Doh, You Looked Back, Didn't You? Part2

Hello, and welcome to Don't Look Back... Again; a blog where I continue to do what the title tells me not to. Today as you can see is the part 2 entry from the previous "Doh" so let's dive right into my favorite video game genre; RPGs.

I had been playing video games on and off for a number of years; I started playing things on the NES like Mario Bros. and Rescue Rangers, then moved on to the SNES when that came out and mainly played like three games; Mario World, Power Rangers and Donkey Kong Country. Sure there were some other games in the mix, but those were the ones I really remembered playing a lot. I was 12, going into the 6th grade when I got my first taste of an RPG.

My brother and one of his friends had rented two different games; Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI. I hadn't paid too much attention to it and then randomly one day I became rather involved with watching my brother play one of these. I began to ask a lot of questions like; "why are you doing that thing that makes the screen all yellow?"(him casting a spell) "what's the deal with the big box at the bottom of the screen?"(the battle menu) and my favorite one; "what's the point of this game?" Finally, I grew tired of asking questions and had to try for myself and my first RPG was not only memorable for me, but it became a classic;



That's right, Chrono Trigger was my very first RPG. We had rented it from one of our video stores so the game had already been beaten and unlocked the New Game + on it. Honestly, I think that was a nice perk for someone who never really played on RPG before; you got all your best gear and levels, plus all your normal items from the previous play through so just learning and playing through to see what an RPG was all about, was nice to not have to worry about building and such.

My brother was to walk me through the game, but something came on the TV in my parents' room that he wanted to see, so he told me he'd be right back and had me enter the Millennial Fair and get Marle, but not go to the Middle Ages yet. I waited for over 30 minutes and he was still watching whatever was on so I went ahead. I managed to get all the way through the Middle Ages without him and when he came back Crono was on trial.

As I went farther through the game he felt there were certain spots I would have trouble with and decided to do them for me; The Sunken Desert and Death Peak to name a few. When it was time to do all the "side" stuff he told me to skip the Black Omen and either use thee bucket at The End of Time or ram Epoch into Lavos. Even though he "held my hand" I rather enjoyed the game and was determined to play all the through the whole thing on my own. Little did I know, that determination would become somewhat of an obsession.

The more I played the more I actually did on my own till I could do everything; it got to the point where I knew the entire game like the back of my hand and could play it with my eyes closed. Almost every week with my allowance I would rent it and to a point wrack up late fees. So my mom talked with the manager at our Blockbuster (she knew her from her job at the laundromat) and she was allowed to buy the game from them.

I started getting the alternate endings and at the time had found all but one of them. When 6th grade started we had this thing called Advisery, where our Home Room would split in half. One group stayed with our normal teacher and the other would go with another teacher. I thankfully had my normal HR teacher. He asked us, as a part of "get to know each other time" to bring in a hobby of ours or something we were interested in. I asked if I could bring in the SNES and play my favorite game for everyone and he said okay. Since there were 3 files on the game, all of which were at different points I gave my group the choice of what they wanted to see me do; continue where I was on my current file (Magus' Castle), Frog vs Magus ending, Frog returning to normal ending or the actual ending. The guy vote won out as they wanted to see Frog vs Magus. As I went through the fight of Lavos my classmates wanted to see all the different tech attacks and because of that time was running out and the teacher wanted to turn off the game so he could ask me questions (like my birthday, favorite color and stuff like that) the guys all went "nooo" I laughed and said I could talk and play at the same time, but I needed to use the more powerful tech to win in our time frame. The guys nodded and eagerly watched the ending as it played. Afterwards they asked me what the hell happened and who won lol.

As time went on I did play through without the New Game + when it was released for thee Playstation as a part of Final Fantasy Chronicles. I was so happy to be able to see the anime cutscenes they had added in addition to the newer/remixed versions of the characters' themes. And of course I was thrilled when it was released for the Nintendo DS with another ending added in. My only complaint with the DS version is that it updated the translation and where that really isn't a bad thing over all, I just liked the original we had. Especially for my favorite scene in where Frog opens the sealed cave to get to Magus' Castle;

Frog: "Handth over the Masamune."
Crono: *sticks the Masamune into the ground*
Frog: "Mine name is Glenn, Cyrus' hopes and dreams and now the Masamune. Forth with I shall slay Magus and restore honor" *grips the hilt of the sword with both hands*
A serge for energy emits from the sword and he cuts an opening to the cave.
Frog: *in a kick ass pose*

Him just proclaiming that he will slay Magus really touches me, the new translation didn't really have the same impact in my opinion. Overall the game is just fantastic; the graphics were top notch for its time making it a pleasure to play through every time I did. The music fit for every scene you were in and helped the epic story flow and the characters were all unique and even if Crono was the "silent protagonist" he still showed a lot of personality. I am really happy that this was my first RPG and I could easily recommend it to anyone looking to start out.

After Chrono Trigger it was hard to really find another game I would love as much to play it through that many times. I had played through Breath of Fire II, Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinitrals, and Final Fantasy VI; and where as they were all good games, I didn't have that same love as I did for Chrono Trigger. That was, until the Playstion;



The commercials really did a great job grabbing my attention for this game. At the time, it really looked like you were watching a movie trailer as it said; "A war that seemed endless" and then flipped to Cloud putting Aerith in the water; "And a love that could never be..." Way to spoil the game advertising people, right? But actually it was the "love that could never be" that perked my interest in the game.

We didn't have a Playstation when it was originally released, but a friend of mine and my brother's would bring his over and play through the game at our house so we could see it. He hit the point where we all know Aerith was gonna die and he refused to play farther for awhile cause he didn't want to see her killed. I can't quite remember how far we actually saw him play before we got our own copy.

Final Fantasy VII was like a whole new creature to me as the system for the materia was rather complex compared to what I had been used to. And I love it honestly, being able to customize your characters to whatever job/role you wanted or needed was a great idea. The 3D characters were great to look at, though I will admit when Cloud answers the PHS and holds it up to his hair with his block-like hand I laugh. Every time, I laugh.

The music is the one thing in every Final Fantasy game that I can say I really enjoy. And this was no exception; the transition of Aeith's death with her theme playing was heartbreaking and to go from that emotional scene to a boss battle with J-E-N-O-V-A and have that song continuing to play was extremely memorable. There wasn't a single person in my group of friends who didn't like the songs in this game.

The characters were interesting and had some depth to them, though now as I look back on this, I wish they had more. Especially Aerith since she died so early on. This is where it's interesting to look back; FF7 was the fan favorite for many years and I was one big fangirl of it. I loved everything about it and had little complaints about the game. I could rattle off my favorite character at the snap of a finger, my favorite scene and even my favorite limit break. Now though, I can see the game has its flaws. I bring it down to mostly a translation problem as the Reunion and the Sephiroth clones were explained rather poorly. And the commercial portraying Aerith and Cloud as a couple was sort of misleading since they never actually were a couple; they just had the one date and that was if you didn't treat her badly. Character development did get slightly more involved as they released Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus and Crisis Core. But for the time and what was there; I loved it.

But it wouldn't be till the following year that I was exposed to what has become my favorite game ever;



My brother was once again the first to pick up this title. At first it was the demo that was with Brave Fencer Musashi and I admit, it was entertaining but not enough for me to really want to try it. That didn't stop my brother though, he rented it fairly quickly after it was released and I watched him play as I often do.

The story was very captivating as it pulled me in almost right away; there were so many twists and turns right at the beginning that you never could tell where the story was going to lead you. He made it to the part where you get Billy and stopped; not sure why he stopped but he did. Now, yes girl moment, I became more interested in the story when Billy was introduced because I thought he was cute and because my brother wouldn't continue I felt I should, so I copied his file to my memory card and played on. Honestly it was Billy's story that truly made me love this game; his character was so complex I was amazed. All of the characters were, actually. I felt that you could really feel some sort of connection with them as you played.

Of course much like all RPGs, Xenogears excelled at the music as well as each song was very fitting. And for a game where most of it is story with an intermission of game play it really needed it. The combat system was extremely unique as I had never seen one like it and it was honestly one of the better ones who tried something different.

The downside to Xenogears? Well, it was rushed for starters. Xenogears is episode 5 in what was supposed to be a 6 part series. I am fairly certain that episode 4 at least would have explained some more of Fei and Elly's past lives or some back story on Citan, Sigurd, and Jesse as some of the events for those characters are briefly mentioned, but never explained. Disc 1 was so full of story and Disc 2 felt very lackluster and because of it there are still things left unanswered and it kind of ticks me off. However, I was lucky enough to find this; a website that translated the time line that was in the Xenogears Perfect Works artbook. It explains the a formed mentioned Citan and Jesse as well as somethings on Miang, Billy's mother and more. Any fan of Xenogears should give it a glance.

Between all these games I really wanted to tell a story just as epically good and complex. It was the start of me really wanting to write. And as such I will show my appreciation to these classic games by listing my favorite character, scene and song for each game;

Chrono Trigger:

Favorite Character: Frog/Glenn
Favorite Scene: Frog opening the sealed cave
Favorite Song: Frog's Theme

Final Fantasy VII:

Favorite Character: Reno
Favorite Scene: Aerith and Cloud's date at the Gold Saucer
Favorite Song: Cid's Theme

Xenogears:

Favorite Character: Billy Lee Black 
Favorite Scene: The fight with Stein
Favorite Song: Small Two of Pieces

Still wondering why I did these in parts? Well you'll just have to wait and find out won't you, see you all next time! ^^/

Doh, You Looked Back Didn't You? Part1

Hello, and welcome to Don't Look Back... Again; a blog where I wonder how I get into some of these things in the first place. As you can see it's time for another "Doh" moment, but it's titled as Part 1. Why is this done in parts, well if I lumped it all together it would get fairly long since this is going to be done in 3 parts. And just to confuse you all I will tell you that they technically have nothing to do with one another. So with that said, why don't dive into what has become one of my favorite series of all time; Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon.


Sailor Moon first aired in North America back in 1995, I was 11 years old and actually had never heard of the series. In an odd twist to that statement I never really knew what anime was back then either. I was actually a pretty big fan of the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and one morning my brother and I went to watch it and discovered it wasn't on, instead it was the first episode of Sailor Moon.

I admit, I wasn't impressed. I mean it wasn't bad per say at the time, but the only good thing I liked back then for this series was Luna since she was a talking cat. The following week it was again Sailor Moon instead of Power Rangers and I still wasn't liking it. It wouldn't be until 3 years later where I actually wanted more...

I was 14 and in the 7th grade and much like every teenager I hated school. My stress from school life was pretty bad as when I get overly stressed out I tend to get migraines and this was such a day where it was the aftermath of one. The night before I had a really bad migraine to the point where I actually hadn't gone to sleep till almost 2 or 3am, my parents both had to work the next morning however they called me in sick so I could get the sleep I needed. It's every kids' dream to be left home alone on a school day and where as it was cool, I did have that uneasy feeling since I wasn't used to being alone, so to fill the silence I turned on the TV. Back then USA used to run something called "The Action Extreme Team" which was a 2-3 hour block of cartoons every weekday morning and this was when Sailor Moon had reentered my life.


I recognized the theme song right away and was almost loathing leaving the TV on this channel, but since it was just for background noise I left it alone and as I listened to the episode I found myself becoming more invested in it to the point where I wanted to see more. Unlike when I had first seen the series where it was only Sailor Moon and Luna, this episode had Mercury, Mars and Jupiter and honestly the more characters made all the difference. I was now becoming a fan and I had my mom record the episodes that were to air while I was at school. Sadly though, by the time I found Sailor Moon, USA was about to stop running it. I had yet to see all the episodes that had been dubbed, but thankfully a friend of my brother's had recorded most of them and let me barrow his videos. Even though we never finished Sailor Moon R, I was still a fan and the Internet provided me with a plethora of images to feed the desire for the series.

The next year I had found out that the manga had been brought over as I stumbled upon issue one in our local comic store, though issue one didn't start at the beginning; instead it started with the introduction to Sailor Venus. Be as it may, I was happy to have the series back in some form and I was hit with more good news as Cartoon Network was getting the last of Sailor Moon R and by this time I had gotten my two best friends into the series so I was elated that I had someone I could share these moments with and from there CN would also get Sailor Moon S and Super S, but that would be as far as the anime would get stateside.

Sailor Moon was really the start for me becoming an anime fan; it was the first anime I saw that I knew was labeled as anime. Why does that look funny? Because I found out some of the series I used to watch when I was really young; Transformers, Voltron, Rainbow Brite and Strawberry Shortcake were also anime. So by that logic I had been into anime since I was two lol. But it was Sailor Moon that made me interested in seeing what over series were out there, it also made me want to be more creative. I started to draw a lot more, even if it was only one free handed drawings of images that already existed. Some of my projects in school even included Sailor Moon; I made a poster for a "pop art" project that featured Sailor Moon in her traditional pose as she declares; "In the name of the moon", our vocab crossword puzzles we had to do in our science notebooks had Sailor Moon and Sailor Venus behind two of them (our teacher told us we had to do some sort of imagery behind it, even if it was color), we had to write our own creation myth in English class and I used Sailor Moon for a base for the story and the list goes on and on. Even today I still continue to make things for Sailor Moon and I am sure that that trend will go on for years to come.

Now where as I have many, many fond memories with Sailor Moon I have often had to wonder "Is it has good as I really remember?" In truth, I do look at it and go "I got into this how?" as some of the moments were rather goofy and made little to no sense, but I think it was that goofiness that made it worth while. It was fun and I felt it was worth my time. Sailor Moon continues to be one of the strongest series of all time as it is now making a revival around the world. Earlier this week Kodansha Comics USA announced they are bringing the Sailor Moon manga back to the states after being out of print for six years in addition to the prequel manga; Codename: Sailor V, in its first US release. In Japan this phenomenon as not only had the manga and anime, but also stage musicals and a live action adaptation entitled Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, which was the title of the manga in its release in Japan as opposed to Pretty Soldier (Bishojo Senshi) Sailor Moon.

So do I prefer the English dub or the original Japanese? Well I have to say I have become more of a fan of the Japanese version over the years, that's not to say I didn't like the dub in it's own way. To change the names of the characters didn't bother me too much, in fact back then it really made sense to do so, so the audience could possibly relate and understand the characters more since the show was being shown inside a country that wasn't Japan, but on the same hand the show does take place in Japan so having the Japanese names remain would have made sense too. But on that note, it was actually what some of the names changed to that made me have to wonder where they came up with them;

Usagi/Sailor Moon:

In the dub she is known as Serena. I really don't have a problem with that name, in fact I think it's rather pretty for her. The confusing, yet not part is when they refer to her has the princess. For the Moon Kingdom and in the future Crystal Tokyo she is known as Princess/Queen Serenity, but the dub would call her Princess Serena. The reason for doing this was to not cause confusion among the viewers, so it's partly understandable, really, if you're following the series I doubt there would have been any confusion. However, interestingly enough they would use the name Serenity for her future self in Crystal Tokyo as Neo Queen Serenity.

Ami/Sailor Mercury:

The dub actually didn't change her name much at all going from Ami to Amy, but in the first chunk of dubbed episodes her last name was changed from Mizuno to Anderson and then later changed back to Mizuno.

Rei/Sailor Mars:


Another one like Mercury, her name actually didn't change save for the spelling, going from Rei to Raye. Her last name, Hino, remained intact.

Makoto/Sailor Jupiter:

I'm actually not really sure how they come up with the names as they want to change them. With Sailor Moon if I had to guess they took it from the soundings from Serenity, but with Jupiter I would have no idea where to begin as we dubbed name is Lita. Again like Serena, I don't mind this given name, I think it fits her.

Minako/Sailor Venus:

Very akin also to Ami and Rei, they were pretty close to leaving her name as it was giving her the dubbed name Mina.

Chibi-Usa/Chibi-Moon:

This was the first of the name changes that was reasonably so as Chibi-Usa is basically "Little Rabbit", playing off of Usagi's name. Thus with changing Sailor Moon's name to Serena they would need to change Chibi-Usa as well, deciding to use a nickname often associated with Serena; Rini. I really didn't mind that change as it made sense and in the manga they wanted to keep the association with the dub when they brought it over so they were using the dub names, which looked rather silly since they translated Usagi to Bunny and put Chibi-Usa as Rini. Which just brings up another thing; since they translate everything out Chibi-Moon became Mini Moon in the dub, but the manga left it as Chibi-Moon (thankfully).

Setsuna/Sailor Pluto:

Pluto first appears in Sailor Moon R inside the little Luna sphere that Chibi-Usa carried around. In the Japanese version Chibi-Usa refered to her as Puu where in our dub she called her Luna P. Later when she was introduced to fight along side the other Sailor Senshi she was given the name Trista for our dub. I actually looked this up and the name makes sense for as both her Japanese and English dub name mean sad or sadness.

Michiru/Sailor Neptune:

When Sailor Moon S was slated to be released my brother and I started to take guesses as to what the dubbed names would be for the Outer Senshi and I have to pat myself on the back for guessing correctly for Neptune as they named her Michelle. Only reason I could think of for this was because the sounds of her Japanese name was very close to her dubbed one.

Haruka/Sailor Uranus:

This one... is actually kinda funny. As you can see some of these kind of have no rime or reason to why the names are chosen and for me I pick Uranus for being the most out there one, not for the fact that her dubbed name is bad, but because I didn't expect her to have the name of one of my friends; Amara. When Sailor Moon S first aired my brother, my best friend and one of our other friends sat in our living room awaiting to here her dubbed name for the first time. The show cuts to commercial and the 4 of us are sitting there going, in a shocked/dead pan kind of tone; "They named her Amara..." Phone rings and it's our friend Jole who says in the same tone; "They named her Amara..." Another one of my friends calls right after that and in that tone says; "They named her Amara..." Another call comes through and all happy and excited on the other end was indeed my friend Amara saying; "They named her Amara!" Ah memories...

Mamoru/Tuxedo Kamen:

Even the male lead can't escape the name change as he is given the dubbed name Darien. Much like his love Sailor Moon, he too went under the stick with the one dubbed name for your past and future lives as they dubbed him Prince/King Darien instead of using the name Endymion. Also like with Chibi-Moon for the anime, they translated out his name making him Tuxedo Mask.

The changes in terms of names weren't that bad, but since I was looking into the series a lot more online I was rather saddened that they had to edit so much to the point I wish they never aired the dub on TV at all. For starters it kind goes off on a double standard; Sailor Moon is a story that mainly focuses on love and the primary characters that it revolves around are Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask.  For an American audience I am amazed this got past the FCC since Sailor Moon is a 14 year old girl and Tuxedo Mask is at least an 18 year old college student. Yes, it is only a 4 year difference, but she is still underage by US standards. (where as in Japan 14 is of legal age btw) But when Sailor Moon S and Super S were brought over they edited and CHANGED Uranus and Neptune's relationship; taking them from being lovers to making the cousins. COUSINS! This was horribly done too as there are countless scenes that could not be cut due to story importance that there is still flirtation within their body language.

Episodes themselves were also cut completely due to some content not being suitable to air on American television. In fact, because Sailor Moon was primarily targeted towards children here in the states, the final episode of the first season was edited and cut so much taking it from a two episode finale to one. And honestly I don't know why, especially with the way they cut it. In the episode the Sailor Senshi and Tuxedo Mask all die and get reborn at the end. Because death isn't suitable for a kids' show they had cut out the scenes where they were killed one by one and said they were captured. A nice attempt for a cover up, but anyone with half a brain could figure out they were killed. The end has one of those "it makes no sense" moments that I mentioned before as they have no memories at the end and for them to have been captured this part makes no sense. The memory loss is of course is due to them going through the rebirth.

But as I got older and looked at more of the Japanese version, including watching a fansub of Sailor Stars, I could really see the difference in the show. Take a look at these two scenes; one from the Japanese version and the other from the English dub.


I do apologize for the raw Japanese, I couldn't find the clip with subs that was under 10 minutes. But you can get the sense of tone. Usagi goes looking for Chibi-Usa and finds out that her parents were attacked in the future. The enemies from the Black Moon locate her and go in their attempts to kill her only to be interrupted by Sailor Moon and the other Sailor Senshi. Rubeus then goes for the kill himself but Sailor Moon protects Chibi-Usa as she slowly starts to realize there is something about her that draws her to her and the desire to protect her. Tuxedo Mask appears as he always does and tells Sailor Moon that she is really the only one who can protect the girl. Now here's the scene again (it's really the scene with Rubeus that I am pointing out) in the English dub;


I really do love the voice cast for the early Sailor Moon R, the voice for Sailor Moon was just perfect. The song in the background was really unique too as they tended to use original stuff for the English adaptation and it really fit for the scene in my opinion. But it's the dialog that seems to make the scene fall apart. Rubeus saying he doesn't want to hurt Sailor Moon is total BS. Tuxedo Mask's entrance is about the same in both basically be raiding Rubeus for targeting a helpless child. I do like the dub line of "Cape Boy" for some reason, it's like he's making fun of him for wearing a cape lol. But it's when Tuxedo Mask tells Sailor Moon to take him out basically that I have to scratch my head a little. As I said for the Japanese version he tells her that she is the only one who can protect the girl; where the line in the dub is corny (as were most of his lines in the dub) and really didn't fit for the emotion the scene was supposed to have. I remember finding this scene a year ago and was like; "wow... did he REALLY just say that?"

Over all though I still love the series and could easily recommend it to people. See you all next time for my Part 2. ^^/

o.o Gimmie!

Hello and welcome to Don't Look Back... Again; a blog where I look back on things from my past and realize I may have wasted money. So today at work I had an interesting conversation with my boyfriend about toys. Yes, toys; mainly for series that were once Japanese and then translated/brought over to the states. And as I looked back I realized that some times.... you have to wonder who thought some of this was a good idea. So for this I am going to be using 3 examples from my childhood, though one is technically just a current thing, but you'll get the idea. So first lets take a look at one of my favorite series of all time; Sailor Moon.

Me liking Sailor Moon will probably become an entry later on, but lets take a look at what there was in the way of toys. Honestly, here in the states there wasn't much. We had some small collector type things along with keys of course, but the one thing I remember were the "Adventure Dolls";

Oh god... I think I am going to have nightmares... Yes, these "Barbie" dolls are the Sailor Moon Adventure dolls. Now where do I begin other than saying "what the hell?!" I should mention up front that these dolls were made by the same company in Japan; Bandai, just keep that in mind for a second. So what's wrong with these you ask? Well first off their faces are HORRIBLE; to the point where they look like blowup dolls, Sailor Moon is missing the "meatballs" in her hair with the red orbs (odango for the people who know Sailor Moon), they are holding the SAME weapon/key and their boost, even though different colors are the same. Any fan of Sailor Moon knows what these characters wear and what they wield. Who really thought this was a good idea when Japan got something like these;

Though the clothing is much bulkier, these dolls show much more character. Sailor Moon is holding her weapon from the Super S season and the other senshi are holding their transformation keys/pens, Sailor Moon's hair actually looks like they took care into making it like the anime and book rather than just sticking it into pigtails and their shoes are what they are supposed to be and not just different colored copy of Moon/Mercury's boots.

But really, when I was a kid I really liked playing in action with friends and really wanted to be one of the Sailor Senshi (and for me it was Sailor Moon herself) and thankfully it was made possible by some items;

A nice addition to the "lets pretend" kind of games. Honestly these really weren't all that bad, but to nitpick; the gem/crystal is pink. Why does that matter? Cause the crystal is described as the SILVER crystal, but as I said, it's a nitpick. Out of the two I really licked the locket because in Sailor Moon R when she transforms she brushes her hand over the crystal and when you do that on the toy (pushing the crystal in slightly) it makes the transformation sounds. Other weapons were released as well such as; Sailor Moon's weapon from Sailor Moon R and Chibi Moon's weapon from S. But wait, the other senshi have their keys/pens to trasnform, didn't they make those? For some reason, no they didn't. Not over here at least;

Yep, Japan wins again. Not only did they get the key/pen for the other senshi, but a lot of other items were released as well. We see in the second picture; Sailor Moon's weapon for Super S and Stars (Stars was never brought stateside other than the manga), the Luna pen, the star locket, Chibi Moon's transformation broach and the communicators. Also the pair of gloves; I am not sure if these are Sailor Moon's or Chibi Moon's, but the point is Japan actually had Dress Up kits and they could have been easily done in the states giving the; tiara, gloves, clip on earrings and a choker necklace. And they probably would have made a lot of money when you think about it...

Now as a collector of things in anime, I love plushies and I was thrilled to see that they actually brought over the concept;

These were such a fantastic idea, not only are they cute, but they could also add to the let's pretend aspect as well since they released both Luna and Artemis as well as the Sailor Senshi and Tuxedo Mask. Really, I have nothing bad to say about these. Japan technically has the upper hand again, but only because there are more variety.

This is for a comparison; since the series started and going through various anniversaries, you can see the difference in make and quality.

The states did have some other items, such as Luna P (which if I recall was a jewelry box that made sounds) and something I would like to forget and not men-

Curse you Internet! Yes, they actually made this for the adventure dolls. And before anyone says anything about the picture of the doll having the red orbs; yes I see them, but the stay look like god damn pigtails. And why did they make this eyesore of a toy? I really have no idea other than they wanted to waste plastic in hopes for more money. I mean even Japan had their items that didn't quite make sense; like a washing machine and cash register. But at least those made more sense than this thing.

Sadly that was really all we got for something that was sweeping the nation aside from trading cards, a very confusing TCG and three soundtracks. The CDs were actually pretty good, the first placing tracks from the first and second season. The second album, Luna Rock, had fewer tracks from the end of R going through S in addition to the Japanese opening and another Japanese song titled Ai no Senshi. And the 3rd ablum; Full Moon Collection, had all the English tracks from the first two, plus a new lyrical track that played no where in the show and all of the American made BGMs. Japan though, of course still had much to offer;

As you can see figurines were released and they were released for every season, statues/model kits in various poses were also made. A lot of sound tracks were released, not just for the anime series, but for the 3 movies, all of the musicals, the live action TV series and video games. Yes, there are Sailor Moon games; some side scrollers, some fighters, and one RPG. And even with the Musicals and the live action series other toys got spun out of those too.

And that actually leads me to a big part of my childhood; Power Rangers. The Power Rangers was my first taste of a live action Japanese series, all be it just dubbed over fight scenes, but it was enough for me. As far as toys go, everyone remembers the Zords and honestly I don't find the Zords horrible at all, well in the old days anyway. They did just what you expected them to do; be separate pieces and combine into the Megazord. But for me it was the action figures of the rangers I felt were kind of hit or miss;

In fairness to these figures they all look bulky because they are the morphing rangers that had the heads flip around when you pressed the morpher on the belt down while the civilian head was up. But all ranger figures till the movie action figures didn't really have different shapes to them; they all looked like males. Even in the video games (at least on the SNES) the sprites took after the Red Ranger. But these toys are very basic and standard as you can't really pose them well, their hands are always in the same position making it hard to get their weapons in their hands. And to be honest, they aren't very well detailed at all. And why do they have their dinosaurs on their chests? They never did in the show. Keep all this in mind as I am doing this part a little differently than the Sailor Moon section, okay?

And I don't know what it was about doing something like this, but they actually made "Barbie" Dollish dolls for Power Rangers as well;

As the box at the top indicates these were "for girls", but I really have to wonder why they didn't make any of the male rangers. After all Barbie had Ken, why didn't Kimberly have Tommy? And there were also no monsters, except for the early, early Power Ranger toys, that would be tall enough for them to fight. So... why bother playing with them if you couldn't really be Power Rangers? Or that's at least how I felt with mine. They also released a doll of Aisha when she replaced Trini as the Yellow Ranger. And take a look at the artwork on the box; the Yellow Ranger I can almost get doing this since in the Super Sentai Mighty Morphin' is based on was a male, but the Pink Ranger was always female, yet the picture doesn't have the skirt (and neither does the doll) and there is no indication of a chest. If this was for girls, how about making them look like girls.

Power Rangers was another genre/series I had the "lets pretend" fad for. I would play Trini and my best friend back then was Kimberly. Now I do give our toys some credit for this as they made gloves for each ranger that you could wear, they made 2 different sounds; the button between the thumb and index finder made a "swooshing" sound like you were doing karate and when you crossed your wrists (the glove with the button on top of course) it would sing "Go go Power Rangers". They released the power morpher which came with the 5 original power coins and the Blade Blaster; both of which made sounds. They made the Dragon Dagger and it played the 2 songs that would summon and command the Dragon Zord and they had made Saba which did talk. Now hearing that sounds good right? Imagine the excitement and disappointment when we saw this;

The Power Blaster. We were excited for this because it was the weapons we desired to be the Power Rangers, but look at the size. I know that when this was made I was technically "too old" to be into or even be playing Power Rangers, but even for a kid, they can't really feel like the Rangers could they? The axe barely has a grip on it, the lance is waaaay to short (even for a toy), and in fact they all just seem to be too small for the average fan of the series. Would it have been so bad to make these the size of NERF weapons and had them combine?

And that brings to the Japanese side of things. As I said before I was doing this differently and here's why; I couldn't find much in the way of these toys in Japan because the Sentai it's based on is older than Mighty Morphin' is in the states, so I am going to use Kamen Rider for the examples.

The figures in Japan are so intricate, it makes me wonder what goes through people's heads here;

This is a figure of Kamen Rider W (Double) Cyclone/Joker form. As you can see just by these few images there is a huge difference in detail. They are fully pose-able with different sets of hands so you can get poses and gestures prefect from the show. The belt shown here is amazing as you can see he has the Cyclone and Joker memories placed inside of it. Even just the lines on the suit are in sync with the television series. Now wouldn't you feel a little more like your hero if you looked and moved like them?

In addition to the "let's pretend" I have to examples; one from Kamen Rider W and the other from Kamen Rider Den-O. As I mentioned the morpher wasn't bad, but it did have it's flaws and where as it may be minor, it's kind of not at the same time; there was no clip to attach it to a belt. So after you said; "It's morphing time! 'insert what ranger you wanted to be here'." it felt like that was it, you'd set it down and start fighting the invisible putties and monster. These on the other hand, would make you feel like you are Kamen Rider W or Den-O.






The greatest thing about these toys is that when they come out with new things as the show introduced them, you didn't have to go out and buy an entirely new belt. It was already compatible with the one you have.

I am by no means saying that our toys were absolute crap, after all I did pay money for the and played with them, but stop and think; don't you think they could have been better? See you all next time! ^^/

It's FanGirl Time!

Welcome to Don't Look Back... Again; a blog where I am free to release my inner fangirl! Well let's see what I have rambled on about so far; moments that made me cry, thus proving I am a total sap on many levels. Favorite game tunes in both Final Fantasy and non Final Fantasy games. Kingdom Hearts and songs that get stuck in my head way too easily. Okay, those who actually know me probably are going "why wasn't her favorite genre her first entry?" And honestly that's kind of a good question and I don't really know why I waited to mention this. So let's dive right into my favorite genre; Yaoi.

Okay, let me first say; yes, I do know there is a difference between yaoi and shounen-ai. The question is; do you? If not, it's quite simple. Shounen-ai literally translates to "Boys Love" and those stories are cute love stories that rarely have anything sexual to them. Where yaoi on the other hand is basically gay porn with plot... and sometimes just porn. Now I am a true sap to the point where I was nick-named the Queen of Sap during my fanfic days because everything I wrote would get quite sappy with dialog or overall plot. So just to cover I am more of a fan of the Shounen-ai stuff, but I do like my yaoi as well.

So what got me into it? Well oddly enough it was the fandom in which I took part in and that was Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.

Gundam Wing was I believe the 4th Gundam series to make it to the states and for me was the first I had seen. For whatever reason I really latched onto it, but if I had to think of one it probably would have been that I thought the pilots were cute. Anyway it was around I think episode 25, where the Vayeate blew up and Trowa was presumed dead, that I wrote my first fanfic. I really can't explain why I wanted to do such a thing, but it was a start of something much bigger for me. It was my 4th fic I wrote where I took a stab at writing the shounen-ai relationship with Trowa and Quatre (the second couple pictured). Was there any mention of them being a couple in the show? No, there was no official mention of them being together in a romantic way, but as a fan I chose to read certain actions in such away. The same would later go for Heero and Duo (the first couple pictured). The show never had a theme of romance, but there was an underline tone with some characters showing interests in others; Zechs and Noin, Treize and Lady Une, Relena and Heero, Duo and Hildie to name a few.

So why would I change something that seemed like it was cannon for couples? Behold the power of fandom. Heero and Duo as a couple seemed to really fit in my head because quite frankly I am not a fan of Relena and there were times Hildie came off as more of a sister to Duo than a girlfriend. There was also a sense of balance in placing the two together; Heero was very serious with a heart of ice and Duo was a gentle carefree soul. Trowa and Quatre were pretty much the same way as well, but with more implications here and there scattered through the show.

As I went on to write more GW fics, the more absorbed I got by the fandom; wanting to find pictures of the couples as well as reading other people's works. And for awhile GW was really the only thing shounen-ai/yaoi related that I would acknowledge. Sure, I had seen or read things within other interests of mine that paired two male characters together, but it was nothing compared to GW.

At the time, I am unsure if any shounen-ai series had reached the states (I'm sure there were a couple of yaoi ones since a lot of Hentai gets dubbed), so I really wasn't aware of it being a real genre instead of just a fan made one; until my best friend at the time showed me a fan subbed version of what would become one of my favorites series; Gravitation.

This story I found rather touching as truly showed the concept of you can't change what love is nor who you fall in love with. Shuichi is the lead singer of a band called Bad Luck and one day he meets Yuki, a romance novelist, who reads some lyrics Shuichi had written and point blankly tells the singer that he sucks. This was the start of Shuichi's obsession and soon to become love. This is actually the one shounen-ai series I can recommend to non fans of the genre as it has more to offer than the shounen-ai plot. Now I never wrote fanfiction for this series, but it did inspire me to write an original story where the main character was a gay singer.

Now actually knowing that there were shounen-ai manga and some anime were being released I took a lot more of an interest the genre. I never actually wrote more fanfics after I stopped writing for GW, but instead I wrote more original work and some of those characters I still work with today.

So the difference between the genre and fandom? The fandom can get out of hand and out of hand fast. As I mentioned with GW, there were no implications for the relationships aside from the few for Trowa and Quatre; fans would pair whoever they wanted together so long as it worked in their heads and this would go for any series, even those like Gravitation. Now don't get me wrong, I do like some fan pairings, but there are things that I don't think should ever be touched. (say Transformers, yes it exists.) So, I am gonna take the time to list my favorite fan shounen-ai couples (haha 2 for 1 deal entry!);

#5: Tsuzuki and Hisoka- Yami no Matsuei

This is a hand in hand kind of relationship as it comes across that they need each other to move forward and I really like those kinds of stories. It can also be viewed as a "teacher, student" kind of thing too as Hisoka is new to being a shinigami and Tsuzuki is their to guide him through it as his partner. Either way the emotion that these two characters bring is just eminence.

#4: Bart and Billy- Xenogears

Yeah, one of the only times I can say I had a crush on a character and loved the yaoi pairing involving them. But this was one of those pairings where you could almost picture them not really wanting to say how they really felt, thus their actions coming off childish. So cute, but to my surprise this pairing is rarely ever used in the Xenogears Yaoi Fandom.

#3: Tohma and Yuki- Gravitation

This pairing isn't exactly cute, but I love the strength it has and that's what makes it good. Tohma is more of a big brother in the sense that he wants to protect Yuki. Even in the manga he can be quoted countless times saying that Yuki is his. Because of a childhood trauma of Yuki's that Tohma had witnessed the aftermath of, he feels he is the only who can and will every understand his pain. And truly, with that strength it brings up the question; "how far would you go for the one you love?" And Tohma Seguchi would go very far, even to the point of murder.

#2: Riku and Sora- Kingdom Hearts

You may have heard some people who are anti-yaoi fans say that "Friendship isn't shounen-ai/yaoi", well it can be. It's no different than two friends who are male and female getting together. So the friendship CAN turn into something more and that is my all time favorite kind of story. And yes my fangirl-ness went into overload in KH2 when Sora broke down crying when he finally managed to see Riku again.

#1: Trowa and Quatre- Gundam Wing

Yep the pairing that started my obsession. The two of them are just so cute and rather perfect for one another. Fanfic notions aside, in the final episode where Quatre is dueling with Dorothy and the scene switches to Trowa inside Heavyarms saying; "I'm coming Quatre" was just so baffling and romantic to me. Baffling because Trowa had no way of knowing that Quatre was in danger (really, it's never brought up how he knew to go to his aid) and romantic because it came off as the "my heart knows" kind of thing, and let's be honest; when you're in love there's a good chance your heart knows when the one you care for is in trouble or hurting. And its those moments that can make for some great story telling.

There will always be lovers and haters of the genre and to the lovers; please don't egg on the haters, it just brings a bad name to the fandom. And haters; not every fan is obsessive enough to make anything and everything into a yaoi pairing. I can grasp the fact that it isn't your cup of tea, but others do like it and we have a right to our opinions so please, let us do so.

I owe a lot to this fandom and genre as it got me to write and be more creative. For that I am very thankful and grateful to be apart of it. See you all next time! ^^/

Inside My Head

Hello, and welcome to Don't Look Back... Again; a blog where I just ramble on and on. Well yesterday I sat pondering what other lists I could make, yes I do enjoy my lists alot, I think they're fun. And where as I came up with a few ideas and will do those ones later, I for some reason latched onto this one. Everyone and I do mean everyone, will at some point or another get songs stuck in their head. But for me, usually, it ends up being the same five songs (hence why it was perfect for my list, see what I did there?) and my brain just likes to set it to random. So welcome to My Head: The Musical;

#5: Donuts, Go Nuts!- Splosionman

This song was fairly recent to getting stuck in my head, but I can't help it. It's just so light hearted and funny that you just can't help but smile when you hear it. And it really is one of the only songs I have heard that can make any feeling of anger wash away just for its randomness. Though there is a side effect; it usually does make you want to eat donuts.

#4: Everlasting Love- We Love Katamari

Admittedly I never played Katamari, but my brother used to play this daily and when he did this was the song he would ALWAYS choose, same with another friend of mine. It got to the point I heard it so much that I started humming it everywhere I went. It's just so upbeat and cute.

#3: This is Halloween- Kingdom Hearts version

As I said in my previous entry the KH soundtrack was fantastic with the new renditions of classic Disney music for their respective worlds and naturally the one chosen for "The Nightmare Before Christmas" was this song. I love and loath this song, where its an awesome version of it, every time I played through KH I was start humming/singing this tune. It's probably the song I heard the most as Halloween Town was my stomping grounds for building levels for a long time. But as annoying as it can be to have it in your head, it's still a fun song.

#2: Climax Jump- Kamen Rider Den-O

A new obsession of mine. I have only recently started watching Kamen Rider, but the music is so awesome that I am hooked. My favorite opening is actually "W-B-X ~Double Boiled Xtreme" from Kamen Rider W, but this opening is way too damn catchy for it's own good. And the worst part about this getting stuck in my head it's really only one line that is and goes on a loop and thats where it says "In your hand~"

#1: Duck Tales

Who doesn't remember this show? I'm not even sure what made me think of it one day, but sure enough when I did all I could think was this song and now it remains lodged into my brain forever. I even made a comment to some friends that I didn't know what was worse; having the song in my head to begin with (because it was the 3rd or 4th day in a row it had been there) or having it in my head with a headache. But no matter what, this song is nostalgic and fun and I wouldn't have it any other way.

So there you have it, the 5 songs that plague my mind and distract me from things. May they now penetrate your brain. See you all next time. ^^/

Doh, You Looked Back, Didn't You?

Welcome to Don't Look Back... Again; a blog where I just ramble for the soul purpose of because I can. Today I am starting a new segment where I look back and "review" something that I have enjoyed. I use review loosely since I am not being overly objective to it. So let's dive right into one of my favorite games; Kingdom Hearts.


So how do you take two random things, mesh them together and get something epicly awesome? Well somehow Squaresoft managed to do it in the master piece. At first I was unsure of what to make of this union, since Final Fantasy in of itself is more adult where as Disney was on the other side of the coins and catered to children. But right out of the gate, Square does it right, as the story doesn't center around the Disney cast, but rather an original character, Sora.

Now I will say up front, I am a Riku fan girl, and where Sora isn't  a bad hero, I would have really liked to see more of Riku. But for what the game can offer, you'll still be eager to see the story unfold. The blend of both Final Fantasy and Disney is well polished as the Final fantasy characters are sprinkled in here and there and they never upstage the spotlight. Though I have to wonder how it was decided that these Final Fantasy characters were chosen instead of others;

"We need Final Fantasy characters! Any suggestions?"

"How about characters from 7, 8 and 10?"

"Brilliant!"

"What about 9?"

".... We don't talk about 9."

Yeah, yeah, I know Vivi is in KH2, but for the moment we are talkin KH1. Anyway, the game play was inventive and the redesigns for some of the FF characters were flawless in how they melded into the Kingdom Hearts world. Even in personality, the characters seemed to be better than they had previously. Seriously; Leon > Squall, he's not a complete emo git.

So the basic run down of the story is that Riku wants to set out on an adventure and get of his home island and his two best friends; Sora and Kairi, decide to go with him and build a raft. In the middle of the night a storm breaks out and Sora is worried about the raft so he rushes out to keep it safe, but he then sees Riku in the midst of the storm proclaiming "I'm not afraid of the darkness" and thus they are swept away to new worlds and Sora is chosen by the mystical Keyblade. Sora meets Donald and Goofy not long after he awakens in Traverse Town and learn that they are looking for their king. Since Sora is looking for his friends too, they team up and travel to other Disney worlds. Along the way you begin saving each world and learn of the Princess' of Heart, you see no sign of the king, but you run into Riku from time to time and he becomes a major douche bag. He tells Sora that Kairi has lost her heart and that he's determined to get it back for her since Sora can't be bothered. Upon reaching Hallow Bastion Riku shows Sora that he is not fit to be the Keyblade Master and takes the weapon from him, baffling Sora's companions as Sora was supposed to be "the one" and as such, Donald and Goofy follow the Keyblade. Not long after Sora regains control of the Keyblade and Riku gets possessed by the main villain; Ansem. Sora and company now knowing partly with who they are dealing with, save the Princesses and Kairi and now move forward to save Riku, with hopes of also finding the king. We end with Ansem opening Kingdom Hearts, a giant door, and gets obliterated by a huge flash of light. Inside you see countless Heartless and darkness, but who should appear with a solid gold keyblade, but Mickey Mouse, the king they had been searching for the entire game. He tells Sora that the only way to gold off the heartless is to seal the door once again; Sora, Donald and Goofy push from ones side and have trouble moving it, but then Sora is surprised to see his best friend on the other side helping to pull the door closed. Once the door is shut the ground begins to crumble as Kiari made her way to Sora. They hold hands briefly as Sora says; "I'll find a way back to you I promise." The ground splits and their hold on the other is lost as they are separated once again. So we leave our three heroes to once again go in search of their friend and king.

Overall the story was simple and well thought out, but when you think about it, the worlds you go to kind of have no impact on the main story, save for their being a Princess of Heart in every world. And that brings up a question; why wasn't Aeril a Princess of Heart? Anyway, the worlds that were chosen were interesting and pretty much stuck to their original stories from their movies with only slight alterations to compensate for the additional characters. The soundtrack was fantastic, using original music as well as renditions of the classic Disney tunes. Of course, my favorite part of it all was that Utada Hikaru, a very well known J-Pop artist, did the opening in both Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II.





Kingdom Heats was also the first in a series to get an abridge sequel with Chain of Memories. For being on the GBA the graphics were really impressive as its cutscenes, though not voice acted, were in game graphics of the PS2. In all honesty this game kinda sucked... kinda. The only pieces of story you actually needed to see were between floors of Castle Oblivion, but what made playing this worth it was that after you completed Sora's story you opened up a mody entitled; "Reverse Rebirth" where you played through as Riku (fangirl squee). Basic run down for Sora was that this castle was slowly erasing his memory. Really, that's it. At the end he is placed in this egg thing for one year so his memories could be reconstructed. Also I would like to point out that you revisit all the worlds from the first Kingdom Hearts, literally making this "Kingdom Hearts Light", with the exception to the first Disney world you go to; Tarzan. So... yeah, did he forget all about Tarzan just by stepping into the castle? Riku's story is slightly more complex as it reflects on his actions in the previous game and his inner struggle with himself. At the end he and Mickey are approached by a man known as DiZ and he seeks their help in learning about the mysterious Organization.

And a few years later the fans were graced with Kingdom Hearts II. In the original game you could unlock a secret movie that foreshadowed this sequel game, but it was in the Final Mix version that was only released in Japan (I WILL rant about this later), that really nailed the anticipation amongst fans. My boyfriend and I even started to theorize what was to happen and even paused the secret ending video to write down what was being said on the countdown. But now, with KH2 out it was time to see if we were right.

The game opens with you playing as a new character, Roxas, in a place known as Twilight Town. This part of the game I will confess, is rather dull. All you do is mindless chores aka mini games, as the days go by. We are also introduced to 6 new Final Fantasy characters; Siefer, Fujin and Raijin from FF8, Vivi from FF9 and (let my fangirl-ness shine again; squee) Setzer from FF6. Now sadly, like most of the FF cast in this game they play a very minor role. As each of these characters are only here for the tournament being held. Once we go through at least 2-3 hours of game play Roxas now vanishes and we then see Sora awakening from his nap. And from here on, the story pretty much follows that of the first Kingdom Hearts; jump from world to world in hopes of finding Riku and King Mickey. Some new worlds were introduced in place of some of the old ones where as some of the old return. The Aladdin world basically takes on the story of "Return of Jafar" and Atlantica, The Little Mermaid world, takes on the story of.... well The Little Mermaid.

Let me back up a second; in Kingdom Hearts Atlantica was actually one of the harder worlds, as the controls for the swimming were quite awkward and the only real story piece from the movies you saw were her saying one day she would like to go to the surface and the attack by the giant shark. In Kingdom Hearts II... we get this;


They turned the world into blasted mini games! Now I know The Little Mermaid was highly influenced by music since it was Aerli's voice Ursula was after, but seriously? We already have a world that is mini games; The 100 Acre Wood, so why give us another one? Not to mention Twilight Town is littered with them because of the chores. Anyway back to the story; it doesn't really pick up till you hit a world known as Radiant Garden aka Hallow Bastion. It's here where we meet another set of Final Fantasy characters; the Gullwings from FFX-2; Yuna, Riku and Paine. This also where we learn the truth that Ansem isn't really Ansem, and that the person we fight in the first game was called Xeonort and that his heartless looked like Ansem. Make sense? Yeah, I didn't think so. Xenonort launches an attack on Radiant Garden and thus results in my favorite part of the game; the 1000 Heartless fight. On the way to this monster of a battle you get scenes of some of the Final Fantasy characters taking on the heartless. Once the 1000 fight is done there is a boss battle with to be had with a member of Organization XIII, when the battle is finished Mickey comes out of hiding wanting to take over. Goofy sees a bolder being launched towards the king and like any noble knight, Goofy takes a hard hit to the head and is rendered unconscious and presumed dead, filling Mickey with rage as he says; "They'll pay for this", throws off his cloak, summons his keyblade and runs off. It was really quite epic to see Mickey pissed off. We learn more about the nobodies and make our way to "The World that Never Was" where Sora is once again reunited with Kairi, who has her own Keyblade now, and Ansem? No, it's Riku who looks like Ansem. They follow DiZ's instructions and when the same light from the first game appears, Riku shields his friends and when it fades he is once again back to normal. I will admit, I can't for the life of me remember the reasoning as to why he looked like Ansem was in the game, but I think it has to do with how he viewed himself; as a monster. Also we once again get a scene with Roxas and Namine as we learn that they were Sora and Kairi's nobodies and funny enough Kiari isn't phased at all by this. But with all this said and done you are ready to head into the final fight. This boss fight is just interesting because you only have Sora and Riku and it's pretty circumstantial on what needs to be done. But the final round with Xenort/Xemnas is pretty cool. As I said I am a Riku fan girl, but this here gave Sora some serious badassery points.



In the end they are stuck in Limbo so to speak with Riku slightly injured as a bottle washes up onto sure with a letter inside. After reading it a door opens as Sora stands and extends his hand to Riku and says; "We'll go together". They make their way home and all is well, till after the credits and they get a letter with the King's seal on it.

Now let me say, I did enjoy KH2 for what it was, though I did find it rather short. The soundtrack was just as top notch as its previous installment and the gameplay improved as there were less problems with the camera being obstructive. I may be forgetting some key points in the story, such as why is Xeonort called Xemnas? They are the same person, but I don't recall it being explained. (Though it might be in Birth By Sleep or 358/2) And show of hands; who knew that Roxas was Sora's nobody BEFORE the game came out? *raises hand* Where as the story is decent with a lot of fond moments, it almost feels slightly lazy in spots or it could just be to the point that they over hyped the character.

And that will lead me into why I love and loathe this series. I love it because it's very original in the sense of how things can cross over and not suck, the gameplay is unique and it's generally just beautiful to look at and listen to. I loathe it because the challenges they have you do for the secret endings are a tad ridiculous; beating Sephiroth for one.... yeah, no thanks. Yes, I do understand the point of a challenge, but there is challenge and then there is masochistic. But I can look past that in comparison to the fact that the re-release the game in Japan after the NA version comes out because we get extras, so the Japanese want the extra so they get those and even MORE extras. And we will never see these games outside of Japan because they believe that the English populous won't rebuy something they already own and played through. Um... yeah we would, since you added MORE story.

Overall Kingdom Hearts is an enjoyable series, I just wish they would stop milking it with these filler games (though BBS is okay in my book cause it explains the keyblades), but they seriously just need to make KH3. See you all next time! ^^/

Name That Tune: Final Fantasy Edition

Hello and welcome to Don't Look Back... Again; a blog where I just do things for my own personal amusement. As I said last time I would be listing my top five songs from the Final Fantasy series, so here they are in all their glory.

#5: Maybe I'm a Lion- Final Fantasy VIII

Okay, let's face it; Final Fantasy VIII is probably one of the worst games in the series as the story really made no sense and the characters were horribly under developed, but what I love about this series as a whole is that the soundtracks never cease to amaze me and that's exactly what FF8 with this song. Yeah, there are others I do enjoy, like "Man with the Machine Gun", but when I got to this fight I found myself just grooving to the song rather than pay attention to the fight at hand. In all honesty it really reminds me slightly of the Lion King and that's more than likely why I gravitate to this tune, plus for a boss battle, it sounds nothing like you'd think a boss fight would. So I really give props to its originality.

#4: Still More Fighting- Final Fantasy VII

Yeah, I might be a little bit predictable with this one; as every fan of Final Fantasy seems to love this boss battle music and honestly I can't blame them. FF7 was my second Final Fantasy game I have ever played and when I first heard this song I was pumped for the fight at hand. With each boss it just seemed to flow well with your fighting and just over all a fantastic song. Though I think the title is a little mundane for something that sounds so bad ass. (And a funny note; I didn't know the actual name of the song till making this list. I had always heard it was called "The Decisive Battle", which would make sense since FF4, the boss battle theme was called that.)

#3: The Lunar Whale- Final Fantasy IV

Ah FF4 never stops pleasing the fans. Final Fantasy IV has had so many ports it almost seems like this game is the fan favorite and not Final Fantasy VII. For being on the SNES, soundtrack is still enjoyable by todays standards and this song really makes me smile as it just screams "Airship~!" and lets face it, the airships are partly what this series is known for. The Lunar Whale was just awesome as it could go from the Earth to the Moon and back and this song just had that feeling of "we're going to save the world". Not many pieces I can say have that positive and determined feeling.

#2: Alexander/"Waking the Colossus"- Final Fantasy XI

The final battle music for the end of the Treasures of Aht Urhgan expansion for FFXI. This song has so much going for it and the top of that list would be that it at actually makes it feel like it's going to be an epic showdown and for a monster that can't move, it really lives up to its expectations. This song is also very dear to me just for the fact it was the very first time I felt like I was actually my character and not playing a game. I went as Dark Knight for this fight and because it was touching the point where we would time out I used Souleater, knowing full well what that I was going to die. I just has this image in my head of her looking to her friends saying "Finish it", which I did in party chat btw, and smiling as Alexander took her out.


#1: Aria di Mezzo Carattere/ Celes' Theme- Final Fantasy VI

Probably the most remembered and iconic scene in the Final Fantasy series. It was so unique to have an opera and I find myself getting lost within its melodies every time I listen to it. And like every fan of Final Fantasy VI, I longed to see this as an FMV scene with actual singing, and as a treat for you all I have found something close. While compiling this list I flip around Youtube so I could link the songs in so you could hear them and when I was looking for this song I found out that there was a concert a number of years ago in LA where they had preformed the opera in English. And it's just as beautiful as I could have hoped for. (Note; the version being sung is from the GBA release, not the original SNES version.)

So there you have it, my top 5 Final Fantasy songs. I am now off to prepare for next entry, see you all next time. ^^/

Name That Tune

Hello, and welcome to Don't Look Back... Again; a blog where I look back on things that I enjoy and write down my thoughts for the heck of it, if anything out of boredom. Well I tried to avoid it, but I wasn't able to compile the thing I wanted to do together yet, so to pass my time I thought I would do another top 5 list, this time of my favorite video game music. I mostly play RPGs so, yeah more than likely my list will be made up of those songs, but to keep it fair Final Fantasy will have its own top 5 next time. So here are my top 5 video game tunes;

#5: Dying Corpse- Breath of Fire II

This is probably one of my favorite battle themes ever, only for the fact that I really wasn't expecting it. In most games the battle music never changes, save for the big boss battles; but this marked the half way point within Breath of Fire II. To me it really set the tone for the rest of your journey as you fought for your life trying to save the world.

#4: Taiyo High School Rooftop- Rival Schools

Okay, I rarely ever play fighters, but the one I really loved was Rival Schools. And of course, being released by Capcom it naturally had to have a kick ass soundtrack. Whenever my friends and I sat down to play this game we would always and I mean ALWAYS choose this stage to fight on just because of this song. It always managed to get us pumped up and ready to kick each others' asses.

#3: Kokoro- Xenosaga

I am just in awe over this song and I feel it really set the mood for Xenosaga as a whole. For those not in the know; Xenosaga was to be an episodic tale spanning over six games, with Xenogears being episode five in the series (though it would have had revisions because Saga was not published by Square-Enix), but unfortunately the series was cut short and only three games were released. However, since I played Xenogears when it came out, I naturally flocked towads the series and hearing this song was very reminisce of Xenogears' ending theme; "Small Two of Pieces". I am a sap naturally and the lyrics truly speak volumes to me.

#2: Frog's Theme- Chrono Trigger

I love love love love loooooooove this song. This song really set the mood every time Frog entered; from the first time you meet him to save Queen Leene to when you have a heart to heart with Cyrus at his grave to empower the Masamune. But the one scene I will forever remember with this song is when he Frog says; "Handeth over the Masamune." Crono puts in the ground and Frog proclaims; "Mine name is Glenn, Cyrus' hopes and dreams and now the Masamune. Forth with I shall slay Magus and restore honor!" A serge of energy comes forth from the sword as he slices open the Magic Cave to head towards Magus' castle. For me it is the best character song ever.

#1 Awakening- Xenogears

If there was any boss theme that got me fired up it was this one. This plays as the preliminary final boss fight music and it really sets the mood as it has that sense of urgency that if you don't do something soon, your fate and everyone else's will be death. I feel this way every time I hear this song and whenever I write a story with such a scene, I have this playing on loop for inspiration. I loved the entire score for Xenogears, but this song by far is my favorite.

So there you have it, my top 5 favorite video game songs. Next time I will list off my favorite 5 tracks from the Final Fantasy series and I promise after that I will have something other than a list. See you next time. ^^/

"My Strength has Made You Cry"

Well maybe not strength, but I am sure there are moments within games/television/anime/movies etc that has brought a tear to your eye, and thats what I am here to talk about today. Welcome everyone to Don't Look Back... Again; a blog where I look back on things I enjoyed and out of boredom write it down. (Btw bonus points to anyone who knows where I got the name for the blog lol) Anyway, as I have noticed as I have gotten older, I tend to get a little more teary-eyed at the things I watch, play or read. After a little while of thinking of this I have made a list of my top 5 teary-eye moments, also please note that these will also contain spoilers. Now again, this is my opinion and obviously these mean something to me, so it's okay if you don't agree. But feel free to leave your list in a comment, I would love to see them.

#5: Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII

In the whole Final Fantasy VII craze, I was amazed that they decided to release a prequel game where you played through as Zack. So where as the ending wasn't a surprise, it is what made me want to cry. Unlike Aerith in FF7, Zack actually got a personality and you could relate and feel something for the lovable oaf. Where as Aerith all you really learned was that she was an Ancient/Cetra and she had a boyfriend named Zack. But playing through this, I felt somewhat of a connection to him. So if I knew the end, why did it make me cry? Honestly, it was because they made you fight the soldiers off. When I played, my brother did all my building for me due to a deal we made and he had made me some kickass materia; one of which being Drain Jump, which did major damage and kept me alive. I literally had to let Shinra win because I was so strong. I know his death was story driven, but it tears me up that they made you do that fight even though as an in game mechanic you technically should be able to win.


#4: Doctor Who End of Time
 
I have heard a lot of mixed feelings about this episode, but for me it was very emotional. I am not a huge Sci-Fi fan and I never got into Doctor Who until David Tennant played The Doctor. Since being new to the series, my friends who had been fans of it for a long while informed on how the series kept going with different people playing The Doctor. When it was time for Tennant's Dotcor to go through the regeneration I was very torn apart because he did a wonderful job as the character and it was him who made me want to keep watching. In the last few episodes, leading up to this finale, The Doctor seems to not be himself due to the fear of dying. Some people view his regeneration scene as a step back for the character, wondering where his character development went. But in my opinion, it never left. Tennant's Doctor liked who he was and didn't want to change. He liked that life, his friends; who would really want to give that up? I was getting choked up through the entire episode as it drew to a close and I had to hold back my tears as I saw him cry and say he didn't want to change.
 

#3: Saiyuki Gaiden

 
Another one of those cases (as were the last two) that I technically knew the outcome. Like Crisis Core, this is a prequel story. This story takes place in the days that Goku spent in Heaven, under the care of Konzen. The story actually starts off very sweet, Goku having the mind of a small child and you could really just smile at his innocence. He became friends with Nataku, who is indeed a God of War, but that knowledge was not shared with Goku, all Goku knew was that one day Nataku came back injured and then for no reason at all was unable to have communication with his friend. This was due to Nataku's father controlling him like a puppet, but Goku was determined to do one things; tell Nataku his name. Now that said, that's about as far as the anime took the story (within it's second season), and for quite a few number of years, I only knew Gaiden to have one volume and then I was delighted to see more come out; it turns out that Goku had the potential to take Nataku's spot as the killing machine so to speak, which threatened Nataku's father's position and he ordered his son to kill Goku. As Goku pleads and actually gets through to his friend, Nataku commits suicide in front of him. This causes Goku to go into a frenzy, shattering the power limiter and revealing himself to be a youkai, resulting in him slaughtering dozens of ppl. The punishment of Goku was that he was to be banned from Heaven and left in the lower world, but Konzen, Tenpou and Kenren have other ideas and want to go with him, so they plan to escape. In their heed to escape, Kenren, Tenpou, and Konzen all lose their lives trying to protect Goku. Botatsu sticks with what Goku's punishment and seals him within a mountain on earth, with all his memories of Heaven erased, except for one thing because they couldn't bare it being lost to him. And that was the name given to him by Konzen; Son Goku.

This made me cry for a few different reasons, the main being that my favorite character in Gaiden committed suicide, but the scene was so touching as he died in his friend's arms, telling him about a birds nest in a tree where they played and Goku crying that he couldn;t see it. And watching the other three die off one by one pulled at the heart strings as Konzen reminded Goku that he made promises to them that he would go to the Earth. And right where they see the portal Konzen is crushed by the door. There are countless times within the main Saiyuki series where it flashes back to the days Goku spends on the mountain till Sanzo finds him and it constantly shows this one scene with him and a bird and the bird one day dies out of his reach, causing him that same anguish he felt back in Heaven...
 

#2: Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Act 47

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon was such a good retelling of Sailor Moon's story and one of the big differences from the manga and anime versions was that Minako, Sailor Venus, was ill with some deadly disease. You meet Minako early on as she is Usagi's favorite pop idol and within the few short scenes you can see how her illness progresses, even if they never tell you what exactly it is she has. After revealing herself to be Sailor Venus she doesn't really work along side the senshi, but has the point of view that she cannot let what happened in their past life happen again, and says she has no real attachment to who she is in this life. Artemis shows her how much she means to others by showing her two kids singing one of her songs, trying to cheer themselves up after their mother was attacked by a demon. It's then she realizes that her life has meaning and she wants to go under experimental surgery in hopes that the disease can be cured. She goes off to a doctor's appointment to make sure everything is set for her to have the operation while the other senshi plan a pre- surgery party as a of saying good luck. A demon attacks resulting in Sailor Moon, Mercury, and Jupiter engaging it in battle. Artemis seeks out Sailor Mars and informs her that Minkao has died. Mars finds the others and finishes off the monster; falling to her knees, tears streaming down her cheeks as she screams Minako's name. At the end of the episode the girls, Luna and Atremis sit around the table, reading a letter written by Minako as they see her on the stage singing her new single as her image fades away and the room is silent with nothing to fill it but the sounds of their crying.

As a Sailor Moon fan I normally expect death in a series, but not like that. Had she died as Sailor Venus I would have just added it to the tally of how many times the Sailor Senshi get killed. But she died as Minako, and not on the battlefield as a warrior. And that really tore me up...
 

#1: Kamen Rider W Episode 48
 
My first real experience with Kamen Rider and I don't regret it in the least. Kamen Rider W (or Double) is a one mind, one body kind of thing as both Shotaro and Philip make up the Kamen Rider. Leading up to this episode we learned many things, including that Philip is actually a member of the Sonozaki family and in an interesting twist that the real Philip is dead. The Philip we see through out the series is an engineered copy, but even with the knowledge that he is technically not real he is determined to save his sister. Knowing something is going to happen, he requests to Shotaro not to transform into W until he says so. When they do and defeat the enemy Philip sees that his time has run out and prepares to remove the Memory from the belt only Shotaro stop him, asking if he could remove it instead. With Shotaro holding back his tears, Philip tells him that they will always be partners even if he's gone. Shotaro removes the Memory from the belt, and Philip begins to disappear. Shotaro returns to the detective agency and opens the gift Philip left for him in the previous episode; inside is the Lost Driver, a new Henshin belt, and along with it a message from Philip; "Please take care of the city I love. Kamen Rider, Shotaro Hidari."

I actually cried watching that episode. Through out the series you get an attachment to both Shotaro and Philip and to have the notion that half of W would no longer exist was just heartbreaking. The scene with Shotaro removing the Memory from the Driver will always stand out in my mind as you could really feel the emotional loss he was suffering.
 

So there is my list, I hope you all enjoyed it. I know some of them were more "winded" than others, but some I didn't think required that much explanation. See you all next time. ^^/