Why One Punch Man is Great!

by Gaby

 

One Punch Man has become a really big hit in Japan and so I decided to check it out. Watching the first episode I could already see this anime was certainly different than your usual hero anime.
Where in most stories the hero struggles with their opponent for sometimes multiple episodes, One Punch Man answers the question, "What if the hero was too strong?"

Saitama was an unemployed salary man when he saved a big chinned kid from a lobster monster, from that moment on he decided to train to become a hero, he trained so hard that his hair fell out and became so strong that now has ability to defeat anyone with just one punch.  However, he wishes there was more thrill in it, so he's a bit bored with just finishing opponents off in one punch.

The series isn't all just seriousness, there is a lot of comedy in this anime, how some of these monsters get defeated, or they surrender, and they best not ramble, Saitama likes things summarized in 20 words or less! 

If you haven't started watching One Punch Man, then do so! It's currently the #1 anime in Japan and every day gaining more audience.  Watch the greatness of Saitama and his follower Genos as they register to become recognized heroes, fight genetically enhanced creatures, and still make it on time for the Saturday sale at the supermarket!  Here are some screenshots to get you a little familiar with the show.

Knocks out opponents with just one punch

That was too easy...as usual

Genos, a cyborg hero, wants to be Saitama's disciple.

No time for games, this hero has shopping to do!!!

#OnePunchMan #Saitama #Genos #AnimeReview #pleaseanime

Anime North Texas 2015: Aftermath

by Gaby

This year Anime North Texas was at a new location at the historic Hilton Fort Worth in Downtown Fort Worth, TX.  It was actually a really good turnout with over 100% growth since last year, I believe the final numbers showed over 2,000 registered guests for the convention, which is pretty good considering this is newer three day convention.

The panel selection was so, so, from what I saw it was pretty decent.  There were at least 3 specific panels you could go to throughout the day, small but full dealers room, artist area, and even a maid cafe.

I actually volunteered in the maid cafe and I gotta say it was really great! The deal for the maid cafe was pretty swell too, $10 got you a bowl or your choice of ramen, a canned drink (green tea, milk tea, or Japanese coffee), and a pastry for dessert! Plus you got to hang out with the maids, play games, enjoy dances, and socialize!

I didn't get to take too many pictures since I was out volunteering with the maids, but this being my first time volunteering at a convention was pretty good!  The only thing is that if you do volunteer at cons, you really have to be there because you want to volunteer, not because you want a free badge.  The majority of my day was taken up by my actual event that I was volunteering for, so I didn't get to roam around the convention during the day at all.  However I did enjoy it because it was fun getting to hang out with a bunch of people at the maid cafe!

Here are a few pictures from ANT2015.

Cosplay for Fun!

by Gaby

In the nerdy fandom community there are people known as cosplayers. They dress up, act like the character, sometimes play out scenes or say lines that the character would say. 
This weekend I was at a local convention and it reminded me how great even a small convention can be when you have cosplayers getting together and being really awesome at it.

A few general tips on cosplaying while I am on the subject of cosplay.

1. Yes you can be creative with your cosplay that is perfectly fine, it is fun to do crossplays (crossover cosplay), gender benders, or anything new that hasn't been done before.

2. Whether you are actually trying to be the character or just dressing up, have fun! People don't approach someone who looks angry or like they aren't enjoying themselves, you want to have fun! Cosplay! Play is about fun!

3. Haters gonna hate but don't let them bother you.  There will always be that one person or group of people who say, oh they didn't do a good job cosplaying because they are too overweight, or they aren't the right ethnicity, this is not what having fun in cosplay is about.  Be comfortable in your skin and wear what you want to wear, be who you want to be! No one is 100% accurate, I mean come on its just a fictional character the whole world doesn't depend on what race Sailor Moon is or how thin or large you are to portray a certain character. 

Well now that I got that out o the way lets move to some pictures I took over the weekend at the G33K3 convention that was held in McKinney Texas Friday and Saturday December 4-5, 2015.

Darth Vader and company

Jenny and I cosplay, Fluttershy and Tina Belcher

Chewbacca

Donattello and Raphael

Speed Racer

Female Loki

ARSMAGNA Amazing at Dance

by Gaby

Left to right: Bak, Tatsuki, Akira, Sou, Kento

So lately I've got the dance bug and I was looking at good video choreography and ran into stuff by ARSMAGNA and woah, I was blown away, if you haven't heard of them,  now is a good time to get acquainted with these 5 amazing dancers. 

ARSMAGNA is a group of 5 guys who perform their own choreography as well as some original content in Japan, it seems the group has been going on since about 2012, their choreography to "Gigantic O.T.N" has already reached more than 1 million views on Nico Nico Douga, which is a popular video sharing service in Japan. They also form as part of a cosplay group "Chronos Senior High School."

If you want to see something really awesome, I highly recommend searching for some ARSMAGNA choreography because its pretty amazing.
It seriously seems like these guys have been modeled after an anime, I've seen some of their cosplay skit videos and they are just hilarious.  To see more dances and content from Ars Magna check out the Nicovideo.jp site and search Ars Magna.

Definitively check out these bishounen dancers see below for some sweetness videos! 

Oh and by the way their first regular album just got released this year on November 11th full of amazing original material! Perfect tie to jump on the bandwagon!  Check out the promo for their album below!

Countdown to Anime North Texas in Fort Worth!

by Gaby

Attention all North Texas anime fans, if you haven't heard of Anime North Texas, also known as ANT, then you certainly need to know!   This is a newer con but it is very worth going to.  Fort Worth is a wonderful city, ranked amongst one of the the best cities in Texas and a con in downtown Fort Worth will just make it even better.   Here are the 5 W's on ANT.

Who?  Anime North Texas! (ANT)

What? A newer anime convention full of panels, music, cosplay, maid cafes, dealer room, and more!

When? November 20-22, 2015

Where? Downtown Fort Worth at the Hilton.  815 Main St. Fort Worth TX

Why?  Because you just have to check out this great con!

and sometimes

How?  Check out http://animenorthtexas.com/ for more information on pre-registration and hotel prices. 


I will be there and I Hope to see you there too!

When Marnie Was There Review

by Gaby

Studio Ghibli does it again, another wonderful story that will leave you in tears sobbing with emotions.   Anna is a child whose parents died long ago, after she has an asthma attack she is sent to live in the country by the sea.  There she spots a house across the water where a young girl with long yellow hair seems to be, she finds her way across the water and over to the house and ends up befriending this strange girl.

The story gets a little weird maybe even a bit confusing when you start discovering who Marnie really is, there is a mystery deeper than what is shown on the surface.

By the end of the movie everything gets resolved and you would have been taken through a roller coaster of emotions.

This is surely one to see if you are a fan of Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki movies, the characters are relatable, lovable, and you can't help but just want everything to result well for them. 

Attack on Titan Part 2: End of the World Review

by Gaby

Forget everything you know about the anime that was made popular in Japan, Attack on Titan.  Now once you get that out of your head then you can watch Attack on Titan part II End of the World.
How I would describe this movie would be...someone made a fan fiction with Attack on Titan characters, threw in a couple of their own characters, changed the plot a bit, and ta da! You get Attack on Titan: End of the World.
I was hearing a lot of mumbling in the audience, mostly "What the F###?," and "Are you serious?!" and of course "That didn't happen!" 

So yes this movie totally flopped in Japan and it probably made less than the first in the US as well because...well when I went to the theater there were way less people at the showing of this movie than the first. 

SPOILERS AHEAD: If you plan to see it then you can stop here, if you don't mind spoilers keep reading. I am basically going to tell you what happened in the whole movie because it does not follow the anime AT ALL.

This movie starts off recalling what happened in the first film, basically doing a 90 second snipped of everything that happened in the first movie.  After this we see a flashback scene of Eren as a child being injected with some fluid by his father. Then some people come and take away his parents and burn the house to the ground while he escapes through a hidden passageway.

Take back forward to when Eren is captured, tied up, and iterrogated  by Kubal one of the heads of the military.  Right when Souda was about to speak up and reveal a bunch of truths he is killed by Kubal and then out of nowhere the armored Titan shows up and snatches up Eren.

Next we see Eren with Shikishima (The guy who seemed to have replaced Levi in the first movie)

Shikishima revealing truths to Eren

and this is where it starts getting weird. Shikishima starts telling Eren things that Titans are human people that the government had experimented with and that's what lead to the decline of humanity, and that Kubal and the government are using the Titans as a means to keep fear in people and basically rule over everyone with fear. So he wants to take the last bomb that they have and break down the inner walls with it...
Meanwhile the rest of Eren's friends are out with their leader Hanji looking for the last bomb so that they can blow up a part of the outer wall to fill in the main hole that the Titans are getting in from. so basically blast a piece of wall to plug up the hole in the wall caused by the colossal Titan.

Yeah...so it was getting really crazy, the Scout regiment is revealed to be a bunch of people who are followers of Shikishima's crazy thoughts, and when they run into Hanji and her team more stuff blows up and more people die by guns and explosions rather than by being eaten by Titans.

There was hardly any human on Titan battling going on in this one. In fact I don't think I saw a single person being eaten by a Titan in this part of the movie.

But we do have a Titan on Titan battle, with Eren fighting Shikishima both in Titan form, Eren wanting to use the bomb to fix the outer wall and Shikishima wanting the bomb to explode the inner wall.   Eren ends up pulling a move he used against Jean from the first movie to be victorious in this battle.

Titan on Titan Battle

Then as they are about to use the bomb to plug up the hole...the identity of the Colossal Titan is revealed as being Kubal, he transforms and tries to thwart their plans then Shikishima out of nowhere ends up coming back and taking the bomb and using it to destroy Kubal as the colossal titan which ends up exploding and fixing the wall to where the hole gets covered up.

The story ends with Eren and Mikasa standing on top of the wall looking out into a destroyed city by the ocean...who would have known that there is a destroyed city by the ocean right outside the gate.

Very crazy movie indeed. I can't really say I liked it but It was not the worst thing I have ever seen. It ended well, it had a happy ending I suppose, but a lot of stuff was left out and it did not follow Attack on Titan anime at all. Hence why I call it, someone's action fanfiction brought to life on the big screen. 

Do I recommend you see it? Not really, unless you want to see somewhat of a what if type of story...

What if Levi wasn't in the picture?
What if the plot was different?
What if Eren was a different character?
What if the military was hiding titans because they were titans?

Stuff like that basically.

Oh but I was glad that Sasha (Potato girl) didn't die. She and Hanji were the best characters. Sashi being the comic relief in the first movie and Hanji being the comic relief in this one. 

Mikasa rescuing Eren from the explosion of the bomb...amazing that no debris hit them at all.

Gaby's Top 5 Anime Opening Songs

by Gaby

One thing I always loved about anime ever since I was introduced and saw my first anime before I even started Kindergarten. I remember watching the TV and as soon as the show started you heard the into, whether it was in Japanese or dubbed you couldn't help but sing or hum along with it, or even make up your own lyrics!
Anime opening songs are awesome so I am going to list my top 5 favorites here.
 First on my list is going to be one of the ones I remember from my childhood.

 1. DragonBall Opening: "Makafushigi Adventure!" performed by Hiroki Takahashi

 Why I like this song?  It brings back memories to one of my favorite anime from my childhood. Yes there are many I liked from when I was younger but this one I clearly remember there were many laughs when young Goku was just out for adventure finding Dragon Balls.  This song really encompasses the sense of adventure that the original Dragon Ball Series brought to the table.

2.Inuyasha Opening 3: "Owarinai Yume" Performed by Nanase Aikawa

Why I like this song?  I really liked the beat of this one, and it was at a time when Inuyasha was on the rise and it just gave a good feel to the show. Not only this but this was one of the songs I completely learned the lyrics to and couldn't help but sing to! And in addition this song got me to discover other awesome songs by Nanase Aikawa.

3.  B Gata H Kei Yamada's First Time Opening: "Oshiete A to Z" performed by Tamura Yukari

Why I like this song?It goes really good with the anime and how Yamada feels. Not to mention it just sounds really good. Its fun and it makes you want to dance along with it! I want to learn the lyrics to this one lol the beat it soo catchy!

4. Hayate no Gotoku  Opening 2:  "Shichitenhakki Shijou Shugi" Performed by KOTOKO

Why I like this song?  It has an awesome beat! It really has a dance feel and if you see the actual PV that KOTOKO made you can even catch some people dancing in a ParaPara type style and its awesome!  Ever since I  heard this song I always feel like I want to dance...either that or drive fast. Its that kind of adrenaline pumping song.

5. DN Angel Opening: "Byakuya: True Light" Performed by Shunichi Miyamoto 

Why I like this song?  Because Miyamoto San sounds awesome! Can you believe this was his singing debut single? His voice sounds really nice and I like the tone of this song for this anime, it sounds kind of mysterious yet soothing at the same time. 



Of course there are tons of other openings that I really really like but these are some that stood out to me right now, I'll do a list of some of my favorite ending songs in the future so make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for the latest updates.

TBT: Lady Georgie

by Gaby

Today's Throwback Thursday, we will take a look at a vintage anime from 1983, this is Lady Georgie, story by Man Izawa and illustrated by Yumiko Igarashi, 45 episodes long.

Arthur and Abel

The story of Georgie takes us back to the mid 1800's in both Australia and England, where a farmer and his two sons find a baby wearing a gold bracelet. She is taken in to live with them as a daughter and sister.  The dad and brothers love her very much but the mom has a bit of a hard time accepting her. Especially after the dad dies while trying to rescue Georgie in a runaway boat in a river.



As Georgie grows older, she gets very pretty and the brothers, Abel and Arthur, start to see her in a different light, as a lady not a sister. So they begin to have feelings towards her, but Georgie does not, afterall she sees them as brothers, and she develops feelings for the governor's grandson Lowell Gray, who is actually betrothed by his family to someone else.

Lowell Gray and Georgie

This story is beautiful with romance and drama, a young innocent girl becomes an independent woman in this coming of age story.  She goes through many hard times and always tries to find the positives.

The first 10 or so episodes are mostly about her childhood in Australia, the most tragic thing that happens is her adoptive father dies after rescuing her.  After about episode 10 or so, Georgie and the boys start to grow up, the mother forces Georgie to move out of the kids room and have her own room because the mother does not like that her sons have taken a fancy to Georgie.



The oldest son Abel confesses to his mother that he wants to marry Georgie and it makes the mother so upset that she reveals to Georgie that she is adopted and that her real father is an exile. This leads Georgie to run away from Australia and head to London to find her real parents, and all that she has is the gold bracelet that she was found wearing as her only clue. 

There are few anime that have me in a rollercoaster of emotions and this is certainly one of them, one moment you are happy that she is finally seeking the truth, the next you are at the edge of her seat because Georgie was framed for someone's death, then again you are excited because she gets reunited with the boy she fell in love with, but are saddened again because it seems like they keep getting torn apart.

This anime may be a bit hard to find today, it was originally released in several other languages including French, Spanish, Italian, German, and a few others.  I have not seen this in English sadly, I ended up watching it in Spanish and French.  The Manga under the name Georgie! May be more easily available to find translated into English.   That's the problem with vintage anime is that the older it is or less popular that it was, the harder it is to find today.

Do make an effort to find if you are interested in a romantic, drama anime, set in the 1800s.

Opening Theme:

"Wasurerareta Message" (忘れられたメッセージ) by Yuriko Yamamoto

Ending Theme:

"Yasashisa o Arigatō" (やさしさをありがとう) by Yuriko Yamamoto

Young Black Jack. First Impressions

by Gaby

So I had seen a few episodes in the past of Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack, the unlicensed miracle worker doctor who can basically do just about any surgery.  This anime, Young Black Jack, is a prequel to this.

Kuroo Hazama is a young medical student at Tokyo University in the late 1960s, in the first episode

Rushing to get to surgery

we see tragedy starting right away when a train collides with a bus and dozens of people are left injured, including a little boy who has had two limbs severed.
With the doctor saying it was impossible to re-attach his limbs, Hazama steps in and tells the parents of the boy that he promises to be able to re-attach the child's limbs, but he only has four hours to do it before the limbs that have been kept on ice are deemed useless, dun dun dun!

Lots of sexy scars on the doctor.

Anyway this anime really had me at the edge of my seat for this episode, so much that I immediately wanted to watch the second episode which also had a good amount of drama and suspense in it.
I recommend this one to anime who likes medical drama, anything with a little suspense, and if you want to see an anime cutie with a bunch of scars, there's lots of fan service for that in the first two episodes.

Opening Theme:

"I am Just Feeling Alive" by UMI☆KUUN

 

Ending Theme:

"All Categorize" (オールカテゴライズ) by Takuto

Mr. Osomatsu (Osomatsu San) Review

by Gaby

First you may need a little background info before you start watching this or else it might leave you with some questions.  The original Osomatsu anime is called Osomatsu -Kun and it aired during the Showa period in Japan, in this anime the Matsuno sextuplets are grade school kids.

Osomatsu-Kun characters

Osomatsu San begins when the Showa era Matsuno sextuplets have learned that their anime has been picked
up again and they are worried that their Showa era jokes will not be up to par to today's modern anime. So then the anime suddenly becomes re-imagined with the sextuplets being a teen idol group of 6 brothers at a high school, each one with bishounen qualities, that the ladies totally swoon over.

This re-imagining suddenly goes out of control with a ton of modern anime parodies including Attack on Titan, Sailor Moon, Naruto, etc.   Finally the brothers

The Bishounen re-imagined Matsuno sextuplets

have decided that its too much and return to their Showa era selves and wait around for 10 years until the anime finally starts as how it will look for the series one minute until it finishes.

From what I can tell. This anime will be leaning more on the random comedy side.  The second episode deals with the boys looking for a job.

Definetly check out at least the first episode it was absolutely hilarious!

Please!Anime's Top 10 Anime Shows for Halloween

By Jenny

October is finally here! Time to play some Nightmare Before Christmas music and collect the good candy for ourselves. This is also a good time to gather your friends and watch some anime that will help get the Halloween mood going. Here is Please!Anime's top 10 anime shows for Halloween. The list applies to both old and new versions of any of the series, such as Hellsing and Higurashi. We also made sure to add in some lighter anime as well for you otakus who get queasy at the sight of guts.

1. Hellsing

The organization known as Hellsing specializes in destroying the undead or other evil supernatural forces that threaten the queen and the country. It is owned and run by Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, who inherited the business from her late father. She is protected by her butler Walter C. Dornez, a vampire named Alucard, and former police officer Seras Victoria.

2. Another

In 1972 a girl named Misaki attended Yomiyama North Middle School in class 3-3. She was a bright girl who was a great role model and was adored by everyone. Shortly after starting the 9th grade she suddenly passed away, but the students and teachers behaved as if she was still alive. Fast forward 26 years later when a boy named Koichi transfers into the school. He notices that there is a girl in the back row named Mei Misaki who the class seems to ignore. After realizing the connection between class 3-3 and the mysterious deaths of classmates and their relatives, it is up to Koichi and Mei to figure out how to prevent a curse from killing them.

3. Soul Eater

Death Weapon Meister Academy is a place where people can go to learn how to become a weapon or a weapon wielder (aka meister) to get rid of evil human souls. The school is run by none other than Shinigami, also known as Death. Each team of meisters and weapons are unique and they use their skills to reach their goal of absorbing 99 evil humans and one witch. If they succeed, this will dramatically raise the power of weapons and make them capable of being used by Shinigami as a Death Scythe.

4. Ghost Hunt

Mai Taniyama is a high school student who loves to tell ghost stories with her friends. When she explored a presumably haunted building, she is saved from a falling bookcase by a man named Lin, who worked for the Psychic Research center (SPR). In the process Mai accidentally breaks some of their equipment, and now she has to work for the business to pay off her debts. She and Kazuya Shibuya work together for the SPR to figure out cases involving ghosts.

5. King of Thorn

This is a survivor story involving a terrifying virus called Medusa. It petrifies a person's body and kills them within 12 hours of the first sign of infection. Because of the dangers of the virus, 160 people were chosen by Venus Gate to be cryogenically frozen for a hundred years in the hopes of using that time to find a cure against the virus. Unfortunately something goes wrong and the characters wake up in what looks like a post-apocalyptic future. The survivors must now fight to stay alive and figure out what happened when they were asleep.

6. Higurashi When they Cry

The anime is based off a sound novel of the same name. In June 1983, Keiichi Maebara moves into a rural village called Hinamizawa. He becomes friends with classmates Rena, Mion, Rika, and Satoko. The town and it's people seem very normal and everything remains peaceful until after the annual Watanagashi (or Cotton Drifting) Festival. The celebration is meant to commemorate and thank the local god named Oyashiro. Keiichi later discovers that every year for the past four years a person is murdered and another goes missing after the festival. As the characters' secrets are revealed in different story arcs, it is up to the viewer to figure out what is happening in the tiny village.

7. Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories

Kamishibai (paper drama) is a traditional method of storytelling in Japan. In this anime, a masked man visits a playground every week at 5:00 p.m. with a kamishibai. He tells the children ghost stories that are based on Japanese myths and urban legends.

8. Gegege no Kitaro

This show is based on a manga series that was created in 1960 and has a new adaption every few years (so far there are 6). The story follows Kitaro, a yokai boy who is one of the last living members of the Ghost Tribe. He and his friends fight to keep the peace between humans and yokai.

9. Hell Girl

It is said that there is a supernatural online website called Hell Correspondence. If he or she submits a request, Hell Girl (Ai Enma) will provide a doll with a red string. When the client pulls the string, they accept the company's services and the members get rid of the person from whom they seek revenge. Ai Enma and her assistants torment the targeted person and send the victim to Hell. The clients who seek this service have to pay the price of going to Hell as well once they pass away.

10. Tokyo Ghoul

Ken Kaneki is a college student who is attacked by his own date Rize Kamishiro. She reveals herself to be a ghoul and nearly kills him, leaving Ken hospitalized in critical condition. When he wakes up he discovers that some of Rize's organs were given to him in order to survive. This leads to a rare situation in which he is now part human and part ghoul. As Ken is brought into a whole new way of life, he has to deal with an internal struggle while interacting with ghoul society.

Honorable Mentions

*High School of the Dead

High School of the dead follows a group of people at a high school (duh) who deal with the zombie apocalypse; also known as the "Outbreak." After someone is bitten at the school gates, panic ensues as students become bitten left and right. A group of survivors find each other and decide to form a team to survive. As they progress through the apocalypse, they must face not only zombies but other survivors as well.

*Karin

Traditional vampires are known to suck blood from their victims. Karin Maaka is a special case. Rather than being a blood sucker she is a blood maker/giver. She and her family have been living in Japan for the past two centuries. While the rest of her family avoids daylight, she is free to go to school seeing as how she has no normal vampire traits. Her peaceful life is turned upside down when a new student named Kenta Usui transfers to her class.

*Berserk

The story is set in a fictional medieval-like world. Guts becomes adopted by a mercenary group at a young age and eventually encounters Griffith, the leader of Band of the Hawk. Griffith takes a liking to Guts and makes him join his group after defeating him in a duel. With their joined forces they strive to end a long war that was taking place in Midland.