The Final Countdown

Hello and welcome to Don't Look Back... Again. Yeah it's been a little while, mainly for the fact that I haven't really had anything to write about or rather feel the desire/need to. But a few weeks ago my friend CorSec sent me a list that Game Informer had made, counting down the best Final Fantasy games (from the main stream line); which got me thinking of what my favorites are. My boyfriend too, saw this list and made his own via Twitter. So today I am going to countdown from 14-1 my favorite Final Fantasy Games.

But before we begin I do wanna say this; I do view the MMOs in a different class than the other Final Fantasies because they are completely different creatures, but because they are considered to be in the main stream line they will be viewed and placed as such. So without further adieu;

#14- Final Fantasy XIII

This might actually seem a tad unfair since I haven't played the game. With that said I have seen a fair portion of it and I am honestly not a fan. Where as I like the character designs for some of the main cast, I haven't really seen their personalities pop out enough and say "like me!!!" The combat is the least fun I have seen in a long time in a game. Where as ATB might be linear and "too easy" for some; the comabt in FF13 honestly doesn't make much sense to me. The fact that it's game over when the main character of your party goes down is beyond me; especially when SE has proven that they can make it so that if your party has fallen the sub party that is technically made via the extra party members can come out and revive you. Visually the game is beautiful, but it needs to be a little more than that. And for me; when this game was being talked about and trailers were shown along side Versus XIII I always wanted to play Versus more.

#13- Final Fantasy XIV

This game was a huge letdown, I will not even sugarcoat that fact. When I first saw the trailer via the E3 press conference on G4 I was so excited. True the races were rehashed FFXI races, but it was just stunning to look at and as time went on the more excited I was to look at the updates on what the game would hold for its players. In particular the thing I was excited over was the character creation; in FFXI you had very little options, but in 14 you could choose from at least 12 hairstyles, change eye and hair color and even had scars or beauty marks. I didn't get to try the game when it first came out, due to the specs being high; however when the priced dropped on the game itself and became free to play I decided to try it even it I was to lag. I do have a friend playing and we partied a bit (well duoed), but there was a lack of content to really do. When the most fun I had really was making my characters you know there was something wrong. Though the last day I logged on to take some screenshots with my friend was fun; so cute and shounen-ai.

As much as I really wanted to give the MMO a chance; there was little content and the announcement that the Free To Play period was ending was enough for me to quit. They are planning to overhaul the game and are dubbing it 2.0; which is good because it drastically needs improvements, but they should have waited to reinstate pay to play.

#12- Final Fantasy II

I never made it very far in this game and I'm everyone knows why; the leveling system. I do give this one credit for trying something different, but it was so grindy that I don't really know how anyone could get through it. The characters were flushed out for the most part and the designs were nice. But that one aspect made it hard for me to even get into the story.

#11- Final Fantasy III

Another one I never finished, though my access to this game was via the remake for the Nintendo DS. I do like and appreciate that SE finally released this game so we have all of the main titles in NA; but that's sort of where my like for this dies. The characters seemed a little flat and the outright difficulty was a bit ridiculous. FF3 was the first to introduce the job system and I am a sucker for it as I love the staple jobs of Final Fantasy. But I have to wonder if the original version of the game was a tad easier than the remake.

#10- Final Fantasy

The one that started it all. I really do like the reason it's called Final Fantasy as it was supposed to be the last game Square was going to make as the company was going under and in an ironic twist it saved the company. The story is very basic and there were no real characters; pick your job and go as it were. The magic system was pretty unique and very much like D&D, but the downside for me (which is why it doesn't rank higher) is that it doesn't directly tell you where you need to go. I am all for "reading between the lines" and put in an effort to make my way through, but this game had way too much of it.

#9- Final Fantasy IX

I have mixed feelings about this game; I really didn't like how spells and skills were learned, though it was a nice change of pace. The characters weren't very gripping in my opinion, but the throw back to traditional fantasy was pure win. As the last Final Fantasy to appear on the PS1 the graphics were both lovely and facepalm worthy. I don't really understand why they had to make 3D chibi... The story however was pretty good, though I felt they tried to cram too much in at once; and I should note there was really no reason to show/have a pissing contest between Vivi and Zidane. >.>

The combat was much like all other FF games, except that Trance was not the best way to activate a Limit Break. Unlike in FF7 or FF8; once you Trance meter is filled you are in it for its duration, so if a bomb explodes and it ends the fight and it was enough to put a character in Trance; you lose the Trance. Was quite annoying.

#8- Final Fantasy XII

This is probably surprising, even to me, that this placed as high as it has. I actually haven't played through 12 and the story itself is very remissness of Star Wars; which I am not a fan of, but the game has so many good points that it's hard not to like. Yes, the License system is BS since it has to be used for everything including armor; but the characters were so good. I know he gets a lot of flack, but even Vaan had his moments, though he isn't the true main character as he is promoted to be. The combat is just win and is the best part of this game. The system is a solo/offline version of sorts of FFXI's combat. The monsters aggro and you create macros more or less for your moves and program your party members to do what you need them to do. In addition you can cycle through the party and take control of them when you need to. It's more involved than a traditional ATB, but less complex and eye hurting than the system in FF13. The biggest part of this game I think is that when your main party goes down your sub party comes out; the fact that the game actually acknowledges the other characters being with you is very, very awesome.

#7- Final Fantasy X

The first FF to have voice acting, the first FF to spawn a direct sequel and the 3rd where you wanted to punch the "main" character in the face. FFX is probably considered a guilty pleasure of mine as I liked most of the characters; both in design and in personality. I liked the idea behind the story as a whole, even though the plot twist of Sin was pretty easy to figure out. But the idea of a false faith was rather intriguing to me. I loved the combat simply for the fact that you could interchange your party members and when Yuna summoned it would take the place of your characters and you could control the summons was pretty cool (though why the summons couldn't just replace Yuna I don't know lol). And I honestly really liked the Sphere Grid; your characters became rather customizable... or over powered depending how much work you put into it.

The main reason this didn't place higher was because of Tidus, hence also why this is a guilty pleasure. Tidus sights that the game is his story, when in fact it is technically Yuna's. He is also told not to mention that he is from Zanarkand and 10 minutes later he says he's from Zanakand. x.x

#6- Final Fantasy VIII

Game number two with a main character you wanted to bitch slap. Let's face it, Squall was and always will be an Emo Git; but that aside FF8 was a fairly decent game. Graphically it was pretty for its time and the characters looked real, which showed they were pushing the limits of the PS1. The main party members of this title I wasn't too thrilled with, in personality anyway (though I am partial to Laguna), design wise though I truly liked them all. The story, though confusing in some parts, was rather gripping and compelling and I was rather satisfied with its end. The upgrading of weapons being done through random magazines was interesting (though if you had all the items the upgrade would just unlock), but rather annoying. Getting a paycheck was a neat idea, but again annoying as it would take like 20 minutes for you to get a check and in any other FF game you could get way more cash in that amount of time for the random encounter, not to mention the amount of Gil you are paid is determined by your SEED rank. The combat though I am rather on the fence with. I loved the GF and junction system, but they had their flaws since you would have to build every character in a sense to avoid the "you don't have access to these characters so you can't transfer their magic and GFs over". And let's not forget the dreaded Draw/Stock system; that was the biggest waste of time ever.

#5- Final Fantasy V

FFV is actually one of the best in the series and if you haven't tried it it's really worth a look. The main character is a headstrong adventurer and one that is just enjoyable to play as. The story itself was a good and entertaining one and it was one of the only times you see a party member die in story context. The game revisits the job system and it's done rather well. Though grindy to build all the jobs on all characters, the pay off is quite customizable and nice.

#4- Final Fantasy VII

A revolution for its time and what used to be a major obsession of mine. FF7 still stands up though even through my nostalgia. Though Cloud may not be the best main character; I find his mentality of taking up where Zack left off kind of noble. I loved the materia system as well as the introduction to limit breaks. The cinematic, though dated now; were visually stunning and memorable. Aerith's death is still one of the most tragic scenes in video games today and still one of the most talked about. FF7 has to be the one game I played through the most and quite honestly I can see myself playing it through again and again till the end of time.

#3- Final Fantasy IV

Where as FF7 for awhile could be considered the fan favorite by most, I think FF4 is a close second. This game has a had a couple remakes and ports and it even spawned an episodic sequel in FF4 The After Years. The main character, Cecil, is just bad ass; starting off as a Dark Knight for the kingdom of Baron and starts to question his orders. The fact that he questions it instead of dwelling on it is what makes him one of the BEST main characters in Final Fantasy. Every character in the game has their purpose and even when they show they are afraid or worried they don't turn on their tails and run or whine and cry (even Edward).

The remake for the DS was jaw dropping with the opening cinematic scene and the voice acting just added to the epicness that is this story. However, the difficulty spike was drastically unneeded as was the addition to the mini games, but over all this is truly a classic story in every sense of the term.

#2- Final Fantasy XI

I am kind of shocked at myself that this ranked so high as much as I bitch about it. But the thought of you being the main character and that it's "your story" is very appealing. Though admittedly most of the time you act like a moron by either having a stupid option in the dialog or through the emote they chose for the scene or the story just happens around you. But for me I have my own stories to tell with my character and her friends and I like that thought.

The combat is one of the most simple I have seen for an MMO and the fact that you can choose 20 jobs for 1 character is really great (though storage for gear might be a problem if you wanna gear them all well lol). The player base aside; there are different play styles you can choose for any job and just playing around to find your style can be rather fun.

The overall stories the game has aren't as epic as a traditional Final Fantasy, but some of the NPCs really stand out and for me that made me want to play through that storyline more. Sadly, as I said before, the story seems to happen around you most of the time, but there are a few occasions where you can feel yourself being the hero. I had recently finished Wings of the Goddess and there was one cutscene in particular that made me go "they did this right"; it was right before a fight and the villains are boasting how you will fail and blah blah blah. Cait Sith looks to you and you have your options of what to say (I of course chose the one that made me sound cool) and then your party members show up behind you. It was the first time ever in this game where you see your actual party appear in your cutscene and for me that was pretty big and it made you feel like you are apart of the world.

#1- Final Fantasy VI

This was the very first Final Fantasy title I had ever played, back in the days of the SNES and this was labeled as Final Fantasy III. Back then, where as I liked it okay, I didn't really grasp how good it was till much later.

The story in of itself was very unique in many ways and frankly I can't really say it was cliché anywhere. In my opinion there really is no main character, but if Dissidia shows us anything it is met to be Terra; which makes it the first Final Fantasy to have a female lead. The story does a great job introducing its characters and making them evolve as the plot moves along; each of them standing out in their own ways. And it by far has the best villain in Kefka; a psychotic soldier of the empire. He has been the only villian I can think of that actually managed to win as he created the World of Ruin.

There are many moments that stand out for me in this tale; the opera being one of them. Where as people have been known to shed a tear at witnessing Aeirth's death in FF7, I feel my heart strings get pulled seeing Locke revive Rachel only to have her sacrifice herself to help everyone. Overall this is a very good tale and all around game; if you have not played this do yourself a favor and find a copy in some way.

So there you have it, my favorite Final Fantasies in order. I know there will be some who will defend their favorites who placed lower on my list, but I encourage that. After all that would be your favorite list. See you all next time! ^^/

Now and Then

Hello and welcome to Don't Look Back... Again. Ya know, it's funny to actually think about the things you used to do and the difference in how you handled then and how you deal with them now.

Lately I have been trying to deal with my writer's block; a block I have had on and off for at least two years now. Years ago, when I wrote Gundam Wing fan fiction and even when I used to work on the Ultimate Senshi; I used to be able sit and just write. The story never had to be fully thought out, I could just go off on a half thought of a scene or even just a line. It didn't matter; I would just sit down with my notebook and pencil or in front of my computer and go. But as time went on I have become less capable of doing that.

As I said back in the entry regarding the Ultimate Senshi; none of the stories actually got completed and for me at the time it was okay because I had fun just thinking of stuff. When I started to get into GW; I found myself pondering on what ifs as the show progressed and I wrote my first fan fiction for it. Little did I know at the time that would turn into something much much more.

I wrote GW fan fiction for about 4-5 years and with each year I saw my writing improve and I genuinely enjoyed the hobby. Now I know not all of my stories were gems, but I enjoyed working on them. When my best friend and I began to make our GW fan fiction archive site; I started to actually get feedback and even requests for stories. This one in particular was rather shocking really; one of the stories I had written was a "non-con" story, which means one of the characters got raped. Now the reason for writing this was because my ex seemed to have had the intention of doing just that to me. I had subconsciously went out and grabbed some non-con stories to see how the characters dealt with it and have their resolve. In order for me to move passed this event I decided to let my writing speak for me. I had then received an email from someone who had read the story and enjoyed it and requested that I write another one with the following guidelines; "Write a non-con fic, where Heero is the victim. Make it yaoi, but don't make Relena the rapist."

I originally was going to decline the request, but then I saw it as a challenge. The story that had come out of these guidelines was an angsty first person point of view story, bouncing between characters and how they reacted and came to terms of the situation. It was one of the most well received stories I have written; save for when my best friend's mother freaked out about it, going as far to say; "I wonder what her mother would do if she knew she wrote something like this". To which by the way, when I did tell my mother all she said to me was; "If you can write something that believable, write a damn book".

After years of writing GW fics I decided to try my hand at something more original; yet keeping a shounen-ai theme since it was what I was good at. My original story wasn't so bad, a couple of my real life friends really enjoyed it as did a few followers on the net. But when I was originally working on it, I only made it to chapter 13 (episode 11 technically as I wrote them as if they were episodes of a TV series) before I had stopped. Using some of the same characters as this story I tried to write a fantasy one. It got to be about 73ish pages before I ended up stopping the story all together.

When I stated working, my friends and I were playing an epic level D&D game, but in order for the game to continue I had to bow out of it so the GM could keep running it for the others (we have the same job more or less), so he suggested that I write a story to what was happening with my character in the time I would be away. I started that story 3, almost 4 years ago and it is still unfinished even though I know what happens to her.

And recently, I have started at least 4 stories and only 1 of which has been completed. Mainly it has been due to the massive writer's block I had mentioned, which has turned into an unmotivated state of mind. I love writing and I am constantly finding myself saying that I should work on something, but when I go to do it I can't get anything out and it's incredibly frustrating.

Earlier this week I had spoken to a friend of mine and mentioned this block as I often do to her and she is very supportive in the fact that she agrees that I need to write something. The more I thought about my situation, the more I realized that for some reason I care too much about what people think of my work. I become too caught up in it that I second guess everything I do and it makes it more difficult to even get a sentence written. Over thinking is truly my worst enemy.

Lately I have found myself reading a lot of Kuroshitsuji fan fiction and I recently noticed something; back when I wrote fan fiction I never cared what others really thought. The more stories I read, the more I see these authors doing the same things I did back then; not caring what others think and just wanting to tell the story, making little skit like things for the disclaimer with the characters of the series, and even using Japanese terms for either dialog or description. And the more stories I read the more my mind wandered into a story idea of my own.

The idea floated in my head for a bit, mainly because I almost felt ashamed for thinking of writing a fan fic again; but why should I feel ashamed? My skills as a writer have improved since my days in writing GW fics and I know (to me) what looks silly and could avoid doing them. I know how to make original characters too; so as an exercise I decided to write a Kuroshitsuji fic. It's not very long, so far it's only 4 pages; but I don't want to push or force anything. I am enjoying myself in writing this and I can only hope that it gets me to where I want to be again so I can finish at least one of the other stories I had started.

See you all next time. ^^/

Renewed Contract

Hello and welcome to Don't Look Back... Again. I gotta say I love it when I don't listen to the title of the blog and do it anyway lol. Anyway, before I begin today's entry I must clarify something I had stated in my previous one. I made mention that the Sailor Moon CD I had pictured could be a bootleg and it indeed is a bootleg. I did a small search on Google and discovered that SM was actually a fairly well known bootleg company. Even so, back when I got most of my anime/game CDs; my best friend assured me they were authentic. Ah well, they do what I want them to do and that's what matters.

So today's entry, I am gonna take a look back at again a previous entry and elaborate on somethings and overall give it another opinion. And just by the title of the entry I am sure you all know that I am referring to my entry on Kuroshitsuji. Why am I doing this? Well it has to do with the fact that when I made the list I was able to easily say the series was my number one pick for a beginner into anime, however; I showed about half of it to my boyfriend and he is having troubles getting into it and my friend CorSec couldn't even get passed episode 4, so lets relook at this series and what could possibly be its faults. **SPOLIERS ahead**

Let me say right off the bat that I love, love, LOVE this series as a whole and I am by no means trashing it. That said there are a few other things I have noticed since writing the previous entry that revolved around this series.

The first and foremost is the center of the story; Ciel and Sebastian's contract. When I watched through the anime the first time I didn't think anything of it, but since reading what is out of the manga in addition to watching the two musicals I have to say the dub version of the opening scene showcasing the contract being made is rather odd. Firstly, even in the sub, it is made out to look like Ciel had summoned the demon on purpose; where as in the book it was an accident. Another thing that some fans point with this is that Ciel is in something like limbo when talking to the raven (which is the form Sebastian took). In the manga he was conversing with Sebastian right in front of his captors and Sebastian was in his true form. The anime's rendition of this scene is actually the weakest, in my opinion, of the three. The manga is still on going and the pieces that have been revealed for that day are fragmented (though I have a feeling we will be seeing it in its entirety soon), but it does its job well in making the reader want to know.


These shots were from the end of the latest chapter released in the monthly G-Fantasy and as I said above; it does a good job in getting you to WANT to know how everything began.

This next one is from the second musical; The Most Beautiful Death in the World. This was actually the opening to the musical, the song entitled Keiyaku or The Contract.

I felt this did a fantastic job of describing the contract as it stated its terms. Now if I had to nit-pick my only fault with this version is that Sebastian appears as Sebastian. The form of Sebastian is how he chose to look as shown in the manga scenes above and in those scenes too you see (partially) his true form. Again that would be nit-picking since no one, back then or present time, knows what Sebastian looks like in his true form and it would more than likely be hard to pull off a stage costume of it let alone sing in it.

Now here are two different versions of the anime opening scene; one dubbed and one subbed. Here is the fansubbed one; (I apologize for the video length, I coudn't find JUST the one scene)


And now here's a dubbed one. (this dub is part official and part fan as the person who posted it fandubbed Ciel's lines, but they are the same as they are in its official US release)

As my boyfriend pointed out, it seems a little repetitive within the dub. Where as the sub, even though it has the same context, the lines seem to flow a little better.

When I first watched through the anime I was very bright-eyed and bushy tailed and watching it now I really see some of the flaws it has in comparison to the manga. I brought up both Tanaka and Lizzie in the other entry and I would like to bring them up again. In the anime both characters come off as annoying or having really no point at all, but it wasn't until volume 8ish that we see Tanaka can indeed protect his young master and only 3 chapters ago did we see Lizzie kick some ass. Due to not knowing when the anime was made, I assume it was hard to put these regular characters in some kind of balanced and good context. Now Tanaka 9/10 does appear in chibi in the book, but it's only when the others are in chibi as well or it's a random silly scene. There is no "he can't stay in his normal form for too long" bs; seriously he isn't Ultraman. But other character's too really seem to pop more in the manga, like the Undertaker.
Undertaker's personality actually is very accurate in the anime and the twist with him being a Shinigami isn't really a shock in the manga since that was revealed in the anime even though it was in a totally different setting and manner. The Ex-Shinigami just wants laughter and for this series it's an interesting spin a character I think; no need for money and other material possession, he just wants to laugh since he's always around death. In this recent arc though, I gotta say I did facepalm when they revealed the Undertaker to be behind all of it. I mean the order of the Phoenix's pose just SCREAMED Undertaker, never the less we find that he is quite creepy and can take on two shinigami and Sebastian. While in the anime, the Undertaker didn't really do much aside from give Ciel his information once the earl paid him. He acted out his duties as a shinigami as well during the London fires.

The other servants; Mey-rin, Finny and Bard, also seem to have more of a point in the book as well. Yes, they are there for comic relief, but they're true purpose is revealed within the first volume of the book vs having to wait till like episode 22ish of the anime. Seriously it was almost near the end of the first season when you saw what they were really there for. I might, again, be nit-picking; but it is a problem when you try to watch the series. I will again point to my boyfriend, who was rather displeased when Pluto was added to the cast. Why? Because instead of being a demon hound guard dog, he was comic relief most of the time and the series already has four other characters that fill that role. Because of this the series doesn't quite flow the way you think it should, thus it becomes kind of hard to watch for some. Why didn't this effect me? Well in part it has to do with the fact that I was watching the series to fill time, but also I didn't find it annoying; I found it intriguing. Yes, I do agree that the flow was really awkward and to a point made no sense given personality types, but that made me want to see if there was a conclusion.

So for me I got hooked into the series by the anime and then began to read the book. Quite honestly I think I would have been highly disappointed in the anime had I read the book first, but I didn't so I can appreciate the anime for what it is. However, the translations of both the book and the anime are a lot to be desired in some ways.

In my other recommendations I had added the "Dub or Sub" question, but failed to do so for Kuroshitsuji. Reason why was I just forgot, but I have to say watch the sub only for the reason that the dialog seems to flow slightly better and... well... you don't have to deal with the fake accents lol. Now I will credit FUNimation's dub with having them do the English accents as it makes more sense to hear them speak as you would expect in Victorian England instead of Japanese in London lol. But fake accents are fake, there is a few times where Sebastian's voice actor seems to forget the character has an accent. Also, and even as much of a fan of this series as I am, I actually don't know what the character's name is and that's Bard. But you just said his name? Yes, I did, or did I? In the book, Yen Press translated his name to Baldo. In the dub for the anime he is called Bardroy by Sebastian and then later shortened to Bard by Ciel. In the sub, FUNimation's own sub mind you, the subtitles come up with Baldo. Most fanfiction I have seen have called him Bard so I am inclined to call him such and assume they had the r-l problem. It does get quite vexing sometimes.

All three mediums of Kuroshitsuji are great in their own ways. I had recently watched through both musicals. Even though the first one's story felt like Kuro and even takes place in manga cannon (the actor for Aberline shows where the musical takes place at the very beginning), the second one blows it right out of the water. The songs are more memorable and the story quite frankly didn't feel like so much of a stretch to happen in cannon as it dealt with a rogue (so to speak) Shinigami.

This is my favorite song from the first musical entitled; Reminiscing by the Window.

A duet between the original character for the musical, Yuki, and Ciel. This is my favorite song for two reasons; it's the only song Ciel sings that has more than 2-3 lines and it really gets into his head. Not shown in this video, but after the number he has a little squabble with Sebastian as Sebastian makes fun/teases Ciel about being alone. Ciel watches Sebastian leave the room and says "It's why I have you". Just seeing that made me go "awwwww" and not in a shounen-ai fangirl way. Ciel never has to feel alone because Sebastian will remain by his side to the very end; he is Ciel's constant.

The second musical, as I said, had more memorable songs. Keiyaku being one of them. But here is my other favorite, aside from Keiyaku, entitled; Checkmate.

I love this song mainly because all the characters sing in it at one point. But also for the fact that it displays the theme of chess that is often portrayed through out Kuroshitsuji.

Now taking a cue from Paw, I am gonna chose the best song from the second musical. Why? Because I feel it's worth a mention and that's; Shinigami Haken Kyoukai no Theme.

Now where as the other 2 posted from this musical are my favorites, this one is hard to ignore as it has a high energy techno beat. And something about the highly professional Shinigami singing and dancing about how they are professional and what their profession is just fun. The dance for this too was very well done as well.

Now there is also one thing among fans who have seemingly only seen the anime that I want address and that is actually something Sebastian does.

In the anime, when they go to investigate the cult, Sebastian is wanting information and to get said information he ends up having sex with one of the nuns. Some fans of the anime just bring up the irony of a demon screwing a maiden of God or just don't get why Sebastian did what he did. He is doing it to gather information; tempting the female with something they desire. In this case it was probably curiosity since nuns are supposed to be chaste. In the manga Sebastian implores this tactic within the Noah's Arc Circus arc with Beast as he is looking for information on the troop's "father" and Beast's "crush/lover", Joker. Since she desired the touch of a man, she gave into Sebastian. The musical too made somewhat mention of this tactic. Through out Kuro, Grell is shown calling Sebastian by a pet name, SebsChan (the dub has the best with Bassy lol), and making multiple passes at him. In the second musical there is a number which is Grell singing about a late night booty-call while wearing this;
Yep I did that to put the image in your head lol, but also to show that he was indeed looking for said booty-call with Sebastian. In the scene after this number that takes place at the morning breakfast table, Grell eludes to having sex with Sebastian. Of course having sex meant Sebastian got the information that was needed on the Shinigami.

And then there is season 2.... Now I hate the season as a whole since it technically didn't need to be. However, I do like the ending since I am a Ciel fan. The reasons I don't like season 2 too much is that it seems to have quite a bit of wholes in its story. In the first episode you are introduced to Alois Trancy and his demon butler, Claude and for all but the last 5 minutes it is only of them. Sebastian shows up with Ciel's body in a trunk and is looking for his young master's blue diamond ring. Ya know, the ring he gives away in season 1? Now I know logically speaking the person whom he gave it to could have pawned it and thats how it got into the Trancy's possession; but why was it in a tea box? Sebastian takes the ring and escapes with Ciel's body. Once in a safe spot he places the ring on Ciel's finger and revives him. I am inclined to believe that what Ciel spout out in the first season about the owner's souls being in the ring since he could hear their screams was true and thats why his soul was there and could awaken him. But HOW did it get there? It's stated the Claude stole his soul making it so Sebastian couldn't devour it and I am still having trouble figuring out why. (which probably means I need to watch through the season again...)

But with Ciel back Sebastian can now take his soul, except Ciel has no memory of the first season, thus the contract technically isn't complete. Now, this is what I don't understand; Ciel knows the terms of his contract well and that Sebastian doesn't lie. So why didn't Sebastian just tell him the contact was completed when he discovered he had no memory? Anyway the plot thickens when Claude dissolves his contract with Alois after getting a small taste of Ciel's soul (through his blood), Alois becomes one (best way I can put it) with one of his demon servants as he lay dying and then possesses Ciel's body; forcing the 2 butlers to play a "Do you know me" kind of game as well as run through a maze. The winner of course would get Ciel's soul, or so they think. Hearing Claude's answer to the final question, Alois makes his contract with Hannah that the two butlers are to fight to the death. Of course Sebastian wins this, but Alois made a twist; and that was that no matter who won neither of them could have Ciel's soul. Ciel is then re-awakened as a demon. Since he had given Sebastian an order just before while the butlers were playing Alois' game and he was unable to carry it out he is now forever bound by the contract to Ciel.

Yes that is the story for season 2 and I still don't quite understand it. The first season had an end with the contract finished. If they wanted to continue the story of the "Black Butler" they could have done two things; make another season following Sebastian on a new contract or use the Trancy lot and just have the new contract holder in place and the "Black Butler" is just the demon in servitude and you follow them through the contract. I admit that I would love to actually see a continuation from season 2's ending; maybe not a season 3, but an OVA or movie would be nice to see how Ciel deals with being a demon.

Overall, I can still recommend this series. The anime is good for what it is, even if it's confusing. The musicals are very fun (they remind me of cosplay skits at conventions lol), but the book blows them out of the water. So if you are looking to give this series an honest try read the manga. See you all next time! ^^/

Is It Real? Part 2

Hello and welcome to Don't Look Back... Again. Today we shall continue where I had left off with the imports/bootlegs and this time we will be taking a look at all the other things Otaku like.

The first on the list of many things is personally my favorite and that's plushies. When I was a kid I used to collect stuffed animals and I never would have thought that being an anime fan would bring me back to those days. In terms of anime or even video games there really isn't many series I can think of that don't have a plushie of some kind for the series, but when looking at these loveable collectables there are a few things that may run through your head. If you are a pure collector, this may actually not really bother you, but more often than not cuteness is a factor in the plush. Sailor Moon is probably the best example of this as the earlier plushies looked rather odd with their long limbs and rather expressionless faces. For me, as much as I am a fan of Sailor Moon, I wouldn't actually want these dolls. I would much rather have a happy, cute, chibi than something that I feel creeps me out a little bit lol.

But even with the simple request of "cute", you might not always get what you're looking for. Let's take a closer look;



The picture on the left is my PGSM Artemis. To my knowledge, you can't get this plush outside of Japan (for direct importing) and there have been no bootlegs made. The accuracy of this doll is just amazing, but a little steep on the price tag (I paid $128 via Ebay auction). The picture to the right is the Irwin Toy USA release from back in the 90s. Not as detailed or accurate as the Japanese PGSM doll, but still cute and you can tell it's Artemis; save for his noes being yellow and no I do not know why it is yellow. I don't believe I have ever seen one without a yellow nose to be honest. But the price for him can range anywhere from $8-$30+. That said, this is an Artemis plushie picture I found online from China; it's not to say that this plush isn't cute, but it's too girly to be Artemis and for the make of the doll; even if you use the chibi excuse, the head is way too big for his body. However, the price for this plush can range from $0.1 (when auctioned on Ebay) - $19.99. It's all in the matter of what you are looking for and how much you want to spend.

When I went to Anime Boston last year, I was shocked to see they actually had some Sailor Moon merchendise; the first one I bought/saw being a towel. When I was having lunch in a small sandwich shop I saw someone with a Luna plushie and immediately assumed they had gotten it in the dealers room, so once I finished eatting I went in to look. When I found the booth I found the Luna plush and right next to her was an adorable Sailor Moon too. This is Luna; to be honest I don't think it looks too bad, however her face is a lot more kitten like than I remember Luna having and the color of her is off as Luna is a blackish blue. That said if she was more a purple-ish gray with this face I would say it passes more for Diana than Luna. Now I'm gonna break this down a little, so you all can understand my feelings a little on this;



This is the Irwin Toy Sailor Moon plush released in the USA. She's small and cute, but also for her size is rather accurate with what detailing she has on her. Her broach may be just a plain yellow button, but it gives the illusion it's supposed to; the bows both front and back are full and sturdy and her boots have the white top with the cresent moons on them. This is the doll I bought at the convention;

her face is what really caught my eye and because of a high of being able to buy so much swag I was overlly excited to buy an imported Sailor Moon doll. The skirt and collar of the fuku have a rather odd feeling since it's a different fabric than the rest of the plush, but that's nothing compared to the rest. Those who are fans of Sailor Moon know that her broach changes within each season; her tag here is labeled as Sailor Moon S, so this would mean that her broach should be in the shape of a red heart. Even with the little fabric piece they chose, they could have made it into the correct shape, but instead we have a flower.... She not once had a flower shaped broach; closest thing was in the Sailor Moon R movie when the Silver Crystal became shaped like a flower, but that's a stretch. Her boots are disappointing as they dont even have the white top and just look like socks. Then there's the bows.... I'm not too thrilled that they are just simple pieces of ribbon, but what irks me more now is that the back bow isn't even in the propper place. I mention Luna and Sailor Moon as I was rather shocked to find out that these are from China, not Japan; since I had bought them at a convention. Not once have I seen these listed from a Japanese seller anywhere online.

It is hard to tell sometimes whether something is from Japan, China or the US; though more often than not the US make is the easiest to pick out. So let's play a game; here are 3 different plushies of Ciel Phantomhive, one from the US, one from China and one from Japan. Can you tell which is from where?



The answers might actually surprise you as the order of these plushies are as followed; China, US, Japan.
Here are some other shots of items within my collection;

**Note that Ciel's rings were custom made for me by Blackash over on DeviantArt**



I am actually unsure whether some of my items are from Japan or China to be quite honest as I got them off of Ebay from a US seller, but in my opinion as long as the objuect does what you want it to do it really shouldn't matter where it's from. (Though I am 100% sure my Sailor Moon figure is the Japanese version)
This last medium of items I will show you is CDs. I actually wasn't aware of this fact until only a few years ago, but there is a way to tell when a CD is a "Chinese knock-off", so here are two examples;




Now from what I have been told; the GW CD is the bootleg as it has the words going around it. Now it is also entirely possible that the Sailor Moon one is as well, but I haven't heard anything about a simple logo of the company on the CD meaning it is a fake. However, I do own two other soundtracks (not pictured of course) that I know are 100% from Japan and do not have anything but the title of the series it is from. I have also heard the other way you can tell that the CD is a bootleg is by the sound quality, however I once again can not confirm this as I haven't ever exerpienced a low quality in the sound. But again; as long as the object does what you want it to do than it shouldn't matter to you as a fan if it's a bootleg or not.

Well there you have it; I hope I have been able to shed some light on this matter and help you in your buying/collecting needs. See you all next time! ^^/

Is It Real? Part 1

Hello and welcome to Don't Look Back... Again. So in a funny turn of events I actually was thinking of doing this entry sometime last week and was planning it out when my friend Skillium on XI said something that made me push to write it down even more. What am I talking about? Why "imports" of course, so lets dig into my experiences with this. (And believe me, if I could record this instead of typing it I would lol)

The first thing I will mention is probably the most common amongst the Otaku and that's imported DVDs. To technically get the official Japanese release the label for region on the DVDs I believe is region 2; which means to play them you would need a whole new player to play them on. Japanese DVDs also do not have English subtitles anywhere on them. With that said though, it must bring up the question from you all; what about those boxsets I see on Ebay? Those DVD sets are from mainly China; they have English and Chinese subs and sometimes additional languages. And just by that I can hear you all saying now; "And how is that a bad thing?" Well, let me break it down;

First off; the image quality is a tad lower than those of an official release due to the fact that they cram so much data onto one disc. That's not to say they look bad or anything, it's just grainy. So if you do happen to watch these be sure not to not watch them on a big screened, HD TV.

Even though image quality is important seeing as you would be watching it, you'd obviously would like to understand it too. After all not everyone can speak Japanese; and this actually where you'd be gambling if you are thinking of these DVDs. I myself have a few DVDs from China and my first experience watching them I was slightly impressed honestly. My friend Nadia had gotten into Saiyuki and had season 1 (labeled part 1 one for these) and had my best friend, another one of our friends and myself sit down and watch. For the most part, and this holds to a couple I have too, the subs were pretty good; save for a couple of "Engrish" moments and grammatical errors. I of course just bring that down to the fact that English isn't their first language so I let it slid since it didn't hinder the storyline too much.

However, that's on the good side of the spectrum. I have had bad luck with these DVDs too; After watching seasons 1 and 2 of Saiyuki with Nadia I really wanted to own season two for the Saiyuki Gaiden episodes (those would be the 3 eps I mentioned that were worth watching for that season) and thus I bought one off of Ebay. The casing was good and surprisingly the subtitles were actually really decent with little to no grammatical errors. So what was my problem? Well it may not bother everyone, but it sure as hell bugged me; they got the names wrong on some of the characters. Instead of calling them by the names being said in the show, for some reason they had them as they did in the original legend;

Goku = Monkey
Gojyo = Sandy
Hakkai = Pigsy

Even though I had read the legend it was irritating to see that whenever their names were spoken. So instead my best friend took that copy and I got a new one. This time all the names were correct save for Sanzo's. So I was 0/2 on what I really wanted. Next I had ordered the Saiyuki Requiem movie and much like the subs I had seen from Nadia, I only really had to deal with the rough translation in some spots, however; there were some instances where the dialog would run off the screen, which just makes the story hard to follow.

For my birthday one year I had spotted a box set of 2 DVDs for the 13 episode Tales of Eternia anime. Admittedly, I originally wanted the DVDs because my favorite character from the game was on the box's cover, but never the less Nadia bought it for me and I was excited to sit down and watch. This was rather a roller coaster for me. Some of the subs referred to the main character as his name, Reid; while other times they would translate it out to be Rita. The subs also had a problem of either going too quick to where the subtitles would be several scenes ahead of the animation or vice versa where they would be so slow that the animation would be way ahead of them. And I kid you not about this; near the very end of the series whoever was subbing it just stopped trying. Let me paint this scene for you; it's the final battle and our heroes are fighting off the enemies. One of them pulls out a mystical crystal, holds it high in the air shouting "Efreeto!" (Tales of Eternia Ifrit is spelled Efreet) and a fire creature appears to burn its foes. Now you'd think the subs would come out and say "Efreet" right? Nope instead I saw this; That is technically the worse case scenario with these kinds of subs as I have only seen it in this one instance.

But in the case of my PGSM DVDs (for the TV series) there was an odd... surprise I guess we'll call it. First off yes, they had the rough translations too, but wasn't too bad. They did get a name wrong, but I almost want to bring it down the way the name sounded; the main villain of the series is Queen Berryl, but with the Japanese accent on most, if not all the characters; it sounds like Berry. So what's the "surprise"? Well while I was watching near the end of the series and was on the edge of my seat something seemed to not flow quite right and just puzzled me. For the scene I was watching having high drama; the thing that followed was happy and bouncy. It was the commercials that ran when the show was first aired. Believe me, I loled when I realized what it was, but for those to be on a DVD is just odd.

But through all of this, I will say there are some that might actually be worthy to have in your collection. For me it would be this; This collection contains every episode of the Sailor Moon anime (the auction I got mine from also had the 3 movies with it) and to my surprise was exceptional with its subtitles. Before I actually placed a bid on this item I did a little research before hand, since the description said it was the "official Malaysian" release. Even though my main reason for wanting this boxset was to make AMVs; I also would just loved to have a physical copy I could and watch and over all enjoy. The review I had seen was pretty spot on about its casing and the subs; the person said they were for akin to that of the ADV releases. I started watching Sailor Moon R and to my surprise the subs were indeed that good. When it got to the ending credits I was shocked to see that they were in English and at the very end of said credits gave the copyright of ADV Films. So indeed they were that good because they were the official US release. The S and Super S seasons are the Pioneer release as well, so that left me with the question of Sailor Stars; Stars was never released in the states to have en English version, so how good would these be? Well they are top notch actually, as they seem to be that of a fansub.

As I said it's a gamble in what kind of quality you'll get with these DVDs, but there is always a chance you will find top notch quality bootlegs lol. See you all next time for part 2! ^^/

By the Fans for the Fans

Hello and welcome to Don't Look Back... Again. I had been thinking a little awhile about what other entries I would like to do that aren't a Top 5 list and upon looking back at some of my other entries I think I want to elaborate on a couple things I had mentioned before. So let's talk about what the fans do for other fans.

I think the basic thing that people recognize within any fandom is fan art. And as I said back in my "Great Otaku Gathering" entry I love fan art as sometimes the fans are the only ones who can do something like it. There really is no limit to what a fan can come up with and sometimes it can get a tad out of hand such as I mentioned within the Yaoi entry. But fan art can be almost anything;

A sculpture-

An arrangement of a song-

Music Videos aka AMVs-

And sometimes people can ban together and create their very own art book-

Fan art is such a wonderful creative outlet and I am more than happy to say that I contribute to it as well as support others in it. (I commissioned the statue that is pictured and purchased the art book) But another side to fan art is fan fiction and as you all know I willingly admit to writing Gundam Wing fan fiction.

My time in writing those stories were some of the best times I have ever had as it helped me grow as a writer. The basics of fan fiction is a wonderful way to start out as all you need to come up with is a plot for set characters. In my experience with it the "warning" I fell in love with (other than Yaoi of course) was AU (Alternate Universe); this allowed a lot more than the norm for the characters as they are now able to be set in any place. For those unfamiliar with Gundam it's a Space Opera/Mecha series, so placing the characters within a fantasy setting is quite the leap. This here is probably my favorite fic I ever wrote for GW as it not only displays the leap into the fantasy genre, but also the growth in my writing as I made original characters to co-star along side the preset ones, so I hope you all enjoy;

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Epilogue
Author Notes

If your wondering about the "warnings", they were merely guidelines to the story so if there was something that you might not like within the story's content you'd know ahead of time. And that actually brings me to a small rant (not really a rant, but can't think of a better word lol); and that's some of the warnings in of themselves. In particular OOC (Out of Character). Why does that one bother me? Well it's a hard call to say what is out of character; in my opinion if the plot calls for the character to act a certain way than they will. It might be against their norm, but no one really stays the same way every day. Also a warning that is rather uncommon I find, but should be labeled, is Shota. What is Shota? Well it usually refers to a Shounen-ai/Yaoi pairing that involves a younger boy. In the case of Gundam Wing you don't see this warning too often as the pairings are usually of the 5 main pilots and they are all the same age. However you will see this warning a lot in the case of something like Kuroshitsuji in where the author pairs Ciel and Sebastian together. (Which I will admit, that pairing has become a guilty pleasure of mine)

So those are the two basic things you see or hear about a fan doing their part so to speak. But their are other things of course; one of which I hold very dear and that's Fan Subs.

Fan Subs are possibly my most favorite thing a fan does as without them I wouldn't have seen some of my favorite series to this day. Quite honestly the subbing some of these groups is incredible as they are very accurate and will even place translator notes for some of the more complex dialog. But by far, this is probably my most favorite thing connected to Fan Subbing;



Yep, the Tokusatsu/Super Sentai. I used to watch Power Rangers all the time back in the day (even started watching it through again on NetFlix recently with my brother) and now that I have been able to see some of the Japanese versions with the thanks to these subs, you can easily see the differences. The stories are completely different and I find the Japanese versions to have much more depth and substance to them, especially the Kamen Rider series. I don't really know why I shied away from it at the start, probably remembering how bad our Masked Rider was. But my brother and boyfriend had me sit down and watch Kamen Rider W with them and I was pretty much hooked thanks to that opening (the one linked above).

But it's not just series that can be subbed, some fans just take the time out to translate songs out;

(possibly my favorite song in Kuroshitsuji)

And lastly the other medium that fans take part in is Fan Dubbing. I am gonna use some songs as examples, but there are plenty of fan dubs of anime or even the Tokusatsu series out there. Anyone who is a fan of Sailor Moon and wants to see an English version of Sailor Stars should check out http://www.starsfandub.com/ They only have up through episode 6, but the quality of their work is flawless.

As I said though, Imma use songs for this as I am a big fan of a lot of Japanese openings and endings to series. After listening to them and reading their translations I often wonder how they would sound sung in English. Of course a direct translation would sound off when sung as it may not keep with the beat, so changing some of the lyrics up to have roughly the same meaning works well. These are some of my favorites that I found on Youtube;







Hope everyone had a good time exploring a fan's work. See you again. ^^/

For your Viewing Pleasure Part 4

Hello and welcome to Don't Look Back... Again. Yep, you guessed it; it's time for me to reveal my number 1. Now let me start off by saying I will go into a little more in depth than I had in the previous entries. This is because 1) I am going a little fan girl with it and 2) because unlike the others I can actually compare it to something. With that said there will be some spoilers, but shouldn't change your minds in checking out this series. **Note: all manga shots with more than 1 panel are read in the traditional Japanese format; from right to left.** So without further adieu;

#1: Kuroshitsuji aka Black Butler



I fell in love with this series almost immediately. At first I actually didn't know what it was about at all and when you hear the title "Black Butler" you have to wonder how a story about a butler could be entertaining. When at Anime Boston this year my friend CorSec and I were talking about just buying one of two series just to find out what it was since we saw cosplayers everywhere for this and the other show. The day after I returned from the con I saw they had all the season 1 on NetFlix and watched the first episode. It was nothing like I had expected and for a few days after that I didn't watch anymore till I was camping NMs on Final Fantasy XI and needed something to do between pops. It was then I got so obsessed with this series.

This may seem like spoiler, but it really isn't as the premise of the series is the story's end. The story revolves around a 12 year old boy named Ciel Phantomhive, who was kidnapped and tortured at age 10 and in order to escape his living hell he forms a contract with a demon, who Ciel names Sebastian. The contract states that until Ciel has achieved his revenge on all of those who have made him suffer and humiliated him Sebastian will serve as his butler in exchange for the boy's soul.

Like most of the anime on this list there was a manga that proceeded it. I mentioned Saiyuki's and Fruits Basket's and how they differed to my knowledge. This series however sort of went the way of Full Metal Alchemist. The original anime for FMA had the plotline from the manga overall, but took a lot of liberties in changing how it progressed and told; mainly making changes to some characters to have a shock value when it was revealed while watching. The anime for Kuroshitsuji pretty much does the same thing; the initial idea and plot are there, but differs greatly to the original source material.

I had watched through both seasons before reading the manga and I honestly had a few questions upon watching the series' end. So I am gonna take the liberty of sharing some of these with you. The first question that I had was about the character Tanaka. In the anime he is constantly shown in chibi drinking Japanese tea and mainly saying "ho-ho-ho"; very rarely do you see him in non-chibi mode. But even in the show it is stated that Tanaka had served the Phantomhive household for a very long time, so that left me with the question; why didn't he try to save Ciel from his captors? I mean even if he is old you'd think he would try and save his young master no? Well in the book it explains that he in fact did try, but was assaulted. Also the look of a frail old man is far from what it seems as he is truly capable of protecting the Earl Phantomhive.
The next few things actually came from me looking stuff up on the characters and within a character bio I found of Ciel, it mentioned that he is allergic to cats. I had found that a little odd since in the anime he was seen calling a cat over to him and picked it up. Once again the book settles the facts. First Sebastian is truly obsessed with all kinds of cats, not just your normal house cats.

Right after this incident at the circus we see this; I will admit though I have to wonder how allergic he is since Sebastian has entire closet full of cats in the mansion lol. The other thing I read about Ciel I was rather baffled that they didn't mention in the show since it would be something that could potentially hinder him in his missions for the Queen and that's his asthma.


I do find it interesting that the things about Ciel were actually introduced in the same arc of the manga and this arc, along with two others and a side story, also did not exist for the anime. And much like arcs not existing there are characters who were removed or just added for the television series.

Snake appears in the Noah's Arc Circus arc of the manga and later is hired by Ciel to work at the mansion. Since this arc did not appear in the show Snake never made his debut. Instead there was a story that featured a demon hound; Going by the name Pluto, the demon hound was given to them by a woman named Angela; but in the same regard the pooch ends up with a job at the mansion just like Snake.

Also of note and I am really unsure why they changed this, the mark that was branded onto Ciel was moved to a different spot.


Overall, I will say I have been enjoying the manga a lot more than the anime; however, for what the anime is and has to offer it is very very good. The manga itself is ongoing, so for them to actually make their own plot and twist was quite entertaining and shocking when the twists were revealed. Much like the original FMA was. All the characters are quite lovable in their own ways, though in spots with the anime they seem a tad out of place, especially given Ciel's personality. His servants (save for Sebastian) are quite incompetent and even though they are this way in the manga too; they love working for their young master as he treats them well. The gardener, Finnian, is quoted in the book stating that he likes working for Ciel because he doesn't hurt him. Where as in the first episode of the anime Ciel is shown throwing a dart at Finnian's head. So some liberties were taken. Also I should note one character in particular and that is Ciel's fiancée, Elizabeth. Lizzy has a very bubbly personality and the desire to make everything cute. I suppose this is to balance out Ciel's seriousness and dark personality. But when I watched through the anime I thought it came off as quite annoying... and it is. It was in the book too, but even if she doesn't show it in the show, I do have to give respect to this character as she does really love Ciel and accepts who he is and what he does;
This is the last page of what is current in the manga in Japan and it appears she knows the secrets of the Phantomhive family. (in context to this picture Ciel has hurt is leg and is out of ammo so it's up to Lizzy to fight off a zombie horde) So when watching the series just remember that she does have a bad ass side.



The opening to the first season, Monochrome no Kiss, is such an ear catching song, if that makes sense. It's one of the more unusual sounding ones I had head in a long time, but I was instantly obsessed with it. The imagery placed with here (the second half of season 1 had another set of animation) is by far one of my favorites, in particular the part with Sebastian catching the bullets. And over all I felt that it did capture the essence that is Kuroshitsuji.



Opening to season 2, Shiver, is very different from Monochrome no Kiss, a lot more rocking out if you will. Characters new and old are both showcased and it does a good job portraying the story of season 2. My favorite part of this opening actually is when they show the contract markings.

Now, I am briefly going to talk about this season. As I mentioned the premise of Kuroshitsuji earlier, the premise actually gets resolved in the first season. So when I heard there was a second I was baffled as to how they could do it other than Sebastian making a contract with someone else. Well in the first episode we meet Alois Trancy and his butler, Claude. The opening to the first episode only showcases these characters as it is set to Shiver, so I had then thought they just took the same premise again and just made poor imitations of Sebastian and Ciel (which is true, even Sebastian admits it in the episode preview for episode 2. Well, nope! Sebastian makes his grand entrance at the end of the episode with Ciel's body. Why? Well you'll have to find that one out on your own.

There are also some OVAs that have been released; Ciel in Wonderland was a very interesting take on Alice in Wonderland. Making of Kuroshitsuji II isn't exactly what I expected as it's a making of the second season, but with the characters as actors talking about their roles. Another was released about the Shinigami Grell and Will and the final one revoles around Alois and Claude (which I have yet to watch myself).

But this is my number one because I think anyone will enjoy it as it has its humor, but it has its dark side. I can only hope one day that this series goes in the way of FMA and they make an entire new anime series 100% based on the manga arcs because they would be awesome in motion much like the did with FMA Brotherhood. So go watch it, now! That's an order! And you know there is only one thing you can say to that, right Sebastian?


See you all next time! ^^/

For Your Viewing Pleasure Part 3

Hello and welcome to Don't Look Back... Again. Today you all have a special treat as I reveal my number 2 and 3 picks for Anime for beginnings. Shall we begin?

#3: The Slayers



This is actually by far the best fantasy series anime I have seen to date. The characters are all enjoyable and where as the action is good you more than likely spend your time laughing. If I had to compare to something it would be the way you would be in party with your friends in a D&D game; good times will be had by all.



Season 1 introduces us to our hero, Lina Inverse and along the way you meet several adventurers who become her allies in the fight against the Dark Lord. This season is actually my favorite out of the 5 (though I have only seen all the way through 3). I really enjoyed the character's first encounters with one another in addition to the build up to its climax.

The opening song; Get Along, is my favorite among the openings as well. As it basically just rocks out and gets you psyched up for what should be a grant adventure. I couldn't find the Dub version on Youtube, but the opening monologue was dubbed over and I can honestly say Lina's voice actress really sounded like she got into it.



Season 2; The Slayers Next, the party once again returns for more crazy adventures. This time around the group focuses on finding the mysterious Clair Bible, which is said to hold all the answers of the universe. In their process of finding this artifact they once again face off with a god known as Hellmaster Phibrizzo. This season was an absolute joy to sit through and you can be sure you will be on the edge of your seat as you see how it all plays out.

The opening song, Give a Reason, is pretty good too for an opener. If their was one word I would use to describe it I think it would have to be; Energetic. The tone starts off kinda slow and series and then it comes off with high energy and makes you smile. So for me it never failed to get me jazzed for the start of the episodes.



Season 3; The Slayers Try, brings back the party once again, save for one character, as the story of their adventures now center around a certain object that Lina had her eye on within the first season and a war between the black and gold dragons begin to rise. Like the other two, Try was an entertaining season and seemed to actually flow through a little differently with all the main characters together at once where as in Next they had to meet up together again. It was a nice change.

Try's opening, Breeze, was rather interesting in comparison to the other two. It comes off more like a ballad and unlike Fruits Basket with its slow paced opening, I thought this was a nice change. The song is beautiful and the imagery flows perfectly with it.

The greatest thing about The Slayers is that with the first three seasons you don't really have to watch them in order. I had watched through the first season and then watched Next and Try at the same time, and I could still understand the plot lines to both.

There are other things for this series; as I mentioned there are 5 seasons to the television series as well as movies and OVAs. Most of the movies and OVAs do not have the same cast of characters that the television series does and where as those plots still had the same charms that the TV series does, I feel they lack a little without those characters. (the reason the other characters aren't there is because the movies and OVAs take place before the events of season 1)

Dub or Sub? Dub all the way. The Japanese cast was great, but the dub cast really brought these characters to life.

#2: Cowboy Bebop



This show is probably a "duh" for the veteran otaku. I can't think of a single person to whom I had recommended this to who didn't walk away saying it was good. In a way, some might say it's the "perfect" series as it has plenty of action with little breaks in between it, the characters are all pretty interesting, the music is just epic win in how it helps the show move along and the plots for the episodes are well deserving of your attention. The story revolves around Spike Spiegel and his crew of the bounty hunting ship, The Bebop.



As I mentioned the music is just win and the opening theme, Tank, is catchy and very different from other openings to anime. The imagery is very basic as it doesn't really rely on anything flashy and the first part of the song is the only part with words. It's really simple, but it's that simplicity that makes it awesome.

Dub or Sub? This is another one that would have to be dub all the way. I had only seen 1 episode and the movie in the original Japanese and much like The Slayers, I felt that the English cast really brought these character's to life. They were so perfect that it's really hard to hear them in any other language.

So there you have it, my numbers 2 and 3. I have to admit I know I said less about these two than I did on the others, but honestly I can't really think of anything to say about them that won't 100% spoil them. See you all next time for number 1! ^^/

For Your Viewing Pleasure Part 2

Hellow and welcome to Don't Look Back... Again. Today we continue the countdown of my choices of anime series I think would be good for beginners. So without further ado..

#4: Fruits Basket



This series is one of the most sweet, dramatic, funny and weird series I have ever seen. The story follows a girl, Tohru Honda, who has lost her mother and lives in a tent in the woods. She stumbles apon the Soma house hold where she meets Shagure Soma and a classmate; Yuki Soma. They find out that she has been living in their woods and offer to help her out by offering her a room. This may sound like a linear kind of plot, but obviously there is a twist; the Soma family is cursed and whenever someone of the opposite sex (not of their blood) touches them they transform into the animals of the Chinese Zodiac. Hilarity ensues.

This series is easy for me to recommend as it has something for everyone. And when there are serious pieces there is usually something funny happening elsewhere in the episode to keep it well balanced. The characters are very well likable and it's hard to almost not feel bad for them when they speak of their pasts.

This series itself started as a manga and then adapted into this 26 episode anime. Like a lot of series that have done this, the anime and manga do differ. The main example of this is that the curse doesn't get fully explained in the show, which is kinda bad, but on the same hand understandable; there may not have been enough time in the length of episodes they had to do that part of the story justice. In my opinion though I would have at least liked to have seen them try; since it is the bigger part of the storyline's plot. Also aside from the dramatic parts, the anime is quite light hearted, where as I have been told the manga is considerably darker to the point of making it fit into a horror genre.



This is one of the only times I can say I wasn't too fond of the opening to a series. It never actually grasped my attention as "all right! the show is gonna start". Instead it actually started to put me to sleep as it sounds like a lullaby. With that said though this is one of the only anime that I have seen to have translated the Japanese song into English (Magic Knight Rayearth and Rouroni Kenshin being the other 2). It's a nice change of pace and I kinda wish more anime did this.

Dub or Sub? This one, for me was dub all the way. The Japanese voices were good, but I found the English voices to fit the characters a little more; especially for Yuki. I always have to admire the voice actors over here when they are cast when the original actor in Japan was a woman. (yes that is quite common over there to have a female voice actor portray a male character). And it was his voice that really fit.

So there is my number four, I hope you check it out for yourselves. See you all next time. ^^/

For Your Viewing Pleasure Part 1

Hello and welcome to Don't Look Back... Again. Today's entry I had come up with about a month ago, but I needed to be sure that the list I had made was exactly what I had wanted. As it turns out it was; until last week lol. So I altered it only slightly and thus we can start the countdown of my Top 5 Anime Recommendations for Beginners.

Honorable Mention: Weiss Kreuz aka Knight Hunters



Okay, view this as me cheating if you want, but Weiss was originally the number 5 on the list and I really wanted to keep it on, thus it gets an honorable mention. This was one of the more unique series I had seen and is still one of my favorites today. The story revolves around 4 boys; Omi, Ken, Aya and Yoji, who work at a flower shop during the day, however when night falls they are an assassin team known as Weiss (vice).

Like all television series the opening can make a big difference in whether or not you wanna keep going with the show, well for me at least. And Weiss did not disappoint. Even if you're not really into the J-Pop/J-Rock scene, you can still appreciate the sounds of a good song.



Velvet Underworld I felt really captured the theme of the series. After it's 26 episode run, the Weiss boys would return again in a 2 part OVA series, but that was never brought over stateside. Then in 2002 a new chapter for the series came to light as Weiss Kreuz Gluhen aka Knight Hunters Eternity was released.



As you can see from the previous picture above, the character designs for the 4 original Weiss members has changed and honestly the only one I don't like is Omi's. Though I do have to wonder how Aya went from a redhead to a long haired brunette.

The opening, much like Velvet Underworld, fit the series perfectly;



As an anime fan I often get asked whether I prefer the English Dubs over the original Japanese dialog and truth be told it depends on the series. So as I recommend this series I say it's a toss up on which version to watch. The dub wasn't horrible and was actually down right enjoyable, but the Japanese version is a little more special since the voice actors for the four main characters were of the band called Weiss Kreuz and it is them who are preforming the opening and endings to the series.

So why is this an honorable mention and not remaining number 5? Well it really has to do with the ending. As much as I love this series the ending really leaves a lot to be desired. In fact my friend CorSec ranted a long time (still does when we talk about this show) how the ending shouldn't have been the way it is. So I still recommend watching it, but the ending to Gluhen kinda sucks.

And now, the count down...

#5: Gensomaden Saiyuki



A long time ago, my friend Nadia had introduced me to this series, and I had fallen in love with it from the first episode I saw. This series is a retelling of the famous Chinese folk tale A Journey to the West. The story follows Son Goku, Sha Gojyo, Cho Hakkai and Genjo Sanzo as they make their way west to stop the resurrection of Gyo Mao and halt the demon uprising in its tracks.



The first season was by far one of my favorites as it established the characters very well and the plot was very straight forward. Of course, how could it not be? They are just heading west after all. The opening song, entitled For Real, was definitely one that grasped my attention and the imagery that went a long with it was very pleasant as well.



The second season was, unfortunately unneeded, save for like 3 episodes. Don't get me wrong, every step in Sanzo's journey is important. But this season had a lot to be desired as it had nothing to do with the original story of the manga in which the anime was adapted from. Originally when my friends and I had seen Saiyuki this and the movie, Saiyuki Requiem, would be the last we would see of Saiyuki for awhile. My friend Nadia was going to make a web series in Flash with her friends doing the voices and make a third season that would actually continue on with the storyline's actual plot.

Even though the project would have been fun, there was no need as they had released its third season; Saiyuki RELOAD.



This of course picks up right where we last left the Sanzo party and they continue to make their way to the west. For me, not having seen or read the series in a long time, when I found a streaming site that had all of it I was so excited that I sat there and watched all the through the episodes. I do find it interesting however, that Nadia's rendition of season 3 was going to revolve around what the last 3 episodes of RELOAD was. Would have been neat to see how that played out lol.

A fourth season was then released, Saiyuki RELOAD Gunlock;



Oh gee.... I wonder where I got the name for this Blog? My obsession with the series continued as I reached this season and the opening; Don't Look Back Again, had me completely hooked. I sat for three days straight, anticipating every episode till it came to an end.

This is my number 5 only for this one reason; the end doesn't really end. It would have ranked higher on my list had they actually made it to their destination and have an epic battle. But as it stands with the end of Gunlock they are still headed west. But that aside, the characters are love-able and you can't really get too lost in the plot as it is very straight forward, but there are surprising twists along the way that will hold your attention to the series.

Dub or Sub? Well this is another tough one as I have watched it through on both languages. But for me; the first 2 seasons are best dubbed. ADV didn't have the license for RELOAD and Gunlock so when they were released by Geneon, the voice cast was changed. It's not to say it was really bad, but the orginal dubbed voices were fantastic. Overall though, if you watch it straight through, the subbed version might be best. All the voice actors are the same and really fit their roles. One of my favorite voice actors in Japan, Toshiko Seki, provides the voice of Sanzo. And as a funny turn of events I was in the middle of watching Kamen Rider Den-O when I had picked Saiyuki up again. I couldn't stop laughing when Sanzo would talk as all I could picture was Momotaros lol.

So there you have it, another start to a list. I am aware that I don't go into complete detail, but where would be the fun in that? If you wanna know more about the series you'll look it up on your own, won't you? See you all next time! ^^/

Take a Guess... Who the Hell Do You Think I Am?!

Hello and welcome to Don't Look Back... Again; a blog where I am free to do what I want! Well where I had last left you guys I was talking about my trip to Anime Boston and today I am here to expand a little but on the con experience with something that I have really grown rather fond of over the years. So lets dive right into Cosplay.

Cosplay, meaning Costume Play, is something very well known in the anime fandom and even beyond that. Primarily Cosplay is done at conventions, but the term carries over for whenever someone dresses up as their favorite anime/game/comic character. I had originally gotten into Cosplay when I was in 8th grade. Or rather that's when I first heard the term; it was Halloween and my best friend and I were invited to a party (said party only consisted of her, myself and the host, but still fun), since it was a Halloween party we of course decided to go in costume and the character I had chosen was Miang from Xenogears. It was rather simple and not 100% accurate, but back then I didn't care; I had my white coat that was kind of close to Miang's Solarian uniform, black slacks and white high tops. We were going to spray my hair purple, but because the weather was bad and we were afraid of it washing out and staining my coat we went against that idea. That had been the first time in a long time that I had actually dressed up and since it was so much fun I decided to do it the next year as well.

Every year around here we have something called the Pumpkin Festival. And during this event people dress up in their Halloween costumes and walk around town. My best friend had volunteered us to sign in people's pumpkins and thus she mentioned doing matching costumes. At the time we had started really getting to a series known as The Slayers. So we decided to dress as our favorite characters; me as Lina and her as Amelia. What construction there were for the outfits were all done by her; for me she altered a magenta turtle neck and stitched a piece of fabric that was to go across my chest. The other pieces of the costume were bought and for not being 100% accurate yet again, I think we did pretty well with what we had access to. After that I wouldn't cosplay again till 3 years later when she and I decided to dress as our favorite characters from Gravitation; her as Ryuuichi Sakuma and me as Tohma Seguchi. And since we had 2 of the 3 members of Nittle Grasper we got one of our male friends, Casey, to dress in drag and be Noriko. These outfits were a tad simpler (more or less) as we could just take things from our closets. The weather getting in the way again we couldn't spray Casey's hair to match the character, but over all we were pretty damn close to the characters' outfits from the anime.

Since then I had only cosplayed twice; once at Bakuretsu Con as Hisoka from Yami no Matsuei and recently this year at Anime Boston... kind of. I had the inkling of wanting to dress up for the con back in October as I was being inspired by Halloween. I had picked up all the materials needed for my costume and even decided to do a matching outfit with it (more on this later); but everything had fallen through as the sewing aspect got skewed by the machine not working correctly. But I was still determined and since we had just finished watching Kamen Rider Den-O, I decided to cosplay Urataros. Unfortunately I did not have anything that was akin to his normal attire so I went with the next best thing; Yuuto posessed by Urataros.



Again not 100% accurate either on my part. The only things I had, when going off of this image, was the blue streak and white jacket and my top was black, but not a buttoned down shirt. But my brother brought up a good point; so long as I acted like Urataros I could where whatever I wanted as at that point the imajin would have possessed me lol.

With all that being said; there are a number of topics with in the subject of cosplay that come up, so I figure I would share my opinions on it with you all. Shall we break it down?

Should I Cosplay?

This is actually an interesting question and there's a couple reasons why it would be asked. For me though, the reason I asked this was question was due to my size. I am overweight and I worried that people would snicker and make fun of me for the way I looked in the costume. I know I had cosplayed in the past so what was stopping me now? Truth is I am unsure what was stopping me, but I had posted the question to my friends on Facebook and the two who had answered me had valid points. One had simply stated that "It takes guts to Cosplay in the first place" and the other was "Who cares what anyone else thinks? You should do what you wanna do and the hell with everyone else". Both things I took to heart; I was gonna be ballsy and do what I wanted to do.

Now this is where opinions will vary; when I had mentioned I wanted to dress as one of the Sailor Senshi I had gotten kind of mixed reactions. Some thought I would look good and others were very unsure to the point of looking fearful for me. It's a perception thing of sorts and in my opinion as long as you're comfortable in your own skin I say go for it. It goes along the lines of "who cares what others think". As long as you're okay with it, do what you wanna do. I believe it was on Moon-Chase, a Sailor Moon blog, that had stated that it would be an injustice to not dress as your favorite character if you love them that much. And I have to agree. When it comes to height and weight there really is no being 100% accurate.

But I wear glasses? Am I limited to characters who wear them too? Oh hell no. True the outfit might look a little off, but that's not something you can control. I myself wear glasses and refuse to get contacts. Anyone who says something about it is really stretching for a nitpick anyway. There are just some things that you can't control and it will never be 100% accurate.

Is accuracy important?

Well yes, to a point anyway. The more accurate you are the more people will; a) stop you to take your picture (sometimes to the point where you might not be able to move for awhile lol) and b) recognize who you are trying to be. But there have been a few instances where the person has been missing key things and I have still been able to pick out who they are.

The most commonly "missed" piece (at least that I have seen) has been the hair. Wigs for anime/game characters can actually get quite expensive, but the price you pay is for the quality. So if you are willing to shell out the money for it good for you, but there are some who just can't budget it out and that's okay. Sometimes it is the hair that can make or break the costume (depending if it's a defying trait; like Sailor Moon's), but that's not to say that they don't function without it. When I dressed as Lina, I actually had to remove the wig for awhile as it had a horrible smell to it to begin with (whatever it was made out of) and on top of that we had sprayed it orange/red so it would be the correct color and that smell was just awful. But I still functioned as Lina Inverse even though I didn't that the hair.

Some people would argue that the Sailor Senshi outfits are the easiest for a cosplayer to accomplish. That's a matter of opinion really. The most identifiable piece of the Sailor Senshi would be the Sailor Fuku; and what's on the sailor fuku? The big, colorful bow of course. I have seen some Sailor Senshi cosplayers only have ribbons in place of the front bow. I admit it looks rather odd since its not as full as the bow should be, but again it's not to say it doesn't function.

Using Sailor Moon as an example again; the shoes for a good portion of the cosplay outfits are a huge challenge. And I have to say only about half of the Sailor Senshi cosplayers I saw this year had the shoes for the costume. Some used something that was close to it and others just used their normal shoes. Again they did look odd with the rest of the outfit, but its not to say the costume looked bad.

Over all you do want to be as accurate as you possibly can, but don't go outside your means to do. Do the best with what you got!

Where should I start?

This one is always a loaded question. Ultimately it comes down to WHO you wanna dress up as. So to help this along I am gonna give some examples (from my opinion of course) of the least complex to the most.

The least effort in cosplay would be what is known as "Closet Cosplay" where you throw a costume together from clothes in your closet/no to minimal construction needed. My costumes of Tohma and U-Yuuto were just this, as well as Hisoka. Even if you have to go out and buy pieces for the costume; closet cosplay is the cheapest way to get in on the fun.

For midrange I would have to say it's something that is considered one dimensional. The sailor fuku falls under this because it's very simplistic in design and shape. For those like me who actually don't know how to sew and want to learn, cosplay is great incentive to do so.

The "OMG HOW DID YOU MAKE THIS?!" range, well that would be a number of characters. But the best examples of this would be the "mascot" costumes. Mascots are usually creatures from series such as Pokemon. But another example of things that could fall into this category would be things like the Master Chief's armor from Halo, any Tokustatsu character and much much more. At Anime Boston 2008 there was a suit that actually lit up.

Obviously the more you do the more your skill will advance. I one day hope to get to the "OMG" point.

That's pretty much it for now. I will return to this topic every once and awhile as I make progress on my own cosplay outfits, even if only goes piece by piece. But for your enjoyment here is a list of the characters I would love to dress up as;

Sailor Moon:

Eternal Sailor Moon

Sailor Uranus

Sailor Pluto

LUNAR:

Luna

Lucia

Xenogears:

Elly Van Houten

Billy Lee Black

Final Fantasy VI:

Celes Chere (Opera gown)

Final Fantasy XI:

Dancer Relic

Gravitation:

Shuichi Shindou

Fullmetal Alchemist:

Riza Hawkeye

Disgaea:

Flonne

Rozalin

Black Butler:

Ciel Phantomhive

Kamen Rider:

Shotaro Hidari

Kamen Rider Den-O Gun form

Ryutaros

And many many more lol. I would also like to dress up as Tohma and Lina again with improvements over the original costumes. There is more I would like to cover on this topic, when it comes to designing the costume that is, but that shall wait for another entry. See you all next time! ^^/