Kametsu Khronicle Issue #3

[† RazorDan]

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THE KAMETSU KHRONICLE!

Announcement

I am dreadfully sorry for the lateness of this week's issue. Honestly, I am. Exams, revision and my brother being hospitalized are just some of the reasons. However, I accept that it is all my fault. My team submitted everything on time but with myself and my deputy, Iki, both immensely busy, no one was able to put it all together.

I also would like to tell you that this issue will be a bit less packed because of the various time constraints. However, that doesn't mean it's any less good! Thanks again to my great team! Now, that's all I have to say here, so enjoy the third issue of the Kametsu Khronicle!

RazorDan- Head Editor

The Team

RazorDan- Head Editor

Black Star [iki]- Vice Editor

Gneiss [Anras Rune]- Literary + Gaming Chief

Krogothwolf- Chief of Staff

xxIrish- GFX Chief

Hicks- Anime Reviewer

FlutterShy- Creative Team

Mute Point- Creative Team

Feel free to contact any member of the team if you wish to make a recommendation or have a question about anything.

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Page 1- Main Story

The Revival of the Roleplay Inn?

Yes, its back! Well, it was never really gone, but it was pretty inactive for a couple of months. This was despite the best efforts of Redprophet19 and idl12 who tried their utmost to make it live again, so a big hand to them!

However, there is no denying who we must be grateful to for the revival. She was the former RP mod before Koby removed that mod group. As soon as she left, the amount of RP activity dried up.

She is in college so of course, she is hugely busy, but, despite this she has returned and made Kametsu RP again with her new RP, Darkside: The Beginning of the End. It is of course, Empathy, who I am talking about. So, a massive, massive thank you to her!

There is no doubt that RPing is something that is very important to our community and I for one hope that this new RP will prove to be the catalyst for the whole Inn to be swamped with new and active roleplays.

Two RPs that were certainly popular before were; Kametsu of the Living Dead and Imperial High School. Kametsu of the Living Dead was set-up with the formation of KARPS ( Kametsu Action RolePlay Squad) which consisted of a bunch of dedicated forum members who saw it as their job to maintain the roleplay section. Alas, due to boredom, the 'retiring' of a lead member as well as a host of other reasons, KARPS became inactive, and the RP followed suit.

Krogothwolf set up Imperial High School. That was also immensely popular and very active. It was certainly a fun RP to be a part of and I was extremely saddened when it 'died'.

The removal of RP mods, could be seen as a reason for the decline but I for one do not believe it to be so. In my opinion, the previously dedicated members became bored of roleplaying, frustrated at the seeming lack of direction, and most importantly, annoyed at the god-modding. So, I will definitely be hoping that this new RP continues to be strong and fun. However, as with all things in life, only time will tell.

RazorDan

Stay tuned next week, where I will conduct an interview with Empathy!

Page 2: Iki's Column

Now, this week Iki's column will be different. For one thing, it is written exclusively by Gneiss, and it won't contain the regular '....... of the week' section. It's still great, so enjoy!

Anime News: A few little Annoucements

Well, due to iki's absence this week, I'm in doing the anime article. Granted it will be more news than review/judgement(XP) but here you go, Gniess (AKA Anras Rune)

Kyokai Senjo no Horizon: Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere

This is a new series in the works by Manabu Ono (Full Metal Panic, My-HiME) and Sunrise, to be based on the light novels by Minoru kawakami. Bandai's Lantis label has recently released a 64 second promo video to advertise the cast Ono will be using for the anime adaption.

The story is based on the light novels where it is set in a distant future when Japan is divided into feudal territories and conquered by other countries. There is a floating city named Musashi that is composed of eight ships in the skies. A war that will determine the fate of the world will be fought by students on the Musashi. The anime will premiere in October.

Square Enix App

Now as much as I hate Apple and their poor excuse for mobile phones, I will admit they do get some of the best apps (damn you overhyped media frenzy). Normally I wouldn't notice until I saw this app in action. Square Enix has posted a free game and comic app worldwide for the iOS platform.

The hybrid game/comic is called Imaginary Range and is set in France, which is being attacked by a mysterious, large life-form called the Omega. The story follows a pyschotherapist named Cid as he explores the nature of the world. Needless to say, this being Square Enix, the player can unlock extra comic commentary, the standalone game mode, and Gallery mode items.

Soki Tsukishima (emeth ~Ningyo Tsukai no Shima~) wrote the game, and Motomu Toriyama (Final Fantasy XIII) served as the director. Toshiyuki Itahana (Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles franchise's character designer) was responsible for the art in the comic portion.

New Manga Magazine

The third issue of Shueisha's Miracle Jump magazine is announcing on Friday that the publisher will debut a new manga magazine this summer. The concept of the new publication will be a "pure manga magazine" — one that is not pigeonholed to any age range or gender. More information will be available on May 26 through the web and other means.

There is a few unconfirmed rumours floating around of this publication being translated into various other languages and possible distribuition in various countries. Miracle Jump itself is a revamped version of the popular Young Jump and has been publishing science fiction and fantasy stories since January, with contirbuitions from Sakurako Gokurakuin (Sekirei) and Atsushi Nakayama (Traumeister) to say a few.

The publication is said to be a "pure manga publication" that won't be aimed at any denomination. A manga magazine for all.

The World of Gaming

A Few Interesting Annoucements!

Well here we are, in one months time the biggest annual event in gaming will be gracing us once again, E3. For those who don't know (which is most likly very few) E3 takes place once a year, in June and is the most important gaming event in the world. Why, you ask? The answer is simple, this is the event where damn near every game is announced! Enjoy!

Mass Effect 3: What's It All About

This really speaks for itself. If you are a gamer and haven't heard of Mass Effect then you've been living under a rock for the past 5 years. Mass Effect is well known for it's love hate relationship with many avid RPG fans, the first being an instant hit with it's immersive story, detailed background and beautfull graphics, despite a few little hitches. The second title Mass Effect 2 was plagued with controversy due to it's toned down control system and more streamlined combat situations, which left many fans annoyed that it was becoming a "comercialised" RPG game, with more shooter elements than role play. But both were praised throughout the gaming community for their amazing and controverted storylines, that all depended on how you played the game.

Mass Effect 3 was annouced at the beginning of the year with a stunning CG trailer. It showed the planet Earth under invasion by the Reaper threat, and a galaxy on the brink of destruction. Bioware has confirmed that Shepard will return, if he didn't die in your Mass Effect 2 game save and it's up to him to flee, gather support from various sources (Please let the Geth be an option!) and return to combat the homicidal machines. It has also been confirmed that ME3 will contain more RPG elements than the second game did, including more in-depth skill trees and weapons customization. Each class now has a dedicated melee attack and the cover system has been refined.

Unfortunatly ME3 has been delayed for an early 2012 realease, so we should expect to see less at E3. This probably means more of a teaser than a tasting we all thought we would get. But in response to this Bioware decided to release a few of the returning characters names, notably the Illusive Man, Liara and the Virmire survivor (Kaidan or Ashley). What I want to know is who else is coming back, and how we are going to go about recruiting support among the other races...

Batman: Arkham City

I'm sure most will agree, but Arkham Asylum was one of the best games to have ever graced our console's disk trays. It's dark halls and brilliant comabt, plus the sadistic yet amusing antics of the Joker made many people fans within minute of playing. I'm not sure, but I would imagine most have by now seen the easter egg containing the plans for the second installment, which is shaping up to be game of the year once again.

Bigger and better than anything we saw in Asylum, the game picks up after Asylum, where the old warden of Arkham, Quincy Sharp, is now the mayor of Gotham and has somehow moved the criminally insane to a walled compound that takes up dozens of city blocks. Dr. Hugo Strange seems to preside over the new prision fortress and gangs throughout the facility have sworn alliegence to various super villians including Two Face and our old fave, The Joker. It also seems Catwoman is making an appearance in the game, but instead of being the villain, but as an ally.

No one really knows whats going on in this game so far, with a minimal gameplay trailer and characters names being bleeped out, but hopefully this will all be unvealled at this exciting E3 event!

Assassin's Creed!

Yes, the rumours are true! Assassin's Creed Revelations has been officially announced and will being making a proper appearance in next month's E3! IGN has spoken to Ubisoft about the details and they have revealed that Ezio will be traveling to Constantinople like his ancestor Altaïr.

The series' unique multiplayer will be back as well, with more maps, more modes and more characters according to Ubisoft's announcement. In addition, Revelations has been described as the "final chapter of the Ezio trilogy" and is scheduled for release this November. We'll learn more about the game at E3 next month. Also check out the new tool called the "Hook Blade" in the picture below, although it's actual function is unknown.

Well that's this weeks gaming news. Hope you all enjoyed and are excited about next months E3! Gneiss (AKA, Anras Rune)

Page 3: GFX

This section is where Irish talks about all things GFX related. For this week's section, he's given you a few short tips to help get you started as a GFX artist

by Irish

This week in GFX I will be discussing what goes into making a signature. Incase any of you dont know, when I say Sig,Tag, Signature, I'm Acutally meaning the picture thats comes

at the bottom of th post you make(if you have one). There are many different programs you can use to make one, such as Gimp, Photoshop, Corel Paint, and some others.

Now to start with you have to have an Idea of what you want to make, other wise how could you create something. Next comes to finding a Render(Pre-Cut Image) or Stock(Regular Wallpaper/image

to start to work with. Next come Effects. You can get many different effects through Brushes, C4d(Cinema 4 D, Stocks, Fractles etc.) Now as any good GFX artist will tell you

placement is Key. If you poorly put together a Sig, it won't come out the way that you imagined it. You also need a good Flow and Depth in your sig. If you dont have depth

the sig will look flat. and always remember lighting. Just Remember these simple tips when making a sig

1. Have an Idea to start with

2. Get a Render/Stock to work with

3. Start to Add effects to the sig

4. Remember to have depth and Flow.

5. Never forget Lighting

And as always, not everyone is perfect their first time, so keep working at it.

See ya next week, where I'll be giving you a lowdown on the SoTW as well as some general GFX art!

Page 4- Creative Centre

This is the bit where we blind you with the quality of our Creative team! FlutterShy and Mute Point step forward!

TripleK: The Kametsu Khronicle Komic

by FlutterShy

Unlikely allies (Ongoing Khronicle story)

by Mute Point

Chapter 2

Even startled as they were, orcs are always ready for battle, so it was no surprise that they brought their axes up in answer to the challenge before Irene reached them. With the signature crash of steel on steel, Irene tore into the first orc that came within reach, forcing the creature to go on the defensive even as the other three moved to surround her.

Not quite what I had in mind, but alright, let’s dance boys. Irene thought, clearing her mind to allow her training to take over, and let her deal with the group as a whole.

Cut high. Side kick. Parry on the spin and cut low, parry high. One was killed outright at the end of that pattern. High, low, high, rush, hilt to the chin, thrust. The second was wounded and stumbled back, leaving just two for Irene to worry about at that particular moment, though instinctively she could tell that these two would not fall so easily if she had to deal with them on her own.

As the two orcs lunged at her, Irene caught the tell-tale flash of sun on steel from the side and dove backward in time to see a small throwing knife bury itself in the right eye of one of her opponents. With blood spurting from the wound, the orc went down, leaving one wounded, and one still healthy.

With its allies fallen around him, facing two opponents, one of which had not shown itself, the orc turned to flee and warn the main camp. With a familiar muffled thump, Caitlyn rammed her dagger in beneath its ribs before it knew she was even there. Without a sound she lowered the lifeless corpse onto the forest floor, and then glared around the clearing. “Where’s the fourth?” she asked.

Irene spun around, finding the trail of blood in an instant. Without a word she rushed off to follow it, cursing herself for leaving one alive and able to escape, and hoping to catch it before it could warn the others.

As she raced through the forest, the blood trail seemed to grow larger. Was there more than one? Or was its wound getting worse? No matter the case, Irene knew they wouldn’t stand a chance if the camp was alerted to their presence before they were ready to attack it.

Mere moments before she would have been close enough to the camp for the orcs inside to hear her, the blood trail ended, and in its place was a patch of scorched grass, and a pile of ashes. The orc’s weapons lay stacked neatly to the side as though someone had gone through its possessions and determined that they were worthless to them.

Now, remember how Teddi won the short story contest? Well, I thought you'd guys appreciate chapter two of that story!

Holy Fool Chapter 2

The girl with the dreams that were too big for her little head would have no idea of the challenges and opulent decadency that lay ahead, of the harsh feelings she would feel and be unable to express, of the place she would one day consider home. But for now she saw the darkness, heard a deep thump of a sound, felt something slithering up her leg. She screamed but there was nothing or no one there to prevent this slithering thing from going up her legs and around her neck. She felt it tighten around but couldn’t move her arms, tighter and tighter, squeezing everything out of her. Was she going to die again so soon?

“Listen, that girl is mine. She obsessed over me, not you so go get your own human girl.” That voice was one of the most unmistakable she had ever heard. Where ever she was, he was there. “She sold her soul to me just to see you. So she belongs to me.” A female voice now. They were fighting over her? She felt something sharp jab into her side and twitched. This clearly was the wrong thing to do, because she was pulled to her feet.

“Open your eyes girl.” She opened one eye, one green eye, and opened both in surprise when she saw that Judas was holding her up. He let her fall again after she did what was commanded of her. “That’s no way to treat a slave. Come girl, come to me. You’ll get an endless supply of the most beautiful men any level of being has ever seen.” This woman was the same one from before, only now she was wearing something very short and sheer, with her bosom showing and hip wings folded over, protecting her most intimate area.

“Sophia. This woman will throw you to them, and watch as they ravage you. I would never do such a thing to anyone.” He opened his arms to her, pasting on a faint smile. She blinked a little at the both of them, not noticing that beside her was a tall bat winged man, with his slashes on his cheeks that were barely sewn shut.

“This is the woman that pleased Judas when he was on the surface! She belongs to him.” He turned to her, totally unfazed when she visibly shrank away from him. The woman glared at him. “Be stupid elsewhere Sazael. No one cares about what you think or feel.” Judas shrugged. “See? She belongs to me. Go find your own human girl. Come girl, we have things to do.” He looked her over.

“And you need something to wear before you get kidnapped and destroyed.” She frowned at him and he touched her arm. She slapped his hand away, definitely not expecting him to grab her by the hair and yank her down a set of cold iron stairs to a wooden door. She flailed and tried to get away but he only pulled harder. When they were near the bottom, he let her go and they walked down the rest of the stairs. He shoved her through the door and slammed it behind him, locking it.

She looked around, seeing rich decoration everywhere. Tapestries hung on the iron walls, rugs adorned the iron floors, and the tables and couches were quite tall, with lion claw feet. On the tables there were bottles on trays and boxes filled with things she wasn’t sure she wanted to know about. He saw her attention wandering and snapped twice, catching it again quickly. “Listen girl, the rules of humanity don’t apply here at all. Common social custom dictates that it’s wrong for a man to hit a woman.” He pinched her shoulder, moving his hand before she could slap it away. “Here that doesn’t apply. Need I go on? Now if you want to survive this place, without ending up in a little hole somewhere, you need to pay attention to everything you see.” He sighed, and took her by the hand. “Close your eyes, girl. You don’t need to see my lives.” She closed her eyes and let herself be lead through a maze of doors.

He pinched her again when they were in the inner most room. “Open your eyes, girl.” She blinked and opened her eyes. This room was small and barely lit, with one primitive looking chair, and a literal heap of hay in the corner. There was a wooden door in the corner, that he took her inside of, shutting it behind them. It took her some time to realize that this wasn’t just a closet. It was a goldmine of clothes, all meticulously ordered by time period, with shoes in separate room.

He walked to the far back, pulling out a toga from a hangar and throwing it at her. She looked at it and tried to put it on, but soon realized that it didn’t fit in a proper way. With the way it was on, it ended at the knee but there was literally nothing to cover her chest. He shook his head. “If you want to walk around like that, it’s fine with me.” Sophia tried to arrange her hair to cover her bare bosom, and to her surprise, her hair was brown, but she didn’t say anything.

“Listen girl, we’ve got people to meet. First up is the prince.” He lead her out into the small room and made her close her eyes again before leading her through the rooms that played out his lives on the surface, including the brief one he just had to come and get her, and stopped when they were at the front rooms again. He sat her down on one of the tall couches and grabbed a tumbler off a silver tray that held a square bottle. “But before we go there, let me tell you more about this place.”

by Teddihurrsa

Page 5- Kro's Corner

The hockey playoffs of surprises is still in full swing, Tampa Bay just cut through the 1 seed Washington as it if were butter, San Jose is leading Detroit and Boston has been for the most part absolutely dismantling Philadelphia. The only series going as anticipated is the Vancouver and Nashville one. Yes Nashville has an NHL hockey team that is in the second round of the playoffs, shocking eh!

Well, instead of ranting for this one, I had a rather sad incident happen to me personally recently. One of my friends from Elementary to High School passed away this week and I wasn’t sure at first how to react or anything, so for all you loyal readers I am going to share with you one of our adventures we had when we were younger. Do we even have loyal readers after 2 issues?

Now, this story happens in a day when the world seemed to be a better place, as all childhood does, we were in the midst of a crazy snow storm. Snow was piling up everywhere and we were at my friends house with another friend of mine. It was a dull night as even video games get boring after awhile and we had originally wanted to play hockey at the outdoor ice rink but the conditions made that impossible. What it didn’t make impossible though was a plan to do some mischief. Now we easily bundled up, grabbed 3 shovels and headed out into the lovely snowy cold night. We wandered down to the rather wealthy area of our section to see if anyone was stupid enough to leave their cars out in the snow. This being a Thursday night, we found a few of them. The plan was simple, take the piles of snow from their yard and pile it on each car of the 3 cars to the point you couldn’t see the car anymore. It was rather a lot of work for something but it was fun burying a jaguar, and 2 porches. They shouldn’t have left them out in the open obviously, so after 2 1/2 hours of covering the cars in snow, we were satisfied. All that was there was a giant pile over each car, if you didn’t know a car was there before had you’d just figure it was a giant pile of snow. It was great. After that we then decided to pay a visit to a friend who didn’t join us, this was at 3am, we were able to get into his house and then, stage a fake kidnapping and drag him back to our friends house. God it was great, he even pissed himself in fear, funny as hell. So we dragged him to the house and threatened to do unspeakable things to him and whatnot, breaking him into tears, and he always claimed to have never cried, great times.(he did threaten to kill us if we told anyone about this, but it’s been long enough I’d say!) Anyways, we decided in the morning to head down to see how our handy work was taken by the proud owners of the car, needless to say they were pissed, and didn’t overly want to unbury their cars, manual labor and all. So they saw us during their scream triad outside and offered to pay each of us 20 dollars per car to unbury them. So, in the end not only did we get a few good laughs we also made 60 bucks each, not a bad night I’d say!

Now on to the Forumer of the Week: Empathy: Starting a new RP on her return, go Empy! Wooo, plus this totally might score me brownie points with Ren! No? It won’t? Well still Empy is the Forumer of the Week!

Quote of the Week:Kaelann: Depends on what body part. I can think of one that wakes up if you lick it

What, it's pretty funny!

Page 6: Reviews

On our team we have Hicks, the Anime review King and Gneiss, gamer and writer Chief. On this page, there'll will be an anime review from Hicks for this week's issue. This is because Gneiss was busy covering Page 2. Enjoy!

Oh and as last week, Hicks intro was short, here is a longer one!

About Me:

I can honestly say that my first experience with anime was Sailor Moon, back when it aired just before school when I was in something like 6th or 7th grade or so. Since I've pretty much always been a bit of a perv, even at this relatively young age I was pretty much only into this series for the fan service, even if I didn't know that was what it was called. Plus it came on right before Highlander: The Animated Series. Needless to say, my tastes have changed, and I'm, well, more grown up now than I was at the time, so I doubt I'd ever watch Sailor Moon again. Mostly I just like to make fun of it now.

The first anime I really got into as an adult was Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, and it's a testament to its quality that I was hooked despite not having any clue as to what the hell was going on plot-wise. This was as it was aired on Adult Swim, so thankfully they repeated the show and I was able to watch the whole thing from start to finish. Also airing on Adult Swim was Cowboy Bebop, and while I wasn't as hooked as GitS, I usually watched if it was on. A couple summers ago I actually bought the series and finally watched all of it, and it remains one of my favorites.

Anyway, long story short, I have some friends here at college who introduced me to the local anime club and also to some anime they figured I might like. I've also looked around online and put together a list of anime I decided I wanted to watch, and that's pretty much what all these reviews are going to be. Keep in mind, though, that I haven't started writing reviews until this summer. They tend to vary in length, and there are some good shows I'd like to go back and do a bit more justice to, but that's pretty much a project for the future (like so many others I'd like to do). I'd also like to do some things with screencaps, but same story. Same thing with some of the series I've watched and are actually on my recommendations list: I just don't feel I have the time right now. Actually the reviews I'm posting are a bit old, so while it might seem like I'm being really prolific, I'm just going through a long list I already have, sorry.

Anime Review

by Hicks

WARNING! MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When They Cry) &

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai

(50 episode series)

This is an exceptionally well put together series, which approached the story from many different angles and kept me hooked from start to finish. That’s actually why I’m including both the first and second seasons together in this review, because it’s only together that they make a complete story. That’s what makes it that much more unfortunate that the second season apparently wasn’t picked up for a dub like the first season was. The story was just as good even if I had to read subtitles, but to be honest I’d gotten used to the dub cast, and some elements just weren’t as effective in my opinion as in the dub because what’s said has to be filtered through emotionless subtitles.

Moving on, as much praise as I’m giving this series, I’m going to say right up front that it’s hardly perfect either, though its flaws aren’t anywhere near being a deal-breaker, at least for me. While the story itself is actually made up of repeating time loops in which are main characters each tend to do things a bit differently and things tend not to end well for them, I can’t help but feel that there was also something of an anime within an anime here. While I liked the main anime, which was a murder mystery/psychological thriller, with plenty of drama thrown in, I didn’t much care for the anime within it, which was the kind of typical, cutesy, moe, slice-of-life anime I just don’t like. As the main character who serves as the primary protagonist for the first season, Keiichi Maebara is also the only male character among the other main characters, who also form an after-school club in their small, one-room school located in the village of Hinamizawa. This has all the makings of a harem anime, and to be honest the anime within the anime seemed to pretty much be that. The character designs kind of added to this, and was somewhat disarming to the horrible murders that take place in this series, while simultaneously making it somewhat amusing for that fact, just like Elfen Lied. I feel that the cutesy slice-of-life bits distracted from the story somewhat, but while I would have done it differently, I completely understand why this aspect of the story was done – so we’d care about the characters.

Since the story is pretty much TNG’s Cause and Effect or Groundhog Day with a murder mystery, it’s pretty important that the audience gets to know and care about the characters, otherwise, there is no point to watching them die and/or kill over and over again other than as gore porn. That’s what I feel is a major failing of the vast majority of most horror films, because it isn’t so much about the characters (who are usually too stupid to live anyway) as it is about seeing the horrible way they meet their end. Gore porn, in other words. With Higurashi, however, we learn a lot about the characters and their village each time the story makes its way through the fateful events of June 1983. Sure, it’s a bit over the top that each of the characters has some kind of a past shame that makes them kind of scary in some ways, and that the village has such a sorted history as well, but this is also what makes the story interesting. I also have to admit that this is where the moe slice-of-life bits actually help to add to being able to care about the characters, as we get to see them when times are good, and it makes it that much more tragic when things got to hell. Often it involves one of the friends losing it completely, betraying, and killing all of their friends.

The first season doesn’t really explain all that much. Actually this is where one of the more annoying flaws of the series stands out, because information we already learned as the audience tends to be constantly repeated. I’m cool with the way information was slowly learned with each new time loop, and in fact I actually liked that and the pacing it set, but I really hated hearing the same information repeated. It was better when the story changed to focus on other main characters, though. I also liked how each new time loop started with a vision of the horrible ending it would have, with everything then adding up to what we saw it start out with. The thing is, it becomes apparent very quickly that more is going on, involving a conspiracy of some kind with parties unknown committing some of the gruesome murders in Hinamizawa valley. At first we’re lead to believe that people in the village itself are responsible, but much like having Keiichi act as the protagonist for the first season, this is somewhat misleading.

The season ends with Rena Ryugu, one of Keiichi’s friends going psycho and killing a couple of people, who to be fair were conning her father for basically most of what he had. Her friends help her to hide the body, but eventually she gets paranoid and takes her entire school hostage, apparently intending to kill all of them using a gasoline bomb. Keiichi manages to talk her out of it, however, and the next season starts from here, only about 25 years later, with Hinamizawa being the abandoned site of a disaster that had apparently killed everyone but her, and which we see happen more than once with a different main character as the sole survivor each time. At the start of season 2, this is Rena. We also get the first really obvious clue that what’s going on here was definitely an external conspiracy.

While season 1 was the build up, season 2 is the climax, finally explaining all the mysteries. To begin with, as it turns out there actually is a Bill Murray character who technically then would be the true protagonist of the entire thing, though here she’s only the protagonist of the second season. Kind of surprising considering that in the first season we only got a few hints she knew more than she was letting on.

Meet Bill Murray, aka Rika Furude.

Rika is the shrine maiden for the local deity, Oyashiro, a supposedly wrathful and vengeful god who has been said to be killing and disappearing people every year for going on the fifth year. This naturally isn’t actually the case, and as it turns out, Oyashiro is actually Hanyū, a meek spirit who was apparently an ancestor of Rika’s who was sacrificed to bring peace to the village, and who originally set the rules meant to keep the local disease or parasite from spreading further or getting out of control. She has been watching everything go down, though she is unable to do anything but watch, and it is because she wants the village to avoid being destroyed that she brings Rika back to some prior point in history after Rika is killed in June of 1983. Apparently this has added up to over a century of time, and the two of them have become somewhat jaded for that reason. Fortunately, and somewhat conveniently, other main characters start to remember events from previous time loops, and are able to fight their fate.

Along the way, we learn more and more about what is going on, who is involved, and what role they play. For the most part, the pacing is perfect, though at one point we go back and see how one character apparently became the monster that they are in 1983, and I felt the story dwelled a bit too long on that part. Seeing the conspiracy that was first hinted in the first time loop come together was definitely interesting and important to the story, however, especially when it becomes apparent that the event that kills the entire village is not the tragic natural disaster it was initially thought to be by authorities.

The final time loop and climax to the story is a fairly good payoff. The only disappointment in my opinion is the lack of any real punishment to the main big bad of the series, who is responsible not only for the massacre of the entire village in previous time loops, but for the butchery of Rika in order to set that massacre in motion, and for other murders which occurred prior to June 1983 and are not undone by Rika and her friends. Actually, one of the people she consistently killed in each time loop and tried to kill in the last one ends up being sympathetic toward her and lets her cry into his shoulder. How disgusting. Yes, the point of this last time loop was that there weren’t supposed to be any losers, but it’s also a little too perfect that not even any of the bad guys wind up dead in what was supposed to be a life and death battle. The final battle was kind of lame that way, because it consisted of a bunch of kids setting non-lethal traps for people who were instructed to kill all of them on sight and were armed to do so. But, the end was still pretty satisfying when everything that had been building up came together in the end and the grisly fate of Hinamizawa was finally avoided.

As far as other weaknesses, for the most part they’re nitpicks. Things like Mion and Shion Sonozaki packing a revolver and no one noticing or mentioning it, and never actually using it when it would have made sense to do so, or Hanyū showing up in physical form for the last time loop, but still having horns, only no one seems to notice and never get mentioned. The thing I personally hated and found to be the biggest flaw, however, was the sexualizing of the younger girls, and taking this further by having an adult character have a sexual attraction to one of these girls (we’re talking grade school age) and playing up his pedophilia as being funny and a joke. Fortunately this doesn’t come up very often, or it might have effected my ability to enjoy the show. The other major weakness of note is the ending. Basically it suggests that an adult Rika or Hanyū has gone back in time and has successfully managed to keep the major event that leads to the big bad becoming the big bad from happening. That actually kind of ruins things considering everything the story has gone through, and the way the characters fought so hard for their happy ending. Not to mention that it doesn’t make much sense in how the series established the time loops happened to begin with.

That being said, I can’t recommend this series enough for you to watch, especially if you’re interested in murder mysteries and psychological thrillers. However, be warned that many of the murder scenes are somewhat gruesome, and if the thought of cute little moe characters going crazy and killing people disturbs you, you might want to pass on this series instead. If that doesn’t bother you or you otherwise think you can handle it, definitely watch this series. Just skip the last season and don’t bother with the live action movie. 8/10.

Well, well, I guess that's the end of the third issue of the Kametsu Khronicle, I hope you enjoy it, leave your posts below and I hope you'll look forward to the next one!

[idl12]

Nice job man and yeah, Empathy does indeed deserve all the credit for making the Inn active again, it's as if every single Rp she makes ends up being super active, then when she dissappears for a while, so does everyone else.

[redwolf29]

it's my first time here and reading the 3rd issue made me want to read the other issues... great job!

[† Shazi]

nice work again, thanks for getting it posted, will have this weeks comic in very soon

[Wake]

Very nice work everyone... the article on the "pure manga" meg. I heard about and that sounds long over due. People now a days have many different tastes in manga and genres. I know more then a few people who have questioned why this hasn't happened until now. I glad it's finally happening. And if it's going to be in more then just Japanese that should be interesting how that turns out with licensing issues and what not.

Also... I'm sure no one minds the lateness, we all know your all working very hard. And RazorDan, RL stuff always take center stage and everyone here knows that... and I hope your bother gets out of the hospital soon:)

[Empathy]

Razor i deserve no credit when it comes to the rp section if you want I can make a section to do with writing/character/plot rp section if you want.

[ウェンキ Leki]

Emmy your back, What a surprise. Glad!

Ontopic: Good Job Dan. I love Shazi's Corner!

[DrumRoll]

Good issue.

I look forward to the new batman game as the last one was awesome.

You should do a review on the game Brink when it comes out, been waiting for it for a bloody age.

Also is that assasins creed an entire new game? If don't you think that they're pumping them out a bit too fast? Still I've never played them (due the lack of guns, tanks, zombies) but I might pick up a copy of AC 2 or brotherhood when this new game drives the prices down.

I'm that much of a skint old bastard. I'll probably get Battlefield BC 2 when the third one comes out.

[Kinara Uzumaki]

Well the issues get better every time! More new stuff, a lot of information and the content is always varied and interesting. I think my favourite section are the stories! I love reading and I hope I'll get a chance to make one of my stories be published here.

[Nero D. Ace]

Well the issues get better every time! More new stuff, a lot of information and the content is always varied and interesting. I think my favourite section are the stories! I love reading and I hope I'll get a chance to make one of my stories be published here.

send one of your stories to me or raz and if it's good, it'll get published. same goes for everyone out there.

[† Anras Rune]

send one of your stories to me or raz and if it's good' date=' it'll get published. same goes for everyone out there.[/quote']

you forgetting someone...O.o

send it to me too please!

[big_teddy]

Late or not, it's always good to see the Kametsu Khronicle! Everyone does have a life outside this forum. lol

Anyways, I enjoyed the read, especially the Batman: Arkham City review. I can't wait to play this game too!

[Kinara Uzumaki]

send one of your stories to me or raz and if it's good' date=' it'll get published. same goes for everyone out there.[/quote']

Thank you very much! I will do so as soon as I polish it out and fine-tone it. First drafts are never good.