Durarara!!- First Impressions

I've been watching a new anime series as of late. Durarara!!, based on a series of light novels by Ryohgo Narita, the same writer as Baccano!. I'm guessing his next series will be called Manamana!!!. Nah, I kid. 

Anyway, Baccano! was sort of the Pulp Fiction of anime. It revolved around a diverse group of characters, gangsters, thieves, alchemists and others, who were all searching for something, or who just get caught up in the craziness around them. The name was appropriate considering that it's Italian for "ruckus" or "noise." I'm not sure what Durarara!! is so far. It seems to sort of be about urban legends. One narrative device that is used is internet chat rooms that are used to spread rumors. Though, there is some truth to the strange things happening in Ikebukuro.

One thing that I can say that Narita excels at it creating a large cast of well developed characters. This is shown greatly in Durarara!!. From the headless motorcycle phantom, the psychotic super strong bartender to the giant black russian sushi shop owner, all of the characters are diverse and interesting. I still have about another 20 episodes to watch before I give my final conclusion on this series, but I'll let you know.

Oh, one other thing it has in common with Baccano!, they both have awesome theme songs.

Catherine- First Thoughts

I rented a game called Catherine today. It was developed by Atlus. I think they're the same studio that made the Persona games. I never played any of those or the Shin Megami Tensei series, but I figured I would give it a try.

It's a puzzle game about a guy named Vincent. He's in a non-committed relationship with his girlfriend, Catherine. He begins thinking about marriage. But he finds himself in a strange world whenever he goes to sleep. He is guided by the voice of the Count of Monte Cristo to find his way out of a collapsing tower. 

The gameplay revolves around pushing and pulling blocks to form stairs and pathways to continue on up to the top of the tower. I've only played two puzzle sections so far, but they're interesting and kind of thrilling. An "undo" mechanic might somewhat damage the necessary skill, but, in itself, this is probably a necessary addition since it is possible to make stages unwinable if you make too many mistakes.

I don't know much about the story so far(I'm trying to avoid reading up on it), but I think it involves Vincent meeting another woman named Katherine and falling for her. Thus, he, and the player, are torn between the two Catherine's...Catheri?

This might end up being this years Deadly Premonition. Something really weird but also fun. I'm not a big puzzle game player, but I'll play anything with a good story. I'll post more later on. 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2: Review

Well, okay...yeah. The series is over in more ways than one now. The books are over and, in case you didn't read them, then maybe you were surprised at some of the events in this movie. And if you haven't seen any of the movies or read any of the books, then I'd like to know how you were surviving living at the center of the earth.

I find the hype for this movie a little silly, because everyone who is excited has read the books and everyone who has read the books knows what happens. Okay, I got that out of the way. Now for what I thought.

This movie was good. Not great. Good. It was a good movie with good action and okay acting. (Emote Radcliffe! Emote, God damn you!)

I wish that the magic made more sense. I don't really understand how dueling works. Voldemort is a lame villain. These all drag down the movie, but still, my biggest compliment I can give the Harry Potter series, is that it is well plotted. I was surprised when reading Deathly Hallows so many years ago, that two of the Hallows had been in plain sight since the beginning of the series. And that the Horcruxes made their debut in the second book. I like stuff like that. I applaud stuff like that. It's hard. Especially when it's in a series of books written over a span of ten years. Keeping that all straight CAN'T be easy...I know...I tried. If only the villain were more threatening, and the exact mechanics of dueling were explained a little more. (How does the Elder Wand make the killing curse stronger? Does it kill them harder?)

This is just nitpicking, but they're big nits. I still enjoyed myself. And in the scene when Harry summoned his mother, father, Lupin and Sirius, I got a little choked up. When Harry reached out to touch his mother's hand and simply passes through, I understood how the Resurrection Stone could drive one insane. That's good filmmaking. Which is what this movie is. Good. Not great. Good is okay, though.

























Alan Rickman is the British Christopher Walken...think about it.

Shonen Jump Manga Chapters: Week of June 27

One Piece Chapter 630: Lashing Out
As I said before, One Piece, is kind of boring me lately. And this one did nothing to stop that. This chapter gave me NOTHING. It would take like, a year of worthless chapters before I would give up on One Piece, but if next week doesn't have a cool action scene in it...I will be very peeved.

Okay, what can I remember off the top of my head? None of the Straw Hats were in this chapter. It revolved entirely around the New Fishman Pirates commanders. Dosun was defeated and captured by Fukaboshi some number of chapters ago, and he escaped in this one. I just don't care about the commanders. I just want to see Hodi get his ass kicked.

Some side effect of the Energy Steroid is harming Hodi. I know Oda can do better. Hopefully this will go somewhere.

Toriko Gourmet 147: The Chicken Tiger's Egg
I take back all the criticism I've ever given Toriko for its silly premise. This is one of the best chapters of any manga I have ever read. It has a lovely twist to it that you don't see often in shonen manga, outside of One Piece.

The basic premise of this chapter is that Toriko and Komatsu venture out to purchase 3 square meters of a special bit of land, which is the only place the Chicken Tiger likes to lay its egg. And that's all I'm gonna say.

Everyone should check this one out, seriously...do it.

Naruto Chapter 545: An Immortal Army!!
I actually don't remember anything about this chapter. We learned that Madara is effectively unkillable, I think it has something to do with the First Hokage's cells which he obtained from Yamato. It also effects the white Zetsu clones making up most of his force.

Nothing in this chapter really stood out to me, but I obviously didn't dislike it. It just didn't make an impression on me.

Shadows of the Damned Review

I gotta admit, I was not interested in this game when I first saw it at my local Hastings. To me, it just looked like another supernatural FPS like Clive Barker's Jericho or Darkwatch. I should pay more attention to the names on the game boxes. If I had, I would've noticed that this game was developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and produced by Suda 51, the ones responsible for a few of my favorite under-appreciated games.

Also, Shinji Mikami worked on it who also worked on Viewtiful Joe and, as Wikipedia put it, "created" Resident Evil 4(one of the best, most influential games EVAR) and Vanquish.
This game has quite a pedigree.

The game seems a lot like Devil May Cry at its basest level. You play as a demon hunter named Garcia Hotspur(rattlesnake sound), who has to rescue his girlfriend Paula from the demon lord Fleming.

As I said before, I assumed that this would be an FPS. Actually, it's a third person shooter akin to RE4, but it's a bit more like Gears of War(minus the cover system).

The demon world is one of my favorite things about the game. It's just such a wacky and interesting place where everything kind of works in opposite ways. Garcia asks Johnson why, if demons love darkness so much, they don't shroud all of the demon world in it. Apparently, too much darkness is harmful to demons just as too much sunlight is harmful to humans. Liquor heals you, or, as a support character says, "unkills" you. This leads to some hilarious in-game animations where Garcia grabs Sake bottles by the pack and stuffs them into his coat. Then there's the magical goat heads that protect you from darkness. Didn't you know goats are a source of light?

I don't know if a sense of humor improves the gameplay, but it does make the game a lot more enjoyable. In game dialog between Garcia and Johnson is pretty good, with Johnson being one of the funnier characters I've seen in a game.

The main villain, Fleming, is another aspect of design that I quite like. I wonder if I'm the only one who's tired of the usual dark lord type who wears a cloak and has a flaming helmet with flaming horns with kittens impaled on them.

I like Fleming's toned down design. It's a lot less cliche to me. Not that he's not creepy. Jesus, look at him. He's like a reverse Asura from the neck up. Yay! Hindu reference! Also, inside his coat seems to be an infinite void. Who knows what might come flying out of it later on?

I played the game on normal difficulty(Demon Hunter level, the highest being Legion Hunter and the lowest being Lemon Hunter), and I found it pretty easy, but not effortless. It's kind of like how in Bayonetta, the game is fun when you fight a lot of weak enemies, but not as fun when you fight a few big guys. This game eschews that and you mostly fight numerous weak enemies. I found this more enjoyable. Especially when you pull off a headshot on your first try and you get a little zoom in cutscene of the enemy's head exploding.

As for the downside, the game is a little short. I beat it in less than a day. (Or maybe that's just because I played it so much). Also, I hope you like that paper cutout art style on the loading screen, because you're forced to sit through it in three interminable sidescroller levels. You even fight a boss in it...it's not the best.

I very much enjoyed this game, though. It's a great little bit of inspired wackiness that you don't see enough of these days. Garcia is an awesome hero(not as interesting as Travis Touchdown, but still fun), and I think Johnson should go down as one of the all time great video game sidekicks. Nothing revolutionary, but it's great fun. Go to hell in Shadows of the Damned.

Shonen Jump Chapters: Week of June 20

One Piece, Chapter 629: An Ex-Warlord Stands in the Way.
It's well known that One Piece is my favorite manga series and well...my favorite serialized story EVAR. Anyway, that's not to say that I don't have any problems with the series. They're very minor and mainly just come down to pacing. It's nowhere near as badly paced as Bleach, but the recent story arc has gotten a little slow and complicated at the same time. Luffy, Franky, Sanji, Nami and Chopper met Jinbei and we get a few chapters worth of flashbacks(par for the course), it comes back to the present and I honestly forgot that Zoro, Usopp and Brook had been captured by Hodi Jones and Van Der Dekken hasn't even been seen or mentioned for like, twenty chapters!

Anyway, I was hoping that this one would start off with a bang, and it does. As the previous chapter set up, Luffy and Jinbei do have a brief scuffle; though it's not as satisfying as I'd hoped. The battle ends fairly quickly, which, I guess, is kinda smart on the characters' part. Those two guys could've destroyed the entire island had they continued.

The coolest thing though, is Brook's new astral projection power. He can remove his soul and fly around as a ghost. Pretty cool actually.

Overall, I thought this chapter was rather short(it just goes quick) and there was very little plot development. If there's anything I know about One Piece, though, it's that it will all come together eventually.

Hey...what's Caribou doing?

Bleach, Chapter: glahkhtq8378
I didn't read it.

Naruto, Chapter 544: Two Suns!
This chapter was pretty good, as Naruto been lately. Naruto finally persuades the Raikage to let him fight in the war.

Madara has created a new Six Paths of Pain by using six previous Jinchuriki and has endowed them with the power of the Rinnegan and the Sharingan. Interesting development.

Is Bee's rapping bugging anyone else? I mean, it's a cool quirk, but...it doesn't work for dramatic situations for a character to rap EVERYTHING.

Toriko, Gourmet 146: Surprise Apple.
I've said before that I don't like Toriko when Toriko and Komatsu just kind of dick around and eat for a few chapters. That said, this one is sort of like that, however, it's a lot of fun.

Our heroes make their way to Surprise Island where the Surprise Apple grows(it previously grew on Battle Island). See, the Surprise Apple gets tastier the more you surprise it. So people constantly shoot guns and fire missiles to make them surprised.

This chapter doesn't have any plot development(that I noticed) but it is very funny and Zongeh shows up again and I always get a chuckle out of him. The importance of the Surprise Apple will probably come to light as the arc progresses. Or maybe it's just a side story like the BB Corn arc...though Grinpatch did show up at the end of that...I'm rambling.

The Five Killers

Adding another thing to the pile of, "Could have been awesome" is The Five Killers.



This series began production sometime in the 2000's, with Studio Gonzo(Afro Samurai, Samurai 7) in charge of the animation. But nothing has been released about it since '07. The website is still up, for some reason. Take a look.

I can't find the Wikipedia page anymore, though. It seems to have been deactivated, along with producer Eric Calderon's page. Huh.

Anyway, the best of what I could glean from this series, I got from the website, which I will quote here:
"The story begins on a rainy afternoon in Boston, when four of the estranged killers gather for an unexpected funeral. Knife is dead, and no one knows who murdered him. Since they've all been out of the game for a long while, Knife's death comes as a shocking surprise--but one they all know to be possible given their line of work.

The funeral doesn't go smoothly. Immediately, uncomfortable glances, sudden arguments, and old accusations begin to fly as the remaining four confront one another with the bitterness and jealousies that originally drove them apart--

--until a fifth mourner arrives. Dressed in white and announcing himself as "The Droid," he cheerfully takes credit for Knife's assassination--and declares the other four to be his next targets. On the run, forced together in self-defense, the four race around the world trying to find who--or what--is behind this mysterious "Droid" and why they're marked for death.

With an explosive ending, life death, immortality, and love all converge in an emotional and shocking final conclusion."

Though I am suspicious of anything that touts the power of its own ending, I did want to see this get made. It kind of reminded me of Killer 7. In a good way. Plus, I wanted to hear the Droid's cold, echoing, metallic voice gloating about Knife's death. Plus, damn it if I weren't intrigued by the premise: "Three die, two survive, one lives...forever." That's the kind of tagline that sticks with me.

Sadly though, it looks like we'll never get to see The Five Killers.