SKET Dance Review : When i Fell in Love With An Anime series

When you reached the age of 23, you might become a more mature human than you used to be and start looking the world in a more mature way. In my case when i became older, i became a cynical jerk who thinks that humanity can't evolve beyond a jerk who thinks for their own self and inevitably, that will let them to their doom. Being a mature could make you see everything in the suckiest way and it happen with the way i see manga and anime.

I do like to read manga and watch anime in the TV when i was a teenager, mostly all kind of anime and manga like Dragon Ball, Naruto and Rurouni Khenshin which usually about people fighting in over the top way. That day, i am still an innocent boy who see the world as a prairie of flower, smile and love but then, time changes my brain and its really hard to be a happy-go-lucky man like i used to be. I am an adult now and it makes me see most anime and manga as a tsunami of angsty pretty boy dealing with overused cliche dilemma while occasionally an oversexualized hot girl showing up just for being an eye candy. The worst case of anime and manga that i ever see is when some long hard slimy things is wrapping teenage girl with large breatst in the subway while the other people in the subway watching it with excitement and blushed face.

Oh wait, that was something else. Thanks for the reminder spidey.

Yes, I know that kind of anime is called shonen which is aimed at the teenager not adult like me but even if it was for the teenager it is still not an excuse to overused the cliche and angsty storyline that driving me crazy. At first, it is good to see that kind of anime, second one its ok, third is acceptable, but after the fourth one my brain starting to tell me that i hate to see people whining about friendship, courage or any other generic moral message over and over again.

Well, i do have some exception from this shonen anime that i consider as good like Naruto, Gin Tama and Fullmetal Alchemist which i think had some depth and good subtlety in the story. Eventhough i think that anime or manga like Naruto is good, i rarely get invested emotionally into the story and the character mainly because its kinda hard to sympathize with the characters when they can technically blow a mountain into dust to solve every problem that exist.

Sadness? i blow sadness...

But then, i watched some anime that was aired in the animax called SKET Dance which i think is a really strange title and premise for an anime. SKET Dance (a transliteration of "Suketto Dan" which means "helper club") is a story about a school club that dedicated to help students overcome any kind of problem they had. The main characters of this anime is Bossun, a useless boy with an extraordinary ability to concentrate really hard, then Himeko, an ex-deliquent girl who happens to have the strength of female gorilla and Switch, a super nerdy otaku who can only speaks using a speech synthesizer in his laptop.

you can see that it left everyone with a strange impression at first but after couples episode, i was so hooked with the series because it was so funny. I laughed out loud at some episodes from its quirky humour, Japanese pop culture references, and the hilarious fourth wall joke. It also had some cute romantic story between the characters that sometime manage to make me go "awwww".

 

hei, its still better than "ewwww"....

But then, the series caught me off guard when suddenly it became so traumatizing, depressing and above all, emotionally touching. I felt sympathetic and attached to an anime character like i never do feel before. Well, its an angsty teenage dilemma that they faced but it was done in an interesting way that won't bore you to death and you will always want to see how it will be resolved.

So far, there is 2 particular story that i think is really superb and unique. Thoose 2 stories is the backstory of 2 main character which is the story about Bossun and Switch past. The story explain why bossun so determined to help people in need without favor and why switch never talk with his own mouth. I won't tell how the stories goes since it will be a spoiler but trust me, there will be some unexpected twist so you will want to see their story by yourself. Personally, Switch backstory is the most emotional one and i'll even admit that it made me drop a man tears (not pussies tears) at the end of the story.

if you don't feel any emotion after watching this scene, then congratulation! you are emotionally dead.

SKET dance could make you laugh out loud then makes you cry after it. That is why this series leaves an emotional impact to whoever watching it. It is not all about laughable stupid things but it could also make you care in the emotional level which i rarely do feel when i watched an anime.  When the season 1 ended, there's some funny feeling that i felt, i feel like there's some part of me that die inside where it almost feel like someone that i cared is leaving me to somewhere far away. It is that good

There's some gripe that i have with this anime like how it sometime the story could end in a cliffhanger without any resolution that will satisfied anyone, some character could be a lil bit over the top and some unnecessary angsty dialogue can be a little annoying sometime. Also, it might be just me, but i am kinda hoping that they show the serious emotional case more often since most of the case is just there to make you laugh.

Overall, SKET Dance is a really great anime. The manga itself won an award for best shonen manga in 2011 so we know that it got a good reception in Japan itself that. This might be one of my most memorable anime that i ever watch so far and I'm so waiting for the second season to start. If some people asked me "do you like SKET Dance?" i will replied it with "no. I love it.".

The Initial El Score Review

9.5  

Love it!

 

Dragon Nest T4: a review for the Pro and Con of Physician

In the dragon nest SEA, the alchemist is one of the most hated class in the game whether if it was for the lag maker skills or the so called imba skills. Now, in the T4 update patch the Alchemist can take 2 new jobs called adept and physician, creating more pissed up player across the server which i find amusing. Since i am an alchemist, i'm doing some quick reseach (read: google) before taking the two job that the alchemist can take.Then, after some quick research, i found that Physician is actually a less favorite class in Dragon Nest and almost all guide and video is about adept.

Now, since i love to be different, i pick the Physician class when i reached 50 and found that i am the only physician in a guild with 120 members on it while the other alchemist on my guild pick adept as their third job. I almost think that i am the only stupid one to pick the physician as my third job. Luckily after 1 month playing as an Physician i found that i'm not actually that stupid since physician is an awesome class to use.

So, i'd like to share about my opinion for Physician in this review. This review is strictly based on my build and experience so you are all free to comment, giving suggestion, or insulting me. Just, please, don't use the word 'noob'. Its just too 'noob' for an insult...

PRO

1. Injector EX+ healing shower = higher survivability, higher popularity

In the T4 update, enemies in dungeon now do significantly more damage and with the greatly nerfed HP suffix for every equipment, the class with the healing skill is badly needed for every nest party. The demand of healer class for the nest and raid party is so high that i even find some healer class who charge their party with gold if they want him/her as a healer in their team.

no offense ....

In this T4 patch, Physician as a DPS/healer class is actually gaining a lot of advantage. Since Physician still maintain the alchemist skill which can deal decent damage, it can take the role of DPS while at the same time healing their team with their 2 new skill, injector EX and heal shower.

The normal injector is probably not a very good skill since it doesn't do much damage, had a small range and only heal you way to little to be called a healing skill but the Injector EX is the steroid version of the alchemist injector with extra range, decent damage and a far superior healing ability where now you can also heal your allies 10% of your total injector EX damage. It might not heal like half of your max hp but with its low cooling down and a proper build, injector EX will help you in nest and raid party. The other new skill for Physician is healing shower which in this T4 update heals like half of my max HP in PVE and heals better than the cleric heals (its still depends on your magic attack though). Add it with cocktail and this 2 new skill, the demands for Physician is high and it will help every party to succeed in their dungeon.

2. Going solo? no problemo...

Some title in DN gives you a really nice stats that will give you a nice advantage both in PVE and PVP and some of that title requires you to go solo in a nest. In the previous cap, going solo for a nest dungeon is an easy job as long as you had decent equipment but in the T4 patch going solo is far difficult than it used to be. At the previous cap, the non healer class depends on their HP Suffix from their armor to survive longer in the nest. In this T4 update, they can't rely on their HP Suffix anymore because its greatly nerfed and the monster deal more damage. The cleric class may had an advantage since it was well known for its high survivability but some cleric class like saint can only deal little damage so it makes the dungeon run tend to take quite some time. Physician in the other hand is more balanced than the cleric class since it can take the role of DPS and healer. It can survive better than most DPS class and had a decent DPS ability to help her finish the nest faster but remember, you will still need a decent equipment. If you run a solo dungeon with Berlin set you might wanna check whether your brain is still in function or not.

3. Dark build takes your enemy into a dark future

Physician at its core is a dark element class so if you wanna be pure physician, like i do, you will be putting your SP in the dark skill tree. As a PVP player who used a dark build for my Physician, i had a fun using the dark skill to piss off another player since dark build tend to be a deadly slow killer build. I found that Physician is best used as a support fighter, the class that fight behind the main attacker dealing poison debuff to slowly and painfully drop the enemy HP.

Disease is one skill that will deal a massive poison debuff to enemy since its debuff will poison the enemy with 10% of its damage for 15 sec and it can infect nearby enemy teammate so it can be very helpfull if you had a proper build. Poison break is also the best burst damage which is similar to the priest detonate but it deals more damage which can deal even higher damage than magma wave in PVP. Having a good Physician in your PVP team (like me, of course :P) will definitely increase your winning chance.

4. Love virus? you will love the chaos.

This is why i picked Physician over Adept. This one skill is what makes Physician unique to other classes in DN and make it as a great supportive class to play. Its none other than the lovely love virus.

Surprisingly, not much  peoples in DN SEA knows about how dangerous love virus can be. I once had a chat about physician with my guildmate and he told me that love virus animation looks good but he didn't know what did it do to the enemy that hit by its. So, for those who didn't know about love virus let me enlighten you.

Love virus is a skill that makes you invulnerable from the enemy attack and makes your enemy attack become friendly fire to his teammate for some seconds. It also lower the magic defense of your enemy by 10% and had a low cooling down for spamming purpose.

You can see that love virus really is an unique and dangerous skill if you used it in a proper way. I had this scenario on PVP where an Elestra who is an enemy captain charging with its teammate to kill my team captain. That elestra and its team gangbanged my captain until i saw the Elestra casting blizzard storm and hit it with the love virus. As you might suspect, that Elestra wiped out all his teammate in confusion and giving a chance to my captain to do the counter attack, leading our team team to victory.

Nothings feels better when you see your enemy kill his own teammate in confusion while you laugh evilly like Saturday cartoon villain in front of your PC. Its feels almost better than a sex .

Con

1. Physician do less damage 

Im going to be honest, Physician is a weak class if you don't know how to used it. Compared to any DPS class, Physician  might be the weakest DPS class since it might take a time to kill your enemy both in PVP and PVE and If you are using a pure dark build its even harder because most enemy in the dungeon is a dark monster that will resist most of your dark attack.

This con is why people prefer to be adept rather than Physician. Adept can deal more damage with its new ice beam and magma punch EX while Physician new skill is mostly for support and debuff rather than DPS.

2. Physician is kinda sucks at 1 on1 batle

As a semi support class, Physician isn't well known for its 1 on 1 capability which make ladder fight rather hard. I wont said that playing in ladder as Physician is impossible since that title is still held by the saint class who is a full support class but its still rather hard compared to other class. Physician skill is mostly a ranged attack skill so you will mostly playin with hit and run tactic when you are using Physician in a 1 on 1 battle and rarely go in a frontal fight unless you really have to.

Adept in the other hand had a better chance to fight in a frontal fight compared to Physician because their skill is mostly for close combat purpose so they had a better advantage in ladder match.

3. Physician still had paper defense

 Alchemist is actually a paper defense class in the previous cap and it always be the soft spot for merc and sword master to aim But in the T4 patch, alchemist now had more decent defense than it was before so it now had a better survivability.

But even though they increased the Physician survivability, the alchemist class is still a vulnerable class because they are weak in close range and didn't have much counter attack skill. when you are caught in a combo it will be rather deadly for Physician if you already used the hypnosis to run away from the previous attack

Conclusion

Physician isn't a perfect class, hell, there's no perfect class in DN unless you are Berlin. You will need a lot of experience to use physician since it wasn't an easy class to use at first, but when you get the hang of it there is a great fun to used this class. I recommend all of you to harness the power of love virus since i think its the sexy spot for physician so you can be a master in a battle.