Fall series rants [part 3]

OK as promised, finally I manage to spare some time to write some more stuff...

Kurozuka
MAL/official

Usually I'm not that fond with serious plot+extreme gore series (Blade of Immortal for example), but somehow Kurozuka gives me a very warmth feeling when I watch the first two episode. The bloody scene is inevitable, coming from manga adaptation of the same title (minus the nude/sex scenes), but overall I'm quite impressed with the visual art of this series, beautifully done. The Op song is, well...how should I rate it. Unusually strange to see a metal j-rock song as the OP song (read: Maximum The Hormone), think it does not blend quite well with the theme of the story. The story basically revolves around Kuro (same seiyuu as Setsuna F Seiei) who accidentally met an immortal woman, Kuromitsu (seiyuu by Paku Romi) and their tales begin....ongoing for hundreds of years, really. The first two episodes serves as a quick intro on what happened in the early chapters of the manga, before the real deal happened when Kuro fall conscious and wake up several hundred years later, when the world has reach its modern day. Quite an interesting premise I'd say.

Kyou no Go no Ni TV
MAL/official

Comedy slice of life is always welcomed in my list. I've always been a fan of the OVA, released more than a year ago. Full of LULZ in each episode. Now the TV series has been released, scheduled to be aired for 13 episodes. My first reaction upon seeing the posters and watching the first episode is that, I was a bit surprised to see that they change the animation art since the OVA, now the TV series art is more like Minami-ke, and more chibi. While I personally like the OVA designs better, the TV character designs is not bad too. Especially because it IS resembling Minami-ke, meaning moar Serious Face, which always a pleasure to watch in Minami-ke :3 The plot involves some retelling of the stories from the OVA, as well as integrating most of the manga stories.

Madacemi Wasshoi!
MAL/official

I almost forgot what this series is all about, since it's been more than 3 weeks since episode 1 is released, and since then no group has pick this series. A bit crazy like Kemeko Deluxe, but overall I find this show fairly average. The main hero, Takuto (Ami Koshimizu ftw) is sort of enrolled in a magic school and nee to pass a summoning exam, where he accidentally summoned a strong weapon in the form of a girl nicknamed Tanarot. Nice try on using over9000 meme though :3 Since there's Ami Koshimizu and Ayako Kawasumi in the seiyuu list, at least I have to give this show a try :3 No idea if the rest of the episodes will be released or not...

Gundam 00 second season
MAL/official

Gundam 00 is back with 2nd season after the first season ended half a year ago, with Celestial Being fall in crumbles and the world is "united" under one name, the Earth Sphere Federation. A good start for the 2nd season, seeing how Celestial Being is rebuild where most of the former members are gathered back including the Gundam Meisters, although there's still hesitation in some of them (eg: Sumeragi). Lockon is gone, but he is replaced by his twin brother, which seems to have similar high physical attribute as his deceased brother. Setsuna pilot a rusty Exia in a what to be said as a lone mission in episode 1, and somehow rejoined back with CB after meeting Tieria, and get his new, super buffed MS with dual solar furnace, 00 Gundam. And Allelujah who was being held captive in these last four years are rescued as well... The second season seems to focus on the confrontation between CB and the A-LAws, anorganisation under the Federation and this might further involved the supposedly mian villain of the series, the Innovator (featuring Ribbons).
I always like the first season, with how concept of the series is built differently than most previous gundam series. The gundams are cooly designed, and the fights are well depicted. I hope this 2nd season is not going to dissappoint me all the way untill the end.

Rosario+Vampire Capu2
MAL/official

Another sequel kicks off this Fall. This time, it follows similarly as how the 2nd season of the manga started, with everyone returned to the Youkai Academy for a new semester. Although season 1 includes many plot from the manga (plus the fanservices which are scattered everywhere), it disappoint me a bit that Tsukune stays weak until the end, even after he was injected by Moka's blood by the end of the series. Now in this 2nd season, what I really hope is that Tsukune would show is true power, at least. And while the level of fanservice does not seems to decrease, I certainly hope that this sequel can include as many serious plot as possible, because this is what made the middle-late part of the manga read worthy, although sometimes they become redundant and boring, seeing how Tsukune manage to disarm Moka's rosary in a pinch and how Tsukune become the hero each times.
p/s: always love the ED song by Muziki Nana :3

So many interesting games happened this weekend, with MGC08, Farm4Fame3, and MYM PD11 playoff still ongoing. And I still got exam next week @.@

The Art of MindGames vol.7

I'm a slowpoke, didn't even realize that totallnewbie has released his 7th and final volume of his MindGames Collection. This was released about 2 weeks ago.



As his final volume, I expect the content to be fabulous, and he delivers. Although, as stated by some people in his channel, the opening music theme, Requiem is overrated and overused. And there's not much scenes included in this video, considering this is his final work on Art of MindGames. Some of my personal favorite highlights in this video:

-2.05: I might see this wrong, at first I thought that Treant was a real nub for failing to kill Tiny, but then I realize the ministun he had when he brake from his invis (prolly because of Craggy Exterior). Quite a luck eh, Tiny.
-3.12: Nice risk taken by Pudge, and teamwork with Leshrac. Survives Multicasted Fireblast and Ignite, avoid Firestorm, and still has the gut to hook Ogre Magi and survives. In the end all Ogre, DK and Pit Lord dead :3
-5:30: Triple kill by Obsidian Destroyer on Vengeful Spirit, Earthshaker and the revived VS. Note that this is a low level fights (probably at level 1, with OD took a level in Astral Prison, while DK with DragonTail), and hence the quick return of VS. Nice Juke to avoid death, survives with a mere 15 hp.

Overall The Art of Mind Games series has been one of the most inspirational dota videos for me; since its release more than a year ago, there's very few dota videos of that kind and I'm truly impressed by the juking, mind games skill displayed by the players in those videos. This indirectly teach the watchers (which is massive) on the mind games, and raise the level of play in general.

KS.DOta adds ex-Zenith players

Last week monday, both ex- Zenith players Dk-Mage and Bouncy were added to Kingsurf roster and already registered for all major tournament including MYM Pride 11, F4F etc. Good Luck to them in Ks.DotA!

P/s: We planned to announce this after MGC but since they might be playing in MYM Pride 11 tonight, I have to annouce.

sources: kingsurf/myMYM

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waking up this morning and this is what I found on the net - now the finalist of 2008 ESWC, Zenith and Kingsurf are sort of merging, with the addition of DK-Mage and Bouncy, together with previously added Hyhy. Might really be strongest lineup I could ever imagine, with Yamateh, Papaxiong, Hyhy, Dk-Mage and Bouncy in the same team, plus Xiaoma and Sakura, and Xiaogui which I rarely seen him in action as of recent. This, however does not mean a permanent addition as far as I'm concerned, since some of them are bound to National Service and hence need to take a break from gaming for quite some time later.

And yes, this morning they have indeed played Prime Defending 11 playoff matches against EHOME. What makes these awesome is that this is going to be another LIVE stream from ESNationTV, commentated by Maelk and Aurora again :D
Unfortunately the matches clashes with Champions League match of Man Utd-Celtic so I can only watch one of the two. Since I can always watch the KS-EHOME replays later (plus hopefully they will up the VOD too), so I go for football match.

damn, what a busy week. Part 3 of Fall series rants might come later this weekend =.=

Fall series rants [part 2]

continued.

Ga-Rei-Zero
MAL/official

I have a mixed feeling about this series. The animation is superb with good usage of special effects during the fights (and there's a lot of them too), coupled with nice music to enhance the feeling of the fights. Love the ED too, especially how the tune fit with how the episode end (as far as episode 2 goes). Good work by the studio productions in these departments.
Then to the story. The characters in the official websites, as well as the promo posters certainly are different than the manga characters, and watching episode 1 suggest that the story might be an alternative retelling of Ga-Rei manga. But then the ending of episode 1 gives a thousand of questions to the viewer, as the story proceed as they are in episode 2, leaving everyone in episode 1 dead. And not to mention the manga character, Yomi and Kagura made their appearance in this episode(beats me if they're the same person, or just same in name). Some say the anime might make their way into the manga plot later, while others say that the whole series might restart later with the characters seen episode 1 returned, sorta like Higurashi. Well we just have to wait and see.

Kannagi
MAL/official

Simple yet nice art, catchy OP song. Can't ask for more in a good comedy series like this. The first two episode really made my day with lost of comedies, especially in episode 2. I just can't stop laughing seeing how Nagi failed in her attempt to deceive Jin with her double personality. Well in fact almost everything, except the quarrel and the death of the kittens are worthy for laughing stock. Haruka Tomatsu did a great job as Nagi, giving her a lively voice as we always hear in Lala (To-Love-Ru). However, since I've read the manga before, I couldn't help but hoping that the studio, A-1 Pictures could maintain the level of humor in latter episode.s This is because I notice a slight decrease in term of funny moments in the manga since those awesome parts in episode 2, though they are still enough humour to make me laugh :3

Kemeko Deluxe!
MAL/official

Crazy. That's all I can describe this show, especially the OP and ED songs. To make it brief, this show is worth watching for the humor (in ridiculous way, sorta), plus a bit of parodies (Zetsubou Sensei and Winter Sonata lulz). The girl in the image above, Emuemu rarely made her appearance because most of the time she will reside in those chibi suit of her, Kemeko. Despite her form, Kemeko really is energetic. The main character, Sanpeita is a useless type guy similar to Rito (To-Love-Ru). He made a pinky promise with a Emuemu during his childhood. Oh not to mention, Kugimiya Rie and Ayako Kawasumi are featured too, albeit as minor characters. Watching Kugimiya as Hayakawa and her moaning in episode 1 pretty much put my grip on this series.
In short, watch it for the lulz :3

Kurogane no Linebarrel
MAL/official

Hm...Gonzo always give me a mixed bag whenever they release a series heavily featured with mecha and CG effects. And this time, it is combined with Hisashi Hirai, infamous for Gundam Seed character design. So I couldn't really imagine what would be the outcome. Anyway the mechas looks good. Animation are fine too, well its gonzo we're talking about. But I have a problem with the main hero, he really is a retard as far as episode 1 concerns. Yes we can easily predict that his behaviour might change later, but his wimpy attitude, yet suddenly boasted with confidence when he is inside Linebarrel get on my nerve. Whatever. Since Mamiko Noto is the main heroine, I guess I can still endure watching this series.

Kuroshitsuji
MAL/official

Rare to see myself indulging myself with bishie series. This is no different too. The character art really is not my cup of tea, although they share the same arts as Nabari no Ou, one of the few series featuring some bishies that I can stand to watch. I might continue watching, but most likely not in my weekly watching list. Plot-wise seems interesting, a story about a so-caleld perfect butler who works for the kid above, helped by some other hopeless maid/gardener/chief. And that kid, Ciel seems not an ordinary kid too.

Fall series rants [part 1]

Lets see...starting alphabetically:

Akane Iro-ni Somaru Saka
MAL/official

Kugimiya is the main cast as the main lead character, Katagiri Yuuhi. So an automatic watch for me :3 Animation by TNK studio for this series was wonderful, though I'm not quite fond with the stereotype harem character art (well it's obviously adapted from a harem eroge, so no complaints on my side). Though, I find the camera angles used in certain scenes to be weird. It looks like the studio love to play with the angles :3 Anyway I'm pretty much satisfied with the first two episodes, seeing how they introduce the main characters in episode 1, then followed by the "surprise" action by Jun. by the end of episode 1. Also I love seeing how Yuuhi and Jun acted tsun tsun toward each other, a fine way for their relationship to progress XP
p/s: lots of well-known seiyuus too: Rie Tanaka, Marina Inoue, Akira Ishida, Yu Kobayashi, to name a few :3

Chaos;Head
MAL/official

Another series with typical harem character design. Most of the females in this series kinda remind me of Myself; Yourself (Rimi looks similar to Hinako, Aoi with Nanaka and Yua with Yuzuki sensei), although both series actually do not relate in any way. But what really attract me is the genre of this series - psychological, supernatural, horor - everything we can expect from the likes of Higurashi :3 The main hero, Takumi is sorta similar species with Satou in NHK ni Youkoso - a hikikomori with lots of "incredible" hallucination. And he's a typical otaku too, hates 3D and love 2D. I can only lol seeing how Takumi trying hard to resist the "onee-san moe treatment" from Yua. A lot of things related to the main psychotic story still remains unclear, especially the stuff about the New Gene, as well as how those killing incidents are related to the girls.
Well overall episode 1 is pretty much give me a good impression toward the series, I'd certainly love to see how the plot is developed in relation to each girls.

Clannad~After Story~
MAL/official

Nice, the final arc of Clannad is now animated. 25 episodes, I wonder what portion will conprise the schooltime and afterschool. The first 2 episodes are pretty much entertaining, where the first kinda serves to refresh our memories with each Clannad characters (but no Fuko D:). While the 2nd episodes started to indulge more into character development, namely Sunohara. Well yeah, he seems to be the main focus in this first few episodes, but I'm fine with that. The humor they put in CAF for these 2 episode never failed to amuse me :D Tomoyo's girly bat hit. Kotomi's Hiruma-style calculation, and her "improved" violin tune. Kyou's brutal dictionary smash. Yuusuke-san's cool "victory" phrase. Sanae's winning fake girlfriend :3
Nevertheless as this series will likely entirely based on the same arc in the visual novel, so expect the story to become more serious with lots of drama included as each episode passes. I still hope KyoAni would maintain the humor though :3

Ef: A Tale of Melodies (Ef Melo)
MAL/official

The epicness from SHAFT that I always waited for since the end of the prequel, EF: A Tale of Memories (Ef Memo) which was aired last Fall. This time, the series focuses on another main characters, namely Yuu, Yuuko, , Nagi, Kuze and Mizuki while some of the main lead from Ef Memo also made their appearance (noticably Renji and Chihiro). Anyway. From what episode 1 suggest, it seems like this series will also follows Ef Memo, splitting the story into two arc, one for Kuze and another for Yuu. Yuu's arc resembled with Hiro arc in Ef Memo, a three-way love while Kuze resembles Renji, a love story filled with dramatic hindrance :3
I always love the animation style that SHAFT used for this series. Unique on their own. And to add to their awesomeness, the OP song which they cleverly put in the middle for episode 1 to split both arc, use similar concept as that epic OP song in Ef Memo, Euphoric Field by Tenmon feat. Elisa. Though, her engrish never seems to improve XP

..........................................

will continue some time later this weekend. I can't wait to play Infinite Undiscovery XD

Exam OAO

A month left before the final exam, and the exam schedules has been released, fufufu. And good thing is, there's a fairly long break between each subject, so I don't need to rush too much during the study week. Though, MBS Practical exam is held sooner, two weeks from now.

On a side note.....

I CAN FEEL THE PAWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! :D

Dota Allstars 6.56

Never thought that Dota Allstars 6.56 to be released this quick, just less than a week after IceFrog release the "major" patch 6.55. This map was released this morning if I'm not mistaken, and looking the changelog tells me that there is not much change that can affect the current gameplay brought by 6.55 era.

as usual, get the map at getdota.

Lets see....the exact changelog that get my attention:
* Fixed a very old exploit that was recently discovered with Roshan [Hurl Boulder - 800 range, 100 damage, 2 seconds stun duration, 100 mana, 10 seconds cooldown --> Bash - 15% chance to trigger, 100 damage, 2 seconds stun duration]
so Roshan will not hurl his stun anymore when Leshrac cast Edict near the juke spot at the jungle near roshan. Instead when fighting him, he now can stun you with his passive. ok I suppose.

* Tweaked Sentinel and Scourge tower bounty sharing mechanism slightly
[200/250/300/350 gold bounty to everyone in team (not to killer, halved if denied). 450/500/550/600+Random(2-20) split if Sentinel/Scourge gets kill --> 200/240/280/320 gold bounty to everyone in team (not to killer, halved if denied). 315/350/385/420+Random(1.4-14) split if Sentinel/Scourge gets kill]
-okay, "slight" change.

* Improved Magic Stick a little [12 charges max, 12 HP and 12 mana/charge --> 10 charges max, 15 HP and 15 mana/charge (Don't stack with ally anymore)]
-so uh...now a fully charged Stick will heal 150hp/mana instead of the old 144hp/mana (oh wow...). I still have a mixed feeling about this item... since it is only charged when enemies cast spell, then in a way it can be used as "gank detector", but the usage is pretty much limited.

* Moved the Tavern locations. It's back to the old location, though now the four taverns are arranged in a straight line. So now it does not looks weird anymore, having Scourge tavern on northwest and Sentinel tavern on southeast.

* Various tweaks/nerf to Admiral. Starting strength lowered from 24 to 21, Torrent got a slight mana increase (105 to 120) plus reduced slow (2/3/4/5 to 1/2/3/4). Understandable though, he was deemed to be too powerful when 6.55 was released.

* Added some new juke spots. Haven't try the map yet, so I don't know where exactly are the new juke spots. Juking is always a good thing :)

The Abyss of Nebilim's Crag

Playing Tales of the Abyss, my 2nd playthrough and finally I have reach the very last save point, meaning that Nebilim is now available to be battled. For now I decide to try beating her in Very Hard mode, and if she proves to be less challenging, then I'll retry again later in Unknown mode.

So taking a quick look at my character stats before facing her:

Luke (level 95)
HP/TP: 8735/777
Weapon: Key of Lorelei
Body: Golden Armor
Hand: Draupnir
Accessory: Reflect Ring
Capacity Core: Tutti

Tear (level 93)
HP/TP: 9150/960
Weapon: Blue Crystal Rod
Body: Rare Guard
Hand: Fonic Gloves
Accessory: Black Onyx
Capacity Core: Lunatito

Jade (level 93)
HP/TP: 7973/953
Weapon: Fonic Lance
Body: Fonic Robe
Hand: Angel bracelet
Accessory: Mystic Symbol
Capacity Core: Largamente

Guy (level 93)
HP/TP: 7518/848
Weapon: Jewel of Gardios
Body: Fonic Mail
Hand: Angel bracelet
Accessory: Force Ring
Capacity Core: Grandioz

..........................

Guy and Luke as the main melee attacker/damage tanker, so I equip Force/Reflect Ring to reduce her ridiculous physical/fonic damage. With Key of Lorelei and Jewel of Gardios, they can use their second Mystic rte, Lost Fon Drive and Brilliant Overlord which proves to be even more powereful than their first Mystic Artes. Jade is the main magic damage dealer, hence Mystic Symbol is necessary for him to reduce his casting time further (in addition to AD Skills). I'd rather equip Fonic Lance than Dunamis on him, since the former has higher Fonic Attack. Tear is put in full support mode, using only Revitalize/Resurrection in the whole fight, by disabling the rest of her Artes. Since she's the main healer, it is important for her NOT to die, so I equip Black Onyx to her (HP+30%).

Anyway, in Very Hard mode, Nebilim is pure bitch. In this mode, all her stats are doubled, meaning now she has 640,000 HP, 2628 Physical Attack, 3020 Physical Defense, 1706 Fonic Attack and 2560 Fonic Defense. Damn, that's insane. I heard in Unknown mode her stats are even more terrifying, each base stats multiplied by 3.5. She starts the battle (at least in my battle, she did) with Jade' signature mystic arte, Mystic Cage, dealing 13, 000+ damage to everyone. But it seems like it has the same effect as Big Bang, as none of my character died. Not just this, she also use many other Mystic Artes as well, from Rending Saber, Fortune Arc, Indignition, Radiant Howl and Big Bang. And her own Mystic Arte, Fragmented End is even more painful. There's this time when Guy was kicked out by this move, dealing 60,000+ damage to him. He's dead of course.

The fight was very long, because her defense are obscenely high, physically and magically. A normal physical damage and strike artes can barely affect her HP. Angel's Tear and Resurrect AD Skill are undoubtedly crucial in this match. While Resurrect is pretty random, it does save my ass in several occasions with its occasion resurrection :D Yeah, dying is inevitable in this match even with Tear in full support mode. Sometimes I need to switch character to use item, and most importantly activate Overlimit and use each character 2nd Mystic Arte. Jade' Indignition deals roughly 10000+ damage to her, while Luke' Lost Fon Drive and Guy' Brilliant Overlord deals about 6000+ damage. Tears Fortune Arc is a bit lesser than the rest, but the healing attributes are very useful.

So after about 28 minutes of fighting, I was finally able to beat her. Damn I wish I have something to record the whole battle, it was a nice experience beating her. The fight was really tense, although I admit Ethereal Queen or Freya in Star Ocean 3 are much more difficult to beat. And I was surprised with my record battle, where I gained 85+ grade from this fight alone! Man, the highest grade I ever get before this is just above 30, which is of course another boss battle. I guess I use too much Mystic Artes and FoF Changes, which racks up a huge amount of grade.

Here is a youtube videos which showed similar fight as mine (lol seems like she really start the fight with Mystic Cage). Except seems like this person fight her at even higher average level than mine (ZOMGBBQ lvl 150+ o_O).

Before the Fall

Finally almost all Fall season main series are aired, some even have already reach episode 2. By far there are quite a number of shows that caught my attention, as seen in the Fall series list on the left. These leave behind the shows that have just ended, particularly those Spring and Summer series. Among those series I recently finished watched:

To Love Ru
MAL/official

Okay ending I suppose. I vaguely remember reading similar counterpart plot in the manga when Lala made a failed memory eraser machine. The anime tries to include as much as original anime episode (ok, maybe the term filler is more appriate for some) while still sticking a little bit to the original manga plot. While this adds some excitement (maybe) to watch the anime, some of the original episodes are very dull and boring. The part where Saruyama become the center of episode (about the furry cat Alien) is downright terrible. The introduction of Oshizu was ended with some ridiculous dancing lessons which made me go....wtf? And sometimes I find Yami is being forced into the episode just so that she got some screentime, like school festival part (animal cafe). Nevertheless I still enjoy watching To-Love-Ru as a whole.

Blassreiter
MAL/official

Gonzo. The first half of the series are awesome I would say, with some adapted human knowledge being put into the theory of Amalgam, a lot of fight between the Chosen Amalgam (Blue, Gerd) and the masses, as well as the fall of XAT as well as the city which really remind me of Raccoon City (Resident Evil). Then somehow I find the story to be messed in the second half, especially when Zwolf was involved with the Blassreiter. So, uh...I don't like how the story goes at this point, although it's still enough to keep me watching till the end. And another bad thing is that the only good female Amalgam, Snow only appear in one episode and, then **** This sucks. Whatever. Fine ending though, with lots of sacrifices...

World Destruction: Sekai Bokumetsu no Rokunin
MAL/official

One of the better Spring series. I wish the original game of which this series is adapted is available in PS2 or PSP =.= Overall I enjoyed watching all episode but 1 (the episode when Morte lamenting about her dead brother right after the great episode 8 when they were trapped inside the Sand Marine). The comedy is enough to make me laugh, especially whenever it relates to Toppi who never admit being a chibi-bear lol. Kirie the main male lead who was first thought to be a mere catalyst to the Destruc Code, conceal his identity in the very last epiosde (kinda late, huh) and show how imortant he actually is in the context of the Destruct Code.(yeah, a bit rushed). Morte, the main female lead, keep trying to destroy the world solely because of her deceased brother. A fairly serious woman till the end, and suddenly changed when she knew the reality of a Destroyed World. And the romance by the end of the episode is so uncalled... Btw I love Lia and her strong voice. Episode 8 is purely win because of her :3

Zero no Tsukaima 3: Princess no Rondo
MAL/official

We can never know when will ZnT will actually ended. 3 seasons already and still ongoing. This third season, while includes better plot overall compared to, say, season 2 (sub-character story do not want), still does not give a deep impact to the audiance. I mean, I'd love to see those epic 1 vs 1000 fights in season 2 again. Fanservice level remains the same (no complains here, every seasons is like that), but one thing that I still can't quite swallow is the fact that Colbert sensei is somehow being pushed into the series again by faking his death. All my grief over his death in season 2 means nothing naw... At least they don't spoil the ending like what they did with season 2 (friggin ED song ruin the mood). So, I wonder how will my tsundere mode act when season 4 is announced. "d-d--don't misunderstand me, i-i--it's not like I'm watching ZnT because I like the series". LOL

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu
MAL/official

Probably the only Summer show that I enjoy the most. Seeing how Haruka and Yuuto being dense to each other in each episode are fun, although sometimes one can't help but being annoyed, seeing their relationship almost going nowhere as each episode passed. But one weak point of this series (at least for me) is that it contain too much cliche and predictable plots. There are many parts full of stereotypes that took away the inrerest of predicting what would happened next. Example: Hazuki acting strange by going out so often and was mistaken when she went to meet the guy in front of the groom shop. Easily predicted as misunderstanding. Another one: Haruka in happy mood went to school to give some cookies to Yuto, but met her and Shina in such unfavorable position. Yet another misunderstanding. And in the final episode, the fact about Haruka grandfather, which has been repeated by many other series (HnG, for example). But being a school comedy romance anime, I guess these kind of thing is kinda inevitable.


And there's also Sekirei, Macross Frontier, Code Geass R2, Ikkitousen Great Guardian, Birdy the Mighty Decode, Chocolate Underground in my finished list which also ended before Fall.

DotA Allstar 6.55

IceFrog has released Dota Allstars v6.55 early this morning, and holy shit, this is another gameplay-changing patch I would say.

As usual, the map can be downloaded from getdota.
And the changelog (very lengthy, including some in-depth explanation on the changes - getdota/changelog.

so after testing a bit of this map (can't play full match yet, my internut speed is throttled until 9th Oct =.=) and reading through the changelogs, my comments on some of the changes:

-Added 2 new heroes, Windrunner and Admiral Proudmoore. Both on Sentinel side. Windrunner is an int-based ranged hero, similar model to drow ranger. Posses some nice suppports/ganking skill. Her piercing arrow (Powershot) rawks (1700 range, cut tree, fast projectile), although it does not has stun like Mirana'. And her ult gave maximum attack speed increment (400%) to a single target for her hext 10 attacks, at the cost of damage reduction. While Admiral is even more awesome, a very brutal AoE str hero, with his first skill (Torrent) that lift the enemies, slow and damage, comboed with his ultimate (lulzy summoning a pirate ship) which give massive AoE damage and buff allies. His second skill Tidebringer give massive damage (free relic at level 4) as well as insane 100% cleave once in awhile. And his third skill (Xmts) is useful in many way, like casting it on a tp-ed enemy hero and he's blinked back to the same sport 4 seconds later. hahaha :D

-Added 4 new items: Magic Stick, Dust of Appearance, Phase Boots and Glyph of Fortification. Magic Stick is... well I can't really figure how is this item useful practically. It is charged whenever enemy heroes cast spells, up to 12 charges. Each charge instantly restore 12 hp and 12 mana when used. 12 hp/mana....wtf? I know it is instant heal, but how much will 12 hp/mana impact the value of spending one item slot compared to, say, tangos? Well not saying its useless, its just that until we see its true potential, I can't be sure how will this item useful. I guess this item shine more in teamfights, where everyone throw their spells.
Dust of Appearance is nice. A fairly good alternative of sentry in fight, if not better. It basically prevent enemy from going into invisible (it does not stop the skill, just that the hero will still visible after the item is used on them). So now your Clinkz/Gondar/Phantom Lancer is more or less can be screwed easier. No more easy escape against people sentry vision.
Phase Boot is another nice Boot upgrade. Give 70 MS, 7 armor, a bit of damage and phase skill (10% increase MS, no collision) at a low cost just above 1600 gold. Coupled with the buff of Boot of Travel, now all three boot upgrade (Power Thread, Boot of Travel and Phase Boot) become viable depending on hero used. 70 ms in no joke. With Phase, the speed bonus is comparable to BoT.
Glyph of Fortification has the effect of the old TP scroll - give massive armor bonus to all structure for 4 seconds. No cost, not going into inventory, a team item with 6 minutes cooldown. With the nerf on TP scroll, now tower-defend need to be carefully planned, since once you used this item, it is not until 6 minutes later when you can use this item again.

-New loading screen, as the images above. Nice screen, Invoker flying high and might, Lina looks as if she's casting Dragon Slave. Drow, Huskar, PL and his images, Void, Sven, Axe.....

-Terrain around sentinel and scourge base is reworked a bit. Now the base entrances are wider and less steep, providing easier way to push into base. Plus, Sentinel World Tree is more center just like Scourge Frozen Throne. More balance, eh? Not to mention there's like a very huge gap separating the base and 2nd tower, especially on the scourge side.... I find this a bit challenging since now we can't rely on the protection from base tower when defending the 2nd tower.

-Changes how bounty system (hero kill gold, first blood, tower kill) works. Nice one, now the value of assist increased even more. And earning gold is fairly easy even for support heroes, since the bounty is divided amongst the assitors in the area.

-Blink Dagger now only get disabled when player is hit by hero-based damage. No more annoying creep hinder your Reverse Polarity, haha. And with 15 cooldown, expect even more ganking style.

-KotL and Enchantress reworked a little. This new KotL no longer has his uber blink pusher Igniss Fatuus, rather now he has a spirit form, which increased his abilities. No longer need to channel Illuminate, annoying 80% blind AoE skill, ally teleport. His mana rupture, while it might seem less useful than the old mana leak, I like how it can stun the enemies if they run out of mana. Enchantress' Impetus is now ultimate, with 0 cooldown at all level. Damn, that's good.

-Nerf on map control. Sentry and Observer ward nerfed, Weaver' watcher nerf, Beastmaster hawk nerf. Not to mention even courier can no longer place wards. Great, jungling is easier now. But ganking is also easier too :3

Man, this will take ages to comment about everything on the change of this patch. Among others include the Aegis change, item change (BKB, Lothar, Manta) and -CM mode. Overall I like most of these changes, although I find it rather "sudden" with how this impact the metagame, since the stable league map (6.52e) has only been released a few months ago, and now we're introduced with some major alteration. But I really can't wait to see this map implemented in tournaments XD
And expect 6.55b to be released soon, I see some tooltips have yet to be filled (like those buff icon for new heroes/items) .