Anime, the eternal Jettokōsutā

[Amentep]

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14 hours ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

Berserk is older than me and there are a lot of chapters, but yeah we're lucky to see three chapters a year these days. Apparently it's closer to finished than not, but unless Miura breaks the slow pace that has been going on for 15 years now we're probably going to be waiting a very long time if it gets finished at all.

In some ways it's tamer than later manga iterations, but it is graphic to go into blind. It really does work though.

 

9 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Madoka Magica, Part 2, anime is not simply cancelled, but it never existed to begin with:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I'm totally overjoyed at the moment that my workplace decided to post pictures on the intranet sharepoint of how the vaccination area looks. My appointment is tomorrow and I already panicked beyond belief because I had no idea where to go or what the procedure is going to look like. They did that in order to prepare everyone for expediency and effeciency when it comes to the vaccinations (it takes a while to get 500 people their shot), but for me that's a lifeline that will allow me to actually sleep tonight, so that's really great.

I mean... I even made the appointment at a totally inconvenient time for me just so I'm sharing a timeslot with someone I know that I can - as fallback - latch onto.

Have I ever mentioned that I hate being me at times? It's okay most of the times these days, sometimes even great, but in situations like this, bah.

 

 

 

6 hours ago, LittleArmadillo0 said:

I don't think we will be getting that ending. Kentaro Miura just passed away.

 

1 hour ago, majestic said:

 

...theatrics?

I feel like they're being entirely unfair to Madoka's father here. He only got a handful of lines and does nothing offensive other than picking tomatoes! I know a lot of people who hate tomatoes for some reason, but surely none of you are among those, are you?

  Reveal hidden contents

Because his scene with Madoka was cut from the film. Her mother comes home from work drunk out of her mind and they carry her to bed, then have a father and daughter talk about how work isn't going all that perfectly well for her mother. This, along with the background of how Mami became a magical girl, happens before Mami's unfortunate encounter with Charlotte. The first scene was taken out of the film, I think, because it's not necessary to show Madoka's role model as not being entirely perfect, the latter was taken out to move Kyubey's "reveal" as problematic a bit further into the film.

Because he comes to Mami and asks her after she's been involved in a car crash that killed her entire family and left her dying. She doesn't word it right, so she survives, and no one else does.

Curiously enough that's one scene where there's a lot of showing, and no telling at all, and it was taken out. Instead, in the film, it's left to his immediately showing up when Kyosuke yells at Sayaka, which worked almost as well (and was really creepy).

One point about the exposition dumps by Kyubey:

  Reveal hidden contents

I have to admit that after he explained his reasons to Madoka (teenage girls violate the second law of thermodynamics, really... guys, you're making the explanation for The Matrix look sane in comparison here!), I paused the episode and stopped watching for a few days. That yanked me out of suspension of disbelief something fierce, and it took a while for the OCD part of my brain to catch up and force me to finish it. It's a case where I'm glad that happened, because I loved everything before and after that.

Not gonna lie, I'm of course not blind to the issues the show has, it just worked for me.

 

Zucchini and tomatoes have something in common - they're both berries.

Don't be sorry, I'm trying my best not to hold it against you.

No, just kidding, really. I can't even begin to count the amount of films I've hated watching that friends, family or colleagues recommended to me. There are some beloved classics even that I usually just pretend to have enjoyed so I don't get into debates over it (one of my greatest character "strengths" is being utterly focused on avoiding conflict to the point of rather suffering in silence than actually saying something). There's a wide variety of them, across several genres, and is sometimes seemingly so arbitrary that I can't even properly express why.

I absolutely hated Pulp Fiction and I intensely disliked Sin City, and everyone I know enjoyed them.

On a more positive note (has nothing to do with anime, film, tv or music):
 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I'm totally overjoyed at the moment that my workplace decided to post pictures on the intranet sharepoint of how the vaccination area looks. My appointment is tomorrow and I already panicked beyond belief because I had no idea where to go or what the procedure is going to look like. They did that in order to prepare everyone for expediency and effeciency when it comes to the vaccinations (it takes a while to get 500 people their shot), but for me that's a lifeline that will allow me to actually sleep tonight, so that's really great.

I mean... I even made the appointment at a totally inconvenient time for me just so I'm sharing a timeslot with someone I know that I can - as fallback - latch onto.

Have I ever mentioned that I hate being me at times? It's okay most of the times these days, sometimes even great, but in situations like this, bah.

 

Some talk about Cardcaptor Sakura, Episode 25 (spoilers, obviously):

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Well that was a bombshell. 25 episodes in, and the barest hint of a plot is forming. Kero postulates that as Sakura is growing stronger and more confindent in her use of magic, she's also causing the remaining cards to communicate with each other and attempt to evade capture. Sakura uses her already captured cards as a Tarot style oracle, and gets three hints: Illusion, Shadow, Water. Meanwhile a Sakura doppelganger is seen causing trouble, she knocks over shelves in stores and is mean to children. 

Her friends see the copy of Sakura, then talk to the real one who was nowhere near them at the time. They tell her a spooky story about how everyone has a doppelganger and that you will die soon once you see yours. Sakura is totally put out by that. At the end, a bit of contrivance happens, the card is apparently immune to all of Sakura's magical attacks she's used or found so far. Kero says she needs to call the card out by its name to capture it, but can't tell her the name. Sakura uses Illusion, Shadow and Water to come up with Mirror.

Sakura's brother Toya is shown to be aware of magic, at the very least, being able to figure out that the copy of Sakura the Mirror card made isn't actually human but a spirit of some sort. If he's aware of Sakura's magical girl nature that would also explain the bouts of overprotectiveness that he has - when he's not teasing her. He's also always trying to keep Shaoran, the only other person with magical abilities away from her. Whether that dislike is conscious or not is somewhat unclear at this point.

Yukito is definitely aware of Toya being able to interact with sprits in some way.

Mirror!Sakura also gets Toya's leg broken, which marks the first time a card has done something harmful to a human with apparent intent. Illusion caused Sakura to fall off a cliff and she was saved by Yukito (that makes a total of three separate hints now that Yukito is away of what is going on in some form), but that may or may not have been intentional, potentially just incidental to the place of residence of Illusion at the time.

The Clow cards being released and their seal broken potentially causing some calamity is also brought up by Sakura, where she asks Kero about what could happen, and if it could be a literal world shattering event. Kero says that depends on who the cards is holding at the time, and it might not even be a calamity. Sakura is happy with that and resolves to collect the rest as quickly as she can. Kero mutters to himself that in the hands of the wrong person, the Earth exploding would be the least of their worries (isn't that ominous).

Cut to a mysterious woman appearing. Since episode names are also often spoilers, the next one is titled Sakura and her beautiful teacher". Pretty redish/brown haired probably evil lady is apparently a teacher.

 

 

 

[majestic]

For anyone interested: Madoka Magica parody, not on YouTube...

Small preview from a scene cut from the movie:

Quote

"Come pick me up and we'll probably go for drinks."

"Aren't you like 14?"

"I'm telling a f*cking story Madoka!"

 

Language warning, obviously.

 

[Sarex]

9 hours ago, LittleArmadillo0 said:

I don't think we will be getting that ending. Kentaro Miura just passed away.

I kind of had a feeling that he was going to die before it ended. But I didn't expect him to go that young. He died a week ago it seems but it was only announced yesterday/today.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, Sarex said:

I kind of had a feeling that he was going to die before it ended. But I didn't expect him to go that young. He died a week ago it seems but it was only announced yesterday/today.

I was holding out that the conclusion was close and he'd end up pulling it out, but I guess now we'll never know or see it get taken up by his apprentices. A real damn shame.

[Sarex]

37 minutes ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

I was holding out that the conclusion was close and he'd end up pulling it out, but I guess now we'll never know or see it get taken up by his apprentices. A real damn shame.

Really doubt anyone will continue it. I don't think there is a single case where the manga was finished after it's author died and there were a few popular ones that went that way.

[LittleArmadillo0]

6 minutes ago, Sarex said:

Really doubt anyone will continue it. I don't think there is a single case where the manga was finished after it's author died and there were a few popular ones that went that way.

Hard to continue Berserk, his art style was so unique and detailed. Even if someone was talented enough to emulate his style only Kentaro Miura knew the path Berserk would take and how it would end. If anybody tried to pick it up I feel that they would be under a lot of pressure to try to guess how a series as beloved as Berserk would unfold and end.

[Sarex]

1 minute ago, LittleArmadillo0 said:

Hard to continue Berserk, his art style was so unique and detailed. Even if someone was talented enough to emulate his style only Kentaro Miura knew the path Berserk would take and how it would end. If anybody tried to pick it up I feel that they would be under a lot of pressure to try to guess how a series as beloved as Berserk would unfold and end.

Could have told his assistants how the story would go if he had it outlined maybe he even documented the story.

[LittleArmadillo0]

1 minute ago, Sarex said:

Could have told his assistants how the story would go if he had it outlined maybe he even documented the story.

That is a possibility I hadn't considered. The hardest part would be just how much of that outline is documented. If it is not as through then getting from point A to point B in a smooth and natural progression will be much more difficult to path out.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

2 hours ago, Sarex said:

Really doubt anyone will continue it. I don't think there is a single case where the manga was finished after it's author died and there were a few popular ones that went that way.

That's the most likely scenario. I think the most realistic thing to hope for would some partial chapters and his assistants dropping the outline of the rest so we can get some kind of closure.

[majestic]

42 minutes ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

That's the most likely scenario. I think the most realistic thing to hope for would some partial chapters and his assistants dropping the outline of the rest so we can get some kind of closure.

Guess that means I'm not starting to read Berserk any time soon. It's bad enough getting stuck with an unfinished series (regardless of the medium), but willingly walk into one? No.

CCS #26.

Turns out I was wrong about a few things. Well, one thing for certain at the very least. Also, continuity, what are you?
 

Spoiler

 

Where to begin? Ominous red haired lady is voiced by Sailor Jupiter, who was also in Perfect Blue, looks like they're having a nice little reunion here. That's two three Sailor Guardians and Mima now. Ominous red haired lady is also not ominous at all, and saves Sakura and her friends from the Maze card. Shaoran is still suspicious, but nah, that's it. Kero sure wasn't talking about Sailor Jupiter when he mentioned a calamity worse than global annihilation.

Ominous red haired lady whose name is Kaho Mizuki also more or less confirmed Toya as not entirely gay. Kaho is clearly Toya's ex-girlfriend. Try as I might, there's no other reason for the look they've exchanged and them addressing each other on a first name basis without honorifics.

Right, and she's their new math teacher. Sakura also confirmed that Toya has a sixth sense of a sort and she's aware of that. Kaho of course knows who and what Sakura is, I mean, she even gave her the card at the end.

Glaring continuity error: Toya's broken leg healed from one episode to the next. That might have something to do with magic, but nobody mentions it. That might have something to do with a lot more time passing between episode 25 and 26 than shown, but there's also no indication of that.

But really, who cares...  

 

 

Edited May 20, 2021 by majestic
edit: Forgot the third Guardian, silly me!

[InsaneCommander]

Rising of Shield Hero, 1-10:
 

Spoiler

 

Well, that is a bad way to start your adventures. The only thing worse than all the companions choosing the other heroes is one of the girls changing her mind but only so she can claim you assaulted her and steal all your money. Not to mention destroy your reputation.

I like that, unlike some other stories, bad experiences have some consequences to the character's mental state. He becomes darker and continue so even after finding some decent companions. If you can call them that, since this guy is no saint. Even if you ignore that he allowed Raphtalia to be rebranded as a slave because she wanted it, why is she carrying all their cargo? And why did he brand Filo? She didn't even seem to want to cause any trouble, not that would justify it. The Spear Hero is a stupid hypocrite, but he does have a point about Shield Hero's slaves.

 

 

[Sarex]

Tributes from other mangaka are starting to come in. Silver lining and all that... This one is from Shun Saeki the Cooking Wars manga.

[Bartimaeus]

Though we initially committed to watching all three parts of Madoka Magica, we have decided it's for the best that we do not. One additional issue with these movies is how indigestible the movies are at close to 2 hours apiece for new viewers. Things probably would have gone at least a little better (although probably not that much) if we were watching it in 20-40 minute chunks instead.

>I feel like they're being entirely unfair to Madoka's father here. He only got a handful of lines and does nothing offensive other than picking tomatoes! I know a lot of people who hate tomatoes for some reason, but surely none of you are among those, are you?

Only in salsa...and not even as the main ingredient - onions make a better salsa base, .

>One point about the exposition dumps by Kyubey:

Those exposition dumps were...not great. They took all the mystery and fun out of Kyubey and the entire setup - I really, really don't need to know every single detail of how Kyubey and his race or magical girls operate (or have everything that just happened over the past few minutes prior re-explained again). Mystery or vagueness is almost always better if you don't have a good explanation for something. I had noticed they were a problem in the first part and had grown wise to them by the time we started the second part and started calling them out any time I thought they were going to happen, and I think I called them out about 4 times...and I was not happy to be right about it. Some subtlety here...and everywhere else would've been nice.

Edited May 21, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[HoonDing]

OMG Brandon Sanderson will finish Berserk.

[majestic]

7 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Though we initially committed to watching all three parts of Madoka Magica, we have decided it's for the best that we do not. One additional issue with these movies is how indigestible the movies are at close to 2 hours apiece for new viewers. Things probably would have gone at least a little better (although probably not that much) if we were watching it in 20-40 minute chunks instead.

There's a certain cadence to it for sure, and it was a weekly broadcast too. The entire anime was never really meant to be binged and in a way it shows, after the initial setup is over, i.e. the first three episodes that end with Mami's fight against Charlotte, it falls into a rhythm of action - twist - exposition that is somewhat (actually, completely) lost in translation when viewed as a film. It's worse for the second one because Homura's flashback was a dedicated episode.

There are also a lot of scenes that ended up getting cut that feature Madoka and Sayaka talking about their potential wishes, or with Mami, and a scene or two with Hitomi. While nothing of true value was lost other than Hitomi getting the idea that Sayaka might be into Madoka more than she is into Kyosuke (which probably helped with her decision to - as she says - not lie to herself any more and ask him about his feelings), what was cut was by far and large dialogue and character interactions that you would most likely have hated anyway, so it wouldn't really have made any difference.

7 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Only in salsa...and not even as the main ingredient - onions make a better salsa base, .

Good day sir! I said, good day!

7 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Those exposition dumps were...not great. They took all the mystery and fun out of Kyubey and the entire setup - I really, really don't need to know every single detail of how Kyubey and his race or magical girls operate (or have everything that just happened over the past few minutes prior re-explained again). Mystery or vagueness is almost always better if you don't have a good explanation for something. I had noticed they were a problem in the first part and had grown wise to them by the time we started the second part and started calling them out any time I thought they were going to happen, and I think I called them out about 4 times...and I was not happy to be right about it. Some subtlety here...and everywhere else would've been nice.

What bothered me was the explanation, not the exposition, but I now see it as necessary evil if you will. Kyubey's motivations for his actions help differentiate this from the usual torture porn theme that some "dark" animes have adopted. What he does is cruel and inhuman (well no wonder, he isn't human to begin with), but it's understandable instead of just merciless and cruel for no other reason than being cruel. Or as KP put it, Kyubey is not an edgelord.

Spoilered from here on out just in case all this talk makes Sarex want to check it out and I don't know if he has seen it yet.

Spoiler

 

The difference, in the end, between Kyubey torturing Sayaka to calmly explain his point why human bodies are a weakness magical girls cannot afford, and the writers deciding to make an entire episodes of Sailor Moon SuperS for no reason other than torture the main cast with no rhyme or reason (doubly so in the case of Makoto).

I watched some more of the English dub, compared to the subtitles. If you think the subtitles lacked subtelty it's probably a good thing you could not stand the dub, because that made everything even more blunt - at least compared to the German subtitles, I really don't know how much of the English ones are. The ending was particularily grating (spoilered just in case someone else might want to watch, I mean, already talked a lot about but anyway).

Kyubey asks Madoka if she wants to become God - literally, like that. Then there's the scene in Mami's home where the girls talk about what Madoka is going to do, and they ask her: Hey Madoka, are you sure you want to do this? You will stop being a person and become a CONCEPT! You'll be hooooooooooooooope from now on!

What in the what now? English!Madoka also bluntly explains more to the audience than to Sayaka why she's the only one that stays dead. It's ridiculous on the level of the Blade Runner explanation voiceover at the end of the original theater cut.

Any fun of the setup, on the other hand, was almost immediately lost for me. Madoka is so clearly Homura's Gretchen (plus Madoka's witch form is called Gretchen to boot - not that this comes up in the anime, but it shows how deliberate that really was) that I ended up being by far and large unsurprised by any of the twists, but that's okay, that's not really the reason why I enjoyed the anime.

For instance, there are little things hidden throughout the show. Like Homura's hourglass and the sand in it, or in one of the time loops where Madoka still has a grief seed left and innocently asks her to make sure that Kyubey does not trick her, which makes things even worse for Homura, that is actually... Sayaka's grief seed.

Homura's flashback episode has her change the look of her eyes, not just healing them so she no longer needs the glasses. They lose their downard droop and become upward slanted even before she removes her glasses. The more she goes through this hell of her own making, the more inhuman she becomes. It would have worked without her voiceover explaining what's going on (and yes, that was... not always necessary).

Sayaka and the scene where she makes the decision to take Kyubey up on his offer. Kyosuke, who up until this point never mentioned how painful it is to have Sayaka bring him classical music all the time, snaps, smashes her gift and berates her. He mentions not feeling any pain any more in his hand, Sayaka wants to console him and tells him to not give up, and he retorts with saying that he has been told to give up. Sayaka at this point is the only person that still visits Kyosuke, his only friend (the nurses say that he's an incredibly difficult patient and nobody but her comes to visit him, and that they're happy that Sayaka comes to see him).

Mirrored in the scenes where Sayaka attacks Madoka over not helping her after her run in with Elsa Maria and her own realization of not feeling any pain any more and the other girls telling Sayaka to cleanse her soul gem.

Kyoko and Sayaka also mirror each other in some ways. They both made selfless wishes that cost them their regular lives and ended up being twisted, and while Kyoko is essentially the character that makes Sayaka realize that there's no way out for her, beause it's either despair or turning into someone like Kyoko (a person she utterly despises at first), Sayaka makes Kyoko realize that there was a time she did this for something else than her own satisfaction. It's such a bitter ending for both of them.

There's Sayaka's witch design, which is a delberate reference to The Little Mermaid, which in a way is also the basis for Sayaka's entire arc. The little mermaid that falls in love with a prince, who turns into a human on the condition that she must make him fall in love with her or lose her life (become sea foam, as it were), only to find herself unable to speak. The prince marries someone else, and she is offered another way out - to kill him. She doesn't.

Of course, what I really liked about the show was the emotional component - something that didn't work at all for you. The rest is... yeah, I get it, really.

 

Regarding the third film:

Spoiler

 

Whate you're missing is that the Incubators capture Homura and isolate her from Madoka's influence, then turn her into a witch, they're trying to re-establish the way magical girls worked before Madoka changed it because it's more efficient. Much of the film plays inside Homura's labyrinth, which isn't a twisted version of reality, but her ideal world. Everyone is alive again, Kyoko and Sayaka are happy with each other (and Hitomi and Kyosuke don't work out so well because Kyosuke's ambition gets in the way of having a relationship), they're all friends and instead of fighting witches or wraiths they're fighting nightmares given physical form, by night.

Homura eventually catches on and finds out that she's a witch now and some of the characters in her labyrinth are real, including Sayaka and Charlotte/Bebe (who has befriended Mami now and is sort of her pet). With the help of Sayaka - who is in the labyrinth as an agent of Madoka, as it turns out, she breaks free from the Incubators' control. Being a witch with a still intact soul gem now she finally gets her wish granted - to be able to protect Madoka, by turning into an equally powerful being that instead of leaving with Madoka to whatever afterlife magical girls go to, grabs her and returns Madoka to the real world, as an actual girl (while leaving the rest of reality as it was). She erases Sayaka's memory of what happened and everyone is back to normal. Except Homura. She's now what Madoka was, only in a twisted way, growing black wings in the end.

 

 

[Sarex]

2 hours ago, HoonDing said:

OMG Brandon Sanderson will finish Berserk.

Brandon Sanderson is a PG writer, I can only imagine him doing a scene where a female character masturbates on the sword edge.

[LittleArmadillo0]

Paranoia Agent episode 6 and 7, if I had to summarize my feeling after watching both of these episodes it would be something like this…

Spoiler

I had a feeling that there wasn't something right at the end of episode 6 because Kozuka was still in police custody when the attack happened. Things that were coincidences are starting to seem tied to each other like Tsukiko Sagi suddenly getting stuck the same moment lil slugger attacked his next victim, Maromi giving the stink eyes to the detectives, and Taeko losing both her memories and her family house after she wished for them to disappear. 

Then episode 7 rolls around and there is another lil slugger or this Gohma that Makoto was talking about. This whole episode felt like a fever dream with the harsh lighting and the strange imagery and Taeko and Masami were very unnerving. I felt really bad for Kozuka. That kid was slightly delusional but he did not deserve to be treated that way by the detective, no wonder he felt cornered. I think things are going to get worse, this is the first victim of lil slugger that died and it won't be the last.
 

 

[majestic]

CCS, #27

There's an unwritten rule that every anime not set in a fictional world or city must feature the Tokyo Tower, and this one is no exception of course. The writers also prove that they don't really thought the ages of the characters through all that much.

Very strong episode, regardless. In terms of doing something with the story setup the strongest so far.
 

Spoiler

 

Sakura has a dream that makes her wake up early for a change, she decides to go for a walk - or more like spend the early morning skate around instead of madly dashing towards school to be on time. "Coincidence" makes her, Ms. Mizuki and Yokito be at Ms. Mizuki's shrine just so that they can help her clean. Sakura is of course overjoyed, and Yukito even asks if she wants him to accompany her on her way to school.

Mizuki-sensei addresses her, but then says "oh, nothing" - thinking to herself: "You'll find out on your own."

Find out what? That there's more to Yukito than meets the eye, or that he's gay? Both?

Fujikata tells Sakura that Ms. Mizuki was Toya's teacher in middle school, in 8th grade. That seems really... odd. Toya is working part time jobs but he's probably not older than 18, after all, he's still in high school with Yukito. Kaho (that's shorter than Ms. Mizuki, sorry for being impolite from now on Mizuki-sensei) doesn't seem to be that much older, yet she was his teacher sometime two to four years ago.

Shaoran and Sakura have a nice long chat (Meilin and Tomoyo are, for a change, not around), Sakura says she has warm, fuzzy feelings around Yukito and Kaho, and Shaoran says it's the same for him for Yukito, but he feels something strange around Kaho.

Man, maybe the two of them don't actually have a crush on Yukito as much as they really feel something else going on with him? Kaho clearly has some magic ability, and Yukito hasn't overtly shown anything, but... hmm.

That chat was really something. Sakura pretty much says she knows it's pointless, but she chalks it up to the age difference, but that they can't help their feelings. Toya is also in something that is higher than 10th grade (she puts Yukito's introduction into the third trimester of 10th grade as a transfer student), so he's closer to 18 than to 16.

A card induced flashback confirms that Kaho isn't that much older than Toya, she's a student teacher and they bonded over having a sixth sense. She tells him that she's going to continue her studies abroad. No idea when student teachers begin teaching in Japan, but that age difference is, while not as bad as I initially thought, still worse than Usagi and Mamoru's. Plus, guys, student teacher relationships are taboo (and illegal) for a reason... but Toya is a much more mature character than Usagi.

Hey Makoto, I know things didn't work out for you in Sailor Moon, but that's no reason to go look for the young 'uns here.

Oh, wow. That flashback features a breakup between the two over her studying abroad. She's all mysterious about it, saying that she really loved him, Toya wonders why she's talking in the past tense.

Quote

"When I will see you again, you'll be in love with someone else. Me, too."

Yukito and Toya confirmed! I guess.

Sakura, who has been pulled into this flashback by the Clow card, is sitting on the tree where the conversation happened, listening in. Kaho takes a few steps forward, looks directly at her and says that a calamity is approaching, but she's sure that... cue flashback end.

Shaoran brought Sakura back by expending most of his energy. She hugs him for it, and he turns a really bright red before collapsing from exhaustion. Kaho looks at both from a distance, smiling gently.

Kero wonders about someone called "Yue".

End of episode!

Right, Meiling and Shaoran have an arranged marriage. Based purely on the bright red of Shaoran's head, I'm guessing that won't really work out. Or worse, it will. Meiling started out as annoying, but becomes more and more likeable with each episode, and for all her apparent flaws, she really likes Shaoran.

Good thing these characters are all 10 years old and have a way out of this mess in that which will not cause broken hearts. I hope, at least, being the sap that I am.

 

 

Edited May 22, 2021 by majestic

[majestic]

And now for something completely different.

In between Attack No. 1 and Sailor Moon something else aired that I watched way back when:

Robin Fuddo no Daibōken (Robin Hood's Great Adventure or The Great Adventure of Robin Hood), a 1990 version of Robin Hood. Unlike Attack No. 1 and Sailor Moon, this is... one of the rare pieces of shōnen anime that I've watched, not just seen an episode or two in between. As such, Robin Hood and his merry gang are young boys, and the storylines revolve around virtue, coming of age, a journey of self-discovery and finding your place in the world. 

The one thing that stuck with me the most was this particular scene:

It has been a long time since I heard this, but this is a melody that is forever stuck in my mind. I sometimes find myself humming it for no particular reason, and until a while ago when I saw that this is available on Prime Video didn't even truly remember from where.

This was hugely popular when it aired here. In fact... we have 52 episodes, while the original Japanese run was only 39. The anime studio Tatsunoko created 13 new episodes for overseas release. It was directed by Kōichi Mashimo, the later founder of Bee Train, an animation studio with a different focus than most: Nurturing young talents and artistic quality rather than profit. Our thread regulars might know Bee Train from animes like .hack//Sign, Noir or Tsubasa Chronicles.

My memories of this are a little fuzzy, aside from Robert (well, Robin) playing music on a leaf there's also the iconic bowstring drawing stock footage that shows up every now and then:

It also contains some mild fantasy and magical elements, Robin's bow, for instance, cannot be drawn by people with evil intent. If I'm not entirely mistaken, some of the episodes are very melancholic and downright sad, the series begins with almost everyone of Robin's family killed.

With that in mind, I put this on my Prime Video watchlist. Expect infrequent updates, as this will be something that I'll weave in every now and then, unless it really proves to be absolutely riveting (not entirely sure, I think this is much more distinctly aimed at children then other animes I've watched).

Time to hum that melody over and over again...

Edited May 22, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

Robin Hood is an absolute gangster at leaf music.

P.S. I should really watch an episode or two of Cardcaptor Sakura so I can at least read your posts without my brain breaking trying to figure out who's who, .

[majestic]

4 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Robin Hood is an absolute gangster at leaf music.

I never realized how much that Robin Hood anime influenced the way I imagine fighting scenes to look like when I'm reading them, or how much of that imagery is still around in more modern anime.

Time coded to Robin's second run in with Sir Gilbert, Knight of the Black Rose. Audio is bad and in German, but it'll serve for demonstration purposes... it might be a Robin Hood adaptation, but it's so Japanese at heart. Give them katanas and the scene would fit into any samurai themed anime. Make them girls and give them transformations and you'd have something not out of place in Madoka (or even Sailor Moon scenes like when Makoto fights Haruka in her first Sailor Moon S focus episode) Gilbert's scar is from the first episode where Robin fires an arrow at him that grazes his face. He  initially plans to kill Robin, but he can't use Robin's bow (because magic) and simply ends up humiliating him. Gilbert plays the Dark Knight with Honor character type for a while before having the obligatory change of heart.

Looks pretty good for a 1990 made for TV anime series. Robin also sounds nothing like a teenage boy in the dub, but hey, at least Gilbert is pretty decent. Ah, the good old times when A-list voice actors still dubbed TV too.

23 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

P.S. I should really watch an episode or two of Cardcaptor Sakura so I can at least read your posts without my brain breaking trying to figure out who's who, .

That'll work, at least for Toya, Yukito, Sakura and Tomoyo, and her father. The others show up a little later. At least in the original. The DiC level English dub changed all the names as far as I know. 

Else I could just make a post about the characters.

 

[Bartimaeus]

Okay, I watched the first two episodes - now at least I know those four, .

Spoiler

Switched between the Japanese and English constantly to figure out what I liked better; Kerberos has one of those atrocious high-pitched hyperactive American sidekick voices in the English that makes her almost intolerable, whereas she's probably the best voice in the Japanese. I think the little I heard of Tomoyo sounded uncomfortably similar to "Molly" in the English, too, so I'm probably going to end up sticking with the Japanese. Sakura and Tomoyo's VAs are the biggest problem with the Japanese - adult women trying to do kid voices by making them way more high-pitched and whiny than actual kid voices is always a mistake!

The first couple of minutes of episode 1 felt like a complete ripoff of Sailor Moon's first couple of minutes (...maybe Sailor Moon ripped off of something else?) . It was nice! Tomoyo seems to be kind of crazy for Sakura, Sakura's obviously crazy for Yukito, and Kerberos is just crazy altogether.

 

Edited May 22, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

6 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Okay, I watched the first two episodes - now at least I know those four, .

  Hide contents

Switched between the Japanese and English constantly to figure out what I liked better; Kerberos has one of those atrocious high-pitched hyperactive American sidekick voices in the English that makes her almost intolerable, whereas she's probably the best voice in the Japanese. I think the little I heard of Tomoyo sounded uncomfortably similar to "Molly" in the English, too, so I'm probably going to end up sticking with the Japanese. Sakura and Tomoyo's VAs are the biggest problem with the Japanese - adult women trying to do kid voices by making them way more high-pitched and whiny than actual kid voices is always a mistake!

The first couple of minutes of episode 1 felt like a complete ripoff of Sailor Moon. It was nice! Tomoyo seems to be kind of crazy for Sakura, Sakura's obviously crazy for Yukito, and Kerberos is just crazy altogether.

 

How did you like Harukito's performance? First good morning and I was like "Ohayo to you too, Haruka!"

Now imagine that being Shinji...

The takes the anime a few episodes to become more than just a Sailor Moon ripoff. Or, maybe not "more" but something else. It's the first thing I thought when Sakura sleeps too long and hurries to school: "Hey that's a younger Usagi with roller blades." Having Ami and Haruka as VAs in it didn't help that initial impression.

I actually really like Sakura's voice acting (her VA is also named Sakura... Sakura Tange), or rather, I've grown to like it. It ends up being a completely adorable combination with her animation in a way that I can't imagine liking any other voice actor for her (especially in scenes where she's embarrassed by something), but indeed, she's not entirely convincing as a young girl.

The only character I find annoying when it comes to the voice acting is Meilin (if you see me writing Meiling at times... go figure, but that's wrong), and I think that's sort of on purpose. She's meant to be annoying. She is annoying, but it gets better after a while.

Dramatic effect spoiler!

Spoiler

Kinda glad you didn't immediately hate it, even when forced to switch to Japanese original with subtitles... I have a feeling that nobody else reads these Cardaptor Sakura posts, and hey, maybe I'm not that much of a hack fraud after all.

I also figured out why Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card looks so bad. It was made in 2018. No wonder.

Edited May 22, 2021 by majestic

[majestic]

Netflix recommended Kill la Kill. Decided to check out the first episode while doing my daily "rounds" on the ergometer. Ended up watching the first two.

I'm not sure if this is the best, the most ridiculous or the worst thing I've ever seen. Possibly all of the three at once.

It was supremely weird even before Ryuko (the main character) and her trusty giant half of a scissor she uses as a sword, found a sentient battle armor (well, uniform) that drinks her blood and puts all the chainmail bikinis in the world to utter shame...

Spoiler

 

Say hello to Senketsu...

 

So far she won a boxing and a tennis match. Yeah. Uhm...

Pretty sure I remember KP and Sarex mentioning it before.

 

Edited May 22, 2021 by majestic

[InsaneCommander]

42 minutes ago, majestic said:

Netflix recommended Kill la Kill. Decided to check out the first episode while doing my daily "rounds" on the ergometer. Ended up watching the first two.

I'm not sure if this is the best, the most ridiculous or the worst thing I've ever seen. Possibly all of the three at once.

It was supremely weird even before Ryuko (the main character) and her trusty giant half of a scissor she uses as a sword, found a sentient battle armor (well, uniform) that drinks her blood and puts all the chainmail bikinis in the world to utter shame...

  Hide contents

 

Say hello to Senketsu...

 

So far she won a boxing and a tennis match. Yeah. Uhm...

Pretty sure I remember KP and Sarex mentioning it before.

 

And they say boob armor is not effective. At least it covers the body. lol