Japanese Anime Producers: “Originality is overrated.”

That is all.

Video Game Review: Tales of Graces f

A little over a year ago Namco announced they would be releasing Tales of Graces f in North America, after almost three years of completely ignoring the series. As a fan of the series, it was a pretty great day for me. Now that it’s out, I figure I might as well review it.

The Tales franchise has never really had amazing or original stories, tending to stick to the same tropes and cliches, and Tales of Graces f is no exception. This game follows Asbel Lhant, heir to lord of the independent territory of Lhant, as he and an amnesiac girl he found in a meadow go on a quest that tests the bonds of friendship and all that good stuff and save the world when it inevitably ends up in peril. I won’t spoil the identity of the villain, but I will say he has the familiar motivation of, “People are bad and all of humanity should die for it,” and he’s defeated by the powers of love and friendship and kindness and whatnot. You may remember this same type of villain from Tales of Symphonia, Tales of the Abyss, Tales of Vesperia, and more things that I could possibly name.

Accompanying the lacklustre story is a boatload of groan-worthy dialogue about friendship and etc. You can only listen to people talk about how important friendship is so many times, which Tales of Graces f surpasses by the halfway point. This is made worse by the poor characterization that surrounds these friendships. The game tries to build the friendship between Asbel and Richard by setting the early part of the game during their childhood. But it doesn’t build this friendship very well. The two hang out as kids twice, and while Asbel does save Richard’s life, it’s hard to believe they’d still be such close friends when they don’t see each other for seven years.

What Graces lacks in story and writing it makes up for in gameplay. The game uses the standard Linear Motion Battle System of the franchise, where characters move around a battlefield on a striaght line to attack enemies. But like all the previous games, Graces puts its own spin on the system and uses the Style Shift LMBS, giving every character two different styles of fighting. Sort of. It says you can switch styles, but it really just means characters have two different kinds of attacks, Assault-Artes and Burst-Artes. Assault-Artes replace ordinary attacks from previous games, and Burst-Artes are just like Artes from any previous game. For most of the characters Burst-Artes are just spells, making them no different than any spell caster from previous games.

Review: Nana to kaoru

Due to some very unfortunate circumstances for me, I will be delaying my reviews of Aselia The Eternal, Demonbane, and Sonicomi by an unspecified amount of time, as I just had to re-install the OS on my computer, and I have lost the save files, along with a lot of other things. The hard drive is now making a grinding and scraping sound, so This computer is not long for this world. As such, I will be covering manga and anime until I can get something done about this.

Right, that is out of the way, time to review as best I can Nana to Kaoru. First, this will be really hard to review. I originally intended to try to find someone experienced with this who i could e-mail for information about the situations and character relationships in this manga, but that Id ea got tossed out as rather impractical. As such, all my knowledge will come from wikipedia.

OtakuAnthony answers those 50 questions that everyone’s answering

Questions about Anime

1. Who is your favorite male anime character?

Do not have one.

2. Who is your favorite female anime character?

Too many to list, but here are some of them. Miu, Sora, and Hina from Listen to Me Girls, I am your Father. I also enjoy Asa from Shuffle! and Yutaka from Lucky Star!

3. What is your favorite anime soundtrack?

Never really thought about that.

4. What is your favorite anime opening + animation?

The opening Love X Heaven from Ladies Vs. Butlers.

5. What is your favorite anime ending + animation?

I don’t pay enough attention to endings to have a favorite.

6. What is your favorite anime scene?

Do not really have a favorite

7. If you could meet an anime character who would it be?

Probably any male lead from any harem show. I would have to ask them how they can get so many girls if they are nothing special.

8. What anime character is most similar to you in terms of personality?

Never really though about that.

9. What is your favorite thing about anime?

The stories, the fanservice (I cannot complain I am a dude who loves his fanservice)

10. What is your least favorite thing about anime?

Does not liking the fandom count?

11. Who is your favorite anime couple?

No answer, though Tomoya and Ryou from Clannad should have hooked up and they would have been my favorite. I also think if Keitaro and Shinobu from Love Hina were a couple they would be a favorite of mine.

12. Who is your favorite anime animal?

Johnathon from Kaleido Star

13. What anime would make a good game?

Legend of the Galactic Heroes would make a great turn based strategy game.

14. What game would make a good anime?

Saints Row

15. What was the first anime you ever watched?

Sailor Moon

16. Do you think you’ll ever stop watching anime?

Probably, if I either get married or my life ends.

17. What is your favorite genre of anime?

Harem

18. What is your least favorite genre of anime?

Shounen-ai.

19. Are you open about watching anime with people you know?

Some people do I know watch this.

20. Have you ever been to Japan?

Yes I have

21. What anime was the biggest let down for you?

Infinite Stratos, it was not that good of a series.

22. What anime was better than you expected?

Dragonaut: The Resonance yes I do like this show and I do not think it is as bad as everyone says it is.

23. What is the best anime fight scene?

Do not know.

24. Who is your anime waifu?

I may be an otaku, but not that kind of otaku,

25. What was your favorite video game as a child?

Ice Hockey on the NES

Questions About Me

26. Most embarrassing moment?

I don’t know.

27. a) Can you drive?

Yes.

27. b) Do you own a car?

Yes

28. Are you mature?

Mostly.

29. What year were you born?

1985

30. Do you prefer cats or dogs?

Dogs

31. Describe yourself physically.

I’m just a whiter than wonder bread male

32. What would you name your first child?

Not having kids..

33. What is the worst injury you’ve ever had?

Ankle sprain

34. What is your worst habit?

I lie often

35. Do you drink or smoke?

Drink do not smoke.

36. Do you have a tattoo?

My scars are my tattoo’s

37. Are you a morning or a night person?

Morning, I do better than.

38. Have you ever slept past midday?

Never.

39. Do you regret anything?

I regret nothing.

40. Can you count the number of friends you have on one hand?

Most likely.

41. Do you wear glasses?

Yes.

42. Are you a picky eater?

Semi, I am trying to avoid certain ingredients in food like HFCS so in a way I am picky.

43. Would you die for someone?

Yes for family.

44. If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

Fly, I would never have to drive again.

45. Do you believe in the supernatural?

No.

46. Would you rather be rich or famous?

Rich.

47. Have you ever committed a crime?

No comment

48. Time traveler or ghost?

Time traveler.

49. Does someone have a crush on you?

Probably, since the only females that have crushes on me are the age of 15 so I am sure there is somebody in that age range that has the hots for me.

50. Are you in a relationship?

If I was I doubt I would be writing about anime.

 

Anime that needs a sequel: the fans vote

Now I did not forget about this, but I have been busy since last week so I do have some time now to take care of this.  Anyways the fans here decided on what shows deserve a sequel and why.  Here are the answers below.  There are no names listed below because I did not ask for them.

Angel Beats

The manga covered a lot before the “Otanashi” arc. A “prequel” is in order.

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Genshiken

Need to finish the last three volume of Genshiken and introduce the second generation ones

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A Certain Magical Index

Well for one thing the last episode of the last season was almost a cliffhanger and a lot more material can be made but it all depends on how much more of the novel material the anime writers can use. Not sure if there is enough for a brand new full season, maybe an OVA or movie.

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berserk

because it’s biggest cliffhanger in history!

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Legends of the legendary

Cause they need to finish it don’t care if it didn’t get enough DVD sales in Japan

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Air Gear

The show was great and well written but there was more story that was left untold.

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Baccano!

There’s still so much to the story and so much more that needs to be told.

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Ouran High School Host Club

still many manga chapters are left to animate

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I’m split between 3 differnt shows. Rideback, Berserk, and Princess Jellyfish.

All because of the same reason. They are all based on existing manga properties that went longer than what was aired on tv. The story isn’t complete.

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Ranma

unfinished

These are some great answers.  The only shows that I have watched to completion on this list is Ouran High School Host Club and Angel Beats which I agree need more made for them.  Thank you for your answers.  I hope you enjoyed this four series on Anime titles that need a sequel.