Why Can't I Read Anymore?

Fun fact: When you read the Holy Bible upside down it reveals conspiracy theories about The Beatles.

Many people who haven't known me long are often surprised to learn that before I was a chemistry nerd I was also an arts and literature nerd. Throughout high school I read a variety of books, I wrote song lyrics, short stories and poetry. I did quite a lot of drama and did 4 units of English for the HSC, which included the composition of a sizable major work. 

I think this surprises people because for whatever reason, especially at university level, people align themselves with the major faculties and tend to ignorantly lash out at the others. My biggest guess is that these people have commited to a career associated with this field and are determined to justify this choice by ruthlessly attacking and disregarding the specialties and fields that differ most from their own. I've personally been the victim of sneers from arts students of a university I don't even attend, who were quick to judge my character based on my "inferior university".  I'm personally guilty of cheekily winding up some of my closest arts friends, but I do so only in jest with no malice or ill will behind it. But all of that aside I was once very heavily aligned with the arts and humanities. I was once hoping to become a librarian and was enrolled briefly in a Bachelor of Communications. Looking back on this recently something has struck me about my more recent years and I find myself asking myself one simple question.

 

Now just to clear this point up right away, of course I can actually read. I posses the necessary mental faculties and skills to read books, even more challenging ones. But over that past few years or so I've found that reading a book takes a considerably longer amount of time. I'll often start a book enthusiastically like a puppy who knows it's time for walkies, but it's not uncommon for me to clean up a desk several months later to find a dusty copy of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein with a bookmark a third of the way through. I was fucking enjoying that book too. To this day I want to finish it and have every intention of picking it back up again, but why did I stop? Not only to I find even the most engaging books "putdownable" but I also manage to spend weeks on end wrapped up in enough other things to make me forget I was reading it.

In an attempt to explain this and shift the blame from myself I've come up with some explanations to my behaviour. Firstly and most simply understood, I blame the internet. Of course I've had access to the internet all the time but as soon as connections become fast and accessible enough for chumps like me to use social networking sites and stream television a non-trivial ammount of time has become dedicated to being online. Not only that, but it has meant that I am used to instant gratification. There's never a moment gone by where I feel like I'm completely "on top" of the vast amount of potentially, personally interesting media that I can readily access at any time I see fit. It used to be that we had to fit ourselves into the schedule of entertainment such as tv and when we were free if nothing was on we could easily turn to reading, because reading was one of the first sources of "instant gratification'. Before the internet nothing could really compete with it.

Maybe if more women wanted me to read I'd be more consistent?

The other problem is perhaps even less conquorable and that is this. I'm going to die. I don't know when and I don't know how it will come to happen but there's no escaping the knowledge that my time on this earth is finite. As a consequence of this I am accutely aware that I will not be able to enjoy all the media out there, or even all the entertainment that would likely appeal to me. My leisure time is as limited a resource as fossil fuels and the knowledge that each choice I make regarding how I spend my free time may mean I never ever get around to the other option makes it very appealing to avoid making the choices at all. And books fall short in this respect because they have the disadvantage of being long. Books are a long term investment in a way that a movie, a song, a TV show and even a video game manage not to be. A book is a large scented candle whilst other media are fireworks. One pleasantly burns away over many hours whilst the other is desperate to instantly stimulate.

But despite this knowledge and these hurdles I've been starting to rework my reading muscles and have managed to get through sizable books like Steve Tolt's A Fraction of the Whole. As I type I am 160 pages into The Count of Monte Cristo and have strength in my conviction to see it through to the end. With a small pile of books to follow it up with I'm quietly hopeful that I will manage to burn through many more candles before I'm snuffed.

Highschool of the Dead - An Anime Review

Believe it or not, I actually know quite a lot of people who are completely unwilling to engage in anything remotely Japanese. Living with Joey I hear the phrase "sus Asian shit" more often than I hear the phrase "Supernatural is that rare kind of show that actually does horror and comedy well" (a lot). Which, by the way, it fucking isn't. In the past the whole "what the fuck Japan?" thing was something I didn't completely understand or buy into. Sure Japan had its quirky moments, but I didn't think these were ever deal breakers. But several years and several dozen anime series later I finally understand. There is definately a sliding scale of Japaneseness to any Japanese media or entertainment and for any individual Westerner there is definately a point of said scale where you've gotta throw your hands up in the air and scream "that's all I can stands, I can't stands no more!"

Every anime, even the ones I loved too much to notice it in, has something very Japanese in it that risks alienating a portion of the Western market. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex had the sqeaky, child-voiced robots. Death Note had that annoying goth chick.  Bayonetta had...well...Bayonetta.And Highschool of the Dead had massive quantities of, well, titties.

Fun fact: It took 7 animators 7 days just to draw those.

Yes, lots and lots a big ol' titties. Giant, jiggling, trembling masses of mammary. Even all the normal highschool girls are boasting double D's, so they really had to go the extra mile when it came time to design the typical "ditsy blonde girl with massive bouncing breasts". I mean just look at the picture above. That one looks like it's devouring the pink haired girl. Oh and there's also lots of panties, arses, crotch shots and even a few cheeky nipples thrown in there.

Because we all know what goes on when girls bathe together.

But overt and gratuitious sexualisations aside, Highschool of the Dead is a pretty good anime. There's plenty of tension, high emotion and frantic action in this zombie anime, which is really all you could hope for in a slice of zombie entertainment. And at times, although only in the minority of instances, the sexualisations and over the top action work together brilliantly to create a climatic "holy fuck" moment, much in the same way as Bayonetta.

Story is kept pretty brief and basic. One day at school a zombie outbreak starts and as the students escape they discover that the event is much more widespread and disasterous than they had initially thought. From there a few students form a group and make it their mission to seek out remaining family members. There are also a few romantic subplots and love triangles thrown into the mix to create human dramas. Overall it's effective, consistant and works to create good survival drama, horror and action.

The big problem for me is the ending. It doesn't have one. It just decides to stop one random episode without addressing or tying up any of the story threads that have been dangling throughout the series. Dramas, tensions and romances just build and build and build but nothing ever comes of it, leaving you down a few hours with blue balls the size of the blonde girls' knockers. What is the point in creating all these engaging characters and developing them well and cooking up some nice juicy romances if you're never going to serve it on a plate with a nice garnish and an appropriate wine? Being tantalized by heady aromas is only enjoyable if you eventually get to eat what you're smelling, otherwise it's just torture.

I do know that this, like pretty much all anime, is based off a manga. Which might mean that more episodes could happen, although this series is a few years old now so who knows? But setting that massive con aside Highschool of the Dead is definately worth a look-in, even if you aren't normally big into anime. I mean if people can check out Firefly knowing full well it's been cancelled forever then why can't they check out this?

PC Box Fodder - A Few of the Shittest Pokemon Across the Generations

Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 have hit the stores this month and to celebrate their availability I'd like to personally shit on all the pokemon I don't like. The list is by no means comprehensive but I feel like I've covered many of my major gripes across the wide spectrum and many of the other pokemon I hate basically for reasons already covered here. But enough of these boring qualifying statements, it's time to get ranty.

Castform

Phoar! Check out the puppies on that pokemon. I mean in all honesty why does this pokemon have a pair of giant breasts? Oh yeah right, Japan, forgot about that. Don't get me wrong, normally I could get down with a buxom pokemon but the fact remains that castform is shit in battle. It has one of these quirky abilities to change it's elemental type based on the weather conditions during battle, which in a practical sense means this pokemon is unpredictable and thus unreliable. So, ya know, thanks for the tits and all but I'm gonna shove my castform straight in Bebe's box. And that's not a euphamism.

Pretty sure Castform could use the support of a bra.

Tentacool

You know, Zubat really does get a lot of schtick for being an annoying, pest-like pokemon, and rightly so. But far more annoying than Zubat, at least I find, is that fucking ocean cockroach known as Tentacool. Yeah cool! Tentacool. What a cool pun. Tentacool. Cool. TentaCOOL.

What a fucking disaster.

Cool story bro

I mean I guess I could handle that godawful name if I didn't have it shoved in my face every 5 seconds whilst I'm just trying to cross the fucking lake. As well as that they always seem to be rediculously underleveled for how far along they appear in any of the games, so they're not even good for experience slaughter. And then they poison while you're just trying to get to a proper trainer battle. What a Tentafool.


Farfetch'd

Here's another generation one masterpiece. A lot of misty-eyed, 20-something fuckwits argue that generation one is the golden era for pokemon; containing all the most majestic, powerful and well designed pokemon ever seen. But it's worth remembering that for every Blastoise or Dragonite there was a Ratata or a Grimer. I mean just look at this fucking duck holding a vegetable it will be served alongside in a soup and tell me it's part of the pokemon master race.

A leak and a monobrow? Shit! You'd better lock up your daughters.

Again, it's weak as shit and can't even evolve, so it never achieves greatness in and sense. At least they're not pests in major, unavoidable areas like Zubat or Tentacool.

Pidove

This fellow is probably one of the first pokemon you'll bump into in Pokemon Back 2 or White 2 and to be fair it evolves into a decent pokemon. I don't even mind how it looks, in its first form anyway. Hell, if I had it my way I'd just whack this guy in Generation one and pretend Pidgey never happened. But seriously Gamefreak, we're all good for normal/flying types thanks.

"Hi guys, I'll be your 3 formed, normal/flying type this generation. I'm cute at first but then I evolve into Tranquil."

Ditto

Ditto is useful, but fucked up. In the very first games he was the "quirky changing one" (like Castform). But unlike Castform, Ditto became useful for breeding after generation 2. It's useful because it's ability to tranform meant it could breed with any pokemon of any gender. So it's useful and never leaves the daycare, but it's essentially the biggest slut in any work of fiction ever. Castform may have breasts but Ditto has the tits, arse, cock and cunt of any and all living creatures and will happily provide them on demand for anyone who gives it the time of day. You know how humanity contracted HIV and consequently AIDS from gorillas? Well I like to think that in the world of Pokemon Ditto is the only living creature with every STI to ever have existed.

"I can be anything you desire baby."

Luvdisc

A stupidly weak water-type pokemon that looks like a loveheart with a stupid smoochy face. Also they spelt "love" wrong in its name and it's not disc shaped. 

It's eaither a heart or a big, pink pair of buttcheeks with the arsehole poking out the wrong side.

Alomomola

Another name gripe. The "fun" thing about Alomomola is it's a palindrome, so it's spelt the same backwards as forwards. So whoopie to that shit. The other thing that pisses me off is that it looks like it should be the evolved form of Luvdisc. It looks similar and it's pokedex entry calls it an "emotion" pokemon like Luvdisc. But no, instead of improving Luvdisc they just chuck a shit word game in there.

The really fun thing about Alomomola is that its name sounds like a naughty body part.

Gothita

Gothita is actually a pretty good psychic-type pokemon and I have used one happily in my main party. But my god, what the fuck have they done to it? It looks like an underage, Bratz doll sex slave. I really shouldn't be able to see the pronounced arse of an infant pokemon. Ditto might be into that shit but I most certainly am not.

"Oh no everyone can see my bum."

Trubbish

This pokemon is a bag of garbage with a grumpy face drawn on. They must've been really keen to get home the evening this pokemon was conceptualised.

It's a fucking bag of garbage. 'Nuff said.

Tokyo Jungle - a PS3 Review

Don't let these cute creatures fool you. I'd seen these tiny puffballs take down a cow and strip it the the bones. Okay so it was just in a videogame, but I'll be damned if the images aren't seared permanently into my brain.

Tokyo Jungle is a PSN exclusive game that lets you play as a variety of domestic and exotic animals struggling to survive in Tokyo after mankind has vanished. What happened to humanity is left largely a mystery, although collectible newspaper articles and weblogs hint at what might of happened. Personally I'm happy not knowing, I find the mystery much more eerie. Besides it ultimately doesn't matter. We lost, we're gone, our pets are in charge now and we need to accept it.

At its core, Tokyo Jungle is a simple and repetitive arcade-style game. As a word 'repetitive' gets a pretty bad wrap in the world of gaming, but in the case of Tokyo Jungle it's that sort of addictive repetition that a well-designed mobile phone game might have. I mean sure I played through this level 20 times before, but this time I can play as a beagle wearing headphones. You start the game with only two animals to choose from but each of those can unlock another when certain conditions are met, with the added possibility of finding clothing and accessories for your animal. I don't know about you but I'm willing to put in a metric fucktonne of hours just to see how pervy these outfit and animal combinations can get. There are two main modes to play; survival and the story chapters (which must be unlocked in survival). The story chapters offer a few scenarios to play out as a seletion of animals, each with a certain amount of humour, charm and characterisation built into it. Most of the lasting appeal is found in survival mode, where you must eat, fight and fuck in order to keep your species in the gene pool. It's quite simple yet has enough depth to it to remain engaged. You have a hunger bar that keeps decreasing, so obviously you've got to make sure you're constantly fed. But you can't live forever, so you need to reproduce to keep the game going. But what of the females? Well they don't even present themselves until you've marked your territory in several key locations in the area. Then there's choosing. Do you want a guarenteed fuck or would you rather hold out for the finest pussy that the feline kingdom has to offer? The better the mate the better the stats of your offspring, who you will go on to play as. But in order to bury your bone in the alpha bitch you've got to become alpha yourself, by securing large quantities of food. And oh fuck is that smog? Better get the fuck out of this district before I assimilate a lethal dose into my system. All the while the clock is ticking by, keeping track of how many years you've managed to not be an evolutionary dead end. When you finally die, and you will die, the game tallies up your achievements and time spent on this earth and gives you a nice fat score that you can stick up on a leaderboard and say to yourself "boy, I'm so much shitter at this game than everyone else".

The game also has a multiplayer option, which I've been enjoying with my housemate and podcast collegue Joey. Doing so allows you to form a pack and what's interesting is that you don't have to be of the same species. You can literally be playing on the same team as an animal you'd normally consider as food. Would you like to see a velociraptor work collaboratively with a rabbit? Well lucky for you because this is possible in Tokyo Jungle.

Of course, the game isn't without its flaws. Many of the aforementioned animals take many hours and playthroughs to unlock and you're forced to play as a lot of shit creatures before you finally earn the right to play as a tiger or a chimp. There's a definite sense of reward to be found here and it's nice to experience everything but on the other hand it's likely to be very offputting to newcomers to be landed with only the pomeranian and the deer to play as without a fucking clue how to unlock any of the other 80 or so animals. Also, it pisses me off to no end to see that there are a few awesome animals that are left out of the game unless you pay for them with real money. If you were hoping to just buy the game and have instant access to the panda or the kangaroo them I'm affraid you get to eat more shit than a starving terrier, cos that's gonna cost you extra.

But minor gripes aside there's a lot of fun to be had here. It's a lot of simple, well thought out retro gaming in a unique, intense and rewarding package. For just under $16 Australian you'll laugh, scream, clench your teeth, tense your buttocks and yell at your friend to stop eating the rabbits you killed. All in all, sounds like good value to me.

Of Closing Doors and Opening Windows

Anyone who knows me will probably agree that "mild" is about as enthusiastic as I get in regards to celebrations. I rarely "woo" and can only be coaxed into following up with a "hoo" whilst heavily medicated. A very close friend recently called me a reserved person, which I felt was wildly inaccurate but didn't dare say it aloud. So in light of this; knowing me, knowing you, uhuuuuuh; I'd like to say a big congratulatiuons to me for finishing a Bachelor of Science with a Chemistry Major!

Are you using my helium to make your voice like that?

Anyway enough of that, wouldn't want to lose my composure. So that's all the personal life big news out of the way, so now is time for news on my projects. As you can see Infinite Possiblogities has come out of hibernation once again and I have enough steam left to sustain me for at least a few more posts, which I'm sure is massively important to some freak out there (I love you really). Some of you may know me best as the second half of the comedic Still Not Happy duo, which has branched out drastically from the podcasts and now includes a radio show which is broadcast on Sundays from 6 to 8 pm on Tune! FM 106.9. So just in case you're some sort of Mars dwelling gorilla and didn't know of these outrageously popular developements you can now consider yourself part of the cutting-edge. So radio, podcasts and blogs are all going to be happening from here on out and will no doubt make a lovely change for me next year from crying in the corner of a chemistry lab somewhere wishing I'd never chosen to do honours. So watch this space for much funnier material coming very soon.

Titwank.

See, it's funnier already.

"Sir, I Think You've Had Enough"

So there I was on a Friday night, by myself, accidentally molesting random strangers as we all crowded around the understaffed bar waiting for our drinks. There are times in my life when I'm forced to reflect and reconsider my long-held belief that mankind is shit. This was not one of those occassions. Standing alone at the bar for 40 mins, gettting limply shoved about by women who don't find me appealing and men who don't find me threatening, I was given a lot of time to mull over the question "what the fuck am I doing here?"

Since turning 18 all those hazy years ago I have on many occassions decided that I hate going out to the pubs/clubs and vowed never to do so again. It's too pricey, too loud, too crowded and I can't engage in conversations with more than one person at a time because you can't ever hear the other person unless their lips are pressed to your cochlea. But despite my frustrations with the sticky floors and the prices of beer I always find myself presenting my drivers licence to the emotionless, brick shithouses with the earpieces that guard the entrance. I have a compulsion it seems. A sickness. And this sickness isn't just classic alcohol dependence; I can get my booze elsewhere and for a fraction of the cost. So what the fuck is my problem? It's time to put on our overthinking caps and explore the possibilities.

1. I love meeting new people
To all of you who think this is a viable option, "Hey, welcome to my blog. If you like your opinions angry and vulgur you've come to the right place."

2. To attract a female
I did some number crunching recently. By using the same calculations one would use to calculate the percentage yield in chemistry I calculated how much success I had yielded in my sexual experiments. By replacing the term "yield" in the equation with the term "hook ups" (girlfriends notwithstanding) I calculated my success at roughly 1.42%. Which means that for every 100 times I go out to drink in a public venue I can expect to "get some" with around 1 or 2 women. So that surely can't be my motivation for going to the pub as I haven't yet commited suicide or been sectioned.

3. I have money to piss about
I'm willing to admit there have been times where this was the case, mostly in the presence of my closest friends on those infrequent occassions where a sizable group of us are all in the same city at the same place with the necessary funds and free time. These factors unfortunatley don't come together as often as I'd like, but like a mirage in the desert they offer me the hope that one day I will go out again and have genuine fun.

4. I love to dance
Fuck dancing.

5. I love the music
In comparison to dancing.

6. The previously described objections are overruled by my smug sense of superiority knowing that I was right to hate this place and everyone in it.
If you think this is a viable option I'd just like to take some time aside to personally thank you for setting aside a no doubt sizable amount of free time to sit at your computer and read through my wealth of blog entries. We've come a long way together my friend.

Reading Into The "Butterflies" Film Clip

As part of my ongoing mission to slowly leak personal information onto the internet so that stalkers can look for patterns in my behaviour and eventually kidnap and sell me to the Russian mafia as a sex slave, I have decided to share something about my day to day life. As a logical extension of "listening to the song Friday on Fridays" I've recently developed a "Song of the Day" list whereby every named day of the week (except Sunday as of yet) has it's own rediculous song that must be listened to that day. For all you Buffalo Bill's out there the list goes a little something like

Mon - Iceberg Season by Riff Raff and 50 Tyson (because they ball on a Monday and make it feel like the weekend
Tues - Dust by Frank Ocean
Wed - Wonton Soup by Lil B (just coz they both start with W)
Thurs - Butterflies by Alana Lee (just coz I wanted it back to back with "Friday" for an Ark Music double)
Fri - Friday by Rebecca Black (duh)
Sat - Get Down by B4-4 (just coz the boy band vibe reminded me of Saturday mornings watching Video Hits in the 90's)
Sun - Open to suggestions from the general public (guide me fans).

I mention this briefly because today is Thursday and that means my song for today is Butterflies, which has a cutesy, innocent but nonetheless stupid film clip that I want to read into for shits and giggles.. What can I say? I'm bored with reviews for now. The video can be viewed right here in the post in a place that I hope is obvious to you, I suggest watching it for the sake of this post.


So for the duration of the first chorus the stage is set for some high end drama. We see some sweeping shots of a bored classroom before we focus on Alana herself, who stops her dilegent study at regular intervals to lock eyes with the blank-faced, dough-eyed boy with the red shirt and shitty Justin Bieber hairstyle. A note is passed back across to Alana from the boy and he afixes her with another vacuous yet longing gaze.

We then cut to a scene in the playground, where the ruthless social paradigms of the teenage world provide fertile ground for bitches to be bitchy and where quiet, thoughtfull girls like Alana are easy prey. Alana and Boring McBlankface are talking, smiling and finding gentle facination the the computer generated image of a butterfly that has appeared before them. This inspires Alana to spend valuable school time ignoring her education and attempt to draw a more convincing butterfly. It is here we are introduced to the school bitch and her two tag along drones. I don't know why teenage whorebags seen to come in threes and yet still manage to have a clear, unquestioning leader? I guess it's so their one-dimensional characters will add up to make 3, but I digress. Anyway Bitch is handing out what appear to be invites and is hoping to invite Captain Dull but seems irritated that Alana somehow caught wind of the party as well by, I dunno, I guess being right there in mid conversation with him at the time. I mean what did she expect? I'm not some poppy exclusive bimbo who throws "cool people only" parties to get cute boys to make out with me, but even I know that you're supposed to sneakily invite people away from the prying eyes of people you don't want coming. So anyway out of spite Bitch decides to mock Alana's picture of a butterfly before tossing it in a bin. It's pretty rich to scoff at the childishness of drawing butterflies whilst handing out pink invitations that have "It's a Party!" scrawled across them. Also the invite clearly has no information on it regarding times, dates or places and is therefore completely useless.

Back in class Alana appears to be replying to the note that was passed to her in the opening. Ok so we're skipping about on the timeline here but whatever. Anyway she is caught out by the teacher who is apparently irritated that everybody treats his classroom like a speed dating service and decided to get Alana to bring the note out the front to "read it to the class" much to the smug amusement of Bitchy-Spice. Perhaps as a result of embarrassment Alana has some sort of cosmic trip where she imagines some terrible rapper is taking over her song whilst a dream sequence of the party takes place. Alana catches Le Bitch making moves on her man and old Passive Pete just sits there like a lost sheep while the Bitch holds his hand and projects onto him like he's a real life Ken Doll.

Alana then snaps out of the dream and decided that the best thing to do would be to sing the contents of the note to the boy in front of the whole class. Gosh it was lucky the note she wrote was also the chorus to her song. As she does this the camera pans across the class who not only seem to vary in age from 13 to 18, but also don't seem at all surprised or taken aback by this sudden musical number and instead just nod stoically in approval. Even the teacher folds his arms and nods with this look on his face like "fuck yes, respect" which is perhaps one of the many reasons why the children seem able to do whatever they like in his classroom. It might also help if he actually wrote stuff on the board but whatever. The story closes with the Boy finally getting his shit together and leaving a note on Alana's front door. These kids and their fucking notes. Anyway Alana opens it up and it's the picture of the butterfly she drew earlier that got thrown out, which isn't so much an appology or an admission of feelings as much as it is evidence that he trawls through garbage collecting things that girls have touched. But whatever, Alana seems pleased and that's really all the film clip wants us to care about. Actually the message of the film clip has this slight air of "let's drop everything and pander to the romantic whims of hormonal teens." I also can't tell if that whole party rap scene is supposed to be a dream or what. The blurred lense effect and the fact that what happens in it seems to have little bearing on any of the other events makes me feel like it might be, but to what end and purpose is beyond me.

It's actually interesting looking at this song alongside Rebecca Black's Friday because as previously mentioned they are both produced by Ark Music Factory, the co-founder of which is the same guy who shoehorns his out of place and terrible rap bits into each of the songs. Actually in both Friday and Butterflies I'd argue quite strongly that his presence is the worst part of each song, especially in Friday where he doesn't even rhyme anything and literally just describes overtaking a school bus. If you're unconvinced of his inferiority just check out his own rap version of Friday. I can't find a link for it but it used to be on youtube. Feel free to search for it but be warned, shit's fucked up yo.

Rayman Origins

Yippee! Today I'm going to bore you all with more shit that I love. You'll remember a few months back I failed spectacularly to name a game of the year for 2011 because the games industry thrust way more big dicks in my direction than I had orifices to appreciate them with. It didn't help that one of them was Skryim, which has 300 hours of content or something terrifying like that. So after some careful organising and a few months of having each game line up to take turns in giving me a thorough seeing to I have decided, to the interest of nobody, that Rayman Origins was by far the best game I played in 2011.

Giving Rayman Origins GOTY was not something I expected to find myself doing. It was up against some powerful competition and it was nothing more than a humble 2D platformer. It's nothing more than simple runny, jumpy fun. Sure it has a few nice little touches like wall running and wall jumps but there's nothing really new in the repertoire. So it just goes to show that you don't need crazy new ideas and gimmicks or even high polygon count 3D models of realistic Russian soldiers to make a fun game. Just really fucking awsome design choices will do the trick. Some of the best choices in Rayman Origins were made in regards to the difficulty. Rayman Origins is hard, very hard indeed. But really the game is only as hard as you make it. By that I mean the hardest level in the game is optional and can only be unlocked after finishing a series of slightly less hard speed run style levels. Hunting lums and freeing electoons presents another optional, yet satisfying challenge as they will require more advanced platforming skills as well as a keen eye for potential hidden areas. Additionally the challenge in the game is never made overly frustrating or unfair because Ubisoft decided to abolish any lives systems and use regular and forgiving checkpoints so that although the game is extremely challenging it is broken down into managable pieces. This makes the game very addictive indeed in a way that I haven't seen in a game in ages. People talk about Skyrim hijacking massive chunks of life but for me that was nothing compared to Rayman Origins forever tempting me to move forward and seek out the next challenge. It's also the most rewarding game I've played in ages (probably since Bayonetta) with more than a few occassions of me yelling "Fuck! Yes!" at the TV with some sort of obscene gesture accompanying it. You will find yourself being amazed at your own skill and at times needing to put down the controller and stare at the screen, all the while thinking did I just do that?

The level design and art direction are nothing short of superb. The platforms and jumps and enemies and lums are all perfectly placed to ensure the game has a nice smooth flow and rhythm to the way it plays. Think along the lines of Donkey Kong Country 2 and 3 on the SNES mixed in with a bit of the indie hit Super Meat Boy and that will give you a fair idea of how the game will feel to play. And all the while admist this wonderful yet challenging gameplay are the most beautiful and varied environments. I'd wife a bitch a fifth as pretty as this on looks alone. So the gameplay is excellent and the levels are excellent and the graphics are gorgeous so here's the part where we talk about the cons.

There are none.

Ok ok so I guess the story is kind of baffling. Not that it even fucking matters. Honestly if you can't have fun with this game because you don't feel the story is up to speed then I don't want you reading my blog. You are beyond help. But the story is basically Rayman and his friends snore so loudly they wake up the dead. I'm not exactly sure what the motivations are beyond this point for Rayman and pals to journey through these rediculously challenging levels except that they somehow find it equally as rewarding and fun as the player. But honestly I didn't even stop to think about what the end goal actually was until I was nearing the end of the game anyway, I guess Mario has conditioned me to stop caring about the story in 2D platformers.

As if all this wasn't enough but the game also supports 4 player co-op. Not that I ever used it but many trusted sources tell me that it works really well and isn't crap like it kinda is in New Super Mario Bros Wii. So there you have it. Rayman Origins; the best 2D platformer I've ever played, the best Rayman game by far and the best game released in 2011. It's been released on all home consoles, 3DS, Vita and even PC so you have absolutely no fucking excuse not to play it. For what it's worth I played the 360 version.

Peep Show

Over the past 10 years or so as I angsted my way through the teen years I underwent a multitude of personal, emotional and mental transformations. One such change that I don't often think back on is I learnt to not idolize or look up to anyone. It wasn't a sudden conscious decision made after some soul-crushing encounter with the man I admired most or anything, but rather a natural and organic process that resulted from curiosity. Basically I would like a band or whatever and out of a desire to dig deeper I would discover things about the band, music aside, that I wasn't myself interested in. For example I loved the Smashing Pumpkins and still do, but I also think that Billy Corgan (their front man) is pretentious and weird. I liked Nirvana but I think Kurt Cobain was a bit of a rambling madman. So as time went on I learnt that people and their creative works are often very different things and I stopped treating people as idols and heros and instead opted to treat them as people.

But in more recent years I've changed again. As a result of treating people as people I've found that I've naturally sifted out the people who interest me least and I'm left with people who's personalities are more in line with my own. People who I genuinely respect because of what they say and think. David Mitchell is, as many of my close friends will confirm, one of these people. Now that's David Mitchell the British comedian/actor, not to be confused with the conservative politician, the author, the American voiceover actor or the Canadian lacrosse player all of the same name. It's been a relatively recent thing but I've spent many hours being amused by him as he makes guest appearances on QI or watching compilation videos of him going on hilarious rants on various other Britich panel shows. I watched his sketch comedy show and David Mitchell's soapbox. But it wasn't until recently I started watching Peep Show. Perhaps it was because I knew it wasn't written by David Mitchell or his comedy partner Robert Webb? But eventually at the recommendation of my brothers I decided to give it a shot.

Peep Show is, as the name doesn't suggest, about 2 best friends and room mates sharing uncomfortable, passive, withdrawn and dysfunctional lives together as they try desperately to find women and live fullfilling lives. Mark, played by David Mitchell, is a repressed history enthusiast eternally stuck on the middle rung of the corporate ladder in which he works. While Jeremy (often referred to as Jez) is more outgoing but crippled by incompotence, selfishness, unemployment and a dream of being a successful musician that will never come to fruition. Watching these two men try and fail to break away from these moulds is esentially the crux of the show. And it works, it's really funny.

But that's not to say it's perfect. If you're like me and watch things from beginning of series to end in large gulps rather than weekly nibbles will likely notice that the continuity from episode to episode can be a bit off. In a half hour comedy with very little in the way of an overarching plot it isn't really an issue but considering these two men really hurt and damage the people around them it can be a little strange to see these same people happily chatting away in the next episode as if nothing happened. But there's another more personal issue I've unearthed with Peep Show. The fact is that Peep Show kinda scares me. It's not an irrational fear that you might feel in regards to a hellish monstrosity of twisted flesh and infinite hunger. Nor is it an exhaggerated fear you might feel alone at night after watching Wolf Creek. It's a much more real and pure terror than that. The issue stems from the fact that Peep Show is relatable. And deep within this relatability nestled amoungst the laughter and the squeemishness there's a fear that maybe I could become this. Maybe I'll end up stuck in a rut, devoid of meaningful relationships and pining after women who will never love or connect with me. My podcasting pal Joey and myself often joke that our lives will be like Peepshow, but it is a joke that has just trace amounts of poisonous truth. The truth is that Peep Show can be hard to watch, even if it is hilarious and totally worth it. It's uncomfortable in very much the same way that Ricky Gervais' shows The Office and Extras are. David Mitchell has himself comically described the show as "constant footage of two palled men in their thirties aging in real time" which perfectly encapsulates the humour and nihilism that the show is constantly toying with.

So by all means watch Peep Show, because it is most certainly funny and engaging. But it might not be everyones cup of tea and if you watch it late at night it might just give you nightmares.

Skip Beat!

Todays review is going to be a short one because I actually watched this anime months ago and just never got around to reviewing it. But I can still remember the important bits like whether or not I liked it and what it was about...mostly. For all you busy interwebbers who popped onto the site during a 15 minute smoke break my feelings toward the anime are summed up quite nicely in the following picture from Skip Beat! (what's with all these animes having exclamation marks in their titles anyway?). Most of the way through I felt like the guy on the right; relaxed and pleased. But then when the show ended I felt like the girl on the left; surprised, disgusted, frustrated and confused. To find out what went wrong we'll have synopsize the plot (is synopsize a real word? Don't know, don't care). 
*Needless to say there be spoilers ahead*

At the start the girl on the left is best friends with some jerkoff who's hoping to be a famous singer (or actor or something; it was never clear and time has not improved it). Now when I say "best friend" I mean it in the anime sense whereby they grew up together and she nurtures him as a motherly figure whilst harboring secret desires to marry him. Unfortunately for her the guy is well aware of this and instead of reciprocating said feelings he takes advantage of her and utilizes her like an unpaid maid. That is, until she overhears him carelessly affirming this to his manager. So she snaps and swears revenge, declaring that one day she will outshine him and use her possition of public adoration to crush him. And so the stage is set. Along the way she eventually gets signed up to a talent company and becomes something of a protege under the companies biggest star , who she had always unfoundedly hated because his popularity rivalled that of her now ex-best friend.

Phew well that was all hard to explain. Anyway, a sort of romantic mutual respect developes between the 2 pictured characters as the girl discovers a talent and love for acting that eventually replaces vengence as motivation. When she finally confronts her rival she manages to show that her passion has elevated her beyond his level and he starts to question his feelings for her. Then it's back to the romance plot for a few episodes and then bam! The end. Fuck you and thanks for watching.

It's actually quite forshadowing that the title has the word "skip" in it because that's exactly what the plot did, it skipped. It skipped right over the end like the budget evaporated and it left all the loose ends dangling depressingly in the cold, howling wind so that all our established good feelings towards the show can fashion them into a noose and hang themselves. Because lets not beat around the bush here, Skip Beat! is an anime for girls. Soppy old girly girls who've just been dumped and need something romantic to watch while they eat raw cookie dough and menstruate. But that said I was actually enjoying it. It wasn't fantastic but it was engaging and easy to watch alone in bed at the end of the day. But if you have an anime like this and slowly develope a romantic connection between 2 characters then you simply have to address it. It could end with a relationship, sex, marriage, mutual suicide, anything really just so long as the romance is fucking addressed and tied up in a conclusive package for us to take away. But Skip Beat! did not do this. Skip Beat! just stopped. I actually had to go online and check if I had all the episodes or whether there was going to be another season or a movie. But no, it was fucking over leaving me completely blueballed and wondering what I'd done to deserve this abandonment. But you know what Skip Beat? It's not me, it's you! Everything that happened was because of you. You took my heart for granted and then tossed me aside like a piece of trash, like I was nothing. You promised me the world and then you broke my fucking heart. But the joke's on you now Skip Beat! Because I'm going to post this blog and tell the whole world that you're nothing but a cock-teasing, heart-crushing whore!

de Blob 2

OK finally we're back on to gaming as a topic and boy am I long overdue for this one. de Blob 2, annoyingly spelt without the capitol letter, actually came out a little under a year ago and the sad part is I actually intended to throw up a review within a few weeks of release. But oh well.

de De Blob 2 is very much an "aimed at younger audiences" type game but is one that anyone can and will be able to enjoy. In what I can only assume is a jab at the HD greys and browns that plague current gen games, de Blob 2 see's you controlling a round, blobby character called Blob who is tasked with rubbing paint all over his naked body and jumping around atop buildings in order to restore life to a drab, enslaved world by making it colourful. I can't help but be reminded of the graffiti "street art" vs. the authorities "it's vandalism" battle that is being forever waged. In fact if you look into it too much the message of the game seems to be like that of a Public Enemy or Rage Against the Machine song; it is encouraging us to challenge "the man" in a soft-core military fashion. But instead of homemade explosives we have paint, colour and vibrancy.

Which brings me to another interesting gameplay/story point. Primarily the game is an action platformer with more than a slight hint of a sandbox in the levels. Throughout a level your allies, the Colour Underground, will give you a mission such as "clear out all the enemies from the area" or "free the population from their empty mindless existance." But more often than not they'll ask you to paint buildings, quite often a specific colour. Now hang on just a moment here. The whole game we're being told that making everything grey is boring and soul destroying and dictatorships are wrong and creativity is cool and all that shit. So then why is it that the game is stiffling my creativity and allowing me to only paint certain things a certain colour? Ok so maybe the colour underground aren't enslaving a city but surely I'm not the only one who detects a certain dictatorial hypocricy in the game.

 

But of course I'm being a bit dramatic about all this. At the heart of de Blob 2 is a core principal, "let's just chill-out and have some fun." And this is exactly what the game lets you do. It's cathartic to get home from a boring day at the office or school or whatever and lay down in a bean bag, flick on your lava lamp and play through an hour or 2 of de Blob 2. Saying that I don't recommend it for long sessions. This is not Skyrim and you will not enjoy playing it all day and night. It's an unwind game to be enjoyed in small managable bites with plenty of chewing between each mouthful. A level a day keeps the stress away. Because really if you do any more than a level in one sitting you'll become frustrated with the repitition. I mentioned a few missions above and really there's not a lot else the game will throw at you aside from the collectibles hidden in the levels. Of course the game manages to keep you engaged with the level and enemy designs and as you progress there will always be something new to see. Although I made light of the "paint everything" central game mechanic it is actually quite satisfying and well executed. The game has a dynamic soundtrack that will change slightly in style depending on what colour you're using and it actually does a lot to help you feel like you're changing and livening up the lifeless world at a relaxed pace.

There are unfortunately a number of frustrations in de Blob 2 though. Firstly, although the controls are mostly pretty good the jump can sometimes feel a little sticky and awkward and timing landings can be a nightmare at times. Although there is a definite aim at a younger audience in terms of humour and design (both of which are very much reminiscent of a Disney Pixar film) the difficulty is definately adequate enough to keep adults engaged. Probably the most fructrating aspect of de Blob 2 is its' odd choice of save system. In levels it uses the somewhat dated method of tracking checkpoints throughout a level that you return to when you die. When you lose all your lives it's game over and the level must be started over from scratch. As mentioned before this type of save system feels very dated and gets frustrating when youcruise through the beginning of a level over and over again just for the opportunity to try the bit you're stuck on again. But perhaps the weirdest design choice of all is this, you can revisit levels in order to find more collectibles etc but you will also have to redo the level. Everything you worked for, all the painting you did, it will all be undone. Which is an odd choice for a sandbox game that in would in general encourage the player to go back for the aforementioned collectibles. I can see why they did it, obviously there are some people who would like the opportunity to replay levels they've already finished, but why couldn't they have offered both options?

But at the end of the day de Blob 2 is fun and satisfying and it's unfortunate that Bluetongue, the Australian studio that developed it, was shut down a few months later. I've heard people complain about the time-limits in each level before but I never found that an issue as long as you're always moving it's easy to rack up heaps of extra time. Plus once all the main missions in the level are done you're given free reighn to explore before deciding to finally finish up. So I don't feel like that complaint is valid. So to wrap things up I'll close by saying that de Blob 2 is good and as it is multiplatform and can be easily bought at a bargain bin price it is well worth checking out.

The 2011 Highlights and Lowlights Reel

 
So now that 2011 has fucked off and died and 2012 has gracefully flown in through our open windows with chocolates and apologies; it seems only fair to look back at the crumpled mess that was 2011 and give a little Eulogy before dowsing it in petrol and burning it.

So you might have gotten the impression that 2011 wasn't the best year for me from my introduction there and you would mostly be correct. I'm not going to wollow in personal greivances here but you can be rest assured that I'm not the only one who's considering 2011 to be a write-off. So the year in general is getting a panning from me, but there have been some redeeming moments and I will do my absolute best to recover these memories and highlights from my New-Years-Eve-damaged brain.

Gaming in 2011
2011 was actually a pretty fantastic year for gaming in my opinion, although this was mostly the case in November which saw the release of Saints Row the Third, Skyrim, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Rayman Origins. Of course there have been other good games released this year such as Dark Souls, Deus Ex Human Revolution and Xenoblade Chronicles (which I've yet to play in any appreciable amount).

But with highs come lows and some of gamings lows this year include the extremely slow start for the 3DS, which launched months before a good game was released for it, which turned out to be a remake anyway (Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time). This was followed up by another remake of a N64 game, Lylatt Wars, which has been given the American title of Star Fox 64 3D which I refuse to acknowledge for a handful of reasons, only one of which is the extra difficulty in saying it. It wasn't until Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land came along that the 3DS has started looking like it might live up to expectations. But I'd like to make it known that if the 3DS actually takes off in the same way that the DS did before it it will be despite the 3D implementation rather than because of it. This is because 3D at best adds a few seconds here and there of immersion breaking gawking and at worst encourages lazy 3D ports of older games. But I haven't given up on the 3DS yet, especially with the promise of new offerings of Monster Hunter, Paper Mario and another installment in the "Tales of" series.

As it has been such a busy year for gaming recently I don't feel it would be fair to award game of the year seeing as how I haven't played a lot of the most recent releases. But having said that Skyward Sword, Skyrim and Dark Souls are actually looking like very strong contenders for the title. I might give you an update on this in the upcoming months.

Events of 2011
The events of 2011 are largely likely to be overlooked here but I feel a special mention ought to go out to all the dictators and "most wanted" type people who have been biting the dust this year. Even Kim Jong-il managed to pop off right at the end there just when we thought all our dictators were starting to look a little healthier. 

Another more personal event of this year was the eventual launch of another online project of mine with my dear friend Joey. That's right after what was probably about 6 months of talking about it Joey and I finally launched our podcast and after an unexpectedly positive response we have managed to post 2 more up with the promise of a fourth one soon. We even have a name, a homepage and a Facebook group now. As a result of the unexpected popularity of the Still Not Happy Podcast my posts here at Inifinite Possiblogities have been at an all time low, with 2011 seeing substantially less posts than any other years. Hopefully 2012 will prove to be the year of the comeback in many aspects of my life, with this blog being a hopeful candidate. This brings me to my next topic.


The Broken Promises of 2011
As a once eager and proud parent who has now grown tired and jaded (yes, even more so) I feel it only fair that I acknowlege some of the promises I've broken to my readers over the year. I've already apologized multiple times for breaking my "I'm gonna post every week" promises but there have been some actual topics and that I've mentioned that I've failed to implement at all. I never got around to attempting any of those joke homework projects, despite a small number of submissions from fans (thanks guys, you know who you are) for which I am a bit regretful. I still like the idea of it and if I had thought of it in 2007 and 2008 I probably would have made some regular segments for it. 


I also promised I'd review games such as de Blob 2, animes like Skip Beat and probably a bunch of other crap I don't even remember. I have decided to make amends and actually review, as best I can, both of these previously mentioned entities in my current "gotta make things right" blog-rush I promised in my previous post. 


Some Other Disappointments of 2011 That Aren't My Fault

• The Inbetweeners Movie never fucking came to a cinema near me and I've yet to watch it.
• Since last year when I declared how excited I was for it I have not heard a single fucking peep about the new series of The Games which will be set in London. Hopefully it's coming this year rather than disappearing.
• Although a fantastic game, Skyward Sword has some irritating padding in it. The worst offender at present is a Dragon that, despite recognising that you are indeed the chosen one who is in a rush to save the world, feels the need to send you on a stupid fetch quest to round up tadpoles. She also flooded the forrest to rid it of the monsters, which at best just introduced more irritating underwater monsters. Fucking idiot dragon bitch.

Some Pleasant Surprises of 2011

• When Bad Meets Evil finally released an album/EP after about 9 years of doing nothing together. Eminem and Royce da 5'9" really bring out the best in each other here and it's a fantastic recording to listen to.
• I discovered that a Haruhi Suzumiya movie existed and I watched it on DVD just a few weeks back. It is almost 3 hours of rock solid heart-warming, emotional anime brilliance and marks the high in what was already one of my absolute favourite anime series.
• Not wanting to get too bogged down in anime but an even more pleasant surprise this year was a short anime movie called 5 Centimeters Per Second. It was a brilliant and touching experience and given that is runs for just under an hour you have no fucking excuse not to watch it.

The Future is Looking Brighter (What I've Got My Eye on in 2012)
At the moment I'm very excited to see if the wasted potential in Final Fantasy XIII finally becomes realized in its sequel Final Fantasy XIII-2 which comes out in February. The Wii U has got me very interested and excited for whenever it comes out this year. The next and final season of Breaking Bad is due to some along mid 2012 and given that the series has never been anything other than excellent I have no reason to be anything other than excited. The previous season didn't even end on a massive fuckoff cliffhanger this time which was quite pleasing. Of course there are many games for 3DS as well as the other current gen consoles that I'm keen to see.

Other than that I'm keen to fix up the mess that my blog has become and keen to expand on the Still Not Happy Podcast with Joey. The rest of the year may just have to be a pleasant mystery. So I'd just like to wrap up by wishing you all a Happy New Year and all the best for 2012.

Anime Samplers - A Review of the Hyper Japan Special DVD

Now that I'm pulling double duties as a blogger and podcaster (here is an awesome link for sexy people http://thestillnothappypodcast.blogspot.com/ ) it seems reasonable to assume I might not get much time to tend to the needs of my Infinite Possiblogities fanbase. However it has been many months since my last post which is both ridiculous and unforgivable. Therefore I think it's only fair that I try and cram in as many posts as I feel I can get away with within the next week or so (remember when I used to update daily? Crazy times). First off the bat we have a review of the first episodes of six different anime series that I got for free with a special Japanese issue of Hyper Magazine. Now normally when I review anime and TV shows I like to review an entire season as a whole because I feel that reviewing such things on an episode by episode basis is very limiting and doesn't give much of an indication as to whether or not the series is worth your time. But unfortunately I don't have whole series here, just the first episodes. So my mini reviews will discuss what was experienced in the episode and whether or not I think the series has any potential to hold my interest. Who knows, I may even end up reviewing a whole series of one of these?

Freedom
Don't let the bland, uninspired name fool you, because Freedom actually IS bland and uninspired overall. The first thing I noticed was just how boring and dated the animation looked, which isn't normally something I pay any attention to so me noticing it and feeling the need to mention it should be taken seriously. But it didn't stop there because soon I actually found myself laughing at the facial expressions of the characters. Not only were they over the top but they were at times contextually inappropriate. Looks of shock would suddenly strike a characters face in the most mundane of situations. It's like the animators went to a lot of effort with the goal in mind to truely capture the essence of bad acting. I actually found it quite bizzarre. Storywise I was left mostly clueless which was only in part my fault for not paying attention. But from what I gather the story centers around a human colony living on the moon and futuristic car racing. It's one of those anime worlds where society as a whole seems built around a single hobby in the same vein as Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh. It also has that typical anime knack for just dropping you into the deepend with the plot and setting and assuming you'll pick it up as you go along in the series. Which is fine assuming it's done well and has managed to engage you enough to keep watching. But Freedom did neither. I mentioned before that I didn't pay a lot of attention to what was going on and that was with good reason. The fact was I was bored. And being bored and unengaged in the first episode of an anime series would have to be the biggest con you could possibly give. As far as potential goes I don't see a whole lot and I certainly won't bother chasing up the rest of the series unless it comes highly recommmended from a small group of sexy, bikini clad women.

K-On!
This is actually not the first I'd heard of K-On! (yes, the exclamation mark is part of the title) and I was actually relishing the opportunity to check out this anime. Whilst not exactly blowing my mind from the get go K-On! certainy shows some promise and it certainly shines like a star after Freedom. Storywise, K-On! is much more slow and deliberate; setting up relationships and developing characters from the beginning rather than making you feel like you may have actually missed the first few episodes by mistake (which is how Freedom felt). But despite this I understood the premise well and was left curious about where it will go.

Basically K-On! is about a group of school girls forming a band, only 2 of whom have any sort of established friendship beforehand. The band has 4 memebers, the enthusiastic initiator, her best friend who got dragged into it, the blonde chick without enough personailty to make me remember anything she said or did and the girl who can't play music but has comically been given the role of guitarist whilst she was searching for a club to join. As far as premises go it's not a lot but it's pretty solid and has the potential for comedy, drama as well as some slice-of-life-feel-gooderies. On top of that the soundtrack didn't seem half-bad either and considering it's a show about a high school band/music club it has a lot of potential to get better. Honestly, I'll probably check out the rest of it sometime soon.

Black Butler

Before I even begin talking about this one I want you to do something for me. I want you to consider that there is an anime series called Black Butler and just try and predict what kind of show it will be. Go on just try it.

Ok, well if you guessed it would be a creepy anime for goths about an effeminate but ruthless butler serving a pre-pubescent boy with mummy issues and a twisted moral compass then you get full points. You also get bonus points if you managed to guess that the show would also have some terribly painful comic relief support characters with the potential to ruin the whole damn show. Honestly I don't know why it is that any anime that sets out to be dark, sinister or even just intellectually stimualting they also feel the need to uncomfortably shoehorn in a bunch of irritating fuckwits to lighten the tone. Don't do it!

But that gripe aside the show seems like it might be ok, if a little sus at times. I mean just look at the pic on the right and tell me there isn't any paedophilia going on there. If that one pic isn't sus enough just google image the show and you'll see that the butler has this habit of suductively removing the white glove from his hand with his teeth. My podcasting pal Joey would have a field day with anyone unlucky enough to be caught watching this show around him. But I digress.

Ga Rei Zero
My initial thoughts of the show are exactly as follows "wow, this looks exactly like a scene from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. And so does that...and that. Oh wait the dialogue is shit and it has monsters in it, nevermind." Ga Rei Zero is another of those "what the fuck is happening?" animes that drop you right in the middle of the jargon and hopes you'll swim. But of all the animes on this DVD this is the one that left me the most confused. See the pic above and note the characters in it. I have never seen them before in my life. They weren't in the first episode (at least as far as I noticed). The characters I thought were the main characters in the first episode die at the end of it (pretty sure it doesn't count as a spoiler if it's the first episode hey). But other than looking like GITS and making me wonder what the hell just happened there is literally nothing compelling me to watch any more of this anime.

 

High School of the Dead
Another little activity for you. I want you to google image search this anime and find me a picture that isn't like the one above. There in an upskirt pantyshot literally the first minute of this anime. But given that it's a survival horror anime I can kinda let the odd bit of exposed flesh and breast wobble slide because it's what you would expect if a zombie epidemic broke out at a Japanese High School (where skirts are short and clothes are flimsy). Again I'd actually heard of this one before and was keen to see how it stacked up. And you know what it's actually pretty good. The plot is basically summed up in the name and it's got a nice balance of kick-arse action, drama and the necessary "what the fuck is going on?" factor that is actually appropriate in this case because this is the same question the characters are asking themselves. Of all the animes on this DVD this is the one I'm most keen to watch the rest of. Chicks' boobs jiggling about as they're kicking zombies in the head and exposing their underwear, sounds pretty good to me. Again, Joey will tease you for watching this, only this time it'll probably be worth it.

Rideback
Last on the DVD is Rideback. Rideback is about a girl who was an up and coming dancer following in her mothers footsteps until she tore a ligament and her life as she knew it ended. Whilst coming home from school or college or whatever one day she takes shelter from the rain in a shed where the "Rideback Club" assembles. A Rideback (pictured above) is a sort of transformer bike thing that can adopt a humanoid, bipedal stance. As the girl tries it out the Rideback kinda goes nuts and can't be stopped (for reasons that will probably be determined in episode 2) and whilst riding it's back (you ride on their back, Rideback, get it?) with dress billowing about in typical anime panty-flashing style she experiences the same joys she felt from dancing. That's pretty much all that happened in this episode but don't let that deter you. It may be a bit of a slow burner, especially when compared to everything else on this DVD, but its pace is perfect for the gentle human feel of the show and the gradual development of the characters. Nothing felt rushed or forced. Everything progressed naturally, which is a rare quality you often forget about until you experience it again. But what of the potential? Well that's actually an excellent question. The show really just ends with our heroine riding the Rideback through the air with a look of absolute joy across her face. I do want to know what happens next but to be honest I can't really tell what the series is going to do from here. The gentle pace and tenderness in the tone of the show certainly do a lot to recommend it and I'll definately check it out. But I can't really forsee what the overarching plot might entail and so the question of potential seems much vaguer to answer here.

So that wraps that up. Six different animes of varying genre and appeal, plus 20 "kick-ass anime trailers" that I really couldn'ty be arsed with. I expect maybe half of these will be blogged about again in much more detail at some point, perhaps I'll even refer back to what I said in this post. Anyway, that's one post down. Expect another one soon and keep your eye on this spot.