Anime and Manga - ゴゴゴゴ

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, Lexx said:

Yeah, first season was good, then the problems they dealt with became "too big" and it just felt awkward. First season still dealt with smaller day-to-day issues and was much better because of that.

Don't remember what I wrote about it in the past, but could be that it was one of my rants. : >

Yeah, I hate it when that happens. I like low-key character-driven stuff - ham-fisted meta social commentary and artificially inflated stakes can both be pretty annoying when they transform the direction of a show.

Edited March 1, 2022 by Bartimaeus
accidentally a word

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

31 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Yeah, I hate it when that happens. I like low-key character-driven stuff - ham-fisted meta social commentary and artificially inflated stakes can both be pretty annoying when transform they direction of a show.

I like me some social commentary, but ham-fisted is too rough.

[Bartimaeus]

25 minutes ago, KP the Torque Dork said:

I like me some social commentary, but ham-fisted is too rough.

Well, that's the art of it, isn't it? If your themes and social commentary are more important than characters, structure, plot, or any kind of logical sense, I'm not likely to think too well of it.

[majestic]

55 minutes ago, KP the Torque Dork said:

I like me some social commentary, but ham-fisted is too rough.

 

28 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Well, that's the art of it, isn't it? If your themes and social commentary are more important than characters, structure, plot, or any kind of logical sense, I'm not likely to think too well of it.

I have one great example that doesn't feel phoney or ham fisted or forced at all, don't worry, it's time coded to link directly to the good parts. I like to call this one "Two gays talk about a non-binary person", and it's wonderful:

The actors almost bursting out in laugther at the dialogue they're having to say really helps selling the point.

*snort*

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 minute ago, majestic said:

 

I have one great example that doesn't feel phoney or ham fisted or forced at all, don't worry, it's time coded to link directly to the good parts. I like to call this one "Two gays talk about a non-binary person", and it's wonderful:

The actors almost bursting out in laugther at the dialogue they're having to say really helps selling the point.

*snort*

You got a thumbs up emoji because there's no middle finger reaction.

Real talk, no memes. NuTrek ****ing sucks. The writers seemingly have no idea how people who ain't straight cis white dudes talks and it painfully shows. I mean come on, if yalls diversity ain't going to penetrate behind the camera the least you could do is 10 minutes of research to write a character who doesn't feel fake. This is only a small step above the live action Najimi in Komi. I feel sorry for the actors subjected to this. I need a thousand David Lynch saying what the hell clips combined with ten thousand DIO screaming WRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYY! clips to illustrate my contempt.

Anyways, here's something about anime: http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/jojos-bizarre-adventure-and-nonbinary-joy/

Tl:dr: JoJo does better than western media on queer representation because it's colorful and fun instead of dumb **** like the NuTrek clip.

Now I will retreat back into my fantasy of NuTrek being a ficiton.

[Bartimaeus]

2 hours ago, majestic said:

The actors almost bursting out in laugther at the dialogue they're having to say really helps selling the point.

Lmao, their faces are making a vicious mockery of the scene just by themselves.

2 hours ago, KP the Torque Dork said:

You got a thumbs up emoji because there's no middle finger reaction.

I like to use the "thanks" emoticon sarcastically on a rare occasion - guess this is kind of what I'm envisioning when I do so, .

JoJo: Yeah, it doesn't take much...and as I and majestic have said, Sailor Moon in the 90s shockingly still does it better than the vast majority of current Western crap, and Sailor Moon doesn't even do it that well - the standard is just so abysmally low that it looks pretty good in comparison to what we've seen elsewhere, particularly with respect to when it was released. Present them in a variety of ways with different kinds of personalities and traits and appearances (and not just the same annoying tropey garbage over and over) just like you would any other character. Professional, outrageous, selfless, narcissistic, quiet, over-expressive, loving, cold, comedic, serious, flamboyant, understated, rational, impulsive...do anything and everything as is appropriate to make interesting, fun, and varied characters. Not all behaviorisms or personality traits show up in every situation, either - Pearl is super omega mondo gay, but you definitely do not know that right off the bat because Steven Universe wasn't written by a bunch of hack frauds trying to show how woke they are; and she has plenty of both traditionally motherly as well as warrior-like traits, and those manifest themselves very differently depending upon the occasion. Normalize and treat them like real characters, and more people will like instead of being annoyed by them.

Excerpt from the article:

Quote

The tropes of nonbinary representation in Western media, it seems to me, come from the necessity of making a binary audience understand our identity. It’s a kind of representation that, in many cases, is about us, but not for us. For your average sci-fi reader, it’s easier to understand a nonbinary robot than it is to understand a male-presenting person with a white crop-top and earrings shaped like an ink pen.

If actual non-binary folks dislike the shameful displays in Western media e.g. as above, I think they really need to start being very vocal about it if they want it to change, because right now, the most vocal voices against it are people that despise the non-binary, and that sucks. Problem is, it seems like a lot of pro-tolerance Western folks love this kind of pathetic virtue signalling, no matter how badly it comes across to anyone with a lick of sense or taste.

Edited March 2, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

34 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I like to use the "thanks" emoticon sarcastically on a rare occasion - guess this is kind of what I'm envisioning when I do so, .

I mostly stick to the shocked because it reminds me of the OH MY GOD! man while the others are self-explanatory.

36 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

JoJo: Yeah, it doesn't take much...and as I and majestic have said, Sailor Moon in the 90s shockingly still does it better than the vast majority of current Western crap, and Sailor Moon doesn't even do it that well - the standard is just so abysmally low that it looks pretty good in comparison to what we've seen elsewhere, particularly with respect to when it was released. Present them in a variety of ways with different kinds of personalities and traits and appearances (and not just the same annoying tropey garbage over and over) just like you would any other character. Professional, outrageous, selfless, narcissistic, quiet, over-expressive, loving, cold, comedic, serious, flamboyant, understated, rational, impulsive...do anything and everything as is appropriate to make interesting, fun, and varied characters. Not all behaviorisms or personality traits show up in every situation, either - Pearl is super omega mondo gay, but you definitely do not know that right off the bat because Steven Universe wasn't written by a bunch of hack frauds trying to show how woke they are; and she has plenty of both traditionally motherly as well as warrior traits, and those manifest themselves very differently depending upon the occasion. Normalize and treat them like real characters, and more people will like instead of being annoyed by them.

I think Twin Peaks did it good for the 90's and today, where Denise came in and said that she's a she now. Of course, there was much wilder **** going on in that show, but it was much better than the two gay men saying THEY and THEIR with hurricane force while appreciating algorithms. Hell, that scene would have been much better if just cut off at 1:02.

38 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

If actual non-binary folks dislike the shameful displays in Western media e.g. as above, I think they really need to start being very vocal about it if they want it to change, because right now, the most vocal voices against it are people that despise the non-binary. Problem is, it seems like a lot of pro-tolerance Western folks love this kind of pathetic virtue signalling, no matter how badly it comes across to anyone with a lick of sense or taste.

I think this presumes that they would be listened to, because the folks in charge seem to love patting themselves on the back for awkward **** like that clip and calling it a day. Moreover, in addition to not being a monolith I imagine the nb folks in those situations would be desperate for work and telling someone who can make or break you career that they're a hack fraud is probably professional suicide.

[Bartimaeus]

Toki no Tabibito: Time Stranger (1986). The first fifteen minutes: some 80s Japanese teens get their bus hijacked by some time traveller on the run from the future and accidentally end up in World War II while it's being firebombed and nearly get executed by jingoistic Japanese soldiers that think they're weird and possibly spies. Their time machine, um, unfortunately only goes backwards, so they're pretty much completely screwed and can only keep going more and more back in time. This is one wacky Magic School Bus episode. Madhouse animated, so it looks pretty good by my estimation, although sadly not preserved in HD.

The good thing about bookmarking a million things is that I have no idea what the hell to expect when I try to watch them like a year later because I don't remember the first thing about them. Anyways, that was a pretty wacked out but enjoyable film - recommended if you want to watch...I don't even know, man. Time travel, world wars, alien abductions, terminators...what more could you want? Uh...

3 hours ago, KP the Torque Dork said:

I think this presumes that they would be listened to, because the folks in charge seem to love patting themselves on the back for awkward **** like that clip and calling it a day. Moreover, in addition to not being a monolith I imagine the nb folks in those situations would be desperate for work and telling someone who can make or break you career that they're a hack fraud is probably professional suicide.

Ethically, any kind of positive attention is better than...well, what's happened historically. Entertainment value is a different matter, though...

Edited March 2, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[Bartimaeus]

Madhouse's The Diary of Anne Frank (1995). Believe it or not, it's...The Diary of Anne Frank. It wouldn't be a bad way to learn the material by any means, but if you've already read the book and seen another film of it like I have, it's...not the most interesting - just a solid and appropriate enough cover of it. The backgrounds, lighting, and general style are great looking for this kind of work - dark, dingy, and detailed. Sometimes doesn't even really look that much like anime in the traditional sense, actually. But...The Diary of Anne Frank it still is.

See? Literally the diary of Anne Frank.

...Yep, spoiler alert: it's the Diary of Anne Frank, alright.

(e): I'm determined to finish everything Madhouse I was ever even slightly interested in: Mermaid's Scar, a 45-minute single episode OVA. Don't watch it - it's not terrible, but it's just not very good either...kind of felt like a bad Miyu episode. Gist of the story was that eating the flesh of a mermaid either gives you a kind of immortality...or turns you into a monster, and there's not really any clear reason as to which will happen (or why either one happens to begin with). Who the hell cares?

Edited March 3, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[Bartimaeus]

About four episodes of...uh, Akazukin Chacha? Red Riding Hood Chacha is apparently its English name.

Spoiler

The premise is essentially that "Chacha" is young and incompetent but well-meaning witch-in-training, and she and her friends (a werewolf boy she grew up and is best friends with, another boy who's apprentice to a rival mage that's jealous of the werewolf because he likes Chacha, an insane mermaid girl that's jealous of Chacha because she likes the werewolf, and a brooding witch-in-training that's jealous of and wants to replace Chacha because she likes Chacha's master...hmm, lot of jealousy at the start of this show) basically do wacky stuff and go on adventures...and Chacha can transform into an older girl that suddenly becomes competent and gets stuff done when necessary. It's a magical girl series that is aimed at like...10 year olds, which feels a little too young. Kind of similar to that one Marybell show I tried, except Marybell was aimed even younger. It has its good points, but it's just a bit too much slapstick silliness for it to work quite as well as I'd like.

Marin the mermaid is a bit of hoot, though - but even so, I do not plan on watching any more.

One episode of something called Nurse Angel Ririka SOS. Uh...

Spoiler

I'm gonna have to watch at least one more episode before I say much more about this, because the first episode kinda broke my brain, and I guess I have to figure out if every episode is gonna be like that...and if so, that should be...awesome, maybe? I'm not entirely sure yet.

Looks innocent enough, right? We'll see about that...

Four episodes of Magical Star Emi. It's a veritable magical girl extravaganza, folks...and by "folks", I mean @majestic, because I know he's the only one that cares even slightly about this silliness.

Spoiler

The premise of this show is that Mai, a real go-getter of a protagonist, is part of a family of performing magicians who are...surprisingly not all that good at their jobs, or at least it seems that way to me? Mai is "enchanted" by some kind of creepy annoying spirit thing that allows her to transform into Emily, the deceased family matriarch and legendary magician who started all of this magic business, and she uses her actual magic to...bring her family some success because they're constantly on the verge of failure without her. The show kind of feels like...50% a magical girl version of Eriko, with a very slight tinge of Sailor Moon, and then the rest something else entirely. There's a boy that's a few years older than Mai that she initially disliked that she is becoming attached to and helping out - the dynamics of it are odd and I'm both curious as well as a little apprehensive to see how that turns out. The first episode was also not very good and I almost did not watch anymore, but it did just enough to rope me into watching a second episode that was significantly better and now it feels like it might actually be a pretty good show. The spirit thing featured heavily in the first episode, whereas he's barely been in subsequent episodes, so maybe that's why.

 

Edited March 4, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Finished up with the rewatch of Cowboy Bebop. Top 10 series of all time. When I think about Watanabe's series, I think they all run 1 or 2 seasons with 26 episodes at most. To be honest, that seems to be a real sweet spot for the kind of storytelling they engage in. I wish more original content (anime and live action) was like this, more expansive than a movie but designed to end in one (or two) block(s) of episodes.

See You Space Cowboy...

[majestic]

Speaking of Madhous stuff, time to give an opinion, I guess.

Not sure why, but I, ahem, decided to watch:

妖獣都市 / Yōjū Toshi / Wicked City (1987)

If one does a quick google search for the title and looks at images, one could get the impression that this is tentacle porn. Hard to deny that there's one scene that fits the bill, there's also a visit in a brothel by a rather energetic old man and not one, but four separate rape scenes (assuming one counts a demon posing as a girlfriend to seduce a man as sexual assault, I'd say it is, but your mileage may vary), which is always a plus. The erotica is softcore by far and large, there's some very explicit tentacle/mouth penetration going on at some point, but that's the worst of it. Well, let's not forget that there's a spider demon with a vagina with teeth and one of the demons has a full body vagina the male protagonist eventually gets, dunno, sucked into, more or less. Let's just say that stuff is pretty Japanese all in all, but it's not as bad as the uncensored version of Legend of the Overfiend, for instance.

This film also happens to be one of the few instances where still images look better than the actual film in motion. The animation is choppy and feels pretty constricted, if you've watched any of the old animated Superman or Batman cartoons you know what I mean, scenes where only the mouth moves, animations that seem to be only key-frames strung together, that sort of stuff. It looks a whole lot better than a Saturday morning cartoon, but the animation quality is on par with that, which is somewhat strange for an actual animated feature of the area - much less one made by Madhouse.

With that out of the way, let's discuss the films biggest failures. Wait, you say, that wasn't it? No, sadly, it's also tremendously boring. At first its ponderously slow, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it squanders its time on useless erotic scenes that don't look good enough to be interesting and only have a very limited link to the actual plot. What do I mean by that? Well, the entire opening of the film has one very simple goal: The demons want to obtain a DNA sample of the male lead character Taki. They do so by replacing his girlfriend - or rather the girl whose pants he spent the last three months trying to get into - and cue one very long, excessively boring (albeit quite stylish) scene that ends with a spider demon with the aforementioned toothy vagina absorbing his man-goo.

No, we couldn't just had a scene where they'd take his glass in the bar, or something. Pluck out a hair with follicle, or anything else that doesn't waste 15 minutes of the runtime of the film. Normally that would be fine, but the movie stays this ponderous until the end where everything is rushed to a conclusion with no setup, and the final fight between the "Black Guard" (original Japanese means Dark Guard) and the bad guy lasts all but half a minute because the film needs to be wrapped up, folks. Not that I need protracted action scenes or anything, but it sure feels rushed.

The subject matter - a tenous peace treaty between demons and humans scheduled to be renewed soon, and the signing ceremony is under threat by extremists - might have been interesting, maybe even original, in the year the film came out, in this day and age that's simply par for the course, but I'm not holding the plot against the film, but the fact that it was boring. There's a plot twist too, one that's silly and links back to the aforemntioned DNA check by the spider demon. Taki is paired with the female lead of the film - after being, well, raped by the spider demon, I guess so props for making a man the victim of something for a change... I think... not sure if that makes it better, but sex with demons is said to be so great many times through the film it should probably tide Taki over any misgivings with the teeth and all that - the demoness Makie, to protect an old geezer who is necessary for the peace treaty signing.

Plot twist:

Spoiler

There's no signing ceremony, the treaty simply happens because centuries of work by both demons and humans finally produced demons and humans that can interbreed, and Taki and Makie (the female lead, and a demon woman) are the first, and their child will usher in a new era of peace and understanding. But in order to conceive, Makie and Taki, both unaware of their condition, must fall in love with each other. Without that spiritual link, there's no baby. The entire film is essentially just one grand silly conspiracy the Black Guard set up, using the demon extremists to make sure Makie and Taki fall in love.

Because nothing makes one fall faster in love than having sex with a spider demon and getting gang raped. I mean, that's just logic, right?

As a final insult, none of the characters are actually interesting. Taki is a philandering macho who poses as a pseudo-film noir hardass Dark Guard, and Makie has all the personality of an ice block. Makie is sexually assaulted no less than three times, by her demon ex in the beginning, once by a parasite demon shoving their tentacle down her throat and once in a great gang rape scene where the extremists capture her and the leader decides to let his underlings have fun with her before she's executed in order to lure Taki to the demon realm.

Right, there's also the scene where the spider demon catches Makie and Taki, and, ah, she shoots her spider webs at them, in what I can best only describe as a scene looking an awful lot like animated bukkake (editor's note: Do not google if you're unaware) with spider "silk".

All in all, this is pretty much a waste of time. The plot is, eh, not very interesting, the plot twist is stupid, the movie at first doesn't go anywhere storywise then wraps everything up in ten minutes, there's a whole lot of not very interesting erotica (and I presume not very interesting even for people who otherwise like animated erotic scenes), some action which is universally boring, choppy animation and... yeah. There's really no point in watching this. Like, at all. Google pictures yourself, I'd rather not post those.

Edited March 4, 2022 by majestic
Actual word for man-goo is censored, what the hell, forum?

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Not sure why, but I, ahem, decided to watch:

Well, I definitely did not tell majestic to watch this so I would not have to because I had a feeling I would not like it no matter how intrigued I was by the art style. That was definitely not me. I was not involved here. I was just sitting over here innocently watching random 90s trash, so I certainly cannot be blamed for this. It wasn't me.

Spoiler

Why must so much good art direction be wasted on so little?

 

Edited March 4, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[Amentep]

Back in 1993, when Wicked City was released by Streamline to US theaters, it was considered pretty groundbreaking.  I do know there were at the time some edited versions that existed back in the day (a separate UK edited dub known in some regions as "Monster City") as the content was a little out there for the times.

That said, skimming online it seems like its reputation has only went down over the years.  I guess once you see more and better anime movies, the novelty of this one wears off.  I personally never saw it, but the people who recommended it to me also recommended Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise, for which I'd still not quite forgiven them.

[Bartimaeus]

I sometimes wish "made for TV" edits of movies that removed pointless sex scenes and such were in circulation. I'd check that out for Wicked City, because I really do like the aesthetic.

...So, uh, Wings of Honneamise is bad? That's a Gainax title I have on the "check out" list...

Edited March 4, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[Amentep]

37 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I sometimes wish "made for TV" edits of movies that removed pointless sex scenes and such were in circulation. I'd check that out for Wicked City, because I really do like the aesthetic.

...So, uh, Wings of Honneamise is bad? That's a Gainax title I have on the "check out" list...

Well my friends loved it.  It has really, really good animation but IMO it has a fairly dim view of humanity, to be honest. No plot spoilers in the next spoiler box, but regarding the film tonally and if you want to avoid that I've put it in tags -

Spoiler

its a really downbeat story in my eyes.

All that said, plot element spoiler ahoy (SPOILER ALERT FOR NEXT BOX)... 

Spoiler

...had I not been watching a friends VHS copy back in 1993-94, I would have taken it out of the machine and stomped it flat when, for no apparent reason, Shirotugh decides to randomly rape Riquinni and while she stops him when he briefly pauses in his attack (and then, inexplicably, acts like nothing happened the next day even apologizing for hitting Shirotugh!), ultimately, it made me hate the characters, hate watching the film, hate my friends for suggesting I watch the film, and hate all of the creators for making the film.  That Shirotugh, in a way, gets what he wants with the Space Force (even if its ultimately a pyrrhic victory) was even more depressing than the anime's general view that humanity was craptacular, would always be craptacular and there was nothing that could be done about it but pray for less craptacularness, which wouldn't happen because people were craptacular, or embrace being craptacular.

But who knows, a lot of people liked it and found it meaningful, I guess.

[Bartimaeus]

2 minutes ago, Amentep said:

[spoilers]

I can only hope you missed something that made...something about that make sense, because I already have enough issues with male protagonists as it is before you start doing crap like that.

[Amentep]

Well its possible I missed something, but I've yet to hear anyone satisfactorily explain that bit or why it needed to be in the film.  Even checking a few sites, none of them seemed to be able to justify that bit within the narrative that I saw.

[Bartimaeus]

1 minute ago, Amentep said:

Well its possible I missed something, but I've yet to hear anyone satisfactorily explain that bit or why it needed to be in the film.  Even checking a few sites, none of them seemed to be able to justify that bit within the narrative that I saw.

Oh man, I am so totally going to hate this film if even its fans can't defend it. I am just not the type to overlook something like that.

[Amentep]

1 minute ago, Bartimaeus said:

Oh man, I am so totally going to hate this film if even its fans can't defend it. I am just not the type to overlook something like that.

You may catch something I missed, and hasn't been articulated on the few English sites I skimmed through.  Japan seemed to love it more than the English reviewers I looked at, so maybe there's a cultural piece or historical resonance that I just didn't get.

[Bartimaeus]

On 3/3/2022 at 10:18 PM, KP the Torque Dork said:

Finished up with the rewatch of Cowboy Bebop. Top 10 series of all time. When I think about Watanabe's series, I think they all run 1 or 2 seasons with 26 episodes at most. To be honest, that seems to be a real sweet spot for the kind of storytelling they engage in. I wish more original content (anime and live action) was like this, more expansive than a movie but designed to end in one (or two) block(s) of episodes.

See You Space Cowboy...

So...what's the recommendation for Bartimaeus, particularly given that I already liked Samurai Champloo? Also, agreed on length - 26 episodes is pretty much the perfect length for a serious story to be told while also giving it enough room to live and breathe. ...I had this part of the post sitting as a draft in here for a couple of days because I meant to reply at some point, if you're wondering about the delayed response here.

And now, something entirely different, except for the fact that it is coincidentally also 26 episodes long: Bosco Adventure...something perhaps up @Amentep's alley, especially as it is from the 80s although it looks and feels more like the 70s. The evil "Hoodman" and his minions have captured the elfin princess, Princess Apricot, on her way to her home of Fountainland, a realm that contains the legendary Fountain of Life, so that they can steal and use the fountain (somehow?) themselves. The princess tries to make her escape from the flying ship that she is being held in, but the best she is able to do is send a message out for help...to anyone and anything nearby.

I've only seen the first episode, so the exact workings of everything are not yet clear to me, but that's the gist of it. Now, this is where I expected it do the whole Princess Zelda thing where, like...you have a hero get the message and go on a long quest to come and rescue the princess and make everything right, but, uh, well, it didn't go quite how I expected for two reasons. One, the "heroes" that got the message are basically three Winnie the Pooh-styled animals (i.e. well-meaning but simple gentlefolk - a frog, an otter, and a turtle!); two: they hatched a harebrained but ultimately successful rescue plan that, combined with the princess' own initiative, actually lead to her escaping by the end of the first episode - they then swore to try to help her get to her back to her home. So instead of Princess Zelda, what I really got was Wizard of Oz, or so it would seem...and I can't complain - I honestly like this a lot more than Future Boy Conan for a few different reasons right off the bat.

Genuinely didn't think this was gonna be up my alley at all (and only barely decided to try it it in the first place), especially seeing as I don't really care for either fantasy or classic adventure, but it was surprisingly nice and enjoyable. Although this is more classic fantasy than anime fantasy, and I do certainly appreciate that more than the sorry displays I always see when I come across anime fantasy shows, which usually make my eyes roll up into my skull. I immediately like the cast and style of dialogue more than I ever liked Conan's, so that's also a good sign. However, first episodes can be deceiving...for better or for worse.

In other news, I have way too many shows I have identified as "have to watch further" after having seen an episode or more. This one will be shelved for now - Emi and Ririka are my focus for the time being.

Edited March 6, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

What can I do to purge my mind of some of the thoughts that accumulated over watching Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and Wicked City?

I look at that BR cover and... don't look if you can't... you know, yeah.

Spoiler

Honestly the first thing I notice is how the hover-cycle's seat looks like a pair of testicles and everyone behind the elf-girl looks at her underwear.

Probably not the intention of the image and it's for sure just harmless. Huh. Oh dear, oh dear.

[Bartimaeus]

Gosh dangit, majestic. I actually briefly considered not using that as my image for it because I also noticed the dress flying up, but I decided I didn't care because it's just a silly stylistic thing and was otherwise a pretty solid art piece for the show...well, besides the TERRIBLE "Blu-Ray Vol. 1" text, which is admittedly pretty shameful with how little effort was put into it - presumably, this was originally an older concept art that they ended up using for the BDs many years later. ...I also now notice that it looks like the frog is staring right at her...

Wicked City (and Nanoha) was a mistake.

Edited March 6, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

4 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

So...what's the recommendation for Bartimaeus, particularly given that I already liked Samurai Champloo?

Highly recommended. While the subject matter is much more adult than most anime you've liked, there's not much cheesecake and it's very engaging.

3 hours ago, majestic said:

What can I do to purge my mind of some of the thoughts that accumulated over watching Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and Wicked City?

Spend 10000 years at the gym.

[majestic]

10 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Gosh dangit, majestic. I actually briefly considered not using that as my image for it because I also noticed the dress flying up, but I decided I didn't care because it's just a silly stylistic thing and was otherwise a pretty solid art piece for the show...well, besides the TERRIBLE "Blu-Ray Vol. 1" text, which is admittedly pretty shameful with how little effort was put into it - presumably, this was originally an older concept art that they ended up using for the BDs many years later. ...I also now notice that it looks like the frog is staring right at her...

Wicked City (and Nanoha) was a mistake.

I'm very, very sorry.

6 hours ago, KP the Torque Dork said:

Highly recommended. While the subject matter is much more adult than most anime you've liked, there's not much cheesecake and it's very engaging.

 

11 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

So...what's the recommendation for Bartimaeus, particularly given that I already liked Samurai Champloo?

If/when you try the series be sure to explain in detail what you think of Spike.