Anime and Manga - ゴゴゴゴ

[Gorth]

1 minute ago, KP wants Blue Velvet said:

That sounds cool and all but what the **** is going on in that image?

Watch the show

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Just now, Gorth said:

Watch the show

Maybe after I'm done with whatever Ergo Proxy is.

I'm just trying to figure out if I'll get secondhand embarrassment from this or feel like a pervert. 

[Gorth]

51 minutes ago, KP wants Blue Velvet said:

Maybe after I'm done with whatever Ergo Proxy is.

I'm just trying to figure out if I'll get secondhand embarrassment from this or feel like a pervert. 

It has it's "erotic" moments and incidental nudity, but as far as I know (haven't finished the show yet), no sex scenes, real or implied. More like what you see on the images posted in this thread.

[majestic]

9 hours ago, KP wants Blue Velvet said:

I'm just trying to figure out if I'll get secondhand embarrassment from this or feel like a pervert. 

Every single promotional poster of this anime has a suggestively drawn woman with either see-through clothing or in silhouetted nudity enter or leave a giant, fur-covered, creepily grinning mascot costume through a zip-up vagina on its back.

Honestly, the question isn't whether or not you'll get second-hand embarressment from it or if it it makes you feel like a pervert watching it. The quesiton is how much of both you get.

[Amentep]

In the books Claire wears a bathing suit piloting the monster form because it's easier to take a shower than have clothes soaked in goo (since she's piloting from the inside of a monster)

Admittedly the seeming fan service elements is why I took do long to get the manga, but the story I think justifies all the elements so far.

[majestic]

Wedged in one more episode of The Vision of Escaflowne. Van gets rescued and Merle is overjoyed, jumps on him and starts licking his face, because she's a cat girl. Once again, instead of being annoyed, I kinda smiled seeing that. I don't know what it is about this particular anime, but I guess it helps that Merle isn't just a cat-eared excuse for fanservice, and she doesn't add -nyan to every setence. 

After going into tihs pretty much blind, looking at the writing team, I noticed some familiar names. Shōji Kawamori, Akihiko Inari and Ryota Yamaguchi. Shōji Kawamori is, assuming anyone doesn't know, the person behind Macross and the Diaclone toy line design, works which were adapted into Robotech and Hasbro's Transformers (the first Optimus Prime design is from Shōji Kawamori, it's fairly safe to say that without him, there'd be no transforming mechs as we know them - for better or worse, I mean... we'd also not have those terrible Michael Bay films).

Akihiko Inari went on to be on the writing team for the universally acclaimed and beloved by @KP wants Blue Velvet's Cowboy Bebop and eh, Ryota Yamaguchi is one of the writers of Sailor Stars, specifically the one who wrote the episode where Usagi and Seiya end up alone at her family's house and all sorts of hijinks begins, and the person who wrote most of the super silly Nanami episodes of Revolutionary Girl Utena, including the cow transformation one.

I guess that can serve as an excuse why I like it.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

8 minutes ago, majestic said:

Wedged in one more episode of The Vision of Escaflowne. Van gets rescued and Merle is overjoyed, jumps on him and starts licking his face, because she's a cat girl. Once again, instead of being annoyed, I kinda smiled seeing that. I don't know what it is about this particular anime, but I guess it helps that Merle isn't just a cat-eared excuse for fanservice, and she doesn't add -nyan to every setence. 

After going into tihs pretty much blind, looking at the writing team, I noticed some familiar names. Shōji Kawamori, Akihiko Inari and Ryota Yamaguchi. Shōji Kawamori is, assuming anyone doesn't know, the person behind Macross and the Diaclone toy line design, works which were adapted into Robotech and Hasbro's Transformers (the first Optimus Prime design is from Shōji Kawamori, it's fairly safe to say that without him, there'd be no transforming mechs as we know them - for better or worse, I mean... we'd also not have those terrible Michael Bay films).

Akihiko Inari went on to be on the writing team for the universally acclaimed and beloved by @KP wants Blue Velvet's Cowboy Bebop and eh, Ryota Yamaguchi is one of the writers of Sailor Stars, specifically the one who wrote the episode where Usagi and Seiya end up alone at her family's house and all sorts of hijinks begins, and the person who wrote most of the super silly Nanami episodes of Revolutionary Girl Utena, including the cow transformation one.

I guess that can serve as an excuse why I like it.

Stop tempting me with more shows. How I am supposed to ever binge the 3 seasons of Twin Peaks like this?

[uuuhhii]

so netflix are making tiger & bunny 2

didn't get excited for a new anime in years

but this one certainly hit the nostalgia hard

[majestic]

8 hours ago, KP wants Blue Velvet said:

Stop tempting me with more shows. How I am supposed to ever binge the 3 seasons of Twin Peaks like this?

I'm not trying to tempt you, I'm trying to convince myself that it's okay to like this.

[HoonDing]

Just watch the movie, characters are far less annoying. Especially that princess stalker.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

6 hours ago, majestic said:

I'm not trying to tempt you, I'm trying to convince myself that it's okay to like this.

Why do you need convincing? If you like something cringe just own it.

Anyways more of Ergo Proxy. I have no idea what the hell is going on.

[majestic]

5 hours ago, KP wants Blue Velvet said:

Why do you need convincing? If you like something cringe just own it.

That's not the issue, I had no troubles admitting that I enjoyed Nanoha - at least until the entire franchise dropped off a cliff with ViVid!, it's that I don't find anything cringeworthy in it, and I should.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

33 minutes ago, majestic said:

That's not the issue, I had no troubles admitting that I enjoyed Nanoha - at least until the entire franchise dropped off a cliff with ViVid!, it's that I don't find anything cringeworthy in it, and I should.

Oh, that is much different. 

 

[Gorth]

10 hours ago, KP wants Blue Velvet said:

Why do you need convincing? If you like something cringe just own it.

This. So much this. If you feel entertained, enjoy it. Stop fretting about whether or not it meets some self imposed standards. Bring on the cheesiness and the nudity and the space opera worthy dialogue! Embrace it and wallow in it

 

(I know I do)

[Bartimaeus]

48 minutes ago, Gorth said:

This. So much this. If you feel entertained, enjoy it. Stop fretting about whether or not it meets some self imposed standards. Bring on the cheesiness and the nudity and the space opera worthy dialogue! Embrace it and wallow in it

I could be wrong, but I don't think majestic is suddenly finding enjoyment in all the things that he normally despises (e.g. fan service, lowbrow humor, overly tropey writing et al.) insomuch as the show in question is walking a line that makes its elements actually justifiably work...in direct contrast to so many other shows that have similar elements, where they are instead employed in a much more pained and/or pathetic manner.

On 3/26/2022 at 6:35 PM, majestic said:

Ryota Yamaguchi is one of the writers of Sailor Stars, specifically the one who wrote the episode where Usagi and Seiya end up alone at her family's house and all sorts of hijinks begins, and the person who wrote most of the super silly Nanami episodes of Revolutionary Girl Utena, including the cow transformation one

Sold.

Edited March 28, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

3 hours ago, Gorth said:

This. So much this. If you feel entertained, enjoy it. Stop fretting about whether or not it meets some self imposed standards. Bring on the cheesiness and the nudity and the space opera worthy dialogue! Embrace it and wallow in it

 

(I know I do)

Well there are bounds. I think I mentioned that there is a manga (soon to be anime) based on the same authors' hentai that involves Shub-Niggurath. If ever find myself liking that, I will throw myself into a volcano.

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Sold.

Let us know if it drives you insane.

[Amentep]

Supēsu Kobura aka Space Cobra

Episode XVII: "Narazumono Chīmu" aka "The Good-For-Nothing Team"

Cobra settles in as a Rug Ball player on Team 1.

Spoiler

We open with the team taking batting practice, then tackling practice.  Cobra decides to show off a bit and destroys the wall the tackling bag was placed on.

Oopsie!

At first the Team 1 is bemused thinking he's dead under the rubble, but Cobra pops up with his usual "Gee!" goofball expression.  Brad however seems to recognize that this wasn't a goof but showing the strength of Cobra.

After practice, Gerd tries to kidnap cheerleader Miranda again, but Cobra intervenes, again.  Miranda and Cobra go out to dinner in the Team 1 expansive training area.  Cobra subtly recruits Miranda over dinner to help him by getting her to steal plans of the stadium for him since she has access to more areas than he and will be less noticed.  She agrees since he saved her twice from Gerd's attention.  After providing the maps, Miranda flirts with Cobra and tries to get him to take an electron shower with her, but just like a sports guy, he's more interested in studying his playbook maps of the stadium than shower fun.  Which turns out to be in his favor, as Gerd has rigged Cobra's electronshower to become a microwave oven.

Gerd is clearly one to hold a grudge.  He probably holds it in his comically oversized tooth.

Cobra manages to save her by blowing up the shower with the Psychogun, albeit she is clearly injured by the microwave.  Dialogue says she'll be alright after some time in hospital and since (unlike the 70s 'Battle of the Planets' dub of Gatchaman) the dialogue wasn't delivered beside a grave, I'm pretty confident this is actually what happened.

Later, Gerd lets out to Cobra he knows about the shower 'accident', and threatens Joe (aka Cobra) with more accidents so Cobra has an accident of his own, tossing his bat at Gerd's head.  This leads them to almost coming to blows until Brad intervenes.  Brad tells them to save it for the game or practice field, where a little grudge fighting is good - even is someone gets killed.

That makes dealing with your death so much easier knowing it isn't personal. Thanks Brad!

Later at practice, a random group of team 2 mooks - including Cobra's ex-room mate Ron - are called up.  If they can beat a Team 1 player they can get their place!  Cobra realizing this is just a set-up from management to get back under their salary cap (okay, not really, but still) he tries to convince Ron to not play.  At least Cobra learned from poor Duk's fate. Ron refuses - its his chance at the big time!  Sadly Ron didn't learn from Duk's fate, as he's fatally injured on the field.

"Win one for the Gipper!"

Ron convinces his pal Joe (he never learns he's Cobra) to tell his brothers to give up Rug Ball - that he should have never gotten them in on it.  Cobra agrees.  The team owner brings Cobra in and offers an exhibition game where Joe leads a group from team 2 against team 1 to prove he's a better first baseman than Brad.  He gives Cobra full access to the various members on Team 2 - hundreds of players in Alphabet coded teams.  One team stands out to Cobra - Team Z only has 6 players listed.  Turns out this is the malcontents who they can't kill but refuse to play ball with the elite players either (did I mention that you can't escape the stadium, as revealed last episode when Dominique told Cobra she could get him in, but he'd have to get himself out?)

Cobra recognizes one of the names on the Team Z roster and picks them for his Rug Ball team.

...so you'll fit right in!

Turns out that Big The Big is the nickname of the favorite weapon of a pirate Cobra used to know.  BTB took to the Rug Ball team to lay low but has no interest in being in the sport.  Turns out Ron's brothers are all in this group, plus a great pitcher with a card habit and super fighter.  Since BTB is their leader, they agree to help Cobra - particularly after he alibi's Ron's brothers after they failed in an attempt to kill Gerd.  Cobra tells them Ron wanted him to get out, and they seem to agree after they play one last game for Cobra.  Cobra then shows up for the exhibition match with his Z Team.

"In the future, a crack Rug Ball unit was sent to Team 2 by a team owner for a crime they did commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Rub Ball Team 2 lower bowels living area underground. Today, still on payroll by the team owner they survive by being too surly to be fired. If you have a Rug Ball problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them....maybe you can hire The Z-Team."

This was a really dense plot episode, lots of stuff happening to set up the Big Game Showdown next episode (possibly the next two episodes).

[majestic]

11 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I could be wrong, but I don't think majestic is suddenly finding enjoyment in all the things that he normally despises (e.g. fan service, lowbrow humor, overly tropey writing et al.) insomuch as the show in question is walking a line that makes its elements actually justifiably work...in direct contrast to so many other shows that have similar elements, where they are instead employed in a much more pained and/or pathetic manner.

This, pretty much. The anime so far had very little fanservice outside of the first episode where Hitomi sometimes runs around in her track and field gear, and comes to late to a competition run and has her sweatpants pulled off by a friend of hers from the running team (and yeah, she wears sports gear underneath anyway). Most of the time she's in her school uniform - even on Gaia, not very surprising, it's the only clothing she has. 

There's a whole bunch of elements, like Van, who by far and large is rather shouneny. His more mature version, Allen, who is a gallant European style knight, who is just a little more eloquent but pretty similar regardless. The cat girl. It basically starts with a flying fortress, and anyone who read my posts about the StrikerS finale knows how much fun I made of its flying fortress, or the "minor" fact that The Vision of Escaflowne has mech combat in a medieval fantasy setting with cat girls, wolf people and whatever else will come up.

It's also fairly tropey, and it begins... in a very, very tired way, with the newly crowned king losing his kingdom to superior foreign invaders. 

Yet nothing of that really bothers me watching this. It's fun to watch. One of the villains is voiced by Minami Takayama who gives an absolutely wonderful and hammy voice performance that sometimes remdinds me of Megumi Ogata's characters. Well, I'm five episodes in, it might yet fall apart completely, but so far, I don't hate it - worse, I actually find myself enjoying the show. 

11 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Sold.

In an effort to unsell you here, you know that part of the Sailor Stars writing team also made SuperS, right?  

12 hours ago, Gorth said:

This. So much this. If you feel entertained, enjoy it. Stop fretting about whether or not it meets some self imposed standards. Bring on the cheesiness and the nudity and the space opera worthy dialogue! Embrace it and wallow in it

 

(I know I do)

Don't misunderestimate me here! /bushism

No, really, I have no issue enjoying trash, I basically loved every second of watching Dark Matter, for instance, which is what comes out when you take a Whedony series setup (no, not written by Joss Whedon), liberally season it with hammy performances, space opera level dialogue and a heavy dose of character stereotypes. Shake, stir, let it simmer a bit and film.

It begins with six walking stereotypes waking from cryogenic sleep (gruff mercnary guy finds lots of big weapons in his room, and the Japanese guy... guess what, has a huuuuuge katana colleciton) without any memories of their past. Does that make you groan already? It sure made me groan at first. But then... it's just fun. The thing is, while I can easily tell why Dark Matter is fun for me I honestly don't know why I'm liking The Vision of Escaflowne.  

Edited March 28, 2022 by majestic

[Gorth]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

It begins with six walking stereotypes waking from cryogenic sleep (gruff mercnary guy finds lots of big weapons in his room, and the Japanese guy... guess what, has a huuuuuge katana colleciton) without any memories of their past. Does that make you groan already? It sure made me groan at first. But then... it's just fun. The thing is, while I can easily tell why Dark Matter is fun for me I honestly don't know why I'm liking The Vision of Escaflowne.  

I enjoyed Dark Matter and was really pissed off the last two seasons got cancelled (an arc of 5 seasons was originally planned when the project started)

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

In an effort to unsell you here, you know that part of the Sailor Stars writing team also made SuperS, right?

[Bartimaeus]

13 hours ago, majestic said:

In an effort to unsell you here, you know that part of the Sailor Stars writing team also made SuperS, right?  

13 hours ago, Amentep said:

This was a really dense plot episode, lots of stuff happening to set up the Big Game Showdown next episode (possibly the next two episodes).

Did you say...Big the Big?

Somehow, he doesn't look as big as his name would imply.

[Bartimaeus]

Mai, episode 32. This is the "final" episode, so to speak - there are technically six episodes left, but they are not, as of yet, subbed...however, it seems as though the latest episode released somewhat recently, so I don't see any reason to expect that it won't be finished. On the other hand, it might be a year based on the current rate of progress, so I guess I'll just have to wait a bit. Episode 32 was an interesting one to end on, as it was about an unfortunate misunderstanding leading to Mai accidentally getting seen nude by her...older brother figure/best friend/semi-crush (it's complicated because she's both Mai, a twelve year old girl, and Emi, a sixteen year old girl...and he's close to both of them but in different ways). The audience doesn't see anything, and it's certainly not for laughs, because it takes the entire episode for Mai to forgive the poor boy, and it really was not his fault whatsoever that it happened in the first place. It was kind of interesting as a counterpoint to shows like Magic User's Club where embarrassing nudity or other ecchi moments would just be ignored or forgotten almost immediately after they happen, because the entirety of this episode was taken up with him trying to make it up to her, her struggling to get over the embarrassment, and really just how things could get back to normal after something like that happening. It was especially confusing for him because he doesn't know that Mai and Emi are the same person, and he gets the cold shoulder from both of them without a clear way to appease either, .

Overall, it was a good but not great shoujo show. There were a few episodes that were great, but there were also a few episodes that were somewhat more mediocre, but mostly the show was just...good. Better than Eriko, but not as good as Miyu by my estimation. And now, I have to decide whether to one, try Escaflowne; two, continue Ririka; three, start Serial Experiments Lain (which I've been meaning to get back to for a while now); or four, watch Hideaki Anno's crazy looking shoujo. I suppose I should probably try Escaflowne first, seeing as majestic is currently watching it...

[Lexx]

So I finally gave in and tried Sword Art Online. It's a bit ... ehh, but at the same time still kinda catchy, so I kept watching it. Will likely continue for now (I'm already 10 or so episodes in and started yesterday ...)

[majestic]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

Overall, it was a good but not great shoujo show. There were a few episodes that were great, but there were also a few episodes that were somewhat more mediocre, but mostly the show was just...good. Better than Eriko, but not as good as Miyu by my estimation. And now, I have to decide whether to one, try Escaflowne; two, continue Ririka; three, start Serial Experiments Lain (which I've been meaning to get back to for a while now); or four, watch Hideaki Anno's crazy looking shoujo. I suppose I should probably try Escaflowne first, seeing as majestic is currently watching it...

The Vision of Escaflowne is also the one you'll probably spend the least amount of time on before shelving it, maybe even shelf "indefinitely" (as in just delete ), so that seems like a good place to start if you want to get some things out of the way. I'd be more interested in your estimation of Kare Kano, to be honest, but that's just me - and I have enough on my plate already. Just because Escaflowne is not making me groan doesn't mean you won't...

I, like, can't even explain why I like it, so a second opinion would be welcome indeed - I'm fine with either, but it's not I who has to choose.

Edited March 29, 2022 by majestic
Jesus how unclear can a paragraph be...

[Amentep]

10 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Did you say...Big the Big?

Somehow, he doesn't look as big as his name would imply.

Well Big the Big was his favorite gun.  He's hiding under the name in the Rub Ball roster.

He's only supposed to be 9 feet tall (I think Cobra is 6 foot 6, but I think they still screw up the scale when they stand together), but only one of TWO human pirates that tall (according to the dialogue), and the only one with a gun he named Big the Big.