Finished watching xxxHolic

Finished watching xxxHolic (2006, Production I.G, 24 episodes) 1/16/2016.

Watanuki has spent most of his life running from the ghosts and spirits that chase him from time to time. One of these chases eventually leads him to a mysterious house where a tall, gracious woman named Yuko runs a spiritual shop as a witch. According to her, whoever steps into her house does not do so by accident but because they have a wish she can fulfill... at a price. As for Watanuki's price, he is hired on the spot by Yuko to cook and clean for her. While working for her he becomes more familiar with Yuko's magical ways and relics as well as how they're used on and by her customers.

7/10 - I've never read the manga to its full extent so I can't say how they compare, but the show was interesting although at times it got a bit repetitive. The manga style portrays the characters with long limbs and bodies, but this doesn't translate very well into the show, specially in mid-show episodes where the art quality is considerably lower. This results in abnormally tall and skinny characters with unreasonably tiny heads during some shots. The final few episodes were good and kept me on the edge of my seat. They were quite the tear jerkers as well.

Finished watching Lucky☆Star

Finished watching Lucky☆Star (2007, Kyoto Animation, 24 episodes) on 1/15/2016.

Follow nerdy, PC-gamer Konata-chan and her classmates through their normal, everyday high-school life as they talk about regular, trivial things that everybody does differently or like the many different ways they eat a certain kind of food. More than likely you'll find yourself relating to their stories with an "Oh, I do that too!" reaction.

8/10 – This show is great. I mean, it's unbelievable the topics they bring up. Sometimes I can't even catch up to what they're talking about or even fully understand it. But most of the time I do and I'm just like "Yup. Yup. So true." But after a few episodes I found myself thinking that the main reason I kept watching the show – because I actually did think of dropping it at one point (I don't know, maybe I got tired of hearing funny, relatable stories all the time), was because of the Lucky☆Channel segment at the end of each episode. That segment had me rollin' every time. Thanks to Shiraishi Minoru (voiced by himself) who's an amazingly funny character when dealing with his co-host, Akira's bad temper. After a while the credits of the show were even played with live-action videos of Minoru singing on beach rocks while making funny or dynamic poses. I loved it.

Finished playing Ivy the Kiwi

Finished playing Ivy the Kiwi? (2010, Prope, Nintendo DS) on 1/4/2016.
Hours: ~10

Ivy hatches (partially) from her egg but her mother is nowhere to be seen. Because of her red color and her egg fashion the other animals shun her and tease her. Lonely, she sets off to find her mother with the help of vines and a trail of red feathers.

7/10 – Look at this game! It's so cute! The sepia storybook aesthetics are so cozy! And Ivy! Look at that cute lil' girl birdie! The game does have a learning curve with the vines where you have to draw them out for Ivy to walk on or even push her along, but once you learn the ropes and get used to them, you're off on your way to a fun, short little game. The levels are actually pretty easy, and there's no enemies around. But what about those mean looking rats and crows I see on the cover art? Oh! A few levels in, there they are! ...Along with spikes! ...And barricades. ...And one-hit KO water droplets. Y'see where I'm going with this? 25 levels in and sh*t was gettin' real. The last few levels? Forget about it! This wasn't Ivy the Kiwi? anymore, this was the trial of Gods. But I did it, I beat all the levels. Huh? Bonus mode unlocked? ...Fine! I'll take the challenge! I'm not a pansy! .........F*****CK!!!!! That was a mistake! Abort! Abort! All of a sudden I felt like Rooster Teeth's LtMkilla playing the Impossible Game. I was ready to impale my nice Pokémon DSi with its own stylus! After losing much of my sanity for the rest of my life, I was finally able to beat the damn bonus mode. I just don't know when to quit and this game has taught me that more than anything. In conclusion, I love this game for its innovation. For how cute it looks. But I hate how difficult it is. I can't imagine playing the Wii version. Eesh! That would be even more frustrating. But at least it's a short game. Very short. And I'm finally free from the vines that bound me to it.

Finished playing Kirby Super Star Ultra

Finished playing Kirby Super Star Ultra (2008, HAL Laboratory, NDS) on 12/31/2015.
Gameplay Hours: ~35

Kirby tackles multiple new and old adventures and challenges in this remake of SNES' Kirby Super Star. With updated graphics, a new storyline, added content and fully rendered cutscenes it will be hard to put this game down!

8/10 – I read a couple of reviews and opinions on this game and a lot of them mentioned how disappointed they were with how easy this game was. First of all, it's Kirby. It's meant to be easy because it's target audience are beginner-level gamers, right? Second of all, it's not THAT easy. Sure, the first few adventures presented to you are not frustrating or that much challenging, they're easy and fun! But unlock the hidden games and you've got yourself quite a few challenges ahead of you. All I'm gonna say is... True Arena. That sh*t drove me to tears. No regrets though. This game was easy, fun and challenging with lots of content. The only thing that bugged me was the quality of the cutscenes. They were full of "JPEG artifacts".