Food is the goal of a group of very hungry fighters, battle it out for half price bento as soon as they are discounted. Some of these fighters are broke, and others just want to test their skills as Bento Brawlers. Unfortunately, for the main character Yo Sato, he had to find this out the hard way. When reaching for a half price bento, and lamenting his lack of finances, he knocked unconscious and beaten. While he is lying on the ground of this supermarket, he realizes he is about to die, but quickly pops up because he, “can’t die on an empty stomach.” The next day Sato, still confused about the previous day, meets up with Hana Oshiroi, who he actually met the night before. Oshiroi, is an easily excited girl, who also has a phobia of germs, and is an aspiring writer of, what seems to be, yaoi detective fiction that she bases off of real life experiences. Rounding out the main trio of the series is the “Ice Witch” Sen Yarizui, who is the strongest of the western fighters and president, and only member at the start of the series, of the Half Priced Food Lovers Club...
“Ready for adventure!” This is the battle cry of video game’s next great adventure hero, who is cold, calculating, and can’t jump. Of course this is a tongue and cheek assessment of Captain Toad. As one of the supporting characters in the recent Super Mario games, including the excellent Galaxy series and 3D World, he would help Mario by providing power ups or finding stars. Often seen as a funny Toad, who is a bit incompetent when it comes to navigating, and at times lacking in courage, this adventure is a perfect fit for the little fungi. The story is a simple one, Captain Toad is spending time with his favorite female Toad, when she gets captured by a large bird. Without hesitation, Captain Toad is off, ready to explore new worlds, in an attempt at rescuing the female Toad...
The power of rock will overcome all! That statement is the revolving idea in the anime Bakumatsu Rock, a series that takes place during an alternate Bakumatsu period, at the end of the Edo period of Japanese history, when the Tokugawa shogunate ended, before the Meiji government began. This period in Japanese history is noted by the ending of the country’s isolationist policy, thereby allowing foreigners to enter the country. In this alternate reality of Bakumatsu Rock, the shogunate are attempting to maintain control of Japan by playing Heaven’s Song, a pop idol song that has the power to control...
In playing the game, the player selects which protagonist they would like to use, Persona 3 or Persona 4. This is the most important choice, as the game will revolve around the characters from the respective protagonist’s game. The game occurs in the middle of the stories of the Persona 3 and 4 timelines in an alternate universe, an interesting idea because both games occur in different periods of time. Upon selecting the protagonist from Persona 4, which I named Yu to keep with other entries in the series, the story begins in the Persona 4 high school, Yasogami High, during the culture festival that takes place in the Persona 4 game. After the failure of the group date café and the beauty contest, the group ends up going to the fortune telling booth, which is actually a makeshift Velvet Room created by Margret. Upon exiting after a very strange fortune reading, the school seems strange. Soon the Investigation Team finds that they are in a very strange alternate reality where they meet two students they have never encountered, Rei and Zen, who are also confused as to the situation. All of the students have been replaced by repetitive students who all go about a standard pre-programmed routine...
As a fan of video games and its history, any time I see a new anime that has some connection to the video game business I will give it a try. Often, the stories shown are poor representations of the source material with a dull story, lackluster voice acting, poor animation, and seem to be used only for the purpose of marketing. There are a few notable exceptions with the most notable being Hyperdimension Neptunia, in which the anime series is a spinoff of the games and focuses on a story and characters that represent the video game industry as...
