Got to love the Tsun-tsuns...

One of my favorite character types is the tsundere. What exactly is a tsundere? Well...

"I'll describe this topic... since it figures that you wouldn't know what a Tsundere is. Look, if you really must know, I suppose that I'll tell you. Just... consider yourself lucky that I just happen to have an article handy, o-okay! ^blush
 
Baka.

 ...ahem..." (from Tsundere - Television Tropes and Idioms)

Right...so if you didn't quite get it, tsunderes are characters that run "hot and cold." These characters possess the traits of tsuntsun (aloof or irritable) and deredere (lovestruck). Often times, they go back and forth between these two personalities, usually when a special person is involved.

Ryouko Ookami usually portrays a grumpy pessimism

In any case, my favorite type of character is the Type A Tsundere (the Tsun-tsun). These characters initially start of with a harsh facade to the world. They look strong, independent, and usually have a sort of grumpy pessimism. When in contact with their special person, their mode usually switches to a softer, weaker persona. It is this disparity in their outward self and inward self that I really love.

Natsuno Kirihime, a huge Tsuntsun

Some examples of a Type A Tsundere are Ryouko Ookami from Ookami-san, Motoko Aoyama from Love Hina, Rin Tohsaka from Fate/Stay Night, Asuna from Sword Art Online, and most recently, Natsuno Kirihime from Inu to Hasami wa Tsukaiyou!.

Final Fantasy

Probably one of the most popular RPG franchises is SquareEnix's Final Fantasy. It was originally started in the late 80's, and over the years it has grown to become a huge franchise with over 20 titles. It has also spawned a couple of movies and even one anime series.

Most installments of each game consist of their own cast of characters, game mechanics, and story. This makes the games stand alone (you won't need to play Final Fantasy IV in order to play Final Fantasy V).

Anyway, I have played most of the games for the series (though recently I have not completed any of the newer titles due to various reasons). There are many things that I love about Final Fantasy, foremost being the intricate stories that each title brings. Another main factor that I love about the franchise is the fact that their characters are well-developed and add to the stories' greatness.

My favorite title of the series would have to be Final Fantasy VII. I know that there are a lot of people who would disagree (mainly for the fact that a lot of people do assert that FFVII was the best). In my opinion, I just love it so much because I thought the story was very engaging. I also love the characters very much. As a side note, FFVII is also the only game that almost made me want to "rage-quit" the game. The materia system also happened to be one of my favorite game systems because it allowed for vast customization on all your characters.

If you love great stories and RPGs, please do check out Final Fantasy. Most of the titles can be found on the Sony systems (Playstation).

The Greatest Teacher in all Japan

Just recently I got around to watching one of my favorite animes. This anime is about an ex-biker gang leader who became a teacher. Some of you may know that the anime I am talking about is GTO or Great Teacher Onizuka.

As I mentioned above the anime is about Eikichi Onizuka, a ex-biker gang leader. For someone who was once a delinquent, school was probably the last place he'd end up. Despite very little social grace and stunningly low intelligence, he manages to work his way through college and try out teaching (just so he could have a chance at high school girls).

Anyway, the series follows his adventures in becoming the greatest teacher in all Japan. What he lacks as a traditional teacher, he makes up for as a friend. Though he is not very capable at teaching book smarts, his life lessons work miracles in the lives of the children he teaches.

In all this was a great series. While the anime did not nearly cover as much as the manga, it does follow the manga faithfully. Despite some of the outrageous, nonsensical antics of Onizuka at times, you do get a sense of value in listening to his lessons.

If you have the budget (or some way to watch this series), I do think this is one that is very enjoyable. Give it a chance, and maybe you'll wish you had a teacher like this "Greatest Teacher in all Japan!"

Highschool DxD NEW

One of the new Summer 2013 anime that I have been watching is Highschool DxD New. This anime is the second season of the Highschool DxD anime and serves as a continuation of that story.

The story of the second season once again follows the perverted reincarnated devil, Issei Hyoudo, in his quest to become a harem king. He is the servant of Rias Gremory, a devil and the club president of the Occult Research Club at his school. At the beginning of the anime, the Gremory clan is face with the existence of holy swords (to be specific the replicated swords of Excalibur).

This series features a lot of fan service (similar to season one). While the story is not bad, it does at times suffer due to the blatant amount of fan service stuffed into the anime. This is especially the case when Issei becomes so focused on using his special ability, Dress Break. Getting around such bland fan service can be a bit trying.

On a somewhat related note, I have been also watching an anime called Free! (about a high school boys' swim club). Whenever I watch that series, I feel my pride as a man drop, but Highschool DxD returns it to normal with all the fan service.

After watching season one, I am curious to learn how season two fares. Though this is the case, I do enjoy the story. With that being the case, I will definitely follow this series this summer.

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.

End of Winter Anime...

With the Spring Anime Season starting up next week, the Winter one comes to a close, which includes the endings of some anime that I have been following this season. Some have ended pretty good, while others leave me hanging and hoping for more.

Zetsuen no Tempest

Zetsuen no Tempest finally ended. It was one that I have been following for a couple seasons. The story managed to wrap up all the loose ends and gave me a good feeling at the end. While I am still sad about the fate of my favorite character in the series (Aika), I am certainly glad that the series ended on the note it did. No loose ends, no cliffhangers. It gave the feeling that the story was in effect done and there was nothing more I missed.

Girls und Panzer

Girls und Panzer, while not an anime I was following this season (only episodes 11 and 12 came out this past season), finally ended as well. Like Zetsuen no Tempest, this anime ended nicely. Though there is room for more stories to tell about the girls of Ooarai Girls' Academy, I am well satisfied if this is the end on the show.

Boku ha Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT

Boku ha Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT ended with its 12th episode. Unlike the previous two animes, this show ended on a cliffhanging note. I am a bit peeved they chose to end the series like they did because I really want the series to continue, especially because the ending ended up having my favorite character leave. There are light novels I can read to fill me in, but I really would like to see it visually in an anime as well. I can only hope that they will animate the next bit of story soon.

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha also ended its run with its 12th episode as well. I have got to say that despite the seemingly boring concepts buried within the plot (economics and politics), I did manage to enjoy the anime. Sadly, though the story was not finished, they ended their season and are leaving it open for more development later on. Hopefully, the same with Haganai NEXT, Maoyuu Maou Yuusha will have the next part of the story animated soon.

Love Live! School Idol Project

Though I have not watched the next episode yet, Love Live! seems to be ending too. This is one show that I didn't expect to like as much as I do right now. Right now, the current story has almost moved me to tears. I can only hope that things will turn around for a happy ending if the anime does end with the next episode. Still, it will be a little sad to know that this anime has ended. The girls of Muse entertained me well and I got to say that I really would hate to see them go.

In any case, I have to say that despite being thoroughly being disappointed with Naruto and One Piece, I have really enjoyed this past anime season. I was a bit worried that I wouldn't find anything to love, but I was proven wrong. If you'd like to check out these anime, Zetsuen no Tempest, Girls und Panzer, Maoyuu Yuusha, and Love Live! are on Crunchyroll.

Gundam SEED

Over this past weekend, I spent some time watching Gundam SEED Destiny. This series came out quite a few years ago. In this upcoming season, a remastered version of the series will also be released.

Anyway, Gundam SEED Destiny is a sequel series to Gundam SEED. These two series take place in the far future when man has already colonized space. In addition, genetic manipulation has become somewhat commonplace, giving rise to the Coordinators - humans that have had their genes manipulated at conception. However, because of this, a war broke out between the Coordinators and Naturals (normal humans).

In the first series, events start to spiral out of control as the war intensifies between the two sides. Even neutral nations are dragged into the conflict. One boy, Kira Yamato, a neutral pacifist, is put into an impossible situation where he must fight as the pilot of a giant mechanical mobile suit called Gundam in order to protect his friends. The second series starts up after the war has died down. Once again lines are drawn and the war begins to engulf the world. Once again, Kira Yamato must find an end to the conflict as a Gundam pilot.

Out of all the Gundam series (and there have been very many), I found this series to be my absolute favorite. There is quite a bit of action and drama as Kira struggles to find his path and what he must do to protect the people closest to him. Though some of the plot is overused from the older Gundam series, I do think that it matched well with story.

Along those lines, if you like military-type shows or just love giant robots, any of the Gundam series are great anime. Please feel free take a chance with some of them (like Gundam SEED or another one I like Gundam 00). You might be surprised and find yourself liking them too.

Spring 2013 Anime

As the winter season begins to close, I look forward to what anime will be released for the coming season. So far in the Winter Season, I enjoyed Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai Next, Maoyuu Yuusha, Love Live!, and the continuation of Zetsuen no Tempest.

Since Naruto has been a big disappointment this past season (and Sword Art Online finished for now), I have found myself wondering what I can rely on to fuel my anime addiction in the coming months. Four animes have caught my eye: To Aru Kagaku no Railgun S, Date A Live, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kaku Outbreak, and Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Bride.

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun (A Certain Scientific Railgun) is the continuation of the spinoff series of To Aru Majutsu no Index. This series follows one of the heroines of the Index series, Misaka Mikoto, a Level 5 esper. Misaka Mikoto has the power to use electricity and is one of only seven Level 5 espers in the city. This season, the anime will follow her ordeals after she discovers her "sisters" in the Radio Noise project. Because I loved the original series and the first season of this series, more than likely I will find myself watching this one.

What would you do if you met the spirit that devastated most of the world? Would you think of dating her? Well, that's what will happen in the series Date A Live. I have only heard a little about it from a few people and reading the synopsis, but as a fan of some interesting love comedies, I think I will definitely take a look at this one. Also, it just so happens to be a light novel...which I might end up reading too depending on how much I like the series.

There have been a few Higurashi series. Honestly, I only watched them on occasion. However, since I have a few friends who love the series, I think this time I'll make a serious effort to watch. Anyway, this series will cover a particular event involving a mysterious virus and a certain village. The village was sealed off, leaving the Higurashi characters Keiichi and Rena to deal with the incident.

Lastly, Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Bride is the second season for the earlier Hyakka Ryouran series. While I didn't care too much for the first season (I hated the ending), I am hoping that the second season will fix all my misgivings about the series. Hyakka Ryouran takes place in a somewhat alternate time period where the Tokugawa Shogunate still rules Japan. Master samurai are warriors with incredible abilities that live to serve the "shogun." Most of the master samurai are all women...which usually develop a romantic relationship with their shogun master. Anyhow, the series will follow Muneakira Yagyuu and his companions.