Winter season thus far...

Among the 8 series that I've started watching since the start of the winter season, only 3 remains on the list and the others, well, have been dropped due to various reasons one way or the other, or it was just purely a lost of interest to the show where nothing much interesting actually happens to keep the suspense high.

I'd just talk about the 3 that I'm still currently following now and 2 of them are actually sequels too, which makes this season having only 1 series that actually kept me watching from the start, which was Noragami. And even that series had almost made me drop it after how their plot progressed on the earlier part of the series but I'm glad that something more serious had developed into the story and it wasn't just purely humour any longer.

This would also mean that among all the other seasons of the year, this has got to be the weakest and poorest series lineup I've ever watched... There are however some series that I was originally very interested in, like Buddy Complex and Hamatora, but the plot just doesn't move in quite the way that would interest me... I wouldn't totally dismiss the idea that I might be watching them after they have aired finish, which I may be doing, but for now, they are just not cutting it...

The 2 sequels that I'm currently following now are Chuunibyou and Seitokai Yakuindomo, and for the later, it is a slice-of-life so not much complains over there... As long as it is funny, everything is clear to go. For the former, it was nice to see another anime couple really recognised instead of the usual - dragging of wanting to confess or not and wanting to be together or not and only at the very end then the duo would be together - kind of show. Yes, I'm talking about Tokyo Ravens (which I will get to that later on) Chuunibyou has been great showing how Rikka and Togashi actually attempts to further develop their relationship, including the fact that Rikka is still residing in her "chuunibyou" world which makes romance this kind of thing, difficult for her to understand... but in the recent eps, we finally got this:

which is a freaking big plot driver from now on. Dang, now I will question quite a bit on the existence of Shichimiya. Contrary to our belief, she isn't exactly one that will try and get close to Togashi by herself but rather, she respects the relationship between Rikka and Togashi, which makes her existence somewhat of "being here to make you jealous" kind of thing. But from ep 7, we do know that she did harbour feelings for Togashi in the past, and it is more of like a "one step behind" kind of situation after she finds Togashi after so many years and he was already attached to Rikka. Like I said, this was a sequel so after seeing their 1st season, the 2nd would be a must-watch for me that is...

Noragami on the other hand sure had its ups and downs. Honestly speaking, the starting driver of the plot of "making Hiyori normal again" is forgotten and lost somewhere in the show. Now it feels like that part of the plot was used and was there only for the introduction of Hiyori's half ayakashi form and after they achieved that, it was thrown away and left aside. That however did started to deter me since I thought that hey, this would possibly be a slight slice-of-life, coupled with slowly moving pace on getting Hiyori back to normal, but boy was I wrong. The main bulk of the plot still resides over on Yato himself and his newly acquired Shinki - Yukine, which is being a total pain the ass. I'm not complaining now that Hiyori has been forgotten but am rather glad that they had shifted their focus on both Yato and Yukine for quite a while now and has been progressing rather smoothly now. To me, Hiyori seems more like a side character now rather than a female protagonist since she doesn't actually quite add to the equation of the show... somehow... It is good too, to see how these Ayakashis are impacting the real world although not all can see them and how Yukine, after being revived from the dead to be Yato's shinki, is feeling dejected from the world and now, he had crossed his own boundary and had led both Yato and Hiyori into danger.

Every desire that Yukine has will blight Yato even more, up to a point where Yato might even lose his life for it and that is exactly what was happening now. The latest episode seemed quite pointless which them trying to solve a bullying case until at the very end, where it was actually used as a plot driver for Yukine to "cross the line" after seeing how he is "dead" and am unable to have friends like the other. This also shows how much consequences are if one actually tries to bring back the dead and at the same time, unable to be seen by others. It doesn't feel right to say that Yukine is "alive" since he can't be seen and especially for someone at such a young age like him, feeling dejected and left out is probably the most painful thing he could feel which was why Yato feared for him when they reached the school, which might trigger his inner desires, which did, in the end.

Pretty neat to see Kofuku being all serious as well, and things are definitely getting interesting from now on, but for a short 12 episode series, this ending could turn out bad and might have to resort to following the other media for this series as well...

Tokyo Ravens isn't exactly part of the winter season but that is still a series that I am still following and after their 13th episode with Harutora's monologue about wanting to confirm whether Natsume was Hokuto or not was the the main highlight of the series, both on the development of the plot and also on the beautiful use of animation at that point in time. It was after that episode that things started going uphill with the show, and with a recent episode of seeing Harutora fighting seriously, that episode was really exciting for the whole 20+minutes. I am glad that they have discarded the possibility of Natsume revealing her as Hokuto to Harutora and am disappointed too at the same time, but with the series hinting a possible revelation near the end, I can only think that it will fail again but my inner self definitely wants to see it being known... only a few episodes more to go and I am hoping very hard that I will be able to see that coming true :)

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Now as for the other series, like Nobunagun, things really did seem interesting at the start with all the "reincarnation" things lurking around, but when the plot really starts and she was recruited into the combat force, things became too normal, or just plain to me. Would've appreciated the fact if it retained the school setting unlike the one they have now, which was just boring to me now.

And Hamatora as well, basically it lost its steam over at episode 2, missions that are too easy to solve, too plain to think and really try-hard attempts to link cases together which in the end, turns out to be too obvious to see that they were trying very hard to do it. Didn't quite like the animation at the start too so you could say I was kinda prepared to drop this sooner or later.

And of course we have Mahou Sensou which didn't even make it to episode 2. Too forced storyline, little things explained, basically a very typical shounen series that you can find anywhere and everywhere.

Buddy Complex is however one that I might consider watching when it finally ends, the system that they use in their mecha does sound too cliché but it was that, that interest me from the start and also with the "time travel" kind of setting. But that point seemed to have been forgotten in the series as well, which is disappointing... so until the time where they actually bring that point back, then I will consider rewatching the series. Other than that, the plot is too dry and too slow for my liking so it's a dropped show for now.

What came more surprising to me was dropping of Nisekoi. Yes it was a SHAFT animation series and for me, which I tend to be bias towards SHAFT, dropping this was kinda out of the norm. But placing the plot on the table, this is just too boring, tooooo boring. It totally feels like watching some korean drama or something where you wanna say it but then you don't wanna say it, you suspect this but you dare not to confirm it.... Basically it is just frustrating to watch the show and SHAFT is honestly better of animating weird series with supernatural and out-of-the-norm themes like Bakemonogatari or even Sasami-san rather than a romance series like Nisekoi. I wouldn't mind starting to read the manga from now on but for the anime, nah, can't bear to watch it any further.

Only about a month+ or so and we'll enter into the spring season, and that is one that I have a lot of high hopes for, well for now that is...

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And here's livetune's latest song, which if I'm not wrong, is the OP theme of Project Diva F 2nd

Spring 2014

As the Spring season list is more or less confirmed, here's a look out at some of the upcoming series that judging from their plot or PVs, are worth a try:

Oh and here's the chart from Neregate this season:

which can be viewed here

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Gokukoku no Brynhildr

"When he was a child, Murakami was infatuated with a girl he called Kuroneko. She insisted on knowing about aliens and having met them, but no one believed her, even young Murakami was skeptical. One day, she decides to show him the aliens, but an accident occurs and Kuroneko dies while Murakami is left seriously wounded in the hospital. 

Years go by and Murakami obsesses on finding proof of the existence of aliens because of a promise he had made with Kuroneko. Then, one day, a new transfer student comes to his class, who not only looks a lot like Kuroneko, but is named Kurohaneko! And even though she insists on never having met Murakami before, the girl has superhuman strength and seems to even be able to predict the future! 

How will Murakami's life change now that he has been saved by this mysterious girl that claims to be a magician?"

A pretty normal plot setting where the male protagonist loses his female childhood friend and a girl who is able to use magic, appears in front of him, looking just like the childhood friend whom he had lost. I guess it's pretty obvious to me that the girl is the same girl he had lost, just that she had underwent certain "modifications" to enable her to use those special powers. Guess that was easily pointed out in the PV itself. Looks kinda like a dark series from the PV, and it the girl wasn't who I was thinking she was, then this would probably interest me even more than it already had. Certainly this has some nostalgia on Elfen Lied so I'd definitely see how this goes.

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Mekaku City Actors






Now this is a very interesting series that caught my eye. Apparently from the wikipedia page:

The Kagerou Project (カゲロウプロジェクト Kagerō Purojekuto^?, lit. "Heat Haze Project"), also known as Kagerou Daze,^[1] is a Vocaloid song series created by Jin (also known as Shizen no Teki-P). The story revolves around the Mekakushi Dan, a group of teenagers with unusual eye-related powers.

The series became popular on the video sharing website Niconico after the release of the song "Kagerou Daze" (カゲロウデイズ^?, lit. "Heat Haze Daze"), which also gave the series its name. The song has amassed over 3 million views and is the most popular song of the project. Four light novels have been released, written by Jin and illustrated by Shidu. A fifth novel has been announced. A manga adaptation with illustrations by Satō Mahirō, began serialization in Monthly Comic Gene on June 15, 2012. An anime adaptation titled Mekaku City Actors will be directed by Akiyuki Shinbo and produced by Shaft will begin airing in April 2014.

Wow. I haven't actually heard their vocaloid songs and apparently this has become quite a popular series and be good enough for an anime adaptation. Kinda seems like Black Rock Shooter where it was also from the Vocaloid cover that skyrocketed its popularity over the net, which in the end, got an anime adaptation as well.

"Shintaro Kisaragi, a HikiNEET who shut himself inside his room for 2 years, had been living his life normally until he met a cyber girl named Ene, who appeared in his computer screen when someone anonymously sent him a mysterious e-mail one year ago. One day, Ene messes with Shintaro's PC which causes him to go outside for the first time in two years."

Now this series is somewhat similar to Hamatora of the current season now, where it's generally people with supernatural abilities teaming up and stopping crime. This does have a sense of Durarara!! as well, but considering how I've dropped Hamatora, this genre does have its flaws. Nonetheless it is by SHAFT animation and I'd be much much more interested in seeing SHAFT doing animations for these "supernatural" series rather than a romance one like Nisekoi right now. SHAFT is "different" after all :D


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Black Bullet



"A near future, where humans have been defeated by the viral parasites named Gastrea. They have been exiled into a small territory and live in despair, side by side with terror.In this world trapped in darkness—

Rentaro, a boy living near Tokyo and member of the "Civil Security" – an organization specializing in fighting against the Gastrea – is used to accomplishing dangerous tasks. His partner is Enju, a precocious young girl. They fight thanks to their peculiar powers until one day, when they receive a special assignment from the government. This top secret mission is to prevent the destruction of Tokyo...

Set in a near future, this thrilling heroic-action story... starts now!"

There are really quite a number of supernatrual series in the Spring season which I'm definitely not complaining since I am a fan of this genre, and from the PV, this series looks really good. An apocalyptic setting coupled with characters with special abilities? Damn, that's general, but of course, a good setting nonetheless, for me.

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Mahou Shoujo Taisen

"Mahou Shoujo Taisen" is a project created from a variety show for the Otaku "2.5 Chigen TV" (2.5 Dimension TV). 

The characters are the mahou shoujo that represents each local town in Japan. The characters that won from the second illustration competitions that were held on pixiv will appear in the anime. "

Hm. Not too sure about this, but it's pretty interesting in some way. Not even sure if this is going to be a full 20 minute series and exactly how many episodes it's gonna have. And I'm not sure too about what this is going to be about. Well, it is this kind of uncertainties that bring about curiosity :)

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Date a Live II



Pretty much self-explanatory... season 2, yup.

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Captain Earth



"One night right before summer vacation, Daichi Manatsu, a second-year in high school, sees a weird round rainbow floating in the sky above Seed Island (Shuushi/Tane Island) and ventures there alone. He has seen this rainbow before. With the memories of his father's mysterious death and an encounter of a mysterious boy and girl, Daiji arrives on the island while the alarm of a building labeled "Earth Engine" is going off. Someone asks him "Are you a captain?" just as robotic intruders from Uranus called "Kiltgang" arrive. The battle around the shining stars is about to begin."

An orginal mecha series! And its under BONES which of course did the previous rather "classic" mecha series of Eureka 7. I will catch their debut episode but whether or not I'll continue to follow this will remain on how much the plot engages, which of course failed in the case of Buddy Complex. (well, I'll get to the "this season" talk soon)

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No Game No Life



Pretty neat plot, a semi-SAO-styled series where it revolves around the virtual world which in this case, could be reality as well. Did bear certain similarities with Summer Wars since they are both from the same studio. Does seem to have more of a humour side to the plot too so why not give this a try? :O Among the others, this really did stood out from its unique plot. Plot-wise, this did remind me of Kaminomi, but at least Keima was a student and not like a NEET like this pair of siblings but as gaming legends, I've got a feeling this is gonna be pretty interesting.

Heaven's Lost Property

Sora no Otoshimono has always been a manga series that I had followed since their anime series first aired, and it was one of the few that actually got me to continue tracking and reading the new chapters even after all those intense fanservice and meaningless chapters.

The reason was simple, when the chapters are being used as fillers and fanservice, the chapter really made no sense at all. But when the plot transits back into a serious tone, boy, that is where the series start to shine. For those who had ignored this series by having too much fanservice, I would say that this is a series worthwhile to follow to the end.

I was honestly amazed by how the last few chapters turned out to be, the plot twists which they frequently had stomped me once again at the end, especially the fact the manga only releases 1 chapter per month. Until the very end, it didn't actually feel quite rushed and ended just as it was supposed to. No hard feelings and not any abrupt ending that we've seen in hitman reborn, when a normal chapter just happens to be the end...

For those who wish to start reading the series again, spoilers are ahead and by spoiling this series, it would be absolutely meaningleas to continue it any longer since the series excels in their surprisingly plot twists.

What got me kept looking forward to the next chapter was the arc about Hiyori, which was animated as a movie. What it suggest to Tomoki was that the people living around him weren't all real. It was that moment that got me thinking, wow. So the world actually had something hidden like that?! They didn't immediately show exactly who was it that wasn't real after Hiyori was revealed to be one of them and they were clever enough to drop the bomb one shot near the end.

Basically in their world where angels and humans exist, the angel race had this thing called the Rule which grants anyone's desires and wishes. However since this always grant their desires, the people of synapse soon lose their will of living. They did not have any reason to continue living since they will never not able to achieve something due to the Rule. In the end, it was said that they created the human race as something they could watch from above, until they discover the human's abilities to dream and sought after that. As the people of synapse went to a dream state, a fake form of them end up on the surface and interact with the rest of the humans just like what Hiyori did. But once their surface form dies, they will awake back in synapse. When Hiyori first died and her body started flickering, Nymph told Tomoki about the truth of the world which slowly began driving the plot towards the end.

At the end, it was hinted that Sohara could be one of the fake people on the surface when Tomoki starts to have memories of Sohara differently and then she disappears just as how Hiyori did. It was that moment that 'bam', the one closest to Tomoki was actually not real?! I had guessed that it was the final twist they had in the end, until the final battle with Chaos and Synapse began where Astraea sacrifices herself in the fight and Nymph as well up in synapse. It was like all those fanservice chapters existed for another series, the difference was just too great! From a humour-like genre to such a dark arc at the end, and boy I was sad to see them losing their lives like that, especially Nymph who had sufferred to the very end. 

As the final angeloid, Ikaros was not spared too as she brought Tomoki up to synapse at the cost of her life. It was at that last moment that she smiled, for the very first time, declaring her love for Tomoki as well. That really was such a sad chapter and painful to see Tomoki losing Ikaros. Immediately after that, the seriea drops their final bombshell, Daedalus, the angel girl who had sent Tomoki, Ikaros, was Sohara all along. Honestly I had never expected that and at the same time, I was pleasantly surprised. By linking all the previous chapters with the equation of Sohara = Daedalus, things started to link together. Up till the very end, we finally got to see Daedalus's face which was the familar Sohara we had always seen from the very beginning. It was later explained that the sad memory Tomoki had was actually of Sohara dying but that was the dream form of the real Daedalus. To compensate the loss, she created another Sohara and sent it to Tomoki. And that Sohara was the one that we have always seen from chapter 1.

Even though they pulled off kinda like a deus ex machina at the end, it didn't felt as forced as what Kyoukai no Kanata did where it would have been better if Mirai had stayed dead. Yes it was sad to see the Angeloids being taken off 1 by 1, but bringing them back wasn't just for the reason of merely reviving them, but in this case, it shows the final will of Sugata-senpai. Up to his last breath, he had written his desire on the last line of the Rule, to recreate the world but to him, he might've felt that his decision was wrong and left his laptop behind, allowing a new last line to be added to the Rule, which Tomoki did add in the end, wishing for his usual and peaceful life once again. And of course that was the best wish to make as it restores everything back to normal and it was definitely cute to see Daedalus bringing back Sohara and then acting all Sohara-like at the end. So that was the mysterious Daedalus we've always seen!

Didn't regret following this series to the end, and now I'm totally excited for their upcoming movie which will feature the last arc and the end of the SnO series. Time to head to kino to grab some volumes then! :)

Madoka Magica : Hangyaku No Monogatari Singapore Premiere!

Have been waiting for the movie to come to Singapore ever since it was announced in Japan, unfortunately as much as I had hoped for it to make it to AFA like the previous 2 movies, it just didn't come true... until now :D

Announced just a week before it actually aired in local theatres, the 4 screenings were quickly sold out within 24 hours, or almost 95% of the seats were sold in just 12 hours since the seats were open for sale. I just couldn't miss this opportunity and along with a friend, we managed to catch this absolutely marvellous and at the same time, epic 3rd movie of the madoka franchise :) 

With the Singapore premiere, almost the same goods were brought over from Japan as well, which I got my hands on the movie pamphlet itself. After getting 1 each of movie 1 and 2, how can I miss movie 3's as well? :D And of course the signed Shiki too. A small one compared to the previous Shiki of movie 1&2 but still beautiful to look at... Coupled with the Kuji prize I got from AFA last year, it does seem that I have quite a tendency to strike on Mami... hmmmm @_@

With the movie finally aired with english subtitles, finally I managed to grasp the situation that were unclear the previous time I watched the movie.

Firstly, the existence of Sayaka and Nagisa. What I believe is that Nagisa is actually the Mahou Shoujo who turned into Charlotte the witch when her soul gem expired. In accordance to this theory, Sayaka has been able to summon her Octavia form in the first fake Mitakihara city which was her witch form. Nagisa is however similar in a reversed form of way where she appears as Bebe before revealing herself to Mami after her fight with Homura. It was also said that both Sayaka and Nagisa aren't actually alive but are like "followers" of the Law of Cycles or Madokami in short. Putting these factors in, it would mean that Sayaka and Nagisa are both part of the Law of Cycles and don't actually exist as an existence but rather a "theory" just like what Madoka has become when she took the form of Madokami. 

Next is the appearance of Madoka in the first fake Mitakihara as well. It appears that she had "wandered" into the labyrinth as she was attempting to purify Homura's tainted soul gem but as it was isolated from external influences by the Incubator's barrier, she lost her memories of going in to save Homura just as how Homura had forgotten that she was a witch. In response to this, Madoka's will and memories were transferred into Sayaka and Nagisa as backup in case the Incubators were up to something. In short, the duo were there for the sake of helping Homura out and the Madoka in the fake Mitakihara was actually the real Madoka after all. 

This would then reinforce the next point of why did Homura chose to isolate Madoka away from the Law of Cycles. It would be appropriate to assume that Homura had realise that the Madoka in the first fake Mitakihara was real and her belief that she'll never leave anyone behind was real. Thus leading to Homura feeling an intense sense of regret of not stopping Madoka when she formed the contract and thus wanted to save her. She accepts her fate and fully transforms into a witch as she didn't want Madoka to come into contact with her since she knew that the Incubators wanted to "see" the Law of Cycles with their very eyes and ultimately try and control Madokami. It did work out in the end as Homura was saved and would be purified by the Law of Cycles, or that was supposed to happen before she turned into an Akuma. 

What I believe here is Homura sees the possibility of being able to "separate" Madoka from the Law of Cycles just as what happened in the first fake Mitakihara and thus she creates the 2nd fake Mitakihara and isolate Madoka away from the Law similar to that of the first world. But to prevent the interference of Sayaka and Nagisa, Homura alters their memories and thus gives birth to the "perfect" world that she was looking for. And now that is pretty dark and at the same time, sad as u can see actually just how much Homura has changed emotionally. 

Definitely enjoyed this even though this wasn't the first time watching this movie but hey, watching the fight between Mami and Homura in the theatres and then the final plot twist of the movie itself too just makes this absolutely awesome :D

Madoka galore :)

After like 2 years since I got the first TD of the Madoka series on Weiss Schwarz, finally, at last, the deck is completed... :)

Really took me so long just to find the last Sayaka :/ but now, finally, its done! 

Sayaka's unite! :D

Have been changing its build quite a while now, ever since the first mono-green output with Homura's change from Madokami. A definite 1-turn powerhouse but its drawbacks really made it not that useful compared to playing tri colours. 

Drawing out the climax for the climax combo to switch out isn't that hard to get since it's a gold bar climax which did mean that if it was triggered, you would be able to return it to ur hand. So no worries from it going into ur stock. But what was bad was by doing that, ur homura get a one turn power boost and after that, the effect is gone. The Madokami used to change it out goes to memory as well and u no longer have the ability to loop heal with ur madokami. Basically these 2 were the biggest drawbacks by using that combo and a cheaper one too since the Sayaka's were really painful for the wallet :X

Not to worry for Homura fans, since Bushiroad recently announced a Homura PR card that will be the PR card for February tournaments, and I've already got my hands on them, so here it is : (my own pic kinda low in resolution so here's one taken from the web)

And finally we get a slight change of playstyle for Madoka deck users. What this card does is when placed from hand to stage, u pay 1 cost to enable it to shoot opponent's reversed character to clock. Basically it's a free shoot coupled with the 2nd effect where per tapped character gives it additional 1500 power. With this in the center stage and supported by 2 madoka lv supports, by tapping the 2 supports, Homura goes up to 10000+3000+3000 = 16000 power without additional boost from climaxes. Boosting with a 1k1, you get a 17000 power homura that shoots ur character to clock. It's however a non-healer lv3 as compared to the others like Madokami and Sayaka but the free shoot makes this card worthwhile to play. 

Did changed my build once again after the introduction of this card, so I'll see how it fair compared to the past and finally a full force of 4 sayakas as well :D

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Leaving that aside, this coming weekend is finally the movie screening of Madoka's 3rd Movie, the Rebellion Story. Thankfully with the help of my friend, we've got hold of our tickets on the very first day which was already selling fast at that time. The next day it was announced that all was sold out and I can say that that's really quite fast :O 

They really should have more slots for the movie too, just 4 slots is too little IMO. And just now, AFA just posted a photo showing the signed boards that will be given out per attendee:

 now I really CANT WAIT for the weekend to come! X__X 2 more days!!!!!!!

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and here's a really cool music video I saw from livetune:

Superpowers

 

Wouldn't it be nice if you had superpowers one day? You could possibly achieve many other things with your new found abilities but just how exactly good it is to have a superpower? What would you actually do after getting one? If giving in to the temptation of power, one could let's just say, control the world with the superiority of his or her abilties. Or you could actually use the powers for good like fighting off other villians with similar abilities as well, but that's just how many of the story works or the plot goes. In reality there is always the possibility that perhaps only you yourself actually hold some superpower that no one else has. At that time, what would you choose to do?

In this current society, the supernatural is always a hot topic for discussion. Not just popular but at the same time, curiosity and fear that arises from these unknowns. Things such as UFOs or aliens etc that have sparked many controversial views but all those are just supernatural phenomenons. What would the world think if someone actually develops a superpower? In light of recent anime series and of course the past years as well, superpower or supernatural abilties have been a bulk of most plots in general anime. Not including the genre of 'magic' although that is still a supernatural ability but I'm leaning more towards the slightly less fantasy type of ability. In all, japanese anime and manga, other than revolving around romance genres, they are pretty much driven by supernatural plots, as seen by many of the shounen series and of course not forgetting the big 3.

What I would actually think that people will feel if there was ever going to be someone holding a superpower would be fear itself. Let's just take a recent example from Valvrave. Valvrave takes place in a next generation timeline with mechas already being possible and the already expanding social network is still going strong in that time as well. But mechas are at most the advanced development of science itself and has nothing to do with superpowers until the Valvraves appeared. The Magius and those 'man-made' ones like Haruto and the other Valvrave pilots were a perfect example of what we call: people with supernatural abilities. They can body jack others simply by biting on the other like a vampire and transfer their consciousness over, replacing their host's original mind and body. Not just having only the ability to body jack, the Magius are also immortal, to a certain extent that is. Actually we could name it super regenerative speed since if their bodies are gone or they lose a limb, they will still die and a lost limb will never return. But if they are shot, even directly in the head, stabbed through the heart, or even had their throat slit, they survived and that being shared on international media will just put intense stress and confusion from the other people which in the end led to fear which we saw what the Council of 101 did to Saki on international TV in order to achieve that goal. The result? The fear of the supernatural and the desire to eliminate all that is 'different' from the rest. 

Thinking it in another way, with the Magius having such an ability, isn't there other possible ways or means that their abilities could benefit the world? Of course the sustainability would be too extreme since they needed runes to live which are human memories but with the Valvrave systems, just not overloading it would be fine? However the other people or the majority of the world  decided that they are not going to accept them as they felt fear that these 'monsters' could one day turn around and kill them or to achieve dominance when Haruto and the others just wanted to co-exist. Yes of course having an ability could be fun or at least beneficial in some way but when you are the minority and are perceived as a dangerous entity, you are basically screwed. Even Haruto's friends and classmates were dragged into a massacre to clean up the 'monsters' which not only shows how fearful the people are but also at how fast the people actually believe in the media without first confirming the truth. That would be a discussion of media so I'd just leave that aside for now. Who wouldn't be scared if you saw someone getting stabbed on international TV and survives? Well maybe if it was Saki I wouldn't haha.

Another would be the possible evolution of human beings where people slowly develop supernatural abilities, making them a different class of humans compared to the rest. In this case, the process of realising the existence of such people takes a longer time as compared to a sudden appearance which would make curiosity overdriving fear instead since it would be still in the process of validating the truth. For Valvrave, the existence of Magiuses, not just one, creates this sense of uncertainty which in turn leads to fear as people have no idea just how many magius there are on Earth after realising the existence of a few. For this point however, we take a look at Shin Sekai Yori which shows us another viewpoint in terms of people developing special abilities. In Shin Sekai's case, the people with Cantus seek to coexist with the rest, or that was what some of them seemed to want, by first removing the element of fear from them, which was them being perceived as 'dangerous'. What the non-cantus users feel is a sense of insecurity and the fear of being killed by the more superior class which the cantus users took into account and created 'Death Feedback'. This prevents cantus users from killing other humans as it will result in their own deaths too. That was actually a pretty good solution, in a short span of time that is. It was merely a temporary solution that just didn't quite solve the problem in the end. 

What I believed was the origin of their fear of cantus users wasn't totally removed. True enough the cantus users had prevented themselves from killing humans but just how long would that last? Since it was them who created it, wouldn't there be a possibility that it can be removed as well? Even if it was in theory, impossible, people would still believe that it would as people who can use cantus still exist among them and the uneasiness will still continue. What actually is creating the fear is not the fear of being attacked but the fear of their existence as a whole. And of course their solution of adding a Death Feedback only solves part of the problem. Cantus humans are now unable to kill other humans but the other way round, humans can kill cantus users, if they are able to. As a result, I presume many of the cantus users were killed resulting in an ultimatum being passed down of turning the humans into queerats to bypass the Death Feedback. That is totally inhumane of the cantus users to do that but putting yourself in their shoes, what more else can they do? If you yourself had willingly taken a disadvantage in an attempt to coexist but the opposite party decides to do otherwise, this is definitely not the best solution but it was in a way, inevitable. Even if one tries to coexist but as long as one side decides not to, everything will fall apart. Trust is one thing but being afraid of the unknown is another.

Add another factor into the equation of coexisting and it will work out in the end. A common enemy. Now we take a look over at Darker than Black. In their world, there the contractors which will be the focus of this point as well as regular human beings who do not possess any sort of special abilities like the contractors do. In the world of Darker than Black however, the humans don't exactly fear the contractors or rather the 2 kinds coexist quite well together. Just that when they are in search of certain criminal contractors, they have their own contractors in the investigation department to be able to bring them into custody. So in this way, the humans actually don't fear the contractors as much perhaps due to already having them working close to them. This thus brings up the point of being able to understand each other and to realise that either side don't mean harm. However, this is possibly possible only due to the existence of enemy contractors. With an enemy that the normal humans are unable to take out, it creates a kind of reliance on the ability of contractors as well to deal with them. As a result, you could say that there's not much of a choice for them to coexist but in the end it still worked out. So in other words, if you one day had special powers, you better hope there is another one similar to you and possibly, the evil side so that you'll be trusted in dealing with them. Take the recent movie Man of Steel for example. True enough Clark was being feared for his powers and no one wanted to believe him that he was a good guy until he saved the others from his evil counterparts and it was then, that they realised that "hey, this guy is on our side". 

For the above discussion we had used enemies as individuals with superpowers as well, but it does work the same way for normal humans who are able to deal with superpower users without they themselves having such powers. We take a look at To Aru Kagaku no Railgun where the Academy City is housing students who have supernatural abilities and study them as their powers grow individually. Near the end of the series, we see a scientist without any powers being able to subdue power users with certain equipments to cancel their ability to use them. The series has a human squad known as AntiSkill as well who are the kind of normal police that we see, and Judgement who are the police but holders of abilities as well. We do see the coexistence of such, other than just mutual understanding that many espers exist, but with their common enemy who is surprisingly human but yet able to fight on par with espers. In this scenario, of course it would require the teamwork from both sides and hence the coexistence being made possible. I guess for Railgun, there's a separate factor that the existence of espers are already too well-known to perform a purge or something unlike Valvrave's situation where it was the manipulation of media that misled the humans that led to a massacre of innocent students. 

Now think about it, would it be actually good if you one day had held these special abilities? It might be initially fun but that's just personal.

What would others actually think?

What would you use your powers for?

Will you ever be consumed by your own powers?

Will you be able to coexist with the others?

Will the humans trust you?

And of course, there are much much more uncertainties that follows. There isn't a zero possibility that someday we will see such an individual but when the time comes, even as humans, what would we do? 

With great power comes great responsibility. Sometimes, it's better to remain status quo.