Bartimaeus

It should be noted that there are again 7 seeds in each conference, which means while the first five seeds in the NFC are two games or better ahead of everyone else, there are still two more seeds to give after that, which realistically means that every 2-4 team right now is potentially only one game out of being in a playoff spot. ...That said, all of those 2 win teams besides MAYBE the 49ers look pretty dead, and heck, even a couple of 3-3 teams like the Bears and Panthers look potentially dead. At least one team in the NFC is going to have a 9-8 or even 8-9 record and limp into the playoffs as a wild card, methinks...maybe the wildly inconsistent Saints.

Yes, that was my understanding, which made me considerably more interested in it, . How is an official dub of DBZ even more bizarre and meme-ish than the TFS Abridged dub?

It's on my to-do list to at least try - it might just take a while to get to it, especially because I haven't really been much in a watching (anything) mood as of late.

95 years young!

It boggles the brain that there are people out there that listen to this guy every day. I apologize to everyone for bringing Alex Jones into this thread on two separate occasions now.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/81req5z10wlo830/9p3fjmFzGA.mp4

I think literally the only game I played on PS4 before getting rid of my PS4 was Bloodborne. Now I'm praying they re-release it on PC someday so I can play it again, because I sure as hell ain't getting a PS4 again. While emulation will probably eventually be an option, the development of PS4 emulation has been...slow, to say the least. At least you can emulate Demon's Souls...and there is that stupid remake as well, I suppose, but I'd genuinely rather play the original.

Doesn't ring a bell. ...Oh, Kuragehime, yeah that...almost rings a bell. Well, I vaguely remember the banner image anyways. My brain likes to reject information that it doesn't want to have, and I guess this was one of those things. It certainly beats the snot out of the idiocy Rebuild pulled. Give me weird and insane if they at least try to set it up rather than stupid and boring that they didn't even bother with, I suppose. Remind me to give some more bonus points to Sakura for ditching the whole ridiculous transformation thing entirely - the best part of them even in Sailor Moon was the dope music. Oooooh, Sailor Moon! Sailor Mars, Sailor Mars! Sailor Veeeeenus! Sailor Juu-peh-tuh! ...IIRC, they didn't really do anything special for Ami's song, but it was still good. Dang, thinking about that really makes me want to re-watch the show. How come shows keep ripping off Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura? It's kinda like they were...great shows or something, I don't know!

I did not see anything that would suggest there would be any kind of ecchi content, so if there is anything, I'd guess it'd be very mild indeed. Curious that it is labeled seinen, though - things must not be as they seem on some level! I don't even remember what show you're talking about there, but it sounds terrible. Definitely no @ FMA: I saw all I needed to see with that 15 years ago when my sister was watching it, . And hey, I still have my one exception to my "no shonen" rule, which is the first season of Ranma...

drphil.gif Yeah...I've always assumed that seinen has a better chance of working out than shonen, because shonen tends to be as stupid as anime can get. Any time I see a show strongly tagged/voted with "shonen", that is a huge red flag. As for josei, my 15 minute investigation of that particular category lead me to conclude that josei is very much like how "fiction for women" is really just code for being the most terrible and embarrassing form of romance you can possibly find. If we were to assume that Japan as told by anime demographics is actually accurate, I can only assume that Japanese boys are predictably quite stupid in your typical boy-ish fashion, Japanese girls will at the very least be pretty emotionally intelligent, Japanese men kind of average out over time by virtue of being all over the place, and Japanese women may possibly be even dumber than the boys. Obviously, that's not actually accurate, but these are the stereotypes these demographic labels are forcing my mind to notice! Nanoha: I looked over it quickly and was about to say "well, I don't see any significant warning signs based on what I'm seeing here besides the character designs/animation being less than ideal, but..." and then I saw that there was a catgirl (or maybe fox...girl?) "familiar" and, eh... Precure: 49 episodes + 47 episodes + three movies + 49 episodes + movie + 49 episodes + two movies + 48 episodes + 50 episodes + two movies + 49 episodes + three movies + 48 episodes + movie + 48 episodes + two movies + 49 episodes + two movies + 49 episodes + three movies + 50 episodes + three movies + 50 episodes + two movies + 49 episodes + two movies + 49 episodes + two movies + 49 episodes + 45 episodes + movie + 33 episodes (so far) + movie. Yes, I just counted all of that up - that's nearly a thousand episodes plus literally 30 movies. Just being realistic here, is there any chance that a show that has that much in it could ever possibly be good over such an extended period of time? Likely the absolute and completely unrealistic best case scenario, you get a couple of Sailor Moon-quality-ish seasons from people who knew what they were doing for a short amount of time in the show's run (but which still won't ever be able to match your love for the original Sailor Moon) before they moved on to better things and replaced so that the rest becomes somewhere approaching SuperS or the Nadia filler, if not worse. Would that be worth it? Yeah, I wouldn't say I'm bothered by the formula of these shows per se (okay, well, with Sailor Moon who so ferociously stuck to it, I think it had run its course by the end of S after 120 or so episodes, IMO), but it definitely makes them less creative and more predictable simply by their nature. If you're not invested into the show, its world, the characters, the themes, and then it doesn't properly accomplish what it's trying to do in a way that appeals to you...that's a pretty natural result. Well, at least it is for me - there are people out there who can watch a show and as long as it's viscerally entertaining enough can just go "this is wild lmao" and that's enough for them, but it never is for me, not even close. Wish I could do that...sometimes. It was a novel but insane and ludicrous idea that only somewhat came out of left field for NGE. ...It could've gone a lot worse, .

I've always liked Belichick at least as a football mind and personality, while I've always hated Brady, so when the two split, it made it a lot easier to be O.K. with the Patriots winning...and doubly so since they've kept losing since he left. Additionally, the Cowboys are a solid-looking NFC threat - of course I was rooting for the Patriots. Still, I can take some solace in it being Mike McCarthy and Dak Prescott...though the team would suddenly get a lot more likeable if a certain cereal-gorging RB wasn't currently starring there, .

I was a decently fast reader, but never nearly that fast - I read those ~11 books over a couple of months of a summer, as I recall. How fast I read is usually dependent upon the author - there are some authors I could read a 300 page book in probably 4-5 hours in a single day, and there are other authors whose prose is a bit more unconventional, or who jam-pack their writing with so much ideas and detail that nothing like that pace is in any way realistic, as I'd lack the muscle memory, so to speak, to comprehend/digest their writing with the speed and ease as you might a more conventional writer. Robert Jordan, by most standards, I'd think would only qualify as being a little unconventional...though probably more-so in his last few books as he kind of got more unrestrained before Sanderson took over (who IMO was, by all means, a perfectly good but a bit more conventional writer that made going through his WoT books easier than the Jordan ones). I'd have to imagine you're probably pretty close to the top percentile for reading and comprehension skills if you can chew through stuff that quickly. A question as valid now as it is in your hypothetical, really...

He's Marcus Peters reborn. Let's up a number of bad impact plays due to over-aggression, but if the QB keeps targeting him, they're going to regret it when his insane aggressiveness suddenly pays off.

Guys, this is supposed to be a shoujo series, not an idiotic shonen...uh, wait a second... Oh, I guess it is a shonen. Whoops, that's my bad, I thought it was supposed to be a shoujo show this entire time. There are too many episodes in these shows - Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Miyu - that revolve around the same formula. In Sakura's case, the formula is a little more fluid than something as neurotically faithful as Sailor Moon, but still too many episodes were essentially... Early on, (X event) is mentioned as being something that is going to happen later. Often something relating to school, but could be familial, friend, or personal interest-related as well. Some lighthearted yet usually either meaningful or funny personal character stuff happens until then. Hint that some kind of mischief or threat on the part of something (i.e. a card) or someone is going to happen. (X event) actually occurs, and things are fine up until the problem that needs to be resolved suddenly appears! Problem gets resolved, wrap up the episode. How many episodes follow this same general outline? A lot...many...maybe most of them. Not all of them, but...probably most of them. It's not a bad formula by any means, but it is a formula that kind of keeps a show pretty safe and predictable, even if everything else about is great. And to me, that is the real problem of shows from...well, let's say specifically the shoujo genre? - they are safe and predictable, which kind of creates a...sort of void of tension. I know everything's going to be O.K. in a show like Sakura - she's literally promised it repeatedly, and nothing about how the show "speaks" to the viewer could ever suggest it could be anything but that. The great thing about Sakura is that it has lovable characters, interesting character-obstacle interactions, occasionally a new setting for an episode to take place, simple yet clever and effective resolutions, a world that feels surprisingly consistent and grounded and actually representative of where it's supposed to take place, etc...and the show expresses its "ideas" (everything that it is - characters, plots, themes, et cetera) in a way makes sense and is satisfying to me. The irony is that other shows can be way more unpredictable and have great potential for tension...but they do literally just about every single other thing between somewhat and incredibly wrong that there's literally zero chance of me ever caring. Art style and animation, characters and dialogue-style, appropriate tone, setups and payoffs, a setting that actually feels like a setting as opposed to a vague or fake nothingness where things just kind of happen, simply the way the show communicates to the viewer via the use of film language, et cetera. If you get one of these elements wrong in a large way, I'm going to be dissatisfied with your show on some level. If it does some of the other things well enough, I may eventually get over it...but when you start get multiple things very wrong, we get to the point where I can instantly tell that a show has literally zero chance of working for me. Neon Genesis Evangelion is a show I genuinely had trouble prognosticating, because it felt like it was all over the place in such a variety of ways. Even after watching it twice, I still feel that way - if I was to try to recommend it someone else, it would be difficult for me to tell who would like it and who wouldn't, especially because the show kind of undergoes some shifts as it goes on - shifts that could make or break the show for some people, or not even be a blip on others' radars, depending on what appeals to you most. I stuck with it the first time around because it didn't do anything outstandingly wrong even if I got frustrated and confused with it and how it did things. Something like Sakura or Sailor Moon is much simpler in comparison - if you're not deriving some kind of enjoyment from these shows within the first handful of episodes, it's 99.9% not for you and you probably shouldn't keep watching, because they are pretty much exactly what they're communicating they are right off the bat, and while they have some slight shifts and aberrations over time, they basically stay true to that all the way through. ...I forgot where I was going with this. I guess my overarching point is that it'd be nice if these shows weren't so formulaic. It would help elevate them even further if you could have some Sailor Moon episodes that that could eschew its neurotic formulas when appropriate (and there were so many instances where it would have been, where you could've really spent some time on our beloved characters and setting up and resolving meaningful issues over longer periods of time!), or Sakura episodes that could really truly present some darker or mature ideas (even without anything bad happening to anybody!), or Miyu episodes that really tackled the realities of being a semi-ancient vampire in an increasingly modern world...ideas that aren't necessarily completely novel in of themselves, but which would be when seriously pursued and presented within their respective shows and seeing how the show's characters would interact with them when not so incredibly confined and constricted by their own formulas. ...Of course, when you give the creative leads too much freedom, you get insanity like Human Instrumentality, but I feel like there's a happy medium between that and formula OCD, you know?

@majestic It's also a really short show... Imagine if something of Sakura's length and tone* slowly pulled off a dark shift like that over the entire course of the show. Dang, that'd be awesome. *...And art style, and animation, and writing quality, and character quality, and individual episode quality...okay, yeah, I think you get the point. I mean, it doesn't have to be exactly Sakura's tone, either, but something that starts out relatively wholesome but definitely good like Sakura could be the perfect vessel for a really messed up subversion, if it wasn't just stupid nonsense for the sake of being stupid nonsense**. I guess it's something that can really only happen in a movie most of the time because of how much it would mess with your target audience. But if Steven Universe can go from a show that's about eating popcorn on waffles and fish heads on pizza to something altogether a bit more serious like it did, I feel like it could be successfully done somehow. Why do most shows always leave us wanting for somewhere between a little and a lot more? I also can't help but think of your theoretical Miyu re-imagination/sequel here... **

Nope, just anime that doesn't have the necessary restraint or respect for its characters because the male gaze conquers all, . I don't mind twists, but eh, yeah, definitely doesn't sound like a show for me at all - way too wacked out.

Even though the Packers are currently made out of some string and duct tape, we somehow keep winning. Can't complain, I guess, though I suspect our luck will run out sometime soon.

I'm not really much into straight fantasy anymore, which is probably a big part of why I'm not at all interested in this show. That, and I am sure that even if I was still into fantasy, historically I haven't tended to do well with huge shows like these anyways. I might give it a try at some point if the reviews are great, though...see what's what, I guess. I read the majority of the books (the first...eleven or so, I want to say?) in my early teens, when I wasn't quite as critical as I am now. And then I come in here and apparently there are people who re-read the entire series every single time a new book came out. I think I'd lose my mind if I had to sit through the entire series of Nynaeve tugging her braid and smoothing her skirts again. Thinking about it does kind of give me a wave of nostalgia, but they're memories probably better left undisturbed. At least it wasn't as traumatic as reading Harry Turtledove in 5th grade - The Wheel of Time was an easy and silly adventure series in comparison to that.

lmao, I'm so glad I've played Baldur's Gate way too many times so I can picture the exploding gibberling perfectly What episode are you on now anyways?

You know, this doesn't really quite seem like my type of show, all things considered. Not that it sounds terrible or anything, but eh. What's up with the ridiculous amount of anime shows with next episode previews, anyways? Is it like an industry standard or something? I'm trying to think of any western animation shows that do it and I can't think of any...

I always thought they called themselves "friends of the dark", while if you're not with them, you'd call them "darkfiends". You know, an easy way of verbally differentiating between them depending on what side you're on. I got to one of the last books and randomly noticed it wasn't spelled like that in one instance and was like "ha, they spelled it wrong here...and here...and here...wot?". Went back to one of the first books and found an instance of it again and just about 'd myself.

Was it only me that took until literally like book 12 or 13 to realize that the word was "darkfriend" and not "darkfiend"? ...Oh, I was the only one that was that consistently blind and stupid? Okay, yeah, that's kind of what I thought.

The Red Strings Club. Feels like a game that's kind of trying to be like VA-11 HALL-A, but instead of having a fun group of characters carrying the game through silly dialogue, went for some investigation of a grand conspiracy plot instead. It's...alright, but isn't quite what I wanted, I guess.

I had a bad dream last night. Yes, it is relevant to anime...and especially this anime thread. Sakura, episode 58. A cold open? How very unlike Sakura!

Speaking of Toy Story 4, I actually watched it recently, and here's a more differenter opinion: I think Toy Story 4 is my favorite of the Toy Story series, even though it has some serious problems that bring it down so completely unnecessarily (like the entire plot revolving around the literal, LITERAL trash that is Forky...or Buzz Lightyear being a completely useless and utterly flanderized moron the entire movie when it seems like they should've just found a way to remove him entirely). There's some quite stupid stuff in that movie...but I fell in love with the villain instantly, I didn't mind where they took Bo Peep's character, I even liked her little toy friend, and I identified more with the themes in it more than in any of the others. I do recognize, however, that it is probably the worst quality out of all of them in terms of consistency and storytelling, but now that I've confessed this sin, I can...uh, live peacefully, I guess.