GENRE: Role-Playing Game / Action / Adventure / Drama / Sidescrolling
PLATFORM: Sony PSP
Parental Guidance Recommended
2006 Square Enix Co., Ltd

Amazon.Com Product Description:
Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth brings the classic PlayStation game console title to your PSP — with completely new CG cut scenes that dramatize the epic of a Norse maiden collecting souls for a war between the gods. Lenneth is a Valkyrie, a warrior priestess with the gift of hearing the thoughts of dead and dying men in their final moments. Lenneth’s duty is to travel Midgard, the mortal world, to recruit and train the souls of worthy warriors to join the ranks of the Aesir in the Sacred War.

Shop for Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth: Artbooks and Manga, Music CDs, Video Game Shop, Toys and Accessories, Posters Etc., Everything Else

Nobody knows exactly why people find Bleach addictive, but it really has become a favorite topic over lunch and coffee breaks. My friends and I usually find ourselves huddled in some remote corner of a café, trying to dissect the inner workings of each of Bleach’s numerous characters.

An older colleague would compare this with Dragon Ball: the battles, the cliffhangers, the ever-shifting sides from good to bad and back, the never-ending power increases, the rocks and mountains and hard places. If I were to over-analyze this anime, I would probably say that it has too many characters, too many fillers (sometimes illogically ordered), very little character development, too predictable and formulaic.

Yet I lose sleep because I keep telling myself that it’ll be the last episode then it’s off to bed…only to violate that promise by plopping the next DVD into the player anyway. The huge circles under my eyes can attest to this fact. Despite all its flaws, the characters are all unique and it’s hard not to relate to at least one or two of them. My personal favorites include Yoruichi the black cat, Rukiya the willful but duty-bound Shinigami (Death God) and Urahara the supernatural shopkeeper.

Besides the characters, the action scenes keep you riveted and glued to your seat. At least, that’s what it felt like to me. Every season gets more intense as they progress, with the exception of the boring Bounto Arc, which is an entire season of fillers and is in no way related to the manga. It’s always exciting to see how Ichigo, the protagonist, would improve. There are so many questions left unanswered, though, which is probably why the anime looks far from over. Since the anime is dealing with death and the transference of souls to Soul Society, one wonders what happens to the souls that die in the other world. Again, another aspect for discussions over coffee.

Fanfiction writers would have a field day over situations, especially when it comes to the cute Omake Scenes. Bleach always provides one after the end credits roll. Sometimes they’d feature the different Shinigami and their shenanigans, sometimes it would be about Urahara’s kiddie squad. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), Bleach is thoroughly shounen, so love angles are up to the viewers to decide.

For me, Spunky Knight was one of those guilty pleasures in manga I loved to indulge in. The art is unique and well detailed while lacking in continuity errors (save for may be one frame in one issue) and the characters, though badly short lived compared to the heroine and her pet dragon are all very well detailed to the point where their skin actually looks soft and warm to the touch.

I think the sole aspect I didn’t like about Spunky Knight however was that it took one issue to sacrifice the main story line for the sake of introducing us to a new character and a unique and surprisingly innovative sexual encounter.

By doing so it allowed the series to fall into the bog standard pain in the butt fatal misogyny that interrupts the sex scenes I’ve forever hated about manga and anime in general, especially when this all happened to my only favorite female character in the entire damn series. It really sucked for me because the build up for the issue was well scripted and as I started reading the dialogue actually started sympathizing with the one-time heroine of issue 5; had they just left the final frame of the last page out and left the ending completely open-ended, I wouldn’t be complaining.

Now I know the series has a very anarchic sense of sexual humor where death and sex sort of intertwine at random moments and for the most part it still manages to be mildly funny until around the fifth issue then the irony and subtle humor inspired nothing but hatred and repulsion because it’s difficult to find sickening cliches of a particular genre funny especially when a series like Spunky Knight successfully avoided them for a long enough period of time.

Despite that nit-pick though, I can’t help but recommend Spunky Knight because the sex scenes are so well drawn and unique that it’s hard not to like it.

Read more Spunky Knight reviews…

Individual Rating: Art/Animation 10; Story 6; Characters 7; Sounds 7; Ecchi Level 9

Genre: Action / Adventure / Comedy / Drama / Supernatural
Parental Guidance Recommended
Credits: 2004 Kubotite, Noriyuki Abe, Dentsu Inc., Studio Pierrot, TV Tokyo

Amazon.com Editorial/Product Description:
For as long as he can remember Ichigo Kurosaki has been able to see ghosts. But when he meets Rukia, a Soul Reaper who battles evil spirits known as Hollows, he finds his life is changed forever. Now with a newfound wealth of spiritual energy, Ichigo discovers his true calling: to protect the living and the dead from evil.

(190 episodes as of this writing. Still ongoing.)

Shop for Bleach: Artbooks and Manga, DVD, VHS, Video Game Shop, Toys and Accessories, Music CDs, MP3 Downloads, Unboxed Download, Fashion, Posters Etc., Everything Else

Both are addictive despite the gargantuan plot holes.

The story begins with a seemingly innocent straight A student in a seemingly ordinary environment. Light Yagami, 16 years old, picks up a Death God’s (Shinigami) notebook lying on the school lawn. Written on it are rules about how to kill people: write their name on any page and they will die of a heart attack in 40 seconds. If the death note owner manages to write a method of death within 40 seconds, he is then given an additional 6 minutes and 40 seconds to discuss the details. At first Light believes that a prank is being pulled. Upon testing it on a petty criminal, however, he quickly fits himself into the role of judge and executioner. He begins murdering high profile criminals, disguised by the moniker Kira, in order to rid the world of evil…

In comes a renowned investigator, who goes by the name of L. At all the world’s leaders’ behest, he forms a team of investigators intent on uncovering who the mysterious mass murderer is. This hide-and-seek scenario is the entire life of Death Note’s premise.

When I first got hold of this title, I wasn’t so sure how it could be stretched into over thirty episodes. The rules seemed pretty simple at first. They get complicated with every arc that’s added to the series. I found myself engrossed with Light Yagami’s obsession — his creative ways of killing and hiding his tracks. L, however, seriously pursues Light Yagami as he becomes hell bent on proving that Light is Kira. This is when Death Note starts to get ridiculous. There’s a vicious damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t cycle that develops so no matter what Light does, L thinks that this proves that he is Kira. (L’s thoughts are always filled with, “Ah, if he opens this door, he is Kira because… If he doesn’t open this door, he is Kira because…” Or something to that effect.)

Plot holes the size of Jupiter also abound, which is typical of an anime that tries to be overly profound. I don’t know if these were just oversights or the creators actually thought we viewers were idiots. It’s a shame, though, because Death Note really has very interesting characters. I think this is the reason why it’s hard not to do a Death Note marathon. Most of us end up wanting to see how L and Light’s symbiotic relationship will progress. We also wait in anticipation for Light to eventually fall in love with his admirer, the gothic Misa Amane. Or watch if he will choose the smart and sexy ex-flame Kiyomi Takada. The Shinigami are even more entertaining than the humans. Devoid as they are of emotional attachments, they still have a lot of eccentricities that walk the thin line between cute and creepy. Ryuk, the main Shinigami, is a manipulative and curious creature that obsesses about apples.

Death Note is actually a great watch. I just wish they had stopped production somewhere around 20-25 or before the inconsistencies became too obvious.

Individual Rating: Art/Animation 8; Story 6; Characters 10; Sounds 8

Genre: Suspense / Drama / Supernatural
Parental Guidance Recommended
Credits: 2003 Tetsuro Araki, Takeshi Obata, Tsugumi Ooba, Madhouse Studios, NTV, Shueisha, VAP

Amazon.Com Product Description:
Meet Light Yagami, a brilliant but bored high school student whose life is changed when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami, or god of death, named Ryuk. When Light discovers that any human whose name is written in the book dies, he vows to use its power to rid the world of evil. But every action has its consequences, and Light soon finds himself in a life or death battle of wits with the mysterious genius detective called L. Humanity itself becomes the battleground to determine what form of justice will prevail!

(37 episodes)

Shop for Death Note: Artbooks and Manga, DVD, Toys and Accessories, Music CDs, Video Games, Toys and Accessories, Fashion, Posters Etc., Everything Else

GENRE: Bishoujo, Role-Playing, Hentai
PLATFORM: Pentium II or faster PC, Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP/Vista
CREDITS: 2005 Zyx, 2008 G-Collections

Read the rest of this entry »

Lightning Warrior Raidy is definitely the most anticipated Hentai Game title this year. Sales seem to agree with me. Raidy became one of the best selling H-Titles going gold by pre-orders alone. It’s fairly understandable though. Raidy is supposed to be a Hentai-RPG, a genre that, here in the english-speaking countries at least, comprises of mainly two games, “Knights of Xentar” and “Brave Soul” both of which are considered solid and highly replayble. Hentai and Fantasy RPG seem to go well together and yet no company is bringing the games over here. So when “Raidy” was announced, the whole of otakudom screamed with joy! Uber-Geeks like myself know that Raidy is essentially a remake of an old game made in the golden days of a computer named PC9800. Lots of Hentai Game making companies got started there by the way, and a google search for “Raidy” and “PC9800″ will bring out some very interesting results, like the first 2D games made by a company named Illusion, way before the time of 3D acceleration cards. Raidy was a title that was way above the norm, combining Dungeon-Crawling RPG action with strong Hentai-Visuals. The title was supposedly good enough to spawn a remake and two subsequent sequels. The games were available to Japan but not in here… until now.

So now the game is here, ready to be played and enjoyed. How does it fare to the hype?

Read more to find out.
Read the rest of this entry »

If you’ve been a fan of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and have developed a fondness for its characters, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney is going to be one hell of an emotional roller coaster ride. I was practically in tears when I began the first case. Not only has our beloved Phoenix Wright stepped down from being a defense attorney, he also figures in a circle of tragedies that spanned seven long years. This results in a lot of growing up for our dear legend. I don’t exactly know if I should be happy or sad that Phoenix matured — to the point of cynicism — in Apollo Justice…

The mixed feelings this game elicits are quite hard to describe. I can actually say it’s more fun than the Phoenix Wright series because a plethora of investigative measures are available to you. The luminol fluid and fingerprint dusting adventures of the first Ace Attorney game are back. Not only that. You can also investigate shoe prints, play around with x-ray scanners, re-create crime scenes through rotating isometric 3D diagrams, tinker with musical instruments and do many other scientific activities. Your DS stylus has more use here than any of the other previous installations. The beauty of it is that you use an entirely different set of investigative techniques for each case.

On the other hand, I miss Phoenix “Feenie” Wright’s bluffing. Apollo Justice’s cases are appallingly easy to solve. The only time I made mistakes was when I was half-asleep. I don’t know if it’s because investigation now involves more than just picking up clues and presenting them during the trial. Closer examination of Court Record entries have probably made everything too obvious. Then again, Mr. Justice actually has a better grasp of the law because he knew that touching anything straight from the crime scenes isn’t exactly part of a lawyer’s job description. But like good ol’ Feenie, he blatantly violates this anyway.

Phoenix Wright’s strength lies in its stories and while Apollo Justice unearths highly involving story lines, its characters aren’t as inspiring. After witnessing the foppery of Klavier Gavin, a rock-idol-slash-prosecutor, you might actually wish you were facing Miles Edgeworth, who’s just as foppish while not nearly as over-the-top. Maya Fey of the first three Ace Attorneys, though sometimes irritating, is preferable to Trucy Wright, a magician. Yes, I’d pick ghosts over bunnies in a hat — or in this case, bunnies in magical panties. I hate the tacky costume, too. You’d think that with the improved visuals, accompanied by a mix of cel-shaded and isometric 3D graphics, they’d actually think about fixing the characters’ fashion sense!

What I miss most of all? It’s Mia Fey. Complete with the mole, the chest and the attitude.

This is not to say that Apollo Justice is a let down. It’s not. Like I mentioned earlier, I enjoyed being able to interact with other parts of my DS more. I just want to find out what happened to the rest of the original gang. They were responsible for my addiction to the Ace Attorney games, after all.

PLAYER STATUS:
DIFFICULTY: Easy
COMPLETION TIME: 20 hours
HIGHEST LEVEL ACHIEVED: N.A.
RATINGS: Gameplay 10; Battle N.A.; Story 9; Visuals 10; Characters 6; Sounds 9; Replay Value 7

GENRE: Digital Novel, Mystery, Strategy, Role-Playing
PLATFORM: Nintendo DS
CREDITS: 2008 Capcom Co., Ltd.

Description (from the Apollo Justice Official Website):
Rookie defense attorney Apollo Justice has big shoes to fill taking over for the legendary Phoenix Wright. He may be young and inexperienced but Apollo’s confident manner, coupled with his unique ability to uncover witnesses’ lies by studying their body language, will prove invaluable assets as he pleas the case for the defense. But as talented as our hero is, he wouldn’t get far without the support of his assistant Trucy, a mysterious female magician and Kristoph Gavin, his ultra-cool mentor whose perfect logic and natural instincts have won him numerous cases and the respect of his colleagues.

Shop for Apollo Justice: Artbooks and Manga, Video Game Shop, Music CDs, Fashion, Everything Else