The -dere Guide

Most, if not all, anime girls fall in one of these personality tropes. These tropes describe how the character acts/interacts with their romantic loved one, which is why all of these tropes are partially composed of the word "dere-dere", which means "to act lovey-dovey in front of your love interest". The names of these tropes are comprised of two Japanese words and so their meaning is a combination of these two words; for example: Tsundere is a combination of the words "Tsun-Tsun", to turn away in disgust, and "Dere-dere". 

Tsundere:

A person who initially starts out as cold and hostile but gradually warms up to the other person. This person is often embarrassed of their feelings and whose actions are a reflection of their inner struggle with pride and love. They may do something nice but then disguise it as a coincidence or make up some other motive to hide their feelings.  Generally have loud and assertive personalities. Comes from "Tsun-Tsun" which means 'to act high and mighty" (i.e. Asuka Soryu, Kirisaki Chitoge, Aisaka Taiga, Tohsaka Rin)

Yandere: Although initially nice and sweet, their love quickly turns obsessive and often times violent. These characters are often mentally unstable and have a strong possessive and controlling desire especially when they feel threatened by a love interest. Comes from "yanderu" meaning 'to be sick'. (i.e. Gasai Yuno)

Deredere: Someone who is lovey-dovey in front of their love interest and has no hesitation when expressing their affections. (i.e. Tachibana Marika)

Kuudere: A "cool" character who can sometimes be described as "emotionless", "stoic", or "impartial"; whose true feelings for their love interest are hard to detect at best. A kuudere is very calm and collected and rarely expresses their emotions. Oftentimes, they are shown being unaware of the feeling of love. Comes from the Japanese pronunciation of the English word "cool" (Mashiro Shiina, Ayanami Rei).

Dandere: An incredibly shy or antisocial character whose disposition is somewhat similar to that of the Kuudere, but whose silent and distant nature is attributed to their shyness. This shyness and tendency towards isolation often changes once they become closer to their love interest/friends. Comes from "danmari", meaning "silent". (i.e. Isla, Angel, Hyuuga Hinata)

Mayadere: starts out as and enemy trying to kill the protagonist, then switches sides after falling in love with the protagonist. The mayadere is a dangerous character. 

Goudere: a character who will do anything for her master and has somewhat of a servant and master relationship with their love interest (in their mind at least). (i.e. Matou Sakura?, Morgiana?)

Onidere: An incredibly strong and powerful character who has trouble showing her vulnerable side and doesn't want others to see as anything less than her strong and powerful self.  

Kamidere: A character who acts like a god.

Himedere: A character who acts like a princess. 

Heavy Object - Episode 1: Review

This post contains spoilers . . .

My god, I thought this this first episode was horrible. The animation, art style, and concept reminded me initially of Aldnoah.Zero; however, it appears to lack the political and romantic aspects that Aldnoah.Zero had. 

Heavy Object is set in a world where wars are frequent and can be waged over petty disputes like territory. What allows them to be like this is the invention of the Heavy Object, a massive killing machine that far surpasses and other form of military machine in both size and might. 

I felt assaulted by the slew of scientific jargon that came out of Blond Main Character 1, much like how  similar scientific jargon was utilized during Inaho's fight scenes in Aldnoah.Zero. Aldnoah.Zero's use of said scientific jargon didn't feel as out of place and utterly useless as it did in this episode because it was a byproduct of Inaho's communication with his robot (and later, with his eyeball), whereas its use in Heavy Object was the stupid blatherings of a young blond protagonist who doesn't know how to act in front of his love interest. 

I also thought that the fan service scene where the main girl protagonist was being constrained by her belt buckles was absolutely insulting. She was being strangled to death and you couldn't help her because you didn't want to touch her boobs????? Seriously??

I apologize for not being able to remember any of the character's names, that only speaks to how little of an impression they left on me. I'm really just sick of the Coodere personality trope that the girl has (similar to Ayanami Rei, the girl from Sakurasou, and Isla from Plastic Memories), and the perverted personalities of the boys disgusts me. 

This show is just fan service for otakus that have similar mindsets and big-boob attractions as those of the main protagonists. Absolute trash.

Arslan gets a Second Season in 2016!

The promotional video literally doesn't tell us anything other than that, but yeah!!! Arslan!!! I think it's pretty strange that the anime is so far ahead of the manga, but then again, there was another manga adaptation of the original light novel series that ran from 1991 to 1996 so it's not like we're waiting for more content from the original author. 

Reference: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-10-11/the-heroic-legend-of-arslan-gets-new-tv-anime-in-2016/.94079

"A true hero never stops overcoming the misfortunes in life!"

-- Napoleon Bonaparte

(Boku no Hero Academia, chapter 3)

Taken from Solanin by Inio Asano

Shin Megami Tensei IV: Final

A new installment for Shin Megami Tensei IV announced!!! Not much news on the characters or the premise of the game yet (doesn't seem to have any connection with Shin Megami Tensei IV), but we do know that it'll be on the 3DS and released in February 2016. 

OH! SO the story line of this game is going to be an alternate future of the event that created the setting for Shin Megami Tensei IV, the invasion of the demons into Tokyo. I like the character design for the main character :O.

Reference: http://www.famitsu.com/news/201510/06090028.html

Behind the Scenes of One Punch Man + First Episode Review

This post contains spoilers . . .

Here's a quick summary if you have yet to read the manga (which you totally should, it's great). One Punch Man is about Saitama, a man who's become so overpowered such that he can beat all his enemies with one punch. The manga follow's his everyday life as well as his interactions with several of his other superhero peers. 

As director Shingo Natsume stated, the goal of the One Punch Man anime adaptation is to stay true to the original manga; and that is what it did. The humor and the art of the manga was splendidly captured, in my opinion, and the personality of Saitama was brought out very well. 

The rough fight animations with its stark black lines gives the anime a feel akin to that of American comics. The use of dramatic explosions and background effects also contributes to this feel. Although the only way I can think of to describe this animation style is with "rough", I don't mean to say that the animation is not fluid. It exaggerates the movements, allowing you to see the ripple that passes through the muscles as a villain is throwing a punch, something you don't typically see in shounen anime (unless maybe like Attack on Titan). It also exaggerates the effects of these attacks, highlighting again the "ripple" or the recoil that passes through the face of one being on the receiving end; a showy throwback of the head after being punched in the face and the spit that gets flung out of the mouth. It is these details that make a fight that only lasts one punch interesting.

I think that the juxtaposition of Saitama's cool and not-cool sides is portrayed very well and "keeps it real" so to speak. I liked how they incorporated the scene of Saitama battling the challenging the opponents in his dream (as I was watching this I was so terrified, I'd thought they'd made a egregious mistake, it sounded so serious. Which, of course, is exactly why the director did this, to announce to everyone not familiar with One Punch Man that this is not going to be your typical shounen.) followed immediately by his harsh but comical reality. This juxtaposition depicts the mangaka's (ONE's) commentary of typical Shounen Jump protagonists.As Shingo Natsume points out, the unique setting of One Punch Man allows this to happen. Only through the presence of the Hero Association and with it the opportunity for Heroism as an occupation is the character Saitama able to be so carefree and lax with his view on being a hero, which allows him to say, "I am a hero for fun". 

I thought this first episode was great. 10/10. I loved being able to listen to Saitama's philosophical commentary throughout the episode (I also love his voice actor's voice btw); I feel like it really enhanced his character and gave us good insight to his unique (in terms of the manga world), yet average (in terms of the real world) personality. I look forward to what the rest of the anime has to bring.

Reference: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-10-02/viz-streams-subtitled-behind-the-scenes-video-for-one-punch-man-anime/.93690

Tegami Bacchi (Letter B) Comes to an End

The last chapter of the monthly manga will be released on November 4th in Shounen Jump Square.

I just started reading Tegami Bacchi after seeing this so I'm not particularly saddened by this news. My first impressions are that the art is pretty nice (difficult from the typical shounen; looks a bit more fairy tale and kiddish, imo?) and that it seems to be geared to a younger age group than I'm interested in but it's really too early to judge.  

Reference: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-10-04/tegami-bachi-manga-ends-magazine-run-on-november-4/.93786

From the Creators of Bakuman. and Death Note . . . . Platinum End!!!

The mangaka duo that brought you Bakuman. and Death Note, Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, have announced a new collaboration work titled Platinum End, "a story of a human and an angel". The story centers around main character Mirai Kakehashi. 

It was announced in Weekly Shounen Jump issue #44 that the new series will launch in Jump SQ on November 4th. 

Bakuman. will also be receiving a short, two-chapter prequel to commemorate the release of the Live Action Bakuman. feature film, set to open on October 3rd in Japan. Bakuman. age 13 follows the two main characters Saiko (Moritaka Mashiro) and Shujin (Akito Takagi) before their fateful meeting which begins the events of Bakuman.

Reference Links:

Platinum End

Bakuman. age 13

Kingdom Hearts HD II.8 Final Chapter Prologue & Kingdom Hearts II.9

Director: Tetsuya Nomura (Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy VII Remake)

Announced by Square Enix at the Sony Computer Entertainment Japan Asia Press Conference, the new installment in the series will feature a compilation of three Kingdom Hearts titles for the PS4

• Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance HD
• No new plot elements to be added.
• Kingdom Hearts X: Back Cover
• Features the "oldest story" in the Kingdom Hearts lore.
• Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth By Sleep - a fragmentary passage - 
• Kingdom Hearts III technology is being used to create part of this game, hence the release of KH II.8 on the PS4 and not on say, the New 3DS, etc.
• Nomura stated in an interview with Famitsu that Kingdom Hearts 0.2 would be a mix of Kingdom Hearts III and the original Birth by Sleep game for the PSP. 
• The story of the Kingdom Hearts 0.2 game takes place immediately after Aqua finds Cinderella's Castle in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Final Mix. 

Japan release is expected in 2016.

Kingdom Hearts III, which uses Unreal Engine4 technology, will be released on the PS4 and the Xbox 1. Confirmed worlds for Kingdom Hearts III include Tangled and Big Hero 6.

Reference Links:

KH II.8

Nomura Interview

Fall 2015 Anime Season

What're we Watching?

• Garo: Guren no TsukiStudio: MAPPA

  

  Sequel to the first Garo Animation

  
  Genre: Action, Shounen, Supernatural, Fantasy, Magic, Demons

Producer Masao Maruyama announced at animation studio MAPPA's Otakon panel that the second Garo: Honoo no Kokuin television anime series is slated for this October. Unlike the first Garo anime, this series will be a jidaigeki (period drama) set in the Heian period. It will have a female protagonist.

• Heavy ObjectStudio: J.C. Staff
  Genre: Action, Mecha, Sci-fi

The science-fiction war action story revolves around Objects — powerful, massive weapons that change the course of warfare — and Elite Object pilots. An odd Elite girl named Milinda meets Quenser, a student who aims to become a Object mechanic, with the soldier-in-training Heivia on a snowy battlefield.

• K: Return of Kings (K project 2)Studio: GoHands
  Genre: Action, Superpower, Supernatural

In modern Japan, where history has strangely overlapped with reality. There, seven "Kings" with great superpowers existed. Along with their clansman to whom they shared their own power with, the kings each formed clans. Order bound by blue, red flames that cause chaos, irregularities that shine in white, and reforms branched off into green. The Kings, each with their own abilities, now...

With "jungle" once again jumping back into action, the fates of the various Kings are brought together.

• Noragami Aragoto
  Sudio: Bones
  Genre: Action, Adventure, Shounen, Supernatural

Season two of Noragami which will adapt the manga's Bishamon arc.

• One Punch Man
  Studio:Madhouse
  Genre: Action, Comedy, Sci-fi, Seinen, Superpower, Supernatural

The manga revolves around the titular super hero who has trained so hard that his hair has fallen out, and who can overcome any enemy with one punch. However, because he is so strong, he has become bored and frustrated with winning all his battles so easily.

• Shingeki! Kyojin Chuugakkou
  Studio: Production I.G.
  Genre: Comedy, Parody, School, Shounen

The school comedy story is set in a junior high school and centers on the original manga's characters such as Eren and Mikasa as they battle with Titans. The spin-off incorporates gags while using Shingeki no Kyojin's story and notable scenes as its basis.

• Subete ga F ni Naru: The Perfect Insider
  Studio: A-1 Pictures
  Genre: Drama, Mystery, Seinen

The story of the original Subete ga F ni Naru novel revolves around Souhei Saikawa, a member of the Saikawa Research Lab. He goes on a vacation held by the lab, and Moe Nishinosono, the daughter of his mentor, joins the group on their vacation despite not being a part of the lab. There, the two end up finding a corpse. The two work together to solve the mysteries of what becomes a serial murder case.

The entire Fall 2015 Anime Season List

[PAD] JP Stream, Awoken Sakuya

So JP had their big stream this weekend, the usual one where all the PAD celebrities gather to tease some information on what's to come in the JP version of PAD. Max Murai and co. go and clear some dungeons, netting the JP players sweet sweet stones and pys (RIP NA), and then we get to learn about awesome new content. The highlights for this one? Tons and tons of new ult evos. Where do I even begin?

The most hyped up news was definitely the reveal of Awoken Sakuya. A fan favorite and commonly complained about, Sakuya is a card that GungHo frankly can't afford to mess up. But honestly, the reveal was a bit underwhelming. If it were any other card, people would be really excited about a powerful, bind clearing, unbindable leader. For Sakuya though, this just didn't cut it. The community reaction was so negative in fact, that GungHo has said that they're going to tweak Sakuya again to make her more acceptable for the community.

Is the revealed Awoken Sakuya so bad that it warrants a change? Let's take a look at Super Ult Sakuya as a comparison.

Awoken Sakuya - L/B
Active - Gravity + Bind Clear
Leader Skill - 5x with a 1.3x boost for 7+ combos

Ult Ult Sakuya - L/G
Active - Gravity
Leader Skill - 5x with a 1.2x boost on active use

Stats: Awoken Sakuya trades 650 HP for 200 Attack and 120 RCV
Awakenings: Awoken Sakuya trades 1 Enhanced Light Orbs and 1 Poison Resist for 2 Bind Resist

What does this all mean? Well in a nutshell, Awoken Sakuya makes her team very resilient against binds and features higher and more consistent (assuming player skill isn't an issue) damage than L/G Sakuya. Personally, I would consider her stronger - but definitely not by much. L/G Sakuya already had very convenient access to on-color reliable bind clearing in the form of L. Meta and the jump from L/G's 36x to Awoken's 42.25x while not insignificant, is definitely not game changing (not to mention it's not the easiest combo threshold to pull off consistently). Bind clear and gravity also don't make too much sense to put into the same active. There will hardly be any situations when both will be useful on the same turn, making it an awkward active in the sense that the two components have very little synergy.

There are a few other little things: Awoken Sakuya trades orb enhance (damage) and poison resist (pretty good utility) for unbindability. While unbindability on a leader is huge, she definitely would've benefited more from giving up her blind resist or jammer resist awakenings instead. Losing out on HP and gaining attack also goes against Sakuya's identity as the "tank, safe, utility-based quadcolor lead". While she does gain RCV to compensate, it's not like L/G Sakuya has any shortage of RCV with access to most of the games light healers as subs.

Overall, I think Awoken Sakuya, while definitely powerful, just didn't have as much impact as people were hoping for. People wanted something to rival Awoken Ra and the MP dragons. Instead, they got a slightly buffed Sakuya. Here's to hoping that the tweaks do Awoken Sakuya justice.

Bobo's Bizarre Adventure

First attempt at Virtual Villagers: Origins

A struggling village on a island lost at sea . . . . 

This is the world that Bobo knows. Bobo, a third generation of the original island settlers was conceived at a troubling time for the village; although, being but a child, he wasn't conscious to the anxious, harried complexions of the adults. Never in his young life had he known a full stomach, and so this became his reality. 

It was when Bobo had reached his tenth year that the villagers started disappearing. Long stretches of famine occurred more and more frequently and the village adults spent more and more of their time pacing back and forth with their heads in their hands and the only source of food they could hope for was an occasional mushroom. They called this time the Era of Starvation. Despite the hardships and the loss of this time, the villagers were able to find some solace in the peaceful garden that they cultivated and the miraculous lake that they uncovered. A cemetery was erected to house the sprawled skeletons that had begun to appear in the town center.  

Before long the Era of Starvation came to an end, leaving the village half as full as it was before and with survivors who were severely weakened. It was during this time that Bobo became a man. It was a mad race to research another food source, a race against time that became harder and harder as their bodies became increasingly fatigued, but nonetheless, this rush gave them hope. It was then that they came. The barrel of babies. 

The barrel of babies brought doom upon the tribe. They robbed the survivors of food and pushed everyone over the brink of starvation and their path left only hallowed skeletons in their wake. And then one day, it was just Bobo and two members of the barrel of babies. One baby died before he could mature and the other did not last long past 14. And with them gone, it was just Bobo. Just Bobo. 

[PAD] NA NA NA NA BATMAAAAAAN

HOLY ULT EVOS BATMAN

NA just got the Batman ult evos first! (see title)

Since we're probably not getting the Hunter x Hunter collab anytime soon, it looks like this is GungHo's way of making it up to us: specifically, these new Batman ult evos seem to be the counterparts of Gon and Killua from the HxH collab.

D/R Batman boosts Physical and Machine type HP/Attack by 1.3x while boosting Dark Attribute attack by 4x when at full HP OR under 50% HP. This mirrors Gon Freecs' leader skill which is a 1.3x HP/Attack boost for Attacker/Physical and a 4x boost for the whole party under  the same HP conditions. Awakening-wise, Gon has 2 skill boosts over Batman who makes up for it with immunity to binds, not quite as useful in general, but it can definitely make or break your run in certain dungeons.

D/D Batman boosts Balanced and Machine type Attack/RCV by 1.3x while boosting Dark Attribute attack by 4x when HP is above 80%, not quite as flexible as D/R, but powerful nonetheless. He's the NA counterpart of Killua, who provides the same boosts for Attacker and Devil type cards instead of Balanced and Machine types. On the awakenings side, D/D Batman packs double skill boosts and double TPAs while Killua features only one of each, but is unbindable. Again, making that tradeoff between offensive power and utility.

Right now it seems that Gon and Killua are better due to better access to subs (good machine type monsters are still pretty scarce), especially Gon who gets to play with all the green attackers, but that could change very easily in the near future.

Either way, even though I would've loved to get HxH collab in NA, I actually think this is way cooler (well, until JP gets them too) since it's like we get our own exclusive versions of the same card.

[PAD] End of August GodFest Results

A little backstory first:

I've wanted Sarasvati ever since her Ultimate Evolution got announced in JP. The Indian 2 Pantheon has popped up in GodFests three times since then. The first time she hit the REM was right after the June Player's Choice GodFest, right after I had spent all the stones I had been saving up for the past few months. Just to add salt to the wound, this particular GodFest coincided with a Water Gala, it was the perfect chance to roll her and I had next to no stones. I completed every dungeon I could to scrounge up the stones for at least one more pull, but in the end, the event didn't even get me a featured god. I figured it would be a while before the Indians were back at the REM, so I decided to hoard my stones for my chance.

When they came back, they were alongside the Chinese Celestials, another great pantheon that I'm more than willing to roll in. That turned out to be what I consider my most successful GodFest ever. I think I rolled something ridiculous like 10/12 gold eggs featuring Krishna, Vishnu, Durga, and even Rodin. But true to the desire sensor, I failed to obtain Sarasvati, the one whom I desired the most.

Fast forward a bit and we get to Chibi Summer REM. It wasn't long since the last appearance of Indian 2 and I wanted a few of the cards. Yeah, yeah, I know, Collab REMs are always a trap, but I'm usually really stingy with my rolls and I wanted to let loose a little (and since Awilda was a 4* I thought I would have at least a decent chance of getting her T__T)

ANYWAY, yeah, Indian 2 came again right after I was done wasting all my stones on chibifest 2015. I was half excited half disappointed, excited because I got another chance to roll for my beloved Sarasvati, disappointed because I had like 8 stones. I did some more dungeons to get stones and somehow managed to scrounge together 15 by the day of.

I opened up the REM, took a breath, closed my eyes for a bit and pulled. Gold Egg. Awesome. But I was prepared for disappointment, I knew with the recent changes to the REM, gold rates were now much higher, but so were troll gold rates. I waited in anticipation half hoping that it was Sarasvati and half hoping it wasn't in some sort of lame attempt to beat the desire sensor. I got a blue mech thingy that just made its way into the NA REM lineup. Oh well, at least it's better than a mermaid, time to roll again. Another gold popped out of the dragon. ISIS. I was ecstatic at this point. I had been wanting Isis for a while. Not only do I really like her art and concept, but she was just what I needed for my Awoken Ra team.

Riding on my newfound (and misplaced) momentum, I proceeded to roll again. This was my last shot for a while at getting my Sarasvati. Did I mention that this was a big deal because it's a Water Gala again? No? Well it was. I see the gold egg pop out as it bounces and makes that ever so satisfying ringing sound all I could do was imagine how happy I would be if I saw Sarasvati. The egg is center screen, the light flashes and I hold my breath in anticipation. The light begins to fade and...

Ganesha.

Welp, better luck next time I guess. Although at this point I have every single Indian 2 god except for her...

Natsume Yuujinchou Episode 5: Heart-Colored Ticket

"Natsume comes across an old ticket in Reiko's belongings and decides to go to the abandoned train station to see why she kept it. There, he meets a slow witted spirit named Santo, who was waiting for Reiko the entire time to go Kiriganuma, to see and make up with his friend, Mikuri, but the trip isn't as easy as it first seems..."
-- taken from Crunchyroll

The loneliness of having someone you love be upset at you. If the two of you are close enough you'll always be able to make up, right? Be able to see that this argument or that misunderstanding doesn't amount to the worth of your relationship, right? How much does it take to decide that something isn't worth it anymore? 

Puzzle and Dragons Reroll Guide (beginners) *Updated*

We've updated our beginner's reroll guide! (well more like we just put the tier there but that's the most important part right?) So yeah, check it out sometime and tell us what you think.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (saphira)

I recently started The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. Not really sure how this game fits into the Legend of Zelda universe, but apparently it's a companion to Phantom Hourglass. 

The gameplay is exactly the same as Phantom Hourglass; entirely stylus-based and shares a lot if not all of the same game mechanics. The premise of the game is entirely different, however. 

I might be making a page about it but I'm as motivated to as I am for Etrian Odyssey.

Floor 8 (saphira - Etrian Odyssey III)

After a lot of trepidation, I've reached Floor 8 o.o. It was a bit of a surprise; I was prepared for a boss battle given all the warnings I'd received from the various sentries. Thinking about it now though, this premonition was a bit unfounded since the boss battle would be on the last floor of the stratum, floor 8. My main party (Front: Gladiator, Hoplite, Monk; Back: Princess, Arbalist) is around level 22 and I'm thinking I'll be able to do a few more Sea Quests and FOE encounters before I attempt the boss battle. 

I just maxed my hoplite's parry skill. It doesn't activate as much as I hope it would though, I was expecting 10 to be the max level. I also got Call Cow for my Wildling; I've yet to try it but I'm really excited for it. The TP demands on Wildlings are so great, I'm not sure if I'll continue pursuing it.