Anime and Manga - I respect the first human to have eaten a mushroom

[Bartimaeus]

You're Under Arrest: The Movie (1999). Somehow, when I watched the four episode OVA, I completely overlooked this - probably because I tried to watch an episode of the show and immediately noped out. The OVA is cute and sincere character-driven fun with a pretty light amount of not particularly dangerous action - it's really about the two main characters with their mostly non-police related issues, and I liked that. The fifteen minutes or whatever I watched of the show was just unceasing moronic slapstick and low-brow humor with flanderized doppelgangers of the characters that quickly enraged me enough to not spend another minute on it. In contrast to both of those, the movie is a dead serious crime/action flick - it does not have any of the patheticness of the show, but it doesn't really do much with the characters either because everything is so hyper-focused on the plot and action. It was your classic "a criminal mastermind is staging attacks from multiple angles across the city, and we have to figure it out before it's too late!" kind of police/crime movie. All three of these (the OVA, the show, and the movie) are set in the same location with the same characters, and yet none of them really feel much at all alike as a whole. At least the movie was a pretty good action flick (in actual HD too!), but...action flicks aren't really particularly my thing, so it was kind of handicapped in how much I could like it - it needed to do a better job of really using its characters. It's possible for action films/shows (see Samurai Champloo), but it's pretty rare. Bonus points: the soundtrack was by Kenji Kawai (Miyu/Ghost in the Shell/other stuff), and it was kind of like listening to the Miyu soundtrack fused with something else, which while kind of weird for a film like this, was nice, so at least there was that.

Texhnolyze to be resumed tomorrow.

Edited May 6, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[HoonDing]

I think they need to put her eyes even further apart

[Bartimaeus]

8 minutes ago, HoonDing said:

I think they need to put her eyes even further apart

Two minute Photoshop just for you:

I will say that her appearance suits her character.

[Sarex]

If anyone is in a mood for a Chinese Manhua comedy, Nan Hao & Shang Feng is really good.

[majestic]

Someone's afraid of needles.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

3 hours ago, Sarex said:

If anyone is in a mood for a Chinese Manhua comedy, Nan Hao & Shang Feng is really good.

Why does a guy have a dinosaur hand puppet?

[Sarex]

7 hours ago, KP wants Blue Velvet said:

Why does a guy have a dinosaur hand puppet?

I imagine to distract him like a little child.

[HoonDing]

How many social credits do you lose when you're outed as a weeb in China?

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

11 hours ago, Sarex said:

I imagine to distract him like a little child.

The more I look the more questions I have.

7 minutes ago, HoonDing said:

How many social credits do you lose when you're outed as a weeb in China?

All of them.

[Sarex]

5 minutes ago, KP wants Blue Velvet said:

The more I look the more questions I have.

I would say chapter 1 is a good representation of the how the series is, it's also short form.

15 minutes ago, HoonDing said:

How many social credits do you lose when you're outed as a weeb in China?

I imagine it's straight to the gulag.

[Gorth]

Watched 'A silent voice'. A beautiful story, where I would say the media used for delivery is less important than the story and it just happened to be an anime. I believe it could have been a live action movie or a novel and it would still have been a beautiful story...

 

After that, I do need something more light hearted. Easy laughs and scantily clad girls I think... Skeleton Knight in Another World looks like fun.

[Sarex]

6 hours ago, Gorth said:

Watched 'A silent voice'. A beautiful story, where I would say the media used for delivery is less important than the story and it just happened to be an anime. I believe it could have been a live action movie or a novel and it would still have been a beautiful story...

 

After that, I do need something more light hearted. Easy laughs and scantily clad girls I think... Skeleton Knight in Another World looks like fun.

When you are in the mood, the series I recommended along side it is also very good. If you want something that is more lighthearted there is also March Comes in Like a Lion.

[Gorth]

2 hours ago, Sarex said:

When you are in the mood, the series I recommended along side it is also very good. If you want something that is more lighthearted there is also March Comes in Like a Lion.

I need to mix it up a bit, I still have the link(s) your shared

That one is over twenty episodes of "serious" drama, so I need some easy to digest stuff on both sides of it...

Edit: Skeleton knight isn't complete yet, so I think I'll just watch a handful episodes of Dropkick on my Devil Dash (second series) first, the switch to 'Your Lie in April' (Dropkick doesn't really bear binge watching, as fun as it is)

 

[Sarex]

6 minutes ago, Gorth said:

I need to mix it up a bit, I still have the link(s) your shared

That one is over twenty episodes of "serious" drama, so I need some easy to digest stuff on both sides of it...

Definitely.

[Bartimaeus]

Ghost in the Shell (1995).

In January of 2018, I watched my very first anime film, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, and it would be followed up with a number of other Ghibli films over the next few months. Wedged between those Ghibli films however, was Ghost in the Shell, a film I'd heard called a classic for many years yet had never had much of an inclination to try until then. Fifteen minutes into the film, I was getting a bit tired of this damned lady's gross naked butt/chest being repeatedly shoved into my face every couple of minutes without there being enough in the way of character or thematic justification for it...which combined with the number of action sequences, I was beginning to remember why I had never much cared for anime. I continued to soldier on through the film and most of that stopped after the initial deluge, and instead suffered through characters that were...monotone, flat, and going on and on about some sort of too-big-for-its-britches theme-heavy narrative that just wasn't connecting for me - I must have just about lost the plot completely by the time I was halfway through the film. I got to the end of the film and it just kind of awkwardly ends in a strange sequence of events that doesn't really feel much like a proper ending, and...well, I didn't hate the film, but I just didn't like it - it didn't help that I was listening to the English dub of the film, which isn't bad, but isn't good either...I was still several years off of watching Cardcaptor Sakura by this time, the show instrumental for finally acclimating me to Japanese voice-acting to a degree. I still dislike the direction of a lot of voice-acting, of course, but it's now an issue that really applies equally to both Japanese and English dubs for anime, and so I'm able to listen to quality, non-caricaturized Japanese dubs.

I always thought that I'd maybe return to Ghost in the Shell one day - I adored the soundtrack, and I've always had a love for androids and artificial intelligence ever since I was a kid and read through a number of fictional android-related books. Watching something a second time allows you to focus more on what a film like Ghost in the Shell actually is, instead of what you think it might or should be - you don't generally strain yourself trying to figure something out on a second watch like you might on the first, and that can change your perspective on it. Anyways, all that's to say, I had an impulse to re-watch Ghost in the Shell early this morning, so I did. This time, I was able to actually follow the plot and themes to their conclusions, I was not hampered by a mediocre English dub, and having also sat through a number of other much worse works since the first time I watched the movie, I can say Ghost in the Shell is...good. It's good, if a little frustrating at times: it all makes sense and it doesn't feel like the film implodes because of over-extending itself or trying to make its ideas or scale much bigger than they really are (hello Akira!), which I appreciate...and I was even touched by a few particular moments and themes throughout the film, which was important to me for something dealing with sentient life and artificiality - issues I've mused over many times myself. Plus, I just liked the main characters more with their Japanese performances over the English. Overall, it wasn't a bad idea to re-watch it, and I apologize to @Sarex for calling it very mediocre - it's definitely better than that, even if it still doesn't quite rise to the level of great to me. It's...probably earned a place in my media library as a result of this re-watch.

Edited May 10, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[Gorth]

Just a footnote, Crunchyroll is up and rolling again (ta dah!).

Looks like Sony owns the Crunchyroll/Funimation merger and operates it as Crunchyroll

 

[Sarex]

@Bartimaeus It's like that for me too. Sometimes I'm just not in the mood for something and it hits me in a completely wrong way, then on another rewatch something clicks for me. The only thing is that it's pretty rare for me to give something another go, it's usually by accident where I see some scene or read some comment that will make me reconsider (a la bubbles, which I am yet to give another shot).

Edited May 10, 2022 by Sarex

[Amentep]

True confession time: I've never watched the Ghost in the Shell anime, because I thought the manga was terrible. After reading Ghost in the Shell, I was basically left with the general impression that I wished Shirow had worked on Part V of Appleseed instead.  YMMV.

Also the anime was recommended highly by the same people who highly recommended The Wings of Honnêamise, so that tended to be a high dis-recommendation in my book.

[Sarex]

Reeeeeeeeeee. I would say to give it a shot. If nothing else but to see what inspired the matrix.

[Bartimaeus]

9 minutes ago, Amentep said:

True confession time: I've never watched the Ghost in the Shell anime, because I thought the manga was terrible. After reading Ghost in the Shell, I was basically left with the general impression that I wished Shirow had worked on Part V of Appleseed instead.  YMMV.

Also the anime was recommended highly by the same people who highly recommended The Wings of Honnêamise, so that tended to be a high dis-recommendation in my book.

Based on what I know you like, it's difficult for me to recommend it to you. If something is not to your taste, it's not to your taste, and that's not going to change no matter how many people claim it's a "great" or "classic" work - I would know, I am certainly chief among those who contemptuously dismiss widely and strongly held opinions when they run contrary to what I plainly see before me, . If I didn't have a soft spot for the particular subject material, I probably would not have returned to it. Good music, animation, and atmosphere wouldn't change the fact that the film is an oddball mix of heavy violence and very slow philosophical meandering, which doesn't really seem like your thing.

43 minutes ago, Sarex said:

@Bartimaeus It's like that for me too. Sometimes I'm just not in the mood for something and it hits me in a completely wrong way, then on another rewatch something clicks for me. The only thing is that it's pretty rare for me to give something another go, it's usually by accident where I see some scene or read some comment that will make me reconsider (a la bubbles, which I am yet to give another shot).

It really depends on the specific work for me. I guess there's a difference between "I hated this", "this unfortunately simply doesn't interest/appeal to me", and "this just didn't work for me". The last group is the group I'm most likely to give another shot at some point, whereas I'm not likely to ever give the first kind another try ever again...and the second will probably take my interests changing before I would ever consider it.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I haven't watched much animu lately, but I will be watching the lain like thing that sounds like a drug soon. Right now it's between that, new Dexter, or finally doing the Twin Peaks rewatch and losing (what's  left of) my mind.@Bartimaeus changing his mind on something is proof that soon he will join us in having trash taste.

I did watch the recent Komi and honestly, it was just boring. Stalker Girl going panty hunting and horny dudes imagining dates doesn't even get a response at this point.

[Totally not Gorgon]

On 4/11/2022 at 3:20 PM, Gorth said:

Finished episode 15 of Ergo Pr

 

The line from the eyebrow to the nose ridge is off. I desperately want to delete it and make another.

 

 

[majestic]

Komi continues to be nice enough when none of the utter nutjobs are in the scenes. Please just focus on Komi and Tadano. Pretty please?  

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

8 minutes ago, majestic said:

Komi continues to be nice enough when none of the utter nutjobs are in the scenes. Please just focus on Komi and Tadano. Pretty please?  

but how will we see Komi-san's panties if their is no stalker girl ? surly you don't want that ?

[majestic]

44 minutes ago, KP wants Blue Velvet said:

but how will we see Komi-san's panties if their is no stalker girl ? surly you don't want that ?

That's going to be the season finale. The wind will hike up Komi's skirt, Tadano will get a nosebleed from seeing her pristine and white panties while either Dragon or Dog Girl will block Stalker Girl's view, leading to her having a heart attack or a stroke.