The weekly Anime Review was started to get rid of my backlog, and it’s surprising how short that backlog is considering I’m only getting to one title a week.  I need to get some more crap.

Anyway, here’s the stuff I’m following now in various forms.  I’ve noticed that some of the titles I’ve picked up are similar to projects I’m working on, and I’ve thankfully gone past where such a revelation would depress me.  Similarities are everywhere, but similar is not same.  Though I do have to admit, it sometimes makes me think there really is a morphogenetic field thing going on.

Manga
Manga is pretty much the only medium I’m up to date with when it comes to current series.  I used to exclusively stick to buying books, but so much good stuff just doesn’t get licensed.  Of course, if I actually am collecting the books, I won’t spoil myself with scans.  As it is, I’m still waiting for the final volume of Negima!, which has been a fun ride.  Ditto Excel Saga, which is still the best manga no one’s reading.

Ubel Blatt
Ubel Blatt is fantasy-setting revenge story about a boy who was betrayed by his best friends and left for dead.  Those men became known as the Seven Heroes, and the people they killed were branded as the Four Lances of Betrayal.  The Four Lances of Betrayal were actually the four heroes that ended the war while the “Seven Heroes” ran from the battle, only to betray the four in order to silence them while they took all the glory for themselves.  In other words, total douchebags.  Our hero Koinzell (real name Ascheritt) is one of the Four Lances of Betrayal on a vendetta against the Seven Heroes, but because of the elven blood he ingested, he doesn’t age and looks completely different, so none of the Seven Heroes knows it’s him.  When I first picked this up last year, I immediately noticed the surface similarities to Bardass!  And it predates the conception of Bardass! by two years (Ubel Blatt started 2007 while I came up with Bardass! in May 2009, though then it went by the tentative name “Project: Conquer the World Through Song!).  Of course, the main themes of the two series are completely different, and while Koinzell is a major badass, Brier is depowered and often helpless.  So now that the comparison is aside, I love Ubel Blatt for… well, everything.  The characters, the world setting, the backstories, the suspense of the main story, and just how badass Koinzell is in general.  Everything about it is well crafted, and it’s easy to lose sight of that fact considering the blatant fanservice that gets thrown in to hook shallow readers in.

Magi
Magi is an amazing adventure manga that follows (not that) Aladdin and (almost that) Alibaba as they dive into mysterious dungeons and occasionally help people in need.  I really can’t go into a lot of detail about the overall story arc because the fun is in seeing how it all expands in scale.  Magi is also freaking hilarious and has lovable characters all over the place.  One thing I don’t like about it is how it eventually devolves into what I’ve grown to refer to as a “magic trinket battle” series.  Though considering the rest of the series on this list… I’m wondering whether that’s a bad thing or a good thing.  I will go out on this note: Morgianna is pretty much Svennia.  Well, combat-wise anyway.  Physically and character-wise, they’re mostly completely different.

Akame ga Kiru!
Akame ga Kiru! is about a skilled fighter and former country boy that encounters first-hand the horrors of the capital and joins the terrorist group Night Raid.  Akame ga Kiru! skirts between light-heartedness and dark, making it heavy on Mood Whiplash.  Be prepared to fall in love with characters and see them brutally killed off five chapters later.  It’s also a “magic trinket battle” series, as every member of Night Raid is the owner of a magical item with a special and unique property.

Gate: Thus the JSDF Fought There
Gate is what happens when a magical gate appears in the middle of Tokyo, and an army of fantasy RPG cliches comes out of it.  After some initial chaos, they get completely curbstomped by modern technology.  The JSDF then sends in an expedition force to cross the gate and learn about the world beyond it.  With tanks, copters, and submachine guns at their side, the medieval-level soldiers are made sorry they ever crossed worlds.  Outside of that, much of Gate is about culture shock in both ends and efforts to understand each other’s worlds.  Notably, I had an idea (which I came up with later in the same month as Bardass!) I only referred to as “Project: Reverse Star Ocean,” where an RPG hero party crash landed into Earth via their “ancient airship,” and they are immediately arrested and forced to acclimatize to our culture.  After seeing Gate, I didn’t get depressed at all, but I recognized that it’s a better implementation of that concept than what I would have done, so there’s no need to pursue it.  Notably, this is probably the only series in my list that has almost no fanservice in it.  Almost.

Maoyuu Mao Yuusha “Be Mine, Hero” “I refuse!”
This is what happens when the RPG hero reaches the Demon Queen, and, instead of fighting it out, they have a discussion.  The hero (named Hero) and the Demon Queen join forces to make both their worlds better.  Much of the series is heavy on economics, and almost every character goes by their role rather than by a name.  And it’s awesome because of that.  It makes it easy to remember my favorite characters like Big Sis Maid, Female Knight, and Merchant.  I always wanted to implement economic concerns in some of my stories, but I never had the opportunity to pull it off in a way I liked.  Maoyuu pulls it off effortlessly by making economy the primary concern of the series, but still having the time to develop lovable characters and tell an enthralling political drama at the same time.

Bleach
I should think we’re all familiar with Bleach by now.  I’m thoroughly enjoying everything about the Quincy arc right now.  Haters can suck it.  Bleach is probably the first thing that comes to mind when I use the phrase “magic trinket battle,” because for the longest time a lot of it was way too concerned with revealing what special abilities each character’s swords had.  I don’t think we’ve seen the end of it, but there’s been a whole lot less of it in this arc, and for that I’m grateful.  Also, I’m going to use this time to go out and say that my silly hope for this arc / end of series is Ichigo ending up with Tatsuki, as it’s the only pairing that makes any sense to me.  Of course, if it were up to me, the big reveal would be that Tatsuki got pregnant during the time skip and the audience has yet to be made aware.  I have no idea why this is so important to me, but it is.  Kubo.  Make it happen, and together we can swim in mainstream shipper tears.

Anime

Um… Holy crap, I’m not actually following any anime right now.  Or ever.  The last and only time I followed an anime currently airing was Phantom.  And that was primarily because of Cal.  I will tell you that I am looking forward to the Sailor Moon remake later this year, and I do have the first Neon Genesis Evangelion movie on Blu, still waiting for me to watch.  Ditto .hack//Quantum.  As for retro anime, I am currently biding my time to acquire Shonan Bakusozoku, Robot Carnival, and the rest of Gaiarth and Legend of Himiko.

Wait.  My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is airing in Japan now.  Does that count?  I need to see that subbed… Japanese versions of Art of the Dress and Becoming Popular?  Yes please.

Games
First off, I have to mention that I am a PS Vita owner, and as such I get excited over every little thing coming out.  I’m really eager to play Soul Sacrifice, and I am disappointed that I won’t be playing any of the various blatant fanservice games where you fondle girls’ naughty parts.

Persona
It was a real struggle to play through Persona, and I neglected it for months before picking it up again.  I think I’m at a place where it’s actually starting to get good, but the battle system is just not very good.  I like the positioning system, and I enjoy the aspect of equipping Personas.  I just hate how random random encounters get.  Most of the battles I’m tearing through without a problem, but then I come across enemies that are immune to or reflect my main nuke.  No biggie; I switch tactics because I have a pretty great Persona / party setup going.  But the problem lies with how I can get party wiped with just one bad encounter where 4/5 party members are charmed every single turn and there’s nothing I can do about it.  Or how 90% of the time I don’t even need to worry about healing because enemies do pitiful damage, but then I come across one enemy that uses a spell that’s super effective against two Personas I use.  But the worst part is how blatant the branch is for the bad ending.  You have to give three correct answers to Mai, and you have no idea just how important this is to your quest.  It doesn’t even make sense why those specific answers and only those answers work.  They’re just “good answers.”  Of course, I’ve been playing RPGs forever so I knew that this stupid selection was going to end up being important for no good reason, so I kept resetting until I got the answers right.

Patchwork Heroes
Patchwork Heroes is a game about literally sawing airships apart into tiny pieces.  It’s absurdly fun and requires some fast-paced, on-the-fly strategy to get through the later levels.  I dunno why it isn’t as popular as it ought to be.
Guild Wars 2
GW2 is something that’s been taking up most of my free time.  I’m already the proud owner of a Legendary weapon (Incinerator), and I’ve made TWO Natsume characters and built them up to level 80.  I’m still fooling around with their builds though.  I still plan on taking screencaps aplenty once they’re both perfect.

Phantasy Star Online 2
I’m pretty on-and-off when it comes to PSO2.  I still need to record footage of Natsume in battle now that she’s got a set of Twin Daggers.  She completely wipes the floor with some bosses just because she can keep dealing damage in mid-air while completely safe from every single attack they toss at her.  Broken as hell, and I love it.

Netflix

Quantum Leap
ONE OF THESE SERIES IS NOT LIKE THE OTHERS.  *ahem* I don’t know why I started watching Quantum Leap.  Or rather, I don’t know why it took me this long to get invested into the series.  I always had a vague idea of what the series is about, but I never had the proper opportunity to start watching.  When I started watching I treated it like it was something silly, but then I grew to appreciate it and the core characters (Sam and Al) and respect the skills of Scott Bakula.  Sure, most of the episodes are either an exercise in promoting gender/racial/other equality or an excuse to have Scott Bakula make out with another hot chick, but ultimately, it’s entertaining because of one unbreakable rule of media: time travel hijinks are always fun!  You can’t make a bad time travel comedy, or even dramedy.  It can’t be done.  And screw anyone who says otherwise; Hot Tub Time Machine was fucking hilarious.

ComicsYeah, I read comics now.
No time to go into detail.  Posting the pull list and doing a quick overview of my thoughts.

Suicide Squad
Superior Spider-Man
Uncanny X-Men
Wolverine and the X-Men
Mega Man
Animal Man
All-New X-Men

Hmm… I think it’s shrunk recently.  Animal Man has been quality its entire run, and I’ll continue to follow it.  Uncanny is really good now, especially since Tempus is awesome.  Though I do have a major problem with the art direction.  Sometimes you just can’t tell the difference between Emma Frost and Magik unless you try.  That shouldn’t be the case.  Wolverine and the X-Men has been pretty consistently entertaining, IMO.  Problem is, it’s just not THAT good.  I thought the first post-Schism Uncanny run started out better, then it got worse, then it got better again, then it got unbearably bad at around Avengers vs. X-Men.  WatX did well to stay the hell away from A vs. X and do its own thing.  Mega Man has its ups and downs, but I actually like some of its original characters, and their direction with Protoman/Blues/Break Man is promising.  It’s just a shame that it has to take a backseat to the Sonic crossover.  Suicide Squad’s current arc is pretty damn boring, but I have to stick with Suicide Squad because it’s currently my only hope for the reappearance of Mitch Shelley, the Resurrection Man.  Not enough of you followed Resurrection Man.  I blame ALL OF YOU for his book being canceled, and you should ALL feel ashamed of yourselves for failing Mitch.  All-New X-Men involves time travel hijinks.  Lastly, everything about Superior Spider-Man is awesome, and I continue to laugh derisively at everyone who’s still butthurt over how Amazing Spider-Man 700 ended.

I used to follow Deadpool, but I like Way’s Deadpool best (suck it, haters) and after the end of the new Deadpool’s first arc (killing zombie presidents, while entertaining, dragged on for way too long), I don’t know if I’m in it for the long haul.  I’ll check in to see how the new arc goes, and if I don’t like it, I’m dropping it.