A place where fans of anime, manga, music, movies, videogames, and tech can come to find out what's good and bad. Also a place for tutorials and "how to" video. I'll tell you what you want to know and how to do it.
Thursday, January 25, 2018
Fate/Stay Night Buyer's Guide
Saturday, November 7, 2015
Anime Review: The Seven Deadly Sins Season 1
Quick Info
Runtime: 600 minutes
Release Date: May 16, 2017
Availability: On Blu-Ray and DVD, buy on RightStufAnime or Amazon
Story Summary
Elizabeth, the third Princess of Liones, sets out to find the Seven Deadly Sins, an order of knights composed of the most despicable knights in all the kingdom. She is searching for them to battle the Holy Knights that have taken over the kingdom.
Traveling in disguise, she stumbles across a tavern called the Boar Hat and meets the young owner after he helps her after she passes out. Pursued by the Holy Knights, she inadvertently gets him involved, only to learn that he is the Captain of the Seven Deadly Sins, Meliodas, the Dragon's Sin of Wrath. Together, they set out to find the other Sins: Diane, Ban, King, Merlin, Gowther, and Escanor.
The Story is Cliche
The story of The Seven Deadly Sins is very cliché on the outside. The Princess searches desperately for the rogues who supposedly did horrible things. The pervy male lead, the clingy, jealous giantess, the lazy but good fairy king, the greedy jerk with a heart of gold, the mysterious female mage, and the emotionless smart guy.
Even if many of these character tropes are cliché, they're still very interesting characters, and that's why I like them. The plot is also very well done, and even though some complained about how predictable it is, I still enjoyed the story overall, and I found it to be very entertaining, and it kept me watching, and I couldn't wait to see the next episode so I could find out what was going to happen to all the characters.
The Animation Looks Good
I Enjoyed The English Dub
The Japanese voice track is great, but I'm primarily focusing on the English dub of the anime, and it's terrific. Bang Zoom picked an excellent voice cast for the characters, and the actors did a fantastic job as their characters.
Bryce Papenbrook does a great job as Meliodas. I will admit, I'm on Brice Papenbrook overload because I'm currently watching voice acting in him in Durarara!! X2, Fate/Stay Night, and Attack on Titan, but he brings his A-game to this role, giving Meliodas both comedic and serious to his character, and he's mastered the art of very loud screaming, as can be seen from other roles he's played.
Cristina Vee is delightful as Hawk, the animal sidekick. Being a pig, the character can't do much, but Hawk is still an important member of the group and gets his chance to shine much later in the series, and Christina Vee is also excellent in this role as she's great at portraying the character in the anime.
Erika Harlacher does a great job as Elizabeth Liones, but the fact that her character's main job is to be the damsel in distress is cliched and annoying. Fortunately, she goes through a lot of character development and is a much stronger character by the end of the first season, but the cliche is still annoying.
Ben Diskin portrays all the different sides of his character when he voices Ban. Ban is a character that embodies the jerk with a heart of gold trope, and he gives an excellent performance. I like how Ban and Meliodas play off each other, and their dynamic is really fun to watch.
Erica Mendez does a great job as Diane, portraying her character's jealousy over Meliodas and Elizabeth's relationship. I also love her interactions with Max Mittlerman's King. I think their relationship is really adorable and fun to watch.
Max Mittelman's portrayal is interesting when it comes to King. There are multiple facets to his personality and character, and I like that even though he may seem lazy, there's a lot more to him than just one trait, and his relationship with Diane and the fact that he just can't spit it out make the two of them adorable.
Erik Kimerer is very interesting in his role as the aloof and eerily emotionless Gowther. What makes his character so interesting is that he's very different and more aloof than the others, and his powers are very different than the others.
Lauren Landa is excellent as Merlin. She doesn't appear until much later in the series, but she did a great job, and I like her character a lot.
Robbie Daymond voices the primary antagonist Gilthunder, and like the other characters, there's more to him than just being the cliched evil villain. And Robbie is very good in his role, and he makes a great antagonist.
Kaiji Tang is also very good as Hendrickson. He's also another important character on the antagonist's side, and he did a great job in this anime.
Soundtrack, Openings, and Endings
Hiroyuki Sawano's musical soundtrack is good, but it doesn't exactly stand out. But the music does sound good and fits the tone and mood of the story, but unfortunately, I can't recall any particular musical themes outside of the opening and ending songs of the anime.
The first opening for The Seven Deadly Sins is "Netsujō no Spectrum" (熱情のスペクトラム) by Ikimono-gakari. It's a very good opening that sounds really good and gives you that sense of adventure.
"Seven Deadly Sins" by MAN WITH A MISSION gets you really pumped up for the episode and gives off the exciting vibe that, yes, this episode is going to be awesome.
"7-seven-" by FLOW x GRANRODEO gets you all excited and pumped up for the next episode. Season" by Alisa Takigawa has a very soothing and hopeful tone, and you'll need it for the latter half of the anime.
The Perv Jokes Get Old Really Fast
Unfortunately, it can also reinforce the perception that anime is just a bunch of pervy jokes and that every single anime is always like this when it comes to fanservice and gag jokes, and it could possibly turn off new viewers from what is a very fun and enjoyable anime to watch.
Not Everything Is Explained
It's also too bad we don't even see Escanor, and I was hoping we'd see all Seven Sins. Fortunately, he'll be in season 2, so I have that to look forward to.
Parental Warning
There is violence, but it's mainly fantasy-style violence, and it's not too bloody or gory. It's mainly magic spells.
There isn't too much profanity, but characters do swear sometimes.
Meliodas being a pervert towards Elizabeth is annoying, and there is fan service, as in, Meliodas trying to look up her skirt and being a pervert around her.
My Rating: A-
With a stellar story based on Arthurian legends with a fun and engaging cast, excellent animation from A-1 Pictures, and another great English dub from Bang Zoom Entertainment, The Seven Deadly Sins is a series that is so much fun, especially if you love fantasy anime like I do. It does, however, have a lot of anime cliches that might turn off some people and the Meliodas is a perv gag wears out his welcome. Fortunately, it does stop after a while, and not everything is explained completely, but I had a fun time watching this anime, and I recommend it to anyone who has a Netflix streaming account.
If you watched the fansubs already, please support the official Netflix stream since the Japanese do look at the viewing numbers from official sources and not fansub sites. I found this out by listening to a Funimation podcast on Anime News Network, so even if you just get a free trial of Netflix just to watch this show, the official creators are paying attention. The viewing numbers are enough right now that they've already started making season 2, so officially support the stream.
There are also multiple language tracks and subtitles to choose from.
Seven Deadly Sins: Signs of Holy War, the four-episode OVA, has been uploaded to Netflix on February 17, 2017. The second season comes out this year.
Funimation has licensed Seven Deadly Sins for home video release.
© 2015 ReViewMeMedia
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Website Review: Amazon.com
What is Amazon.com?
Amazon.com is a website that is a very large online store. You can buy electronics, books, movies, video games, and clothes and shoes. You can browse through products, read reviews, ask questions, engage in discussions on the forums, and order products from the website. You can either have them shipped to a P.O. Box or have them shipped directly to your house. Some products can only be shipped to your house, so keep that in mind when placing an order.
Shopping at Amazon.com
Another great thing about Amazon.com is that they offer free shipping, called Super Saver Shipping, for products that cost over $35.00; it used to be $49.00, but since they have to pay taxes in my state, they lowered the minimum free shipping cost.
Although I do not shop for other items as much as I used to, it's still cheap to buy books from Amazon, as it offers free shipping on books if you buy over $25.00 worth of them.
I have had a great experience shipping on and the only times that an order has not arrived are when it wasn’t available, and they emailed me telling me that it wasn’t available.
Buying Through Third Parties at Amazon.com
Amazon's Verified Customer Reviews
User Reviews
Amazon.com is a very helpful website because users can leave reviews about their experiences with the products they’ve purchased from the website. I find that these reviews are informative, most of the time, and have convinced me to either buy a product or not buy it.
Amazon Forums
Flaws in Amazon Customer Reviews
If there are any flaws with Amazon.com, it would be that you have to be careful when buying used items from sellers; you have to look at their feedback percentage and what buyers have said about them. I only buy from sellers that I know are good and have sent me items I’ve ordered. I haven’t had any problems with buying used, and I’ve always received items I’ve ordered.
I have only ever had to return a few things to Amazon, and I did get a refund, but not a full refund, but it was easy to return them.
Buying eBooks for Kindle
I recently got a free Amazon Kindle Touch, and I find it very easy to purchase books on Amazon for it. It's easy, you just touch the buy button, and it purchases the e-book. It also accepts Amazon gift cards as payment, so you can get free books using Amazon gift cards.
Just the other day, I bought a book by accident while browsing through the Kindle Store. I was able to cancel my accidental purchase, and they refunded my money the same day.
My Rating: A
Overall, Amazon.com is a great website that lets you buy anything you want and has a lot to offer its customers. I’d recommend using this website since it’s easy to find and purchase items from the store. Just be careful when buying new or used from 3rd party sellers. I’ve never had a problem but I’m very careful when choosing a 3rd party seller to purchase from. I try to buy straight from Amazon when possible. You can’t go wrong with this website and I buy a lot from Amazon.com. If you want a good online shopping experience, I’d recommend Amazon.com.
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Video Game Review: Assassin's Creed (PS3)

Quick Info
Studio: Ubisoft
Game Genre: third-person, pen-world, action/adventure, historical
Platform: PlayStation, Xbox360, PC, Version played was PS3
Release Date: November 13, 2007
Plot Summary
Assassin’s Creed is about a man named Desmond Miles who is kidnapped by the mysterious Abstergo Industries and put into a machine called the Animus, which lets him relive the life of his ancestor through his DNA.
Abstergo is looking for something in Desmond's ancestors' memories, and now he has to relive Altair's life as an assassin.

Gameplay
The game itself is pretty fun; it does get repetitive at times. You have to ride to a city, find viewpoints to get a better view of the city, which will update your map, perform investigations to learn about your target, and then assassinate them. There are also optional missions like killing Templars and rescuing citizens who will become vigilantes and help you when you get into fights with guards.
It does get annoying when Altair won't quite run in the direction you want him to, and sometimes he won't jump off the roof quite the way you want him to.
Combat is also somewhat repetitive, but you can cheese most fights except against Templars by using the block button (for PS3, the Square button). The knife aiming isn't perfect, and sometimes you won't hit your target. The horse riding is also a little clunky as well.

Graphics
The graphics look quite nice and still hold up, but there is some texture pop-in. Overall, the presentation is good, and the cities are very large and interesting to explore. It’s very fun to go rooftop all over the cities and look around.
The viewpoint synchronization sequences are really pretty, and they've become a staple of the franchise, even if Assassin's Creed has sequelitus-ed itself to the point of becoming "meh", I still enjoy playing the game, and it does look pretty good, even if the graphics look much better now in the sequels than the first game did in 2007.
Story Thoughts (Spoiler Free)
The story itself is pretty good, although it’s kind of hard to care about Desmond Miles because he barely has any character development whatsoever. Lucy is okay, but everybody in the modern world is kind of boring compared to the characters in the Third Crusade.
It's a problem when you don't care about many of the characters. I like it when we see Altair's story; everything else feels like padding.
I also find it interesting that the story takes potshots at Christianity, saying that it never happened and that it was all a lie, but won't ever say anything offensive about Islam, even though the setting is during the Third Crusade.
And it makes sure to say that the development is made up of various people of different faiths and religions, but that just feels like a religious flame shield, so they can avoid the criticism that they're only criticizing one religion and not another.
Assassin's Creed Intro Video
The Flawed, Overalert A.I. is Annoying
The game isn’t perfect, though. The A.I. can be a little annoying. Guards will be suspicious if you just start to run, especially later in the game. If you’re not walking and blending, they’ll notice you no matter what you do, and you find yourself either running away to hide or fighting them a lot, and that can get annoying.
Voice Acting
The voice cast is pretty good. Nolan North is good as Desmond Miles; he tends to be in a lot of games I’ve been reviewing lately. Kristen Bell is also very good as Lucy Stillman; she’s one of the characters who are actually likable, unlike everyone else. Phil Proctor is also good as Warren Vidic, and he does a good job of making his character come off as a jerk.
For the characters in the Third Crusade, Phil Shahbaz is the best voice actor in this game as Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, who gets the most character development and seems to be into his character. Peter Reneday is excellent as Al Mualim, and he has an interesting character.
Parental Advisory
This game is rated M for Mature, which is ages 17 and up. It has strong profanity, including the F-word. It also has graphic blood and violence, but you can turn the blood off in the options menu, but not the profanity. This is a game for adults, so it’s up to you as a parent if you want your younger teens to play this game.
Quick Grade
What Works: | What Doesn't Work |
|---|---|
Good Story in the Historical Period | Don't feel attached to modern characters |
Fun gameplay | "Real world" segments feel like padding |
Nice environments | A.I. can be over-alert and annoying |
Pretty open world | A one-sided view on religion won't address the other aspects of religion in the game |
"Assassin's Creed" was Fun Before it became a Franchise Zombie
Assassin's Creed is a fun game, and it was unique and special. when it came out. It's not that way anymore. It was so different when it came out because there weren't open-world games that were like this. It was interesting and had a good story.
Nowadays, Assassin's Creed is stale, and every game feels the same, but back when this was first released, it was refreshing. But it is still fun, as long as you don't play one after the other, it's a game I enjoyed a lot.
Overall Grade: A-
Assassin’s Creed is a pretty good game. I do feel I got my money’s worth out of it, but it’s not necessarily a must-buy for people. It’s interesting historical fiction, but if you’re a Christian, you might be offended by it; if you’re Muslim, you might be offended by it too, but it just depends on what you’d find offensive about it.
I recommend it to people who want an interesting historical adventure. It is repetitive, and the A.I. is not perfect, but it’s pretty fun. Check it out if it seems interesting to you.
You can buy the game on Steam for Windows, Mac OX, and Steam OS + Linux and GOG.com.
© 2015 ReViewMeMedia
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Manga Review: 'Bleach' Volume 1
Quick Info
Author: Tite Kubo
Publisher: Viz Media
Published: May 19, 2004
Page Count: 200 pages
Availability: Buy on Amazon, Rightstuf, and wherever books are sold, read on the Shonen Jump app

Story Summary
Bleach is a popular Shonen manga about a high school student, Ichigo “Strawberry” Kurosaki. He seems like an average kid, but he has a special gift; he’s always been able to see ghosts and spirits. One night, he sees a mysterious woman in his room. She explains to him that she’s a Soul Reaper, someone who fights even spirits called Hollows and helps bring souls to the afterlife in the Soul Society. She loses her powers during a fight because she’s wounded by a Hollow and gives them to Ichigo, who must be a Soul Reaper until she can get her powers back.
The Popularity of Bleach
This manga is ridiculously popular, all over the world, but very much in the US. The anime is still running on Adult Swim’s Toonami block on Saturdays. The story is interesting and easily accessible to a wide audience. Bleach was one of the first anime I ever watched. I do enjoy the story and the characters, and the writing is good.
I do think that the beginning of the story is very good. But this was before Tite Kubo started dragging the story out too long with excessive plots and arcs, when many readers felt it should have ended. I'm very far behind in the manga, but I do enjoy "The Substitute" arc of Bleach, which is an interesting start to the story.
The Art
Tite Kubo’s art is pretty nice, but you can tell this is an early effort, as it looks pretty good, but his newer art is much nicer. The fight scenes are fun, though.
The character designs are all interesting and unique, and that's good because the pictures are in black and white, so the character designs have to stand out so we can distinguish all the various characters from each other.
I also like how the characters each have a unique feature that makes them memorable: Ichigo's red hair, Chad's tall and muscular, Uriyu wears glasses (We'll see him in a later volume).

The Humor
Bleach has good, humorous bits, and it relieves some of the tension because the story and plot have a serious tone, so the art gags are amusing.
There are also humorous characters in the story (we'll meet them later) that bring comic relief to the story. In Volume 1, the humor comes from Ichigo's father, Isshin Kurosaki. I enjoy the humor, and if you like funny characters and gags, you'll enjoy Bleach.
Parental Advisory
This manga is recommended for ages 13 and up for language, violence, fanservice and tobacco use.

The Cliches Are Here
Bleach is standard Shonen (manga and anime aimed at teenage boys), and it does have a lot of Shonen cliches: the hotheaded, extremely powerful hero, the ditzy girl, the mentor, and a monster of the week formula.
You'll recognize a lot of these tropes if you've read or watched a lot of Shonen, but it's still an enjoyable read, and it's excellent for people who've never read a manga before and want to get into it, the fact that it uses a lot of standard tropes in its story may turn off other manga fans.
Overall Thoughts
I recommend Bleach if you’re new to manga and want to get into the Shonen genre. It’s fun and enjoyable, it is pretty popular, so I don’t have to buy the manga because I can find it at my local library for free, and I’d recommend borrowing before deciding if you want to buy it for your own manga collection. It’s worth a read, but not necessarily your money.
Quick Thoughts:
What Works: | What Doesn't Work: |
|---|---|
Good story, plot, and characters | There's a lot of Shonen Cliches |
Artwork is decent, but it doesn't look as good as future volumes | |
Overall Grade: B+
Bleach is a really great read, and the story, characters, and art are very good. It's an easy read with a plot that's a great starting point for anyone looking to get into manga. It's got action, adventure, and comedy. It's worth your time to read, and if you want to buy it, I'd recommend it
Bleach is good, but there are a lot of typical Shonen tropes and cliches in the story, but it's well worth the time to read it. If you really enjoy the story, I'd recommend that you buy it. But if you buy it, you should prepare to get a bigger bookshelf, because this is a long-running Shonen, and that means there will be a lot of volumes to buy.
Still, I'd recommend borrowing it from your local library; it's popular enough that a lot of libraries carry the manga, so you can check it out if you ask them if they have it.
© 2015 ReViewMeMedia
Friday, February 21, 2014
Video Game Review: Banished
Quick Info
Released: February 18, 2014
Platform: Windows PC, Steam, GOG.com. If you buy from their website, you will get a Steam Key if you buy it there, too.
What is "Banished"?
Banished is a city-building game set in the Medieval period. On the surface, it appears to be just your average city-building game. You build resource buildings, keep your citizens happy, and trade goods your citizens create. But Banished is different from other city-building games because of a few major differences; you do not have to worry about money in this game. Instead, this city-building game does what others haven’t: it kills your population, your citizens arrive in the city, work, get married, have kids, grow old, and die.
It is very fun and challenging to play on hard mode.
Gameplay
Gameplay involves the settlers gathering up different materials to build buildings, such as wood chopping, forestry, fishing, blacksmiths, mines, quarries, hunting lodges, and herbal medicine to help keep your village up and running.
You can also build trading posts, hospitals, and a town hall to bring more villagers and trade with other villages for items you don't have at the start of the village.
The difficulty is the amount of materials you start with; depending on your settings, you'll start with more or fewer materials at the beginning of the game. The game never "ends" unless all your villagers die off.
This game is a lot of fun, especially if you enjoy city-building games. It doesn’t have a lot of depth, but if you know how to play city-building games, this will be a challenge.
The gameplay is complex when it comes to managing everything, but the game has really good tutorials, and it shows you how to play the game. The tutorial is easy to understand and explains almost everything very well.
Graphics
The graphics look nice; it’s not outstanding, but that’s not the point of the game. It does look very good, though. It’s fun to watch people go throughout your town as they go to work and live life in your village.
It doesn't look like the most amazing game graphically, but it has a nice art style that I really like, and it looks good, but not mind-blowing or cutting-edge like a game from a triple-A publisher.
The UI
Strategy is the Key
The key to surviving in Banished is the strategy, and that's what makes the game so much fun. Do I focus on food, or do I need to get the houses up as fast as possible? What about firewood?
Trying to think of the best strategy so that people don't die during the winter is a fun challenge, and why I play this game for hours and hours.
You'll have to choose between the blacksmith shop, because you need tools, or if you want to build a tailor shop. Every decision counts, and that's why I love this game!
Soundtrack
You'll Feel Great When You Succeed
You'll feel a huge sense of accomplishment if you can take your small group of survivors and turn your tiny village into a large, bustling city. I think that it's really neat that you can make it happen, and since there's an added element of having your people build your buildings, it just becomes more challenging since you can't just click on a spot and then a building appears.
There's also a resource management element to the game that makes it challenging, but if you can get enough resources, you can survive; you just have to have a good strategy to do it.
The AI Is Weird
The major flaw of the game is that when you’re trying to select things to trade, the arrow sliders are very small on the trade menu, and I keep choosing the wrong item. Also, some people have had problems trying to get the game to start after buying it on Steam. Check the Steam community forums for help.
The AI will also let your villagers starve to death sometimes, even when you have plenty of food nearby. It can become frustrating when villagers take too long to go get food and die for no reason at all.
Final Thoughts
Overall Grade: A-
Banished is a lot of fun and provides hours and hours of fun and challenging city-building and management. It looks nice and has a great soundtrack and decent AI. The gameplay is fun, but the AI will sometimes do some weird things. The game is still a lot of fun.
I really loved this game, and I will definitely recommend it to anyone who loves city-building games. You'll enjoy playing this game, but it can be repetitive if you play it a lot.
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Website Review: eBay.com
Website: eBay.com
eBay.com is a website that lets users buy and sell items on the internet. Users can either buy auction style, where they bid for the item, and the user who has the highest bid wins the item. You can also buy items for a set price with the “buy it now” option. The buyer has to pay for the item using PayPal or their credit card.
Selling on eBay
If your listed item sells, try to get it out to your buyer as quickly as possible. Also, communicate with them if you’re not able to get it to them if you’re gone on vacation while it's sold. Communicate with your buyer when necessary, as it helps strengthen your relationship with them. They may continue to buy from you if you provide them with good service. Ship your package in a good, strong envelope if it’s small or in a box if it’s bigger.
Buying and selling on eBay can be a great way for you to find a great deal or sell some unwanted items for extra money. If you are careful in choosing good sellers and give buyers a good experience, you won’t have any problems on eBay. Be cautious of scammers and verify the user’s feedback score. It’s a great website for buying and selling, so use eBay if you want to sell your items, or if you’re looking for a really good online deal.
Buying on eBay
Buying on eBay is an interesting experience; you can either bid or buy the item at a set price. Sometimes you’ll win items and sometimes you won’t. It depends on the item you’re bidding for. Sometimes the buyer will pay shipping, sometimes the shipping is free.
Ask the Sellers Questions Before Buying
In order not to be scammed by a buyer or a seller, you should look at their feedback from other eBay users to see if they’re a trustworthy buyer or seller. I have never had any problems buying or selling on eBay, and if you want to have a good experience, it is recommended to only buy from sellers who have at least 99% feedback. The best way to have a good experience on eBay is to go with sellers who have 100% feedback on eBay.
Make sure you ask the seller any important questions before purchasing an item; that way, they can answer any questions you need answered before you pay them money.
Also, contact them if you need to return an item to get a refund.
Returning an Item to eBay
I have had to return two items to eBay sellers, one was a pair of shoes that I had placed the wrong order for when I bought them for someone else. The other one was a Star Wars book with a misprint; the seller gave me a refund and let me keep the book.
Even though I haven't had to return items to eBay often, the sellers have been willing to refund my money. When my Star Wars Prequel Trilogy book arrived with missing pages, a massive misprint on the part of Random House, the eBay seller refunded my purchase and let me keep the defective book.
eBay Bucks Help You Pay For Items
Every time you spend money on eBay, eBay will give you a discount in "eBay Bucks' which lets you save a little extra on your purchases. Unfortunately, they don't stack, and they have an expiration date.
eBay does have gift cards that can stack, and they don't expire, but they do have a limit on how many gift cards you can use on an item.
Should You Buy or Sell on eBay?
If you're selling on eBay, just make sure to pack your packages very well and send them away as soon as you can. That way, you can get a positive rating with the buyer.
© 2014 ReViewMeMedia






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