Bartimaeus

The Wailing (2016). Don't know what it was with this one, but pretty much nothing about it grabbed me. The cinematography was nice enough, I suppose, but the acting, the script, the plot, everything felt kind of off-kilter and phony in a way that was taking me out of it constantly. Even some of the stock sound effects I kept hearing I was questioning why they'd been used when they so very clearly didn't sound quite right. For a Korean horror-thriller that's basically a rural The Exorcist and has a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.5 on IMDB, I was a little surprised by how impossible it was to get into it. Maybe there's a cultural barrier here, or maybe I'm just me.

Yes. In contrast to KP, I'm content with the show simply feeling like a strange off-brand Miyu, . I think Sailor Moon is the only show where I always let them run, and that's because they were amusing in of themselves, didn't really do much more than tease a very simple premise, and Sailor Moon isn't a show where spoilers really matter one iota. I usually go back and watch them later after I've finished an episode, though it depends on the show in question and how they handle them.

I don't usually watch previews until after I've already seen the episode in question unless I'm kind of brain dead and forget to close it or go to the next one before it starts to show. So most of the time, I only have the name of the episode to work with in terms of expectations. Trailers/previews don't do much for me, so I prefer not to see them, not even when I'm trying to prognosticate whether I'd like a show/movie. ...Yeah, I could see why you wouldn't be too thrilled with that preview, . Lady Devil, episode 4:

I did, just indirectly. It was a long-time coming, and of course, had to resolve that way, for how else could it? Episode 55:

Cardcaptor Sakura, episode 54:

Yeah, that was the part that I said was quite bad and didn't stylistically work at all with the rest of the film that almost made me turn the movie off early on, . It doesn't do anything like that ever again, thankfully. Bad forced action sequences are anathema! If only I'd seen the show in question to fully understand the comparison...I guess I'll take your word for it! In regards to logical sense...well, take Steins;gate for instance - I couldn't finish a single episode because I hated the Japanese voice-acting so much in such a particular way that I'm sure nobody else understands. Stuff like that, . I more or less get the same treatment as you. It's not that I hate everything, it's just that I have no inherent interest in watching what everyone else is watching, and I'm better at identifying what I will or won't like than everyone else. It doesn't help that whenever I try to watch something that I have specifically identified as "I'm not going to care too much for this AT BEST", I'm right at least 9/10 times. If there was a "reset show" button on platforms like Netflix that erased all progress of having seen a show, would you ever use it?

Speaking of crazy laughs, Meiling is still missing and I don't like it. I feel like I need someone less comically evil but just as petty and needlessly cruel as my metaphorical comparison for how I perceive things. Palpatine's too charming and too much fun to be it - ya need someone who's way more of an unlikable jerk, someone whose feelings and motivations are clear and obvious, but which still don't really make any kind of logical sense or make them even the least bit sympathetic, . At least there wasn't audio this time, .

That is a solution I had not considered, but probably should've, especially in light of indirectly doing so for Nadia's filler episodes recently. How about you watch a bit more of the show and let me know if you at least semi-seriously think I should try to pursue that option first? KP's video was of Mikase (Christina?) laughing. Sakura: Yeah, that was probably one of the weaker episodes I've seen throughout the entire show, I think. Still not bad by any means, of course, but weaker.

Yeah, that's fair. ...That's gotta be one of the worst-sounding laughs I've heard in anime thus far, though.

As someone who played many D2 ladders over the years and pretty much always used a sorceress strategy of "bumrush to nightmare as soon as possible in order to farm quest-bugged* Andariel, Duriel, and Mephisto for Tal Rasha's amulets and Stones of Jordan to make a crap-ton of money on d2jsp early ladder when those are worth a ridiculous amount early on and use them to pay for a bunch of high runes a few weeks later", I've always found Act 2 the most tedious due to its length and the amount of stuff you have to do. Gotta kill Radamant for the skill tome, gotta get the stupid amulet, gotta get the stupid staff, gotta kill the stupid Summoner, gotta do the stupid tomb, and there's not really any shortcuts for any of that stuff. And if you're on normal, you don't (really) have teleport yet and you have to get the Horadric Cube on top of everything else as well. Act 3 is a total snoozefest, but it feels more straight-forward and less time-waste-y for the most part since you run into the organs mostly on your way to the end of the act anyways, and by that time, you'll actually be able to use Teleport at least a little. Bonus points for Act 2 that Duriel's a right real bastard because of his holy freeze aura and the fact that mercenaries cannot stand up to him at all and there's no way to really stay away from getting your brains bashed in by him. ...And if you're not playing a sorceress, then I imagine the entire game is a little miserable because who the heck does the main game as anything but a sorceress? Unfortunately, I won't be able to play D2R because of the subpar controller scheme they set-up that I couldn't figure out a way to disable. I already had my own controller scheme on the original Diablo II that worked ten times better than theirs, thank you very much. *...I wonder if they fixed the quest-bugged bosses? The drop tables on non-quest-bugged bosses are miserable - trying to farm an Arachnid Mesh or Mara's Kaleidoscope on a non-quest-bugged Mephisto is death - no thank you, I probably wouldn't want to play at all if they did fix that.

Yeah, I was considering a scheme where I would switch between audio tracks depending on what character was talking, before I slapped myself in the face for even thinking of such a ridiculous idea when I could just watch something else, . Ah, yes, my favorite form of time travel - the one where nothing matters and it usually just serves as an excuse to have crazy crap happen constantly, . Be sure to let me know how that works out for this specific series! Cardcaptor Sakura:

I kind of already wanted to bludgeon him in those first eleven minutes since he was already pretty schizo-seeming for no apparent good reason, but not necessarily to death. I figured he'd get better, though, not worse - that there'd presumably be some kind of good reason for his wacky behavior. Was that a bad assumption on my part? ...And to be fair to him, I did actually want to bludgeon the unnamed(?) black-haired girl to death, but that's mostly on the basis of the English version of her being absolutely terrible. (e): Also, I feel pretty confident I'll be able to tolerate K-On for longer than that. Pretty confident...but not absolutely certain, .

Agents of Goldsteins;gate, episode 1. The English voice actor for Kaji reminded me of Okarin...strike that, reverse it. So I thought maybe I'd be able to listen to it, but then I heard anime girl's voice and had traumatic Madoka Magica PTSD flashbacks and was like "nah". So I switched to the Japanese and was punched directly in the brain with a bunch of gross and uncomfortable-sounding Japanese mouth sounds on top of the dub and direction just sounding kind of strange and I was like "nah". So I switched to the English and I kind of realized that the resemblance of Okarin to Kaji was farther away than I initially thought and I don't really like the direction for the English either...and then the Madoka knockoff started squealing about a metal oompa loompa or something and I wanted to die. So I switched to the Japanese and got hit with Okarin making a bunch more awful and uncomfortable mouth sounds and I wanted to die. So I switched to the English and was pleasantly surprised to see the English dub removed all of the terrible and unnecessary mouth sounds, and the guy, Okarin, no joke, called the red-haired girl an "illustrious agent" and I had traumatic PTSD flashbacks to Mari from Rebuild of Evangelion. So I stayed on the English because while that was indeed somewhat traumatic, it wasn't really the dub's fault especially considering it came out before...wait, no, it came out *after* Rebuild 2.0, so I guess it is kind of the dub's fault. So I switched to the Japanese because I wanted to hear this Makise girl's voice in the Japanese dub and was immediately greeted with *her* having her own uncomfortable mouth sounds. So I switched to the English because at this point because I am not going to listen to a show with main characters that won't stop making those detestable sounds with their face holes, and that's that, no matter how bad the English is. But then the Madoka knockoff appeared again and... Okarin's phone turned to static, . I don't...think that's really possible, . This terrible conversation between him and anime girl is...thank goodness, finally over. To think, it only took killing Makise(?) to finally end it...I mean, it was only like a 30 second conversation, but it's really bad-sounding dialogue in the English dub. OH NO, SHE'S BACK! Okay, wait, there was a time shift...OH NO, SHE'S BACK! It is at this juncture that we reach the intro music, which for some reason happens halfway into the episode, and I have to consider whether I have the constitution for another half of this...and I think the answer is no, no I don't. Usually switching to Japanese is my fallback for a bad English dub that's ruining all the dialogue and scenes, but that's not an option here what with the Japanese VAs deciding to stick their microphones inside of their mouths while they're trying to voice act and all. It's funny - because I mostly watch older Japanese shows where the VAs don't have every breath recorded by their microphones, I honestly kind of forgot that this could be a problem with a number of newer animes, but now that I'm subjected to a newer show where it's a problem, I'm remembering that this is a particular issue I've had a few times before all over again. Eleven minutes for a 2011 anime show - it was a good run, folks. We'll get 'em next time!

On second thought, let's not watch Steins;Gate, 'tis a silly show.

I remember reading that Anno was pleased that Rebuild wouldn't face the same creative restraints that the original NGE did. My reaction to remembering that he said that after now having actually seen Rebuild: Yeah, but if I don't watch anything post-2000, then it's not a problem to begin with! I mean, sure, I keep breaking that rule to try out random stuff, but the key figure is that I have repeatedly regretted it roughly 9/10 times, . I presume this was a joke, because no, I wasn't saying that at all, . Also, I edited in a few more sentences to that section while you weren't looking, . I've discovered that I have way less memory of the latter half of the show - some of the stuff more towards the ending here I've basically been like "whoa, what the hell is that, I don't remember that". That probably makes sense, since you're probably more likely to remember the first hour of a 10 hour marathon of watching a new show more than the eighth, ninth, or tenth hour of the 10 hour marathon. And this is why I never watch shows like that...except for NGE, which I inexplicably did for reasons still unknown to even me! For myself, it should be purely Cardcaptor Sakura and Devil Lady at this time...and maybe Stein;Sgate if I want to test out to see whether I hate the show before y'all finish before I ever try it, . As for Princess Tutu, that was originally slated to be watched, but for the month of October, I think there will be a little bit of a hiatus for anime in general on that particular front. To be re-visited at some point in the future, .

No, I think this is the part where you proceed to have a great regular season and get hyped up as a serious contender going into the playoffs, only to lose to you-know-who in a complete heart-breaker once again, . (...Followed by you-know-who getting demolished in the NFCCG...once again. Maybe the key is to have the Cowboys and Packers play each other in the NFCCG to begin with. At least one of us would make it to the Super Bowl that way.)

In a fit of insomnia, I finally finished Legendary Idol Eriko by binge-watching the rest of it. The main story and everything motivating the series kind of concluded episode 40, which left about ten extra episodes, which is precisely where I stopped watching like...a month-plus or so ago - whatever was the last time I talked about Eriko. I just couldn't find the motivation to watch anymore when it seemed like the rest would be a little more on the "silly" and "nonsense" side. However, I was pleasantly surprised a couple of episodes in when the show suddenly introduced a small new arc that was more low-key and simple about Eriko simply trying to connect not with just her closest friends and family in light of growing as a person over the course of the show, but also with classmates she'd never really gotten to know because of her way too busy life. It was nice to have something a little less serious and crazy while still feeling like a worthwhile story to end the series. Eriko even manages to make frenemies with a super tsundere* girl that's hated her guts since the moment she appeared in the show like 30 episodes earlier! Happy times! *Tsundere might be the wrong word to use here, because I don't THINK she has a crush on Eriko, although it was a little odd because she took some time to watch her shows and listen to her songs and would deliberately create situations that would force them to interact with each other, so who knows, maybe it is accurate, but if so, mild subtext at best. ...And it's nice to have a couple of shows out of the way - plus, the NGE re-watch is almost finished, too, . The feeling of having a much greater appreciation for (and understanding of) NGE on a second watch has only continued, and, well, let's just say it's a very different experience from the first watch, and it definitely feels to have been worth the time. Six episodes left, guess I'll figure out how I really feel about the original ending soon... Oh, that makes sense too, especially because any CGI work you outsource should be relatively easily modifiable, whereas with traditional methods...well, yeah, either it's going to look horridly out of place or you'll have to re-draw it.

I think I said more or less exactly this when I was contemplating The End of Evangelion and how incredibly quickly it was produced vs. the insanity that was Rebuild... I think one thing Sarex(?) said was that CGI tends to give way more creative control over exactly what appears on screen as opposed to hand-drawn stuff where...you know, a lot of what you get is what you get and you have to make do with it, and it's not easy to make adjustments after the fact as opposed to George Lucas/Hideaki Anno-ing it up however you please even years after the fact. But yeah, I would've loved to have seen how expensive it was to make the Rebuild movies. I suppose that particular factor must appeal a lot to many of these hack fraud directors, .

1. Looks gosh-awful, as per usual. 2. That choppiness is really bad, especially when so much of it is CGI. Hell yeah...but doesn't really seem like something a show, much less shows, would ever go for. I also wonder how expensive it would be to produce a full-length pixel-art show compared to CGI. It looks pretty good, though some of the characters and their designs are a little out there. As for the gameplay, it's pretty much just a pleasant, atmospheric story game, . I suppose if there was something I'd hate more than the Nadia filler, it'd probably be something like the worst parts of Love Live...

Absolutely: I've seen a lot of good-looking anime pixel art styles over the years between a number of games and random artists, but I'm struggling to think of something off the top of my head. I don't think I'd place the style in that particular video too highly, but it's not bad either. Probably won't ever happen for a real show, though, if I had to guess. (e): I like a lot of VA-11 HALL-A's style:

I saw a few people psychopaths like that, too, but they were mostly booed by the people with brains. One person psychopath said they didn't even really notice anything difference, while another person psychopath said it was awesome, classic Gainax humor just like Little Witch Academia and Kill la Kill. No, you read that right, they listed shows that weren't by Gainax as best exemplifying Gainax. No, really: I initially thought this person was a troll, but the rest of what they posted made it pretty clear that they just needed to get their pants in the proper place - firmly secured on their head. Just from a stylistic viewpoint of how the songs are done and presented, K-On is so clearly superior to Love Live! in pretty much every way...and never mind the rest of the show. Throw away the tape and move on, . That and it's a 2011 show. If it breaks your brain, it ought to break mine.

Yeah, don't feel compelled to watch it on my behalf, it's probably even more frustrating on the whole than the original NGE was, and the payoff isn't as good IMO. My rating of the show is also overly generous because I'm mostly not taking the terrible filler episodes that were not written/intended by Anno into account (indeed, apparently he made his own cut of the show which he released on laserdisk waaay back, and the totality of stuff he took from the filler episodes was a mere fifteen minutes). It's probably worth watching if you want to experience a strange proto-NGE adventure show (and I read on Wikipedia that NGE was actually originally intended to be a sequel to Nadia, but they couldn't obtain the rights to it so they had to sever the connection). I went poking around for how people feel about the filler, and was pleasantly surprised to see the general reaction is about as bad as mine was: "they ruined the characters", "none of it matters at all, it's totally skippable, so do not hesitate to do so", "jimminy freaking crickets, those are the worst episodes of any show I've ever seen", et cetera. Even if they did, would they care? The demographics are the demographics, after all. @Steins;Gate: What are the chances that I'd like Steins;Gate, folks?

Neon Genesis Nadia: The End of Blue Water. The last handful of episodes beat the snot out of the preceding filler episodes, at least. Thanks, Mr. Anno - very cool. At least you knew your own characters, unlike the hack frauds that took over for you for a bit. My official review for the show: 7/10: Has some of the absolute worst filler I've ever seen in a show (roughly 9 episodes could be classified as such), but pretty good outside of that. The characters never quite developed how I wanted them to and the story kind of stops, starts, and sputters a lot towards the end...but it's still worth a watch if you want a classic adventure with some extra oomph to it. Just don't be afraid to skim through the filler episodes, because they are truly terrible.