Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Image from: http://movieswallpapers.net/captain-america-the-winter-soldier-original-movie-posters.html

Name: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Release Date (in Singapore): 27 March 2014

Watched on: 19 April 2014

Summary:

Steve Rogers struggles to embrace his role in the modern world and battles a new threat from old history: the Soviet agent known as the Winter Soldier.

Summary from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1843866/

Personal Ratings: 3.5

So... I didn't watch the first season of Captain America, but I actually liked this show. For people who didn't watch the first season, you would still get this show even if you didn't watch the first season, because they would briefly explain the parts that was linked with the first season. 

For the positive side of the movie; the fighting scenes were really good. Unlike for some action shows like Hunger Games (no offence to any Hunger Games Lovers and fan people out there), I find that this movie was just about the most ideal action scene one could hope. It was clear cut, you could see every single action that was made, so all the effort into thinking out the fighting scenes to make it look cool and interesting paid off. In Hunger Games, I find myself trying hard to figure out what was happening during the fights, because the camera was just moving around in high speed. Some cliche parts, but was probably bound to happen because there is only that number of limited types of ways you could do an action scene. 

Secondly, I think that there was a high level of realistically in the show. Everything could be explained through some form of logic. Unlike most of Marvel's story and shows, I find that this show is the most realistic and logically show, along with Iron Man. 

Thirdly, the story line. The story line for this movie was really strong; it flowed throughout the whole show, with the proper climax at every interval to maintain interests in viewers. However, I find that because of this, there was a lack of impact, and could be quite boring in the middle of the movie. Because the story is so constant, there isn't a scene that makes an impact. I find that the jokes and humor that was in the show was quite fun and entertaining. My type of jokes (the serious comedy type). 

Recommended for:

Gender: Both

Age: 15 and above

Ratings: PG-13

Baccano

Image from: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/LightNovel/Baccano

Name: Baccano! バッカーノ！

Status: Completed

Episode: 13 (+ 3 OVA)

Release Date (for eng subs): -

Summary:

During the early 1930s in Chicago, the transcontinental train, Flying Pussyfoot, is starting its legendary journey that will leave a trail of blood all over the country. At the same time in New York, the ambitious scientist Szilard and his unwilling aide Ennis, are looking for missing bottles of the immortality elixir. In addition, a war between the mafia groups is getting worse. On board the Advena Avis, in 1711, alchemists are about to learn the price of immortality.

Based on the award winning light novels of the same name, this anime adaptation follows several events that initially seem unrelated, both in time and place, but are part of a much bigger story—one of alchemy, survival and immortality. Merging these events together are the kindhearted would-be thieves, Isaac and Miria, connecting various people, all of them with their own hidden ambitions and agendas, and creating lifelong bonds and consequences for everyone involved.

Summary written by: MAL Rewrite

Summary from: http://myanimelist.net/anime/2251/Baccano!

Personal Ratings: 3.5

So when I started to watch this anime, it was really confusing, and I didn't get what the hell was happening half the time. However, after awhile, when you slowly get use to the jumping around in the anime, it's when the anime starts to get nice. 

And that's when most people would probably realize how similar this anime is to Durarara! (I watched durarara! first before this show). I went to do a little search and found out that it was from the same producers.  I also felt like there was some what a Steins;Gate feeling to it too. 

I think that Durarara! was kind of like the improved version of this anime, with all the proper episodes and characters. I felt like this anime doesn't really have the a right amount of in-dept focus for each group of characters. I felt that having 13 episodes with 3 other OVAs were not quite enough for the show. Since there were like many different types of characters, I felt like they only focused on one group and kind of neglected the other groups, even though I feel like the other groups also place a lot of importance in the anime. 

Because if the many different groups of characters in this show, I felt like it was really confusing, especially because they kept changing from one view point to another throughout the show. I feel like there was too many group of characters and too little time. It kind of felt like there was incomplete story line for some of the group of characters. 

I felt that the skips and jumps in the anime was just too much. They didn't only change from different view point to another, but also from different incident and timing all together. So if you aren't paying attention enough, it can get really confusing. 

But I still feel like this anime is really quite unique, and it sets itself apart from most of the action animes out there. I just felt like it should have been longer. 

Art Ratings: 4

Same art as Durarara! But I felt like this art suited this anime more. Like no too unique, and it fits into the mundane setting that this anime has and blends well with every character.

Recommended for:

Gender: Both

Age: 15 and above

My Ratings: PG-13

The Other Woman

Image from: http://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=99671

Name: The Other Woman

Release Date (in Singapore): 17 April 2014
Watched on: 19 April 2014

Summary:

After discovering her boyfriend is married, a woman (Cameron Diaz) tries to get her ruined life back on track. But when she accidentally meets the wife he's been cheating on (Leslie Mann), she realizes they have much in common, and her sworn enemy becomes her greatest friend. When yet another affair is discovered (Kate Upton), all three women team up to plot mutual revenge on their cheating, lying, three-timing SOB. 

Summary from: http://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=99671

Personal Ratings: 3

It's a comedy show. So, as some of you may already know, I'm not that fond of comedy shows. But luckily for this, I actually kind of liked this show. 

I thought the jokes were kind of funny, but I just didn't like how most of them were like sex jokes. So it wasn't really age appropriate (I saw this younger girl in the cinema, she looked like she didn't get most of the jokes). 

I liked how the story progressed. It was really interesting to see how the 3 of them got to know each other. The first two girl really got me interested. I really didn't know how the two of them could know each other so well, especially with such clashing personalities. I just felt like that the time when the spend with the last girl, was really short compared to other two. 

Recommended for:

Gender: Female

Age: 15 and above

Ratings: PG-13

Son of God

Image from: http://www.impawards.com/2014/son_of_god.html


Name: Son of God

Release Date (in Singapore): 17 April 2014
Watched on: 17 April 2014


Summary:
This movie follows the story in the bible, written by Peter.


Personal Ratings: 2.5

This movie, together with Noah, is probably shown on this timing because of the good Friday and the Easter day. So I guess this show is probably more for the Christians. I don't have any idea how would Christians actually rate this movie, but I'm just going to rate this as how I would rate any other movie. 

So, luckily for me, I was in a Christian primary and secondary school, so I knew all of the stories that were shown or mentioned in the movie. So I guess, to a certain extend I can relate a little to the movie and the Christians that were watching this movie. 

So firstly, the title 'Son of God' is really a broad title, that seem to be talking just about Jesus; so I was kind of expecting like all the stories that included Jesus in it, from the beginning to the end. I was quite disappointed when they decided to focus more on the time where he was being killed. I felt like there should be more miracles added into the movie, makes it less boring. 

There were also many parts where I felt like it was really draggy, and slow. Which kind of almost made me fell asleep as I was watching, (which, btw, rarely happens to me when I'm watching a movie), so for that to happen, it must have been real bad. 

I felt that, if they weren't going to add more miracles into the movie, they could have simply kept the movie shorter, by removing the unnecessary dragging parts. 

I'm not sure how those people who didn't read the bible felt about this show. From what I could tell from my mum (who doesn't read the bible), she couldn't really follow the show, or maybe I should say, relate to the show, which made things even more boring for her. But I guess it's a good movie for those that want to know about what happened to Jesus, because they didn't, very much at all, stray too far from what written in the bible. 

Recommended for:
Gender: Both
Age: 13 and above
Ratings: PG-13

Hyouka Case Special - Episode 4

氷華

Hyouka

Case Special - Episode 4

Read detailed comments and screenshots on the mysteries in Hyouka here:

http://strawberryshortcake-extras.blogspot.com/2014/04/hyouka-case-special-episode-4.html

Soul Eater

Image from: http://myanimelist.net/anime/3588/Soul_Eater

Name: Soul Eater ソウルイーター
Side Story: Soul Eater Not!

Status: Completed
Episode: 51
Release Date (for eng subs): -


Summary:

Set in the Shinigami technical school for weapon meisters, the series revolves around 3 groups of each a weapon meister and a human weapon. Trying to make the latter a "Death Scythe" which is the highest title for a weapon and thus fit for use by the Shinigami, they must collect the souls of 99 evil humans and 1 witch.

Maka & Soul Eater, Black Star & Tsubaki, and Death the Kid with Patty and Liz Thompson are the characters Soul Eater revolves around. Besides taking the time to gather souls, these students of Shibusen defend Death City from some of the most powerful of creatures while still attending school and trying to become stronger.

Summary from: http://myanimelist.net/anime/3588/Soul_Eater

Personal Ratings: 3.5

Ok so, when I first watched this anime about... god knows how long ago, I really liked it. I thought it was really a pretty nice mainstream action anime, minus the last episode. However, when I re-watched it for the 3rd time, recently, somehow I just find that it wasn't as good as what I thought I remembered it too be. So I'm just guessing that maybe this isn't the type of anime you can keep re-watching and still feel that it's awesome; kind of like Zetsuen no Tempest. 

So some of the negative points about this anime: first is the filler episodes. I think that the filler episodes were just wrong, really boring, but you can skip them. since the whole episode has almost no link to the main story. The fillers are only the episodes with Excalibur, who is a holy sword, and those episodes are really bad. They were like the worst thing you can do to an anime, is stick some random boring episode about this funny sword talking throughout the whole episode. So yea I really hated those episodes with Excalibur in them.

Secondly, It's the division of episodes. I find that they tend to just focus on one side of the story at one time. So if the incident only involves Death the kid, than they would finish him first before moving on to the next one. Well doing it this way allows viewers to just skip to the character's they like, but since all of the incidents are somewhat related, they would still need to watch it. So in a sense, I feel that there is very little "team work" between the three group of main characters.

Thirdly, about the Kishin. They keep saying like he is so afraid of everything around him he went crazy. But honestly, after seeing how Stien acted when he was over taken by madness, I feel that the Kishin is very much sane. Though I somewhat liked his character when he and Shinigami fought, I find that he was somewhat different when he fought against Maka, Kid and Black Star. The way the fight ended was also quite dumb. I wished they could have added a little more of what happened after the fight with Kishin part. 

Some of the positive points: I like the unique character they gave Kid, about this symmetry illness. Though sometimes I think that they don't always follow by this rule for Kid, but only when they want to add laughter to the show, which was quite a led down, but I have to say that the jokes added in by this illness of his was really good. Even though I'm not very fond of comedy type of animes, I find myself laughing to the symmetry jokes that were put in into the anime. 

Secondly, I like how this anime can strike a balance between the serious side and the comedy side. For some animes that attempt to do this, usually fail at being serious because their actions maybe too extreme, etc. One of them is Kill la Kill. So having nailed this two sides, really makes it quite a good anime, especially when their jokes and fighting scenes are top notch. (I mean it's really rare for me to give out compliments when it comes to comedy.) Though sometimes I feel that Kid and Maka should get more awesome action scenes (especially in the 2nd half of the anime), I felt that Black Star was the one that got all the nice fighting scenes.  

Lastly, I'm not sure if it's a good side about this anime, or is it just my preference, but I really like the scenes when people get over taken by madness, like the way Stien acted or that time when Maka fought against Crona. I find that the recklessness was so darn cool, I feel that maybe they should have more of those scenes.

Art Ratings: 3
Clean cut drawing. I wouldn't say it's nice or anything. But I think it's fine this way for a shounen anime. It suites the anime storyline.
I like how they try to add the Shinigami logo into their clothes and things. Really cute.


Recommended for:
Gender: Both
Age: 13 and above
My Ratings: PG-13

Kaichou wa Maid-sama (Anime)

Image from: http://www.pinoyanime.tv/kaichou-wa-maid-sama/

Name: Class President is a Maid! 会長はマイド様 Kaichou wa Maid-sama 

Status: Completed
Episode: 26 + 2 (1 OVA and 1 LaLa Special)
Release Date (for eng subs): -


Summary:

Seika High is originally a all boys school, turned co-ed not too long ago. To help the girls in the school, Misaki desperately works hard to be the president council. However, Misaki's family is really poor due to the debts left behind by her dad. To maintain her image as the fearful president council, she secretly works at a maid cafe. Unexpectedly, one day Usui Takumi, who is known to be the school's most popular boy, finds out about her secret. The anime shows how they slowly developed feelings for each other, and in the end like each other.

Summary by: AngelaAngess

Personal Ratings: 3

So... I've been eyeing on this anime for quite a while, since I've been reading the manga for a long long time, but I didn't really want to ruin the good image I had of the manga. But since the manga ended and stuffs like that, I decided to just give this anime a try. Didn't turn out as bad as I thought it would, but definitely not up to the standard I was expecting for.

So I think that this anime is too fast paced. I realize that they try to squeeze as many chapters as they can into 26 episodes, which is just not enough. I really thought that they should have made this anime 50 episodes long. This way, they can also show about Usui's family, and not have it too fast paced. But of course, the pace also changes as along with their target audience. I think that because of that, this show is really for impatient people, the younger group of teenagers and also for people who are still a beginner when it comes to anime. However, when it comes to me, I feel that there is something missing when the anime is too fast paced. Especially when it came to the last part of the last episode, I felt that the ending was quite abrupt. 

Some 'trade mark' scenes (I would call that, since it really make a huge impact on me when I read the manga), was not really there; in terms of emotions, actions and the effects. I felt that the scenes that I was looking forward too got lost in the mids of all that cutting short.

I didn't really like Usui's seiyuu (no offence to people who liked his voice in this anime). I think he actually nailed Usui's 'lazy' voice, but as for his series voice or sexy voice, I still feel that something is lacking. (well some times the sexy voice is nailed, but other times it's not). 

I didn't actually like the OST. I think that it's a little too... (idk how to say it) girly? I felt that the main OST was used at the wrong time, and sometimes didn't really flow with the atmosphere, because it really bugged me the whole time when I was watching some scenes.  

Overall, I think that what made this anime a success was still the story line. If it wasn't for the epic story line and the sexiness from both Misaki and Usui, I bet this anime wouldn't have been that nice. Well at least this was quite a fun anime to watch. 

Art Ratings: 3

The art isn't all that different from the manga, so I was quite relieved, however, it didn't really allow the anime to have more impact, especially when it came to the facial expressions. Because while reading the manga, I would feel the emotions really clearly from the facial expressions. 

I also thought that the setting was a little too detail, compared to the characters, so the characters and the setting don't really blend together.

Recommended for:
Gender: Female
Age: 12 and above
My Ratings: PG

Hyouka Case Special - Episode 3

氷華

Hyouka

Case Special - Episode 3

Read detailed comments and screenshots on the mysteries in Hyouka here:

http://strawberryshortcake-extras.blogspot.com/2014/04/hyouka-case-special-episode-3.html

Recommended anime: Spring 2014

Spring 2014

Shoujo:
Isshukan Friends
*Ryuugajou Nanana no Maizoukin
Sore Demo Sekai wa Utsukushii

Shounen:
Akuma no Riddle
*Baby Steps
Black Bullet
*Haikyuu!!
Magi: Adventures of Sinbad
Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei
Mekaku City Actors
**No Game No Life


Winter 2013 (Now still on-going)

Shoujo:
Nisekoi

Shounen:
Diamond no Ace


View List of Recommended animes here: http://strawberryshortcake-reviews.blogspot.com/p/recommened-animes.html

* Highly Recommended for this season (Sequels not included)

Kyoukai no Kanata, Secret Base Cover

So... I've randomly decided to make a cover of one of my favorite song from Kyoukai no Kanata. I know my voice is like not very nice, but I just decided to make this for fun. Sorry for the poor quality. Hope you guys enjoy it.

Here is another cover of one of my fav songs currently: Secret Base (Kimi ga Kureta Mono)
(Ending song from Ano Hana)

Tiger & Bunny

Image from: http://myanimelist.net/anime/9941/Tiger_&_Bunny

Name: Tiger & Bunny
Movie: Movie 1: The Beginning, Movie 2: The Rising

Status: Completed
Episode: 25
Release Date (for eng subs): -


Summary:

Sternbild City is home to people called "Next," who use their special abilities to protect the people as superheroes. These heroes solve cases and save lives so they can wear sponsor logos or acquire "hero points." Their activities are documented on the popular program "Hero TV," which picks the "King of Heroes" in a yearly ranking. The veteran hero Wild Tiger has always preferred to work alone, but now he's been assigned the rookie Barnaby Brooks Jr., who has a different perspective on being a superhero.

Summary from: http://myanimelist.net/anime/9941/Tiger_&_Bunny
Summary Source: ANN


Personal Ratings: 3.5

This anime is quite different from your typical super hero shows like power rangers and what not. I feel that this kind of give off the more realistic feel to it, if there are actually people out there that have powers.

The superheros are used for entertainment, while saving the city from all the bad deeds. to show this, I really liked how they make the battle gear with all the sponsors name on it. 

I loved the title for this anime. Honestly the title really makes people want to know what type of show this is, and when you start watching the show, it was quite clear who the 'tiger' was in this show, so it kind of makes you wonder who is the 'bunny'. Than this random guy with the name Barnaby shows up, and the moment you hear his name, I'm sure most people would be like "is that the 'bunny'? His name sounds like 'bunny'", which is kind of epic, especially then Kotetsu starts calling him bunny-chan. 

You may take a while to get use to this anime, because unlike most animes, they don't explain everything from the beginning (like what is NEXT and things like that). I actually like this kind because I like to get use to things and find out more about the anime this way. But of course, sometimes we wouldn't know in dept about some things that are left unexplained.

This whole show is on the this killing organization who actually killed Barnaby's parents. I really like this main story line, just that I thought that they should have actually dropped clues about Barnaby in the starting of the anime. It kind of felt like they suddenly added the thing about Barnaby's parents.

The thing about the new enemy, Lunatic also seemed kind of stupid, because he was having this special huge moment for 2 episodes, and suddenly he is forgotten off. I honestly thought that he would be the new enemy for the 2nd arc of the anime. But it turns out that he was so insignificant in the later part of the anime, and there wasn't really a 2nd arc in the anime, it was more like this whole thing strung together.

One thing I really didn't like was that at the end of the anime, it was not completed. Especially about the organization and about Lunatic. I'm not sure if the movie 2 would tell us anything more about Lunatic, but I'm hoping that they would, somehow, complete the anime. 

In the 2nd part of the anime, the part about Kotetsu being hunter by all the other heroes, I really didn't like how Barnaby wasn't there half the time, because I thought that he would be the main point in that whole commotion. 

The ending part of the 2nd part of the anime (about the H01 android robots thing), was also quite cliche and weird. The design of the 'prison' which the heroes were in, was also weird. why would there be a need for needles everywhere, it kind of made me thing the walls are gonna close up on all of them and kill them for a moment there. Some parts that kind of defied logic.

Recommended for:
Gender: Both
Age: 13 and above
My Ratings: PG-13

Noah

Image from: http://pathmegazine.com/news/world-news/biblical-film-noah-forks-over-4-million-for-super-bowl-commercial/attachment/noah-movie-poster/

Name: Noah

Release Date (in Singapore): 3 April 2014

Watched on: 5 April 2014

Summary:

On the life of Noah, surrounding the Noah's Ark incident, following the bible.

Personal Ratings: 4

This is more like the dark, more cruel and ugly side of the story of Noah's Ark which most people knows. They show a lot human's ugly side; the greed, the killing, the selfishness...

Nothing much to say about this show. It's really quite a good show, just that some parts may get a little boring, especially nearing the end. The computer graphics were also not quite as good. There were some parts where I thought that it looked so obvious that the place they were at was not real, but computer generated. (the part about about the place where it was all black and they were talking to one of the watcher). Quite gory at some parts.

I really like the little kids that acted in the show!! Really cute, and their acting was awesome.


Recommended for:
Gender: Both
Age: 16 and above
Ratings: NC-16

Hyouka Case Special - Episode 2

氷華

Hyouka

Case Special - Episode 2

Read detailed comments and screenshots on the mysteries in Hyouka here:

http://strawberryshortcake-extras.blogspot.com/2014/03/hyouka-case-special-episode-2.html

*Episode 3 coming out on 11 April 

Detective Conan: Movie 7

Image from: http://kei-review.blogspot.sg/2011/08/detective-conan-movie-7-crossroad-in.html

Name: Detective Conan: Crossroad in the Ancient Capital 名探偵コナン 迷宮の十字路
Parent Story: Detective Conan (Case Closed)

Status: Completed
Episode: Movie

Release date (for eng subs): -
Release date (in Japan):  April 19 2003


Summary:

The movie starts out by showing the girl that Hattori Heji fell in love with in Kyoto when he was young. Kogoro was asked to go to Kyoto to decipher a note and to investigate a robbery and several murders, which all seems to be connected. Kazuha was than called up by Ran to bring them to go sightseeing in Kyoto, while Heji looks for his first love. While looking for his first love, he met Conan by coincidence, who was looking for ways to decipher the note. Heji than helps Conan decipher the code, when he was being attacked by the killer. 

It looks like there was some connection between the incident when Heji was still young, and the killings. 

Summary by: AngelaAgness

Personal Ratings: 3.5

First of all, I think the case in this show is really quite nicely made, however, I feel that people who don't really know Kyoto well probably would not really understand the part about the roads and what not. So it was kind of hard to interpret all their translations of the road names to the song, etc. So while I was watching the show, I kind of just totally didn't pay attention to all their deciphers, because I just couldn't catch it. Constant use of that Temari song throughout the whole show.

Unlike the normal Detective Conan movies and episodes, this movie has especially a lot more action; where Heji uses his Kendo skills to defeat the enemy. Yet I really like the fact that they didn't forget that Heji is just a regular Kendo student, and would never beat some one who practices with a real sword. 

Of course, I'm just a bit more bias to episodes and movies in which Conan changes back to Kudo Shinichi, but it was so short!

Art Ratings: 4
(For art reviews go to: Detective Conan (Case Closed))


Recommended for:
Gender: Both
Age: 13 and above
My Ratings: PG-13