First Impression: Fate/Zero

I am not as excited as everyone else about this show. Like I said in my preview for Fall, I am not really a fan of Fate, either the anime or the game. I also don't get why are people so crazy about Fate. I admit that she's good with that sword of hers but other than that... she's rather dull.

(c) Pizaya

Since I have watched Fate/Stay Night, I am not completely clueless about this show. At least they are still using Holy Grail War concept shit as the pillar of the story. The Holy Grail War is a battle to obtain some ancient relic that will perform miracle to those who wins it. The Grail will choose 7 magi as Masters for the Servant. If you have the stigmata, that means you have the power to summon and command a servant (heroes of your choice from ancient time) and together you will fight the war.

That's all that I understand really. Other gibberish are just words that I have no idea what it means, really. They mentioned Tohsaka and Matou and few other names as if I am supposed to know who they are. Well, I am not. Or maybe I just don't remember. Orz.

The show takes us back and forth, from yesteryear to the future and from one country to the other. In doing so we are being introduced with the characters that will play their part in this war eventually. It is a necessary build up for the war that will happen anytime soon. I mean, I even get to see Rin as a child.

(c) Morii Shizuki

There are several key players in this show. The lucky winners for this round are Kotomine Kirei who will work together (under pretense that theya are enemy) with Tohsaka Tokiomi to ensure that they will win the other five battles. He is the most mysterious character out of the bunch at the moment. Then there's Kariya who abandoned his family name (Matou) to live a normal life but when he learned that Sakura (Rin's sister) was adopted, he made a deal to win the war so Zouken will release her. The third one is Waver Velvet, an ambitious boy from London who wants to prove that winning the war is all about pure skills and got nothing to do with bloodline or rank. The forth is Emiya Kiritsugi, the Magus Killer who was chosen to marry into the Einzbern family. He's one cruel son of bitch that will bomb both the Entire State Building if his target is in there. This fact makes me root for him lol me and my taste for bad guy. The fifth Master is Rin's dad Tokiomi. That left us with two more spots for Masters.

The battle to look out for has to be Emiya versus Kirei. They both kinda crazy in the head when it comes to murdering Magus.

Then there are the Servants. Assassin is assigned to Kirei, Saber to Emiya, Rider to Waver, Gilgamesh to Tokiomi and Berserker to Kiriya. Caster and Lancer are yet to found their Masters.


So... This first episode is pretty fucked up in so many ways. We got Sakura who got fucked by insects and was used to it in three fucking days. Jeebus. Then there's Waver who is so going to be fucked like there's no tomorrow by his Servant. Also, what's up with Tokiomi and Kirei's father going in circle while explaining shits to Kirei? I mean, just what the fuck was that? Kiriya and Berserker seem like the best fucked up combination you can think of and last but not least, Emiya who think someone just fucked with him when Saber appeared instead of Arthur. Heh.

Let us not forget who produced this show. I hope it will be as awesome and as fucked up gory as Kara no Kyoukai. Judging from this almost 48 minutes introduction of the first episode, I am pretty sure that it will turn out just as great. If the "Fate" franchise itself doesn't get me excited, knowing that Ufotable produced this does. Needless to say I am a fan of their works and thus by the end of this episode, I can honestly say my interest level has increased by tenfold.

Oh yeah this shit is going to be 25 long episodes of greatness! *cross fingers*

arts & animation 9/10
story 7/10
characters 8/10
sound 7/10
enjoyment 9/10
overall 8/10

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Kara no Kyoukai Epilogue

Naturally, I was really looking forward to this OVA because of my love for the all seven movies of Kara no Kyoukai. Truth be told, I have no idea what Epilogue is all about but that's what so exciting about it: the unknown. I trust ufotable to bring me joy with this OVA, just like they did so many times before with the previous movies.

My heart is beating so fast right now in anticipation. I have missed Mikiya and Shiki badly since the Boukyaku Rokuon.

(c) moca

The scene in Epilogue would be very familiar if you have seen all Kara no Kyoukai movies starting with Mikiya walking up the hill in a snowy day to see (the other side of) Shiki by the side of the hill looking down at the snow covered town below. It was heart warming for me personally but I have always been so biased when it comes to this show.

The both of them had a pretty deep conversation about Shiki in particular, of the Shiki that is in the middle of SHIKI and Shiki. I dunno if this made sense to anyone who have no fucking clue about the story but that's how it goes. So Chester, go watch the movies before you complained about it. They also talked about personalities. Shiki presented some very interesting views about them. Her analogy: she's a box and without Shiki as a software, she would just sit there not living. It was pretty deep and cool stuff. It allows Mikiya to learn of Shiki true self, that the soul came later and Shiki Ryogi is nothingness. Because it was a void, it tendency was to hope for death of all things.

Shiki gave Mikiya a chance to ask and wish for anything but my Mikiya declined the offer. He could have asked her to return his left eye back to normal but he didn't. I love the fact that he's still so understanding of the real Shiki. It made me believe in love. It sound cliche as fuck but every time I watch Kara no Kyoukai, I really feel like I want to fall in love and be content with it. That's why this movie has inspired so many of my stories before.

Towards the end, she said something that hit me straight in the face: about Mikiya being lonely. That got me thinking real hard. Even though my personality is the opposite of Mikiya, we have both chose to live our life by picking the most lonely path out there, even though it might not seems so. I'm not gonna lie, that kinda scared the bejeebus out of me =|

Then again, Kara no Kyoukai always managed to do that to me.

As usual, the story is moving on at it own slow pace. No action and lots of talking. Might not be my favorite but it presents a good deal of a better understanding of Shiki as a person. Insignificantly, it also slightly touched the topic of romance between Shiki and Mikiya. It was done subtly which is brilliant in my opinion. Blatant shit can only goes so far.

ufotable still did a good job with the arts and animation of this OVA. Nothing was spared. I love all the details and the camera angles that were used throughout the OVA. That was some serious shit. Kenichi and Maaya were brilliant as always. Both managed to hold tightly to what makes these two characters so endearing to the viewers. The BGM was exceptional, it only heightens the good experience of watching this OVA. Too bad that it is only 30 minutes in length. I obviously want more.

This OVA is not recommended to anyone who hasn't watch the movies first because you'll find the facts extremely boring and lengthy. To those who love the series, this one is a must see. Epilogue made my weekend :)

arts & animation 10/10
story 8/10
characters 10/10
sound 10/10
enjoyment 9/10
overall 9/10

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Kara no Kyoukai: Satsujin Kousatsu (Part 2)

The 7th installment of Kara no Kyoukai is the second part of the 2nd installment with the same title: Satsujin Kousatsu. I purposely started with the first part of the movie (the 2nd installment) in order to refresh myself with the story and before I knew it, I have re-watched all the six previous movies of Kara no Kyoukai. Thus that is why this review was delayed.

On to the review!

Oh hell yesh! Shiki remembers the day they first met! w00t!!

And fucking hell, they showed us what really happened on the night Shiki attempted to murder Kokuto! I absolutely did not expect THAT. So that's how she went into a coma. What the... *faps*

fucking orgasm

Series of murders started again after four years. The victims had the same characteristics as the murders that happened four years ago when Shiki was the prime suspect. Kokuto who has always believed in Shiki tried all that he can to look after Shiki but he can only do so much. He even investigated the drug Bloodchip that are being distributed in the city, further endangering his safety.

Little that he knows that Shiki had regained her memories of the incident four years ago. So what did Shiki do? She left and started to get brutal. She fights with one hand in her pockets and have no problem taking care of four grown men...

Despite all that, just like Kokuto, I still believe that Shiki is innocent and her goes missing is because she wants to find the real culprit and perhaps enlightens her heart so that she can accept that Kakuto really loves her despite all her faults.

and holy shit I was correct... kinda.

Throughout the entire length of the movie, I was totally afraid and worried of Kokuto's safety. It felt like he could get murdered at any given time. It scares the shit out of me.

Especially when Shirazumi confirmed his attention =\

Do you remember him from PART 1? His name is Lio Shirazumi. btw

Just when I thought things have calm down a little, the movie throws another punch and it goes directly to my core. Holy fuck. I was literally breathless when Kokuto found the diary and started to read it. HOLY FUCKING FUCK. He was practically in the lion's den!

I started to fucking cry for no apparent reason when he said this. Actually the whole conversation made me cried =\

What comes after that are just pure fangasm worthy. I would have ruined it if I put it in words. It won't do justice at all. It just... something that I have never experienced before after all these years of watching anime.

I think Kara no Kyoukai is definitely the best project of ufotable and if I was not a fan before, I sure am now. I got my jaw hanging from start to finish, absolutely sitting at the edge of my seat, sweating from goosebumps and anxieties. It fucking blows my mind away. Not to mention all those countless bloodfests made me effing fangasm.


Also, this movie made me realized why I chose to stay single. I might not seems like it but I kinda write romance for a living (besides my daily job) and the kind of romance I have been writing are the same kind as Kara no Kyoukai's Mikiya and Shiki. I have pretty much have this idea that romance surrounded by fucked up circumstances is ideal romance. So in conclusion I am probably gonna stay single for the rest of my life unless someone like Shiki comes along and sweep me off of my feet. Or Gintoki, or Grimmjow or Zero or... and the list goes on.

♥ ♥ ♥

the fighting sequences as always were freaking amazing
10 out of 10 is not what I had in mind. This movie definitely exceeded that rank so I'm gonna give it extra stars to go along with the 10 because it was FUCKING EPIC!!

art 10/10
sound 10/10
story 10/10
character 10/10
enjoyment 10/10
overall 10/10***

edit: It has been a month since I wrote this.

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Kara no Kyoukai 2: Satsujin Kousatsu (Part 1)

I am so glad that I chose to watch this again before I watch the 7th (and the last) movie of the series, which is Part 2 of the Satsujin Kousatsu.

Because I am a sucker for romance (not in shoujo though. I am referring to the unconventional love story) I freaking love the theme in this movie. This is the movie that made me realized that Kara no Kyoukai, ultimately, is a romance movie.

Satsujin Kousatsu is kinda a flashback when Mikiya and Shiki were still in high school. It is pretty telling that Mikiya fell in love with Shiki at first sight (April 1995), and the things that he was willing to do for her, and his influence on her as she was sculptured to be the Shiki we have known and love in Fukan Fuukei. For example, if it wasn't for his suggestion, we would probably never get to see her with her famous red leather jacket :)

love at first sight. aaahhhh @_@

Satsujin Kousatsu also shows that Shiki is a lady from a well-known/noble family, complete with bodyguard/butler and shit like that. The butler who believes that Shiki should be the one inheriting the Ryougi's household is loyal to her despite traditionally it would have been her brother that should be the head of the family one day.

If anyone has doubt about Mikiya and Shiki relationship, they even went on a date in this movie where Shiki told Mikiya of her split personalities: SHIKI and shiki. The usually cold one is shiki while the rebellious one is SHIKI. After that Shiki begun to isolate herself more and more except towards Mikiya. shiki told Mikiya that SHIKI can only feel rejection and lately she was in denial of shiki's existence. In one way, she kinda confessed to Mikiya that she was the murderer in order to ensure that SHIKI won't resurface.


Daisuke, a police officer who works on the murder cases, who is also Mikiya's uncle kind of confirmed what Shiki told him earlier. He also had a premonition of Shiki standing in front of a corpse with blood sprayed everywhere. Coincidentally, it became a reality and he saw it with his own four eyes.

How can I not want to marry someone like her =3

He was very confused and afraid for a while but it just made him more determined then ever. He then start to keep watch in front of Shiki's house without fail every night to perhaps stop Shiki from committing another murder, if she ever did. Even after Shiki totally ignored him at school. Now tell me if that ain't romantic :D

Kara no Kyoukai would not be Kara no Kyoukai without the gruesome murders and deaths. Shiki quickly became the suspect for those murders. It was too much of a coincidence anyway, whats with her double personalities etc.

At the end of this movie, something unexpected happened. Shiki wanted to murder Mikiya. I just love the expressions from both Mikiya and Shiki. The murderer and the victim. Absolute contrast. It was beautiful...

The panic stricken Mikiya

The calm and collected murderer Shiki

Damn, watching these always gave me freaking goosebumps. It is definitely one of my favorite scenes in this movie. The details was amazing. The rain, the bamboo trees, everything were so perfectly done. The way Mikiya submitted to his fate was so heart-touching in my opinion. Goes to show what a perfect gentleman he is.

The other favorite scene is when Mikiya waited the rain to stop with Shiki by his side and then he started humming a song.

He made me wants to have his babies *melts*

art 10/10
sound 10/10
story 10/10
characters 10/10
enjoyment 10/10
overall 10/10

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Kara no Kyoukai 1: Fukan Fuukei

I was in a mood for review as I re-watched all seven movies of Kara no Kyoukai hence why this periodic post dedicated to the movie is up (I abandoned my Pandora Hearts marathon for this although in reality I was just looking for an excuse).

Kara no Kyoukai: Fukan Fuukei (Borderline of Emptiness: Overlooking View) is the first movie of this series. This is the movie that started my addiction to Kara no Kyoukai and makes me gay for Shiki and wants to marry Mikiya but you guys don't want to know that.

I remember that I have to download the movie more than 3 times. It was my first experience with *.mkv file and it was such a headache thinking where the fuck did the subtitle disappear to? I was such an inexperience n00b back then -_-"


Fukan Fuukei is about a bunch of girls who seemingly committed suicide by jumping of from an Fujyou Building without leaving any suicide note. In truth, they were all control by a single entity.

I didn't realize this before (what the hell, how can I missed it) but it kind of obvious from the get go that Shiki has feelings for Mikiya. Maybe when I first watched it, it did not occurred to me that this movie might have romance theme in it because I can only see (and in awe) with the bloodfest and the horror. We can read from Shiki's attitude when Mikiya was "out". She was obviously annoyed and irritated and was extremely worried about him.

wake up Mikiya!

She made the connection between Mikiya's condition and the suicides even when Touko said it wasn't related. Mikiya would be the 8th victims if Shiki did nothing to stop it. She even cut her own artifical arm in order to save him without giving it a second thought

Despite Touko's warning, Mikiya went to the Fojyou Building to investigate the suicide cases. The ghost (who was controlled by a girl at the hospital, the evil entity I was referring to) at that cursed place has Mikiya's soul with her and Mikiya's body ended up to be an empty vessel unless Shiki can do something about it. And that she will because she's very possessive and pretty much tell us that Mikiya belongs to her and her alone (again, how the fuck did I miss this blatant confession? O_0)

I am so glad that I re-watched this movie. I forgot about Touko telling Shiki how Mikiya ended up working for her. It was a romantic story of how he keep staring at one particular doll as Touko interviewed him.

The doll sitting there is Mikiya's favorite. Care to take a guess why? @_@

At the beginning of the movie, Shiki said that she doesn't like ice-cream and kinda make you wonder why Mikiya still bought the strawberry (because it reminds him of her (jacket)) ice-cream for her. This is why:

She ate the ice-cream. She hates it but she still consumed it. Guess who is missing Mikiya >3

Remember I mentioned about the evil entity? She had a crush on Mikiya when she saw him every week as he visited Shiki when she was in a coma. But of course I didn't knew this the first time around so it didn't registered. Now that I've seen all seven of the movies, it made perfect sense. The girl ended up killing herself which made her the 8th victims thus returning Mikiya's soul to its rightful owner.

The last few words exchanged between Mikiya and Shiki made me smile. I love the metaphors that Mikiya's used of explaining his "dream". That is so like him and damn he is so smooth. I would blush too if I was Shiki *giggles*

Oh yeah before I forgot. For those who were clueless as to why Shiki has the "eyes", well it allows her to see the points of death on her enemies so she could just stab them as what her eyes see.

The famous eyes

the points of death that I was talking about

The art is one of the thing that stands out the most. It is definitely one of the reason why I am so into this series. The details are incredible, they took everything into consideration. You can see this during the fights and at the surrounding backgrounds. To enhance the experience, they inserted sounds effect that would totally made you so into this movie and invoke your emotions.

I love the character designs too. For example, Mikiya is not really a bishounen nor does Shiki a bishoujo but their characters and personalities what made them real and so damn likeable. I guess part of the kudos have to be given to the seiyuus as well.

What a delectable movie this is.



art 10/10
sound 10/10
story 10/10
characters 10/10
enjoyment 10/10
overall 10/10

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Toriko

I remember taking a peek at the manga and thought it was meh and dropped it after the first few pages. When I saw that ufotable has produced the anime, I gotta see it if only to satisfy my curiosity.

Toriko is about a man (the manga was named after him) who travels the world in search of the most rare ingredients, be it a talking vegetables or an 8 legged fish. The ingredients obviously are for his dish.

In this Special episode, Komatsu, a head chef of a restaurant hired Toriko to catch the Galara Croc for his dishes. So they went to Baron Island to hunt it down. It was an epic showdown between the croc and Toriko. In the end, through the circumstances, they became something that akin to partner.

As expected of the show, the characters were nothing deep. They are no mysteries. Their personality and what not should all be taken at face value.

Toriko

As the name suggested, he is the front man of this show. He craves for challenges to create the perfect full course menu. He kills all his foods bare handed and they aren't your typical food size foods either! You see, Toriko is a GAR chef who happens to have a very high skillz in hunting. When I said GAR, I mean he can sparks-fire-just-by-snapping-his-fingers GAR.

Komatsu

Komatsu is Toriko partner. He is the comic relief in this show but I don't need to tell you that. The picture above kinda self-explained what his role is. He wants to travel with Toriko so that he can improves his culinary skills.

The art and animation are nothing special. They are something we have seen before countless of time. They used really bright colors to emphasize the surroundings. Just look at Toriko's hair. The action sequences too did not impress me. They phailed to make Toriko as the kishin. He should have looked more menacing. The production took the easy way out but meh that happened all the time, even with Fairy Tail.

The seiyuus are okay in my opinion but again, they did not impress me. Neither did the OP or ED theme.


The video manga of Toriko. See that static image on the left? That's how Toriko should looked like when he went for a kill

Art 6/10
Story 6/10
Sound 6/10
Characters 6/10
Enjoyment 7/10
Overall 6/10

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Kara no Kyoukai: Boukyaku Rokuon

hehehe I've been waiting all day for my Kara no Kyoukai torrent to complete its download. At 11:04pm, the notification that I've been waiting for from u-torent makes me giggling like a fangirl that I am.

This is the 6th installments of the 7 series movie. I've rated 10 out of 10 for movie #2, #4 and #5 while I rated 9 out of 10 for the first installment and the 3rd one.

For this one, I'm giving it a full mark yet again.

Seriously, I couldn't stop giggling or squealing. Part of it was because I'm too effing excited to watch it and also because this time around, the mood started of lighter compared to the previous installments, thanks to the incest thing going on --

Wait, where the fuck do you think you're going? Just because you can't tolerate incest, that doesn't mean you have to stop watching the whole damn thing. Stupid faking moe...

Anyway, like I was trying to say earlier, the theme of incest doesn't go that far. It was implied but we all know that it never going to happen because we all know who Mikiya really likes anyway. And to be honest, I am a 'lil jealous when she holds his hand. She doesn't know it, but besides Shiki, she has to compete with me too *giggles and blushes*

Shiki is funny without trying to be one. That's why I like her from the very beginning. I wish I could say the same about Mikiya's sister, Azaka. She's trying oh so hard to be tsundere and moe at the same time. Phailed. But I have to give her some credit though. she did a good job making this movie enjoyable with her antics and she kinda redeems herself in the end.

This time around, the movie focused on fairy that stole memories. These fairies are being used by a magician to cover up certain something. Shiki was sent by Touko to Azaka's boarding school to investigate the matter since she has the 'eyes'. Oh you guessed right, she's cosplaying a school girl this time around. Thehehe... See why I got excited? *cough* moving on...

Like the other movies, this one gets really dark as the story progress but... Shiki is more human in this one, talking to Azaka about Mikiya, of her feelings/unfeeling. It also gave us flashback of Mikiya's past, albeit it's related to Azaka.

The characters are simple enough. Art is superb and flawless as well as the sound effects. I think Kalafina did the ED for this movieas well. All in all, I don't have any complains at all regarding this movie. Excellent as always.

Now I can't wait for the final installment! Did you see the preview? Oh. Em. Gee! Bloodfest!!!!!! *squeals*

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