majestic

Okay, so this deserves its own post, I think. Minako is... trapped, falls off a tower, Artemis grabs her and, uhm, Artemis gets smashed by a rock. Blood is running down Minako's arm. Suddenly the rock lifts, Artemis has transformed into a bishonen character with green eyes and is saying that it was his fault that she could not transform, they're a team and he wasn't strong enough. What? What? Huh. What? Artemis is... a guy? What? What in the... uhm. Yeah, okay, that doesn't at all make it even creepier that he watches her bathe. Seriously dude. Minako is completely unfazed by that revelation. NOBODY HERE IS TALKING ABOUT HOW ARTEMIS TURNED INTO A PRETTY WHITE HAIRED BOY EVEN THOUGH ALL OF THEM ARE THERE. Except Usagi and Chibi-Usa, they're with Mamoru. edit: Have a look: Yeah... no horn, so no Pegasus! @KP the meanie zucchini and @Bartimaeus all edits done, have fun, you can go over the posts again to see all that I've added. Final edit for Part 1: Post credit scene shows Hotaru at her old age, or close to it. The best thing is... it's over now. Not going to watch Part 2 now, that took a while. Part 2 tomorrow, probably.

Minako has a crisis because she can't transform, and everyone was talking about Haruka, Michiru and Setsuna, and she's... doing Minakoish things. Like walking straight into a trap. This would be okay if it wouldn't copy the plot from Sailor Moon S. If that's in the manga too, then... does that mean Ms. Takeuchi took elements from the anime adaptation? That sounds like a good idea in theory. edit: I was going to comment on how the first film looks better than expected - I mean, it's still... not beautiful, but less bad than I thought it would be. Then these two show up: Yeah, so, aight. Imma outta here. Baaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiii!

I'm assuming that Chibi-Usa and Usagi behave like that in the manga too, which explains where their retarded relationship in SuperS comes from. Dear lord, Usagi just complained about having to drive a kart alone. What? Are karts multiseated in Japan, or are they talking about bumper cars and this is a ridiculous translation error? edit: Kinda wondering if "lend me your power" is a Pedosis euphemism. Chibi-Usa is currently wondering if she wants to do that. Or rather, wants to do that. Anyway, this Pedosus relationship is not nearly as creepy as the one in SuperS, but at the end of the day, it's still Chibi-Usa and a horse. edit 2: Well, Hawk's-Eye is crossdressing this time. edit 3: Now I know where the SuperS writers got the idea from that Makoto is a tough love kind of girl. She's just being assaulted by Hawk's-Eye and stuck in a nightmare, talks to herself. Unlike every other girl so far (that's all of them except Minako), she's barely wearing anything in spite of having been fully clothed before, and her dream-self slaps her silly for falling for a silly enemy ploy, and she's all like ME TOUGH ME SUPER HERO. Yeah, guys, really... but I prefer my Makoto from the real version of Sailor Moon. That one is tough as nails to when she needs to be, but never like this. I wonder what will happen to Minako. The Amazon Trio is pretty dead now. edit 4: Makoto says her dream is to protect the people she loves, while seeing all her friends naked. Ami is the only one that has indication of visible breasts and is seen looking directly at Makoto (the others are either turning or looking over their shoulders). God dammit, the Ami x Makoto shipping base must be having a field day. Picture in the spoiler! edit 5: Haruka tells Makoto in the vision that her biggest enemy is her own weakness. What? Yep, checked the English subs, that's what they say too. Haruka look, Makoto's greatest enemy (and her weakness) is not her physical weakness, it's is her lack of self-esteem. Seriously guys... have you like, seen the real anime at all? It's okay to take a few hints from the better material here and there! Also, not cool using Makoto of all people to introduce the tough guy act here. What is this, shojo-shonen? edit 6: Kay, so Artemis and Minako are having a talk, because Minako is the only one left who can't transform. She says she's going to take a bath, and Artemis follows her... watches her, and goes like: "You're getting more beautiful by the day! You really look like the goddess Venus." What in the what now. Artemis is watching Minako bathe. Or shower. Shower it is. Mina she's she's going to take a bath, but it seen showering. Guys, have you read your own script before animating this?

Well then it was in the manga, I guess. Hah, look at them complaining about the ticket prices. The best Dead Moon Circus show ticket costs like 10000 Yen. I'm sure that was more impressively expensive in 1995. That's like 75€ for the best seats of a circus show. They're getting a pretty good deal here. Ms. Smarty Panty Ami stated right at the beginning that total solar eclipses only happen once in a thousand years. That's... fairly inaccurat there, Ms. Mizuno, and you should really know better. They happen all the time. You might just wait for a while until one's observable where you live, but that's something very different, huh? edit: Yeah, way to go. Rei sees a vision of her 4-year-old past self kissing Tiger's-Eye. That went to SuperS-level uncomfortable in a handbasket. What was the line from Anchorman? That escalated quickly. edit 2: The Dead Moon Circus show is a ploy to steal nightmare energy from people to funnel to Nehelenia. Wow, that's original. Nobody tried that before, right? edit 3: I'll need five hours to watch both films at this pace, but holy hell, the two ravens at Rei's shrine that she called Phobos and Deimos (sure, the moons of Mars, but Ms. Takeuchi sort of forgot that they mean fear and terror, I guess, not every inspiring names) are actually tiny sailor-senshi like girls. What? Calling it now: In the Stars arc we'll see that they're from the same planet that SAILOR LEAD CROW is from. edit 4: Uhm, Rei sees a vision of Michiru in which only Michiru's head and her shoulders are visible, but it's noticable that she's not wearing anything. This is weird. Pre-transformation Rei also had the same shot. Clearly a naked upper body, just cut off right below the shoulders. *shrug* Rei states the obvious counter: 1

It's not entirely bad. Minako just had a scene where she suggested Rei should marry someone to have a free manservant at the shrine. That was actually fun. At least for now it's less uncomfortable than SuperS, so that is a net positive. Can't say its good though. In the manga, having the chapters not be connected that much isn't such an issue. In a feature film, it just makes a mess of things without proper adaptation. That remains a weak point. If you want to adapt this somewhat faithfully you really need to do it as separate episodes (The Madoka films had similar issues - at least the first two you watched, the third one was planned as a film and was structurally much better). Did someone suggest Rei marry someone to have a Yuichiro style free servant in the old anime too, or do I remember that from the manga? I'm not certain right now.

You did, that's from Ami's dream mirror rape scene. You said back then that you skipped the entire fight - or rather everything after Tiger's-Eye trapped Ami.

Yeah, so this seems to be really kind of close to the insanity that happens in the manga. Chibi-Usa is currently admiring Usagi's long, slender legs and wonderfully shaped, supple breasts (not making this up, but I'm watching the German dub for sanity's sake, so this won't be 1:1 what the subtitles would say, I guess), and she wants to grow up fast so Mamo-chan sees her as mature and independant woman. Please don't let this have the scene where 6year!Usagi tries to kiss Mamoru. Please. edit: Usagi also behaves like her SuperS counterpart at the moment. Good grief. Mamo-chan calls her out on it, telling Chibi-Usa that she's the more mature of the two. Good going Mamo, I guess that's it for tonight. No fun for you! edit 2: Jesus H. Christ, that Pedosus voice. So wonderful, airy and soft, and sounds just age appropriate. For a creepy 40 year old trying to lure childen with candy. Yay. edit 3: I'm trying to not interpret anything into Chibi-Usa wearing Mamoru's pyjama shirt. That's not at all meant to be weird. It's just cute! edit 4: Body switching time. Pedosus also gave Chibi-Usa and Usagi their humongous moon <censored sysnonym for plastic schlong> edit 5: Look at Rei Troi state that something's wrong with the Dead Moon Circus after an "escaped" tiger attacked the city and Chibi-Usa and Usagi had their body switch. My, my. Did you feel that with your psychic powers? edit 6: Here comes the Trio! Looks like they're taking some liberties from the manga here, they're all transformed at once. In the manga, Ami buys Fisheye at the pet store. Also, Mamo-chan is too sick right now, so no awkward scenes between Usagi and him. Phew. edit 7: Apparently Ami is still buying Fish-Eye. He was transformed back, I guess. What was the point of the prior scene then? edit 8: I was just about to write that this is actually a nice scene. Ami is blaming herself for her parent's divorce, her mother is seen bringing a random man home, telling him not to worry about her daughter, she only thinks about studying and that she doesn't care about her at all. Of course it's all an illusion by Fish-Eye. Then of course this happens: Fish-Eye is currently fondling Ami. Sigh. I wonder if Ami gets to be nude now, like in the manga. In the AMV she wasn't. I'd rather she be nude than having Fish-Eyes grubby hands on her breasts. Who thought that was a better idea? edit 9: Yes, so... no nude Ami, but Usagi and Chibi-Usa come after being called by Ami. They transform and switch bodies back. That sub plot went absolutely nowhere, just like in the manga. It also didn't go anywhere in SuperS, so I'm not holding that against Eternal. edit 10: It stuck to the manga. Fish-Eye was just obliterated, Pedosus thinks that Usagi is the one he seeks, Chibi-Usa feels useless and storms off. She has a nice, emotional scene talking to Pedosus where she admits to feeling useless and small, and the horse goes in for the kill. 35 minutes in, Pedosus kisses Chibi-Usa first as a horse, then as... boy. Okay, I have to admit that this isn't nearly as bad as it was in SuperS after a season full of grooming and that body switch where he told her that they can't be together unless she turns back into a child, but it's still him taking advantage of the emotional insecurity of a nine year old. So... not nice, Mr. Pedosus, not nice. edit: Rei "Deanna" Hino states the obvious counter: 1

Like the voiceover of the Romulan suicide attack ships in Star Trek: Armada, it is time (no pun intended) to ask the one, burning question that is on all of our mind now, isn't it? Is it time yet? And what is it really doing? REALLY? I'm afraid it is. It is time that I fall on the sword for you, dear readers, and to paraphrase the Klingon suicide attack ship: I COMMIT MY SOUL TO STO'VO'KOR! I got lucky, I expected two movies with two hour runtime apiece, but lo and behold, it's two times 81 minutes. So that's... doable. I'm also watching on my computer to regale you with fun posts and edits about this travesty - or the somewhat more unlikely scenario that this is really just super awesome. I hope all the scenes from the trailer are in it, because that would mean Minako got some amazing boob upgrades for the big screen.

Oh, come on, it's great. Great! Almost as great as way back when WinAmp 3 came out, or ICQ99b... why... why is everyone always blowing up user interfaces like that? EVERYONE. No matter where you look. Bah. And yeah, I just started Firefox anew and my brain itches. IT BURRRRRRNS MY PRECIOUS. Le sigh. edit: By the way, I just read that this new Firefox look is there to complement upcoming changes with the latest Windows 10 update. I think I just died a little inside.

Very mild/minor: The underlying concept is as old as storytelling of course, and training montages in films came probably earlier than Attack No. 1, but for sports films, I don't know, but it sure is interesting to see the show shift away some of the focus on volleyball to the psychological effects of getting such an early victory for a bit. Up until then it followed the formula pretty well, with the young hopeful talent meeting a group of established players, needing extra training and end up winning (at first within the team, then the championship). But that was like the first 15 episodes or so. Said that before, that was the least interesting part of the anime, according to me memory of it. I'm still not entirely certain how this will hold up, if at all. So far it's been not bad, but both really dated and less interesting than it was as a kid, but not bad at all.

I do plan on taking up valuable university places from our youth once I retire, whenever that will be. Like, get some old age studying done. Always thought I'd end up a scientist when I was younger. Not neuroscience, of course, but something computer science related. The realities of university life proved to be quite a spanner in the works of that idea. It's not quite Kickboxer... they're still national champions of course, and they held their own for a while during that game. It wasn't quite the traditional beatdown and the Japanese team only lost because the girls got really nervous after winning the first set (i.e. they were already good, but not experienced enough to win). But yeah, if this would have been a boy team they'd have lost 2-0 and got roflstomped so hard they'd visit the wizened old volleyball guru, who would have them carry water up and down an endless flight of stairs and drop coconuts on them from a tree. I... think I'll go watch Kickboxer now, and then Jean Claude von Johnson. They sort of did that already in one of the earliest episodes. Not carrying any water, but Hongo had them run up and down an endless flight of stairs, and when some of the girls complained, they started slapping each other. But yeah, very classic in terms of sports arcs regardless. But Attack No. 1 is over 50 years old now, and the manga it is based on is even older. How classic is that really? Not a rhetorical question, by the way, generally curious, I think Attack No. 1 was the first or at least amonst the first shojo sports mangas/animes. Just asking, you know. This is me, basically, every time I watch the show (or talk about it): Hoeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~! Well, a bit different. That would be creepy if the four of them weren't girls.

That does seem to be related though, according to research. I mean, from what I've read, with the caveat that I'm no neuroscientist and probably never will be. I'm also not sure a self-diagnosis based on an online test holds much water in my case, but at the end of the day, it does explain a few things, like me never understanding what people meant when they said a book adaptation didn't look like what they envisioned. I have watched some more Attack No. 1, but I spent most of the day playing games (had a public holiday). Anyway, I'm almost 20 episodes into it now and it's taking shape. Kozue and her team unexpectedly won the national championship, and now they're asked for autographs and get preferential treatment from school officials. They're also very quickly developing a sense of entitlement and have become arrogant enough to clash with other school sport teams. Mr. Hongo has quit his job (spoiler: He'll be back) but not before whacking Kozue in the face with a volleyball for coming too late to a training session. Before quitting, he arranged a friendly match against the junior world champions, a team from the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the school paper has printed a somewhat derisive article about the volleyball team's entitled behaviour (written by Tsutomu), who is promptly beaten up by the captain of the soccer team who has taken a liking to Kozue. To her credit, she intervened, but she and Tsutomu aren't on speaking terms at the moment. Not sure if I recall that part correctly, but I think the two (edit's note - captain soccer team and Tsutomu) become friends before Tsutomu's unfortunate incident and captain soccer team eventually becomes Midori's boyfriend. The team also had tryouts where they... behaved less than ideal, mostly making fun of the girls that came. Kozue also laughed off a nervous boy who came to ask her out. School principal whatshisface (no, really, he doesn't have a name, he's just called by his title all the time) wants to allocate all available funds to building a new gym specifically for their volleyball team. The student and school council is divided on the issue. They eventually end up making the fund allocation contingent on the result of the friendly match between the junior world champions and their team. Kozue agrees to that and... having reached the height of her hybris, is sure they'll win. Well, as they say, pride comes before the fall. They'll get their reality check pretty soon. Right, spoiler! They're going to lose their upcoming match against the Soviet team and eat some much needed humble pie, which will eventually end with Kozue pushing her team so hard someone ends up hospitalized. All that and more in the next few episodes! Actually... this is becoming pretty good. The volleyball aspects are totally unrealistic, but everything else around that is quite well done. I mean, once you get over that antiquated charm of everyone being quick to, uhm, beat each other up. Punches, slaps and volleyballs to the face for everyone! *whack* edit: I also want to reiterate how jealous I am that @Bartimaeus gets to watch Sakura's Wonderful Christmas for the first time soon, if he hasn't already. I kind of want to turn back time and experience it again. Well, all of it, I guess, not just that one episode. edit 2: Currently watching the first Cardcaptor Sakura film, after having missed its proper spot after episode 35. Question: Will I ever get tired of Tomoyo saying: "Kawaii desu wa, Sakura-chan."? Answer: Nope, don't think so.

I haven't heard of aphantasia until now and googled a bit. There are plenty of "test" pictures out there where you're supposed to close your eyes and imagine an apple or a heart or a sunrise or any such image, and rate it on a scale. I tried that, but the results weren't very promising. I don't really see images in my mind like that. Not even shapes. It's all a blank, except some mild closed eyes hallucinations that I pretty much always had, but those are blue rings on the red/blackish background of closed eyes that float around (when you close your eyes and rub them - it is really similar to that, except with no rubbing). When I focus on them the move or change shape but that's pretty much it. They're also not voluntary, or anything. They're just there. However, I'm not sure that these internet tests are all that accurate, or anything worthwhile, because I have no problems dreaming the most vivid of dreams, and I can live in my own self-created imaginary fantasy world if I want, which I still often do when trying to fall asleep (this often takes the form of self-insertion fanfiction, and it is always in third person, i.e. I am an imaginary observer of something that happens to me). But that's not entirely full of images either, it's more like an abstract concept of a scene I'm observing. Like sitting in front of a TV screen, watching something. It's not the same complete blank that I get when trying to come up with the image of an apple right now. Does that make sense? Probably not. I also can't rule out any bias, as I have said numerous times before, testing myself is... not my biggest strength, and I never thought about any of this until now that I've heard of it. So take the rambling above with a grain of salt. I once dreamt ShadySands looks like Avery Brooks and deals meth. That was before he changed his avatar to Leonard Nimoy...

Cardcaptor Sakura, Clear Card, episode 1. Not really any real spoilers: There are major continuity problems between the prologue episode and a flashback in this first one. I'm... not sure what the point of that was. I'm giving the show the benefit of the doubt here and say that was intentional. I wonder what's going on... I mean, I hope it's something, not just an oversight. edit: Kero also has a new console all of a sudden. I mean, Sakura does, I guess. That's definitely a Dual Shock style controller now. What? I sometimes dream of forumites, and they look like their avatars. I might also have had the occasional Sailor Moon themed dream recently. I also definitely had a hybrid Dr. Strange / Agents of SHIELD dream once at the same time when I played Tides of Numenera. That was weird. Buildings kept falling apart, dimensional portals threw cars around and the world folded in on itself, while I was desperately trying to figure out what was going on, together with Fitz-Simmons. Yeah. Weird, weird.

Yeah, maybe. Heh. "Spoiler" Speaking of that dialogue between Sakura and Shaoran, the old animation made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Clear Card... nope. I feel nothing. This is worse than being rejected by someone you, to use show appropriate terms, you "really like", that's more like a "yeah I really liked you, but now you're dead to me!" kind of feeling. Which is horrible!

Your numberings gone a-wrong, that be 31.

There is a chance that I'll get to play Skyward Sword eventually, there'll be a Switch remake, or maybe there is already, I haven't really paid much attention. I've been mostly watching TV when I wasn't working recently. Mami's name is probably a reference to her, uhm, mammaries. Although that would imply fanservice where there barely is any. The film version has even less than the BR version (Homura's transformation sequence is different, and Madoka and Homura don't float around in space wearing only sparkles). Because otherwise she was the older sister / mentor archetype for the others, but not really the mother of the group. Hm. But when in doubt, blame English. How's your average Japanese person to know that Mami and mommy will sound almost the same in English. Those are different letters, for crying out loud.

Maybe, I don't know. It's hard to find anything online other than "That's Sakura's catchphrase, except when she's flustered, then it becomes hanyan!", and hanyan is apparently Chinese for being flustered (well, or blush with shame), so that makes even less sense, unless that's something Japanese girls did in the late nineties. Speaking of Zelda... did you know that Mami Tomoe from Madoka was voiced by Navi the annoying fairy from Ocarina of Time? Possibly, Shaoran is also the only one who occassionally says "Meirin" with a very soft r sound, while everyone else, most notably Sakura, says that name with an audible "l" in the middle. At least, I think. I only recently upgraded my understanding of spoken Japanese from everything being one weird wall of grunts to being able to recognize voice actors and actual words used. Recently meaning while rewatching Sailor Moon. Welcome to the wonderful world of very literal fan-subs and localized professsional subs, which is another angle of the subs vs. dubs debate that you don't really ever want to get into. Because even though rabid fans of anime will run you through for even thinking about watching dubbed anime, they can't agree among themselves how subtitles should be handled. The most moronic thing about the literal vs. localized translation discussion is when it comes to common phrases. Nobody who writes fan subs would translate "ohayo" literally, right? Becase that's just good morning. It doesn't literally mean good morning. It means "it is early!" but it is used in the same way we say good morning, much like kon'nichiwa and konbanwa, which means "this day" and "this evening" respectively. Yet the literal subs people object to having words and names dropped, and certain things properly localized. I don't get it. Except for puns, perhaps. There's no good way to deal with puns most of the time. The writers for Minako did an amazing job with the Viz dub though. But yes, the Netflix subtitles for Cardcaptor Sakura also feature long bouts of words that don't appear on the screen, and lots of names that aren't reflected. It's not necessary, in the end. Japanese is so different from our indo-germanic grammar structure that it makes no sense to translate and use every word.

Oh, Sakura-chan, kawaii! Hooooooooooeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Today I learned that Xiaolang is apparently really the official Chinese name for Shaoran, and the reason why some material spells him Syaoran is because that's the appropriate Romaji in a different system, while most of Japanese is romanized with the Hepburn system. It would be Shaoran in Hepburn. Not that any of that matters. If Xiaolang is written in Pinyin, and that's what we have to assume, everyone on the show, including his Chinese-native cousin can't pronounce the name right. Makes sense for the Japanese girls obviously, but not really for Wei or Meilin/Meiling/Meirin... but hey... in Sailor Moon, Mamoru's gentleman friend from England introduced himself by saying HERRO too, so that's... par for the course. As if the show wasn't confusing enough already with its two separate English dubs, changed names and an additional, mangled US release. I also tried to find out what Sakura's trademark "Hoe!" is supposed to mean, but came up short. It's some sort of Japanese something, probably like "Oy!", for which you wouldn't find a proper translation either. edit: Made any progress?

Might be interesting to see if it was like that in the manga too. Tomoyo also still has an old camcorder, but from what I read you can still buy Tomoyo merchandise in Japan, and that includes modern camcorders in old school designs. So that at least... has a meta explanation. Why must you look so bad? WHY? The old animation conveyed a warm feeling and beauty that fit the show perfectly, while this is clear, clean and sterile in a way that is distracting from what made the show great.

Cardcaptor Sakura, Clear Card, Episode "0": Prologue Yeah, so... that looks soooo terrible compared to the original. Kero still plays on the same console, but delivery people are running around with tablet computers. Why the partial tech up? Sheesh. The prologue is an extended version of the last couple of minutes from the last episode of the original anime, except the continuity is all wrong. Yay. Well... not sure at all. Did I mention how terrible this looks?

Shipping a pedophile horse with a nine year old isn't, so that's not even something people should be doing in their private thoughts. Coyly writing (human) Helios doesn't cut it. The biggest problem with shippers is that they kind of get an idea in their head and usually won't budge, no matter how hard they're proven wrong, and that includes Carcaptor Sakura. There are "fans" out there who accused the writers of pushing a heteronormative agenda because Sakura doesn't have a crush on Tomoyo. Just because they are hardcore Tomoyo x Sakura shippers. A heteronormative agenda. In Cardcaptor Sakura. Really, here, have a very emphatic F*CK YOU you morons, and sorry but not sorry for the expletive. Final thoughts? Maybe. I don't know what for, though. This isn't the type of anime that requires a post-watch writeup. In fact, it barely demanded mid-watch writeups either. It does have a few truly fantastic episodes, and long streaks of great ones. The few that aren't as good look worse than they actually are, because they're just next to really... great episodes. For the most part, it's perfectly honest, grounded and as real as you can make a Maho Shojo anime about a 10 year old girl (that is 12 by the end of the run, or close enough to 12). It was a beautiful ride, and well worth checking out if - and that's a big if, I guess - you're... what? If you're what? Like me, I guess. Which is a horrible way to recommend something. It's adorable. It's more shojo than maho, I'd say, and it has a lot less action than Sailor Moon, and it is for a slightly younger audience. It still is an absolute marvel.

Well, that was that. Time for the second movie soon, and... Clear Card, I guess. If only it didn't look so... terribad. The ending was... okay. Fine. I... hm. No, really, it was fine. Mr. Wei is the best Alfred since Alfred, obviously. Damn.