majestic

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.

I'm not sure what you think will happen, unless you just remembered what Bartimaeus and I were talking about when we watched Utena. If you don't, then it's probably not what you think right now. Boy-Miki has less problems going forward. That is, if he could actually take a step forward in the first place. That's the thing with the duelists. You can come back to this sentence when you're done and it will make sense. Nanami is like the worst. The worst. However, the episodes she appears prominently in are usually some of the funniest. Why would you do that, she's such a nice doormat. Not there yet, sorry, I've been severely slacking on my JoJo's watching. It's all the edgy and ecchi I've been watching lately that's come in the way.

I see we're back to censoring mastur-bate. @Amentep can you perhaps find out why the powers that be waffle around on that word so much? It was definitely not censored earlier this week. It's not really that problematic a word, and really, there's a whole host of things that aren't censored and probably should be, but nobody cares whether or not the Greatjon wants to shove a sword up Lord Tywin's bunghole or someone has a good wank, jacking off to pictures of Mari. Much like **** is censored, but arsehole isn't, asshat isn't either, curiously enough. Bloody bollocks, all of it, really. I mean, just look at that sentence the way it stands now: I could change it to: Or: Or maybe we could use some ridiculous metaphor: Or simply leave it censored: None of those are not what I wanted to express there. The metaphors are ridiculous, jacking off and wanking have a connotation that I don't want in there, and the asterisk replacement of the actual word evokes the idea of a connotation that I don't want this to have either. It's all around worse than what is meant.

No, it gets worse. Miki's sister. The guy with the stopwatch. Good luck finding out what the stopwatch is supposed to mean. Yes and no. Both at once, yet none. The biggest difference between the Utena movie and End of Evangelion is that EoE was narrative in addition to thematic closue for Neon Genesis Evangelion, while the original series only offered a thematic closure in the form of Shinji working through his problems and breaking out of the little world he's enclosed himself in. Revolutonary Girl Utena's ending doesn't have that problem, it serves as a thematic closure as well as a narrative one, assuming one can actually find the narrative. It's not unsatisfying without the film, it just works much better with the film. More talk about EoE: EoE, interestingly enough, contains the same thematic closure as the series, it's just less readily apparent, and fans have called that film "angry" and leaving the franchise going out on a hateful note. I don't think that's necessarily true, NGE spends a lot of its runtime showing us that Shinji isn't a likeable character. EoE does that - again - except in appropriately compressed feature film length by having him **** to an unconscious Asuka, and later attempt to choke her when she calls him out on it when they have their alternate reality childhood friendship, although in the context of the series itself Asuka can blame herself for that just as well. Shinji masturbating to her is more or less what she wanted to have, validation that she's attractive (something she did not get from Kaji when she tried) and desirable as a person beyond her ability to pilot an EVA, it's just her wish being granted in the vilest of ways. Yet, at the end, when Asuka reaches for Shinji's cheek, he just stops, and at that moment, essentially, goes through the original ending (kind of). Convinced until that point that nobody will ever like him, he realizes that Asuka accepts him, in her own, damaged way. Asuka on the other hand gets her validation, because who cold you possibly get so worked up if you didn't feel passionately about that person? We could assume that Shinji in EoE gets a compressed, utterly unsympathetic arc because he serves as more of an audience stand-in in EoE and reflects on Anno's bad experiences following the ending of the original series, with the vandalization of Gainax properties, the waves of insults and the death threats - all that before social media made sh*tstorms a thing. If you assume that, then yes, it becomes angrier than the actual series. If that bothers a viewer, though, then perhaps they're actually part of the problem, right? Or the viewer is a shipper and annoyed that EoE doesn't support either #teamrei or #teamasuka. That would be a little strange, given the almost universal love for having him run off with anime fanservice **** and ass character in Rebuild. If that doesn't reflect badly on the fandom, then what does?

I think I already linked what DIO is up to a while back. He's a feminist! Heh. edit: Before I forget, no, the series doesn't feature a duel in every episode. I wondered about that for the first couple of episodes. There are only 8 duels in the first 13 episodes, but one doesn't count. Try to figure out which one before the show tells you. Yes, it is set after the series and is called "The Adolescence of Utena", and the movie explains a lot of the things that go on in the series that might not have entirely gotten the first time around. Don't let it fool you into believing it is just an abridged retelling of the show. That's just the surface level. I'm actually completely serious about this. The movie really is a huge help in making sense of the series, however, it's about as readily understandable as the series itself. To give an analogy, perhaps, imagine you get a gadget with a machine translated manual that you cannot really make sense of, but you can get the gadget to work in some form, but you're uncertain if you fully understand what it does, or what it can do. The film is then a second, separate manual with an equally bad translation that you can use to cross-reference what you found out from the first manual and experimentation with the gadget to get a more complete overview of it and what it does. Have fun!

The teacher overseeing the keion club organized some outfits for the band's first live performance at the school festival (in Love Live! it was a school presentation of club activities), and Mio freaks out because she really doesn't want to wear hers. Mio also wrote the lyrics for the song they'll be performing. Love Live!'s Umi isn't just a blatant ripoff of Mio, she's a carbon copy. Seriously, how did they get away with that? Love Live! is, however, a bit different in some respects. The characters are used much more for fanservice, of course, but they're also a little more, say, not as... much in total hilarity overdrive mode. The girls from K-On! are much more expressive and more, erm, anime*, but otherwise so far it is the answer to the question of "What would happen if Minako and Usagi started a band?" and it's pretty funny. Yui and Ritsu aren't Usagi and Minako, obviously, but they're goofing off of each other in a somewhat similar manner. I also read the second season gets a bit more serious and has more character drama than straight up goofy comedy bits. I'll see soon enough, it's not like there's a lot of episodes. Oh, and I also tried the English dub for a (very) short while. Yui is voiced by Usagi, and Mio by Rei, and I turned it off almost immediately. Nope, that doesn't work, at all. *This is where it is really noticable that K-On! was based on a 4 panel gag manga, i.e. the Japanese equivalent of silly newspaper comic strips. @Bartimaeus (not actual spoilers):

Utena got engaged to Anthy. The first episodes are introductions, mostly, plus some filler insanity you'll soon come across. Surfing elephants, boxing kangaroos, inexplicably loose horses, body switching and exploding curry await you. Enjoy it while it lasts, because it goes off the deep end really quickly. Revolutionary Girl Utena is split into four chapters: Student Council: Episode 01 <- You're currently on this floor. Student Council: Episode 02 Student Council: Episode 03 Student Council: Episode 04 Student Council: Episode 05 Student Council: Episode 06 Student Council: Episode 07 Student Council: Episode 08 Student Council: Episode 09 Student Council: Episode 10 Student Council: Episode 11 Student Council: Episode 12 Student Council: Episode 13 Black Rose: Episode 14 Black Rose: Episode 15 Black Rose: Episode 16 Black Rose: Episode 17 Black Rose: Episode 18 Black Rose: Episode 19 Black Rose: Episode 20 Black Rose: Episode 21 Black Rose: Episode 22 Black Rose: Episode 23 Akio Ohtori: Episode 24 Akio Ohtori: Episode 25 Akio Ohtori: Episode 26 Akio Ohtori: Episode 27 Akio Ohtori: Episode 28 Akio Ohtori: Episode 29 Akio Ohtori: Episode 30 Akio Ohtori: Episode 31 Akio Ohtori: Episode 32 Akio Ohtori: Episode 33 Apocalypse: Episode 34 Apocalypse: Episode 35 Apocalypse: Episode 36 Apocalypse: Episode 37 Apocalypse: Episode 38 Apocalypse: Episode 39 The elevator reference will start making sense - or not - really soon. As always, remember to go deeper, and hope that the Seminar does not reject your application. Don't forget the movie, it really is essential to understanding what is going on. The artwork took some time to get used to for me. The backgrounds are impressive in their artistic direction and the sort of dreamlike feel they're evoking, but the character models are a stark contrast to what you usually would see in anime of the time. Kind of like a 70ies throwback, with the angular features. I didn't post the Natsu e no Tobira screenshots and say "looks like Utena" for nothing, because the setting and artstyle of Utena seems to have been heavily inspired by that. See, my posts here make it look like I dislike any sexual content, but that's not true. It entirely depends on the framing, and some fanservice is all right with me. Point in case, I've watched a couple of episodes of K-On! because hey, why not. It didn't look terrible and @Bartimaeus agreed. It opens with Usagi oversleeping and running out of the house, but not before falling on her behind. That scene could be seen as a bit of fanservice, she's falling on her ass after all, but it's just framed to immediately establish that Usagi really is Usagi (well, her name is Yui, but it seems like all of these shows have an Usagi-like character ever since Sailor Moon). Unlike it's Love Live! counterpart where Love Live!'s Usagi falls on her behind, only to stick it out and rub it for the benefit of the male audience. Oh, by the way, the name is just the pronunciation for a Japanese word, because @Bartimaeus wondered what is going on. Keiongaku, or keion for short, is the Japanese word for "light music" in the Japanese sense of the word, i.e. lighthearted and fun entertainment music, not a reference to the German concept of leichte Musik. The director of the anime, who is a woman, by the way, seems to have a thing for animated legs, so there's lots of shots of the girls just walking, but that's just the girls walking. The biggest moment so far in terms of fanservice was the beach episode, which really happened early. Mio, the band's bassist, is generally more reserved than the other girls. She has long, black hair and is otherwise a bit more serious (just like Umi in Love Live!, and yeah, really just like, a 1:1 copy of the character), and while she likes playing the bass, she's not all too comfortable with being the focus of attention. She also hates the sight of blood, or any mention of blood, which leads to hilarity because Yui begins as the band's guitarrist and - true to form - cuts her fingers on the guitar strings. When she shows up on the beach in a black bikini that accentuates her, uhm, assets*, there's a short focus shot on them, going from the other girls' eyes to her bikini top. Maybe unnecessary, but it's fine within its framing. It makes sense that the others would stare for a moment. I mean, Yui and Tsumugi do, Ritsu has been friends with Mio a bit longer (they all meet in school) and is less surprised. Also really hilarious how much Love Live! blatantly stole from K-On! and apparently not only got away with it, but also surpassed it in popularity. It's... really everything. The basic core group is the same in terms of characterization, the plot beats are sometimes stolen almost verbatim. Yui fails an exam and gets banned from club activities, meaning the group is in trouble until she takes the make up test, and the other girls help her study (in an absolutely hilarious episode). In Love Live! meanwhile they threaten to ban the girls from singing if they flunk any exams, so they study together. There are lots of little details like that where it's noticable just how blatantly Love Live! borrowed from what appears to be the superior show anyway. *Normally, if I wouldn't know people like that in real life, I'd argue that Mio probably wouldn't wear a bikini like that, but we were all pretty surprised during a work outing when our reserved, conservative colleague suddenly showed up wearing the skimpiest beach outfit you can imagine. Well, maybe not the skimpiest, but it didn't leave much to the imagination. Fun fact, the other women that came along stared much harder and much longer than the men. Insofar that shot makes perfect sense.

Actually that sequel sounds pretty awesome, and the manga ending seems to be a bit less problematic, or rather, a bit more poignant. I don't really mean to imply that I hated Devilman Crybaby, far from it, it was just the last couple of minutes of the last episode that left a lasting and somewhat bad impression.