No Game No Life

Hello all!

So it's been a while since I watched anything but yesterday I picked up this series that I've been meaning to watch for ages. It's about games so of course I'm interested and many recommend watching it if you enjoyed Sword Art Online, which I did. I had no expectations whatsoever and I read a minimal amount on the plot so at least I wasn't going to be disappointed. But let me tell you a little about No Game No Life.

 

 The first episode introduces the viewers to siblings Sora and Shiro, two NEETs, shut-ins and game addicts. They form a team called Blank that consists of 4 players because why not? They're so good at games that controlling two characters each and dominating the game at the same time is not a big deal. While they enjoy games they are also pretty bored of the world they live in and view it as just another lousy game. Everything changes when they receive a mysterious e-mail inviting them to a chess match. After winning the match they are plunged into a different world. In this new world everything is solved through playing games, the pettiest of fights and even conflicts involving country borders. This outcome is pretty ideal to the siblings since they are after all the masters of gaming. 

There are 10 pledges to rule over most of the races in Disboard. I won't list them all here, but the main idea is this: All murder, war and robbing is forbidden plus all conflicts will be solved through a game. Cheating in a game will result in an instant loss.

They soon discover though that the equivalent to our human race, the Imanity have been pushed into a corner. The previous king has gambled most of their lands and the capital city Elkia is in decline. Like in so many other anime, Sora and Shiro become the last hope of humanity but their goal is a little more ambitious than that - they want to rule over all the other races in their new dream world.

 

 Once they enter the new world, Sora and Shiro first befriend Stephanie Dola, the granddaughter of the previous king. The people of Elkia are in the middle of a poker tournament to choose the next king, and Stephanie (Steph) is losing a match when the siblings first meet her. The former king's extraordinary last wish was to choose the next king through gambling. Steph ends up losing the poker match to a young girl named Kurami who in the end wins the entire tournament. Sora and Shiro decide to step in for reason or other and challenge Kurami to a game with the crown at stake.

Watching Sora and Shiro be challenged into a game is one of my favorite parts of the series. Even though Steph challenges them to various games throughout the anime (and loses them all) the most exciting matches are the ones where they have something big at stake. The match deciding who's to become the next king involved a battle of chess, where the pieces had their own will. I won't spoil the whole idea of the match but it was pretty awesome! So logically after Sora and Shiro won they became the king and queen of Elkia. Their goal is to restore the human race by conquering other races (there are 16 in total) and Imanity is the last on the list of races in the beginning of the anime. I have only watched 8 episodes and there are 12 in total so I'm sure there won't be any huge advancements - there's probably time to conquer a couple of races but all of them? Nah that won't happen, so I'm hoping there will be a season 2 at some point.

The second match was against Jibril, a young Flugel. The Flugels are ranked sixth in the Exceed, the list of races. They could be compared to angels but like Sora pointed out in one episode, they're more like demons because of their bloody past. The reason Sora challenges Jibril to a match is because she's in possession of the only library in Elkia and for research purposes Sora needs access to it. The game they played was really interesting - Materialization Shiritori. Shiritori is a Japanese word game where the players need to say a word that starts with the last kana of the previous word. Because it's Materialization Shiritori, every word presented will make that object appear or disappear. So, the one who doesn't or isn't able to utter a word in 30 seconds will lose. I think the whole game was quite brilliant.

 Sora is not only smart, he is also overly perverted so once he heard that the race Warbeasts mostly consists of cute dog- and cat-eared girls he decided to conquer them first. The only problem being that no one has ever won them in a game because of their ability to read minds. After each match the condition has been to erase the loser's memories so that no one would know which game they have lost in. I would seriously compare Sora's brain to Yagami Light's from Death Note because his deduction abilities were just insane in the episode where he met the representatives of the Warbeasts for the first time.

Even though the series can be ridiculously perverted at times, I would still recommend it to those who enjoy mind games and watching the main character excel at pretty much everything. I personally would even watch it for the beautiful animation and colorfulness. I did compare Sora to Light and at MAL the series has been compared to Death Note by some, NGNL is just a bit wackier and lighter than DN. I haven't watched the entire first season just yet but I will soon and I'll probably be begging for a second season afterwards. That's how much I've enjoyed the series so far.

Uta no Prince-Sama (Season 1 through 3)

Hello all!

So I've basically binge watched this series I'm about to write about. And I must admit that I have very mixed feelings. I can't stop cringing at the cheesiness of the series but on the other hand I have watched a total of three seasons of it in under two weeks while watching other on-going series. So yeah, I'm pretty much hooked.

 Uta-Pri falls under the reverse harem genre, meaning that the heroine of the series is surrounded and constantly pursued by gorgeous male characters. The next biggest thing in Uta no Prince-Sama is singing. And that's what makes it especially awkward. Every singing scene is filled with shining hearts, shooting stars, flying characters in space and everything cliched one can think of. Not to forget mentioning the colorful "Shining Saotome", the headmaster of the school involved in season 1, who appears out of nowhere in every critical situation - biggest action movies are nothing compared to the spins and twists and flights through the air that Shining performs.The lyrics of the songs mainly tell about love, friendship and how everything's perfect and pure. So why the heck am I hooked on this sh**? Let me tell about the plot first.

Uta-Pri is the story of a young girl named Haruka who against all the odds enters the prestigious school of Saotome Academy. Taught to play the piano by her grandmother and having no knowledge of reading notes, she somehow manages to enter the composer program. She becomes friends Tomo, a girl aspiring to become an idol, plus six guys also in the idol program. The best composer/idol pair of the course will later on make their debut. The only rule is, romantic relationships are forbidden.

If you watch the opening and ending scenes you can already guess after the first episodes that Haruka will be the composer to the six guys so blatantly in love with her, and they will form a boy band. The whole series in itself is quite predictable. 1. There's a mission at the beginning of an episode. (Write the perfect song) 2. A terrible misfortune occurs. (Holy cow I can't even read notes!) 3. The heroine is in distress. (I will give up music and run away!) 4. Someone says something inspirational (The heroine now knows exactly what to do) 5. Happy ending, problems solved, repeat in next episode (She learned to read notes in one night and composed a revolutionary song) Sounds pretty tiring, right?

Every season has it's so called mission or goal. In the first season the main characters must graduate and be the ones to make their debut. Well, of course they won't fail so sorry if I'm giving away too much, but isn't it kind of obvious? In the second season they have made their debut as STARISH, until a rival arrives and the future of their band is in jeopardy. Okay, SPOILER ALERT! The super powerful rival fails in front of their super-duper awesome song (Instead of Maji Love 1000% like in season 1, they revolutionized the music scene with *drum rolls* Maji Love... 2000%) In season 3 their senpais, band QUARTET NIGHT enters the SSS, world widely recognized sports event where only the best of the best can perform in its opening ceremony. Well, of course STARISH (btw, now with seven members. The cat in season 1 turned out to be a PRINCE under a curse who instead of ruling his kingdom wants to be a pop idol. Shocking, right?) wants to take part of SSS as well but the president of their recording label won't allow it until they have become truly renowned. No Maji Love 3000% though *sad face*. No spoilers needed, you pretty much know what's going to happen. I'm going to correct that part if I'm wrong because I haven't watched the last episode. But come on, what else could happen?

 So why the heck am I so hooked on this series? To be honest, I have no clue. I guess it's one of those series that is so bad that it's kind of good? It's so predictable that it gives no surprises at all and every romantic line indicating how lovely Haruka's SONGS are instead of how lovely she is, are a real stab in the heart. It's so obvious that all six.. I need to correct that... all seven... shit forgot about QUARTET NIGHT... all 11 of them are madly in love with Haruka but they hide their feelings in the admiration they have towards her composition skills. Even though the series is so damn predictable you do hope for a love confession in every episode. But I guess I have to wait for season 4 and I know it's no good. Yes, season 4 shall premiere this fall.

So who can I recommend this series to? Someone who is not scared of constantly feeling embarrassed, who enjoys a bit of cheesiness and who enjoys a large variety of manly beauty. Oh and I almost forgot, someone who isn't annoyed by the heroine's constant stuttering and bad self-confidence. I don't know how many people that leaves but hey DOKI DOKI de kowaresou sen paasento LOVE HEEEY!! 

My top #5 Anime series

Hello all!

My two biggest hobbies are probably playing video games and watching anime and for the former I have already dedicated a blog. I realized that while I love playing video games I have long gameless periods when I mainly watch anime. Now I'm having one of those periods and I'd like to write about the anime I have recently watched.

I can't count Tanoshii Muumin Ikka and Pokémon as my first anime series since I didn't even realize back then that I was watching Japanese animation. What sparked my interest in anime was probably reading "Detective Conan" in elementary school but I think it goes a little farther than that. I was much younger when I watched anime together with my brother. Even though the subtitles were a bit too fast to read, I remember enjoying the colors and music in Jungle Wa Itsumo Hare Nochi Guu. It would take me another 10 years to watch the series from beginning to end while understanding everything, but I have still counted Hare Guu as my first anime.

As an easy start I will now list my all time favorite anime series. They are in no particular order because they are all from very different genres and that makes it difficult to compare them. On top of that, after pondering for a while I came to the realization that I love all of them equally. So, let's begin!

Monster

This is probably one of the first anime series that really blew my mind. It's one of those anime that you think you have the hang of, until something dramatic happens and changes the rules once again. I've never enjoyed anime series that are too long, but with only 74 episodes Monster left me craving for more. So far I've watched Monster only thrice, but I have a feeling that I need to watch it again soon.

Monster tells the story of Kenzou Tenma, a Japanese brain surgeon living in Germany. He's living the perfect life - about to be promoted at work and married to the hospital's director's beautiful, yet superficial daughter. Everything changes when Tenma thinks he makes the right choice. Instead of performing surgery on the mayor like he's supposed to, he decides to save the life of a young boy with a bullet wound on his head. Murders start to take place around the young boy he saved, and Tenma starts to doubt his own moral guidelines.

 Hana Yori Dango

This is in my opinion the best shoujo series out there. The anime is amazing, the manga even more so and I also love the live action series and films. The main story may seem a bit basic but with 51 episodes Hana Yori Dango has a lot to tell. And now I feel like watching the series again...

The story revolves around Makino Tsukushi, a girl from a poor family who enters the prestigious school of the rich, Eitoku Gakuen. She wants to finish her studies while going unnoticed, until one day she gets a "red note" from the school's Flower-four, F4 (school's most popular male students). This is the beginning of Tsukushi's torture at school but it is also the start of an unthinkable romance.

 Hajime no Ippo

I can't think of many sports anime that have made my heart bump like Hajime no Ippo. It's a long series with many seasons but in my opinion it manages to keep up it's quality up to the very last episodes. The beginning of the series was a bit boring but don't stop there! It gets a lot better.

Makunouchi Ippo is a bullied high school student. One day he gets rescued from his bullies by a guy with amazing reflexes and boxing skills. This event changes his life for good. Determined to become stronger, Ippo begs the man to teach him boxing.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (Kai)

Higurashi is a series with loads of mystery and gore. When I was younger I enjoyed the first season more but watching the series again with my fiance I realized that the second season is much better. While the first season is much creepier, I enjoy the twists in the second season.

Hinamizawa is a seemingly quiet and peaceful village where Maebara Keiichi and his family move to in summer 1983. Keiichi becomes friends with four girls at his new school without realizing at first that they all have dark secrets in their past. Around the annual festival Keiichi discovers about the many murders plaguing Hinamizawa village in recent years. After learning too much about the legends of Hinamizawa, weird events start occurring around Keiichi.

 Sword Art Online

This is the newest series on my favorites list since I only finished watching the first season this year. Usually when I talk about SAO I talk about the first season. I've watched the two first episodes of season 2 but didn't like it enough to continue watching. I love SAO because as a video gamer the characters are so relateable.

The story begins with Kirito (his online name) immersing himself into the virtual reality of Sword Art Online. The game is accessed through a "Nervegear" that enables the players to move their characters through mere thought. The twist in the plot happens early on in the anime - the 10,000 or so players cannot log out of the game, and if they die in the game they also die in the real world. The only way to escape the gruesome world of Aincrad is to complete all hundred levels of the game.

I have a few series I'm currently watching so I'll probably write again soon. Until then!