big bad birtha's suggestion box 2: secret passions unveiled

[big bad birtha]

Yoru no Yatterman
I finished this a while ago, but didn't feel like posting. For the most part, I really enjoyed the show. Seeing the main girl grow like she did, and seeing everyone support her was incredibly heartwarming. The show never got boring, and had the Doremi-esque thing where someone needs some help. We even got a cameo from a very famous car. Sadly, it wasn't perfect. While alot of the show's strengths came from the fact that it's from Yatterman, its biggest weaknesses also came from it. The show is pretty grim and serious, but to try to stay true to the Yatterman tone, the show has some serious mood whiplashes. It didn't bother me that much, but it can be a bit distracting. We're talking about a village about to be destroyed, and two of the characters are making penis jokes. It also had kid's show logic. Try to mix kid's show logic with a more serious show's logic and things don't work out so well. So I give Yoru no Yatterman an 8. I wonder if I would have appreciated the show more if I saw Yatterman.

New shows! Actually I've only seen two new shows so far. I'm A Frog and this!

Owari no Seraph
Oh holy fucking cheesy this is cheesy! Looks like the unofficial sequel to Black Bullet. I don't want to sit through another Black Bullet, so I dropped it.

[KamenAeons]

Starting!
Denpa Kyoushi:
I've been reading this on Kaisa's recommendation, and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I look forward to the shenanigans in animated form. Also wooooooo masked heroes dishing out justice with buckets ftw

Ansatsu Kyoushitsu a.k.a. Assassination Classroom:
A little late on this, but heck, I've been told it's crazy good by so many people, I'm being terrible and skipping out my study for tests for this. Am I going to screw myself over? Yes. But I'm gonna learn how to kill a super-alien-born-on-Earth-that-can-move-at-Mach-20-speeds!

Show by Rock:
FLUFFEH OVERDOSE. That is all.

Food Porn a.k.a. Shokugeki no Souma:
I think I'll save this for the thread. I don't think I'll describe it well enough. Not that I need to.

Nagato Yuki-chan no Shoushitsu:
I should actually read the manga before watching this. Soon.gif

[Sparkbeat]

Denpa Kyoushi

Probably my favorite of the first episodes I watched yesterday. Had good comedy, a few heart warming moments, and in general was really strong bar a few animation meh's in a one or two parts. Definitely looking forward to more!

Hibike! Euphonium

Right now it looks pretty promising, and to me at least, they've done a good job to establish that this isn't going to be K-On 2.0. It's the same high school girls + music, but this looks like it's going to turn out different enough. Time will tell, but for now, it was a nice watch.

Dungeon Girl Show I'm Not Going To Be Arsed To Remember The Name Of

While the name is probably about a long as that makeshift title, this one actually surprised me a lot by being a lot better than I expected it to be going in. For the most part, it does a nice job of not taking itself too seriously when it doesn't need to, which is a really good thing for a show like this (And would have killed it for me if the opposite had happened). It was funny where it needed to be, and thus far the characters are definitely likable. Another great thing is that this MC, for now at least, isn't Kirito, so that's a plus since he's actually somewhat likable. Animation's good, and the plot is pretty great. Will keep watching.

Food Porn Wars

It was alright, and I'm going to keep watching so I can see what happens next (Since that'll be when the real show begins.) Only thing I'm going to say is that this is one of those shows that I think might shoot itself in the food due to being too samey. Hopefully it won't, but from the first episode, it looks like it might.

I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying S2

Nice to see this hasn't changed much at all in between seasons, which is a good thing since it doesn't need to. It's a good, funny watch, especially since the episodes are only about 3 minutes, so they aren't time consuming at all.

[big bad birtha]

New shows! New shows! OH GOD MAKE IT STOP!

Hello! Kiniro Mosaic
What the fuck happened? I remember this show being dull and unfunny, but the first episode of this was actually really funny. Actually, I'd have to say this show had the strongest first episode among the new shows I've watched so far. I guess that's just the power of Kongou at work. Kongou is still awesome outside of Kancolle!

Kyoukai no Rinne
Rumiko Takahashi is still alive? Even more surprising is that she's still doing manga? I didn't hear shit from her after Inuyasha, so I assumed she quit or something. Anyway, for this show itself. Honestly, it's pretty dumb. I'm still not sure if it's a good dumb or bad dumb though. The show doesn't take itself too seriously, but sometimes it can get too dumb. Also the OP foreshadows some very repetitive humor. For now though, the show is okay. It's like Noragami + Inuyasha.

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha ViVid
Honestly, this seems like a retelling of Nanoha S1 with different characters. The first episode was pretty boring for the most part. I didn't dislike it though. Fate being lovely is always a plus!

Plastic Memories
Not sure what to make of this show. This show seems like the kind of show that will try to kick your heartstrings. The details behind the dolls seem pretty cruel to me though, and the fact that they need people to retrieve them doesn't make much sense. Do the dolls go on killing rampages after they expire? I hope so, because that's the only thing that makes sense to me!

Show By Rock
THE MOE! IT BURNS! IT BURNS! OH LORD IT HURTS SO GOOD! Actually I thought something was wrong with this. The show was from Sanrio, but I saw no animal mascots in the preview. I guess they didn't include them because it'd likely turn away fans. I thought they were cute, but eh. There's not much to the show besides being cute. It's not stupid though, so that's a plus.

Nagato Yuki-chan no Shoushitsu
Eeeeeeeh. This was okay. Sure, Yuki was cute and all, and hearing her VA say "turkey" was also cute, but there wasn't much else to it. Ryoko was awesome though. Nice to see her in full force this show. Let's hope there's no murder involved.

[Lanturn]

After not posting here for awhile...

Hibike! Euphonium

An anime promising not only cute girls, but a brass symphonic band? I'm 100% up for it. Episode 1 was fairly okay, laid down quite an interesting foundation for the anime. I feel that this can be a fairly promising anime, and I particularly like the animation. My only complaint is that there appears to be 9000000 girls and like 2 guys. But okay, no complaints there. I'm not too big of a fan of the other two MC girls, and the fourth one really reminds me of that character from Kyoukai no Kanata. The MC herself makes awesome faces so there's that. I'm quite intrigued as to how the MC-Rival relation will pan out. Definitely watching Episode 2.

Denpa Kyoushi

An anime promising not only cute girls, but also otaku-man? I dropped the anime halfway through its first episode, mostly because I couldn't really stand the rather raw animation and while I love slapstick humor (Nozaki-kun/D-Frag), everything in Denpa Kyoushi moves way too fast. And the imouto voice actor annoys me. //picky

[Talon87]

Haven't watched much anime recently. What little free time I do have to watch anime tends to share with playing video games, and since I'm engrossed in replaying Ace Attorney 3 right now that's where most of my time has gone. This will keep up for months, so I will probably just as well sit the Spring 2015 season out since a) I haven't yet seen anything that seems super awesome (UBW aside) and b) I still have three other Ace Attorney games lined up after this one.

But that's not to say that I've watched no anime at all. Current list of recently seen:

• the latest episode of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. The show is getting quite good all of a sudden. This is always a welcome development.
• half of Pokémon XY episode 65. Not much to say: 065 so far's been one of the weakest episodes in memory.
• Sailor Moon Crystal, which I was caught up with as of last weekend. I don't think anything new aired this weekend either, so I should be good.
• half of Nagato Yuki-chan episode 01.

On the topic of Nagato Yuki-chan ... I fear that Yuki called it when she worried we wouldn't like it. I dunno. I want to like Nagato Yuki-chan, but I think the biggest problems for me are:

1. she acts nothing like I would expect Disappearance Nagato to act
2. and I don't like how she's acting now either
3. the plot is in a quality valley between real Haruhi and other parody works of Haruhi we've seen before. It's too silly to be enjoyed seriously, but it's too serious to be enjoyed sillily. It just doesn't work well for me.
4. at least going by the first episode alone, the social group of Kyon, Yuki, and Ryouko just doesn't convincingly work. It feels like a really forced consequence of true Disappearance's canon -- namely, that Mikuru, Haruhi, and Itsuki shouldn't really be at all involved in Yuki's life, that it should just be her, Asakura, and Kyon.
5. the animation is in a similar valley. :\ It's too different from and too inferior to KyoAni Haruhi to be enjoyed in that way, but it's too different from and too superior to the other parody works' animation to be enjoyed alongside them either. Like ... it's both too bad to be good and at the same time too good to be good. It's just plain bad. ^^; Sadly.
6. IT'S BORING.

That last one's the thing, the big elephant in the room: The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan is boring. So incredibly boring that I could only stomach watching half of the episode before I wanted to give it a break, similar to Pokémon XY Ep065. You don't want to be compared with a crappier episode of Pokémon, let me tell you. ^^; But that's Nagato Yuki-chan's problem, at least through the first half of the first episode: it's incredibly, incredibly boring.

I'm willing to give the series two full episodes of my time, but if after that point I'm still not sold on it, I'll drop it.

[lilboocorsola]

Originally Posted by Talon87

On the topic of Nagato Yuki-chan ... I fear that Yuki called it when she worried we wouldn't like it. I dunno. I want to like Nagato Yuki-chan, but I think the biggest problems for me are:

1. she acts nothing like I would expect Disappearance Nagato to act
2. and I don't like how she's acting now either
3. the plot is in a quality valley between real Haruhi and other parody works of Haruhi we've seen before. It's too silly to be enjoyed seriously, but it's too serious to be enjoyed sillily. It just doesn't work well for me.
4. at least going by the first episode alone, the social group of Kyon, Yuki, and Ryouko just doesn't convincingly work. It feels like a really forced consequence of true Disappearance's canon -- namely, that Mikuru, Haruhi, and Itsuki shouldn't really be at all involved in Yuki's life, that it should just be her, Asakura, and Kyon.
5. the animation is in a similar valley. :\ It's too different from and too inferior to KyoAni Haruhi to be enjoyed in that way, but it's too different from and too superior to the other parody works' animation to be enjoyed alongside them either. Like ... it's both too bad to be good and at the same time too good to be good. It's just plain bad. ^^; Sadly.
6. IT'S BORING.

That last one's the thing, the big elephant in the room: The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan is boring. So incredibly boring that I could only stomach watching half of the episode before I wanted to give it a break, similar to Pokémon XY Ep065. You don't want to be compared with a crappier episode of Pokémon, let me tell you. ^^; But that's Nagato Yuki-chan's problem, at least through the first half of the first episode: it's incredibly, incredibly boring.

I'm willing to give the series two full episodes of my time, but if after that point I'm still not sold on it, I'll drop it.

I didn't want to bother saying anything since I was that unimpressed by the first episode, but yeah. I disliked it for all the reasons you listed. #1 is the biggest turn-off for me in both the manga and animé. Not only does Yuki like games instead of books for some reason, but she's pretty typically "moe-shy" rather than "realistic-shy". The animé basically makes everything even worse just by being so... Animé. Even the main series avoided using stock animation tropes, but Yuki-chan has so many silly faces and reactions when it's not so much a parody that it creates a weird dissonance. It tries to take the normal world of Disappearance and make it exciting/entertaining, when the point of the movie was to show how boring reality is.

And despite how much you try to disguise it, it is still boring. I was practically falling asleep by the end of the episode. (Although I was also exhausted after AB so that may have played a part. I watched the raw for the first ep btw but I can't really be arsed to sit through it again with subs.) It's just your regular romcom but with familiar/famous faces. And that just doesn't cut it for me. On the contrary, any mischaracterization grates on me even more.

I will say that the second half of episode 02 saved the series from being an almost-drop for me, namely due to...

Spoiler: show

...the appearance of the energetic goddess girl we know and love. Haruhi just isn't Haruhi without Haruhi. Plus I actually liked the angle of turning her into an inspiration for a shy person like Yuki to learn from.

Up to that point I was writhing internally at every turn. (The OP honestly makes me want to scream and slam my face into something.) So... We'll see if the hope for improvement can last. I'm still looking forward to any ItsuHaru (which is pretty much the only reason I'm watching), but I dunno how much forced KyoYuki I can stomach in order to get there. Although the ending to 02...

Spoiler: show

...with the shared coat was admittedly pretty cute.

On another lighter note, you mentioning Phoenix Wright reminds me I saw the Layton movie while I was at AB. It was pretty fun to watch as a group since we were all laughing at the theatrics. I forgot how silly and ridiculous the series could be, but in a fun way.

[Talon87]

By pure chance, I happened upon this artist on Pixiv who appears to specialize in making thick, inky lineart vectors of popular characters from anime. Here's Hestia, a character from a show Crys is watching. Here are Kongou and Fubuki from KanColle. Here are Kotori and Nozomi from Love Live. Sento Isuzu, Tohsaka Rin, girls from Another ... not every one is drawn equally well, but they're all pretty decent and some are really spot on. Thought I'd share it so that those who can benefit from the find will.

[lilboocorsola]

Blood Blockade Battlefront:

I wasn't really planning on picking anything new up aside from Mikagura and Yuki-chan, but I saw some gifs of this on tumblr and the animation looked cool and crisp so I went and checked out the OP/ED. They were both really good; the ED is especially catchy and hooked me in. After reading some reviews that likened it to shows like Baccano! and Cowboy Bebop (the character designs also kinda remind me of Hamatora *shot*) I decided to jump into the fray by watching the first two episodes. It's certainly chaotic and all over the place, but it's got a great urban sci-fi atmosphere and a snazzy soundtrack, as well as an overwhelmingly familiar voice cast. The plot and pacing are perhaps a bit too rushed/choppy in places and the characters aren't very fleshed out so far, but they seem cute and likeable. Looks like it'll be a fun ride regardless, and I'm down for some good old-fashioned action. (Feels like I haven't had a dose of decent shounen in a while, everything is all sparkly and moemoe now.) The jazz accompaniment is a nice bonus, and I am really digging the Bebop vibes since I was kind of nostalgic for it recently (plus a little Tegami Bachi actually since I hear the manga's ending soon). ...And tbh it gives me a bit of MCA-like hype that I haven't felt in a long time, as I'm looking forward to being pleasantly confused wondering what the hell's going to happen next.

I'm totally not attracted to cool eye powers now what you talking about.

Reviews of the manga (by the same author as Trigun apparently) aren't that stellar so I'm a little apprehensive, but hey it's got style at least (and judging by a glance at the first few pages the animé smoothed it out a lot). Even if it's just for the modern aesthetic the show's got it in spades. Cheers to a hopefully wild party with lots of explosions and car chases.

[Princess Ana]

Originally Posted by Talon87

By pure chance, I happened upon this artist on Pixiv who appears to specialize in making thick, inky lineart vectors of popular characters from anime. Here's Hestia, a character from a show Crys is watching. Here are Kongou and Fubuki from KanColle. Here are Kotori and Nozomi from Love Live. Sento Isuzu, Tohsaka Rin, girls from Another ... not every one is drawn equally well, but they're all pretty decent and some are really spot on. Thought I'd share it so that those who can benefit from the find will.

Wow that Rin one was really, really good. *desire to get better at drawing intensifies*

Anyways:
DanMachi: After watching the first couple of episodes, I really enjoy this. The MC is pretty enjoyable even if I think he is a little bit, a least to me, bland since he hasn't really brought anything unique to the table. Hestia is a goddess (ha) and I absolutely love her, cute and energetic and eccentric. The other side characters so far seem decent as well, and so far I haven't found a real flaw in the show which is good for two episodes. Your mileage may vary though.

I'm a bit concerned MC is going to magic bullshit his way to the top but I'm not sure. His "magic MC bullshit power" so far, actually is somewhat reasonable and I don't see it making him into super MC. This could just be me being optimistic though and thinking that stat growth isn't the be all end all.

Had a lot of fun watching it and looking forward to Episode 3.

[big bad birtha]

Updates on shows and whatnot.

Houkago no Pleiades
This was a cute show. It was also umm.....uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........did I mention it was cute? That's the most the show has going for it. It has a nice pacing, and I like how they handled main girl turning into a magical girl. Not much else though.

Hello!! Kiniro Mosaic
Episode 2 was just as good as 1. This is almost making me forget how boring season 1 was. Did the author improve after a while, or did the animators save some of the better skits for later? I don't know, but there have been few times I didn't laugh. Surprisingly, this has been the best show of the season for me.

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Vivid
I take back what I said last post about this being a reboot of season 1. It seems different enough. In episode 2.......nothing happened. I swear I was waiting for something to happen, and when I know it, the ending credits are rolling, and I'm all "OH COME ON!". Maybe something will happen next episode!

Plastic Memories
Still trying to figure this show out. Besides the details about the dolls, I have no real issues with the show. Episode 2 didn't really do much. It just confirmed the obvious. It was like a stupidly roundabout way of telling someone what they are eating.

Show by Rock
Dear sweet Jesus this show is deadly. Moe can be a bad thing, but sometimes, too much can make you feel like it's a good thing. Not only that, but the male band working with the main cast is really funny. I hope they play a big part in the rest of the show.

The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan
Typical romance scenarios...blah blah blah blah....OH SHIT! IS THAT

Spoiler: show

Haruhi?! Actually things got quite a bit more interesting when she showed up. The entire night, I wanted them to go where Haruhi was and get roped into whatever crazy shit she was plotting.

Also for Yuki's personality, I assumed it was different because the world was one Yuki dreamed up or someshit. She dreamed herself as someone a bit more open to Kyon. I might be totally wrong, but that's why her personality change didn't bother me. If it's simply because this is omake material, then meh.

Maji de Watashi ni Koishinasai
Started reading this. So far, nothing extraordinary, but it has plenty of personality. Main girl is more than the usual obnoxious "perfect tough girl" alot of things like to shove down our throats. I mean, her personality is similar to the stereotype, but there's more to her than "Imma talk tough and beat up everything around me!". This kind of reminds me of Little Busters. A strange group of childhood friends goofing around. It's not as fun as Little Busters, but I'm hoping things will pick up.

[Midgeorge]

Yo

Anything worth watching this season besides Fate?

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Midgeorge

Yo

Anything worth watching this season besides Fate?

Anything new? Not that I'm yet aware of.

• My answer'd be no based on what very, very little I've seen.
• The teens seem to be excited about DanMachi but a review of its Wikipedia article left me with the impression of "yet another harem anime" meets "yet another SAO teenage hype train."
• bbb hasn't really gushed about anything to my knowledge except Kiniro Mosaic S2.
• Yuki hasn't really gushed about anything to my knowledge.
• Doppel hasn't really gushed about anything to my knowledge.
• Mcsweeney, Char, deoxys, Kaisa, et cetera are all quiet.

Anything continuing?

• The second half of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders has entered its second half. (I.e. we're 75% of the way through the third story arc.) So if you wanted to go back and watch that ever, well, then there's that. For what it's worth, it is getting pretty good.
• You already mentioned UBW.
• The second season of OreGairu is airing. I know Doppel really liked it. I don't recall if you did or if you ever watched it. But if you did like it, then there's that.
• A popular ongoing sports anime, Ace of the Diamond (it's about baseball ), has officially entered its second season. Realistically, it's more like Episode 80-something of an ongoing saga.
• The second season of Log Horizon started airing last season. And I think it's still airing. Could be wrong though. *shrug*

[lilboocorsola]

Originally Posted by big bad birtha

Houkago no Pleiades
This was a cute show. It was also umm.....uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........did I mention it was cute? That's the most the show has going for it. It has a nice pacing, and I like how they handled main girl turning into a magical girl. Not much else though.

I was kinda debating about this simply because it has stars, but I don't think I'll bother if it's just a standard cute magical girl series. Plus the fact it's essentially a car commercial makes me laugh.

Originally Posted by Midgeorge

Yo

Yo.

Originally Posted by Talon87

• Yuki hasn't really gushed about anything to my knowledge.

*looks at recent posts*

*looks at av and sig*

That said, I don't know if Kekkai Sensen (easier to call it that than the English title, and BBB is too confusing) is the kind of thing I can really recommend to people/others would like until it establishes itself more. I'm personally having a blast with it though. *has had the ED on repeat since yesterday* Actually been rewatching bits of the second episode and seriously can't wait for the next one, something I can't remember doing for a long time. (Kaisa's watching and enjoying it too.)

There's also Mikagura, but that seems like it will take a while to get to the "good stuff" (i.e. despair).

One thing that caught my eye that may be up Midge's alley is Ore Monogatari? Looks like a cute romance with a refreshing male lead. (Seeing as romance isn't my thing though I'm not too fussed about picking it up.)

[Princess Ana]

Cautiously excited is probably the better expression for it Talon. I'm not really expecting a masterpiece but something fun and enjoyable, which the show has been so far. I'm well aware that it can go down the tank like SAO did. It's also two episodes in so I can't really recommend it, and I'd like to think I'm looking at it realistically.

*shrug*

[Midgeorge]

Originally Posted by lilbleucorsola

That said, I don't know if Kekkai Sensen (easier to call it that than the English title, and BBB is too confusing) is the kind of thing I can really recommend to people/others would like until it establishes itself more. I'm personally having a blast with it though. *has had the ED on repeat since yesterday* Actually been rewatching bits of the second episode and seriously can't wait for the next one, something I can't remember doing for a long time. (Kaisa's watching and enjoying it too.)

There's also Mikagura, but that seems like it will take a while to get to the "good stuff" (i.e. despair).

One thing that caught my eye that may be up Midge's alley is Ore Monogatari? Looks like a cute romance with a refreshing male lead. (Seeing as romance isn't my thing though I'm not too fussed about picking it up.)

Yeah I watched Oremonogatari last night, was pretty cute. Dunno if i'd watch another cause the art makes the characters look like plastic and it really irritates me, but I might do.

I think I watched a bit of the first episode of Kekkai Sensen late at night and I got too tired and went to bed. Looks like Durarara + X-Men to me.

Just seems like the stuff this year is either unoriginal, a sequel/remake, or pervy bullshit. I mean personally I'm just trying to find something else to procrastinate with other than LoL, so I just want to see something entertaining and a little bit original.

[Doppleganger]

I'm going to try and force myself to watch through my backlog.

Gonna dump as much as I can tonight. I need to space to start programming Jinsei wa Hikikomogomo! this week-end.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by lilbleucorsola

*looks at recent posts*

*looks at av and sig*

Whoops. In my defense ...

[lilboocorsola]

Originally Posted by Talon87

Whoops. In my defense ...

In your defense I hadn't changed my theme until after your post. ;P

[lilboocorsola]

Idc if this is a spoiler (it was in the trailer anyway) MY BABY IS HERE

Thank Haruhi I decided to stick with the series for one more ep. My ItsuHaru feels are back in full force. *flails*

Episode 03:

Spoiler: show

Having Haruhi + the gang all back together definitely brightened up the show by a billion. I guess in a way the first ep and a half pretty much served as a dull contrast. And again, it's kinda interesting to have Yuki as the narrating protagonist whose quiet life is turned upside-down by such a force of energy. Unlike the sarcastic Kyon who's constantly in denial, she realizes this may be a good thing for her (as much as she starts to fear the presence of a new love rival), which is rather refreshing in itself.

Enough about Yuki though. THE TRUE STAR HAS ARRIVED.

Look at this poor kid forced to stand in those shorts and still wearing that stupid smile. Someone give him a medal. (P.S. On a random note I just noticed the stripes disappeared from the sleeve?)

God my heart is breaking all over again seeing the look he gives Haruhi and outright admitting that he felt alienated due to his transfer until she came along and accepted him. It's different from his reasons in the canon universe but still makes total sense why he would fall in love with her. The image of him literally sitting alone surrounded by empty desks followed by her appearing with a smile was much more powerful than in the manga, which only dedicated a single panel with an unimpressed-looking Haruhi saying the line "you transferred in at a weird time, huh". (His expression wasn't shown in the manga either.)

Don't


touch


me


asfdslkjfsd

She's like an angel in his eyes... *sobs forever over her OTP*

AND THEN THERE WAS THIS???

FUMOFFU KICK???

I almost think he's even more of a lackey here (compared to both the original series and manga considering this scene is original) to just charge on command and take a Tsuruya heel to the face, even if it's exaggerated for comedic effect. Poor him and Kyon though. ^^; RIP boys.

...Okay enough gushing about Itsuki. Have a cute Yuki in a kimono:

Man I really want a season 3. (I think there was a reference to it actually, amongst other nostalgic nods to the original series.)

[big bad birtha]

Houkago no Pleiades
Yeah, still nothing more going for it than being cute. It's boring, but not bad enough to make me want to drop it.

Kyoukai no Rinne
This, I think I will drop. Same gag 5x in the same episode. I just can't really tell if the show is intentionally dumb or not. Even if it's intentionally dumb, it's just not funny or charming. I will give this show another shot before deciding whether or not to drop it.

Maji de Watashi ni Koishinasai
Just finished my first route. It was a pretty nice route. One surprising bit is that both the main guy and the girl showed a nice bit of intelligence. Before something happens, the main guy tried to nip the problem in the bud. She can also well understand what he's going on about without being irritatingly overdramatic. My least favorite character played a pretty cool role in the route. I love the freaking leader of the group of friends. He brightens up every scene he is in.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Talon87

Gintama: Haven't watched this in forever, but I saw that a movie named Gintama: the Movie: The Final Chapter: Be Forever Yorozuya (or, in my case, Eternal Glory to the Odd Jobs) had come out. So I decided to look into it since I recognized that this was very probably the movie which the Gintama Enchousen anime kept hinting at before it unceremoniously went off the air.

The movie has been so good I haven't been able to watch more than ten to twenty minutes of it at a time. It won't have the same effect on anyone who hasn't seen much of Gintama before, but if you've seen as much as I have (the first 80 episodes of the original, the first 80% or so of Gintama', and the entirety of Gintama Enchousen that was new), then this is one hell of a grand sendoff to the franchise. It incorporates some of the most popular ideas or elements from the previous 200+ episodes and reinvents them in a way that makes the final product feel like one hell of a shiny capstone to this decade-old franchise. I don't want to give anything away. If you know you like Gintama, then you should seriously check this movie out. I would place it right on up there with the Kintama story arc, it's that good. Right now I'm paused at 1h09m39s, so I've still got another 40 minutes or so to go before I'm done. But man oh man has this been great.

I was finally in the mood to go ahead and re-watch the beginning of this film and to finish off the rest. "In the mood" may sound like a weird way of putting things for a movie I loved so much I couldn't tolerate watching it all in one sitting, but that's just the thing: I didn't want to force myself to watch the movie on an "off day" or in an "off hour" and consequently not enjoy it very much. The mood had to be just right. Well, after waiting over a year for that perfect moment to arrive, I settled for a 90% approximation and rolled with it. I re-watched the first hour last night, and then proceeded to watch the remainder of the film today.

What can I say: this is by far one of the best sendoffs they could have possibly done for Gintama. It isn't perfect -- but it's perfect for Gintama. It's funny, touching, sad, and exciting all rolled into one. Where most cinema-bound films that are spun off from a popular kids show suck, Gintama: The Movie: The Final Chapter: Be Forever Yorozuya is excellent. It's something you don't just want to be treated as part of the TV series' canon, but (last I heard) is a part of the TV series' canon.

One problem I had with the film was:

Spoiler: show

the treatment of time travel. It often felt like the writers wanted to have their cake and eat it too, pulling from different theories of how time travel would work if it were real and mixing them together. While the film is clearly not purely causalist, it pulls from causalist theories of time travel (e.g. having the characters get written out of existence once changes are made to the past) while at the same time pulling from non-causalist ones (e.g. arguing that Tama could have hung around for 15 years to tell Shinpachi and Kagura about the man they had forgotten when she herself should have been written out of existence the moment Gintoki took action in the past to prevent a future where he became a tool of the Blight's).

Another problem the film faces, but it's not one that affected me nor one that would affect most viewers, is the fact that it's mostly a story that you won't care about that much if you don't already have an attachment to and a familiarity with all of the characters involved.

These two problems make me feel like maybe the film doesn't technically deserve the 10 out of 10 score. But the thing is, the film is otherwise so great -- and so perfect for this franchise -- that I feel a 9 out of 10 isn't right either. If I could give it a 9.5 out of 10, that would be perfect. Being forced to choose, I think it would depend on my mood that day. Today, I'll give it the 10. I think it deserves it, in spite of its flaws. Maybe some other day I'll downgrade it to a 9. Who knows. But a 9.5 out of 10 would be a perfect score for this film.

[big bad birtha]

Ugh....I'm falling behind on my freaking shows. I COULD watch them at a steady pace like I usually do, but I don't want to because of freaking

Maji de Watashi ni Koishinasai
I'm through 4 of the 5 main routes. There's a bunch of sub routes as well, but I'm not so interested in them, especially since my game is having an problem saving clear data. At first, I thought this VN might try to imitate Little Busters, since on the surface, there's a shitton of similarities. It's about a group of childhood friends, the leader is a free spirit, a muscle-head always taking hits is a member, there's a girl who looks similar to Natsume Rin (and is often compared to a household pet), and the school has a duel system. Though things are different enough when you get past that first hurdle. The writing quality is inverted if you compare the two. For LB, the common route was amazing, but the character routes sucked. With this, the common route was meh, and the character routes are pretty good.

Onto the VN's merits. The fighting is a bit too martial arts shounen for my tastes, but the writing is pretty nice otherwise. It's not riddled with an incompetent main guy, but he's also not Mr. Amazing. It's nice we're not treated with a dunce. I just wish they told more about him. His father seems interesting, and we don't hear much at all about his dream. Maybe they'll go over it in a different route? For the routes themselves, they have been nice. 3 routes have been good, while 1 was okay. The development for the characters in said routes has been nice. I would like to do more with the rival class. There are so many scenes with them, and they seem to have a large story behind them, so it would be a waste if there wasn't a separate route/story with them.

Depending on how the VN ends up, I might make a proper review and thread.....might. Not sure if I'm willing to kill that much time or not though. Only time will tell!

[PikaGod]

So Dark Horse is having a huge 4th anniversary digital sale, and so thanks to that I ended up picking up all of Trigun and the first series of Magic Knight Rayearth for only like $15. I'll probably write up a trip report once I'm done reading them.

[Doppleganger]

I started programming Jinsei wa Hikikomogomo!. Working with Ren'Py was more difficult than I thought - I just can't stand to read through stupid tutorials or documentation. The best way was to open up a sample game and just look at how text was performed.

So far, I've replicated the opening scene to Little Busters, which eventually will morph into a parody. Will work on Jinsei's proper opening soon. I don't think Ren'Py will be the final engine I'll use just because it's rather annoying.