post!

As I said in the previous post, I'd have a surprise in less than a week. This is that said surprise! A picture of my very own PVC figurine collection! These are all from anime and games, and they are all safe for work.

First off, Chie Satonaka from Persona 4. My favorite character from the Persona-series. Even included the dramatic close-up picture from casting spells in the game! The glasses were also included in the package, but I decided to not put them on.

Number two is Ruri Gokou, also known as "Kuroneko", from Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai (English: My little sister can't be this cute), with cat-ears and a tail.

Number three and four is none other than Hatsune Miku, the Vocaloid!

And speaking of Vocaloids, Megurine Luka!

Since we're into music as a genre, here's Mio Akiyama from K-on!

Next up is Rita Mordio from Tales of Vesperia. The book on her left hand is supposed to be around her neck, but I didn't want to risk breaking anything, so I put it around her wrist. Also had a mini-Rita as a bonus in the package!

Alicia Melchiott from Valkyria Chronicles, equipped with a Gallian-4.

Isara Gunther, also from Valkyria Chronicles





















And the final one, Cosette Coalhearth from Valkyria Chronicles 2. Cosette and Isara were actually the first ones I bought, as I impulse bought them both at the same time at a convention, because how much I love the Valkyria Chronicles-series!

That's my collection. It's not the most impressive of collections perhaps, but these are all figurines of characters I really, really like.

Status Update: January

Another post, weeks later than planned. To compensate for this, I got some surprises planned! You can read more about it at the end of this post.

First off, I just want to write about some "recent" events. I celebrated New Years with friends, and was over at my best friend's place afterwards. Saw a couple movies and had a great time. He has since then, gone back to England where he studies Chinese and English, and was kind enough to lend me his PS3 while he's gone! Because of this, I can now play the PS3 games I own physically, because my own PS3's disc drive is dead. I'm planning on getting that repaired after I return from Japan. I've also worked on learning Hiragana and Katakana, and I'm now able to write them from memory.

So, thanks to my best friend, I've been playing Tales of Xillia. I've spent 20 hours in it so far, and I love every second.  If you have played a Tales game before, you know what to expect. Very likeable characters, funny and sad moments, a lot of characterization and an epic tale spun around it all.

As I wrote on my previous post, Valkyria Chronicles 3 got an English translation patch, which is amazing. I've spent about 23 hours in that so far, decided to slow down on it, since I'm going to the US in February for the Daytona 500. That's a NASCAR event, for those of you not in the know about motorsports. Will most likely have a lot of time to play it then on the flight.

Speaking of handheld gaming, I recently got back into Persona 4: Golden. Still got a lot of stuff to do in that game. The "Hardcore Risette Fan" trophy is still eluding me, but I'm feeling confident that I'll be able to get it this time through the game.

When it comes to anime, I recently finished re-watching Clannad and Clannad: After Story (for the 15th time... It still gets me right in the feels,) before moving on to the anime version of Tales of the Abyss. I'm happy to see that they reconstructed the game into an anime so faithfully. If you've played the game, you can easily tell which location they are at, and where they are heading. It is by far the best makeover from game to anime I've seen to this date.

Luke might just be my favourite RPG character, ever.

As I stated earlier, I do have a couple of surprises coming up. One is still a secret between me, Black Ragdoll and a friend of mine, while the other surprise will be out in less than a week as a new post! It will have lots of pictures, and definitely be a post us collectors might appreciate more than others.

Valkyria Chronicles 3 Patch

Just thought I'd make a quick update. The AMAZING people over at the VC3 Translation Project, have now released an early build of the patch they're on for Valkyria Chronicles 3. Since the second game in the series didn't sell well, and got pirated heavily, the third game never made it out of Japan, and they're trying to change that. As a massive fan of the first two games, I've been waiting anxiously for this since they announced the start of the project back in February 2012. They've even added easy instructions on how to convert the game to an ISO format from a legally bought version and patch it, as they will not be distributing the patched game, since the game still is property of SEGA.

As a massive fan of the series, I'm gonna hide underneath a blanket or something and just let myself be amazed for the next 100 hours (I'm not kidding, I've spent 110+ hours in the first game, and 300+ hours in VC2). It's gonna be great!

On a final note, I'd like to wish everyone reading this happy holidays, and a happy new year!

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

Time and Games.

I need a time turner...

I seriously need more time. My backlog is starting to fill up, as it usually does around October to January. This is after all the release time for a lot of games, with Christmas coming up in a month. Also doesn't help that I got three RPG's in the bunch to complete, and a fourth one when I get my PS3 disc drive fixed. Instead of just mentioning them vaguely, I'll list a few of the games here that I'd like to play more of, but I'm too scarce on time.

First off, there's Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen which I did a first impressions post about. I've gotten around to actually beating the game, but the post-game has so much new content, and I'm also in the midst of clearing out Bitterblack Isle. The difficulty has gone up a bit , but not too the point where it's impeding progress though. This I approve. It's also a lot darker without a lantern, meaning that oil is a lot more important now. Once I finish Bitterblack Isle, I'll mark this game as complete, as speedruns and such is more for the Mastery badge on my Backlog.

Secondly, there's Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F.  This may come out of left field, but I really, really like the Vocaloids. Sure, I wouldn't be able to name many songs for you, but when I listen to them I have fun and enjoy it. This is not something I can say for other music-genres. I've gotten through all the songs on Normal difficulty, and I'm working my way on Hard. Some of these songs are absolute mayhem and I can't keep up with the button-prompts on screen. I worry for the Extreme difficulty... Even so, I enjoy this game immensely, and I hugely approve that this game got a western release (unlike the earlier PSP version). Pick it up if you enjoy Vocaloids and/or rhythm games.

Next up is an impulse buy. Final Fantasy IX. That's right, I impulse bought this to my PS Vita. Luckily, since it is on a portable console, I'm able to find a few minutes here and there for it. I've gotten to Disc 2, but the entire squad is still under level 20. I hope this is normal, because of how story-heavy the game is in the beginning. Not a fan of the card-game gimmick included though, so I've purposefully avoided it so far. I'm enjoying the story as it has been presented so far, and the cutscenes look damn good even now.

The fourth game that I'd like more time to play is Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. A friend of mine got me into this game and it a fresh breath of air into MMORPG's for me. It's pay-to-play, but the first month is free (wait, isn't that what drug pushers say as well? Haha). Either way, it's a lot of fun and I'd like to get more time into it before I have to pay for more. The game also looks absolutely stunning. The weather changes from day to night,  from sunny to overcast, misty, thunderstorm, light rain, heavy wind and/or rain. It all looks stunning.

Raining sideways due to heavy wind. The sound to accompany this is great.

As if this wasn't enough games, there's Battlefield 4, War Thunder and the upcoming Ace Combat: Infinity, and a lot of anime to watch as well. Mix all that in with a visa-application for out-of-country studies and attempting to be sociable, there's not much time left to do nothing...

Anyway, that's a wrap for this post. Until next time, stay safe!

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.