Vampire Knight

Vampire Knight is an anime directed by Kiyoko Sayama about, you guessed it, vampires. The shows starts out in a private high school called Cross Academy that has students in two separate 'classes'; the night class, and the day class. If it's not completely obvious, the night class students are all vampire, while the day class students are human. The real twist is that the night class students are simply considered extremely gorgeous, popular, and perfect, the humans have no idea that they're actually vampires, and headmaster Kaien Cross aims to keep it that way. He adopted both a young girl named Yuki, and a boy, Zero, after his parents were killed by vampires. It's Yuki and Zero's job to ensure that no humans are wandering around at night trying to get a peek at their favorite night class student just to accidentally discover a vampire. They also have to keep certain night class students from feeding from those few, curious students. When Yuki's crush and head of the night class Kaname Kuran starts to get a few unwelcome plans for Yuki, Zero comes in with a few words of his own...

Alrighty then, so I like vampires, I like anime, why not combine the two right? There are a lot of mixed feelings when it comes to this show because the ending isn't really what you would suspect or want (not giving anything away). I know I'm not really a fan of how it ends simply because I like them to go how I want and this one, well, doesn't. But for those who like the unexpected, this is the show for you. It's very good and well rounded when it comes to humor and seriousness and the occasional scene here and there that'll bring tears to your eyes. There is also the controversial 'love triangle' between Yuki, Zero, and Kaname. I'm not going to go to far into that idea, but it's definitely there. The show does tend to jump around a little bit and not all the characters really have a back story, even the ones that you really want to know more about, such as the majority of the night class. Really, there are only a handful of characters that you really get to know. But, like I so often say, it's all up to the viewer. Some people like not knowing much about the smaller characters, whereas some people, like me, want to know as much as people because I tend to like the minor characters the most. But overall the show is good. It's not girly and has some cool fight scenes so ladies can even watch it with their boyfriends.

Fruits Basket

If you like the Chinese zodiac, you'll love this show. From the one and only Natsuki Takaya,Fruits Basket is definitely one of a kind.

Before I start talking about this show, I think I should tell you all the story of the zodiac. As you probably know, the Chinese zodiac consists of animals; rat, dog, sheep, bull, rooster, horse, monkey, dragon, snake, tiger,

boar, rabbit and the cat. Well, one day, all the animals of the zodiac were invited to a banquet the next day. They were all so excited. But, the rat decided to go to the cat and tell him that the banquet was the day after next. The cat was excited to be invited, and went to sleep dreaming of a banquet he would never attend. The next day came, and the rat rode off to the banquet, riding on the bull, followed by the other animals...except the cat. From that day, the cat and the rat were enemies, and the cat was banned from the zodiac and shunned by everyone for not attending, all because of the rat

This show is about a girl named Tohru Honda who's mother dies and she has to live with her grandfather. The thing is, he decides to get his house re-modeled, and Tohru has to find somewhere to stay. Determined not to burden anyone around her, she starts living in a tent, unaware that she's on the property belonging to the infamous Sohma family. One day, the "prince" of her high school, Yuki Sohma, and the man he lives with, Shigure Sohma find her and invite her to stay at there house for a while. Tohru's tent gets destroyed by a landslide, so Yuki and Shigure offer their home to her, so long as she cleans and cooks for them (typical men). Soon, she meets another Sohma who soon starts living in the same house, Kyou. Instead of going back with her grandfather, Tohru decides to permanently live with the Sohma's. But, there's one huge secret among their family. The Sohma family is cursed by the Chinese zodiac. Certain members of this family will turn into an animal from the zodiac when they're under great stress or hugged by a person of the opposite sex. The head of the Sohma family, Akito, allows Tohru to continue living with these people, though she would soon regret it. She'll soon find out, that the three people she lives with, are also tormented with this curse. Shigure is the dog, and Yuki and Kyou? The rat and the cat of course. Kyou hates being the rejected cat, and hates even more living with the rat that betrayed him. But Tohru tries her hardest to help him and the others. But, will Akito allow it? Of course not.

Now, this show is a very pleasant blend of humor and sadness. For the most part, it's a funny show filled to the brim with over-the-top characters and over-dramatic animation. However, it does have it's fair share of moments where it plunges you into the hearts and souls of characters and how their lives are so negatively impacted by this curse. The humor, of course, is always very quick to return and wipe away

those tears threatening to emerge, but it leaves a lasting impressing and gives you a new view on certain characters and their back stories. That's something I personally find amazing about this show. These characters, from the most important to ones who don't show up very often, all of them have in-depth stories. It's something that many character developers tend to avoid, leaving characters pasts up to the viewers imagination. Fruits Basket doesn't do that and covers even the smallest details, which makes watching the show much more enjoyable. On the negative side however, there are a lot of characters to remember. For some people this isn't a problem, but for others I know it can become quite the task. The anime does cut a few from the manga, such as Rin, the horse, but there are still many more to deal with. But overall it's an excellent story with amazing character development and one of my personal favorites. 

Dragon Age 1 and 2

Dragon Age is a game made by BioWare and currently has two installments (Origins and two), a third one, Inquisition, is due to be released in the Fall of 2014.

Dragon Age Orgins Starts you out playing as a race/origin of your choosing. There are many options from human, dwarf, elf, and then sub-origins from there, such as a dwarf commoner or noble. After that you go through a short introduction sequence, just to get used to the game (all of them are different). After a bit you

meet a man named Duncan who decided to have you travel with him. He makes you into whats called a grey warden and recruits you to fight in a war against an un-dead enemy called the darkspawn, led by a huge dragon. During the war you troops are betrayed, resulting in the death of the king and the destruction of the city. Your job is to travel the world of Ferelden, gathering team members, and seeking revenge for the fallen king on the man who betrayed him, plus a little romance on the side never hurts.

In Dragon Age 2 you start out the game as refugees from that very town that was destroyed during the war in Origins. You need to fight your way out of Ferelden and into a place called Kirkwall. You can only play as a human in this one, but you get to choose between a warrior, mage, or rogue. Once in Kirkwall you find

yourself in poverty and seeking the aide of a dwarf to go onto 'a life changing mission'. You need to fight your way back into the higher ranks of the city and stop the ever boiling war between the mages, the templars, and the very unwelcome 'guests' know as the Qunari.

This is one of my favorite game series for the PS3 of all time. I was debating doing 1 and 2 in different reviews but decided to combine the two. Origins is great fun and dangerously addicting. There are so many different twists, turns and side trips you can take (or avoid), along with the huge amount of downloadable content that's available for purchase. There are so many decisions you have to make and that's something, in my opinion, that sets this game apart from so many others. You can radically change the outcome of the game and one of my favorite parts is that, if you've played both games on the same system, the choices you made in 1 can carry over into 2. For example, one character in the first game, Zevran, attacks you. You have the choice to kill him and let him join your team. If you let him join you, then he shows up a few other times in 2 and if you develop a romance with him in 1 then he mentions that 'he's already spoken for' in two (you're given the option to sleep with him, if you don't romance him in 1 then he doesn't deny you). If you have him killed in 1 then he doesn't come up at all in 2, the options are limitless.

Dragon Age 2 is a huge leap in graphics and is actually my preferred game of the two. One big draw back to 2 is that you have to play as a human, unlike Dragon Age 1 where you get to choose from 3 races. The fighting style is also drastically different, especially when it comes to mages. Where in 1 you're strictly limited to magic/long distance attacks, in two, mages can get up close and actually beat people with that cool stick they always carry around, on top of many more spells that can be taught. Dragon Age 2 also has a system where you HAVE to play through everything and do every mission in order to proceed through the story, which, depending on the person, can be good or bad. It's incredibly time consuming and sometimes gets a little dull or boring with the lengthy dialog, however it does ensure that you don't miss anything, whereas in 1 you can skip right through the minor side missions and miss a large portion of the main story if you're not careful.

Overall these two games are both incredibly fun and I sit impatiently waiting for the third. I would highly

suggest getting these two games together and playing them in order (it's not that hard people, there are only 2). The fact that the first game carries into the second is very interesting and makes all the effort you put into the first one shine though into the second, which is surprisingly satisfying.

Darker than Black

Darker than BLACK, a crazy story by Tensai Okamura about a guy with many names, but just one goal...to listen to his boss, and kill whoever gets in his way

Darker than BLACK is a weird anime with no real story line until the last few episodes when everything is pulled together. Basically, their are four types of people; dolls, normal people, the Syndicate, and contractors. The Syndicate is a powerful group of people that basically control contractors. Contractors are people who agree to a contract with the syndicate and gain super human powers (or something like that). Dolls are people who have had their soul removed and are re-programmed to obey Contractors and the Syndicate. Dolls can also use surveillance specters and spy on people or watch over their bosses. Li is a contractor with the power to manipulate electricity. For the most part, his job is to obey his boss, Huang, and kill other contractors that get in his way. In the end of the series, Li finds out that the Syndicate is actually trying to destroy all contractors using what is called Hells Gate. Li has to try and stop them, and make a decision...Take the side of the humans and have all contractors but him killed, or take the side of the contractor, and have every human in Japan killed.

Alrighty then, I really like this show...like a lot. It's really funny how Li has to try and hide his powers and live among normal people, disguised as a Chinese exchange student. I also like how, in the background, he always has a mission he feels he must complete, even though Huang says otherwise. He wants to see his sister, even though she died years before. Its really cool how her name always comes up and its so casual. Yeah, Li's just a cool guy. The negative side of the story...is that there is none. Like I said before, this show has no real story line until the last five or six episodes. It's just Li going around and killing other contractors or trying to get away from the police woman Kirihara. Another thing that I like about this show is that everyone is so different. You can tell the difference between the aggravated police force and the emotionless Dolls easily, which sometimes makes it easier to follow. But other than that it's an awesome show with loads of action, plenty of humor, cool people with violent super powers, and a naked woman (yes, I said it).