Anime, the eternal Jettokōsutā

[InsaneCommander]

1 hour ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

 

  Hide contents

The pig head guy is pretty annoying tbh.

 

Yes, but not as much as the other one, imo.

[majestic]

Cardcaptor Sakura, Clear Card, Episode "0": Prologue

Yeah, so... that looks soooo terrible compared to the original.

Kero still plays on the same console, but delivery people are running around with tablet computers. Why the partial tech up? Sheesh.

The prologue is an extended version of the last couple of minutes from the last episode of the original anime, except the continuity is all wrong. Yay. Well... not sure at all.

Did I mention how terrible this looks?

[Bartimaeus]

7 minutes ago, majestic said:

Kero still plays on the same console, but delivery people are running around with tablet computers. Why the partial tech up? Sheesh.

why do animes do this every time they come back from the dead; will children not be able to empathize with characters if they don't recognize THINGS?

elsa and anna didn't have cellphones in Frozen, but that didn't seem to be an issue for Disney making a gazillion dollars on it

[majestic]

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

why do animes do this every time they come back from the dead; will children not be able to empathize with characters if they don't recognize THINGS?

Might be interesting to see if it was like that in the manga too.

Tomoyo also still has an old camcorder, but from what I read you can still buy Tomoyo merchandise in Japan, and that includes modern camcorders in old school designs. So that at least... has a meta explanation.

Why must you look so bad? WHY?

The old animation conveyed a warm feeling and beauty that fit the show perfectly, while this is clear, clean and sterile in a way that is distracting from what made the show great.

Edited June 1, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

Not going to lie, I never really saw the appeal of camcorders until this show bashed my brains in with Tomoyo eternally and adoringly smiling from behind one...

Modern anime art is in such a sad state, .

Edited June 1, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Not going to lie, I never really saw the appeal of camcorders until this show bashed my brains in with Tomoyo eternally and adoringly smiling from behind one...

Modern anime art is in such a sad state, .

Oh, Sakura-chan, kawaii!

Hooooooooooeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Today I learned that Xiaolang is apparently really the official Chinese name for Shaoran, and the reason why some material spells him Syaoran is because that's the appropriate Romaji in a different system, while most of Japanese is romanized with the Hepburn system. It would be Shaoran in Hepburn.

Not that any of that matters. If Xiaolang is written in Pinyin, and  that's what we have to assume, everyone on the show, including his Chinese-native cousin can't pronounce the name right. Makes sense for the Japanese girls obviously, but not really for Wei or Meilin/Meiling/Meirin... but hey... in Sailor Moon, Mamoru's gentleman friend from England introduced himself by saying HERRO too, so that's... par for the course.

As if the show wasn't confusing enough already with its two separate English dubs, changed names and an additional, mangled US release.

I also tried to find out what Sakura's trademark "Hoe!" is supposed to mean, but came up short. It's some sort of Japanese something, probably like "Oy!", for which you wouldn't find a proper translation either.

edit: Made any progress?

Edited June 1, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

I got 30 seconds into episode 30 some hours ago, then had to pause and haven't yet been able to resume. Does that count for anything?

Spoiler

At the very least, I'm watching this one by myself which gives me a lot more flexibility. My show-watching partner absolutely refused to join in watching Sailor Moon with me when I started it even though I did literally everything I could to sell them on it; it was only when I was like halfway through S that they finally realized their error, and now they've done the same with Sakura. Oh well. Meanwhile, we'd been watching stupid stuff like Speed Racer and now Yu Yu Hakusho...

(e): Not to sell Speed Racer short or anything (that was actually pretty fun), but pure shonen like Yu Yu Hakusho is just...not really my thing for the most part. I have a little love for DBZ that helps make it tolerable, but that's about it. Give me the sweet, silly, and heartfelt shoujo where characters are adorable/hilarious, love each other, work together, and talk about their feelings, please! Shonen protagonists (whether they're actually in shonen or other media - it's the same stupid character archetypes) always make me want to blow my brains out...it's always power this, power that, avenge my father, I have to do this on my own without anybody helping, I gotta protect my girl, fulfill my destiny...ugh.

(e): Speaking of Sailor Moon, I recall you saying that you didn't know any girls who love Sailor Moon. Sometime back, I discovered that a friend of a friend's favorite show all-time is Sailor Moon! Apparently, she watched the original dub growing up, but she's since watched (and now prefers) the Viz dub. Her favorite character is Ami - her least favorite of the five is Minako. This woman's already dead to me, .

If I'm thinking of the correct sound, that "hoee" reminds me a lot of the same sound that a few different characters in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker make whenever they're shouting out a greeting.

I don't really mind Xiaolong vs. Shaoran either way, but my preferred subtitles use "Xiaolong", so that's kind of what I think of him as. Although I sometimes try to follow the actual sounds of what characters say out-loud, and I swear the way Meiling says his name is different from the way Sakura et al. say his name...but I might be imagining it. Speaking of my subtitles, I've also noted for a while that they seem to cut out a lot of superfluous words compared to the fan-subs I checked out, which only contributes to me preferring them. It's not entirely faithful, but there have been many times where I can literally hear characters referring to each other by name, and my subtitles will make no note of it at all, instead going for a more concise and more natural re-writing of whatever they were trying to say. I'm okay with that - the comparisons I've done with the fan-subs were painful, and didn't seem to contribute any additional understanding, humor, or enjoyment from being too literal (in fact, quite the opposite). ...But it is a little odd at times for what I am understanding that I am hearing to not be reflected in what I am reading.

CCS, episode 30:

Spoiler

I'm unsure what the lesson of this episode was, something about it felt very...inconclusive. What I do know is that for some reason, I am totally in Kero's camp in that I *hate* it when Xiaolong gets cards that he doesn't deserve.

 

Edited June 2, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Lexx]

I found out that there is a 2 season anime of Berserk that continues after the 3 egg movies. So I binge watched the first season yesterday, and ...

... I think the animation style is bad. Everything looks so ugh. I already had some troubles with the 3 movies before, but compared to this now... even bigger decline. Still, I soldiered on and went through it. Liked how heavy Guts' sword felt, and the metal plonks, etc. Generally it was not bad, but then I thought the middle part is way too long and nothing of importance is ever happening, which in hindsight I find really boring.

Now I'm not sure what to think of it. I like it, but also I never want to ever watch it again, because there's boredom creeping out of every corner. Guess.. in the end, the only reason why I made it through season 1 is because I thought something epic will happen "any minute now" ... I'm starting season 2 now ... for exactly the same reason.

[majestic]

7 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I got 30 seconds into episode 30 some hours ago, then had to pause and haven't yet been able to resume. Does that count for anything?

  Hide contents

At the very least, I'm watching this one by myself which gives me a lot more flexibility. My show-watching partner absolutely refused to join in watching Sailor Moon with me when I started it even though I did literally everything I could to sell them on it; it was only when I was like halfway through S that they finally realized their error, and now they've done the same with Sakura. Oh well. Meanwhile, we'd been watching stupid stuff like Speed Racer and now Yu Yu Hakusho...

 

Spoiler

 

Are you far enough along in Yu Yu Hakusho yet where it trurns into a martial arts tournament anime? Because that's what KP complained about, I've never watched it.

Well, maybe there's some learning from experience and they'll just immediately join in then next time.

8 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

(e): Not to sell Speed Racer short or anything (that was actually pretty fun), but pure shonen like Yu Yu Hakusho is just...not really my thing for the most part. I have a little love for DBZ that helps make it tolerable, but that's about it. Give me the sweet, silly, and heartfelt shoujo where characters are adorable/hilarious, love each other, work together, and talk about their feelings, please! Shonen protagonists (whether they're actually in shonen or other media - it's the same stupid character archetypes) always make me want to blow my brains out...it's always power this, power that, avenge my father, I have to do this on my own without anybody helping, I gotta protect my girl, fulfill my destiny...ugh.

Except for Robin Hood I've barely watched any shonen animes, and Robin Hood is a bit of a special case if my memory doesn't betray me. There is of course the revenge angle of a sort - but that's kind of par for the course. It is Robin Hood, in the end. I mentioned that before, no Dragon Ball, no Naruto, no... yeah, nothing. Technically there's trash level 80ies B-Movie anime films for adult that feature similar levels of machism, but they're usually free of the coming-of-age and destiny stuff. Like 80ies B-Movies, I liked them just for the fun of it.

Like M.D. Geist. Not exactly a recommendation. Sure it's short, but unless you like Escape from LA level action schlock I'd stay clear.

The closest I got, I guess, is the occassional soccer team anime from the 90ies, there were two big ones, but even that is team sports, and I barely remember anything other than the players always running towards a super curved earth to demonstrate just how far they're running. And super weird tactics that would never work, but hey, that's in Attack No. 1 too.

8 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

(e): Speaking of Sailor Moon, I recall you saying that you didn't know any girls who love Sailor Moon. Sometime back, I discovered that a friend of a friend's favorite show all-time is Sailor Moon! Apparently, she watched the original dub growing up, but she's since watched (and now prefers) the Viz dub. Her favorite character is Ami - her least favorite of the five is Minako. This woman's already dead to me, .

Couldn't fall asleep easily tonight so I actually thought about this more than I should have. I'd have a hard time coming up with an overall "lest favorite" character. I can relate to liking Ami the most, obviously, but for me that changed to Makoto in the rewatch, even though (or maybe really just because) she's really the only girl in the show that lacks a full resolution to her problems (and for Ami and Rei you need to - ugh - look at SuperS of all things).

If I had to name anyone it would either be Usagi or Rei, depending on whether we count Usagi or not. Usagi is not so great in R (with Chibi-Usa) and completely terrible in SuperS. If we don't count SuperS and/or leave Usagi out, it becomes Rei... but only because her character is a hot mess after Minako shows up, thanks to the character welding that happens in the first season.

I still love Rei though, she's great, and she's the best in Sailor Stars next to Usagi.

Making lists like that for each season would be easier, except for the first one, but honestly, I'd rather not. There's not a single character on the show that would bother me if I tuned in and saw a focus episode. 

Heh. Not sure how Minako could show up on a least favorite list. Not even only in the first season. She's barely in it, but her background episode is amazing. And sad.

But great, at least now I know of a girl who loved Sailor Moon.

 

 

8 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

If I'm thinking of the correct sound, that "hoee" reminds me a lot of the same sound that a few different characters in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker make whenever they're shouting out a greeting.

Maybe, I don't know. It's hard to find anything online other than "That's Sakura's catchphrase, except when she's flustered, then it becomes hanyan!", and hanyan is apparently Chinese for being flustered (well, or blush with shame), so that makes even less sense, unless that's something Japanese girls did in the late nineties.

Speaking of Zelda... did you know that Mami Tomoe from Madoka was voiced by Navi the annoying fairy from Ocarina of Time?

8 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I don't really mind Xiaolong vs. Shaoran either way, but my preferred subtitles use "Xiaolong", so that's kind of what I think of him as. Although I sometimes try to follow the actual sounds of what characters say out-loud, and I swear the way Meiling says his name is different from the way Sakura et al. say his name...but I might be imagining it.

Possibly, Shaoran is also the only one who occassionally says "Meirin" with a very soft r sound, while everyone else, most notably Sakura, says that name with an audible "l" in the middle. At least, I think. I only recently upgraded my understanding of spoken Japanese from everything being one weird wall of grunts to being able to recognize voice actors and actual words used. Recently meaning while rewatching Sailor Moon.

8 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Speaking of my subtitles, I've also noted for a while that they seem to cut out a lot of superfluous words compared to the fan-subs I checked out, which only contributes to me preferring them. It's not entirely faithful, but there have been many times where I can literally hear characters referring to each other by name, and my subtitles will make no note of it at all, instead going for a more concise and more natural re-writing of whatever they were trying to say. I'm okay with that - the comparisons I've done with the fan-subs were painful, and didn't seem to contribute any additional understanding, humor, or enjoyment from being too literal (in fact, quite the opposite). ...But it is a little odd at times for what I am understanding that I am hearing to not be reflected in what I am reading.

Welcome to the wonderful world of very literal fan-subs and localized professsional subs, which is another angle of the subs vs. dubs debate that you don't really ever want to get into. Because even though rabid fans of anime will run you through for even thinking about watching dubbed anime, they can't agree among themselves how subtitles should be handled.

The most moronic thing about the literal vs. localized translation discussion is when it comes to common phrases. Nobody who writes fan subs would translate "ohayo" literally, right? Becase that's just good morning. It doesn't literally mean good morning. It means "it is early!" but it is used in the same way we say good morning, much like kon'nichiwa and konbanwa, which means "this day" and "this evening" respectively.

Yet the literal subs people object to having words and names dropped, and certain things properly localized. I don't get it. Except for puns, perhaps. There's no good way to deal with puns most of the time. The writers for Minako did an amazing job with the Viz dub though.

But yes, the Netflix subtitles for Cardcaptor Sakura also feature long bouts of words that don't appear on the screen, and lots of names that aren't reflected. It's not necessary, in the end. Japanese is so different from our indo-germanic grammar structure that it makes no sense to translate and use every word.

8 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

CCS, episode 30:

  Hide contents

I'm unsure what the lesson of this episode was, something about it felt very...inconclusive. What I do know is that for some reason, I am totally in Kero's camp in that I *hate* it when Xiaolong gets cards that he doesn't deserve.

 

Spoiler

 

He needed that card to show Sakura that he's a nice guy.

Yeah, no. This episode was an attempt at doing something that didn't work. It's like one of these Sailor Moon episodes you watch and understand why it's there and what it tries to do, but doesn't entirely work. Like Haruka and Michiru's background story in Sailor Moon S. 

But good, now you only have an ice skating adventure and some strawberry picking left, everything else was written by Ms. Ohkawa. I also made a pretty educated guess there yesterday, it's really 53 out of 70 episodes that were written by her.

 

 

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Are you far enough along in Yu Yu Hakusho yet where it trurns into a martial arts tournament anime? Because that's what KP complained about, I've never watched it.

Just finished the first season, and it didn't have any tournament stuff, although honestly, even though that's true, the last ten episodes or so were just villain after villain after villain, .@KP the meanie zucchini Are seasons after 1 really just all tournament crap?

Spoiler

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Couldn't fall asleep easily tonight so I actually thought about this more than I should have. I'd have a hard time coming up with an overall "lest favorite" character. I can relate to liking Ami the most, obviously, but for me that changed to Makoto in the rewatch, even though (or maybe really just because) she's really the only girl in the show that lacks a full resolution to her problems (and for Ami and Rei you need to - ugh - look at SuperS of all things).

If I had to name anyone it would either be Usagi or Rei, depending on whether we count Usagi or not. Usagi is not so great in R (with Chibi-Usa) and completely terrible in SuperS. If we don't count SuperS and/or leave Usagi out, it becomes Rei... but only because her character is a hot mess after Minako shows up, thanks to the character welding that happens in the first season.

I still love Rei though, she's great, and she's the best in Sailor Stars next to Usagi.

Making lists like that for each season would be easier, except for the first one, but honestly, I'd rather not. There's not a single character on the show that would bother me if I tuned in and saw a focus episode. 

Heh. Not sure how Minako could show up on a least favorite list. Not even only in the first season. She's barely in it, but her background episode is amazing. And sad.

But great, at least now I know of a girl who loved Sailor Moon.

To be fair to her, she didn't express it as "least favorite", but it's how I interpreted it. It was something like "I love Ami...and Usagi and Makoto...and Rei, but really, I love all of them." You say you love all of them, but for some reason you failed to mention one of them while doing so for the rest!

 

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Speaking of Zelda... did you know that Mami Tomoe from Madoka was voiced by Navi the annoying fairy from Ocarina of Time?

Don't you be bad-mouthing Navi! If you'd ever played Skyward Sword, you would know how lucky we got with Navi compared to the abomination that is Fi! Speaking of Mami, the name "Mami" is extremely unfortunate when speaking in English - it's very uncomfortable to be hearing characters saying "mommy" to refer to her, .

Spoiler

1 hour ago, majestic said:

He needed that card to show Sakura that he's a nice guy.

Yeah, no. This episode was an attempt at doing something that didn't work. It's like one of these Sailor Moon episodes you watch and understand why it's there and what it tries to do, but doesn't entirely work. Like Haruka and Michiru's background story in Sailor Moon S. 

Pft - plus, he's already shown that a few times anyways. It'd be pretty unreasonable to expect some kind of terrible betrayal from him at this point, .

However, I really don't like that Xiaolong has claimed most of the powerful cards thus far, while Sakura gets so many of the weak and/or literally useless cards. I presume there's a meta reason for doing this to make sure viewers don't automatically think "well why doesn't Sakura try to stop time for a moment, why doesn't Sakura go super fast, why doesn't Sakura return to the past to find out some information" (power usage notwithstanding), but it still feels wrong.

 

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Are seasons after 1 really just all tournament crap?

No, there's a fairly long break dealing with apocalyptic psychics after The Dark Tournament ends but then there's a tournament arc after that to finish the show. DT is really long, by my count it takes up like a third of the series.

[majestic]

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Spoiler

To be fair to her, she didn't express it as "least favorite", but it's how I interpreted it. It was something like "I love Ami...and Usagi and Makoto...and Rei, but really, I love all of them." You say you love all of them, but for some reason you failed to mention one of them while doing so for the rest!

 

 

Spoiler

No that's pretty much the same, I mean, just leave one member of the core cast out? That says something indeed.

 

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Don't you be bad-mouthing Navi! If you'd ever played Skyward Sword, you would know how lucky we got with Navi compared to the abomination that is Fi! Speaking of Mami, the name "Mami" is extremely unfortunate when speaking in English - it's very uncomfortable to be hearing characters saying "mommy" to refer to her, .

There is a chance that I'll get to play Skyward Sword eventually, there'll be a Switch remake, or maybe there is already, I haven't really paid much attention. I've been mostly watching TV when I wasn't working recently.

Mami's name is probably a reference to her, uhm, mammaries. Although that would imply fanservice where there barely is any. The film version has even less than the BR version (Homura's transformation sequence is different, and Madoka and Homura don't float around in space wearing only sparkles). Because otherwise she was the older sister / mentor archetype for the others, but not really the mother of the group. Hm.

But when in doubt, blame English. How's your average Japanese person to know that Mami and mommy will sound almost the same in English. Those are different letters, for crying out loud.

 

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Spoiler

 

Pft - plus, he's already shown that a few times anyways. It'd be pretty unreasonable to expect some kind of terrible betrayal from him at this point, .

However, I really don't like that Xiaolong has claimed most of the powerful cards thus far, while Sakura gets so many of the weak and/or literally useless cards. I presume there's a meta reason for doing this to make sure viewers don't automatically think "well why doesn't Sakura try to stop time for a moment, why doesn't Sakura go super fast, why doesn't Sakura return to the past to find out some information" (power usage notwithstanding), but it still feels wrong.

 

 

 

Spoiler

 

I take it that you're not in Team Meiling in thinking that Shaoran should have all the cards?

Mild spoiler(s):
 

Spoiler

 

The writers realized that the Time card is an issue later and introduced a hard limit to the usage of cards, Time in particular. It takes more magical energy than the kids have, so even Shaoran, having the card, can stop time only for a few seconds. It's a retcon from the ease of use displayed when he helped Sakura catch Power. The "Return" card takes more energy than they have, it only worked because it used the Cherry Blossom tree at the shrine to draw power from.

The "useless" cards are all pretty much filler for the anime. The anime Clow deck has 52 cards, and 19 in the manga. But Sakura at this point already has Wind(y) and Water(y), I think, and those are among the canonically six most powerful cards (fire, water, wind, earth, light and dark).

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 2, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

There is a chance that I'll get to play Skyward Sword eventually, there'll be a Switch remake, or maybe there is already, I haven't really paid much attention. I've been mostly watching TV when I wasn't working recently.

Hope it plays a lot better than the Wii version. Got through the first dungeon and said "welp I'm never playing that ever again". Terrible controls, terrible puzzles, terrible characters, terrible aesthetic, terrible game. ...Although if gameplay had been good, I probably would've learned to like the characters and aesthetic more.

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Although that would imply fanservice where there barely is any.

The number of times I was grossed out by inexplicable close-up chest and crotch shots of our main characters (often while they were in the middle of trying to talk!) in that show says otherwise...but I guess I haven't watched enough (well, basically any) modern anime to see how they compare. I just really have no patience for such nonsense, .

Speaking of, in one the last episodes of S1 of Yu Yu Hakusho...

Spoiler

The protagonist felt up a random female combatant and I thought "oh, nice - on top of being an already whiny awful shonen protagonist, he also molests women, how very charming!". And he almost convinced his best friend, who is the actual star of the show and who is usually very respectful of women in a sort of silly chivalric knight sort of way (which admittedly isn't necessarily ideal but certainly better than the protagonist), to do the same, but it was thankfully averted. I hate shonen protagonists so much!

 

Edited June 2, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

16 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Spoiler

The protagonist felt up a female combatant and I thought "oh, nice - on top of being an already whiny awful shonen protagonist, he also molests women, how very charming!". And he almost convinced his best friend, who is the actual star of the show and who is usually very respectful of women in a sort of silly chivalric knight sort of way (which admittedly isn't necessarily ideal but certainly better than the protagonist), to do the same, but it was thankfully averted. I hate shonen protagonists so much!

 

 

Spoiler

Basically... like Rei's grandpa and Yuichiro, if either of them were main characters?

 

[Bartimaeus]

lmao, sort of, but uh, trust me, Rei's grandpa is *way* more likable than...whatever his name is. I watched the entire first season of this show, which is like 10 hours, over the past few weeks, and I don't know the main character's name. I know the other guy's name, Kuwabara, but not the main character. YUSUKE, I had to look it up, and it's kind of shocking I forgot given that it's said literally like a thousand times over the course of the first season. Anyways, yeah, Rei's grandpa would've been a way better protagonist, since at least he's not so terribly whiny and angsty literally 99.9% of the time like Yusuke is...buuut it would've necessitated that the show be less serious and more funny, which, hey, it could've benefited from as well, .

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

If you're at the end of s1, you should be at the DT arc now. Have fun watching sunglasses gym god be edgy for several hours and remember you could be watching JOJO instead.

 

[Bartimaeus]

Trust me, it's not my first choice by any means - I'm just doing my best to tolerate it and appreciate the funnier bits, of which there were increasingly less as the season went on. I wonder if I would like the Ranma show a little more, at least for shonen...

[Bartimaeus]

CCS, episode 30:

Spoiler

Way better episode than the past few. But...really, nobody noticed the giant godzilla dragon king OR Sakura finally turning into the hundred foot-tall monster her brother's always been warning everyone about? Especially with her screaming at the top of her lungs all throughout the city? ...Very well, I'll accept it.

Look at Tomoyo - she's the one with the magical guardian now!

P.S. Many of the shots showing Sakura's scale as a "monster" were great; the storyboarders/animators took some effort to really make sure you properly appreciated the once-in-a-lifetime visuals!

 

Edited June 2, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

Your numberings gone a-wrong, that be 31.

Spoiler

Otherwise, I agree. That nobody actually saw that, in a suburb of Tokyo... yeah, that is a bit hard to believe, but it's magic after all. It gets a pass.

Actually, I guess that's a decent explanation. Magic! And in situations where magic doesn't suffice, Sakura always does something to not be noticed. It's okay.

Really liked the bit at the end when Toya called her a monster, and she thought about scaling up and trampling him, going like: I CAN STOMP YOU ANY TIME I LIKE! MWAHAHAHAHAHA.

Oh, nothing. *smiles*

 

Edited June 2, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

It seems so! And yes, knowing that she has the power to crush him like a little ant should help moderate her feelings. Maybe, .

Episode 31 and 32, more great episodes.

Spoiler

Meiling's not dumb, she noticed the switch plenty...but man, she dumb, .

Also, when the switch between Xiaolong and the stuffed toy happened, I thought for sure they were going to think he was dead and mourn him, which, while predictable, would've been hilarious. I was slightly miffed that that didn't happen...but still, great episode. Interesting idea having a switch between two side characters as opposed to the main character(s), which I think is more typical - created a different angle where Xiaolong was embarrassed to be held by Sakura and have to stay in her room. Good choice for something different. Also, that nightmare of Xiaolang's at the end was something else.

 

[majestic]

39 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

It seems so! And yes, knowing that she has the power to crush him like a little ant should help moderate her feelings. Maybe, .

Yeah, maybe. Heh.

"Spoiler"

Spoiler

I guess the animators liked her mad at Toya face way too much to stop with that running gag.

 

40 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Spoiler

 

Meiling's not dumb, she noticed the switch plenty...but man, she dumb, .

Also, when the switch between Xiaolong and the stuffed toy happened, I thought for sure they were going to think he was dead and mourn him, which, while predictable, would've been hilarious. I was slightly miffed that that didn't happen...but still, great episode. Interesting idea having a switch between two side characters as opposed to the main character(s), which I think is more typical - created a different angle where Xiaolong was embarrassed to be held by Sakura and have to stay in her room. Good choice for something different. Also, that nightmare of Xiaolang's at the end was something else.

 

 

 

Spoiler

 

Yup, missed opportunity, they could have been sad, and Kero would fly in and say: "'Sup homies, why the long faces? Did somebody start pushin' daisies?"

Yeah not joking, the Clear Card subtitles decided to translate Kero's apparently funny Osakan's accent by making him say weird pseudo-American slang, at least for the prologue episode. I hope the series proper drops that, because it's annoying.

Sharoan being embarassed by having to spend a night in Sakura's room was great. That's just something that is perfectly normal for kids their age, I mean, who wants to get girl cooties. Hm, that might also be why I liked Sakura and Shaoran talking about their feelings for Yuki in the innocent way that the subtitles conveyed there. Yes, warm and fuzzy inside fits quite well for something you can't quite place yet.

So the upcoming episode, 33, isn't so great, but after that there are two really... exceptional ones (35 more so than 34)! And Meilin gets to be the butt monkey again, for something that I thought was just mean to include and made me feel bad for her (might even have been the first time).

 

 

Speaking of that dialogue between Sakura and Shaoran, the old animation made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Clear Card... nope. I feel nothing. This is worse than being rejected by someone you, to use show appropriate terms, you "really like", that's more like a "yeah I really liked you, but now you're dead to me!" kind of feeling. Which is horrible!

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Between writing a story and watching AoT before sleep, I had a really weird dream in anime styles about an asylum with monsters roaming around. Still more normal than JoJo, so more anime before sleep is needed I guess.

[majestic]

Cardcaptor Sakura, Clear Card, episode 1.

Not really any real spoilers:

Spoiler

 

Where to begin. It begins with Kero showing footage from the much better looking old anime as a heads up. Great choice, Kero. Sakura then explains the changes in her life, she's now in Middle School.

Yeah, so the beginning of this is the annoying part when you have 18 years between seasons and the characters talk about what they already know for the benefit of the audience, instead of it being a neat part of the world, and what's worse, it's not even necessary. Sakura could have just as well told all that to someone who - oi! - just happened to have returned and wouldn't know about it.

Rika went to a different school (awww), Naoko and Yamazaki are in a different class (boo!), but Chiharu is still in the same class.

However...

I have to admit I just burst into a hearty laughter when Tomoyo just showed up behind a tree, having filmed Sakura. It looks bad, but its heart is still in the right place. Which means this will be more fun to watch than Crystal, at least.

 

 

There are major continuity problems between the prologue episode and a flashback in this first one. I'm... not sure what the point of that was. I'm giving the show the benefit of the doubt here and say that was intentional. I wonder what's going on... I mean, I hope it's something, not just an oversight.

 edit:

Kero also has a new console all of a sudden. I mean, Sakura does, I guess. That's definitely a Dual Shock style controller now. What?

10 minutes ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

Between writing a story and watching AoT before sleep, I had a really weird dream in anime styles about an asylum with monsters roaming around. Still more normal than JoJo, so more anime before sleep is needed I guess.

I sometimes dream of forumites, and they look like their avatars. I might also have had the occasional Sailor Moon themed dream recently. I also definitely had a hybrid Dr. Strange / Agents of SHIELD dream once at the same time when I played Tides of Numenera. That was weird. Buildings kept falling apart, dimensional portals threw cars around and the world folded in on itself, while I was desperately trying to figure out what was going on, together with Fitz-Simmons.

Yeah. Weird, weird.

Edited June 2, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

16 minutes ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

Between writing a story and watching AoT before sleep, I had a really weird dream in anime styles about an asylum with monsters roaming around. Still more normal than JoJo, so more anime before sleep is needed I guess.

I'm jealous. I usually have only a handful of dreams annually, and they're almost always super weak (outside of exactly one lucid dream that felt more vivid and real than actual real life). I can only assume the fact that I suffer from moderate aphantasia has something to do with my lack of dreams. It's especially terrible because I love the few dreams that I have, even nightmares.

55 minutes ago, majestic said:

Speaking of that dialogue between Sakura and Shaoran, the old animation made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Clear Card... nope. I feel nothing. This is worse than being rejected by someone you, to use show appropriate terms, you "really like", that's more like a "yeah I really liked you, but now you're dead to me!" kind of feeling. Which is horrible!

I always say that objectively speaking, aesthetic shouldn't impact how writing, dialogue, and characters are conveyed and one's reactions towards them...but for some reason, it does.

Hope Clear Card doesn't end up being completely terrible like Sailor Moon Crystal, .

Edited June 2, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

16 minutes ago, majestic said:

I sometimes dream of forumites, and they look like their avatars

Sounds frightening.

4 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I'm jealous. I usually have only a handful of dreams annually, and they're almost always super weak. I can only assume the fact that I suffer from moderate aphantasia has something to do with my lack of dreams. It's especially terrible because I love the few dreams that I have, even nightmares.

I'm not sure what aphantasia is tbh. Like I can't literally see images in my mind, but I have no real issues conjuring up a workable description based on past experiences or imagination, even if I can't see it. Weird.

My dreams come and go, I don't remember them most of the time but frequently wake up panicked or in the mood to **** someone up. The ones I do remember are usually very weird but grounded in reality, like playing Super Smash Bros with a gang in an abandoned football field with a pool turned fishpond in the middle.