Video Game Review: Persona 4

If there’s one thing that school has managed to teach me so far this year, it’s that senior year is busy. Painfully, ridiculously, ungodly busy. But has that stopped me from watching anime or playing video games?! …Actually, yes. Which is why I’m pulling out the big guns and reviewing Persona 4, which I actually played much earlier this year around February or March.

Anime Review: Toradora

This summer has been incredibly busy for me but nevertheless I had time to watch an anime that was highly recommended by a friend of mine. It took some doing, since I generally try to avoid romantic slice of life shows, but he eventually got me to watch it and I found that I really enjoyed Toradora, and you should see it too!

Toradora is a show about a high school boy who looks like a juvenile delinquent, Takasu Ryuuji. His scary looks completely overshadow his gentle personality. However, this year takes a turn for the better as he arrives at school and finds that he’s not only in the same class as his one and only friend, he’s also in the same class as the girl he’s completely smitten with. Unfortunately, it’s then that he runs into another girl in his class: Aisaka Taiga, nicknamed the “Palmtop Tiger” as a play on her name and a reference to her diminutive stature. She then proceeds to knock him flat with a punch.

Video Game Review: Legend of Zelda

I’ve been addicted to video games since my Gameboy Advance SP, and while I may not be the most dedicated gamer, I’ve definitely been playing for a while. When I was in elementary school, one of the most rewarding noises I could hear, aside from the little victory music after catching a Pokemon, was the chime of a mystery being solved in a LoZ game. LoZ is probably my favorite video game franchise to date, and I’m going to tell you guys a little about what I think of the games.

A Link to the Past

My first ever LoZ game! It was one of the first games we got for our GBA SP and it was long enough ago that I can’t remember the plot, but not so long that I’ve forgotten how much I loved it.

Movie Review: The Avengers

Recently, for some reason, I’ve been on a Marvel movies binge. In the span of a month I managed to catch up on almost all of the Marvel superhero movies, and the last one I saw was The Avengers. Despite the original Iron Man cutting it pretty close, I have to say that The Avengers was my favorite of the whole bunch. This may be my favorite superhero movie ever. (And that’s counting X-Men First Class.)

The Avengers begins with Loki, the antagonist from the prequel-ish movie Thor, stealing a cube called the Tesseract from supersecret organization SHIELD and promising to bring havoc to the world with his alien Chitauri army.

TV Show Review: Legend of Korra

When I was in elementary school I would occasionally flip to Nickelodeon and see the TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender. Somehow I had the bad luck necessary to see the same episode each time (The Great Divide), but I still thought that Avatar was a pretty cool show. Last summer I saw all 3 seasons within a week and really fell in love with the cartoon. Now the Legend of Korra, the sequel to Avatar: the Last Airbender, has been released and I’m here to tell you guys why it’s every bit as awesome as the original show.

Movie Review: The Hunger Games

I have found an interesting trend regarding this particular movie: all the guys I know hated it and all the girls I know loved it. I have no clue why. Either way, I went to see The Hunger Games the week after it came out, and I personally really enjoyed the movie.

I don’t think a plot summary is entirely necessary for this review, but I’ll include a small one anyway. The dystopian country of Panem is divided up into the Capitol and 12 districts, each of which specializes in producing some product. As punishment for a previous uprising against the government, every year the districts each offer up a girl and boy tribute to compete in the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games are a twisted survival TV show in which the tributes must fight to the death in an arena until only one winner remains. The book opens before that year’s reaping, or the selection of the tributes, where we meet our protagonist…

TV Show Review: BBC Sherlock

I don’t think I will ever have a more emphatic introduction to one of my reviews: WATCH THIS SHOW. DO IT. If you don’t, I’m not even disappointed, I’m just sad that your life is not brightened by this absolutely incredible and well thought out TV show.

Sherlock is a modern day adaptation of the classic books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by the BBC. They feature Benedict Cumberbatch (omg) as Sherlock Holmes, an antisocial, rude, and unimaginably genius man who has been described by himself as a “high functioning sociopath”. Martin Freeman plays Dr. John Watson, a man that’s been discharged from the army due to injury and is living a mundane life that bores him to psychosomatic problems. The two men are as polarized as can be, but somehow when they meet each other, it just works. Together they become an unstoppable team that live in a flat on 221B Baker Street and solve crimes, , blog, become famous, and gain enemies.

How to Prepare for the SAT

I realize I must not sound like the most trustworthy person to listen to in terms of how to avoid failing the SAT, but I hope you’ll read this anyway. : )

I guess I should give some background first. Last year I wrote a blog post detailing my marked lack of concern over my exam and my attempts to cram for the test in one week’s time, hopefully demonstrating to you readers that that is a horrible idea. This year I was far more concerned over how well I would do on my SAT, so I began to do practice tests from a Kaplan SAT book during winter break. After winter break a friend kindly lent me his Collegeboard SAT practice book, also known as “The Blue Book”, which gave me a lot more practice tests to do over the next 2/3 weeks until my exam. Last year I received a 1950 on my SAT, although I must point out that I fell asleep during the test due to circumstances I’d rather not get into. Over the summer my score on a practice test I arbitrarily took  mysteriously rose 100 points to a 2050. After three weeks of intense practice and review before my second SAT, I received a 2280 on the test. So how did I do it? Here is my advice.

Movie Review: The Secret World of Arrietty

I previously stated that I have minimal love for Miyazaki movies. Well I’m going to have to retract this statement, because I loved this movie so much I’m not sure I have coherent words for it.

The movie begins by introducing a girl named Arrietty, who is absolutely tiny and a “Borrower”. She lives inside the walls of a human’s house along with her mother and father, and they’re not sure if they are the last Borrowers left, since their species has been gradually declining in population. They live by stealing tiny bits of food and things to make into objects to use. The movie begins with the arrival of a sickly boy named Sho, who Arrietty sees as he drives up to the house. Arrietty also has her first expedition to go gather materials that night with her father, and while they have a mildly successful time, it ends in disaster when Arrietty is seen by Sho. With their secret exposed, the Borrowers must find a new home before they and their home are discovered by people less kind than Sho.

Let’s Talk About Junior Year and AP Courses

Junior year is so much fun that I may potentially be losing my mind. Or that could be the sleep deprivation. So much like my post last year about how to not prepare for the SATs, I’m going to tell you guys a story about my past week at high school, where my eagerness for winter break was suddenly overshadowed by looming piles of schoolwork that frankly came out of nowhere.

Movie Review: Howl’s Moving Castle

Junior year has been busy sucking the fun out of my life, but I managed to find time on Halloween to watch Howl’s Moving Castle, a movie I’ve been meaning to see for quite a long time but had never quite topped my priority list. Bored and at a friend’s house, we started the movie up and I found I liked this movie. I may not feel motivated to see it again anytime soon, but it was definitely good and worth a watch.

Anime Review: Tiger & Bunny

I was going to say Tiger & Bunny was a weird series, but I realized I couldn’t do that since I watched KHR and that series really just takes the cake when it comes to weirdness. So I’ll settle for unique. Tiger & Bunny is a ridiculously unique anime that is probably one that no one would expect me to watch. Why? Because it’s a superhero anime, and I’m really just generally not into the superhero thing.

Throughout the first arc of the series I was really not sure I would be able to continue with it, because it just wasn’t my kind of show. Thankfully, the series is actually really awesome and I really think it deserves to be watched by everyone.

Anime Review: Durarara!

I watched Durarara this past (much missed) summer, before I was sucked into the black hole of Junior year and battered with homework. Though it was a while ago, I remember really enjoying this anime after a bit of a rocky start. Though I can’t call Durarara my favorite anime ever, I highly enjoyed it and I understand why it has such a large fandom now.

The series begins with a timid boy named Ryuugamine Mikado arriving in Tokyo and meeting his old friend Kida Masaomi.

Anime Review: Ao no Exorcist

Of all the animes that I have watched this lovely summer, I have no hesitation in calling Ao no Exorcist my favorite. I only began watching (during AP season, no less) because of a ridiculously high recommendation from my friend, and I was hooked by the third episode. This series really has potential to become one of my all-time favorite shonens, along with Fullmetal Alchemist and Katekyo Hitman Reborn. Maybe as testament to how good it is, Ao no Exorcist had me in tears by the second episode.

Anime Review: Puella Magi Madoka Magica

If there is one phrase that the cover of Puella Magi Madoka Magica brings to mind, it’s probably something like “ridiculously girly”, “magical girl shoujo”, or “very pink”.

At first I was put off by this anime since it seemed like a standard magical girl series, which is something I’ve avoided ever since my Sailor Moon and Tokyo Mew Mew days in elementary school. But after hearing favorable reviews, I decided to give it a try and I was stunned by this series. I’ll just let you all know right now: this is not a magical girl anime in the standard sense. It is a deconstruction of that genre.

Anime Review: Angel Beats!

I haven’t started a new anime series in a long time, considering how crazy sophomore year was for me. So now that it’s summer, I decided it was the right time to delve back into anime. At my friend Danny’s recommendation, I started Angel Beats, a 13-episode long anime. I was at first wondering how a 13 episode series could possibly be something worthy of such high recommendation from my friend, but I quickly figured out why myself.

Movie Review: Kiki’s Delivery Service

It’s kind of a shame that I never watched this movie before. I’ve likely mentioned this before, but I watched Spirited Away, another Miyazaki movie, at a fairly young age and didn’t understand the plot at all. I saw Princess Mononoke when I was older, but I still wasn’t quite old enough to understand the plot and disliked both movies greatly. Unfortunately this bad history with Miyazaki movies has clouded my opinion of them and I have a tendency to avoid them even now.

This movie has changed my opinion of Miyazaki movies entirely. Maybe it’s just because I’m old enough to understand the movies now, but I have every intention of watching almost all the rest of Miyazaki’s movies now (except Spirited Away, nothing will get me to watch that movie again).

13-year old Kiki is a witch in training, and as per custom she has to leave home for a year as part of her training. Eventually she finds a beautiful seaside town called Koriko, and despite a somewhat less than perfect introduction to the locals, she and her cat Jiji settle nicely into the town. Eventually Kiki begins her titular delivery service, making friends with people around town. Unfortunately, after she is crushed by certain events, the worst thing possible happens to Kiki. She then must redefine herself in the face of losing everything that she believed defined her.

Movie Review: Grave of the Fireflies

I can honestly say this was one of the most depressing, moving, and heart-wrenching movies I have ever watched. Based on a true story, Grave of the Fireflies depicts the sufferings of two children who lose their houses in the Kobe bombing during WWII. This movie is unrated, but I personally would not recommend it for anyone under 13 years old due to some graphic depictions of suffering and disease.

I feel that the WWII context gives this movie a bad reputation. Many people might assume that this movie is an anti-American movie, but it’s not. This movie is profoundly anti-war itself. It begins with the death of a main character, and then backtracks to when the story begins at the Kobe bombings.

Movie Review: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

This movie was absolutely incredible. On the surface it looks like your standard “girl gets magical powers, abuses them, learns an Aesop lesson and comes out of it more mature than before” boring movie. …It’s not. It’s so much better. 

Movie Review: Tekkon Kinkreet

The general reaction of people who see the cover of Tekkon Kinkreet, a full-length Japanese animated film, is “what is that what the heck why is the art so weird that’s weird I don’t want to watch.” That was my first reaction, at least. But this movie is just one of those movies you need to watch.  Just have a little faith in me, and I promise you won’t be disappointed.  It’s amazing.

The two boys in the picture above are named Black and White, and they live in Treasure Town as orphans on the street. Black is a fierce fighter that rules the streets with force, while White, several years younger, is a dreamy, innocent boy that’s a little out of touch with reality.