Cooking Dash 1 and 2

Whoah. Cooking Dash 1 and 2 were pretty easy (I didn't expect that). Well, it's probably because Cooking Dash is an experiment. Hook players with winning through the game so easily then make the game harder every new installment to the series... that's some pattern I learned for some games.

When Cooking Dash 3 came, the game became much, much difficult and challenging. That's the way I like it! :) Getting expert scores with the expert mode is hard though. T^T

Now, I'm loosing interest with it. I've been playing other stuff like harvest moon and tomodachi collection.

Virtual Families Suggestions

I've been playing Virtual Families and I could tell that the creators were trying to make some sort of a doll house game where a virtual family ages and dies and continues on and on and on. There's nothing much to do. Goals and secrets are pretty limited. Starting a family and working with careers are quite boring. You only leave them be most of the time (I understand it's like Virtual Villagers but Virtual Villagers was better suited to that style)

What I'd want to see in future releases and installments...
1. More stuff to do of course.
- Career building--->expound this aspect of a virtual creature
- Faster cleaning of the house
- BONDING WITH THE FAMILY (Come on. This is what families do)
Virtual families seem cold to each other in the family. All they do is tickle each other
and multiply. Nothing intimate and family-like.
- Vacations, scolding children for not doing homework, eating out, blackouts
where the family gathers to sing songs or tell scary stories
-strolls in the park
-INTERACTIONS WITH THE PETS (poor creatures get ignored by their owners sheesh)
-bachelor/bachelorette choosing. Why the heck would someone bite a marriage proposal
without knowing the proponent in the first place?! That way, it would be more AWWWW..some.
-expound on the "love" aspect of the game... why do they marry?
-restaurant management to earn money? (that would be tedious, yes but it could be fun
to have the family work on something like that)
-cut scenes instead of random mail that either take your money away or give you money
-conversations (mom nags, dad scolds, dad teaches stuff, mom asks children to help out
in the kitchen, mom and dad show their love, parents give their children advice)
-car rides to town
-beach outings
-school activities (this will make things awfully tedious for the makers and the price of the
game would probably rise awfully if this was expounded too much)
-making friends with outsiders (this way, it'll be more realistic as to how a family grows)

2. Variation in locations. I want to see a :
a.school
b.office
c.park
d.hospital/clinic
e.neighborhood

3. New stuff in the store.
a.a vacuum cleaner
b.sock collector(seriously, life isn't all about collecting socks and weeds isn't it?!)
c.lawn mower
d.car
e.pet food..hehe
f.more dresses

4. More characters to interact with. Sigh... virtual families are such lonely people who live in the woods with no neighbors, no community whatsoever... what an anti-social bunch. hahaha They can't even leave their own house

5. The game seriously needs a heart. That's what this game lacks. Families: this thing is something that should touch people and make them relate to a family. :)

Arakawa Under the Bridge

Bridge life with weirdos... that's Arakawa Under the Bridge

The conditions of bridge life:
1. You'll have to change your name.
2. Mayor chooses your name. A new name=start of a new you
Your name is basically anything convenient for a label which the Mayor can remember when he sees you.

3. You'll have to live with weirdos.
Weirdo list:
a. Blond girl who thinks she's a from Venus
b. A "star"
c. A guy who never walks unless the path's white
d. A girl who's overly clumsy and grows a veggie garden
e. A Mayor who thinks he's a kappa
f. A woman who's got a sharp tongue and enjoys attacking men's self-esteems
g. A "sister" who's basically a brother, an army guy who raises the next weirdo in the list
h. A cute girl who happens to be violent (like I said, the guy above raised her)
i. Two boys who think they have special powers and never take off their masks (helmets, I suppose)
j. The last samurai
k. A yakuza parrot guy who ran away with the next weirdo
l. yeah... the queen bee of a yakuza group the parrot guy ran away with
m. a guy who thinks he's too perfect

4. You'll have to live under a bridge and eat stuff from the bank.

5. You're free to live the way you want to live your life. All the stuff you hesitate to do, all the things you hold back in society, all the demands from society... you will live as a citizen on the bank.

At first, I thought this series was just some ordinary shoujou thing. Learning the fact that this show has a lot of weirdos has been successful in luring me in this series. It wasn't boring as it doesn't have too many still scenes where nothing moves and only the narrator (whoever's) talking.

Looking at the set of characters, I think I really could relate to them. The characters on the bank were probably people who ran away from the rest of the world to hide in a comfort zone but I think they're running towards who they really want to be. I assumed they were people who can't blend with the rest of the world and the bank was the only place where they would be a-ok. I think I was wrong as seeing them get along well makes me think that getting back to the rest of the world would mean leaving "their place on this world". They were running from reality and running towards the real "them" PROBABLY. hahaha It's somehow like that. Well, you get the idea. haha

All my theories weren't expounded throughout the anime series though as it focuses more on the main characters Recruit and Nino. I had to admit that there are certain characters that I don't really like, though. Their denseness is what I dislike. I also didn't like the nosy characters who think they're all-knowing people. Those guys just overact every time Recruit makes a mistake and make matters worse which I really knew Recruit could fix sooner if those nosy guys weren't there. Arrrggh. . . Annoying, really.

To be specific, I didn't like Hoshi and Piko. Well, Hoshi became a decent one when he comforted Amazoness but the way he misunderstands Recruit just irritates me. He just wouldn't back off even if Nino's already taken... Piko is too nosy, on the other hand. She made stuff worse back when Nino and Recruit had a misunderstanding over a cassette tape. Matters between a couple should be settled in a proper talk between the couple before any other entity lays a hand on the matter. Sheeesh. . . For Pete's sake, why would someone who didn't even know the right details land a finger on the situation?!

Well, enough of the rants. haha. Arakawa Under the Bridge is simply amazing though I'm not really into the romance side of this one. There were only a few great romantic scenes which I really appreciated though.

Kuragehime

Yeah. . . Jellyfish Princess. This series was pretty nice and it seems to follow a Korean style of unfolding events though it's definitely a Japanese anime. It basically reminds me about a lot of Korean series I watched.

Well, it's probably because of a few things I've seen in Korean "novelas":
1. a businessman/politician father for the hero/heroine who looks forward to having the
hero succeed his position
- in Kuragehime, the politician and businessman happens to be the hero's father

2. a heroine who takes a liking to someone else besides the hero at first (unless they make a twist and make the heroine end up with that "someone else")
- Tsukimi, the heroine, takes a liking to the hero's brother, Shu

3. the heroine gets hurt a lot because of circumstances with the guy she initially likes besides the hero and the hero comforts her and supports her
- Tsukimi felt bad when Shu didn't talk to her as he didn't recognize her in her normal looks
-Tsukimi really felt bad when she learns about Inari and Shu (Inari= the girl who blackmails Shu into agreeing to a site development proposal which includes tricking Shu to believe that they slept together)<--- which really gets into my nerves

4. a girl appears and fools the guy the heroine likes initially for non-romantic or non-love reasons like money reasons or career reasons but would soon take a liking to the guy she fools
- yeah... Inari

5. business stuff gets all mixed up when a scandal comes which is usually settled in forced marriages and dancing on the enemies' hands
- Inari... again

6. heroine blooms and goes out of her shell
- A LOT... hahaha (damn...I still couldn't recover from Inari's antics. I was really rooting for Shu and Tsukimi but why does Inari have to exist in the story?!?!)

Oh, I REALLY LOVED THE SUPPORTING CHARACTERS...Especially those from the Amamizu kan. Yeah, they're a bunch of weridos but that's the reason I LOVED THEM!!!

Bokutachi to Chuzai-san no 700 Nichi

Youthful days in 1979 in a town with more greens and tranquility...long, idle highways where there are a lot of bikes and bell-ringing with very, very few cars passing by... 30kph limit, policemen on-watch for over-speeding cars and "bikes"?! In the beginning of the movie "BokuChu", we see 5-troupe pranksters on their jitenshas getting ready for a vroom~. . . on their way to piss the officer (Chuzai-san).

Oretachi wa tsukamachau no ka na? Are we going to get caught?
Tsukamaeru wake nai saa...Oretachi wa kaze nandaze. There's no way we'll be caught. We are the wind.--- Mamachari

1979, Japan: a group of teenagers (high schoolers) who were basically pranksters just got all sparked up for pulling pranks off when a new police officer arrives in town. Things change a bit when they find out the girl they've been going after in a cafe is the officer's wife.

Mamachari, Takaaki, Inoue, Saijo, Chiba, Jaime, and Tsujimura= trouble for Chuzai-san.

_________________________________________________________________

This movie is lighthearted and funny. That's what I can at least say. There's more to the movie if you'd watch it. One thing: the momentum's maintained until the end so no worries about it being almost 2 hours. Youthful days and growing up... y'all could relate to these. haha

Beauty is the Beast

Ok. It's the humor that got me reading this to the end. Yeah yeah... I'm tired of shoujo stuff: girl's not pretty at first, perfect guy falls for her, tells corny stuff and says "she's mine", coincidences, blah blah...

I do not believe that love is an accident. I do not believe in "falling in love", love at first sight, love is blind... tah tah tah. Love is not accidental, it isn't just about the good qualities of a person as even the most rotten people in society can have someone love them though not "like" them at all. To love someone is to love them as a whole...as what they are. To love someone is to love one for eternity. No one possesses anyone as in love, people get to be free to be themselves and are absolutely free to be what they want to be without anyone ordering them around to do this and that. Love isn't possessive and obsessive at all. I don't understand why people find it "sexy" when a man yells "SHE'S MINE!!!". There's no way women would want to be caged.

Even if your loved ones looks like rotten eggs, love wouldn't wither if you really love them. It is for eternity. Well, enough of the love talk.

OK, so Beauty turns out to be the beast... hahaha. I loved the story as it didn't make me expect the things I expect of a heroine in a shoujo manga. I loved the characters especially the heroine, Eimi. She was quite the cute character... childish, innocent, honest, naive, and eccentric in a nice way. hahaha. Well, she's a country folk who isn't your average heroine unlike the damsel-in-distress heroines who wait for their prince and do nothing but get kidnapped and cry a lot. I love the fact that the artist gave a chance for the "other side" to pursue the heroine. At some point, I'd want the guy who is least likely to end up with the heroine to claim victory...but the story's ending is not in my hands of course. hahaha

I often judge the story from the cover. If the cover has too much detail and decorations with the characters drawn too big and sparkly, I can tell that it seems pretty desperate in trying to catch the eye of a potential reader. I somehow get the feeling that the plot may be too bad that it actually needs a bait too sparkly to get the attention of people. Well, it's part of business but I prefer a straight-forward, non-sparkly cover over too harassed covered mangas. Beauty is the Beast was rather lovely and organized in their covers.

The lighthearted plot's the BEST! I thought the male protagonist's past is too dark. Well, it is a bit dark and sad but it's a-ok. This manga wasn't dwelling too much on the past's details and that's what I like about it. The comedy's clean and lighthearted. Hahaha. I really love Eimi's character. She carries on the comedic relief too well.

Well, it was lighthearted and funny to the end that I don't even mind if they deleted the romance from the story and made it into a comedy, seinen, school-life, shoujo category.

READ IT HERE

Ibitsu: Lolita wants to be your Sister...

What will you do if a lolita, sitting near the dumps, carrying a stuffed toy she calls Keiichi, with stitches on her arms, asks you : DO YOU HAVE A SISTER? Personally, I might answer "no" but I'll be doomed. If I answer "yes". heh, I'd still be doomed.

Problem is--- the lolita girl comes to be your sister no matter what you answer. If you answer "I don't need one" then you're doomed differently this time. You'll be doomed sooner than those who answered "yes" and those who answered "no".

What I liked about the plot was that it is a fictional urban legend. I've heard about urban legends a lot and there are similarities with some patterns like that of a woman carrying a bear and going after your life if she senses you wearing jewelry, a kid or lady asking you some question and if you answer, you're doomed, a deceitful lady who makes you think you're safe but you're not... well, I just love urban legends because somehow, claiming them to be false doesn't make them impossible in a sense and if they are really false, they can still happen.

It's an interesting plot though the scares are pretty cliche. I don't really want to write them in detail as it may possibly shock you if you read the manga yourself. It's scarier than Friday the 13th though... as the guy suffers torture for almost 12 chapters (chapters one to two-the lolita's not showing signs of a killing spree YET). I can't even catch up with her fluctuating mood and thoughts about her victim. One moment, she says she wants to be an ideal sister to the victim, the next moment, she's angry and sad that she hurts everyone including herself.

At some points in the manga, I had my sympathy for the lolita as I thought that she may be some injured soul who seeks "revenge" or love but she always gets twisted (ibitsu=twisted). It always makes me wonder how the guy survives for some time (to be exact: how does he get beaten up for 10 more chapters?!)as in every primary chapter, he seems to be at a dead end. When I read chapter 6, looking at the number of chapters I haven't read made me think that this guy may not just be the only victim in this story. I thought the guy was to be dispatched sooner and the lolita looks for another but I was wrong...

It was like "Oh mama. This guy's gonna endure torture to live...LONGER" hahaha.
Tough life eh? One major spoiler: the story's a tragedy. haha

See how Itou Kazuki struggles to live...longer~! Ibitsu's worth the read. hehe. (14 Chapters including side stories)

Read it Here