Anime Review: Chibi vampire / Karin

English Title: Chibi Vampire
Japanese Title: カリン(Karin)

Basic Summary:
       Karin Marker comes from a family of vampires. However she has a rare condition among vampires, rather than sucking blood like most vampires do, she creates blood in her own body, and must discharge her excess blood by injecting it into someone else.

Plot:
        The story follows Karin Marker, who lives with her family. Her entire family consists of vampires: her mom, dad, younger sister, older brother, and herself. however unlike the est of her family she has to inject blood into people, or else the excess blood will come out in the form of a nosebleed (a pretty massive one at that o_o). that isn't the only difference, she is completely the opposite of a normal vampire, she's able to walk in sunlight, eat garlic and all that stuff, but she can't see in the dark like most vampires should be able to. Since she is basically the only family member in her house to use the lights in the house, she is forced to go to school like a regular human in order to pay for the electricity she uses for herself. It wasn't issue for her as she was able to deal with her excess blood normally. however, A new student transfers in, Kenta Usui. Whenever Karin is near him her blood starts generating at an extremely fast rate and forcing her into nosebleed mode (LOL). Kenta ends up finding out about her condition and decides to help her keep it under control, even though he's basically the cause of it. as the story progresses more and more issues appear, her family being concerned about Kenta knowing about her condition, a vampire hunter appearing in the school, and finding a solution to her excess blood making.

Personal Opinion:
       I had many a LOL with this, from the comical nosebleed design to all of the characters in general. there was a lot of "what-are-the-chances-of-that-happening" moments which kept the main character in a pinch all the time. I thought it was cool how each vampire in the story had a different "personality" of blood they like (example: stress, misfortune, jealously, lying) and by taking (injecting in Karin's case) their blood they suck away their bad personalities (STRESS BE GONE! *suck* O-o). Also, the vampire hunter had the most awesome name, Winner Sinclair, that's the kinda name that made me LOL everytime i heard it. the anime also had it's depressing moments, starts talking about how humans and vampires can't coexist and all that, but overall it was fun to watch.

Nosebleeds are embarrasing! IYAAAAAAAAAA~

Also, LOL flower petal blood!

Game Review: Burnout Paradise (PS3/PC/360)

Title: Burnout Paradise
Produced by: EA Games
ESRB rating: Everyone

Basic Summary:
       Race, Jump, Crash, Dodge, Run, Spin, Boost, Search, Drift. This is what Burnout Paradise is all about. Drive through the Paradise City, completing races and challenges, both offline and online.

Gameplay:
       Enter Paradise City, A relatively small city with lots of streets and plenty of sights. But of course this game isn't about the scenery, heck no. you'll be going too quick to pay attention to that. Once the game starts up, you go straight to picking the vehicle that you would like to use. after that, the city is yours to explore if you want. but of course just exploring isn't going to get you anywhere in this game. Pick from any of the games meny events that can accessed at every intersection in the game. No that isn't a joke, you literally go up to an intersection and rev your engine to start any of the games events. the game features a couple of different event types. other than races (of course, this IS a driving game after all), you can do stunt runs that involve collecting doing jumps, slides, and just about anything to rack up the score. Road rage events that involve knocking your opponents out by any means, from running them into a wall, to running them into traffic, and even land on top of them to take them out. Timed runs to one of the main locations of Paradise City, Burning routes that challenge your skill with each individual vehicle. Marked man events that will have you running from your opponents as long as possible. But that's not all, oh no. that's just for OFFLINE game play. online game play is completely different ballgame. enter the Freeburn Online mode, where up to 8 players total can join a game room that is hosted. So what do you do in Freeburn online? Everything you can do in offline, and more! complete the 500 online only missions that will challenge both you and the other players, work together to complete the challenges, or else you'll all fail! don't wanna work together? then start a race, or a road rage event, or a stunt run, at any time! the game features voice chat capabilities, so you can communicate with other players in the same room. What about unlockables? well, the game features 75 different vehicles that can be obtained by either finishing burning route challenges with specific cars, or just "shut them down" while driving around the city. either way, you'll get new vehicles instantly, and they can be accessed easily by going to the nearest Auto yard in game. If cars are not your thing, why not drive a motorcycle instead? there are plenty of bike-only challenges available as well. Search the city for hidden billboards and gates you can smash through, and hidden super jumps, finding all the billboards and gates and jumps can be quite the challenge, but you'll be rewarded for doing so. Utilize the three different types of boost available, each car in the game uses one of the three boost types: Speed boost for a one-time full shot of power, Stunt boost for sending you car soaring through the air longer and keeping you sliding longer, and the Agression boost, that gives extra power for taking down opponent cars and becomes stronger as you take down more opponents.

Graphics and Sound:
      The game features a lot of awesome looking scenery, from boosting through the city, to driving up and down the city's mountains, it's a very dynamic enviornment. the vehicles themselves are quite detailed as well, showing reflections and damages to the car are easily seen. the crashes are well detailed, you can see the parts of your car go flying off depending on the angle and force of your crash. the soundtrack is quite good, the games title song "Paradise City" by Guns N' Roses sets the mood of the game quite well. the other music featured in the game covers a wide variety of genres, rock, pop, hip-hop, punk, emo, even classical music (never thought you'd be racing to Beethoven's symphony did you :P).

Difficulty: Average
      completing all the challenges (offline and online, cars and bikes) can take a LONG time to finish, finding all of the hidden billboards and gates can be hard at times, sometimes you'll find yourself trying to get the same billboard, only being able to hit it after a dozen tries at it. the online challenges can be more difficult, because not only do YOU have to do them, but the other players must do the same as well! try getting 7 other players to listen to you, good luck >_>;;

Personal Opinion:
      this game can be a load of fun, but it's missing quite a few things that could make it better. an offline spilt-screen co-op would've made game a lot more fun, but isn't available at all, instead you're given a turn-based offline party mode, which really isn't that fun because you don't get to select ANYTHING, the game does it for you, blah >_>. A personal issue of mine was the amount of time the game takes to show you things, starting an offline event you have wait for the whole "go to this location doing etc etc." dialog from the announcer, and even after you finish an event you have to wait for the "you win" stuff to go away, which is about 20 seconds. you can't skip the messages, you HAVE to wait for them to go away themselves. this game also uses a LOT of unrealistic physics, I mean hey I know it's not supposed to be real since it's a game, but come on i don't think tapping your handbrake sends your car INSTANTLY to a 180 degree turn... also you'll be easily surprised at how easy it is to wreck your car, even a slight contact with a traffic car can send you FLIPPING down the road. The bikes in this game..., first off NO BOOST FORA BIKE, really!? you don't think a motorcycle can boost EA? second, you don't even "see" the crashes while on a bike, you hit something, the screen blacks out for 3 seconds, that's it! anyways that's all the complaints I have for the game itself. dealing with players online is an issue sometimes, but that's not the games fault so i'm not talking about that :\.

the entire game map and all it's events, note that they're placed every single road intersection!

also you can't tell from this map, but the mountain roads on the left go REALLY HIGH UP!

"What's next? this challenge is complete." - DJ Atomica, in-game announcer

fun fact, DJ Atomica was also the in-game announcer of the SSX snowboarding series, and he was also an unlockable character in SSX 3!

Anime review: Asatte no Houkou

English Title: Direction of the Day After Tommorow
Japanese Title: あさっての方向(Asatte no Houkou)

Basic Summary:
      A 12 year old girl and a 24 year old woman switch ages after wishing for it using a wishing stone. However the stone dissolved shortly afterward.

Plot:
    The story begins with Karada Ioka, a young girl who makes a wish at a small shrine containing a stone known as the wishing stone. As she makes her wish, A woman appears nearby who after asking Karada what she was doing decided to make a wish as well. Hiro Ioka, Karada's brother appears shortly afterward, and to his surprise the woman was his girlfriend, Shouko Nogami, whom he promised to meet again, but couldn't because he had to take care of Karada after their parents died. That night on the same day the three of them met, when the moonlight hit the wishing stone in the shrine, Karada and and Shouko met up again by chance at the same place, however, they are now suddenly completely different in age. This is where the story begins. both of them now different in appearance and size, they now have to find a way to get back to their original ages, but the real problem is that no one recognizes either of them due to their different appearance, not even Hiro.

Personal Opinion:
      I watched this anime because the story caught my attention. it shows somewhat what would happen if two people in different age groups suddenly switched places. a young girl who wanted to be an adult so she could take care of herself, and a woman who wanted to be a child again so she can start a new life. however in their case it seemed like a good idea at the time, but when it actually happens it becomes more trouble than it's worth, suddenly becoming an adult without any education or job experience, or suddenly becoming a child and not being able to do certain things anymore. I've had the feeling of wanting to grow up faster, but as I grow older I realize that becoming an adult isn't just about age, it's about developing yourself, your future, your goals. and plus childhood is a time of being free from big worries like income, jobs and other responsibilities. This series was very touching, pretty sad at first but the end result was a happy ending :p

"this is the story of our summer..."