Tears to Tiara anime

It is like 4-5 years already that i played the original VN of Tears to Tiara and recently i give the anime a fast run. Overall the anime feels plain just like other VN adaptations though it does has its redeeeming factor. Tears to Tiara is somewhat can be compared as the western equivalent of Utawarerumono since both games are published by Aquaplus. Unlike the PC game, the anime used the new character design which is shared by the PS3 version of the game but it still follows the same story. What makes me like Tears to Tiara is that it has interesting background settings for a fantasy series. Compared to Utawarerumono i still prefer the former since you can get easily attached with the characters in Utaware though by no means the characters in Tears to Tiara are bad however both series shares common issue which is lack of competent antagonists. The story of Tears to Tiara revolves around a self proclaimed demon king named Arawn who was resurrected prematurely and find himself leading a tribe and constantly getting Harem while trying to fulfill his promise with his old friend.

The anime feels really lacking mainly due to lack focus of the romance which the VN got plenty.While Utawarerumono anime still got the harem element playing for some reason Tears to Tiara just drop the whole thing and just become straight fantasy series.  However the anime did one thing right which is portraying Arawn's past which i would say it is well executed. The anime songs are nice as well but still i prefer Utawarerumono's. One thing that TtT got better over Utawarerumono is that they got better selections of figurine crafted by Kotobukiya which i wished bought it back then but probably i will just hunt for them when i go to Japan. Recently Tears to Tiara 2 is announced to brought to the west which i may play if it ever goes to Vita but for now i will just play the first Tears to Tiara again on my psp.

Cospa Free Planet Alliance Jacket

If i am asked to do LoGH cosplay i will choose doing Free Planet Alliance over Galactic empire not because i prefer FPA but i find their costume is cooler while being simple. I have been wishing for a good jacket that i can use as FPA Soldier's uniform for a while already and never had a luck finding it. But recently i guess my wish is granted in some way, Cospa recently announced their version of FPA jacket which will be released on this October directly for sale in the Japanese anime convention. Up until now i only know Cospa for making T-shirts but with this release it changes my opinion about them. The jacket looks good but i find the price is too steep, the Jacket will be released on this October for the price of 30000 Yen which is just too expensive for its kind of attire. With 30k Yen i could make 2 good quality suits tailor made in my country but i think it is still a good buy if you can spend that amount of cash. I may be planning to have this jacket design tailor made and patched with the Rosenritter emblem which i think i will get it much cheaper and better quality too. Other than Jacket, Cospa will be releasing the Beret which cost almost 5000 yen as well as the detachable Rosen Ritter patch and FPA rank emblem. Over past few months i have been hearing there are some plans for rebooting LoGH anime which i don't think it need any. If Cospa ever release a Galactic Empire uniform i bet it will cost 100000 yen. Also here is the picture of the beret

Matrix Trilogy

Never watched the series when it was aired on cinemas but the part of the movie that gave me lasting impression is the scene where Neo dodged the bullet in Slow motion in first Matrix even though i didn't watch the movies until now. Overall i can say the Matrix trilogy is a rollercoaster ride, First is the best for being thought provoking while Reloaded not as good as the first but redeem itself for having coolest action scenes that i have ever seen in movies and Revolutions is unfortunately a train wreck.

The first movie is the one that captivate people the most, it shows interesting ideas mixed with philosophies and i really like the scene where Morpheus asked Neo "what is real"? This makes me still wonder how Matrix Revolutions for some reason could turned 180 degree and end up in disappointment. The main focus of the movie series is about the Matrix itself which is the artificial world that kept human imprisoned while being harvested in real world as Human Duracell and for some reason the Third movie just neglect on this part and focusing on the real world part which is not exactly the strongest part of the series. Revolutions started rather smoothly but in the middle it somehow become mindless actions in Dystopian world that is not cyberpunkish enough.

Nevertheless the First and Second movies are very good which redeem the series itself. I didn't expect a western movie could pull of rather impressive Wire-fus which you usually only see in Hongkong martial art movies. Also from three movies i noticed there are rather plenty of scenes shot in Sydney which i know couple of them notably Martin Place and Museum Station. I still wonder if there will be some continuation of this series someday? i would like to see Neo kicking some ass with his awesome martial arts.

1/72 Liger Zero Jaeger Review

The last time i did a model kit review was more than a year ago and this Liger Zero Jaeger is no exception. I had taken shots of my finished work for this kit last year but since i had trouble posing the kit for midair pose i stopped halfway. However it won't do justice if the kit doesn't get to see the light since i promised to show the finished work through the WIP back then. I don't take much shots for this kit but i think it is sufficient enough to see the difference of the unpainted version.

Wings opened

Zero Jaeger(Hunter in German) is the second CAS form of Liger Zero created by Helic Republic for high speed close combat. Sporting Ion Booster that is even larger than Liger Zero's, Jaeger is capable of manuvering in really high speed for a land based Zoid only rivaled by few like Berserk Fury Z. Since Jaeger frame is meant for speed, the frame doesn't come with extra armament but Liger Zero's Strike Laser Claw is potent enough for a high speed combat considering most of the high speed zoids doesn't have too much armor. In Zoids Legacy Jaeger is the least used CAS for Liger Zero but i have to admit after working on the kit, Jaeger is probably one of the coolest looking form of Liger Zero's CAS

Muramasa Rebirth/Oboro Muramasa

Bought this from PSN when it was like $14 on PSN and it was really worth it even though i could get it cheaper on US PSN. I regret abit that i didn't get this game earlier but at least i finally know what is the deal about this game. Oboro Muramasa is one of the few games that can give you quite lasting impression because the production quality of this game is really high for its genre and the graphic in the game is just simply beautiful...

 

Oboro Muramasa is a 2D  hack'n'slash beat'em up game with a dash of Metroidvania feel which puts you into the shoes of two youths Kisuke and Momohime who are linked by the cursed legendary swords of Muramasa venturing on a quest across the land of Feudal Japan. In the beginning you can choose either character scenario but in the end you will have to play both scenario to get the true end for both characters. What really stands out from Oboro Muramasa is the graphic, as expected from Vanillaware who made Odin Sphere, the landscape in Oboro Muramasa is just really vibrant from the Samurai Castle to Snowy mountain the graphic is just beautiful and the music even make the game more immersive. The drawback from this game is that it can get very repetitive later on since you fight the same mobs from the beginning to the end. So far i have only tried Legend mode which is walk in the park though i heard Chaos is abit harder and Fury would be Challenging. Probably sometime in the future i will be getting the DLCs as well

Out of the 2 Character scenarios, i prefer Kisuke's endings since all of them concluded in somewhat happier tone compared to Momohime's which everything are pretty much bad end when i think about it. I don't think Muramasa needs any sequel but if Vanillaware wants it probably they will be able to pull it off. If you got a PSVita this is one of the good games you can get and i wish someday there will be a Vita port for Odin Sphere.

A Year has passed and still...

Playing Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate! Never expected myself to have such dedication for this series but i guess i can keep myself committed with it as long as i have things to do. It has been more than a year since i bought my 3DS along with MH3U copy and i still play this game from time to time. This screenshot is my Female Hunter character Hilde, which i used  myself to solo all the way through Grank with Sword and Shield and i got her a full Alatreon X set! I had Escadora X set with Ikaruga as well which was painstakingly farmed with Gunlance though i cheesed Ala with Kelbi Bow with Hilde since i can't be bothered to farm that guy too long. Compared to Lucent Narga or Abyssal Lagi set, Escadora X is very lame endgame armor but it serves as a good trophy at least. I have to say my hunter progress as Hilde is rather smooth with SnS which i went through Grank rather easily though i still need Lance for underwater as SnS is way too unreliable on those kind of battle. 

Throughout my journey as SnS user i mainly used these armor set Alloy>Lagombi S>Lagiacrus U>Lambent and i am rather surprised that Ivory Lagi Armor is very good and served me well even on HR7 which i used this set to solo the Dual Brachy without too much struggle. Lambent Set though is very reliable set as well the only downside is its lacking of armor slot and it is probably the best armor in the game if you could add Evade+2 and Challenger+2 on that one. 

Anyway after a year has passed and get to play other MH clones i still wondering the other similar games doesn't have what Monster Hunter have. Surely MH had came a long way before they reach their current fame but for me it is about how the character reflects to the player especially when you play solo. In Monster Hunter series your hunter reflects your skill as a player, if it takes you a long time to kill a monster even with a good set it means that your skill needs to be improved and the monsters that you fought serve as the obstacle for you to master the required skill to defeat them. While 3U has been alot more forgiving compared to previous game, having Endgame set doesn't mean anything if you can't use them properly which is still very true in this 3U Grank. I may not the best hunter when it comes to speedkills but i think i am very good at surviving as a Blademaster and my advice is that use MOI(moments of invisibility) to the fullest and mastering the Evade+ skill is a sign of a good hunter. Probably i will be still playing MH3U until 4 Ultimate comes out and for now i think i am going to try reaching HR100 with my LS guy.

Edge of Tomorrow

Never planned to watch this movie but since i heard good things about it, i decide to give it a go just like other thing. It was surprisingly entertaining movie unlike hollywood adaptation stereotypes which usually end up being terribad. I have read the All you need is Kill manga which shared the same base material with this one and compared to the manga the movie had happier end and less shonen tone. I find the main reason why the movie did really well is mainly because of the base material is good to boot with and rather easy to convert to suit tastes. It still makes me wonder how Tom Cruise looks still so young until now considering he has been active before he played in Top Gun

What makes me include the Muvluv in the header is that because it shares the same template with the source material of Edge of Tomorrow, in a way you can say that Muvluv is All you need is Kill with Giant Robots. Basically the main protagonist is a weak guy but gets stronger after going through loop after loop while dying in the process and in the end the main heroine is the cause why the guy can't get through out of loop. Depending in on what perspective you see Muvluv Alternative either inspired by All you need is Kill (which came earlier btw) or plagiarize it which i think Muvluv borrowed "a little bit too much". I used to like Muvluv series back then but got abit sick of it lately due to poor continuation of the series that goes nowhere which gave me the impression is that Alternative is too unoriginal. Nevertheless i believe the novel probably borrow the inspiration somewhere as well which at the moment i didn't know yet but i believe eventually i will. So Muvluv borrowed heavily on Blue Gender and All you need is kill what else the series borrowed at the time Alternative came to light?

Megaman Battle Network 2

Out of the all Megaman series, either Battle Network or Zero are my favorite ones because I spent quite a lot of time on them during my youth. I have played most of the Battle Network series back then except MMBN2 and I got to finish a playthrough recently. Frankly speaking, MMBN2 is not as good as i expected probably because i was spoiled too much with the later series and arguably one of the easier series for me as well. 

Megaman Battle Network 2 is the MMBN iteration that introduced Style system which will be perfected in MMBN3. Never expected Wood Style in MMBN2 is really broken. One of the major gripes for me in MMBN2 is that the plot feels abit dragged on especially around the Netopia arc where you fight the Gospel Navi in quick succession. 

I feel the cyberworld in MMBN2 is really small for some reason and rather disappointed that Higsby didn't make it in this game. For me MMBN2 is probably the 2nd worst Battle network series but without it there will never be the MMBN3 which is the best one in my opinion while MMBN4 is the worst one. At the moment i am reminiscing my memories with this series by doing another run for most of the games. Probably someday i will be hunting for the merchandise of this series.

Fushigi Yuugi Genbu Kaiden

In my opinion Watase Yuu is one of the best Shoujo mangaka out there even her work is not as popular as Rumiko Sensei. Just now i finished some of my past backlog which is Genbu Kaiden which is the prequel of Fushigi Yuugi. Overall Genbu Kaiden is not perfect in everything but got very good romance and you can see how Watase Yuu's writing matured over time. Simply to say if the original Fushigi Yuugi got the happy ending then Genbu Kaiden had even better romance in the series by far. As the prequel of the Fushigi Yuugi, Genbu Kaiden tells about the story about the journey of Genbu Miko who is the first out of four Celestial beast Miko summoned to book world in the Kingdom of Hokan. As the first Fushigi Yuugi story had laid out, Takiko the Genbu Miko's life ends in her journey but ended in very meaningful one, without her i don't think the other 3 Mikos are able to fulfill their role.

Inuyasha

Felt rather nostalgic recently and picked up Inuyasha manga to read. I read this series when i was in my teens and probably one that gave lasting reflection to me even though i never managed to finish reading it back then. Inuyasha is one of those series which have its main charm to be opposite of the genre it represents, for Inuyasha i feel what makes this series charming is the Shoujo-ish element even the genre the series represents is Shonen one.

Takahashi Rumiko is one of the best female mangaka out there which is the good reason why she is one of the most successful in her field and obviously she made Inuyasha to be memorable one. However just like most long series manga, Inuyasha gets a bit dragged out eventually which i believe around when Moryoumaru showed up since it gradually loses its charm as it gradually devolve to mostly battle manga at that point but still concluded decently even not the best.  My greatest disappointment from Inuyasha is that the Love triangle between Inuyasha, Kagome and Kikyo which made the series interesting is very lacking especially after Shichinin Arc and personally i wished Rumiko sensei could the what if scenario where Inuyasha and Kikyou didn't encounter their tragedy. Nevertheless the first 30 volumes of Inuyasha are very enjoyable which made it a memorable series for me even after ten years. Perhaps someday in the future i will be marathoning the anime series and the movie for old times sake. Also any recommendations for good inuyasha game out there? The PS1 one is quite fun fighting game

Tenku Senki Shurato

Revised January 2026

Shurato was one of those old anime I watched as a kid and it’s the kind of show I now think should have stayed there. I had high hopes for the series before revisiting it, but it’s easy to see why Shurato never became a major hit.

Solatorobo: Red the Hunter

At first i thought this game is a furry game with robot but turns out more than that and i can see why Xseed decided to bring this game to western shore. Solatorobo is probably one of the DS game that is released near the end of DS lifecycle that got really good production value. I am not into furries, in fact i avoid them like plague and i like Solatorobo because it is genuinely good game. The story is typical JRPG and quite lighthearted. In the game you play as Caninu(Canine + Inu) hunter called Red whose daily hunter life changed when he encountered a Felineko(Feline + Neko) called Elh who made a contract with Red to Seal the great Beast Lares before it plunge the world to calamity. The gameplay is rather simple where Red piloted robot called Dahak and Judo throw people around. Also the storyline is divided into 2 parts where the first part feels like whole tutorial.

What i find really charming from this series is the world setting which is just vibrant and colorful, a good one for a JRPG game. I find the mecha designs are very cool as well but quite underused and somehow the mecha kinda reminds me of Tron Bonne and Bumpy trot. As for music they are very good for a DS games and have some feel of .Hack along with it. My gripe for this game is that all of the good stuff in the games are underused and the game is too easy even the final boss is pushover. If Cyberconnect ever plans a sequel for this game i would say it is quite easy for them to pull it off considering the potential of the series are not fully used yet. I will probably play this game until i get the Dahak Omega which is the picture below and going to get Tail Concerto a try.

Super Robot Chogokin GaoFIghGar

It is bound to happen when Genesic GaoGaiGar got its SRC that GaoFighGar will eventually get one as well. Rather late for pre-release post but the SRC will be released on July this year with the price tag of 7500 yen, not as expensive as Genesic but still costly for an SRC. GaoFighGar is Gai's new mecha after Mamoru left Earth with Galeon and capable of purifying Zonder Metal without any problem. The mecha debuted in GaoGaiGar 8 Episodes OVA and saw its rule rather short but aesthetically, GaoFighGar is one of the cooler mecha in the series while still look rather modest. I recalled in Alpha 3 GaoFighGar is still very good Boss Killer despite lacking of any ALL attacks. If you like GGG i would say GaoFighGar would be on the high priority list to get for the SRC.

The World God Only Knows final chapter

Since the last Arc i know things are not going well for this series but i didn't expect The World God only knows would be concluded in sunch really disappointing way. While i don't mind with who Keima ending up with in the series, it feels the story from the last few chapters just fast forwarded and skipped plenty of important details which is the primary reason i see the conclusion for the series to be unsatisfying. I guess the publisher decided to stop the serialization which is why we got such abrupt ending though i suppose it is bound to happen when the author dragged an arc too long. In the end TWGOK ends up like those mangas that interrupted midway and failed to make a significant impact itself. Let see how the Author will cope with this and how the next work will fare any better

Flower

There have been some debates for years already whether game is capable to become an art form and in my opinion, a handful of them can be considered to be an art but indeed majority of games can't be considered as one. One of those game that i considered to be artistic is Flower, a simple title yet offers immersive even though short experience and powerful message. The gameplay is very straightforward, you control a flower petal and try to bloom other flowers in the stage and getting bigger in the process. Throughout the game, Flower try to deliver message about the relationship between human and nature and i feel the wish that this game contains is that someday the relationship between human and nature would be more harmonius than the present which is not that ideal. Flower is quite similar with Journey which is another game developed by the same company as they share the common theme which i believe to be Life, Death and Rebirth though Flower heavily emphasized on the Life part where as Journey focus on the latter aspects.
 
For me an art is a crystallization of human expression manifested in physical form which contain a strong emotion or a wish and Flower fits very well in this description which is why i consider it as a work of art. For a game to be an art it can only rely with its visual and audio to deliver the message which is abit tricky and that's why most of the games are just merely entertainment. If you only like intense action game you probably will not like Flower but if you look to unwind yourself and seek tranquility in game i think you will appreciate this game. I still feel 6 stage is abit short for Flower since i feel alot more can be explored with this game as the medium for instance an oriental stage with interactions of the water ripple with the contrast between past and present would be interesting to see. If you like Flower you may try Zen Bound which got different gameplay but works wonder!