31 July 2008

Classic Anime Revisited - Neo Ranga


It has been a long while since I watched any classic anime shows.. However, after some spring cleaning of the house, I somehow discovered my DVD box of Neo Ranga stashed somewhere in the closet.. Though the cover box is torn in some places, the CDs and the CD casing looks quite intact after 6 years of MIA..

I thought I gave this show another look so that I can recall whats the whole show is about and what made it interesting..

Well, the story goes like this:

The Shimahara sisters (Manami, Ushio, and Yuuhi) are living on their own, with the eldest sister as their breadwinner, when a young man from the fictional South Pacific Island of Barou arrives with news of their long-missing brother.

Their brother had married into the Barou royalty, but since he passed away, leaving the sisters as the hereditary rulers of Barou. As the new rulers of Barou, they now fall under the protection of the island's god, Neo Ranga, which turns out to be a gigantic monster. When Ranga followed them to Tokyo, it soon becomes a source of wonder and conflict for the three sisters that control Ranga, the people who want to destroy it, and ones who want to use it.

After watching quite a number of episodes, I had a nostalgic feeling.. The show is interesting, given its lack of graphics and effects back in the 90s..

On one hand, this looks like it was partially inspired by Neon Genesis Evangelion, judging by the looks of Neo Ranga; a large semi-organic mecha..

Darn, he even roars like Eva-01 when it goes berserk..

Well, at least this classic show has pretty girls, even lolies too.. ^^

Well, the first few episodes are kinda sketchy but the show will be great somewhere near the end of season 1.. Yes, there is a total of 48 episodes, splitting into 2 seasons..

Maybe I am just a sucker for girls holding weapons but yeah this show does have some nice feeling to it.. I hope I get to finish all episodes by the end of this week before my school projects start to pile up on me..

So let me ask you, what other classic anime shows do you guys watch back then?? ^^

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Sere are some wallpapers of the Shimahara sisters with their respective weapons.. These pictures might be NSFW so you can click the button below if the coast is clear.. XD

Click here to expand

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30 July 2008

Vocaloid Weekly 43 - Return of Miku for Top 3


Well, it has been awhile since "Seikan Hikou" and Ranka's \m/ has been around and took the top spot of Vocaloid Weekly for the past few weeks.. But in this week, those songs are now pushed behind in term of ranks, although there are 2 new "Seikan Hikou" entries, which include Kaito.. ^^


Now let me show you the video entries:

Part A:



Part B:


Now let us talk about some of the songs:

29 - Miku's rendition of "Seikan Hikou": Still one of the best songs from hatsune Miku. I am still happy that the song is still on top 30..
25 - Love is War: Ryo's songs are excellent. Who couldn't resist listening his songs.
24 - 「卑怯戦隊うろたんだー」をKAITO,MEIKO,初音ミクにry【オリジナル】修正版 : Finally, my prayer has been heard.. Even though it is one of the good songs, it has overstayed in 2nd place on the Vocaloid Weekly.. Well, at least it is still in top 30 right??
06 - 【KAITO】カイトとレンの歌う崖の上のポニョ【鏡音レン】: Well,well,well.. Looks like Bishounen Kaito is the new in-thing eh?? XD


Onto the TOP 3 songs in Vocaloid Weekly:

3rd Place - 【初音ミク】Melody in the sky【オリジナル】: Nice and catchy song.. Can be mistaken as an anime's OP or ED.. The melody is so beautiful, you can listen to it while you are studying IMO.. ^^

2nd Place - 【初音ミク】インカーネイション【オリジナル】: TL;DS.. Why?? The song is about 7mins.. Well, that isn't the problem.. The problem is with its beginning of the music.. It took 2 mins for me to wait until I could hear Miku sing.. What a waste of my precious time.. Well, for the sake of Hatsune Miku.. ^^

1st Place: - 【初音ミク】 えれくとりっく・えんじぇぅ 【オリジナル曲アレンジ】: Ahh, this song is awesome.. I can't help but listen to it a couple of time and still won't get bored about it.. The beat is great and I like the chorus of the song.. I shall add this song into my iPod Shuffle Gen 1..


And now here is the video of the Winner in this week Vocaloid Weekly:


Click here for the NicoNicoDouga link..

Hope you get to enjoy listening to the songs in the Vocaloid Weekly.. As for now, I am going back to catch on Neo Angelique Abyss.. ^^

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29 July 2008

Es(v0.40) - A Moe Mecha Game


I finally have some free time to review this long overdue game.. Unfortunately blogger wasn't very kind with ".png" picture format so I have to spend some precious time changing them to ".jpg".. Luckily, Firefox3 helped out in making uploading a breeze..

Anyway, back to the topic at hand.. This is "Es", a fast-paced action game where you control a MOE character(sadly, I don't know her name..).. Before we get into details about the game, let me show you the Option settings menu:

This game is made by "9th Night", famously known for the Blood-Over- doujin game.. This trial game was released during the last Comiket and hopefully it will get released this Summer Comiket on 15th-16th August..

In this game, your character have to battle against big robots that have attacked a city.. Your mission is to find out what is their purpose and exterminate them..

So the story starts out from a scene of a Chinook helicopter flying over the city..

Then the story talks about the professor telling your character(Lets give her a name, "Es") about the invasion and telling her to eliminate them..

She is just so MOE~~

So the real action begins when Es dash into the battle.. Now as a new player, its pretty hard to find out which keys do what function.. Well, this is what a review is for.. So first up let me teach you the Control functions of this game..


Controls(Movements):

Move - Arrow Keys

Dash - Press "C" (Done while you are moving)

Jump - Press "C" TWICE (May or may not work)


Controls(Attack Skills):

Melee - Press "Z" (Tap "Z" many times to do attack combo).

Upward-Slash - Press "Z" + UP Arrow Key.

Missiles - Press "Q" (Can only work if you buy the missile upgrade[Explained below]).

Shotgun/Machinegun - Tap "X" to attack.

Homing Lasers - Hold "X" as long as you like and release (The longer the better; Similar to that from Panzer Dragoon Saga).


Last but not least we have the "Ulti" attack.. Problem is that it is limited according to the "Power" gauge (Highlighted in Red).. The only way to get "Power" energy is to kill as many enemies as you can..

"Ulti" attack - Press "X" + "Z" at the same time.
Watch those lasers PWNED the enemy

Now we are done with the controls.. Hope those aren't tl;dr or hard to understand.. Those are the default keys after you download the trial game..

Let me show you all the opponents that you will be fighting in this game:


Mobs lists:

"C-09" - Shoots machinegun bullets.

I-201 - Flying units that shoots machinegun bullets.

C-20M Missiler - Shoot homing missiles at intervals.

Homing missiles are not very "homing" but they pack alot of dmg.

I-201M - Bigger versions of I-201. Shoots machinegun bullets.

C-22 Flame - Uses flamethrower when it gets close to you.

Now let us go for a short break from the Mobs List.. If you complete the level, a scoreboard will appear and tally up your score and show you what rank you have achieved for that stage..

Mine was a "C" due to me wanting to take my sweet time taking snapshots of this game..

After you finish the 1st stage, you are then asked whether you want to save your game at this point of time.. Well, it is ok if you accidentally press "NO" since there is an option to save in the intermission menu..

In here, there is an "Upgrade" option which you can use your points that you have gathered from the previous stage to purchase weapons or upgrade them.. Since this is a trial game, you are only allowed to purchase weapons..


After you do your purchase, you can equip them in the "Equip" option.. You are only allowed 2 weapons of choice and 2 passive abilities..

Now let us go back to the Mob List for the next stage.. There are only 2 new mobs in the 2nd stage of this game.. The rest are the same ones from the 1st stage so let me show you now the 2 new mobs:

S-08 Spider - Does melee by jumping at you at close-range.

D3-R4 Carrier - Just a carrier that carries a C-09 mob under it.

They are just sitting ducks for your character to get more points. You can kill them or just let those carriers fly away after dropping off the C-09s.

Now let us move on to Mini-bosses. They are abit harder to kill than normal mobs and have their own unique way to attack you. Let me show you the mini-bosses in this game..


Mini-Bosses:

[1st Stage]: C-18d Commander - Shoots Homing Missiles at long-range

While shoots BIG machinegun bullets when close-range.

[2nd Stage]: D3-R9 Carrier - Shoots "Ground Pounder" at you. Also have the ability to spawn 2 "I-201b" to attack you with machinegun bullets..



OK, those are just the Mini-bosses.. Now let us focus onto the Main bosses in this game.. Without further ado, lets go check them out:


BOSSES:


[1st Stage]: C-20000 Canser (Health - 25000Hp)


Attacks:

1st attack: Dash at you

2nd attack: Long-range flamethrower

3rd attack: "Ground Pounder", followed with big laser bolts shot at you.

But heck, if you charge enough "Power", you can do 2 ulti attacks on it to kill it quickly.. The obss has a final aatack but you get to know once you play the game.. ^^

[2nd Stage]: Unknown (Health - 30000Hp)

This lady is almost the same as Es just that she has wings that can detach and fly to wards you, dealing alot of damage..


After you destroy her wings, she will go into berserk mode.. Play the game if you know what I mean.. XD


Well, that is all the information I have after having some fun playing this game.. I hope you will some fun playing this game to kill some free time when you are bored or in school..

If you wish to download the game, you can visit their website here.. Hope I get to review more games in the future and show it to everyone.. ^^

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