The Overhaul – Day 4

The site just looks as ugly as hell. Well, it’s to be expected since it’s just a few days after I began the Overhaul Project. Just to point out, the category part of the sidebar looks pretty cluttered up with foreign objects. Plus, there are some stuff in the sidebar that I don’t remember putting. Probably, they’re the effect of my tinkering around with the themes and stuff. I still have a month to get things together, though. Some stuff in the categories still needs fixing. I think I’ll also fix up the sidebar in general. The tags I will attempt to complete for all posts by the end of the month. It’s gonna be hard work, but it’ll pay off when the time comes. For the meantime, I’ll list an overview of my plans in my “Level 2″-type categories.

• Etc Etc – This will be the permanent replacement for Reader’s Digress. By August, Reader’s Digress will just be a memory. I’ll have to transfer about 20+ posts on RD to Etc Etc.
• Main – I’ll be keeping this one because it’s the overall category that determines what I really want for the blog. It’s a parent of three kids now, namely *Animation*, ii and OGC!
• *Animation* – A post is considered this category when it contains any number of anime-related content. I’ve been thinking of putting up a category like this for some time now, but I believed it was better to coincide the shift with my blog’s 1st birthday.
• ii – As you might’ve guessed, this category pertains to Wii related subjects. This is probably the biggest side of my gaming life because the only console I have is a Wii. I get the most out of it more than any other platform.
• OGC! - The name for this is still pending, because it’s hard to think of a catchy category name for your gaming wants other than stuff for the Wii. This is the smaller side of my gaming life, but important nonetheless. In this category, you’ll probably find stuff about PC or XBox games.
• Other Media - Sometimes, I have the urge to put on stuff about certain books or movies that I’ve recently gotten into. This category is for that.
• Overhaul Program – I don’t know if this one will last long since the Overhaul Program that I’ve started would only reach until the end of July. However, I might want to revise the blog little by little at times so this category is for that scenario.
• Reviews – This category is also pending since I’m not sure how I’ll manage my reviews in the future. I might slide this one under parent category Main because that’s where I actually want it, but it depends. (BTW, get ready for another review which I plan to do sometime in August… You can probably guess the game…)
• Video Content!!! – This category appears everytime I post a video of anythin for any media. You’ll mostly find that stuff I’ll post will come from YouTube.

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Besides my Overhaul Program, I’ll update a little about “Main” stuff. I’m still under the direct influence of Shakugan no Shana which I mentioned in my previous post. I realize it’s battle is kinda constricted but it’s a nice blend between action and romantic comedy so that’s got to be a plus for me. The opening theme for that anime is also a nice track, I’ll say. I’ll probably add it to my playlist of J-Pop anime intros in the future. In the “ii” side of things, I’m glad to report that our Wii is making a comeback. After being delayed for days, we’ll probably get it back by the end of this week. I’m seriously hoping to get my hands on the console again so that I could test out the Conduit and PunchOut! I’m also planning to get WiiMotionPlus and Tiger Woods 2010. The problem though is that WiiMotionPlus isn’t available yet in the country. I’ll grab one the first day it pops up! Besides hardware and software game stuff, I’ve suddenly got into an SMGOSTOMG mode aka  Super Mario Galaxy Original Sound Track listening. I’m just checking out the dozens of videos about complete music tracks in YouTube. It’s another testament to how great Super Mario Galaxy really is.

The Overhaul – Day 4 – posted 11:50PM (so technically it’s Day 5)

The Overhaul – Day 1

June 28, 2009 marks the beginning of The Haven For The Obsessed Overhaul. I’ve imagined this over the course of the past few months and I’ve decided that the time is right to put some major improvements on my blog. Currently, I’m deciding whether or not to apply some new themes and widgets but one thing’s for sure, I’ve managed to upgrade the creativity of my categories. This post will be the first to be rated with my “Level 2″-type categories which I will list in the coming days so expect some listings and stuff coming out of nowhere. For now, though, I’ll be contenting myself with a little post on what’s been happening so far.

During my last post, I did a completely anime-related article which listed all of the highs and lows of my grand return to that amazing field. As an update, I’m glad to say I’m finished with True Tears and I can’t help but say it delivered quite well. It has an amazing plot and the right drama points to make a pretty good romance anime. These days since the storm passed have been all about that anime. I’ve left Hayate no Gotoku and Phantom for the Requiem for a while and currently, I’m still debating whether I’ll continue on with those two.

It’s not to say I’m not watching another anime. This one’s not really a recent find but more of a series that has fallen off my radar because I’ve heard of the thing way back during the “Revolution” post days. Back then, this anime showed very little luster but now that I’ve wised up, I’m going after this interesting series. I’m referring to Shakugan no Shana, an anime about a worldly illusion similar in vibe to The Matrix Trilogy. This isn’t about computers though; it’s about demons fighting over the essence of life. It looks as if it has a pretty deep plot to it and that fact has been holding up for the past four episodes I’ve watched. I don’t want to spoil much of it but the only thing I’d want to part from this anime is the fact that it’s another Rie Kugimiya classic. Rie Kugimiya, sometimes called the Queen of Tsundere, has starred her voice over numerous animes and most of the good ones I’ve watched has her voice in it. Of course, I’m talking about ToraDora and Zero no Tsukaima and more famously, Full Metal Alchemist. That’s just a little tidbit there but you get the jist of it.

In the gaming side of things, the only thing I should say is that it’s kinda fallen on the wayside since that big anime crash. I am, however, still doing stuff related to said topic. The primary game I’m into these days is a classic that goes way back to the SNES days. I’ve never owned a SNES and the fastest way to obtain the game is through PC emulation. The game I’m talking about is Super Metroid or Metroid 3. It comes in the classic 2D vein and incorporates platforming and adventure elements. I’ve enjoyed quite a lot from this game. I couldn’t help but feel an Okami vibe to it although in a sense, it has it’s own set of characteristics unique to the Metroid franchise. The reason I’m going through this is simple. Metroid: Other M’s plot comes chronologically after Super Metroid. I want to feel the vibe of the game so that I could rate Metroid: Other M like a classic gamer would. Plus, I want to see the Mother Brain laser action in  2D. If you haven’t seen the trailer, check out YouTube now and you’ll know what I mean. It’s funny that I get this tingly feeling whenever I see a classic 2D game character get suddenly rendered in full-blown 3D CG animation.

For the Other Media part in this post, I’ll go out and say Transformers: The Revenge of the Fallen is awesome. It ain’t the best but it’s definitely one of the cool movies out there for 2009. Compared to the first movie, this sequel builds a whole lot more with robot fights, robot lore and robot personality. The downside though is the plot. I’ve felt this in the previous movie and I’ve felt it all the more in this one. The plot is just too contracted to be believable. I’m a science fiction guy and the Transformers plot is probably one of the worst I’ve seen. But beyond that, everything’s okay. You’ll definitely be amazed by this one hell of a package.

“New Divide” by Linkin Park – Music Video (T:TRotF Theme)

~AAA~

*Warning: Possible spoilers ahead*

This week’s post is all about anime. That’s right. After a couple of failed drafts and gut-crunching late nights, I finally told myself that the reason I’ve been delaying a post is that I couldn’t capture what I would want to say. Now, of all days, I’m determined to finally get my words right. Today is Wednesday, June 24, 2009, approximately one day after The Conduit was released (LOL). Today is the day Typhoon FERIA hit Philippine shores and today is the day I would finally write a full-blown anime-related blog post. Get ready…

First and foremost, the very reason I came back filled with ammo was primarily because I missed out on the last episode of ToraDora. I think I’ve mentioned this before and just recently, the dread of leaving out that single episode came back to haunt me. I believed back then that their sudden shift in plot left me too much in shambles for me to continue. But nonetheless, I returned thinking it wouldn’t matter anymore. It was just one episodes. As it turned out, I felt quite good at the end of that final episode 25. Taiga finally got it on with Ryuji and vice-versa. I believe it happened like that because I had already forgotten the feeling of the story up until that point. It’s because of that led me to believe that what ToraDora lacks is proper organization of their plot. If they just tweaked it a bit for a second season, it might’ve turned out better for me at the beginning.

This is probably the starting point of my grand return to the world of anime and I wasn’t wrong. I continued on with my usual shows: FMA and Eden of the East. I got my surprise last week when I found out Eden of the East’s last episode was the 11th and would only be followed up by two movies coming late this year. Eden of the East was having a nice mystery unfolding that I thought it would continue on until the plot was fully revealed. As it turned out, not all the members of Selecao were revealed and the identity of the Supporter was still a mystery. There’s also some doubt on my mind about the real identities of Mr. Outside, the supposed founder of Selecao and his mysterious “AI program”, Juiz. After a lot of deaths, missiles strikes and NEETs, I figured I’d put this one under my anticipation list of 2009. Mind you, there’s already another anime movie I’m looking forward to come the next year and that’s got to be the Gundam 00 movie.

And so, we move on to what I’ve been doing after finding out Eden of the East has ended. Well for the most part, I’ve been scouting some new stuff over at a lot of anime sites. These days I’ve dug myself deep into the mysteries of Hayate no Gotoku, uncannily dubbed “Romantic comedy”. Honestly though, I could see only a glimpse of romance in this series, but  what it boils down to is its extreme parody ability. It will literally reference anything from anime to video games. I’ve had quite a few laughs from everything it has to offer. The only bad thing I would say about this system is that I don’t know everything. I’ve found myself a couple of times searching the net for the words the anime’s “trying” to censor because technically, it’s copyright infringement to do such references. It’s still funny though and I’ll probably enjoy it a lot more if I had had more exposure to the world of anime. In this anime, there’s no plot that really drives it but it doesn’t matter, because it’s freaking hilarious.

It’s probably at this point that a couple of people have started suggesting stuff to me. I mean, at school, I’ve been talking endlessly to a some guys about recommended anime and stuff. It’s something I wouldn’t believe I would’ve done in normal circumstances but there it was and I got a couple of in my waiting list. I’ll start with Seto no Hanayome, an anime I kinda rejected for a few reasons. It’s apparently the “perverse humor” type of anime which I know I’ve already experienced some time ago. At the time this was presented to me, I didn’t want this type of anime just yet. I was in a limbo between action and pure romance which doesn’t cover the “perverse humor” genre at all. I might be taking this too seriously but that’s just the mood of the moment. After rejecting this one, I was presented with another one. This anime comes in the form of different names but the name I’ll probably grow up with is Phantom of the Requiem. I’ve only got through the first two episodes and I could see this coming to be an action/romance type of anime, the exact thing I wanted. I immediately dug myself into this and I wasn’t disappointed at all. The gist of the story that I know so far is that it’s about two natural born assassins as they progress through the ranks in this company called Inferno. The first assassin is a girl named Ein and the guy you see when the story starts would be the second assassin named Zwei. Those aren’t their real names but more like placeholders for their names because they were tasked to not try and remember their pasts. That’s how the story begins and I’m curious on how it all pan out in the next episodes. The thing about this that’s holding me back though, is that the characters don’t look at all appealing to my eyes. Their animation style doesn’t quite get me unlike ToraDora did or more significantly, unlike the next anime I’ll be talking about.

I think True Tears began as a visual novel, like most romance animes do. The unique thing about this one though is that the anime is way, way different from the visual novel, manga or the light novels (not sure about the last though). It’s pretty weird that they used the name of an existing title to power this show. What’s more is that, from what I heard, the original True Tears wasn’t that good. They probably used the name to reboot their failed attempts at making something good. The end product is pretty nice though. All I could say is that this show is probably a complete blending of elements from Clannad and Love Hina, two franchises that I believe are pretty good. Clannad started out as a visual novel and is probably the best in terms of transition to an anime version. I wasn’t all too familiar with the game so I couldn’t say, but it was a fun experience to watch a love develop in the way Clannad did. Love Hina was ultimately a better experience in my opinion since it’s more fun to watch a love develop and at the same time laugh at a lot of slapstick humor while everything else was happening. True Tears gets the scenario and setting from Clannad while the feel of the love is more towards Love Hina. There is no slapstick comedy in this show, but that doesn’t hinder me from watching it. In fact, I should say this is one of the best looking anime I’ve seen so far, with a presentation style similar to that of Vandread (remember the CG mecha models). This is probably my need-to-watch anime of the current times. I could definitely see myself watching very late at night with this show.

Despite all these animated shows I’m watching, I haven’t forgotten the manga side of the deal. Born from this side of the street are some works more notable than that of their anime versions, I should say. I’m pretty proud of myself for chancing upon this pretty incredible find, the likes of which would entice people who only read the basics of  an anime such as Chaos Head (FYI: I was almost trapped by Chaos Head when I was scouting for new anime. I’ve read it had something to do with murder and psychology, a clean looking way to start a plot. What turned out from a nice start was a bad mix of elements in the ending, according to some user reviews from MyAnimeList.com). The thing I’m referring to is a manga called Alive – The Final Evolution. In honesty, I might actually have picked up a wrong deal with this manga, but then again, I’ve seen this one rise to the top 50 list of OneManga.com so it’s probably better than Chaos Head. Alive – The Final Evolution starts very epically with a lot of suicide deaths here and there all over the world. It also has some frames where the manga is trying to show some psychic disturbance where the screen flashes into an “inverted color” version for a second. I’m not sure if you get what I said, but it’s better shown in an anime than a manga. Speaking of that, this one actually has an anime in the making which is amazing for me, because I’ve never had the chance to wait for an anime release before. If all’s well, I’ll probably see this one coming by the end of the year. Check it out if you haven’t.

And finally we’ve come to the conclusion of the post. After 1500 words already, it’ll be fit to add some video to the post. More specifically, I’ll be adding videos with anime music openings/endings which I’ve been addicted to recently. These are the stuff that have been ringing in my head for a long time now, even if I barely understand what they’re saying (LOL). This is a full-blown anime blog post after all.

Hayate no Gotoku! Opening – “Hayate no Gotoku!” by Kotoko

Zero no Tsukaima Opening – “First Kiss” by Ichiko

ToraDora Opening – “Pre-Parade” by Rie Kugimiya, Eri Kitamura, and Yui Horie

ToraDora Ending – “Orenji” by Rie Kugimiya, Eri Kitamura, and Yui Horie

Gundam 00 Opening – “Daybreak’s Bell” by L’Arc~en~Ciel

Gundam 00 Opening – “Ash Like Snow” by Brilliant Green

Eden of the East Opening – “Falling Down” by Oasis

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood Opening – “Again” by YUI

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood Ending – “Uso” by SID

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*~AAA~ = All About Anime

Just Depressing Agony

This will be my first reader’s digress in a long time. With this post, I’m also going against what I said in the previous post about not posting until school starts. Unfortunately, there was too much agony these days that I couldn’t help but make a new post.
When I say agony, I mean both physical and mental. This week started like hell since I’ve always dreaded the day I’ll finally get my braces no. Wednesday was that day and I was as apprehensive as ever. The operation went well without any pain whatsoever. I thought the worse of it all would come in the form of pain in the days to come but more frightening in my mind was the fact that I had to be this uncomfortable for one whole year.
As if that weren’t enough. On that same Wednesday, my siblings had some friends over to play some of Wii. They encountered some problem and the Wii couldn’t read discs anymore. Now, my sister can’t finish Zelda and I can’t finish Mario Galaxy. My dad is all for no playing for the rest of the summer so fixing the Wii isn’t his priority now. The way it’s looking now, it’ll be a long time before the Wii would get sent to be fixed. It’s so depressing since I just got Punch Out and WiiMotionPlus just got released. The future for this side of my gaming looks bleak.
That’s not all though. School is just around the corner and the teachers have already taken it up to give us homework. It’s not their fault though because in the first place, school should have already begun. I’m sure you’ve heard of the A-H1N1 pandemic. Well, because of that, most schools in the Philippines have postponed the start of school to make way for self-quarantine. In any case, we do have homework and the lazy problem pops up. Since it’s technically still the summer, I’m not up to doing school stuff yet.
This all adds up to leave a bad taste in my mouth. Braces, broken gaming consoles and homework make up a really depressing (or agonizing) end of summer.

Breaking News in Gaming

This post will probably be my last before school starts. I’ve got a lot to talk about primarily because E3 2009 has just concluded. There have been a ton of announcements in the gaming industry so far and since the beginning of the week, I haven’t been updating much on the anime side of things. Before I start though, I have to say the only complete coverage I have is from Nintendo since the only console I have at home is a Wii. I have news here and there from Microsoft and Sony, but what I’ll be saying about them won’t be everything they said in the conferences. Just to make it short, I only have coverage of the things that really matter to me.

Okay, on to E3.  I do have to say, this is the first time I’ve actually stuck my head over for the E3 conferences. Every morning for almost 3 days, I went over to the site that I most rely on for gaming these days, IGN.com. They have tons of coverage on every platform, console, developer and publisher. Those three days for me were literally drowning me with all the gaming stuff you could find on the planet. It was an interesting start because on day one, Microsoft had their conference and I had a back-to-school orientation on the same day. Beginning 7am, I stuck my head on the laptop ingesting all the Wii news and Microsoft on-stage tech demos that I could find. I didn’t get everything there though because like I said, I only get what I need. Day two was more of a breeze because I had nothing to do for the whole day. It was also the most important day for me because Nintendo was having their conference on that day. Although I didn’t know it, Sony also had their conference on the same day. I was all confused with thinking that each of the big companies had their conferences on one day for three days. E3 actually went on for four days with the major conferences on the first two days. How ignorant of me. Anyway, I had feared that Wednesday morning (Tuesday afternoon in PST) that I would overestimate Nintendo’s performance. After browsing through the news highlights, I was actually correct. I thought Nintendo would overload the press with more than five hardcore titles. We only got three. It’s not a bad thing and I believe it to be my fault that Nintendo’s conference wasn’t what I hoped for. In essence, they did quite well, a whole lot better than last year’s.

So we go on to what’s hot this E3. It was an utterly amazing Tuesday morning for me (Monday afternoon PST) when I just shuffled through some of the demos at Microsoft’s conference. They were on a lot about the whole XBoxLive thing, a feature which I could never enjoy. Besides that, there were a lot of impressive stuff like Modern Warfare 2. It’s a game I wish had a longer campaign. The first game had little over 3 hours of gameplay, a frustrating deal when you had so much going on for the engine. To compensate for that though, there’s always the multiplayer. Modern Warfare 2 would most likely have that as well. There were a bunch of Halo-related stuff there as well. It’s unbelievable for me that Bungie would get themselves into such a long deal. As far as I’m concerned Halo ended with Halo 3 and I am so amazed that they attempt to push it further with Halo ODST and Halo Reach. It’s just sickening to the point of vomiting. I have nothing against Halo, put pushing and pushing the universe too much is not the way to go. Other than Halo though, the real thing that caught my eye is Microsoft’s Project Natal. It’s complete motion control without the use of controllers. I was just struck in the back by this announcement. It’s camera-based and it works.

WA-BAM! Actually, this gig makes me want to get an XBox360 a whole lot more than it did a month ago. Besides Natal, I had a little taste of Alan Wake, a little game I’ve just heard of before E3. It’s another horror game in a sense. I’ve seen the gameplay and it doesn’t look bad. I might get it if I get more interested as time passes.

Besides Microsoft though, the first day pounded me with a lot of Wii third-party updates. Most prominent among all those were Red Steel 2 and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, two games that had already sparked a lot of interest in me. Red Steel 2 was naturally interesting because it can be debuted as the first hardcore Wii title to make use of the WiiMotionPlus technology. From what I heard so far, it’s definitely the real deal when it comes to accuracy in sword play. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is another natural favorite because I could say I have a knack for horror games wherever they may be. There were also other stuff available for viewing which I just checked out like High Voltage’s The Grinder and another game called Muramasa: Demon Blade. Other pretty interesting stuff on the first day was the head-to-head competition between the two on-rail shooters coming for the Wii: RE: Darkside Chronicles and Dead Space Extraction. I definitely prefer the latter because it’s a younger franchise, a universe still undiscovered.

And then we go onward to the next day of E3, Nintendo’s big day. You can’t imagine the tension I had in myself as I turned on the laptop. I was actually considering not checking IGN.com out until the end of the week because I just might ruin myself. The primary thing that I had in my mind then was a probable teaser trailer for the next Zelda on the Wii, complete with MotionPlus controls. I was ashamed at myself for even expecting that much. In any case, the minute I logged in that morning, it was apparent that Zelda was nowhere to be found. My immediate impression was that of something Mario and Metroid which was good news nonetheless. The problem I had at that moment was how to go about all the news of the past night. There so much coverage on different games that the only logical way for me to get everything right was to start with the show where it all began, Nintendo’s press conference. It was quite a while before they were able to upload the whole replay of the conference but I persevered. I watched that one whole hour with all the surprises at the right moments. I still had that Zelda thing in my head but I can say I’m not disappointed on Nintendo’s new first-party line-up: New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid: Other M.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is basically New Super Mario Bros. ported up to the Wii and added with 4-player mode. They said this is Mr. Miyamoto’s new masterpiece and undoubtedly it is. This is one more game where what really matters is having fun with everyone. This is supposedly Nintendo’s hardcore game for 2009. I’ll be getting it definitely but this does not appease my hunger entirely. The other two games though bring a better stand in my opinion. Super Mario Galaxy 2 is something I’ll definitely want. SMG2, for me, embodies the sequel to SMG’s story, provides newer, more intense gameplay and the same stunning graphics the first game brought to the console. Metroid: Other M was an unexpecting surprise, as I’m sure everyone around the world could say. Nintendo has teamed up with another third-party developer to recreate the Metroid franchise. This developer, Team Ninja, has a track record for mature games most recently of which is Ninja Gaiden 2. The new Metroid game entitled Metroid: Other M can be said to be action-packed, more so  than the Prime series co-developed with Retro Studios. During the conference, the trailer boasted a seriously action-based third-person perspective gameplay which includes some first-person action at some points. It’s still unknown how everything works but I am definitely confident in this new game. They also emphasized that Metroid history will be more prominent in this game, venturing on Samus’ past. The two latter games are slated for 2010 releases, a pretty long time for more development. The good thing after this whole conference though was that Miyamoto had his own roundtable with the press. It was there he assured the existence of the new Zelda Wii. WiiMotionPlus control is the main deal in this game according to the the Nintedo director. His words were “Imagine WiiSportsResort archery and fencing with this game”. That alone lifted my shattered hopes a lot.

This is probably the jist of my whole E3 experience. After that, I was left with nothing else to do since Sony’s conference didn’t interest me as much. The following days called me to just check out the whole of IGN.com every now and then. I got the feed on Hideo Kojima’s new Metal Gear plans for both XBox360 and PS3. I also had eyed a bit on the new PSP Go!, something I actually considered if I was going to buy or not. There were also feed here and there of certain game demos namely, Assassin’s Creed 2, Prototype, Uncharted 2, Splinter Cell: Conviction, and MAG. Not to mention I’m totally hyped up for WiiMotionPlus coming out this month and also the long-awaited hardcore/casual game of Wii Sports Resort.

After this show, I’ll probably list my 2009 waiting list accordingly. In no particular order:

• Wii Sports Resort
• Tiger Woods PGA ‘10 (along with WiiMotionPlus’ release)
• Overlord: Dark Legend (after seeing Pikmin in my hands, I’m quite doubtful with this game)
• Muramasa: Demon Blade (2D game so it’s pending)
• Fragile: Farewell Ruins of the Moon (pending because it’s a “drama” game)
• Red Steel 2
• Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
• New Super Mario Bros. Wii
• The Conduit
• Dead Space Extraction
• Rabbids Go Home (depends on the final  reviews)

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E3 aside, a lots been happening at home. I’ll be back to school in a week so I’m experiencing all the gaming time I can get. My sister’s back on her feet with Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess which is pretty awesome. I myself am back to playing Mario Galaxy, a product of hearing SMG2 in the making. I have 20 more stars left to go before I get Luigi. After that, I’ll be content. Besides school and gaming, it’s an important deal that I’ll finally be getting my braces this week. I’m brimmed with apprehesion but I’ve long succumbed to this deal already. Anime is on an all-time low but it’ll rise again this coming week. I might go into more of it in addition to the FMA addiction I have now. 

All these can be called breaking news, gaming or not.