majestic

You can always go back in HK and top the completion up. That's about the only reason why I actually started. I'm 20 or so minutes in and pretty far already. Actual speedrunners need like 33 minutes for the any% run, which is pretty impressive. Not bad, as far as deflections go. Pretty nice Sailor Moon gifs. Makes me want to rewatch. I wonder where the discs are, I should probably make sure nobody finds them. I did find one of our student films though, talk about embarrassing. Colleague of ours went to film school after high school. There's a scene in a bar, and it's so clearly just someone's cellar where they keep their booze. Digital effects were pretty much top tier Best of the Worst stuff! And yeah, that's... just a Video CD. I have no idea where the original "master" file is, but it's not really any better. Hm. Heh. edit: Hah, I also found 24 year old backup disc, one has a folder named "Sailor Moon", and there are like promotional pictures from ancient web sites, and some really terrible quality poster scans. Hm. Look at Minako here: edit: I put the disc away before deciding to upload Minako's picture, just before someone comes along and tells me there were no PNGs in 1997. I know that. It's a screenshot. edit: I found a copy of Legend of Lemnear as an actual Video CD. That's slightly less embarrassing than knowing where my copy of LBG is, but only slightly. That is from an official distributor, but I have no idea if it's really licensed. Original Japanese with English subtitles. Pretty much unwatchable. I mean, image quality wise. The OVA itself is, uhm... from what I recall it has well animated action scenes, well animated jiggly boobies (but nothing too explicit) and a hackneyed good vs. evil fantasy plot. No one ever claimed 80ies shonen/seinen was any better than today's, content wise, right? It sure looked a lot better though. Like, a hell lot better, even.

Oh, that. I've misplaced that thing somewhere when I found myself not hating Love Live!, I guess. I'd need to check how much speed is compatible with my brain accepting something as watched. If I miss half the subtitles then that probably won't count. Speaking of that...

To use a Bushism, don't misunderestimate me here. I know I come across as more critical of K-On! than I ever did of Love Live, but that's not because I'm enjoying it less, it's exactly the opposite. K-On! is, for the most part, really enjoyable, if a bit silly. The "sort of" chibi look of the girls isn't so bad after a while - it's not fully chibi but the body proportions are way out of whack for girls that go from being 16 to 18 in two seasons. The overacting is mostly fine, it only really starts to grate once Sawako comes into play, and somehow has to up the ante on the crazy. There are these occasional moments where it kind of appears that the writers were paying their "respects" to the manga this was adapted from, which just like with Love Live!, is seinen. There's very little overt fanservice (the half a second long "huh look at Mio!" bikini scene, mostly), and most fanservice isn't even really there, it's more implied. Like ascene from their first live show, at the end, Mio trips over a cable and falls over, and people in the audience are starting to take pictures with their phones and cameras because Mio lands a bit like Ami in the narrow alley. Except the shot is seen from the group's point of view. Mio is embarrassed by it, and the others are pretty much too, or laughing at it. So far so fine, but Sawako has a video of that and shows it to Azusa later (there's no actual footage to see, it's just them staring at a screen). Without knowing the manga, of course, but these scenes are kind of jarringly out of place compared to the normal flow of the show. Like the one where Sawako is seen having pulled off Mio's pants, I mean, who does that, other than some seinen manga teacher character. What's stopping you from trying? The worst that can happen is you turn it off immediately or perhaps after Sawako goes fully nuts. *shrug* It sure won't be the worst thing you've tried - second worst perhaps if you try the English dub. edit: The music in the anime is what it is, but they perform something like four songs, and they're fairly short. It's a lot less about music than you'd think. I'm imagining watching Devilman Crybaby at 2x the speed, that's kind of hilarious. Maybe I'll try that on Netflix for a quick rewatch.

Probably. Most likely. Good idea. The episodes since were pretty good. Yui proves that she has no idea what she's doing when Azusa talks to her about guitar playing. Yui tunes her guitar "by ear" and doesn't know what "palm muting" is, and Azusa doesn't know whether she should be impressed or annoyed. Things become really funny when Yui's guitar starts having problems and she mentions she had no idea that you should clean and maintain it. Yui's younger sister Ui (yeah, naming... *shrug*) pretends to be Yui for a bit. It's ridiculous, they only notice it because Ui doesn't call Azusa by her stupid nickname. Sure. It was worth a laugh or two though. First season is almost over, last episode now. There's a bonus episode and an OVA before the second one.

Try? Ask Tuvix about "trying" to kill the crew off.

Doesn't seem to affect international distribution anyway, or Netflix hasn't put up any info yet. So we get to "enjoy" VOY on Neftlix longer, "yay!"

There's still a lingering disappointment over it being a scene in the first place. Eh, fine. Probably my fault for expecting something better. I should go into these things with no expectations at all, that should make things easier. Granted, there was no actual grabbing, because Mio was the first attempted target and it was over afterwards, but some things are best left without even an implication. Pfff. At least it's far and in between, so far. Yeah, watch me call it, it's probably just going to get worse, right?

Oh boy. Second beach episode in the first season, and this time Psycho!Teacher is tagging along and they're all bathing, and Sawako is around too and says she can't tell the girls apart without her glasses, so she'll just do it by... I guess that finally establishes that there are zero original ideas in Love Live! (not that THIS in particular was a GREAT original idea, but it's not even that), but I don't know if this one's worse because it's coming from the teacher or handled much better because Mio isn't having any of that and just knocks her out with a well placed whack to the head, while Nozomi gets away with it every time. It's always something with these episodes, it was going really well until that point.

Yeah, I had my fill of CLAMP anime adaptations that aren't Cardcaptor Sakura for the time being. I liked X well enough, of course, but enough is enough for a while. The CCS anime is really, really good (unless one doesn't like almost perfectly written Shojo anime, well... in that case keep your unsophisticated opinion to yourself!). The unmutilated version, that is, and certainly not the newer Clear Card. That's just awful. I wonder how many people will miss out on CCS just because Clear Card was pretty bleh. Just like everyone who watches Sailor Moon Eternal on Netflix. Ah, the pain. It burrrrrrrnsssssssssssssssssss my precious. Nasty. Nasty.

He did cause the whole incident with the egg, or at least that was the implication, was it not? Plus, in the film (spoiler again, KP!) I watched episode nine of K-On! (out of roughly 40 episodes in total). Azusa understandably has a crisis and can't really believe how a bunch of absolutely unmotivated slackers could possibly play as well as they did in their club presentation for new pupils, and she's right in wondering that. There's no real reason they could, looking at this realistically. It's explained away by the power of friendship (and stage presence) being a factor, rather than only pure skill or determination. Was a sweet moment because she was asking Mio - more or less - what a gifted bassist like her is doing in a group of clueless, if funny, people. Adding Azusa to the group made them more determined to practice and improve. Psycho-overdrive mode or no, it almost looks like someone planned out the character progression here.

I might misremember from sort of binging from this point to keep up but didn’t the shadow girls do something important in this one?

I don't mind the hammy theatrics in Japanese (but it's not winning me over, either), but that English dub sounds really bad for me. The only thing that made Madoka worse for me (as non-native, anyway) was Madoka's piercing, shrill voice. Which wasn't much better in the original either, so that's appropriate casting, just with... worse direction, I guess. I'd like K-On! more if they would just talk normally and only Shatner it up every now and then. Or keep it limited to one character that's not on screen all the time. Kind of like Nanami. You're just saying that because he starts trolling Nanami. Well, in that case you'll need to gauge if the funny outweighs the gouging or not. At least you didn't immediately swoon and start watching, because that would have made me like: Heh. edit: The girls are now in second grade, and Mio gets transferred to a different class. Well, that's not going to go well for her. Poor Mio. edit 2: One of the first years joins the Keion club. She comes to the club meeting in the music room, expecting them to practice and all that jazz, and the girls are doing the usual, sitting around, goofing off, drinking tea and eating cake that Tsumugi always brings with her. The new girl is completely flustered and thinks they'll get chewed out when Sawako comes in. She just sits down and orders tea with milk. It's funny how quickly they managed to establish funny running jokes in the series. Still not really into the character art, but it beats Girls' Last Tour in looks, at least. edit 3: There we go with the insanity again. Poor new girl thinks it's a test to see if she's interested in playing, starts practicing on her own and Sawako flies off her handle, yelling at her that she's making noise while she's drinking tea. New girl starts to cry over that, and Ritsu just calls her a moron. Good job. Well new girl is called Azusa, but everyone calls er Azu-nyan (i.e. Azu-Meow) because Sawako forced her to wear cat ears. Yeah. Really. Tone this down a notch and it would be really great. So it's just mostly funny and good when its good. Ah well, can't have everything. Still beats Magic User's Club.

There's the episode in season one with the fake Sailor Moon when Venus finally shows up, but otherwise... seems like a missed opportunity all right. While that CGI travesty doesn't deserve anything else, I guess you're right, there's still the old one. Skoop it is then. Or maybe Skoopie. Yes, they are. Kind of. I mean, that's fine. Mostly. I actually like K-On!, I just meant it's not easy to recommend based on just how the characters are... presented? It's a combination of being nuts, voice acting and the animation (that includes the art style). There's the situation when Ritsu finds out that their teacher was in the Keion club herself, and was the guitarist and vocalist of the group, with neon pink hair and half a death growl, and they're all sort of surprised the otherwise reserved and polite teacher has a past like that. Ritsu then proceeds to immediately blackmail her with it and starts calling her Sawa-chan (well, what a Japanese diss for a teacher). That's "normal" for Ritsu, and Yui isn't much better, as such when you want to show that the teacher's a bit unhinged, they needed her to get full scale psychotic for it. Ah, but why talk about it, here, have a look: Well, spoilers, obviously. Well, if you find the clips funny and not "gouge your eyes and ears out" cringe, then you might actually kinda like it, at least from only having seen half the first season. Yeah, and THIS is what happens when you turn on the English audio track: Darker brown haired girl (Yui) is Stephanie Sheh, just in case that's not entirely discernable from the absolutely wonky way she delivery her lines. Imagine Usagi sounding like that all the time. Getting Madoka flashbacks here? Because I do. I mean, I watched the Madoka movies with the English dub, after all.

Poor Juri's fate, always forgotten. Ah, well... That's a mouthful. How about Dumbo? I know, we talked about Bond before, exactly when talking about the little things that aren't problematic until they are. Mostly because Jay liked Skyfall. Well, nobody's perfect. Had a good laugh now. K-On!... now that I'm halfway through the first season, here are some random observations: I'm laughing a lot, which is a good sign for a slice of life comedy, but it's more than that, you have these random 4 girls that meet each other (except Mio and Ritsu who have been friends for longer) through a highschool extracurricular activity club and slowly become friends. They're actually effecting each other in a nice way. Like Mio becoming more confident and even agreeing to sing, Yui becoming less of a person who is quick to be interested in something and then just giving up on it before even trying, while Tsumugi (yeah, no wonder everyone calls her Mugi), the obligaroty rich girl of the group notices for the first time how it is to have to save up and work for something. When Yui wants to buy a guitar, she's taking a ten month advance on her allowance from her mother, and still can't afford it. They all take a part time job to earn money for Yui, even Tsumugi. Yui then decides to buy a cheaper guitar, not the Gibson Les Paul she wants. She does get the Gibson in the end because, in typical comedy "happenstance" Tsumugi's father just happens to be the music store's owner, and the manager gives her an 80% discount on the guitar after Mugi learns what haggling is and just walks up to the poor manager saying she wants a discount on a guitar. Ritsu even does something next to absolutely nothing with her life for the first time, and her Minakoish tendencies (she's reall liberally hamming it up even more than Yui, forgets things, doesn't care about important things, doesn't apply any effort but is shown to be pretty good at school life when she does, etc.) are curbed a little. Insofar it's pretty good. If season two really becomes a little more serious, it could be legitimately great. Assuming they drop the teacher out of it at some point, or tone her down by like two Minako's and half a Rei. Really. Still, in terms of striking a balance between funny and serious and characters that really go well together, the gold standard is still Sailor Moon. Well, and CCS, but yeah, that's mostly cute and funny, not funny and serious in almost perfect balance. Pity about the borderline psychotic character presentation. And the waste of the English voice talent.

Yes, she is. I mean, she really is that, in terms of the narrative, at this point. An object to be won in duels, but you could already see that she's not just that by the way she sat at the table with DIO after he won her. Or is that in episode 12 and you haven't seen that yet? I'm spoilering the rest because I really don't know what was in 11 and 12:

Ah, okay, got the wrong impression then, never mind. edit: Because of the character complaints and the character art style, I mean.

I dunno man, perhaps you should drop it. It's not like anyone's forcing you to watch it. Unlike @Bartimaeus who was forced by his watching partner and me simply because I tried it. I get the feeling you don't see anything redeeming in it. Up until the beginning of the Akio Ohtori arc I was enjoying it well enough. Kinda lost me there. Might really be better on a rewatch, with the benefit of improved understanding. Hm. edit: K-On! just had a Christmas themed episode where it really went off the rails. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy watching it, and it was just the one episode so far and it was quite funny for the most part, until it suddenly became really, really strange. It's like having a few loose marbles is a job requirement for anime directors. edit 2: Spoiler, as an explanation:

Minor warning, episode 13 is a clip show, but it's not really skippable, otherwise you'll miss important thematic points (which you most likely won't notice until later, but still...). It's also pretty good for a clip show. That can't be because Juri is the best in everything. The most likeable, the only character with a normal, relatable story arc and of course her voice is like the smooth feeling of silk against my ears. It could be worse, you could be really young and old in mind and spirit instead, and be like a certain Sklld!* poster here, spewing garbage every day. You're pretty well off with being old in soul then. Not that I disagree, music in anime really used to be better. Music as a whole used to be better in the past. Not all of it, obviuosly, but as far as mainstream goes, for sure. I have no real explanation for liking X. By all accounts I should post here like I did with Sailor Moon Crystal, complaining about characters narrating what's on screen, for instance. Yet, even for all its flaws, it looks really good. There's a striking atmosphere created by the use of colors and visuals that simply works, regardless of how ridiculous it might be that they're locking up the Sacred Sword (tm) in a technological sealing container that's then chained up by magical chains of chaining (also tm). The setting is really everything they could come up with thrown together. Virtual reality computer hacking through Satsuki's powers, dreamwalkers, dreamseers, all sorts of esoteric powers ascribed to Japanese religious sects. Nothing of that should work, and it really doesn't at times, but when it does, it is great. Seiichiro and Karen, for as little of them there actually is, have an on-screen chemistry I haven't seen in a while. They just work. It's dark and edgy in a way that I would normally laugh at, however, the only thing that really bothered me was the *snap* change of Fuma where his personality is simply replaced by Kamui choosing sides. That kicked me out of the show and I had to take a break. The awkwardly placed flashbacks and repetitive story narration is grating, just not as bad as it was in Sailor Moon Crystal. It's on a similar level whenever it comes to the plot of the anime, but everything else is better, so it makes much less of an impression. In the end, it's really like Jay said when he talked about Skyfall, a film I hated with a passion, by the way: The little - and sometimes big - things don't matter as much when you enjoy the overall product. Although, much like the old geezers who think everything was better in the past, I hated every last Daniel Craig Bond so far. They might be all right action films, but there's a certain expectation I have from a Bond film, and none of them had any of that, and it's totally unrelated to him being blonde, and totally related to him being a more grounded character in somewhat gritty action films, instead of stylish and flashy and ridiculous. When I want to watch the Bourne Indentity, then I watch The Bourne Identity. Oh, I agreed with all the critics and the fans that the last few Brosnan Bond films weren't good, and that the newer ones with Craig are much better constructed - except for A Quantum Solace, because that's like the Into Darkness of James Bond films, but like all of Nu Trek, it ain't Bond. Whelp, that's become a rant. *Explanation spoiler:

No, of course it doesn't. It's not weird in the JoJo way, but nothing can be, after all. Are you in the Black Rose arc yet?

She didn't just kill a cat, she drowned an adorable kitten because she got the hots for her brother and it was taking attention away from her. Like I said, she's the worst. Spoiler for the movie (massive, I mean it this time, stay away @KP the meanie zucchini!): Okay, thanks guys, if I ever feel the need to soapbox something about the forum again I will do.

No, that's onii-chan, I find your lack of weeb disturbing. (O)nee-chan is for older sisters.

#notanyonesanime, actually. This doesn't work on so many levels, for so many reasons, but it was just awesome for me. It's one of these imperfect shows where you have occassional brilliance, sometimes great direction, sometimes terrible direction, pacing issues, exposition overload, then not enough exposition, flashbacks at the worst of times, uncomfortable scenes, great scenes, all mixed together in 24 episodes that were either way too many, or not nearly enough, depending on who you ask. There's decent writing, occasionally great writing, and sometimes terrible writing, especially when it comes to the plot, with characters literally narrating what's going on, or what we have just seen, or recounting what was going on in a past episode. I think these might be manga holdovers, because Sailor Moon Crystal suffered from exactly the same problem - expositional dialogue that's there even though we can see what is happening on the screen. In Sailor Moon Crystal, you have a scene of a stormy sea, with Sailor Neptune saying "The sea is restless today" over it. Yes, that works in a manga panel when you only have one frame to draw the sea, and then some dialogue or monologue explaining it. That's fine, especially when you need to meet super tight deadlines and barely sleep at all. It's not fine to take this into adaptation. And I think - without having read the manga - that the story elements of this suffer from the same thing. Too much repetition, not only in scenes, but in things we're told. The dreamseers are especially bad, because they keep narrating their dreams, and when they happen, the real life verions of their dreams just as well. Mr. Director Man, this doesn't work in an anime, maybe talk to your writers. Generally, people who watched this for the action say that they would have preferred 13 episodes and less episodes focus on character stuff, while people who usually watch for character stuff would have liked more, and less action, and more importantly, much less of the plot. This really, absolutely and unmistakingly has no target audience, and it saves the absolute best for last: The ending is so mind blowingly awesome that I had to check if it pissed off all the people who usually watch shōnen anime and who were sort of tricked with all the action in this. I was not disappointed at all. I think the guy meant to write "simply not appealing", but that doesn't track with the rest of the post. I bet this guy liked Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.01 Thrice Upon A Time. Then there's some gay panic: No homo, guys. What he's talking about is an implied shared feeling between Fuma and Kamui, even though Kamui is clearly into Kotori. He's not wrong, there's definitely the occasional homosexual vibe going on, but really... pull your head out of your arse here. This guy, on the other hand, pretty much nails it: Except that I didn't really find the soundtrack to be that great. It's generic orchestra awesome, generic orchestra sad, and generic orchestra emotional. Then again, people thought the Sailor Moon Crystal soundtrack was awesome, and that was indeed, just generic orchestra awesome, generic orchestra sad, and generic orchestra emotional. It's functional, but not standing out. The intro song is stupid post-2000 anime punk/guitar heavy stuff. The sad part is, if you streamlined the plot heavy episodes, took out the repetitive narration and exposition, and cleaned it up a little, this would be legitimately good. As it stands now, it's a mess that only people like me could possibly enjoy, I think, or someone who caught it while it was on TV and just went with watching because nothing else was on. Oh, right, the ending:

Okay, so the final episode of X begins with...

Currently finishing X. That doesn't pull any punches. The setup is all paying off now. I thought the ending would be a mess, but so far it isn't. There's one episode left. I'm not even in the mood to complain about Emo McEdgelordface right now, because these past few episodes were really a gut punch, regardless of all the problems with the main character or the ridiculous scope of the story, and the somewhat hilarious twists that happen.