I generally like KyoAni's stuff, but then they're usually doing adaptions of material that's already pretty good to start with.  They are mostly known for their animation quality more than their writing.  Their latest show, Tamako Market, is I believe the first original work and I have to say I thought it was extremely disappointing.  Boring characters, confused tone, didn't really feel like it knew what it wanted to be.

This Free thing is also an original work, I believe.  I wonder if they'll do any better this time...

And when is KyoAni going to do more Haruhi?  There is still a ton of material from the novels just waiting for it...

Chihayafuru is a friggin recap episode this week.  In the middle of the high-tension final team game...shit, man, most shows at least have the courtesy to put their recap episodes in between story arcs.

That opening has an awful lot of...walking.  Walk right.  Walk left.  Walk towards the camera.  Walk away from the camera.  Walk towards each other.  Walk away from each other.  Just whatever you do, don't stop walking!

I actually kind of like the song, though.

Man, I always thought the point of microtransactions was to nickel and dime people so much that they didn't even realize they were spending hundreds of dollars in total.  Not to charge a hundred dollars for a friggin ripped-off character right off the bat...

Oh, Elf trailer is out.  She looks like a lot of fun to play as.

In case you're tired of talking about boobs I found this very cool article on all the art influences present in Dragon's Crown.

Check out my new classy avatar pic.

Edit: Oh yeah, here's a nice editorial.

Minor rant time:

Plastic is cheap and light, so there's this notion that it must be lower quality.  That's really not true, though.  It's become really trendy to make phone shells out of exotic materials like metal or even glass, but this is done purely for aesthetics.  They've become fashion accessories, basically.  But the notion that these phones are somehow more durable than boring old polycarbonate is totally unfounded.  In fact if anything they're less durable.  If you want to avoid damage to the expensive internal components of the phone then you want something with a little bit of flex in it to absorb the impact rather than something rigid.  Heavier materials also mean the phone will hit the ground harder if you drop it.

In short, plastic is fucking awesome.

Edit: I should note that I was talking about avoiding catastrophic damage.  Unfortunately plastic is more vulnerable than a lot of materials to minor dings and scratches.  That also contributes to its perception of being low quality.  However that sort of damage should in no way impede your ability to use the device.

The Monster anime was 74 episodes.  That's not just "a season or two".  And the anime was quite faithful to the manga, without filler.  Of course those are half hour episodes, but there's still plenty of material for a good run here.

http://www.deadline.com/2013/04/guillermo-del-toro-is-hatching-a-monster-of-a-series-at-hbo/

If they do this right it could actually be really cool.  Monster is a pretty down-to-earth Manga and well-suited for a live action adaption.  There has been talk about doing a movie version before, but it's kind of long for that.  An HBO series could totally work, though.

What do you think?

It's like I'm looking in a mirror!

OK, in all seriousness about the game I still can't decide whether to get it for Vita or PS3.  I was leaning towards Vita at first, seemed like a nice thing to be able to play on the go, but when I heard that they don't even have cross-play...I don't know anymore.  Is anyone else even going to get this on Vita?  Or will I be stuck forever alone...

Not that I'm a big multiplayer gamer in the first place, but this seemed like it would be a nice title to pow around with some friends.  Or RPGFanners.

A prison inmate gets four guards pregnant amidst a massive corruption scandal...

You can't make this shit up.

Don't want to jinx it, but this looks like it could actually be...good?

I say that mainly because it's a light-hearted animated affair that seems true to the original characters.  Not that you can really tell a lot from a teaser like that.  But it does make me wonder why with all of the terrible live-action video game movie adaptions nobody has tried making an animated film before...I mean, this could actually work.

UC3 had some pretty amazing set pieces, but the plot was downright silly.  A lot of it felt really forced and unnatural.  Like the whole boat thing...why was that even there?  Other than the fact that somebody wanted to do cool things with a rocking boat and water...

I responded that way because I was offended by Alisha acting like there can be no debate on this subject (when there clearly is...).  But seriously, let's drop it.


I still say Xillia 2 is coming later this year.  It's not weird to think they would have done the localization for it at the same time, especially since so many of the characters are the same and would have the same voice actors.