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Pokemon The Movie: Genesect And The Legend Awakened Review

Frank Inglese
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Pokemon The Movie: Genesect And The Legend Awakened Review

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Pokemon The Movie: Genesect And The Legend Awakened
Studio: OLM, Inc
Publisher: Beyond Entertainment
Format: Cinema
Release Date: 16th November 2013

Overview

I have not been to see a theatrical release of a Pokemon movie in many years, not since Pokemon The Movie: 2000 had I had the pleasure of being in a packed cinema to experience an epic Pokemon adventure and, I have to say, Pokemon The Movie: Genesect and The Legend Awakened came close to letting me relive some of the wonder I felt as a child. This weekend Beyond Entertainment in association with Hoyts cinemas hosted a preview screening weekend of the movie over a select few locations and I was lucky enough, alongside my workmates, to be a part of it. It’s easy to say that the Pokemon has changed from when it was first released, it’s even easier to say that the team behind Pokemon are loosing their touch, just because the points are easy to make does not mean it is necessarily true and while the new movie did have a few setbacks we can truly see how far the franchise has come and how connected it is to its roots.

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Story

Pokemon The Movie: Genesect And The Legend Awakened has a very typical Pokemon story, which I wouldn’t consider a bad thing, and borrows a great deal from its predecessors with themes of friendship, belonging and a sense of unlimited courage that, I assume, is to be instilled into the young audience, this is what the Pokemon movies are and this is, typically, what they will always be and there’s nothing wrong with that. The story follows Ash, Iris and Cilan as their journey leads them into what seems like Castelia City, although I don’t recall them ever outright mentioning it so it could’ve just been a brand-new city designed for the movie. In a remote place somewhere in the Unova Region a team of five Genesect, one being a red Genesect, travel icy mountains in search their home but considering they are the revived version of fossils their home is no longer there and they seem to begin welling with panic.

The small group gets into a bit of strife when an avalanche is set off but an old friend of the Pokemon world, Mewtwo, senses this and uses the power of, what we now know as a Mega Evolution, to save them. They converse for a short time before the red Genesect, showing extreme signs of aggression, attacks Mewtwo and forces it to flee. Now before I go on I must outline that the red Genesect, one of the four regular Genesect and Mewtwo can all speak proper English, though broken, and this is how the background of the story is put across to the audience.

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The Genesect also flee and continue the search for their home, they spot a big city on the horizon and notice that the tall buildings and structures are very reminiscent of their home so, being the angry Pokemon they are, they fly into the city to attempt to take out anyone around and once again find their home. As you can probably already tell; this is the bulk of the movie, Ash and friends land face first into this ancient brawl between man-made Pokemon (Genesect and Mewtwo) and it is now up to them to stop the battle, rescue the Pokemon and save the day, like I said, pretty standard Pokemon stuff.

Now the story was great, I had no problem with it overall and while the pacing was a little bit off I still enjoyed it the entire way through so I really don’t have a great deal to complain about, what I do have to complain about though is something that really got to me throughout and still I’m not too sure whether or not it should but I feel as though it is worthwhile outlining as a negative: The Mewtwo in this movie is an entirely different Mewtwo.

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Pokemon fans already know where my gripe is with this one, Ash and Mewtwo have met before, Mewtwo was a huge deal in both the movies and the games yet they never though to place the old Mewtwo within this movie, I know I’m getting on a lot of peoples nerves but allow me to explain myself in more detail.  There are a lot of reasons as to why a new Mewtwo as a perfectly good idea; it is a man-made Pokemon so who’s to say it can’t be replicated once again, having a female Mewtwo brings a certain freshness to the movie and a lot of the children who would be watching this movie probably don’t know the other Mewtwo.

Throughout the first twenty minutes of the movie I kept going over these points in my head and I tried to wrap my head around why they didn’t bring in the older Mewtwo for us older audience members, the fact that kids wouldn’t know the “classic” Mewtwo gave good reason as to why they didn’t and I had almost given up until I heard a young boy sitting behind me turn to his friends and say, verbatim; “How do Ash and Mewtwo NOT recognise each other?!” which not only gave me hope for this new generation but also highlighted the fact that this may have been a bad move.

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That is pretty much the only problem I had with this movie, the childish themes of friendship and love didn’t bother me in anyway because, in the end, this movie is targeted towards children and new fans of the Pokemon series, I totally understand that but the “new Mewtwo” thing just didn’t sit right with me, don’t get me wrong I was a very big fan of Mewtwo’s classy lady voice and they way the Pokemon was portrayed I just would’ve liked to have seen classic Mewtwo return in an epic way. As an older audience member to have seen the old Mewtwo return after years and years of training, finally mastering the next stage of evolution and once again reuniting with the boy who changed his entire mindset would have been something spectacular and, while the new Mewtwo is great, the story could’ve been made that extra little bit better.

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Visuals

I would have to say, hands down, the visuals in this movie were absolutely amazing, yes, amazing. The use of both traditional animation and CGI animation blended well and, at times, the scenes almost looked live-action, THAT’S how well it was animated. The environments were nothing short of breathtaking and the team of artists that designed them surely most have medals for their work and achievement. Sweeping and spinning shots came in an abundance in this movie but, considering they were done well, I didn’t entirely mind it, they made the film extremely cinematic and they made me feel like I was watching a movie and not just another Pokemon movie.

The human and Pokemon characters were animated well, each of their movements was smooth and it didn’t look like they cut any corners when it came to both design and execution. I have to throw back to the environments though because, out of everything in the movie, they were my favourite things to see. The huge city within the movie looked a great deal like New York City which is what it was based on so I’m giving them points for that one. Aesthetically this movie is beautiful and at no time did things get boring to look at. Fight animations were also great but I feel like the locations blew me away like no other aspect of visuals could.

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Audio

While the audio aspect of the movie was great, it wasn’t as good as the visuals and that’s not a comparison for the sake of taking away points, it’s a comparison for the sake of you guys understanding fully how it felt to me. All the voice acting was great and it seems as though the main cast reprised their roles from the series and did a good job. Unfortunately the writing was fairly childish the voice actors didn’t exactly get a chance to do their best work but it was still great and fit within the nature of the movie so I feel like it all worked out fine.

The music was actually fairly orchestral, not overly but there was always a sense of big instruments making big sounds that gave off the aura of a huge clash of sorts. Alongside that was a lot of high notes and soft music which, like all Pokemon movies, contrasted the dark to the light. The opening and ending songs to the movie were actually really catchy and quite good for tracks that seemed a little bit corny, I did get really into it by the end despite, once again, the overall talk of love friendship, journey, adventure and all the usual Pokemon themes. It all fit nice like a puzzle and it really wouldn’t have been the same had it been different.

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Overall

Pokemon The Movie: Genesect And The Legend Awakened is an absolutely fantastic movie that is set back by one thing in particular that will really only get a small percentage of the audience upset, I just felt like they could’ve won over everybody by changing the story slightly, apart from that it was an incredible movie that took me back to my younger days of watching Pokemon movies and I can see both young and old audiences getting into it, obviously with the younger audiences liking it even more than the older members. It is a movie for Pokemon fans to all see I just suggest you don’t go in expecting it to be “our” Mewtwo like I and, clearly, other people did and you’ll love it 100%. It’s fun, it’s whimsical, it’s Pokemon.

8-5-capsules-out-of-10

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

The Bridge Review

Simon Wolfe
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The Bridge Review

The Bridge
Developers: Ty Taylor and Mario Castaneda
Publisher: Midnight City (Majesco)
Platform: XBLA (Reviewed), PC
Release Date: November 13th, 2013
Price: $9.99 – Available Here

Overview
Puzzle games are by no means a rarity in the gaming world, but to make one stand out it needs to be easy to get into while offering something unique enough to keep players into it. The hard part is for those players that do enjoy it to be able to describe the game in a way that makes senses, but is still intriguing, which The Bridge is able to do that with just two names, Isaac Newton and M.C. Escher. Those with even a little understanding of the two historical men, should be getting an interesting combination of images from that juxtaposition. Does The Bridge have what it takes to tease the brain and live up to the names? Let’s look at what it has to offer.

Story
When the game is first started up, the player is shown a very Newtonian setting, i.e. a man resting beneath an apple tree. Even more interestingly, there is no menu, no introduction simply the man and the tree leaving players to discover how to progress the story themselves, with a few hints and tips if necessary of course. The man is very stereotypical of the normal conventions of scientists, with a goatee, messy hair, and brown suit, I assure you even in black and white I can tell a brown suit. The way the game opens, it sets the precedent of being more about exploration than story, but even then the story it tells is limited.

A scant few lines of story in the hub world or at the end of a chapter however do a good job with rewarding the completion of the puzzles, though in such a mind bending game as this it does have a slight problem. With the time it takes to solve all the puzzles as well as the brain power it takes to solve some of them, it is easy to either disregard the snippets of story or forget them all together. Even more frustrating is the necessity to replay the final level in a chapter simply to return and read these bits of story, instead of unlocking the final rooms to read them at the players leisure. While not the most important aspect of the game it would have been nice if more consideration was taken when wanting to re-experience the whole story without having to go through each final level again.

Gameplay
Opening up immediately into gameplay, leaves the player with no idea to familiarize themselves with the controls via a menu, but luckily the game focuses on very simplistic controls and principles. Instead of relying on the character having to possess amazing abilities, they are instead limited to one ability, one convenience, and the everyday abilities of walking around and using things. The tweaks and changes that occur from there on in, come not from the character but the environment that they are in, leaving the puzzles to be thankfully limited to only what is on a level instead of what the character has on them or unlocked.

The main ability that the character features, outside of walking and using stuff of course, is the changing of gravity. Gravity is easily rotated via the triggers, or bumpers if preferred to aid in navigating not only floors, but walls and ceilings. While starting off there isn’t much to worry about, later levels include hazards such as crushing boulders and falling off into space. Thankfully, this is where the convenience comes in as player’s can backtrack with the press of a button to unto anything from horrible deaths, to simple errors. Using these as the foundation of gameplay, The Bridge is able to offer a wide variety of challenges as new elements are introduced chapter to chapter.

Adding in concepts like inversion to change both gravity and polarity in one go as well as the veil, which allows the user to use special gravity for specific objects to get them at odds with regular gravity, the difficulty does certainly ramp up, but the slow pace at which they are introduced makes it a very reasonable pace. With the ability to turn back time from mistakes it makes it even easier to not have to worry about getting too stuck or having to completely start levels from scratch unless necessary.

Featuring 4 chapters with six levels a piece, with 4 mirror chapters with even harder challenges once those are completed there is plenty to do in the game. Even more, the inclusion of collectible wisps adds another layer of things to do, with hints to the locations of the wisps in the loading screens of the levels. All this adds up to a game with simple controls that don’t get bogged down as it goes on and get ingenuity in the levels to offer great puzzles for players to have to solve. Puzzles that certainly live up to the inspiration from M.C. Escher.

Visuals and Audio
While the vast majority of the game is black and white, such as works of M.C. Escher, the detail given to the scenes, character, and objects make up for the lack of color. On higher resolution displays the gameplay looks fantastic as the levels are spun about as the character walks across the different surfaces, though on lower resolutions like standard TVs there can be a bit of a problem following what is going on onscreen as bigger levels force everything to be shrunk down and harder to distinguish. However, these levels are still passable even at the lower resolution. There is also fantastic use of music from composer Kevin Macleod, that as the only audio outside of sound effects fit beautifully with the darker themes the occur as the story unfolds.

Overall
Combining the use of physics with M.C. Escher like locations makes the perfect combination for a puzzle game, that is only marred by slight issues with execution. The story that unfolds is an interesting addition to a puzzle game, but being forced to replay levels to revisit and re-read them complicates it unnecessarily. It also does get fairly difficult as the game continues, but players are afforded every chance to make it easier on themselves with the ability to back up after a mistake and simply try again until they can reach the exit. All of this makes The Bridge a solid puzzle game that fans of the genre can enjoy wrapping their head around.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Maken-Ki! Review

Travis Bruno
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Maken-Ki! Review

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Maken-Ki!
Studio: AIC
Publisher: FUNimation
Format: Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack
Release Date: November 12th, 2013
Price: $69.98 – Available Here

Overview
Over the last few years, Japan started to censor many of the fan-service anime on the market. This is primarily done in an effort to help drive up the Blu-ray sales for specific series since the home release features the uncensored version of the anime. One of the many anime that underwent severe censorship was Maken-Ki! which suffered from so much blatant censorship many viewers quickly were turned off of the show. Now that FUNimation has brought Maken-Ki! over to North America in its uncensored, boob and panty filled glory, is it worth picking up?

Story
Tenri Academy has recently gone co-ed and this is great news for a teenager named Takeru as he now has a chance to attend a school where he can live on-campus and also spend time with his childhood friend. It also just so happens that Takeru is quite perverted and since this recent all-girls school now is accepting boys, it seems like the best chance to surround himself in girls after being relegated to an all-boys school for many years.

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However Takeru probably should have done a little bit more research before joining Tenri Academy because it is unlike any other school in the nation as all of the students possess unique abilities and elements that allow them to control ‘Maken’ which are powerful weapons special to each student who attends the school.

Takeru’s paradise may be slipping away from his hands, but it quickly falls right back into his lap as not only does his attractive childhood friend Haruko stand up for him, Inaho, a very affectionate and incredibly strong girl claiming to be his fiancé has appeared to protect him. To top it all off, Himegami, a twintail loli that possesses unique abilities also has taken interest in a mysterious power that Takeru seems to possess, resulting in Takeru living with three attractive girls right at the end of the first episode.

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While many harem shows spend the first half of the series working on introducing each of the girls that are part of the main character’s harem, Maken-Ki! manages to introduce nearly all of the main girls in the very first episode of the series. While this leaves the series with plenty of time to work on plot and character development, very little time is spent on either of these things.

Sure, there are elements of story that are hinted at and slowly developed over time, such as the mystery behind Takeru’s powers and how his Maken makes him unique as well as the Venus group that appears at the latter half of the series. Even Himegami’s interest in Takeru and her own secrets start to be revealed but sadly this is left by the wayside due to poor pacing.

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There are also hints of character development as we learn a bit about Inaho’s promise with Takeru, even though the latter cannot remember it, and hints about Takeru’s past that drives him to protect women in battle are also given. Sadly except for a very minor story arc that covers the last two episodes of the season, Maken-Ki! is all build-up with no pay off at the end.

Of course for what it lacks in story, Maken-Ki! makes up with fists, breasts, a likable female cast, and a halfway decent harem lead. Takeru may be a rather perverted guy who happens to have numerous women falling all over him, but he holds true to his values when it comes to fighting against others and protecting the women around him. This leads to a number of standout moments where Takeru breaks out of his weak stereotype and gives him purpose in the series besides gathering a following of girls.

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As for the fights and fan-service, Maken-Ki! is the type of series where you have to know what you are getting into by the time you pick it up. The action is fast-paced and almost anytime damage is dealt, clothing is ripped off and the pacing favors numerous swimsuit scenes and flat out nudity. While fan-service is great for a series like this, there comes a point in time where it is time to place the cheesecake to the side and focus on the meat of the story.

Visuals
You have to hand it to the animator’s behind Maken-Ki!, they knew exactly what they were getting into with this series and managed to provide some top of the line animation. The bright and varied color palette combined with plenty of flashy effects and nicely designed weaponry make every fight sequence in Maken-Ki! amazing looking.

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They also knew what they were doing when it came to fan-service. There is a wide-range of girls in Maken-Ki! and while a number of them fall into stereotypical appearances, they are all nicely designed and detailed. The fan-service is quite high in this series as I don’t believe there was a single episode without nipples being shown and numerous times in any episode some highly detailed panty shots were presented to the viewer, ensuring the series delivers on what fans of the genre are looking for.

Audio
With the release of Maken-Ki! FUNimation has provided both the original Japanese voice track as well as their newly produced English dub. The English voice cast does a nice job handling the characters, and Takeru, voiced by Ian Sinclair, actually comes off as a better character than his Japanese counterpart thanks to Ian’s voice work.

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The background music is rather standard for a series such as this, meaning it tends to be rather forgetful even during fight scenes. As for the opening theme, we have “Fly Away” by Mizuki Togashi which works well as an opener for a series such as Maken-Ki! and the ending theme is “Baby! Baby!” which actually changes every single episode. You see, while the lyrics and animation stays the same, each episode features different members of the female Japanese voice actors performing the song.

Extras
As far as bonus features go, it is worth mentioning right off the bat that Maken-Ki! comes with a third disc that is dedicated to special features. Among these special features include two episode commentaries, trailers for this series as well as other FUNimation anime, textless versions of the opening and all of the ending themes, and original Japanese commercials.

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Also accompanying this release is an OVA episode, which is counted as episode 13 of this release. The episode focuses on training Takeru a bit but also provides a hefty dose of swimsuit fan-service. The first commentary track is for episode 2 and it features Scott Freeman, who voices Kengo, and Ian Sinclair, the voice of Takeru. The two discuss the many lewd scenes in Maken-Ki! and even mention the heavy censorship of the Japanese release. They also read off fake ‘love letters’ from the female voice acting cast for the series. Episode 8’s commentary features Monica Rial, the voice of Haruko and Tia Ballard, the voice of Inaho, and these two also continue the fake love letter bit from the previous commentary.

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Finally, closing out the special features of Maken-Ki! are the “Heart-Throb Maken-Ki! Secret Training” bonuses. These are six ‘exercise’ videos which include six of the animated girls from the series as they perform workout routines for the viewer’s pleasure. The reason I say ‘exercise’ is because these videos are mostly meant to put the girls in very lewd poses and often have them wear various outfits briefly shown in the series, providing that last push into boob heaven.

Overall
There is a certain point in time where an anime fan has to know what they are getting themselves into when they pick up a certain series and in the case of Maken-Ki! it just so happens to be a harem anime with fan-service overload. By focusing so heavily on providing fan-service, the anime suffers from poor pacing and poor story progression but it makes up for it with an enjoyable cast of characters that receive some minor character development, hints to potential plot points in the next season, and satisfying animation to accompany the over-the-top fan-service.

7-0-capsules-out-of-10

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Golden Time Episode 7 Impressions

James Mapley
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Golden Time Episode 7 Impressions

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Golden Time
Episode 7 – Masquerade

Golden Time has finally gotten into its stride and all the parts have fallen into place. We have passed the quarter-way mark and now the real race begins. One only has to look at Gurren Lagann to see a great series become a million times better after reaching this stage so I am tingling at the prospect of what Golden Time holds in store for us. Bravely marching on with my spoiler shield held aloft and my keyboard by my side I will not give up until the cold winter has passed and we have our (hopefully) heartwarming conclusion.

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J.C. Staff must be aware that the world is more beautiful through rose-coloured glasses because the second that Kouko and Banri started dating, the animation quality went through the roof. What was once a style that I have called lazy and dated in the past, suddenly metamorphosed into beautiful, almost painting-quality backgrounds, crisp character animation, and more scenes of flourish than the average episode of Ouran Highschool Host Club. I have no clue what is going on with the animation budget allocation at J.C. Staff with this series, but it seems to fluctuate wildly from episode to episode and I can’t understand why. I didn’t notice it at the time, but it was brought to my attention that last episode there were actually moments that were done in CG to save on budget, and yet this episode looked amazing in places and brought the style back into 2013. So far, J.C. have managed to keep Golden Time from falling prey to their occasionally sloppy animation that they have a reputation for and I hope they keep it up.

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As for how Kouko reacted to her new situation, she took to it like a duck to water. Or maybe a more appropriate phrase would be a battleship to water… By now we know that Kouko does nothing by half measures and loving Banri is definitely something that she is giving her all to. I like how even her father knows what she is like after watching her pursue Mitsuo for most of her life. His warning that Banri would be better off without her will no doubt come back to haunt  Banri at some point in the series, but for now I would rather revel in how cute they are together! Kouko and her new, “Ro-me-o-Sa-ma,” could hardly have looked happier together, but Mitsuo was definitely right when he said that Banri is the sort of patient guy that could withstand dating Kouko. She was so clingy! Cute as a  button, but any normal man would break in a matter of seconds. I’d definitely be willing to give it a go though!

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As the episode came to a close, Banri was shown in two very different conversations that did a great job of building on the already masterfully written characters in Golden Time. First we were treated to a lovely foray into awkwardness, sex, and Paris as Kouko rummaged her way into Banri’s porno mag collection. What should have descended into a tense silence was saved by Kouko in her true boisterous fashion though as she described exactly where she wanted her first time, making Banri look like he wanted to sprint off and buy tickets to Paris immediately. Moments like this were what made episode 7 the funniest episode of the series so far! The second of the conversations was one that Banri had been putting off for a long time, but eventually Linda and Nana tricked Banri into coming to his room so that Linda could talk to him alone. He may have been trying to avoid it, but his tears gave away that making up with Linda must have meant a lot to him. Even if he has had his memories wiped,  the impression that Linda left on him and vice-versa must have been deeply ingrained in his heart. Now they are friends again,  but whether love will blossom and cause a conflict with Kouko is something we will have to wait and see.

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Honestly, I don’t have a bad word to say about anything from this episode. It was well written, the happy feel was a welcome break from the doom and gloom of last week, the characterisation was brilliant, and even the animation stepped up its game. All of this culminated into another fantastic episode of this amazing series. Keep up the platinum performance, Golden Time!

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For more awesome reviews of this season’s best and worst anime, head over to our Anime Impressions page.

Check out more Golden Time impressions HERE.

Noucome Episode 6 Impressions

James Mapley
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Ore no Nounai Sentakushi ga, Gakuen Love Comedy wo Zenryoku de Jama Shiteiru
Episode 6 ① Tiger,Tiger,Tiger ② Pig,Pig,Pig

Recently, I’ve discovered that I have 3 natural states when I’m watching anime: Laughing, crying, and staring blankly at the screen until my retinas burn out. Well…  There is a hidden 4th hidden state, but I try to keep that locked away as much as possible. That is, until this week’s episode of Noucome inspired it to erupt forth from my innermost sanctums like some sort of cute-girl-loving chestburster. Of course, I am referring to when a 20 year old man is uncontrollably mashing his face into his pillow, blurting, “AWWWWWWW! OH MY GOD, HOW ARE YOU SO CUTE?!?” What can I say? Yukihira brings out the worst in me. Especially in the latter half of this episode where she was centre stage, stalking her favourite, cute children’s character and going completely against her feigned harsh personality. But I will hold my fanboying for later in the review.

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The first half of the episode was squarely focused on Kanade trying to cross as many of the girls off of his god-given list as possible by getting them to say “I like you.” First of all, we revisited the always adorable Konagi and despite Kanade thinking she was going to be the easiest target, she ended up being a mountain to climb compared to the others. Whether he was getting beaten up or violated by her bodyguards (especially that last guy!) Kanade had one hell of a time, but eventually he managed to get her to say it and suddenly acquired another prime candidate for the inevitable harem. In the next scene though I was disappointed with Noucome for resorting to being quite as lewd as it was because to be honest it didn’t need to be. Certainly, Noucome’s plot isn’t masterfully crafted, but its humour is actually quite intelligent and well received, so why it needed to include a huge, faked breasted girl’s bra bursting off of her body like an eagle taking flight is beyond me. Blu-Ray sales I would imagine are the culprit, especially considering some of the later scenes where Yukihira’s body is covered only by a thin veil of steam which have a tendency to be blown away when rendered on Blu-Ray, but all in all I felt it was unnecessary and devalued the anime.

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While these scenes were entertaining, I couldn’t help, but feel that the story was rushed through at an alarming rate which unfortunately will happen a lot considering this adaptation is only going to be 10 episodes long. This saddens me because as far as trashy romcoms go, this has been a pretty good one so far. Not to mention, Yukihira’s true feelings are still a mystery to Kanade because at the end of this episode he got his memory wiped! It seems like a main theme of this series is Yukihira growing as a person and learning to be strong enough to confess her feelings while not being afraid of Kanade not accepting her as she is. In all honesty, every other girl’s involvement in Noucome just seems to be for comedic purposes and to keep the plot moving. Yukihira is the only one that actually has real feelings for Kanade that pre-date the start of  the series and it has been really sweet seeing her come to terms with herself.

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And now for the fanboying! Dear lord was Yukihira cute in the latter half of the episode… When she was following White Piggy around while trying to not be seen she looked like a little skittish rabbit, running away whenever it came near her. Call me a sucker for a white haired girl with a secret love for cute things, but I think I have found a new girl to add to my ‘Favourite Anime Girls of All Time’ list. If she had known that Kanade was in the suit she would have exploded with embarrassment on the spot and so Kanade made the ultimate sacrifice and had to delete his ‘The Path to Being a Philosopher’ folder so that she wouldn’t find out. These little, clever, self-torturous choices that Absolute Choice forces Kanade into are easily my favourite part of the show. I originally thought they’d be gimmicky, but they are really well done and remind me of the sort of self-torture that made me love Watamote and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei so much. Maybe it’s just my cynical English side shining through, but I always enjoy a bit of dark humour.

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What confuses me is how we are STILL not at the competition introduced in episode 4! I would imagine we must be getting to it soon. However, next episode does look like it will be entirely dedicated to the conquest of the school council president, Saira, so we won’t be seeing any action until that is resolved at the very least. The series seems set to end at the conclusion of the competition between the reject 5 and the 5 most popular kids in school, but will Kanade’s team be victorious? More importantly, will Yukihira be able to confess her feelings by then? I don’t know, but I am excited to find out.

For more reviews of this season’s best and worst anime head over to our Anime Impressions page and check them out!

Hajime No Ippo – Rising Episode 7 Impressions

Frank Inglese
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Hajime No Ippo – Rising Episode 7 Impressions

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Hajime No Ippo – Rising
Episode 7 – Cheese Champion

Episode 7 of Hajime No Ippo – Rising was a mixed bag of fun I’d say. This week we returned from Aoki’s big fight and, despite his inevitable loss, he returns to the gym in good spirits and with two followers who were so inspired by his match that they now want to be exactly like him, it is a very humorous and a typical ending to a Hajime No Ippo fight, we’ve seen this throughout the whole series and I can’t imagine NOT seeing this type of humour within it.

We’re met with two big things in this episode; one which I can see being elaborated on in the future and another that seems like it will be the upcoming main attraction of the series but considering these things revolve around both Ippo and Takamura respectively, they could actually go either way, both characters are staples to the series and both characters make for incredibly epic fights that take the viewer by surprise so I’m very much looking forward to that.

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Amongst a great deal of little things here and there we’re met with an incredibly speedy match where, beforehand, Takamura announces that he is done with the Junior Middle Weight class, to which he is the champion of, and intends to gain weight bit by bit while also becoming the champion of each upper weight class along the way. His thirst for the attention of the masses has become overwhelming and it seems like the only way he’ll be able to get his fill is as if he takes the entire boxing world by storm, not just his own weight class.

I loved this scene because, almost in the same sentence, he states that the next match he’s in he will not take even a single hit and that he will decimate his opponent. Once in the match, while using Aoki’s “look away” technique, he IS hit but comes back hard and strong and wins with a knockout. I may look at this in an odd and overly intricate way but I honestly see this as a metaphor for who Takamura is and how his journey will go; he talks big yet he has the ability to back up what he claims even though he’s an A-Grade “doofus”, like I mentioned just above; I’m extremely excited to see his rise and possible fall from grace.

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Now onto something that may just blow Takamura’s statement out of the water: Makunoichi Ippo’s next Title Defense match. Early on in the episode at a match of one of Ippo’s friends we’re introduced to a tall and dark man who sports an eerie vibe and almost comes across as some sort of killer, his name is Sawamura Ryuuhei and judging by what we see in the opening sequence you could tell straight away that he was going to be a big part of the story.

Some time goes by and, possibly the next day, Ippo is having a meeting with his coach wherein which he states that though Ippo has defended his title four times it seems as though other fighters are still willing to challenge him. It’s quite odd for a fantastic fighter like Ippo to have so many challenges set against him but the coach thinks it’s because Ippo is a “Cheese Champion”, a term he seems to have made up which basically means, like cheese, Ippo has many holes and a great deal of fighters want to exploit that, fighters like Sawamura Ryuuhei.

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Out of the four challenges that Ippo had received he chose to fight Ryuuhei, at this point in time I’m not sure exactly why, even before he knew who he was Ippo was scared of the man. It seems like Ippo has gone against his guts telling him not to fight and has prepared for a hell that no one thinks he is ready for.He heads home to study some of Ryuuhei’s old fights and once he realizes just how brutal this man is he calls the rest of the gym to help him through the situation.

Sawamura Ryuuhei is a destroyer of men who chooses not to KO an opponent, instead he toys with them as they flail about the ring, he humiliates them and it seems as the though only times he’s ever lost any matches was when he had been disqualified for brutality against other fighters. Shimabukuro who once challenged Ippo lost to Ryuuhei, in fact, it was his only loss in his career apart from the one against Ippo. The man has incredible reflexes and an even better sense of intuition.

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The episode ends with Sawamura Ryuuhei being seen starting a fight with three grown men in a back alley, his only reasoning for fighting them is that they just happened to look weird to him. He cuts up his fist by shoving his hand into the mouth of one of the men showing that he’s not only cruel, he’s a man that enjoys blood and carnage and he’ll do whatever he can to be apart of it. He wishes to crush Ippo, his plan is to do what Shimabukuro could not; destroy the Dempsey Roll, humiliate Ippo and take the title from hime, becoming the champion and decimating Makunoichi Ippo are the two most prominent things on his mind right no and it’s going to make for an absolutely fantastic battle between giants.

I enjoy the fact that Ippo, who is a kind-hearted and all around nice guy, up against these fiends who only want death and destruction. The physical, emotional and metaphorical conflict of Ippo’s fights are amazing to see and it just gives the fights more depth than what you would see in another Anime, that’s what keeps me hooked to the show! Check out more Hajime No Ippo – Rising Impressions HERE.

G6 Driving Simulator Accessory Launches IndieGoGo Campaign

Jamie Laike Tsui
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G6 Driving Simulator Accessory Launches IndieGoGo Campaign

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There are some examples of some crazy race car simulation rigs out there, but none of them properly simulate the experience of high G forces on the body during high speed turns. A Slovenian company called Gravitom seeks to fill the niche with their new G6 Driving Simulator. By exerting force on the head, the G6 simulates the G forces from using a high powered racing car.

The G6 currently supports Windows, 8 popular driving sims, and Oculus Rift. Gravitom hopes to raise €100,000 on IndieGoGo to help lower the manufacturing costs of the G6 and bring it into production. The team hopes to deliver the first prototype units to supporters in October, 2014.

Laike’s PC Download Deals 11/17/2013

Jamie Laike Tsui
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Laike’s PC Download Deals 11/17/2013

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The edition’s best deal is Greenman Gaming’s Indie Love Sale. The sale provides three different prices for each indie game with 100% of the profits going to the developer. The sale prices range from 25 – 75% off. If you aren’t sure where to start, I highly recommend picking up To The Moon, The Binding of Isaac, Super Meat Boy, Reus, and Awesomenauts.

 

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This week’s 20% off coupon is GMG20-ODON7-FLUA7. Give it a try, you might just get an extra 20% off the price of your game!

Use the voucher code GMG25-C8FGA-VFPGI to get 25% off the discounted price of the following new releases:

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Aussie Indie ToyBox Labs Releasing Flowmo for the iPad

Zac Elawar
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Aussie Indie ToyBox Labs Releasing Flowmo for the iPad

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Peter Budziszewski – former Harmonix and L.A. Noire developer – has started a two man studio operating out of a small apartment in Newtown, NSW called ToyBox Labs. Their first title, flowmo, will be available for the iPad November 21.

flowmo is described as a “unique, meditative experience” that relishes its artistic aura. Inspired by games such as Proteus and Journey for their strong sense of discovery, atmosphere and emotion, flowmo also incorporates musical elements that bolster the abstract, minimalistic narrative design. flowmo tells the story of the universe through interaction with coloured particles and the resulting atmosphere created by said music. Events on screen are synced to the music, and as the universes becomes more complex, so to does the mechanical possibilities. Experimentation is key as you use the flow of particles to investigate present forces in the ever expanding space.

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Features include:

  • Full multitouch support, up to 11 fingers
  • Quick and responsive interactions
  • Pinch-to-zoom to view the universe at different scales once it has fully expanded
  • Complex world which follows its own laws of physics
  • All interactions emerge from these laws and are not hard-coded
  • Chaotic system with emergent behaviour
  • Try to create behaviours which have never been seen before!
  • Discover the forces governing the universe through interaction and exploration

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The transcendental journey of discovery and exploration that is flowmo will cost $2.99, with a lite version for iPhone currently in development. Check it out come November 21.

Cardfight Vanguard licensed by Hanabee

Luke Halliday
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Cardfight Vanguard licensed by Hanabee

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Hanabee have officially announced the acquisition of Cardfight Vanguard, the popular shonen anime based upon the card-game of the same name from Bushiroad.

Fans of the series will be pleased to know that Hanabee have acquired all 65 episodes of the Cardfight Vanguard anime series and plan to release it with both Japanese and English language dub tracks. The series will be released on DVD format only. The first part will comprise of the first 13 episodes – it will be the first of many parts released that will cover the entire 65 episode series.

At the moment no release date has been locked in by Hanabee for Cardfight Vanguard. Stay tuned for further details on Hanabee’s release of Cardfight Vanguard as it comes to light.

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