Anime and Manga - < To Be Continued I \ I /

[majestic]

15 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

(e): Was looking at the soundtrack for Samurai Ran...no English titles, so I put it through Google translate real quick. Uh...can you identify a theme?

Not sure, but there's a nice, cold draft coming from my window right now. Almost windy in here...

15 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

1.5x speed isn't even that fast. I had watch Devilman Crybaby at anywhere between 2x and 3x speed - boy, that was a trip. Yeah, I suggest that instead, .

Devilman Crybaby is a trip even at regular speeds, so yeah, I can imagine that being even weirder.

15 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

You, uh...you gonna go straight into that one after ViVid as well?

Yes. The way I see it it's best to go straight to cutting out the festering wound, and afterwards it's time for the TV anime version of Magic User's Club, based purely on the presumption that Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle is better than either ViVid Strike! and Magic User's Club. The first two episodes weren't exactly my cup of tea especially with the changed voice actors and so close to finishing Cardcaptor Sakura, but they weren't bad.

Best to make sure that's well and truly behind me.

That gives the following schedule: Speed through Vivid and Vivid Strike! as fast as possible, watching the two Nanoha movies which at least are a sequel to StrikerS, not a spinoff, and then Mahoutsukai Tai!. Yep. Much fun lies ahead.

[majestic]

Uhm, so, I've watched the remaining episodes of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid at 2x speed, the subtitles proved to be readable even going this fast, which means I'm done with the series now. I also found out that of course this season was written, directed and animated by some other team, not the ones that made parts of the first season, A's and StrikerS. That would have been really weird.

After episode seven and the mock battle it was straight to the tournament, where the show very helpfully introduced a new set of characters (the finalists of last year's tournament), then proceeded to have some really god-awful shounen-offs between competitors, including a fight between Einhart and Corona, Vivio's white haired friend whose magical power is creating gigantic golems from the ground.

Einhart wins, allowing her to proceed to round three or something, or round four, of the tournament. Vivio is seen training for her next match, as are the others, and then it's...

Yep. Over. Fin. The end. It just ends. In the middle of the god damned tournament after subjecting me to 12 episodes of badly written, horribly characterized nonsense that spent almost an entire episode on a nude bathing adventure where everyone gets sexually assaulted by a phase walker, a two episode long mock battle and what feels like hours on these terribly directed, badly drawn, sh*ttily animated and sometimes CGI-ridden abominations they called magical attacks.

Yeah you morons, perhaps spend less time making mastubatory material for the trashy part of the fanbase and think more about characterization? Increase audio quality a bit, make sure the voice actors don't squeak like toads you've just accidentially ran over with your motorcycle and get your heads out of your arses, then your retarded piece of sh*t series isn't going to be cancelled.

I so hope everyone involved in this project (except the poor voice actors who have to live with having this on their resume) got fired and squared away in a Chinese reeducation center, or waterboarded in Guantanamo for crimes against humanity.

The manga this was adapted from is currently 102 chapters long, and sadly, there exists an English fan translation that's available to read online, albeit on a sketchy site that doesn't seem to be entirely legitimate, seeing how the ads on it asked me if I want nude pictures of my neighour. I most certainly do not want any of that, and her name isn't Emilia either. Not sure what's going on there. Did I mention this is 102 chapters? The first one has 二十一 pages. 百二 chapters. I...

I... This just... it's... that... uhm. It... it... it... corruption detected. Rebooting.  Unrecoverable damage to storage and code base. Initialize reset. Stand by. Ready. Reset complete.

Pleased to meet you. I'm majestic, and I sometimes watch anime. This thread seems like fun, has anyone here watched Sailor Moon? It's been a while since I've watched it, and I wonder if it'll hold up. I kind of don't want to ruin something for me that was really important to me in the past. What do you think?

Edited December 15, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

7 minutes ago, majestic said:

What do you think?

That ZA HANDO needs to scrape away some anime.

[InsaneCommander]

Diamond is Unbreakable: the end

 

This season was much more enjoyable than I expected. Just a guy protecting his town from evil Stando users. Sure, nothing more to that.

 

Spoiler

What we actually get is, in a way, a continuation of the Egypt plot, with expanded information on how some people get Standos (there are still a few that are born with powers and there is thousands years old Anubis, that could be older than the arrow, but others were probably shot with that).

 

Kira’s new ability was great, but it had a major flaw: he wasn’t the one who remembered the future. And that was how Hayato used it against him.

 

Okuyasu: “I would never forgive this Stando’s face.” Well, except nobody is noticing it in Kira’s tie in the picture!

 

Killah Queeno and Stray Cato are quite the team.

 

Killer Queen with Sheer Heart Attack and Another One Bites the Dust is one of the coolest references in the show.

 

Great ending for Kira: beaten, ran over by the ambulance and sent to hell or wherever he was taken. And good riddance! Oh, and I loved that after punching him once, Jotaru looked at his friends and decided to go full ORA ORA ORA on Kira.

 

Some questions remain:

 

Will Hayato’s mother ever find out her husband is dead?

Can’t Josuke heal Okuyasu’s father?

What happened to the arrow that was in Kira’s father’s hands? Is it in Naples now?

Is the Speedo Wagon foundation obsessed with the Joestar family tree?

 

Yes, I have watched the first episode of Golden Wind too. They are dialing up the bizarre stuff, aren’t they?

Also, tongues are back!

 

Spoiler

 

Edit: I had to add "" because that was really dumb of them!

Edited December 16, 2021 by InsaneCommander

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Diamond is Unbreakable: Josuke and Older Joesph meet Baby Stand.

OH MY GOD!

2 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

Diamond is Unbreakable: the end

 

This season was much more enjoyable than I expected. Just a guy protecting his town from evil Stando users. Sure, nothing more to that.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

What we actually get is, in a way, a continuation of the Egypt plot, with expanded information on how some people get Standos (there are still a few that are born with powers and there is thousands years old Anubis, that could be older than the arrow, but others were probably shot with that).

 

Kira’s new ability was great, but it had a major flaw: he wasn’t the one who remembered the future. And that was how Hayato used it against him.

 

Okuyasu: “I would never forgive this Stando’s face.” Well, except nobody is noticing it in Kira’s tie in the picture!

 

Killah Queeno and Stray Cato are quite the team.

 

Killer Queen with Sheer Heart Attack and Another One Bites the Dust is one of the coolest references in the show.

 

Great ending for Kira: beaten, ran over by the ambulance and sent to hell or wherever he was taken. And good riddance! Oh, and I loved that after punching him once, Jotaru looked at his friends and decided to go full ORA ORA ORA on Kira.

 

Some questions remain:

 

Will Hayato’s mother ever find out her husband is dead?

Can’t Josuke heal Okuyasu’s father?

What happened to the arrow that was in Kira’s father’s hands? Is it in Naples now?

Is the Speedo Wagon foundation obsessed with the Joestar family tree?

 

Yes, I have watched the first episode of Golden Wind too. They are dialing up the bizarre stuff, aren’t they?

Also, tongues are back!

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

It is really good, kind of like if JoJo did a Sailor Moon filler arc. Which I say in the best way possible.

You're about to find out what DIO would be like as a JoJo. Have fun.

[majestic]

ViVid Strike!, episode one.

Well, this one is a complete spinoff without Nanoha in the title. I guess she's still Vivio's adopted mother, so she'll show up for a cameo, maybe. The good news is, this is much better than ViVid, but there are some bad news too - first, there's a locker room scene, of course, but at least it's only a really short one and everyone's put some underwear on. Phew. You know you're coming from a really bad place when you're happy it doesn't get worse than that.

Second, and more importantly, is the story setup. It begins with two orphan girls named Fuu and Rinne being harrassed by a group of bullies. Fuu kicks one of them in the balls and the two receive a nice beating in return, and Fuu vows to become stronger so she can protect Rinne. Flash forward to the present time, a teenage Fuu is all alone, getting into a fist fight with a street gang, until the police shows up, then everyone scrambles.

Fuu runs into Einhart who asks her what's wrong, and Fuu attempts to punch her. Surprised by the raw, if unrefined strength in Fuu's punch, Einhart calls the ambulance. At the hospital, Fuu recovers, but is fired from her job over getting into said fistfight with the street gang. Or mob, or whatever. It's not really important. She's now out of a job and a place to stay, again. Rinne was, as we learn later, adopted by a rich family and is now martial arts world champion, running a winning streak for 56 matches, until Vivio beat her just recently. One year prior, Rinne and Fuu ran into each other, and Rinne punched her out, telling her to stay out of her life. She is strong now, and doesn't need anyone else.

Nove and Einhart offer Fuu a job at the Nakajima Gym (although it's more like a Dojo, but who am I to argue with the official name). Fuu insists on not doing any martial arts, but Nove has her work as sparring partner for the girls. Fuu is slightly irritated that the younger and smaller girls are supposed to have a sparring fight with her, but oh boy, does she learn the hard way that they're not to be trifled with. Rio, Corona, Vivio and Miura (the only leftover from ViVid, at least for now, a new character that trained with the Belkan Knights, who was going to go up against Vivio before the other series got, uhm, not renewed, cancelled, or whatever happened there) take turns in beating her up.

Einhart's plan to rekindle Fuu's inner shounen works perfectly, and after a little time she spars with Vivio again. Vivio still wins handily, but Fuu manages to land a hard blow, and the episode ends.

Audio quality and voice direction is very much improved. The animation still has some CGI and the art style simply doesn't look good, but it's an improvement over Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid. Still, I've got to say, even though this doesn't appear to be as much of an assault on my sanity as Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid turned out to be, it's just going to be another martial arts tournament show, and it puts the tired and old violent orphan from the street getting into fights is taken in by a martial arts master trope front and center, and Fuu is a bit of a shounen dolt, even though she's a girl.

Of course, StrikerS also began with a shounen dolt setup that got smoothed out by the season being about teamwork and, well, not rushing stupidly headlong into battle, so there's a chance Fuu will have her edges sanded down properly, but that's not going to change the basis of the story. StrikerS was fairly unique with it's half military sci-fi half magical girl setup, and while this one's a magical girl martial arts tournament show, it's really not that different from the thousands of lousy martial arts films and series out there.

Still, at least I don't want to gouge my eyes out. Yet. That's not so bad. It's the little things that matter, right?

Edited December 16, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Yep. Over. Fin. The end. It just ends.

I think we all ought to be thankful, no matter how bad getting to it was, .

13 minutes ago, majestic said:

Still, at least I don't want to gouge my eyes out. Yet. That's not so bad. It's the little things that matter, right?

Let me do a quick prognostication on whether or not StrikerV will make majestic gouge at least one eye out.

Unfortunately, I am unable to prognosticate, due to the fact that no-one bothered to tag this show, upload screenshots, or probably even watch it at all to begin with. You will have to find out for yourself whether it will make you gouge your eyes out. I did find these two comments from posters on it:

USER 1: "I can't recommend this. There is just nothing good about it."
USER 2: "It's better than Nanoha ViVid, at least..."

I found these comments in the exact place where I expected to find people only saying positive things about it. I then checked ViVid to compare: nobody said a single thing at all, .

Edited December 16, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

13 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I think we all ought to be thankful, no matter how bad getting to it was, .

Yeah, it's a good thing something happened and I don't remember there's a manga I could read to finish the storyline any more.

13 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Unfortunately, I am unable to prognosticate, due to the fact that no-one bothered to tag this show, upload screenshots, or probably even watch it at all to begin with.

I don't even know if any of the spinoffs are officially available anywhere outside of Japan. The first three seasons are on Amazon, apparently, but not sure about any of the ViVids. I watched it with what I'm pretty sure were fan subs. Why else would the episode names contain hashes to check for subtitle updates on github. I'm amazed someone went through all that trouble for such a pathetic piece of manure anime, but it just shows that even the worst trash has dedicated fans somewhere.

13 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I did find these two comments from posters on it:

USER 1: "I can't recommend this. There is just nothing good about it."
USER 2: "It's better than Nanoha ViVid, at least..."

Good to know I'm not alone with my opinion, and that means I'll crank up my playback speed to 2x for ViVid Strike! too. It's not like I'm going to lose any precious character moments that way, or if I actually do, I'll just drop it back to regular speed.

13 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I found these comments in the exact place where I expected to find people only saying positive things about it. I then checked ViVid to compare: nobody said a single thing at all, .

Just goes to show you how terrible that series really is, if even the fanboys have nothing to say about it. Yikes.

Edited December 16, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

7 hours ago, majestic said:

Just goes to show you how terrible that series really is, if even the fanboys have nothing to say about it. Yikes.

It's unfortunate that Nanoha became the anime equivalent of shovelware after StrikerS, but I guess that's the way it goes. Stick around long enough and get so far away from what made the show decent in the first place and/or straight up become clearly not meant to be seen by humans...

One season shows/franchises are clearly the superior format, .

7 hours ago, majestic said:

Good to know I'm not alone with my opinion, and that means I'll crank up my playback speed to 2x for ViVid Strike! too.

I'm proud of you.

(e): A-Girl / Alternative Girl (1993). 30 minute silent film-esque short about a girl getting verbally and physically abused by her current terrible boyfriend, having her home semi-burned down and meeting a different and much nicer boy as a happenstance result of said fire, figuring out that she has value and isn't dumb like she previously thought, starting to fall in love with said boy...and then figuring out that he already has another girlfriend and is a bit of a faithless womanizer. It's a little bit of a dissonant ending though, because he ends up choosing her instead, which in of itself feels like an odd way to end it after establishing that he's pretty unloyal...but what's more, it ends with the protagonist's sister asking if he actually broke up with his other girlfriend, and what if he cheats on YOU in the future? And yet, the happy music plays on...I'm not sure what to take away from that. I was dissatisfied with how it was ending, but throwing that in right in literally the final scene was an interesting choice to kind of counter that and surprise me.

Unusual format, music with sound effects throughout the entire thing but almost no voiced dialogue - just title cards when necessary, like old silent films. Good at conveying feelings via visuals and music without feeling slow or overbearing. I guess I liked it alright, all in all.

Edited December 16, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

20 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

One season shows/franchises are clearly the superior format, .

Not necessarily, but the risk of them jumping the shark is obviously much reduced.

20 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I'm proud of you.

Uhm, thanks, I guess.

So, Komi-san had another episode today and it was... the epitome of nothing at all. Najimi repeats the joke of sending Komi to buy something, but instead of Stabacks she's sent to Sabwey. Yep. Great job. Someone else stalks Komi for a bit, wow. Then everyone ends up at insane dragon power girl's place and plays whatever they thought was a funny weird name for Super Smash Bros, for some reason that dropped out of my brain the moment the scene was over.

The final bit was Komi giving out paper tissues. Which, by the way, I already know how to spell, and... it's ティッシュペーパー. Because loanword. Fun fact, in Katakana you can write sounds that otherwise would not exist in Japanese. ティ for instance reads "ti" which would be "chi", and sometimes that gets used, and sometimes it doesn't. Therefore, the work ticket isn't ティケット but チケット - chiketto. Why? Beats me.

Hm. Perhaps I'll just go and ask the guy whose grammar video's I've been watching. He pretty much always replies to comments or messages and seems to know a good deal. Could be that using the "e" column to create new sounds is a concept introduced later than chiketto as loanword.

 

[Gorth]

Finished Death Parade episode 5...

Hints (but no facts) about the dark haired "assistant arbiter's" possible background. Shown as a children's book. Decim (pronounced dekim as far as I understand it), the bartender gets tested by upper management. Turns out the dark haired woman (who still has no name) is actually a human and that's unheard in that particular work place. Nona the supervisor arbiter is the one doing the test. We also get a glimpse of where the bar is located, inside a giant tower. Nona and some unknown being is playing a rather creepy game of pool (which Nona seems to constantly win) with the 9 planets of the solar system instead of pool balls. In a semi casual remark, Nona tells him to ask God why she always win to which he replies with an ominous 'God left a long time ago' (not verbatim, just the gist of it) I suppose the jury is still out on whether Decim passed the test. Nona meets up with some other staff in what looks like a control room, discussing operational issues and numbers. Looks like the are currently expected to process 7000 cases daily with the current death rates...

 

[Bartimaeus]

10 hours ago, majestic said:

Uhm, thanks, I guess.

Learning to cheat [editor's note: not applicable to personal relationships] is an important skill for life in general...but especially for getting past these TERRIBLE SHOWS more quickly!

11 hours ago, majestic said:

Which, by the way, I already know how to spell, and... it's ティッシュペーパー. Because loanword.

Carried by the Wind: Samurai Ran, episode 11...the episode in which Ran, a samurai, basically says and proves that all the trappings of samurai and their pride and honor are all stupid.

Spoiler

Although, to be fair, anytime anyone has called her a samurai in the show, she has simply called herself a traveller instead, so maybe she's actually not. Actually, yeah, now that I think about it, she's not really the least bit like a samurai except for being skilled with the sword, so that makes more sense than not that she wouldn't actually be one. Plus...you know, I guess women can't actually be samurai - it's just as well, really, seeing as samurai are dumber than even Myao.

Episode 12, the episode in which Myao accidentally becomes a wanted criminal as a result of trying to help out some people who were getting murdered for their dishware...and also learns to use her "womanly wiles" to get out of deadly situations in which she can't solve with her claws...er, fists.

Spoiler

The specific womanly wiles I'm talking about, of course, being "screaming and hiding", .

Final episode 13...the episode which is the final episode of a too short show, .

I don't know what Ran is eating on the right there, but it sure looks like unappetizing mucky filth. Myao calls it "lees" and basically says it's about as close to garbage as you can buy, but a quick Google search didn't turn up anything relevant. Wait, no, apparently I just needed to add "Japanese" to my search. Of course it's a byproduct of sake, why wouldn't it be?

Surprisingly enjoyable and good show - these two dolts were great. Now that I've watched the silly and fun samurai show, I can finally get back to the dark and depressing but also still fun samurai show, Samurai Hairdo.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Diamond is Unbreakable 14-17

Koichi and a creepy guy meet a manga artist, Jotaro takes Josuke hunting, and JoJo now has ghosts.

**** it, this anime is amazing.

[majestic]

ViVid Strike!, episode two.

Huh, I might have to drop this back to regular playback speed. The episode focused on Fuu(ka)'s new work and life schedule, she spends time talking to Einhart and Nove, cleans the gym, works the reception, and at the end the girls convince her to try and make up with Rinne. I guess this will take the form of her beating Rinne, because why wouldn't it, but overall that was actually a nice episode, except for the transformation bits, and Einhart is in the shower for a bit.

The girls transformed for the first time, and Fuu doesn't have a techno-mage thingmajig yet, so the others helpfully use their magic to transform her into an adult. It works, except... for her clothes, which promptly disappear. Cue red-faced Fuu running off. The other transformations aren't as bad as the ones from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid, but they're still a bit too long. The scene with her running off wasn't meant as fanservice (the other transformations, as always, are... as was Einhart in the shower, although that was thanfully short), it was clearly comedic in nature, except, yeah, as always, ha ha, I laffed. Not. Your milage may vary.

Still, there's no reason to recommend watching this, and I don't think it will ever be "worth" watching outside of not being bad (assuming it keeps up being all right and doesn't fall apart). Feels a bit like the first season of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, which is probably sort-of needed to establish the characters of A's and StrikerS, but is otherwise somewhat unremarkable, but I've commented on that at length.

12 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Learning to cheat [editor's note: not applicable to personal relationships] is an important skill for life in general...but especially for getting past these TERRIBLE SHOWS more quickly!

Ah, I see. I've cheated plenty at school, does that count?

Looking forward to trying Carried by the Wind.

Edited December 17, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

29 minutes ago, majestic said:

Looking forward to trying Carried by the Wind.

If you hate it, it's not my fault. I don't know why it wouldn't be my fault, but it won't be.

29 minutes ago, majestic said:

(assuming it keeps up being all right and doesn't fall apart)

What are my betting odds for this? I'd like to place money on it.

29 minutes ago, majestic said:

Ah, I see. I've cheated plenty at school, does that count?

Absolutely!

29 minutes ago, majestic said:

it was clearly comedic in nature, except, yeah, as always, ha ha, I laffed. Not. Your milage may vary.

Weird, since those parts were specifically and masterfully crafted for you to laugh at. How strange!

54 minutes ago, KP on top of ZA WARUDO said:

**** it, this anime is amazing.

You weren't sure before now?

Edited December 18, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

11 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

You weren't sure before now?

It's better on the rewatch. It manages to be more light-hearted than the Crusaders' fight against DIO while somehow doubling down on the weirdness in a series that rightfully has "Bizarre" in the title. And as a controversial opinion, I prefer the characters as twinks to gym gods.

[majestic]

4 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

If you hate it, it's not my fault. I don't know why it wouldn't be my fault, but it won't be.

I don't think I'll hate it from what you've posted about it, but let's make a deal, I won't hold that against you, and if you end up not liking K-On! (which I maintain is on the table, regardless of prognostications and that best of video) it's not going to be my fault either.

8 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

What are my betting odds for this? I'd like to place money on it.

I'm not taking any bets here. I'm weird, not insane.

9 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Absolutely!

Heh, the things we did at school were pretty fun too. I already posted two essay style posts about it, one of them led Malcador to call me a sociopath, that was when I faked having had my school account hacked because I didn't do my homework, or when we started to acquire passwords by creating fake login screens. Simpler times, to be honest, much more fun. Decidedly more problematic too, so it wasn't all roses, or however that saying goes.

You know, sometimes I wonder if the magic is gone from many activities I enjoyed back then because I'm older now, or if that is simply a product of experience. I can't recall the last time I felt about a game the same way I did when looking at games from the nineties. Sure, it's easier to enjoy things when you're younger and more carefree, right, but that can't be all of it. I've tried a bunch of MMORPGs, but none ever were as magical as EverQuest (or Ultima Online, which I played more in my mind than on my screen, what with dial up being unable to handle it by far and large).

Me loving Cardcaptor Sakura so much seems to confirm that it's not just nostalgia and being younger. Eh, the hell, I'll stop rambling.

 

[Bartimaeus]

2 hours ago, majestic said:

I don't think I'll hate it from what you've posted about it, but let's make a deal, I won't hold that against you, and if you end up not liking K-On! (which I maintain is on the table, regardless of prognostications and that best of video) it's not going to be my fault either.

That's pretty fair, especially given that you've maintained there's a strong possibility I'll dislike it this entire time. ...Plus, it's way easier for me to accept this deal knowing I'll only watch probably like 2 episodes at worst if I hate it right off the bat versus you having to watch all thirteen episodes of Ran, .

2 hours ago, majestic said:

I'm not taking any bets here. I'm weird, not insane.

Just have to balance the odds right, like an actual sportsbook. Give me those 1:100* odds that it'll implode at some point!

*Bet $100, get $101 back if you're right, .

2 hours ago, majestic said:

when we started to acquire passwords by creating fake login screens

I remember this one...

2 hours ago, majestic said:

You know, sometimes I wonder if the magic is gone from many activities I enjoyed back then because I'm older now, or if that is simply a product of experience. I can't recall the last time I felt about a game the same way I did when looking at games from the nineties.

Almost nothing is new...but sometimes things can feel new if it's the first thing of that type that you've played/watched and if it specifically appeals to you (or forcefully makes itself appeal to you, if you watched/played it during a formative period of your life). There's not likely to be a Souls-type ARPG that'll ever compare to the first time I played Dark Souls; there's not likely to be a MOTHER-esque JRPG that'll ever compare to the first time I played Undertale; I'm not likely to find many more shoujo animes that deeply and personally appeal to me on most every level like Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura do (particularly because the industry is literally not making anything that could even possibly hope to compare in even a few critical areas, never mind all of them...and there's only so many candidates to check out that came out during the correct era). So on and so forth, . Time passes and industries and their trends, conventions, and even goals all change while we mostly stay the same...and heck, while we mostly stay the same, it's not as though we would want to be inundated with the same exact thing over and over anyways. Inevitably, we're all left behind for some reason or another at some point and it's up to each of us to find new/different types of things to enjoy.

Birth (1984). Wikipedia summary:

Quote

Aqualoid was a prosperous planet, but an attack from a mysterious life force, the Inorganics, transforms it into a post-apocalyptic shell of its former self. When Nam finds a mysterious sword, he is suddenly the object of a planet-wide chase. With the Inorganics closing in, will Nam and his friends discover the secret of the sword and save their world? Or will they destroy Aqualoid in favor of a new Birth?

I'd listened to the soundtrack before I watched the film, and liked the soundtrack enough to give it a try. Nope, it's sort of basically kind of a bad and dumber Nausicaa with way too much action. I tried like ten other things today, and this was the highlight of them because I actually made it like 30 minutes into it (the longest out of anything because most other things were immediately and obviously bad - to be fair, this was also the one I most wanted to be decent out of what I tried) before finally admitting defeat. Don't watch anything I tried today, folks. What did I try today? I don't remember and it doesn't matter.

Edited December 18, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Bartimaeus]

K-On, episode 1. The jam session to introduce the show was pretty nice. My dub was set to English and hearing Usagi as the main character was a bit of a jolt, but I then remembered that majestic actually mentioned this being the case at some point. I'm not sure which I prefer in this first scene so far - I'm leaning English for the moment, but I'll keep switching. Oh...oh no, they just said "-senpai" in the English, guess I have to do the Japanese, because that is just nasty and unacceptable.

Oh gosh, this intro song is...uh, an experience. The song is bad enough, but the video is about seizure-worthy. The 3D animation that's in this already looks real bad. Also, is it just me, or do all the characters have tiny little babby hands?

Funnily, even though I'm listening to the Japanese, I can still mentally hear Viz!Usagi doing Yui(?)'s lines through the subtitles here anytime she talks. It's...actually kind of weird.

I...uh, don't know about this, this seems kinda...er, bad-ish, but you did say the first episode is pretty rough, so I'll try to bear with it. Plus, even though it is rough, it's not...making me want to peel my brain yet exactly, at least. Well, it kind of is, but not so many layers that I would forget who I am, ya know? ...I'm going to have to start calling bad shows "brain-peelers" from now on.

[Gorth]

Death Parade 6...

Both sad and funny at the same time. A young girl gets pitted against some kind of "Idol" pop star. Unfortunately she's a "true fan girl", in the most frustrating way. Like wanting to pull your hair out while running, screaming LALALALALALA off a cliff kind of annoying. Not because she's evil per se, just completely switching her brain off when it comes to the object of her worship, said pop star guy. Who just so happens to be a womanizer and a creep of the despicable kind. In the end she offers to forfeit the game for her idol, but in a moment of weakness, he tries to save her. He's still a piece of scum of course, being the cause of someone else's suicide (her sister was apparently the one who sent the guy to the arbiters bar in a little payback action, involving a bomb). Todays game is something where they have to put hands and feet on some coloured dots on the floor. In the end, the arbiter (which is not Decim this time, but one of his colleagues) decides they take to long and suddenly all the dots have negative effects, from scalding steam and lava floor to insta deep freeze or the floor completely disappearing, revealing a very long drop to a bunch of spikes at the bottom of a pit...

It ends before we get any hint where either of them is headed though.

[majestic]

7 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

That's pretty fair, especially given that you've maintained there's a strong possibility I'll dislike it this entire time. ...Plus, it's way easier for me to accept this deal knowing I'll only watch probably like 2 episodes at worst if I hate it right off the bat versus you having to watch all thirteen episodes of Ran, .

Indeed, not necessarily for its content, because that is mostly fine (some exceptions in season one), but the presentation takes some getting used to, from the animation to the semi-chibi style of the characters, and the first season has some rough edges where the showrunners still had manga panels to work with, but more on that as a reply to the actual post. Wee!

7 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Just have to balance the odds right, like an actual sportsbook. Give me those 1:100* odds that it'll implode at some point!

*Bet $100, get $101 back if you're right, .

Fun, random fact: Games of chance have a state monopoly here, which means that only the state is allowed to run casinos or paid, large scale lotteries. Betting on the other hand doesn't fall under that regulation, because it's considered a game of, uhm, skill, because indeed, it's entirely possible to place your bets in a way that will make you win money regardless of the outcome, you just need to find it.

That's also the reason why there are private poker tournaments as long as they play Hold 'Em, because that's arguably more about being able to calculate your chances than random chance as a whole. Black Jack, on the other hand, is only played in casinos. Not that I like either, to be honest. I enjoy card games, but it's mostly either Schnapsen or Tarock, and in the case of the latter specifically a locally enjoyed variant that makes for much tighter gameplay.

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

K-On, episode 1. The jam session to introduce the show was pretty nice. My dub was set to English and hearing Usagi as the main character was a bit of a jolt, but I then remembered that majestic actually mentioned this being the case at some point. I'm not sure which I prefer in this first scene so far - I'm leaning English for the moment, but I'll keep switching. Oh...oh no, they just said "-senpai" in the English, guess I have to do the Japanese, because that is just nasty and unacceptable.

I thought you'd switch the moment Yui says something because that voice direction is just weird, but if adding honorifics in the dub did that, okay, at least the predicted result is fine the same.

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Oh gosh, this intro song is...uh, an experience. The song is bad enough, but the video is about seizure-worthy. The 3D animation that's in this already looks real bad. Also, is it just me, or do all the characters have tiny little babby hands?

No, they're all semi-chibi for some reason. I actually ended up liking the first song on repeat listens, but that's the only one. Well, and the silly rice song, but that's more because of the underlying scene than the song itself. It's hard to hate a song out of a soundtrack that's like the culmination of half a season of character growth and preparation, regardless of how much I'm not into the music style (which is I don't know what, exactly, I keep calling that ska because that's what I think ska is, but hell if I know).

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Funnily, even though I'm listening to the Japanese, I can still mentally hear Viz!Usagi doing Yui(?)'s lines through the subtitles here anytime she talks. It's...actually kind of weird.

That'll stick, beause Yui is such an Usagi at times... wait for her to flunk an exam.

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I...uh, don't know about this, this seems kinda...er, bad-ish, but you did say the first episode is pretty rough, so I'll try to bear with it. Plus, even though it is rough, it's not...making me want to peel my brain yet exactly, at least. Well, it kind of is, but not so many layers that I would forget who I am, ya know? ...I'm going to have to start calling bad shows "brain-peelers" from now on.

That's better than I thought the first episode would get, and yeah, it's rough. Yui won't drop paper sheets from now on, and won't be unable to talk, among a few other things (being Sakura and afraid of ghosts and scary things is shifted to Mio). The first season keeps having these randomly extreme moments that I'm assuming come from the manga, they're not entirely gone in the second season but toned down.

Episode two has the girls buy a guitar for Yui (or try to, at least), that was... much better, and the third episode has genuinely funny moments when Mio tries to, uhm, prepare Yui for her makeup exam. Outside of the random extreme moments that seemingly don't fit into it, it's more of a matter of presentation than content, by far and large. At least, I think. The show is mostly silly girly stuff. And cake. Lots of cake. Man, Yui eats more than Usagi. Well, no, but eh...

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

I thought you'd switch the moment Yui says something because that voice direction is just weird, but if adding honorifics in the dub did that, okay, at least the predicted result is fine the same.

I may not have listened to the English long enough - it straight up just sounded like Usagi to me. The other characters I was definitely less keen on (even Viz!Rei as...character I don't know the name of yet, ), but hearing Usagi was nice. Honorifics, on the other hand...as I said before, reading them is bad enough - hearing them combined with English is an immediate termination, even if I really wanted to hear more Usagi.

1 hour ago, majestic said:

The first season keeps having these randomly extreme moments that I'm assuming come from the manga, they're not entirely gone in the second season but toned down.

That seems like a good assumption - I'd already noticed a few moments that seemed really off-kilter for no real reason, like they'd just been randomly inserted and didn't fit. Panel for panel comic/manga -> cartoon/anime adaptations are not really...uh, workable for me.

2 hours ago, majestic said:

And cake. Lots of cake.

You say to the guy that literally stopped watching Steven Universe after the first four episodes because they were inexplicably all about food...

2 hours ago, majestic said:

I enjoy card games, but it's mostly either Schnapsen or Tarock, and in the case of the latter specifically a locally enjoyed variant that makes for much tighter gameplay.

I'm more of a cribbage guy, but I'd certainly try those out, .

 

[majestic]

Will be posting from my phone until tomorrow at least so I’ll not bother quoting too much, but let me allay one fear. It’s not too much about the cakes, they’re often just eating cake and drinking tea while talking… instead of practicing their instruments. Well, except when someone steals Yui’s strawberry. Kind of anti-Japanese in a way. They’re lazy and don’t just give their best like they’re supposed to.

What else can I say. It leaves most of its issues behind at the end of season one and I thought the rest of the first season was uneven but generally still funny and nice overall. I’m not sure there are any direct panel adaptations because the basis for this was a four panel joke comic, but the not so fun weird jokes in between are probably based on the comics.

Edited December 19, 2021 by majestic
Fixed the silly phone layout. Good grief.

[majestic]

When I think back to watching K-On! the only thing I really liked about the first episode was the ending. That Yui will end up joining the club was a forgone conclusion, but they played for her and after that just perfectly timed pause said: “You guys really aren’t good, huh?” and it was really funny. The second episode convinced me that there is some potential in it, and the third has the first real laugh out loud moment. Hmmm. The girls take up a really boring part time job in the second episode, and it has this really funny moment when Mugi goes to haggle with the store clerk who ends up selling her the guitar for half the asking price.

 

Because her father owns the store, not because she is any good at haggling.

Edited December 19, 2021 by majestic
Fixing phone layout, ugh.

[Bartimaeus]

50 minutes ago, majestic said:

When I think back to watching K-On! the only thing I really liked about the first episode was the ending. That Yui will end up joining the club was a forgone conclusion, but they played for her and after that just perfectly timed pause said: “You guys really aren’t good, huh?” and it was really funny.

I...wait, what?

Spoiler

I was not watching K-On!, but rather K-On!!. Glad you mentioned this, as I was just about to watch the second episode.

The actual episode 1 of K-On!:

Well, uh wow, that was a real brain-peeler. At least the intro video + song is a lot better than K-On 2's.

"It's a club that plays lighthearted music." You know, that makes more sense - for some reason, I was interpreting it as the energy type of light. And I guess Mugi doesn't like fries. What a monster.

Dear lord, Usagi Yui is a truly advanced level of brainless in this. Hopefully, uh, the second episode isn't...the apocalypse.