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Old 11-06-2015, 06:08 PM   #6976
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doppleganger View Post
Right here buddy. I haven't watched either show because of...well, the generic sounding premise, but this was hilariously notable earlier in the season. I'm curious if they've diverted paths by now or not.
Ah, Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry. I've been meaning to try and watch it to compare the two.

As soon as I do, I'll post the similarities and differences here.
I'm hoping there's not too many similarities now that I've seen the synopsis of Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry.
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Old 11-06-2015, 09:28 PM   #6977
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Legend of the Galactic Heroes

Rating: Masterpiece

Could there be any doubt? It's kind of memetic to rate something perfect by consensus as also perfect, but I think this title gained its wings.

Earlier, I ranted about some stupid tactics that happened earlier. That's pretty much the entire flaw of the series, and military leaders in actual recorded history have done worse. The ending cue of the final episode was particularly notable for me, I think it might have been even the title of the finale (since the title, to conceal spoilers, isn't listed until the episode ends):

"The legend ends, and history begins".

Even though the title has Legend in it, it isn't immediately apparent at the weight the series lends to that name. I liken it to how Talon once described Kaiji as a legend, in how the story events are passed on orally but nobody except those who witness them first-hand really believes the truth. LOTGH features larger-than-life figures, grand battles and moving tragedies. There's a clear distinction between scum and saint, with almost every character sporting some kind of strong sense of justice, honour, and principle, on both sides of the conflict. Characters consistently trade some of the most quotable, witty remarks, to the point that if I were to give a speech to actual soldiers, the dialogue in this would make me seem like an oratory genius.

One of my favourites, "A true leader shows his back to his allies, and his chest to his enemies". Gar? Yeah, I dusted that out of my college trunk.

LOTGH is built mostly on the strength of its dialogue and story. The art/animation is minimalist and acceptable just to give a visual, and given the focus of the tale on war and politics too many technological details would probably distract away from the content. It would probably be acceptable as a radio, CD drama given this with just a few cue cards describing the battle. That's how little the animation lends to the anime's worth, but the strong story definitely clouds that weakness.

I'm interested in the writer. He has a strong understanding of classical politics, i.e. from the Greco-Roman era, alongside an examination of Enlightenment-era derived polities like the United States. The struggle between the series was between the bad forms of these governments, and which one is right in the end. His final answer is for viewers to discover.
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Old 11-09-2015, 01:10 AM   #6978
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Just finished watching Overlord. Picked it up randomly after reading some of the manga. Pretty decent, would be interested to see where it goes longer-term. 6/10.
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Old 11-11-2015, 11:04 PM   #6979
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Is there any definite romance in it? There's been a rise of "shinsekai" stories lately, among them Overlord, SAO and Re: Monster, aimed at older audiences. But while Overlord was curious to me it looked a lot more juvenile than say SAO and R:M assayed.
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Old 11-14-2015, 12:10 AM   #6980
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Anime romance isn't like realistic, article claims.
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Old 11-14-2015, 05:20 AM   #6981
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Etotama

Only one episode in so far but the overall feel is pretty good, it has some comedy which isn't the best but is still alright and the moe fight scenes are really cute. Hopefully it can keep my initial thoughts up.
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Old 11-15-2015, 04:44 PM   #6982
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Monster Rancher

I've started watching this. Back in the early aughts, there was a massive influx of "monster" anime on the heels of Pokemon's release in the late '90s, meant to capitalize on the digital craze. Numerous animes were released during this time, the most famous of which was Toei's Digimon meant as a direct answer to Pokemon.

Monster Rancher was the lesser known show - it aired in the US without a consistent schedule, with a fairly localized/edited dub and less promotion. But it was secretly the superior show, in part because its narrative was never butchered due to the promise of a second season. Characters grew, romances blossomed, and tragedies un-folded without apology or glaze. The ending was particularly powerful for those who saw it since it was the closure that many wanted out of Digimon and Pokemon, but never got.

So now I've got in my hands the original series, subbed. So far, it's more or less par with the dub. It's slow and the comedy doesn't impress me as much as if I were younger, but it isn't bad. Just slow.
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Old 11-15-2015, 05:01 PM   #6983
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doppleganger View Post
The ending was particularly powerful for those who saw it since it was the closure that many wanted out of Digimon and Pokemon, but never got.
Uh, what? All of the digimon seasons had pretty definitive endings.

EDIT: Actually I take that back. All of the digimon seasons other than the first season of Digimon Fusion had pretty definitive endings.
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Old 11-15-2015, 06:11 PM   #6984
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Technically Pokemon had an ending too - Ash loses to Richie in the Pokemon League in a horrific way and the series tries to move on to Orange. But most of the fans left the series there, and the rest died sometime in Johto.

But I was looking for something that left a lasting impression, and there was little lesson to be learned from either Pokemon or Digimon's endings. MR's ending still gets talked about when the series is mentioned, not to the extent of Gunbuster, but to the point it almost overshadows the series in the same way the more famous monster shows overshadowed it.

MR's legendary ending is just the cherry on top of a solid ice cream sunday.
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Old 11-15-2015, 06:18 PM   #6985
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Mind explaining what is so good about Monster Rancher's ending (I haven't seen it)

EDIT: I'm legit interested btws, that wasn't a snide comment.
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Old 11-15-2015, 06:25 PM   #6986
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Spoiler: show
All the main characters die, save the lead girl.
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Old 11-15-2015, 06:27 PM   #6987
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That sounds... pretty bad, I gotta say.

EDIT: And I just looked up what the ending actually is, and it sounds a hell of a lot better than the one sentence summary you gave :P

EDIT the 2nd: Wait, the thing that you said in the spoiler isn't even permanent. That's a bit of a cop out.

EDIT the 3rd: Are you talking about Season 2 or 3, cause they sound like the writers pretty much copied the end of the second season for the third season. I'm actually a little confused right now.
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Old 11-15-2015, 07:00 PM   #6988
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I don't know why it sounded like a bad ending. If anything the "happily ever after" stuff is objectively bad no matter what the lead-in is. At least with that style ending, it's much easier to justify it. It doesn't leave a powerful, moving impression if it's poorly written (like Ash v. Richie).

A better summary:

Spoiler: show
Muu is revived and goes on a rampage, intending to subjugate humanity. Genki's group discover the Phoenix's body frozen in ice, but it's lifeless because like in Muu's case, the mind was separated from it. The group realize that all five monsters (Mocchi, Suezo, Hare, Liger, Golemn) were actually reincarnations of the Phoenix's soul, so they give up their lives to restore the Phoenix's.

As it turns out, the Phoenix does not have any of the wonderous powers characters in the series believed it did - it's merely a counter weapon equal to Muu. The Phoenix and Muu engage in battle and are equal, as they did a millennia previously. Muu acknowledges that the two are destined to destroy each other time and again, and that as relics of the ancient era the world can't move on so long as they exist. They both self-destruct and the debris purifies and resurrects all the monsters in the world.

Genki, Holly and Pixie watch this from ground zero but Genki is blown off his dragon, and falls to his death in the Monster Rancher world.

He wakes up back in his own world (wearing the old man's shoes, no less!) a changed person from the experiences in the MR world, and he's very desperate to see his friends. He has modest memory loss from the final battle. He searchers the whole city but can't find them anywhere. As he's finally about to despair (he was never depressed in the entire series, and finally gets so here) ghostly apparitions of his friends appear and reassure him of what he's gained through his adventures. There's a new sunrise and Genki moves forward with the next step in his life.


It's a wonderful ending despite looking grim on the outside. Bittersweet? Definitely, but it's something kids could take a lesson from.
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Old 11-20-2015, 09:26 AM   #6989
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Kaisa recently watched all of Kaiji S1 and S2. So thinking about Kaiji, I decided to re-enjoy this classic find of bbb's:

What if Kaiji were a Smile PreCure?

Spoiler: show
(from middle)
"I don't wanna fall! I don't wanna fall! I don't wanna fall!"
"Huh? Where's Kaiji-chan?"
"I wanna live! I wanna live!"
.
.
.
(from end)
"When you cry, happiness runs away!"
"Smile, smile!"
"You bitch! I'll kill you!"
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Old 11-22-2015, 11:43 PM   #6990
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Fortune Arterial

This is an anime from a long time ago I downloaded on a whim. I'm not 100% done with it, but I need to talk about it.

It's kinda like Twilight.

It's also from a hentai game, so there's lots of girls fawning over an ordinary guy. Standard stuff. The girls happen to be very waifu-ish and have great voices, and attractive character designs (especially in the game), so it's tough to watch them suffer over ordinary life. But too many of the genre conventions are starting to bug me.

The most obvious one is memory loss. We've discussed this before. I think Talon even used the 50 First Dates example in describing ef as how common memories are. There's a certain romantic, or perhaps mystic quality to it on top of its narrative conveniences that makes it an alluring plot device. But perhaps I'm too world-read, analytic, or scientifically minded, but it bothers me a lot to see adolescents struggling with memory loss.

Not like, "this is suffering", but "this is irritating". Because memory loss is rather rare, and as stories like Fortune Arterial portray it, it ruins lives. Ruins them by not removing the floor, i.e. removing one's basic ability to function in society or live with a family, but removing their happiest memories. They still have their happy memories! Just not, like, the pleasure of defloration or something dumb like that.

Why is this concept being put on a pedestal? I mean if I took a painful dump, I would sure prefer to forget it rather than remember. Memory loss ain't the soul crushing dehumanizing tragedy that looms over you like what this story suggests.

The other thing that bothers me is (SPOILERS) the vampires. Vampires are consistently pointed out to not be humans, despite being almost 100% anatomically, intellectually and behaviourally human, because they suck blood. That's it.

So even if you buy the fact they're not human (hint: these 'True Ancestor' types are), why would a vampire want to live as a human? Would humans want to live amongst dogs, or perhaps amongst the chimpanzees in the jungle?

This is where my suspension of disbelief breaks down. In writing Jinsei wa Hikikomogomo, I had to come up with reasons for why fairies would want to transform into humans, an entirely different animal than them, and also find humans attractive. I won't say my reasoning for spoilers, but there are some solidly logical reasons in my treatise.

There isn't really any logic for something like this. I mean, it's obvious in a meta sense - vampires are human - but I can't imagine a cat-dog romance as the natural order of things. Sorry.

Did I mention this story is like a bride factory?
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Old 11-23-2015, 12:13 AM   #6991
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You should be watching Digimon Adventure tri like me. :p (Finished Episode 04 earlier today. Post due tomorrow.)

Never seen Fortune Arterial.

Amnesia was something I really wanted to work with in my planned epic when I was a teenager. I still might, but the older I've gotten (i.e. the more stories I've read or seen), the more I've come to realize what a cliche it is. Just because something is cliche doesn't mean that it's not worth it to re-explore it the best the world has ever seen ... but unless you've got what it takes to ensure that outcome, you're better off reconsidering whether your story really is best served by implementing it or not.

I watched Episode 01 of Yo-Kai Watch ... dubbed. orz It was on the Nintendo eShop; I mistook it for a brief infomercial or trailer when clicking on it, as I was curious to see game footage. Based on what I saw there plus eventual videos of actual game footage, I don't think I'll be either getting the game or watching the show. It feels like a crappy Pokémon knockoff to me and a crappy Natsume Yuujinchou knockoff.
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Old 11-23-2015, 12:26 AM   #6992
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I might pick up Tri. The major trepidation is I really do not care for the interpersonal relationship of the characters. That was always second to the power gaming aspect of the original story, and a major reason I dumped 02 and Tamers. And it looks like tri is going far more sexual with those relationships than I would be comfortable with.

But, the major reason I'm bulldozing through FA is to clear space on my computer.

As far as the amnesia convention goes, like I implied for my "human-animal attraction" discussion I have higher standards for plausibility. Most attempts at incorporating amnesia are ham-fisted or lazy. Oh, someone gets in an accident so they completely forget a person, but remember all of the other details in that year, including what they had for breakfast on the day of the accident!

Yay.
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Old 11-23-2015, 12:39 AM   #6993
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... God, why was Golden Time so bad? ;_;

tri seems to be focused mostly on the humans, for sure. I like it though.
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Old 11-26-2015, 05:08 AM   #6994
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Digimon Adventure Tri

Yes, I too am watching this and the first four episodes are pretty good.

Digimon Adventure Tri spoiler:
Spoiler: show
I'm surprised we got to see Alphamon Ouryuken so early on though and I feel like Meicoomon might be a X-Antibody carrier but we'll have to wait and see.


Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry

Finally started watching this and already from the first episode, it is quite different to Gakusen Toshi Asterisk. In fact, I'd say it's more of a mixture of Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance and Absolute Duo. Also, the lewd main heroine cliche is involved which will probably mean a lot of fanservice but I mean, it is an ecchi so that's to be expected.
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Old 11-29-2015, 04:16 AM   #6995
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Madoka Magica movie 3: Rebellion

I know that I gave Rebellion a negative review after I first saw it in the movie theatre, relative to the first two movies/TV series, but I've watched it two more times since then (I bought the Blu Ray), and the more I watch it, the more I like it. I still maintain that "the thing that happened" was ridiculous and for shock value, but man oh man is this movie ever visually stunning, from start to finish. I'll go so far as to say it might be the most visually spectacular movie I've ever seen. Yes, it's up there with 5 Cm Per Second. Can't accuse Shaft of being skimpy with the budget on this one. I normally dislike artsy avant-garde imagery, but this film manages to make it all a feast for the eyes. Where else are you going to see transformation sequences as creative as this?

Soundtrack is also great, as usual (example 1, example 2, of many). I can say that the composer, artists, and animators certainly did their jobs. Therefore, the blame must be placed solely on the writer, GEN! Although I've come to like the mysterious epilogue ending.
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Old 11-30-2015, 02:58 AM   #6996
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Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry

Only at Ep.9 is Gakusen Toshi Asterisk looking like Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry in any way, that being because they're both at their festivals/tournaments.

Mt top 3 differences (Potential spoilers):
Spoiler: show
1. Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry actually has the main character choose a girl (the main heroine, Stella Vermilion), the MC of GAT has yet to choose out of Claudia, Kirin, Julis and Saya.

2. Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry's ecchi tag makes much more sense than Gakusen Toshi Asterisk's. Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry has almost direct mentions of sexual activity where Gakusen Toshi Asterisk's biggest ecchi moment was probably (so far) the close up of Kirin Toudou's breasts.

3. The MC of Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry is nowhere near as dense as Gakusen Toshi Asterisk's though I do get the feeling my opinion on that will change in the next few episodes.
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Old 11-30-2015, 04:56 PM   #6997
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So I ended up watching up watching Parasyte -the maxim- marathon on Adult Swim and it was pretty good. Now I'm watching the rest on Crunchyroll.
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Old 12-02-2015, 01:23 AM   #6998
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Was reading about Oda Nobuna no Yabou tonight, and after re-watching one of the most remarkable scenes in the show I went back and read most of my old posts on the show here, including this one in which I offer a series review.

In reply to it, you had this to say, Doppel:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Doppleganger View Post
Talon, you are really overdue for playing Sengoku Rance.
This was in 2012. What would you say now in 2015? How does the game hold up in the current landscape? Would you still recommend that H-friendly players check it out still? Or has it been eclipsed by other eroge, other Sengoku period tales, or even more specifically other combinations of both?

I won't be checking it out any time soon for utter lack of a means by which to install and play it. (Absolutely no spare space to allot to PC games right now. ) But I had forgotten the game's existence, and just wanted to remind myself it existed and (re-)assess where it should rank in the backlog of TV shows, books, and video games I have yet to watch, read, or play.
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Old 12-02-2015, 01:43 AM   #6999
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Sengoku Rance is absolutely still godly. It's hot, hilarious, and full of heartache. Definitely one of the all-time visual novel classics. I think the only hentai recently that has come around to challenge it is Majikoi, and Maijikoi is a completely different type of story.

By comparison, I think Ever17 may have aged a lot more than I'd care to admit. It certainly feels less exotic than it used to, since we're rapidly approaching the real 2017 and some of Ever17's predictions are a bit too bold. Compared against, say, Remember11 which didn't really try to predict the future.

Muv-Luv and Muv-Luv Alternative, despite a lot of spin-off works sent in both universes, still come across as exotic and exciting.

It's kind of weird, but I feel I can 'read' the authors of Ever17 and Narcissu a lot better now than in 2007, while it's a bit tougher for Rance and MLA.
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Old 12-03-2015, 01:23 PM   #7000
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Slowly catching up on anime from my Fallout 4/cartoon funk. OPM kind of made me wish I waited longer and just marathonned the rest of the show, but eh.

Seems Key's latest VN, Harmonia, is getting an official English release. Not only that, but apparently it's getting released before the Japanese release. Kind of weird that they're doing this, but maybe Japanese VN sales are getting pretty bad?
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