The game, as mentioned earlier, features almost the full cast from Weekly Shonen Jump ranging from Naruto, Bleach, One Piece to Gintama and Dragonball Z. Each various series has a cast of characters that can be chosen to be played as either actual combatants, helpers (who come in, do something, leave), or as a form of a passive buff to one character or all. These characters are referenced as koma and come in those three types (battle koma (actual combatants), help koma (helpers), and support koma (passive buff).

These “koma” are laid out on a board and are arranged like pages of a manga. These are considered a “deck” or “panel”. You can choose different kinds or for some missions the game has a pre-set one already made for you. The fight plays out very Super Smash Bros. Melee like with you battling, using helpers, switching characters, and doing other things with the characters from Shonen Jump.

The game is completely awesome. For instance, you can be Goku. Fighting your enemies, you summon Light Yagami from Death Note. He writes their names down in his Death Note and they die 10 seconds later (we assume 45 in the game). Then, you switch Gintama. You hop on your scooter and dash into 3 enemies pushing 2 of them off the cliff. These enemies of course are Naruto, Luffy, and Vegeta.

This kind of gameplay is just amazing. For the DS that is. Each match usually lasts no more then 3 minutes so you can play, put down, pick up, play some more, put down. You don’t need to know much Japanese (but I urge an FAQ for assembling decks do you know what you’re doing). Doing Kenshin’s ultimate attack, followed by Goku’s Spirit Bomb, followed by some good ‘ol Death Note action is amazing.

If you can import and are even a remote fan of Shounen Jump I’d pick this up. If you don’t like Shounen Jump then I can understand skipping it. If you’re netural I would still say get it for the fun the fighting game presents however it’s way more enjoyable if you know a few of the characters (like Naruto and One Piece).

Upgrading your characters, unlocking new stages, and just battling will consume a ton of time. I think I’ve put about 5 hours into it and am at the second stage of worlds. Although I’m doing a lot of collecting and mission completing. There is just a lot to do.

It’s kinda expensive, ranging between 30 and 50 bucks imported. It’s also only for the Nintendo DS and not everyone has one of those (shame on you). You should get it though.

If I had a solid rating system, I’d say 5 out of 5 or 9 out of 10. It’s just a really solid game. Only thing lacking, of course, is the music. Totally not gar enough.

Long awaited Naruto 6-7 is now out and available from Dattebayo. While Naruto still lacks the needed Orange-kun required for awesomeness, this episode was pretty redeeming. I had commented on the last episode (episode 5) that it was pretty decent, although I forgot the minor detail of me skipping past any long boring speeches that I already had read in the manga LONG ago.

I was impressed with the production quality in this episode. It was entertaining, insightful, and interesting. Gara’s fight was well animated, although lacking passion, justice, or courage. It also lacked action, and was more of a mental battle. The second half, had it not been art of the one hour special, would have really pissed me off if it was a full episode. I mean it, seriously.

Like, the first half, Gaara is captured. Alright, pretty good. Second half, had I waited a week and seen it, I would have probably punched my monitor with my fish in rage at how shitty an episode of nothing going on would have been. I’m glad the animation team is trying to stretch the actual manga material (after what, two years of filler?) while at the same time providing something interesting. I think, given that as a reason for the one hour specials, I can sort of see eye to eye.

However, one hour specials do upset me. I don’t like to spend 44 minutes watching the same episode only to know that I won’t see it again for two weeks, especially on something I bother to follow. Boy that was a long sentence.

Overall, it was a so/so episode. It was good, entertaining, and all that but did nothing like the recent Code Geass Episode 23 that had you slamming your fist into the table shouting ZERO ZERO ZERO!!! with as much passion and courage as possible.

Naruto Shippuuden Episode 5 is now out by Dattebayo. A very decent episode and probably a series I might consider following and reviewing as it goes along. The Naruto filler ended a month ago and we’re finally at a point where the good stuff starts, manga wise… I think. Anyway, the episode was rather decent.

Kazekage Gara vs. the Akatsuki member was an entertaining fight and the ending left a lot to be seen soon. We’re close to where I quit reading the manga, so I’m not sure what’s going to happen soon – I’m just thankful the filler was non-canon.

I’m hoping that the anime does shape up and this is a good sign that it will. I recently went back and watched until the end of the canon material (before the filler) and found some of the fights decent but the plot lacking. None of the characters really, really, really train for their power. It’s all given or inherit with them – which ruins the plot for me.

Episodes like this with lots of fighting and some good dialogue show some promise, although I’m not holding my breath. I’m hoping the series stays strong with the massive amount of fans EVEN during the filler.

Ah well, overall good episode. The last one was a little better if memory serves. Next episode in two weeks running two hours.