MINORU'S BLOG

Everyday I'm taffering

In the early 2000s, we got some nice stealth game series to play hide-and-seek on. From Hideo Kojima's blockbuster movie Metal Gear Solid series; the social dress-em-up Hitman series; and of course, my starting point in the genre: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell series. There's also the now-forgotten Tenchu and the not-so-stealth-anymore Assassin's Creed.

All those games usually follow the same formula. Players need to emphasize on hiding from the enemies instead of just simply killing them and moving on. If you're detected, either it's game over or you need to fight difficult battles to survive. Stealth is about hiding in the dark, waiting for your chance to slip away undetected to reach the goal.

I love the stealth genre. Some of my favorite games of all time (note to self: need to make a list one day) are either stealth games or have stealth elements in them. In fact if any games give me a choice to build my own character, I usually make myself a stealth one. Like the infamously overpowered Skyrim stealth archer build. I also spent my childhood sneaking from my parents to play games during nightime

Got some rare things on sale, stranger!

That's why I owed it to myself to play one of the classics, the grandfather of sneaking video games: Thief (1998) by Looking Glass Studios. And play I did. I took my time on this, with me finishing the final level only last February even though I started it after completing System Shock 2. It's not too hard, like I said, I just took my sweet time.

Thief placed you in the control of Garrett (a.k.a. Mr. Taffer), a master thief / archaeologist who steals from the rich people to give it to the poor (himself). The game is played in first-person view, so you rarely see his face, but he does speak from time to time, giving him a bit of character. He's quite a cool character IMO, definitely right there with Geralt of Rivia ("Wind's howling") and JC Denton ("I’m not big into books") in terms of the best one-liners.

The world in Thief is kind of a mix of steampunk and medieval era, which at times looks pretty depressing. Like you don't want to live in that kind of setting. Oh, and there are also fantasy elements such as zombies and sentient, floating fireballs. However, I must admit the world is indeed very immersive. It feels alive thanks to the fantastic sound design of the game. The footsteps, the constant droning backsound, the guards' conversations, all helped to immerse me into the game's world.

A religious man he ain't

The gameplay itself is honestly pretty obvious from the game's name. In each level you need to steal certain items from a certain place. You can up the difficulty to add more objectives, like stealing more loot or not killing any guards. Garrett has many tools to aid him in his thieving quest, like water arrows to douse the torchlights, noisemaker arrows to attract enemies out of your way, and rope arrows to climb otherwise unreachable points.

To be fair, once you get the controls set up to your liking (the default is really really bad), the game feels familiar like any modern first person game that isn't a shooter. The first level set in a rich man's mansion serves as a great tutorial about the game. You can enter via backdoor after stealing the key from a guard, you learn how the guards have patrolling routes, you learn how sound and light work in the game, you earsdrop the guards about important stuff. It's a great introductory level by any means.

The story is simple at first but getting a bit cryptic near the end. You can learn the story via cutscenes before the levels, also via guard conversations and in-game notes and books. There is this grand backstory about The City and its factions such as the Hammerites, The Keepers and The Pagans but none of those are really needed to know to enjoy the game.

This is how my wife read Google Maps

Thief is not a perfect game nor it's aging well. The graphic is quite dated even by 1998 standards. Heck, we got MGS and Ocarina of Time that year. Still, after finishing it for the first time in the year of 2026, I can say with confidence that its core ideas and concepts are way ahead of its time. The sound and light systems are still used in today's games. Thief's legacy is foundational to modern stealth and immersive sim genres. Maybe it is not for everyone especially for today's kids, but if you do play it you'll know why it's an important piece of gaming history. I will also play Thief 2 soon and hopefully Deadly Shadows follows. No, there is no Thief 4.

Shik Shak Shock

If we're doing a vote and compiling a list of the best PC games since its inception, I'm sure sooner or later people will be calling System Shock 2 name into the conversation. Released on the eve of the '00s by the now-legendary Looking Glass Studios, System Shock 2 is often mentioned as one of the most influential video games ever. But in actuality, how many of those people actually played the game until the end?

The first time I heard about the game was from a gaming magazine article back in my childhood. I think the article wrote "Top Ten Scariest Games" or something along those lines. It named many horror games, but the one that caught my attention was System Shock 2. The article mentioned "screaming monkeys" and "cyborg midwives" as one of the reasons why. Of course I had to play it.

But during those days, almost nobody else talked about that game. It's like the game was some sort of fever dream of mine. I tried to find the game on the internet to no avail. Even when I found the link and downloaded it, the game refused to run on modern systems. Until finally in 2013, GOG released a non-hassle version of System Shock 2 to play.

I tried it. It was suck. Or I was suck. Regardless, I couldn't get past the first hour of the game. It was ugly as sin; the controls were janky, and there was too much stuff to learn in the beginning that I got overwhelmed. I gave up shortly after. Thus, I put the game back into my endless backlog.

Meanwhile, I played a lot of games known as immersive sim (I kinda dislike the term) such as Deus Ex series, Dishonored, Prey, and Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines. Basically those games play like a first-person shooter, but there are different options on how to solve the level instead of just shooting your ways out. You can have techs or magics to help you deal with the enemies. You can go gunblazing or tippy-toe stealthing. Some also have multiple routes and dialogue choices. Games that give you freedom. 

There is also this series called Bioshock, you can guess from the name, that is a spiritual successor of System Shock series. All of these games were my favorites, and lo, they all took inspiration from System Shock 2, which many named as the grandfather of the immersive sims genre. So one day I decided to swallow the pill and jumped onto the decks of the Von Braun, the spaceship that became the setting of System Shock 2.

The first few hours were still painful. Until at one point it finally clicked on me, and then I understood all its praises and reputation. I can find the System Shock 2 DNA in all of my personal favorite games. The freedom play of Deus Ex and Dishonored, the audio logs and environmental storytelling of Bioshock, the body horror of Dead Space, the manipulative AI villain of Portal, and many more. It was a game ahead of its time in terms of gameplay.

The story itself isn't too special nowadays, but it's still fascinating. I won't tell much about the detail of the plot; basically you're a dude who is one of the few survivors of an FTL spaceship expedition that went very, very wrong. You were contacted by another survivor that gave you a mission to try to survive and rendezvous with her. You explored the Von Braun decks which were filled with enemies such as zombies/mutants (of other crew members), suicide bombing androids, the aforementioned monkeys and cyborg midwives. Oh, I did also mention a rogue AI before. Enter SHODAN.

Many have heard of her name and her famous line: "Look at you, hacker: a pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?" that was delivered with such a chilling robotic voice. But being actually stalked and taunted by SHODAN throughout the Von Braun corridors while being chased by killer mutant with a shotgun made GLaDOS from Portal look like a tsundere roleplaying ChatGPT.

Anyway, I really enjoyed my playthrough of this game and its unmatched atmosphere. My only gripes with this game are the inconsistent background music and the unbalanced builds. My advice if you play the game is to take your time to read, whether it's the game's manual or the in-game guides.

I played the original 1999 release with mods, but recently they released a remastered version of the game on Steam called System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster which has multiplayer and other trinkets like achievements and QoL fixes. There are many more to said about this game but I'll save those for later. Next, I'll discuss about the grandfather of stealth game.

So, uhm, I just finished Tiger and Bunny movie last night. I was expecting it to be a boring recap but turned out it was better than I expected. Sure, I got this sense of deja vu but surprisingly it has better pace than the series. There's not much to give in this movie beside more cohesive storytelling and a random new villain, still it's the same Tiger & Bunny I enjoyed two years ago.

I want to write about The Walking Dead which is recently become one of my favorite series and because it's fun to talk about. My first encounter with the franchise was when I stumbled upon the game titled "The Walking Dead Episode 1" around five months ago. The title made me interested but I still wasn't sure what to expect. I found out it was developed by Telltale, which is one of the few developers that still actively developing games with adventure genre.

"So what?" I thought, "Probably it's just a boring point 'n click adventure just like those thousand adventure games created using AGS but with prettier graphics and maybe a bit zombies to spice it up". Little did I know that 'boring' was the most wrong word to describe The Walking Dead.


I tried the game. My first impression was it kinda feels like those RPG that featured choices in the conversation, except without the RPG elements. But then it turns out to be more like an interactive movie. Interactive movie with a good story. Once I got to the story without wasting time I got absorbed to its world and I unconciously put myself into the main character's shoes. Every choices you make will determine the course of the story. Sometimes it made me feel like a shit when I had to choose to save only one person and the other died horribly.

Oh yeah the story. So the story is like any other game with zombies, there's suddenly a zombie outbreak in the city and you as the main character has to make your way to the safety zone. The difference is you are not a government agent with powerful arsenal shoved in your ass. You are not a guy who is trained to fight zombies. You don't have any clue how to stop the infection. You're just a run-of-the-mile guy who has to fight in order to avoid zombies eating your brain.


Basically in this the-end-of-the-world scenario, your objective is to survive for another day. You must find a place to sleep, scavenge for food, and defend yourself against zombies or maybe other human. Also, you have a little girl to take care of. Some people in a certain image board jokingly called this game A Dad Simulator. That's not pretty far off.

The game is divided into 5 parts each called an "episode". The choices you made during an episode will carry the effect to the next and so on. For myself, my favorite episodes are 2 and 3. The tension and emotional feeling in those episode are the best.

Just recently I finished the last episode and got to the ending. It was yesterday, I found myself watching the credit roll with nearly watery eyes. Yes, it is one of those tearjerker ending. It also ended with a possibly sequel hook.

I recommend this game to those who want a game with good 10-hour storyline. Do not expect complex gameplay because you won't get it from this game. The graphics style is nice and works with the game overall, since it was based on comic books. It's probably one of my favorite game in this year.

(Oh yeah, I also follow the TV series. I already watched season 1 and 2, and still waiting for S3 to finish before starting it. I don't like cliffhanger)

art by ターヤ

The Witch's House (Majo no Ie) is a horror adventure game made with RPG Maker. It's pretty much similar to another horror adventure game Ib, might as well call it Ib's spiritual successor. Play it in the night with lights off.

The story follows Viola, a 13 year old girl who got lost in a forest on her way to her friend's house. She found a house which is belong to a witch, hence the game's title. I won't spoil the plot but one thing:  there is a twist at the true ending (there are two endings).

The game involves much more jump scare than Ib. I admit I was terrified several times, not only because the jump scare but also because of the atmosphere. The atmosphere in The Witch's House is nicely done with the music and sound effects. Also, there's much much more deaths in this game than Ib, which some of them are pretty gruesome.

art by sorako

Anyone who likes Ib must try The Witch's House. I'm not saying the latter is better than the former, they're just similarly good and has similar experience too. I hope there will be many more games like this in the future. I can use a good scare once in a while.

The game is a freeware, made by Fummy in RPG Maker XV. The english translation was done by vgperson (she is also the one who translated Ib) and can be downloaded here. She also has a very cool tumblr.

My face after finishing Alternative

Wow. That was my first reaction after finishing Muv-Luv Alternative, thus completing the Muv-Luv trilogy. I feel like I just experienced one of the most epic tale ever told in visual novel medium. Everything about Alternative was just exceptional. It really lives up to the expectations.

If you've never heard about the franchise, let me tell you briefly about it. The main story consists of three titles: Muv-Luv Extra, Muv-Luv Unlimited, and Muv-Luv Alternative. Extra narrates the life story of normal high school boy Takeru Shirogane. It's just a typical harem story full of its hijinks and cliches. His life turned 180 degree in Unlimited, after he somehow ended up in alternate world where there exist aliens called BETA which raped (har har!) the humanity so hard. For more info about these two titles read my Muv-Luv review.

It's safe to say that the purpose of Extra and Unlimited are just to set up the settings and characters for Alternative. The story of Alternative was built with Unlimited as its base. In Alternative, Takeru found out that he was thrown back to the beginning of Unlimited but he retained his memories of the events happened in Unlimited. He then tried to prevent what happened in the ending of Unlimited. But it was easier said than done.

The exact moment when everything just went tumbling down

The first half of Alternative was some sort of new game plus for Takeru as he was already familiar with all of the events plus he kept his trained body so he never got in the trouble again. The story almost same as the first half of Unlimited but with minor changes. At one point, the story changed into a new direction. New events kept coming and coming. And boy were they horribly depressing.

Yes, as expected, Muv-Luv Alternative has this depressing tone all over it. Well maybe it's not as grimdark as let's say Saya no Uta but it's still depressing nonetheless. While Extra is funny, Unlimited has heavier atmosphere but still lighthearted, Alternative has this sense of helplessness. You can't do anything with its story. You just keep watching horrible things happen and happen again but you can't stop it. For me most of this feeling came after experiencing the infamous PTSD arc.

The amount of mecha actions and battle scenes were satisfying. I once said that I was disappointed with the lack of real battle in Unlimited. Fortunately Alternative paid it off with its incredibly animated mecha battles.  Honestly I've never been a mecha fan in my life. But after playing Muv-Luv I can't deny that those TSF designs were sexy as hell. Especially the Takemikazuchis.

The soundtracks are superb. They're very high quality orchestra music. I still got a goosebump everytime I listen to the OST. Well I am listening to them as I type this and it makes me pumped up as hell. I love them especially the battle themes (there are bunch of them). Also, the OP was done by JAM Project and it's gar as hell. I never skipped the OP once in all my playtime.

"However, by that point you'll have been torn to pieces."

Well, before this post gets too long I'll let it finish with a word of encouragement for you to read Muv-Luv as soon as possible. Especially if you're a fan of science and giant robots. Honestly I'm not even a fan of both but I still enjoy it like a motherfucking ice cream on a hot summer day. I give Muv-Luv Alternative a perfect 10/10 for all the effort it gave to entertain me in the best possible way. Thank you age for this amazing visual novel and thank you Amaterasu for translating it. I'll never forget the experience of reading the Muv-Luv trilogy.

(Man, I don't know what the fuck I was writing. Please forgive me since I wrote this draft at 2 AM)

Hi, long time no see. I've been not blogging for quite a long time. Most because of there's no relevant thing to write about, since I'm not really up to date to the current airing anime. I've been following the Muv-Luv franchise just recently and that's all I've been doing for these weeks. I'm still in the middle of Alternative, btw. Anyway, enough about me. Let's talk about Ace Attorney movie. Well, it's been out on cinema in Japan since February, but the DVD was released just recently.

As you may (or may not) know it, I'm a HUGE fan of Ace Attorney series. I've played all the game in the series, played fanmade games, read the manga, and many more. I love everything about this series. Its fanbase is one of a few fanbase that I'm not ashamed to be the part of it. So some cool people decided it's a good idea to adapt the first game in the series, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, into a movie. The movie is directed by Takashi Miike (Crows Zero, Nintama Rantaro).


The film in general followed most of the trials from the game. However, it focused primarily on two trials: Turnabout Sisters and Turnabout Goodbyes. There's some significant changes in the plot but not that much. Most of the aspect from the game like presenting evidence, cross-examining the witnesses, or the famous objection are portrayed nicely in the film. The court part used sci-fi elements such as holographic image to show the evidences.

The characters, especially Wright and Prosecutor von Karma, are played almost perfectly by the actors. The character resemblance was a plus too. Also, it's nice to see they paid attention to some little things from the game like Steel Samurai and Blue Badger. It's not much but enough to make fans of the series smile. The music is pretty good. Most of the music were taken from the game and rearranged for the movie. Again, the fans will surely glad to hear the music. It might even trigger the sense of nostalgia among them.

Overall, it's a pretty good movie for the fans. It can be a bit tedious for person outside of fanbase but I don't doubt they can enjoy this movie too. I hope they're gonna announced the sequel soon. How I love to see that last case from the 2nd game.

More screenies:

Sooo yeah, I kinda finished this visual novel this morning and want to give my two cents about it a bit (or call it half-assed review if you wish).

I was hearing one or two good things about this title a few years ago but I did not try it until a few days ago. Only recently did I get interested in it again with the recent Total Eclipse anime. There's also sudden influx of Muv-Luv threads on /a/ from time to time so I decided to give it a go. (Yeah yeah I know, jumping the bandwagon)

This VN consists of two part, Muv-Luv Extra and Muv-Luv Unlimited. You play as Shirogane Takeru, your average main character guy. The Extra part is similar to countless harem eroge. Its setting is normal Japan. There's your osananajimi, sudden love interest, and school life comedy. Muv-Luv Unlimited is, however, set in post-apocalyptic Japan where Alien race pretty much destroyed half of Earth population. There's mecha and some cool shit.

Muv-Luv Extra plays exactly like a normal visual novel do. You have to choose one of  five available heroines. There's nothing sensational about its plot or whatsoever. It just feels okay I guess. The characters are pretty funny (although some are pretty annoying). The romance part was done alright. After you finish with two main heroines route (Meiya and Sumika) you unlocked the second part of Muv-Luv, Unlimited.

In Muv-Luv Unlimited, you wake up one day and realize something is wrong. You get out of your house and find a crapsack world. Turned out the humankind is in the middle of crisis, an alien race called BETA invaded the Earth and destroyed everything in their path. Takeru found out his shool has turned into a military base and all his friends are well-trained soldiers. In short, this is an alternative world which revolves around a hypotetical question "what happens when you put standard harem VN casts into a post-apocalyptic world?"

I find Unlimited to be pretty cool thought it's kinda dragged a bit in some parts. Here you can find cute girls wearing military uniform, eating snakes in wild jungle, sniping with anti-material rifle, and guess what, riding a robot! Yes, the scientists in Unlimited world invented mecha called TSF to fight the BETA. Well, one of the biggest disappointing part is that you don't actually fight the BETA in Unlimited. Unlimited is a world/setting builder part of the Muv-Luv series, while Extra is characters introduction part. The real meat is the sequel which I intend to play next, Muv-Luv Alternative.

To be honest, if you really don't have much time at hand but still want to get into Muv-Luv you can skip Extra and Unlimited altogether and just read through Alternative. Still, almost everyone say that you need to read Extra and Unlimited first if you want to get full experience in Alternative.

Anyway, I can't wait to read Alternative and get all those feels or whatnot (I heard it's pretty depressing). For Muv-Luv itself, I give it a 8.

Okay, here I go with more mango recommendation. Hailed from the hands of the mighty Yoshitoshi ABe, comes Ryuushika Ryuushika. The best way to describe this manga is "It's like Yotsuba except it's Yotsuba on drugs". Seriously.

Behold:
I don't know about you, but personally I enjoy this more than Yotsubato. Maybe it's because of ABe influence on me. Maybe because of its beautiful full-color pages. Maybe because of Ryuushika is just an awesome character.

Might as well telling you that I'm a big fan of ABe's artwork. From Haibane Renmei to Lain to Texhnolyze. I love this guy's art.

Anyway if you like Yotsubato or other "little girls doing little girls things" manga you'll pretty much like Ryuushika Ryuushika. Go grab it at /a/non scanlations who is doing other cool manga such as Appergio of Blue Steel and 7O3X.

You may gaze upon this beautiful visage. Done? Good, because I'm about to tell you about a manga featuring the beauty above.

The manga starts with a fairly common scene, MC summoned a succubus to help him get ridden of his virginity. How lucky! I mean, who wouldn't want to lose his virginity to a devil! Anyway, the succubus he summoned was pretty cute and he was waiting eagerly to start the, uhm, ritual. Then here's come the interesting twist: the cute devil is actually a boy! You think that only makes MC more looking forward to do it, well you're wrong.

The pact between MC and the devil already made, but because he refused to fullfil his contract with the devil, the devil won't leave him alone. The rest of the manga is about how the devil wants to get into MC's pants. Hilarity ensues. Just imagine this as the reverse of what happens in My Balls except the devil is a boy. Daga otoko da! Well, there's actually nothing wrong with wanting to bone a cute trap. Because everything is better with a p0n0s.

art by エコー

These recent weeks I have seen the sudden explosion of Ib (pronounced as 'Eve')fanart in Pixiv. Getting curious as usual, I did a little Google browsing and found out that Ib is a horror doujin game made with RPG Maker by a person called kouri. The popularity of this game has finally caught my attention since I get the feeling that this will be another good Yume Nikki clone like .flow or LcdDem (I like these two). Then I played Ib last night and ended up loving it so much.

The story starts when a 9-year old girl named Ib visits an art gallery with her parent. As she wanders around the gallery, she stumbles upon a strange painting when suddenly the light goes out. It only happens in a few second and the light backs. That's when she realizes everyone in the gallery disappears and she is alone. She goes checking out some other paintings and she stops at this certain painting. For some unknown reason she accidentally can enter the painting and trapped in another world, the world of painting.

Well, that's the synopsis for you, I hope you're interested. The gameplay consists of exploring the area and solving puzzles. I can say that Ib is different from Yume Nikki, since it has dialogues and story. The story itself is really nice too. There are some scary stuff here and there that can make you creeped out (well at least for me). As for the puzzles, well, they are hardly confusing at all. I didn't get stuck more than 5 minutes when sloving a puzzle. So I can assume that this game is pretty much can be played even by casual players.

art by ワユカコ

The Japanese indie gaming fandom is really unique. They are very dedicated, you see. For example Yume Nikki or Touhou. You can hardly see any plot or even official character design in Yume Nikki, but there are countless Yume Nikki fanart out there and I've read several fanfiction as well. They are mostly good, especially the fanart. And don't even get me started with Touhou fanbase. That's why I am not really surprised when I browse Pixiv and find out some amazing Ib artwork there. This kind of thing that made me love the game even more. The same reason applied to why I regard Yume Nikki so highly. Before I know it my Ib fanart folder is already reaching around 50 items and still counting as we speak.

Here's some closing words. Ib is an exceptional game. There are moments when I genuinely muttered words "Boy, what a game". I love the characters and the story, even before I finished it. In fact I haven't finished all the endings yet. Yes, there are multiple endings in this game. Pretty amazing when you think that this game is made only by one person using RPG Maker. Once again this is one of the reason why I love indie games in general. Oh right, here you can find download link for Ib. Go play it. I can't recommend it highly enough.

P.S. Garry is not a lolicon

Every once in a while, we may want to play a video game just for fun, rather than doing the usual stuff like blasting away the endless waves of bad dude with Big Gun™ or stratching our heads after that intricated plot thread which resulted in a mindfuck ending. We want a game where we can genuinely enjoy its charm while relaxing on our seats. Well guess what, I have this little indie game that just perfectly fitted  for you to play!

Botanicula is a point-and-click adventure game from Amanita Design, which some of you probably recognized by their previous work Machinarium. Just like Machinarium, Botanicula is a point-and-click game which you played by clicking stuff on the screen and solving puzzle to proceed to the next area. Point-and-click genre has been long known as one of the most popular genre on PC. Some older PC gamers can easily remember titles such as Monkey Island series or Maniac Mansion which were really popular back in the days.

Back to the topic. I enjoyed all of Amanita Design previous works. From Samorost to Samorost 2 to Machinarium, and also their several flash adventure games on browser. That's why I was really looking forward to Botanicula. After watching the trailer, I was rather surprised after noticing its design was more like Samorost's art style instead of Machinarium's. Not that it's bad or anything though but I always fond of Machinarium beautiful hand drawn art style.

While in Machinarium you are a small robot in a depressing steampunk world, the world in Botanicula is more colorful. In this game you control a group of five botanical creatures which are trying save the last seed of the tree of their home tree from this black evil thingy creature that look like that big ass spider from Limbo. And then you began your journey through different area to avoid that thing (actually those things because there were more) and met different unique creatures along the way. Like any other Amanita Design games, Botanicula has no dialogue (either written and spoken).

The puzzles themselves weren't too hard since they have less to do with the thought process of solving puzzles and more to do with figuring out what exactly needs to be done with those strange creatures which moves when you clicked on them (and of course, some pixel hunting too). In fact, they were easier than the puzzles in Machinarium and Machinarium's puzzles were already this easy. Well, that's why I said in the first paragraph that this game can be enjoyed when you relax in your free time without having to think too much. I finished it in two days with total play time around 4 hours. Yeah, it was short but totally worth it.

The soundtrack is one of the strong points in Botanicula. It was done by Czech alternative band called DVA and these guys knew how to make perfect tunes for this game. The music in Botanicula can't help but made you feel relaxed during the playthrough. It was the kind of music that made my body feels lighter when I listen to the tune:



Botanicula is such an unique experience, at least for me, because how it tried to suck the player into its own beautiful world that filled with charm and successful in doing it. I commend those guys at Amanita Design for its imaginative visuals and sounds. It might be true that Botanicula won't be easily called as an example of 'modern classic' in point-and-click adventure genre like Machinarium did but at least it earned a special place in my heart forever as one of the most charming video game I've ever experienced.

"War. War never changes." -- Fallout series

Now and Then, Here and There (or Ima, Soko ni Iru Boku in glorious nihon tounge) is one of those anime I constantly found on the list of 'classic anime you must watch' everytime someone made one. I myself was quite excited to watch this series since I got this Kino no Tabi (my favorite anime ever!) vibe when I looked at the art. Luckily a few days ago I had some free time on my hands and I was like, 'well why the hell not' and proceed to marathoned this series.

My first impression of this anime, I must say, was pretty indifferent. The main character is your generic shonen protagonist with nothing to lose personality (don't really want to say it, but he reminds me of Naruto). One day he met a emotionless mysterious girl with blank look sitting on the top of smokestack and suddenly shit happened: some people appeared out of a sphere-like light and trying to capture the girl. Being a typical shonen protagonist he is, Shu (the boy's name) did his best to protect Lala-Ru (the girl). He eventually failed, but he succeeded in getting transported along with those people to another world.

The place he ended up was called "Hellywood" which ruled by a tyrant with silly haircut named Hamdo. Before he knew it Shu already trapped in a harsh world where children kidnapped from their village and trained as soldier in Hellywood military. Hamdo was apparently trying to conquer the planet and declaring war against other villages. Later other characters were introduced such as Nabuca and Boo, two kid soldiers from Hellywood army; and Sara, a girl from the same world as Shu who probably had the worst fate in this show.

At first there's nothing special about this anime yet. That's it until you learned horrible things Hamdo had done all these times. It also showed us how war can affect a person's life and screwed it up so bad. Brutal things happened in this show, either implied or explicitly shown. It wasn't that kind of 'in-your-face' violence but more like what would actually happen during the war times. In that way, I must say this anime is very realistic.

The story is not really deep by any chance but it's really powerful and emotional engaging. I also like the overall 'teenager got mysteriously transported into another world' theme that reminds me of adventure video game "The Longest Journey" which has similar theme. I also happen to like adventure genre in general so this  anime gets additional point for that.

I don't want to go into technical detail but at least the music in this anime needs to get mentioned. The music is amazing. From the opening theme to background music until the ending, everything was great. That's all I need to say.

For my overall enjoyment, MAL reviewer Prede has better words for it:

This is not an anime you will "enjoy" as a form of entertainment. This is not an action show, this is not a comedy, this is some serious stuff! This is an anime that will be hard to re-watch because it is very depressing, very dark, and very distrubing. But this is an anime you will be very happy you watched. This is an anime that truly uses the medium to it's full advantage, much in the same way Grave of the Fireflies did. I can't imagine watching this as a live action movie, or reading it as a book. Anime is the perfect medium for this story. It may be a little too dark and depressing for some, but if you have the strength to finish it, you will look back at it and say "that was amazing". 

That was truly a great watch. I'm glad to be an anime fan.

After some time, I finally got free time to watch this movie. This movie is adaptation of Hiyori arc from the manga which spanned from chapter 35-40. The arc without a doubt is my favorite because it was different from the usual content of the manga. It was thrilling the first time I read the chapters which was quite a rare feeling when it came to Sora no Otoshimono, a manga filled with hilarity and nonsense. So how does this adaptation turned out?

My first impression of the movie was bad. Why, you ask? It was a goddamn recap for the first goddamn 40 minutes or so, that's why. Fortunately I was not in sleepy state otherwise I would surely hit the sack rather than watch this movie thus missed the joy of watching it. It was still bearable though, because we got to see the recap from Hiyori's point of view. But I advise you to skip to the main content if you yawn too much. You won't miss anything important.

Once you pass the recap segment, let the fun begin. Hiyori herself is the main attraction of the movie. Hiyori is my favorite character among all the female characters in Sora no Otoshimono. Mainly because her honest personality and she was the first person who admit she likes Tomoki. She's quite a beauty too. It is so unfortunate that she's kinda sidetracked in the recent manga chapter probably because Sohara and the Angeloids can't win from her.

The plot was slightly different from the manga. I was mad that AIC cut several part from the manga, particularly the "train" part (if you read the manga as well you should know). They also cut some little detail such as the white chocolates. I think if they didn't put too much time in the recap they can add those parts to the movie. The battle and the ending were different too. The movie ending was kinda bittersweer or more like a Downer ending. No pun intended. I don't know the reason behind this but at least the ending wasn't as fucked up as Forte.

Well, look at me. All I did was complaining about how the movie is different from the manga. I completely missed the fact that I quite enjoyed it even though the usual comedy was kinda toned down. I also must applaud the production value on this movie, especially the battle visual effect. The soundtrack was well done as usual too.

Overall, Sora no Otoshimono Tokeijikake no Angeloid was an enjoyable watch for me. Sora no Otoshimono is one of the few ecchi anime that I don't mind watching because the story is good (albeit a bit cliche). This movie is recommended for the fans of the manga and anime as long as you can stand a few changes from the original content. For this movie, I would give 8/10.

P.S. Looking forward to season three (and let us just forget how Forte ended)

Let's keep it short: Hotarubi no Mori e is a very nice movie. It's sweet and heartwarming. If you like romance anime but tired of the usual misunderstanding cliche, try this short movie instead.

This 45-minute movie is about a relationship between human and youkai. The girl (human) met the boy (youkai) in a forest at summer. The catch is, the youkai can't be touched by human or he will disappear.

I find the story quite simple yet it is so charming. The art isn't particularly spectacular. It's down to earth, fitting with the theme of the movie. The music is relaxing, again, fitting with the atmosphere.

The manga version came from the same author who did Natsume Yuujinchou so it got the same vibe as Natsume.

Personally I like this movie quite a lot. Perhaps it's because I rarely find a good short anime movie nowadays. Hotarubi no Morie e is the kind of anime you'd recommend to anyone regardless of their age, gender or whether they like anime or not. You can watch it with your friends, lover, family or you can just watch it alone like me ;__;

Let me say this in the front: Oyasumi Punpun is one of the greatest manga I've ever read. And you too, should read this manga so you can feel what I feel.

Oyasumi Punpun (or Goodnight Punpun, for you non-weeaboos) is a coming-of-age manga by Inio Asano. You might've known his name from his other works such as Solanin or Nijigahara Holograph. The story is about a boy named Punpun and how he lives his life. We see how he grows up, falls in love, and makes friends. Pretty regular stuff, isn't it? Except Punpun (and his family) is drawn as a silly caricatured bird you see in picture above and the fact that there is some Inio Asano-esque surrealistic thingie in this manga such as Afro God that shows up whenever Punpun chants "Dear God, Dear God, Tinkle-tinkle hoy!".

Yes, he's God

Despite that, I must say that this manga is a friggin' realistic portrayal of life. As in, life is hard and growing up sucks. Here we see Punpun's struggle in his life which pretty much can be anyone else's life. There are times when I told my self while reading this, "Hey, this happens in my life" and there are also times when I had to stopped reading and sighed because the plot grew darker and darker as I progressed. Yeah you read it right, this is a manga filled with depression and irony. But I couldn't stop there, I had to continue.

Inio Asano once again amazed with his ability in storytelling as well as beautiful art. This guy knows how to draw his works in highly-detailed art. Every background in this manga is absolutely amazing. And as I said before, there are some surreal scenes too. I think now I can grouped Inio Asano among my other favorites surreal mangaka like Suehiro Maruo, Usamaru Furuya, Taiyou Matsumoto and Nishioka Brosis.

Quick, make a wish!

To put it bluntly, Oyasumi Punpun is simply a masterpiece. It's touching, heartbreaking and heartwarming. It is realistic and surreal at the same time. Yes, it's deep and thought-provoking as well as funny and disturbing. I cannot recommend you this series highly enough. This review maybe not exactly described what the manga is about so do yourself a favor and read this manga now. You can grab the scanlated version from Hox's mediafire folder.