Anime, the eternal Jettokōsutā

[Bartimaeus]

CCS

Spoiler

 

9 hours ago, majestic said:

She really looks like the psycho stalker she is in this one. It's hilarious and adorable. In the context of the show, in real life, probably not so much.

And she had the nerve to call *Kero* the stalker in this same scene...

9 hours ago, majestic said:

What do you mean, Tomoyo losing her voice isn't terrible? It's the biggest injury inflicted to someone on the show yet, that is a big deal. I mean, a broken foot aside. Those apparently heal in the span of an episode anyway. 

It is, but any sort of rational thought should tell you "don't worry, this will not - cannot - last". Whereas moments before it being revealed that's what happened, you just hear the teacher calling for her and see Sakura sitting there shock-still before running after her...the framing of that scene was grim as hell.

9 hours ago, majestic said:

Sakura also almost always says Li-kun, anyway.

Blimey, is *that* what I'm hearing? That would explain it. My subtitles *always* just say Xiaolang, so that's the inconsistency manifesting there. Mystery solved!

9 hours ago, majestic said:

That was the song I spoiler-linked recently, by the way. I also wondered, at first, why Clow Reed would create a card that records voices, but then... he lived at a time where there was no way to record anything, so that makes perfect sense when you like music that you'd create something to record it with.

Ah, I thought the song you linked was the other one she did earlier in the season, like maybe 10-15 episodes ago...this one was way more special and was pivotal for the episode, so I'm glad I didn't go back and check and accidentally spoil myself.

 

Edited June 7, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

Indeed, more CCS!
 

Spoiler

14 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

And she had the nerve to call *Kero* the stalker in this same scene...

It's hilarious really. For a bit I wondered why it's creepy in Crystal, and fun here, but that's the framing and the otherwise lightheartet nature of the show. It just fits and isn't really scary, and Tomoyo also knows when to give her some space. They're friends, in the end.

16 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

It is, but any sort of rationale thought should tell you "don't worry, this will not - cannot - last". Whereas moments before it being revealed that's what happened, you just hear the teacher calling for her and see Sakura sitting there shock-still before running after her...the framing of that scene was grim as hell.

It's also a pretty sad episode overall, when you think about everything. Tomoyo's behaviour, her mother fussing over her, the fact that she might never sing again. It does lose a bit because you really just know it won't last, but it's really pretty terrible when you think about it.

17 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Blimey, is *that* what I'm hearing? That would explain it. My subtitles *always* just say Xiaolang, so that's the inconsistency manifesting there. Mystery solved!

Well, that's good, because Sakura moving from Li-kun to Shaoran-kun becomes a plotpoint later. I wonder how your subtitles will handle that, because that's easy to miss when you're not used to Japanese audio. I don't even really recall if Shaoran ever calls anyone by name except Meilin. I mean, certainly not Sakura by her first name, and if he talks to Tomoyo it's usually just Daidouji (unsure about the honorific, if any at all, mit might be half-swallowed -san).

24 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Ah, I thought the song you linked was the other one she did earlier in the season, like maybe 10-15 episodes ago...this one was way more special and was pivotal for the episode, so I'm glad I didn't go back and check and accidentally spoil myself.

I linked both, the first one you probably watched because you weren't watching the anime yet, and the other one you said: "Not going to watch that now, it seems to special" - which is pretty much true.

Hmmm. Next stop to discuss some more is episode 40, I think. 38 is the strawberry adventure one, and 39 reveals something interesting that you may or may not have guessed yet.

 

 

[Bartimaeus]

3 hours ago, majestic said:

It's hilarious really. For a bit I wondered why it's creepy in Crystal, and fun here, but that's the framing and the otherwise lightheartet nature of the show. It just fits and isn't really scary, and Tomoyo also knows when to give her some space. They're friends, in the end.

Yeah, it helps to get the appropriate age group for this sort of behavior, but I think it's even more than that. It's my impression that Tomoyo is not only obsessed with Sakura, but also seems to respect her and has boundaries that she won't go over. She's also pretty upfront with how she feels about certain things with Sakura - how many times has she told Sakura that she loves to film her life? Sakura knows and has made her peace with it, and both parties being aware of it and accepting it helps defuse some of the potential creepiness, especially since it just stays at that level without getting any more serious than that. I'm sure you can tell me whether Tuxedo Mask kissing and abducting Sailor Moon while she's literally unconscious was properly setup and explained, never mind all the other awful crap in Sailor Moon Crystal, . In contrast, Minako sometimes plays the obsessor in the original show, and all that usually stays pretty above board.

Spoiler

3 hours ago, majestic said:

I wonder how your subtitles will handle that, because that's easy to miss when you're not used to Japanese audio.

If I had to guess, it won't at all. No honorifics have ever been used, and it's always written his name out, so there's not really anything it can do - just a small detail that you would only notice if you both understood the importance of how Japanese people address each other to begin with as well if you are able to hear the difference. Well, I could hear that there was something wrong with the way she was saying it, but without the additional context you just gave, I couldn't figure it out, . I think it would've made a lot more sense to write his name as just "Li" up until she actually starts using his first name. Are there any other name thingies like that? I feel like Sakura doesn't call her brother "Toya" although that's what the subtitles say she does...

3 hours ago, majestic said:

It's also a pretty sad episode overall, when you think about everything. Tomoyo's behaviour, her mother fussing over her, the fact that she might never sing again. It does lose a bit because you really just know it won't last, but it's really pretty terrible when you think about it.

Yeah...and it was about time Tomoyo finally got a win out of things, small and difficult as it was. Make some gosh danged time for your angel of a daughter, Sonomi!

Edited June 7, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

Yeah, it helps to get the appropriate age group for this sort of behavior, but I think it's even more than that. It's my impression that Tomoyo is not only obsessed with Sakura, but also seems to respect her and has boundaries that she won't go over. She's also pretty upfront with how she feels about certain things with Sakura - how many times has she told Sakura that she loves to film her life? Sakura knows and has made her peace with it, and both parties being aware of it and accepting it helps defuse some of the potential creepiness, especially since it just stays at that level without getting any more serious than that. I'm sure you can tell me whether Tuxedo Mask kissing and abducting Sailor Moon while she's literally unconscious was properly setup and explained, .

Sure, they're star-crossed lovers from a different time and magically attracted to each other, so that makes everything okay, even slaps and some major douchewaffling, right?

You're right, there are boundaries that Tomoyo doesn't cross, and in fact, Sakura agreed to be filmed. She might occassionally faceplant when Tomoyo reveales the extent of her obsession, but that's about it.

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

Spoiler

If I had to guess, it won't at all. No honorifics have ever been used, and it's always written his name out, so there's not really anything it can do - just a small detail that you would only notice if you both understood the importance of how Japanese people address each other to begin with as well if you are able to hear the difference. Well, I could hear that there was something wrong with the way she was saying it, but without the additional context you just gave, I couldn't figure it out, . I think it would've made a lot more sense to write his name as just "Li" up until she actually starts using his first name. Are there any other name thingies like that? I feel like Sakura doesn't call her brother "Toya" although that's what the subtitles say she does...

 

 

Spoiler

 

Sakura calls Toya oniichan, which is the close/familiar and informal form of older brother, while for Toya, Sakura would be his imoutochan, younger sister, but he just calls her kaiju. The chan at the end is also a regular honorific insofar as oniichan, oniisan and oniisama all mean older brother, but at different levels of respect and social standing (from casual to very formal).

What they also do when talking to or about their parents is using okasan (mother) and otousan (father). That's the regular, normal and polite way to refer to your respective parents for any given family. There are variations and shortenings, which amount to slang and familiarity. You'll sometimes perhaps hear kasan or tousan, without the "o", which is a less graceful way to say mother or father, i.e. mom and dad, not mother and father. (o)kachan and (o)touchan are used by children - like mommy and daddy.

Then there's... the words you'd use when referring to your mother and father to strangers, which would be haha and chichi (no, really, not kidding).

Sakura always calls Meilin Meilin-chan, as does Tomoyo, but Meilin inversely always calls them either Kinomoto-san or Daidouji-san. Even after the grow close enough for a first name basis. I'm not sure why. Meilin and Shaoran don't use any honorifics when talking to each other. That's because they're close, and probably also becase they're not used to do that, they are Chinese after all (not that I know anything about honorifics in Chinese, or if there even are any).

In the rare occasion Shaoran calls Sakura by name it's also Kinomoto-san, while inversely she and Tomoyo address him as Li-kun. -kun is one of the more confusing honorifics because it's informal and usually used by adults to address young boys, unless used in a workplace context where a senpai (senior) addresses a kohai (junior), in which case -kun is used even for women. Hence the Professor in Sailor Moon addressing all of his assistants as -kun, e.g. Kaorinito-kun.

-kun is usually used by someone of higher status towards someone of lower status (hence teachers using -kun for boys), but can also be used casually between friends. In the context of Cardcaptor Sakura that means Li-kun expresses a casual closeness of the girls to Shaoran that goes beyond the use of -san as an honorific but just not enough for a first name basis, hence the importance for the ongoing character development when the switch happens*.

Kaho-level cryptic spoiler:

Spoiler

It's not much of a spoiler to say that this comes up a bit later, and that the only episode where you really need to pay attention to that is episode 60, because it explains certain reactions by a character. You can come back here by episode 43, because after that you'll probably know what I mean, even without having seen episode 60 yet. Theoretically that's even possible by 40... hmm.

edit:

*There's the potential that this was really deliberate on the writer's part, and that in any normal situations with a friendship like theirs, Sakura would call Shaoran by his given name anyway. Mostly because all the girls in Sailor Moon Sailor Stars kept referring to Yaten as Yaten-kun, and they weren't that close. Or rather, Yaten and the Sailor Guardians, before knowing their identities, certainly weren't closer than Shaoran and Sakura after working together for a while. In a way that makes this a double whammy, because you'd need to be familiar with the honorifics, hear the differences against the subtitles (reading and hearing at the same time isn't the easiest thing to begin with) and realize the writer's intention to boot.

 

Edited June 7, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

lmao, tonal whiplash much? happy to depression to nuking usagi all within 30 seconds

[majestic]

4 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

lmao, tonal whiplash much? happy to depression to nuking usagi all within 30 seconds

That dub sure is something. Not sure what, but it's... something.

[majestic]

Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie 2 - The Sealed Card

This is going to be a short(ish) post, because the nature of the film doesn't allow to post about any spoilers at all without potentially ruining @Bartimaeus' watching of the show with even cryptic references or the barest of vague hints.

This is, by the way, a good thing, because everything I complained about from the first movie is gone. It's 80 minutes long, has almost an hour of fun character stuff before things become serious, doesn't try to stand on its own, i.e. watching this without having seen the entire run of Cardcaptor Sakura is pointless and is more like an extended, movie version finale to the show taking place a class later, so I'm guessing a year, give or take. The last time we see Sakura in the anime, she's in class 5-2, in the film, she's in 6-2. Her class is preparing for a festival in Tomoeda when... what a coincidence, some characters come to visit and mysterious things begin happening again...

As always, there's one thing to criticize. Perhaps more, but one thing that stands out a bit. The film is about one final Clow card. One that was sealed away by Clow Reed, based on a concept that barely showed up in the anime before, and a card that Kero doesn't know about. It's not bad, but after spending the first arc of the show collecting all Clow cards, finding one extra that nobody knew of beforehand seems a tad, well, no way around it: The basic premise of the film is nothing but a massive ass pull.

But that doesn't really matter, in the end. It's an ass pull in the service of greatness.

It's also looking damned good, but maybe that's just because I watched two more episodes of Clear Card before.

Also, one last thing that I can say without revealing too much:

Meiling and Tomoyo are great when they're scheming together. There should have been more of that. Like all the time.

Edited June 8, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

Glad to hear it's great! That reminds me, after what episode is one supposed to watch the first film?

[majestic]

Just now, Bartimaeus said:

Glad to hear it's great! That reminds me, after what episode is one supposed to watch the first film?

It takes place in the winter holidays between 35 and 36. So you, uhm, kinda missed that already, but you haven't missed anything of note. I don't want to say anything of value, because the film is good, but nothing of value for the anime itself, at least.

[majestic]

There's also a 10 minutes Kero special that was made for the second film. It's pretty great too.

[majestic]

CCS Clear Card.

Quick notes:

• It still looks bad.
• No, really, it looks bad.
• It's trying to do something with modern animation.
• It really looks bad.
• I can't get over myself with the aforementioned points.
• The whacky continuity between this and the old anime seems to be intentional. Chiharu forgot something and it was quite obviously highlighted that she was the only one who didn't remember one of the plays they made in episode 42 (a great episode, by the way).
• Also, this looks so bad.

[Bartimaeus]

47 minutes ago, majestic said:

CCS Clear Card.

Quick notes:

• It still looks bad.
• No, really, it looks bad.
• It's trying to do something with modern animation.
• It really looks bad.
• I can't get over myself with the aforementioned points.
• The whacky continuity between this and the old anime seems to be intentional. Chiharu forgot something and it was quite obviously highlighted that she was the only one who didn't remember one of the plays they made in episode 42 (a great episode, by the way).
• Also, this looks so bad.

It does look bad...but not season 1 Sailor Moon Crystal bad. ...More like Sailor Moon Crystal Eternal bad, though.

[majestic]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

It does look bad...but not season 1 Sailor Moon Crystal bad. ...More like Sailor Moon Crystal Eternal bad, though.

Nothing looks as bad as early Crystal. Nothing.

Convinced yet? That's Usagi seeing Rei for the first time, by the way.

I don't really want to say anything that praises Sailor Moon Eternal, but the overall package of the films looked a good deal better than I thought it would. It also had a movie budget, so that comparison is a bit lame and unfair, but there are moments in Eternal that looked almost good. Never the character models, but the backgrounds were, at times, really good.

I'm not sure why that was, but maybe they actually really painted some of the backgrounds with real colors and then only added the scanned and computer-colored character models on a separate layer. But that is just speculation. It could also have been a pre-rendered backgrounds with a really good filter effect.

The problem with Cardcaptor Sakura - Clear Card isn't only in the way it looks in stills. There are scenes that look almost fine, and then there are scenes that strike way too far into the uncanny valley that they feel wrong, particularily when you see something that's been clearly brushed up by pure CGI in post production, like a lot of the special effects when Sakura captures one of the Clear cards, or when her magic circle appears. Some scenes also suffer from what looks like way too high contrast or brightness. It feels soft and washed out. Well, no, it looks like that too. The entire anime looks a little like others would design their dream scenes so you know you're seeing a dream. Or a flashback.

It's a combination of everything together that makes this hard to watch - doubly worse when you directly contrast it with the second movie.

You can watch the first three or so card captures in this compilation video. They're spoiler free insofar as they're only the sealing animations. The second one has a short scene where you can see Sakura and Tomoyo. Just stay away from everything else you can find and you should be good.

I haven't watched the entire video, so I don't know if something spoilerish comes up later. Just... stop after the first three.  

 

The obvious CGI elements aside, I don't know if Clear Card was traditionally animated in the modern sense, i.e. having the animation drawn on paper and then scanned, colored and compiled digitally (like, say, Steven Universe) which curiously enough seems to yield much better results in more cartoonish animation, or if the look and feel is the result of something else.

There's one other problem so far, one that's not with the animation. The storytelling hasn't been nearly as good as it was in the earlier anime in the four episodes I've watched so far. It's not just a case of this being different or Sakura being obviously a little older and much more experienced in dealing with weird magical situations. If the second arc and the first movie were already not as well integrated into the world aas the Clow cards, this ups that further. It's somehow a little like... Sailor Stars so far, where you have the characters doing things, and then suddenly you get 2 minutes of magic action where she seals a Clear card.

Or somtimes two in one episode. That one highlighed the problem even more. The first card was causing rain, which isn't entirely original, we already had Rain. It starts raining at school, which is fine, then Tomoyo and Sakura deal with the new water card on their way home. The second card in that episode happens after Sakura's cheerleading practice, she ties a shoelace, suddenly eveveryone's gone, then she captures the card. Done.

In the episode before that, the card is an otherwise completely unrelated event that just happens in Sakura's room. It's not bad by any means, but it's nowhere as good as the orginal was in combining everything.

It looks worse, occasionally dips into the uncanny valley and is less well written so far. That just adds to the overall not so great impression. The character interactions and the fun is still there. It's still funny to see Sakura jump up in the middle of the class and yell hooooooooooeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!? when she sees what Naoko doodled in her textbook, only to be admonished by her teacher for it. Her faceplanting from what Tomoyo says or does is still fun.

It's just that... the magic is gone. Which is something Sailor Stars preserved, even though overall the animation looked much different and it was less good than S.

That's my attempt at explaining that. Don't try to google anything Clear Card, by the way. Lots of spoilers. LOTS of spoilers.

Edited June 9, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

i fixed one of my previous screenshots so that it looks more like clear card. lookin' good, and definitely not terrible.

(...this somehow still looks better than clear card even with how much I butchered it, though)

Spoiler

Sucks to hear about the rest - at least it's only 22 episodes instead of the 70 + 2 movies the original had!

 

Edited June 9, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Why are there so many giraffes and shiny mutants in this thread? Do I need start posting anime David Bowie and his cat people ghost bf to counteract this?

[majestic]

On 6/9/2021 at 4:02 AM, KP the meanie zucchini said:

Why are there so many giraffes and shiny mutants in this thread? Do I need start posting anime David Bowie and his cat people ghost bf to counteract this?

Because... that's what I'm sort of watching right now. Shiny mutants and weird giraffe people.

Some more observations about Clear Card:

• Yamazaki is still hilarious, but Chiharu just called his lies lazy. She's not impressed.
• There's a new, mysterious transfer student. Again (that's one for every arc now, two in the first, if you count Meilin).
• Hoooooooooooooooe!
• The subtitles for this are too literal. Sakura is put out by Toya saying that she slept with her belly uncovered. If you don't know that Christopher Lambert* supposedly steals your belly button at night when you do that or turns you into a frog, well, you're definitely not getting that.
• Hoooooooooooooooooooeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
• Hoooooooooooooooooooeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
• Sakura sees trees moving outside the classroom. Tomoyo gets her out of class by pretending she's sick, then whips out a new costume and her camcorder, and says: "I thought this might happen, so I brought everything!"
• This isn't so bad this time, except for the looks. I... yeah. It looks the way it does, I'll stop complaining. Maybe I'll get used to it.

 

Also, @Bartimaeus yes, there are only 22 episodes, but apparently it's not even complete. I guess I'll see when I get to it. I hope it's as "incomplete" as the Sakura card arc was, because that still worked out well enough even if the storyline wasn't entirely finished (one very obvious thing remained, and was partially solved by the second movie), and not "incomplete" in the "ends at a cliffhanger with no continuation in sight" way.

*MOOOOOORTAL KOMBAAAAAAAAT!

Joke explanation spoiler:

Spoiler

It's supposedly Raijin's (otherwise known as Raiden) lightning that steals your belly button. Or, uhm, shooting demons that like to sleep in your belly button with lightning.

 

Edited June 10, 2021 by majestic

[majestic]

Watched a mixed bunch of stuff today, but it was mostly work. As was yesterday.

Right, also had a really weird dream about an old apartment a friend of mine rented years ago. It was converted into a small inn and the guests kept walking over the place where I was usually sleeping when I stayed over night. Kept complaining about it too. It was also my workplace, and all the computers had small 14" CRT screens and weird glyphs on their keyboards. It was also a bit of a workshop, and there was a lot of complaining by people.

I complained a lot too. Even yelled at everyone for messing things up. I have dreams like that every now and then. People I know go and change things in weird ways, and I'll just yell at them for it, but they don't budge, so I keep yelling until it becomes frustrating enough to finally wake up. Once dreamed my brother gave my appartment to four friends of his, because he has a spare key and could.

It's been pretty crickety-chirping in here, you guys all busy with basketball?

There's one thing that still works in Clear Card the way it did in the old anime: Tomoyo's singing.

Still doesn't feel right, and it can't all be the looks. Maybe after 70 episodes and 2 movies, perhaps the setup of the show has finally worn out? It's strange. Hoe?

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

It's been pretty crickety-chirping in here, you guys all busy with basketball?

I've had to work a lot more lately and have working on a story, to boot I just haven't been in the mood for AoT lately.

[Bartimaeus]

2 hours ago, majestic said:

It's been pretty crickety-chirping in here, you guys all busy with basketball?

Spoiler

School ended, so the kids are home all day this week and the next while they transition to partial daycare, and I also have some family and other stuff going on - just not a good time to watch anything, really. Even basketball I'm only catching parts of games for the most part, . Don't know if I'll watch any Sakura this week/next, but I should get back to it sooner or later.

2 hours ago, majestic said:

There's one thing that still works in Clear Card the way it did in the old anime: Tomoyo's singing.

At least I'll have *some* reason to watch it...

(e): That spoiler is seamlessly wedged in between those two quote blocks...

Edited June 11, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Lexx]

I finished watching JoJo's - Golden Wind a few days ago. Good again, but IMO Diamond Is Unbreakable was better. Bit of a shame that there weren't more cameos of old characters.

Still, pretty hype for Stone Ocean now. Hope it won't take forever to come out here.

/Edit: One thing I didn't like about Golden Wind was this whole "mafioso are noble and help the common folk"-thing. It's just so... ugh. Reminds me of One Piece where the pirates are doing everything but pirate stuff.

Edited June 11, 2021 by Lexx

[majestic]

6 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Spoiler

School ended, so the kids are home all day this week and the next while they transition to partial daycare, and I also have some family and other stuff going on - just not a good time to watch anything, really. Even basketball I'm only catching parts of games for the most part, . Don't know if I'll watch any Sakura this week/next, but I should get back to it sooner or later.

 

 

Spoiler

 

I'm pretty sure my nephew's going to hog my stuff the moment he can (our summer holidays start in July). He's around all the time visiting his grandparents next door, and... uncle, can I play with the Switch? Can I watch TV? Can I break your brain with that YouTuber you all hate but I like?

That last one's from me. He just turns that... on.

Have a look! Understanding of what he says isn't a requirement anway.

 

 

6 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

At least I'll have *some* reason to watch it...

(e): That spoiler is seamlessly wedged in between those two quote blocks...

'S pretty slim as far as reasons go.

If you want to unwedge that you'd need to make some space below your post in an edit, type something in there and then use these weird quote and spoiler box handles to drag & drop them around. I always take great pains to avoid wedging them together, for that you need to put at least one empty line between the old block and the text you want to turn into a block, then highlight everything and delete the additional break the software only creates if it doesn't find a quote or spoiler block to latch on to.

It's driving me nuts. Absolutely can't stand that. It looks bad and makes people skim over the block. Or not notice it at all.

2 hours ago, Lexx said:

I finished watching JoJo's - Golden Wind a few days ago. Good again, but IMO Diamond Is Unbreakable was better. Bit of a shame that there weren't more cameos of old characters.

Still, pretty hype for Stone Ocean now. Hope it won't take forever to come out here.

/Edit: One thing I didn't like about Golden Wind was this whole "mafioso are noble and help the common folk"-thing. It's just so... ugh. Reminds me of One Piece where the pirates are doing everything but pirate stuff.

One Piece has like as many episodes as The Bold and the Beautiful. That would be a major project, is that worth getting into? Pirates being all nice instead of, uhm, actual pirates aside.

[Lexx]

I watched some of One Piece years ago. It was actually not bad. I stopped with it later because they didn't show new episodes in TV and then I forgot about it. Now there's so much ....

One thing, though, is that lots of stuff is *very* drawn out at times. A simple fight can take multiple episodes and it just keeps dragging on. But other than that... I'd watch it again, I guess.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

6 hours ago, Lexx said:

One thing I didn't like about Golden Wind was this whole "mafioso are noble and help the common folk"-thing. It's just so... ugh. Reminds me of One Piece where the pirates are doing everything but pirate stuff.

To be fair, outside of Giorno's gang and the flashback guy, most of the mafioso were awful and doing mafia stuff. It is kind of dumb, but if it was all just so Giorno could say he wanted to be a Gang-Star, then it was worth it.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

More AoT, the battle begins only to be interrupted by character backgrounds.

I'm not sure what to think, the zip line jumping is really hard to follow and I couldn't really tell you much about the characters, but I guess the action can be pretty fun. Unfortunately it gets interrupted frequently at this point and I'm having a hard time caring about the characters so far. I may end up going for Legend of Galatic Heroes or rewatching Golden Wind instead.

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

More AoT, the battle begins only to be interrupted by character backgrounds.

I'm not sure what to think, the zip line jumping is really hard to follow and I couldn't really tell you much about the characters, but I guess the action can be pretty fun. Unfortunately it gets interrupted frequently at this point and I'm having a hard time caring about the characters so far. I may end up going for Legend of Galatic Heroes or rewatching Golden Wind instead.

Can you explain what you mean by "interrupted by character backgrounds"?