Hemlock

Mary Sues seems to be a common thing in historical dramas. It was the reason i didn't like Female Prime Minister. Some sageuks i watched were like that too. I understand the appeal but it does get annoying. I've always liked stories with damaged characters. It's more interesting to me.

I tried watching the first ep of Weiyoung but closed the tab when i saw the girls dressed and pretending to walk like a guy. The humor in historical mainland dramas has never clicked with me. Same with Legend of Chusen. I was enjoying it for the first couple episodes but then they decided it was a good idea to have comedy scenes while serious and dangerous things were happening. So i ragequit it. I do want to try Weiyoung again though. Just not in the mood now.

None for taiwanese ones. I'm enjoying Miss In Kiss (the newest remake of ItaKiss, ISWAK, Playful Kiss) But i have a love of the older style romcoms that can be cheesy so it's hard to recommend. There's another ongoing one called Behind Your Smile that seems like it could be good but i haven't checked it out yet. I haven't watched any mainland ones so i can't help there. Even Puff's drama i haven't watched. I started the first ep but didn't see Puff after 10 minutes and the guy was annoying so i stopped watching and haven't gone back yet.

Halfway through Suishou no Kodou. Liking it so far. Ep3 was frustrating though. I always hate when different departments hide things from each other and shit like that instead of cooperating to solve the case. I haven't caught up with NIgeHaji yet. The last ep isn't subbed yet so i'm not in a rush. I still think it's kinda disappointing and have problems with the writing but it's cute enough to finish.

Listen to the kpop song of the year instead :O

I'm halfway through season 1 and i like it but at the same time i'm losing interest because of the lack of overacting story. I know there's the mastermind behind everything and it will eventually lead towards that, but it still feels like it's episodic.

You didn't deny it! They're also kinda mumbley.

IIRC Jolin's views on marriage was basically that you shouldn't get married just to get married. That being with the person you love is all that matters. Which i agree with completely and i think it's what most of the younger generation thinks. But that means he really wanted to get married and they broke up because just being together wasn't enough? that's kinda dumb. Unless it was about settling down and starting a family. Then I'd kinda understand.

i don't like 2ne1. I like the Banks album. I can't find an english tracklist so idk which songs Lost in Love and Stay In Love are. But if you're asking for ballads, then yea you might be disappointed in this album. It's more mid-tempo and upbeat. I think there might only be like 2 regular ballads. Like this one

Shi Shi's album came out so i was able to finish my lists. I posted it on twitter and forgot to post it here. That's: Diana Wang, DJ Didilong, Dizzy Dizzo, Ellen Loo, Jia Huizhen Khalil Fong, Phoebe, Queen Wei, R-chord, Shi Shi If anybody cares about the other languages

Yo don't forget about Nioh next year though. It looks amazing also. If you're a fan of the Souls series at all definitely check it out. People have said it's harder than Dark Souls too. You can definitely get in a rhythm after you've played them so that sounds exciting to me. And i don't think anybody has posted about this yet? Atlus announced a new project that will be a non-persona non-megaten fantasy rpg. Very early in development but concept art looks good. http://personacentral.com/atlus-project-re-fantasy-concept-video-site-update/

The Nier demo looks amazing but i'm still a little worried about how much of an rpg it will be. The focus every time has been on the combat so far, and that is expected because of Platinum's involvement, but Nier was all about the story.

fake fan.

The Tia song is probably the biggest surprise for me this year. I thought it was decent but it did super well. The MV has more views than all of Dream Girls' MVs combined with 31 million views. I thought a solo album would have came after that. I think they are done as a group after everything that has happened honestly.

I don't know if what i'm wondering about actually happens or reveals itself in CS2 or not is the problem haha. It's fine. Just something i'm curious about but i'll find out myself eventually. Just don't have the money for games atm. Yea they're not worth playing for the story. I love the music though and the OSTs are worth checking out~

You can start anywhere really. You play those games for the gameplay and not the story and there's barely any story anyway. Origins or Oath are fine places to start. I started with 7 and liked it a lot because it has a party system instead of just you by yourself. Memories of Celceta has the same party system too. 1+2 are a little weird. There's no attack button. You attack by running into the enemies. I meant it might be a spoiler for you. The thing i want to ask about for Cold Steel 2 kinda spoils SC.

The president of the company said the reason it's a ps4 exclusive is to get better international sales. So i guess it's not financially viable to put out multiple versions. Ys is very good. I've only actually beaten Ys 7 though. Halfway through Ys Oath in Felghana. Normal fights might not be anything special but the series is all about the boss fights and the awesome soundtracks. Boss fights are all about learning patterns and figuring out the boss. They can be hard games but fun. They go on sale on steam fairly often. There's something i want to ask about Cold Steel 2 but i don't want to spoil in case it didn't happen lol.

Falcom is having a meeting or something right now and a few things have been announced already. Ys VIII (Ys Lacrimosa of Dana) is getting a ps4 version on May 2017. Cold Steel 3 confirmed ps4 only and coming out in 2017 also. These are japanese dates. Cold Steel 3 has a website now with some screenshots: http://www.falcom.com/sen3/

^ you didn't like Dear Sister? I really liked it. It was the drama that got me back into jdramas. I lost interest for a while because japan was in a weird obsession with episodic detective dramas for a few years. I've only seen the first ep of Jimi ni Sugoi so i can't say much. There's only 3 subbed eps out so i'm not even going to bother until it's done. My disappointment this year is NigeHaji. I know it's super popular and i was enjoying it a lot too early on. I just think some of the writing and logic behind the actions the characters have are really weird and weak. I had to drop it after failing to finish episode 5 after multiple attempts.

Dragon Quest V

What are your guy's favorite cpop releases of the year? Or other languages too. I've been putting together my top10 favorite albums lists for cpop, jpop, kpop, and western music. Not done yet though. I think the jpop, kpop, and western lists are pretty much settled already. Just waiting for the Shi Shi and Claire Kuo albums to come out before i finish the cpop one.

It looks like it's much more westernized now. It's open world with a ton of fetch quests and "go kill this monster" quests. After so much talk about bringing the game back to its roots, it looks like they've done the opposite. FFXV and the second Xenoblade game have both done this. The Xenoblade guys have even said they want to be like Bethesda. Not a fan of this at all but i understand others like it. I'll just wait for Persona 5 and Dragon Quest XI.

Gintama LA teaser trailer (Oguri Shun, Suda Masaki, Hashimoto Kanna) Cheerdance trailer. (Hirose Suzu and Nakajo Ayami) Isshuukan Friends LA trailer (Yamaken and Kawaguchi Haruna) 3-gatsu no Lion (March comes in like a lion) LA trailer (Kamiki Ryunosuke, Arimura Kasumi) Hirunaka no Ryuusei LA trailer (Nagano Mei, Miura Shohei, Shirahama Aran) I think that’s most of them. There was a trailer for the live action P to JK movie starring Kame and Tsuchiya Tao too but the video looks like it was taken down. There are various other news of celebs having kids or whatever too. Also the whole Narimiya Hiroki mess that’s been happening Basically there was a rumor that he did drugs (coke i think, i forget) He denies it but retired from the entertainment industry. A “friend†opening a blog and twitter to talk about it or something like that. The Unleashthegeek twitter is a good place to look at if you want to see this stuff.

During the downtime I watched Wolf Girl and Black Prince, The World of Kanako, finally watched the third live action Rurouni Kenshin movie, and also rewatched Ao Haru Ride live action~ -Wolf Girl was ok. Fumi is cute. I still don't get why Yamaken is so popular. -World of Kanako is O_O. Don't even know if i could say whether it's good or not. It's a violent and at times disturbing ride with unlikable characters. But Komatsu Nana was pretty in it so worth i guess idk. -RuroKen 3 was super disappointing as a big RuroKen fan. I thought the first movie was really good despite the changes. The second movie was alright and then the third was just meh. -I enjoyed all adaptations of Ao Haru Ride and Honda Tsubasa's smile makes me smile so i watched it after World of Kanako just for something light after that lol. I'll gather all the live action movie trailers that came out over the break and post it in a bit.

Normal encounters are fast and the dungeons are short. You never have to grind so you keep moving from objective to objective at a good pace. You can beat the game in like 20 hours. I didn't get it but i have watched streams and heard/read a lot of opinions on it. The consensus seems to be it's fun and the characters are good but the story is weak and becomes a mess in the second half of the game. Square is even going to release a patch that adds in cutscenes to fix it. Sounds like it could be good if you like a fun combat system and an open world to do random shit in. I prefer a good story so i don't think it's for me.