Day 17: Cannot, Can Not, and Can't

This is a part of the America English Langue that I've always thought was weird. Can't is a commonly used contraction for the word "can" and "not". Normally contractions are just replacements for the two words that are normally in that place in the sentence. However can and not are different in the US. The phase, "I can't do this." is grammatically correct while "I can not do this." is incorrect. Instead in the United States uses cannot as one word. I have no idea why this is the case, but I'd be very curios to find out.

Day 11: Log Horizon Review

I've spent about two hours writing and rewriting the opening paragraph of this review. I kept trying open it up by talking about the similar, but more popular show Sword Art Online. At the end of the day I've decided that I really don't like that idea. This show deserves to stand on it's own, and shouldn't be compared to another show to validity it. Log Horizon is a very good show. It really is my second favorite anime of all time, and I feel it is like that even without SAO this show should still be praised. However one of the major aspect of the show are at their best only when they are compared to shows like Sword Art Online and .Hack, so I will be comparing the show to other in only one aspect, but we'll get there. For now welcome to a review of Log Horizon.

Day 9: Detective Comics, Action Comics, and Flash Rebirth.

I know today I was going to be talking about an anime again, but that was until I got my comics for the week. Then I knew I had to push everything back to talk about these amazing book. Well to clarify, I still planned to talk about anime today until I read the Flash book, but we'll get to that. For now let's do some rapid reviews of the three books I got this week.

Day 8: Ghost Stories Review

It is a common belief in the western anime community that dubs are an inferior product compared to the original. This is a view that I very much disagree with, but that is still the overall consensus. What I can agree on is that most of the time the dub only really serves to help make a Japanese show accessible to a different language and culture. It rarely adds a thing, and definitely doesn't make it a better show. That is what's so amazing about today's show. Ghosts Stories is a horrible show until you watch the dub. Then somethings magical happens.

Skin Horse

As technology changes humans will be forced to answer questions it has never been faced with before. How will we react when a computer is able to talk about to us on its own accord? What happens when a lab rat we've been working on says it doesn't want to do any more experiments? What happens when the dead walks the earth again and this time they want health insurance? The government will have to find a way to deal with these new citizens. And thus Project Skin Horse was created.

Skin Horse is about the government section Skin Horse which deals with none human life, but not with a violent way. As seen above they are civil works with the job of helping people. Skin horse is a small group so all members are part of the main cast. First off is field team leader Sweetheart. U.N.I.T.Y a field agent and Sweetheart's roommate. Dr. Dennis "Tip' Wilkins is a psychologists and team liaison with the government. Their is also Moustachio(Office secretary) and Gavotte (Skin Horse director)   While the story is fairly simple at first it ramps up over time. This mostly humor, but the story is growing and can keep you entertained.

The characters of Skin Horse are some of the most unique cast I've ever seen. Sweetheart is that talking dog above. She was created by a made scientist to take of the United States, but doesn't really have a killing in her. Now she works for the government. He is a competent leader, but is very bad at keeping control over her team. U.N.I.T.Y. is a government project to create an undead, super soldier, killing mechanic, and the succeeded in everything save for the soldier part. U.N.I.T.Y. is a trigger happy zombie who is on the team many so she can hurt things that get out of line. Tip was a Captain in the U.S. army before joining Skin Horse. He is also a transvestite. These characters are good at working off each other and they do get the job done. Sometimes. Okay rarely, but it is a fun adventure.

  Yep the story gets big. At first a lot of the things that happen are just wacky fun, but as things progress new information is revealed that shacks things up. Many characters believe a war is coming between humans and non-humans. Our cast also learns that this may not be the first war like this. And its possible that Skin Horse does more harm then good. All of these things are used to make a actually really compelling story. I know at the very least I want to see what is happening.

Over all skin horse is a fun and amusing comic with character you just want to see more of. I would click here to start.

Cross Out

I really regret doing this week. As it turned out I only had two nuzlockes to talk about. Now I'm in a car with back pains with only a few hours to write this. Let this be for future me. When you decide to do something PLAN IT OUT! So I'm just going to get right into today's comic. This is Cross Out.

Doubt and Trust

This may seem obvious but many writers can forget this; a narrative needs a hook at the start in order to keep the reader coming back. Sometimes that hook is an interesting premise. The hook maybe a mystery that keeps the audience asking questions. Maybe the hook is a group of characters that just work well off of each other. With this being a comic it could be that the art is so breath taking that it just sucks you into the world. Luckily Nyapapa's nuzlocke Doubt and Trust do all of those this well.

Myths of Unova

I know I'm in the minority when I say this, but my favorite Pokemon generation is gen 5. Why is something I may take about in the future, but one of the big reasons is because of the story and character. While it is nothing special compared to a lot of stories, Black and White are very deep compared to other Pokemon game. Character also have more depth to them with Cheren and Bianca being the only friendly rivals I've ever really liked. With my love for Pokemon Black and White you may be able to guess that one of my favorite nuzlockes is of generation 5.

Fire Red: Hard Mode

Pokemon games are easy assuming the player has played RPGs before( I got a friend of mine to try pokemon for the first time and she had a lot of trouble with it). Because of this fact, some Pokemon fans do self imposed challenges as they beat the game. One of the most famous examples of this was when someone going by the screen name Nuzlocke made some added rules for his play through of Pokemon Ruby. The rules were that he could only catch the first Pokemon he found on a rout( if he fails to catch it then no Pokemon for him), and if a Pokemon faints then that Pokemon is dead and must be released. Nuzlocke made a webcomic chronicling his adventures. Today we will be looking at his squeal series when he used the same rules for Pokemon Fire Red.

Harpy Gee

Young people have a need to rebel. Some rebel against social customs, other rebel against the law, but most just rebel against their parents. Why do they do this? Freedom. Freedom from the rules of a society and culture you don't like. Freedom from an establishment you don't support. Freedom to live your life however and with whoever you want. It is this search for that intoxicating freedom that compelled a young elf girl named Harpy to leave her home behind in search for something new.

The GaMERCaT

The best kind of parody is one made of love, not hate. When it's made out of hate most of the jokes boil down to 'this is stupid', but win it's made out of loves the writing changes. The writer has an understanding of the property. Any jabs at the property are more akin to a cousin teasing you about something stupid you did back in grad school. The GaMERCaT is one such webcomic.

The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob

An important contrast for the first act of the hero's journey archetype is the difference from the real world to the fantastic world. The normal world is set up only for the hero to get a taste of a more adventurous life followed by the full on embracing the new life. The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob is one of those stories. It is also the comic's main joke.

 Bob is an incredibly normal person who likes his life and doesn't really care if he gets more out of it. But one day an alien landed on his roof and his life spiraled from their. Bob has ended up on many supernatural adventure. While most of the adventures involve aliens, other forces like unicorns and genetic experiments have been the center of some stories. And once the problem has been revolved with Bob's help, Bob goes back home to open up his newsstand the next day. That's basically it.

This is a humor based comic with a narrative broken up into multiple story arcs. The humor of the comic mostly stems from Bob being incredibly normal and staying very normal throughout all of the wacky adventures he goes through. I personally find the idea of this very ordinary guy going through all of this crazy incredibly funny. What doesn't work as well are some of the running jokes. Not all of them are bad. I find the fact that Bob's roof always gets destroyed to be hilarious, but some of the fourth wall jokes just hurt. Also the early comic pages were made for Pennsylvania State University so some early pages are just in-jokes.

The stories are not complex, but they don't have to be. These are just random adventures Bob and his friends happen to go on. It is a lot like a classic Greek story in that way. Bob is just going through his own adventure(his normal life) when weird stuff happens during it, but he overcomes it and continues on his way. One thing that differs from Greek tales is that his misadventures effect his normal life. For example that genetic experiment I mentioned earlier becomes his adopted daughter. The cartoonist Jim Cleveland also loves reusing characters whether they were important or minor. 

I feel I should quickly bring up Dr. Jean Poule. She is Bob's boyfriend and is such a great character. The comic doesn't do a lot of drama, but when it does the stuff focused around Jean is when its at its best. Also the back-and-fourth she has with Bob is very cute. She's my favorite character and I just wanted to talk about her a little.

The art is black and white throughout. It can be difficult to get use to, but it is possible. Backgrounds and character models are overall simple, but the image is always clear and you can always figure out what the image is. With that being said the art can shift to a much grander and complex image. 

If I had to describe The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob I would call it simple. The characters are simple. The stories are simple. The art is simple. But at times the character, story, and art can become much grander. This comic is a fun science fiction run for anyone wanting something simple out of it. If you want to read the comic I would recommend starting at beginning by clicking here. 

That's it for today. See you tomorrow.

Database Ranger's Power Review

My favorite type of review is a summary interspersed with jokes followed by an analysis. I'm also a fan of looking at single episode when talking about a television show like what sf debris does. But I'm not here to talk about that. Let's talk about Database Ranger's Power Review. Simply put he review Power Rangers by a episode by episode base. What makes him different then anyone else you would find with a quick youtube search? Two things really. First off is that his actually reviews are done in the style that I said earlier which in a world of mostly reaction videos is really refreshing (says the man who does a show called Live Reviews). The second thing is the story line. While I won't say the stories always keep me at the edge of my set, it has created a lot of really fun characters that I love to see going on these adventures.

As you can guess I really recommend this show, but only to people who knows about Power Rangers. I'm afraid a lot of the jokes may be lost on you if you aren't aware of Power Ranger's fandom. But then again maybe you'll find some joy in watching a nerdy guy fan out about his favorite show.

If you want to watch it the show start from the beginning here.

I hope you enjoy.