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Channel Surfing: Welcome to the NHK

Post author:Sanjo-chan
Post published:March 15, 2020
Post category:Anime & Manga
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The anime Welcome to the NHK (or NHK ni Youkoso! in Japanese) is a series that caught my attention back in 2006 when it first aired. It was also one of the first anime series I wrote about on an anime-centric Blogspot blog “NAKIME” before Centaku Media was launched the following year. And what inspired me to revisit the anime is all due to the current events of the Coronavirus, aka COVID-19, where it is strongly urged to limit social interactions, better yet–not leaving the house at all, whether quarantined or not. Although this anime has nothing to do with the current situation, it’s a timely opportunity to look at the life of a shut-in, for better or worse.

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Character Spotlight: Treize Khushrenada

Post author:Sanjo-chan
Post published:February 18, 2020
Post category:Anime & Manga Musings
Post comments:5 Comments

Interesting, albeit unless fact: I began writing this post back in 2013 as a regular feature called “Character of the Month“, right when I hit my severe writer’s block and eventually having a family emergency stacked on top of it. Several years later, and after having a “was that a dream?” moment involving this very same character I attempted to write about, I decided to dust off and flesh out that post for a potential new series moving forward called Character Spotlight. For the first post in the series, I wanted to talk about Treize Khushrenada from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.

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New on Centaku Media: Commentaries

Post author:Sanjo-chan
Post published:February 16, 2020
Post category:Updates
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Today I am announcing a slightly different approach to delivering content on the blog side of things, leading to the creation of the "Commentary" category. With the formal introduction of…

The Love/Hate Relationship With Dissidia: Final Fantasy

Post author:Sanjo-chan
Post published:January 11, 2020
Post category:Gaming Musings
Post comments:1 Comment

One game comes to mind when I think of the 2010s, and the one game I’m thinking about is an unlikely title for some, which was however released in 2008, and in the 3rd Quarter of 2009 outside of Japan. The game is Dissidia: Final Fantasy, which marks the first fighting game featuring the cast from the Final Fantasy franchise, ala Super Smash Bros. and the vs. Capcom series (although veteran fans may present that the arcade game Ehrgeiz is the first of its kind from the late 90s, featuring the inclusion of Final Fantasy VII characters in the Playstation release) In 2008, the first entry of the Dissidia series was released for the Playstation Portable, and featured the main character and their respective villain from every Final Fantasy game from I to XII only. That changed a little bit when the second entry and prequel, Dissidia 012: Final Fantasy, was released in 2011.

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Gundam 101: Anime Crash Course – 2020 Edition: Movies & OVAs

Post author:Sanjo-chan
Post published:December 31, 2019
Post category:Anime & Manga Featured Content
Post comments:0 Comments

This entry is part 3 of 3 in the series Gundam 101: Anime Crash Course

This is the third and final installment of the Gundam 101 series. If you’ve been following this, then I thank you! For the newcomers… the Gundam 101 is a “Crash Course” into the world of Gundam for potential fans or for Gundam vets are not up to date with what’s going on.

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Gundam 101: Anime Crash Course – 2020 Edition: 2000-2009

Post author:Sanjo-chan
Post published:December 30, 2019
Post category:Anime & Manga Featured Content
Post comments:0 Comments

This entry is part 2 of 3 in the series Gundam 101: Anime Crash Course

Welcome to the second installment of the Gundam 101 series. In case you were wondering what this is all about, it is a “Crash Course” into the world of Gundam for first time viewers, or Gundam vets who are not up to date on their “Gundaming”.

On Monday, Part 1 went over Gundam series created from 1979 to 2000. Today, we will go over series made in 2000 to 2009. Friday will conclude the series as we take a look Gundam Movies and OVA (Original Video Animation) series.

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Gundam 101: Anime Crash Course – 2020 Edition: 1979-1999

Post author:Sanjo-chan
Post published:December 29, 2019
Post category:Anime & Manga Featured Content
Post comments:5 Comments

This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series Gundam 101: Anime Crash Course

Back in 2009, I was approached by the original founder of our local anime club, Scenic City Anime & More (at the time known as Boogie BAM Anime Jam Club when we met weekly at Books-a-Million), wanting to know more of the Gundam franchise and to share with other members, especially to watch in the order that I have watched them, to make sense of the 40 year-old franchise. This eventually led to sharing my love of the franchise in the form of panels at Anime Blast Chattanooga and Connooga. Enter: Gundam 101: Anime Crash Course series.

Working on the presentation, I discovered that there were too many series and movies to explain in one day (the meetings ran for roughly an hour and a half), so I had to split them up into 3 weeks of content. The first week focused on the TV anime series made between 1979 to 1999. The second week covered TV series made between 2000 to 2009. And the third and final week concluded the presentation series with a guide to the Gundam movies and OVAs (Original Video Animation).

In the time since I published the series, Bandai Entertainment discontinued home video releases of all their anime titles, including the Gundam franchise. It wasn’t until a few years later, with the release of the Gundam Unicorn OVA series, Right Stuf stepped in and rescued every Gundam series released by Bandai, even a few that was skipped over due to fan “demand”, such as ZZ Gundam. As we enter 2020, nearly every Gundam series has been released for purchase in North America on DVD and Blu-ray thanks to the efforts of Right Stuf!

To those curious about Gundam, and/or missed the previous presentations from back in the day, as well as the original series on the original CEN.TAKU.ME blog, this is a reboot of the very same series I worked on, originally clocking in at about 10 pages! It will be explained in the same order as in the meetings–and in the original article series–along with any extra information I might have forgotten, including the latest TV anime, movies, and OVAs that have surfaced in the years since. Following the conclusion of the republication, there will be an additiona post in this series of essential TV anime, movies, and OVAs released in the 2010s.

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Future Diary – Anime Series Review

Post author:Sanjo-chan
Post published:December 26, 2019
Post category:Anime & Manga
Post comments:0 Comments

This review was originally drafted in December 2012, but I do not recall if I actually published the review! This was around the time when I ran myself into a writer’s block, then other things happened that I had to take care of, until the rebrand under Centaku Media a few years later. As with most of the #ThrowbackThursday posts, these are the original posts that have been edited for typos, as well as combined from the first watch review of Future Diary. Enjoy!

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