Bartimaeus

Episode 1 of Blood-C. The intro is not great, especially the song, but also we have a clip of two girls rubbing their butts together in front of everyone else in a classroom, semi-naked zoom-ins on the butt, chest, and crotch of the main character. Good first impression so far. However... To open the episode, Saya, the main character, is a shrine maiden and meditating, saying she's so close to figuring out what "the light" is...and her father says her name from behind her, and she turns around and runs to him and falls flat on her face. Whoops. Her father says girls shouldn't smash their heads into things so often as she does, and she says she doesn't, really(!)...and he says yes, yes she does. Her mother was a shrine maiden as well, and apparently they look for the "light" in order to tell the future. Time for breakfast and off to school - she runs and falls on her face again, end scene. Saya is similar to Sakura in terms of character - she's a good athlete, her mom's dead, she's expressive and over-reactive yet also kind and restrained, loves her father, tries to do her best at what she's able but wants to do more if it's to help others, and even takes the time out of her day to pick up other people's trash on way to school when she's already running late...she's certifiably a good egg. Heck, she even has some similar speaking patterns to Sakura - if you heard her, you'd know what I mean. At school, there is a girl that is berating her for being too much of a clueless rube after she tries to explain why she's late, two twin girls that say everything in unison in a kind of fashion that is impossible, a lady teacher that makes not-particularly-mean jokes at her expense, and an angsty, bratty boy that that arrives even later than she does. Die, pond scum! ...Uh, anyways, man this animation leaves a lot to be desired, . Ah, things will never go back to the way they were in ye olden anime days. At school, there's a boy she seems to be friendly with that asks her out for a meal, but she sadly has to refuse because of her shrine maiden duties and for her father's sake. Time to go back home. She gets back home and her dad is waiting for her and urges her into the shrine, then suddenly hands her sword and tells her that she must slay a demon that's appeared nearby, and I guess she must've done this before because she doesn't question any of this and immediately goes off and does just that - that's the last handful of minutes of the episode. Huh, okay. In conclusion of this experiment, honestly, that wasn't bad and it wasn't at all like the trailer made me expect, which is kind of what I figured would be the case...although I must admit I had some doubts when I saw the intro video - it's like they stuck all the ecchi elements in just the intro...but I guess it is just the first episode.

The things I watch are generally very specific to my tastes and interests. If you were a regular visitor of the anime thread, you would have already been witness to a number of occasions where someone kindly took time and effort to really think about something to recommend me a show they love that is considered a classic among anime fans, and I would literally get ten minutes into it and be like "I hate this for the following two dozen reasons, this is clearly not going to work for me on any level, I am sorry thank you and good bye", . In other words, I'm very picky and I have to go through a whole process of determining whether I should watch something, because if I make a bad choice (or someone else forces a bad choice upon me), I'm going to be extremely unhappy about it. It doesn't help that in addition to being very picky, I experience things I don't like much more strongly than the things I do like.

I have a feeling that trailer may actually be an unrepresentative look at the show (but I would, wouldn't I, considering my hatred of trailers?), but yeah, if it is actually representative, what I got out of it was "very melodramatic swordplay action show with at least minor ecchi elements". I'm going to take a look at some screenshots real quick...and look, I'm already seeing piles of more light-hearted character interaction stuff that is immediately giving it a better impression than that trailer did, so yeah, I'm just going to pretend I never saw the trailer. Want me to try an episode or two at some point so you don't get accidentally get forced into watching something you despise?

"Lucky for you, I am pretty certain that Blood+ has absolutely no relation to Blood-C," he confidently stated before actually looking it up and discovering that they do and re-wording his post before he actually posted it. ...Still, Blood-C is a shoujo by CLAMP and even if it's not necessarily great, it's probably not going to be terrible either...and the other is the most boringest, gosh-awful shonen where nothing ever happens and the characters are all completely BORING. I was forced into watching it right after finishing Miyu and it and Death Note (which I was repeatedly badgered into trying) were really the nail in the coffin for me that if a shonen show seems completely terrible immediately, STOP WATCHING. (e): Okay, never mind I just watched that trailer. ...It still doesn't look as bad as Blood+, but almost definitely not for me either.

The only one of those I've seen is They Live, and I low key...um, hated it, . I was expecting a more deft attempt at a sci-fi action movie a la The Thing (which I had watched shortly before it and had loved), and instead I got a really clumsy pseudo-buddy cop film with equally awkward social commentary it repeatedly tried to drive through my skull with a jackhammer. Admittedly, it was some bad prognostication on my part, I had a very wrong idea of the film going into it, and that's at least somewhat my fault. I'll see what RLM says about the other two before I make a decision on watching them, . Dark Star is probably one I'll watch at some point here as well, actually. RLM's feedback/discussion of films is useful even when it's not necessarily all positive, since it gives me a good handle on what they are and what to expect. I'll let you know how that goes when it does, .

Phew, got Blood-C mixed up with Blood+ there for a moment and just about Dr. Phil-ed myself, seeing as Blood+ was one of the sorriest shows I ever got stuck watching two entire episodes of (I do not apologize in advance to anyone here that might actually like 2005's Blood+, ). I am certain that Blood-C must be significantly better than that. "History" episodes that don't in some way relate back to what's currently happening I think have a tendency to feel a little disruptive and boring to a show, unless maybe you're super into the setting.

Both, actually. October is usually sort of an "identify classic movies to watch, especially if they're horror or thriller" month each year, and had already been looking at John Carpenter movies before RLM started doing that video series - so when they did start their reviews of Carpenter movies, that was great news because it'd give a way better look at them and make it easy to select ones to watch, and yes, Assault on Precinct 13 immediately looked like one that I'd probably like well enough but definitely not love, so let's go watch it...and yep, that was exactly the case. In a month where I'm roped into watching a lot of classic movies, both ones I've wanted to see as well ones I have never even been vaguely interested in seeing, Assault on Precinct 13 seemed like an easy and agreeable choice. Might watch a few more Carpenter movies throughout the month. Yeah, it really was basically a zombie movie but just without literal zombies. This was Carpenter's second film after Dark Star, and I think it was lacking some of the more clever and snappier characters, dialogue, and action like you'd see in something like his The Thing, but it was still solid overall, especially given the budget.

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976). Simple but effective John Carpenter "zombie" movie - a fun enough action flick that did its job well.

Devil Lady, episode 5: Cardcaptor Sakura, episode 55:

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009). I want to love Wes Anderson films, but there's always just a little something off or missing with them for me, and this was no exception. Pretty good even so, though. Between the ridiculous over-acting, the slow and painfully drawn out dramatic dialogue, and the inexplicably poorly constructed action/tension scenes, I kind of figured the film wasn't going to work within literally about the first fifteen minutes. Definitely shouldn't have watched the remaining two hours - need to trust my instincts more on these things, .

Oh gosh. I listened to his voice and was like "that's a girl, right? ...or is it? no, it's gotta be a girl, how could it not be, although...nah". Check yourself before you wreck yourself, kids. Yeah, pretty sure. See, that's exactly what I feared would happen and is why I froze my Firefox in time, and even kept a copy of the last (offline) installer before that update. There used to be a Firefox classic extension that could take you back to the styles of even older versions, I'm sure someone will make something to go back to the previous version...sooner or later. I think I wrote literally all of the same complaints you just wrote when the update initially happened (plus maybe a couple of others) in the "what did you do today" thread. Good to see the changes I hated haven't changed, . I recall you saying you're just not a Monty Python person? That would probably explain why you haven't watched it, given its lack of appeal to you.

I heard her pronounce Minako's name and I turned it off. A little piece of irrational hatred for something completely inconsequential for this Unicorn of War, . ...Plus, I think I got a pretty good idea of her shtick by that point anyways.

Bruce Willis and Madeleine Stowe are awesome dramatically, comedically, and romantically together in that film, plus your good wacky Terry Gilliam stuff, plus a time travel plot that actually works well enough in the context of the film, some themes that I thought were interesting in addition to everything else... I don't know, I've seen it a few times and I'm always struck by how perfectly all the elements come together, and how strangely sympathetic, believable, and lovable both Willis and Stowe are (and of course, as is usual for me, love of a work starts with the characters and everything else naturally flows out from where you start with that). Rarely do I ever feel so strongly about live action films - the other eight that rise to an 80% or higher in my rating system and constitute some of my all-time favorite films are the aforementioned The Florida Project, Heathers, Parasite, Rosemary's Baby, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Thing, Downfall, and Monty Python and the Holy Grain. ...Monty Python would seem to be a bit of an oddball inclusion there, but my mom was a big Terry Gilliam and Monty Python lady while I was growing up (well, she used to be...but she still is too), and well, yeah, I guess I became a victim to it as well, . Yeah, my Firefox is still frozen in time before their big terrible update. So I assume it hasn't gotten any better since then? I have not seen any of his other work, though I think I was considering Tangerine at some point but never went through with it due to how strange it looked. The Florida Project was so freaking good that I suppose I should probably check out something else of his eventually.

Nightmare gets pretty difficult without passable gear but is at least doable, while Hell gets pretty extreme - huge resistances malus (-90) that makes you melt to most elemental attacks when you don't have piles of resistance gear, and not enough damage output can be pretty tedious...which is another reason I would only play the regular game with a sorceress to start without gear, since they're the least gear-dependent, .

Did anyone else's peace of mind go up somewhere between mildly and significantly after Biden got into office and didn't immediately reveal himself to be a two-bit wannabe dictator with an IQ of 2? Short of the U.S. collapsing tomorrow after we default, you're not gonna take that away from me no matter how many times times you say "Biden bad" - I've earned this respite after the last 4 years, thank you very much!

MPC-HC >>> VLC ...But you're probably very resistant to change, so I'm not even gonna bother trying to argue that particular one, especially since VLC still ultimately gets the job done, .

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.