Happy Hump day BaddaBing BaddaBlog readers! How are you? I’m good, thanks for asking. As it is just about every time this week, this is Pop Culture Wednesday. Today’s article is going to be a review critiquing and analyzing a wonderfully nerdy show that coincidently has its season two premier airing tonight. Today’s post is going to be all about the FXX program, Man Seeking Woman.

Man Seeking Woman is an American Sitcom created by Simon Rich that is loosely based on a book he wrote titled, The Last Girlfriend on Earth. The show usually follows Josh, a twenty something naïve and awkward young man, as he deals with surreal moments and situation as he tries to both find love and make sense of his life after ending a long term relationship. Along for the ride is Mike, Josh’s best friend who is able to date much more easily than Josh and is also far more interested in getting Josh laid than helping him find a relationship, and Liz, Josh’s older sister whom he goes to regularly for dating advice.

The best description I can give to this show, and perhaps the greatest compliment as well, is that it feels very much like an episodic Scott Pilgrim. The show’s over-the-top-ness and obvious love for nerd culture are apparent from the very first episode. This is where a majority of the show’s humor comes from. It takes situations and common dating experiences that most people are familiar with and hyperbolizes them or literalizes them. Have you ever been to a really unpleasant wedding that you desperately didn’t want to attend? In one episode Josh goes to a destination wedding that is literally in hell. Ever feel like your on the top of the world because you got an attractive person’s phone number? In the pilot Josh literally gets a call from Pres. Barak Obama congratulating him when he does that. Below is the trailer for season two, and I can admit, with only marginal embarrassment, that I can completely relate to the events at 1:01.

Man seeking woman’s biggest draw is also its biggest weakness, however. As the majority of the show’s humor revolves around each episode taking common experiences in dating and taking them to absurd levels, the jokes and each episode can kind of drag or have too much set up and not enough punch line. While each episode is consistently funny and relatable, I have only had a handful of laugh out loud moments in the entire first season. The joke that comes first to my mind when I think of the previous season is when Josh finds out that the guy his ex-girlfriend is dating is literally Hitler.

This show is definitely worth a look if you’re within its target demographic. That being twenty to thirty year olds who are at least slightly nerdy or pop culture savvy and have any amount of experience being single. I also believe that this show does a better job depicting what it’s like to be a single nerdy and awkward person than any other sitcom on television right now (*cough* Big Band Theory *cough*). Bottom line, if you’re the kind of person that even occasionally looks at this blog, I really think you would enjoy Man Seeking Woman.

That just about does it for this week’s installment of Pop Culture Wednesday. If you enjoyed it or have thoughts on Man Seeking Woman, please leave a like and a comment down below. As always, if you want to keep up to date with this blog, you can subscribe to it via email in the upper right tab. Alternatively, you can stay up to date by liking the official BaddaBing BaddaBlog Facebook Page or by following me, @LucasDeRuyter, on Twitter. I hope you all have a great rest of the week and be sure to come back here on Saturday for the next installment of Game Grind.

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Happy Monday BaddaBing BaddaBlog readers! This is Manga (And Also Anime) Monday, the place where Japanese reigns king and we get to revel in its glory, while also making respectful criticisms. Today’s topic is going to be a gem of an anime from 2004, Samurai Champloo (yes, a part of this is going to be explaining what the name means). Here we go!

Samurai Champloo answers the long unasked question: What if feudal Japanese culture and Hip Hop culture happened at the same time? In answering this question, this anime is able to both depict and comment on historical events and practices, as well as modern day issues and practices. The story follows two vagrant swordsmen, Mugen and Jin, and a teenage girl, Fuu, as the travel the countryside in search of “a samurai who smells of Sunflowers.”

While the plot of Samurai Champloo is somewhat lacking, as the majority of the story lines are episodic and their is not much of an overarching plot, the show more than makes up for it with its stunning animation and score. The animation in this program is reminiscent of the incredible anime, Cowboy Bebop. The animation may not always be of the highest quality, but it is still done in such a way accents the many elaborate fight scenes and perfectly sets the shows Hip Hop tone.

The music in this anime is arguably some of the best in the entire industry. You can easily tell that an incredible amount of effort went into creating the anime’s music, but also that the creator’s of said soundtrack had a deep appreciation and passion for what they were doing. On its own the music would be incredible, but when blended with Samurai Champloo’s stylistic animation it creates a truly unique and masterful experience.

The other big pull that this adult anime has going for it is how it beautifully mixes humor and action. A lot of shonen-esq anime tend to mix comedy and action in a fifty-fifty ratio. Samurai Champloo, however, is closer to seventy percent humor and thirty percent action. While this could be a problem for other anime, Samurai Champloo manages to pull off so many laughs due to its unique and enticing characters.

This also means that when the anime does choose to focus on action, it really is balls to the ball excellent and truly enthralls the viewer.

Samurai Champloo really is a great anime that succeeds at blending distinct and whole seperate cultural elements. This is even demonstrated in the series title, as the word “Champloo” is a corruption of the Japanese word for mix-up, and can be thought of as meaning mix tape. This signifies not only the blending of traditional Japanese culture with modern cultural influences, but also the series’ have focus on Hip Hop music. If you are looking for something to watch over winter break, I cannot recommend Samurai Champloo enough. It’s up for viewing on Hulu for free, so do yourself a favor and check out this anime original series.

Alright. That just about does it for this week’s installment of Manga (And Also Anime) Monday. If you enjoyed it, please leave a like and a comment down below, it’s really appreciated. If you want to stay up to date with this blog you can: subscribe in the upper right tab using your email, like the official BaddaBing BaddaBlog Faceboook Page, or follow me, @LucasDeRuyter, on Twitter. I hope all of you have a great week and be sure to come back to 4B on Wednesday for the next installment of Pop Culture Wednesday.

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Good morning BaddaBing BaddaBlog readers! Or, if you had a little too good of a New Year’s, good afternoon! This is Game Grind, the place where everything relating to the video game industry and gamer culture is written about with vigor. I’ve noticed that a lot of news outlets use this time of year to talk about some of the best aspects of the previous year or even repost some of their previous stories with a “Best ___ of 2015” moniker. I could do something like that, but instead I’m going to look to the future, like a boss! Here are some games that are coming out in 2016 that I am definitely going to play.

Final Fantasy Explorers

Final Fantasy Explorers is a Final Fantasy spin-off title for the 3DS.The game play will consist of all of the long time FF staples, and a combat system reminiscent of Monster Hunter. It also has an interesting feature that allows monsters you have defeated in battle to join your party and help you beat up other monsters. So it’s basically Final Fantasy mixed with Monster Hunter, mixed with Pokémon. If I have to explain why that’s awesome…..why are you even reading a blog post about video games? (Also the game lets you play as fan favorite FF characters, so that’ll be fun.)

Release Date: January 26th

 

Mighty No. 9

Mighty No. 9 is the spiritual successor to the original Mega Man games and is being released for nearly all gaming platforms. The game originally received funding when Mega Man’s producer, Keji Inafune, started a Kickstarter for the project, but has since been picked up by some major publishers and development studios. The game promises a return to the original Mega Man gold standard and that promise alone has me sold.

Release Date: February 9th in the U.S. and February 12th world wide

 

Fire Emblem Fates

Fire Emblem Fates is the next installment in the Fire Emblem franchise and is coming to the 3DS. It promises to be as fun, intricate, and challenging as its predecessor, Fire Emblem Awakening, in addition to having a more compelling story. The game’s been out in Japan for a while and I’ve only really heard good things about the latest FE game. If you like turn based strategy games as much as I do, this game looks to be everything done right in a JRPG.

Release Date: February 19th for North America, Q1 for Europe and Australia

 

Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow

In celebration of the original Pokémon games being twenty years old this year……wait, Pokémon is twenty years old!!? I have to fact check this, one sec……………………………………………………………………………………Wow, yeah. Pokemon Red and Green came out in Japan on Feburary 27th, 1996. Time fly’s, huh? Anyway, in celebration of this anniversary, the original Pokémon Red and Blue (the Western and improved versions of Pokémon Red and Green) are going to be released in all their Game Boy goodness on the 3DS eShop. This is actually a pretty big deal, because The Pokémon Company never re-releases their games on newer hardware without massive graphical and technical updates. I’m totally going to pick up Pokémon Red again and trip balls on all the nostalgia.

Release Date: February 27th   😀

 

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD

I have a confession to make to all of you. I have committed a Nintendo fan cardinal sin, I have never played some of the console Zelda games. Yes, go on, shame me. I disserve it. Thankfully though, Nintendo has given me a chance to redeem myself and is re-releasing Twilight Princess for Wii U. There is also going to be a very cool looking Midna/Wolf Link Amiibo that, by the sound of it, will release extra content on the upcoming Zelda Wii U project. Now all I have to do is play Skyword Sword and all of my sins will be forgiven! Although, I have it on pretty good authority that I don’t really need to play Skyword Sword.

Release Date: March 4th

 

Star Fox Zero

You know how Zero Suite Samus is known to most young players as “the hot chick from Smash Bros.”? Well, Fox and Falco are dangerousaly close to becoming the furries from Smash Bros., seeing as a new, non-remake game has not been seen in the series since 2006. Thankfully, a new entry is coming to arguably the most popular rail shooter ever, in the form of Star Fox Zero for the Wii U. The game looks like a return to form for the series and seems to have a fun blend of action shooting and puzzle solving. I’m so excited I could…….DO A BARREL ROLL!!! (Yeah, that was lame even for me, sorry.)

Release Date: April 21st for Japan, April 22nd for the US, and sometime in April for Europe.

 

Darkest Dungeon

This dark, anxiety inducing turn based RPG/dungeon crawler is coming to both PC and PlayStation 4. This Indie gem was well received on Steam during its early access period. This game seems like a new spin on the RPG genre and I’m sure I’ll enjoy its dark and gothic motif.

Release Date: January 19th for PC (master race) and Q2 for Playstation 4 and Vita.

 

Bravely Second: End Layer

I freakin’ love Japanese Role Playing Games (JRPGs) and turn based strategy games. I know they are not for everyone, but they are most definitely for me. I was elated when I discovered that one of my favorite JRPGs from this generation was getting a sequel in the form of Bravely Second: End Layer for the 3DS. The original Bravely Default set the standard for what a modern turn based strategy game should be and I cannot wait to see how it expands on the original’s charming and imaginative universe and story.

Release Date: Already out in Japan, February 26th for Europe,  February 27th for Australia, and sometime in 2016 for North America.

 

Dragon Quest VII and VIII

Dragon Quest is a franchise that is arguably on par with or exceeds Final Fantasy in terms of quality and scope. These are two fan favorite titles of a series that I have yet to spend much time with so I’m looking foreword to experiencing these remakes for the first time on the 3DS.  Also, all of the artwork is either created by or done in the style of Akira Toriyama, the guy who created Dragon Ball. So it’s already awesome.

Release Date: VII in the Summer and VIII sometime in 2016 after that.

 

Final Fantasy XV

It is difficult to express how much I want to play this upcoming PlayStation 4 and Xbox One title. I bought the mostly sucky HD version of Final Fantasy Type Zero just so I could experience this game’s demo and it was marvelous! For years the FF franchise seemed to be on a down swing and only since the release of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn has the core FF series begin to climb back to its former glory. I believe that FF XV will solidify Final Fantasy’s place at the forefront of modern gaming, where it deserves to be.

Release Date: sometime this year (hopefully, it’s been in development for like seven years).

 

The Last Guardian

This is a beautiful game where you solve puzzles with the help of a giant bird/dog/cat creature and it draws upon elements from The Shadow of the Colossus. Nothing more needs to be said. Oh, wait, there is one more thing; it comes out on PlayStation 4. So go out and buy a PlayStation 4 before this game comes out.

Release Date: Not soon enough, in 2016.

 

The Legend of Zelda: Wii U (tentative title)

Very little is known about the next installment in the Zelda franchise. We don’t even know for sure that it’s coming out on the Wii U! However, it has been described as the most open Legend of Zelda title yet, and as a mix between Skyrim and The Legend of Zelda. That promise alone makes this game a guaranteed buy for me.

Release Date: 2016 (Maybe, probably, hopefully)

 

Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem

This game is going to be a hot Japanese mess. And I, as a proud Otaku/Weeb, am going to revel in it. It’s going to be coming out on the Wii U and is either going to be very good or so bad that it’s good.

Release Date: Already out in Japan (lucky!) and sometime in 2016 for the rest of the world.

 

World of Final Fantasy

Finishing up this list is the chibi style final fantasy game that looks to be as adorable as it is cliché. This game is similar to FF Explores in that it has players befriending and fighting alongside monsters, but is different in that the game play is turn based and utilizes Final Fantasy’s classic Active Time Battle system. Will this game be the best video game in 2016? Probably not, but it will be pretty amazing to see and interact my favorite Final Fantasy characters and monsters in such an adorable art style. I’m definitely going to add this to my PlayStation 4 library (sorry Vita).

Release Date: Sometime, someplace, and somewhere in 2016.

 

Alright, those are my must buys in gaming for 2016. Ugh, my wallet hurts. Did you see anything you like? Do you have any questions about any of the titles? Do you want to know why any of your picks didn’t make the list? Well feel free to ask these questions and any others in the comments down below and I’ll be happy to get back to you. If you’d like to be informed when new content is posted to the 4B blog, you can do so by: subscribing via email in the upper right tab, liking the official BaddaBing BaddaBlog Facebook Page, or by following me, @LucasDeRuyter, on Twitter. I hope you all have a great New Year’s weekend and be sure to come back here on Monday for the next installment of Manga (And Also Anime) Monday.

BaddaBing, BaddaBye