Watching any anime?

[DjinnAndTonic]

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.

[Grefter]

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.

[Bardiche]

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.

[DjinnAndTonic]

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.

[Grefter]

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.

[Hunter Sopko]

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.

[DjinnAndTonic]

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

[Fudozukushi]

The NeedLess ED is burned into my brain since a youtube video I have saved has an ED pic as the author pic.

[Hunter Sopko]

Yep. Once you see it, you can't unsee it.

[Grefter]

You watched it, you can't unwatch it is the line.

[Bardiche]

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.

[Hunter Sopko]

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?"

[Twilkitri]

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.

[Hunter Sopko]

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.

[Ultradude]

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.

[Hunter Sopko]

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.

[Bardiche]

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.

[Cmdr_King]

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.

[Bardiche]

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.

[Cmdr_King]

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.

[Bardiche]

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?

[Hunter Sopko]

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 ;-;

[Bardiche]

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.

[Hunter Sopko]

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.

[Ultradude]

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 >_<