Daniel Blackworth

“You can't achieve anything if you don't make a move. Love is an all-out assault.” - Marika Tachibana from Nisekoi

“In the end, mustering the courage to confess is up to the people concerned.” - Shuu Maiko from Nisekoi

“There's no law that says you can't go after someone just because he's already in love with someone else.” - Ruri Miyamoto from Nisekoi

Nisekoi was a fun shonen romantic comedy manga. Its main characters are Raku Ichijou, who is the son of a yakuza head, and Chitoge Kirisaki, the daughter of a gang boss. They are forced to be in a relationship for three years in order to have peace between the two gangs. But Raku Ichijou likes another girl, Kosaki Onodera (who also likes him back secretly), and wishes that she was the one who held the key to the locket which was given to him by a childhood love (but he doesn't know since he forgot the person's face and name along the years). As it turns out, not only Onodera and Chitoge hold possible keys to the locket, two other girls claiming to be his fiance, Tachibana Marika and Yui Kanakura, also hold keys. There are also two other girls that add to the harem, Seishiro Tsugumi, Chitoge's bodyguard, and Haru Onodera, Kosaki's little sister. The manga mostly focuses on the interactions of the main cast, and shows different character developments as the story progresses. The main cast later on discovers the truth of the past (ten years ago), and who the promised girl was. The manga ends with Raku and ???'s wedding. Overall, it was a fun manga with its many antics, the different girls' quirks, and the comedic and serious situations they got themselves in.
[4/20/17]

"In detective work, there's no winning or losing...there's no being superior or inferior...That's because...there is always one and only one truth." - Shinichi Kudo from Detective Conan

Here's the detailed account for Detective Conan. Detective Conan is greatly my favorite thriller/mystery manga as it's cases are lively and keep the reader unsuspecting at every turn. The main character of this manga is Shinichi Kudo and the opening sequence is special for this; he goes with his childhood friend (love interest) Mouri Ran in an amusement part and there he sneaks up on people he saw doing shady deals. Turns out, he is discovered and then he is forced to take a drug which makes his body younger by 10 years. He decides to hide his identity and change his name to Edogawa Conan so that he can avoid the 'Black Men' (the ones doing the deal) and begins solving cases under his new identity in the home of the father of Ran who is a detective. With this, he tries to pursue the Black Men to return back into his body, and currently the story hasn't ended yet at 900~ chapters.

[4/19/17]

There is only one truth!

"Listen to me, Clover. No matter what happens, you can never lose hope. You have to remember what's most important, and that's to have faith, and to have love. If you can remember all of those, that'll bring you good luck. Snake -- I mean, your brother--... He's not dead. He's alive, somewhere... I'm sure of it. You've just gotta believe in that..." - Junpei Tenmyouji from Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors is a Visual Novel game for the DS. It's story revolves on Junpei as he tries to survive the 'Nonary Game' along with 8 other people who were abducted with him, including his childhood friend. Choices and decisions are important parts of the game (these are found in the Escape the Room part and the Narration part) as they designate which of the 6 endings you will end up in. This is quite an enjoyable game as it has good replay value as you need to conquer at least 2 endings in order to get the full story of the game while 4 other endings reflect how being trapped in a ship with so many bad things going on ruin people and make them murderers. I loved the puzzles for their difficulty, the good aesthetics, and characters who were well written and had good motivations and backstories. You'll be shocked to know that everything in this game is connected in some way, and that it runs much deeper than you think.

[4/18/17]