Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Megaman Battle Network 2


Out of the all of the Blue Bomber series either Battle Network or Zero are my favorite ones because pretty much i spent my teen playing those series like crazy. I have played most of the Battle Network series back then except one which was the 2nd and i finished a run recently. Got to say, the 2nd 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. MMBN 2 is the one that introduced style system which the 3rd will perfect it and Wood Style in MMBN2 is really broken. One of the major gripes for me in the 2nd game 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 realIy small for some reason and also abit 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 3rd Game which is the best one in my opinion while 4th 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.

Monday, May 19, 2014

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.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

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

Monday, May 12, 2014

Tenku Senki Shurato


One of those anime that i watched when i was a kid and felt it should have been left that way. I had great hope for this series before i watched it but i can see why Shurato never made it big once i finished the series. To sum it up Shurato is wasted potential just like other many Japanese animes and in the end it become a mere Saint Seiya clone. Shurato have very good character pieces and setting that could be interesting which i see i would make a good darker version of Saint Seiya however the series goes the opposite direction which made it lose its respect slowly. The story is dragged out too long and by the time of 2nd Arc everything went downhill in really fast pace. But what makes it the worst about Shurato for me is that the way Tatsunoko handled the Hinduism lore which serve as the basis of the series is just disrespectul which made impression for me that Japanese are ignorant of other country's culture . I am quite familiar with my Hinduism lore and Vishnu is definitely not a woman (even if the avatar may be) or Shiva a malevolent god and even Atlus didn't do this kind of butchering with their SMT series. Even so i wished Shurato could get the better treatment than this because the series feel really wasted. Probably this series need a reboot that it deserves and if there is ever Tatsunoko vs Capcom 2 i wished Shurato made into the cut. I still wonder if Bandai will ever release an Armor plus for the series as well?