rccayen Reviews

Living for the Day After Tomorrow (2006)

An amazing anime series!

[10/10 · 11 March 2013]

Living for the Day After Tomorrow (or "Asatte no Houkou") is everything you want from a "slice of life" anime. It's incredibly sweet; the characters are endearing and very well developed; the pacing is perfect, not too fast, but not sluggish--just perfect for the story of summer magic.

The camera angles, scenery, music--everything fits absolutely perfectly. If you liked Azumanga Daioh, or Yotsuba&! (anything of Kiyohiko Azuma's, basically), or, as I said, anything that has a relaxed "slice of life" type feel to it, you will adore Living for the Day After Tomorrow from first episode to last.

I highly recommend it, and if you happen to come across it, don't pass up the chance to see it!

Dance in the Vampire Bund (2010)

If this anime were a vampire, it would be severely malnourished...

[3/10 · 3 August 2012]

Dance in the Vampire Bund isn't a complete and total bomb, but it wasn't anywhere near a success either.

Firstly, and I think this is many people's problem with this anime, is that it was overly sexualized. I myself don't have any particular problem with some nudity in anime; but too much and it gets distasteful and overshadows the plot. Unfortunately, that is the case here. Hate to say it, but it's almost animated child porn (because the vampire princess inhabits the body of a 9-year-old).

Secondly, there are areas of the story which, in my opinion, lack development. There is somewhat of a love triangle between Mina, Akira, and Yuki. I'm not a big fan of love triangles in the first place, but I do feel that they could have done better with this one. Yuki is in love with Akira, but Akira loves Mina...why? He made a promise to her when he was 7, and while I understand the loyalty of his character and unwillingness to turn his back on his promise, this still isn't a justifiable reason for him to love her. Not enough focus was put on developing Mina and Akira's romantic relationship.

Lastly, there were loose ends I felt needed tying up. What exactly did Akira do to himself when he stumbled upon the True Blood Legacy? What exactly IS the True Blood Legacy? Akira is a werewolf/shifter, yet they never explain the background for this. There is mention of "three clans," but not much more detail is put into describing them.

Not much appealed to me about Dance in the Vampire Bund; it might to other people, but I'm sure there are many other anime shows out there that are much better than this one.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope (2009 Video Game)

So I've been playing for weeks straight......SO WHAT???

[8/10 · 2 August 2012]

Star Ocean: The Last Hope is the first of the Star Ocean franchise that I ever played. I was completely sucked into playing, and beat the game within a couple weeks. It is very, very addicting, I will say.

But let's do pros and cons.

Pros:

The interplanetary exploration theme is fascinating. You can travel to the different worlds of Aeos, Lemuris, EN II, Roak, Earth, and Cardinon. There may be a few more, but that's all I can remember at the moment.

The plot is very interesting (and kinda all over the place).

I particularly enjoyed the shop areas and side missions. There are numerous shop areas scattered all over all the planets, and I really like the consumer-service type aspects of RP games. And the side missions allow you to gain items, abilities, open up new areas, etc. Really fun!

There's more things I like about it, but I'll save time and not list them all.

Cons:

Character development isn't too well-done, and some of the characters get annoying after a while (particularly Edge and Lymle).

Gameplay, while for the most part is pretty decent, is a bit frustrating at times. For example, whenever you come in contact with a monster, you are immediately transported to an alternate location and forced to fight the battle. It can be annoying, especially when you are trying to get to a certain place. Another example is that the worlds are so large that getting from point A to point B can be exhausting. But then, the planets are large, expansive, and fun to explore, so that's a pro as well.

The storyline towards the end of the game gets really stupid. They add in this thing called "The Missing Procedure." I'm not even gonna try to explain what it is, but it's kinda stupid in my opinion.

A few of the characters' battle gameplay are, I don't know...uncomfortable? My best characters were Arumat and Meracle, and sometimes Reimi. All the rest were awkward are hard to fight with.

Now, take note that this game is really, REALLY long. I don't know how many hours of gameplay there are, but it's spread out over three discs, that's how long it is. And with the planets being so large, little bits here and there, side missions, there so much you could miss.

When I played this through, I was just playing to beat it. To get to the final boss battle and see how it all ends. Because of that, there were many extras in the game that I missed. Plus a few non-essential cutscenes that you really have to look hard for if you want to see them. Someday I'll take the time to replay this game and get all the extra bits.

Overall, it's a great game. It has it's flaws, yeah, and it's a bit frustrating at times, but then aren't all videogames? I say give it a go. Just bring along lotsa coffee.

The Seventh Seal (1957)

Every Classic Has Its Flaws

[8/10 · 30 July 2012]

The Seventh Seal may bore those who are too familiarized with the modern film era of constant action, but for me: I loved it. I found the performances to be fantastic; Jof in his goofy, fatherly role; Jons with his sarcastic, straight-faced demeanor; Antonius, passionate in his never-ceasing pursuit for knowledge of the existence of God; and Death--how could anyone forget Death? Ubiquitous, cunning, clever Death.

My only problem with the film was that the promised thought-provoking religious and philosophical viewpoints were replaced with meaningless comedy scenes. I would have preferred to watch an intelligent film controversially prodding at said religion and philosophy, instead of tolerating the disappointment of only slightly funny comic reliefs.

That said, I stand by my original statement; The Seventh Seal is a classic.