Finished watching Leda, The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko

Finished watching Leda, The Fantastic Adventure of Yoko (1985, Kaname Production, 75 mins.) on 07/19/2017.

High School student, Yoko wrote a song to confess her love for a classmate. After attempting to approach him, she loses the courage to show him the song and walks past him. Then suddenly, in a strange twist of fate, she is magically brought into another dimension. There she meets a talking dog and becomes a sword-wielding warrior when threatened by a futuristic bike gang who steals the cassette tape with her love song. With her new found power she must retrieve the song back and find her way back home.

7/10 - This is one of those hidden gems of the 80's. It's a good movie with interesting visuals. The plot is a bit generic, but not bad. Did you know that Yoko shares the same voice actress as Dragon Ball's Bulma? Anyways... there's also giant robots, which is also pretty cool. Their designs are, well, unique. But one of them is pretty cool actually. I just don't want to spoil much about it. Well, either way they don't get much use though... I also wish I'd see more fighting action from Yoko. Wouldn't mind seeing her swing her sword around a bit more.

Finished playing Final Fantasy IV

Finished playing Final Fantasy IV (2011, Square Enix, PlayStation Portable) on 3/8/2016.
Gameplay Hours: ~60

A mysterious man named Golbez is wreaking havoc throughout the land, trying to obtain all the elemental crystals of the world for power. After having his kingdom fallen to the hands of Golbez, Cecil abandons his position as captain of the Red Wings to search for answers. Along the way he teams up with all sorts of people, also victims of Golbez's deeds and together they fight to bring him down.

7.5/10 – I've played different ports of Final Fantasy IV before and this is my second favorite. But although all the sprites were beautifully updated, I've found it odd that the overworld's sprites didn't match the battle ones or even some of the character's menu pictures, but I guess that's just a pet peeve. I love, love, love the fact that this port lets you play with either the original soundtrack or the arranged Nintendo DS one. And of course, let's not forget the updated translation, always a good thing. The post-game Lunar Ruins were really, quite the challenge with powered-up bosses sporting insane strategies that can be quite difficult to figure out. Thankfully the game gives you save points just before those battles, but I don't think I want to experience dungeon rooms like Edge's Trial ever again. Eesh! This port features some slightly cheap, rather short prerendered cutscenes, which I welcome any day over just the sprite ones, with an honorable mention going to the Giant of Babil one.

Finished watching Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle the Movie: The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom

Finished watching Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle the Movie: The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom (2005, Production I.G., 35mins) on 2/23/2016.

Sakura and Syaoran crash land into yet another alternate universe where they must help princess Tomoyo foil her uncle's evil plans to cover his kingdom in darkness, all the while recovering one of Sakura's memory feathers from him.

7/10 – Although it's a movie, it's pretty short. But I think it's because this movie double-features with a longer movie, xxxHolic: A Midsummer Night's Dream. The two are also directly connected. I have to point out that the studio that worked on this movie is not the same that worked on the Tsubasa series and so you can definitely tell the difference in visuals. Specially with Syaoran's David Bowie-like eyes. In the show they don't draw them like they did in the movie so you can't tell that they're actually different. But the show, at least for the first season don't really explain very well this fact. Just that there's something wrong with his eyes. But whatever. This movie was good. Animation quality is good. It uses the same soundtrack as the series. But I wouldn't recommend watching it without being familiar with the plot of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle.

Finished watching Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle First Season

Finished watching Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle First Season (2005, Bee Train, 26 episodes) on 2/22/2016.

With the services of a dimensional witch named Yuko, a boy named Syaoran and his childhood friend Sakura travel together with a warrior named Kurogane and a magician named Fai in search for Sakura's memories which turned into feathers and scattered throughout various alternate universes.

6.5/10 - This show's alright. While the first episode has a lot of things going on, the plot seems to advance at a slowish pace for the rest of the season. It's interesting to see all the different worlds they go to, but sometimes they stay a bit too long in some. Sometimes there are even worlds that don't have any feathers to be found. The very last world they went to I think had the most episodes. But it was actually a bit interesting as they were in an MMORPG without realizing it. The soundtrack doesn't seem very varied with two or three of the tracks being used way too often. The animation quality gets a bit poor at times throughout the middle of the season with even some character's faces looking a bit strange. But I guess that's a common thing with shows with lots of episodes. They leave the quality for the more important episodes, usually the first and last few ones.

Finished playing Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

Finished playing Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (2011, Grezzo, Nintendo EAD, Nintendo 3DS) on 2/10/2016.
Gameplay Hours: ~50

The Deku Tree senses a disturbance upon the land of Hyrule and summons a fairy named Navi to join a young Kokiri Village boy named Link in his mission to stop the impending evil. When Zelda, the land's princess flees her castle from the evil clutches of Ganondorf, she slings her magical ocarina to Link, entrusting him with the power to travel to the future and join forces with the six sages to stop Ganondorf's reign over the land.

8.5/10 – First of all. I have a lot of questions about all the time traveling in this game. But I'm just gonna take it all for granted and review this game as it is. And what a game! I'm really happy with the graphical improvements of this remake. Like, they're really good! And being able to look around and aim using the gyroscopic feature of the 3DS is just amazing. The touch screen of course adds a nice level of item accessibility that the console version could not provide. My only disappointment is that the soundtrack was kept the same. If it had been improved upon I would've given this game a higher rating.

Finished playing Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Finished playing Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2006, Nintendo EAD, Nintendo Wii) on 2/9/2016.
Gameplay Hours: 54

Link's blissful country life is suddenly interrupted when the village children get kidnapped. In his attempt to chase after them he also gets kidnapped by strange, dark creatures that bring him into their parallel world of darkness that suddenly turns Link into a wolf. To his rescue comes a small imp named Midna who teams up with him in order to save the kidnapped children, but in return Link must aid Midna with her own agenda.

9/10 – I actually played the Gamecube version of this game quite a few years ago, thankfully with time I forgot about some of it. I say thankfully because this made the game sort of a new experience for me, and also because the mirrored aspect of the Wii version didn't bother me as much this way if at all. I should also point out that this is one of the first three games I've played in 2016 and that the timing of me playing this game has nothing to do with the announcement of the Wii U HD one coming out soon. I simply got to the game in my long video game bucket list... Along with Ocarina of Time 3D. This coincidence might've been a blessing to me from the Goddesses, but it provided me with an interesting experience. Since I started playing these two games at the same time and kept playing them at relatively the same pace, I began noticing the similarities or references that TP took from OoT. The temples, the locations, the music and even Skull Kid! I had completely forgotten that Skull Kid was in this game, and that was pretty exciting for me! But let's get to the point. This game, in my opinion is like an immensely improved version of OoT with lots of extra stuff and, of course, a different storyline. The visuals of the game are stunning, and the character design is amazing. Even the NPCs look interesting! I often found myself staring at a character's model for minutes, studying each and every detail *coughtelmacough*. Same goes for the stunning environments in the game. Namely the Temple of Time. One time I spent like ten minutes in there sneakin' up on birds as wolf Link as Midna yawned countless times beggin' me to move on. Oh, and don't get me started on the kitties and their toys. And doggies. The soundtrack is beautiful as well. Not one track I didn't hate. Let me do a little plug-in here for ZREO's Twilight Princess soundtrack. You can download it for free on their website. They did an amazing job at reorchestrating the vast majority of the tracks in this game. But truly, this game is everything a Zelda game should be and more. My only complain is Midna's impatience. She nagged me way too much, specially at times when I need to just sit there and carefully study a puzzle.

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 watching Nadia: Secret of Blue Water

Finished watching Nadia: Secret of Blue Water (1990, Gainax, 39 epi.) on 4/10/2015.

The year is 1889, humankind is on the verge of new technology and with it new discoveries. But Gargoyle, a mysterious man has darker plans for his own technology, to restore the Atlantean empire and ultimate control the world. But not without a fight, for Nadia and her friend Jean band together with the crew of the Nautilus submarine and her master, Captain Nemo to fight back the menace. But Nadia too has her own secrets.

7.5/10 – For its time the show is pretty good. The art is good and annimation has good quality. Maybe if I had watched it years ago I would've enjoyed it better. And then there's the half-assed, filler episodes that the characters even admit to not remembering any of the events that occurred in them. To quote one of them, "it must've been a dream". More like a nightmare. There's a story that Gainax even hired a foreign studio to create those. But I skipped over them so they're not affecting my score.

Finished watching Gun Frontier

On July 10th, 2014 I finished watching Gun Frontier (2002, Vega Entertainment, 13 epi.) 10/07/2014.

Follow best friends Tochirou and Harlock in this comedic adventure as they travel the perilous Western Frontier of the United States looking for Tochirou's lost clan of Japanese immigrants. Along the way they pick up a mysterious young woman named Sinunora and together they challenge all sorts of wild west baddies and corrupt officials.

5/10 - Now, I don't know about the manga, but this show was absolute crud compared to what I was expecting out of a Leiji Matsumoto product. I came into it thinking it was going to lead up to the Space Pirate Captain Harlock events. But, no! There's no sort of connection whatsoever. As far as I'm concerned this was just a show with two characters who just happen to look like and have the same names as the ones from SPCH. Not only does it not lead up to that show but most of the episodes are just ridiculous with its pointless, blatant nudity from Sinunora. Most of the time she ends up getting naked for no reason whatsoever. If you asked her to strip in front of you in the middle of the street, she would, with no hesitation, with the most stoic face you'll ever see in your life. Oh, and did I mention how the women in this show have no nipples? What lines are you trying not to cross here? You already have blatant nudity on almost every episode, might as well just save me the cringe and add the damn nipples. The only thing that sort of saves this show is the art and animation quality. The lineart tends to be varied in value, which is rare to see in an animated show. Probably because it makes it difficult to animate. But even if I had watched this show for just what it is, I still don't think I would've liked it very much. The ending wasn't lead up to very well and wasn't that well written either. Definitely not one of my favorites.