Anime Sunday: GGO Episode 01 Impressions

This week for Anime Sunday I’m covering a spin off of a rather popular series. It’s my Sword Art Online Alternative: GGO Episode 01 Impressions!

Plot Synopsis: In the online virtual reality game, Gun Gale Online, a girl with the username Llenn participates in a team-based Battle Royale event called Squad Jam alongside her teammate M…

Plot: The plot of this first episode is pretty great, with plenty of action. It also doesn’t include Kirito at all, which is a blessing in my eyes since he’s either a dense as a rock, or really cruel, harem protagonist.

Characters: Llenn is a tiny girl who is pretty timid, but shows some real backbone when the going gets tough. Though her character design is rather ridiculous, being one of the shortest main characters I’ve ever seen. The rest of the cast, who is rather limited in this first episode is pretty interesting.

Art: The art of this first episode is pretty great, but given that this project probably got a huge budget that is hardly surprising. So while good, it’s not spectacular and definitely not close to reaching ufotable’s standard.

Music: The music is pretty great, and while reminiscent of the main series it’s got it’s own feel.

Overall: If you love the premise of the Sword Art Online series, but hate Kirito, you’ll probably love this spin off.

For those who like: VRMMOs, Gaming, FPS Games, Battle Royales, Fantastic Female Lead, Decent Plot, Good Artwork.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

TNT: Upcoming Anime Adaptations of Light Novels

This week for Translation Necessary Thursday I’m back with a quick look the towards future. It’s all about Upcoming Anime Adaptations of Light Novels!

Arifureta: Color me really surprised, but yeah Arifureta is getting an Anime. Hopefully it isn’t absolute crap, but the storyline is actually pretty amazing, and I’ve read the entire web novel and a bit of the after story. Whether the adaptation is any good will remain to be seen.

Shield Hero: Again I’m really surprised this is getting an Anime, considering the absolutely horrid things that occur to Naofumi in the first few chapters.

Sword Art Online Alicization Arc: Not surprised at all that this is getting an Anime, with how huge a hit the first two seasons were. I’ll admit I’m partial to the GGO arc of SAO, but the rest is a bit too lighthearted overall for me. Alicization though shouldn’t be that lighthearted and I fully expect it to take the entire two cour’s worth of episodes to animate the entire thing, if not possibly 3 cour.

Toaru Index Season 3: Once more a suprise announcement, it’ll happen sometime in the future. Eventually.

Shout outs go to both Overlord and Death March for their adaptations happening in the Winter 2018 season. Hopefully Death March’s won’t be absolutely terrible.

Wish List Adaptations I’d love to see happen in the second half of 2018, but incredibly likely that they won’t happen:

Fate/Strange Fake and Fate/Prototype Fragments: Both are really interesting series that haven’t really been translated yet, so I’d love them to get some love from my favorite studio ufotable. Of course I’d also like a Fate/Extra Caster Route with Hakunon by ufotable as well. Hell get everything Nasuverse related done by ufotable in the future TYPE-MOON! Seriously though, a match made in heaven.

That’s it for the first Translation Necessary Thursday of 2018, come back next week for a more regular sort of post.

Video Game Tuesday: Character Customization

This week for Video Game Tuesday I’m covering a topic that is a bit contentious. It’s Character Customization!

Character Customization?: Yes, the ability to change your player character’s appearance either during creation or later in the game. To make yourself look unique, or like a famous person, or yourself, or just plain ridiculous.

Give me examples of good customization!: Well there’s always MMOs, with more recent ones getting some pretty awesome character creation abilities. Final Fantasy XIV has a fairly large character customization feature, and you can even go back and change some of it later on. Other games like the Elder Scrolls games have always had a pretty good customization ability.

Some bad examples?: Earlier MMOs had some okay character creation screens, but they limited a lot of options. For example, World of Warcraft had an okay system, but frankly every race choice was limited to a single height, no options to change height were available. They said it was due to PvP limitations, but frankly I don’t know if that’s an okay response in todays market. I’m leaning towards no, but I’m not certain on that. It was certainly useful to be able to call out “Kill Undead Mage” in flag room in Warsong Gulch for example.  No one would get confused about not killing the giant Tauren Warrior instead of that smaller and skinnier Undead Mage. An example of a bad single player character customization are examples like Sword Art Online Lost Song, which had such a terrible character customization system that it might as well have been removed to allow for something more useful.

Variety: I personally think having a great variety of options is always great, but some people find it overwhelming, while others love spending hours upon hours making the “perfect” character for themselves. Personally I’ll spend a bit of time on it, but if it gets past the 15 minute mark, I’ll start to hurry it up.

That’s it for this week’s Video Game Tuesday! What are some of your favorite character customization in games? How long do you typically spend in character customization? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!

TNT: An Explanation on Subject Matter

Hey all I’m back with an answer to a frequent question I’ve had for this week’s Translation Necessary Thursday! It’s An Explanation on Subject Matter

What Question?: Well I’ve been asked quite a bit why I don’t cover books like the Play to Live series or officially translated Light Novels and the like in this column. The answer is pretty simple, because they aren’t really the same to me.

Bulls*&% Michael!: No really, they aren’t the same thing to me. Not to mention the frequency with which they release official translations are slow as hell and isn’t going to meet any serious readers demands either. If I cover something that was translated in my Bookish Wednesday column like I did for yesterday’s Patch 17 it means that it’s been released in an Audiobook format and/or it usually has been available and translated for people who really want to read it on the internet for a while already. This isn’t always the case, but frankly I can’t be bothered to care about such things. I’m not going to pay for a translation that is often riddled with mistakes and I’m certainly not going to suggest others to buy such poorly made products either. I often get my source material for Bookish Wednesday from my local library for free.

But what about Yen Press and others like them?: Like I said above, it takes way too long for them to release things that have been on the net for months, often years, prior and have already been translated in a quality fashion by fans for fans. If they want to earn my respect, and I’m going to bet a vast majority of fans respect, they won’t earn it by releasing things so slowly. That isn’t to say they don’t do quality work, although sometimes it’s questionable, but speed has a big factor of whether people will buy it.

So why all the Chinese Novels recently?: Because I don’t like advocating going out there and finding books with “grey” methods. It’s not wrong in my opinion because I’m all for free stories, but the rest of the world doesn’t see it that way. So with the Chinese novels I try to cover series that have gotten official approval or authors flat out don’t care all that much. It’s also why I’m not active anymore on the Baka-Tsuki forums, even though I’m an official “leader” and have access to what they do in their admin forums. I put my two cents in on the subject and they decided to go a different route from what I suggested. I don’t agree and so I won’t cover stuff hosted by them anymore, unless the translated material is truly extraordinary.

That’s it for this week’s Translation Necessary Thursday!

TNT: The New Gate Volume 01 by Kazanami Shinogi

This week for Translation Necessary Thursday I’m covering a Light Novel I read last summer! It’s The New Gate Volume 01 by Kazanami Shinogi!

Plot Synopsis: “THE NEW GATE”, an online game that trapped its players and turned into a death game, was now releasing the thousands of players that had been dragged into it, thanks to the efforts of Shin, one of the most powerful players. But after having defeated the last boss and freed everyone, he was swallowed up by a strange light.

Plot: Does that sound like Sword Art Online? Good because it takes that premise and then ditches it promptly. That isn’t to say there aren’t similarities between the two series, or this series and others, but it’s not really at all like Sword Art Online. I won’t spoil the real twist to the series, but needless to say I found it refreshing.

Characters: Shin is the main character and it’s kind of nice to see a guy just enjoy what he encounters. That isn’t to say he isn’t freaked out, but it’s nice to see someone take his situation and have a good time. The series doesn’t really introduce the main female lead in this volume, but we do get hints to her identity. However Tiera is a wonderful stand in for this volume and hell she might actually end up being the female lead, though I somewhat don’t think that will be the case. The rest of the cast is interesting as well.

Art: The art is nice and gritty compared to other Light Novels, which is a nice change of pace for me.

Overall: An excellent read, and one I’ll recommend to any fantasy lovers.

For those who like: Fantasy, Adventure, Fun, Action, Excellent Cast of Characters, Great Plot, Awesome Artwork.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.