I know I missed February…so ya…this is for March, though

This one is for an anime series NOT THE MANGA.   Which I have read, just FYI

Title: Saiyuki (in English)

Teaser:

Watched: on the animenewsnetwork youtube

Overall: 4 stars

            Definitely one of the best anime series I have ever watched.   Was it perfect?   No, but overall it was top-of-the-line.   Animation was cheap at times and there was definitely filler but I still really, really liked it.   Although, I will say, this anime is not for everyone.   It is dark and has…weird things.   Not for the faint of heart, although this warning goes for the manga a lot more

For Fans: (of Shonen) 4 stars

            See above comment, really

For Casual Watchers: 3 stars

            If you don’t like anime, don’t watch.   If you are afraid of dark themes, seriously messed up characters or weird/wrong/screwed up character interactions then don’t watch.   If you don’t mind, though, I’d definitely recommend it.

Final Decision: See my comment for casual watchers.   Overall, though, I’d say it’s one of my favorite animated series.

Animation/Art: 4 stars

-Character Design: 4.5 stars

            I love the designs.   I don’t really have any complaints other than Gojyo’s pink hair.   All of the characters are very unique and don’t look like the super-typical anime characters.   They all have different heights and height/weight ratios that fit with the look.   There’s a reason that everyone’s the size they should be.   Gojyo is more built, followed by Sanzo, Hakkai looks like a girl and Goku’s a kid.   Which fits.   And they’re color-coded by eye color which I love ^.^  (Unlike in my image in which Hakkai has blue eyes which Minekura later changed to green)

-Animation: 3 stars

            Haha, I can see where their money didn’t go…but it’s okay.   Saiyuki has a particular style, a tendency to put in “non-speaker” shots during dramatic scenes.   Things like ceiling fans or someone who’s not talking.   It looks cheap at first but it kinda grows on you and it does match the scenes.   Manga does it sometimes too.

-Into/Outro: 4 stars

            These are basically artbook images put to music.   Which is awesome.   They also tend to have intros with a “fighting in silhouettes” scenes, which I like.   Usually they just tend to show off the main four characters but it’s cool.

Dialogue:

-Voice Acting: 4 stars

            I miss the Saiyuki voice actors…definitely better than some of the later ones (Saiyuki: Reload and on).   Dr. Nii sounds the best!   There are some awkward moments but aren’t there always?   Grey Ayers does the best Goku, and so on.

-Script: 3 stars

            Eheh…voice actors are amazing script, not so much.   Swear words are added in and some of the lines are OOC.   Example is Sanzo who, in one episode, calls one of the guys “my friend” when one of his “things” is that they’re not his friends, just his traveling companions.

-Music: 4 stars

            Music sets the mood and it sets it well.   I love the music.   It’s a lot of nice piano pieces and such.

 
Story: 4

            This depends on what you’re looking for.   Plot?   Well…it’s there.   Vaguely.   Character development through the story?   Front and center.   And amazing.   Saiyuki is about the characters with this vague movement towards the end goal.   And it works.   So, it depends.   I really like something so development-driven.   I don’t care that it’s taking years to get to India, that’s not the point.

Misc notes:

            Honestly, I do like the manga better.   It’s darker and doesn’t skirt around some of the motifs.   The manga is more morbid and dark but both are still good.  As a sidenote, Hakkai uses his martial arts a lot more in the manga than in the anime.   This saddens me, I like his martial arts.

Favorite:

Character: Hakkai.   Definitely.   In my opinion he’s clinically insane, see my character study on facebook if you’re interested, but I still love his character.   He needs to be needed; clingy but refuses to cling; polite but still snarky.   Plus, he’s nearly half-blind.   Yay!   I also really like Gojyo (when he’s not screwing around)

Episode: Not really sure.   Most of my favorite parts are in Reload, the sequel or in Burial (one of the OVAs).  

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X-Men: Nation X {Collected}

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
(c) Marvel

Rented from Library

Summary: Now that the X-Men have made their new home they have to keep it afloat.   Everything changes as past a present clash and nothing is like it was before.   Can Cyclops keep everything going or is he just a shadow of the leader everyone trusts he is?

Overall: 2 Stars

I love X-Men, I’m not gonna lie.   I think that’s why this is even getting 2 stars.   My thoughts the entire time were “what is going on!”   And…it never really got explained.   I’m caught up with the whole “move to Utopia” thing but that didn’t help much.   The first half was good, the rest not…eh.

For Fans (of the X-Men): 3 Stars

            If you flip through and catch your favorite character somewhere in the second half…don’t get it.   First half?   Find it at a library.

For Readers: 1 Star

            Don’t like X-men or don’t care?   Don’t read.   Period.

The Good: The first half.   A little…weird at times but other than that I like it.   Consistent art, good storytelling, and so on.   The entire volume did include a lot of more minor characters which is both good and bad.   Overall, the first half is the good.

The Bad: And the second half is the bad.   What on earth!   Half of the time everyone was out of character and the other half the art was so distracting that it was hard to read.   And really, Marvel, decide if you want to write in accents or not.   Cannonball kept going from super Kentucky to nothing issue to issue.   A middle would be nice (especially since he’s been away from home so long he’d lose at least some but not all of it.   Logic people).    One minor quip I have is a fail on background.   Hellion shows up in the background twice and both times he’s done totally wrong.   The second time he even has his Academy X uniform on!

 
Art: 3
-Coverart: 4 Stars

Coverart was consistently good.   My only problems is that a lot of them were misleading.   They’d have characters that didn’t even show up.
-Overall: 2 Stars
            First half was good but the second half kept changes styles drastically.   Half of them I didn’t even like.   Some of them were too childish while others only fit certain characters.   Cannonball had a one shot and for him and him alone the style was okay, but only if it wasn’t a serious story (which it wasn’t).   I think the second half would have been better collected separate from the first half, honestly.

Story: 3 Stars
-Characters: 2 Stars

            Characterization was out the window in the second half.   Namor and Colossus were consistently good but no one else.   Anole was acting like he did in early New X-Men but he’s grown up since then.   Surge practically had split personality disorder since every time she showed up she was way different.    She’s mature, then petty and childish and then calm and “oh, I’ll stay out of the way”.   Make up your mind.   Emma went from The White Queen to lovey dovey with Scott (which was explained) to a stuck-up, rich, bored child.   All this to say the first half was good, not the second (see a theme?).

-Plot: 3 Stars

            I wish I could grade this higher.   The first half was, again, good.   Plot flowed and I mostly knew what was going on.   The second half had no plot at all and was just a blind, unconnected shoots at nothing.

-Dialogue: 4 Stars

            First the bad.   In “Big Boy Pants” Mercury gets a bubble with a smiley face, twice.   Really?   That seems SO unprofessional to me.   Accents kept going away and coming back.   Other than that, though, I liked it.   Ignoring the off-the-wall-what-the-heck “Dooptopia” everything was in order.   People said what the needed to the way they should have.   And it had it’s funny moments, as comic should.   “…combined with a call from the woman in reception reporting a giant metal man just threw a sculpture through our front door has lead me to believe an encounter with the X-men is imminent.”

Misc notes: If the book had been split in half with the second half being just the collection of unconnected one-shots then this review would have been much higher.   The first half is good, it has a point and I like the art.   Second half gives me mixed feelings and combining them made me like the first half less

Favorite:
-Scene:

-Sidestory: “Testament”, by far.   The art wasn’t all that good, in fact I didn’t like it, but the story was good.   Colossus, again, but still, I liked it.   It was really sad to see Piotr trying to cling to the past while Illyana just wants to keep going forward.

-Lines: This is from Testament: “There is an old Russian saying “The nest is the eggs, not the sticks.”   And maybe it means that home isn’t about the place or history.   It’s not about the past.   Maybe it means home is about the present, what’s in front of you.   And planning for what’s to come.   I’m not sure anymore.   I haven’t lived in Russia for a long, long time.”

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So, here’s my review for the month of December.   This time it’s a video game I just finished
Five point scale

Justice League Heroes 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
(c) DC, Warner Brothers

For the: PS2, Xbox, PSP, Nintendo DS

I played: PS2

Overall: 3 Stars

For Fans (of the Justice League): 3 1/2 Stars

For Casual Gamers: 2 Stars

Final Decision: If you want to play the Justice League it’s not bad.   Don’t get it for any other reason, though

Graphics: 3 Stars

-Cutscenes: 3 Stars 

-Gameplay: 3 Stars 

-Characters: 3 Stars 

 
Gameplay: 3 Stars

-Battles: 2 Stars 

-Interaction: 3 Stars

-Maps: 4 Stars

Story: 2 Stars

            I know Justice League has some weird stories but this was too much of a stretch.   Brianiac working for

?   Really?

 Misc notes:

            My major qualm is the uneven characters.   Batman should have had cool things to make up for the lack of a good guard.   And the Flash should just…suck less.

 Favorite:

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I don't have much to say about blogging...so I'm just gonna put my to-do list here 

In progress:

Last update: Feb 13, 2011