Sunday, September 28, 2014

Shiro no Koukoku Monogatari


I don't often discuss Manga series that haven't finished yet however i find this occassion exceptional. While Japanese anime industry is in decline, however Light novel is still going strong with interesting story. Shiro no Koukoku Monogatari or roughly the Story of White Kingdom is such title with Manga adaptation that catches my eye and another of those title that got potential. The story is about a guy who killed himself and wake up just to realize he is now a man with white hair, who signifies important role. As White haired people in his current place is one of a kind and chosen to rule as a King and at the moment the Kingdom needs a king to prevent its collapse. If you like Fantasy classic JRPG i think you will like the manga especially if you are in Seinen demographics. It is a rarity for JRPG style story got into Seinen ranga which means no Beta Protagonist for ya! The manga is so far translated until 2 volumes but it is enough to impress me and as long as it keeps itself coherent i think it will make a good series.

Saturday, September 27, 2014

The reason why Guilty Crown fails


 Didn't watch this much hyped anime when it was released few years ago until now which i can see why people are disappointed with this anime. To sum it up the main issue that comes with Guilty Crown is because this project is way too ambitious and thus fails to deliver in the end and if you ask how bad the series fail it is as terrible as or even worse compared to Valvrave. To be fair Guilty Crown had a chance to be a good anime since it has good pieces, but somehow when the pieces are stringed along it falls apart because execution is terrible. Thus what causes this series goes wrong is basically people problem as the staff behind Guilty Crown are not good enough to use the pieces.

The first 12 episodes went just fine but from episode 13 onward there on the anime just went downward spiral with horrible trainwreck until the end. I think most people watch Guilty Crown for Inori considering her design is a rarity but her character execution is just not good enough. From what i get Inori's character is supposed to be an empty shell who slowly regains her conscience but again terrible execution failed this part. As for Shu or more known as Shoe he is just Beta protagonist and nothing more considering he lose the chance to redeem himself in the end. In conclusion what makes Guilty Crown set itself apart from other wasted potentials(which Japan anime industry got a lot by this point) is because it got huge amount of budgets and supposedly solid staffs but doesn't prevent itself to fail miserably. But to me GC shows me that 95% of Japanese anime with High School setting doesn't deliver btw Inori's GSC figure are gorgeous tho.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Ai Yori Aoshi



Early September I have been moving to Beijing for my Study which is why I haven’t been able to post anything on Blogger or Wordpress considering both websites are blocked in China for some reason. On the post today, I just finished reading Ai Yori Aoshi manga which was really enjoyable read considering I am never a big fan of Slice of Life. I watched Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi back when I was in Highschool and my biggest impression of the series comes from the main heroine Aoi Sakuraba.
 
Aoi is one of the best representations of Yamato Nadeshiko in manga/anime series out there with contemporary setting considering her kind usually found more in Meiji Era kind of story. Her love story between Kaoru is not overly dramatic yet touching and her perseverance is quite admirable. Before I read the manga I never really understand why Aoi wore her Kimono most of the time in the series but as I finished the manga, her kimono symbolise very important theme which is implied in the title itself; “Love deeper than blue” as her Kimono will change color over the time and so does her love with Kaoru grow even stronger over the time. A very good Seinen Romance title if you haven’t read it and I think I will play the VN eventually as well.