Anime - coasting on emotion rollers

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

It's not feminist DIO or youtube comments but I watched some of Castlevania last night. It's funny even if it feels rushed. Malcolm McDowell is there too as Varney of London, a vampire no one seems to have heard of.

[majestic]

1 hour ago, ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP said:

It's not feminist DIO or youtube comments but I watched some of Castlevania last night. It's funny even if it feels rushed. Malcolm McDowell is there too as Varney of London, a vampire no one seems to have heard of.

I'll probably start Castlevania Season 4 tomorrow.

[LittleArmadillo0]

4 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I definitely get that - if someone's voice is bad enough, I often immediately close out of a video regardless of what they're talking about, even if I'm super interested in the content. Just can't listen to you, pal - sorry! There was a poster (not here) who used to write some more long-form essays on some more interesting historical bits of American football, and I, being an American football watcher, used to read and enjoy them; then he stopped making the written essays and started making VIDEO essays on it instead, and while most other people seemed okay with it, I tried multiple times and could never hack it. Real crappy, but I just can't listen to you!

I feel that way a lot when watching YouTube videos. If the voice feel off, if they have low microphone quality, or if they are in a room that echoes I have to click out of the video. The microphone I can sometimes tolerate if its not too bad but I feel with the voice much of it can be improved with practice. Clarity, confidence, and cadence go a long way to making a person stick around longer for a video. I have clicked off of videos where the narrator sounded bored, had a stuffy nose that day, or were really quiet. It really doesn't inspire a lot in viewers when you go about that way of speaking.

Edited May 14, 2021 by LittleArmadillo0

[Bartimaeus]

Sailor Moon SuperS:

Spoiler

This is the first time I've heard Zirconia in the original English dub. I only have one word: wat

...also one of the background people people said "useless clods!" at 1:02 and though it didn't sound like her, I am now convinced that Peridot is semi-officially in Sailor Moon

 

[majestic]

2 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Sailor Moon SuperS:

  Hide contents

This is the first time I've heard Zirconia in the original English dub. I only have one word: wat

...also one of the background people people said "useless clods!" at 1:02 and though it didn't sound like her, I am now convinced that Peridot is semi-officially in Sailor Moon

 

 

 

 

[Bartimaeus]

Yeah, I can't believe Peridot cameoed in Sailor Moon either!

Edited May 14, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

2 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

yeah I can't believe Peridot cameoed in Sailor Moon either!

It's worse than you think. Much worse.

Spoiler

 

 

Now the nightmare's real!

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Is Zirconia a man in the dub?

[majestic]

3 minutes ago, ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP said:

Is Zirconia a man in the dub?

Yes.

edit: Although I'm leaning more towards this being a mistake. The original Japanese version of Zirconia sure doesn't sound like a woman, even though the VA is. For Fisheye it's the other way around, if I hadn't looked it up I still wouldn't be 100% sure if that really was a man. Hot damn. 

Edited May 14, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

There's a really awkward scene in the original English dub as a result of making Fish Eye a lady.

Spoiler

 

 

[LittleArmadillo0]

Watched Paranoia Agent episode 5

Spoiler

It is a bit of an interesting episode with the detectives attempting to creatively unravel the truth using the kids' logic. I feel like some of what he says about Gohma has a bit of truth (might be something more intangible) but on the other hand I keep thinking he took larping way too seriously. He doesn’t seem malevolent, just delusional.

I also read a few chapters of Rosen Garten Saga… I kept saying “what the ****(?)(!)(...)”
I have not seen a manga this strange, this depraved, and this amusing in a long time. Think I’m gonna keep reading it just because of the weird factor.

Edited May 14, 2021 by LittleArmadillo0

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

43 minutes ago, majestic said:

Yes.

edit: Although I'm leaning more towards this being a mistake. The original Japanese version of Zirconia sure doesn't sound like a woman, even though the VA is. For Fisheye it's the other way around, if I hadn't looked it up I still wouldn't be 100% sure if that really was a man. Hot damn. 

She sounded like an old lady in the sub.

Honestly I thought Fish Eye was a lady until he was referred to as he.

39 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

There's a really awkward scene in the original English dub as a result of making Fish Eye a lady.

  Hide contents

 

 

There's a lot of close brothers and cousins in the dub.

[majestic]

2 hours ago, ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP said:

She sounded like an old lady in the sub.

Honestly I thought Fish Eye was a lady until he was referred to as he.

Our dub used a female voice actor too. Seems like a common mistake* to make, good to know I'm not alone.

Couldn't have told Zirconia from any old guy in the sub, but that's okay. I sometimes really suck at this.

2 hours ago, ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP said:

There's a lot of close brothers and cousins in the dub.

To be honest, that's one of the changes I can get behind. Fashion is so gaaaaaaaaay you guys is one of the stereotypes Sailor Moon could have done without. Still ridiculous because those brothers sure like each other a lot, but in general...

Spoiler

...did you know fashion is, like, totally gay?

The girls didn't, at any rate. Yeah, what a waste of an episode, typical SuperS.

Watched some more Cardcaptor Sakura. Sakura has a way out of this crush on Yukito in the form of Shaoran (who is also really crushing hard on Yukito and constantly fighting with Sakura over his attention whenever they're all on the screen), but I wonder what Tomoyo will do. That's not going to end well for her.

Spoiler

This episode pretty much confirms her crush on Sakura. Yukito wins a Yo-yo Tsuri for Sakura, and she says it's kawaii. Tomoyo turns slightly flushed and says to herself: "Sakura is kawaii too."

The show being what it is it won't be a soul crushing plot point later I'm sure, but that's... yeah, one crush going unfulfilled, I'd say.

edit:

Well, it's not like the girls have any real idea of romantic love yet. They see two of their friends constantly hanging out with each other and think they're just really good friends (unless the subtitles keep repeating the same mistake). Sakura isn't that old yet... might be 11 now. Maybe. If older, not by much.

 

*Leaning in favor of marking this one as a mistake. Our cousins were uncensored and nobody had an issue with the Sailor Starlights either.

Edited May 15, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Speaking of fashion and close siblings, I finished Castlevania. It clearly ran out of budget at points but you know what? **** it, this show is hilarious and amazing. It totally jumped the shark and it worked imo.

[majestic]

6 hours ago, ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP said:

Speaking of fashion and close siblings, I finished Castlevania. It clearly ran out of budget at points but you know what? **** it, this show is hilarious and amazing. It totally jumped the shark and it worked imo.

Just watched the first episode of season 4. Looks like Trevor is bad influence on everyone he meets.

Spoiler

Sypha starts cussing like a sailor and Alucard wants to ride off and save a village. Maybe.

What's the point of hiring Malcolm McDowell to voice a British vampire when he does his best to not sound like it at all? I mean, sure, we're talking 15th century London, but still, how about you go and fulfill the stereoypes I expect of you, hmm? Hmmm? Hmmmmmmm?

I expected more of you, Admiral Tolwyn.

Anyway, off to a good start here. Except:

Spoiler

Castlevania really did not need an eleventh hour villain addition to an already ridiculously large cast of bad guys and confusing plotlines with forgemasters, betrayals, Japanese vampires and whatever else not, but hey, what can you do.

 

Edited May 15, 2021 by majestic

[InsaneCommander]

18 hours ago, ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP said:

Speaking of fashion and close siblings, I finished Castlevania. It clearly ran out of budget at points but you know what? **** it, this show is hilarious and amazing. It totally jumped the shark and it worked imo.

I watched half of the new season.

Spoiler

Things were pretty good for Hector, with Carmilla leaving him alone and the other psychos away. But now Isaac and his friends arrived...

And Saint German went full evil in a short time. Wtf?

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Oh man, **** gets good yall. I can't say too much without spoiling it though.

[majestic]

I have found one point where the second Madoka movie is significantly worse than its show counterpart:

Spoilers, obviously, don't look unless you're done with the show/second movie (I mean it this time, this concerns a massive Homura character spoiler).
 

Spoiler

 

There's a difference in the soundtrack when Homura faces Walpurgis Night, shortly before Madoka shows up.

In the second film, during the scene, the Walpurgis Night theme is simply repeated:

While the show proper has its own theme:

The 01:00 minute mark in the second video is the point where Homura realizes that the only thing she did was make things worse:

By the way, in case you're wondering why she tanks that skyscraper falling into her, the closeup has, like so many things in this anime, a visual clue - there's almost no sand left in her hourglass (see the resemblance, that's not just a shield - she controls time with the hourglass in it). Her resources are spent.

The scene having its own theme is clearly so much better, but what can you do. I wonder why that was changed. Can't be licensing issues, can it (not with their own music)? The other changes are understandable or don't matter as much (Mami's transformation has, at the end of episode 3, a different theme in the Blu-Ray version than in the original show and the movie), but this one?

What's up with that?

A Q&A session also answered how long she's been doing that. The answer was "close to 100 times" - at a reset period of 1.5 months, that makes... 12 years, give or take.

The changed Mami theme song:

Mirai means "future" by the way. Yuki Kajiura sure has a twisted sense of humor.

Mami theme videos on YT are full of puns...

 

 

 

Edited May 16, 2021 by majestic

[majestic]

Strange, "somehow" Netflix keeps playing Cardcaptor Sakura instead of anything else.

I guess you guys are pretty much tired of hearing this already, but it's such a refreshing change from the other shows and movies I've been watching recently. Not just anime. It continues to be simple, completely free of any overarching storyline (or even themes, or anything, really) except for character interactions that span several episodes. The show recently added a relative of Shaoran who is intensely jealous of Sakura because she spends time with him.

I still have no idea what it is with this anime, but it's great. Nothing ever happens, most of the time the "action" is limited to Sakura solving a "puzzle" of a sort (the "Glow" card she captured two episodes ago was a harmless swarm of fireflies that took all of 30 seconds to capture), the animation is okay but nothing great outside the character models themselves (the animators put a lot of effort into showing Sakura with constantly changing outfits), but I'll be damned if this isn't one of the most entertaining shows I've seen so far. It's mesmerizing. And really relaxing...

Could still change, of course, still 50 episodes to go, but this is fun, even if I really have no real idea why.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

25 minutes ago, majestic said:

Strange, "somehow" Netflix keeps playing Cardcaptor Sakura instead of anything else.

I guess you guys are pretty much tired of hearing this already, but it's such a refreshing change from the other shows and movies I've been watching recently. Not just anime. It continues to be simple, completely free of any overarching storyline (or even themes, or anything, really) except for character interactions that span several episodes. The show recently added a relative of Shaoran who is intensely jealous of Sakura because she spends time with him.

I still have no idea what it is with this anime, but it's great. Nothing ever happens, most of the time the "action" is limited to Sakura solving a "puzzle" of a sort (the "Glow" card she captured two episodes ago was a harmless swarm of fireflies that took all of 30 seconds to capture), the animation is okay but nothing great outside the character models themselves (the animators put a lot of effort into showing Sakura with constantly changing outfits), but I'll be damned if this isn't one of the most entertaining shows I've seen so far. It's mesmerizing. And really relaxing...

Could still change, of course, still 50 episodes to go, but this is fun, even if I really have no real idea why.

Well I'm not trusting anything that avatar says.

[majestic]

18 minutes ago, ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP said:

Well I'm not trusting anything that avatar says.

Why not? Don't you want to make a contract with me?

To be honest, I thought after 17 years with the same avatar I might as well change it, but it's creeping me out something fierce. I might go back to my old one.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

4 minutes ago, majestic said:

Why not? Don't you want to make a contract with me?

To be honest, I thought after 17 years with the same avatar I might as well change it, but it's creeping me out something fierce. I might go back to my old one.

Maybe you should do something less creepy then. Like Kars laughing.

Now that's a face you can trust.

[majestic]

17 minutes ago, ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP said:

Maybe you should do something less creepy then. Like Kars laughing.

Now that's a face you can trust.

That might work, but... honestly, changing avatars with Firefox is so incredibly buggy that I ended up switching to Edge just to switch it. The upload feature doesn't work right. So... if I change it again, then only back to Ol' Bluehair.

The idea came to me when I watched the films. There are several shots of Kyubey where the entire screen is filled with his face. Only the dead stare, the red eyes, and all white.

I even hat to edit the pictures and move the eyes closer together, because stupid forum stoftware is stupid (and size limits like it's 1998).

Madoka spoilers:

Spoiler

I know you're kidding mostly, but... Kars is just an ancient evil gym god bent on world domination and becoming the supreme being. Kyubey has a perfectly logical reason for what he's doing. At least, assuming he told the truth when Madoka asked him. Probably, but hey... might have omitted a thing or two, who knows.

I have to admit, Kyubey is one of the more impressive antagonists I've come across. His approach (their approach?) reminds me a bit of the Practical Incarnation in PS:T. Poor Deionarra, the original magical girl.

 

Edited May 17, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

6 minutes ago, majestic said:

That might work, but... honestly, changing avatars with Firefox is so incredibly buggy that I ended up switching to Edge just to switch it. The upload feature doesn't work right. So... if I change it again, then only back to Ol' Bluehair.

The idea came to me when I watched the films. There are several shots of Kyubey where the entire screen is filled with his face. Only the dead stare, the red eyes, and all white.

I even hat to edit the pictures and move the eyes closer together, because stupid forum stoftware is stupid (and size limits like it's 1998).

Madoka spoilers:

  Reveal hidden contents

I know you're kidding mostly, but... Kars is just an ancient evil gym god bent on world domination and becoming the supreme being. Kyubey has a perfectly logical reason for what he's doing. At least, assuming he told the truth when Madoka asked him. Probably, but hey... might have omitted a thing or two, who knows.

I have to admit, Kyubey is one of the more impressive antagonists I've come across. His approach (their approach?) reminds me a bit of the Practical Incarnation in PS:T. Poor Deionarra, the original magical girl.

 

There's some really great direction in Madoka that just sticks with you, especially with Kyubey. I find that with most things (that are good) I watch it first and just get lost in it* and on subsequent watches take a more analytical eye toward scenes. 

*It's hard to describe this, like I get enthralled with the story that I just find myself focusing on the whole thing and struggle to separate it into components to analyze. So my reviews tend to focus on a finished product that can't really be broken down.

Anyways you're forgetting one major thing.

Kars is AWESOME. His portrayl is uniquely stylish and does such weird **** I would struggle to believe if it wasn't JoJo. Kyubey just doesn't have that style, as interesting as the subversion of the helpful animal friend is narratively they're just a creepy cat who grooms young girls. Kars isn't just and evil gym god, he's an evil gym god aztec super vampire gay icon superbeing who turned into a bird and shoots scales that turn into piranhas.

[majestic]

4 minutes ago, ArtistFormerlyKnownasKP said:

There's some really great direction in Madoka that just sticks with you, especially with Kyubey. I find that with most things (that are good) I watch it first and just get lost in it* and on subsequent watches take a more analytical eye toward scenes. 

*It's hard to describe this, like I get enthralled with the story that I just find myself focusing on the whole thing and struggle to separate it into components to analyze. So my reviews tend to focus on a finished product that can't really be broken down.

Anyways you're forgetting one major thing.

 

  Hide contents

Kars is AWESOME. His portrayl is uniquely stylish and does such weird **** I would struggle to believe if it wasn't JoJo. Kyubey just doesn't have that style, as interesting as the subversion of the helpful animal friend is narratively they're just a creepy cat who grooms young girls. Kars isn't just and evil gym god, he's an evil gym god aztec super vampire gay icon superbeing who turned into a bird and shoots scales that turn into piranhas.

More spoilers:
 

Spoiler

 

The direction in the anime is really good. The scenes perfectly convey a sense of unease and isolation that you don't even notice at first - or at least not on a conscious level. Then there's tons and tons of little details hidden in the animation that are barely noticable, like Homura's hour glass, or Sayaka's witch fight, with Kysosuke conducting, the little familiars that look like Hitomi, how she's in the middle of the room - the center of Kyosuke's attention, or the colors of Sayaka and Kyoko that melt into each other during the fight.

Not to mention the Elsa Maria fight where Sayaka just loses it. The shadowplay aspect, the colour outlines of the characters, the music. Phew. They sure as hell knew what they were doing making this.

Or how you can go tell people who think Kyoko committed suicide that they're morons, because she didn't kill herself - I mean, she did, in away... sacrificed herself, but not like traditional Japanese ritual suicide, she was dead anyway. There's no way she can come out of that fight without falling into despair and turning herself. Naming her Sakura as last name was probably an intentional reference to WW2 kamikaze pilots.

I agree that Kars is much more stylish than a subversion of the magical girl helper animal, and the things he does are incredibly awesome.  

But that's just it... Kars is awesome, while Kyubey is just vile. The way he tortures Sayaka just to make a point about the advantages of having a more robust physical body than normal humans in his detached, emotionless way sent cold shivers down my spine.

Or maybe that's just because I like Sayaka - unlike much of the Madoka fandom fandumb. Yeah stupid Sayaka, why didn't you use the grief seed to cleanse your soul gem? Silly girl. I'm sure that would have helped.

I mean, in the end, I guess: Kars is entertaining and awesome, Kyubey is... I just hate the disgusting little piece of manure, while at the same time perfectly understand his motivation. How often do you come across that?

Then there are the happy little accidents, like Homura wishing to go back and be the one to protect Madoka. Of course she turns into the Devil - the only other being comparable to God. And of course she draws her back into the real world in Rebellion. How else would she be able to protect Madoka?

Okay, enough with the fanboying now. I don't even disagree that much. Heh.