Part One: JewWario.
Occasionally, I watch JewWario's "You Can Play This!" series on TGWTG.com. YCPT is very informative, but at the same time, it's not a hugely funny series. It's kind of like the AVGN but for Japanese-only games that don't suck. Even still, I still enjoy watching YCPT (and AVGN) because the episodes are like short documentaries about one of my favorite subjects.
The most recent YCPT, however, caught my eye. Two fighters in one. One of which was a PS2 fighter based off Fist of the North Star. I've actually watched a few episodes of it on Funimation.com. It's . . . not a classic, it's really more of a guilty pleasure, since it's chock full of retro 80s cheesiness, (If you thought only America succumbed to the effects of the "Me" decade, you're dead wrong) but the show has excellent Japanese voice-acting, the intro and ending songs are cool, and Kenshiro is so fucking badass he's awesome. The game, being made by Aksys, looks like a total conversion mod for Guilty Gear that replaces GG characters with the cast of Fist of the North Star. I'd like to play it, but, I don't normally import, and I don't want to bother using a modchip.
The second game he mentioned? Melty Blood. Oh gawd, yes.
But a few things to point out:
1: Neco Arc isn't that cute. (JW, if you're reading this, don't glance at the catgirls of Touhou, for they will surely turn you into goo.)
2: No huge-breasted girls? Um, dude, did you even look at the portraits of Arcueid, Aoko, Sion, and Ciel? Oh wait, I think he meant there wasn't anyone like Litchi from Blaz Blue chest-wise. Heh, one reason why I like Takashi Takeuchi's designs; the large-breasted women look real!
3: No fanservice? Uh, perform Len or White Len's supers and you'll see otherwise. (Although admittingly, there is less fanservice in MB than in most other fighters, as well as the VNs that spawned MB.)
4: unpronounceable names? nonsense! I can say Shiki, Akiha, Kohaku, and Satsuki just fine! And . . . Arcade? Arcu-aido? Nervensker? Scion? See-on? Okay, maybe you have a point.
But nice to see someone reference the Nasuverse.
Part Two: Amestris the Beautiful
Fullmetal Alchemist recently came to its end in Japan, and FMA: Brotherhood is nearing its end right now. All of the reckless souls that read scanlations claim the ending is one of the best ever. I wouldn't expect anything less on the subject of FMA, although now, this means I will have to wait for a while before I can witness its ending properly.
But yes, to think that it was nearly 3 years ago that I finally gave FMA a try. I consider it a good thing that I did. If I hadn't, I'd probably still be an anime hater. (Then again, I'm pretty sure that if FMA hadn't converted me, Death Note would have.) I still can't believe that the reason I started collecting manga novels, watching anime online, and even showing Miyazaki movies to my family can all be traced back to that fateful July night back in 2007, when I woke up early in the middle of the night and found a rerun of the older FMA anime on tv. If you're curious, it was episode 11, the one with the female thief that never appeared in the manga. When I watched that, a few thoughts ran through my mind:
1: "Whoa! The opening song is kickass! J-rock rocks!
2: "Holy shit! The English dub actually sounds good! How come the anime I've seen in English in the past never sounded this good!?"
3: "LOL! This is actually funny! I don't ever remember watching an anime that was funny!"
4: "Ed and Al . . . are awesome. Sure, I already know who they are since people on the internet won't shut up about this series, but seeing them in action, yeah man.
5: "Dude, the ending song kicks ass! I don't believe this, but, I actually wanna watch the next episode! I've never looked forward to watching a new episode of an anime! Wait a second . . . OH MY GAWD! THIS ANIME DOES NOT SUCK!"
Yeah, and then a month later, I discovered the manga.
"OH MY GAWD! THIS HAS EVEN BETTER WRITING THAN THE ANIME! SUCK IT, YU-GI-OH MANGA!"
Of course, you should've seen the times I watched Trinity Blood and Death Note for the first time.
"(Regarding TB) Holy shit. This show is beautiful. I need to get this on DVD. (Funny that no one warned me about the ending.)
"(Regarding Death Note) Hey, it's another anime that people won't shut up about! They're airing that on Adult Swim now? I think I'll join in! (20 minutes later) Hoooooooooleeeeeeeeeeeee sheeeeeeeee-iiiiiiiit. I. Need. To. Watch. The. Rest. Of. This."
But I'm getting off-subject. Yeah, FMA is made from awesome sauce, there's no denying that.
P.S. just for lolz, I watched a few more episodes of FMAB in English. Guess what? May Chang sounds better in English! Her voice isn't freakishly high-pitched, and she sounds even cuter for that! Yay Monica Rial! Also, Al in FMAB . . . if you listen really closely, you can tell that it's a woman now doing the voice, but then again, Al hasn't gone through puberty yet, so I don't mind. Also, although Todd Haberkorn doesn't sound like how I picture Lin Yao in my mind to sound, somehow I have a hard time thinking anyone else should do his voice. And the new voice of Scar works a lot better. SUCK IT DUB HATERS!
