I’ve actually spent a lot of my time the last 2 weeks playing a new game on my Nintendo DS. It’s called Luminous Arc, and was just recently released in US version.

When I first saw it while going game hunting with Dyna and Carbunkid about a month ago. Kid picked up the game from the shelf and shoved it to me. The first thing that immediately caught my attention was the artwork. It’s simply gorgeous. My first thought was, “I need to get this game…”

Luminous Arc is a Strategy RPG that uses a battlefield grid for battles. If you’ve played this kind of games before, you’d know how addictive it can be. There are also replay values as well, especially if you didn’t max out all your other character’s “hearts” (which is quite difficult unless you battle a lot, and I mean a lot) and the side quests if you missed them in your first playthrough.

The English voice cast is great and very fitting with all the characters. You will seldom find me praising the English dubbed cast of any Japan-made games and especially anime, so it’s saying quite a lot.

What does this have to do with anime?

Since this is supposed to be an anime blog after all, I’ll try to justify why I’m posting about Luminous Arc.

I’m currently on my third playthrough of the game (with all my over-leveled characters) and I’m actually thinking of getting the Japanese version of the game. If the English voice casting is already so impressive, I was wondering about the Japanese voice cast.

And according to Wikipedia’s entry on Luminous Arc:

With some of my favourite Seiyuus like Aya and Akira as well as Keiji, Yuuko and Fumiko who had impressed me with their anime roles before, it’s really hard to resist the temptation to grab the Japanese version and enjoy their voice acting talents.

Ahh… So many things to buy, so little money…

Click here to get your own copy of Luminous Arc.

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You can find the previous post for this here:

• My Chronicle: Journey Through Anime I
• My Chronicle: Journey Through Anime II

Pokemon

I was first exposed to Pokemon when my mom bought a set of 10 VCD of the series from Singapore in 1998. Before that I was totally clueless to what Pokemon was. I just took out the CD and put it into the player with absolutely no expectations.

I remembered that I was totally hooked by the 3rd or 4th episode. From there on, I nagged my mom to buy more whenever she went to Singapore. This went on until the Orange League arc began. I can’t remember for what reason, but my mom suddenly stopped buying and I stopped watching. The reason could be because another anime had caught my attention at that time, which I will talk about after this.

During the Johto league season, the episodes were starting to become available locally and I started watching again, but that didn’t last long as well. The shops I went to never have the episodes I wanted, almost never restocks, and it was difficult for me to go around to other shops looking for it. So once again, I gave up watching the series. On the other hand, I kept up with all the movies and major events in the storyline, at least.

A few months ago when I bought my Nintendo DS, I started playing Pokemon Pearl (my first game on the DS). When I learned that a new Pokemon 10th season (Diamond and Pearl) was recently released, I started watching again although at a slower pace.

I was first exposed to Pokemon about 8 years ago, and I’m still watching it now. Unless they really screwed up the anime, chances are I would continue to watch it for a long time to come.

Cardcaptor Sakura

Cardcaptor Sakura started showing on a local TV channel in 1999. I remember disliking it at first but after watching a few episodes from season 3 I began to find it rather interesting.

Luckily for me, the station re-ran the series from the first season after it ended. This time around, I never missed a single episode. If I were to name any series that got me truly started to liking anime, it would have to be Cardcaptor Sakura. Because of that, it easily became my favourite and continues to stay that way even now.

Because of Cardcaptor Sakura, I waited impatiently for Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, and from there I got to reading and watching many other of CLAMP’s work, many which became a favourite as well.

Cardcaptor Sakura was the first full anime collection I had (season 1-3, movies 1 & 2, 12 volumes of manga) and they seldom collect any dust since I still go through them quite frequently.

A magical girl series that revolves around Kinomoto Sakura, the chosen successor of the Clow Cards. Each episode shows Sakura finding or later on when she had collected them all, converting the Clow Cards to Sakura Cards. Although a mastermind exist behind most of the events, there really isn’t any villain. Despite that, it’s still very entertaining to see Sakura catching all the mischievous Clow Cards that she accidentally released and using them to battle strange happenings when Eriol arrived.

Digimon

I didn’t like Digimon at first because it sounded looked a lot like Pokemon at first. But I did catch it on TV whenever I had nothing better to do.

It wasn’t until around the middle of the first season, the arc where Hikari appeared, that I began to pay more attention to this series. Strangely enough, I also found out that many people started to become fans because of Hikari.

Unlike Pokemon, Digimon is *cough*serious*cough* business. The world is constantly in danger due to the threats posed by some evil Digimon (except maybe Savers, but there were still those who wanted to destroy the human world anyway) and its up to a few selected children (again, Savers is an exception here) with their Digimon partners to save both the human world and the digital world from certain doom.

The process repeats itself every season and it does gets a bit boring, but I still enjoy the original 2 series (Adventure and 02) and Savers as well.

Coming Next…

The next part could be the last in this series. Around that time I started to watch many other anime on satellite TV and it became quite impossible to keep track of all of them. The next few would be the ones I could still remember that pushed me to become the anime fan I am today.

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You can find the previous post for this here:

• My Chronicle: Journey Through Anime I

Continuing where I left off, it wasn’t until this particular anime did I start to find a liking to Japanese animation. It’s blue, it’s round and it has a pocket that has everything you could ever imagine and more.

Doraemon

I don’t think there’s really any need to go too deep here. I’m pretty sure everyone knows who is Doraemon. The cat robot from the 22nd century with the all useful 4-dimensional pocket filled with gadgets from the future.

It was a pity that The Doraemons story arc was never animated (at least to my knowledge) since that arc has some of my favourite stories for Doraemon.

Shogakukan recently released 5 new volumes of never before seen story in 2005. If anyone knows where I can get this (translated of course) please do let me know 😀

Doraemon was probably my first true anime experience, in the sense that I knew it was a Japanese animation. I would never miss a single episode on TV or any volume of the manga (with some exception to the long stories and The Doraemons arc).

Around this time…

It was around this time when I first caught glimpse of some anime like Ranma 1/2, Slayers and some others that I can no longer recall. I didn’t pay much attention to Ranma 1/2 and Slayers until a bit later, but there are a few that I could somewhat recall being crazy over at the time.

Isami’s Incredible Shinsen Squad

I believe the Japanese title for this is Soar High! Isami! and it was released in August 1995 and ran until June 1996. It doesn’t seem to be very popular since I could no longer find any information regarding the series on Google. I couldn’t find any decent image of it either.

The story is about 3 descendants of the Shinsen Squad that had once defended the world against the evil Black Tengu and his faction a few hundred years ago. At the start of the story, the Black Tengu Faction reappeared once more and Isami and her two friends Soshi and Toshi discovered that they have inherited the powers of their ancestors and decided to use it to defend the world against the Black Tengu Faction.

As I recalled, the ending was somewhat of a shock, when the Black Tengu was revealed to be the kindly old man who always plays with Isami. It was also revealed that the Black Tengu was in fact the very same one that Isami’s ancestors had fought hundreds of years ago. I can’t remember how he had gained immortality, but in the end the Black Tengu decided to disband his faction once and for all.

Gosaurer

This is actually very similar to the first Power Rangers. A group of kids were given control over a mech called Go-Saurer by Earth’s ancient protector, Eldoran, to against the the Kikaika (Mechanization) Empire. The Kikaika Empire had already conquered most of the solar system and Earth was it’s next target. However, with the appearance of Eldoran and the Go-Saurer, Earth was saved over and over again.

Go-Saurer was a cool concept, and I still find it to be so even now. Eldoran had altered the school blocks to become Go-Saurer itself and everytime they had to launch the whole school started to move about and merge like some sort of jigsaw to complete the Saurer Jet.

The Saurer jet could then split into 3 different dinosaur robots; the Mach Ptera, Land Stego and Thunder Brachio. These 3 mechs could then merge into the Gosaurer.

Magnasaurer and Gransaurer were introduced later on, and they could each merge with Gosaurer to form either Magna Buster or Gransaurer.

When GoSaurer, Magnasaurer and Gransaurer combines together, they become King Gosaurer, the ultimate mech in the series. I’m pretty sure King Gosaurer had another upgrade during the final battle against the Robot God. Eldoran had used the rest of his power to transform whatever was left of the school into an armor upgrade for King Gosaurer.

If you’re interested to know more about the different mechs found in Gosaurer, you can check this link out.

Ninja Senshi Tobikage

First watched this on Cartoon Network as Ninja Robots and it actually took me a while to realize that its anime. Humans had colonized Mars by the year 2200 and the main protagonist, Joe Maya, who managed to get an ancient lion beast mecha to function and protect the alien ship, Xenos Five, that crashed on Mars. Only ninjas or their descendants could operate these war mechs, and Joe happened to be one, though that wasn’t really made clear until they got to Earth.

The lion beast mecha, Kuro-Jishi (Black Leo – a rather funny name for a yellow-orange mecha), wasn’t the only one aboard the alien spacecraft. There were 2 others – Hou-Rai-Oh (Phoenix Thunder Strike) and Baku-Ryu (Brust Dragon). Both machines were piloted by 2 of Joe’s closest friends – Reny and Mike. All 3 mechas are in a humanoid form when piloted.

But the coolest was yet to come. Tobikage, a ninja-like machine, often appeared out of nowhere when the 3 mechas are in danger and merges with one of them to form the animal version of the mecha.

The real fun began when Joe realized he could control Tobikage and began piloting Tobikage instead of Kuro-Jishi. Another highlight of the series was the final confrontation between Tobikage and Mantis near the end of the series. It’s a pity though, the story could have continued since it hasn’t really ended yet. All they did was get out of the solar system.

Coming Next…

While I’ve discovered what anime is by now, I had not become a big fan of it yet. My favourite channel at the time was Cartoon Network and Disney Channel, but since my source for anime at that time was still very limited I guess it was to be expected, really. But the few that I did managed to watch later on got me started to hunt around for anime VCDs, and some of those have become my favourites even until now. In fact, I’m still watching one of it right now

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The Very Beginning

I can’t really remember what was the first ever anime I’ve watched, but I do have vague recollections of some of the earliest anime I did pay attention to.

I didn’t know they were anime back then. Heck, I didn’t even know what anime was! To me, it was all cartoons and were no different from Scooby Doo, Ghostbusters and The Flinstones. But now, at least a decade later, after I’ve become an anime fan, I was shocked to find that many of my old favourites were really anime.

Kimba and Leo

Kimba/Leo was created by Osamu Tezuka, the father of anime and manga. He was highly regarded as the Walt Disney of Japan. I vaguely recalled his first work, Astro Boy, which is said to be the first ever anime created, but I do not remember if I actually watched the series before. However, I was a big fan of Kimba/Leo, and I remember that it was one of my favourite shows on TV at that time.

Kimba the White Lion tells the story of a white lion cub, who escaped from a hunter on a ship. After managing to find land, Kimba was found and raised by humans. Kimba then returned to the jungle, carrying his father’s ideals, to provide all animals with a safe haven and to stand for peace.

Leo the Lion is the sequel to a now grown Kimba. However, the focus of the story no longer lies in Leo/Kimba, but in his cub, Rune. Unlike Kimba the White Lion, Leo the Lion was darker in nature and somewhat depressing. But still, I’m pretty sure I liked Leo more than Kimba at that time.

Speed Racer

I also recalled being a big fan of Speed Racer. Again, I had no idea that this was anime as well. I just know it was a cartoon, and I liked it a lot. It was the first racing-themed show I watched… At least I think so.

Speed Racer’s car, the Mach Five, was the first ever car I fell in love with. Looking back now, I can’t believe I actually wanted the steering wheel on my car to look like that! But it looked cool to a … what… 5 year old? Well, somewhere around there anyway. Each button you press gives you a different function. That was probably the one and only reason why I liked Speed Racer.

Voltron

Many people were absolutely crazy over Voltron when I was but a wee child. There were actually 3 different Voltrons, but I was only familiar with the Lion Voltron and Vehicle Voltron. Out of these 2, I only liked the Lion Voltron and have very vague memories of the Vehicle Voltron. I only know it looks familiar, and that’s about it.

The Lion Voltron, on the other hand, is still quite vivid in my mind. 5 robot lions that could combine into a huge kick-ass robot was awesome at the time. The best part of the show was always when Voltron pulls out his (notice I said his, that’s because Lion Voltron initially had an AI) sword and go for the win. Kind of reminds you of Power Rangers, doesn’t it?

The story is also pretty similar to Power Rangers. The Voltron Force was in charge of defending the planet Arus from an evil King, his son, and a witch. Only difference here is, they do not hide their identity and they are working directly under the Princess Allura.

There was one mech/robot that instantly reminded me of Voltron from a very popular anime a few years back. That was Super Vandread of the Vandread series. The way it pulled out its sword screamed Voltron all over. Possibly a tribute to Voltron, even having starting with the letter “V”.

Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs

A group of 4 people, known as the Cavalry Command, were chosen to operate the Ramrod Equalizer Unit (Bismarck in the Japanese version) to protect the New Frontier from Outriders (Deathculas), a humanoid alien race that terrorizes the human colonies.

Saber Rider was cool. Ramrod was cool. How many robot/mech do you know that have a shitload of guns hidden in its chest? Wait… never mind, don’t answer that. There’s actually quite a few others. But it was the only one I knew at the time, so it was cool.

What’s interesting to note is that Saber Rider was the main character of the show only in the American version. The original Japanese series was called “Sei Jushi Bismarck”, and the main character was really Fireball (Shinji Hikari). That does somewhat makes sense, since I do remember Fireball having the most screen time while Saber Rider appears far less frequently.

Coming Next…

And then it came. The one that changed my perspective… forever…

It is blue and round, and up until today I still wish for one. Make a guess 😛

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w00t w00t~

I’m 23 today (whips out a calculator just to make sure) and I’m still watching and loving anime 😀

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