Rage of Bahamut picture gallery

Rage of Bahamut (or Shingeki no Bahamut in Japanese) is one of favourite mobile card game I've ever played. I've been playing it for more than 4 years now, but sadly the english are going to close down. I've collected hundreds if not thousands of cards, some of them are X-Legend in Rarity including Bahamut himself. I had a lot of fun, working together with my guild mates, fighting another guild to achieve the very top, and I am proud to say that my guild managed to rank top 5 among countless others. Today marks the end of the last event for the english version of Rage of Bahamut, and for that, I've included a picture gallery dedicated to all the fans out there. Maybe we will meet again in Rage of Bahamut spiritual successor, Shadowverse.

On a side note, a new Shingeki no Bahamut anime series will come out soon, featuring the event characters. Look forward to it!

All pictures/images/artworks belong to their respective owner/creators.

Overlord review

At first glance, Overlord looks just like another anime featuring the protagonist trapped in a video game world. But there's a catch; the protagonist is an evil looking skeleton mage whose goal is to conquer the world.

The story begins with Yggdrasil, a popular online game which is quietly shut down one day. However, when the protagonist Momonga decides to log out as the server shuts down, he found himself trapped in the world of Yggdrasil as his in game character, a powerful skeletal wizard. The world continues to change, with non-player characters (NPCs) beginning to feel emotion and becoming life-like. Momonga becomes cold and calculating, while having his emotions suppressed, as if he was not an actual human. Having no parents, friends, or place in society, this ordinary young man Momonga then strives to take over the new world the game has become. (Source: ANN, edited)

The story is simple enough to follow, with your usual stuck in a game setting. But unlike any other anime of the same type, the protagonist already given up on the real world and instead his goal is not to escape, but to take over the world instead. This is a rather fresh breath since you are given the chance to view the world in the villain eye. Being a dungeon master, he is accompanied with eccentric followers, or NPC, all with their own unique personalities. The way each of them are unquestionably loyal and awestruck with their great all-powerful leader is really a sight to behold. The story starts with Momonga and companies trying to get used to the new world, by gathering informations and testing out stuff like spells and items.  Then we get to see the him showing off his overwhelming power. At this point one may start to ponder if a story with a group of overpowered characters as the main focus would be a good idea. Thankfully, the middle part of the story toned a little bit to hide the fact the protagonist is really powerful by giving him a slight handicap; a job change if I would like to call it. And this is where the story diverge a little bit, to a more adventurer style plot line. It by no mean bad, in fact the closing of the adventurer arc was really satisfying, even if it feels a little dragged. And finally the last arc, which is a little rushed, and serve mostly as a plot device to end the anime with a huge fight.  The anime itself end with a cliffhanger, forcing the viewer to read the light novel or wait if there is a slight chance another season will come out. Overall, the story is very straightforward, with a simple enough plot to understand and smooth transition from one scene to another. It does feels rushed at time, and sometime one event just poping out one after another without much explanation.

The anime feature some of the best villain looking characters. Momonga, the protagonist and the Overlord of the Tomb of Nazarick is a menacing lich with huge figure and creepy aura. But he's not that bad of a guy to begin with, since he's basically still human on the inside (inside the bone? huh?), but occasionally his passive kicks in when he try to do thing out of character that makes some scene really hilarious. Because of that, his view is not totally a righteous one, and his action is based on what he believe the best for his group. All his subordinates are unique. We have Albedo; a sexy succubus that is literally written to be mad in love with him, Shalltear; gothic lolita vampire that is also in love with our lovable overlord and can have this high-class yet sinister aura in her, twin siblings that looks the least menacing among the group, Demiurge, Cocytus, Sebas, Pandora Actor; all elite yet loyal to Momonga and group of elite maids as well as many, many fellow Tomb of Nazarick inhabitant. The problem with so many cast is usually the lack of character development and progression and this is most evident with this anime. The only character that had be given any real, proper character development is Momonga himself since he is the main character of the story, while the other are mostly there to follow him and being used as a convenient plot device. For example, while I love to see more of Albedo perhaps, she's mostly there as a gag to show how obsessive she is with our skeletal ruler. It is a tad disappointing, but understandable since the whole point of the anime is to focus on the Overlord; Momonga or "Ainz Ooal Gown".

The art and animation is above average and really satisfying, not really surprising by the fact that it is done by Madhouse which presented consistent animation from time to time. Taking place in such a fantasy world, the colors are focused on the characters rather than the background. Characters are diverse and decorated distinctively that makes them look unique. This anime did not shy away from putting elements of gore and violence in it, which makes the setting a lot darker, perfect for the theme of this anime. The OP and ED are one of the best this season had to offer; both of them featuring heavy rock music that are just perfect for this anime. OP theme song is an intense beat to the ears while the ED theme always decorates itself with unorthodox imagery. The OST are perfect, with epic orchestral music played at the right moment and displaying a familiar fantasy feel in terms of content.

Overall I think Overlord is a very enjoyable anime despite the lack of depth and lacked progression, mostly because the cast of entertaining characters and a familiar yet fresh setting. It might not be the best anime out there, but it is a fun anime which I would definitely recommend it.

Fate/ Stay Night pictures

One of the best thing about Fate series is the overwhelming amount of epic illustrations itself. There seems to be an endless amount of it, and there could be never too much of epic pictures to feast your eye with.

SABERRRRRR

All pictures/images/artworks belong to their respective owner/creators.

MSG The 8th Mobile Suit Team : If You Don't Watch Gundam

Hey guys. We meet again huh. Its... a bit more frequent now I guess. I don't know. I'm going to have a bit of problems later this month but I'll try to stay vigilant and post reviews anyway. Wolvenciel here with a review on Mobile Suit Gundam The 8th Mobile Suit Team. I'll be referring to this as 8th MS Team. The anime is a tad old but give me a chance to explain okay?

A Bit of Background

As you can see in the title this anime is made in 1995, a year after Wing Gundam which is ever so popular with a lot of people. Maybe because of that, it would take normal people a little bit of digging before they'd find out about this series as it was right next to a bigger Gundam show (Wing is about 50 episodes and it is still popular nowadays as well).

It is also from a different timeline (this is from U.C. I am not going to explain this as I am assuming that you readers don't watch Gundam) and its a side story of some sort so I am sure if most of you heard about it, you'll definitely brush it off like this, " Oh but I never watched ANY of the U.C. stuff before. How am I going to understand that stuff anyway?". Well, at least that's what I thought.

Those details... wow huh.

13 Episode Advantage

I know there is like only one year difference between the two gundams; Wing and 8th MS Team but the art difference between the two is quite noticeable. I would not know the factual reasoning for it but I guess its because Wing had a lot of episodes so a lot of scenes get recycled and details were oversimplified to make sure that all 50 episodes run smoothly (that's a lot of episodes). 8th MS Team only have 13 episodes in total. So maybe because of that the art in this series are a bit more detailed and there are less recycled scenes.

There's still beam sabers though...

Guerrilla Warfare

Lets get started now shall we. 8th MS Team is as the title says. Its about the 8th Mobile Suit Team fighting the Zeons in the tropical jungle of who knows where. This is actually refreshing for both Gundam fans and non-Gundam fans as it features mechs that fight in the jungle using guerrilla warfare. There are booby traps, pillboxes, machine guns, rocket launchers and radio cars. Its as if you're watching a Gundam version of the Vietnam War (no of course its not that. I'm just giving an example here. Its somewhat similar. SOMEWHAT)

No beam rifles. Just Machine Guns

The setting is also very realistic. There are no psychic powers of epic proportions and no superpowered gundams that can't be harmed whatsoever and such. All of the mech fights in this anime makes you think that this is how a fight between mechs should go about. If you go about running around the battlefield and one-shot everyone that doesn't really make for a logical setting don't you think? Communication in the jungle is also a bit hard and you have to rely on a radio car to relay messages in between the team members. There's also the issue of not having enough spare parts for a costly mech (yes supposedly the gundams ARE very costly) and you end up with a Gundam with a GM head. See. It does extrapolate from the truth (just wanted to sound smart for a moment there) but not so much that even people who don't actually like sci-fi that much would accept it.

Guerrilla Tactics Biatches~

*DISCLAIMER*
There is a super powered mech in this anime but its more of a mobile weapons platform.

Not Emo

Shiro Amada, the protagonist of this series is for one, not an emotional bastard who whines every five minutes about not shooting people or stuff like that. He knows full well that he is a trained soldier and that he is in a battlefield. However he is not a robot as well. He doesn't just follow orders blindly or kill others mercilessly without actually thinking things through. Sure he is a bit too optimistic at times but he is the leader of the 8th Mobile Suit Team and he acts the part well.

A Pint of Romance

As you watch the first episode of this anime you'll realize that it WILL have some love scenes and such but I assure you it is not excessive in the least. Throughout the anime you can see the love between Shiro and Aina build in a quite confusing manner as one is a Federation soldier and the other is a Zeon test pilot.

In the battlefield where you are not even sure whether you'd see tomorrow or not, these kinds of feelings tend to rise. This is also another theme that is addressed nicely in this anime. You can see that eventhough each of them are trained soldiers, they are all still human inside, Federation and Zeon alike. The anime does well in incorporating romance in the anime as the story goes. But hey. If you don't like it for being romantic, don't watch till the end of the anime. Stop at episode 12. You'll miss a lot though.

Everyone Has a Part

The side characters in this anime (the other members of the 8th MS Team) aren't left out in all the action. The name says they're a team, so the anime focuses on each and every one of them. There's the young Michel who has a girlfriend back home and never forgets to write letters to her and his partner/senior Eledore whose dream was to become a songwriter if he makes it to the end of the war. There's also Karen, the backbone of the team and Terry, a veteran who has an inferiority complex due to his bad luck of getting his former squad mates killed.

The anime goes through explaining bits and pieces of each of these characters' dilemmas while still moving the story altogether. It isn't just simply a slice of life slapped onto a war setting. Its sewn together nicely, forming a beautiful fabric.

It is a Gundam anime. But you don't really feel like it is.

P/S: I know my writing is a bit confusing and childlike at times but bear with me. Thanks for reading. See you guys next Wednesday.