Bata-kun no Atarashii Nikki/バタくんの新しい日記

Right now in Japan is Hayashibara Megumi-san’s birthday. I believe she is now 20 years old. Ha ha ha! I kid. You know, it’s hard to believe that she is now 40 years old. I wonder how she’ll celebrate her birthday. The same goes for Kawasumi Ayako-san who is now 21, uh, I mean, 31.

What’s there for me to say about one of my all-time favorite seiyuu in Hayashibara Megumi-san? She influenced the second half of the 1980’s. She heavily influenced the 1990’s. Need I say more? Actually, both of these two still have something left in them.

What’s surprising is that Hayashibara-san’s not the only big person that’ll turn 40 later this year. In less than a couple of months, it’ll be Koyasu Takehito-san’s turn to be 40. For June, it’s Ueda Yuuji-san. At the end of August, Hiramatsu Akiko-san turns 40 also. Oh and towards the end of the year, Mitsuishi Kotono-san hits that time as well as Koshiro Yuuzou-san who contributed to “Pink Sweets’” OST if you’re wondering what is his latest work. Wow. So many people.

Since I brought up “Pink Sweets”, I have to mention that it has nearly been a year since it was released and yet, I still haven’t played it. I’m beyond mad to put it lightly. I am now forced to wait for a PS2 release because no arcade place here’s willing to accept it. I bet that somewhere in Manila, the game’s there. I don’t know. If there is a place that has the game in the area, I’m so going to be moving there soon.

Of course, I want the OST. (Details can be found here and here by the way.) I don’t know if there’s a special version of it, but I wouldn’t mind paying an extra $15 or so for a figurine of Kasumi or any of the other girls. Ho ho ho! Ahem!

Uh, the OST was released a few months back and besides your usual Cave people and Koshiro-san, people like Sasou Ayako-san and Hosoe Shinji-san, both of them turning 40 earlier this year, are here as well. So, if you like their works, you’ll definitely want to pick it up. On a side note, I think I invented a new term: “romantic techno”. I tell you, if NEC manages to make a 10th anniversary album of the “Sentimental” series and Koshiro-san works on a track, I’ve seen everything then.

So, yeah, “Pink Sweets” has occupied some of my time as of late. I’m waiting for my port Taito! Oh and don’t mess up!

I am going to visit a friend’s place soon. I am pretty sure he wants to test out my newly created characters from “Moero! Justice Gakuen”. Not the best job in the world in regards of my creations, but at least I have something. I’ll definitely need a bunch of favors for him. Of course, he’ll get something, seeing that his birthday’s coming up.

First things first. Right now in Japan is the “Garou Densetsu” star’s birthday. Terry is now 34. Next year, we’ll be experiencing “Mark of the Wolves”. Of course, it’s pointless to go down south because we all know that Southtown doesn’t really exist. Well, except in our fantasy worlds. Ha ha ha! Omedetou Terii!

I guess the site’s now working. That’s a tolerable way of putting it. I’m sure Maestro went through Hell just to get them running.

That last entry was an entry I’ve been working on for a while. Hopefully, that entry will get me accepted to T.H.A.T. Animeblog. Of course, should I be part of it, I will show what I’ve been showing you all for the past few months. Also, should I be part of that group, I will most likely kill Impz because of torture, not because of my Zenkai Kiaidan. I think I’ve started already with the J.C. scenario. I hope I’m wrong though.

I’ll continue editing next week because this is SNKP week. Terry’s birthday is going on right now and Athena’s went by recently over there. Oh and of course, on Saturday, it’s the birthday of my wife. Uh, I mean, Yamadera Kouichi-san’s wife, Yamadera Mika Kanai-san. Hey! I can’t help it that she’s more attractive than most 20 something girls I know of! XD

To get back on track, I’ve asked a few people to be interviewed for that interview thing. They like the idea and they’ll send me answers next month. Most likely. I am about to work on twos draft soon. I am not going to say anything about them right now though.

I feel so guilty now. I forgot about Athena’s birthday and I just said a phrase from Terry. I deserve to be hit with a Shining Crystal Bit.

Image from that Sagubooru site. =P

Hajimemashite! I am the most recent blogger to be added to THAT Animeblog: Bata-kun. I was added here because Impz wanted to be hit with my Zenkai Kiaidan. Ha ha ha! Seriously, I’m glad to help him and the rest of the crew any way I can.

Though my name slowly is being recognized by the anime blogging community, I have actually been holding a diary of some sort for four years. Besides THAT Animeblog, I run my personal blog, Bata-kun no Atarashii Nikki and I also have a tiny diary in my little personal site. You can check both sites in the About the Members section.

The reason I pretty much remained underground was because of the fact that lots of people know me as a gamer. Anyway, one of my all-time favorite series is “Justice Gakuen”. If that name does not ring a bell, “Justice Academy”, or better yet, “Rival Schools” and “Project Justice”.

For those that don’t know, “Justice Gakuen” is a fighting game series by Capcom that’s about to be a decade old later this year. You picked a team and you find out who has been wreaking havoc to all of the schools in Japan. (Obviously, the games take place in Tokyo because that’s where Sakura is from and you do see her in the first two games.) You travel to every school that has been attacked and of course, the source behind all of this madness is Mugen who is now dead. However, he did leave an impact on one of his sons, Hyou, as he did havoc himself.

Of course, Hyou’s brother Kyousuke, his cousin Batsu and his uncle Raizou made him think differently and Hyou became a different person. However, Mugen was furious over this and not only did he decide to give commands over Hyou again, he went out to hire two people to kill those traitors: Kurou and Yurika. Of course, Yurika was less eager than her younger brother, but her brother was too dedicated to this job.

What makes this series one of the most fun series out there is the fact that the game’s charm lies in its characters. Yes, some are dull in regards of fighting style, but at least the characters are interesting. Every school relates to each other. Taiyou, Gorin and Minami all have their link in Hinata, Natsu and Sakura. Gedou and Seijun hold a Kazama kid. There are many more links as well.

In regards of audio, yeah, the songs are not as memorable as those from “Street Fighter”, but they’re still that good. The first two games’ final theme song (the real trippy one) and Seijun’s theme song are some of my favorite songs ever. (I tell you, the final game has better rock music than any other game with a heavy rock soundtrack.) This is a very good series for hermits like myself because people like Ueda Yuuji-san and Orikasa Ai-san are here.

I still try to learn some new tactic in the series all the time. I try to create characters and even if I mess up, I still have fun. How many series can say this overall? Not many.

Go play a “Justice Gakuen” game if you haven’t done so. Yes, the series’s a school girl fan’s dream (or a nurse’s dream for some of you), but it’s fun. (I so can kill with Kyouko.) I know that the game can be too simplistic, but it works. (Maybe I can create a green hair loli for Impz? Ho ho ho!)

Unlike this winter, I’m going to watch a good amount of series in the spring. I’m watching “Oofuri“, as I’m a baseball fan. I’m also looking forward to “Hayate” seeing that it’s cute and “Gurren-Lagann” just because it has some cute girl named Youko.

I scratched off “Blue Dragon“. I don’t like the seiyuu changes and I was never a fan of Toriyama Akira-san’s art. “Devil May Cry“: why do I have a feeling that it’ll be horrid? I made a mistake in watching the “KoF” anime and I don’t want to make that same mistake here. (I probably drank some good sake to watch the “KoF” anime.)

When I heard about “Idolmaster Xenoglossia“, I wondered if making an anime about idols raising to the top is possible. It turned out to be much different. As much as I love the seiyuu here, I never liked seiyuu changes and I now question the direction of this anime. Animation-wise, it’s good, but for some reason, I can’t seem to catch on to this sci-fi move.

Whether or not I’ll scratch this off my list, I don’t know until the end of the month or so, but if I do, it’s a shame because I haven’t heard Sakurai Tomo-san’s name in like…well, forever and she was in the same boat as Shiratori Yuri-san. Oh, she’ll play as Azusa by the way who happens to be my favorite idol.

Well, there are my lists. If I do end up scratching off the “Imas” anime, that’s okay. I still have Sakurai-san’s older anime. Ha ha ha! I so need to do that soon.

So, right now in Japan is Hina Matsuri no Hi and “Justice Gakuen” Akira’s birthday. Yes, I’d rather be the poor sap holding all of the things the girl bought and I definitely wouldn’t mind doing this for Akira. Ha ha ha! Ahem!

Anyway, I might as well give my best wishes to Akira, even though she’ll never get them. The closest task would be giving those wishes to Tezuka Chiharu-san or to Capcom. That’s it.

Spring is coming up and I figured that I should prepare for the season. Spring is my favorite season of the year now these days because of the honest temperature and this is weird coming from a guy born in July. Summer used to be my favorite season as a kid, but when I got older, summer didn’t do much for me and it still doesn’t because I don’t look forward to my birthdays anymore.

What I’m doing right now is looking over the various anime series that’ll appear later this month and the rest of spring. There’s that and I’m analyzing how far will the Giants go this season. It’s been around five years since they were last in the playoffs, but this year, that’ll change given the changes they conducted.

Unlike winter, spring will actually have a good amount of series to look forward to. The only way I won’t watch these series is if Media Factory is involved in any of them. So far, it seems like I’m watching no series with them involved.

Seeing that yakyuu is coming up in both America and Japan as well as Canada, I’m going to watch “Oofuri“. There’s that and I grew up with baseball as I mentioned earlier how far the Giants will go this season. I’m also looking forward to “Hayate” seeing that it’s cute and “Gurren-Lagann” just because it has some cute girl named Youko.

Up to this point, I scratched off my list “Blue Dragon“. I don’t like the seiyuu changes and I was never a fan of Toriyama Akira-san’s art. “Devil May Cry“: I have a feeling that it’ll be horrid, which is why I scratched that off my list. I made a mistake in watching the “KoF” anime and I don’t want to make that same mistake here.

When I heard about “Idolmaster Xenoglossia“, I wondered if making an anime about idols raising to the top is possible. It turned out to be much different. As much as I love the seiyuu here, I never liked seiyuu changes and I now question the direction of this anime. Chupiler seems to like some parts of this, but for some reason, I can’t seem to catch on to this sci-fi move.

Whether or not I’ll scratch this off my list, I don’t know until the end of the month or so, but if I do, it’s a shame because I haven’t heard Sakurai Tomo-san’s name in like…well, forever and she was in the same boat as Shiratori Yuri-san. Oh, she’ll play as Azusa by the way. Yeah and she’s my favorite idol.

I guess that’s that? Suggest me a series that I should watch in the upcoming spring. Mata ne.

Note of 15:12: Chupiler showed me an image that shows every series for this spring. Enjoy! Ha ha ha!

Image by Megane.

I’ve been piled with so much work, I am actually having trouble thinking about what I want to type here. Am I finally becoming a grandfather? Maybe.

I plan on being a freeter again. I never liked my current job mainly because I go Milpitas for nothing really. I didn’t mind having it for like the first couple of months or so, but that was only because I was still living in Milpitas. After that, I really was serious about getting a second job or better yet, a new job. I actually wanted to quit around the time I moved back here to San Jose, but some people said that I should stay for a year.

The rain, which I never liked over the years, has killed off my plans this week. I was supposed to go to Milpitas to talk with a family friend about some issue the day before yesterday. Even though it looks clear right now, I don’t want to be hit with unexpected rain.

Daylight Saving Time will start in less than two weeks. Whoever thought of this idea was drinking some good sake. I never liked DST because you lose an hour of sleep and you move an hour closer to school or in my case, work. Why can’t America be like the Philippines and not have DST?

Next week for sure (and this time, I am not going to joke around here), I will check all of last year’s entries as well as the entries of the first half or so of last month. I’m pretty sure some of them need fixing. When will I work on the other entries? I don’t know.

I forgot that tomorrow is March and I better start thinking about what series to watch this spring. There’s this one Gainax series with a girl named Youko, but I forgot its name right now. What I did not forget is the the fact that I will not miss this series. Other than that, there are not many series I can think of to watch this spring.

For some reason, outside of “Nodame Cantabile”, the winter series have not done much for me. I still haven’t watched “Nova”, even though there are people out there that don’t like it for some reason. (I’m just watching it for the seiyuu and not much else to be honest.) I may like Koyasu-san, but no one ever said that one seiyuu can hold a series together as this is the case in “Saint October”, I still don’t know if Hayashibara-san has a role in “Manabi” to make me watch it seriously and “Hidamari Sketch”, as cute as it is, is no “Azumanga Daiou”.

Oh. It is Chun Li’s birthday in Japan right now. While I do admit that I picked her the most in “Street Fighter II”, the percentage of times in which I picked her in any form of fighting game has dropped severely and it’s not because she barely young for the lack of a better word. It’s that she has changed so much, I can’t keep up with the changes anymore. Well, there’s that and I started using Sakura and Ibuki more.

I’m not going to mention her “SF II” form because she has always been a nightmare for opposing players for the most part. While she was good in the first “Zero” game, she got worse with every game that followed and it really showed in the final “Zero” game as well as “Upper”. It’s good that she came back in the final version of “III”, but outside of the Houyoku Sen, there’s not much else that impresses me about her. She’s a very good tournament character and she’s the only character I finished “Third Strike” with, but despite all of this, I never did fully grasp her. Yes, you have to rely on her normal moves more, but I’m one who loves to utilize special moves.

Seeing that I mentioned Ken earlier this month, I probably picked Ken more than Chun Li in “Third Strike”. What’s unusal about this is that rarely do I find myself in a “Street Fighter” game or any other Capcom game for that matter in which I pick Ken more than Chun Li. I take that back. Now, it’s so common for me to pick Ken over Chun Li in various games. This wasn’t the case back when I was still in elementary and middle school.

Well, here’s my best wishes to her. That did not sound right, but that’s okay. You’ll always be 18. Ha ha ha!

Added notes as of 12:03: the name of the Gainax series is called “Maikin Breakthrough Gurren-Lagann”. The link is here. Good that Rid was talking about this the whole time.

Before I forget, the site looks fine. There’s no need for me to talk to Maestro. So, yay.

誕生日おめでとうございます水樹さん！すごい！遊びましてそして気をつけりましてください！^_^

I will admit it. I am not the best person to talk with in regards of “Tokimemo”, “Tokimeki Memorial” if you don’t know, overall. With this in mind, Chupiler really flashed out a reason on why he would never make a blog of his own. Last night and past midnight, he told me why he never liked “Tokimemo III” and he’ll never like “Girl’s Side” or “Girl’s Side II”.

Before I go on, let me get some statements out of the way. The first game is well, the first game and nothing more really needs to be said. (Some day, I will finish this game. Just not now. I’d probably buy a PSP just for the new version, though it is pretty much emulation.) Chupiler loved “II” because of the characters and I probably would have loved “II” also if I did manage to play it. I don’t remember “Online” very well, though I would have been annoyed by it if I had to guess. I don’t remember the others before “III” as well.

Now, unlike the first two main games, “III” never sold well. Not only are the visuals horrible overall, the game mechanics are horrible also. Chupiler mentioned that he hated the way of you picking clothes on your date. While this may sound like a spiffy idea, what you don’t realize is that if you pick some sort of formal clothing, the girl will go home. I instantly said “The Hell?!” and adding on, if you pick normal clothes, the girl will dump you on the spot. He didn’t like the characters since I’m still talking about this game, but I have to see myself.

“Girl’s Side” came out at around the same time as “III”. This was really Konami’s form of mockery for Chupiler if you will. You know, I defintely wouldn’t enjoy this game as much as a girl would because of the fact that I’m trying to get a guy to like me, but there are two redeeming pluses this game has. One of them is that it has B’z (and I’m guessing that this is the only plus Momo liked about “Girl’s Side”). The other plus is that it has a bunch of seiyuu that I like. (I actually made a seiyuu guide for this game by the way.)

As for “Girl’s Side II”, I wouldn’t like this game that much either. Yes, Ueda Yuuji-san is back, but not as Yoshio, who I actually liked over the years. While having him anywhere is usually a plus, I found this to be a plus and a negative because as much as I like Ueda-san, this game now makes me wonder if Konami is running out of ideas. The chance to date a foreigner really is not a task I’m ready to do and the boys don’t look that impressive.

Oh. I am not going to bother with the American clone of “Tokimemo”. The scary thing about that game is that Konami is working on it also. Chupiler and I think that the Konami employees were drinking some good sake. Of course, Chupiler would rather play “III” or either “GS” game than this “clone”. So would I.

Hmmm.

I give points for effort, but I think I was spoiled thanks to Sakamoto Maaya-san (who is in this anime if you don’t know) a long time ago. Good old Sakamoto-san. I so act silly when I say that name. Kya ha ha! XD

Cain has made a thread that shows links to “1998 Ultimate Match” videos. You see two random players playing the game and see various voice actors such as Athena’s Ikezawa Haruna-san (her first big role by the way) doing the commentating. It’s interesting to hear Yasui Kunihiko-san, Iori’s seiyuu, to do his famous victory laugh in front of the people. I believe the game will be out in less than three months.

Uh, I changed my mind about the post dates for next month and I’m most likely going to be posting on the 26th. The reason is because this month really should have been my month in which I just fly. I didn’t really fly that much. It is the first month of the year and I didn’t do a whole lot. Starting tomorrow, I really plan on sleeping a lot.

I’m going to crash soon. I can sleep at ease now thankfully. Mata ne.

I better make this quick, seeing that I’m about to crash. I always say “I better make this quick,” don’t I? It’s a habit, I guess.

Anyway, remember this entry? Chupiler showed me the site of “Quiz Magic Academy IV” just recently. (Don’t know the release date, but it should be later this year.) For those that don’t know, “Quiz Magic Academy” is a quiz game series by Konami that started three years ago. What makes the series unique is that it’s an online quiz game. The problem with the games is that the questions are obviously in Japanese.

Don’t believe me? “Quiz Magic Academy Net” states in its English page that all of the questions are in Japanese. Oh and guess what? Unlike a game like “Quiz Nanairo Dreams”, a quiz game made by Capcom more than a decade ago and a game I have actually made a guide on, there are no questions that ask about English! That’s what I would assume.

So, why in the world am I ranting about a game I am most likely going to be killed in? The answer is because I have always felt that somewhere down the road, the game or the series in general has potential. What’s funny is that this could end up being, and I am so serious about saying this, my game of 2007. Aside from the art, it has seiyuu such as Tamura Yukari-san who plays as Clala and Kuwashima Houko-san who plays as Ruquia, and this is an online game. Not to mention, this is a learning game.

Okay. I admit. I did see a testing movie that was disturbing, but I won’t get into that. What’s important is that it’s a learning game I’ll end up playing and probably a fun one at that too.

Oh! I will go to Japan in a few months. I am going to be in Tokyo for the most part, altough I’ll try to sneak a day dedicated for Kyoto. I will only be there for a week because of various reasons. I’ll be able to do what I wanted to do ever since I was 17. Of course, I plan to buy a bunch of stuff. I can’t forget this game also. I will try to do well, though I’ll get killed obviously.

I want to visit Seoul after this trip, but that won’t be for a while. Oh well. I will hopefully get the sources I need.

Okay! I’m off! I so don’t want to work the day after tomorrow, but I have to. The reason’s because every last Wednesday of the month is when I have my big laundry day. That’s why. I’ll just wing it for the next couple of days and then I’ll really dedicate February to rest. Ja mata ne.