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Old 10-03-2010, 07:01 PM   #1326
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Did you get the 4.0 or 10.0 gb torrent?
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Old 10-03-2010, 07:06 PM   #1327
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Size: 4.27 GB
Source: Blu-Ray
Resolution: 720p
Encoding: h264

A, I wouldn't have had an easy time of backing up the 10-gig one optically. B, 720p is plenty good enough for me on my tiny monitor. It's 19" or 20" diagonally and is kept by me in a resolution of 1440 x 900. Therefore, getting 1080i is overkill since it exceeds my vertical resolution of 900. And 720 is very nearly 1:1. Suffice to say, it looks very good.

==================================

Anyway, I'm halfway through the film. As I feared, I am enjoying the film less than I would have liked to have. It only features two problems, but one is a nuisance and the other is a major problem:

1. the nuisance is the changes the film makes to the game's canon. So far, they've been pretty small. But they've been things like:
  • Shirou not knowing about Kuzuki-sensei's allegiance with Caster until the night of _______'s betrayal in Kotomine's church's basement
  • Berserker turning into a cloud of dust before Ilya even has a chance to crawl towards him or anything
  • Gilgamesh not blinding Ilya -- this one I was actually happy about, insofar as I'd really been "Oh, no! "-ing the entire time leading up to this scene, thinking I'd have to see the gruesome scene which even the game's artist had the kindness not to show us
These little changes are minor and don't really affect the film's plot much, but they're annoying since I'd really wanted for the film to have 1:1 correspondence with the game.

2. the major problem is what I wrote about earlier: the film is much too fast-paced. I'm only one hour in, halfway through, and already we're done with Ilya and Berserker. I mean, I guess this is how it has to be? I guess they had no other recourse? But part of me really wishes that they had just gone ahead and animated a 4-hour or a 6-hour film or series of films. I'm guessing that that would have been retardedly way too high-budget, but the end product we wound up with is leaving me sour.

The redeeming quality to the film is:
(a) hearing the voices put to this story arc (since I played the game without the voices), and
(b) seeing some of the scenes brought to life with lusciously exquisite animation

Last edited by Talon87; 10-03-2010 at 07:14 PM.
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Old 10-03-2010, 10:41 PM   #1328
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I'm still debating whether I should bother watching the UBW movie or not. An 8+ hour path condensed into a 2 hour movie just seems like it'd kill a bunch of the content.

Anyway, 'tis day 3 of fall anime arrivals! I think Arakawa subs will take a few days, so I didn't get to watch it, but I did check out Star Driver and Ore no Imouto.

Star Driver was really meh. It has stinky mechs, which is an instant minus. It also seems very shounen. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be anything that stands out about this. One more thing. Everyone has really goofy outfits, and the main character looks like a flaming homo when he transforms. Those aren't complaints, just something I might end up making fun of.

As much as I don't wanna admit this, Ore no Imouto has been the most pleasant fall 2010 title I've watched so far. In a small way, it seems kinda like Haruhi. A guy gets involved with a girl's unusual hobbies. The girl's forceful nature adds to the comparison. If they don't try too hard to appeal to the Otaku, I'm sure this title will end up really good. If this show goes down the incest direction, go for it!

There's also a question I'd like to ask. In Japan, are people unable to lock doors without the door being shut? I'm asking, because in Gilligan's Island, they keep throwing this "Ha ha! I locked the door without using a key! I must've used magic!" I would normally forgive this, but so much of a fuss is caused over it, and such a simple solution can be made about it. I can forgive it if it's simply ignorance towards western doors, or it's one of those locks that is above the door handle. It's not the latter since they said they put the key in the door handle to unlock it.

I know it sounds silly to fuss over this, but in chapter 2, they used the "locked door trick" 4 times, and the main character throws such a fit because of it. There's also a strong possibility there's some ignorance on my side. I just wanna know if I'm getting pissed off over nothing.

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Old 10-04-2010, 04:39 AM   #1329
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Damn it Talon ;_;

One last thing. You know that "gao gao stegosaurus" shirt Yukito wears in that one episode? I have that shirt!
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Old 10-04-2010, 11:11 AM   #1330
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Oh man Talon, this movie requires a LOT of juice. The first thing I realize after seeing that (horrifying) first scene (why'd they spoil that?) was that there was NO sound. I check all my speakers, and decide to push everything to full, and I can *barely* make out some talking. The I realize that the sound is lagging, but that is soon rectified as the image stops altogether, allowing the proverbial tortoise to beat Achilles, as some say.

There's no way I'm going to be able to watch this without like 5 gb of free space. >_>;
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Old 10-04-2010, 01:50 PM   #1331
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Originally Posted by Mcsweeney View Post
Damn it Talon ;_;
Glad my post didn't get lost in the sea of yesterday's writings.

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One last thing. You know that "gao gao stegosaurus" shirt Yukito wears in that one episode? I have that shirt!
No way! That's neat. I'm surprised that someone thought it'd be practical to screen a bunch of these and sell them to Air fans. Or did you screen one at home just for yourself?

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Oh man Talon, this movie requires a LOT of juice.
Does it? You're not still running that old dinosaur of yours, are you?

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after seeing that (horrifying) first scene (why'd they spoil that?)
They decided to tell the entire opening to the game -- from "turn on my computer" to "make the choice which places me onto the UBW path" -- in 15 minutes. And show the opening credits while they were at it. Yeah: it was pretty ruined. ^^; The one saving grace to that scene ends up being that it sports the best original music in the entire film. I'm looking very much forward to an UBW OST just so I can get that track.

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The first thing I realize was that there was NO sound. I check all my speakers, and decide to push everything to full, and I can *barely* make out some talking.
I don't think this is just you. I had to double my Windows speaker's audio level and quadruple VLC's audio level (from 100% to 400%) just to get it to be decently loud. It seems that either (a) the base audio on the DVD is quiet, in which case we blame Universal Pictures; or else (b) the fansubbers botched the audio encode big time, in which case we blame them.

Either way, I'm thinking that I'll just live with it for now; but, I wouldn't be averse to re-encoding the film myself with an audio track that I personally increased the audibility of by 5-10 dB. The only problem is, I wouldn't know how to get the audio back into the original video file, i.e. the one with the softsubs. So I'd be stuck with a very pretty, very audible raw.

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The I realize that the sound is lagging, but that is soon rectified as the image stops altogether, allowing the proverbial tortoise to beat Achilles, as some say.
This only happened to me once or twice in the middle of the film, and only after I had told the computer, "Take tons of screencaps!! " For the most part, I never had any audio lag, video lag, audio/video mismatch, audio artifacts, or video artifacts.

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There's no way I'm going to be able to watch this without like 5 gb of free space. >_>;
I don't see what the hard drive space has to do with anything, unless you're running a system whose internal space is >90% occupied. If that's the case -- and it probably is -- then you've got bigger problems than not being able to enjoy the UBW movie. You need to either back a lot of the data up you have on there and then delete it or else you need to just plain delete it. I learned several years ago from my tech buddies that computers run best when their hard drives are <90% full. Go beyond 90% and you begin to notice it in performance lag. (e.g. Windows takes longer to display folder contents, large video files may stutter or have other performance issues, etc.)

I think the main problem for you, though, is that if you're still using that old dinosaur of a PC you were using even back when we all watched Kaiji in '07 then you need a new CPU and more RAM. Dual core (if not quad core) CPUs make mincemeat of most of these h264-encoded anime video files provided that each core is at least 1 GHz in strength. And I'm still running on only 2 gigs of RAM -- the same specs I had when I built the computer in Summer 2007 -- and it's plenty for me. (I should note, though, that I also am still running Windows XP SP3. So I don't have anywhere near the RAM hog issues you might if you're running Windows Vista or Windows 7. And I remember when XP was seen as the ram hog of the family! Oh, OS-tan comics ...)
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Old 10-04-2010, 02:55 PM   #1332
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Morg has said it's even worse with Dell computers, which need 50%< hard-drive space occupied to run at maximum efficiency. I've got a hold of some new memory during the summer, but it's not nearly enough.

I basically have to finish off Chaos;Head, Saya no Uta, and Planetes to clear below that threshold, though I'm certain there's something else I haven't deleted hogging the space. I've deleted three copies of Rance already, the last being the one I put away two days past.

Figuring "yeah, I need to clear things" I jumped back in to Planetes Episode 9 this morning...and promptly recalled why I lagged on it in the first place. ><;

/doesn't like interpersonal relationships between co-workers.
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Old 10-04-2010, 03:13 PM   #1333
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Then you'll love Episode 14, where Lavie forbids members of the Debris Section from dating one another.

But it only lasts for like an episode. And I'm glad. *roots for Tanabe*

Saya no Uta ... I've been on again, off again looking into that title. It looks REALLY fucked up, which is a con for me, but I am intrigued by the million dollar question of, "Just what/who is Saya, then?" After all, if everyone and everything the main character sees has become horribly grotesque, then one has to wonder if the beautiful Saya is (to our eyes) grotesque? Perhaps she's a demoness? Perhaps she's some terrible monster? And even if she's none of these things, still the question remains: why does she alone look pleasing to the eye in a world where now everything looks like entrails?

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Old 10-04-2010, 03:37 PM   #1334
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Unfortunately for you, Saya takes the form of a fake loli, so I don't think you'll be playing the title anytime soon with that info. It's tough to get a download anyway, now that Nitro+ works are being released stateside. I would have been interested in your hypothetical play of the game because the main character is a medical student. I remember playing Ever17 as Takeshi while I was 20 years old, and not too long after the game takes place, had a big influence on endearing his character to me. The same could be said of Chaos;Head in that the game was released in April 2008 with the events depicted as occurring in October 2008, right when I was playing it. It definitely added to the effect, although the personal internet touch added to the game through the translation probably contribute as much if not more to the authentic experience.

Saya is unique in that it's the only VN I've played where the themes and ideas overpower pretty much everything else. The characterization is minimal, so in a sense it's the complete opposite of Rance. E17 and FSN are fairly balanced in comparison. I wish more games like it existed, it was a good experience.

Back on Planetes, I gotta pull an all-nighter tonight, so I think I'll grind through the awkwardness and get to Episode 11. Three episodes/night will be a good goal, then maybe I can finally catch up to BBB, who's left me in the dust with the new season already.

...

Oh, BBB. Before TWGOK airs, you should check out the new chapters. Some seriously big things are going down!
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Old 10-04-2010, 05:13 PM   #1335
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"Left you in the dust"? Perhaps he has: but is that really all that bad? From where I'm standing, Fall 2010 is looking atrocious. I've read reviews on ANN, summaries on Wikipedia, and picked up other information elsewhere for tons of the shows airing this fall, and they all have looked god awful thus far. The few that have looked like they could have been good have gotten 1/5's on ANN which, even if ANN are a bunch of snoots whose tastes don't really match up with mine all too well, is an abysmal score to get. Everything else, regardless of any scores being given to it, has been something which I have thought looked like garbage. (e.g. Panty and Stocking, i.e. "Powerpuff Girls artstyle meets Pamela Anderson Lee's superhero comic about a prostitute meets Ren & Stimpy's sense of humor with poop jokes and the like." NO THANK YOU, GODDAMN TWELVE YEAR OLDS in capital letters. -_-; )

I dunno. Maybe you and BBB are no longer the same species as I am. But from where I'm standing, Fall 2010 is a barren wasteland. There's a reason, Doppel, that I am re-watching Planetes, that I checked back into Clannad After Story, that I watched the UBW film without hesitation, and that I am considering picking up FSN where I left off. And that reason is called, "nothing good's coming out this year, so I'll go enjoy yesteryear's treasures."
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Old 10-04-2010, 05:43 PM   #1336
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No, you are pretty much dead on that there's very little that's watchable (the same can be said for every season now, it seems), but two shows have my eye - one is the upcoming The World God Only Knows, which is the first anime/manga (I've seen) dedicated to visual novel parody. Yes, even Kanon (and by extension Ayu). The commentary is witful and funny, like Akamatsu's although perhaps a bit less seasoned, and it promises much in terms of character development.

I wrote myself a post on AP last year when the manga began to remind myself to "recommend the title to Talon and BBB" if it broke that formula in the interest of narrative. I jumped the gun on the BBB recommendation, but here's the overdue one for you.

Warning: The anime has a potential landmine in it with the casting of Shimono Hiro as Keima. This CV is notoriously obnoxious, and plays roles where his voice is especially grating and attention-drawing. He was fine as Ikuto in Nagasarete Airantou before he got a surge of popularity and was suddenly EVERYWHERE.

I am seriously worried about him spoiling the anime's ambiance, but he could give an unexpectedly appropriate performance. I'm looking forward to it either way.

The other important Fall title is Index's sequel. I know Index is a mediocre series, but it has good/original ideas at the core - it's the author's inexperience with adult writing that fails to bring out those ideas' potential. Considering she was 14 when she first published Index, I'm perhaps a bit more willing to forgive those transgressions (I hope S2 improves over the first).

If you're just watching classics, why not sample some of the Masterpiece anime BBB and I have seen in your absence? The list isn't long, certainly...can't be more than two or three. Two major ones that stand out in my mind have already been run past BPK. BBB even bought the DVD of one of the pair.
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Old 10-04-2010, 06:00 PM   #1337
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Why don't you tell me their names instead of speaking in tongues?

The World Only God Knows: I don't know much about this. Parody animes are hit-or-miss for me. I absolutely loved Genshiken, and people often lump Genshiken in with parody series, but Genshiken's not really a parody: it's an exposition. It's a manga about us. What's not to enjoy? But an entire series which parodies visual novels ... the problem is, I am not very well plugged into the visual novel scene. I would probably not enjoy this sort of program nearly as much as you would.

Index 2: Downloaded the first episode of the first season of the first series back when it first came out, hated it, deleted it, never looked back. Had zero interest in the spin-off series, and have zero interest in the original series' Season 2 whose airing starts now. "To each his own," is all I can really say. I found it to be boring. And much too loli.


Ore no Imouto is a good example of my frustration with lolimoe.
Spoiler: show
I have tons of imoutokon stories on my computer I could share with you guys if asked. Ones I hate, ones I love, and ones I'm indifferent to. The genre is huge. Almost every author takes a stab at it at least once in his career, and almost every monthly magazine can be counted on to have at least one story about a little sister and an older brother. The problem I have with Ore no Imouto isn't the imoutokon theme. It's the lolimoe nature of the program. The girl is:
(a) way underage,
(b) flat as a chopping board, and
(c) has the face of an Ichigo Marshmallow character.

And if I thought she was bad, the 7-year old in the Suigin Tou cosplay is there to pop out and say "Supwise! :3" at me.

That's the problem with programs like Ore no Imouto: they are much too niche. Sometimes you fall into the niche and you reap the benefits in a big way (like I did with Kiss x Sis), but more often than usual you don't.

Not to mention that the show gets even more niche by declaring a specific personality for the girl. This is, of course, inevitable: but I'm just saying, within the hentai community, the buck doesn't stop at "what's the sister's age and what's her build?" There's also things to consider like:
- is she a nerd? is she a gyaru? is she a jock? is she otherwise normal?
- is she a sadist? is she a masochist? is she neither? is she both?
- is she assertive and bossy? is she shy and submissive?
- is she tsundere? or is she not? (and if not, then see the above line for her pure personality typing with regards to this question)
- is she spacey?
- is she a klutz?
- does she tend to be the one who helps her brother or the one who is helped out by her brother?

You can quickly see why the genre manages to not just stay afloat but to flourish in the world of hentai publications but why it's rarely seen in television: with magazines and doujinshi, there are 50+ different permutations put out every month. So every fan, with his very specific subset of preferences, gets what he wants like it's Christmas Day at least once a month.

Vs. a show like Ore no Imouto, where only 1 guy in 50 is going to think it's Christmas; 9 guys in 50 are going to still be really excited; and 40 guys in 50 are going to feel varying degrees of disappointment.
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Old 10-04-2010, 07:28 PM   #1338
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A lot of people are saying that Bakuman is amazing. So I decided to go ahead and check it out.

It's cute. I think it's going way too far to say it's amazing. Episode 1 shows no promise of this series being gold-level material. It's as cute and is as filled with potential as were Kaichou wa Maid-sama, Kimi ni Todoke, and Itazura na Kiss. The problem being that those three all started off as silver medalists and all wound up taking home neither the gold nor the silver. I hope that Bakuman won't go the same way these titles did, but I'm just sayin': it's sending me the exact same vibes those three did when I started them.

I think one thing which automatically hurt Bakuman for me was the ridiculous romance subplot. The main character has a crush on this girl, you see. At the end of Episode 1, he is so nervous that he accidentally asks her to marry him once he becomes a big success. That's pretty silly. But the premise goes from silly to just plain ridiculous when the girl's response is:
1) "Okay. "
2) "But until you make it big, we're not even to show our faces in front of one another ever again. We will communicate by letter or text message. And that is all we shall do. The next time we see each other face-to-face will be when we are to be married."

...

...

... excuse me?
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Old 10-05-2010, 12:38 AM   #1339
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Why don't you tell me their names instead of speaking in tongues?
Princess Tutu and Giant Robo: The Animation. The latter is significant because BPK liked it...and he tends to not like "mecha". BBB is in the same camp. It's not really "mecha" though, it's hard to explain without going too much into it.

GR is a very 1960's science fiction retro anime, with a simply huge, diverse cast, an engaging world and a pretty good plot. It's risen in esteem with me since I first saw it, and I actually regret only giving it an "Outstanding" on my first view, because it's very much a Masterpiece, despite by gripes with it at the time.

It's been called the "ultimate fanfiction" because the director, Yasuhiro Imagawa (considered the preeminent super robot anime director alive today) was given the license to all of the works by Mitsuteru Yokoyama, his childhood hero. Yokoyama was one of the earliest manga-ka, a contemporary of Osamu Tezuka, so like people of that age his works were extremely diverse and creative - imagine combining the universes of James Bond, Indiana Jones, Star Wars and Romance of the Three Kingdoms into a single story, and that's a good approximate for how diverse it is. Imagawa is to super robot what Christopher Nolan is to Batman - he takes fictional characters and gives them real souls.

When I was pitching the anime to BPK, I bet him that if he didn't like it, I would never recommend anime to him again. Such was my confidence in this show. You might be a tougher sell though so all bets are off. =p

Princess Tutu is a shoujou romance, with a ballet theme. The basic plot is Ahiru and Rue love the Prince, the Prince's bodyguard doesn't like them, and the Prince has lost himself. It's meant to be a fairy tale, but there's something odd about everything, which becomes the main plot.

The first season is OK, straight-forward yet touching and unfortunately (yet necessarily!) formulaic. However, the second season plays out like Coco's Path, starting off with the familiar until veering off into unexplored territory. Technically, one could consider Princess Tutu to have two endings - the end of the first season is an ending, and the end of the second could be seen as an official "alternate" ending.

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The World Only God Knows: I don't know much about this. Parody animes are hit-or-miss for me. I absolutely loved Genshiken, and people often lump Genshiken in with parody series, but Genshiken's not really a parody: it's an exposition. It's a manga about us. What's not to enjoy? But an entire series which parodies visual novels ... the problem is, I am not very well plugged into the visual novel scene. I would probably not enjoy this sort of program nearly as much as you would.
Aside from the blatant Kanon parody, most of what is examined are anime stock characters one would commonly find in a visual novel or a dating sim.

"The athletic girl"
"The school idol"
"The spoiled rich girl"

...etc. What I like about the manga is the protagonist Keima approaches his job like he's in a visual novel, and even uses the terminology. "I'm finally on Shiori's Route!" would be something he says. Keima is an obsessive, yet charismatically funny guy, and isn't mean or vindictive at all. He's a sort of young Lelouch, had he grown up in better circumstances. I don't mean that to try and force an association either, narcissism and ego don't just link the two characters, Keima has flaws, double standards and a serious lack of empathy that's obvious as day to the reader, but not so to the cast, least of all Keima himself.

Also, I just realized that there is a female character called "Kanon" in the manga. This isn't the Kanon reference I was talking about, but I guess it could be a more subtle reference. :shrug:

On Genshinken: I think TWGOK is ground more firmly in the parody category than Genshinken, but like all good satire it's still got a message. Keima at his worst is an over-the-top caricature of obsessive Japanese otaku. He's no NEET and lives a fully functional life, but his his hobby and passion completely dominate him, and the manga makes no secret of why this is bad.

It's even more apparent as time goes on, as each of Keima's recent challenges, starting with Hinoki, have been extremely difficult and non-standard. They're difficult because Keima relies completely on his experience in dealing with said challenges, but his experience becomes less and less useful with novel situations and he can't adapt because of his inability to understand.

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Index 2: Downloaded the first episode of the first season of the first series back when it first came out, hated it, deleted it, never looked back. Had zero interest in the spin-off series, and have zero interest in the original series' Season 2 whose airing starts now. "To each his own," is all I can really say. I found it to be boring. And much too loli.
I liked the first episode, but it's sadly par for the series. Two of the four episodes immediately following it are ballbusters, but they're the exception and not the norm.

As I said before, Index presents really interesting ideas, but botches the presentation or dilutes the originality with cliche or generic. The main character Touma is supposed to be "scientifically minded", having been educated in Academy City, the world's foremost research centre on explaining the paranormal. What this translates to in the anime is skepticism, intellectual curiosity and the patience to just observe stuff.

One of the early incidents, for example, is where two "enemies" explain something to him. It was analogous to claiming the soul exists in the Pineal Gland. Most anime veterans would take what they say as fact without a second thought - others might hear it and think it's ridiculous in real life, but shrug it off because it's anime and accept that the writer should have her creative license revoked.

But then, surprisingly, Touma - literally - goes "wait, that's a load of bullshit!" then works backward, and realizes something. His realization reveals hidden stuff he shouldn't have messed with, and he ends up causing a chain of events with world affecting consequences.

After the fourth or fifth episode, something big permanent thing happens to Touma, and he undergoes a bit of a personality change but doesn't lose his methodical approach to living his life. His ideals are intact as well. He's horribly interesting to watch after this, and he was enough to carry the story for me up through the final episode.

Index is pretty all-around horrible a character, though. Thankfully Mikoto is becoming more and more prominent in the series, she'll all but upstage Index in S2.

But yeah, that's a lot of words to say "Touma is Great", but he really is. He's like a smart Emiya Shirou, but a smart Emiya Shirou without a great supporting cast to hold him up.


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Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
Ore no Imouto is a good example of my frustration with lolimoe.
Spoiler: show
I have tons of imoutokon stories on my computer I could share with you guys if asked. Ones I hate, ones I love, and ones I'm indifferent to. The genre is huge. Almost every author takes a stab at it at least once in his career, and almost every monthly magazine can be counted on to have at least one story about a little sister and an older brother. The problem I have with Ore no Imouto isn't the imoutokon theme. It's the lolimoe nature of the program. The girl is:
(a) way underage,
(b) flat as a chopping board, and
(c) has the face of an Ichigo Marshmallow character.

And if I thought she was bad, the 7-year old in the Suigin Tou cosplay is there to pop out and say "Supwise! :3" at me.

That's the problem with programs like Ore no Imouto: they are much too niche. Sometimes you fall into the niche and you reap the benefits in a big way (like I did with Kiss x Sis), but more often than usual you don't.

Not to mention that the show gets even more niche by declaring a specific personality for the girl. This is, of course, inevitable: but I'm just saying, within the hentai community, the buck doesn't stop at "what's the sister's age and what's her build?" There's also things to consider like:
- is she a nerd? is she a gyaru? is she a jock? is she otherwise normal?
- is she a sadist? is she a masochist? is she neither? is she both?
- is she assertive and bossy? is she shy and submissive?
- is she tsundere? or is she not? (and if not, then see the above line for her pure personality typing with regards to this question)
- is she spacey?
- is she a klutz?
- does she tend to be the one who helps her brother or the one who is helped out by her brother?

You can quickly see why the genre manages to not just stay afloat but to flourish in the world of hentai publications but why it's rarely seen in television: with magazines and doujinshi, there are 50+ different permutations put out every month. So every fan, with his very specific subset of preferences, gets what he wants like it's Christmas Day at least once a month.

Vs. a show like Ore no Imouto, where only 1 guy in 50 is going to think it's Christmas; 9 guys in 50 are going to still be really excited; and 40 guys in 50 are going to feel varying degrees of disappointment.
What disappoints me is the sexualization. I'm the kind of guy who thinks "sexual" and "moe" are mutually exclusive concepts, so lolimoe hentai should be but an oxymoron. Blurring the distinction between them in the name of preference is really wrong.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
A lot of people are saying that Bakuman is amazing. So I decided to go ahead and check it out.

It's cute. I think it's going way too far to say it's amazing. Episode 1 shows no promise of this series being gold-level material. It's as cute and is as filled with potential as were Kaichou wa Maid-sama, Kimi ni Todoke, and Itazura na Kiss. The problem being that those three all started off as silver medalists and all wound up taking home neither the gold nor the silver. I hope that Bakuman won't go the same way these titles did, but I'm just sayin': it's sending me the exact same vibes those three did when I started them.

I think one thing which automatically hurt Bakuman for me was the ridiculous romance subplot. The main character has a crush on this girl, you see. At the end of Episode 1, he is so nervous that he accidentally asks her to marry him once he becomes a big success. That's pretty silly. But the premise goes from silly to just plain ridiculous when the girl's response is:
1) "Okay. "
2) "But until you make it big, we're not even to show our faces in front of one another ever again. We will communicate by letter or text message. And that is all we shall do. The next time we see each other face-to-face will be when we are to be married."

...

...

... excuse me?
I refuse to watch it.

It is blatant Shueisha propaganda. Everything surrounding its conception, approval and advertising reeks of a propaganda campaign.

Fudge Shueisha.
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Old 10-05-2010, 05:28 AM   #1340
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Wait, what? How is it propaganda for a publishing house? Do tell.
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Old 10-05-2010, 11:45 AM   #1341
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Quote:
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Oh, BBB. Before TWGOK airs, you should check out the new chapters. Some seriously big things are going down!
I've been meaning to for a while, but I keep forgetting about them, and every time I remember, I'm effing glued to Gilligan's Island (Damn you 07th Expansion!)

As for the fall season so far, yeah, most of the things I've watched so far have been mediocre at best. However, it doesn't mean I'm not gonna continue watching and hoping for something glorious. I do believe Index 2, Ore no Imouto, and TWOGK will be glorious though.

Speaking of which. Day 4 was yesterday, but nothing released.
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Old 10-05-2010, 06:12 PM   #1342
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Wait, what? How is it propaganda for a publishing house? Do tell.
It's no easy explanation. I'm not sure where to begin. Expect a really long exposition sometime later.
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Old 10-07-2010, 04:40 AM   #1343
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It is out! Oh gosh, I'm doing biochemistry but I want to know if Keima's CV suuucks or not. >:<

BBB...!
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Old 10-07-2010, 05:58 AM   #1344
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His voice is the same one as Tomoki (SnO), or Maebara Keichi. I don't think it really suits him, but I guess it'll take a bit of getting used to. A deeper more refined voice would've suited him a bit more though.

Three previews down. Time to get rollin'!

Arakawa 2 was fucking BORING. I nearly slept when watching it. It wasn't funny, nor was it interesting. I'll continue since I went through the first season, but I don't have my hopes up.

The next show I watched was Shinrakyu! Ika Musume. It's way too fast paced. I mean, it was a little funny and the main character is cute, but everything just seemed kinda empty (hard to explain) It's not boring atleast, so continuing won't be a bother.

Finally we have The World Only God Knows. Like Ika Musume, it's too fast paced. It completely skipped Elci's introduction and goes straight into her running into Keima. First half of the episode was introducing Keima, second was him bagging the first spirit (yes, he already caught one.) I hope it slows down. This preview episode felt really watered down. One plus is that it looks nice.

I also finished all the answer arcs in Gilligan's Island. I'll post about it after I get some sleep.
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Old 10-07-2010, 08:41 AM   #1345
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Quote:
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His voice is the same one as Tomoki (SnO), or Maebara Keichi.
Are you sure of that? All the reports I've seen say it's Shimono Hiro (Ikuto in Nagasarete Airantou, Dunk Mask from Basquash and the main dudes in Baka Test and Kannagi), rather than Souichirou Hoshi who is the person who portrayed the roles you described.
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Old 10-07-2010, 10:43 AM   #1346
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I'm only going by ear, so no, I'm not sure.
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Old 10-07-2010, 12:18 PM   #1347
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Alright, as I said earlier, Gilligan's Island (Umineko no Naku Koro Ni for the forgetful) has been half finished.

I think my habit of not trying to read between the lines and just accepting whatever comes at me is what killed the anime for me, and I'm really regretful for that. After replaying, I realized I was way too hasty with putting it down. My experience playing this has been excellent. The thing that really annoyed me about Gilligan's Island is how the main point about it was Battler arguing with Beatrice and trying to deny that all the crimes on the island was done by magic. At first, I thought the situation he was in was plenty proof of magic and his arguing was incredibly silly. I believe I might have been a bit too hasty in bashing that.

The existence of magic itself in the game is basically determined by the belief of the people experiencing it. Magic can be viewed as a delusion or the real thing, and I'm really interested to see whether everything in the game is a delusion or not, and whether everyone was murdered by humans or magic.

The character cast is almost as strong as Higurashi. All of the people (except Beatrice) have really well developed personalities, and some people are straight up cool as hell. Part of this makes their dieing moments, as they decide to put up a fight against the hopeless odds of surviving, and shining in a blaze of glory before they fall, amazing. Kyrie and Rudolf's deaths in chapter 3 are a great example. When I pointed as Beatrice, I'm not sure how to judge her personality. Her attitude changes so much that it's hard to tell whether the writers can't make a personality for her and stick with it, or because she's fickle (as said many times.)

I can tell the creators really got a nice budget for this game compared to Higurashi. While the character models don't look great, they look alot better than they did in Higurashi. No more boxing glove hands! The sound effects are cheap and can get really irritating at times. The music is a different story. I love the BGM in this game. Whether it was an emotional moment, a calm one, or scary one, you were presented with a powerful song to represent that scene. Here's a great example. This game also has really useful menu features. You can view the descriptions of all the characters, the TIPs feature for any extra information, and the translators did a nice job of putting a grimoire feature for extra information on things that couldn't be translated and needed explanation.

I really enjoyed the answer arcs in Gilligan's Island. I'm not sure how long ago I started, but this game has been interesting enough to keep me constantly playing for however long I've played. I have no complaints (other than the ones I stated already) or regrets. I'll probably continue with chapter 5 and 6, which are the only ones translated so far. I'll post some things I hope to be answered.

Umineko no Naku Koro Ni and possible Higurashi spoiler
Spoiler: show

1) I'm hoping Fredrika Berkansteil's involvement in Higurashi will be answered. From the things said, I have two possibilities. One is that Higurashi was nothing more than a game to cure boredom for her, and her involvement was nothing more than someone who moved pieces around in attempt to beat Lambda. The other is that she is Furude Rika. I would normally guess the first choice, but when I read Berkansteil's character description, it said she was trapped for 100 years, and born in a game board that Lambda created, which is EXACTLY what Rika was put through in Higurashi. She even gives you a nice monotone "nipaa~" at the end of chapter 1. Some information points to the first, some points to the second.

2) Like I stated earlier, I'm really curious how the murders were pulled off. They're starting to lean to the point to where everything was pulled off by humans, and the things you view are simply delusions. Maybe those delusions are a disease like they were in Higurashi?
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Old 10-07-2010, 07:33 PM   #1348
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Plate also gave a glowing review of Umineko, but the art has been a serious turn-off for me, and not having played (merely read) Higurashi and being disappointed in it having no definite conclusion, I'd been skeptical of trying it out. It's good to hear it's not as bad as I feared, how would you think of playing this without playing Higurashi first BBB?

Quote:
Originally Posted by big bad birtha View Post
Umineko no Naku Koro Ni and possible Higurashi spoiler
Spoiler: show

1) I'm hoping Fredrika Berkansteil's involvement in Higurashi will be answered. From the things said, I have two possibilities. One is that Higurashi was nothing more than a game to cure boredom for her, and her involvement was nothing more than someone who moved pieces around in attempt to beat Lambda. The other is that she is Furude Rika. I would normally guess the first choice, but when I read Berkansteil's character description, it said she was trapped for 100 years, and born in a game board that Lambda created, which is EXACTLY what Rika was put through in Higurashi. She even gives you a nice monotone "nipaa~" at the end of chapter 1. Some information points to the first, some points to the second.
I believe I have an answer to this.

Spoiler: show
Berkanstel is a form of Furude Rika. I liken the relationship in my head to Archer and Emiya Shirou. Her first name "Frederica" is a play on words if you combine the name "Furude + Rika" to get "Furuderika". I'm sure you remember how Rika was killed over and over in Higurashi, only to be revived by Hanyuu in an alternate universe while carrying the same memories? Berkanstel is this existence that lived out those hundreds of lives, becoming the adult Rika trapped in a child's body. Berkanstel was the one who gave out hints regarding the scenarios in Higurashi, but I don't know how she became a trans-dimensional witch, able to escape the repeating nightmare of Higurashi and having magic. Rika's existence persevered in Matsuribayashi-hen, what did this do to Berkanstel?
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Last edited by Doppleganger; 10-08-2010 at 12:01 AM. Reason: Berkansteil - Berkanstel
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Old 10-07-2010, 08:01 PM   #1349
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I don't remember if I've mentioned this yet, but yesterday evening I finished rewatching all of Planetes. 'Twas very, very good.

The part where
Spoiler: show
___________ shrieks "DO YOU COPY!?!?!? WHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYY!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?" in desperation
in Episode 24 gets me teary-eyed every single time.

Also, I totally forgot about what happened right smack dab before the commercial break in Episode 26. When I got to that, I was like,
Spoiler: show
"HOLY SHIT, DON'T YOU DARE LAY A FINGER ON NONO!"


Doppel! Have you at least seen through 10 yet? If so, what did you think of it? I want to hear every last detail!

EDIT: Editing the first spoiler tag has made me start to cry now. And I'm not even watching the scene. God. ;_; ^^;

Last edited by Talon87; 10-07-2010 at 08:10 PM.
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Old 10-07-2010, 08:54 PM   #1350
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I was looking for this gif the other day. I found it!


Sayuri chop!
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