Roma is a mysterious girl that is on a mission to collect “human greed” through the use of various magical objects that have unique powers. When humans use these magical items to satisfy their own personal emotions, such as love, their greed level increases and Roma is able to steal their excess greed.

The people that use Roma’s objects seem to always let their greed destroy themselves, putting themselves in a worse situation than before. 

Kenn's Comment: This one is pretty interesting. Human vices are one of the most important things in this one. Driven by desires, humans use the items that Roma gives to them - magical items that help them achieve their immediate desires. It almost always ends badly, with badly not being that bad. Often, the 'bad end' is good end. Most of the focus characters are blinded by desire and often need a sobering slap of reality, in this case, the traveling magic peddler Roma.

If the series took a darker route, Roma would be a demon who exchanges magical items for human souls. It'd kind of be like Faust in a way.

Anywho, each chapter pretty much standalone, with Roma being the only permanent character. It's a pretty good read and the art is superb.

I don't know how many of these I'll be doing, but I really like this series, so I'm doing one on this at least.





The OP really fits the series well. It's cheery, bouncy and just a whole lot of fun. It's one of the reasons this one is probably one of my favourites of the season. It's consistently great week to week and it really never gets old. Characters really drive this series and it's the characters that make this one shine so brilliantly.


Mayoi and Sakaki drive much of the comedy, and much of the resulting humour comes from whatever they had coming for them. Pictured is how the little things really make this one special: earlier in the series, Mayoi gets clobbered into the wall. In a more recent episode, she once again gets clobbered, resulting her getting stuck in the wall, right beside where she got sent face first earlier. CONTINUITY!!

Like I said, Sakaki and Mayoi are the prime sources of humour. They're really fun characters to begin with and combined with the slapstick comedy that's almost exclusively featuring them on the receiving end, you've got a winning formula. It's a tried method, but this one does it exceptionally well.

There's also Hime. She's equally as fun as Mayoi or Sakaki, but she's fun in a very different way. You could say she's the moe-airhead. Prone to hilarious failures and gushing nosebleeds in the presence of anything adorable, she's one of the characters that you watch more than you listen to. She's in the 'normal' camp for the series, and has some of the best reaction faces. The title picture is also her. Forgot which episode that's from though.


 The series is also ridiculously cute. Like ridiculous with a capitol Z. Make sense? I know. Tsumiki more or less leads the pack for adorableness. All of her reactions and actions when she's around Io easily make her the one most moe character of the series.


The romance really is great too. It's never sappy or heavy, but it's pretty obvious who the main couple is. It's not one of the rom-coms where you'll wonder when they'll get together. They (probaby) aren't together (yet), but they're pretty much the main and only pairing in the series, making them seem like a couple no matter how you look at it. It's even mentioned to be like that in some of the dialogue.



All in all, my favourite series of this season. It's great combination of great comedy, ridiculous adorableness, and cute romance make this a series that I wait for every week.

I've watched some of the episodes more than once, and that's really saying something. I usually can't watch an episode more than once within the season that it airs. I retain a lot of the happenings of the episode and I find it hard to watch something when I know what's going to happen. It's one of the reasons why I really dislike when things use cliches without altering or subverting them. Sometimes they're used well, but I often encounter pretty bad ones.

Anywho, thanks for reading. I'll see what I'll put up next! Gotta catch up on some of my anime too.

Finally a song with a title I can read!


Also, to make up for the Song of the Week I didn't do yesterday, here's another one.

I'll probably end up putting the Song of the Week up later though.






Title: アイロニ, Irony
Producer: すごっぷ
Art: はるはる
Genre: Pop
Vocaloid: 初音ミクSOFT

Kenn's Comment: I rather like this one. I admit that Miku doesn't sound as good as she does in the second one, but this I liken towards more of an acoustic sounding song. I'm rather fond of the general sound of the song. The hook is really quite nice, and the verses sounds pretty good too. The PV is wonderfully animated. Also, that damned bird. Don't you just want to give the girl a big hug?



Title: エンパス１４４, Empath 144
Producer: ゆうゆP
Art/PV:なぎみそ
Genre: Power Pop
Vocaloid: 初音ミク

Kenn's Comment: What that title means, I'm not entirely sure. Anywho, it's an awesome song. Quite a bit different from Irony above, but a great song nonetheless. The PV's pretty darn cool too. Can't find much to say about this one other than it's pretty cool and it's a good song. Hm.

Tatsumi is a fighter who just got robbed by a pretty girl, but his luck seems to be looking up, as another pretty girl has taken him in. What he doesn’t know is that this girl is about to be visited by a family of assassins (including the girl who robbed him) and they might be the good guys, and be recruiting... 

Kenn's Comment: The series as a whole presents are rather bleak world setting. Between the crime ridden cities and the corrupt government, there really isn't much of a worse condition you could find for a world. A sudden epidemic and maybe a massive war with a neighbouring super power would pretty much make the land a living hell.

Anywho, it's an interesting series. Night Raid reminds me a lot of something...but I can't remember exactly what. They're pretty much anti-government Vigilantes. Not quite anarchists, but they do certainly have a fair bit of...resentment towards the current rulers.

One thing that I'm liking about the series is that everybody has a teiga, or a cursed weapon. For those who watched the recent 境界線上のホライゾン (Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere), they're like the MSA's..though they come with a bit more...unwanted baggage, shall I say. Back on topic, main character does amazingly well for being one of the only major characters to not have a teiga. Strong main characters (from the get-go) have always been a strong drawing point for me (mainly due to tiring of long training arcs after every loss).

I'll list a few cons now. Though it runs along side series like Yandere Kanojo, Inu x Boku SS and Prunus Girl, it does feature a hell of a lot of violence, blood and a little bit of gore. There's also a good chunk of torture, from your general chains and cages to some pretty brutal stuff. It's not that bad, but I know that not every one is quite as desensitized as I am. Another point I'd like to make is that the author isn't afraid of treating his characters like paper. I'm just going to say now, if you do decide on starting this, don't get too attached to characters that don't appear regularly.

All in all, I'd say it makes a decent read. Not ground breaking or super "omg you have to read this", but it's enjoyable if you can stomach it.

The PV is pretty cool. I kind of like ones like this over the animated ones.




Title: Magician's Operation
Producer: EZFG
Genre: Electronic
Vocaloid: 巡音ルカ

Kenn's Comment: I'd have to say that the PV is probably what really struck me the most. Then how similar it kind of sounds to a song that might be made by AVTechNO!.

It's a great song and sounds awesome. That and it's not 30 seconds long. It's as much about Luka's vocals as it the electronic track. I'm usually a stickler for having the voice not be up against a lot of competition from the track itself, but there are exceptions. Electronic-oriented songs have that as a trait of the style. When you have the same thing, but in a rock or pop song, things are quite a bit different. It's like a live show where the vocalist doesn't have a mic, while the rest of the band has amps and whatnot.

Wonder if people who make the PVs for these Vocaloid videos can use them in a porfolio. Some of them are really, really good. The more creative ones would look good in a portfolio, and so would the really well animated ones. Talented people.

I wouldn't be surprised if the last time I posted one of these was last year.


Top Picture: the pear blossoms in my front yard. Photo was taken probably mid to late April, just as they started to open up. My family's always had a pear tree at our house, but these flowers are always really quite beautiful.


Even earlier than April, I took this shot. If you look carefully, there's a little bird in the branches of the tree. It's a common bird, almost a constant sight in the city. Can't tell because of how poor the image quality is, but I'm almost certain it's a Black Capped Chickadee.


I also recently dug up some of the Instruction Manuals to my old GBA games. I kind of wish that GBA games came in a reusable case instead of those cardboard boxes. Probably would've been easier to keep track of them as time went on. Pictured here are some of my favourite games back when I played the crap out of this portable console. Bottom left, Blender Bros. was probably one of the first games I had on the GBA.



It was an interesting game. More or less your typical platformer (think Metroid). What makes it memorable are the multitude of 'Mini Bros', little creatures that each have their own specific abilities when equipped. Another thing that really sticks out to me was that the Mini Bros evolved by listening to different genres of music. I believe it was Rock, Reggae, Classical...and a few other things. It was a fun game while it lasted.


Pretty much my favourite games. Not pictured are Golden Sun: The Lost Age, Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced, Super Puzzle Fighter and Pokemon Ruby. I played the crap out of these games (except for Blender Bros.) The two Fire Emblems were beaten multiple times. I've featured the Golden Sun series a while back when I picked up the third game in the series, Dark Dawn on the DS. Fun times. I freaking love Golden Sun. I also freaking loved Sword of Mana. A remake of the Game Boy, Legend of Mana. The gameplay was great, similar to Zelda, which I also loved, but it had a story that was really good. It didn't have the typical 'and they lived happily ever after' ending that I was so used to.


Perhaps one of the most important games of my GBA days is this: Robotech. This game essentially got me interested in the Macross franchise. After playing the game, I looked up the series (my cousin said it had a TV series back in the day), and sure enough, I found stuff about it. The more I read, however, the more curious I became of what Robotech was, and how it was related to the Japanese Macross. It'd be another few years before I learned of what Macross was and another few years before I had my first taste of the original Macross, in the form of Do You Remember Love?.

Anywho, the game was hard as balls. Or at least it was to me. I'm pretty bad at side scrolling bullet hell games (like Darius). It came with Max's valkyrie as a little bonus. Would've thought they'd have Hikaru's valkyrie. The story didn't make much sense to me when I played it. It was pretty choppy, and was about as cohesive as a 3rd grade essay.


I don't think I've put up a picture of this yet. Dug out my old Pokedex. Got it back when Pokemon was absolutely massive. Can't say it did me much good though. It's essentially a glorified calculator with the names and images of the 150 Pokemon stored on it. If it was to be released today, good freaking lord it'd be amazing. It'd be in 3D, and would give you all the information you need to know about a pokemon: it's weaknesses and where to find it. Heck, throw AR in just for fun, and tie it into the card game!


On to more recent happenings, this be what I got my girlfriend for her birthday. Soundtracks to her two favourite book (and later movie) series, plus a little extra geekiness from me. It's a great and hilarious read though. You can read more of Beaton's comics at her site, "Hark a Vagrant!".


And on to yet even more recent news. The first reading for my summer semester English course is the highly acclaimed A Game of You, the fifth story in the Sandman series. I have to say, I was most amused to see a graphic novel on the reading list for a course like this. My friend at another institution has The Watchmen on his reading list. Good times.

That's all I've got for now. I'll be back for sure on Tuesday. I'll be updating on what games I'm playing, trying to finish and what I'm not playing. And I can tell you that Diablo 3 is on the 'not playing' list.

I didn't have a song prepared for today, so I'm falling back to good ol' Toby!






Title: Dramatic Song
Artist: Toby Turner (Tobuscus)
Genre: Comedy
Single: N/A
Album: N/A
Vintage: 08/05/12 ddmmyy

Kenn's Comment: This song is surprisingly good and quite catchy. If you don't speak English, well, let's just say you'd be have an awfully hard time reading this.

Jokes aside, he does a good job in making it a dramatic sounding song. I've been following Toby on YouTube for quite some time now, and I more or less relate him to light hearted comedy. It'd be hard for me to picture him doing something actually serious.

I realize I haven't really said anything about the song. What more can I say? It's freaking brilliant.

Sakura Ichiko is a 16-year-old girl who leads a charmed life and is blessed with beauty, brains, and health. She has an abundance of “Happiness Energy”, which can make people happy, but at the cost of absorbing all the “Happiness Energy” from her surroundings. She has caused the energy balance of the world to become unbalanced and because of this, she becomes the target of a Poverty God named Momiji. Momiji's goal is to remove Ichiko’s power of absorbing other people’s Happiness Energy and to return all the energy she has taken to its rightful place. 

Kenn's Comment: An awesome series that deserves every bit of the praise that it gets. It's a really great series, with gags and references very reminiscent of Gintama. Character development is great in this one too. All the characters are a bit broken in their own ways, and go about making up for their lackings in, often, hilarious ways. The comedy is always there, but it never cuts into the drama like it does all too often in Hayate no Gotoku!, where comedy often interrupts serious scenes to loosen the atmosphere. In this one, drama is played out before the comedy comes in, or has a little comic quip stuck in, maintaining the drama, but throwing in a little chuckle here and there.

The art is great. Expressions are quite varied, and when Sukeno does a reference/parody scene, they're always spot on.

All in all, a great, great read. Action isn't a huge part of the series, comedy is almost always there, and the drama always really well done. Great series. Really looking forward to the anime in the Spring. Go go!

The song is about 30 seconds long....which greatly upsets me.






Title: 天堕-序章-, Not sure how to read the first part, second I'm pretty sure means 'Prologue'
Producer: 乙P
Genre: Pop
Vocaloid: IA

Kenn's Comment: Given that 'Prologue' is in the title, I'm really hoping this is just a teaser for a full length song that'll come out in the future. It's so freaking good! IA's voice in this one is just so well done and the PV too! It looks like it's the trailer for an upcoming game or something. Song definitely is reminiscent of something of that sort.

If a full song does come out, I'll put it up and try to link it back to this one.

This week we head head (once again) back into Korean webcomic territory.


Title: 소녀 the Wild's, 소녀더와일즈, Girls of the Wild's
Author (story): HUN
Art: Zhena
Genre: Shounen, Action, Comedy, Drama, Romance
Serialized in: NAVER
Total Volume Count: N/A (38 chapters)

Series Summary from MangaUpdates:

Wilds high, it has a history of 42 years as a fighting specialist all girls private highschool meant solely for the elite. The place Wilds-League is held, the most popular event in the country, the only place in the world where teenage girls have brutal fights with their lives.

This year has been changed into a mixed gender school. The only male student- Song Jae Gu, has been granted a full 3-year scholarship regardless of grades. Being someone who had to spend every moment working or taking care of his two younger brothers, he accepted.

However, the scholarship was granted with the sole condition he does not leave. But after meeting Queen, the bloody champion of Wild's-League, drenching her in coffee, calling her a "Monster" and getting caught while she was taking a shower... that could prove fatal.

Kenn's Comment: I've been on and off with this one, but I'm looking forward to see how Jae Gu shapes up in his first brawl.

Anywho, the art (Zhena has Pet Diary, Nineteen, Twenty One, and Telling Through The Colours under her belt) is great. And, like most of these Korean webcomics, it's in glorious full colour!

and the story...well the character dynamics are great. The Queen's tsun-tsun moments are always great, though they're often so sparse that they almost feel forced. Though if you look closely, you'll see that she does have a lot more of these reactions...most of them aren't quite as pronounced. Boxer Girl Moon Young and Dal Dal are great too. The...often friendly dynamic between the two of them is always fun to watch.

Title: セツナトリップ, Setsuna torippu, Moment Trip
Producer: Last Note
PV: こみね
Illust.: のん
Genre: Pop
Vocaloid: GUMI power

Kenn's Comment: It feels like forever since I did one of these.

GUMI's tuning in this one is magnificent. She sounds so very human. The song also has a very distinctly Japanese sound to it, though not quite as pronounced as say, 千本桜, but it's there nonetheless.

The PV swings between colourful, energetic scenes with the lyrics, and more toned down scenes that are usually background-less.

All in all, it's a great, fast piece with near godly tuning with GUMI Power. The guitar and bass are great too.

Title: The House That Heaven Built
Artist: Japandroids
Genre: Rock
Single: The House That Heaven Built
Album: Celebration Rock

Kenn's Comment: Awesome band that I just found out about, despite them being from my hometown. It's a bit of a shame that they're not signed to a local record company, but at least they're still around! It's a rather high energy song, even if it's not a rapidly progressing song. Just sounds like energy. Great song to listen to to pick up your day.

The awesome thing is that the band is a duo, and it doesn't look like they ever have any extra personnel with them (aside from technicians), so it looks like everything you hear is from the two of them.

Celebration Rock drops on June 5th!  Preorder links in YouTube video description!