Displaying items by tag: review

Ready to conquer the universe? In NISA's newest import title Mugen Souls, you take on the role of the charismatic (and slightly hot-tempered) ChouChou. This daring self-proclaimed "goddess of the universe" has only one goal: to make everything in the galaxy belong to her just because she wants to. It's just not enough to conquer one planet in the solar system: you'll need to conquer all seven planets, their continents, and pretty much every life form that can be found. Luckily, she has a small crew and a ship to help make the journey easier.

The Tales of series may not be as famous as the Final Fantasy franchise in terms of J-RPG games, regardless, it has managed to spawn nearly as many games as its Square Enix counterpart with fourteen main titles, and sixteen offshoots. It should come as no surprise that sooner or later there would be animation adaptations for the more popular Tales of titles. Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike was first shown in theatres in Japan on October 3, 2009 as the first theatrical film ever made of the Tales of series. Three years later, FUNimation picked up the film for English release.

Where can you find tengu, chupacabra and crop circles all in one place? Waldstein Academy of course! NIS America’s recent release, Occult Academy, focuses on the abnormal and unexplainable phenomena that happen in Waldstein Academy, or “Occult Academy” as it is called by the individuals who live nearby. Occult Academy focuses on Maya Kumashiro and time traveler Fumiaki Uchida as they scour the city looking for the key of Nostradamus that will cause an alien invasion on July 21, 1999 while battling against all the occult creatures that get in their way.

Dragon Age: Origins is one of BioWare's bestselling titles  and continues their rich tradition of creating gritty worlds, complex characters, and mature plots. When I first heard about Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker and that FUNimation was going to be working closely with BioWare and Oxybot to produce it, I felt cautiously optimistic. Could this possibly be the first step towards properly adapting Western intellectual properties (IPs) into a Japanese medium? With too many flops and not enough solid, let alone exceptional, titles of this breed out in the world, it was hard to be too excited. Does Dawn of the Seeker finally turn the tide? Hit the jump to find out.

As someone who started the Atelier series when I first played Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis on the PlayStation 2, the ninth title of Gust's flagship series, I’ve since been enamored with the franchise. Although the series has always been known for its alchemy system, the character development in the game has always been top-notch and included deep, rich backgrounds and succulent designs. Atelier Meruru: the Apprentice of Arland is a wonderful representation of this. It’s a throwback to the time when a game didn’t have notable "different" endings that were actually the same, wasn’t bogged down by battle after battle involving superfluous moral messages, and companies weren’t trying to one up competitors with awe-inspiring shiny high-def graphics. In other words, Atelier Meruru is a JRPG enthusiast's delight.

When was your first time? For me it was not very long ago; actually, it was a few months ago and it was kind of confusing and there were a few people there too… What? Wait, don’t stop reading and don’t think dirty thoughts! I was talking about my first time hearing about this anime with some of my friends. I too was confused with the title -- I had a totally different idea of what Yamada’s First Time was about, to tell you the truth. Since I was assigned to review it and it came from FUNimation, I felt it safe, but boy was I wrong. I began to watch it and soon found out this is not the anime to watch with little kids around.

Created by web comic designers Christina Strain (writer, artist) and Jayd Alt-Kaci (artist), The Fox Sister is a weekly supernatural series that explores the life of its Korean protagonist, Yun Hee Cho, in her quest to take revenge on the shape-shifting fox demon known as kumiho. Seven years prior to the present day course of events, Yun Hee Cho’s parents and sister were brutally slaughtered by the kumiho, whom has now taken the form of her dead sister, Cho Sun Hee to seduce and kill her victims.

Nitro+ is back again with an anime adaptation of their visual novel, Phantom -PHANTOM OF INFERNO-, in the form of a twenty-six episode series called Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom. Phantom is animated by Beetrain and has a script written by Gen Urobochi, Hideki Shirane, and other staff writers. The plot follows a tourist named Reiji who unwittingly becomes a part of the assassin group Inferno, which is based in the United States, after witnessing their ace assassin, Ein, finish her most recent kill. He is then taken and brainwashed to become Inferno’s next assassin with no memory of his past.

Kimi ni Todoke is an anime adaption of Karuh Shiina's romance shoujo manga serialized in Bessatsu Margaret. The manga won the Best Shoujo award in the 32nd annual Kodonsha Manga award, and was nominated for the first Manga Taisho award. The show aired in Japan from October 6, 2009 to March 30, 2010, totaling 25 episodes. A second season was released a year later in January 11 and ran until March 30. A live action film was also released in August 25, 2010.

Demons, demon wolves, grim reapers, Victorian England, murder, and melancholy: these are what you’ll get in droves with Black Butler. Heir to the Phantomive estate and toy company, Ciel Phantomhive is a young boy who lost his parents years ago and formed a pact with a demon cum butler, Sebastian Michaelis, to avenge them. When Sebastian finally kills those responsible for murdering the late Mr. and Mrs. Phantomhive, he will consume Ciel’s soul. Trust me, you won’t be able to explain this show to your friends without using the word "melancholy."