Oh yeah, this is another one of my attempts of escapeing the great pile of work that is towering behing me and threatening to bury me alive if it happenes to overbalance. Which means: Personality-Tests straight ahead!!!

*click on the pictures to do the tests yourself!*

Well since I wrote about the second season of Junjo Romantica a few posts ago (CLICK TO READ), I'll make this a short one.

The official start date of 'Junjo Romantica - Season 2' is made public. It'll begin airing on October 12th at 1am (in Japan)

That's exactly one week from today! I don't know about you, but I can't wait anymore! I especially anticipate Junjo Terrorist *swoons*

During the weekly broadcasting of Junjo Romantica season one, I never got around to make a review of the series, so it's time to catch up on it.

Creator:

Shungiku Nakamura
Release: Kadokawa (Japan)
Producers: ANIK, A.C.G.T.
Studio: Studio DEEN
Director: Chiaki Kon
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Type: TV series
Duration: 12 episodes (another season with 12 eps coming this fall)
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Drama, Yaoi/Shounen-ai
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SCORE: A

The anime adaption of Junjo Romantica became a big hit and justifiably so, because they really put a lot of effort into the production. But in the end it all paid off and even turned out to be better and more popular than the original manga.
Let's elaborate all aspects of this anime starting with the visual impression.
Compared to many other series and OVAs it can show off with its great character design, which is very important if not primary in the world of boys love. The art style in general is very clean/definite and not too aggressive or extreme, meaning that they mainly used soft colors and the proportions are acceptable. And another thing that I noticed is, that they occasionally change their clothes which is a rare occurrence when it comes to anime (usually a character sticks to its unique outfit during a whole season or longer).
All featuring backgrounds and items are very detailed. And they always seem to make the atmosphere more intense, without distracting the viewer from the main happening.

As for the story, or rather stories... I like to look at them individually, even though they are connected in some ways. The mangaka gave different names for these three storylines for a reason: Junjo Romantica, Egoist and Terrorist.
Junjo Romantica is pretty much cliche and well known as a shounen-ai plot. A student (Misaki) with bad grades getting tutored by a famous guy (Usami), with a bit struggling, hesitance and romance mixed in... there's nothing too exciting about that and everyone knows the eventual outcome. At least that's what many people would think of it. But it is the way it's all settled up. This couple moves a lot more dynamic and aggressive than one would anticipate and it is not as predictable as it seems on first glance (due to a few surprising plottwists, not the final outcome).
Then we have Junjo Egoist where we get to know a rather chaotic couple that suffers many ups and downs, some more unnerving than others. Basically it starts off with a rejected and broken Hiroki and Nowaki who wants nothing more than to give him all the love he never experienced. This story contains a lot more suspense and is rather emotional, which makes it a bit less foreseeable.
Junjo Terrorist holds our third and last couple (which is my personal favorite). Our two main characters appear to be very stubborn and relatively cold towards each other (apart from one or two attempts of convincement), or at least it felt that way, because even though Shinobu confesses his love to the much older literature professor, You Miyagi, it was nothing like the sparking emotions between the other two couples even though their first meeting is supposedly fateful.

Despite the few similar streaks or outward resemblances all six characters have very different personalities and background stories which you come to know better with each episode. But it's funny how all three ukes seem to pout and panic a lot as opposite to the Semes who are mostly in a good mood or smirking.

Another thing I enjoyed was the voice acting. They chose the perfect actors for the individual roles and breathed life into the whole series.
Both opening and ending captured the essence of Junjo Romantica in an appealing way. The songs don't sound irritating nor sappy at all.

I wasn't completely satisfied with the animation though... it seemed somewhat stiff and some motions were not really fluent. The anime itself doesn't contain lots of action as it is and and many movements happened off screen.

But all in all it is a great series and I believe that not only shounen-ai fans can enjoy it. In fact it has the potential to turn you into a fan or make your hate towards boys love go away, because there are many situations where you can see yourself in place of the characters, which intensifies the sensations and feelings.

Developer: Square
Publisher: Square, Square Electronic Arts, SCE Europe
Designer: Yoshinori Kitase, Motomu Toriyama, Toshiro Tsuchida
Writers: Kazushige Nojima
Artists: Tetsuya Nomura, Yusuke Naora
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Rating: T(een)
Genre: Console roleplaying game, Adventure, Fantasy
Mode: Single Player
Platforms: PlayStation 2
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SCORE:
Graphics: A
Story: A
Gameplay: B-
Sound: A-
Fun: B
OVERALL: A

Final Fantasy X was chosen as one of the best games ever made for the PS2 and in my opinion it absolutely lives up to its top rank.
Both cinematic CGI and the game play animations are surpassing almost everything I've seen on this console and appear to be nearly hyperrealisic in some parts. The different choices of colors of the ambient light makes the whole atmosphere soothingly warm or desperately cold, depending on the accurate situation, which is very important for the various experiences a person goes through while playing.
Character design is always a high priority in all of Square Enix' projects and you can feel their
personalities developing during the whole game. The characters' physiognomy reflects a lot of that personality and they appear very lively/realistic, almost as if they'd pop out of your screen any minute.
The story is another very important, if not the most essential element of Final Fantasy X. You start off with very little knowledge about your surroundings and occurring events and learn about all these details as the game proceeds. With each fulfilled task the story unfolds some more, which means that you can't get bored that easily.
The background music fits in nicely without getting too aggressive and yet emphasizes the mood befittingly. Even the voice actors were chosen carefully suit every character, but sadly the sync itself wasn't done very well, because they often move their mouths without saying anything at all.
One of the very few thing I didn't like that much, was the camera/point of view. It changes ever so often and you have no (or very little) control over it which can get confusing and unnerving at times (especially when you want to look around. The only thing that offers help is a little map in the upper left corner of the screen in which you can see yourself as a little yellow arrow that is pointing in the directen you're walking in.
Another part that made battles rather undynamic was the RPG combat system (Conditional Turn-Based Battle > CTB) in which you have to choose one attack per character at a time and that clearly slows down the whole process... I simply prefer the bashing style a lot more.
And level(ability and other) upgrades are unnecessarily complicated and confusing (with sphere grids you gain after defeating enemies)
All in all I had (& still have) a lot of fun with FFX. All fans of Kingdom Hearts, other FF parts or RPG's should definitely give it a try! After playing it through you'll get this wonderful feeling like you've really accomplished something.
A game worth its price,

It is not what I've expected it to be... Most of you would think the same after seeing it for the first time.
Almost every episode starts off with a narrator called FABULA telling you what happened so far and at the end she makes a brief profecy for the next one.
The characters are appealing and I grew to like every single one of them, but their design doesn't match (to be honest, they're even ugly sometimes...) with the backgrounds and effects (both really good), however... you get used to it after a while and with each passing episode you come to know them better.
Anyways, the story is imaginative and completely different from any series before. The plot is relatively dynamic and contains only very few repetetive or boring sequences. Another thing that fascinated me were the locations, because they seemed to be very well thought out.
A lot of fans of the Final Fantasy games do not appreciate this anime, because it has nothing to do with any of the already existing parts. In my opinion Unlimited is special in its own way and shouldn't be compared to anything seen in the games. That would be the same as if you'd hate F.F.X. just because it isn't associated with F.F.VII. but as in everything that shares the name 'Final Fantasy' there are Chocobos, Cactuars and Moogles featured!
So, don't listen to bad critics and judge for yourself.