Top 3 Anticipated (AND CONFIRMED) Sequels of All Time!

Welcome back, fellow Otaku! Have you ever finished a series, with a non-canon ending that diverges from the manga, or ending on the 20th chapter of what will seem to be 100s of volumes, and felt the sheer sadness of losing your weekly source of enjoyment? We feel your pain, so we grabbed the top 3 most anticipated sequels of all time to satiate your hunger pangs for anime goodness! Let's look toward the future, together!

Without further ado, here they are!





1. Blue Exorcist (SEASON TWO!)
Release Date: Estimated Summer 2017

The new Blue Exorcist (Ao no Exorcist)sequel (Kyoto Impure King Arc) will focus on the two brothers Rin and Yukio Okamura as they battles the spawn of Gehenna and Satan himself to keep the human world (Assiah) safe. Their goal this time? To keep the Impure King from being revived!

I am not the only one who is glad that Blue Exorcist is getting back to the manga plot. With the success of the story line, driven by shounen action and family bonds similar to Full Metal Alchemist, it is a no-brainer to bring the exorcist crew back to our TVs. Expect to see this demon-slaying series back sometime in 2017~!




2. My Hero Academia (SEASON TWO!)
Release Date: TBD

Who has not fallen in love with My Hero Academia (Boku no Hero Academia) earlier this year? If not, then you've missed the story of Izuku Midoriya and his foray into the world of Heores! He lives in a world where a large percent of the population is born with a "Quirk" which is basically a super power that evolves as kids age. Poor Izuku, who wished to be a hero more than anyone else, was not born with a "Quirk" and was devastated, until he was given a chance to reach Heroic levels and impress the greatest hero of all time, "All Might"

Season two was confirmed shortly after the series ended, and was met with overwhelming joy by fans of the series! While there is no news of the actual release date or season, we should keep our fingers crossed that it will be back sometime in 2017! PLUS ULTRA!





3. Attack on Titan (SEASON TWO!)
Release Date: Spring 2017

Sie sind das Essen und wir sind die Jäger!

Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin) has taken the world by storm as a household name among anime fans, and even those who would normally watch anime have gotten a glimpse of the show. Everyone knows the premise - a world where freakish-looking giants who feed on human flesh have driven humanity  to hide behind giant walls for safety (*Trump approved!*). Eren Jaeger, a teen and resident of this world, has sworn to kill every last titan on earth to avenge his losses. But things soon get complicated as Eren himself is wrapped up in a plot much large than most titans...

Without spoiling much for those who have somehow survived this long without watching the show, Season 2 will kick off where they last left off, jumping into the voluminous manga chapters that have been coming nonstop since the anime finished back in 2013. Will humans finally gain salvation over their situation, or will the largest threat of the Colossal Titan bring us to our demise?! We can only find out in Spring 2017! (or reading the manga)

-chansu

Tokyo Ghoul: Two Paths, If/Then? Off-Beat Comparison 1

V.S.

There is a special nature to duality that draws people close. Some animals that are never punished do not love their owner as much as animals that are punished and praised in equal measure. This juxtaposition of behaviours draws the animal or pet closer.

This is the first edition of Off-Beat Comparison, where I try to make ridiculous theories about popularity in media, with Anime versus non-Japanese entertainment. Go figure, that the first installment in this series is as strange as ever!

If/Then - Broadway Musical

Okay, don't click away just yet! If/Then is a play about a woman named Elizabeth (played by Idina Menzel of Frozen fame), trying to make her way in NYC after a failed marriage and a wasted 30-some-odd years of her life. She meets her old friend Kate who urges her to live out her wildest dreams of hook-ups and bad decisions (like dating an army guy she meets in the park randomly), and she also meets her friend and former love interest Lucas who wants her to make serious changes in the city of New York. 

The most interesting part of the play is that both scenarios play out simultaneously. With reckless abandon, the play goes on shifting between two version of the protagonist, "Liz" the romantic and "Beth" the city planner , who splinter off into two separate dramas  of love, moral conflict, and the search for self...

Tokyo Ghoul - Manga/Anime

Okay, back to common ground. Tokyo Ghoul has made a splash in the otaku scene for being potentially the edgiest shounen since Baki the Grappler. In the metropolis of Tokyo, Ghouls roam the streets, feasting on human beings. They look just like humans, except for their red eyes and their powerful kagune, a predatory organ of disastrous power. Kaneki Ken, an average kid, is tricked by a Ghoul and winds up becoming half-ghoul after a surgery gone wrong. 

Some of the best human conflict happens in Tokyo Ghoul. Kaneki has to decide if he will feast on humans (once you are a Ghoul, all other food makes you want to vomit) or die, accept the Ghoul that inhabits his body or reject his new powers, and most importantly of all, he must decide whether to join the morally sane group of barista-Ghouls called Anteiku, the police force CCG which hunts Ghouls for the sake of mankind, or the radical Ghoul legion that yearns for anarchy, the Aogiri Tree. There is not a single character in the story that does not have a personal story with deep human conflict.

The Analysis

At this point the relationship is obvious: both stories tell a tale of conflicted main characters. If/Then takes the average story of mid-life crisis and spins it on its head. Tokyo Ghoul takes the shounen genre and delivers a story that no one can predict. 

But the most interesting parallel is that Tokyo Ghoul's second season has departed from the manga a bit. {Spoiler Alert} In Tokyo Ghoul Root A (the anime), Kaneki decides to join Aogiri tree, but in the manga he decides to join the CCG. This conflict in the plot itself parallels If/Then's conflicted plotline, where the same character lives in two different universes at the same time, only to, at the end, meet at (what some people would consider) a solidarity between the two. Almost like a Naruto filler that wraps up perfectly into the next canon episode...

These two stories have attracted crowds for that reason -- sticking to one story, theme, or genre is mainstream; and giving the viewers a fourth-wall point of conflict is truly gripping.

This is my first time analyzing two different types of stories! If you think the theory holds water, and want to see more Off-Beat Comparisons, stay tuned!

-chansu

Aldnoah.Zero, Pre-Season 2: The Futility of Talents Review

To those of you who haven't seen Aldnoah.Zero season 1, beware....

Spoiler Alert!!

Slaine gets pissed that Princess Vers cares about Inaho!
Slaine helped kill Princess Vers!
Slaine shoots Inaho!
Slaine kills Saazbaum!

What happens when the most talented kid on the block tries his best to fight the opposition, despite the odds and the ever-present threat of death over his shoulder?

That is basically what Aldnoah.Zero is about. Kaizuka Inaho is an ordinary Japanese boy who happens to also be the younger sibling of a Warrant Officer in the futuristic parallel world where Earth discovers ancient power on Mars, and creates an alternate race of humans with a supreme God complex. The Earthling become Terrans and the Martians become Vers. And they all have mechs. But the Martian mechs have super physics-defying powers, while the Earth mechs are a bunch of crap.

Only one boy is smart enough to make due with what he has, an orange colored training mech (called a Kataphrakt) and uses his brains to outsmart opponents when he is severely outmatched... And decides fights because he is a superior tactician and hedges his bets...

But what about that twist ending?? 

It's no wonder that Ei Aoki, Director of such somber works as Fate/Zero, Ga-Rei, and Blood+ would come up with such an ending to the first season, trolling many anime fans across the world.

Just my personal reaction: When I saw the ending of Aldnoah.Zero with a friend, we both sat there dumbstruck for minutes on end as the credits rolled. "What kind of mad scientist concocted such a down-to-life ending? What were they thinking?" And then it hit me: the point of this ending was to say "There are no heroes in anime. There are just the idealistic, and the determined." And in a way that's true to life.

What was the purpose of the entire struggle to save Earth from the Martian onslaught? It doesn't matter; everyone has their own reason to fight, and no one reason is as good as the person it belongs to. Like Fate/Zero, Aldnoah.Zero feels like a biopic -- the trials and tribulations of Kaizuka Inaho, a skilled tactician without the fear and needless worrying of a normal person. Nothing more, nothing less.

I highly recommend that those who've seen Aldnoah.Zero Season one go check out the first episode of Season 2 that is now available! The epic space opera-that would continues to the tragic tune of a futile elegy...!

-chansu

JRock Video of the Night!

Chase the Light! by Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas
Also the opening theme of the second season of Kaiji



Sorry no lyrics this time