Saturday, December 3, 2011

Raining Season :/

end of year holidays would be so much better if there was good weather everyday instead of rain, more rain, and even more rain....

Indoor activities seems to be so much limited after I had almost exhausted all possible computer games that I could play. In the end, I now have only 2 semi-online games, Dota and Osu! Oh well, sadly MapleStory had ran out of excitement for me, all I know is that I just feel aimless after logging into maple. Osu! is actually quite a nice and unique music game that IMO, makes better of a song through its tempo, better than O2Jam. Additionally, not all computer keyboards are able to support 7 simultaneous key presses and with Osu!, its all on the mouse itself. It was pretty difficult at first since the system that the game functions in was totally different from O2Jam but nonetheless, its expandable song list and a possible co-op / online competing could make me much more inclined to playing this game. '

so this's how Osu! actually looks like:


Due to the rain, I can't go cycling, can't go swimming, can't go slacking outside... and that is extremely boring .__________. Perhaps I could start an old series that I could have missed and it ultimately turn out to be interesting, like Durarara!!, but I don't think I could find these series easily. Maybe I could return to picking up my pencil to do sketches or brush up my guitar skills then :/

Onwards to a rants on the current series in this season:

Personally, I'm rather disappointed with 2 series this season of how they actually turned out to be. C^3 and Guilty Crown.

So let's talk about C^3 1st:

Initially after watching the trailer, I had decided to eliminate it straight away due to the common harem feel that I'm bored off, but after watching the 1st 2 episodes, it was mindblowing as it wasn't just romance and stuff but there was actually some action scenes and rather cool animations..... UNTIL. the whole load of fanservices started pouring in like waves. Honestly, it would be a much better series if it wasn't a fanservice loaded anime. The action scenes could be much more reinforced and the storyline wasn't bad too. Seems like they had went the wrong way then :/

Next is Guilty Crown. With all the hype about it and the trailers that made me go "WOOHOO", the hype seems to have died down and my interest in it is depleting. Definitely, the 1st few episodes were amazing with the awesome animations, awesome inserts and awesome plot, but it all became too "normal" of a series right after that. I was definitely expecting Guilty Crown to be one of the strong series this season with its plot development, but all went downhill when there wasn't actually much character development as of yet and the 2 main male protagonist had like cleared their hatred in just a split second? No please, that is too rushed and doing that makes me feel that all the "hate" was just for show? Hopefully the series gets better with the remaining episodes, much details about the Void aren't released yet and hopefully, my expectations on this series would be true.

Moving on, moving on.

With the previous season having ended, 2 of the more striking series are definitely worth the mention and the recommendation: Puella Magi Madoka Magica & Steins; Gate.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica




Strong Plot : Check!
Shocking Twists : Check!
Uniqueness : Check!
Amazing BGMs & Inserts : Check!

PMMM has got to be one of the strongest series in 2011 with its own original storyline that wow-ed many viewers and gained much credit for being special. This series can be said to be of the other side of a mirror as compared to the Nanoha series. PMMM has a plot way darker than that of Madoka and its shocking twists within its small span of 12 episodes has definitely made this series a worth to watch.

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!

This has got to be the 2nd series that I have seen that has almost all of its main protagonist either killed or disappear for the span of the entire series. Honestly, it all turn out to be a rather common magical girl show after watching the 1st few episodes, until the 1st twist appeared at episode 4 when dear Mami gets her head bitten off by Charlotte. And that was the time I had realised that "O.M.G. this has got to be one of the better series which it being capable of pulling such twists". That hinge was right when the story of PMMM just gets darker and darker and more secrets are revealed near the half of the series and becoming a magical girl isn't all that enjoyable as in the Nanoha series. With that, 2 more girls are killed and our main protagonist sacrifices herself at the very end, leaving only 1 magical girl out of the initial 5. Kyubey itself, has become a widely known figure for exploiting the girls and have been rather famous for being cunning and sly. It has also been the cutest antagonist I've ever seen.

The series also had a few moments of tear jerker scenes, such that I could actually feel the despair of having to kill each other just because of learning the cold hard truth about the contract that Kyubey had bestowed upon the girls. The scene of Mami breaking down and Madoka forcing herself to wipe out her soul gem as well was really traumatising for her. Putting yourself into her shoes, it was a difficult decision to make it had to be done. That guilty conscience had really taken a toll on her after seeing Madoka breaking down after what she had done. Homura was also by far the calmest individual that actually holds a lot of emotions inside her and seeing her opening up in the last few episodes had also showed us how much she wants to protect Madoka after failing again and again from saving her from her fate. It was all for the sake of friendship and that, had touched me.

I think the only disappointing thing about PMMM is in the way that it had ended. True enough, Madoka had wished to destroy all witches in the world and all other dimensions, making her lose her existence as a human and be replaced by an existence of a "concept" was definitely a good choice of saving everyone but that wouldn't mean that Homura had actually be wasting so much attempts in trying to save Madoka but still losing her in the end? It's like trying countless of times, trying to save your best friend and in the end, your best friend decides to leave for the better good of the people. Honestly, I do think that this end is appropriate but just that I feel there could be a much better ending that could reinforce Homura's attempt to save her, and not just worthless attempts. The final episode that had wrapped out the other girls stories who were either killed or turned to witches seems like a screentime waster. It was just too long and the final episode was like mere talking and stuffs with Madoka ultimately leaving to become a concept and a new world has begun to take form. I believe there could be much more development they can make for the ending and not rely on the overused talking between 2 girls who have blink blinks all covering their bodies. *you'll get what I mean if you had watched the series*

Nonetheless, PMMM has left a rather significant footprint for the series of 2011 and this is extremely recommended, even for those who do not like magical girls and stuff. This series would make you think twice about what you had actually thought it would be. Definitely worth the time :)

Leaving a note, Steins; Gate would be covered in the next post, together with the entry on Time Travelling so stay tune!

No comments:

Post a Comment