Fate/Stay Night - フェイト/ステイナイト [2006 Anime] Review

Welcome to Rockmandash Reviews! I’m Kevin and this part 2 of my Fate Stay night Review, and just one of the many videos in my Type Moon Marathon. This is review of the Fate stay night anime, made by studio Deen in 2006. 2006 really wasn’t a great year for entertainment when you think about it.... 

Plot - Adapting a visual novel can be difficult, as there are multiple routes. Studio Deen tried their best but could not tell the story as well as the visual novel. In Fate Stay night, there are 3 main routes, Fate, Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven’s feel. They decided to take most basic yet bland arc; Fate, and try to throw other arc plot points into the story. Fate by itself is just above average, but when you throw in other plot points and never resolve them, It’s kind of like the anime doesn’t know that (people die when they are killed), or how to make a story without plot holes and red hearings that weren’t red hearings in the original. Even the parts directly from fate aren’t explained as well. The plot is less than average, and but it’s not the worst out there. >_> 

Plot 6.5/10

Pacing - One thing it did do well is the pacing, it’s not too long but it’s not too short. The pacing is pretty good in this anime, which is kinda surprising because the tsukihime anime was too short, and the source material was too long.

8/10

Animation & Art – It’s meh. Studio deen has a habit of going off model with shows, and even though it’s better than say… higurashi, it’s not great either. In comparison to the source material, it’s pretty accurate, but usually looks worse… And out of nowhere… a CG dragon.(Show WTF in video) FSN’s visual novel has a few sex scenes, and what the anime did to get around this was make a Sega Saturn quality CG Dragon which looked horrible, and it was just rubbish. The biggest disappointment with the art in this show is the more detail you have in the video, the worse it looks. I first watched this on a low quality stream and I didn’t think it looked too bad, then I watched a HD one and now that I can actually see the details, I can see all of the flaws this show has, and that’s generally something that shouldn’t happen. I have no other description for the animation other than its consistently worse than the visual novel.

6/10

Sound – This soundtrack is actually quite great. I really liked the first OP, it’s one of my favorites and is really soothing. Most of the soundtrack fits the atmosphere better than the game does, and I prefer the soundtrack overall. It has a grander feel in comparison to the soundtrack in the game. The voice acting for the Japanese dub has the same voice actors as game, so if you liked the game’s dub then you will like this one. As for the English dub, it’s a mixed bag. Some of the acting is really good but others are very bad. Shirou, Issei and Ilya sound just horrible while Saber, Rin, and Archer are ok. The Dub has some really good talent on it, I just believe it’s worse than the Japanese dub.

Soundtrack and Japanese Dub 9/10

English Dub 7/10

Sound overall 8/10

Personal Enjoyment – I’ve watched this show twice. I didn’t care for it both times. It’s just not very interesting in my opinion, but if you haven’t seen the source material I’d assume you would like it more than I did.

7/10

Conclusion This show is weird. It’s the polar opposite of the visual novel yet it’s the same thing. The biggest problem this show faces is that studio deen messed with the plot, thus it becomes worse than it really should be, even if it’s better in some aspects.  If I were you, I’d just watch ufotable’s Fate stay night anime.

7/10   Rockman Regrets

Pros
Good soundtrack

Good pacing

Cons

Rubbish Animation

Ruining of plot

Fate/Stay Night - フェイト/ステイナイト [Visual Novel] Review

Type Moon’s made some pretty great works, and with the announcement that Ufotable’s making an anime adaptation of Fate Stay/Night, I felt that now would be a great time to do a Type Moon Review Marathon, starting off with Fate Stay night, the gateway drug into the Nasuverse and all things type-moon.    

Story- Playing FSN is like playing 3 equally long games with 3 separate plots, and 3 completely different writing styles. Because of the structure of the game, and how vastly different each route is, I'll review each route separately and create a cumulative score for the plot.

The premise of the story is that there is a Fight-to-the-death tournament called The Fifth Holy Grail War (which isn’t really a war....) where people known as masters fight with Heroes throughout history, known as servants, for a chance to get the Holy Grail, which grants their wishes. Each servant is one of the 7 classes, Saber, Archer, Lancer, Berserker, Rider, Assassin, and Caster.  If you didn’t get that, well, this game has a lot of exposition to explain that basic premise, so you won’t be totally lost. The premise is one of the stronger parts of the game, it’s so unique that it’s made a pretty large franchise.  The main character in FSN is Emiya Shirou, whose ideals change along with the route, but he’s usually a hardworking idiot who cares about others more than himself, so much so that he’s willing to risk his life. The strength of the game is in the characters; all of the characters are likable in some fashion, and they usually have something to add to the story.

Fate

Fate is a typical, yet better than average plot, with Saber, Shirou’s blond haired servant as your main heroine. This route a good way to start, as it focuses on the most popular character saber, and explains quite a bit but it doesn’t really stand by itself well. Saber’s personality and situation in the arc makes her a very likable character, and she’s the reason this route is any good. There arn’t a lot of interesting plot points in comparison to the other routes, and in my oppinon the fate route really makes you want to face palm depending on the levels of Shirou’s idiocy. Fate is about Shirou embracing his ideals of becoming a hero, full on, and it’s just above average.

7.5

Unlimited Blade Works

Unlimited blade works is the most action packed out of all the arcs, and is my personal favorite. There’s alliances, change in power, and I hope you like a large dosing of Tsundere, because the main heroine is Rin Tohsaka, A tsundere honours student magus who comes from a family who’s history is ingrained with the holy grail war. Rin Tohsaka is easily my favorite character in the game because of her amazing and not totally bipolar tsundere-ness, and all the other quirks that tohsaka has. Unlimited Blade Works is about Shirou struggling with himself about his ideal and his life, both past and future which is something that’s really relatable to me and one reason why I love UBW. I believe that in UBW, the characters were the best of the whole visual novel, especially shirou.

9.5

Heaven’s feel

Heaven’s feel is by far the most depressing and best written of all the arcs. The main heroine, kinda out of the blue, is Sakura Matou, Shirou’s kouhai and Shinji’s little sister… and the choice of sakura as a heroine makes sense in context. Any real details about heaven’s feel in my opinion, would ruin it, so no spoilers here. Heaven’s feel is conflict within Shirou about reality and his ideals, and it is the most contrasting out of the others. There’s a reason this route is last; you need to sink into the world of FSN before heaven’s feel rips you out of it and throws you into the curb. It’s the best written route and its bloody fantastic, even if it’s quite depressing and dark.

10

For a game like this, story is everything. If you experience the game as intended, this game has a story that will really make you think a bit. It’s a fantastic story, interweaving ideals with a personal and action story.  It’s well written, and it’s fantastic.

9.5

Pacing & Length – One big thing that separates word based mediums like Visual novels and books from their anime and manga counterparts is length. Visual novels are much longer to flesh out the world and characters, and this one is no exception… The game should take you about a month or more to go through just main story. Do I prefer it this way? Not really… it drags out quite long and it’s hard to get into and complete because of the length. In comparison, I thought that the anime, was a more manageable size. Surprisingly, the pacing was very good even though the story is so long, which is really nice.

8/10

Gameplay – IT’S A FRICKING VISUAL NOVEL. There’s really nothing special…. You select options and read text…. When you get a bad ending, you get sent to Tiger Dojo, where give you advise on how to get the good endings and hilarity ensues. Tiger Dojos give this game A LOT of replay value and content, and if you get them all, you get a hidden extra scene. The gameplay is par for the course, nothing spectacular here.

7.5/10

Sound – Do yourself a favor and get Realta Nua, the PS2 version or a Mod for the PC version that adds the voice acting. It’s great voice acting, and other parts of the series have the same voice actors. Almost all of the text is voiced, which is OUTSTANDING, considering the amount of text that this game actually has. The soundtrack frankly is not one of FSN strongpoints though. Most of the music is there for atmosphere building, but it does that quite well.  It’s a very memorable soundtrack, mainly because you have to listen to the same few tracks over and over again. There are good tracks, but most of it is just ok. It’s a good soundtrack, but I can’t really say that it’s one of my favorite soundtracks.

8/10

Art/ Graphics - Ok. Keep in mind that this is a visual novel from 2004. This game looks pretty good, even if it’s just sprites. I prefer sprites over 3d models in visual novels usually, with a few exceptions (show AA here) and in FSN, the sprites are done very well. The character design in this game is great, and all of the characters look unique and interesting. The designs of the characters, especially the servants are intricate and detailed, which help build this world in FSN. One thing about the art in this game that I have to mention is that fate stay night is an eroge, aka Hentai game. If you’re not really into that, well…. There’s a censor patch for UBW and fate, but for Heaven’s feel… Just hold control until it’s over I guess… This is a huge reason why I want an official English version: the console version of realta nua replaces ero scenes with scenes of CG Dragons and Dolphins which is kinda random, but it’s still better than ero scenes. Other than that FSN looked great for the time, and it still holds up well today.

8/10

Personal Enjoyment – Honestly, I didn’t like it the first time I played it. I’m not the biggest fan of fantasy, but the more I played, and the more it sinks in, the better it gets. It’s like aged cheese in that aspect. One part I loved in FSN is that the world it builds is so thorough in the art, the music, the characters, etc.  It’s so cohesive and strict with following the rules it set that you really feel like your observing this great story…. Which leads me to my next point… if it has so much action, did it have to be a visual novel? I know for structuring the story, VN’s are more convenient, but whenever I get to an action scene, I wish I was either watching all of that fluid animated fight, or playing a game where I can influence the fight itself. Even with that nitpick aside, I really did love this game, and after I finished this, I had the feeling of the void and accomplishment. If a game can do either of those, it’s a winner.

9.5/10

Conclusion – Fate Stay Night is a fantastic yet really long Visual Novel. As a story, it’s bloody amazing, but it’s not perfect in its current state as a game.  Everything negative I say about this game is nitpicky though, as this game is fantastic, with great writing, a great world, and great characters. This is not a part of the review, but availability is an important part of any series and considering the popularity of this series, you would think Fate Stay Night would come to the states. NOPE! The only way to play this game in English is via pc thanks to the fantastic translation by the guys at mirror moon, or on the DS and Android platforms via VNDS. I hope in the future we can get something like the Vita version of the game, or if they ever decide to do an HD remake with the new character designs and art from Ufotable, but for now, the only way to get the definitive version of the FSN story in English is via a fan translation.

Pros

Fantastic Writing

Great World

Great Characters

Cons

Nothing major

9.25/10

I am the Keyboard of my Review

Reviewing is my Body and writing is my blood.

I have read over a Thousand Words

Unknown to Action

Nor known to Tsundere

Have withstood pain to create many reviews

Yet this Keyboard will never type anything

So as I Review

UNLIMITED REVIEW WORKS

Law of Diminishing Returns?

With a new console generation, is the expectation of a huge graphics jump. This time… that’s not really the case, which begs the question… Are we hitting the Law of Diminishing Returns on consoles? The Law of Diminishing Returns can be seen in almost everything, when you spend or improve so much that the gains become smaller and smaller. This is usually a topic of debate, and with every topic of debate, there are 2 sides to the issue, and I’ll try to present both sides equally.

I’ll start with why people believe we hit the wall with the advent of the PS4 and Xbox One. It’s quite hard to tell the difference between some of the games and improvements for games like BF4 and AC4 are kind of minor. Unless you have a direct comparison, it can be hard to tell the difference between the games. Spec wise, none of the new consoles are really running in new resolutions: some games on the PS3 and 360 can run in native 1080p, so why is it impressive that the new consoles can? 720p ->1080p is a much smaller jump than from SD -> HD. Another argument is more fundamental: the fact that games are expensive to make. Polygon making, texture designing, etc., it’s an expensive and hard thing to do. To make better looking games, they will have to put more effort than ever, and that was the case even with last generation.

Next is the other side of the argument, why we haven’t hit the law of diminishing returns on the new generation of consoles. The new consoles have a bunch of new stuff that you can easily see, with higher quality textures, better lighting, and just more effects in general that the older consoles couldn’t do and it really looks snazzy. Look at Forza 5 vs Forza 4, there’s a huge difference in that. The problem with these comparisons is that they are comparing games based on the same engine, and games that are built ground up for the new consoles, look so much better. Another aspect, is this generation is much easier to develop for, so in the future, we might see games that absolutely blows away the current gen stuff while not being that much more expensive. Development will be complicated, but with the easier to use tools, it might be easier than ever to make great looking games and it’ll help alleviate the bubble in graphics we have now.

Now that I’ve presented both sides of the argument, what do I think? I think it’s a Yes and a No. I believe that there’s a lot to go, but for most games on consoles we see, we essentially have but every mobile computing gaming platform has a long time before we get anywhere near this theoretical wall. It’s really a case by case issue: games look great now no matter how you look at it, and some games will make use of the new technologies, but others it’ll be really hard to tell. Nintendo has a good idea when they release a console with old technology: it’s cheaper and easier to develop for, and games still look great. Even last generation, with the advent of HD, the launch titles looked quite similar to their PS2 counterparts. Games will look better, that’s a fact. But some will look much much better, while others will look pretty similar. 2D games like platformers and Puzzle games hit a wall long time ago, you won’t find any improvement there… but for more graphically intensive games like shooters and racers, it’s quite a big difference.

Pokemon X & Y Review, Pokemon Special Review & Pokemon Origins Review!

October was made for Pokémon, the hype train for X and Y was on its high, and man was it a blast. I got sucked into the world of Pokémon (with a bit of Ace Attorney <3), and I'm glad to be back. Here I have 3 Pokémon Reviews: Pokémon X & Y, Pokémon Special and Pokémon Origins. BTW before you spout bias, keep in mind that I'm not a pro reviewer. I love pokemon so of course there will be some bias, and I have the perspective of a pokemon fan.

Pokémon X & Y - ポケットモンスター X & Y [3DS] Review

Plot - If you've played a Pokémon game, you've seen this before. You move into town, and then leave off on an adventure through a new region, this time in a Foreigner's view of France, known as Kalos. They tangent off into this red herring about mega evolutions, but other than that, it's pretty much the same old story. Get 8 gym badges, beat the baddies known as Team Flare, and become the champion. Nothing too bad, but it's the same old story. Pokémon’s the one RPG where story doesn't really matter, and that hasn't changed here.

7/10

Gameplay - This gen fixed so many things game play wise, it's now fast and engaging, I love it! The EXP Share was changed to an EXP All, and it's broken as all hell but awesome. With the EXP Share the game was a blast! They gave people an incentive to catch Pokémon, which is when you catch them, you get EXP, which is awesome! The Design of the world reminded me of Kanto, I felt like they were trying to return to the roots with this one, and it succeeded.  So, they added a bunch of new features, so much so that I can't really mention them all because I haven't used them all. They added fairy types, a new counter to dragon types, a sky battle where you battle in the skies, mega evolutions, which are like super saiyans for Pokémon, poke Amie, which is something you can do to play with Pokémon, and Super training, which is AMAZING. It's the most fun I've had in Pokémon gameplay in a long time, and I loved it.

10/10

Graphics/Art - This is Pokémon how it should be. The game looks like a lower res version of XD Gale of Darkness & Coliseum, but its art style makes up for it. The UI looks great, the art style looks fantastic, the Pokémon designs look great, and the new dynamic camera is great... I can go on for days about how good this game looks. I feel like the 3DS is holding it back though, with its low resolution and lack of AA, but there's a nice black outline that makes the lack of AA look not too bad.

9.5/10

Sound - I love the new soundtrack. This soundtrack is on par with D/P/PT to me, and every track is superb (with the exception of Team flare's theme.) It's really just fantastic. I don't really know how to describe it, but every piece just pumps you up, and everything sounds great.

9.5/10

Enjoyment - I haven't had this much fun with a Pokémon game since I started playing Pokémon. This game is just fun. Competitive is really fun now, and everybody is playing it. It’s a great game.

10/10

Conclusion - Pokémon X and Y is the closest to perfection this series has ever had. The Gameplay is great, the music is superb, the Graphics are mind blowing, and they ironed out what made Pokémon tedious.

9.75/10

Pokémon Special - ポケットモンスター SPECIAL [Manga] Review

Pokémon Special is the Pokémon Manga. It’s been running since the start of Pokémon and to me is the cannon story of Pokémon.

Plot & Characters - THIS MANGA HAS CHARECTER 

DEVELLLOOPMMMEEEENNNTTTTTTTTTT! It's pretty much the story from the game with some character development, new arcs, comedy and even a romance (GASP!). It's fantastic, and gives the basic plots of Pokémon a bit of personality. I like how they actually use strategy, and the plot was superb. It’s a very shonen-esque plot, but that’s what Pokémon is and it’s one of my favorites.

10/10

Pacing - It's really nice. It blazes through the stuff you already have seen while taking a long time with its own arcs. I felt that that was bad sometimes, that they were skipping a bunch of stuff. In the Johto arc, they don't battle a single gym for the point of rushing, which irked me. Since they adapt everything, it can be kind of long. So far, it's 457 chapters, and that's up to HGSS. 

8.5/10

Art - The Art is pretty good, but not as nice as the anime or the games. It can be awesome at some points but mediocre at others.

8/10

Enjoyment - I loved the hell out of Pokémon special. Its plot is great, and that's what really matters. It's Pokémon, but with a real story, and I’ve never been more glad to see Pokémon in a way like this.

9.5/10

Conclusion - Pokémon Special lives up to its name. It’s really something totally different for the Pokémon Company with a really decent plot and it’s very entertaining, with a real story and all.

9/10

Pokémon Origins - ポケットモンスター THE ORIGIN [Anime OVA] Review

Pokémon Origins is a 4 part OVA series made by Production IG based on the original games. How does IG deal with such a large franchise? Let’s find out!

Plot & Characters - Its Pokémon RGBY. I love it because of how close it is to the source material, but it's no different than the games. What makes it amazing is the characters are portrayed in the anime. The plot, even though it’s very vanilla, even taking direct quotes from the games is leaps and bounds better than the anime. All the characters, even the mute red are just fantastic, which cannot be said for the full anime. WHY COULDN’T THIS BE THE FULL ANIME INSTEAD ;(

8/10

Pacing - DO YOU SEE HOW THIS IS ONLY 4 EPISODES???? They get through all of RGBY in about 2 hours, and they rush it like hell. I WANT MORE OF THIS. MOAR. Pacing is really just meh, I wish this was a full series over a set of OVA's. Even though pacing is meh, it’s by far much much much better than the regular Pokémon anime with a bunch of filler arcs.

6/10

Art – Beautiful. Its production IG and they nailed it. I have nothing bad to say, it’s BEAUTIFUL.

10/10

Sound - Obviously I haven't heard the English dub because it's not out yet, but the Japanese dub was great and the soundtrack playing was GLORIOUS. The remixes are some of the best Pokémon Remixes I’ve heard. Production IG did a stellar job on the soundtrack.

9/10

Enjoyment - I loved it. This is what Pokémon animes should be.

10/10

Conclusion - A wonderful OVA series, ruined by the fact that it’s an OVA series. NINTENDO IF YOU ARE LISTENING MAKE THIS A FULL SERIES!

8.75/10

Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet - 翠星のガルガンティア [Anime] Review

Hello, this is Rockmandash and this is a review of the anime Gargantia on the Verdurous (vur-jer-uhs) Planet (Season 1), a mecha written by Gen Urobuchi who is known for writing Fate Zero, Saya no Uta and Madoka Magica and animated by Production I.G. Gargantia, to me is the hidden gem of anime in 2013, and deserves much more praise than it actually got.

Plot & Characters

Gargantia is set in a distant future, where humanity lives in SPAAAACCCEEEE, far away from the home planet of earth. Humanity is governed by the Galactic Alliance, who’s fighting a war against the Hideauze (ヒディアーズ) On one battle, Ensign Ledo, an Alliance soldier who’s our main character of the story, who’s inside his Machine Caliber called “Chamber”, gets separated from the rest of his platoon and sucked into a wormhole. When Ledo wakes up 6 months later, He's in an unknown planet full of indigenous natives on the ship called “Gargantia”. Chamber learns that the planet, which is full of water and air, is the planet known as earth, the origins of Humanity. Ledo has to learn how to adapt to the world, while questioning his own motives, world and society. The premise is simple and interesting, and it’s quite enjoyable. The obligatory Gen Urobuchi plot twist *SPOILER* HIDIEAUZE ARE PEOPLE. You learn this fact after Leno massacres a bunch of them, which makes the reveal amazing.*SPOILER* The Plot twist is done well, and is really what made the show for me. The episodes after the plot twist were a roller coaster, showing all of the conflicts with Leno, and the alliance. The society of the Alliance, with the contrast of Gargantia is amazing, and is the best parts of the show. Overall, plot is enjoyable, but it’s not the best. It has it’s high points, but quite a bit of the plot is weak.

The Characters were pretty enjoyable, even the minor characters were entertaining and fleshed out a bit. Chamber is the best robot A.I. character ever. He takes everything too seriously, his interpretations of anything are hilarious, he spouts amazing one liners, and in my opinion is the best character in the show. Ledo, the main character, is great because of his realistic reactions to foreign concepts like sick people, capitalism and the social structure of Gargantia. The last important character is Amy: a hyper, over-energetic delivery genki girl who serves as Leno’s love interest and a link to Gargantia’s society. The characters were enjoyable, especially Chamber, but they could be better.

Plot 7.5/10

Characters 8.5/10

Pacing

Unfortunately, the pacing is probably the weakest point of the anime, as it’s very inconsistent. Gargantia is a 13 episode anime series, which spends about half of it’s episodes giving you a feel for the world and developing characters. Gargantia has one of the best starts of recent anime, equivalent to that of Attack on Titan’s great start, but that pace slows down…. Episodes 2-7 are extremely slow, and almost nothing really gets done, like it’s a Slice of Life anime. The show takes it’s time to tell it’s story and show it’s world. What’s weird is that the same thing is done in Madoka Magica, maybe that’s just Gen Urobuchi’s style. Once it picks up again though, it’s like a roller coaster. The Pacing could be much, much better.

Pacing 6/10

Art/Animation

THIS SHOW IS BEAUTIFUL. If Free! was Kyoto Ani showing their water physics off, Gargantia was Production I.G. flexing their water muscles. The world looks beautiful, relaxing and pretty. The ships have very unique designs, especially when they are in fleets. The battles looked great, with good looking mechs and good animation. The CG they used wasn't very distracting, and it was positive overall. One small downside would be that they have a bit of fanservice, but in the show it was never distracting. Get the blu-ray however, and it’s quite distracting. Gargantia is really just a beautiful show.

Art/Animation 9/10

Sound

The sound is one of the best parts of Gargantia. The music, in battles is orchestrated goodness, it’s beautiful. It’s just fantastic, I've never loved mecha music in animes other than Code Geass, but I loved Gargantia’s music. In normal parts of the show, it’s great, with a very tropical feel with unique instruments. The Voice acting is pretty good, some of the characters are fantastic, and some are just OK. Chamber’s voice is perfect for the character, and he sounds great. The fake language that Leno speaks is really interesting, it sounds like German and it’s awesome. Amy’s voice acting, is kinda annoying though, like the character. The Opening and ending themes are nothing special, they are relaxing but nothing outstanding. Overall, the sound is solid, and quite amazing.

Sound 9/10

Enjoyment

I enjoyed Gargantia, and though it was a fun anime. I watched this right after Valvrave; another mecha of this season, expecting this to be worse off than that but I came out surprisingly positive about this show. What I look for in an anime is to be engaged, like how I was in Code Geass, and Steins;Gate. This does that, but only at the end. The rest isn't bad, but it’s kind of slow. The overall, the show was enjoyable, especially at the end.

Enjoyment 8.75/10

Conclusion 

Gargantia is a great show ruined by bad pacing, and wasted potential. The show is a very entertaining mecha, and is one of the better mechas I've seen. It’s a beautiful show with a good soundtrack, and interesting premise. This anime is currently available for internet on Crunchyroll for free legal streaming, A DVD release from Viz eventually, or Blu-Ray import from Japan. Overall, I’d give Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet an 8.5/10.

8.5/10

I Give this anime a Rockman Recommends.

P.S. I’m going to add a 3 tier thing to my reviews, because numerical values don't always relate to whether or not the game or show is any good. The tiers are (Subject to Change):

Tier 1: Rockman Remarkable - which are Shows and Games that i’d recommend to everybody, really amazing things. This is stuff that would be on a Top 10 list.
Tier 2: Rockman Recommends - This tier is kinda self explanatory, these are shows and games i’d recommend, because they are enjoyable. They have flaws, but they don’t prevent it from being enjoyable.
Tier 3: Rockman Regrets - If you see this tier, I don’t like it and I wouldn't recommend it.

From Up on Poppy Hill, Redline & Pokemon Special Impressions/Mini Review

In anticipation of the new Ghibli film, The Wind Rises and the fact that i felt like watching a ghibli film, I decided to watch From Up on Poppy Hill, the Ghibli film that came out in 2011, after I decided to marathon all the Ghibli films.

From Up on Poppy Hill reminded me of why I enjoyed Ghibli films, which is because of the simple yet engaging stories, and interesting settings. It's a nice, small and interesting love story with some interesting history elements. The characters were good as always, and it was a nice and charming film, just like the rest of the Ghibli films. The movie played sukiyaki quite a bit, and it got stuck in my head :P Some flaws the show had was that I don't think the movie was very memorable in comparison to other ghibli films, and the movie should have been fleshed out more. Not the best Ghibli film out there, but it wasn't bad. 7.5/10.

I was strolling through YouTube and saw that Manga Entertainment uploaded here.

This movie, made by Madhouse studios, is great. It took 7 years to make because it was completely hand drawn, and OMG IT SHOWS... This movie is BEAUTIFUL, and Manga's Upload was great in 1080p. It OOZES in art style, and it looks amazing. Characters look and are interesting. I really enjoyed the music, even though a lot of the music was adrenaline pumping dubstep. The English dub is OK, it worked, never got in the way and I really enjoyed it.  Plot is kinda generic, it's about a racing competition called Redline. This round,  it's on a planet which the government tries all it can to destroy the racers. It's fun, it's chaotic, and it's enjoyable. The show is a great way to test out a new screen, as it's so beautiful. It's streamlined and very entertaining. 9/10

In anticipation for Pokemon X&Y, and Pokemon The Origins, I decided to read the manga, Pokemon Special. Pokemon special is great. In comparison to the Anime, and the Game's plot, it kinda blows them away. It's better than the anime by having actual strategy, good pacing, character development, and more interesting. It's better than the game's plot because it has personality, it's not as vanilla. It keeps you hooked if your into the Pokemon world, and is probably the most enjoyment i've had from Pokemon in a long time. There's a lot more comedy in Pokemon Special than in the games and anime, and it manages to make things feel connected. It's more personal, it has likable characters, interesting arcs, concise pacing, great art, and (GASP) a bit of romance and shipping. I'm at chapter 266, which is the end of the Ruby & Sapphire Arc, so i'm not going to score it yet, but i'm really enjoying it. If origins is anything close to Pokemon special, i'll be happy.

Introduction to the Rockmandash Reviews Blog!

This is Rockmandash12 AKA Kevin, and this is a blog where I'm going to post my thoughts on all things Anime, Tech and Video Games. There will be reviews, OP's, first impressions, etc.  Check out my Content on PGRF, on my Youtube Channel and the Gaming Gaiden Podcast.  I'll be continuing to post stuff to PGRF, but the blog will have my reviews in about a week in advance. This blog can be thought of as an archives for the stuff I do, and a place where I can spew about shows and games that nobody knows about. I'm going to try to post on this blog weekly, but that might not always work out, so there might be some weeks without posts.

Reviews

Deus Ex Human Revolution Review

Ever 17: The Out of Infinity Review

Remember 11: The Age of Infinity Review

Steins;Gate Review

The Place Promised in Our Early Days Mini Review

Danganronpa Review (PSP Visual Novel)