Anime: Accel World (アクセル・ワールド)

 Plot Summary: One autumn day in 2046, Haruyuki has an encounter with Kuroyukihime, the prettiest girl in his school. For the middle school boy who is often bullied, the meeting changes his life. Through a mysterious piece of software from her, Haruyuki learns of the existence of the virtual Accel World. In that moment, the lowest of the "school caste" becomes "Burst Linker", a knight defending a princess. 

 The main character, Haruyuki, is short and chubby and not your typical tall, fit and cool looking Anime guy. That is something I didn't expect, but really found interesting and took a liking to it. Writer Reki Kawahara and illustrators HiMA,Hiroyuki Aigamo, and Ryuryū Akari really caught and got my full attention. The feel of this Manga/Anime is really exciting, but I'll get to that in just a bit. First off is this virtual world called Accel World. 

 It is the year 2040 and Neuro-synchronization, a technology system that allows humans to access the internet through their five senses and enter a virtual world, has become widespread and used for everything. Everyone has this object on the back of their necks which acts as if it were a computer. Everything seen through the eyes of people pretty much looks like as if they are staring at a computer screen with all the icons. Sounds like something anyone would love to have ha ha.

SPOILER ALERT!!!

The following contains spoilers of the first Chapter/Episode of Accel World!

 Towards to Manga and Anime! Well as I've said before, the story centers around our Protagonist, Haruyuki. Being bullied for being short and chubby and just weak, he escapes reality and goes online to play games. Seeing as how that's his only way to let out his stress and anger. One day he gets demanded to buy lunch to his bully and later goes to the boys restroom and decides to 'Direct Link' into the virtual world and play some games. After a long session he loses a match and his friend, Chiyuri logs on and sees his ridiculously high score of 2,630,000 points. She tells him to 'Link Out' and have lunch with her but he doesn't follow her. Thus! She forces him to Link Out by heading him on the head. Upon being forced to log out he notices that Chiyuri is right in front of him in one of the boys bathroom stalls. After a short talk and walk, Chiyuri offers him lunch but he denies and runs away. Looking back for only a second he runs off to the library. Direct Linking into the virtual world once again, he slightly remembers seeing his friend crying as he ran from her. He logs onto his game and sees that someone has beat his high score of two million. Seeing that he falls onto his knees and cries saying that games are his only strong point. Look above little Haruyuki! The person who beat your score is there! A voice calls out to him, "So you're the guy with that extremely high score?" the person says. He looks up and sees a young girl in a black outfit with big butterfly wings coming out of her back. She tells him to meet her at the school's lounge. The following day he does so and sees that its miss popular, Kuroyukihime. Now you may wonder, 'Why is miss popular wanting to talk to a chubby kid?' Well he is the main character, so.. Anyways, they talk for a bit and she offers him a program, or app. She tell him to install it. IF he can, and that he may fail. Haruyuki goes forth and installs it. SUCCESS! It installed safely! The program is called Brain Burst. Sounds painfully fun huh? 

 Not forgetting, his bully comes to the lounge and starts rampaging about his lunch and how little Haru hasn't gotten it for him. Kuroyukihime then speaks out on behalf on Haru and says that he bad mouthed him to her. The red head blow ups and starts a fight with Haru! Oh no! He makes our little hero stand up and throws a punch. Kuroyuki tells him to say 'Burst Link' and when he does so, time stops around them and they enter the Accel World. Haruyuki's online avatar pops out of his body and so does Kuriyukihime's. She gives him a small and quick explanation of the program and how one minute in reality is 16 minutes and 30 some seconds in Accel World. Kuroyukihime tells him to never connect to the global network with the program, but the next morning he turns on his N-S so his come can send him his lunch money. He forgets to turns it off and steps outside of his house and the program sends him into a different virtual world. New Challenger!? That's right! Brain Burst is a Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online fighting game... That's a mouthful, VRMMO for short. Short fight shorter, Haru loses the match and heads off to school. Kuroyukihime tells him that losing a match makes his Acceleration points decrease, which allows him to enter Accel World, she also teaches him how to fight in the game. She then tells him to go back out and defeat the challenger. After school he goes off with her and enters the world once again. He faces off with the same guy once again and comes out victorious after a long match and whimpering thoughts.

 That's pretty much the first chapter and first episode. If you like fighting, difference, foul language and more, then I recommend this Manga and Anime. The main character is also quite a twist since it's not your typical guy. Although his whimpering and cowardice like behavior can get annoying to some readers and or fans. So far, I think I shall continue to watch and read this. Thanks you for reading and hope you check this Manga/Anime out.

The Hunger Games

 A lot of people have been talking about 'The Hunger Games' and I really am interested. Even though I am, I don't want to watch the movie just yet. I still have to read the books and I am finding the time to read them all. People make it seem as if it were the next 'Twilight' saga. Twilight movies were good and times but the love story is somewhat long and leads in many directions. Out of all of the current movies, I was interested in Breaking Dawn because of the small fight between the vampires and the wolves, as well as Bella being turned into a vampire at the end of the movie. 
  I got slightly distracted, sorry. Anyways, back to the topic at hand. The story contains another love triangle between 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Mellark, a baker's son whom Katniss knows from school and Gale Hawthorne, Katniss' best friend. Fans of the books and movie have already divided into teams, just like in the Twilight saga. The Hunger Games pretty much takes place in a nation known as Panem after the destruction of North America by some unknown apocalyptic event. Panem consists of a wealthy Capitol and twelve surrounding, poorer districts. District 12, where the book begins, is located in the coal-rich region that was formerly Appalachia. As punishment for a previous rebellion against the Capitol in which a 13th district was destroyed, one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 from each district are selected by annual lottery to participate in the Hunger Games, an event in which the participants or "tributes," must fight in an outdoor arena controlled by the Capitol, until only one remains. Sounds like one hell of a show for the spectators.
 Sounding like an interesting story to follow, the movie is rated PG-13. It shows children being killed off one by one, which can be a lot to take in for a younger audience. I am not one to complain about the rating because the rating itself was decided by parents and such, not the government. Thus, it is a parents' responsibility to make their children understand the difference between reality and fantasy. Even so, the books themselves tackle issues like severe poverty, starvation, oppression, and the effects of war among others, which are good to know about. Wow, fantastic baby. Ha ha, threw in a little Big Bang there.. Well, for a short post, I think I kind of made it interesting. Peace out to my motivation, inspiration, and... I'll get back to you on that last one.