Gitaroo Man is a very odd game but is, quite possibly, the best rhythm game of all time. It is so very Japanese it hurts. I’m sure the development team we’re all tripping on acid when they made this game…it certainly feels like you are when you are playing it. The game starts off with you playing as a regular kid named U-1 having troubles with school work, girls and bullies that has just arrived home after a long and arduous day at school. Suddenly your dog, Puma, speaks to you saying that you are the heir to the legendary Gitaroo-Man legacy and that you need to learn how to use the power of Gitaroo to save the universe. You are the only remaining Gitaroo-Man, so you must journey through space battling Gravillions to take back the other Gitaroos they have taken.
Archive for the ‘Anime’ Category
Hayate No Gotoku – I think I might drop it.
Hayate No Gotoku looked like a decent show, but I’m just not getting into it. I think it just feels too slow to me, it’s not a bad show if you’ve got the time to watch it, but I have plenty of other things in my list of stuff to watch. Anyone else have any thoughts on it? I watched the first 10 episodes, but it didn’t feel like it was going to start to actually get going so I’m going to put it on indefinite hold for now.
Grave Of The Fireflies makes me want to curl up in a corner and cry.
Grave Of The Fireflies is a movie written and directed by Isao Takahata, with the help of Studio Ghibli’s animators. But don’t let the Ghibli association fool you; this ain’t no cheery Ghibli flick. This is World War II in Japan–this is hell on earth. This is the bitter tale of the relationship between two orphaned children, Seita and his younger sister Setsuko. The children lose their mother in the firebombing of Kobe, and their father in service to the Imperial Japanese Navy, and as a result they are forced to try to survive amidst widespread famine and the callous indifference of their countrymen. Even their relatives shrug them off, leaving them to fend for themselves.
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi – I laughed until I couldn’t breathe.
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi is one of the most random shows I have ever seen. It follows the Excel Saga concept where each episode takes place in it’s own unique world, but this is a much funnier show, in my opinion. This just goes to show that Gainax knows how to make good comedy. Directed by Hiroyuki Yamaga, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi is the story of Sasshi and Arumi; neighbors and childhood friends who are soon to be separated when Arumi moves with her family to Hokkaido.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is fantastic.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is an artfully crafted piece of recent Anime history. The story is a well-written web of events based on the idea that the main character gains the ability to jump through time, so she tries to use this ability to make the world “better”. Throughout the events she changes she learns that when something is better for one person it’s usually worse for another. Time is not something to be messed with, even if on very minor levels.
Golden Age Collectables – Otaku Paradise
In the heart of downtown Vancouver, right on Granville St. you can find the Nerd Nirvana known as Golden Age Collectables. These guys carry more manga, anime, graphics novels and figures than you’d ever care to know existed. When I was in Vancouver on business recently I picked up a copy of NextWave here and blogged about how awesome it is. This place is jam-packed full of awesomeness of such magnitude as NextWave. They also had probably everything Neil Gaiman has ever written, including more obscure stuff like the edition of Sandman with art from Yoshitaka Amano. For those that don’t know; Mr. Amano was the concept artist for all the Final Fantasy games up until X. His brilliant artistry and unique style is well known in Otakudom.
Haruhi Suzumiya – A fickle God.
For those that haven’t yet seen it, The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya is a really great show about a girl named Haruhi who seems to unknowingly have the power of God. She can do absolutely anything, however; her normal human common sense keeps her from actually doing things that, to a normal human, would be impossible. This is the only thing stopping the world from plunging into utter chaos. You see Haruhi is the type of person that is easily bored by everyday things. On her first day at her new school she introduces herself saying that she doesn’t want to talk to anyone that isn’t an alien, time traveller or esper. Because of her desire to see these strange things she has actually created these things in the guise of regular humans and forms them into a school club she refers to as the SOS Brigade. She, however; has no knowledge of what they are and they try hard to keep it that way, but the problem is that if Haruhi becomes bored the world will be consumed by darkness and Haruhi will create an entirely new world, destroying everything that remained of the current world. This is obviously a really bad thing, so they try as hard as they can to keep her entertained without actually revealing the existence of such things as aliens, time travellers and espers. If she were to encounter such things the universe would be rewritten because of her changed understanding of the world.
Eternal Sonata – The best RPG in a decade.
Eternal Sonata is epic beyond the magnitude any role playing game has achieved in likely a decade. From the artistry of the graphics and sound to the intricacy of the character and plot development, Eternal Sonata succeeds in far surpassing everything else. When I first played the demo on Xbox Live I knew I had to have the game, but even so; I was still, with my jaw on the floor, blown away by how amazing a game it is when I finally got a hold of my own copy. I had intended on writing this review a few days ago, but I just couldn’t pull myself away from it. That’s how good it is; so good I played through it twice before managing to pry myself away from it for long enough to write a review.
