Bartimaeus

There's a little something that I like to call a pro gamer move where you skip everything except for the dentist episode, . But no, really, I think SuperS is so horrid precisely because it is ~40 episodes. Being punched in the mouth with the same terrible and gross gimmick over and over and over until you're broken and begging for the sweet release of death and you can't even get that because Pegasus will suck your soul into his nightmare dream realm like the vortex of a black hole and haunt you forevermore. But if the question is just a single average SuperS episode (say, one where just any old rando gets targeted) vs. that episode, I'm not sure the single SuperS episode would seem *that* egregious all by itself. Now if it was a...specific episode, like the one where Chibi-Usa enters Pegasus' (or her own?) dreams and flies around with him for like half of the episode, I'm taking the Michiru + Haruka episode a thousand times out of a thousand, of course...but just an average episode? I'm not as sure. This is probably a good reminder that I find the "serious mode" story episodes of Sailor Moon significantly weaker than even you do (...because they almost invariably strip all of the critical components that make Sailor Moon work as a show without doing anything interesting or otherwise engaging on basically any level that I could discern in return for being "serious"...outside of Sailor Stars, which does actually have a number of good "serious mode" episodes IMO, particularly the short filler arc at the beginning of the season). Perhaps I'm barking mad and playing devil's advocate a little too much here, but I just feel like if you just took that "average" episode and inserted it somewhere in S, you would initially think it's a perfectly normal episode, eventually come to the conclusion that something feels a bit off with it and that the writing is definitely a bit worse than the rest...but that it still mostly feels like Sailor Moon and not think that much of it after it's ended. It's when you've been subjected to it five times...ten times, twenty times, thirty times, fourty times in a freaking row where you really become broken. And speaking of S, let's not forget that it already had this particular sequence... ...so it's not as though terrible stuff hadn't already been present in the show up until SuperS, . Feel free to Dr. Phil seizure me if you really think my line of thinking is that crazy, .

I mean, they could try enunciating the 'R' a little. It's not like *I'm* pronouncing Oscar and Asuka the same way like the singer here is, . Ah, that must be where the crazy crap that somehow connects all of it to Evangelion happens, . Hmm...is it a fair comparison? Take an average episode from SuperS and insert it into S and does it work less than that single Haruka + Michiru episode? Would 40 episodes of variations on that episode be more or less miserable than 40 episodes of SuperS?

That's...a while just to install a GPU. My greatest impediment in getting stuff like that done is usually just pain and exhaustion, . But if you ever do, be sure to let me know because I may have a resource that proves helpful to you once you have the space. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but that looks quite awful indeed compared to the BD, . I was just thinking "eh, that one was kind of bad..." but then I immediately thought about Nadia's latest episodes and went wait, no, there's a big difference between boring and outright bad. Be thankful K-On doesn't have THAT... I'll be sure to keep you updated on whether it's able to redeem itself. It really does sound like "Lady Asuka" to me...

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2001). Early 2000s "cool" in the sense that during action scenes, someone will shoot literally about a thousand arrows in approximately two seconds (eyeroll), all of them will be pointed straight up into the sky as opposed to any actual targets (another eyeroll), they'll magically hit (yet another eyeroll), and some them will even be shown to visibly bend in mid-air (not even because of magic, a normal human shot them!) in clearly impossible ways for no apparent reason towards their target (and now we have arrived at The End of Eyerolls). At least JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has the decency to treat itself like the silly nonsense it is. ...But while the action's dumb, the story is actually probably better in this one than the original, and didn't really go where I expected given that this would initially appear to be just a big dumb action anime movie. Indeed, I actually started skipping through the movie because the first fifteen minutes of the movie were so dumb that I gave up (just a pile of really bad action stuff), but I got like 30-40 minutes in and was like "wait, what's happening? wait, this is actually kind of interesting and looks much better" and ended up going back to where I had initially given up and then watched the rest of it. So you know, given how dumb it initially appeared and the fact that it came out 16 years after the first, much better than expected! The aesthetic of this movie's closest comparison is Ghost in the Shell. It's not by any means just like it, particularly because the setting is so different, but here, look at this lady:

Yeah, the historical drama isn't the one I would've gone for first, personally, . At least it's a little more interesting time period. Random bluray screenshots you can compare to: P.S. That German song made me realize how close "Asuka" and "Oscar" sounds, . (e): Nadia has seemingly fallen off the same "world's largest cliff" that Ranma 1/2 did. This crap is so dumb. In episode 26, it was just more of the same as the previous two episodes in the first half followed by the second half of the episode just being a filler dream sequence that had no bearing on the current situation that just kept going and going until the end of the episode. Holy crap, please give me back Hideaki Anno, I'll try to never say anything bad about Rebuild of Evangelion ever again... (e): Lmao, oops, I already broke my promise to not say anything bad about Rebuild, .

Just a little reminder that I wouldn't have ever decided to give Sailor Moon a try in the first place if I had had this particular OCD issue! 200 episodes? I don't freaking think so, . But yes, it's probably a better idea to wait for me to try all of these out rather than make yourself a sacrificial guinea pig...of course, you simply would then have to trust my judgement, . Thank you, Mr. Ikuhara - very cool, . How many episodes of K-On do you have left roughly anyways? A break from Nadia...has opened the opportunity to watch Neon Genesis Evangelion instead. Some thoughts: 1. This show is gorgeous, although The End of Evangelion takes it to an even higher level. 2. The first couple of episodes are pretty rough around the edges writing and character-wise and just don't really feel like a great introduction to the series...but things start to even out and settle more into a rhythm after that, thankfully. I was kind of mentally groaning at some of the dialogue where Ristuko, Misato et al. kept yelling out really obvious things over and over during action scenes, and not to mention Misato just acting kind of (deliberately) uncomfortable in general, . 3. And yet even with that said...re-watching this really makes Rebuild look absolutely gosh-awful - and I don't mean visually, but from a direction, storytelling, character, and pacing viewpoint. Nothing about Rebuild really works in comparison to this. I'm tempted to lower my ratings of them even more retroactively. Did 1.0 really deserve a 6/10? Probably not... I think I was mostly operating off of nostalgia for the characters. 4. This time, watching with subtitles (for the Japanese track) on, and some of the changes they make in the English dub are...interesting. It's oddly more minimalist than the Japanese, as a number of times Shinji will confirm something with a quick "yes" will not be there in English (giving him the impression of almost being selectively mute), or he's supposed to have some kind of quick thought that isn't there, lines from characters that are off-camera when they're saying them are often delayed from the Japanese timing for some reason, just...oddities like that for whatever reason. What's actually there is quite faithful in meaning even if sometimes the exact words change, though. I should eventually watch the series in Japanese...maybe next time, if there is one. It's not the longest series in the world and it seems to be way more digestible having already seen it compared to the first time where my brain was trying to keep up with all of the technobabble and insane story and character stuff, so there probably will be at some point. 5. I'm not finding Shinji to be annoying basically at all. Not sure if the result of watching Rebuild, a better perspective from having already seen the series, or just my tastes changing as a result of time, or something else. Actually, having already seen the entire series really makes this a lot more enjoyable in general, in my opinion. 6. Scenes that I had no clue the import of and couldn't really remember happening after they did (like Kaji just randomly delivering Adam to Gendo - how the hell was I supposed to know the importance of that when it happens so freaking early on?!) sure make a lot more sense having already seen the show, .

Or from Chicago...or from Michigan...or even from Texas, . Trust me, while Packers have some unique traits about them in this wonderful sports landscape of teams being owned by utterly amoral and sociopathic gazillionaires, I'm well-aware that a sports team is ultimately still just a sports team, .

In contrast, all Packers fans are perpetually under the delusion that we're always the good guys, and any time anybody says we're not they're the ones that must the villains, .

I said the same things in here as I did to the person that recommended it to me and they were like: 1. "He was killing just bad guys so I actually didn't have a problem and agreed with him." I guess the maniacal rant at the end of the first episode where he laid out all his completely awful character motivations and clearly spelled himself out as a villain didn't matter? As if indiscriminately killing piles of people based off of instant judgements wasn't bad enough, he literally said all of the things I said that he did in my previous post in just like the last 5 minutes of the episode - he hates everyone and wants to be god! Like, what? 2. "The story's not really about just him so it's not really that big of a deal anyways." The protagonist of the show doesn't matter, guys. It's perfectly okay and totally ignorable if your protagonist has the disposition of Donald Trump and you already want him to die within the first episode, . I think KP really likes and has recommended that show?

Any time I cheer for the Cowboys, they always lose. ...Probably because I only cheer for them when they're facing a bigger and badder opponent, . Felt a bit robbed when that receiver got away with clear OPI on that big catch near the ending, but OPI has always been enforced so randomly and selectively I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, . How ya feeling about losing your starting right tackle (instead of the usual defensive lineman!) to substance abuse issues?

Yes, exactly why I was trying it to get it out of the way as soon as possible (and have similarly eliminated a handful of other shows that were clearly bad fits for me in a series of mass "let's try this out for like ten minute"s). The way I was told that it wasn't like normal shonen and that it doesn't stay within its boundaries like so many other shows, so I should be okay. And speaking of... Man, what the heck is it with shonen protagonists being so incredibly unlikable, unrelatable, and just...so shonen? Managed to finish the first episode, and it's difficult to imagine a more self-conceited, power-hungry piece of megalomaniac garbage than this main character. Insists that he's the best student in all of Japan, says he wants everyone to know that it's him killing people, that he wants to become God, that everyone besides him sucks anyways, that he's the one that is fit to pass judgement (life or death) on others...and that he's doing it all because he's bored, and no, he can't understand what the big scary demon means when he says that he's one messed up human. The show just started and you've already become a complete psychopath with the power you've had for like literally just a day? What? ...I really hate the shonen "range" of protagonists. It's almost always either just being the biggest moron in the room at all times or unlikably obsessed/focused on strength/power (a major villain trait, duh...but in shonen it's always presented as completely normal!), and it seems like almost every shonen protagonist is always either one or both of those two. Don't get it. Ranma 1/2's first season was like the one exception to this rule, where I actually sympathized with Ranma and thought he was being treated pretty unfairly on top of acting pretty sensibly most of the time (...it probably helped that the first season was more or less focused on mainly character stuff and him trying to come to grips with his condition and how he fits into other people's lives as a result). Which would be why you've been watching K-On to get your fix instead! No, I haven't tried anything from that list I compiled yet. Eriko and Miyu (and a few others I tried like Flower Witch Mary Bell...which was actually not bad at all but if you think Sakura is aimed at too young of an age group, Flower Witch Mary Bell is like literally for five year olds and nobody older, so I abandoned it after a couple of episodes, ) were my own discoveries from doing a cursory search of shoujo shows released from between like 1980-1999. I make no guarantees of their quality or anything of the sort, they're simply shows that I have at least a passing interest in investigating more. Shoujo shows that are currently on THE LIST (in mostly romanji because that's what they're listed as in my bookmarks and I don't feel like finding each of their individual English names even though romanji is utterly ridiculous if you actually have proper English translations): Kaitou Saint Tail, Mahou Kishi Rayearth, Tenkuu no Escaflowne, Ojamajo Doremi, Gokinjo Monogatari, Kodomo no Omocha, Hime-chan no Ribbon, Marmalade Boy, Fruits Basket, Full Moon no Sagashite(?), Onii-sama E, Rose of Versailles, Haikara-san ga Tooru, Mahou no Tenshi Creamy Mami (...probably the same case as Flower Witch Mary Bell for this one in regards to the target demographics, though, but supposedly it was influential). A few others that actual human beings also recommended to me but which looked immediately not up my alley even at the quickest of glances were Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, Tokyo Mew Mew (catgirls...), Mermaid Melody, Daa! Daa! Daa!, Onegai My Melody, and Wedding Peach. I'm not likely to ever even try any of those, . (e): Fixed one of the titles that was needlessly censored, . Apology...mostly accepted, . You could so much worse stylistically than The Powerpuff Girls! I may be slightly biased as a result of watching it as a kid...

Martyrs (2008). Uh. Yeah. So...let's never watch French psychological horror about ever again, mkay? I had to watch approximately half of the movie with either my eyes closed or my hands over my ears, and sometimes both. I'm going to go back to the anime thread where everything is smiles and rainbows now, thank you very much.

I'm pretty sure she's incapable of noticing anything at all, really. I watched an episode of a show called Mob Psycho 100, which is about psychics and wacky demons/spirits. Eh...a bit too crazy for me - that, and it's difficult for me to ever really get into the more hyperactive and irreverent style of a show like this. But if you're into that sort of thing, it didn't seem too bad otherwise...maybe something more up KP's alley. ... I watched about half of an episode of a show called Bloom Into You, which is something someone else recommended to me for who the heck knows why. I didn't have a good feeling about it going into it, and then it was immediately that kind of "permanently over-dramatic for no good reason" show that I instantly notice and want to turn off because that's literally never going to be any fun, and that's more or less what I did after suffering through half of that episode and then starting to skip through it to see if it ever changes. Some kind of girly romance show, but it doesn't matter because the style of it is miles away from anything I'd ever like. As far as anyone else will ever know, I never tried this show, and I never will. ... I watched about ten seconds of an episode of a show called Death Note that someone else also recommended to me, which had the most horrendously awful opening song and animation that I turned it off immediately. Someone who's already watched this please tell me that the rest of the show is better than the intro so I can gather up the courage to at least watch the first episode.

Kicking off the new season with a classically gosh-awful rendition of the national anthem, very cool! (e): The ball does sometimes lie.

"Not nearly as bad as Utena" is what I'm hearing, which sounds like a resounding recommendation even if it does sound a little tempered by some disappointment, . Yeah, I actually wasn't sure whether I should interpret the events of those two episodes as being racist (on the part of the show's creators) or not, because it's starting to kind of feel that way with the way it's all tying into Nadia's core beliefs and upbringing while insistently making her look as stupid and mean as possible. I don't know what they were thinking. I guess it'll depend on where we go from here. Good thing I played Warcraft III for many years so I can still remember that exact line in my head perfectly, . Couldn't be me, I would never do that, especially not about literally everything, . Are kidding me? How could you put the Power Puff Girls in even the same category as Phineas and Ferb? Powerpuff Girls is a totally classic cartoon aesthetic. Phineas and Ferb looks like it was by professional baby-killing assassins who never learned to draw good but decided to make a children's cartoon instead of continuing to kill babies anyways. How are they even remotely on the same level?! I have like literally about 20 different magical/shoujo shows from the ~90s bookmarked because I once sent out a feeler with a Cardcaptor Sakura community about other older shows like it from around the same time period (late 80s to early 2000s) and got swamped with a number of at least promising-looking suggestions...but I'm not gonna get to them anytime soon with everything else I have to get to first. Undoubtedly, none of them will match up to Sakura (and almost definitely not even Sailor Moon), but hey, at least there's a possibility!

Actually already watched the next two episodes already, it was...uh, a minor disaster. Praying that the show doesn't keep doing this, because ye' gods that was literally all those first two episodes were driven by and it was not enjoyable. Also, as for the other characters...if so, they're not the same types of characters as from Evangelion. They may be manifestations of other parts of Anno that weren't covered by Evangelion, though. Character spoilers:

Not really to the level of Evangelion, but...some random wacky spoilers ahead: Biggest problem with this series is funnily the exact same one I had with Evangelion: the main character. Let's just say that Anno seems to have specific traits in mind that I do not find particularly enjoyable for his protagonists, .

"Final" episode of Nadia (23/39, 23rd was the original intended ending): ...Or, if you prefer: ...And a quick, "slight" tweak I just made for no reason: Hm, yeah,. I alllmost stopped watching the first couple of minutes, and then again during one particular scene towards the beginning, but I didn't. Your mileage may vary, .

Forum ate my post again...but I had a copy. Very cool, forums...very cool. Me checking out this movie right now: ...Not because it looks bad, but because my eyes feel like they're melting due to the brightness and vibrancy. Holy cow is that intense. So...I'm just thinking out-loud here, but you probably shouldn't be a social media "influencer" if the sight of your own face terrifies you. Just a thought, . Anyways, perfectly decent film. It was fine, . Even liked the art style well enough (...though the action scene near the beginning was a little...over the top style-wise and feels a little out of place with the rest of the film, but whatever, it's fine).

Those are just about all the "correct" picks (besides the NFC West, who are surely the most difficult to predict with an absolute murder show between the Rams, Seahawks, Cardinals, and 49ers all being fairly easy to see winning that division without it being surprising)...but there are always surprises. Some teams will not do nearly as well as they seemingly should, at least a couple of teams will come out of nowhere, a few teams will get the injury bug bad...so I'd guess probably 4-5 of those will be correct. Which ones is a lot more difficult to say...and what ones will instead replace the ones that don't make it is just about impossible, .

I knew you actually loved Nanami, .

That's why I'm watching and trying to through (or at least a better handle on whether I'd like) all this weird or random stuff I've bookmarked instead of watching Sakura. My OCD for cleaning stuff goes crazy when I have too much, and I have too much by far right now...have to get through some of it. So yeah, don't feel compelled to add even more to your plate by any means, especially given that something like Black Magic M-66 was just fun random trash at best, . I've only seen one episode of Princess Tutu and though I've read everything you've written about it, that was not enough in order for literally anything you say about the show to stick or make sense in my brain. What you wrote here might as well be total gibberish for me, .

Maybe the real End of the World was the friends we made along the way... Black Magic M-66 (1987). I was going to watch the second Devilman, but it wouldn't play, so I made do with some random garbage. Reporter McToughlady protagonist woman gets wind of a military operation that goes terribly wrong involving some malfunctioning androids that are going after the wrong target, gets caught in the middle of it and basically has to Die Hard it up (or maybe Sarah Connor would be a better comparison). Like Assemble Insert, it's random 80s trash, but it's fairly fun trash that's just good enough so it doesn't feel quite like trash. Reporter McToughlady protagonist woman, just in case it wasn't clear, . Hey, beats the crap out of Utena, that's for sure. It's a little weird the years on some of the things I've seen. Venus Wars feels more like it came out in the early 80s, but actually came out in 1989, two years later than Black Magic M-66, and that seems very off and wrong to me...the original Miyu was 1988, but really seems more like it should be a handful of years later in the early 90s to me...and of course, Eriko is still the biggest outlier of anything I've seen, because it came out in 89-90, but from everything about it you'd swear it must've been 20 or even 30 years older than it actually is. Blows my mind that Sailor Moon would come out a couple of years later - in no universe does that make any kind of sense, Eriko is about as old-fashioned as you can get. Weird stuff.