Ten Things You'll Love about Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu

10. The [Life-threatening] Romance

Ah love... You could just imagine dating a girl who carries a stun gun around so that she could (forcefully) watch a lengthy movie with you. A cute, intelligent girl who's so possessive that she'd poke your eyes out when you're staring at other girls. Beautiful. Just beautiful.

9. Sudden Cameo Appearances

Keep your eyes peeled for the hidden Miku...

8. Himeji's Poison Cooking!

They may look good, but Himeji's home made recipes are the perfect excuse for mercy killing. Unfortunately, she loves cooking and she offers food for everyone to eat. Good luck with that, peeps.

7. Voyeur's nosebleeds

He's losing blood because of his stupid hormones and he doesn't seem to mind it. Cool.

6. Wrestling Scenes

Minami gets offended easily, and she happens to be really boyish and aggressive so if you're willing to talk in front of her. Say. Something. Intelligent. Otherwise, she'll wrestle you like hell. Poor Yoshii... He's so idiotic that he gets bamboozled all the time.

5. Summoned Beings 

                                        

They're so cute and cuddly and admit it, you want one too. 

4. The Challenges

Probably what makes Baka to Test so unique. When battles are happening, there's nothing but strategy, scores, wits and more strategy. When one class beats the other, they get to switch facilities. How cool could school get? Wait.... there's more! They get to summon cute little creatures called "Beings".  Adorable! 

3. Voyeur

He's as awesome as he's a pervert. The guy's not like other perverts out there. This one's all-out! He's one of characters to look forward to.

2. The Idiocy

There's a lot of stupidity in this show so if you're one smart-ass, you'd better hang on to your common sense because it just might run off.

1. Kinoshita Hideyoshi

Spell Trap. H-I-D-E-Y-O-S-H-I.
Girl or guy? You decide.

My thoughts on Puella Magi Madoka Magica

I finally found time to watch Puella Magi: Madoka Magica at around April 2011, and I was so glued to the series that I finished it in one sitting. The art style is unique, the plot is very intricate and compared to other animes with a magical girl theme, this one actually has an incredibly dark feel that would keep you on the edge of your seat.

Imagine yourself in a situation wherein you'll have your greatest wish granted whilst having to risk your life in exchange. Unlike many magical girl series, the characters of Puella Magi: Madoka Magica have greater burdens laid on their shoulders. They'll have to remove these burdens by battling witches and competing with other magical girls for power. That's what I absolutely love about this anime. It's so easy to tell apart from the others. It's not too cutesy and best of all, it has a set of memorable characters.

The main character, Madoka, isn't your typical magical girl. She doesn't seem to be a willful character, but she does look like she's living a fulfilling life. What I love about her is that she doesn't make tough decisions on her own. She's also friendly, albeit not equivocal.

Madoka aside, there's the incredibly authoritative and intimidating Homura. She seems to be Kyubey's rival despite being a magical girl under his jurisdiction. She has her own reasons for being "rebellious", but you'll have to find out what those reasons are by yourself. I really love her since she's really witty and she fights for what she thinks is right. I won't explain  further since I don't want to spoil the series for you [if you haven't watched it yet.].

Finally, there's Tomoe Mami, who happens to be my favorite character. She seems strong and outgoing. She also delivers quite a performance when fighting.

 What captures the viewers is the curiosity that's subconsciously formulating while they're watching each episode. Every single one is like a jack-in-the-box. Every turn means there's a surprise ahead. You'll never know what to expect. More facts are revealed as the story progresses. That's probably how I finished the series in one go too.

If you're looking for something familiar yet somewhat different, I heavily recommend this anime to you.

Touhou Project: Why you so Prolific?

Touhou Project

Every Otaku should know the popular, doujin game series entitled Touhou Project. Since the first installment's release [which dates way back into the 90's], the game has garnered fans from all over the globe. It's one-man developer [Team Shanghai Alice] probably expected that the game would spawn more of its kind and could eventually gain a huge fan base  The sudden "Guinness World Record" award may have been shocking for him, though. 

Moving on. With over 120 playable female characters to choose from, there's no telling when your gaming experience would end. And if you get tired of two-dimensional installments, there's always the 3-dimensional versions to look forward to. Touhou Kobuto and DynaMarisa are two 3D touhou-based games created by different developers as a tribute to Touhou Project as a whole. A doujin doujin game...?

 

So... There are lots of girls in this game... The target audience must be female...

NO. Touhou is for EVERYONE. The main reason why there are lots of girls is for the sake of... I don't know. Loveable... Adorable... Cuteness? Moe? Fan Service? Probably all of the above but the reason still hasn't been clearly stated. There IS one male character and his name is Rinnosuke. Poor guy. Probably gets beaten up everyday by the rest of the girls. 

It's a 2-D game... It should've been outdated years ago.

We know. But Touhou exists for that very reason. Think of it as reliving the good old days when you would waste your time watching a heavily pixelated Super Mario. Other than that, Touhou is fun. And like I stated earlier, touhou-based 3-D games exist, so if you get bored of 2-D, you could easily go 3-D. 

It has an anime... but the anime seems to have only one episode with no dubs.

That's Touhou: Memories of Phantasm/ Fantasy Kaleidoscope. It's a doujin anime. And it already has dubs. One girl worked incredibly hard to dub every character in that episode. See how far fans would go just to see their favorite characters in an anime series? They're so dedicated that it's bringing me to tears!

What's this shadow art thingy? It's--

That's Bad Apple -- the infamous touhou music video! One look at it makes it seem almost like the shadows of real people. Touhou fans are so creative ♥. The unlimited rain of fan-made artworks and videos dedicated to touhou is what's helping the touhou fanbase grow and grow and grow and grow...

What are these? Yukkuri--

Yukkuris are a different species themselves. Almost every touhou character has a yukkuri version of themselves. Stay away from Alice though... There's no telling what she could do.

The Problem with the Philippine Gaming Society

About three years ago, Level Up Games franchised the two-dimensional side-scrolling game entitled Grand Chase. A few months later, this game became my entrance to the Philippine Gaming community... Back then, I had an astounding lack of gaming skills, but the players were friendly and very inviting so it boosted my hunger for games a little bit more. I only decided to quit when Grand Chase was on its second season, right before a new character [Amy] was released.

Fast forward to three years later, I returned to the GC community [now on it's chaos...season?], using a new account. Sad to say, the scene before me was an eyesore. The number of rude players had increased dramatically and the park (a place which used to be my haven) became a headquarter for trash-talkers. Malicious comments were pointed towards Game Masters and newbie players alike. It wasn't surprising though... This scene isn't uncommon in the Philippine Gaming Community nowadays.

I'm exceptionally worried that the Filipino Gamers' habit of resorting to vulgarity online is giving everyone in the Philippines a bad reputation. And if cursing online isn't enough, they also do it offline in cyber cafes where tons of users flood to every hour. It's a relief to think that I have a computer at home -- away from those morons and their tongue-lashes.

Now, back to the topic of "online vulgarity".

Dragon Nest's South-East Asian server is probably the most recent in the franchise. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. The game is flooding with Filipinos. And even though the Indonesian players are the occasional spammers, the Filipinos are the "swearers". They curse when they feel like it (which means they curse almost every time, using the language of their choice -- English, Filipino, Japanese, Swahili, you name it). It might probably be due to the fact that some foreign players don't understand what's being posted in the chat box and the Filipinos are using this incomprehension to their advantage. Kind of like an underestimation, and it's wrong in many ways.

In a random forum, some refined Filipino gamers are debating on whether a gaming company would franchise Elsword Online -- a game which topped the charts a year ago. I experienced playing this game myself, using a proxy! The game was awesome. And if the NA server was good enough (to state the obvious, some of the players curse a lot but they're willing to help out the "noobs"), the Korean server is even better. If the game were to be brought to the Philippines, it would be flooded with trash talkers and cheaters with lowly acclaimed "pro" reputations. Bringing the game to the Philippines would ruin everything -- especially the gaming experience.

Consider these: the Korean Gaming Community puts our own to shame because of their polite players and their strict rules. If a Filipino gamer acts like an uneducated brat while playing International games, he/she is actually giving the Philippines a bad reputation. A game is a game, there's nothing to boast about even if you have godlike gaming skills. If the Filipino Gamers continue to act like drunkards online, it might not be worth it for gaming companies to continue franchising newer, better games.

This post might not even change a thing in the Philippine Gaming Community. Somewhere out there, a Filipino gamer is doing something stupid, and there's no one ready to stop him.