Winter 2013 Animé First Impressions

Hello, everybody! Here's the list of shows we'll be following this Winter 2013 Animé season! Don't worry, it won't be the huge pack of 20 shows like the busy Fall 2012 season! This time it will be a modest 10, 2 of which are sequels to animé shown in previous seasons, so that means 8 new shows! Are you excited? I know I am! Here they are, in alphabetical order:

Source: nindoushuriken.blogspot.com

AKB0048 Next Stage – The continuation to last year’s show that boasted CG idol girls performing on flying platforms while wielding microphone beam / light sabers against fascist power armor goons who are out to ensure all sorts of entertainment, down to even humming a tune to yourself, are outlawed. Watching the first season is a must, unless you've been spoiled a lot concerning the previous events. I, for one, am convinced that the acronym AKB was selected because it can also be construed to mean "Ass-Kicking Belles" - they sure are capable of it!

Source: crunchyroll.com

Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman (trans. Bakumatsu Tale of the Selfless Man Roman) – It’s the story of Robin Hood, only set in feudal Japan instead of Europe, specifically when Japan hadn’t closed its doors yet to foreigners, allowing things like floor traps powered by electric eels to exist alongside German-made zombies created from flour. Our noble thief isn’t just an ordinary cat burglar, he’d give Kamen Riders a run for their money! I'll just say that this show is Lupin The Third meets Sengoku Basara, and leave it at that.

Source:  crunchyroll.com

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT (trans. I Don't Have Many Friends NEXT) – The continuing adventures and misadventures of the Neighbors Club, who have yet to a) get more friends aside from their club members, and b) notice that they don’t have to look outside their loony, zany club for friends. Of course, that would take the fun and purpose out of the franchise, so it looks like their missing the forest for the trees will most likely continue. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to see more of my favorite maniacs Rika and Sena.

Source:  crunchyroll.com

Cuticle Detective Inaba – This is absurd fun at its best. Our protagonist is a police dog werewolf who has decided to leave the bureaucracy and go the private detective way, so that he could better search for his missing brother. However, his old handler, er, partner from the police force brings him back in to combat a certain Mafia lord, who is a cape-wearing goat no taller than our protagonist’s knee and eats paper currency. I swear I am not making this up. I mentioned absurd fun, right? Starting from the second episode, you get a double dose of insanity as each episode features two different stories!

Source:  dreamuniverse.wordpress.com

Maoyuu Maou to Yuusha (trans. Demon King and Hero)– The manga adaptation I've been waiting for. Our human hero charged into the demon king's lair, ready to end a war with his sword, but is shocked to learn that the pretty, buxom babe in front of him is the demon queen. After an awkward start, followed by lots of persuasion and boobs in his face (seriously, look where our Hero is looking at in the promo image!), our hero agrees to side with the demon queen in her quest to end the war in the best way possible. Some people will watch it for the Economics 101 segments, others for the romance between the former not-really-enemies, and some for the commentaries on human life. Me, I watch it for the demon queen's hilarious attempts to get score with the hero.

Source: anifecta.org

Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo (The Problem Children Come from Another World) – Three children - a self-styled delinquent who’s craftier than your usual thug, a haughty rich girl, and a girl with an affinity for animals are summoned to a world of bets, games, and beings of every imaginable sort. Two episodes in, the three learn that they weren't summoned just to have fun. They'll soon be finding themselves playing for the survival of a little community, and their opponents have no intention of turning the fight into a bonus round.

Source:  argentinawarez.com

Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru (trans. Caught In the Carnage Between My Girlfriend and My Childhood Friend) – One teen-aged boy gets blackmailed into becoming the boyfriend of the hottest girl in his class, courtesy of her somehow acquiring his chuunibyou notebook. It's all a sham, as she is desperately tired of all the boys confessing to her, and who better to play the role of pretend-boyfriend than a guy who doesn’t believe in love, similar to herself? Of course, the poor guy's childhood friend gets wind of this, and for her, this means war! If the image above is any indication, two more girls will be joining the fray - expect havoc!

Source:  mdzanime.me

Sasami-san@Ganbaranai (trans. Sasami-san@No Effort) – This appears to be the season’s love it or leave it series. At its core, the series is about a female hikikomori who, despite treating her doting brother like a mere servant, is actually quite possessive of him, as shown in the first episode via her attempts to brave the outside world to keep those ‘evil women’ away from him. Suddenly, the world turns to chocolate, and the ‘evil women’ – actually the Yagami sisters – start kicking the asses of chocolate monsters, and somehow restore the world to normal. If that description intrigues you, watch it. If it confuses you, find something else to watch.

Source: animefree4you.blogspot.com

Senran Kagura – Ninja girls, bouncing boobies, and panty shots, oh my! But wait, there’s more - there’s also combat! Anyway, these are the adventures of 5 high school girls who are enrolled in the secret side of a prestigious private school – you guessed it, a ninja training school. If the first two sentences haven’t clued you in yet on what to expect, this series is bursting (pun intended) with fanservice and action. This is exactly my cup of tea. It's less Queen's Blade and more of Ikkitousen.

Source:  vnsharing.net

Vividred Operation – Magical girl, er, technology-sufficiently-advanced-it-can-be-considered-magical girl show of the season, Vividred Operation boasts beautiful visuals, though some might be put off by the glorious detail and attention lavished on middle-school girls’ body parts. Seriously, I shudder thinking how many perverts made a copy of episode 1 just so they could pause the video at certain key points for their own nefarious purposes. That aside, this promises to be the action-heavy offering of the season, barring the AKB0048 continuation and the Problem Children show. If schoolgirls flying in the sky and taking on mechanical alien monsters is your thing, then watch this!

Holiday Update

Hi everyone! I hope you've had a good December holiday! Updating the blog is somewhat difficult with all the food gobble down and the relatives to catch up with, but I'll try to make up for it now!

On the anime side of things, a number of the shows we've been following for the Fall 2012 season are drawing to a close. You'll soon be seeing my reviews for the shows as a whole, what I liked, and what I didn't like about them. 

On the M:AA side, I signed up for Marvel XP to get more rewards for the Facebook game. I mean, Das Boot is cute and all, it's a debuff attack and its attack animation is an actual kick to the target's nads, but I wanted more. It saddens me that there wasn't a December 25 gift for all players. I mean, an upgrade to both Valkyrie and Tigra is great news, but call me greedy because I wanted more toys for my Agent.

A real kick in the pants

On the M:TG side of things, a side that I have woefully neglected all this time, I must confess that I haven't building decks much lately. I even missed the Return To Ravnica pre-release tournament. I hope to change that, and start it off perhaps by posting the most recent deck I put together. It's one I put together for my girlfriend, essentially a gutted, heavily modified Angelic Might deck from Avacyn Restored.

Man, this is one short update, isn't it? I'll try to come up with a more substantial post soon, so this will be all for now!

Tigra Trouble

Currently, the M:AA forums are abuzz with the man of the hour, the Merc With The Mouth a.k.a. Deadpool. He was a much sought-after character, being the prize for the top players of Playdom's first PVP tournament. The announcement of his availability for purchase after four days effectively eclipsed the debut of female Avenger Tigra.

For a lot of players, the Recruit button had a big question mark at the end.

Imagine - the announcement of a new hero arriving in four days was much bigger news, and was met with more enthusiasm than the immediate availability of a new female hero. I know what you're thinking - wouldn't stereotypical comic / Marvel geeks salivate more over a sexy cat-woman than they would over a masked assassin with guns and swords? Why is the opposite happening?

Nice answer, Wade, but not the one we're going with.

Part of the reason is the metagame, at least in PVP. The Infiltrator class, ideally counter-attacking every turn and ignoring tank / protector characters and striking fear into the enemy team, is not in its best environment thanks to the presence of agent weapons and characters whose attacks do not provoke counterattacks. A powerful deterrent to using Infiltrators in the PVP metagame is the presence of Ghost Rider, a popular Scrapper option. An oft-repeated aphorism in the game forums is "The game hates infiltrators right now," and Tigra is an Infiltrator.

As she was available earlier, players were able to check out her recruitment cost. Along with many other players, I was taken aback at her steep cost of 90 Command Points. To put things in perspective, Hercules, The Hulk and Thor clock in at 90 CPs. The reality-altering (and if the comics are to be believed, reality-shattering) Scarlet Witch also costs 90 CPs. Based on these three alone, one might conclude that 90 CP characters are unstoppable forces of destruction. However, other 90 CP heroes include Wolverine, Captain America, Spider-Man, Black Panther, Beast, Rogue, and Gambit (who's also another 90 CP Infiltrator). Comics-wise, they're not really on the level of the four 'unstoppable forces' I've listed earlier. They're still all good, for a certain value  of good.

Clockwise, from top left: Hercules, Hulk, Thor, Scarlet Witch, Wolverine, Rogue, Gambit, Beast, Black Panther, Spider-man, Captain America.

Now, if any M:AA players actually read this, they'll argue that Wolverine is an underwhelming 90 CP hero. I would have to agree. I used to think that Black Panther shared Wolverine's corner of shame, but a recent update allowed him to gain massive destructive potential and use it in the same turn, so the corner is solely Wolverine's again.

With the revamp to the bleeding mechanic, patched to coincide with Tigra's release, Wolverine got a slight bump in terms of utility. Of course, the change brought a new round of complaints, mostly from Black Cat players and the Black Panther players. Bleeding now only stacks up to three times, but the bleeding damage now fires at the start of each turn and with every hostile action. Hostile action here is defined as an attack or counterattack. Hostile actions also include (according to the last time I checked) effects such as Icy (from Laufey's Knife and Laufey's Needle) placing a status effect on an opponent. I am of the opinion that this should not be the case - after all, if you touch a very hot piece of metal, and you get burned because of it, it doesn't mean that the metal had any hostile intent toward you!

Cool swords, bro.

To wit, bleeding is shaping up from a straight-up Damage Over Time effect that needed to be built up to five stacks to become serious, into an effective punishment against multiple turns, counterattacks, and follow-ups.

The complaint from BC and BP users stems from the Exploits Bleeding attributes on Black Cat's Nerve Chop and Black Panther's Wakandan Arts. They now do significantly reduced damage, because they now get a max of 3 damage bonuses instead of 5 like before. I've seen people in the forums refer to the former as Nerf/ed Chop, and as for the latter I think people will be calling it WTF Arts.

Anyway, aside from being an Infiltrator, why was Tigra's first impression very bad for many players? The most common complaint is that she has no passive abilities.

Let's compare her with the other 90 CP heroes. Hercules will unleash critical hits per attack when he's loaded with buffs, Hulk gets more accuracy and damage whenever he's hit, and Thor is immune to a number of Damage Over Time effects. Scarlet Witch can dodge any hit 20% of the time, while Captain America can reduce damage by blocking it with his shield in addition to boosting his team's stats with his leadership. Spider-Man can divert an attack toward him, possible dodging it at the last second, saving the original target, and from time to time gain a sizable attack up as well. Wolverine is immune to fear effects and can recover some of his HP every turn. Beast gains an attack bonus if he does not attack that turn, and can make his team's next attacks critical whenever an enemy attacks. Black Panther has a chance to dizzy melee attackers, Rogue is immune to ground attacks thanks to her flight, and Gambit can throw a card at enemies who attack his allies, damaging the attacker and letting Gambit charge up his attacks.

Go to your Team Screen and select Tigra, then place the cursor over her image. The box in red pops up, which for certain heroes will display the passive abilities in this current uniform. 

In other words, she has no special defenses or quirks. Many players took one look at her and probably summarized her as a more expensive Black Cat. Both are female Infiltrators whose arsenals revolve around bleeding, and neither have any passives in their standard uniform / costume. Looking at it in a different light, there are 5 Infiltrators that cost less than Tigra does, and of those 5, 3 have passive abilities that make attacking them unattractive. Black Widow promises more damage to anyone who attacks her. Invisible Woman has a chance to flat-out dodge an attack and give herself increased accuracy, which translates to a greater chance to land a critical hit, and all of her damaging moves have Deadly Crits, which essentially means Normal Damage X Critical Damage Multiplier + Deadly Crits Bonus. Finally, Kitty Pryde has her dragon friend Lockheed, who has a chance to belch fire at whoever attacks her.

As for the other 2 Infiltrators who are cheaper than Tigra, one of them is Black Cat, who requires a combination of multiple bleeding stacks and her Stroke of Luck skill to land a One-Hit K.O. with her Nerve Chop. The other one is Nightcrawler, widely regarded by players as one of the worst heroes in the game at the moment, and whose specialty is inflicting the Dizzy status on enemies and executing follow-up attacks on Dizzy targets.

When trying to determine whether a hero is worth his or her point cost or not, it's fine to look at the little details and compare the hero to similarly-costed or same-class heroes, but that shouldn't be the end-all and be-all of things. As Albert Einstein said, 

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

So here's an alternate view I'm offering - Tigra doesn't have a passive (yet, as I'm still wishing she'll get one eventually) because she doesn't need one in her current role in the game. What is her role in the game? The answer, I believe, lies in the unique status effect she brings to the game, Shred.

Shred essentially enables characters who exploit bleeding to do so against targets that don't bleed, as well as reducing defense. Shred gets applied to targets hit by Tigra that are immune to Bleeding. In PVP, this applies to agents with the rare Fist of the Colossus equipped, as well as the heroes Luke Cage, Thing, and Colossus himself. In PVE, this applies to enemies with the Mechanical Body passive, such as the Servbots and the Sentinels.

Shred also stacks three times, and according to its description, counts as bleeding for the purposes of attacks. This will allow Black Cat and Black Panther to use their attacks with Exploit Bleeding to full effect, even against hardened targets. Of course, getting 3 stacks of Shred on the same target is going to require three turns with a low-level Tigra with her first attack.

However, it's just two if she's at least level 9 and has access to her Frenzy Skill.

First turn: Swipe, then Frenzy, gain Feral Instincts. Second turn, Swipe, then Razor Claws, gaining Sharpened Claws, then a follow-up Razor Claws against the same target. Feel free to send Black Cat or Black Panther in for the finisher.

Here's her level 2 skill. It certainly cements her dedication to the bleeding theme.

It's clear now what Tigra's role is - she allows attacks that depend on the target bleeding, including her own, to be used against everything. In other words, she ensures that a bleeding team does not automatically lose when  fighting a team with Colossus, Thing, or Luke Cage in it. (Does anyone really field Luke Cage in PVP?) Once the opponents are either bleeding or shredded, Tigra can go in for massive damage, helped along by her level 6 skill.

An important note: Shred doesn't work with the Ravaged debuff, which increases the health lost from Bleeding effects. Sorry, Wolverine, you're still stuck up the creek when you're fighting robots in-game.

My verdict - I'm getting her, as she'll prove to be great against everyone's favorite epic boss, Magneto. Recruiting her will let me finally train Wolverine up to level 10, as he'll now have a replacement who can cause more bleeding damage to happen despite Magneto's shields. She seem like she's going to be a blast to play, and it's highly likely she'll be required in the next Spec Ops. Besides, catgirls!

Fall 2012 Animé: What We Watched, Part 5

We've finally made it to the last four animé we've been following this fall season. Though a bit late, I hope this series of posts encourages you to sample this season's offerings. Plus, all the backlog of  episodes you have to clear makes for an excellent weekend marathon!

SOURCE: http://www.crunchyroll.com

Shin Sekai Yori – It’s very hard to describe From The New World (the show’s official English title) without spoiling much of what makes you want to see the next episode. I’ll just say it involves kids with psychic powers, who learn to use them in constructive ways in a special school. All is not fun and games, however. There are rumors of children suddenly disappearing from the school, usually linked to the appearance of a rumored Monster Cat on the school premises. As the story unfolds, the children begin to seek the truth, but discover that the truth behind everything in their world is something best left unbelieved.

SOURCE: okamiotaku.blogspot.com

Sukitte Ii Na Yo – Take one unpopular, unattractive high school girl, have her try to kick the school’s prettiest boy, throw in some unexplainable attraction on the boy’s side, and voila! You have your next Hollywood hit, Fifty Shades of Twilight! I’m just kidding, now put those torches and pitchforks away! The show’s title translates to Say “I Love You” and it’s really about the school’s most mismatched couple and the ups and downs of their budding romance. Being a high school romantic drama, you can expect the usual slew of unique Japanese students – the guy who keeps a collection of sex friends, the cute girl being bullied by her peers because of her prominent chest, the well-meaning idiot friend, etc. – and the interaction between our protagonist couple and these other faces is the draw of the show. Be warned, a lot of well-placed, romantic angsting is present.

SOURCE: http://myworldisbluegreen.wordpress.com

Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun – Despite the show’s title meaning “The Monster Next to Me” this show has totally nothing to do with monsters, giant-sized or otherwise. The monster in this case refers to a notorious freshman, an A-student who got suspended on the first day of school for beating up some of his upperclassmen for bullying a lone student. Having to sit next to him is a girl who would rather study than do anything else in the world, and wishes as little distraction from her routine as possible. So when circumstances force her in the position of the “monster’s caretaker” she is most displeased. Not only has she to deal with him, she also has to deal with her own confused emotions, which she blames squarely on him!

SOURCE: http://adala-news.fr

Zetsuen no Tempest – The long version of this work’s title is Zetsuen No Tempest: The Civilization Blaster. That’s a meaningful second title after the colon, but I’m not going to say how. What I will say is that it centers around two high school boys who are on a quest to prevent a clan of mages who have deposed their princess from destroying the world. At least, that’s how the series opens, and as the episodes progress more and more secrets come to light. Also, there are a lot of Shakespeare quotes getting tossed about. The pacing is good, and you’ll never be bored waiting for the next action sequence or shocking revelation to come up.

That's a wrap! All twenty shows done, with some of my mostly spoiler-free opinions open for all to see. Also, visit the sites I indicated as the source for the images I used to see what else everyone is now watching!

Fall 2012 Animé: What We Watched, Part 4

Whoa, finally, an update that was made within the promised time frame! Don't break out the champagne yet, folks, save that for when we finally bid adieu to this season's crop of animé. Even though we're nearing the home stretch, I'm not going to dump eight shows on you all at once - we'll do it as we've always done, four at a time.

SOURCE: http://www.animefreak.tv

Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankeinai yo ne! – A young girl finally reunites with her beloved twin brother after six years and start living in the same high school dormitory. It sounds like your typical slice of life premise, doesn’t it? However, the girl loves her brother as a woman loves a man, and there are three girls who are interested in him living in the same dorm as well! The overly long title translates roughly to "He's my brother, but I love him all the same!" Will our unusual heroine succeed in her quest for love? How long can the brother stand all the girls chasing him before he goes insane? Watch it to find out!

SOURCE: http://natalie.mu

Psycho Pass – In a world where a person’s soul and future can be quantified as a value called Psycho Pass, a newly inducted detective must learn to cope with the tension of what is expected of her, and what she believes a law enforcer should be. When most of her coworkers are marked as latent criminals by the super-computer that runs the city, and a single moment of great anger, sorrow, despair, or any other human emotion can change an upstanding, morally upright citizen into a dangerous criminal in the system’s eyes, it’s certainly not going to be easy for her. This is definitely grown-up, mature stuff – if you’re looking for a good buddy cop show for kids, you’d better look elsewhere.

SOURCE: http://www.emptyblue.it/

Robotics;Notes – This is the story of two high school friends. She’s dead set on saving the school’s robotics club. He’s only part of the club because the clubroom is the perfect place for him to play a robot fighting game on his tablet phone. After many failed attempts to secure funding for the club to build a piloted robot, the vice-principal gives them an ultimatum. There’s an upcoming hobby robot competition, and if they win, they’ll get their funding. However if they lose, the club gets disbanded. Watch and see how they fight to keep the club going, and make it thrive!

SOURCE: http://web.hi10anime.com

Sakurasou Pet na Kanojo – Due to certain circumstances a normal high school boy who likes cats ends up in the dormitory where all the geniuses with special quirks reside. A rabid animé fan, a teenage playboy, and shut-in computer wiz all live in the dorm, which has a lazy arts teacher as the landlady. One day, perhaps because of his status as the only reliable, normal resident, the landlady asks him to pick her cousin up at the train station. Little does he know that he’s about to meet his newest housemate – an incredibly talented artist who will go all day naked unless someone dresses her up, and he suddenly finds himself acting as her caretaker!

Next up: the last four of the twenty animé we've been following this season!

Spec Ops 5: Ride of the Valkyrie!

Spec Ops 5 just went live a few hours ago, and the heroine up for grabs this time around is an Asgardian (same race as Thor, Sif, and the Warriors Three) named Valkyrie.

She's a female Bruiser (for those of you who prefer to keep or field a "girl power" team / theme), so that means She-Hulk isn't the sole "native" Bruiser anymore - "native" in this case meaning "without purchasing an alternate costume."

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll save myself over 9000 by letting you see screenshots from my game. Again, numbers may vary based on agent levels.

Our apologies to those who were expecting a transforming jet armed with more missiles than possible.

I've had the opportunity to use her against the mini-bosses and boss of SO5's mission 1, and from what I've seen she has severe stamina issues - which may go away with the proper Iso-8. She isn't an offensive powerhouse, like say, Hulk, Thor, or (when fully buffed) Hercules. Instead, she's used to support your frail team members by preventing them from being one-hit KO'd, which is typical in PVP - provided she can get her buff out first. While I haven't seen it in action yet, she's supposed to automatically step in front of a weakened ally and take the hit for him/her, unless Valkyrie herself is in critical health, or if the targeted ally is under her Deathwatch buff. 

This is her defining skill, her level 6.

Deathwatch supposedly revives you at 25% Health if you're KO'd, so not stepping up to shield a dude with Deathwatch makes sense. The thing to note is Deathwatch doesn't last the entire match - it expires after a few turns. This means timing is important. The loss of health is significant, but she won't die even if she's killed she takes lethal damage thanks to the buff affecting her as well. Should you find your Valkyrie revived at 25% Health, you'll want to make sure you pay your attacker back, using her spear, with this:

Be sure to growl before clicking on your target. "Geirrrrrrr..."

When her health is still high, meaning 75% or greater, you'll want to attack with Dragonfang, her enchanted sword, instead. It's a great attack when used alongside Storm, or an agent with Capacitive Impeder (which luckily I have), and it's easy on the stamina meter as well, so let them eat steel! (The attack animation is just badass!)

Electric-type damage needs more love.

Based on experience, when I take out an enemy that has the Deathglow effect, Valkyrie recovers 988 Health, out of her starting 3952. Doing the math, that's exactly 25% of her Health, the same amount she loses when she uses Sacrificial Blessing! Note also the number of hits: 3. For the PVP-oriented, 3 hits means that it bypasses Digital Decoy's two layers of protective illusions, and still leave a third hit to tag an opponent with Deathglow. If your target already has Static Charge, then he or she gets shocked too. Although if you really want to bypass Digital Decoy's protection, there's always this:

I'll not apologize for the pun, because it wasn't my idea.

Note the low stamina cost (lower than her Level 2, Dragonfang)! You can literally ride them down with her winged horse (!!!) every turn and not worry about retaliation - the damage leaves a lot to be desired though.

I'm currently waiting to finish the research on Task 6. 

I'm glad to see they resisted calling the buff that this item grants "Drunken Fist."

Here's a hot tip for the boss fight on mission 1 - the Enchantress is protected by a Jotun bodyguard in the first two waves, but is alone on the third. She'll be protected by a Scrapper first, then by a Bruiser. In this fight, Valkyrie is a forced Team-Up. It's not difficult, though - the Enchantress has a nasty habit of fleeing the fight if she senses danger, so the bodyguard is good as toast once his mistress flees.

So, strategy - I brought Sif for backup, because the Enchantress can set enemies on fire with her Magic Missile. This made 2/3 of my team fire-proof thanks to their Asgardian biology, so I can get away with the cheaper, single-target Extinguisher instead of costly Flame Suppresants. Also, Sif can inflict the Tenderized status on an enemy, which will go long toward improving Valkyrie's slashing damage.

I suited up in a Blaster Trenchcoat, and brought the Faulteater (to hit the Enchantress with Damage Over Time effects despite her huge protector), a Magnetic Field Generator (I now never deploy without it), the Signpost (useful whenever you're fighting waves that contain more than one enemy), and a Possessed Pistol to ensure more damage.

"You've got a psychic machine pistol, a demonic staff, and two artifacts captured from super-villains. Standard S.H.I.E.L.D.-issue, my ass."

The fight was amusing, because after losing a certain percentage of her health courtesy of the Faulteater's Burning and Biofeedback effects, the Enchantress ran away. She did so twice, but there's something up with the passive on her Jotun bodyguards - weren't they supposed to be KO'ed when the Enchantress flees? Why are they still up and fighting?

She also has a nasty trick called Charm, which causes the character to lose an action per turn. This essentially locks the character out of the fight until he or she receives damage. She hit Sif with it (hmm, Girls' Love?) and then had the bright idea to hit all three of my team members with her Emerald Wave. 

Needless to say, Sif was not pleased, and since she, being a Scrapper, was the natural counter to the Enchantress' Infiltrator class, well, let's say what ensued was not the sort of intense girl on girl action promised on so much of my junk mail.

So what are you waiting for? Go and kick some Jotun and thugs to the curb and get on the path to recruiting Valkyrie!

Fall 2012 Animé: What We Watched, Part 3

Did I say 'a day or two'? I probably should have said 'three' instead. Anyway, enough about that schedule slip - here are four more shows my girlfriend and I are hooked on.

Source: http://djsjr.com

K – The first thing that drew my attention to this show was the one-letter title. The second was the lack of information about it leading up to the days of its first broadcast. As it turns out, the story revolves around a seemingly normal high school boy and his cat who find themselves on the run from a street gang who use psychic flames, a psychic police force that loves swords a bit too much, and a black-clad swordsman who relies on recorded quotes from his late master to guide his actions. Soon the reason why they are after the boy becomes clear – he’s the suspect for a murder he doesn't even know of.

Source: http://www.crunchyroll.com/

Kami-sama Hajimemashita – Our heroine is a high school girl who finds herself homeless after her dad decides to vanish into thin air to avoid his debtors. She accepts the offer of a stay-in house-sitter from a suspicious looking guy, who turns out to be the local earth deity in charge of the area and wants out of the job. The house he wants her to watch over? It’s actually a forgotten shrine, complete with spirit servants and a mean, sarcastic fox spirit as a guardian. The fox isn't exactly pleased with his master leaving him, and even less so with the replacement earth deity – a homeless, clueless, powerless high school girl. Hilarity ensues as she settles into her new home and gets used to her new housemates.

Source: http://www.animetip.com

Magi – On the surface, it seems to be a cheery, light-hearted romp, an adventure story that involves dungeons in an Arabian Nights-like setting. The main characters are even named after characters from the famed collection of tales! Despite the bright color palette used for the show, which could cause it to be mistaken for a kid’s show, the themes and questions that have made themselves evident are anything but child’s play. We have slavery, destiny, chasing dreams or giving up on them, the search for identity and place in the world, and the troubles with having the majority of a country’s wealth squarely in the hands of the corrupt and the selfish.

Source: http://orendsrange.blogspot.com

Medaka Box Abnormal – This is a sequel to Medaka Box, which aired in the spring of 2012. Warning: spoilers ahead for those who haven’t seen season one! It continues from where the first season left off, after a titanic battle between the eponymous Medaka Kurokami, Student Council Chairwoman versus Myouri Unzen, head of the Public Morals Committee leaves the school damaged and the Student Council room destroyed. Upon learning of the Flask Plan from Unzen, Medaka decides to investigate, and her friends at the Student Council go with her. Awesome battles ensue as they uncover the true nature of the Flask Plan, and the dark secrets of Sandbox Academy.

Well, that's another four, and still eight to go over! I'll try to update within the next three days, so watch out for that!

Fall 2012 Animé: What We Watched, Part 2

Picking up from the last post, here are four more shows my girlfriend and I have been watching recently.

Source: http://quizoxy.wordpress.com/

Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai – Chuunibyou, literally “2^nd-year middle school syndrome,” is a kind of delusional phase that can be best described as a kid’s make-believe world spilling over into real life. That’s not her sister – she’s actually a priestess from some magical organization! He’s not really just a fifteen-year-old, he’s really the Dark Flame Master! She wears an eyepatch not for medical reasons, but to seal the power of the Tyrant’s Eye! The show revolves around a high school freshman who used to suffer from chuunibyou, and his troubles having to deal with a female classmate who’s reveling in her lack of reality-fantasy barrier. The full title of the show translates into something like “I’m delusional but I want to fall in love.” That’s a big hint, there.

Source: http://www.fanpop.com

Code:Breaker – It’s a Japan where the cops are corrupt and in cahoots with organized crime groups, and government officials are running clandestine, inhuman experiments for their own ends. What do you do when the law enforcement doesn’t even bother to hide their disrespect of the law? What if evil is so high up and entrenched, that it can’t be touched by the system? The answers to both questions are simple – you send in the Code:Breakers. Each Code:Breaker is an individual possessing superhuman powers that wouldn’t be out of place in the Marvel or DC Universe, and they behave like the dark heroes of the 90’s. This is a mature show, where the question of when is it alright to take a life, to destroy evil outright, is permissible or moral as one of its central themes.

Source: http://sakurahana.com

Girls und Panzer – The premise is cute and amusing enough - exclusive, all-girls schools holding mock tank battles as a co-curricular activity. High school girls choosing which club to join normally don’t have Tank Battle Club as an option, but here, it’s a status symbol. Once you get past the initial weirdness, you can strap yourself in for turret-twisting, tank-busting action, and be surprised by the issues and themes raised by the show. Themes like the burden of having a prominent last name and the expectations that go with it, going against family tradition, and sticking your neck out for a friend, make a nice, feel-good backdrop against all the cannon fire and war machines trundling about.

Source:  http://www.crunchyroll.com

Ixion Saga DT – A boy gets sucked into a world of sword and sorcery, and must find a way back. We’ve seen this a million times before, right? Now don’t go skipping over to the next show yet, because this one has a lot of twists and sticks its tongue out at the clichés of this kind of story. Our dubious hero is an avid MMORPG player, who knows that it’s suicide to use an attack with a long start-up against an enemy who isn’t stunned, and is willing to exploit this fact in this RPG-like world. The huge swordsman who rescued him graduated from university, and the beautiful maid / bodyguard to the bratty princess is not who she appears to be. Follow this not-so-typical party of adventurers as they try to get our hero home, and prevent a war from erupting in the process!

That's eight down, and twelve to go! Check back in a day or two for more animé we've been watching this season!

Fall 2012 Animé: What We Watched, Part 1

The Fall 2012 animé season is drawing to a close. I, along with my better half, have embarked on a 20-title viewing challenge. With the shows having hit their midway or gone past the midway point, I can finally offer insights into each show – and I will try to avoid spoiling things, if I can.

Feel free to use my opinions and observations to determine whether you’ll pick up each series or not.

Aikatsu – This is a show based off a game that involves coordinating an aspiring idol’s clothing by collecting cards, and winning style contests on the way to becoming the top dog of the idol world. Once you get past the bright colors and cuteness, it’s got surprising depth for what is ostensibly a “little girl’s show.” The show stars two girls – one is the daughter of a bento shop owner, while her best friend is an idol geek – who both take the test to enter an exclusive idol school and pass. The second episode and beyond shows the challenges they encounter, and with each episode our young heroines learn more of what it means to be an idol, and so do we. Title trivia – it’s a portmanteau of “aidoru katsudo” which means “idol activities.”

BTOOOM! – The odd spelling of title is due to the fact that it’s an onomatopoeia for an explosion, and there are a lot of them in this show. In a world similar to today’s world, there’s massive multiplayer online game called Btooom! where teams engage in a deathmatch using solely grenades and bombs – no guns, knives, or vehicular carnage. Somebody decides to recreate the bombs in real life, abducts random people and puts them on a Komodo dragon-infested island, and informs them that the only way to go home is to kill seven other people, using the bombs or any other means at their disposal. To kill or not to kill, to work as a lone wolf or cooperate with the other reluctant contestants, to betray others for survival or not – the show focuses on these and several other issues. It’s not just fun and games anymore.

Busou Shinki - Cute, 15-centimeter robot girls who can do your housework, and can be equipped for a virtual combat sport that has a worldwide tournament and following – what’s not to like? I must point out, these aren’t emotionless fembots – these girls squabble over things like their chest sizes to whether their owner and master is actually in love with a flesh and blood girl. Those viewers looking for a cute four temperament girl ensemble show need to look no further. On the other hand, those who prefer high-speed, gun-and-sword aerial battles between cute girls in powered armor will get their fill as well. It’s best described as a slice of life show with the occasional burst of action. The title can be interpreted as “Armored Goddess.”

Chou Soku Henkei Gyrozetter – Roughly, “High-Speed Transformation Gyrozetter.” This is a gloriously unabashed kids’ show, with the source material being another card-based game, this time revolving around cars that transform into robots. No, it’s not that franchise. The key difference here is that the car robots require drivers, child drivers to be exact, chosen by prophecy to drive the robots into battle against a shadowy organization who has access to the same transforming car-robot technology. With things like a secret base under the school, the faculty being the command structure of the heroic organization, and five kids needing to learn the value of friendship, the show does not break any new ground, but it’s entertaining nonetheless, and manages to throw in the occasional moral as well. Also, CGI robots dancing to J-pop music at the end – now that’s new!

I'll be posting the rest of the shows we watched over the next few days - just for those of you who might be doubting my ability to count.

Image credits: http://anime-ae.blogspot.com for the Aikatsu and Btooom! images, http://www.sutoraikuanime.com for the Busou Shinki image, and animecrazy.net for the Chou Soku Henkei Gyrozetter image.