Jumping in Headfirst

Chrome Shelled Regios Here's what happens when you make the mistake of not completely reading up on a story before you check it out. I read the first few chapters of Chrome Shelled Regios about a year before the anime announcement. It had potential as a series that was part-fantasy, part-fighting, but since I couldn't get any further with the manga, I just dropped it. When I began watching the anime, it threw me off guard to see the staunch differences. Post apocalyptic now but still mixing in school drama, my interest in this series drained. As the story developed, it grew less interesting. There's a nonsensical prequel that's interspersed randomly in each episode, that's not only never really explained, but in Engrish so it's hard to understand. Like Yozakura Quartet, you get the sense that there's a more fleshed out universe in a different adaptation, we just never get a chance to see it because the series itself doesn't know whether to adapt the ...

Young Alive!: Hm. This may be more of a ballad...oh, nevermind. Very cheery song, which fits, given the title, actually. Another song in which I'm loving her willingness to try different pacing to match up with her song. It actually sounds like an mid-career Masami Okui song, with the upbeat guitar solo near the end. I don't have much to say on this one, as this is one of those songs that you really enjoy, but there's nothing specifically stand out-ish about it? (Other than it'd be awesome to have this as Vivid's Opening theme.) Jounetsu no Counter: Oooh. This one has an opening like a dance track. Sounds like Red, except with a bassline. I love Lute playing in the background (thank my friend for that--I did NOT know the name of that instrument), and while I guess for some people it might be a weird track to dance to, I couldn't stop moving. My second favorite song on the album, and probably one of my favorite Masami Okui songs of all time. (Next ...

Last song of the year. Kirby Krackle, creating one of the greatest superhero songs of all time. The video makes it even more amazing. This song perfectly captures the life (and loneliness) of a superhero.

Unlike a lot of the "hardcore" anime watching population, I am usually unable to stomach J-Dramas. With a few notable exceptions, I find them all to be quite boring. Tokyo Dogs, with former Kamen Rider Mizushima Hiro ("Walking the path of Heaven...") as a main protagonist, is one of these notable exceptions. In addition to being hilarious, the end theme is awesome. Another case of EXILE doing good work.

Novel idea in the hands of two dope (if quirky) rappers. Check: OG Original Gamer. I gotta know what their gang sign is. The Pac-Man symbol?

Another nineties series I picked up, Saber Marionette R is three-episode OVA sequel to the far more "popular"/well-known series Saber Marionette J, penned by the writer of one of my favorite anime, Bakuretsu Hunters. The series is set three hundred years after the adventures of the original Cherry, Lime, and Bloodberry, and the hapless protagonist Otaru, and in a world that is apparently much worse off. Already, the series is off to a much less interesting start than the original, as darker and edgier is generally the more boring direction. In the end, what we are given is a far more forgettable, but more "action packed" version of Saber Marionette J. Hapless boy ends up with three hot cyborg girls. But where the original series had mysteries to solve and, (at least mildly) made one question what constitutes being a human, this series avoids all of that to shove weak fight scenes (it's not a fight if you don't have the HOPE of winning) and more misogyny ...

I am just different. That's the only answer. One of Gambino's most clever songs. That's saying a lot.

Sometimes, all you need is an interesting take on a superhero to make them worth reading. Nowhere is this more true than with the Fantastic Four. Done correctly, it's a series that's not as much about superheroic action as it is the ultimate adventuring family. Your family goes mountain-climbing on vacation? Neat. The Fantastic Four go mountain-climbing too. In an alternate universe. On a different planet. Up a volcano. To stop an alien race. Before breakfast. It's a tightrope act--you balance the family stuff with the big adventures and bigger ideas. Reed Richards is the smartest man on the planet, after all--he needs to constantly be thinking ten steps ahead of everyone else, and that means his solutions to problems can't be the same level of other heroes. So when they hired this new guy, Jonathan Hickman, a writer who had been known for gigantic ideas and concepts, I gave it a try, and it was excellent. (It helped to have one of my favorite artists of all ...

Getting down to the last few. One of my favorite m-flo and hip-hop songs of all time. The original's a little cooler than this one, but lives are awesome. Watch m-flo - Mirrorball Satellite 2012/flo jack in Music   |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Exile's usually hit or miss for me. I want to like them as a fan of Japanese music, but they're a little too boy band-ish for me, so I don't offer them any extra credit that I might give to another artist. When they're dope though, I still give them a shot. Like in this track. [PV] EXILE - FIREWORKS - The most amazing videos are a click away

What happens when two of your favorite artists work together on a song? Well, generally, it depends. Sometimes there's just too much concentrated awesome, and they can't control it right, so it cycles back around to suck. That doesn't happen here. Childish Gambino teams up with mc chris to bring a song with one of the sickest beats this side of...well, Gambino's Culdesac, really. (Ya'll heard that shit by now.) Enjoy.

UFO Princess Valkyrie It is rare to find an anime with so much potential that is completely wasted, in my eyes. More often than not, when a certain anime sucks it simply is not surprising. I look at the premise and am disinterested, or it is an adaptation of something that's only one to two volumes old and the material is just not developed enough. That said, usually somewhere in a series that I DO find interesting is that certain something that makes it worth your time, if not a work of art. So as said, it's rare when I find a show which I DO think can be good, end up being terrible. Such is the case with UFO Princess Valkyrie. Before I'd watched the series and started, I did not expect too much from it. The description sounded interesting, but I've seen series before that have alien characters come out of nowhere, and they are not usually that good. It was not until I saw how they were playing the series itself that I grew interested. It takes place on an Earth ...

Got the B-U-B to the B-L to the E to the G-U-T (S)... EVERYONE'S had this problem before... I'd have shown ya'll the video but...nobody needs to see that.

It's weird to hear an artist who you normally don't care about that's suddenly released a song that you really enjoy. I still can't tell Jason Mraz from normal college rock guys, but this song's just catchy. I'm a little bummed I missed the guy's performance when he came to town a few months ago, but college towns tend to get a lot of musical acts, so hopefully I'll still get the chance to see him.

Basically BASIC was the first language I spoke... Your hustle ain't always gotta be on the streets. Real Talk.

Saving the epicness for today. This is seriously *the* best Rock song I heard all year. Naruto fans have no doubt heard this song a few times, but I encourage you to try listening without generic opening credits.

Early Reins Occasionally, stuff like this happens. As an anime fan, there are a few OVA releases every year, and it's a guarantee ONE of them is something you'd love as a television series. Early Reins is one of those OVAs. It's a simple set-up, but very cool. It's a story of a train hijacking in the 1800's. Admittedly, if this were the plot of a Gunsmoke episode...well, I probably forgot about it because I'm sure it IS the plot of a Gunsmoke episode, but as an anime, there's something about it that makes it...not necessarily cooler, but...more attention-grabbing? It also contains something ELSE I'm a fairly big fan of: Gender-swapping. Often times a cliched idea or story can be made more interesting by flipping the gender that's normally involved with that cliche. Here, the main characters are all female, and the story was cooler for it. Unlike Melty Lancer, where the girls were shown-up by everyone from their boss to their "THIS guy aga...

Hopefully everyone has seen the Young Justice premiere when it aired November 26th. Good character designs and a pretty decent story, though it's just getting started. The series comes on officially January 7th, but there won't be any new episodes until the 21st, as they have to go through the episodes they've already shown us. Fortunately there's a preview to hold us off until then. Thanks to the guys at Spinoff Online for pointing out this trailer's existence.

Okay, I quit doing TheLinkUp, because I had those sites in my blog roll so if people truly want to know, they can visit the site themselves. ...But this one was of particular note, after seeing it on Donald Glover's website, IAmDonald. It's called MeinMyPlace.com and it's one of the best ideas I've seen on the internet. It's a picture blog, full of nothing but beautiful women, in various states of undress, inside their houses. That's it. There's nothing particularly "adult" about it--it's just celebrating the intrinsic beauty of women. Not even "model" women. The girls on the site look less like models and more like, that one cute girl you saw at the party you went to Saturday night. The beautiful girl in the grocery aisle who you couldn't help but take a second glance at because she was just so dazzling (but you didn't ask for her number because you were both in the medicine aisle and you were picking up Pepto). Tha...

Back with the comedic raps. But still dope. It's less comedic, and more a re-do of Estelle and Kanye's "American Boy". I think this is the superior song, to be honest. That should do it tonight. I'm coming back with a flurry of updates when I wake up.

Back with my boy, Childish Gambino, AKA Mr. More Talented Than You. One of my favorite songs of his, especially in the last verse, where he slowly builds up his intensity and momentum, until you're like a full minute into his last verse and you realize through all these SICK punchlines he hasn't taken a single breath. It's that serious. Album should be out 2011. For now, go over to http://www.culdesac-album.com/ to get his mixtape. It's legal, so don't get anti-piracy--support dude. Also, I'm recommending his website, IAmDonald , if for no other reason than he has some FINE women on his front page. *bites lip, looks back at the page* The things I would d...*coughs* Okay, okay...on to the next song. I'm filling iPods up today. (Mainly 'cause most of 'em have crap for space.)

'Cause I'm doing all these updates at like, 3AM...this song is definitely my joint and I identify with it for obvious reasons.

From serious to epic. Fairy, where are you going... Seriously, Funkist NEEDS to be Fairy Tail's opening singers. The actual video for the first theme. I love that the lead singer puts so much emotion into singing the song, actually getting excited as they hit the dramatic parts of the song. Slowly but surely, you're walking your way...

Pause for a bit of seriousness.... Traphik = Truth. That needs a full song, by the way.

Another game-related song. This one's not as cool as Kirby Krackle's Take It From Me, but it's epic in it's own right. Favorite beats: Wood Man, Air Man, and the Wily Stage. Everyone else's? Favorite line: "You old geezer/I'll take your old ass down anyday/You'll never be as smart as Dr. Light is, anyway." Awesome.

I play too many games to say I couldn't identify with this freaking song. Admittedly, I didn't really get the second verse the first time I heard it, but after watching my boys play CoD: Black Ops for like, five to six hours straight? It's almost like, I identify with it, or something...

Mai-Otome One of my favorite anime series of all time is Mai-HiMe. So, much like with Kiddy Girl-and, I was looking forward to the semi-sequel that was Mai-Otome. Fortunately, it turned out a lot better than that mess. Mai-Otome does a far better (and, I'm assuming, more intentional) job of distancing itself from the parent series, likely to keep fans from wondering why they can't see certain characters from the original. (In my case, it keeps me from wondering where they are and why they can't handle things.) In fact, while nearly all of the original cast is around as identical descendants, none of them play any significant roles, those instead landing in the hands of the newer characters that were created for this series. If I'm being completely fair, there's nothing WRONG with the new characters, per se. Certainly there's nothing wrong with the world, which is completely different (for reasons explained in the story) from the one in Mai-HiMe, which conce...

So if Green Lantern's on the Pull List, this song has to be the Song of the Day. This song is the reason I became a Kirby Krackle fan. You know you love it too.

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam III: Love is the Pulse of the Stars Upon finishing the first film, I had to find out what was up with the timewarp Tomino was putting viewers through, so after some digging I discovered the films would have more new footage as they progressed, with Love is the Pulse of the Stars having 70% new footage. This makes sense, given much of the final parts of Zeta are reworked to tie things up in 100 minutes. The arrival of the Neo-Zeon forces to save the AEUG, the subsequent double-betrayal by the both of them, and the gigantic space war that ends the Gryps Conflict, all occur one after another in rapid succession. It feels slightly rushed, but only slightly, and overall not much was lost. Of course, Zeta is from Tomino's Kill 'Em All days, so most of the characters drop like flies in this film, but there's still a major difference in how the main character's own story is ended. Rather than the complete WTF the original ending gives you ("Comets...

Wanted to save this for last, but upon finding out about this project my friend asked me to hurry up and do this one so I could catch up on the comic and we could talk about it. Green Lantern has been one of my favorite superheroes since the day I bought "Comic Book Superheroes" from Scholastic Book-Mart as a child. He was a hero who could literally create whatever he wanted with his mind--to children, who have the most vivid imaginations of all, that's concentrated awesome. I was initially against this latest volume of GL as they swapped out my favorite Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner, for the current (and past) protagonist, Hal Jordan, but I was eventually dragged back in with the promise of a gigantic battle between Green Lanterns and GL villain Sinestro's personal army. From there, the story only grew and expanded, fleshing out into a full war across the universe between seven factions of different Lanterns, powered by the primary emotions of the universe. (That sou...

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam Movie II: Lovers The second part of the Zeta: A New Translation trilogy, Lovers, is generally a less distracting film than the original. With original footage down to around 50%, you find yourself pulled out of the film less often than the first, which is good, because the middle of Zeta likely contains it's strongest parts. Focusing on the AEUG's time on Earth after their Jaburo operation, this film is full of great battles, as the Earth's Federation is most powerful here, and excellent character moments. Slowly they drag Kamille out of the trauma-ridden events of the first movie, as he's introduced to war hero Amuro Ray, and potential love interest Four Murasame. Actually, it never occured to me until I watched Lovers how surprisingly film-like the time on Earth was to begin with. While often time movie versions of series cut so much they don't compare to their counterparts, Lovers , with the very specific goals it had to accomplish (in...

Last song. It's a tad late, but Merry Christmas, folks. More updates to come.

Requested by a friend.

This man was blessed with real talent, and had no problem praising the one who gave it to him.

Still a bit late, but more Christmas music heading your way. A Christmas hymn that I've found beautiful since I was a child, O Come All Ye Faithful is just one of those songs I can't help singing when I hear it.

I missed a day. Normally I timestamp it, but I'll be honest 'cause yesterday was important. Despite how I seem in my posts, I take my beliefs as a Christian quite seriously. So I thought (you'll forgive me for missing a day, I was with family almost the entire day), for Christmas, I would post a few songs that celebrate both my beliefs, and the day. And one of my favorite Christmas songs, has always been Angels We Have Heard on High (In Excelsis Deo). It's such a majestic, beautiful song that the first time I heard it I fell in love with it, and it's one of my favorite songs to sing this time of year. I found an absolutely superb version by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir that displays just how incredible this song can be, and what an amazing praise it is for my Lord and Savior. (Yes yes, I realize Jesus wasn't born today. Don't get all Scrooge on me, okay?) I actually need to hear that one again. If you'll excuse me...

Capcom's present to their fans: Hopefully this will get Black Ops off the screen at my friends' place.

I heard this in one of my friend's cars earlier this year and I was impressed. Way more impressed when he said he knew the guy that made it. Gotta get a lot of these in over the next five days.

This one's for my fellow Fairy Tail fans, and anyone who thinks Funkist is THE band for Fairy Tail songs. Best shonen anime of the decade?

'Cause this was my cell phone ring for the half of the year that W-B-X wasn't.

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam I: Heir to the Stars As a Gundam fan, you're pretty much required to watch Zeta Gundam (the second series in the Gundam "original" Universal Century continuity and held as the best of them all) at least once. And given how much I enjoyed Gundam Wing, I was glad to do it. Amusingly though, not a year after I wrapped up, I started hearing about A New Translation, the trilogy that would be remaking the series to bring it to a 21st century generation. Initially, A New Translation was not apart of my list. But as time ran short during the summer, I decided I would add it for the sake of making through a few more anime on the list in a single night. What threw me off, though, was learning one of the goals of this trilogy was to maintain as much of the scenes from the original animation as possible. So there would be points, particularly here in the first movie, where you would be enjoying beautifully rendered animation from the 2000's, and then s...

It's getting really close to Christmas, so I thought I'd throw this project up my friends and I did before they went out of town. Powered by Podbean.com We get foolish on this ep, with the entire cast here to talk about all things jolly. (And Christmas-y.) Enjoy.

Setting: Exhausted. Schoolwork hitting hard. Just trying to keep up, do my best, and never give up no matter what they threw at me. Yeah, this song was on repeat my first semester.

This is an old song, but I played the crap out of it at the beginning of the year, as I was embracing my new life as a college student.

My Pull List, admittedly, is mostly superheroes. DC and Marvel superheroes, at that. But BOOM! Studios has been releasing a lot of awesome comics lately, and a lot of them right out of my childhood. Any kid that grew up in the nineties had the pleasure of seeing Disney Afternoon, a block of Disney cartoons that aired in the afternoons in syndication, and one which spawned both iconic properties (Gargoyles), and "cult hits" (Mighty Ducks). One of the biggest of these, without a doubt, was Darkwing Duck. An affectionate parody of superheroes (Batman in particular, but all pulp heroes really), Darkwing Duck was one of my favorite cartoons of all-time, both then and now. It came as an immense surprise when I learned the character was being given his own comic book (an ongoing, no less), but from what I've read (and heard), it's the real deal. If you're a fan of the cartoon, this is it, in comic book form. The art, the characters, and the plots--they're all sp...

Since my early teen years, I have been a fan of the third Robin (now Red Robin), Tim Drake . I'm not completely certain as to "why". It could be that he was relateable, at that age. He was a teenager that WANTED to be a hero, training hard under Batman and Lady Shiva to be the best crimefighter he could, never shirking his duties, but simultaneously being very much a teenager at school. It could be that I was envious of his demeanor. The calm, logical way he approached his career as Robin was and is something I would like to emulate in my everyday life. Or it could be that he's just been in awesome comics since I first read about him in Young Justice and his 180+ issue Robin series, a trend that continues with this new comic, Red Robin . Initially, I had all sorts of problems with this comic, something the people over at ComicBloc forums can easily attest to. The opening twelve issue arc had me in an actual nerd rage (which can only happen over miniscule crap ...

Part fifteen, coming your way. Melty Lancer Admittedly, when you talk to me sometimes, I can come off like a chauvinist. It's not *all* the time, but I'm willing to cop to it, primarily because it's mostly just jokes. When I feel like being funny, I do NOT pull punches, and sometimes people can mistake that for my being a sexist jerk. But jokes are exactly that--jokes. I love strong women, both in real life and fiction, and some series succeed or fail based on whether I think they pass the test of them actually *being* strong. (Same with the guys. Weakness does not entertain me.) This is how Melty Lancer made it on this list. I love shows set in space to begin with, but noticing the all-female cast of "special forces" police, I kinda figured there would be some badassery going on. This, is what I get for thinking. Initially, this six episode OVA displayed a group of characters that were just awesome as I wanted them to be...for about five minutes, and th...

Different anime, same bat-channel. Yozakura Quartet I'm guessing Yozakura Quartet is an awesome manga. I say "I'm guessing", because I've never really read it. I haven't read ahead, don't know any friends--but you can always tell. Japan has a habit of adapting manga that are not even close to completion (Or have just started. See: Omamori Himari) in order to fill out more programming hours. As a result, the adaptation always feels like there's chunks of the universe missing, the story incomplete. For most manga, this is a death knell (again, see: Omamori Himari), often reducing a decent plotline and interesting characters to stereotypical protagonists and a fluff story, but in YQ's case, the good parts of the original story come shining through. The incomplete part still remains though, as we're given a story about a city of humans and youkai who have slowly learned to live together, and a villain trying to destroy their harmony, that feel...

Let's knock out a few more of these. City Hunter: .357 Magnum I'd like to say I remembered exactly what happened in this movie, but man...I'd be lying. Now I know what they mean when people say it's better to be hated or loved, never in between. What I took away from this movie is that the main character, Ryo, is probably a bad-ass, which was obvious to begin with. His sidekick, who's name fails me at the moment (just checked--Kaori), is the start of those really annoying tsundere-types, and there's an assortment of interesting characters that surrounds Ryo. Other than that, it was a fairly forgettable use of about 87 minutes, but I'm not discouraged from continuing with the City Hunter franchise , as it's one of the few anime franchises that existed before the 2000 boom.

Match 3: IMPACT EXCITER'S Silent Bible vs. i-magination's Pure DIAMOND. Silent Bible: ...Can we just, go ahead and make this the next Nanoha opening? While the title annoys me, the song itself is absolutely beautiful. There's a bit of "Starting Over" to this song, with the cacophony of different sounds all mixed together--strings, guitar, drums, piano. The song has a mystical feel to it, and Mizuki-san displays her vocal range and ability to switch up her pacing well. Seriously. This has got to be the next Nanoha opening. Not Vivid, but for Force maybe? Pure DIAMOND: Just as a starting point--love the title. Pretty intro--piano leading into a heavy guitar, then back to a piano as Okui-sama begins singing. I confess, at times like this, I do wish I understood Japanese, as I'm curious as to what she's singing about--the emotion in her voice during the verses is solemn and during the chorus it's almost pained, and definitely chilling. This song ...

Let's switch it away from the relationship-y type stuff. (Sorta.) I'm not really the club music guy (obviously), but I kinda took to the beat on this one, as it's closer to the kind of stuff I normally bump. The song itself is proof that you don't need a recording studio to make dope songs. It's a little ahead of the game, so don't get hipster when you hear this song on the radio. ("Man, I knew 'bout this dude 'fore he was popular!" LOL.)

More brilliance from Timothy DeLaGhetto (a Fresh Prince reference, for those not paying attention), AKA Traphik. A remake of a Justin Timberlake song, both he and a guy named Eebsofresh work together to make a track that's probably much better than the original:

In spite of my best efforts to catch up on my comics, over two years later I'm still behind several months. (It's entirely possible, actually, I am more behind now than when I started.) However, I remain totally unwilling to give up. Keeping that in mind, I have decided to "streamline" my list of comics, keeping only those that make me happy and excited to read comics. So I'm going through the 2011 February Solicitations, picking out what's awesome, and (briefly) detailing why, for those who are interested. So as to keep from having to read dozens of comics at once, I'll be posting a series to read as I catch up on it, one at a time.

Another song from my favorite piano pop songstress, Sara Bareilles. Beautiful voice, nice lyrics with a good groove. Plus, for a break-up song, it's almost cheerful because of the music.

Let's switch to a happier song, and over to Japanese music for a little bit. Hoping one day I can share this one with a girl, and yes I realized I used this once before--shut up, it's a great song. m-flo's excellent for relationship songs.

Project Otaku Powerlevelling continues! By the end of May, I had already completed 12 series--well on my way to finishing all 50 shows. But I was running into a different problem. I was running behind on the NEW anime I had picked up for the Spring season. So Traveler and I picked three OVAs we could finish within a couple days, and spend the first week of June catching up on the Spring shows. We picked: Iczer-One, Compiler, and Dangaioh. Let's start with: Iczer-One See, I should've known this series would suck when I checked MAL and a reviewer talked about how the series fell into the horror genre. But it fooled me with the random act of lesbian sex at the start. (Male readers are thinking: "Would've fooled me too...") Just as randomly however, we find innocent people being ripped apart by scary looking tentacle monsters from the inside, the main character is having nightmarish hallucinations, and my fun RAPIDLY comes to an end. I was MASSIVELY pissed abou...

I've always looked at Spider-Man as a character who's just there. His cartoons are usually great, but aside from that I never think about the guy. This isn't a big deal, as I feel that way about most comic book characters. They're only interesting if a writer I feel is talented begins working on them. So when Mark Waid, one of my favorite writers of all-time, joined the Spider-Man "Brain Trust" that wrote for Amazing Spider-Man during the two year period during which it was released three times every month, I *had* to give the comic book a shot. As it turned out to be even better than I thought, I continued to follow the series even through the shifting writer/artist teams for every arc, and the quality remained consistent. The "three times monthly" release schedule ended a couple months ago (downgrading to only twice monthly, but with an increased page count), but the title has been handed over to Dan Slott, one of the most consistent writers from...

*So, it's about that time again. January is like a few weeks away, so before I'm swamped with schoolwork, I may as well pick out the anime of interest coming out this Winter. Wolverine What It Is: Wolverine is the second part of the Marvel Anime series, where Marvel's most popular characters are reinterpreted for a Japanese audience. This one centers around Wolverine during one of his trips to Japan. Why I'm Interested: 'Cause it's a Marvel anime, mainly. Wolverine isn't exactly one of my favorite characters. But, each series appears to lead into one another, so there you go. Infinite Stratos What It's About: Japan engineered an armed powered exoskeleton "Infinite Stratos" (IS) and it became the mainstream of weapons. Since only women can operate IS, women dominate the society over men. Orimura Ichika is a 15 year old boy and accidentally touches an IS placed in the IS pilot training school. He is found to be the only man who can operate...