Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Posted on January 22, 2011 by DarkMirage

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

If anime were a religion, magical girls would be one of its Five Pillars, along with shounen battle, love comedy, mecha and sports. Friendship, courage and cuteness are the fundamentals of the classic mahou shoujo. Implied yuri and teenage angst come optional in contemporary interpretations.

It’s a genre that is really easy to understand and that’s why I’ve never really been a huge fan of it. It’s like watching the latest Hollywood adaptation of yet another Marvel superhero — mildly entertaining with few surprises.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica is different. I am not ready to declare it the best show this season after three episodes, but I will say that it definitely stands out.

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Posted in Anime | Tagged , , , , , | 17 Comments

Maaya Sakamoto – Utsukushii Hito

Posted on January 16, 2011 by DarkMirage

Triangler

Maaya’s latest album You can’t catch me was just released a few days ago. The best song in the new album is by far Utsukushii Hito, a collaboration with Yoko Kanno for the Kentoushi Fune Saigen Project at last year’s Shanghai World Expo. The exhibition itself was basically a replica of a ship used during the Tang Dynasty to bring Japanese envoys to China and Utsukushii Hito was the official theme song for the project. Maaya performed it live at the ship’s departure ceremony from Osaka but didn’t actually show up at the Expo.

Lyrics and translation after the break.

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Posted in Music | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Valkyria Chronicles 2

Posted on January 13, 2011 by DarkMirage

VC2

With the release date of Valkyria Chronicles 3 for PSP less than two weeks away, I figure this is the perfect time (by my usual standard of procrastination) for me to write up my thoughts on VC2, a game which I had only recently completed.

In my defence, I only got to play the original VC three months ago after finally caving and buying a secondhand PS3. Also, Valkyria Chronicles 2 is the most amazing game ever created for the PSP and everyone with two opposable thumbs should play it.

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Posted in Games, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments

PS3 Completely Cracked

Posted on January 6, 2011 by DarkMirage

PS3
PS3 cracked wide open

Lots of exciting things happened in the PS3 scene the past few days. The aftermath is that the entire PS3 encryption scheme has been irrevocably cracked and broken, with no possibility of a firmware fix, due to a rookie cryptography mistake made by Sony who is now crying in a corner.

Let’s take a look at the itinerary of events.

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Posted in Tech | Tagged , , , , , , , | 20 Comments

Happy New Year 2011

Posted on January 1, 2011 by DarkMirage

New Year

あけましておめでとうございます！ Happy new year! Actually by my timezone it’s already almost the end of the first day of 2011 (actually exactly 1 minute left), but a huge chunk of my day mysteriously disappeared in a time slip, so I can only post this now.

Hopefully 2011 is a great year for me because I’m finally heading back to school after two years. Woohoo, California here I come!

My resolution for this year shall be to write more. I feel the quality of my writing has been abysmal of late and I am quite out of touch.

On another note, I will most probably be in Japan from late March to mid April to catch the Osaka leg of Maaya’s “You can’t catch me” live tour and hopefully visit some of the places that I’ve always wanted to see but was too lazy to. And I know that I say this every time, but I think this will really be my last trip to Japan. Ever. Or at least until I graduate from college.

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Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai

Posted on December 23, 2010 by DarkMirage

OreImo

There is no way my post title is so long. Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai, or OreImo as it is commonly abbreviated, is an interesting twist of the quintessential tsundere anime genre popularized by titles such as Shakugan no Shana and Zero no Tsukaima.

And beyond that, it, like Genshiken, is a testament to the subculture that has sprung up around bishoujo anime and games.

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Posted in Anime | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Incoming Haruhi-related Announcement

Posted on December 19, 2010 by DarkMirage

Haruhi

I’ve been following Kadokawa Shoten CEO Shinichirou Inoue’s Twitter feed for a while mainly due to Bill 156. Today, he posted a tweet saying that a huge announcement for Suzumiya Haruhi will be published in the next issue of Kadokawa’s The Sneaker magazine (the bi-monthly that the original light novels are serialized in) coming out on Dec 27th.

Given the complete lack of information, I am just going to make a completely baseless guess and call it now: live action movie adaptation of the original Yuuutsu story arc! (No, not this one.) Remember you heard it here first.

Well, at the very least, I think we can be sure that it won’t be a new special rip-off remastered edition of the DVDs, since the Blu-ray box only just came out.

Posted in Anime | Tagged , , , | 15 Comments

The Legend of the Legendary Heroes

Posted on December 18, 2010 by DarkMirage

Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu
This is what I watched 24 episodes for

One a upon a time, in an oriental archipelago far far away, a wise sensei of the literary arts told his students, “Foreshadowing can be used to masterfully hint at the future direction of your story and make the experience more interesting for your readers. This is an ancient technique passed down through the centuries and it has the power to either advance the human condition when used for good or destroy all life on Earth if it should ever fall into the wrong hands.”

Unfortunately, his lesson was soon forgotten. The Dark Side is too strong and the temptation too great. Forged by the twisted nethers of teenage angst and the passionate flames of homoeroticism, The Legend of the Legendary Heroes is a massive black hole of pure foreshadowing, unrestrained by such mundane limiters as climax or resolution.

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Posted in Anime | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Predictions on the fallout from Tokyo’s anti-manga law

Posted on December 15, 2010 by DarkMirage

Roger Rabbit

Gadget Tsuushin (getnews.jp) has made some tongue-in-cheek predictions about what will happen now that the Tokyo Metropolitan legislation restricting sales of certain targeted manga and anime has been passed.

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Posted in Otaku | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Tokyo Government passed anti-manga bill into law

Posted on December 15, 2010 by DarkMirage

Sad Panda
Sad panda is sad

Today, 15 Dec 10, the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly passed Bill 156 into law. As previously discussed, this law gives the Tokyo government additional powers to restrict the sales of manga, anime and video games based on two additional criteria: glorified or exaggerated depictions of illegal or incestuous sex acts.

According to Kadokawa’s head honcho, Shinichirou Inoue, there are unconfirmed reports that during the debate of the bill, a certain assemblyman said, “Isn’t there any way we can criminalize homosexuality?” If true, this suggests that the law, despite its expanded powers, will indeed be ineffective against yuri and yaoi titles due to the fact that homosexuality has never been criminalized in Japan.

It appears that Tokyo Anime Fair is doomed as the various companies led by Kadokawa are pledging to continue their resistance despite the setback.

Posted in Otaku | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments