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Anime - A Rollercoaster of Emotion


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4 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:
Spoiler

I wish I had kept track of the amount of times I've seen Minako abuse Artemis. I'm sure it must be at least a half-dozen times now. She's a bad crazy cat lady! She's also not that great with humans either - it's a bit of a wonder that she's supposed to be the goddess of love.

 

Spoiler

 

In her manga, Sailor V always ends up having to kill whatever boy she falls in love with. One of them, out of pure spite, tells her that she will never find true love. Given how the rest of the manga and the show(s) went, fans have built head-canon around that spiteful retort being an actual curse.

The live action show just one-ups that by killing Minako for real, but in that version Makoto ends up marrying Motoki (eh... yeah).

 

Spoiler

She gets better though.

Sailor Senshi love interest spoilerish things:
 

Spoiler

 

Plus there's artwork from Naoko Takeuchi that suggests that the ****ennou, i.e. Prince Endymion's version of the Inner Senshi, were once in love, or potentially engaged to the Sailor Guardians. Before they were corrupted by Queen Metalia. Supposedly Crystal confirms this, but I don't know much about crystal yet.

That made five pairs:

  • Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion
  • Sailor Mars and Jadeite
  • Sailor Jupiter and Nephrite
  • Sailor Mercury and Zoisite
  • Sailor Venus and Kunzite

So while Usagi's eternal love interest is reincarnated, the other girls get the short end of the stick. Arguably even worse in the manga where Mars and Jupiter end up killing their former lovers directly and Mercury and Venus kill each others' - albeit not knowing about them. Still. Poor girls.

 

 

Edited by majestic

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I rewatched just a little bit of the last episode in Japanese, and TBH, she doesn't sound that much more shrill to me than...I don't know, the five main characters? She does have more of a...simpering tone to how she talks compared to the others, which I hate, but I hate Japanese voice-acting in general, so I'm probably not the best person to ask here, :p.

My problems with anime are not really to do with character types/tropes, per se (although if badly used such as they are in many animes, that's sure to be an annoyance as well). It's more stylistic and sensibility problems. It starts with the way characters express: horribly high-pitched screaming/squealing/simpering/whining female characters, overly dramatic/angsty male characters, absolutely horrific weird mouth sounds that characters make constantly that make them seem like aliens to me, bizarre/over-the-top character expressions (though I've kind of gotten more used to this one over time), etc. And then the clothing and hair styles...and on top of that, I just don't care for typical anime art styles - by and large, they're very ugly to me. So yeah, pretty much almost literally everything about anime offends me from a character design standpoint. And for me, characters are the beginning and the end of most shows - other things can be important to a specific show as well, but if I can't like the cast to some degree in some kind of way, there's absolutely no hope for the show.

That's not to say characters need to be lovable - it totally depends on the kind of show it is, different kind of characters of course fulfill different kinds of roles. But I'll almost definitely never be able to watch even Sailor Moon in Japanese - it's just too offensive to my ears and the type of Japanese voices used in their VA industry simply don't gel with the kinds of characters that I think the main cast are, and character voices are such a critical part of how I perceive characters. I recently switched to Japanese during one of The Professor's bits just to see - and he was instantly a much different (and less enjoyable) character to me with his Japanese voice. And then you throw in bad/overused writing tropes and inconsistencies and too fantastical/artificial settings and ridiculous/convoluted plots - everything falls down like a house of cards all too quickly for me to be able to enjoy anime by and large. Whatever it is that my sensibilities for watching shows are, they're simply not attuned for anime, and they probably won't ever be.

Sailor Moon is lucky in that I actually didn't mind the general art style of the overall show to start with (now, I think it's actually pretty nice but also very unique - I simply haven't seen stuff like it elsewhere) and also it hasn't fallen prey to...well, pretty much literally any of my problems with anime. In fact, I feel it has at times outright made a self-aware mockery of some of them. But yeah, characters have stayed grounded and pretty well consistent, the English dub pretty well perfectly uses different types of voices that fit/have become their characters, the general setting is adequate, the story plots are...well, the main plot lines are what they are, but the smaller character plotlines are simple, sensible, and grounded for the most part, etc. Sailor Moon just does things right that I don't see the vast majority of other animes doing - at least, not at a glance.

Also, funny that you should bring up yandere, since part of the reason my 'first' anime show that I tried was My Hero Academia, where I read about some of the characters in advance (instead of, you know, actually watching a clip or two of the show that would help demonstrate how the show functions in practice which would've immediately revealed that the show was unwatchable trash - a mistake I will not make again). One of the characters I specifically loved the sound/design of was a lady named Himiko Toga, which is apparently like the villain embodiment of yandere (she's a literal vampire doppelganger that drains the blood of the people she loves/admires, and then uses their blood to actually become them). That was about one of the coolest cartoon villain ideas I'd ever heard of that I thought you could have a lot of fun with - too bad the show was unwatchable, :p.

Edited by Bartimaeus
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How I have existed fills me with horror. For I have failed in everything - spelling, arithmetic, riding, tennis, golf; dancing, singing, acting; wife, mistress, whore, friend. Even cooking. And I do not excuse myself with the usual escape of 'not trying'. I tried with all my heart.

In my dreams, I am not crippled. In my dreams, I dance.

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Oh, I can see how My Hero Academia would be an interesting first anime. It is also a perfect showcase of what you don't like about them. :)

I don't even remember the first anime I watched. It was most likely a part of the Japanese World Masterpiece Theatre from the period up until 1985, however these shows are also by far and large somewhat removed from usual anime aesthetics (well, usual for today, Heidi for instance all but began the  kawaii (cute) looks of small girls in anime) and more grounded in terms of storylines because the had to adhere to children's book classics.

Other animes that I watched very early on were Attack No. 1, Bismarck (also known as Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs), the anime adaptation of Captain Future and two interesting hybrids, namely Galaxy Rangers and Ulysses 31, which were written and produced in the US and France, but animated in Japan. Watching these shows nowadays it is painfully obvious where the actual writing comes from. Heh. Galaxy Rangers might look like 80ies anime, but it is so American. 

All, or at least most of these, lack what you describe as problematic in terms of animation, artstyle and characterization (Saber Rider is even a "typical" space western) even though they are noticably  Japanese in origin (except for the episodes of Bismarck that were made for the US market, in the US - those are actually painful to look at when you like the show). What I can clearly remember is vastly prefering shows that turned out to be anime (as if I had any idea when I was 6 or 7 where a cartoon on TV came from) over shows that turned out to be regular Western cartoons. With some exceptions - I'll always love Bugs Bunny or Tom and Jerry.

It should also be noted that I have seen a grand total of one (1) of the really popular animes that became world wide smash hits, and that, interestingly enough, was Sailor Moon, and yeah, back when I watched this was more of a niche underground hit than the phenomenon it exploded into. Which means I have seen none of the Dragonballs, no Pokemon, Digimon, One Piece, Naruto or whatever else might be the bee's knees these days.

I do need to point out that in terms of aesthetics I'm the polar opposite of you. I very much prefer anime artstyle and looks over their Western counterparts. It's not something I can argue beyond subjectivity, but as I said, it's always been that way. I'm with you in terms of writing and characterization, there's a whole lot of angst and overexaggerated drama going on at times. In an ideal world you end up with something like Castlevania, animated in Japan but written more sensibly than what could have been. I'm not sure why nobody else on the forum seems to have liked it. It was entertaining and looked good. Like BoJack's mother would have said: It's no Ibsen. But... what is?

And lastly, I can watch TV shows with great dedication as long as I find the characters interesting and I like them. Far beyond any reasonable point in time. I brought up Andromeda earlier, I loved that during its original run, and have spent many an hour defending its ludicrous inanities it reached before Season 5 finally broke the camel's back (well it's not the show's fault that Lexa Doig was pregnant at the time, but without her character there I stopped caring).

Which brings me to a favorite point of mine, one of the very few sitcoms where I've seen the entire run. No, it's not going to be about The Big Bang Theory, I watched that initially because my wife liked it, and while she actually stopped watching later after it became a full blown relationship sitcom with creepy characters I was coerced to finish it - by my brain. In hindsight I should have known better than to be roped into anything made by Chuck Lorre, but... eh... yeah. Anyway, back to How I Met Your Mother.

Generally I don't like sitcoms. I don't think they're funny most of the time, but I can appreciate certain novel ideas in one. How I Met Your Mother was one of them, featuring Ted as an unreliable narrator and copious amounts of flashbacks and flash-forwards that revealed a certain pre-planning that each season must have gone through (or the writers managed to come up with that by the seat of their pants, both would be almost equally impressive for a sitcom).

I watched the first two seasons and got a few chuckles out of them (I consider this a big win for sitcoms in general), so I kept watching, and at the end, I still liked it. Except for the ending, that was clearly because the show and its characters outgrew its intended ending and they just shoehorned it in anyway because the kids were all grown up already and they couldn't do reshoots. At this point I want to say that I also watched Lindsay Ellis' analysis of Game of Thrones where the exact same problem comes up, thanks for mentioning that earlier while we still spammed the TV topic :p.

Most people I know who also watched dropped the show way earlier. I can see where they're coming from. Ted is an idiot, and if you actually care about the storyline of him finding the mother, then it all becomes really ridiculous after the third season. But caring about Ted and his quest to find the love of his live is like caring for the central plot of any given Sailor Moon season. You can do that, of course, but that will only diminish your enjoyment of the show (well it's not like being interested in the plot is something you can actively turn off, at least I can't, but if something's plot is uninteresting but the characters are strong enough to carry the show, I don't mind that much).

The other big argument was: This stopped being funny in season <X>, often 4, 5 or 6, depending on whom you ask. No, it didn't. It never was funny in the first place, it was at best mildly amusing. As such, no longer being funny doesn't bother me either. I kept watching, and the writers eventually  caught on too, I think. Some of these later episode were wonderfully written and directed (generally, not just for a sitcom), and some didn't even have attempted jokes in them (Symphony of Illumination is a masterpiece of an episode).

Except for Neil Patrick Harris, I don't even like any of the actors invovled in the show. I avoid movies with Jason Segel and Alyson Hannigan, Josh Randor is... err... I don't even know what he's doing, and Cobie Smulders, oh boy, I cringe almost every time I see Maria Hill on screen. Yet, they mostly worked in HIMYM. I liked Marshal, Lily and Barney, and even Ted to a point. I put this squarely on the amount of effort put into direction and writing for the show (or else everyone but NPH was playing themselves).

Wow that became long and rambling.

Edited by majestic

No mind to think. No will to break. No voice to cry suffering.

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There's definitely a lot of subjectivity involved. I should note that a lot of my problems with anime (outside of voice-work) are more directed towards more "modern" anime (i.e. 1990s and especially 2000s or later). When I look at like lists of "best 1980s animes" or earlier, there's stuff that looks a lot more stylistically acceptable and interesting to me...and then I remember that I just can't listen to Japanese voice-acting (it doesn't help that it seems everything past a certain point seemingly has between bad and abysmal audio recording quality on top of everything else...hell, even Sailor Moon itself doesn't have very good voice recording quality for its Japanese dub, and it's, what, mid-90s?) and go "welp, guess I don't have to worry about that!". It's a shame, but oh well.

Sadly, I've never seen an episode of How I Met Your Mother, so I only have the very limited context of remembering that everyone hated the ending (which was something like...it was all a dream, IIRC?). My favorite sitcom is probably Seinfeld (though I haven't seen all of it) but that's less about the written jokes/plots and more about the specific delivery from the actors who are charming and brilliant and make for bizarrely likable characters even though they're all terrible and borderline sociopaths. I can definitely see watching a show like that as long as you continue to like the characters and their interactions, though - the rest is just gravy at that point...unless the show is spectacularly screwing up in some other way, anyways. I tend to drop shows almost the moment I feel that I've gotten what I can out of them - no issue cutting a show off if I feel like I'm not going to enjoy it anymore here. Given my mildly obsessive compulsive personality, I am very thankful I don't have to worry about that, :p.

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How I have existed fills me with horror. For I have failed in everything - spelling, arithmetic, riding, tennis, golf; dancing, singing, acting; wife, mistress, whore, friend. Even cooking. And I do not excuse myself with the usual escape of 'not trying'. I tried with all my heart.

In my dreams, I am not crippled. In my dreams, I dance.

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5 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

There's definitely a lot of subjectivity involved. I should note that a lot of my problems with anime (outside of voice-work) are more directed towards more "modern" anime (i.e. 1990s and especially 2000s or later). When I look at like lists of "best 1980s animes" or earlier, there's stuff that looks a lot more stylistically acceptable and interesting to me...and then I remember that I just can't listen to Japanese voice-acting (it doesn't help that it seems everything past a certain point seemingly has between bad and abysmal audio recording quality on top of everything else...hell, even Sailor Moon itself doesn't have very good voice recording quality for its Japanese dub, and it's, what, mid-90s?) and go "welp, guess I don't have to worry about that!". It's a shame, but oh well.

Yeah, we had all the shows on TV dubbed, and unlike yours (subjective impression here), the German dubbing studios are generally high quality. Hilarity like your first Sailor Moon dub usually don't happen and there's usually also a lot less censoring going on. There was a dip in quality recently due to security and time constraints. Dubbing studios used to hold meeting where everyone involved would watch the original material and discuss the mood, their line delivery and all that. This no longer happens because they're really paranoid about losing contracts due to "piracy" (and it doesn't stop piracy anyway).

I can see how that is an issue when talking about best of 80ies anime when you can't stand Japanese voice acting. You could learn German just for that, but... that seems like a lot of effort for comparatively little gain. :p

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Still impressive what they've done with the budget they had at the time. The score in the scene is perfect.

Spoiler

I found the entire episode really impressive. It's painful, sad, riveting and funny. By far and large the best serious mode episode of all of Sailor Moon. :)

Spoiler

Except for the helicopter. That was distracting.

 

edit:

  

8 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Sadly, I've never seen an episode of How I Met Your Mother, so I only have the very limited context of remembering that everyone hated the ending (which was something like...it was all a dream, IIRC?).


The ending wasn't a dream, you might confuse that with Lost, a similarily hated ending that was at least thematically much better and fit the setting, it just, uhm, subverted expectations (in a really, really bad way) where everyone was dead already and it was revealed that the entire final season played in a weird Hindu version of purgatory before the characters come together to finally pass on to nirvana (or insert any other afterlife you might like, the show drew heavily from many religions).

HIMYM's last season was about Barney marrying Robin, with the actual wedding ceremony being the second to last episode. The final episode made Ted find the love of his life (finally, after nine years!) only to kill her off in a flash-forward five minutes later, quickly coughed up Barney and Robin's divorce and had Ted get approval by his kids to get back together with "Auntie" Robin. That was actually the scene they had prepared for the end earlier, when the kids were still young.

Seinfeld is something I never got into though. I don't know, something about it made it entirely unappealing. I thought about giving it another chance some time. Ah, so much to do, so little time. :)

edit 2:

The use of honorifics in Sailor Stars is super confusing. It might not be when you're more familiar with the system, but from my limited understanding...
 

Spoiler

 

Not sure why everyone called Seiya Seiya-san (except for Usagi, who addressed him without honorifics because of their close bond) and now everyone's using -kun as honorific in the next episode.

Granted there was the story reveal when they found out about their identities, and a major incident in the next episode that drives a wedge between the (former) friends, but even then continuing to use -san, or Usagi applying -san to his name to signify their newly reduced familiarity (which she doesn't, anyway, we're talking about Usagi here) makes more sense than going to -kun for everyone else.

Unless they've started to address the male civilian versions of the Sailor Starlights as women, in which case -kun becomes less of a way to adress a junior male and more of a respectful way to address junior women or equals. But everyone's called the other two Starlights, i.e. Taiki and Yaten -kun for the entire run so far.

Man, this is confusing enough without instant sex changes factored into it.

 

 

Edited by majestic
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Uhm.
 

Spoiler

 

Okay, so I don't actually remember this episode, and it's a weird one. Everyone is looking like aliens tried to draw and animate a Sailor Moon episode. Usagi is at home feeling all down because the Starlights and the Outer Senshi are fighting for no reason (and there really is no reason, other than Haruka being annoyed with Seiya because he was in Michiru's dressing room), so her friends are trying to help by making everyone talk to each other again.

To do that they're going to a video game convention/competition event and Ami wins at a game she's never played before. Huh, callback to season one, I guess, where Ami was super good at the Sailor V video game too (this comes straight from the Manga), but the real burner here is that everyone's cosplaying. Except Ami, who doesn't want to, even when the others want to coerce her into changing into her costume.

She does that when it's time to play because she suddenly gets super competitive, so that in the final we could get... yeah, you guessed it, an upskirt shot. The commentator says "oh, a hot Three Lights fan!" or something like that. Ah guys, really? What's going on here. Every season has its weird ones where some intern handled the animation, but this is really bizarre. And not just for the drawn underwear. That happened before, but this acually is the second instance it is really just there and not even part of an animation you could otherwise avoid where someone simply snuck a panty shot in because they could (i.e. Usagi or Makoto falling over, Rei jumping, Ami hanging on a trapez, etc.).

Eh, well, except for the really out of place animation and making Ami the target of wearing the skimpiest costume of all the girls (really, Ami?) the episode is quite fine, but... uhm. Yeah.

And everyone is using -san when talking to or about Taiki even though Taiki's been Taiki-kun for the entire season now. It HAS to be aliens.

 

 

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7 minutes ago, majestic said:

Very short Sailor Moon pop quiz.

What is wrong with this picture? Image quality aside.

DpWbH2l.png

To be fair to InsaneCommander, he gets to call @Bartimaeus, @KaineParker or myself as his Phone a Friend lifeline for free this time around. ;)

Her hand looks strange.

Minako-chan would never say that.

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"Akiva Goldsman and Alex Kurtzman run the 21st century version of MK ULTRA." - majestic

"I'm gonna hunt you down so that I can slap you square in the mouth." - Bartimaeus

"Without individual thinking you can't notice the plot holes." - InsaneCommander

"Just feed off the suffering of gamers." - Malcador

"You are calling my taste crap." -Hurlshort

"thankfully it seems like the creators like Hungary less this time around." - Sarex

"Don't forget the wakame, dumbass" -Keyrock

"Are you trolling or just being inadvertently nonsensical?' -Pidesco

"we have already been forced to admit you are at least human" - uuuhhii

"I refuse to buy from non-woke businesses" - HoonDing

"feral camels are now considered a pest" - Gorth

"Melkathi is known to be an overly critical grumpy person" - Melkathi

"Oddly enough Sanderson was a lot more direct despite being a Mormon" - Zoraptor

"I found it greatly disturbing to scroll through my cartoon's halfing selection of genitalias." - Wormerine

"Am I phrasing in the most negative light for them? Yes, but it's not untrue." - ShadySands

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Spoiler

Also, pretty sure the highlights on her shirt are supposed to be red a la her bow, not black! ...I mean, I guess they can wear different shirts, but it sure looks odd.

(e): also some blue too I guess

 

Edited by Bartimaeus
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How I have existed fills me with horror. For I have failed in everything - spelling, arithmetic, riding, tennis, golf; dancing, singing, acting; wife, mistress, whore, friend. Even cooking. And I do not excuse myself with the usual escape of 'not trying'. I tried with all my heart.

In my dreams, I am not crippled. In my dreams, I dance.

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I'm a damn fool lmao

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"Akiva Goldsman and Alex Kurtzman run the 21st century version of MK ULTRA." - majestic

"I'm gonna hunt you down so that I can slap you square in the mouth." - Bartimaeus

"Without individual thinking you can't notice the plot holes." - InsaneCommander

"Just feed off the suffering of gamers." - Malcador

"You are calling my taste crap." -Hurlshort

"thankfully it seems like the creators like Hungary less this time around." - Sarex

"Don't forget the wakame, dumbass" -Keyrock

"Are you trolling or just being inadvertently nonsensical?' -Pidesco

"we have already been forced to admit you are at least human" - uuuhhii

"I refuse to buy from non-woke businesses" - HoonDing

"feral camels are now considered a pest" - Gorth

"Melkathi is known to be an overly critical grumpy person" - Melkathi

"Oddly enough Sanderson was a lot more direct despite being a Mormon" - Zoraptor

"I found it greatly disturbing to scroll through my cartoon's halfing selection of genitalias." - Wormerine

"Am I phrasing in the most negative light for them? Yes, but it's not untrue." - ShadySands

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2 minutes ago, KaineParker said:

I'm a damn fool lmao

No, you're not, I forgot to mention that the girls get new school uniforms in the final season. They're in high school now.

But yes...

Spoiler

Minako would never say that. Obviously the other girls immediately figure out something's wrong.

Spoiler

Except Ami, she just tells Usagi that she should follow Minako's example. :p

 

 

Edited by majestic

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Spoiler

I think majestic was going for what you said, though. In all honesty, I legitimately didn't even read/think about the subtitle, so I didn't even notice that until you mentioned it, :p

e: ninjaed

 

Edited by Bartimaeus
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How I have existed fills me with horror. For I have failed in everything - spelling, arithmetic, riding, tennis, golf; dancing, singing, acting; wife, mistress, whore, friend. Even cooking. And I do not excuse myself with the usual escape of 'not trying'. I tried with all my heart.

In my dreams, I am not crippled. In my dreams, I dance.

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18 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:
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I think majestic was going for what you said, though. In all honesty, I legitimately didn't even read/think about the subtitle, so I didn't even notice that until you mentioned it, :p

e: ninjaed

 

Yeah. :)

Spoiler

It's been 26 episodes now since they've gotten the new uniforms. Even Makoto has one now. I probably imagine it but it sometimes looks like it doesn't fit her all too well. Can't catch a break. :p

 

edit:

Spoiler

Usagi gets lost in a TV station trying to find Minako after saying "It is easy to get lost in a TV station". I can't possibly state enough just how much I enjoy these little references. It's so easy to make me happy sometimes. :)

 

Edited by majestic
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27 minutes ago, majestic said:

No, you're not, I forgot to mention that the girls get new school uniforms in the final season. They're in high school now.

Well thanks for spoiling that they aren't brutally murdered as junior high students.

27 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:
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I think majestic was going for what you said, though. In all honesty, I legitimately didn't even read/think about the subtitle, so I didn't even notice that until you mentioned it, :p

e: ninjaed

 

I honestly didn't realize she was wearing something different and just zoomed in on the subtitle. 

I haven't watched as much Sailor Moon as expected because of power issues, and now Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan dropped so I'll watch that instead and do c-c-c-combo breakers in this thread.

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"Akiva Goldsman and Alex Kurtzman run the 21st century version of MK ULTRA." - majestic

"I'm gonna hunt you down so that I can slap you square in the mouth." - Bartimaeus

"Without individual thinking you can't notice the plot holes." - InsaneCommander

"Just feed off the suffering of gamers." - Malcador

"You are calling my taste crap." -Hurlshort

"thankfully it seems like the creators like Hungary less this time around." - Sarex

"Don't forget the wakame, dumbass" -Keyrock

"Are you trolling or just being inadvertently nonsensical?' -Pidesco

"we have already been forced to admit you are at least human" - uuuhhii

"I refuse to buy from non-woke businesses" - HoonDing

"feral camels are now considered a pest" - Gorth

"Melkathi is known to be an overly critical grumpy person" - Melkathi

"Oddly enough Sanderson was a lot more direct despite being a Mormon" - Zoraptor

"I found it greatly disturbing to scroll through my cartoon's halfing selection of genitalias." - Wormerine

"Am I phrasing in the most negative light for them? Yes, but it's not untrue." - ShadySands

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2 minutes ago, KaineParker said:

Well thanks for spoiling that they aren't brutally murdered as junior high students.

 

Spoiler

Who says they aren't, characters in Sailor Moon have a tendency to be reincarnated quite frequently.

:p

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Heidi, Girl of the Alps: I watched the first episode of this, and I liked it a lot. Seems sort of like a proto-Totoro in terms of style and potentially themes with some changed elements (nothing fantastical, presumably...and no sister, but I'm perfectly good with these changed elements). Japanese only, but they have a very naturalistic way of speaking (even though the audio quality is indeed sadly bad like everything from this era), so I don't mind it at all.

Sailor Moon S Episode 26:

Spoiler

mpc-hc64_inmuamA87u.png

Did an animator screw up, or is this a style thing? Why is her outline so weirdly gigantic? Also, I guess Setsuna is a lot less scary when she's interacting with Chibi-Usa...which makes sense.

If there's one good thing about Hotaru is that Chibi-Usa is hanging out with another girl normally (uh, relatively) instead of...uh, whatever she's usually doing - fighting with Usagi, being weird about Mamoru, meeting freakish boys and/or unicorns...although Hotaru is not that much better. Oh dear lord, the melodrama with this girl - I think an exorcist would probably help her out a lot. That, or feed her an actual Pure Heart Crystal - she seems positively starved for them.

Haruka going into serious mode and completely spacing out the fact the two of them were in the back of her car - whoops. I am getting a little tired of hearing Chibi-Usa yelling "Hotaru" one too many times. And Haruka...just recommended that Chibi-Usa never see her again. Lady, you might be wise in a number of other ways, but you're clearly not getting this whole love and friendship thing that keeps saving the world. You'd literally be dead without it right now, so don't be such a Mamoru. Luckily, Usagi and the others know better for once.

Man, Chibi-Usa has such a bad transformation, she really got hosed in that department. Also, what was up with the weird transformation by Haruka back into civilian mode? I think that's the first time we've seen the actual transformation back, and that's what they chose to go with? Hmph!

 

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How I have existed fills me with horror. For I have failed in everything - spelling, arithmetic, riding, tennis, golf; dancing, singing, acting; wife, mistress, whore, friend. Even cooking. And I do not excuse myself with the usual escape of 'not trying'. I tried with all my heart.

In my dreams, I am not crippled. In my dreams, I dance.

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Yeah, the filler episodes with Hotaru and Chibi-Usa are a bit, well, not that great. They do build towards something, but there's too much focus on the two at this point. Way too much. Although this one does a good job at explaining Hotaru's background, her problems and what potentially is wrong with her.

Although, very minor spoiler, in the next episode Mamoru makes the best freaking joke in the history of ever. Or maybe the absurdity of the situation just broke my brain.

Hotaru spoiler:

Spoiler

 

Hotaru also goes: Look at me, I'm EVUL again. She'll be doing that for a while.

hotaru1.gif?w=878

 

Minor trigger warning for episode 30 when you come to it: Worst.Monster.Design.Ever.

 

  

36 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Heidi, Girl of the Alps: I watched the first episode of this, and I liked it a lot. Seems sort of like a proto-Totoro in terms of style and potentially themes with some changed elements (nothing fantastical, presumably...and no sister, but I'm perfectly good with these changed elements). Japanese only, but they have a very naturalistic way of speaking (even though the audio quality is indeed sadly bad like everything from this era), so I don't mind it at all.


It's been a long time since I saw Heidi. A very long time. I wonder if it would be worth revisiting.

Edited by majestic

No mind to think. No will to break. No voice to cry suffering.

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Well, so here we go. Seven episodes to go, and per usual that means the final episodes are almost purely storyline, traditionally the weakest part of the season for me (major spoiler: It is in this one too!).

Spoiler

I have to admit that something about this show touches me on an emotional level like barely any other. With Mamoru gone almost the entire season and the storyline stuff kicking into full gear, watching Usagi sit at home and repeatedly call his answering machine just to hear his voice stings.

Aww.
 

Spoiler

 

Rei visits Usagi to tell her that she should tell Seiya that she isn't interested. Usagi finally can't take it any more and tells Rei that Mamoru hasn't responded to any of her letters. Rei asks, completely calm, why the hell she would keep something like that to herself.

wfyd5PD.png

You know, just in case there was ever any doubt just how much Rei cares for Usagi. :)

 

Man, this story arc is really undermined by this ridiculous conflict between Haruka and the Sailor Starlights. They've proven to be stubborn as hell if they want to be back in Sailor Moon S, but this really is ridiculous. I don't know guys, maybe listen to the queen you've sworn allegiance to?

 

Edited by majestic
Added an image in the spoilers. Yay!
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No mind to think. No will to break. No voice to cry suffering.

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Up to episode 11 now, the one in the amusement park.

Serena is crying more frequently and Ami has joined the team, basically tripling the average IQ.

Later Rei joined and she is hilarious with Serena. Especially in the park episode. "Don't start crying Serena" :lol:

In this episode they also managed to surprise me a bit with the villain. I thought she was a red herring.

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...Hold on a moment. Serena? ...Are you watching the original English dub? If so, wow! ...But wait, Ami would be Amy, so maybe you're just using that name ironically? 🤔

Edited by Bartimaeus
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How I have existed fills me with horror. For I have failed in everything - spelling, arithmetic, riding, tennis, golf; dancing, singing, acting; wife, mistress, whore, friend. Even cooking. And I do not excuse myself with the usual escape of 'not trying'. I tried with all my heart.

In my dreams, I am not crippled. In my dreams, I dance.

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7 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

...Hold on a moment. Serena? ...Are you watching the original English dub? If so, wow! ...But wait, Ami would be Amy, so maybe you're just using that name ironically? 🤔

I'm watching in Brazilian Portuguese dub. But they use the names in English. I guess the correct is Amy them? Not sure why I said Ami...

They call them Sailor Moon, Mercury, Mars, Tuxedo Mask... in English. Except the cat, that is called "Lua", Portuguese for Moon.

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1 hour ago, InsaneCommander said:

I guess the correct is Amy them? Not sure why I said Ami...

That's because her original name is Mizuno Ami, she was Amy in the original English dub.

What's the name of the other characters in your dub? :)

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No mind to think. No will to break. No voice to cry suffering.

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Ami is her Japanese & new English dub name, so that's perfectly fine to use if that's what it is (but if they used Serena for your dub, then it's probably Amy too - no-one will be confused if you say that).

(e: ninja-ed literally as I hit post)

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How I have existed fills me with horror. For I have failed in everything - spelling, arithmetic, riding, tennis, golf; dancing, singing, acting; wife, mistress, whore, friend. Even cooking. And I do not excuse myself with the usual escape of 'not trying'. I tried with all my heart.

In my dreams, I am not crippled. In my dreams, I dance.

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