Romance in Ballroom e Youkoso

It’s finally done: the latest chapters have been translated and now the big wait begins. Apparently the manga-ka is ill and therefore the manga has been on hiatus ever since. Let’s hope he makes a full recovery.

The lastest two chapter 41 and 42 heavily focussed on the background of Akira and Chinatsu and apparently Akira is in love with Chii-chan. Ever since grade school she wanted to be her only partner and refused to learn the male steps, so she can funktion as Chii-chan’s only female partner when the other girls became interested in other things. Chii-chan on the other hand wanted to dance the girl part as well, but Akira wouldn’t let her.

Even thought the current relationship between Akira and Chii-chan seems to be very bad, Akira is still in love with her former partner and boils with jealously over her relationship with Tatara. What brings me to my personal highlight: since I’m shipping TataraxChi, of course I fully support Akiras jealously, after all, if there is nothing going on and everything’s safe, there’s no need to become jealous. After only 4 months Chii-chan and Tatara have already developed a better and much more dynamic relationship than Akira and her partner and arguably even a closer relationshion than Akira ever had with Chii-chan.

Back in their grade school days, Chii-chan hated boys and she said it was disgusting to dance with them or hold hands. Now she’s finally dancing the female part she always wanted and even though she still has trouble not being the leader and accepting Tataras dance, those two have come a pretty long way already and in some rare occasions of unity their dance is simply astonishing. There’s so much insane potential in this pair, I would cry in frustration if they broke up – and they promised to break up, if they don’t win this competition. They can’t do that!

Tatara has already evolved so much, he’s not the same person he used to be when he danced with Mako. While they used to be a good couple, I don’t think they would fit that well anymore. And yes, Mako has a crush on him, but it’s guaranteed that’s not going anywhere. Tataras crush on Shizuku is a more serious matter, but even though I shipped them before Chii-chan came into play, I would rather have her and Hyoudou funktion as rivals for Tatara and Chii-chan rather than breaking the couples up and re-arranging them.

To sum it up, so far we have these confirmed romantic interests:

• Mako -> Tatara
• Tatara -> Shizuku
• Akira -> Chinatsu

Throw Gaju into the mix, who’s protective over his sister, Makos jealously over Chii-chan, Akiras jealously over Tatara and Chinatsus own very unindentified feelings, we have a nice bag  full of teenage love problems. I think it’s interesting to see where Shizuku and Hyoudou are going. I’m rooting for them, they’ve known each other for a very long time and their inner timer clicks the same. As for Tatara, I personally think his crush on Shizuku is a result from his admiration for her as a great dancer.

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SNES and 3DS – my favorite consoles

The SNES and the 3DS are my favorite video game systems of all time. And here’s why.

A Link to the Past

The SNES was a huge part of my childhood, so nostalgia certainly plays a huge part in it. I can’t even tell you how many hours we siblings raced each other in Super Mario Kart and how often I failed to complete this one stage in Donkey Kong Country 2 where the green glibber of death raises – spoiler: every single time. It was much, much later when I first completed DKC2 and despite all of that, it’s one of my favorite games period.

We used to rent games in a video game store, back in the day when you still went and rented movies and games and loved this old grey box so much, we completely skipped the entire N64 era. It was on the Gamecube that I was first introduced to my favorite video game franchise: The Legend of Zelda. I have to admit I missed many classics of the early 3D-era, but I also played a lot of amazing classics from the 32bit-era. Hands down, the SNES arguably has one of the greatest libraries of any video game system and I think it’s a shame Europe never saw Chrono Trigger on SNES. I played it on DS later and it still rocks.

Donkey Kong Country 2

This is one of the reasons I hold the SNES higher than the N64: a lot of games from that era still hold up exceptionally well today: A Link to the Past, Super Metroid, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Yoshi’s Island, just to name a few. The system is full of cold classics you can just turn on today and they’re just as great.

This doesn’t mean the N64 doesn’t have games you can still enjoy today, but since 3D gaming was still new, developers had to work out a lot of stuff and every single game from that time looks ugly today. Replaying N64 games today, they don’t really feel all that special anymore compared to back then. It was such an exciting time to live in – even if you didn’t have the console (my friends had, though). Ocarina of Time is my absolute favorite game of all time and it’s still great today, but people playing it today for the first time don’t really get why we old fans are praising it so much. Go and play Chrono Tigger – you’ll know why it’s considered one of the greatest JRPGs ever made. The N64 was a pioneer, though. It was a time when gaming changed a lot and that’s why the early 3D-systems are so important.

Ocarina of Time

Jump forward and I kind of lost my gaming drive along the way. I did play some Wii and some Gameboy Advance and also a bit on the DS, but not as much as I could have. I also borrowed my brothers PS2, but it’s all just some minor time kill. All these systems had great games, but I simply lost interest in gaming for a while. This is where the 3DS comes into play and if there’s one thing I regret, it’s that I bought it a few months too early. Not because of the games and everyone thought it would fail, but because I bought it for Ocarina of Time 3D in June and later that year they released an OoT special edition 3DS – and I really, REALLY wanted that, but couldn’t bring myself to buying a second system so early. Maybe I should have.

And boy was Ocarina of Time 3D a great game. The enhancements they did with the new system worked great. OoT 3D is the best version of OoT you can find. I just love this game to death and in that regard the 3DS delivered what I expected. With my favorite game back in my hands all fresh and new, my love for video games was triggered once again.

Animal Crossing New Leaf

I admit I did have trouble finding decent games for the 3DS early in it’s life and ended up with some more obscure titles such as Rabbids 3D out of sheer lack of choices, but once the big games hit, man was it a great experience: Pokemon Gen VI, Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, Fire Emblem Awakening, Fantasy Life, Persona Q, Bravely Default, Animal Crossing New Leaf, Zelda OoT 3D and MM 3D, Luigi’s Mansion 2, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate – and the list goes on! I have 30+ games for my 3DS and yes, I ended up buying the Link between Worlds 3DS XL special edition. Did I regret it? No, because even though my original 3DS was still working, the bigger screen makes it so much better.

Once I have the money for it, I will buy The Legend of Legacy and Stellar Glow is also on my list. There’s Steam World Heist I still want to get and Bravely Second will find it’s way into my claws day 1, I promise! Bravely Default was my favorite game of that year and I can’t wait to play the sequel – of course I downloaded the demo. With Mighty No.9 and

Bravely Default

Dragon Quest XI, there’s even more great games on the horizon. I do admit I will pass on  Fire Emblem Fates. FE Awakening was an amazing game, but I’m not that much of a tactical JRPG fan.

In the end, it was the 3DS that made me buy a Wii U. It’s a shame it didn’t take off the same way the 3DS did and it still struggles with content, because it’s a great console and the Gamepad makes gaming so much better in so many ways. The few games I have for that system are amazing, though: Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, Rayman Legends, Bayonetta 1+2, Captain Toad (I’m not kidding, it’s surprisingly good!), Xenoblade Chronicles X, Smash Bros 4, Splatoon, MH3U, Mario Maker and even though Yarn Yoshi can’t really compete with the “three big” Platformers on the Wii U (Mario 3D World, DKC TF & Rayman), it’s still worth to play. Let alone the awesome Virtual Consoles games: Metroid Prime trilogy? Super Metroid? A Link to the Past? Count me in!

Luigi’s Mansion 2

In the end, the SNES has a special place in my heart, because it introduced me into gaming and the 3DS has an equally special place in my heart, because it brought me back to gaming. And the games are just too damn great to resist. 😀 There are countless of rumors about Nintendos NX, but I would prefer if a handheld version would wait a little longer, so I can enjoy more new games on my beloved 3DS.