Anime and Manga - New Season

[Bartimaeus]

16 minutes ago, Sarex said:

That one is pure nostalgia.

I wanted to like it more, especially as it's one of the very few titles I listed there that is both longer and presented in a nice high definition transfer (contrast that to the "Darkness of the Moon, Shadow of the Sea" OVA that I mentioned liking in the previous post, which was only available on a fairly miserable VHS transfer), but I just didn't really find it clicking for me. Characters weren't very interesting or likeable, and I found myself pretty checked out on the seemingly generic fantasy story from pretty much episode 1. But at least it's finally off my list now after years of being stuck there. Also was good to confirm that the Tenchi Muyou series certainly isn't for me either, so I can strike all of that as well.

Edited November 18 by Bartimaeus

[Sarex]

3 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I wanted to like it more, especially as it's one of the very few titles I listed there that is both longer and presented in a nice high definition transfer (contrast that to the "Darkness of the Moon, Shadow of the Sea" OVA that I mentioned liking in the previous post, which was only available on a fairly miserable VHS transfer), but I just didn't really find it clicking for me. Characters weren't very interesting or likeable, and I found myself pretty checked out on the seemingly generic fantasy story from pretty much episode 1. But at least it's finally off my list now after years of being stuck there.

I would agree with you. My good feelings on it are probably only nostalgia glasses as it's one of the first anime I ever watched. Kind of in the same basket as Vampire Hunter D. I think there is even a series for RoLW... yep, just checked. I kind of remember even at the time it being lesser than the movie.

[Sarex]

For some reason I though there was a movie for it. I must have mixed it up with the OVA. At this point I don't remember which one I liked more. Maybe I dare to rewatch it.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

13 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I wanted to like it more, especially as it's one of the very few titles I listed there that is both longer and presented in a nice high definition transfer (contrast that to the "Darkness of the Moon, Shadow of the Sea" OVA that I mentioned liking in the previous post, which was only available on a fairly miserable VHS transfer), but I just didn't really find it clicking for me. Characters weren't very interesting or likeable, and I found myself pretty checked out on the seemingly generic fantasy story from pretty much episode 1. But at least it's finally off my list now after years of being stuck there. Also was good to confirm that the Tenchi Muyou series certainly isn't for me either, so I can strike all of that as well.

 

4 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

I wanted to like it more, especially as it's one of the very few titles I listed there that is both longer and presented in a nice high definition transfer (contrast that to the "Darkness of the Moon, Shadow of the Sea" OVA that I mentioned liking in the previous post, which was only available in a pretty bad VHS rip), but I just didn't really find it clicking for me. Characters weren't interesting or likeable to me, and I found myself pretty checked out on the seemingly generic fantasy story from pretty much episode 1.

Oh no, Bartimaeus got sucked into the Black Lodge and now there is a doppelganger.

[Bartimaeus]

12 minutes ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

Oh no, Bartimaeus got sucked into the Black Lodge and now there is a doppelganger.

The forum has been seriously wigging out for me like the last fifteen minutes - don't know how an earlier version of that post got re-posted like ten minutes after the first. I reported it for deletion.

12 minutes ago, Sarex said:

For some reason I though there was a movie for it. I must have mixed it up with the OVA. At this point I don't remember which one I liked more. Maybe I dare to rewatch it.

There's a 1995 movie, but it's not made by Madhouse and I don't think it has too much resemblance or relevance to the 1990 OVA, at least from what I can tell at a glance. And to my surprise, I apparently already tried the 3-episode 1996 OVA...which I rated even lower at 4.5/10. Whoops.

19 minutes ago, Sarex said:

Kind of in the same basket as Vampire Hunter D

I rather liked Vampire Hunter D - the original, that is. Bloodlust was...more hit and miss for me. Should probably re-watch the original to solidify my feelings about it at some point, though.

Edited November 18 by Bartimaeus

[Amentep]

Watched LITTLE NEMO: ADVENTURES IN SLUMBERLAND.  Don't think I've seen it since it first came out.  Its a fun collection of vignettes that loosely follow a story about how Nemo has to learn responsibility after allowing the Nightmare King to take over Slumberland due to following his own worst impulses.  Animation varies, but is generally high quality - you can tell that producer Yutaka Fujoka was really trying to create a Japanese animated film with animation as fluid as Disney.  May not hold up as a great narrative, but I can see why it has developed a cult following.

Its also a fascinating behind the scenes story, though.  Its failure led to the retirement of Fujioka who'd founded Tokyo Movie Shinsha and invested in the startup of Madhouse. A veritable whose who worked on it (including Hayao Miyazaki, Isao takahata, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnson, Yoshifumi Kondō, Yasuo Ōtsuka, Brad Bird, Kazuhide Tomonaga, John Lasseter, Jerry Rees, Osamu Dezaki, Moebius, Ray Bradbury, Chris Columbus, John Canemaker,  Richard Outten, Gary Kurtz, William Hurtz, Masami Hata, Ken Anderson, Leo Salkin, Brian Froud, the Sherman Brothers); several ideas Miyazaki pitched were used in later Ghibli films and the relationships made during its long production (going back to 1975 when Fujioka began seeking the rights from Winsor McKay's family) led to Japanese animation companies partnering with US companies to make animation for the US market that by the late 80s and 90s had become a regular site on US TV.  And you get great anecdotes like Thomas or Johnson (two of Disney's famed 'nine old men' looking at drawings from Miyazaki and saying "what are they expecting us to teach you?"

As a side note, as a comic strip buff, I remember seeing Capcom's Little Nemo: The Dream Master platformer in 1990 (which I bought because how many Capcom platformers based on turn of the century comic strips were we going to get) and wondering how that happened (since the movie wouldn't come out in the US for 2 more years).

[Bartimaeus]

Yeah, I thought Little Nemo was pretty good...a little weaker with narrative and characters than you'd probably prefer for such a big and well-animated title, but it's basically an attempt to be a Disney movie, and if someone watched it as a child, I could definitely see it being a very lovely (albeit maybe confusing) trip down nostalgia lane. Didn't know all the surrounding story about it though - thanks for that. I do remember Miyazaki famously saying it was the worst experience he ever had making a film, but in all fairness, it sounded a bit like developmental hell along with there being way too many cooks in the kitchen while trying to collaborate across the ocean and through a language barrier - none of which would be trivial now, much less then. I thought I'd actually written about watching Little Nemo last summer, but it appears I did not. Whoops, wouldn't be the first time.

Edited November 18 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

The forum has been seriously wigging out for me like the last fifteen minutes - don't know how an earlier version of that post got re-posted like ten minutes after the first. I reported it for deletion.

[Amentep]

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Yeah, I thought Little Nemo was pretty good...a little weaker with narrative and characters than you'd probably prefer for such a big and well-animated title, but it's basically an attempt to be a Disney movie, and if someone watched it as a child, I could definitely see it being a very lovely (albeit maybe confusing) trip down nostalgia lane. Didn't know all the surrounding story about it though - thanks for that. I do remember Miyazaki famously saying it was the worst experience he ever had making a film, but in all fairness, it sounded a bit like developmental hell along with there being way too many cooks in the kitchen while trying to collaborate across the ocean and through a language barrier - none of which would be trivial now, much less then. I thought I'd actually written about watching Little Nemo last summer, but it appears I did not. Whoops, wouldn't be the first time.

Yeah its a fun kids film - the narrative weakness probably won't be an issue when seen as a kid (I have vague memories of showing this to my niece and her enjoying it).

Production was a big mess and the way they divided narrative to the US producers and director and animation to the Japanese director and animators was probably always going to set it up to struggle narratively.  The descriptions of the original Bradbury script seem wrongheaded (admittedly I haven't read all the Nemo strips, but it doesn't sound like a Nemo idea - essentially the antagonist would be Nemo's opposite, Omen) and because the US production had say on the story, Miyazaki's story ideas (some of which were good, some a bit of a headscratcher) were pretty much DOA, which frustrated him immensely.  Gary Kurtz agreed to produce it, but production dragged out so long he got tied up with other projects which slowed things down until he left.  Eventually they used ideas from Chris Columbus' script for the story even though Bradbury get a story credit.

[Gorth]

Split off from previous thread....

 

 

 

Incidentally ran across this interesting take on Dandadan episode 7. About how to do flashbacks in an interesting way and the power of show, don't tell. As well as comparisons to manga panels for the same sequences

 

 

[majestic]

On 11/18/2024 at 3:24 PM, Bartimaeus said:

It's one of the things that I think Sailor Moon in particular usually got right outside of when the show was being more dramatic: when our characters are having just casual conversation between each other, the editing of conversation is appropriately quick and natural, like a live action conversation would be. It's one of the show's better qualities over even something like Cardcaptor Sakura, where dialogue is, a lot of the time, quite a bit slower than it probably should be.

It's funny how many things in Sailor Moon are good because the show only had a shoestring budget and was following a monthly manga. The episodes were pretty streamlined and felt tight because their actual runtime was not that long. Every episode has like 10% stock footage, not counting the opening, so there was much less runtime padding needed in dialogues. The understated and dream-like backdrops were fantastic and the fact that they couldn't follow the harebrained storyline lead to something that came together so nicely. Well, when the show was not revolving around pedophile unicorns with wings.

Also, isn't it funny how a pedophile unicorn with wings is the worst thing the anime did, while for the manga that was just Tuesday?

CCS on the other hand even had a new outfit for Sakura for each episode. I recall reading an interview where CLAMP stated that they wanted her to have more outfits instead of wearing the same costume for every episode, like in older magical girl animes. That extra production time had to come from somewhere.

's complaining on a very high level though. If all anime would be nearly as well written as CCS was I would be doing a lot less complaining.

[Bartimaeus]

I obviously adore Cardcaptor Sakura, that hasn't changed with re-watching it...but I did try to take a little more of a critical eye this time around, and it was interesting to compare against my viewing of Sailor Moon, which was, after all, my very first anime show. For both of them being magical girl shows with nominally many of the same qualities, they have very different strengths...and very different weaknesses. It'll be interesting to re-visit Sailor Moon once the outstanding issues I have with the current offerings resolve themselves, which could unfortunately still be years away at this point. I think Cardcaptor Sakura will always be the more complete experience (probably further aided by the fact that it's a tigther 70 episodes and 2 movies instead of 250 episodes and 3 movies), but that doesn't necessarily mean you'll enjoy it more.

And on the subject of Madhouse animated shows, I truly hope that Madhouse's Azuki-chan will someday get English subtitles for the complete series. That's one that will seriously continue to perturb me until it happens, as I'm 99.9 percent confident that I will at least really like it, and there is very precious little of anything across any medium of entertainment that I feel 99.9% confident about really liking.

Edited November 19 by Bartimaeus

[Gorth]

Dandadan episode 8...

After the emotionally devastating episode 7 (not joking), it's back to make you smile and occasionally laugh again.

After saving Aira's life by transferring "Silky's" (we never get her real name) life force to her, they all seem have ended up at Seiko's (Momo's grandmother) house for some dinner. Udon noodles unless I'm mistaken

Starts out with an argument between Momo and Aira. The former apologizes for smashing a basin over Airas head and the latter is still convinced Momo is a demon in disguise. Hilarious argument that also has Japanses subs, because the bickering with their mouths fuill of noodles is incomprehensible, presumably even to Japanese ears.

edit: No screenshots, but honourable mention to a scene that mixes Jurassic Park (the water ripple scene and hiding in the kitchen from raptor scene) with what I assume is Godzilla completely with laser beam cutting the walls in half, trying to obliterate Momo...

 

Aira leaves the house and it's time for Turbo Granny (still trapped in the Neko Doll) to return the first of Okaruns balls. She shows herself as an excellent pitcher and returns it with a strike (I'm sure Okarun felt that one)!

 

Turns out that Aira is developing some kind of feelings for Okarun, ambushes him behind a building at school...

 

But Okarun, besides being shocked by the suddenness (wow, 3 double consonants, not something i see often),  adamantly rejects Airas advances

 

Asking her, where the heck that came from, she confesses top have learnt it from a book about romances she read!

 

When pushed on where she found such "novels"...

 

This is by the way (of course), the moment Momo walks by and sees what they're currently up to behind that building...

 

Momo feels her day is ruined...

 

Suddenly the school goes dark and the Momo is trapped by herself, while Okarun and Aira are trapped together. Turns out our old friends the Serpoans are back for more "bananas"

 

Okarun is not amused, he was so happy he just got the first of his two missing balls back

 

Turns out Aira got more than just Silky's life force in the previous transfusion, she inherited her spiritual powers too. Now she's truly the chosen one (because she's so pretty)!

 

Back story, why Okaruns balls are missing

 

[majestic]

Aria the Animaton episode 5.

I started watching this series last year in March. It speaks volumes to how much happens in these episodes that I have basically forgotten about it and only realized I haven't finished it after going through my notes.

Aria and the gang visit a secluded beach after a mysterious invitation. Turns out they came from their teachers, and they're in for training designed to make them puke blood and then some. There are a couple of obligatory crotch shots that simply have to be in an anime beach episode (probably government mandated), and then the training montage turns into spending the rest of the day at the beach and swimming in the sea and having fun, because this is still Aria the Animation.

I still have no idea what to make of this. Even a year and a half later, it was not really a problem getting back into the series, because it's basically just a handful of characters and no plot to speak of, which isn't a bad thing. If I was a good deal younger and this would air on a weekly basis like it was intended to, I'd probably tune in every week and end up having fond memories of watching the series. While being enjoyable, it is one of these series that seem to lose charm when watched in a non-linear fashion.

[uuuhhii]

On 11/22/2024 at 11:27 AM, Gorth said:

Dandadan episode 8...

After the emotionally devastating episode 7 (not joking), it's back to make you smile and occasionally laugh again.

After saving Aira's life by transferring "Silky's" (we never get her real name) life force to her, they all seem have ended up at Seiko's (Momo's grandmother) house for some dinner. Udon noodles unless I'm mistaken

Starts out with an argument between Momo and Aira. The former apologizes for smashing a basin over Airas head and the latter is still convinced Momo is a demon in disguise. Hilarious argument that also has Japanses subs, because the bickering with their mouths fuill of noodles is incomprehensible, presumably even to Japanese ears.

edit: No screenshots, but honourable mention to a scene that mixes Jurassic Park (the water ripple scene and hiding in the kitchen from raptor scene) with what I assume is Godzilla completely with laser beam cutting the walls in half, trying to obliterate Momo...

 

Aira leaves the house and it's time for Turbo Granny (still trapped in the Neko Doll) to return the first of Okaruns balls. She shows herself as an excellent pitcher and returns it with a strike (I'm sure Okarun felt that one)!

 

Turns out that Aira is developing some kind of feelings for Okarun, ambushes him behind a building at school...

 

But Okarun, besides being shocked by the suddenness (wow, 3 double consonants, not something i see often),  adamantly rejects Airas advances

 

Asking her, where the heck that came from, she confesses top have learnt it from a book about romances she read!

 

When pushed on where she found such "novels"...

 

This is by the way (of course), the moment Momo walks by and sees what they're currently up to behind that building...

 

Momo feels her day is ruined...

 

Suddenly the school goes dark and the Momo is trapped by herself, while Okarun and Aira are trapped together. Turns out our old friends the Serpoans are back for more "bananas"

 

Okarun is not amused, he was so happy he just got the first of his two missing balls back

 

Turns out Aira got more than just Silky's life force in the previous transfusion, she inherited her spiritual powers too. Now she's truly the chosen one (because she's so pretty)!

 

Back story, why Okaruns balls are missing

 

 

 

just watch monogatari as listening comprehension exercise 

anyway the quest for golden ball just recently ended in manga

so it would be about 4 season of anime

[Bartimaeus]

18 hours ago, majestic said:

Aria the Animaton episode 5.

I started watching this series last year in March. It speaks volumes to how much happens in these episodes that I have basically forgotten about it and only realized I haven't finished it after going through my notes.

Aria and the gang visit a secluded beach after a mysterious invitation. Turns out they came from their teachers, and they're in for training designed to make them puke blood and then some. There are a couple of obligatory crotch shots that simply have to be in an anime beach episode (probably government mandated), and then the training montage turns into spending the rest of the day at the beach and swimming in the sea and having fun, because this is still Aria the Animation.

I still have no idea what to make of this. Even a year and a half later, it was not really a problem getting back into the series, because it's basically just a handful of characters and no plot to speak of, which isn't a bad thing. If I was a good deal younger and this would air on a weekly basis like it was intended to, I'd probably tune in every week and end up having fond memories of watching the series. While being enjoyable, it is one of these series that seem to lose charm when watched in a non-linear fashion.

Experiencing something in a different time and place has always been one of my little musings of life: how would you feel about something (or even someone) if you experienced it right when and where you were supposed to? What might be some of your favorite things if they were given the perfect opportunity to impress themselves upon you? Alas.

Edited November 25 by Bartimaeus

[Gorth]

Watched Dandadan episode 9... I'll add more details and a few pictures later (if I manage to stop laughing). Some censorship required as Okarun spends the entire episode butt naked

[Gorth]

On 11/29/2024 at 1:23 PM, Gorth said:

Watched Dandadan episode 9... I'll add more details and a few pictures later (if I manage to stop laughing). Some censorship required as Okarun spends the entire episode butt naked

Talk about validation... quoting yourself

 

So, where to start? Like most episodes, no write up of what's happening does justice to it. Best recommendation is, watch it for yourself!

Last episode left off with the aliens (Serpoians) ripping off Okaruns clothes and bringing out the bit snipper to harvest his banana organs... Aira came to the rescue, showing her newfound abilities granted to her when Silky's Aura got transferred to her. The got a light beating and let go of Okarun. The main theme of this episode:

Yes, Okarun spends the entire episode from start to end, literally butt naked (this also led me to leave out most of the screenshots I made watching it, because I was too lazy to censor all of them)

The aliens strike back and use their psychosomething powers to create a field, that nullifies both Okaruns and Airas powers of transformation (using Turbo Grannys and Silkys powers respectively). They call this particular containment field for:

Suddenly Momo appears, she has a the power of disabling the Aliens special powers... as long as she stays focused that is

Much hilarity ensues when first Aira uses Okaruns real name (which rattles Momo) and later Okarun uses a well known quote from Ken Takamura, both times causing her to lose her concentration and the aliens get back in control. That Mantis guy from last episode is back. At first Aira and Okarun together beats him up, but the aliens force feed the poor gig worker an energy drink ("Regain"), which seems to have been a popular thing in the past in Japan (a lot of local cultural references, which I had to look up, seeing what the energy drink and the ads for it was all about)

And the hired labour sets about kicking some butt, not just Okaruns exposed butt, but everyones butt (I added the dark spot)

With Momo's aid, Aira and Okarun can now both transform and use that to create a ballet of butt kicking, sending the mantis flying. This is where Nessie shows up, the other hired help brought here by the aliens. Their environment suddenly turns into bottomless waters, with walls and ceiling made of water. The three tries to make a run for it, chased by the mantis, Nessie and the aliens.... Aura is developing a bit of a crush on Okarun

The water column behind Momo and Okarun is/was Aira, getting caught from beneath by the mantis guys punch, sending her flying through the ceiling

Momo uses her psychic powers to ride Okarun like a dolphin, giving chase and they pull Aira out of the water. After checking everyone is alive, she orders Aira to strip, as well as doing so herself, to reduce drag in the water, because the two girls are now going to ride Okarun at high speed while dodging laser beams. Aira is not amused, but Momo couldn't care less...

The aliens have merged themselves as well as Nessie and mantis guy into one monstrous being that packs a punch both at a distance (shooting underwater laser beams at the kids) as well as knocking the stuffing out of Aira as she tries to break it's neck, so stop it from shooting beams at them...

Momo, being the brains in the group, comes up with a plan on how to beat their pursuer. She confronts it and like Keanu Reeves in The Matrix, gestures to it to take its best punch at her. Using knowledge imparted in a previous episode about mantis shrimps, she creates an air bubble between the mantis' fists the moment it strikes and causes it to injure itself (because there's suddenly no resistance from the water when it strikes)

All three cooperate to create an unstoppable juggernaut, that manages to escape the void domain create by the aliens. Lets just say they end up in an "interesting" position. Fun and giggles and some jokes. Okarun notices they are on a hard surface, Momo starts giggling and thanks the hallway floor, and also thanks it for "being so hard"... while they are both laughing, they realize they have not only left the water, they are back in school and surrounded by gawking students wondering what two naked (more of less) students are doing on the floor?

Comical relief as they run away from school, joined by Aira, also just in her underwear

And that... only scratched the surface of what happened

 

edit: completely related, got this video recommended on youtube

 

 

[Bartimaeus]

Esper Mami: Dancing Dolls in the Starlit Sky (1988).

It's a movie to a series...which, like Azuki-chan, has also not been subtitled. Tsk, tsk. Anyways, it's about this girl named Mami who has...voodoo powers? I think she's supposed to be psychokinetic (hence "Esper" in the title), but the way it's shown when she's using it on people or objects makes it seem more like voodoo, especially because she's always making devil horns with her hands. Her bizarre teleportation power at least seems fairly benign.

Anyways, it's clearly a shoujo-type film along the lines of Secret of Akko-chan or Chibi Maruko-chan: Mami helps local puppeteers entertain a large group of children when they run short of the staff needed to perform the show, a young girl whose mother recently died loses the precious doll that her mom gave her, Mami tries to go find it but discovers it was already destroyed at the local garbage dump, so then we tie it all together with the group of puppeteers that help put on a very special show just for the little girl to...basically help her realize that it's not the doll that's important, it's the memory of her mother and the other people still around her that she cares about that are important. It's cute and it's done pretty well. What felt like a complete episode of a show takes a sudden left turn when the puppeteers have their building partially bulldozed by some nasty real estate developers that apparently bought out the land from the guy they were renting from - everyone basically throws their hands up and goes "well, that was fun while it lasted, but we can't deal with this and have real lives we need to get back to, bye!"...except for the lady and the guy who are clearly very close to each other but were maybe too focused on their work to realize it. Some stuff and things happen, Mami uses a little of her psychic powers combined with her girly thoughtfulness to encourage them to not give up and things are - more or less - eventually made right.

Now, I know nobody really much cares about this, but I say all of this because really, this movie could all have been a Cardcaptor Sakura episode or two, and yet, there's something that is very confusing to me. I went to Wikipedia to read more about the series, and...what is that?

Shonen? Shonen? This is shonen? I'm sorry, what? Either this movie and/or the anime series it belongs to is very different from the manga or I must have lost my mind.

Quote

This series has a similar premise to one of Fujiko F. Fujio's earlier shorts titled Akage no Anko ("Redheaded Anko"), later retitled Anko Ōi ni Okoru ("When Anko Really Gets Angry"), which is about Anko Aoyama, a teenage girl who discovers her psychic powers and the dark secret of her mother's lineage of true witches, and who also poses nude for her own father.

Wait, wait, stop, hold on just a second...what was that last bit? "And who also poses nude for her own father"?

Now, I'm no great linguist, but the way I read that line would seem to suggest that...Mami, the very same one from Esper Mami, the young girl in the movie that I just watched that is pictured above...poses nude for her father? Uh, why? Even if three's some kind of in-universe explanation for it that is innocent enough, why would that even be a thing? Dad makes his young teenaged daughter regularly pose nude for his paintings? Um, yuck? Oh, here's a comment I just read on the apparently botched Japanese DVD release of the main series:

Quote

If they cut out parts of episodes due to Mami being naked, almost every episode would have missing scenes, and almost all of episode 46 would be missing.

Oh, oookay. Well, you know what? As far as my brain is concerned, only the non-canonical movie exists, and it's officially a shoujo movie, and a fairly decent one at that, and I think that's just where we're going to have to leave it.

[Gorth]

Watched Dandadan episode 10... never mind what the offical title is, I kept thinking about old "Got Milk?" advertising

(a few screenshots and captions to follow later)

[Gorth]

On 12/6/2024 at 1:11 PM, Gorth said:

Watched Dandadan episode 10... never mind what the offical title is, I kept thinking about old "Got Milk?" advertising

(a few screenshots and captions to follow later)

After being put on display in the last episode, the three kids ends up in the school nurses office, presumably to check if they are being bullied or similar traumatic experiences. Queen Sensei (the "nurse" with the whip) makes for a striking figure

(left out the scene where she starts whipping a guy and tells the kids entertain themselves)

Airas friends stops by and drags her back to class, where they all get themselves worked into a frenzy, helped by the false rumours Aira spread earlier. She decides to "come clean" and stop the torch and pitchfork mob in its tracks.

Sadly I couldn't find a video clip of Aira banging her head against the bench, as it was quite funny

Momo and Okarun gets a heart to heart talk, about how he ended up pinning Aira to the ground the moment Momo stopped by. It ends in a bit of awkwardness

Momos friends similarly arrives, meeting up with Momo and Okarun. They put on a little "detective" show, illustrating what they think is happening. Fun little sequence with 60's style effects

They almost correctly arrive at the conclusion it's a love triangle with two girls fighting over a boy. Only way to explain how all three ended up in the hallway in various stages of nudity

This would also explain (to her friends), why Momo seemed to study the mantis shrimp so intensively in the class room

Similarly Momo and Aira have a brief conversation, where Aira confesses to not hanging Momo out as the source of evil in school.

This is also around the point where the gig worker shows up again (the poor mantis guy with hard punches from previous episode)

He looks weird and is covered in a white liquid running off him (more about that in a moment)...

We get a bit of backstory. Gig worker is a [$@$@] from [$@$@], who needs currency really badly. His wife died from a disease, which his son has inherited and requires him to constantly taking ****ty jobs as bodyguard etc. to pay for his treatment

They try to explain to Seiko that gig worker is an alien, but she'll hear none of it, he's just a "Kappa"

The disease is a kind of hemophilia, causing them to bleed to death. The kids take pity on the gig worker, taking him home to Seiko (Momo's grandmother) and patching him up (the white liquid was his blood). Seiko makes sushi for all, with a typical Ayase household dinner to follow

Seiko identifies the blood of gig worker as being similar to cows milk. Hence, he may not need to work himself to death to provide for his son home on [$@,$@]

Gig worker is overjoyed and we get a scene where an UFO (or UAP if you ask Okarun) beams up a cow and flies away, promising something along the lines of eternal friendship

 

A funny scene involving the three kids, Seiko and money for new school uniforms, followed by the doorbell, where a young man shows up, Jiji... turns out to be Momo's childhood friend and first love (leaving Okarun flustered)

[majestic]

"Everything wrong with anime", the series. Oh dear.

edit: on the bright side, I don't think I need to feel bad about loving StrikerS in spite of the fanservice any more.

Edited December 11 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

Magical Emi, the End of Magic. Okay, people...hear me out, I would appreciate all your guys' input on something:

Spoiler

So this is the 1985 TV show...

And this is the 2002 single-episode OVA that was the last thing ever released for the show...

You basically can't even tell the difference between the art styles, right? But anyways, here's the actually important bit that I would like to hear other people's opinions on...here is the outro of the original show: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/scl/fi/qz3show7ypdvrn8fxslfl/mpc-hc64_m2U1NwAqnJ.mp4?rlkey=f1skdz9oy685rrpdlhkad9ypn&dl=0

Harmless enough, right? No big deal, it's a silly little shoujo show made for girls, whatever. And now here is the outro of the single-episode 2002 OVA, the last bit of Magical Emi that there ever was, that...I suppose, was trying to pay some kind of homage to it and the show in general, even going so far as to play the original show's music a whole seventeen years later: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/scl/fi/spqnfkbb1polvhgaihc28/mpc-hc64_JgaRdgtv0p.mp4?rlkey=glgskpxcz111ngns59ua9c7ns&dl=0

Please tell me if I'm crazy: was this OVA ending inexplicably creepy as hell, or what? I was getting nearly Perfect Blue-esque vibes, and I have no clue why it was like that, but it really skeeved me out and made me question what was happening as I watching it. Between the sudden disconcerting and traumatized looks Mai (the main character, she's both the orange-haired girl and the teal-haired lady) kept shifting into, the weird and surreal imagery, Mai watching her own older self appearing in the rainbow, the fact that this is all occurring in what seems to be old photos, the whole minute of silence* in a dark room while the credits play with...what appears to be an older teenaged version of Mai that I've never even seen at any point in either the show or the OVA, but it's her room from when she's a child in the show and I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be her... It's super weird, right? It all felt like I was watching a psychological short that was really actually a memorial for someone who was murdered or something. Can anybody else watch this and tell me if if I'm reading way too much into it or not? I mean, I definitely am, but like...unjustifiably so?

*Actually, it's not quite silence: I think you can hear some vaguely ominous environmental sounds like the wind rustling, car brakes, a passing train...

Edited December 13 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Please tell me if I'm crazy: was this OVA ending inexplicably creepy as hell, or what?

Yes, is that a bad thing though?

[Sarex]

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

You basically can't even tell the difference between the art styles, right?

The second one looks better, no?