Inu to Hasami Tsukaiyou

Is there one thing that you must absolutely do before dying? It could be meeting your true love or maybe visiting a foreign country. In the case of Kazuhito Harumi, he simply can't die until he reads the last book in a unfinished series by his favorite author, Shinobu Akiyama. However, during a robbery, he shot and killed. Before passing on, his desire to read that one book overcomes death and he is reincarnated...as a dachshund.

After being resurrected, he is taken in by Kirihime Natsuno, the only person in the world who can hear his thoughts. It just so happens that she is also the real scissors-wielding identity of Shinobu Akiyama. That's the basis for the story Inu to Hasami Tsukaiyou. 

The story looks to be pretty good, despite the mixed reviews I have been seeing. I was a little hesitant to view this anime at first, but after watching the first episode, I believe I will continue watching it. 

Welcome to the League of Legends...

Boom!...headshot. That is a quote from one of my favorite characters in a free-to-play online game that I have been a fan of for quite a while. The game - League of Legends - is a great online game in which you control a champion and attack a base to win the game. Sounds simple, right? Well, the enemy has champions of their own ready to kill your champion and attack your base too.

There are well over 100 champions to choose from during a game. Each champion has a unique skill set to master, and with it a set role to play on a team. In my case, my favorite character, Caitlyn the Sheriff of Piltover, is an AD Ranged Carry. In other words, she's a ranged champion that specializes in attack damage. While it says she's a carry (she usually starts off weaker than other characters) I do find her skill set and play style more to my liking than any other champion.

Caitlyn, the Sheriff of Piltover

My other favorite champion, oddly enough, is Caitlyn's partner, Vi. According to the lore (each champion also comes with his/her/its own back story. In this case, Caitlyn and Vi are the dynamic duo of "Good Cop, Bad Cop" for the town of Piltover. Where Caitlyn uses ranged attacks, Vi gets into the thick of things and smashes them with her fists.

Vi, Caitlyn's partner

Anyway, League of Legends is a great free game to try out. However, while it is free to play, in order to continuously play a champion you like, you have to purchase them with either Riot Points (RP - a point system based on the use of real money) or Influence Points (IP - a point system based on how much you play). If you don't want to buy anything, you can still play the game. Each week, the game has a set of ten free champions to use.

This week's (6/17 - 6/23) free champion rotation

If you'd like to try out this game, point your browsers over to www.leagueoflegends.com or just click this link here. See you on the Fields of Justice!

Summer Anime 2013

As the spring season starts coming to a close, I am now looking forward to new anime that will start in the summer. While I am hoping that a few of the current spring anime continue on (Shingeki no Kyojin, Suisei no Gargantia, and Date A Live), I do look forward to seeing what new anime will fuel my addiction.

The first one that comes to mind is Kami Nomizo Shiru Sekai (The World God Only Knows) 3. This is the third season of Keima Katsuragi's exploits as the Capturing God. As a continuation of the last season. Keima will continue to have girls fall in love with him for the purpose of capturing loose souls. However, this time, there will be an extra catch... Season 3 will start to touch upon the goddess arc. Since I have been a big fan of this series, this was one that I definitely looked forward to.

What would you do if you found a magical doll that came to life? For most people this is a scary prospect. Anyway, the anime Rosen Maiden is about a boy who is very much into the occult due to some issues. One day, he is sent a doll. When he winds the doll up, she comes alive. The boy is then thrust deeper into the realm of the occult after becoming her servant. This Rosen Maiden anime is actually a reboot of the previous two series. According to what I read, the original cast has returned to reprise their voice roles for the characters of this anime. I very much look forward to seeing the new updated version of Rosen Maiden.

Issei is not your typical high school student. He is more perverted than most, but that's not what makes him so special. Issei is a demon and a possessor of a sacred gear. This is the premise for Highschool DxD. This season, the anime will continue with its second season. Issei will continue his story with Rias Gremory and the others of the Occult Research Club as they battle the forces of Light and the Fallen Angels. While this anime is primarily about fan service (lots and lots of it), it does have an okay story which I enjoyed in the first season. 

Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Ilya is another byproduct of TYPE-MOON's Fate series. Rather than starring Shirou and Saber, this series will focus on Ilyasviel. While not relating to main story of Fate, this series will be the telling of the young Ilya becoming a magical girl (think something like Sailor Moon) and fighting the forces of evil. Anyway, as a TYPE-MOON fan, I feel the need to check this anime out. 

There are quite a number of other anime set to be released this coming summer, but these are the ones I am definitely planning on checking out. 

Magic the Gathering 2014 Core Set

It's been quite awhile since I posted anything CCG related. Set to be released in July is the 2014 Core Set for Magic the Gathering.

Every year, Wizards of the Coast (the company producing MTG) comes out with one core set and one themed block of three sets from which players can grab cards to compose decks. By "Standard" tournament rules, a deck may only consist of the current and previous blocks, and the current core set. So for right now a Standard deck will consist only of cards from the Innistrad and Return to Ravnica blocks and the 2013 Core set.

Anyway, the core sets usually have new cards as well as some reprinted cards. The 2014 Core set will feature some nice new beauties. A couple in particular I hope to grab are the Archangel of Thune and the Seraph of the Sword. Both cards will make great additions to my angel deck.

After looking at the spoiled cards, it appears that "life gain" will be a rampant mechanic throughout the set. Due to Archangel of Thune's ability, I can see a lot of black-white Orzhov decks seeing a lot of play. Though I do play black-white, I think I'm not going to take the obvious route and try and come up with a better way to use that card. Maybe it might be a great addition to my white-green Selesnya deck.

Anyway, Magic 2014 Core Set is set to be released Friday, July 19. If you're interested in picking up Magic as a way to have fun, please do check your local card shop. Many players and staff of those shops are friendly and willing to help new people jump in on the fun.

Attack on Titan

What if humanity was on the verge of extinction and confined to one large city? What if that city began to fall to the very beings that are causing humanities extinction? Well, that is pretty much the setting for a Spring 2013 anime called Shingeki no Kyojin.

The story revolves around a group of young men and women who join the military to battle a horde of monstrous humanoid beings, the titans. The titans are enormous beings that prey upon humans, and up to the start of the anime, have caused the near extinction of the human race. The last surviving humans have taken shelter in a large city with three rings of high walls to protect them from the titans.

In the very beginning of the anime, a freakish event causes the outermost wall to fall, allowing the titans to invade. This event sets the main characters on their path - the path to exact humanities vengeance upon the titans.

With the series now on episode 8, I am quite interested in this anime. Although it was not one of the anime that I initially put on my list, it has become one of the animes that I look forward to watching each week (the other being Date A Live).

On a side note, the opening theme for this anime (Guren no Yumiya) is very catchy and has spawned a great number of AMV remakes on places like YouTube and NicoNico. If you get the chance, do check some out.

Detective Conan

One of my longtime favorite anime is still continuing its run in Japan, even after 17 years (though the manga has been running for 19 years). As you might have already guessed the series is Detective Conan (Meitantei Conan) also released in America under the title Case Closed.

The story follows a famous high school detective named Shinichi Kudou, who after witnessing a shady transaction by men in black, was poisoned and shrunk into the body of a seven year-old boy. Though his body regressed in age, his mind is still that of his former self. In order to get back to his old body, he is forced to find and somehow destroy the mysterious "Black Organization" which is no easy task. Upon the advice of a trusted friend, Shinichi takes on the persona of Conan Edogawa and goes to live at his childhood friend and sweetheart, Ran Mouri's place since her father is a detective. While there, he must help Ran's father without drawing attention to himself in order to get clues to the whereabouts of the organization.

Conan Edogawa (right) with my favorite character of the series, Ai Haibara

This series is quite an amazing series. Many of the episodes can stand alone since the anime is more like a bunch of smaller mysteries strung along on the main plot, though in some aspects, the main story takes quite a while to develop. Despite that, it is quite possible to learn something new in each episode. The creator is really imaginative and does research to make sure that any interesting facts are actually true or plausible.
 

Date A Live

What would you do if you met a pretty girl and were forced to date her? What if she's a little strange...and has the power to potentially destroy the world. Well, that's kind of the situation in one of the new Spring 2013 titles, Date A Live.

In the story's setting, phenomena called spacequakes often occur and cause widespread destruction. These spacequakes are caused by spirits. One such spacequake killed about 150 million people. Since the initial one 30 years ago, smaller spacequakes have been irregularly happening around the world.

The series revolves around Shidou Itsuka, a high school boy. During one of the aforementioned spacequakes, he comes across one of the spirits. After that meeting, he is told by his sister that it is his mission to make spirits like her fall in love with him. With that, he makes contact with that girl (who he later calls Tohka) to begin his hectic life of dating these "spirit girls."

Anyway, this series looks to be a fun and interesting one. I have already watched episode 2 and can say that I do find Tohka quite likable. She reminds me of Houki Shinonono (a character I like from the anime/light novel series Infinite Stratos). Subbed episodes of Date A Live can be watched on Hulu.