Bartimaeus

Samurai Girl Ran, episode 2 and 3. This show is indeed trash, and yet I keep watching it. Also, I thought it was only 3 episodes long, but it's actually 9. (e): Also, I thought it was 9 episodes, but it's actually 13. I should really learn to make sure before I write it.

Okay, actually, I think I've identified my issue: when you're simply describing how terrible the/a show is, I'm basically the yellow glasses guy meme the entire time. However, when you're describing what actually happened in the show, my face goes as blank as...oh, oh - pretty much exactly like Jay's face when Mike tries to describe an episode of Star Trek to him, . I guess I'm much more about how shows make you feel instead of what actually happened in them, probably because I'm going to forget what happened in them literally two seconds after I read what you wrote unless it's a show I've already seen or at least am interested in - meanwhile, the angry rants about how gosh-awful a show is stick with me a lot longer, . There's also the simple fact that trying to describe what characters are like or what they're doing is basically impossible to keep track of unless I am already familiar with said characters to some degree and have a concept of them in my head...and sometimes not even then, as Zoraptor just pointed out. Sailor Moon: I don't need to tell you, but it also must be at least a little bit because objectives have totally changed between now and then. Back then, if you were going to include a...different kind of character, you would typically want to do it as quietly and making it as least big of a deal as possible*. Treat them like any other character, thereby normalizing them, thereby not drawing attention to them. Simple, pretty easy, pretty realistic and normal. Today, you want to scream how PC your characters are to the heavens and all that will hear it because if you don't, people on the internet will brew up a massive crapstorm about you and your show. I'm unsure how much these crapstorms actually affect the bottom line of a show, but I guess it must be significant to some degree because it just keeps happening...endlessly. *Either that, or make a horrible punching bag joke out of them...which ethically is worse than what we have today, but I'm beginning to question which is worse/less enjoyable from my own viewer's perspective. Sailor Moon, obviously, did things right there (well, except for Michiru and Haruka eventually being turned into the big dumb for forced conflict reasons, but that's a totally independent issue to this, ).

Yeah, I didn't get why the spoiler didn't just have a gif of a dog taking a crap either, really - weird choice, @majestic, . Real talk: I think majestic has proved to me that unless I actually care about a show, you can literally say the entire plot of an episode and I will not be able to mentally connect the dots from one paragraph to the next, because I simply cannot make my brain simply retain any information about a show that I care absolutely not at all about. Actually, having even more detail probably has the opposite intended effect - if it was just one or two paragraphs concerning the most outrageous bits, I could probably handle and make sense of that...but when you have 20 paragraphs about something I already ejected from my brain between now and the last time you talked about an episode, I lose the thread quite quickly. I have the bad brain. Do I dare ask what this even means in the context which you said it? Who is the intended audience of this show anyway? ...Actual aliens, perhaps?

This poor cat just wants to get away from this crazy family, but they keep yanking him back every time he escapes. ...I imagined this show being better in my head, but I guess it's about what you'd expect for a slower and non-fan service-y 80s shonen, which is that's...it looks nice and it's okay but it's just a little boring and I'm not really into it. How many episodes does this have anyways? 48...and like six movies. Alright, Kimagure Orange Road is officially dead. Right, Kazemakase Tskukage Ran, episode 1 of 3. "Look, guys... Can't you tell how busy I am, just by looking at me?" *literally napping under a tree* Yep, I like her. Uh...the show, on the other hand, is awfully strange-feeling. It's like...I don't even know, the tone is all over the place. It's switching between comedic and serious what feels like every 30 seconds. And while I like the art style, the animation is...well, the insane expressions characters are making and the twitchiness of some characters is quite weird as well. This feels like decent 90s trash - kind of silly and stupid, but entertaining and not insulting...so far. I'll finish the rest of it, it's only 3 episodes after all.

Yes, well, all of that basically describes the first season of Ranma 1/2 as well PLUS Ranma had martial arts mixed in as well (and I am a noted hated of martial arts crap), and I actually really liked that until it so suddenly and tragically ended. Sometimes you can like something in spite of everything working against it...and also, a shonen story made in the 80s is not likely to be nearly so horribly obnoxious as a shonen story made in the 2000s or later, though that's still obviously no guarantee I'll like it, . Those are the "top choices" because they're the ones I already have and just...need to try to make a decision on. I should really just stick with what I've already started, but I have a compulsion to attempt to eliminate that which I don't think I'll like first simply so I no longer have to worry about them. I have a good feeling (but no prognostication) about Angelic Layer, so that's probably what I'll actually try last out of everything. Speaking of Kimagure Orange Road...episode 1. The protagonist and his family have psychokinetic powers? Their cat escaped from the building and one of the protagonist's sisters just yoinked it from off the street back into their apartment - then a motorcyclist nearly ran them over while they were on their way to school and she pushed the motorcyclist away from them, and apparently they've had to move seven times out of fear of being discovered. Don't...really know what all that is about. Eh...nope, don't think this is for me. The protagonist isn't a total shonen scumbag or anything, but this is still too...80s and too shonen-y for me to be very interested, just from a stylistic and character point of view. Sudden stops in what's happening so the protagonist can monologue, other idiot boys HAVING NOSEBLEEDS (UNFORGIVABLE!) over stupid stuff, very...let's say tropey female leads. I might try one more episode at some point, but it's a no for me right now.

Future Boy Conan is next, likely to be started this week or maybe early next, depending. The new English dub version is out, although no decision has been concretely made on what to go with yet. By the way, does anyone know why the hell buying the series to stream on Amazon is more expensive than buying the actual BDs? 52 freaking dollars to stream it, $35 to buy the 4-disc BluRay set. HUH?! To be honest, I'm not...super into the idea of getting into a classic adventure story like this right now after having seen Nadia not all that long ago, but... Well, hopefully I'll enjoy it more consistently than Nadia. I will continue finishing Samurai Hairdo on the side. After that's finished, I have...I have a lot of different choices, to be honest, but the ones at the top right now are: Princess Tutu Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer Kimagure Orange Road Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran Maison Ikkoku Mahou no Star Magical Emi More Devil Lady Serial Experiments Lain Yes, I know a few of these are questionable - they're the ones I'll probably try first simply to get them out of my hair ASAP, . ...Of course, I've tried that strategy a few times before and then found myself juggling three or four different shows at once before because I found that I liked them more than I expected, so not always necessarily the wisest idea.

Yeah, just for that image, Nanoha is going to the very back of my...actually literally ~60 item-long anime "check out" list. Mind you, that means it only had to go back a couple of places, but still.

Objectively, this should be hilarious, but subjectively, I don't even get a chuckle out of it. Why don't I like JoJo the show?

LMAO. I love that he put his crap-eating face on right after that, absolutely zero shame. Yes indeed, so glad that he put that at the end of the video instead of the beginning, . Oh, you literally said just about exactly what I said under the video - I hadn't looked below and read what you said yet. Oh no, the reviews I saw specifically mentioned it was more for the non-stop epic action stuff. Isn't that what you liked about the series in the first place? The promotional materials for this show make me want to stay as far as I humanly can as it is...

#JusticeforNaru why do you keep watching rando video reviews by actual real life troglodytes??? no Yeah, the general writing quality of that show is like the only appealing part of that show to me, from what you've said about it. But you're right, still don't want to watch it, . Tough to see it being better than the first, .

I think being part of the Sakura package absolutely makes it better, because I already love and am used to the dynamics of the characters plus the general style and flow of the show. Imagine me trying to get used to how Xiaolang acts in the second arc with no proper introduction. I know myself - it would not go over well. Having 56 episodes before any of that is a great boon to it. Most likely, the best it could've done by itself is a 7/10. I initially included at least another handful more, but when I tried to write about them, it was basically "oh, this is just another great episode, but that's not particularly noteworthy in of itself, so...", . I'm unsure of what I wrote about it, if I wrote much about it at all - if the latter happened, that does not necessarily have any bearing on whether I loved it in all cases, because sometimes something is fantastic but not much needs to be said about it. If I recall correctly, I did not speak anything specifically of that episode, but rather simply said the way the show had actually truly integrated her family into the show in good and meaningful ways was excellent. Feel free to correct me if you can find a post where I actually talked directly about it, though, . Yeah, all that sounds no longer simply unappealing, but actually terrible, . It's not that I don't really care, it's that I don't care at all. There's a huge difference! Shorter is not always simpler, though...in fact, compromising between the two is often a reality of life in many different and unexpected ways, but especially language. If you want to be able to speak like a native speaker of probably any language but at least English, you're going to have to know tons of little things that would shorten how you would say or write something where simply writing super formally (and also awkwardly/stiffly/poorly...) would suffice, but which would instantly sound unnatural to native speakers. All the knowledge governing that stuff is difficult to learn unless you speak the language on a daily basis for a prolonged period of time, though (...having good pattern-recognition skills that let you quickly adopt others' writing/speaking conventions surely would help as well). The rest of what you wrote was nonsense, and I refuse to believe it could have meaning for anyone, . Grounded and mundane is what I tend to enjoy the most when I love the characters. If the Sailor Guardians want to just go out and do some shopping while having their style of silly, cute, and/or oft-times heartfelt dialogue with nothing else much really going on in terms of real events but still staying genuine to their characters without flanderization, I would almost certainly watch and love that, and I would think you would as well. Getting away from the mundane is usually what makes me less interested in something unless the writers have actually taken the time to really set it all up well, because it tends to get us away from what is most important, which is our characters simply being our characters. Prolonged action sequences, important narrative set pieces, "epic" character moments that require our characters to not be their normal selves but instead the "serious" and "cool" versions of themselves that don't make mistakes or really show off who they are as characters in any meaningful way...bleh to all of it. Obviously, there are different grades to this and good writers will figure out ways of getting everything to work in unison so you can let your characters be themselves while also having them respond to actual events that are occurring, but I think you get the idea.

Cardcaptor Sakura, The End of Sakura, aka Leave It To Kero: The Movie! Yeah, alright. O.K., with that out of the way, let's talk overall rating. Linking previous thread because the first post didn't:

It was basically the same experience as the second shot for me, which was like having the flu for one day, and the next day pretty much all better. And @Hurlshot was right about my nieces - no reaction at all to the second shot, they were perfectly fine.

At least it wasn't as bad as Miranda from Mass Effect? I don't remember them doing it during any important character moments, at least, but I guess I could've just not noticed. ...And at least it's not literally Miranda from Mass Effect, whose design is shockingly revolting for a character that is supposed to be genetically perfect in-universe? How BioWare managed to get a locomotive to run over the face of the poor model they used for that character directly before doing their hatchet modeling job, I really don't know. Yeah, I wasn't ever quite sure what to make of the art style, but I certainly like it many times better than...say, Nanoha, . A soft and more restrained, almost kind of children's cartoon-y aesthetic instead of a super sharp and ultra-anime early 2000s-looking aesthetic...yes, I will gladly take it over many alternatives, .

Should've tried Ojami Doremi by him for me instead...though it's a bit longer, nary an ecchi tag in sight. The worst thing about ecchi isn't even what it necessarily shows - it's how utterly disruptive to the entire tone and style of a show it almost always ends up being (and never mind its poor characters, who are the worst victims of it). There are ways of including mild to moderate sexual content that don't just ruin your show, but ecchi goes the complete opposite route in being as in-your-face, pointless, and mind-breakingly stupid and insulting as possible. So maddening. I'm sure there must be some examples of it not doing so out there (possibly in the 80s before it really became a big thing?), but I certainly won't be looking for them. Utena: You are correct.

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.