Bartimaeus

Evangelion: 2.22 YOU CAN (NOT) ADVANCE [AMAZON EDITION] <ENGLISH DUB> %NO SIDE-BY-SIDE COMPARISONS THIS TIME% $MAJESTIC'S GOING TO BE THE LAST ONE TO FINISH EVANGELION UNLESS HE HURRIES IT UP$ #BETTER BE DR. PHIL SEIZURING IT UP BY THE END OF THIS OR IT'S NOT EVANGELION# &THIS IS GETTING UNREADABLE SO I GUESS I BETTER STOP& *I WAS RUNNING OUT OF SYMBOLS TO DELINEATE THESE STATEMENTS ANYWAYS* †THEN AGAIN, THAT'S WHAT WE HAVE UNICODE FOR† @majestic was right, Misato really does sound weird in this dub...and it really sounds like it's getting worse. It's very strange, she sounded like 99% herself from the original show in the initial version, but in the first Amazon movie, it was like...maybe 80% herself with a few particularly bad lapses, and now in this second one, it's more like 60% with frequent bad lapses where it's difficult to even tell that it's the original VA. I can only assume it's a combination of aging but also Amazon's more differenter voice direction, particularly because there are still scenes where she does sound like herself, they're just...less frequent than they should be (and also, even Shinji has, at times, sounded not quite himself - there have been a few lines where he's not directly on camera but talking and it took me a moment to realize "oh, that's Shinji" which should never happen). 2.22 stuff:

On the state of the Afghanistan army and the U.S. trying to build them up: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/68d75dfkdampyr0/interesting_insight_into_the_abysmal_state_of_the-zy22bendf0i71.mp4 Thought this was a comedy skit at first, but no... Personally, I'm very happy we're finally getting out: sunk costs should not dictate future costs. Sucks for everyone involved (that we wasted so many lives and so much money and time and effort, for those of them that wanted and depended on us being there, and so on), it really does, but that's life - the best time to have gotten out was right away, the second best is right now. Let's not try to do any more nation-building for a long time, thank you very much - we don't exactly have a good track record of it anyways.

Yeah, I went and checked to make sure - I really do actually have those options when I start it. Sucks to be you, .

Ha. Heh. Yes, especially when it...subverts your expectations, . For probably much the same reason that I can't watch the Japanese, I'm sure you can't tolerate the English! (e): Also, Misato does sound weird in the Amazon English dub - I thought so myself. She sounded more like herself in the original release/script of the movie.

lmao, I'm not sure whether to give you a laughing or crying emote icon...guess it's better to laugh than cry, . ...That's especially strange, though, because *I* have access to the German dub and...all of this for 1.11:

lmao, way to make me look like a psychopath. No, I didn't know that. While I haven't watched the original Japanese and thus I still am not particularly familiar with them...I have listened to and enjoyed each of their covers of Fly Me to the Moon, of which...I mean, there are a lot. I may or may not be an absolute soundtrack fiend. @HoonDing Do you...actually watch any anime at all? The only one I think I've seen you mention with even the hint of seriousness is MAYBE City Hunter, but even that I can't tell if you're joking...

(e): Okay, just to be clear...the second one is called "2.0 YOU CAN (NOT) ADVANCE", right?

Well, KP wasn't wrong: this does very much feel like Evangelion...for the most part. Not nearly as nice-looking as the original Evangelion, but not terrible either (it's probably, stylistically speaking, about as good as one could expect CGI to look, I suppose), and there are some actually good-looking effects/scenes too. Guess I gotta watch the second one...whatever that one's called. (e): Oh wow, they hit me with the old "next episode preview" music after the credits. Dope.

I tried that for a little, but it just sounds so wrong to me. Plus, I mean...I haven't even gotten to Asuka yet, and if Amanda Winn-Lee's Rei was "(non-romantic) love at first sight", Tiffany Grant's Asuka was "I didn't like you at first, but then I couldn't live without you (but yes, in a non-romantic way)". And anyways, like I said, the actual subtitles seem to match the Amazon script more if anything, even though the original script is more what I remember the show and characters being like. So...I guess I'm just going to gut it out with Amazon...

I'm having both play side by side right now, and it's so strange how different the voice direction and script is. Just like...Misato, has been screaming and hurling insults left and right at everything and everyone, including Shinji, in the Amazon script (which, according to the subtitles for the Japanese, is more or less accurate) - in the original English script, she's still yelling but it's a more collected and purposeful kind of yelling (instead of, you know, just sounding completely hysterical), and the insults are minimized or gone entirely. It's really weird and I'm not happy that I can't get the best of both worlds right now.

Her voice is literally a big part of what made me want to keep watching the show after a weird and rough first few episodes that didn't really appeal at all to me. Really, I was strongly considering dropping the show...but that voice was like an angelic choir calling to me - had to figure out what was going on with her. And the fact that the other three (Shinji, Asuka, Misato) are all the same makes it all the more weird and inexplicable. Okay, I'm watching the Amazon version now...and the entire script is different? That's really weird, but I guess I'll have to roll with it. Ritsuko was replaced again...but hey, Rei is back, and that's what matters. (e): Yeah, so, like...this script is way worse than the original script. I just can't win...

They changed Rei's English VA. I thought...I thought all four of them were the same. About to have myself a big ol' Shinji scream right now. I can't even... Evangelion has been cancelled until further notice. Amanda Winn-Lee is like...I can't even begin to describe how important her incredibly distinctive and perfect voice is to that character for me. Like literally, I'll probably remember that voice for the rest of my life is how distinctive and special that voice is to me. Well, I can't watch this. Wait a second... I have to get the AMAZON-specific version of this? Gosh dang it. ...Alright, well, guess I have to do that before I can watch any more. At least I have options!

I switched to the Japanese dub for a moment and it's mildly louder, but still pretty darn quiet. The English is like...next-level quiet, though, so that small bit does make a difference.

Why is this movie so ungoshly quiet? My goodness, I'm two minutes in here and I'm going to have to set my volume to literally the absolute max in order to hear anything. ...I could listen to it on headphones I GUESS, but then I heard Angel Attack play and well, that just seems wrong to listen to on headphones. ...Max volume and getting my ears absolutely blown out from whatever comes on after when I inevitability forget it is, I suppose. (e): Also, the movie looks...okay. It makes me sad thinking about how good the original series looks in comparison, though, .

...Uh, is this another Death & Rebirth vs. Death (True) vs. Death (True)^2 issue? Because if so, a big middle finger to Hideaki "George Lucas" Anno for that, .

Yes, I played and beat it years ago. Gameplay was solid, I liked the world and atmosphere stuff...but the writing was very often clumsy at best. May be partly the translation's fault, though, . Miyu:

Miyu stuff: Evangelion: Guess I'll try the first one, 1.0, and get back to you guys on whether I can take a second one, .

Are you ever watching a show or a movie where you're absolutely blindsided by a twist...that was so incredibly obvious and which there were almost literally legion amount of hints throughout the entire thing (so much so that you had actually literally guessed the twist from the very start but then somehow forgot that you guessed it somewhere along the way because you got distracted with other stuff going on) and then you feel like an absolute babbling baboon when you get sucker-punched in the back of the head as it finally happens? That's me with Eriko right now. Boy do I feel like the big dumb for not putting two and two together. Anyways, I'm going to take the advice of Ronaldo now.

One hundred percent true, which is why I would not disagree it's not communicated well enough (especially when it could've been easily by Miyu herself perfectly sensibly in-universe), . Also, yes, my interpretation is indeed informed by having watched the entire show, which I think clears up a few different things in this regard, at least indirectly, . That's really strange - you'd think that would make Japanese entertainment sound kind of unnatural to actual Japanese watchers. I'd definitely think it'd sound unnatural if your typical American film suddenly did the opposite and only used names and no pronouns.

My worry is that since it has come out twenty years later, it will feel very stylistically different from the original show and I won't be able to hack it. That's something I'll probably be able to tell within the first ten minutes of watching whatever the first part is called, though.

I think the key difference is that the girl could not let go of him, and he could not let go of her - their lives were indelibly intertwined, Miyu visited her multiple times and saw this. In contrast to the prostitute, who was just seemingly impersonally using her job as a means to an end and was perfectly willing to immediately drop everything and get out of dodge in order to avoid Miyu - obviously no attachments to any of her clients if she was willing to let go of them that quickly, which is not how the shinma that Miyu typically targets usually operate. The fact that the two of them ended up helping Miyu no doubt had a part in it as well. Mild spoiler: It was actually because I feared his answer would be "I'm not gonna recommend anything to [me]" because of past discussions we've had on recommendations recently, not anything to do with personally you, . Eh indeed. I think the only episode I liked less was the one where the guy gets transmogrified and possessed, and then also subsequently murdered by his girlfriend, and it's not at all a coincidence that that episode also featured a random guy as a protagonist, . And oh boy, does that lady sure love her dolls. Dolls, dolls, dolls!

I wondered about this at the time, and my only theory was that it was specifically because she and the guy were unable to be separated - when Miyu spares (or intends to spare, Reiha overruling her notwithstanding) shinma, it seems to have always been either shinma who kept only to themselves or just to other shinma - perhaps I'm wrong, but I can't remember an instance of her sparing a shinma who was personally involved with any kind of human. It seems as though she wishes shinma to have little to no contact with humans (...and for good reason). If that's the case though, it's not communicated clearly enough through her own words, however. As for the crazy guy, I wonder if it was because she never really properly met or interacted with him basically at all, and so the structure of the episode (which seemed to already be troubled enough) didn't really allow for it. She generally drains those she has spent at least a little time getting to know and whom she takes pity upon. @KP the meanie zucchini Would you recommend those Evangelion movies? ...Hold on, let me rephrase: would you recommend those Evangelion movies to majestic? Yeah, I figure it's just about a 50/50 chance that I ever watch Cardcaptor Sakura again - either it happens or it doesn't, . It's very difficult to know for sure which side of the coin I'll land on, impossible really! (...I'll get to those last two episodes of the arc soon-ish.)

Lmao, yeah, my reaction to that episode was basically "¿que?". I'm not usually in favor of having a different protagonist for an episode, and especially not when it makes for such a weird and inexplicable episode. Didn't Miyu actually meet him relatively early in the strange sub-reality and basically go "huh, this is weird...oh well, see ya later!". Nice job, Miyu. Eight episodes left... Clearly, you can't do make it baby, . (e): Yeah, so one episode later, the originally light-hearted tone of Nadia is officially and permanently over from this point. Don't know what I expected, but thanks, Hideaki Anno.

It's...mostly exploration and world-based puzzles/investigation with a helping of "don't get murdered"? ...I don't know if "world-based puzzles/investigation" is the best descriptor, but it's not usually like...I don't know, Myst-like puzzles where you're trying to figure out arbitrary solutions to arbitrary problems or anything like that, it's more "...so I was exploring and found and did some stuff, this opens up new places to go and things to do and maybe even new interactions with some of the other characters"? I think that's a fair description of it. To be honest, I myself was looking at the Steam store page and thinking "this doesn't...really properly convey what the game is about, not really". Cellphones: I actually meant to write smartphones, not cellphones, RIP me. Yeah, cellphones were obviously around in the 90s, but...cellphones are a lot easier to wave away than smartphones, since all cellphones did back then was make calls and you can just say "lol no service for whatever reason" to fix that problem...or just have your characters be too young to have them, or too rural or poor to have them, or some other kind of arbitrary reason. In contrast to now, where smartphones are so incredibly ubiquitous and advanced with so many different functions and service is available most everywhere except truly remote areas...it's just, yeah, it's different. Hah. Reminds me of trying to get recommendations for stuff based off of me liking (x). Yes, your suggestion of (y) may have (a), (b), (c), (d), and even (e) all in common with (x), but in actuality the way they're stylistically and tonally presented is so completely and utterly different that they may as well be in totally separate genres. Now (z) that I just chanced upon by accident on the other hand, has almost *nothing* in common on the surface with (x)...and yet somehow feels the closest out of anything else I've ever seen! Inherent qualities and different styles of communicating and coding themes, characters, plots, and the world-building play a huge part in how stuff actually comes across...a much bigger part, I'd say, than the fact that two shows share a similar horror setting, or a similar group of superheroes, or a similar coming-of-age theme, or...anything else.

Uh...yeah, pretty much. Yep. There's something about pre-cellphone (i.e. pre-2000s) modern horror that at least mostly tries to be subtle and grounded while also having mild fantastic elements that tickles my senses...and of course, Miyu specifically gets plenty of bonus points for other stuff as well. If you ever have a chance, maybe try the game Yuppie Psycho if it seems like it'd be something up your alley - strange little indie game whose setting and premise has resounded with me for a surprisingly decent amount of time and actually serves as a little bit of a backbone for me liking Miyu so much, at least in that specific regard. I only mention it and the bit about modern horror because I see you also have spent some time thinking of alternative setups and situations, and your concept for a show sounds fantastic. Yeah, I'd totally want that for an entire show, especially if it stayed with the dark and gloomy atmosphere. I said "silly girl stuff" in absolute fondness, obviously, . Yeah, Sailor Moon is special...and no, Cardcaptor Sakura is...I mean, it is very similar, but it's also not at the same time, just like how Miyu is not at all like either of them as well while also basically being a magical girl anime with some very similar mechanisms. They just feel and operate too differently on too many levels...and of course, the character and thematic stuff is *way* different.