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Comments
The music of Dragonaut: the Resonance turns out to be quite good.
Nearly finishing Katanagatari. This show gets weird with its definition of "sword".
It's either really deep or something that can only be thought up while high.
[user deleted]
It also seems to be an anime version of this thread, with all the wordswordswords swordsswordsswords.
Especially with the appearance of Kitirsugu.
I thought Dragonaut was bad, with its mediocre plot and stupid
ly largecharacter designs.I heard Railgun was better.
Instead, I'm listening to Kuroko discuss her tastes in underwear and being an obnoxious yuri shipper.
Look, at the very least, Dragonaut mostly ignored the breast size issue in the script. It came up maybe like three times, in passing.
"I've been no help at all! I just annoy you all the time!"
No, the reason you annoy her is because you're a yuri shipper trying to live out 'eir fantasy. You're perfectly fine in an actual incident.
Also, the logo of Joseph's Coffee and Restaurant reminds me of some real-life chain here in the US. Popeye's, I think.
Do people actually compare Dragonaut to Railgun now, or are you making a somewhat forced segue?
I just finished one and started the other, that's the only reason why.
It is true that I've read that Railgun is generally well-regarded -- albeit, not for its early episodes -- and Dragonaut seem to be generally regarded as mediocre or worse.
[08:50:49] i really ought to stop marathoning series or even watching more than one ep a day it takes away from the emotional impact of some of the events whey the consist of worry or longing or feelings like that
[08:50:56]
[08:51:41]
[08:51:54]
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[08:52:01]
reasons to dislike mai-hime
* mood whiplash
* the love triangle (or love quadrilateral, or...who cares)
* so is it about dueling conspiracies or love triangles? their tone doesn't mix at all, at least not in this show
* mikoto is annoying
* shiho is annoying
* so am i supposed to be sympathetic to miyu or not
* stuff just doesn't make sense, like mai coming back for no adequately explained reason
* natsuki being a truant is the weakest excuse ever
* shiznat shipping
* the whole idea of himelander
* plot arcs seemingly have nothing to do with each other
* am i supposed to take it seriously or not?
* episode 4 (the lingerie episode)
* silly terminology (orphans, childs, etc.) <-- this was the start of me disliking all that crazy terminology jargon shit that goes into anime premises
* hey look, here's a premise for drama, when your child dies your loved one dies.
* and now we will have a bake-off episode.
* heck, even mai is a little annoying.
* some nonsense involving the obsidian prince, and all sorts of other weird mystical bullshit
reasons to like mai-hime
* natsuki
* nao
* that one girl who tells other kids on the playground to fuck off, while holding a teddy bear
* the opening theme
* the insert song
* the lead-in for the closing theme
Sorry, Yuki Kajiura's music didn't even make the list. Because it's either effective or ineffective depending on what the show is about, but I can't figure out what the show is about.
That's because you never finished it.
"Love triangles" is a gross misrepresentation of how the show utilizes "love" as a theme.
How is this a negative? Have you ever seen/read anything with such a premise to even judge whether or not it's a negative? Have you even seen Highlander?
It ties to the biggest theme of of the show. Calling it "a premise for drama" is kind of... dismissive or something. Also, you haven't seen the reveal of how this "mechanism" actually worked.
But those two terms work well enough for how the things... worked.
It's literally spelled out.
indeed
Anyways, my first watch after hiatus is WIXOSS and I literally cannot stop caring about how whatever it is. The worst part is it's not even "I don't even know" levels of stuff, it's just... continuing on and sometimes you can kind of feel whatever part of Okada thinks that any scene in it is happy and those are the best parts.
Then there's the fact that Akira casually ties up Hitoe and hits her and yet nobody considers just like... calling the police and having her arrested.
Also battling got ridiculous without ever not being ridiculous in the first place (If Maya controls WIXOSS why wasn't she an instrumental part in the Level 5* scene? Why is she not terrified of the fact that she apparently controls everything yet cannot stop putting things that will definitely stop her into place?)
*not the game studio I swear
^ So apparently (according to some folks in that one huge thread at Allspark) Wixoss is by the same folks who did A Certain Whatever? I haven't seen Wixoss but I wonder if that gives new meaning to your mention of "Level 5".
^^ The main problem I have with criticizing Mai-HiME is that I haven't finished watching the show, but I don't want to.
That said, I've given it 15 episodes, which should be more than enough time for me to get a good sense of where it's going, and and for it to keep me invested in watching the show.
Also that whole explanation strikes me as going from intended symbolism/meaning to mechanics (i.e. "I want it to have this meaning so let's shoehorn supernatural stuff to make it work") rather than having a proper mechanical justification...
Same anime studio, not the same author.
Considering how you don't seem to "get" some things, it clearly wasn't enough. And HiME suffers from very uneven pacing anyway, so the first 15 episodes aren't really enough to give you a good idea of what it's about, unless you already know what to look for.
Do you expect workable scientific principles in your fantasy cartoons now? I am confused as to what it is you even look for in this stuff. HiME has its problems, but I don't see how things working based on the main theme is one of them. Or did you think that explanation was just slapped on there instead of being something that's actually important?
Oh, my bad.
Well, okay, I guess that makes sense. I had trouble seeing a bigger picture to all the rather disparate plot threads that were being introduced -- especially the highly contrasting ones.
I can see how the notion of a theme of love connects everything, but it's rather inconsistently portrayed.
For example, was there much indication other than a few passing references that it was love -- specifically, displays of love and affection, shown rather than stated -- that was the bond between HiMEs and their CHILDs? I can think of only two examples: the flashback involving Natsuki's dog, and Miyu (the "artificial hime", of all characters) showing her softer side toward a dying Alyssa. For the rest of the characters, the CHILDs are basically portrayed as familiars or extraordinary/supernatural abilities: they aren't sentient to show their reactions to love (or lack thereof), nor are their HiMEs really shown "babying" them with affection in any significant way.
If anything, the theme of "love" was pretty much only presented as part of the romance drama (with dashes of comedy) between the main characters. There's definitely a lot of that going on. In contrast, the superpowers aspect was played out as a contest of dueling conspiracies or efforts to uncover them, as a mystery element, that seemed largely unrelated to the romance drama -- if anything.
Even if the pacing is very inconsistent and it does get better in the last 11 episodes, that's still a very weak excuse considering that there's been little foreshadowing of all sorts of plot developments. The most foreshadowing there was was the killing of tonfa girl's (I forgot her name) CHILD which caused the death of her boyfriend, and maybe the mere fact that ninja "boy" is actually a girl (again, I forgot her name).
It's hard to say for supernatural phenomena, but the general trend just seems to be that elements of plot seem to be placed there for the sake of the plot and poorly justified. The tersest example is Natsuki's being a truant, which seems to have little significance other than justifying why she doesn't show up in the school-setting scenes. But the boat accident at the beginning just seemed to...happen. Similarly, Mai dramatically sacrificing herself (and her CHILD) to destroy Alyssa's orbital bombardment cannon, and then showing back up at school as if nothing happened, is just sort of glossed over after a little while.
There's also no one deciding that everyone should gang up on Nagi -- who is horribly irritating (and being portrayed seriously as such) and basically calling all the "mysterious mystical stuff I know that no one else doesn't" shots -- and just beat the truth out of him already.
Maybe had they run with the "Lord of the Flies" vibe that the headmaster girl (again I forgot her name) presented in ep. 3 -- basically, just crowding all these people with supernatural powers or other important roles into one isolated social space and seeing what happens -- it would have felt more thematically consistent. But then again there are all the civilians, and there's also the whole Searrs arc...
From an out-of-universe perspective, even the theme of love seems to be somewhat of a stretch. I can see that as a commonality between the romance drama and the thing about CHILDs being linked to the lives of one's most important loved ones, but if I'm supposed to take that seriously, then all the romantic comedy and fanservice elements and general slice-of-life comedy -- which is frequently front-and-center -- doesn't fit.
TL;DR lots of thematic ideas presented, but inconsistently developed (or even at all, in some cases), the result feeling like a jumbled mess.
(Contrast, say, another show that I have a mixed opinion of and also shares a music composer and also has magical girl elements: Madoka Magica. That show has a much more thematically consistent.)
I'll probably get around to finishing the show at some point, but unless some sort of miracle happens in the last 11 episodes, I don't see myself having an overall opinion of the show that's better than neutral/mixed. Which is sort of a shame, since the character art is nice, the theme songs are nice, the soundtrack is nice, and the superpowers are kinda nifty.
It's not so much as that love towards the Child is "the bond between HiMEs and their CHILDs", so much as the Childs are tied to the love the HiMEs act on in general. The final episode of the show itself gives a slightly different explanation than the post-episode extras, although still tied to the same theme. And since you mentioned Natsuki, it seems you didn't notice that Duran is a bit of an anomaly (although in a different way than Miroku).
Also, Miyu is not the artificial HiME. Alyssa is, and the satellite thing was her Child. Miyu is "robot trash". But Alyssa's "most important person" thing doesn't actually work the way it does with the other characters anyway.
So you're just ignoring Mai's family issues and Mikoto's thing as a younger sibling figure (both literally with her brother and figuratively towards Mai)?
Isn't Natsuki a truant because she spends so much time trying to find out what happened with her mother?
Nothing indicates that "beating the truth out of him" would even work. And he's not the only character who knows what's going on.
That's probably part of the pacing and focus issues.
I don't particularly like Miki Hoshii the character, but "Heart of the Marionette" is a pretty darn catchy song.
MEGAPOST HO
Light Novel Adaptations
Absolute Duo - First in Winter’s massive collection of Light Novel adaptations, this one follows a boy who manifests the wrong kind of weapon (a sword instead of a shield) and then is put into a dorm with some adorable girls. Ecchi and action scenes ensue.
Juuou Mujin no Fafnir - A system in which only girls can access dragon powers and save the world... surely there’s no way the protagonist is the only boy who can do the same! Watch to find out.
Sasenai Heroine no Sodate-kata - A high school otaku enlists the smartest girl in school and an artist to make yet another classmate of his into the heroine of his doujin game in time for Comiket.
Seiken Tsukai no World Break - Not to be confused with Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance, the protagonist has an impossible set of powers that includes both sets possible in a world where powers are either-or.
Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha - A boy who wishes to have sisters gets them in the form of demon stepsisters.
Shounen/Seinen
Isuca - A manga adaptation about a boy who begins to work for a girl that hunts and exorcises spirits.
Junketsu no Maria - A witch who hates war has her anti-war crusade cut-short when the angel Ezekiel imposes a new rule on her; she will lose her powers if she ever loses her chastity.
Sengoku Musou - Not to be confused with Sengoku Basara, even though it is adaptation of yet another series of games set in the same era.
Tokyo Ghoul √A - Second season of the vampire action manga adaptation.
Shoujo
Kamisama Hajimemashita◎ - The second season of the shrine god-comedy/romance manga adaptation.
Bishounen
Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu LOVE! - A low budget work with a presumably even lower standard script but it’s about magical girl bishounen who become heroes by “LOVEMAKING” so it’s okay.
Kuroko no Basuke 3 - Third season of Production I.G.’s original-flavour money printing sports anime.
Shounen Hollywood -Holly Stage for 50- - Second season of the idol anime that builds on the original novel.
Comedy
Ansatsu Kyoushitsu - Based on the popular manga; a team of “students” are assigned to murder their teacher who just happens to be an alien bringer of doom.
Dog Days’’ (“Double Dash”, for you word people) - The third season of the inexplicably popular show about a boy who can do no wrong who becomes a hero of a magical dimension where girls tend to be half-animal. Ecchi, Mizuki Nana OPs and Horie Yui EDs ensue.
Tantei Opera Milky Holmes TD - Third season of the popular Bushiroad property, this time the girls try to solve the mystery of missing idol songs.
Slice-of-Life
Kantai Collection : KanColle - Adaptation of the popular web-browser game featuring ships that are actually girls.
Koufuku Grafitti - In the long awaited manga adaptation of this work that celebrates food, a middle school girl eats food with her friends in a slightly ecchi manner (I’m serious).
The iDOLM@STER : Cinderella Girls - The latest adaptation in the popular iM@S franchise, this time of the smartphone game.
Mecha
Aldnoah.ZERO 2 - Second season of Urobutcher’s latest mecha anime.
Soukyuu no Fafner : Dead Aggressor - EXODUS - The long-awaited, double-subtitled sequel to the original Dead Aggressor anime.
Artsy Stuff
Death Parade - A full commitment to Madhouse’s original Death Billiards one-shot; about people who participate in a death game in the middle of a bar, with the bartender as mediator.
Durarara!!x2 Shou - Second season of the popular action anime.
Rolling☆Girls - Girls on bikes travel around Japan to mediate inter-prefectural incidents in a world where prefectures have become independent states.
Yoru no Yatterman - The latest in Tatsunoko’s property revivals follows the offspring of the old villains, now heroes led by a little girl, fighting the offspring of the heroes, now villains.
Yuri Kuma Arashi - A high school girl with weird dreams about bears embarks on an adventure.
Long-Runners
Go! Princess Precure - This year’s Precure will be the first to center on a boarding school (and brings back the oddly popular “blue one has bare-midriff” thing, seriously Precure fans what is up with you). A girl who dreams of becoming a princess becomes a Princess Precure instead. Pandering to fans of long, flowy, unnecessarily garish gowns (ie me) the Princess Precure can transform into a second form right off-bat called Mode Elegant.
Jojo na Kimyou na Bouken : Stardust Crusaders 2 - Second half of the second season of the popular manga adaptation.
I'll be watching:
Continuing:
New:
Gundam: G no Reconguista is only two cour, I can totally watch it now!
yes DYRE I know you said it was bad but stiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiill
It's a fun distraction.
PriPara (19) is subbed~
For as much trivia as there is out there about all sorts of random characters of anime series, I'm surprised that I can't seem to find what Uiharu's and Ruiko's birthdays are.
Let's talk about what stuff we're all watching!
Aikatsu! Akari Generation (or 3rd Season) : I am really enjoying having Akari as protagonist so much. The elements from the game this year have been really solid too. There are lots more theme dresses to enjoy since we aren't limited to 12 constellations. Hinaki and Juri have also been really great focus-characters and I can't wait for Miyagi to show up. I just wish Sumire would speak up more, even though she is supposed to be the shy one.
PriPara : PriPara's strength in it's second cour has really been it's characters and the dynamics that have developed between them (most noteably Shion's relationships with Laala and Mireille, but also Dorothy's one-sided rivalry with Laala). I really am concerned about the third cour though since we'll finally have ROKUNIN LIVES in the game and I have already been spoiled on the sudden conversion of idol groups into a thing you put on salad. I mean, if we get all the protagonists together all there is left is vs. Falulu which is fine but for two entire cours?
Future Card Buddyfight : The Gaen cup has really pulled off the transition from the show almost ending (episode 48ish was pretty endgame) to it's continuing straight into a second year. It's nice to see all the characters kind of satelighting around each other as each of their stories plays out. I like seeing that Kyouya isn't exactly omniescent even though he does have money and controls the police and is partners with the strongest Dark Dragon and should basically be all-powerful soon.
Binan Chikyuu Bouei-bu LOVE! : I did not expect to like this show more than I liked Bakumatsu Rock, but I find that I might. It can actually be funny sometimes in earnest even. The characters are all nice and distinct, which I didn't expect from a cast of eight entire school-going bishounen.
Katanagatari : Two episodes in and it is quite wordy so far, can't really tell where it's going but what I can tell is that I enjoy it whenever I watch it so that's fine.
Monogatari Series Second Season : I really need to watch more of this, but I'll probably never get around to it if I don't start soon. It's fun so far, but the protagonist not appearing for the first couple episodes was a gamble (it's paying off but still).
Dog Days'' : Haven't started it yet.
A friend of mine has pointed out how this series could be renamed "The Misadventures of God and Death".
Garo Honoo No Kokuin: The last few episodes of this, while fine, felt like they were kind of extremely fillery and didn't add all that much to the main plot of the show. However the ending to the last episode had one hell of a surprise ending in regards to direction of the show's story, and it looks like the main plot's about to kick in at full force again with this week's upcoming episode, so I'm hyped for it.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Stardust Crusaders: It's Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, so that basically means it's automatically going to be fantastic and I really don't need to say anything else.
Death Parade: While I absolutely love the moody atmosphere, the tension that comes with the death games, and the general psychological nature of the show's first two episodes, I haven't kept up with because my mood hasn't exactly been conductive to it lately. Probably either going to try and catch up later this week or put it on hold and watch it all when it finishes.
G-Reco: Managed to catch up on this last week, and I can safely say that I'm really enjoying the direction of the show. The interplay between the multiple factions has been really interesting to watch unfold, even if their motivations can sometimes become a bit muddled with how the show's dialogue is.
Yozakura Quartet: Hana No Uta: Only two episodes into this, but I had a really fun time watching it and proooooooooooobably should get back on it.
Yuri Kuma Arashi: An insanely self-indulgent series in the worst way possible, with a cast of characters that I find to be bland or unlikeable, piss-poor world building, and a story that absolutely refuses to make me care about what's going on. Honestly, the only saving grace of this is the art direction, which is to be expected from the director, Kunihiko Ikuhara. Frankly it feels like the only reason I'm watching this is because of the reputation the director has among the anime elitists as otherwise I would have stopped at around the third episode.
Yeah, I really dug how bouncy and fluid all of it seemed like. Plus the actual art style is extremely pleasent to look at.
...okay that us a very unusual way of saying "added it to my to-watch list".
Blassreiter is pretty interesting with how it looks like Urobuchi had a reputation for Urobuchiness even back in 2008. Enough that it feels like they were consciously trying to make use of it. (note: these two pictures are not from the same episode) Possibly the most noticeable aspect is how the first episode is titled "Prelude to Despair".
Also, as if by some prophetic deal, this show features a biker hero transforming into a monster to fight other monsters, and the secondary writer is somewhat notable for her Kamen Rider work.
This was supposed to be the one club pres running it who had better taste, and was more excited about actually running the club (as opposed to last term's president).
On one hand, the club didn't even show all three of the classic Bee Train girls-with-guns shows. Now, someone did say that Noir was too slow for the club's tastes the last time it was shown (ugh), so fine, there are two others, Madlax and El Cazador de la Bruja. El Cazador de la Bruja was shown only at the very end of the club meet because I helped find a source. Half of the first ep of Noir was watched because I just unilaterally went up to the computer and started playing Noir at the very end of the club meet. Madlax wasn't even on the radar.
On the other hand, someone thought to suggest the OVA called Kite (a.k.a. A Kite). In case you aren't familiar with it, know that the suggestion came with a warning that there was NSFW stuff, like sex scenes. Club president didn't vet it, and it turned out to have not only sex scenes, but rape scenes. Explicit ones. One person even seemed noticeably disturbed by it and left the club meeting.
Needless to say, I'm not happy with the way the club meet was run this evening.
The list of stuff shown at the meeting:
Dead Fantasy (1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
Black Lagoon (1)
Bubblegum Crisis OVA (1)
Gunslinger Girl (7)
Kite (explicit version)
El Cazador de la Bruja (1)
Noir (1)
I can understand throwing up Dead Fantasy as a tribute to Monty Oum who recently passed away, though watching all 7 (albeit short-ish) eps of it was still sort of a waste of time. Black Lagoon, Bubblegum Crisis, and Gunslinger Girl are pretty fair game, though.
However, Kite should NOT have been there, needless to say.
Curiously, Ghost in the Shell was available to the club pres, but he didn't pick it. (Maybe it had been shown recently before...which isn't out of the question.) Still, there were other choices:
(from Wikipedia)
MAL lists ratings for some of these series:
Gall Force 1 is rated R+ - mild nudity.
Dirty Pair is rated PG13. And Dirty Pair is one of the more famous girls-with-guns series.
Gunsmith Cats is rated PG13.
Angel Heart is rated PG13.
Noir is rated R - 17+ violence and profanity.
Madlax is rated R - 17+ violence and profanity.
El Cazador de la Bruja is rated PG13.
Gunslinger Girl is rated R - 17+ violence and profanity.
Kite is rated Rx - hentai.
Looking up these ratings on MAL is really not hard.