majestic

The ending of the first "season" of Princess Tutu was the strongest part of the anime for me. The second season has a rather dull middle part, a series of three or four episodes that aren't bad, but don't do anything and feel like silly padding at a point where there no longer should be padding, and then it gets pretty creepy. I still am, and most likely will remain forevermore, unable to ascertain what to make of it as a whole. That's an achievement all of its own - It's Schrödinger's anime for me. I laughed at Ahiru's hijinks, I got emotionally invested in Rue's story, and I really ended up liking Edel even though that probably barely seems possible from where you're standing at the moment. The anime generates an absolutely fantastic, dreamlike fairy tale atmosphere. All of that was good, but if you'd ask me if it was time well spent watching, then I have only two answers. Yes, and no. Everything was both meaningful and pointless, a story about storytelling and a story told, a fantastic piece of art and the lowest folk tale. Well, the most flowery nonsense to post won't change that I can't really put into words what Princess Tutu is. I fond every single part of Princess Tutu good, sometimes even great. It's the sum total of everything that exists in this state of being filled with meaning while being completely pointless at the same time. I think that's enough, I wonder if you'll end up watching it all and will have a different opinion. Time will tell. I went over her list of credits twice, there's nothing on it that I've seen in the original except her being Envy in FMA: Brotherhood, but that's definitely not what I'm thinking about. Whatever it is, it's just a nagging feeling that I've heard her before, when I simply didn't. First, I have no idea how I got the episode numbers wrong, I now watched 11 and 12 - the suspicion is confirmed, not that it was much of one. Mild spoilers: Since the show has hinted at there being at least one more person from Earth somewhere with Hitomi finding a music CD at a market, I've been thinking about who that could be and if that will actually matter. I can't really come up with any good ideas so far, and none of the characters introduced so far could be it. No one except the Emperor of Zaibach, at least, because he just appears on a viewscreen and could look like anyone. It's also of course possible that the disc was just transported to Gaia in some fashion, without anyone else. Gotta say I'll be disappointed if that doesn't come up again.

You've got quite a pace there by the way, which episode are you at now? Anyway, do you also get a nagging feeling that you've heard Dilandau's voice before, then you go look at Minami Takayama's list of works and find out that, nope, you haven't? Because I can't shake the feeling that I've heard that yelling inside a mech before, but I just didn't. The amount of shows with mechs I've seen is fairly limited too, so that can't possibly be it.

If there's one thing that I didn't enjoy too much so far is the anime's tendency to introduce an element or information at the beginning of an episode and make it pay off in the same one. It did that twice in a row now, I'm hoping the next few instances will get some more time to breathe. Otherwise, your sentiments echo mine exactly, by the looks of it. There's something else, unlike with other shows I've started to watch the small preview sections at the end, and every time there's something silly (like a guy talking to a snake) I'm like "This doesn't look too good, huh?" but then it just works in the episode. It's hard to say why. It just does, and every now and then, every now and then an episode has these perfectly brilliant moments in addition to being baseline really good, like Hitomi and Van talking about their respective families. It also has a knack on ending the episode at pretty good cliffhanger moments. I could see myself making sure to tune in every week. Even if it falls apart later, and for now it doesn't look like it will, at least - it's pretty meticulously crafted. 何？

Hah, for crying out loud, the words Into Darkness were actually part of the dialogue… Now Picard is planning an Oceans 11 plot to attend a party he was not invited to. Yeah. Well, they are not going to steal anything so it is more like a Mission Impossible thing I guess. Agnes attended the Ancient Coding (actual dialogue) class back home and they are going to send her in to Hack the Planet… I mean get them on the invite list.

Speaking of that travesty, trying to watch episode five. Have to pause frequently because it is painful. Oh and… Brent Spiner is back playing a Doctor Soong on 21st century Earth. This one is a geneticist because we are creatively bankrupt and incompetent. Taking bets now, do you think his test subject Kore, who may or may not be related to him and looks a whole lot like Soji, might be related to a certain genetically modified tyrant from TOS?

Episodes 8 and 9 of The Vision of Escaflowne. Episode 9 was a bit of an exposition dump, necessary in a way and used sensibly, but it was a rather extended flashback, all in all. Not a bad episode by any means, but compared to 8 which was pretty... great, it wasn't as strong.

Yeah, so slight other spoiler for episode 7: Seems like he learns from experiences, at least. Slowly, but more than the usual character like that would. That's fine, I'm assuming - what with the planet name and the bad guys mentioning [mystic place talked about by Plato] once - that Gaea/Gaia is something related to Earth anyway. A projection (why else would the talk about a moon of illusions / phantom moon, whatever it is called in the English subs) or a successor location, or something like that, at least. We discussed getting our dog for a bit before actually doing it - he was all alone in a pet store, and evidently was separated from his mother too early simply to sell the cute puppy, but nobody else wanted him, he's a pure breed West Highland White Terrier and had a floppy ear (all puppies do, but he had one that didn't straighten out in time), so he was unfit for breeding or competitions. We weren't too happy about reinforcing that sort of business practice, but on the other hand... it's no the puppy's fault and they probably would have dumped him somewhere, quite literally perhaps. So he's a catty dog now. It's fine, even kind of funny, but he's completely untrainable (another sign of being taken away from his mother too early) and does nothing of the things dogs are supposed to do. Throw him a stick, he just chews it up. He runs after balls, then comes back - without them. He even does the cat thing where he lays on his back to say "I like you!", the only problems that arise come when he's playing with other dogs and they don't quite understand what he's doing, or when he's bothering other cats who don't understand that he's not like regular dogs.

@InsaneCommander and @KP wants Blue Velvet were watching Attack on Titan a while back, not sure if they finished watching it.

Mini-spoiler for episode 7 of The Vision of Escaflowne: Found out what was going on with the scenes that have no dub on Amazon - that's because the available version on Prime Video is from the German Director's Cut Blu Rays. Which also explains why they're not available for streaming in the US. So indeed, the scenes where the show just defaults to Japanese with apparently hardcoded subtitles were added after the initial dubbing and simply have no dub.

Let me know what you think of Dilando/Dilandau's voice acting when he appears. I think it's a he, regardless of being voiced by a woman. Everyone keeps referring to him as him anyway. Also, yeah, guess it was too tempting to make it M-earl, right? I guess that makes sense, the anime spawned two mangas after all, one shoujo and one shounen. The shounen manga began its run before the anime aired, but was based off of the pre-production stuff and is a retelling of the anime story. Considering how the anime looks, I'm not surprised that it took a while to make it. There are movies with worse animation and less detailed art. Have I mentioned yet how much of a downgrade it is to go from this to Love Live!, animated by the same studio? Wait, yes, I did! And yes, this is definitely bloodier and more violent than I expected it to be after the first episode. Sure, the dragon gets stabbed in the eye, but that's a dragon and attacking weak points is par for the course. Didn't really expect soldiers to bleed out in an attack on a city in the next 20 minutes. Karmic justice for telling Hitomi that he doesn't need help from girls. A bit extreme, mayhaps. Good, good, at least that means I need to keep up, unless you get bored with it. That's why the action in StrikerS worked for me as well as it did. It wasn't the most riveting or interesting to watch and certainly a bit more than I wanted, but at least there was usually a point to it. Looking good is something that works for a while, but eventually stops, as I've noticed over the course of the MCU releases. The first Iron Man to the first Avengers film, the action was flashy and fun (and occassionally more than that) and that was enough, but after that each one got more and more "great, another 40 minute CGI spectacle fight" and I was all but bored by it when Endgame rolled around. Regarding the Evangelion comparisons, I somehow doubt that the characters and their fate in Escaflowne will have the same impact as Asuka and the others in NGE. I like Hitomi, and even the cat girl (and some of the others too, even though Allen remains a bit of a bore for me), but they're not really on the same level - then again, NGE was a character and depression exploration in a sci-fi mech setting, so that is something completely different, but The Vision of Escaflowne kind of invites the comparisons with the look and feel. What an outright bizarre thing to say about a fantasy isekai anime. Our cat is something in between, if she feels like it she can be clingy and follows us around constantly, and then she doesn't and just runs off and wants to be left alone. She also talks (well, meow and whine) a lot especially when she's been alone at home for half a day for a change. She's used to the company and then complains about not having any servants around. The most hilarious part is the dog, though, because we got him when he was really young, only a couple of weeks old, and the cat kind of adopted him. The dog exhibits a whole lot of cat mannerisms, the funniest of which is trying to sneak up and pounce on birds. With absolutely no success, he's neither stealthy nor fast enough. Also need to always take care with the two, I once left some fried chicken takeout on the table because I thought it would be out of reach for the dog anyway, and it was... then we watched the cat jump on the table and just throw the chicken on the floor. Ah, yeah, they're also getting kinda old now... hmm.

I see, so I'm not the only one who got that impression. Allen in particular, whom you've only seen in the intro so far, looks like he stepped directly out of Revolutionary Girl Utena. The strange Evangelion-esque feeling will get a bit stronger still when Escaflowne is activated for the first time, although the mech designs are of course pretty different - and the mechs in this are pretty much regular mechs, not vat grown aliens infused with human souls. Or maybe they are and I just haven't gotten to the point yet, but if it turns out like that I'll deduct points for lack of creativity and blatant stealing of ideas. Are you watching the English dub or the original? Minor caveat: The first episode is the first episode, but you've already been subjected to a fight with a dragon and Van and didn't hate either right from the start, so that's a relief of a sort, because I didn't either, and I feel a bit better about this particular aspect at least. One of the nicer things about it is that the show often uses Hitomi's point of view on Gaia to introduce elements and have the audience make sense of them without it being problematic exposition for exposition's sake. Mr. Plinkett said as much in his Phantom Menace review, a fish out of water really makes it easy to justify and properly frame exposition instead of having characters randomly tell people things they already know. It's maybe a minor thing, but it helps with immersion. Like a while back when I watched StrikerS and talked about Fate giving her students a lecture and a pop quiz in history - that brought the audience up to speed and was believable, because two 12-year-olds from backwards places in the universe aren't going to know too much of galactic history. Wonder how well the second episode will do, now that they're off Earth. Hmm. Well, that makes a whole lot more sense then, at least. The first scene with her is a little strange, but she's appropriately catty. Not in the derogative meaning, just because she's a cat girl. Overall most of the elements that would annoy me in another anime are balanced enough to not make me hate them, or framed properly to... maybe even... actually enjoy them. Merle is a cat, so of course she jumps on Van whenever she feels like it, gets annoyed when she thinks he and Hitomi are getting too close and wedges herself into situations to say HEY I'M HERE TOO. Because that's what cats do. All the time.

Psst, you could fix every post and quote with it and not leave a trace. Well, any trace seen by us mortals, at least.

Obligatory Rogue One post:

If this is anything like earlier From Software games, you don't have to worry about spoilers.

Is this more like the Nanami loves Touga sort of "I love my brother" part, or more like Anthy and Akio sort? Do I even want to know? In case you don't know what I'm talking about:

短期集中初級日本語文法総まとめ ポイント20 Bit of a dry read.

The Vision of Escaflowne is also the one you'll probably spend the least amount of time on before shelving it, maybe even shelf "indefinitely" (as in just delete ), so that seems like a good place to start if you want to get some things out of the way. I'd be more interested in your estimation of Kare Kano, to be honest, but that's just me - and I have enough on my plate already. Just because Escaflowne is not making me groan doesn't mean you won't... I, like, can't even explain why I like it, so a second opinion would be welcome indeed - I'm fine with either, but it's not I who has to choose.

Dunno why, just had to think of this one now. Not exactly the right thread, but bear with me.

This, pretty much. The anime so far had very little fanservice outside of the first episode where Hitomi sometimes runs around in her track and field gear, and comes to late to a competition run and has her sweatpants pulled off by a friend of hers from the running team (and yeah, she wears sports gear underneath anyway). Most of the time she's in her school uniform - even on Gaia, not very surprising, it's the only clothing she has. There's a whole bunch of elements, like Van, who by far and large is rather shouneny. His more mature version, Allen, who is a gallant European style knight, who is just a little more eloquent but pretty similar regardless. The cat girl. It basically starts with a flying fortress, and anyone who read my posts about the StrikerS finale knows how much fun I made of its flying fortress, or the "minor" fact that The Vision of Escaflowne has mech combat in a medieval fantasy setting with cat girls, wolf people and whatever else will come up. It's also fairly tropey, and it begins... in a very, very tired way, with the newly crowned king losing his kingdom to superior foreign invaders. Yet nothing of that really bothers me watching this. It's fun to watch. One of the villains is voiced by Minami Takayama who gives an absolutely wonderful and hammy voice performance that sometimes remdinds me of Megumi Ogata's characters. Well, I'm five episodes in, it might yet fall apart completely, but so far, I don't hate it - worse, I actually find myself enjoying the show. In an effort to unsell you here, you know that part of the Sailor Stars writing team also made SuperS, right? Don't misunderestimate me here! /bushism No, really, I have no issue enjoying trash, I basically loved every second of watching Dark Matter, for instance, which is what comes out when you take a Whedony series setup (no, not written by Joss Whedon), liberally season it with hammy performances, space opera level dialogue and a heavy dose of character stereotypes. Shake, stir, let it simmer a bit and film. It begins with six walking stereotypes waking from cryogenic sleep (gruff mercnary guy finds lots of big weapons in his room, and the Japanese guy... guess what, has a huuuuuge katana colleciton) without any memories of their past. Does that make you groan already? It sure made me groan at first. But then... it's just fun. The thing is, while I can easily tell why Dark Matter is fun for me I honestly don't know why I'm liking The Vision of Escaflowne.

I just can't get over Wil Wheaton asking Kurtzman how it feels to spearhead this new 'golden age' of Star Trek.

That's not the issue, I had no troubles admitting that I enjoyed Nanoha - at least until the entire franchise dropped off a cliff with ViVid!, it's that I don't find anything cringeworthy in it, and I should.

I'm not trying to tempt you, I'm trying to convince myself that it's okay to like this.

Wedged in one more episode of The Vision of Escaflowne. Van gets rescued and Merle is overjoyed, jumps on him and starts licking his face, because she's a cat girl. Once again, instead of being annoyed, I kinda smiled seeing that. I don't know what it is about this particular anime, but I guess it helps that Merle isn't just a cat-eared excuse for fanservice, and she doesn't add -nyan to every setence. After going into tihs pretty much blind, looking at the writing team, I noticed some familiar names. Shōji Kawamori, Akihiko Inari and Ryota Yamaguchi. Shōji Kawamori is, assuming anyone doesn't know, the person behind Macross and the Diaclone toy line design, works which were adapted into Robotech and Hasbro's Transformers (the first Optimus Prime design is from Shōji Kawamori, it's fairly safe to say that without him, there'd be no transforming mechs as we know them - for better or worse, I mean... we'd also not have those terrible Michael Bay films). Akihiko Inari went on to be on the writing team for the universally acclaimed and beloved by @KP wants Blue Velvet's Cowboy Bebop and eh, Ryota Yamaguchi is one of the writers of Sailor Stars, specifically the one who wrote the episode where Usagi and Seiya end up alone at her family's house and all sorts of hijinks begins, and the person who wrote most of the super silly Nanami episodes of Revolutionary Girl Utena, including the cow transformation one. I guess that can serve as an excuse why I like it.

Every single promotional poster of this anime has a suggestively drawn woman with either see-through clothing or in silhouetted nudity enter or leave a giant, fur-covered, creepily grinning mascot costume through a zip-up vagina on its back. Honestly, the question isn't whether or not you'll get second-hand embarressment from it or if it it makes you feel like a pervert watching it. The quesiton is how much of both you get.