Kevin Mohammed

Talk about various science fiction series and the types of technology or concepts which were once thought to be unbelievable, but have become reality, today.

An example of this is how Star Trek and other shows would have holographic projectors or screen talking which enabled the ability of sight in long-distance communications. Nowadays we have various means of video chatting with people from around the world such as Facetime that seem to have been encouraged by shows like Star Trek.

Discuss the relativity between American superhero culture and the concept of heroes in anime series such as My Hero Academia, One-Punch Man, Tiger and Bunny, and other series.

One thing that Arc V's success is banking off of is its ability to not only venture into dimension (one for each summoning), but to also bring back characters from the previous season (GX, 5Ds, Zexal).

This creates the possibility of having the protagonist, Sakaki Yuya face off against various duelist that have been known to be the best (Jack Atlas, Crow Hogan, Kite) and draws upon the appeal and nostalgia factor of the viewers while also giving an interesting story in which the characters are introduced into a different type of environment.

Analyze the 2015 hit anime series, Death Parade, and discuss the meaning of the afterlife according to the series. What are the rules of the afterlife and the beings that reside within it? Talk about the concept of good and evil, what is deemed to be right and wrong and the effect that it has on the characters in the future.

Persona 4 and it's spinoffs have tended to be everyone's go-to game when it comes to the Shin Megami Tensai series. Especially with the new Persona 5 and SMTxFE coming out, what are some other great games to start out with and prepare for some of these new games.

Talk about some other Shin Megami Tensai games that make the series the fantasic blockbuster it is such as Devil Survivor, the original Shin Megami Tensai games, Soul Hackers, etc.

Recently there has been a rise in gaming of series that are either a part of the Dynasty Warriors series or spin-offs of it. Most recently there has been Pirate Warriors 3 (One Piece), Hyrule Warriors (Legend of Zelda), and Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below (Dragon Quest.) There is even news of an Attack on Titan and Arslan spin-off games.

The unique style of Dynasty Warrior gaming has become immensely popular. For those who don't know, let me give you a short background on the game mechanics in Dynasty Warriors. Dynasty Warriors offers a unique form of combat in which the player fights as one of the main forces of a large army against another army's forces. This also means fighting countless hordes of enemies, capture enemy bases and territories, while also protecting your own territories against enemy forces all along with you army of allies. With these features, it truly makes it feel like there are multiple event going on at once and gives the player an immense feeling of freedom.

What stick out the most in the spin-offs are not the mechanics however, but the simplicity and play through of the game. While a lot may be going on at any moment n the game, the game manages to stay simple for people to play and get the most of the story as they have seemed to find a medium between it being too difficult where a person would give up or too easy where t would become boring.

Spin-offs of these games tends to have massive amounts of story and characters each with their own diverse style of weaponry and combat. There are even some relationships between certain characters that is more illustrated in these games then even in their own respective series.

The topic I would like to discuss focuses on side characters that could be used for a spin-off series and how it can be done. First off what is a spin-off series? A spin-off can be defined as: Something that is imitative or derivative of an earlier work, product, or establishment; especially: a television show starring a character popular in a secondary role of an earlier show.

In the West, there are plenty of series that get spin-off to try and continue squeezing out of the success of a popular series. In anime, there have been many successful spin-off series such as Scientific Railgun and Fate/kaleid, but also plenty that have not had as much success as their originals such as Rock Lee and His Ninja Pals or Soul Eater Not!

So what exactly are some qualities that make up a good protagonist? The first and most important piece is that they must be able to "Stand Alone" in their own series. How tied to the original protagonist of the series are they? Is it going to be in continuity to the original series?

So who is a character that can have a great spin-off series? An example of which being Klein from Sword Art Online. Personally I loved Klein from the moment I met him, but his character often became forgotten until seen once again. He had that kind of comedic but strong personality and had the potential to be more of a fan favorite but never really got the amount of time he deserved.

Klein is the first person Kirito, the protagonist of the series, is introduced to. In the first episode, an inexperienced Klein is taught by Kirito how to defeat monsters, with Klein thinking that a boar was actually a boss monster. Later on we see Klein actually leading his very own guild, Fuurinkazan (lit. "Wind, Woods, Fire and Mountain") and coming just as far as Kirito has without his wide range of experience and skill.

Instead of this being a lone wolf series, it will be one more about Klein's growth as a player and as a leader of Fuurinkazan and the brotherhood within his guild. It may deal with the death of some of his closest comrades, but the ability to continue on even after their deaths. The series can go more into detail and information about the world of Sword Art Online from the experience of a first-time player compared to Kirito as an experience beta-player.

Danmachi is an action/adventure/romance/comedy series that take a whole new spin off of the RPG-styled anime, as to the characters it is not a videogame, but their every day life. Each element that you see in a RPG-series such as dungeons, statuses, monsters, drop items, magic, and skills are all a part of this series. Throughout the novel, they do an excellent job of explaining the purpose of each respective element in the story.

The novel's point of view constantly shifts between a first-person view by the protagonist, Bell Cranel, first-person views of the other characters, and even a third-person view to give the most detail about the world to the viewer. This helps enhance the overall storytelling of the series as it gives the reader an idea of the mentality of various characters throughout the story and gives the reader a more personal connect to each character. This aspect is surprisingly rare in light novel series as most of them purely focus on a third-person point of view which does vary in usefulness from time to time.

The series has its share of rich laugh out loud comedy and epic moments that could leave anyone in true suspense as this wild ride of a novel has only just begun.

Rating: 4.5/5

→ Full review (on Nippon Valley)