Um...I just want to say something right now...and what I want to say is that I WAS FREAKING BLOWN AWAY AFTER WATCHING THE FIRST EPISODE OF THE "Kuroko No Basket" ANIME!!!

Before I talk any more of that, let me put up a brief summary and whatnot of what I know about "Kuroko No Basket".

Right now, the direct Japanese in English of the title is "Kuroko No Basket" (or "Basuke" I guess, but I'm guessing that's an "engrish" version of "basket." So instead of using "basuke," I will be using "basket"). There are English translations of course, but they all kind of vary. There's one that uses "Kuroko's Basketball" and one in the actual end of the anime (that appears to have been purposefully put there) that said "The Basketball Which Kuroko Plays". Of course, people are welcome to use whatever title they want. But I'm going to stick to "Kuroko No Basket" (just because I'm more used to this title I suppose).

Now, summary time: "Kuroko No Basket" is (obviously) a manga/anime geared to the sport basketball. The main character(s) are all heavily involved with their high school basketball team, and it's sort of a typical "watch unique characters to the story excel in the sport the manga/anime is geared in. And watch their amazing battles to reach the top!"

However, even with that three sentence summary, don't think manga/anime geared in sports are boring! Like I've said, each one is unique in their own way, especially with character variations; and "Kuroko No Basket" is not an exception.

Now, back to my excitement on the anime. HOLYSMOKINGCLOUDSOFDARKNESS I thought the anime was really good. Well, truthfully, the reason why I'm acting like this is because the animation specifically was good. I feel like the producers went all out in making sure the anime looked almost...flawless. I don't know how to describe how...pretty the animation was. I'm a real sucker for animes that have awesome animation like that, so yeah, I got a bit hooked. And the animators did a pretty good job in following the manga, but I think this is sort of where they suffered as well.

The manga, at the beginning, is somewhat more humorous than the anime puts it. The anime had a rather serious atmosphere to it, and I felt like it had a lot less funny parts compared to the manga. But I wouldn't blame the animators too much on this. I'm pretty sure if I was making an animation series that had a lot of money on the line, I would be serious with the project and that would influence the atmosphere of the anime I'd be heading. Also, the manga gets pretty serious in it's own right at certain parts. However, this wasn't the only thing. There were some parts that I wished they included from the manga. But since they didn't, there were some events that were a bit too different for my tastes. But what could I do. Stuff like that happens.

And this is only something that bothers me a tiny bit, but I don't know if I like Kuroko's voice. I know it's just me, and that it's not a big deal or anything, but I can't help just admitting to this.

Anyway, yeah, I only recently went back to "Kuroko No Basket". I was a reader of the manga before (even before the anime came out), but stopped after a while for various reasons (like having to wait for chapters or such). Finally, after a while, I decided I was ready to come back to the manga, and realized that the anime for the series had also come out, so I decided to read some chapters of the manga again before getting to the anime. And in all truth, I wasn't disappointed. Of course, there may be some ups and downs even for the best of things, but I was pretty satisfied with how "Kuroko No Basket" had been made out in the animation. I have some high hopes after the only the first episode...so I'm hoping this won't hurt me as I continue on.

Lastly, there is one more thing I would like the address. I was pretty dang surprised with their little "extra extra" after the ending of the anime ending. Well, let's just say it was suggestive, in the funny little sense, that maybe there's something more than teamwork between two of the main characters in the anime/manga. Truthfully, I applauded the animators for having the guts to put stuff like that up; and I thought what they did was smart.

Let's face it. There are fan(girl)s out there who like that kind of stuff. Don't ask me why, but there are those out there who find it extremely cute to see two guys get intimate with each other. I'm not homophobic, and as long as both parties are fully aware about their feelings and thoughts for each other, I don't care if a gay couple suddenly gave a quick peck of the lips in front of me (just please don't make out. No one wants to watch anyone make out with anything...at least I don't). And what the animators did at the little "end picture" was only suggestive. I think fans are most likely welcome to think what they want to think about it. But my main point is that I think the picture is meant to cause a slight stir.

By getting people to talk about it, they can attract more people in to becoming interested or thoughtful about "Kuroko No Basket". Also, fans who liked the inclination of the picture will become even bigger fans is what I think. Whatever the case, I find the decision to show pictures like that was a good one. I just hope they don't send out a picture that may get more negative remarks rather than positive ones. Despite all this, I encourage everyone and anyone to give "Kuroko No Basket" a try! Good luck to "Kuroko No Basket", and I'm excited to continue with it again!

p.s. I swear, I had to re-do this post three times before I finally got to submit it. Probably going to have a lot of weirdness to it, but since when have any of my posts not been weird?? And yeah, I come back and edit my posts after sending them out, no matter how long it's been. That's just how I work.

So, if it isn't obvious from my previous two posts on webtoons, I like animations and stuff similar to it. And recently, I became very taken in by a manga called One Outs. I found it really good. It's by a mangaka (manga creator) called Kaitani Shinobu-sama, who also created a well known title called Liar Game. All of the mangas I've read from Kaitani-sama seem to have something to do with psychology in a way; and One Outs was not an exception. However, One Outs started out with a young man named Tokuchi Toua who used his pitching to gamble for money. It also helped that he had a deep sense in gambling and had incredible concentration skills (and probably all these other weird talents I don't care to notice). However, he got recruited by a pro-baseball player named Kojima Hiromichi (my favorite character in the manga by the way) in to playing for a baseball team.

So deviating from my true point even more, I'd like to totally recommend people to read One Outs.

Anyway, here's what I'm really trying to say: Recently, I've decided to give the anime of One Outs a shot. I mean, the manga is pretty dang good, so I've decided to go ahead and watch the anime. However, I couldn't believe what I saw in the opening of the first episode.

Half-naked Tokuchi Toua's. Half-naked Tokuchi Toua's everywhere.

Quite frankly, if not obviously, I was a little shocked. In the manga, he's not really shown being all half-naked like that, so I never thought of him sexually and just thought of him as some bastard who's really good at reading people. Now, I'm wondering if the animators wanted to make Tokuchi in to a full blown sex symbol.

It made me laugh at first. I mean, suddenly thinking of someone you've never thought of as "sexy" being portrayed as "sexy" is just kind of funny. But then I started to realize something...

There's a lot of media out there that not only portrays women as sex symbols, but also use men as sex symbols.

As I thought about it to myself, I began to realize how there's a lot of stuff out there where you can basically use anime men in almost any way you want. Like visual novels and the like. There are stuff like this with female anime characters geared towards men, but don't forget that there are weird stuff like those geared towards women too.

Thinking about it now, it probably doesn't hurt a lot of people to use animated characters as sex symbols. Sure, it might scar some people for life or just turn people off, but some people just like this kink. I feel like this is at least something people can have a clear "yes" or "no" decision about liking.

But what about reality? Men of reality have also been made in to sex symbols. There are a lot of pictures of men out there where they are almost always half-naked. I mean, what the heck is that suppose to mean? Sure, the commercial is for these jeans, but gosh, the guy doesn't have to be only wearing jeans. And don't think that this is the only extent of it. I've even seen a juicy couture ad with a guy wearing what appeared to be some sort of elongated tutu. I don't know how I'm suppose to feel about that. Is that how the ad-maker wanted me to feel? To not know how to feel?

"Well, what if he likes to show off his body??" Okay. Whatever. Then the female models probably like to show off their bodies too, but why do you complain about it when she does? If a male or female wants to show off what they have, okay, that's great. As long as they meet within the certain limitations of society so that they don't make anyone too uncomfortable, I'm fine with that. But there's also this issue of people being influenced by these images apparently. Like girls being pressured in to being skinny. And stuff like that also influence males, where they feel pressured in to being muscular due to commercialism.

And the funny thing is, Tokuchi was sort of like that. Because my eyes were glued to the screen in a blank stare, wondering if this was really going on, I noticed that Tokuchi was rather muscular for a guy who doesn't do much in his days other than pitch and gamble. I wondered, "Geesh, how will some guys feel watching this?" Probably looking down in gloom at not having a musculature like Tokuchi's.

But it all boils down to this I guess, the thing I wanted to say: Don't think only women are made in to sex symbols. In some ways and places, yes, they may look to be more persecuted than males. But there is also crazy stuff using guys too. I felt a little depressed thinking about it, that there's this insatiable urge out there for people to look perfect, but it also helps society gear themselves in to an image they want. Sometimes, it doesn't go so well and all these problems arise. Other times, it works somewhat alright.

But despite all this, I think I'll laugh each time I see the opening of One Outs from now on.

Possible spoilers of a webtoon called Metronome. If you have an interest in starting Metronome, but do not like spoilers, it may be for your benefit not to read this post.

Well, I just want to start by diving right in to my topic: webtoons. Lately, I feel like Korean webtoons are really starting to get somewhat popular. The popular ones not really being the best webtoons Koreans have to offer, but still getting noticed nonetheless. I like a lot of webtoons, but there is one in particular I wish to talk about: Metronome. It's about a man (Onyu) who dropped everything and has leapt through time in order to continue meeting with a girl (Yuna) he has fallen in love with. It sounds romantic, but there's a horrible twist. Onyu, the man who traveled through time, is also seeming to lose some of his sanity. Possibly because in order to obey the Novikov self-consistency principle the webtoon goes by, Onyu's memories are lost and he has to judge everything just by his notebook, pictures, and emotions he has for the girl he loves, Yuna. Also, there seems to be a strange organization that watches Yuna closely, their reasons for doing so not very clear. And Yuna herself is a bit of a gloomy girl who can't quite comprehend all that's going on; all she knows is she likes her class president a lot.

So far, I think this is all of the overview of what I think I know of the webtoon. Unfortunately, I don't think the webtoon has been organized very well so far, and the translations are just a bit confusing. I feel like the creator had a lot of ideas that he's trying to jam-pack all in at once. But this is making things a bit difficult to understand, at least for me. Still, I don't dislike the mystery of the webtoon and the personalities of the characters. However, I've developed some thought on this webtoon. So thus starts the development of my post, here are some of my thoughts so far.

It seems that the organization that follows Yuna have people all with different motives. Some members do it because they "love" the girl, while others seem to only have an interest in her, and/or are interested in other things Yuna just happens to be a part of. However, there seems to be an obvious leader within the group, and his exact motives are the most unclear of all. This is all I can say about these people though. Then, there's Onyu who seems to love the girl to the point of obsession (our time-travelling guy). He seems to be a mystery all by himself within the webtoon. Especially since nothing is known about Onyu's past, and his explanations are informative, but don't reveal everything. All we really know about him is that he really loves Yuna. I'm very interested in what he is exactly.

And going off on Onyu, there are a lot of things in the webtoon that are a little hard to get around. For one, the webtoon is deeply involved in time travel so far. There are a few chapters where characters discuss how Onyu is able to time travel and such. One particular detail that seems to be questioned is if Onyu has truly traveled back in time, because if he has, this presents more question: where is the Onyu of the present time? What is he doing? The class president gets a little involved in this, and shows the idea that Onyu and Yuna must have met in some time and had fallen in love (possibly). Then comes the time Yuna dies, and so Onyu goes back in time and meets with the past Yuna again in order to protect her. However, this shows that there would then be two Onyu's in one time. The notebook Onyu has seems to show events that were to happen in the future, but the other Onyu (the Onyu that hasn't met Yuna yet and meets with her later) is never mentioned within the notebook. In other words, how did Onyu ever get to know the girl if he is in love with her and claims to have come from the future?

Truthfully, this is really complicated, and shows a lot of other questions that could arise. For instance, if the story goes by Novikov self-consistency principle, doesn't that mean future-Onyu's or past-Onyu's existence should have been nullified? Basically, the principle explains that any events that could cause a paradox within the past of a time would become nullified (the probability of that event happening becomes zero). So it seems that one person of the same person can only exist at one time or something. So it could be possible that Onyu has already traveled during the time, and Onyu and Yuna have met at a different time or such. This, however, then questions the exact time Onyu and Yuna have ever met.

So far, there are just a lot of questions this webtoon is creating, but it's something to think about and it's interesting. I hope I'll get to understand things once more chapters come out!

Alright, this time, I'm going to try and make a title that isn't misleading! Hope this works out and that I haven't made people disappointed with titles that aren't exactly with what I write in the post (I understand that feeling, I get it a lot from newspapers/bad web-articles).

Alright, so my first topic is a game called Fossil Fighters. It's a game that seems to be aimed for young male children, but despite this, I still came to like this game (although I am way older than being young/a child). Basically, if you like the play Pokemon, it is a game very similar to that. In Pokemon, your aim is to find pokemon, capture them, and battle others and gym leaders. In Fossil Fighters, you find fossils, collect them with different parts, revive vivosuars by "cleaning" fossils, and battle others and fight to become a master fighter. As you can see, they have a very similar concept to one another with a few components that make noticeable differences.

Looking back to how I described Fossil Fighters, it may seem a little more difficult than Pokemon. However, I didn't really think that was so. For one thing, there are a lot less vivosaurs than pokemon. While there are over 600 pokemon known (exactly 649 pokemon known actually), there are only about 100 vivosaurs you can collect (uh, I think there are about 150, but I'm probably wrong).

Also, while Pokemon may have only a few of these pokemon called "legendaries," which are hard to get or such, vivosaurs seem to have at least 20 vivosaurs that can only be collected through special means, which is at least 13-20% of the vivosaurs known. For pokemon, legendaries you can only get through very special means make up to about 10 to 20 pokemon; maybe less since most legendaries can be obtained if you do certain things in the game, like saving the pokemon world or something. So compared to the vivosaurs you can get only through special means, only about 2-3% of pokemon are legendaries (a number a lot smaller compared to that 13-20%).

Basically, you can also see all that numerical stuff this way: Fossil Fighters and Pokemon stress different mechanisms for the characters to collect pokemon/vivosaurs. In Fossil Fighters, you can to get many fossils and make the vivosaurs you get stronger with fossils and fighting, thus, getting special vivosaurs isn't really essential to the game. In Pokemon, it is better for pokemon trainers to collect more and more pokemon as they go so that they can keep a team that can be stronger than pokemon/other trainers of the area a pokemon trainer is in. Legendaries in pokemon are considered some of the strongest pokemon, and have moves most (if not all) pokemon do not have. So in pokemon, if you can get a legendary, it will help you even if you don't really need to get it most of the time.

On a tangent, it is nice to collect something rare, but here's the real thing I want to let everyone understand: although Fossil Fighters and Pokemon may be similar, I find the games very different of each other and unique in their own ways. So in this way, I want to let everyone know that I think people should give Fossil Fighters a chance and try the game. I don't see it as a rip-off of Pokemon, so I want to try persuading people to think this way as well!

Alright, now I'd like to write about other concepts of Fossil Fighters. The story line for the first Fossil Fighters is...alright (I haven't tried the second one yet). The story was made for people to easily follow and understand, so older people may find the story uninteresting and/or childish. Truthfully, I sort of found the story a little cute and it amused me (they had a few stuff in there definitely for laughs); but I mostly concentrated in finding more vivosaurs and leveling up the ones I had already.

However, I didn't think the story was something that dragged on or was unbearable. What I'm trying to say is, the game wasn't all about the story. I played more for the vivosaurs, and I went through the game fine, which is nice. But I guess even I found the animation for Fossil Fighters rather childish. For some reason, the animation sort of reminded me of Animal Crossing, although their animations don't really look alike. Well, the animation is hard for me to explain for Fossil Fighters, but let's just say if you're over 12-14 years old, you don't want to be seen in public with the game (unless you don't care).

Anyway, it seems most people have the same opinions as me (as I looked up most of my information from Wikipedia, and I came upon the "Reception" part of Fossil Fighters and found most opinions similar to mine). I'm glad I was able to have a widely thought opinion, so perhaps most people who know Fossil Fighters would look at my post and think, "Seems good." Hopefully (heh). Even though I do hope this, I also hope my information wasn't too repetitive and makes Fossil Fighters and any other games mentioned sound kind of interesting. Whatever the case, I hope people will enjoy gaming!

From here on, there may be spoilers for Fossil Fighters. The information before this was stuff I thought was alright in telling, so I didn't consider any of it to be too much of a spoiler. I hope this was so for most people. Whatever the case, if you have interest in Fossil Fighters, but do not like spoilers, please do not read ahead!

Alright, to continue on with some things I've said before, Fossil Fighters' story line had a chapter-based story line. Basically, it went in "chapters" and you had to do certain things in each chapter to continue on with the story, get more fossils, and unlock new areas. Also, you had to battle at least this one battle at the end (or near the end) of each chapter in order to get to the next chapter as well. Truthfully, what I found most interesting in these chapters was that "end battle," because it was always someone in the story who was important; but sometimes, the battle is with a character I never would've thought was a fossil fighter! I know I'm being a little kid-like in saying this, but I thought that was pretty cool.

As for the second game that seems to have come out, I have to say that I think it's a big improvement to the first game. The art I've seen so far can be acceptable for a more mature audience, and the story seems to have matured somewhat as well. It's still the same hero + sidekick and defeating the bad guys kind of deal, but something about it just seems promising and so I really want to get this game. Also, the new vivosaurs seem a lot cooler than the older ones, which is pretty nice. Maybe the creators of the game really did decide to get the attention of a more mature audience (so that's why I find this second game more interesting)?

Okay, now I have some more opinions in the game I just feel like spouting about. For one, I find it nice that we can get to be a female character in the new game. I don't know why, but I like to have my options in whether I want to be portrayed as a girl or a boy (or whatever other) in my little game worlds. Also, I think it would be nice if there was a third game that is even more mature than the other two games. I don't know, it's probably just me, but I would like that a lot.

Finally, I think this is all I have to say. Anyway, I guess this was sort of a review and stuff about Fossil Fighters, but I hope it wasn't too bad!

p.s. I have recently been really getting in to the Soul Calibur series. I have the Gamecube version of Soul Calibur 2, and I think the Playstation 2 version of Soul Calibur 3 (the only consoles I have are the consoles that didn't last long in the market: Gamecube and Playstation 2...I'm poor...). Just wanted to let the world know...that I'm a forever alone who likes Gamecube and Playstation 2 in this time of decade...

Will have slight spoilers for those who have never seen or read Katekyo Hitman Reborn or Hunter X Hunter. If you want to read or watch them in the future, but do not like spoilers, please do not read.

I am back to talk about, what a surprise, anime/manga. After a long fight with my thoughts, I've finally decided to go back to reading and watching Katekyo Hitman Reborn. It took me a while to come to my decision, which sounds dumb and weird. I mean, if I liked it, why was I so hesitant to going back on it? Most of the animes and mangas I think about going back to always had me hesitating in the first place, but I feel like I was especially hesitant with Katekyo Hitman Reborn. Ugh, I don't really know how to explain why I was so hesitant to go back on it. Maybe I'm always like this with long animes and mangas?

I sound like I'm talking about a drug...

Well, if there was one reason I was so against going back on the manga, I think it had something to do with the fan base. I mean, for some reason for Katekyo Hitman Reborn, the fans were absolutely brutal with pairings. You had to be in love with one, and you had to let everyone know and take it as far as you could. Truthfully, I wasn't really like that. I just enjoyed the amazing story produced by Amano Akira-sama. If anything, I was Amano Akira-sama's fan (and, well, a huge Chrome Dokuro fan too...).

Anyway, I kind of got turned away from the anime and manga, and got even more turned away from the slight dragging of the arc where Enma and his gang came in (I forgot what the Arc was called...I think it was "Inheritance" or something...). I was especially pissed (this is going to sound really weird) with how people thought Enma was cuter than Tsuna. Only Chrome Dokuro was cuter than Tsuna. Enma was cute, yeah, but he was not cuter than Tsuna. Especially not cuter than Chrome Dokuro. And I got even more pissed when Julie/Daemon let his claws wander on Chrome. How. Dare. He. One day, I'm going to draw Daemon and Julie and just scribble all over their faces and tear up the paper in to a million pieces...

Er, sorry about that morbid comment...I probably won't end up doing that since they're Amano Akira-sama's characters (not to mention I'm not good enough at drawing to make anything that looks even remotely like Daemon or Julie)...but I'm still pissed at them.

Long case short, I couldn't really handle the new arc and decided to just wait it out. And now, there's this new Arcobaleno Arc. I feel like what happened at the beginning of this whole shebang was that Amano Akira-sama was urged to make that Inheritance Arc, which she seemed to have been a bit iffy with. But after getting the arc done, she either was urged again to making another arc, or she just got stuck with Katekyo Hitman Reborn now. Poor Akira Amano-sama. But if she actually enjoys making these arcs, well, I'd be happy.

On a side note though, I don't think I'd ever dislike the Katekyo Hitman Reborn anime in any way. As I'm re-watching the anime now, I realize just how fun and awesome they made it. The manga is just as fun and awesome in its own way, but let's face it, the manga is pretty dang long. The anime is pretty long itself, but at least it's finished right now. I'm actually kind of excited in going on with the anime. For the manga, I'm more curious about what's happening, and excited to know what kind of stuff Amano Akira-sama decided to come up with.

And now, to talk a little bit about Hunter X Hunter. As I've said before, I think the end of it might be near. And I now believe Togashi Yoshihiro-sama might have cancer. I don't want to believe it, but I think he's sick again and I don't know what to do. It's not that I want him to finish Hunter X Hunter before he's gone (what a horrible thought), but I want him to get better. I wish Togashi Yoshihiro-sama can stay healthy, and that he will be alright. He's so amazing, and so thoughtful and insightful, I can't bear to think he could be in so much pain. I hope that pain will just go away, and I hope he can live the rest of his life peacefully. I may be thinking selfishly a bit, wanting so much for things to happen like this, but I still want to believe in this kind of possibility. With this, I'll wait and pray for him.

May Togashi Yoshihiro-sama feel better soon!!

Well, this is probably all I have for now. Looking back of this post, it looks a little bland, but I wrote out my thoughts and that's what I like doing. Until next time.