Anime Review: Princess Jellyfish

Princess Jellyfish is an 11 episode anime based

 on the ongoing manga by Akiko Higashimura

Its been published since 2008

      This years anime line has been, to put it nicely, BLAND! Besides Guilty Crown, (which I have my own problems with) nothing this season looks to be worth a watch. With the rutt of no new anime to watch, I decided to dive into a show I skipped out on last year, called Jellyfish Princess, a slice of life show about a jellyfish obsessed girl living with neets in a boarding house. Adventure away!

Finally! An animated Starwars that doesn't suck!

     I have be truly honest, the only reason I even knew this show existed was from it’s unique opening theme, which is a never ending bucket of American movie references. Everything from Sex in the City, Star Wars, and even Kill Bill are given a honorable mention, and the light poppy opening theme (Koko Dake no Hanashi by Chatmonchy) really makes what your seeing on screen pop to life. That and the fact its.........adorable. I mean downright, dare I say it ~kawaii~. If you can’t crack a smile, or laugh once while watching this intro, your downright heartless.

Admit it ladies, you love Sex and the City

     So how does the show itself hold up? Unfortunately, not as well as you might imagine, but Jellyfish Princess has its moments that will make you smile. The show focuses around a girl named Tsukimi, who lives in an apartment building called Amamizukan, with several other socially awkward women. They constantly stay indoors and never go outside, because they are afraid they might run into normal people they call the “stylish”. Each of the woman have exactly one obsession that drives their whole character, a few examples being, Tsukimi who has mother issues and is a nerd for Jellyfish, Banba who’s fascinated by trains and subway cars, and Mayaya, who’s oddly enough, obsessed with the War of the Three Kingdoms, a famous war in Japans feudal history. It seems like the young Tsukimi is doomed to be alone and misunderstood, until a stylish and bombastic woman, Kuranosuke, comes into her life to reinvigorate her love for all things fun and Jellyfish. Tsukimi has finally found the perfect person who’s going to help her become the type of woman her mother always wanted her to be, but it turns out that the she is he, for Kuranosuke is a boy who loves to dress in girl cloths and be paraded around in drag. Oh yes, this is THAT kind of anime people.

Yep, that's a guy, and that man he's waving his butt at is his uncle

     The characters in Princess Jellyfish are a mixed bag. Some are truly great, such as Kuranosuke’s bad with woman brother Shu, and the amazingly vicious land developer Shōko, are both fun & extremely extremely enjoyable to watch when they have the spotlight. Even our main leads Tsukimi and Kuranosuke, are a lot of fun, as they work off one another very well.

The scenes with Shu and Shoko are the highlights of the series

      On the flip side, most of the time during the shows run is spent with the “one joke apiece” sisterhood, who while they aren’t terrible characters, can get boring and old very quickly. Most of the scenes they are in can be summed up as, “Oh look, they did something weird and cooky again, everyone point and laugh! Herpa derp!” That’s one of downsides with this series, the minor characters are so much more fun and interesting to watch than the main cast, that you almost wish the show was about them instead of the lady stooges. Again, they aren’t horrible, but you really wish that they did more, and contributed more to the overall story.

They're like Charlies Angels, only they suck

     Jellyfish Princess seems to be trying juggling a few themes over the course of its narrative. I feel the way that the sisterhood acts around normal people aka the “stylish” is played out to extreme levels of ridiculousness, but can also be a satire of how we really feel about interacting with other people in society, especially if you have a low self esteem. While I feel it can sometimes interrupt the flow of the story, I can understand what the writer might have been trying to get across.

Kill Bill. Nuff said

 
     A weird & disturbing theme of the show is the idea that if the ladies put on makeup and fancy clothes, that people will actually take them seriously, and not consider them to be complete freaks. Its not shoved down our throats, but it always seems like the only way to get Tsukimi and the ladies to get anything done is if they are dressed as fashion models. It doesn’t come off completely like this, the clothes are more a symbol of outward self confidence for the main cast, but I can’t help shake the feeling that a message of “Be fashionable and what people want you to be, or else no one will take you seriously.” is present here, if only slightly. 

Remember girls, men will only love you if you look pretty! :D

     Even after all the flak I gave this series earlier, I still have to say I like it. For what it is, a goofy, “take your shoes and relax” style soft comedy anime, it's well done and looks outstanding. This has to be one of the most colorful and imaginative looking shows Iv’e seen since Fooly Cooly. It can be choppy at times, but for the most part, the show is a blast to sit and watch for the animation style alone. The themes and plot can get scrambled and chaotic at times, but that’s the kind of vibe the show of going for. Its a simple story about self conscious people trying to get by, which is something I think we can all relate to at some point in our day to day lives. Take it for what it's worth.

This picture leads to the funniest scene in the whole series

I give this quirky comedy a “Stylish” 6/10

PatTheOtaku Mentioned on Screwattack's Sidescrollers!!!

The best 45 minutes of your video game week, & Florida news show on the web!

I entered and won Screwattack's 3 Ways to Win, and legendary gaming badass Stuttering Craig gave me a mention on Sidescrollers. My mention comes at about 1:57. Click here to watch it on Screwattack.com. 

The Naruto Rant (Discussing the Current Manga and More)

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Mini Review: Buraiden Gai (Nobuyuki Fukumoto)

Buraiden Gai ran from 2000-2001

     Buraiden Gai (Outcast Story: Gai) is one of the various works of Nobuyuki Fukumoto, who is most famously known for being the creator of Kaji and Akagi. Unlike these works however, Buraiden Gai has nothing to do with gambling, Yakuza, and his trademark "ZAWA" line, which only makes a minor appearance. The manga involves a young man living in Japan named Gai, who is framed for the murder of an elderly man of an extremely wealthy family. The story focuses on Gai trying to prove his innocence while surviving the inhuman treatment of the Human Institute, an island prison similar to Alcatraz. It is here that criminals in society are "reformed" and get the chance to become "human" once more. 

     With only 38 chapters, it won't take you very long to read through Buraiden Gai, and if your a fan of the works of Fukumoto, I recommend you give this a read. Just don't expect it to be like his other works.

I give this short lived series a 7/10

(This was review was originally posted on myanimelist.com here)

Nerding Out Episode 1: You Should be Dead Lisanna!

Inspired by Leon Thomas's Heart of Gaming

The Story of Final Fantasy Tactics in 5 Seconds

 I just uploaded to youtube. Hope you enjoy.

Minor Updates/New Stuff

SCV Ready!

     I made a few changes to the blogspot today. Fist off, I added a bar that will let people share and link PatTheOtaku on Facebook and Twitter. Speaking of Twitter, I have added a feed that links directly to my twitter account, also named PatTheOtaku. On it, you will be able see my snide comments on everyday life and goings ons. I encourage you to follow me if you want to keep up to date with the site. NEW CONTENT IS COMING SOON! I have some more movie reviews and FINALLY, a new anime review headed your way! Be sure to stay tuned

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Movie Time! Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2

     Ah yes Harry Potter. With the release of this movie comes a closing in my childhood. I now have to face facts that their will never be a new Harry Potter anything for as long as I am alive. (unless you count Pottermore, but who honestly cares about that?) But nostalgia aside, is Harry Potter 7: The Deathly Hallows part 2 HD 3D Alpha Turbo Remix vs Capcom any good? Lets dive in!

Harry Potter; and the Deathly Hallows part 2

     

     Since this is an adaptation of book, we should discuss how well it accomplishes putting the written page on the silver screen. Unlike other book adaptations,  (COUGHERAGONTHATWASBULLSHITCOUGH) HP 7 part 2 does an outstanding job of using its source material well. When I first heard that Warner Brothers was splitting the last book into 2 movies, I kinda scratched my head. “Why would they do this?” I thought. Then after re-reading the entire series for the third time, (yes I’m sad and lonely) I noticed how much of the 7th book was not full of side quests and filler like the other books are. In fact, every chapter of that book had plot relavent things going on , and so, it would be impossible the cut scenes out like they did in the other 6 films. So they had the choice of making one long film that would likely be about 4 hours and drag like hell, or split the book into 2 films. Hey, I’d rather watch a 5 hour Harry Potter movie than Transformers 3 anytime.

My precious.....Sword of Gryffindor

     Harry Potter brings back bigshots Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Ema Wattson (Herminoe), and Rubert Grint (Ron). They all do a fairly good job of keeping with the characters that they spent 6 other films perfecting. Radcliffe especially does a decent job as the main lead, but some scenes have him spacing out when he should be angry or upset, which is ashame, because wev’e seen that he can play mad and do it well. Other than that, the acting is top notch, emotions are portrayed well, and dramatic scenes have some real weight to them. Overall, it's a movie you can get easily sucked into, especially if you have read the books.

Daniel Radcliffe and crew put on a good show

     If you have seen the trailer for this film, chances are you know its more combat oriented compared to the first HP7 movie. A good 2/3 of the movie is a ginat battle scene that will surely remind you of Braveheart and LOTR Return of the King, but it has to said, all the battle scenes in this film look great, even the CGI parts. That’s a high compliment coming from me, seeing as how I usually detest CG. Despite being a childrens movie, HP7 part 2 is strangley violent. I know a battle is going on, but we see people getting engulfed in flames, blown up, dicinigrated, and falling off a collapsing bridge to their deaths! JEEZE! Way to strech out that PG13 rating guys.

Death and destruction, you know, for kids!

     Overall, I liked all the Harry Potter films, and this movie was the perfect way to close them out. The well done epilogue especially brought a tear to my eye. When Harry talks to his son, I almost felt like it was my adulthood coming to grips with the end of my childhood. From day one, the cast and crew of these films have been extraordinary, I’m both sad and incredibly happy that its finally come to a end. Dramatic, full of suspense, good cinematography, music, acting, and cool battle scenes, I highly recommend you check this movie out before it apparates out of theatres.

I give Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows a well deserved:

3.5/5 A solid film to close of the series.

Also, a shout out to Neville Longbottom.
Do I need a reason?

Quick Post: Ichigo becomes the Necromancer???

For anyone not reading the Bleach manga, mad spoilers ahead.

So Ichigo, when are you going to invest in Raise Skeleton?

     Am I the only one who noticed that Ichigo's new fullbring form looks a lot like the Necromancer from Diablo 2? The scary thing is that it's dead on from a perspective standpoint. The skin thight-ish black and white gothic outfit, giving the allusion of bones. Its practically identical. Don't get me wrong, it looks cool, but I can't help but think if Tite Kubo got his inspiration from D2, or if it's just a huge coincidence? Either way, I'm sure Ichigo's new look will inspire a new wave of Bleach costly, and provide us for some epic battles in the future.

Movie Time! Transformers 3 and Green Lantern

     While I was in LA at Anime Expo, I went and saw two movies at the theater with my friends. On Friday I saw Transformers 3, and on Saturday I saw Green Lantern. These movies are both supposed to be the go to summer block busters of this year, so lets see how they stack up.

   

Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon :

      I like to think that in any form of entertainment you can take something away from the experience of baring witness to it. Most movies, video games, books, and artwork have a tone or message that they want to get across. Transformers 3 is one of the few cases in which this simply is not true, it's just a waste of time and money. NOTHING in this film worth mentioning, aside from some incredibly fake looking CGI. It's empty, a void that's filled with nothing but the militaristic views of the it's twelve year old minded director, Michael Bay. I have never been a huge fan of the original series, but I still knew the premise, "Giant robots that can change into vehicles and various devices come to earth and kick the crap out of each other." That script writes itself, it shouldn't be hard to turn into a live action movie. But somehow, the cast and crew behind Transformers did it not once, not twice, but THREE times! Let me get into the nitty grit and break down why I hate this piece of ass that passes for cinema.

"This is like dying all over again for the third time."

 

 

1. The Plot is Misguided : For some reason that escapes me, a movie called Transformers about giant alien robots only has them only a a cliff note in their own film. Back again in the role of Sam Witwicky (I don't care enough to see if that's actually how you spell it or not, but if I looked it up, I would be wasting more effort than the writers of this garbage.) is Shia Labeouf, who does a great job telling us how much his life sucks while dating the hottest slut that isn't Megan Fox. Not only that, but apparently, he got a free ride scholarship from the White House. BOO F**Kin HOO! It sure sucks to be you. That's my biggest with this movie, it's all about Sam and finding a job, and NOT able the giant death machines mentioned on the marquee. In all honesty, the Transformers have maybe 12 minutes of the movies screen time that involves them. That's pathetic! That's like making a remake of Back to the Future that revolves around George Mc Fly doing his taxes in 1985 while his son goes to change the past. I could go on but I have more ground to cover.

"Dear god, please find me appealing! 

 

 

 

 

 

2. The Run Time: This bastard child of Jersey Shore and I Robo clocks in at two hours and forty five minutes! 2 hours and 45 minutes!! That's almost as long as LOTR the Two Towers. I saw so many people looking at their watches and cellphones, just waiting for this thing to be over with. I can understand having a long movie, but things have to actually happen in that allotted time frame that keep my interest. Don't just have random battles with characters I know nothing about, actually take the time to set the tone of the film were supposed to be watching. This movie was actually long and boring enough in its first half to make me fall asleep. I have a pretty low expectations when it comes to crappy action movies, but the fact it was so uninteresting enough, to where I would actually fall asleep is a testament of this films terrible pacing. I never sleep through a movie, no matter how bad. I mean for christ sake, I was able to sit through Sense and Sensibility, but I can't sit through a Transformers movie?! Even during the "good parts" with the robot fighting and Optimus Prime, its still boring, because again, the movie focuses on it's human characters and not the Transformers. The final battle scene takes up an hour of the film. YES a full hour. No time to breath, no pacing, just throw some shitty CGI together and people will love it! Bottom line, this needed to be shorter, as in less than two hours.

Fun Fact: Lenard Nimoy plays one of the main villains called Sentinal

TBC....

Anime Expo AX 2011 LA

My experiences at this years Anime Expo

Review Time! Gundam 00: Awakening of a Trail Blazer

A review I made awhile back

My Thoughts on Kingdom Hearts

     Recently, people on youtube have asked me about my opinions on the Kingdom Hearts games by Square Enix. I was asked this when I was talking to a few friends about The World Ends With You; a game that was done by the same development team. They were shocked to hear that I don't really like the KH series, so I decided to lay out my reasons why.

     The following as ALL opinion based and should not be taken to heart. I know many people, some of who are my best friends, who love these games, and theres nothing wrong with that. These are just my thoughts on the subject. ALSO: I'm only going to point out things from the first game, as its the only one Iv'e played/seen played all the way through.

1. The Concept: I think its cool when crossover events in gaming happen. Marvel vs Capcom, Street Fighter X Tekkon, these are great ideas, but RPG characters+Disney? They don't really belong in the same room, let alone the same game. Oh I can already hear you now, "YOU JUST HATE IT BECAUSE YOU HATE DISNEY!!." That's not true, most of my great early childhood memories come from Disney. Toy Story, Beauty and the Beast, and Mulan are some of the greatest examples of children's films, but did you ever want to play a video game about them? (Maybe Toy Story) Okay now lets reverse the argument. "OH YOU ONLY HATE IT BECAUSE YOU HATE RPGs!" As mentioned above, TWEWY is one of my all time favorite games, so I think I'm not going to be jumping on the RPG hate wagon anytime soon. Iv'e played games like, FF 1-7, Golden Sun, Chrono Trigger, Fire Emblem, Dragon Quest 9, Radiant Historia, and the Shin Megami Tensei games, I KNOW what a good RPG is, and the entirety of Kingdom Hearts is NOT a good example of this in my opinion. Simply put, KH has a lousy story, empty characters, and no clear footing for what it wants to be.

2. The Story: Okay lets be brief, what is the story of Kingdom Hearts? Lets look at the first game. Three kids, Sora (the bland main character), Riku (the emo loner best friend), and Kairi (blandy Mc bland heroine)  live on an island (and apparently have no parents) and are setting out to go explore the world and sail out to new lands. A dark force comes and rains on their parade and takes away Kairi (Sora's childhood friend/jail bait) and Riku. Now Sora has to travel from Disney World to Disney World to find them. Meanwhile, King Mickey, (Yeah he's actually a king in this game. Its not too far from actually happening RL in my book) the guy who keeps the dark force at bay has gone missing, and now his best agents Donald and Goofy have to go looking for him. They meet up with Sora and team up to help him. And then their is literally no REAL plot events until the end of the game, which is just them finding the King and Riku and using the keyblade to seal away darkness.......only then to be released in the next game.

What the hell!!? How do you do that? How do you make a JRPG with a plot I can write out in literally 3 minutes! That kinda thing is INEXCUSABLE! A JRPG is a game that is primarily driven by its plot, and Kingdom Hearts has almost none of it beyond: Go to Disney World, Fight Heartless, Beat Boss, RIKU!!!! WHY!?!? Rinse and repeat. If you told me to write out the plot of Golden Sun, a GOOD JRPG, it would take me hours and pages of description. Bottom Line, the story is WEAK. Its the second worst thing about these games besides the characters. Speaking of which.....

3. The Characters: When most people claim that all RPGs involve dumb looking pre-teens with obnoxious catch phrases trying to save the world, this is one of the game series they draw ammo from. I'm going to be brutally honest here, the original Kingdom Hearts characters (besides the trademarked Disney/Square Enix ones) are all HORRIBLE! Every single one of then.

Sora, a character
without character

First lets talk about our lead, Sora. He's a spunky pre teen who wants to rescue his friends. And thats all their is to him. We get no clue about his past, his dreams, his motivations, and his views of the world. He's BLAND. He has no outstanding talents or traits, other than spouting out one-liners and being preachy, and has almost NO development by the end of the main story. Really Square? This is the character I'm supposed to relate to? An anime version of Justin Bieber with Ronald Mc Donald shoes? No thanks.

Has all the personality
of a wet dish rag.
A beige dish rag

Now lets talk about Sora's foil character Riku. Did you ever watch Naruto? You remember the character Sasuke? Thats Riku in a nut shell, A whiny emo piss tard who is never satisfied with anything he has, and always wants more power. He's the moody loner character that otaku fan girls fawn over because they think he's "Deep" or "Misunderstood." He's neither, he's just a git who needs to get over himself. Moving on!

Useless.
 This girl makes Princess Peach
 look dependable by comparison

Now we come to the worst offender of all. The weakest of the weak characters of this game, Kairi. We've all heard the expression damsel in distress, a woman who needs a man to rescue her and then be the reward to him, and Kairi is LOWER than that. She contributes nothing, 0%, zilch to the overall plot and story, except for providing an underage character that hentai artists beat off to and not feel guilty about doing so. Kairi is a character that doesn't need to be in this game. You could take her out and nothing would change. She's more useless than Sakura from Naruto. Thats right I just said that! MORE USELESS THAN SAKURA! Thats an all time low if I ever heard it.

4. The Combat: This is perhaps the only aspect of the Kingdom Hearts games that I like. Combat is fast paced and exciting, and you have a wide variety of spells and attacks to use. You can even set your spells and abilities to the four available direction buttons like hot keys, which comes in handy when fighting bosses. When your controlling your single character (Sora), everything is fine, but the game has a system where you have two computer player allies running around flinging spells and attacking enemies, and this is where things can get problematic. The AI on your allies never does what you want them to do. For example, if you want Donald your mage to heal you with a spell, he will only do so when he feels like it, and just stands by while you get mauled by a dark monstrosity. That, or they run head first into enemy attackers and suicide themselves like Kamikazes and die. This means you constantly have to be healing them with potions/cure spells of your own, and have less time to get an attack in on the opposition.

CONCLUSION: Kingdom Hearts is a game with a cool concept poorly executed with a bad plot and worse characters thrown together with an alright gameplay system. So the final score is 1/4 for me. It has potential to be great, but is so up its own ass with spin off game after spin off game, that I don't ever see it happening.

Welcome!

Hello my fellow nerds! My name is Patrick, and welcome to my new blog spot. To put it simply, I love nerd culture. I'm a huge anime fan, movie geek, and book reader. Here on Pat the Otaku, I'll be sharing my thoughts and opinions on the above mentioned topics, and more on a weekly basis.