I'm so proud of America..

So, just the other day I was on Netflix in the children and family section, and I was surprised to see titles like Dream High and Shut Up Flower Boy Band in the teen, children and family section. Yes, I am fully aware that Netflix does have an anime section with a small variety of dubbed (not subbed) anime, however seeing Korean Dramas as part of their line up made me more than happy. 

Nothing against Netflix, however, I have noticed that their anime line up is a bit.... lacking. I mean A: they use Funimation, and B: they have a very limited amount of titles and even fewer newer titles.I mean nothing against Funimation, but i can only stand so much of their anime's for the fact that, well, they tend to recycle their voice actors. 
And it's truly terrible because they think it's okay, but it's gotten to a point where i can point out the same voice actor who voiced several different roles in each anime. Other than that huge problem they have a huge censoring problem, okay, so i get some anime's need censoring at certain inappropriate parts, and yes if there's Japanese word play then dubbing it is just going to be a huge mess, but then they go ahead and just cut out scenes out of the blue, and some of those scenes are crucial to the ending of the anime itself. The last reason I don't use Funimation much anymore is because they don't finish their anime's. Yes. I said it. And for you avid English dub watchers, your probably thinking, "what's she talking about?" I'm talking about only dubbing the first season of every other anime besides Naruto because their too lazy too, that's what I'm talking about. Not that I think that Funimation is too lazy to dub the other seasons, it's that I cannot fathom another reason why they would neglect the other seasons in every anime besides Naruto.

Which is ridiculous considering Naruto is a ninja who's catchphrase is "believe it". I mean ,... really?!

Anyways, what I really wanted to talk about today was different streaming websites, (which is actually pretty appropriate considering where we started today). Of course when watching anime and Asian dramas, even movies there are different websites to chose from, and my experience has given me results.
First off there are the more "higher grade" anime and drama websites, such as crunchyroll. Crunchyroll is a great site to watch Asian... well, everything, they have a wider anime library than drama library, but the quality is high grade. Crunchyroll even has news to the newest shows each season and forums on cosplay and figurine sales and is just marvelous. There are a different amount of adds depending on what your watching and how long that is, but its way less than hulu has, no offense to hulu. Plus it has a hot lay up that's extremely easy to follow, the only problem with Crunchyroll is that you have to be a premium user to see the newest anime episodes as soon as they come out, for free users, you have to wait a couple days to a week, that is for the latest anime episodes that are freshly subbed out of the oven.

http://www.crunchyroll.com/

But if Crunchyroll doesn't have it i use YouTube, AnimeFreak, or GOGoAnime, because their anime listing is eternal. (no really i swear, they have like everything)here are some more links:
http://www.youtube.com/

http://www.gogoanime.com/

http://www.animefreak.tv/

For my dramas I actually don't use crunchyroll, Instead I use DramaFever or YoDrama  since they have the highest qualities and the most accurate subtitles.
Links:
http://www.dramafever.com/

http://www.yodrama.com/

I prefer to use these sites simply because their higher quality and more accurate in their subtitles. Not that fan-subs are bad, but you never can tell the difference on whether they're messing with you and putting fake subs than when they put real subs.
Also I would like to say Rest In Peace to DramaCrazy.net and it's sister site AnimeCrazy.net, who have been shut down. I will always remember these sites as wonderful subbers that had a beautifully wide variety of anime's and Dramas.
A moment of silence

P.s. 
Both Crunchyroll and DramaFever have apps if you ever want to watch on the go.

 

Nail Shop Paris (Review)

Nail Shop Paris is a vividly short Korean drama with only ten remarkable episodes that were much more than I expected.

This Korean Drama revolves around Hong Yeo Joo a fantasy novelist who has a bit of an obsession with Gumiho's. (nine tail foxes; they tend to be rather popular in Asia as vampires are in the U.S., *cough cough* Twilight) But we can't blame her, after all Yeo Joo was once saved by a Gumiho when she was lost in the mountains as a child. 

After getting her first novel rejected because it was too similar to Twilight, she roams around helplessly for inspiration and ends up at a train station, which is where she first see's Alex, a kind-hearted man who helps the police catch some random act of crime and coincidentally catches Yeo Joo's eye. So she follows him to see that he works at a place called, you guessed it, Nail Shop Paris. At Paris only male nail artists are allowed to work there so, in order to hunt down and find out everything possible about Alex, she cuts her hair and cross dresses as a boy in order to get a job there. 
At Paris she meets Alex, whom she had been stalking, Kay, who you presume hates her, and Jin, your all around class clown nice guy, not to mention The boss at Paris Guem Mi Rye, whom all rename our main character as Bunny. Here at Paris they're always trying to help people out whilst keeping their nails in tippy top shop. (although i will admit, i disliked a lot of the nail styles cause they all had that really pointy tip, and nails like these remind me of classic evil villains from snow white and other old movies)

Bunny lives with her best friend Ji Soo and writes her novel basically on her life, but with a lot more thrilling suspense and cunning edge fantasy, and that's where our story begins.

*SPOILER ALERT*
A lot of the drama in this drama is from the fact that Bunny is in fact a girl, and she likes Alex while Kay likes her, and then she has her conspiracy where she thinks the Boss is a Gumiho. I won't be a total spoiler and spoil the end for you guys, but Here's a hint to get you interested: Bunny's novel, is actually a lot closer to the reality of her life than she ever imagined.

Not to worry, there is more, Jin and Ji Soo have their own little romance going on, not to mention a little bit of drama going on here as well.

The ending really had me going for a loop,I'm not going to tell you how it ends, or what happens, but it was really not what i expected, but, in a good way. I enjoyed the ending a lot and can say with courage that even though this drama was fairly short compared to others in the fact that this one was only ten episodes( Most Asian dramas can very from 10-25 episodes per season. Nail Shop Paris only has one season), it didn't feel rushed at all. As a matter of fact I enjoyed the pace it went at. Each episode made me want to watch the next, and nothing was dragged (like a lot of drama's tend to do). What made me especially happy was the fact that the ending was good, and it didn't feel like it was just sloppily ended due to budget cuts or something. Although I personally abhor time flash endings, this drama pulled it off wonderfully and has honestly won my heart. 

Nail Shop Paris is a good drama to watch its nice, short, straight to the point, and not rushed. It stays true to its genre as a rom-com and the drama adds a touch of feel and suspense to make you watch more, I recommend it!

Anyways, if you did watch this drama, or do watch it in the future, comment below your opinion, tell me if there's anything I missed, and yes, I allow you to fan girl in the comments as well. Until Next week!
*SPOILER ALERT*
Next week's review will be on Cyrano!

The Royal Trap (Review)

The Royal Trap is a visual novel produced by Hanako Games that takes you through an adventure of romance, mystery, thrill, and juicy secret drama with every new and exciting chapter. Now, I personally am not a stickler for Otome games (Dating simulation games where the girl pursues the guy) or visual novel's (games that have a set up story line you follow i which the few choices you make alter your ending) the reason being, because I tend to over-think each step and always end up losing my life or having a bad ending, however in this specific visual novel I was able to get two happy endings and one normal ending.
In This game you play as the witty Madeline Valois, attendant, valet, and companion to Oscar prince of Oceandawyr. Your job all your life has been to protect, train, and groom him into being the perfect prince suitable for marriage with a princess...the only problem is he happens to have fallen in love with you. The two of you attend the giant celebration birthday party of Princess Cassidy, and meet Prince Gaston, Nazagi, and Callum as well as the not so charming duke Pherod, and the servant girl Dolores. Then all of a sudden the princess goes missing, this is where the real story begins and where the demo game ends.
I played for Oscar, Nazagi, and Callum, however if you do get the game in full you have an option to play for Dolores, Gaston, Nazagi, Callum, and Oscar. The only reason I only played for these three is simply because i enjoyed the looks and the effort of artwork put into these characters, as well as the characters themselves.
You can watch the preview here:

As far as the over all artwork the backgrounds, especially outside the castle are kind of Derpy, but other than that the artwork is done well, especially for the end scenes. I also appreciated how the story-line itself slightly changed with the different person you decided to pursue. 

*SPOILER ALERT*
The endings I got were pretty good, as far as the game goes, each route was fairly long and interesting as well.
The first prince I pursued was of course Oscar, his route compared to the others was the shortest and didn't really pry into the mystery of princess Cassidy at all. You end happily with an estate in Gwellinor a small fair of money and you propose to Oscar and the two of you get married:Happy end.

The second prince I chose to pursue was prince Nazagi. With his ending you find out that the "dead" last prince Caspian is actually princess Cassidy, there are a lot of potions involved in this one and Nazagi flirts with you in the most awkward of ways, however in the end, for a Happy End at least, he agree's to publicly marry Caspian/Cassidy in order to preserve peace in the kingdom and you take up the task of becoming his mistress and continuing the royal line.

Lastly I attempted to pursue prince Callum but only got a normal end :(. With Prince Callum you two get married, you enter into the royal family unscathed, you find out Caspian is Cassidy and the two of you inherit some of the kings power. What makes this a "normal end" and not a "happy end" is the fact that Oscar then looks down on you, claims bad things about what is now your kingdom and basically mopes bitterly over the fact that you got together with prince Callum and not him. Nonetheless the artwork is still great.

I greatly enjoyed the game in and of itself, well, for the most part.If you want the demo, there's for mac, PC, and Linux so, here's a link: http://www.hanakogames.com/royaltrap.shtml

The full game is only $19.95, probably has tax too...and if you don't have the money but still want the full version I'm not going to say whether to use a torrent search to find the full pre-cracked torrent download or not...*cough, wink, nudge* But seriously, if we want more foreign products to be translated and sold here in the U.S. modern day pirating is probably not a way to go...unless you don't care, if you don't care I'm not gonna judge.

Anyways, post a comment, grab a link, play a demo, or the full game. Tell me what you think.

An introduction to an unworthy otaku (me)

Hi, I am Natalie, and a self-proclaimed unworthy otaku. You may be thinking: "what does she mean by that?" well, by "unworthy" I mean to say that I do not and would not call myself an Otaku for 2 reasons: Reason 1, Otaku is a very mean word in Japanese meaning nerd, geek, or dweeb, and the idea of calling myself that is uncomfortable personally. Reason 2, even in the "good sense" of being an otaku in the western meaning of an anime and Japanese pop culture obsessed person, I feel like I am still unworthy to be called such a high level name. I mean, sure I can name 20 anime's excluding Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece in a matter of seconds but I still feel I am a complete novice.

So there you have why I am an unworthy otaku....
Well, another reason may be that I have a terrible habit of starting an anime and not finishing it because I don't want it to end, but I'm working on that, so there's no need to fear.
If you yourself are interested in any anime's/ manga's, or confused on Japanese word usage (ore, baka, otaku, etc.), what different genre's stand for and are, even vocaloid info you're confused on, let me know,  I am here to help, all whilst keeping you entertained.