Ugh. You have got to be kidding me!

People who don't like Diabolik Lovers, I've got bad news. That craziness is getting an anime adaptation and  it's theme song got announced. Someone, figuratively shoot me now. I stopped reading the plot summary midway through because I thought it was that bad.

Sorry for not posting so much, but I'm more active on DeviantArt and SketchClub nowadays. Also, school starts next week for me.

Sketchie

Dangan Ronpa: The Animation first 4 episodes review

Yep. This might as well be an anime review blog since I moved my art posting to Deviant Art (Sketchie13) and SketchClub. (Sketchie) Just thought you should know. Either way, I always liked watching anime adaptations of Atlus' work, (Seen Devil Survivor 2 and Persona 4) so today I decided to watch Dangan Ronpa. So, here's my review of the first 4 episodes that I was able to get my hands on.

Alright, so the setup's kinda similar to a mystery novel. One large school cut off from the world, 15 people, (not including one very creepy and sadistic thing that set the whole thing up) a string of murders and a lot of tension. Basically, a bunch of exceptional people (not including the particularly unlucky protagonist) were gathered in a certain school. Then, they found themselves locked in there by a very messed up, sadistic and generally creepy thing that is called Monobear. Monobear set the whole thing up so that if somebody commits the perfect crime and get away with it, they get to leave. The rest is screwed if that happens, by the way. However, if they figure out who the culprit is, only the culprit is "punished". Yeah, it's a lose-lose situation either way. So, all the can do is catch various culprits and watch as the time runs out, all while trying to look for an exit. That's basically it in a nutshell. Hey, why're you looking depressed? Yeah, I guess it does sound like a rather depressing series that can make you cry. However, there're certain things that keep it from being that. Let me explain them in the rest of the review.

Animation: Except for during the executions, I guess it was okay. During them, it felt as if they recycled the visuals from the game. The trials were also minor offenders as well, although nowhere near the extent of the executions. Those were the most blatant. The rest of the animation was alright. Needless to say, it kinda took away from the dramatic moments. For instance, the execution of *SPOILER, SO NOT GONNA SAY WHO* in episode 3 would have been a lot more dramatic if I wasn't thinking "Come on, Lerche, (the company who produced the anime) get your act together! Quit recycling the game's visuals so blatantly!" Yep. I actually was thinking that while watching that scene while instead, I think they wanted me to be shocked at who the culprit was.

Music: Is it just me or was the opening music a slightly recycled Beaty of Destiny from Persona 4: The Animation? Otherwise, it was great. The BGM fit the scenes quite well.


Writing and anything related to that: They didn't write the characters too well. I had a hard time sympathizing with a certain victim named Sayaka... and anybody else for that matter. I simply wasn't given enough info about them, so I had a really hard time feeling sorry for the characters I barely knew. (Sorry for being so blunt, but it's true, isn't it?) Also, the plot is rather cliche. The whole cutoff from the world place and people stuck there setup was used in quite a few detective series.

I believe that's all. If there weren't those issues, I think the anime'd have turned out quite well. I hope Lerche get their act together and fix those dumb mistakes of theirs.

Sketchie
PS:  Dangan Ronpa fans, please don't get mad at me?

Guilty Crown general review for the first 6 episodes

Okay, so today, I sat down to watch some anime. And since I was interested in seeing Guilty Crown, I decided to watch the subbed version that was conveniently available on Funimation's official site. And I've gotten through the first 6 episodes before I had to get off the computer. So, let me review them.

Alright, so let's get started with the plot. It's a rather normal dystopian setup. In 2029, there was an outbreak of a virus that, if I recall correctly, came with a meteorite.(Yeah, really.) Either way, the whole thing was contained, but Japan lost it's independence. Either way, let us fastforward, to I think, a decade after that and a certain infamous event known as Lost Christmas in-universe. Shu was an average high schooler... 'til he met the lead singer of his favorite band... who is with anti-government  organization that wants Japan to get it's independence back. (The best real-world parallel I can think of at the moment for this are the Revolutionaries who were against Loyalists during American Revolution.) Um... Let's get to the point, shall we? Shu has a certain ability that can help the Revolutionaries win the in-universe revolution. (Yeah, I know I ended up unintentionally making too many American history references in this summary. Sorry about that.) That's about it in a nutshell. Any more and I'm afraid I'll end up unintentionally giving away spoilers. So, yeah, if you want to know what happened next, feel free to watch the complete series on Funimation's site. (Sorry, but it's not available on their Youtube channel. Sigh...)

The music was alright, I guess. The opening and ending were written by Supercell, if I recall correctly. They wasn't too particularly annoying to me, but I didn't like them too much either. I did like the background music, that was written by Hiroyuki Sawano, though. It suited the atmosphere of the scene quite well, and that's what's important to me.

The animation was quite nice, as well. I didn't spot any obvious errors and at certain times it added a lot onto the impact of the scenes. But the art style was kinda generic. I've seen something similar to it before... But where? Oh, right. In quite a few series I've seen.

Either way, while the music and the visuals didn't really strike me as anything too special, I did like the plot. In fact, I think it was even better than Code Geass'. (Yikes. I hope no Code Geass fans are reading this, else they'll be the sixth fanbase I've offended. I'm really sorry to any C.G. fans who're reading this! And yeah, I do know what I'm talking about since I've made it to the second season.) Okay, so some people might not like that the plot that starts out like a plot of some dystopian novel. But I can assure you that it's quite interesting. In fact, while watching the first few episodes, I even ended up asking myself, "Are peace and order really worth the means used to achieve them?" and "Is independence really worth the means used to achieve it?" And mind you, those are the questions I never asked myself while reading dystopian novels like "Divergent" and "Legend". So, yep, the show must be thought provoking if I ended up asking myself those questions. And let's not forget the fact that a certain scene in episode 6 actually ended up making me cry. By the way, I rarely cry, much less while watching an anime. Or playing a videogame. (The instances when a moment in an anime or a videogame made me cry can be counted on one hand. Fine, maybe two.)

I got a DeviantArt account!

Hey, everyone! I got a Deviantart account yesterday! My username on there is Sketchie13! Currently, I made 1 drawing with Paint Tool SAI! Also, is anybody willing to show me the ropes there? Thanks!

Sketchie

The Lone Ranger- my review

I'm back from my local cinema. As you can guess from this post's title, I watched the Lone Ranger, and I'm here to review it. (Obviously.) Either way, let's get started. By the way, this is my first movie review, so I've got no clue what I'm doing.

Alright, so this is whole thing starts when a lawyer named John Reid comes to Colby, Texas using the then-WIP (well, on second thought, partially finished.) Transcontinental Railroad. Too bad he didn't exactly have a peaceful journey. A certain Butch Cavendish was being transported on the very same train, and his gang staged a rescue. And derailed the train in progress. Luckily, no one besides John and Tonto got hurt. Either way, let's skip to the important part since the events in town aren't all that important in my opinion. (Plus I'm not retelling you the whole movie. Please go see it yourself.) Either way, John, along with the other Rangers gets ambushed in the canyon and nearly dies. Either way, long story short, John, wearing a mask, decides to bring the perpetrators of his brother's untimely death to justice. That's mostly it in a nutshell. (Yep. This is a rather sloppy description, but I don't want to give anything away.)

Either way, while I do agree with some other movie critics that the company should've decided on the genre before writing the script and all that jazz, I think the movie wasn't as much of a trainwreck as many critics say. For one thing, I actually had quite a bit of fun with this. I like how they threw in a joke or two to lighten the mood during a serious scene. Some might not agree with me, though. Either way, I also thought the stunts were great. (You go watch the train scene in the beginning and then tell me it wasn't epic!) I also liked the music. It matched the mood of the scenes perfectly. And added to the epicness of the action sequences. (Choose any action scene in this movie. Any.) Also, the special effects were amazing. (Kinda a given since they were provided by Industrial Light and Magic.) 

Now for the bad parts. The sheer length. I mean, the movie lasted for like, 2 hours. I went to an eleven in the morning showing, and I left at like, I think, 2 PM! Talk about long. Aside from that, I don't really have too many complaints. Oh, wait! A fair word of warning to any parent who's reading this for some reason unknown to me: despite being distributed by Disney, I can assure you, this is a full blown action western. There will be blood and death on screen. There won't be too much gore, though. But seriously. Don't bring little kids to this movie. I can assure you, this movie deserves it's PG-13 rating. In fact, I think it may be rather close to the R territory. So, yep. Just 'cuz this movie is a Disney movie, don't assume it's gonna be a kiddy western. Don't make the same mistake parents of the three little kids I heard throughout the showing made.

Sketchie

PS: in the last paragraph, the story about those three little kids is is indeed true. I've heard them for a little while, but I think they left like, a quarter through the movie. The parents must've finally realized why the movie was rated PG-13. 

Sorry, no more special pictures + important announcement

Okay, I'm here to bring sad news. No more special pictures each time I hit another hundred views. I just can't keep up with the traffic. To apologize for that, you may request a (minor viewing appropriate) picture by commenting on here. I'll try to do it as soon as I can. On a different note, I'll be getting a DeviantArt account, Wednesday, July 24th, since it'll be my thirteenth birthday then!

Sketchie

Brothers Conflict episode 3 and 2 snarky(?) review

Remind me why I wasted my time on that? Either way, remember how I mentioned in my summer watching list I might watch Brothers Conflict? Well, yeah. I watched it today. And it wouldn't be much of a stretch it could be added to the otome VN disaster list of 2013. (Yeah, I'm real creative with titles, lol.) Like, seriously. I think that might have been worse than Amnesia. Why? Well, lemme explain. Oh, and due to a mistake on Funimation's site, I honestly thought I was episode 1, while in reality, I was watching episode 3. Nice going, Funimation. So, yep, no episode 1 review, sorry.

1) You might not agree with me here, but having like, 16 characters showing up in one episode is just too many characters. I still hadn't remember anyone's names partly because of that. And the other reason was because the characters were sorta generic. So, yep. Nothing too unique in the character section here, at least I think. (True story. I'm really bad with names, so IRL, it usually takes me thirty seconds to remember the name of the person I'm talking to. Needless to say, while watching anime or reading books or manga, I typically keep a cheatsheet on the characters I refer to while reading. Again, true story.) Either way, there were so many characters introduced I had to refer to Wikipedia, since I wasn't able to make a cheatsheet due to the sheer number of characters who I kept mixing up.

2) Well, this is again, just my opinion here, but what's with the lack of humor? (I don't like reading overly serious books or watching anime that only focuses on romance or action. I usually quit those quite quickly.) Like, seriously. The only instance of humor is (arguably) Futo trolling Ema (for some reason she's called Chii in the anime. I'll call her Ema, since I'm more used to that name.) in episode 2. Like, seriously. I snickered all the way through that part since I suspected he was trolling.

3) The music and animation weren't anything too particularly unusual either, in my opinion. At least, I heard so many J-Pop openings and endings, I simply got tired of those. And the art style sorta reminds me of something I might see in recent shojo manga. (Like, say, I think, "Sleepy Residents of Birdcage Manor", "Psychic Detective Yakumo" and such. If you can recognize those titles, congrats, by the way! You're probably as knowledgeable about obscure anime and manga as I am!) Either way, the best I can describe the animation and music is that they're sorta like vanilla ice cream. It's kinda bland and safe, but still liked by many people. Or like the painterly manga/anime style that's so frequent on Disney Create. Again, many people like it, so if drawn well, you get tons of stars, nice comments and faves. 

Overall, I guess I can call this the vanilla ice cream of this season. It's rather generic, but it's based on the tried and tested formula that seems to be many an otome VN right now. (Next time you watch an otome VN anime adaptation, take a swig of whatever drink you've got every time a cliche pops up. I can guarantee you'll get up for another glass before the episode's over.) And if you like that sort of thing, I guess you'll like this. But I'm likely quitting this. I guess I can watch this to pass time between Sunday Without God, Hakkenden, Gatchaman Crowds and Rozen Maiden episodes if I'm bored, though. But that's it. Seriously, Brains Base, get your act together. You screwed up with Amnesia already this year. Needless to say, if this keeps up, I'm officially losing faith in Brains Base.

Sketchie

Grade: 5/10 (and I'm being nice here.)