Sword Art Online

Review

There are slight spoilers so read at your own RISK!!!!

As you can suspect with anything that has to do with a virtual reality things are not going to go smoothly and the virtual reality will soon turn into a virtual reality of hell. The premise and plot of the story for the most part is simple and nothing to surprising in general, but as the story unfolds the story became deeper and intricate. The main male lead Kirito and the main female lead Asuna were great leads and went through a lot of character development over the course of the anime. Sword Art Online for the most part kept me hooked, but there where some parts/spots where the episodes were slow story-wise and felt like filler episodes. The first story arc of Sword Art Online was fantastic, but I can't say the same for the Fairy/Second story arc of Sword Art Online. I strongly didn't like how Asuna's role was majorly reduced during this arc when she played a pivotal role in the first story arc, and I also didn't like the side story plot of Kirito's cousin having romantic feelings for him. That whole aspect was just kind of off putting to me.

Verdict

Sword Art Online is a great anime and an anime that you should watch when you have some down time or nothing else to watch in general as it is a great anime to invest your time in.

Score: 8.7

  

2012 Year Reflection

2012 Reflection

This year in general just was not a good year at all. This year just felt like an empty canvass for most of the time in comparison to 2011. In 2011 multiple exciting events occurred while 2012 was a stale year overall. Let's face it odd years tend to be better than even years. 2012 sucked so let's hope that 2013 will be a better eventful year than 2012. 

Top 7 Anime Openings

Top Anime Openings 2012

1. Sakamichi no Apollon - Sakamichi no Melody

2. Hiiro no Kakera Season 2 - Takanaru

3. Magi the Labyrinth of Magic - V.I.P

4. Fate/Stay Night Zero - To the Beginning

5. Zetsuen no Tempest - Spirit Inspiration

6. Tasogare Otome x Amnesia - Choir Jail

7. Sword Art Online - Crossing Field

Top 7 Anime Endings

Top Anime Endings 2012

1. Wareta Ringo - Shinsekai Yori

2. Anamnesis - Another

3. Fairy Tail - Glitter

4. Natsuyuki Rendezvous - Anata ni Deawonakereba

5. Naruto Shippuuden - Cascade

6. Bleach - Mask

7. Psycho-Pass - Namae no nai Kaibutsu

Male/Female Character of the Year

Male Character 

Jude Mathis from Tales of Xillia and Tales of Xillia 2 showed immense character growth and matured during a very tight situation he didn't let his young age slow him down and he maturely handled his hardships. 

Female Character

Ada Wong from Resident Evil 6 was the ace in the hole of the entire game. She managed to in some way help or save some of the other characters in the game while on her quest to clear her name and face her doppelganger.

Top 5 K-pop Songs of 2012

Top K-pop Songs

1. SHINee Sherlock

2. Gyuri Daydream/Nicole Lost Tie

3. Super Junior Sexy Free and Single/ Ailee My Love

4. K.will Please Don't/ Juniel Bad Man Tie

5. Secret Poison/ BoA Only One

There were just so many good songs that came out in the world of K-pop and I can't possibly list them all, so the songs that I have chosen above are songs that I have listed to quite frequently.

Top 5 Animes of 2012

Top Animes of 2012

1. Winter 2012 - Rinne no Lagrange

2. Spring 2012 - Sakamichi no Apollon

3. Summer 2012 - Sword Art Online

4. Fall 2012 - Zetsuen no Tempest

5. My personal choice - Another

Note: That these 5 animes are just animes in general that I thought were the best and I picked one anime from each of the 4 seasons of animes and the numbers beside them don't hold any significance I just went in order from the seasons.

Top 5 Games of the Year

Games of the Year

1. Resident Evil 6

Even with all of the hate and dislikes that the RE Series is headed in this game was excellent in many respects the characters, story arcs, and plot seamlessly blended together well and I became very immersed in the story and wanted to know what happened next.

2. Mass Effect 3

Mass Effect 3 what a way to end a trilogy of games that you've invested so many hours into. It has been a long and fun journey that we have taken with Commander Shepard and I don't think it could have ended in any better way.

3. Tales of Xillia 2

This game is the only game on my list that was just released in Japan only, but I loved Tales of Xillia and it's universe and it's sequel was equally fun too. I hope that Tales of Xillia 2 will be released in the U.S. as well. 

4. Assassin's Creed III/ Lollipop Chainsaw Tie

AC3 even though it had a slow start story-wise and there were too many bugs that you can't even count with just your fingers it was still overall a great and enjoyable game. As for Lollipop Chainsaw it was a fun new quirky IP and an overall entertaining game.

5. Final Fantasy XIII-2

I'm torn over this game half of me doesn't think it deserves to be on this list while the other part of me does. It was a good game and I like the soundtrack over FFXIII's, but FFXIII is still the better game of the two and the troll ending of this game didn't help it much either but I love the FF Series too much it not put it on this list.

Year End Series

In the upcoming days I will be starting my end of the year series. Where I'll post the best and the worst animes,couples/ships, games etc, and give an overall reflection of the 2012 year.

Christmas Holidays

Christmas is almost here so spread around holiday cheer.

Hana Yori Dango Ore No Hanashi Wo Shiyouka

I was just randomly browsing through mangahere.com's newly added manga chapter list when I came across this one-shot spin-off continuation of one of my all time favorite shoujo mangas Hana Yori Dango. This particular one-shot focused heavily on Rui Hanazawa and his lingering feelings for Makino Tsukushi. The one-shot was short but spectacular and had a beautiful conclusion.