1 Upper arms and mouths completely optional.

2 That's the future man....elbows just knock things over and I can't begin to count the times my mouth has gotten me into trouble. 

Well, besides the mediocre animation, there's the fact that they couldn't pony up the cash to commission a new song for the bard to sing....

I must say, though that her version of the closing credits is better. 

Of course, if you're still watching this show, you are not doing so to be wowed by the amazing visual effects or score, both of which, while not incompetent, are mediocre at best. Rather, you're watching this show because the story and characterizations transcend all that. 

1 I'm still wondering if we will learn more about the "Apocalypse" that stranded the players in the game.  Shiro has hinted that he suspects someone or something of stranding the players.  However, I do not recall him identifying the responsible party. 

I am also curious that we haven't seen a great deal of anguish from the players about being trapped in the game (unlike Sword Art Online).  Was something real bad happening in the real world, so that being immortal in the game world was preferable?

2 Part of the difference is that players were "trapped" in SAO, and explicitly told "if you die here, you really die"; they aren't just stuck, they've been told their actual lives are on the line.

Nobody knows quite what happened with Elder Tale - they weren't ever supposed to be "experiencing" it, as it were, so something metaphysical has clearly happened. Did they get physically sucked out of the "real" world and now Elder Tale is the world they actually live in, though by MMO rules? Are their bodies lying their comatose or are they just completely gone? Or even weirder, maybe their "originals" are still there, living out their lives, and they're just copies of the originals created by the World Fraction. (Or, if you wanna look at it the other way, maybe they were physically transported and then replaced with identical copies? Kind of a question of philosophy there.)

So it might just be a question of attitude. The SAO people are victims because they've been told they are victims (forget for a moment the idiocy of engineering a device that microwaves your brain if it's disconnected from the server - haven't these fools ever heard of the fiber-seeking backhoe?) Elder Tale people don't really know what's happened to them and are free to put their own spin on it, and since their situation is quite a bit more positive, that's how most of them take it.

We haven't run into anyone who's seriously bummed out about being separated from their real-world friends. That... may be a subtle editorial about the kinds of people that play these games. (Or more like, after the raiding guild, is it really still subtle?) But no kids who miss their mommy or anything like that...

3 Well the first few episodes had lots of people other than our heroes basically sitting around in despair. The first set of villains (the ones who were the big bad for all of 5 minutes and now run the sandwich kiosk) were pretty much nuts. There was some talk of the friends they had lost (Kanami was first mentioned then) and I THINK there was some mention of the kids missing their parents during the child slaver arc. However, Shiro and company did not sit around moping, they are the heroes after all. They picked themselves up, moved on went north to save the kid, vanquished the child slavers and decided to get their civics merit badge. It hasn't been dwelled upon, in part because this is not a story about sitting in a corner and sucking ones toes.

4 It cracks me up that she "modified" the lute to be strung and held more like an electric guitar. I'm not clear on how she managed to preserve and increase resonance with all that extra wood and extra neck, but I'm sure that bardic magic helps.

5 I am watching the first series right now. Many questions have been (not) answered above, but the main point is that there was no prequel series called "Elder Tale" that sets this whole thing up. It was just a game that this world was based on.

Glad I did not waste any time searching for it.

No, really, I didn't.

Did NOT!

6 Man, these Japanese programmers have real problems.  It's like there isn't a single Immersive MMORPG that doesn't eventually permanently entrap its players.

7 Mauser,

The sales division said they needed to "capture the market", and that is exactly what the programmers did!

1 I don't think it's being streamed legally in North America, but it's available on at least one pirate site.

2

The animated GIF of Elizabeth in Diane's cleavage isn't at their normal heights. The two of them were out in the woods looking for mushrooms and they found a big one which blew spores at them both and made them shrink. So Diane is now (temporarily) the size of Meliodas, and Elizabeth is the size of a doll. And (handwave) there's no guarantee that the mushroom-induced shrinkage affected them both identically.

I think the 35-foot estimate for Diane's height can't be right; I think she's taller than that normally (when not mushroomed).

3

Also in that GIF, the mushroom's spores didn't make their clothes shrink. So Diane's clothes are in a big pile out in the woods, and Diane is wearing Elizabeth's clothes. Elizabeth isn't wearing anything...

Man, the manga sure is different from the anime! Elizabeth doesn't stab herself in the anime, and Meliodas doesn't require her to prove herself. (She does prove herself, but not because he asks her to.)

4  Note that if one looks closely at the stabby bit, there are two hands. Meliodas inserted his hand at the last minute (with blinding speed....the first indication he was much more than he seemed). In so doing, he took the hit, though this was not immediately clear. The demonstration proves both that she's got sufficient guts and that Meliodas is not actually the sort of sadist who would stand by and watch that..

5

Usually when they make a manga into an anime they try to stay true to the character art, but they sure didn't in this case. The anime's Meliodas doesn't look anything like the one in your pictures. And Elizabeth is a lot different, too.

Oddly enough, Gilthunder is readily recognizable. (That scene of him bursting through the wall of the tavern didn't happen in the anime, but I know who it is.)

I wonder how the other characters look? Especially manga Diane?

6

What manga are you looking at, anyway?

I looked at this one, and it's the same as the anime both in storyline and in character art.

It's 107 chapters, so clearly it predates the anime.

7 That might be the pilot for the manga.  I think there was a one-shot, then it restarted with a lighter tone and cutified characters.


Much as I like what we got, I think the darker version could have been more interesting.

8 I didn't know they did that.

9 Supposedly Netflix was going to be streaming the Seven Deadly Sins anime. Did that not actually happen? I don't see any actual announcements, now that I'm looking....

1

That's an awesome find.

I think Diane is just the cutest thing; no idea why, as she's drawn, she's not my "type" at all... something about her face, though.

And, echoing earlier comments, hope you get better!

2 Also works as a pun.

3 Here's a little ditty / about attacking Diane...

1 Does this post mean that the UPS building is no longer full?

Well, THAT'S on my 'to get' list. 

There's more at the link.

The first two Yamato series were absolutely excellent and I consider Yamato 2199 one of the best series of the last decade. One of the bigger disappointments in recent years was that the big international release (Star Blazers in the US and some Commonwealth countries, Space Patrol in Brazil) was cancelled. This is a show that deserved a good dub. It probably could have been a success on TV here.  

1 TWOK would make an awesome opera. And this skit was totally in my wheelhouse. The unusual feature would be that there's really not much emotion in the soprano part (the logical soprano part would be Saavik), but the alto or mezzo Dottora Carolina Marcus would make up for it.

Of course, they left out the super-awesome bagpipe/opera chorus, "Incredibile Grazia," because its sheer awesome would have destroyed the screen.

1 Re: the dog.  This must be the year of the Corgi or something, because the tenth anniversary of WoW, going on now, gives every character who logs in[1] a Molten Corgi battle pet[2].
[1] that was possibly a bit excessive.  I have about 6 characters I play semi-regularly, and you can only have 3 of each unique type of pet, so I can't even use all of those Corgis.
[2] Basically, it's Pokemon-very-lite.

2 Also--I can see in retrospect how that was a season-ender, but I did not know that until I read this post, which I missed somehow the first time around, until you referenced it with in a more-recent one.

3 You didn't actually miss it. It languished in draft form for 2 weeks.  There is no "bump" function and cutting and pasting it into a new post has caused formatting strangeness of late.  I think the blog is actually haunted. 

4 They draw a dog much like Ein on Cowboy Bebop, and they name him Zwei? What, is Ruby an anime fan?

5 Unlikely, but I'll go way out on a limb and speculate that Monty Oum is. Canonically, I suspect that he is simply their second dog. 

1 And even more scary is that the spammers are back!

2 Blake as a cat!  That's Speciesist typecasting!

And I'm all for it.

3 I'd like to point out that my prediction sure looks good after this episode...

4 I must need more caffeine this morning.  Exactly what in the latest episode supports your theory, Wonderduck?  (kewl that it may be)

5 Siergen, did you watch the tag?  AFTER the four minutes of credits?

6 Thanks for the heads up - I usually don't watch through all the credits.

7 I'll have to watch again, I guess, I usually stop when it kicks into the promo for some other upcoming cartoon.

1 One other possible source of her insecurity:  She has mentioned several times that she has never completed a "raid" in the game.  That means that she does not have access to the most powerful weapons and armor, and also lacks other items such as the flying griffin mounts that her friends have. 

In many MMOs, raid-level equipment can allow a player to dominate a higher-skilled player who lacks the raid-level gear.  With no raid-level gear of her own, she will always be "second rate" in the world.

2 Ken, I lost your e-mail (if I ever had it), but have a look at the Antares launch visibility map. Norfolk is within the 20 degree inclination zone.

3 Yeah, she's having a professional crisis, more than a personal one. (We're not used to thinking of "am I any good at this game" as a professional crisis, but that's what it is.)

Akatsuki is a classic RP player. She's more interested in her characterization than her character stats. Because of her particular role, she doesn't join up with others easily. A bit of plot contrivance and a sense of obligation that dovetailed perfectly with her RPing got her a spot in the Shiroe-party, and she's established a comfort zone there, and she's REALLY not comfortable outside of it.

To be blunt, aside from a bit of PVP, Shiroe did not get up to any great shakes in combat in the first season. They cleared a relatively low-level dungeon without a healer, they killed some mook goblins low-level enough that the Newbie Party could fight 'em, and... that's it, more or less.

Akatsuki has gotten the impression that raiding is the epitome of character advancement, and in a few ways that's true. She does not have the best equipment. She's got a serviceable set of weapons. But in another sense, she's completely wrong; the best players are NOT raid players. Anyone who's ever run a raid will tell you, you're going to have some really good and dedicated players along, and you're going to have some Demi-demi types who have the skills but not the brains, and... you've got a few slots filled with people who are just skilled enough to Not Stand In The Fire, if you're lucky. (Oh, sure, there's a handful of guilds who can field a good-sized raid full of "pro" players. But most everyone else makes do with what they can get!)

The biggest raid skill is to follow instructions properly and not get yourself killed. Don't Stand In The Fire. It's not topping the DPS chart (in fact, that's kind of a newbie mistake - it's more important to stay within the limits of aggro and, if you're lucky, sustain. The better your gear is, the easier the latter can be.)

It's in a small party that you have to know your stuff, because there's just fewer people to carry you. If there's twenty-five people and one of them Stands In The Fire, oh well, you can probably soldier on (especially if they're one of your newbies, contributing less than the average for their role anyway.) If there's only five and you lose one, it takes a GOOD set of four to keep things up.

The thing is, is Akatsuki worried about being good as a player? Not really - she's worried about not being good at her -character-, which is another thing entirely. And I'd be shocked if this arc doesn't hammer home the difference in a way that gets her over her funk. She's someone who spends a lot of time being a shinobi... which, recall, is not actually her character class, just her conception on how to play her mix of job and subjob. She's definitely using her skills in non-combat situations more than the rest of the cast combined. And if the script calls for someone who can hunt down and slay a crazed swordsman in the shadows of a snowy town, well... that should make for a good dose of self-actualization.

4 1. Given the importance of Shiroe and his guild to Akiba, given Akatsuki's personal and professional importance to Shiroe, and given Shiroe's notoriously encyclopedic knowledge of game mechanics, one must ask why the heck Shiroe wasn't making sure that Akatsuki got some raid experience/goodies (maybe partied up with some of their Crescent Moon or other guild friends). I mean, yeah, they're busy and it's only been a few months, but sheesh. Also, yes, money is tight, but they could have lent/paid Akatsuki money for a new sword. Sheesh. It's a lord's duty to equip his bodyguard, right?

2. Shiroe is apparently not talking to Akatsuki much while away, and actually he seems to have spent a lot less time talking to her ever since he finally realized she was interested in him. This coincided closely with his taking Minori as an apprentice and spending a lot more time talking with her. So yeah, rationally you could say, "Shiroe is just being a little shy with Akatsuki while he works out his own feelings, and he's busy with Minori but may not even notice that Minori has a crush on him, and certainly doesn't take it seriously if he does." But lack of talking and contact would make Akatsuki bound to be a prey to paranoia, romantic depression, and overthinking, unless she were an extremely secure and cheerful  person. Which she's not.

3. Actually, in Japan it's historically been pretty rational to worry about a nearly-middle-aged man deciding to romance a teenager (and of course many fannish Japanese guys at least say they want a schoolgirl). That used to be one of the main marriage patterns, for those who could afford it. Akatsuki has probably read ALL of the first Japanese novel, The Tale of Genji (where Prince Genji's true love is a girl he raised from childhood and marries at puberty, IIRC) , and she knows that there are way too many men and women drooling over her own schoolgirl-age appearance in the game. So while she is probably sure that Shiroe isn't after an underage girl, she can't be absolutely sure; and Minori's mind is as good as anybody's. (And rationally, there are a lot of underage girls who have been known to try seduction in moments of puberty madness, which is the other reason why chaperones are a thing.)

4. Akatsuki is a loner, and therefore probably has either little romantic experience or too much of the bad kind. Akatsuki is also a woman, and frankly, most of us are experts at being insecure and   territorial. You can grow out of one and get more graceful at the other, but Akatsuki doesn't have any female friends or relatives in this world who are close enough to her to be able to talk her down at the moment. (I hope Lenessia takes on this role.)

5. If Akatsuki is almost out of college, she's almost on the verge of becoming "day-old Christmas cake," too old to marry according to society. The way Japanese marriage patterns go, she has a few more years yet, but it's more like three or five, rather than ten. Of course, any friend would tell her that her ageless looks will make age not so important, but it is a rational consideration. Depending on her family, she may have to deal with arranged dates/marriage mixers if she doesn't find a husband herself, and a sensitive soul like Akatsuki would probably die of the embarrassment.

5 In Shiroe's defense, he's clearly working on the gear thing, just as a surprise (and a top-quality, raid-class katana with unique flavor text is obviously the perfect gift for her right now!) Just bad timing that he has to be out of town, etc.

Also, it looks like Shiroe and Naotsugu are in kind of a "been there and done that" situation for raiding, if Naotsugu slots into the main tank role when he's a visiting member for the raid. (In a lot of ways, that's an enormous professional compliment. Main tank is the one job you absolutely cannot finesse or carry - that guy has to have the best possible gear and absolutely has to have the skills too. You don't let someone you don't know main tank unless they're completely, obviously the better option; for a raid guild to let Naotsugu take that role means he is either geared within an inch of the best possible gear, or that he has a near-legendary reputation. Or we found a plot hole...)

And Shiroe's running strategy, not just as "okay, here's what we need to do to bust this boss", but as if he's run progression content before. It's one thing to say "okay, we have installed Deadly Boss Mods and it will show us where the fire will be so we can avoid standing in it" and another thing to say "okay, we need to learn where the fire will be so we can avoid standing in it, and also to get that info to the guys who make Deadly Boss Mods." MOST raiding guilds aren't the kind to soak up the casualties to learn that stuff.

All this might indicate a hole in Shiroe's thinking, though. If he's an ex-raider, he probably has very different opinions on raiding compared to Akatsuki, who's a non-raider. And, well... it's not beyond expectation that the topic just never came up, given that they're both quiet and somewhat unsociable. But if Shiroe thinks "she's already very awesome at what she does," it might not have even occurred to him that she has anything to be insecure about, much less that she actually might be insecure about it.

1 Also, just who is that bad-ass looking woman who saved Yang?  After sputtering "Who the hell is that?" several times, my gut instinct says Yang & Ruby's missing mom, but I'm fighting a bug this week (not Ebola), and might not be thinking clearly...

I agree that it is better than last season, and eagerly await the next episode!

2 That person almost certainly is or is associated with Yang's mom. ( ISTR that Ruby's mom is pretty much confirmed dead. ) I note too that the individual in question is wearing an outfit and weaponry very reminiscent of Adam (Blake's mentor from the BLACK trailer. ) Neopolitan seemed to know who she was and appeared just as confused by her actions as she was unenthusiastic about sparring with the individual.  
I didn't think last season was all that bad, but it drug in places and the animation was wildly uneven. This season has been consistently decent, though some of the backstory digressions were understandably off-putting to some people. This last couple of episodes have been really good. The fights in this one carried a genuine sense of danger. It was particularly interesting to see that  The villains are smart. Yang was established as pretty much invincible earlier in the series and yet Neo brings comes within a hairs breadth of actually killing her by refusing to play to her strengths. All were outmatched except Blake, who had gotten an unexpected power up from Weiss that the villains had not accounted for.  Yang and Weiss, arguably the teams heavy hitters got defeated and were both seconds away from death at one point...now they're all exhausted and must deal with the pandemonium they failed to prevent.   
This was at best a draw tactically and much a rout for the good guys strategically . 
I also found it interesting that when Ruby tried to call for help, she was calling JNPR. I suspect that Jaune is actually doing a decent job despite his "issues". 

3 It's Ruby... from the future!

4 I (rolls dice) disbelieve. 

5 Haven't watched the latest yet, but at a wild guess:
Faunus don't normally live in the human cities, they must have settlements (Ghettos) of their own, so killing the human population and destroying their cities won't necessarily hurt them, it might even leave the cities habitable and the Faunus could take them over.

6 The Flaming Corgi?  I'm really surprised you didn't recognize The Corgi-mite Maneuver.

7 @Mauser, well played sir, well played...

8 Rule of Cool, invoked.

1 This footage is from a BBC production called "The Great Martian War" that I found to be nigh-on brilliant.  It was on BBCAmerica a month or two ago, and I watched it in one sitting, it got me so hard.

Here's a promo for it.