Burn Up Scramble Review

Well guys, I knew it was going to come to this. After watching Burn Up, Burn Up W, and Burn Up Excess, it was only a matter of time before I came to the last series. A series that, for whatever reason, has given me mixed signals. On one hand, I find it to me an entertaining shows that still manages to be funny, dramatic, and serious. On the other hand, the amount of changes made are baffling. It’s because of these changes that I’ve decided to approach this review in a more free-flowing manner, and mix the positives with the negatives. Whether I apply this style to later reviews, I’m not so sure. But for now, here’s a review for Burn Up Scramble.

We start off with the show’s story. Essentially an all-new background, Scramble still centers itself around Rio Kinezono, a blonde & buxom cop, and her life in the police force. Along with her comrades Maya & Lilica, they go around doing various jobs, like protecting a princess, and general duties for the public. That’s really the only original aspects that were carried over from W & Excess, as the story in Scramble is much more loose in terms of episode structure (only the last 4 episodes are supposed to be watched in a precise order), and it doesn’t seem quite as intense. There isn’t as much of a threat from the villains this time around, and there aren’t as many intense moments as there was in past Burn Up series.

The characters have also been heavily changed. The only one that hasn’t been tampered with (At least not on a massive level) is Rio. She’s still a physically attractive fighter (this time around she can dodge bullets), and she still has a temper, but she doesn’t get as crazy during social interactions. A somewhat big change is why she look for a man: in Burn Up W & Excess, Rio desired a man so she can get easy money and leave her job, in Scramble she wants a man just for the sake of falling in love. Because of this desire, she has far more belief in horoscopes and lucky colors, but in the end this still doesn’t help.

Maya & Lilica have been changed much more than Rio, often in ways that might baffle long time Burn Up fans. Maya herself is still a gun nut, but she’s shorter and doesn’t quite have as large a chest as Rio, and she also has grey-black hair (The original Maya had green hair). Because of these physical changes, she more closely resembles a young girl, rather than a young woman. Her personality has changed much as well: she doesn’t have the sexual attraction towards firearms that her W & Excess counterparts had, has the bad habit of pointing out Rio’s shortcomings, and has the strange habits of collecting toy bears & automatic pistols (She names her pistols in her collection, by the way).

Lilica has received the most changes in terms of core characters. In Burn Up W & Excess, she was a cheerfully energetic computer and tech expert who almost always had a smile on her face. In Scramble, Lilica has become a shy, insecure, and slightly clumsy psychic. On top of that, she becomes more uninhibited and somewhat daffy when she’s had a drink or two. Her shyness & insecurity are the personalities most often seen by the viewer, but there are times where she rolls up her sleeves, and gets as tough as the others.

Even the side characters have been changed. The commander of the Warrior Team has been reduced to a background character, and doesn’t have much screen time, save for some episodes towards the end. Yuji, while physically similar to his previous counterparts, has gone from a perverted low-level policeman, to a surprisingly successful ladies man & head chief of the police. Luckily, he still provides the comic relief of the show, mainly consisting of his attempts to seduce Rio.

Voice acting has also changed for Burn Up Scramble. Unlike the previous Burn Ups, Scramble was done by Geneon, not the typical ADV Films (R.I.P.). Because of this change, none of the original voice actors can be heard in this show. Despite that fact, the voice acting manages to remain consistent across the board. This time around there’s a lot of good voice actors, and only a handful of okay & bad voice actors.

The animation quality has also been changed drastically. The previous 3 Burn Up shows were all hand-drawn & supplemented by computers, but Scramble seems to lean more towards computer work, with hand-drawn elements to smooth out some edges. Because of the computer work, the show doesn’t quite has as much of a crude look & feel, although there are times where things don’t completely look as they should. These moments are minor, and take a little bit of work to find.

One thing that really hasn’t changed from the previous Burn Up series (Burn Up Excess, to be specific) is the amount of episodes, and how long they last. We’ve got 12 episodes available, and they last about 22 to 24 minutes each. Unlike Mouse, which had the same amount of episodes but lasted only 3 hours, the length of time in each episodes makes watching them consecutively a longer affair.

The last thing about Burn Up Scramble I’ll talk about is how hard it is to find. Despite coming out a little later than Burn Up Excess, finding copies on Amazon can be some work. There’s definitely copies of volume 1 (New copies start at $2, and used copies start at $1.50), volumes 2 & 3 aren’t as numerous. Perhaps the most difficult thing to find is all 3 volumes together in one package. At the time of this writing, there are only two complete collections available for purchase, both of which are new. The first costs $149.99, and the second is $220.48.The show is worth money, but it’s not worth hundreds. 

Burn Up Scramble gets 7 to 7.5 out of 10.

See you all next week, when I’ll put on some wintery clothes, and dive into a December filled with goodies & surprises. Until then, stay Otaku!


*
I know I said that I went back to my old schedule, but since it’s the holiday season, I’ve decided to shower you all with reviews & other holiday goodies.

Mad Bull 34 Review

Well everybody, it happened again. I’ve watched another bad anime, and I’m posting up the review for it. If you remember back in March, I reviewed the SiN OVA (Click “***” to read it), which I promptly slammed. Today’s however, is a little bit older, but so many more degrees of screwed up. Plus, you can tell an anime is bad when it doesn’t get a DVD re-release. Well, it’s time to share a little more misery with you, so here’s a review for the infamous Mad Bull 34.

I guess I’ll begin with the story. I don’t really want to explain it, but luckily, Wikipedia has:

“Daizaburo "Eddie" Ban, a Japanese-American, joins the New York City's toughest precinct, the thirty fourth. On his first day he is partnered up with John Estes, nicknamed "Sleepy" by his friends and "Mad Bull" by his enemies, a cop who stops crime with his own violent brand of justice. Mad Bull makes no qualms about executing common thieves with shotgun blasts, even if they pose a minor threat. He often steals from prostitutes and does incredible amounts of property damage while fighting crime. Mad Bull's unpoliceman-like behavior often puts him in hot water with his partner Daizaburo and the 34th precinct. However, despite how reckless or illegal these acts are, a good cause is always revealed (for example, Sleepy uses the money he steals from the prostitutes to fund a venereal disease clinic and a home for battered and raped women). Perrine Valley, a police lieutenant, joins Daizaburo and Sleepy later on to help them tackle more difficult cases involving the mafia and drug-running.”

Now, you might think that with a story like this, it would make some kind of sense...but it doesn’t. Within each episode, the story becomes a jumbled, chaotic, and psychotic mess. There might be something that makes sense one moment, then something else will come along later and destroy any sense the previous scene made.

If the story bounces all over the walls, then the voice acting bounces on those same walls, and breaks through them. Some voices sound okay, but just about everybody else sounds like the bottom of the voice actor barrel was scrapped. It also doesn’t help the fact that many of the voices sound racially stereotypical (New Yorkers, Asians, & African Americans are just a few that are stereotyped), and even with the accents they don’t sound good. There are only a pinchful of characters that sound alright, but even then their voices sounds like nails against a chalkboard.

Next up on the chopping block is the animation quality. Let’s me say that this show is ugly, plain & simple. It doesn’t look like a lot of work was put in, and this is especially noticeable when the misuse of the English language is plainly in front of the watcher’s eyes (I forgot, but I swore I saw Engrish words at least 5 times). The most ugliest of the episodes is the third one, as everything has a yellowish tint to it. There’s a piss joke in there somewhere, but I can’t find it for some reason.

As we can already tell, the structure of Mad Bull 34 is rotten like a cesspool, but I’ve got more pain in suffering for you! In addition to the story, voice acting & animation quality, Mad Bull 34 has the distinction of being one of the most sexist shows on the planet. There is really only one female character (The cop) that isn’t fully treated like crap, but all the other females are put through hell. Case in point: in the first few minutes, we see a girl about to get raped by two men, and a girl soon after getting accosted by two robbers (To tell you what happens afterwards would cause you to have spasms). One odd factor about the women that get in danger is that they have blonde hair. There’s a Nazi joke in there somewhere, but I can’t find it for some reason.

Mad Bull 34 is not only one of the most sexist anime, but it’s also one of the most racist. We’ve got a black gun with a stereo-typically low/deep voice, and is prone to having his way with women (He kills a girl about halfway through episode 1). We’ve also got New Yorkers with partially stereotyped accents, and Asians with fu-manchu accents round out this crap Sundae.

Now we come to the difficult part, and that’s finding anything redeemable about this show. With SiN, there was at the very least some glimmer of goodness swimming in that sea of shit. Finding something redeemable about Mad Bull 34 is like trying to find a honest Republican, but somehow, I was able to find a little bit that wasn’t stained by everything else. There wasn’t that many things, but I did find something.

For starters, Mad Bull 34 is a high-octane action show. There are very few moments where things are slow: just about every other scene is some form of action, whether it’s Mad Bull getting it on with a random woman (This happens a few times, by the way), or when he’s taking out the bad guys. Speaking of taking out the bad guys...

Mad Bull 34 is also one of the most violent shows out there. Back during my SiN review, I said that it was a gory show, and this one is no different. In the first few minutes, we see a black guy have his head decapitated by gunfire (He was one of the two rapists that I mention a moment ago. The other one was a white guy, if you’re curious), and another guy have his head taken off piece by piece with shotgun blasts. There’s plenty of violent scenes in the other episodes, so if you’re a fan of bloodshed & carnage, you’ll enjoy this.

For those who’ve seen this show and hate it, you’ll enjoy these two things. Since the show hasn’t been released on DVD, finding the tapes for Mad Bull 34 is incredibly difficult. I’ve only seen a tiny few over on Amazon, and prices fluctuate all over the place. As for the episodes themselves, there’s only four, with one on each of the tapes. The episodes themselves last about 45 minutes each, and would make for part of a great (bad) anime marathon.

Mad Bull 34 gets a 2.9 out of 10. The story is god-awful, the voice acting is equally bad, the animation quality looks like Michael Jackson’s face, it’s incredibly sexist & racist, it’s hard to find, but the action is intense, the violence is over the top, and there’s only 4 episodes!

See you next time, when I’ll take a final trip to the Burn Up universe, and a scrambled one at that. Until then, stay Otaku!


* If you are even the slightest bit curious about this abomination, take a look below:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqfmmf_mad-bull-34-1-scandal-dub-en_shortfilms?search_algo=1

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqfn64_mad-bull-34-2-the-manhattan-connection-dub-en_shortfilms

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqfnox_mad-bull-34-3-city-of-vice-dub-en_shortfilms

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqfous_mad-bull-34-4-cop-killer-dub-en_shortfilms   




**
I somewhat lied about Mad Bull 34 not getting released on DVD. There is a plan for all four episodes to get released together in a DVD bundle, which will be sometime in 2013.

Leetstreet Boys - Legends (Mini) Review

Hi there! I know I said that I’d only do 1 post a week, but recently I’ve read an interesting proposition from the Leetstreet Boys website. Not a business proposition, but a opportunity to their latest album, L3g3nds (Yes, that’s how they spell it. Grammar Nazis...shoot yourself!). Seeing this as a challenge, I’ve decided to take it upon myself to review it. Problem is, I don’t have the album. I recently bought Christmas presents for people, and suffice it to say, I need to lay off the debit card. However I don’t want to disappoint you guys & LB, so I figured screw it, and decided to do a mini review of the songs that have made it to youtube, and without further adieu, here it is.

Songs
Sakura: I was quite surprised when I listened to this for the first time. Despite sounding a little cheesy, the lyrics are surprisingly mature, and while the instrumentation sounds a lot like many of their previous songs, there seems to be a little more depth to them. As youtube user supersaiyan8thgate said:

“I could see this being an opening to an anime”

The Song Of Time: Holy shit, has a Leetstreet Boys song cause me to well up a tear or two? Well, this one has! If Sakura was a song that have some maturity & depth to it, The Song of Time has far more of these two things.

Where as Sakura relied a lot on drums, guitar, and keyboard, The Song Of Time takes on a more happy-sad vibe with it’s use of piano, drums, snipbits of guitar, and some impressive flute playing (Props to whoever played the flute). What’s more interesting is the lyrics, as they’re basically singing about the life of Link (The main hero of the Zelda series, for those who didn’t know), and how he still has dreams. Now, that might sound silly to some of you, but there’s a surprising amount of care & respect into what was chosen.

My Life Is A RPG: We go from two mature songs, to a tune that feels a lot more like a typical Leetstreet Boys ditty. The lyrics are incredibly cheesy, but fun to listen to, and the instrumentation feels very standard, yet there’s a lot of love and care put into them (This is coming from the guy that loves Heavy Metal, a music style not necessarily known for loving & caring). The only other thing I have to say is that if you’re a fan of RPGs, this song is for you!

Imaginary Boys: Much like My Life Is A RPG, Imaginary Boys feels very standard. The song relies heavily on keyboards, supplemented with some nice drums, and some slightly heavy guitar work (That surprised me). The lyrics made me laugh: the song essentially is about a girl going gaga over some male anime characters (To be more specific, the popular male characters), while the singer wishes he could be one of them. Again, this made me laugh, and I managed to crack a smile or two.

If I could use one word for L3g3nds, it would be this: experimentation.

Even though I obviously haven’t gone through all the songs, there seems to be a Devin Townsend vibe in this album. There’s still some familiar sounds, yet at the same time it seems like they’re partially going in a different direction, and trying to be a little more refined & mature, perhaps to get in some older listeners. If this is the case, then they’re doing a damn good job! Look forward to a full & proper review sometime down the road.

See you all next week, when I’ll review one of the most heinous anime ever made. Until then, stay Otaku!


*
If you liked the songs, here’s a link to buy the album:

http://www.leetstreetboys.com/store/album3/

**
If you don’t understand why I compared the Leetstreet Boys to Devin Townsend in this, then click on the links below in the precise order:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3-NQvRmo3I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQd8_MHPRXw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvmIByrcwAQ

Modern Warfare 3 Review

Hi everyone. With Black Ops 2 coming out tomorrow, I figured it would be fitting to take a look back at the previous Call of Duty game, and see if it’s still good (and to perhaps quell some anger), just before the new game eclipses the old. So, here’s my review for Modern Warfare 3.

Story
Taking place just hours after Modern Warfare 2, the conflict between the US & Russia has escalated, with fighting in the states still going on, but has since spread to Europe after some surprise attacks by Makarov, who has since returned to continue his terrorist attacks against the west. As the United States continues to fight their Russian foe, Soap & Price are still waging their guerilla war against Makarov and his allies, all the while trying to stay out of the US Military’s radar until the time is right.

Despite still coming up short in an area or two, when compared to MW2, the story in this game seems to be more fleshed out, and has some twists or turns in it that harken back to the original Modern Warfare. It doesn’t feel as cheap as Modern Warfare 2's story was, nor does it feel as rushed or have as many plot holes. I won’t reveal what happens at the end of Modern Warfare 3, but I can say that just about everything that didn’t get solved/fixed in the previous MW, gets solved in this one.

Setting
With Modern Warfare 2 (And Black Ops, for that matter), we were given numerous places all over the world to traverse and kills the bad guys, and Modern Warfare 3 is no exception. If MW2 was a sign of things to come, then MW3 is hell on Earth. From the moment you enter the game, you first step foot onto the ruined streets of New York City, it’s grandeur having been reduced to a shadow of itself.

After a quick romp through the city’s harbor, it’s off to Africa & Europe. Perhaps stereotypically, the various points where you go look ruined & neglected, although when you make it to a coastal town, things look a lot better than the previous level you went through, but there’s still a vibe of neglect. Europe itself hasn’t faired well either, as the war has now spread to Britain, France, and Germany. Their majesty getting crushed by the heel of the Russian Army, and turned into broken shells of their former selves. One prime example of a nation getting it’s face mutilated is in the final mission in France: after capturing one of Makarov’s men, you and your squad are driving through the streets, and eventually end up at the bridge, with a horde of Russian soldiers in front. With the reds keep pouring in, the ultimate (and dramatic) choice is to target the Eiffel Tower, and having it’s debris take out the Russians.

Even the Middle East isn’t immune to the conflict between the US & Russia, as the player makes one final trip into the sandy domain. I won’t completely reveal where you go & what happens while you’re there, but I will say that it’s a homage to the various fancy buildings that they construct.

Characters
One thing that is a weakness in the Call of Duty franchise (at least in my opinion, and not just in the Modern Warfare series) is characterization. It’s not that there aren’t any good characters, cause there is, but the fact that they either die immediately, die off-screen, or disappear from the story that won’t let the player interact with them. Given the FPS nature, this is understandable, but there’s been plenty of examples of first person shooters with great characters (Bioshock & Borderlands 2 come to mind), and given what’s going on, you’d think that there would be some great characters. This is not the case.

Actually, that’s a partial fib. There’s definitely some characters that do stand out, regardless of which side you play. Over in the Delta Force missions, there’s Sandman, a no-nonsense soldier that has a cool mind, and a itchy trigger finger. Following him are equally stable soldiers Grinch & Truck, who often banter with one another outside of combat. When you’re playing one of the Task Force 141 missions, you return to the familiar faces of Soap & Price. When we first see Price way back in Modern Warfare, we see a gruff individual that’s been through a lot of shit. In this game, he’s been through more shit, but we see him to be a more caring individual, especially when he’s with Soap (Not in that way...perverts!). They’ve been through a lot together, enough so that we partially see a different side of him. Same goes with Soap.

There’s a few other characters, but they aren’t worth many words. Just these ones.

Gameplay
If there’s any chief complaint about the Call of Duty series (This really started when MW2 came out, although there were some rumblings during World at War’s runtime), it’s the fact that the gameplay has remained the same since MW1, and hasn’t changed much. Essentially, the gameplay comes down to this:

1) Appear at the mission area
2) Move through the area & kill people
3) Do small tasks
4) At the end of the game, kill the main badguy while he’s distracted (Don’t ask)

Now, some might say that I’ll deny this, but I actually agree with this, if albeit reluctantly. It is very repetitive, and it can get boring quickly, but if you can get past those two things, you’ll find a relatively good action game. It’s a shame that not much has changed.

However, there were some new additions. Coming in from Modern Warfare 2 is the new Spec Ops mode. Basically, Spec Ops takes pieces of levels from the singleplayer game, and creates mini-missions around those pieces, like a stealth mission through the snow. These mini-missions are great, and become especially challenging at higher difficulty levels. There’s even two Spec Ops levels that require a second player to come in the game (Ironically, MW2 had two Spec Ops levels that required a second player).

A rather new addition to the Modern Warfare series is Survival Mode. Similar to the Zombie mode found in Treyarch’s CoD games, you (and maybe 1 other player) survive wave after wave of armed soldiers that increase in difficulty overtime. What separates Survival Mode from the Zombie mode is that you have far more tools at your disposal, and even at higher levels you can survive, as long as you know what you’re doing.

Now it’s time for the elephant in the room: the multiplayer. Getting mutilated on the PC for MW2 (there were no dedicated servers), and getting a horrible bandage in Black Ops (there were dedicated servers, but people had to pay for them), most PC gamers didn’t necessarily have hope for when MW3 came to PC. However, not all was lost.

With MW3, we still have the Peer-to-Peer system, and it’s still irritating, but it seems to be more stable than MW2's P2P system (lag problems were rampant in MW2), and there aren’t as many hackers (they seem to get caught more quickly than before). Fortunately, they added dedicated servers again, and you don’t have to pay this time around.

The last multiplayer component I’ll take about is the prestige system for the guns, which are brand new to MW3. Unlike in previous CoD games, the guns have prestige levels. To level them up, you simply use a specific gun in matches. As you rack up kills, your gun levels with you, and gets you the standard attachments, but now you get weapon camouflage with headshots, and weapon perks (Think of the weapon perks like player perks for guns).

Graphics & Sound
Although Black Ops 2 trumps this game (Watch a video or two on youtube. Trust me on this!), Modern Warfare 3 still looks incredibly impressive. Using the MW3 engine, which was modified from Modern Warfare 2's engine (A nice looking engine in it’s own right), the game looks very believable, and the many levels look like places that were taken from our own world, and put into the game. If there’s one thing that damages the impressive visuals, it’s some of the textures. This has been a problem for a lot of the CoD games, so it’s still surprising to see it in a modern game like this. Basically, despite most of the textures looking good, there’s a few textures (especially some that have been taken from previous games) that look dated & grainy.

If the graphics have that tiny problem, then the sound effects have no problems. Everything sounds crisp, clean, and pristine. The guns sound realistic, the voice acting is great, and the music score is nice to listen to. We’ve got dramatic orchestras for the epic fights scenes, sorrowful dirges for the serious/death scenes, and action packed/fast paced movements during the faster scenes. There’s always some sort of lead into each of the pieces, which also act as a sort of scene change. Pretty clever, if you ask me. 

Overall & Rating
It’s understandable why a lot of gamers have nowhere near as much respect for the Call of Duty franchise. Bobby Kotick has come out, time & time again in recent years, and said that business is now the focus of what they publish, not fun. They’ve taken further blows with WoW (Some gamers say the newer packs keep watering down the core system) and Diablo 3 (Despite selling 10 million copies, it didn’t reach as many expectations of gamers as ActiBliz thought), and the lack of response from some of the employees continues to reinforce this feeling. However, there’s still a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel: the original Black Ops brought back a little life into the Call of Duty franchise, and Modern Warfare 3 really brought more life back (BO2 has gotten a lot of people excited about the franchise, but only time will tell as to how it actually performs). I can only hope that this trend continues, until FPS gamers all over the world fully believe in the Call of Duty franchise once again.

Modern Warfare 3 gets a 8.5 out of 10.

See you all later this week, when I’ll review happy music for once. Until then, stay Otaku!


* Best SMG in the game, hands down:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf-tZ1FjWvE

Mouse Review

Hi everybody. Well, I got another weird anime for you. It’s dirty, odd, strange, yet at the same time endearing, charming, and enjoyable. To compound things a little further, this show is somewhat obscure, despite having been released almost a decade ago. So, here’s a review for Mouse.

Based off of a manga that ran from April 2000 to October 2004, Mouse tells the story of Muon Sorata, a young & mild-mannered college art teacher by day, but by night takes on the persona of the master thief Mouse (See, sometimes title names do mean something). Assisted by 3 incredibly lovely ladies (Mei, Yayoi, Kakio), Mouse steals highly valuable objects, from a golden skull, to a giant tower floating on the water, but as to why he goes for high value targets, no-one knows. The police believe that Mouse steals for profit, while Mouse himself commits these crimes for the thrill, as well as to take back items that were originally stolen himself. Over the course of this series, he and the ladies go around town, looking for the next big score, all the while enjoying each other’s company (I’ll get to this in a bit).

Speaking of story, that is Mouse’s first positive. Despite the fact that there isn’t necessarily a lot of depth to it (More on that in a bit), it’s very easy to understand and get into. Unlike DNAngel, which plays to the slice-of-life/action/fantasy thief story, Mouse is more of a comedy/action/fan-service thief story, complete with a trio of babes to complement the main character. Speaking of characters...

That’s Mouse’s second positive. There’s a relatively good selection of characters, both primary & secondary. Each and every single one of them serve a purpose, whether it’s to advance the story of the episode, or to simply move a scene along. Muon is a example of a pervert with a heart: he gets a definite rise out of seeing the trio naked or in incredibly akward situations, yet he’s surprisingly noble, and won’t leave anyone behind, even if it means he might get caught.

The three girls are also important to Mouse. Mei is the first of the trio: it’s apparent that she has more experience than Yayoi & Kakio, and it’s also apparent that she been through more than the other two (We see her get whipped as part of her training, her ankle getting twisted during a heist, and her leg grazed by a bullet during another). Yayoi is a little different from Mai. When we see her during the two flashback episodes that focus on her, we discover that she has a fear of men, enough so that she goes into panic attacks when she sees one. After getting a kiss from Mouse, her fear somehow was removed, and has become a big flirt when she’s near Muon. Kakio, at least for me, seems to be a mix of the previous two girls: she has some experience like Mei, but she’s a little shy like Yayoi. On top of that, she seems to have multiple personalities, but not in a damaged mind kind of way. Because of these personalities, she’s more spontaneous than Mei & Yayoi, whether during a job, or when she’s with Muon.

The secondary characters aren’t that bad either. Chief among them are Machiko Tsukioka (A female student that also has the hots for him), Mr. Fuyuharu (Mei’s grandfather, and the only known male servant to Muon), Captain Onizuka Heitaro & Masatoshi Minami (Two cops that try to catch Mouse, and fail constantly), and finally 4S (An organization that has been corrupted from it’s original purpose, and is now dedicated to the black market & assassins). Although they don’t get as much screen time (Especially 4S), their presence still move things along.

The third positive to Mouse is the animation quality. For the most part, it’s actually not that bad. There’s a small hiccup or two once in a while, but in the end everything looks nice & smooth. Characters move at a fluid pace, and the action doesn’t slow down in the slightest, except when characters speak with one another, but that’s not animation quality, is it? Speaking of, well, speaking...

The voice acting in Mouse is the show’s 4th positive. Like the animation quality, it’s not bad. A voice might croak once in a while, but nothing that won’t really cause you to nail your ears shut. When a character speak for the first time, you won’t forget them anytime soon, whether they’re on-screen, or doing something off-screen.
   
Mouse’s fifth positive is the length of the series. Coming in at 12 episodes, Mouse is a series that will entertain you in a short amount of time. I say short because...well, let me do another first for you, and talk about a negative during the positives.

Although there’s twelve episodes (A standard in the anime world), they’re only 15 minutes each, whereas most episodes of a series last about 22 to 24 minutes. Given that there’s twelve episodes, Mouse can be watched in approximately 3 hours, give or take a minute or two. The structure of Mouse is also a problem, but I’ll get to that in a little bit.

The final positives of Mouse are availability & pricing. Despite being about a decade old, it can still be found in many places, especially Amazon. On Amazon, individual volumes (There’s 2 of them) start at $10.78 for a new first volume, and $7.90 for a new second volume. Used copes are far lower: used copies of the first volume start at $2.94, while used copies of the second volume start at $3.86. Despite being cheaper, there’s plenty of copies across both spectrums, and the pricing for new DVDs isn’t too terrible. Although there aren’t that many new complete editions (At the time of this writing, there are only 3 available, and the first costs $98.55), there’s a small amount of used ones, starting at $18.20. My suggestion is to buy the volumes separately, regardless of whether they’re used or not.

Okay, now it’s time for the negatives. As I talked about before, this show goes by quick. If you’re hardcore, you could theoretically watch Mouse in one sitting. I watched it in two: first 6 episodes on one day, and the other 6 episodes on the second day. In that little bit, I also said that the structure of the show was a problem, so what do I mean by that?

I mean that Mouse is an incredibly rigid show. Unlike shows such as Comic Party Revolution (minus the last two episodes) or Excel Saga, Mouse is meant to be watched in precisely the order it was meant to be, which is ironic, given how easy & free-flowing the story is. If you watch even one episode out of order, you completely disrupt the show’s flow, and ruin the experience.

Mouse gets a 6.9 to 7.2 out of 10. The story is easy to follow, the characters are fun to watch, the animation quality is great, the voice acting is equally great, there’s a standard amount of 12 episodes, and it’s not to hard to find & buy, but the show goes by quickly, and is structured very tightly.

See you all next week, when I’ll review the game that brought life back into the Modern Warfare series. Until then, stay Otaku!

Something Political

Hi everyone. To anybody in the Northeast who made it through Sandy, congratulations. You are incredibly lucky to have survived such a disastrous storm, and be thankful that you don’t live in New York City. For those who live there, I’m incredibly sorry that things aren’t going so well. My hopes, and occasional prayer, go out to you.

When I originally created this blog over a year ago, my intention was to create a safe place where geeks/nerds/otakus could come and check out a variety of reviews, not to mention some of the weird things the internet has to offer. However, within 5 days is one of the most important elections in US history. True, Kerry vs Bush back in 2004 was big, and Obama vs McCain back in 2008 was big as well, but for some reason Obama vs Romney seems to eclipse the previous two. I’m not quite sure about how to think about this election, and many people in America are confused about this as well. So, in a (possibly infantile) attempt, I’ll flesh things out a little bit for you.

Let’s start with Romney. We’ve already encountered him once before during the 2008 campaign. The big difference between that one and this one is that he somewhat dropped off in 2008, while he’s practically charged forward with this campaign. That definitely shows he won’t give up, as long as something he wants is right in front of him (Ironic, given the 2008 campaign). On another hand, he’s got a lot of charisma behind him, and he also knows how to work a crowd, tugging on their emotions & heartstrings.

Unfortunately, these few positives do not outweigh the major negatives that Romney brings to the table. For starters, he an incredibly cocky individual. Now this might be considered a good thing, but in the case of Romney, it isn’t. Over the course of the campaign run, he’s shot his mouth off frequently, and in the process has angered a lot of the world (Very reminiscent of George W. Bush during his two terms).

In addition to his cocky attitude, he’s also got an incredibly arrogant attitude. This was very evident during the debates he had with Obama. In each of those debates, he had a incredibly snarky smile, and he also had a creepy stare when Obama was speaking (Perhaps that’s why Obama had a lackluster performance in the first debate). Even outside the debates, he’s always had this detached look on his face when he’s speaking to people, and it has a feeling of “Meh” to it, but that’s just me.

This all leads into perhaps the biggest negative to Romney, and that’s the fact that he’s always tried to envision himself as a common man. It’s very apparent to a lot of people that he fails at it, and in reality, he can’t be the common man, simply due to the circumstances of his life. For example:

- He’s always been surrounded by money
- He’s never had to worry about his life (Or at the very least, worry in a way we can’t understand)
- He thinks like a business man, and thinks the United States should be run like a company.

If there’s a final nail in the coffin that shows that (at least in the Liberal mindset) Romney should not be president, take a look at the following article.


“http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/23/pro-romney-firm-voting-machines_n_2006697.html”


Obama is a different case. Unlike Romney, he has a natural “Common Man” vibe to him. Whether it’s due to the circumstances when he was young, or he just somehow understands the mind of the middle & lower class better than a lot of other politicians. On top of that, he seems to have a better grasp of what’s going on, and admits to when he’s wrong about something or failed at something. This all leads into his negatives, and while there’s only 2, they could also derail his chances for getting a second term.

The first negative is the amount of promises he made. He’s actually managed to complete many of them, not the least of which was ending the life of Osama Bin Laden. He’s also managed to put gays/lesbians/transgenders on the national hate crime list, get more states to legalize gay marriage (9 states down, 43 states to go), and a few others. Unfortunately, he hasn’t owned up to some of his other promises, chief of which was closing Guantamino Bay, but at the very least he’s admitted that he wasn’t able to complete some of his promises.

The second negative seems a little more obvious, and that’s his inability to get angry. Whether he just doesn’t know how to get angry, or he’s afraid that his anger would cloud his mind when making important decisions. I know that the President of the United States should be calm at all times, but there are certain occasions when perhaps a negative emotion can be beneficial, as long as it’s used in the precise amount.

In the end, it’s really up to the people of America to decide who’s right to run this country. Whether’s it Obama or Romney, it’s up to you. I can only hope that I provide even a sliver of illumination to the current situation. So, with this out of the way, I leave you with this classic Alice Cooper song. I find it to be strangely fitting, given the current environment. Enjoy:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyCFGDzc45o


Again, see you all next week, while I’ll be reviewing one of the wackiest anime to ever get released. Until then, stay Otaku!



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If you’re wondering why I didn’t bring up religion when talking about the candidates, it’s simply because I didn’t want to. In my opinion, religion divides people more than politics, and I didn’t want to bring in my beliefs on this subject. If you’re going to vote for somebody based on faith alone, then that’s your choice, and I won’t bash you for it.