Both have their high points and low points, but I prefer the tranquility of water more than the big open sky. The deep blue color of the sea, filled with all sorts of mystery, fits me better than the infinitely open sky

Just toss a few romanized hiragana together and you got yourself a "Japaneses name." Try to sound as exotic as possible so it sounds original

Or better (and more seriously) yet, look up random famous Japanese people and take the surname of one and pair it up with the first name of another.

I am truly disappointed that no one has yet to mention any of Falcom's well-known titles. Ys anyone? How about Legend of Heroes? Truly some of best games I've played that have changed my life (in both good and bad ways), and yet very VERY few people know about them. I mean, if it was 3 years ago, I would understand since they were still pretty much Japan only (and Chinese, to say the least) at the time, but with their English releases (the Gagharv trilogy on the PSP and a number of Ys games on the PS2 and PSP), I would expect to hear them come up once or twice.

The REMARKABLE well-balanced story that was told in the Gagharv trilogy was just astounding, and its incredible soundtrack to back it up are comparable to those of other big companies such as Square-Enix. The original PC style pretty much defined old-school gaming, and while it has probably lost a little bit of its impact with its remake, it is still a very well-made game that I'm disappointed that few people have heard of it.

From what I've heard, Ys did take a lot of fire due to its dated gameplay style of it's earlier ports when compared to other games today, but I highly recommend picking up Ark of Napishtim for the PSP, and possibly Oath in Felghana if it gets released in English, because not only is their gameplay phenomenal and possibly addicting, it also features (seriously) one of the BEST video game soundtracks I have ever heard in my gaming career.

Falcom is truly a company that any RPG gamer needs to watch out for

I've played a number of visual novels, and while I enjoyed Tsukihime very much, I can't help but feel biased towards the game specifically since Kagetsu Tohya was the one that made me really love the entire franchise (Big Ren/Len fan here). If it was Tsukihime by itself, I can still say it is one of the best games I've played, but adding Kagetsu Tohya to the mix just blows it out of proportions for me.

In comparison, I think Tsukihime is far superior over Fate/Stay Night, although I can't safely say that for sure until I complete FSN. And yes, I've completely played through both Tsukihime and Kagetsu Tohya, and I own Melty Blood Act Cadenza.

Kanokon's anime serves it no justice, that's for sure, unless someone really likes the loli(?) design of it. And while it pretty much offers nothing new in general, I still recommend giving it a little time for the plot to develop a little bit before you make your final judgment, since it does get a little bit interesting.

Needless to say, I recommend picking up the manga if it gets translated or the original light novel (which I heard was already translated) whether than watching the anime.

*shrug* I expressed my opinion, and tried to back it up with reasons (ok, maybe TOO much reason for the average post reader). I like to think that this is an "in-depth" forum for a reason, but maybe that's just how it goes.

Yeah, basically, it's still too early to say anything for certain for any of the three systems, especially the PS3 (remember all the crap people threw at it before, saying how it's going to "fail" and all that? yeah...). Although it might be possible that the PS3 might be relying on its ability to play BD discs a little bit, I can't say for sure that it is really losing games right now, nor is any company dominating the game industry so far. Gonna take another 2 years or so before I can really make my judgment.

So two fairly new series about fox demons. What a coincidence. One's about a romance comedy between a boy and a fellow classmate who turns out to be a fox demon, and the other's slightly more religious and serious about a fox demon moving in with a family to protect them as their guardian, in a nut shell. One thing I can't help but notice is the mediocrity of their anime adaption, so I highly recommend going for the manga instead of watching the anime.

First of all, has anyone even HEARD of the two series? Their anime recently got released with the batch of other April releases, and their light-novel-to-manga adaption were also fairly recent (more so for Oinarisama than Kanokon). To say the least, both of their plot are fairly interesting, and the manner and style that's used throughout the series so far is also very nice (at least in the manga. Kanokon's anime scared me).

What kinda surprised me was that both series not only shared the common plot point of being about a cute fox demon (or fox-girl or whatever the terms is for that), their anime were released more or less at the same time. After Wolf and Spice, is there some kind of new trend going on about series that features variations of cat-girls as main characters?

Wagaya no Oinarisama official(?) site (Japanese)

Kanokon's Official site (Japanese)

Before anyone judges it a first glance, let me highlight a few points on it, at least from reading the manga.

Kanokon's anime was...I don't know...extremely loli-fied, maybe? But the relationship between the two characters (whose name I'm too busy to look up and type out) is a fairly unique one that resembles a lot like the relationship between Narue and Kazuto from World of Narue (a short and possibly obscure series whose manga I really enjoyed), in that pretty much right off the start their feelings for each other are mutual and both sides know it. So it's not so much an issue of expressing their love to the other side, but more like maintaining their relationship. This is something I don't see all that often, and is what kept me reading the manga. It is very ecchi (don't remember the official spelling), as you can obvious tell just from their site, but stays within "reasonable" limits. Reasonable...hmm...

Anyway, on a more serious note, Wagaya no Oinarisama, is one of those more "balanced" series. A mix of action and comedy with a plot driving it forward. I can't think of any key points for this series except it's really funny and fairly serious, and the fox demon's character is very well-designed, being very diverse and well-balanced, at times acting innocently naive, and then suddenly turn very serious with a malicious look on his/her face (his/her gender is undetermined, given it's ability to shift between a male and female form). The plot starts off pretty solid and intricate, and is definitely worth a look into

Wow...no Setsuna? Something's seriously wrong with this poll here.

Setsuna is my "safe" favorite main character, because I dig her hair style, and I always opt for the calm serious type that still has moments of embarrassment. That's just how it goes.

I'm also very fond of the athletic group, with Ako at forefront, then Yuna, then Akira, then Makie at a distant last. Although they're minor characters, I really love their character design, and especially Ako, tend to be the more "normal" students of the group.

It's a pity the Negima series just completely lost it for me after Negi won the tournament (which followed up with fillers, and then the whole school attack incident. That was just too much for me). Now I cringe whenever I see references to the later volumes after (around) volume 10 or 11.

I'm going to have to side with the "Hate Kira and Lacus" group, because they really did ruin the Gundam SEED Destiny series for me. Kira should have died in the original Gundam SEED, or just not show up at all in Destiny. "Ultimate Coordinator" and naively idealistic? If looked at a different angle, you can almost say that Kira and his group of friends beaten the world into submission under their ideals, and then the ending was a forced (VERY VERY forced) "Good guys win at the end" plot ending, establishing that they were the "good" guys after all. I'm not going to go too in-depth into this, but there are NO SUCH THINGS as good guys and bad guys in wars. Just one sides ideals pit against another, and the vast majority just happens to disagree with one ideal. This doesn't necessarily mean, however, the majority's side wins in the end.

The series' plot had the potential of being very intricately well-designed with focuses on each character's struggle with personal problems they have, and heck, Kira's group added spice to the story by being the mysterious third-party intervening on everything, possibly raising questions of whether what they were doing was right or wrong.

But then, at the halfway point, Kira gets shot down (Yea!) and turns out to be still alive (WHAT?!) while most characters would have probably died (an emergency engine cut-off switch?! BRILLIANT!). First snag in the series.
Athrun, betraying the rest of the group he was with, goes back to rejoin Kira and his friends. He pretty much gets destroyed by Shin during his escape (Hmm, interesting plot twist...), but winds up alive (...or not) and fished out of the water to join Kira's group of Dynasty Warrior Gundam (ok, bad joke, and I apologize for that). Second snag, and I hold Kira and Lacus's group responsible.
This may seem like a minor detail, but during the dual between Ray and Kira, the only reason Kira won was because he distracted Ray with his idealism speech and managed to get a sucker-punch in. No, it was not because his piloting skills were better than Ray's, it's because Kira's ideals were better than his. Or, more realistically, the author likes Kira better than Ray, so Kira gets to live. (SERIOUS question on the issue of favoritism here, possibly?). Third and final snag.

Kira had numerous numerous chances of, as I quote from a friend, "kicking the bucket" throughout his career, and the fact that he survived all that, given his personality traits and characteristics, just makes it a tid bit more obvious that main-character-god-mode is in effect for him. That, or maybe I just wanted him to die so many times yet feels crushed that he doesn't (OK, before you all turn angry cyber mob on me, a heroic death is MUCH better and meaningful than forced survival, in my opinion)

And while I personally have nothing against Lacus, it's just that she is the embodiment of Kira's ideals and his supplier of all the *cough* ultimate mobile suit that's way beyond the current level of technology kind of makes her unbearable. Plus the fact her relationship with Kira went way too smoothly to be real, and I am confused as to how the relationship came into being in the first place, besides being forced together since they're main characters (please spare me the details of how their personality perfectly coincides with each other and all that)

Bottom line: I can go on and on about Gundam Seed and how Kira's trait of being a teenager going through puberty while dealing with emotional problems (the original definition of emo, possibly? as in, overly emotional?) combined with his status as "Ultimate Coordinator" is just...wrong, but I've gone on long enough with my ranting.

Anyway, personally I have nothing against Kira and Lacus, but they were placed in the wrong place, in the wrong time, in the wrong situation. They rose to fame in Gundam Seed, but took a deep fall during Destiny when they should have retired *permanently*, in my opinion. Forced into the sequel to steal the spotlight of Shin and a good potential cast of characters (THIEF!) with the ultimate goal of playing the role of good guys that wins in the end? This killing of the series' plot is unforgivable, even if the last scene where Shin and Kira shakes hand in front of the tombstone was beautiful.

And yes, for the record, Kira's pretty good-looking as main characters go and Lacus is really cute too, although the pink hair is a little bit much. But I much much prefer Shin and Lunamaria over those two.

Pretty in-depth series, or maybe that's because the Gundam series I watched before this was Gundam Seed? Yeah, I finished it too, although I for one hope that all the people that *clearly* died stays dead (there are no suggestions of them being alive at all in the end, and they didn't just get lost in space or went unconscious), or else it's gonna kill the serious atmosphere that makes the series what it is. So no, I don't want to see Lockon come back from the dead Mula Flaga style, despite how much I like his character.