Various thoughts on a variety of topics.
A reserved amateur music composer, Kai Ashimoto does not want people to know that he makes music. Still, after two of his classmates discover his hobby he reluctantly accepts the offer to watch their band practice on Mermaid Isle. It’s there that he first hears the voice of the mermaid Luu, who will soon change his life.
A music-themed, lighthearted and family-friendly coming of age story.
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Following a wedding afterparty, a young college student sets off on a journey across town to experience the joys of adulthood. Namely alcohol. Little does she know that another student from her school is chasing after her and running into ever more unfortunate encounters.
An absurdist romantic comedy with a first part focused on one night’s sequence of increasingly random and outlandish occurrences, and a second part that deals with the aftermath.
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Thirty years after a thermonuclear war devastated the Earth, a young girl named Haruka is awakened from cryogenic stasis. Accompanied by her 5 robotic companions, she searches the blasted landscape for signs of other surviving humans.
A mostly character-focused drama with intermittent action scenes and occasional spots of comic relief to lighten the mood. The first half bears a closer resemblance to a slice of life while the second is heavily narrative-driven.
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Long ago Yuuta ate the flesh of a mermaid, becoming one of the rare people to receive immortality from the act instead of an agonizing death. Now he wanders Japan seeking another mermaid in the hopes of finding a cure for the condition.
An episodic collection of dramatic short stories with bits of action and romance scattered throughout. Note that episodes 4-5 & 12-13 have earlier OVA adaptations available and that episodes 10-13 take place between episodes 6 & 7.
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Following the death of his father at the hands of an assassin, the young Tetsunosuke Ichimura vows to join the Shinsengumi in order to become strong enough to take revenge. After managing to join the group however he discovers that their job is far more difficult than he believed it to be.
A multi-genre series that mixes light-hearted everyday antics, deathly serious conspiracy-tinged drama, and the occasional graphic sword fight.
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The three realms (heavenly, human, and boundary) keep their balance by cycling souls from one to another, often by force, with the responsibility of transferral falling to the boundary realm’s Black & White Warriors. The youngest of these are Heng Wang and Liang Yan, a unique pair who have never completed an assignment and only seem to excel at being late.
An action-drama with an initially large streak of comic relief which almost entirely disappears by the halfway point.
In the years following a terrorist attack that leveled Sarajevo, developed nations the world over drastically increased their security measures while less fortunate countries began to turn into genocidal warzones. Into these areas the USA sends a team of emotionally deadened super-soldiers in search of the man responsible for the outbreaks of insanity.
A dialog-heavy thriller with a strong initial literary theme and bursts of explicit action.
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In a world where text-based communication has begun to dominate discourse, a virus has appeared that causes certain Kanji to run amok. To counter this threat the DEAVA organization has gathered up people with Verbalism abilities to pilot special mecha called Aquarions.
An action series with a large comedic streak and minor romance elements which becomes more of a multi-genre series in the second half. While the OVA that precedes the first episode is a crossover between Aquarion and Evol, the series proper has no connection to those shows beyond a few setting details.
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Far in the future a mysterious disease eliminates the planet Altair’s female population. Not wanting their race to go extinct they decide to abduct women from the planet Vega, which responds by forming a gender-segregated defense force to repel the increasingly brazen attacks. However, only by coming together can the pilots harness the true power of the Aquaria mecha.
A relationship focused action series that’s set thousands of years after the events of Sousei no Aquarion. The connection between the two is mostly limited to the character reincarnation theme and having seen that isn’t necessary to follow along here.
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How refreshing. Based on all the warnings about stocking Food and limited resources I was very worried at first about this game, but as it turns out the hunger system is easily abolished through modding and only the XP is limited (which is barely worth noting since quite a few RPGs have limited XP).
Once the needless hassle of the farmville simulator elements is removed it’s quite a lot of fun and reminds me most of, interestingly enough, the modern King’s Bounty games. You can pick up simple quests, find containers filled with loot scattered about, and encounter static enemies with listed difficulty classes which you can either temporarily avoid or fight (with exceptionally difficult/impossible groups blocking access to areas/items you’re not supposed to reach yet).
The very beginning is tough since you won’t have many skills and your accuracy will be awful, but once you hit level 5 or so battles start getting notably easier since you have more options available (assuming you built your characters correctly and didn’t waste skill points). At the moment I’m about to enter the Tower, having cleared the beach/forest/cave/mausoleum/roads (apart from the Ogre/Mushrooms obviously) with a level 5/6 party consisting of a Paladin (Evasion-focused), Cleric, Summoner (Golot, Raznet, & Valvet), Thief (shurikens/swords), Bard, and of course the Explorer (not being forced to take the Terrain skill let me easily build him fighter-ish). Early fights were a real slog due to the anemic damage but now the defensive synergies are starting to come together and I’m finally able to upgrade some weapons.
Of course that’s by no means an optimized party composition (their stats are though; Speed all the way) and I definitely would not suggest anyone try it on any difficulty other than Casual/Normal unless you want to do a lot of reloading. It’s nowhere near focused enough with weapon types scattered between bleeding, wounding, and stunning. Instead I suggest checking out multiple class guides to get a feel for the few absolutely necessary things to do (like always raise Speed each level, and max out Learning if you’re like me and want to decimate late-game) and then put together something that looks fun.
Speaking of which, I’m kind of torn whether or not to keep playing with this party or start up a new one using two Arcane Soldiers and a Mage (since this one has 0 magic apart from the Cleric). By default the AS class isn’t very exciting, but I believe that can be fixed by simply tweaking a couple skill costs. I also want to modify the Explorer skill costs a bit and tweak the Nalaet summon to work as a Cleric substitute… so that you’re not effectively forced to run a Cleric in every party… but I’m not sure if the AI would still work with altered skills. We’ll see how things go.
