[Anime of the Year 2016-II Spring - Koutetsujou no Kabaneri]

Madoka Rebellion - Let's just say that the higher up (Not Urobochi ironically, but rather the director with Urobochi himself want to write more conclusive ending) are obviously not satisfied with the money that Madoka franchise gathered. So the director like Kyubei in the movie decided to make the sequel which pretty much messed up the ending that the heroines are already achieved, with the end result is it has divisive ending to ensure future milking of Madoka is guaranteed because the fans obviously want to see more of it. Of course, they indeed making another movie in order to milk even more money from the fans resolve the plot thread in the ending, with the movie name is Walpurgisnatch Rising that just recently revealed.

Boku no Hero Academia - Honestly the premise is pretty much like the parody of Western superhero comic book with the characters is like the parody of the Western superhero characters, but in the end at least it prove to be quite popular to a degree. Of course though the fans are probably more interested with the fighting even though the story is also quite interesting to a degree, and the popularity might be because two of big three shounen series (Bleach and Naruto) are already ended with the closest one that can fill the gap is Boku no Hero Academia. By the way currently the manga is in the final arc, so you may start to read the manga if you somehow interested with this.

ReZero - It's about the MC who dead after being stabbed in the front of convenience store only to be reincarnated with time loop ability. While the ability is sounds awesome in paper, unfortunately the MC (Subaru) start out weak in another world unlike several other isekai MC who start very strong, so in order to make full use of his ability Subaru need to work very hard, which involving dying again and again. Another thing that I can recall is the blue haired maid (Rem) is very popular and it has VN being translated.

Jojo 4 - After had other countries setting, the author decided to move into Japanese setting with it is based on the author's hometown. Of course there's always adventure in the story, especially with the first villain is the a serial murderer. The MC background here is more or less quite complicated, so obviously the fans make meme out of it along with several other things.

Sakamoto - It's about the MC who voiced by Midorikawa Hikaru always find himself to do anything in cool manner, and thus the reason why I call anyone who is voiced by Midorikawa Hikaru as cool character lol. Anyway, just enjoy how cool Sakamoto is if you want to watch the anime, and also my condolence to the late author who passed away in this year.

Phoenix Wright - I only mention this because the initial sub has Japanese name which obviously would be very confusing despite that it make sense on the setting, although thankfully the revised sub and dub use the English name that the player familiar with (The translator even think of the English name for anime character only). Other than that, well I guess the anime is quite faithful, although it can't beat the VN.

Sailor Moon Crystal 3 - Toei did improve the animation on this, so much that Precure fans accuse Toei didn't pay attention much to MGPC animation. For the third series of the remake, Sailor Moon Crystal re-introduce the famous GL couple Haruka x Michiru, and it should be obvious they're no longer introduced as cousin like in Sailor Moon 1994 dub version.

Aikatsu Stars - Looks like the franchise popularity is started going down in 2016, so the staff decided to make new MC on top making the story being more dramatic along with introducing handsome idol, which may be inspired from Pretty Rhythm Rainbow Life.

That's all for my comment in regard of Spring 2016 anime (Madoka Rebellion aside) here.

[Akai Ito Review – Blood Red Threads Of Love]

Actually it's good to see that Akai Ito is finally have translation and available in PC to boot, seeing that there's only PS2 version in the past with the translation of it is incomplete. However, it's too bad that Success didn't put much effort to make sure that the VN is good to play to everyone else, because they probably only do the test on their 1080 inch monitor and then have some after work drink or whatever they did after the job done. The reason is because they didn't check in lesser monitor to make sure it can displayed properly, seeing that my laptop which only has 768 inch had the game zoomed in with the text being unreadable, which is pretty much amateur mistake.

That technical disaster aside, they also do the good job on reducing Aoishiro to around 2 GB HDD with fan translation version has 7 GB HDD. It's just too bad that the achievement was marred with the screen problem, although Aoishiro zoom is not as bad as Akai Ito. For the translation, well at least you can read it with the available fan translation although Akai Ito fan patch only translate majority of the VN. My rant on the technical aside, I can say that Akai Ito (And Aoishiro) is good GL VN with routes, and it's too bad that nowadays it's rare to see GL VN with routes.

[Anime of the Year 2016-I Winter - Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu]

Konosuba - It's about Kazuma who has undignified death transported into another world and then pick the goddess Aqua who make fun of him as the cheat item, except turned out Aqua is quite useless in another world. After that Kazuma pick the other two party members who are quite useless in their own right, and then they started some misadventure in the world. Well it's pretty obvious what the audience should expect when it come to this, although it also has some serious moment to take a break from the comedy.

Aokana - Looks like even the anime staff didn't like Masaya so much so his role is demoted and decided to give the MC role to Asuka, so perhaps the staffs may think that it would be better to make Aokana anime like shonen with one of the trope is Underdog Never Lose instead of making the story about Masaya try to rebound himself. All in all, it's pretty clear that the treatment between Masaya and Takahiro (From Walkure Romanze) in the anime adaptation are very much different with Takahiro still has the role as the MC despite both have same circumstance.

Schwarzesmarken - It has Muv Luv Alternative setting with the premise is about another group who fought BETA. What I know other than that is the translator of Daybreak tried to translate this only to got the project was C&D-ed by age, although at least he manage to working on age VN officially with said VN that he worked on is recently released Teito Muyo. Also this and Total Eclipse are ironically have better rating in MAL compared to MLA anime, although age may not fortunate enough to got famous studio to working on MLA anime.

Pandora in the Shell - Let's just say that this anime is far more lighter compared to original Ghost in the Shell while have some GL element, which shown from the graphic alone. Other than GL element, what I can recall is that the final boss himself is become Butt Monkey in the final episode thanks to several ridiculous events despite several episode beforehand shown on how threatening he is.

MGPC - After GPPC, obviously Precure fans did expect a lot of action in MGPC despite that Precure here is supposed to be magician, only to find themselves disappointed with the actions are not as intense as GPPC. For the story itself, it's about Mirai who become Precure together with Liko who is from Magic World, and compared to previous Precure series MGPC did featured both world equally (Screen time wise). Oh yes, all of the casts will become Precure (Including the mascots), although unlike HSPC Mofurun can only become Precure in the movie. By the way it should be noted that it has interesting writing, although it may need some more observation to make people understand the writing itself.

That's all for what I can write in regard of Winter 2016 anime here.

[Anime of the Year 2015-IV Fall - One Punch Man]

One Punch Man - It's obviously about the MC who can handle everything else with one punch as the result of overtraining so much he become bored for the lack of challenge, and obviously it didn't stop several enemies to wreck havoc in the setting only for them to face the inevitable defeat by the MC himself. Madhouse did good job on the animation, and they recently prove that they still be able to do so with Frieren despite some scandal in 2019.

Noragami Aragato - I only know that one of the OST for this anime had adhan which is very sensitive issue for Muslim seeing that it's their call of prayer, and the staffs decided to withdraw the song. Other than that, well no much to say here.

Rakudai - It's about Stella who gradually warmed up to the MC (Ikki) after Ikki soundly beat Stella in their first battle, and of course they quickly become the couple as soon as Volume 1 ending with the novel reached up to 19 volumes. While this is very remarkable seeing that the relationship is happen quicker compared to even SAO, my comment is goes on how the author initially had bad fortune with Sol Press initially has its license with them quickly prove they didn't have enough business knowledge, and thus they can only licensed five volumes. Fortunately though, just today the novel has new publisher (J-Novel Club), so at least we can see the continuation of the novel in English.

Gochiusa 2 - It's more or less the same as the first season, which mean more CGDCT from the casts. I did watch this weekly back in 2015, so I can say that it felt nostalgic to me in here. By the way, I prefer the sequel opening compared to the prequel one.

Utwawarerumono 2 - I suppose it's quite faithful to the VN to a degree, although the first half is obviously has slice of life which is justified seeing that the casts live in Yamato which is already established as very prosperous country. Of course though, soon enough the casts will be involved in the war and intrigue like in the first VN, and the casts need to deal with the downer ending that will be addressed in the sequel later. For additional note, Aquaplus here did use the opening of Utwawarerumono 2 as the insert song for Utawarerumono 3 VN in one of the scene.

Kindaichi R2 - The continuation of Kindaichi R, and the last anime adaptation of Kindaichi (For now). In season 2 here, obviously Kindaichi still need to use his intelligent to solve they mystery that revolving around serial murder case, although in here Kindaichi also need to facing his nemesis (Takato) for the first half of the series. Oh yes, the fist four episodes of R2 actually did adapt the last case of original Kindaichi manga, which mean in here it's merely just one of the case that Kindaichi solve.

Hidan no Aria AA - It's like Railgun, although the MC here is not the main heroine of the main series (Aria), but instead a girl (Akari) who very much idolize Aria so much that she wish Aria would pay attention to her or something like that. Unfortunately for Akari though, Aria has far more interested to have romantic relationship with very blatant author self insert main series male MC Kinji, so Akari has no chance with Aria despite that Akari herself only has eyes for Aria. 

That's all for what I can comment in regard of Fall 2015 anime here.

[An Anatomy Of Visual Novels – Unlockable Extra Content]

For side stories, well Yuzusoft VNs always like to apply that extra content ever since Dracu Riot, with the main reason of it is to provide sex scenes, something which several VNs also follow (Such as Marmalade VNs). For something that has more than sex scene, I did remember that Newton VN also provide that with one of side stories is the alternative ending that didn't make any sense to the main narrative (Which even the author warned about it), so at least we can treat it as the fanservice if we knew the real ending of Newton VN.

In regard of rewarding player interest, if you mention something like different gameplay then Aoishiro (Which the official publisher butcher it) has one in the Extra menu that can only be unlocked after finished the game. Another one that I can recall is Baldr Sky and Duel Savior, in which GIGA decided to throw the endless battle mode as the way to allow the player to keep playing the game even after they finished with it. Oh yes, Fate Hollow did provide hanafuda card gameplay as the extra content, although unfortunately I can't play it seeing that I didn't know the rule lol.

Another type of the unlockable content would be Append, but seeing that it unlocked immediately as soon as you install it instead of the necessity of finished the game it didn't count. Also actually there's much more unlockable feature besides standard trio CG Gallery, Sex Scene Gallery, and BGM Gallery, such as Sprite Gallery (Yuzusoft VNs), Scene Gallery (Venus Blood series), and lastly the rare VA Commentary (Which usually rarely translated and available in Atelier series as well). Oh yes, while it's usual that the developer provided BGM Gallery, sometimes the developer didn't manage to have it available, such as in Aokana and Aojashin (Original version) with sprite didn't manage to do so even in initial version of EXTRA 2.

That's all for what I can comment in regard of Unlockable Extra Content in VNs.

[VN of the Month October 2023]

Sennagi looks similar to Alicesoft Beat series in which you need to have sex in order to powered up the main heroine, Gnka is very popular with the same writer as Atri, Hayasaki no Kuroyuri is all age GL VN that has Steam release and yet is not available in English, and Ningyo Hime is another VN with same artist and writer as Aonatsu Line after Yukiiro Sign (Still too bad that Shiravune already decided to not have Yukiiro Sign in English). Out of all four VNs, it's pretty obvious that VN of the Month for October 2023 here is Ginka even though Ningyou Hime is longer.

That's all for what I can comment in regard of October 2023 release.

[Anime of the Year 2015-III Summer - Overlord]

Gakkou Gurashi - It caught many by surprise because at first it looks like normal CGDCT, although of course the author who is one of Nitroplus employee quickly prove that the anime is actually has zombie apocalypse with CGDCT as the front. The anime itself only adapt the school arc with the ending is the casts left the school, and for some it may be the best to not have this fully adapted because the manga goes into different direction compared to the anime.

Overlord - What I know is that it's about the MC who reincarnated into undead sorcerer who anyone at the first glance can tell he's not really a good guy, and yet the writer can prove that at least he has better moral compared to some of the villain in the series.

Prison School - It has unique premise with the male being pervert and sent into the school that has sadistic female. The anime itself only adapt the beginning chapter, which may be for the best seeing that the author has some nerve to make controversial ending for the manga.

Charlotte - Jun Maeda decided to do the anime that revolving around the students who seemingly have useless superpower, and for most of the first half it's quite episodic. Of course being the one behind Key VNs, the second half change the story tone with it goes darker with the story is no longer an episodic one. By the way I find that the full version of the opening is quite nice.

Dragon Ball Super - I remember that one of user did post so-called phenomenal moment when Goku manage to master Super Saiyan Blue, although in the end it's more or less another Toei's attempt to milk Dragon Ball even further even though the story is already complete before 2000's.

That's all for what I can write in regard of Summer 2015 anime here.

[Mystery VNs – Genre Deep Dive]

It's quite clear on why mystery game is mostly VN, simply because it's the format that allow the writer to have as much as exposition in the game which to say is the staple in mystery genre. It didn't mean that any other genre can't become a mystery game, with one particular example is Persona 4, although it would be wise to expect the game will have more narration compared to the game in the same genre (Persona 4 has particularly heavy narration between the gameplay). No much that I can say in regard of this, so that's all for my belated comment in regard of mystery VNs.

PS - Considering that mystery game keep asking us to think on how the mystery goes with the author will show the answer in the end, it's quite understandable on why Umineko Episode 8 reception is quite sour on Erogamescape even though I was surprised when I saw it first (It need manga adaptation and some other materials to understand what Ryukishi want to convey).

[Anime of the Year 2015-II Spring - Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka]

Houkago no Pleiades - Pretty much standard magical girl series with the sponsor is Subaru car company. At least the opening song is quite good, and rest in peace to the original composer who suddenly dead in 2015.

Hello Kin'iro Mosaic - Second season of Kinmosa with the friendship between each girls getting stronger with additional two characters enter the story, so yeah it's more or less like the first season of it.

Nanoha Vivid - One of two new series for Nanoha, with Vivid here is being successful thanks to the staffs keep what made Nanoha being famous in the first place. For a bit more elaboration, the staff did a bit of experiment with Force by adding male MC, although obviously being the franchise that has female MC easy to say that it's a failure (There's much more when it come to Force's failure, although the chance to male MC is the most notable extreme change).

Grisaia no Rakuen - It adapt the Meikyuu and Rakuen main story quite faithfully, so at least you can watch it if you prefer to treat the game version of those two as fandisc.

Dungeon ni Deai - I only know it because the main heroine Hestia is quite known, and it has dungeon story or something like that.

Shokugeki no Souma - The first season here did try its best to display some Food Porn, so much it become known as the foodgasm. The premise is quite simple, with Souma (The MC) entered the cooking school that has over the top circumstances with he himself is very skilled chef. By the way as the story goes it become more controversial, but that's the story for another time.

That's all for what I can comment in regard of Spring 2015 anime here.

[Anime of the Year 2015-I Winter - Psycho-Pass Movie]

I see that we start to get the anime that I recognize here. Anyway, let's see what I can comment on Winter 2015 anime here.

Assassination Classroom - It's about the thing who is about to destroy the world within a year and said thing somehow want to be killed by the group of outcast students with the thing decided to become the teacher for the students. Of course there'll be more of it besides the premise, so long story short I'll just say that it has some focus on assassination. Ultimately though, this is the story about a badass teacher helping the students (Something like Nube or Onizuka) even with unusual premise.

GPPC - I admit that I posted the image song for each Precure at each of their birthday in here. Anyway compared to last two Precure (DDPC and HapCha), this is the series that manage to unify the people in which almost everyone find that it has good character and fighting animation, although it definitely help that both DDPC and HapCha are very divisive amongst Precure fans. Naturally with such good Precure series, the expectation on how Precure series should be is become ridiculous so much that few people hope for the GPPC sequel (Nevermind that Toei already gave up on the sequel after YPC5GG). Anyway the premise is about Haruka (Or as I called Haruharu) met a prince who tell her to keep fighting on dream, and from there she work very hard to enter Noble Academy which is the same school name in Kirikoi. Obviously, she'll become Precure who would fight against the group of baddies, which in this case it's Dysdark that has the goal to plunge people into despair.

Saekano - After successful with WA2, Maruto decided to move on to the new media, which in this case it's light novel. For Saekano, it's more or less about has the story about the VN making (Something that Maruto should know a lot seeing that he wrote several VNs besides WA2), and for VN making story coincidentally we have another anime with the same focus on this year (16-Bit Sensation).

Yuri Kuma Arashi - The anime that focused on LGBT, or rather on GL issue with the symbolic stuffs that came from the director Kunihiko Ikuhara who also direct old GL anime Utena. It would be too long if I talk about on how it represent the issue revolving around GL, so I'll just mention that the artist drawing is quite cute as shown in several GL manga that she made.

Koufuku Grafitti - It's CGDCT featuring cousin with they enjoying good food, and Shaft surely could make good drawing of the food so much that it could give the audience Food Porn with the characters have become very expressive whenever they eat delicious food.

Yoru no Yatterman - I guess the staffs are more or less treat Doronjo as the main character with the titular Yatterman as the side character lol. Anyway, in here Doronjo trio find themselves fighting against Yatterman with Yatterman themselves is the one who took the role of the villain here, and that's all for what I can say while avoiding the spoiler.

That's all for what I can write in regard of Winter 2015 anime here.

[Anime of the Year 2014-IV Fall - Shirobako]

Your Lie in April - Sad anime that become quite popular so much that it talked on social media. By the way it's interesting that the author tried to have the heroine dead because of the operation instead of just directly dead from the illness alone. Other than that, well it depend to each of their own when it come to crying anime.

Seven Deadly Sins/Trinity 7 - Both are have Seven Deadly Sins theme, although Trinity 7 MC are more lucky because the Seven Sin manifestation are sexy girls instead of male and female mix in Seven Deadly Sins. Other than that, obviously Seven Deadly Sins art is like classic shonen manga compared to Trinity 7 even though both are shonen manga.a

Fate UBW - While Ufotable did their best to polish the art and animation, it's quite clear that Type-Moon milking the original Fate Stay Night, especially with their FGO was launched around that time. To their credit though, they tried to expand a bit in regard of Caster's backstory, so at least Nasu has some new idea when making UBW anime. Oh yes, Deen also adapted UBW, although it's in form of the movie.

Shirobako - No much to say other than this is an anime about making the anime which may give you some insight on how the anime is created, which of course including the ordeal of the anime staffs.

Cross Ange - Directed by Gundam Seed director with that Gundam become infamous because of the director and the scriptwriter, which mean Cross Ange bound to have infamy. Sure enough, the abrasive personality of Ange (The MC) along with good portion of fan service is good recipe for controversy, which in turn invite some negative reviews. That say, Cross Ange obviously still have some fan who didn't mind the controversy and the flaws 

Daitoshokan - Apparently it follow the true route without branching into the heroines route or something like that, although if one need comparison at least there's a full translation patch for the VN.

Kaito Kid - While the series name is Kaito 1412, I may as well follow Gosho calling it as Kaito Kid because he's called as such in the manga (And Conan). Anyway this is Gosho's manga which deal with the titular thief who search the truth about his late dad who has been killed by someone (Who may or may not related to Conan's Black Organization), and one way of beat the killer is by stealing a jewel that sought by his father's killer. Obviously the story is still not complete seeing that Gosho being busy with Conan, with he make Conan and Kid crosses the path several times as the rival. As for when it'll be ended, well probably when Gosho finally finished with Conan as well.

Grisaia no Kajitsu - Frontwing definitely did good job with the adaptation, although for the different reason (As in they clearly rushed the routes adaptation). Namely that they merge the routes as one, which is the canon route that Frontwing propose at the beginning of Meikyuu main route, which if we know on how long Yuuji could get involved with the heroines are almost if not impossible. That aside, the anime itself worth to watch if you want to see so-called unseen canon route of the trilogy or have no enough patience to read a lengthy Kajitsu VN (Or perhaps both).

That's all for what I can comment in regard of Fall 2014 anime here.

[VN of the Month September 2023]

September has some nice title, although out of all title the most obvious VN of the Month candidate is Koibana Ren'ai in which it's the most popular VN if we based it on number of votes at VNDB. Still may as well try to comment on some other releases here.

Sore wa Maichiru - Looks like the story has no much change from the older VN, although Navel changed most of the VAs here. No idea if we will see this in English, especially after Mangagamer discontinued Shuffle and Soul Link, although then again we may see Shiravune pulled something from Navel in the future which could be this one.

Nekonin Spin - The only single announcement that Sekai has for this year, and Whirlpool did make three heroines in here. Initially I think this might be interesting title especially with good graphic, although seeing that apparently it's quite short I may as well just skip it.

Natsuzora Asterism - Apparently a lengthy GL VN with routes and sex scenes in which it's quite rare to see, although there's no much info in regard of it other than it's apparently already released in September.

Koishi Irodoru Seigiranman - The VN about the setting where the villain and superhero live in one city with the MC is basically Tuxedo Mask with he will ready to help the heroine if she's in pinch. That said, obviously you better expect this as normal charage seeing that most of the focus are slice of life, and that looks like the superhero aspect here won't get much focus like in Dengeki Stryker. All in all, I can say this is the second most interesting release in September 2023.

Koibana Ren'ai - The most interesting release in September 2023, and that it's another VN from ASa Project. As you can see they're like to experimenting with the formula, in which this time they put some focus on several side couple (Non MC male with non heroine female), although whether it work or not is up to each of their own (One of the con is the writing weakening the development of the MC and the heroines). That aside, it would be interesting to see it translated, and perhaps Nekonyan can localize this in the future alongside Futamata.

That's all for what I can comment in regard of September 2023 releases.

[Anime of the Year 2014-III Summer - Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun]

Hamayamata - CGDCT about the girl who encounter a foreigner who like Japan, so it's like Kinmosa to a degree with the casts joining yosakoi (Japanese dance for festival) club.

Sailor Moon Crystal - Tori's attempt to remake Sailor Moon, and even though the graphic looks nice at a first glance the fans notice on how there's many things wrong on that. The story follow the manga instead of making it like Precure (And older Sailor Moon) with character development episode, so it's understandable if one find the story is quite rushed.

Fate/Ilya 2 - Type Moon did attempt to give Ilya some spotlight by making her as magical girl with they try to make the setting as light as possible (For Type Moon), but alas they can't avoid to write some dark story along with some epic battle that happen across the two season along with the third season later.

Nozaki-kun - It's about the female MC Chiyo who find her crush is turned out to be shoujo mangaka, and I like the design for the female MC in which she's quite cute. Too bad that her crush is a bit too passionate toward his mangaka job, so obviously Chiyo need to work hard to gain her crush attention after somehow recruited as the mangaka's assistant.

Akane ga Kill - I see that Takahiro is in the mood for experimenting with dark stories after his success with Majikoi, and one of such stories is Akame ga Kill with he wrote the story about the revolution group who rebel against heavily corrupt empire with the titular character is the member of the revolution group (Although the MC is the male Takumi instead of the female Akane). Like in Majikoi, it's quite obvious that Takahiro like to write strong female, although unlike Majikoi Akame is far much more darker with only a handful casts survive through the end (And yes, it apply to both sides).

Pripara - Looks like the staffs have enough to write drama in Pretty Rhythm, so they notably heavily reduced it along with making the MC as grade schooler who can grew up in the virtual world. It also copied Aikatsu in regard of the card, although unlike Aikatsu each Pripara episodes has some comedy with it come from the quirky casts. By the way, I did like it's third opening Realize.

Persona 4 Golden - You may wonder on why Atlus make another Persona 4 anime, and the answer is easy enough in which it's because around that time they just merged with Sega with they probably in need to some income, so they decided to make another Persona 4 anime. For the anime, they animated the new contents from Golden while put some more focus on the new character Marie.

That's all for what I can write in regard of Summer 2014 anime here.

[Anime of the Year 2014-II Spring - No Game No Life]

Kindaichi R 2014 - Compared to 1997 series, it definitely had far more few episodes, which in turn it make easier to binge compared to the old series (And obviously Conan). That aside, it's still usual Kindaichi with he need to solve the cases with most of it are serial murder case. Oh yes, it adapt the story from the manga that was see the revival after it was concluded in 2000 (Hence the R in the title).

Atelier Escha and Logy - It took 17 years for Gust to make Atelier anime despite that it has potential to become one, and six more years to make another one (Ryza). Well, I guess it depend on the game popularity to determine whether Atelier series can get the anime or not. Anyway, for Atelier Escha it's quite unusual to get male MC, although in turn it make people reminded them back when Gust tried to make male MC in Iris and Mana Khemia before back to female MC in Rorona, which in a way it make the game is quite nostalgic to older Atelier player, moreso because Iris is the first Atelier game in English.

Yu-Gi-Oh ARC V - The staffs decided to make some ambitious story with they combined all of the previous series world (GX, 5D, and Zexal) to be appear in one series which in turn make Extra Deck summon method from previous series more prominent. Also the staff here make the parody of fans reaction, especially in regard of eternal debate between best Extra Deck summoning method, by turning it into a big war with serious consequence. Oh yes, the ace monster of the MC (Yuya) is Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon with the new summoning method Pendulum Summon that is quite confusing at the first glance, which I need to look up more to understand it. Forgot to mention that the ending of this series is kind of controversial, especially after the staffs had way too much fun with making the parody of fans reaction to the franchise.

Gochiusa - CGDCT with bunny and cafe, and compared to the other similar anime it has good graphic compared to the rest. Sol Press did manage to get the manga license, although unfortunately the manga sales didn't have enough revenue to paid the tax so currently the license in questionable state thanks to Sol Press unable to continuing the publishing. That aside, the manga is still ongoing even past 10 years, which show that Gochiusa here is very popular compared to the other CGDCT (Besides K-ON).

Jojo Stardust Crusader - The most popular Jojo in which it introduce Stand as the staple of the series, and that it's the most well known series. That said, it's not well known for the story (It's quite old-school and simple), but rather for the meme with some from this series are taken from the final battle. Oh yes, this is the first anime that fully adapted Jojo Part 3, whereas the previous adaptation cut some element to fitting the alloted time.

NGNL - One of unique Isekai anime with good graphic, nice opening song, and unique premise. The premise is we have the world where all conflict are settled with the game, and our dual MC Sora and Shiro are master of games that invited to the another world by Ted (The world's deity). Obviously with the world's rule, both Sora and Shiro using their brain to won several games with higher stakes, which make the series is unique seeing that Isekai MCs usually just brute force the problem by using their overwhelming powers. It's too bad that there's still no 2nd season that fans keep asking for, although considering that making good animation took a lot of times and the controversy surrounding NGNL, perhaps it make sense to not have 2nd season.

That's all for what I can write in regard of Spring 2014 anime here.

[Built-in Flowcharts – An Anatomy Of Visual Novels]

Honestly speaking in regard of flowchart I rarely see much VNs use it, although obviously it would be very helpful tool to see the consequence of the choice. For Sorcery Joker's, seeing that it's linear VN flowchart obviously was used to help the player track the scenes that happen at the same time between POV, which definitely make it easier to see the whole picture. 11eyes also do the same thing in form of table, although it mostly focused on Kakeru. The closest one with Sorcery Joker would be Odin Sphere (RPG), in which Vanillaware provided flowchart that show the scenes between five MCs so you can make the chronology of Odin Sphere.

All in all, I guess flowchart can definitely be used to guide the player to make the conclusion in regard of the story, although now that I think of it flowchart can be doubled as Scene Viewer function, which to say is make a nice interface compared to just list the scenes.

That's all for what I can write in regard of flowchart.

[Anime of the Year 2014-I Winter - Wake Up, Girls!]

HapCha - Being the series to celebrate 10th year of Precure, Toei clearly do a number of experiments to the setting, and what I can say is that some are successful (Non-Precure secret keeper) and some are failed (God as Precure benefactor, stronger focus on romance). Regardless, it's pretty clear that using Earth as the singular world with Precure has two worlds is clearly failed, especially when HSPC who also do a number of experiments in Precure formula still keeping the two worlds setting. Also I didn't find myself fond of International Precure even back then, with I already thinking that it looks more like parody than serious setting. That flaw aside, I find that the design is quite nice and simple compared to all of Precure series (Yes, up to HSPC).

Wake Up Girl - The episode 2 is certainly quite something in which it deconstruct a bit about fanservice for the idol, and let's just say that it could ended up worse if not for the interefence of the runaway president. Other than that, it's more or less usual idol anime, albeit a bit realistic one. By the way some of its member still working as VA, especially Yoshino Aoyama who just had breakthrough career as the titular character in Bocchi the Rock. Forgot to mention that I did like the initial poster with the idols looks simple compared to the similar idol show (Especially Aikatsu).

Nisekoi - It's about Raku who had quite a childhood romance with him currently tangled in mafia politic by having false relationship with cute (And rude like gorilla) Chitoge. Another thing to note is the passionate debate on who is fitting to be Raku's girlfriend, with the strongest cometition is between Chitoge and Raku's crush Onodera. As for the ending, while some may not like the ending, at least it's not something like Hataraku Maou-sama ending.

That's all for what I can write in regard of Winter 2014 anime here.

[Anime of the Year 2013-IV Fall - Log Horizon]

Kill la Kill - Just like how Gurren Lagann answer Evangelion, this time Kill la Kill answer Madoka and I say this because some of Studio Trigger staffs did work on Gurren Lagann. Also just like Gurren Lagann there'll be flashy fight with them making the usual naked body not played for fanservice much but instead it was used as the way to allow the heroes to fight the enemies, and it make sense in the context. Oh yes, even though I say that this is answer Madoka, Trigger staff decided to be frank with the outfit design is more like powered armor without frilly magical girl outfit.

Walkure Romanze - I do some search on Youtube seeing that the full translation patch of this has been available, and what I find is that there's a lot of scenes with the director make it as bait and switch for perverted moment. That aside, this series is like Aokana in that both male MC need to deal with their early retirement from being an athlete, and unlike in Aokana at least the staffs realized that Takahiro is the MC instead of Mio.

Non Non Biyori - CGDCT in a rural village, and Hotaru is very good looking for a 5th grade (I did use her as my avatar for some times before settled with Nadja). Her aside, it seems people watch it more for Renge. Has male character, although the character is never speak so it's non-factor.

Little Busters Refrain - The part where the story started to pick up, and in here the staffs adapt Yuiko's route along with Rin's route and of course Refrain, which make sense of we know the VN seeing that Yuiko's route give us the foreshadowing in regard of story mechanism. Also it's quite obvious that unlike After Story, Refrain here told the story about the secret of the world, although the main meat is on how Riki grew up to be someone who can surpass her cool hero Kyousuke.

WA2 - Even though it's called WA2, it only adapt Introductory Chapter so obviously it's still incomplete. Seeing that Introductory Chapter is quite short, at least I can say that the anime adapt this quite faithfully. Note that WA2 did make love triangle being dramatic without relying on violence action like in School Days. As for if the studio can adapt Closing Chapter, while it might be easy to just adapt Setsuna's route in Closing Chapter, they would definitely need to thinking hard on which route that they should adapt to avoid controversy in would be Coda adaptation. Oh yes, like Walkure Romanze the VN of it also already have full translation patch that translate the VN all the way until Coda endings (And mini after stories as well). Lastly I should say that Todokanai Koi (The opening song) here is really iconic WA2 song.

That's all for what I can write in regard of Fall 2013 anime.

[Anime of the Year 2013-III Summer - Servant x Service]

Free - All swimmer are male, so it's pretty clear that the female audience will got their fanservice lol. That aside, well I suppose it's like usual shonen sport.

Daybreak Illusion - The obvious Madoka imitation, and unlike Madoka and certain other anime it didn't popular enough to see more work. Speaking about Madoka, Shaft finally have a teaser of it's second movie that was set after Rebellion.

Symphogear G - It's quite clear that the singing while fighting is quite successful, so obviously they make the sequel. In G, the team have a new journey, which mean the chance to met new friends and new enemies. So it's more or less another Symphogear.

Neptunia - The adaptation of the first three games, although it's mostly adapt the third game faithfully with them mixed up the events from the first and second game. Oh, and obviously it has more comedy compared to the game itself.

Silver Spoon - After working on FMA, the author decided to write a story based on her experience of helping her family farm in Hokkaido, and thus we have Silver Spoon. Of course though being the author story on the farm, it's obvious she didn't write on how non-alchemist fight against the alchemist or the homonculi ruled the military state from behind the shadow, but instead just usual slice of live in a farm.

Kiniro Mosaic - I knew this anime from a Precure community member, and I decided to watch both series which I manage to like. In here we have Shino who is have fetish for blonde hair, and she find herself drawn to Alice when Shino stay in Alice's house at England (So obviously Alice has blonde hair). In high school, Shino find out that Alice decided to stay in Japan to go to the same school as Shino, and then both of them will have a lot of fun with their friends. Oh yes good job to the staffs to have the VAs spoke in English for the premiere episode, especially Alice and her mother VA.

That's all for what I can write in regard of Summer 2013 anime here.

[Anime of the Year 2013-II Spring - Shingeki no Kyojin]

Pretty Rhythm Rainbow Live - The best Pretty Rhythm with them improved the song, and I admit that I'd like to hear the duet song. Tatsunoko here also put some focus on the handsome male cast, so at least this time they have more role besides being there as the fanservice for female audience by have them perform several times. 

Hataraku Maou-sama - The reverse of Maoyu with the hero being female and the demon king being male, and also both got thrown into the real world with the demon king keep thinking that he'll survive in the real world like the demon king. Has the second season in 2022, although apparently the animation gotten worse. It also has controversial ending which to say didn't do any favor to the fans.

Attack on Titan - It also got controversial ending, and some hardcore fans got crosse the line by made the death threat to the writer. Anyway the writer did mention that he was inspired by Muv Luv Alternative with the Titan here is obviously stand-in for Beta, and of course with a lot of death and all. Initially the author sent the manga to Shueshia, although they rejected it without realising that it could be their Cash Cow Franchise (Oh well, their loss). Then the writer goes to another publisher, and the rest is history.

Date A Live - Admittedly the premise is quite questionable with the MC need to date the spirit to save the world, but surprisingly the author find a way to make it work while adding sci-fi element. Other thing to note is that the artist is also Neptunia franchise artist, so it's normal that Idea Factory (The company behind Neptunia) published the VNs for Date A Live.

Devil Survivor 2 - I remember that I make a note on demon summoning cost because resummoning demon from Compendium is quite costly and I played this up to the early 7th day. Anyway for the anime, let's just say that the staffs got a bit creative in regard of rewriting and arranging some of the game plot points.

That's all for what I can comment in regard of Spring 2023 anime here.

[Anime of the Year 2013-I Winter - Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai Next]

Maoyuu - Well it's like Spice and Wolf especially with the hero and the demon queen has same VAs as Lawrence and Holo respectively (Also with the talk of economy at the start of the story). That aside, the work here did challenge on hero's perspective when it come to save humanity, which the smart the demon queen would shown the hero it won't be simply to just beat the demon queen because turned out the economy for both sides are revolving around war. Oh yes, this series is quite unique in that the author didn't bother to give the name to the casts, but instead just called them as the class that they have.

Love Live - The humble beginning of the big Love Live franchise, and this is created after they made several animated music video (MV). It should be noted that this is the third attempt of Bandai making the idol franchise after Idolmaster and Aikatsu, although it has difference in which it didn't have male manager or weekly concert, but instead it's just nine girls who banded together to save their school. It has 3D CGI for the dance, but at least it's better than Aikatsu early CGI. Oh yes since there's none of male, naturally GL fans have a lot of fun enjoying this and quite often ship some of the members.

Kira-kira 5th Anniversary - This isn't really anime series with coherent story, but rather several songs from Overdrive VNs sang in the concert. So yes it's more or less 25 minutes MV that you can watch it in this link (No English sub though, but instead it has Chinese sub).

DDPC - This time Toei decided to make every episode has some plot advancement along with making some change, although unfortunately the change manage to sour most of the audience. The reason is because Toei decided to make the new mid-season Precure from someone out of nowhere instead of someone that has been foreshadowed enough, and it's really telling that each Precure after this almost always will use the character that has been around since the beginning as the mid-season Precure (Even if it's not, there's always leak with Toei didn't dare to stray from it). That said, this is interesting Precure series if you didn't mind the controversy, and by the way I should mention that Nabatame voiced the pink Precure (Cure Heart) here.

Da Capo 3 - The anime only adapt the Prologue instead of the main story which obviously won't even scratch the main story of the VN itself. Also the Prologue here is not really the real prologue of the VN (The real prologue was hidden as one of the side story), but instead just show the reincarnation of the casts in the main story. That said, the anime did manage to bring small Sakura into Prologue story even though she supposed to show up in the main story (As in she didn't appear in the Prologue).

That's all for what I can write in regard of Winter 2013 anime here.

[Anime of the Year 2012-IV Fall - Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun]

Love Chuunibyou and Other Delusions - A story about a male (Yuuta) meet female (Rikka) who happen to be chuunibyou (Therefore have high imagination), which obviously would going to getting closer. Another thing to note is that Rikka's imagination is involving battle, which allow Kyoani to show their animation skill in battle scenes even though technically the scenes is not happening for real.

Madoka Recap - The reason it exist is to allow the watcher to watch the series again, although the main reason is obviously because Shaft and it's director realized that Madoka have potential to gather the money, therefore they decided to milk by making the recap movie before moving on to the other things.

Code Breaker - Initially it has female MC, although the author obviously wrote it from the time when Shonen manga MC is mostly male so the decoy female MC soon overshadowed by the true male MC. Anyway, no much to say other than the anime has fighting and all per usual 2000's Shonen series.

Aikatsu - I like the first opening song Signalize, although as for the 3D dance let's just say that it's quite rough so much that my sister who watched it in around 2013 New Year can even see it (She just casually watch the anime for the info). For the anime itself, it's pretty much like Precure except the staff change 'fighting of the week' concept into 'performance of the week' concert. Admittedly Pretty Rhythm also does that, but at least it has some drama in the mix.

Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal 2 - The continuation of Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal, and yes I forgot to mention that Yuma also has XYZ Extra Deck monster as his ace (Number 39 Utopia), although it's not as good as Stardust Dragon when it come to card for the tournament.

Shin Sekai no Yori - I did wonder why there's GL tag even though I already know the anime is quite dark, and only by reading the manga I see why there's a GL tag along with the author tried to justify the scenes (Not really neccesary though). That said, the main focus is on how the casts will try to survive in their messed up world where ESP is treated as symbol of power.

Little Busters - At first the fans has doubt whether JC Staff can do good job to animate it seeing that Kyoani did the good job to adapted all three previous KEY VNs (Also on how JC Staff did their best to make the infamous Tsukihime anime), and turned out they did the job quite well. For the first part, it adapt four out of six routes with JC Staffs save both of Yuiko and Rin routes (The latter for a very obvious reason) for the next part.

Robotic Notes - It's pretty clear that MAGES hope that they can repeat Steins Gate success in anime adaptation, For the anime itself, at least the anime is quite faithful to the VN.

Jojo - Obviously people watching this not because of the groundbreaking story (It's manga is from 1986 and the story is quite cliche by today or 2012 standard), but instead it's for the meme which to say quite handful. The anime here adapt the first two parts, because each manga is quite short with the first part only has 45 chapters which the staffs adapted into first 9 episodes. That said, it's quite important because it's established the hero villain relationship that will keep ongoing until the sixth chapter. Also with all of the manga are already finished long ago, at least you didn't need to worry for filler here.

That's all for what I can write in regard of Fall 2012 anime here.

[Anime of the Year 2012-III Summer - Kingdom]

SAO - Gonna give a praise to the original, especially with the staffs going all out with the adaptation. That said, there's also controversial plot in the latter half with the author himself was embarrassed that he resort to wrote it. On the other hand though, the success of SAO mean more copy of it, and obviously some of the later isekai story based on SAO (Especially the MC in which they made it similar with Kirito as much as possible), which lead to the saturation of the story with isekai premise. On the other hand, at least isekai story didn't only focused with female MC like in the past.

Kokoro Connect - I recall that I did some searching back when the translation project for the VN of it was happening, and what I found is bullying scandal to one of the VA which can be summarized as the joke goes too far resulting some shakeup in the middle of the series. Other than that, well it's about body switching between each casts before it got serious in later episodes.

MLA Total Eclipse - The closest MLA anime that the fans got in 2014, and at least it expand the world of MLA so that age can making more of MLA works base on the setting. Oh yes, we have the VN version of it was just fully translated in last year.

Koichoco - We have translation patch of this, and Nekonyan announced this with the plan to release it in this year (More like Hikari Field plan though). The anime did adapt Chisato route (Which make sense seeing that the player forced to play her route first in the original version), although it add some Satsuki backstory and the original villain. Lastly, the opening song of the anime is quite good.

That's all for what I can write in regard of Summer 2012 anime here.

[VN of the Month August 2023]

For VN of the Month, I would say that I chose Usonatsu in that it has nice art with the developer already proven themselves to make it ever since they worked on Sound of Drop (And Fatal Twelve). Other than it's nice art, honestly I don't know much about it except that the female MC may ended up with one girl with the other girls may form the second couple. Would like more GL VN with more than one heroine like Hakuai or Aoishiro, but it's nice that we got more GL VN after the boom was died down past 2016.

About Harem x Shangri-La, well nice big boobs I suppose. I did wonder if the VN can be like Wagahigh in that turned out it has nice character routes, although looks like it's impossible to hope so seeing that the boob design for the heroines make Wagahigh boobs looks very small lol. In any case, apparently the ending has two types of harem ending, although then again HaremKingdom with reasonable boob size has five types of harem ending. At least the art is good if you can get past on how the boobs were drawn in exaggerating manner.

That's all for what I can write in regard of August 2023 releases.

[Anime of the Year 2012-II Spring - Jormungand]

Accel World is more or less like SAO, except the MC is being fat instead of slim. Lupin Fujiko Mine seems to deconstruct the Fujiko Mine character who often has work together with Lupin only to betray him, although in the end the deconstruction didn't last. For Saint Seiya Omega, Toei decided to hire HCPC artist which in turn make the characters resembled HCPC. AKB0048 is what would happen if the Macross creator decided to make an anime about AKB48, which of course he add space rebellion plot (At least the creator already have enough experience to combine idol and space war in previous Macross series). Medaka Box is like what happen if someone who has capability like Momoyo tried to find her purpose through helping anyone else. Lastly, Nyaruko-san is about the girl version of Nyarlathotep that usually depicted as the villains in any other works.

Well, that's all for what I can comment in regard of Spring 2012 anime here.

[Anime of the Year 2012-I Winter - Nisemonogatari]

Bodacious Space Pirate - One of the favorite anime of my favorite GL reviewer, and if you ask me why pirate I guess pirate is sounds far more cool than privateer (The term for legal pirate). It help though that One Piece is about a pirate with the manga is still ongoing until today which should says a lot about it's popularity, and obviously it's also ongoing back in 2012.

Nisemonogatari - Compared to Bodacious Space Pirate, my favorite GL reviewer did dislike it with a passion. Personally speaking I never get around to watch Monogatari because it seems to be quite cliche with harem set up despite the interesting premise, so naturally I less care about Nisemonogatari here

High School DxD - Very usual harem comedy set up, although it talked a lot on some place thanks to the high number of fanservice contents.

Symphogear - Initially the director just want to have the character song played whenever there's a battle, although the VAs mistakenly thought that they should sang when the character song played in the battle, and thus the director decided to ran with it thus making Symphogear quintology being famous for that. Anyway compared to the other series, the first Symphogear has humble beginning, although having one character dead while protecting a civilian with said civilian and the dead character partner being traumatized is not what we call it humble beginning. In any case, it's often mentioned as on how magical girl should be when it come to the fighting, especially in regard of more passionate Precure fans.

SmPC - Continuing the effect of the earthquake, Toei decided to make SmPC as light as possible with the episodes being episodic with the countdown of the main villain revival, and it shown in the art in which Kawamura's art is lighter than her work in YPC5 duology (Obviously it make the fans think that SmPC copied YPC5 characters). That said, just because it lighter it didn't mean that the staffs can do more, seeing that they make one of the cadre being the most infamous villain in Precure franchise along with putting much effort on animating the duel between the aforementioned cadre with one of SmPC (Said duel is regarded as one of the best fighting in whole Precure franchise, at least to some of the fans).

That's all for what I can write in regard of Winter 2012 anime here.