Author: eternal

Miscellaneous

So Apparently There’s This Thing Called Valentine’s Day…

valentines-day

…Where people are supposed to spend time with their loved ones, make and receive chocolate, confess their feelings under a snowy winter sky, and all sorts of other wonderfully rabu-rabu things. Except for the fact that where anime delivers, life generally fails.

That said, I doubt any of you would care to read a thousand word rant filled with teen angst and dating sim references (and for argument’s sake, you probably wouldn’t care to hear a minute-by-minute recount of my nonexistent date either), so I decided to do the only thing I could: turn this into a filler update post. Don’t worry, I have a good enough excuse for not tl;dr-ing about something useful, and if you want to know what it is, I suppose you’ll just have to read on.

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Review

Blood Alone Volume 1: A Vampire is Fine Too

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Blood Alone is an obscure manga about a loli vampire living with a young male novelist, with an air of mystery and intrigue woven into the densely implicit romance. That’s it, in a nutshell: a random purchase made on my last Amazon shopping spree because the cover art looked nice. Was I disappointed? Not in the least. Read on to hear more about this little gem of a series that I hadn’t so much as heard of until a month ago.

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Analysis

The Spiral: Symbolism, Imagery, and a little Direction for Kara no Kyoukai 5

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The spiral is a recurring image in the latest installment of Kinoko Nasu’s Kara no Kyoukai, representing the pathway to Araya’s elusive origin of the universe. Mathematics confuse me, to be frank, and I doubt that Nasu was thinking about physics when he penned the novel, but looking at thing from a more figurative (or possibly religious) perspective sheds a bit more light on the matter.

However, the fifth movie in the series is chock full of not only skillful imagery and symbolism, but also brilliant fight scenes that brought even me to the edge of my seat. While the plot and characters of the franchise are something that I will avoid discussing at least until the series ends, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Paradox Spiral is as aesthetically and technically appealing as it is simply good.

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Editorial

Key and the Art of Tragedy

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Allusions to manly shooting games aside, I have noticed in my travels through anime and visual novels – particularly the romance-centric ones – that the device of tragedy is very common. Whether in male-targetted visual novels like AIR or more gender-neutral (or even female-targetted) stories like Saikano and Fruits Basket, tragic love stories are a common theme. However, this bleak setting has also received its fair share of criticism, particularly due to the predictable nature of the “genre”, if you will.

Consequently, it seems to me that tragedy is a sort of art. It is also personal preference, of course, but I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that some tragedies are more equal than others. So, with Toki wo Kizamu Uta still melancholically echoing in my ears, I’d like to take a closer look at these Sad Nouns in Season that I so adore and possibly figure out just why I adore them.

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Analysis

Maria†Holic OP – Of Yuri, Sadistic Traps, and a whole lot of paint

mariaholic-op-21I’d hit it.

After watching two seasons of ef and a Hidamari Sketch or two, I can honestly say that SHAFT has completely corrupted me. And by corrupted, I mean that they’ve taught me to appreciate the abstract and to look between the lines – even if there’s nothing there to begin with. Maria+Holic is a lighthearted show compared to the likes of ef, and while the kind of deconstruction that went on during the early days of memories is more suited to a story of ef’s intensity, there’s something oddly alluring about a sadistic trap painting walls with dolls fashioned after his lesbian roomate.

In other words, this show is about as insane as it’s OP, and I’m about to try to make sense out of all of this. I wonder what that says about my sanity?

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Review

A Beautiful Melody: May Sky Review

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With the conclusion of al|together 2008, eager English-speaking visual novel fans from around the world clamored to play the latest batch of doujin VNs, hand picked by the translation community and brought to us legally for free. While I haven’t played anything close to all of the translated VNs out there (although I have played quite a few things that no one ever mentions…and I can see why no one mentions them), there was one game this year that stood out in my eyes. It was nothing particularly special – nothing intriguing like Ballad of an Evening Butterfly, nothing dramatic like True Remembrance, nothing tear-jerking like Narcissu – but it was a fun experience nonetheless. It served as an excellent reminder to me that stories don’t have to be revolutionary to be good, and though May Sky was far from revolutionary, it was certainly good.

Read on for my spoiler-free review of the game, and a final statement on why you shouldn’t overlook it.

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