The series is a slice of life show revolving around three young ladies, who, in their own way, are...different. From left to right: We have Galko the EPONYMOUS ringleader of our group of misfits. She suffers from acute Steatopygia, Macromastia, and blonde hair. These tragic deformities have resulted in her having a completely unearned reputation as a...party girl. She is quite good at reading prose. To the right of her is Oujo, a young lady from a rich family with pitch perfect etiquette and an immaculate uniform, who suffers from the tragic handicap of being an airhead. Finally there is Outo, whose disabilities include myopia, frumpiness and being a smart ass.
Over the course of the first 7 and a half minute episode they discuss such deep philosophical topics as nipples, pubic hair and poop...both spicy and sweetened.
So it's kind of like Katawa Shoujo meets Beavis and Butthead..but without the angst or the music videos.
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I'm afraid I didn't set the expectations forcefuly enough. At least for me, the best part of Galko was the characterization, rather than the subject matter of the conversations.
For example, I mentioned the case of Charao fixated on Galko while on a date because something like that happened to me when Kojiharu's pictures in bed with some actor pretty boy were floated around. I remember that for some couple of days after that, I sometimes found myself wondering randomly why Kojiharu is so dumb and what's wrong with her (news reports at the time indicated that it was a part of her attempts to shed a "good girl" image - it was almost like Brittney Spears serial marriages). And it's not like I care about entertainment personalities in general. I'm not her fan in particular either. I have the Heart Ereki CD, but mostly for unrelated reasons. Likewise, Charao isn't in love with Galko either... He just can't help getting fascinated by the damn shirt.
The pool shota was phenomenal too, I thought. It wasn't quite powerful like the assberger shota of Initial D who had his balls drop at the sight of Mako's slender legs. Galko's focus was once again how she combines all the appeals of playful exterior and kind personality in a certain kind of life example (not only for the shota, but for his lowlife girl classmates as well, hopefuly).
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Mon Mar 28 13:50:18 2016 (XOPVE)
I got far enough into the first episode to where they were talking about whether the aurolea (or however that's spelled; I refuse to look it up) on an eponymous also was big. And one of them draws circles on a balloon with a magic marker.
And then I decided I didn't care anymore.
It didn't help that I'm repelled by the character art.
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So...while reading one of the comments I came across these words typed in this order...
"The pool shota was phenomenal too"
...and I'm thinking that there has got to be context that I'm missing 'cause that just does not look like it belongs in a pitch that's attempting to get me to watch something.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Mar 28 21:50:25 2016 (/4jFR)
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Aww man, I went and rewatched 01. The best part is when Otako brings the pillow. Her intelligence and foresight are off the chart. I could never have done that for my best friend in school: even if I figured it out, I would've forgotten it in the morning.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Mon Mar 28 22:03:57 2016 (XOPVE)
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Yes but that was a fairly fancy pillow and now it probably needs to be burned.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Mar 28 22:09:37 2016 (/4jFR)
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It was a donut pillow; getting sat on by people with tender rears is what it's for. ;p
I had a couple of friends who had the same reaction as Steven. "Ugh" and nope'd right out. And that's a fair reaction - the show is not merely earthy but outright fertilizer here and there. If that bugs you, definitely not worth it to wade through.
I liked it because, frankly, at this point I'm pretty jaded; I've also developed the "don't create a mental image of that" perk that has served me well over the years, so I can talk about disgusting topics without inconvenient visualization. ;p And underneath the discussions of nipples, anal hair, and feminine hygiene products, the characters in the show are pretty good. Galko will make a great mom sometime.
Maybe I should say that it's offensive, but in a genuine way rather than one intended to titillate the viewer.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Tue Mar 29 03:49:05 2016 (v29Tn)
They're good friends, which is rare. They, esp. Outo, make some mistakes about that, but it's a pleasant show to watch.
Offensive? Titillating? I've two teenage daughters on a highly competitive swim-team. You'd be amazed at what girls talk about; and these days, they could care less who's listening.
Good show; thanks for the post, BM.
Posted by: Clayton Barnett at Tue Mar 29 18:40:33 2016 (lU4ZJ)
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Okay, in case you didn't notice. All niknames except Ojou's are made by using a characteristic word, or its stem, then either applying "~ko" for girls and "~o" for boys. Thus...
Gal-ko is "gal". You know about the Gal subculture, right? Mika Jougasaki etc. I still remember when this sort of thing was called "kogal".
Ota-ko is "otaku". Duh.
Niku-ko(-cchi) is "meat". Because it wasn't so funny in Haganai.
Boys are a little harder. Well, not Spo-o, whose name means "sport". Ota-o is male Otako. But why Chara-o? He is supposed to lampoon a VN character? Or what?
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Tue Mar 29 21:26:05 2016 (XOPVE)
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There's a Kogal in "Re-Kan". She's one of the ghosts, and Hibiki calls her "Kogal-san".
Hey! They Got The Scale Right!
The Dumpy Despot of the DPRK has released a new propaganda video, which exhibits his typical subtle and nuanced approach to foreign relations.
Interestingly, the size of the blast and mushroom cloud are not wild exaggerations, but rather, given its size in comparison to the Lincoln Memorial, it's about what one would expect from a 10 to 15 kiloton blast. Given the quality of the video's FX, especially that business around the 24 second mark, this level of verisimilitude is...surprising.
Sadly, they missed an opportunity, given that if they'd set the detonation for this weekend, they'd have been able to show apocalyptic cherry blossoms flying everywhere. Of course they probably don't appreciate that.
The series was overall, quite entertaining despite having had an uneven run, which suffered additionally from being a bit rushed, especially towards the end.
Note that the rushed schedule seems to have caused some considerable truncation and omissions from the original series of light novels. In particular, it's offhandedly revealed at the climactic celebration that several minor characters are dating. It appears from some of the light novel art making the rounds that at least one of these romances was something of a plot point in the original books.
However, when one's biggest complaint about a show is that one wished one could have seen more, it could be a clue that he show's not bad. Overall GATE, was, most of the time, a thoroughly entertaining show and most importantly, it ended on a quite satisfying note.
And Then Suddenly The Show Inadvertently Stumbled Upon its Long Lost PlotEpisode 12 of Phantom World begins with an explanation of the legalities that make folktale fanfic the safest fanfic...
....which cleverly ensured that no one was expecting this week's villain to be Carmen SanDiego.
"Yeah, that's her, but she never mentioned anything about geography."
The seemingly inconsequential stretch of recent episodes actually provided a good bit of background that made this story more impactful. Besides important insights into the protagonist's backstories those installments offhandedly introduced some background characters who make this episode somewhat more impactful.
This tale is a lot darker than the previous ones and the story is (rather belatedly) really starting to move. Whether it will live up to its considerable early potential is unclear, but next week's episode certainly bears watching. Things certainly have gotten serious for our heroes.
Mai oh my!
One thing that I have begun to wonder, although Haruhiko is the narrator, I do wonder if Mai is actually the protagonist.
Well...Crap.
By now most of you know that an apparently ongoing series of explosionsat transportation nodes has killed at least 34 people in Belgium. As I type this the news is reporting that a suicide vest has been recovered, it apparently failed to detonate and was discarded. The terrorists whose corpses are not evenly dispersed across airports and train stations remain at large.
First reports during events like these are often unreliable, however this story mentions some news that has been out there for several days. That Jihadist they caught last week mentioned during his interrogation that his group was planning something in Brussels. Thus it is not unreasonable to speculate that this was either the operation mentioned or it was his group acting out of fear that their discovery was eminent.
While by no means a reliable marker of stupidity, lowbrow humor is generally not a particularly dependable indicator of high intellect. However, it should be noted that humor of any type often does not translate well across cultures and this difficulty is greatly increased when one is attempting to convey a boorish bon-mot in something other than ones native tongue.
Learning a language is hard. Learning its nuances is extremely difficult.
Thus, the use by a native Russian speaker of the word 'titular' in this particular context can only be an indicator of the highest acumen and as such serves as an uplifting inspiration to all of us who are striving to learn a foreign language...at least those of us who are sufficiently problematic and déclassé to snicker at a boob joke.
There really is no fighting it, is there? Nowhere to even start. To paraphrase Doctor Who, it's not even an invasion, just a complete and total victory for the forces of socialism.
Nothing left to do but laugh, while we still can.
Posted by: Tatterdemalian at Thu Mar 24 08:38:20 2016 (4njWT)
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Wait...We were making juvenile boobie puns...Where is the political correctness here?
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sun Mar 27 00:05:40 2016 (/4jFR)
Concerns Appear Unwarranted
So this animation apparently showed up on the Kyoto Animation webpage recently. I gather that the translation of the text at the end "Thank you for everything!" caused some...speculation.
Obviously, the cutest suicide note ever.
A quick perusal of their site indicated no resumes being posted, and there is nothing on the news about the company's demise...What there is is a news blurb halfway down the page and if one clicks on it it is illustrated with the above animation and a "Thank You!" for the fact that they've reached 50,000 hits on Twitter.
Thing is...I didn't need to sit there with a dictionary or ponder the screen for several minutes. I was able to figure this out with 20 seconds of web searching and 4 seconds of Google translate.
One of the big questions about North Korea’s nuclear program is whether or not North Korea can design a reentry vehicle that will protect the warhead during its journey from launch to target. The KN-08 missiles that North Korea paraded in 2012 and 2013 were almost certainly mock-ups. Although the quality of the mock-ups improved between parades, the nosecones were particularly unconvincing. North Korea has now shown a reentry body that looks like early US and Soviet ones. The reentry body still hasn’t been tested, but this is the first credible reentry vehicle design that North Korea has displayed.
Now that the doughy despot has announced further missile and warhead tests (at least one of which appears imminent), there is some speculation that one of the upcoming tests might be a combined affair. That is, there is concern that the North Koreans might launch an ICBM with a live warhead on it against a test range in the DPRK resulting in an above ground nuclear test.
Such a test would crank the violation of international propriety up to 11 and would, no doubt, result in very harshly worded letter written by the most august of calligraphers and transcribed onto gold leafed bond paper. However, it would give the Norks a rock solid credibility to their small deterrent. Even in the days when the U.S. was conducting over 900 above ground nuclear tests, America only conducted one such test. There were some small antiaircraft missile tests, a single shot fired from a cannon and a handful of ballistic missile tests where the target point was almost directly overhead, but only one long range ballistic missile fired with a live nuclear warhead.. That was shot Frigate Bird of Operation Dominic which involved firing a Polaris missile from a submerged submarine at the ever hapless Johnston Island. Interestingly, the Chinese only conducted one such test as well. Thus one can assume that such a test would be rather challenging.
It's unclear how much of this concern is based in actual intel rather than prattle, but given that North Korea's missile program has a checkered history, such an endeavor has the potential for truly spectacular bedlam.
R.R.S. Boaty McBoatface!
The United Kingdom is building a state of the art oceanographic research ship. Ice strengthened for operations in the polar regions, this floating temple to the spirit of discovery will cost 200 million pounds. The vessel will have extensive laboratory facilities and be able to keep its crew of 90 mariners and scientists at sea continuously for 60 days.
Her Majesty's government decided to put the matter of the ships name to an internet vote....
This is uncannily like the mass resignation at The New Republic a couple of years ago. What that left behind was a gaunt skeleton which has been traded around like NewsWeek was. It still exists, in a sense, but it isn't anything remotely like what it used to be.
I put it at even money that Breitbart is gone within a year, or equally unrecognizable. What it WON'T be is a political gadfly.
Andrew Breitbart must be rolling over in his grave.
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It clearly is a matter of opinion. I, for one, think that Andrew would not have hired that entitled whiner in the first place. In addition, the site was going down the drain by becoming a GOPe mouthpiece. There was not dumb propaganda tune they didn't dance to recenly. And I'm sure the newly resigned were a part of it.
Posted by: Pete at Tue Mar 15 11:32:28 2016 (vHDPN)
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It's disheartening how many Conservative voices have jumped ship in this election. I know a lot of people don't take Limbaugh seriously, but he consistently supported conservative candidates and has been vociferously opposed to the Republican party for years. And even he spends all day defending and pumping up Trump lately.
Posted by: Ben at Tue Mar 15 12:56:27 2016 (6oPFc)
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And Pete, I don't know about Fields, but Shapiro was one of Breitbart's first hires. He worked directly with Andrew and was trusted to speak *for* Andrew when he couldn't make an obligated appointment.
Posted by: Ben at Tue Mar 15 13:01:26 2016 (6oPFc)
A Few ISIS Links
ISIS has had some reversals in Iraq recently but it is still a large and formidable entity in that region with considerable potential. At the very least, it is adding to the dreadful suffering of the area and is continuing to accelerate the phenomenon of more middle aged Muslim men trekking into Europe.
This paper, by the Institute for The Study of War notes that there is the real possibility of an alliance and merger between iSIS and another Islamic terror group, the Jabhat Al Nursa. This is an Al-Quaeda group and as such has a different focus from ISIS. They, being Al-Quaeda, have tended to focus on highly trained operatives who act like special forces, doing precision strikes on one hand but also organizing local partisans. ISIS by contrast has its unconventional wing but is, in many ways a much more conventional military force. The two groups have been at odds, but Jabhat Al Nursa now seems to be seeking some common ground with ISIS. One of J.A.N's group specific, goals is to establish an Emirate run by its leaders. This has been a long term goal in conjunction with A-lQuaeda's eventual Caliphate, but ISIS, one will note has an operational caliphate right now. Note that there are considerable strategic and eschatological differences between the two groups. However, if the two groups combine their efforts to any great extent it will be a major boon to ISIS, since Jabhat Al Nursa has, while no formally claimed territory, a considerable area of operations and influence in the area and a set of capabilities that complement ISIS nicely. Their organization also is quite focused on the precise sort of terror operations and terror cell logistics that ISIS is trying to develop in Europe to take advantage of the vast numbers of disaffected military aged men they are sending there. It should be remembered, that ISIS was initially an Al-Quaeda affiliate with much the same position in that organisation as the Al Nursa Front has today.
Further afield, as International Business Times notes. ISIS has been quite active in Libya. Their operations there are, in fact considerably more than a flags and footprints mission. This map (also by The Institute For the Study of War) shows that pretty much the entire coastline of Libya east of Tripoli has been attacked at one point or another during ISIS's recent offensive.
There is more on this here. Note that the actual areas under ISIS control, are very close to Italy and Malta and, as per the map above, the Caliphate has already made its presence in the area felt at sea with some very small scale maritime attacks. Raids on Italy are certainly a possibility, but are, while scary, not a strategic threat at this time. The real danger here beyond the ISIS access to the oil fields is that they use this staging area for smuggling in weapons and leadership cadres for a more sustained campaign of terror. The muslim areas of the Balkans are not much farther and a more troubling destination long term. While ships from ISIS controlled ports would be easy to stop, it should be remembered that ISIS has contacts with others, that, while in no way aligned with them, are perfectly willing to sell them expertise in how to,with limited infrastructure take measures to complicate the targeting problem.
Note too that the Balkans are much closer to Libya than the U.S. is to Columbia.
Two of the world's three major central banks have slashed interest rates in to negative territory.
We've noted the decline in the shipping industry (focusing particularly on the Baltic Dry Index) for a while. This BBC article points out the scale of the issue.
And here's the thing - the dry bulk index - also called the Baltic Dry Bulk Index - saw a peak of 11,000 points in May of 2008, just before the global financial crisis.
This year it has hit fresh record lows and skirted around the 300 points mark.
What this tells you is that global trade is nowhere near the levels it was pre-2008.
So the 'green shoots of recovery' you hear policy-makers and economists talking about, that's not being seen on the global shipping routes or lanes.
Entering January 2016, Chinese imports fell for 13 consecutive months and declined by more than 20% between 2014 and 2015. Bulk shipping will be one of the many globally affected industries. Most experts look for continued weakness in the foreseeable future. The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index, which charts the rates for dry bulk commodity shipments, hit an all-time low in December 2015.
According to the article, 2016 is expected to be worse.
The same article looks separately at the three main aspects of the shipping industry. Generally, dry bulk refers to commodities like coal, steel and other raw materials. the container sector, is as one would expect focused on shipping containers (though things like RO-ROs shipping cars would be included as a subset. The thing about container shipping is that it deals in manufactured goods. There is not a 1 to 1 correlation with dry bulk shipping since a lot of dry bulk cargoes go to major heavy industries and infrastructure projects, so the downturn in China's construction boom does not necesarily portend a...oh wait...
Containers were unprofitable every year between 2009 and 2014, per McKinsey & Company, a market research company, and 2015 was even worse. Bulk carriers receive a lot of headline attention because they carry major commodities such as steel and iron, but container purchases and delivery rates are arguably more indicative of broader economic conditions.
Those economic conditions would seem to suck.
Tankers obviously ship chemicals, of which petroleum products are the most common. The fact that the drop in oil prices has helped to moderate the decline in oil consumption and the fact that tankers can make some money being used as anchored oil storage tanks has meant that tankers are the least disastrous sector of the shipping industry.
The portents are not good, but that means that these problems at least are not in any way unexpected. So prepare yourselves.
My computer issues seem to be mostly resolved. Part of this weeks computer problems turned out to be traceable to the fact that when I upgraded to the latest version of Parallels I found that it comes with Kaperskey's anti-malware package. Figuring that it was optimized for the virtual engine, I activated it....as I sat in that spot where so many of my computer problems originate ( the zone between my keyboard and my chair) I neglected to remember that I already had AVG in Windows 7 and neither of the programs wanted a roommate. I had to evict one of them.
Anyway, I finally figured out the issue and everything seems nominal now, The connectivity issues I had have mostly died down, though Verizon itself seems to be a bit twitchy. I'm able to watch Ctunchyroll, for instance, but only at lower resolutions.
Well, enough of my first world problems, here is some eye candy...
FINALLY! A Post That Write's Itself!Phantom World Episode 9 continues the writer's habit of breaking the fourth wall....
Thank you for clarifying that.
So...their roots were in improvisational theatre?
The bear?
The bear is there.
The next episode involved their fairy getting embigulated. These last three episodes have been amusing but inconsequential.
Or perhaps not...
Note that the last two stories have had very VERY human looking phantoms, one of whom is a student at the school and one of whom is a witch/fairy-godmother type entity who interacts with our heroes in a completely straightforward manner. Heretofore, (Lulu notwithstanding) the motivations of these things have been quite vague.
It is possible that this is a plot point, and something with regards to the macguffin that caused this mess is changing the world again, or the change is accelerating. It is also possible that these episodes are utterly pointless* and represent not a plot development but writers who have given up.
Time will tell. Hopefully, not too much time...I was kind of hoping for some of that high concept story we were promised at the beginning of this series.
(*Well..the Sir-Mix-a-Lot Goes to the Bathhouse episode DID have a point, albeit not the thoughtful and intelligent sort of point we came to expect early on in this series...but a point nonetheless).
Steven and I have not always agreed on this series, in part because he's comparing it to the original books, whereas I'm just enjoying it as it comes out...but we are in total concurrence on this weeks episode.
The episode's portrayal of Leili in particular is malapropos.
Remember, this young mage speaks multiple languages, turned the tide in a battle against a dragon and can use chopsticks.
She's not going to stand there passively...twice...to provide a damsel in distress to the local ecosystem.
Worse, we didn't even get to see her dissertation on her Middle Earth Sorcery as combined with the High School chemistry book the earthlings provided her with.
Hobby Space News of the commercial space industry A Babe In The Universe Rather Eclectic Cosmology Encyclopedia Astronautica Superb spacecraft resource The Unwanted Blog Scott Lowther blogs about forgotten aerospace projects and sells amazingly informative articles on the same. Also, there are cats. Transterrestrial Musings Commentary on Infinity...and beyond! Colony WorldsSpace colonization news! The Alternate Energy Blog It's a blog about alternate energy (DUH!) Next Big Future Brian Wang: Tracking our progress to the FUTURE. Nuclear Green Charles Barton, who seems to be either a cool curmudgeon, or a rational hippy, talks about energy policy and the terrible environmental consequences of not going nuclear Energy From Thorium Focuses on the merits of thorium cycle nuclear reactors WizBang Current events commentary...with a wiz and a bang The Gates of Vienna Tenaciously studying a very old war The Anchoress insightful blogging, presumably from the catacombs Murdoc Online"Howling Mad Murdoc" has a millblog...golly! EaglespeakMaritime security matters Commander Salamander Fullbore blackshoe blogging! Belmont Club Richard Fernandez blogs on current events BaldilocksUnderstated and interesting blog on current events The Dissident Frogman French bi-lingual current events blog The "Moderate" VoiceI don't think that word means what they think it does....but this lefty blog is a worthy read nonetheless. Meryl Yourish News, Jews and Meryls' Views Classical Values Eric Scheie blogs about the culture war and its incompatibility with our republic. Jerry Pournell: Chaos ManorOne of Science fictions greats blogs on futurism, current events, technology and wisdom A Distant Soil The website of Colleen Dorans' superb fantasy comic, includes a blog focused on the comic industry, creator issues and human rights. John C. Wright The Sci-Fi/ Fantasy writer muses on a wide range of topics. Now Read This! The founder of the UK Comics Creators Guild blogs on comics past and present. The Rambling Rebuilder Charity, relief work, roleplaying games Rats NestThe Art and rantings of Vince Riley Gorilla Daze Allan Harvey, UK based cartoonist and comics historian has a comicophillic blog! Pulpjunkie Tim Driscoll reviews old movies, silents and talkies, classics and clunkers. Suburban Banshee Just like a suburban Leprechaun....but taller, more dangerous and a certified genius. Satharn's Musings Through TimeThe Crazy Catlady of The Barony of Tir Ysgithr アニ・ノート(Ani-Nouto) Thoughtful, curmudgeonly, otakuism that pulls no punches and suffers no fools. Chizumatic Stephen Den Beste analyzes anime...with a microscope, a slide rule and a tricorder. Wonderduck Anime, Formula One Racing, Sad Girls in Snow...Duck Triumphalism Beta Waffle What will likely be the most thoroughly tested waffle evah! Zoopraxiscope Too In this thrilling sequel to Zoopraxiscope, Don, Middle American Man of Mystery, keeps tabs on anime, orchids, and absurdities. Mahou Meido MeganekkoUbu blogs on Anime, computer games and other non-vital interests Twentysided More geekery than you can shake a stick at Shoplifting in the Marketplace of Ideas Sounds like Plaigarism...but isn't Ambient IronyAll Meenuvians Praise the lathe of the maker! Hail Pixy!!