Armored Core Nexus

First time i wrote full blown opinion of this series which i should've done a long time already being a big fan of the series. I've had plan back then to play Armored Core Nexus ever since i finished Last Raven on my Vita (and i have beaten final pulverizer too) years ago, but my laptop at that time was too weak to run the game. As of now i have finished my first playthrough and i kinda see how Nexus attract many haters due to some flaws. As for me i find the game to be still decent but kinda lack of punch, the one that makes AC3, Silent Line and Last Raven more memorable. Also in this post i will share some of my opinion about what makes this series so appealing.

Gunka no Baltzar/Balzer

Another promising manga i happen to see when lurking the web as long as the author doesn't screw up. From a first glance the series give an impression of mixture of Koukoku no Shugosha, Pumpkin Scissors and a sprinkle of Valkyria Chronicles. The story roughly take place in 19th century-esque setting narrating about the life of Bernd Baltzar, a promising young officer of Weissen;roughly equivalent of Germany who is climbing up through promotions and suddenly find himself sent to Allied nation which kinda resemble Austria to serve as Instructor adviser in military academy but it turns out his task is not a simple one as he is given an important role that may affect the relationship of different nations.

The main selling point of the series is to show a glimpse of Europe looks like in 19th Century with the dawn of Industrial Age that follows with Twilight of Line Infantries and Monarchy and sprinkled with ideas of Socialism. While the story takes on fictional setting, so far the manga displayed these characteristics very well. The main Character Bernd Baltzar is well written character too, he doesn't need any Hax power to accomplish his goals unlike those recent emo betamax shonen protags. He just rely on his wits to get through sticky situations and his promotions are no fluke either as Baltzar is competent in both Military and Killings. Even so while he is good at killing and sometimes resort to utilitarian method, he still have his Conscience which makes his character likable. Also i find that Baltzar kinda look like younger Zengar from SRW for some reason. I wonder if he will get together with his reverse trap student. Anyway if you like this manga you can give Koukoku no Shugosha a read as well.

Figma P3 Protagonist / Makoto Yuki

 While i am browsing figures of Makoto Yuki to complement D-Arts Thanatos which i am planning to get, i find a promotional poster about him getting a figma treatment which immediately puts my attempt to get his figure on hold. While up until now Makoto Yuki got couple of figures for him, he still doesn't get as much attention compared to his fabulous successor Yu Narukami thus doesn't get much mainstream treatment he much deserved. With the Persona 3 Movie airing i guess the series get more opportunities to chug out more merchandise. The figma announcement comes out around Wonderfest this year which for some reason i didn't notice. Soon enough we should get to see the prototype of the figma and i assume the price shouldn't be much different compared to Figma Yu Narukami.

 As generic as the name sounds the P3 Protagonist is named Makoto Yuki for a reason. In chinese
(i imagine the meaning in Japanese probably the same) 结成 理 means "forming the truth" or "becoming the truth" which are really aligned with Persona series core theme since they are based on Jungian Philosophy. While Yu Narukami is more popular guy because he is more fabulous i still prefer Makoto since subjectively speaking i find him more badass compared Yu for some reason. I have watched the first 2 movies and so far Makoto is kinda antisocial i just wonder if he will be as awesome as his incarnation in the game.

Armored Core 1/72 Crest Evangel CR-C89E Oracle

  Since i got new Laptop i am able to run PCSX2 once again and played Armored Core Nexus which is surprisingly fun though wonder why /m/ hate this game. Ever since i finished All of the routes in Last Raven years ago, my skill in this game has improved vastly and going through Nexus is rather smooth.  As I got back into AC series again, i kinda want to talk about Armored Core kits and this time i would like to feature Oracle the AC piloted by Evangel, a Raven who appeared in both Nexus and Last Raven. This version of Oracle is from Last Raven where Evangel acts as the Posterboy for Alliance. Appearance wise compared to other AC kits out there, Oracle gives the Main Hero kind of vibe due to its balanced armament and color scheme. However Evangel is more like a douche despite his protagonist mech depiction but in the end he do still have some redeeming features.

Combat wise Evangel is deadly in Middle-Close Combat since he can kill you really fast with his Linear Gun on his arm and his back. When it comes to piloting AC, Evangel is stronger than Jack-0 but still no better than Zinaida and He is the strongest in the mission where you are sent by Vertex to hunt him down though the 2nd Arena fight with him in Nexus are no Pushover either. The kit price is almost on par with AC4 kits costing around 4000 Yen but if opportunity arises i will get one. Also this is how Evangel looks like in AC Nexus

Muv-luv Integral Works

Should have posted this when i finished Alternative but seeing the recent kickstarter attempt by Age to bring Muvluv series to the west makes me kinda want to write a post about this. While now i still hate the series since it was ruined by fanservice and ultranationalist pandering, but i do still like mecha designs which are the best part of the series in my opinion. The series do have the artbook specifically for the TSFs called Integral Works which contained most of the TSF designs, personally i find Ni0 did good job on designing the mecha for the series. The book has been out for a long time already and cost around 4000 Yen, would have got one if i could find cheap copy though prolly i will save the opportunity till i went to Japan. Probably i have said this many times but Muvluv as series went well till Alternative even though it is not the most original thing ever. But afterwards the series just went downhill went it goes tryhard route and things gets rather derpy and adding balloon tits along with "Japan is the Master Race" attitude just make things even worse. Nevertheless i will still collect the Volks A3 and the Koto kits

Knights of Sidonia ended

That was rather unexpected that the series ends this fast and the ending was rather anticlimactic but Knights of Sidonia did end the serialization with its 78th Chapter. While it was rather abrupt the ending is quite sweet and in some way Nagate did managed to meet Hoshijiro Shizuka in the end. I wonder if the serialization was intentionally cut short though the ending was an open one and could continue if Nihei wants it. Personally i find the main source driving the stories are the character interactions since Gauna is kinda like STMC and doesn't really have personality and probably Ochiai's treachery drive the story this far. I will give the anime a watch if they managed to cover up till the manga conclusion. I wonder if Nagate's last mecha will get a plamo too?

Recent Nendoroid Loots

  During my stay here in China i have been shopping online from Taobao alot. You can find lots of things there and it is easier for me to buy Japanese related stuffs  compared to browsing Evilbay. These are my recent Haul and i got them for decent price too. The first loot is the bomberman toys on the left which is the Super Bomber Armor which you can combine 3 different vehicles to form Giant Robot. I used to have this toy when i was a kid and got this for 50 RMB which is really good deal considering it was quite a vintage and quite impossible to find the japanese copy now. The rest of the loots are 2 Nendoroids which are Erica Fontaine and Nyaruko. While i don't really collect Nendos, they just happen to have the characters from the series i followed, as for Erica's i got her from supposedly official outlet of GoodSmile in China which is located in Shanghai. Won't review them anytime soon till i went back home and got the proper props. As for the Super Bomber Armor ,here is the look of the Combined robot form of the toys which will look more glorious once painted.

Non Scale Astranagant

Koto has been slow on SRW series over past few years and more focused on the newer model but didn't expect Astranagant would get a turn to get his model considering he is rather curvy to sculpt. If you noticed i used Astranagant and Dis as my Banner's blog since they are some of the most badass mecha in SRW verse(more like OP though). The release date and price is not confirmed yet but i would expect around 6000-8000 yen range.

Astranagant is the end game boss in SRW Alpha piloted by Ingram Plisken, double agent sent by Balmar to infiltrate Earth though Ingram who at some point mentored Ryusei for a while. In terms of Firepower Astranagant is one of the most powerful unit rivalling Granzon and its equivalent, and its successor Dis can erase an existence easily. Ingram himself is quite badass antihero since he serves no one and even tried to take down Euzeth himself. In OGverse He also serves the same role in Alpha though he piloted R-Gun Rivale instead of Astranagant since Euzeth suspected him for some reason. My SRW lore is really rusty now and i should get back to the series at some point. Once i had my painting tools again definitely i would get this guy but not at this moment. I wonder if Koto would do Dis as well since he is one of my wishlist for a long time already.

Variable Action KG-6 Sleipnir

I watched Aldnoah Zero which is mediocre i guess since it got good visual and terrible main casts with terrible storyline but it got diggable mecha nonetheless. Megahouse adds another of their Variable Action lineup with the Aldnoah Zero Posterboy, Earth Faction mainstay Cataphract; Sleipnir. The model has been released early this year with price around 8000 yen. This version of Sleipnir is originally used as training units due to lighter frames and lesser armor but later used by Inaho A.K.A Mary Sue of the year as his Cataphract fighting against Vers Cataphracts. At its core design Sleipnir is a real robot but due to the broken skill off the Pilot, it is able to put toe to toe with Vers Super Robot-ish Cataphracts. As the name implies which is based on Norse Myth where Sleipnir is the steed of Deity Chief Odin, the one in this series is like one too since in the middle of the series, Inaho get even more broken with artificial eye replacement. Personally i find Aldnoah Zero is pretty forgettable due to terrible writing but i guess it has to do with the current taste of the audience which are getting worse each year. Anyway sometime soon the Sleipnir will get its space pack which has been used extensively on the second part of the series and i wonder if Tharsis will get any Variable action too? Actually scratch that, Tharsis got one but it costs whopping 24000 yen

Disgaea 4 Vita first playthrough

Another quite long gap of posting here due to plenty of distractions and such with one of those distractions is playing my way through Disgaea 4. I have played the 1st till the this one but only actually finished 2nd and 4th and due to the grindfest nature of the game it obviously too get the most out of the content. As for the 4th Disgaea i intended to unlock all the job class at very least which i am halfway through. Personally i find Disgaea 4 is kinda weak, even though the Story characters are interesting, the stage and props are kinda weak.Valvatorez would have been really cool character if not for the overuse of his Sardine Jokes. Compared to Disgaea 3 the generic classes are really cut down here so some of my favorites are not available in this game but again the game mechanics is getting better despite i missed combining the special attacks. While Disgaea 4 didn't use its potential to its fullest i still like Valvatorez and Artina pairing which could have been one of the best couple in the series since Adell and Rozalin. I will get Disgaea 5 if it ever goes portable which i doubt anytime soon and here some more Pics of the ValxArtina pairings

Sakura Taisen 2 Playthrough part 2

Maria,Sumire and Reni's Ending completed!

Sakura Taisen 2 Ending CGs

• Maria Ending
• Sumire Ending
• Reni Ending

Omamori Himari

Rather generic Youkai manga but the harem element certainly done well here, or probably its only redeeming point. Again seeing the pic on /a/ makes me giving the manga a read. The story is about a boy who possess Demon Hunter Blood and upon reaching age 16 he met beautiful cat girl who claimed to be his protector and shit hits the fan from there one and the boy slowly gain his harems. As i said the story is as generic as it gets and i kinda find the story flow is rather horrible and i doubt the anime is any better. But this is one of those few manga that the MC gets to tap his Harems even though it only happen on last chapter and the MC is not too Beta as well. Favorite girl in the manga is the MC's Fiancee who seems cold but very adorable when she went Dere mode. Also here is the Harem scene pic that makes me read the manga, since it is abit risque so tread with your own discretion

Mushoku Tensei -Isekai Ittara Honki Dasu-

Marathoning the translated WN after reading the last Arifureta and while i got some complaints about the series it is still enjoyable read at the end. Out of the reincarnation based Fantasy i heard Mushoku Tensei is one of the popular one though just like most WNs it is not that outstanding but still passable. Like the similar pandering series, the series main protagonist is a fat loser otaku who died miserable death and end up reborn as a child named Rudeus in RPG esque world with surprisingly high talent of Magic. As Rudeus grows up he meets different strong people, explored the world, gathering harems and end up serving powerful being to fight against scheming deity. From the way the story being told, Rudeus story served as prologue of the Author's series which is not clear yet.

Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou

Watching how /a/ raged on this series i decided gave the translated Web Novel a shot and overall it is pretty much amalgamation of Tate Yuusha and RE:Monster. The premise is about a beta-guy end up transferred to RPG world along with his classmates and being the weakest he eventually got betrayed and left for dead. Raged being betrayed, the beta eventually turned to emo/edgy OP Alpha guy with harem of multiracial girls lusting for him. The series pretty much comes out from the latest trend of reincarnation of beta dude becoming most op guy ever and steamrolling the bad dudes which is just pretty much a platform of self-inserts for otaku dude. In terms of writing, it is on par with Tate Yuusha so it is rather mediocre and uninspired. The only redeeming point of the series is that Arifureta got one of the best Vampire Loli and the MC actually tapped her. At the moment the translated WN is halfway through the series and currently the Japanese version is supposedly on the last arc. Given that i bothered to give the series a read, i might just finished the whole series.

Here is the link for the WN translation:

Translated WN

Original WN

Ghost in the Shell Arise

A worthy continuation of the series indeed! Initially when the new design was released i thought the new OVA going to suck but as i watched the 4 OVAs GiTS Arise has proven itself. While appearance-wise it is different, Arise still retains the essence of the series which attracted its fans; what you found in previous series titles you will still find in Ghost in the Shell: Arise. The OVA still tells the story about the adventure of Major Motoko Kusanagi investigating crimes that usually always end up to conspiracies related to government and kicking some ass at the same time. The OVA serves more like the SAC prequel around the part where she assemble her elite team of Section 9 but at the end of the OVA there are some foreshadowing to things linked to SAC's story. In terms of looks, Motoko's new design is less sensual compared to SAC's Motoko and emphasized more on cool factor. While Atsuko Tanaka doesn't reprise Motoko's role this time, Maaya Sakamoto did very good job on portraying Motoko considering she's one of the better VA imo just not too popular for some reason. While it was a pity that Origa no longer able to contribute more GiTS soundtrack, the current one is quite good enough. So for those GitS fans who are hesitant to give the new series a watch, hesitate no more and give the OVA a watch.