"Sword Art Online" (anime) episode 8 thoughts

Episode eight marks the return to the original content of volume one of Sword Art Online (the light novel). In case you did not know, episodes two through seven were biased off of the side stories of SAO featured in volume two of the light novel series. This episode if traced back to the light novel takes place directly after Kirito leaves Klein in the beginning. This is a welcoming grace for me because even though the previous episodes were enjoying to watch, I really wanted the show to get back on track with the first volume of the light novel series.

So the episode starts and ends very faithful to the source material. Kirito finds a rare ingredient and has Asuna cook it for him in exchange for sharing half of the meal. We also get to meet Kuradeel (Asuna's personal bodyguard appointed by her guild leader) who plays a big role very soon in the story. During the episode, Asuna brings up why Kirito chooses not to join a guild and how it defines him as a person. To him, a solo player, he does not deserve to take part in such activities because he views himself as self-centered. He also brings up that everyone would hold him back which he eventually takes back when Asuna almost gets a surprise attack off. One thing leads to another and Asuna and Kirito start partying up for future events. This pisses Kuradeel off because he views Kirito as an unworthy person to look after Asuna. They have a duel and Kirito obliterates Kuradeel. He wines and runs away while Kirito and Asuna find the floor's boss room.

This episode really got me excited because like I have stated before, is the return to the main story line. Whether or not you have picked up on this yet, this is an action adventure story with ROMANCE being the catalyst for any future problems to root from. From this point on you will see Kirito and Asuna become closer and closer to the point where awesomeness occurs. The animation of this show is still quite amazing as well as the voice actors both for new and returning characters. The only nitpicking issue I had with the episode was at the end when Kirito breaks Kuradeel's sword, he does not explain how and why he knew it would break (in the light novel he explains how more decorative weapons are more prone to breaking). Other than that however, an amazing episode. I cannot wait for the new episode to air because we will get to see Kirito and Asuna get even more close to each other and maybe see an epic battle.

"MxO" Manga Review

Every once in a while, works of art get released but are overlooked by other mainstream articles. MxO starts out great, keeps on rolling, then is a victim in a head on collision with Mahou Sensei Negima!. Thus enters MxO, a magic school manga that in my honest opinion could of been as good if not better than others in its genera.

Story: 7/10
It's plot is centered around the generic magic school setting; kids go to a magic school kept away from normal society. However, the twist is that the story develops into an original epic that has many memorable moments. It may seem boring from the first chapter but as you read on you notice how well the story develops due to the supporting cast and uniqueness it brings to the magic school genera. The story starts out with Taiga Kuzumi who thinks he is being interviewed to join a well known private high school. Things don't go very well and he somehow finds his way into a fight with teacher Kenjirou Hiiragi who has a strange card that can produce magic. He then realizes that the school might be different from ones he had attended in the past. From here he is admitted to the school and enjoys his life as he meets new friends and confronts antagonists. The problem I have with the school life/ magic school genera is at first I am overwhelmed with intrigue for the story and its characters, but I soon begin to loose interest as the arcs cycle threw. When reading Lucky Star I felt this way about 6 volumes through and found myself reading it in very short bursts. In MxO the author found a way to evenly balance out every arc so that when the interest starts to slither away, something happens that puts you back in the action. Another thing the story does well is the implementation of new characters sparingly. Having a lot of characters can either make or break a story. It works great in Mahou Sensei Negima!; not so great in Naruto. MxO by the end of the story does have a pretty hefty amount of characters but they are added in very small chunks. They are also not added unnecessarily as every time someone new comes along, they serve a purpose whether it being to start a conflict or save the day. I can say that every arc was very interesting except the unfortunately short last one which I will talk about at the end.

Art: 7.5/10
The art in MxO does have a style of its own...sometimes in a good way and other times in a detached manor. Facial expressions start out with over exaggerated features and overly proportioned drawings to help show you who is important and in situational moments where the momentum is being shifted. The artwork is clean in about 85% of the manga...it's just some stuff in the beginning and half way through the story it's seems to change, then revert back. In a way think of it like what is going on in Bleach. When it first started, Bleach's Ichigo had very definitive facial expressions but has the story progressed, all of the character models started to have the same look and even more the very recent chapters have a completely different art style. Some say having the artwork change with the story helps show progression, however it does not work for me here. The last volume however has some of the cleanest and well defined character models I have ever seen. Each character has a definitive look and body language.


Characters: 8.3/10
Where the art somewhat lets down the overall manga, the characters somewhat make up some of the slack. Each character whether they were important or extraneous, had a very strong impact on my reading experience. Taiga unfortunately has that wimpy gene that a lot of male leads start out with but the surrounding casts help break him out of his shell. Aika Hiiragi, a girl Taiga has feelings for right at the start, can be overly emotional and a klutz, but her back and forth arguments that happen between herself, Taiga, and her father Kenjirou Hiiragi are hilarious as situational humor occurs all the time. She is also a strong female lead when the story needs her to be. Other characters such as Takahiko Daimon and Lucy completely make the story flow the way it needs to.

Overall: 7.6/10
So what did MxO do correctly? A lot of things which include a very well done supporting cast, exciting and orginal story arcs that did not drag, and a good frame work for a sequel. Now I mentioned a sequel...this leads into one thing the story did horribly, horribly, wrong. If you go any blog relating to this manga you will most likely run into people talking about the ending. Remember how the story got into a wreck with other mainstream manga? Well unfortunately the manga was doing fairly poor in weekly popularity tests so fairly early in the final volume, there is a abrupt; more like a halt in the story. It is painfully obvious the ending was hashed together at the very last second while another arc was going on. The ending does however leave it wide open to be continued if that would ever happen. The story had the premise to be a 200+ chapter epic such as Bleach and Fairy Tail but was cut short. It is still worth a read as it is very original, full of epic moments, and a pretty well rounded cast.

Real Talk: "Sword Art Online" Light Novel Vol. 5-6

After some more late night reading, I have made my way to volume nine of Sword Art Online. While I am still enjoying the light novel, the volumes I am about to talk about seem to be told in a much different way and for the most part it isn't all good -___-.

First off at no point during my reading have I been bored. Each volume is told in a different way and play out much more different than the previous volumes. The first four volumes were written in a way that expressed urgency. This provided non-stop action and suspense for the flow of the plot. Volumes five through six however seem to be more laid back and without the characters we have grown to love can be a little painful to read through.

To clarify something real quick, volumes five and six are part of one story that takes place in Gun Gale Online (GGO). The transition from volume five to six is seamless and instant. So what to talk about; unlike in SAO and ALO, the weapons used in GGO are guns that are biased off of their real life counterparts and some fictional ones as well. The story is once again biased around Kirito who is asked by one of the officers that helped out in the first story (SAO) to go into GGO to find a character who supposedly can kill someone both in-game and in real life. Within the game he meets Sinon who teaches and helps Kirito become accustomed to the game fairly quickly. Now there were a lot of things that I liked about volumes five and six but lets start with the negatives.

First off the pacing seems much, MUCH slower than the previous installments of Sword Art Online. For one thing even though the timeline for this story arc is only a week or so, the story takes way too much time explaining Sinon's back story and also ramping up to the climax. Another negative thing is that other than Kirito, there is no returning characters that play a huge role in the story. You have Kirito and Sinon...that's it. We invest ourselves into saving Asuna and once we achieve this goal...she sits on the sidelines...? It's strange why the author would do this because in this volume(s) he pulls an Ash Ketchum and totally makes Kirito powerless in this new world (well at least in the beginning chapters). His overall personality in this story has changed from a person whiling to risk his life to a very passive and shy person. His overall intensity from SAO and ALO is completely gone. The last overall negative for me was how much that I didn't care for Sinon. They dedicate a whole long chapter to explaining her situation and life and I ended up caring this much (--) for her. I didn't like her personality or her way of doing things.

So positives; I really like the world of GGO (not as much as SAO but a hell of a lot more than ALO). A whole MMO world biased around guns? Freaking awesome if you ask me. The barren desert setting that the author described really made me wish that such an MMO existed in today's world. The tournament they hold in the game is another thing I really liked about this story. Something lacking in the previous volumes was the inclusion of a lot of PVP (player vs player) battles. There were a couple in SAO and almost none in ALO so it was nice to have such a PVP focused game as the setting for this story. Other than that however ends the positives.

Overall I still like the story surrounding the mysterious gunman that could kill someone in real life through the game. The story's pacing was much slower than I would usually like and it had characters that I didn't particularly like but hey it was still enjoyable.

Real Talk "The Legend of Korra"

A couple years ago a show on Nickelodeon called Avatar: The Last Airbender caught my attention when accidentally channel surfing. It's target audience was set below my age but somehow...it grabbed my attention. It was witty, full of character development and action, and had amazing sound and visuals (for a show of it's time). What made me so surprised was that it had this level of awesomeness for three straight seasons. Wanting more of the same thing, my wish was granted when The Legend of Korra started airing last year.

The new show promised and delivered everything I wanted. The target audience was for teens (myself and many other adults still thought it was age appropriate), the visuals had improved immensely, and the humor was not as childish but still had the same quirky charm. Set in the future where Aang died, the central character and focus of the story is Korra. Unlike Aang who had troubles learning to master the different types of bending, everything except air bending came natural to her. To learn air bending, she goes to the booming Republic City to learn from one of Aang's children.

Another great thing about The Legend of Korra is the setting. Republic City is set in an industrial revelation type economy. The city uses bending as a source of income with the pro bending matches. It is a great addition because these fights are very well animated and a blast to watch. We have cars that looked like they were modeled after the Model T, big skyscraper type buildings, and steel everywhere. There is also the overwhelming presence of people in the city. One thing that the first Avatar show lacked was the feeling that Aang and his friends were a part of a big and living world. Every scene that takes place in Republic City has many people in the background that really make you feel like the characters are part of the city. With so many people comes the conflict of the story; a group called the Equalist want to end bending because benders "apparently" suppress the non benders. The leader of this group Amon is a really well written villain because you actually feel for the guy. He has a realistic goal that makes this show more about one person's view vs. another and not the typical "Good vs. Evil" that is overused.

This show is the rare case where I think this sequel surpassed everything the original had to offer. If you haven't seen the first Avatar or this one, I STRONGLY encourage you sit down and re-watch them. You can at this present time watch every episode of the original Avatar on Nickelodeon's website.

"Humanity Has Declined" (anime) episodes 1-4 thoughts

I came across Humanity Has Declined (known as Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita in Japan) when one of my friends showed me this video:

I was...taken back at how random it was thus was the beginning of my quest to watch one of the funniest anime I have experienced so far in my life.

The show apparently takes place where human society is on a downward fall. The show seems lighthearted and joyful but there are many hints at very depressing facts that are present. Mediator, our main character has a unique way at looking at life and her interactions with Assistant are quite funny. Assistant is a mute who apparently is understood by Mediator with out the use of talking to one another. He has a very dark humor shown in the video below:

The characters in this anime are very well done and all of their interactions are enjoyable. The animation is very unique looking because all the character models are not eye candy but the way the backgrounds look in each scene are pretty awesome. It is overall a great looking anime in my honest opinion. Sound wise the opening theme is way too addictive and the voice actors are pretty good.

So episode one is mostly an introduction to the characters and it starts off a two episode story arc on how the town will produce more food for everyone. There are so many parts that are very morbid but like I stated before it is masked by very crude but funny jokes. Episode two puts our characters in a factory that seemed to have been made overnight. Mediator's thoughts are that the fairies (they haven't really explained them but they seem to be hanging out everywhere and they help Mediator when she provides sweets) made the factory and are running it. The episode ends with a very fun chase with some epic orchestral music. Episode three and four deal with the fallen human art of manga being revitalised by an acquaintance of Mediator named Y. Episode five takes place inside a manga panel and Y, Mediator, and Assistant must make story in order to be able to leave.

I didn't want to spoil anything in the episodes because I really want everyone to go give this anime a shot. It is seriously the funniest show I have seen in my life; the very depressing and morbid themes in this anime are just covered up by situational humor that will make you think, "Wait...wtf just happened?". I am on episode five and I cannot wait to get home from work tomorrow to watch it.

"Yuru Yuri (season 2)" episodes 2-7 thoughts

So out of all the currently airing anime, Yuru Yuri is the one that I have been the laziest one keeping up with. Maybe it is because I am so in love with Kokoro Connect and Sword Art Online (more of a love hate relationship) or because you have to be in a certain mood to really appreciate Yuru Yuri. It is one of those shows that you just have to understand that literally nothing will be accomplished plot wise during the episode you are about to watch. It is most definitely a show that you go to watch because you want to laugh and turn your brain off and compared to the first season, Yuru Yuri (season 2) is putting up a decent fight in terms of overall enjoyment.

All the episodes I have seen so far has had everything that made Yuru Yuri's first season so fun to watch. There is slapstick comedy, good animation, great voice acting, and very likable characters. Each character is so unique compared to any other one in the show. My favorite character is and always will be Kyouko because her personality always sets up confrontations between the other characters in the show. Another reason why Yuru Yuri works so well is because it has a decent amount of characters and there is no real main character to focus on. Each one gets a pretty good amount of screen time so you have the chance to get to know each one. You easily pick up on what each character's personality is, who they like, and best of all who they cannot stand. The back and forth issues between Kyouko and Chinatsu almost make the entire show for me.

This season of Yuru Yuri does not have a main plot line just like its previous season. Each episode is just a series of random events and we are just to sit back and watch everything unfold. Each episode has been very entertaining and I actually like that I have been able to watch the show at my own pace and not shotgun the episodes. The anticipation IMO make each episode even more funny and enjoyable. Even though I put this show lower on my priority list to watch each week, I still look forward to it.

"Sword Art Online" (anime) episodes 6-7 thoughts

It seems that after finishing episode seven, episode eight will finally return back to the first volume of the light novel. Episodes two (maybe it started with three) through seven have all taken place within the extra side stories found in volume two of the light novel series. At the end of episode seven however, we see that Asuna and Kirito have finally started to show signs of their likeness for each other. In the light novel series, after Kirito leaves Klein in the beginning, the story jumps pretty far forward to a point where Kirito and Asuna are very close. My hopes are that episode eight will pick up here and stay faithful to the rest of the original source material.

So episode six was the conclusion to the whole assassin killing peeps in town thingy. The real culprit behind everything was no real surprise and the ending seemed to be achieved too easily. It was however still enjoying to watch. The animation is still very well done as well as the sound of the anime. I am really starting to enjoy the voice actors much more especially Asuna's.

Episode seven revolved around the blacksmith Lizbeth which like so many characters we have met the last couple episodes, plays no major part what-so-ever in what happens in the main story. I did not like her personality and overall I felt like she was robbing screen time from the characters that we are supposed to be investing feelings for. The episode was pretty boring and will be one that I forget pretty quickly. Great animation and sound though plus we get to see Kirito do some fancy sword fighting stuff.

So like I stated before this is the point where the show should start to get really interesting because if memory serves me right I believe all the side/extra content is out of the way. All that is left is the main story found in volume one of the light novel. I am really looking forward to the rest of the season.