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

[Bartimaeus]

Since you watched it, I guess I'll make an effort to also watch it sometime within the next couple of days.

Words Pop Up Like Soda Pop: Have you considered 2x speed? I said it was "fine" and gave it a 6.5/10, you should really only try watching the things that I actually make an effort to recommend instead, .

[majestic]

7 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Since you watched it, I guess I'll make an effort to also watch it sometime within the next couple of days.

 

You're so going to love Tetsuo.

Some spoilers ahead:

Spoiler

His friend Kaneda keeps helping him out until he accidentially acquires superpowers the government experimented with and goes all ME STRONK NOW, ME NO NEED HELP! I HATE BEING HELPED. ME STRONK NOW! and refuses to listen, causing all sorts of problems along the way... and it takes Akira, the namesake, and a really crude nuclear power metaphor, to rein him in. 

It's... well, in a way it is a classic that probably "should" be watched if only to appreciate it's (pop)cultural impact. There's a number of other high profile anime for which it was a precusor, and any number of filmmakers and writers like to cite Akira as an influence. It's easy to see why when you watch it and keep in mind that it is a film from 1988. I guess for the US it was the first actually serious and truly adult animated film that got wide acclaim, i.e. a showcase that animation isn't just for kids, but that's something else entirely and not really relevant to my experience with the film, and I'm guessing it won't be relevant for yours either.

30 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Words Pop Up Like Soda Pop: Have you considered 2x speed? I said it was "fine" and gave it a 6.5/10, you should really only try watching the things that I actually make an effort to recommend instead, .

Everyone else liked it, and you didn't hate it, and 6.5 is pretty good for something that starts at 0/10 for being made past 2004, so that was a pretty decent recommendation, all in all, and no, I'm not going to finish it in 2x the speed now that Cherry and Yuki are walking around and the film just might finally stop to suck. I mean, hopefully. If it doesn't, I just really might do that. 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

16 minutes ago, majestic said:

Everyone else liked it, and you didn't hate it, and 6.5 is pretty good for something that starts at 0/10 for being made past 2004, so that was a pretty decent recommendation, all in all, and no, I'm not going to finish it in 2x the speed now that Cherry and Yuki are walking around and the film just might finally stop to suck. I mean, hopefully. If it doesn't, I just really might do that. 

Beaver vs the mall cop is the most epic anime battle of the century.

[majestic]

This is... torture. I don't know how else to describe it. I had to pause after...

Spoiler

Yuki of course breaks the stupid record they've just spent half the film looking for. There's an unwritten rule that every rom-com thing needs a low point, and from a narrative point of view I understand that, but Cherry is moving anyway, so that's enough to "overcome" or whatever else the hell now is going to happen. Not really being into the film makes certain curious happenstances appear like the worst sort of contrivances too. 

Cherry just happens to find a haiku book that explained what Yamazakura are meant to represent when used as kigo (i.e. a term that references the season in Japanese poetry), Smile's mobile display goes out while she's reading the haiku he makes of that, seeing her reflection and the record of course just happens to be in the same place as the book, having dropped behind a piece of furniture at some point in time.

And then she goes and break it, because what else could happen. 

Time to finish, there's only like 20 minutes left, unless there is a 10 minute credit scene. Well, one can only dream...

On the bright side, I think this proves that the world doesn't end when (if?) I will watch Samurai Champloo. 

edit: Three minutes later I want to strangle both of the lead characters. 

edit 2:

Spoiler

Now she's trying to glue the record pieces together. I have no words for this scene. Girl, do you have some cognitive impairment? How about waiting for the glue to dry out? Also, eh, good luck with the playback afterwards, but it's the thought that counts, I guess...

 

Edited December 27, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

14 minutes ago, majestic said:

On the bright side, I think this proves that the world doesn't end when (if?) I will watch Samurai Champloo. 

Well ZA WARUDO already ended in 1988. Samurai Champloo is really good but I have a hard time watching it when the episodes are two parters. The finale ups this and is a 3 parter so I've been putting it off for a while.

16 minutes ago, majestic said:

Three minutes later I want to strangle both of the lead characters. 

Smile for me!

[majestic]

Jesus H. Christ please don't tell me that someone made a clock out of one of those records. 

edit:

Okay. It's done. Dear god. What was is that @Bartimaeus wrote after watching Madoka? Anime isn't just cancelled, it never existed. Yep.  

Edited December 27, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

39 minutes ago, majestic said:

Jesus H. Christ please don't tell me that someone made a clock out of one of those records. 

edit:

Okay. It's done. Dear god. What was is that @Bartimaeus wrote after watching Madoka? Anime isn't just cancelled, it never existed. Yep.  

 

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Jesus H. Christ please don't tell me that someone made a clock out of one of those records. 

edit:

Okay. It's done. Dear god. What was is that @Bartimaeus wrote after watching Madoka? Anime isn't just cancelled, it never existed. Yep.  

I actually hated Words Pop Up Like Soda Bubbles, this was all an elaborate ruse to punish you for making me watch Madoka, .

Spoiler

No, I did think it was fine - or rather, I didn't think it did enough wrong in any particular area to colossally annoy me like so many other things do (well, outside of that one gosh-awful action sequence near the beginning), and it was my impression that most everything it did was competent enough even if a few things were forced or contrived. However, I don't remember much about it besides some broad strokes and I didn't care too much for any of the characters (indeed, I can't picture even a single one in my mind). Probably don't ever watch Your Name either, since they're pretty similar and that was just "it's fine" to me as well...uncoincidentally also rated a 6.5/10. 

Now you're really making me reconsider whether I should go back and rate both of them worse...

 

Edited December 27, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

I actually hated Words Pop Up Like Soda Bubbles, this was all an elaborate ruse to punish you for making me watch Madoka, .

Well, that explains a few things...

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

Spoiler

No, I did think it was fine - or rather, I didn't think it did enough wrong in any particular area to colossally annoy me like so many other things do (well, outside of that one gosh-awful action sequence near the beginning), and it was my impression that most everything it did was competent enough even if a few things were forced or contrived. However, I don't remember much about it besides some broad strokes and I didn't care too much for any of the characters (indeed, I can't picture even a single one in my mind). Probably don't ever watch Your Name either, since they're pretty similar and that was just "it's fine" to me as well...uncoincidentally also rated a 6.5/10. 

Now you're really making me reconsider whether I should go back and rate both of them worse...

 

 

Spoiler

Your Name is not really on my viewing list, but A Silent Voice is, but that seems to be one of those drama with soft piano intro films you enjoy so much. I know nothing about it except the premise but judging from that alone it has the potential to hit hard, and I don't know if I want to.

Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop was absolute torture for me, beginning with the way it looks, albeit that diminished in time. I can only imagine that my eyes are now even more damaged than before and I'll end up being night blind because my pupils permanently closed after being subjected to this much radiant and colorful brightness. There's that action scene in the beginning, of course, but that just made for a god damned awful first impression, and I could deal with something like that, even maybe without affecting the overall rating too much. If...

If the rest was any good, but it just wasn't, or at least it didn't work for me at all. I didn't find the quirks of the two leads endearing at all, even though I can understand both in some fashion and should be able to relate (if not emotionally then intellectually). Then there's the terrible entourage of both, the annoying sisters and the super annoying friends, one of which reminded me an awful lot of Daru from Steins;Gate insofar as being one of them super ridiculous anime otakus, leading to that video call from hell.

I was an awkward teenager once just as well, but that's... really, if that's how generation smartphone behaves, then we really don't need to bother with fixing climate change. Just let everthing burn.

Some of the things it just glosses over, like when Yuki/Smile simply starts working at the daycare to be close to Cherry. That's fine, and they established an absence on the duty roster before, but how about at least mentioning it in passing? There are things we could infer from context and don't have to, like being told about Yuki's teeth (why, she's at the dentist at some point, let us find out naturally), but here, in this one instance where it would be nice to see her, dunno, get hired and Cherry's reaction to being able to spend more time with her, that seems like it could be a decent opportunity for some character development.

Then came the scene where it was clear as day that one of them will break the record. It ended up being Yuki because she really has no idea what records are or that they can break like that (and that being bent like that isn't the biggest problem), and that was fine. Annoyingly predictable, but fine. The movie promptly proceeds to take a huge dump on the potential of them getting closer by Cherry helping her apologize (as much as that is even possible, in this instance). Instead it just does what the whole hackneyed "Cherry is moving away" sub-"plot" is supposed to do, it ends up driving a wedge between Cherry and Yuki, twenty minutes before the end. They then find another one of those records that someone who has a RECORD STORE - mind, that's the most ridiculous part of it - apparently cannot find in all of Japan for no want of trying just in the daycare he was at all the time, looking at that watch all the time without ever once thinking "hey, that clock looks an awful lot like the record I'm looking for" because hey, it's a clock. Leave it to some random co-worker to deduce that within five seconds of seeing the broken record. Yep. Sigh.

Onwards to the move, "Toughboy" and "Beaver" are suddenly friends over nothing (again, we can infer this happened while they were looking for the record, but we're not shown in lieu of... dunno whatever the film did to waste my time), Mr. Stupid doesn't tell his father to drive him back to the mall so he can go on a marathon run towards it for no reason, starts reading haikus to Yuki who just decides to drop her mask in the middle of everyone because all you really need to fix deep-seated personal issues is someone you met two weeks ago smiling at you.

Yay...

Half that criticism can probably be hurled at any feature film or mini-series with character development, but the pacing of the film is just off, it meanders too much in the beginning, then glosses over much of what is supposed to be meaningful moments in the middle only to rush into a conclusion that does way too many things all at once, with way too little time to properly set everything up.

If you want to re-evaluate the film, be my guest.  

Edited December 27, 2021 by majestic

[Sarex]

A Silent Voice is on a whole other level. It's a very different tone and story. If you have never seen it I can't recommend it enough. I hope you give it a shot.

[Bartimaeus]

35 minutes ago, majestic said:

A Silent Voice

Yeah, that's one of those that I tried to watch but wanted to kill myself five minutes into and just turned off instead of going through with it. Hopefully that doesn't happen to you.

51 minutes ago, majestic said:

If you want to re-evaluate the film, be my guest.

I only figured out who "Cherry" was when you mentioned him moving away. Suffice to say, this film did not leave too much of an impression. Maybe I'll just unrate it entirely and call it a day...

[majestic]

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Yeah, that's one of those that I tried to watch but wanted to kill myself five minutes into and just turned off instead of going through with it. Hopefully that doesn't happen to you.

No, that's probably not going to happen, but there is a whole host of other things that could, and I just recently noticed that with the, uhm, incident in ViVid Strike!, it's not a good idea for me to watch anything that touches on the subject matter too much, and A Silent Voice seems to be entirely dedicated to it. As much as I'm otherwise incapable of carrying a grudge, there's a deep-seated echo of a resentment leftover from times long gone.

If something comparatively incompetently crafted as ViVid Strike! can do that, I don't want to be exposed to something that's by all means apparently well made.

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I only figured out who "Cherry" was when you mentioned him moving away. Suffice to say, this film did not leave too much of an impression. Maybe I'll just unrate it entirely and call it a day...

Works for me.

3 hours ago, Sarex said:

A Silent Voice is on a whole other level. It's a very different tone and story. If you have never seen it I can't recommend it enough. I hope you give it a shot.

I'm really not sure that I want to, and I don't mean because every review on the planet mentioned it being depressing to the point of wanting to kill yourself (although not in the way @Bartimaeus means, heh). Violet Evergarden was hard enough to watch at times, and that's just commenting on the topic of a similar result, not a root cause.

[Bartimaeus]

On 12/27/2021 at 4:26 PM, majestic said:

although not in the way @Bartimaeus means, heh

In five minutes or two hours - as long as it gets the job done, right?

Akira (1988). The intro set a nice tone. Soundtrack is jamming. Animation has a strange style and level of detail that makes it unusual and fascinating to look at. I like the setting and visuals. I found the direction of the Japanese dub to be...a little lacking at times, but not too bad - I tried the (Animaze) English dub for a few minutes, and while it was competent enough, it didn't feel quite right, so I went back to the Japanese. Characters...sure are a lot of men and boys being shonen up in here. The post-apocalyptic setting...justifies that to a degree, but not to the extent of where it goes, I think - that, or I just didn't like where it went. Speaking of where it went, the plot and whatever the hell the themes were supposed to be...um... Well, it was classic 80s insanity plus a little extra, I suppose. Actually, this reminded me a lot of a cross between Venus Wars (1989) and Metropolis (2001), but better than either...and, as you can notice from the dates, released before either. It gets a "good" (7/10) for looking and sounding good and keeping me pretty entertained for most of its runtime, even if I thought it was utter nonsense by the end. Most every time I watch one of these old anime films, I can't help but keep thinking it's a bit of a shame that so much of the 80s' and 90s' fantastic animation/music/general style was used on so much silliness lacking in the departments that I value the most. ...This reminds me that Satoshi Kon died way too young - now there's a guy that knew how to do things just how I like them...and whose praises I probably won't ever stop singing. Except for Paprika, which is, ironically, his most famous and beloved, because of course it is, . I should re-watch that to see if it still doesn't appeal to me just as much as it did the first time I watched it.

Poor Kaori sure got a raw deal throughout this film. Every time a character said the main character's name ("Kaneda"), it just sounded like someone exclaiming Canada. ...O.K., now I have to go re-read majestic's post with the context of having actually seen it.

On 12/27/2021 at 4:13 AM, majestic said:

I like Blade Runner more than most posters here

Hey, I liked Blade Runner. The original one, mind you - the new one bored and annoyed me to the point of openly laughing at it trying to be deep and serious.

On 12/27/2021 at 4:13 AM, majestic said:

I absolutely don't like dsytopian or post-apocalyptic biker gangs

Oh, don't ever watch Venus Wars then, because it coincidentally is pretty much exactly that. Actually, I can't help but wonder if Venus Wars, which was released about a year and a half after Akira, was inspired a bunch by it, but a quick search didn't reveal when the film started development...though it is based off a 1986 manga, but Akira is a 1982 manga, so...

Yeah, I can't really disagree with what you wrote, except that I guess I liked it a little more than you did. Although...I'd say I liked the first half a lot more than the second half, but that's probably because the first half was more straightforward and more grounded as opposed to the...well, borderline meaningless ridiculousness of the final act that I kinda started zoning out at parts for, but it is what it is, I guess!

P.S. A note for @majestic - while glancing at the voice-cast for Azuki-chan, I couldn't help but notice that Meiling literally voices the titular character, which is hilarious because while watching it, I had actually thought that it was like watching a non-magical version of Cardcaptor with a toned down version of Meiling as the main character. Not sure if I was subconsciously influenced by the VA for Meiling literally being the main character, or...

Edited December 29, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

6 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

In five minutes or two hours - as long as it gets the job done, right?

Sure thing, I have the day off tomorrow, so maybe I'll just torture myself. Wouldn't be the first time, and at least this time it'll be with eyes open. The biggest issue I'm forseeing is simply that the movie is most likely going to ask me to feel any sort of empathy for the protagonist and his attempts at redemption, and I already know that's not going to work, and from that everything will just fall flat.

Or, maybe, I'll just go and try Tamako Market, that looks like eye cancer too, but at least it's potentially fun eye cancer, and not one that'll make me feel like being a terrible person for not being able to feel any empathy just because the poor bully is now a victim himself. Cry me a river.

6 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Characters...sure are a lot of men and boys being shonen up in here. The post-apocalyptic setting...justifies that to a degree, but not to the extent of where it goes, I think - that, or I just didn't like where it went. Speaking of where it went, the plot and whatever the hell the themes were supposed to be...um... Well, it was classic 80s insanity plus a little extra, I suppose. Actually, this reminded me a lot of a cross between Venus Wars (1989) and Metropolis (2001), but better than either...and, as you can notice from the dates, released before either. It gets a "good" (7/10) for looking and sounding good and keeping me pretty entertained for most of its runtime, even if I thought it was utter nonsense by the end.

It's tough to like a film when you hate every character. Except Kei, but she's not in the movie enough to matter.

6 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Poor Kaori sure got a raw deal throughout this film. Every time a character said the main character's name ("Kaneda"), it just sounded like someone exclaiming Canada. ...O.K., now I have to go re-read majestic's post with the context of having actually seen it.

Some things are just unfortunate, like the name Kozue. Depending on the voice actor saying it that almost sounds like Kotze, and that's German for puke (and the etymological basis for the English c-word, originally meaning a very low class prostitute), and also the reason why Kozue was the only character to receive a name change in our Attack No. 1 dub.

6 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Hey, I liked Blade Runner. The original one, mind you - the new one bored and annoyed me to the point of openly laughing at it trying to be deep and serious.

I liked 2049 too, but that has probably a lot to do with expecting nothing and finding a surprisingly watchable film, except for every scene where Harrison Ford shows up. Feels like he's been phoning it in since the late 80ies now. It was a bit too long for its own good, but I didn't find it to be terribly boring. I also didn't have to pause the playback.

6 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Yeah, I can't really disagree with what you wrote, except that I guess I liked it a little more than you did. Although...I'd say I liked the first half a lot more than the second half, but that's probably because the first half was more straightforward and more grounded as opposed to the...well, borderline meaningless ridiculousness of the final act that I kinda started zoning out at parts for, but it is what it is, I guess!

I'll make a mental note to probably not check out Venus Wars. I liked your description of it, but now I'm less certain. Part of the issue I had with Akira is that it does too much, and nothing of it properly. I generally have no problem with weird endings, one only needs to look at my posts about the Utena movie, or the series finale. I generally prefer my entertainment to be as free of allegory and metaphors as possible, but if it's done well enough, I don't mind, assuming it doesn't cross into intellectual wankery. I know that done well enough is a debatable when it comes to Utena as a whole because the series really drags in the middle, but I'm mostly talking about the ending, and I also cannot properly define when something stops being well done and becomes intellectual wankery. The original ending of NGE was dangerously close to being the latter, and it was also not much of the former, even though it still worked as a thematic closure to the series.

Akira himself - the character, not the film - was a bit too crude as a metaphor for my tastes. It's different if you use a Kaiju to do the same (like the most famous example, Godzilla). The actual ending was set up by a throwaway line of exposition in between. It features social unrest that erupts into a rebellion lead by Tetsuo but does nothing with it and just rushed through it. There's the military takeover of the civilian government that happens almost as a minor afterthought. There's the commentary on the dangers of unethical research.

Finally, and most glaringly, you have Tetsuo being able to fight off several laser gun equipped soldiers at one point, and then being almost unable to deal with Canada alone. Sure you can explain that in some manner, but then explain. Do something. Make Tetsuo talk and be blindsided by Kaneda. Anything. Or make that first shot count for more. If you want to bore me with a 20 minute sequence of Tetsuo turning into the evil overlord version of the Starchild, then at least make it interesting.

It's not impossible to do any of that properly, given more time. For a single feature film, perhaps stick to one subject and set it up better.

Lastly, the biker gangs I mentioned are a stand in for my dislike of juvenile delinquents when they're shown to be ultra-unsympathetic, violent and toxic but stick it to the "man" and rage against the "system" for whatever reason they have, but are largely unfocused, annoying and just simply criminal instead of inspirational. I see nothing of value in a gang of street thugs, and quite frankly, Kaneda and his friends are just that. For some reason that's usually biker gangs. Guess that comes with the renegade image bikes carry, or whatever, really.

I also get nothing out of cars or bikes, so that's... adding another layer on top. I guess that basic setup is my personal soft piano music intro.

Now the actual rebels, those would have been interesting, but they're in the movie just as a vehicle to get Kaneda to Tetsuo and for a seizure inducing (albeit good looking) and way too long action chase scene.

7 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

P.S. A note for @majestic - while glancing at the voice-cast for Azuki-chan, I couldn't help but notice that Meiling literally voices the titular character, which is hilarious because while watching it, I had actually thought that it was like watching a non-magical version of Cardcaptor with a toned down version of Meiling as the main character. Not sure if I was subconsciously influenced by the VA for Meiling literally being the main character, or...

Should I ever get to a level where I can understand spoken Japanese I'll check the series out, but that's probably years away, if the point ever comes at all, especially with reading being a lot more fun than listening. It would probably be better to badger someone into making fan-subs. I mean, there are fan subs for ViVid, so what the hell, anime community, what the hell?

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Diamond is Unbreakable: Harvest

What looked to be unassuming ended up being a very creepy stans. Okuyasu continues to make Polnareff look smart.

[majestic]

Oh dear God, why did I... do that.

It's like everything I touch recently is, dunno, cursed. So, of course there's a bathhouse in Tamako Market. In the first episode. There's also the talking bird that catches a glimpse of the protagonist bathing and promtply gets a nosebleed. Beakbleed?

Well, at least there's no ridiculous nudity (or any nudity). Still, pretty much everything about this is seizure inducing.

Tamako also goes and gets some coffee. The owner hands her a cup and says Einspänner gold blend. Except that's not an Einspänner, and they make it worse by adding milk. Not that I mind milk in a coffee, but Einspänner are served black with a whipped cream topping (that was traditionally placed there not to make the coffee sweet, but to add insulation so it stays warm longer during coach rides). Get your coffees right writers!

Well, so far that's pretty much about Tamako and his royal birdness who just gorged himself on mochi so much he grew fat over a couple of days and now can't fly. Uhm.

Everything else is a bit of a Romeo and Juliet setup, there's the daughter and the son of rival mochi shop owners. Sure, seen worse. Looks a bit like K-On! on crack. Nothing too offensive except for that beak issue. Anyway, at least it's short, and it's not ViVid Strike!, so that's... probably not going to end up being a favorite, but at least, eh, yeah. Time to sleep.

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

Okuyasu continues to make Polnareff look smart.

What, how's that even possible?

Edited December 30, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

15 minutes ago, majestic said:

What, how's that even possible?

Watch it and find out?

[majestic]

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

Watch it and find out?

I will, eventually.

[InsaneCommander]

11 minutes ago, majestic said:

What, how's that even possible?

You think that is bad? Wait until you meet Narancia (minor spoiler below)

Spoiler

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

35 minutes ago, majestic said:

I will, eventually.

Man that came off as more snarky than I intended, from now on I need to stop posting right after work.

Anyways Okuyasu is at least self-aware and realizes that he is the big dumb.

[Bartimaeus]

7 hours ago, majestic said:

It's like everything I touch recently is, dunno, cursed. So, of course there's a bathhouse in Tamako Market. In the first episode. There's also the talking bird that catches a glimpse of the protagonist bathing and promtply gets a nosebleed. Beakbleed?

Certifiably trash already, and it was only the first episode. You really need to work on your show-picking skills, . At least A Silent Voice is a single movie that's 2 hours long...

6 hours ago, KP on top of ZA WARUDO said:

Anyways Okuyasu is at least self-aware and realizes that he is the big dumb.

Being aware of your own limitations in knowledge and intelligence automatically makes you less dumb than those who aren't, in my opinion. So by my estimation, Polnareff is still dumber, .

7 hours ago, majestic said:

Lastly, the biker gangs I mentioned are a stand in for my dislike of juvenile delinquents when they're shown to be ultra-unsympathetic, violent and toxic but stick it to the "man" and rage against the "system" for whatever reason they have, but are largely unfocused, annoying and just simply criminal instead of inspirational. I see nothing of value in a gang of street thugs, and quite frankly, Kaneda and his friends are just that. For some reason that's usually biker gangs. Guess that comes with the renegade image bikes carry, or whatever, really.

This right here is the key problem with Venus Wars, because it describes the cast of protagonists to a T, and it's why even though Venus Wars had a number of other good things about it, it makes it pretty difficult to particularly like. Given how much of a mess it all was, I think I'm probably being slightly too generous to Akira in giving it a 7/10, especially because I only gave Venus Wars a 6/10 - as I usually do, I'll probably reflect back on it in like a month and consider adjusting it, most likely down to a 6.5. The initial impression is important, but so is the impact it made on you in a longer view. Some stuff really benefits from that retrospection because it turns out it stayed with me much longer and I have more positive feelings towards it than I thought or could have expected (see: NGE...or Whisper of the Heart, or Perfect Blue, or Miyu, or...), but if in a couple of months I look back and I have more negative feelings (see: Nadia) or feel it was actually perfectly forgettable (see: Soda Pop Bubbles Up Like Words), then my initial rating was too generous.

7 hours ago, majestic said:

It's tough to like a film when you hate every character. Except Kei, but she's not in the movie enough to matter.

Yeah, the two girls were both likeable enough, but both...not much in the film. Pretty much all testosterone besides that. And Kaori was more of a punching bag than a character, really.

7 hours ago, majestic said:

Should I ever get to a level where I can understand spoken Japanese I'll check the series out, but that's probably years away, if the point ever comes at all, especially with reading being a lot more fun than listening. It would probably be better to badger someone into making fan-subs. I mean, there are fan subs for ViVid, so what the hell, anime community, what the hell?

Hey, maybe the show is just as good reading only faces and emotions instead of words, . Yeah, I saw a few people out there who were also upset they couldn't find subs for it...some things just don't catch the attention of translators, I guess, particularly some older stuff that never got a lot of notoriety. Maybe the movie is unrepresentative of and significantly better than show, and that's why only it was translated, .

Edited December 30, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

Certifiably trash already, and it was only the first episode. You really need to work on your show-picking skills, . At least A Silent Voice is a single movie that's 2 hours long...

A 12 piece series isn't that much longer, especially not on twice the playback speed, however, I'm not quite ready to give up on it yet. It'll probably really be the last time I attempt to follow a creative team from one project to the next, that did not work too well with CLAMP or Sato/Itō, and it doesn't look like it will work well here, but I'm willing to give it a chance, assuming it stays the only incidence of stupid. To its credit it didn't show anyone bathing except for two old guys, and there only the back, so... I'm going to count my blessings there. Yep.

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

This right here is the key problem with Venus Wars, because it describes the cast of protagonists to a T, and it's why even though Venus Wars had a number of other good things about it, it makes it pretty difficult to particularly like. Given how much of a mess it all was, I think I'm probably being slightly too generous to Akira in giving it a 7/10, especially because I only gave Venus Wars a 6/10 - as I usually do, I'll probably reflect back on it in like a month and consider adjusting it, most likely down to a 6.5. The initial impression is important, but so is the impact it made on you in a longer view. Some stuff really benefits from that retrospection because it turns out it stayed with me much longer and I have more positive feelings towards it than I thought or could have expected (see: NGE...or Whisper of the Heart, or Perfect Blue, or Miyu, or...), but if in a couple of months I look back and I have more negative feelings (see: Nadia) or feel it was actually perfectly forgettable (see: Soda Pop Bubbles Up Like Words), then my initial rating was too generous.

Well, then Venus Wars is out until I completely run out of material, and that's probably never going to happen. Adjusting ratings, yeah, sometimes... sometimes things drop a lot, although for me that often happens when I try to replay a game, like it happened with the original Half-Life. I loved the game when it came out, a recent replay, well, the presentation is still top notch, the combination of shooter and awfully inaccurate first person platforming elements is decidedly less fun than it used to be.

For films or shows that usally happens if they were all impressive visuals and no substance (hello Avatar rewatch), or are the specific sort of film that are more interesting on a first watch because there's a mystery to figure out or they're based on a plot twist, although in the latter case it's sort of feels unfair to downrank them on a rewatch.

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

Hey, maybe the show is just as good reading only faces and emotions instead of words, . Yeah, I saw a few people out there who were also upset they couldn't find subs for it...some things just don't catch the attention of translators, I guess, particularly some older stuff that never got a lot of notoriety. Maybe the movie is unrepresentative of and significantly better than show, and that's why only it was translated, .

Well... if either of us wins the lottery we can commission a translation. The thing is... I'm not playing any, so that's statistically even less likely to happen than an actual win is.

7 hours ago, KP on top of ZA WARUDO said:

Man that came off as more snarky than I intended, from now on I need to stop posting right after work.

Didn't take it as snarky, no worries.

 

I also really ended up asking the grammar video guy about the loan words and he replied, saying that keeping the pronunciation closer to the original in Japanese is really something that is a recent development as more and more people learn English and grow up with the required sounds. That was two days ago, and yesterday he released a new video detailing what's been going on in his life (which next to teaching Japanese is interestingly enough being part of a machine learning research project with the goal of offering personalized and efficient language learning experiences). I almost fell off the ergometer when he mentioned my comment in his video indirectly, that was kind of funky.

Also only really possible with small channels that appreciate comments and don't just go all "leave a comment if you have any questions" so YouTube ranks them higher because it detects a call to action.

 

Edited December 30, 2021 by majestic

[majestic]

Komi helps majestic read random Japanese sentences, episode 11.

Begins with Insane Stalker Girl(tm) saying that they should create a haunted house for their school festival, because in a dark room nobody will notice when they're all fondling Komi's ass. Najimi wants to put her into a maid café uniform, Insane Dragon Power girl wants to form a band and Komi is supposed to sing (well, that'll work), God Girl wants to play whack-a-mole with her as the mole who is whacked by Komi, the Komi-Bodyguard Ninja troupe wants to make a movie, Insane Stalker Country Girl wants to sell nigiri, Competitive Psycho wants to play games, weirdo who I don't really remember (maybe she's a new character) wants to play "Are you compatible with Komi-san", so some sort of relationship oracle stuff and finally some other weirdo with glasses who is new and helpfully called "Non-Otaku Yuuji Otaku" wants to write fanfiction and put Komi into cosplay.

But halt, it does not end here. Insane Stalker Girl(tm) also wants to sell sausages, probably to make Komi kneel and eat her sausage again. Someone else wants to build a dance club or disco, and they vote... again, and it's a tie. Again. Which by the way is 同票, the kanji for "same" and "ballot", so more literally the same votes. The first I already know, and the second I'm pretty sure I'll not remember if I ever happen across it again, but hey, at least the first five minutes of this episode aren't a complete loss.

The content is - again - making me contemplate that having a stroke right now might not be the worst thing.

Time to get through the remaining 20 minutes.

edit: Now they've added an obviously high girl to the cast who got lost at a home depot, and I'm out for the time being. Time for a nap, I'll finish this later. Maybe I'll get lucky and die in my sleep.

Edited December 30, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Diamond is Unbreakable: Cinderella's stand make overs. Fun episode with a hairy situation.*

Kira wants to live a quiet life. A David Bowie look alike with a hand fetish buys a sandwich and murders a 12 year old with a door handle. Still not as bad as Pedosus.

*forgive me.

[Bartimaeus]

30 minutes ago, majestic said:

The content is - again - making me contemplate that having a stroke right now might not be the worst thing.

I literally was thinking "well, I'm going to have to post the Dr. Phil seizure" as I was reading your first paragraph, and then it just kept going...and then you more or less beat me to it.

So how about this gif I "randomly" found on Google:

Spoiler

P.S. Lindsay Ellis retired from the internet, .

 

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

Kira wants to live a quiet life. A David Bowie look alike with a hand fetish buys a sandwich and murders a 12 year old with a door handle. Still not as bad as Pedosus.

Eh, brutally murdering kids isn't as bad as...whatever Pegasus was getting up to. Sort of.

Edited December 30, 2021 by Bartimaeus