Anime - Magical Girl Anime Thread, hajimarimasu!

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, Sarex said:

Ponyo. The story of the fearless mother...scratch that, the woman was born with no fear. This one was a little trippy, in a good way though.

I've watched Ponyo twice, the first time by myself and the second with my nieces. Didn't care for it the first time, actually really disliked it on the second. Really strange characters that would just do things for no apparent rhyme or reason, and the incredibly bizarre mom that was total pants on/in the head was especially the object of my ire. She was constantly switching between like four very contrary different states: 1. very sweet, 2. unreasonably aggressive, 3. helicopter mom, 4. accepting everything that was happening without question, no matter how insane it was. So many times during it I asked myself "what the hell is wrong with this mom?". So combine that with the entire tone and style of the movie seeming decidedly more aimed at only children than his other works, I would consider it easily the worst Hayao Miyazaki film. ...But it's still not as bad as most of Yoneyabashi's and Goro's Ghibli stuff, so there is that.

I have a friend that said Ponyo was so bad they never tried a single other Ghibli film released after it, which I thought was a pretty extreme reaction, especially considering this is the same person who had their life changed by Princess Mononoke. While there is a bit of a fall-off after Ponyo for Ghibli, they should've at least tried The Wind Rises and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.

@majestic If you love literally endless random encounters that make it so you can take anywhere between pretty literally 1 and maybe 20 steps before running into another, you'll love Quest 64. Let's just say that the game is much improved by Cheat Engine's speedhack, which I used liberally when I replayed it. ...I still own it along with an actual working N64, mind you, but I never play on actual consoles if I can avoid it for a plethora of reasons.

Samurai Champloo: It really does seem quite good, though obviously there will be an issue of personal appeal.

Tomoyo: Yeah, I felt bad realizing that Meiling had replaced her at some point as my favorite character, but it is something that happened. Between her crazy expressions, emotions, body language, voice-acting...and her tragedy and actual character development (which is probably the biggest contrast to Tomoyo, who has  stayed static except in perhaps some very small ways in contrast), she's just such a fun and good character. Tomoyo was awesome in a way that felt totally right for her in this episode too, which I was thankful for because she's been a little too...meta and meme-ish without enough to balance it out in this final arc, I think.

1 hour ago, majestic said:

There's just something ungodly unjust and sad about Tomoyo having to console Meiling over the loss of Shaoran. What a pain that was, not going to lie, that... hit me hard, and it stuck for a bit.

Yeah...she sat there with that sad, knowing smile. She knows all too well, Meiling...

Edited October 27, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Samurai Champloo is a hard recommend. If you haven't seen it yet you should put it on your list.

I don't remember any Nintendo 64 rpgs besides Paper Mario, which I enjoyed. I played Ogre Battle 64 on the Wii and liked it, but I won't count that. Outside of Fire Emblem I can't think of too many Nintendo rpgs (I started with the 64). Which is a shame because it's the only console I'd consider getting, the others are just a worse version of PC imo.

Uhhhh anime......I'm going to start watching more movies. And maybe Japan Sinks 2020. 

[majestic]

25 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

@majestic If you love literally endless random encounters that make it so you can take anywhere between pretty literally 1 and maybe 20 steps before running into another, you'll love Quest 64. Let's just say that the game is much improved by Cheat Engine's speedhack, which I used liberally when I replayed it. ...I still own it along with an actual working N64, mind you, but I never play on actual consoles if I can avoid it for a plethora of reasons.

Now that seems entirely reasonable. I grew up on RPGs like that... feels like a lifetime ago. Things like the Gold Box games and Bard's Tale, and Eye of the Beholder. Couldn't go anywhere for any reasonable stretch of time in these without being attacked. Quest 64 is from a time where combat was no longer all that RPGs could really do, so I don't know what their excuse was. Heh. On the other hand I survived Mystic Quest on the SNES, so how bad can Quest 64 really be.

All of my consoles are still in working order*, but the only one I play with is my Switch. No, that's a lie, I had a Switch, but in a hilarious and completely unexpected twist, now that my nephew doesn't hog it all the time any more, my mother started playing Pikmin 3, for like hours a day. I guess I should just give up and get myself a new one. She sure needs the practice for her fingers and fine motor skills more than I need the money it would cost to buy a new one.

If you could find any in this day and age. 'S ridiculous, really.

36 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Samurai Champloo: It really does seem quite good, though obviously there will be an issue of personal appeal.

I won't immediately launch into it anyway. I already know I can't stand the music, and the setting isn't my idea of fun either. At least, not any more. Seems like a show I would have immediately tried 25 years ago though.

39 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Tomoyo: Yeah, I felt bad realizing that Meiling had replaced her at some point as my favorite character, but it is something that happened. Between her crazy expressions, emotions, body language, voice-acting...and her tragedy and actual character development (which is probably the biggest contrast to Tomoyo, who has  stayed static except in perhaps some very small ways in contrast), she's just such a fun and good character. Tomoyo was awesome in a way that felt totally right for her in this episode too, which I was thankful for because she's been a little too...meta and meme-ish without enough to balance it out in this final arc, I think.

Tomoyo and Sakura are both fairly static. That is and isn't a good thing at the same time. Sakura will get some kind of development soonish, but that's... I don't want to say minor, but really, up until that point, she was largely herself as she was in the first episode. It isn't a good thing because we as adults sit here and have our favorites perhaps replaced by other characters, although that didn't really happen for me, but Meiling came really close to managing (dunno, Sakura just won me over with that episode where she trashes her father's laptop, and that never really went away - really funny too because in real life I usually don't like the always happy motor mouth type... way too draining to interact with).

On the other hand, anchoring Sakura (and by extension, Tomoyo, I guess) and allowing every other character to progress around them was, I think, a deliberate way and a part of the sort of "static" Cardcaptor Sakura formula, largely for the benefit of the actual target demographic to find something familiar in each episode but still retain the ability for change and changes around them without running the risk of losing them.

I hope that sentence makes sense, it took an extreme amount of brainage to make it go (to borrow from one of Raithe's jokes that he posted). I'm so tired lately. Sigh.

51 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Yeah...she sat there with that sad, knowing smile. She knows all too well, Meiling...

34 minutes ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

I don't remember any Nintendo 64 rpgs besides Paper Mario, which I enjoyed. I played Ogre Battle 64 on the Wii and liked it, but I won't count that. Outside of Fire Emblem I can't think of too many Nintendo rpgs (I started with the 64). Which is a shame because it's the only console I'd consider getting, the others are just a worse version of PC imo.

I'd recommend looking into the past, to be honest, more than into the present. SNES era had some of the best games I had the pleasure of playing, but I'm not sure how well they work going back to them, instead of having nostalgia help to sand the rough edges down a little. Even in long standing JRPG series, although that's one to make myself unpopular whever I mention it, but the best Final Fantasy is clearlyVI. 

Terranigma is more of an action adventure / RPG hybrid, and was never released in North America, but it's really good. Then there's Secret of Mana which was pretty good too, but as @Bartimaeus might be able to corroborate, isn't really as good as its, uhm, reputation.

Depends on how much jank and old schoolness you can really take. A Link To The Past would be the best Legend of Zelda entry if it weren't for Ocarina of Time too.

*Doesn't equal ready to use, because that would require spending some effort that far exceeds simply emulating them, which I don't feel bad at all about precisely because I still have all the original parts and games. The only reason I played with my SNES Mini for as long as I did was precisely the ease of use. Plug in, works. No need for mods, adaptors, cables, whatnot. Thanks, but no thanks.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

I'd recommend looking into the past, to be honest, more than into the present. SNES era had some of the best games I had the pleasure of playing, but I'm not sure how well they work going back to them, instead of having nostalgia help to sand the rough edges down a little. Even in long standing JRPG series, although that's one to make myself unpopular whever I mention it, but the best Final Fantasy is clearlyVI. 

Terranigma is more of an action adventure / RPG hybrid, and was never released in North America, but it's really good. Then there's Secret of Mana which was pretty good too, but as @Bartimaeus might be able to corroborate, isn't really as good as its, uhm, reputation.

Depends on how much jank and old schoolness you can really take. A Link To The Past would be the best Legend of Zelda entry if it weren't for Ocarina of Time too.

*Doesn't equal ready to use, because that would require spending some effort that far exceeds simply emulating them, which I don't feel bad at all about precisely because I still have all the original parts and games. The only reason I played with my SNES Mini for as long as I did was precisely the ease of use. Plug in, works. No need for mods, adaptors, cables, whatnot. Thanks, but no thanks.

I've played FF1, 2, 4, 5, and 6. I'd probably rate 5 or 6 in the top. I'll confess that I have not played much of the Playstation FFs.

There's a ton of great classic Nintendo games, but emulation can be a pain. Not to mention Nintendo tends to hate releasing their catalog and are copyright trolls lmao.

[Amentep]

Secret of Mana's ending still makes me mad. I'd rate FFVI as the best of the FF. Chrono Trigger was also very good.

I liked Breath of Fire 1 & 2 even though they had terrible translations. Capcom, but reased for SNES.

Never played it, but Earthbound has a huge following.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

3 minutes ago, Amentep said:

Secret of Mana's ending still makes me mad. I'd rate FFVI as the best of the FF. Chrono Trigger was also very good.

I liked Breath of Fire 1 & 2 even though they had terrible translations. Capcom, but reased for SNES.

Never played it, but Earthbound has a huge following.

I've never played Chrono Trigger or Secrets of Mana. I think I played Breath of Fire 2 but it was a long time ago and I remember nothing coherent about it.

Damn, this thread makes me want to play some JRPGs so I can attack and dethrone God.

[Bartimaeus]

6 hours ago, majestic said:

Terranigma is more of an action adventure / RPG hybrid, and was never released in North America, but it's really good. Then there's Secret of Mana which was pretty good too, but as @Bartimaeus might be able to corroborate, isn't really as good as its, uhm, reputation.

Terranigma is good, but the English translation leaves a bit to be desired. Still, I enjoyed it. Secret of Mana....the English translation is outright terrible I think like 99% of the time and the gameplay, setting, story, or characters really weren't able to grab me at all*, especially since I had just played all of the MOTHER/EarthBound games right before for the first time, and it didn't really even hold a candle to them in my opinion. I do like the music of SoM, though.

*I am biased against most types of fantasy, though - any kind of fantasy where characters are wearing insane and ridiculous clothing and hair styles, I'm probably using the exit door immediately.

6 hours ago, majestic said:

Now that seems entirely reasonable. I grew up on RPGs like that... feels like a lifetime ago. Things like the Gold Box games and Bard's Tale, and Eye of the Beholder. Couldn't go anywhere for any reasonable stretch of time in these without being attacked. Quest 64 is from a time where combat was no longer all that RPGs could really do, so I don't know what their excuse was. Heh. On the other hand I survived Mystic Quest on the SNES, so how bad can Quest 64 really be.

Yeah, I'm the opposite: if it wasn't for the fact that I played it as a KEED, I would not have been able to tolerate it. Random encounters stink...at the very least like EarthBound makes it so they're not so random, so you can see them as you approach enemies, which is so much better...and MOTHER did enough other things right that I could forgive it (plus, it was on the NES where having moving enemy sprites would've been taxing on the hardware - probably!). Speaking of EarthBound/MOTHER, Amentep just mentioned it too...and I should eventually, one day, give Chrono Trigger another try. It'll happen someday...

Sakura:

Spoiler

6 hours ago, majestic said:

Tomoyo and Sakura are both fairly static. That is and isn't a good thing at the same time. Sakura will get some kind of development soonish, but that's... I don't want to say minor, but really, up until that point, she was largely herself as she was in the first episode. It isn't a good thing because we as adults sit here and have our favorites perhaps replaced by other characters, although that didn't really happen for me, but Meiling came really close to managing (dunno, Sakura just won me over with that episode where she trashes her father's laptop, and that never really went away - really funny too because in real life I usually don't like the always happy motor mouth type... way too draining to interact with).

Yeah, Sakura is pretty similar to Tomoyo in that sense - she's only changed in small and subtle ways from like...after the first ten episodes or so. They're there, but not the clear and marked differences like you see in Meiling. Heh, I remember starting off with the show and basically being "I'm not even sure if I like Sakura, I just like Tomoyo I guess and Kero's voice-actress is hilarious". How times have changed!

6 hours ago, majestic said:

All of my consoles are still in working order*, but the only one I play with is my Switch. No, that's a lie, I had a Switch, but in a hilarious and completely unexpected twist, now that my nephew doesn't hog it all the time any more, my mother started playing Pikmin 3, for like hours a day. I guess I should just give up and get myself a new one. She sure needs the practice for her fingers and fine motor skills more than I need the money it would cost to buy a new one.

That's hilarious. My mom's started getting back into gaming on a light basis recently as well after a long break, but PC and not console, . I think the only thing my mom ever played through on console was Ocarina of Time - she was always a PC person.

 

Edited October 28, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Sarex]

@Bartimaeus hahaha, while watching it I was thinking the whole time how you would dislike it as it was really random.

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, Sarex said:

@Bartimaeus hahaha, while watching it I was thinking the whole time how you would dislike it as it was really random.

Yeah. I mean, I don't necessarily mind "random" events occurring if they take us somewhere interesting (all sorts of mundane as well as strange events in own lives occur randomly all the time with little to no reason to discern why they happened, after all - most things don't need an explanation beyond "it just happened" so long as they don't raise major logic or suspension of disbelief questions...and assuming they aren't horridly boring), but I definitely do not want my characters feeling like they're behaving and doing things randomly, and Ponyo frustrated me for exactly that reason. When I feel like I don't understand the characters in a work, I usually feel like I don't understand anything at all, and that is an unpleasant feeling.

Edited October 28, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Sarex]

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. So far the weakest Ghibli movie for me. I think that if it was a little shorter it would have been better. The latter half of the movie kind of dragged on for me and I found myself skipping through some of the action scenes. All that being said it's still good, just that it didn't quite live up to the rest of them.

Edited October 28, 2021 by Sarex

[majestic]

15 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Terranigma is good, but the English translation leaves a bit to be desired.

Courtesy of it being a fan translation, I guess - on the other hand, Squeenix' go-to translator Ted Woolsey is a bit (in)famous for his... uhm, work, too. I was a bit surprised when I talked about older JRPG titles with Americans for the first time. Never realized how different the translations were in certain parts. Secret of Mana was affected too, especially regarding the sprite and its gender (and ultimate fate in the game).

I mean to replay the Sould Blazer series at some point, although I'm uncertain how well Illusion of Gaia will hold up to my nostalgic memories. Because I really doubt I would enjoy wasting my time leaving and entering a screen fifty times until one of the red gem spawn finally proccs. That was one big "What the hell, game?" moment even back then, because I had to look into the guide that came with the game to find the last one, only to realize I missed it almost right at the start, and that there's no way back.

There's obscure secrets, and then there's total nonsense, and really, anyone who tells me they found that one without a guide is lying (or hacked the game files, which really is the same thing, only more sophisticated ). That's like SWTOR's Imperial/Republican Fleet Station datacron. When nobody found it, Bioware just released a video guide. *shrug*

15 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Secret of Mana....the English translation is outright terrible I think like 99% of the time and the gameplay, setting, story, or characters really weren't able to grab me at all*, especially since I had just played all of the MOTHER/EarthBound games right before for the first time, and it didn't really even hold a candle to them in my opinion. I do like the music of SoM, though.

Secret of Mana is... I tried to replay it on the SNES Mini. I remember playing the game for a long, long time when it first came out and absolutely enjoying it, then we swapped some games at school, school sort of ended, everyone lost track of each other and with it I lost track of my copy of Secret of Mana. Instead I have a Breath of Fire II cartridge here.

It certainly didn't hold up to my nostalgia, especially all the spell and weapon grinding. The story wasn't as interesting as I thought it was, but hey, when you're 12 the game was really great.

Funny, if you had asked me back then if I got a better deal out of the trade I would have said no, but nowadays I'm not so sure any more.

15 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Yeah, I'm the opposite: if it wasn't for the fact that I played it as a KEED, I would not have been able to tolerate it. Random encounters stink...at the very least like EarthBound makes it so they're not so random, so you can see them as you approach enemies, which is so much better...and MOTHER did enough other things right that I could forgive it (plus, it was on the NES where having moving enemy sprites would've been taxing on the hardware - probably!). Speaking of EarthBound/MOTHER, Amentep just mentioned it too...and I should eventually, one day, give Chrono Trigger another try. It'll happen someday...

I recently played Bravely Default 2 on the Switch, and it also had random encounters that you could see on the map and simply walk around, with a level range. If you were way overlevelled they'd actively run away. I like that designed, and it was one of the things that bothered be about World of Warcraft when I first tried it. In EQ2, when you were overlevelled, grey mobs just avoided you, and in order to aggro them you'd really have to attack first or get so close it counts as attack anyway.

In WoW on the other hand, everything keeps attack you as long as it is an aggressive mob. Even if you're a hundred levels higher. Baffling, and highly annoying.

Bravely Default also has a semi-interesting turn based combat concept where you can front-load your turns by using up your future turns, most of the time that's enough to clear trash in one go, and it makes for fun boss battles.

Or it would have, if by the end of the game it wouldn't revolve around getting your turn, abusing the Phantom class to spend magic points to set procc chances to 100% and throw a stun grenade at the enemies. That makes them unable to act for serveral turns, and everything stun immune you just burst down before it becomes problematic (Swordmaster/Freelancer can burst down anything in one go, really... except the very final boss and two or three endgame encounters).

I mean, the game was probably designed with adjusting your skillset, classes and gear based on the enemies you fight, and that probably works too, but why bother?

15 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Yeah, I'm the opposite: if it wasn't for the fact that I played it as a KEED, I would not have been able to tolerate it. Random encounters stink...at the very least like EarthBound makes it so they're not so random, so you can see them as you approach enemies, which is so much better...and MOTHER did enough other things right that I could forgive it (plus, it was on the NES where having moving enemy sprites would've been taxing on the hardware - probably!). Speaking of EarthBound/MOTHER, Amentep just mentioned it too...and I should eventually, one day, give Chrono Trigger another try. It'll happen someday...

Chrono Trigger is fairly unique because you can't grind at all, unless I'm thinking of another game here. There's simply fixed amount of encounters on the map, and nothing random at all.

20 hours ago, Amentep said:

Secret of Mana's ending still makes me mad.

Why? I mean, even 12 year old me saw that coming from ten miles away, but other than that...

20 hours ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

There's a ton of great classic Nintendo games, but emulation can be a pain. Not to mention Nintendo tends to hate releasing their catalog and are copyright trolls lmao.

Yeah, they are. There's no sugarcoating this, the way Nintendo goes after anything they think violates their copyright is insane. Still, they're the only worthwhile first party developer for me. I know a lot of people that say that Nintendo just releases the same games over and over, but it's fairly clear they don't actually play them. There more difference in gameplay between Mario series than there is between 99% of the shovelware shooters on the market, for instance.

 

Eh, on topic, uhmm... ahh... I watched the third episode of Dropkick on my Devil!, which was still pretty good, but less funny than the others. There's some examination of Medsa's and Jashin's friendship...love...thing. Not sure. Jashin calls Medusa her personal ATM, and Medusa is constantly giving Jashin money.

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

25 minutes ago, majestic said:

Yeah, they are. There's no sugarcoating this, the way Nintendo goes after anything they think violates their copyright is insane. Still, they're the only worthwhile first party developer for me. I know a lot of people that say that Nintendo just releases the same games over and over, but it's fairly clear they don't actually play them. There more difference in gameplay between Mario series than there is between 99% of the shovelware shooters on the market, for instance.

Yeah, it's just baffling how Nintendo will not (re)release classic (or just two console gen old) games yet still goes nuclear on anything that looks like it could be copyright infringement or emulation.

And still, I can't think of a first party developer I'd give the same attention. I don't even consider getting Playstation or Xbox but I've had every Nintendo console since the N64 except for the WiiU.

Those people are just wrong or they got it confused with Bethesda, whose Skyrim releases make up over half of the TES catalog. Legend of Zelda for instance changed greatly with each iteration in the "main" series. But hell, given Nintendo's bizarre combo of copyright trolling and hesitancy to republish their own catalog, I think a lot of people would be happy if they released some of their games over and over. I'd love to replay some of the old N64 or GameCube titles.

[majestic]

15 minutes ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

Those people are just wrong or they got it confused with Bethesda, whose Skyrim releases make up over half of the TES catalog. Legend of Zelda for instance changed greatly with each iteration in the "main" series. But hell, given Nintendo's bizarre combo of copyright trolling and hesitancy to republish their own catalog, I think a lot of people would be happy if they released some of their games over and over. I'd love to replay some of the old N64 or GameCube titles.

They've been releasing older games on the Switch. NES, SNES, now N64 and Sega Genesis. The only downside is it's gated behind their online service, and the catalogues aren't that extensive. The N64 one is fairly new and I did not yet get the chance to try it out, so no idea how the emulation is. NES and SNES go as expected.

Also always some things missing due to licencing issues, but I'm really looking forward to play Lylat Wars / Starfox 64 again. Once I get my Switch back. My warm water supply just died, probably for good this time, so new hardware gets put on a back burner for the time being.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

13 minutes ago, majestic said:

They've been releasing older games on the Switch. NES, SNES, now N64 and Sega Genesis. The only downside is it's gated behind their online service, and the catalogues aren't that extensive. The N64 one is fairly new and I did not yet get the chance to try it out, so no idea how the emulation is. NES and SNES go as expected.

They have been, but it's just not very much. But it's been a while since I played my Switch, so I'll have to check.

14 minutes ago, majestic said:

Also always some things missing due to licencing issues, but I'm really looking forward to play Lylat Wars / Starfox 64 again. Once I get my Switch back. My warm water supply just died, probably for good this time, so new hardware gets put on a back burner for the time being.

Now is not a good time for the water heater to blow.

I played Starfox 64 as a kid and all I remember is DO A BARREL ROLL and having to go through waterfalls to get on a secret mission path.

[majestic]

Just now, KP the meanie zucchini said:

They have been, but it's just not very much. But it's been a while since I played my Switch, so I'll have to check.

Yeah, dunno, it's been a while since I could check.

1 minute ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

Now is not a good time for the water heater to blow.

It got leaky... and, uhm, it's almost 40 years old now, so it's probably time to thank it for its service and find a replacement. One of the two heating coils died a while ago already, so it's been running on half power anyway, so unless it's just something minor like a porous seal I got a good deal of mileage out of it anyway, espeically since I got it for free. *shrug*

It's only a "minor" inconvenience since I can just hop over to my neighbors (well, parents) for all my warm water needs, but it's annoying nonetheless.

 

[Amentep]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Why? I mean, even 12 year old me saw that coming from ten miles away, but other than that...

Randi is banished from Potos by stupid superstitious villagers- left to starve to death. After the Trio defeats the villain, he goes back home (why?)

Primm leaves home because she doesn't want to go through a forced marriage. After the Trio defeats the villain, she goes back home (why?)

Popoi is stuck in the regular world, but doesn't want to go back home. After the Trio defeats the villain, he's stuck in the sprite realm (at least this part made some sense based on the story).

No villager apologizes to Randi for trying to kill him and Primm's dad never terminates the marriage arrangement. So why do the characters go back? It made no sense.

[majestic]

Heh, yeah, I can see how that would be annoying, but totally doesn't matter when you're 12. I guess I'll have to replay it at some point.

Sakura talk:

18 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Spoiler

Yeah, Sakura is pretty similar to Tomoyo in that sense - she's only changed in small and subtle ways from like...after the first ten episodes or so. They're there, but not the clear and marked differences like you see in Meiling. Heh, I remember starting off with the show and basically being "I'm not even sure if I like Sakura, I just like Tomoyo I guess and Kero's voice-actress is hilarious". How times have changed!

 

Spoiler

Like I said, at some point around episode 12 I really started to like Sakura and her voice actor's performance, but it's of course not just her. Everyone is great in their own way, even if some of them get more development than others. Meiling went from the idiot ball butt-monkey to a very likeable friend of the group to a tragic butt-monkey. I guess it was inevitable, Shaoran and Sakura were something that I remember calling the moment Shaoran showed up (too lazy to dig up the post ).

It's really a textbook case of "these two start out not really liking each other, that's going to be a romance plot in the future", but it really, really takes its time to unfold and you can see things making sense every step of the way, unlike its more retarded versions in romantic comedy feature films.

Cardcaptor Sakura surprised me with that though, I expected Shaoran would be simply there to give Sakura a gentle way out of her crush on Yukito, but then along comes Meiling and it ends up with me being all sad. Surprised in the sense that they actually went there, I mean, once Meiling showed up and told everyone she's engaged to Shaoran and after episode 40 (Dream), it was clear to me that it will end in tears, but still, I mean, after the first couple of episodes, who would have thought something like this could happen at all?

The only character I ended up not really liking all that much, or, characters, that is, is Eriol and his gang. Out of them, Spinel Sun is the best, but Ruby Moon is just annoying the entire time and Eriol... eh, Eriol. Honestly, that's... I complained about it before, but he's by far and large one of the biggest reasons the Sakura Card arc has a couple of lows. It takes excessively long to establish a motive for instance (I don't mind slow, but if you show your beloved characters establishing a friendship and a romantic rivalry in the case of Shaoran with someone who is clearly antagonistic in some manner, at least throw me some bone to understand why, not push that out until the very end).

18 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

That's hilarious. My mom's started getting back into gaming on a light basis recently as well after a long break, but PC and not console, . I think the only thing my mom ever played through on console was Ocarina of Time - she was always a PC person.

My mother played an awful lot of solitaire and mahjong on PC (at work, during downtimes, which were plentiful...), but nothing else, at least as far as I know. She didn't play on any of our consoles either, except for some Tetris on the Game Boy. Playing a game like Pikmin 3 is a completely new development. I mean, sure, Parkinson's is disease that also slowly changes people, but that's a weird change I can live with. Could be much worse.

I was my nephew who badgered her into playing with him, and now they're spending the entire day playing Pikming 3, or just recently they bought Mario Party.

 

Edited October 28, 2021 by majestic

[InsaneCommander]

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure 9:

 

A wedding and a happy (obviously not) ending.

Spoiler

This time the baby survived!

 

10-11:

 

WTF?!?!?!? This just got 1000 times crazier!

I'm loving it!

The dialogue is killing me:

 

Spoiler

"Who is this guy who beats cops and worries about his grandmother’s opinion?"

"I knew he was crazy, but not like that."

"And where did he get that machine gun?"

"How dare you call me a hag earlier?"

 

New JoJo is is on an entirely different level. Forget Spiderman making fun of his opponents, Joseph guesses everything they will say and do. And when he doesn't, he runs away.

Speedwagon almost died, only to find himself in the worst possible hands...

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Samurai Champloo 8: Samurai rappers. Ok, this show is amazing.

21 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure 9:

 

A wedding and a happy (obviously not) ending.

  Reveal hidden contents

This time the baby survived!

 

10-11:

 

WTF?!?!?!? This just got 1000 times crazier!

I'm loving it!

The dialogue is killing me:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

"Who is this guy who beats cops and worries about his grandmother’s opinion?"

"I knew he was crazy, but not like that."

"And where did he get that machine gun?"

"How dare you call me a hag earlier?"

 

New JoJo is is on an entirely different level. Forget Spiderman making fun of his opponents, Joseph guesses everything they will say and do. And when he doesn't, he runs away.

Speedwagon almost died, only to find himself in the worst possible hands...

 

If you thought Phantom Blood was weird, then strap yourself in because Battle Tendency is going to be one hell of a ride.

[Bartimaeus]

Galaxy Express 999, episode 2. We're onto Mars now...which was only semi-successfully terraformed into what's basically a perpetual sandstorm in the wild west - i.e. a hellhole, but a hellhole that's technically inhabitable. Our main character, Tetsuro, decides to check out the local scene and nearly gets murdered by two local lovers for his train pass who want to get off of Mars. He manages to survive thanks to some timely advice of a kindly old barkeep and does the (self-defense) homiciding himself, and gets out of dodge. Alright. It's not particularly grabbing me and it's pretty old-fashioned, but it's O.K. I suppose - undoubtedly much better than something like Lady Asuka anyhow.

All the young women characters (three so far) look so close to being exactly the same that it's kind of throwing me for a loop...and then the guy that tried to kill the MC looked bizarrely like Crusher Joe that that also threw me for a loop.

Sakura stuff:

Spoiler

 

11 hours ago, majestic said:

Like I said, at some point around episode 12 I really started to like Sakura and her voice actor's performance, but it's of course not just her. Everyone is great in their own way, even if some of them get more development than others. Meiling went from the idiot ball butt-monkey to a very likeable friend of the group to a tragic butt-monkey. I guess it was inevitable, Shaoran and Sakura were something that I remember calling the moment Shaoran showed up (too lazy to dig up the post ).

It's really a textbook case of "these two start out not really liking each other, that's going to be a romance plot in the future", but it really, really takes its time to unfold and you can see things making sense every step of the way, unlike its more retarded versions in romantic comedy feature films.

Cardcaptor Sakura surprised me with that though, I expected Shaoran would be simply there to give Sakura a gentle way out of her crush on Yukito, but then along comes Meiling and it ends up with me being all sad. Surprised in the sense that they actually went there, I mean, once Meiling showed up and told everyone she's engaged to Shaoran and after episode 40 (Dream), it was clear to me that it will end in tears, but still, I mean, after the first couple of episodes, who would have thought something like this could happen at all?

To be fair, Sakura *did* like Xiaolang...as well as Meiling from the very beginning. Of course, Sakura likes everyone. It was Xiaolang that was less fond of her and more competitive, until Meiling showed up to kind of slowly and indirectly push him into Sakura's camp, and the fact that Yukito was averted by a mildly clever and very convenient bit of narrative writing while also heart-shatteringly squashing Meiling on the way is only a bonus, really.

Yeah, I'm really not into the Eriol gang. I literally just said this about Ponyo: they act (...and also look) ridiculous and I don't really understand them or what they're trying to accomplish, and they don't really feel like they're written the most consistently. I know the goal of Eriol is to not to actually maim Sakura, but he sure has gotten very close a number of times with some of the stunts he's pulled, and heck, some of them have been very close to seriously hurting other people that aren't Sakura. This whole ongoing "testing" or "training" narrative between Eriol and Sakura does not feel particularly strong...or really needed - I honestly think you could've gotten rid of this entire plot and just gone with just having everything be a mix of standalone lower-stakes stuff (smaller adventures, other sorts of non-magical problems that Sakura could figure out ways to solve using a mix of both her magic and non-magical abilities...you know, stuff that the show has already at times showcased perfectly well) as well as the character-driven stuff that it's already been doing. Clow Reed never needed to be reincarnated or whatever, never mind become the "main threat", methinks.

My mom is the reason anyone in my family is into PCs/gaming: she was the first out of all of us before we were even born. Bit of a different situation from you, then, .

(e): Samurai Champloo, episode 5. Good lord, poor Fuu can't catch a break...and I still don't know the names of the other two main characters. I *think* the crazy one is Gin, but I still can't figure out the other's. This was probably the weakest episode so far, and it was still pretty decent. (e): Lmao, the other one's name is Jin. Yeah, that about figures.

(e): Episode 6...

Fun episode, but...not what I expected.

Edited October 29, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Komi Can't Communicate 2: 2 friends made, 98 to go.

I liked this one better than the first. I'm not sure why Tadano struggles so much to just say Komi can't talk, but I guess that wouldn't matter because this high school is crazy. I guess it's a week until the next episode drops.

[Sarex]

13 minutes ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

Komi Can't Communicate 2: 2 friends made, 98 to go.

I liked this one better than the first. I'm not sure why Tadano struggles so much to just say Komi can't talk, but I guess that wouldn't matter because this high school is crazy. I guess it's a week until the next episode drops.

Forgot this was weekly...

[Sarex]

Wait, why the hell are they not translating the side text... So much is lost without that... Yeah this is better watched elsewhere, where people put in more effort.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

27 minutes ago, Sarex said:

Forgot this was weekly...

It is unfortunately. Why Netflix decided to do weekly after getting everyone used to binge makes no sense to me.

And I did not pick up the side text, other than some tiny English characters appearing with them.

Oh, and JJBA Battle Tendency 10 and 11.

Everything @InsaneCommander said is true, this is much weirder than Phantom Blood and much better. SPACE RIPPER STINGY EYES!

Kind of spoilers ahead

Unlike Phantom Blood, it takes a while for the main antagonist to show up. Also unlike Phantom Blood, JoJo is more interesting and fun than the villain. But the villain is no where near as good as Dio. I don't think Phantom Blood was bad by any means, but compared to later parts it just doesn't hit the same highs.

Now for some spoilers

 

[Sarex]

2 minutes ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

It is unfortunately. Why Netflix decided to do weekly after getting everyone used to binge makes no sense to me.

And I did not pick up the side text, other than some tiny English characters appearing with them.

It's not Netflix that producing it and the Japanese are very traditional, so I think it would take a lot of convincing to get them to release it all at once. Besides I don't know how many anime watchers in JP use Netflix versus cable network TV.