Man, that was pretty cool episode. You know which my favorite part of the episode is? No, not Seibah riding magic motorcycle across the city. My favorite part is when Kotomine and Gil watching that tragic play while drinking wine like a classy motherfucker. These two are always be my favorite Master and Servant.

Fate Zero is now more closer than ever to the ending. I assume next week will be Iskandar vs Gil battle. And we're going to see the most badass fight in this anime. Gonna prepare my body and soul.
Title : It’s Not My Fault That I’m Not Popular!
Alternate Title : Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaete mo Omaera ga Warui!
Demographic : Shonen
Genre : Comedy, Slice of Life, School life
Author : Nico Tanigawa
Year : 2011
Status : Ongoing
Translated : 19 chapters

Synopsis :
Kuroki Tomoko is a super popular, high school girl, who has had 50 years of dating experience, and 100 boys... in the Otome game world. In the real world, she is a 15 year old shut in, who has all of the qualities of a "mojo" (喪女, a gloomy or unpopular woman).

However, when school isn't going as she expected, and she isn't as popular as she had thought she was, she takes a look at herself in the mirror for the first time in a few years, and has some shocking revelations...
(Source: Manga-Updates)

Comment :
I picked up this manga when it suddenly gained popularity on /a/ last year. It was a pretty entertaining manga, mainly because it focused on pathetic main character who is an otaku girl. There are some awkward situations found in this manga which probably familiar to some of us (not me) and I always think that watching her trapped in that awkward situation is amusing. I am such an heartless person.

Title : Maoyuu Maou Yuusha
Alternate Title : Maoyuu Maou Yuusha - "Kono Watashi no Mono Tonare, Yuusha yo" "Kotowaru!" (because there's like 5 different manga version of Maoyuu)
Demographic : Shonen
Genre : Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
Authors : Mamare Touno (Story), Akira Ishida (Art)
Year : 2011
Status : Ongoing
Translated : 12 chapters

Synopsis :
After a long and treacherous journey, our Hero finally arrives at the Dark Lady’s castle only to find himself being asked for help. The Hero explains how the war that the demons have brought upon the humans have killed thousands and put more in misery. The queen of demons however argues that this war has made the human society band together as one and showed empirical evidence how it has increased population, increased production, boosted economy and improved society overall. Furthermore, she explains to the Hero that ending this war will result in a civil war that will produce more bloodshed than there ever was. The Hero, convinced that the only way to bring peace, relatively speaking, is to join forces with the Dark Lady, agrees to help with her plans!
(Source: Manga-Updates)

Comment :
My friend introduced me to this manga a while ago when this manga still had 3 chapters. I immediately fall in love with it, because this manga has it all: charming characters, cool action, cute romance, funny comedy and some serious economic stuff. I'm not surprised if one day this manga will get an anime treatment.
Another Ib related post. A few days ago I discovered this beautiful MAD video. The song used in this video is Little Cry of The Abyss by sasakure.UK and sung by Asako Toki. It was included in sasakure.UK's latest album The Fantastic Reality of Aesop. It is really a beautiful song and I like it very much. If you haven't finished the game, do not watch this video because it's heavy spoiler-ish.


Damn, that was really beautiful ;_; . Now excuse me while I continue browsing pixiv for more Ib fanart (my current folder now already has 182 Ib-related pics... don't look at me with those eyes)
art by ã‚¨ã‚³ãƒ¼
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 ãƒ¯ãƒ¦ã‚«ã‚³
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
Oh Oyasumi Punpun. To think a manga could bring an emotional roller coaster to me every volume. Here is the summary of some things that happened in the latest volume and my initial impression, oh also *SPOILER ALERT*

Summary
After what happened in that cliffhanger in the last volume, Punpun finally had his first talk with Aiko since years.  Punpun (still in his Fujikawa Takashi personality) claims that he had been living a normal live as university student (which we know he aren't). Aiko herself told him that she is currently working as a model and that she has a boyfriend who older than her. Punpun can't help but feels that Aiko he knew was different than this Aiko he currently talking to. That the girl isn't the Aiko he knows. Then they planned to meet a few days later, date or some sort.

Punpun, with his Takashi personality, has no trouble to walk and chat with Aiko normally. But deep inside in his mind he he hates the current Aiko. They continue their "date" until night when Punpun suddenly make a move by offering to stay up in a hotel. As I expected, he tries to have sex with Aiko since Punpun is a guy with healthy sexual drive. However Aiko turns him down and leaves him alone in hotel room. Depressed, Punpun goes crazy.

Punpun meets with Sachi's ex-husband in a strange encounter. They had talk for a while (along with Sachi) and from the talk we know that Sachi's ex-husband is a successful person or something. After that talk, Sachi tells Punpun in private that she is pregnant... with her ex-husband child. Since she doesn't want anyone to know this matter she decides to do abortion. She asked Punpun to go to the hospital with her and he agreed quietly. This is the point where he resolutes himself that after he gets his driver license and Sachi's surgery is done, he'll go live somewhere faraway.

The next day, he confesses to Aiko that he was lying all these times. He is not a university student nor he's happy with his life. He also told Aiko that all these years he has been searching for her and the guilt from breaking the promise they had in the childhood still remains with him to this very day. He also explicitly blames her for all the things that go wrong in his life but seeing that she has grown into a well-adjusted person makes him glad that he can meet her once again. Surprisingly Aiko told Punpun that "she has been waiting for him too all this time".

Aiko herself is actually not living the dream like what Punpun believes. Long story short, in the next chapter it is implied that Aiko was constantly abused by her mother. She is also actually working in a small company (some sort of blue collar job) and not working as a model. Oh, poor Aiko. Her life is probably as bad as Punpun's.

Because this summary is getting tl;dr I'm gonna skip to important point. Sachi called Punpun that he is free to decide whether he will accompany her to the hospital or not. Either way she will be waiting for him in front of the station. Suddenly Aiko comes to Punpun apartment. Punpun worries about the bruises on her face and body. She tells him it's okay and maybe because she hears that conversation on the phone she is leaving. Punpun asks her to wait and explains her problem. The it suddenly happens.

Just as the usual. But this time it actually happens. They had sex. Also, Aiko was still a virgin so that kinda destroys all previous theory that she is a slut. After that they talk about going somewhere else and live with just the two of them. Yes, just like their previous promise. Punpun doesn't want to break his promise again so he agrees. They took a taxi and while in the way Punpun catches a glimpse of a young woman on the street.... it was Sachi. Their eyes met and she's crying. Punpun realizes that this is the same situation as before except this one ends with Punpun said "There's no turning back now."

Impression
Sorry if the summary above feels really suck. That's mainly because lack of sleep. Okay, so this volume is the shit. THIS THE FUCKING VOLUME MAN. Just a perfect manga I need to read after finishing Now and Then, Here and There last week. Nope, probably not.

I was surprised to see what kind of life Aiko lived all these years. Her world hasn't changed since she was little. Her mother still wasted money on useless fraud stuff except she can't doing anything right now and she is wasting Aiko's money she earned from her part time job. It was indeed a suffering life.

One of the biggest twist in this volume is Sachi got pregnant with her ex's. I mean what the hell. Poor Punpun must be confused. But what if somehow it turns out to be Punpun's child after all? And she decided to keep the child? Damn, Asano will never let me down. That scene at the end of the volume was pretty depressing too. It somehow goes full circle with what happened in the earlier volume What will happened afterward? Too bad we have to wait until October to read the next volume. I'm sure it won't end well. Either Punpun is commiting suicide or...

Last, that was really a wonderful read. Painful as it seems, but still wonderful. Also reading it together with /a/ was a fun experience. I hope the next volume will be as great as this. Though I don't really think I can handle it when the time comes. My body will never ready for another Punpun chapter. Thank you Punpun for the entertaining read, thank you Asano for the brilliant story, thank you based Hox for translating this and thank you /a/ for that great thread.

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