The RPG Duelling League
Social Forums => General Chat => Topic started by: Xeroma on January 16, 2008, 03:04:51 PM
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You know the drill.
Persona ~trinity soul~ - Watched episode 1. Seems like it has potential. Will follow this series for now, at least. Quite a bit different from P3, but in a way I like.
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Tsubasa Chronicles: CLAMPilicious. It's hard to tell if this is a good thing or a bad thing (I like CLAMP, but it comes off really strong sometimes). Feels a lot like AU fanfiction, but that's to be expected.
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I've been watching two series right now:
Sayanora Zetsubou Sensei/Farewell Mr. Despair (Nowadays, there's a "Zoku" at the beginning of that mess):
Excellent comedy series. Already on Season 2. Just... surreal and smart. Also, I can tell it'd be even better if I understood Japanese, because there's also a lot of local references and complex Japanese puns. That it still manages to be funny with all this humor being lost on me is a testament to how good it is.
Kaiji:
For being about usually nothing, having a completely over-the-top narrator, and moving at a snail's pace, this is quite possibly the most dramatic television series I have ever seen. Excellently written and intensely psychological. Everyone must watch Kaiji.
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Let mes ee.
Hayate no Gotoku: Himegami looks weird.
Persona trinity soul: Felt like it.
ZSZS: Name too long.
Gundam 00: Lockon is the man.
Higurashi: Subs are slow.
Starship Troopers: There's an anime of this apparently.
Shigofumi: The opening pisses me the hell off, and it's the only reason I'm watching this.
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The stuff I'm downloading at the moment...
Naruto Shippuden- Shounen. Moving on.
Spice and Wolf- Interesting new show. Love the opening.
Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei- Good. Nuff said.
Starship Troopers- Eh. Old, but at least they got the power armor right!
Kekkaishi- Shounen goodness. Much better than Bleach and Naruto despite fillery start
Bamboo Blade- Cute, goofy and hilarious. Like Azumanga Daioh as a sports anime.
The trailers for the .hack//GU trilogy are godly. I can't wait.
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Only thing I'm watching that others aren't is Black Jack. This show... is kind of wacky. Though Tetsuka as a totally justified self-insert character is kind of awesome (He was a fully licensed doctor in real life). Episodes are kind of formulaic- Tragedy, dramatic surgery, positive outcome. Still like it.
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Black Jack is awesome like that, yes. Too bad it sold so very, very poorly for us.
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Gundam 00: FUJIKEI.
Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: ZETSUBOUSHITA.
Kaiji: ZAWA ZAWA.
Persona ~ Trinity Soul: KILL YOURSELF.
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Gundam 00 - Goodness me, this is an improvement over SEED already.
Lockon and Allelujah are cool, Setsuna and Tieria can fall off an orbital elevator. Graham Acre seduces mechs, Soma Peiris isn't completely typical for her character type, Sergei is a Real Man. Primary bridge crew is womens, and not bad. Wong is mysterious, the Princess needs more backbone.
Celestial Being is giving me a Light Yagami aftertaste though... well, at least they aren't (all) pricks like he was, and actually have varied and at least decent motivations.
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Two things about Persona: Trinity Soul.
One, this show is boring. It hasn't given me reason to care about its whoooospooky. When the mains are too clueless or too clueful relative to the watchers, I fall out of sync and fail to care.
Two, this is the WORST. OP. EVER. It seriously is the most generic flailing anime opening I have ever seen. Cheesy grating rock song, random characters running in the dark, nothing actually cool to look at. Actively annoys me.
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Persona TS: Yaoi value sky rockets, the incestual air makes it even better. Fuck the plot or whatever, I am following thsi to the very end. I shall now wait for doujins.
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Watched the first 9 episodes of Bamboo Blade
(MILD SPOILERS?!)
Not...... terribly exciting, but there's not much wrong with it, either. I feel like it's sllllllowwwwwwwly picking up as characters get fleshed out some. I am enraged at how long it's taking to introduce the fifth girl.
A nice touch was how the rivals appeared all super-sinister and in the fight it was all super-sinister, and then afterwards, hey, they're just girls and it turns out they were being competitive. Can't help but figure I'd prefer watching a show ABOUT the rivals, though.
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You are so Saya though, VSM. Join the fad.
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You're right. Saya is great. I'm down with it. I'll look for an image later, posssssssssibly.
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Any scene of her's in particular you like? I can screen capture it for you.
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Watched Porco Rosso, because, you know, it's Porco Rosso.
Awesome movie.
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[sort of relevant]
http://saigar08.michaeldodd.net/
SaiGar 08~
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Up to episode 7 of Bamboo Blade. So, echoing VSM minus two episodes worth of stuff plus a little more hype all around.
And once again, I fall to the wiles of too-cuteness.
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Finally finished watching Daimos. Show is extremely mehish.
Some good moments unfortunately a lot of them are towards the end, which I can only assume is a trick to attempt to make people forget how lame the majority of the show is.
I love how the security tunnel autocannons in the final episode completely trash the Tranzer/Daimos. They should have taken these and put them on the things they were fighting Daimos with in the main of the show. Oddly enough despite effectively destroying Daimos they only scar Kazuya/Richter.
Because I couldn't understand a word they were saying and Kazuya is never shown back on his feet I am going to take it as written than he died, despite outside evidence to the contrary. Fufufu. Unfortunately I have no way of having Erika die off as well and she's the only one alive at the end who deserves it.
Richter killed himself off for no freaking reason whatsoever. 'I've saved the colony! Now to fire myself into Jupiter and explode!'. Highnel's death wasn't his own fault and Garuda has effectively going insane to blame, but this is just ellipsis-worthy and like they wanted him dead and couldn't be bothered thinking about why. When I think about it, Richter had a really poor showing in the final episode in general. 'Kazuya has shown up to help me save my people from Olban! NOW TO FIGHT HEEMMMM'
Not entirely sure what I should watch next. Should possibly get back to Grendizer that I stalled in the middle of watching for no apparent reason.
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Things I've seen in last like 3 months
Darker Than Black- Was pretty fun, like I said in RPG ratings, it was nice to see a show with super powered beings who could actually lose fights to normal humans with weapons. The characters were fun and the plot twist at the end was kind of interesting too. As usual the ending was sorta random, but that tends to happen in short serieses and I always complain about it. You'd think I'd learn and deal with it!
D Gray Man - Caught up on this one. I like it, although it's slowed down a little bit in the last 10-15 episodes. I'm waiting for some more progress on their fighting abilities and it looks like that's finally going to happen in the next 6-7 episodes. The problem is, they're once a week or whatever now and that annoys me.
Kenichi World's Strongest Disciple- Pure awesome. Another one where super fighters weren't total Gods, barring the masters, who don't fight often. The main character is afraid of knives a bit into the series and would probably still fear guns by the end, so that is refreshing! As for the characters, they did a good job of adding variety too everyone, and despite having a shitload of characters they manage to develop them decently well and make you like/hate who you should. (8 Fists, 5 masters, 2 mains, 1 nemesis main, 3-4 friends, 6-7 underling badguys who get development, etc.) Apachi is pure win.
Kaze No Stimga- The cool guy attitude is overdone, but it worked for the main of this show. (Least recent I watch so less fresh in my mind.) The interactions between a lot of the characters was fun in this one, especially considering the nonstop awkward situations that they were put in.
Mai-Hime- Watching this now, like 15 episodes in. I'm guessing it's like the same producer/writer or something as Mai-Hitome? I'm too lazy to check. Anywho, I like it a bit less than Mai-Hitome, but it's still fairly interesting and entertaining. After this series I'll probably move on to something a bit less mindless, but for now this entertains me.
Bleach- Slowed down to a snails pace. This might have been okay if not for the once a week episodes, but good lord. 15-20 episodes of fighting random underlings is getting so dull. I get it, Chad, Renji, etc. all have Captain level strength now, but can't match up to tier 1 Espada. Also, I can't buy someone as smart as Ishida (I think that's his name) toying with his enemies so often. He knows they're on a mission and all that good shit, and yet he fucks around when he needs to get a move on AND an ally was in the room too. What if that weird Hollow guy had died while Ishida was fucking around. Pffft. Get on with the plot please.
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(Spoilers ahead)
Mai-Hime- Holy fuck this show just took a dark turn. I knew they were capable of offing characters, but killing off Takumi and Makoto(?) in the same episode, as well as Akira losing her child. Not quite what I expected from a show that, despite showing signs of darkness, lent itself to a happier ending. Also, guessing what's his face VP dude is the Lord whatever guy, but we'll see.
Editing: Yeah... once people started just dropping I kind of realized that the show wouldn't actually just kill of 95% of the main characters. Probably should of realized that right when Takumi died, but oh well, I'm an episode or two slow. I enjoyed the ending quite a bit more than Mai-Hitome, although it ended maybe a bit too fluffy! At least kill off Reito or one of those douchebags. Ahh well, I'll rate it later as... I'm tired!
On a side note, how the hell did MIYU survive when she purposely overloaded herself to go boom, or did I miss something there? Hmm...
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Gundam 00: Graham is the man.
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Started Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. It lives up the billing.
(Also, am I the only one who thinks Cheerful Girl's name is obviously supposed to be "Kafka"?)
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It's supposed to be LIKE Kafka, yes. That's definitely intentional.
Actually, if you start watching at the end of the eps, they eventually tell you how each character is named. EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER in the series has a naming quirk.
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Yeah, I figured it was deliberate on the writers' part, more of a gripe about the fansubbing.
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Pick a girl and join the fad, Shale.
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So, I've watched a bunch of stuff over the last couple months and keep forgetting to post about it. Thus, in this brief moment of non-laziness, we get ze monster post. (Note: said post does not involve Monster). Alphabetical order! For justice.
Ah! My Goddess: So yeah, romantic comedy isn't really the Cid's thing. No surprise there. It's cute and harmless, at the least, and surprisingly devoid of fanservice for something that basically has the typically spineless anime male accreting a circle of superpowered women. I do approve of the fact that the show decides to be about a specific relationship rather than having every woman in the world swoon over the lead and going "Which will he pick?" Of course, that would be more rewarding if the relationship actually moved faster than a glacier. On that note, I have to punt Skuld for being the enforcer of the status quo. Also, since she kicked off the chain of events that led to armageddon, I'm deciding that that's entirely her fault. Anyway, Belldandy is too much the perfect domestic to be my style, but she's okay. Urd, on the other hand, is basically an omnipotent bum. You know I approve of this.
Black Lagoon: Now, this one was a lot of fun. I can't really think of anything it does wrong. Well, unless you're a plotaholic, but I'm usually satisfied with solid character work. I don't see anything wrong with an episodic structure as long as you do it right, and Black Lagoon does. Vivid cast and entertaining individual storylines. Revy is my kind of psychopath. Props to the ending credits, on that note. Mellow synthesizer music, camera trails along a beach behind her feet as she drops her familiar weapons and ammo, and you're supposed to go "Right, this is where the hardened killer shows her soft side, yada yada yada,"...and then finally the screen pans up to show us an expression of pure homicidal rage, and she's got a shotgun clenched between her teeth which she proceeds to level directly at the camera. Gotcha! Ahaha, nice. Show does need more Balalaika, though. And...I am hearing now that plans to release the second season stateside have been scrapped. Is this accurate? Most unfortunate, if true, as I am wanting more.
Boogiepop Phantom: Interesting. The show's structure can be perplexing at times, what with minor characters showing up with a sufficient gap between appearances for you to forget who they were. For those who haven't watched it: every episode has a different central character, but all the individual stories concern supernatural events in the same city and often overlap or share what we may as well term the main characters due to their more frequent appearances (Nagi and the title character--Nagi's pretty cool, on that note). The overall effect is mixed, but I think the show succeeds more often than it fails, even if it's not good about answering the questions it tosses out regarding the overarching cause of the city's problems (why are there two of the title character? That never made sense). I particularly liked the episode with the mother trying to make peace with the embittered ghost of her daughter--and the one where the retrograde amnesiac (think Memento) meets her daughter for the last time. Very poignant, that. I also have to say that I like how consistent the show is about there always being a price tag for superhuman abilities of any kind. Will have to watch this one again at some point.
Daphne in the Brilliant Blue: Fanservice anime! Well, it had Reki's VA from Haibane-Renmei. I can give it that, at least. And Gloria's rampant stupidity was vaguely amusing ("Ha ha and ha!") That's as far as I can be complimentary to generic fluff, though.
Ergo Proxy: Good show. Excellent atmosphere and style. It was looking like a keeper for the first half of the series, but there's a good deal of flailing late in the story. A couple people go mad bomber for no real reason, and some of the background provided for one of the central characters is less than satisfying. Also, there's an Omniscient Council of Vagueness. I hate those (though at least this one takes the form of classical artwork). Also, fuck the Smile Land episode. We didn't need that kind of change of pace. Still, the show does a lot of things right in terms of building a vivid setting. I love post-apocalypse environments and this one's quite meticulously constructed. It's worth watching just for that. And, as always, I approve of solid development going into AI characters. Pino wins. Close enough to human to pass when she needs to, but with those telling lapses of empathy and common sense. Also, excellent opening sequence ("Someone saaave me" kicks in at just the right moment). It nails that tone of "Yeah, the world's right fucked, but there's a way out if we try" that I love about this kind of setting. And Paranoid Android plays over the end credits. Score. So, flawed but interesting in the final analysis. Another show that bears a second viewing eventually.
Fate/Stay Night: Mediocrity. I was told this was the case, but had to watch it anyway. Swordgirl, y'know. And Saber was okay, but that's about as much as I can say in the show's favor. Sakura was offensively moe and the rest of the cast were shades of meh. Main is the typical blockheaded Messiah type. His power was unusual, but I suppose credit for that goes to the original game. Rider wins for style points and wanting to kill the rest of the cast. Really, there was no reason for the evil loli to leave the mains alive after their first encounter. Well, beyond Writer On Board, but that doesn't count. So yeah, decent eye candy and that's about it.
Paprika: May as well toss this in here too. I usually enjoy Satoshi Kon's mindbenders, but there was a decided lack of focus here. Surrealism we expect in a movie about diving into someone's dreams. There isn't an excuse for lazy plotting, though. It's not bad, I just can't really praise it beyond the striking visuals.
Xenosaga: You know I had to watch this, just to see how much it failed. The answer is...a lot! Take the game, subtract Mitsuda music, Cherenkov (well, he *exists* here, but he's killed quite unceremoniously in the second episode), the database, add in worse voice acting. Voila! Also, they tried to carry over the angular facial features some of the XS characters had in episode one. This didn't look great in the actual game and it sure as hell isn't improved by the transition to hand-drawn animation. Basically, it's a hack job in every regard (no shock, I know). Even the OP is just a clipshow of unremarkable moments from the first couple episodes of the series.
The best thing I can say about it is that the level of badness did not fail to meet my expectations.
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Right now...starting Le Chevalier D'eon. Already impressed. Court intrigue in 18th century France, black magic in the mix to spice things up, solid action sequences...oh, and the main character morphs into his dead, vengeful sister when it's arse-kicking time. You know this makes me happy. There's also a badass UOM, for those who are into such things. I can only hope it continues to be this awesome. Haven't enjoyed a show like this for a while.
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I ended up watching more anime this weekend than I had in the past three months or so.
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: Finished through episode 6. Hilarious. The rapid-fire style is pulled off damned well, and the characters are so completely wrong. Everyone is either deplorable, retarded, or clinically insane - makes for great comedy, and gives the show a unique flavor. Love the puns and background gags.
Bamboo Blade: Also watched through episode 6. Felt positively sedate and serious after Saturday's SZS-a-thon. Good characters, good pacing, nice animation throughout, which is somewhat rare for a comedy series with regular fights. I like.
Haruhi: A good year and a half after watching the first episode, I...watched the second episode! It was better than the first, at least, still nothing great outside of gags relating to Haruhi's hair. At this rate I should figure out what people see in it by 2019.
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I've been watching a bunch of stuff lately, but the one thing that has gotten my attention is this!
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-02-27/new-slayers-tv-anime-series-in-the-works
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Seems to be the season of revivals with that and the new Trigun movie in the works, as well as the Evangelion revival movies.
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More Eva products? Isn't that like a cry of "We need easy money fast"?
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http://youtube.com/watch?v=T0F1Do9cNYo
Gurren Lagann x Pokemon Dub
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Le Chevalier d'Eon: Mrphle. I really liked the setup, but they didn't take it anywhere I particularly cared to go. Plot flounders in the Russia arc and never quite recovers, characters remain alarmingly static throughout, and the lategame betrayal is telegraphed by the freaking OP. It's not bad, it's just...with the materials available, it could've been much better. Ending was a mixed bag; some parts worked, others didn't (could *spoilers* really think the queen of all people would betray him? And...zombie *spoilers?* Come on, was that really necessary?) I did rather like the epilogue at least, because I'm a sucker for that bittersweet sort of "looking back years later," ending.
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Gurren-Lagann: Finished finally; I was going to wait for the DVDs but then ADV did their kinda-sorta-cancelling shtick and I said screw it. Three-word review: Kick. @#$!ing. Ass. I could expand on that, but it would basically be the same sentiment with more profanity.
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Rental Magica- Dragon arc starts! Fin appears!! And he is voice by Miyano!! Yaoi rating goes up, finally has some desie to start watching this. But bah, consider how the anime plays out, Fin's duel with Sekiran in Venezia probably won't make it into the anime.
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Saw the preview of Soul Eater, look spromising. Although I have soem objection over Soul's voice. I honestly liked Houshi's voice better than the new one. Now, i just hope Kuwashima can handle Medusa......
(why are there two of the title character? That never made sense).
Just saw this. Actually, Boogiepop and Boogiepop Phantom are two seperate people. Boogiepop Phantom and Monticore Phantom are both "left overs" of the original Manticore. When Echoz was transmiting data to the Void Fang, Mtonicore's "Trauma" and 'Memory" was infleunced by the process and adepted to a molecular frequency that allows them to materialize into physical being. The trauma end up as Boogiepop Phantom and the memory end up as Monticore Phantom.
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Interesting: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-03-21/gonzo-works-to-be-streamed-simultaneously-with-airing
Good stuff: Get subs at same time as airing!
Bad stuff: YOUTUBE QUALITY and GONZO. I don't think their recent work has been all that great. Dragonaut and Romeo x Juliet started off average and both turned into retarded trainwrecks...
There's also some flaws here~
Nothing is stopping someone from getting a better raw and timing the lines then re-releasing it via torrent/xdcc for people who care about video quality. The most positive feedback I've seen about fansubs and streaming is ironically from a fansubber's own self-hosted DivX web player streams of their fansubs, because it's like Stage 6 quality treatment. Arguably, in regards to video, this will go along nicely w/Japan's "FUCK P2P" law crap, but there are still ways to obtain raws through non-obvious method.
Furthermore, what of translation/english quality? Granted there are some people who will watch anything, but stuff like editing is why people don't just download every shitty speed sub they see. Stuff like this is also why some people don't like English DVD releases because the subtitles are dubtitles, so some DVD rips are done with OCRed or extracted fansub scripts.
Buuut, if this works out, then other companies will follow. Variety and selection will be important... If say 40 some [non-children] anime air per season, then system isn't going to completely destroy what they're trying to get after if it's only 2 shows a season that are available this way.
For spring, I'm gunna watch Jyunjyou definitely. Soul Eater looks interesting. Vampire Knight, which is going to be oversubbed for god knows what reason, looks... very unimpressive. I'm also going to be taking part in fansubbing of Code Geass R2 for teh lulz.
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Stuff like this is also why some people don't like English DVD releases because the subtitles are dubtitles, so some DVD rips are done with OCRed or extracted fansub scripts.
Err, dubtitles are mostly extinct by now; the major Hollywood studios tend to do them with their rare anime releases since they don't give a shit about the hardcore anime fanbase, but the regular R1 companies don't dubtitle these days.
That said, I expect quite a few DVD rips to use fansub scripts anyways so that ultra-important stuff like de arimasu are found untranslated in the script every single time they're uttered.
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To me, dubtitling is what fansubbers like a.f.k. does when faced with an anime that has multiple references, "making something so foreigners can understand it". "Americanized" or whatever. People either get it or they don't, so uhm, translate, not localize?
Also, speaking on technicalities, de arimasu is the mofuckin' copula. It's always, always translated in a sentence.
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Um... dubtitling is a pretty straightforward term. It means using the dub script for subtitles. Misusing it like that is only going to confuse people.
As for the translation/localization issue, the problem is that a literal translation may miss all the connotations involved with the original Japanese line. This is especially true with puns and some jokes, which become basically meaningless in a direct translation. There are also cultural issues between Japanese and English on things like addressing people, talking in third person, and politeness levels that don't come across when translated literally, so that lines can gain creepiness that wasn't there in the original script, or vice versa.
If someone is familiar enough with Japanese to get all the puns and language subtleties, that person shouldn't even need subtitles in the first place. The point of a translation is to make the work intelligible for people who can't understand the original work.
Also: http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gtg726i/Shana.png
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That's just a blank window, hinode.
Also, as far as translating vs. localizing goes, the point of, say, a pun isn't to teach me about Japanese wordplay, it's to make me laugh. If a literal translation does the former and a more liberal adaptation does the latter, then literalism is the one that screwed up.
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Hence infinite hype for Phoenix Wright.
In theory the best of both worlds is those subtitles that have a big explaination on the joke or a particularly untranslatable term right there. No one will ever try to sell it that way, however, because only a hardcore fan is willing to trade that much screen space for understanding something as it was originally written. I mean, those are cool and all, but they look terrible and you can't fault people for thinking most people don't want that. (for my part, I like knowing things. But also like seeing how translation teams choose to localize stuff. I actually watch both, where applicable.)
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Um... dubtitling is a pretty straightforward term. It means using the dub script for subtitles. Misusing it like that is only going to confuse people.
Referring to group like a.f.k.'s subtitles as dubtitles for the exact reason I said is common in fgtdearimasuland, 'cause a retarded English release is a retarded English release whether it's a fansub or an English DVD. [Or an Odex DVD for maximum lulz.]
(Also turn Playback Output to DirectShow Video then hit save image in MPC if you want to take screenshots with MPC! I'm just assuming you're using Haali.)
Also, as far as translating vs. localizing goes, the point of, say, a pun isn't to teach me about Japanese wordplay, it's to make me laugh. If a literal translation does the former and a more liberal adaptation does the latter, then literalism is the one that screwed up.
Both options suck~! 8D
The people who want it explained on screen should go look it up themselves! The people who want it localized can Q_Q!
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mia, you're whats wrong with anime fandom.
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Duh. I'm a Yaoi fangirl after all.
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Literal translations are perfectly fine for fansubs as far as I am concerned. It is a perfectly acceptable way for a fan to express the series, they just forfeit the right to bitch if another group chooses to localise it rather than do a literal translation. It is where there are two groups doing the same kind of things at different levels that the bitchiness is fine (See ToP translations and the difference betwee Dejap and most of the other ones).
Localisation is a required factor for a commercial release. The dubbed lines and subtitled lines can be different, but that would be built upon by improvisation by the actors or by improving flow of text opposed to flow of speech.
(Bad) Anime is what is wrong with anime fandom.
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Duh. I'm a Yaoi fangirl after all.
You are saying yaoi fangirls are the wrong of aniem fandom?? How dare you say such thing to your own kind. I cannot believe traitor like you exists *flees away crying.
Though good to know that you think Vampire Knight id terrible too.
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Both options suck~! 8D
The people who want it explained on screen should go look it up themselves! The people who want it localized can Q_Q!
..................................................
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mia, you're whats wrong with anime fandom.
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Moving on...
Good news: Blade of the Immortal is getting an anime! Sweet!
Bad news: It's by the animation studio that brought you Noir, Madlax, and Avenger.
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Bah, I liked Noir. Now, Madlax, that was garbage, but at least I got some good music out of it.
What's Blade of the Immortal, anyhow?
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It's a seriously awesome, fairly gory action historical/fantasy manga. Noir's not bad, but the usual Bee Train style is pretty much the exact opposite of BoI.
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.hack//G.U. Trilogy- Total disaster. FF7AC that happens to have only half of the eye candies. This is SAD. Liar's Smile end up as the only worth while thing out of this sorryy excuse of the game.
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Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. I was fearing that would happen...
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Damn you whoever made the GU anime! May you perish in the eternal flames of whatever negative form of the afterlife you do or do not believe in!
Anyways, I borrowed DearS from my friend. So, uh, yeeeaaaaah. Has some funny stuff and some sexy stuff so it's all good.
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Tru Getta Robo vs Neo Getta Robo-
Eh... having 7 different Getta forms and Texas Mack in just 4 episodes seems like most of them didn't really get enough screen time. Neo Getta in general needed more screen time because Tru Getta is ugly, and God Getta barely got a chance to do anything.
Fine enough in general, albiet overly deus ex machiny.
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General update...
Banner of the Stars III- One of my favorite series gets a finale. Sadly, due to the story being compressed into two episodes, it's rushed and awkward. A far cry from the carefully slow, beautifully character-driven series I know and love. Still a satisfying end, though.
Kimagure Orange Road- Decided to start rewatching this. Man, I forgot how good Hikaru was in the beginning and how quickly she swandived into failure. Madoka love <3
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rewatched some 12 Kingdoms. Good stuff. Episode 39, the final chapter of 'A Thousand Miles of Wind, The Sky at Dawn' is one of the coolest episodes for anything ever, though I do wish the story arc was a bit quicker getting there (typical book->movie pacing issues).
also rewatched some Mahou Tsukai Tai, which is exactly as I remember it. A remarkably accurate portrayal of the many and various stupidities of teenage life. Also, the dub is fantastic.
also watched the first 2 eps of Mnemozyne. Good stuff, if a bit over the top with the S&M and whatnot. Still, explicit sex and violence means the show can dispense with the 'accidental' panty shots and the falling on the girl and accidentally feeling her up and the rest of the adolescent ero-bullshit anime tends to wallow in. No need for that crap when the characters are, y'know, actually getting some (the audience...not so much). Plot? Oh yeah, plot. Immortal women do stuff. Frequently violent and sexy stuff. Good pacing. Quite reminiscent of Speed Grapher.
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Randomly rewatched episodes 33, 38 and 39 of Utena on Youtube. Still all kinds of awesome. I should probably rewatch the show sometime; it's been...three years, I think?
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also watched the first 2 eps of Mnemozyne. Good stuff, if a bit over the top with the S&M and whatnot. Still, explicit sex and violence means the show can dispense with the 'accidental' panty shots and the falling on the girl and accidentally feeling her up and the rest of the adolescent ero-bullshit anime tends to wallow in. No need for that crap when the characters are, y'know, actually getting some (the audience...not so much). Plot? Oh yeah, plot. Immortal women do stuff. Frequently violent and sexy stuff. Good pacing. Quite reminiscent of Speed Grapher.
Note to self: watch this show.
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Good news: Blade of the Immortal is getting an anime! Sweet!
You have no idea how happy this makes me. But I'll tell you. A lot.
I read Blade of the Immortal before I ever watched anime or read manga otherwise. I've been following it from its very beginning, back when I was a kid that liked to hang out in the local comic store. Not only is this quite a nostalgia trip for me, the studio in question does do introspective stuff pretty decently, think Noir and .Hack//SIGN, so I'm cautiously optimistic.
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also watched the first 2 eps of Mnemozyne. Good stuff, if a bit over the top with the S&M and whatnot. Still, explicit sex and violence means the show can dispense with the 'accidental' panty shots and the falling on the girl and accidentally feeling her up and the rest of the adolescent ero-bullshit anime tends to wallow in. No need for that crap when the characters are, y'know, actually getting some (the audience...not so much). Plot? Oh yeah, plot. Immortal women do stuff. Frequently violent and sexy stuff. Good pacing. Quite reminiscent of Speed Grapher.
Heh, Mnemosyne, I heard from a bunch of people was actually good, but I wasn't sure whether to trust their judgments on it or not. I honestly don't know, what I'm saying coming from someone whose watched things like Kannazuki no Miko and... uh, the Disgaea animu. :|
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I would say it's too early to tell, after only 2 episodes, whether or not it'll be that good. It certainly shows promise. Interesting characters, top-notch production values, great action. There are indications that there will be significant time gaps between episodes, which could be very interesting plotwise, but there's no denying the show is unnecessarily oversexed, and it does get in the way to an extent. Worth checking out, but not for the squeamish.
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Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind-
Started off slow, but got better fairly quickly. Went into it having no idea what to expect and found it to be considerably better than I was anticipating. The subtitling wasn't the best and cut out on occasion as well as having some bad english at times, which is a bit sad for a 'real' subtitling.
Laputa, The Castle in the Sky-
Storyline wasn't as good as Nausicaa's, but it was a great deal more amusing. I think I'd peg Nausicaa as just a tiny bit better overall. Had better expectations for this and it still beat them >_> The DVD wouldn't let me turn subtitles off for some reason, which was wierd.
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The first ep of Druaga was a parody of jRPG's + IT WAS ALL A DREAM meme. :0 However, an alt episode 1 that was different from the ones on Bost/u2be/Crunchy was streamed on JP GyaO TV. D: ZOMG CONSPIRACY. LOOKS LIKE WE NEED FANSUBS AFTER ALL TO FANSUB THE ALT EPISODE! HURRRRRRRRRRR. (Seriously though, wut @ that. A friend bought access to BOST and he is a little emo q_q that the alt ep 1 is not available on there.)
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Kure-nai- Wow, Sawashiro once again destroys the character she voiced. God, can she stop vocing for male characters now? They sounds gradually worse and worse. Oh well, skiping this, nothing to miss anyway.
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Tower of Druaga- AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAHHAHAHAHAHA!!!! This is too good, haven't seen a gag this halarious for a long while. Yeah, i am sooo going to follow this. Hope the do the double episode thing every week.
Nabari no Ou- Felt a little awkward compare to the manga, but the yaoi is all there, so I guess it won't constitue a problem.
Code Geass- Yes, more train wreck.
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Kurenai- The opening is alright, but once you watch the first episode and get to know the characters involved, it becomes hilarious and awesome. Show is decent enough that I'll follow, for all I agree with Niu on the voice of the main.
Bus Gamer- Should have figured from the character design that this was based on something the Saiyuki manga-ka did. But hey, there hasn't been a hardcore street fighting series in a while. It's not bad and only three eps, so I'll just turn my brain off and enjoy the violence for a bit.
Monster- Finally watching this, up to episode 24. It is awesome and good and yay. Dieter is leading the cast in awesomeness so far, and as good a character as he is I'm not liking Lunge too much. Eva's bitch face scares me. Tenma is... special. That's the only way I can put it, honestly. Almost Hunter-esqe for the Andys and the Alexs watching. But the show is gooooooooooooood.
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Soul Eater- Decent so far, but the voice has problem. Maka gets a fitting voice but not very good acting. Soul gets decent acting but not a very good voice >.> But I'll digress, the art is still awsome and all that. Now I hope everything goes fine with Medusa when she appears....
Kurenai- The opening is alright, but once you watch the first episode and get to know the characters involved, it becomes hilarious and awesome.
The naiveity of those who hasn't read the novel, a good thing I guess.
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Innocent Venus: Generic dystopian future nonsense. I am not sure why I watched it. It's not horrible...it just totally fails at being unique or memorable in any way that matters. Now, I approve of utilitarian, no-frills mech design, and the Big Sekrit behind said mechs is suitably warped, but that's about where my compliments end. Oh, it has an Homard clone, too. I guess that's something. No cats, though.
Rozen Maiden: Show of killer loligoth dolls is also a mediocrity. Nothing really outstanding about it and the lead whines as much as Shinji Ikari without actually having much reason to do so. I was glad when this one ended.
Scrapped Princess: Watched the first eight episodes or so. Generic fluff, but entertaining enough on that level. Cast is hit or miss--I wanted to punch Leo after about five seconds, Silencer is cool and I hope he shows up again (killer bard. Yes), Chris...well, failing to kill the hero when he could easily have done so in like the first episode is always a bad sign for an adversary. Also an angstwhore (c'mon, he didn't even know Winia; why would he unload his Troubled Past story on her? Stupid lazy writers and their expository dialogue). He has got a little better, though. So yeah, show is nothing special, but basically inoffensive. Of course, by all accounts, it turns to total drivel for the finale. But eh, I have to finish watching any series I start, and the ride there looks diverting enough for now.
Key the Metal Idol: Now, this one I like. Watched the first seven episodes, looking forward to the rest. We know the Cid is fond of AI characters, yes? AI character with an entire show devoted to her development? Even better. It also helps that I like Sakura, and the interaction between the two of them is made of win. I can't help but like the pop songs too. The end theme has that quaint, 80's soft rock feel that spilled over into the 90's in Japan because the Japanese just decided the whole grunge thing wasn't happening there for some reason. Must hunt down music on GH later. Also, while the "badass" archetype is never my kind of character, it has to be said that episodes 6/7 = D is one hardcore motherfucker. And Ajo is batshit in ways that scare even me.
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Man, I'm way behind in this stuff. I still have to finish Bokurano, now that I'll finally be able to download it again. <_<
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Scrapped Princess: Watched the first eight episodes or so. Generic fluff, but entertaining enough on that level. Cast is hit or miss--I wanted to punch Leo after about five seconds, Silencer is cool and I hope he shows up again (killer bard. Yes), Chris...well, failing to kill the hero when he could easily have done so in like the first episode is always a bad sign for an adversary. Also an angstwhore (c'mon, he didn't even know Winia; why would he unload his Troubled Past story on her? Stupid lazy writers and their expository dialogue). He has got a little better, though. So yeah, show is nothing special, but basically inoffensive. Of course, by all accounts, it turns to total drivel for the finale. But eh, I have to finish watching any series I start, and the ride there looks diverting enough for now.
The bard's man do come back in later arcs. Also Chris, he actually turn out quite different, he actually doesn't interact with the main cast all that much. Just to let you know, Scrapped Princess is somewhat compressed, so it isn't uncommon that sometimes things advance so quick. Hell, Browning Order got taken out entierly (Fine, didn't alter that much on the plot, but makes the final few battles less shiny).
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smhiiPYO4ds&NR=1
There are no words... so wrong, yet so hilarious.
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Macross Frontier - First episode's not bad. The singer opening her concert with "Watashi no uta wo kike!" amuses me way more than it probably should.
Edit: Also, it cracks me up that Macross characters now just assume that idol singers can vanquish invading alien armies by singing at them.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smhiiPYO4ds&NR=1
There are no words... so wrong, yet so hilarious.
oh that's good. mm, I need to dig up that old eva/kodocha parody opening.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rqS9Psi4xM
I love that video.
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Niu: Trainwreck almost sounds complimentary for Code Geass.
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I am complimenting it by calling it a trainwreck though.
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I refuse to believe that a show that produces this image isn't at least a funny trainwreck:
(http://img379.imageshack.us/img379/3526/geeassukn5.jpg)
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Woo, new avatar material for ID.
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The trainwreck part is what makes Code Geass entertaining. "Stay turned to see how many crazy subplots Taniguchi can create (and maybe resolve) in one episode this week!"
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Geass: OIC NIU.
Yuhh whatever! Taniguchi gimme more Schneizel. :< Poor beloved 2nd Prince will be floating about in this hueg sea of characters. z_z
Druaga Ep2: SHITSUX.
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Monochrome Factor- Wow, the yaoi fan girls sure are hungry for man. The manga was BL free you know? And now Shirogane gets turned into a pervert?
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Some more first impressions on this season...
Kamen no Maid Guy- Hilarious. Premise is a little worn, if twisted in a new way. Gangster's daughter is about to come of age, decides she needs extra protection. Assigns her and her brother maids to do housework and guard them (since the maids moonlight as ninjas). The little brother gets a hot woman, of course. The girl? She gets a psychotic, musclebound oaf. Long on fanservice (that doesn't tease!), tops on comedy. Actually pretty funny, and hot woman maid's weapon of choice is a nailbat. Extra points.
Soul Eater- Stylish as all hell. I'll give Bones that. Animation style just oozes cool and the fights are awesome. The show itself seems a bit on the generic side, but we'll see as time goes on.
Allison to Lillia- It's like someone brought a Miyazaki movie to the small screen. Normally I'd be bored, but fortunately this is not a Miyazaki production. A very, very good retro feel from this show, from the character designs to the plotting. Good stuff, REALLY looking forward to the rest of this. Probably my pick for the season thusfar.
Nabari no Ou- Another sort of generic looking show, based on the first ep. Seems mostly to be fodder for yaoislash, but there was enough quality there to keep watching for at least a little longer.
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Soppy, Soul eater's plot well not move on until ep.4
The first 3 ep follows the original one shot manga, so nothing much in the first three ep outside the animation.
As for Nabari, I think the op and ed haven't make themselves clear on Yoite and Miharu. And in case you are mistaken, Aizawa has nothing to do with the yaoislash. Furry might be, but not yaoi.
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Code Geass episodes leaked out ahead of time HAR.
And how Sunrise requests youku to remove the leak is just liek that one scene in episode 2.... Gee, is this on purpose or what? Now to see whether if the rumor is true, that episode 3 is getting redo.
Nevertheless, Lolo is such a mine, it is so very entertaining.
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At this rate, eps 21-25 will be aired in like 3mos. 8D!
EPIC TANIGUCHI SCHEDULING POWER.
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I've heard the following solutions
1. Air ep4 first and redo ep3
2. Skip 2 weeks, and air three episodes at one on the 3rd week. (The initial leak is up to ep5)
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No, I am not, and please stop asking me. Jesus. It's like every day, too. I'm browsing the forums and then all of the sudden the forum faeries ask me "ARE YOU WATCHING ANY ANIME [NEW]?" so I'm always like "No go away" but then they never do and it keeps asking and I'm still not watching any and I just want them to leave me alone and why won't it fucking forum faeries always bugging me about Anime get a life you program or don't.
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Better be careful. Zenny's on his period.
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Yeah, I'm definately sticking with Kurenai. Ep 3 features a 2 minute three-way argument that's both easy to follow and hilarious. Stuff like that is really hard to do, so I'm definately keeping with it.
The ending theme has also grown on me. I've always liked that art style too.
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Soul Eater- Miyano as Kid is sweet. Ahh sweet Miyano. Cid and Dr.Stein should be in the coming episode too. Let's pray Stein's VA would do him justice, an insane psychopath hss to sounds like an insane psychopath.
Macross F- ....moe..... I... can't find any other words to describe this show. The moe substance is just handled so well, I might just buy it and follow it.
Kurenai- Errr... this'll be a rant. I am a bit disappointed at the character interactions so far. They felt unnecessarily unhappy, at least compare to the novel. Especially the interaction between Shinkurou and Ginko... god, why are they so depressed??? A common understanding between those two seems to be missing.
Yuno is the same, why did she get so depressing too? She should be more violent in her behavior. And she getting retcon into that she didn't know Murasaki at first might make things worse.
Geee, I can't this depressing mood anymore.
Nabari no Ou- Wow, they really cut the manga down to fit things in, or just do it to get Yoite appear faster? But anyway, making Tobari much more of a hypocrite than he is in the manga seems like a good touch. Making Kotarou more suspicious than he is in the manga is an even better touch. But ugh, to Yukimi's voice, soooo boring. And don't let me even starting on Saiga, only two lines and she is already sending chills up to my spine. God, is she going to destroy this show like she did to Soul taker?
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What, Niu? Were you watching Episode 3? She knew exactly who Murasaki was. It was plastered all over her face. She just didn't say it. Unless she was supposed to have met her before/been friends with her, it's pretty apparant that she at least knew who she was.
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She does? Odd for me not noticing that. Then phew on that part than.
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Grave of the Fireflies:
Well, uh. I can't say that it's the most upbeat movie of all time? I don't mind sorrowful things in general - or at least I don't think I do - but this just didn't click with me at all. Not helped by the fact that Setsuko is freakishly ugly. I like the concept, just...
My Neighbour Totoro:
Completely bizarre. It never ends up really going anywhere, but it's fine enough in spite of this. The father is going to run into trouble later on in life if he continues believing every single thing his children say.
Kiki's Delivery Service:
I went into this expecting insane delivery antics and I was highly disappointed as she only makes 5-odd deliveries the entire film and only one of them really contains any antics to speak of. It does manage to go somewhere but that somewhere isn't very far. It did at least remind me that it has been far too long since I saw any Sabrina (the show, not the cartoon).
Only Yesterday:
Had no idea what this was going to be about and found it was pretty good. The overall type of story seems really familiar but I can't for the life of me think of what I'm thinking of. In any case, the worst problem I had with it was that the art was a tad ugly at times so yeah, somewhat awesome. I'd say it's the best out of these four.
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Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei - Yes.
Code Geass - *Watches the first episode.*
...
...
.........
*EPIC JAW DROP.*
Dear god, this is a horrible, horrible trainwreck. I don't think MTV could create pacing more spastic and nonsensical than that, the plot points are absolutely incomprehensible, the writing is terrible and the entire thing screams camp.
...
I'm sold for the entire season. A series where a green-haired plot device of doom = fancy lenses may be the biggest trainwreck this side of XS3 fanservice, but it's a goddamn entertaining trainwreck.
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*Watches first episode of Code Geass*
*Reads Jo'ou's review*
*Agrees Heartily*
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Code Geass: So, hey Episode 6, lookin' mighty fine today, eh.
...
...
............................
CATS >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ASHFORD STUDENT COUNCIL. WHAT THE HELL.
Also, lol pizza butt and lol orange-kun.
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CATS >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ASHFORD STUDENT COUNCIL. WHAT THE HELL.
In A.D. 2101, war was beginning.
(http://www.designchronicle.com/memento/images/codegeass/06/codegeass0615.jpg) What happen?
(http://www.designchronicle.com/memento/images/codegeass/06/codegeass0616.jpg) Someone set up us the bomb.
(http://www.designchronicle.com/memento/images/codegeass/06/codegeass0623.jpg) We get signal.
(http://www.designchronicle.com/memento/images/codegeass/06/codegeass0615.jpg) What!!
(http://www.designchronicle.com/memento/images/codegeass/06/codegeass0623.jpg) Main screen turn on.
(http://www.designchronicle.com/memento/images/codegeass/06/codegeass0614.jpg) How are you gentlemen !! All your base are belong to us. You are on the way to destruction.
(http://www.designchronicle.com/memento/images/codegeass/06/codegeass0615.jpg) What you say!!
(http://www.designchronicle.com/memento/images/codegeass/06/codegeass0614.jpg) You have no chance to survive make your time. Ha Ha Ha Ha...
(http://www.designchronicle.com/memento/images/codegeass/06/codegeass0623.jpg) Captain!!!
(http://www.designchronicle.com/memento/images/codegeass/15/codegeass1506.jpg) Take off every 'ZIG' !!
(http://www.designchronicle.com/memento/images/codegeass/16/codegeass1608.jpg) You know what you are doing.
(http://www.designchronicle.com/memento/images/codegeass/06/codegeass0636.jpg) Move Zig.
(http://www.designchronicle.com/memento/images/codegeass/02/codegeass0215.jpg) For great justice.
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... you whore.
*Gives hinode a cookie.*
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Rewatching Gundam Wing. ah, so good! Released concurrently with Eva, it was, in some ways, the last hurrah of the strong male lead. Heero is everything Shinji and his wussified spawn (see also: Gundam SEED) aren't: manly, determined, and stioc. Sure, he's depressed, but he doesn't waste time whining about it. Bonus: though women are always unaccountaby attracted to male leads, Heero is at least the kind of guy women are ALWAYS unaccountably attracted to.
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It's kinda ironic considering all the yaoi.
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Rewatching Gundam Wing. ah, so good! Released concurrently with Eva, it was, in some ways, the last hurrah of the strong male lead. Heero is everything Shinji and his wussified spawn (see also: Gundam SEED) aren't: manly, determined, and stioc. Sure, he's depressed, but he doesn't waste time whining about it. Bonus: though women are always unaccountaby attracted to male leads, Heero is at least the kind of guy women are ALWAYS unaccountably attracted to.
Uh. I hope you mean "the last hurrah of the strong male lead in Gundam.", because a lot of characters would like to have a word with you otherwise.
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Not many strong male leads in the real robot genre in general, from what I've seen, since then.
This guy wasn't so bad though, from what I remember. (http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m284/Ssatsuki/Gundam/ShiroAmada.jpg)
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Heero is a violent, asshole punk who made Gundam Wing unwatchable to me. Gah, hate that style of anime lead. And sadly, no, GW was not the last anime to make use of one.
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Heero is hardly the only thing that makes Gundam Wing fail, truth be told. Between Relena being vapid, Duo being Otter and Wufei being... well... Wufei, we've got a real short bus darkness assembly going in that thing. Dear god, GW cast for the lose.
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I've forgotten the rest, but I remember Relena failing. God.
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I thought the best way to go about Gundam Wing was to skip straight to Endless Waltz and go "oooohh, Wing Zero Custom is preeeetttyyyy~ ^.^"
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First time I've really seen Duo hate. Not surprised on the Heero, Relena and Wufei fronts though. I never did really like Quatre though, and Heero and Relena were at least passable to me. Wufei was generally fine until his WTF behavior in the movie.
The series did have some decent characters though. Noin foremost among them. Gotta respect someone who can last through the entire show (and the movie) in only a Taurus. Sally Po was also kind of cool, if a non-entity beyond the beginning.
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I thought the best way to go about Gundam Wing was to skip straight to Endless Waltz and go "oooohh, Wing Zero Custom is preeeetttyyyy~ ^.^"
You can apply that to any mech in the entirety of the series, in fairness. Zero Custom is just the one to which the clause applies the most.
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Oh. As a side note, Gundam Wing was the first anime to really suffer the "In the Japanese version..." syndrome. The stuff they said about Sailor Moon and DBZ at the time were, in general, true. However, Gundam Wing had amazing rumors like "Quatre and Trowa get married in the middle of the Japanese version!"
I really wish I was making this up.
Of course, nowadays people are more informed before things come over, but it wasn't the case back then.
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I am the person who was hoping "Quatre and Trowa get married in the middle of the Japanese version!" is true despite knowing it is flase before hand.
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I am the person who was hoping "Quatre and Trowa get married in the middle of the Japanese version!" is true despite knowing it is flase before hand.
Saw that coming.
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I'll give GW the credit of making giant robots popular in America after a hiatus, but the series itself is honestly rather crappy. The plot's rather not there, the cast is poorly written and annoying overall, and.... uh, I guess it has good mech designs, but that's not enough to hold up a series about giant robots.
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Naruto Shippuden movie- Meh. The usual shounen movie stuff. Worth it though for the ending, in which Naruto essentially agrees to father the priestess' child. Shame it's not canon, as she's actually a better match for him than any of the females in the series.
Though, I suppose that could be said of a lot of females that appear in shounen movie adaptations ::Looks at the Bleach movie::
EDIT: Oh. Also gets points for Love-Love Rasengan. G-Gundam's memory lives on...
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Ending sounds worth it. Will watch. Fists burning red with anger and such, G Gundam might have been the best Gundam series.
I plan on borrowing either Hellsing Ultimate, Chobits, or Girls Bravo from my friend sometime soon. All totally different types of shows, so I'm probably just going to pick based on what genre I'm in the mood for, unless I get any emphatic suggestions.
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Uh. I hope you mean "the last hurrah of the strong male lead in Gundam.", because a lot of characters would like to have a word with you otherwise.
Gundam X and 08th MS team both have decent leads, but I take your point.
I guess I'm just getting nostalgic. I can see why the DL core hates the characters, because they don't stand up at all to overanalysis; frankly, they're not just immature but nonsensical as well. What I enjoy the pacing and writ large-ness of GW. Not much introspection from the mains, and what is there is informative (mostly Zechs' frame of mind). As for pacing, things just take as long as they take, for instance Wu Fei's duel with Treize, which has long-lasting consequences but lasts about 30 seconds. As for why I like GW, it reminds me of other stories where characters do things for sweeping reasons of emotion and duty that are tenuous when you take the characters as rational actors, like the Odyssey and Aeneid.
By the way, Kev, which main characters do you have in mind when you say that? (I mean, obviously, you're right, there are plenty.) I hope you're not referring to Bleach or Naruto.
P.S. whatever you all think of Heero and Relena, I hope none of you will deny that they deserve each other.
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Scryed's main, for one. Onizuka from GTO. Sousuke from Full Metal Panic (well, you could argue he's a parody of Heero), Dai-Guard's main, Kekkaishi's main, Last Exile's main... fuck, even Now & Then, Here & There's Shu mans up and he's subjected to possibly the worst conditions out of all of these characters. This is just what I can think of offhand by looking at my collection too.
EDIT: I will admit I like GW and it has more going for it than people like to admit, but I think you're also looking a bit too deeply into it.
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Crown Vol.4- I.....I lack words.... This just gets even MORE confusing as it now suddenly got tied into Dream Gold now! Wonderful! Consider Dream Gold was a huge mass in itself. So Konosuke actually borrowed Gray Nine's power? And he is the path split whether Gold Heart could occur or not ten years after Dream Gold?? this is beyond bizzare. And god... Anti System D Machine Rider? They are tossing this out already before explaining whether the current Ark is the original system D or not....
Pretty sure Shingo is the master core of System D. And consider Kentarou is the Last Boss, the logical sense would be Kentarou taking over System D and Konosuke blows him up. But from the look of the novel text, Konosuke is not doing that.... gah, don't tell me this is the making fo a excuse to let Gray Nine appear as Main Character (True) again, especially consider Kamen is the potential evil master mind here. And if Kamen is involved, this would mean Divine Revolution Coalition would be involved as well..... But if take the assumption that Kantarou is the same person as Dr. Kentarou Sigma... the Kentarou=Last Boss might be a total reader's trap like how was Key History back in Dream Gold....
Gah, brain melting.....
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I am the person who was hoping "Quatre and Trowa get married in the middle of the Japanese version!" is true despite knowing it is flase before hand.
My favorite was the "Trowa was based on raped Samurai housewives!" rumors, which were so prevelant and bitter that they had entire websites set up to debunking them.
Man, Gundam Wing had the greatest yaoi fanbase ever.
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I am the person who was hoping "Quatre and Trowa get married in the middle of the Japanese version!" is true despite knowing it is flase before hand.
My favorite was the "Trowa was based on raped Samurai housewives!" rumors, which were so prevelant and bitter that they had entire websites set up to debunking them.
I can't even begin to think of how that's supposed to make sense.
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Which is what makes the hoax so beautiful.
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Scryed's main, for one. Onizuka from GTO. Sousuke from Full Metal Panic (well, you could argue he's a parody of Heero), Dai-Guard's main, Kekkaishi's main, Last Exile's main... fuck, even Now & Then, Here & There's Shu mans up and he's subjected to possibly the worst conditions out of all of these characters. This is just what I can think of offhand by looking at my collection too.
EDIT: I will admit I like GW and it has more going for it than people like to admit, but I think you're also looking a bit too deeply into it.
Kazuma is so hotblooded, he is his own super robot. S-Cry-Ed (the anime, never read the manga) was so much irrational RAWRFIGHTSMASH fun. Plus, it had a pink afro dude, which is pretty amazing. I also really liked Last Exile. In fact, there's a Lavi plushy hanging from my bedpost at this very moment *no comment*.
I'm in a Gundam Wing fan guild on Gaiaonline where there are actually more than a few smart GW fans. Of course, this leads to a little over analysis of the characters, though I guess reading all the canon manga has something to do with that. Apparently, you get quite a bit of character info from them.
So, uh, I kinda like GW. Heero x Relena forever and so on.
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EDIT: I will admit I like GW and it has more going for it than people like to admit, but I think you're also looking a bit too deeply into it.
I don't intend to overanalyze it, but I like it, and things I like I want to figure out why I like. Think the opening credits have something to do with it. Opening credits can really make or break a show for me.
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I thought the best way to go about Gundam Wing was to skip straight to Endless Waltz and go "oooohh, Wing Zero Custom is preeeetttyyyy~ ^.^"
In Canada they actually did that, they showed Endless Waltz before airing the show. Needless to say I had no clue what was going on, but it definitely got me interested for when the series actually started.
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Code Geass: Episode 11 can be summed like this:
"ORANGE JA NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIII"
Even when it pretends to be normal at times, CG finds time to trainwreck it out. Also, lol pizza butt's real name.
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Tower of Druaga ep.5: AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! Yesyesyesyes, there needs to be more gag episoes like this. Idiots are the most adorable creatures on the planet indeed.
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Code Geas R2 ep.5: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAA!!!! Did I mention idiots are the most adorable creatures of all?
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Code Geas R2 ep.5: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAA!!!! Did I mention idiots are the most adorable creatures of all?
Such a trainwreck...
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Speaking of Code Geass... going to the [gg] fansubbers website (http://www.ggkthx.org/) (which apparently was lost and remade or something?), it seems that they have a link to the RPGDL on the side. Is that because y'all are just that awesome and have a fan there, or is somebody on the staff of both sites?
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Judging by the comments, I think that's the subbing group mia works for.
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Judging by the comments, I think that's the subbing group mia works for.
I am the group leader. ;D
I put the link on the list to see if any Geass R2 leechers would become potential voters! Doubtful but possible?!
Edit: Also, on the subject of Geass? My avatar needs to hurry up and be in lots of yaoi doujinshi with Schneizel. His description in NewType is like, "SPEAKS FEMININE-LY", "LOOKS FEMININE", "ALWAYS BY SCHNEIZEL'S SIDE". miasmanosebleed.
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Speaking of doujinshi.....
I am now really worrying about V.V./Charles doujin are going to be produced simply because that nisan line....
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I am the group leader. ;D
I put the link on the list to see if any Geass R2 leechers would become potential voters! Doubtful but possible?!
Edit: Also, on the subject of Geass? My avatar needs to hurry up and be in lots of yaoi doujinshi with Schneizel. His description in NewType is like, "SPEAKS FEMININE-LY", "LOOKS FEMININE", "ALWAYS BY SCHNEIZEL'S SIDE". miasmanosebleed.
So it is you who is the group leader? Aha.
Geass, Geass, Geass. Why oh why must you continue to amuse my poor, young, innocent mind all the time. It is so amazing. Seriously. R2... My goodness. Yaoi outbreak.
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Speaking of doujinshi.....
I am now really worrying about V.V./Charles doujin are going to be produced simply because that nisan line....
Making Yaoi is their true contact.
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Penguin Musume Heart:
I checked out the first three episodes of this. It's very much a sugar/crack fueled set of skits parodying anime. It's not subtle, but it's amusing in broad strokes.
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[16:55] <Foliage> Funnily enough Code Geass is how I found the RPGDL.
[16:55] <Foliage> See, one of the subbing groups has a link to here.
MY AD. IT WORKS.
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And now we wonder if this is a good thing.
Daughter of Twenty Faces: Low production quality fluff. But fun low production quality fluff. Chiko's transformation from helpless little girl to what can *only* be world-class badass should be a good ride.
Its like someone crossed Lupin the 3rd with... I don't know a good parallel for Chizuko. Win and awesome. Why does Aya Hirano get all these awesome roles anyway?
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Galactic conspiracy to force mia into a fatal stroke.
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Nabari no Ou: "Sayonara Yoite" 'Sayonara Miharu"
.....
....
..
GYAAAAAHHHHHHHH
It felt more yaoi than ever when actually heard in voice. This is LOOOOOOVE. And geee, Saiga's voice isn't entirely crappy this time!! Despite some gratingness in the first half, she actually voiced Yoite well in the later half. And she did not fail the sayonara line!!! YESYESYES!!!!
Though, I dislike how they took out the scene where Yoite helps people commits suicide, this was supposedly something that would leave an impression on Miharu. Oh well, I'll just look over it for now for that Saiga actually did soemthing decent this time.
Soul Eater: Other other hand..... what have they don to Dr.Stein?? He sounds, out of all things, NORMAL!! Which he is most definitely not. They even removed his "hera hera" catch phrase. I was expecting some creepiness out of him... but he is just.... UGH. Soul Eater is one show that you don't need normalcy of any kind!!! Gah, I am already worrying about Medusa, especially Kuwashima never really voiced a character same type as Medusa before.
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Kurenai 6- Musical ep needed more Ginko.
Oh, and hilarity. Shinkurou's VA is the same as Maria's from SZS.
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Monster- Finished. Not sure what to do after this. It's all downhill. Wow.
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I'd recommend Daughter of Twenty Faces if you like Monster, Soppy.
Obviously I'm not biased in the slightest~
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Kurenai- Okay Soppy, so this is why you bug me to watch this episode.... I don't even know I should call this a mine or not....
Soul Eater- Very nice, Chrona's voice is really nice, albeit Chrona's intro scene felt some what off..... As for Medusa.... I'll wait and see.
Macross F- Joy, I found the second motivation to follow this show. Fukuyama shota bait AND Houshi bishie!? Why YES!!!
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Cryo!
You mentioned Daughter of 20 Faces. For some reason or another, this looked interesting, but in reality, I know pretty much nothing about it. Could you give me a bit more insight?
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Its essentially the story of a little girl (Chizuko/Chiko) growing up amongst a gang of well-intentioned thieves. She gradually learns the ropes and gets slightly more devious/capable with each passing episode. Animation isn't top notch but pacing is fun enough. Give it a few eps before forming an opinion.
I don't want to say too much more than that since spoilers exist.
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Bandai Visual USA to be liquidated by September. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-05-23/bandai-visual-usa-to-be-liquidated-by-september) Sing Hallelujah and pray for re-releases.
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Eh. I already have Gunbuster 2. Just need their release of Gunbuster. Maybe the Patlabor movies too. I pray for repricing instead of rereleases. Price aside, their releases were gorgeous.
EDIT: Looking at their latest press release... Bandai's not changing much. 1st episode of the Mai-Otome OVA and the Gundam Seed OVA are $29.99 regular and $49.99 for the LE. Granted, among normal pricing schemes, but that sticks out.
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I watched an episode of that Code Geass show tonight, because nothing else was on and my arms were too tired from Rock Band to play a video game. That show is terribad. It's got all the things I hate in an anime rolled in to one. Anorexic giant robots, reams of exposition, a pubescent hero who is somehow a super-elite pilot, and blatant allegory.
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I think that's WHY the people who watch the show watch it. From what I can tell, they watch it just because of how trainwrecky it really is.
Daughter of Twenty Faces: Started watching this because it looked fun. Reminds me of Lupin the 3rd, but played straight. This show is right up my alley. For future reference, this is more or less what I like to see in a show. <3 for Pyro.
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Thats why the DL watches it.
It seems most of the series' fans actually think it's good.
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Thats why the DL watches it.
It seems most of the series' fans actually think it's good.
I personally see it not only for the hilarity it offers me, but also for the characters.
Why else do you think there's a crapload of h made for it? Of all /sorts/?
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Daughter of 20 Faces:
Remember earlier when I said it was good? Well, updating that:
This is REALLY good. If it doesn't catch on at first, just keep with it. It's worth it.
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Thats why the DL watches it.
It seems most of the series' fans actually think it's good.
They do!? When!!???
BTW Rob, Lulu is not a good pilot but his potential yaoi bait.
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Just finished Witchblade. What an amazing show. Just...really, really good at everything. The ending made me cry -- I have no trouble at all admitting this. If you've seen the show, you know what I'm talking about.
Time to update my list in the ol' "Anime Ratings" thread....
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Thats why the DL watches it.
It seems most of the series' fans actually think it's good.
They do!? When!!???
I actually saw one at my school last week. I had to refrain from bursting into laughter.
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Code Trainwreck - *Watches episodes 22 and 23.*
...
......
.........
............
...............
*Breaks down into uncontrollable sobbing.* IT NEVER ENDS. THE KAIZO NEVER ENDS.
EDIT: I watched the final episodes of the first season, too!
...
OH GOD WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY *Breaks down sobbing again.*
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Why were you cry about it...?
Nabari no Ou- Yes the yaoi rating keeps out going up, sweet. Speaking of yaoi... *Tosses Monochrome Factor into acid pit
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Code Geass broke God's adamantite trainwreck-o-meter with that fucking two-parter and you ask me why am I crying? Granted, I'm not sure if it's a laughing cry or just a cry. But there's a lot of crying. Dear god, just... how. HOW.
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Why were you cry about it...?
Nabari no Ou- Yes the yaoi rating keeps out going up, sweet. Speaking of yaoi... *Tosses Monochrome Factor into acid pit
Dude, I called that, like, the first episode and you dismissed it.
Time for an omnibus post, since I'm bored at work!
Monster- Was awesome. More people need to watch this. Shame on people for dismissing my attempt at bringing back the Monster fad ;-;
Seto no Hanayome- Started this up concurrently with Monster to balance it out with a fluffy romcom. Wasn't expecting something so... hyper. There are a lot of reasons I shouldn't like this show, but I honestly can't bring myself to. I DID like this show better when it was called Urusei Yatsura though. It think it works for me since, unlike UY and a ton of other romcoms, San, the lead female, is actually likable (to me). Especially when she goes into chivalry mode. Arnold Schwarzenegger-like character (who comes complete with the Terminator 2 drum cue) rocks, as does Masa. The main lead... I'm indifferent to. Not bad, but still pretty staple harem lead despite his sticking with one girl. Poor class prez.
Allison and Lillia- Totally loving this show. Had high hopes for it at the beginning, and it's totally met my expectations. It's one of those throwback type shows that end up being everything you loved about the style of yesteryear, from the animation style, to story structure and characters, and so on.
Kurenai- On the flipside, I really was digging this show early on, but it's starting to wear thin. Needs to do... SOMETHING. I know it's slice of life, but damn. Also, NEEDS MORE GINKO.
Amatsuki- Another show I had hopes for in the beginning, though I have less hope for it now than Kurenai. It's far less unique than Kurenai and with each ep it takes a further step down the road of mediocrity. Some of the character design needs work too...
Nabari no Ou- Not a bad show. Swordgirl needs to be taken out of the damn show, or at least be made a ninja. Her personality is fine, but that damn sword annoys me. Was it really THAT necessary?
Soul Eater- Fun as hell, stylish as hell, enjoying the hell out of this show, obviously. Despite the usual character archetypes, they use them in just the right way and the show is just cool enough to pass muster. It's only problem is the standard Japanese pitfall of ruining awesome moments with comic relief. Why does the Maka remind me of Mamimi from FLCL? Is Hiromasa Ogura the animation director? ::Checks ANN:: Huh. Nope, and the character designer's other stuff doesn't really look like this either. Odd.
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Soul Eater- After Dr.Stein, Medusa's voice failed to impress as well. Bah, this show can head into acid pit as well. I am really sick and tired of people sounding normal in this show.
Nabari no Ou- Yes the yaoi rating keeps out going up, sweet. Speaking of yaoi... *Tosses Monochrome Factor into acid pit
Dude, I called that, like, the first episode and you dismissed it.
I am still dismissing it. It is doing everything so badly that I refuse to call it yaoi.
Also, watching Amatsuki's anime is pointless. Manga does everything better, especially the art.
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A normal voice on Dr. Stein makes him sound, well, kinda creepier.
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Who's subbing Soul Eater, anyway? Usual mismatch of random schmoes, or any of the major groups?
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A whole mish-mash of groups with no definate coding scheme. I can't play 90% of their files because I can't support 1280x740 on this comp.
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Soul Eater- Just want to complain that... why the FUCK is Koyasu voicing Excalibur? Yeah, I complained about thsi before, so what!? He could have made Dr.Stein better or at worse voice Asura!! Gah, he is vocing that stupid side kick of all thing!!!
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Nabari no Ou- Read ch.47..... yaoi meter explodes. Miharu and Yoite just goes love love and love. What? Yoite not a guy? But not a women either, so who cares. Though, Yoite is sooo going to live unless some other twist happens. Yaoi aside, Yoite not dying would be a lot less entertaining.
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.......That sorry excuse of a holy sword just has to hog ALL the attention doesn't he?
www.souleater.tv
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Nabari no Ou- Read ch.47..... yaoi meter explodes. Miharu and Yoite just goes love love and love. What? Yoite not a guy? But not a women either, so who cares. Though, Yoite is sooo going to live unless some other twist happens. Yaoi aside, Yoite not dying would be a lot less entertaining.
So, this is CLAMP?
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Ok, so I'm looking for some gay anime. seriously. and not gay like 'they wrote a lot of dirty fanfic,' but more like 'he stuck his tongue in that other dude's mouth.' Thoughts?
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May I recommend Junjou Romantica?
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Legendary Gambler Tetsuya - Okay this is relatively old but still very awesome. Then again I am addicted to mahjong. The way they dramatize it is very nice, it doesn't have the same feel as Akagi (nor does it have HAGIWARA)... But wow, Tetsuya really faces the odds... Can't believe he defeated...
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Ok, so I'm looking for some gay anime. seriously. and not gay like 'they wrote a lot of dirty fanfic,' but more like 'he stuck his tongue in that other dude's mouth.' Thoughts?
Go Gravitation.
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Gravitation, totally.
The guy that did the music for Gravitation only did it because he was a fan of the creator's yaoi slash fanfiction that starred himself and his former bandmember.
Thats one gay show.
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Gravitation works I guess... just stay FARFARFAR away from the manga.
Junjou Romantica is much more sane all around.
Nabari no Ou- Read ch.47..... yaoi meter explodes. Miharu and Yoite just goes love love and love. What? Yoite not a guy? But not a women either, so who cares. Though, Yoite is sooo going to live unless some other twist happens. Yaoi aside, Yoite not dying would be a lot less entertaining.
So, this is CLAMP?
No, comparing Nabari to CLAMP is insulting.
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Agreed on Nabari. Still a good show. Aizawa popping up and shooting that guy was surprising as all hell and actually made me respect the show somewhat. Yay protagonists that kill without mercy. Now if they could only work on Thobari-sensei...
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Thobari is meant to be that way, a naive delusional hypocrite. Just watch when Miharu finally got fed up with him.
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Nabari no Ou- Read ch.47..... yaoi meter explodes. Miharu and Yoite just goes love love and love. What? Yoite not a guy? But not a women either, so who cares. Though, Yoite is sooo going to live unless some other twist happens. Yaoi aside, Yoite not dying would be a lot less entertaining.
So, this is CLAMP?
No, comparing Nabari to CLAMP is insulting.
[/quote]
You described pansexual fanservice pandering and what sounds like plenty of yaoi-bait. Certainly sounds like CLAMP. >_>
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Thanks, fellas. Was aware of Gravitation, but not the other one.
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You described pansexual fanservice pandering and what sounds like plenty of yaoi-bait. Certainly sounds like CLAMP. >_>
Niu just got owned.
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Druaga: Is getting srs now. I'm bracing for the impact of the shitty typical GONZO-ified ending. However I'm still interested in the alt ep1 that aired on GyaO ages ago!
Geass R2: Schneizel isn't getting married to ChinaLoli? Thank fuck.
Macross F: All of Sheryl's songs suck. Epic re-use of Macross Zero footage on ep 10.
Junjou Romantica: <3
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Super Zugan: A surprisingly beautiful ending to a generally wacky series. To know that the one who conceptualized this is a very good mahjong player in the professional league, that is quite remarkable.
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Druaga: Is getting srs now. I'm bracing for the impact of the shitty typical GONZO-ified ending. However I'm still interested in the alt ep1 that aired on GyaO ages ago!
it is on youtube.
Oh, Macross ZERO gertting justified probably is the worst thing that happened this week.
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The comedy ep 1 is subbed on YouTube, not the SRS ep 1. I /r/ subs for animu. ;(
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There's some group that, slowly but surely, is putting the GONZO Subs to the HQ Raws. TokyoTosho as usual for the goods. :b
I think I only watch Druaga and Code Geass this "season"... The latter which brought me here.
Druaga is just good fun. Roper dance~!
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I finally got discs 4 and 5 of Shingu! Yay for TRSI bargain bin, and boo for people other than Soppy and me never talking about this show as far as I can remember.
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Justin Sevakis put it up as a Buried Treasure a few weeks ago. Of course, people just bitched because it came out a few years ago. We figured it'd happen, but people still suck. (I also think he did subtitling work on the show)
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The comedy ep 1 is subbed on YouTube, not the SRS ep 1. I /r/ subs for animu. ;(
Use youku or nico then, just they won't have english subs.
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In Geass R2 09, Lloyd introduces Canon to Milly and calls him, "Schneizel's (close) associate/right hand man" etc.
Canon follows this up by saying, "in both public and private ;D".
...then he says he was joking. ;(
But anyway, I came. :v
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Up to Ep 9 on Nabari- Show just got better. Somehow, Miharu telling Thobari off like that made total sense and I actually gained respect for him as a character. I also love shows with this kind of dynamic between the villains. Raimei is alright, Gau fails. Kazuho... I find myself oddly attracted to. Never noticed how funky Yukimi's pupils were. Hopefully we're not being set up for failure eye techniques >.>
Hayate no Gotoku- Up to 44, but had to comment. There comes a point when you just want the references to stop. At first, they were endearing, especially the consistant Gunbuster ones and the appearance of Coach. Nabeshin from Excel's guest starring an ep was sort of alright. But... the latest episode had Yoko, Nia, Meru-Meru, Eruru and a whole bunch of other characters (with no alterations to their design) working in an animation studio. You have a cast of good characters, you don't need to borrow others! Yes, I get that it's sort of the point of the show, but it crosses the line. <3 Maria. Fisherman Maid FTW.
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Il gatto sul G.- Finally got all three volume of this thing.... why this is lovelovelove, the twist in the end is especially amazing, and actually makes a DID love rectangle not suck. Hehehehe, I may have a sweet dream tonight.
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Baccano: watched it in about a day, at the elusive Rat's suggestion. It's really good and only thirteen episodes (well, plus three extras which wrap things up s'more). People should watch it.
It's tricky to discuss it at all, but I will say that a large amount of the show takes place on a train going across the country to New York in 1931. There is a good amount of humor, both dark and light, and the cast is pretty impressive and memorable in general. There's definitely violence, and if you're especially sensitive to gore you might want to steer clear, but it's not too gratuitous; I'm not a fan of gory stuff much myself, but what's there wasn't a dealbreaker for me. Basically, it's real good -- I didn't want it to be over, and even when it was, I just started right back up with some earlier episodes to help me piece everything together in retrospect. It's been a decent amount of time since any anime was compelling for me in the same way.
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IM me about that the next time I'm on IRC. That actually sounds interesting.
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No one listens to me. I was preaching about Baccano when it first aired. :colbert:
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Yes, mia, we know you loved Bokurano when it first aired.
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Firo's a smexy bastard.
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Wheeee. The theater just got enough Girl Who Leapt Through Time posters that I could wallpaper my room with them, and they look gorgeous. Definately taking a few...
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Firo's a smexy bastard.
Firo's got an awesome hat, yes, but he's not as cool as Ladd Russo.
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For Baccano, I just want to say... read the novel. Aniem does not do the novel enough justice.
The other side of other side- Got the final volume... It hurts so much. It is just too.... bitter. Already know the ending wouldn't be a happy one, and it really isn't a bad end either.... just...... nothing is resolved for Futaba, nor they can be resolved at all. Welit.... that really is the best can be done for him, and Futaba is really an onichan now, despite still fail to recall his memory. But then, consider Futaba never knew Welit died, failing to remember at all might just be better for him. Kiara finally withered in the end is expected, but we can't see Futaba's face in the epilogue when Kiara fainlyl scattered, I really want to see his expression..... Maybe the ending is better off without that epilogue, it makes everything felt much darker than it is, and one would wonder hwo can just three pages do so much.
Gah, I feel liek cryign now.
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http://www.gurren-lagann-movie.net/gurrepala/interview/flash.html
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Speaking of Gurren Lagann videos...
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=4YRTOKEcoKE
Best AMV I've seen in a while.
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Just started Baccano. The first episode is certainly promising.
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Irresponsible Captain Tylor:
Episode 23 was one of the greatest things I've ever seen. This series is awesome.
Edit: Finished. Might be in my top five of all time, now.
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Irresponsible Captain Tylor: This series is awesome.
Oh, it's a good one all right. Never seen them, but there are OVAs for it, too.
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Tylor's awesome, yeah. OVAs are good too. Not as good, but there's a long way between that and "bad."
Picked up Fullmetal Alchemist in the DDD sale, finished the first boxset. It's good fun. I like the cast, the dub, the world-building, and, with a few exceptions, the story. Oddly for a show like this, the action's the weak link - there just isn't the budget to do what they seem to want with the alchemy tricks. Shame, but it's not killing the show anytime soon.
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Haibane Renmei, borrowed from a friend. A real treasure. The story and setting are really pretty simple, but that's where a lot of the beauty lies; it tells the story that the writer wanted to tell, with nothing frivolous that gets in the way of it. He reveals very little about what's really happening in the world, leaving behind a basic but emotional story of forgiveness of oneself and others, with lots of the details - and the right details - left up to the viewer to interpret.
Oh, and a happy ending to appease the sap that I am.
I'd suggest it to people, but I'm not quite sure what kind of people to suggest it to.
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Not watching it yet, but bought Lain today, which I am looking forward to finishing all these years after I started watching it and ran out of episodes.
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Haibane Renmei, borrowed from a friend. A real treasure. The story and setting are really pretty simple, but that's where a lot of the beauty lies; it tells the story that the writer wanted to tell, with nothing frivolous that gets in the way of it. He reveals very little about what's really happening in the world, leaving behind a basic but emotional story of forgiveness of oneself and others, with lots of the details - and the right details - left up to the viewer to interpret.
Oh, and a happy ending to appease the sap that I am.
I'd suggest it to people, but I'm not quite sure what kind of people to suggest it to.
People with good taste, I'd say. Not that I'm a fanboy or anything.
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VITAL FMA UPDATE: Armstrong is freaking awesome.
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Gundam Wing: rewatched this. first half is good. second half...not so much. Dorothy exemplifies everything wrong with the show after that. Endless Waltz was an excellent conclusion, taking the theme of absolute pacifism that so much of the show revolves around and making it work. Don't get the Wing Zero hype, though. it looks silly. The other suits in Endless Waltz are good, though.
Speed Grapher: finished this. good show, just not fully cooked. ending was ok, but the show stumbled in the middle.
Heat Guy J: ok, this is NOT a good show, but I enjoy it anyway. It doesn't make sense, it's weirdly overdramatic, but Daisuke and J are both tons of fun. Daisuke in particular. He's the reverse of an angsty hero. Has a great confident and carefree attitude that says, "there's a lot I've been through, but it doesn't get to me. really."
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Code Geass- Oh My Fucking GOD.... 2ch has now fully infiltrated the show now. Serious, Ninja Maid Sayako, for real. 2cher has been plotting for this since season 1.
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Code Geass- Oh My Fucking GOD.... 2ch has now fully infiltrated the show now. Serious, Ninja Maid Sayako, for real. 2cher has been plotting for this since season 1.
Took them fucking long enough. Now I want my Dark Nunnally, dammit.
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http://www.duose.com/p/2008/0701/67240_475125.jpg
All fo sudden Code Geass is becoming an awsomely good how!!!!
Shally is going to die? BRILLIANT!!!
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First, that's not Shirley, it's a lolitranny. Second, like dying stops you from coming back in Code Trainwreck.
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First, that's not Shirley, it's a lolitranny. Second, like dying stops you from coming back in Code Trainwreck.
Your power level is too low. Were you to read the Japanese text, //spoilers go here but this BB does not support spoiler codes, ffont smallening codes or what have you, so enjoy your color black//it'd reveal that Shirley dies in the name of Geass. Or something.
Damn spoilers. Why do I bother?
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I don't care about text, I just care about the fact that the picture has a lolitranny that Niu would probably be engaged in a relationship of love and denial with.
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Kurenai: started out promising. I suppose there's something to be said for a show that does a very limited thing well, but I wish this one had been more expansive (never mind logical). Also, the musical episode needed to die in a pit.
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I don't care about text, I just care about the fact that the picture has a lolitranny that Niu would probably be engaged in a relationship of love and denial with.
This usually stands true, but, V.V. has disturbed me since his first appearance with his hair style. For now I'll satisfy with Lolo.
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Macross F ep.13- Awsome, Grace is one hell of insane evil bitch. Blow the planet off, destroy the evidence and promotes racial hatred at the same time. Luca's dad probably is laughing right now, and Grace probably is the Mitsuko+.
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Code Geass- AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!! Perfect, this is just TOO PERFECT!!! Good job Lolo, GOOODJOB!!!!! AAAAAHAHAHA!!! This is the another step towards the bloodstained resolution I have been expecting!!! Crash and burn, this is how yandere archtype should be used!!! Ahhh, I can't take this anymore, this is just too fun to bare.
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Slayers Revolution - just saw the first ep of this, and I can hardly describe how happy it makes me. the lag in time since Slayers Try doesn't seem to have affected the writing one bit, which is definitely a good sign. I'm not gonna handicap how good it'll be compared to the other Slayers seasons, NEXT in particular is a pretty tall order to beat or match, but it's certainly shaping up to be in the conversation.
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Still something of a virgin to modern and obscure anime, but I think my forum handle speaks for itself... was a fan of Evangelion for years, but money sort of neutered any ability to see it with the original voice actors and English subtitling. Then I found VeohTV, and we made sweet, sweet Eva love. I keep hearing good things about this "Geass" thing and Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Need to watch those.
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Slayers Revolution - just saw the first ep of this, and I can hardly describe how happy it makes me. the lag in time since Slayers Try doesn't seem to have affected the writing one bit, which is definitely a good sign. I'm not gonna handicap how good it'll be compared to the other Slayers seasons, NEXT in particular is a pretty tall order to beat or match, but it's certainly shaping up to be in the conversation.
Hear, hear.
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Legend of Galactic Heroes is a good older series. Basically it's Germany versus Britain in space, with spaceship battles set to classical music.
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I finally got around to watching Paprika (cause if I hadn't by the time I saw Sopko again I think I would be dead before I got to kill the other people that deserve it). This was pure awesome.
So wait, is Code Geass actually meant to be worth more than some kind of bizarre homage to the ending of Pink Flamingos? Cause I was of the impression that it was the ultimate in lose and all signs point to it (manufactured phenomenon, this factor being pretty much acknowledged in all the propaganda) and yet there seems to be people on the internet honestly praising it for being any good instead of just a jumbled pile of unoriginal crap.
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People are just stupid and don't seem to realize that it is, in fact, a soul-crushing trainwreck Gref.
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Cue the need for Xer to look up Pink Flamingos and find out what the last scene is. Edit - It is a John Waters movie I mean, not the Electric Six song.
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Cue the need for Xer to look up Pink Flamingos and find out what the last scene is. Edit - It is a John Waters movie I mean, not the Electric Six song.
Cue the need for Xer to not do this, for the sake of his sanity.
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I was of the impression that it was the ultimate in lose and all signs point to it (manufactured phenomenon, this factor being pretty much acknowledged in all the propaganda) and yet there seems to be people on the internet honestly praising it for being any good instead of just a jumbled pile of unoriginal crap.
I have a question. Why are you all watching a show that you think is crap? More to the point, why are you enjoying it so much? Are trainwrecks really that entertaining? I dunno, I mean...yes, things that are complete failure are entertaining, see the X movie and all, but are they really entertaining enough to last 2 seasons?
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I genuinely think Geass is pretty good.
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I was of the impression that it was the ultimate in lose and all signs point to it (manufactured phenomenon, this factor being pretty much acknowledged in all the propaganda) and yet there seems to be people on the internet honestly praising it for being any good instead of just a jumbled pile of unoriginal crap.
I have a question. Why are you all watching a show that you think is crap? More to the point, why are you enjoying it so much? Are trainwrecks really that entertaining? I dunno, I mean...yes, things that are complete failure are entertaining, see the X movie and all, but are they really entertaining enough to last 2 seasons?
It has the same appeal as a plane accident that happens in your neighborhood, essentially. It's too horrible to stare straight at it, but too primitively fascinating to not look at.
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I was of the impression that it was the ultimate in lose and all signs point to it (manufactured phenomenon, this factor being pretty much acknowledged in all the propaganda) and yet there seems to be people on the internet honestly praising it for being any good instead of just a jumbled pile of unoriginal crap.
I have a question. Why are you all watching a show that you think is crap? More to the point, why are you enjoying it so much? Are trainwrecks really that entertaining? I dunno, I mean...yes, things that are complete failure are entertaining, see the X movie and all, but are they really entertaining enough to last 2 seasons?
And now I'm depressed. Thank you...
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http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-07-08/sayonara-zetsubo-sensei-manga-to-bundle-2-anime-dvds
More SZS! Sort of. Not sure on the episode count, but I doubt it'd be more than 1 or 2 a disk.
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I was of the impression that it was the ultimate in lose and all signs point to it (manufactured phenomenon, this factor being pretty much acknowledged in all the propaganda) and yet there seems to be people on the internet honestly praising it for being any good instead of just a jumbled pile of unoriginal crap.
I have a question. Why are you all watching a show that you think is crap? More to the point, why are you enjoying it so much? Are trainwrecks really that entertaining? I dunno, I mean...yes, things that are complete failure are entertaining, see the X movie and all, but are they really entertaining enough to last 2 seasons?
And now I'm depressed. Thank you...
That is what we are here to do.
Obviously I will be staying clear of it now Jim. I don't watch enough -good- anime to watch bad stuff by choice. My time is taken up with bad games. I just had to make sure.
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Well, you watched Paprika. That's enough of a start on watching good stuff. Now watch the rest of Satoshi Kon's work.
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If you actually enjoy it despite thinking it has bad writing or whatever, you can uses phrases like "good for the wrong reasons" or "so bad it's good." That makes more sense than consistently calling it crap while talking about how much fun it is to keep watching where it goes, which is what was confusing Jim, I think ("This show sucks! How awesome is that!!" is a kind of weird sentiment).
I do think it's a little weird how the show apparently divided people into two camps: "ugh, this wacky trainwreck is too wacky and stupid, this show sucks" vs. "woo, this wacky trainwreck is wacky and stupid, I just can't look away!!" For me the show pretty rapidly became "this doesn't really seem to be going anywhere interesting and I'm too bored with it to bother with any more episodes." Instead of zomg trainwreck!, I mostly saw insipid storytelling that wasn't really offering anything I cared about.
I'm not really trying to argue with anyone about the show's quality, it seems clear that it's made a strong impact on everybody else already. I'm just noting that I'm kind of left out, because on me it didn't. I guess it's possible that I would have seen what you all meant if I'd kept watching, but that's not a really attractive option either.
The Big O: I watched an episode of this. Totally needs a new release and ad blitz to capitalize on the fact that it is Iron Man.
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I don't think Geass is the ULTIMATE ENJOYMENT, BEST THERE EVER WAS, but it's the only anime I find remotely tolerable to watch this season. Sure, it's not exactly 100% pure win and awesome, but sometimes you just have to accept some flaws and enjoy the good. I think S1 was a bit better than S2, as it seemed to base itself around the conflict between Lelouch and Suzaku's views in how to make the world a better place, and throughout the series you are swung between Lelouch and Suzaku, who are neither really the archtypical hero.
In S2, neither continues to be the archtypical hero, but the plot focuses a bit more on Lelouch VS Rest of the World rather than Lelouch VS Suzaku. Meh.
My brother bought me Paprika but I have yet to watch it. Is it really that good?
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Are you guys trying to imply there's stuff to Geass besides the fabulously GAR Schneizel?
Also, Paprika is gud.
Oh, and one more thing. If you'd like to see someone who is delusional about Geass (and animu in general), read this - http://randomc.animeblogger.net/2008/06/24/focal-point-thinking-is-not-entertaining/
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I was of the impression that it was the ultimate in lose and all signs point to it (manufactured phenomenon, this factor being pretty much acknowledged in all the propaganda) and yet there seems to be people on the internet honestly praising it for being any good instead of just a jumbled pile of unoriginal crap.
I have a question. Why are you all watching a show that you think is crap? More to the point, why are you enjoying it so much? Are trainwrecks really that entertaining? I dunno, I mean...yes, things that are complete failure are entertaining, see the X movie and all, but are they really entertaining enough to last 2 seasons?
The show is basically how Japanese anime archetypes making fun of themselves. They lack substances, but amusing the moment the charade lasted. It is kinda like eating fast food.... Speaking of which, Coed Geass is indeed fast food. The speed they swap arch types over the characters and tossing out their "plot twists" are just.... Yeah, I lack words.
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The show is basically how Japanese anime archetypes making fun of themselves. They lack substances, but amusing the moment the charade lasted. It is kinda like eating fast food.... Speaking of which, Coed Geass is indeed fast food. The speed they swap arch types over the characters and tossing out their "plot twists" are just.... Yeah, I lack words.
funny. I always thought of One Piece as anime popcorn. Of course, popcorn isn't bad for you in large quantities.
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I don't think Geass is the ULTIMATE ENJOYMENT, BEST THERE EVER WAS, but it's the only anime I find remotely tolerable to watch this season. Sure, it's not exactly 100% pure win and awesome, but sometimes you just have to accept some flaws and enjoy the good. I think S1 was a bit better than S2, as it seemed to base itself around the conflict between Lelouch and Suzaku's views in how to make the world a better place, and throughout the series you are swung between Lelouch and Suzaku, who are neither really the archtypical hero.
In S2, neither continues to be the archtypical hero, but the plot focuses a bit more on Lelouch VS Rest of the World rather than Lelouch VS Suzaku. Meh.
My brother bought me Paprika but I have yet to watch it. Is it really that good?
See all of that stuff with the plot? That mixed with the fact that it is about a high school student who is (secretly!) the former crown prince that abdicated at age 10 (Hi, we are royalty, lets completely overreact) fights in a giant robot and has psi powers is what bothers me.
Sure, Gainax kind of got away with part of it in Gunbuster (teenagers in robots), but it is an exception and had a setting built around it, also Gainax vs something involving CLAMP. Gainax have their highs and lows, but they certainly have the balls large enough to swing it and get away with it.
Since when hasn't Anti-hero been an archetype now? That is all the Lelouch smells like.
I wouldn't be adverse to a story based around two conflicting ideologies, but when you wrap it up in FMP (which is already bad) mixed with Everyone Is Royalty crap (see most RPG plots, alternately, Sailor Moon) and throw in ... what I dunno, Akira is the only anime that springs immediately to mind for Psi. No, I am not going to be receptive. It is just a gigantic stretch of random crap all blended up. There is just so many better ways to represent that kind of conflict (Just off hand I would say Monster and shit even freaking Death Note sounds like a better way of showing it than TEENS IN SUPER ROBOTS). It is like trying to take Gundam seriously rather than it being giant robots punching each other in the crotch repeatedly.
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Just a thing Gref.
Code Geass involve no super robots, and Lulu is very bad at them. Lulu being another robot piloting teenager is not a part of the train wreck equation, but the fact Sunrise tried too hard at making Lulu suck at piloting robots. How Lakshaata end up designing a mech that requires no piloting for Lulu is a part of it.
...and yeah, Gef, you are probably attacking on the wrong side of the trainwrec equation.
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Fair enough then on that point at least.
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Hmm.
Code Geass: I genuinely enjoyed the first season. Yes, it was ridiculous, but it was also awesome. I also appreciated that Lelouch was not a natural mech pilot, and only won via cheating wildly. However, haven't really liked what I've heard about Season 2, and the last double episode of Season 1 was... too much of a mess for my tastes. The first two episodes of the series was arguably three episodes crammed into one, but the last two were, like, six episodes crammed into two. I can hand-wave some of the parts they obviously skipped, but it degenerated into incoherence. Fail.
Baccano! : Just started & finished this recently. Quite solid; it's got a great opening and a great cast that has chemistry and charisma. Only complaints are some moral qualms and some loose ends. Generally a sucker for the "ensemble cast of intersecting stories" style anyway. Though the names... yeah, a friend of mine put it best when he said "It's like an Ian Fleming fever dream." Jacuzzi Splot? A train called the "Flying Pussyfoot?!" Notable loose ends left, or maybe things I just plain missed:
(Edit: [spoiler][/spoiler] tag isn't working? Eh, black text instead, I guess.)
So what was it Nice/Jacuzzi were trying to steal on the train? Just random luggage? I assumed it was something specific. And Senator Beriam implied that something incredibly important but dangerous was being transported on the train. What was it? I assumed that it was what they were trying to steal, but they never clarified that point... nor, for that matter, ever returned to the government responding to the Lemures' demands. I guess they ignored them. For that matter, they never really explained what Huey LaForte was up to, why he was in prison, if he actually had any secret to share (only Maiza knew the formula at first, right?), and so on. Less upset about that, because that's an acceptable mystery to leave open, I suppose. This also left out what exactly the demon's plan was - were they supposed to kill each other Highlander style? Huey apparently tried to carry out the demon's plan, I guess, which is why he was in jail is my best guess. I suppose finishing the demon's plot would have been too dark in tone for a mostly zany series. That or it really wasn't a bad demon after all, which would be just bizarre considering the fairly horrible temptation with the "eating" thing going on.
They also left Ladd at where he was in Episode I - threatening to kill Lua, about to be arrested.
They also missed out an action scene in which the remaining members of Ladd's gang / Lemures were cleaned up and killed/captured by Our Heroes. Eh, whatever, not a loose end, but still a bit surprising. Guess they ran out of time.
As for the moral qualms... the way they draw Eve's servant is Not Okay. Japan should know better by now that the "hugely inflated lips + puffy cheeks" style of drawing black women from the 50s is past its expiration date. An error of ignorance rather than malice, for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if an American licenser would want the scenes she's in retouched. There's a certain amount of torture porn to the show as well, though I guess that's to be expected when the main characters are mobsters & thieves. Also, how they resolve a certain insane serial killer's plot strongly implies that the narrative voice of the show is more sympathetic to him than I was. Giving him a motive != killing everyone is fine.
I refer, of course, to Vino, who struck me as the "big boss" I was waiting for a confrontation with. I was assuming that Ladd/ Chane would kill or at least defeat him, but... he and Chane want to get married?! And Vino is on good terms with the mostly sympathetic Gandors? Charitably, I'm going to assume that the Gandors don't know about the STRING OF SERIAL KILLINGS in towns that he's visited (where he didn't have the "you killed my friend conductor" excuse). It's very bad if freaking' insane LADD RUSSO is more sympathetic than you are. Having an unspecified moral code in his killings and torture does not mean he's a good guy!
Daughter of Twenty Faces: I like the concept of the show, but the first three episodes totally didn't do it for me. Continued with the show on Cryo's recommendation, and... still very mixed feelings. The show has flashes of awesome, for sure, but I have a strong feeling that I'm not going to like where the show ends up going.
The first few episodes are meh. The plots are played for comic relief mostly... "haha I already knew what you were up to and pre-empted your inevitable betrayal" is pretty much it. I suppose they don't really have time to do these plots out in full, but only Chiko gets character development worth a damn in the intervening time (...okay, except for Angie in Episode 5.). As noted for Code Geass above, I don't mind a silly plot if that can be made up with awesome instead, but D20F doesn't really do so to my satisfaction. Acceptable for a silly show aimed at a young audience, but I'll pass myself. And Twenty Faces is one of those "I've already read the script" characters, who are normally bystanders or villains for a very good reason: they break the plot.
The show shifts tones without a clutch eventually, probably putting off people who liked the silliness of the show previously, but at least rescuing my interest (though it's aggravating when a comic relief villain who's ineffective magically becomes a credible threat who can cause real damage). And... some of the episodes since then have been interesting and good. However, I suspect this is one of those shows where I like the random episodes and dislike the main plot, because...
Twenty Faces really needs to be dead, for a whole variety of reasons. Sure, explore Twenty Faces' legacy, yes, learn his dark past and his research, have Chiko take it up herself, etc... but he needs to be freakin' dead. Odds of this happening, considering the irresistable temptation with him as a master of disguise to pop up towards the end and have been some character all along? Low, alas, but I do hope they do that.
1. He deserves to be dead. He was a moron and refused to finish Tiger off after Tiger had just killed his friends and associates, or at least disable Tiger and keep an eye on him. So yeah.
2. The train was not a good excuse for not immediately coming back into contact with Chiko & Tony. If he'd lived, all he had to do was jump off (he'd done plenty of ridiculous things), or at least slip back to Japan later. The fact he didn't presumably means he couldn't.
3. If he was horribly wounded and has been in a hospital this whole time, the main detective guy (from the books this was based on) would have found him instantly. Look for burn patient in town near where train incident happened.
4. Twenty Faces' general existence breaks plots everywhere, since they've built him up to be the ultimate supergenius. Best not to have him around. This is the big one, really.
So, yeah. If he's dead? Points for guts. If he's alive... but evil? That's acceptable, at least, since now he's a bad guy supergenius and has a solid excuse for abandoning Chiko & Tony. If "I'm sorry Chiko but you had to learn the rest on your own?!" Extreme fail.
And judging by the most recent episode, they're taking a break from slow-building random problems and switching into plot mode? I hope not. Also BLATANT MAGIC. Which I wish they'd keep to a minimum for a show that theoretically should have some detective work eventually, which magic complicates. Stick to the steampunk super-science.
As a random comment... is Shunka actually supposed to be white? The series has generally shown most Japanese as having black hair (correctly), and it's easy to assume that Chiko's uncle married a woman of European descent (an evil one, but details). Shunka stands out as one of the rare Japanese people with brown hair and blue eyes. Normally I'd just write that off as anime crazy hairstyles, but they're consistent enough elsewhere that I have to wonder if that was intentional. Not really a big deal, but a bit of an oddity.
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The thing about Geass is that the writers try sooooooo hard to cram as many plot twists into every single episode as humanly possible, coherency and pacing be damned, the end result is hilarious. This is a show where a seemingly important character is introduced in one episode, has a huge number of police officers shoot at him at the end of that episode, seemingly killing him, then is brought back two episodes later with the excuse that the police were only commanded to shoot him, not kill him, and Britannian medicine is really good. Oh, and then he's killed at the end of this episode.
In between he attempts to chop a major female character into pieces and carry her off in a suitcase (she's immortal, so she'd survive). Oh, and another character develops the ability to outrun bullets and walljump out of absolutely nowhere.
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Augh Strike Witches.
You either love it or you hate it.
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Don't forget kicking through solid steel, hinode.
Daughter of Twenty Faces: Its entertaining enough, but hasn't reached the dramatic level of episode 6. I'm not very excited about the show right now. Still watching it, granted.
Birdy the Mighty: Weird, but well-animated from what I've seen and seems fun.
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This is a show where a seemingly important character is introduced in one episode, has a huge number of police officers shoot at him at the end of that episode, seemingly killing him, then is brought back two episodes later with the excuse that the police were only commanded to shoot him, not kill him, and Britannian medicine is really good. Oh, and then he's killed at the end of this episode.
The particularly hilarious part is when, about ten episodes later, Euphemia is killed by a single needleshot from Ledouche and Britannian medicine fails her. The series twists its logic for the sake of plot twisting so badly that it turns self-parody really fast.
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Snowfire (Baccano stuff):
If Vino's a "big boss" character, who exactly is the protagonist? Who's opposed to him? Only one man ever makes any real effort to kill him, and he can't do it, although Vino spares him. That's it. He gets away with it because nobody's strong enough to stop him. Jacuzzi may have a fairly Hollywood-style plot arc complete with a satisfying resolution, with a villain defeated and so forth, but that doesn't mean the other subplots are going to go the same way. I don't think the lesson is "Vino is a totally moral character and he gets a good ending because everything he does is justified," I just think Vino is strong enough to give the good ending to himself anyway.
Jacuzzi & Co. were trying to steal the new explosives, which were mentioned in passing by some gossipy unimportant characters in an early episode. They succeeded. In one of the extra episodes (episodes 14, 15, and 16 were released as a sort of epilogue and you should watch them) you hear them talking about disposing of the goods on the black market, which may or may not make them a little darker to you (well, Jacuzzi did declare that he was going to be the biggest villain on the train, although he was really aiming high there).
Huey never learned how to make the serum and he had no way of making his supposed "disciples" immortal. It was all wishful thinking on their part.
You also see other members of Ladd's gang reaching their destination and wondering what to do next, in the epilogue episodes. Other stuff gets tied up too. Watch 'em.
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I think if Clare is to be the boss character, the biggest problem is who can beat him... even the author himself declares that Clare is just that many tiers above the rest of the cast that if he is the main character of the series instead, the entire story would over in mere 30 pages. Plus, Viralesc already take the seat of the boss character, there is no reason to escalate Clare into something he isn't.
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Augh Strike Witches.
You either love it or you hate it.
There...there's something to love? Isn't it just plotless lolibots flying around in their undies? Is there something I'm missing here?
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There...there's something to love? Isn't it just plotless lolibots flying around in their undies? Is there something I'm missing here?
...
Anyways, still just watching the good ol' Adult Swim to keep up with Geass... and uh... um. Nina. Yeah... Mooooving on...
Geass does have a strange appeal for me. I mean, it's like trying to squeeze the plot of a longer Gundam series into half the episode count, only more so, and it's pretty entertaining to see how they're going to do it. Granted, I haven't seen as much as everyone else, so I'll just always be a ways behind the rest of you. Plus, the mech action is routinely decent, with a few good scenes so far, and the Guren Mk. II gives Geass its first really interesting mech design. Now I'm waiting for an SRW game with Code Geass in it... that also has G Gundam in it... and I think you can see where that's going (if you know anything about G Gundam).
Also noticed that Suzaku's purpose, so far, seems to specifically be "see how badly I can screw up Lelouch's plans by showing up at the last second when he least expects it and be way better at giant robots than everyone else". And he doesn't even have psychic powers to make it make some sort of sense like Amuro...
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Birdy the Mighty Decode is awesome. That is all.
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Oh, I finished Baccano a few weeks ago. It was alright. A lot of style, a little substance. Fun, but not as good as the first episode made it seem like it would be.
Re-watching Monster, now. Wins.
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There...there's something to love? Isn't it just plotless lolibots flying around in their undies? Is there something I'm missing here?
Paedophilia.
Serial Experiments Lain - Started watching this again the night before my flight. Almost up to where my supply dried out last time and it is still pure awesome. I love it touching so many of the same themes as Ghost in the Shell but doing it in a far more direct and disturbing fashion.
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Remember when Bardiche had the Canon avatar and Dhyer called Canon a tranny? Well... The R2 novels talk about how Canon has a crossdressing hobby.
God damn it Code Geass.
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Code Geass: pandering, in the wrongest way possible, even to people who don't watch it.
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Blade of the Immortal.
:)
Anyway, first ep was ok. kinda incoherent. Won't really be able to tell how good the show is until we get to some meatier storylines (first big/good one is Dreamsong, with Makie, I believe).
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It's not like crossdressing is particularly rare in Code Geass, what with the entire Ashford Academy student council doing it in that one dvd special.
Though this makes it sound like a popular Britannian pastime in general.
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Welllllll ~ The novel also goes on to talk about how Canon wouldn't have gotten anywhere working in Britannia being an okama if he had been working for anyone other than Schneizel, so this is just another "Make Schneizel look like a nice person" ploy and Britannia isn't really cool about crossdressing. Dumb kids away from home versus the Prime Minister's right hand guy? Huuur.
In R2 25, all of Schneizel's merry freakshow underlings will fuck him over, likely~
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? Mia, why are you talking about this as if it is a bad thing?
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There...there's something to love? Isn't it just plotless lolibots flying around in their undies? Is there something I'm missing here?
As Gref mentioned very correctly. Them damn pedos.
And those aren't robots, by the way. Actual people, those jet engines are just things they wear. And it isn't totally devoid of plot!! It's ABOUT ALIEN INVASION!!!!oneone11
Okay, that was bad. I'm sorry.
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It's ABOUT ALIEN INVASION!!!!oneone11
Wait, wasn't that Sky Girls?
Side note: Sky Girls are featured in the DDR: Supernova 2 version of Baby's Tears. I about shit a brick when I saw that.
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Rammstein - Asche Zu Asche.
I want to listen to Ashes to Ashes by Bowie sung in German covered by an industrial rock band.
Edit - Leaving this here cause it is better than talking about lolibot show.
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uh yeah, so watching Lovely Complex, which is about an unusually tall schoolgirl, an unusually short schoolboy, and their totally age-appropriate, not in the least bit creepy or unnaturally sexualized, romantic comedy hijinks.
Good times.
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Sounds like a total Jim show.
Lessee general update time:
Nabari no Ou- Up to the end of 14. ARGH. Thobari, if you end up being the death of my favorite character, I'm gonna start writing fanfiction where you die on every page. (Much like the little seen Radioactive Man comic)
Allison to Lillia- Up to the end of 13. Great stuff, still my favorite show currently. Wil is awesome and made the right choice. I'm betting his tank sniping skills came in handy. Moving onto Allison's daughter Lillia in the story now.
Soul Eater- Up to the end of 14. Getting better in incriments. By the end, it should be a good show! >.> Still runs into problems with bad physical comedy, but it's been better about it.
Birdy the Mighty Decode- Up to the end of 2. AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME. Totally good revival of a classic. Everyone needs to watch this.
Daughter of 20 Faces- Up to the end of 11. Sort of petered out, sadly. Still room for awesome. The maid still rocks, but I'm waiting for the rich girl to actually DO something other than be useless. I respect Aya Hirano a bit more due to her voice in this series. However, I honestly do wonder why no one seems to take notice that everyone calls her the Daughter of 20 Faces. Doesn't seem to strike anyone as strange...
Maison Ikkoku- Up to the last boxset. Argh. Why must the last box be impossible to find? I love this show, definately one of my favorite romcoms. Rumiko Takahashi's least sucky romance story! Not that that says much, but it's very good. Yotsuya and Mrs. Ichinose in particular is are awesome, awesome comic relief characters on the level of Miria and Isaac. And Sakamoto is the WORST. FRIEND. EVER.
EDIT:
Forgot something.
Slayers Revolution- More of the same good stuff. Wiser needs to die and never come back though. Really, really bad series situational character. I'd give anything for Sylphiel, Philia or even Martina or Naga.
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Nabari no Ou- Up to the end of 14. ARGH. Thobari, if you end up being the death of my favorite character, I'm gonna start writing fanfiction where you die on every page. (Much like the little seen Radioactive Man comic)
He won't, but you should still write fanfic about him dying on every pages. Hypocrite of his degree deserves no mercy.
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Baccano licensed by Funimation, first episode up online here: http://funimation.com/baccano/
Password is Flying Pussyfoot.
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Oh, Bokurano got licensed? Good for it.
Antique Bakery: This show is fucking awesome.
Also, R2 15:
(http://trainwreck.ggkthx.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/geassr2-shlick.jpg)
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? I think you'll get what you want very soon though. With they suddenly turn V.V. UNIMPORTANT and Sharyl all of sudden NOT EVIL and all, Schnizer is now the best candidate to be the creepy last boss.
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Niu: I am quite satisfied with his 5sec of pure fabulous from R2 15. :3 That 3rd frame is currently my desktop. :shlick:
Anxiously awaiting some "Yandere for Canon-kun~" mode.
Also, Charles seems quite ebil. He and Schneizel will insert their penises into the world and fuck it hard then Lelouch will come clean up afterwards. I'm sure.
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Finished watching Grendizer. Decent enough. The falling out between Zurill and Gandall near the end was annoying considering they'd tolerated each other at worst before then.
Nice to see the whole Lady Gandall betrayal bit in the show. First Half Lady Gandall is still considerably superior to Second Half Lady though, who mostly seemed to come about just so they could have a Baron Ashura thing going on which they didn't end up doing until the last episode anyway.
As long as they weren't going to bother keeping any of the main pairings together anyway, they might as well have not bothered having Rubyna killed off ._.
I need some sort of Zurill avatar now to commemorate but I can't be bothered looking for a good shot at the moment.
Logically Mazinkaiser'll be next but I haven't started getting it yet.
Porco Rosso: Considering the subject matter, the film was somewhat of a dissapointment. I was expecting crazy plane shenanigans and didn't really get any. From memory, this is the second time I've been expecting shenanigans from Ghibli and been let down so maybe I should dial my shenanigan-expectations lower ._.
Ocean Waves: Debatably better than Porco Rosso in general, but I don't understand the ending at all. The most egregious part is how everyone has returned to the city I forget the name of for a class reunion... meanwhile, the girl goes to Tokyo to look for the guy who moved _despite the fact he had just gone back to the city for the reunion that she was also supposed to be going to_. This is to say nothing of the fact that she does nothing but be a tool the whole movie and he comes off as being highly aggravated, yet he's supposed to like her apparently according to his friend. Blarg.
Not strictly anime, but close enough...
Captain N up to around halfway through season 2
my brain is dying
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Robot Carnival: Got the homebrewed English-subbed remaster courtesy of Sopko at the con, watched it today. Good but not quite great, is my initial reaction. I feel the need to react piece-by-piece, since each one was so different.
Intro: Funny stuff. not a whole lot to it, obviously.
Franken's Gears: Very well-realized piece. Don't have a lot to say about it, but I liked it.
Deprive: Totally random action scenes. I guess I'm missing something by not knowing 8-Man?
Presence: My favorite story of the lot, even if it was overlong. The overall theme and tone felt like somebody had taken J.F. Sebastian from Blade Runner and given him his own movie.
Starlight Angel: Started out really good, got waaaaaaaay weirder than it needed to be in the second half. Kitazume has a surprising gift for reaction shots, and the Char cameo was hilarious.
Cloud: ...huh?
Foreigner Invasion: Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. If a Japanese person decided to remake The Wild Wild West, this is what they would make. And it would be awesome.
Nightmare: Very cool, with great use of music. Need to rewatch it, though, as it took me most of the viewing to realize the giant robot wasn't actually evil.
Ending and epilogue: Otomo is insane. In a good way.
The video and sound quality were awesome, and I'll tell Justin as much in person if I see him at Otakon. Great disc.
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Persona Trinity Soul - anyone else watching this, or are you to busy frittering away your time with The Trainwreck?
Anyway, finally finished this. good stuff, with most of the traditional action anime with teens with superpowers caveats. Reminded me a lot of Witch Hunter Robin in style, which is definitely a good thing. Plot was coherent, but fuzzy, if that makes any sense (i.e. it followed its internal logic fine, but wasn't fantastic at explaining the logic behind the logic). Still, the good far outweighed the bad, show was stylish but kept the physics of things refreshingly realistic.
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Persona Trinity Soul - anyone else watching this, or are you to busy frittering away your time with The Trainwreck?
Anyway, finally finished this. good stuff, with most of the traditional action anime with teens with superpowers caveats. Reminded me a lot of Witch Hunter Robin in style, which is definitely a good thing. Plot was coherent, but fuzzy, if that makes any sense (i.e. it followed its internal logic fine, but wasn't fantastic at explaining the logic behind the logic). Still, the good far outweighed the bad, show was stylish but kept the physics of things refreshingly realistic.
Dropped it soon after the OP change.
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Dropped it soon after the OP change.
no taste, man. though the first one was better.
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Miki: I actually watch shit other than Code Trainwreck, and Persona: Shitty Animu Adaption Soul was not one of those things that I blessed my holy downloading ability with past ep 8-10-ish.
STILL WATCHING THIS SHIT AS CARRY OVER FROM LAST SEASON:
Macross Frontier: PINEAPPLE, BITCHES. OZMA IS SO FUCKING AWESOME THAT NOT EVEN ROY FOKKER'S DEATH IS GOOD ENOUGH FOR HIM.
Chi's Sweet Home: BEST FUCKING ANIME EVER, WATCH THIS. WHY THE FUCK AREN'T YOU WATCHING THIS???
Code Trainwreck R2: SCHNEIZEL FUCK YEAH SCHNEIZEL FUCK YEAH :SHLICK: :SHLICK: :SHLICKKKKKK: FUCK ALI PROJECT 'CAUSE EVERYTHING IS FABULOUS!!1
THIS SEASON, IN REVIEW:
Ikkitosen, Sekirei, ZnT 3: STUPID FANSERVICE SHIT SUCKS. GTFO.
Telepathy Girl Ran: BORING.
Antique: FUJIWARA KEIJI RUNNING AN ANTIQUE CAKE SHOP FULL OF GAY DUDES? I'M SOLD.
Nogizaka Haruka: KIND OF DUMB MOE SHIT.
Hidamari x365: FUCK YEAH HAMBURGER FACE LOLI'S 'N SLICE OF LIFE THAT LIKE 5 PEOPLE ACTUALLY LIKE.
Slayers: SAME OLD FLATCHEST JOKES. (THIS ISN'T A BAD THING.)
World Destruction, Birdy the Mighty: MEHHHHHHHH.
Natsume: OH MY GOD A CAT OKAY I'M WATCHING THIS SHIT.
NEXT SEASON:
ef a tale of melodies: FUCK YEAH MORE EF!
Tales of the Abyss: OSHI- TOTA ANIMUZ.
SOMETIME IN THE DISTANT FUTURE:
Goku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: FUCK YEAH MORE ZETSUBOU SENSEI!
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Notes on series I'm watching:
Allison to Lillia- Wil is still awesome, as is Allison. Their kid isn't too bad, but is basically Allison with less sense. Trieze wins though.
Nabari no Ou- Confirmed, Aizawa is the most badass character of this (last) season.
New stuff (that I watched or am watching):
Zero no Tsukouma (first season)- Started off awesome. Liked Saito a lot, and even if the Louise is the second coming of Nagi (HnG), she's far more acceptable. Siesta is <3 and the supporting cast is nice. However, I just hate when the main character relationships are forced. I expected it, but it's still a shame when they throw away more natural relationships in favor of shit. Reminded me of FFX when there's nothing between Tidus and Yuna romantically and then BAM lake scene and they're deeply, deeply in love two seconds later. Downloading the second season.
Nogizaka Haruka- On the same page as mia. The concept had potential, but Haruka needed to actually be a likable, non-moeblob character for this to work. So she's supposed to be this intelligent, strong school idol type? Why must they make her the biggest airhead ever? I'm surprised she remembers to breathe, let alone managed to keep her secret all this time. Shame, since I'm usually a sucker for a piano player (<3 Madoka Ayukawa). They also seem to have reused the interior shots of the HnG mansion for her house. She gets points for Z-throwing that bish at the end of ep 3, but this series is pretty flushable.
Aquatic Language- Random short film I downloaded (clocked in at 9 minutes). Odd, barely coherant, but very charming. Check it out.
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20 Faces- Wow, Episode 12 and 13 were terrible. What a waste of good building tension.
Akagi- Watching on a friend's reccomendation. Yes, it's a Mah-jong anime. The main character is a crazy genius of a type I don't think I've exactly seen before. not sure I can approve it in full yet, but so far it's neat.
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Slayers Revolution episode 5: plot! finally!
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Akagi- Watching on a friend's reccomendation. Yes, it's a Mah-jong anime. The main character is a crazy genius of a type I don't think I've exactly seen before. not sure I can approve it in full yet, but so far it's neat.
You don't even need to understand the game to appreciate the awesomeness. I think you should keep on with that, it's really something. It blew my mind away when I watched it.
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Akagi- finished the second arc. Probably putting it aside for now, but not from lack of goodness. Also need to see Kaiji, since it's by the same guy.
People at Otakon have given me a bunch of stuff to track down and watch. Aside from Monster, 20th Century Boys, and Romeo x Juliet, I just started watching....
Kyouran Kazoku Nikki: Let me try and explain this show.
1000 years ago, the demon Enka was slain by humanity. However, with its dying breath, it claimed its descendant would return to wreak havoc on the world.
1000 years have passed. Humanity has developed a DNA test to find the descendant. Problem is, there's more than one, and killing them all wouldn't be just, when the rest would be innocents.
Commence Operation: Cozy Family- To gather all the children in one place to a) find out which one is the world-destroying one and b) possibly convincing the world-destroying one not to kill everyone.
The family's dad is a member of the Japanese Paranormal Police division, forcibly married to a telepathic catgirl with a god complex (Child #1). The other children are a talking lion, a cute little girl raised by the most evil business family in japan, a yakuza heir with gender confusion issues, a bio-engineered cyborg weapon, and a jellyfish.
Hilarity ensues.
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So while I was looking around to see if Mazinkaiser had any official englishnessness I bought the original series of Macross on a whim. It's beautiful.
While I was watching that, I acquired DYRL and I watched that afterwards. On the positive side, it's pretty and it has Ai Oboete Imasuka. On the negative side is far too much -_- tssk. Then they have the gall to semi-retcon DYRL to be the actual events discounting the creative liberties of the in-universe studio god why WHY I need more aircraft-carrier-armed-ness in my life and less green brain-freak exedol
Somewhat annoying that the only other legit Macross I have access to is Macross Plus (and the first segment of Robotech if you count that which I don't).
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Yeah, that's all you're going to get legit access to, either. Seven was never licensed because the cost of the songs would be epic, and after Plus came out Harmony Gold (US company) and Big West (Japanese production house) entered into a never-ending war over the US rights to the franchise that basically means there will never be another Macross series released in English ever again.
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Which is why fansubs of Macross Frontier make me a happy boy. *Boots Harmony Gold, prays that they go bankrupt so someone else can take the US publishing rights*.
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Also, I've long believed that Macross DYRL would be awesome as a stand-alone story if it actually had a beginning.
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Fear Code Geass spoilers
I thought the series got worse enough, how am I wrong.
1. ルルーシュは死んだ彼女と向い合う.
2. ルルーシュは共犯者を取り戻す.
3. ルルーシュは一つだけである友達を取り戻す.
4. ルルーシュは仮面を捨てる.
5. ルルーシュは柱を得る.
6. ルルーシュはもう一つの友達を失う.
* ディートハルトは裏切ったのではなかった. 機会を乗じて裏切り演技をしたこと. 後にルルーシュを支持する勢力と合流.
(あなたの第 2幕を撮影します.)
* アーニャは皇帝からかかったギアスをニューオレンジに解約されながら記憶を取り戻す. その後ルルーシュと合流.
* 記憶を失った C.Cは皇帝の秘密を公開するために封印された記憶を解除する.
* ジノ・バインベルグは皇帝の実体を悟ってアーニャともにルルーシュと合流する.
* 皇帝はラグナレクを起こして世界を再創造しようとする.
* スザクは結局ブリタニアを背いてルルルシュと合流する. ナイトオブラウンズとの激突.
* ルルーシュが追逐されても超合集国は黒の騎士団を排除したままにブリタニアとの戦争を始める.
* ルルーシュは超合集国とブリタニアを支配する計画を立てる.
* カレンは黒の騎士団で離脱してルルーシュに付く. 勿論,紅蓮聖天八極式を導いたまま.
* 皇帝の秘密を c.cから聞いたルルーシュは再び皇帝暗殺計画を立てて行く.
* 両立の戦争は追いこみに至って, 見えない所でルルーシュの計画は少しずつ実現していた.
* ブリタニア信者になってしまった扇は悲劇を迎える.
* シュナイゼルは皇帝を裏切る.
* シュナイゼルはルルーシュと交渉をしようとするが, あらかじめ計画を立てたルルーシュによって結局死亡.
* 友達と同時に艶慕の対象だったルルーシュによってミレイは死んでしまう.
* 戦地に変貌したエリア11はますます貧土に変わる中に, ルルーシュは事前に準備した暗殺計画を推進する.
* ナナリーとサヨコは復活する.
* エリア 11の総督であるナナリーはゼロの正体を気付いて絶叫する.
* ラグナレクを可動させるための皇帝の利用道具として使われる運命だったナナリーはルルーシュによって救出される.
* シュナイゼルを暗殺して超合集国で帰還して星刻の助けを借りたルルーシュは余勢を駆ってエリア 11でブリタニア軍を
追い出すのに成功する. この時は星刻死亡フラグ達成.
* 天子を通して, 超合集国を飲み下したルルーシュはブリタニアもぐっとのむ.
* 皇帝はやがてラグナレクを実行する.
* 巻き戻しになる世界. すべてのものが無に帰り始める. ここでルルーシュは C.Cを失う.
* C.Cの犠牲でギアス嚮団に問題が起こる. ギアスは破壊. 皇帝の不老不死もこれ以上存在しない.
* ルルーシュは皇帝を殺すが, その結果ルルーシュも死亡フラグ達成.
(地獄の道連れになってくれてありがたさを示す. 私の父上よと)
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Pretty interesting approach at a spoilerguard there, Niu. >_>;
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I am just too lazy to translate it. And I know those who'll get amused by this can read Japanese anyway.
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Damn you Niu!
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Fudo! Simpsons quiz! NAO!
Soul Eater- Watched 19. Sweet awesome, the series finally rocks face without ruining the moment! 18 and 19 were a one-two punch of awesome that I hope continues into a combo of epicness.
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Monster Manga:
WTF. I don't even like the genre. This is amazing. asdfgh
EDIT: Finished. I don't even know what to say. That was awesome.
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http://zepy.momotato.com/2008/08/22/haruhi-chan-and-churuya-san-anime-announced/
Wonder when Kyoto Animation's going to lay off the crack.
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http://zepy.momotato.com/2008/08/22/haruhi-chan-and-churuya-san-anime-announced/
Wonder when Kyoto Animation's going to lay off the crack.
When they decide to finally fucking make Munto 3.
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Bought Macross Plus, acquired Macross Flashback and Macross II.
Macross Flashback I could theoretically see as having some vague worth if you really, really like all the songs from Macross/DYRL and you have no other way of listening to them. Perhaps. ALSO TEN SECONDS OF FOOTAGE OF SDF2 MEGAROAD the worthiness of flashback is completely stunning me into incomprehensibility here
Macross Plus I've once seen in a magazine feature of the top 50 anime you must own or thereabouts; I don't remember the exact ranking it got but it was in the top 10 at least. After watching it I can only conclude that the people writing the magazine were criminally insane because it's not exactly great by any stretch of the imagination. We never even end up finding out what the point of the whole background conspiracy is, the only even half-decent characters are Myung and Millard, it's supposed to be the prettiest thing since sliced bread but I'd probably say that DYRL is prettier despite not being as clean, Sharon inexplicably has mind control and telekinesis...
Canon Macross is seriously beginning to burn my bridle.
MEANWHILE in the world of non-canon Macross we have Macross II. Which I was pleasantly surprised upon loading up to find that it had english subs as I didn't even know they existed, let alone that where I got it from didn't mention that it had them. In any case, Macross II is... decent. It's not a patch on Macross, but it easily blows DYRL and Plus out of the water. I can handily see why they might not want the story as part of the canon, but for god's sake.
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On the topic of Macross, Macross F 20 was pretty good. I never really liked or thought much of Diamond Crevasse until this episode. .___.
Geass R2 spoilers, ep titles, and a nice little scribble in the Roman Album pretty much indicate that my dreams of FUCKYEAHEVILSCHNEIZEL are going to come true. Now how about that fucking Kannon = Naoto.
Also, Detroit Metal City is entertaining. Watch it.
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Macross II is... decent...it easily blows DYRL and Plus out of the water.
Not liking Macross Plus makes you a bad person, you know. Unless you watched the movie instead of the OVAs.
Liking Macross II makes you a...confusing person, but I'm a big Princess Tutu fan, so I suppose I don't have much of a leg to stand on there.
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Also, Detroit Metal City is entertaining. Watch it.
Only if Matt Millen is involved somehow.
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Gene Simmons is.
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Gene Simmons is.
Note to self: never watch this show.
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Some people have no appreciation for fine art.
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Some people have no appreciation for fine art.
Nothing involving Gene Simmons could qualify as fine art; putting those two in the same sentence is offensive even in the presence of heavy sarcasm.
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Some people have no appreciation for fine art.
Nothing involving Gene Simmons could qualify as fine art; putting those two in the same sentence is offensive even in the presence of heavy sarcasm.
Who's Line is it Anyways yarrrr.
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Eureka 7- Finally, after two years of slowly picking up each DVD, I finished it. And... argh. Great, awesome show, but... the writers need to write a book on how to blow your entire show in the last five minutes. For once, it's not even the epilogue thats the problem, it's the actual ending. It doesn't really resolve much, and leaves way too many things open-ended, even for an anime. The series was very well constructed before then, but I guess it proved to be a house of cards that came crashing down. I was worrying that they'd botch the ending since volume 11 treaded water, so to speak, but all of volume 12 and especially the first 20 minutes of the last episode were just amazing and it just... ran out of time. Even the ending they had might have worked if they'd had time to show the aftermath, but they just ended it there. You can't really have a series that deals with what it does without showing the results. Really, really disappointed, but still a show worth watching.
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EPIC TROLL
*speechless*
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ALL HAIL LELOUCH!
Hahahahahahahahahahaa.............
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Samurai Champloo - Cause I am like trendy and watch new things. Anyway, Kenshin with better art and better running gags and I guess better cliches. Also people die immediately after becoming friends.
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CG- God help me. I can't stop laughing.
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Watched the first four episodes of two different shows over the weekend.
Trinity Blood: Is shamelessly the bastard child of Hellsing and Trigun. Absolutely worthless in every artistic sense, but still fun. Tres is pretty awesome.
Kino's Journey: Now this is just good. An androgynous nomad and his/her talking motorcycle wander from country to country in a Miyazaki-esque SF world. Each episode is more or less self-contained (as far as I've seen), with some really solid themes to base its stories around. It's surprisingly violent sometimes, too. Great dub.
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Kino is a she. And yeah, both show you just watched neither does the original any justice....
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I know that (episode 4 is the flashback), I was trying not to give it away to other people.
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Meh 4 episodes in spoilers isn't huge. It isn't like FF5 spoilers where Faris has a penis and Butz is actually a woman.
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Watched the first four episodes of two different shows over the weekend.
Trinity Blood: Is shamelessly the bastard child of Hellsing and Trigun. Absolutely worthless in every artistic sense, but still fun. Tres is pretty awesome.
Kino's Journey: Now this is just good
It so is.
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Yay Kino! It doesn't help they mangled the novels when translating them. Ah, well.
Spice and Wolf: Cute. Not entirely sure why I started watching this, but eh.
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CG- God help me. I can't stop laughing.
Nunnally livessssssssssssssssss.
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Samurai Champloo - Cause I am like trendy and watch new things. Anyway, Kenshin with better art and better running gags and I guess better cliches. Also people die immediately after becoming friends.
And an awesomely weird juxtaposition of samurai and modern hip hop. The episode where they set that field on fire and everyone trips balls is great.
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The damn shame is that Blade of the Immortal (currently airing as an anime, manga started in 1994) really paved the way for shows like Champloo that put samurai and modern culture together, but it's not gonna get any of the credit because, y'know, it's curently airing.
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So there was talk of a Jump series called Double Arts ending prematurely that was supposedly decent, so I checked it out. Sad I did, cause it is actually pretty good. Quirky, enjoyable story with good characters. <3 Sui. Sad it'll end early.
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It'll end early?? You sure???
I receive no news on that. Even for a short term series, ending now seems a bit to early.... or has Jump sink even further into stupidity?
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Samurai Champloo - Alright this is holding up suprisingly well so far, I was half expecting it to get a bit tired by now. 12 episodes down and it is still decent. Specifically Beatbox Bandits was cool. Hendrix is better than you, so writing an episode in honour of him is pimp. Gamblers and Gallantry gets plusses for finishing differently than the series leads you to expect and yet still being fairly cliche. Still good stuff. Jin could still turn out to be a nice subversion.
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In honor of Double Arts finishing, my top 5 things I liked about it's short, short time.
1. Sui's hair. Awesome, pretty, and it's amusing how she emotes with it.
2. Elraine's hair. Bed head for the win.
3. Double Arts fighting style concept. Woulda been awesome to see it play out. Coulda been the second coming of LOVE LOVE TENKYOKEN.
4. Dance lessons. Every anime/manga needs dancing scenes.
5. Sui (see girl in avatar). Sui was awesome. I want more Sui. <3 ;-;
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Samurai Champloo - Alright this is holding up suprisingly well so far, I was half expecting it to get a bit tired by now. 12 episodes down and it is still decent. Specifically Beatbox Bandits was cool. Hendrix is better than you, so writing an episode in honour of him is pimp. Gamblers and Gallantry gets plusses for finishing differently than the series leads you to expect and yet still being fairly cliche. Still good stuff. Jin could still turn out to be a nice subversion.
Individual episodes are hit or miss, but the second half is every bit as good as the first half.
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That is pretty much what you would expect of something with so many shades of Cowboy Bebop in it.
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Code Geass- Schenizer.... you BIIIIIIIIIIITCH!!!!!!! Wow, I mean WOW. This is just amazing, you managed to out fail both Lulu and Suzaku 2 seasons combined in a single episode!!!!
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YES! They finally started subbing Allison and Lillia again. Happy days...
Meanwhile, I managed to procure a gem of a boxset. Maison Ikkoku Box 8. Less than a thousand were made. I hear in the neighborhood of 500. Not even CPM's worst seller had that low of a print run.
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I've been watching a show called Basilisk recently.
It's like a GOOD version of a Ninja scroll series.
Pretty bad arse so far.
The Kouga are dying likes lil bitches! Weeeeeeeeeeeee~
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Last night I watched the Utena movie the way it was meant to be watched: at 12:30 AM in a room full of people who have never heard of it before. Now that's entertainment.
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Last night I watched the Utena movie the way it was meant to be watched: at 12:30 AM in a room full of people who have never heard of it before. Now that's entertainment.
Awesome....
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Started watching the World Destruction anime, which was apparently produced simultaneously with its DS game incarnation, as the anime seems to be constantly hyping its RPG roots.
As usual with video game anime, it's mediocre at best. The art is nice enough and the episodic stories are cute. The overall plot is nowhere in sight apart from a few lines here and there from the main character.
Speaking of which, the main character is ostensibly the boy Kyrie... but really, it's Morte's story. She's also the more interesting of the characters.
So far Lia is my favorite character - she's an interesting one-note tsundere-type, but she's either completely hate-able or completely adorable. Her baby crush on Kyrie is handled pretty well, which is surprising for an anime like this. I'm on episode 9, and there's no end in sight, but considering that they can end the world anytime they want, it wouldn't take much to get the anime to its conclusion.
Speaking of which, for anyone who doesn't know, the main concept is that our protagonists are a band of heroes who are dead-set on destroying the world. Well, Morte is dead-set on destroying the world and everyone else is kind of stuck with her thanks to her criminal reputation being contagious. Luckily for her, she stumbles across a boy who just so happens to be the trigger who can destroy the world and she kind of forces him to go along with her. Opposing the "World Destruction Committee" (as our heroes are called) is the World Salvation Committee, a team of beastmen who are basically hunting Morte, as sanctioned by the prevailing ruling class of this world: the beastmen. Humans are little more than slaves, being the losers of a 100-year-old war.
The main theme, in case you couldn't guess, will eventually be "why can't we all live equally?". And the more interesting aspect of world destruction looks like it's going to be thrown to the wayside.
Overall impression - looks like it'll make a decent RPG plot, but without gameplay to back it up, World Destruction's just mediocre anime.
You can definitely see the influence of the Xenogears team.
-Djinn
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BTW, anime is very different then the game.
For example. In the game, Morte does not have the Destrcuto Code, and Destructo Code was said to be a book in the game. Also unlike the anime, Morte and Agon are childhood friends in game, and Agon is Golden Lion's vice leader. Lia also acts a fourth party and is not a part of World Salvation Committee. The World Destruction Committee is also more than "just Morte". Kyrie also can fight, unlike his uselessness in anime. Also, the game scheduled to have Kyrie annihilating the world once during the midgame.
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And I did get mightily perturbed with waiting on the Gundam 0079 subs, which hath been stuck at episode 39 since February despite episode 40 being coming soon since May. And I did acquire some MKVs, half of which refused to work unless relabelled AVI, of Gundam 0080, as it did appear to be the most mehish section of the UC. And I did watch upon the files and yea, they were as mehish as had been feared. And the show was deemed decent but completely unfulfilling and will likely end up with a mark similar to that of DYRL.
Macross 7: Up to episode 21. It's pretty good which is a nice return to form for the universe; I like it a fair bit. Unfortunately my brother doesn't so watching it is somewhat lagging. On the plus side, bandwidth should last longer this month as I don't acquire more than a couple episodes ahead >_>? Nice to see a Kamjin reference considering he was in DYRL for all of 20 seconds and had nowhere near the majory-ness as he did in the series, and as he was implied to have had in the past here given the context of the reference.
The question is raised: Why, considering that transformed!Macross was a Bad But Unfortunately Necessary Thing in the original (and presumably DYRL, but I guess I wouldn't put it past that to have made it by design) do they go out of their way to explicitly design their ships to have to do it afterwards -_-
I've also ordered Nadesico. Hopefully it will not turn out to be a Plus in sheep's clothing.
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Don't worry, Nadesico is awesome. If you like dubs, watch the dub.
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Code Geass- Schenizer.... you BIIIIIIIIIIITCH!!!!!!! Wow, I mean WOW. This is just amazing, you managed to out fail both Lulu and Suzaku 2 seasons combined in a single episode!!!!
He's still fuckin' fabulously hot. <3
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Soul Eater- Disapointed as hell. Stein didn't do the face stab to Medusa, nor did Medusa did her awsome insane dying laugh. Even the Asura vs. Shinigami sama fight is flashy, that simply doesn't make up for it. And hell, it is sad that Asura is the first person who did the insane laugh right in this show.
Amatsuki- Got up to ch.49 on the manga.... Awsome, just awsome. The plot twists in ch.48 and 49 is just.... great. Finally giving you some obvious hints on the actual chronological order of events. And yeah, Chidori's ties to the virtual world is also pretty much confirmed. Everything just start to make sense all fo sudden after getting mislead for so long.
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Watched a bunch of shows over the last couple months and kept forgetting to ramble about them here. So now you guys get concentrated, industrial-strength rambling instead. Lucky you.
Black Lagoon: Finally got around to seeing the second season of this by raiding TV Links (dammit, Geneon). It continues to be totally badass. Solid action, enough character work to keep me watching, tons of style...just excellent on every front. Home to some of the most endearing nutjobs around, too (SAWYER. The world needs more chainsawgirls). Also:
Balalaika. Is. Love.
Glad to hear that someone else is picking this up for American distribution in the wake of Geneon's implosion. Hope they'll keep the same english VAs.
Claymore: Yeah yeah, show of monster swordgirls, automatic Cid-bait, etc. What can I say? Well, I did enjoy it for reasons other than girls in skintight bodysuits turning into monsters and beating the crap out of other monsters (though I can't say I objected to any of that). Interesting array of powers on display, and watching Clare--nominally the least powerful member of the organization--work her way up by mixing and matching abilities seen elsewhere and generally just being inventive was always fun. I enjoy seeing the learning process at work, and Clare was relentless in improving herself.
The downside? Raki. He was harmless enough for most of the series, and Clare having motivation to be something other than a relentless killing machine is naturally a plus. And then the final plot arc comes and he fails it up hardcore. "No, you can't kill the ruthless, man-eating monster! She might have had a traumatic childhood! And if you kill her you'll be just like her! ...For some reason!"
Priscilla's a rabid dog, dude, and you're going all moon-eyed just because you had accidental-hand-on-boob with her. I mean...jesus christ, that was reprehensible. And seriously, everyone in Claymore had a traumatic childhood. Normal people don't sign up for an organization like this. The clueless, horny teenager elects himself the team's moral barometer, someone genuinely innocent dies instead, and the monster flies away. ::psyduck::, Raki. ::psyduck::
Good show apart from that stupidity, though.
Coyote Ragtime Show: Empty fluff. It's decently stylish, but the characters are largely one-note and Mister's a Marty Stu. Show totally should've been about the killer lolibot brigade. I was way more interested in them and Marciano than any of the main characters. Swordgirl android crimelord? Yes, thanks. (Though, I had to laugh at her speech to the Crime Guild leaders. "This criminal organization is corrupt!" Riiiight). I've gotta say, Angela toting around May's head for the whole series was probably the highlight of the show.
Disgaea: No, I don't know why I bothered either. Anyway, it doesn't fail as much as the Xenosaga anime and that's about as positive as I can be about it. Well, they retained a lot of the game's VA cast, so I guess that's something.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Show of Notmiki! Consistently over the top and I can't say I minded. It's not entirely my style, but I have to admire something so devoted to cramming as much cheese as possible into every episode. At the very least, it's unique. Pretty neat variety of abilities at work, too. I like seeing people thoroughly explore the limits of an invented system. The copious references to rock music are, of course, just icing. Speaking of which, down with Iced! Seriously, what an asshole. He doesn't just kick the dog, he cuts it in half, stomps on its head, and THEN kicks it across the room. Fuckwad.
Key the Metal Idol: I posted about this a while ago, but I hadn't watched the entire series. I have now finished it, and must sadly report that it's all downhill after episode thirteen. Really unfortunate, because the initial thirteen-episode run was excellent work. For reference, there are only fifteen episodes...but the last two are each an hour and a half long. Episode fourteen is ninety minutes of painful expository dialogue and the finale is just a godawful mess.
The show still does plenty of things right, though, and I would recommend that people watch it. Solid writing when dealing either the mundane or the more fantastical metaplot (and there's a good balance of both). The pop songs were also excellent and Tallychu should be clubbed with them. And, probably the highlight, the cast is uniformly memorable. Like 'em or not, I don't think that can be argued. Sakura is an endearing but flawed Token Sane Person, D is frighteningly driven for a henchperson and even fairly stylish when he wants to be ("It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye"), Tsurugi is a madman but somehow makes perfect sense as an eclectic artist (who was it that said "Poor people are crazy. Rich people are eccentric"?) and Ajo...
Ajo reaches heights of insanity that rival King Hamdo at his worst. This is not an exaggeration, he's one of the creepiest dudes I've seen in anime. Watching his subordinates variously turn on one another or self-destruct was morbidly fascinating. It wouldn't be accurate to say he has no regard for human life; rather, he has no understanding of the very concept in the first place, and the clearly fetishishtic fixation on machinery only adds to the ick factor. This is someone who's never quite dwelt in the real world, and every fiber of his being is bent on dragging us into his. Truly deserved the headsplosion.
As for the title character...I was going to say that she's a decent take on the old "android trying to become human" angle, but that's not quite true, given how the ending turns out. Her social awkwardness was interesting enough to watch during the superb thirteen-episode arc, at least.
Mermaid Forest: Pretty good. Charts the course of two unwilling immortals as the figure out the modern world and try to find a remedy for their condition. This results in some of the cliffhanger situations traditional to serial fiction (Uh oh, Erk in danger!) being amusingly obsolete. I really should've counted how many times the main characters got killed. It may have exceeded the Anthy Bitchslap Count.
Also notable for having some of the craziest supporting characters ever. At first, I thought the woman with demon arm in the title episode was pretty out there, but the show easily upped the ante with the deranged mom who cut her own face off and replaced it with someone else's. I figured there wasn't anything freakier they could do after that. Boy, was I wrong. The murderous, nine-hundred-year-old shotabait tops everything just by blinking. If he doesn't sound as messed up conceptually, I can assure you that he is in execution.
The kicker? The show's not really driven by gore or traditional horror elements (despite some damned unpleasant stuff happening). It never stops being a character study centered around the mains; it just happens to have a totally bonkers procession of guest stars.
My-Otome: Disappointment. Perhaps that's not the most accurate word, since I saw all its problems coming from the trailers, but it still sucks to see all the nice little character work Hime did be forsaken for generic hijinx here. Really can't think of anything positive to say about it. Well, no: This Week's Armitage. But that's about it.
Scrapped Princess: Also posted previously when I was about...halfway through this one? It's entertaining fluff. Sticks to its chosen formula and executes it adequately. That's enough to swing something around an average score from me. My only real beef with the show was that it decided to dive into the crapper halfway through the last episode. It's like, after an all-night Dew and nacho binge spent writing the grand finale, some genius on the staff went "Oh, wait guys, we were serious for a whole five minutes there. We'd better throw in some PERVERT PERVERT PERVERT jokes to balance things out. No, it doesn't matter that Shannon just saved Pacifica's life, there's always room for pervert jokes! And then we'll have her go be needlessly cruel to Leo when he pours his feelings out to her. I mean, it's not like she learned anything or grew at all during these twenty-six episodes, right? Right. Let's just knock this sucker out and go get stoned at a karaoke bar."
Still a decent show, but god, that ending was lame.
Venus Versus Virus: Genericrap. Deserves no further comments.
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In Scrapped Princess' defense, it does 'sad' pretty well. The scene with Pacifica's mother and the scenes with that guy that Pacifica essentially marries are memorable and poignant to me even though I watched the series like... 4 years ago or something?
Too bad none of the main 3 characters ever did much for me. Leo hype.
-Djinn
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the scenes with that guy that Pacifica essentially marries are memorable and poignant to me even though I watched the series like... 4 years ago or something?
With Feuley? I'll agree on that, especially after I found out that he is not a factor carrier. Or else the entire relationship would be meaningless.
I found that Shiz's death was pretty superficial and unnecessary. Even they really have to kill her, they could have done a better job.
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Furey is awesome. His exit from the series pissed me off, as he's miles ahead of Shannon. Glad Pacifica remembers him in some small way. I liked the series, at least, I wanted to. I like the twist, but argh... some really stupid choices. Raquel was also awesome, as all characters named Raquel apparantly are.
Couldn't get through more than 8 eps of Claymore before I had to drop it. Ugh.
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In Scrapped Princess' defense, it does 'sad' pretty well. The scene with Pacifica's mother and the scenes with that guy that Pacifica essentially marries are memorable and poignant to me even though I watched the series like... 4 years ago or something?
I agree, actually. (Especially about the "alternate Pacifica" sequence you mentioned. Holy shit, an amnesia arc that actually adds something to a show). It's partly why the last episode's instant one-eighty into Perfect Shiny Happy land was so jarring.
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Samurai Champloo - Cheesed the ending, but whatever. Baseball episode was awesome. Really need not have bothered with a central plot really.
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Looked up that BoF4 manga.... *stare at the art
...Samu? Wait, are you telling me she stop drawing yaoi doujin and close down her site just to draw this???
Ughhhh, what a horrible trade. At least pick on some other game that allows more yaoi fanservice!!!
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We may be missing out on some good yaoi manga, but really, BoF4 never looked so good.
Besides, I'm sure the artist is appreciative of the money that licensed mangaka receive.
-Djinn
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I am laughing, raging, and ???'ing at Code Geass R2 right now all at fucking once. I got trolled so bad by R2 23. I should've just believed Animedia ALL ALONG. Fuuuuck.
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We may be missing out on some good yaoi manga, but really, BoF4 never looked so good.
Besides, I'm sure the artist is appreciative of the money that licensed mangaka receive.
-Djinn
Yes, it is all true and that. But we really don't need any less KH doujin drawers, consider we barely have any of them in the first place....
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Got sucked into the Negima manga recently due to the TV Tropes character entries on Setsuna and Konoka. Badass swordswoman with pretty wings and a lesbian bodyguard crush was too much to resist. (What? <_<)
The endless fanservice gets annoying real fast, but the plot is actually good when it kicks in and the haremesque bullshit stops, and the main characters tend to be pretty likable. And the Cinema Village episode was every bit as epic as advertised.
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So, yet another series that would be improved by ditching the useless male lead?
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No, Negi kinda bucks that trend wholeheartedly.
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Negi's pretty cool after the series gets serious and Akamatsu drops the incredibly lame "sneezing=girl's clothing destroyed!" gag. It's not his fault that half the damned classroom seems to consist of shoutacons.
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That manga's biggest fault would be starting it as a fanservience manga. As now all the fanserviceness it has are looking really stupid after the style transition.
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Started Sayounara Zetsubou Sensei. I forget who hyped it to me here, but I remember -someone- had. Anyway, it's quite possibly more amazing than it was hyped to be. A refreshing change from the normal anime fair. Especially considering that the last anime I watched before this was... the incredibly generic video-game-based World Destruction anime?
Since I'm assuming everyone here has seen SZS, I don't feel the need to go into the specifics.
-Djinn
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Paranoia Agent - 2/4 discs down in one sitting. Wow. I know Satoshi Kon is great and suprises me every time I watch his stuff. But just fucking wow. This is like a whole new level.
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Keep going. Episode 10 is my favorite.
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I will probably finish it tommorow.
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So yeah I woke up early this morning and finished it. Ending is a bit more like his other work than I expected, but that is fine. I do enjoy how he always has such a positive message hidden under all the mind fuck. Yeah I can see why you would really like Episode 10 Sopko. There is slight shades of FLCL in there even (with the way it plays with the fourth wall and whatnot)
Paranoia Agent - Fucking watch this.
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Macross Frontier 25: what 'bout my star... WHAT 'BOUT MY STAAAAAAA--IKINOKORITAI!!!!--AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!!
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Oh yeah something I forgot to ask about Paranoia Agent. Specifically for Sopko I guess since he is the worlds biggest Kon fan ever.
So the guys in episode 9 that are constantly trying to kill themselves are already dead right? Never gets overtly stated, but it is certainly what everything seems to imply to me.
Edit - Fuck it, doing size shit with javascript and images turned off is to much fucking effort.
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Yeah; the guy who jumped in front of the train and walked off was supposed to make that explicit, I think.
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Random weird shit happening in Paranoia isn't really explicit, either is people just kind of ignoring everyone else, but yeah bits and pieces like that (girls taking photo near the end of the episode for example) kind of is what I meant.
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Well, not explicit, but you know what I meant.
I still need to watch the rest of that show. I only caught the first few episodes and then that one. Go go gadget piracy I guess.
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It is good, so yeah watch them all.
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Macross F- Awesome, just awesome, this final episode is just bloody shiny and the cinematic is really nice. No, the cinematic has been really well done ever since the Sheryl is dying arc, her final few stages are just gorgeous. Yeah, I am so picking up the high definition of the episodes now, watching them in RMVB does not justify the prettiness.
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Probably should have posted something here sooner, but blarg I am late with mega posts, or something.
Anyways, back in August I got plunked down in a video room at a con for two days in order to make sure no one got rowdy or walked off with stuff they shouldn't. Oh, and also to make slight adjustments to schedule if the guy in charge fucked up scheduling or we hit something soul scarringly bad. Oddly enough, both came up. Anyways, just my thoughts on the first few episodes.
Emma - This is where I came in. Seems ok, a predictable enough romance that will inevitably involve two people from different classes finding a way to make their love work despite several comedic differences getting in the way. Nothing exciting, but not overly offensive.
Maburaho - Or whatever it's called. Something about a world where everyone can only use magic so many times, and this one guy who is otherwise useless has some famous magicians far back in his family tree, so every girl in the series throws themselves at him because his genes must obviously be keepers. Right. Moderatly amusing, and they do throw the guy the bone of being the most powerful mage around (in what, the second or third episode?), but this doesn't change the fact that 8 uses of magic at one use per episode means that this is either a really short series, or they break their rule somewhere.
Tide Line Blue - Heard a lot of good things about Blue Submarine, didn't expect something so... bland. Follow the adventures of a happy go lucky youth suddenly faced with big events and his own oddly important stature as he survives in the world following yet another mysterious disaster! On the one hand, there doesn't seem to be a villain outside of greedy politicians, americans, and polluters yet.
Mai-Hime - The first few episodes looked interesting, and I actually bothered to watch this one the whole way through. It actually reminds me a lot of Neon Genesis Evangelion in that it starts off with a nice mix of humour and drama, and generally looks like things won't be so bad. And then you get to the end of the series where the tone goes pitch black, and you get to see people break. And it is good. The only possible flaw is the last episode, as it seems to reset everything, unless you just consider the fact that the good guys lost, in which case it all makes a kind of twisted sense.
Mai-Otome - Erg... I am never going to be watching this. There's something about a setting where women are made strong, but that strength is then made to basically serve one person to the exclusion of all else is upsetting. Yes, I am aware that it's both genders that end up holding those leashes. But the implications are just not ones I'm comfortable with.
Code Geass - The bastard love child of Death Note and Gundam. And honestly, the worst of both. You've got Gundam's massive geopolitical ideological struggles along with Death Note's wacky supergenius with supernatural power with rules, and ignoring the characterisation that makes Gundam, and the cat and mouse chase that made Death Note worth reading. It's just a mess, especially when you get lame scenes like the shower one where you not only apparently have phones in the bathroom, but you're going to send a guy in to deliver towels while a girl is showering when there's at least two girls present, one of whom has a crush on the guy and thinks he may be interested in the chick that's showering and is jealous over that? And it only gets worse over time?! Ye gods this thing is bad. But, not as bad as...
Pani Poni Dash - Watched one episode. Seems to be trying to go the route of having semi-competant character tossed into situation they're not ready to deal with filled with anime archtypes with their quirk dial turned up BEYOND THE MAX!!! And I'm pretty sure that description sounds 10x better than the final result. Watched one episode and then (with mass public approval) moved on to School Rumble.
School Rumble - Is Awesome. Sure, it's a high school romantic comedy, but unlike most romantic comedies, it has romantic tension and humour. I mean, for starters, it's one of the few shows of any medium where I'm not sure that the male and female lead are bound to hook up. They not only have fun mocking all of their characters, but they also find fresh and interesting ways to subvert expectations. And, all of this is done with a surprisingly large and well fleshed out cast of secondary characters, so occasionally you can ignore the main cast and focus on humiliating entirely different people. As for the final episode, I'm still not entirely sure it actually happened, though there are two more seasons, so I'll make an effort to check those out when they're semi-available.
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Gref: In addition, Ep 10 actually creeped me out a bit. Despite the comedic tone of the episode, the scenes in the car are really well done and have an air of tension thats hard to find in a lot of places.
Maburaho - Or whatever it's called. Something about a world where everyone can only use magic so many times, and this one guy who is otherwise useless has some famous magicians far back in his family tree, so every girl in the series throws themselves at him because his genes must obviously be keepers. Right. Moderatly amusing, and they do throw the guy the bone of being the most powerful mage around (in what, the second or third episode?), but this doesn't change the fact that 8 uses of magic at one use per episode means that this is either a really short series, or they break their rule somewhere.
Yeah, he dies halfway through the series and becomes a ghost, and most of the rest of the series is about how they try to revive him, capped with a normal romcom end after they do.
I didn't mind Maburaho. I don't watch too many harem/total fanservice type shows though, so I'm guessing it's more because I don't really know the genre enough to know it's like everything else. Yuuna was annoying, Kazuki had ups and downs, the childhood friend was alright at first then became annoying, everyone else was fine though. The professor was probably the best character. Best. Job. Ever.
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Pani Poni Dash - Watched one episode. Seems to be trying to go the route of having semi-competant character tossed into situation they're not ready to deal with filled with anime archtypes with their quirk dial turned up BEYOND THE MAX!!! And I'm pretty sure that description sounds 10x better than the final result. Watched one episode and then (with mass public approval) moved on to School Rumble.
School Rumble - Is Awesome. Sure, it's a high school romantic comedy, but unlike most romantic comedies, it has romantic tension and humour. I mean, for starters, it's one of the few shows of any medium where I'm not sure that the male and female lead are bound to hook up. They not only have fun mocking all of their characters, but they also find fresh and interesting ways to subvert expectations. And, all of this is done with a surprisingly large and well fleshed out cast of secondary characters, so occasionally you can ignore the main cast and focus on humiliating entirely different people. As for the final episode, I'm still not entirely sure it actually happened, though there are two more seasons, so I'll make an effort to check those out when they're semi-available.
Man, I couldn't agree more with your relative assessments of these two shows. Currently watching School Rumble's 2nd season (which isn't as good, but still worth watching) so I'll have thoughts on that later.
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Yeah, I can see why someone might like it, Sopko. It's certainly hit the threshold of quality where I could sit through it, which puts it above everything else I saw in that sitting that I haven't already watched start to finish.
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I ended up watching 12 episodes of Pani Poni Dash. It only gets worse - more nonsensical, less relatability, and somehow, less funny. I couldn't finish it and a friend had practically forced it on me. I only barely think of her as a friend anymore.
The only reason we remain friends is because we watched the first two episodes at a drunken party of friends one time and that was somewhat enjoyable. It might be the liquor talking, but I think the English dub is somewhat better than the Japanese version due to wonderful intonation abilities and better comic timing of some of the VAs.
In other words: you're not missing anything.
-Djinn
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Slayers Revolution: fun in places, but ultimately disappointing. probably the worst Slayers out there.
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Oh, somebody picked up the subs? I'll have to grab the rest, then. Hopefully they'll keep it up whenever the second half goes to air.
Lupin III: Green vs. Red - Worst. Lupin. Ever. It started out pretty good, with a giant montage of homages to past iterations and scenes, but once it got into actual new material it was all downhill. By the end it's turned into a long screed against nuclear weapons and militarization, with Lupin as some kind of Platonic ideal of freedom, instead of, y'know, a whimsical lech who steals stuff. Doesn't even bother with the usual comedy atmosphere, going for a serious, action-movie kind of feel, which is bad for a franchise where you know going in that none of the regulars are actually in danger of dying and worse when you consider that the plot is ridiculous even by Lupin standards. And when I say that, bear in mind that before this, the last one I watched was the one where a scientist from the year 2800 goes back in time to kill Lupin in order to eliminate all of his descendants, because Arsene Lupin XXXIII stole his girlfriend. That is more believable than Green vs. Red.
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Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: So... did Itoshiki die in Ep11 or...? What? If it was supposed to be some kind of parody or allusion, it went right passed me... In general, the series is an interesting piece which pokes fun at some of the problems facing modern Japanese culture. To great effect, I'm looking forward to Season 2 even though I'm still confused by Ep 11 here.
Not going to bother with SPOILERS tag because it's not that kind of series.
-Djinn
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I pretty much watch watevers on Adult swim but they switched Code Geass and Mori to 5 AM
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Kyouran Kazoku Nikki- I will hype this show as super awesome to the ends of the earth. Watch it.
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I pretty only watch shows that are dubbed. Subbed shows are just to much work
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Gaogaigar: The Seven Great Primevals's attack on Orbital Base arc (episodes 38-41, IIRC) was awesomeness incarnate, especially the four-part attack to finish off the fused Primeval.
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Desert Punk - Caught like an episode. Looked like it was cliche but might have some potential. Looked up the plot online. Pass.
I pretty much watch watevers on Adult swim but they switched Code Geass and Mori to 5 AM
So your day just got better right?
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Linebarrel- UGGGHHHHHHHHH!!! *burns anime, goes back to read the manga
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ANN's got a really funny review of Linebarrels up, and Clannad too. Zac's stuff is always gold.
EDIT: Feel like linking. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/fall-2008-preview/2008-10-04/zac It's kinda like if Grefter reviewed anime. Read the Linebarrel one before Clannad
Watched a bunch of stuff yesterday on my day off. Started off the new season, finished some of the old.
Allison and Lillia- Great show. Excellent show. It's sad that Lillia and Treize are nowhere as cool as their parents were at their age, LET ALONE their parents as adults (Seriously, Wil kicks some serious ass now, and Allison only got more awesome), but that didn't stop the show from being worth watching. I don't know what's with the Japanese lately, but it's another show that bungles the last half of the last episode with time wasting crap instead of a more satisfying ending, but it worked better than say, Eureka 7's did. Totally worth watching in any case.
Soul Eater- Up to 25. I knew that once this show got over it's slapstick-during-inappropriate-moments thing it'd be awesome, and the last few episodes have proven that theory right. Excellent fights, awesome developments, just oozes style and reeks of cool. Medusa is one awesome villain <3
3x3 Eyes- Watched the first half. Good, classic, old school show with a lot going for it. Yakumo is no pansy, and it's funny to watch him grow into his condition to the point where he's hacking off his own arms. You'd think though that they'dve noticed the rich woman being evil, since she's not too discreet about it. Oh well.
Code Gaess- I cleared Episode 2! Leagues ahead of the first episode thanks to non-retarded storytelling, but jumps right into the whole "Main character is perfect" thing too happily. I'm also of the mind that the Knightmares are like Aestivalis, in that a newborn child could pilot them. Really, they take out a grunt with no training to pilot the Lancelot? Even Amuro at least read the manual and sucked a bit before improving. Suzaku is perfect off the bat. Should only improve from here, I'm guessing! Love how the resistance has totally retro character designs, aside from Kallen. Perms ftw.
Detroit Metal City- The Japanese Metalocalypse. This alone should get people to watch it. Utterly ridiculous and always hilarious.
New shit:
Hyakko- Slice-o-life-ish show. Starts off with a bunch of girls wandering around lost around campus. A good balance between sedate humor and slapstick, I'll probably at least follow up on it.
Kannagi- An above-average girl and guy forced to live together show, by the look of it. Guy carves a statue out of a piece of a sacred tree, statue comes alive in the form of cute girl who turns out to be the guardian spirit of the tree. Another show with good balance between sedate and slapstick, with genuinely funny moments, I'll probably be sticking with this one.
Still to watch: Toradora!, To Aru Majutsu no Index. Don't think there's anything else
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^3x3 was awesome
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Soul Eater- Up to 25. I knew that once this show got over it's slapstick-during-inappropriate-moments thing it'd be awesome, and the last few episodes have proven that theory right. Excellent fights, awesome developments, just oozes style and reeks of cool. Medusa is one awesome villain <3
They still censored bunch of things, unforgivable. Ughhh, I want the face stab!!!
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Code Gaess- I cleared Episode 2! Leagues ahead of the first episode thanks to non-retarded storytelling, but jumps right into the whole "Main character is perfect" thing too happily. I'm also of the mind that the Knightmares are like Aestivalis, in that a newborn child could pilot them. Really, they take out a grunt with no training to pilot the Lancelot? Even Amuro at least read the manual and sucked a bit before improving. Suzaku is perfect off the bat. Should only improve from here, I'm guessing! Love how the resistance has totally retro character designs, aside from Kallen. Perms ftw.
The dub says he read the manual and was top of his class for Frame piloting.
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Soul Eater- Up to 25. I knew that once this show got over it's slapstick-during-inappropriate-moments thing it'd be awesome, and the last few episodes have proven that theory right. Excellent fights, awesome developments, just oozes style and reeks of cool. Medusa is one awesome villain <3
They still censored bunch of things, unforgivable. Ughhh, I want the face stab!!!
Unless it's on the level of Stein violently raping Medusa, it doesn't really matter if they censored things. It was still awesome.
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Ughhh, I want the face stab!!!
/me stabs Niu in the face?
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Nabari no Ou- Read Chapter 50 and 51, things are actually going the way I wanted it to be. Miharu finally breaking down is really sweet. Now, if Fuuma turns completly evil next, everything would be perfect.
Crown- Vol.5 finished..........
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UUUUURRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
This is it Nakanishi, you are officially worse then Shibamura. At very least Shibamura tries to resolve things, but you don't even try!!!!
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Nabari no Ou- Read Chapter 50 and 51, things are actually going the way I wanted it to be. Miharu finally breaking down is really sweet. Now, if Fuuma turns completly evil next, everything would be perfect.
Nabari was very good about good/bad being very nebulous between all the characters and villages, so I would believe it's possible.
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First 2 episodes of the new season of Gundam 00. Still hard to judge, since for now it's largely about the characters getting back into things, but MOBILE SUIT PILOT LOUISE FTW and a new Lockon, among other things.
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A drugged MS piloting Louise you mean. I can already see the come back of Stella plot back in Destiny.
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A drugged MS piloting Louise you mean. I can already see the come back of Stella plot back in Destiny.
DO NOT WANT!
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::STABS THE RIE KUGIMIYA LOLITSUNDERE STEREOTYPE DEAD. WITH FIRE::
Ugh. Hate Louise, hate Nagi... for once she has a decent character in Taiga. I really hope she doesn't screw it up.
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Working through a couple shows, varying degrees of quality.
Red Garden: Very good. About four Normal High School Girls drawn into a vendetta between two ancient, magic-using families in New York City. Set on and around Roosevelt Island, which does wonders for the atmosphere. GONZO pulls some of Gankutsuou's visual craziness for the opening credits, but the show itself is presented realistically. This extends to the main characters' behavior--they react to being forced to kill total strangers every night about as well as one might expect. There's some understandable angst, some emotional withdrawal, maybe a teensy bit of insanity...responses vary, but they're consistently believable given the characters we're working with. Oh, and sometimes, when the pressure's just too much, the cast will up and break out in song. Subdued but tuneful stuff, like Aimee Mann in Magnolia. Quality show, and I am considerably annoyed that Netflix suddenly stopped having disc six in stock just after I watched disc five. Argh.
Simoun: Is about yuri-propelled aircraft. Can you be more Cid-bait than this? Music's nice too, and the setting is...different. Granted, I have to take issue with "There are more job opportunities when you're male, though," just because of the staggering oversight in world-building that this line represents. Did no one working on the anime stop to consider that, in a world where everyone is female until age seventeen, gender dynamics just might turn out to work much differently from our own? So yes, that annoys me. It's not like society outside of the...school...airship...thing...is the focus of the show, though, so this isn't crippling. Granted, I've only watched the first disc, so I suppose this could change.
You probably think I'm joking with that first line, but I'm really not.
Witchblade: Boobs. It's garbage, but I finish my trainwrecks.
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Simoun:
UGH, NO, don't remind me of ... ughhhhh brain melting!!!!
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Just think that the yuri can turn into yaoi with enough fanficcing and the pain will go away.
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Captain Kirk as a rabbit raping Edward Elric as a squirrel boy through time, Captain Kirk as a rabbit raping Edward Elric as a squirrel boy through time...
Also Merlin is involved somehow. QUICK SNOW WRITE NOW.
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Did I break Niu? Nice.
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Started reading the Negima! manga at the insistence of a net friend.
It's... surprisingly addictive. Once I got past the beginning (aka 90% of the panty shots of the series... also, 90% of the beginning's content was panty shots), the characters began to be somewhat likeable. The plot is also serviceable shounen fodder.
Anyway, so Negima! is essentially Love Hina but with a non-horrible main and a somewhat believable female lead. Throw in some aspects of Naruto and Harry Potter and you've got a balanced shounen series. The series claim to fame is its use of an entire class of students (all girls) as its main cast. This is an interesting exercise is just how large-scale the harem genre can work on. To be blunt, I hate this. Some of the characters are likeable enough when they're by themselves, but most of the characters work horribly when together. Unusual, but that's the overall impression I get.
As far as quality, Negima! is pretty hit or miss depending on the chapter. Asuna is pretty decent (after a while), Negi is tolerable and thankfully NOT Keitaro. But the reason I continue to read it is because the series' style draws heavily from Tarot card themes and RPG 'class system' aspects. Ken Akamatsu, despite all his flaws, is a damn good artist and I just really want to see more kick-ass magic fight scenes and Pactio cards/artifacts.
Kamo (Negi's yakuza-speech-affected ermine buddy) is also occasionally genuinely funny. He's pretty much the only funny thing in this humor-oriented manga. This is NOT the place to be looking for genuine funny.
Negima! is good for pretty art, pandering to RPG players/Harry Potter fans, kick-ass magic fight scenes, the occasional character-centric one-shot, and the occasional joke from Kamo.
Look for anything else and be disappointed.
-Djinn
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What volume/chapter are you on? Negima shifts increasingly away from harem-esque hijinks and school stuff and into shounen action as the series goes on. By the most recent arc it definately resembles DBZ or Bleach far more than Love Hina or Harry Potter... though the fanservice never really stops.
The character cast is really far too bloated for its own good, but Akamatsu does a surprisingly good job of developing characters when he actually manages to give them screentime. He's even managed to develop characters like Yue and Chisame enough to make me like them.
Also, since you don't seem to have gotten there yet... *premptively waves KonokaxSetsuna flags*
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Oh no, I've gotten to the shounen fluff already, don't worry. It's just so typical it didn't seem worth pointing out apart from how pretty it is.
SetsunaXKonoka IS awesome.
I actually like Kotarou and wish that Ken Akamatsu had tried making more male characters as he's not too bad at them (unlike 90% of his female cast... especially when around Negi/Keitaro).
I don't expect the fanservice to ever stop, but just because he throws in DBZ/Naruto-esque tournaments, don't expect to convince me that everything else that's happening doesn't qualify as 'harem hijinks'.
The actual plot surrounding the world of magic-users is actually somewhat interesting and it's enough to keep me interested in the pretty. It's too bad I have to wade through shounen nonsense and harem nonsense to get to it.
I still stand by the fact that his characters work best alone (or in very small groups) because Ken Akamatsu's idea of character interaction reminds me of a toga party - 'let's get naked and act stupid until somebody gets hurt'.
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How's the Autumn season looking? Is there anything I should be paying attention to, anime wise?
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I haven't finished checking out all that interested me in the fall lineup, but here's what I've seen so far.
Chaos;head- Easily my favorite so far. Take K1 out of Higurashi and plop in Satou from Welcome to the NHK, and put them in high school in Tokyo and you have Chaos;head. Twisted, sometimes funny, good creepy vibe and I CAN'T GET THE DAMN ED OUT OF MY HEAD.
Kemeko DX- Twisted humor, thoroughly slapstick. It out-GAINAXes the GAINAX show of the season. More Gainax references (and a SZS) references than you can shake a stick at, appliance inspired robot designs, and off the wall comedy. Basically, a girl from space comes down and declares herself a kid's bride. This girl happens to be about 3 feet tall, built like a trash can, vaguely resembles a pair of testicles, wears Asuka's plug suit and wields a mini-gun. The girl turns out to be a robot suit called Kemeko, and of course, out pops a 6 foot tall standard anime hottie. Hilarity ensues.
Aru Majitsu no Index- My second favorite show of the season so far. Standard shounen type show with some excellent worldbuilding and style. A great tit-for-tat fight scene in episode 2 rocked the house, and there's a girl called Railgun that shoots coins at Mach 3. Can't lose! Faltered a bit in Ep 3, but hopefully will recover.
Ga-Rei Zero- Only watched Episode 1, but liked what I saw. Have to say, DID NOT EXPECT THE ENDING OF THE EPISODE AT ALL. I have to watch the second. It featured motorcycle-fu, where a girl named Natsuki with long straight purple hair used a motorcycle instead of her legs to kick shit while she rode on the back of it. Great production values.
Toradora!- Holy shit, a Rie Kugimiya vehicle I like! Hell must hath frozen over. A love... square? Pentagon? RomCom to the core, but a lot more sedate than stuff like Zero no Tsukaima. Very well done, all around so far. Gets the confessing out of the way early. Taiga >>>>>>*Infinity Louise and Nagi. Ugh.
Shikabane-Hime: AKA- Total GAINAX action show. Feels like the team that made Ep 5 of FLCL went "Hey, what if we made a whole series like this?" Over-the-top action in a good way, but not quite as far as TTGL. Keeps within it's genre for now, but I only watched Episode 1.
Kannagi- Amusing little show. Should be watched for it's gorgeous animation quality alone. Nice and quirky and a good cool-down from shows like Ga-Rei 0.
Hyakko- Standard slice of life show 556. Mostly meh. Next.
Still haven't seen any of:
Mouryou no Hako- Creepy yuri show! Have been in a real comedy mood lately, so the shows like this, Ga-Rei and the next one I'll talk about have waited. Really need to watch. Supposedly one of the best of the season.
Kurozuka- Another creep-factor show. No yuri I'm aware of, but also supposed to be really good. Feels supernatural-detectivey.
Michiko to Hachin- Pyro liked it. I'll give it a shot.
Cassern Sins- Never was much of a Cassern fan, but I may check it out.
No interest in:
Tytania- I normally like space-opera, but haven't heard the best of reviews so I'm steering clear with this much on my plate.
Tales of the Abyss- Heard good things, but playing the game instead.
Yorazura Quartet- Yawn.
Nodame Cantible- Yawn!
Clannad- YAWN!
Linebarrels of Iron- I don't think I can say it better than Zac of ANN. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/fall-2008-preview/2008-10-04/zac
Vampire Knight Guilty, Rosario+Vampire S2- NO.
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Kemeko DX- Twisted humor, thoroughly slapstick. It out-GAINAXes the GAINAX show of the season. More Gainax references (and a SZS) references than you can shake a stick at, appliance inspired robot designs, and off the wall comedy. Basically, a girl from space comes down and declares herself a kid's bride. This girl happens to be about 3 feet tall, built like a trash can, vaguely resembles a pair of testicles, wears Asuka's plug suit and wields a mini-gun. The girl turns out to be a robot suit called Kemeko, and of course, out pops a 6 foot tall standard anime hottie. Hilarity ensues.
........
Yes. That will do.
Some of those others sound interesting. What do you mean by "good cool-down" on Kannagi? And is Aru Majitsu no Index bloody violent, or fantasy violent? Or both?
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Kannagi is a mostly a slice of life-ish instant girlfriend type show about a guy who carves a statue out of a piece of a sacred tree that was cut down. The statue then comes alive, inhabited by the god who used to reside in that tree, in cute girl form. Don't be fool by the opening, it's actually really sedate and a good watch. It's a good cool down from high-octane action shows like Ga-Rei.
Index is fantasy violent. If you've seen Naruto or Bleach, or know of them, about that level violent.
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I take it you're reading Negima! in Japanese, Djinn? There's 19 volumes in English so far. And just to further demonstrate how unalike Djinn and I are, Chamo (Kamo) is my least favorite character. Don't find him funny at all.
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Chaos;head- Easily my favorite so far. Take K1 out of Higurashi and plop in Satou from Welcome to the NHK, and put them in high school in Tokyo and you have Chaos;head. Twisted, sometimes funny, good creepy vibe and I CAN'T GET THE DAMN ED OUT OF MY HEAD.
And only to dissapointed you in the ending. Serious, I never thought that Nitro would actually pull that stupid "he is just seeing things" excuse out.
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Niu, fuck you and your spoilers.
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Well Soppy. Manga and anime don't always have to end up the same way. Maybe They'll do something more interesting (i.e. involving more boxcutters).
Michiko to Hachin- Pyro liked it. I'll give it a shot.
Vwhat is dis? Pyro has never heard of this show, let alone said he liked it...
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Well Soppy. Manga and anime don't always have to end up the same way. Maybe They'll do something more interesting (i.e. involving more boxcutters).
Michiko to Hachin- Pyro liked it. I'll give it a shot.
Vwhat is dis? Pyro has never heard of this show, let alone said he liked it...
It was a visual novel, but you'd still think that after all this time he'd watch it with it, right? Guess not.
And must have been someone else. Maybe Cid?
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Niu, fuck you and your spoilers.
So you'll not waste your time watching that sthing.
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Fuck you, thats for me to decide. A constructive way to warn people is to say "The end sucks". Not spoil the damn end for them. I'm still going to watch it. Now I just know the damn end.
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Sounds like the only thing I'll be watching this season is TotA. Nothing else sounds particularly grabbing. TotA doesn't sound particularly grabbing as an anime either... but it's brand loyalty at this point (which is what I imagine Namco is counting on to make even a moderate success, anyway).
@CapK: I've read some of the English volumes waaaaay back when they first came out in America and I thought Chamo (Kamo) was decently funny in the earlier issues, too. Like when he's introduced and all the girls start crowding/petting/tickling him because he's an adorable little ermine and his response is: 'Ah, they've already been charmed by my manliness' (or something to that effect). I also liked his 4th-wall-breaking-like references to RPGs. I find him funny.
Not -everything- about him is funny mind you... it's kind of creepy when he's trying to coerce the girls into kissing Negi for the Pactio cards... like he's directing child porn or something... (not really that much of a metaphor now that I think about it...)
And yes, I've read past where the American release is at this point. It suddenly got really interesting once they finished their DBZ/Naruto-style tournament. Part of it is that they've made Paru and Chiisame main cast members now. With them around to point out ridiculous plot holes or inappropriate reactions/motivations, the series feels like it's lampshading itself every other page. It actually makes the series almost funny, but also allows the serious parts to stand out. I'm kind of impressed.
But yeah, I already know that my tastes are wildly different from everyone's... >.>;;
-Djinn
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TotA- Surprisingly decent, and Karma sounds better too.
To Aru Majitsu no Index- Again, decent so far, just hope the starting arc can be done with in the next episode. Never liked the start much. Oh... WTF at Accelerator's VA, Accelerator's sex is unknown yet, they picked a VA that sounds very much male? And this is when the novel throwing out hints that Accelerator's chance of being a girl is pretty high?
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TotA would be worth watching if they had music roughly as alright as the starting movie and as much over the top choreography as the opening. It wouldn't be good, but it would be roughly the same as watching Advent Children.
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Michiko e Hatchin is good.
TotA removes a lot of the games travel time. A++.
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Hm, where to begin...
Just finished watching Macross 7.
In general, the show is kinda like Daimos, although they at least mix it up a bit. The entire middle of the show is HUR HUR BASARA IS SINGING TO THE ENEMIES WITH NO REAL EFFECT changed up later on to HUR HUR BASARA IS SINGING TO SIVIL WITH NO REAL EFFECT and only gets back to somewhat interesting things nearish the end.
I swear, they play Planet Dance and Assault Love Heart more times combined than there are episodes. In fact, I'd go as far as saying that they're almost played as many times as they're required in any given map in SRWD. Either get some different music or go without it for a while instead of shoving it down our throats -_-
The whole thing with Gamlin/Mylene near the end is garbage also. OH GAMLIN I HAVE BEEN AMBIVALENT TO BASARA FOR HALF THE SERIES BUT I SUDDENLY REALISE THAT I LIKE HIM MORE THAN YOU NOW THAT HE IS PHYSICALLY UNABLE TO ANNOY ME. If that was the direction they wanted to go in, they should have left Gamlin killed off. In fact they should have left him killed off anyway because him surviving that was stupid.
Hmm. Gabil is clearly the best protodeviln, although this was of course a foregone conclusion. Best human is obviously Flower Girl, followed up by Gamlin.
I think... the best moment in the show would have to be... when Basara shoots the huge speaker that I forget the name of through Ivan!Gepelnitch's spaceship's bridge. Hehehe.
At least the show has an ending! Unlike
Dangaioh
oh dangaioh
how can it be possible the likes of this (http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Awr3jvbkjPk) is in reality such a lame show (speaking of which I need to watch that dubbed version sometime, it is presumably greatly superior to the subs I watched)
spoilers: they lose and end up cryogenically frozen/asleep or dead it is not made especially clear. then gil berg gets a promotion.
NEXT
Change Tru Getta ._.
is also ._.
a show with a non-ending ._.
It's good in the middle where stuff is happening! But then stuff stops happening again. And unexplained events occur. A lot.
Also, the Tower gets destroyed. What were they thinking.
In any case, in summary: Good in the middle where Invaders are being exploded and terminater-twoing and suchforth, and most scenes with Corwin/Stenger, and scenes with lots of diverse scrubby robots. Also whenever the Tower is doing anything interesting which is far too little of the time.
Lame most of the rest of the time. Especially the non-ending.
NEXT
Nadesico also suffers from having a non-ending why god WHY AM I INFLICTED WITH SHOWS WITH NON-ENDINGS
Nadesico starts off AWESOME. Good times. It falls to pieces near then end. Tsk. How indeed can you wrap up all the loose plotlines within two episodes? BY NOT DOING IT O HO HO not to mention introducing new ones that don't get completed. Given what I know of PoD from SRW I don't expect ANY of these to get completed in that either.
It's easily the best out of these four shows, but still... disappointing.
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Well Soppy. Manga and anime don't always have to end up the same way. Maybe They'll do something more interesting (i.e. involving more boxcutters).
Michiko to Hachin- Pyro liked it. I'll give it a shot.
Vwhat is dis? Pyro has never heard of this show, let alone said he liked it...
It was a visual novel, but you'd still think that after all this time he'd watch it with it, right? Guess not.
And must have been someone else. Maybe Cid?
Not me, dude. I've never heard of this one.
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To Aru Majitsu no Index- What? They are pulling volume 1 up to 6 episode... SIX episodes?? Fuck this. I am skiping this entirely until the volume 2 is done.
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Someone recommended Ga-Rei Zero to me, so I watched it.
Reaction?
"Blah blah blah generic secret organization fighting generic secret monster menace blah blah Gendo Ikari wannabe blah blah special mission execution with angsty main and OFLI blah blah victory the good guy's celebrate..." "..." "Oh. I see what you did there."
Then episode 3 rolled around and I actually started downright enjoying it. Funny how things turn out. Granted it helps that its just downright pretty.
(Oh, and yuri hype goes ->here<-)
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Someone recommended Ga-Rei Zero to me, so I watched it.
Reaction?
"Blah blah blah generic secret organization fighting generic secret monster menace blah blah Gendo Ikari wannabe blah blah special mission execution with angsty main and OFLI blah blah victory the good guy's celebrate..." "..." "Oh. I see what you did there."
Then episode 3 rolled around and I actually started downright enjoying it. Funny how things turn out. Granted it helps that its just downright pretty.
(Oh, and yuri hype goes ->here<-)
Yeaaah. You don't see the end of the first episode coming at all.
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To Aru sucks.
Michiko e Hatchin subs fuckin' where.
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Finished Code Gaess. Rant engaged! Minor spoilers ahead...
It really couldn't be more obvious that CG is a the result of a horrible corporate brainstorming session. I can picture the entire meeting.
"Okay. What show was popular that hasn't been ripped off of in a while?"
"Well, if we want to appeal to as much as possible, Full Metal Panic gives us military action, mecha and school comedy"
"GREAT! Oh yeah! Death Note was pretty original and popular! Let's steal from that somehow!"
"We can give the main character a ridiculously conditional superpower and also give him an inhuman thought-process."
"Brilliant! By the way, that chick from Elfen Lied was hot. That was popular too, right? Put someone like that chick in the show. But make her talk!"
"Yes sir"
"What should we do about sound effects, sir?"
"Steal them from VOTOMS. No one watched that show anyway"
The first episode is an absolute trainwreck. It manages to be passable for a while, though a hell of a lot of suspension of disbelief is needed. Yep. Everyone is gonna keep all those secrets. No one's gonna give. Nope. No one is human. No one follows orders. No one is loyal. No one makes a damn report. Yep. We're in a time with beam weapons and such, but the Gawain doesn't have a tracking device. Yep. LL cleans out Shirley's entire room, but misses a crumpled piece of paper in a space a foot wide between her desk and table. Etc, etc, etc.
Then episode 22 hits with one of the most laughable, ridiculous, stupid plot twists I've ever seen and it just spirals into a horrible non-ending. Yes, I know there's a second season, but that doesn't excuse the ending for the first series. It's barely even a cliffhanger, it's just a huge dookie laid on the people watching. The only thing it had going for it was that LL remained an unapoligetic bastard to the end. But man, I love how the THREE things LL lists while looking at Euphy aren't picked up, but the "Kill all 11's" is.
The school stuff is utterly pointless and only reinforces my belief that the show is just the byproduct of committee thinking. Shirley needed to not exist. Nina, Rivalz and everyone else were pointless and overused. Milly was at least interesting in her scant few dialogues with LL, and was pretty underused. It really could have done better if her character was combined with Shirley's. Kallen was the highlight of these, but the thing she was good for, the subtle tit-for-tat between her and LL, was thrown out the window before the first half was through. Her blind faith in Zero made sense and made for a better, if less likable, character though.
CC was just more annoying than anything else and felt tacked on. Order of the Black Knights were pretty much cardboard. As far as Britannia characters, these were mostly passable, but there were too many to make any real difference. Bonus points for Lloyd, who was the single character I enjoyed throughout because he just didn't give a damn, mirroring my feelings exactly.
It's almost like the show didn't want to succeed. Granted, with the ridiculous amounts of pandering to nearly every trope in the anime medium, it was near impossible for the show not to do well.
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The only thing it had going for it was that LL remained an unapoligetic bastard to the end. But man, I love how the THREE things LL lists while looking at Euphy aren't picked up, but the "Kill all 11's" is.
IIRC, Lulu's Geass JUST HAPPENED to "upgrade" to permanent status when he made the kill 11s remark. Yeah, Geass is the most rediculously contrived show ever, by a magnitude of 10.
Also!
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-11-05/kyoto-animation-munto-to-get-new-tv-anime
Well, it should make Soppy happy at least, I think.
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I saw. I doubt it'll mean it'll look nearly as good as the OVA eps are. Granted, those aren't entirely coherant. Hopefully they'll at least put out the third and last ep >.>
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Negima manga - finally finished all of this series that exists at the moment. I honestly didn't expect that I'd get this far.
The only real praise I have for it is Akamatsu's attention to little details of his fantasy world. The scope of this series is ridiculously huge, only outdone by the size of its cast.
There are quite a number of flaws, with 90% of the offensiveness tied up in Akamatsu's propensity for fanservice. Arguably, this is the series strongest selling point, unfortunately.
Apart from the traps that all shounen anime fall into, the series is reasonably addictive fluff. Also, can't beat the yuri fanservice.
SPOILER, not that anyone cares!:
While it hasn't been spelled out in big bold letters yet, the series is about to reveal how Negi and Asuna are actually related. If this sends the series in the direction where Asuna and Negi -do not- become a creepy pedophilia-laden couple, it could really help the series not be trash (thus elevating back to its preferred status as 'unoffensive fluff'). However, unlike in an American series, just because Negi ends up being Asuna's nephew, it doesn't mean there's no chance for a creepy (creepier, since before it was just shoutacon) pairing. On the other hand, if they use this to take the relationship down the non-romantic familial-love path, it could really improve my opinion of the series.
END SPOILER
I still like the Pactio cards a lot, kiss more girls, Negi! Better yet, people -other- than Negi could make some Pacts.
-Djinn
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Am I the only person who think the author brought out the whole "they are all related" deal just for the sole purpose of incest??? It really felt tacked on for some alternate purpose.
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If you've gotten this far and are still squicky on the whole age thing... well, you should've known what you were getting into.
***Spoilers***
The Negi and Asuna being related thing is a nice twist on what you were expecting up to this point. I don't think it'll mean a pairing, because I've always felt that their relationship to this point was more brother/sister than a romantic one. It was only the whole main character syndrome thing that made me think otherwise. I'm guessing it's gonna be Nodoka at this point, unless something happens.
A few other people have pactios. Granted, they're minor characters. The only other mage around that can have one is, well, Konoka. I'm sure that we'll see the inevitable Konoka/Setsuna pactio. It'll happen.
************
LOL GameFAQs. Someone was trying to make the argument that Lelouch and Light from Deathnote aren't similar at all because their motivations are different. I countered by saying that trying to disregard massive similarities by a difference of motivations is like saying RahXephon isn't an Eva ripoff because RahXephon is a love story and Eva is a coming of age story. They countered with the gem OMG RAHXEPHON ISN'T AN EVA RIPOFF.
Oh GameFAQs. How you amuse me.
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Oranges are nothing like Oranges Sopko you judgmental fuck. Stop being such a giant gaping hairy anus.
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Oranges are nothing like Oranges Sopko you judgmental fuck. Stop being such a giant gaping hairy anus.
Seeing this about something tangentially related to Code Geass is amusing.
As for Negima, Asuna's behavior has been more fraternal than romantic towards Negi for a long, long time now. Well, strictly speaking she's never actually behaved romantically towards him, but rather she was the Naru-style tsundere who beats up her designated love interest. *twitch* Sooo glad Akamatsu shifted her over to more of an overprotective big sis mode, she's about a million times more likable now.
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Nadesico Prince of Darkness:
It's good, but... it feels more like it was just a platform for all the show's characters to show up on (a la Advent Children). Not that there's anything wrong with that, really. Also raises more questions than it answers, not that it answered many.
Trigun:
Pretty great. Nice to see my opinion of it based on only two episodes was accurate. It does fall off somewhat when humour takes a backseat.
Macross 7 Specials:
Fleet of the Strongest Women-
Nicely ludicrous. Needed more episodes of this calibre in the series proper. Also the big ol' speaker pod makes a reappearance and you can't really go past that.
Encore-
The first of these is 'let's give you Basara backstory and then imply that it was all a lie' and the second is 'Millia acts like a moron'. Not the most worthwhile things to watch ever.
Galaxy is Calling Me-
Matches the style of the series completely. Whether this is a good thing or not is up to the beholder.
Dynamite 7-
Pretty good.
Just about all of the segments devoted to the non-Basara M7 people are completely worthless in the grand scheme of things, which is somewhat perturbing, only Gamlin has any effect on anything relevant and it's only minor.
Mostly it's just refreshing to see different things happening. Also different music which was drastically needed.
Macross Zero:
Pretty. Really, really pretty. Extremely pretty.
The storyline verges somewhat into Super territory which is annoying, and it plays minor havoc with the Macross continuity (although this is more of a Macross tradition than anything, really... only Plus hasn't interfered, as far as I can remember). Taken on its own it's great.
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Soul Eater- New chpater out. And we finally get to see Soul's past! But who cares!! Eibon finally back stabs Archne, at last!! Gah, what a cliff hanger, Mosquito vs. Eibon next chapter... with Kid coming by, who happens to have Brew. Yeah, Eibon meets Brew, I forsee some overkills.
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Utena- Started this, blame Shale. Just finished the first episode. Impression? The art style's very interesting, and the show's well put together. I will be rating the episodes on a 1-10 The Writers need to get Laid scale (1 being Zenny, 10 being Nomura and Zenny's love child), and a 1-10 The Writers need to do less Drugs scale (1 being merely drugged out, 10 being XS plot writers)
Episode 1: WNTGS: 7- Gender bending, blatant lesbian fanservice, the stuff with the 'bride', etc. Pretty fun start. TWNTDLDS: 8. They started off weird enough, using the insanely pretty art style in a matter that can is over the top even by anime standards.
Episode 2: WNTGS: 7- As oversexed as the first episode. Utena is literally having to fend the ladies off with a stick. TWNTDLDS: 7.5- Less crack induced, though this says nothing. It's just clearly setting up the fun for later. Utena I'm liking as a main so far, the green haired villain is so pathetically bad and over the top that he makes Seifer look credible. The scene with the student council taking about bringing revolution to the world while flowers are everywhere in a giant floating castle is pretty funny/entertaining.
1/17/2008>[21:33:57] * Shale reads your comments on Utena.
[<11/17/2008>[21:34:29] <Shale> Don't worry about the show hyping Saionji. He's so incredibly not the villain.
[<11/17/2008>[21:35:32] > His failure is so massive and complete that his existence is only there so Utena looks better by comparsion.
[<11/17/2008>[21:36:11] <Shale> Not just her!
[<11/17/2008>[21:36:23] > He rolls up to a Seifer/T-ELOS rap battle, and merely stands there. He fails so much that they quit rapping in disgust and commit mutual suicide merely to escape his presence.
[<11/17/2008>[21:36:24] <Shale> He will do the same for other characters later on. This is intentional.
[<11/17/2008>[21:37:07] > however his failure is so complete that they accidently give themselves immortality and spend eternity calling plays for the Eagles.
[<11/17/2008>[21:37:44] > And that's before he speaks. Hence he's been hilarious so far.
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I will be particularly interested to see what you think of episode 7.
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Oh yeah, this reminds me a bit of Asellus's quest. Probably the rose/omnisexual/subservient princess theme.
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Funny, I would have said Asellus' quest reminds me of Utena... but I'm not actually sure which one was created first.
Again, not really 'Anime', but I started reading the fan-translations of the Suzumiya Haruhi light novels. The writing's pretty good for a fan-made production, though a bit stilted at times. Less often than you'd expect, though.
As for the actual content of the Light novels - so far it hasn't had anything that wasn't in the Anime's main plot. I really enjoyed the Anime's main plot, but one of the selling points of the Anime was that it inter-spliced non-chronological storylines in-between the episodes, allowing the characters more time to develop before reaching the climax.
The Light Novels haven't done this so far, but it's a fun read nonetheless. Still one of the more interesting anime set-ups that I've seen, and does a decent job of poking fun at anime tropes, even if it falls into them itself at times.
I haven't done any research myself yet, but one of my students keeps talking about her favorite manga 'Bloody Monday' - does anyone know if this is any good?
-Djinn
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Utena's original run was April 2 to December 24 in 1997. Saga Frontier was released on July 11, 1997.
So the answer is... neither came first. <_< Well, the Utena manga started in 96, but IIRC that was more conventional plotwise.
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Legend of Lemnear: 60 or so minutes, and more nipples than you're likely to see in... in... actually, I don't think I've ever seen an anime with that many nipples. In Lemnear's first appearance in the desert she's wearing a cloak and a metal bikini. I don't think there's a female character wearing that much for the rest of the show. Plot: the champion of bronze and the champion of silver are jealous that they came in second and third, so they killzorz the champion of gold with their swards and nipples.
Choice diologue: "I know your weak point! It's that jewel in the middle of your forehead!"
Well, that's one bad anime down! Up next...Cybernetics Guardian, perhaps?
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Episode 3: WNTGL: 9. Incest is now thrown into the mix. Neph wants Ciato and throws a ballroom party partly to get her attention. Strago obviously is bitterly jealous that his love Neph is looking at another person, so throws some dress eater on the timid Mia, who is saved at the last second by a crossdressing Ciato, who sweeps her off her feet in front of everyone while CT fangirls in the backround. TWNTDLDS: 2. Surprisingly straightforward. Gets those two points for crossover bonus value points with the incest stuff.
Episode 4: WTNGL: 2. Not perverted at all. I'm shocked. Just a basic study episode with Strago clearly having a breakdown because Mia is so shy and beloved. Generic Male who's name I haven't even caught (We'll just call him VSM until he does something) mostly exists to look like the token pretty guy. Ciato doesn't do much this episode, it's all about Strago and his constant drama and overacting. TWNTDLDS: 5. Strago's breakdowns are a bit weird, but not much compared to the first two episodes.
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Stuff I'm watching in my college's anime club:
Soul Eater - I thought I was going to dislike Soul Eater, but I've been proved wrong.
Clannad - Is downright depressing at times.
Code Geass (Season 1) - Similar to Death Note, only with robots.
Haibane Renmei - A really good anime. Slow at first, but picks up after a couple episodes.
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei - Insane, random, and extremely funny.
Outside of anime club:
Wolf's Rain - I'm loving it so far.
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... so I tried out Naruto again after a long absence. Manga only, I'm not touching the anime. I read something like the latest 150 chapters in one sitting.
Kishimoto is focusing really heavily on non-Naruto characters, which is interesting.
Also, people start dying. I feel like the series is finally making progress.
Itachi made a much better villain than I gave Kishimoto credit for being able to write. First I genuinely found myself hating him, even though I don't particularly care about Sasuke... and by the end of the arc I really found myself moved by Sasuke and Itachi's situation. That's pretty impressive considering how much apathy I had for both them up to this point.
In short, Naruto is a decent manga as a whole, but I cannot understand anyone who enjoys it weekly, as it generally takes 10 chapters just to find out that the characters have been trapped in an illusion and get on with the story. To be fair, the illusion was -really- well-drawn and pretty.
Jiraiya's back story was cool, and the zOMG 'destiny' parallels between Naruto and Pain that came out of that arc are not lost on me. For all that I poke fun at it, it seems like it'll lead up to an interesting fight.
Yay, pretty fights.
-Djinn
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Episode 5 was solid good times. Miki's a good guy at heart but has a little self centeredness to him. And good fucking god is Nanami Strago. STOP HITTING ON THE YOUNG BOYS STRAGO, IT IS NOT RIGHT. Thanks Utena, you just shattered WNTGL and TWNTDLDS scales with Nanami's episode.
Edit: Dear lord Saoniji fails more than DL Vaynard.
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Funny, I would have said Asellus' quest reminds me of Utena... but I'm not actually sure which one was created first.
That's an easy one...Rose of Versailles comes in first by about 20 years.
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Funny, I would have said Asellus' quest reminds me of Utena... but I'm not actually sure which one was created first.
That's an easy one...Rose of Versailles comes in first by about 20 years.
Rose of Versailles does not have VAMPIRES! Actually, even though RoV and Utena are somewhat similar visually, they don't strike me the same in atmosphere at all. Utena is far more... abstract. Asellus' chapter is a bit (a lot) less abstract than Utena, but seems a bit more abstract than RoV. This could be because SaGa Frontier's script is just altogether sparse, giving an illusion of abstraction.
Rose of Versailles just seems less similar to both of them in a lot of ways that I wouldn't go so far as to call it a main influence on both of them. Well, it is REALLY visually similar to Utena, I suppose.
I want to say that Takarazuka theatre predates even Rose of Versailles if we're looking only for the inspiration of the visual style, though.
-Djinn
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Done with the first disk. I really liked that last duel. Saionji needs to have more brief cameos, he's been really funny in a 'oh god shut up you scrub' way.
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Episode 5 was solid good times. Miki's a good guy at heart but has a little self centeredness to him. And good fucking god is Nanami Strago. STOP HITTING ON THE YOUNG BOYS STRAGO, IT IS NOT RIGHT. Thanks Utena, you just shattered WNTGL and TWNTDLDS scales with Nanami's episode.
That's most Nanami episodes, really, though you might have found that out by now (has Dona Dona Dona happened yet?)
Also, to other people: is Rose of Versailles out on DVD like anywhere? I've never been able to find it and would like to watch it.
EDIT: Well, hey, I guess I could talk about what I'm actually watching. Still haven't got ahold of Red Garden's last couple episodes. Argh. Finished Simoun. It deserves more rambling than I have time for at present, so for now I will just say that it is good.
Grenadier: Ahahaha. Wild ARMs heroine + samurai and Gainax bounce (minus actual Gainax). It's total nonsense but has the decency to realize this fact. There are worse time wasters out there.
So, was poking around on TV Links to see which links weren't actually dead and came across Allison + Lillia. Someone recomended this to me but I can't recall who (Pyro? Soppy?) Only thirteen episodes, so I may as well give it a shot over the weekend.
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There's a complete torrent of RoV out there, but no English DVDs that I know of (and there probably won't ever be, sadly).
Also, no Dona Dona Dona yet. Heck, he hasn't even seen Curried High Trip, so the Nanami weirdness has barely begun.
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Sadness. I suppose I'll have to ask again whenever I get a computer that wouldn't be crushed into powder by me trying to store the series on it.
Also, I must ask: Super, are you or are you not digging the crazy Japanese prog rock? Follow-up question if the answer is no: what is wrong with you?
Also also: hype for the egg episode goes here.
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Music's been good. I'm really looking forward to watching more of it, core cast is a lot of fun besides Anthy.
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Looking forward to Super's reaction to the movie!
ef: A Tale of Melodies - Trippiness continues. Artsiness continues. Drama continues. Great character work continues. Pyro happiness continues.
Kannagi: Someone suggested this to me. The execution is neat enough in some respects but the base concept of a harem with a loserish male lead is still unpalatable.
Ga-Rei Zero: Episode 5 dragged a lot (100% accurate bottle throwing aside). 6 brought back the action-packed well-animated show I enjoy.
Allison to Lillia: Really not my style right now, but I'll check it out.
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So, was poking around on TV Links to see which links weren't actually dead and came across Allison + Lillia. Someone recomended this to me but I can't recall who (Pyro? Soppy?) Only thirteen episodes, so I may as well give it a shot over the weekend.
That'd be me. It's actually 26 eps.
Rose of Versailles is not out on DVD. Nearly every company's wanted to bring it over, but no one wanted to bite the bullet on the enormous losses that would ensue.
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Utena music... the dude who does the instrumental music also did Nurse Angel Ririka SOS. That always throws me off when I watch the latter.
Like this:
http://media.putfile.com/Ririka
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Rose of Versailles is not out on DVD. Nearly every company's wanted to bring it over, but no one wanted to bite the bullet on the enormous losses that would ensue.
Damnable companies, with their fixation on "profits." How dare they deny me swordgirl anime! I mean, who do they think is the center of the universe here? Someone other than me? Poppycock!
EDIT: On a related note, I guess my only option for getting Utena these days is eBay stalking. Blah.
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Okay, I'm offically a fan of the show after the Curry episode. Saionji's bits were priceless, as was Nanami in general.
Nanami is so, so Strago. That kitten bit wasn't shocking but it fit the character pretty well.
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EDIT: On a related note, I guess my only option for getting Utena these days is eBay stalking. Blah.
There was a store at Otakon that had most of the discs, and they have an online presence. Lemme see if I can find the URL...
...there we go. http://sfcontinuum.com/dianpr.html
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Biiiitchin', thanks Shale. Looks like everything but the second volume of the opening arc is there. Will likely order stuff when I get home.
And Super: it says a lot about the show that I don't despise Nanami in spite of her drowning a kitten (cat-killing generally earns someone a permanent black mark in the Cid's revenge journal). She's just hypnotically dense.
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Bwhahahaha. Ohhhh Sci-Fi Continuum. I'll forever loathe that woman.
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Eh, Soppy?
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SF Continuum was one of my accounts. There was a woman who worked there that was insufferable.
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Disk two: Done. Touga talked a good game but man did he fail it up when it came to actually duelling. Rather enjoyed the end of the season/disk, Utena's emo phase was just long enough to be annoying without making you hate anyone. And Wakaba did something useful besides random near pantyshots and lesbian fanservice, I'm amazed.
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In case I haven't mentioned it yet, Code Geass R2 complete. Oh what a wonderful, horrible ride it's been. While remaining a Kallen fanboy throughout. Oh, and Orange-kun. And... other things. My high levels in "Suspension of Disbelief" are the key to my enjoyment of a series that could probably be the definition of Refuge in Audacity. If the series was a train wreck, the last few episodes were the horrifying finish where the chemical tank cars all explode in a skin melting cocktail of a gas cloud. And it was beautiful. Especially Lelouch Hat.
Of course, I could complain about a lot of things, such as Lelouch's apparent inability to just plain out and out lose in R2, Rolo making me hate him and then not, and the pointlessness of Shirley somehow not mattering to me... yargh. Spinzaku, Laughzaku, Runzaku, Roofzaku, Zerozaku... need to lurk on /m/ moar I think.
Feels like the weakest of the 3 big recent mech shows, but I still enjoyed the silliness a great deal, and liked the mech designs in general. Can't wait to see what SRW can do with the franchise. Maybe a GAR Suzaku? Guren also needs to be hax.
Speaking of mechs, I'm currently downloading ep. 8 of Gundam 00's new season on Messiah's sad, sad internet. Still very much in it for the mechs, Ali, and Feldt, though MISTAH BUSHIDO continues the Neo Roanoke tendency of making the Char into more of a mockery. Though probably far more intentional this time. Some weirdness with Soma, though, that I really can't see where they're going with it for the next almost 20 episodes, they really need to not mess that up. Needs moar Patrick as well.
Macross Frontier also completed via Lunar subs. It's great in the way that only Macross can be, full of drama, fairly well done characters and love triangles, moments of incredible badassery, and a final episode that basically hits you in the face with almost everything likable about the franchise. So much referencing of earlier entries in the franchise - Ozma blasting Fire Bomber while in combat was pretty great, and Bobby was an obvious parody of the classic 'bridge bunny' tradition. Sadly, it's hard to recommend to friends in general, since Macross isn't something I can see the majority of my friends (even the big anime fans) liking a lot. Movie should be a good thing though, given the potential for pitchfork-and-torch riots if it isn't good.
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Now I feel the need to pop in. One Piece is terrible. The fact that characters never die just accentuates the suckage. For example, in the last Chapter of the English manga, Usopp (a normal human being, no special powers whatsoever), is beaten repeatedly by a guy with a 4-ton baseball bat. He lives. And manages to defeat his opponent. THAT is bad writing.
This is a problem with Shonen manga in general (do any of the Leaf Village Genin in Naruto ever die? NO), not just One Piece. But mentioning One Piece as a perfectly fine comic is just fail.
While I don't tend to like to debate quality too much since it tends to come down to opinion, I'm calling shenanigans here.
Usopp is not a normal human being by any stretch of the imagination. He is a ridiculously good marksman, and has exceptional durability, like pretty much anyone who is not a mook. This tracks back to his introductory arc, where he takes a stone hammer to the head, completely undefended, and survives without being rendered incapable.
The cast of One Piece is just plain durable. All of them are. Usopp is LESS extraordinary, but he is still fairly superhuman (and, it should be noted, the son of Yassop who is a member of Shank's crew).
So, if you're going to complain and call me for failure, pick a less stupid example. I'm fine with you disagreeing and will respect that. But pick a decent example or just say you don't like it. <3
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Huh. After making the Utena order, I received the following message in the confirmation email: "This email is to confirm the receipt of your order from Science Fiction Continuum. We will be out of our offices until September 2. Your order will be processed at that time."
Not encouraging, I must say.
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That's....uh...yeah. They seemed fine in person!
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Been watching some of my DVD backlog with my comp out.
Finished Slayers Try. I can see where people are coming from now when they say it's not that great. The first half is pretty damn good, but then it suffers from a spell of baaaad filler, and the ending is just kinda meh. The first half though is great, even if Valgaav is just a loser. Jillas rocks throughout, and Filia is good in the first half. The interplay between Xellos and Filia needed to last the whole time.
Slayers Return- Meh movie installment. Started fine, needed to end about a half hour earlier.
Dirty Pair Original: Flight 005 Conspiracy- Good stuff. Classic Dirty Pair, but with a suprising bloody edge to it. Some of the better Dirty Pair plot I've seen too. Still, it shocked me to have so much direct violence and gore in it. Dirty Pair is usually pretty indirect with it. Moreso Flash than Original, but still.
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Just finished Wolf's Rain. I don't know what to make of the ending, but I still really like this show. It starts off excellent, stays that way for most part if you don't count the four recap episodes, and then almost falls apart near the end. Wolf's Rain has an excellent soundtrack, though.
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Wolf's Rain has an excellent soundtrack, though.
That was my favorite part.
Also, I liked the Flower Girl's nifty eye design. Stylish, and I don't know where it originated from, but I always attribute it to Wolf's Rain since it was the first place I saw the inverted-eye-coloration thing. Pretty sure it was copied from -somewhere-, but Wolf's Rain is the earliest example I know of.
-Djinn
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Wolf's Rain has an excellent soundtrack, though.
That was my favorite part.
Also, I liked the Flower Girl's nifty eye design. Stylish, and I don't know where it originated from, but I always attribute it to Wolf's Rain since it was the first place I saw the inverted-eye-coloration thing. Pretty sure it was copied from -somewhere-, but Wolf's Rain is the earliest example I know of.
-Djinn
I think Cheza (the Flower Girl) is the first character I've seen with the inverted-eye-coloration thing.
Next up: Digimon Adventure (aka Digimon, Season 1)
Last time I watched Digimon was back when it used be on Fox Kids. I was originally going to watch the dub, but I changed my mind at the last minute and decided to watch the original Japanese version.
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Ah, that's right, her name was Cheza!
Have fun with Digimon Adventure - I hear that the anime is cheesy, but standard, shounen fare - but dear GOD do not play the video games (that's a mistake I wish someone had warned me against).
-Djinn
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Same here. I played the first Digimon World for the Playstation a long time ago. The game was downright awful and plain unfair. I always got the turd Digimon. Ugh. Thankfully, it was the last Digimon game I ever played.
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Great Teacher Onizuka is awesome. That is all.
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Yes. Yes it is. And the anime is the least awesome installment of GTO. Read the manga and see the live action.
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Best thing I can hype for Wolf's Rain: WALRUS BATTLE.
Found that it is a very easy anime to make fun of when watched in a group, and the film major across the hall has a great deal of contempt for it, it seems.
Hopefully, my memories of Digimon Adventure aren't too colored by nostalgia, and it actually will be enjoyable for you to watch.
Watching either Black Lagoon or The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi during January anime club.
Also got first 13 episodes of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha from a friend soooo... yeah.
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I watched the first episode of Digimon Adventure and I still found it enjoyable. Granted, I saw the original version. Taichi's (Tai) voice took some time getting used to and the music is different from the American version. I can't go back to "Digimon, Digital Monsters, Digimon are the champions..." after watching the original opening.
As for anime club, I'm on episode 12 of Soul Eater, Clannad, Code Geass, and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and episode 13 of Haibane Renmei. Kaiba will replace Haibane Renmei next semester.
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Nothing can replace Haibane Renmei~
Ultradude: Black Lagoon > Haruhi, though I may be the only one here who thinks that.
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My anime club just voted last night; we've got Haruhi approved for j-term, and Gurren Lagann and Beck for the spring term, unless last minute votes can push Yakitate Japan or Nodame Cantabile over Beck.
Watched Paprika at club as well. Very Satoshi Kon, trippy, but still makes sense and has a definite point. Worth watching just for the colorful visuals if nothing else.
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My anime club just voted last night; we've got Haruhi approved for j-term, and Gurren Lagann and Beck for the spring term, unless last minute votes can push Yakitate Japan or Nodame Cantabile over Beck.
Watched Paprika at club as well. Very Satoshi Kon, trippy, but still makes sense and has a definite point. Worth watching just for the colorful visuals if nothing else.
Yakitate Japan >>> BECK.
Haruhi and Black Lagoon are both pretty good, though arguably Haruhi is a kind of cultural phenomenon, especially for American anime culture. Love it or hate it, it's -really- permeated the intarwebs.
-Djinn
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I'm of the opposite mind.
Beck > Yakitate Japan. Beck simply rocks. One of my top 5 anime.
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"Anime about bread" doesn't seem to have gotten much interest. One junior who's going to Germany for the spring voted for it just so that it wouldn't be an option when she was a senior, though admittedly the voting was close for second place - 3 votes each for Yakitate and Nodame Cantabile, 4 for Beck. Gurren Lagann had like... 8 or 9 after we showed an AMV with Be a Man from Mulan. May even show some Mazinger, Getter, Godannar, etc. clips before TTGL to give the club at large a little more background, since most of them aren't really versed in the super robot tradition.
Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing Yakitate, but Beck interested me a little more. A friend of mine being a huge Beck fan probably helped as well, while I don't really know much about Yakitate.
Our club has already gone through Gunslinger Girl, Wolf's Rain, and Genshiken this year. Hoping to get Code Geass and, if it's all out by then, Gundam 00 for next year.
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All Manga
One Piece: Continues to build to epicness.
Bleach: Continues to suck.
Naruto: Continues to be... Naruto, I guess.
Hunter x Hunter: Continues to be plain awesome and enrage me with upcoming break.
Ruroni Kenshin: Got bored and needed something to read. Saw the three book collections that Viz put out and decided to give it another look. Despite the rage which it will give the Sopkos... I'm actually enjoying it a lot more than I remember. Definitely beats the anime by a significant margin thus far. The art is pretty and the character interactions are enjoyable. Kinda curious why I never bothered with it earlier.
D. Gray Man: Debating how much I want to continue this. Enjoyable but not great, thus far?
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All Manga
D. Gray Man: Debating how much I want to continue this. Enjoyable but not great, thus far?
After Shadow Hearts, I was thinking of starting D. Gray Man - it looks pretty, and I like the idea of an alternate history with exorcists.
Is the anime any good?
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Yakitate Japan was hands-down the most useful manga I've ever read for understanding how people think about food in Japan. Yakitate Japan exaggerates things... but only a little.
It was also funny.
BECK is a dirty lie. No one in Japan knows anything about American music that isn't Beyonce or Justin Timberlake. Or the Beatles, but that's not American.
-Djinn
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Djinn: No idea. This is just the closest place to where I can put down manga. >_>
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D Gray man Manga is okay. Didn't touch the anime.
Being a fan of both Yakitate and Beck, I'm of the mind that objectively, Beck>Yakitate, but in an anime club setting beck loses slightly whereas Yakitate being more episodic and goofy rises up a notch. I'd still vote Beck, though. It does rock.
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I've only read the first volume of the D.Gray-Man manga and I thought it was so-so. Allen reminds me of Edward Elric.
My anime club is going to have a Miyazaki movie night this Sunday. We voted on Porco Rosso and Nausicaa.
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BECK is a dirty lie. No one in Japan knows anything about American music that isn't Beyonce or Justin Timberlake. Or the Beatles, but that's not American.
-Djinn
Beck is more about how the music industry in Japan is stagnant and formulaic. (And of course, making good music and an awesome coming of age/slice of life story)
The band who did Beck's songs actually did one of the manga songs (Baby Star) some years after the anime finished. It's better than all the ones in the anime. Only place I could find it was Youtube, but it's definately Husking Bee.
EDIT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdjXW-9RCW4
Linking Baby Star, because anyone who enjoyed Beck should listen to it. The video is just spliced together by the person who posted the video.
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Objection in the presumption that Americans (or westerners in general) think about music more than Beyonce and Justin Timberlake either. Really really passionate people about music are few and far between. Look at the DL and its music habits. It might not be Justin and Beyonce, but there is a very prominent trend to video game music which with how big game nerds is ~= the same thing (Video game music sucks in case you didn't know). Edit - Disclaimer of course we do have a nice chunk of people that do give shit and really try with music.
Yakitate Japan is really funny, but I can sympathise with it being something you wouldn't really want to sink a consistent amount of time into. It is something to sit down and just chain watch until it is gone, not to watch in serial in my mind. lacks the substance to really want to watch it weekly.
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I'm currently watching Lucky Star. I love it so far :)
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Unless Beck is about Beck, it's still wasted potential.
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I have a backlog of manga I need to read through. Right now, I'm reading a lot of xxxHolic so I catch up with Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle.
Currently reading: xxxHolic 6
Current progress in Tsubasa: Vol 13
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Toaru Majitsu no Index- こ...壊れたのね 岡本さん さすが百合子ちゃん.....
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New Getter Robo
Euhh... why does so much of the newer Getta Robo stuff end up so disappointing. Can't really recommend a show where the best feature is the standard fighting music. Will concede that it does do a couple of interesting things, but on the whole really mehish. Also Hayato goes from insane psychopath to not-insane not-psychopath within one episode for no readily explained reason. Also non-ending. Also the pseudogore that I've seen it hyped for is far, far tamer than Tru Change's.
Full Metal Panic
Is pretty pretty. The story begins to fall to pieces a bit near the end, though. I found it highly enjoyable in any case. Now I need to wait indeterminately until the store restocks the other two serieses ._.
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Watched Porco Rosso for the first time and Nausicaa for the second time.
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So I ended up getting engrossed in the D. Gray-man anime.
It's horrible fluff most of the time, but the psycho Batman-esque villains are great fun to watch and keep you interested.
Also, it's another 'alternate history' / 'historical fantasy' story, so I'm digging the visual style, even if there's very little to suggest the time period outside of the aesthetics.
Also, Miranda Lotto is really easy to empathize with, so I suppose the writers are doing -something- right with their characters.
Still, it's ridiculously -meh- for how popular it is. That said, I still like it and I'm looking forward to the conclusion. I'm on Episode 43-ish if anyone follows this series and has any comments, positive or negative, they'd like to add/warn me about.
In the DL!
Allen Walkter: Well, Allen is pretty awesome. He has the most variety of moves of the entire cast - he can attack ranged, up close, multiple targets at once, not to mention his Hamedo-like blocking abilities. He's also got a parasite-type Innocence, so he gets immunity to Akuma POIZN! Special bonus points for having the Eye That Sees Demons, which is kind of broken. Being the main, he gets the highest number of kills, certainly.
Kanda Yuu: Despite being an ass, he's another versatile one. Mostly a close-range swordsman, he has a few magic tricks (and multi-target moves) that he can do with his Innocence. Kind of average on speed for an Exorcist, but his ridiculous recovery speed means that he's pretty durable overall. The team could probably do without him.
Linali Lee: Has the feeling of token girl. She gets magic boots for her Innocence. You know what that means - she's the speedy/evasive one! She has no real multi-target abilities to speak of, but she should get enough turns to keep up with the boys. Arguably immune to ground-based attacks while she's using her level 2 Innocence. Not a powerhouse, though.
Lavi: Favorite character, he's essentially the Big Guy, despite his appearance. He wields the Giant Hammer that grows larger on command, which while decently fast, he's certainly the slowest of the Exoricists. He's also the only one who can use more than one Element, plus he knows some low-level First Aid, so he's all-around useful.
Bookman: Finally, a Healer! He's the wise old man-type, who can supposedly kick some ass, but the only thing we've seen him do is Heal people. He's good at it though, which is awesome considering that there's not a lot of ways to heal yourself in the D. Gray-man universe.
Alestair Crowley: Vampire-guy! He's really a nice dude, and he only drinks Akuma blood, so it's okay. He has a parasite-type Innocence that takes the form of his teeth, so he's definitely a short-range, single-target fighter, whose not even particularly accurate. His usefulness comes from the fact that he's one of the fastest characters, that all of his attacks drain HP, and that they often cause ID on Akuma. Note that he's useless against non-Akuma, but being one of the few characters who can keep his HP up makes him useful enough.
Miranda Lotto: Her Innocence is a Clock. As can be expected, she fills all the roles your average Time Mage does - she can speed things up, slow things down, Reset an entire battle, form an impenetrable barrier out of Time/Space such that anything that passes through it suddenly reverts back to initial state of nothingness (okay that last one's kind of new). More importantly, she can turn back time in a localized area for a short amount of time such that wounds and other injuries revert back to normal. However, once she stops using this effect, all the wounds and injuries received come rushing back to the recipient all at once. Better hope you're close to the Inn.
Daisya Barry: Temp! SPOILERS! He doesn't make it to the end of the series! END SPOILERS! He uses a sound-based Innocence, so most of his skills are effectively ITE. He's also ridiculously fast. Not particularly durable though. You only have him for one mission, but he's memorable enough - and good for when you have him!
Noise Mari: Blind and as such relies on MT attacks. Slow, durable type who uses mostly physical attacks and not a lot of tricks (or personality! or screentime!).
Komui Lee: Not an Exorcist! He's Linali's big brother! ...and leader of one of the main branches of the Black Order! He sends the characters out on missions, but he can do some fighting too. Sort of. He makes robots (he calls them Komuin) that tend to be overall useless, but never fail to wreck destruction to the area. Since they are uncontrollable and often attack allies, it's best to leave them out of the party. They -are- capable of healing, which is nice, but it doesn't make up for the indiscriminate damage they cause. Could be useful in sections where you don't have a full party.
Finders: But a better option would be the Finders! They tend to be seen as nameless (useless) recruits in the war against the Millenium Earl, but if you don't ever bring them along, you're likely to never find more Innocence fragments! They can use a weak-level Barrier skill to protect the party or to stun an Akuma. They also make great back-up healers if you don't have Bookman or Miranda around. Unfortunately, they tend to die to a sneeze and have no immunities to Akuma POIZN!
Generals: A group of 5 temps that come and go throughout the plot. They are ridiculously overpowered and tend to leave just before you have to fight a really hard boss, so don't rely on them!
Akuma: They have a range of abilities and basically act as Random encounters. The 'Level Two' Akuma are slightly more difficult and range from 'pushover' to 'badass' as Bosses. Since Innocence is designed to be specifically an Anti-Akuma weapon, these guys end up with lots of penalties against the main cast. Some of the better developed characters tend to be Akuma.
Noah Clan: Sucks to be an Exorcist fighting these guys. They're supervillains without any real weaknesses. Since they're still actually Humans, Allen won't kill them (think STactics Kyril), so you'd better hope that someone else is around to land the final blow.
Millenium Earl: Well, I haven't reached the Final Boss yet, so who knows? But he's pretty badass and psycho in plot scenes, so I'm hopeful.
...That was more fun than I was expecting it to be. I had just wanted to make a joke about Allen being immune to Akuma POIZN! and it spiraled out of control to the point where I think I ended up making a rough outline for a D.Gray-man RPG...
-Djinn
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ef: A tale of Melodies.
Episode 10.
;_;
It was expected, but it still hurt.
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Ocean Waves- An early 90's Ghibli movie not directed by either Miyazaki or Takahata. A friend of mine wrote about this a while ago, and after reading the article I got a copy of it from him. Finally got around to watching it and it was... amazing. Very straightforward, simple story. Almost a cinema verite style movie. No supernatural elements, just a real story. Great characters, great theme, if you can find it, watch it.
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Rune Soldier Louie: amusing concept (mage who is ackshually RAR brawler!), never goes anywhere. Genie is a pretty awesome character, though. Wields a sword that'd put Cloud to shame and actually looks like she has the muscle to do it.
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Rune Soldier Louie: amusing concept (mage who is ackshually RAR brawler!), never goes anywhere. Genie is a pretty awesome character, though. Wields a sword that'd put Cloud to shame and actually looks like she has the muscle to do it.
I liked it, for some reason. You're right in that it doesn't go anywhere, but it also avoids a few of the worst harem type cliches. Louie was pretty likable too. Surprisingly, my favorite female ended up being the priestess girl.
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It's also officially set in the same world as Lodoss War, but apparently on a separate continent.
Talk about diametrically opposed themes...
-Djinn
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Lodoss is actually a rather small part of that world. It's an isle off an actual continent.
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It's also officially set in the same world as Lodoss War, but apparently on a separate continent.
Talk about diametrically opposed themes...
-Djinn
Mm, that makes sense. I thought the goddess sounded familiar.
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Genie is a pretty awesome character, though. Wields a sword that'd put Cloud to shame and actually looks like she has the muscle to do it.
Pretty much sums up what I liked about the show, I think. I mean, it wasn't bad, per se. Just nothing outstanding about it.
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Tokyo Godfathers - So sick day finally gets me a chance to sit and watch this. Glad I did, actually technically a good time of year to do it since you know it is a Christmas movie but actually is good. I am amazed at just how well Satoshi Kon handled a genuinely mundane movie (Sure the buildings dance in the credits, but you know, a whole movie without anyone walking through walls or featuring a cognitive split in reality as we experiment with the concept of the Conscious and the Unconscious mind through the cinematic medium from Kon is impressive!). Really good movie and glad I watched it. Stopped watching Lain for it because my mother was in the room at the same time and subjecting someone to Serial Experiments Lain starting half way through the series is just rude. Mum really liked it.
Good stuff. Satoshi Kon is better than anyone else in the ... fuck it lets say better at it than anyone else in the world in the industry.
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So you anime watchers, is there anything that's uh, sort of slice-of-life romantic stuff without being overtly loli and/or harem centered?
Basically I want to watch something that involves a guy and a girl falling in love and dating eachother. Can also be a comedic thing.
Preferably something new, since I've seen most of the old stuff.
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So you anime watchers, is there anything that's uh, sort of slice-of-life romantic stuff without being overtly loli and/or harem centered?
No. Give up. It's anime, not real life. If you don't like harems and lolis, you're obviously in the wrong place.
That said, there's a ton of Shoujo manga like this, but most of it is not animated. Try Paradise Kiss if you REALLY need an animated fix.
There are a VERY FEW manga like this that are directed at boys/men, but don't expect to find one without some kind of mafia/sports theme to drive the story. Hajime no Ippo has a pretty heavy focus on its love story at times, though the whole thing is a little pervy when it's not dealing with boxing.
Of course, if you're willing to accept a series that completely throws away physics, there's tons of this. It's quite a common anime thing to write "A Traditional Love Story... in SPACE! (or in MagicLand/Parallel Universe/Post-ApocalypticDystopia)". For a good short one, try Voices of a Distant Star.
But seriously, name a shoujo anime, if it's not about Magical Girls, it's about your standard dating drama. Or both. Usually both.
-DJ
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Man... I was going to say the same thing Djinn and then decided it was to mean a joke to play... But then I was going to say to watch Gravitation because it doesn't have a harem or lolis.
Seriously though, look up some cheesey shitty live live action TV shows for that kind of trash television. Baby Sitters Club or something.
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Man... I was going to say the same thing Djinn and then decided it was to mean a joke to play... But then I was going to say to watch Gravitation because it doesn't have a harem or lolis.
Seriously though, look up some cheesey shitty live live action TV shows for that kind of trash television. Baby Sitters Club or something.
I should hit you for suggesting Gravitation but the memories have been repressed enough.
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So you anime watchers, is there anything that's uh, sort of slice-of-life romantic stuff without being overtly loli and/or harem centered?
Basically I want to watch something that involves a guy and a girl falling in love and dating eachother. Can also be a comedic thing.
His & Her Circumstances. You just described it in a nutshell (and it's got good comedy, too). Warning: Hideki Anno is in charge, which doesn't show in the plotting (since it's based on a manga) but does come through in the animation budget.
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His & Her Circumstances. You just described it in a nutshell (and it's got good comedy, too). Warning: Hideki Anno is in charge, which doesn't show in the plotting (since it's based on a manga) but does come through in the animation budget.
Oh yeah, I forgot about KareKano!
Yeah, watch that. That's actually pretty good for romantic comedy. The lead female is especially interesting.
Tai: Geez, Tai, what's so especially wrong with Gravitation?
-Djinn
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I don't think Tai has the phenotype to stomach that level of yaoi well.
EDIT: Because, honestly, most people -don't-. >_>
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I saw Kare Kano (His & Her Circumstances) a while back. I only watched the first five episodes, but I liked what I saw of that series.
If it wasn't for the harem part, I would recommend Seto no Hanayome. That show is insane.
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Eh, honestly, the yaoi level is pretty tame... And if Shuichi was a girl, it would be exactly the same as every other shoujo romantic comedy. I don't even know why it's famous as it looks to be exactly like everything else (except, you know, with CANON yaoi, but even then, it's pretty tame for a yaoi series)... My guess is that it was one of the first ones to get an anime series... As one of the first, it was 'pushing the envelope', I suppose (and thus, necessarily tame).
Hell... Loveless was more graphic than Gravitation, and included shouta crap... (I guess the hot lesbian scene in ep 11 makes people forget this?) And Junjo Romantica... hell, that's softcore gay porn...
Honestly, if you don't like yaoi, I totally understand this...
It just seems weird that Gravitation, which is so tame, has become shorthand for OMG! SO GAY!
-Djinn
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Manga, Manga, Manga
Bleach- Sucks worse than normal.
One Piece- Remains solid.
Ruroni Kenshin- Finished it. Final arc was pretty good, in my opinion. Overall, I'd rank it up there as far as shonen go. I would have liked less subtext on the main romance dynamic, given it takes up a lot, but hey. It works. Ended on very heartwarming/cheerful notes, which was what it needed.
Read or Die- So weird, having seen the anime first. Not... really sure what to make of it? Art is pretty and it has its moments, but the storytelling gets really confused at times.
Double Arts- Good times, and I damn Soppy to a thousand hells for getting me started on it.
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Bleach is getting WORSE? Mind telling me what kind of stupidity they went for this time?
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90% of the dialogue in the last chapter was "OH."
Coo' art though.
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It doesn't even need specifics, huh.
That's so depressing ._.
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90% of the dialogue in the last chapter was "OH."
I read that as '90% of the dialogue in the last chapter was about hydroxide.'
Fuck you, Organic chemistry, you've ruined my brain.
-Djinn
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Double Arts- Good times, and I damn Soppy to a thousand hells for getting me started on it.
You deserve it for liking Kenshin.
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Eh, honestly, the yaoi level is pretty tame... And if Shuichi was a girl, it would be exactly the same as every other shoujo romantic comedy. I don't even know why it's famous as it looks to be exactly like everything else (except, you know, with CANON yaoi, but even then, it's pretty tame for a yaoi series)... My guess is that it was one of the first ones to get an anime series... As one of the first, it was 'pushing the envelope', I suppose (and thus, necessarily tame).
Hell... Loveless was more graphic than Gravitation, and included shouta crap... (I guess the hot lesbian scene in ep 11 makes people forget this?) And Junjo Romantica... hell, that's softcore gay porn...
Honestly, if you don't like yaoi, I totally understand this...
It just seems weird that Gravitation, which is so tame, has become shorthand for OMG! SO GAY!
-Djinn
Probably because Gravitation was watched by a lot of people.
You'd be surprised, really.
I mean, look at Princess Princess. Really.
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I read that as '90% of the dialogue in the last chapter was about hydroxide.'
Fuck you, Organic chemistry, you've ruined my brain.
-Djinn
You know, that would make Bleach better.
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I was thinking the same thing. I would totally read Bleach if it was about OH and H2O2.
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Eh, honestly, the yaoi level is pretty tame... And if Shuichi was a girl, it would be exactly the same as every other shoujo romantic comedy. I don't even know why it's famous as it looks to be exactly like everything else (except, you know, with CANON yaoi, but even then, it's pretty tame for a yaoi series)... My guess is that it was one of the first ones to get an anime series... As one of the first, it was 'pushing the envelope', I suppose (and thus, necessarily tame).
Perhaps it is because there is Super Pandabot roaming over Manhattan Blvd. in New York? Or perhaps because of the mafia equivalent managers who are all braindeads and having them shooting or got shot on their heads and groans every 5 seconds? Or is it because Shuichi is a completly degenerative piece of trash???
You know, this is coming from me, the yaoi devil of the forum, and I say... Gravitation is NOT a yaoi work. It is a 3rd rated nonsensical comedy involving total morons biting off one another.
90% of the dialogue in the last chapter was "OH."
Coo' art though.
Ha? Wasn't the last chapter of Bleach is about Yamamato finally doing something.
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So you anime watchers, is there anything that's uh, sort of slice-of-life romantic stuff without being overtly loli and/or harem centered?
Basically I want to watch something that involves a guy and a girl falling in love and dating eachother. Can also be a comedic thing.
Preferably something new, since I've seen most of the old stuff.
Hah! How many posts in and you get approximately one decent answer! Chumps.
Anyway, Bokura ga Ita and Lovely Complex if you haven't seen them.
Also, on the manga end of things, Mint na Bokura is the best romantic comedy EVAR.
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Actually, for a serious answer, I'd go with School Rumble - it's more comedy than romance, but that's what makes it good.
-Djinn
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I'm going to start Witchblade, thanks to Lance.
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KareKano is one of the first anime I've ever seen.
Guess I'll re-watch it, since apparently it is unique in its genre?!
And I know anime doesn't suit my needs. Sometimes I just hope that changes.
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Bokura ga Ita and Lovely Complex if you haven't seen them.
Or, like, Marmalade Boy or Hana Yori Dango, if you missed them.
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The computer ate my first post on this, but anyway.
Irresponsible Captain Tylor OVAs:
'Tylor's War:' sehr gut! a perfect encore performance of the best of the series!
The Episodes After That but Before the Story Gets Going Again: more serious, which is odd, but not bad. Seems they switched animators, too. Episode about Tylor and Yuriko was sweet, episode about whatsisname the fighter pilot reminded me of Macross Plus in a good way, episode about Azalyn needed to die, and episode about the marines was good old fashioned fun.
'When will the Skies Clear' and 'From Here to Eternity:' A well-written story that leads from the investigation of a mysterious deep-space accident to a flashpoint that threatens the Earth and Raalgon empires alike. One small problem: the writers got cute and told the story out of chronological order. Nothing wrong with that per se, but this story would have been better served straight. The end, which they do get right, is sentimental and climactic, a worthwhile epilogue to a great series.
EDIT: I'd just throw this in a different post, but three in a row is kinda egregious. People might think I was just inflating my post count <_<
RD Sennou Chosashitsu. Just saw the first episode, and it seemed pretty cool, but also like I could watch the entire series and discover, in the end, that there was little point to having done so *coughKurenaicough*. Any thoughts?
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To Aru Majitsu no Index- やるじゃない岡本さん あの笑う方は別格な
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Humdedum. 4 episodes into Nanoha, already more interesting than a lot of magical girl stuff. Gots all of Monster and Nodame Cantabile off of a friend. And keeping up with Gundam 00, with plans to download Turn A sometime soon and possibly go buy Overman King Gainger.
Is anyone else here still interested in 00? The last ep seems like it miiiight lead to some epic badassery.
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Aquarion- ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH. WHY? WHY, JAPAN? WHY MUST YOU KEEP DOING THIS TO ME? Why must you continually ruin entertaining series by slipping in unnecessary filler, incomplete stories and shitty endings?! Ugh. The first 18 episodes were entertaining as hell. Hilarious stuff. The show worked because it didn't seem to take itself as seriously as you think it will. It was like a mecha Utena, complete with screwed up character relationships, thinly veiled sexual metaphors and awesome battles set to great music.
Turbulence hit with 16-18, since they were pretty much comedic filler, but the show was mostly a comedy before, and the episodes were, by and large, ranging between funny and goddamn hilarious. But... as soon as I saw the OP change at Ep 19, I knew the series was about to go down the crapper. The first theme is... so damn good, and it's amazing that no matter how many times you hear it, as the OP and in the episodes, it just rocks. The second OP is an awful song and works even worse as a battle theme, especially for a show like Aquarion. Suddenly, the story tries to go from simple and fun to complicated and angsty. Maybe if they had, I don't know, 13 more episodes instead of 8 and much better writers this could have been done, but no. The battles got a lot less epic, since the new theme SUCKED HARDCORE. Too many villains, not enough exposition. The time they wasted with 16-18 really coulda been used better if this was the route they were going to take. Where at the rate they were going pre-19, you expected an epic, awesome, Gurren Lagann type final battle. Instead it was just... shitty. Ugh.
Commander Gen was fun, him treating the kids the way he does makes sense because they damn well deserve it. They just... decide to gloss over the answers to the biggest questions about his character, namely why he rocks so much. What should be an OMGWIN moment ends up a few boring seconds shoved in the middle of other stuff and still is never fully explained. On a humorous note though, his philosophy lessons reminded me of the South Park episode where Tweak freaks out at his parents. I'm surprised no one pulled it on him: "AHHHH! YOUR EXPLANATIONS NEVER MAKE ANY SENSE IWANTOUTIWANTOUT!"
Sirius is on the Sakaki and Sasuke tier, officially. If you're in an anime or game and your name starts with an S, you're officially on notice.
I... haven't been this upset with how a show turned out in a while. The worst kind and true definition of a trainwreck. At least Gaess was bad all the the through and got worse, so it was funny to watch the fail. A real trainwreck has to have momentum and turn from a good ride to something horrible.
Gah. I need something to rescue me from this mood. Time for a Gunbuster/Dai-Guard/Gurren-Lagann marathon.
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Good call on that marathon, Soppy.
Ga-Rei Zero:10
Evil Yomi is EVIL. Not that this is a surprise given episode 2, but man does it take on a whole new light given what transpired since then. Hasn't been much in the way of good fights lately (plenty of ordinary action however). I imagine that is going to get fixed in the next few episodes given how the show is ramping up into overdrive. The show did an excellent job of building the relationship between the heroines, and it has come time to cash in on that.
This series has just been a winner so far regardless. Characters, fight scenes, music. The plot puts all of its focus on building or tearing down characters, which is always a good thing in my book. It helps that it just oozes style.
I'm fully expecting a break-the-cutie ending.
Ef: 11
Oh bah. This series wasted too much time with Kuze and Mizuki. On the plus side, Yuuko is still creepy.
Tending to think this series is mostly worth watching for episode 6, but that alone elevates it above most other things for me, at least.
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I guess I'll stay away from Aquarion after all. Oh well.
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Humdedum. 4 episodes into Nanoha, already more interesting than a lot of magical girl stuff. Gots all of Monster and Nodame Cantabile off of a friend. And keeping up with Gundam 00, with plans to download Turn A sometime soon and possibly go buy Overman King Gainger.
Is anyone else here still interested in 00? The last ep seems like it miiiight lead to some epic badassery.
I still watch it. I'm just too lazy to comment.
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I guess I'll stay away from Aquarion after all. Oh well.
Watch the first 18 episodes, cause they're awesome, and then just make up your own ending out of conjecture. It'll probably be right.
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Let's see...
Full Metal Panic TSR
Pretty good. Somewhat disjunct from the first series... Sousuke is dimmer than he was at the start of the first series although he'd improved throughout it, Callinin's personality seems somewhat altered, and so on. To say nothing of Sousuke randomly deciding to hate on Arbalest all because a weapon he doesn't regularly need doesn't work much, which seems entirely out of character, and all the angstiness near the end. Meanwhile everything Leonard-related appears to serve no purpose whatsoever in the grand scheme of things. Not to mention assassin-girl I forget the name of slaughtering a bunch of mercenaries but they failing horribly against Kaname.
But all problems aside, it's still a decent enough show. First series is considerably better. Shop needs to hurry up and restock on Fumuffo.
The side-episode about Tessa was okay. The segment near the start where Tessa's coming on to Sousuke while Al's running tactical tests in the background was pretty funny.
Voices of a Distant Star
Garbage. Complete trash. It's very pretty at points, I'll give it that. But that's ALL it has.
The entire story is effectively the blurb on the back of the box. Just read it and then you won't have to waste any money on this dreck. Looks like a good concept, right? Mikako sends text messages to Noboru while she heads into space and they take longer and longer to reach him? Surely a highly enthralling tale can be built off this. Except the entire plot is. Mikako's messages take longer and longer to reach him. They don't build ANYTHING off it. There is probably less than 100 lines of dialogue in the ENTIRE FILM, for all that it is only half an hour, which is both a saving grace and a downside as you don't have to put up with it for very long but also maybe if it was longer they might have actually managed to make a half-worthwhile story show up somewhere. NOBORU DOESN'T SHOW ANY EMOTION THE ENTIRE FILM AND IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE A LOVE STORY.
Mazinkaiser
It'd been too long since I saw some AWESOME SUPER ROBOTTERY
Mazinkaiser's pretty great. If you exclude the beach episode. I don't think it beats Mazinger Z, but pretty good all around. Too short.
Also watched the movie. Inferior to the series, really.
Zeorymer
I had heard bad things about this but I liked it. Sort of suffers from shortness as well but I'm not entirely sure how it could be lengthened at all. Somewhat of a shame that I already knew what Masato's evil side was called from SRWJ as it kind of ruined the twist, but at least the twist extended further than just that one area. Had an annoyingly vague ending ._.
Currently watching Excel Saga. Up to episode 10. It has been being awesome so far, hopefully this will remain the case.
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Let's see...
Voices of a Distant Star
Garbage. Complete trash. It's very pretty at points, I'll give it that. But that's ALL it has.
The entire story is effectively the blurb on the back of the box. Just read it and then you won't have to waste any money on this dreck. Looks like a good concept, right? Mikako sends text messages to Noboru while she heads into space and they take longer and longer to reach him? Surely a highly enthralling tale can be built off this. Except the entire plot is. Mikako's messages take longer and longer to reach him. They don't build ANYTHING off it. There is probably less than 100 lines of dialogue in the ENTIRE FILM, for all that it is only half an hour, which is both a saving grace and a downside as you don't have to put up with it for very long but also maybe if it was longer they might have actually managed to make a half-worthwhile story show up somewhere. NOBORU DOESN'T SHOW ANY EMOTION THE ENTIRE FILM AND IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE A LOVE STORY.
It's a short piece... that's kind of the point. I don't know what you were expecting from it, but the whole thing was written, animated, CG'd, edited, scored, and voiced by one guy and his wife...
It was a simple story, and the concept is quite original, and that's all the piece was supposed to be... a concept. As for Noboru's lack of emotion... honestly it's probably the most realistic depiction of a Japanese male I've ever seen in an anime... >.>;;
-Djinn
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Something that's a concept and nothing else should not hold pretensions to being mass-market. The trailers and case give off no indications that it is what it is (aside from the 30-minute run length if you look for that information). You could say that these things are the publisher's fault, but that doesn't change anything relevant.
It only being done by two people means they're very good at the visual side of things at least, but that's about it. It doesn't mean that it should get any pity-care (probably the wrong term, but I'm drawing a blank).
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Its been a while since I last watched it, but as someone who thought it was very solid, I feel necessitated to defend it.
Anyhow, frankly, I'm not really sure what pretensions you were referring to. The thing delivers on exactly what was promised. Admittedly, yeah, it falls outside standard storytelling structure (which is a take it or leave it situation, but hey) in that it doesn't really go with the pyramid structure. What it does do is deliver an increasingly difficult emotional resonance. No, Noboru isn't bawling and crying or what not, but it seems pretty evident that he's enduring the entire situation with a sort of quiet solemnity, which is an acceptable and moving response. What can you do with the situation?
Calling it dreck is certainly taking the entire thing a bit far. The work is rather impressive for what it is, and, when it comes down to it, I think a lot of your response is just a particularly negative response to a story structure that exists outside the norm. Ironically, if I recall it right, the emotional arc fits right along that though, allowing it to maintain some semblance of structure. So, yeah. I'll have to rewatch to review, but it sounds like the entire source of your dislike is that you expected one thing and got something else. Fair enough, but not really reason to call it dreck.
*shrugs* Of course, to each their own.
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"[...] Voices of a Distant Star is a technical marvel and a contemporary masterpiece of storytelling. Voices deftly weaves a tale of interstellar excitement and heartbreaking romance. Don't miss this new animation classic about the tragedy of war and the power of love.'
Those would be the ones I was referring to. Technical marvel? It's very pretty at points, but I'm not sure if it was technically marvelous even for 2002.
Masterpiece of storytelling? Interstellar excitement? Heartbreaking romance? Tragedy of war? Power of love? A deftly woven tale? No, no, no. I'm not finding any of these.
It might deliver on what the people who made it promised, perhaps. But unfortunately their promises aren't relevant as they aren't listed anywhere.
As I'm not an artistic person, I don't know what you mean by a pyramid structure for a storyline. But in any case I'm not really seeing the storyline as being structured differently from other storylines; but then my concept of a storyline doesn't stretch much further than 'things happen'. Can you expand on this perhaps.
I don't remember Noboru showing any emotions of any kind ever even while Mikako was still around (but the movie was highly forgettable, and is compounded against my memory's horrific failure as well). I wasn't intending to mean that emotional overload was required or anything to that effect.
What can you do with the situation? That was for the makers to figure out. If the answer was 'nothing' as they appear to have come up with, perhaps that's a sign that the situation isn't the sort of thing you should be doing anything with.
'Dreck' is an extremely minor insult. Not entirely sure why you're taking issue with it.
It's impressive graphically, but I'm easily impressed graphically. I'm unsure as to which direction you're heading in with 'for what it is', whether the sense of something done by only two people apparently or something else, so I can't go any further on that thread.
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The blurb on the back of the case is definately a hyperbole, but it's marketing speak. It's still a surberbly told story about two people who care about each other, regardless of the time/distance between them.
The main emotion being shown in Voices is longing. It's a pretty tough emotion to portray, since it's usually everpresent and internal. It's subtle, but their time together in the beginning shows they care about each other by how relaxed they are around each other. Just by the way Noboru constantly checks his messages shows they he's always thinking about her. Even after the first jump, when he decides it's time to stop waiting, when he finally recieves mail from her, he's obviously distraught and you can tell the feelings are still there. He has to vow to himself move on, but can't. Even at 24, he's waited all that time because no matter what, he still can't forget her. He's still keeping up with the armada, he's looking into the latest communications technology. He may have moved on, it's implied he decided not to but we can't tell, but this is still a big part of his life, to the point where he's joined the next armada. It builds slowly to the climax, where they reaffirm if there is one thing they could say to each other, it's that they were still there.
I honestly think overt emotions the likes what we usually see in anime would have ruined the piece. In fact, I think it's demure, subtle way of storytelling only enhances the quality.If you want to talk pretension, you usually point to Makoto Shinkai's other works, not Voices. Voices is very simply told, but thats what makes it good.
Maybe it spoke to me because I've been in long distance relationships and I know the feelings that the characters are going through, but I think that would make me more critical of it if they got it wrong.
The anime also gets props for using the Gunbuster style cockpit. >.>
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The anime also gets props for using the Gunbuster style cockpit. >.>
That just killed it for me. This was starting to sound interesting and then it has super robots and I no longer care.
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They're very plain, functional, and utilitarian super robots. I consider this a point in the movie's favor, as I don't have much respect for any military organization that burns cash on tailfins and crazy, giant boomerang lookin' eyebrows. Granted, said military organization also hires sixteen-year-olds, apparently.
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The anime also gets props for using the Gunbuster style cockpit. >.>
That just killed it for me. This was starting to sound interesting and then it has super robots and I no longer care.
It's a half hour, Grefter. Suck it up and stop being a whiny little commie bitch.
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The blurb on the back of the case is definately a hyperbole, but it's marketing speak.
I went through my DVD collection, and I will grant that it is not the most extensive collection ever, but the only title that was even half as self-aggrandising was Macross Plus. The majority didn't even stray from talking about the plot to natter about the meta-quality of the show. It's not normal.
The main emotion being shown in Voices is longing. It's a pretty tough emotion to portray, since it's usually everpresent and internal. It's subtle, but their time together in the beginning shows they care about each other by how relaxed they are around each other. Just by the way Noboru constantly checks his messages shows they he's always thinking about her. Even after the first jump, when he decides it's time to stop waiting, when he finally recieves mail from her, he's obviously distraught and you can tell the feelings are still there. He has to vow to himself move on, but can't. Even at 24, he's waited all that time because no matter what, he still can't forget her. He's still keeping up with the armada, he's looking into the latest communications technology. He may have moved on, it's implied he decided not to but we can't tell, but this is still a big part of his life, to the point where he's joined the next armada. It builds slowly to the climax, where they reaffirm if there is one thing they could say to each other, it's that they were still there.
I think you're reading a lot into it there. Especially given how little time some of the points you mention were given. Personally, I didn't see half the stuff you list there as being what you list there.
In any case if something is set up that you need to read into it to get anything out of it, it has failed. Horribly.
I honestly think overt emotions the likes what we usually see in anime would have ruined the piece.
I already said that I didn't mean that overtery was necessary. Unless we are running off different definitions of overt.
To attempt to cut this line of conversation off at the post, can I restate that Noboru's blankness was never the major complaint in the first place. It was an example of the show's general ineptitude.
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In any case if something is set up that you need to read into it to get anything out of it, it has failed. Horribly.
Because all good fiction gets the point across by beating you over the head with expository dialogue?
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In any case if something is set up that you need to read into it to get anything out of it, it has failed. Horribly.
Because all good fiction gets the point across by beating you over the head with expository dialogue?
In any case if something is set up that you need to read into it to get anything out of it, it has failed. Horribly.
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Twil has a point there, if you have nothing to say then say nothing, don't make shit up and pretend it has something to do with anything.
I was going to say more backing him up, but meh, doesn't need it.
It's a half hour, Grefter. Suck it up and stop being a whiny little commie bitch.
I don't have to suck it up and put up with watching dreck for half an hour when I have plenty of other stuff to watch for hours that I still haven't.
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Twil has a point there, if you have nothing to say then say nothing, don't make shit up and pretend it has something to do with anything.
I was going to say more backing him up, but meh, doesn't need it.
Only it does, and 90% of it is very, very obvious. The other 10% is stuff you can easily infer despite the short amount of time spent covering it. It's one thing to say "Hey, I see the theme of the piece, but I don't like it." but another to say it's not there entirely.
Voices is far and away better than Kakurenbo, Gref, and you watched that >.>
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It's one thing to say "Hey, I see the theme of the piece, but I don't like it." but another to say it's not there entirely.
It's a half hour. It's intentionally ambiguous as to the male lead's emotions and what is actually going on with the aliens. Intentional ambiguity can be good or bad, depending on whether the possibilities it implies are interesting ones. They are, so it's good. Simple enough.
It's a lot like a Philip K. Dick short story, actually. Take an interesting concept, people experiencing time at different rates, flesh it out a little and make a vignette out of it.
EDIT: Whatever you do, though, never watch it with your significant other if you're in a long-distance relationship.
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In any case if something is set up that you need to read into it to get anything out of it, it has failed. Horribly.
Because all good fiction gets the point across by beating you over the head with expository dialogue?
In any case if something is set up that you need to read into it to get anything out of it, it has failed. Horribly.
Rebuttal: if all you're looking for is to be forcefed something, anything, by film or TV or literature, you're doin' it wrong.
I really want to watch this movie now.
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I can't find any way to match up forcefeeding with the target matter.
I watch film or tv and read 'literature' to be entertained. You can't be forcefed entertainment, it doesn't work like that.
I don't watch film or tv and read 'literature' to participate in some author's deluded elitist game wherein you must try to send your mind into contortions in an attempt to match their mindset and grasp some subtext they've tried to insert into what is, to someone that is liably 'uncultured' or similar in their mind, a completely pointless material. If they want to add subtext to something that is entertaining in its own right? Knock themselves out. I don't care if they add 50 freaking layers of it all beneath each other, as long as the material itself stands on its own without having to engage in mindreading.
Voices is _not_ entertaining in its own right. And even if I try to rotate my view to interpret it according to what people have said here, it's still not entertaining. Empathy for the characters is looked for and found to be nonexistant.
And some kinds of people will always look for, and find, subtexts and so forth in material that were never actually there in the first place, which is part of why I don't prescribe to having any respect for that kind of thing. And I believe that that is partially the case with what people are thinking about Voices here, in case that's not apparent already.
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I don't watch film or tv and read 'literature' to participate in some author's deluded elitist game wherein you must try to send your mind into contortions in an attempt to match their mindset and grasp some subtext they've tried to insert into what is, to someone that is liably 'uncultured' or similar in their mind, a completely pointless material. If they want to add subtext to something that is entertaining in its own right? Knock themselves out. I don't care if they add 50 freaking layers of it all beneath each other, as long as the material itself stands on its own without having to engage in mindreading.
See by not participating in your entertainment on that level then you are really missing out on some awesome stuff. Candide is shit if all you do is take it on face value. Bill Hicks isn't funny if you take him seriously. Queen is horrible music if you don't take part in how over the top it is. Something which merely exposits for the sake of entertainment is only going to entertain while you are taking part in it. The best entertainment will continue to entertain after it is over.
Just because a work wasn't intended to have a subtext doesn't mean it lacks one however. People write things into their works subconsciously very easilly, prejudices and beliefs are going to seep into even the best author's writing just be shear virtue of that being how they think. The other option is that the writing is so incredibly poor that the mish mash plot at the end can have a subtext by that being the only plot elements that tie the work together (see Ar Tonelico).
This might not be for everyone, but no work is going to surpass one without it. If you don't approach literature/cinema/games like this then you aren't really judging things on any other level than instant gratification. If you aren't going to even analyse things then quite frankly there is no point to even examining them in depth in the first place. May as well keep it on the level of "I watched this, it was fun" and get it over with.
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Unfortunately I don't know anything about Candide or Bill Hicks. I do know Queen! But I'm not sure what you mean by what you said about it. Regardless of that, I don't believe I participate in what you said but I don't see how anyone can call it bad in any way (aside from reasons of taste, of course, which, as far as I understand things, are irrelevant to the point at hand).
It's all well and good to say things like
If you don't approach literature/cinema/games like this then you aren't really judging things on any other level than instant gratification.
but that's the only gear my mind works in. I don't personally consider it a flaw because what I've seen of the other gears have massively grated on me; other people enjoy that sort of thing, that's all well and good, but that just comes right back to matters of taste.
I didn't try to examine it indepth in the first place. I thought it was horrible, I said it was horrible, I threw up a couple examples of why I thought it was horrible.
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Fair enough and yeah I was trying to add a bit to my post that was if that is how you work then that is cool, but it sucked so I cut it out.
Ala Queen, man you can't listen to Princes of the Universe and not tell me it is pure camp cheese. It is fun and you fully embrace the cheese and love every moment of it.
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Entertainment always includes an implicit cost/benefit analysis of how much you want to put into it vs. how much you think you might be able to get out of it, learning a foreign language to be able to read a foreign work in the original, for example. I think the issue here isn't really that people think someone always must put forward the effort necessary for enjoyment; it's just that they don't see how Twilk could not enjoy Voices based on the effort he did put in.
On the subject of Queen, Gref, it's worth keeping in mind that there are people out there who enjoy Queen at face value, and there are others who enjoy it because of its campiness but don't realize that it's intended to be as such. Other folks like it just because of football games.
I'm not so sure there's much of a difference, which is why I don't understand Code Geass watchers. If you enjoy terrible plot twists because you think they're cool or you like them for what we'll term the 'Jerry Springer' effect, bottom line is you like you some terrible plot twists. I mean, even if you really do read Playboy for the articles, there are plenty of mags out there that have comparable articles but no nudie pics.
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People watch Code Geass because we need to have one way of determining whether or not the person dies when the great human culling begins.
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Excel Saga - Finished.
Unfortunately for my hopes, it tended to deteriorate pretty badly as the series progressed. Still a fair few high points throughout though. I got far too little of the references in Invasion, Mother ;_;
I barely see how the final episode went especially far at all, let alone too far. Granted that's somewhat a blessing as too far wouldn't really be the sort of thing I would care to see, but on the whole it was more brain-damaged than anything else.
I wonder if I should add Puni Puni to my big list o' things to buy. Trailer doesn't make it look like the most worthwhile thing ever.
Vexille - Watched.
Very nice. Also pretty pretty. Has put Appleseed right onto my radar.
Started rewatching Mazinger Z for some reason. Fun fun. Not sure what I'm going to start watching that I haven't seen next.
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People watch Code Geass because we need to have one way of determining whether or not the person dies when the great human culling begins.
Well damn, does just watching the whole thing qualify you?
Also, as mentioned in chat, Turn A Gundam. Up through episode 14. Non depressed Tomino at his best. Mecha designs... I'd hated the still images for a lot of them, but they're actually really fun to see in action, and a lot of the mobile suits aren't traditional humanoid machines, like the Kapool and WaDOM.
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Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann - Awesome. Probably the best mecha anime I've ever seen? The series avoids a lot of cliches simply by moving at an exceedingly rapid pace. When it introduces an obvious Chekhov's Gun, instead of spending 3 episodes to reveal its purpose, the series tends to just pick it up right then and there and fire it, cutting out all the needless "I know what's going to happen already"-style suspense I'm so used to seeing in Mecha shows. Also, "Libera me" from Hell is a cool piece of background music. LordGenome somehow ended up as my favorite character.
Code Geass - Watched some of this simply due to all the anti-hype and I wanted to know why it was so easy to make fun of and universally-hated. While it certainly wasn't helped by the fact that I finished Gurren Lagann in the same day that I started this one, the series doesn't have a lot going for it. The series seems to be an entirely derivative concept based on the idea of "Hey, you know what's popular lately? Gundam SEED... and DeathNote! And hey, CLAMP seems to be doing alright for themselves, too!" So you have Gundam SEED, only replace Kira Yamato with Kira-Light, and sprinkle liberally with CLAMP character designs and themes. For all that it's derivative, though, it's not "the worst series EVAR" like I was led to believe. I even found Kallen to be a solid character out of hordes of cardboard stock characters floating around. The biggest complaints that I can see levelled at it are the horrible twists involving Geass and Euphie near the end of the series... and the lack of an ending.
The nicest thing I can say about it is that it made me want to get some Pizza Hut pizza.
-Djinn
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Now go watch R2 Djinn. Of course, keep in mind that Taniguchi ended up having to rewrite the second season after already having it pretty planned out from what I hear. It's not... quite... Destiny level deterioration, but it takes a bit of a nosedive overall.
Yes, Code Geass is very much exploitation of what's popular. It's Sunrise trying to make something that's popular without having to flood the market with plastic models right off the bat (they did later anyways).
TTGL is very very fun though. The pace is exactly what Super Robot shows should have (unless it's Big O), and it definitely pays its dues to its predecessors (no, they did not come up with manly super robot drills).
It takes a lot more than CC to make me want Pizza Hut pizza, by the by. Like having my meal paid for by someone else.
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It takes a lot more than CC to make me want Pizza Hut pizza, by the by. Like having my meal paid for by someone else.
With the quality of pizza places around me, I'd have to be eating it off CC's naked body to actually want Pizza Hut. Woo northeast pizzarias!
EDIT: If I'd known it would be sigged, I'da left off the Woo. Kinda kills it.
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Alpha Gaiden inspired me to watch Gundam X.
... also all the hype of Garrod x Tiffa romance. Tiffa, Tifa, like hell do I care what her name's spelled, she looks absolutely Ugly Doll.
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Chrome Shell Legios- ......WHAT THE MOTHER FUCKING GOD THEY HAVE DONE TO THIS!!! UGHHHHHH!!!! *STAB
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Chrome Shell Legios- ......WHAT THE MOTHER FUCKING GOD THEY HAVE DONE TO THIS!!! UGHHHHHH!!!! *STAB
And I was planning on following it!? Oh man....
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Serious, I am shocked this thing is still called Legios.
Most things got retconned in silly ways.
Then Reyphon's personality got swaped, and Feris is just out of character so bad.
I mean... "びーして びーして びーしてやる " THAT came out of Feris's mouth. I can no longer believe she is still the same person.
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Black Lagoon - Currently watching this and made it to episode 12. Stylish and violent and reminds me a bit of Cowboy Bebop's format without all the good music. So far my opinion is that it is Cowboy Bebop -2. Which is still pretty watchable!
If it developes an actual story that actually incorporates some of the random episodic stuff from the first half of the season, it could well be a good show. As is... style and violence can only get you so far...
-Djinn
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Than go read the manga than.
The only thing the anime does better is that we can hear Balalaika's voice.
The manga is gloomier, far more chaotic, and more focused.
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Batman TAS With Giant Robots - Bought both seasons of this a while back, starting to watch it now. One episode down and I am pleased with my purchase becuase it is Batman TAS With Giant Robots.
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Exactly what is it that you're watching?
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I assume it's Big O? If it's not, it SHOULD be.
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Ah, silly me. I guess I just wasn't thinking hard enough >_>;
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It is indeed Big O, because it is Batman with giant robots.
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I can't believe I'm making myself watch Trinity Blood. The first episode was okay, but it's only downhill from there. It feels so...generic. The last episode I saw was 14, which was two weeks ago. I feel like I should finish it because I'm more than halfway through the show.
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I can't believe I'm making myself watch Trinity Blood. The first episode was okay, but it's only downhill from there. It feels so...generic. The last episode I saw was 14, which was two weeks ago. I feel like I should finish it because I'm more than halfway through the show.
Stop. Now. also, when you eat a meal and you're full and there's food on your plate, don't eat it.
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I can't believe I'm making myself watch Trinity Blood. The first episode was okay, but it's only downhill from there. It feels so...generic. The last episode I saw was 14, which was two weeks ago. I feel like I should finish it because I'm more than halfway through the show.
Stop. Now. also, when you eat a meal and you're full and there's food on your plate, don't eat it.
Good thinking. I'm going to watch Ghost in the Shell: SAC instead.
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I can't believe I'm making myself watch Trinity Blood. The first episode was okay, but it's only downhill from there. It feels so...generic. The last episode I saw was 14, which was two weeks ago. I feel like I should finish it because I'm more than halfway through the show.
Stop. Now. also, when you eat a meal and you're full and there's food on your plate, don't eat it.
Good thinking. I'm going to watch Ghost in the Shell: SAC instead.
Double Victory!
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Black Lagoon - Finished this. The over-arching plot that I really wanted to see never happened... But if you look at it merely as its parts, the individual barely-connected plot arcs are all pretty stylish and good. I initially wrote off Revy as a crap character, but she surprised me in the last two arcs. She went from a completely one-dimensional violent psycho to an almost Mal-from-Firefly-like violent psycho who didn't like it when people tried to hurt her toys, I mean crewmates. The change happened subtly and made good use of Revy's interactions with the other psychos she regularly interacts with. Also, my predictions for Rock (who I expected to become a complete badass) were completely wrong, but somehow he still managed to be a compelling character. I might be off in my view here, but it seemed like he spent the whole series as someone who knew how to manipulate people (especially the psycho criminals he seems to hang out with). The problem with this view is that the series never really confirms whether the nonsense emotional appeals he's always shouting at the psychos who are trying to kill him are spouted merely for the purpose of getting Rock's ass out of the fire or whether he's sincerely wrapped up in these kinds of beliefs. He must partially believe them, but the other characters (who aren't suckered in by his appeals) tend to regard him as 'dangerous' in a non-violent way. So he could be a genius with balls of steel... or a total idiot who gets lucky enough to spout the particular emotional appeal that will press the buttons of whatever psycho has their eye on him this week. The only other major character besides those two was Balalaika, who was quite possibly the best part of the entire show and the closest thing to an 'overarching plot' the series had. Sufficiently creepier than Revy, she had a icily kind demeanor that seemed unflappable. Of course, Rock is the only one who ever shakes her, which was a pretty cool scene in itself.
My biggest complaint is the lack of closure. The series ends the same way the first episode does, which is always a little disappointing for me. Also, I really want to know what happened to all the lovable psychos who popped up in a few of the arcs. The last time we hear from any of them is in the counterfeit arc...
How does it compare to the manga, for those who've experienced both?
-Djinn
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Eerily coincidentally I had just rewatched the first season of Big O recently. I bought an actual copy some time ago and threw out my acquired copy, and I was starting to get jack of it lying around on my desk. Of course I can't put it away now that I've watched it because I currently have the shelf blocked off anyway...
Better than I remember, mainly because my memory was being all 'THAT IS SO WORSE THAN YOU SCORED IT AS' and it turned out to fairly well match up with what I had scored it, so it was just my memory having it in for me again. Got Season 2 to rewatch at some point as well but I think I'll put it off for a now as I seem to remember it being somewhat of a drop from season 1 in terms of quality and I will never learn to mistrust my memory.
Acquired and watched Gunbuster. Now this is a show that can take time dilation and do somewhat interesting things with it despite it not even being the point </inflammatory>
Some of the ways in which it was used seem to have been pulled out of the writers' behinds, but it could also probably just be that I have very little idea what I'm talking about.
Decent enough show in general. Final episode gets a bit weird in the middle and the very ending is highly stupid though. 90 degree personality shifts are not the most welcome things either.
Tashiro was far more personable than I had envisaged him being from Alpha which was quite saddening.
Somewhat lucky that I had started rewatching Mazzy given the recent news. It lets me remind myself how ripped off Mazinger Z's been in terms of SRWs.
Going by CJC/SRW's FAQ, Mazzy's been in 21 out of the 25 general SRW games. In all those appearances, only THIRTEEN enemies from the show have shown up! There are over 90 freaking things to choose from and they keep using the same damned enemies over and over and the Salude has never shown up as far as I can tell and they stopped putting Brocken in and I don't think that Pigman has ever shown up either and if they don't take this opportunity to do something god damned different with it I am going to be riiiiiiiiiiiled.
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>>Rock shakes Balalaika in the anime???
This is why anime be DANMED!!!
As for manga, Rock is well, your typical guy who eventually assimilate into that world of psychos in his own way, as he lacks the violent prowess the other has. And he eventually comprehends how moral or common sense is useless in that world. But yet, he still act like the good old man he is, just because he feels like it. And this is what got him off the hook from Balalaika once, because it ultimately proved they are the same type of people. Though, he is also starting to lose it, but in his own way too. How do I put it, he is starting to take pleasure in making people to play along with his goody goody ways. In the psycho maid arc 2, he is actually having fun in figuring out ways to get Garcia unharmed out of this.
As for Revy, she is much more straightforward despite how she behave on the surface. She is just trying to live, just being a cracked up psycho is the only way she had learned how to live. Her back story is not fully explained, but we can be sure she is caught deep into some dirty US politic in the past. She is, I am not sure understanding is the right word, but is very tolerant to Rock's way and know what merit he has and where he is coming from, but still never really agreed with him.
As for Balalaika... she is just a woman who never recovered from the post war traumatic syndrome and still wants war every day and night. But she is good at it and no one can stop her.
The manga's plot is pretty episodic like the anime does, with "there are evil US politics going on" hints from time to time and I can see the CIA nun eventually raise as a boss character of sort. But the manga still mainly digs on the characters and their philosophies. Meh, I'll just say read the Japan arc and psycho Maid arc 2, you'll get a pretty clear idea on what the manga is trying to do.
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Make sure you get and watch Gun Buster 2 sometime Twil, it pulls the whole thing together quite well, although yes the Gainaxing is a bit tiresome.
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You have no heart or soul if you think Welcome Home is a bad ending.
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It really is only maximised with Gun Buster 2. The Time Dilation stuff being played with was far better.
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You have no heart or soul if you think Welcome Home is a bad ending.
Always brings a tear to my eye.
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It really is only maximised with Gun Buster 2. The Time Dilation stuff being played with was far better.
I still need to finish it.
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Not -strictly- Anime, but lately I've found myself reading "Power!" into the wee late hours of the night. It's... genderbend/comedy/romance, and in plot probably quite mediocre: girl attends new high school, dad decides she should pose as a boy and join the basketball team, 'coz he couldn't win at it and she should realize his dreams.
NAturally she ends up sharing a dorm with a boy she likes, and naturally that boy finds out and drama ensues.
But you know what? It's too damn hilarious and nostalgic not to like it. God-tier.
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Not -strictly- Anime, but lately I've found myself reading "Power!" into the wee late hours of the night. It's... genderbend/comedy/romance, and in plot probably quite mediocre: girl attends new high school, dad decides she should pose as a boy and join the basketball team, 'coz he couldn't win at it and she should realize his dreams.
NAturally she ends up sharing a dorm with a boy she likes, and naturally that boy finds out and drama ensues.
But you know what? It's too damn hilarious and nostalgic not to like it. God-tier.
Hm. I vaguely recollect recommending it before, but it's worth saying again: Mint na Bokura. You want gender-bending comedy, basketball, and hilarity ensuing? You got it.
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Big O - Oh yeah so I finished Season 1. I have come to the conclusion that it isn't Batman with Giant Robots. It is Batman with Pet Godzilla. I watched the Gamera MST3K episodes recently and the similarities between the fights and that genre's style is impeccable Edit - This only makes the series better.
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Now for the authentic experience, wait three years before watching the next episode.
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I would care a bit more about that if I didn't know the series was planned to have a third season and was canned after S2 anyway, so may as well only be cock blocked once.
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Not -strictly- Anime, but lately I've found myself reading "Power!" into the wee late hours of the night. It's... genderbend/comedy/romance, and in plot probably quite mediocre: girl attends new high school, dad decides she should pose as a boy and join the basketball team, 'coz he couldn't win at it and she should realize his dreams.
NAturally she ends up sharing a dorm with a boy she likes, and naturally that boy finds out and drama ensues.
But you know what? It's too damn hilarious and nostalgic not to like it. God-tier.
Hm. I vaguely recollect recommending it before, but it's worth saying again: Mint na Bokura. You want gender-bending comedy, basketball, and hilarity ensuing? You got it.
Actually I didn't know I could quite enjoy such themes. It's a peculiar brand of humour that appeals to me, apparently. I've already got it down on my "To Watch/Read" list, though.
Once I finish Power! to read, and Gundam X to watch. :V
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(http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/3347/dvdfinalcover08cq0.jpg)
Is every bit as epic as hyped, and then some.
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Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to consider watching Dibuster until the next bandwidth cycle.
Appleseed (OVA):
Pretty nice. I'm kind of drawing a blank as to anything specific to say about it though.
Appleseed Ex Machina:
Very pretty. I think all up it's better than Vexille, although Vexille had a more interesting storyline in some respects.
Hitomi is very reminiscent of some character in something else but I can't think of who and it is bugging me...
This really needs to be SRWed at some point (unlike the OVA which has barely any robots/robot equivalents).
Meanwhile the Appleseed movie isn't being distributed any more (unless it was distributed by a different company than does those two in the first place) so I am going to have to spend time looking for it. Tsk.
Gundam SEED:
Decent. Quality varies quite a bit per episode but on the whole it's fairly good. Don't see the antihype that I have seen at some places.
I am unsure as to why they start taunting you with Cruise's mask coming off out of your view and then they never show you anyway, presuming I didn't blink and miss something. Also Dearka's disposition changes completely for no apparent reason.
Hm, the newtype-esque-ishness of Mu and Rau was completely unnecessary and should have been punted. Then they'd just need to get rid of Flay's godawful and also completely unnecessary final scene amongst the colours and we'd have complete real-ness going on here, assuming you don't take issue with the whole SEED thing that's never actually explained either (for that matter, early on the SEED stuff only tends to happen when they've gotten all stressed, but later on it seems that it happens whenever, which is also a mite annoying).
I am sad that SRWJ made Mu and Azrael look more awesome than they do in show, especially Azrael. My expectations for him were almost 180 degrees from the truth. Arguably this is a good thing I suppose as it means less given up by the game before I've seen the show, except for the fact that actual!Azrael is horrifically lame.
Augh why is SEED Destiny $150 plus another $25 for the final episode who the heck sets the pricing for this stuff
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Warning: Gundam SEED Destiny takes everything bad about SEED and amplifies it with little to no of the good.
3 cases of Catastrophic Mobile Suit Explosions end in little to no damage to the pilots, as a sample.
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Gundam SEED:
Decent. Quality varies quite a bit per episode but on the whole it's fairly good. Don't see the antihype that I have seen at some places.
Gundam SEED is just sorta shallow. SEED Destiny is the real trainwreck.
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Akikan is the best thing of this season... Because it is horrible and it doesn't hide it.
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No, mia. No it isn't.
::Waves a flag for Birdy the Mighty: Decode Season 2::
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Akikan is the best thing of this season... Because it is horrible and it doesn't hide it.
ooooooooooh, trainwreck?
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Akikan is the best thing of this season... Because it is horrible and it doesn't hide it.
ooooooooooh, trainwreck?
I already linked this in IotD, but lest there be any doubt, here's the description:
Akikan (”Empty Can”) is the unlikely story of high school boy Kakeru Daichi, whose can of melon juice soda magically transforms into a human girl. Naturally, more “akikan” girls begin appearing, each of them needing to be infused with carbon dioxide from kissing to survive.
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No, trainwreck would be Sunrise's new series Sora Kake Girl, of course.
It's first episode manages to be sloppier and less coherant than Code Gaess', and it's second episode just forges ahead with that formula where Gaess at least slowed down.
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If you're taking SoraKake Girl seriously and haven't realized that it's self-parody yet, then... well...
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I'm sorry, I can't write Sora Kake Girl off as self-parody. Good self-parody is Busou Renkin. Sora Kake Girl is just shitty writing so far.
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Busou Renkin was obviously very, very serious. :colbert:
Anyway, fair enough.
Ep3 introduces girls voiced by Nina and Arika from Mai Otome. The girl who voices Arika references her grandmother in the ep 4 preview too.
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How the fuck can something possibly be self parody in the first goddamned episode?
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Based on the studio and the people who are behind it~!
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I do have to hand it to Sunrise. They're giving the audience what they want. The Japanese demand shitty shows, and by god are they getting them!
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Japan needs to demand more delicious blond guys, tbqh. :|
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Sora Kake Girl description:
The story is set in the year 311 of the Orbital Calendar, when humanity has migrated to countless colony clusters in space. A space colony girl named Akiha Shishidō encounters a malevolent artificial intelligence named Leopard that has been installed on a colony. Akiha is joined by an Inter-Colony Police officer named Itsuki Kannagi, a taciturn young girl named Honoka Kawai, and a robot named Imoko "Imo-chan" Shishidou.
So...how much Microsoft pay for this?
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SoraKake has some epic backstory to it too, like "Israel and the middle east kissed and made up and are living at Lagrange 4 in peace together."
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The sadder part is that my first reaction to that is that it's cribbed that from the Left Behind books, which as far as I know really definitely aren't self-parody.
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Gundam 00, invalidating your accomplishments every episode!
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Updates for a month or three.
Manga
Bleach- Sucks.
Naruto- Kay.
One Piece- Great.
Monster- Finally bothered to finish after pausing for some reason. Very great.
Ruroni Kenshin- Finished. Good.
Double Arts- Enjoyable.
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I'll make a manga update too, I guess...
Air Gear- I never understood why Gaess' overwhelming mediocrity constituted trainwreck when there's true stupid like Air Gear out there. Plus, Air Gear was good at one point, so it had momentum to crash with. Ever since a certain point where one of the major characters died, there's been a steady decline in story quality, coherance, and overall sanity in the manga. To the point where I seriously wonder if Oh Great! had stroke some years back but didn't tell anyone, but still continued to write. Art quality is about the only thing that's stayed consistant. The latest chapter, where:
Barack Obama. Seriously. Barack Obama is switched into the body of one of the main females of the series. And it's left like this. It could be a major plot point.
kinda showcases this.
Naruto- Been holding steady at good now that the focus is on Naruto. The latest arc has been pretty interesting at least.
Bleach- Sucks. Though, the latest chapter where Yammy pulls a Kool Aid Man moment made up for a lot of sucking.
Kekkaishi- Stay the course, good Kekkaishi. You remain a bastion of good writing and solid character work in a sea of bad shounen.
Hunter X Hunter- WHY DID YOU SHOOT THE SHAGGY DOG ON THE KNUCKLE FIGHT!?!?! I mean, I see where you're going with it, but... you can still do it even if one of the bad guys gets killed! Otherwise, I like where it's going.
Negima- Another one I like where it's going. The latest chapters have been interesting. Rakan rocks.
Thoughts on the Winter lineup so far:
Sora Kake Girl- Even if it is self-parody, it's still an incredibly bad show with terrible writing. The only standout here is the mecha design. But hey, thats already a leg up over Gaess' mediocre VOTOMS/Gundam snoozefest designs.
Chrome Shelled Regios- Borderline interesting and generic. Could go either way at this point. If the beginning of the first episode happened BEFORE the events of the series, it could be good! If it happens after... eh.
Munto- So far it's literally been the OVA with a few extra scenes added. They don't even try to hide this, as in the added scenes Yumemi has a completely different hair color. Kinda sad, since I liked the OVA's art direction. Looks like the material from the two OVA will be split into the first 6 episodes. It's not bad though, since it at least adds some much needed explanations that the OVAs left out due to time.
Birdy the Mighty: Decode Season 2- Seems like it'll be good. Loved the first season.
Akikan- Watched the first episode, then my brain held a gun to my head and said that if I ever thought about watching more of this it'd pull the trigger. Another supposed self-parody show, and I can buy that sooner than Sora Kake Girl, but it's still shit.
S'about all I've watched.
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Another supposed self-parody show.
Isn't self-parody just another word for bad? Is it even possible for something to be self-parody and be good?
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In theory, self-parody means recognizing that you've done something mock-worthy in the past and essentially laughing at yourself along with everyone else. For this to work, the self-parody has to recognizably come from the same creative source or same franchise as previous well know works, or else the 'self-' part wouldn't apply. It's also something that ideally should be brief, since poking fun at yourself once can work to show that you have a sense of humor and aren't hopelessly self-absorbed, but doing so repeatedly just gets tiresome.
The fundamental problem SoraKake is exhibiting is it hasn't really been trying to establish a story of its own, but instead is coasting of residual memories of Mai Otome/Xenoglossia/Code Geass/etc., presumably because the Mai Hime/Otome team hasn't been able to write anything worth a damn since Hime, so they do stuff like introduce a Lelouch-bot and have blatant Arika/Nina-expys show up as incompetent antagonists. Akikan... honestly the whole premise is stupid beyond belief to such an extent that poking fun at itself isn't going to save it.
tl;dr: No in principle, yes in practice here.
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Ah, so SoraKake isn't meant to be a self-parody. It's just...cast in the mold of Code Geass, and no one can imagine why they'd do that intentionally, so people assume they must be going for parody. But this is anime we're talking about, and if anime is bad, it's probably not intentionally so. In any case, something being a parody isn't an excuse for it being bad. Why am I explaining this? How many brain cells have I wasted going on like this?
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http://drakh.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/spring.jpg
Spring anime lineup. Man am I gonna be watching a lot.
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Sengoku Basara? That can't end well, the over the top style the games have would just look generic in show format ._.
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Basquash is where it's at this spring. Oh yeah.
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Guin Saga should be interesting. The novel series is a classic in Japan and were Miura's main inspiration behind Berserk.
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But this is anime we're talking about, and if anime is bad, it's probably not intentionally so. In any case, something being a parody isn't an excuse for it being bad. Why am I explaining this? How many brain cells have I wasted going on like this?
I don't agree with this. Anime can do parody pretty decently at times. Even self-parody. The first episode of Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi is pretty amusing as a parody. Though it is notably only one episode of that series.
Ranma 1/2 and Slayers are both decently funny at times and they parody their own genres (Martial Arts and Swords/Sorcery) pretty heavily.
Meh, slightly off-topic I suppose, but it just seemed like you were painting a whole genre with really broad strokes.
-Djinn
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Guin Saga should be interesting. The novel series is a classic in Japan and were Miura's main inspiration behind Berserk.
I didn't know you were into yaoi.
Spring stuff I'm interested in = Valkyria Chronicles and FMA s2. Eden of the East and Shangri-La concepts sound interesting to me too.
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It's just...cast in the mold of Code Geass, and no one can imagine why they'd do that intentionally, so people assume they must be going for parody.
Not really. I said memories of Geass, not style/overtones/tropes. The emo AI who sounds exactly like Lulu and points to a picture of Lulu when it says that's what it would look like if it were human certainly isn't meant to be taken seriously, and Code Geass - no matter just how over the top ludicrous it got - meant for its dramatic moments to be taken seriously.
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http://drakh.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/spring.jpg
Spring anime lineup. Man am I gonna be watching a lot.
Wow... How many of those are based on games?
I'm seeing Valkyria Chronicles, Tears to Tiara, and BASARA just at a glance...
-Djinn
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Chrome Shell Legios- ...Yeah, I'll stop watching this now. How wrong that I thought what author did to the acr2 was bad enough.
Pandora Hearts- ....Oz feels less and less like a main now, while Break and Jack more to be one. Though, the plot is heading toward a direction I dislike, the two minds in one body deal feels yuck. I'd like it better if Alice truly is a psychopath. Sigh, I should have expected this when the author made Oz sane.... Though culminating Vincent hate is nice, finally get to see Break hates him so much, and makes the reader hates too along with it.
Nabari no Ou- STOP DRAGGING!!!! Though, I'd like to see Shinrabanshou killing the hypocritical teacher.
Soul Eater- Back to fighting scenes again. Why do they have to do this after every cliff hanging revelations!!??
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Guin Saga should be interesting. The novel series is a classic in Japan and were Miura's main inspiration behind Berserk.
I didn't know you were into yaoi.
He was talking about Berserk. Of course he is into Yaoi. You don't GET more Yaoi than Berserk.
Djinn of course Anime can do parody well. Eva exists, no matter what you think of it, it does what it does well (and what it does ain't pretty). The problem with your line of thought there is that The blah blah blah of Haruhi blah blah blah is actually a good show because it is a good parody. Not a bad show that is so bad that oh it must parody something, even if it is itself.
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VC Anime? that may actually be worth watching.
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*skims topic*
Wait, WHAT about Air Gear? What the crap? *brain twists in half*
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Whats the last Air Gear you read, Fnorder?
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Let's see... I think they were fighting THE PAST in the internet because Ikki fails at filing deadlines.
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Southern Cross:
Starts off so slow that I put it off after the first disc for the vastly more interesting pursuit of playing SRW2.
Fortunately it gets better as time goes on. Then it gets close to the end and the makers realise they still have to fit X episodes of content into half that and it goes downhill again. Decentish while it's got its stride, though.
I don't think that Jeanne ever approaches likableness throughout the whole series. Meanwhile they start to attempt to play Claude up sympathetically near the end? This was the guy that partially precipitated the whole mess by apparently taking a call from the Zor and refusing to allow negotiations and similar. Then again this was also back before they changed tack near the end and started writing Dess&Friends as some sort of actually evil people instead of just enemies.
They didn't really explain the deal with the Zor and the flowers, for that matter. Assuming that no-one here is especially planning on watching it, the flowers begin to get played off near the end as effectively the 'masterminds' in a manner of speaking behind Dess&Friends... and then they end up surviving anyway. Also Jeanne has a dream sequence near the end that ends up not pertaining to anything. Oh those crazy ending episodes.
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Gundam 00: Manly tears are still shed.
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Fudo: ANDREIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!111
PS/Random: Have you guys seen Sunred?
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Gundam 00: Manly tears are still shed.
... I think we all remember what the first named characters biting it around the same time kicked off last season. The only question is... WHO?!?!?!!?!?!?!?
Episode 17 was otherwise fairly awesome, notably, HOLY SHIT THAT'S A BEAM SABER??? which has me looking forward to a range... like... 8 melee attack when 00 makes a SRW appearance in a few years. Lol Innubatuh gettin' pwned.
And everyone works together to save the town! Kati is still one of my favorites.
Waiting for Louise to pilot uber mobile armor, Marie doing something cool besides shooting debris, SOMETHING significant from Alle (or Halle >:D), Tieria pulling out something else asskicking, and Trans-Am running on dead people.
EDIT: Does anyone know the significance of today's date in anime?
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Is it the Fullmetal Alchemist date that Ed has on his pocketwatch?
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Well now that you missed it, it doesn't really matter >_<
Fictional launch date of the SDF-1 Macross; Feb. 7, 2009. /m/ celebrated with many threads, and I went and finally watch Do You Remember Love?, which is highly recommended to any Macross fans. Heck, it's not a terrible introduction, for all that you'll miss out on the full experience if you haven't seen the original TV series IMO.
Now downloading the original TV series in fact, though internet here is pretty slow so it'll take a few days at least.
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Slayers Evolution-R: First episode shows definite promise, oh yes. Doesn't hurt that the opening credits prominently feature no less than 3 characters previously presumed deceased. Characters Slayers fans will surely not mind seeing more of. I have high hopes.
EDIT: Omigod, is that a Princess Mononoke parody?
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RideBack 1 & 2
/m/ has been talking about it enough, and the idea of motorcycles with legs and arms - the titular RideBacks - was intriguing enough that I decided to give it a try. So far, it's a pretty balanced piece of work, nice animation, fun concept. The two riding segments have been fairly long and interesting, so they aren't skimping on action. Of course, these were developed from military hardware, and there have been mentions of darker things going on in the world, so I doubt things will stay as light as they've been so far, and I'm interested in where they'll take it. The characters are pretty interesting so far, colorful without being excessive, which suits the atmosphere and content well.
Oh, and just in case that didn't get the point across: motorcycles that transform into small mechs that you ride piggyback-style and can imitate ballet moves.
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Wait, there's another Slayers series already?
Goddamn I am behind.
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It's supposedly season 5, but it's more like the latter half of season 4. direct continuation of the plot and all. 3 eps are translated that I know of.
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Latest Negima manga- Wow. Just wow. Negi just got god-tier broken.
Birdy the Mighty:Decode Season 2- Shaping up very, very well. Even better than the first season so far.
Toradora!- Has the potential to be the best romantic comedy of the past few years. Which is.... really surprising, considering the setup.
Chrome Shelled Regios- An interesting main character stuck in a dull, mediocre series.
Munto TV- So far, the OVA with more exposition scenes added. That means good stuff!
To Aru no Majitsu no Index- Still experiences violent mood swings of quality. The last ep was surprisinly good though, so maybe this arc will be good.
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Finished rewatching Mazinger Z.
Still good! I was afraid that I might have dramatically overranked it considering it was from memory the first robot show I watched that I can remember, but it seems that was not the case. Good good. Now, conspiracy theories that no-one sane subscribes to nonwithstanding, I should be in good stead to appreciate mazzy in K presuming they actually use it for a change instead of just having it there to be used.
It was really pushing me to roll straight into rewatching Great Mazinger. But I can remember Tetsuya's horrific failure at life. I'm not fooled that easily.
FMP? Fumoffu.
Mayhaps my first impressioniser is on the blink? The first disc of this was making it seem awesome, but then... it fades off somewhat. Not anywhere near as much as Excel Saga does mind you, but... tsk.
Sousuke manages to be even denser than TSR Sousuke. Now I know that it was exaggerated specifically for the concept. But it's still somewhat galling. On the plus side, he is considerably more stable than TSR Sousuke. Similarly, the show in general is better than TSR, although it still lags behind the original series.
I think my favourite episode is probably the bread-selling one. Nice and simple. Hot Springs might have had a chance if it didn't start off with the same ancient jokes that everything along those lines uses and only get entertaining when progressive stupidity started near the end.
Watched a couple episodes of Getta Robo. Highly unimpressive so far.
Hayato is almost as much a freak as he was in New except without the sociopathy and I have come to the conclusion that his hair is a wig since there's no way he can get it all inside that helmet, especially with none showing.
The Getta Beam is failing at life so far. I wonder if that gets an upgrade midshow or if they just randomly stop having it do so.
Nice to see the Proto Getta was actually in the show, for all the time it lasted.
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Negima!?: Holy shit Negi.
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Diebuster:
Um, okay, this has reinforced my perspective on Gunbuster's ending. They forgot things as important as the 'space monsters' but they didn't forget 1 & 2? No.
I didn't really notice anything being done with regards to time dilation either, it seemed more like they completely ignored that aspect? I would like to think I'm not that unobservant...
Nice show all in all. Having a smorgasboard of different robots is always a plus. But it doesn't really feel like the same style of show as Gunbuster.
Gundam 0083:
Nice. Some of it didn't really mean anything to me sadly which I put down to not having seen Zeta. Stands up fairly well on its own in general though.
It's mildly amusing how my opinion on Kou has roughly 180 degreed from when I first saw him being horrifically failure in SRW3.
Godannar:
Awesome. It may just be stock super, but it's top-tier stock super, for the little that helps people that don't like stock super in the first place. I am seriously hyped up to see what they do with it in SRWK.
I was fairly apprehensive going in due to some of the things I had heard about it, but the majority of the content in question is fairly tame, so that was all well and good.
Whoever came up with the name Tetsuya Kouji is a genius and whoever decided that he was only going to be in a handful of episodes is emphatically not.
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Negima!?: Holy shit Negi.
That's a great name for a series.
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Gundam 00 Episode 20: I'm blaming you for the OP mia~
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Apropos of Twil's review from last week:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-02-22/shin-mazinger-shogeki-z-hen-tv-remake-set-for-2009
Mazinger Z remake in production, helmed by the same guy who directed G Gundam and wrote and directed the Giant Robo OAV. Awesomeness.
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Gundam 00 Episode 20: I'm blaming you for the OP mia~
Oh lmao you watch gSS? Yeah that was my doing. :haw:
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Humph, I'm unsure what I should be thinking about Tru Mazinger Z No Jigiri. If this is what all the Z Mazinger rumours were about as opposed to a show about greek Mazinger that's somewhat disappointing. Of course it could turn out that things will be awesome and both exist... but I doubt it.
In any case I don't really trust them with Mazinger Z after Mazinkaiser for however petty that sounds. At least Brocken will be in this according to the cast list on a web site (http://www.shin-mazinger.com/), although it doesn't list Boss of all people... there is a Cross that I don't remember from Z (unless it's referring to the Iron Cross army which I sincerely doubt) so mayhaps they are changing things up a bit.
Cromartie High School
Well. I was expecting randomness - which there was - so that's fine, in a sense. But I was expecting COHERENT randomness, which the show had some trouble maintaining. Has a number of great moments but it's let down by most of the rest, really. Also wasn't expecting episodes to only be 10 minutes long, which can only mean I need to stop considering trailers to be adequate research.
Currently watching Gasaraki.
It's a bit weird.
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Are you watching the dub or sub of Cromartie? If not, switch to the dub. They did an AMAZING job of it. I've found in comedies like CroHigh a good dub goes a loooooong way.
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I was watching the dub, yes. Normally I will preferentially watch a dub over a sub. Don't remember anything spectacular about Cromartie's dubbing, but that would kind of require me to know what it was like subbed anyway in order to compare, and I don't feel like rewatching it in the immediate future.
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Bobby's In Deep- A recommendation from a friend. It's an ancient Madhouse work that involved a lot of key players. Masao Maruyama, Rin Taro, etc. Strange little slice of life story. One day a guy who is into motorcycles gets a letter from a girl saying that she recently saw an article about him in a magazine. They start to exchange letters. Hers are very long and eloquent, with a very romantic mindset. His letters back are incredibly short, almost concise to a fault. Meanwhile, you see snippets of his life. He's in high school, failing, doesn't get along with his parents. He ends up dropping out, moving out and getting a job after a very messy incident with his parents. The way he interacts, and the way the letters come off, you get the feeling that he's almost slightly autistic possibly. As the OVA proceeds though, you see him improve a bit with how he interacts with people. The ending is pretty sad though.
The animation is... well, high gear or low gear. It's either fairly well done stills, choppy in-between quality, or in the case of the final 5 minute motorcycle sequence, ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS. Words can't describe. What starts off as a trippy, colorful yet melancholic ride turns into a fluid, black and white, pencil-only adreneline rush.
The whole package doesn't come off that well, but it's worth seeing for that last sequence alone. It almost comes off as one of those experimental films made by people who later made it big that wasn't very good, but you could see the start of a long career. Because well, it is.
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Humph, I'm unsure what I should be thinking about Tru Mazinger Z No Jigiri. If this is what all the Z Mazinger rumours were about as opposed to a show about greek Mazinger that's somewhat disappointing. Of course it could turn out that things will be awesome and both exist... but I doubt it.
In any case I don't really trust them with Mazinger Z after Mazinkaiser for however petty that sounds. At least Brocken will be in this according to the cast list on a web site (http://www.shin-mazinger.com/), although it doesn't list Boss of all people... there is a Cross that I don't remember from Z (unless it's referring to the Iron Cross army which I sincerely doubt) so mayhaps they are changing things up a bit.
I didn't care for Mazinkaiser either, but it's Imagawa. I'd trust him with...hell, any robot show I can think of.
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Well, he was associated with the awesomeness that is Giant Robo... but he was also associated with G Gundam and then further down to Giant Robo Ginrei. That's quite a range for TM to fall into, there... unfortunately I haven't seen anything else on the list of things he was associated with so I can't personally know where he's normally at on the range.
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Gundam 00 21 - Mmmmm delicious transforming mobile armors. Also - culling the herd and mental breakdowns! Weee!
Rideback 7 - Stuff's starting to go down, though a very low-key episode on its own. Still enjoying this more than most of the other recent stuff I've seen.
Casshern Sins - DLed the first episode, and I'm interested. Will watch more.
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Gundam 00- Won Ryumi died, now the show officially suck.
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Finished Gasaraki.
Very enjoyable on the whole; it did a pretty good job of making me wonder what was coming up. Unfortunately they don't end up explaining the reincarnatary stuff at all which is somewhat perturbing, and the final episode dials the weirdness up several notches then ends completely anticlimactically. Aside from that it was well worth my time.
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Watching Gun X Sword and Godannar in preparation for SRWK. Godannar is fun, if basic, super roboty stuff.
Gun X SWord is just great, though. Characters, action, music, style, dub are all top-notch. And that was before I got to episode 6, which starts with a homage to Pulp Fiction of all things. (I cracked up as soon as it got to the payoff, because the moment that scene started, my first reaction was "if this isn't a reference to Pulp Fiction, it's going to suck." Surprise!)
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08th MS Team-
Largely failed to live up to my expectations, but I did have overly high expectations due to it being real/real and from how I perceived it in SRW and all. Tsk tsk.
Shirou's kind of annoying. Too much of a standard main. I was expecting him to be more pragmatic. His being the oldest Gundam main aside from CCA!Amuro gone completely to waste.
On the other hand I think Aina turned out to be superior to how I had been expecting.
The Ez-8 has effectively no attention called to it at all in the show, it pretty much just shows up. On the one hand I guess this is better in general but on the other hand I would have hoped SOMETHING would have been said about it. Also they need to stop having Shirou show up in the Ez8 in SRWs.
I am torn between whether the ending (of episode 11) would be better being removed or not. At least there is some damage done unlike usual, but... it makes me happy to see something, but my happiness isn't necessarily the best way of going about things.
Last Resort was kind of completely unnecessary and the ending is more egregious than 11's. The only real reason for it existing is to give Kiki a bunch more screen time, the necessity of which is highly debatable.
On the whole, 0083 ends up being the best out of the three main early UC OVAs. This is somewhat depressing.
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Hey guys when does the Valkyria Chronicles anime start?
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20th Century Boys.
Watched the first movie at a party this weekend. Finished the entire manga at 3 AM sunday.
All I can say is Daaaaaaaaaaamn.
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Oh, wow, there are 20th Century Boys movies now? I read that a while back, and while I felt like it sort of came apart at the end and never achieved Monster's brilliance... I'd be interested in watching those.
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They Lord Of The Rings'd it. Three live action movies, released in quick succession. 100 million US budget. They NAILED the casting, honestly. The kids especially.
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So they made shit boring books into shit slightly less boring movies? Okay.
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Trigun: Finished this last week. Spends too much time on slapsticky anime humor, which generally does nothing for me, but it's a decent series overall. I don't know how in the hell Vash expects to reform someone like Knives, but I guess it would've been against the spirit of the show to kill him at the end. That is one thing the series gets dead right: Vash pays for his pacifism, constantly. Enemies don't just fall over to help him because he's so darned nice (in sharp contrast to too many RPG leads).
Hell Girl: Overwrought. Princess Kaguya forces her way into a Persona plot. They make no pretense of the condemned being anything other than walking sacks of excrement, so it gets repetitious right about the second episode. Oh well. There is a flying chariot with a Wanyudo wheel, though. I guess that's something.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time: Watched it, it was good. See Soppy hype, I guess; probably less enthusiastic on my end, but yeah, it's fun. If your average high school student got time travelling powers, this is pretty much what the results would be, I figure.
Red Garden: Finally got around to seeing the last two episodes of this. Ending was okay but likely would've had more impact if I'd watched it in sequence instead of like four months later. Eh. Also, Funimation tossed the OVA onto the final disc to pad it out (would've had only the two final episodes otherwise). OVA is very uh. I don't have enough "what." for it. It's like four hundred years in the future and the main characters are wandering bounty hunters, the main series's side characters are all there in some bizarro version, Rachel builds a FABULOUS mecha, Lisa is robo-Myria...right. And given how the main series ended, all this nuttiness could actually be canon. Oh well, at least even the girls seem to know that their theme song sucks.
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I finished Trigun on Thursday. I really liked the series and I actually prefer it over the manga.
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Trigun: Finished this last week. Spends too much time on slapsticky anime humor, which generally does nothing for me, but it's a decent series overall. I don't know how in the hell Vash expects to reform someone like Knives, but I guess it would've been against the spirit of the show to kill him at the end. That is one thing the series gets dead right: Vash pays for his pacifism, constantly. Enemies don't just fall over to help him because he's so darned nice (in sharp contrast to too many RPG leads).
I was just rewatching some of that, and other than the slapstick, which I liked, I couldn't agree more. Serious Trigun is good for all the right reasons (and a lot better than I remember it being), but the ending is very "Quick! Roll the credits before Knives wakes up kthx!"
Hm, regarding the consequences of pacifism, I wonder if you could term Trigun the anti-Kenshin? Maybe that doesn't give Kenshin enough credit. Kenshin does deal with the pacifism thing, just not on a consistent basis.
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Yeah, Trigun is one of the anime series I remember most fondly, now, and generally retain the highest opinion of. Regarding the humour, I didn't enjoy all the slapstick, but nevertheless genuinely enjoyed a good deal of the humour that relies on how much of an affable goof Vash is, or just plain silliness. Serious stuff largely worked too (though I vaguely recall Wolfwood being written as a bit of a mess) for reasons that have been said.
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Kenshin wasn't so much of a pacifist as much as he vowed not to kill. Fighting and maiming seemed to be perfectly within his realm of operation, as long as he didn't kill anyone. Whatever works in the name of protecting people!
Wolfwood made sense to me though. He never really had all his moral eggs in one basket, so his inconsistant behavior reflected it.
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Ah, Wolfwood. Forgot to mention that. Had no strong opinion of him for much of the series, but his last episode was excellent.
If it's not one of the best anime deaths ever, it's certainly the best that I've seen in years.
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So they made shit boring books into shit slightly less boring movies? Okay.
Hey, 20CB wasn't really boring, it was just kind of stupid.
... hey, wait, I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE. GRRREFTERRRRRR.
Hmm. I'm really interested in seeing these 20CB movies, actually. I feel like massively trimming the fat was something those books pretty desperately needed. I should look in to that.
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Finished Bokurano in a day.
What's to say...
It's short, premise isn't super complicated, but I'll be damned if I said I didn't enjoy it. Seriously recommend it to people who haven't seen it. The neat thing is, since it moves from character to character you pretty much have a different main for every episode. And some of it comes together pretty well. Also? Very damn powerful.
I heard the manga was supposed to be better, but from what I've seen, the anime does a good job of its own.
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The manga is different, but I prefer the anime slightly over it. The manga does some silly things at times. Kirie and Honda's stories are completely different, and some stories are told in a different sequence. The end is also entirely different and the focus is also different, but it's still worth a read.
Kirie is the fucking man no matter what version though.
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Bokurano- the premise too depressing for me to watch.
I did watch almost all of Tower of Druaga. Which... I didn't intend to but it was weirdly compelling. Second season premise is kind of totally awesome. Also finished Michiko to Hatchin, which was... neat. Not an overwhelming recommendation, but enjoyable if you like style.
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The stories I liked were Daichi's, Moji's, Anko's and Ushiro's (who basically went from a dick to a pretty cool guy). I know Anko's and Ushiro's also changed quite a bit, although in general, a lot of them were good. That crazy mobster dude was also hilarious.
I like the anime ending just because it's so bittersweet. Heard the manga is just flat out depressing :/.
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The crazy mobster dude and the entire mafia subplot was added for the anime.
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Yeah, which was surprising to me. Usually when they edit things, it ends up massively trainwrecky. This one came out really good!
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One episode of Gundam 00 to go.
Tons of back-and-forth Keikaku Doori-ing, main character haxing everyone and their mother to death, people dying (or maybe not hahaha), Alle multiplying his kill-count for the season ten-fold in like... 10 seconds, lots of love-love making up and tears, and Evil Amuro piloting GIANT EVIL GN GUNCANNON. All in the most recent episode.
Also, mention of extraterrestrials that aren't SEED's space whales.
In Gundam.
BIAN ZOLDAAAAARK!
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Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei - OH GOD FUCKING YEEEEEEEEEES.
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If you liked Bokurano though, watch Dennou Coil. Awesome, awesome show. Not by the same guy or anything, but another good show with a dramatic bent (though not as much).
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Gun X Sword: That was completely awesome. Great ending, too.
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Gun X Sword: That was completely awesome. Great ending, too.
* Agrees *
Gun x Sword is Godly, the ending is extremely satisfying. At the midway point the episodes keep building and building, it's hard to stop watching, you got to see what happens next! I lost a few hours of sleep with the marathoning I must say.
CHESTO!!!
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Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei - OH GOD FUCKING YEEEEEEEEEES.
I really enjoy that show. The third opening is one of the funniest things I've seen in a while.
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Lost Brain- Being the same thing as Death Note, I think I like this one better. Didn't got dragged to loong to become stupid, and didn't take itself too seriously when it shouldn't thus easier to pass those suspension of disbelief.
Soul Eater- I am taking back my words that this is dragging. Yeah, it kinda feel slow if judging only by the magazine updates. But when reading them in single volumes, the pacing actually turns out to be pretty good. There is enough drama and action in a single book.
Pandora Hearts- ...crap, don't tell me even Gil is getting fixed.
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Started watching the Wild ARMS anime.
After five episodes I still have not seen any "cohesive" story forming beyond Sheyenne looking for his body. Feels like I might as well skip a bunch of episodes and move on to ten without missing a bit.
Is this anime going to turn spectacular anytime soon or is this one of those "It's Wild ARMS, therefore people watch it" obscure things?
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It is the later.
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Yeah I suspected as much.
Gets bonus points for being relatively old and still introducing homosexual relationships, and some more bonus points for actual comedic value but the episodes really feel like stand-alone episodes.
Like some sort of Pokémon thing where the story progresses once every ten episodes with lots of filler crap, except WA is only 24 episodes.
Let's hope the last few episodes will feature a coherent story, then. Episode 1 to 2 transition made me think I was missing something.
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Twilight Venom is... pretty much fill for episodes 2-9, and 12-19. Basically the plot suddenly gets coherent in the last two episodes, at which point is... actually pretty neat. Worth sticking with it.
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Chi's New Address is the best anime of 09 easily and fuck you if you disagree with me.
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WA: TV - You really should watch the train episode, it has some genuine moments of funny IIRC. It's basically the only thing I remember about the series apart from the fact that Zed has a cameo appearance in one episode in a flashback. They translate his name as 'Jet', I believe.
-Djinn
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Shin Mazinger:
Good news, everyone!
Remember when everybody got excited about a Z Mazinger TV series, and then we found out that they were just doing a sorta-remake of the original, which was still pretty awesome but not as awesome?
THAT WAS A BALD-FACED LIE. Also, Zeus is apparently a 50-foot tall giant wearing a Gold Cloth (yes, as in Saint Seiya) modeled on Mazinger. Why? Because it's insane.
Non-spoiler reaction: This show is on immense quantities of drugs, and it is glorious.
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Shin Mazinger Impact: Holy fucking crap.
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Vexille: It's okay at best. The CGI didn't do much for me.
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The Black Butler- .....This thing is getting a stage play!!?? What evil yaoi fan girl scheme is this!!??
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The Black Butler- .....This thing is getting a stage play!!?? What evil yaoi fan girl scheme is this!!??
...huh. I can see that making sense, unlike many stage productions.
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Mazinger and Sengoku Basara can be 2nd and 3rd BEST ANIME OF 2009 after dear little Chi's New Address.
Everything else is pretty shitty tbqh.
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Sengoku Basara - While I couldn't make out a ton of the dialogue, I got enough to see that this was better than I was expecting. I was fearing it'd turn into generic shounen without it being a game, but it actually keeps the style and humor of the games well enough. Entertaining, will keep tabs.
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Phantom: "......" at the VA cast... at least it I unique I guess. And the plot is looking fine so far, hope it stays true to the original plot and don't attempt something foolish. Oh, and despite it is impossible, I still wish for a Claudia end.
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Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood. A new season of FMA or something like that? I only found one episode for it, but it apparently takes place during the first series. My guess is it's going to be more focused on the military life and being a state alchemist than the plotline itself, although they do seem intertwined of course.
Akikan- Managed to get through an episode of this. Not my type I guess because I found it fucking awful.
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Brotherhood is supposed to be a straight adaptation of the manga, as opposed to the first anime that went onto a completely different path after episode 26. So they'll probably gloss over the first half of the story and spend most of the show on the second.
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Akikan- Managed to get through an episode of this. Not my type I guess because I found it fucking awful.
So you're saying your 'type' has something to do with a show having 'any redeeming value or quality whatsoever.' huh.
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Ahh, that should be cool then Shale. I hate running into shows at the beginning though, I prefer to watch it all at once, but now that I know it exists, that won't happen.
And I'm glad I wasn't missing something Notmiki. I kept waiting for a cool character, interesting plot twist, good villain, or something to come in. It never did so... 1 episode is enough (too much) for me!
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And I'm glad I wasn't missing something Notmiki. I kept waiting for a cool character, interesting plot twist, good villain, or something to come in. It never did so... 1 episode is enough (too much) for me!
Shows like that are like abusive spouses. They'll never change, no matter how much you hope they will.
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咲-Saki-: Okay this is ridiculous and is pretty much 100% approved by me. ( o.o)b This couldn't possbly be better than Akagi but it comes pretty damn close. You couldn't really compare them that much apart from the mahjong, which happens right off the bat. Despite the titular character mentioning that even though her family plays she hates it. Then she ends up playing because she wants to impress her crush. Which is also a girl.
YAY. NONSENSICAL BUT. Still 100% approved. ( o.o)b
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Valkyria Chronicles anime has happened yet?
That and Sengoku Basara are pretty much the only things I've been looking forward to.
I'll wait for fansubs of both as I'm waaaay too lazy to try to decipher Japanese these days.
-Djinn
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Yeah, subs of the VC anime are out already.
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Beck - Disc 1 down. Musicwise it has been slow starting off, the highlights has been the music in the menus actually. Still the Blitlock Engrish song at the end of the disc was not bad.
Highlights is the Bass Guitar work though. It is at its best when it is front and center of the song and just kicks arse. It is shades of Tom Morello's bass work. Not the really crazy lead stuff, but his Bass work on RATM self titled album has some resemblance.
I am loving the pedigree of the music though. There is some really great old bands getting nods in places here and there (Residents in the closing credits!). Also while the actual playing animation isn't perfect (it is never going to be unless you rotoscoped someone playing an actual instrument I guess? Way more expensive than it is worth) I do have to say it is head and shoulders against most animation of instruments of course with those largely being I MOVE MY HAND UP AND DOWN AND PLAY 15 DIFFERENT OCTAVES. The Instruments though, now THOSE are animated beautifully. You can see there was a lot of care put into them and they are actually probably the highlights outside of the music for me.
Slice of life stuff isn't bad and all, but I am mostly here for the music so I am probably not giving it the full respect it may deserve. Oh well, that is what you get for making an anime about music.
Edit - Specific pieces are the main menu piece and the one from the Setup menu that I would listen to a bit. It is very hard grungey kind of sound sometimes.
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I MOVE MY HAND UP AND DOWN AND PLAY 15 DIFFERENT OCTAVES.
This is one of those areas where live action shows are usually about as realistic as animated ones. (other thing that comes to mind: "This ship will self-destruct in 5 minutes." Does the ship EVER self-destruct in exactly 5 minutes?)
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Oh yeah. I love it when you catch someone's hand moving down the neck of a guitar to play lower notes.
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Oh yeah. I love it when you catch someone's hand moving down the neck of a guitar to play lower notes.
You don't even have to know music at all to know that that's wrong... sad.
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Reminds me of movies from the fifties when anyone driving a car would constantly have the wheel in motion (usually this frantic left-right-left-right pattern that would realistically send them veering all over the road) just to make it really really clear that they're driving.
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I'd just assume, given how people that grew up in the 50s drive, that was just how they did it back then. Everyone was slightly sloshed all the time, but cops didn't give a shit so a little drunken driving wasn't anything big. Makes perfect sense to me anyway.
on-topic
Finally unlazied enough to pick up Vol 2/3 of Gurren Lagann. Is forged from the purest veins of awesome by only the highest Gods in the mightest fires and tempered upon the sturdiest anvils. There is nothing this drill cannot pierce. Row. Row. Fight the powah.
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Yes. Row that Nice Boat to the Heavens!
Nanoha A's, first four episodes. Is magical girl anime with action sequences out of a mecha anime and 'magic' that's pretty much just fancy... spirit using... technology (lolthatonequote). Granted, naked loli transformation sequences, but it's also lolis that can get thrown through buildings and then blow them up too. Non-lolis too, but the main characters are the 11 year olds.
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Claymore: ...at this rate, I feel there is danger of killing off characters for the sake of killing them.
Nabari no Ou: I feel like to say the latest chapter is dragging... but the sometime say it is not. Maybe the artist is trying too hard to be touching and set up future plot to be romantic.
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Watching s-CRY-ed. s.CRY.ed? Whicheva. Good stuffs.
Boyfriend made me watch three episodes of Bleach. Blehhhhhh, I'll watch it since he's so excited about it but I sorta-kinda-think-it's-overrated-and-whether-or-not-it-has-validity-has-nothing-to-do-with-the-fact-that-it-kinda-bores-me-and-the-fight-scenes-r-way-2-long.
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Watching s-CRY-ed. s.CRY.ed? Whicheva. Good stuffs.
Boyfriend made me watch three episodes of Bleach. Blehhhhhh, I'll watch it since he's so excited about it but I sorta-kinda-think-it's-overrated-and-whether-or-not-it-has-validity-has-nothing-to-do-with-the-fact-that-it-kinda-bores-me-and-the-fight-scenes-r-way-2-long.
s-CRY-ed is the superior shonen by far. Bleach has some good stuff in Soul Society, but the pacing is pretty ew.
Suggest Buso Renkin to him at some point.
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I'll get lynched for comparing the two, but Bleach has Monster syndrome to me. I'd like it a lot more if they'd cut everything down by about 33%. (Well, and in Bleach's case take out 100% of the filler trash, THEN cut the main story down by 33%.)
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Bleach suffers from twin problems: first, it's based on something still going on, hence filler. second, the manga also takes too damn long for anything to happen.
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Ehh, I personally quite like the Bleach manga. It tends to just be one or two chapters on an individual character & their developments (two only for the most important ones - such as Urahara, when he's introduced) and then switch to someone else. The anime... I'd probably hate the fillers. And Bleach's obsessive fans still annoy the living crap out of me. >_>
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And Bleach's obsessive fans still annoy the living crap out of me. >_>
My problem with reading Bleach is that it just goes too slow. I'll read it in batches of 20, but the fighting to plot (or fighting to anything, for that matter) ratio is too skewed. I don't think it's right to judge a manga by its fans, but Bleach encourages fanboys in a way other big fightin' shonen manga like Naruto don't because every little thing in Bleach is made out to be a big goddamn deal. I mean, Naruto got through Sasuke vs. Itachi without each character needing to power up DBZ-style to new planes of enlightenment too many times, but Bleach that kind of powerup happens all the freaking time.
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Watching s-CRY-ed. s.CRY.ed? Whicheva. Good stuffs.
Boyfriend made me watch three episodes of Bleach. Blehhhhhh, I'll watch it since he's so excited about it but I sorta-kinda-think-it's-overrated-and-whether-or-not-it-has-validity-has-nothing-to-do-with-the-fact-that-it-kinda-bores-me-and-the-fight-scenes-r-way-2-long.
s-CRY-ed is the superior shonen by far. Bleach has some good stuff in Soul Society, but the pacing is pretty ew.
Suggest Buso Renkin to him at some point.
I just wiki'd it really fast and skimmed over a few images. It looks interesting to me! This is a good thing, hahaha. Also, I found it on rawranime.com which means insta-streaming. Start now without him, or later?
Despite Bleach's fight scene (the one I've watched), this anime does very well in dialogue. It's entertaining, emotional, etc. . .
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Shonen show sucks because it uses standard shitty shonen tropes like every other fucking successful Shonen show ever.
Seriously, just watch 1 show in the genre and stop. Watch Tokyo Godfathers again or something.
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Why stop when so many shonen shows are so much fun? I'm just annoyed Bleach has gone from good to bad. There's nothing wrong with the tropes in question except that they've been overused to an extent that makes the show and comic dull.
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Why stop when so many shonen shows are so much fun? I'm just annoyed Bleach has gone from good to bad. There's nothing wrong with the tropes in question except that they've been overused to an extent that makes the show and comic dull.
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Watching s-CRY-ed. s.CRY.ed? Whicheva. Good stuffs.
Boyfriend made me watch three episodes of Bleach. Blehhhhhh, I'll watch it since he's so excited about it but I sorta-kinda-think-it's-overrated-and-whether-or-not-it-has-validity-has-nothing-to-do-with-the-fact-that-it-kinda-bores-me-and-the-fight-scenes-r-way-2-long.
s-CRY-ed is the superior shonen by far. Bleach has some good stuff in Soul Society, but the pacing is pretty ew.
Suggest Buso Renkin to him at some point.
Seconding everything here. Just stop watching Bleach after the Soul Society arc, really.
If you like Scryed, you'll probably like Busou Renkin, even if it's as much a parody of shounen shows as it is a legit entry into the genre.
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Eh, Bleach's filler is tolerable, though you can skip it and miss nothing other than "who are these 3 dolls?", and the start of the second main arc isn't actually half bad...but once Hueco Mundo kicks in, FIRE! LOTS AND LOTS OF FIRE!
...yeah, Soul Society Arc is the high point of the series.
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so you skip the filler...so the series ends early? works.
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Eden of the East had an interesting first episode. Would recommend A+++++.
Sengoku Basara continues to be awesome.
Xeroma, one of these days I'm going to drive through your window and be like HI WE'RE PLAYING BASARA 2 CO-OP AGAIN.
This is how I will enter your house:
(http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/1835/howtoscaleawall.gif)
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You're gonna have to make that soon considering I'll be moved out of AZ by August at this rate :F
On the topic of SB it needs less Kenshin Uesugi.
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Eden of the East had an interesting first episode. Would recommend A+++++.
EDIT: I fail
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Well sure if you want to watch remakes of the same show over and over again then continue to watch Shonen, but just stop watching them after say the first season/majour story arc because that is when they inevitably seem to go to shit in everyone's opinion.
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Eden of the East is awesome. It's kinda like a lighthearted Bourne Identity. Animation is gorgeous, first ep is HILARIOUS. There's also an OP by Oasis, English speaking characters that actually speak English (no Engrish crap! Fuck you, Regios!), and an ED that was probably one of the two best animated of the season (the other being Arad Senki, of course).
You need to keep gg on that, mia. File was good quality
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Well sure if you want to watch remakes of the same show over and over again then continue to watch Shonen, but just stop watching them after say the first season/majour story arc because that is when they inevitably seem to go to shit in everyone's opinion.
Good shonen manga (of the narrow type we're talking about here) builds well on its foundations. It gets better each storyline, and sells the reader on the importance of what's going on. The fun is in watching characters develop over time, seeing the show's mysteries revealed, finding out what's really going on, y'know, the typical reasons long-form fiction is good. Because this kind of thing is the genre's strength, short shonen manga often aren't worth the read at all, and there's certainly no point in reading something long if you plan in advance to give it up in the middle. Bleach hurts because the first couple arcs showed a lot of promise, and that promise led nowhere. More to the point, it's clear the author never had a larger vision in mind, and is at this point just making it up, badly, as he goes along.
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Good fighting shonen (since that's what we're discussing) does a good job of either spinning genre tropes, avoiding them or just doing them very, very well. I realize this is Grefter Dramatics here, but there are a fairly wide array of differences between fighting shonen. Yes, at some core level they are all about do something and beat guys up along the way, but if we're boiling down that far, MOST things are going to be the same. Fundamentally, when it comes to characters, storytelling, a lot of shows end up fairly differentiated. Add in art style (another reason to read/watch something) and you've got a lot of differences.
Honestly, just at a quick glance, you could make a fair claim that Yu Yu Hakusho, Hunter x Hunter, Ruroni Kenshin, One Piece and Kekkashi are all fairly different from each other in a lot of regards.
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...yeah, Soul Society Arc is the high point of the series.
That's an overstatement. Outside the End of Hypnosis arc, the entire Society Arc is mostly filler too.
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Hell Girl: Finished this, because for some reason I feel it necessary to complete the various mediocrities I start watching. They do some nice work with the reporter and his daughter, but that's about all I can say in the show's favor. Initial assessment was mostly held up by the remaining episodes: the show likes its formula too much. They wait until the last couple episodes for anyone at all sympathetic to be condemned; previous episodes are mostly X verse, same as the first. The reporter even fails to make much impact because even in the episodes where he manages to talk someone out of taking revenge, the condemned immediately shows up thereafter to gloat about the fact that they are a total bastard and that they are getting away with being a total bastard and there's nothing you can do about it, is there? They pull this like half a dozen times and it always overrides any and all efforts by the show's would-be voice of reason. (The episode with old the artist was kind of a grey area, I guess. Also one of the better installments.) Show probably still swings average just because I've seen too much crap that's worse. At least there are decent production values afoot.
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...yeah, Soul Society Arc is the high point of the series.
That's an overstatement. Outside the End of Hypnosis arc, the entire Society Arc is mostly filler too.
Not really. I'd say most of the stuff between them getting to Rokungai to Aizen's "death" was crap, but not filler. I blame Ganju.
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...yeah, Soul Society Arc is the high point of the series.
That's an overstatement. Outside the End of Hypnosis arc, the entire Society Arc is mostly filler too.
Not really. I'd say most of the stuff between them getting to Rokungai to Aizen's "death" was crap, but not filler. I blame Ganju.
There is still a lot of fights that can be skipped entirely after that point though.
Soul Eater- More things happened, good. It also give a pretty reasonable excuse on how Archne can be beaten, just still not enough to downplay how big of a deus ex mechina the black blood is. Though, Soul got a witch soul, he becomes a Death Scythe next chapter? Hope so. The monkey and the mirror is quirky, Medusa should have trade a few more blows with them before retreating. And yes, Medusa, evil, and black hair, I laugh at those who truly think she'll turn good.
So who'll be the next enemy? Medusa and friends again? Or is Noah going to make his move?
Amatsuki- Finally the flash back is over, that really is a bit too long. Oh well, at least I get to see Tokidoki steps up and draw his boundaries and delivered a good threat.
FMA- Good twist, GOOOD twist. I never thought THAT is what they are aiming for by kidnapping Bradley's wife. This is a pleasant surprise. And good job Hawkeye.
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Haha Grefter Dramatics. That is one way of putting it. Hyperbole where people don't fill in the gaps (ie ruin the joke) is more how I would put it.
I mean seriously though, look at the most commercially viable Shonen to have popped up in the last bunch of years.
Bleach and Naruto are both the big ones. The common complaint is "Good promising start but then starts to taper off then filler happens".
Then you get Dragonball Z. The common complaint is "Good promising start but then tapers off then filler happens". (Yes yes, Dragonball of course, but that isn't what made it commercially viable in the English speaking regions).
Now these shows we all know suck to a certain degree and the complaints there are pretty valid. That is to say if you want to go into them and enjoy it, you watch the first arc or two and then just drop that shit because it goes nowhere. Taking that on board, I see no reason to not be prepared to do that with every shonen show in existence. Sure if it is good, by all means keep watching, but if it starts to get shit and packs in the filler obnoxiously, drop that shit and drop it fast because it is just going to spiral out into a year worth of Sasuke porn that you are wasting your time on when there is good chances of other stuff that is just starting up that hasn't burnt out on its good ideas yet floating around.
Compare whatever you are watching now to say I dunno, Negima seems to be getting a bit of love , Sailor Moon (DUNESERVICE) or errr Ranma 1/2 (I guess?) I am struggling to think of Shonen that I haven't heard get kicked overly hard for sucking with more filler than a Hostess Cupcake. (Side note: all three shows obviously about the main character getting some poon cannot be a coincidence. Shonen+Harem shows for the win?).
Oh Captain Herlock hype as well of course if you want to go in that direction.
Edit - Oh yeah and to be serious, the same complaint goes to Rorouni Kenshin. Add hype for Samurai Champloo doing it right and being short here.
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Now these shows we all know suck to a certain degree and the complaints there are pretty valid. That is to say if you want to go into them and enjoy it, you watch the first arc or two and then just drop that shit because it goes nowhere. Taking that on board, I see no reason to not be prepared to do that with every shonen show in existence. Sure if it is good, by all means keep watching, but if it starts to get shit and packs in the filler obnoxiously, drop that shit and drop it fast because it is just going to spiral out into a year worth of Sasuke porn that you are wasting your time on when there is good chances of other stuff that is just starting up that hasn't burnt out on its good ideas yet floating around.
READ KEKKAISHI BITCH.
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Edit - Oh yeah and to be serious, the same complaint goes to Rorouni Kenshin. Add hype for Samurai Champloo doing it right and being short here.
Very much this, with the added benefit of everything in RK being unimpressive (but not bad) pre-Kyoto Arc as well. Honestly, that awesome dark swordfight between Saito and Hitokiri-mode Kenshin was like, the high point of the show.
Part of what helped Samurai Champloo was the brevity of the fights and the lack of interruption in them. Even when there was exposition mid-duel (happened... a few times?), at least the fighters did it while they kept fighting, and it was kept to a minimum.
In other news, anyone else here hear about Dragonball Kai? Rumor has it the episode count is cutting down to almost a third of the original massive DBZ. Good news: faster pace, cutting fillers, remastered animation and re-recorded sound for everything. Bad news: No Hironobu Kageyama OP.
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The difference between Champloo, Bebop, shows like that, and things like Naruto is they're not based on manga, which is why they end quick. I considered going into this earlier, didn't see much point in it but here goes: all the long shonen shows are based on comics that are continuing as episodes come out. DBZ was the earliest, and most disastrous, show to run into the obvious problem. They ran out of source material in the middle of the Frieza arc, mid-fight, and there wasn't shit they could do about it but stall for time. A lot of time, as it turns out. More recent shows pace themselves with filler arcs, which are universally bad, and as a rule not worth watching. It's the nature of the beast.
I would argue that out of the three biggest continuous shonen shows, Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece, only Bleach is doing badly. Naruto and One Piece have both had arcs that have dragged, but take them as a whole (minus filler arcs) and they're well worth watching, and will probably continue to be so.
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I refuse to believe all the Sasuke shit in Naruto Shippuden is worth watching/reading. Only good for fire.
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I haven't watched that far yet, but it's been fine for reading. I'm not a fan of Sasuke, but I've liked the last three or four things he's been involved in. The anime's probably a lot heavier on scenery-chewing emo, I don't know, but the manga's firing on all cylinders.
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The manga's been Naruto running around kicking ass for past however many chapters, and Sasuke's been letting the rest of Hebi carry enough of the load to make them tolerable. As a Suigetsu fan, I approve. Fortunately, the whole thing with Pain seems to be coming to a head, and now Sasuke and Naruto both have fancy new powers that the other hasn't seen yet to fight each other with.
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Now these shows we all know suck to a certain degree and the complaints there are pretty valid. That is to say if you want to go into them and enjoy it, you watch the first arc or two and then just drop that shit because it goes nowhere. Taking that on board, I see no reason to not be prepared to do that with every shonen show in existence. Sure if it is good, by all means keep watching, but if it starts to get shit and packs in the filler obnoxiously, drop that shit and drop it fast because it is just going to spiral out into a year worth of Sasuke porn that you are wasting your time on when there is good chances of other stuff that is just starting up that hasn't burnt out on its good ideas yet floating around.
READ KEKKAISHI BITCH.
Good argument.
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...apparently a few years back they made an anime out of Perfect Girl Evolution. How did I miss this?
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Vassalord- Volume 3, yaoi with even more blood and gore. God, they are really doing it with intestines and spinals open up!! this is DELICIOUS!!! I am tempted to post the scan!!!
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Saki-咲-:
This (http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/8568/20090414130456.jpg) is really freaking ridiculous (http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/7280/20090414125909.jpg). That's what makes it pretty awesome (http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/3920/20090414124755.jpg).
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I hate you Trance, why do you interrupt when I goes off to scan the manga?
Oh, and you know that show is not about Mahjong, it is about cheat codes.
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I hate you Trance, why do you interrupt when I goes off to scan the manga?
Oh, and you know that show is not about Mahjong, it is about cheat codes.
Yeah well the anime is different from the manga in more ways than one so I honestly don't care.
SCREW THE RU-- >>rimshot<<
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In other news, anyone else here hear about Dragonball Kai? Rumor has it the episode count is cutting down to almost a third of the original massive DBZ. Good news: faster pace, cutting fillers, remastered animation and re-recorded sound for everything. Bad news: No Hironobu Kageyama OP.
Saw the first episode. The 10 minutes Gohan spends running around like an idiot is basically just cut out. Goes straight to Goku finding him on the branch. If the entire Dragonball Kai series continues cutting out the irrelevant trash like that, then it could be a very good remake.
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If the five-minute Namek explosion actually takes five minutes, I'm in.
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NEW AND ORIGINAL DRAGONBALL Z JOKE
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NEW AND ORIGINAL EDITTED QUOTE JOKE
ALSO I LIKE COCKS
Anyway, so running theme, stuff that comes from incomplete manga has a tendency to have more filler. I do not see how this has any effect whatsoever on my argument. It is worth noting and gives you one more flag to watch for when you can keep an eye out for a series you are likely to shit can.
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NEW AND ORIGINAL DRAGONBALL Z JOKE
I'm serious, dammit.
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NEW AND ORIGINAL DRAGONBALL Z JOKE
I'm serious, dammit.
I... I agree.
And yet I'm struggling to refrain from another DBZ joke.
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If we actually go back in time after the Future Trunks time travel I am in.
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READ KEKKAISHI BITCH.
So I've done a bit of this now.
From now on, when Soppy says this, add me in as a small but noticeable echo.
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What chapter are you on? If you haven't hit at least chapter 79, you're not even into the good stuff yet.
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In the 50's and I already like it more than most stuff.
Which means that this is going to be awesome.
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I finished s.cry.ed in three days. Oh my effin' lord. Besides redundant parts where they tried wrapping the storyline's discourse through constant flashbacking, I absolutely, positively fucking love this anime. I am a converted fangirl. Plus I cried during many parts of the anime. Plus I think it gave me a moral boost in writing my paper by not quiting and finishing through (Lol lame reference, hai). Now I'm confused at what to watch. I'm not interested in anything romantic; I've been avoiding Bleach with a passion. Blah.
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Hahaha. Excellent. Curious on what your reaction to the last episode was. What genre are you interested in, I can steer you in similarly awesome directions.
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Drop Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei on her. If nothing else, for the shock value.
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Drop Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei on her. If nothing else, for the shock value.
This. Very this.
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Hahaha. Excellent. Curious on what your reaction to the last episode was. What genre are you interested in, I can steer you in similarly awesome directions.
Mecha really (But not like, Gundam Mecha. Bleh). But what's been recommended to me, like Kimagure Orange Road, and Gankusou I really liked. So maybe, either action or good drama?
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Mecha really (But not like, Gundam Mecha. Bleh). But what's been recommended to me, like Kimagure Orange Road, and Gankusou I really liked. So maybe, either action or good drama?
Any mecha examples of what you like?
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The best one I can give is Robotech and Macross. I heard Gurren Lagan is good stuffs.
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Gurren Lagann and Gunbuster 1 and 2 sound right up your alley at the moment then. As for drama... Planetes.
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The best one I can give is Robotech and Macross. I heard Gurren Lagan is good stuffs.
Well it's certainly no Macross (as atmosphere goes), but it is very entertaining. And very Gainax. Your mileage may vary.
More in that vein... well, there's certainly enough variety in the Gundam franchise that you'd probably like something in there. Turn A is a good change of pace. Escaflowne and Eureka Seven are similar to Macross in many ways, and the Macross franchise's main man Shoji Kawamori was the creator and script supervisor for Escaflowne (as well as mech designer for E7). Genesis of Aquarion was another mecha anime he directed, though I haven't seen it - look up other things he's directed too.
I'll suggest Aim for the Top! Gunbuster as well, Anno's first job directing and the anime that put Gainax on the map. At the very least, you get mecha anime that actually pays attention to near and faster than light speed travel time dilation.
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Ahh, okay. I've seen Gunbuster 1. Haven't went onto 2, but I liked it.
Gundam.. Gundam.. I know I've seen plenty of episodes, and it was so long ago that I don't remember all the names of the Gundam iterations, but I don't like it. D:
I'll look up Planetes and Eureka 7 for the month. Theeeeeen Aim for the Top and Gurren Lagan. I stream from rawranime.com
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My standard recommendation for anime is Haibane-Renmei. I don't watch us much anime as the other folks in this topic, but it's easily the best of what I have seen.
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This is the part where I note that each different Gundam show is ludicrously different from each other, and that writing off the entire franchise because you didn't like oh Wing or something is stupid.
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Ahh, okay. I've seen Gunbuster 1. Haven't went onto 2, but I liked it.
I'll look up Planetes and Eureka 7 for the month. Theeeeeen Aim for the Top and Gurren Lagan. I stream from rawranime.com
Aim for the Top is Gunbuster.
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This is the part where I note that each different Gundam show is ludicrously different from each other, and that writing off the entire franchise because you didn't like oh Wing or something is stupid.
Thisthisthis.
Also applies to most large franchises, but especially Gundam. Not many similarities between, say, Zeta and G Gundam; and quality is not at all consistent.
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Aim for the Top is Gunbuster.
Oh. Well then I'll fill that in with Gurren Lagan now.
Anyways, I don't consistently watch anime. This is the biggest increase I've had watching anime, since... forever. What I've seen of Gundam was shitty, and I'm not currently interested in fishing for other Gundam stories at the moment. I want to be introduced to new series, and I don't think it's stupid. And anyway, I never claimed to write off the entire series.
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Seconding (or perhaps third-ing?) the recommendation for Gurren Lagann. I pretty much abhor all things mecha and I still think of Gurren Lagann as probably my #2 favorite anime of all time. Pacing and characters are just awesome. It's very male-oriented, but if you liked Scryed, this shouldn't be a problem.
Don't know if you've already seen them, but I always like to recommend Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo. Good action stuff.
Good drama? Berserk, maybe? The anime always felt more like a drama than an action/horror series.
>.>;;
-Djinn
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Oh. Well then I'll fill that in with Gurren Lagan now.
Anyways, I don't consistently watch anime. This is the biggest increase I've had watching anime, since... forever. What I've seen of Gundam was shitty, and I'm not currently interested in fishing for other Gundam stories at the moment. I want to be introduced to new series, and I don't think it's stupid. And anyway, I never claimed to write off the entire series.
...still kinda want to know what Gundams you've seen...
Which Macross series have you seen anyways? There's the original, Plus, 7, Zero, and Frontier, and Macross II, a non-canon movie. There's also the movie retelling of the original, Do You Remember Love?
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For a quick Wiki reference, I've seen Mobile Suit Gundam, Gundam Seed, Gundam Wing and the 08th MS Team sounds familiar. :P My roomate at Valdosta made me watch G Gundam.
I've seen (all of Robotech*), Macross Frontier, Plus, 7, .. . . the Plus movie (?) some of Macross Frontier(the moobie) and Zero (can't seem to find good streaming sites w/ it). I haven't seen Do You Remember Love? I think I tried downloading it, but there were no seeders or some isht.
*Robotech - yeah yeah I understand there's some people out there who get fed up with Robotech lubbers. :P
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Well if you didn't like any of that, Turn A is about the only one that I'd recommend at this point.
I torrented DYRL? but I might have found that torrent at 4chan. /rs/ tends to have a lot of good stuff.
Yeah, go do Gunbuster 2, E7, Gurren Lagann, and the non mecha suggestions of Haibane Renmei, Samurai Champloo, and Cowboy Bebop.
I'll add Black Lagoon to that for now.
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Naruto: Holy shit that is the worst reason for revenge I've ever read.
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I'll add Black Lagoon to that for now.
Black Lagoon is not worth it. If you have time to watch its anime, just go read the manga instead.
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I am not being especially lucky in anime recently it seems. Tru Mazzy is being somewhat unwatchable due to horrific desynching, the second disc of Tylor (which arrived last week after being ordered in November) is a copy of the first one. Exasperation.
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Apparently we're suggesting anime now, so:
Irresponsible Captain Tylor - if you like the first Gunbuster, there's a good chance you'll like this
Read or Die OVA - short and stylish. I'm not sure I know anyone who likes anime but doesn't like this.
Vision of Escaflowne
Azumanga Daioh
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
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Godannar - Watched the first season, into the second. Good show, with surprisingly good characters for something so over-the-top fanservicey. The overriding theme is family (and boobs) and it's done pretty darn well. That said, if they don't stop with the goddamned recaps I am going to break some heads.
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I'll add Black Lagoon to that for now.
Definitely seconding this (and ignoring Niu's antihype since, well, some of us just don't get into manga). Black Lagoon's a lot of fun.
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http://www.youtube.com/show?p=K162qI1LPF8
TMS is offering the six episodes of Sherlock Hound that Hayao Miyazaki directed on YouTube. Watch them.
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So I downloaded the entire series of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagan.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . is this supposed to be SUPER KAWAII!? I'll verify once I transfer them all to DVDs. Oh. Yeah. And it's in HD. ------ ~
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Dominion: Tank Police. Weird. One of Masamune Shirow's big hits before Ghost in the Shell. Best way I could describe it would be to say it's a violent Patlabor parody that veers completely unexpectedly into proto-GitS SF philosophy. Also, twin catgirl stripper/gangsters. Ah, the 80s. Pretty interesting to see Shirow's stuff rendered in a pretty close approximation of his style, as opposed to the more realistic GitS (and Black Magic, not that anyone cares about that).
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Beck - Okay a bit over halfway through and so far someone in the show has said the exact same thing I did. There is some serious bits of RATM influence in a few of the songs. There is lots of stuff from all over the place though (Lots of early 90's grunge/alt rock really). More music listened to and I have liked most of it, some of it grows on you a bit, but some of it is good straight out of the bat. The credit song you have heard often enough in the credits to really get into it when it actually shows up coming from Dying Breed in show, pretty nice trick (and it is a nice song).
Dying Breed give off some vague Stone Temple Pilots vibes (others as well, but yeah). Sometimes the Slice of Life stuff grates when I want some music, but it is interesting enough when it isn't dwelling on it for an entire episode without advancing the band plot.
Edit - Actually I am kind of confused about the age of some of the Characters. Koyuuki hits high school and ... Chiiba is there, what the shit? I thought this was a pair of fifteen year olds playing in a band with 3 adults. Now I have no idea how old Ryuusuke and Taira are supposed to be.
Edit 2 - HAHAHA KOYUUKI PLAYING OPENING BARS TO BOMBTRACK FUCK YES.
Edit 3 - Though seriously, could you just like have ONE plot line where the main character is hitting on multiple chicks at once instead of it repeating itself again and again.
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Pictures at an Exhibition - Man, that Tezuka guy had a lot on his mind. Death and...diminishment, I suppose, seem to loom over this, and not just death but sudden, unexpected death. It gives me a vibe like the 1969 Romeo and Juliet, where Mercutio and Tybalt are just having an innocent, good time with their fight, just putting on a show like most fights between young men turn out to be, until tragedy steps in.
Also, it's really cool to see old stuff like this (it's from the '60s) because the director sees things from a 2-dimensional lines-on-paper perspective that you don't see a lot of these days (though there's a lot of it in classic US cartoons). The plastic surgeon, for instance, fixes up a woman with a big butt and a flat chest by pounding her curves with a hammer until they reposition themselves appropriately.
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Beck - Finished it (watched more of it today than I have the other 3 days I have sat to watch it combined ....). Yeah good music. Slice of Life is Slice? I dunno how that meme applies. Was worth the time and money to watch it. Pretty much stuff I said in the first impressions applies the whole way through. Ending is good for having high concentration of music though.
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Finished Godannar. The second season had some good episodes, but the sheer volume of padding (one recap episode, one that resolves the throwaway twist from the first-season finale the way it was obviously going to go, and four episodes focusing on minor characters with little plot relevance) bogs it down too much. Still a very good series overall. It's surprisingly serious and character-centric for the way it looks, too; I strongly suspect that the character designs were completely divorced from the scriptwriting.
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Ah, Kimura. Your character designs are quite iconic.
See: Females in Code Geass, Gaogaigar, Gun X Sword.
Now have watched a few episodes of Nanoha StrikerS. Stuff's about to happen, though I'm already sad about the new characters getting largely sidelined later on, along with the lack of Yuuno (I've heard as much at least). Ah well, here's hoping Magical Wars or whatever they're calling the next installation gives us more Subaru/Teana and Magical Librarian Ferret-boy Yuuno.
One final note: Is Kurohime any good?
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There's Mikoto, CC and Fasalina, and there's, er, this (http://pics.livejournal.com/utils/pic/000079c2).
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There... there certainly is that.
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Who's the tranny?
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Anna looked really similar to Mikoto and Hana, so I can't say I'm surprised that Godannar and Gaogaigar have the same character designer.
The breast sizes crossed the line into unintentional comedy zone about five times over, though. Outfits too, going by that picture.
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Who's the tranny?
Ekaterina, Russian dominatrix-slash-robot-pilot and, in the English audio, the subject of the line "Look at the size of that thing! It's even bigger than your boobs!" Let no one say the dub of Godannar didn't know exactly what it was.
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That -has- to be self-parody. And I thought C.C. was egregious.
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No, self-parody is her robot. Sadly I can't find any pictures of it on GIS.
Edit: Screenshot get. (http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/1448/volspina.jpg) Note that they shoot lasers.
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The breast sizes crossed the line into unintentional very much intentional comedy zone about five times over, though. Outfits too, going by that picture.
Fixed. Godannar is funny. I'm especially fond of the running joke with Koji, who only seems to show up once every few episodes and gets his entire dramatic plot (which would span 5 episodes in your normal Gundam drama) squeezed into about 5 seconds.
(After Kouji's mech crashes and explodes, Goh shows up to the scene to help fight off monsters)
Goh: "Where's Koji!?"
Shizuru: *pained* "He's... dead!"
Koji: "I'm not dead! Stop saying that!"
Somewhat slapstick, but considering I've seen other mech shows 'kill off' pilots only to have them miraculously survive after the cast spent 4-5 episodes angsting over their deaths... Well, I appreciated the 5-second parody.
Anyway, good dub. More fun than the original Japanese version for a change.
EDIT: On the subject of the original Japanese version and costume ridiculousness. There's a scene with the well-endowed commander where she basically just moves one of her arms too quickly and the amount of jiggle that results is enough to make the buttons fly off her blouse (revealing only a tiny bit more cleavage, oddly enough). It seems gratuitous, but then one of the buttons hits the non-existant camera, and it's just over-the-top enough that it can't be anything but parody.
-Djinn
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I love the last one, where Shizuru just assumes he's dead, and skips straight to saying that she won't let his death be in vain.
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I need to find a youtube video of that, the voice acting really sells the scene.
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No, self-parody is her robot. Sadly I can't find any pictures of it on GIS.
Edit: Screenshot get. (http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/1448/volspina.jpg) Note that they shoot lasers.
[22:27] * Hello-PrescotthedralWaddleDee looks at the tranny's mech. ...
[22:27] <Hello-PrescotthedralWaddleDee> This is Stripperlion.
I have nothing else to add.
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[22:27] * Hello-PrescotthedralWaddleDee looks at the tranny's mech. ...
[22:27] <Hello-PrescotthedralWaddleDee> This is Stripperlion.
I have nothing else to add.
...Sonic Breaker...
Holy shit.
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Ekaterina, Russian dominatrix-slash-robot-pilot and, in the English audio, the subject of the line "Look at the size of that thing! It's even bigger than your boobs!" Let no one say the dub of Godannar didn't know exactly what it was.
The dub was produced by ADV, the company that made Welcome to the NHK look like a stripperific fanservice fest on the packaging. Releasing Godannar (and Gravion, too) was their manifest destiny.
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Finished Tsubasa Chronicles Season 1. The anime was really disappointing because I'm a big fan of the manga. The plodding pace and the fact that Bee Train managed to fit in some filler episodes left a bad taste in my mouth. At least the dub is good. I'm going to wait a while before I start Season 2.
For now, I'm watching the Irresponsible Captain Tylor OVA.
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I am on.. episode 65 of Bleach.
This is an interesting anime for me. I find that the music, character interaction and dialogue is done very well. At times though, the dialogue can be very sappy, or exhaustive because I don't find some of the things they say to be realistic or contingent to the event.
But the pacing and fighting scenes are sooooooooooo boring. There's been a few fighting scenes that I really liked, such as Ichigo and Bakuraya Kuchiki, but because the pacing is so drawn out, there dialogue is too verbose and filler. I guess this rings true in some of the non-battles, such as when Inoue or some other chap constantly explains what's going on, whose power is what like a tutorial. B-o-r-i-n-g. Not to mention it's constantly repeated in pieces by other characters! Ugh.
Right now, I'd give it a 7/10.
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It's Byakuya. Also, I'd suggest stopping where you are now since it only gets worse in all ways from here :/
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I was wondering if it was that or Bakuraya. :P Stop now!? When they leave the completely blindsighted plotwist with Aizen (that failed??)
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So I'm not the only one who hates Aizen. Awesome.
For a long while nothing happens and then the plot recycles itself with MOAR HOLLOWS, is the thing. Ask Meeple or Andy for more details.
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Manga's not that bad for speeding through plot (plus isn't too bad 'cause of how much is already available). No idea about the anime, though.
As for Aizen, I hated him too. Hated Gin more though. >_<
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Ahh. I'm not as interested in Aizen's failed plot-twist arc more than I am about Ichigo's bankai form and the fact that I think he's exactly what Aizen wants. I mean, since it seems that Ichigo is being hyped so much, as are his skills, by absolutely everyone in the anime, it seems like a logical deduction. Otherwise, there doesn't appear to be any way that the team could contend with an enemy of unending power.
I mean that half hollow mask that shows up. I suppose I'll take a week off from Bleach and continue with Berserk and Sayonara ZS.
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Ahh. I'm not as interested in Aizen's failed plot-twist arc more than I am about Ichigo's bankai form and the fact that I think he's exactly what Aizen wants. I mean, since it seems that Ichigo is being hyped so much, as are his skills, by absolutely everyone in the anime, it seems like a logical deduction. Otherwise, there doesn't appear to be any way that the team could contend with an enemy of unending power.
To this I say... "TING!"
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Ahh. I'm not as interested in Aizen's failed plot-twist arc more than I am about Ichigo's bankai form and the fact that I think he's exactly what Aizen wants. I mean, since it seems that Ichigo is being hyped so much, as are his skills, by absolutely everyone in the anime, it seems like a logical deduction. Otherwise, there doesn't appear to be any way that the team could contend with an enemy of unending power.
Does that mean you like Dragon Ball?
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Nanoha StrikerS, up through episode 9.
8 and 9 are definitely my favorites so far; 8 for HOLY HELL NANOHA?! and 9 for "Going Beyond the Impossible: The Long Term Consequences". Also, the action in 8 was easily the best in StrikerS so far, if a bit brief.
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Does that mean you like Dragon Ball?
Haha. I did. When I was like, 12.
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Honestly? Bleach is a lot better than the flack it gets. Not to say it is good or anything, but I do actually find it to be enjoyable (otherwise, well, why would I be reading it?). You just need to approach it with the right mindset. Which is to say, you are reading for pretty pictures, character/power design and occasional glimpses at writing with actual potential. Kubo has some awful issues with pacing and character management, but if you aren't horrendously offended by it, you can still enjoy it. It isn't good! But you can enjoy it.
Anyhow, if you want to keep with it, I recommend swapping to the manga and staying there. Lets you power through the mediocre and enjoy the good.
SPEAKING OF BLEACH THOUGH
Priceless. Even as a fan of Hitsugaya, I found that to be hilarious. Given that a picture speaks a thousand words... There be spoilers from the newest Bleach chapters in these.
http://img.onemanga.com/mangas/00000003/000166252/17.jpg
http://img.onemanga.com/mangas/00000003/000166252/18.jpg
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http://img.onemanga.com/mangas/00000003/000166252/17.jpg
http://img.onemanga.com/mangas/00000003/000166252/18.jpg
Yesssssssssssss.
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I must say this is a bit late. Hitsugaya hate club was having their celebration 3 days ago.
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Wow.
That's...
Bleach? Really? Are they actually killing someone?
Nice.
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Kill Japan's #1 favorite character? Naw. He's definately down for the count though. Hitsu is a jobber and will always be a jobber.
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Kill Japan's #1 favorite character? Naw. He's definately down for the count though. Hitsu is a jobber and will always be a jobber.
The two best healers are stuck in HM ha....
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Niu: I don't hate Hitsu. I just think the way the scene was done is hilarious.
Anyhow, UD: Not really. Tessai, Hachi and Urahara are all around and theoretically available to save him. And this is setting aside the possibility that he could somehow salvage enough of his bankai to keep himself alive.
Honestly, I'm predicting RESOLVE Momo, though.
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Kill Japan's #1 favorite character? Naw. He's definately down for the count though. Hitsu is a jobber and will always be a jobber.
The two best healers are stuck in HM ha....
Which is exactly why he will live. You suck at Shonen plot.
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No, he will live because if Kubo was directing Hamlet, the ending would be the entire cast waking up in their respective beds with doctors waiting around to tell them what nasty flesh wounds they all had.
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Kill Japan's #1 favorite character? Naw. He's definately down for the count though. Hitsu is a jobber and will always be a jobber.
Why Jump's poll system sucks. It is easily flooded by the fan girls, who are not even half as much as the post cards they sent out.
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Steel God Jeeg
Decent. Some of it is a bit too childish for my tastes, but it's nice overall. They don't seem to be able to keep the time-related shenanigans of the zone straight which is a tad disappointing but not entirely unexpected.
The scene where Hiroshi and Miwa meet back up is somewhat confusing. Initially it seems somewhat touching as he sees her as she used to be due to his blindness, then he starts seeing her as she currently is which renders the whole thing inane, as either he's already recovered by that point and the whole he-cannot-see-thing from earlier was pointless, or his sight came back midway through the meeting and they didn't convey this anywhere near well enough.
I find myself wondering how well it meshes with the original series.
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So I watched the second half of the Tales of the Abyss anime finally. It was fun. TotA has a decent main plot going on with the whole "What would the world be like if everyone could -literally- read the future". And I like Van's motivation even if the rest of the villain cast is mostly meh (not Dist).
However, seeing all of the plot so close together, it's a lot easier to see Anise's stupidity in her betrayal... They really did need to make Mohs' threat more credible somehow...
However, all of my opinions and revelations about the game are menial in comparison to this amazing discovery!
http://yourtalesoftheabyssepisode.blogspot.com/2009/02/tales-of-abyss-22.html
Ep22, there is a short scene of the group reaching the top of the Tower of Rem where they encounter Dist, who sends his robot after them as usual...
But what?! It turns out that Dist is actually -piloting- this mech! Go ahead and watch the episode, this part is near the beginning (about 5 minutes in). He lands the mech, opens the hatch for a minute to call out Jade, then they proceed to battle as usual.
It's something they didn't show in the game, but this source is as canon as anything.
And with mech pilots like Tony (WA4) around, it means that Dist the Runny -does- have a rankable form!
FW time!
Also, the ending of the anime was a bit more detailed than the game ending, which was kind of nice.
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He wasn't piloting them in game though.
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Watched Gravion and Gravion Zwei on a whim. Came in with low expectations, but the show was enjoyable enough if not very deep. Quick thoughts:
-Sandman is ludicrously badass. This is probably the single most expressed sentiment about the show, and for good reason. The only negative is that the show took way too long to actually get him into the fighting, though he certainly made up for lost time.
-Luna was rather cute, both in design and personality. Second favorite character in the cast.
-Mizuki on the other hand is a surefire bet for a breast-off with the Russian dominatrix from Godannar in SRW someday. Her design works for a certain sort of grotesque comedy, but it really kills any attempt at fanservice involving her.
-Leele looked pretty in a dress, but wasn't especially attractive to me. Ena was a mostly useless character designed to pander to certain audience types; Maid + Glasses + Clumsy is literally the sum of her personality for most of the show.
-Eiji was something of a dumbass, although him being stuck in the feet was amusing. Also, the writers kept finding newer and more creative ways to get him to crossdress.
-God Gravion's mech design was pretty neat. Sol Gravion was more powerful but I didn't like its design quite as much. Ultimate Gravion... well, I didn't get a good look at it. <_<
-I realize that romance wasn't a priority for the show despite the harem-ish setup, but it felt like the wires got crossed between the two seasons. Toga x Leele just came out of nowhere in the middle of Zwei, going against what little romantic sentiment the original series had. I ended up liking the pairing despite both characters being a bit meh just because the combined social naivety of the two is staggering. I keep imagining someone (probably Mizuki) trying to teach those two sex ed and wishing there wasn't literally zero fanfiction for the show.
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He wasn't piloting them in game though.
I dunno... the scene in question doesn't really show where Dist is most of the time, he could very well be in the mech or be thrown free of it.
And the scene after battle shows the mech being open just like in the episode. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbIeBTwv92w&feature=related
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-God Gravion's mech design was pretty neat. Sol Gravion was more powerful but I didn't like its design quite as much. Ultimate Gravion... well, I didn't get a good look at it. <_<
-I realize that romance wasn't a priority for the show despite the harem-ish setup, but it felt like the wires got crossed between the two seasons. Toga x Leele just came out of nowhere in the middle of Zwei, going against what little romantic sentiment the original series had. I ended up liking the pairing despite both characters being a bit meh just because the combined social naivety of the two is staggering. I keep imagining someone (probably Mizuki) trying to teach those two sex ed and wishing there wasn't literally zero fanfiction for the show.
From the opposite direction, I am lamenting over the fact that Eiji didn't say "I do".
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I know you're the resident yaoi fiend, Niu, but... Eiji? Really?
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That sounds rhetorical, if you know I am the yaoi fiend, then why you still ask?
That one scene where Toga propose to Eiji is enough for me twist everything.
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I think hinode's trying to say that you need to work on your standards, not that he wouldn't imagine you making a pairing. >_>
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Because Eiji's a dumbass with a terrible sense of fashion. Gravion's character designer somehow managed the feat of making a convincing crossdresser who doesn't look fabulously bishie when not in girls clothing.
That marriage line was hilarious, and there was certainly enough innuendo beforehand that you aren't really twisting much, but really, Toga can do better, yaoi or no. And Toga's not really much himself besides prettyboy looks and the way the writers milked great comedy out of his extreme lack of social skills.
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Hinode, you honestly think I would consider those when making pairings?
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(http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/aselia/images/3/36/Lion_Magnus_2.jpg)
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'fraid hinode's got you there, Niu.
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Nanoha StrikerS
10 - You know when an episode of a show like this is "so-and-so's day off", it really isn't.
Subaru: A rainbow is straighter. The fans say this for a reason, I guess. Then again, I wonder how many of those fans are guys >_>
Fate is such doting mama ^_^
11 - New enemies (including a tiny Etna and a ninja cyborg insect thing), Hayate finally getting to do something, and Gaogaigar-tan's sister. And the episode ends with TinyEtna taunting the group. The fight continues!
12 - MORE new enemies (Scaglietti's Numbers are coming out now), using a large artillery piece for anti-aircraft fire, and... Up Asphalt Periscope? Also, Teana has the bestest ideas.
And, because it must be said... Vivio So Moe!
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Hayate no Gotoku season 2:
H-I-N-A HINAGIKU! BONSAI!
What? It's not like there is much to enjoy about the show.
K-ON: Awesome ED. Show itself is moderately fun in a complete timewaster kind of way.
Valkyria Chronicles: Episode 1 has problems deciding on a tone. I can't tell if it is trying to be serious because Alicia's actions are anything but...
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Subaru: A rainbow is straighter. The fans say this for a reason, I guess. Then again, I wonder how many of those fans are guys >_>
Wait, so you're watching X now?
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Wait, so you're watching X now?
And there's also the Subaru designed by CLAMP. But it's CLAMP, so very expected.
Of course, I haven't seen/read X so yeah.
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Hayate no Gotoku season 2:
H-I-N-A HINAGIKU! BONSAI!
What? It's not like there is much to enjoy about the show.
Hinagiku trees?
Anyway, yeah. When I realized they were just doing episodes of manga chapters, I stopped immediately. The original TV series reversed the manga's formula and focused on silly parody over it's meh romcom aspects and it worked, even when splashed with the occasional manga chapter ep. The TV series was best when it was just off doing it's own thing and not following the nausiating manga continuity.
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Of course, I haven't seen/read X so yeah.
X is probably the only show where more than one character can claim that the woman they cherished was killed by their gay love interest. Ah, CLAMP.
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CLAMP gave us CCS, so I can't really complain.
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Who's complaining?
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X is probably the only show where more than one character can claim that the woman they cherished was killed by their gay love interest. Ah, CLAMP.
I may have to reconsider watching this.
Right after 50bajillion other things.
Anyone up on Shin Mazinger? I'm gonna need to go marathon the first 5 episodes sometime this week.
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I've been watching. If you're familiar with the liscence, and are in the mood for insanity, it's great. I can't reccomend it otherwise because it's goddamned strange though.
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I've been distracted by exams and Gravion, but I'll definately get back to it tomorrow or Friday.
I've played enough non-OG SRWs that my opinion is kinda warped though. Mazinger is the quintessential SRW show so I feel almost duty-bound to watch it unless it got really boring - and with Imagawa on board that's one thing it'll never be, for sure.
On the topic of X TV, it has the be the only adaptation ever which significantly improves on the source material due to "actually has an ending, non-sucky one even). *grumbles about CLAMP hiatus*
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On the topic of X TV, it has the be the only adaptation ever which significantly improves on the source material due to "actually has an ending, non-sucky one even). *grumbles about CLAMP hiatus*
Very much so. It's a shame people who've seen the movie have had the X experience completely ruined for them.
Oh, anyone watching X, let me know. I made an "X: Survivor Edition" betting game for it for my anime club a number of years ago (you bet on characters' odds of survival! Kamui: 4:1; Fuma: 8:1, Tokyo Tower: 20:1, etc)
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Did you even bother taking odds on Sorata?
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of course!
http://www.sendspace.com/file/yzxbwo
this was to be filled out after episode 12 (or 13? something).
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Not big on spelling the characters' names correctly...
Curious, but who is 'Kirk's mom'? I get that it's a joke, but I kind of want to know the rest of the story... >.>;;
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I spelled the names the way the fansub spelled them. If I remember correctly, they're the same as the commercial English translation of the manga (as serialized in Animerica Extra. woo, dating myself!)
Kirk's Mom, unsurprisingly, was a woman I never met but cast many aspersions upon. In writing. On the blackboard. Every anime club meeting without fail. The question you should be asking is, "Who was Kirk?"
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I spelled the names the way the fansub spelled them. If I remember correctly, they're the same as the commercial English translation of the manga (as serialized in Animerica Extra. woo, dating myself!)
Kirk's Mom, unsurprisingly, was a woman I never met but cast many aspersions upon. In writing. On the blackboard. Every anime club meeting without fail. The question you should be asking is, "Who was Kirk?"
I took over this job when Jim left the club, amusingly. No one apparantly did when I left ;-;
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I took over this job when Jim left the club, amusingly. No one apparantly did when I left ;-;
Dereliction of duty, I say.
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'fraid hinode's got you there, Niu.
I can always make the case saying that Leon is special.
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hay niu what do you think of ristorante paradiso
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Unbeliavabelly awsome, and nice to know there are some other people who are reading that.
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K-ON 5:
Okay this show just went from "Enjoyable" to "HELL YES!!!" in one glorious episode.
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Watched Overman King Gainer. I like it.
If I have any problems the main one would be that there are nowhere near enough railway business shenanigans >_> Also the plot starts to meander into incoherency a bit in the later half. The Asuham subplot coming to a crashing halt with a bad joke is not especially endearing either.
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Watched Overman King Gainer. I like it.
I want to watch that, definitely looks cool, but I just can't get past that damn theme song.
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I still don't get how it's possible to consider the theme song a negative.
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I still don't get how it's possible to consider the theme song a negative.
Seconded.
I actually own the first disc, but I'm waiting to just see the box set cheap sometime when I've got the money.
Now if only someone would bring Xabungle over...
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Toradora - Far better than your standard shonen romantic comedy, for all that's worth (i.e. not an insult to women everywhere). Not a bad show, if you like that sort of thing. Soppys take note, the ending (and by that I mean starting at BUY SOAP in the next to last episode) is actually pretty good.
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Niu: Glad to hear!
NotMiki: I found Toradora insulting. ^o^ In fact a lot of girls I know who watched it didn't like it, while the majority of guys I know who watched it did like it.
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That's why I said women everywhere as opposed to just women. I don't know that there is an anime romantic comedy out there not insulting to women, and that includes shoujo ones (hi, Marmalade Boy). Still, it's a far cry from Love Hina.
EDIT: this is not to suggest that there are any romantic comedies of any sort that are not insulting on some level. (or many levels, hi Grey's Anatomy)
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Bleach Manga: Hitsugaya lives and Barrengan is Xykon from Order of the Stick. Good times.
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Steel Ball Run- Why am I not so surprised that Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap is a parallel world hax?? After so many JoJo last boss with time hax, somehow it makes sense that there is finally one with space hax... at the same time even more broken then King Cremelin. And why is Dio not going ZA WARUDO yet? You know this HAS to happen.
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Excel Saga - Few episodes in, this could be funny if it dropped like the main characters. Kind of fail there. Since Nabeshin is the highlight so far it means I should probably just be watching Lupin instead. Oh well. Generally speaking just tries a bit too hard.
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Watch Lupin.
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Excel Saga - Few episodes in, this could be funny if it dropped like the main characters. Kind of fail there. Since Nabeshin is the highlight so far it means I should probably just be watching Lupin instead. Oh well. Generally speaking just tries a bit too hard.
Not liking Excel? I knew there was a reason I didn't kill you.
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Excel Saga - Few episodes in, this could be funny if it dropped like the main characters. Kind of fail there. Since Nabeshin is the highlight so far it means I should probably just be watching Lupin instead. Oh well. Generally speaking just tries a bit too hard.
Not liking Excel? I knew there was a reason I didn't kill you.
I thought you just didn't want to get blood on your monocle...
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Well the more time I spend thinking about it the more I like it and the less I like the main character and plot. So ... yeah. Might have to go out and buy Lupin sometime.
Space Butler was cool though.
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Rewatched Big O season 2.
It was also better than my mind had been telling myself, although still easily inferior to the first season.
Watched TIC Tylor.
Pretty awesome all up. Some episodes are of dubious quality (the one with the ghosts, and Tylor's War/Exceptional Episode) but on the whole it's great. Given the followup shows it seems like they were trying to make it into a franchise, which seems to have sort of worked, but also means that the world as a whole was left on a cliffhanger, although this is assuming that the original books didn't go past that point either (assuming they even covered Eternity).
I especially like how a lot of the followups get linked to each other, albiet some of them somewhat tenuously, in Eternity. They may be my favourite part of the serieses, although Eternity does have Tylor being somewhat overly competent.
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I'm looking for something actiony, not too serious, and fast paced! Thoughts?
Also, watched few episodes of Tears to Tiara. Not awful, but nothing too original either.
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Read Or Die OAV?
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Read or Die OAV.
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I like the way you think.
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Black Lagoon?
Hellsing OVA?
Baccano?
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Obviously, he wants to watch DBZ, specifically the planet Namek arc.
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After watching the first ep of the new Haruhi...
Meh. Kyon sounds about 20 years older and wooden as hell. Seems to have lost that enthusiasm for the role. Honestly, everyone seems to have. It was like they were going through the motions. I'd blame the director. Either that or I just don't care about Haruhi anymore.
Some of the music was eeriely reminiscent of the piece Urusei Yatsura used to use during it's surreal moments. Cool that. ED song was boring. Needed to be more Daughter of 20 Faces ED Aya Hirano and not generic j-pop Hirano, but the animation was sorta neat.
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Tears to Tiara is based off a mediocre visual novel, don't expect much out of it. It's a Leaf game, but it's nowhere near as good as Utawarerumono. Not to mention it rips off old European history and legends for pretty much it's entire story.
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After watching the first ep of the new Haruhi...
Meh. Kyon sounds about 20 years older and wooden as hell. Seems to have lost that enthusiasm for the role. Honestly, everyone seems to have. It was like they were going through the motions. I'd blame the director. Either that or I just don't care about Haruhi anymore.
Some of the music was eeriely reminiscent of the piece Urusei Yatsura used to use during it's surreal moments. Cool that. ED song was boring. Needed to be more Daughter of 20 Faces ED Aya Hirano and not generic j-pop Hirano, but the animation was sorta neat.
Kyon definately sounded off to me, but the rest of the cast felt fine to me.
Haruhi's never been anything more than solid but unspectacular on the entertainment front for me, and this episode wasn't much different. Not much I really feel like commenting on, although Adult Mikuru was more manipulative than I expected.
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Yet another reason why Adult Mikuru is my favorite female in the show.
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Obviously, he wants to watch DBZ, specifically the planet Namek arc.
That fits under 2/3 of my criteria!!!! But DBZ ranks up there with Inuyasha and a dead snail in terms of pace. Read or Die seems like it's worth checking out though.
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Black Lagoon?
Seconding this recommendation once again.
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So I stopped checking Negima on a weekly basis when the Negi/Rakan fight started dragging on for chapter after chapter, but after these (http://astronerdboy.blogspot.com/2009/05/negima-chapter-252-spoiler-images.html) spoiler images it has my full attention once again.
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Nine chapters is a dragging on and on to you?
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Nine chapters is a dragging on and on to you?
Considering the plot came to a screeching halt for the entire duration of the fight, yes. The tournament was a sidebar to the developing storylines involving Fate, Asuna, Ala Rubra backstory, and Yue, all of which had been ramping up before the Negi/Rakan fight and we got nothing out of any of them for nearly 3 months, factoring in Akamatsu's breaks.
I don't care for the pacing of bog standard Shonen Jump-style series and don't follow any of them, if that's what you were insinuating.
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Nine chapters is a dragging on and on to you?
Considering the plot came to a screeching halt for the entire duration of the fight, yes. The tournament was a sidebar to the developing storylines involving Fate, Asuna, Ala Rubra backstory, and Yue, all of which had been ramping up before the Negi/Rakan fight and we got nothing out of any of them for nearly 3 months, factoring in Akamatsu's breaks.
I don't care for the pacing of bog standard Shonen Jump-style series and don't follow any of them, if that's what you were insinuating.
The fight was still better than 90% of shounen fights. Pretty damn awesome if you ask me. It's not like Negima does that constantly, so it wasn't that bad. Heck, even with Negi's training arc with Rakan he managed to keep things moving.
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Nine chapters is a dragging on and on to you?
Nine chapters isn't a drag for you? Assuming one chapter a week that is 2 months worth of shit. Seriously? Fuck that.
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Read or Die OVA- 2 episodes in. This is really creepy because it's giving me serious DejaVu. Everything seems familiar, but I also know I've never watched this... After each episode I was thinking that it was vaguely familiar and that I'd probably recognize the show later on, but yeah... I dunno... weird!
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Nine chapters is a dragging on and on to you?
Nine chapters isn't a drag for you? Assuming one chapter a week that is 2 months worth of shit. Seriously? Fuck that.
It wasn't shit I think is the point. But it's not like you even notice if you read 9 chapters all at once.
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Well considering this was hinode talking about keeping up with it week to week, that is very noticeable.
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Manga time!
One Piece: Continues to be awesome. Shit is going down. I sense epic confrontation this week.
Bleach: Released Barry is awesome. I can only hope Hitsugaya beats Harribel for epic rage on forums.
Yu-Gi-Oh: Started reading for kicks. The first six volumes are hilarious shit that can be basically summed up as a series of "Evil guy does something to piss of Yugi, Yami Yugi emerges and challenges him to ridiculous game and, after inevitably winning, crushes his opponent's mind, subjecting them to horrifying illusions for an indeterminate period of time." Also, Yami Yugi's hax are even more awesome than expected. The best moment, thus far, was when he played a game where he rolled a die. If his opponent rolled equal to or lower, they won. Yugi rolls a six. Guy declares he won, but Yugi forces him to roll anyway. So that guy hurls the sumbitch at Yugi. The die deflects off the Puzzle and breaks in half, with both the 6 and the 1 landing up. Therefore, he rolled a 7.
The Monster World story arc deserves special mention, because Yami Bakura is the most awesome GM ever. And because, once again, YGO proves that all games should be won by cheating. Suffice to say, the finale involves dice exploding because of magical powers and discounting the roll as a result.
The Duelist story arc is coming along. I enjoy it primarily for two reasons: absolute bollocks for rules and Pegasus being an awesome villain.
Pokemon Special: Deserves a post all its own. I'll handle that later, though.
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Pokemon Special. Spoilers follow.
TL;DR Version: Although there are a lot of major flaws, the treatment on the whole is probably the best that the series has gotten and, if you're a fan who wants a different look at things, it really is worth a glance.
Red/Blue/Green: Bears most of the burden of world building and does some very good things with it and does some very bad things with it. I generally like the treatment of pokemon training/raising/etc and find the addition of the danger to be a fun and worthwhile addition. The concept of trainers getting down and dirty and having to duke it out point blank is pretty fun. The gestures towards both the anime and the games themselves are fairly cute and, although a lot of them lean towards feeling tacked on, they end up being real fun. Stuff like trade evolutions, in-game references, etc all play out really well.
The cast is fairly solid all around. There isn't a huge amount of depth to anyone, but that's not really what we're looking for here either. There is defintiely enough to allow for some interest in the characters to develop, and the interactions often prove enjoyable. It really helps that Red is fairly charming (unlike his predecessor in Ash). Team Rocket proves to be quite fun as a competent and threatening set of villains, with Giovanni capping it off as an utter badass. The actual plotlines here are a bit muddled, but they generally work out in the end.
I found the fights to be rather enjoyable, involving enough clever tactics and odd stuff to keep you wondering how it was going to go down. Once again, it really was quite the clever choice to have trainers be actively involved in the fights. It is silly stuff, but things like Giovanni's style of releasing his pokemon by kicking the balls just add some fun, over the top action that really benefits the series on the whole.
Where R/B/G really drops the ball is in the world building, though. Considering the importance of gym leaders and the focus on the Pokemon League at the end, the lack of any real explanation as to how they function in the world (as well as how Sabrina, Koga, Surge and Giovanni can go completely rogue without any fallout) leaves an unsatisfying taste in my mouth. I struggle to come up with a real satisfactory answer to a lot of world building questions, and it bugs me. I realize the "Its pokemon, whatever" argument could apply here, but it doesn't change bad storytelling. The world structure really should have been better addressed, dammit. Besides, it would be interesting to see handled well, you know? Unfortunately, this is really only going to get aggravated as the series continues, it seems.
Also, props to managing to stuff most of the pokemon in without it feeling overly forced.
Yellow: One thing I'll give this entire series credit for is using its cast well. Yellow was a cute addition after having a "cameo" back in R/B/G.
Anyhow, this arc felt a lot stronger than R/B/G in general. The villains are better defined and don't raise so many questions if you're willing to overlook differences from the source material. They also, in general, manage to come off as a lot more threatening than Team Rocket. Lance in particular screamed "I am bad-ass, hear me roar!" The Elite 4 also has the advantage of having a much better defined (and respectable) evil plan. Besides, its been a while since eco-terrorism was used as a main plot.
The build up was really hit or miss. Yellow occasionally came off as rather "holier than thou art" but worked as the really kind and nice protagonist type. Bill's screentime was also well used. The city attacks by the E4 were prolly the biggest drag. Potential for really great fights, but the gym leaders on the whole kinda jobbed to the whole deal. It was a real letdown, to be frank. The main cast/team rocket team-ups, on the other hand, were great fun. Silly fights with silly arenas with silly conditions is fantastic and pretty much serves as a highlight of a lot of the things I feel the series does right.
And in retrospect, this bears in R/B/G as well, but Mewtwo is bad-ass.
G/S/C, Ru/Sa, FR/LG and Emerald will be dealt with later.
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Inspired to mention manga then.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Ecole du Ciel, up through Vol. 8 (all that my library has >_>) - So, it starts off a little ways before Zeta takes place. Mikimoto character designs (I like), main character is female (Tomino want). Asuna's a bit whiny early on, but she gets things done.
Anyways, starts off in mobile suit academy, lots of shoujo elements, humorous school life things. First volume is basically this with some mobile suits (headless training GM!) thrown in to remind you that it's Gundam. Bear with it though and you start getting into the real meat of the story, as plots involving the Titans' hunt for Newtype pilots, Zeon's past hunts for the same, and what it all means for the characters involved. I bet you can already guess one of the big 'spoilers' in it.
Of course, the Titans are bad, so Asuna eventually ends up with other groups as the story progresses, characters meeting a traditional UC Gundam fate as things go along. Asuna has grown up nicely so far; where she started as a sometimes perky sometimes weepy teenager with no confidence, now she's... a mostly perky, rarely weepy teenager who can kick ass and knows it. I mean, she draws against freaking Jack the Halloween (lol UC Gundam nerdiness) in an inferior mobile suit, and pulls some pretty crazy stunts, without her character being drastically shifted - all the changes come slowly and pretty purposefully.
Aside from that, the supporting cast is charming, with lots of likable characters, though the focus is really strongly on Asuna and her main rival (who pretty much disappears during the second story arc, only to come back in dramatic fashion in the third - vol. 8 starts that off). The mobile suit designs are top notch, with the older designs very recognizable and the few new designs being pretty damn cool - the notes on the Gundam Asuna gets (in vol. 9 D:) point out how it really stands out from the pack, designed by Sayama from Patlabor, Rahxephon, and Birdy the Mighty Decode. The action scenes can get a little muddled on the smaller panels, but the major battles get some good scenes drawn for them that give you a good sense of the action.
Wouldn't recommend it to non-Gundam fans, but it's a good character centric UC side-story so far. I think Vol. 9 is the last one to get an official translation, so I'll be looking for fan translations from vol. 10 on - I've heard that it's planned to go 14 volumes in total.
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Appleseed (2004):
Well, it's pretty. Not hyper-CG like Ex Machina or Vexille, I want to say it's more along the lines of Tales of Symphonia (the game)'s style? But with superior quality. In any case I like it.
Can't say the story is that great. Not having read the comics I have no legs to stand on when it comes to this, but I prefer the 1988 movie and Ex Machina where Deunan isn't speshul. There aren't really any elements of mystery to the storyline either (well, there wasn't any in 1988 either to be fair). Decent all up.
Gundam SEED Destiny & GSD Final Plus:
I dunno, but I found it thoroughly entertaining. Easily superior to the original SEED and every other Gundam series/miniseries I've seen the entirity of.
In fact the only thing I can think of to complain about offhand is lack of closure, a problem which is partially ameliorated by Final Plus (and is pretty much the only thing Final Plus is good for, for that matter...).
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Caught up on Bleach Tuesday. Depressed at how Ikkaku's battle went, since it wasn't magnificent. Depressed at seeing Kira and his lame ass bitchy story with Gin. Seriously, I'm fucking tired of Kira. I think I have as much hate for him as I do with Orihime. What impressed me these last few episodes? Ehhhhh. The animation is getting better.
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Witch Hunter Robin: Mediocrity. It was vaguely diverting early on when it was just episodic hunting, but never managed to evolve beyond that. The central plot is rehashed Uncanny X-Men material and the writers failed to make me care about anyone in the cast (Amon is totally a Marty Stu for goths). Bleh. I need to watch less crappy anime.
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Witch Hunter Robin: Mediocrity. It was vaguely diverting early on when it was just episodic hunting, but never managed to evolve beyond that. The central plot is rehashed Uncanny X-Men material and the writers failed to make me care about anyone in the cast (Amon is totally a Marty Stu for goths). Bleh. I need to watch less crappy anime.
Totally. I liked the relationship between Michael and Robin, since it was a dynamic you don't see evolve very often. Buuuuut since it's Japan, the show devolved into LOOOOOOOOLAMON.
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Akagi - cool show, ugly noses. really needed an ending, though.
Kamichu! - if you think Cardcaptor Sakura and the like are cool, but they just have way too much going on, this is the show for you. I swear to god, nothing happens in the whole series. One episode is dedicated to the main character spending an entire day without getting out from under a kotatsu (actually, that was kinda cool).
Tenamonya Voyagers - if you're thinking to yourself, "gee, I wish there was a space show like Cowboy Bebop but with no boys or plot," have I got a show for you. 4 episode OVA, but it really feels like they wanted to make a full series, canceled it, and decided to distribute what they'd already done. Neat atmosphere, but that's all there is to it.
Angel's Egg - If I recall correctly, Yoshitaka Amano said of Angel's Egg that it was, in a nutshell, something he and Mamoru Oshii had to get off their chests. That's about as good an explanation as you're gonna get. Cool movie, filled to the brim with atmospheric foreboding, high on symbolism, low on dialog. The art, direction, and music work fantastically well together.
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Up through Ep. 23 of Nanoha StrikerS. Still no A's, but must say that Teana has kind of shown up the rest of the rookies pretty badly.
Oh, and needs more Signum, but that can be said of the series in general.
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Watched Lovely Complex in the span of five days. I always used to think nothing could rival KareKano, glad to have been proven wrong. Haven't laughed that much in ages, so I felt really happy!
Sadly it's ended now, and rewatching it just won't be the same. Ah, the bane of all fun things... ending.
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FFFFFFFFFFFFF @ Eden of the East.
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Vision of Escaflowne-
Decent. Some interesting concepts but it's held back by not doing anywhere near enough with them, plus a number of small inconsistencies. Also pointed noses.
Did I manage to completely miss whatever was done with the orb Vahn gets ¾ of the way through or did the show forget it existed?
Gundam SEED Stargazer-
Erm. It doesn't give you any reason to care about any of the characters. I know it had somewhat limited time, but they desperately want you to care for them, so I consequently can't really recommend the show. The only good thing about it is Gateway To The Stars so just get that separately.
I didn't even realise what the ending was intending until I read about it; unsure what that says. Reading about it also says that they tore the intention down anyway so it's not that much of a loss on my end.
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Vision of Escaflowne-
Decent. Some interesting concepts but it's held back by not doing anywhere near enough with them, plus a number of small inconsistencies. Also pointed noses.
Did I manage to completely miss whatever was done with the orb Vahn gets ¾ of the way through or did the show forget it existed?
I liked Allen's nose the best.
Though yeah, I think that show tended to just kind of forget things here and there. Kinda wish Kawamori had taken the helm instead of putting a newbie director on it, and it was originally planned to be longer before budget cuts, which explains some of the awkward pacing and stuff getting squished/rushed/forgotten.
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yeah, if I'm not mistaken it was originally intended to be 39 eps.
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yeah, if I'm not mistaken it was originally intended to be 39 eps.
You are correct sir.
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It's such a shame. Escaflowne's a good show, often very good, but if it'd had that extra space, it could've been one of the very best.
It's still one of my very favorites, but I have to acknowledge its flaws.
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My complaints aren't so much the pacing as the barrage of really bad plot twists around the beginning of the third act (fate alteration, come on down), but I guess that's the risk you run with a show built on crazy fucking plot twists.
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Despite all that, yeah, I agree that it's one of my favorites.
On top of a lot of other things, Yoko Kanno soundtrack, and I happen to really like Guymelefs >_>
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Yeah, the plot twists are crazy, but they really work for the show because it takes itself so seriously (and is well-directed). I particularly like the part about the shapeshifting assassin. If I say to you, "make me care about a shapeshifting assassin that's in, like, 2 episodes and does pretty much nothing but try to kill the good guys," you'd probably think that was a tall order.
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That was pretty excellent. Escaflowne did a good job with characters that got relatively little screentime. Dreiden, Millerna, Prince Chid, all done well for the time they got.
I still don't know how they made the big Dilandau plot twist not come off as totally hilarious.
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Yeah, the plot twists are crazy, but they really work for the show because it takes itself so seriously (and is well-directed). I particularly like the part about the shapeshifting assassin. If I say to you, "make me care about a shapeshifting assassin that's in, like, 2 episodes and does pretty much nothing but try to kill the good guys," you'd probably think that was a tall order.
I should have mentioned that I do, on balance, really like the show.
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Parasite Dolls.
Me: "Well, this is cool. nice characters, nice take on the whole human-looking robots thing. Strange that it's set in the Bubblegum Crisis universe and there hasn't been any mass dest--"
Me: "Never mind."
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Gundam Wing -
I used to watch this on Toonami aways back when that first started up, but I stopped for reasons I don't remember. But having watched through the series now I'm unsure whether that is actually accurate. I found myself remembering seeing bits and pieces all the way up to near the end. I hate it when that sort of thing happens.
Nice to see that several characters weren't as soulless as I was remembering. Show is better than I had previously rated it which I expected to be the case, although it's still not particularly good.
Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz -
Inferior to the series with some pointlessly ludicrous happenings (not that the series didn't have a number of its own). Most worthwhile parts are probably the backstory segments. The suit redesigns are hit and miss, and I am unsure how I feel about them being retconned into the show instead of being upgrades of the ones in the show as I had thought was the case.
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So, watching Gundam SEED Destiny in condensed movie format - supposed to be far better this way, and I owe it to myself to watch it, etc. I knew I wasn't going to agree with Twilkitri's startlingly positive review; I still like it better than some people do, but I really can't find myself actually liking many of the characters, though at least Twilk did a good job avataring one of the better ones. Shinn, at least, is still okay, though I think most of the returning characters aren't as interesting - Kira in particular is downright wooden most of the time, and upside down stock footage doesn't impress (for all that the movies ease the complaints of it). I agree with a friend's analysis that Cagalli totally should've been A CHAR. The good? Stella made me laugh harder than I have in a few days at least, you'll know the scene I speak of if you've seen it.
Mobile suit designs are inoffensive; Impulse feels like a weaker Strike, Freedom is still fine, Savior is yet another Athrun MS I can't bring myself to like, and the Phantom Pain Gundams are gimmicky but solid. Recycling Zakus etc. so blatantly is face-palm inducing, though it did let Heine pay tribute to a real man. I figure I won't be really annoyed with it until Doms show up. I've seen a bit of Destiny Gundam though, and I really like what I've seen of it, so at least there's something to look forward to as the train derails (unless I've been lied to all this time >_<).
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I'm not sure that what I wrote can really be called a review as such >_> There are a bunch of things I could have complained about but none of them were particularly important, and I have a lot of trouble writing positively about things (normally because I can't determine exactly why I like something), so I didn't really want to rail about it and then go and give it a high mark.
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Well it's said that critics have one of the easiest jobs in the world - pointing out flaws is waaay easier than pointing out what makes something good for most people. The fact that I can do that means I end up leaving overly positive reviews of things because everyone else who goes into detail points out the flaws. I will give Destiny credit, for example, for focusing on the characters on a personal level; Gundam in general has gotten a few well-received installments out of this like 08th MS Team and War in the Pocket (YMMV on enjoying them).
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The fact that I can do that means I end up leaving overly positive reviews of things because everyone else who goes into detail points out the flaws.
I don't know what kinds of reviews you read, but I would love to read these mythical actual critical reviews. Cause you see most of the reviews I see point out some of the minor flaws, ignore the gaping epic fucking fail and give it 8/10 and call it a day.
Edit - I hate it because it sucks gay 0/10 is not critical either. It is just retarded.
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The fact that I can do that means I end up leaving overly positive reviews of things because everyone else who goes into detail points out the flaws.
I don't know what kinds of reviews you read, but I would love to read these mythical actual critical reviews. Cause you see most of the reviews I see point out some of the minor flaws, ignore the gaping epic fucking fail and give it 8/10 and call it a day.
Edit - I hate it because it sucks gay 0/10 is not critical either. It is just retarded.
Well okay the good reviews I read, and it's not like I read many; I can't remember the last GameFAQs review I read, or the last video game review I read at all.
Though my point was that the good reviews never go into detail and the critical ones always do, except that I can sometimes go into detail on positive things and like to do so when possible.
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That whole CPM farewell at AX made me finally watch some things.
Heroic Legend of Arislan- Great stuff. 80's fantasy-ish historical action. The animation in the first two parts looks a decade or two ahead of it's time at times. Shame that the rest of it isn't as high quality. The story is great throughout. Too bad it was just never finished (Nearly bankrupting two of the three different production comittees that had worked on it's various parts didn't help that).
Of course, Arislan got me on an 80's kick.
Five Star Stories- Fantastic all around. On the plus side, it's main character is named Sopp. The downside, he's the girliest looking bishounen ever. Honestly, there's something about 80's animation that will never be topped when it comes to producing bishes. Regardless, even though it's just a small microcosm of the story of the manga epic, it stands well on it's own and is a blast to watch. It oozes that good 80's style from every cell. The animation is gorgeous and fluid, the characters are fun, and the mecha is crazy.
For some cheesecake after these two five-course meals, I watched the last of the Original Dirty Pair movies I had lying around. Affair on Nolandia was... not good. Sad, but DP movies have a tendency to be hit or miss. They can't all be Flight 005 Conspiracy.
To wash the taste out of my mouth, I decided to jump way ahead and rewatch Rune Soldier. Still funny, still enjoyable, but not quite as good as the first time around. Also made me realize I had misinterpreted a few things on my first runthrough. Oh well. Good times anyway
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GSD Movie 3 - Wait, was this whole thing all made by the same person? The pre-Berlin stuff up through the aftermath of Shinn v. Kira was really damn good! Better than original SEED, more enjoyable than parts of 00 season 1, with some damn cool fights.
Then, just as I'd been warned... the drop-off. Seriously, making GSD Kira and Athrun more prevalent and going the direction I know they're going with Shinn... ugh. Shinn should've managed to kill SOMEONE with a name, but the Shinn Stab is more effectively non-lethal than anything Kira does. Speaking of whom, Kira, Lacus, Athrun... bringing the original cast back into the spotlight when they've been made generally less appealing is not cool, and Shinn goes from one of the most interesting pilots in the franchise when he has Impulse... to buzzing around trying to stab everything he sees in Destiny. Furthermore, the gnawing sensation of Zombie La Flaga on the back of my mind simply won't go away.
Damn Berlin was cool! Shinn was awesome there, it actually managed the gray morality it purports really well, and the drama was actually pretty good. Still upside down stock Freedom, but can't do much about that, and the Shinn v. Kira fight is probably up there for simply being well-done as major Gundam battles go. Still, I'd heard that this was the highlight, and the overall quality has gone much the same way that I've heard from others. I'm slightly dreading the finale.
As for the mechs:
Destiny is cool. Maybe if Shinn was as much fun to watch fly it as he was in the otherwise mediocre Impulse I'd like it even more, but as it stands I just like the more UC vibe it has compared to the other CE Gundams; less backpack, more just having a bunch of weapons strapped all over the mech.
Strike Freedom isn't awful! I still don't like the gold detailing and something about it irks me otherwise. Oh, also the fact that it negates the one advantage that a couple blond dudes happened to have over Kira by giving him DRAGOON system, though at least it's got some limitations.
Infinite Justice hasn't actually gone out yet, but I'm sure it will be another underwhelming Athrun Gundam.
Legend is chibi-Providence, and it's in the hands of a chibi-Rau, which means that it's good but not as cool as the original.
Akatsuki is Cagalli's Gundam! Send the zombie back to his grave. Seriously she gets her ONE chance to finally live up to the potential she showed to be an actual tough and competent woman in Gundam in a fairly important role in years, and be like the only one to actually get a really fucking awesome mobile suit and what does she do? Jobs to the suddenly bland protagonist-turned-antagonist, then GIVES IT TO THE ZOMBIE. End rant.
Destroy was suitably Pyscho Gundam-esque at Berlin, then suddenly turned into a walking target at that Heaven's whatever battle. Er, I'll just go with 'Stella happened to only be good at piloting really fucking huge mobile suits, and also happened to excel at it compared to others'.
Random DOMs are random!
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Gurren Lagann disc 1 -
Well, it has a certain style to it, and there's definitely potential there, but it seems a bit immature so far for Eternal Godlike Top Marks. Plus I'm not sure I really care much for over-the-top hot-bloodedness. Plus Shizuru did that line better than Kamina does.
Are they sure they couldn't think of a worse recommendation than it being from the creators of Neon Genesis and FLCL?
Well, that's only five episodes so there's still plenty of time for it to improve. Which I will see when the next disc comes out. In a month and a half.
Mospeada - 1½ discs in
Mainly causing me to post here in case the show improves and I forget to note painfulness. The translation is not really the best quality I've ever seen. There is more horrific aiming skills on both sides than anything I can remember offhand. A couple episodes back Jim and Ray were standing in the middle of an empty road and made an obtuse remark, which was followed by a cut to a different viewpoint of the same scene where they were now randomly encircled by a bunch of people. The episode before that they cause the dissolution of a 20+ member bikie gang by driving across a thin bridge across a chasm that the gang leader wouldn't. They make numerous remarks about having to save ammo yet constantly fire barrages of missiles.
That said I don't mind the characters so far. The animation isn't the greatest since that animated GIF of sliced bread, but the designs of the people and units in and of themselves are fine. Story seems to be taking an isolated episode stance so far, but the ending of the last one I watched leaves things open for a continuation to start up - although the episode preview doesn't make it seem like it's going to follow up on it. In summation, it needs to be put into an SRW. One with Megazone 23.
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Watched Gunsmith Cats for the first time in a decade, and boy was it a breath of fresh air. Watch it if you haven't. It's short.
Set in Chicago, starring two chicks, meticulously accurate guns and firearms, bombs and booby traps, and fights and chases that make it about as American an anime as you'll find. And yes, that's a good thing.
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Mospeada
So they need to get past an Inbit fortress. The main problem is that there are more units stationed there than would be feasible for them to fight through. The solution to that is to wait untl the majority of the units are out on patrol. The second problem is that the fortress has a radar which picks up the signature of the energy their suits/etc use, and if it detects them it will call all the units on patrol back. The solution to that is to infiltrate the fortress and destroy the radar, because that certainly won't raise any alarms. Of course once the people are in the fortress they have no idea where the radar is or what it looks like. The solution to this is to keep an eye on one particular room to see if anything noticable happens while they send a bike to drive around a bit within the radared area which is what they had to avoid doing in the first place.
It all works, of course. Desk to face.
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sounds like the writers outsmarted themselves.
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Bakemonogatari:
This show is one part fanservice, one part artistic flare, one part razor-sharp dialog, and 97 parts BATSHIT INSANITY.
How crazy? The female lead makes her debut by attacking the male lead with a paper knife and a stapler. This is followed by an absolutely chilling speech, a playful wink, and an unmistakable clicking sound.
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Mospeada - Finished
So the genius plans come to a head with the Third Liberation Army deciding that if they can't beat the Inbit this time they'll have to render the Earth uninhabitable. Noting that there are still a lot of humans living there as I am not sure that was obvious from my other posts. No reasons for the necessity of this are provided, of course. Fortunately the Inbit cave and the day was saved thanks to pigheadedness.
All up, it's better than Southern Cross but worse than Macross (what isn't, though). If you can look past INANE PLANS (and to be fair I picked out the worst of them, a good deal is nowhere so egregious) it's decent. Yellow's ending scene makes it worth watching in general >_> Needs to be SRWed but I have already said this.
I am left wondering why a particular character is printed on all of the discs when they only show up in one episode. This will torture me for the rest of my life.
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Bakemonogatari:
This show is one part fanservice, one part artistic flare, one part razor-sharp dialog, and 97 parts BATSHIT INSANITY.
How crazy? The female lead makes her debut by attacking the male lead with a paper knife and a stapler. This is followed by an absolutely chilling speech, a playful wink, and an unmistakable clicking sound.
Started this up on this glowing review. Loving it.
Also watching Umineko, Zan SZS, and Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, as well as continuing with Basquash and Guin Saga. I can't seem to turn away from the trainwreck that is Needless as well... DAMN MY LOW STANDARDS!
Plowing through Kodocha on DVD meanwhile. Fun as hell. The opening (which is actually the 2nd opening since they couldn't get the song rights to the first one... WOO JAPANESE LICENSING) is full of silly fun energy that always brings a smile to my face and makes me want to dance along. The whole show just has tremendous, infectious energy and is just overall well done.
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YES. Watch Kodocha. Hype Kodocha. Love Kodocha.
Otakon was good fun, as per usual. Watched:
Random episodes of Skip Beat. Not hugely special, but entertaining. The opening episodes did a lot of good with the premise that Kyoko is breaking into the idol business out of pure spite, but the later bits I saw didn't seem to follow up on it so much. Still fun.
Gunbuster 2 the Movie: Compressing three-hour OAVs into 90-minute movies wasn't a good idea when they made Armitage III: Poly-Matrix, and it's still not a good idea now. Massive cuts to some of the most fun parts of the show (the fight in outer space in the first episode, all of episode 3) and the ending makes even less sense than usual. Shiiiiiiiny on a big screen, though.
Evangelion: You Are (Not) Alone: Also shiny. It's still not different from rewatching the TV series until the last minute (they tell you what Lilith is way earlier! Good for the people watching for the first time, not so much for me.), but the great visuals are even greater in a theater. The Sixth Angel was particularly awesome. Dub was pretty darn good, too.
Purchased:
Now & Then, Here & There
Original Dirty Pair: Affair at Nolandia and Poject Eden
Kimagure Orange Road: Summer's Beginning
Two randomly selected Ranma DVDs
Iria: Zeiram the Animation
Dragonball Z: Fusion Reborn, AKA the movie where Goten and Trunks punch Hitler.
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YES. Watch Kodocha. Hype Kodocha. Love Kodocha.
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Windaria - the best way to describe it is as if a world of fantasy were populated exclusively by the stupidest extras from Miyazaki movies. See two great nations tragically bumble their way into war, death, and destruction! See yourself not caring a bit because they, every single one of them, had it coming.
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Shin Getter Robo vs. Neo Getter Robo - First 3 eps. of 4. Not as meaty as Ishikawa's manga in any way, but the characters are fun. Neo Getter is a decent take on a Getter variation with a personality separate from the Getters of the original team. Animation is lowish on the budget end, compensated for by being fairly stylized and exaggerated, and it works. Complaint - needs more Jack and Mary King. Anime stereotypes of Americans are hilarious, and even I can tell how awful Jack's Japanese is, matched only by the Engrish.
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Windaria - the best way to describe it is as if a world of fantasy were populated exclusively by the stupidest extras from Miyazaki movies. See two great nations tragically bumble their way into war, death, and destruction! See yourself not caring a bit because they, every single one of them, had it coming.
Seriously, everyone's Shakespeare-level stupid. Think Hamlet, then subtract all literary value.
God!
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Canaan: My lifelong dream of watching a Japanese weather report has come true!
Also YunYun's "power" is the worst thing ever.
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Space Runaway Ideon. Watched the 2 movies (the first of which is a Cliff's Notes version of the series, second is the last 5 episodes they never got to air or somesuch). Well, that was about the most space operatic space opera that ever spaced an opera (or opera'd space). Put together the end of Gunbuster with the end of DDS2, quadruple the combined cast size, amp up the violence, and salt with a bit of End of Eva for good measure.
Oh, and Cosmo, the main character, kicks it with a completely unironic afro. Badass.
I've heard the Ideon is rather overpowered in SRW. Makes sense, really. At one point near the end it fires through an obstacle to destroy a spaceship. What was in its way, you ask? Jupiter.
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Started watching RahXephon. Up to episode 9.
Seems decent and sufficiently incomprehensible so far.
However, people have decided that they want to watch it with me. But they don't want to actually watch it per se, they want to have it in the background while they're doing something else, mostly because vast amusement is being derived from considering everything the guy in the white suit says to be sarcastic and that is about the extent of their interest. This has made it difficult to find any time in which to watch as they are not currently in the middle of anything portable enough to be done in my room.
In the meantime I watched through
Gravion.
It has the same kind of egregious artistic direction as Godannar has, but doesn't really have any of the higher qualities which Godannar has. Right there things are not adding up to the best of sums.
I like the rapid obsolecence path it takes at the beginning of the show, but that seems to peter out partway through, which is a shame. Returns at the end for all that's worth. They also don't appear to go anywhere with the EFA's disinformation campaign that they seemed to be making a big deal about. It's possible that that comes into play in Zwei.
Decent show all up, but nothing particularly special. Not sure whether I will go directly on to Zwei or not.
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Zwei is a fair deal better than the original, so I'd say go for it.
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I've heard the Ideon is rather overpowered in SRW. Makes sense, really. At one point near the end it fires through an obstacle to destroy a spaceship. What was in its way, you ask? Jupiter.
What the hell does super robot anime have against Jupiter?
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I've heard the Ideon is rather overpowered in SRW. Makes sense, really. At one point near the end it fires through an obstacle to destroy a spaceship. What was in its way, you ask? Jupiter.
What the hell does super robot anime have against Jupiter?
Jupiter is the jobber of all the planets.
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Well the sun is obvious the main character of the solar system, since it's necessary for life to exist. That leaves Jupiter as the biggest expendible object to get chopped up to prove how badass your giant robot is.
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Just finished "Like the Cloud Like the Wind". How disappointing. They gloss over dramatic events. The story is about the Emperor's Wife. Now the Emperor commits suicide. You get exactly 7 seconds of grieving over this, then the story moves on about how she takes someone hostage with an empty gun and manages to get 1,000 women set free by some weird mechanic and--yeah, it's weird. And silly.
They introduce this girl who is TOTALLY rival material but then... gloss over it. "Six months later"...
"Yay I win!"
Rival: "Nooooooooo!"
Okay... I understand it's a movie but still guys, :(
Started Kodocha because of this thread. ... eh, my friend assures me it's "typical for you" to watch because it is a "romantic love story".
Just what kind of person do people see me as?
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"Romantic Love Story" -does- happen in Kodocha, but it wasn't really what I remembered best about the manga. Can't speak much for the anime, though.
It struck me more as a Comedic Family Drama about a Child TV Star. On Crack. It also helps that it does a pretty good parody of the melodramatic shoujo genre, especially poking fun at Marmalade Boy, which I watched specifically because of Kodocha.
Started Kodocha because of this thread. ... eh, my friend assures me it's "typical for you" to watch because it is a "romantic love story".
Just what kind of person do people see me as?
Well... before I always kind of saw you as a writer-type. But now that you bring it up, I can't shake the 'girly-and-he-likes-to-watch-chick-flicks' vibe.... >.>;;
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Well... before I always kind of saw you as a writer-type. But now that you bring it up, I can't shake the 'girly-and-he-likes-to-watch-chick-flicks' vibe.... >.>;;
I dropped my monocle. I actually had to google chick flicks to know what it means. >_>;
I can't say I'm in complete agreement. I mean, sure, they're fun to watch, but just as much in the same way as James Bond movies are fun to watch. When I talk to girls about movies I just tend to talk about movies I think they'd enjoy more.
I can't bore my friend with talk of movies she doesn't like, now can I? :(
doiredeemmyselfnow? ;_;
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Look, we're getting away from the core principle here, which is that Kodocha is awesome and everybody should watch it.
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Look, we're getting away from the core principle here, which is that Kodocha is awesome and everybody should watch it.
Eh, I think you're overrating it a little.
How's Now and Then, Here and There? I hear lots of good stories about it, revolving around CHILD SOLDIERS and stuff, and pewpew.
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Look, we're getting away from the core principle here, which is that Kodocha is awesome and everybody should watch it.
Eh, I think you're overrating it a little.
How's Now and Then, Here and There? I hear lots of good stories about it, revolving around CHILD SOLDIERS and stuff, and pewpew.
No, he's not overrating Kodocha.
And among other things awesome about N&T, H&T, King Hamdo is barr none the most batshit insane character in anime. Not to mention one of the other characters is a HUGE douche.
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I dropped my monocle.
Is that, like, something that happens in minimum-security prisons?
Also, Now and Then, Here and There is an awesome downer. If you get home one day and you're thinking, "Boy, you know what I sure could use? Something that makes me feel just awful." then it is the show for you.
And Kodocha IS that good. Once the plot gets going along with the slapstick, you'll probably agree.
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Also, Now and Then, Here and There is an awesome downer. If you get home one day and you're thinking, "Boy, you know what I sure could use? Something that makes me feel just awful." then it is the show for you.
Just letting you know, that character is still a douche.
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Still a douche.
But now that you bring it up, I can't shake the 'girly-and-he-likes-to-watch-chick-flicks' vibe.... >.>;;
When I talk to girls about movies I just tend to talk about movies I think they'd enjoy more.
Does this mean that Bard has been talking to Djinn about chick flicks because it is yet another person Bard has mistaken for a girl? Time will tell.
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Does this mean that Bard has been talking to Djinn about chick flicks because it is yet another person Bard has mistaken for a girl? Time will tell.
Oh heavens, Djinn's suspect taste in men should be a dead giveaway.
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I'm going to second (third?) Now and Then's extremely depressing nature. It is a wonderful show, but... fuck, I would never watch that again.
Now, an anime I WOULD watch again? Gun x Sword. Go watch it. It's awesome.
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Meh. I just watched Now & Then again and it was fantastic. It also helps when you're watching it with Grefter for not letting it get to you.
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Does this mean that Bard has been talking to Djinn about chick flicks because it is yet another person Bard has mistaken for a girl? Time will tell.
Oh heavens, Djinn's suspect taste in men should be a dead giveaway.
Meh... >.>;; Niu is cute, putting personality flaws and anti-social tendencies aside...
For the record, Bard, Not A Girl, despite the avatar and apparently-girly typing style. Sources say that I communicate this fact better in person.
My anime-related (read: on-topic) news:
I'm considering going to a theatre to watch the latest Evangelion movie while it's still on the big screen. I don't think my Japanese is good enough to follow it, but it IS a somewhat important moment for anime as a whole and it'd be cool to say 'I was there'.
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Oh yeah Sopko anime watching.
Here and There, Now and Then - This was great, not really depressing though (Worse stories from Africa and all that), still a lot of fun, crazy dudes and hilarious douches all round and fantastically optimistic main in the face of all logic. Just a really human story.
Voice from a Distant Star - Ultra compressed version of Gunbuster side plot. Eh alright, but I like my things stretched out for effect.
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...I'm gonna try to see Eva Rebuild 2.0 in the theaters over here. Like, really try, despite not being a huge Eva fan.
So, poking around mecha boards on 4chan, and someone was streaming assorted episodes of Code Geass R2 in honor of 'Geass Sundays' when everyone would flock to the latest fansub releases to see what absurdity would happen next. Fansubbed. So, episode 12 - the love hat - episode, cue a half dozen replays of that random purple haired girl saying "Nani, my hunny?" to Lelouch because the delivery on it is so... something. Also prominent R2 meme.
Of course, it was a straight-from-desktop stream so there were some... sound effects played during. The worst though? Random Boku no Pico clips with CG dialogue still in the background, playing Still Alive for the climax of the last episode, and then showing the ending of Grave of the Fireflies.
Then the last episode of Princess Tutu for no damned good reason, making me want to watch it because it was so bizarre and pretty.
Oh, and hands up if you'd recognize Gaogaigar's Final Fusion on sight. I figure some of /m/'s users were sad when people didn't, but really, you have to be a mecha fan to know it.
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Random Boku no Pico clips with CG dialogue still in the background, playing Still Alive for the climax of the last episode, and then showing the ending of Grave of the Fireflies.
I want to unread that.
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Does this mean that Bard has been talking to Djinn about chick flicks because it is yet another person Bard has mistaken for a girl? Time will tell.
Oh heavens, Djinn's suspect taste in men should be a dead giveaway.
For the record, Bard, Not A Girl, despite the avatar and apparently-girly typing style. Sources say that I communicate this fact better in person.
Hey, I knew that! I honestly didn't think Djinn was a girl this time around.
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Here and There, Now and Then - This was great, not really depressing though (Worse stories from Africa and all that), still a lot of fun, crazy dudes and hilarious douches all round and fantastically optimistic main in the face of all logic. Just a really human story.
Quoting because I am lazy. Show is good stuff. Of course, I seem to be less bothered by "depressing" material than most people--as long as there's a point to it. And there is, in this case.
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No, he's not overrating Kodocha.
And among other things awesome about N&T, H&T, King Hamdo is barr none the most batshit insane character in anime. Not to mention one of the other characters is a HUGE douche.
Hamdo isn't batshit insane at all. Normal insane, not batshit insane.
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He spends his first scene kicking around a dead cat, and it really only goes downhill from there. If he doesn't qualify as "batshit," no one does.
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Hamdo is like a bees dick short of the Joker at his craziest. One of the better and more disturbingly accurate representations for a sociopath in Anime I have seen.
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El Hazard - Anime all about Lesbians, trannies and lesbian trannies. This was a lot of fun in similar ways that Lodoss Wars was last time, but I guess add a dash of Slayers style in there in all honesty. It definitely does have that post 80's self awareness going on, but it wears its silly high fantasy proudly. Good times. Sounds like everything else that came from it was bleh underwhelming but such is life.
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Jinnai hype goes here.
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His VA anyway dude was amazing at what he was and really needed to be paid a fuck load.
Edit - Still a douche.
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El Hazard - Anime all about Lesbians, trannies and lesbian trannies.
Why have I not watched this.
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Because your life is a bleak and meaningless void. And he forgot that it's also about awesome laughs.
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His VA anyway dude was amazing at what he was and really needed to be paid a fuck load.
Edit - Still a douche.
That laugh, man. It sticks with you.
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In all seriousness, yeah it is a good show, totally worth your time El Cid. It is essentially the Travel to another World and get Magic Powers!!! anime and then it goes about inverting as many expectations of that genre as you would expect, most of the times for some kind of laugh. It works pretty well.
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Millenium Actress - This is by Satoshi Kon. You should watch it.
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Millenium Actress - This is by Satoshi Kon. You should watch it.
Quoting for truth. Best thing he's done, in my opinion.
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Eh Paprika for me, but part of the beauty of Kon's work is how varied and unique it all is, so that is kind of how he works.
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MA plays more strongly to my personal biases, yes.
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G Gundam- Okay, so I picked up a used set marked Season 2. How it actually works is, there's 12 discs making up the full series. I actually have discs 6, 7, and 9-12. This is probably advantageous overall, giving me the end of the first season and skipping four random opponents. Well, three random opponents and Allenby.
Biggest criticism is that the series clearly didn't really know what to do with the Shuffle Alliance. They have these brilliant fight sequences with Domon, but when it comes to the whole Devil Gundam fights they're nominally assembled to deal with, they have to take on the Four Kings in two on one battles, spend ten minutes getting mercilessly pounded, then FINALLY remember they have moves besides "get pounded on" and win in a single blow. I mean, winning in one blow isn't outside the norm in this series, but they didn't even make the pounding interesting. It's me sitting there thinking "jesus guys you have better attacks than this, put down the damned Idiot Ball"
All that said, in other respects the endgame plot works pretty well. A little too much "spend 10 minutes losing before using good attacks/inventing new attack" but they're interesting to watch, and plenty of loud roars telling them to sieze happiness. Twists in the plot are pretty coherent.
Generally just kinda a 7/10 series I guess.
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Favorite Satoshi Kon movie? Let me throw my hat in the ring for Perfect Blue.
they have to take on the Four Kings in two on one battles, spend ten minutes getting mercilessly pounded, then FINALLY remember they have moves besides "get pounded on" and win in a single blow.
Oh come now. everyone knows awesome moves only work at the end of a fight. If you start a fight with a finisher, you'll have to miraculously power up to a new plane of existence before you win, and that's just too much of a hassle.
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It's a pretty common trope with hero-type super robots, for all that Mazinger didn't really follow it and was... kind of the first of them. Also normal for tokusatsu i.e. Kamen Rider, Super Sentai/Power Rangers. G Gundam is very much more this genre despite still being pretty Gundam.
As for Satoshi Kon... haven't seen Millenium Actress or all of Perfect Blue (both of which I should... probably buy at some point), but I did really like Paprika and Tokyo Godfathers. Tokyo Godfathers was very concrete for Kon, but a very charming story with fun characters.
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Well, there's a subtle distinction between "struggling in a fight and not breaking out super attacks right away to win" and "just sitting there losing until, suddenly, you whip out the super attack and win". Even within G Gundam itself, the fights between the Shuffle Alliance members right before this have the tide of battle change a few times, trying to throw each other off balance and looking for openings to attack before the ending.
Basically my complaint is more "they just spent four episodes having really good battles, then another with Speigal, then they have eight more episodes in the series and only one fight is any good (Master vs Domon, obviously)" than "this show has too much trope".
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Point. The individual fights with Domon before then were all pretty awesome. Maybe they were saving some budget for the last episode...
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Tokyo Godfathers is very concrete for Kon because that is the kind of movie it is. He adapts to fit the style. Best Kon movie is pretty much all about the viewer, this has shown it. I am trained in Psychology stuff, so Paprika is for me. Cid is all about old movies, so Millenium Actress is for him. Jim is all about pretending to be a female pop star so Perfect Blue is for him.
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I second Paprika being awesome. I went into it going slightly, "Meh", then came the music, then came the awesome, and by the end I was a massive fan.
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Paprika's visually the most impressive of the lot, but I'm not thrilled with the woman-as-unattainable-object-of-desire idea behind it. There's nothing wrong with exploring the dynamic between men and the women they idolize (see: Blue, Perfect) but the ending, where the menfolk still see her in pretty much the same way, seemed a bit shallow to me. That opinion may change if I see it again; the main character, whatever-the-hell-her-real-name-is, certainly has depth, and her own romance cuts against that grain, but somehow that seems more like an aberration than an affirmation. Maybe.
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Women as an object of desire is very Freudian. Paprika is all Freud all the time.
Noein - This just in like AS we watch it. Guy just chucked a giant hissy fit and scribbled all over the wall in lipstick he gave to a wench that just unplugged her meth bungie cord. Hilarious.
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Women as an object of desire is very Freudian. Paprika is all Freud all the time.
My question: so what? Paprika has a Freudian setup and fantastic visuals, but does it add up to more than the sum of those parts? Or is there something else in the mix (not just spice, but substance) that I'm missing here?
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The answer is because it doesn't have to change the message or what it is about to be more palatable, it takes the Freudian concepts in their entirety and present it to you in spectacular imagery. If you cut those elements out of it you are just making something pretty with dream interpretation getting a nod. It is about taking the whole thing and putting it on display.
Of course women as an object of desire is incredibly base, disgusting and a little offensive, that is why it is pure Id, you know the part that is being suppressed, controlled and used for its strengths while having its weakness overcome by the higher levels of consciousness that make the world normal and regular. That is part of the textbook Kon style hopeful ending in the face of adversity. At the end of the day, yeah we ackowledge that it isn't nice, but there is an answer to it.
The obsession part is just far more prominently on display in Paprika for most of it because it is so solidly smack bang in the Id, I dunno, maybe it isn't really there and it is all in my head and I am just inserting more into the movie than is there.
This is of course rambling and disjointed.
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Nah, I think what you're describing is there, and if you come at Paprika from the direction of most anime (a direction that is somewhat though not entirely legitimate; there's a pretty big gap between TV stuff and movies) it certainly deserves kudos for addressing the women-as-objects thing rather than merely employing it. But I feel like the final message here is that the ideal way for men to fantasize about women is as muses rather than sex symbols. That's certainly more palatable, but all it amounts to is sanitized sexism for the schlubs. I dunno. Maybe I'm focusing too much on the men and not enough on Atsuko.
Perfect Blue provides quite an interesting counterpoint; obsession with feminine perfection inevitably spirals into mental instability and collapse.
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Oh yeah Perfect Blue (Somehow?) gives a far better feminist view on females. Freud just looks really good compared to the rest of his era and well yeah Paprika is true to the source material there.
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Not that I think it was made for pedantic reasons, but Perfect Blue confronts the sexism toward women that exists both in men and women (and in the object of desire herself), which is why it works so well in my opinion. Kinda like a much more extreme version of Rise's stuff in P4.
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Yeah. Rise's stuff was on track to make really poigiant, hard-hitting points on the nature of sexism and the pop culture industry in Japan, but it just completely pulled off at the last moment and tiptoed around it.
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I think that's fine for P4. the dungeons all reveal the stuff people don't want to talk about; none of the characters face the issues their dungeon personae bring up directly after the fact. I felt the larger point there was that the cast can be normal even though they still have pent up issues, can live with them by acknowledging them without either ignoring them or agonizing over them.
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TTGL: Yeah, I watched it. Wasn't really impressed. While on some level I can appreciate the ridiculousness of a humongous mecha piloted by another humongous mecha, this kind of thing doesn't really do much for me beyond a moment's chuckle. I'm not sufficiently entertained by Refuge in Audacity to enjoy a show built on it. Perhaps it's an accomplishment that I didn't hate the show given that I'm averse to mecha and shonen in the first place, but eh, having a hard time finding anything complimentary to say (I suppose it's visually distinctive? Even though it's not a look I care for). Some of the music was okay, I guess (mostly this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOBG3CCew7Q). Ultimately, it goes in the "watchable, but completely average" category. I should probably just stay the heck away from Gainax for my own sake.
Also, the entire show couldn't have happened if the Anti-Spirals didn't completely fail at life. Spoilers, I guess: Dudes, if you are so convinced that people are a threat to everything that exists, you should kill them all the first time around. You don't leave a handful of survivors and say, "We'll come back and wipe you all out once there are a million of you." And don't give them a warning when you come back to finish them off! Just do it! Don't say, "You're dead in three weeks," because that gives them time to plan. And if the moon is going to fall on the Earth and kill everyone anyway, why bother harassing them with attack ships beforehand? It just gives people a chance to become familiar with your technology. Even Dr. Evil would be ashamed of giving an enemy this many safety nets.
Have to say, most amusing random detail about the show was Lord Genome being totally cool with the heroes using his severed head as a computer.
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No Shonen would be able to exist if at least one entire spectrum of their casts wasn't too dumb to live.
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Huh. No love for Yoko?
Anyway, to your spoiler bubble: They actually raise this point in the series (episode 26, when he's talking to Lordgenome's Head), and the Anti-Spiral King doesn't answer. While you could say that it's just they got a bit squeamish at the idea of universal genocide of intelligent life, I think it's more related to their overall tactics. Since they know that Spiral Power runs on raw determination, their entire strategy is an exercise in trying to break their enemies spirits as much as possible. So I've always thought that they decided not to wipe out life because, ultimately, they couldn't, or at least couldn't safely. Mop the floor with them and let them limp back to their homeworlds, you get broken, spiritless people who won't rise up again for generations. Try to wipe them all out, and once people realize it's win or die, they get increasingly more desperate and determined. Trying to wipe out all intelligent life in the universe could easily lead to the survivors generating exponentially more spiral power and bringing about the spiral nemesis just fighting back. Nevermind of course it was pretty much the entire rest of the universe they were fighting against; trying to wipe out an entire species just gives all the other ones that much more time to figure out how to beat you.
Also note that, by all evidence, Lordgenome basically set up the entire Humanity Anhilation Moon Drop scenario himself, or had some hand in doing so. If we suppose that this was a common happening for most races... Given that the Anti-Spirals were just one planet, convincing the great warriors of various planets to brutally oppress their people themselves is just that much more efficent.
This incidentally is one of the things I love about the show, it can actually hold up under shocking amounts of analysis, rare for the genre.
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Eh. I'm not really convinced.
Immediately after the anti-spirals are wiped out, Earth is contacted by other spiral races. This suggests to me that the anti-spirals were somehow blocking communications between them for all that time. They knew the instant the millionth human being was born and had even gone to the trouble of having the Messenger inserted into the human gene pool just so that they could one day have a really dramatic way to gloat about the ultimate fate of humanity (I can't see any reason for Lord Genome to rig the moon to fall except as a really crazy last-ditch attempt to motivate people--crazy even by the standards of this show, yes). It looks to me like they retained both significant influence over and awareness of the goings on of the spiral races throughout the thousand years after the war. A million people really isn't very many, especially when they're disorganized and poorly equipped (which it seems like humanity was for most of the time before Team Gurren got active). And for all the chatter about the anti-spirals having won the war because no one could find their homeworld, you don't win a war by simply being hard to find. Leaving the spiral races as thoroughly crushed as they were (less than a million human beings left?) requires some pretty overwhelming power.
I have to conclude that the anti-spirals could have eliminated humanity long ago with little difficulty had they chosen to do so. I think the closest the show actually comes to explaining why this didn't happen is in the various ramblings about inflicting "absolute despair" on humanity, which sounds less like a genius strategy and more like them being just really vindictive jerkasses. You didn't kill everyone because you wanted to draw out their suffering? Okay, whatever. To me, all of this just reads like a jury-rigged excuse for the plot to exist.
...Which is totally in keeping with my conclusion that show's reason for existing is the ludicrous action sequences and the plot is just there to give them a reason to happen. But hey, you did write out a long explanation and it warranted a response.
And I didn't really get attached to anyone in the cast, no. Yoko can score points for being fanservice that's actually competent in a fight, I guess. (Does she ever actually miss?)
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Full Metal Panic, original 24 Gonzo episodes. I have to say, it exceeded my expectations for the most part. Genuinely actually managed to be funny when it tried (usually) and while the combat needs more budget, I like the Arm Slaves. Arbalest has a very practical weapon load for a mech who's special power is 'lol magitech'. The mechs feel pretty military for something 15m tall and walking on two legs, though I'd have liked them to keep the size smaller like the novels (apparently). I'm kind of a RK-92 fan as grunts go, the froggy look kind of grows on you. The Tuatha de Daanaan is also a freaking submarine for the crew's base/battleship, which is sexy.
I like the characters too. Sousuke... yeah, I see the Heero Yuy comparisons, but he's not that severe, and being FMP it's played for laughs. Kaname is a bit... too good at things, though at least she isn't piloting an AS and defending herself against armed soldiers, so she's not overly perfect or anything (also, that temper). Kurz is a bit much sometimes, but still not damning, and Mao is pretty entertaining. I was surprised by how much I liked Tessa though; the last couple episodes cemented that a fair bit. Gauron was generally a fun psycho, and then I watched 'The Wind Blows at Home' episodes and kind of more cared about him dying than being funny, though I know I'm being overly sensitive about that. The minor supporting characters were never terribly annoying, which works for me. Kalinin is pretty badass to boot.
Solid enough, though I've heard that The Second Raid and Fumoffu are both better in different ways. Good thing my good friend bought those as well ^_^
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That really kinda surprises me. Gurren Lagann, as a show, is really based on emotion more than anything else. That is, the plot and battles are rather bluntly designed to maximize the impact of the big climatic scenes, with one of the techniques involved being to make the characters expressive and easy to empathise with. Or at least, that's how I think of it.
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Personally, my best guess is that The Anti-Spirals were specifically trying to *avoid* killing all sentient life. A universe completely devoid of life (aside from all of those anti-spirals who are basically in hibernation and effectively dead) isn't really much different from a universe that's been destroyed practically speaking, so sorta like Lordgenome they instead opted to merely contain the various races and keep their spiral power in check.
That still doesn't justify not instantaneously zapping Earth once they decided humankind needed to be put down, admittedly. Maybe the anti-spirals grew arrogant over time and decided to showboat their fancy tech instead of opting for a more practical method; here they really were acting as necessary for the plot to work.
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Gurren Lagann vol. 2
Well, the hot springs episode can go die in a fire. Interestingly they have the 'tv version' of it on the disc as an extra, but I don't plan on seeing what difference that makes any time soon.
Thylimph or however you spell it sequence was good, although I expected the takeover to have a more dramatic effect than it did.
And then we have the first episode with Nia, which was held back by Simon's understandably bad mood. All up it wasn't the greatest disc of all time.
Now to wait a month until the next volume comes out. On the plus side, Gundam 00 volume 1 is coming out at the same time, so I have more to look forward to.
On a related note, the powers that be are actually preparing to deign to grace us with some UC Gundam in the form of 0083 Stardust Memory. Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come, but even if it isn't at least they had good taste in their machinations.
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The TV version is the hot springs episode and a recap episode! Yeah, not worth bothering with.
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Stardust Memory is always a good thing. Even if you don't like the characters, delicious GP series Gundams, Gerbera Tetra, and mobile armors.
Speaking of which, ordered third and fourth of five 2-disc volumes of Zeta Gundam at $8 a piece plus S&H. I suddenly love Rightstuf very much.
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Well, the hot springs episode can go die in a fire.
Needs more fire.
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Personally, despite a mild distaste for overt fanservice of that nature, I can't help but feel that the intro to Episode 7 really does pay off the hot springs episode >.>
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Baccano: Okay, this is vastly more my style. Four episodes in, off to a good start. Don't disappoint me here, guys. Isaac and Miria in particular are inspiringly dim--it's like there's a little bit of Butch and Sundance mixed into each episode.
That mob boss in episode 4 has to have been modeled after Jon Polito.
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5 eps into Gundam X, continuing my streak of mecha anime that would've been interrupted by Baccano if my HD hadn't died. While there are many differences, the overall style of X is vaguely Wing, though Garrod's more likable than Heero. Other than that... um... Jamil's pretty cool, and I like some of the Gundams.
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Finally started watching Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagan (in HD!).
All I can say about this anime is that it is quite hilarious. Very funny indeed.
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Episode 17. Really missing the over-egotistical maniac, but.. I dunno. It's not a bad anime, it just started off intensely well and Simon isn't as awesome as the over-egotistical maniac. Perhaps I should get over it?
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By now? Yes.
Anyways, Slayers is on Hulu, so I'm finally watching it. Um... this is actually pretty awesome after like 5 episodes, normal reaction? The characters are colorful without being painfully exaggerated, and the interaction is pretty fun. Heck, the fights aren't bad either, even if a lot of it is just a vessel for more humor (a good thing, mind).
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Bakemonogatari, up through episode 7.
Watch this, all of you.
It's an Akiyuki Shinbo show.
I'm not really sure how I feel about it. The art and direction are fabulous in all aspects. Everything about the show is fabulous, really, but there are some rough parts where ironically the goodness serves to point out that it has even more unrealized potential.
Not really sure I buy the best-dialogue-ever hype. It's good, yes, but it's not spectacular (a couple of memorable zingers per episode, but it doesn't have the "I can remember an entire conversation" level of quality going for it), and most of the really good lines only work because of the art and direction going on around them at the time. I think the main fault to be found here is in the voice acting - the dialogue itself could work with a lot of different intonations, but the actors deliver almost everything in a steady deadpan that doesn't add anything. Ararararagi's VA is the same guy who did Nozumo from SZS, and he's doing... the exact same voice, almost, which invites some unflattering comparisons between the two shows.
First episode bait and switch is also in heavy effect here. EP1 was gorgeous, shockingly so, and it's not really too surprising that later episodes have had obviously less art budget. Fortunately, Shinbo-style makes up for it.
EP1 also, however, made out like this was going to be a show with a continuing and at least semi-serious dramatic plot. There was foreshadowing, there were fight scenes and people getting their hearts ripped out, there were character dynamics starting. All that got dropped almost instantly in favor of short episodic arcs... and then the arcs themselves seem to be getting wrapped down further, as the basketball girl didn't even get her own OP like Mayoi did. We've seen this before, too, in SZS, and SZS did it better than what we've seen here so far (for one thing, it wasn't nearly this formulaic (problem->talk to Meme->solution turns out to be family/relationship drama)). If we wind up getting nothing but a bunch of short arcs introducing an ever expanding cast of oneoff characters I'll be rather disappointed. Buuut it's still only about halfway through the season, so I'm still holding out hope for a central plot to pick up.
Even with those flaws this is probably the best show of the last couple years by far and everyone needs to watch it. Shinbo seriously needs to win some sort of award for direction, and the artists and graphic designers (it's clearly not ALL Shinbo's work) should get a lot of praise too.
Episode 3 should be required viewing for anyone even remotely interested in theatre or media.
Watch this.
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RahXephon-
The person I was watching it with decided to spoil themself on the upcoming events for god-knows-whatever reason and decided they didn't like the direction the show was heading, so I was left to my own devices with regards to scheduling. Huzzah. I have now finished.
It was generally entertaining all up and well worth watching. I don't really see the comparison to Evangelion outside of the last few episodes, although it being the last few episodes this may colour peoples's overall memory. I especially enjoyed the implementation of the time-relationship concept similar to the one in Nadesico... hopefully that is understandable enough to people who have seen the show to know what I'm talking about, because I cannot currently think of a better way of wording it that wouldn't lead to spoilers. I also think pretty highly of the final Hiroko episode.
The final battles make little to no sense, and the overall objective of the Mu is never really explained, considering the disparity between what they say and what they do. Most of the rest of everything else is explained well enough, however.
Didn't really get what they were trying to do with Makoto; after he stopped being a smarmy guy who existed for no readily apparent reason, they drifted back and forth between showing him in a positive light and a negative light. Then he became a chewtoy.
I have the movie on hand and I intend to watch it tomorrow. The case tries to tell me that it's a companion piece, but the booklet that came with it does not seem to think the same. Well, I'll find out how things are soon enough.
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If you've played BoFV, the RahXephon movie is kinda like the SOL scenes for the series. The whole ending battle makes a lot more sense after the movie, at least to me.
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RahXephon: The Motion Picture: Pluralitas Concentio-
Well. First off I think it bears stating that I believe that the overall plot of the movie would be approaching total incomprehensibility for anyone that had not seen the series.
That being said, as I feared they also changed a bunch of stuff, so it's not particularly friendly to those who have seen the series and are of a certain mindset either. Some, like Quon's part in the storyline, are considerable disconnects from the series, so it isn't like it was just inconsequential changes. The painting ridden so much in the series has also disappeared, among other things.
I'm not sure how I feel about Ayato knowing the identity the whole time, as the mystery was one of the better parts of the series, I think (although to be fair it does not really present itself as a mystery as such for some time in the series, and once it does it becomes fairly obvious what the answer is). Here it's effectively hidden behind a single name in-universe, while the viewer knows the whole time. Tsk.
On a more positive note, the additions to the gloves microstoryline were welcome (assuming I'm not reading too much into things, anyway). You get the latter half of the point behind them in the series, although at the point you do you don't have the context to fully understand it, and I had forgotten about them by the time you do get that. Then you get the former half of the point behind them in the movie... it was nice to see and caused me to connect the earlier point I had missed. Of course, their point is liable to be completely lost in the movie alone.
The opening section of the film before it started retreading old ground was also a welcome addition, but only because of changes that had been made - it would not really have been possible in the series, except as an extension to the coda.
I am afraid I do not understand anything more about the final battles after having seen this, and I didn't really see anywhere any clarification might have come from. It did however go some distance in explaining the Mu further.
Cannot really say I think much of the changes to the ending. At least it's somewhat compatible with the original ending, but I don't really like the direction it took.
All up, it's probably worth watching if you've seen the series, but I really wouldn't recommend it if you haven't.
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Ponyo. The main character is 5, and there is nothing in this movie that would scare a 5-year-old. Very pretty, completely adorable, but utterly lacking in suspense.
I'm really pissed off at my landlord right now, and seeing Ponyo didn't quell my rage, so I guess that means it's not everything it could be? Maybe?
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Last anime seen was Paprika, by Satoshi Kon. Tokyo Godfathers is the only one I haven't seen yet.
I really should though...
I've also been on a Myazaki spree a little while back. In rather quick succession I saw Cogliostro, Nausicaa, Laputa, Kiki, Totoro, Mononoke, Howl and Spirited.
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Finished Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagan. I've come to understand that I did not like Simon initially until the last three episodes because I thought he was lacking largely in the manhood category, and I don't particularly like characters who are deemed the strongest but consistently need some sort of push to prove so. I suppose you could say he become more like Kamina, which I don't think really matters to me. But he became much more self-starting that group-self-starting if that makes any sense. I watched it in HD and though I thought the last episode somewhat glazed over my knowledge of galaxies/Big Bang, I still liked it.
The ending was... extremely short. I did not like that. I think with a situation like TTGL where people involved with the situation put so much of themselves in the issue, I wouldn't have minded seeing a cliché recap of what their lives are like after such a huge event. Either way, I give it a 7/10 for mecha-based awesomeness only, then overall perhaps it floats between 8-9/10 overall.
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I think there's some sort of movie/radio drama/manga TTGL continuation or something in the works. Let's wikipedia it!
...Okay, so wikipedia states that there are both Movie and Manga adaptations of TTGL that expand a bit on what was seen in the series. Hopefully that includes the ending, as that was the part that I, too, felt was a bit lacking.
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To my knowledge, they made two Gurren Lagann movies, one for each half of the series. Since the second half is shorter, it's entirely possible they expanded on the ending. Or they just upped the TTGL fight to a full half hour.
... both seem good.
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They expanded the ending by, and I am not making this up, giving every Ganmen a Tengen Toppa form, and then combining all of then with TTGL to form SUPER TENGEN TOPPA GURREN LAGANN. This thing needs to be fansubbed, stat.
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Right, forgot about that. Fits in with some of the changes the first movie made though, I guess they wanted to remember that Gurren Lagann was actually a combining mecha more.
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Gravion Zwei-
The Immediate Obsolescence concept was thrown away completely for this series, sadly. Ah well. They seemed to have left the disinformation campaign thread dropped also.
Sandman gets some pretty awesome scenes in the early episodes, but these dry up when it starts to get more serious. Ah well.
Hugi's motivation is pretty atrocious. So is Faye's, for that matter.
All up, it is better than the original series. But I'm not sure I would say it was especially so. If they wanted to go the more meaningful route that they seemed to be wanting to take by the end, they shouldn't have started off with essentially filler episodes given the low episode count.
Also Sol Gravion is kinda ugly.
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So the first TTGL movie is subbed? I saw a guy in my Phil class wearing a TTGL shirt. I was interested in saying "Hey! TTGL!" but we were outside doing Philosophy stuff because our teacher left her keys on mass transit, and I was hot and seeking shelter right after class ended and I totally forgot about it and my foot came out of my flat shoe while I was walking and a guy picked it up and he kept talking to me and runonrunonrunon.
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The first one's subbed, yeah (it's called Gurren-hen, IIRC). The second one should be later this year, once it comes out on DVD.
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Just hit on him the next class.
Or, you know, befriend him and have nerdy anime talks. I'm not even snarking, I'd probably enjoy a friend with who to talk about nerdy stuff and do nerdy things with. Keeping up with all this baseball/football/BIKING/music talk is maddening. I need a friend circle that's nerdy!
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Just hit on him the next class.
Or, you know, befriend him and have nerdy anime talks. I'm not even snarking, I'd probably enjoy a friend with who to talk about nerdy stuff and do nerdy things with. Keeping up with all this baseball/football/BIKING/music talk is maddening. I need a friend circle that's nerdy!
You also need a friend circle that helps you with the whole putting your foot into your mouth thing. >_> Get working!
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Just for kicks, decided to randomly watch some old anime movies and OVAs.
Genocyber - would be good if it were good. Is bad, unfortunately, so is bad. The concepts are cool, they seem to have figured out some interesting things to do with those concepts, but the writing in the more specific sense and the directing are so awful that those things are completely, utterly wasted. It would probably have been better if they hadn't tried as hard. Or had tried harder.
Judge - Mediocre at worst. Kinda Pet Shop of Horrorsy, has a dark sense of humor to go along with the horror.
Wizardry - Made in the late '80s and based on Wizardry 1, this movie is, somehow, not bad. Totally unrealistic, though! In the first minute:
#1 the fighter kills more than one enemy in a round.
#2 the party wins a fight easily.
#3 the thief opens a treasure chest and no one dies as a result.
Really.
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Whoever wrote that move obviously never played Wizardry.
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Somedays I lament the loss of my Fist Of The North Star VHS tape...
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Manga Round-Up
Bleach- Been okay. Actually forgot Ichigo and Co. existed for a time and was only reminded by seeing in on Adult Swim and remembering the show was not, technically, about SS. Still, it has been fun lately. Starks is the emoest lil' espada.
One Piece- War has been fantastic and the sheer amount of stupid powers thrown around have been glorious.
Kurohime- Picked this up on a whim. Starts kinda weak, but develops quite nicely. Lot of WAFF and then *SPOILERS*. Sad times. Sad times. We'll see how it goes from here.
Negima- Picked it up on a whim. Only read the first volume. It is fun. Can paste Love Hina over it fairly cleanly at the moment though.
Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro- Whim. Moe, but enjoyable fluff.
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Basilisk-
Only one disc in. I'm just stopping by to say GOD OBORO YOU FAIL AT LIFE
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Negima- Picked it up on a whim. Only read the first volume. It is fun. Can paste Love Hina over it fairly cleanly at the moment though.
Yeah, that doesn't last. Negima mostly slides on a scale between fighting shonen and the latter part of Love Hina where the main character doesn't fail at life.
EDIT: the fun lasts.
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I am finally about to start on Irresponsible Captain Tylor sometime next week. I forgot who suggested this to me, but they also suggested TTGL and that was good stuffs.
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Umineko: Episode 11 is all sorts of batshit insanely awesome.
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I am finally about to start on Irresponsible Captain Tylor sometime next week. I forgot who suggested this to me, but they also suggested TTGL and that was good stuffs.
They're pretty much batting a thousand, then. Tylor is awesome.
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Umineko: Episode 11 is all sorts of batshit insanely awesome.
Indeed. More hilarious than awesome. The batshit insane part totally fits though.
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Finished Basilisk. It was pretty great all round.
Oboro even managed to improve slightly by the end, for all that that was mostly due to her ceasing to exist as much. That there was eventually no-one left for her to whimper around means that they had to start making her take some initiative by default as well I suppose.
Translators need to be shot for flagrant suffix abuse.
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Baccano: Yeah, finished this. Very stylish and enjoyable piece of fluff. If there's a problem with it, it's that there are too many characters running around for all of them to get appreciable levels of development. The show's penchant for snappy dialogue ensures that most characters do at least leave some impression, but they just tried to cover too many subplots for everyone to benefit from this (the Gandor brothers are particularly blank). Probably a symptom of trying to cover everything in the source material and not having time for it. OVA episodes honestly didn't help much here, sadly. Still, any show that produces the likes of Isaac and Miria is alright by me. It's good fun.
Gunslinger Girl: Oh hey, they made another season of this while I wasn't paying attention. Sneaky. It's pretty much more of the same, but this is not a bad thing. I'm still rather astonished that such a show could exist, much less be produced by Japan, and not be a total disaster. They took a completely ludicrous concept (cyborg loli assassins working for the Italian government) and made it work by being totally serious about everything. Someone clearly sat down and went about very methodically determining the precise nature of the clusterfuck the base concept would produce, and I appreciate seeing that kind of effort. It helps that they apparently forgot that they were Japanese and decided not to fetishize the characters in any way. (I think I can say with confidence that the producers are more turned on by firearms than by other human beings.)
The only real downside of season two is the critical lack of Delgados music. Not that the replacement opener is bad as J-pop goes, but...well, it's not this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTxkOM7PMRE (Season two, for comparison: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3_xJ7NE-A0)
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You'll be happy to know that the original manga format was a somewhat racy doujinshi, before the author scrapped it and started over from scratch with some actual plot and a professional release. Granted, the manga is still a tad fanservicey compared to the anime, at least with the introduction of an attempt at converting a somewhat older girl, but that's only what I've heard since I haven't gotten that far.
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That only makes the anime more surprising (and, I can only assume, better than the manga).
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Well I've also heard fans complaining that the second season of the anime doesn't do justice to the part of the manga it covers, but again, stuff needs to be read and watched to see if that's true.
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That only makes the anime more surprising (and, I can only assume, better than the manga).
The legitimate, non-doujinshi Gunslinger Girl manga is quite good. Haven't watched the second season yet so I can't compare that, but it's on par with the first season for quality.
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Right. Finished reading Gunnm/Battle Angel Alita. Pretty cool stuff; the setting is interesting and pretty well thought out, and it's hard not to love a lot of the cast. Pacing's a little awkward at some points, and dialogue during fights ranges from 'wow these people are fucking nuts' to 'badass hellz yeah' to '...okay...' Also, damn the writer for trying to add some slight degree of sympathy for even the nastiest of villains. Though monologuing their tragic back-stories was one of the less awesome dialogue points.
Last couple chapters were obviously rushed, though this is because the author was seriously ill and thought he might die... or something. Then he didn't, so he retconned the last couple chapters, and now I'm going to read Gunnm Last Order which is how it was supposed to be.
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now I'm going to read Gunnm Last Order which is how it was supposed to be.
It's damn good. Lacks a bit of the gritty atmosphere of the first series, but makes up for that with a slew of fun characters and, natch, a lot of top-quality fighting.
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It gets really, really weird in later chapters, though. Like, guy-who-shoots-lasers-from-his-dick weird.
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It gets really, really weird in later chapters, though. Like, guy-who-shoots-lasers-from-his-dick weird.
That... is something I'd already heard about, actually. Given that my friends and I came up with 'light bending dick' as a superpower, it's not a big deal.
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It gets really, really weird in later chapters, though. Like, guy-who-shoots-lasers-from-his-dick weird.
The really wonderful thing about this comic is that it's much funnier in practice than it is on paper.
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Oh, I know. You think I'd have stuck with it this far otherwise?
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Oh, I know. You think I'd have stuck with it this far otherwise?
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Oh, I know. You think I'd have stuck with it this far otherwise?
I dunno, laser-firing dicks still sounds pretty funny in a vacuum. I mean, think of all the jokes about explosive depressurizati--*is shot*
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No More Heroes. Just saying. Destroyman.
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Gurren Lagann V3 -
Entertaining all round.
How can Nia be so annoying and yet not so annoying simultaneously. To be fair, I think most of her problem is her horrible voice.
Gundam 00 V1 -
Art style is too seedy. That was in no way a high point in those serieses.
Nice political bent the series is running with at the moment. I wonder whether they will keep it up.
Also two discs in to Gankutsuou. As I have the full set I will refrain from speaking about it now aside from saying that it is currently being thoroughly enjoyable.
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Just sat down and finished Persona ~trinity soul~.
Impressions:
IGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR. BEST. PART. OF. THE. ANIME.
AKIHIKO-SENPAI! You've become a useless bureaucrat who can cook stuff (cool man) but your plans seem to never bear fruition, also, you suck because you keep being bogged down by your superiors man what did you DO with your SEES time?
ROCKS FALL EVERYBODY DIES.
oh btw we're not explaining a lot of shit like what happened to those who suffered apathy syndrome and the entire city man and what was up with that last bit around suddenly HEEL TURN or what the FUCK was going ON here and so many people died in such grotesque ways but what do you mean getting psychological trauma oh right we're wearing personas to cover that up fuck yeaaaaaaaaaaah
TEN STARS, WOULD WATCH AGAwaitwhatthehelldidIjustwatch.
Disappointing. >_>
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Soooo joined in on a Code Geass R2 marathon with 4chan's /a/. Got in around ep. 8, was on intermittently until 17 or 18, and sat straight through the rest of it.
...it was kind of a blast. It's already pretty entertaining despite (because of?) all of its issues, and watching it with 50-some 4chan users is madness, especially when even those who aren't huge fans get in on the fanboy/girlism. Some of the caps of the chat room are pretty funny.
Oh, and that last episode... yeah, I still like it despite how poorly it stands up to later scrutiny.
All Hail Lelouch
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Gankutsuou -
Exceedingly beautifully awesome. Easy 9.
Complaints: Cadareuse is randomly out of proportion with every other humanoid. Also Episode 23 is not particularly spectacular, from the out-of-idiom early credits joke (presuming there wasn't something wrong with the disc, anyway) to some cheesy happenings later on. Show also needed a lot more of Peppo in general.
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Disappointing. >_>
Yeah, I'm really not sure how to take this show. There's a lot of cool stuff in there, and to its great credit things that happen are all consequential, in other words there's no return to normalcy really ever. I like how stuff goes on and they don't feel the need to beat you over the head with its implications, things happen and people don't sit around talking about them for the next few episodes...but all that economy of storytelling they balance with psychobabble, so it's kinda eh.
I mean, they really nail the setting, the family and friend dynamics are well done, character growth is solid, the plot flows, it's just all beholden to a particularly ill-defined higher purpose.
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The Ovan Show feat. Ovan with his amazing technicolor glasses and permanent smugface: I don't think I've ever before watched a show where the characters quite literally spend 90% of their time talking about one guy. Also I think there's some dude named Haseo.
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The Ovan Show feat. Ovan with his amazing technicolor glasses and permanent smugface: I don't think I've ever before watched a show where the characters quite literally spend 90% of their time talking about one guy. Also I think there's some dude named Haseo.
I've only watched one episode of that years ago and yet I knew exactly what you meant.
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Roots sounded... un-good. Better than Sign maybe? Maybe???
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I liked Roots, but I'm a crazyperson. It's slow, plodding and kinda meh, but I liked it anyway.
Shino is what makes .hack//roots awesome. It also sets up G.U. pretty well and makes you catch a lot of things earlier, as well as sets up tons of character motivation (Haseo, Ovan, Yata, Pi, etc.)
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Roots sounded... un-good. Better than Sign maybe? Maybe???
Sign >>>>>> Roots for me. It was actually rather interesting. >_> Tsukasa was urgh but that was the point of it I think.
Checked out the new anime season. God, it looks like Japan is going to continue pointless fanservice and harem everywhere. Looks like Seakitties is the only interesting anime still.
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Checked out the new anime season. God, it looks like Japan is going to continue pointless fanservice and harem everywhere. Looks like Seakitties is the only interesting anime still.
But what about...
...
...
...
...damn this season sucks.
Oh well, there's DtB2 at least....
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http://chartfag.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/fall-2009-v3-export1.jpg <- Just found this, but... um...
Childish / Excessive Fanservice / Harem Shit / BATTLE LIBRARIANS (maybe want) / Harem / Retarded genderbend
Might Give it a Shot / Moeblob / Stupid / Not Sure / Moeblob / Moeblob Harem
Harem Fanservice / Inuyasha / Moeblob / Might Give it a Shot / Moeblob / Retarded Fanservice
Probably Boring as Hell / Harem / Moeblob / Otakuservice / I'll Give it a Shot / I'm not 8
Interesting / Yuri / I'm not 8 / DARKER THAN BLACK / ... maybe want / Uninteresting
Ugh / No / screw you / Japan / What is wrong with you? / FANSERVICE
Already saw the real thing / ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS YES
Looks like it isn't COMPLETE fail. Right now, I'd say...
Want To See What It's About:
Letter Bee
White Album
Yumeiro Patissiere
Miracle Train
Kimi no Todoke
Want To See:
DARKER THAN BLACK
Today in Class 5-2
11eyes
>_> Still a depressingly small list, especially considering I will prooooobably lose interest all but DtB and Today in Class 5-2.
Screw this, I'm digging up my Slayers and KareKano DVDs.
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...they're doing more of class 5-2? As if it wasn't bad enough before. <_<
I mean, seriously. The show is basically about elementary schoolers getting into perverted situations. It's stupid. Unless this is somehow something else with the same name.
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I dunno, I thought it was pretty funny.
Artwork seems to be different, so maybe different studio, same source.
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If I feel like dealing with shitty laptop screen/get it fixed/find cables to hook a bloody laptop up to a TV, I'll probably give RotTK a shot.
Other than that?
Dunno. Haven't seen Darker than Black or any Class 5-2, so those won't interest me until I have.
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Update:
Want To See What It's About:
Letter Bee - Little boy delivering letters. I'll give it to episode 2, because episode 1 was fairly amusing.
"EEEEEEH? YOU'RE DARWIN?!?!"
White Album - Shit.
Yumeiro Patissiere - Not subbed.
Miracle Train - Okay, this one deserves special mention because it confuses me. The recipe for Miracle Train appears to be this:
Take one helping of Ouran High School Host Club.
Spoon two bottles of Hetalia! in the mix.
Add trainrape.
Stir while adding Itsumi Koizuki Essence in the mix.
CONGRATULATIONS. YOU HAVE NOW MADE AN ANIME ABOUT A TRAIN THAT KIDNAPS TROUBLED LADIES AND SUBJECTS THEM TO THE PERSONIFICIATIONS OF TOKYO'S TRAIN STATIONS, WHO ARE AT HER BECK AND CALL TO MAKE HER FORGET HER TROUBLES.
Christ, how retarded can plot possibly get?
Kimi no Todoke - Cute. This one's a stayer. Basically it's about this girl whose misunderstood and a bit lonely because everyone thinks she's a ghost or something. There's this one guy who doesn't think so and of course there are FEELINGS++ coming from the misunderstood girl because this guy who is "100% refreshing" notices her. She learns to get a backbone, plays a ghost, stands up for the boy and gets him to go on a date with her in the course of one episode.
It's positively endearing. I KNOW, MEN SHOULD WATCH ACTION AND STUFF, but I like my slice-of-life romance, gender stereotypes be damned.
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Like your average shounen jump anime wasn't riding the cock like a bike.
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You spend too much time on yaoi communities, Snow.
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You spend too much time on yaoi communities, Snow.
No, just the people watching shonen and calling slice-of-life gay are in rampant denial while they watch Goku and Vegeta moaning while rubbing each other's legs.
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I think this is the coolest thing you've yet done since I came here, Snow. I'm honestly surprised.
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/me slowly backs away from the stabbing implement.
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Christ, how retarded can plot possibly get?
http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=6182
Never forget.
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What the hell is an Akikan?
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Akikan (”Empty Can”) is the unlikely story of high school boy Kakeru Daichi, whose can of melon juice soda magically transforms into a human girl. Naturally, more “akikan” girls begin appearing, each of them needing to be infused with carbon dioxide from kissing to survive.
That, apparently. Though a more succinct answer would be "brain damage."
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Akikan (”Empty Can”) is the unlikely story of high school boy Kakeru Daichi, whose can of melon juice soda magically transforms into a human girl. Naturally, more “akikan” girls begin appearing, each of them needing to be infused with carbon dioxide from kissing to survive.
That, apparently. Though a more succinct answer would be "brain damage."
So, it's like the mentally challenged, nuclear waste-poisoned little sister of that Transformers Hentai series.
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/me slowly backs away from the stabbing implement.
... Sorry. I was... I just wanted to say I thought it a nice thing to hear. :-( I guess I'm terrible at expressing myself. I didn't mean it in a PLEASE TAKE ME SNOW YOU SEXY BEAST way.
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You keep telling yourself that, Bard.
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Akikan is frustrating. It's an immensely awful idea, and you might think that would make it fun to make fun of, but it's not, because to make fun of something requires (1) acknowledging that it exists and (2) legitimizing it by allowing it to serve as a form of entertainment in any way.
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Clearly it's the perfect show for drinking games intent on bringing casualties.
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Bard I understand your feelings Kimi Ni Todoke really is adorable!
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Of what I've seen of the new season...
I'm watching Railgun, mostly because I watched and liked Index. Doesn't quite start off as well, but it's always fun watching someone throw a quarter through a car and making it explode. Heavier on the comedy than Index. It's an action show at heart, but don't tell Japan that.
Spirit Blacksmith was okay. Featuring a depressingly non-effective female lead and SUPER BLACKSMITHING POWER! that was actually pretty cool. Doesn't seem like it'll be a harem show, but that remains to be seen. Japan throws those in at the drop of a hat.
Nyan Koi was amusing enough. It has KITTIES! ^ ^
Seitokai was definitely OTAKUSERVICE! I got a chuckle or two out of it, but I doubt I'll stick with this very long.
Sora no Otoshimono was DLed against my better judgement. Mostly trying it out to see if it wraps around from fail to hilariously awesome. Probably will end up the same as Akikan though. I watched the first episode of that and my brain threatened to committ suicide if I ever, EVER even thought about watching another one.
Not sure what you were expecting out of Miracle Train. I heard about the premise and steered WAY clear of that one.
Not sure what else I'll give a try. Still watching a few from last season (Umineko, Guin Saga, ZSZS, waiting on the last two eps of Basquash). Looking forward to Darker than Black though.
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Bard I understand your feelings Kimi Ni Todoke really is adorable!
Was this a little too much?
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True story, at DL Con where something relevant came up to mention Akikan (I don't know what I was probably insulting someone) Sopko only caught the edge of the conversation and demanded to know why such vile words were coming out of my mouth. I assume this was the prelude to violence, but the context was good enough to avoid such base courses of action.
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So, uhh, I don't see what's wrong with Akikan. >.> You go into it expecting nothing, and you get a lot of light-hearted nothing. It's probably not something I'd go out of my way to watch, but it's not something I'd actively avoid either...
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So, uhh, I don't see what's wrong with Akikan. >.> You go into it expecting nothing, and you get a lot of light-hearted nothing. It's probably not something I'd go out of my way to watch, but it's not something I'd actively avoid either...
Concept is more vapid than most shows about light-hearted nothing I guess? Doesn't really faze me, Japan and all.
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So, uhh, I don't see what's wrong with Akikan. >.> You go into it expecting nothing, and you get a lot of light-hearted nothing. It's probably not something I'd go out of my way to watch, but it's not something I'd actively avoid either...
No. You go in expecting nothing, and what you get is LESS than nothing. You get sub-nothing. Akikan is a black hole that sucks everything that is good and right out of this world and leaves everything a barren wasteland of stupidity.
That said... can someone tell me why I enjoyed Sora no Otoshimono so much? I should hate it as much as Akikan, but I don't. In fact, I rather enjoyed it despite myself. WHY?
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Probably the same reason I don't hate Akikan, I guess?
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Probably the same reason I don't hate Akikan, I guess?
Maybe, not sure. Sora no Otoshimono was less mind-numbing stupidity and more derivitive and mildly offensive.
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If you want to know what is wrong with Akikan, try having sex with a can of soft drink.
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...Brilliant. I was looking for a new sig.
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Infinite Ryvius -
Generally great. And the lesson learned was that all groups of people in space require mandatory sessions with mandatorialy resident psychiatrists.
Final episode was disappointing; too upbeat next to the episodes previous, and they resolve a subplot by having an inordinate amount of characters happily return to the Ryvius after what happened there.
Neya has Lacus Clyne's voice and speaks obtusely; it is like they were going out of their way to make the most annoying character ever. What she says theoretically makes sense if you know why she's saying it, but even then half of it doesn't.
Faina murders at least one person and orders the death of at least one other but never gets called on this or punished for it as far as the series shows. What. Furthermore, considering that they can tell that someone died in the attack from the Dicastia, why didn't they find out about that girl's death at all? We don't even know it happened until Faina flashes back to doing it in the first place. May be due to the ID card being destroyed for Dicastia's attack, but you'd think they would have noticed the ID not being used and so on.
They don't end up going anywhere with Kouji's original shoulder wound, really. And that was being kind of built up.
Can't decide whether I should change to a Lucson avatar or not.
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Finished ZSZS/trip inside Snow's mind. Completely insane, most definitely unhealthy, but consistently entertaining.
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I wish I could consistently come up with something half as insane as Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.
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Infinite Ryvius -
Generally great. And the lesson learned was that all groups of people in space require mandatory sessions with mandatorialy resident psychiatrists.
Final episode was disappointing; too upbeat next to the episodes previous, and they resolve a subplot by having an inordinate amount of characters happily return to the Ryvius after what happened there.
Neya has Lacus Clyne's voice and speaks obtusely; it is like they were going out of their way to make the most annoying character ever. What she says theoretically makes sense if you know why she's saying it, but even then half of it doesn't.
Faina murders at least one person and orders the death of at least one other but never gets called on this or punished for it as far as the series shows. What. Furthermore, considering that they can tell that someone died in the attack from the Dicastia, why didn't they find out about that girl's death at all? We don't even know it happened until Faina flashes back to doing it in the first place. May be due to the ID card being destroyed for Dicastia's attack, but you'd think they would have noticed the ID not being used and so on.
They don't end up going anywhere with Kouji's original shoulder wound, really. And that was being kind of built up.
Can't decide whether I should change to a Lucson avatar or not.
Neya is not a character, she strikes me as more of a visual art piece thrown into the series to give us random breaks from the action.
I was also a little disappointed by Faina's fate (or lack thereof), but found her to be a fun character anyway. Feels like the inspiration for Flay from GS.
Kouji... ugh. I can never decide if I like him or not, but overall I appreciate how his existence affects the main character, so I don't care if they resolve Kouji's issues or not.
Lucson avatar is awesome and win. DO IT~
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Tenjou Tenge. Nice show, kinda cobbled together, story developed with a good eye for the long run but no sense of pacing whatsoever, alas. Now, I like that the big bad guy, for once, decides to squash our hero at the outset before he becomes a threat as opposed to leaving his fate in the hands of gradually more competent henchmen, that's cool, but you just can't have over half your series be a flashback, even a good one. Anyway, series doesn't conclude anything whatsoever. Just...stops. Alas. Working my way through the (strikingly more salacious) manga now.
Gotta give the series major props for one thing, that's for sure: our hero starts out with spiky yellow hair and when he powers up it gets straight and black. Awesome. (also, at one point he calls the big bad guy Dio. gotta love that.)
Other stuff:
Kimi ni Todoke - could be worthwhile. I vaguely can't stand the main character, but room for growth is not a bad thing.
The Sacred Blacksmith - will probably not be worthwhile at all but for some reason I watched the whole first episode anyway. Oh Japan, why are even breastplates revealing now? Also, the short elf chick has a K-ON! face (minus the mumps). That particular visual nuance sure caught on quick.
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Oh Great! does good work. His art is impressive even if he's the uberKing of fanservice. After a certain point of Air Gear though he seemed to have developed a brain tumor and all the severe awesomeness he'd built up just went to shit.
Might as well run through my seasonal impressions...
Kimi ni Todoke was alright. I might stick with it. Haven't watched a melodrama in a while.
To Aru no Kakagu no Railgun- First ep was good, second ep... wasn't. For all I can hold against Index, it didn't have eps that were complete filler. Bah.
Nyan Koi- Awesome. KITTIES~ Nothing more needs to be said.
Sacred Blacksmith- Alright. The last 5 minutes were enough to get me to watch ep 2.
Sora no Otoshimono- Again, not sure WHY I like this show. Gotta hand it to one though that when a guy gets the ability to do ANYTHING, it's sure bluntly honest. Turns invisible to watch girls change, asks hot female genie to strip nekkid, asks to stop time so he can streak through the entire town in a hedonistic nekkid spree. Asks to be in charge of the world too, but that backfires in an amusing, twilight zone-y way. Just... lots of energy, and despite the cringe-worthy premise and mildly offensive way it goes about it... I laughed.
Darker than Black 2- NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! APRIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Otherwise, awesome as usual.
Seitokai no Ichizon- Feh. Probably will drop.
Kobato and 11eyes are also downloaded... will probably watch the former, might just get apathetic to the latter.
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I want to ask, did the library show came out?? If yes, anyone watch it?
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Yes. Not watching it for whatever reason.
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Kimi ni Todoke is a keeper. So cute. The story of a shy girl overcoming her shyness, and a really nice guy trying to court her (?) is, I dunno, rather charming.
Dropped all other shows already. Yumeiro Pattisiere is about a little girl that wants to make cakes to spread happiness and love.
I'm... what.
DtB2 downloaded but not viewed. I dunno why.
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Needless- Up to episode 15. Have to say, I haven't had this much fun with a shounen in a while. I want to say it's like Scryed if you replaced the MANLINESS with fanservice. It's not a particularly GOOD show, but it's entertaining and hilarious. I don't think I've ever seen a show as over-the-top in all aspects and yet, it works. They even manage to make it's creepy fanservice utterly hilarious. The show is very self-aware and parodical, but... that doesn't quite explain why they continually go as far as they do. At least the women are as powerful as the men! And people die! A lot! Lots of blood and interesting powers, plus interesting uses of said powers. If you need some good ol' stupid shounen fun, seriously check this series out.
Saying it now, the first ED is an infinite failure loop. Warning: Once you see it, you cannot unsee it.
EDIT:
Caught the first episode of Trapeze. Fucking awesome. Watch it, bitches. Best visual style since Gankutsuou.
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So I went to a Japanese theater recently just looking to waste some time with a mindless action flick when I discovered that not only was Tales of Vesperia First Strike a movie, but that it was playing RIGHT NOW. So of course, I snagged my nearest otaku friend and went for it, despite my fail Japanese skills. Since this is just recently aired in Japan, I figure it'll be a while before anyone gets a lot of detailed information, so hopefully someone enjoys this writeup.
Basics: The movie is a 2-hour prequel to the game, featuring Yuri and Flynn during their days together as Imperial guards. The movie revolves around their brigade, led by Commander Federock(-taichou), a grizzled old soldier with a strong sense of duty and a heart of gold. We're also introduced to a pair of enlisted twins who often work alongside Yuri and Flynn. Hisuka and Justel (just guessing on this name, it was slurred so badly I could never figure out what it was supposed to be) are primarily mages who are stuck backing up Flynn and Yuri (and often cleaning up Yuri's messes). Apparently the only way to tell them apart is by their bust size, and they call discrimination every time one of their commanding officers calls attention to this. Another mage, Alistair, a silver-haired pretty boy, appears in the film and acts as an advisor to the brigade and is a close friend of Federock's.
We get to see some of Repede's origins as well, as this particular brigade makes extensive use of their canine units. The dogs (all the same breed as Repede) are employed several times throughout the film. The prominently-featured dog Lambert is Commander Federock's partner and Repede's father.
Rita, Estelle, Alexei, and Raven also get bit parts in the movie, but the action is mostly focused on Yuri, Flynn, and Federock.
Synopsis: The movie opens with Estelle, in her room in the palace, reading a book detailing all the background information about the gameworld and Aer.
Then we cut to some action. In the woods outside the imperial city, we see Flynn and one of the twins rushing through the trees, pursued by wolves. In another part of the same forest, Yuri is paired with the other twin, holding off the monsters as she sets some blastia in place. Federock's brigade is apparently in the middle of a mission to set up the blastia devices in this area. The twins finish up setting the devices as Yuri and Flynn team up to hold off some gigantic boar monster as the rest of the brigade converges on their position. Federock makes his appearance from a cliff to call them back just in time for the twins to throw up a Force Field spell around the brigade as Federock activates the blastia his brigade has been setting up. We're treated to a spectacle as the device creates a giant Arte that apparently purges the forest of all the mutated monsters. Luckily, our heroes were safe behind their Force Field, much to Flynn and Yuri's relief ('Can I open my eyes now?').
Back in the imperial city, we're treated to some exposition where we learn that Yuri and Flynn are quartered in the same room, and predictably, Yuri's side is messy while Flynn's is immaculate. Flynn apparently disapproves of Yuri's habit of not drying off after a shower and getting the room all wet. (Wow, Namco, you're laying it on a little thick.)
More exposition as Federock goes to see his friend and advisor, Alistair, who presumably created the blastia used in the previous night's mission to make the woods safe again. As expected, it seems that there have been an Increase in Monsters Lately, and Alistair suspects it has something to do with the Aer and suggests to Federock to investigate further.
Yuri, Flynn, and the twins go on guard duty, where they talk about their comrades, their dogs, the latest mission, Artes, and we learn that Yuri and Flynn really look up to the Commander like a father. Throughout the patrol, a puppy-aged Repede (complete with a stick instead of a pipe) follows Yuri around like... well, a puppy. Yuri tries to get him to return, but with little success. Federock passes by with his dog Lambert and Yuri eventually asks him to take Repede back to the barracks with him. Lambert picks him up by the scruff as Federock leaves to investigate the stagnant Aer in the nearby woods. Yuri asks Justel (?) to show him how to use blastia, which she tries to show off, but ends up with a really weak fireball. Apparently she's only a novice. But Hisuka comes over to help her cast the spell and together they get a satisfying blast in the sky over the city. As Federock returns, he notices this and chastises them for fooling around with magic on duty. Oops.
After guard duty, the four friends head off to the barracks, but Hisuka wants to stop by a tavern and get something to eat. Flynn declines, apparently not interested in eating at a tavern with a certain person around. Yuri is offended, and the twins strong-arm him into coming along. Inside, Yuri hears some of the lowlifes talking, so he loudly badmouths them in general. Predictably, a bar brawl ensues, with Yuri single-handedly taking out the horde of angry patrons. Flynn (and Raven) sits at the bar trying to ignore them. ('This always happens.') Until one of the patrons makes the mistake of sucker-punching Flynn for the crime of being associated with Yuri. The Flynn loses it and beats the crap out of the remaining fighters, even to Yuri's surprise. Finally, a large man steps in and tells the others to cut it out. The brawlers are cowed into stopping, and the large man approaches Yuri and tells him he has 'good eyes'. Yuri cops some more attitude and the large man is amused. He introduces himself as a Guild leader (didn't catch his name - could be Don Whitehead) and asks Yuri to chat with him. He offers Yuri a position in the Guild and Yuri expresses some interest in it, but his friends drag him off before anything else happens. Back in the barracks, the twins treat Yuri and Flynn's injuries (they use magic for Flynn, but make Yuri suffer with normal first-aid 'How come HE gets blastia treatment?'). There's some heavy discussion about Yuri considering the Guild leader's offer, and Flynn is upset (apparently he feels abandoned? We're soon treated to a flashback showing how Flynn's father died in the line of service as a knight, leaving Flynn and his mother to fend for themselves).
The next day Federock and Hisuka go out to question the famous blastia scientist Mordio at Alistair's suggestion. The Aer has been getting worse, so they're hoping to find some solution. They use their (poorly-drawn) map to find their way to Mordio's house (after getting lost a few times). They knock on the door, but decide to go in when there's no answer. Inside the messy scientist's cabin, they are treated to a sleepy 'Die, thieves!' and a fireball, where only Hisuka's quick Force Field spell saves them (though the cabin's front door isn't so lucky). Federock and Hisuka approach the sleeping figure and are surprised to find a kid. They explain themselves to the sleepy Rita Mordio and convince her to help them by bribing her with a shiny blastia. She explains that whatever's going wrong with the Aer Krene, it probably has something to do with a broken blastia and that if they find the source, they can fix the problem. She gives them some blastia programs to help purify the Aer. Federock gives her the shiny blastia much to Rita's delight as she hugs the item like a teddy bear and flops back on her bed to finish her nap.
Back at the imperial city, Yuri notices that some travelers are being attacked outside the barrier blastia. He rushes out there to help the other soldiers fend off the wolf monsters and a strange sickly-red slime monster that they've never seen before. ('Could this be related to the Aer?!') Yuri and Flynn hold off the wolves and manage to deter the slimy tentacle thing long enough to save a little girl like some big damn heroes. Once the people are safe, the canine brigade rushes out to chase the retreating monsters. Worried, the human soldiers follow after them into the woods. In pursuit, one of the soldiers is suddenly attacked and pulled away at incredible speed before his screams are muffled by a spray of blood. The soldiers hurry, trying to find the canine unit, but another soldier is attacked. He is saved at the last moment by the large Guild leader from the tavern. He and some Guild members have come along to help. Yuri suddenly notices the shadow of a dog in the distance and calls out to Lambert (the lead dog). The Guild leader stops Yuri before he can get closer though, and suddenly the dog attacks, rushing forward at impossible speed. Yuri defends and it becomes clear that the canine unit is beyond rescue as the slimy tentacle thing has merged itself with the dogs, their heads and forelegs protruding from its slimy red mass and dripping blood and drooling madly. One of the soldiers tries to cast magic at the monstrosity, but his blastia malfunctions and quickly pulls it off his arm and tosses it before it explodes. The sound prompts another attack and Guild member is pulled into the air in front of Justel (?) before a shower of blood is rained down on her, causing her to freak out. To save her, Yuri finally snaps out of his own shock and cuts the beast in half, anguished over being unable to save his commander's faithful dog.
Federock and Hisuka return to find what damage has been done. Justel (?) is in shock, and Lambert is dead. Yuri is out in the stables taking care of Repede, feeling guilty over having killed the puppy's father. Federock tells him to forgive himself.
Flynn meanwhile has been summoned to the palace (I assume to report on the monster situation). He meets with Alexei, who denies whatever request for help he had, and one of Alexei's underlings makes some snide comments about Flynn's father. While there, Flynn gets to see Estelle, who is excited to meet with him. They talk briefly and she's curious about his adventures and friends, but her attendants lead her away before long, Estelle looking sad. Flynn meets with Alistair, who advises him not to be so complacent and always follows rules so strictly - after all, that's what happened to his father, and even Commander Federock. Flynn asks Federock about this, and the commander explains how he was unable to protect his wife and daughter a long time ago, showing Flynn a photograph. Flynn resolves to protect what's important to him.
Before long, the brigade stages a mission with their limited resources to fix the Aer Krene. With Rita's information, they are able to locate the source in a ruined castle not far from the imperial city. The corrupted Aer around the castle makes using blastia impossible, much to Federock's troops' displeasure. But Federock gives them the Aer purifiers from Rita, allowing them to use the blastia for a short amount of time. The soldiers fight their way to castle, taking out more of the red-slime Aer monsters that seem capable of fusing with different creatures and even water and stone. The large Guild leader arrives to save the day again, apparently having been tipped off by Raven. He and the Guild members hold off the monsters as Yuri and the others hurry on to the center of the castle. After taking out a giant rock golem Aer creature in an awesome fight sequence, they discover the giant pulsating machine spewing out corrupted Aer. Federock activates a strange device from Rita, which halts the flow of Aer into the machine. Of course, once stopped, the entire castle begins to shake and our heroes run for the exit, but small explosion knocks one of the twins unconscious and Federock runs to grab her. As they retreat, Flynn notices a strange blastia embedded into the floor and suddenly the floor collapses behind him where Federock is. Federock tosses the girl to Yuri, telling them to hurry and escape. Yuri refuses, but Federock tosses him his bohdi blastia and tells Flynn to take care of the brigade. They manage to escape as the castle seethes with corrupted Aer and eventally collapses in another gross spectacle.
The brigade members mourn the loss of their Commander and the twins are particularly distraught. Yuri tells them that the Commander looked particularly cool when he saved them. On the day of the funeral, Alexei's underling makes a snide comment to Yuri and Flynn about Federock's ineptitude - being unable to advance in the ranks, being unable to save his family, and finally winding up dead; if he was smart, he'd stay away from all that action personally; Flynn would do well not to make the same mistakes. Yuri punches the guy hard, and when he complains to the other soldiers, they ignore him and carry Federock's ceremonial coffin out to the funeral procession. As the funeral ends, Flynn notices an strange blastia on Alistair's wrist that reminds him of the blastia in the castle floor. Remembering Alistair's words about Federock being an incapable commander, Flynn pieces things together. He tells Yuri that it's not over yet and they agree to confront Alistair.
The two of them quickly make their way to Alistair's office-library and demand an explanation, showing him the matching blastia from the castle as proof. Alistair admits to having set up the Commander while he was experimenting (?) with the blastia in the Aer Krene. Yuri and Flynn attack, but Alistair is a very skilled mage and holds them both at bay with little trouble. A short fight ensues, with Alistair manipulating rubble and fallen books to nearly bury both of them alive before Flynn manages to buy Yuri enough time to put on Federock's bohdi blastia. Flynn and Yuri team up to use the blastia similarly to how Hisuka and Justel demostrated earlier, which blindsides Alistair before Yuri rushes in and skewers him.
A short time later, we see Flynn walk into his quarters, with Yuri's half of the room now vacant. Outside, we see Yuri waving to his former comrades, now dressed in his clothes from the game. He begins to leave for the lower quarter, Repede in tow, and is stopped by Flynn. The two of them share a brief goodbye ('I'm worried what kind of trouble you'll get into out there alone.' 'How insulting, I won't be alone, I have Repede.') and the film ends, playing the ToV theme song from the game.
Thoughts:
Well, the movie is gorgeous. There's no problems there, it was a joy to watch. Colorful, crisp, and the character designs are nice. I really like how the Imperial Knights' clothes look. The animation looks like it was made by the same studio that does all the Tales' openings and it's definitely a step above the Tales of the Abyss anime. The spell effects and battle sequences were particularly impressive.
Storywise, despite the wall of text above, it's really easy to ignore the story. This is for the best as story just isn't Tales' strong point. Instead, there's a much heavier focus on character interaction and trying to humanize all the events going on. It's nice to see that Namco is at least able to play to its strengths. It does a good job setting things up for the game while not being completely boring as a stand-alone story. Probably the best one can hope for from a Tales movie.
I was really impressed with the attention to little details in the movie. Characters were never completely static on-screen, even during some of the longer conversation sequences. We get close-ups of the workings of the more intricate weapons like the magic crossbows, and more importantly, the many forms that blastia takes in the series.
Musically, the film was a bit lacking. While it made good use of music in action sequences, there was simply too much silence overall.
Personally, I was really pleased with the movie as it served its purpose as an action-fest with a lot of emphasis on the characters and it never forgets that its primary audience came to see this movie because it loved the game. Not bad for the first Tales movie to make it to the big screen. Needs more Judith though.
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Wow that A) exists and B) is getting shown on the big screen (Publicity stunt to tie in to relatively newly released ToV on PS3?).
Sadly, sounds like most Tales Anime and kind of ignores the cannon for HEY GUYS CAMEO REMEMBER YOU PLAYED THIS GAME. Such is life. And... in spite of a few points of me head desking ToV plot isn't holding up to bad so far, but I hear it goes to shit in the last portion of the game.
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ToV plot isn't holding up to bad so far, but I hear it goes to shit in the last portion of the game.
So..it's a Tales game?
(I mean, even ToS is comparatively good in the beginning. kinda.)
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Nah, ToS is kind of an exception there and it is still retarded. This is Jesus. This is Jesus school friends. They are elves. They are the only two elves on the planet. They fight crime.
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Wow that A) exists and B) is getting shown on the big screen (Publicity stunt to tie in to relatively newly released ToV on PS3?).
Sadly, sounds like most Tales Anime and kind of ignores the cannon for HEY GUYS CAMEO REMEMBER YOU PLAYED THIS GAME. Such is life. And... in spite of a few points of me head desking ToV plot isn't holding up to bad so far, but I hear it goes to shit in the last portion of the game.
Oh, it definitely had its fanservice-y moments (zOMG, ALEXEI! ESTELLE! They have nothing to do with this, but here they are!). But apart from that, it was pretty solid, if overly standard, fare for adventure movie. It also doesn't ignore cannon at all... From what I could tell, there weren't even any plotholes...
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Stuff like how this was the first time out of the Barrier for both of them when Yuri and Estelle flee the capital city, Don Whitehorse even BEING in the capital city. Yuri meeting Don Whitehorse for the first time before the adventure (He uh had no idea who he was before you get to Dharngrest). Yuri wanting to join a guild before until say Capua Nor killing off the first quarter of the game's character development for Yuri?
This all stuff you can tell just from your synopsis. I am sure the story holds up well enough in the film to get buy (Fuck it has to be better than Tales of Eternia one without trying), but this sounds way more Advent Children than say .hack series. Supplementary fanservicey fluff that is kind of entertaining, not part of a larger whole making up a multiple medium story.
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Stuff like how this was the first time out of the Barrier for both of them when Yuri and Estelle flee the capital city, Don Whitehorse even BEING in the capital city. Yuri meeting Don Whitehorse for the first time before the adventure (He uh had no idea who he was before you get to Dharngrest). Yuri wanting to join a guild before until say Capua Nor killing off the first quarter of the game's character development for Yuri?
This all stuff you can tell just from your synopsis. I am sure the story holds up well enough in the film to get buy (Fuck it has to be better than Tales of Eternia one without trying), but this sounds way more Advent Children than say .hack series. Supplementary fanservicey fluff that is kind of entertaining, not part of a larger whole making up a multiple medium story.
I'm not sure if the Guild leader -is- Don Whitehorse, I thought I mentioned this? In fact, now that you mention it, it's more than likely not.
And I'm pretty sure Yuri said something to the effect of 'This is the first time I've been this far outside of the Barrier'. In the film, they never go further than the woods around the imperial city.
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Still, the deciding to join a guild and do his own thing is a huge thing for the first arc of the game for Yuri, to have it be thrown out there while he is still in the knights let alone before then is pretty yuck. Also any time prior to the game is right on the tail end of a long period of high strung tension between the guilds and the Empire, it is noted early in the game that guild members aren't allowed into the city, let alone a guild leader even if it is not the Don. Edit - Though just checking the map the shop in Zaphias appears to be a Fortune's Market anyway, so bah.
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Needless- Up to episode 15.
Oh, you. Needless. The first ED made no fucking sense at all. Loved the first OP actually, was a neat song. Also didn't really fit, since it portrayed Cruz/Yamada as badarse, which he is... not quite.
I'm afraid he'll never be an icon of manliness either.
THere's some fanart around of a crossover with Gurren Lagann. Scary how that works out.
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Still, the deciding to join a guild and do his own thing is a huge thing for the first arc of the game for Yuri, to have it be thrown out there while he is still in the knights let alone before then is pretty yuck. Also any time prior to the game is right on the tail end of a long period of high strung tension between the guilds and the Empire, it is noted early in the game that guild members aren't allowed into the city, let alone a guild leader even if it is not the Don. Edit - Though just checking the map the shop in Zaphias appears to be a Fortune's Market anyway, so bah.
Honestly, these are pretty minor issues to call 'plothole' on. It seems more like the writers were trying to show that these issues -did- exist before the game starts and they are introducing them a bit. If anything seems contradictory, it's probably more from my shoddy translation abilities than any mistakes the creators made. Also, I think you're really exaggerating the tensions between the Empire and the Guilds. I mean... who else is the Empire even going to do business with? They don't like eachother, but there was always some measure of tolerance.
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Germany and England were trading right up until sanctions were passed to stop it and the war started. Trade and lead up to war still go hand in hand (as you can see in a sidequest in game, Trade can be a REASON for said war, with Fortune's Market getting pretty pissy with the empire over blockading Nordipolica). I am not calling plot hole, I am just saying that none of this needed to be there, it isn't bringing anything new to the story, it isn't expanding it. It is a stagepiece for some dudes to get punched in the face by characters we have already seen.
There is no need to show Yuri being tempted (Almost joining?) a guild while he is in the Knights when you start off the game where the first things established about his character is that he grew up with a dream of being a knight and has already thrown that away and is troubled with no real sense of direction anymore. Cause you see him GETTING that direction in the first arc, that is its whole point other than run around aimlessly hoping to run into Flynn.
Again, doesn't really mean the movie is good or bad because of it.
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Needless- Up to episode 15.
Oh, you. Needless. The first ED made no fucking sense at all. Loved the first OP actually, was a neat song. Also didn't really fit, since it portrayed Cruz/Yamada as badarse, which he is... not quite.
I'm afraid he'll never be an icon of manliness either.
THere's some fanart around of a crossover with Gurren Lagann. Scary how that works out.
The first OP is awesome. The song works as a song and as a parody of standard shounen OPs. Hard rock that morphs into j-pop at the drop of a hat for NO REASON WHATSOEVER, along with the subsequent tone change in the animation. I'm still counting the amount of times that the ED wraps from stupid to awesome and back to stupid because it's just so batshit crazy.
The second ED's song has been stuck in my head for no discernable reason as well.
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Youtubed the Needless OP/ED. OP is cool, ED is... zOMG Yuri fanservice! Kinda hot, too bad about the whole underage thing.
For more yuri fanservice, I was directed to the opening for Maria Holic. It's called "Nosebleed", since apparently the protagonist is a horny lesbian who can't hold it in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOHwVZc6QYY
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The NeedLess ED is burned into my brain since a youtube video I have saved has an ED pic as the author pic.
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Yep. Once you see it, you can't unsee it.
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You watched it, you can't unwatch it is the line.
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Kimi ni Todoke - 3; d'awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
Most heartwarming stuff I've seen in a while, but sadly not all can just be heartwarming so BOSS FIGHT appears.
Needless - 16; disappointing. :( manga had it much cooler.
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Kimi ni Todoke is good stuff, yes. I can't get over how much Kazehaya looks like Koyuki from Beck though. It's more than a passing resemblence.
I also had major Simpsons flashbacks in the note passing scene. "Guess who likes you?"
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Gurren Lagann v4 -
Generally uninspiring set of episodes. Especially the recap episode. Also Nia was getting to be a more tolerable character but then they went and ruined her again. Tad annoyed because I'm sure I've seen the current Rassiu/Simon plot somewhere before, undoubtedly numerous places, but I can't think of any examples of it. Ah well.
Gundam 0083 -
Legit copy came in so I rewatched it to partially legitimise my purchase of it, as if paying to support releasage of UC Gundam isn't legitimisation enough. As it turns out I had actually embellished it in my mind so it was kind of a letdown. Still good.
Starship Operators -
A mixed bag. The concept seems great, but it feels like they don't do anywhere near enough with it; but that being said, I can't say that it wasn't utilised enough in the show. I am choosing to take this as meaning that the show wasn't long enough.
The opening episodes aren't particularly inspiring, enough that I was not particularly looking forward to the watching in general. There are some particularly annoying sections where it jumps forward a considerable amount of time and gives no indication of this until they start speaking about already having done something that they were just planning on doing that rile me up a bit. Fortunately it picks up as it goes.
The battle in Episode 11 is brilliant, and I love the ending, although the cargo ship kind of ruins the mood. I am however choosing to ignore some glaring inconsistencies here such as the Dragonfly's captain trusting the word of the TV broadcast over his own sensor operator.
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I really liked Starship Operators. Particularly it's adherance to at least some of the laws of physics and tactics. The base premise is almost laughable, but they just do so much with it that I found myself really into it despite myself. And yes, Ep 11 is awesome.
Trapeze- Surreal, awesome, more people need to watch this. In the running for the best show of the season depending on how Darker than Black 2 turns out.
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0083 is pretty easy to mentally embellish because OOO SHINY DENDROBIUM. Then you pay a little more attention to the characters and... they aren't totally awful, but it's not a Gundam I'd watch for the characters.
Speaking of which, I'm probably gonna order 0080 some time in the next week, then probably go for Patlabor tv series some time.
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Woo! Patlabor!
It's not really mecha if thats what you're looking at it for though, Ultra. It's more a sitcom with mecha in it. Good ol' Mamoru Oshii.
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Gurren Lagann v4 -
Generally uninspiring set of episodes. Especially the recap episode. Also Nia was getting to be a more tolerable character but then they went and ruined her again. Tad annoyed because I'm sure I've seen the current Rassiu/Simon plot somewhere before, undoubtedly numerous places, but I can't think of any examples of it. Ah well.
Gurren v4? Do I even want to ask?
Reminded me I need to download the Gurren movie, and maybe watch the last seven episodes.
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Twil is watching Gurren Lagann legitly, and it is apparently being released one disc at a time in Aussieland.
If it's the same as the US discs in content, Disc 4 is episodes 15, 16, 17, and 18.
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Ah, like that. Was already curious.
If anything, I'd rather watch official English releases than fansubs, though. Maybe I should wait for it to hit the stores here and get it that way.
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Well... there were two releases of Gurren Lagann. A sub-only version, and a dual track version about 6 months later. The first was more common and, I suspect, the version Twil is watching.
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Things generally hit us here later. I watched the Simon's Speech dub on YouTube, and I can earnestly say that the dub isn't bad. Hotbloodedness doesn't translate well to English but the voices sound generally solid.
Of course, Simon's speech still doesn't make sense, but I don't think it's supposed to.
Kamina makes me go :'( a little, but hey. It's hard to get a copy of that bloke.
Dual track also has the subs?
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Things generally hit us here later. I watched the Simon's Speech dub on YouTube, and I can earnestly say that the dub isn't bad. Hotbloodedness doesn't translate well to English but the voices sound generally solid.
Of course, Simon's speech still doesn't make sense, but I don't think it's supposed to.
Kamina makes me go :'( a little, but hey. It's hard to get a copy of that bloke.
Dual track also has the subs?
Originally when ADV had it, Brett Weaver was supposed to play Kamina. He also did Gai Daigogi, so he reallly knows how to do hotblooded. Unfortunately, he was not kept on when Bandai got it ;-;
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Things generally hit us here later. I watched the Simon's Speech dub on YouTube, and I can earnestly say that the dub isn't bad. Hotbloodedness doesn't translate well to English but the voices sound generally solid.
Of course, Simon's speech still doesn't make sense, but I don't think it's supposed to.
Kamina makes me go :'( a little, but hey. It's hard to get a copy of that bloke.
Dual track also has the subs?
Originally when ADV had it, Brett Weaver was supposed to play Kamina. He also did Gai Daigogi, so he reallly knows how to do hotblooded. Unfortunately, he was not kept on when Bandai got it ;-;
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat. Oh man, him as Kamina and I'd be on that DUB SO FIERCELY THAT THE JAPANESE VERSION WOULD BE SENT TO OBLIVION.
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I heard Bandai wanted to keep him, but they couldn't reach an agreement on pay since he would need to come from Texas to LA to dub it.
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Woo! Patlabor!
It's not really mecha if thats what you're looking at it for though, Ultra. It's more a sitcom with mecha in it. Good ol' Mamoru Oshii.
The main character's pretty much a parody of mecha otaku, and I've seen the movies already as well as the first volume of New Files, which is kind of the sequel to the tv series.
And yeah, I can't buy JUST action heavy stuff and Gundam and the like. I am a balanced fan dammit >_<
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You should try out Voltron. It has lots going for it that is not action sequences. You get to play "Spot the horrible editing" and "Man we should totally go buy some acid and watch this shit". Voltron rules.
Edit - Speed Racer works better for it though to be honest.
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You should try out Voltron. It has lots going for it that is not action sequences. You get to play "Spot the horrible editing" and "Man we should totally go buy some acid and watch this shit". Voltron rules.
Edit - Speed Racer works better for it though to be honest.
If I was into drugs I would probably do that thing with the acid.
As it stands, I just watched first three episodes of Shin Mazinger. First episode was borderline incomprehensible AND as far as I know totally unnecessary to understanding the rest of the show - but still pretty rad, if only because it was just RANDOM ASS KICKING. All three episodes, of course, consist primarily of people running around trying to be more badass than each other. Baron Ashura in particular got an... upgrade from the Ashura I know.
Plot is mostly just fluff to get more smashing shit happening, which is fine because this is Mazinger not Evangelion or something.
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Well if you are as into fucked up shit Speed Racer doesn't really need the drugs. Speed Racer is like its own LSD.
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Well if you are as into fucked up shit Speed Racer doesn't really need the drugs. Speed Racer is like its own LSD.
This is probably true.
Someone should put money into this.
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Best part is the box set costs like $20. Speed Racer is a very cheap high.
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I still remember that one episode of Speed Racer with a gigantic semi-truck made out of stolen gold.
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So reading a manga. Ane Doki. Um.
I'm not sure. Japan confuses me. Basically a 17-year-old girl intrudes on a 13-year-old boy's home, starts living there and take over household chores since his father ran off to another city for work.
Seems like a lot of Japanese culture stuff I don't get. In the first few pages the boy's eating ice cream, then the girl sees him and asks for some ice cream. He's all ZOAMG! INDIRECT KISSU DA. And I'm all "What's the big deal?"
Oh well.
Watched Kimi ni Todoke 4 too. Q_Q Happiness gone.
YouTubing Mahoujin GuruGuru on the side. Hilarious parody of DragonQuest.
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You might be confusing the fact that romantic anime/manga characters have significantly less common sense than the legally insane with actual Japanese customs. On the other hand, by all accounts, the Japanese seem to have significantly less common sense than the legally insane anyway.
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True, but it happens more often now that I think on it. I just am curious why anime/manga characters need to make such a big deal out of sharing an ice cream or whatever. If that's an "indirect kiss", I've indirectly kissed a lot of people.
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That's because anime characters in cliche romantic situations have the contractual obligation of being clinically retarded when the writing sucks. Which is basically all the time.
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YouTubing Mahoujin GuruGuru on the side. Hilarious parody of DragonQuest.
Yay! I love the narration in that show. Good stuff.
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YouTubing Mahoujin GuruGuru on the side. Hilarious parody of DragonQuest.
Yay! I love the narration in that show. Good stuff.
HERO WAS CONFUSED.
NO ONE CARED ABOUT THE OLD MAN.
I lol'd heartily. Up to episode 13 now.
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First four episodes of Shin Mazinger. Crazy shit. I... guess I'll get what the first episode is later, since it's basically the end of the show? Pacing is surprisingly slow aside from that, seeing as how they're still dealing with the first mechanical beast, though it should pick up later. Baron Ashura and Juuzou Kabuto are both way more badass than I expected. Plenty of other good guy robots already too - Sayaka and Boss are certainly different here, and it's pretty cool stuff. Of course, the mechanical designs are the same wacky Nagai creations we know and love(?), so we've got a robot piloted by sexy twins... who each sit in one of the robot's giant metal breasts. Lovely.
Seems that this'll have a lot more non-giant-robot action too, and I know they used a lot of Violence Jack characters so now I need to find that too.
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*Niu sees sexy old man on the manga cover
*Niu takes a peek
*Niu's eye widens
*Niu checks on the author yet again
.....Nishi Keiko??? Impossible! When did she got this good? How did this thing not get sappy (like most of her works), short of constructing it upon layers of tskomi.
Yeah, I am following this now.
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Ninja Scroll (Movie) -
Was listed as similar to Basilisk which I found considerably enjoyable so. Outside of Kagero, the similarity mostly ends with 'there are ninjas and they all have bizarre powers' (and Kagero is really effectively just that, except the two of them have roughly the same power and vaguely similar goals in life). It's a nice film, it just wasn't strictly everything I was hoping for. Given the limited time however I'm not sure that was a realistic ideal anyway.
I intend to watch the series at some point, but it may take a while to get to it. Trailer makes it look a fair departure from the tone of the movie anyway.
El Hazard TMW -
Magnificent. Highly entertaining. Katsuhiko is delightfully insane.
That said it does ride on its humour a bit overmuch, and when they try to include some touching moments such as the ending they're generally not very effective. Which is a shame as it by all rights should have been leaving aside the fact that he is in love with a robot and I can't actually pinpoint why it doesn't work as well as it might.
Diva effectively disappears from the show halfway in which is a tad bemusing.
El Hazard TMW 2 -
Not so magnificent. Still good, but there's less of Katsuhiko being insane. Also inferior designs for some characters. Also the plot is less worthwhile. I will grant that I completely didn't expect the Kalia situation to be resolved the way it was.
Fatora and Aleile disappear halfway into the show just to set up a lame joke at the end, and Diva disappears AGAIN albiet this time vaguely justified by her being ordered to stock up their new fortress with a large amount of warriors, which considering what she is I find somewhat disturbing.
The extras make reference to El Hazard Wanderers and TAW, but the TMW collection appears to be the only thing available here with the others discontinued or worse. I am in a temporary state of despair.
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Jinnai rocks hardcore. THATS how you do megalomania properly! Did you watch the dub? He's even more hilarious in the dub. Honest.
Yeah, some of the touching moments fell flat, but I liked the ending.
The Alternative World is a sequel to the OVA that... is okay, has it's moments, while The Wanderers is a retelling of the OVA thats pretty different. Rune Venus is the main love interest, Ifurita is ditzy and has dark purple hair, among other things.
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Jinnai rocks hardcore. THATS how you do megalomania properly! Did you watch the dub? He's even more hilarious in the dub. Honest.
They even nail the laugh, to give you an idea. Also English Fujisawa is fantastic.
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when they try to include some touching moments such as the ending they're generally not very effective.
Aww, I think the ending is sweet.
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Jinnai rocks hardcore. THATS how you do megalomania properly! Did you watch the dub? He's even more hilarious in the dub. Honest.
Yes, I watched the dub.
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Mahoujin GuruGuru Episode 23:
Oh god, this anime is so cute. Nike is hilarious, Kukuri is cute, Gipple is uh, Nothingness Fairy is strangely amusing and the cast of villains is all shades of ridiculous. Jokes are pretty nice, and even making a gag reference to earlier episodes was amusing.
Favourite character beside the mains (Nike and Kukuri) is definitely Kita Kita Oyaji.
A++ anime. And there's a second season (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA49cmFw5p8). Just the OP already draws me in. Stupid dance++ = appeal+++++++
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Tenchi OVAs - Tenchi is kinda annoying, because it has great potential, sets up an expansive and entertaining cast...then runs out of time. Can't think of another show that does so much exposition it never gets around to a plot. Give it this: in Tenchi, when there are lasers and spaceships people flying around and alternate dimensions and awakened powers and such, it's actually pretty fun. Probably because the entire show is a testament to accepting strangeness at face value and not sweating the small stuff, like the sanctity of the timeline or the fate of the planet.
Also, props to a show which can seamlessly work in this piece of dialogue:
person 1: "what's going on?"
person 2: "none of your business!"
person 1: "I created the universe, so it kinda is."
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It also works better than most all harem shows because Tenchi is mostly a non-factor in the whole thing. While Tenchi is still pretty milquetoast, he's still leagues ahead of most harem mains and it's still not really about how great he is, but rather more of a contest Ayeka and Ryoko are having between themselves than anything else, which leads to great comedy and a significant reduction of that headdesking harem usually inspires.
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Hm, I think the difference between Tenchi and most well-meaning sops is that he's actually useful, being a carrot farmer.
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Tetsuichi- Picked up volume 5, Mayuri once again spends an entire volume subtlety preaching her humanism philosophy of sort. Not that I mind, I actually like the way she preaches, at the very least all the introspective are well written. And knowing Hiko didn't got kicked out of the plot is a nice thing to no. Have him reunite with Tetsu already, their excessive brotherly love is what motivated me to read thign thing in the first place.
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True, but it happens more often now that I think on it. I just am curious why anime/manga characters need to make such a big deal out of sharing an ice cream or whatever. If that's an "indirect kiss", I've indirectly kissed a lot of people.
Just so you know, even my -middle-schoolers- think this concept is stupid. No one in Japan cares about 'indirect kissing'. It's a hold-over manga gimmick from -at latest- the 80s.
The extras make reference to El Hazard Wanderers and TAW, but the TMW collection appears to be the only thing available here with the others discontinued or worse. I am in a temporary state of despair.
You are missing nothing. In fact, intentionally stop now and preserve your opinion of the series while you still can.
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You might be confusing the fact that romantic anime/manga characters have significantly less common sense than the legally insane with actual Japanese customs. On the other hand, by all accounts, the Japanese seem to have significantly less common sense than the legally insane anyway.
It's worth remembering that most anime is targetted at socially reclusive, mentally-stunted adults who are crazy enough to both purchase anime DVDs/merchandise at R2 prices and also to do things like burn all their expensive merchendise because it turns out that the female main character, a centuries old goddess, had a boyfriend at one point and MIGHT not be a virgin. (http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2008/11/15/cuckolded-otaku-desecrates-kannagi-over-virginity-issue/) Seriously, these guys are so pathetic that even 4chan make fun of them. They're also the only things keeping the largely hyper-niche anime industry alive, since nobody else will buy anime unless it's made by Ghibli or targetted at a strictly kid audience like Pokemon or Detective Conan.
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You might be confusing the fact that romantic anime/manga characters have significantly less common sense than the legally insane with actual Japanese customs. On the other hand, by all accounts, the Japanese seem to have significantly less common sense than the legally insane anyway.
It's worth remembering that most anime is targetted at socially reclusive, mentally-stunted adults who are crazy enough to both purchase anime DVDs/merchandise at R2 prices and also to do things like burn all their expensive merchendise because it turns out that the female main character, a centuries old goddess, had a boyfriend at one point and MIGHT not be a virgin. (http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2008/11/15/cuckolded-otaku-desecrates-kannagi-over-virginity-issue/) Seriously, these guys are so pathetic that even 4chan make fun of them. They're also the only things keeping the largely hyper-niche anime industry alive, since nobody else will buy anime unless it's made by Ghibli or targetted at a strictly kid audience like Pokemon or Detective Conan.
but... but... Satoshi Kon.
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It's helpful that some of that niche audience they cater to has standards, yes. Shows like Mushishi or Gankutsuou are clearly not speaking to the lowest common denominator.
If I'm not mistaken, there was an editorial decision in the '90s that mainstream shonen shows, your Bleaches and One Pieces and what have you, be formulated to be able to attract a female audience. That helps too.
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Seriously, these guys are so pathetic that even 4chan make fun of them.
Are we speaking '4chan actually deserves to make fun of them' here? Because 4chan makes fun of (such a weak term for what they do) everything ever.
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Seriously, these guys are so pathetic that even 4chan make fun of them.
Are we speaking '4chan actually deserves to make fun of them' here? Because 4chan makes fun of (such a weak term for what they do) everything ever.
I honestly think 4chan'd sympathise. They have all these OMG WAIFU things going on where, apparently, you pretend some character from an anime is your wife. ... Really, would it be so far fetched for them to actually also rage over some anime character not being a virgin? :(
Kimi ni Todoke goes down the path of shoujo drama. Not sure if want. I want sparkly bubbles, refreshing Kazehaya and an upward trend of happiness, darnit, not school bullies! :(
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di[e]ce- Picked up volume 4, nice to see the yaoiness continues to increase, which is duh. Though glad to see the author make the none stupid decision by letting Ruca replace Yuki and have Yuki joins Crucieta. Though, Ruca become much more of an uke is a painful trade off. The government higher up is aware of di[e]ce and using it as a gamble is a pretty unexpected twist too.
If I'm not mistaken, there was an editorial decision in the '90s that mainstream shonen shows, your Bleaches and One Pieces and what have you, be formulated to be able to attract a female audience. That helps too.
Hahaha Jump policies.
Jump heavily relies on poll, and fan girls have been invading and abuse the poll for years, and the results are more than obvious now days.
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The waifu stuff is pretty funny when you can tell that the anons posting about it are doing so with a sense of humor. This... usually devolves into yelling matches anyways because it's 4chan.
Hahaha Jump policies.
Jump heavily relies on poll, and fan girls have been invading and abuse the poll for years, and the results are more than obvious now days.
I think that last new SJ manga I started reading was Claymore? At least One Piece hasn't devolved into a series of convoluted shipping teases.
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Kimi ni Todoke goes down the path of shoujo drama. Not sure if want. I want sparkly bubbles, refreshing Kazehaya and an upward trend of happiness, darnit, not school bullies! :(
Do you not know how this genre works?<G>
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You've seen Fruits Basket, Kev. sometimes they change it around a bit.
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Kimi ni Todoke goes down the path of shoujo drama. Not sure if want. I want sparkly bubbles, refreshing Kazehaya and an upward trend of happiness, darnit, not school bullies! :(
Do you not know how this genre works?<G>
Lovely Complex kept itself together! Sure, there was drama, but there was HUMOUR and WHEE along the way. This anime started with heartwarming SPARKLES AND BUBBLES, then became a little funny WHILE endearing and heartwarming, and then goes ohgodmisunderstandingsandbullies.
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Do you not know how this genre works?<G>
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Kimi ni Todoke goes down the path of shoujo drama. Not sure if want. I want sparkly bubbles, refreshing Kazehaya and an upward trend of happiness, darnit, not school bullies! :(
Do you not know how this genre works?<G>
Lovely Complex kept itself together! Sure, there was drama, but there was HUMOUR and WHEE along the way. This anime started with heartwarming SPARKLES AND BUBBLES, then became a little funny WHILE endearing and heartwarming, and then goes ohgodmisunderstandingsandbullies.
....Yeah, you need to read Ai Kora. You'd love it. =P
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Lovely Complex kept itself together! Sure, there was drama, but there was HUMOUR and WHEE along the way. This anime started with heartwarming SPARKLES AND BUBBLES, then became a little funny WHILE endearing and heartwarming, and then goes ohgodmisunderstandingsandbullies.
For every Brother Dear Brother there's a Marmalade Boy. (alas, both have aged poorly)
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Marmalade Boy is hilarious. For all the wrong reasons. I've not watched a shoujo anime since then that I can recall... but if all shoujo is like Marmalade Boy, I can see why it has such a reputation.
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Kimi ni Todoke goes down the path of shoujo drama. Not sure if want. I want sparkly bubbles, refreshing Kazehaya and an upward trend of happiness, darnit, not school bullies! :(
Do you not know how this genre works?<G>
Lovely Complex kept itself together! Sure, there was drama, but there was HUMOUR and WHEE along the way. This anime started with heartwarming SPARKLES AND BUBBLES, then became a little funny WHILE endearing and heartwarming, and then goes ohgodmisunderstandingsandbullies.
....Yeah, you need to read Ai Kora. You'd love it. =P
Ai Kora is golden dammit.
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Marmalade Boy is hilarious. For all the wrong reasons. I've not watched a shoujo anime since then that I can recall... but if all shoujo is like Marmalade Boy, I can see why it has such a reputation.
Most main characters are not *quite* as hopeless as Miki. but the contours of the romances in many of the shows are similar.
Bardiche: have you seen any of Hime-chan's Ribbon? More of a kids show, but you may enjoy it.
Also, whoever was watching Mahoujin Guruguru (I forget who you are) may also enjoy Akazukin Chacha
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I'm the one watching Mahoujin Guruguru as well. :v I'll check those two out sometime, thanks.
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Seconding the recommendation of Akazukin Chacha, I found it very entertaining when I watched it (albeit several years ago! In Cantonese >_>), and given you're having a blast with Mahojin Guruguru, you're probably gonna love this one too
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Girl who leapt through time -
Kind of left it too long to comment on this as I have forgotten most of the details. Gave it a decent score so I expect it was decent! I can at least say that I wasn't expecting the twist.
Infinite Ryvius, the comic -
I think it is safe to say that if you haven't seen the show you will have little hope of following this comic. The translation does not help in a couple of areas. Disappointing.
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So yeah finally got back onto my laptop and have a log of stream of consciousness babble I was doing while watching the show. I kept finding myself a bit bored needing to do something with my hands while watching Noir while on holiday. So I was going through the motions of touch typing the translated dialogue as it came up without actually pressing down on the keys. A few to many typo faults of actually pressing the buttons pausing or stopping the track, so opened up a text document thinking I would do mini reviews as they went along for a laugh. Then it quickly just nosedived into full blown ranting and yelling (Sopko is probably a little knowing what to expect, but not in full since this is -everything- that goes through my head, not just the stuff funny enough to say out loud). So yeah not sure if anyone will care, but hey it might get someone to laugh.
This is all from a few weeks ago now so I don't remember what I was talking about for most of it. Spoilers obviously, but they will be pretty obscured by completely incoherent rambling. OH yeah I also seem to have not had the entire series, was like a disc short.
Noir 6 episodes in.
Basic story structure varying between two chicks involved. Jailbait meets side character/object she likes, will have to kill owner of said thing she likes. This is supposed to reflect how she regrets that she does not feel pity over killing. Remorse is still remorse. Other plot is, older chick meets something she likes. She will ultimately have to kill things.
It is like The Professional mashed up with monster of the week shoujo, but the monster of the week is someone we are supposed to pity either because they are trying to be good or because they are closed minded pitiful people. Also add in a token ominous plot point resolution 5/8 of the way through the episode.
Add lots of (honestly pretty nice) decompressed shots of people walking around and feeling sorry for themselves or token action sequence with someone getting shot in the face and you have this. It is nice, but formulaic and badly needed more than 4 tracks. You can tell exactly where you are in any given episode so far by which track is playing. The music box for decompressed shock sequence, followed by the drum and bassish remix of said tune for ominous plot sequence, the stringed instruments and choir hit us for the action sequence.
I dunno I think it is trying to be something I should like made on a tight budget, which goes part in parcel for most anime that I kind of like.
OH yeah and specifcally on Episode 6. HOLY FUCK UNCANNY VALLEY CAT.
Episode 7.
Jailbait finds a bullet with her intestines! Kills the owner of the bullet with a card.
Episode 8
ARGH PLEASE GO BACK TO THE OLD SONGS. Alright, it was justa sting in the opening but wow that was bad. Older chick meets someone she doesn't kill! Unresolved plot thread? Maybe! Do I care about this character? No!
Warning from here on out I start to free associate and this is what watching Anime with me is like, I will say about half this stuff out loud.
Episode 9
Okay so we are going to resolve the plot thread. We are also going to have Thelma and Louise references. OH yeah I forgot the song for INVESTIGATION or TRAVEL! Which sounds like it belongs in Sonic and Knuckles. Stock footage is getting boring. You know if this followed the Professional format more instead of the Shoujo format more someone would have been shot with a shotgun by now. Hey chicks making out, that is different. I don't think that is quite how the kiss of death is meant to work. AHHHHH BAD STING AGAIN. Okay I am getting way to into this free associaion. I don't get these combat sequences. It is like the further you get into the series the worse a shot the jailbait is. Less this episode since she has an excuse, but last time, OH NO NOT TWO GUYS. SHE HAS ONLY KILLED ROOMS FULL OF PEOPLE BEFORE. They must cloud her vision with BATTLE AURAS. Take THAT waterfall.
How will I ever beat this chick with a knife when all I have is a Five Seven, quite possibly one of the nicest pistols ever made. I will hug her and and break her knife with my ABS that is how. Or it was shot by jailbait? Whatever. WHOA THIS SHOT KEEPS MOvING AROUND LIKE I CAN'T HOLD A GUN PROPERLY. I will stab her with the broken blade of her knife. This was a good plan. It is a shame we assassins couldn't bargain with the mafia to do assassination jobs in exchange for being able to read a piece of paper, we totally had to do jobs for their opposition and get someone to steal it to use as payment. This was a good plan. Now we saw who witnessed a contract signed 300 years ago. Good value.
Episode 10
HORRIBLE STING AGAIN. Whoa, judge wears a tie AND a scarf. Way to much accessorising there. 16 year old girl in business suit, this is a good disguise. STOP USING THAT STING.
Oh yeah assume at any point a computer is used I make fun of the overexagerated mouse motions. Oh cool they have to kill Scarf and Tie, nice, I get to make fun of that more. Worried about picking up payment for someone else murdering your target what? Just lie. You are criminals, it isn't like you need to worry about it. Do you want tea? COFFEE TIN AND ESPRESSO MACHINE. Good job on the translation dudes.
Apparently the secret of te underworld NOIR THE RUTHLESS KILLER OF THE UNDERWORLD can be openly discussed in the streets with drunkards. Nice. Ooh new music. THis one sounds like it could be used in a Zelda clone. CUPCAKE CANDLE BLEW OUT. Creepy obvious assassin girl gets her head patted. GOOD DOG. At least this girl dog is not a table, better than Noein? Maybe !
Judge no longer wearing his scarf (even though it is windy). Ripped off. Going to be cock bocked of killng the judge also? Main characters are going to be PISSED. OH wait no, she is just going to be a bitch and make things hard for them. Fair enough. She should tell him to wear a scarf in the breeze as well. Will catch a cold otherwise. OOH SHE IS BATMAN. The sewer workers in Paris must be pissed at how many bullet holes there is in the walls down there. "We will wait for proper timing, that is our style." If by that you mean miss obvious opportunities to kill people without it looking like an assassination? YES! Like that time you had to kill a sick hobo and you SHOT HIM instead of just tossing him in the river he lived next to in the winter. Hooray, strings come back out to lead us up to action sequence, soon we will get the techno combat track! Aaaaand fades in wth perfect timing. We will point our guns at our target right out in the and not shoot him. Best assassins ever. I am really sad about the lack of scarf here. The standards were set and just we are not meeting them. AHHH that was the cue we were waiting for. Assassin chick to get to show off how much better she is than our heros. I BELIEVE WE HAVE ESTABLISHED A RIVAL. At least we have dropped the Storm Trooper shit and people can aim again. I will watch this guy slowly pick up a gun and shoot him after he has shot at me 4 times. Aaaaaand RIVAL WINS! Heros fail to kill the princess Judge in time. Still no scarf. Aaaaaand we have established that the Zelda Clone music is RIVAL song. More pointing guns at stuff we should be shooting. Oh cool she gets to walk away into knife range. Good job assassin guys.
I really like that they are trying with this soundtrack, but it generally ends up being a mess. I can see why they were just using a few tracks at the start, because those were their -good- songs.
Episode 11
Hey no shitty sting this opening, we just get RIVAL ZELDA MUSIC instead. I do like the part at the end that sounds like it was recorded inside a fish tank though. Kay so some dude can just find out their phone number now. These guys may be the worst worlds best assassins ever. Don't answer the phone, just stare at it. OOH Streets of Rage music, nice. You don't need to stretch out the actual exposition sequences guys. You did that fine when it was a mystery. Soldats is a silly name for the Majestic 12 if you don't want to use the Illuminati name. I will tell you about the book in 3 days time so that I can be killed before it happens even though I could tell you right now. Good job conspiracy guy. Grape yards, nice translation guys. RIVAL has a wide selection of LOLIGOTH clothes to choose from. NO wonder she dresses up in a shitty cloak all the time. When Vincent Valentine look is your best choice it is time to get a new wardrobe. OMINOUS THUNDER DECOMPRESSiNG THE SCENE MORE. Oh hey at least the bad guys are shitty at killing people in a logical manner. They know where the main characters live and their phone number even when they are secret world best assassins. So they will set up an obvious ambush at obvious ambush point instead of just mailbombing them. Good job conspiracy guy. BAM 11 episodes in and we get our first drop your magazine to the floor while reloading. I fully expect all gunplay to revert to Hollywood style now abandoning any attempts are realism.
Answering the door with no pants on is a good policy. Especially just after discussing how much danger you are in and having established the enemies know where you live. CUPS. Turn off the lights, this is a good plan. New music! I assume this is TEA DRINKING MUSIC because it is mulitplie string instruments. I don't get why they have not poisoned the tea or something. Shitty assassins. MOON.EYES.RIVAL MUSIC. Walk around the street in your pajamas. BITCH STOLE MY FORK. So apparently there was no opening to kill RIVAL with a fork even though you walked into another room where she couldn't see and we have established that you can pretty much wall hack where need. Get gun. Shoot bitch. Or better yet, when she said "Hey get your gun out if you want, it is your house" SHOOT HER.
Episode 12
New music again! RIVAL sleeps with here hair tied up in her stupid side knot thing. I can tell you from experience that sleeping with your hair tied up is a recipe for pain the next morning. Still haven't replaced that loligoth wardrobe either, so another day in VINCENT cloak. Got to clean that shit one day man.
OMINOUS SOUL PATCH GUY. He is a drugs dealler. That is Tinhead's drugs plane. LOG BRIDGE. FLOWERS. Take THAT waterfall. Holy fuck a log cabin in Europe somewhere. More people pointing guns at RIVAL and then not shooting her before she can stab things. More new music. This is also not very good, but Woodwinds is different for this soundtrack. ANGRY HIKERS. Please don't move I have to show off how SUPER COOL RIVAL I AM by killing ANGRY HIKERS. I like how the main characters haven't been in this episode yet and it is half over. "I killed them because it is my duty to kill you and to be interrupted is unacceptable" So like you couldn't have killed him sooner instead of going for a nice stroll with him? Also shitty body guards. Kill the bitch and deal with your pissed off employer later. Ahhh now I understand, it has started to rain. SHe is clearly waiting for THEATRICAL LIGHNTNING to kill him. WOW SIDE CHARACTER I DON'T CARE ABOUT DISCOVERED WHO RIVAL IS AFTER HIKING WITH HER AND KNOWING SHE CAME TO KILL HIM. Rivetting stuff. Point gun at chick with knife and do not shoot again. RIVAL has magical PLOT POWERS to make here the really bet assassin in the world. Aaaaand same thing again. One day someone will work out how these firearms things work. YOu see you have to pull the trigger. Noooooooow please please please have RIVAL be killed off out of hand. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK. God DAMMIT. We see the main character's HOUSE and there goes an entire episode with nothing but RIVAL wank.
Episode 13
Jailbait sees a picture she likes. Sooooooooo the guy painting it is going to be killed.
Jailbait stares at a sketchbook longingly until Older Chick guesses that she wants it and buys it. Jailbait says nothing during this exchange. Is she like fucking 2? Ahh I see it is a sketch book she is going to draw in with a paint brush. AHHH DON'T EAT OFF A POOL TABLE. SHoot some dudes. Take THAT waterfall. Look out! CAR. You had to dodge a car twice? Good job assassin girl, next time try getting off the road. Oh hey I see you need to gives this guy a painting, try not running on the road again. Nevermind they will uzi you instead. PARISIAN DRIVE BY SHOOTINGS YO. Aaaaaaand Painter Man is dead. Cue ACTION MUSIC, string mix this time instead of the techno one. This is the way to absolve yourself of your past, by littering, yes yes! Now go shoot somet guys, yes yes! Stare at them for a while and wait for them to aim at you first of course because that is how assassins WORK. And now we have all learned a lesson not to have friends because they get shot in drive bys in Paris and Older Chick told Jailbait the whole time in spite of Older Chick demonstrably having friends that are actually actively part of the underworld instead of just random painter men. I think we all can take something away from that. You need to make friends with CRIMINALS only. Information brokers if you can since they are totally not going to be killed.
Episode 14
Hey woodwinds again. And some dude saying the same fucking name OVER AND OVER. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick. Older chick.
OH UNCLE.
Flash backs to make us care about him. He will be dead by the end of the episode. Jailbait will probably kill him. I do not care.
A lot of pointless killing going on, cue this being OH UNCLE doing it and him having to be killed. I won't care.
Again Noir can be openly discussed in the streets. YES. OH UNCLE is going to have a contract probably.
FUCK YES. TIE AND A SCARF. Bonus points for having a VEST. Tie and scarf dies, shot by a guil silhouetted against the sun who has a hair cut that tells us it TOTALLY wasn't OH UNCLE doing it. News of this killing bothers Older chick. OH UNCLE clearling shitting where he eats, smart moves for an international super assassin. Why? OH UNCLE why? I dunno, cause he gets payed to kill people just like you do? Idiot. Oh yeah OH UNCLE looks impeccable with his coat, sweatervest, dress shirt with top button undone and knotted scarf thing which appears to be underneath the dress shirt. YOu are doing it wrong. HAHAHA I WILL LAUGH AT THE MAN POINTING A GUN AT ME. Oh wait, you killed a dude in your own home. Good move assassin man. Now take Older Chick to your home. Now tell her you are going to kill her partner. OH SHOCK OH UNCLE IS EMPLOYED BY THE BAD GUYS. I guess he will have to die! Ominous choir. Woodwinds again. OH UNCLE stares at pictures and thinks back to when he used to wear an open vest. Much worse imes than when he could wear a sweater vest. Older Chick going out to kill some dudes, Jailbait tails along. Kill some dudes together! With the power of Friendship nothing can stop you from killing your only remaining familly. Alright, rock on, kill your only familly in their own home in the city you live in. This is the perfect way to avoid suspicion with the police. Older Chick killed OH UNCLE. I expected deviation from the formla, how stupid of me.
Episode 15
Oh hey finally an assassin that at least tries to be sneaky. I am sure we will all learn a life lesson here that it never pays to be a heartless assassin that only kills for money and to always have principles when killing people for money. A door! GASP! Threaten that computer. Woooooo bad guys can't make up their mind if they want to pay them or kill them oooooorrr OBVIOUS TRAP. OMINOUS BUTTERFLY. Go to Taiwan and kill the head of the leading criminal empire, totally an elaborate plan and not an obvious way to get you killed without spending any further resources. Alternately yet another pointlessly elaborate trap. Oh yeah I also like how the pair that take up a myth name in the underworld while they are chasing another total myth. The possibility that there isn't just random people using the Soldats name to do whatever they want doesn't even come up as a possibility, but hey not an issues since it won't be what happens. Apparently the temple is a maze and rock beats gun. Good to know. Once again melee reliant assassination techniques are invincible in the face of guns. RIVAL saves the day. But XEMNAS ASSASSIN is holding Older Chick down! I guess slowly reaching for your gun is a bad idea. Short feeling episode. Guess mostly snoozefest. Nothing good to make fun of.
Episode 16
So RIVAL and Jailbait will team up to save Older Chick, I suppose this makes 2 parters another formula but I am to sick of it to analyse specifics. GAH HORRIBLE STING ONCE AGAIN. I suppose it is supposed to be SHOCK sting but it is fucking bad. Jailbait shows up to rescue before the enemy expects, so what do they do? NOT KILL OLDER CHICK. This is a good plan assassin guy. They also point guns at her and watch her walk towards them. This is also a good plan assassin guy. It isn't like you didn't just watch her kill a room full of guys. Yyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep, just as expected with the gunplay. Duallies comes out now after the reckless discarding of magazines was done. RIVAL continues to save everyone's life because she is that good. No one can shoot except for Jailbait. Older Chick is fucking useless now for some reason, guess to make Jailbait and RIVAL look awesome since we have previously been informed that she is the awesome and occasionally does good things to remind us she isn't useless. Pass the fail ball it seems is the name of the game. "Were they really that tough an opponent?" Good question consider they just killed like 50 fucking guys. Good job mafia man. XEMNAS ASSASSIN failed to be a good assassin it seems. People die and the mission is over half way through the second episode. So I guess we get WEEKLY MONSTER FIGHT against XEMNAS ASSASSIN even after the job is finished. Cause fuck, why not. Whooooooaaaaaaaaa screaming baby in a "pharmacy" full of snakes. Not creepy. Ohhhh hey, she used an aerosol based poison, apparently XEMNAS ASSASSIN doesn't suck as much as previously advertised. Still Monster of the week. QUICK BE DISTRACTED BY RIVAL FOR NO GOOD REASON. Quick run into the building just in time to see RIVAL BE AWESOME in front of you again. Now point your gun at her again and do fuck all. RIVAL Zelda music plays from inside a fish tank. Fantastic, finally the great question of who Jailbat is answered by not making sense. I am glad that is resolved. Next episode lets have no plot exposition this time to make things go perfect and have to explain the entire everything in the last 2 episodes.
Episode 17
Oh hey it is another Older Chick episode, I guess she gets to be competent again. Wow, good thing someone spent time to come back to this dilapidated building to tune that piano for you OH WAIT NO THEY DIDN'T. COp that Older Chick. The first two keys are shockingly in tune though for something that is otherwise broken. Stock footage. Again. We get it, she saw her familly killed and there was a pocket watch. We have only seen it for 16 other episodes. Eventful. Go to island, play 2 notes on piano, no one wants you, go home. Good episode OH WAIT NO WE HAVE RIVAL. Clearly that means there is some upstaging to do. Guy sucks at smoking cigars and stops his third one half way through. Good job Mafia guy. Okay so we get told she needs to go find the right hand man of her father. HER PRINCESS IS IN ANOTHER HOUSE GO AWAY. Only took half an episode to find out she has been wasting time. I am thrilled. QUICK EVERYONE OVERREACT WITHOUT TELLING ANYONE ANYTHING, THEY WILL SURELY LISTEN. Then hit the bar and be completely reasonable for no fucking reason. HOLY FUCK POCKET WATCH BITCHES FLIP THE FUCK OUT. Oh wow. Something people couldn't discuss in a crowded bar. No wait, it was "Discuss this tomorrow so I can be killed before I can tell you anything". Alright. Not killed before being able to tell anything. Killed after being able to reveal one plot point and then sniped. Sniped with a RIFLE of all things. Not a pistol! Also lengthy exposition after being shot twice. TECHNO FIGHT MUSIC GO. Guy shoots way to fast with a bolt action rifle when he is out of frame. DISCARD THAT MAGAZINE, yes yes! Now to kill the sniper in the cathedral where our parents died just because. RIVAL appears to upstage people. She will give you far more mysterious exposition thant anyone else this episode. RIVAL still must have that closet full of loligoth clothes since she still uses Vincent cape. We get a new song! Another mix on the pocket watch theme, yawn. So we got mysterious nothing exposition and hollow explanations for things. Older Chick gets all cut up over her parents having been in Majestic 12, BOOHOO MY PARENTS WERE PART OF A GLOBAL CONSPIRACY *TEARS* Reasonable response.
Episode 18
Leave me alone, I want to sulk by myself in this sewer. Watching people wait for the bus is exciting. Watching them not get on is even more exciting. Watching powerlines is also exciting. Serial Experiments Noir. Now I hope everyone dies on the internet and becomes a god of the internet. Walking on train tracks is a smart idea also. CUP OF COFFEE. Deliver this letter to that Jailbait in there. Totally doesn't sound like a creepy prostitute solicitation. Good job conspiracy guy. He is going to be dead before the episode ends. IT IS A PHONE. PUT IN MONEY AND DIAL BITCH. Cannot answer, busy sewer sulking. Going to have to catch a cab home. TAKE THAT PYJAMAS. Nice setup conspiracy guy. You should visit this place, everyone there is going to be dead, it rocks out pretty hard. Alright meet me at this place, I will die in front of you there and give you cryptic messages. BITCH PICK UP THE PHONE. Oh snap denied. Hang up on you IN YOUR FACE. So we have well established that this is Jailbait episode. We also have RIVAL shows up to give MORE MYSTERIOUS EXPOSITION. PICK UP THE PHONE, DON'T STARE AT IT. OH here they are going to give her the Dark Knight option. You have two places to go and be in 5 minutes, you can save your friend or get information from suicidal Soldats member. WAY TO GO RIVAL. Of course there is no possibility that Older Chick can be trusted to be capable on her own, this is not her episode, she has to be shit like a storm trooper. THAT IS RIGHT YOU STEAL THAT TOY TRUCK. Kill that old man with a toy truck. HARDCORE ASSASSIN GIRL. Wow suilcidal conspiracy man waited around for a long time considering he was going to get his dumb arse killed.
Episode 19
Alright, last episode, lets waste no time this time, we have a lot of exposition to get through. Alright, lets waste time instead by quoting scripture we have read before. Couples, lets look at couples. First plot point revealed! An old book is an old book! I am excited. Wooooo someone has a copy of an old book. Watching people fly around Europe is fun. Paris to Austria! Long flight yeah? Shorter flight than I did to part of my own state. OH wait, Paris to Vienna, this changes little but directon. Remember, Older Chick is totally going to kill your arse Jailbait. Oh hey fuck the plot line completion, we get an enemy to fight. Old bok was destroyed in a fire. EXCITING. RIVAL appears, upstaging time. OKAY MIDDLE OF THE EPISODE. The secret is that Noir was a 2 person assassin team just like they have been the entire series. Exciting. NOW FIGHT SOME PEOPLE HAVING RESOLVED THAT NOIR ARE ASSASSIN TEAM GO. Exciting. Discard magazine. Shoot wall. Shoot dudes through wall. Oh good idea, melee attack three guys when you have a gun. Jailbait kills fucking everything with Rival. Older Chick is useless once again. Exciting. NO DO NOT TELL ME THINGS LIKE I AM A PERSON WHO KILLS PEOPLE. Exciting staring at people. Someone needs to die soon or I am supremely disappointed. More staring. DEVESTATED THAT YOUR FRIEND IS SOLDATS MEMBER JUST LIKE YOU WERE CHILD OF SOLDATS AGENTS. I do not get why this is a big fucking deal. Shoot some dudes already. God dammit. This is going nowhere. This isn't a mystery it is repetition and cryptic statements that go nowhere.
EPISODE OVER. SO either there is an episode or 2 I don't have or this is over and I am bored.
Oh well, it wasn't bad, just sucks at resolution, so ultimately it really does line up well with The Professional meets SHoujo. It was cool with young people shooting people like The Professional and it was full of dead end plot that didn't do anything. Looks like I am missing an episode though. Such is life.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A2A_ATrvlk
Best reason to buy Noir DVDs.
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Other than scarves and ties right?
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Nah, socks are better.
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BLASPHEMY. You do not understand sweatervests or vests either I suppose. You probably sneer at a nice COAT and HAT.
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And again, Grefter proves why he has better taste than most of you fuckers.
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EPISODE OVER. SO either there is an episode or 2 I don't have or this is over and I am bored.
Oh well, it wasn't bad, just sucks at resolution, so ultimately it really does line up well with The Professional meets SHoujo. It was cool with young people shooting people like The Professional and it was full of dead end plot that didn't do anything. Looks like I am missing an episode though. Such is life.
You're missing six or seven episodes, which is a shame because stuff actually happens in some of them.
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That doesn't forgive the nothing happening for the other 20 episodes of the series.
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No, it's just unfortunate not seeing whatever rants the rest of the series would've inspired.
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This is true. Glad someone got amusement out of it other than Sopko (Because there is only so much it is worth posting just for his benefit since he knows exactly what I am going to say half the time -anyway-)
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Oh, I think everyone enjoys seeing you vent.
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You just "think"?
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Gurren Lagann v5 -
This was somewhat superior to the last volume. Machine takeovers and more interesting-looking (albiet not especially interesting in other ways) enemies and some crazy shenanigans. Not sure it really holds a candle in that regard to
Gundam SEED Astray, the comic -
however, the plot of which seems to turn to whatever the writers thought would be more ludicrous at the time half the time. Very enjoyable. Not so enjoyable is the fact that X Astray does not appear to exist over here despite being advertised at the end. At least Astray R is available.
Gundam 00 v2 -
Okay the previous volume came out in September so I didn't really remember any specifics about what was actually happening in the show. This didn't seem to affect my viewing of this volume; whether that has good or bad implications is up for debate. The next volume comes out in January, setting a bad trend. I am currently hoping that this is a bizarre side effect of 0083 having been released in November and 08th being released in December and that they'll go to monthly releases for 00 after January, but as 00 is not related to 0083 or 08th this is a highly tenuous theory.
Ali seems kind of similar to Gauron. Let us hope that he refrains from going the same sort of places Gauron went. Meanwhile, Setsuna and Princess What's-her-name both have no knowledge of the concept of 'sensible courses of action', which is a little grating. OH MAN I AM GOING TO SAVE THIS GUY FROM BEING ARRESTED BECAUSE I THINK HE LOOKS LIKE HE MIGHT BE THE SAME RACIAL STOCK AS ME OH MAN I AM GOING TO REVEAL TOP SECRET INFORMATION TO THIS WOMAN BECAUSE IT SEEMS TO BE MY LIFE GOAL TO REVEAL IT TO EVERY PERSON POSSIBLE
Gundam 0079 -
Gave up on the subs I was waiting on and got the Zeonic-Corps ones. The ZC ones were somewhat low-quality at points but they got the job done. Entertaining all round.
SD Gundam I/II/'III'/IV/V/CA-
Okay. SD Gundam Mk IV has a Wacky Races style episode which put it as the standout leader. Mk I and Mk II are more skit-oriented than the rest so they're in next place; Mk I would be before Mk II. The set I was using was missing an episode from Mk II so it is kind of handicapped here. Mk 'III' is aways next, being mostly especially tiny episodes about samurai-theme versions of the Gundams, with one good episode. Then Mk V which revisits the samurai theme in a less humourous fashion - will note that I only had one episode out of three total here however. Finally CA languishes way down the back somewhere for being thoroughly pointless and generally unfunny. Again, the set was missing an episode from this 'season' however. All up: probably not worth your time. Except the wacky race episode. And possibly the good episode from Mk 'III'.
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Setsuna really is kind of a total dumbass. Same with Marina, really. Don't worry, Setsuna sort of gets better in part two at least! And he's really good at killing things.
Ali... he's no Gauron in more ways than one, but still entertainingly violent.
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Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket - UC Gundam decides to hammer home the 'war sucks' point that it always tries to show, only this time it does so in six episodes with a civilian main character and having less action per episode than most longer Gundam series. This means that it actually works! Most of the complaints I've heard about it are about the 11 year old main character, Al, but being someone who actually likes kids goes a long way towards sympathizing with the kid. Generally well-fleshed out characters and setting given the amount of time they had, better in that way than plenty of shows of its length. Bernie was generally interesting for what he was - a rookie who talks big and makes shit up, but is generally pretty scared and also a pretty nice guy - certainly a better showing than any Zekes get in most of the franchise. Chris was as much of a nice girl as I'd heard, and ended up a little bland for it but was good for what she was, since it was really all about Al and Bernie. Al... honestly, I've never had to see for myself what it's like for a kid to realize what the war games he plays are really emulating, but Al really did a wake up call that was probably too much at his age. He starts off as goofy as any kid, but ends up the only kid his age on the colony with a clue, and a lot of the stuff in the last episode showed it. So, the Gundam pilot isn't the main character, the main character doesn't pilot a mobile suit, and the second most important character is from the 'bad guys'.
Aesthetically, 0080 was pretty solid. Nice character designs, probably better than most of UC, and animated very well - it's a short OVA production of a major franchise coming from Sunrise, so this is no surprise. The dub was good, though Garcia was a wee bit overdone on whatever accent they were going for with him, and being from Zeon... why do these guys have different accents? Not the best voice direction I guess, but David Hayter showed that he can do more than just gritty tough guy. What action there was looked good and the only thing really gratuitous about any of it was watching a Gelgoog Jaeger fucking guys up, which is excusable because it's a cool MS. The one big point against it though, is the music. The opening theme was fitting and catchy but nothing standout, and its ending theme was just kind of there. The incidental BGMs though... holy 80's synth track Batman. It really did take something away from an otherwise excellent show... but not enough to keep this from probably being my second favorite Gundam series at the very least.
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Yeah. 0080 and 08th MS Team are generally the only things worth a damn in UC to non-Gundam/mecha fans. They're good stuff.
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Summer Wars- Easily the best anime movie of the year, barr none. Probably best anime of the year period. Even better than Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Hosoda is a fucking genius that will one day be spoken of on the same level as Kon and Miyazaki. 10/10 isn't enough to say about this movie. Fun, simple, full of life and personality and still holds up to closer inspection. You'd do yourself a disservice as an anime fan of any interest level not to watch this.
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Yeah, saw it. Shame my uhm, copy had some desynching errors that made it a subpar experience. Definitely intend to see the DVD version and if it gets localised buy it~
It reminds me so much of the first Digimon movie (with regards to animation), that I couldn't help but pick it up.
Also, that grandma is seriously badarse.
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Yeah. We probably watched the same file. It still rocked.
The Grandma was awesome, yeah. Especially with the spear.
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GRANDMA MARTIAL ARTS OF NAGINATA SWINGING DOOM, FUCK YEAH.
It was touching. I wept.
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Hmm, talk of the best damned thing to happen to UC Gundam? Guess it's time for me to make a post here.
Anyways, fiddling around with SRW:AG inspired me to watch Macross Plus again for what would likely be the first time in about 11 years. Maybe 12. I can recall that my thoughts at the time where along the lines of "This is neat," and the thrill of staying up until Midnight for it to start through four fridays in a row after accidentally catching a bit of the second episode in an earlier showing, and realising there would be a repeat performance.
Since this was also my second viewing, this gave me not just time and maturity to alter how I saw it, but also this time I could watch, knowing the revelations, and knowing what to look for. On the one hand, the story didn't hold up as well, largely because I had forgotten how they had glossed over Myung's... hmm, chance to speak clearly about how she felt about the revelation. But, I'm less sure how I feel about that, since it's also fairly obvious all of that was not only getting repressed, but getting shoved off into a computer. Not only not being faced/dealt with, but also pushed as far away as possible.
And I think that's my primary discovery on this watching, that Myung is actually the protagonist. I mean, sure, Isamu's the guy we spend most of our time following. But he's kinda like Faris Bueller, in that where he starts the series, and where he ends is the exact same place. He's got a fight to win against the world, and fun to be had, but when it comes to change and character arcs, it's not his place to have one, but to act as a guide to others. (Granted, in both cases this is as much because they are supremely arrogant and haven't fucked up badly enough, or lived long enough that they have reason to doubt this arrogance, as because they aren't in need of it) But the fact is, it's Myung's victory over herself that's the climax. After she wins that, everything else falls into place like a line of dominos.
Which brings me to the final thing that really came to my attention this time that I know totally went over my head the first time. The music, and skill with which it was used. The fact that most of the music tends to reflect Myung's inner state. With Sharon ascendant, it's techno of varying sorts, with Myung ascendant you'll hear Voices, not just in the overt uses, but also some of the subtler background pieces using it as a backdrop to whatever is supposed to be catching your ear. And neutrality either with background noises, or if Isamu's around and having a good moment, the brasses that sound when the show focuses on him.
So yeah, I think I'll finish with this final note. That has to be one of the more fucked up, yet oddly logical reasons to kill a man I have ever seen. I love him, so I'll make him happy. He's happiest when he's cheating death, so I'll try to kill him. He's good enough that I probably won't succeed, and if I do, then he'll die happy.
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Éureka Seven -
Overall, fairly good. The quality of the first quarter or so varies back and forth a fair bit but it generally evens out as things progress. I'd peg the first Coralian episode episode as the nadir of the series. Things do start to waver again somewhat in the approach to the ending, but never approaching anything like that low.
Renton's defining character trait is his complete and utter willingness to fling both of his feet as far down his throat as possible at all times, which persists through to the end of the series. He manages to improve his skills in recognising this after the fact and dealing with the consequences, but nothing with regards to solving the main problem. Tsk. He also manages to get somewhat less ugly by the end of the series, but since ugly!Renton is the one gracing the case, this doesn't really help.
Eureka suffers from a reduced version of the same problem as Renton, but at least she has an excuse. On the other hand, I wouldn't say that she improves in the dealing with it sense much. To be honest, I think that their continued misinterpretations of each other as things begin to draw to a close detract from the theme of the story a bit. But then I also think that there is a disconnect between their level of maturity in general and the theme of the story, so what do I know.
Not sure where they were really trying to go with Holland. For some time they're constantly faking out the viewer with him acting like a prat and then revealing that MAN HE HAD PEOPLES'S BEST INTERESTS AT HEART THE WHOLE TIME but as he continues to act like this the entirity of the time he isn't actively supposedly looking after anyone's interests, that excuse falls thoroughly flat. Then he changes personality with horribly inadequate prompting.
Of course the queen of that is Anemone who at one point between times we see her apparently 'gained' a personality in a manner which is never explained. Previous!Anemone is easily one of the most freakishly annoying characters in the show, but Later!Anemone could actually possibly surpass her solely because she existed and this happened. Without the existence of Previous, Later!Anemone would merely be generally annoying.
In conclusion, the ending was a bit nonsensical due to the continual warning about what would happen if the object in question was destroyed but when it does get destroyed the warned-about events completely fail to happen. Also I'm not sure what Dewey's final action was intended to accomplish, but of the available options either it utterly failed to have the effect he expected, which doesn't seem like him, or it did do exactly what he expected and the show was trying to redeem him slightly, which isn't going to work at all. Whatever.
Zeta Gundam -
Halfway through this. Currently I can say that it doesn't appear to be the masterpiece that I get the impression people think of it. Of course, I don't appear to hold to the same viewpoints as the general Gundam fan, so this isn't really saying much.
Jerid is a much more likable character than I had expected. In contrast, Camille started the series a twerp, although he has improved a fair amount. Four had a considerably smaller part in terms of screentime than I was expecting, although this carries with it the bonus that I don't have to put up with her atrocious fashion sense. Aside from her being in the OP2. I guess it's possible that Camille has a fair amount of time left to mope about her as well, but he doesn't really seem to be that sort of person at the moment.
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Zeta Gundam -
Halfway through this. Currently I can say that it doesn't appear to be the masterpiece that I get the impression people think of it. Of course, I don't appear to hold to the same viewpoints as the general Gundam fan, so this isn't really saying much.
Jerid is a much more likable character than I had expected. In contrast, Camille started the series a twerp, although he has improved a fair amount. Four had a considerably smaller part in terms of screentime than I was expecting, although this carries with it the bonus that I don't have to put up with her atrocious fashion sense. Aside from her being in the OP2. I guess it's possible that Camille has a fair amount of time left to mope about her as well, but he doesn't really seem to be that sort of person at the moment.
This is pretty much Kamille in a nutshell, and part of why people seem to like Zeta so much is that he does a good job of getting better. Now, granted, I still have ten episodes to go myself, but I'd say it's the later parts of the show that earn it a lot of its credit. I can agree with it not being the great masterpiece of its reputation, though I still like it plenty. There are some fairly derp character moments, and very few of the characters deserve the hype that they get (for all that I can't help being a fan of guys like Yazan at times).
At the very least, Zeta was the source of many excellent mech designs, and I'm looking to get a 1/144 High Grade Gaplant in the near future, and if I ever lose my mind enough to buy a Perfect Grade, Zeta Gundam itself looks like a strong candidate.
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I need to finish watching Zeta. Then again, it's been so long, I might want to start from Mobile Suit Gundam to get a good grip on all the characters. Then again, the only thing I can remember about the original is Amuro being a god, and Char's last scene with the whole ROCKET LAUNCHER TO THE FACE! (and really, that's all the original had worth remembering!)
~
Anyways, I haven't gotten into a good anime in a good minute. The last anime I watched completely was Basilisk and it was good till the end which was a let down. I am out of the anime new network so I don't know what's in right now and what's hot or what have you. Ayone want to fill me in?
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Hey, Ramba Ral jumped at Gundam with a grenade. That's memorable.
Acguys too.
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Gurren Lagann - finished
Well, if you were trying to make me care about the secondary characters, show, you utterly failed. I didn't even remember some of them. But don't feel too bad, it's a hard thing to do - I can only think of two shows that attempt to do so with the same general idea that succeed offhand. Of course both of these don't attempt to apply it to so many secondary characters, which probably helps a great deal.
Actually, thinking on it, I was not exactly a fan of either of the characters I'm thinking of, while I was apathetic regarding the GL ones, so that may also be a factor.
Final battle moved a bit too quickly at times to tell what was going on. Also not a fan of starglasses or cosmic weaponry. The final attack was pretty nice, however.
Finale A probably should have been touching, but it didn't manage to be, and I'm not sure why. Ah well.
All up... it's really just a stock super show. I have no idea where the fanatacism is coming from.
Read Or Die OVA
Well, the first episode is fairly awesome. Sadly the second doesn't really approach it, but the third is a good middle ground between the two.
I am divided on whether it could have used a couple more episodes or not. At least there is always the series, but it is currently positioned in almost the worst possible place in my list of things to get.
Gundam Awakening/Escalation/Confrontation
Well, they tried to humanise Gihren somewhat, which was interesting to see. Didn't really end up improving his character much though. Also Lalah gets to die considerably earlier which is always a good thing, but conversely it also introduces newtype lamery far earlier.
The writing feels amateurish at times, for all that I really have no place to say something like that. I wonder whether it's Tomino's fault or Schodt's. It was enjoyable in general, anyway. [/blatantly offtopic]
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Gurren Lagann - finished
Well, if you were trying to make me care about the secondary characters, show, you utterly failed. I didn't even remember some of them. But don't feel too bad, it's a hard thing to do - I can only think of two shows that attempt to do so with the same general idea that succeed offhand. Of course both of these don't attempt to apply it to so many secondary characters, which probably helps a great deal.
...
All up... it's really just a stock super show. I have no idea where the fanatacism is coming from.
Yay, someone agrees with me. The main paragraph highlights one of my problems with the show, yes.
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Part of why GL worked for me is my general love of/good memory for secondary characters.
Granted all the guys who went kersplodey... Kinda forgot their names already.
Not really... fanatical about it, but I do find it to be very, very high up the 'stock super robot' list in terms of quality. I still found the part one finale to generally be better though, despite my Viral fanboyism in the second part of it.
The Gundam novels are pretty spiffy, though I've only gotten through the first and a little of the second before my HD failure a few months ago. Plan on getting back to that... eventually.
Guess I didn't mention Gundam SEED CE 73: Stargazer yet? Pretty spiffy show. Too short to care about most of the characters, especially the guys in the tank at the beginning and the other two Phantom Pain pilots. Sven and Selena were neat enough, for all that I kept getting vibes of Project TD from SRW. Which is probably a bad sign.
Fortunately, it was very pretty as well. The animation was solid, and the mechs were very nice - I can see why Strike Noir gets the love it does. Honestly, could've maybe spent a little more time on the action, as good as it was, but it's Gundam so they need to have silly things like emotions.
Ending was kinda lolwut but not actively offensive or anything, just... a little out of nowhere.
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Slayers OVA Collection- Aaaahh ha ha hahahha!! Aaaahh ha ha hahahha!! Aaaahh ha ha hahahha!! Aaaahh ha ha hahahha!! Aaaahh ha ha hahahha!! Aaaahh ha ha hahahha!!
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All up... it's really just a stock super show. I have no idea where the fanatacism is coming from.
The right show at the right time with a lot of exposure (due to Gainax) and a big enough budget to snag casual viewers.
Also:
/me Dragon Slaves CK.
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All up... it's really just a stock super show. I have no idea where the fanatacism is coming from.
Most of the GL fanbase has never watched a super robot show in their life and appear to believe that Kamina invented the whole concept of being hot-blooded and yelling out all his lines in an over the top fashion.
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Anime: restates how stupid people can be while making me feel goddamn old. Screw you, Japan.
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All up... it's really just a stock super show. I have no idea where the fanatacism is coming from.
Most of the GL fanbase has never watched a super robot show in their life and appear to believe that Kamina invented the whole concept of being hot-blooded and yelling out all his lines in an over the top fashion.
Surprisingly, they're not THAT stupid. They just don't care that there were people before him.
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If we pretend Gundam didn't happen it is like it never existed. Also when he is in a giant Robot doesn't Shinji spend half his time shouting? Truely a generic Super Robot show.
Go watch Astroboy Snow.
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Lupin III vs. Detective Conan: Good clean fun, even without having seen any Conan before. Not enough Lupin or Zenigata in the first half, but so it goes with a movie that has eight main characters. Anyway, it's nice to see the series make a return to form after Green vs. Red.
Makio Inoue sounds awful, though. Dude's not aging well, and that's compared to a cast where three of the five leads are 73 or older.
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After reading a blog someone posted on GameFAQs about Kimi ni Todoke and formulating a response to it, I realized I had a lot of pent up resentment against the show. You can almost see the wheels of hate turning faster and faster as I write it.
Here's the blog in question: http://moesucks.wordpress.com/2009/12/16/kimi-ni-todoke-11/#more-3534
My response in topic:
I agree mostly. I loved Kimi ni Todoke at the start, but with each passing episode I just find it harder and harder to watch the whole thing or even start it up at all. I'm behind by an ep or two now too because I've just become apathetic about the whole thing.
And yet, the blog's point is the equal but opposite reason I enjoyed the show in the first place. Kazehaya actually interests me because he's so emotionally immature. Sure, he's a bro's bro (that also looks suspiciously like a taller Koyuki from Beck), but the girls forcefully cut him off from having any sort of meaningful relationship whatsoever for years due to their own craziness about fighting over him, so it's interesting to see what effect it's had on him. And yet... it's just utterly boring. Nothing really develops other than the very things that the author of the blog talks about, so they're exactly right in that respect. Sawako can be fun to watch and she's maybe... a step? higher than most Mamiko Noto stereotype characters, but... she's borderline retarded, to be honest. Lack of social skills should not equal complete lack of common sense or basic reasoning skills. She can be completely Chance the Gardener-level idiot savant sometimes, but oh, she's a good student! That can just be forgotten and lets bask in the glow of the social cripple.
I realize it's a show thats supposed to work to the extremes of the high school romance, but... this almost the anti-angst. Tsang (Tangs?) if you will. It's the other emotional extreme. Extreme overreaction in a positive way to neutral stimuli. And it's been nothing but boring so far. Sure, in small doses it can be heart-warming and endearing, if a bit sappy, but a whole series with each minute devoted solely to this principle? It does. not. work. At least ANGST!!!!!!!!!!! can be made fun of... for this I can do nothing more than just shake my head and stop watching.
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Fairy Tail - Good old fashioned shonen action/comedy in the vein of One Piece. Has the best parody of the serious "sword chick" type character I've ever seen, starting in episode...4 or so? Actually, I don't know that I've ever seen a parody of a sword chick, but I have trouble imagining one better than Erza. Go watch it!
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Sopko: Yeah, I get you. At first it was cute, but after a while it just became... repetitive and boring. There aren't any heights in the show, it's like a straight line with a small dent when the entire MISUNDERSTANDINGS happen.
Apparently this trend will continue so I dropped it a while earlier.
I now only watch Umineko, since it's Miamia approved.
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Fumoffu- Not bad. Bonta-kun felt a little under utilized, although the fact that the Drill Sargeant dialogue doesn't come through while using Bonta-kun probably justifies it. The odd part is that it felt like the show was setting up oddball continuing storylines all over the place, then never really went anywhere with them. The only real callback in the show is, in fact, Bonta-kun, come to think of it.
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Thoughts:
In the One Piece anime, the music for the conclusion of Luffy vs. Crocodile is the New World symphony. That's kinda awesome.
Fatal Fury 2 - has the best European bad guy this side of Die Hard. "Father, I felt nothing when I killed you, and I feel nothing now. But once a year I allow myself to feel...zentimental." Thanks for that, Krauser.
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Seikon no Qwaser: Yessssssss.
Durara: Spiffy.
Space Runaway Ideon: 80s as hell. Also awesome.
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Downloaded the Utena remasters today. These things are gorgeous.
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Space Runaway Ideon: 80s as hell. Also awesome.
Lemme guess: you just had to see what all the SRW fuss was about? It doesn't get completely ludicrous until the movie.
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Denpa Teki no Kanojo.
Watched two OVAs of this and enjoyed every minute of it. Stylish show that mixes mystery and romance elements, it seems. Oh and 100% pure crazies. Lots of those. Throw in rather good animation and art-direction and you have a winner.
Anyways it is just a generally decent experience with likable characters, clever twists and spot-on visuals. Many thanks to Soppy for pointing me in the right direction.
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Zeta Gundam, second half -
So a bunch of people died near the end just so that they could be Soul Eaten by Camille (one person almost literally so as opposed to it happening just for the purposes of the show). This isn't exactly good drama, and it increases the amount of newtype lamery in the show as a side effect.
Jerid's character got overwritten with 'must kill Camille' at some point. It was a shame.
I don't think that the effect Scirocco had on Camille at the end was spelt out anywhere near enough. Possibly it's due to being more used to characters in that state being highly exaggerated, but if I didn't have already an idea as to what was going to happen I'm not sure I would have understood it with what was given.
Lame Camille/Scirocco/Haman newtype sessions are lame. Of course this was obvious due to them being newtype anything. Not a fan of newtype psychobabble.
Shinta and Qum. Why. Does Quattro feel the need to drag two children up into space. That go on to be in the show far too much. Were the annoying children in 0079 not enough for you, Tom. Someone tell me they aren't in the movies.
All that said, it's still the best I've seen from the UCverse.
Double Zeta Gundam, through to episode 13 -
If you ever plan on watching Double Zeta Gundam, for the love of God skip the first episode variety show extravaganza, Prelude to ZZ. You are missing nothing. The first third of the show they recap 0079 and Zeta. This part is decent. The second third of the show they play Who's That Pokémon Mobile Suit for a short while giving off facts such as Rick Dias being named such because Rick is short for Remake (doesn't really translate well) and because Dias is the name of an explorer. I KNOW I CAN SEE THE CONNECTIONS THERE
but it ends up starting to ramble. Plus the suit graphics look like someone cut pictures out of an artbook, scanned them in at a horrible resolution, and then pasted them onto the picture.
CUE MEANINGLESS MONTAGE OUT OF NOWHERE WITH NO RELATION TO ANYTHING
Final third has some of the new characters from ZZ introducing themselves to the viewer. Head. Desk.
Aside from that travesty, the show has been fine up to now. It's definitely more childish-humour oriented than Zeta, but it still feels like Gundam. Possibly that is due to the continued existence of a number of elements from Zeta, however.
I really don't see how Glemmy is going to get himself into any sort of position of power if he keeps up the pace he's currently got going. Should be interesting.
Shinta and Qum are STILL THERE although they arguably fit into this show better anyway I DON'T HAVE TO LIKE THEM
Gundam 00, disc 3 -
The overall feeling I got from this disc (episodes 10-13) is that the plot didn't really progress at all. No-one managed to capture any Gundams. A civil war started and was put down. The only development that comes to mind was the revelation of Allelujah's 'quirk', and for all I know that came out earlier and I had just forgotten it in the meantime. Also the existence of Nadleeh, but that being considered a development is somewhat tenuous. In other news, it seems that the release schedule has shifted to monthly. That's always a good thing.
Sakura Wars The Movie -
Well, I enjoyed the CG parts.
Somewhat annoying is that the Flower Division have no reason at all to break into the theatre to get their suits back (The one given, 'They want to stay together', is a non-reason as it is thoroughly unrelated to the action in question). For all that it ended up being the correct course of action... the argument made that the Japhkiels were a better defence solution (due to reduced human involvement) is a perfectly good one, and at that point only one person has a valid counterargument and they are not around to provide it.
Furlong is not much better, having people abducted for no reason that I could see resulting in the existing defence force going into action.
The ending is also annoying as it goes on for far too long and is effectively unrelated to the plot. They drop hints a couple times that there may be some devil shenanigannery going on but there isn't. At a couple of points it seems like the discussion is drawing analogies from the conflict Lachette had with Star Division in the past, which we only know extreme vagueries of, but the majority of it doesn't seem that way. It's possible that I am missing necessary information due to this being the only Sakura Wars thing I've ever seen.
Gundam SEED, the comic -
Gundam SEED Destiny, the comic -
Inferior to the shows. I forget specifics of why, but that's the way I rated them so I assume I had a good reason at the time. It's difficult to tell what is happening in battles at times and the translation is inconsistent. GSD for instance is a fan of having people on the Archangel say 'Align Godfleet Variants' which in addition to making little sense in and of itself, is actually a command to align the Gottfried cannons with the Valiant cannons that is done a number of times on the show (forget the wording used there). This is after there being a note in the opening of volumes 2-4 stating that they have brought naming in-line with the naming used in the show.
I am somewhat amused that they translated Rey's final gunshot as 'Pop'.
"Chaos Gaia Abyss has lost all firepower" did these people even READ what they were WRITING.
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Seikon no Qwaser: Yessssssss.
(´_ゝ｀)
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mia does not approve, apparently.
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I do not need her approval to enjoy terrible things.
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Slayers Revolution dub: Hell yes.
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Slayers: I love this show. Very ordinary but *good* ordinary.
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I think it's fair to say that Slayers went a long way in defining the "ordinary" you're talking about.
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Katanagatari ep 1: I'm very underwhelmed. I dig the animation style, but... it just doesn't come together.
I never thought I'd say this... I loved Bakemonogatari, anyone who I've RPed with can tell you I love extended dialogue scenes in RP, but there are TOO MANY WORDS. It worked fine in Bakemonogatari, but the dialogue there was appropriate and well written. This is just... boring generic shounen dialogue stretched out to infinity. I highly doubt it's the fault of Mazui either, because even rewriting whats there wouldn't give you all that much. They have NO idea how to pace a one hour episode properly.
I can't find anything to like about Togusa. I hate characters that are constantly talked about to be a certain way but never show it in their actions. Her VA was also totally miscast as well. It just totally clashes with the character and sinks my opinion of her further.
Nanami was about the only good thing about the episode. Nothing like coldly shrewd women to add quality to a show.
There COULD be something good to come from this show, but... if it keeps being like the first episode, it'll easily go down as one of the most disappointing series I've ever seen.
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Negima: :sadface:
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Negima: :sadface:
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Brief Manga Update
Bleach and One Piece this week: It is a shame Monday spoilers are usually utter BS, because both chapters promise to be awesome. Kubo and Oda, you have trolled everyone magnificently if this stuff is true.
In the meanwhile, I will await the real spoilers with sorrow.
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So for whatever reason, when I picked up the Slayers box set back in... November was it? I decided I'd just post about them all at once. So if it sounds like I don't really remember various parts, it's because I probably don't.
Slayers- Good stuff. The show just does everything Shonen right; it introduces the core of the cast quickly (that is, it immediately establishes Lina and Gourry), clearly defines their overall skill level and prowess, has a great sense of when to break up the action/drama/OHFUCKWEAREFUCKED with silliness, and keeps the plot flowing at a good pace. Further, it goes far, far out of its way to establish that every member of the group at a given time is contributing to fights, and with one exception (beating Rezo-Shabranigdu) it never devolved into "only the main character can do anything useful". And even in that case, they spent an entire episode establishing that even Lina was out of her league, and that it's pretty well miraculous that they won at all. Copy Rezo isn't as compelling a villain, but the storytelling around him is very strong.
It of course must be said that the main cast is just very compelling in general. I mean, that pretty well IS Slayers, why people like it, but wouldn't want to give the impression that I wasn't paying attention >.>
Slayers Next- Pretty good. The show had evolved and really knew how to sell the silliness, and Martina in particular was consistently great. Unfortunately, serious episodes fell flat more often than not, because the show had suddenly fallen into the Shonen Trap; every enemy is only interested in Lina Inverse, and only Lina Inverse can beat ANYONE. See, at the end of the season, facing down the top general of the Dark Lord of your world? Sure. It reinforces how much of a fluke beating Ruby Eye in season one was, and again pretty well every option was exhausted in figuring out how to deal with Phibrizzo. it's okay to have your big season ender involve using the psychotically dangerous spell of uncertainty. Less okay is having every minion of the big bad, every lesser demon and peon, require the bloody Ragna Blade to kill. I mean, was there a good reason to have weaklings just shrug off Ra Tilt? To throw off Gourry's attacks like they were nothing?
While that sounds overly negative, it's more because it took me a while to explain the point. Still overall good, great at being funny and the deus ex machina is one of the best executed I can think of.
Slayers Try- It's fairly obvious, just watching this, what was going through the writers mind. They knew they had another series based on Kanzaka's work, Lost Universe, coming up. They knew that, technically, it shared a setting with Slayers. They were probably a little bored adapting the novels directly. So, they decided to do up some fanfic, expand on the connections between the two series, and close out Slayers (at least for a while) and set up some Lost Universe hype. That seems well and good, but well... you can kinda really tell that Filia and Valgaav are products of fanfic. The flow of the series is all off, with a bunch of episodes of hardcore dragon-related angst followed, at a profoundly stupid moment, by 4 very silly episodes that exist just to get the party back together.
It's not... really that bad, entertaining enough, but the flaws are blindingly obvious.
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Mahoromatic - Nice show, strikes a delicate blance between the various joys of everyday life and the inevitability of death. But it's a Gainax show, so naturally there's a lot of T&A and things blowing up. Kinda like Steel Magnolias if it were written for teenage boys.
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Mahoromatic really is fun.
Manga
Huh. Bleach and One Piece spoilers were true. Go figure.
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Mahoromatic really is fun.
Manga
Huh. Bleach and One Piece spoilers were true. Go figure.
The avataring is hilarious and appreciated.
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Huh. Bleach and One Piece spoilers were true. Go figure.
The avataring is hilarious and appreciated.
I.. suppose I should have seen that coming?
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Mahoromatic really is fun.
Manga
Huh. Bleach and One Piece spoilers were true. Go figure.
So were the Naruto ones. All the early spoilers were true this week. It's creepy.
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Haven't watched anything new in a while (though Ouran is on the agenda). Just rewatching Utena right now since I got it on DVD a few weeks ago, not quite halfway through. I love how Nanami's version of the "Crack the world's shell" speech makes no goddamned sense at all. Nanami in general is still gold. She's such a fantastically awful person.
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Caught up to Bleach. Aizenings do not disappoint. Almost everything else does. Fortunately the former is more important.
Amanchu! on the other hand is genuinely great and a worthy successor to Aria as far as Kozue Amano's relaxing slice-of-life works go. Having to wait for a month for each chapter is less good. Oh well.
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Dead Man Wonderland- Volume 7 suddenly undone all the stupid in volume 6? Awsome! Machina turns into a sword bitch? Even better.
Shiki- Stupid cliff hanger, it'll be the best if the two kids got turn into vampires too and Natsuno have to add them to the to kill list..... Everyone should lose their sanity ASAP in this manga, Touru really should not exist for being normal.
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Dead Man Wonderland- Volume 7 suddenly undone all the stupid in volume 6? Awsome! Machina turns into a sword bitch? Even better.
What chapters is it? Up to 28 has been translated. I enjoyed the most recent stuff too, but yeah, I can see people not liking it.
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Volume 7 is 27-31
The later half of volume 6 is really dumb, but volume 7 actually make good use out of it and makes everything better.
But really, with Machina now being awesome, I don't care about other problems any more.
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Negima: Manly spirit.
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Death Note: Watched it all in the last week or so. Pretty damn awesome. It's what Monster could have been if they'd cut out 20 episodes or so. (I know I know people all loved Monster, but I just think it dragged on too long.)
Some of the planning ahead got borderline mind readerish, but other than that I liked it a lot.
Bleach: Cool... they end the random saga just to start it again. (OMG ALL THE SCRUBS SWORDS ARE RUNNING FREE IN AN ALL TIME BANKAI FORM.) Really? I'm caught up on the Comic... they definitely have enough material to start back up on the real plot.
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Negima: Manly spirit.
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Macross is on Hulu now. I would describe the first eight or so episodes in terms of a Spaceballs quote:
"FUCK. Even in the future, nothing works!"
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Macross is on Hulu now. I would describe the first eight or so episodes in terms of a Spaceballs quote:
"FUCK. Even in the future, nothing works!"
Warning: Dub Minmei.
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I thought Minmei was dubbed by the original Japanese VA...
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I thought Minmei was dubbed by the original Japanese VA...
In English.
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The original Japanese VA for Minmei is the worst thing about Macross.
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Minmei's VA is by definition going to be the worst thing about the show, because it's fucking Minmei. Nobody can redeem that. If Crispen Freeman and Wendee Lee had a daughter she could not redeem that.
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FMA: Brotherhood- I guess this is supposed to be more directly taken from the Manga? Meh. I can definitely see why the changes were need. I'm only 14 episodes in, but the plot is all over the place and nothing seems to be explained for shit. If not for the fact that I've seen the "original" I'd have no clue what the hell is going on half the time. If it was intended to be like this then okay... is this is actually how the Manga was then shit, that's bad. It's still FMA though, thus entertaining.
My main issue is the character development... or lack thereof. In this version I didn't care as much when a certain military officer died, I don't give a damn about Scar, the humongulus are far more meh, and so on. Only the development of Al/Ed/Winry can match the original.
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The issue with early Brotherhood episodes is they're rushed and have a bunch of stuff cut out in order to not spend too much time retreading the old parts. This is understandable, if unfortunate. What is not understandable that after the first 10 episodes, when they're outside the old material, they KEEP UP the breakneck pace and cuts of even important scenes. The pace slows down noticeably - almost jarringly so - in the mid-20s or so and what follows from there has been consistently fantastic, but it's annoying that the adaptation could have been perfect if it had been that way all the way through.
Utena - Well this is certainly a thing. Currently enjoying the EotW-pimpmobile antics.
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You shouldn't have to wade through 20 or so episodes of bad episodes to get to good ones. I probably wouldn't have watched Soul Eater if I knew the first 13 were as bad as they were, even though I enjoyed the rest of the show.
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I don't think anyone was defending the decision so I find your reply fairly bizarre. And the episodes aren't bad - just wasted potential.
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Utena - Well this is certainly a thing. Currently enjoying the EotW-pimpmobile antics.
That sequence never stops being hilarious to me. Sexamaphone.
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I don't think anyone was defending the decision so I find your reply fairly bizarre. And the episodes aren't bad - just wasted potential.
Except that I do, in fact, find most of the first half of FMA to be bad. From after the Alchemist's exam to Maes Hughes leaving, it's just... not good. Fillery, pointless and unentertaining. The first ep of Brotherhood was also bad. It suffered from the same exact flaws that the first half of the first anime had, except even moreso. Honestly, if RANDOM CHIBI is supposed to be funny, then I'm fine with not having a sense of humor.
The animation wasn't even as top notch as people said it was and it was just a wankfest of fanservice instead of a solid first episode.
My point was that I hate when people say that something takes so and so amount of episodes to get good and still try and call it a good show. I misunderstood you slightly, but it still does apply to FMA as a whole. It's why the first series is a 7/10 for me instead of much higher. The second half was at least a 9/10. If the first episode of Brotherhood is representative of the whole, pacing and humorwise, then it really puts me off watching the rest.
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I personally enjoyed the first half of the original FMA series. There was a bit of filler, but at least the filler episodes helped you get a better feel of the characters. I can't think of any episodes where they pulled a Bleach type filler that added absolutely zero to story/character development/etc.
I figured things would start getting a bit different with the changes to the Humongulus (Wrath and Sloth bigtime obviously) and those issues. Although not a fan of how they dealt with Greed.
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Utena - Well this is certainly a thing. Currently enjoying the EotW-pimpmobile antics.
That sequence never stops being hilarious to me. Sexamaphone.
So awesome.
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Except that I do, in fact, find most of the first half of FMA to be bad. From after the Alchemist's exam to Maes Hughes leaving, it's just... not good. Fillery, pointless and unentertaining. The first ep of Brotherhood was also bad. It suffered from the same exact flaws that the first half of the first anime had, except even moreso. Honestly, if RANDOM CHIBI is supposed to be funny, then I'm fine with not having a sense of humor.
The animation wasn't even as top notch as people said it was and it was just a wankfest of fanservice instead of a solid first episode.
My point was that I hate when people say that something takes so and so amount of episodes to get good and still try and call it a good show. I misunderstood you slightly, but it still does apply to FMA as a whole. It's why the first series is a 7/10 for me instead of much higher. The second half was at least a 9/10. If the first episode of Brotherhood is representative of the whole, pacing and humorwise, then it really puts me off watching the rest.
Ah, I see. For the record, the first episode is almost completely unrelated to the plot and the only reason it was added in was to give the series a first episode that was not in the original anime(and thus, manga, since the beginning of the original anime followed the manga to an extent). It really is just an excuse to have all the characters do cameos. The issue with the rest of the pacing until it cools off in the 20s is the opposite of "fillery" - the series up to then is hypercondensed plot, which while making every episode very important plotwise throws the atmosphere off.
Utena - Well, finished. Pimpmobile is still the best part. With the Rose Bride resigning from her position, the world's shell will be smashed and everyone enjoys a nice omelette will be free from Akio's influence and be able to face the real world? That is how I like choosing to interpret it anyway, and is the only way that makes the student council placing their trust in Utena make any kind of sense, though they were slightly misguided in that it was ultimately Anthy, not Utena, who had the power to steer the world away from its eternal cycle. I don't get where Mikage and the Black Rose arc and the phone call to Akio afterwards fit in any of this though, which is funny because it seemed fairly obvious to me by the time of that arc's ending. Argh.
I enjoyed the cast and their deep-rooted fucked-upness in general. The highlight was definitely Touga though, he is so utterly over the top it's amazing, also is clearly an utterly terrible person but never quite crosses the line into irredeemability. Though he just -loves- toying with it. He seemed to learn the full truth of the situation during his time offscreen, and decided to futilely try to stop Utena from falling victim to Akio's plotting in his own inexplicably shirtless way. Well, of course his list of hobbies like hitting on everything that moves, kangaroo boxing, knife throwing, dramatic monologues, photoshoots, bedside dialogues and riding the pimpmobile took priority, but he just wouldn't be Touga without that.
The cast was great, the audiovisual stylish insanity added a lot to the intrigue of the show, and the blatant overuse of reused sequences didn't bother me one bit because all of them were fantastic (Exception to the rule: Black Rose arc's generic duels were a chore). In fact I missed the student council speech until it made its triumphant comeback near the end. >_> There were slow bits(Nanami filler recap episode? are you serious), though, and...I'm of the opinion when you build a huge elaborate plot, there needs to be a proper payoff. Given the show had given focus to a whole lot of people other than the mains - Utena was out of focus for an entire ARC during the Black Rose thing, for one - the ending just glossing over the academy as a whole didn't really sit well with me. There is such a thing as too much ambiguity. Overall, definitely one of the more memorable shows I've watched, and worth a 9.
Flowervision forever.
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Ah, I see. For the record, the first episode is almost completely unrelated to the plot and the only reason it was added in was to give the series a first episode that was not in the original anime(and thus, manga, since the beginning of the original anime followed the manga to an extent). It really is just an excuse to have all the characters do cameos. The issue with the rest of the pacing until it cools off in the 20s is the opposite of "fillery" - the series up to then is hypercondensed plot, which while making every episode very important plotwise throws the atmosphere off.
I know that about the first episode. I said I hoped it wasn't representative pacing and humor-wise, not plotwise. Breakneck plot can be just as bad as lame filler.
As for establishment episodes, there's nothing wrong with them persay, but FMA's particular brand of them was terrible. A series that DID make them work was Trigun.
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Utena - Well, finished.
The Utena Movie may or may not answer your concerns about the meaning of the academy and what happens to Utena after the series ends. It can certainly be taken as a true sequel to the series, and I view it that way. The movie seems a lot like what happens when you play an adventure game for the second time and already know the answers to all the puzzles.
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Utena - Well, finished.
The Utena Movie may or may not answer your concerns about the meaning of the academy and what happens to Utena after the series ends. It can certainly be taken as a true sequel to the series, and I view it that way. The movie seems a lot like what happens when you play an adventure game for the second time and already know the answers to all the puzzles.
Watched the movie, and I view it as a simplified (yes - the Initial D mixed with hard drugs highly symbolic visuals actually help here) version of the main plot points of the series, ignoring a few red herrings thrown around. The Black Rose arc and other things that bugged me in the actual series make sense in the context of the Ohtori Academy being less of an actual place and more a symbol of escapism from reality.
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Cool. I always viewed it as a sequel because Anthy takes so much initiative that it seems to me she's returned from god-knows-where to pull Utena out with her.
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Watching the 2009 season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
I liked Endless 8. Yeah, I fuckin' said it.
After this.... I dunno what's next.
I'm thinking I want some painfully melodramatic School Days type thing, preferably if it similarly takes a horrendous dark turn.
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Gundam 00 Volume 4 -
The plot managed to progress this volume! The Thrones showed up. We also got some vague hints about conspiratorial things which the characters probably won't get for some time if ever. Setsuna only did one thoroughly stupid thing.
RahXephon, the comic -
Well. It's similar to the show. I guess on the plus side there don't appear to be any of the bizarrely related character things going on that were supposedly in the show/movie that I never got the impression of. There was also no overly obtuse 'wrestling' segment, which is actually somewhat of a surprise considering the comic's propensity to remove clothes from characters at any available oppurtunity. On the minus side, there was no real analogue to Episode 19. The section which deals with essentially the same subject matter has the characters know exactly what is happening and the reader has no sympathy for the focus character at all. Further, the what I shall call 'missing relationship' from the show has been excised from the comic which is somewhat depressing, although I do like what it was replaced with in the ending. I think I probably approve of the ending in general as on the whole it is far more understandable than I remember the ending of the show/movie being >_>
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I asked around about another saccharine sweet high school drama that wasn't what it seemed, and someone recommended "Myself; Yourself"
I watched the whole thing. I have... some things to say about it.
First off, holy hell! No one is allowed to be happy ever. What the Christ.
Secondly, my biggest problem with the show:
It's a show where VERY MUCH is made about certain character's hair colors and eye colors, and yet the two romantic leads have really disturbingly similar features in that regard. Given how I called most of the plotlines in the story, (I wish I could be impressed with myself, but it was more the show being none-too-subtle) I really expected another twist of the knife with that being brought up.
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Manga
Hunter x Hunter: Man, Netero. Man.
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Hunter x Hunter: Man, Netero. Man.
So good. Wish this comic came out, like, ever.
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Hunter x Hunter: Man, Netero. Man.
So good. Wish this comic came out, like, ever.
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Like, seriously, HxH? makes the psychological interplay between allies a lot of fun. Most shonen manga it boils down to our guys fightin' their guys, but HxH really hammers home that everyone's an individual with their own perceptions, worldview, and agenda. I particularly enjoy the 3 ant bodyguards cautiously feeling each other out in a volatile situation.
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Finally watched another anime. This time Baccano! at Soppy's suggestion. Good stuff, the disjointed chronology storytelling was pretty good at keeping the breakneck pace. I ended up watching the whole 13-episode series in one sitting without realizing it. Good stuff.
Isaac and Miria were fun and infectious enough that I found myself not caring how their scenes always seemed completely out of place in the series. It was more like 'Oh yay, more Isaac and Miria antics!'.
The lack of a central main character was another high point of the series and I found myself loving the villains just as much as 'heroes', however one would define those. Add in the attention to detail that went into making this a period piece in the American 1930s and you have a great little series. I think Ladd Russo, the sociopathic mafia assassin with an obsession with killing people who feel safe, ended up being my favorite character.
He does so remind me of the DL. ^_^
Watching the short OVA of this next, and then I'm gonna try out Durara or whatever it's called by this same writer/animation team.
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Negima: Badass.
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Negima: Badass.
Indeed. Nodoka is everything Hinata wishes she was and isn't.
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FMA Brotherhood- A lot deeper in and I must say I like this quite a bit now. Whoever said this gets better after 20 episodes was spot on.
The completely different premise of the original still works well, possibly because they have such a badass cast of main characters that and semblance of a plot would work. On episode 44 now and curious to see how they do things with Hawkeye/Mustang, Greed v2.0, and of course Ed/Al/Winry. (I know it's all been decided, but I have no clue.) Those 3 things will no doubt decide what I think of this when I'm done. To a lesser extent I'm curious to see if they'll go much into the Xing stuff.
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Gundam Unicorn 1 - Blahblahblah Newtypes Blahblahblah Zeon remnants Blahblahblah 100 year old documents HOLY SHIT YOU ARE SEXY GIANT ROBOTS. Seriously, Banagher is a bit of a spaz and the plot doesn't seem like anything terribly new (though inoffensive), but it's perfectly alright to just watch this for the battles. Kshatriya running around killing everything with funnel rape is glorious, and Unicorn is a sexy beast.
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I was talking to one of my Elementary students about Gundam U yesterday.
Because I've seen some of Wing and SEED and was able to drop a few character/mecha names, he now thinks I am a paragon of wisdom on the Gundam series. His favorite thing to ask about is how much I liked so-and-so in Gundam 00, which I know nothing about.
One of the teachers who was listening in asked if Gundam 00 was good, and he enthusiastically replied yes. I asked him which Gundam was on now, and he told me Gundam U. When I asked if it was good, he was like "well... you don't... I can't really recommend it."
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Manga
Hunter x Hunter: Man, Netero. Man.
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I was talking to one of my Elementary students about Gundam U yesterday.
Because I've seen some of Wing and SEED and was able to drop a few character/mecha names, he now thinks I am a paragon of wisdom on the Gundam series. His favorite thing to ask about is how much I liked so-and-so in Gundam 00, which I know nothing about.
One of the teachers who was listening in asked if Gundam 00 was good, and he enthusiastically replied yes. I asked him which Gundam was on now, and he told me Gundam U. When I asked if it was good, he was like "well... you don't... I can't really recommend it."
Different taste is different taste. Though it helps a bit to know a little Universal Century lore, especially when it comes to Newtypes because the main character's spazziness is related to Newtype shenanigans.
Lots of technical detail and not any real fanservice either, though a girl eating a hotdog has already been shooped by people.
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Manga
Hunter x Hunter: Man, Netero. Man.
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GaoGaiGar -
Starts off well, with the whole Zonders amplifying peoples' negative emotions and being cast in images meaningful to them thing they had going on, even if they did not focus on the human aspect as much as I would have personally preferred. Then they seem to forget the later bit as the show goes on. Then in the second half they effectively throw the whole lot out, with 70% of the villains being warm bodies and the rest having no connection whatsoever to their hosts. The show does not tell us anything about these hosts (Intestine nonwithstanding) and after being reverted it just dumps them... and I don't remember the major one ever being reverted, which is kind of off. Not as much as the ending however where everyone is all happy that The Carpenters (sadly, not the band) can fix the city, completely ignoring all the presumable deaths that were caused by destruction. Or is the show trying to say that while there were a bunch of schoolchildren left the entire rest of the area was abandoned? I don't remember any evidence of that.
The show does a pretty good job of introducing something new each episode, although it peters out after a while as one would expect. I particularly liked the use of the Dividing Driver to deal with the property damage question. Of course, later on they start to ignore this issue. They also do things like introduce the Gatling Driver, where unlike the introduction of the Dividing Driver there is no explanation given as to what it actually is supposed to be for doing.
In general I enjoyed it. The first half was better than the second half, but they did do some new things in the second half that I found entertaining. All up, it was really still stock, but I was not expecting anything transcendent.
GaoGaiGar FINAL -
Bizarrely, GGGFGGG doesn't appear to have any full sets of subs, although I didn't mount an extensive search. Which is a shame as in theory it should have been a better version than this. Ah well.
Sadly, this followed its cues more from the second half of the series than the first half. Mostly in the sense of amount of villains with no characterisation, but to be fair unlike the villains from GGG 2nd half that we can safely assume had character to begin with we can't strictly assume that about these ones because one of the ones we do see a fair amount of doesn't appear to have any. Although the rest of the ones we see a fair amount of do...
There are far, far too many apparent-death situations.
The Genesic Gaomachines make no sense whatsoever. How convenient that they were doing effectively the right thing with Galeon all along, despite the fact that from memory they said in the series that they had made extensive modifications to Galeon in order to use it the way they were. I also don't care for the design of GGGG. I don't care too much for the design of GFG either to be honest, but it's superior to GGGG.
It's decent, but a bit worse than the series.
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I assumed the modifications were so it would play nice with their jury-rigged combiner parts instead of just standing there unable to use its new arms and legs.
Also, IIRC Anime in Action (the team that subbed the TV series when got its original popularity spike in the US) did the full run of the OAV too.
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Anime in Action subbed regular GGG FINAL (which was what I watched, in case I worded things badly), but I haven't seen anything regarding them subbing GGGFGGG. (Since the original FINAL was an OVA and GGGFGGG was a series, I'm unsure whether we're speaking at cross-purposes here or not...)
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Grand Glorious Gathering is just GGGF recut for TV and with some recaps and Betterman footage spliced in.
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I see. I appear to have gotten the wrong impression of it from somewhere, then. Although I do like recaps if they're done well, but I find myself doubting that that would be the case here. In any case, it seems there's no point hoping that someone will get around to subbing it then, so I can spend my hope on something more worthwhile.
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Katanagatari Ep 2- Better than the first, still not wholly great. The fight was good, but the first half of the ep... I dunno what it is with me and this show. I guess I'm supposed to find the meta dialogue about catchphrases and writing to be funny, but it literally did nothing for me. Togame is still kind of meh, but they're starting to grow on me at least.
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Negima: Death from above.
-
Negima: Death from above.
Best nicknames for it so far:
Catallite Cannon
KillSat Nyaa
Apocalypse Meow
Hammer of Dawwwww
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Catan from Orbit
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Caught up on FMA Brotherhood, I'm not intrigued. Wish I hadn't started until the series was done. Decided to watch Full Metal Panic too since a friend of mine told me how great it was like 12123 years ago. (I'd forgotten until I saw it listed right by FMA of course.) Basically, this show sucks.
The lead is too clueless even for someone born and raised in the military. The main chick is a moron who seemed to ignore all the crap that happened to her when she was kidnapped. The good guy team of good guys is now ignoring this chick who had her powers awakened and freaking taught the main how to use his weapons. And so on and so forth. The only redeeming quality is the banter between Uzru 2 and Uzru 6. (Or Urzu I forget.)
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Hunter x Hunter: (http://people.ambrosiasw.com/~andrew/funny/not_sure_if_want.jpg)
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I love how seamlessly Hunter x Hunter transitions from serious business to what for lack of a better word I can only call Teh Gay.
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So, it's CLAMP?
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Lotsa HxH talk in here so I'm checking it out. 11 episodes in and I think I'm enjoying it a bit too much, but that's mainly because I am an absolute sucker for multiple stage tests that weed out participants. I find myself studying the dynamic of the test as much as watching the show. The characters are good enough to keep my interested and I am curious to see what they do with a lot of the other participants like the Ninja/Magician/Brothers/RookieSmasher.
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12 Kingdoms
or
Gurren Lagann
~
Which should I indulge in?
-
I don't know a damn thing about 12 kingdoms, unfortunately.
Gurren... if you like cheesy shows about robots with over the top insanity, check it out. If that isn't your thing, try something else.
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Lotsa HxH talk in here so I'm checking it out. 11 episodes in and I think I'm enjoying it a bit too much, but that's mainly because I am an absolute sucker for multiple stage tests that weed out participants. I find myself studying the dynamic of the test as much as watching the show. The characters are good enough to keep my interested and I am curious to see what they do with a lot of the other participants like the Ninja/Magician/Brothers/RookieSmasher.
We're talking about the HxH manga, which has been scientifically proven to be 7.944x more awesome than the anime. It's much better paced and far more brutal than the anime.
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Scar: Have you ever enjoyed a fantasy novel? If so pick 12 Kingdoms, it's basically an anime fantasy novel. Good stuff, highly recommended. (Usual disclaimer that it's a shojou piece, but not annoyingly so, and the quality is easily enough to not stain your masculinity at all for watching.) Gurren Lagan totally failed to grab me after 4 episodes or so. Felt like Disgaea, if you're down for a sorta-parody of giant mech shows I guess it's okay, just as Disgaea is a very anime-geeky parody of RPGs.
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Gurren Lagann drops the parody elements about six episodes in to just be a kickass super-robot show.
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This probably sounds terrible to people that watch lots of shows, but Gurren Lagann really needs to be watched to episode 8 to get an idea of its overall range and quality (it does more genre shifting later, but the first story arc is still a good overall summary of what the show is like)
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Tailor this to the person asking guys. This is Scar.
Gurren Lagann is over the top show that is silly and is all about giant robots (eventually in SPACE) with giant drills winning through the power of extreme manliness. Yes Scar, you should watch Gurren Lagann.
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I think I've seen some 12 Kingdoms. Red haired girl with a sword. People born from trees? Yeah, think I may have seen one or two episodes. I think. Either way from what I remember it was good.
That Gurren Lagann show sound very much like dbz only with mechs. How can that go wrong!?
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It's not really that much like DBZ. For starters it's like 26 eps long.
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Also the fights are fast-moving and beautifully animated.
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And I said extreme manliness not screaming and levitating dirt.
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Ah, well... My friend and I both picked an anime to watch. That was his choice, 12 Kingdoms was mine. He was the one who mentioned that it was DBZ'ish, so whatever. I'm pretty sure I will enjoy my pick more, but I'm all about equal opportunity!
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Oh, 12 Kingdoms is awesome too. The only way you can go wrong is by not watching either one.
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Lotsa HxH talk in here so I'm checking it out. 11 episodes in and I think I'm enjoying it a bit too much, but that's mainly because I am an absolute sucker for multiple stage tests that weed out participants. I find myself studying the dynamic of the test as much as watching the show. The characters are good enough to keep my interested and I am curious to see what they do with a lot of the other participants like the Ninja/Magician/Brothers/RookieSmasher.
We're talking about the HxH manga, which has been scientifically proven to be 7.944x more awesome than the anime. It's much better paced and far more brutal than the anime.
I've got no beef with the anime. It hews very close to the manga, and the only thing it adds is actually really cool (episode 25). after the first OVA is pretty mediocre, though.
And yeah, 12 Kingdoms is awesome, especially the first arc.
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The HxH anime put me to sleep. I'll admit that it was relatively close, but it managed to make HxH boring to me
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The HxH anime put me to sleep. I'll admit that it was relatively close, but it managed to make HxH boring to me
I thought the pacing of this show was pretty good. The only two parts that have gotten slow to me were "Gon letting Ninja beat him up for ages, Ninja concedes." Then a few episodes later. "Gon let's crazy haired chick beat him up for a while, crazy haired chick concedes."
As per a discussion on IRC with Soppy, I'll probably switch to the Manga for the next arc and see how I like it.
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As a note, the Hunter's Exam is the first 37 chapters in the manga. Hmm... I THINK you just did where they go to Killua's house? Next arc I think is the Celestial Tower which is... kinda meh in both. York Shin City is the shit.
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Gundam 00 Volume 5-
Volume of Bad Times For Saji.
A bunch of pieces about Celestial Being are falling into place and it is being fairly compelling. And now I need to wait another month for the rest and it is saddening. And there is currently no sign of Season 2 beginning to come out the month after that and it is even more saddening, although as they never used to reveal the release schedule for the second month ahead and only started that this month, I can always hope that it isn't finalised yet.
Gigantor-
Through to episode 16.
I'm not sure why it is, but the show really drags as I watch it. It has the same sort of really lame humour that I enjoy, and they go through villains like they're going out of style, and Jimmy can fly a jet plane. With one hand. Controlling Gigantor with the other. But I vaguely dread putting it on. It is a mystery.
Gundam SEED Astray R-
Finished.
I am not a fan of the art style by any stretch of the imagination. The guy has a fondness for making scenes far too busy and I gave up caring too much on trying to figure out what exactly I was looking at in a large number of scenes. They are also a fan of having Kisala and the Professor scantily clad. Meanwhile the vast majority of the rest of the characters are hideous, most prodigiously Kenov and Ash. Even Lowe catches the hideous at several points, although Gai manages to get through relatively unscathed but then again he isn't in it all that much anyway.
Hm, whereas the byword in regular Astray is wacky-over-the-toppery the byword in Astray R seems to be attitude. Not an improvement. There are a number of good scenes, such as skewering a battleship with the 150, but on the whole I was looking for more regular Astray and I was disappointed. Also, nowhere near enough George.
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Negima: The uses of Pactio are so varied.
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Gear Fighter Dendoh 1-4: First couple episodes have been compellingly fun. Dendoh's gears make the fights on Earth a lot of fun, and Cyber Weapons seem cool enough. Main characters are little kids that manage to act their age without being terribly annoying, and Vega is a badass hottie.
Fukuda seems to like battery powered mechs, huh?
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Negima: The uses of Pactio are so varied.
How does it go? Something something is the best, put your aunt to the test?
EDIT: The ending of Railgun was nice... but 24 episodes was waaaay too long. Half a show's worth of filler was unnecessary and they didn't even touch on the Numbers arc. If they do a second season I hope they keep it to 13 eps, if that.
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Slayers Revolution- $50 funi? Really? Oh well. Anyways, starts strong, loses some steam towards the end (which actually is unusual for the series... normally there's some middle sag then the end kicks it up to epic. THEN AGAIN, this is fairly obviously half a season pretending to be a full one, so that makes sense.) Anyway, the filler bits were good, and I can't say enough for episode 1 and how perfect it was for "Hey, we're reviving Slayers. Have fun", but the end suffers a bit from having the entire cast kinda pull a Gourry and completely forget everything they should already know about who they're fighting. You've already done the "spells don't work" bit, guys!
Oh well, entertaining.
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E's- Finished final volume...... I... I feel like to puke. I mean, two times in a row now, Satoru san. Two times in a row you have destroyed your own work simply by fucking everything up in the final volume!!!
God, Eiji killing Satomi felt terribly forced, Shinru's death is just boring as hell. Eiji's motive is also dumb as hell, there is so many way to fix Hikaru's problem yet he has to go for the worst..... And Yuki end up felling useless......
God, can you please stop fucking things up with poorly written final volumes???
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Katanagatari ep 3: Meisai should have been the main female. Any female in the series but Togame would have been better. (Cheerio is the most groan inducing thing ever. Actually, any comedic attempts involving her are.)
Fucking jobber enemies ruining great dialogues. Shifting the rest of the backstory to the fight was... not great. At least Shichika is interesting.
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So I watched a decent amount of stuff recently, figured I would talk about them. Finished TTGL about a month or so ago, amazing anime. I had actually started it earlier, but dropped it after the hotspring episode in a bout of facepalm, though after watching the whole thing I was kind of mad at myself for doing so. After that episode, the anime is kind of like a snowball of awesome rolling down a hill, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger until you have an oversized ball of awesome by the end.
It rather left a feeling that anything I watched immediately after wouldn't seem as good, so I decided to just watch a something random that I haven't looked into at all, and decided on Kurohime. The anime itself actually started out decent, and I was actually surprised at how into it I was despite it being somewhat predictable. Then a certain character dies, and while I knew it was going to happen from pretty early on, the show ends up just slowly collapsing in on itself from that point on. For some reason after that point the character interactions just seemed to fall apart, doesn't help that the villain cast ends up being either uninteresting or just WHAAA... in terms of motivation. Anime also suffers by trying to have a darkish tone and just failing it up miserably with the overall lightheartedness when there isn't fighting, though I could be misremembering it since it's been like a month since I've seen it. Would probably peg the show around average collectively, with the first half being above and the second below.
Watched Kurozuka, which is interesting, if a bit confusing. The anime can be a bit hard to follow at times, but once you get to the ending, everything just kind of falls into place. You end up feeling really bad for the main character's situation, and also while I don't want to give it away, Kuro herself probably makes the likes of Aizen jealous for the amount of mind fuckery she pulls on the main character. It's a decently interesting anime for dark humor, though it has a few weird segments that kind of bring it down a bit.
After those two, watched Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom. I honestly liked this series alot, up until like the last 3-4 episodes, at which point things from being believably realistic in nature to just sort of "WHAT?" Putting that aside, I found Ein's and Zwei's interactions to be a joy to watch. Seeing Zwei attempt to free Ein and himself from the underworld that they were forcibly dragged into, despite Ein's own resistance to the notion of being free, was really damn interesting to me. It was an amazing anime to watch, and then near the end there's a battle that just kind of makes you go uggghhhh, and then after that brief stint it goes back to not failing and ends with a bittersweet ending. Really high quality in my opinion, not quite perfect, but pretty close, if only that one stint near the end didn't bring the overall experience down so much.
Most recent thing I watched is Black Lagoon, which is just pure unadulterated awesome. Pretty much moving this up to my favorite Seinen. Revy is awesome, Rock is awesome, Balalaika is just pure amazing win. It's a surprisingly thematic anime, and the back and forth between the characters in and out of battles is done really damn well. The battles themselves basically fall into the unbelievable shoot em up type when Revi is involved, but they're still really damn interesting and well done. The blend of existential themes and action in this anime are just amazing to me, I honestly can't wait for the third season to come out this year.
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Durarara ep 12. This show is fucking brilliant. Why aren't you lamers watching it? It's even better than Baccano at this point.
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Durarara ep 12. This show is fucking brilliant. Why aren't you lamers watching it? It's even better than Baccano at this point.
What makes you assume I am not??
Though, I am probably watching it for a different reason than you do.
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Durarara ep 12. This show is fucking brilliant. Why aren't you lamers watching it? It's even better than Baccano at this point.
What makes you assume I am not??
Though, I am probably watching it for a different reason than you do.
It wouldn't surprise me. It's ridiculously easy to make pairings.
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Durarara ep 12. This show is fucking brilliant. Why aren't you lamers watching it? It's even better than Baccano at this point.
What makes you assume I am not??
Though, I am probably watching it for a different reason than you do.
It wouldn't surprise me. It's ridiculously easy to make pairings.
And just look at the VA cast, they are perfect BL baits.
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Tekkaman Blade -
I had been hoping that Madman would pick up the license to Teknoman to celebrate the release of Tatsunoko vs Capcom. Sadly, it seems that they do not run their business according to whimsy. However, Gray Phantom just recently finished subbing the show, so I acquired that instead.
I really enjoyed it. However, it couldn't keep a consistent level of quality up.
On the one hand, there were parts of the show that affected me more than usual. On the other hand, the fighting descends into DBZ-lights-ramming-each-other-teleporting-around lamery. I don't really have that much of a problem with the latter, but... I really don't feel that it matched the show.
On the one hand, I love the backstory concept. On the other hand, the backstory provided does not cover everyone possible and there is no reason why it shouldn't have had. Two people we don't find out anything more than their names, two more we find out more about but very little. Especially galling that one in particular of these by all rights should have had a vastly larger part in the backstory.
I was also happy to see that they didn't pull a BoFV at the end. TB2 nonwithstanding.
Tekkaman Blade: Burning Clock -
Shinya whines for 9 minutes. Plus his mother commits a bizarrely foolish act but 'fortunately' the laws of physics appear to have been on vacation at the time.
Tekkaman Blade: Twin Blood -
It is differently designed Blade and Evil fighting each other and it is not particularly worthwhile unless you are a big fan of the fighting. I am not.
Tekkaman Blade: Missing Link -
Okay
If you asked me before I watched this, what is the least likely thing I would expect to see in a mini-OVA set between Tekkaman Blade I & II
All things being equal I am not likely to say: One particular individual effectively raping another apparently still brain-damaged individual while berating said person for being impotent
And yet if you asked me now what the most objectionable part was
what
what
what
what
what
what
what
what
what
plus there were a bunch of short scenes that didn't make all that much sense generally, including what appeared to be a particular character being killed off but they appeared in Tekkaman Blade II.
potentially I should rewatch this segment now that I have more information in those regards
Tekkaman Blade II (unlike the previous, this was subbed by Anime-4-ever and not Gray Phantom in case you care about that sort of thing) -
Thhhhh. The first segment with the alien tekkamen was pathetic. They had barely any more personality than regular Radam monsters, and what little personality they did show led to an appallingly stupid scene. I have a vague idea that for the first segment we were supposed to only care about Yumi and tangentially the happy sunglassed man, but Yumi is not a particularly worthwhile character in herself. The second segment was a fair improvement, focusing on David and tangentially on Aki and there was a villain that actually interacted with the characters. I heard somewhere that II was actually intended to be longer than it was, and some of the later events in David's segment did provide a way to hook in a segment focusing on Natasha, but I guess that is a nonconcern now. Ah well.
Neither of the major returning characters needed to be here. They aren't the same characters as they supposedly are. One of them sort of has an excuse but that same excuse is strenuously declaring that it really means that they really, really shouldn't be in any position to be involved. As long as they were going to be different people anyway, they should have been replaced with new characters altogether and relegated the two to cameos if that. Some parts of the storyline would have to be rewritten to account for one of them not being the character they claim to be but as they currently stand they're pretty dumb sections of the storyline anyway so this would not exactly have been a great loss.
How the heck did the military manage to not only rebuild to such an extent within five years, but to also become corrupted to such an extent within that timeframe. Colbert in Tekkaman Blade is at least partially understandable, and he becomes unhinged as events move on (and when things come to a head they are seriously not helped by Freeman being bizarrely reticent with vital information until far too late), but Pavlova/whatever here seems to just be a bastard. I guess things aren't helped by the limited screentime he gets.
Gigantor -
Finished volume 1.
Gigantor punched a shark into another shark, and good times were had by all.
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Durarara ep 12. This show is fucking brilliant. Why aren't you lamers watching it? It's even better than Baccano at this point.
What makes you assume I am not??
Though, I am probably watching it for a different reason than you do.
It wouldn't surprise me. It's ridiculously easy to make pairings.
And just look at the VA cast, they are perfect BL baits.
I've got to say I'm with Niu on this one. Hiroshi Kamiya and Daisuke Ono are certainly perfect BL baits. <333
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And not to mention Toyonaka and Miyano are right next to each other. Soran... I mean Kishio beign around is also a decent surprise. The director must have carefully calculated on what's fan girls' favorite.
BTW, this show is actually in the same world as Baccano.
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And not to mention Toyonaka and Miyano are right next to each other. Soran... I mean Kishio beign around is also a decent surprise. The director must have carefully calculated on what's fan girls' favorite.
BTW, this show is actually in the same world as Baccano.
Issac and Marie make that obvious.
Also episode 12 ruled. Hard. And all that praise.
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Please tell me Walter is descended from Chic?
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Just finished A Certain Magical Index/A Certain Scientific Railgun. While the shows fall victim to countless tropes that generic anime include (including several that I find repulsive), I can't deny that I liked them. Index managed to have a fair amount of interesting setups after the first arc, and while Railgun suffered from being stretched with filler episodes, the purpose was to throw in a slice-of-life for the four main characters and get you attached to them, which it did adequately. Railgun also had a much stronger narrative than Index, since it focused on what amounted to one overarching plot thread with a few subplots.
I will totally not look at coins the same way again. Although honestly at 1200 m/s a coin of about 6 grams (little heavier than a quarter) could kill you but it wouldn't cause NEARLY as much damage as the show implies. It's a little faster than an M16 round but obviously not shaped for penetration. Also the principle behind what she does is coilgun, not railgun since it is contactless (there are no 'rails') Her 'railgun's' energy should be about on par with one single gram of TNT. By comparison, the energy in an honest-to-god lightning strike (which she is capable of) is enough to melt a ton of fucking steel. Funny how that is less hyped by the show, huh?
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Physics
Rule of cool. Apparently the show is made of it.
(I've already heard it from /a/)
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Physics
Rule of cool. Apparently the show is made of it.
(I've already heard it from /a/)
Yep. The animators/writers probably just opened a physics textbook/went on Wikipedia and looked up the average speed of a railgun for the number.
Index is still the better show though, despite the title character being a waste of ink.
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It would make sense if the muzzle velocity was 30x faster or so. Or if the coins were made of something ungodly heavy. (Or if she was constantly accelerating it against any and all resisting forces somehow, thus imparting it with energy at the impact)). Still, it's kind of funny to give numbers and be off by well over an order of magnitude.
http://anime.scripts.mit.edu/miteiru/a-certain-scientific-analysis/
if you want a more amusing analysis.
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The testing part was still pretty neat. I just love the BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. happening in the background while Kuroko was talking to Mitsuko (whose power ended up being pretty damn awesome).
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The way the show teased the viewers about Mitsuko's power up until the LAST FREAKING EPISODE was pretty cool. Index/Railgun powers tend to be awesome in general. Uiharu's is still the best.
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Yeah. Seeing the truck spiraling like a football across the screen suddenly was great.
As for Uiharu... Human thermos! Yeah, useless in battle, but she'd have a great career in medicine ahead of her, also would be useful in a survival situation in cold or hot environments.
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Uiharu seriously doesn't need her power.
Being the top hacker of the Academy City the "Goal Keeper", and the only hacker who fends off Mikoto's electrical psychic hacking. And consider she has been defending the "Bank" for a while. I'd imagine the presidential consul already has been paying her large amount of pay checks.
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Fended off Misaka? Something that happened in the manga? (though I can't see why they would fight with each other. The group is pretty damn tight-knit). What is shown of Misaka's hacking power is pretty ridiculously effective, for all that the show didn't linger on it much (Uiharu needed to play her role, after all).
Durarara: Can't believe I haven't been watching this. Character work is freaking brilliant, writing is sharp and entertaining, and the music is both unique and spirited. The actual storytelling also has flashes of brilliance too. A simple example being Shizuo's story and how the beginning and ending are the same but with Shizuo himself in a different mood completely.
It has some disturbing parts, but they are intentional and work well within the context of the show. I'm really quite pleased with this.
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It is not from Manga, but from To Aru Majitsu no Index SS2.
Uiharu successfully blocks off Mikoto from accessing the Bank, but one of the Bank's server got completely fried as well as no machine can stand both Uiharu and Mikoto tweaking over it simultaneously.
BTW, on the topic of rail gun. My personal explanation on how can a coin hit so hard and does not disintegrate.... is well, probably Academy City's coins are made of some super alloy. Knowing Academy City likes to make everything within its boundary excessively advance, having super alloy coins seems to be fairly reasonable.
Though, if I have to commented on both Index and Railgun, I must say both shows made stupid mistakes.
Railgun made the mistake of being too early. Couldn't they start making the show after the manga is done with the clone arc? Compare to the fillers that the anime put up, I know people would enjoy the Rail Gun vs. Accelerator and Rail Gun vs. Meltdown fight a lot more. Though honestly speaking, I'd prefer the Railgun anime after Index's season 2. Consider Railgun is meant to tie into some later plot arcs in Index, and showing it in Railgun first, the view would have no idea on what's going on. Seriously, how many people understand what's going when the AIM Burst show itself???
As for Index.... they simply wasted time on unimportant stuff. Seriously, the story of volume 1 could be done in 2 episodes, why the fuck they drag it out so long? Outside introducing the cast and have Touma lost his mmeory, volume1 has no other purpose. Including volume 2 into anime is also stupid, Himegami is total air, why waste time on her? Sherry's arc can also be shorter or shouldn't even be around, that arc really server no purpose but to introduce Sherry, who isn't very important anyway. While the Angel Fall arc... they simply didn't put enough juice into it when they should. They Kaori vs. Gabriel fight is just... unjust. One of the best fights in the series ends up being so blend. The show just spend too much time on the unimportant stuff, and the anime ended before even started. If they cut off all the useless stuff, they could have gotten to the story of volume 9 in the first season, where the story really get started.
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Heroman 1 - Yeeees. I like this. Cool OP, snazzy Bones animation, Heroman's design is just the right amount of cheesy - and hopefully the plot follows suit. Plenty of cliches already, but it's Stan Lee doing a comic-booky anime, so no surprises.
Oh, and the teacher's hot.
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After those two, watched Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom. I honestly liked this series alot, up until like the last 3-4 episodes, at which point things from being believably realistic in nature to just sort of "WHAT?" Putting that aside, I found Ein's and Zwei's interactions to be a joy to watch. Seeing Zwei attempt to free Ein and himself from the underworld that they were forcibly dragged into, despite Ein's own resistance to the notion of being free, was really damn interesting to me. It was an amazing anime to watch, and then near the end there's a battle that just kind of makes you go uggghhhh, and then after that brief stint it goes back to not failing and ends with a bittersweet ending. Really high quality in my opinion, not quite perfect, but pretty close, if only that one stint near the end didn't bring the overall experience down so much.
Mm. I got through... five episodes of Phantom myself? Six? I just couldn't stomach the main character at all, or more specifically how the show sympathetically treated him. The main character's actions were that of a moral coward of the highest order, yet the show treated him with kid gloves, like he was Shinji or some other "vaguely normal guy in a tough situation with high expectations." No, he was a psychotic and willful mass murderer for... no particularly good reason.
Okay. So through technobabble his memory is wiped. Fine. Then he's trained as a killer... okay... and then given the choice right out of philosophy textbooks of "kill this random guy with whom you have no quarrel with or we will kill you." And he's furthermore told that he'll have to keep killing for Inferno in order to live, and that if he ever ceases to be a useful tool for Inferno, he'll be killed. In other words the question is a raw, purified "Do you want many innocent people to die so you can live?" The correct answer to this is to die. Zwei had no reason to have loyalty to Inferno, and in fact he was outright told that he would have been killed by them if they hadn't wanted to steal his skills, which pretty heavily implies they might have killed his family as well. The only reason to make such a choice is either as a brief tactical move to infiltrate the organization (similar to spies killing for their employers as they betray them), or as pure cowardice - holding onto your own life even at great cost to others. And it was a powerful moment when he decided to follow through, save his own life, and shoot the random guy.
...except that the show then proceeds to again, not realize that this makes him an evil person. It's not like Inferno keeps a close eye on him later; he's sent out on his own to go hang out near freeways, at malls, etc. And he's some kind of super-assassin. It'd be easy to escape and tell the FBI, or hell, run off to the Yukon and live as a hermit or something. But... he doesn't. What's keeping him with Inferno? It never even occurs to him / the show to discuss the possibility of escape, simply running somewhere else and refusing to work for Inferno anymore. I guess there's implied retribution, but Inferno clearly doesn't own the American underworld *yet* (which is why they have Ein & Zwei shoot everything up), and going on these missions has to be dangerous as well. I mean, for real people, there are 101 reasons why you can work for the evil people - nationalism, some ideology, greed, pride to make your mark, etc. Or, most powerfully, love; how many people have worked for evil causes to feed their children? In fiction, heck, the game "The Getaway" had a London thug going on a massive murder spree around London, betraying his own organization, because the crazy mob boss kidnapped his son and had him over a barrel. But Zwei has, by definition, none of these things! His memory was wiped! So why's he doing this? Again, an answer of "Because he's evil!" would have been A-OK here. Cool, he doesn't value other lives at all and enjoys the challenge or something, fine. Instead, the closest we get for his motivations are Shinji-esque phrases about how the same hands that eat are those that kill innocent kids who happen to be the daughter of rival mob bosses and an implication that he's got no choice. But why does he have no choice? Again, the series fails to explore why he doesn't just run off nearly immediately!
I dunno. I found this such a powerful problem I couldn't keep watching the show, though I'll admit I enjoyed some of the combat. I like evil characters, I like redemption plots, but I don't like super-evil characters the plot pretends are neutral. All they had to do was change the technobabble at the beginning to say "Oh yeah and we brainwashed him to think we're great and obey our orders." Then you could have done everything with a basically sympathetic, neutral guy wondering why he's trapped in a situation where he's constantly killing everyone, and who slowly makes his way out of it.
...yeah. That was the main complaint. To a lesser degree: Where is Johnny Law? Sure I can buy maybe the mob bosses's mansions are slow to call the cops and invite an investigation, but our cute lil' killers go on one of their murder sprees outside a posh mall. Even in cyberpunk settings, the police *will* investigate such an incident in nice parts of town, and with great gusto. Also, I think it was... ep. 5 again? But I slightly goggled when the Inferno boss randomly starts going all "Maybe you can be my personal bodyguard tonight Zwei" while revealing her breast and dressed in, uh, "evening wear." How old is she again, and isn't he 15? (Then I Wikipediaed the series and saw that it had dating sim elements which answered everything.) Also: Cell phones. The opposition need to use 'em. It's not 1998 anymore when they made Noir. You get to kill about one or two people before the alarm goes out and everyone is off to safe houses.
....heh, that ended up longer than expected. Just... yeah. Severe morality issues with that show. I like evil characters the creators realize are evil, I do not like evil characters whom the creators think are innocent.
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*Reads up
Yeah, that is why I said the show should have gone with the Claudia route, where Zwei actually turn evil and team up with Claudia and took over Inferno for themselves. Then their greed suppressed their love and the two end up killing one another as only one person can rule.
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Caught up on Durarara. I'd be pretty damn satisfied if it ended right at 12. If they can manage to build on this and improve it further than this will be in the clear running for best show I've ever seen.
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Karas -
Prophecy is pretty pretty. It's also pretty difficult to follow.
Revelation dials down the prettiness but also dials down the unknowns and sets about explaining some of Prophecy.
But... it really doesn't feel like it was done well. At the end of Prophecy I'm thinking Oh man, I'm only halfway through this. That's a problem. I should have been salivating in anticipation of things being explained. And I did enjoy Revelation, but it comes nowhere close to making up for this.
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Heroman 1 - Yeeees. I like this. Cool OP, snazzy Bones animation, Heroman's design is just the right amount of cheesy - and hopefully the plot follows suit. Plenty of cliches already, but it's Stan Lee doing a comic-booky anime, so no surprises.
This. Surprisingly good English in it, too...
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Yeah. I was surprised by the quality of it. The Stan Lee cameo was great, though I'm sad he didn't do his own voice. But they REALLY nailed America, I think, with all the details in his hometown. The art is a great fusion of Japanese and American styles. So is the music. I've haven't found myself digging BGM this much in a while.
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Yeah, color me surprised at Heroman. It's been how many decades since Stan Lee created something worthwhile?
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Yeah, color me surprised at Heroman. It's been how many decades since Stan Lee created something worthwhile?
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0b/Ravage2099-1.jpg)
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Kekkaishi:
Rant because this show is stupid.
Okay so for the most part it is just painfully generic shonen action with painfully generic shonen romance. But hey it gets hyped, there must be something there, right? Right?
Then we get episode 10. It begins with another stupid fucking tsundere moment. Is it that hard to admit that a cake tastes good Akane freaking Tendo was more reasonable. Then there's some generic action/hijinx with one moderately amusing part which is eh alright material. And then we get the end of the episode. A cliche that I thought was killed and buried for good thirty years ago rises from its grave. The stupid fucking tsundere is scared of a ROACH and has to call the shonen main to exterminate it while she screams and flails all over the place. She hunts demons every night for a living and is scared of a ROACH just to not-progress the stupid shonen romance.
A ROACH.
Fuck this show, I'm out.
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The Stan Lee cameo was great,
4chan has even started a gag of sorts because of it. Might even become a meme, heh.
The American setting is actually refreshing (although the teacher's 'handwriting' is atrocious) and hopefully it'll do away with generic Japanese cliches as well, such as the heavy tsundere described above in Kekkaishi.
On the matter of Kekkaishi I dropped it after three episodes, you're a greater man than I for suffering it for that long.
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The Stan Lee cameo was great,
4chan has even started a gag of sorts because of it. Might even become a meme, heh.
The American setting is actually refreshing (although the teacher's 'handwriting' is atrocious) and hopefully it'll do away with generic Japanese cliches as well, such as the heavy tsundere described above in Kekkaishi.
If Stan Lee continues having highly exploitable cameos like "fill me up Joey," we'll be seeing him for the rest of Heroman's airing time and at least a little past that on three different boards.
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Yeah. Problem with the Kekkaishi anime is the fluff that was mixed in more evenly in the manga was totally front-ended in the anime. It takes a bit to get going, as it's not until the Kokuburou arc that it goes from well-done generic to legitimately good, which starts... I guess either with episode 19 with the first attack or 21 with Gen's introduction. You did stop before a couple good arcs though. Episode 11 starts the arc with the dogs and has a good fight, but annoying sub-villains, and Yoshimori's brother is introduced after that, who is interesting.
I think you're overfocusing on the romance aspect though, as well as Tokine's personality. She's not really that tsundere, and she mostly drops it pretty soon. And as for the cockroach thing... thats the whole point of the gag? It's never been something that bothered me I guess. Fears are irrational and all, but maybe I gloss over it because I like the manga.
Indiana Jones was afraid of snakes. Yeah trauma and all, but you didn't know that until Last Crusade. Did you cry foul on the verisimilitude about being able to casually brush off tarantulas or kill people and being scared of a harmless species of snake at the beginning of Raiders? You might say something about "Yeah, those aren't crazy demon things" but thats just an issue of scale.
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Yoshi's crush on Tokine is pretty one-sided. So I don't know why that would qualify her for tsundere status. (at least not as early as I am). And I think it was a roachlike demon that scarred her, too.
Reading some of the Railgun manga, and I have to say it's pretty fantastic when it hits the Sisters arc. Mikoto on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge complete with competent enemies and loads worth of clever/awesome fighting. Also a good amount of humor in there before the shit hit the fan.
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Yoshi's crush on Tokine is pretty one-sided. So I don't know why that would qualify her for tsundere status. (at least not as early as I am)
This, and (totally expected spoilers) it's when she does start reciprocating (at least, internally) that her behavior towards him changes. Her attitude in the beginning is more akin to having a co-worker that really bugs her rather than liking him but not showing it.
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From within the same episode: Tokine tastes the cake given to her by Yoshimori, finds it delicious, immediately hides her reaction and yells at him. At the end, Tokine is shown physically struggling to give him the present she had for him.
You are not convincing me on the "not a tsundere" argument.
As for the other point, I had honestly hoped the EEK A MOUSE/COCKROACH/WHATEVER SAVE ME thing would stay buried in the old millenium.
There are a number of other things that bug me about the series (why Tokine almost never uses her super accuracy for a killshot instead of letting Yoshimori flail around for minutes for one) and it's just not worth it.
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There are a number of other things that bug me about the series (why Tokine almost never uses her super accuracy for a killshot instead of letting Yoshimori flail around for minutes for one) and it's just not worth it.
She does get to that. The whole point is that she DOESN'T focus on her strengths, and instead keeps trying to adapt her style for power that holds her back. Most of the time she does show off the accuracy in the beginning, the enemy has some way of getting out of the kekkai. She does eventually develop kekkai for that, it's shown in the opening.
I might be misremembering, but it wasn't a present either. It was just his shirt that she had washed for him, and she struggled to give it to him because she didn't want to touch it, since it (and Yoshimori himself) had touched the cockroach (yes, despite washing it).
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Katanagatari 4: The best trolling ever.
So the end of Katanagatari 3 featured a preview for the next episode's fight with the much-hyped awesome swordsman that has been showing up once in a while. They included some very cool footage from the battle too. There was just one problem.
It didn't happen. While the fight was TALKED ABOUT a lot, the fight between Shichika and his arch-rival was not shown. Instead we got some time focusing on his sister as she resists a kidnapping attempt by three affable villains. This however is by no means a bad thing because quite frankly Nanami is completely terrifying and massively fun to watch. It's a pity the show didn't focus on her instead of Togame. Oh well it still goes down as a fake-out along the lines of Ga-Rei Zero's opening.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_mqns_06js
Princess Robot Bubblegum. GTA4's anime parody. That is all.
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Thoughts on P:RFTP
A bit late to respond, didn't notice this at first. I guess I can see where you're coming from with that, since it takes a while for Zwei to actually try to get away. I guess I was able to sympathize with the kill or be killed scenario. I kind of looked at it as "well if I'm being forced to kill someone that's on a hitlist or die if I refuse, I might as well preserve my own life since that dude is probably set to die anyways." I will agree though, the more I watched the more the anime just fell apart. Further reflection just has me thinking of plot holes that come up earlier and earlier in the story, but it was a moderately enjoyable experience for the first half at least.
Aside from that, just recently watched Shuffle! All I can say is...what is this I don't
Yes, I meant for that to be cut off, still figuring out what the hell I think about this.
Starts out a typical Harem for half the season, goes into something reminisce of School Days, only to conclude with the 4th potential interest being the one the guy picks, not the first, not the second, not even the third, but the fourth. Then ends with the mc /wristing to save his loves' life, just...what...
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Romeo x Juliet
The original has the loss of the houses as a tragic event, whereas here the house system is demonised and R&J were intending to dissolve their houses of their own accord anyway. Kind of losing a bit of the impact there!
The overall moral the show seems to be trying to come across with is "place the importance of yourself over the importance of other people", which is on kind of shaky ground as far as morals are concerned. Although it does lead to arguably unpleasant consequences, so they may be trying to work against it, but if so they're doing it in a damn stupid way as people were following the opposite originally and need to be persuaded into acting otherwise.
Escallus & Ophelia needed to die in a fire. I cannot decide whether they are worse or better than Gankutsuou in Gankutsuou, but either way they occupy roughly the same position in the show. I don't believe they ever state exactly what the 'mortal sin' is aside from vague references about grafting things into Escallus, which doesn't shed any light on why that would be a mortal sin in the first place.
The ending is bizarre. So Juliet needs to be absorbed into Escallus in order to a) provide it nourishment so it can continue holding Neo Verona aloft and b) allow it to begin tormenting her for eternity as part of humankind's ongoing penance for the 'mortal sin'. Romeo eventually manages to convince her that this is not the best trade ever proposed, but Ophelia ends up forcing her into it anyway. After some fighting Romeo eventually manages to kill Ophelia and mostly kill Escallus, and get Juliet out, but he gets killed at the same time. This results in Juliet deciding to get absorbed into Escallus anyway because it would be a shame for the world to be destroyed when it could produce people like Romeo. Then Neo Verona lands in the ocean.
So our final score is:
Romeo dead after saving Juliet from an eternity of torment.
Juliet in an eternity of torment after saving Neo Verona from falling to its doom. An eternity of torment while hugging dead!Romeo, might I add.
Neo Verona no longer aloft.
The only winner here is Escallus, although as it can only eat Capulet girls for no explained reason (perhaps it was a Capulet behind the 'mortal sin' originally?) and there are now no Capulet girls left, it will die in a couple of generations anyway (unless Tybalt has daughters, but he may not count). HOORAY!!!!!?!?
But at least Romeo & Juliet died. It was looking there for a while like they wouldn't.
Gundam 00 v6
A large amount of named people died, which surely must have appeased the purists that go on about how large amounts of named people need to die in Gundam endgames and the amount in GSD just didn't cut it, setting aside 0079, 0083, Wing, and SEED. Although some of the dead people showed up in the SS teasers, which must have put a damper on their day.
The Alvatore kind of comes out of nowhere, which is a little disappointing. Is it something that they had put together as per the Thrones or something that was left at the base or what.
Only two thirds of a particular group died, and they left one of the annoying ones alive. Tsk.
A certain fellow showed up for no apparent reason, completely off his rocker. Or so I thought at the time, but I was told that he was actually insane the whole time but never really in a situation where it showed. I can sort of see that, but I dunno. It was a fairly disappointing end to him anyway.
Will that guy and that girl get into a wacky situation in SS where they have to fight each other unknowingly!? It would not surprise me in the slightest but SS still doesn't seem to have a start-being-released date yet.
All up it was fairly good. They dispelled a bunch of mysteries but replaced them with new ones. Looking forward to SS.
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Romeo x Juliet
The original has the loss of the houses as a tragic event, whereas here the house system is demonised and R&J were intending to dissolve their houses of their own accord anyway. Kind of losing a bit of the impact there!
The overall moral the show seems to be trying to come across with is "place the importance of yourself over the importance of other people", which is on kind of shaky ground as far as morals are concerned.
People have been missing the point of Romeo and Juliet for centuries now. I'm not surprised that anime directors who can't even read the original language have also missed the point.
Yes, it is a love story. In the sense that it is a story about love. However, the moral I've always gotten from it was 'Throwing away everything in your life because you're young and IN LOVE is a fast way to get yourself killed. Have some sense and don't think with your dick. Kthxbye.'
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*reads spoilers*
Clearly, the real moral is "society has fucked itself. Even if we take steps to not be fucked, blind followers of tradition will maintain the status quo (of fuckedness). Even if we give it our all to avert disaster, we are fucked. There is no hope, only Xorn."
So basically it is reality as told through the lens of Romeo and Juliet (the popular imagination version, not the real version).
*nodnod*
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Soul Eater 1-4: Fun, good animation, quirky, oddball visual stylings. The four dubbed episode previews were enough to convince me I want to buy it.
MANGA
Bleach: Lolz.
HxH: Lolz.
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Soul Eater 1-4: Fun, good animation, quirky, oddball visual stylings. The four dubbed episode previews were enough to convince me I want to buy it.
MANGA
Bleach: Lolz.
HxH: Lolz.
And why are you not reading Soul Eater's manga instead??
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MANGA
Bleach: Lolz.
Oh how predictable.
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Soul Eater 1-4: Fun, good animation, quirky, oddball visual stylings. The four dubbed episode previews were enough to convince me I want to buy it.
MANGA
Bleach: Lolz.
HxH: Lolz.
And why are you not reading Soul Eater's manga instead??
I'm doing that too >_>
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Fafner
It never really explains the complete deal with the Festum. Alternately I may just be clueless. Maybe I should watch Right of Left.
Or the deal with Soushi, for that matter.
Of the people on the island, I can only think of two who would have been sufficiently depraved enough to pull the grave job that happens early, but it also seems like it would be something that was far beneath them. What a sorry mystery for the show to leave hanging.
I don't think that there was enough time devoted to some of the secondary characters. Mamoru, Kenji show up a reasonable amount in the earlygame but then mostly disappear until they start to pilot. I don't think anyone even mentions the first Fafner pilot that dies aside from a couple of lines in the control centre at the time it happens. ...it's also strange that considering the success they had there, the Festum never do the same thing again despite it showing the main pilots using the same method of transport on a number of occasions. Lucky hit, perhaps.
Cannot say I thought much of the ending.
All up, the show had the scene where the rifle case was fired through the face of the Festum. Also the Sein's crystal weapons were nowhere near as annoying as they were in SRWK although they were never explained either. So we cannot speak too badly of it. I declare it pretty decent.
Anyone know whether Heaven And Earth is going to be an OVA or is it going to be a full series?
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Inuyasha: Last cut.
Forgot how... silly this show is, but I am curious now. They're really rushing it though, back in the day it took Inuyasha time to get new powers, now it's like "Oh hey kill this dude in half an episode and get a sick enw sword."
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Just finished a buncha shows I'd been watching intermittently during the semseter.
Kaze no Yojimbo - so goddamn good. This is small-town mystery and intrigue at its best. A show carefully planned from beginning to end. Also contains about the coolest death scene ever.
Natsume Yuujinchou - Show about a boy who can see and interact with spirits and feels isolated from society because no one else can. Sweet and contemplative, with a fun take on the supernatural, kinda like Mushishi but set in the present.
Record of Lodoss War TV - Your prototypical D&D fantasy. Really, if your DM ain't too creative, you've played this one before.
Kaiji - Zawa zawa! Akagi's redheaded cousin. Seriously, watch the first arc and stop there. After that things get dull (and violent).
Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi - silly sequel. not worth watching.
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Space Adventure Cobra - The Movie
Uhhhh.
The goal of the main villains is to ram a man-made planet into the single sun in the galaxy. Which will somehow destroy the entire galaxy. They are doing this just to intimidate the other galaxies. Did I mention that they are a mafia syndicate with extensive holdings in this galaxy? Although to be fair, far more extensive holdings outside of this galaxy. The attack is also not reusable even if the planet survives for another hundred years at minimum, but I guess that the places intended for intimidation probably don't know that. That probably says everything that needs to be said.
Also some thoroughly unneccessary scenes such as when Cobra is practicing with the motion control of the psychogun, after which he speaks about how he doesn't know why he is bothering because it wouldn't work anyway. He goes on to use the psychogun a single time more in the movie and it's for a direct shot. Well that was worthwhile. Interestingly enough that shot is blocked bodily from hitting its intended target by the guy the gun doesn't work on. The guy the gun doesn't work on because the projected energy just goes straight through him. Terrific.
Miras has the worst 'traditions' ever if you can even call new queens being split into three people and recombined under certain conditions at a later date a 'tradition'.
All in all it is not the greatest movie I have ever seen. Also Cobra has a horribly mugging smile a lot of the time.
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Watched Baccano again, I don't know why, but I did. And it just reaffirmed one thing...
Claire chan!! 愛してるよ!!! 愛して愛して愛して....もう堪らない!!!! あああああ!! 貴方なら僕を殺してでもいいよ!! いや!! いやいやいや!!! 是非貴方が僕を殺したい, 殺してくださいぃぃぃ!!!!!
Ahhhh!! Narita, you should really publish a volume starring Claire chan alone!!! Ahhh how much I love you Claire chan!!! I can not resist the urge to write cross over doujin between you and Hitoshiki!! This is just too much!!!
Monochrome Kitan- Read this, and then I realized why yet another KH doujin artist went into hibernation.... Why? I thought you said you hate meeting deadlines? Whyyyyy!!???
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Watched the ToV movie......
....and what is wrong with Yuri and Flynn acting like some bickering newly wed??? Oh well, at least it feeds to my yaoi desires perfectly. But didn't expect Flynn to be such a hot head in the past, what made him become the Yuri dependent uke that he is now???
Also watched the new EVA movie, with better quality this time. What can I say, music is great, and goodies to unit 1 and 2 in future SRW. But whatever, what really makes me glee is that Kaworu is planning to marry Shinji for real.
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Claire Stanfield is so manly, it wouldn't be gay. It would be Gar.
Anyways, watching Durarara and liking it. Not much else on the anime front right now. Wish Katanagatari and Bakemonogatari would get finished sooner rather than later but thems the breaks.
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Claire Stanfield is so manly, it wouldn't be gay. It would be Gar.
Anyways, watching Durarara and liking it. Not much else on the anime front right now. Wish Katanagatari and Bakemonogatari would get finished sooner rather than later but thems the breaks.
You should watch Ichiban no Daimaou. Everyone should. Because it is awesome. Hahahahahahaha.
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Finally watched Evangelion 2.0.
Was fun as hell. Characters being watered down is unfortunate (seems like they really are relying on people knowing the original), but the intensity makes up for it a little. Makes me wonder how this would have been as a series. Final verdict is 9/10. I have to dock the point for breezing through character development.
Don't read forward unless you want to be spoiled.
The characters are no longer NEARLY as flawed individuals, but... that could very well be on purpose, which I'll get into later.
The first half of the movie continues in the tradition of the first in rehashing the old series. Then Shinji's SDAT player jumps from it's classic 25-26 loop to track 27, and EVERYTHING CHANGES. For the good? Possibly. Hard to tell at this point. The finale was intense, but out of place for Evangelion sort of. But we're treading new ground here. Everything is new and dangerous territory. The next two movies should be really interesting to watch. To give you a hint, the Third Impact has already happened. Sort of.
I like the old series better at this point. Better character work and all. Ironic that it's harder to emphasize with the characters when they're actually more likable now. Rei has a lot more personality, Asuka isn't an unreasonable bitch-goddess, Shinji is... closest to his original state, but still better. Mari, the new pilot, is an unknown quantity at this point. She doesn't get much time or development, and seems to only exist for fanservice in this movie. Kaji is also ten times less awesome as he doesn't actually get to do anything so far.
And yet, there are massive hints that this has all happened before. Literally. Kaworu has been dropping lines that he remembers stuff that has happened from the TV series. At the end, he pilots an angelic, Eva-01esqe robot down from the moon and carries a SECOND Lance of Longinus, mentioning "This time, I will make you [Shinji] happy no matter what". So this actually may be a stealth sequel. If so, then the characters being slightly less flawed would make sense, as the instrumentality from the first show repaired them, but not quite enough. We'll see! There's so fucking much that could happen from this point out it's interesting to think about it.
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All right, I don't want no spoilers, so let's keep this simple, Kev: Good (Y/N)?
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Edited my original post to add things and pull out my non-spoiler thoughts of the movie.
But Y
Oh. The version I got was the sub out by Coalgirls. It was the only name I recognized among the hundreds of no-name quicksubs of the movie. Downloaded the 4.7 gig 720p version. Excellent quality and sub.
Also to give you a hint, I needed about two hours after the movie to process everything and decompress enough to even turn on my TV or accept any other kind of input.
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The characters are no longer NEARLY as flawed individuals, but... that could very well be on purpose, which I'll get into later.
The first half of the movie continues in the tradition of the first in rehashing the old series. Then Shinji's SDAT player jumps from it's classic 25-26 loop to track 27, and EVERYTHING CHANGES. For the good? Possibly. Hard to tell at this point. The finale was intense, but out of place for Evangelion sort of. But we're treading new ground here. Everything is new and dangerous territory. The next two movies should be really interesting to watch. To give you a hint, the Third Impact has already happened. Sort of.
I like the old series better at this point. Better character work and all. Ironic that it's harder to emphasize with the characters when they're actually more likable now. Rei has a lot more personality, Asuka isn't an unreasonable bitch-goddess, Shinji is... closest to his original state, but still better. Mari, the new pilot, is an unknown quantity at this point. She doesn't get much time or development, and seems to only exist for fanservice in this movie. Kaji is also ten times less awesome as he doesn't actually get to do anything so far.
And yet, there are massive hints that this has all happened before. Literally. Kaworu has been dropping lines that he remembers stuff that has happened from the TV series. At the end, he pilots an angelic, Eva-01esqe robot down from the moon and carries a SECOND Lance of Longinus, mentioning "This time, I will make you [Shinji] happy no matter what". So this actually may be a stealth sequel. If so, then the characters being slightly less flawed would make sense, as the instrumentality from the first show repaired them, but not quite enough. We'll see! There's so fucking much that could happen from this point out it's interesting to think about it.
Second? Are you sure?? I believe the one that Kaworu carries is the same one from TV series, the one got shoot into space. The one in Central Dogma should be the new spear that was made for this second loop. Also, the red area on the moon, could that be Rei's blood from the old movie?
BTW, Kaworu's bot should be unit-6 if my calculation is correct.
Anyway, the music is awesome, where they use The Beast is even more awesome. Just the paper isn't as cute this time, or should I say the paper got turned into ribbon this time??
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The characters are no longer NEARLY as flawed individuals, but... that could very well be on purpose, which I'll get into later.
The first half of the movie continues in the tradition of the first in rehashing the old series. Then Shinji's SDAT player jumps from it's classic 25-26 loop to track 27, and EVERYTHING CHANGES. For the good? Possibly. Hard to tell at this point. The finale was intense, but out of place for Evangelion sort of. But we're treading new ground here. Everything is new and dangerous territory. The next two movies should be really interesting to watch. To give you a hint, the Third Impact has already happened. Sort of.
I like the old series better at this point. Better character work and all. Ironic that it's harder to emphasize with the characters when they're actually more likable now. Rei has a lot more personality, Asuka isn't an unreasonable bitch-goddess, Shinji is... closest to his original state, but still better. Mari, the new pilot, is an unknown quantity at this point. She doesn't get much time or development, and seems to only exist for fanservice in this movie. Kaji is also ten times less awesome as he doesn't actually get to do anything so far.
And yet, there are massive hints that this has all happened before. Literally. Kaworu has been dropping lines that he remembers stuff that has happened from the TV series. At the end, he pilots an angelic, Eva-01esqe robot down from the moon and carries a SECOND Lance of Longinus, mentioning "This time, I will make you [Shinji] happy no matter what". So this actually may be a stealth sequel. If so, then the characters being slightly less flawed would make sense, as the instrumentality from the first show repaired them, but not quite enough. We'll see! There's so fucking much that could happen from this point out it's interesting to think about it.
Second? Are you sure?? I believe the one that Kaworu carries is the same one from TV series, the one got shoot into space. The one in Central Dogma should be the new spear that was made for this second loop. Also, the red area on the moon, could that be Rei's blood from the old movie?
BTW, Kaworu's bot should be unit-6 if my calculation is correct.
Anyway, the music is awesome, where they use The Beast is even more awesome. Just the paper isn't as cute this time, or should I say the paper got turned into ribbon this time??
I more meant second as in a second numerical one, not as an actual name. It could be the one from the first, but the design is different. I'll have to go back and see what the original looks like after it's thrown, as it's design changes in mid-flight. The one sticking in Lilith now looks like the one from the original as well.
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The Beast (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXGYhAGdgqg)? Or something else?
I can dream that it is true.
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Eva Movie.
...
Halfway I really just stared there. Inappropriate music. Knew what was coming.
Goddamnit that hit me hard.
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Legend of Crystania OVA, in short: God Barbas throws a house party in Ashram's body. Oh shit, daddy's home.
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Legend of Crystania OVA, in short: God Barbas throws a house party in Ashram's body. Oh shit, daddy's home.
Hahaha. Oh that crapfest.
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It's funny. Crystania isn't objectively any good, but if you took its plot, it'd be a pretty decent D&D campaign. That's the long way of saying it has a good setup but does nothing with it.
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Evangelion 2.0: Wow. Fun. Generally echoing Soppy here, with a little more hate for the insert songs and a little more hype for the good old UST between Asuka and Shinji.
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It's funny. Crystania isn't objectively any good, but if you took its plot, it'd be a pretty decent D&D campaign. That's the long way of saying it has a good setup but does nothing with it.
So someone has done the Lodoss Wars/Riftwar Saga/Dragon Lance thing without actually doing the D&D game? How lame.
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It's funny. Crystania isn't objectively any good, but if you took its plot, it'd be a pretty decent D&D campaign. That's the long way of saying it has a good setup but does nothing with it.
So someone has done the Lodoss Wars/Riftwar Saga/Dragon Lance thing without actually doing the D&D game? How lame.
Chrystania is set in the Lodoss Wars universe. It takes place on the continent that Lodoss Island is near.
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Fullmetal Alchemist-
Final chapter....
Farewell Hohenheim!! Farewell!
Ahhh, tears are coming out of my eyes!!!
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FMA is over...
*sniffles*
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Rewatching Trigun, Berserk, and Escaflowne with my girlfriend since she somehow missed all three of those wonderful animes. Starting with Trigun, and going to work her into Berserk since it is a little more dark then what she enjoys. =)
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Eva 2.22.
So there are two movies after this?
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Eva 2.22.
So there are two movies after this?
I sense Jimcasm.
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Eva 2.22.
So there are two movies after this?
I sense Jimcasm.
See if I can speak abstractly enough not to spoil anything...
I had two thoughts at the end.
1. "How the fuck are they going to find enough stuff for another two whole movies?"
2. "Two whole Eva movies' worth of I-don't-know-what-the-fuck-they're-gonna-put-in-them is probably a very good thing."
Movie 2 reminded me a lot of one of the best things about Persona: Trinity Soul. The plot proceeds. It doesn't waste time getting back to the status quo, it just plows forward.
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Paprika- happy little movie.
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Eva 2.22.
So there are two movies after this?
I sense Jimcasm.
See if I can speak abstractly enough not to spoil anything...
I had two thoughts at the end.
1. "How the fuck are they going to find enough stuff for another two whole movies?"
2. "Two whole Eva movies' worth of I-don't-know-what-the-fuck-they're-gonna-put-in-them is probably a very good thing."
Movie 2 reminded me a lot of one of the best things about Persona: Trinity Soul. The plot proceeds. It doesn't waste time getting back to the status quo, it just plows forward.
I think there is enough stuff to put. Since Kaworu enters the scene from a completely different position, there is a lot of new stuff they can add in. Then toss in two more angel fights and fan service. Movie 3 complete.
The last movie can be devoted entirely to the mass produced EVA fight and the EoE sequence.
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Berserk -
I was expecting violence and the first segment bears this out. But then it jumps to a completely different track and runs with drama + intrigue + violence for the majority of the rest of the show. And then during the endgame it burns all the goodwill it had bought and throws all the interesting stuff out for violence. Also worth mentioning is that there is a gaping shear fracture between the ending and the post-ending with no explanation given as to how things could possibly have gone from the one situation to the other.
So it has kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm not really sure what I should be thinking of it here. The opening made the show look like it was going to be a decent monster-of-the-week type, which I enjoy, and it is somewhat jarring to have it change tack directly afterwards even if it is to a better style of show. The most of the show was great and I was very entertained. The endgame was just atrocious. I am kind of just repeating the first paragraph here SO
I cannot really think of anything else to say offhand. Didn't care much for the OP/EDs. Sometimes they forgot to add skin colour to Griffith.
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The real question is, did you watch the out takes?
Disection of the plot is accurate. Berserk suffers greatly from ending since there is so much more story there (Getting from the ending to the beginning is like the next arc or two (or 6?) of the manga), it is a silly thing and should only be watched for the silly and ze ultraviolence. It is fun for the silly though and I hear NEB loves it and it is totally his favouritest.
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The ending is explained better in the manga, but don't think for a second that it is any less gut-wrenching and painful than in the show. It's supposed to be that way. Griffith is willingly sacrificing his friends to gain power and it goes very, very far in showing just how horrible his decision is. Griffith KNEW this would happen and he not only agrees to it, but he ENJOYS it, even making it a point to completely rub it in Guts' face. It's an abrupt event, but even in the anime it's honestly not hard to see why the Eclipse happens. It sucks because it's disappointing to see that happen to the characters and you can not like it, but saying that it makes no sense or is just violence for violence's sake is just flat wrong.
The Eclipse itself is even more painful in the manga. Even though I knew it was coming, I was in tears and with each page even I kept asking it to stop. I know how this sounds but I'm posting it anyway. Manga also at least explains how they escaped the Eclipse too.
The first ep is really just a shoutout to Black Swordsman Guts a few post-scripts of the manga, since the actual flashback arc doesn't even begin until volume 3 and they decided to just skip 99% of it.
-
Eva 2.22.
So there are two movies after this?
I sense Jimcasm.
See if I can speak abstractly enough not to spoil anything...
I had two thoughts at the end.
1. "How the fuck are they going to find enough stuff for another two whole movies?"
2. "Two whole Eva movies' worth of I-don't-know-what-the-fuck-they're-gonna-put-in-them is probably a very good thing."
Movie 2 reminded me a lot of one of the best things about Persona: Trinity Soul. The plot proceeds. It doesn't waste time getting back to the status quo, it just plows forward.
I think there is enough stuff to put. Since Kaworu enters the scene from a completely different position, there is a lot of new stuff they can add in. Then toss in two more angel fights and fan service. Movie 3 complete.
The last movie can be devoted entirely to the mass produced EVA fight and the EoE sequence.
Thats what everyone is expecting and I'm just not that sure it'll happen. We've already seen from the preview that the Third Impact is over. Done. Granted, they can restart it or do something similar, but I think that we're really moving into uncharted waters as far as the events, though the endgame of the characters' resolutions may be the same.
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I did watch the outtakes. A good deal of them were too nonsensical for my tastes sadly. Also, Griffith's voice actor needed to stop singing.
I didn't mean to imply that the final section didn't make sense. At least in the sense of the actions of the characters. Mainly I'm not a fan of what I consider to be an abrupt shift in tone and the injection of an absurd amount of supernatural content when there had not been -too- much previously. And mostly that this was what they ended on. Was this where they set out to end the adaptation or did they get cancelled?
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It was pretty much where they meant to end. The anime was just meant as an advertisement for the manga, which is why it was so cheap looking. It's kinda frustrating that Miura's painstakingly detailed, amazing art could be reduced to that.
The supernatural stuff comes on gradually. Again, one of those conversions that the manga makes a bit better, but there isn't honestly too much different. You'd think Zodd would tip you off to that though...
I do recommend Berserk Abridged. A mixed bag, but the clever stuff really makes it worth watching. Ep 1 is meh, Ep 2 is good, the next few are just okay, then it gets reasonably consistant, especially once you hit Midland.
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MMm yeah I personally never had much of an issue with the switch to fairly high concept supernatural stuff. The majority of the story is low magic, but the setting pretty blatantly from the beginning lets you know that it is a high fantasy (albeit post apocalyptic) setting. It may not wear it on its sleeve after that, but the Behelits constant presence is not exactly a subtle reminder (It gets whipped out every 2 or 3 episodes). Edit - Of course that is to acknowledge that the ending is incredibly jarring, but that is the intent.
That doesn't change the fact that even if Berserk wasn't an insanely dark setting thing and they had continued on with a more up beat plot I still would have enjoyed it certainly. It just wouldn't have been nearly as 90s at it was. One of these days I will have to read through the whole thing to see how much it has evolved in the 20 years it has been going.
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Just finished Bleach's Zanpaktuou Rebellion arc. For once, a good detraction from the story line. Gets sort of depressing at the end. More static fighting scenes which shows an attempt at better animation. Still formulaic Bleach though.
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Alive- Well, this ended too..... Taisuke is still a sorry excuse of human being in the end, not a bad thing, for the purpose he served. Katsumata, pitiful, just pitiful. Mitama actually is a nice guy is... well I guess it worked. But the final chapter really should not exist, my image on Yuta has collapsed completely.
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If hope exists anywhere in Berserk, it exists solely to be crushed. Those last two episodes were fucking visceral. You really think that, even though things aren't great, that maybe the characters can make some kind of place for themselves where stuff will eventually work out if they really try. But then the show is all:
FUCK YOU THE SKY IS MADE OF BLOOD NOW.
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This topic reminds me that I want to read the Berserk manga.
Know any good places to do that? I'd just buy it, but there is a severe lack of English copies where I live and this is a series where I actually care what's going on, so I don't want to trust my translation skills.
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Djinn, you sounds like as if most fan translators are reliable.
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Wherever you go for it, be sure to read the Band_of_Hawks translation, which is possibly the best scan of any manga ever, and follow up where they leave off with Evil_Genius.
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Heroman 11: A wild
Haruko Holly appears! Seriously. The FLCL people called, they want their bass-wielding psycho bitch back.
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Jubei-chan - "Papa, what's the best way to get rid of a silent ninja army?"
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Berserk: I want badass Casca back.
Apart from that, the manga is as awesome as expected. Some of the scans I found had missing translations scattered throughout, so I ended up having to translate a bunch of lines of dialogue myself anyway. >.>;;
Finally found the Band of the Hawks translations though, so all is good now.
The non-anime characters are more fully developed and colorful, to be sure. But a lot less realistic as a result.
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I wouldn't really say they're much different than in the anime. The Band of the Hawk arc is pretty much the same outside a few random events. Things just wildly diverge once the Eclipse happens because Guts becomes less than a god, but more than a man. I think he manages to keep his general humanism though. He still has reasonable fears, concerns and goals despite walking the line between sanity and complete batshit psychopath. I would probably consider that the unrealistic thing is that he HASN'T completely given himself over to complete insanity after all that's happened to him.
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Re-watched LoveCom. Still as good as I remember it.
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I wouldn't really say they're much different than in the anime. The Band of the Hawk arc is pretty much the same outside a few random events. Things just wildly diverge once the Eclipse happens because Guts becomes less than a god, but more than a man. I think he manages to keep his general humanism though. He still has reasonable fears, concerns and goals despite walking the line between sanity and complete batshit psychopath. I would probably consider that the unrealistic thing is that he HASN'T completely given himself over to complete insanity after all that's happened to him.
I think you misread everything I wrote? That's my fault, I should have been more clear (and also the Scanslation team needed a less confusion-causing name).
Let me clarify now:
I found the translations made the Band of the Hawks group. They are good.
The Band of the Hawk arc is really the same as the anime, I agree. I wasn't trying to compare the anime versions of those characters to the manga versions of the same characters.
My intended statement was: The characters that never show up in the anime are more colorful than the ones we see in the anime (which are the same as the ones in the Band of the Hawk arc, obviously). The manga-only crew seems less realistic as a result of being so colorful (Farnese isn't bad, but everyone else seems a bit too extraordinary).
I didn't really provide an opinion about Guts, but since you brought it up due to the misunderstanding - I like how he's being handled overall. In the anime/Band of the Hawk Arc, he was really easy to empathize with. In the later manga chapters, he's more distant, but far more interesting due to the internal struggle against the madness.
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Angel Beats - End
Okay, so... great start. Very interesting. Powerful OP, as far as I'm concerned, with a touching ED. Really well-done. Pacing was a little fast at first, then slowed down, then went fast again. Well, it's a 13-episode series. No filler at all, heh.
Then the last episode hits and two characters suddenly act COMPLETELY out of character, and the finale has me going, "Wa-buh?" because not once in the anime does it actually hint towards this ending... well, you can expect such an ending but the specifics are buh-worthy.
... I guess I liked it but maaaaaaaaaan @ the ending. So many things I still wanted to see.
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Ah, Berserk... it still holds that spot as my favorite anime/manga of all time.
Can't say I remember TOO much about the manga (as I read it almost 4 years ago), but I do remember it being full of awesomenicity.
I just loved Griffith as a character. It seemed as if everyone was trying to get him, but he was always one step ahead of the crowd. That is of course until the moment he treated Guts as a possession, rather then a comrade, a friend, or even an equal.
What I found disturbing was how he was reborn in the manga, but I did like the resurgence of the Band of the Hawk.
I also liked Serpico. He was one of the manga characters I actually enjoyed that didn't turn out to be a comic relief or damsel in distress like everyone else that isn't named Guts. At least he had some sort of smarts for a person in that world. One of my favorite scenes with him was when he and Guts fought on the mountain side.
Speaking of Guts... he is re-gawd-damn-diculous. He gets more and more bat shit insane with his antics as the manga countinues. For fucks sake he was fully ablazed in one scene and it didn't stop him one bit. He's a mans man. *swoons*
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ToV Movie:
Generally decent enough to be watchable without being particularly good. Production values are high although there are a few moments where the animation/detail is sorely lacking (Yuri stabs someone right through, and slowly withdraws the sword which has... no blood on it at all...). Other than that, I liked the chemistry the knight group had. The movie is ultimately about developing Yuri and Flynn from idealist youths more like the earlier Tales mains into the more jaded/world-wise characters they are at the start of ToV proper. It works.
Production values were as I mentioned high (it is a movie after all), and it lends something to the experience certainly. Lots of minor things being animated and individual character designs even for throwaways. The action is generally pretty fun. Yuri and Flynn are killing machines, and the lack of Blastia means it all comes off down to pure swordskill with lots of very satisfying flourish from Yuri of course. The barfight was pretty cool, although not as great as DQ8's certainly. I was kind of hoping the Twins would get in on that.
Speaking of, the knights' chemistry is quite satisfactory in this. I found myself rooting for even the redshirts to make it out alive. Although I kinda figured the badass commander would have to go (and he really, really did. Yuri needed an impetus to leave the Knights after all). Yuri and Flynn have their same dynamic as in the game, although they are both younger and even more hot-headed (especially Yuri). The dogs were great fun to watch when they were around, with Lambert (Repede's pop) doing cute things like picking up Repede by the scruff of the neck and walking off when Yuri complains about having to watch him. Hisuka and Shastere are very close sisters and they tend to they interact pretty well with Yuri and Flynn in particular (who are practically Twins themselves in their relationship). And the commander works well enough to interact with Flynn and Yuri to develop them along their respective paths.
The entire point was developing Yuri and Flynn, which was pulled off quite well. Having to make decisions that shatter their youthful idealism and deal with a corrupt system that sets them up for who they are in ToV proper. Flynn resolves to become powerful enough to make a difference in the world while Yuri gets kind of fed up and leaves. I was a little disappointed that everyone just kind of accepted Yuri leaving the Knights, but the squad was generally shown to be pretty close so I guess it makes some sense. Ultimately though Yuri was the one who quit and did nothing while Flynn resolved to keep going. That is a pretty important point at the beginning of ToV and is one that is shown here.
Oh and the movie gets a point for incrementing the Yuri Count. i.e. the number of dicks he's skewered/cut open. This puts it at 5 with Alister, Raguo, Cumore, Alexie, and Zagi.
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Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan - Yeah, I hadn't watched it yet. sue me. anyway, the show is a multiple orgasm of manliness, and 5 episodes from the end someone gets punched so hard they're blown out of space-time. So awesome.
Best bastard child of Mazinger Gunbuster and BoF:DQ ever.
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Utena's going back into print! And they're using the remastered video!
FUCK YES.
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Slayers Evolution-R- FUNNIIIIIIIIII
Okay, that aside, improvement! This half of the season is more consistent overall, the fillery episodes are better at being ludicrous (although, no traditional episode 17 is sad times), and if you're going to be Slayers filler ludicrous is your starting bench mark.
Otherwise, I think someone over there is under the impression that Rezo was their best villain, which is probably a sound argument. Final episode was a bit weak for big Slayers battles, but everything leading up was pretty good. I also get the impression overall that this project was, supposing it worked out, meant to bring the anime storyline to a place where it could begin following the novels more closely again, but don't quote me on that.
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Also: best crypto-cameo ever?
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Just watched all of Trigun and I must say...
Spoilers?
The episode where Wolfwood dies is still to this day one of my favorite anime episodes of all time.
Now onto Escaflowne and then Berserk!
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Sword of the Stranger -
Kind of left it too long after watching this to remember anything in particular to comment on. So. I watched it. I think it was decent. Next.
True Mazinger Z-
Not sure why I only just got around to this recently. I see that the first episode is just as confusing with the sound synched up as it was without, so I probably could have even watched it reasonably finely on my old computer perhaps.
All up... I think I prefer classic Mazinger Z. Tru Mazzy does have a number of pretty awesome moments that make it worth watching however. ...although some of them may only meet that criteria if you've seen previous Mazinger serieses.
The animation is kind of disturbing because it's so mediocre at times, compared to the separate frames. And for all that bad animation is supposed to be endemic to japanese cartoons, it isn't something I normally notice, so I'm not sure what that says for the show. Also sometimes they draw Brocken's head attached to his body which is kind of what-inducing.
Either the writing or the translation is pretty woeful as well. Got noticeably better around halfway through the series. I have been told that the translation I was watching was speedsubbed so I hope that the fault here falls on the translation end rather than the show's end. There are some things that can't be their fault, such as Kouji & Sayaka being forced together near the end of the series when they've barely spoken to each other previously. Also, Kouji becoming unable to fight due to realising the devestation he is causing, then shortly afterwards cutting a path of devestation through the city without caring and never caring again for the remainder of the series.
Some good things: Boss had some pretty amusing lines. Ashura beating up on Maz. The drawbacks of Brocken's state being drawn attention to. Pygman was vastly improved over classic Pygman, regardless of what my brother thinks.
And it all ends on a cliffhanger. Tsk. I'm hoping that, assuming that they are even making a followup and it isn't Mazinkaiser SKulL, they go full on into a Great Mazinger pseudoremake since GMaz the show was horribly represented in Mazinkaiser. They have kind of burnt off some sections of GMaz in Tru Mazzy which is troubling, but it seemed to be leading in to it. Also we need awesome versions of the lesser main GMaz villains. And Robot Junior *shot*
Also they managed to make the Lorelai section of Tru Mazzy worse than the Lorelai section of Classic Mazzy what in the heck were they thinking
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The Shin Mazinger speedsubs were incredibly bad.
Also, no word on a Shin Great Mazinger yet. Sadness.
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Planetes: This was pretty cool. Slice of life stuff with an endearing cast is very much Cidstyle. I have heard it summarized as "garbagemen in space." This is not far off. The show is all about marrying the mundanity of everyday life/work with the allure of space exploration. You can tell someone on the staff has a deep love for the subject matter--they go to a considerable amount of effort to treat the mechanics/physics/effects of spaceflight realistically, as well as dealing with the social/political/economic consequences of it. The opening credits I think are very informative of the approach here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRM585MVvyA. Imagery from throughout the ages, people always looking the skies, dreaming. Having to trudge through harsh reality to get there. It takes a lot of work to romanticize and demythologize something at the same time, but they did it. The ending sequence was really sweet; had to rewatch it, knowing anything else I saw that day would seem crass afterward. Definitely recommended.
Sadly, I missed a few episodes (15-18) because Netflix mysteriously lost their copy of disc 4 just before I got to it. Why the heck did Claire get fired? Just for sounding like Shion?
Mnemosyne: And this was just fucked up. I don't even mean because of the myriad gory deaths the protagonist suffered. Or the fact that being immortal apparently also turns you into a lesbian (I am pretty much the last person to be offended by that particular sort of fanservice, but lord is it abundant here). It was entertaining enough when it was just episodic detective stuff. Edged into depressing when the main characters' acquaintances kept dying but eh, that's one of those things you have to address when your central cast doesn't age. The plot and backstory the show dived into in the last two episodes was 100% :psyduck:, though. I really don't know what the fuck. Not real clear on what exactly happened to the villain there, either, but it surely wasn't anywhere near the hell the sack of shit deserved. Bleh. Had to go watch some Utena afterward to wash the fail out of my brain. But now I'm writing about it so it's back again. I hate me.
Ouran: Watched the first disc of this. Unsure if I will finish it. I appreciate that it's a good parody because sometimes it's honestly hard to tell that's what it is. Flat-out silly is just not an approach I usually find endearing in anime, though.
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The Tatami Galaxy:
A fun show that explores the psyche and life(/lives) of a generic loserish sort of main in a perfectly normal setting (outside the time-looping). I ended up caring about all the characters and getting a good feel for who they were and what their motivations were. The ending will stick with me as one of the best I've seen in an anime, certainly.
One thing I will say for it is that it flips the 'harem' trope so marvelously that I still can't stop grinning about it. It kinda has to be seen to be believed. Other than that it features the greatest bromance ever and a fine female lead in Akashi.
And Now For Something Completely Different (for Durarara watchers):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpyCdxpTagg
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New One Piece opening is pretty good. It's pretty much nothing like a typical One Piece OP though, which I guess is fitting considering the arc it covers.
Anyway I've been rewatching Macross Frontier recently and I'm being reminded why it's my favourite anime. It's also kinda neat catching references to the earlier Macross series now that I've actually seen them.
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Area 88 (2004) -
Fairly entertaining. Perhaps a bit short... although. I found the ending fairly mediocre. If they were running out of ideas by then then it may have been for the best.
Shin loses all his money for unspecified reasons - I could see them charging him enough for the use of the rescue vehicles that he would end up back under the required amount, and then he has to buy a new plane in order to earn more which is another chunk gone, but he's bought a new plane before without any indication that it was a massive hit to his funds. It's possible that him having to start all over was overstated for drama purposes of course I guess. Either way at least he doesn't have to start from the beginning of his service time again! But they never tell us how much of his service time he's actually gone through.
Ryoko finds out that Shin is still alive and... runs away. In her wedding dress. That is a state which will decay rapidly and a horrible thing to end on.
Kanzaki doesn't receive any sort of comeuppance and is liable to find Ryoko missing shortly and have her found shortly after that as she cannot exactly get far in her current getup. Then what? To say nothing of the likelihood of him running into Makoto.
I was also a tad mystified as to how Shin, previously being just a light plane/airliner pilot (and even then - supposedly him and Kanzaki had finished their airliner training, but then you have Kanzaki taking a flight test during the series, so...), managed to get to the state of competence he is at the beginning of the series without having died, considering the number of competent pilots which we see die.
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https://superrobotwar.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/super-robot-wars-og-original-generation-the-inspector-anime/
Apparantly OG2 plot wasn't a big enough trainwreck as it is, so they're going to make an anime out of it.
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With Masami Obari as director, and mech designs from a billion different people[angelg redesigned by godannar artist = DO NOT WANT]. Trainwreck is a serious understatement, this could be the most MST3k-able show ever made.
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The character designer aren't same people either.
The mech also have some really fucked up redesign.
Anyway, it'll bomb, just like the last one.
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Gundam ZZ-
Put this on hold for some reason then forgot about it. Fortunately on getting back to it I found that the subbing had progressed to twice the episodes that had been done previously, which was relieving as I had been afraid that those particular subs had been cancelled. Currently caught up to where the subs are up to (episode 31).
Haman had her hair straight for a couple of episodes and managed to look half-decent that way! But then she went back to that horrible puffed out style. What a shame.
They are kind of hinting around the edges of Glemmy/Haman friction already when Glemmy has currently shown no indications at all of going against her. It is a tad confusing. Well, he does potentially have a reason -now-, but he didn't at the time I first noticed it happening. Not helpful of her to needle him about it for no reason at all for that matter.
Was not expecting that death at all, despite the preview to the episode and everything. I thought this was supposed to be the happy series.
Not a fan of Elpeo. I fully expected this.
Sadly there has been some hefty newtype lamery showing up recently. Hopefully it won't continue but I seriously doubt that that will be the case.
Disgaea in cartoon form-
Uh... It fails at humour far more often that it succeeds.
I would like to say that I was not impressed with extent of the liberties taken in the adaptation of the game, but I'm not sure whether it's -supposed- to be an adaptation. Unfortunately I'm not sure whether I can look at it on its own merits without my knowledge of the game interfering
At least it didn't include the legendary zombie. A point for that.
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Ah, no, see, you're at the point where it starts moving away from Happy Tomino and into Kill 'em All Tomino a bit. Not to the degree of Ideon or Zeta's ending, mind, just not the lolhijinks of earlier stuff quite as much.
And the whole Glemy thing kinda hiccups because before Char's Counter Attack got approved, Tomino was planning to have Char start ZZ's third side in the war.
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Ideon
Yeah, he didn't have to slaughter ALL of humanity...
Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike
Good, straightforward prequel. Very true to the characters, and reminds you why you like Yuri and Flynn in the first place (as I think Meep mentioned, what Yuri knows is not 100% consistent with ToV, but that's not a big deal at all). Very pretty, too. Good stuff.
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Continuing Heroman finally...
Up to episode 10 now. (Haven't started it yet)
Quickly reminded why I dropped it. Each episode can basically be summed up as "Heroman smashes stuff", but it looks like they're introducing political stuff, so maybe Heroman evolves beyond a mean lean smashing machine!
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Yeah. I've stalled out at 14 and I've since pseudo-dropped it. It fluctuates wildly between decent and ARGH. I thought Joey turning into the Flash would save it, but nooooooooooooo.
Haruko Holly is fun, but between the government and Joey's group, the idiot ball gets cloned and held continuously.
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Shiki- They actually didn't mess up Fujisaki's art!! Good! All good!! BTW, why is everyone thinking this show is going to be horror or some sort??
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Because it's a mystery/horror show? It's more on the mystery side, but people are fooling themselves a bit thinking it's gonna be more horror, I guess.
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Finally got around to watching Season 2 of Haruhi. A real disappointment overall, as I'm sure anyone who has heard of The Endless Eight knows by now. I just watched the first and last episodes of EE and I feel I pretty much got my time's worth from that. Sadly, the non-EE episodes were pretty bland too.
The original series did a pretty awesome job of capturing the feeling of being a kid who wants things like magic and superheroes and aliens to exist and tying it up in a humorous parody-filled package. The unusual broadcast order of the original run also helped in sprinkling in character development while still saving the climax (chronologically eps 4-5) for the final episodes. I think EE was attempting to capture some of that same 'unusual meta broadcast storytelling' feeling, but it really feel flat to me. It may have worked better if Haruhi was a longer series and the EE were interspersed throughout the other episodes (as character development) in total. It would have still been too many damn episodes, but it might have made it tolerable and less trolling.
Considering the Haruhi franchise could practically print money here in Japan, it boggles my mind that they would choose to go that route with it, but I would still like to see some of the newer Haruhi light novels actually get animated, since the plot is picking up. After S2's terribleness, I wonder if there's any hope for that happening?
Season 2 Haruhi is full of a whole lot of Status Quo without doing much besides one triumphant moment for Kyon. Though there were some hints in the very last episodes about people finally questioning the nature of Haruhi's powers.
Oh, I watched some episodes of a Super Sentai show lately if that counts as anime enough for this topic? It was delightfully cheesy and reminded me of when I used to wake up early to watch Power Rangers in grade school. I have to say that it's -really- disconcerting to see live-action Japanese people acting like Anime characters and shouting things in really odd Japanese and using Anime gestures and mannerisms. It really contrasts with the day-to-day image of people around me. This may seem like an obvious statement, but I rarely watched live-action Japanese kids shows, so I'm not used to seeing the Japanese way of over-acting except in animated form, which is a lot easier to accept.
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The point of Endless Eight was solely trolling. The genius doesn't kick in until you realize that - unless you're too much of a pansy to enjoy schadenfreude. >_>
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Also, in hindsight The Disappearance/Vanishment of Haruhi Suzumiya (book 4, also the single most popular book amongst the fanbase in my experience) was clearly intended to be the centerpiece of Haruhi S2 originally - all the initial teaser ads were based around either Disappearance or Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody, which ties in closely with Disappearance's plot.
At this point in the planning process, Kadokawa decided to split Disappearance off into a separate movie, but that left S2 down six episodes. At this point, somebody decided the way to deal with this was to explode Endless Eight into 8 episodes, then advertise the resulting product in as cryptic a manner as they could manager to obfuscate the fact the actual content of the new season. Hence you got vaguely worded Newtype articles talking about a relaunch of Haruhi without explicitly labelling it as a new season, the new episodes interleaved with the old ones in chronological order, the lack of upcoming episode title listings in promotional magazines, none of the Endless Eight episodes being numbered the way every other multi-episode story arc has been labelled, etc. They were basically trying to lead their audience on as long as they could get away with it.
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Because it's a mystery/horror show? It's more on the mystery side, but people are fooling themselves a bit thinking it's gonna be more horror, I guess.
AS far as my memory go, this is not a horror show consider the novel and manga it is based on. Especially when this more based on the manga, where horror, mystery barely exists.
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What the hell genres would you classify it as then, Niu?
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Yeah. I've stalled out at 14 and I've since pseudo-dropped it. It fluctuates wildly between decent and ARGH. I thought Joey turning into the Flash would save it, but nooooooooooooo. Haruko Holly is fun, but between the government and Joey's group, the idiot ball gets cloned and held continuously.
Yeah, seems episode 15/16 finally puts a stop to the government dance. Episode 17 introduces A NEW ENEMY!!!
I can't believe Denton's one of my favourite characters in the series so far... Science teachers are supposed to be dull.
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What the hell genres would you classify it as then, Niu?
I would say drama. It deals a lot more on the nature of a rural community and their psychological change once they encounter outsider, and then how they change after they become outsiders themselves. If not, it'll be about how they break down.
The original novel does it a bitter but far from horror style, especially with how the suicidal monk and the evil loli ended up.
As for the manga, due to Fujisaki's art style, this felt like a comedy instead. Well, except a certain chapter when the doctor did something **** to his wife. But that's about the only that can upset your stomach in the Fujisaki's version.
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Gundam ZZ episodes 32-44 -
Conveniently enough right after I said that Glemmy hadn't seemed to be showing any signs of being up to anything he reveals in the next episode that he had been up to things for some time. As far as I was aware he was just a grunt at the start of the series, not a special observer or anything, so I'm not sure where he found the time unless the series has some gaping unmentioned time skips in it.
Conversely, when Glemmy begins bringing things out into the open Haman seems startled by it despite the fact that she was the one assigning watchers to him and so on for no apparent reason earlier. I see.
Another unexpected death, although this time I fully expected the death to happen at some point, I just wasn't expecting it to happen the first time the two characters in question interacted. I blame SRW for giving me misexpectations. Either way it's one of them down. All good.
And on that note, the dead character I mentioned previously apparently managed to pull a Kira and is now seemingly hanging out with Lady Pointlesscameos. As this was revealed in an episode where Beecha was the only one taking a worthwhile course of action and served to void this, I can only assume that it was done in order to prevent any goodtimes for Beecha. I cannot say that he doesn't deserve it but it is still aggravating.
Only three episodes to go and yet there are at least 9 named villains by my count still extant. How many of them are going to get attentionless deaths I wonder.
Gundam MS igLoo &
Gundam MS igLoo Apocalypse -
Pretty. Entertaining. These are two words which I have chosen to use before this sentence that coincidentally match my thoughts on these two OVAs. I especially like how Zeon put effort into making a mobile pod superior to the Ball as this was clearly an area where their armed forces were vastly lacking.
Not a particularly big fan of them attempting to inject upbeatery into the ending at the last second. It was very much unnecessary. At least it wasn't as moodshattering as in Starship Operators, but that does not excuse it.
I would like to see more Secret Weapons Of The Zeon but instead they made
Gundam MS IGLOO 2 -
Prettier than the igLoos, but it is all about people who are futilely trying to not die instead of weapons experiments. Also there is a ghost/reaper character who is seemingly not a hallucination as multiple people see it and it tells some people information which they would have no way of knowing personally.
Also Colmatta is kind of creepy.
It is an interesting watch, but not what I was hoping for.
Escaflowne The Movie -
So according to Hitomi, her being generally depressed is equivalent to the genocide of Van's people.
Not much else stood out enough to really come to mind. It's decent in general, but I want to say the series is a fair bit better.
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Heroman:
... OK... So MYSTERIOUS ENEMY X!!!!! may or may not be an ally... but screw that, time for a beach episode. And then tentacle monsters.
..........I guess even having an American writer doesn't change this from JAAPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!
Also, Joey wears that pugly shirt everywhere, even the beach. :[ What.
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Gundam ZZ -
Finished.
Several villains off themselves for no good reason and it is annoying. On the topic of dead villains, Ple 2 seems to have potentially died completely unnoticed but then she disappeared from the show without this being confirmed. Illia also seemed to vanish after Mashymre's pointless selfdestructery.
Lady Pointlesscameo actually spoke. It was shocking.
All up it was not the most compelling ending of all time. Also Judou randomly decides to not look for the person he was planning to look for and takes an extended business trip instead. Convenient that said person manages to catch him before he leaves.
The series was not really as bad as it seems to have a reputation for, but it is pretty scrubby in comparison to the other UC I've seen in general.
I have recently discovered that there are plans to release CCA over here in November so I will not be going on to it at the current time.
Goodbye, Mr. Despair (S1)-
The first episode was very up and down and left me wondering what I had gotten myself in to. Fortunately it kicks into high gear afterwards and has a lot more up than it has down for the remainder of the season. Somewhat more service than I would have preferred however.
I have high hopes for the followup seasons but I don't expect to watch them at any point soon.
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B Gata H Kei - Is far, far funnier than it has any right to be at all. So funny I don't feel unclean saying it's worth watching.
EDIT:
Denpa Teki Na Kanojo - Nice little light horror series. And by 'light' I mean it's meant to scare and unsettle, just not to an extreme. It works, so no complaints (like half-sour pickles are sometimes better than normal ones). It's by the same dude as Kurenai, and the two aren't all that similar but seem to me to suffer from the same problem: that they'd be better if the cast wasn't (mostly) one dude and a bunch of chicks. That's a nitpick in the case of Denpa Teki Na Kanojo, though. Good stuff.
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Slayers S1 -
Lightheartery that doesn't really lend itself to having anything said about it. Fairly enjoyable. Have ordered the next season.
Aura Battler Dunbine -
Decent. Not a big fan of the way things are left somewhat open in the ending but any more information would break the way the series was framed. Although it's not like it was a particularly good frame, so I am divided on whether this is really enough of an excuse.
Subs (by White_Base) were mediocre. Never to the point of ununderstandability, at least.
The Aura Road sure can pick 'em... the majority of people that come through are somewhat sociopathic. Even Show spends a fair amount of time antagonising people, although he mostly limits that to towards Nie.
Cham spends a lot of time seemingly being contrary for the sake of being contrary also.
On the other hand, Drake and Burn are both far less babyeating than I expected them to be.
They start to give Garalia backstory, but then she is lamely killed off. Not sure what the point of going to the effort was, then. On top of that, Zet and her were supposed to be entering a relationship before this, but Zet never seems to care that she died or even mention her afterwards.
Interestingly they don't really give any of the other villains any backstory. Maybe they decided that it was too highbrow and attempted to get rid of the evidence.
Laughably horribly at one point Show starts claiming that Byston Well was peaceful before the Aura Machines were invented. This is from a guy who wasn't around then and despite evidence to the contrary, including one person stating that it wasn't true who he just brushes off.
So Show and Marvel go to Laas Wau to destroy a factory there. Show ends up 'rescuing' Silky Mau and then they leave without doing what they went there for. Annoyingly enough they start to use this construct in abundance in the second half of the show, where taking out the Gea Gring takes forever because they keep leaving without finishing things. SRW does a good job at conveying the tediousness if I remember its appearances there correctly.
So Jacoba Aon requests that Show deal with the Aura Machine problem, which he is happy enough to agree to. Then the next episode she kills herself to deal with the problem in an entirely unwanted way. How unnecessarily impatient.
Riml can't catch a break. Early on there are a number of attempts to rescue her which all fail. Later, she manages to escape herself, and finds that all the people that were trying to rescue her before now think that she's a spy and don't trust her, and just when she's pretty much dealt with that she gets captured again. Then later on she escapes again and then gets captured again due to being uncautious. Then later on she escapes again and embarks on an ill-fortuned revenge attempt. On top of this, Show et al had been advised by a seer to prevent her revenge from happening which makes no sense considering that she fails utterly at it without their interference. Further, while Show et al had been unhappy about the idea of attacking the Gea Gring while Marvel was held prisoner on it, they have no qualms about attacking it while Riml's on it, which makes sense initially as they don't know she's there but doesn't really do so after they find this out.
The armies of Earth are bizarrely triggerhappy when it comes to nukes in this show. You would expect that after they'd seen that the nukes weren't having any effect they would have stopped, considering the radiation and everything. There is a time when they're continually firing nukes at the Gea Gring to prevent them from seeing that the Goloan is coming which is completely absurd.
Shot Weapon & the Spriggan seem to be destroyed in the penultimate episode only for them to be around in the final episode as if nothing had happened, which is somewhat disconcertening. I should rewatch the point where they're initially destroyed to make sure that I'm not misinterpreting it. [EDIT] On rechecking, it looks like the Spriggan isn't completely destroyed in fact, but it does take somewhat massive damage and cockpit explosions. That it shows up without injury in the final episode is still a problem however as the final follows directly on from the previous.
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Satoshi Kon died.
):
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.....what?
;_;
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;-;
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damn
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Aww fuck.
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Ugh.
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Well I guess I can stop watching Anime now.
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So I just watched Paprika.
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Twas a sad day. :/
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Laid in an order for Kon's Millenium Actress as it was on the list of things I was eyeing anyway.
Tru Change Getta Armageddon -
Rewatched this, this time with English subtitles instead of Italian/Spanish ones. It didn't increase the understandability of the plot by as much as I would have liked.
Megazone 23 -
So. The first part is all about what should by rights result from youths getting their hands on a mech and trying to expose/oppose the military. The second part is all about everyone dying. The third and fourth parts are closer to a more traditional rebelling against the military.
That the majority of the 'good' characters in the second part turn out to have only received non-fatal injuries and all turn up at what passes for the escape pod, while the majority of the citizenry is obliterated including presumably a number of good characters from the first part, is a fairly atrocious twist. Now that I'm writing about it I seem to remember that the general population was directed to shelters, but I don't recall these shelters ever being released. The central chamber is the only section we actually see later.
So the financier who barely had any screen time in the first part starts off the second part conniving his way about making an end-run around the military towards overtures towards the Dezalg. And then we never see him again. Well-done implications that he was discovered and discreetly dealt with or failure plot that forgot he existed?
So the UN somehow obtained enough power to extradite the majority of the population of the planet to off-planet for several centuries, with a sword hanging over their heads that if they haven't improved by the time they get back they'll get smited. Yet according to the history related to Shogo in Part 1, fighting between 'zones started happening almost immediately after this. On the one hand, Bahamut did wipe all knowledge of what was happening from the citizenry, and they wouldn't realise the implications of this - on the other hand, Bahamut did wipe all knowledge of what was happening from the citizenry, and they consequently shouldn't have even known that the other 'zones existed. It's not the most sensible set of events of all time.
I swear, Ryo's entire reason for existence in Parts 3/4 is just to provide a way for Eiji's E=X disk to get to Shion. She does almost nothing else of consequence. On top of that even that disk in itself is fairly contrived.
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Megazone 23 is watched for parts 1 and 2. 3 is just a joke played on the public by the producers.
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Black Jack (Movie)-
Does a reasonably good job of being fairly intriguing. The plot gets a bit stupid at points but it all ends up tieing together and I'm not really sure how I should feel about that.
Not a fan of Pinoko.
Gundam 00 S2 V1-
This was mostly just the gang getting back together, so not a whole lot to say about it. 00 Gundam is reasonably stylish. Bad Times continued for Saji, but in complete reverse from my expectations they have decided not to ride them for everything they're worth and he has already had some of his misconceptions shattered. There still exists hope that he will get to kill off the remnant at least.
Seems strange that they would go out of their way to rescue Marina. She isn't really connected to them at all except Setsuna, and there wasn't too much of a connection there as I recall.
Transformers G1-
Finished Season 1 and one disc of Season 2. Entertaining enough so far, for all that encyclopedias could be written about the show's lack of internal consistency.
Unhappy to see that the Dinobots were built by the Autobots as opposed to being 'natural'.
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Wheeljack made the Dinobots. Funny skit about that can be found here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnOHLisRyaM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnOHLisRyaM)
~
Anyways, has anyone seen a show called Baccano? I saw one clip and was intrigued. Wondering if it was worth looking into.
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Anyways, has anyone seen a show called Baccano? I saw one clip and was intrigued. Wondering if it was worth looking into.
Yes. It is utterly fantastic. Watch it.
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Just watched Baccano! Utterly fantastic. This show is, among other things, a case study of how to do comic relief right.
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Just watched Baccano! Utterly fantastic. This show is, among other things, a case study of how to do comic relief right.
Awesome. Now watch Durarara. Same guy, same universe!
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Millennium Actress -
Brilliant. Only real complaints are that at times (moreso early on than later) it can be a bit hard to follow, and that the final line throws everything into a somewhat different light which I find less pleasing than the existing lighting.
Transformers G1-
Only one disc further in, but just mourning the recent descent of the show into wholesale advertising mode. The recent serial about "Dinobot Island" introduced three new planes and a plane/tank triple changer for the Decepticons, and six vehicles, a hovercraft, and a handheld microscope for the Autobots (with Perceptor there only missing out on the ludicrousness crown because Reflector, three robots that combine into a single handheld camera, already existed since season 1). On the one hand this is an awesome development but on the other hand it is saddening because the show hadn't really been this way up until this point. The Decepticons for instance had, unless I am misremembering things, only really gained the Constructicon team since the first episodes. New Autobots have been showing up sporadically but not to this extent.
Also currently watching Kurokami V1 but as I have not yet reached any points I consider to be arbitrary enough in it I will withhold comment for now.
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School Rumble - Watched an episode of this on a whim, got hooked. Watched up to episode 17 or something now. One of the few shows where almost all of the characters are likeable.
Hikaru no Go - Started this too. Watched up to episode 11 I think. It... seems like it could be interesting but hasn't managed to do much so far. Will probably keep going for a bit more at least.
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Spriggan -
Decent.
Was surprised to see that MacDougall didn't die in the manner which had been foreshadowed (actually, I'm not sure if he ended up dying at all... was a little unclear). His repeated failure to kill Yu despite what he's supposed to be capable of was a bit annoying.
Kurokami V1-
Finished, now I have to wait until November for V2 annoyingly.
The case blurb says that Keita is a videogame programmer and that he loses an arm. Neither of these are true.
Outside of the first episode, they haven't really done enough with the Doppleliner system as I would have liked.
So there are three instances of every person on the planet, one of which is the 'root' and two of which are 'subs', and they have 'fate' split up between them with the root getting the lion's share and the subs dividing what's left over. If the root meets one of their subs, the sub dies soon afterwards; if both subs meet each other, they both die. When this happens their 'fate' gets sent back to the root. On top of this, subs tend to have generally worse luck in life than roots do. Now you would expect that people that know about this would have questions regarding it. The people in the show that do don't really have any, though! The most explanation that we've gotten so far is that it is set up this way to 'protect the co-existence equilibrium', a vague and unexplained thing which sounds suspiciously like it is referring to circular reasoning. This is all despite the fact that they have access to some of the people guarding the system that would presumably be happy to discuss it, although I have some doubts that they really know the purpose of it either. Anyways, the question has only been asked three-odd times so far, and this is including times when it was asked rhetorically to people who had no way of answering.
Roots with both their subs killed by the system (or unnaturally?) become Master Roots which so far has not meant a whole lot aside from that they're pretty much all bastards who were happy for their subs to have been killed. Most of the ones we've seen so far didn't know anything about it until after they were picked up by the people who organised it after the fact, but still.
Keita wins a fight by insisting that the person he is fighting is miserable and it is annoyingly annoying. She also dies shortly afterwards for no explained reason which is further aggravation.
So our main man Keita here is supposed to be a sub which should in theory be somewhat interesting. The show does not seem to want to run with this at all and is constantly making him out to be special. It is disappointing and I will not be surprised if it turns out that he isn't a sub at all.
I originally thought that the show was going to be playing up Ration as having seemingly evil goals but he was actually going to dismantle the System, but it looks like what he was actually after is not going to be clarified any time soon if ever. It doesn't seem to match his character, what little of it we got to see, for him to just be generically evil.
I fully expect Kuraki to turn out to be a negative root. Interested to see where his playing off of Akane against Yuki goes.
Transformers G1-
Finished season 2.1, onto season 2.2. I don't have too much of a problem with new Autobots showing up out of nowhere (originally I thought they were being built like the Dinobots, but the show has used the Dinobots being the only ones built on Earth as a plot point - not that the show is particularly consistent), but when it comes to Omega Supreme this is a bit of joke. He's a tad too big to have just been overlooked until now.
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Durarara!! - all the cards are in my hand.
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Yay! Now I can scar you with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAO4M5_Gf00
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you're a bad man.
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you're a badGREAT man.
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Izaya: Trolling people both in-universe and out.
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High School of the Dead - fun references to zombie flicks if you are into them. Gets all anime when it shouldn't with wayyyy to much screaming and crying over stuff that you shouldn't and dragging out DRAMA scenes that were already played out for the right amount of drama in the original versions. Doesn't anime it enough where it should. Action scenes should have been over the top ridiculous. I got one of those in the 6 episodes I watched.
First three episodes are good fun referencing the right things and other than the excessive screaming and crying and failing to kill dudes in episode 1.
Episode 4 was horrible and just straight up should have been killed in production. It is like there was not quality checking done on the series at all. Episode 5 was slow and would have been tolerable if Episode 4 hadn't existed. Even if they mashed the half a real episode that was in Episode 4 into 5 it still would have been a slow show. Episode 6 continued to just peter around doing nothing with the hand brake slammed on until absolutely nothing happens.
Fun series that had potential and shouldn't be taken serious with situations involving the main group (because when it tries to be serious it is fucking stupid). Failed completley and totally after they had run out of ideas.
Ultimately I was bored and glad I ran out of episodes. Worth watching what I had as an exercise, but there is porn that moves its plot along with better pacing than this shit.
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Gonna pretty much second everything Grefter said on HSOTD except I only made it through a few episodes.
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Grefter, what are you saying?? That show has no meaning outside fan service.
Yay! Now I can scar you with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAO4M5_Gf00
I prefer this one a lot more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rfo4_E-NJI
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I prefer this one a lot more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rfo4_E-NJI
Of course you do.
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Errrr of course you would, the second one is the far more superior song.
Although the first one is suprisingly good, but Japan isn't allowed to have 2 good songs in relation to one show.
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Errrr of course you would, the second one is the far more superior song.
Although the first one is suprisingly good, but Japan isn't allowed to have 2 good songs in relation to one show.
Actually, it doesn't. The first one is an alternate opening to Bakemonogatari. It's normally sung by a chick.
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Errrr of course you would, the second one is the far more superior song.
Although the first one is suprisingly good, but Japan isn't allowed to have 2 good songs in relation to one show.
Neither song is related to Durarara.
The first one Soppy said it. The second one is a song by Radwimps's 9th single back on 2008. Though I never expected it to work so well for a Iza/Shizu video.
BTW, here is the Shizu version of Love Circulation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHvP3Ew4L2o&feature=related
......oh, almost forget ask. Soppy, did they keep the toothbrush scene in the Bakemonogatari anime??
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It's been a while, so I'm not sure.
For completeness, here's the ORIGINAL version of Love Circulation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsrvRO0RmJU
Still love her hat.
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.....should I post the one with Solid Snake??
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No.
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anything Niu says
Yes
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*ignores Soppy
Here, the greatest masterpiece of NicoNico impostors.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBlmAF-ziy4
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Somehow that's much less disturbing.
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Kojima trolls so much that it's not that hard to imagine Snake imitating a lovestruck middle school girl in a parody video?
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Eh, he has Snake doing that in canon with Ugly Old Ocelot.
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Do not forget bout the gay sex in the box.
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Denpa teki na Kanojo - Finally someone worked out how to write harem anime.
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New season for anime, new things to watch.
SRW:OG2 changes a lot. Lee's less of an ass so far (he comes off as rather calm, instead of the RAGING CONDESCENDING BULLET OF FEAR he is in the games), Bullet's name is translated to "Brit", Excellen's still awesome and they first engage Archibald in his carrier plane. Huh? Lamia comes to save Excellen instead of the reverse and Lee doesn't engage in combat with the Shirogane?! Definitely reason to watch it. It also did away with the weird 3D stuff OG1 anime did.
Star Driver is so incredibly fabulous. The main character is "the Galactic Pretty Boy". Oo...kay. I assume his liberal use of FAAABULOUS is just miamia having fun. Not sure if I like it because of it being interesting, or just the plain fabulous trainwreck imminent from episode 1.
Finished Heroman, too. Finally. Ending is... OK, I guess. Definitely lost steam during its centre, because the start was good and the ending was comparable, but yeah. I guess I liked it, but the middle had trouble. Joey is given a more active role instead of just commanding Heroman which is always good.
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Bullet's name is translated to "Brit"
Oh, awesome, it's those idiots doing the subbing. Get ready for Wodan Ymir piloting the Sladegelmil!
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God I had forgotten the warm feeling of FABULOUS.
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Star Driver- Hilarious fun. Silly and nonsensical from the outset. The first ep is almost as big, if not bigger, a trainwreck than Code Gaess episode 1, and yet since it's clearly not trying to be serious it ends up much more enjoyable. Incredibly pretty show. The designs remind me of Gunbuster 2 almost. Bishou-bot seriously looks like Quatre-Vinght-Dix.
Tiring of the trend that it's okay to skip over minor and major details and basic scene transitions that seems to have permeated the industry in the last year or so though.
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Bullet's name is translated to "Brit"
Oh, awesome, it's those idiots doing the subbing. Get ready for Wodan Ymir piloting the Sladegelmil!
Crunchyroll IS silly.
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J'ai vu le film Appleseed.
. . . . . . . .
3/5.
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Up to episode 23 of Aquarion.
The whole show is ridiculous, but in an entertaining way; Kawamori must've been consuming even more drugs than usual when he came up with this.
Gen Fudou is crazy awesome, so long as you don't take him too seriously.
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Up to episode 23 of Aquarion.
The whole show is ridiculous, but in an entertaining way; Kawamori must've been consuming even more drugs than usual when he came up with this.
Gen Fudou is crazy awesome, so long as you don't take him too seriously.
Yep. Though I think after ep 19 when the OP changes and the show takes a turn for the serious it completely falls apart. I like the very end though.
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Star Driver- ..... err ummm.....
OBATA MONKEYS!!
First, Muiyano... SHUT UP!!
Ishida... you are DISGUSTING!!!
And why is this show so...!! wait... *takes careful look at who the director and the designer is.... OKAY, no wonder this thing creeps me up with Utena vibes!!
And PLEEEAASSEEE!! Stop with the Ranca fanboysim will you all!?
God, this thing is so fucked up and twisted that is so retardly fun!!!! Yeaahh, I am following this now.
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Utena vibes? Count me in.
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The World God Only Knows- They leave out a few of the plot things about Hell from the introduction, but mostly for pacing. We'll see what the second episode does. Good OP. I like Keima's voice. And... they're using the old Lum flying SFX for Elsee. Which is <3 <3 <3
Otherwise... first ep is first. Ayumi is blander than bland, but works as an intro. The first couple girls are almost routine while they establish Keima and Elsee and their surroundings before they get further into the meta and more complex girls. Still a fun time. Needs more SD Keima.
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huh, between that and Ore no Imouto, there are two meta shows about dating sims, or whatever you call the broader genre of those games, airing at the same time. go fig.
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huh, between that and Ore no Imouto, there are two meta shows about dating sims, or whatever you call the broader genre of those games, airing at the same time. go fig.
The TWGOK manga has been going on for a while. You should read the manga, if you can. It's really good once it gets going. As far as I know, OreImo is original. Maybe based on a game? Coincidence I guess.
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OreImo was a manga, and a novel. Don't know what was first though.
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OreImo was a manga, and a novel. Don't know what was first though.
Really? Huh. Never heard of it before, and didn't see any scans for the manga.
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I thought it was only a light novel.
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Yup, MangaFox has it under its English name.
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J'ai vu le film Appleseed.
'88 Appleseed or '04 Appleseed?
Transformers G1 -
Finished season 2. Next up is the movie, which didn't come with the series and I currently have on order.
Season 2 is fairly atrocious on the whole if you're looking for sane plots. Disc 2 of season 2.2 is probably the worst.
Sea Change - Seaspray falls in love with a humanoid who has access to a spring which lets him be transformed into a human himself. When this doesn't pan out as he can't fight any more like that, they both use it to change into robots instead.
Triple Takeover - Not sure whether the writers even knew where they were going this episode. Starts off with Starscream, Blitzwing, and Astrotrain planning to betray Megatron, with Blitzwing and Astrotrain intending to include Starscream in the bargain, which goes off without a hitch, but then... Blitzwing takes over a football stadium and starts misinterpreting the frightened babbling of a team coach as tactical plans (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfuaHt22pAA), and Astrotrain adds token artificial intelligence to a bunch of trains. Astrotrain's story is probably best displayed by this clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghrwoi2SGMY). It's not explained how the trains ended up like they are at the start there - maybe it's supposed to be implied that they're just painfully stupid. It doesn't help that they're on the worst railroads of all time - in addition to the track that runs straight into the wall as seen there, earlier on they were opening electrical cables which were hanging low enough across the tracks to allow them to just run into them. Furthermore, the water main that's ruptured there floods the city to several stories deep in a matter of minutes. Blitzwing's insanity results in a number of Autobots being thoroughly crushed (literally) which was a nice change, but by the end of the episode they're all back on their feet without having been tended to somehow. Um.
All up, the episode does lead to this exchange (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IYe8JRVzAE#t=0m20s) at least.
Prime Target - A big game hunter is aiming for Optimus Prime's head.
Auto-Bop - The decepticons are running a disco which is hypnotizing people into constructing a building the purpose of which is never revealed.
The Search For Alpha Trion - FEMALE AUTOBOTS
The Girl Who Loved Powerglide - A girl falls in love with Powerglide sort of. He doesn't appreciate it. At one point he punchs her to the ground at one point which is not really something you see Autobots getting up to but sadly I cannot find a clip on short notice.
Hoist Goes Hollywood - Hoist gets noticed by a bigshot director and invited to work on movies. A bunch of other Autobots get in on the action only to find that it is not what they expected.
And of course there is the final episode of season 2 which is pretty atrocious in general and should be read about (http://transformers.wikia.com/wiki/B.O.T._(episode)).
Zambot 3 -
Started watching this. Not much to say about it yet. So far Butcher is nowhere near as fabulous as SRW had for some reason made me expect. It is saddening.
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My favorite episode of season 2 was "The Golden Lagoon."
Something about the decepticons finding this invincible gold cover, but all they used it for was figthing each other in a playful manner amused me.
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Finished Aquarion TV.
The later parts of the show had issues, though I wouldn't quite go so far as to say that it fell apart. The problem to me is that they ended up trying to tell a serious plot based on characters from a absurdist episodic hijinks show. Sketchy world/background development and characters that only develop in fits and starts is fine for a show about beating the monster of the week via Fudou's latest wacky proverb and increasingly bizarre new finishers, but for something trying to tell a dark, serious plot it's unsatisfying.
The Apollo/Silvia romance stands out as something that really had issues to me. Specifically (spoiler tagged, just to be safe): they start off the show bickering endlessly, then suddenly there's significant (mostly reincarnation-based) development in episodes 12-14, then it just halts again for nearly 10 episodes, seemingly because they don't want to change the show's character dynamics while there's still goofy MotW episodes to go. Then by episode 24 they're deep into the serious plot part, so all of a sudden they officially make the plunge to True Love Spanning 12,000 Years territory. Oh, and while the ending was pretty good otherwise, it seemed more conducive to yaoi jokes than to selling ApolloxSilvia as the One True Love of the series.
Fun watch all in all. It's perfect for SRW, between the crazy variety in attacks, the obvious Getter homage, and a bunch of plot scenarios even wackier than anything Banpresto has come up with on their own. Hope it makes more appearances in the future. I'll try out the OVA next.
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Finished Aquarion TV.
The later parts of the show had issues, though I wouldn't quite go so far as to say that it fell apart. The problem to me is that they ended up trying to tell a serious plot based on characters from a absurdist episodic hijinks show. Sketchy world/background development and characters that only develop in fits and starts is fine for a show about beating the monster of the week via Fudou's latest wacky proverb and increasingly bizarre new finishers, but for something trying to tell a dark, serious plot it's unsatisfying.
The Apollo/Silvia romance stands out as something that really had issues to me. Specifically (spoiler tagged, just to be safe): they start off the show bickering endlessly, then suddenly there's significant (mostly reincarnation-based) development in episodes 12-14, then it just halts again for nearly 10 episodes, seemingly because they don't want to change the show's character dynamics while there's still goofy MotW episodes to go. Then by episode 24 they're deep into the serious plot part, so all of a sudden they officially make the plunge to True Love Spanning 12,000 Years territory. Oh, and while the ending was pretty good otherwise, it seemed more conducive to yaoi jokes than to selling ApolloxSilvia as the One True Love of the series.
That's... pretty much why I thought the series fell apart. Also, the second OP was terrible, and having it replace the first during Aquarion's moments of awesome ruined them. And yeah, yaoi jokes abound for the ending, but I liked it less for ApolloxSilvia relationship for the characters themselves and more for their Xenogears-esqe acceptance of their reincarnating love.
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To Aru Majitsu non Index- Vol.22 get!! Right after the air of season 2, all good all good.
Ahahaha, Fiamma, what a tragedy you are, you lost to Aleister simply because of using an outdated OS.
Oh well, what' next, Fiamma become the first guy in Touma's harem?? Ahahahahah!!!
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Star Driver ep 2: Still have no idea what is going on and I don't care. Hilarious fun.
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Star Driver ep 2: Still have no idea what is going on and I don't care. Hilarious fun.
This.
(ﾉゝ∀･)~キラ☆ So much fabulous. Everyone is doing all these embarassing poses and saying embarassing things and they're OK with that.
Also a dominatrix snuck in.
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I don't think I'll ever get tired of that insert song either. I had my doubts, but this show really is the successor to Utena in some ways.
EDIT: Something interesting from GameFAQs, apparantly the Cybodies are based on the Phoencian alphabet.
http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/4926/stardriver.jpg
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http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2010-10-18/star-driver-studio-to-job-seekers/do-the-kiraboshi-pose
DL groupshot, yesyes?
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SRWOG2: Surprisingly not terrible. The first episode was really promising - instead of Lamia's fight with random Neo DC goons that starts the game, you have Archibald getting ready to send out Yuuki and Carla's Guarlion squad to fight the ATX Team, while Thrudgelmir appears out of nowhere to run interference for the escaping Crusaders, and Archibald's higher-ups tell him to just accept it and be grateful.. So they're actually weaving OG2's scattered plot and character threads together with something approaching skill, and then Angelg makes its entrance by descending from on high like...well, an avenging angel (with robonipples). So the stage is set for a friggin' awesome battle to open the second episode!
Except that episode 2 proceeds to skip ahead half an hour or so, after everybody mentioned above returns without incident to their respective motherships. No ATX/DC/Thrudgelmir/Angelg fight scene...hell, Lamia does nothing but float around uselessly and talk funny for the entire episode. I was trying REALLY HARD to be bitter about that. Then RyuOhKi and KoOhKi showed up and tore Archibald and his goons a bunch of new orifices. And it was awesome.
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Star Driver ep 2: Still have no idea what is going on and I don't care. Hilarious fun.
This.
(ﾉゝ∀･)~キラ☆ So much fabulous. Everyone is doing all these embarassing poses and saying embarassing things and they're OK with that.
Also a dominatrix snuck in.
I blame Ranka Lee.
Also *Niu spits drink at Shiki's new ED
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Star Driver Ep.3- I must say I ma very fond of Mrs. Watanabe.
And Takashi kun, you are a haraguro who wants to eat the maid and the waifu alive, aren't you??
If this is going to grow into a love triangle, I see it much more entertaining than whatever that red haird monkey can offer.
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SRWOG2: First three episodes. Not really digging it. Too much talking, not enough robots waring. Really, do we need Excellen to tease Bullet every episode?
I swear if they show the Edo route over Abiano I will rage. You can't pass up on RHB.
Also, am I the only not surprised by the lack of Ibis in the OP and END? Least meaningful SRW main character, yes! Hopefully she gets no screentime!
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Metropolis.
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Metropolis.
Moar like Meh-tropolis, amirite?
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I can't stop loving you~
Metropolis was good you nutcase.
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The visuals were nice at times, but it was just a mess as a movie. Utterly boring. It was less artsy and more fartsy. Rintaro totally botched it.
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The official motto of Rintaro's career: "If it's not Harlock, it probably sucks."
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Go over to the movies topic and watch the good Metropolis, then.
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To Aru Ep.3- .....JC is the team in charge of this right? God, they can all die now. Skip the awesome fight scene for some pointless moe? God, burn in hell, burn in the depth of hell. They need a team who does not misunderstand the nature of the novel to do the anime.
I am now worried about Railgun's second season. They'll probably turn it in to pointless Mugino moe too when the manga did a good job on depicting Misaka's despair.
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Who did the first season of Index?
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The same.
JC does both seson of Index and Railgun.
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What awesome fight scene got skipped? (The only good part about that last ep was crazy killer nun)
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You think the fanbase made them switch the focus like that?
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I don't know, the feeling I got from JC is this: "fuck original novel fans, we are going to appeal to otaku who cares nothing but moe".
What awesome fight scene got skipped? (The only good part about that last ep was crazy killer nun)
The fight with Amakusa is really really rushed. And some of the serious moment got twisted so it can look moe. Even the fan translated novels on bakatsuki is better than this.
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Zambot 3 -
Not the greatest show of all time.
So the overall theme is Bad Things Happen To Kappei. I don't know whether we're supposed to be feeling sorry for him or what? The majority of the show everyone hating/fearing him is completely justified as he is a thoughtless jerkhat who keeps getting civilians involved in battles whenever the battle isn't already. Keeping in mind that at the beginning of the series, before anything has gone down, he's already hated/wanted by the police. And he's 12.
I am divided on whether the show is trying to be clever and showing what happens if you put that sort of power in the hands of a 12-year-old or whether the show is just dumb.
Lategame it pulls a Zeta and starts killing people off, and just as in Zeta it doesn't work well. Kappei has been generally deserving of punishment for most of the show and got nothing except a lot of people hating him which didn't seem to affect him too much, and only start this up once he's started improving slightly and people have a generally more ambivalent opinion? That's just being vicious for the sake of being viscious. Especially since some of the deaths are completely worthless such as when one of the Beal components is sacrificed in order to destroy the Bundock's propulsion but it still manages to escape while the rest are distracted.
The human bomb section of the show was a considerable let-down. The most effective part was when a kid tried to die with dignity but ended up not being able to hack it, followed at a distance by a guy who tampered with his own in order to save a number of other people from suffering the same fate. But for the most part - why should we really be concerned about these unwitting pawns resulting in minor destruction when the Guyzock could have caused vastly more by themselves? The bomb which was presumably supposed to be the most traumatic doesn't really have anything going for it but a handful of scenes where the situation is almost revealed but isn't, and he broke orders to bring them onboard anyway - plus the explosion didn't kill anyone except the unlucky person in question. Sure it may have been disheartening for Kappei, but there wasn't any reason in that episode to cause me to feel anything for it.
Uchuuta gets very little characterisation. He does manage to get more than Keiko. Keiko only really gets any worthwhile screentime in one episode, where Uchuuta and Kappei spend time insulting her on her birthday. So that she will go AWOL and run back to her mother and she can spend her birthday with her mother. Kappei, you are a tool, and the scriptwriters fail at life. This is then followed by her getting some of the hate that the show's populace normally lavishes on Kappei, so she may be in luck that she wasn't often doing anything of consequence.
I am reminded of a segment where Kappei is refusing to drive Zambo Ace because the populace's hate has managed to reach him in some way and the grandfather says that that's fine because they can control it via remote control and have Uchuuta control Zambot 3. Some time later when Kappei has resolved his personal problems he just runs over and flies off in Zambo Ace which hadn't moved. Even when the show says that it's going to give the second bananas something to do it doesn't.
So there's this guy Kouzuki who hates Kappei since before the series starts, so much so that he pushes Kappei-on-a-bike over the edge of a dock and they have a... rope-anchor fight at one point. After things start happening he hates on Kappei even more because like everyone else he blames him for everything. Then he disappears from the show for some time. Then when he shows back up he has mellowed egregiously towards Kappei, keeping in mind that unlike the general populace he already hated Kappei. I can't really see any way in which this makes sense.
Keeping on Kouzuki, there's a scene later where he is caught in the inner sanctum of the Bundock by Killer and Guyzock, and Guyzock tells Killer to kill him. Next scene he's just back in the prison cell. Uh.
All up: Show was generally baddish. Also, Killer the Butcher (http://twilkitri.fewiki.net/stuff/killerrock.jpg) never did end up being as fabulous (http://twilkitri.fewiki.net/stuff/bejewelledkiller.jpg) as I had hoped but was sometimes entertaining.
Transformers G1: Scramble City -
Oh deity this was a thoroughly pointless feature. The first third of it is just a recap of early G1 which plays up Devastator as being some ludicrous godmoder for some reason! Combiners keep showing up and overpowering each other! Out of nowhere it turns out that changing the configuration a combiner is using alters its power level! Metroplex and Trypticon turn up and then it ends!
Transformers G1: Movie -
Decent. Would have been nice for some of the new Autobots to have gotten origins like Galvatron et al as opposed to just Rodimus, which is extremely sketchy anyway since Hot Rod was new with no explanation.
The Decepticons have no right being so competent in this considering their lack of such in the series to this point.
Not really a great deal to say is coming to mind.
Transformers G1: Season 3 -
Around halfway through this. Quality has been generally lower than Season 2 so far, although I believe Season 2 still has some episodes which are worse than have been presented as yet. Rodimus is kind of a failure which is distressing as I had always been under the impression that he was pretty cool, but for the longest time I had only ever seen the movie and the final serial from this season. His most sterling example of atrociousness so far was when he ordered an entire planet destroyed so that the Decepticons couldn't get their hands on it. That was certainly the most sane option available.
Bizarre how they take Blitzwing, the guy who took over a football field and who got caught in a trap meant for Optimus Prime, and turn him into the only sane decepticon in the first serial of this season. Maybe they got their files mixed up. Then they write him out. Ah well.
Grimlock has also been turned into more of a dumb-idiot type than a barbarian-idiot type, as well as having been promoted to a more major secondary character. Was it really worth it, Grimlock.
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Ore No Imouto. Started off decent, is now about incest. Goddamnit Japan.
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Ore No Imouto. Started off decent, is now about incest. Goddamnit Japan.
You expected anything else?
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Ore No Imouto. Started off decent, is now about incest. Goddamnit Japan.
You expected anything else?
A man can hope. I knew it was moe moe shit, I just hadn't thought it'd ACTUALLY be siscon shit.
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Ore No Imouto. Started off decent, is now about incest. Goddamnit Japan.
You expected anything else?
A man can hope. I knew it was moe moe shit, I just hadn't thought it'd ACTUALLY be siscon shit.
Considering the title of the series, it's impressive that the thought hadn't crossed your mind.
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Hm? Dislike incest? Then stay far away from Yosuga no Sora. Real incest sex is expected around ep.12
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I feel like pointing out that based on amazon.jp preorder rankings (#2 disc in the anime section right now, I think), the Japanese otaku are really looking forward to that incest episode.
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More precisely,Yosuga no Sora's sales expectation was actually in a steady decline, but sky rocketed back to the top upon the airing of the ep.4
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Railgun ch.36- YEEEES!! YEEEEEEEEEEES!! This is how things should have been done!! Fuck the anime FUUUUCK! This is what I want to see!!!
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Railgun ch.36- YEEEES!! YEEEEEEEEEEES!! This is how things should have been done!! Fuck the anime FUUUUCK! This is what I want to see!!!
Sort of want.
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Well, it is mostly Touma this time.
It is the Touma vs. Accelerator fight in the Sister arc. Just, this is the best version so far.
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Ore No Imouto. Started off decent, is now about incest. Goddamnit Japan.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I'm sorry, I have to get the cruel laughter out of the way.
Seriously. The title might as well be "My wild and raunchy sister - now with 200% more incest!"
I wouldn't be surprised if there was already *several* pornographic publications called this.
...how did you miss this?
*patpats* I guess it's good that you're still so innocent-minded. :P
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I missed it because I was promised it was not about incest. The first episode stresses that he thinks his sister is not cute. The second episode stresses that he'd rather not deal with his sister at all. The third episode changes the status quo slightly and then... the fourth episode, with reckless abandon, is incest.
At least Star Driver does not disappoint yet. Absurd plot, I love it. Next season have Remember My Mr Lovecraft, apparently about Cthulhu disguising as a young girl and some bloke and a harem. Madness.
Djinn, Japan is nuts. How can you bear to live there?!
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Probably because I'm not related to anyone here.
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Probably because I'm not related to anyone here.
Not BLOOD related.
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Star Driver ep.5- This is self explanatory *Niu laughs maniacally
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Seriously. The title might as well be "My wild and raunchy sister - now with 200% more incest!"
Oh come now, there are plenty of things in English that should be porn but somehow are not:
Contact
Deep Impact
My Little Pony
Moby Dick. I mean, if that doesn't scream "porno about a DJ," I don't know what does.
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Jim man, you totally lack relevance in modern cinema. Just from the top 10 grossing films this year you have these.
Toy Story 3 - Obvious
Alice in Wonderland - Some would argue the source material being along those lines
Inception - Cream pies.
Shrek Forever After - Bride porn
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse - Already is porn.
Iron Man 2 - Men in uniform
Clash of the Titans - BBW
How to Train Your Dragon - Obvious.
Despicable Me - BDSM
The Karate Kid - Lesbians.
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I wish I could give you something for making me realize just how dirty a title "How to Train your Dragon" is. ;D
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Right, so I've actually been watching some anime recently too, mostly of the variety that does not require a lot of mental heavy lifting, it being in the thick of the semester.
Gokusen - Badass heir of a yakuza family works incognito as a homeroom teacher in a school full of delinquents. Fun stuff, with her trying largely unsuccessfully to hide her battle-hardened background from her students and her totally un-teacherlike tendency to run from cops. Never really felt like it reached its full potential, alas.
Working!! - entertaining show about a slew of quirky part-timers in a diner. Works fairly well, with various characters taking turns as the straight man depending on the situation. The characters' quirks are a bit too contrived, but the character interaction and development makes it work; a decent building on a shaky foundation.
Hanamaru Kindergarten - Adorable show about a newly-minted kindergarten teacher. I assume this is more or less what Djinn's life is like. I mean, the dude gets advice from his students for a handheld Dragon Quest game that he plays while he's supposed to be teaching! Show has great style - excellent pastel color scheme really works for it.
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Railgun Ch 36: I didn't get into this Manga for Touma. He has his own series! But then again, this Touma is incredibly awesome. Why is Touma never this much a certified badass who gets into exciting fights in his own story? It is just inexplicable.
Oh wait no it's not. (http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/Bordix07/q.jpg)
Record of Lodoss War: I watched a bit of this a long time ago and watched it all a little while back. Generic as all get-out but you know what I don't care. It was fun. And the dual-wielding at the end even gets my approval. From now on if someone asks me "what is an example of a generic fantasy anime that doesn't suck" I'll know what my response is going to be.
TWGOK 4: Keima is screwed up. I liked the style of this episode primarily because it felt so completely isolated. It was just Keima playing his game that no one else in the world even cared about, and that was clearly isolating him from everyone around him. There was a constant feel of loneliness both in his game-world and in the real world. The comedy scenes with Elsee were pretty well done but ultimately the real purpose of the ep was to get across that "Keima is screwed up". It worked.
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Railgun Ch 36: I didn't get into this Manga for Touma. He has his own series! But then again, this Touma is incredibly awesome. Why is Touma never this much a certified badass who gets into exciting fights in his own story? It is just inexplicable.
Oh wait no it's not. (http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/Bordix07/q.jpg)
TWGOK 4: Keima is screwed up. I liked the style of this episode primarily because it felt so completely isolated. It was just Keima playing his game that no one else in the world even cared about, and that was clearly isolating him from everyone around him. There was a constant feel of loneliness both in his game-world and in the real world. The comedy scenes with Elsee were pretty well done but ultimately the real purpose of the ep was to get across that "Keima is screwed up". It worked.
::Reads Chapter 36:: It's nearly the same damn fight. It's certainly more streamlined for awesome, but... goddamn, no idea what people are orgasming about.
TWGOK: Turning that chapter into a full episode was pretty surprising, especially since they left out full-on God-Mode Keima, but I really, really like how they did it. However, they seem to be leaving the fact that Keima is completely and utterly uncaring and unapologetic for his choice in life by the wayside in their attempt to make you feel sympathy for him. In the manga, you... kinda do, but he makes it harder on you. The seeming lack of SD might hurt Elsee's hilarity and cuteness levels. It's ironic that the ONE FRIGGEN TIME I like something that randomly goes SD, they don't use it in the anime!
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Railgun Ch 36: I didn't get into this Manga for Touma. He has his own series! But then again, this Touma is incredibly awesome. Why is Touma never this much a certified badass who gets into exciting fights in his own story? It is just inexplicable.
Because JC sucks? That they can't do the simplest of the fight scene right and the novel still remain much more engaging despite the lack of visual??
An death to ep.4, they should have kept the scene where Tsuchmikado makes fun of Kaori.
Though, you do know that ch.36 is not from BiriBiri's PoV, but from Accelerator, right?
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Star Driver ep. 5.
I think it's all been said so far.
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::Reads Chapter 36:: It's nearly the same damn fight. It's certainly more streamlined for awesome, but... goddamn, no idea what people are orgasming about.
It was a good but not great chapter. Like I said I don't read the Railgun Manga for Touma's fights again. I totally saw the opportunity to make the Biribirivision joke and took it though.
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Watched the 3 Phoenix movies: space, Yamato, and hou-oh chapters (ovas? whatever.)
They were...good. I suspect in the right mood I'd say they were great. They each hover somewhere between being profound, humbling statements of the foolishness of mankind, the inability to concentrate on what is important...and being tragic stories of people who bad things happen to because they are terminally stupid. Space was the best of the lot, a taut murder mystery in deep space that plays out with all the suspects adrift in escape pods. Yamato's plot unfolded nicely, direct but not simple. Hou-oh is the most critically acclaimed, but I can't say I cared much for it. Stupid people are stupid.
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Housemate picked up Daphne in the Brilliant Blue - first 4 chapters (so, 16 episodes) for £2. Watched the first 8, and I'm honestly surprised. Seeing the cover/reading the summary, I was expecting something along the lines of Battle Vixens, but it's actually not all that bad.
...Not to say it's particularly good, but, hey, I wasn't expecting anything to begin with.
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Daphne is surprisingly un-terrible. The secret is that they understand the key to good comedy: Hatred. The various Nereids don't have comical misunderstandings, they just flat-out want to shoot each other, and you get way better jokes that way.
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OG ep.7- Gespenst KIIIIICK!!!! It is good to be reminded that this show is SRW once in a while.
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About damn time.
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Index- I know the whole Yuriko theory is going to get denied sooner or later, just I never expected to occur here. Oh, good bye Yuriko, we'll remember you.
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Yuriko?
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Suzushina Yuriko, aka, the female Accelerator. It was invented by the author himself, the possibility that Accelerator might really be a girl.
http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/4484/272kg0.jpg
They go so far to even come up a official sketch of it, and there is not direct evidence in the novel that can prove Accelerator is NOT a girl, so the possibility of Yuriko lingers around.... until ep.6 finally slam it down.
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New Getter Robo: Well, that was the most over-the-top first episode I've ever seen, and that's saying something.
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Ten episodes from now, that will be a model of restraint.
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Tears to Tiara:
So after I told someone I enjoyed generic fantasy anime (ala Lodoss War) someone suggested this to me. So I watched it. I can't say it doesn't have the checkmarks for the genres. Staff chick female lead with special power? Check. Hotheaded male lead? Check. Rage against the heavens plot? Check. Jerkarse Demon Lord? Check. Legendary magic sword? Check.
I think it was derived from some game, but I've never seen anything about it. The show hits all the bases of the genre, while managing relatively competent fight scenes here and there, a plot that hit all of it's bases and built characters, and music that was decent. I can't say it is fantastic by any means, but at least it was moderately entertaining. Very... Generic.
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It is a H game, that probably explains why you never seen it.
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Steel Ball Run- THE WORLD!!! Finally!! Dio is baaaaack!!!!
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Steel Ball Run- THE WORLD!!! Finally!! Dio is baaaaack!!!!
/me has just discovered how he's gonna procrastinate next.
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Transformers G1: Season 3 -
Season remained mediocre throughout.
Final serial seemed to have a jump in quality, but this may have been coloured by my memories of it.
Transformers G1: Rebirth -
Three episodes don't make a season regardless of what the DVD says.
Have to say Rebirth is fairly atrocious. Introduces far too many characters for the timeframe, including a new villainous race because that worked out so well with the Quintessons, and a new set of alien allies. But the main problem is the Headmasters and Targetmasters.
So the Autobots and new alien allies are having trouble fighting the robots of the new villains. The Autobots have enough power to deal with them, but don't know how to go about it, while the aliens know how to deal with them but don't have the power to do anything about it. This leads, by a route I can't quite remember, to the most brilliant plan of all time! A bunch of the new Autobots and Arcee have their heads removed and converted into exosuits which can transform back into the head, which the aliens (and Daniel, for health reasons) will wear, with the goal of the aliens being able to instruct them from inside their heads. YES
So the Decepticons show back up (they had beaten up on the Autobots previously, causing Daniel's health problems and such) and are shocked to see the Headmasters come off the Autobots in question and join in the fighting! As a set of headless Autobots + a bunch of human-sized exosuits are clearly twice the numbers of the set of regular Autobots, they now beat the Decepticons handily, and go on to trash some of the villain's robots as well. This causes the villains to kidnap the Decepticons and demand that they offer up their heads so that some of their crew can work in the same way. The old guard forces the new Decepticons into this, but refuse to take part themselves, clearly being less frothingly insane than the Autobots. As a compromise, the weapons of the old guard are altered in a similar manner, and become 'Targetmasters'.
Wait, did I say the old guard of the Decepticons were less insane than the Autobots? Clearly I forgot how they went into battle and threw their weapons at the Autobots as clearly human-sized exosuits are more powerful than lousy weapons
and the Autobots are so impressed with this that a bunch of their old guard has the same done for their weapons, if I remember correctly
The JP Headmasters/etc serieses are available, and as I understand it they throw out Rebirth and start over from the end of Season 3, but as I understand things the Headmasters in it are the same concept as the Headmasters in Rebirth and consequently fail at life. I will consequently not be going directly on to them.
Overall:
Season 1 is decent
Season 2 is decent if you don't mind dumb plots
Scramble City is bad
Movie is decent
Season 3 is passable, potentially decent if you're a big fan of the characters from the movie
Rebirth is bad
Gundam 00S2 V2/V3 -
Bad Times continue for Saji, with some especially bad times waiting in store for him that he has not considered.
00 Raiser, why the heck are you bringing in pseudo-newtype-slash-SEED-ghost-lamery into the show quantum brainwaves were bad enough but bearable
N still isn't dead, despite the show teasing me with the possibility. Curse them all.
Whoever was in charge of naming particularly innovative people in the show needs to be awarded the Shot Weapon Memorial Medallion. And then shot to stop it from happening again.
Show remains good so far, although I feel V3 was weaker than V2 on the whole. My view may be unfairly coloured due to the raisertype segment, as there were certainly a number of good parts in V3, such as Saji managing to realise that he is about to do something stupid again before he does it, and backstory for the forecasters.
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The Raiser also makes the 00 look less cool.
Very important.
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Index ep.7- The fuck? What's with the super human Touma? The fuck? They cut Touma's conversation with Kuroko? The fuck? Kuroko was still able to move after getting shot?
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Index ep.7- The fuck? What's with the super human Touma? The fuck? They cut Touma's conversation with Kuroko? The fuck? Kuroko was still able to move after getting shot?
Touma's convo being cut is inconsequential, honestly. I've read it. Who cares. They might move it. The episode was fucking awesome for many reasons. Teleport fight. Accelerator WTFpwning. Seriously. Easily the best episode yet, possibly out of both seasons. Only 10 seconds or so of bad Index-based humor mucking it up.
This also marks the second time in 3 episodes or so where out of context, it just looks like a guy beating up on a helpless chick.
http://img27.mediafire.com/a8787c21d3c019e216d93d66849104676356f13d03becab77a9abacc22d0a2564g.jpg
Good times.
http://img258.imageshack.us/i/accelchoke.png/
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I don't know, I just fell like nuking JC even more. When the novel has some decent stuff, they have the tendency of cutting it out. *recalls Kaori vs. Gabriel in season 1 to be the worst offense.
Yet, in this episode, for whatever reason, they toss in this super human Touma that is nowhere to be found in the original just to make the whole look cool.
.....I mean, the fuck? JC, are you doing these on purpose?
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bawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Seriously. You're missing the forest for the trees on this one. The episode was awesome and the conversation between Touma and Kuroko sucked. It was trite and pointless. Who gives a shit about it being gone? Yeah, they cut and add stuff and it can affect the quality, but you're really just flat wrong on this one.
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Consider that is the only place the blanked out message from Eztali gets revealed, I think it has a point to get animated.
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.....I mean, the fuck? JC, are you doing these on purpose?
(http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c302/Material_Defender_/spector_02.gif)
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Consider that is the only place the blanked out message from Eztali gets revealed, I think it has a point to get animated.
Only retards can't figure out through context what the promise was.
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This also marks the second time in 3 episodes or so where out of context, it just looks like a guy beating up on a helpless chick.
Gender Equality, bitches.
(I thought the Superhuman Touma thing was stupid, but watching it a second time you can see Mikoto lining up debris for him to use. It was just over dramatized probably).
TWGOK has been consistently enjoyable, and I ended up liking the taser-wielding idol more than I thought I would. Now to just go and catch up on Katanagatari.
Edit: Caught up on Katanagatari. That is some serious shit->fan cliffhanger ending. Looking forward to the final episode. Between this and Bakemonogatari, I can see why this author is popular. Some of the dialogue was a little weird (to say the least), but the character stuff and moments like the one with Pengin are great.
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Edit: Caught up on Katanagatari. That is some serious shit->fan cliffhanger ending. Looking forward to the final episode. Between this and Bakemonogatari, I can see why this author is popular. Some of the dialogue was a little weird (to say the least), but the character stuff and moments like the one with Pengin are great.
Just to let you know, he gets praise for Bakemonogatari for reasons that aren't exactly similar than what is on your mind.
Consider that is the only place the blanked out message from Eztali gets revealed, I think it has a point to get animated.
Only retards can't figure out through context what the promise was.
Still better to keep it than not. Even insisting on keeping the superhuman Touma, there are other useless things to cut. Say, less SISTER fan service?
Seriously, I think I am already being nice enough to JC in not flaming them for completely not explaining why Last Order didn't lose her memory in the previous episode. And now what, they think they can get around it just by making things look cool? Well, we might buy that excuse if say, they didn't mass up like 40% of the fight scene until this point.
Oh wait, I am actually the person who declared that if JC can do the whole Gabriel fight justice, I am willing to ignore whatever changes that JC is going to make. But oops, apparently JC fails too much to even get that right.
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More bawwwww. It's still entertaining. As long as it's entertaining, I'm satisfied. I don't give two shits if it's accurate to the hundreths to the novels.
What they've done is at least consistant within the show itself. They never showed Last Order to have lost her memories in the show, I don't think. (Could be wrong here)
I'm not saying the ep was perfect. Sure, they could have lost the Sister fanservice and they could drop Index from the entire show and I'd be happy, but eh. Oh well. I can deal.
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Umineko no Naku Koro ni getting a fighting game. Note the "grope" super at 1:24 in the second video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MTmMprmZIw&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmt09SloUY0&feature=player_embedded
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OG2- FAIRY DANG-SING!!! My god, this show is consistently not sucking, lies, this cannot be real!!!
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Why are you excited over lolibots? Either way, it was a good episode. Less time talking about boring stuff and more robots vs. robots, although wtf was that mech Archibald was piloting?
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New bot for the anime.
And despite I don't like the lolis, I DO like Fair Dang-Sing.
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:o :o :o :o :o
Umineko... fighting... game... >.>;; Whygodohwhy....
School Rumble: Hey, this is funny, I forgot that I liked anime.
Axis Powers Hetalia: This is also funny. But not as coherent. It disturbs me how good it is at teaching me about Europeon history... >.>;;
Black Cat: I want to watch this after seeing a cool review of it on That Guy With The Glasses.
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School Rumble: Hey, this is funny, I forgot that I liked anime.
School Rumble is great. I suggest watching the dub if you're not already.
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Nadesico - Solid overall I guess. Can't really point at any one thing and say it's good but I liked it well enough. Movie was a snoozefest though.
Baccano - Also pretty good. Mostly Firo, Isaac, and Miria being awesome.
Macross - Mediocre, but not bad. Just... didn't find the plot or characters entertaining I guess.
Bamboo Blade - Watching this in English now. Still good fun. Maybe I'll finish it this time!
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Macross - Show is cheese. Kaifun is quite possibly sub-Shion, Misa wasn't as bad but still generally terrible, the love triangle bullshit was painful, and the show is generally not good but it is 80's cheese. Also had SPACE TUNA.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJJ5oz_c74g
this was bandied about in chat. anyway, for those of you who did not know, there is an anime coming out. it has a t-rex on rollerblades. that is all.
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Started reading the Linebarrel manga. I'm only 1.5 chapters in and it's vastly superior to the episode of the anime I watched - Koichi is dickish, but in a way that's somewhat amusing, instead of me wanting to punch his face in right away. The lack of Ali Project and Hirai SEED-clone faces doesn't hurt, either.
*shakes fist at Gonzo*
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Started reading the Linebarrel manga. I'm only 1.5 chapters in and it's vastly superior to the episode of the anime I watched - Koichi is dickish, but in a way that's somewhat amusing, instead of me wanting to punch his face in right away. The lack of Ali Project and Hirai SEED-clone faces doesn't hurt, either.
*shakes fist at Gonzo*
At last someone understands what I mean all these times.
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Started reading the Linebarrel manga. I'm only 1.5 chapters in and it's vastly superior to the episode of the anime I watched - Koichi is dickish, but in a way that's somewhat amusing, instead of me wanting to punch his face in right away. The lack of Ali Project and Hirai SEED-clone faces doesn't hurt, either.
*shakes fist at Gonzo*
At last someone understands what I mean all these times.
Lies. No one ever understands you.
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*browses Linebarrel art*
Dear god, having the character design go from this (http://www.mangafox.com/manga/kurogane_no_linebarrel/v01/c003/30.html) to this (http://danbooru.donmai.us/post/show/426697/absurdres-album_cover-bandeau-bare_shoulders-blackthis) is just depressing.
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Finished watching all the Darker Than Black stuff. The first season was monster-of-the-week styled fun, with a weird semi-villainous protagonist who managed to be engaging enough, although the character interaction between major players kind of suffered due to the whole 'focus on character X for this arc, then make them fade into the background completely". The music was great and the animation/action was competent if not exactly stellar. The overarching plot, once it kicked in about ~3/4ths of the way through, was decent! Really needed to have a stronger overall arch throughout the series though. Credits for making the organization trying to cause massive death the 'good guys' as it were...
The OVA series was nice on the action part and I enjoyed the drama set up between the male and female leads. But oh my god was that conclusion trippy. Again with the good music, but add superior technical details.
The second season I found enjoyable mainly due to character development throughout the entire series. Suou and Hei played off each other rather well and the entire season brought this relationship to the fore. Stockholm syndrome at its finest! The overarching plot was present from start to finish, but the conclusion was a little hard to follow due to trippiness. The animation/action in season 2 was absolutely fantastic, and the music, while taking a sharp turn in genre from its predecessors, served its purpose well enough.
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BECK, THE GREAT RX-3
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Got caught up on all the translated chapters of Linebarrels, which is sadly only about 8 volumes out of 14 released so far. Good stuff, I'm left wanted more. Seriously tempted to hunt down raws for the remainder, since at worst I can enjoy the mecha fights.
For a brief moment I considered picking the anime back up, but reading some episode summaries (http://kurogane.animeblogger.net/category/anime/kurogane-no-linebarrel/page/2/) online reminded me why I thought the series sounded terrible back when it first came out:
Shit happens and they’re nearly crushed by debris, if not for Yajima. This causes a reaction in Kouichi and he punches the debris to pieces which also awakens Emi’s memories. Then BOOB INTERFACING occurs, Kouichi goes in to SEED FACTOR mode and summons Linebarrel, turning in to his GAR version. Damn, the BGM at this part was awesome too.
*twitch*
If I had to pick out the best bits, it would probably be Hayase getting taken away by a stretcher every time he got mixed up with disastrous things, like walking in on Emi when she putting on her bra (oppai!!)
*twitch* *twitch*
Emi’s character keeps getting messed up in weirder ways too. From being moekko amnesiac to tsun-tsun to loving bonsai to my-pace… it seriously makes me wonder if Gonzo’s trying to pander her to the lowest-common denominator or something.
*twitch* *twitch* *twitch*
I'm torn between pretending the anime doesn't exist and slowing working my way through the entire series so I can write a proper frothing episode-by-episode hatchet-job on all the ways Gonzo screwed this up.
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Got caught up on all the translated chapters of Linebarrels, which is sadly only about 8 volumes out of 14 released so far.
It's 16 volumes. Just ignore the anime completely. It really makes you feel less painful. The more you watch it the more you'll compare it to the manga and that hurts you even more.
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Emi’s character keeps getting messed up in weirder ways too. From being moekko amnesiac to tsun-tsun to loving bonsai to my-pace… it seriously makes me wonder if Gonzo’s trying to pander her to the lowest-common denominator or something.
But that would just be fucking unprecedented.
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Hrm, could you PM me links to volumes 15/16 then Niu? I haven't been able to find anything past 14.
Also, could you explain what the hell happened at the start of vol 14? All I can make out is that Linebarrel seemed to go into some super-mode in which it stopped responding to Koichi's controls.
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Links I don't have, as I liked Linebarrel enough to buy the actual books.
As for the super Linebarrel thing...
Linebarrel is really Emi's dad: Amagatsu, the creator of the Machina. He has implanted his own brain in Linebarrel, using the Linebarrel as the weapon to destroy all Machina as Machinas are actually the direct cause of the human annihilation that occurred in future. After detecting the presence that almost all remaining Machinas are going to have Factor, Amagatsu wakes up and goes into a kill all mode.
Also, Katou is actually Amagatsu's student, who is trying to rewrite the history for his teacher.
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Niu PLEASE don't shove unmarked spoilers into your posts. Good lord, what if hinode wants to actually read the last two books and would be willing to wait? What about everyone else who might actually want to read it too?
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TTGL: Richard is that you
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(http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/6506/linebarrels01.jpg)
Um, wow. That's far more interesting than anything I had imagined was going on. Now I'm *really* hoping that manga Linebarrel will end up in an SRW sometime after it ends... which sadly, based on prior SRW history, will never happen.
It's not totally fair to comment on the anime when I only have blog posts and wikipedia summaries to go on, but it really does feel like every time the anime diverges it ends up with something far less interesting than what the manga comes up with. The difference between the two versions of Miu/Painkiller is just ridiculously lopsided, for instance.
Niu PLEASE don't shove unmarked spoilers into your posts. Good lord, what if hinode wants to actually read the last two books and would be willing to wait? What about everyone else who might actually want to read it too?
In fairness, I specifically asked for spoilers in this case. The manga is unlicensed and scanlations are going at a snail's pace, so it'll be a minor miracle if I get a chance to actually read those volumes within the next five years.
Your general point's valid, unmarked spoilers are bad, but at least in the case of obscure unlicensed manga it's less egregious than with something like FF13.
On a related note, feel free to send me any other interesting tidbits for volumes 9+, Niu; I'm definately curious about the story and don't mind spoilers, especially in a case like this where translations probably won't be happening quickly. Just do so via private messaging, or use the size modifier if you must post it publically.
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I should have been more honest. I want to read the manga and don't want spoilers. Regardless, you're right and I should have read your post asking. Sorry.
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Kurokami V2 -
Continuing where we left off, where the fact that the main character was supposed to be part of the unlucky/unspecial people was being completely ignored by having him be lucky and special, Keita continues to be lucky and special in this half of the series. Most of all when he has his root presented to him and consequently dies as per the rules of the doppleliner system, but comes back to life due to a technicality in the pact system which somehow no-one knows about despite there being numerous pacts between people who are closer than Keita and Kuro are. To be fair, most of the pacts we see are with Roots, but the other major one we know of which isn't is certainly a closer relationship. To say nothing of the fact that given that the death penalty is apparently applied by the root uncontrollably draining out the sub's Terra, for all that that doesn't even begin to match how we saw the rest of the sub deaths work, why isn't Root!Keita still draining the Terra which Kuro is providing to Keita?
I like how there are supposed to be two Subs for every Root, but all the Master Root creation we see has only the one Sub being killed off. Unless the doppleliner system causes both Subs to die when even only one of them encounters the Root, which isn't something that was ever suggested, there are a lot of Subs being killed off-camera or the show is just ignoring its own rules.
To no-one's surprise, Reishin comes back. I didn't expect the show to try to act like he had good intentions all along. It really doesn't excuse anything that had been done beforehand, and I don't see it making any sense that the person you would expect should have been informed about this wasn't. Unless, of course, informing them would have woken the third Masagami early, but this isn't something the show indicates and I should not try to come up with excuses for it. Worse is that Akane doesn't say anything either and just looks to be brainwashed or evil.
Not a fan of Nam.
The ending is annoying with Keita somehow managing to take the doppleliner system with him and there being no reason that he should be able to do something like that. Oh Keita you are certainly the least special character of all time.
The DVD runs directly into the special episode after the ending and it is somewhat annoying due to slight mood whiplash. Bit of poor form there.
Daitarn 3 -
Man.
I expected more along the lines of James Bond x Tekkaman Blade x First Half GaoGaiGar. It is a mere shadow of that.
After the first episode, most of the early episodes are flat and uninspiring. Fortunately, it does improve on average around halfway through, but still dips occassionally afterwards.
I was certainly not expecting Don Zauser to have been dead all along, aside from being revived in the final episode. Vaguely nice twist. That tricksy Koros.
Plot twist in the last episode, that the Meganoids were just trying to collect energy so they could leave the solar system and settle somewhere away from humans, runs considerably counter to the events of the series and I don't really know what they were thinking. It can't really be a fake out since it's from Koros talking to Don Zauser. Bizarre. And not brought up when they fight Banjo.
MSG Char's Counterattack -
It was okay? Some of the dialogue was atrocious, it had anti-adult themes, people had some annoying motivations, newtype lamery, Hathaway, and Quess all existed, and the ending was horrible. On the other hand was reasonably pretty.
MSG F91 -
Fairly badly disjointed at points. A number of times it skips back and forth between colonies without explicitly calling it out until you recognise that it must have happened at some point.
Federation and CB are all horrible people. The show seems to try to render CB in the best light but I think this was a bad attempt at a fakeout.
Shockingly, doesn't have all that much in the way of newtype lamery! But there is still some. Sigh.
Anti-adult themes again. Getting somewhat sick of those.
The bugs were not as gruesome as I had expected, no worse than the violence I had been seeing in Daitarn. Not sure where I got the idea that they were supposed to be nightmarish.
Reasonably pretty.
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Shiki- Anime ends. Toru goes down the Ritsuko end like novel. Megumi also end like the novel. Stupid loli and monk as get the novel end. So... can I expect the opposite from the manga?? On the other hand, the siblings made out alright, does that mean they have fate worse than the novel waiting for them in the manga?
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Gundam SEED Destiny Special Edition. H'okay, so it improved the original a bit. One thing I was happy to note is that Meer's note now contains correct English, and the ending was expanded on to show more than just Shinn and Lunamaria on the Moon's surface. Athrun picking them up, visiting a memorial, etcetera.
Still not a fantastic story but uh, well, it's better than I remembered it to be. Can't find SEED Special Edition properly Seeded (or at least dubbed) (doh-hoh what i did thar) so putting that on hold for now. Supposedly that's been improved a lot, too, so I wanna watch it.
Apparently they also have a theatrical film in production but due to the writer being ill it's on indefinite hiatus. But I want more Lunamaria. :(
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Gun X Sword -
I was pretty happy with it.
I could see people following a man who seems to definitely have the capability of changing the world for the better despite the fact he keeps killing people (accidentally, supposedly), but when this capability consists of imprinting HIMSELF (who keeps killing people, remember) on everyone why doesn't anyone see the obvious problem with this.
Gun X Sword-San -
Amusing enough for what it was. Don't know if I would have cared for there to have been much more of it though.
Gundam 00S2 V4 -
Aside from dealing with the current crisis, which didn't take all that long, this volume was mostly background information and setup for the next crisis. There was not even any Bad Times For Saji (that he was aware of anyway). Not much to say.
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The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya: Great movie for fans of the show (or former fans of the show, if E8/the long hiatus through you off).
The animation and artwork are fantastic. This movie is visual crack in pretty much every scene. The soundtrack is used very well, although silence is the norm (it works given the fairly serious nature of the discussions/scenes).
The plot and characters are given an obvious spoilery twist, but fans of the original show should enjoy it. The core of the movie's plot and character work revolves around a fairly major introspection by Kyon, and the resulting decision brings about a fairly major change in his character.
Asakura's showing is absolutely great. You start to like/trust the 'rebooted' her to some degree as a genuine friend of Yuki's, and then of course out comes the knife. The wonderful part is that it was absolutely justified: Kyon was pointing a weapon at her best friend and fully intended to use it. Not that this makes her any less CRAZY. The resulting scene is equal parts horrifying and mesmerizing. Just fantastic and fun.
I had pretty much given up on this series after waiting years just to be EPIC TROLLED by Kyoto Animation. I can safely say I'm still a fan of the series after watching this, though. I can't recommend it to newcomers due to the requirement that you be familiar with the characters/plot to appreciate it, but to those who watched and enjoyed Haruhi S1: Watch this movie. Preferably now.
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I'll add that you should absolutely watch the episode Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody before Dissappearance. THe other S2 episodes aren't all that important for Disappearance's plot, but you really do need to see BLR at least.
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Just finished Claymore.
Watched the first episode of Aquarion, and it seems a tad bit too horny for me. I've finished Blassreiter and was unsatisfied with the ending, though I feel many would be anyway.
I must av someone from Claymore now. I feel like Clare would be appropriate, though . . the one who voiced Min Mei had pretty hair. Or she sounded like she voiced Min Mei anyway.
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FMP: Hyped so much, but uh, the Chidori SOSUKE TAKE ME YOU SEXY BEAST feels a bit too fast? She falls for him at first sight apparently because he acts COMPLETELY WEIRD. Uh, what, this better get explained later! Anyway hijinks and stuff. It's a little amusing but I really don't get the hype for it, it's not that good.
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Most hype is based on either Sousuke himself or the utter insanity that is Fumoffu, the second season.
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FMP: Hyped so much, but uh, the Chidori SOSUKE TAKE ME YOU SEXY BEAST feels a bit too fast? She falls for him at first sight apparently because he acts COMPLETELY WEIRD. Uh, what, this better get explained later! Anyway hijinks and stuff. It's a little amusing but I really don't get the hype for it, it's not that good.
I never got the sense that she fell for him at first sight. She softens up to him, sure, but she doesn't even really start trusting him until after the first major incident.
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She takes immediate interest him from episode 1, going all blush blush and according to Kyoko taking unnatural interest in Sosuke. She goes all I TRUST YOU WITH ALL MY SOUL, WITH YOU BY MY SIDE I FEEL I CAN DO ANYTHING in episode 7.
I dunno, six episodes before she goes all OH GOD SOSUKE I WANT YOU TAKE ME YOU SEXY BEAST is a bit too fast for me but then I don't suppose this series is meant to be about romance, but Sosuke doing silly things.
Like stealing pantsu.
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I dunno, six episodes before she goes all OH GOD SOSUKE I WANT YOU TAKE ME YOU SEXY BEAST is a bit too fast for me but then I don't suppose this series is meant to be about romance, but Sosuke doing silly things.
What the hell are you talking about?
Sosuke IS a sexy beast!
(FMP's first season is a good mixture of badass and idiocy. I enjoyed it quite a bit, although general reaction varies quite a bit. FMP: Fumoffu is pretty much universally hyped and worshiped, however.
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She takes immediate interest him from episode 1, going all blush blush and according to Kyoko taking unnatural interest in Sosuke. She goes all I TRUST YOU WITH ALL MY SOUL, WITH YOU BY MY SIDE I FEEL I CAN DO ANYTHING in episode 7.
To be fair... you mean high school girls DON'T take immediate interest in unusual but good-looking men?
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One thing that they don't explicitly state in FMP S1 (and they tap dabce around it in the anime in general) is that Kaname... doesn't have that great of a social reputation at her school. She's labelled 'prettiest girl that you wouldn't want to date' or something like that in some of promotional material for Fumoffu. Apparantly the boys in her school consider her too brash and short tempered to be good girlfriend material. Having this good looking guy sorta show interest in her is kinda intriguing even if she finds his behavior really bizarre.
I believe the novels actually state that she grew up in the US as a kid, so her behavior is supposed to play into Japanese stereotypes of Americans.
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I wouldn't know, Sopko, I'm not a highschool girl. I can't really relate to it. Who says Sosuke is good-looking?
Hinode, I dunno about the Japanese but the English dub actually explicitly states that she has that reputation. When Sosuke grabs the pantsu thief, the pantsu thief says he had to steal Kaname's underwear because "no guy would want to date her anyway" so she'd be flattered if a guy had that much interest in her. Still, does that really justify it?
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I wouldn't know, Sopko, I'm not a highschool girl.
Basics of empathy and correlation. How would you feel if an unusual but good-looking girl showed interest in you?
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This is Bard, if an unusual good-looking girl showed interest in him then he would ask this strange man to stop hitting on him.
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In Soviet Russia, Bard hits on you.
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I wouldn't know, Sopko, I'm not a highschool girl.
Basics of empathy and correlation. How would you feel if an unusual but good-looking girl showed interest in you?
I-- If she was completely eccentric in a bad way, I don't think I'd be totally into her like Chidori is in Sosuke.
... >_> I can't say I wouldn't be flattered though, but it all depends on how unusual.
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G Gundam
Yeah, I'm actually watching anime. One I've seen before, but still. After playing a bunch of J I kinda wanted to watch this again. Aaaand I'm kinda binging on it. 32 eps in 2 days. @_@ Wonder if I'll manage to keep this pace up and finish it tomorrow or Monday. We shall see!
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Caught up on Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan on vizanime.com. I like how it incorporates the traditional Japanese mythology.
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Chrono Crusade -
Wasted opportunity.
Tries to concentrate on drama and humour and doesn't do a very good job at meshing them, throws the humour out anyway in the leadup to the ending as you do. Would have been better to have been less humour-oriented in the first place.
Doesn't cop out in the ending, which is always a good thing, but proceeds to not really do anything with what it has. Not really sure how to put that into words, but the way in which things are set up result in there being almost no power in the scene at all - I feel it would have been more impactful for things to have occurred at the scene of the apex, rather thanhaving them disappear and later on the show being all 'So they spent 6-odd months together which we're not going to show you and now they're dead'. Actually, that could even have worked better if the death scene wasn't included - it didn't really add anything except for maybe revealing that Rosette's earlier blaséness about the idea was a lie, and considering how things ended up turning out it isn't out of the question that her view on that had merely changed. In either case, it doesn't cause any of her earlier scenes to be thrown into a new light, and she doesn't exactly have any later scenes for it to play into.
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Biggest problem there is really that they don't capitalise on the impact of someone willingly sacrificing themselves for the good of the world.
Really the whole series is pretty much cheap pay offs for what could have been interesting ideas. Wasted opportunity is spot on.
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Just finished reading the Pluto manga. It was fucking fantastic.
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Victory Gundam -
I thought this series was supposed to be all bleakdepressing but it really wasn't much worse, if worse at all, than lows already set in the metaseries?
Shrike deaths are meaningless considering the majority of the good-aligned cast excluding them are children, almost none of which die (and they (discounting Usso for obvious reasons) may well see more in-battle screentime than the Shrikes). To be fair, as far as I have read, they were killed off specifically to decrease the value of the show, not for the purposes of Anyone Can Die-ness... can't really say how well that succeeded in my opinion if true since I am not really of the demographic where the Shrikes form a major draw for the show.
Too much newtype lamery, particularly everything related to the Angel Halo. Also the newtype ghosts. At least they weren't soul eaten.
I don't understand the motives of Katejina or Lupé at all. I don't really understand the goals of Zanscare in and of themselves. Fonse wants to use motherly love to give everyone on Earth the proportional strength and mental capacity of babies for unspecified reasons - don't believe we ever really find out what he actually wants to do after that. Maria wants to use motherly love to stop all warfare but has seemingly no problem with the implementation where opposing pilots are rendered unable to fight by this and then slaughtered by Zanscare's forces. And it's not really explained why the war with Earth was started in the first place. The Angel Halo had been planned for ages considering it had to be shipped in from Jupiter so why didn't they just finish building that and then use it rather than causing opposing forces to spring up in the meantime.
Chronicle pulls a semi-Jerid and it is disheartening. Not as bad as someone else at least.
All up, there was nowhere near enough motorad fleet.
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I've been on an absolute anime tear lately.
The disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya:
Finally got around to watching this. GREAT movie. Very Haruhi. I miss this show so badly, and I hope that the E8 thing doesn't destroy the good faith needed to make a third season, whenever that may be. Secondly, I actually LIKED Endless Eight. I imagine watching it live would be a disaster, but I watched all eight in a row (four hours!) and it was so fucking surreal and unheard of that I ate it up. I am a horrible art fag.
Star Driver:
A lot of people on SA are starting to really hate on this, because the hero wins every fight. Which seems like about the silliest reason you can hate a cartoon series, because, well, that's just what's going to happen. Also, if the hero loses, that's pretty much the end of it. He has a giant robot that he cannot repair. So if he loses, even once, there's no more show. The bad guys have nothing stopping them from breaking the seals and fleeing the island. The animation and the fights are great, and some of the characters (Sugata! Head!) are awesome. My only real beef is that the second maiden was just.... eh. Kind of bland, and her arc took too long for my tastes. Oh well.
Madoka Magica:
Gave this a second chance on the recommendation of Stel, and I'm glad I did, because it made one of those sudden tonal shifts that I really like, assuming it doesn't get TOO horrifically graphic, which so far it hasn't. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this goes.
Level E:
I've heard essentially no hype for this, which I think is a shame, because this is really the sleeper show of the season. It's funny, well paced, and the characters are really defined. Also, the opening for this is just plan rad, and if you don't enjoy it, then you're simply NOT A COOL DUDE. So watch Level E
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For Star Driver, since Head wasn't planning on killing Takuto or anything this was a fight I could have been fine with him losing.
Level E is rad, yes.
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The disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya:
Finally got around to watching this. GREAT movie. Very Haruhi. I miss this show so badly, and I hope that the E8 thing doesn't destroy the good faith needed to make a third season, whenever that may be. Secondly, I actually LIKED Endless Eight. I imagine watching it live would be a disaster, but I watched all eight in a row (four hours!) and it was so fucking surreal and unheard of that I ate it up. I am a horrible art fag.
This. The movie was pretty much everything we loved about the original Haruhi condensed into 2.8 hours of awesome, win, and OMG SO GOD DAMN PRETTY.
Madoka Magica:
Gave this a second chance on the recommendation of Stel, and I'm glad I did, because it made one of those sudden tonal shifts that I really like, assuming it doesn't get TOO horrifically graphic, which so far it hasn't. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this goes.
I've heard a lot about this show. Too much, in fact. I'm not sure I'll be able to enjoy it that well since it was spoilered for me but I want to give it a shot.
Level E:
I've heard essentially no hype for this, which I think is a shame, because this is really the sleeper show of the season. It's funny, well paced, and the characters are really defined. Also, the opening for this is just plan rad, and if you don't enjoy it, then you're simply NOT A COOL DUDE. So watch Level E
It really is a very enjoyable show. Alien Puppet Theatre vs. Mikado Puppet Theatre go! But yeah, humor and style seem to be here in spades.
I'd also recommend checking out Gosick this season. The show starts a little dull in ep 1 but that is just laying the groundwork for a rather enjoyable 2 and 3. The characters are fun and Victorique is probably the best lead I've seen in a while.
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Star Driver- Should I laugh at the underliying joke of this eiposde?
"If what you want to do and what you are doing are the same, then you can hear the voice of the world"
And then the equation goes like this:
What you want to do (Takuto wants to beat up his dad)
+
What you are doing (Takuto is beating his dad)
=
You hear the voiec of the world (Tauburn up grade and Takuto's dad got beaten)
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Interestingly, I just finished reading what exists of Hunter x Hunter a few months ago and decided to read Level E, then I found out the anime was starting up and decided to wait for it. Just watched the first episode a few minutes back, and it owned. I doubt it's Togashi's best work, but I really love his mixture of b-movie goofiness and serious themes.
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Kore wa Zombie desuka- Wow, with the original novel being so unspectacular, the anime managed to make itself into a pretty impressive gag/comedy show. I guess something needs to be act out instead of being written to become effective. Prinny doing a good job with the voice acting also helps. Pleasant surprise and I am going to follow this.
Those morons doing To Aru and IS, this is how you do a novel adaptation right.
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I just feel the justice should be preached.
http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/7922/smashn.jpg
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Haruhi Suzumiya, Melancholy Of, S1 -
Episode 0 is 97% context-free and shows off much more of the show's bad side that it does its good side.
Things generally improve once it gets into the series proper, but really only due to the addition of the good side rather than any reduction in the bad side.
Ending was somewhat flat.
Because we live in endless resources society, the set came with some additional discs with the episodes re-ordered into what was supposedly the original broadcast order despite the fact that the order the episodes are in could be described as psychotic, mostly in terms of throwing other episodes into the middle of serials. On the other hand it would have a less flat ending in that order.
Gundam 00 S2 V5 -
The main plot didn't really progress much in this volume either, most of the time was spent thinning out the cast really. There was not even anything resulting from the occupation aside from cast thinning and then random time skip! and then we never hear about it again, at least not yet. As there is only one volume to go things had better get hopping.
Ribbons is a dick.
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I just feel the justice should be preached.
I don't normally agree with Niu but HERE FUCKING HERE.
Level E: Pretty rad. Continues to be enjoyable. Alien prince troll.
Madoka: Shocking subversion. Kind of horrifying. "What if Magical Girls fought Pure Evil? Not saturday-morning villains or someone who just needs a hug, but honest-to-god cosmic horrors?
Railgun Manga: Fantastic end to a great arc. Gives a very satisfying emotional catharsis for the hell that Mikoto got put through.
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Haruhi Suzumiya, Melancholy Of, S1 -
Episode 0 is 97% context-free and shows off much more of the show's bad side that it does its good side.
Things generally improve once it gets into the series proper, but really only due to the addition of the good side rather than any reduction in the bad side.
Ending was somewhat flat.
Because we live in endless resources society, the set came with some additional discs with the episodes re-ordered into what was supposedly the original broadcast order despite the fact that the order the episodes are in could be described as psychotic, mostly in terms of throwing other episodes into the middle of serials. On the other hand it would have a less flat ending in that order.
You didn't like Episode 0? I figured you would have appreciated the over-the-top mockery of standard anime tropes (even if the series itself falls into them pretty heavily in some cases).
Also, original broadcast order is the only way to watch the series. There is only one -story- to tell in Haruhi, but the majority of the character development happens afterwards. The way the broadcast order works, it paces itself pretty well and adds a hearty bit of confusion to a series that is all about mixing up the standard view of an otherwise colorless world.
I mean, I know that standard school stories aren't your thing, so I'm wasting my time, but honestly, the series does a lot of good things for its genre and the weird story presentation was one of its strongest points, not something to be described as "psychotic". >.>;;
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a series that is all about mixing up the standard view of an otherwise colorless world
what does this even MEAN
You didn't like Episode 0? I figured you would have appreciated the over-the-top mockery of standard anime tropes (even if the series itself falls into them pretty heavily in some cases).
I don't remember it really playing with tropes much, seemed more like a stock horribly plotted youth video like my brother and his friends used to do? Except with added gratuitousness.
There is only one -story- to tell in Haruhi, but the majority of the character development happens afterwards.
If you're saying here that the Melancholy episodes are the only 'story', I think you're selling it short? But to be honest I'm not entirely sure where you were going with this.
I mean, I know that standard school stories aren't your thing, so I'm wasting my time, but honestly, the series does a lot of good things for its genre and the weird story presentation was one of its strongest points, not something to be described as "psychotic". >.>;;
School stories I have watched consist of: Cromartie High School, Goodbye Mr. Despair, Great Teacher Onizuka. I guess Fumoffu. Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Ocean Waves if you count movies. None of these count as standard? I have Ouran on hand if that counts and I could step it up. Otherwise I guess I'm not going to be able to see where you're coming from. You could see if there is anything you could recommend.
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I don't remember it really playing with tropes much, seemed more like a stock horribly plotted youth video like my brother and his friends used to do? Except with added gratuitousness.
I just wanted step in and say this was pretty much my opinion of Episode 0 and why I never picked up the series. First episode, unfortunately, came across exactly as what it was portrayed as: a poorly made and awkward student film. >_>
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I don't remember it really playing with tropes much, seemed more like a stock horribly plotted youth video like my brother and his friends used to do? Except with added gratuitousness.
I just wanted step in and say this was pretty much my opinion of Episode 0 and why I never picked up the series. First episode, unfortunately, came across exactly as what it was portrayed as: a poorly made and awkward student film. >_>
Poorly and awkwardly made student film is exactly why it endeared me so much. I helped some film student friends make a bunch of them in college and it was always a ton of fun. Seeing it done there with Kyon's commentary was brilliant.
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This silence can only mean that there are no recommendable standard school shows that Djinn knows of. In that case I could easily see Haruhi as being a breakthrough for the subgenre.
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust -
Was entertaining. Was left long enough I have forgotten anything I may have wanted to say.
Dancouga -
Was entertaining. Had too much Dancouga in it after it became available. Muge is remarkably level-headed for a villain. Cannot say the same for the rest of the villain cast.
Dancouga: Lequiem for Vic'tims (http://twilkitri.fewiki.net/stuff//dancougarlequiem.jpg) (cut version) -
Was less entertaining. Mostly fighting with little worthwhile plot. Maybe they could have done more if they had not set aside a chunk over half the length of the show for recaps. Also the Dancousword is apparently a soul eater.
God Bracelet Dancougar -
Was less entertaining.
So the heroes of the previous war try to defend a city from a monster only for it to blow up and destroy the place, and they get thrown in jail for it. This is sounding retrofamiliar.
The world was somehow turned into a police state since the previous series and this is never really explained.
The existence of the villain is never really explained.
A variety of other things are never really explained.
In summary the main characters form a pop group.
Not sure whether I should go on to Blazing Epilogue or not considering it is in indecipherableospeak when I have so much in knownlanguage to watch.
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Continuing to watch Madoka and loving every second of it. Interesting characters with varying motivations for making the contract. Very interesting displays of fighting styles/powers to be had, which makes combat exciting (to say nothing of the tension in every battle). I'm also a fan of teleporters and Homura is like a remix of Senjougahara so I have myself a new favorite character.
Level E: Glorious trolling. I laughed so hard I cried.
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Index: Finally, the introduction of the series has finished. At last the real meat begins. Like I did to the Angel Fall arc in season 1, if JC did not mess up the 0930 Arc that's starting next week, I'll forgive them of all their wrong doings in the past and hail them as the supreme god of the anime.
But if they do mess up, I expect the Index fans in Japan are conscious enough to burn down the JC building once and for all.
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Space Firebird 2772 -
Entertaining enough.
Godo's character is initially set up with him refusing to kill a bunch of aliens because they're 'human', and standing up for Olga because she's 'human', but then abruptly he starts seeing Olga as subhuman, participates in the chasing down and killing of a herd of (different) fire birds, and uses numerous lethal attacks on the firebird which he is supposed to be capturing alive (none of them are any use against it, but he doesn't know that). It is somewhat disconcertening. Then he gets redeemed by realizing that he loved Olga all along :S.
The ending is also annoying. So in order to save the Earth he loves so much (keeping in mind that until he was old enough to start cadet training he was seemingly kept in a single room, and partway through his cadet training he was sent to a labour camp, and had not been back to Earth since escaping, so he didn't actually have a great deal of time spent there), he sacrifices himself to the firebird. Then he gets resurrected as a baby anyway, and Olga gets resurrected as a REAL BOY WOMAN who takes him as her child. Way to have the whole Godo/Olga romance go to the best of possible places, to say nothing of the robots are people too thing.
Also Black Jack gets to beat Godo up. Good times.
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I kinda want to bite on this, but how are Senjougahara and Homura anything alike? >_>
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They kinda aren't. A few similar personality traits (deadpan, no-nonsense), but... otherwise not the same character at all, functionally in the plot or otherwise.
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VA joke. They share the same Seiyuu so I was making a joke about that. As for why I like Homura, she's cool, serves as a very needed counter to Mami's overly friendly take on the situation, and I absolutely love the way they use her teleportation gimmicks.
But the Puella Magi Madoka Magica is incredibly awesome quite on its own merits. I haven't been this psyched for a series in a long while. Just try to avoid spoilers as much as possible for maximum effect.
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a series that is all about mixing up the standard view of an otherwise colorless world
what does this even MEAN
Yeah, I guess that was pretty vague, I just didn't want to get into a rant about why I <3 Haruhi and that's what explaining this statement would mean. The shortest way I can describe it is that the series glorifies wanting to believe in fantasy while reminding such dreamers that reality can be fantastic too. And I think it does a damn good job of it.
I don't remember it really playing with tropes much, seemed more like a stock horribly plotted youth video like my brother and his friends used to do? Except with added gratuitousness.
The student film's roles themselves are the best examples of it. Magical Girl, Evil Witch, Mysterious Schoolboy who secretly has powers. The roles get more and more ridiculous over time as Haruhi keeps making things up. It's basically holding up a picture of something like Kimagure Orange Road or Sailor Moon or Negima and marking it up with crayon and taunting 'This is you, this is you, this is what your director acts like, this is what I think of your idea of continuity!'
If you're saying here that the Melancholy episodes are the only 'story', I think you're selling it short? But to be honest I'm not entirely sure where you were going with this.
It basically goes back to the idea that the reason I love the series is based solely on the message of these particular episodes. They do a great job of capturing the childlike love of the fantastic and the yearning for it to be real, but then reminding the dreamer that real life is worth viewing with the same passion. It's not a particularly new message, but these episode tell it rather well.
School stories I have watched consist of: Cromartie High School, Goodbye Mr. Despair, Great Teacher Onizuka. I guess Fumoffu. Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Ocean Waves if you count movies. None of these count as standard? I have Ouran on hand if that counts and I could step it up. Otherwise I guess I'm not going to be able to see where you're coming from. You could see if there is anything you could recommend.
That looks a like good selection of school anime... but I wouldn't really call them -standard-. Mostly because they -are- quality and each have something unique about them that makes them stand out in the genre. If you've never seen an 'average' show of the genre, I guess it's hard to understand why it's so amusing to see the Episode 0 parody of them... Fumoffu is probably the closest to 'average' school drama there?
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Index ep.1- Ahhhhh!! Accelerator face smash at its finest. I have been waiting for this for toooooo long. A season and a half of OP is just too much. Go go Kihara kun!!! Kazu really should recognize the Kihara Divine Fist as the official name of the awesome punch.
But lovely, they took out the "Jaw" and the 50% discount!! So JC still can't do things right. I might not want to burn them down, but nor I am going to forgive them at this rate.
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I kinda want to bite on this, but how are Senjougahara and Homura anything alike? >_>
They both get obnoxious head pans.
Actually what I really wanted to post is that Andrew's avatar is really cute. ;_;
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The shortest way I can describe it is that the series glorifies wanting to believe in fantasy while reminding such dreamers that reality can be fantastic too. And I think it does a damn good job of it.
To be honest - I don't remember there being too much fantastic reality in the show. I can only assume that we have different ideas as to what that would entail.
I don't remember it really playing with tropes much, seemed more like a stock horribly plotted youth video like my brother and his friends used to do? Except with added gratuitousness.
The student film's roles themselves are the best examples of it. Magical Girl, Evil Witch, Mysterious Schoolboy who secretly has powers. The roles get more and more ridiculous over time as Haruhi keeps making things up.
To be honest - I don't remember the roles ever really changing much. But to be honest I don't remember much about that episode by now. The only change in role I can remember was when Yuki became a ventriloquist which I interpreted at the time as Yuki covering for the cat rather than being an intentional part of the film. Although the cat never did do anything interesting in the rest of the series when it even showed up at all...
It's basically holding up a picture of something like Kimagure Orange Road or Sailor Moon or Negima and marking it up with crayon and taunting 'This is you, this is you, this is what your director acts like, this is what I think of your idea of continuity!'
To be honest - I don't know what you mean by this ._.
Yukikaze -
Decent.
Preferred early on when there was time devoted to Yukikaze doing whatever possible to protect itself. This stopped showing up later on and it was saddening.
Opening for operation 5 was bizarre and I don't really have much in the way of idea as to what was actually going on. Ending wasn't that crash hot either.
Gundam 00 S2 V6 -
A bunch of people get what was coming to them. Some other people don't.
Annoying newtype-standin things happen.
All up I declare it worse than the first season despite barely remembering the first season just because I am reasonably certain that the first season did not have healing empathy-bestowing rainbows.
Spice And Wolf S1 -
Pretty good.
World is somewhat depressing. Lawrence would make more headway if he assumed that everyone ever was lying to him. Seems a bit unrealistic for him to have survived up until the start of the series given the content of the series. Would not surprise me if it turned out that Holo was running some sort of soil preservation equivalent against him.
Currently no release date for Season 2 over here which is also somewhat depressing.
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Index ep.20 - I shall give JC just a little credit for keeping Accelerator's killing spree in the recycling center. And Heaven Canceler should really stop helping Aleister do all the cover up.
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.hack//Quantum- Check the runes over.... yeah, that should be Tarvos. Then Hello Pai, I guess it is really you.
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Gigantor V2 -
There isn't any real reason for me to dislike the show, but something about it I can't ascertain just rubs me the wrong way and makes it hard to consider it worth putting on. As a result I ended up having most of this volume on in the background while playing EO2.
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.hack//Quantum- Check the runes over.... yeah, that should be Tarvos. Then Hello Pai, I guess it is really you.
.hack still exists? Are they ever going back to game media or stick with trainwreck stupid anime plots?
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.hack//Quantum- Check the runes over.... yeah, that should be Tarvos. Then Hello Pai, I guess it is really you.
.hack still exists? Are they ever going back to game media or stick with trainwreck stupid anime plots?
They aren't one in the same? Link's story is pretty much worse than any of the anime out there. The plotting in the games is just as bad too, for different reasons.
Besides... .hack//roots didn't have Sakaki. Already a point in it's favor.
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.hack//Quantum- Check the runes over.... yeah, that should be Tarvos. Then Hello Pai, I guess it is really you.
.hack still exists? Are they ever going back to game media or stick with trainwreck stupid anime plots?
They aren't one in the same? Link's story is pretty much worse than any of the anime out there. The plotting in the games is just as bad too, for different reasons.
And it is only getting worse. There is at least two more installment for this series, one anime and one game. And it is to be expected they will turn out as stupid as LINK.
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Star Driver- Master Asia, is Takuto spamming Chokyu Haou Denendan every episode not enough for?? Does the School of the Undefeated East needs publicity thus badly that you have to pay Bones to do more??
Combo attack? Seriously? Don't tell me that Domon/Master Asia and Takuto/Sugata are going to become interchangeable in doing Chokyu Haou Denendan if they ever appear in a same SRW.
http://jlab-tv.niceboat.org/2/s/tv1300609976276.gif
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Turn A Gundam:
Completed. I'm not too sure what to say other than "decent show with flaws". The time and attention given to every member of the cast is a definite plus, and I'm rather impressed with Loran A Gundam main character in a serious war story who is the hero/lynchipin of dozens of battles (as per normal) and has a kill count of... 2. Loran's pacifist run was really quite impressive!. The animation was a little aged but that is forgivable enough. I suppose I enjoyed it about as much as I did SEED? It's story benefits from the lack of forced drama, but the production specs are always something you look forward to in a mech show, to a certain degree.
The overall plot stays true to Gundam themes of spacers vs. earthers, while injecting enough political and character drama to be interesting but not drown out the overall premise. Generally competent even if I was annoyed with specific points (for example, people are just too easily let off the hook for actions that should result in severe punishment if not outright execution).
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OG2: Finished episode 24. They wouldn't.
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OG ep.25- YES THEY DID. And you can't imagine what they have encompassed in this episode. What you see in the 24 is the less of the evils on what is occuring in 25.
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With my internet down for the last couple days and my comp sidelined for the next few days, been catching up on disc-based stuff I need to watch. Not being in the mood for comedic fare, I went with Texhnolyze. Ended up finishing it.
Goddamn I do not know what to say about it. The first episode was an absolute mess with only three lines of dialogue and less coherant than a Meeple rant. It built itself out of that, but man, bad start. However... it's distinctly the slow, plodding, navel-gazing type show I love and I'm glad I stuck with it. Despite being a mess at times and having more than a few holes, I was enthralled by it. The characters and the atmosphere in particular. The story is damn near impenetrable, but the plotting was decent despite occasional holes. Despite the problems with the end, each character that left hurt, and I found myself incredibly involved and saddened by it (in a good way) despite my misgivings about the show. Incredibly depressing though. In the end I still don't exactly know what to think about it. I might sour on it over time, I might not, but damn was it one hell of a ride. Not a masterpiece by any means, heavy-handed and problematic, but... goddamn enjoyable if you're in to that type of show. 9/10, I guess?
Next up Sky Crawlers and Mahoromatic, probably, as well as regualr ol' movies.
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Watched a few episodes of Bokurano. Geez. It's every bit as depressing and emotional as I've heard.
Warning: Critical depression overload. Failure. Failure. Unable to complete
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Watched a few episodes of Bokurano. Geez. It's every bit as depressing and emotional as I've heard.
Warning: Critical depression overload. Failure. Failure. Unable to complete
Meh. I've always found Bokurano very life-affirming at the same time.
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The anime is happiness and kittens compared to the manga too~
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The anime is happiness and kittens compared to the manga too~
Meh. They're not really that far apart.
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Sky Crawlers- Wow. I need to stop watching all heavy anime or I'm liable to shoot myself. Anyway, very good movie and I can see where the hype comes from. Drenched in metaphor, good aerial combat scenes, totally worth the 10 bucks I paid for the blu-ray.
Tailenders- As I was saying. Just completely fun as hell. Exactly as advertised. T-Rex on Rollerskates was as hilarious and random as expected, though painfully short. You could spend a half-hour doing more fun things maybe if you were doing all the things described in a Brawndo ad, all at the same time.
Hen Zemi ep 2- Hahaha. Man. So delightfully perverted and still manages to be pretty witty and smart about it. Recommended to Djinn or Jim or anyone who likes hilariously perverted stuff.
Welcome to the Space Show- Watching this later. Will edit in commentary.
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Ended up watching Madoka Magica somehow. Good stuff, as several others have mentioned.
Watched a few episodes of another mahou shoujou, Nanoha, after being impressed by the 9 eps of Madoka that I watched. I've already forgotten what actually happened in Nanoha, but the magitech weapons were cool and it had a cute ferret.
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Persona 4 anime??
http://www.mayonaka-tv.jp/
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Ended up watching Madoka Magica somehow. Good stuff, as several others have mentioned.
Watched a few episodes of another mahou shoujou, Nanoha, after being impressed by the 9 eps of Madoka that I watched. I've already forgotten what actually happened in Nanoha, but the magitech weapons were cool and it had a cute ferret.
Wait. 9 eps of Madoka? You haven't watched episode 10 yet? GO DO THAT NOW.
(Nanoha actually had the same director as Madoka, interestingly)
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OG2: Okay, good, they didn't shoehorn in Neo Granzon. When Shu did his join-the-heroes-for-the-last-battle thing I started to worry.
Anyway, that finale was pretty great. Still fanservice fluff like the rest of the show, but it kept the ridiculousness going fast and furious and changed some things up in highly entertaining ways. The last fight goes in the complete opposite direction from OGs and is much better for it. And Vysaga finally did something! Yay!
Two things bug me: The random cameos at the start of episode 26 and the complete lack of Rampage Ghost in the entire series.
Wait, three things. What was Viletta piloting? She was in the fight, but Mai had R-Gun.
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Shale, you missed a huge point.
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If you're referring to the last boss, he was a big part of why the finale was awesome. That's what I meant by going in a totally different direction.
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Nope, that is not what I mean. I think there is one cameo you didn't recognize.
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Quite possible. If it came after the barrage of Robots Yet To Come (for reference: the Cry Wolves, Fighter Roar's crew, and Touma) in the opening minute, I missed it.
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Not those either.
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Okay, then I missed it. Enlighten me?
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One of the clones the big bad summoned. Among them, is a certain somebody even older than Dark Brain.
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Hanasouka Iroha:
Little 8-year-old Ohana: Mom! You promised! Why didn't you come! (to a parent's day at her school)
Mom: Ohana! Mark my words! People can't be trusted! Not even family.
Mom: Never rely on someone else. Believe only in yourself.
Ohana: That's not even...
Mom: What you need to do is get them before they get you.
Mom: Gouge them! Cut them down!
Ohana: Cut them down?
Mom: YES. CUT THEM DOWN.
Best parenting ever.
(and of course little Ohana takes it to heart... Her mother's next meal is her least favorite food with "I hate you mommy" written in ketchup)
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Linebarrel Vol.17- .................... Year 2712...? Year fucking TWO THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED AND TWELVE!????
http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/6506/linebarrels01.jpg
Too true, way too true.
I mean... this is ridiculous. This literally throw all of my guess to the garbage dump. I can't tell if the author is trying to troll us or is there really something beyond our imagination waiting for us......
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Madoka:
I was worried about this show not delivering a satisfactory conclusion. While it did go a route I hoped it wasn't going to, I have to say I am still quite satisfied with the ending and can comfortably put this show in a top slot amongst my favorite anime. Just a tour-de-force of good stuff from music to drama.
The Stinger is kind of a 'what' but I'm just fine ignoring it. And KH has inured me against such stingers anyway!
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Negima: Been blitzing through this. Up the Ostia. There's pretty much only way thing to say at this point.
Jack fucking Rakan
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Tiger and Bunny - I am actually liking this thing for some reason... I guess you can take it seriously in an anime like this.
-
Madoka finale:
What the hell was that?
Man, Sayaka, way to be unlikeable all the way to the end.
Not sure where "Distortions" are coming from without witches, but whatever, I guess Soul Gems have to be used against -something- for this new Incubator relationship to work. I was kinda hoping that Walpurgis Night would have actually gotten an explanation/backstory.
Overall, pretty disappointing ending, though at least it looked pretty.
Episode 10 was the best episode of the series, though. I kind of wish I had listened to Pyro and watched it weeks ago.
-
[C]- Decided to follow this, I guess I really like this show's style of trying to be unconventional on the peripheral.
-
[C] has a lot of potential, but it remains to be seen whether it will, ahem, capitalize on it.
How would you describe this show? Digimon meets Durarara? The setup is totally corny, but the other stuff going on in the main character's life could make the duels quite compelling. Kinda reminds me of Mai-hime and Utena in that respect.
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[C]- From the way I look at it, I say treats [C] like Digimon, and all the stuff about money as just icing. Considering some of the setting on Midas Bank is already contradicting it self, an obvious sign that the staff isn't taking that aspect of the show seriously but only using it to provide a setting.
As for whether the show will become Durarara, I think the show's direction will head into something like asking the main morale questions: "will you kill someone if you can do it legally and earn a lot of money at same time" or "have you think about what will become of the inflation in using the money printed by a underworld bank" and "are you going to use that money to hook up with the girl".
But then, it does have a chance to become Durarara if the Midas Bank has more influence on the human world than meets the eye.
Though, what really makes me watch the show is the style of the art and some little details on how things are enacted.
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Dog Days:
So it started out OK on Episode 1. Shinku (totes British name, of course) is teleported to a magical world of dogs and cats who all engage in athletic battles to win their wars. Okay, I get you. Shinku's completely excited because YEAAAAH ATHLETICS and stuff, and he likes playing around.
Episode 2, Shinku is degraded to Generic Harem Hero where he mistakes geders, grabs boobs (accidentally), sees naked girls and what have you.
It quickly degrades into moe moe harem, which totally killed my motivation to further follow this series past episode 4. I'm not sure why I kept on to episode 4. Maybe WAKAMOTO convinced me to follow through, I don't know.
Hoshizora:
... I couldn't tell whether the guy's companion was a girl or a boy. I blame the newsboy cap, since it's associated with women so much in Japan. I hold that if he turns out to be a trap otouto, I will be victorious.
So far failed to impress me. Smells of more haremu omae wa hentai da kyaa anime.
Ao no Exorcist:
The first episode fails to impress in any memorable way. It's pretty slice-of-life-ish with this Priest dude hanging around the lad. Then near the end suddenly you get beelzebubs and whatnot, but it looks like it'll go to being a high school romance anime with shounen elements thrown in. I haven't dropped it yet, but I also haven't seen the third episode yet. It's make or break there: if it doesn't impress me, I'll probably drop it.
Denpa Onna:
Finally got the first episode, I've heard good things about this, and...
... aww, screw it, I'm going to finally sit through Endless Eight instead.
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Because Pyro's been bugging me about it, and because I FINALLY CAN WATCH VIDEOS ONLINE AGAIN, I finished Madoka.
Honestly? I thought the ending was kind of a dud. Not that there was anything wrong with it. I just think the series worked up too much tension, and there was really no way that it would end satisfactorily. While Homura is the biggest badass ever, I'm not sure I can say this is a favorite anime of mine, and indeed, it's probably not my favorite anime of 2011.
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Tiger and Bunny:
Watch this. It's really good. Nothing particularly ground-breaking, but, eh, screw ground-breaking.
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Toriko:
Watching this makes me want to read the manga, but only because I hear it's a lot better. Otherwise, it's kind of a bland show that makes me hungry, and GOOD LORD I'M ALREADY STARVING TORIKO.
~~~~
Kaiji 2:
Feels like it's going slower, which is really bad, because there's less episodes than the first season. I'm a bit worried this won't turn out so hot.
Anyhow, with Madoka and Star Driver gone, I'm pretty much just watching Tiger and Bunny and Kaiji and waiting for Summer. I have an itch I can't identify that needs to be scratched, but lord knows I dunno what it is.
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Watch Tatami Galaxy
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Watching any anime?
Always!
-Madoka: I tend to be of two minds about this sort of ending, because the first time I watch it it seems cool and awesome and trippy, and only later when I sit down and think about it does it start to bug me. Here it was slightly more pronounced from the get-go, though. spoilerz:Firstly, why does Kyubei grant a wish that can only hinder him? If there are paralell timelines, does displaying the result of one really make a difference, or are we supposed to only be seeing the same timeline from which Madoka originated? And either way, why do things look so similar even after time is changed? It sure is nice how everything came together in such a similar fashion...
Still, the ending was sort of satisfying, in that it was clearly an ending (stinger nonwithstanding) and at least it wasn't completely inscrutable ala Eva or completely stupid ala My-Hime. I still think it's probably the best overall anime of the decade so far (and the sales clearly agree with me.) Can't wait for the OST.
-Hansaku Iroha: Best parenting ever. The grandmother is also pretty special. The anime would make a good drinking game; shot whenever Min-chi is unjustly screwed. It's got a quirky sense of humor, and Ohana is pretty endearing as a lead. I heard it's meant to cover her growing up, too.
-AnoHana: Whimsical and weird. I think most people can emphasize to a degree with how life has changed from childhood. The characters seem a bit young to be angsting like this, but maybe that's just me getting older? A solid drama nonetheless. Menma is adorable, and most certainly not your average imaginary friend. <_<
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Good Idea:
Endless Eight. I knew what I was getting into and got exactly what I wanted.
Great Idea:
Avatar. Not technically anime, but c'mon, it's great. Currently at Northern Air Temple shenanigans.
Terrible Idea:
Astarotte's Toy. The summary promised a 10-year-old girl with a manservant. She requires semen to maintain her youthy looks. The first ten minutes of this show was Little Ten Year Olds Sitting In A Bath Talking. If this isn't blatant pandering to lolicon I don't know what the hell anything is anymore.
Consider it the worst show of this season, unless you're into little ten-year-olds extracting semen from 23-year-old men. Add a 10-year-old daughter the guy has or something. Great, he became a dad at 13. Japan, I don't even want to touch this anymore.
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You plug in creepy loli hentai and you expect what else.
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Toriko:
Watching this makes me want to read the manga, but only because I hear it's a lot better. Otherwise, it's kind of a bland show that makes me hungry, and GOOD LORD I'M ALREADY STARVING
I didn't care for the manga preview in Jump (English). It seems terribly generic.
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Watch Tatami Galaxy
And then watch it again, over and over and over.
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You plug in creepy loli hentai and you expect what else.
Not much else. I was just curious if it was as bad as its summary suggested, as it sounded pretty atrocious even for Japan.
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You plug in creepy loli hentai and you expect what else.
Not much else. I was just curious if it was as bad as its summary suggested, as it sounded pretty atrocious even for Japan.
You only think this way because you didn't play enough H game.
Need me introduce you to a RPG that use a skill learning system that is entirely based on sex, monster rape, and semen?
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You plug in creepy loli hentai and you expect what else.
Not much else. I was just curious if it was as bad as its summary suggested, as it sounded pretty atrocious even for Japan.
You only think this way because you didn't play enough H game.
Need me introduce you to a RPG that use a skill learning system that is entirely based on sex, monster rape, and semen?
As tempting as the offer is, I think I'll pass.
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Niu: Is there any chance that you're familiar with the Aquarion manga (Kokuu no Tenshi, I think it's called)? For the most part it looks like a straight adaptation of the TV show, except there's this blonde girl that looks like she could be Sylvia's older sister, and I'm trying to figure out what the hell she is.
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Do you mean Nise? If so, she is Toma's sister.
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Turn-A Gundam - Finished
Pretty enjoyable. Some off dialogue early on.
In my infinite wisdom I have left off commenting on it for long enough that nothing specific is coming to mind again. Turn-A-Turn is vastly superior to Century Colour and ED2 is vastly superior to ED1. I don't really understand why the splinter group rejoins Dianna with no fuss when the time comes considering their attitude at the point of splintering. Corin's pretty good.
The almost complete (or fully complete, depending on what you count as it) nonexistence of newtype lamery is always a plus.
Macross Frontier - Up to episode 12
what is this tophattery
had DYRL and 7 not ruined the metaseries enough
if ranka is supposed to be a throwback to classic minmay they are doing it wrong
sheryl is worse than DYRL minmay although debatably not as bad as basara
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if ranka is supposed to be a throwback to classic minmay they are doing it wrong
So you're saying she's likable and sings well?
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Classic Minmay was likable pre-celebrity as far as I remember. Ranka has not had much opportunity to be dislikable as a celebrity yet so I cannot really compare them in those regards.
My Boyfriend's A Pilot is an abomination but she did have other songs, for all that that one was unnecessarily overused.
I was referring to her effective lack of a relationship with Alto for her becoming a celebrity to affect. Rereading it looks like I am bringing this up as a point against the show, but it was just a comment on the character. Should have swapped out of braindamaged typing mode.
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Classic Minmay was generally fine all the way through. She was young, immature, a doormat and also selfish when it came to Hikaru, but still generally likable since it was understandable where it all came from. Since I haven't seen DYRL, I was confused though since I didn't see where the hate came from.
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I honestly don't remember how movie Minmay was different from TV Minmay because I was too busy going "oooooooh, shiiiiiiny."
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C:
Interesting so far. I dub it the best anime of this season. I'll change my mind later, maybe. So far the story's becoming interesting: it's not really to the point that I'm psyched to see what happens next like I was with Code Geass (lol), but I'm also not watching it "just to fill the time". So far so good. The thematics are really heavy and it definitely feels like it wants to convey a message beyond just entertaining, and that alone puts it way ahead of other anime whose sole purpose is to provide fanservice with a little slice of some semblance of story, usually "good prevails over evil, even if good is very stupid".
Dogdays:
Speaking of! Still fanservice-y, except this time you get Shinku-fanservice. Why, Japan, why have I not dropped this terrible show? What keeps bringing me back to you? The fact that your original setting was fresh and exciting, a fantasy world with athletics at its core and battles like in MMORPGs? Well, at least now we get FORESHADOWING that the status quo will be broken and that SPOILERS, but yeah, I'm still not sure why I watch this beyond some sadomasochistic urge to watch something when I am watching anime anyway.
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Deadman Wonderland- Nice, very nice. They are cutting what needs to be cut and keep the pacing stable. If this continues, I'll have to take my claim that this show will suck thanks to only having 12 episodes.
Cutting off Asami kinda stings, but I can see it as necessary, they really don't have space left for her.
They'll probably spend four more episodes on the carnival stuff, and the remaining 4 for Undertaker. Just enough room to squeeze everything in, and it might just work out!!
The only complain I have is.... why Paku and Sawashiro!? Especially Sawahsiro!! Why, why does she has to voice Toto!? Couldn't they get Suzumura or Nojima to do it!? Hell, I'll even be satisfied with Okamoto!! Why do they have to find that women who can barely sound like a guy!!! UGHHHHHHHH!!!!!
....BTW, is it just me or the One Reason sounds like a certain D.Gray Men OP?
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Macross Frontier - Finished
Well, I had been expecting them to take the condition to its ultimate conclusion and resolve the triangle via cop-out. I hadn't expected them to go for a more copped-out cop-out.
Sheryl ended up becoming a more likable character but it doesn't excuse early!Sheryl. Seems like there is a shard of her backstory missing which is kind of annoying.
I don't really understand what Birler was after.
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Recently got back into watching anime. Started off by remembering that I had gotten DaiGuard way back when and watching that, which was pretty enjoyable. The larger plot wasn't very good, but given that the story was pretty much about the characters and the corporation anyways, that's forgivable. And it's always fun to watch a Real Robot show that looks like it should be a Super Robot show.
Then I watched Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
Normally, Super Robot Wars does not stretch the limits of my disbelief. But I have a very hard time imagining a universe that contains the Spiral Warriors, where anything works so long as it's awesome enough, and the Dai-Guard verse, where everything runs on duct tape and a prayer, and hot-bloodedness generally leads to paperwork and lawsuits.
Currently working on classic Macross.
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TWGOK Manga Chapter 141-
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
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TWGOK Manga Chapter 141-
snrk. I suppose that was inevitable. never fails to entertain.
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Uh... I started watching One Piece because it's a -thing- here in Japan and I'd only ever read the first volume of the manga before and I wanted to be able to hold a conversation about it with my students.
The pacing is... something.
25 episodes in and I still haven't caught up to the END OF THE FIRST VOLUME OF THE MANGA.
It's generally nice to look at and the tropes are ones that I enjoy, but GOD DAMN GET TO THE POINT.
Yes, I know it's 500-episode series so far, but I was kind of expecting 500 episodes of stuff happening. Silly of me, probably.
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Yes, I know it's 500-episode series so far, but I was kind of expecting 500 episodes of stuff happening. Silly of me, probably.
It's a shame, because the cast really has delightful chemistry whenever anything's actually going on.
Also, One Piece is at its best when either nothing is going on or something really important is going on. It's those times when stuff is sorta going on that drag.
Oh, but take heart! The beginning drags worse than the rest of the show because the cast hasn't sufficiently assembled and there is a marked lack of villainous villains. The show coheres considerably when you hit the Arlong Park storyline.
-
If you know the general premise and main cast just from being part of anime fandom, is there any reason not to just start with Arlong Park?
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It works better with the setup. I say just read the intervening chapters instead of watching them.
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I wanted to watch a more traditional Magical Girl show after Madoka, so I gave Heartcatch Precure a shot. It's like Sailor Moon but with more enjoyable characters and battles. Indeed the action at times was like something out of a good Shounen fighting show, with the four girls fighting as a team by attacking from multiple directions while covering for each other. Still resorts to stock 'super attack' for finishing stuff off, which is disappointing because that is less fun than watching a good old fashioned physical beatdown.
Bonus points for there being a pretty clear power difference between the girls (Moonlight >>> Sunshine > Erica > Tsubomi) and the girls just shrugging it off and kicking ass together as a team regardless. More fighting shows should copy this.
The ending of the series was surprisingly awesome when it came down to it. Rather enjoyed the whole thing to be honest. This makes me feel very girly so I am going to watch Gurren Laggan a few times to fix that.
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So the first boxset of the Utena remaster comes out on Tuesday.
Thirty bucks at Right Stuf. Just sayin'.
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So... it already came in the mail for me a week and a half ago.
For thirty bucks. Just sayin'
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Ouran High School Host Club - Finished
Generally hilarious.
The aesthetic can be a little grating at times, and the background episodes for the twins and Kyoya feel out of place. The latter at least has a leadin in the present day despite never leading out and going anywhere with the leadin, but the former is just a whole episode of background with no connection to the present day out of nowhere. No major problems, though. Happy day.
Oh right, the Wonderland episode wasn't that great either.
Those Obnoxious Aliens - Through to episode 30
Somewhat humourous when it isn't being all rapey. What have I gotten myself into.
I guess I haven't seen any Takahashi before but I had somewhere gotten the impression that she was a creator of wholesome things.
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YAY! The Urusei Yatsura anime is very unlike the others. It's very surreal at times, due to Mamoru Oshii directing the first half of the show. It really, really shows, and it is awesome. When you get a chance, watch the second movie Beautiful Dreamer.
The show is actually the origin of most harem tropes, as well as all of Takahashi's character archetypes for her later series. It's a shame that all harem mains aren't as awesome as Ataru, right? The whole cast is pretty well awesome for different reasons.
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I watched Madoka, because it's apparently the new TTGL of anime or something.
It was pretty good, but not as awesome as I expected. Way too much trolling. "Yo I heard you like Mahou Shoujo. Well, FUCK YOU." Trolling is only funny when done in a FABULOUS way like Code Geass. The bizarre art style of witches, soundtrack, and fight scenes were well done, but overshadowed by all the crying (there's no crying in pre-pubescent girl shows...oh wait), lesbian overtones and QB being more pro than Protori. God, there needs to be a dub of this show. Dave Whittenburg as QB would have made it 10x more awesome.
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C - I see the effect of C gets bounced back to Japan by US. I recalled what US has been doing with the dollars and worldly currency. I laughed. I further recalled the economic state between US and Japan, I laughed harder.
-
One Piece - still slowly watching this. Around episode 65? They just got to the Grand Line (finally! That crappy Dragon filler arc was making me physically ill). I'm not quite sure how I feel about the whole series so far. It definitely seems like it's got a good setup, but the actual adventures plod along so slowly that it's hard to stay interested in it.
Nami and Sanji seem to be really solidly-developed characters, whereas Zoro and Luffy kinda piss me off. Usopp, at least, is consistently fun to watch, though somewhat grating. Guest characters are generally forgettable outside of their design. I generally like the aesthetic, despite its weirdness and the fact that there's clearly a lot of influence from Toriyama. It's kind of like what I imagine Toriyama always WISHED his art looked like - surreal and stylized, but actually unique from character to character.
The music is pretty terrible though. For such an iconic series, I was kind of hoping to actually like some of the theme songs to make good karaoke fodder, but so far none of them are any fun...
Despite that, I -really- liked Nami and Sanji's arcs, and now that they're exploring the Grand Line, it seems to be picking up again, so I'm going to stick with it, though if anyone can warn me about anymore of the filler arcs, that'd be great. Apis and the Millenium Dragons arc almost killed me. Die in a Fire, Apis.
Valkyria Chronicles anime: Same as the PS3 game, only now Alicia is a screeching harpy tsundere. On the plus side, the generics get more screen time! I just wish Vyse was one of the main ones ;_; Pretty pretty art~
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Currently watching Durarara!!
I am not sure why I put off watching this for long considering how much I loved Baccano!
Not really much else to say other then it is amazing and I love how Ryohgo Narita manages to make these stories of seemingly unrelated characters all mesh into one Rube Goldberg machineesque thing. It is also apparently going to start airing on adult swim in 2 days which means I may try shoving this down the throats of some friends who are not familiar with anime.
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One Piece
The next arc is really long so you don't have much to fear about filler for a while.
/me checks
yup, next filler arc starts...episode 131 (and holy shit lasts until episode 143)
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One Piece
The next arc is really long so you don't have much to fear about filler for a while.
/me checks
yup, next filler arc starts...episode 131 (and holy shit lasts until episode 143)
...you may not see me for a few days.... >.>;;
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Read Hunter X Hunter in the meantime!
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Gundam Unicorn - V1
Not particularly happy about how attached Banagher gets to Audrey when he barely knows her.
Unicorn's glowlines & beam orbit have made me wonder whether Stargazer was based off it.
Darker Than Black - finished
Generally engrossing and I don't have any real complaints, aside from that a random special episode was tacked on after the ending as episode 26. But this is presumably the fault of the distributer rather than the show, and it isn't as annoying as it was when it was done in Kurokami since DtB didn't go for TouchingEnding.
Those Obnoxious Aliens - through episode 50
Happily the amount of sexual assault humour has decreased and the amount of funny humour has increased. Good, good.
It's a shame that all harem mains aren't as awesome as Ataru, right?
I'm not sure that I've seen any harem anime? Closest would be Nadesico, Tylor, or Ouran...? None of their mains would be really typical of the genre, I would expect.
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Harem mains tend to be simpering milquetoasts who attract women through their genuine goodness, which women are always somehow able to detect beneath their clumsy, indecisive, wimpy, and fairly dense exteriors.
And Djinn I should warn you that the next chunk of One Piece is kinda like a really long arc with another arc in the middle of it.
-
Read Hunter X Hunter in the meantime!
Then be pissed at Togashi like the rest of us for all eternity!
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Harem mains tend to be simpering milquetoasts who attract women through their genuine goodness, which women are always somehow able to detect beneath their clumsy, indecisive, wimpy, and fairly dense exteriors.
And Djinn I should warn you that the next chunk of One Piece is kinda like a really long arc with another arc in the middle of it.
Note that the Main of Nadisco fits pretty well, except for that one time that he actually sleeps with someone.
And One Piece is just fine. At episode 71 now, and I'm digging the 'Adventure Islands' setup of the Grand Line overlaid with the larger metaplot of the Baroque Works pirates. It feels a lot less filler-y when the main characters don't actually have a goal beyond 'Explore this place' and the villains are running the larger plot progression (and getting some decent character development in as a result).
I'm kind of surprised that I'm this far into the series and we haven't met Chopper yet, considering he's probably the most famous thing to come out of this whole series.
Got introduced to Robin already, but no Chopper? Although, I imagine the Robin intro would have been much less exciting if I didn't already know who she was. Very subtly introduced. One cool thing about One Piece is that everyone has a really unique design and you can't spot the main characters from a mile away simply by their artstyle.
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Hm, thinking on it the only real weakness of the Arlong Park arc is that you never get to know Arlong all that well. Not so with the next couple villains.
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Been watching a couple different animes recently.
Fruits Basket - Cute enough. The main character gets on my nerve, but its decent enough to make me smile every now and then. I think I am half way done with this one.
His and Her Circumstances - Started this up too. My GF only wanted to watch this dubbed, and I could not find a copy of it until I stumbled upon a site called Dubhappy.com. They stream nothing but the dubbed versions of a ton of animes. Just finished episode 2. It's a cute story and the main chick is entertaining. Looks like a decent show.
Death Note - Started this up yesterday. I am on episode 12 right now. Light is a little prick. So much for being a good guy. He has gotten himself in so much deeper then needed. All he had to do was slow his role and not get such a massive God complex and he would have been fine.
Planet Hulk - It was ok. Not on the same level as Hulk vs Wolverine, but whatever. Hulk needed to be less of a bitch in this movie.
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One Piece - now up to episode 130! Finished the Alabasta Arc and Vivi had her tearful farewell. *sigh* I really liked Vivi, but I guess keeping a Princess around wouldn't actually be all that great for a pirate crew. I hope she shows up regularly anyway. I mean, we have plenty of non-Straw Hats in the regular cast anyway with the Marines and various other pirate gangs, surely they can find time for a character who was actually a crew member for a while? (Though I'm doubting it since I haven't exactly seen any merchandise featuring her, and with something as visible as One Piece, that's a good clue!)
Not as good as Arlong Park, but honestly it would have made a decent climax and ending for the series if they wrapped things up here, so that's definitely a point in its favor. The Devil Fruit powers haven't worn out their welcome yet, and Crocodile was a great villain. Usopp and Chopper's fight finally featured characters fighting -smart- instead of just being ridiculously overpowered, so that was a nice highlight. (I hope they continue with it. Since Nami's fight featured something similar, I have high hopes, though Nami's fight wasn't nearly as well-thought-out in terms of pacing.)
Series is still pretty charming and the cast is really hitting its stride in terms of humor and chemistry, though Luffy's still pretty terrible (I'm starting to get the impression that he's only terrible in the extended scenes that were made exclusively for the anime, since he seems to change into a completely different character when there's actual plot going on that obviously must have been in the manga). Crocodile was also a really effective villain. His motives and lack of backstory seems odd considering the rest of the villain cast thus far, but he was by far the biggest and most capable threat and actually had clever evil plans.
Considering stopping here since I'm worried the series has peaked. Will I really be missing anything if I just keep my good memories of Arlong Park and Alabasta for this series?
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Considering stopping here since I'm worried the series has peaked. Will I really be missing anything if I just keep my good memories of Arlong Park and Alabasta for this series?
Without going too much into it, the series to date hovers at about as good as the Alabasta arc is. I think it's worth watching, but you might want to put it down for a while to avoid burnout. Anyway, if you want to watch more, skip ahead to episode 144. The post-Alabasta filler is pretty dull.
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http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-06-29/hunter-x-hunter-manga-resumes-in-shonen-jump-in-august
YESSSSSS
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One Piece: Watched the filler arcs from eps 130-145. Overall, not the worst filler anime has ever seen. In particular, the few episodes right after Alabasta where the series was doing a few episodic things with character development were actually kind of interesting. Then there was Goat Island and the Rainbow mini-arcs and those were pretty boring. Also, it's notable that the characters were back to that state of unlikeableness they had in the pre-Alabasta anime arcs. Whoever directs these anime-only arcs really has terrible judgment when it comes to portraying the characters' flaws. Nami likes treasure and is good at controlling the crew, but in the filler, she's just a power-mad bitch who doesn't care about her crewmates at all. Luffy is simple-minded and has trouble with the more 'complicated' details of missions, but in the filler, he's basically a liability at all times and never does anything useful or shows any signs of his innate ability to actually lead people. Similar, Usopp's, Zoro's, and Chopper's character flaws seem to get magnified and warped to the point of annoyance in a lot of the filler episodes.
I mention all of this because I have just watched the first episode of non-filler since Alabasta and it's like night and day. Nami and Usopp are genuinely clever again. Luffy does something reckless, but it actually had a point that could be grounded in reason (he randomly jumped on a sinking ship and salvaged a rare map). Robin finally -does- something after being in the crew for 15 episodes... >.>;; Seriously, I understand that filler arcs aren't supposed to progress past the manga's development, but some of the arc-writers are just terrible at making them anything like the show at all. Again, not -all- of the filler was bad (the first five episodic character-piece ones were pretty entertaining), but I can see why people use the term with such venom these days. (I hadn't ever watched a shounen series this long before to really notice filler arcs. I think I saw a few in Ranma 1/2, but that's already a pretty episodic series, so the quality wasn't noticeable. I never watched Naruto long enough to catch up to its manga, so... that about covers all the shounen series I've watched for more than 2 seasons until now?)
Anyway, I suppose it just shows that One Piece is pretty good now that most of its cast is together if I can stomach its filler arcs (apart from the Millennium Dragon one, holy crap was that terrible).
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It was pretty good, but not as awesome as I expected. Way too much trolling. "Yo I heard you like Mahou Shoujo. Well, FUCK YOU." Trolling is only funny when done in a FABULOUS way like Code Geass. The bizarre art style of witches, soundtrack, and fight scenes were well done, but overshadowed by all the crying (there's no crying in pre-pubescent girl shows...oh wait), lesbian overtones and QB being more pro than Protori. God, there needs to be a dub of this show. Dave Whittenburg as QB would have made it 10x more awesome.
It's not a far-cry to call Madoka a deconstruction of the genre, but I know some people will fight me on that.
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Mawaru Penguindrum - :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
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One Piece: So I just finished the Skypiea arc (39 episodes, holy crap this is long). It was pretty good in general, albeit slow-as-molasses pacing, which is pretty much the norm for One Piece. There were a few moments of "Why are the Smart Characters acting so dumb? It can't be THAT hard to sabotage a flying wooden ship..." in the middle parts of the plot, but otherwise, it really improved my opinion of the characters, particularly Luffy and Robin, who were vying for my least-favorite slots for a while there. I'm assuming what's coming next is gonna be Filler, so I'm not looking forward to it, but it's good to know that One Piece is generally reliable for decent plot. The larger overarching plot of the series was basically ignored the entire arc, but it was a solid self-contained diversion, so I'm not complaining.
There were even some moments where I was genuinely impressed - the one that stands out is the scene where the innocent little girl from the Shandrian tribe, Aisa, meets up with the former leader of their centuries-long-rival tribe, Gan Fall. She's been carrying around a lot of hatred for a good long while and has the reformed Gan Fall at her mercy by holding his own spear to his throat. Gan Fall says she can kill him if it will bring her peace, and Nami and Luffy are shouting to her about how "killing him won't fix anything" and you can see that Aisa's going to give in under duress and start crying and the usual anime friendship speeches cliche and HOLY SHIT SHE'S STABBING HIM!
Yeah, I was impressed that it avoided the standard ending for that sort of thing. Luffy still ended up stepping in and stopping any actual murder from going down, but the fact that centuries worth of hatred wasn't overturned by a convenient friendship speech was nice.
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I think the most impressive bit with Luffy comes with how he treats the folks in the pirate town after he finds out they don't believe in the sky island. Like Blackbeard's introduction too. Good bit of writing to make it clear that he's important without him, y'know, actually doing anything.
I absolutely love how the Skypiea arc builds Enel up into a figure of truly godlike stature...then sends him tumbling down to earth when he finally meets Luffy. It's a brilliant bit of comeuppance.
The next filler arc is, in my opinion, the best filler of what I've watched, incidentally.
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The Tatami Galaxy - Finished
Very enjoyable. Despite being sub-only for some reason which was a tad aggravating. Included trailers were also all subbed which makes me fear for some other shows that Siren is a fan of doing that.
Not sure what I think of the twist that all the episodes are running in parallel despite all the previous evidence that they were running sequentially with time shenanigans, because now some of that stuff no longer makes any sense. It is still pretty awesome and ups the overlook capacity though.
The minispecials were not that great.
Those Obnoxious Aliens - Through episode 80
Noooooooooo the decent op has been replaced by a fairly lame ooooooone
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I think the most impressive bit with Luffy comes with how he treats the folks in the pirate town after he finds out they don't believe in the sky island. Like Blackbeard's introduction too. Good bit of writing to make it clear that he's important without him, y'know, actually doing anything.
I absolutely love how the Skypiea arc builds Enel up into a figure of truly godlike stature...then sends him tumbling down to earth when he finally meets Luffy. It's a brilliant bit of comeuppance.
The next filler arc is, in my opinion, the best filler of what I've watched, incidentally.
Yeah, Enel himself was well-designed. And once it became obvious that Luffy was tailor-made to destroy him, I understood why the others ended up being completely annihilated by him. Though I'm still somewhat annoyed that Nami wasn't more effective there. She's supposed to be the Weather expert and she (nor anyone) came up with any ideas about Lightning rods? I was expecting a little more cleverness there. And I was -really- annoyed that Nami volunteered herself to get kidnapped and didn't think to even try gathering information on Enel's weaknesses or plans while she was just allowed to wander free with him. Even more annoying was that she apparently got the opportunity to examine Wiper's unconscious form and she didn't think to grab his Kairouseki stone that would have put Enel out of commission... Grah. I guess Rubber > Electricity is more interesting than One Piece's version of Kryptonite, but it would have been nice to show the intelligent characters actually being intelligent against a more powerful foe.
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He had a kairoseki stone? completely missed/forgot that. Nami's actions otherwise didn't bother me. I mean, when you've been kidnapped by a superpowered megalomaniac, the best method of info gathering is to stick around him and wait for him to blurt out his evil plan. Which he does.
I absolutely love that Luffy gets to fight someone his powers are particularly well-suited for. I take it as Oda's way of saying, "Sorry for making Crocodile's power such a pain in the ass for you, Luffy."
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Not sure what I think of the twist that all the episodes are running in parallel despite all the previous evidence that they were running sequentially with time shenanigans, because now some of that stuff no longer makes any sense. It is still pretty awesome and ups the overlook capacity though.
Only the stuff that tended to repeat itself across the stories actually happens. It's not hard to piece together the true series of events. The TRUE twist of the series (Watashi going Ozu on Ozu) is effing brilliant though. I use his quote "Nothing else is as boring to tell as a story of successful love." as my GameFAQs sig now too.
You're also coming to the end of the Oshii episodes for Urusei Yatsura (Mid 90'sish I think?). Sad times, but you did just see And Then There Were None, so that is awesome. There are still some gems later though.
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One Piece: G-8 Fortress Arc.
Holy crap, Jim, you weren't kidding about this being a well-done filler arc. Instead of introducing random who-cares-about-you characters to fill in a bunch of episodes, it actually concentrates on the main cast and gives them something to do with this new nakama dynamic they've got going on. It also spends more time developing the antagonists, the Marines, who are actually part of the main storyline, even if the specific group of Marines we're focusing on in this arc aren't canon. The main captain of this group of marines, Johnathan, is pretty excellent to watch at all times. Whenever he's on-screen, it's like a light suspense/mystery series instead of plain shounen action. Whoever wrote this filler arc needs a raise.
Really, this guy has such a good handle on the characters and their dynamic. And the main cast, even the Idiots, seem to be avoiding carrying around the Idiot Ball for plot convenience. Luffy actually seems to have a brain and manages to come up with some solutions to problems that -aren't- 'hit it really hard over and over again'. Not many, no, but at least he's getting better at knowing when to use his violence and when to let the smart people handle things. I also approve of him -actively- making a decision as Captain for the crew to go back their confiscated gold, even if it was only because it would stain a Pirate's pride to have his gold taken from him. Similarly, Nami's character seems to have been salvaged from the ultra-bitch from the previous filler (and even parts of the Skypeia Arc). Even with her kneejerk reaction to go back for the treasure, we later find out that she -does- remember that the reason she initially cared so much about money was to help people (or in this case, repair the crew's beloved ship they've had since like episode 15).
In particular, the setting is perfect for showcasing the abilities of the whole crew. Their combination of intelligent characters when stealth is needed, and powerhouse characters when they need to apply surgical force is really awesome to see in action in a "Prison Escape"-type setting. The various callbacks to previous arcs (The Waver/Dials, the trials the Going Merry ship has gone through) and the subtle setups for future plot points (Robin's intel-gathering, Luffy's declaration for adding a shipwright to the crew) really make the arc feel pretty seamless for a filler piece.
The amount of joy I get from seeing these characters act genuinely clever again cannot be described. With the exception of Zoro (and really, that suits his character), the entire cast was able to handle at least a minimum level of stealth and disguise, as befitting a group of PIRATES. I was particularly pleased that Sanji got to do this well in his cooking-centric episode, even with the burden of Luffy along for the ride (who was also surprisingly able to not blow their cover for a good 4/5 of an episode, and when he -did-, it wasn't actually his fault - the awesomely brilliant Commander Jonathan just happened to get lucky and recognize him from the wanted poster). By far the most entertaining parts of this arc has been seeing the on-the-spot acting from Usopp, Nami, and Chopper though. Usopp managed to frame a high-ranking Marine officer as being a disguised member of their Pirate crew. And Nami and Chopper... man, the scene where Chopper 'takes Nami hostage' was just hilariously brilliant. I didn't think the little guy had it in him to sound so threatening! Anyway, seeing successful ruses is always nice, and the fact that their opponent is pretty quick at figuring them out if they aren't good ruses makes it all the more exciting when they're successful.
I kinda wish that the Marines were the main antagonists more often, it is far more satisfying to watch the crew be Pirates who get the better of the misguided Marines than it is watching them just fight other Pirates... Alternately, get this director back more often.
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Right, so I got some good news and some bad news, Djinn.
Good news! Everything you want One Piece to be in the future it totally is! starting right after the next arc...
(I shouldn't be so hard on the next arc. It's fun! Also short! Just also complete fluff.)
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Not sure what I think of the twist that all the episodes are running in parallel despite all the previous evidence that they were running sequentially with time shenanigans, because now some of that stuff no longer makes any sense. It is still pretty awesome and ups the overlook capacity though.
Only the stuff that tended to repeat itself across the stories actually happens. It's not hard to piece together the true series of events.
Unless you're saying that the parallel versions didn't 'actually' happen, in which case the episode regarding that doesn't make much sense, I guess I didn't express myself well enough. The things that I were saying don't make sense are things which rely on the previous episode having happened 'before' the current episode rather than parallel with it, the most simple example being the fortuneteller who appeared to be raising the price and getting more exasperated each episode, which in the view of everything occuring in parallel just means that this behaviour of each instance is all coincidental. A less clearcut example which could just be my mind reading into things too oddly was how Higuchi still had the bike in the episode after the one where it was stolen. At the time I was seeing things as running under some sort of Majora's Mask style of time rewinding, now it's just another coincidence. I'm sure there were numerous more examples but I cannot think of any at the moment.
Welcome To Irabu's Office - finished
Subs only again :fistshake:
It was entertaining enough I suppose, but too weird for my tastes. The best episode was Owner which also happened to be the least weird episode.
Those Obnoxious Aliens - through to episode 92
You're also coming to the end of the Oshii episodes for Urusei Yatsura (Mid 90'sish I think?). Sad times, but you did just see And Then There Were None, so that is awesome. There are still some gems later though.
That is sad to hear, considering that most of the recent episodes have been great. I particularly like what they did with the beauty contest one.
Ataru has really stepped up violence against Jariten lately, I guess they were getting feedback that he was the lesser jerk in that area.
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Dear One Piece,
I have just a small request regarding your plot contrivances. Now normally, I'm all for absurd and over-the-top solutions to things. And you normally do a great job mixing up high-powered fighting and clever schemes. But there's this thing. You know the thing. The Devil Fruit Kryptonite. If you keep throwing it at the heroes to depower their Devil Fruit users, will you PLEASE let one of them have the brilliant idea to try it on the ridiculously-over-powered Devil Fruit villains?
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Those Obnoxious Aliens - through to episode 92
You're also coming to the end of the Oshii episodes for Urusei Yatsura (Mid 90'sish I think?). Sad times, but you did just see And Then There Were None, so that is awesome. There are still some gems later though.
That is sad to hear, considering that most of the recent episodes have been great. I particularly like what they did with the beauty contest one.
Ataru has really stepped up violence against Jariten lately, I guess they were getting feedback that he was the lesser jerk in that area.
Do yourself a favor and take a breather, download the second movie (Beautiful Dreamer) and use it as a capstone for the Oshii episodes. It is bizarre and surreal and brilliant and made of all kinds of win.
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One Piece, episode 300. Holy crap. The story is engaging, the characters multifaceted, and the animation style is unique. But oh god, the pacing is losing footraces with Dekar. I think the 5-minute episode reviews at the beginning of each episode are not only there for eating up more time to give the manga chance to get further, but are also literally made up of every unique frame of animation from the previous episode. There's so much still-shot panning, needlessly long pauses, throwaway scenes/flashbacks that I don't think we're getting more than minutes of new footage each episode.
One Piece, I liked you better when you were doing filler arcs (particularly the G8 arc, let's do something like that again and stop dragging out the actual plot to a snail's pace).
I can see why you stopped at ep300 before, Jim. I'ma finish this arc and take a break.
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Actually I stopped at 300 because that's where the particular group whose fansubs I'd been using got up to. But yeah, I don't think the animators were prepared to reckon with a particularly long arc there's really no way to do any filler in the middle of.
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Kaiba - finished
Pretty great in general, although there is quite a bit left unexplained, like why exactly they go into space early on in the first place. The final episode is particularly bad in these regards. The most annoying part of the final that was comprehensible enough to not be confusing is there is nothing really said about all the people who had their memories evacuated, keeping in mind that the majority of the population of the Undermoon is included in this as they were given a dose of electrolytic clouds.
The show is nowhere near as depressing as it ought to be considering the events of some episodes. Not entirely sure why that is.
Kichi needs to be put into SRW somehow.
TOA - through to episode 102
Acquired the movies as advised. Oshii is still listed in the credits through to episode 106 so I will progress with that plan at that time, assuming I can overcome my desire to watch movie 1 before watching movie 2.
Annoyingly episode 93, right after I had said that there had been a lot of good episodes previously, was a clip episode. There were several more fairly ordinary episodes in the 90s (Snowman, Ryuunosuke's Bra, among others). I am keeping in mind the possibility that there is only one copy of the OP in use and any crediting changes have been lost until the next OP (which is episode 107). The show isn't using separate OP files so that particular method is out, but that doesn't mean it could have been done manually.
But happily the late-90s/early-100s episodes have stepped things back up. Although 102 wasn't particularly great, hopefully that isn't a sign that things are going to go downhill again.
[EDIT]...and 103 was another clip episode. And the preview for 104 makes it look like it's going to be another clip episode as well. Facedesk.
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One Piece: Episode 330. Listed here so I don't forget since for the next few days, I will be working/on a plane.
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No.6 - I give in and watched this.... so far the changes are reasonable. But then, I am more worried about Karan's plot getting cut than Shion and Rat's love life. Trying to keep Shion and Rate on screen is good and all, but I like Karan too.
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Mawaru Penguindrum:
This show kicks ass. The premise is fairly neat: two brothers having to obey the very odd commands of some spirit possessing their younger sister or the spirit will allow their little sister to bite the big one. The actual execution is brilliant, with character interaction and dialog keeping things alternately drop-dead funny and fairly compelling. A date going bad is a pretty typical setup, but throw in enough crazy daydreams (in cardboard caricature style cutouts!) and you get pure hilarity. And yet you can't help but feel sympathy for the downtrodden if slightly crazy stalker/victim at the center of it all.
The show has a fair amount of symbolism, for example a tree with growth supports in the background when the issue in the foreground is someone trying to 'manipulate the execution of destiny' as it were. There are lots of little touches like that, and the idea of immutable fate and the way people deal with it is a rather serious plot point that is handled quite tactfully so far.
Oh and of course the transformation sequence must be mentioned. It is something you just have to see for yourself. It can't be described properly beyond "batshit insane and yet awesome"
Dantalian no Shouka: Great OP. The lead character is likable, and Dalian needs to replace Index ASAP.
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The show has a fair amount of symbolism, for example a tree with growth supports in the background when the issue in the foreground is someone trying to 'manipulate the execution of destiny' as it were.
I think the director or someone involved also did Utena? So that part doesn't surprise me one bit.
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TOA - 103 through 106
103 and 104 were clip episodes as I said earlier. More annoyingly than 93's clip episode, they pulled in clips from very early episodes which served to remind how bad they could get at times.
Happily 105/106 was a pretty good two-parter.
TOA: Beautiful Dreamer - Watched
'Twas good. I don't really understand the setup completely, though. All the people still involved after the turtle shows up are asleep and in the same dream (at least until they get shunted into their own subdream, where appropriate), sure, but what about all the people which were around before that? They don't get turned into stone (aside from Cherry and Onsen), and if people are able to just be evicted without being turned into stone, then why was anyone turned into stone at all?
Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis - Watched
Pretty and entertaining. Ending scene is kind of dumb. As I understand things there was a post-credits scene cut out of the version I watched.
Given a number of events I expected things to lead into anti-discrimination messages, but they didn't really. And the most discriminating character of all essentially saves the world, for all his intentions at the time were nothing of the sort.
Utawarerumono - Through episode 10.
On the upside, we have tactical stuff (although they haven't done anything too heavy in this regard yet). On the downside, we have a scene where a tiger attempts to breastfeed from a young woman and then implies that she is underendowed. I need to apply some standards to my purchasing.
Some of the background character graphics in the show seem odd, as if they're 3D models which 2D foreground characters have been pasted in front of.
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TOA: Beautiful Dreamer - Watched
'Twas good. I don't really understand the setup completely, though. All the people still involved after the turtle shows up are asleep and in the same dream (at least until they get shunted into their own subdream, where appropriate), sure, but what about all the people which were around before that? They don't get turned into stone (aside from Cherry and Onsen), and if people are able to just be evicted without being turned into stone, then why was anyone turned into stone at all?
SYMBOLISM. The people who turned to stone are generally important people in Lum's life, IE, pillars holding up her reality. The people who were around before that were just extras. All dreams have extras.
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TOA: Beautiful Dreamer - Watched
'Twas good. I don't really understand the setup completely, though. All the people still involved after the turtle shows up are asleep and in the same dream (at least until they get shunted into their own subdream, where appropriate), sure, but what about all the people which were around before that? They don't get turned into stone (aside from Cherry and Onsen), and if people are able to just be evicted without being turned into stone, then why was anyone turned into stone at all?
SYMBOLISM. The people who turned to stone are generally important people in Lum's life, IE, pillars holding up her reality. The people who were around before that were just extras. All dreams have extras.
Man, I'm no good at this kind of thing. But for the four people that are confirmed to have been pillarised (technically they didn't confirm Ryuunosuke, just assumed that she was there as well, but whatever), I can see this for Shinobu, and I can somewhat see it for Cherry... but Onsen and Ryuunosuke don't seem like they're really that important to Lum? I could easily see this for Sakura, Shutaro, and Ataru, but we don't ever find out if they got pillarised or not (probably safe to assume that they did, although it does demand the question of what would happen if someone looked down there and saw Ataru).
Actually, that's reminded me that Lum specified Shutaro as someone she wanted to live with forever as well. Was the dreampersonIforgetthenameof intending to masquerade as both Ataru and Shutaro? Hm.
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TOA: Beautiful Dreamer - Watched
'Twas good. I don't really understand the setup completely, though. All the people still involved after the turtle shows up are asleep and in the same dream (at least until they get shunted into their own subdream, where appropriate), sure, but what about all the people which were around before that? They don't get turned into stone (aside from Cherry and Onsen), and if people are able to just be evicted without being turned into stone, then why was anyone turned into stone at all?
SYMBOLISM. The people who turned to stone are generally important people in Lum's life, IE, pillars holding up her reality. The people who were around before that were just extras. All dreams have extras.
Man, I'm no good at this kind of thing. But for the four people that are confirmed to have been pillarised (technically they didn't confirm Ryuunosuke, just assumed that she was there as well, but whatever), I can see this for Shinobu, and I can somewhat see it for Cherry... but Onsen and Ryuunosuke don't seem like they're really that important to Lum? I could easily see this for Sakura, Shutaro, and Ataru, but we don't ever find out if they got pillarised or not (probably safe to assume that they did, although it does demand the question of what would happen if someone looked down there and saw Ataru).
Actually, that's reminded me that Lum specified Shutaro as someone she wanted to live with forever as well. Was the dreampersonIforgetthenameof intending to masquerade as both Ataru and Shutaro? Hm.
The pillar thing itself is kinda dropped after it happens. Don't get too hung up on the internal consistancy of it. It's not all THAT important in the grand scheme of things anyway. Just a nice tidbit to notice.
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Dreams are not internally consistent. They change and you accept them as your psyche wants/needs/does or you are likely to wake up.
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The dream in question was artificially created and controlled by a seperate entity.
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It is still a dream though. A dream displaying dreamlike properties is not something that bears particularly focussed analysis.
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Ho hrm. Let's see...
Yu-Gi-Oh GX: Watched the full dub of this. Corny and stupid, as expected. The dub writing was better expected with the show often poking quite a bit of fun at itself. Duels are solid, characters blew, etc. Final arc was reasonably well composed though. It was a decent time waste.
Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood: Generally superior to the original. Does falter in some areas (Nina is a good bit weaker, the early pacing is hellishly rushed) but largely benefits from a seemingly better budget and following the superior manga direction.
Afro Samurai: Brainless action. Fun, brainless action, but brainless action. Honestly, it is Samuel L. Jackson cutting fools up. There isn't much to it. The end is disappointing, I suppose?
Murder Princess: Way too short to amount to anything.
Spice and Wolf: My opinion on it remained stable. Very good. The best anime about relationships and medieval mercantilism ever.
Needless (in progress): Kind of a... thing. I dunno. Flashy, I guess. It is enjoyable, but not for any real reason. And the main character's lolita deal irks me.
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The show has a fair amount of symbolism, for example a tree with growth supports in the background when the issue in the foreground is someone trying to 'manipulate the execution of destiny' as it were. There are lots of little touches like that, and the idea of immutable fate and the way people deal with it is a rather serious plot point that is handled quite tactfully so far.
I am feeling that the writer is aiming for massive trolling with the amount of railroad and apple.
By the way, the theme of this show is actually bipolar, it is a contrast between people who are struggling with the fate they can't escape from and those trying to create fate when there isn't one.
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Trolling? In an Ikuhara anime? Surely you jest.
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Needless (in progress): Ha, ha, ha funny fanservice antics and comedy and fighting and sight gags and JESUS THAT WOMAN IS NOW IMPALED ON A BROKEN HUNK OF WOOD AND THE HEROES ALL GOT IMPALED ON TENTACLES WHAT THE HELL.
Seriously. Show needs to be a bit less bipolar.
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I dunno, Andy. That sounds just bipolar enough.
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Utawarerumono - Finished
Generally entertaining.
Things get a little disturbing later on and a lot of questions about the world open up which are never answered. Ah well.
I don't recall it ever explaining why the other half of Witzalmewhatsit incarnates as Dii considering that the full version essentially incarnates as Hakuoro. I have since seen this explained elsewhere but it was confusing at the time.
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I think most have heard, Sakamoto Maaya and Suzumura Kenichi got married. Cannon couples are now really cannon couples. (SEED/FF7/Kara)
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Advent Children Complete - Watched
Expands on some things which Classic didn't do enough with, which was good. Had too much Denzel though.
The new version of the pre-omnislash scene goes kind of overboard.
Has a fair amount of bad dialogue but it's not like Classic didn't.
Welcome To The NHK - Finished
Pretty entertaining.
I managed to not grasp the actual point of the final contract until I was reading up on things later. I'm good at this.
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Jesus, Twil. You're watching all the anime I'm not.
Now watch:
Tatami Galaxy
Bokurano
Baccano
Durarara
Dennou Coil
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Summer Wars
Perfect Blue
Millenium Actress
Tokyo Godfathers
Paprika
Paranoia Agent
Chop chop.
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Finished Shows
Avatar: The Last Airbender: Close enough. Finished a rewatch. Much better than I recall, since I'd never seen it all the way through. Very smartly written.
Needless: Holy hell terrible ending. Fun on the whole, solid animation, but meh.
Partial Shows
Spice and Wolf II: First two episodes. Rockin'.
Full Metal Panic? Fummumumumuffomumfum: Haven't finished, but fun. It actually makes me think of a less serious Burn Notice set in highschool.
Pumpkin Scissors: Interesting enough. We'll see how it goes.
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Watching Naruto. I'm on Episode 33.
I do *not* like Sasuke. Despite his presumably unlimited potential, and the new power he constantly acquires, he keeps sucking more and more.
Sakura is cuter with short hair, but I find her completely useless - similar to that stupid girl with red hair from Bleach.
Gaara reminds me of Akira.
I like this Naruto show. Friends have twice recommended I read the manga, and I dunno how to go about that, so I'm just getting my stuff from Hulu. About to also watch Tatami Galaxy.
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I do *not* like Sasuke. Despite his presumably unlimited potential, and the new power he constantly acquires, he keeps sucking more and more.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ooooohhhh man, you hate him -already-. I can't wait to see how you react later in the series.
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I'll just focus on Hinata!!
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Ugh. Hinata. -1000 points
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Pumpkin Scissors: I was enjoying it until the last 5 episodes. Then the pacing slowed to a crawl and they resolved nothing.
Props for having the nobles stand up for themselves, though.
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Jesus, Twil. You're watching all the anime I'm not.
Now watch:
Baccano
Paprika
Chop chop.
Okay!
Baccano - Finished
It's incredible. Very entertaining.
Quite a bit left unexplained, even after the Graham episodes.
Have to say that I didn't even realise that Ronnie was a recurring character (if I ever noticed them, I assigned them to position of generic gang member), let alone who they actually were, until reading up on things later. To the extent that I thought the character involved in the related revelation was a somewhat off-model Luck instead.
Waiting for them to bring out a full set of Durarara before picking that up rather than the individual volumes they have going at the moment.
Paprika - Watched
Fairly good. Millennium Actress was better.
Found it getting a bit hard to follow near the end, mostly in parts which involved the chairman.
- Update -
TO - Watched
Elliptical Orbit was okay. The minor twist at the end and the setup for it throughout were somewhat pointless. The terrorism parts were fine enough.
Symbiotic Planet was kind of dumb with the out-of-place warmongering and the rebellious youths and the spores being able to breach anticontamination walls and environmental suits despite them apparently not having done so up until now.
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Eden of the East: Fun stuff, although some utterly bizzare stuff that is not reconciled crops up. More immediate plot emerges a bit late and is wrapped up quickly. Which leads to...
Eden of the East: The King of Eden: See the above, without any conclusion, really.
Samurai 7: Should probably have ended with the bandits.
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Revolutionary Girl Utena - cowbell cowbell cowbell cowbell cowbell cowbell cowbell cowbell cowbell cowbell i wanna wear a cowbell
ONLY TERRIBLE PEOPLE CAN REVOLUTIONIZE THE WORLD
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TOA: Only You - Watched
Nothing spectacular. They didn't really do enough of anything with the concept of a person taking Ataru's game to the next level, and in fact didn't really sell them as being worse than him at all.
Maybe it's just been too long since I was watching the show, but Ataru seemed somewhat worse than usual.
Also sticking in my mind is that there weren't really any consequences resulting from actions which were taken in the escape/kidnapping from the devil mothership. For all that actions often go unconsequenced anyway.
House Of Five Leaves - Watched
Entertaining. Depressingly cannot think of anything specific to say about it so I am just going to cop out.
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Ender's Game: the Anime Macross Frontier - watched.
Well, this was a lot better than I would have thought it could be, by which I mean it manages simultaneously to be good and unapologetically Macross. Excellent combat, catchy music, a solid cast, and a plot that does about as good of a job as you could expect of making a show about the application of singing to interstellar warfare not be dumb. A couple minor gripes - the male lead ain't dumb, but he feels a bit inconsistent. And the two major villains needed to stop chewing the scenery.
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Durarara Volume 10 - Good god, finally!! What I have always wanted to happen to Izaya finally became real!!! The sorry excuse of evil mastermind wannabe who is just a troll finally got out evil by the real bid bad and got paste to the floor. Good job Kujiragi, who would have thought you had Saika in your sleeve. I can't expect what nasty things you can do to him now in the next volume....
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Tiger and Bunny:
Good god, people, WATCH THIS ALREADY. The show finished up, and I can safely say that if you don't watch this show you are a person who dislikes fun, good times, excitement, and things that human beings are programmed to like by a higher power.
Watch this show. Avatar incoming.
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Tiger and Bunny:
Good god, people, WATCH THIS ALREADY. The show finished up, and I can safely say that if you don't watch this show you are a person who dislikes fun, good times, excitement, and things that human beings are programmed to like by a higher power.
Watch this show. Avatar incoming.
I DID watch it thank you very much. I even put off playing Record of Agarest War to watch the finale! Then I realized the PS3 cables were missing. Wait, what was I talking about?
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How you are awesome? And watched T&B despite having something else to do?
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Ouran Host Club: Anime could benefit from deciding to have a plot sometime before the last two episodes. Enjoyable, though.
Summer Wars: Excellent. Excellent.
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How you are awesome? And watched T&B despite having something else to do?
Indeed! My life is a fast-lane pace of adventure and things!
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Macross DYRL. Boring. The scene where whatsisname and Minmei are playing around in zero G is charming, but that's about it.
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Tiger and Bunny:
Good god, people, WATCH THIS ALREADY. The show finished up, and I can safely say that if you don't watch this show you are a person who yaoi, yaoi, yaoi, and things that yaoi fans are programmed to like by a higher power.
Watch this show. Avatar incoming.
Fixed.
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Canaan - Watched through
Starts off overly confusing, things generally come together eventually though. I think that some amount of my early confusion may have been due to conflating Alphard and that other woman I forget the name of. The psychotic one. Rather than inherent to the show.
Alphard's non-business motivations are either beyond me or just inane. Don't understand what she was trying to achieve with regards to Canaan at all. I don't feel that stock simple ultimate-rivalry really matches her character.
Not happy that they resolved the impossible trainbomb situation offscreen and never explained it.
Was fairly enjoyable over all.
Gundam 00: A Wakening Of The Trailblazer - Watched
Did not have the best ending ever. Postcredits is a bit better but doesn't actually explain any of the unexplained from the regular ending.
Raphael was pretty dandy.
Didn't have any particularly egregious empathymagic moments which is always a plus. Better if it didn't have any at all, but after 00S2 that really wasn't likely to happen.
So I'm thinking that there wasn't really much point to the Colony Corporation scenes.
Those Obnoxious Aliens - Episodes 107 through 115
Not the best batch of episodes of all time. Steel Cage Flower Viewing Deathmatch and Raiders Of The Lost Mendou stand out considerably above the others, and even they suffer from gratuitous non-ending and unnecessarily naughty tentacles, respectively.
Parallel world episode suffers from Lum not figuring out what was going on for half the episode despite her technobabble about it at the start. Inverse-gender world was pretty amusing though.
Rugby episode needs to be burned.
Lipstick episode had potential but they wasted it all.
Rest of them were mediocre to unremarkable.
Current op and ed tracks are fine, but the visuals aren't. Will there ever be one worthy of nominating for a followup op/ed a/v tournament.
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The Girl Who Leapt Through Time: Excellent. Excellent. Needed a head trauma counter, though.
Also, I have honestly never seen a shoe wreck somebody's shit that hard.
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Tiger & Bunny: Thisis less of an anime and more of a Saturday morning cartoon show in style honestly. It has some of the tropes that anime likes to use (tsundere girl, dark and troubled past of a prettyboy 'badass', etc...), but by focusing on the surprisingly refreshing "experienced" mid-to-late 30's hero Tiger, it puts a fresh twist on such things and allows them to feel more like entertaining parodies than serious drags on the show.
The ending to the show was rather unsatisfying, but honestly it was still amusing enough to be likable.
Blood C: This show has always been about dull plot and good action, but Ep 11 decided to turn that on it's head with no action but a fair amount of predictable but actually well-executed plot. If you had told me that I would enjoy an all-dialog ep of Blood C a week ago I would have laughed in your face, but it's amazing what turning the premise of the series on it's head will do for you. This twist has been hinted at frequently, but the full-throttle no-holds-barred nature of it's execution and the change in tone of the narrative makes it surprisingly good! I think this may be the only series I've seen that is going to end up Killing off the entire supporting cast in horrific ways, bringing them back, making them ASSHOLES, and then killing them off again just so you can cheer this time. I still want the twins to live because they are entertaining as hell, but yeah.
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Tiger & Bunny: Honestly this was pretty bad at the beginning. But it picked up around the Jake Martinez arc, and by the end it was damned good. I can imagine people not getting that far though because of the weak opening episodes.
Musically, both ending themes were great and both opening themes were meh.
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Steins Gate Episode 9: did she really just say that?
Falls into an unbreakable love with this shows dialogue.
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Steins; Gate is a great show when it comes to dialog. Which is good because it relies on it quite a bit!
Blood C: This show is just bad. Way too much gore without a real purpose. It's not even shock value, it's just... gore for the cheesy horror movie style. What the hell? Avoid this unless the thought of people being thrown into a blender appeals to you for some demented reason. I can understand horror of a certain style being used for dramatic effect, but come on.
Started watching shows from the new season to get a feel for them, but we'll see how they stack up. Shana 3 could be interesting just for the premise of turning the two leads against each other. Mirai Nikki is infamous so may be worth a watch. Some other shows are showing promise.
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Tiger and Bunny: Sky High is amazing.
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Blood-C's real hope will hopefully lie within the coming movie. I can see that one becoming interesting as hell. Though personally I sort of enjoyed the pointless slaughter in Blood-C; not so much the "Story" or its characters.
Been watching a bit from this season (gotta start the rest soon) and so far: Fate/Zero: <333333
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Blood C: This show is just bad. Way too much gore without a real purpose. It's not even shock value, it's just... gore for the cheesy horror movie style. What the hell? Avoid this unless the thought of people being thrown into a blender appeals to you for some demented reason. I can understand horror of a certain style being used for dramatic effect, but come on.
You said the show was bad and then pointed out the best part of the show.
Of course the show is still bad.
Also human blender was pretty funny.
But the show is still bad.
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posting here because Steins;Gate is good and everyone should watch it. watch it.
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So I went to NYComicCon and ignored all the comics stuff but it's still merged with the NY Anime Festival, and it had pro vidja gaming there too, so sure. Saw / got me some new anime.
* Fate Zero: They had the first episode subtitled (legal I guess then!). I never saw any of Fate / Stay Night and have 0 interest in doing so - Tsukihime was a noble failure, and Stay Night was apparently 26 torturous episodes of nothing happening combined with anime romance to generate mana. However, this has Ufotable doing it, and I like Kara no Kyokai. More importantly, I suspect I will like the cast way more. Rather than lame high school anime leads vs. a killer loli, a bunch of experienced badasses duking it out? And two of them are even married so they have families on the line? Awesome. Okay, we do have one seeming high schooler, but it looks like they're setting him up for a fall, and he seems interesting enough anyway. Emiya seems pretty cool too, for all that it's hard to tell if he'll be able to live up to all the hype given to him - the maybe-retired unorthodox assassin who takes on even mages but whose wife thinks has a hidden heart of gold, and has the straight-up knightly summon? Could be awesome. The inquistor and the mage seem like an imposing enough teamup. Angsty dude with bugs struck me as the most lame, but whatever, 4/5 ain't bad.
One thing that will swing my interest in it: how many episodes do they plan to make? The correct answer is hopefully "13 or fewer." The Holy Grail War is basically Highlander, right? You shouldn't stretch that out forever. People fight it out and then everybody else dies or concedes and then somebody collects ultimate power (which they apparently do very much with since the world situation isn't substantially different 9 years later.)
* Sunrise panel: There really wasn't much else to go to at 12. Lots of Gundam hype, yawn, whatever, a little Tiger & Bunny hype (the writer/director(?) of T&B was their guest). They were hyping Gundam like baseball in the sense of whole "generations of fans, history, tradition," which I'm not sure is a good idea in the States. Was vaguely amused in their history clip about how they described Gundam Wing as "introducing many female fans to the series with its attractive male characters." I see. They then had a preview clip with upcoming Sunrise properties. Sacred Seven appeared to be a bog standard dudes with amazing powers series, but its song was by Fiction Junction, so that's something. Phi God of Puzzles is probably lame but I am still impressed with Japan's ability to take any normal ability and try to make it awesome - "I AM THE ULTIMATE PUZZLE SOLVER, BRING IT ON EVIL PUZZLE CONSORTIUM." The Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere (sp?) - uh, started off sounding promising - there's some kind of spaceship time reversal, and it's 1648 again with the Thirty Years War in Europe and the Warring States period of Japan, except now with superpowers and mechs, or something. Sure, I approve. Except that the actual shots seemed to be *all* scantily clad females in fetish gear blowing each other up with magic arrows or whatever, and the character designs were very clearly on the hentai end of the scale - trying very hard to be "hot" even if the actual result was grotesque. Ugh. Gundam Age is apparently a new Gundam and involves what looks like an 8 year old piloting a mech, but also an Ugly Old Man, so maybe they combine and create the usual angsty teenager or something.
* Revolutionary Girl Utena - So this was an odd one. See, there's this forest with a giant staircase, and then this upside down castle, and a student council getting messages from The End of the World, and swords being pulled from bosoms, and.... what? This has been out for years you say?
Actually, since I watched Utena at my college's anime club, and had been pre-warned that the movie was terrible and pretentious, and only joined in after the person who warned me said that actually the television show was kind of interesting, I never saw the first two episodes before. So this was new. The show actually did a pretty solid job on introducing characters and the wacky rules that exist at Ohtori Academy. Utena responded properly puzzled to the bizarreness ("oh! That's cold!"). I also found it interesting that Utena fought the first duel over Wakaba's honor, and Anthy had rather little to do with it. Didn't know that! In general I think it was a good choice to have Utena rather distant from Anthy at first - you need some motion in relationships. Touga was nicely established as a charming creep early with his binoculars and actions toward Saionji. Just overall solid.
* Show floor - Not THAT much interesting, although the Japan tourism booth was interesting with its pamphlets funded by small towns who never get any tourists, but want to brag that there's totally a statue somewhere dedicated to a character from Galaxy Express, so please come visit anime fans. Reminds me of problems in tourism budgets in the US too - New Jersey totally pays for brochures hyping the beautiful Blue Mountains that nobody ever visits but not enough on the casinos or the Atlantic City beaches which people do actually visit thanks to legislative pull. They had the "Japan anime tourism map" and everything.
I did pick up a copy of "Sword of the Stranger." Never saw it before, but a friend recommended it, so we'll see. Came with an art book, too.
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Haven't been watching much anime in general, though. Started up Morbito: Guardian of the Spirit awhile back. It's good, but hit a point that's not quite compelling - not enough tension to force me to watch the next episode. There was also one plot escape which I slightly boggled at involving being knocked off a cliff at high speed and surviving and not having said miraculous survival be obvious from watchers above, but whatever. Also watched the first 3 episodes of Penguindrum. Uh, we'll see on that one, though points for creativeness so far with the invisible stalker penguin spy corps.
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* Fate Zero: how many episodes do they plan to make? The correct answer is hopefully "13 or fewer."
It's going to be broken into 2 seasons, 13 episodes a piece, episode 1-13 from October to December, and 14-26 From April to June which is like "..."
Seems like they are milking it for the blu-ray sales since they are adding new scenes to the blu-rays that they cut from the broadcast versions and releasing them in between the two seasons...
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Wow. The new Last Exile is REALLY GOOD. Also REALLY CONFUSING on one point. Dio is in it, and he mentions Sophia. Is this a sequel and they managed to keep it a secret?
It also looks unbelievably gorgeous.
EDIT: Watching the OP again, it seems a bunch of other characters from the first will be in it too
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Tatiana and Alistia are also confirmed. And then looking at the geography, this is really looks like a sequel.
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Persona 4- Before I realized it, I was screaming JUMP!! JUMP!! JUMP!! the whole time before the screen when watching the episode.... only end up disappointed when Narukami didn't tell the shrimp to jump....
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That episode depressed me, but I've ranted about it enough. Ugh.
On the other hand, Guilty Crown made me smile. If nothing else, a very pretty show.
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That episode depressed me, but I've ranted about it enough. Ugh.
On the other hand, Guilty Crown made me smile. If nothing else, a very pretty show.
In what way? In that they waste an episode on commu, or that they rushed the commu plot?
Guilty Crown, I actually start caring this show thanks to Lying World being remotely interesting.
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Darker than Black - Watched three episodes so far. I guess I like it? I am just not really feeling it heaps. It is good and all, just the pacing is bugging me a little. Then suddenly Yoko Kanno and everything is good in the world.
Clearly I just need to buy Yoko Kanno CDs instead of watching shows.
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I watched a reasonable amount of shows while my PC was in pieces. I have since forgotten most of anything I wanted to say about the earlier ones.
Those Obnoxious Aliens - Episodes 116 - 135 (pre-move but unreported before taking PC apart)
Seem to remember there being a fair amount of good episodes in this bunch, but the only one I remember anything of offhand is the cow episode seeing as I'm currently avataring from it. Good episode for Lum x Ataru fans. As the end of the episode approached I was dreading that there was no way they could wrap the situation up non-annoyingly, and they ended up non-ending it making that bizarrely the best of all possible options. Still annoying though.
Checking over other episode titles... Gloves Vs Pants was a great episode. Not really a fan of the fox who's shown up a couple times. Not a fan of the armoured lady either. Ryoko got dumbed down somewhat for some reason, sadly. Kuriko and Chojuro is essentially an improved version of the earlier lipstick episode. Superhero episode is somewhat fun but the twist was fairly obvious. No other comments are coming to mind.
The current OP/ED have Ataru being far too well-disposed towards Lum and it is somewhat annoying.
Kiddy Grade - Watched through
Entertaining. Didn't expect the change from Of The Week style.
Spice & Wolf S2 - Watched through
Believe I thought the first season was superior. Among other things, Holo not as alien as previously. OP/ED also inferior to S1's.
Birdy Decode S1 - Watched through
Amusing. Wasn't expecting things to end up the way they ended up. To be specific, I was expecting that Birdy would take the mind of the woman I forget the name of on as a lodger and then they could kill the thing I also forget the name of without killing her. M. Night was fairly styling until he got disturbing.
MS Gundam 08th MS Team - Rewatched through (now with legitimate copy)
No change from last time. Shiro is disappointingly nonpragmatic. Also noticed this time that for all he tells people not to go off on their own he does it himself a lot.
MS Gundam 08th MS Team Millers Report - Watched
Waste. Of. Time.
Lunar Legend Tsukihime - Watched through
Decent. I don't believe they ever explained Shiki's initial actions with regards to Arcueid. Not exactly the only thing which wasn't explained, but the one which stands out the most.
Tears To Tiara - Watched through
Entertaining. Voicework was a very welcome change from the usual.
Strange that the senate thinks that Gaius is just incompetent despite the elite troops which I forget the name of having been wiped out.
Slayers Next - Watched through
Entertaining. Xelloss started off as highly annoying but transitioned into fairly amusing at a reasonably rapid pace. Gov meanwhile spent most of the series looking like some sort of 'cool' character in the OP and ended up being nothing of the sort when he finally showed up. Funny how these things turn out.
MS Zeta Gundam - Rewatched through (now with legitimate copy)
Doubt I have anything to say about it that I didn't say whenever it was I watched it previously. Katz still sucks.
Love Hina - Watched through
Show apparently has the belief that unwarranted violence towards Keitaro will never get old. Have to agree with the people that prefer warranted violence.
Broken Glasses episode bugs me because Naru doesn't normally wear glasses anyway.
Code Geass S1 (R1?) - Watched through
Entertaining. I thought that this was supposed to be trollshow? Or is this another SEED vs DESTINY situation (or have I gotten mixed up completely). Interested to see where R2 (RR?) goes with things, although I am concerned that perma-geass is going to hinder the possibilities.
Cowboy Bebop - Watched through
Entertaining. A bit slimmer on backstory for some characters than I would prefer. Ed tried to pull a Xelloss and only partially succeeded.
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Not bad. Birdy the Mighty is awesome. Check out season 2, it's even better than the first. Catch the connecting OVA too. ::Crosses fingers for a season 3::
Code Gaess is more the fact it's a mildly entertaining popcorn series that far too many people try to take seriously/think is the best ever. The first season is relatively fine excepting the horribly constructed first episode and the twist with Euphie. S2 is where you get the real trolling.
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Yes, Code Geass is kind of a SEED/DESTINY situation, where the first season is a fun little thing that has only a little headbanging while the second makes you want to pretend to be a rockstar in front of a CMU wall.
- Guilty Crown. Speaking of moderately entertaining shows that play all the tropes, Guilty Crown plays straight into Code Geass' niche. The show is silly in plot and the main is frustrating to watch, but it is pretty, has nice music, and the action scenes range from 'nice' to 'Wow that's pretty awesome". But dear god does the show play to all the 'standard tropes'. It uses the generic plot like a crutch instead of developing characters and is weaker for it.
- Fate/Zero. The show is very different from FSN, and it is better for it. The fact that it follows all the different characters and leaves only their motivations as a mystery makes it entertaining to watch and eschews more standard MYSTERY plot in favor of character building. The only caveat is that it is SLOW character building, since it zips around from perspective to perspective so much. Emiya gets the most screentime, but he is kept enigmatic by displaying his conflicting actions without revealing the real nature that drives those conflicting actions. Also I am totally messing with you since the REAL reason to watch this show is because the action is tons and tons of fun while Iskander deserves to be made king of the world just on account of raw awesome.
- Ben-To. Dear god this show is FUN. It plays its tropes, serves its fanservice, and has a plot that centers around very possibly the stupidest thing you could think of. But who the fuck cares when you spend most of the show either a)laughing or b) cheering. The show centers around high schoolers fighting it out for the honor of grabbing half-off boxed lunches. The show makes no apologies for the silly plot and just runs with it by infusing every interaction and plot point with as much raw energy as possible. Typical anime humor such as accidental pervert scenes normally make my eyes roll in disgust (hi Guilty Crown), but Ben-To manages to pull it off via a cast of surprisingly likable characters and being absolutely over-the-top. The VA's energy really makes the difference, here. Also the fights, while not brilliantly animated, are a joy to watch just for how vicious and crazy awesome they are. But yeah if you like fun there isn't a reason not to watch this show.
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(http://i.imgur.com/Yr8JT.jpg)
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:)
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Watching Fate/Zero.
Iskander is simply the best there is. That is all.
But that's saying a lot, because despite the lack of Rin - one adorable little Rin appearance notwithstanding - this cast is leaps and bounds ahead of F/SN's, which I already liked a great deal. The action is crisp and well done, the characters are cool, and the interweaving schemes make the fifth Grail War look like amateur hour. No, you could even say this is on a completely different level from other Fate material.
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Darker Than Black - Further in. I am liking it more now. A bit more in the feel for the mysteries being presented and so on. A little bummed to find out there is another season coming, that means what I have isn't a complete story. I am spoilt there.
I still can't really follow what is going on because when Yoko Kanno starts playing I don't exactly pay much attention to the show. Again, I should just be buying Yoko Kanno albums instead of watching shows.
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They recast Goemon, Fujiko and Zenigata in the latest Lupin special. Sad as it is, that was long overdue.
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Those Obnoxious Aliens - Episodes 136 - 145
Contained the play/enforced acting episode which was pretty awesome. The gardening club episode was a close second. Other episodes were decent to middling, although there were a fair amount of amusing bits like the Cherry dwarves in the dreams episode. I don't even remember a Kaede with regards to her return episode, though that's probably not too surprising.
Kind of running myself out of room to intersperse the remaining movies throughout if I don't hop to watching some of them.
Gundam Unicorn - Episode 2
Don't remember enough about it to say anything really. I know it was starting to somewhat remind me of F91.
Birdy The Mighty Decode S2 - Watched through (including The Cipher at the end)
I want to say that the first season was more entertaining. Not sure which was better in general. This season does do more in terms of backstory, provided you're one of a few particular characters - we find out almost nothing about most of the escapees, in current terms even, let alone historic ones.
Code Geass R2 - Watched through
Okay but disappointing.
Not a fan of Sayoko. Not a fan of permageass having essentially no relevance this season. Not a fan of Nunnally and Sayoko turning out to not have died.
There were still a number of good times, such as the million Zeros.
Mind was insisting that the later stages of R2 are parallel to something but the best I could come up with was God-Emperor Of Dune, which I'm pretty sure is not right answer as that's only vaguely similar to particular points and didn't get rid of the feeling. It is insignificantly aggravating.
Oh right I also watched Working Man.
I guess it was okayish.
I don't think there was enough focus on Shinji between his episode and the end of the series, leads to things seeming to come out of nowhere a bit. Still, I guess that was the case for the characters as well, so there's an argument for it.
There wasn't enough of the head editor.
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Yaaaaaaaaaaay the Utena remaster is finally completely out. And I got the preorder ring. Time for a rewatch!
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Yaaaaaaaaaaay the Utena remaster is finally completely out. And I got the preorder ring. Time for a rewatch!
Me too, even if it's so small it barely fits on the ring finger of my off-hand.
Even so, WE MUST DUEL!
Alternately: I see you've received your wedding ring, Shale.
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I hear someone is going to be at a wedding next year also. Going to be the best Best Man ever?
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Yaaaaaaaaaaay the Utena remaster is finally completely out. And I got the preorder ring. Time for a rewatch!
So exactly how improved is the picture here? Nice enough to be worth shelling out for even if you spent too much money tracking down copies of the original run shortly before the remaster was announced? (Totally not bitter about that at all.) I notice Right Stuf has the first two sets at half price right now, but still, that's over a hundred dollars total for a show I already have. I wouldn't even consider it if it weren't, you know, Utena.
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It's worth it for at least the first set. We had notably poor masters to work from for that one, and it didn't help we compressed everything onto two discs. The video and encode quality improved with the Black Rose and Apocalypse boxes, as well as the movie, so you don't really have to worry about them if you're hesistant, but the remaster DOES look great.
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Also the extras are boss, if that's your thing.
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If you have some patience and aren't interested in rebuying the same show over and over and over, consider waiting for the inevitable Blu-Ray release. The Utena rerelease was advertised in Japan as HD remasters, even though it was only released as DVDs - it's only a matter of time before they decide to go back to the well with a newer and even shinier release.
Nozomi/Right Stuf haven't been releasing any Blu-Rays to date to my knowledge, but that reticence won't last forever as BD adoption increases steadily. I'd guess that they'll end up releasing a Blu-Ray boxset sometime between 5 and 10 years from now.
That said, the DVD sets are still fantastic for anyone like me who didn't own the show beforehand. The boxart used is all fantastic, and the extras are great like Shale mentioned. I think they still have the preorder ring... I waited about nine days to order and still got one, even though I have no interest in one. Oh well.
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I'm slow.
Watched Soul Eater. Really solid show. Concept was fun, characters were well used and were focused on in good proportions. Liked the main villains and the three-front conflict in the second half. Animation and music was really impressive overall.
Only real issues I had were the pacing and Excalibur. I found him kinda funny, but it got old soooo quickly. Wanna see where the manga goes.
Tiger and Bunny. Best superhero show. Ever. Also Tiger/Barnaby slash is hot.
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TOA3: Remember My Love - watched
Decent. Had a good red string joke.
Paranoia Agent - watched through
Entertaining. Very styling at times.
I've since seen people say that those people in that episode were successful at their objective, but I didn't notice anything to indicate that at the time - I can see that being the case for the happenings at the end of the episode, if you prescribe magical powers to cameras for some/cultural? reasons, but it doesn't seem to mesh with what was happening beforehand. I can only assume that I'm forgetting a part, or I'm misremembering said events, or it happened offscreen... I would need to rewatch the episode, really. But I can't be bothered doing that.
Outlaw Star - watched through
Decent, but contained more lewdity than necessary/than I was expecting.
Vaguely disappointed that there didn't turn out to be any story behind certain specific past actions of the MacDougal Bros.
Gundam X - watched episodes 1 through 14
Garrod started off a moron and Tifa started off annoying, but they've managed to improve a bit. Will this continue I wonder.
The harmonicannon hasn't been used anywhere near enough yet.
I wasn't expecting the Frost Bros. to be gypsies.
TOA - watched episodes 146 through 152
The new OP/ED are unpleasing to mine eyes again. Sadness.
They've been threatening to make Asuka a more regular character. Sadness.
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Aquarion EVOL: Everything I wanted and more.
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Uh wha? Soppy, you serious?
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Yes. Over the top innuendo and melodrama = hilarity of the highest order.
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Daily Lives of Highschool Boys:
Fucking hilarious. So pointless. Very... uh... definitely a comic about boys.
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Daily Lives of Highschool Boys:
Fucking hilarious. So pointless. Very... uh... definitely a comic about boys.
I'm sure you and Niu are watching this for the same reasons.
-
Soppy, you should change the phrase into "Niu is reading the doujin" instead.
-
Soppy, you should change the phrase into "Niu is reading the doujin" instead.
I'm sure you and VSM are watching it for the same reasons.
-
Aquarion Evol: orz
Crossbone Gundam Skull Heart: Newtype Monkeys
Today has been a good day.
-
Kurogane no Line Barrel vol.19 - What can I say... volume 19 is always Ishigami's turn. It is just as planned from the beginning to the end, and... he is doing this all for Katou!? Katou is finally going to be effective now after failing for so long?
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Gundam X - finished
Garrod and Tifa managed to graduate to the ranks of non-annoying characters by the end of the show. I think the only person left in the annoying set was Parlour. That may be somewhat coloured by them having shown pictures of Falcon AirmasterB/LeopardD but never actually using them. Meanwhile, the best character was always the doctor.
Need to remember to nominate Human Touch EN if there's ever a visuals-less tournament it would be eligible for in the future.
Quite enjoyable, on the high end of my ranking of Gundam shows.
Cyber Coil - watched through
Very enjoyable, although I found it hard at times to get past how impractical the system seemed.
Among other things, there is one problem which is stated to happen because of a person's cyberbody being out of sync with their regular body, leading to a vehicle's navigation system misregistering where the person was standing, yet at other times there are implications that only people 'participating' in the system have cyberbodies to begin with, which would seem to make that situation impossible to set up in the first place (unless the people doing so were particularly absent-minded/sadistic).
I don't know how much 'two years worth of New Years money' represents, but MegaMass would seem to have a pretty good setup getting to automatically charge people to restore their glasses whenever they're corrupted.
I can understand MegaMass wanting to shut down all the Coils 'space' considering the problems it has been causing, but it seems like attempting to do this while there are people inside it is working at cross-purposes here. Also I'm not sure why they can't just unplug the servers. They mention servers a number of times. Are they misusing that term.
I need to get around to finishing reading that comic from a somewhat similar vein that was linked to aways back sometime.
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Redline- Un. Fucking. Believable. Not one author or poet could spend a million years inventing words to describe the sheer, luxurious, over-the-top awesome that this movie is. It's Heavy Metal + Wacky Races to a Wipeout soundtrack, with literally the best hand-drawn animation ever made. Period. I cried tears of joy watching it, and I cried tears of sadness at it's end, because I will never, ever watch anything as completely amazing as this again.
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Linebarrels Of Iron - watched through
Okaylish. Annoyingly stupid at points, but never enough to turn me off the show. The instance which stands out the most would be most of the beach episode.
Retroactively provided a reason for me having never gotten Soubi in SRWL, so there's that.
Best characters were Kato and Dmitri.
Zoid Genesis - watched through
Okaylish. Also stupid at points, but is aimed at an even younger audience to be fair. The instance which stands out the most is that Rinna, the head of the M'Qile family, doesn't know anything about how there is only allowed to be one head of the family and all of their siblings need to be killed off.
Retroactively provided a reason for me having never gotten Ferme in SRWK, so there's that.
There were no best characters.
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HxH Manga: Oh hell. Crappy art again. Hiatus coming up?
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Redline - watched
Very entertaining. Very pretty at times. Relationship essentially out of nowhere.
Psycho Diver: Soul Siren - watched
Mediocre.
Genius Party
Genius Party Beyond - watched through
Genius Party: Nice
Shanghai Dragon: The premise that they had gone back in time because they needed the imagination of children, which there were none of in the future falls a little flat when the child imagines things based on TV shows. I guess he does do other things in the ending though.
Deathtic 4: Nice change from the usual sort of art stylings, for all that the story isn't the greatest.
Doorbell: A little confusing - for most of the short it seems like the situation is new to the protagonist, but at the end it seems to be implying that it isn't, and that there are more than two entities involved. Since the extras only get rendered meaningless when in particular situations, you'd think that this would result in a lot of a problems for them both in those situations and out of those situations. Keeping with just the two known entities, what happens if one of them visits one person and the other visits another person, and those two people happen to talk to each other about the meetings? Where do the extra entities eat and sleep?
Limit Cycle: IDGI
Happy Machine: I was wondering whether this was done by the Kaiba guy and it turned out it waaaaaaaaaaaaas
and it was consequently pretty whimsically dandy
Baby Blue: I'm not really sure how this short matches the theme... it was okay in general, though.
---
Gala: Decent, nothing I can think of to say about it really.
Moondrive: Reasonably amusing. Reasonable different art style, which I am divided on how I feel about.
Wanwa (The Doggy): Starts off slow, but becomes entertaining.
Toujin Kit: Decent, can't think of anything specific to say again. Nothing is really confirmed with regards to the Tou, and the fate of the woman is left up in the air.
Dimension Bomb: IDGI (less so than Limit Cycle)
Both had highs and lows... I'd peg the lowest as Limit Cycle on GP and the second lowest as Dimension Bomb on GPB, not sure which I'd peg as the highest though.
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(http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/7489/ljnug.jpg)
Truer words have never been spoken.
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(http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/7489/ljnug.jpg)
Truer words have never been spoken.
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:)
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HxH 339 - Oh shit, FJ actually remember about the swan and the bet!?
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Guilty Crownwreck 20: Wait, so Mana got infected when she was FIVE? And she's being wanting to bone Shu since before he was born, even?
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Man, I thought they couldn't top episode 12 for craziness, but Production IG just proved me wrong.
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http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2012-03-11/fate/kaleid-liner-prisma-illya-manga-gets-anime
YES
*Victory fanfare plays*
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Wait, there is peopel who read that in DL!?
-
I think I'm the only one who follows it on a regular basis, but yes. Trance has mentioned in the past that he's at least familiar with it, but wasn't familiar with the more recent chapters IIRC.
Archer-Illya vs Saber Alter is going to be badass.
-
Today is the day I thought would never come:
Samurai Pizza Cats DVDs. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2012-03-12/discotek-licenses-samurai-pizza-cats/cats-toninden-teyande)
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FUCK YES
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I very vaguely remember this show from when I was like 7 years old, but not anything beyond that.
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It was "translated" and dubbed without the benefit of an actual script for the Japanese version, so it's basically the writers and actors making it up as they go along. That could have gone very, very wrong, but luckily the writers and actors in question are hilarious.
Also, holy crap the same company just announced Shin Getter vs. Neo Getter.
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Hunter x Hunter Manga: SON OF A BITCH!
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Bodacious Space Pirates
Caught up to as far as Crunchyroll has free episodes available. It started out good. Like, really good. The chemistry between the characters, especially Marika and her mother, and Marika and Chiaki, is strong. The yacht club's maiden voyage and resulting space battle are some of the best anime science fiction I've seen. I love the way weightlessness was depicted, and the solution Marika came up with seems genuinely clever without being an asspull.
Unfortunately now that she's with her adult crew, it's... not nearly as good. They have artificial gravity, the episodes haven't been as clever, there's less Marika/Chiaki interaction, and the space pirate supporting cast are a lot less interesting than the yacht club supporting cast.
Still good, but a real come-down from the early episodes.
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Rewatching Utena since I got the remastered sets a while back. Why do I like Nanami episodes the most. It's like watching a bridge collapse in slow motion.
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Because cowbell.
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Been watching Fairy Tail with my lady friend a lot recenty. It's fun, it has action and comedy mixed in, so it works for us. I am somewhere in the 70s as far as episodes.
Aye!
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Fairy Tail is pretty awesome. Jim finally convinced me to read the manga recently and I regret not doing so before. Erza is awesome and is also Sparticus.
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Erza is such DL-bait it's not even funny. Oh wait, yes it is.
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I'm more of a Gajeel fan myself...only because he IS Vegeta.
~
And yeah, Erza is aweomse, but so is most of the cast.
My only gripe with the anime is that there is far too much crying going on. I mean seriously these people cry for every gawd damn thing. I think Natsu is the only person that has yet to cry (as an adult at least).
When Laxus started bawling I figured the creator had to be a girl or something.
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Large group of people who mostly wear their hearts on their sleeves and are powerful enough not to give a fuck? Yeah, they're allowed to cry.
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Guilty Crown: As expected, ending was soooo bad. Sooooo terribly bad.
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Guilty Crown: As expected, ending was soooo bad. Sooooo terribly bad.
Season 2! Season 2!
hahaha how in the nine hells do they think they can get a season 2
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The crappiness of GC's ending was absolutely inevitable given the build-up, but I was really disappointed with the relative lack of narm. I couldn't even laugh at it all that much, which is basically all I watched Guilty Crown in the first place.
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The epilogue was so full of narm. And nameless glasses guy's Faldio moment was so facepalm worthy.
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Persona 4- The Almighty!! Yet, Amenosagiri spent most of the time talking shit. Come on, put up a fight when the music is playing. But I'll tolerate it with Yusuke presenting himself as the true heroine.
Persona 4 is a good example on how BL doujin does not need to exist., as the show does it better than 99% of the fan girls out there could.
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New Cutey Honey - watched through
It was dumber than I was expecting. Also the plot disappeared halfway through, although I've read that the first half was all that was originally scheduled to be made.
Lots of references to other Go Nagai stuff. Prisoner!Honey is Kouji, gets-petrified-woman is Sayaka, Juuzo actually shows up personally, Danbei is Grendizer!Danbei (assuming Grendizer!Danbei wasn't a reference to Danbei from earlier CHs already, not having had seen them). Danbei is pretty special when it comes to making references in general. Boss & company show up as guards. Supposedly a guy from Devilman but I have no exposure to that whatsoever. Good times. If you're into that sort of thing.
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Twil, have you watched Re: Cutie Honey? Because you should.
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Supposedly a guy from Devilman but I have no exposure to that whatsoever.
Devilman is outstanding. Make it a point to see it, unless you're squeamish. It kind of redefines the word "ultraviolent".
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Last week (two weeks ago? My sense of time is fucked), two really good animes came to a close, and you should watch both of them.
Daily Lives of High School Boys:
At times, painfully hilarious, one of the few things I've seen that, at a few rare points, actually made my sides hurt. A cast of rich and likable characters, including the boring protagonist that slowly got written out of his own anime. Over-the-top voice acting, which you can tell despite it being another language and one I don't personally speak. Some of the jokes you can see coming, and they STILL make you laugh just because of the execution. The best part of the show is how no one is self-assured at ALL. That's how you KNOW it's an authentic high school experience.
and
Chihayafuru:
A slice of life anime about an esoteric card game that basically can only be played in Japan because it revolves around Japanese poetry. Despite the painfully dry subject matter, the actual story has a shocking amount of heart and is visualized lovingly. Mostly it's just a compelling narrative, but at times it can be very funny in its own right.
First revolving around a girl and two boys in her gradeschool class, there's a time jump and the girl puts together a club for her esoteric card game and gets some other members to join. Happily, the other members become important to the cast and not just "meh" additions without souls---they are just as important characters as the ones already established.
Simply an excellent anime if you're feeling mellow. More heart than many shows have combined.
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Twil, have you watched Re: Cutie Honey? Because you should.
I haven't, New is the first I've viewed of the serieses. Re: is now on my list though.
Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya S2 - watched through
I had gotten completely the wrong impression of EE from comments on it. I was expecting essentially the same episode over and over. Pleasant surprise to find out that wasn't the case. Actually, I thought EE was pretty good, although they really should have tried to dig some useful information out of Yuki rather than just getting confirmation. Ended passably well.
I suppose it could have been fairly annoying with each episode being weekly instead of daily, assuming that it was shown weekly originally.
Sigh explained at least one question I had had regarding the student film episode but mostly just had Haruhi being a git 90% of the time. Considered rewatching the student film episode afterwards but couldn't be bothered.
Ending to the season in general (referring to Kyon randomly deciding to attempt to fill Haruhi in on some things, in case episodes are ordered differently elsewhere) was pretty dumb.
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I have started watching the "Legend of Korra" recently. The show is fun, and plays off the success of the original. I am happy to see that Bud Bundy and Spike Spiegel are VAs in this show. Also, Metal-bending cops; I'd be terrified.
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Neon Genesis Evangelion - watched through
Turned out that like Gundam Wing, I had actually watched the majority of the show before rather than only about half as I had thought was the case. Unlike Gundam Wing at least NGE isn't overwhelmingly boring. Still annoyingly dumb at times.
Happily, they don't sell EoE any more so I don't need to inflict it upon myself until it shows up on ebay for a non-absurd price (http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/190663325175).
Gundam Unicorn V3 - watched
It was not objectionable.
-
People who would actually pay that much for End of Evangelion deserve to be horribly gouged.
-
Holy pay-day Batman! I am totally selling my copy on Ebay now.
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Akira - watched
Decent but not exactly the best movie of all time.
Fushigi Yugi: The Mysterious Play - watched through
Decent. I liked the framing.
A bit too rape-attempt-heavy in the second half. Also annoying was the constant problems beseiging Miaka/Tamahome, especially when the one causes one in exactly the same way that the other has caused one previously.
I liked how after the revelation during the Byakko area that a particular course of action had been attempted before and found to be impossible, leaving me thinking about how there was an obvious loophole with regards to it, said loophole was actually brought up in short order and eventually inadvertantly attempted, for all it ended up failing anyway in a manner of speaking.
Unless I missed, forgot, or misinterpreted something, Anti-Taitskun only shows up in the one scene and then is irrelevant for the rest of the show, which seems odd.
Keisuke & Tetsuya were the best characters.
Chiriko is the most useless character ever.
VOTOMS - watched through
Decent. Not entirely what I was expecting.
A bit confused about how they were hinting a couple times throughout the show that Chirico & Fyana had pre-show history but all that comes of it is essentially Wiseman emitting 'How did you think you knew her name?', which really doesn't explain anything.
The Ren Faire guys took altogether far too long to be killed.
Black Jack 2004 - watched through episodes 1 - 5
I've started watching this streamed on Viki mostly for the novelty of using a streaming site which is actually viewable over here, but man. The subs are pretty bad. I wouldn't be surprised if they were from a bootleg or something.
Probably be a better option to just buy some more of the comics.
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Surprised a mecha fan like you hasn't seen VOTOMS yet. And it's more or less is about the various and hilariously awesome/improbable ways Chirico flips the middle finger at death. Now move onto Shining Heresy (a sequel) and Roots of Ambition (a prequel). Good stuff. The rest is ignorable unless you really like VOTOMS.
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Kawamori is officially the all-time King of Trolls.
-
Apparently I watch anime occasionally. Hulu and Funi are getting better at this.
A Certain Magical Index: Episode 18 or so. Decently enjoyable show, although it is really weird to think this is the main series and Railgun is the sister show. Think it would have been a little better to have the amnesia played straight (it kinda makes 0 difference from what I've seen thus far with him hiding it). Still, fun.
Fate/Zero: Up to Saber/Lancer fight. Decent so far? Not sure what else to say. Many of the identities being spoiled right away is sorta sad. =(
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Those are not Time of Eve. Watch Time of Eve. It is good.
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Perfect Blue - watched
Decent.
The internet is saying that there is controversy regarding whether the ending is supposed to be taken at face value or not, personally I didn't feel anything wrong with the ending as it was. Oh well.
Planetes - watched through
Pretty good/entertaining for the most part. Goes downhill late. Not really a fan of the ending, especially if the implications of the scene are accurate.
I had been fairly sure that the events with the Third Division and Mars were telegraphing what was going to end up happening, for all that I couldn't really come up with a way that it would be allowed, only to find that I was horribly wrong anyway. Oh well.
I also don't like Lucy.
Kaiji S1 - watched through
Pretty good/entertaining for the most part. Goes downhill late.
For the girder arc, I had been banking on the final gimmick being that they were going to have to make a return journey with the additional weight of their winnings. Unfortunately, the actual final gimmick (or not the final one, depending on how you look at it) was much dumber. Oh well.
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Ghost Hound - watched through.
Pretty good.
Started slow, but got interesting reasonably quickly. Ended up leaving a fair amount of things unanswered, which is annoying but I don't know if they could really have satisfactorily answered everything anyway.
Very psychobabbly at times.
Godmars - watched episodes 1 through 32
Ehhhhhhh.
Started slow, still fairly slow at times. Godmars itself is usually boringly invulnerable, and uses more stock footage than I prefer. I tend to like the enemy mech designs at least.
I was surprised to find the Gishin arc end in episode 24, whereas SRW had me believing that it was the entirity of the show. To be fair, Gishin Zuul is perfect for a final enemy style enemy while nothing of the kind has shown up in the Marume arc yet, but there's still plenty of time for it to make up ground on that front.
Loze has also left the party and I am not really a fan of Flore, disappointing. Hopefully she will come back at some point. In any case it seems strange that SRW didn't jump at the chance for space pirate ship.
Black Jack @ Viki - watched episodes 6 through 16
Either I am getting scarily desensitized or they have replaced/improved the subs. Hopefully it's the latter. At minimum I haven't seen them inconsistently naming characters any more.
This adaptation has far too much Pinoko/Sharaku/Largo (especially since as far as I remember Largo died in the original comic they first appeared in, and I don't remember Sharaku appearing at all but am less confident on that front).
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Aquarion Evol 23: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
...
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I can't stop laughing.
WHAT A TWEEEEST~
-
Soppy, I have told you to watch it since the con, and you just did it now.
Quick, jump to 25 quickly, the trolling doesn't stop there.
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Cowboy Bebop The Movie - watched
I graded it as pretty good, but I don't really remember enough about it to say anything specific.
Memories - watched
Bleaker than I expected, although since I had no real expectations going in that wasn't hard. I guess Magnetic Rose was the best segment, but none of them were superfantastic. Magnetic Rose itself raises questions regarding how particular memories could possibly have been known by a particular character. Although now that I'm thinking about it, it's possible that they were cut out of whole cloth and the owner was out of it enough to not realise - I've seemed to recall a line from earlier on which would make them impossible, although I could be misremembering it and/or who said it (plus the possibility of it being a lie, etc).
Slayers Try - watched through
Fairly entertaining. Don't remember enough of original/Next to compare. Feels like Xellos was less entertaining this series than in Next.
At some point, they're going to run out of superentities for villains.
Godmars - watched episodes 33 through 64
Mediocre.
The Marume arc ran for too long, and they never ended up explaining anything about the plus/minus forces and why they were supposed to hate each other (unless the explanation is 'They aren't and Gyron was deluded into thinking that way by Zuul and he managed to indoctrinate the rest of them').
I don't understand the train of thought that could lead to characters being written to think that Gyron would be fine with them settling the Dead Planet after the miracle considering he's been conducting genocide against them and endeavouring to have relevant people who are in separate planetary systems killed off, let alone people on Marume's twin planet.
Disappointing to see Earth Zuul in the Earth Arc have completely the same design as Gishin Zuul. I don't really understand whether Earth Zuul and Gestalt Zuul are the same Zuul or not, and I'm not sure whether the Zuul which interfered with Marume was Earth Zuul or if it was a Marume Zuul which we don't see any more of afterwards. Earth Zuul is pretty clearly a separate entity from Gishin Zuul from what it says, at least. Earth Zuul is also much more a dick than Gishin Zuul, which was probably an attempt to make up for the Earth arc having very little villain plot.
You know what the Earth arc had too much of
ghost Marg
hate ghost Marg
So ghost Marg wanted Takeru to find the burning star, which might as well be a request for him to find the two-armed man as far as it looks to me. Spoiler: it was the sun. Earth Zuul was keeping the ghosts of people from Gishin there for some reason.
Spoiler: the ending didn't make any sense.
-
This is super-late, but I just saw what the movie ticket (http://ferret205.tumblr.com/post/12560689242/the-tickets-for-the-new-madoka-movie) for the upcoming Madoka movies looks like and man, that's hilarious.
-
...
<3
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3ALwKeSEYs
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SRWOG: Divine Wars - rewatched 1 - 20, watched through rest (including special)
Fairly entertaining. The SRW basing isn't doing as much for me these days as it was back before I stopped due to misguided optimism of a local release.
I don't remember Juses being in OG1 at all, Septy got a fairly poor showing, never used transformed R-Gun as far as I remember, barely any Viletta, no Gust Lander as far as I remember.
SRWOG: The Inspector - watched through
it hurts
it hurts
it hurts
Beyond the flagrant 'fan' 'service', I don't remember Wendolo getting Einsted up ingame. Lee survives, and never even really turns evil. The world is still under military rule. The change in final villain is dumb, although from one point of view it retains the same lack of sense-making that the game did. OG2 being inferior to OG1, I don't remember it as well, so it's possible that more things match up than I think do.
Also still no Gust Lander.
Is The Inspector's version of Decisive Battle/Final Judgement (e25 ~5:40 - 6:40) on a soundtrack anywhere?
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Brain Powered - watched through
I cannot recommend this show.
The show does not think much of women. At at least one point everything is blamed on working mothers being something that exists. Johnathan's motivations also stem from his mother being a working mother. In two early episodes Yuu kisses Hime to stop her from talking and I was afraid it was going to be a thing but fortunately they dropped it.
Things are left unexplained. It's never explained what the antibody pilots are actually becoming 'immune' to. It's brought up that the Brains actually came from a different Orphan which never comes up again. There is no explanation with regards to how Baron Maximillian knows anything about Baronzus or so on. The ending doesn't make it clear whether Orphan actually goes into space or just stays in orbit (disregarding that orbitting is in space, really) and if it's supposed to be the former it isn't explained how this could happen considering that essentially everyone was supposed to die if it did.
Everything regarding the U.S. being a young country with no history and what this supposedly means was stupid.
I was watching the ChromaSubs subs, and fairly often things seemed pretty badly worded - given this show's reputation, I'm not sure whether ChromaSubs are to blame here or if they were being true to it.
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Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt: Up to episode I don't even know.
Yup. It is what it is. I am ashamed that I have been enjoying it, but whatever. It is stupid fun.
-
Watching THE ENTIRETY of Detective Conan, probably because I hate myself. Up to episode 270, so only like 400 something to go. >_>
Well, I will say that the specials are worth watching as self-contained thrillers. But dear lord this series redefines "filler." Still, it's easy to watch while doing other things.
-
Even better, a couple years ago I read all of the 725ish chapters that were out at the time in about a week.
Hey kids! It's time for another CLOSED ROOM MURDER!~~~
-
First Fenrir rises from the ashes, then Otter returns all grown up and sexy and now a completely random Cromage post from nowhere? Truely we live in interesting times.
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Hey kids! It's time for another CLOSED ROOM MURDER!~~~
*sob*
First Fenrir rises from the ashes, then Otter returns all grown up and sexy and now a completely random Cromage post from nowhere? Truely we live in interesting times.
Yo.
-
Sup?
-
Sup?
Eh, not much. Graduated; got a boyfriend; work freelance.
Also, a bit more on-topic:
Angelic Layer Rewatch: Is still the second-cutest CLAMP anime. Unlike Cardcaptor Sakura though, it emphasizes the character network in ways I kind of missed earlier -- even the side characters pop up in odd places from time to time, making an effective "small world" setting where everyone knows everyone else. Technically shounen (pet android martial arts tournament!) but with definite shoujo appeal.
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TOA4: Lum The Forever - watched
It was a bit confusing. I presume that it assumed grounding in the legend which was being referred to. Fine outside that.
So Long Mr Despair 2/Extreme - watched through
Speaking about confusing
Generally entertaining. I didn't care much for the instances where they had two stories running at the same time, but I don't remember that happening much (offhand, there was the story where Fujyoushi was listening to an episode of SLMD on the radio while doing other things, and there was the Commodore Perry episode which as far as I can tell had gag subbing to begin with so there were subs for the voices and subs for the gag subs to pay attention to... although there were times when the subbing for the voices cut out and there was just subbing for the gag subs, so I'm not sure what was going on there).
I don't remember how much Kaerexploitation they had in the original series (like I can remember anything about the original series) but the amount they had in this series was pretty annoying.
-
Zetsuen no Tempest - Wow, the animation is good. The presentation and direction is pretty well done too. It actually felt tense and exciting, I totally did not expect this to be possible with Zetsuen.
I do have some issues with the voice actors, but those are just minor problems.
I wonder how they'll maintain this atmosphere and tension when confronting with Samon.
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Baccano!: Fun as advertised.
Steins;Gate (1-12): Slightly different than advertised, but still fun.
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Sword of the Stranger - Pretty good. I learned there are three tiers of warrior in Sengoku Japan:
Japanese soldiers - Pretty much fodder, but there's a lot of them.
Chinese assassins - Total badasses, worth like 30 Japanese conscripts.
Europeans - Practically unstoppable. Far better samurai than the Japanese themselves, far better assassin than the Chinese.
If this had been a Tom Cruise production where it turns out the best Chinese assassin is a European and the best Japanese samurai is also European, I'd roll my eyes. Instead the Japanese just come off as having something of an inferiority complex.
Pretty funny to watch D&D rules basically being enforced. There's a scene where a Chinese assassin is pinned against a wall with a spear, and like 10 archers shoot at her at short range, and she *still doesn't die.* Only d8 damage yo and she's like level 12 and you're level 1 suck so you're missing even with huge hit bonuses and your hits are only taking off d8 damage, so fire again bros.
But yeah. Pretty good overall, I liked it, though it's not like it a classic or anything.
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Randomly felt in the mood to catch up on some other anime I've had lying around forever, especially movies since I'm more likely to actually finish them...
Loups=Garou: Dumb/10. I forget who recommended it but meh, it's a disappointment. I was hoping for supernatural horror, or at least supernatural action, and ended up with middle school girl bands or something. There's some half-decent ideas involving a too-wired in future where everything is tracked, but the show immediately gives Our Heroines a magic wand to ignore this, so whatever. Also, I'm willing to throw plots some slack to get things going and drag a character into the action, but Loups=Garou pretty well abuses such implausibility throughout and never really explains at least one character who you'd think would be at least moderately important. Lastly the villainy is dumb. (This is also one of those shows where all the good people are women and all the guys exist to get beaten up and kicked with high heels or something.) I never once felt like this setting had rules that had to be played by and that violating them would get you arrested and/or killed, and this killed any sense of danger because everything that happens is blatantly the script's whim. ("Oh no our magic hacking powerz have run out we need to run home because the scene is over!" "Oh no wave of really stupid security robots we're doomed unless the script comes up with a BS reason why not!" etc.)
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You should watch Beck, Mongolian Chop Squad. It is totally a supernatural horror, or at least supernatural action.
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Gundam SEED Astray (OVA) - watched through
I wasn't expecting anything to displace Stargazer and Miller's Report as the Worst Gundam Shows, especially Astray, but somehow it managed it. Golfclaps all round.
Ideon & Be Invoked - watched through
Ideon proper is mediocre.
Be Invoked is generally better but dragged down by the ending, still ending up a little superior. Didn't bother watching A Contact so I couldn't say whether Be Invoked works better in conjunction with it than with the series, but I would suspect it would. Pretty much everything that I understood Ideon to contain was in Be Invoked and not in the series proper.
Cosmo and Kasha are highly annoying characters for a while, Cosmo abruptly becoming less so at one point which is also annoying. Unsure how abrupt Kasha's turnaround was as she's not in focus very often.
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All I've watched of Ideon is the two movies, so let me tell you you're not missing much. A Contact is bad. Tries to jam so much stuff in there that you have no idea what's going on. Also, there's something like 8 episodes of the series not covered in either movie, so watching them back to back as I did, there's a lot of plot missing. (Who is that girl who gets blownupcapitated in the beginning of Be Invoked? And what planet were they on and why? Dunno.)
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Aria the Animation: This is literally the most terrifying thing I've ever seen, the future is comprised of Italian culture and space cats are accepted by the populace at large and allowed to be company presidents
I don't think I'll ever sleep again
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Hyper Dolls - watched through
Mediocre, which is all I was expecting really. I pretty much only decided to watch it because I thought one of the ending themes sounded nice. Said ending wasn't even included in the version I watched anyway. Go figure.
Fight, Iczer 1 & Adventures With Iczer 3 - watched through both
Iczer 1 was fairly entertaining. Iczer 3 was less so. Iczer 3 themself (and Yajin) is (are) annoying whereas Iczer 1 wasn't really, and the show is considerably more standard than Iczer 1. Also less horrific, not that I'm really into horrificness.
Iczer 1 did have problems. It was a bit short, but if they'd made it longer they would probably have just thrown other villains in to pad out space anyway. It also had the shockingly dumb moment where Iczer 2 goes after the child for no readily apparent reason, despite supposedly only caring about killing Iczer 1 - nothing in Iczer 3 is coming to mind as being that off, but that's not really much of a compliment. There was also the ending. Annoyingly, despite the ending being annoying, it makes Iczer 3's ending more annoying when they don't repeat it. I guess Iczer 1 doesn't care enough unless Nagisa is dead (in a manner of speaking).
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Twil why are you going through my old company's back catalogue? Next you'll be saying you watched Hyper Speed Grandoll, Gall Force, or some other crap 80's sci-fi schlock we used to peddle.
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I was just getting a bunch of shortish things out of the way really. Don't think I have anything else along these lines on hand except for Bubblegum Crisis which I wasn't planning on watching any time soon.
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In celebration of Disgaea's 10th anniversary and their announcement at making a direct sequel of the first game (and possibly because I hate myself), I decided to sit down and -finally- watch the Disgaea anime. I tried watching it when it first came out, and it blew me away at just how -bad- they managed to make it. I made it through 3 episodes before stopping and never looking back. Tried again about 2 years ago with similar results.
This time, I made it all the way through. Glad it only took 10 years.
The first few episodes are still painfully bad. The pacing is bad, the world-building is bad, the jokes fall flat, Flonne is the main character, The Defenders of Earth get introduced super-early as some kind of Team Rocket-esque sideshow. It basically manages to botch all the things that worked about the Disgaea story. They even drop meta-humor pretty much entirely until episode 9, where they sorta-kinda make it work with Flonne/Etna/Laharl acting like the two old guys from The Muppet Show to the main storyline going on with the human world characters.
Basically, what I'm saying is "It gets better, but they screwed it up from the beginning so much that it never really recovers." As a dedicated Disgaea fan, it was an interesting bit of media to watch how some animation team envisioned the way things work in the Netherworld and such, but without the humor and the solid writing between main trio, the anime just doesn't work. It doesn't help that the animation itself makes its characters look like their made out of melted cheese.
As a counterpoint, this time I actually watched the dub of the anime, and the localization really helped a lot. In general, Disgaea localization >>>>> Disgaea original, but it's especially true of the anime. They retain the full voice cast from the localized games which is a treat that I wasn't really expecting, but it was a pleasant surprise. The music, too, is ripped directly from the games and Tenpei Sato even composed the new original opening song, so that was definitely a high point for the series. I think I listened to the opening and ending every episode. Episode previews are still narrated by Etna, too, though they aren't nearly as off-color and weird as their in-game counterparts.
The serious parts of the story (the last four episodes, basically) suffer from being a lot more overt than the game. Both the anime and game hit the same notes, but they are far too blatant with the identity of Laharl's parents and the somber scenes drag on too long for the emotional impact to hit the mark. I did kind of like the very very end though, which covered the game's actual ending sequences, which I felt were a little -too- clipped in the game itself, and so the extended sequence was a welcome change, showing how Etna and Flonne were adjusting to their new roles in the Netherworld.
One last thing to note is that a lot of the ideas the anime had weren't -bad-. They could have worked the Flonne-as-a-viewpoint character thing provided they made her more goofy and more of a punching bag to counteract the over-the-top Love Freak stuff (y'know, how they do it in the game). They -could- have capitalized on Gordon and Jennifer being around earlier in the story, provided they got proper screen-time and an introduction that didn't break the flow of the rest of the narrative. And honestly, the jokes in the anime itself weren't bad on paper, but there's a lot of instances where the timing of the animation or the music are completely off from where they should be relative to how the joke is told. It's hard for Etna to work as a deadpan snarker when the animators don't know how to use a proper jump cut. It's all in the presentation, and the Disgaea anime team missed the basics there.
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Psycho-Pass episode 6 was impressively creepy. The Titus Andronicus reference was maybe a bit too blatant for someone familiar with that particular play, but that 'artwork' at the end... man. Urobuchi really hit the mark with THAT.
I liked the way the past few cases were tied into the overall plot in hindsight, as well; it makes the whole series feel less episodic without throwing too much at the viewer at one time.
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Hino, I cannot tell whether you are underestimating Urobuchi or just being sarcastic.
The artwork is more of "Urobuchi could not come up with apalling ideas for the moment so lets use a place holder here" situation.
Shin Sekai Yori - Decided to watch this because.... well, those know why would know why. But after watching.... ugh, why couldn't this show have better art quality?? I totally defeated my purpose of watching it...
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The ED is pretty, at least
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Sword Arts Online: All I have to say about this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evPOJtmXqkc
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Sword Arts Online: All I have to say about this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evPOJtmXqkc
and that video is why the light novel > the anime.
I think many people will agree when the anime should have just stopped at the end of the SAO arc. At least, if you wish to continue it, please do the GGO arc, simply because it is far more entertaining and just about as thrilling as the SAO arc (in my opinion anyway)
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Wait, Trance reads SAO?? This is news.
But yeah, second the opinion of moving into GGO ASAP, and then skip right into Alicization.
......and then finally there well be people drawing KiritoxEugeo doujins.....
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Kaiji S2 - watched through
Pretty entertaining.
I feel that the pachinko arc did run long, but only in the sense that it didn't leave any room for further arcs - I don't remember it dragging at all.
It was a bit annoying with regards to how much Ichijou put up with before getting to the point where he had no choice but to do so.
Mazinkaiser SKL - watched through
Meh.
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Robotics;Notes
Watched all the episodes available on Funimation's site. It's... an odd mix.
I like the characters, anyway, which is usually what determines if I like a series or not. Kai is especially entertaining, and one of the few anime leads who is probably the best member of his cast. His studied indifference, his concern for Aki when she's not around, and the fact that his constant refrain of "I'll do it if you beat me at this video game" eventually comes back to bite him are all fun to watch. I'm sufficiently invested in these characters to want them to succeed at getting Gunbuild-1 to work.
I'm not as keen on the conspiracy plot that seems to be unfolding in the background. It seems like a strange fit for the slice of life in the (near) future! stuff.
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Mazinkaiser SKL: Eschews plot almost completely in favor of the mecha equivalent of heavy-metal. For 13 USD, that works out just fine. Kaiser's mode switching was fun and helped keep the fight scenes fresh.
Wingle was shockingly competent for a Mazinger fembot in actual combat, which just might be the biggest upset in Go Nagai history. I'm guessing the fact that its outright demonic design (despite the wussy name) instead of the usual robotic blow-up doll look was a contributing factor here.
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L-Gaim - watched through
Didn't live up to my hopes, as sketchy as they were.
Starts off a bit too lightheartedly in a dumb sense, although I wouldn't put it at Gundam ZZ's level. It doesn't stay that way for too long, although long enough for it to be annoying.
Amm and Gaw are both too fixated on Dubber, which is especially irksome in Gaw's case considering she was supposed to be an elite military person. At least she improves in this regard half-ish though, but I don't remember her actually ever beating any named enemies while Amm does (a female named enemy, of course).
The Biorelation system is never really explained which is disappointing.
I also wasn't expecting Gablae to be anywhere near as stupid as he was.
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http://www.abc.net.au/tv/guide/abc3/201301/programs/ZX9129A001D2013-01-06T201855.htm
ABC-Aussie style is going to be showing Madoka! This will end well.
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The ABC in General is actually pretty great in the diverse stuff it screens and ABC3 is kind of their punt what ever on channel. It gets some really crazy shit on it.
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UN-GO - watched through, including episode zero
I won some merchandise for preordering (http://sirenvisual.com.au/News/201212/336.php) (no doubt solely due to barely anyone doing so) so I thought the least I could do would be to kick it to the top of the queue.
By all rights I should think more of the show than I do, but somehow it rubs me the wrong way. When I try to think of problems I can't really think of any, though? Outside the fight scene in the final episode which I found a bit disturbing, but this was happening before then. True!Inga's design is also dumb but that shouldn't be enough on its own.
I may be associating it with my horrible graphics card problems maybe since it was triggering a heap of them :S
Regardless of my confused thoughts on the series proper, I do feel that episode zero was very good without reservation and expanded on a number of things that needed expanding on. Also sadly made the final episode fight scene more disturbing, but I guess you can't have everything. I am divided on how I feel about the post-credits scene.
Thermæ Romæ - watched through, including the standard specials
I thought it was pretty great. Often amusing. Nothing really coming to mind to expand on that with though.
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I watched the first episode of UN-GO fansubbed awhile back. While it seemed like it might have mild potential as a "watch amusing characters chat" type show, said episode utterly failed as a detective/mystery show, and furthermore the core idea didn't seem to have much potential. Wait, this is a detective show where one character can force people to tell the truth by getting all sexy and kissing them? This uh kinda limits the range of potential murders that are not totally trivial to solve (use killer robots?), unless Inga constantly refuses to use her ability, which she won't because this is an anime and they surely want to sell at least some of the audience on hot transformation to scantily clad lady in fetish gear scenes or something.
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It was less about the procedural mystery show than the circumstances surrounding everything. It's possibly the most chill dystopian society ever depicted. Information and information technology is so tightly controlled that the truth is literally whatever Rinroku said it was. Shinjuro's nickname "The Defeated Detective" we learn is both a truth and a false nickname because he's always finding out the truth of the matter, quite literally thanks to supernatural means, but it doesn't matter since the real truth is immediately overwritten by Rinroku for political means. Even when Shinjuro wins he loses. The public thinks the nickname is a result of him not being able to figure out cases before Rinroku, but those in the know figure out the real truth behind the nickname and can't really do anything about it.
It's a show that ends up better than the sum of its parts, kinda. Characters are fun, overarching themes are good even if the scenarios are kinda meh. It cuts off at an inopportune moment before it can further expand on the world and Shinjuro himsef, despite the help that Episode 0 is. I really hope there is a season 2.
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Robotics;Notes 14: Goddamnit this is too good to last. If it doesn't, I've never seen a show go so out of its way to establish a plausible, entertaining and endearing relationship only to have it not be a real pairing. Fucking anime based on VNs. Fuck you, Tsukihime VN fans. Gotta cram all those routes in!
Pre-emptive rage best rage.
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Incidentally, Chihayafuru is about 5 episodes into Season 2, and if you're not watching it, you really, really should rectify that and watch all of Season 1.
This is one of the most heartwarming shows I have ever seen, and people on Something Awful have taken to calling it "The best Sports Anime ever". This might be able to give you an idea of how the competition aspect plays out. It's not just the protagonists that get progressively better--(which they do)--their rivals also seem to get better with time, learn from their mistakes, and improve in both their strategy and emotional depth. There are not many throwaway characters in this show. There is a purpose for everything.
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L-Gaim: Full Metal Soldier - watched
Reasonable enough. Devotes some more time to the fallout of Gaw defecting from the Elite 13, which was needed. You do kind of have to wonder how she was ever made a member in the first place.
Gundam Unicorn - watched episodes 4 and 5
Fairly entertaining. A bit preachy. Feel that episode 4 was the better of the two.
I guess Riddhe is going insane now, which is disappointing. There've been enough people with artificially-induced insanity already.
Steamboy - watched
Pretty awesome, albeit also gets a bit preachy.
Scarlett's character annoys me for some reason and it feels like it shouldn't. Just it seems like the movie is throwing evidence at her that the Foundation is doing questionable things and she never really changes because of any of it. On the other hand she is a child (with a sheltered upbringing).
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Maoyu: Watched episode 1. Spice and Wolf, but trading economics for world building and Holo's sexy confidence for big breasts and moe. Not really a favorable trade.
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The show has its difference between Spice and Wolf. This show is more philosophy oriented. Basiaclly about the Demon Queen bombarding medival society with moden belife (with said medival society has enough material production to catch ontp what she is bombarding them with).
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The animation for Mayou anime being ugly as sin doesn't help.
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So I started watching Fairy Tail at a friend's recommendation. I haven't watched anime in a while, so maybe the shounen tropes don't bug me as much due to lack of overexposure, but I'm really enjoying it.
Unlike its brethren in the genre, the main cast has a pretty even gender ratio, relatively speedy pacing, and more time is spent world-building than navel-gazing. It's also pretty funny, but One Piece does that well, too. Actually, comparisons to One Piece all-around describe the show pretty succinctly. It's like One Piece, only with Mage Guilds instead of Pirates. And female cast isn't worthless. And the art is less weird, though that may or may not be a point in its favor since I like One Piece's weird art. Fairy Tail certainly does a good job on character design - nothing overly outlandish, but everyone is very distinct and it avoids the usual problem of "Everyone looks the same except for hair, eye color, and jaw shape".
I highly recommend it to Andy because its concept reminds me a lot of his tastes in stories, though it has a more light-hearted tone than most of his stuff.
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Fairy Tail is good times. I avoided it for a long while because the name makes you assume it's about furries (it is not, mostly). One thing I appreciate about it is despite it being a traditional shonen anime in the mold of One Piece and all the rest of them - and frankly heavy on the cheesecake - the male lead never definitively out-power-levels his female colleagues. Ezra remains more powerful or at the very least equal in power to Natsu.
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The Disappearance Of Haruhi Suzumiya - watched
It was fine. I've left it too long to remember anything specific I may have wanted to say one way or the other.
Princess Jellyfish - watched through
Fairly entertaining, but almost no closure to anything. I can only assume that one of the goals of the series was to get people to buy the comic.
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The Shingeki no Kyojin anime is just everything it as amazing as it should be.
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Valvrave- A robot that turns you into a blood sucking undead, on top of the most awesome service agreement ever? Yeah, I am following this.
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Valvrave 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVke__4OZ-0
I don't need to say anything else.
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Valvrave has literally become the best comedy this season. I laughed harder than I did when watching Part Timer.
BTW, what's wrong with DS2? It is becoming bullshit at amazing pace.
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Valvrave - Wow, this show outright stop trying to hide the fact it is a comedy this episode. Senator Moses made me laughed harder than all the episodes of Part Timer combined.
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Shingeki no Kyojin: Yes yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.
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Attack on Titan's OP is fairly awesome. I don't know if I want to watch the show though. The last depressing show with giants I watched (Bokurano) I couldn't get through.
Railgun S: This was a great manga to read when the situation involving Mikoto got deadly serious. It should be fun to watch her be pushed to the breaking point and beyond.
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Don't worry, Shingeki is just filled with hope! Sure it gets brutally crushed under foot constantly and endlessly, but it's there! Unlike Bokurano which is all doom and gloom all the time and still more cheery than the manga.
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Railgun S 05.
I wasn't entirely sure they'd be that faithful to the Manga, given how historically the Railgun anime has been cute girls (with superpowers) doing cute things and occasionally being badasses.
This... This is not cute girls doing cute things.
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Accelerator time?
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Litte girl, train, smash, albino laughing insanely
You do the math.
Mind I add, Kazuma has always been a better writer when involving blood than with sugar.
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The Sister's arc is about Mikoto's slow descent into despair and madness. I just hope the show captures the overwhelming guilt that is the driving force for Railgun's actions. It has been extremely faithful to the source material thus far, so I suspect it will.
This dark turn is extremely out of line with how the series was before (which while kind of fun didn't have much objective value). The character development involved going forward should be rather good.
I wonder if the anime will show the fate of the Testament creator.
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The moment she finds out what happened to Tree Diagram, I simply cannot wait.
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Wrong point if you're looking for complete breaking Niu. Tree Diagram's fate just gives her a "psycho killer" look. The breaking point comes with that Live Feed of 10031 compounded with her memory of how she treated that girl. Ugly business.
Devil is a Part Timer: Very amusing for a few episodes and then it lost my interest. I will say that it works much better as a comedy than anything else. The timing of the jokes is just great.
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Shingeki no Kyojin: PUNCH
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Wrong point if you're looking for complete breaking Niu. Tree Diagram's fate just gives her a "psycho killer" look. The breaking point comes with that Live Feed of 10031 compounded with her memory of how she treated that girl. Ugly business.
I singled out the Tree Diagram part as that pretty much what eventually leads to her conclusion that she has no other option but to let Accelerator kill her.
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JC Staff has been doing a really good job on the adaptation thus far. I am a little worried that they'll give too much focus to the other girls during the arc. Done right that focus could create a fabulous juxtaposition between Mikoto's old idyllic daily life and the waking nightmare she finds herself in now. Done poorly it would create massive mood-whiplash that would damage the impact of the events that happen during the arc.
Now I just need to start up Gargantua.
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When you have doubts, never trust J.C. Staff.
I still can't let go the grudge on how they trashed 0930 arc....
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"The Experimental Films Of Osamu Tezuka" - watched through
In order from best to worst I would rank them:
Tales Of The Street Corner
Broken Down Film
Pictures At An Exhibition
Legend Of The Forest
Push
The Drop
Mermaid
Muramasa
Jumping
The Genesis
Memory
Male
with Self Portrait not really existing enough to be ranked.
I also rewatched (original) Gundam recently as I wanted something I could watch without needing to pay much attention to it, this time the physical copy that they had finally brought out since the previous time I watched it, so with dubbing. Still fine.
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Totally off-topic, but I'm just noticing what Twil's avatar is.
That is great.
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Slayers Movies - watched through
In order from best to worst I would rank them:
Slayers Return
Slayers Great
(gap)
Slayers: The Motion Picture
Slayers Gorgeous
(gap)
Slayers Premium
TMP probably had the most worthwhile plot, though. If you're looking for one. Great is the ultimate loser in that battle.
I feel that Naga's interaction with Lina was much better in Return and Great, and to a lesser extent in Gorgeous, than in TMP, although that could be partially due to TMP being the first thing I've seen with her in it.
Premium is a travesty and makes me concerned for Revolution/EvolutionR for when I eventually get around to getting them. Also shouldn't really be considered a movie.
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Shingeki no Kyojin: EPIC SPEECH GIVING.
Fuck I want this OST so bad.
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Don't worry, Shingeki is just filled with hope! Sure it gets brutally crushed under foot constantly and endlessly, but it's there! Unlike Bokurano which is all doom and gloom all the time and still more cheery than the manga.
My initial comparison was going to be Claymore, a show I could never like as much as I wanted to due to its adamant refusal to let the protagonists ever get a clean win and its general insistence on presenting the opposition as unbeatably overpowered right to the end...but now that I'm caught up on Shingeki, I am comfortable saying that it is not unwilling to let its characters succeed. Just very reluctant and begrudging! Which is an approach that I'm fundamentally okay with.
And verily that OP is a decidedly rocking composition. Yers.
The titans' fixed expressions have proven an oddly effective creative decision. It's creepy and conveys all the malicious glee of a child kicking over an anthill. But Fudo why did you want to avatar that.
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Because he looks just so gosh-darn HAPPY!
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Redline- Sopko fanservice go.
This movie is such a pet project. These dudes gave no fucks if the movie was salable. They made what they wanted to. I just wish I had more levels in animation geek, there is so much going on in this movie and I would love to be able to analyze more of what's going on with it.
No mistake though, this is a thoroughly entertaining movie on its own merits. Just, everything under the hood has me intrigued but I just don't have the background to dig in.
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Catching up on the Daihasei arc of Railgun manga right now.
Man, the manga versions of Kongou and her two friends are a million times more awesome than their anime counterparts, to the point where they're almost completely different characters. I think the anime episodes actually came first so this isn't (yet another) case of JC Staff screwing up an adaptation, but I can still blame their writers for sucking in general.
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The Daihasei arc in Railgun is really good. Establishes several characters (Kongou/her crew/Misaki/Mitori/Baba), introduces a few cool side characters (Misaki's crew) and has several powerful scenes ranging from heartbreaking Misaki and Dolly to just flat out awesomeKongou and the antenna, Misaki and the researcher's meeting. Also the actual Daihasei events are pretty fun themselves.
I was surprised the manga continued to be so good after the Sisters arc ended.
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The Sky Crawlers - So, I visited the USS Arizona & other Pearl Harbor monuments on Thursday. So what better to do while flying back from Hawaii on Friday->Monday morning then watch a Japanese anime that somehow involves WWII-ish dogfighting? Seems the perfect thing to watch on a plane.
Anyway... glad I went into it blind. It's pretty good, but Valkyria Chronicles in the sky it ain't. The dogfighting mostly wasn't THAT good, but the movie isn't really about it anyway, and it doesn't take up much time. The main plots - the madness of Commander Kusanagi and the Strange Case of What The Fuck Happened To Lt. Jinro - were both pretty good. Knowing Japan, I could see where the plot was going, but that's fine; a plot twist totally out of nowhere is doin' it wrong, so the fact that the viewer can figure out what's going on faster than the characters is still fine. The movie is very good about teasing out where it's going with background details, confirming it, then moving the plot revelations onward farther. I wouldn't call it a great, but it's very solid at what it does, so recommended. (Just don't read any reviews, or the Wikipedia page, or the back of the box if you take a look.)
More spoilery comments - The movie mercifully didn't spend much time on it, because any attempt to explain why vat-grown adolescents must fight each other in planes is usually pointless aside from "it's the bad guys" (see also: Hunger Games babble from villains about why they do that.) Still, I hope that the answer was because "the entire war is as fake as a three dollar bill" (aka "The Truman Show" scenario), not because of some vague "corporations fight for something actually on the line, just agree to do it in a weird way." Since Rostock's "command" seems to intentionally not send notice of that bomber attack, and people comment the Teacher came to their side of the Front because "they'd been winning too much" does make it seem like it's all fake & strictly for the enjoyment, which is good. Also, while again I'm glad the movie doesn't spend too much time on it, vaguely curious WTF was up with The Teacher, possibly intentionally. Our Hero randomly busts out he thinks he's his father? Certainly it can be argued that like Mitsuya, he's got a scrambled hash of memories of previous lives and he DID know that at some point.... oh well. Also, I very much like the guts in the ending, although there's obviously still some minor hope for change in the tortured Miss Kusanagi, for whom all the smoking & erraticness makes perfect sense. That and an ending where they go randomly murder some uninvolved adults would probably not go over too well.
Also, it must be noted that the entire setup is essentially real-life Team Fortress 2. Just sayin'.
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Redline: Well that happened.
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Monogatari Season 2: Nekomonogatari White - Wow. As usual, Tsubasa arc is amazing. Was expecting big things after Nekomonogatari Black, was not disappointed. The resolution was absolutely heartbreaking despite know how it would end up ahead of time. Haven't sympathized with an anime character this much in a long time.
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Shingeki no Kyojin: God the female titan is so utterly terrifying in motion.
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Blood Lad- Things have been satisfying so far up to ep.6
I was expecting things to burn and crash when I heard there is only 10 episode. But geesh, how they condense stuff while still maintaining the animation quality is amazing. Staz's otaku nature is fully intact, which is another plus.
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Sword Arts Online Abridged: Better than the actual show.
1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6kJKxvbgZ0
2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye2u1za7Pac
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Not an anime, and mentioned this awhile back on FB & in chat, but saw the Rurouni Kenshin live action movie. It's pretty good, although probably not as good if you're not familiar with the show. A movie + live action accentuates RK's strengths and downplays its weaknesses, IMHO; the problems of the show, especially the first season, is too much damn filler as well as too many opponents who just aren't a credible threat (which is fair enough, actually, most shouldn't be if your character is in the top 5 biggest badasses in Japan... but then you should let the side characters do stuff more often. which alas won't play, you gotta have the main character do most of the stuff. sigh.). A movie condenses things nicely to "okay these people & opponents matter" and demote Yahiko and the like to cameo status. Additionally, live action lends the affair a certain gravitas which animation lacks, at least for me.
On that note... since I just got back from GenCon... I killed some occasional downtime in-between games with both lectures & anime. Didn't actually watch any anime, but went to a few geeky panels (top 10 and bottom 10 anime villains, some silly night court ripoff thing, etc.). One of said panels was Anime Deadliest Warrior, taking the format of the TV-show: examine two characters, look at their movesets, compare the similar ones, then try and argue for who'd win. In other words: Yes, this was the anime DL. So I'll ramble some on it.
They broke down 3 match-ups. First was swordsmen in Kenshin vs. Roro from One Piece. I'm not familiar with One Piece, but it seemed in its own way a sort of fair match-up - Kenshin is kind of hax, so throwing someone from a series with authentic superpowers is probably okay. (Including the superpower of super-ventriloquism to talk despite holding a sword in his mouth and somehow not drooling everywhere.) Because yeah, Kenshin has a theoretically good match-up in a lot of ways - it was pointed out in the ultimate technique section, for example, that the Hiten Mitsurugi ultimate technique is designed to counter a 9-point disabling strike. Well, Roro's ultimate technique apparently involves getting possessed by a demon and swinging 9 swords (which which he can, uh, kill a giraffe w/ a 6 pack stomach??). HMMM. Additionally, though the presenters didn't stress this too much, Roro didn't appear to be the brightest bulb in the yard, getting new techniques because his sword talks to him or something, so knowing Kenshin fights, that means that after they dink around for awhile Kenshin can presumably find some weakness in his style and exploit it. Unfortunately for Kenhin, much like a Middle "spoiling" a Heavy yet still losing, some of Roro's other stuff is just a little too hax. Apparently Roro can cut steel dudes or something and is shown breaking lots of swords at once, can take ridiculous hits and keep going, etc. Also, he majorly wins the "ranged" category - he's got some BS 108-pound cannon move that just sends some force beam that's capable of knocking down walls (dunno what this has to do with swords, but uh sure I guess). Meanwhile the best the Kenshin presenter could come up with was one time where Kenshin basically uses his sword as a golf club to kick up a wave of pebbles & dirt in the direction of his enemy. That might actually work in reality, but it's way weaker here. So yeah, Roro ended up winning the vote, which I can't entirely argue with from a distance.
Second match-up was Nanoha vs. Lina Inverse. Yet another match where I only know half of it, but Lina was awesome enough for me to stick around. Much like DLers hyping alternate forms or "but you can do this at endgame even if you couldn't the whole game!", the Lina presenter actually hyped Lina as skipping casting times on some of her big spells because some later episodes didn't show it... yeah, if she's casting 6 Dragon Slaves in a single episode, I think that's called "we don't want to bore our viewers," nice try. Anyway, I have to say, from what I could gather from the presentation, Lina looked depressingly enough like the loser. A lot of her spells seem subject to gravity and Nanoha apparently fights in the air constantly, Nanoha & her enemies apparently have magic shields up constantly, and Nanoha was even shown interrupting enemy move-name recitals with fast shots herself. Lina's most powerful stuff all has long casting times, and more to the point, while fantastic at destroying scenery & buildings, she curses the comedy side of her show as it's rarely enough vs. non-mooks. So if it isn't interrupted, it's likely just getting shielded anyway. I really don't buy Lina breaking out Giga Slave for anything less than a demon lord, which this isn't. That leaves Ragna Blade as the only shields-piercing spell that's likely to do much in Lina's arsenal... except even that didn't work once in Slayers Try, and more to the point, it's short-range, while Nanoha seems a long-range fighter. From a "perfect AI" sense Nanoha flies around and pelts Lina from range forever while being invincible. ... this isn't to say that I didn't vote for Lina anyway, and so did most of the room (although who knows, maybe others were baking in Giga Slave hype). Just this is clearly a case where Lina's propensity for fighting dirty and trickery comes into play, and assuming that Nanoha is some kind of at least SOMEWHAT naive magical girl, there's presumably a variety of horrible unchivalrous things to do to lure her into range for a killing Ragna Blade.
The third match-up was Gurran Laggan vs. GaoGaiGar. Mood of the room seemed to be that Gurran Laggan autowins vs. anything, but I didn't care about either so left before watching the breakdown.
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lol implying Lina wouldn't get her shit wrecked by Starlight Breaker
then again that would also lead to the question if Nanoha would even be brought to use it, and I guess the match boils down to that.
edit:
TTGL does auto-win against anything, but anything less than that GGGG kinda has stronger options, but I think Not!TTGL does still win out if we're not considering Genesic GGG. So, just like the DL, it's a matter of form interps! Also they wouldn't even be fighting against each other. They should be on the same side to begin with. Banpresto plz. PLZ.
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Starlight Breaker was the uber move they stacked up against Giga Slave, yes. Don't know how reluctant Nanoha is to use it, but I think the Nanoha person argued that she could spam the move if worst came to worst since it takes mana from the surrounding area, so she could just fly around mana-thiefing various areas to get more blasts off. The clip they showed seemed to imply that a city was blowing up as collateral damage from it, which seemed weird - does Nanoha fight in parallel realms or something, or is she actually murdering half of some poor Japanese city?
The presenters noted that they were having trouble thinking of someone who'd present a good fight for Nanoha since she's pretty hax, until someone figured out Lina was out there, who is the right combination of similar enough to compare yet different enough (not just another magical schoolgirl) for a good fight.
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Sword Arts Online: Yeah, I'm late to the party.
Anyway, excellent excellent show. Was (pleasantly) surprised that despite the setting, it's not an action show. The Alfheim arc was certainly weaker than the SAO arc, but still very enjoyable. Sugou getting dismembered made my heart smile.
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Attack on Titan (4): Those winning Titan smiles
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Here's lookin' at you kid.
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Railgun Anime: The transition from the best storyline the index series ever produced to this new original arc has been... very messy. Complletely changed the tone of the show from rather dark to lighthearted fun. It doesn't work at all.
Railgun Manga: A Certain Manipulative Queen. I hope we get more of Misaki in the Railgun manga. She is the most charismatic of the characters this series produced. Which fits given her mind controlling power.
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Sword Arts Online: Yeah, I'm late to the party.
Anyway, excellent excellent show. Was (pleasantly) surprised that despite the setting, it's not an action show. The Alfheim arc was certainly weaker than the SAO arc, but still very enjoyable. Sugou getting dismembered made my heart smile.
The quality of your taste has grown quite suspect, Cap'n
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Well it's your own fault, your abridged link got me interested in the actual show.
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Anyway, excellent excellent show. Was (pleasantly) surprised that despite the setting, it's not an action show.
Man. Why?
Seriously, people need to stop making these "trapped in an MMO" scenarios NOT be action shows. >_>
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Why? It sounds like an accurate representation to me.
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Because a lot of the time they are basically just generic fantasy shows with a layering of the "it is actually an MMO" thing going on.
I actually wouldn't mind a show that really went more to the efforts to really get into the mindset of players, nature of online play, relationships online vs in person, etc, etc. Certainly room for an amusing comedy (ala The Guild) or a fairly mixed mood show. But yeah, it just always bugs me because they are pretty much fantasy shows with some gameism thrown in because "rawr it is a game."
It is goofy to see, but I'd like a more character driven show that is about a guild just trying to clear endgame content 'cause there's a real life prize or something. You'd obviously need to divorce it from reality a little, but you could probably do a pretty neat thing there.
</pointless dumb ramble>
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Well, the problem with SAO is that it continues after its titular MMO is over. There are elements of what you want in the SAO arc, Andy, done averagely at best. The problem with SAO isn't so much that SAO goes more into the fantasy aspect, but that it is an escapist/wish fulfillment fantasy centered around Kirito moreso than anything else. To a certain extent, the characters losing themselves to the fantasy aspect of the game is inevitable given it is literally a matter of life and death to them. They're living it, day in and day out. But instead of really getting into that, it focuses on Golden Boy Kirito and his Perfect Online Relationship, or Kirito and his Giant Awesome Gaming Penis. This subject matter would, admittedly, merit an episode or two's exploration if the series were doing an overview on the ways people coped, but instead just becomes a big game of house.
Also doesn't help that the Alfheim arc exists almost entirely to cater to Japanese fetishes, despite actually being (I think) the more interesting MMO setting/setup. It's a shame too, because I also really like the ideas they failed to explore in the school for victims of SAO, in favor of more mai waifu. The complete lack of any weight or tension, and the utterly unbelievable setup for the arc also doom it.
It's really what the show fails to do that makes it terrible, given that it even gives itself every opportunity to explore some of these ideas. I'll admit the show has some mild entertainment value, on both the legitimate and hilariously bad ends of the spectrum, some good music and a pair of good fights. But it's just a trainwreck of lost opportunity otherwise. Kind of a representation of everything that's gone wrong in anime for the last couple years.
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I... disagree entirely with Sopko. The anime *is* about those people trying to cope with the psychological aspects of being trapped in a game of death. Sure Kirito is the... narrator for lack of a better word. But the SAO arc isn't about Kirito. It's about everyone around Kirito and how the world itself develops. It's a virtual ant farm and the viewer (along with the game's creator) gets to see how these ants build and interact in their closed environment.
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Watamote (9): #dl the anime high school girl
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I... disagree entirely with Sopko. The anime *is* about those people trying to cope with the psychological aspects of being trapped in a game of death. Sure Kirito is the... narrator for lack of a better word. But the SAO arc isn't about Kirito. It's about everyone around Kirito and how the world itself develops. It's a virtual ant farm and the viewer (along with the game's creator) gets to see how these ants build and interact in their closed environment.
Man, and I thought I went easy on/was too forgiving of some shows about their narrative shortcomings.
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No one's easier than the capt'n.
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I... disagree entirely with Sopko. The anime *is* about those people trying to cope with the psychological aspects of being trapped in a game of death. Sure Kirito is the... narrator for lack of a better word. But the SAO arc isn't about Kirito. It's about everyone around Kirito and how the world itself develops. It's a virtual ant farm and the viewer (along with the game's creator) gets to see how these ants build and interact in their closed environment.
Your assessment probably holds true more to the Sword Art Online light novel reboot than the anime. In fact the anime is a very watered down retelling of the light novel which somehow manages to paint Kirito in an even greater light than he already is in the story. The light novel, despite being several times better in the narrative department than the anime, also manages to get some things done fairly badly as well, such as the GGO arc literally being all about how Kirito is the badass who saves a DID (so badass, he can cut down bullets with a lightsaber at point-blank range), even if it is somewhat subverted a little when he gets IRL ganked and creates the setup for the Alicization arc. While I think Soppy is mostly correct with how badly the anime went I mostly blame the fact of its art and story direction, choosing which parts from the source material to adapt. Something went wrong there, mostly.
It really sucks too because it doesn't give me much hope for any extra stuff in the future, given how excellent Mother's Rosario was and how the Alicization arc is an actually reasonably well-written discourse of "Kirito is in yet again another virtual reality."
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I wouldn't say that for the Alicization arc.
The light novel really heads off into a really different direction in that arc, completely missing its point.
It became way too much of a fantasy story, when the point it suppose to address is how fragile life is when the server is its only container.
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I wouldn't say that for the Alicization arc.
The light novel really heads off into a really different direction in that arc, completely missing its point.
It became way too much of a fantasy story, when the point it suppose to address is how fragile life is when the server is its only container.
That was the point of the SAO arc when it was a death game
The theme you mention isn't something I felt was meant to be the entire point of the overarching Sword Art Online story. I don't think there was a point to miss there in the first place. That's just how I read it, though. With how long the story is running, it's really hard to maintain that kind of idea especially considering that it's only until GGO we even have a case of "die in the game, die in real life," and that was for completely different reasons than the plan hatched in the SAO arc.
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The difference between Alicization and the rest of the story is that Alicization adds artificial life form into the story.
The setting of the UG being so fucked up was to show how something artificially created can be easily distorted and puts a doubt on the value of artificial life. But but.... everything just spiral into a mass after Admin is dead. The fantasy story part gets blown out of proportion, making me wonder why is there the on-line game factor in the first place.
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The setting of the UG being so fucked up was to show how something artificially created can be easily distorted and puts a doubt on the value of artificial life. But but.... everything just spiral into a mass after Admin is dead. The fantasy story part gets blown out of proportion, making me wonder why is there the on-line game factor in the first place.
Underworld could also be seen as a test-bed to investigate the possible viability of a highly-advanced form of self-learning artificial intelligence in a real-life situation or deployment. However, as I'm sure you and I know, that really doesn't turn out as well as people would like! I don't think the claim is that it can be distorted, rather that it will be, and human intervention of some sort is needed as it is in status quo.
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Then it goes back to the point on exactly how much value those artificial life form posses.
But what really disappointed me is the novel goes down the super power route in the second half of the arc rather than dwelling on the more ethical issues.
The author just breeze the entire matter by after Alice made into the real world.
I was like "......so what's your point to bring the on-line game aspect into this? Just so you can fit in more super powers?"
The LN version didn't help either, by making Yugio a far more weak minded individual, rather than the determined boy who questioned the world he is in.
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(Eons ago)
Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack - watched
Was strange.
Love Hina Specials - watched both
Were mediocre.
Love Hina Again - watched
Was horrible.
(More recently)
Gundam Unicorn - watched episode 6
Fine.
I feel like I would have a better handle on what was going on if I remembered anything more from the previous episode than that one character going insane. I don't remember why those two separate groups of people were on the battleship together, for example.
Maybe once episode 7 comes out it'll be worth my watching everything in sequence.
Persona 4 - watched through including NOIA
Fine.
Some minor problems, but generally competent enough. Don't think it would be too incomprehensible to a person that hadn't played the game.
Slayers: Book Of Spells (Special) - watched through
The Scary Chimera Plan was pretty much the best show you could hope for out of any which contain Naga, setting aside that the castle destruction scene ran for about five times as long as necessary. I guess the opening scenes weren't that great either, but once it got going it had me laughing on a number of occasions.
Jeffery's Knighthood was pretty good as well, but not really up to that standard. A bit repetitive.
Mirror, Mirror was good conceptually but they really didn't pull it off. Not helped by the fact that I found it impossible to understand what mirror Lina was saying. Could probably have done with cutting part of the lycanthrope section and extending the mirror section in addition to cleaning that up.
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My girl has some thing called cruchyroll and we have been watching an anime called "Attack on Titan."
It's decent. Lots of dying which is fun. Naked human looking zombies too, and other things. 23 episodes in right now.
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Slayers Excellent - watched through
A letdown after BoS. The fashion war episode was probably the least - the other two were fairly mediocre.
Appleseed XIII - watched through
I want to say that it wasn't as good as any of the Appleseed movies that I've seen? Still fine-ish.
I have to say that I don't really understand what was actually being expected of the eligible people, given the state of at least three of them and the fact that the plan was apparently going ahead right then. For two of those it would make sense long-term, but I didn't get the impression that there was any sort of time gap. Given what they were in for, I'd understand something like their minds being digitised and used rather than them going personally, but that wouldn't explain why they didn't just do that earlier given what was happening, and also probably doesn't make sense with the one eventually used.
Also, the build up in the credits had essentially no payoff. If that was all that resulted from it, why was it even being done in the first place?
I've heard that each episode in the series was done by a separate studio - I can't say that it really seems to have had much of an impact? I didn't notice any differences in animation style across episodes, or anything. I did hear about this after I'd finished, so maybe if I'd known about it beforehand I'd've been looking out for that sort of thing.
I feel that the final episode having nothing to do with the rest of the series is also a strange decision for someone to have made.
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Attack on Titan: I can't believe they turned one of the best plot twists with actual characters completely freaking out about it into a stinger that no one in-show notices. They even had filler in the episode for sake.
Other than that it was awesome and a real fun ride the whole way through.
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Been watching and rewatching RBWY over the past couple of days (after not checking up on it for ages because I assumed there was no way they'd have weekly episodes o_O).
One thing I've been doing for fun is...so the main characters each correspond to a colour, which also seems to have something to do with their peronality. I've been speculating on which colour they'd correspond to in magic the gathering's colour philosophy.
(spoilers contained within)
Yang (yellow) is red. Red red red. With a secondary helping of red. And some more red. Not just because she lights herself on fire, but also because she's the lustful one, the quick to anger one. She's the easiest to place.
Weiss (white) is a bit harder to place, because she's selfish--typically a black trait. Considers herself the smartest girl in class--typically a blue trait. But so much about her screams establishment and hierarchy and following rules--very white traits. Obviously she's an heiress, but also she has strict rules about how far apart her feet should be, and yells at ruby for attacking out of turn. She seems the most horrified at breaking rules or being late. She's used to being the leader due to her upbringing, so she gets bent out of shape when that's not the case. But once she gets over her own ego, she declares that she will strive to be the best minion ever. Gonna have to go with white primary. Does she have enough in other areas to have a secondary colour? Hmm...leaning no for now; it definitely seems like her selfishness and attitude stuff was short term plot devices adjusting to a new hierarchy.
Ruby (red) is...well she can be impulsive, and that suggests red. She seems more at home in the wilderness than in a school setting, and that suggests green. She really, really likes weapons (artifacts) and that suggests blue. She doesn't show a strong interest in making friends, which suggests blue or black. She likes books, which leans towards blue but really depends on the books. She really really wants to make it up to Weiss, which suggests that she's not black or red. She doesn't seem off-put by the Shnee company's questionable labour laws and business partners, or if she is she doesn't hold it against Weiss, which suggests...I dunno...not green maybe? But the real sense I get out of her is that she's clever. She comes up with a ridiculous plan involving three people's weapons to kill the giant bird. She's the one in class that notices the soft underbelly having no armor and yelling to Weiss to hit it. She's the one that comes up with the idea for bunk beds. She forged a ridiculous weapon herself. Clever and inventive is blue. Does she have a secondary? Hmm...well no real evidence for white. Black is pretty much out. Green is possible, but I also feel like green is kind of the enemies they fight (forest monsters) so it would be weird for any of the hero cast to be green. Red...well maybe; some of her contraptions and schemes remind me of ridiculous goblin inventions. But I'm kind of not feeling it--the one time she brashly charged into battle there was a calculated reason behind it (she wanted to prove to Weiss that she wasn't a useless partner). She gets angry less than Yang, and probably also Weiss. She shows more passion about inventions than boys. Like...I suspect she has a bit more range of personality due to being the main character, so we see aspects of several colours in her, but blue does feel like the dominating one to me at the moment.
Blake (black): Ummmmm...well she never shows strong emotions (not red, probably not green). Reads books (suggests blue, but depends on the books). Wants everyone to fuck off and leave her with her thoughts (blue or black). The book she's reading is about a man with two souls fighting for control of his body (feels black to me). She seems a little disgusted by the empire Weiss is a part of (black or maybe green). In her trailer she's seen robbing a train (black) but shows concern for the crew when her partner talks about setting charges (leans white or green, but having morals can happen in any colour) and at the end doesn't stay loyal to her partner, cutting the train link (definitely not white or green, and it seems too calculated to be red). I feel like I need more information on her, as she's been so secretive up till now, but black or black+blue seem likely. I'm going to make a wild guess and say black, and that she's not going to be a source of clever ideas and plans with Ruby around, and that the whole books thing is more of a "fuck people" thing than a knowledge thing.
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Durarara!! - watched through
Well, the first half was awesome at least.
The second half of the show feels more traditional/tightly focused, which was disappointing. Also, some characters seem to behave discontinuously from the way they were behaving in the first half (the ones which most come to mind are Celty and Shizuo). Also also, I didn't really care much for the opening act of the second half, although it was clearly necessary to set up for events later on.
Trying to think about it now, the first half of the show may have been riding on its various revelations, and by the time of the second half there was almost nothing left to reveal.
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Transformers Headmasters - watched through
Terminally boring. Except for when the dub is being particularly dumb, which isn't anywhere near often enough.
Far, far too much emphasis on the Autobot Headmasters (the four 'normal' ones) themselves. Does feel odd to say that given that there was still more of a cast than a lot of other robot shows, but the Headmasters are kinda boring and have terrible powers and gimmicks. Fortress Maximus and Scorponok are a little less terrible, and the normal Decepticon Headmasters are less boring but also suffer from general Decepticon incompetency.
I like how those two characters are rebuilt early in the series but seemingly no-one else can ever be rebuilt (and they end up being barely used anyway, especially the Autobot one. Well worth bringing them back).
Also terrible is that the Dinobots are in one early episode but then never again (and bizarrely, the dub starts calling the leader of the Robot Train, Grimlock, which I'm fairly certain isn't anything close to being correct). The Decepticons get to use more of their old characters than the Autobots do, Bruticus and the predator one I forget the name of and so on, but I don't remember them actually get any lines.
Gundam Evolve - watched through
Generally boring.
There are a couple of decent episodes, like the GP-03 one, but it's really nothing to write home about. I was expecting something more like igLoo but with in-series units. Oh well.
Death Note - watched through
Pretty great.
It does seem like the second 'half' was crushed into less episodes than could really carry it, but without having read the comic I can't really know whether that's true or not.
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Professor Layton & The Eternal Diva - watched
Fine, nothing special.
For some reason I was thinking that it might have some backstory on Emmy, but it didn't, which was disappointing. I could easily just be forgetting but I could have sworn that in the first game of the prequel trilogy she was going on about having some past with Layton that hasn't been gone into yet. I guess it could always be brought up again in Azran Legacy. Just... the movie was out around the same time as the first one rather than AL's being years later, so I thought...
Transformers: Super-God Masterforce
Surprisingly good. Not very transformersy though. Maybe the two are related!
Given how terrible Headmasters was I didn't have much hope for Masterforce, and despite a reasonable start it quickly brought in the Headmaster Juniors and things started rapidly spiralling downhill - but then it bounced back pretty fastish once the Godmasters started showing up. Despite them being conceptually dumber than the Headmasters. If placed against the entirety of the original cartoon, I'd probably say that Masterforce is a better show? But if it was just against the pre-movie seasons, it'd be a more difficult choice.
I'm not sure why the Headmaster Juniors were even made to be Headmasters (merchandising reasons excluded) given that they never do the whole head-swapping thing, which kind of renders the gimmick and their stat displays pointless.
King Poseidon is TERRIBLE. Way to hype it up for ages in the bumper only for it to be so incompetent & fragile. Of course, it is made out of Seacons...
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Gundam Build Fighters: For a show that is literally "BUY GUNDAM PLASTIC MODELS" it is remarkably solid and fun.
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Steins;Gate: The Burden of Deja Vu- Excellent movie. Not entirely necessary, but fantastic nonetheless! S;G fans should watch it.
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Transformers Victory - watched through
Worse than Masterforce. Better than Headmasters, but pretty much only because it wasn't as sleep-inducing. Sadly there aren't really any moments of hilarious dubbing like in Headmasters.
I guess Deathzanras is more entertaining than Scorponok, and the Dinoforce and Breastforce are more memorable than whoever the non-major Decepticons were again in Headmasters, but most of the Autobots are just as forgettable as the ones from Headmasters.
Transformers Zone - watched
Hard to say much about it since they only made the one episode, and it's not very long. Fancy new autobots that we don't learn much about destroy a bunch of fancy resurrected decepticon combiners that we don't learn much about and save the zodiac stone that we don't learn much about. Could possibly have been something if it was given a lot more time to be something in.
The humans are better than the ones from Victory at least??
Berserk Movies - watched Egg and Doldrey
Maybe it's just because it's been so long since I watched the series, but I don't think I've really seen anything new so far? I was expecting there to be backstory to the characters that essentially came out of nowhere in the series at least.
I guess what I have to worry about now is whether I should buy the third movie when it comes out or whether I should not buy it and just act like Doldrey ended at the parting scene.
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Mekakushity Actors- ....I want to punch both SHAFT and Jin in the face. One for making the show into Monogatari series, another for opening the show with Artificial Enemy.
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Chihayafuru S1 - watched through
It was pretty entertaining, but this was also back in January/February so I don't remember anything specific I might have wanted to say.
Siren recentlyish announced that they'd picked up the rights to S2 so that's something to look forward to.
Revolutionary Girl Utena - watched through
Also pretty entertaining. Fairly confusing on top of that.
Typically whenever I finish a series/game/etc I meander over and look it up on TVTropes, so some things were explained there. I gather that everything else is mostly going to be things I wouldn't understand correctly anyway (e.g. things done for symbolic purposes).
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Sword Art Online:
ARRRRRRRGH! Soppy I hate you. You warned me back in ep 5 when things still looked promising, and I thought "well, I'll at least finish the first arc."
Overally assessment of the first arc is still ".hack/slash but with more transparent motives and mechanics". And also a let down of an otherwise promising romantic arc. Seriously, I generally don't give a fuck about romance plots, but Kirito and Asuna were doing fine and then it looked like the show was going to do something tasteful with their hook up, and then Love Hina'd out. God, that was the last straw. Done with this.
The Heathcliff and Kirito fight was awesome though.
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Yes, yes, FUCK YOU SOPPY WHY DIDN'T I LISTEN TO YOU IT'S YOUR FAULT I DIDN'T
Gleam Eyes is just as good, and the General Eugene fight in the second arc is as well. Man, you didn't even get to the really terrible stuff. Where exactly did you stop?
SAO Abridged is 100x better than the show. Stick with that.
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Z/X Ignition: Based on the Nippon Ichi - made TCG. This should be terrible. *reads a summary* Huh, sounds intriguing actually.
Overall assessment: How do you take a premise as cool as "One day, five portals to five other worlds suddenly open up across the globe and giant monsters, mutants, and technological abominations pour out and lay waste to humanity in a global battle for control; only big twist: the five worlds are actually five parallel futures branching off from this one point in time and they are each battling to ensure their future happens." and turn it into boring ass slice-of-life almost-harem anime?
At least the card game is fun...
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five portals to five other worlds suddenly open up across the globe and giant monsters, mutants, and technological abominations pour out and lay waste to humanity in a global battle for control; only big twist: the five worlds are actually five parallel futures branching off from this one point in time and they are each battling to ensure their future happens.
HOW DO YOU FUCK THAT UP
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Probably with a penis. It works most of the time.
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So, I've been watching TV lately. This includes a bunch of anime, specifically, a whole shwack of UC Gundam and checking out Linebarrels of Iron.
In fact, since I watched them at about the same time, I'm probably going to contrast and compare Linebarrels and Double Zeta on account of finding being pretty opposite in terms of enjoyment.
Specifically, I really enjoyed watching the first few episodes of Linebarrel. I mean, the first episode sets it up as a wish fulfillment anime of the worst kind, and then it just subverts that premise beautifully. Showing the kind of horrid mess that would happen if most people who are repressed like that were given a stupendously badass giant robot they could control with their mind. And also, if they got super strong and effectively immortal as part of the bargain.
The problem comes when, after they go through the first arc and the horrible shit that is all the main character's fault happens, and it goes back to being... a wish fulfillment anime. There's toying with character development, but the ending is just horrific. Having a climactic showdown with the Rival who is winning because he's good at fighting ends when a) the Rival holds back, and b) Linebarrel just gets arbitrarily more powerful. And this is a trend, the main character never improves, when he's in danger of losing he just gets more powerful. Then there's the final battle, where the bad guys make an impassioned plea for the good guys to surrender because their world view is totally logical and inevitable and better and they don't want to kill people on the way to that end. And they make a pretty decent argument for why they're right. And then the main character gives a reply that can be summarized as "You're wrong cause you think too much! And I fight because I look fucking awesome!" Cue the entire cast, which had been wavering in the face of an unwinnable fight and had been listening in having their own chance to say, in their own words, "Damn! I'd been having doubts, but being reminded that you DO look fucking awesome has made me want to fight again!"
Sooooo, yeah. Fucking Terrible.
Double Zeta on the other hand, started pretty bad, what with the whole kids performing humourous hijinks, except in your traditional Gundam military setting where it'd normally get them shot for insubordination. Or, y'know, treason. Especially with the mood whiplash of starting this shortly after finishing Zeta Gundam, which is kinda fitting since the series starts just a few days after Z Gundam ends. That said, once the main character starts getting serious about things, and we move away from Masshima and Chara as antagonists and get back to Haman and the actual Neo-Zeon war, it improves pretty quickly. And while there's still some bad episodes (the desert arc is just, ugh), once you actually hit Dakar it's mostly solid. A few too many beats from Zeta at the end, but otherwise, it's a good solid ending. And this also has a point where one of the bad guys (not the primary villain, though Haman and Judau also talk often enough) gets into that same motivational speech, and Judau actually has a pretty decent answer, which was especially nice after Linebarrel.
So, yeah, finished Zeta which was pretty gripping the whole way through. I can see why it's generally considered one of the best Gundam series. There's a few flaws (Katz and Reccoa are pretty uniformly horrible), but I also really enjoyed some members of the cast; Emma Sheen probably being my favourite character in the whole thing.
Also followed up the end of ZZ by watching Char's Counterattack. Quess is pretty horrible, though between being a teenager with horrible parents and getting Cyber Newtype treatments halfway through the movie I'm not sure she really had any hope of not being horrible. Chan is probably my favourite of the new characters, and I liked the arc with her and Amuro. The ending was also pretty cool, and a nice capstone for a story arc that's basically been around since the start of Mobile Suit Gundam.
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Persona 4 The Golden - Everyone, watch this thing now. I mean, NAO!! This is the most hilarious new game+ I have seen. From the ridiculously tweaked Izanagi to how Narukami made a fool out of himself while trying to do as much commun event as possible. This, this just too good.
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Persona 4 The Golden - Everyone, watch this thing now. I mean, NAO!! This is the most hilarious new game+ I have seen. From the ridiculously tweaked Izanagi to how Narukami made a fool out of himself while trying to do as much commun event as possible. This, this just too good.
I enjoyed the NG+ stuff in the first ep, but I couldn't even make it through the second. Marie is just a terrible character and ruins the group dynamic. Plus they're focusing the stuff they added to Golden that wasn't very good... (not that the stuff that they added that was good would make a full show...)
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They could have done a Beck parody with the new content. Tied it in to Persona Q. Fucking get with it Atlus.
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Captain Harlock, the 2013 movie - It's very pretty. And stylish. There's one plot element that's even fairly decently handled if hammy. But... ack. Plot that makes no sense in too many areas. Weak ending. I haven't seen the original series at all so this is judging entirely on its own merits, although I get the impression from Wikipedia that the movie is kind of its own thing anyway.
The bigger issue is this: Okay, villainous Harlock is fine. Neat, even. However, they clearly had some dispute / confused writing, because the script backs off from its own premise. I presume that the studio wouldn't let the writers pull a Mission Impossible the movie deal where Jim Phelps, hero of the TV series, was a psychotic villain; but they kind of needed to. Harlock is a psychotic mass murderer who scorched the Earth for really awful reasons, and now wants to DESTROY THE UNIVERSE. That's the villain! Or, at least, be the classic redemption-seeking type who's trying to fix his mistakes, which I suppose ending the universe is in its own way... except he gets redemption by finding out that he didn't TOTALLY wipe out the Earth. Through no effort of his own. wat. He still killed everyone though and caused a mega-disaster! It also made no sense as to why the Gaia Communion covered up this particular plot twist. They want to preserve the Earth and unite everyone under their rule. Well... tell everyone what happened! Pretty sure no one will want to go to Earth and Harlock will get no sympathy, yet inexplicably they want first to say Earth is fine but don't go there anyway, then try and ineffectively blow up Earth? yeah whatever.
Also this is super-common but as usual people with faces survive getting shot all the time, but dudes in suits can die and who cares. Also Harlock really obviously needed to die at the end for Logan's new role to make sense, and death would be its own form of redemption, but they wimp out. Lame. Just make this movie Space Pirate Logan and how he took on both the Government & a crazed evil Captain Harlock with the power of botany, they'd have had a better movie. They could even have appeased fans of the original series by claiming new Captain Harlock is the good guy or something.
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Tiger & Bunny - watched through
It was enjoyable, but it was long enough ago that I can't remember anything I might have wanted to say about it.
Uzumaki - read through
Fairly enthralling. A tad annoying that it seems to take so long for Kirie to buy into the theory that supernaturalness is going on.
Gundam Unicorn V7 - watched
Not really a fan, far too much newtype garbage going on. Good to have a conclusion to the story, but I dunno whether it really makes up for it. Unicorn's shields are pretty awesome, don't remember whether they showed up before now or not.
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Mahou Koukou no Rettousei
Pretty much just fapping to the intellectually stimulating conversation. A nice technomage type anime.
Hunter x Hunter
Oh man almost the final episode time! The killua/alkulla arc is my favorite because sooo much Hisoka!
Sailor Moon Crystal
It's sooooo bad! But so was the first one for quite a few first season episodes. Ami awesome as always still!
Eureka Seven AO
Rewatched this. The entire first 23 episodes are pretty much just getting you to the point that yes AO's only purpose in existing was to break the curse on original universe Eureka and Renton.
Truth still insanely awesome and easily the best character since he's the only other one to "survive" the messing with time with AO. Their whole bromance was pretty rad too. Based on the lines in Ao's eyes he has 10-20 years left at the moment he jumps out of the nirvash mk2
Justice League & Captain Planet all seasons
Lots of marathoning of these two the past two months. Really dark they both are.
Jojo's Bizzare Adventure: Stardust Crusaders
Soooooo much slower than the manga, Jojo and duo are rad but most of these side characters are so terrible. However the occasional woman that shows up is so damn evil and malevolent and violent that they put the rest of the villainous cast to shame, which is really great to see, usually anime will not portray women so viciously. Over all a very progressive show, and somehow they avoid most any bromance this season. It's about MEN being MANLY by the way.
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TOA - finished; also watched The Final Chapter; also watched Always My Darling
The series ran along as it had been, having spots of terrible episodes and spots of great episodes. The worst episodes in recent memory - setting aside ones featuring Asuka or the fox for being foregone conclusions - would probably be the one with the cursed frog and the one where Onsen is planning to leave the school, because stories about Ataru being ultra-possessive of Lum were always dumb and terrible and because it just reminded me of a similar episode from back when Onsen wasn't as much of a punching bag, respectively. On the flip side, the episodes regarding Lum and Ataru trying to draw good fortunes, regarding the gang being secretly used as pieces in a Mendou family board game, regarding the patron saint of studying, and regarding the 'passion pills' are all great, with the lattermost being the clear standout for Best Episode In Episodes ~175-195.
The penultimate episode is proof that the people who voted clearly had little to no taste, 'After You've Gone' was just as mediocre as it was the first time I saw it. Arguably worse because of the drop in quality of the animation (not to say that every late episode had better, the episodes which were bad in general tended to also have strangely slapdash animation. Nothing on the level of http://twilkitri.fewiki.net/stuff/bestanimationever1.jpg , mind).
The final episode wasn't particularly good, sadly. Literally half the episode is just people receiving invitations, the other half is pretty run-of-the-mill except with lots of characters drawn in. Oh well.
The Final Chapter was pretty good, looking past the forced-marriage stuff. Always My Darling was not. Keeping in mind that it's been several centuries since I saw the other four movies, I'd peg The Final Chapter as second-best and Always My Darling as worst.
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Mostly agreed, Twil. Although I actually like the fox because I like Shinobu, and giving her some focus is almost always a good time. The later episodes by the second director are hit or miss. The good ones are fewer and far between than the bads compared to the first... not quite half, but maybe 4/10ths? directed by Mamoru Oshii. He had a real eye for comedy that mixed well with his penchant for the surreal. The second movie is the highlight of that. You can also kinda see where Patlabor 2 and Ghost in the Shell come from with episodes like the Miss Tomobiki Pageant. Although I would have to say the best episode of his run is Who Killed Cock Robin?, which is basically one of the first takes on And Then There Were None in anime. Really good times, so many good characters in the show.
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Layzner - watched through; also watched Seal 2000
The first half is annoyingly repetitive, with the gang constantly getting surprised that military forces they expect to save them want to kill/capture Eiji, then getting surprised when Grados machines wipe out said forces with ease.
I wasn't expecting the change leading into the second half at all. Not sure whether it was just never represented that way in NSRW/SRWJ or if I just forgot about it. In any case, the second half is less repetitive at least, but it suffers from a variety of issues, the most obvious ones being the ones that resulted from the show being ended prematurely. I also don't really care for several of the plot elements in the second half, such as pretty much everything to do with the Holy Maiden.
The final episode is absurdly disconnected from the penultimate episode and doesn't really explain what's happening at the end. Seal 2000 (OVA 3) is much better in both of those regards, and I would recommend that anyone who wants to watch the series should discard episode 38 and replace it with Seal 2000. That said, there are still unanswered questions at the end, the most annoying of which I feel is that it's never explained exactly what happened after Eiji starts his attack at the end of episode 24. For a criticism more specific to 38/Seal 2000, the whole concept of the seal seems kind of absurd, both in its effects and in the disjunction between what it was supposed to be for and what was required to use it/where it was.
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Madlax - watched through
Madlax has managed to pick itself up a copy of the GSD Memorial So Awesome I Can Overlook All Issues Award. Almost a crime that I've had a copy for around five years and only just got around to watching it. Music probably stands out as the best feature, while I guess the worst thing that comes to mind is that a bunch of plot threads seem to get dropped.
Gundam: Reconguista In G - watched episodes 1 through 3
I hope this improves, because it's been thoroughly unimpressive so far. I can't tell why any of the characters are doing anything that they're doing. Also, not really a fan of the art style.
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And here I thought music was the only redeeming feature of Madlax (and it is excellent music). What a half-baked excuse for a plot that show had.
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Danganronpa - watched through
I don't think it really added anything to the Danganronpa experience I had gotten reading the LP. It also feels like the show wouldn't really represent Danganronpa as well as it might be hoped to anyone who hadn't experienced it before, although I have no way of confirming that. Ultimate conclusion: Read the LP (or play the game, I guess) and don't worry about the show.
Betterman - watched through
Started off poorly, got more interesting as things went on, fell off a cliff right at the end. Oh well, the majority of the show was intriguing enough.
Gundam Build Fighters - watched through
More entertaining that I was expecting, although it's not a masterpiece or anything. Looking forward to starting to watch GBF Try.
Gundam: Reconguista In G - watched episodes 4 through 10
Well, it had been slowly improving, but episode 10 decided to dig up all the ground it had gained. I don't have much confidence in the series at this point.
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Belatedly: Madlax hate? Sign me up. (Except for the music, which is amazing.) Definitely one of the worst anime series that I nevertheless finished.
I wouldn't say the plot threads are "dropped" so much as "rendered irrelevant by stupid plot twists and deus ex machinas." Like... the first few episodes would have you believe there's some kind of interesting struggle going on in Garza. One of the big reveals is that Friday basically runs both sides and is making them fight because... 'cause he's a villain. (It actually wouldn't be so bad if they threw in something about "he is literally trying to summon the devil and the magic requires the sacrifice of a zillion lives", but it's because he thinks humans like to kill each other in their natural state, and the story seems to think he's right.) Combined with the deaths of some side characters, it really comes down to just Margaret Burton & her pocketbook vs. weird Friday psuedo-magic, there's nothing else that matters. (Damning with faint praise, I suppose. They had the right focus for the last few episodes, if only they made sense at all. Pretty much turn the show off once Carrosea (?)'s backstory reveal happens.)
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Man, Build Fighters had a Time Be Still episode, Tam Ray's Device and motherfucking G-Savior of all things. If those aren't signs of a masterpiece nothing is!
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I actually finished an anime series! For the first time in at least 3 years! ...weird it ended up being this one, but... people were talking in #rpgdl about the Vita library, and I looked at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_Vita_games , and looked at some of the wackier titled Japan-only releases. What's that weird title next to Untitled Ys game? This, combined with seeing a 1 month of ad-free Crunchyroll offers & being bored over Christmas break, led to me watching...
Yuki Yuna is a Hero: I liked it and it's fun. Only 12 episodes, so the plot can actually advance, too. It's one of those dark transforming magic girl shows aimed at males. Middle schoolers join do-gooder Hero Club, fight eldritch horrors in weird Picasso-esque colorful scenery in the first half, there is a twist, and in the second half the cast grapples with the real trouble.
Anyway, the characters are all likable, and someone actually thought out the thematic arcs to make sure A connects to B, they create some good conflicts then resolve them, etc. There's certainly signs of influence from Madoka, both thematic ("hmm, middle schoolers engaging in life & death combat actually seems kinda bad") and superficial (the show centers on the relationship between the red/pink haired main & the slightly mysterious black-haired secondary character, the black-haired character uses guns in combat, the blonde character is the 'mentor'). However, it's its own show, and strikes out its own path, so it's not a retread. Obligatory warning: I haven't actually seen Madoka, although I know the spoilers.
This is a matter of personal taste, but the fanservice in this series felt like "acceptable" 90s and early 2000s level to me. There are a lot of recent animes that just irritate me and make me feel like I'm watching some screwed up half-hentai, and this one didn't. Don't get me wrong, there's still fanservice, but it didn't turn into a show about catering to fetish-du-jour that I was worried it might.
Random nitpick though, since I've seen this plot point come up elsewhere: the parents are almost totally MIA this series. (As is everyone else not in the main cast - there's the main 5 characters and maybe 1 side character and that's it, no relevant lines for anyone else.) Okay, they're the no-fun brigade even if it'd make perfect sense for them to be a bit concerned about the events of the series, fine. But they're explicitly written out for the one group we do get to see the home-life of, two orphan sisters: their parents died in the backstory. Except... wait. They're a third-year & first-year in Japanese middle school, so that means 9th & 7th grade. And their parents died in the *backstory*, so let's call that a year or two ago minimum. So... a 7th grader living alone, raising a 5th grader and paying rent and taxes?! wat. No, sorry, you're moving in with distant relatives or a guardian or something, that's not believable. I get you want tragic self-sufficiency, but yeesh, just have overworked / travelling parents who are never home.
Lightly recommended. Possible it's a bit generic? But what do I know, the only other show of this type I watched was Mai Hime ages ago. Man. I can still rant about how they botched the ending to Mai Hime, thinking about it. Sheesh.
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Persona 4: The Golden - watched through
Things may be coloured by my not having played P4G (and by it being over a year since I saw the original P4 cartoon, I guess) - but I feel like this is really an attempt at the sort of show I'd prefer, where the characters are put into new situations rather than retreading the subject matter of the game. Of course it's possible that everything in the show was in P4G which would render my feelings completely misaimed, but I have no intention of playing P4G anyway
Not to say that the show is great or anything. It's just fine. But I'd like to see better things along those lines. Probably wouldn't work for everything.
Went into the show expecting Marie to be terrible for some reason, she was pretty annoying for the first couple episodes but got better quickly. Can't be sure whether she was actually as bad to begin with as she appeared or if it was due to my preconceptions. One problem relating to Marie, but not exactly her fault - I found the camera's insistence on taking and reading her poetry despite her anger at this to be somewhat disturbing. I'd like to assume that the game itself at least gives you the option of whether to read any you come across or not, but... you get forced to read all of it you come across in Persona Q soooooo I feel like that's unlikely. Persona Q also seems to be insinuating that she's leaving it out personally and feigning outrage rather than it escaping her via whatever means, unsure of my opinion on that.
Prison & Repent Goodbye, Mr. Despair - watched through both
They're generally amusing, as usual. They sometimes have pointless exploitation of Kaere specifically to prevent me from recommending them to anyone, as usual. Only No-Man's Land left, unless I want to look into the comics (assuming anyone's translated any).
One annoyance is that they are running the 'You were there?' (behind me) 'Always' exchange into the ground and I wish they would stop.
Patema Inverted - watched
Not really what I was expecting, which was something more whimsical and less dystopian. Still reasonably entertaining, although I feel like I'd still like something which whimsically explored the concept without having to have a heroes vs. villains story.
Still reasonably entertaining. I ended up getting misinterpreting the current situation at the end, sadly. Figured that the skybox machine was actually a city on Earth and Agia was actually a chunk of earth which had ended up suspended very high in the sky, with the Agians living on the underside and the Inverted living on the inside. In hindsight there are a bunch of problems with this interpretation.
Gundam: Reconguista in G - watched episodes 11 through 15
Show is continuing to waver between poor and mediocre. On the plus side Raraiya seems to have mostly recovered.
Gundam: Build Fighters Try - watched episodes 1 through 13
Been pretty consistently entertaining so far. I was initially disappointed with all the additional rules that seem to be covering the current tournament but I guess given its different focus it's somewhat to be expected, and they haven't exactly caused any problems (and I've forgotten what most of them even are).
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Persona 4: The Golden - watched through
Things may be coloured by my not having played P4G (and by it being over a year since I saw the original P4 cartoon, I guess) - but I feel like this is really an attempt at the sort of show I'd prefer, where the characters are put into new situations rather than retreading the subject matter of the game. Of course it's possible that everything in the show was in P4G which would render my feelings completely misaimed, but I have no intention of playing P4G anyway
Not to say that the show is great or anything. It's just fine. But I'd like to see better things along those lines. Probably wouldn't work for everything.
Went into the show expecting Marie to be terrible for some reason, she was pretty annoying for the first couple episodes but got better quickly. Can't be sure whether she was actually as bad to begin with as she appeared or if it was due to my preconceptions. One problem relating to Marie, but not exactly her fault - I found the camera's insistence on taking and reading her poetry despite her anger at this to be somewhat disturbing. I'd like to assume that the game itself at least gives you the option of whether to read any you come across or not, but... you get forced to read all of it you come across in Persona Q soooooo I feel like that's unlikely. Persona Q also seems to be insinuating that she's leaving it out personally and feigning outrage rather than it escaping her via whatever means, unsure of my opinion on that.
Nope, you do not have the option of not reading her poetry. I got the same feeling you did in Golden, that she was purposefully leaving it out after a certain point.
P4G anime is actually a NG+ run, if you noticed (some hints are dropped, like the Attributes table being full in Ep1). Was kinda novel and hilarious, but it ended up being one of those things that was more interesting in concept than execution. Most of it is retread of Golden stuff, leaving the normal plot ancillary (it's NG+, you know the plot!). Worked overall but sometimes it did need a little more context for when things were happening.
The places Golden the game shined were the ease-of-use gameplay changes surprisingly, not the additional plot scenes. Kinda funny that the more P4 tries to explain the why's of its plot, the worse it ends up coming out. The fluff was fine. Night interactions with S-Links and Beach trip were great, but the less said of the band sequence the better (yep, everyone learns difficult instruments in 3 days!)... Had the opposite reaction to Marie in-game, going in without preconceptions. She was okay at first. Kinda funny, some good bits, but she slowly becomes the sole focus of any scene she's in, and sort of changes the group dynamic- and soon the plot dynamic overall. Just... text-book Mary-Sue.
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Cowboy Bebop- CK watches classic anime he should have seen 12 years ago, round one.
Show reminds me a lot of Firefly, to the point I think Joss musta been consciously channeling it at points. Two main differences; aesthetic of course, but Bebop has a greater talent for one-off characters. It makes sense, Vebop is as the episode titles themselves note a series of individual stories that can never be quite the same twice. Each one exists in its moment, and while certain bits are repeated from time to time each experience is individual.
Truthfully the show won't leave a lasting impression with me because of that. But I absolutely see why a show like that left the mark it did. There's nothing quite like it and, by its nature, never will be again.
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P4G anime is actually a NG+ run, if you noticed (some hints are dropped, like the Attributes table being full in Ep1). Was kinda novel and hilarious, but it ended up being one of those things that was more interesting in concept than execution. Most of it is retread of Golden stuff, leaving the normal plot ancillary (it's NG+, you know the plot!). Worked overall but sometimes it did need a little more context for when things were happening.
I had heard that beforehand - but I have no idea how that was actually supposed to have been brought across in the show, outside the visual of the attributes table as you mentioned. Unless P4 brings in new events in New Game+ that were in it, I guess - I've never done a NG+ run and have no idea what actual changes are made in one. If it's just supposed to be that they left the majority of the main plot... it seems really tenuous to tie that to it being a conceptual NG+ run.
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Short Peace - watched through
Fine enough anthology. Nothing mindblowing.
Possessions >>> Gambo ~= A Farewell To Weapons >>> Combustible.
Aside from that I didn't appreciate the direction AFTW ends up taking, nothing is really coming to mind to say about any of them.
Mass Effect: Paragon Lost - watched through
It's okay? Maybe I would have got more out of it if I'd played ME3.
On the plus side a Mako is in it but on the minus side they barely do anything with it.
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I've been reading Soppy approved manga lately, and this seems like the best topic to talk about it.
The Seven Deadly Sins: Great fantasy shonen. The cast is entertaining, the art style is gorgeous, the action is fast and furious, and the character interactions are stellar. Ban is one of the best realized characters in his archetype.
Boku no Hero Academia: Super hero comics meets anime. They meet surprisingly well. Takes Nardo's themes and does them correctly.
The World God Only Knows: Holy shit am I disappointed I did not read this sooner. Completely exceeded my expectations. It takes its silly concept, runs with it, builds on it, and turns a rather wacky and irreverent comedy into something surprisingly emotional and moving. Almost got me to cry at least once. The evolution of Keima's character is impressive. The end is a little... strange in a few places, but the full end was perfect. Absolutely perfect.
Seriously one of my new favorite manga.
Beezlebub: Dah! Dah dah dah dah DAH! Dah. Dah dah.
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Anyone who enjoys Seven Deadly Sins should read the author's previous work: Kongō Banchō. It's perfect.
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Lightly recommended. Possible it's a bit generic? But what do I know, the only other show of this type I watched was Mai Hime ages ago. Man. I can still rant about how they botched the ending to Mai Hime, thinking about it. Sheesh.
Rant away, I just got through a rewatch of that show.
I remain surprised by how effective it is at provoking a reaction when it feels like being full-on melodrama, which it does pretty much constantly throughout the second half of the show. The cast is very sharply drawn, which is all the more impressive considering how many people they want you to care about (13 Hime + at least one associate for each? Yikes). Tate's a gaping void of charisma, which is unfortunate considering how important he is for the main character (I like the core concept for Mai--her sense of self worth is based entirely on what she can do for other people and she breaks down when told no one needs her help anymore--but I just can't take her romance seriously at all because Tate). But they broadly did good, efficient work with even a lot of side characters, there's like four different people vying for personal favorite here and it's genuinely grueling watching the cast slowly tear itself apart. The power balance is really out of whack (Mai/Shizuru/Mikoto childs all grossly overpowered), but that's fine because the architects of the contest never meant it to be fair in the first place. The game was rigged from the start.
But that ending, such a mess. I'm not really one to try and reengineer someone else's story. It never feels right, I just can't get my brain to work along those lines. So I don't immediately have an idea how better to have done it, but there has to have been some preferable way. It breaks down on two separate levels: one is the actual plot events, and the other is the tone of the episode. The first problem is the one where I can't really suggest a recommendation. Does it cheapen the highly effective destruction of the cast to bring everyone back to life at the last minute? Definitely. Would it have been a satisfying ending if we'd stuck with Mai and Mikoto being the only (semi-)coherent girls left alive? Yeah no. So while I feel like there has to have been some happy medium to strike in there, I'm damned if I can put a finger on what it might have been. Honestly there were way more threads in the show than one episode could satisfactorily have tied off anyway, I'd expect it to be a struggle to clean everything up in a way that makes everyone happy. But tonally? I'm definitely comfortable raising red flags on these grounds. The mood whiplash that sets in pretty much instantly once the big bad's vanquished is just painful. You guys built this great edifice of melodramatic carnage only to tear it down in a second of Mikoto's stomach gurgling? Really? Gawd, if you're insistent about having the mega happy ending, at least treat it with some of the relief and dignity the release of that much constant tension deserves.
And that's setting aside the really objectionable footnotes like: Yukariko living happily ever after with the sociopath who drugged and seduced her; Miyu and Nao being nuns because why?; Miyu being alive at all when she wasn't anyone's VIP. I could see the argument that she's more important to Alissa than her actual father was, but the show certainly doesn't take the time to make any such statement (as a side note, I would've appreciated Miyu's earlier, more dramatic resurrection involving something more impressive than tactically exploding herself, but it's probably no surprise that I am biased towards ze robots). Did, like, everyone dead come back, even if they weren't directly important to any Hime? What about all those District 1 goons that Shizuru slaughtered, did they come back too? Also yeah whatever Shiho you just go back to being your old clingy self because status quo is god, let's just ignore the huge problems that behavior recently caused.
Fortunately, I'm not one to hate on an entire production just because of a failure ending, and the show in general does too much right for me to extremely put off by the bad aftertaste. Despite the presence of some typically stupid Anime stuff (like all males being PERVERT PERVERT PERVERT just for showing the slightest interest in the opposite sex) it's pretty fantastic at finding different ways to punch you right in the stomach from episode 8 onwards.
Also Haruka death still best death.
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Bubblegum Crisis: In which superheroines ride the bus. So guys, there was this movie called Bladerunner, did you ever see it? Pretty neat, huh? Turns out Japan saw it too. I think chat managed an accurate summary in describing this as "maybe not necessarily good, but fun." The best part was when this dude became ONE WITH HIS CAR so he could get revenge on biker jerks for trashing his ride, then the car became ONE WITH THE POWER OF HATRED and a battalion of cops had to put it down like Scarface. I don't understand the title, though. They are all out of bubblegum. Is that the crisis?
Despite being told not to, I might look up the 90's version at some point just because that apparently has an actual ending instead of terminating in a lawsuit.
It's pretty funny watching 80's sci-fi. Everyone thought there'd be visiphones in the future, but they also thought there'd still be payphones. Did any fiction writer really call in advance the advent of smartphones and the cultural impact they'd have? I know cyberpunk was all over direct neural connections to interwebs and all that, but I can't think of anyone who really nailed the current interim of handheld devices with supreme connectivity before the development of cranially implanted devices with supreme connectivity.
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Chihayafuru 2 - watched through
Pretty good. This was some weeks back though and unfortunately I don't remember if there was anything specific I might have wanted to say about it.
The Wind Rises - watched
Fairly good, but watched it after finishing Chihayafuru 2 so I'm also struggling to find anything to say about it. I can say that I was a little disappointed to find out after the fact that the movie was heavily fictionalised, but that doesn't reduce the movie's value at all or anything.
Quick rankings for currently-airing shows:
Death Parade ≳ Durarara x2-1 > Gundam Build Fighters Try > Assassination Classroom >>> Gundam: Reconguista In G
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Fist of the North Star: Got interested in watching this from the Puzzle and Dragons collab. Finished the first season. It's fairly formulaic and shows it's age pretty well. But the villains have a lot of personality considering the generic Mad Max setting. And episode 22, wow. I am totally crying right now.
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Gundam: Reconguista In G - finished
The show ended as it lived, mainly in a fog of characters taking inexplicable actions. And half of the conflicts remaining at the end, for all how petty or senseless they are, are cleared up across an un-signposted flash-forward with no actual resolution.
I've read that the show is intending to demonstrate the behaviour of societies which haven't known any "real" conflicts in generations, but I feel like that doesn't explain most of the problems.
The main instigator is killed off in a stupid, stupid way, and as far as I'm concerned never provided a satisfactory explanation of their actions - unless it was so irrelevant to the events and so long ago that I forgot it happening, possibly. I do remember there being claims of things going significantly further than desired or expected so it's always possible that the first point there is entirely legitimate.
SD Gundam Brave Battle Warriors - watched through episode 19.
In theory, I started watching this because of gundam.info's ominous claims that it would only be available for a limited time + it having been available seemingly forever meaning that that time was probably getting close to imminent. However, I have concerns that my mind actually tricked me into starting because it wanted to find a Gundam series worse than Recong. (In which case it should have just made me rewatch Stargazer or the Astray OVA as either is much shorter.)
I was expecting something more along the lines of the warring states episodes in the SD Gundam anthologies, which could be somewhat humorous despite being generally stupid. This is not those.
Death Parade - finished
Sadly, a lot is left unanswered - and what was appearing to be gearing up to be the main confrontation in the show fizzles out without actually seeming to go anywhere. The main plot ends satisfactorily, at least, but I'd still say the last episode (couple of episodes?) isn't (aren't) up to the general standard of the show.
All up, pretty awesome when it's being awesome, but unfortunately that isn't all of the time.
Leaving things ultra-late again means I've forgotten most of anything I had to say again. Oh well!
Gundam Build Fighters Try - finished
Generally enjoyable, but I feel like I really prefer GBF's focus on 'what can we do with these particles'. Final episode went to some dumb places also.
Durarara!! x2-1 - finished
As far as I feel, better than the second half of DLLL1 but doesn't reach the heights of the first half.
argh why did it have to end when a bunch of stuff was starting to go down
for all that I'm not a fan of where some of it seems to be going
Assassination Classroom - finished
Fairly entertaining.
SD Gundam Brave Battle Warriors - finished
Fairly unentertaining.
Ninja Slayer From Animation - watched episodes 1 through 8
Fairly inane.
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Watced The Tale of Princess Kaguya. Frankly, it was a disappointment. Fairy tales are weird and tend to reflect values that are foreign to our modern way of thinking, and the tale of the woodcutter is no exception. So the movie starts with the fairy tale and fleshes it out with scenes of Kaguya's childhood and such. And this is a problem because all the added stuff portrays her as a girl with modern values and then we get back to the stuff actually in the fairy tale and it's like night and day. And the movie dragged. And the morals about feminism were unpleasantly ham-handed. And the animation was beautiful. Such a damn waste.
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Overlord is fun.
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Been doing some rewatches lately. Mostly using getting a friend to watch some good stuff as an excuse to rewatch them myself.
Macross F - Still great stuff, and is one of my favourite shows at this point. I mean, if you're gonna have j-pop idols win wars, then this is how you sell it. Also, Yoko Kanno music, which is always a plus.
Gurren Lagann - Still has some good parts, but it doesn't hold up as well over time. To be fair, I'll always have a soft spot for Simon's awakening in episode 11, and Episodes 8-15 make a great arc. But I found myself not really looking forward to the final episode, and the first seven episodes drag.
Also watching new stuff. Got talked into Bakemonogatari. The wordplay is snappy, and the focus on slightly different pronunciations or even homonyms leading to different meanings is fascinating to me. The interactions between Hanegawa, Senjougouhara and Araragi are also top notch. And I like the fact that while, yes, Araragi is suddenly getting all these ladies interested in him, it's because he goes out of his way to help people. Currently on, Medusamonogatari which, meh... for some reason I'm not super keen on it. We'll see how the second episode goes. Best arcs so far are the cat arcs. Hanegawa's screwed up in interesting ways, and the resolution of that arc was beautiful.
I just wish this show didn't have scenes like Yayoi's greetings, or Shinobu's bathroom chat. Or at least, that Shinobu didn't look like a ten year old during the chat. The chat itself was important, and I know she's centuries old, but that doesn't matter when she looks like she's ten.
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Seasonal notes.
Durarara!! x2-2 >> Snow White With Red Hair > Rampo Kitan: Game Of Laplace >> Aoharu x Kikanjuu > Chaos Dragon
Given how Chaos Dragon was initially presented as being in the vein of Lodoss War, I'm a bit wary of how I'm going to end up feeling about that once I ever get around to watching it.
After the first couple episodes, I was hyped up for there to be a sacrifice every episode but then it stops happening. Annoying. Also, the whole 'being unable to defend someone is the same as killing them personally' thing is stupid. Lots of stupid things, to be fair. 'My curse is an allegory for human nature so I don't want it removed any more.' Groups splinter off the party in order to go to a particular place, all of the splinters and the remainder end up heading to the same place, the remainder ends up getting there before any of them. Don't recall it being explained exactly why the piece of the dragon solved everything. There's one episode where they spend the entire time finding something out that another character readily admits right afterwards, accomplishing pretty much nothing. The series wasn't long enough to waste that amount of time.
Where Eykha ends up at the end of the series doesn't really make any sense (Eykha and Val are both dying, so after sacrificing Eykha we have Val's lifeforce shifted into her and now Valeykha is... not dying? That doesn't really make sense from a conservation of lifeforce perspective). The most annoying character, Lou, never really gets any comeuppance (keeping in mind that she uses her replacement arm to kill Ulrika, among other things).
I'd probably watch another season in the hopes that they'd improved ._. and to see if anything was going to happen to that character. But either is unlikely.
Aoharu initially seemed like it was going to be mediocre-Ouran-plus-guns but happily it mostly ditched the Ouran stuff aways in. I was expecting much more combat than there actually ended up being, so not really what I was hoping for, but what was there instead was generally good-to-passable.
The whole thing about the team thinking Hotaru is male and her avoiding clearing this up is very annoying. Especially since it still hasn't happened by the end of the series, despite doing so being one of her main goals. If there's ever another season they better get that out of the way ASAP.
Nothing is standing out in my mind as being particularly good or bad about Game Of Laplace. Was somewhat disturbing at times. Oh right, Black Lizard. Black Lizard was terrible.
Snow White With Red Hair was generally fairly pleasant. I'm left wondering why we haven't seen the King or Queen of Clarines yet. Events near the end of the season leave me a little concerned about the direction the show is going to take in the next season, but I'm tentatively looking forward to it.
Durarara is being Durarara. Given that Izaya has been taken out of commission at the ends of both x2-1 and x2-2, I find myself wondering if something's going to happen to him at the end of x2-3 as well. Don't really care for the direction Mikado is going in, but there's more than enough going on with everyone else. x2-3 is too far away.
I also watched through Space Dandy S1 some time back, which was good fun. Really need to get around to S2 at some point.
I guess Ninja Slayer FA is finishing up soon, I'm a few episodes behind on it currently but I imagine it's probably not really going to be worth talking about.
Magic Circle Guruguru - watched through
Generally entertaining.
I was expecting the RPG elements to be less token than they actually ended up being. Can't say whether that would have made for a better experience or not, though. Will say that I found the first half-ish of the show, with its multi-episode arcs, to be more enjoyable than the rest of the show mainly being events-of-the-episode.
Also, the ending sucked.
I'll probably watch the sequel series at some point but not right now.
Hozuki's Coolheadedness - watched through
Generally great. Good to know that impulse watching can still turn out for the best, given that I knew hardly anything about it going in.
Gives a similar vibe to Mr. Despair, although much less of one.
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Finished arslan no seki. Very fire emblem-y. Enjoyed it.
Watched new lupin 3rd anime. It's fun. Last time I watched a lupin show was back on adult swim. It's an easy show to get back into.
That led my to watch the lupin movie, castle of cagliostro. Another fun movie.
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Fafner: Right Of Left - watched
Fairly entertaining, somewhat depressing. No real comments/issues/questions that I can think of.
Fafner: Heaven And Earth - watched
Fairly entertaining. Considerably more optimistic than the other Fafner works I've seen, if you disconsider the events which led up to it. On that note, I feel like I would have a much better grasp of the setting as at the start of the movie if I could remember literally anything about the ending of the main series.
Feels like there was either some miscommunication between the movie and myself, or between the officers and the fafner pilots, or possibly just my own denseness with regards to how what I understood to be something like a diplomatic mission starts off with mass destruction and never really gets to the diplomatic part.
Ultimately, I've already forgotten the state of the setting as at the end of the movie (outside of the extremely obvious change). From one perspective, by the time I get around to watching Exodus (I am currently living in hope that they will actually publish it over here, unlike ROL and HAE) I would probably have forgotten everything anyway, but having done so after only three weeks is probably not a good sign.
The Slayers Revolution/The Slayers Evolution-R - watched through
Generally entertaining.
Pokota was annoying initially, but became tolerable within a reasonable timeframe. Wizer was fairly entertaining although sadly only appears in Revolution.
Annoyingly, Evolution-R brings back not one, but two terrible characters. (Technically one of them is only implied to be a return, but...) Fortunately each of them is only around for part of the series and they're mostly tolerable.
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Found Crunchyroll, naturally this has led to watching a lot more anime given the supply is now far greater. Most of it is pretty excellent stuff too. Probably going to go over them in chronological order.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica: fancy title, fancy animation. Never really figured I'd be watching magical girl stuff, but it's as much mystery and horror as it is magical girl, and it has an interesting premise. Start off with a deal where you get a wish granted and gain potent magical powers, and in exchange you have to fight evil creatures that regular people are helpless against. But, the series smartly never makes the fight against the monsters the main story. It's all about the conflicts between the cast, and between the wishes they make, the wishes they thought they were making, and reality. Lots of fun, and the twists mean that it's a good rewatch as well as you can catch all the hints that were dropped.
Kancolle Collection: Tried it out because the theme song sounded nice, didn't make it past the first episode. It's kinda up there in the "What the Fuck, Japan" category of anime. Basic idea is humanity is at war with... something. It's nautical. I think it's some kind of future where nations exist, but actual ships can't do squat, so they need high school girls who possess the spirit of WWII Japanese Warships to fight the enemy. Naturally, in a war this pressing, things will look dire and bleak, like Tokyo-3 near the end of Eva. Except, no, looks like an affluent modern town. Ok, well let's meet the rest of the cast. Huh, seems that our main character is a shy person without much self-confidence but has a special power (the others call her a special destroyer), and everyone else seems to have a single character trait which they need to be blasting out at all times. I know it's the first episode, but other shows manage to show their characters have some depth in the first episode too (in fact, I'll be getting to that later). This was the thing that finally killed it for me, when the pop idol did her act one too many times, but there's one last thing I need to rant about.
So, you know that, despite being shy and out of their element the protagonist is going to fight. It's a cliche, it's going to happen because it has to happen (or... not. Madoka actually managed to make a question out of it. When is she going to fight, is she even going to fight?). Of course, she's never worked with her squad before but it's her first day. She's never practised on the open water before and can barely stay on her feet. Ok, there's a whole thing about falling into the cockpit, and while I kinda hate it, I am well trained in overlooking it. But when you use this characterisation, the situations where you can get her into a fight are strictly limited. Mostly, it needs to be a desperate situation, or she needs to be breaking orders and then do well enough to get away with it. This is neither, this is an offensive action, where she's ordered out while she's not only incapable of looking after herself, but she's also messing up and screwing up her squadron's actions. Fortunately, this is the first episode so we're looking at war porn instead of an actual fight, so the carrier chicks show up, and the battle is won through the OPness of the glorious fleet without a single casualty so there is no penalty at all for sending someone with no training at all to a fight where they'd have done better without her. Rargh.
Is it Okay to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon: You know, given the title, I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but I had heard good things and the ad looks good, so I gave it a shot. Sadly, it hit a premature end, so I haven't seen the last two episodes yet (I'm kinda happy where I left off). Regardless, I was expecting it to just be an adventuring themed harem anime, and while the main character Bel does get a fair amount of female attention, the show manages to somehow avoid that. Mostly because it settles pretty quickly into a love triangle. Hestia loves Bel who loves Aiz, who seems to have feelings for Bel. That said, Bel and Aiz are on completely different levels, and Bel doesn't want to make a move until he feels he's her equal. In addition, Hestia's part of an interesting social setting of gods who form houses and grant blessings to adventurers, but her's is poor and weak, having only a single Lv. 1 adventurer, Bel. So Bel is trying to both increase the strength and prestige of House Hestia while also train himself up to be worthy of asking out the woman he's infatuated with, and those two conflicts drive a lot of the show. Sadly, the divine politics felt a bit off, and it also felt a bit like they lost their way after the first arc ended. So, my hopes for a second season are not high, despite the fact that it was fun, if mindless, to watch.
Flowers of the Six Braves: This makes me want to play Mafia so much. Seriously, every three centuries or so the demon lord revives and six braves are chosen to defeat him, but we don't care about him because we all know THAT story. Of course the braves are going to, after hardship and sacrifice, win. No, the story here is that this time, the Demon Lord decided to try and defeat the braves by having them defeat themselves. Namely, there's a false, seventh, brave. This series is short, and it's all about trying to find out who's the impostor. They do a great job with setup, and I found it a lot of fun to go through it. And when it came time for the reveal they did it right. You've got two climaxes, the first is the end of the eleventh when the secondary plotline wraps up and it hammers home the question "Who is the seventh" with a chance to not start the last episode to try and figure it out yourself. There are a few things brought up in the start of the last episode that focus that question a bit before the answer is revealed, but it's mostly to show that the answer is a fair one, that you had the information all along. That you could have, theoretically, answered the riddle of the series at the end of the eleventh episode. The one thing about the series that I'm going to complain about is the sequel bait slapped on at the end. Seriously, you already had enough plot hooks, did you need to stick on a new seventh brave in order to keep that going?
Silver Spoon: Done by the same author as Full Metal Alchemist? That's Good. Set in a high school? That's bad. Set in an agricultural high school? That's... good?
Turns out, that is good. Silver spoon is a simple slice of life anime about a city boy who broke down in the stress of the standard Japanese educational system while dealing with his father, best described as a less cuddly, if far more caring, Gendo Ikari. However, pretty much the entire focus is on agricultural life, the growth of the main, Hachiken, and various other actual life lessons as he grows out of his shell and becomes friends with his classmates. There's also plenty of looking at Hokkaido agricultural life, and a special love for horses and equestrian clubs. Some of the episodes focus a bit on school hijinks (like the mystery episode), but it's telling that one of the big conflicts for the first season is Hachiken grappling with naming and then identifying with one of the pigs they were raising for meat, and what he was going to do after that pig was sent to the processing plant. Another thing this anime does that feels fresh and interesting is that while it does have a strong focus on goals and dreams, it also takes a realistic view at them. Just because you have the goal and the desire and means to accomplish it, doesn't mean you necessarily will. One of the main cast is aspiring to be a farm veterinarian but who has issues with blood, and his struggle with that is one of the plotlines that is running here.
Also, this show has some really freaking impressive opening (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddYbBTPEbqQ) and ending (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtSvn2cSIw8) music. I'd say the best of the lot in spite of really liking Madoka's music, except... except...
Your Lie in April: This blows (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnXkhkEvNIM) it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sbAtt4w6ZU) out (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8QFHrPSYTA) of the water (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7HvsNTYBqA) musically (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu5bJEIEXcc). Which, makes sense on two points. One of the best pieces is the opening, Hikaru Nara, which is by the same folks who did the ending I linked to for Silver Spoon. The other being that outside of two of the protagonists and one child, every named character is a musician. And even then, all of them but two are pianists specifically. The anime is from the view of Koumei, who is a 14 piano prodigy who is a legend in the field, but hasn't played since shortly after his mother died. He's been supported by his two friends, who do care a lot for him, one being the standard childhood neighbour/friend, the other being the soccer star/flirt. Things kick off when the childhood friend drags him along because someone asked her for an introduction to the flirt, and they need a fourth for the double date, which introduces the fourth main character, Kaori who is a violinist. Soon she needs a new pianist, and with the support of Koumei's friends, she effectively bullies him into starting to play the piano again. This starts us into Koumei actually starting to deal with the trauma of his mother's passing, and the abuse she dealt him. Of course, this isn't the whole of it, but this is a drama where everyone has their own problems and everyone is connected. And this is where I come back to that point about Kancolle Collection that I brought up earlier. This anime manages to give the Kousei not just one, but two anime rivals, but in five minutes it manages to make them both feel like real people with their own styles, and with real reasons to have a beef with Kousei. And their interactions with him as the series progresses is incredibly heartwarming to watch.
Hmm... oh, right. At some point here I tried to watch Attack on Titan. It suffered from a combination of lack of compelling conflict (I was going to say compelling antagonists, but Silver Spoon and Your Lie in April have no antagonists so clearly that isn't the issue) as the titans as thus far super boring and the main characters are boringly super competent. Perhaps this might change, and maybe I'll watch more, but for now I'm not caught.
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Gate: Sadly not about a tall DLer that lives in California. Gate to a magical fantasy world opens up in Japan, and the Fantasy Empire picks a fight with a country with vastly superior technology. At first glance it looks like a harem anime, but it's actually pretty serious. Itami is a neat main character, in that they acknowledge the tropes with him and then ignore them. Watched the 12 episodes on Crunchyroll; I don't know how much longer it goes on.
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Kancolle Collection: Tried it out because the theme song sounded nice, didn't make it past the first episode. It's kinda up there in the "What the Fuck, Japan" category of anime. Basic idea is humanity is at war with... something. It's nautical. I think it's some kind of future where nations exist, but actual ships can't do squat, so they need high school girls who possess the spirit of WWII Japanese Warships to fight the enemy.
My understanding is that - especially from the video games - it's totally the Americans with the serial numbers filed off. So this is less "humanity" than "Japan goes back and wins WWII after all except with underage girls."
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Gate: Sadly not about a tall DLer that lives in California. Gate to a magical fantasy world opens up in Japan, and the Fantasy Empire picks a fight with a country with vastly superior technology. At first glance it looks like a harem anime, but it's actually pretty serious. Itami is a neat main character, in that they acknowledge the tropes with him and then ignore them. Watched the 12 episodes on Crunchyroll; I don't know how much longer it goes on.
There's a new season of 12 eps coming out in the next batch of shows. I liked the show, it was entertaining, but it does suffer from a slight to serious fetishizing and propagandizing the Japanese military. The LN was written by an ex-soldier in the JSDF who has some pretty hard right-wing views, so it's not surprising. The comically evil portrayals of the heads of all the other real world countries is also pretty hilarious.
Other than that, I was surprised I ended up finishing it. Two of the main girls are just really fun to watch (interpreter and priestess), and it does some interesting things considering how something like that would affect the world.
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Gantz - watched through
Occasionally compelling but often terrible.
Lots of things that aren't explained, or that seem inconsistent. Presumably most or all of them are due to the show being an adaptation of a much longer comic. Some examples are:
- The state of the original bodies for each participant doesn't seem to make sense unless they're deleted after the game is over, which feels like more time than they're implied to have been left there.
Also, Gantz is aware enough to expunge the bodies from photographs, but not enough to expunge their belongings?
How does this work if someone dies in front of someone who knows them, and they manage to survive the game? Possibly people in that sort of situation prevented from qualifying to begin with, although there was the politician who died in hospital in the first group who probably had people familiar with him attending his death fairly rapidly.
Incidentally, the whole belongings thing doesn't end up going anywhere.
- The points thing doesn't end up going anywhere either. I've read that it goes places in the comic, but the places that it goes raises other questions. Possibly they're answered there, and I guess they're not strictly relevant to the show.
- May be due to reading stuff about the comic leaking in, but the one character is killed for mentioning Gantz outside the game - but Gantz apparently has no problem with people using the suits and weapons outside the game, which could be considered to be more severe breaches of secrecy.
- Gantz's deal? What I understand to be its deal in the comics doesn't really mesh with the show's ending. That said, its deal doesn't really mesh with the rest of the show either, which was presumably more in line with the comics. The best way to train people is to give them literally no information about anything.
- The person inside Gantz's deal?
- What's up in the sky?
The ending raised more questions than it answered (noting for record's sake that it didn't answer anything).
The whole plotline with Masaru's brother was probably unnecessarily despairy.
Re: Cutie Honey - watched through
I guess I was expecting it to be better than New Cutey Honey. It feels like that wasn't the case, although has been something like 3.5 years since I saw New and only have the vaguest memories of it.
Still fairly entertaining.
Has some dumb stuff like the scene where Natsuko is reviving Honey. Difficult to say whether it ends up being more or less dumb than New.
Does seem like there was hardly any disguises compared to New, which was disappointing.
Crest Of The Stars - watched through
Much better than I was expecting.
I am a bit annoyed at the shootout sequences near the end, though. The show was much better when it was doing world-building and lower-key confrontations. Or at least ones which had trained military versus trained military.
Aggravatingly, it looks like none of the sequels were released over here (despite having a trailer for the first of them in the Crest collection..), so I'll have to acquire them through other methods.
Space Dandy S2 - watched through
Also great. In a way which leaves me with little to say. No complaints that are really worth bringing up.
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One punch man is a silly and fun anime.
Never read the manga, but it's very enjoyable.
Also...berserk is getting a new anime adaption in 2016, presumably centering around guts as the black swordsman.
Super stoked!
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Crest Of The Stars - watched through
Much better than I was expecting.
I am a bit annoyed at the shootout sequences near the end, though. The show was much better when it was doing world-building and lower-key confrontations. Or at least ones which had trained military versus trained military.
Aggravatingly, it looks like none of the sequels were released over here (despite having a trailer for the first of them in the Crest collection..), so I'll have to acquire them through other methods.
Crest of the Stars was fun! I agree, it was shockingly decent. Fair warning, though: I found Banner of the Stars a huge disappointment, at least the episodes I watched of it (didn't quite finish). There's much more of a focus on military confrontations, which would be fine and even expected to a degree... but the presentation is crappy. Like, they clearly want to show off cool tactics & clever strategems and such, but... it just doesn't work. Either they don't explain the "rules" or the situation well enough to show why this move was totally genius and/or surprising, or even worse, they just declare some kind of unexplained tactic totally genius for no reason. I guess that was great... whatever it was.
For some examples (minor spoilers?)...
* There's two pretty-boy brothers who are admirals or something. They spend all their time being flighty and socialites it seems, and get some disrespect from their colleagues because of this. But they are actually super (tactical) badasses! See if they were secretly ultimate killers or something, you just have to show a clip of one of them single-handedly dismembering an entire enemy squad, and okay, fine. Instead we have shots of them lounging in a hot tub together and ignoring reports that their fleet is getting its assed kicked because EVERYTHING IS GOING TO PLAN, and then they somehow still win anyway, because ???. They aren't actually any -fun- either (except for yaoi brothers fans??), and they get tons of screentime. Blargh.
* Space Sparta is trying to hold a wormhole entrance that Space Athens is invading through. Space Athens sends a bunch of torpedoes, mines, & crap through the wormhole first to clear out any welcoming party, which actually makes a fair amount of sense IF we presume that the gate is indestructible, or no side would dare blow it up, or something. Fine. Then we have an Oh So Dramatic scene of the fleet just being ordered to hold positions and get blow'd up by this rather than, you know, attempt to evade or back off or anything. Um.... wut. You can see this coming from some distance, just freaking back off into the hugeness of space, right? But okay. Maybe it is so incredibly important to hold this one point the admiral is willing to eat avoidable losses so that everybody's ready to go and pounce on the enemy fleet as soon as it comes in, which is going to be right behind the "bombardment", right? ....right? Nope! The follow-up is expected the next day or something. Wut. Why the delay?! And if the other fleet is just gonna sit there and take it, why not keep throwing mines down the pike until they're all dead? Both sides are being idiots. If the Space Spartans had just backed off and evaded the mines until they could be safely disposed of, they'd have actually been fine. If the Space Athenians had immediately charged in after the mines, they could at least have had a safer opening to invade with. But nope, according to the narrative both sides are super-geniuses or something. Whatever.
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Banner 1 and 2 were released in the US. I found Banner 1 the weakest of the lot, yeah, for the reasons Snowfire said. Still, I love the Stars series to death. Crest is the best, and Banner 2 falls smack between them on the quality scale.
Banner 1's ED song is fantastic though.
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I have been watching Naruto. I have learned there is a movie that involves him and Hinata dkshskpdabajzfppdpsaal so I must see it. =3
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The new Lupin the 3rd TV series (blue jacket) is (a) excellent; (b) getting a Crunchyroll simulcast; and (c) GETTING THE GENEON DUB CAST BACK TOGETHER FOR A US RELEASE FUCK YEAH.
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Is this a continuation of the series that aired last fall? That one fucking NAILED the 80s animation look. Absolutely gorgeous. Not sure whether it ever got translated tho.
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Nah, it's a modern-setting series that loosely keeps theme and continuity with the green/red/pink jacket series.
The Woman Called Fujiko Mine did get a US release too, though, with the Funimation dub cast.
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Lottsa boobies in that fujiko spin off.
The English cast for lupin is pretty boss.
But I've been watching subbed anime for a long time.
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Ping Pong - watched through
I enjoyed it. Can't remember anything specific to note.
Mawaru Penguindrum - watched through
I enjoyed it. But I might have enjoyed it more if there wasn't so much left unexplained at the end, among other reasons.
I liked the Metro touches, although the subbing for displays was a bit difficult to read over the moving background, and the signage/location names ultimately don't mean anything concrete to me.
Also had some good music.
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Royal Space Force: The Wings Of Honnêamise - watched
Reasonable enough. Don't remember if I had anything in particular to complain or ask about. Presumably anything anyone's ever had to say about that one pair of scenes has already been said at some point.
Steins;Gate - watched through
Over halfway through I was wondering why this show was so popular.
Eventually, it turned out that all the best parts were extremely back-loaded. However, personally, they're not enough to push the show into great-territory. It's just decent :S
I don't think that the timelines entirely make sense but that's time travel in general.
Quick ordering of currently-airing shows:
Durarara!! x2-3 (5) > Dimension W (5) > Iron-Blooded Orphans (19) > Grimgar Of Fantasy And Ash (5) > Snow White With Red Hair 2 (5) > Luck & Logic (6) > Erased (5) > Assassination Classroom 2 (6) > Dagashi Kashi (5) >> BBK/BRNK (6)
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Yeah I started watching Stein's Gate a while back and didn't even make it halfway through. If your show takes that long to get cool, then it's not worth it.
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Hm. I'd put the new season at Durarara = Erased > Dimension W >>> BBK/BRNK.
I had to stop watching Grimgar. I hated the voices of the entire cast. Grated on my ears terribly.
Durarara is the best it's ever been. I love Kujiragi. She has amazing dialogues with the entire cast, especially her one with Shizuo in the new ep.
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I'm fairly sure that AnimeLab is a week behind everyone else for Durarara, annoyingly, and then that's compounded with another week delay for my not having a premium account.
I'd love to have both Grimgar and Erased higher but Grimgar devolves into tediousness like the bath segment too often and there are things about the general setup of Erased which bother me. (Although it should probably at least be above Luck & Logic, I took an old ordering from elsewhere and essentially only moved Grimgar downwards without really considering the rest of the shows.)
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I caught up with the Naruto anime, which I realistically shouldn't be surprised by. I'm not going to watch the episodes following Tsukiyomi. While it isn't really filler, it is filler, and I did a enough good job taking yearly breaks from Naruto that I can do it again.
Apparently canon episodes won't start until 2017. So here's my yearly break again. I'm at a weird point of limbo, being that I haven't been caught up on any hobby within the last ten years. I don't think I have another anime to begin or already in the works.
Hm.
PS, Sasuke and Sakura still fail.
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Apparently canon episodes won't start until 2017
The new manga hasn't even come out yet, and it's not being written or drawn by Kishimoto, so... I'm expecting it to be the same quality as the Yu-gi-oh retreads. Look for another anime.
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Now is the perfect time to watch as much Satoshi Kon as you haven't seen.
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Is this mecha? bc I make few exceptions to nonmecha.
And Daleks, I see! Bah. ._.
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Holy shit, they're making new FLCL. (http://www.multichannel.com/prfeed/turner-s-adult-swim-announces-new-seasons-anime-hit-series-flcl/403596) It never even crossed my mind that such a thing could happen, and I'm not sure whether I'm happy or depressed about it.
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Happy.
Hey, that was easy.
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Not that surprising, but not expected. Production IG bought the rights a few years ago specifically for the possibility of remake/sequel.
It's a tossup.... Headed by Production IG, not Gainax. No word on original creator/director Kazuya Tsurumaki coming back. We'll see. I don't think I'll waste energy getting hyped for it until I see some tangible details come out about it.
EDIT: Secondary press release on AS's forums sez Tsurumaki and a few other staff are coming back, still finding myself rather apathetic at prospect of sequel.
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Eh at worst you got a few hours of Production IG hair to stare at.
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You know I vaguely remember flcl, and I can't say I was impressed by it back then.
So this news of a remake isn't jonesing me up in the slightest.
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Some context, about 12 years ago Sopko put together what could pretty much be submitted as a thesis paper on flcl exploring the references and meaning behind it all.
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Per usual, I have left this far too long and don't remember half of anything I had to say about anything.
Bubblegum Crisis - watched through
Fairly entertaining. Some nice songs.
A bit too fond of introducing side characters just to kill them off.
Doesn't end very conclusively, annoyingly. The only related series available over here currently is Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040, which I've been led to understand is essentially an inferior remake. Oh well.
Wolf Children - watched
Pretty entertaining. Nothing stands out as particularly good or bad in my memory so I have no material to work with here.
Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans - watched through
Reasonably great.
Main issue with the show is the ending, which I'll just say is tonally inconsistent.
Looking forward to the next season.
BBK/BRNK - watched through
On the whole, this is a very stupid show. I don't think it's worth listing all the ways. A selection:
* Reiko's team are oppressing all other Bubuki users (at least in Japan), along with controlling the government, killing people, and other assorted nastiness. Of course they're just hard-done-by, they're not actually the villains. Reiko's team: Worse Than Eternia.
* The semi-actual villains only show up around three-quarters into the show and get comparatively little screentime. The only reason they have for wanting to drop Treasure Island on Russia is because their leader is ludicrously arrogant?
* Bubukis and Burankis have a ton of stupid rules/features. You got the person corresponding with the left limb of Buranki A and the person corresponding with the left limb of Buranki B here and they want to have a duel? Great, all other Bubukis in existence will prevent their users from interfering with the duel, except when they don't, and the loser's Bubuki will be petrified untiiiiiiiiiil
all other corresponding limbs from Buranki A and Buranki B have duels
I hope they're not on opposite sides of the world
or dead
I am probably going to watch the second season because I'm insane apparently??? It better feature a lot of Epizo.
Luck & Logic - watched through
It could have, should have, done a lot more with the concept of logic cards than it did, but it didn't. Oh well.
I don't care for how in the lead-up to the ending the discussion turns to (paraphrased):
Villains: Paradise is a world where everyone is granted equal potential. Wouldn't you consider that a world brimming with hope?
Heroes: No, living as you are, even when it means you go through suffering and distress - living this way is what gives you hope. [...] Any time and place you spend with those you love, no matter how modest, is paradise.
The poor/downtrodden/oppressed/etc of the world thank you for your support, ALCA.
Of course the main villain doesn't actually want any of that so everything worked out for the best ♪♪♪♪♪♪
I don't currently think I'd watch another season of this if they made one.
Dimension W - watched through
Mostly entertaining. The ending lets us all down again. What is up with endings recently.
I don't actually remember what problem I had with the ending. I didn't really follow the flashback of the conversation about the Genesis, and the new coil out of nowhere was fairly inexplicable, and the arc went on for too long, but even together those don't add up to a massive problem.
Regardless, they need to make another season and just fill it with microarcs like the hotel mystery arc. Possibly devote a little time to the deal with the new coil and with Kyoma's friend from New Tesla.
Grimgar Of Fantasy And Ash - watched through
Another show, another show with a poor ending.
Grimgar stuck to its guns and continued jumping between good parts and bad parts til it ended. It's fairly depressing that we can't have a show that's just all the good parts.
Ultimately, we got some good songs out of it.
I would watch another season in the hopes that it had a better good:bad ratio and had more montages.
Why was I watching so many freaking shows last season.
Snow White With Red Hair 2 - watched through
Was good. Ending was poor.
Nice of the King of Tanbarun to make an appearance even though the show never ended up following through with him in any way. King/Queen of Clarines still hasn't made an appearance.
Would watch 3rd season.
Erased - watched through
Was good. No comment on ending.
Interesting way of dealing with the whole problem about lack of relevant memories after history changes.
Dagashi Kashi - watched through
Was fairly regularly amusing. Didn't really have an ending per se.
Would probably watch a second season.
Durarara!! x2 Chapter 3 - watched through
Was great. Ending was bad.
Not sure if a followup season(set) is in the card but would watch if so.
Not sure if AL are slacking or if they've somehow just failed to get very many licenses this season, but they've barely got anything up so far. Currently only watching Assassination Classroom 2 (continuing from last season) and Macross Delta (illegitimately).
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I gather Bubblegum Crisis was unfinished due to lawsuits. Bit of a shame, as it was a fun piece of fluff.
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Start watching Kiznaivers because I like Miwa, and a show that Kaji finally got a role that fits him. (godbless!)
Two episode in and... the fuck is Kobayashi and Ootsuka thinking? The whole concept of the show is like something that came out of a brainfart!
And spare me Okada Mary Sue. Your writing is nauseating me already!
Sigh......
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So I'm watching anime again, apparently.
One Punch Man: I remain amazed this gimmick holds up as well as it does over the course of the series. Good gag series that sneaks in some solid action every now and then. Saitama is an absolute joy.
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Start watching Kiznaivers because I like Miwa, and a show that Kaji finally got a role that fits him. (godbless!)
Two episode in and... the fuck is Kobayashi and Ootsuka thinking? The whole concept of the show is like something that came out of a brainfart!
And spare me Okada Mary Sue. Your writing is nauseating me already!
Sigh......
Watched the first episode, not gonna follow up. But that OP has been stuck in my head for a week. Damn Boom Boom Satellites. Same thing happened with the Xam'd OP.
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Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash
I actually really liked this. It wasn't so hot to start, but I liked the slow pace and when it was good it was really good. The ending wasn't really an ending so much as a stopping point because, hey, needed to stop somewhere, right? Kinda hoping this gets another season, but if not, well. The adventures are clearly going to continue, just without an audience.
Erased
Interesting premise. The last couple of episodes did take a turn I wasn't quite expecting which was nice, and I think that the ending did actually shore up the whole enterprise, which is rare but welcome.
Gate
This one is entirely guilty pleasure. There are times when you really get this sense of similarity between Japan and the US. This story where you've got a gateway from the modern day world to this fantasy world is one, since the protagonists are the noble soldiers of the SDF and a trio of magic using ladies who have conveniently fallen for the main, a surprisingly badass first Lt. Of course, there's plenty of war and fighting, but it's all really one sided because apparently the imperial army doesn't use combat magic, or have any of the local archmages or demigods chipping in. Nah, those are all siding with the Japanese or staying neutral. They've got an entirely mundane army based off of the Roman Empire at its height, complete with an army of vassals that can be called in to supplement. And numbers, boy howdy have they got numbers. But, like I said, all mundane. I wouldn't give Julius Caesar much odds against any of the major modern nations either, and every major fight is a curbstomping. Of course, the empire still exists because the glorious SDF is this perfect institution of glory and honour, and their political leadership is this paragon of virtue that doesn't want to conquer by force, despite this place apparently being lousy in farm land, mineral resources, and oil. And up until that last sentence, you could swap SDF for US Army, and you'd have a pretty good jingoistic American premise.
So, there isn't really any tension in relations between the empire and the Japanese. But, they do manage to get some interesting stuff going on with the plot by splitting its focus in two primary ways. First, you have the adventures of the First Lt and his crew. Which, is light world building kinda stuff, as he goes around on the small scale doing acts of heroism and getting to know the locals, or escort/bodyguard some of them when they pay a visit to the modern world. ((Though, that trip gets me to another guilty please bit, portrayal of the US from a non-NA PoV. This US government is not sympathetically portrayed, and you get this crazy 4-way fight between American, Russian, and Chinese operatives and a demigoddess at a hot springs at one point. ))
The other plotline, and this is the one I kinda non-guiltily like, is the power struggle amongst the Imperial nobility. Essentially, there's three children of the emperor, each with their own power base. And over season 2, each of them develops a bit and comes to have their own response to, effectively, this overpowering military force that can tear them to pieces whenever it wants to. Granted, there is pretty clearly a favoured one we're supposed to sympathise with. And it's not especially deep. But, it's a touch interesting at least.
Macross Delta
So, I heard this existed. Not too much to say yet because I've only seen two episodes, but.... but....
Ok, confession time, I haven't seen 7 or Zero yet, so maybe these will invalidate some of what I'm saying. And I'll admit, Macross has always been a franchise where they really, really believe in the power of song and they always have some tremendous feat accomplished by singing. Even if it is Macross Plus, where it's the villain pulling off the crazy musical stunts. But... this one seems to have gone full magical girl idols? Really?
Seriously, the core premise is something I get. Crazy potential illness, potential space transcending madness inducing song that can be healed with the power of song? That is something at the heart of the series. Having them protected by armed force while they do this? Both done with great effect in previous iterations and really sensible. But it's always been that even when they're in a combat zone, all the singers do is sing. The song is all they need, and they've got soldiers around for the actual fighting. I'm hoping that there's an explanation soon about how this is a lot of crazy prepped special effects, because... yeah.
Moving on the the male lead, he also gets his share of not very good stuff. Namely, Macross has always been decent at subverting the falling into the cockpit trope. They did it in the original, they did it in Frontier ((not in Plus, there they start with one of the best pilots in the fleet)) and in both cases they find themselves in the middle of a sudden attack, with a civilian in need of saving, and a valkyrie right in front of them either without a pilot, or a recently dead pilot. In one case, you have a professional, though young, stunt pilot, and in the other you have a gifted prodigy with two years of training at a prestigious piloting school. In both cases, they prove to be crap at fighting in their first fight, but top notch at flying well enough to carry the civilian to safety and not getting hit. Here... you have an aimless drifter who typically works as a warehouse worker. Sure, he's shown to be good at using one of those to move freight around, but it's freight hauling. So yeah, unlike the others he does get shot down and needs to actually be caught before he crashes, but given he has no experience flying it's still kinda jarring. Also, his special skill that lets him stand out is apparently he's great at mech dancing. Seriously, he hops into one, notes the controls are just like what he's used to ((Frontier does the same thing, but again, two years of pilot training, and heck, it even gives a reason as to why he's wearing a pilot's uniform/valkyrie ignition suit when the attack hits)) and then starts battle dancing to surprising effect. Of course, even before this, the support valkyries that have trained pilots were doing synchronized combat in time with the music. And don't even get me started on the military outfit that's perfectly fine with a recruit who openly states disdain for military protocol and refuses to abide by it.
I'm gonna watch it, because it's Macross. I'm going to be hoping that some of this will be mitigated as the series goes on, that the ending won't be too stupid. Who knows, maybe I'll even get around to watching 7, or 0, to see if it has some kind of roots in those two, despite not really expecting to care too much for either of them.
I will say two things to finish. First, I find it interesting. This is the third time I've seen them have a love triangle involving a pilot and a young, innocentish pop-star wannabe. But I think this is the first time I've preferred him winding up with the pop-star wannabe. Probably a mix of not liking him so much, thinking the other prong of the love triangle is getting dragged into this because they need a third leg for the standard Macross love triangle and she really doesn't need the complication, and because I think there's actual chemistry in that pairing this time. Secondly, Zentraedi battleship captain. Bout damned time, and I look forward to seeing more of him. Heck, he even looks like a green version of your standard battleship captain, so I am hoping to see him be badass.
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Blood Blockade Battlefront: God tier OP and ED.
Otherwise... okay. I enjoyed the show. Characters are fun (though some needed more attention). Episode to episode stuff was fun. Visuals were great. But I dunno if I'm stupid or something but I found the overall metaplot with Black and White oddly hard to follow (had to read a summary afterwards to get it) which kept taking me out of the show. Really felt like it needed another episode or 6.
WataMote: Fun, funny, heartfelt, honest, and really, really painful and cringe inducing to watch. Hits a little too close to home sometimes.
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Blood Blockade Battlefront: God tier OP and ED.
Otherwise... okay. I enjoyed the show. Characters are fun (though some needed more attention). Episode to episode stuff was fun. Visuals were great. But I dunno if I'm stupid or something but I found the overall metaplot with Black and White oddly hard to follow (had to read a summary afterwards to get it) which kept taking me out of the show. Really felt like it needed another episode or 6.
WataMote: Fun, funny, heartfelt, honest, and really, really painful and cringe inducing to watch. Hits a little too close to home sometimes.
White and Black are anime original. So they are bad and screw things up like most anime original.
King of Despair is the worst. He soooo totally does not deserve to be one of the 13 Kings.
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That was my post summary understanding.
So, if I enjoyed most everything besides them, is the manga worth my time?
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Weird. I didn't have much trouble following the White/Black stuff. I don't think their stuff was nearly as bad as people said it was either.
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That was my post summary understanding.
So, if I enjoyed most everything besides them, is the manga worth my time?
Most definitely. But do note the manga has no over reaching plot. It is purely episodic.
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Psycho-Pass is great.
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Summer Wars - watched this with the fam. for Mother's Day. Good decision, as it turns out.
Entire movie is adorable, and perfectly conveys the barely controlled chaos of a big family get-together. Pacing wasn't great, though. In any case, great movie. Director has a talent for highly entertaining facial expressions.
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Kabaneri of the iron fortress is pretty gawd damn good.
Gundam origins: baby char. Yussssss.
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Spice and Wolf Season 2: Not done yet, but finally getting around to this. First arc is just fantastic and hits its plot beats so well.
Kill la Kill: Remember I should finish this, so started over. Forgot how balls out nuts this show is.
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Okay, Psycho Pass is not so great. There's just something about the rhythm of this show that falls really flat and I think it's all in the sound effects and music. I hope it gets better, because it's way too quiet of a show for me.
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Servamp - that op! What have they dooooooooone!!!!
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Berserk 2016
Cgi is ugly. The first episode wasn't great. Here's hoping it improves from here on out.
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Assassination Classroom 2 - watched through
Fine enough.
Lots of backstory revealed, which isn't all particularly compelling.
Shiro becomes a lot less interesting once their identity is revealed (also undergoes a personality change).
Problems with the final action sequences:
* How did Shiro & friend get through the barrier in the first place? Initially I assumed that they were just using sufficiently different tentacle technology, but then they end up getting killed when forced back through it. It feels unlikely that the barrier is 'one-way'.
* Kaede being organically reconstructed was stupid. Incidentally, I was totally expecting that Koro was going to reform himself from the padding afterwards, but that ended up being just one of many misexpectations. Although now that I think about it - how did the padding survive the laser and/or leaving the barrier?
Given how Chaos Dragon was initially presented as being in the vein of Lodoss War, I'm a bit wary of how I'm going to end up feeling about that once I ever get around to watching it.
Record Of Lodoss War '90 - watched through
Pretty decent, if a bit rote.
Always good to come across a show where the opening/ending have been resung in English. Didn't realise that I'd acquired a version with a proper dub, but as long as they're not selling it I'm not too broken up about that.
The first few episodes jump around in time a bit without any signposting and it was a bit bewildering until I realised what was happening, fortunately they stop that soon enough.
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Yeah, Lodoss War is fun, if a bit by-the-numbers fantasy/D&D type story. Fantasia of the Wind is great in English. I really wish they had done the whole song.
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Concrete Revolutio & Concrete Revolutio: The Last Song - watched through
Take the character variety from Marvel (accounting for relative property breadth), mix in the timeframe shifting from Baccano except moreso, pour into moulds of a show that does good vignettisodes. It's great.
Things do go downhill slightly towards the end of each series, when the vignettes stop and some things start to happen abruptly. Moreso in The Last Song than in the first series. Nowhere near as bad as some shows, though.
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I loved Concrete Revolutio. Plus the ANN episode reviews were breaking down all the references and parallels to social movements and historic events in the show, so I got even more out of it than I expected to.
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Mob Pyscho 100: Show is a joy. The similarities to One Punch Man are definitely there, but it is a fairly different take on a lot of the same concepts and honestly proooooobably better executed. Animation is a joy and I like the sketchy art style.
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Rewatched Paranoia Agent this week. Strikes even more of a chord while living through an era of mass hysteria.
God dammit why are all my favorite humans dead.
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New Game: It's sweet and the subject matter is interesting. Nenecchi needs to die in a fire.
Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash: Kind of a variant on Sword Art Online. Characters are nice but plot is very predictable. Ranta is the best.
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Mob Psycho 100: Excellent comedy shonen action series. Reigen is a true hero and the last episode was an absolute joy. It enjoys itself while taking potshots at more serious versions of its genre (ala OPM), thought I think the overall effect is much greater here.
KonoSuba: SAO, but intentionally funny. I laughed a bunch. Ashley laughed a bunch. Show loves breast shots, sometimes just for having them, sometimes to be funny. Takes the piss out of both fantasy and trapped in another world quite nicely.
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Yeah.
Mob psycho 100 is fun.
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Macross Delta - watched through
It's not a very good addition to the Macross metaseries, but I found it generally enjoyable. Want to say it was at least more entertaining than 7, even if 7 was probably ultimately a better story and had to deal with the weight of being twice as long as it needed to be.
The final episode goes to some dumb places and doesn't even resolve most of the open issues.
The whole Lady M thing is ultimately pointless - debatably, I guess - which is arguably not the worst resolution. (If it had been going somewhere, the amount of time it spent getting there would have made it all a complete wasted chance.) If the series is going to be remade into movies then there may be an opportunity there to expand on things, or I wouldn't mind if they just dropped it entirely.
Alderamin On The Sky - watched through
Good when it's about the battlefield or intrigue, not so good when it's about sleaze. The latter doesn't come up too often, at least.
The final pre-credits scene is pretty great and I'll be happy to watch more if they're going to make more.
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91 Days - The show is absolutely great. A anime with a revenge plot that never deviates what it suppose to be. The only thing that bothers me is the ambiguity that's left in the ending. Didn't feel it adds anything to the story due to how Angelo's character is pretty much concluded in the end.
Danganronpa 3 - Hahahah, Kodaka you lunatic.
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Re: Zero - Is cool.
Keijo!!!!!!!! - Anime is saved
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It's
FallSpring Season! And there's stuff to watch!
Shuumatsu no Izetta - An apparently alternate-universe WW2 setting, showcasing the invasion of not!Lichenstein by not!Germany and its subsequent defence by The Last Witch(tm). This show looks like it will be a somewhat lighthearted romp that takes itself just seriously enough to be engaging. WW2 military porn is fun, too. (But there's no M1 Garand CHING! noise so far. That's a huge missed opportunity, but maybe not!America will eventually get into it as well?)
Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - This is a magical girl show that really wants to hang out with the other cool magical girl deconstructions! sorry for using that word! Only it kind of misses the mark, so far, since it gives away a bit too much too soon. Truly horrifying your audience requires a kind of slow burn, but it's hard to see how this show can raise the stakes much higher and still maintain a sense of gravity.
Drifters - This is the first time I've seen samurai save an elf village, and then whip the constituent elven villagers into a vengeful mob. genius
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<harmony/> : Interesting. On the whole positive, but there are enough nits that I'm not gonna call it an all-time great or anything. It does a heck of a lot of stuff right, though, stuff that I'd like to see more often, so. For starters: Having a protagonist who is in their late 20s and has a job. Amazing, I know. Yes, there are flashbacks to high school, of course. For another: having a kind of cyberpunky world that is, for the most part, pretty well off! The world of harmony/ is the vaguely Star Treky-on-Earth one of life extension technologies, biomonitors, and ubiquitous monitoring and surveillance. But mostly in fact for your own good; they want to ensure everyone is properly socialized and such and there's no repeat of some WW3-esque nuclear incident in the past. (With hilariously small numbers. Only 10 million people dead? 10 million people could go missing tomorrow in America and it'd be a blip.) And, something I respect, they remember that not everybody will be on board with this, so there's the people who live in the closed arcology-esque cities with life-extension and their own media and the like, and Everybody Else who doesn't.
Anyway, Our Heroine is a WHO inspector. And terrible person. How do you make a society at peace where everyone lives forever interesting? Have a sulking ball of spite be the main character, intentionally living on the fringes and openly talking about how much she despises her homeland of Japan with all of its niceness and courtesy. Much like Orphan Black, while perhaps you wouldn't want to be friends with such a person, they make for a good perspective character, as they go on their rampage through the plot. Anyway, shit goes pear-shaped, and she has to investigate, and it seems tied to her high school friend / lover / cult leader who is somehow even more of a terrible person. Except that she's long dead, so...?
Anyway, a bit of the Fight Club issue in that you need to appreciate Tyler Durden's charisma and acknowledge he has some valid points while still realizing that he's totally a villain who has to be stopped. The two extreme ideologies in <harmony/> - one of "smash the state" and another of Firefly-movie-esque mass pacification - both get a bit *too* much credit by the writers IMHO for how compelling they are. Alas. As a result, the movie runs off the rails in the last 10 minutes, but oh well. I still liked it.
More spoilery nitpicks:
* As someone who appreciates talking problems out rather than meaningless fight scenes, they'd honestly have been better off with just a straight action sequence at the end. They might have been lovers *once*, but that was a long time ago, and Micah's gone totally crazy and murderered people including her friends in pursuit of the ultimate high or something. The main character should be perfectly willing to shoot her with less blubberyness, except perhaps as a trap.
* I wish they'd amped up Micah's turn a little better, with her raving about how her brief time "unconscious" was like super-cocaine, and once you've experienced it, you'll stop at nothing to go back. The idea that she was involuntarily drugged into experiencing that makes her still sympathetic enough as a villain. That said, you'd think that someone who discovered consciousness "by hand" would be the very person harmony wouldn't work on...? Like, she clearly isn't using the same path everyone else is.
* The harmony system was presumably only enabled on people in the actual Lifeism system, right? So... is this gonna work? They show the whole map lighting up though, which implies that it's the entire world. If it's not the entire world, it's kinda unilateral disarmament, since your society of peaceful robots & philosophical zombies is gonna get wrecked by one crazy barbarian invading.
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Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash: A fun show that takes the now-standard "regular people trapped in an RPG" and plays it slowly and seriously. It's pretty easy to mess up a story like this by playing up the escapist power fantasy side of it. Grimgar opts to focus on the everyday struggles of those who do not appear to be 'destined heroes' or even particularly good at the whole adventuring business they are involuntarily forced into. The main characters all kind of objectively suck at what they are required to do , like real people ACTUALLY WOULD. Less "How awesome it would be to be an RPG hero" and more "Actually being adventurers in an RPG would suck". The focus on that aspect of it is relatively tight, as even the 'good' adventures are gruesome and frightening affairs.
The show is not without it's fanservice/tropes, but these are more like a checkmark without any real narrative focus. While undesirable certain eye-rolling moments can be revealing (the party discussing a girl's shapeliness displays serious body image issues the subject has). Slow paced, but definitely worth a look for those who may have liked the premise of this type of show but got turned off by the escapist/power fantasy main character centralism of other such shows. The direction of the show is good too. Many calm and slow moments of nice artwork and character building interspersed with fights that are ugly, brutish, and short.
Yona of the Dawn:
Kind of a standard one girl with a cast-full-of-guys type story. The story follows a spoiled princess whose beloved prince kills her dad and she has to come to grips with that and grow as a person to lead an insurrection/rebellion. I can't say the characters take excessively stupid actions and the political angle isn't bad. I don't really like the main heroine though and that's kind of a show-stopper.
Gargantia in the Verdurous world:
What looked like a space opera war turns into a fish-out-of-water story about a young man from a (necessarily) brutal military society being thrown into something very different and having to cope. With an awesome giant robot. Gorgeous show with a fun premise and fairly tight focus on the central premise. Even if it has 'fanservice' it feels so ancillary to the actual subject matter that it just fits in with the other oddities that Ledo the main character faces. Fun times.
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I really liked Gargantua. While the fanservice eventually levels out to not be much, that whole festival scene in the beginning was fucking skeevy enough to almost make me drop the series.
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So, been watching that new Gundam, Iron Blooded Orphans. Generally pretty fun stuff. Main highs so far is the main pilot, who a few people have tried to psych out by trying to convince him he's turning into a cold blooded killer. If he's feeling talkative, that ploy has him agree they may have a point before killing them, and usually he doesn't bother saying anything. Also, it passes the Weber Test in a few different ways, which is always nice. The core cast is also pretty good. I mean, the core of it is the brotherhood of the main unit, and specifically of Orga and Mikazaki (the captain and the pilot) who compliment each other nicely. But the female lead makes a good case that, despite not being front and center promotionally, or ever doing anything combat related, she may actually be the main character. I mean, without her, there isn't really a plot. She changes the most from a fairly meaty character arc, and you can clearly see how her behaveour, posture, and position in this military organization changes from beginning to end of the first major arc. Some of the major echos you get later on call back to her actions early on, and at the end of it, the main resolution is as much her conviction and her words as it is the fighting prowess of Mikazaki and the boys of Tekkadan.
Of course, having finished the first main arc, I am left with one overwhealming thought. You can sum the whole thing up by saying it's just one perilous and roundabout trip from Mars to Edmonton. At least the vast forests of Edmonton got proper billing. I can only imagine how this has been received by the Gundam fans in Calgary.
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your name. - This movie tore up the Japanese box office in 2016, apparently. Going in, I figured that it was going to be your average sappy high school romance with a side of Freaky Friday body swapping. It's considerably better than that. Can totally see why it was a big hit.
There's a lot of stuff to like, including a well done twist (a twist that's been done before, sure, but it's good and surprisingly topical (surprise Fukushima?!))), but I'll especially note that given the choice between having the characters act like idiots v. plot bullshit to get in the way, the script writer picked plot bullshit. Which is occasionally still a little frustrating, but I'll take competent characters doing some obvious logical things who are kept in their toes by a tough situation over characters holding the idiot ball to extend an extra 15 minutes of plot.
Good stuff.
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So Boruto anime is coming out soon, so I should probably talk about the manga.
Verdict: It's surprisingly decent! The art is done by Kishimoto's former assistant, so it's visually identical to Naruto. New character designs are good, and the character personalities are actually very good.
On the minus side there's some stuff tacked on which is obviously meant to sell merchandise. One of the plot points is a wrist launcher that shoots ninja scrolls.
So if you liked Naruto you should like this also. Definitely one of the most respectful "sequel" mangas out there.
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The chapters that are out right now are just the movie's plot retreaded. From the next chapter onwards, it'll be original material.
That said, Chou Chou is the best character.
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Gundam ibo is pretty great. At least the first season was. I was thoroughly entertained with the cast and how it the ending had me cheering on the supposed big bad.
Looking forward to seeing how it all ends!
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Attack on Titan Season 2: Hello~~~
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Oh, hi there, FLCL 2. (https://twitter.com/catsuka/status/881647931107020801) And FLCL 3.
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Tsuredure Children: Short vignettes about high schoolers confessing to each other. Pretty standard fare, and then this happens:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jBuPXZO1lI
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The look on mom's face is priceless.
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Napping Princess - Pretty good. Kinda like if someone decided to make Pan's Labyrinth be about self-driving cars rather than the Spanish Civil War, and also way more cheerful. Just came out stateside today; I saw it subbed, so can't comment on the quality of the dub. (Although the SUB's quality was a little erratic, frankly... who translates "Shinkansen" as "super express" rather than either leaving it as Shinkansen, or calling it "Bullet Train?" Maybe if you're translating for 9-year olds?! But they won't care anyway...)
Also, you might have heard of the soundtrack composer, a lady by the name of Yoko Shimomura.
In the realm of accessible nitpicks that can be appreciated without having seen the movie: it makes sense when, y'know, you have something like Excalibur sealed away and people still want it because it's an awesome sword. This tends to make less sense with technology, though. Like... pretty sure that Welkin's dad's tank in Valkyria Chronicles should be an obsolete relic, similar to using a WWI tank in WWII. This is another one of those cases where people are on the hunt for some tech that's 14-18 years old... okay, to the movie's credit, it's been "maintained" and perfected since, but come on. That's code from 2003 by modern standards, so think something horrible in old versions of Shockwave Flash that interfaces with Windows XP and assumes batteries are three times as heavy as they are now. That maintenance better have been hella good to not want to throw the code just in the trash immediately. But, like I said, a nitpick, and one that is less relevant than usual due to the aforementioned "maintained since then" excuse.
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Evangelion: One of the classic animes I hadn't seen.
I have no idea what the fuck I just watched.
It's either:
1) a thoughtful sociological essay on the human condition as the individual tries to fit into society's expectations.
2) the author circlejerking with pompous psychobabble as an excuse to create elaborate drawings of women's undergarments.
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It is fundamentally 1, but the writers of the series at times are not sure what they are doing either and leads to various moment that makes you wonder what's wrong with them.