The Anime Covetag:www.animecove.com,2008-06-14:/cove//12008-06-21T21:32:28ZMovable Type Open Source 4.1Sky Bluetag:www.animecove.com,2008:/cove//1.162008-06-21T19:49:34Z2008-06-21T21:32:28ZSo, Sky blue is actually a korean film. On the box it says it is in japanese and has english subtitles. Either I am far better at Japanese than i think or the box is lying: the movie is in...Edhttp://www.animecove.comSo, Sky blue is actually a korean film. On the box it says it is in japanese and has english subtitles. Either I am far better at Japanese than i think or the box is lying: the movie is in english and there are no subtitles. It could just be the specific copy I bought but I'm just warning you. If you choose to buy it, don't trust the box!
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Sky Blue is reminiscent of the Ergo Proxy series although i'm not sure which came first. Both revolve around large cities designed to support life in the post-apocalyptic wasteland. This wasteland comes alive through the revolutionary techniques used in the production of sky blue - a combination of drawn characters, 3D CGI environments and actual footage using miniatures for backdrops. This may sound odd but it creates an amazing life to the movie without the different techniques being obvious. If you didn't know there was real footage in there you would never realise through watching the movie but it still adds to the overall atmosphere.
The movie gives pause for thought on an almost cliched view of the future if we continue in the direction we are going but the beauty and the various unique elements of Sky Blue set it apart from similar movies to make a movie i'd definitely reccommend watching at least once. ]]>
The World Ends With Youtag:www.animecove.com,2008:/cove//1.152008-06-19T22:40:52Z2008-06-19T22:49:42ZNow I'm a bit of a fan of Square-Enix, well when I say a bit of a fan, I mean a huge fan. Their Final Fantasy franchise is constantly amazing, and all (well most) of the other games they make...Alexhttp://www.pictomush.co.ukNow I'm a bit of a fan of Square-Enix,
well when I say a bit of a fan, I mean a huge fan. Their Final
Fantasy franchise is constantly amazing, and all (well most) of the
other games they make are quality. When I first saw The World Ends
With You, it didn't look like it would appeal to me, it looked a bit
emo, I was especially put off by the fact that the game is obsessed
with fashion, but after reading lots of positive things about it, I
decided to give it a go, my review after the break.
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The thing you'll likely hear the most
buzz about it the battle system, indeed, the battle system is this
game is fun, addictive, challenging and completely original. The main
way of controlling is the stylus, on the bottom screen you move Neku
around by pressing near him, your attacks are determined by the pins
you're wearing. Pins are collected throughout the game, and each one
holds it's own move, can be leveled up, and some of them can even
evolve into better pins. Some pins might fire a bullet in any
direction you tap the stylus, some might make a trail of fire when
you drag the stylus over enemies, there are loads to choose from.
This game has what I call the "Pokemon factor", meaning that,
even after you've completed it, you'll keep playing to collect more
pins.
Another interesting element to the
battles is that both screens are used. On the top screen, your
partner will fight the same enemies as you do on the bottom screen,
and you control him/her with the D-Pad (or A,B,Y,X buttons if you're
a lefty). You use the buttons to navigate a combo map, which means
that by choosing good combinations of numbers and stuff like that,
you'll do better in the battle. A light disk passes between the two
characters on the two screens, and when it's on a character, that
character must then perform a certain amount of attack damage before
the disk is transferred. Once it's been passed enough, you get some
kind of super move, which will temporarily stop gameplay to do some
crazy effects and kill a load of monsters. This confusing battle
system quickly becomes second nature, and it's more exciting than
sitting there watching your character fight for you.
The game has a lot of traditional RPG
elements, used in modern ways. For example, clothes take the place of
amour. Each area of Shibuya has a brand chart, and you'll get powered
up or down depending on how popular the brand of the clothes you're
wearing or the pins you're using are. You can also boost your stats
by eating food, and this is digested during battles.
One of my favorite features is the
level slider. Your characters level up as the game progresses, but
you can purposefully reduce their level to gain more pin drops. The
lower your level is from your maximum level, the more pins the
enemies you fight will drop, so you'll have cooler moves and more
money. This let's you fine tune the game's difficulty for yourself,
and rewards you for it. Brilliant.
Another thing you can do is chain
battles together. You'll never run into a random encounter on this
game, you always choose when to fight. You can select more than one
battle at once, so for example, you could chain four together. You
would complete these battles one after the other with the same HP
bar, and the more you chain, the more pins and PP (that's EXP) you
will get from the battles. This game even manages to make grinding
fun.
When you start up the game, you will
get PP for all the time you weren't playing the game! That's pretty
crazy, but pretty awesome. It means you needn't feel bad about not
being able to play it every hour of every day, because you will still
be compensated. Of course you'll always make more PP by actually
grinding a bit, but this is a good feature. Also there's mingle mode,
which is one of those things where you set your DS up to look for
other DS's with the same game in and trade data. I personally think
this feature is stupid because you're very unlikely to run into
anybody else playing the same game, with their DS in mingle mode in
their pocket. On the bright side, you will get points for finding two
DS's playing against each other, any game, and you also get "alien"
signals, I have no idea what they are. Either way, it's a useless
feature, but it's nice that it's there.
There's some really good game music out
there, but this is one of the few games I've played the the music
would be awesome outside of the game. The soundtrack sounds very
street, very modern. It's got some rock, some rap, some electronica,
it's all very good stuff. It's so good that I actually bought the
soundtrack to the game. Call me sad! The theme tune is one of the
best I've heard in ages. That's the English version of Twister by the
way.
And of course, the story of this game
is really really really good. Be prepared for a lot of reading, and a
lot of pointing out the obvious, but the story is so gripping that
you won't mind.
All in all, this is one of the most
original, and one of the best DS games out there. I'm sure that
anyone, even non-RPG fans, will love this game. It's highly
recommended. ]]>
Karas: The Prophecytag:www.animecove.com,2008:/cove//1.142008-06-19T16:44:47Z2008-06-19T17:58:25Z Another anime i bought a little while ago was the Karas 'Double feature' 3 disk set but i'm just going to review the first movie for now which counts for two of those three disks. There are quite a...Edhttp://www.animecove.com
Another anime i bought a little while ago was the Karas 'Double feature' 3 disk set but i'm just going to review the first movie for now which counts for two of those three disks. There are quite a quite a few special features on this one so i'll start there. There is a small interview video with the japanese voice actors but this was kind of short and pretty boring so i didn't really pay much attention. Another of the features seems to be a bit of the behind the scenes with the sound effects team. More interesting is the short, 4 minute, 'behind the scenes montage' that briefly shows some of the designing, storyboarding and animating that went into the final movie. There are a couple more features on this disk such as trailers but i'm not going to bother talking about them. Onto the movie! ]]>
Yep, It's another 'Must Buy!' ]]>
The Alyman cometh.tag:www.animecove.com,2008:/cove//1.132008-06-18T23:33:49Z2008-06-19T21:12:35ZHey people, and by people I mean Ed, because we clearly don't have an audience yet.I'm Alex, a good friend of Ed's and, rather into my anime, my manga, my (anything by Square-Enix), my noodles, my Japan.Sure may not have...Alexhttp://www.pictomush.co.uk I'm Alex, a good friend of Ed's and, rather into my anime, my manga, my (anything by Square-Enix), my noodles, my Japan.
Sure may not have watched as many animes as Ed has, but I can write a damn good review. Also, I have disposable EMA money which I often spend on anime DVDs, although like most people the bulk of my viewing is online.
So basically, my special area will probably be anything less mainstream, really, I'll watch anything. Hope you enjoy any reviews I upload in future, I'll be uploading my first one tommorow proberbly, bye! ]]>
Me?tag:www.animecove.com,2008:/cove//1.122008-06-18T23:11:56Z2008-06-18T23:23:32ZYeah, I noticed I didn't properly Introduce myself so here goes.I'm a sixth form student in the UK and i generally enjoy watching anime and i'm interested in japanese culture. I've been learning japanese this year and probably have another...Edhttp://www.animecove.com I'm a sixth form student in the UK and i generally enjoy watching anime and i'm interested in japanese culture. I've been learning japanese this year and probably have another year ahead of me :/ I don't really read manga or play japanese games so much so I'll mainly be focusing on anime and random news from Japan.
That'll do. Don't worry, there will likely be some reviews of games from one of my friends. He'll probably post something tomorrow. I'm not sure.
Manga is probably not going to happen anytime soon because neither one of us reads manga regularly.
Anyway, that's me... Hopefully my posts will get better but everyone has to start somewhere as they say. ]]>
Death Note Vol. 1 (UK)tag:www.animecove.com,2008:/cove//1.112008-06-18T20:55:07Z2008-06-18T21:23:02ZI figured i'd start on a high so i'll begin by reviewing the UK Death Note volume 1. I say UK because i believe that in the US each volume is only 4 episodes whereas over here we get eight...Edhttp://www.animecove.com
Death Note volume 1. I say UK because i believe that in the US each volume is only 4 episodes whereas over here we get eight per volume. Unfortunately we don't seem to get a special edition version though which is a shame because some of the little statues look neat. Anyway, I wandered into forbidden planet recently as i occasionally do to see what anime they have and i was greeted with the amazing sight of death note volume 1. Of course i've already seen every episode but i want to get the DVDs so i instantly snap it up and buy it without a second's thought. When i got home i stuck it into the DVD player and was greeted with the menu. If i had the DVD here i would grab some shots of the menus and upload them but unfortunately i've let a friend borrow it. I'll upload some pics when I get it back. ]]>
As I'm sure you know, death note is one of the best anime series
out there, at least in my opinion, so i'm not sure there is much point
reviewing the series itself here. I think i'll just review the whole
series in this post while trying not to reveal too many spoilers.
The series starts with a young, innocent Yagami Light who likely has a
bright future in the police force after graduating university. Until he
finds the death note that is... As the series continues his character
and those of all the main characters build in an amazing way that makes
it easy to see why it is one of the most popular series today.
Constantly unexpected twists appear almost every five minutes leaving
you always on the edge of your seat. I've watched it at least three
times and still expect to watch it many, many more times.
As for special features, I didn't bother to look at the 'behind the
scenes' of the american voice actors since i'm firmly in favour of
subtitles (although the dub is actually surprisingly good) but i did
look at the clean opening and closing credits. A great feature that
leaves you to enjoy the music and the picture without the distraction
of the text. An ultimately somewhat pointless feature but nice
nonetheless.
Overall, this is definitely a 'Must Buy'. ]]>
A Different Look at Animetag:www.animecove.com,2008:/cove//1.102008-06-18T20:37:11Z2008-06-18T20:44:49ZWelcome to the Anime cove!Through this site I hope to post news and reviews relating to japanese anime and culture. There may be posts about japanese games and possibly manga although the latter is unlikely since I don't really like...Edhttp://www.animecove.com
Through this site I hope to post news and reviews relating to japanese anime and culture. There may be posts about japanese games and possibly manga although the latter is unlikely since I don't really like them myself. Unlike other anime sites on the web, there will be no mention of what I view as 'americanised' anime such as Naruto. Unfortunately I am in the UK so, unless I import DVDs I may have problems reviewing anime in a timely manner but review it I will! I'll probably start with some of the DVDs I already have and then move onto others i have seen recently. Anyway, without further rambling from me, enjoy! ]]>
So, Sky blue is actually a korean film. On the box it says it is in japanese and has english subtitles. Either I am far better at Japanese than i think or the box is lying: the movie is in english and there are no subtitles. It could just be the specific copy I bought but I'm just warning you. If you choose to buy it, don't trust the box!
