Anime review: Gokicha!! Cockroach Girls

Title: Gokicha!! Cockroach Girls

Year: 2011 / 2012 (I think it's still ongoing)

What is it about: A cockroach trying to befriend human.

My review: What can Japanese do? They made me feel for a cockroach! Yes, after watching two 8-minute episode of this, I actually felt for a damn cockroach! A cockroach, for goodness' sake!

Anyway, this anime is really unlike any other anime. This anime tells a tale of a kindhearted cockroach who tries to befriend human being, but fails at every attempt. She'll get stepped on sprayed with insecticides and tossed around, but she is still hopeful in coexisting with humans. She is also mindful to other creatures such as crows and other cockroaches. I think this cockroach is more thoughtful and friendlier than many humans!

At the end of episode 2 where this anime currently stopped, our little cockroach girl here tried to persuade another cockroach friend to not steal food from human, and then something terrible happened to her. I cried! If a cockroach in reality is like her, it will definitely make a perfect pet or even a friend. Sadly, they are not.

If you watched this anime, you will think twice before stepping on a cockroach. It's crazy.

My rating (out of 10): 10

Game review: Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: Gears of Destiny

Title: Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: Gears of Destiny (That's one hell of a long title)

Year: 2011

What is it about: It's in Japanese, so I'm not too sure. But I can tell it's about little magical girls traveling between time and space.

Genre: Fighting game with a proper storyline.

My review: It will be a big advantage if you can comprehend Japanese language well because there will be lots of talking and talking and talking in this game, and it will be in Japanese. There are no motion cutscenes in this game, just static pictures and fully voiced dialogue with words. However, this is only to be expected in a fighting game like these.

There are a total of 11 chapters in this game (plus one unlockable chapter which I'm having a hard time unlocking) and they are termed Sequence. In each sequence, there are a series of characters you can choose to battle with and battle against. Each choice will lead you to a slightly different route in the storyline, but nothing too major. Usually it's just the dialogue that will change. Therefore, if you wish to see the various outcome of the storyline, then you will have to repeat the sequence many times with different combinations of characters. At certain times, the storyline also differs depending on whether you successfully beat a particular opponent.

Though this is a fighting game, it's actually a very friendly one. No surprise here considering the fact that this game is filled with loli girls. Characters in this game greets each other and converse in a friendly manner before engaging in combat. There is hardly a character where I would consider a foe. They are all friendly. Only at times, some misunderstanding happens and the characters battle for real but no one character will die from it.

Say, an evil guy (in this case, they are all girls) resurrected a supposedly highly destructive dark powered entity in front of you. What will you do? Here, what you do is introduce yourself and give the dark powerful entity a cute name! Exactly! And guess what, this newly resurrected dark figure is the final boss, and she really is cute! She even looks harmless and you wouldn't guess she's a powerful dark being.

That said, I advise you to not judge a book by its cover. The final boss in this game is one of the toughest I've ever fought. Don't let the cuteness fool you. Without a good strategy and hand-eye coordination, you wouldn't stand a chance against her. I just finished the game after losing like a million times to her, and my fingers still hurt!

Anyway, here's a brief description of the battle system. Your skills differs according your distance from the opponent. At close proximity, the battle will be two-dimensional, but you are allowed to move slightly in or out. Your attacks will be dealt mostly with melee weapons. At a far distance, your skills switches to long-range magical powers, and you will get a complete three-dimensional field where you can float around. There are not much of combo you can do in this game, but still it's an interesting battle system.

In conclusion, this game is quite confusing in terms of storyline, but it's very cute. The battle system is simple but interesting. There are no difficulty settings in this game, but the opponent really poses a challenge to you. I really enjoyed this game. It has lots of eye candy.

My rating (out of 10): 8

Anime review: Black Rock Shooter (Anime)

Title: Black Rock Shooter

Year: 2012 (The anime)

What is it about: Girls fighting and going crazy in the most awesome way.

My review: There's Black Rock Shooter (BRS) game, then there's the anime including an OVA, and they are completely different from each other. In the game, BRS (and White Rock Shooter) is voiced by Maaya Sakamoto. Surprising. In the anime, BRS is voiced by, guess who, Kana Hanazawa! This is even more surprising because Kana Hanazawa isn't the type who voice in these kind of anime. But in this anime, you'll definitely be amazed by what Kana can do.

That is one reason why people actually watch this anime. You get to see Kana Hanazawa doing stuffs she usually doesn't, which turns out to be very badass. BRS is a killing machine, and there are lots of other killing machines too. This anime is where you get to see the most awesome catfights ever! Yes. In this anime, you hardly see any males. You see only girls fight each other with machines designed to kill, yet they don't die. So, these fights go on and on for 8 whole episodes.

Even so, this anime actually centers around two entirely different worlds. One of which is the human world where you see the everyday school girls. The other is where the girls' alter ego fights each other to the death (but then again, they don't die). This anime tries to link both worlds together with a storyline from the human world to explain what's going on with all the fighting in the other world. Sounds complicated? It is. Other than enjoying all the fight scenes in this anime, you will not get a single thing of what's going on. Worst, the explanation begins at around episode 6. Even so, it'll still keep you scratching your head.

In conclusion, this anime is just weird. If you don't enjoy mindless fighting, you will most probably get bored even at the beginning of this anime, unless you are a die-hard Kana Hanazawa fan. Even so, I really did not notice it was Kana who voiced BRS and also Mato whom BRS is her other self.

Rating (out of 10): 4

Anime review: Persona 4 The Animation

Title: Persona 4 The Animation

Year: 2011

What is it about: Venturing in a different dimension, solving crimes.

My review: Persona 4 is one of the best games ever. Persona 4 The Animation, however, is among the crappiest there is. Before spending on this anime which cost a lot more than a usual 25-episode anime does, I suggest you save it and treat yourself a good buffet instead. This anime is completely worthless. If you had already played the game, this anime is just a few excerpts from the game crumpled into 25 episodes. This means, much of the original storyline is either missing or is altered real badly. I didn't bother watching all 25 episodes. It bores me from the 4th onward, an  I immediately skipped to the last episode. Even so, it's just a huge disappointment.

Unlike the game, the characters in this anime hardly does anything but talk and talk and talk. All the fighting are left to the Persona. And a good battle is between opponents of an equal strength. In this anime, it's really like watching the old-day Ultraman. The Persona first loses, then after the characters' inspirational talk, the Persona suddenly gain incredible strength to be able to defeat the opponent in a single blow. This happens every time, and it also applies to the final boss which is supposedly unbeatable. Every time when they are at the verge of losing, weird stuffs happens and they gain sudden power. That is cliche beyond lame.

In conclusion, don't even bother watching this anime. If you are interested in experiencing Persona 4, get the game instead. I learned the hard way, that every anime made based on a video game tends to suck really bad, regardless how good the game actually is. If you are really interested in watching this anime, just watch the first episode. It will satisfy you more than watching the entire series.

Rating (out of 10): 1

Anime review: Fortune Arterial

Title: Fortune Arterial: Akai Yakusoku

Year: 2010

What is it about: A boy newly transferred to a high school ends up befriending a vampire girl who is trying to be human.

My review: I really can't believe this anime started as an adult game (I didn't say that). Anyway, this anime is like any other ordinary anime involving daily lives of Japanese high school students. Everything is actually quite normal, and I'm a fan of animes which talks about real life, rather than magic, demons, and battles after battles after battles. So, it's just the way I like it. Then, this anime becomes not so normal when two characters are introduced as vampires. Because there are vampires among the school students, this ordinary daily-lives anime became a little more interesting, just the way I like it too. I also liked anime which has a little special something to spice things up a little, because an anime which solely talks about ordinary daily life can be quite boring at times.

In this anime, the main focus was at Kouhei who tries to adapt to the new surrounding after having transferred to a new high school on an island. Meanwhile, this anime also focuses on Erika, a vampire who is also adapting herself to the human world and is trying her best to live as a human. Other than that, this anime comprises of short storylines centering a particular character, which in the end the storyline somehow links up. Towards the end, the storyline then focuses solely on Erika's hardship of trying to be human.

Unlike the typical vampire stories, this anime doesn't have much action going on. I'll get to that later. This anime is rather innocent and decent looking. To my surprise, not much of fanservice too. Again, just the way I like it. Well, some character does have huge boobs and ultra-large eyes. But they are still within an acceptable range. So, I'm okay with it. There are also quite a lot of comedy going on in this anime, and they are pretty well generated too.

There are, however, a few problems with this anime. First of all, although I think the storyline of this anime is pretty good, there is nothing very special about it. If this is an anime that involves vampire, I expected the vampire to show off its abilities, perhaps in a battle or two, and creating a bit of an action. This however, didn't happen and Erika's existence as vampire merely shows how she battles her thirst for Kouhei's blood and it doesn't really spice the anime that much. This was, however, a perfect recipe for a romantic anime. So, I thought I will be expecting a good love story out of that. Sadly, not so much, as Kouhei the main character hardly treats anyone any different from the others. Erika merely gets a little more attention, and by the end of the OVA which is the sequel to the final episode, Erika's relationship with Kouhei only begins to develop.

I won't complain much though, as I had really enjoyed watching this anime. This anime is really a decent and friendly one (albeit a little somber), not the violent or over-ecchi type like Rosario Vampire. And also, this anime is very very cute!

My rating (out of 10): 7

Anime review: Kowarekake no Orgel

Title: Kowarekake no Orgel

Year: 2009

What is it about: A humanoid robot who rebooted herself after being trashed.

My review: This 1-episode anime (or OVA if you would) is quite similar to Chobits in terms of storyline. It's about a trashed robot who was picked up by a random guy, and was then rebooted (In this case, she rebooted herself). Then she was taught about the world around her.

However, don't expect this anime to be as ecchi as Chobits. Instead, this anime is really a potential tearjerker. However, the problem is that the main character is rather emotionless in expression. Then again, it really didn't matter because the focus is on the robot. While Chobits focuses on humour, this anime focuses on storyline. The robot even has a very special name: Flower. And Flower is downright cute!

There's nothing much to say about this anime though, as it only has one episode. This really puts Chobits to shame, considering how much this anime could convey in 28 minutes time. This is indeed a very impressive anime.

My rating (out of 10): 9

Movie review: Captain America

Title: Captain America: The First Avenger

Year: 2011

What is it about: The usual. Bad guy tries to destroy the world, hero saves the day

Genre: Action

My review: I had never liked Marvel and any of its movies because they seem to be running out of ideas. Some of them is just disappointing. Usually, it's always the same thing over and over again, where the antagonist will try to take over the world and a random superhero will take him down.Often, the antagonist will die in the lamest ways possible.

Captain America, however, is a bit special. I won't deny that there are parts where they are still cliched. But still, this movie is more interesting than it looks. Usually, Marvel superhero movies will take place in a very advanced era. Captain America takes place during World War II, and Hitler's name was mentioned though he has nothing to do with this movie.

One thing I hate about the typical superhero movie is that the heroes are often overpowered to the point where he can just beat the crap out of the bad guy. There are a few who isn't like that, and Captain America is one of them. He don't fight the bad guy alone like many others. He has his own platoon consisting of prisoners of war that he rescued, and they served him loyally. Those people are actually useful. In fact, some of them actually saved Captain America's life.

If you didn't already know who Captain America is, he basically a normal guy made powerful by (I'm quoting someone here) the most American way possible: Steroids. The only powerful thing Captain America has is his shield made up of Vibrium, an extremely strong metal that isn't found on the periodic table and is totally fictional. His shield can block just about anything, and he sometimes uses it as a weapon. Other than that, he merely has a normal handgun which he hardly use.

One major drawback he has is the design of his costume. Sure, his costume looks cool and flashy, but the flashy part will just tell the enemies where he is and where to aim. Even his colourful shield looks like archery targets, but I guess that's okay because it can block anything. It's funny to see him infiltrating enemy territory without being sighted. For all I know, the enemies might be blind.

In conclusion, this movie is worth watching although the bad guy hardly does anything and dies in a lame way. This movie is also an interesting prequel to The Avengers, which is by far the best movie Marvel has ever came up with. In fact, the entire Captain America movie serves to lay out the settings for the Avengers. That's why he's called the First Avenger.

Rating (out of 10): 5