Hiro Mashima - Fairy Tail Couple Canon on Twitter

Hiro Mashima - Fairy Tail Couple Canon on Twitter

Monday, February 5, 2018 / No Comments

The life of an otaku is never easy, we are always on a quest in pursuit for a good manga to read or anticipate for the next episodes of our especial anime. We have a sound reasoning to convulse rather outrageously and occult hearts flutter out from our animation twinkle peepers; the massive fandoms throughout the globe. Welcome, to a world in which aficionados pledge their precious time slaving behind the screen of their computers, dedicating themselves in the art of cosplay, to specifically sketch their favorite characters and collecting figurines.

But, we shall jump into those topics eventually, as a result we have a situation of which the Fairy Tail fandoms are in high spirits (pun not intended). The creator of Fairy Tail universe: powerful mages, dragon slayers, guilds and grand adventures has seize Twitter on a frenzy storm. Why you may ask? the "canon couples" of a particular famous guild unwind themselves on a serene spa resort. Including their friendly wizardry pals from neighbouring guild as well.  

The manga has multitude of jumble reviews due to the storyline, Fairy Tail's close knit comrades channel their strength with friendship. But our focal point points to Natsu Dragneel and Lucy Heartfilia both a dragon slayer and a celestial mage respectively. She is born in a wealthy accommodate; the relationship between father and daughter tautness under palpable tension. The independent mage embarks on a lone journey and soon cross paths with Natsu and his blue exceed - a flying cat. Lucy's dream to be a member of Fairy Tail guild comes true and embarks on countless chaotic ventures as we witness their blossoming friendship heavily hinting on a plausible romance. Nalu a cute moniker of their first names mash together, swiftly garner approvals.

 

 The fire up (pun intended) picture shown above work everyone into a lather and foaming from the mouth. A chain adorning their necks as they playful strike dominant poises; possessiveness radiating by the display of body language as their gaze feast on one another. Of course, we are about to indulge in the short humorous yet sigh-worthy comics from the very talented author who very cease to delight us. The panels are divided into four sections so, we may only be able to have a glimpse on the safer ones since Hiro Mashima is well known to deliver fan-services.

 

Erza the Scarlet Maiden and Jellal Fernandes, "Jerza" in short also a mash of the names. Titania nurture affection for her childhood friend and the only person who is capable to tame her wild heart which in certainty, the guild members are inwardly stoke due to the harassment they receive from her. The comic for Erza x Jellal delivers an euphoric atmosphere just as the wizard saunters clad in a short hip towel (on cue the sea of nose-bleed) to witness her playful and drunkard antics on her hapless teammates: Gray Fullbuster and Gajeel Redfox. He saves the teary duo and they see a quick change in her demeanour as she blushes prettily whilst Jellal pat on the head. From their befuddle expressions on the ice mage and the dragon slayer they are having difficulty to process the sudden turnabout.

 

 

Levy McGarden and Gajeel Redfox, better known as "Gale" for the Iron dragon slayer and the pretty mage as they are a official couple. The charming duo alongside their black coat exceed -Lily Panther- enjoy lively activities as adorable family or as we take a glimpse at the intimate scene from the comic strip; the male recalls his sad state under Erza's rough hands but Levy reassures him and they proceed to toy with that strip of ribbon. Can they even be more cuter? Gajeel's fiery gaze lights up whenever Levy is in attendance and the petite female compliments his tall stature. As proven in many occasions, he is head over heels for her whereas Levy is very protective over her handsome dragon slayer much to our heart's delight. Their children are up for a colourful tale of how their parents first bump into one another.

I'm eagerly awaiting for more wonderful and hilarious comics from Hiro Mashima, constantly checking up on my Twitter feed to make sure if there is any latest release even though it is set up with a notification bell. My love for Fairy Tail will grow even more because Natsu and his gang still live on in our hearts and all the tears, laughter and angst we have experience alongside the characters.

Written by, Rugi-chan

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「Mobage」 Bungou Stray Dogs Mobile Game!

「Mobage」 Bungou Stray Dogs Mobile Game!

Sunday, February 4, 2018 / No Comments

It's been quite some time since Bungou Stray Dogs' mobile game came out and if you are an avid fan of the series and mobile games in general, I'm sure you'd have already caught wind of it. I actually played this game within the first week of its release but unfortunately I've lost my account after and never did get back to the game, hence it took a while for me to get this post out.

First off, the game mechanics. Unlike the other types of games which I play, this isn't about music or RPG-related. Instead, this is somehow like billiards.... or a pinball kind of game.

Basically, you swipe in a direction which you want the little silver ball to go in and then nature will take it course and the ball will go in that direction and collide with the colored obstacles in its path, or with the walls, and these collisions will affect the ball's trajectory and speed.

Larger balls will need more hits to break and the larger the ball, the larger the boost it will give to cards in your team of the same color. Hence, if you break a purple ball, all purple cards in your team will get an increase while the cards of a different color will be unaffected (no increase).

In this game, there's also attributes and this is just the usual stuff, basically a reskin of the five elements that are usually featured in games. Both your own cards and enemies have one of these attributes. Make sure to tap on the enemy which you'll like to target to lock-on on them!

Occasionally, there would be these rainbow orbs which contains all five attributes and all the members on your team would get a boost!

In this game, scouting can be done via two ways, through orbs or tickets. Some tickets are simply scouting tickets which would give you any rarity from a R to a SSR while some are guaranteed SSRs.

The promo cards for the registration are Akutagawa and Atsushi, and you will also get a ton of orbs for scouting. There was a SSR guaranteed box to scout it when I started the game but I am unsure if it is still in game at the moment.

These are the rates for the scouts and it's actually quite high (3% for a SSR) and all characters in the Detective Agency has an initial SSR. Some of them (Atsushi and Doppo) have 2 SSRs (initial and Halloween) at the time when I took this screenshot.

 We also have scouting via friend points in this game as well.

To discern what your scouts give you before actually seeing the cards, you tell by the color of the moon that appears. Likewise, if a SSR appears, there would be a tagline before the card appears. 

This is the results of my guaranteed SSR scout, which is also my first scout in the game. This gave me 2 SSRs which is definitely a very good scout by my standards.

A special feature of this game would be this "room" feature as well which covers the office of the Detective Agency. Unlike Deresute, you cannot change the placement of the furniture, but you can get items from the people in the Agency. You can also upgrade various stations in order to get more items and/or items of higher rarities.

A unique feature of this game is that you can polish a stone and get rewards from it. You can polish the stone once per day and with the usage of 5 orbs, you can polish it two more times.

Of course the goal at the end is to get a rainbow-colored gem from all the polishing, which you can then exchange for a SSR guaranteed ticket!

There are six levels in total and the number of times you have to polish the orb to get from one level to the next increases with each level as well. Thus it might not be something beneficial to spend your gems on, given the high SSR rates in this game, but it might be a good additional benefit from logging in daily.

That's all I have for this game. I hope this helped you understand the game mechanics better and if what they offer is what you enjoy in a game, do check it out!

~ Reina-rin

Figure Unboxing and Review: Shinkai Shoujo Hatsune Miku

Figure Unboxing and Review: Shinkai Shoujo Hatsune Miku

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Shinkai Shoujo, otherwise known as Deep Sea Girl, is a figure inspired from a song by the same name by Vocaloid Hatsune Miku. This figure resembles how she looks in the PV of the song, both her attire and thick curly hairstyle. The figure as well as the base is made to resemble the ocean floor so as to bring back the atmosphere of the song, slightly lonely and melancholic yet still very hopeful.

Let's take a closer look at the figure in several different areas.

Packaging

The box is made from full cardboard and is quite sturdy for a figure inside of it. There are no windows on the box but a full colored image of the figure is printed directly on the front of the box and the color palette and angle of the picture makes it very eye-catching. Other side profiles of Miku are also printed on the other sides of the box.

She is properly packaged in a tight blister in the box and the next picture would show a clearer view of what's in the blister as this image above is too dark.

As you can see, she comes with a main figure, her base and two coral pieces. Do note that her twintails are actually not connected directly to her head yet and each piece is quite heavy. There is an instruction sheet that actually covers how you should put them in place - in which order and which peg goes where.

Base

 As you can see, the base is actually quite simple without the corals in place yet. There are quite a few peg holes and these are for the corals and Miku herself.

There is an instruction sheet in the box which gives clear instructions on what goes where. Since this figure is by Good Smile Company, it actually has both an English and Japanese version so I shall not go into details about how to assemble this unless someone actually needs the help there.

Do note that one of the pegs is for the draping part of Miku's black dress so be sure that you don't miss that out when you put the figure on the base. As there are no pegs for Miku to attach to the base other than the one for her dress and hair, it is essential that these pegs are in place so you minimize the chance of your figure slipping when moving it/her around. 

The corals will come with these two teal bits in the peg holes. Be sure to remove the teal parts first, then place the coral onto the respective pegs on the base.

Figure

And here is the eternal beauty, Hatsune Miku! The volume of her hair is really stunning in this figure and it closes all the empty spaces on the base around her.

The image above shows the figure without the corals while the image below shows the full figure with all the available accessories. You will notice that the pink corals really do add a splash of color to the figure!

 A simple 360 of the figure to showcase how she looks in different views and angles.

Most of what you see is her hair and although it takes up so much space and covers so much of the figure, it actually doesn't take much away from the figure at all. Each lock of hair has its own movement and winds in a different way against the different locks of hair, and this holds the figure well together and even creates its own dynamism!

The flow of her dress is also another epic point of this figure. It's just a simple black dress but the amount of effort the sculptor put into the different folds of the dress to make it look like there's actual wind movement, or in this case, water current, flarin the dress out is really nice.

It ties in together with the movement of her hair and also adds in another touch of realism and movement that contrasts well against how still Miku herself looks in this figure.

As some angles, her skirt looks like it's flaring upward but you actually can't see anything you aren't supposed to unless you flip her around so if you are against that, rest assured.

Using the same image above, I would like to point out that the pose which Miku is taking makes it look as if she's praying or just daydreaming about her love/sun in general, which makes it really inspiring to look at when you have a bad day.

A point which I feel that most people leave out when reviewing this figure would be her toes. Both her legs have her toes sculpted in different ways, and both are actually realistic and one would be doing the same if they are keeping their legs angled and lifted like hers.

However, one point which I don't like about the figure is that the divide between her bangs and the rest of her hair is too obvious when you are looking from the top. It's not really a huge factor and one's hair would probably look like that when tied up but somehow it does irk me a little.

Here is how she looks from the back and you can see the single spaghetti strap of her dress from the back very well. I really like how a simple dress can look so cute and unique in the PV and I'm amazed at how well it is captured in the figure as well.

Enjoyment
I do consider this as one of the better figures and given it's price point and high demand previously, resulting in a re-release, I would say that she's well-worth the price for both enjoyment and/or investment purposes.

Written by Reina

Kino no Tabi -The Beautiful World- The Animated Series (Remake version)

Kino no Tabi -The Beautiful World- The Animated Series (Remake version)

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If you love slice-of-life shows with a slight twist in them, this may just be the anime for you!

Kino no Tabi (Kino's Journey) is based on a hit light novel series, following a girl who took up the name "Kino" as she travels around the different countries with her revolvers as well as her partner, a talking motorrad by the name of Hermes. She stays in each country for the maximum of three days.

Each country featured in the anime has their very own characteristics and some of them are so different that you wouldn't think they belonged in the same world at all! Examples include a country where murderers are not outlawed; where children get part of their brains removed upon coming-of-age so they become 'adults'; where an entire country moves by uprooting itself and actually moving. There's much more but you really do have to watch each episode to understand what I mean.

The series is rather episodic and there is one episode which shows Kino's past, which I felt is a very good bonus to the series!

However, do note that this is a remake, which means that each episode is essentially covering the same events as the original adaptation which makes two valid questions: 'Which should I watch?' and 'If I watched the original, should I watch this too?'

So I'll like to use this post to highlight the  difference with regards to art about the two versions (which I feel is their greatest disparity) and then two other points which I like and dislike about this remake version and hopefully these will provide enough details to for you to decide if you should bother with this version, or just watch the original, or watch both.

Art
You might be thinking that there's no room for comparison here since older anime tend to have less impressive art but that is not the main idea that I'm going for with this category.

First, let's look at the original. 

The colors used are much more monochromatic and dull and if you have watched shows with a peaceful yet dark underlying theme, you would know that such a color palette really suits the atmosphere well. However, it seems that the original also dwells on a minimalist approach to furniture in rooms as well as when it comes to shading and lineart.

Due to this, everything in the original adaptation seems really simple and easy on the eyes. The newer Beautiful World remake version though, harps on keeping up with the modern way of animation with crisp lines and shading as well as vibrant colors. It also places a lot of blurry backgrounds with CGI Hermes and a traditional animation style for Kino, all into the same frame. This is especially common when Kino travels from country to country. 

You can see the difference in shading styles for Kino's white sleeves (sharper) and the luggage behind her (softer and more blended). The landscape is quite blurry and the colors are very bright, which gives a great contrast to the dark greens Kino is wearing.

Personally, this isn't really an issue and everything does look much smoother and less jarring for me with the animation instead of simply still images. However, in the case that this raises your concerns, I have several shots after this for you to better analyse if this issue affects you.

Music
I will be a little biased here and say that because Yanagi Nagi performed the opening theme for the Remake version, it is inevitable that I would prefer that to the original. The animation sequence also really adds to the song because it actually fits with the song really well.

The opening uses blue birds, which signifies flight and hence travel, which I felt was a very good theme used to tie in with this particular anime.

Seiyuu
Aoi Yuuki is the seiyuu for Kino in the remake series and is also the seiyuu for Sakura in the original. Aoi Yuuki is a seiyuu that's quite high on my watch list as she has also voiced other characters from popular shows such as Kaname Madoka from Madoka Magica, Victorique from Gosick, Natori Sayaka from Kimi no Na wa, and Tepes Krul from Owari no Seraph.

The original Kino is voiced by Maeda Ai who is well-known for her calm voice when playing Kino's role. However, she has not been voicing much since then. Hopefully one day, she will be back?

Enjoyment
My enjoyment of the remake series is about 8/10. Many of the episodes are really very beautiful and though provoking. The series generally helps point out how twisted the world and mankind can be, but still never fails to show you hope for a better tomorrow.

~ Reina-rin