Anime, manga, and video games – can you balance all three?

Credit to linked pixiv user

If you consider yourself an anime fan, chances are you also partake in related hobbies like reading manga or playing video games. Even though I do like the other two, anime is the hobby I spend the majority of my time, money, and energy on, but I’m always impressed by people who manage to more or less equally balance themselves between all three of these big hobbies…

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A concise guide to Weiss Schwarz

Due to lack of time and brainpower for editorial blogging this week, I’m going to post about something I’m always looking to promote – the anime crossover card game I’ve been into for roughly the past year: Weiss Schwarz…

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Pokemon X and Y thoughts and speculations

Credit to linked pixiv user

Last night after work I reserved my copy of Pokemon X at my local GameStop (got a free poster with it too, which you can see after the jump). It made me realize that Pokemon X and Y are just about 2 months away from their October 12th release date. That may sound like a long time, but much has already been revealed about these games that has the fandom both hyped and apprehensive. Three years ago when Pokemon Black and White were coming out, I wrote a couple of pre-release speculation posts about them. So I figured now is a good time to do the same for what’s been revealed about Pokemon X and Y thus far…

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Top 10 Pokemon conspiracy theories

Credit to linked pixiv user

It’s been a while since I’ve done a Pokemon post XD With the newest generation of Pokemon games scheduled to come out later this year, and news of new pokemon and other features slowly trickling in, I’ve surprisingly been feeling nostalgic about the old Pokemon days of Red/Blue and Gold/Silver. As much as I continue to love every new game that comes out, I must admit that there was a unique charm to the years of the old generations when the Internet, as well as the Pokemon franchise itself, were much younger…as were we. And while I was idly browsing the web a few days ago, I found that quite a number of conspiracy theories came out of that younger generation that will surprisingly leave you pondering…

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The appeal of trading card games

Credit for photo to linked site
Lucky Star Weiss Schwarz cards

I know trading cards have been around for a while, but if you were a kid growing up in the 90s or later, you’ve most likely indulged in them somewhat, whether it was Magic the Gathering, Pokemon cards, or just regular cards to collect such as baseball cards. Every major anime and other media franchise, especially those aimed at a younger audience, usually has some kind of trading cards fans can buy. Today I want to share my experiences with trading cards and discuss why they have such appeal, especially in our world that’s vastly becoming more digitized…

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Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 review

Credit to linked pixiv user

I realized that I’ve reviewed all the main series Pokemon games here on the blog since Diamond and Pearl in 2006. So why break that tradition now? Let’s review the latest Pokemon games, Black 2 and White 2…

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Visual realism in video games versus anime

In a recent post on deluscar, Kai brings up the fact that video games have become a lot more “realistic” than they used to be, especially in visual terms thanks to advanced technology. But he also argues that even though they’ve taken on this new level of depth, they still can’t display the same level of realism as anime and perhaps other animation can…

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Pokemon Black & White: questioning the morality of the franchise

Everyone interested in the new Pokemon games, Black and White, has more or less dabbled in some part of the games by now. Even in the anime blogsphere, lots of reviews and daily gaming logs have been popping up. But since I’ve already written a review of the game when I got the Japanese version, and I don’t have that much to add after playing the English version, I decided to focus this post on the specific conflict of the games’ storyline. It’s a conflict that has intrigued players because it does something unexpected – it questions the very morality of the Pokemon world…

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Pokemon Black & White, and a look back through the generations


ポケモン・歴代主人公 by ムリエのデカパン

Pokemon Black and White, the latest games that begin the franchise’s 5th generation, just had their U.S. release yesterday. Ever since I’ve become an older Poke-fan, when new games come out I tend to reflect on the franchise’s past and how it’s evolved (no pun intended) over the years. Pokemon just recently had its 15th anniversary, and even after all this time, it’s still so popular even outside Japan – the recent mall tours to promote the new games, as well as the fact that there were lines at stores when the games were released yesterday, are just some evidence that Pokemon is certainly more than a passing fad. So how has it gone from the days of Red & Blue to the Black & White of today…

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Anime Outburst

Like with my past post about anime lateral thinking puzzles, I enjoy taking established games or activities and “anime-ifying” them. I remember we played anime Pictionary, Charades, and Jeopardy in my old anime club and it was lots of fun. Today I’ll be anime-ifying a lesser known game called Outburst…

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