majestic

Hm. The advantage of 10 minutes episodes though. They're over quick when they're not particularily good. Sailor Moon SuperS feels like a slog in comparison.

Soon you will revel in the glory that is Sailor Moon SuperS. Are you excited yet?

Oh, right, I forgot to add: Finished Phantom Blood now. I also finished the first Cardcaptor Sakura episode, and the second one. I'm enjoying this one a lot, and that after only two episodes. Sakura is totally endearing and her best friend Tomoyo turns into a complete fangirl the moment she finds out that Sakura is actually a magical girl. I wonder if that keeps up, because currently she's chasing Sakura everywhere with her camcorder and documents her fights, and she insists on giving Sakura pretty costumes to fight the monsters in. Tomoyo comes from a very successful business family and has her family's servants and bodyguards drive her around. Inlcuding a van full of costumes to choose from pre-battle. It's hilarious and adorable, and the dialogue is fun. Sakura remarks that there probably aren't many elementary school girls that have body guards drive them around, and she comes back with "Yeah, but elementary school girls that can use magic are probably even rarer", that had me laughing for a good while. The english dub is a little less fun, somehow. Video timecoded for your conveniece, as usual. Jesus Christ that dub is bad, do yourself a favor and watch this one with subs. Edit: Oh, right, and Steven Universe:

Naoko Takeuchi, by the looks of it. Crystal is rather close to the manga. The Professor and his team is just so awesome.

@ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP Huh, what's with your name, had a fallout with your record label?

Ah, hell. I have an excuse, it is almost 3 am here. *cough* *cough*

Had to look that up, but from what I've read, yeah, seems similar. You'll scare Bartimaeus off here with that talk, man.

By the way, if you need any more convincing to watch Madoka Magica, look at this adorable trailer.

Look at the Mike and Jay Podcast turning 10:

There's a reason the IT variant of Murphy's Law is: Even if nothing can go wrong, it will go wrong.

Torn between anger, hate, despair and a certain feeling of airy lightness because that hell launch that's been looming over me is done and it is surprisingly quiet. Except for a minor problem that I just patched out. Can't wait for the bomb to hit. There's something that must break down, or stop working, or go wrong, and the longer it takes to rear its ugly head the worse it will be. I'm quite frankly terrified. And tired.

A note on watching too much anime with subtitles: I randomly followed a Netflix recommendation and have now seen half an episode of Cardcaptor Sakura. I have no opinion on the show yet (and won't, for a while, because I'll finish JoJo and Steven Universe first, and then it probably will be Revolutionary Girl Utena first), but I've made some interesting observations. I'm getting used to hearing Japanese. Instead of everything being one indistinguishable mess of strange sounds I'm actually beginning to pick up commonly repeated phrases like good morning, good evening, hello, yes, no, let's eat, thanks for the food, good bye, bye, welcome home, my name is (although that's the other way around, <surname> <first name> desu), nice to meet you. And I immediately recognized the voice actors of two characters on Carcaptor Sakura. Sakura's magic animal companion is Ami and the boy she likes is voiced by Haruka... which is a bit weird. This one is particularily interesting because when I started out watching Sailor Moon with subtitles I couldn't even tell the girls apart when they were talking over each other, let alone recognize their voices in some other show. How long until I turn into a complete weeb?

We were supposed to be part of the second phase as critical infrastructure (i.e. people to innoculate after the 80+ high risk group and employees of health services and doctors), but like everything, our dear little Dollfuß messed that up hard. *shrug*

At the risk of answering yet another rhetorical question - yes, indeed, that is the most commonly accepted "rule" for the Clark Kenting of the Sailor Moon 90ies anime. The spell is only truly broken once you see the actual transformation. Some muggles (lol) are implied to figure it out based on behaviour or names at times, but that's about it.

No, not really, I got excited for a bit. Look at that. 12 episodes in and I'm already overanalyzing. That took Sailor Moon almost a full season (in all fairness, the original set of episodes weren't at all designed to be analyzed except for a somewhat perfunctory criticism of the commercialization and superficiality of teenage girls in a modern capitalist society - that was definitely there, but not really the focus... I think).

Watched Steven Universe up until (and including) E01S12 - Giant Woman. Question for @Bartimaeus

I see, then I might look into some more of this work. And yes, it is only 12 episodes, has a weird Gainax ending (the anime version of a David Lynch ending, from Neon Genesis Evangelion in case you don't know, which was made by Studio Gainax), so you don't lose a lot of time. Not going to lie, there's every chance you're not going to like it, but it was also not really meant to be liked, I think. I also don't think I will ever watch it again. Much like Grave of the Fireflies (not meant as a comparison, the two obviously have nothing in common except evoking a similar sense of despair). Caveat: Haven't seen Berserk (any of it). The animation in this show is going to do all sorts of things to you, and all of them intentional. The characters didn't leave me with the same feeling of watching reality bending, shape shifting Reapers that want consume my face like the ones in Crystal did though. They, on the other hand, were mostly designed to be properly cute for maximum contrast. Take a look at Homura Akemi: If that doesn't give you any vibes, then the characters at least will not. Some sequences do defenitely come across as simply wrong (parts of the opening sequence of the first episode, a dream by Madoka, does very much give you uncanny valley vibes in the way everything is moving in just the slightliest of wrong ways), but that's intentional. It's hard to describe. The dreamlike, surrealist hellscapes the battles take place in are all sorts of wrong. Most of all because they're in super flat 2D that still looks like 3D. Like a horror version of Yoshi's Island 2 on the SNES. The other question is... less hard to describe, but harder to answer. The scope of this series is different, and so is the aim. The one thing a lot of it is based on, the friendship between Sayaka and Madoka, is properly shown on screen. It takes up a lot of screentime, and the examination of the themes and topics of the anime happen directly from the point of view of that friendship. The motivations of Homura are a different beast, but they do get enough development time. It could have been more, but that would perhaps have distraced from the impact they have (this also works with a lot of hindsight after the reveal episode near the end happend, which casts a different light on what happens in the earlier episodes). This doesn't tell an epic tale of good vs. evil. It is a minor motivation for some of the characters at best. This is even reflected in the picture of the "main" cast, beacuse Kyoko and Mami are side characters at best in terms of the screen time they get. But even those get more motivation and character development than say a first season Minako in Sailor Moon Crystal. There are a few other characters I haven't talked about. Madoka's family, the third friend that always hangs out with Madoka and Sayaka, and the teacher of the class. It's not that those don't matter, but they're also really not necessary (Madoka's mother takes the typical male role though, in an inversion - her dad seems to stay at home and cook while it's her mother that goes to work and comes home drunk to cope with the realities of modern worklife). The short run time isn't problematic in this one precisely because the scope is limited. Events don't proceed at a breakneck pace. It takes Sayaka and Madoka, arguably the actual main cast outside of Kyubey half and almost the entire run respectively to decide what they want to do. Events don't simply ask you to care for them, you do by the time they happen, and none of the girls simply randomly claim their strong bonds of friendship will prevail over whatever threat there is even though you've seen nothing of it on the screen. See? Satisfied? Probably not. Hard to answer, as I said. I would argue that 12 episodes are enough for the story it does tell. They were very much not for Crystal (or the manga). @KaineParker, @Bartimaeus, @InsaneCommander lookie, a new thread!

Final thoughts on Puella Magi Madoka Magica the anime (haven't seen any of the films yet). Quick note: I think it is worth watching if you enjoyed at least one other magical girl anime. Kawaii! From left to right, Sayaka, Homura, Madoka (with Kyubey), Mami, Kyoko Well, doesn't the cast look cute? Things to keep in mind. I'll mark spoilers. The show itself consists of only 12 episodes, many of which have interesting moments and some that have plot twists. Look up the spoilers at your own peril if you maybe want to watch it. Should be available on Netflix in the US from what I've read. To quote myself, from earlier: [Madoka Magica] follows the tale of Madoka and Sayaka, two best friends from school. Having a successful carreer mother but no special talents of her own, Madoka is plagued by feelings of inadequacy, while Sayaka is secretly in love with a hopeful young musician who suffered a tragic accident that will, so the doctors say, render him forever unable to perform. Their luck seems to change when a disturbingly cute little creature offers them the deal of a lifetime: He will grant them a wish, in exchange for signing a pact, becoming mahō shōjo (literally magical girls) who fight witches secretly threatening the world. Animation Is a mixture of 2D and 3D CGI, sometimes used to extremely disturbing ends. As cute as the characters are, outside of the fighting sequences, the world, the artstyle and the atmosphere of this show are extremely somber and... heavy. There is a weight to this world that is absolutely at odds with how adorable everything else looks. This stark contrast is very much deliberate. Soundtrack Is actually fantastic. Granted, you might not enjoy the music based on its genre, but it fits and underscores the scenes it is in perfectly - which is the point of a soundtrack anyway, no? Unlike say in Sailor Moon Crystal, where the music isn't so bad as much as it is overused and extremely distracting when it happens. Plot Oh boy. Where to start. You have a really cute little animal that offers two girls a wish in exchange for their help in fighting evil. At roughly the same time, a transfer student named Homura shows up in Madoka's and Sayaka's class. Dark haired and a ominous, she immediately warns Madoka to stay the way she is, if she truly loves her friends and family. And that is really all we can talk about without going into spoiler territory. TL;DR, or: I don't want to be spoiled: It's worth a watch for the meta commentary on the genre alone. To close up, when watching, keep Homura's words in mind:

Hm. I've seen most of his TV animes (Heidi, Perrine, Dog of Flanders) and Grave of the Fireflies. He seems to have a faible for depressing entertainment. Is his other work any different? That's mostly because it is. You're probably missing the five seasons of Ranma 1/2 that came before the film (plus the original 18 episodes of the first attempt to make an anime adaptation). To use trope parlance, Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a Magical Girl genre Deconstructor Fleet. Spoiler alert:

Fair word of warning [spoiler redacted] - suffice it to say you have expressed a certain dislike for a plot point that comes up. Still, it's just 12 episodes anyway. And it's really... good. The ending would also make Studio Gainax proud. But that's a whole different deal.