Never Spreading it's Wings

Title: Fractale
Episodes: 11


Fractale is a short, 11 episode, anime. It's about a young boy, Clain, as he tries to find out the truth behind the 'Fractale System' after a chance encounter with a priestess of said system and ending up with an anti-fractale group.

You would think there would be a lot more action and this show, but it really doesn't start to pick up until around episode 8. The lack of anything really happening makes the show lag quite a bit, which is a rather large downfall to the series. One thing that bothered me about this show was that they referred to the 'Fractale System' as being relatively new and then saying it was around a thousand years old and people were now completely reliant on it, and then proceed to go back and forth on that issue. Another major, and I mean major, downfall of the show is the ending. I'm not going to spoil it by saying what happens, but be warned the ending pretty much makes everything else that happened in the series seem rather pointless.

There are some upsides to Fractale too. For instance, the character design and landscapes are absolutely gorgeous! The characters themselves are also very likable (except for when Clain makes the same resolve about three or so times), I especially liked Sunda, Dias, and Enri.

If you are looking for a nice on the eyes show with good characters, then you might want to give this show a shot; however, if you are looking for something with high adventure (as you think this show would have) or a meaningful ending that doesn't render things to nil, look elsewhere. Fractale just never really spreads it's wings.

Final Grade: 5.5 out of 10

Title: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (first game in the series)
System: Nintendo DS

OBJECTION!

I don't really know what I'm objecting to right now, but it's certainly not to this game. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is a rather unique in it's on right. You play through the game as the newbie defense attorney, Phoenix Wright (You will see name plays like this throughout the entire game.), and you must prove your clients guilty or else it's jail time for them! Things are not as simple as they seem though with rivals like the experienced prosecutor, Miles Edgeworth, sitting just across the courtroom.

HOLD IT!

I am not, however, saying it's a perfect game - in fact it can get extremely repetitive. You move around by selecting the places you would like to go rather than walking from place to place and the characters are drawn in an anime like style with few facial expressions. Still, I think the game makes up a bit for that with it's originality, it really is a breath of fresh air. I would recommend this game to anyone who likes puzzleish type games and are looking for a short challenge as the game is only about fifteen hours long.

Final Score: 8 out of 10

Title: Magyk (First in the Septimus Heap series)
Author: Angie Sage

I haven't read any books lately, or at least since the Harry Potter series, that involved wizards as the main characters, so I was itching a bit to get back into a world of spells and incantations. Magyk is about A princess, her adoptive brother, and a boy from the Young Army trying to survive when their lives are turned upside down by a Necromancer, named DomDaniel, who once again becomes the ExtraOrdinary Wizard.

The main villain of this book, DomDaniel, felt more like a glorified idiot than someone with powerful magyk and cunning, and I had to wonder how anyone could have feared him at all. The main characters didn't seem to have much trouble running circles around him - I didn't mind it to much at some parts he was, after all, different from the usual antagonist. Despite that I liked most of the main characters themselves, especially boy 412 and Niko, and I thought they were decently developed. There were some small things that didn't make to much sense to me, but they didn't pull away from the story overly much and I do plan to continue with this series to see how it plays out.

Final Score: 7 out of 10

Starting Off the New Year with Books

2011 has just started and I have already bought a good number of books! It was so hard picking out such a small amount to fit in the gift card amount I had to work with, but here are the final results of hours of careful consideration.

Final Books Bought in 2010

Here are the last books I bought in 2010:

It's Time for 2011

It's time to say goodbye to the year 2010 and warmly (or not so warmly) welcome the year 2011. The year 2011 holds a lot for from the get go! On January 4th I will be boarding a plane and flying off to the mythology filled world of Greece - I'm very excited, but also extremley nervous about this and not just because of what I hear about what's going on there now. This will be the first time I have traveled without a family member and it's not like my destination is a hop, skip, and jump away from home! I'm hoping I can overcome my 'slight' (cough, cough) paranoia and have some fun.

About four days after I get back school starts again, hooray! I'm actually looking forward to some of the classes I am going to be taking and I already know that I like two of the professors (one of which I will have twice). Of course, with the new semester also comes the start of the 'Animation and Arts' club (aka - anime club) which I am the current president of.

In March I will be packing my bags again for a small (in days only) family vacation. I'm sure the flight will be...interesting, for lack of a better word, with four kids under the age of four. I've actually never been on an overnight trip with the family like this in awhile, so it will be like going back to visit my own childhood a bit. To be honest I think I might be more hyped about this trip than the one to Greece, but I've always been very family based and I really do want to see my nephew's first time in Disney and his reaction to all the people and characters walking around.

Of course, at the end of April I also have Anime Boston to go to. I have been going to this convention for a few years now and I have no plans to stop. Speaking of anime there are a good number of series I'm looking for this coming year! One of them being Beezlebub, which has to be the most hilarious manga I have ever read, so I have really high hopes for the animation.

I played some of the best video games I have in a while this past year such as 'Persona 3: Portable' and 'Eternal Sonata' (which wasn't released in 2010, but it's when I finally played the game). It also had some great television shows such as the new BBC series 'Sherlock' that I have become obsessed with - I can hardly wait for season two! This year was a good movie year for me as well with 'How to Train Your Dragon', 'Despicable Me', 'Tangled', 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One' and Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland'.

As far as my personal goals for 2011 the number one would have to be READ MORE! I've bought tons of great books looking books recently and not to mention the ones sitting patiently in my TBR pile. I also want to try and get my writing published somewhere within the coming year whether it be one of my poems or short stories. Keeping up with this blog is also a goal of mine and hopefully I will write many more poems and stories. At the stroke of midnight tonight I plan to start the year of with some reading, I haven't decided what I want to read yet though.

I'm off to do my luck dance for a, hopefully, awesome year!

Nook Cover (Alice in Wonderland Version)

Product: Cover for the Nook (the Barnes and Noble e-reader)

This is a very durable and neat looking cover. The inside feels nice and has a pocket on the left to hold notes and other such things. The nook fits into it well and it makes it more like you are reading a real book rather than a book in digital format (though nothing really compares to the real thing). The only real compliant, which is more of a personal preference, is that the page they used out of 'Alice in Wonderland' does not end on a complete sentence.

Final Grade: 9 0ut of 10

(I had originally posted this review on the Barnes and Noble website. I have now had this cover for about a year and it's still looking new.)