Girls Like to Kill Shadows Too!

When I bought my PSP two years ago, I was a bit late to the party. My reason for doing so was three games I desperately wanted to play. They were Valkyria Chronicles 2 (the first is still one of my favorite video games of all time), Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (which I never actually played through, whoops), and Persona 3 Portable. Persona 3, part of Atlus' Shin Megami Tensei series, was originally released on PS2 featuring a male protagonist. Persona's gameplay style is Japanese high school sim by day, deceptively intricate JRPG by night (literally). It's a mix between Tokimeki Memorial, Pokemon, and Final Fantasy X. What made Persona 3 Portable so appealing was that it was a remake from a girl's perspective. That means instead of being a broody teenage boy and spending my afternoons trying to get into Yukari's pants (a fade to black scene, don't get to excited hentai fans) I could go eat ramen with Akihiko and Junpei. And believe me, I stalked Akihiko at the risk of hanging my other social links out to dry. Let me back up for a second. Social links are your relationships that go through different phases, not dissimilar to the different heart colors in games like Harvest Moon. Higher social links grant significant gameplay perks, like faster leveling of Personas (a loose analog to Pokemon) and unlocking that Arcana's ultimate Persona. Each Persona belongs to one of the Arcana, which you may be familiar with if you've ever seen a set of Tarot cards. For example, Persona from the Lovers Arcana are mainly support based with numerous healing abilities and Yukari Takeba represents the Lovers social link. If none of this makes sense, don't worry, I'm getting to the sexy men. Just like in the original Persona 3 featuring a male protagonist, your Minako can make friends and more with her social links. However, the options are much more limited in P3P. Without spoiling too much, you only have two or three options when it comes to choosing your boyfriend. One option isn't a full length romance, another was taken out of the game at the last minute leaving you with only a friend option, and the other I can't even consider romantically. Nonetheless, my romance with Akihiko was satisfactory but left me wanting more from Atlus. I played Persona 3 and also played Persona 4 as a guy, and you can romance nearly every girl short of your eight year old cousin. Adorkable and sweetly sexy as Akihiko is, I want more. I want to play Persona 5 as a girl. So come on Atlus, give the people (aka me) what they want.

I found this picture on Google images so I don't have the actual artist to credit. If you do know who's responsible for this awesome fanart, please let me know! It may actually be Atlus' property, looks really professional and in line with the rest of the character art.

I'm Sorry! "ORZ

Blogs are born, they live, and they die. And mine died. Don't worry, I still love sexy pretty boys in all their high-resolution glory. Though I can't tell you the last time I've watched an anime; I've fallen prey to western media. My favorite games are now Mass Effect and Dragon Age and Supernatural makes me all fuzzy inside. My love for all things otome, however, hasn't diminished. We, the fangirls, must make ourselves known. So I am reviving this sad corpse of a blog and go all zombie on this mofo. More post are to come because I miss my own snarkiness and in the past three years I've found a LOT to talk about. Look forward to hearing me praise the spread of otome in the iOS scene, why Persona 5 needs to have a female lead, and when I first started to show the signs of fangirlism when I wrote a comic staring me and my boyfriend Ash Ketchum. Look forward to it! I promise not to take two years with the next post. And because a blog post without any pretty pictures is boring, I'll leave you with two random yaoi boys drawn by the talented AikaXx on deviantart.

http://aikaxx.deviantart.com/art/please-dont-touch-me-190409463

The Heart of Otome

Despite all the shoujo manga and cute bishonen floating around, there is one singular element that defines the otome genre: romance visual novels. The simple explanation is a "Choose Your Adventure" book with pretty men and lots more love love time. Really, it could be considered a multi-path, 'game' version of shoujo manga. Now, there are an excess of otome games in Japan. But naturally the games that are translated are very, very few. Even though there is always Hanako Games for English made, the only place I've seen to buy affordable translated visual novels is jlist/jbox. And then, there is one true otome game (YoJinBo) and two yaoi games. There have been some rumors of big names like Idea Factory or Otomate translating some of their games but I'm not going to get my hopes up. So, at the moment, I can only drool over the games I want to see brought over. I think the single game I want is Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan (or just Hakuouki). I'm already a total sucker for samurai but these men are just beautiful. All I can do now is cross my fingers that in this case Otomate will translate Hakuouki.

Vampire Knight... in America!

Art by http://sagakure.deviantart.com/

There are two things I love in anime: silver hair and twins. Needless to say, Vampire Knight and I are a match made in heaven. It was my very first manga and I have every volume to date. I watched the original anime a while back and liked it okay but not as much as the manga. In case you didn’t know, the first dubbed DVD came out yesterday. I plan on buying it soon but I wanted to see (rather, hear) how the voices came out. I won’t link it, but there are some episodes ripped from the DVD floating around the internets. I watched a little of the first episode (for educational purposes early, I swear!) and I felt the need to rant.

Let me start off with Yuki. I pictured her sounding like Haruhi Suzumiya for some reason. I guess I’m not the only one because Yuki’s voice resembles Haruhi’s, but more annoying. Fun fact, Wendee Lee voices Haruhi and Mela Lee voices Yuki (I don’t think there is a relation). Her voice is pretty good but who cares, she’s just the vessel fangirls use to insert themselves in the story, myself included. So is the curse of brunette heroines.

The next character is Aido, voiced by Bryce Papenbrook. The choice was genius! My favorite line: “Bang~”. Truth be told he sounds just like Vic Mignogna. When I saw the cast list that is who I thought was dubbing Aido but NOOOOOO *sulk*. Don’t worry, I’ll get to Zero soon enough. In the same token is Kain/Troy Baker appears. I have a major crush on Troy. He’s so sexy... oh and he’s talented too *sweatdrop*. He voiced Snow from FFXIII too, which is quite a jump. My point being: Idol and Wild get an A+!

Now for Kaname. Oh Kaname. Let me start of saying I like Ethan Murray. The only other anime I’ve seen him in was Gankutsuou. I know he is a very good voice actor underneath it all. He voiced Franz D’Epinay in Gankutsuou and I had the same reaction to his voice then as I do now. When I first heard him as Franz I thought “Oh my god this guy sounds like a robot. He can’t voice for sh*t!”. As the series went on his voice grew on me and he did some amazing work in the series. It’s my opinion that he over-thinks things in the beginning but, once he gets more comfortable with the character it comes naturally. I’ll hold out for you, Ethan Murray. Even though, deep in my heart, I wish Crispin Freeman was voicing Kaname (even if Kaname is supposed to be high school age).

Lastly, what we’ve all been waiting anxiously for (for many reasons): Zero. I’m relieved. My reaction was “Wow, he really didn’t do that bad!”. I love Vic, but I just couldn’t envision him as Zero. My Zero sounds like, I dunno, Johnny Yong Bosch or Yuri Lowenthall. Vic does well, but I haven’t seen too many parts when he fits emo Zero. The normal Zero though, he works just fine.

On an ending note, I’m not too angry about the dub. I’m also not ecstatic either. I can only hope everything comes together in later episodes. Side note: Headmaster Cross rocks! I wish he would be a bit more zany though...

Final Fantasy XIII: A 'Hopeless' Situation

Anyone that calls themselves a JRPG fan probably has played Final Fantasy XIII. If you haven’t and intend to, here’s a spoiler alert. Also, the adorable fanart was done by http://jiin-chan.deviantart.com/.

First off, I adore Final Fantasy XIII. This is the first FF game that I’ve anticipated (I’ve been an Nintendo fangirl since 2002 and only got my PS2 in 2008) and I think it’s amazing. I’d played FF X and XII before but didn’t care for them too much, i.e I failed miserably most of the time. Only now that I’m almost done with FFXIII am I playing VII which is apparently the holy grail of video games. Most of you probably know the reasons FFXIII is criticized since it is a departure from the series. It’s too linear, there aren’t any towns to explore, the difficulty level is pretty measly, ect. All of those are valid reasons. I think there is one other reason why some players can’t completely love FFXIII. Hope Estheim. It seems that he just annoys the living sh*t out of most players. And yeah, I can understand that. But he’s just so... CUTE! He’s so sensitive and naive, you just want to hug him! Stupid Vanille got to do it, and I’m ninety percent sure she is a lesbian. Anyway, I think his character was made specially for the fangirls. Yes, he's an emo kid in the beginning then gets all happy and preachy but hey, he's cuddly.

Internal Conflict ~meganes~

http://arielucia.deviantart.com/

Meganes, or glasses characters, seem to be wildly popular. I can see the appeal. The guys are usually pretentious bookworms or have a sort of senior appeal to them. Meganes come in a wide variety; some cross into shota territory and others have a certain asshole quality that is mysteriously appealing. I can definitely appreciate meganes, certainly. See, I find this picture cute (I prefer the guy on the left). However, I feel a little left out. When I play an otome game, the glasses character is normally the last guy I go for. The only exception is if the megane is also A) a tsundere or B) the bishonen with long hair. Nine times out of ten meganes seem either too pompous or too nerdy. Instead of just letting sleeping dogs lie I'm issuing a challenge. I'm asking you to find pictures of meganes that may change my mind. Better yet, characters with glasses. Comment with a link or suggestion and I'll see if meganes will receive the Sarah seal of approval!

Harvest Moon is sometimes too realistic :(

Sexy fanart of Vaughn by http://supermellowoman.deviantart.com/

Everyone knows a first impression can make or break a relationship. This is true of not only people but everything we encounter in life. My first forte in otome games was Harvest Moon. I bought Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life when I was in fifth grade. I believe my first crush on a non-living being was Cliff (More Friends of Mineral Town). Harvest Moon and I have shared a complex relationship ever since. I must admit, I kinda suck at video games. For people like me, there are walkthroughs. If you’ve ever played a Harvest Moon game you know the name Freyashawk. She is an angel sent from heaven (or the just the Harvest Goddess) for us less adept players. My current DS affliction is Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands. I am currently in year four and married to Vaughnie-poo. He kicks all the other HM bachelors’ asses, sorry Cliff. He’s a silver haired tsundere. Oh yeah, and he wears a cowboy hat. Before I gush too much I need to warn you. Vaughn and I... we’ve been having some marital problems recently. Despite talking to him daily and his heart being full red, I’ve been feeling like there was something missing. Exhibit A: Vaughn’s birthday. According to Freya’s guide, I should enter my farmhouse after six p.m to trigger an event with my hubby. I enter, nothing happens. Thinking I screwed up earlier by giving Vaughn a birthday gift, I restart from the beginning of that day. By the way, Vaughn’s birthday was on the first day of Spring when Chen’s shop was open. That means I resowed all of my seeds all for an event where, I’m sure, Vaughn might have two lines of text. This isn’t called “commitment”, it’s called “stupidity”. By the way, I never got an event with Vaughn. I pouted for a while but soon forgot. Then came Spring Harmony Day. I did my business and entered my house around 6:30 pm. Shockingly, Vaughn didn’t acknowledge the occasion. I even checked the fridge to see if some cookies mysteriously showed up. No dice. I finally gave up and went to my bed. And, lo and behold, I got some text from Vaughn. When I woke up, I immediately checked my rucksack. Cookies. Vaughn has redeemed himself and we won’t have to attend marriage counseling with Dr. Trent.