Anime - Oh No! Oh My God!

[majestic]

5 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Don't even remember that, to be honest. Just remember a lot of random cuts to what he was doing or expressions he was making smack-dab in the middle of scenes that were jarring in of themselves but even more so because he was being weird or uncomfortable.

He did cause the whole incident with the egg, or at least that was the implication, was it not?

Plus, in the film (spoiler again, KP!)

Spoiler

He's torturing Nanami in her permanent cow form.

 

 

I watched episode nine of K-On! (out of roughly 40 episodes in total). Azusa understandably has a crisis and can't really believe how a bunch of absolutely unmotivated slackers could possibly play as well as they did in their club presentation for new pupils, and she's right in wondering that. There's no real reason they could, looking at this realistically. It's explained away by the power of friendship (and stage presence) being a factor, rather than only pure skill or determination.

Was a sweet moment because she was asking Mio - more or less - what a gifted bassist like her is doing in a group of clueless, if funny, people.

Adding Azusa to the group made them more determined to practice and improve. Psycho-overdrive mode or no, it almost looks like someone planned out the character progression here.

Edited September 1, 2021 by majestic

[Sarex]

CLAMP, the creators of Cardcaptor Sakura

[Amentep]

And Magic Knight Rayearth which I seem to remember had a positive reception back in the day.  I remember playing the Saturn game that Working Designs translated, but at this point can't remember a whole lot else about it other than I think it was based on the first season of the tv anime.

[majestic]

18 minutes ago, Amentep said:

And Magic Knight Rayearth which I seem to remember had a positive reception back in the day.  I remember playing the Saturn game that Working Designs translated, but at this point can't remember a whole lot else about it other than I think it was based on the first season of the tv anime.

Yeah, I had my fill of CLAMP anime adaptations that aren't Cardcaptor Sakura for the time being. I liked X well enough, of course, but enough is enough for a while.

The CCS anime is really, really good (unless one doesn't like almost perfectly written Shojo anime, well... in that case keep your unsophisticated opinion to yourself!). The unmutilated version, that is, and certainly not the newer Clear Card. That's just awful. I wonder how many people will miss out on CCS just because Clear Card was pretty bleh.

Just like everyone who watches Sailor Moon Eternal on Netflix. Ah, the pain. It burrrrrrrnsssssssssssssssssss my precious. Nasty. Nasty.

[majestic]

Oh boy. Second beach episode in the first season, and this time Psycho!Teacher is tagging along and they're all bathing, and Sawako is around too and says she can't tell the girls apart without her glasses, so she'll just do it by...

Spoiler

trying to grab their breasts, and saying "By bust size!"

Seriously what the hell is wrong with you people.

I guess that finally establishes that there are zero original ideas in Love Live! (not that THIS in particular was a GREAT original idea, but it's not even that), but I don't know if this one's worse because it's coming from the teacher or handled much better because Mio isn't having any of that and just knocks her out with a well placed whack to the head, while Nozomi gets away with it every time.

It's always something with these episodes, it was going really well until that point.

[Bartimaeus]

15 minutes ago, majestic said:

because Mio isn't having any of that and just knocks her out with a well placed whack to the head

At least one of the characters had the logical solution here.

[Sarex]

Hirohiko Araki's research for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 7: Steel Ball Run, from his afterword in the first volume of the bunkoban edition.

[majestic]

59 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

At least one of the characters had the logical solution here.

There's still a lingering disappointment over it being a scene in the first place. Eh, fine. Probably my fault for expecting something better. I should go into these things with no expectations at all, that should make things easier. Granted, there was no actual grabbing, because Mio was the first attempted target and it was over afterwards, but some things are best left without even an implication. Pfff.

At least it's far and in between, so far. Yeah, watch me call it, it's probably just going to get worse, right?

Edited September 1, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

There's still a lingering disappointment over it being a scene in the first place. Eh, fine. Probably my fault for expecting something better. I should go into these things with no expectations at all, that should make things easier. Granted, there was no actual grabbing, because Mio was the first attempted target and it was over afterwards, but some things are best left without even an implication. Pfff.

At least it's far and in between, so far. Yeah, watch me call it, it's probably just going to get worse, right?

Just think of it as commentary on the state of anime that other shows actually do it for real and subverting it! ...I have no idea if other shows before K-On did the same thing.

[majestic]

16 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Just think of it as commentary on the state of anime that other shows actually do it for real and subverting it! ...I have no idea if other shows before K-On did the same thing.

Probably. Most likely. Good idea.

The episodes since were pretty good. Yui proves that she has no idea what she's doing when Azusa talks to her about guitar playing. Yui tunes her guitar "by ear" and doesn't know what "palm muting" is, and Azusa doesn't know whether she should be impressed or annoyed. Things become really funny when Yui's guitar starts having problems and she mentions she had no idea that you should clean and maintain it.

Yui's younger sister Ui (yeah, naming... *shrug*) pretends to be Yui for a bit. It's ridiculous, they only notice it because Ui doesn't call Azusa by her stupid nickname. Sure. It was worth a laugh or two though.

First season is almost over, last episode now. There's a bonus episode and an OVA before the second one.

[Bartimaeus]

Well, my prediction would be that it'd be the more decent and less embarrassing version of Love Live! It's more or less lived up to that, .

I just finished Devilman Crybaby. I see what majestic meant - this really got very dumb and very obvious in a hurry. Even though the show didn't really appeal to me at all before that, at least from a character and narrative standpoint it felt like it was going somewhere and it was more or less competent. But then Ryou's big press conference happened in like episode 7 and it felt like I was watching the disintegration of the show before my very eyes, and it got worse from there. I probably shoulda called it quits right then and there, but I was already so close to the end of an already very short show - whoops. Well, I was watching it at like 2x or 3x speed and was finishing each episode in like 8-10 minutes instead of 20+, so at least there's that.

Probably would've enjoyed K-On more...............

Edited September 1, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Well, my prediction would be that it'd be the more decent and less embarrassing version of Love Live! It's more or less lived up to that, .

To use a Bushism, don't misunderestimate me here.

I know I come across as more critical of K-On! than I ever did of Love Live, but that's not because I'm enjoying it less, it's exactly the opposite. K-On! is, for the most part, really enjoyable, if a bit silly. The "sort of" chibi look of the girls isn't so bad after a while - it's not fully chibi but the body proportions are way out of whack for girls that go from being 16 to 18 in two seasons. The overacting is mostly fine, it only really starts to grate once Sawako comes into play, and somehow has to up the ante on the crazy.

There are these occasional moments where it kind of appears that the writers were paying their "respects" to the manga this was adapted from, which just like with Love Live!, is seinen. There's very little overt fanservice (the half a second long "huh look at Mio!" bikini scene, mostly), and most fanservice isn't even really there, it's more implied.

Like ascene from their first live show, at the end, Mio trips over a cable and falls over, and people in the audience are starting to take pictures with their phones and cameras because Mio lands a bit like Ami in the narrow alley. Except the shot is seen from the group's point of view. Mio is embarrassed by it, and the others are pretty much too, or laughing at it. So far so fine, but Sawako has a video of that and shows it to Azusa later (there's no actual footage to see, it's just them staring at a screen).

Without knowing the manga, of course, but these scenes are kind of jarringly out of place compared to the normal flow of the show. Like the one where Sawako is seen having pulled off Mio's pants, I mean, who does that, other than some seinen manga teacher character.

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Probably would've enjoyed K-On more...............

What's stopping you from trying? The worst that can happen is you turn it off immediately or perhaps after Sawako goes fully nuts. *shrug* It sure won't be the worst thing you've tried - second worst perhaps if you try the English dub.

edit: The music in the anime is what it is, but they perform something like four songs, and they're fairly short. It's a lot less about music than you'd think.

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I just finished Devilman Crybaby. I see what majestic meant - this really got very dumb and very obvious in a hurry. Even though the show didn't really appeal to me at all before that, at least from a character and narrative standpoint it felt like it was going somewhere and it was more or less competent. But then Ryou's big press conference happened in like episode 7 and it felt like I was watching the disintegration of the show before my very eyes, and it got worse from there. I probably shoulda called it quits right then and there, but I was already so close to the end of an already very short show - whoops. Well, I was watching it at like 2x or 3x speed and was finishing each episode in like 8-10 minutes instead of 20+, so at least there's that.

I'm imagining watching Devilman Crybaby at 2x the speed, that's kind of hilarious. Maybe I'll try that on Netflix for a quick rewatch.

Edited September 1, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

I think Netflix sadly only goes up to 1.5x speed - not quite the same as mostly switching between 2x and 3x (and occasionally dipping down to 1x) like I was doing, . To be honest, I've employed the speed-up strategy in the past enough times that I have a certain tolerance at this point for everything being chipmunk-ified and basically turning a show into a speed-reading endurance test - trying to follow the dialogue while also trying to figure out what's happening in a scene and the story overall is an interesting and somewhat engaging mental challenge in of itself...but one I usually only reserve for shows that aren't really working for me to begin with, . And hey, it mostly worked...I ended up sort of being okay with the main characters that weren't Ryou (which is funnyc because he was the one character I sort of liked early on after I read your spoiler, but the whole "I am literally (spoiler)" was significantly less interesting and way more dumb in actual implementation than I expected it to be, so RIP him).

25 minutes ago, majestic said:

What's stopping you from trying? The worst that can happen is you turn it off immediately or perhaps after Sawako goes fully nuts. *shrug* It sure won't be the worst thing you've tried.

A very small sense of dignity, perhaps? Plus I have other things I want to get to first!

(e): Uh, the forum turned me manually writing "spoiler" (I must've put it in brackets?) into an actual spoiler and broke the second half of my post...but I fixed it now. Very cool. I still miss BBCode mode.

Edited September 1, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

2 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Spoiler

A very small sense of dignity, perhaps?

 

Oh, that. I've misplaced that thing somewhere when I found myself not hating Love Live!, I guess.

Spoiler

Or technically a long while back when I actually paid money for a La Blue Girl quicktime bootleg. Eh. Well... or maybe that was even an official version, it came with booklet and all.

 

6 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Plus I have other things I want to get to first!

8 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I think Netflix sadly only goes up to 1.5x speed - not quite the same as mostly switching between 2x and 3x (and occasionally dipping down to 1x) like I was doing, .

I'd need to check how much speed is compatible with my brain accepting something as watched. If I miss half the subtitles then that probably won't count.

Speaking of that...

Spoiler

Stupid speedrun achievements left, all I need to do is finish the base game in under five hours. Sigh. Speedrunning an exploration and combat based Metroidvania is pretty painful for me. It's... not complete.

Technically there are 100% competion speedruns done in three hours or so, but I really don't have the interest to grind the game until I manage that feat.

 

[Bartimaeus]

Speedruns: Knowing that I'm going to delete the save file immediately after would make it no issue for me, .

Tomoyo: I was going through my dropbox recently and discovered a few Sailor Moon gifs I had made way back when I first watched the first season.

Really shoulda made more of these...and some from Sakura. Whoops, . ...The only one I have of Minako is of her crying. Double whoops!

25 minutes ago, majestic said:

Or technically a long while back when I actually paid money for a

I'm just imagining Mike and Jay endlessly repeating "how embarrassing" right now, .

Edited September 1, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Speedruns: Knowing that I'm going to delete the save file immediately after would make it no issue for me, .

You can always go back in HK and top the completion up. That's about the only reason why I actually started. I'm 20 or so minutes in and pretty far already. Actual speedrunners need like 33 minutes for the any% run, which is pretty impressive.

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Tomoyo: I was going through my dropbox recently and discovered a few Sailor Moon gifs I had made way back when I first watched the first season.

Not bad, as far as deflections go. Pretty nice Sailor Moon gifs. Makes me want to rewatch.

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I'm just imagining Mike and Jay endlessly repeating "how embarrassing" right now, .

I wonder where the discs are, I should probably make sure nobody finds them. I did find one of our student films though, talk about embarrassing. Colleague of ours went to film school after high school. There's a scene in a bar, and it's so clearly just someone's cellar where they keep their booze.

Digital effects were pretty much top tier Best of the Worst stuff!

And yeah, that's... just a Video CD. I have no idea where the original "master" file is, but it's not really any better. Hm. Heh.

edit:

Hah, I also found 24 year old backup disc, one has a folder named "Sailor Moon", and there are like promotional pictures from ancient web sites, and some really terrible quality poster scans. Hm.

Look at Minako here:

edit: I put the disc away before deciding to upload Minako's picture, just before someone comes along and tells me there were no PNGs in 1997. I know that. It's a screenshot.

edit:

I found a copy of Legend of Lemnear as an actual Video CD. That's slightly less embarrassing than knowing where my copy of LBG is, but only slightly. That is from an official distributor, but I have no idea if it's really licensed. Original Japanese with English subtitles. Pretty much unwatchable. I mean, image quality wise. The OVA itself is, uhm... from what I recall it has well animated action scenes, well animated jiggly boobies (but nothing too explicit) and a hackneyed good vs. evil fantasy plot.

No one ever claimed 80ies shonen/seinen was any better than today's, content wise, right? It sure looked a lot better though. Like, a hell lot better, even.

Edited September 1, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

11 hours ago, majestic said:

Not bad, as far as deflections go. Pretty nice Sailor Moon gifs. Makes me want to rewatch.

Not going to lie, I've felt a yearning to re-watch season 1...but for the time being, I must press forward with NEW things, so the backlog doesn't exponentially grow! ...The least I can do is finish the rest of Sakura first, .

11 hours ago, majestic said:

There's a scene in a bar, and it's so clearly just someone's cellar where they keep their booze.

Ah, location scouting... Someone should've gone to animation school instead of film school, methinks, .

Thankfully, a quick reverse image search reveals better versions of that Minako poster. And hey, speaking of older animation being better animation... Vampire Hunter D (1985).

Spoiler

It was...pretty good. The way the action sequences were animated were kind of funky a lot of the time, but at least they were entertaining. I wasn't reaaally sold on Lamika (spelling?) suddenly offering mercy to Doris after she'd been the most cutthroat and vicious out of everyone up until exactly that moment, but I guess I get why it had to be that way for narrative purposes. Feel like that could've been handled and setup a bit better, though. Besides that, yeah, solid HD transfer, solid cast of characters, bit of an oddball ending...pretty good, all in all.

 

[InsaneCommander]

Steins;Gate 16-18:

 

Spoiler

Pretty easy for viewers to notice who Suzuha’s parents could be. Either Okarin and Christina. Or Itaru.

Suzuha’s fate was really bad. Still, she could have waited ten more years and helped them some other way.

Great, now they have to undo all the good things they did. Wouldn't it be easier and safer to simply send all the d-mails again when someone travels to 1975 to find the IBM computer? That way there is no anomaly for CERN to detect.

 

[majestic]

10 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Not going to lie, I've felt a yearning to re-watch season 1...but for the time being, I must press forward with NEW things, so the backlog doesn't exponentially grow!

Well, where else would you start a rewatch.

Going back to season one after finishing the series sure feels strange, at least it did for me, the first time around. The recent rewatch not so much, but it's been like 23 years so I guess time makes up for a lot of things. Or deletes many things from memory, because I'm back to thinking I started with R, by the way. I keep waffling around, and while it doesn't really matter, it bothers me that my memory is really hazy. It was either with the initial episodes of R and them getting their memories back or somewhere around the time Usagi was on vacation with her family.

It's incredible to see how far they all have come by the end of it. You really just need to ignore SuperS and pretend it never happened. That's for the best, really.

10 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Ah, location scouting... Someone should've gone to animation school instead of film school, methinks, .

Eh, well... he's made one web series that's available online (well, where else), for free: Empires of Evil. It's interesting to see the composition and direction of the shots being so similar to his early work. Heh. Worked on a lot of things, actually, but mostly on local film productions that aren't readily available, and... hm, yeah, they also generally don't have English subtitles available. Which is a pity for Trautmann, the only cop serial (besides Columbo) I actually liked watching, but that's neither here nor there.

10 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Thankfully, a quick reverse image search reveals better versions of that Minako poster.

Heh, good. Still, the things I found on that backup I downloaded with my trusty old dial up modem. Here's one thing where the good old times weren't so great, but I essentially hit the jackpot when our cable TV provider made our area the pilot testing ground for their new internet service. Still, wouldn't want to miss it for the world. Except for when your mother picks up the phone and kills the download you've been waiting for over an hour to finish, some ten seconds before it would have been done.

10 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

...The least I can do is finish the rest of Sakura first, .

Good idea, I'm looking forward to see if repeated exposure to that bleh intro song will mellow your opinion on it (it didn't, for me), what you think of the Sakura card arc, especially of the first handful of episodes, and the couple of killer episodes that happen in there.

Edited September 2, 2021 by majestic

[majestic]

4 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

Steins;Gate 16-18:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Pretty easy for viewers to notice who Suzuha’s parents could be. Either Okarin and Christina. Or Itaru.

Suzuha’s fate was really bad. Still, she could have waited ten more years and helped them some other way.

Great, now they have to undo all the good things they did. Wouldn't it be easier and safer to simply send all the d-mails again when someone travels to 1975 to find the IBM computer? That way there is no anomaly for CERN to detect.

 

I should probably stop reading the spoilers, I kind of want to watch Steins;Gate, even if the plot sounds really convoluted and has time travel.

 

K-On! Bonus episode:

Feels like I'm watching an entirely different anime, for some reason.

Spoiler

There's still some silly, but it's toned down massively. It's freezing winter, and Mio is off to write lyrics in peace at the sea. Yui and Ui (still have to laugh every time, silly, huh?) are buying things for a hot pot that Yui invited everyone to come to her place for, but everyone had other plans already. Yui wants to try chocolate and curry or marshmellow and soy milk hot pot, neither of which goes over well with Ui... or any of the other girls she texts about it.

Azusa has to take care of a kitten for a friend, and the kitten gets sick, Ritsu is acting all strange and spaces out every now and then (she got a love letter, presumably from a boy based on pronouns used when she read it) and Tsumugi is working part time at a fastfood joint, and doesn't deal too well with the rigors of work life.

It turns out the love letter came from Mio who gave Ritsu lyrics to read, the kitten was just coughing up hairballs and they all visit Tsumugi at her workplace where she's got used to working now. Ritsu starts choking Mio, who doesn't understand what's going on, she did tell Ritsu she was going to leave her the lyrics in the mailbox after all. They all visit Mugi at work.

Episode then closes with them sitting in the music room, talking about the future, about Mugi having warm hands, Mio is put out by Yui mentioning that Azusa has small and cute hands (because Mio's hands are really yuuuuuge, that came up in an earlier episode) and everyone's having fun.

That clearly was the best episode yet. I wonder if that keeps up for season two. Well, time for the OVA I guess.

[HoonDing]

 

[majestic]

The OVA is focused on them playing their first non-school live show, on New Year's Eve.

Spoiler

Ritsu gets things explained by the manager, but somehow manages to keep track of everything (imagine episode 1 Ritsu doing this). They're going through their setup stuff and have no idea what to do, so Yui is just randomly off to the other participating groups to ask. Mio's brain gets fried several times and Ritsu makes fun of her every now and then.

Mugi brought tea and cake and they befriend the others, talk about being in a band. They then make a complete mess of their rehearsal, being all nervous.

Sawako shows up, but is actually acting like a normal person for a change, she knows the place's manager from school. After the show they all go to Yui's place where they wait for the new year, but everyone except Ritsu and Mio fall asleep before midnight. Contrary to her usual self, Yui is up early, wakes everyone while it's still dark outside. They go to Yui's secret spot close by to watch the first sunrise of the year, then tell Azusa that she's still wearing her cat ears (well, more like tiger ears) from last night's party. Cue laughing.

Episode spends less than two minutes on them playing. For something nominally about a group of girls forming a school club band there's not much music in it. Works for me, even though the music isn't so bad, actually. It's just okay-ish rock-ish/ska-ish stuff, like, hmmm... like Love Live!'s first piece of music. Gee, I wonder where they got that idea from.

Well that was great. Season one was a bit uneven overall, but ended on a really strong note. Hopefully they can keep that up. I guess Mio will be back to whacking people and Sawako will be creepy every now and then, but eh, if there's the occasional episode like the last two in between, then: Was worth it.

Edited September 2, 2021 by majestic

[InsaneCommander]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

I should probably stop reading the spoilers, I kind of want to watch Steins;Gate, even if the plot sounds really convoluted and has time travel.

Then definitely avoid the spoilers.  But if you are like me and have trouble remembering some Japanese names, then you are safer. lol

Episodes 1-11 set up the story. Don't give up if you for some reason don't like them that much. And yes, the plot can be convoluted, I'm kind of lost about some things. Still easy to understand what is going on though.

Edit: And you will definitely love Mayuri. She is one of the nicest people I ever saw in an anime.

Edited September 2, 2021 by InsaneCommander

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Revolutionary Girl Utena 17.

The show is weird for me because I enjoy it ok but I really don't care about any of the characters. Touga is probably my favorite right now because he's DIOa magnificent bastard, but unfortunately he's currently hiding in his room. I wish it would pull a JoJo, a Devilman, or even a Berserk and kill off some of the characters, for dueling with swords no main or side character has bit it yet. Seriously, let Miki get the SHIZAAAAA! treatment or let Nanami get dismembered by a mob and her head driven through with a stake while they dance around a burning house. ****, pull a god damn Eclipse and have Touga put on a ****ty batman costume. Or have someone lock Chu-Chu in a box and burn him alive. Just kill someone already. Please.

Now that my desire for a surreal shojo to morph into a brutal seinen or josei is out of the way, the episode itself. I really am not enjoying this Black Rose **** very much. While some parts were cool, it's become repetitive and copied the worst parts of Sailor Moon where Utena defeats every enemy with the Dios attack. Which doesn't actually kill them because lmao. Anthy is less of a person now than before, with the exception of visiting Akio every week. The way that's framed I can see why Nanami is jealous of Anthy, because it looks like Akio is closer to Anthy than a brother should be.

Oh, I guess I should talk about the episode itself. Jury is a lesbian (big shock there) and the girl she is crushing on hates her so much she turns evil and steals her heart sword. She predictably loses, because Utena has the plot armor of Dios. Just like Miki's sister (what is it with this show and incestuous implications lmao), I don't have much reason to care about Jury's crush and the show didn't make me care about Jury more. A pity, because Jury is the closest character I genuinely like, even if Touga is way more entertaining.

[Bartimaeus]

3 hours ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

implications