Bartimaeus

I thought the intro song for Utena was hot yarbage, and it's one of the few shows where I actually regularly skipped it, even early on into the show (and definitely more consistently later on). The outro song was where it was at. But uh, I guess that tracks with what I said, .

For me, I played the game pretty much exactly how I played Dark Souls (which was "keep rollin' rollin' rollin' and never block or parry except against knights because their attacks are so clearly and consistently telegraphed"). Don't think I ever parried in Bloodborne even once...actually, I don't think I ever even figured out the mechanics of parrying in that game at all. I hate fighting scrappy in Souls games (i.e. taking damage and healing), so the thing I always focus on first is figuring out enemies' movesets and where and when they can be attacked. I'm not sure how far you are into the game, but one thing I know that can greatly affect difficulty is what weapon you start out and stick with. The Hunter Axe is basically easy mode and it is a great weapon that can be used the entire game, the Saw Cleaver would be medium mode and is at least competent, and the Threaded Cane is hard mode because it's trash. I started out with axe (simply luck, I did not know there was such an imbalance between the different starting weapons), while a friend started out with the Threaded Cane, and our experiences of like the first third of the game could not have been more different. Classic FromSoftware design.

I believe Tim the Enchanter put it for me best: Outro song's not half bad, though I generally prefer catchier and higher energy outro music. Projectile nose-bleeding is an instant cancellation for any show or movie in my books.

Yeah, I think I saw that episode of SpongeBob a few years back too. Pretty wild stuff. ...My curiosity piqued me:

The way you post about JoJo's sometimes, I almost feel like it's not even a real show. Cardcaptor Sakura, episode You're Wonderful, Sakura-Chan! Tomoyo's Cardcaptor Sakura's Action Video Diary 2! Yes, that's really the name. Some interesting perspective here... Sakura looks a bit like an axe-murderer with this hairstyle. Why did Kero just make a turkey gobbling sound? I guess he is a turkey. Also, I guess this is where the baking end credits of season 3 come from. Cardcaptor Sakura, episode You're Wonderful, Sakura-Chan! Tomoyo's Cardcaptor Sakura's Action Video Diary Special! "Everyone, did you know?" "Are you lying again?" "I didn't say anything yet." The first two of these were good, the third one...felt more like what this show would be like if the show had been approached with a more typical "this cartoon is for kids" outlook. Tone, style, and characters were kind of all unnecessarily wacky instead of normal Sakura-grounded feeling. No biggie, it was like a 5 minute short and still decent enough.

I would think so, but the balance here is weird as well, because all of the second movie's action is basically clumped together right in the last third or so, whereas it's more spread throughout the entire thing in the first, IIRC. The second movie's structure almost feels exactly like a normal episode, except lengthened out to 3-4x the runtime, while the first movie is more like a traditional television movie (though it THANKFULLY does not make the mistake of doing the stupid "end of the world"-type thing, which I said as much when I watched it - nope, just a silly lovers' quarrel that Sakura actually could've walked away from at any time except after Madoushi had captured her friends and family because...well, if she hadn't investigated, Madoushi couldn't really have done anything). Yeah, I loved it when I watched it. I imagine it would've felt pretty different watching it at the end of the show instead of in the middle. This might help:

Yeah, antagonist is more correct. I think also knowing that it's a card doesn't help it - Madoushi is sort of like Spinel in SU in that she's a total unknown and you have no idea what her motivations are or exactly what she's trying to accomplish with what she's doing. That's...more intriguing than a card whose true nature you already know, and whose nature requires that...well, that Sakura capture it. How she was going to deal with Madoushi, an actual distinct person that seemed to want to maim and kill her (which never happened in the show before!), was an entirely different matter. The smart bet, of course, was on Steven-ing it up, but I could've seen her being forced to just seal her away or something like that too. End result was that I was more interested in and entertained by the "main action"-y parts of the first movie than I was of the second...but on the other hand, the non-action bits of the second movie were I learned my lesson from Evangelion, thanks, . Not that Sakura is nearly so difficult to comprehend as Evangelion, but still, slow and steady wins the race...

Yeah, I think for the people who are already on the "it's too different and they already really messed it up" boat, no amount of "it's actually good just keep watching bro" propaganda is going to help. If I didn't identify so much with many of the ideas and themes, I am certain I would like it a great deal less than I do. There's always unrealized potential in everything if you think long and hard enough, . The Joe/drug dealer idea would've been pretty great as well as possibly hilarious.

I didn't, I'm saving it for later, . I'm torn on which one I liked more. I guess, if I think about it, this was a great and fitting ending for the show, which is more difficult to pull off than a mid-show "let's go have a random adventure somewhere else" movie like the first one was. I'm still not a hundred percent clear on why the first movie was so disappointing for you, but I'm glad at least the second and more important one was great, . Yeah, I didn't think I would dislike that, and...I didn't, per se, what I actually didn't love was the card herself. I liked Madoushi as a villain *way* more than Ashes. Ashes was...pretty simple and flat, and didn't feel much like a character at all. Still, not too big of an issue.

Cowboys seem awfully like a good-ish team that will get pretty easily dropped out of the playoffs in either the first or second round, depending on whom they get to play in the first round. If they get to play the 7th seed, they probably make it to the second round, but I wouldn't feel comfortable making any optimistic predictions for them beyond that.

Realizing that some things are simply not for you and not making an instant "THIS IS BAD AND I AM SUPERIOR" judgement call is a pretty important step for civil conversation about media. But that part can be pretty difficult for a lot of people, including even myself at times. The whole feel-good action adventure genre, including your Star Wars and your Indiana Jones, your Goonies, and...whatever else, is probably a genre that's never going to quite fully appeal to me for various reasons, but I still recognize plenty of good things about them and understand why they're so often so many people's favorite movies even when I still don't enjoy them nearly as much as others. I might dunk a lot on some of the...lesser or outright bad entries of those series, but that's because it's just so incredibly easy as they're actually just not very good and there is so much ammo to go around - you won't see me talking much smack about the original Star Wars or Indiana Jones trilogies anytime soon. I also won't ever be making any comments on wrestling, soap operas, comedies, or...plenty of other stuff. Enjoy what you want to enjoy, and I'll try to do the same, excluding a rare inspired foray outside of my comfort zone here and then, which unfortunately sometimes leads to disaster where I am thrown down into the well again, . P.S. Terminator > Terminator 2.

Sakura's Sealed Hairdo, The Movie. @majestic's been long asking for this, so don't blame me for the length! I was only able to get the English version of this, so that's what I'm watching. I'm sure I'll like it just as much as if I were watching in the Japanese that I watched the entire rest of the show in. Also, screw the spoiler tag, because it's clear nobody else is going to watch this show at this point. Fire dragon, titanium oliphaunt, rockzilla...oh my gosh, lmao, I should've guessed, I really should've. Gosh dang it, Tomoyo: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/lysw9dtbhwuc6qa/0j1WoWIJdK.mp4 No, wait, I take it back, Tomoyo is my favorite character after all! "OH-HAH-YO-OOH!" I'm just waiting for the "kaiju"...and there it is, literally the next line. Now, does this look like the face of a monster? Yeah, yeah, it kind of does. Some fancy dutch angle scene panning when Sakura sensed something strange about the amusement park. ...Oh yeah, it's all coming together - and Meiling is staying the entire week, which should presumably cover the length of this movie. Lmao, she's just destroying Sakura with a million guilt trips...and the arranged dinner date. This is all Tomoyo's fault, of course. Oh look, it actually was, big frickin' surprise. Well, after Xiaolang spilled the sugar and Sakura started stuttering, I paused the show and said to myself "Kero is ONE HUNDRED PERCENT GUARANTEED going to pop out of thin air to yell about something to interrupt this", and literally two seconds after I unpaused it, he did exactly that and I burst out laughing. It's all so horribly (wonderfully) predictable. Heh, Xiaolang just looked at Kero with literally the same flat-eyed expression Touya has before...and gets completely bodied by Kero for it. The show really only had Kero transform when the story required it and never really more, so that's a bit of a moment. Although given that he only ever plays freaking video games all day every day, he basically shouldn't even be able to transform at this point...magical being benefits, I guess. Alright, here we go again. If someone else was going to suddenly butt in right now...where's Toya and her father? I think they're supposed to be home soon...and, yep, there it is. This is just going to keep happening, isn't it? Half-expecting Ruby to appear out of nowhere just for old time's sake at this point... Sakura should really keep her cards on her...that'd be like Usagi not keeping her transformation brooch on her. I guess a deck of cards is a little more unwieldy...actually, now that I think about it, there are many times throughout the show where she kinda just conjures cards outta nowhere. Hmm, maybe it's just a power she has - the cards have been shown to basically teleport before, after all. I must confess - for but a moment, I interpreted this very wrongly. For only a moment, though. In my defense, look at those eyes...and also, it seems like Meiling too had to question exactly what she meant by that. Meiling, of course, was still embarrassed by the answer, as anyone would rightfully be. And then there were even more guilt trips... The face of a monster that knows all too well what she's doing... Seriously, does Kero do anything but play video games and gorge himself at this point? And yet, he looks like this... Chiharu has some serious "Homer Simpson strangles Bart" issues to work out with Takashi, . Alright, who's it going to be this time? First it was Kero...then it was Toya...we're in the middle of the street right now, so I guess I can't think of anything obvious this time. Hm...maybe an actual THREAT? I guess I'll be surprised! Oh. Uh. A giant rabbit. No, I actually was not expecting Toya for a second time, but somehow, that seems predictable as well. That really *is* like old times...like, season one level of old times. ..."I'm sure it was nothing." *immediate cutaway to desolation and ruin* Yep, I'm sure it was nothing too, Sakura. "Could it be under construction?" Yes, Meiling, because when bridges are being repaired, you utterly demolish them beyond repair before you do the repair, . Oh hey, Kero actually had the same idea I had - Sakura should keep the cards on her at all times! Nice going, Kero. How come Sakura is running late to everything all of a sudden? Did she catch a case of Usagi brain over the summer? Or maybe it was Covid-19... Oh, now *she's* the one that's turning around instead of Xiaolang... This is just "Matchmaking: The Movie" at this point - literally half of the movie more or less completely dedicated to this...and hey, that's great, because it was the most important thing left-over from the show, . Nevertheless, Meiling and Tomoyo should really give Whisper of the Heart a watch and realize that it's O.K. to take your time and not know what you're doing...y'all are still kids. But when you're a kid, you don't feel like a kid, I suppose... Also, I'm pretty sure Xiaolang is having a seizure while on this rollercoaster? That or he just passed out and broke his neck, because that boy don't look right. Oh...bringing out the big guns, are we? The ferris wheel...okay, if there were ever a time to be randomly attacked, this would be it, methinks. Hey...pretty close! Not quite exactly an attack, but pretty close. Just mugged of her cards by her own card, although uh...that card wasn't looking too good to my eyes, so I'm assuming something's up with her. A card that makes everything "return to nothing"? An Ashes to Ashes card - we gettin' Midnight Mass up in here? Uh...Kaho is still living with Eriol? That's...weird. Is she actually human or another one of his creations? That would probably make a lot more sense in all honesty if she was, . Bigly mood. Oh hey, it's Maki(?), the toy store lady. Didn't talk, but she's still around. And Dust to Dust just created a black hole in the middle of the school courtyard, neat. And so prince and princess become princess and prince... I knew there was no way that Takashi was a good fit for that in the first place, so that only made sense. And one last Meiling cackle for the road... Hey, Sonomi recorded Tomoyo's song! She doesn't hate her daughter confirmed! Her goons surrounding the place all have guns, of course...err, I mean cameras, . I love that her dad still readied his even after seeing that ludicrous display. Although I don't love that he left the bloody flash on during a performance...that troglodyte, . Sonomi must be pretty handy with cameras like her daughter, because her look of disgust could have started a war. Yikes, literally the entire town just got sucked into a black hole. Well, it was a good run as Cardcaptor, Sakura. Yikes at Tomoyo's veiled threat to Xiaolang that he would not come back if he didn't wear it. She sure is pushy! And she just turned to dust, so I guess she should've probably made one for herself too if that particular theory of hers had any truth to it - whoops! Okay, was it just me that burst out laughing seeing her ride the ferris wheel? Something about the way that looked, our big bad villain just casually chilling in a ferris wheel as it goes up, was absolutely hilarious to me. Also, I'm pretty sure Sakura would've been severely injured falling like she did - she completely ate it but was totally fine somehow. What a great cornball ending - and it was set up by what happened at the end of the show itself, so bonus points for that. I am, however, a little confused as to why there is an Evangelion(?) song at the end of this movie. Sakura's: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/yy70qrltbhyl3fh/Melody for Tomorrow.flac ...vs. the other: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/fa1ldtqyq7q37hy/This Kind of Love.flac It turns out it's because Shiro Sagisu, the composer of Evangelion, also composed this, and I guess created this alternative version of it. Well, alright, I suppose that does make sense. Great-sounding song, so I can't exactly complain about getting a pretty different version of it.

Egwene:

I'm in favor of everyone always being able to enjoy their favorite things, including the worst no good terrible very bad parts of it...so long as they aren't trying to convince the rest of us that it's any good, . I watched the first one for the first time a few years back and really liked it, hence why Aliens has been on my "yeah I should do that..................eventually" list. Being a bigger, dumber action movie does sound less interesting, but I suppose I really ought to get to get it done and over with someday soon. It's the only other one that's supposed to be any good, as far as I know. I have to be honest with you - although I've actually for real seen both Matrix 2: Redevilutionizer and Matrix 3: Resonancecascadization, I am having the darnest time trying to remember what happens in one versus the other. All I'm remembering are small details like...Neo being stuck in some kind of train station loop, some really awful meme-y looking martial artists, a white room with a billion cameras...I think that's the second one. The third one is just a billion Agent Smiths and the giant mech defense of whatever the hell the human sanctuary was called? Icon? Cyclon? ...Ah, screw it, it's not worth remembering anyways.

This reminds me that I've been planning on watch Aliens "in the near future" for probably the last 3 years, and I still haven't done it. I should really do that...in the near future... "Snob" is a pretty kind descriptor, and I will gladly accept that, . And yes, I'm proud of you! ...To be honest, though, I think I'd rather re-watch the second and third Matrix movies more than The Hobbit films. What bloated and pale imitations of the original triology those clusterducks are...when they very obviously shouldn't have been an attempt at any kind of imitation to begin with. I've heard there's a fan-edit that combined all three movies into a single four and a half hour movie that's supposedly much more watchable (...as far as 4 and a half hour long films go), but I've never seen it, mostly due to lack of interest. It's no doubt easily obtainable. There's a sort of inherent stink of wrongness permeating just about every moment of those films and it only gets stronger the further you get in as the writing and narrative get progressively more odious, and no amount of fan-editing is likely to remove that for me, so it's probably best I just stay away.

I would say they're...okay, but I would have difficulty calling them "good". Narrative repetition, lack of any kind of meaningful intrigue or mystery, characters getting so badly flanderized...really, the only part of the show that remained enjoyable to me was the shenanigans between a few certain characters (mostly Steve and Dustin and the other couple of characters that actually spend significant time with them in season 2 and 3). I'm still considering whether or not I should even bother with the fourth at this point.

I was already theorizing that Clow kept a "forward time travel" card to himself, the opposite of Return, so probably not. I'm sure I'll love the movie, it seems impossible that I wouldn't. The BD version I have of the Sealed Card actually has the Kero-chan "movie" at the end. I only already know this because I had to make sense of the different run-times and had to figure out why they were so wildly different between different blu-rays. IIRC, the Japanese BD sort of just has it tacked on at the end, while it's...either separate or simply not there in the US BD. Or the other way around, either way, I don't remember the exact details.

In that case, I am sorry that you consider The Animatrix to either not exist and/or be terrible. From what I had thought I had previously heard, it was supposed to be at least alright and actually exist, but I will trust your judgement on this one, .

Listed as an OVA in many places, I rest my case. Especially seeing as Hurlshot appears to have just immolated himself in the final post he'll ever make, the poor sod, .

That's the same as suggesting more than one Matrix film was made. It's something that contemptuous fools occasionally do...but that's all, .

Yeah, my best friend of about ~10 years ago used to slit her wrists, and that's more or less what she said about it. Feels good to hurt in a controlled manner that you caused, I guess. It's probably more enjoyable than watching that show - maybe it'll even free you of your OCD that makes you keep doing so, . (Serious note to everyone: don't start slitting your wrists, the two people I personally know that did...well, one of them is dead and the other has plenty of regrets about it and many other things, but thankfully doesn't do anything of that nature anymore. All forms of self-harm stink.)

I usually wait to completely evaluate a series in terms of rating until after I've seen all the main parts of it, and I presume I'm right in including The Sealed Card as part of that, . The first movie was an 8.5 for me, so if the second movie really is so much clearly better than the first, I'm estimating that it'll be a 10 or 10.5, . ...It'll sure be ironic if I like the second movie less than the first given that everyone, including you, says the second is a lot better. I think it makes a kind of sense, but I get what you're saying as well. For me, I perhaps imagined there was a subtle tone shift between the first 35 episodes (which ended with the happy-go-lucky Christmas episode, which I thought did actually work as a season finale) and then the next 11 episodes, which were more a little more serious in tone and sort of had a "final act" feeling to them. Hello, Stranger Things. I can only do what I can do.

It's rare that show finales for anything are ever genuinely good, in my opinion. Perhaps that is simply more indicative of what I enjoy, which is invariably the journey full of both its many ups and downs more than the destination, than anything else. It's so difficult to perfectly encapsulate and wrap up all the different plot points, character arcs and moments, and themes, while also delivering simply from a "this was written and filmed perfectly" viewpoint. Even shows which try to handle it in a completely unorthodox way, like NGE, it's usually more of an...acquired taste, so to speak - something that you almost have to watch a second time to fully appreciate, which was instead perhaps dissatisfying on the first watch. I'm trying to think of a single show* I've seen where I really thought "wow, what a great ending!", and I got...well, huh, I just looked through every single one of my shows, and I got nothing. So yeah, I liked season 1 (35 episodes) and 2's (11 episodes) endings more than season 3's, . Episodes in parentheses because I'm pretty sure Netflix makes both "season 1" and "season 2" into one big season so you consider them the same thing, but oddly, that is not true everywhere e.g. Wikipedia. Looking forward to watching the movie in 2040. *Miniseries not included: e.g. Chernobyl.