My girlfriend and I recently finished watching Bakemonogatari, albeit skipping a few episodes and including Nekomonogatari (it's sometimes categorized into Nisemonogatari, but I find that it's best watched after Bake 11.) For her, this would be the frst time she's watched it, but for me, it'd be at least the third.While it generally reviews well, and it sold like hotcakes, it's a problematic...

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For 12 episode series, we're half way through the run. That calls for the mid-season review of where things have gone, the movers and shakers of the season if you must. 3 series have been cut, while two new ones join the ranks, bringing the new total series to 8. Dropped series are crossed out, while new additions are in bolded italics. Beautiful Bones:...

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Welcome to Salty Hunting 4 Ultimate, henceforth referred to as SH4U. It's a rant corner about Monster Hunter 4U, which has eaten up about 400 hours of my life. Each post covers a different monster or topic that bugs me enough to warrant a longish rant. I love this game, but as I've pointed out before, there's a lot of dumb shit that...

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I initially had a poor outlook of this season. I ran down the list, and was only interested in one or two things. Turns out that the season has brought more of a bounty than I expected, and I'm here to share what I've found. In this post I cover. Bolded titles are what I'd consider the more universally anticipated series. Beautiful Bones:...

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Title: Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth Developer: ATLUS System: 3DS Release Date (US/NA): 25/11/14 Yet another game in the Etrian Odyssey series, though this time, things get shaken up a whole lot. Persona Q is a cross over between two of ATLUS titles: the memorable casts and core of Persona 3 and 4, with the frame and structuring of Etrian Odyssey. On...

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It's 2015. The song came out last year. Avex's latest idol group, unfortunately named, I kid you not, lol. The group's name is lol. WHY. WHY MUST YOU NAME GROUPS SUCH AWFUL NAMES. You really stunt their overseas growth. Japan really is a walled garden - idol groups can flourish within those walls, but are like bonsai - miniature to what they could...

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Image from Etrian Odyssey Wikia Title: Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl Publisher (NA): ATLUS Date (NA): 01/10/13 (ddmmyy)  Genre: JRPG Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl is the first game in the 'Untold' skew of EO games. Technically, it is a remake of EO1, with a newly added 'Story Mode', and graphics using the new EO4 engine. For the purposes of this piece, I've played through...

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For those of you who haven't read it yet, here's the preview I wrote for this one. For those of you who have read it, I am a freaking genius. The episode went pretty much as I described it would in the preview. After that first episode, I've got high hopes for this one. Spoilers abound, so if you haven't watched it yet,...

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From this forum post I don't know a heck of a lot about this series, but from what I do know, it doesn't seem like this one is going to go well. Title: Chaos Dragon - Sekiryu Seneki, Chaos Dragon: Red Dragon Campaign Production: Connect / Silver Link Genre: Fantasy, Action Airs: July 2nd (today), 2015 Chaos Dragon is unique in it's original...

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Image from here Just like I did with Gakkou Gurashi, here's a break down of a series, and what could make or break it. Spoilers ahead, so read at your own caution. Title: GATE(ゲート) 自衛隊 彼の地にて、斯く戦えり (Jieitai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri), Thus the JSDF fought there. Production: A-1 Pictures Genre: Fantasy, Action Airs: July 3rd (03/07/15) A fantasy-action series, with a generous helping of...

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The Summer Season is upon us! Kicking off a long a storied tradition here on the blog is Gakkou Gurashi! Title: がっこうぐらし！(Gakkou Gurashi!), Living at School! Production: Lerche (script by Nitroplus) Airs: 09/07/15 (July 9th) Genre: Comedy, Slice of Life, Horror Spoilers ahead in my discussion of the series. I know a bit about it, and I really think it can be a really good series,...

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He was the boy who loved the Earth below She, the girl who loved the skies above He is the man searching the heavens And she is the woman gazing down upon the Earth. A heart breaking tale of those left behind, left clinging to fading memories. A heart breaking tale of those who have passed on, left watching over their loved ones...

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Etrian Odyssey has generally been a "hardcore" franchise in that, in addition to it's difficulty, has a list of throwbacks to the old table top RPGs, like Dungeons and Dragons. You make your own parties of all custom characters, you make your own map of each dungeon, and there's lots of little things within the dungeons that feel like stuff a dungeon master...

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Ah, Cave Story. A beloved indie game from Japan, and likely, one of the first ones to become such a big success. It's probably known first for it's brutal difficulty, then for it's music, and then probably it's story. Oh, and let's not forget that the whole this was originally a one man production from Studio Pixel. The original is available for free,...

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60 hours, I've spent on this game. 60 hours. I'd say, playing extremely well, and skipping avoidable battles, you could probably finish this one in a minimum of 40 hours? You'd have to be playing really, really well, and skip a lot of the animated supers to shave off as much time as possible. This has been one hell of a game. Crossing...

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After hitting a massive wall in G-Rank Monster Hunter 4U, I decided to go through my pile of unfinished games, throw caution to the wind and just go for broke with them. First on my list was Bravely Default, which earned a spot on my Top 5 of last year. Before leaving it to collect dust, I managed to get up to the...

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Image by Donnpati Pokemon, as a series, is extremely slow to change. Likely due to a fear of alienating an audience and impacting sales, the series has stuck remarkably close to its roots, keeping the original 2D sprites, first debuted in 1996, up until White/Black 2, which came out in 2012. While the sprites definitely improved, 16 years without a major change in...

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I love Monster Hunter. It's a series that I've sunk well over 900 hours (across several games) of my life into. With the latest installment, MH 4 Ultimate, they've added and combined all the best aspects of the previous games, somehow balanced all of the weapons pretty darn well, and gave us one solid, hell of a game. I'm just going to rant...

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