MEDAMONTH:Giant Robo(Anime)

 Hello and welcome to the final review for MEDAMONTH! 

As many of you might already have figured out, I'm a big fan of robots and AIs, especially those that are of human size and/or constantly interact with humans. However, that does not mean I don't enjoy my share of giant robots. Cue today's subject, an early 90's OVA by the name of Giant Robo. What is this about? Well exactly what it says on the tin...well sort of.

Giant Robo is a seven episode OVA that came out in the early 90's. It revolves arround a young boy, Daisuke, who can control Giant Robo, the world's strongest robot and a memento from his father. Daisuke works alongside the Experts of Justice, who are a force that fight against Big Fire, a terrorist organization hell bent on world domination. So as one can see, the anime is very, and I mean VERY 90's like. If you like older anime, you will love Giant Robo as it contains literally everything that there is to love about older anime. Giant robots? Check. People of various nationalities with stereotypical powers? Check. Evil organization with no clear goals? Check.  Cheesy dub moments? Check. Fan service? Well actually, that one isn't really all that present, honestly. Anyways, the anime itself manages to be quite entertaining with a great dub as well as fantastic animation  and music that will leave you on the edge of your seat during battles. Sadly though, most of these battles won't involve the "promised" giant robots. In fact, even though you are presented many giant robots during the opening, very few robots appear in the anime, with most of them only appearing for a good three minutes at most. However, considering the story takes place during an energy crisis, it's understandable that people wouldn't send their very energy consuming robots out for battle unless they really needed the extra power.

Speaking of the anime's story, it's quite good, though you will be yelling at the screen near the end because of all the cliff hangers. Many events are set into motion near the end of the anime and are never given any time to even start. It's a shame to see the story just stop when it did, especially when most of the characters and events near the end feel like they where just pulled out of nowhere.

Seriously, who are these guys?

Another thing to mention about the story is just how dark it is. If you're going into this expecting a "12 year old saves the day" type show, well you are in for a heck of a mood whiplash. Yes, the 12 year old Daisuke is a key player in the events that save the day, however, many of the characters he interacts with will not see him save the day. The story starts off with a very light hearted feel, which is reflected with it's art being light and colorful and with allot of the events of the first episode taking place during the day time. However, as the OVA continues, the story takes a turn for the darker. People die, there is constant fighting, people want to kill each other and quite a few more dark twists rise up and are even reflected with the animation's colors becoming darker and more gritty, as well as most events now taking place during the night or under a dark, cloudy sky. Many of the characters add to this darker side of the anime as well, having very heavy back stories of having lived in what can only be described as a post apocalyptic world. Needless to say, the story is not all daisies, rainbows and unicorns. In fact, it's the complete opposite and it does said job quite well. However, there is one major issue I have with the story: It's slow. The anime is composed of seven 45 minute episodes which felt like they where dragging along a way too much. I would often check how much time had passed and how much was left since it felt like it was just going on forever. It's a thing I tend to dislike in general and it doesn't help when you have an early episode which contains a 10-15 minute clip show of the events of the previous episode.

Overall, Giant Robo was a good show that contains everything that's great about 90's anime. The dub is great, the animation is fantastic and the plot will keep you interested throughout the OVA. However, the slow story, as well as the mess of cliff hangers and plot holes it leaves, can easily leave you frustrated as to how boring and incomplete the anime feels at times. Still, if you like older anime or are into the giant mecha genre, the ova is a must watch, if not a must have.
 Final Verdict: 7/10
Pros:
+Good story, interesting characters.
+The animation is amazing.
+The dub is great, both for the good and for the bad bits.
Cons:
-The show feels really really slow.
-TOO MANY CLIFF HANGERS AND PLOT HOLES!
-Too many characters are introduced at the very last minute.    

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MEDAMONTH: Analogue: A Hate Story(PC)

Hello everyone, an welcome once again to MEDAMONTH!!!!!!!!

Today, I will look into a game that I found on steam called "Analogue: A hate story". Seeing as it's the first visual novel on the steam store, I got curious and got it while it was on sale.The game proved to be quite interesting from start to finish  not to mention unique in it's own special way. Now then, let's dig in too the world that is "Analogue: A hate story".

*Hyun-ae, one of the AIs you talk with.

Now before I start, I would just like to apologize for how small this article is. Truth is, the game is very easy to spoil, to a point where I can't even talk about many interesting aspects about it. The story takes place in a unknown future where space travel has existed for the longest of times. You, the player, have been asked to retrieve data from an abandoned ship which has been detected floating in space. Upon arrival, you are greeted by an AI which will be one of the two characters you interact with for the whole game. These two AIs, as well as the logs left by the people on the ship, will help you piece together what happened, as well as what society was like more than half a millennial ago. Overall, the story shines throughout the whole game and helps make up for the "lack of game play" common in visual novels. Not only that, the story is told in a completely different style, using notes and logs from the people who lived on the chip and letting you assemble each piece of the puzzle together until you find out the truth.

Expecting some tsun?

Although the art style and achievements can be seen as vibrant, funny and bright, the game itself is very dark in tone, thus reminding you that it is quite literally "a hate story" and that it will not end happily, least, in the logs. The music even adds to the unsettling atmosphere brought with the game, helping accentuate the moments that are more dramatic by either playing darker music or no music at all.

Sadly, this is really all I can say about the game without going into spoiler territory. I really wanted to add more, but if I do, I will be spoiling so much of the game that it will be ruined for whoever wants to play it. I highly recommend looking into the game as it offers a unique view on society and it's a good work to reflect on once you're done playing through it.

Final Verdict: 8/10
Pros:
+Character designs are really nice.
+Great Story that is presented in a unique fashion.
+Interesting views on society.
Cons:
-The gameplay,or lack there of, could use some polish.
-The command line interface you use throughout the game is very clunky.

MEDAMONTH: Megpoid the Music#(PSP Game/Music)

Welcome to the continuation of the still not famous MEDAMONTH!

This week, I will be reviewing a game which finally shines the spotlight onto one of my favorite characters: GUMI! GUMI is a Vocaloid created by INTERNET Co.,ltd and is one of the mascots of the "Megpoid" voicebank, leading many to call her a Megpoid rather than a Vocaloid. Although originally unpopular, she quickly grew in internet fandom and came to have a really big internet fanbase.  On March 28th 2013, a game based on the "Project Diva" series was released with GUMI as the lead(and only) character under the name of "Megpoid the Music#"(Megpoid the music Sharp).

Seriously, how could a game with such
a cute character be bad?

First of all, I've never been what you would call a full on Vocaloid fan. Although I do like the designs, I had never listened to the music made using the Vocaloid program  up until recently and in fact, tend to dislike most songs I hear that are made using the program. Even so, when I heard they had a video game called Project Diva, I got curious and decided to try it only to be disappointed by my favorite, GUMI, not being part of the game in any way. So you can imagine just how excited I was when I learned that they where coming out with a game starring GUMI and only her. Even though I hadn't listen to her music, I was thrilled. I told myself "it doesn't matter if the game is something I like or not, it has my favorite character at the center of it!" In other words, I was totally expecting to enjoy it, even if it was bad.......oh how I was naive.

"Megpoid the Music#" is a music game similar to tap-tap, Parapa the Rapper and Guitar Hero/Rockband and is basically a spin off of the Project Diva series. In fact, the game plays exactly like PD, only instead of flying everywhere, the "beats" you hit follow a straight line and it's clear when and where you must hit said "beats", something I found the game did well, although some find it makes the game to easy. The game contains various songs that where made using the GUMI voicebank and that can be played on four different difficulties. Now as far as the music goes,I have to be honest and say that even though I love the character, I had never heard GUMI's voice prior to playing the game. In the end,  I was pleasantly surprised with the voice as the voicebank is one of the more human sounding ones available for the program. In other words, not only is GUMI's voice pleasant, she doesn't sound like she's talking right after having eaten a shit load of "tubes".

Autotune never tasted better~

The music selected for the game is mostly composed of three genres: Pop, Electronic and Rock. In my opinion, the voice works best when used with rock and pop-rock, mostly due to the range these songs use. My favorite song in the game is by far "Carnival", which is also pronounced "cannibal" for some reason(I'm guessing it's a pun). However, there is one big flaw with every song in the game: They are all cut short. No matter what song you choose, non of them are the full versions. Now this is okay for songs that you don't like, but what about those you like or those that tell a  story? Not to mention that the endings are often screwed up and the last beat feels off  when it appears on screen. Overall though, you will definitely find a song you will like and enjoy among the various ones offered.

Now, for the part I didn't want to talk about but don't have a choice: the gameplay. It's horrible, the game is horrible. I tried to deny it for a while, hell, I even I tried to tell myself that it must be the version I got that's bad, but no, it's not. It's just a bad game. Now, the gameplay when you're playing the actual song is decent, although nothing spectacular.

The game is simple and barely interesting.
 It would not do well if not paired with the vocaloid franchise.

However, the menus respond very poorly and, to make things worst, the load times are horrendous. You will literally be waiting for a good five seconds each time you navigate to a new screen no mater what said screen contains. The graphics look okay in performance mode, but everywhere else you go, the quality varies from decent too down right deviant bad. Even worse is the fact that anything GUMI says during menu navigation sounds like a 20-30 year old trying to sound cute with a japanese accent and failing at it, not to mention the audio clips will sometimes screech for no apparent reason. Although I like the backgrounds for the main menu and some of the art used for the loading screens, they still vary  from decent art too stuff you would find in your grand-mother's garbage can because even she finds it's ugly.

Another very important issue is just how the costume system is annoying and poorly executed. To clarify, only two types of people are usually attracted to Project Diva games: Vocaloid fans and curious people like myself. The gameplay for the games a mediocre, however, the fact that you can select your favorite Vocaloid mascot from those available, as well as select the costume said mascot will wear, makes the mediocre gameplay seem unimportant. In other words, the costume and customization aspects are vital to the game's enjoyment in a game like this. Sadly, as stated above, the game fails to give deliver in this department. For starters, each performance has a stage, which is usually just one of the five or six bland ones available, as well as a dance routine. The choreography for each individual song is well executed but is ruined by one very simple detail: THE LACK OF PROPER COSTUMES! It might sound like a nitpick, but with the styles covered in he songs, as well as the stages, proper costume selection is key to making the song match the choreography, something the game doesn't even bother to try doing.

“What costume should we use for this song sempai?
- DEFAULT!!!!!!!!!! “

Not only that, but if you want GUMI to perform in a different costume than her default one, you have to select it while in the song selection menu after having selected a song and before starting it. This would be excusable if they had her in different costumes for each song, but they don't and it makes the system even more convoluted that it should be.  As for the costume themselves,well, that's  more a question of personal taste than anything else, though I will say the hairstyles could use some work on some of them.

Overall, "Megpoid the Music#" was just a massive disappointment  I was really excited when I first heard of it, but after playing it, I feel like I was just slapped in the face. Although the songs are enjoyable, the overall product is bland and disappointing, not to mention that it's annoyingly slow, error prone and even contains to much mediocre art. In short, if you don't like Vocaloids, avoid the game as it will not change your mind on them. On the other hand, if you like Vocaloids or are curious about them, then listen to the soundtrack as the game is horrible and you will find the only reason you are playing it is because of the music is good and because GUMI is cute. Now, if you excuse me, I have to go check if my inner fanboy is still alive.

Final Verdict: 3/10
Pros:
+GUMI is cute(Heavily Biased Opinion. Your personal Opinions may differ.)
+GUMI's voice is more human sounding than other Vocaloids, offering for a more appealing sound overall.
+The songs are quite enjoyable and overall well made.
Cons:
-THE GAME IS AWFUL! JUST PLAIN AWFUL!
-The gameplay is mediocre at best.
-Audio clips in the menu sound awful and will often start screeching.
-The majority of the art assets(pictures, backgrounds and game renders) range from decent to down right deviant art bad.
-The costume system is very poorly executed and extremely convoluted.

MEDAMONTH: Angelic Layer(Manga)

Due to a silly coincidence that occurred while selecting what to review for the next little while, I decided I would pull out the good old "themed month" trick earlier than expected. Therefore, I declare this month to be MEDAMONTH!!!!!!!!!

That's MEDAMONTH (Totally not stealing this joke)

For MEDAMONTH, I will be reviewing things that are robot and/or AI related each week, though other than that, nothing will really change. So let's get the show on the road with this weeks choice: Angelic Layer!

Angelic Layer is a  three volume manga released by Clamp in 1999 and is what I like to call a "buddy bot" series. It revolves around a young girl named Misaki who just found out about Angelic Layer, a game where gir- I mean- people of all ages battle against each other using custom made little robots called Angels. With the help of a mysterious and a weird lab coat wearing dude she randomly meets while on her way home, the girl creates her own angel, Hikaru, and partakes in an Angelic Layer tournament conveniently happening in her local area. In all honesty, the plot is almost completely non-existent and literally comes back to having the main character play Angelic Layer, as well as limiting itself to the tournament the main character participates in. Not only that, nothing bad happens to anyone, there is no secret base under the stadium, the government is not secretly trying to create an army of super soldiers using pokemon and you will catch your toast before it touches the ground if you happen to drop it.

WHY MUST REAL LIFE BE SO CRUEL!!!!!!!!!

In other words, everything is so good and perfect that it can even get somewhat exhausting to read through the manga. However, even if it can get a bit hefty, the light-hearted mood works well overall and is part of charm the series has. It also serves as a reminder of what Angelic Layer is: a game. With series that are centered around games(ex: Yu-Gi-Oh! and Medabots), it's easy to get lost in just how seriously the game is taken by the characters. In Angelic Layer, the story pushes the concept that the game is just a game and that win or lose, the goal is to have fun while playing the game.

The characters, as far as they go, aren't really fleshed out due to the short span of the manga, which is a shame. The characters that are introduced as the story progressed appeared full of promise, but few characters even lasted more than one chapter, leaving me wanting to know more about them. This is even more aggravating with the lack of any depth in the details surrounding each of the concepts for each Angel Misaki and Hikaru have to fight. Each one is basically a reflection of the person who created them, which means that the way they are built, the reasons behind the way they look and move, is unique to their creator and offers a world of possibility as far as character development can go. Every single detail of their design is a clue as to what motivates and inspires the creator to play Angelic Layer and I find it's something they really should have focused on more.

Each angel is unique and personal to their creator, either being a complete opposite or sharing a close resemblance in some way.

Not only that, but the lack of any life in the Angels is another thing that really bothered me, especially when it came to Misaki's compassionate personality. Angels are sadly complete dolls and even though allot of the art depicts them as being alive and able to move on their own, they are completely incapable of anything in the like, thus making Misaki's excuses after her battles come off as childish and empty. As a comparison, take Medabots, another "buddy bot" series, where each robot in the series has a personality and at least a semblance of intelligence, thus making them feel alive. They talk, they have emotions, they feel pain and, most importantly, they can think and move on their own, which also creates a relationship between the characters and their "buddy bot", making cooperation and compassion the show in battle more natural and meaningful.  Angels can't do anything when outside that layer, and even then, they need to be controlled by a human to even be able to move, which makes for a very one sided type of relationship between the creator and their Angel, something which really bothered me at times.

On another note, as far as the art is concerned, I found myself really enjoying the designs that Clamp went with for each Angel, as well as the characters that control them. Something that caught my eye was how the designs for each character seems to reflect how they are seen while the design for their Angel reflects what they desire to be or what they want people to actually see. Hotako, the youngest competitor in the series, wanted people to see that size doesn't matter and that she was as skilled as any other player. Therefore, she created an angel that relies more on speed and that looks like a ninja, who are well known for using speed and stealth to compensate for their weaker builds. I would have loved to see the series go into more depth on the designs, but sadly, they're nothing more than eye candy as far as the manga is concerned. Although the battles are well drawn and the designs for the Angels and their creators are fantastic, the moment the main character is out of the arena, the manga becomes intensively prone to spaghetti art. Squiggly arms, deformed heads, emoticon like facial expressions and wacky situations happen during these segments and often flow quite poorly from one frame to the other. This is especially true when the crazy character known as Icchan appears, as well as whenever Misaki's friend Tomayo attacks Kotaro. However, other than the poor flow, I never really had a problem with the change in art style as it fit with the light hearted atmosphere of the manga.

.........No comment.

Overall, I found myself slightly dissapointed with the manga due to how it missed key elements that could have made it possibly the best "buddy bot" series out there. Although the designs for key characters and their Angels are top notch, the lack of any life within said Angels and the lack of character development bring down the manga. Even so, I can easily say it was still quite enjoyable and that I would not hesitate to read it again.
For those interested, there is a 26 episode anime produced by Bones that was released in 2001 and was received with mixed reactions. I, myself, will most likely be giving it a watch sometime in the near future as I find myself wanting more Angelic Layer after finishing the manga, which is a good thing, least in my book. 

Final Verdict: 7/10
Pros:
+Cute, enjoyable and great for a relaxed read.
+Great for a younger audience who is interested in manga.
+Great character designs and superb Angel designs.
+The colored art featured in the Omnibus volumes are simply beautiful.
Cons:
-The lack of any life within the Angels is quite jarring.
-The lack of any actual depth for the cast is quite disappointing.
-The manga barely expands on the reasons for each Angel's design.