November 02, 2015
Regrettably, We Must Interrupt Your Monday For a Moment of Whimsy
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October 30, 2015
Remember. Trick is an Option
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October 25, 2015
RWBY Volume 3 Begins
Somewhere, Monty Oum is surely smiling.
The opening of RWBY:Volume 3 continued the shows general trend of considerable improvements in production quality and pacing seen over the last two seasons. The Vytal Festival, which has been "right around the corner" for most of the last two seasons and somewhat hyped, has finally arrived. Naturally, this episode has a fair amount of "smashies" and "splodies"which allow us to conclude that Dillon Gu (who was hired as action animator/choreographer after Mr. Oum's death) is, indeed, up to the task.
Action aside, the pacing and writing of the episode are quite good as is the voice acting.
Apart from the fact that this is a tournament cour that will last at least a couple of more episodes, we do find out three things of varying levels of importance.
"Oooh! Oooh! What things? What Things?"
Well for one thing, to everyone's astonishment, it's revealed that...
"RWBY's dad wears Lederhosen!"
No. just. No.....I mean he does, but...Dammit...
Fine..
Amongst the MANY things that we've learned...
The hapless shopkeeper, who, do to the local crime wave, has switched from a high overhead retail establishment involving crystal MacGuffins to a more easily insurable noodle kiosk, may, in fact, be more than meets the eye. He is certainly well versed in the esoteric art of card-fu.
'That was rude, but kind of awesome."
Somewhat surprisingly, we are quickly introduced to that new character from the trailer who has been getting so much fan attention for the last week. While her time on screen is brief we do get a surprising amount of insight into her character and motivations.
Liquorice
Apparently, Team JNPR has been having some extracurricular adventures of their own, albeit off camera...
"You know. All those times WE dealt with murderers."
It was an offhand comment, but it was certainly interesting.
Equally offhanded but rather less likely to be a continuity error, was the revelation that Rin and Nora are not only both orphans, but they both no longer have homes to return to.
Not so much revelation as confirmation is the fact that the episodes are 17 minutes and three seconds with credits. This means that we've got to wait a week to see that bit at the rest of the next fight and whether or not the lowbrow foreshadowing will pan out.
This season is off to a resoundingly promising start.
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October 24, 2015
Jellyfish!
...that's what this reminds me of!
That time at the Chinese restaurant I decided to try something completely new and off the wall...and so I ordered the jellyfish.
Well, there are similarities: I have the sneaking suspicion that a terrible prank has been played on me and a general sensation of horrible wrongness. On the other hand, the Jellyfish did not make me fear I had lost brain cells.
MILPOM however....
Can't unsee eyes
After watching the show I checked the '"about" bar to see if any side effects were listed, what their symptoms were and if there were any counter agents recommended.
But all I got was this...
The story takes place in a certain ordinary town where it is natural for everyone to wear an animal costume head. It depicts the everyday life of the main character MILPOM and her friends who live there, filled with the essence of Kawaii and a little bit cynical girls.
I read it twice and it didn't put me at ease at all.
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Owarimonogatari
Owarimonogatari is supposed to be the finale of the Bakemonogatari franchise and it shares the tone, pacing and aggressively surrealist art direction of its predecessors as well as being fairly dialog heavy...and text heavy... having bursts of 'textposition' onscreen for such a short period of time that they frequently defy even the pause button.
Araragi, the (former vampire highschool student who is theoretically the protagonist) has tended heretofore to deal with various flavors of supernatural horror. This time a really creepy transfer student has gotten him looking into something much more mundane.
Or not...
The narrator and point of view are not particularly honest and there seem to be very peculiar goings on...assuming that they are happening.
It takes two episodes to finally get the ground rules set...
...and now the show is off running; down a flight of stairs in an M.C. Escher painting.
This one is looking to be quite good, being both clever and genuinely creepy at times.
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OK, Fears Were Unfounded
Crunchyroll WILL be streaming RWBY, starting tomorrow.
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October 23, 2015
Super Robot Girls Z Plus Ends
Well..she pretty much sums up the series, but sacred honor demands that I write something.
Super Robot Girls Z Plus never quite came together. It could have been a great show for parents to watch with their kids if they had toned the vulgarity down a notch. The fact that it was a 10 minute show that aired once a month did not help. As it was it was, it was this silly show made me chuckle quite a few guilty chuckles mainly because being an old fart, I got most of the obscure super-robot show references (and am a bad person).
In fairness though, it did pick up towards the end, especially with the revelation that the season two big-bad is a special kind of malevolent....
Zounds!
Lots of structural stupidity in this show, but with the main villain's motivations being a contempt for the suburbs and a hatred for weirdoes it's not without merit if one can minimize the number of one's brain cells the show kills.
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October 20, 2015
Well, This Is Raising My Hopes Enough That The Inevitable Betrayal Will be Most Vexatious.
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11:40 PM
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A Few Observations of Negligible Importance
CGI has come a long way in the last 16 years.
Widening my page screen some years ago really bolloxed by earlier formatting.
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October 18, 2015
Japan in 1887
...as imagined in 1987.
There may be some inaccuracies.
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October 17, 2015
7 Days
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October 10, 2015
14 Days
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October 05, 2015
Questions For My Readers Regarding Matters of No Importance
Some months ago, in a moment of indiscipline, I picked up a DVD of Did You Order the Hossenfeffer? and, having watched the first three episodes I'm wondering if I've missed something.
Where ARE they? It looks like Rotterdam and I initially thought that the protagonist (Cocoa) was, in fact, an exchange student, but everyone else has (unlikely) Japanese names and the mannerisms, school related rituals and references to samurai indicate this is not the case. Sentai's subtitling seemed a tad off at first, and I was wondering if I'd missed something or this is just set in "Myazaki land", a theme park...or perhaps Hokkaido.
Setting aside, the show seems to be a standard CGDCT series but has made me laugh a couple of times. However, the cast has transcended quirky and appears to have been generated by randomly pulling approved ipseities from Tumbler. We've got the directionally challenged, the lesbian, the autistic cubist, the girl intimately in touch with her exotic culture who is not from the American southeast, and the tribble who identifies as a pre-op transexual rabbit. In contrast, there is also something of a combo breaker...
...the badass barista of competence who warrants a completely different sort of trigger warning. There is no indication as of yet that her Browning is an air-soft...which simply adds more questions about the setting.
(I've noted no zombies as of yet but remain hopeful)
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10:39 AM
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October 04, 2015
One of THOSE Days...
Amongst other things, I've managed to loose two posts, one to a power failure, and one to a PEBKAC error. I'm turning in. As compensation, here is Sakuya, who is also having one of THOSE days but is much more pleasant to look at.
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September 27, 2015
Cute Even Without Caveats
Here is Aura, probably most popular anime character ever (in the category of characters that appeared in fantasy anime in the summer 2015 season in the sub-category medusa maid) as imagined by KemKem.
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September 26, 2015
Anachronism!
UPDATE: Nope. Don't like the shades.
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September 25, 2015
School Live! Ends
For a show about the antics of four high school girls, their faculty advisor and their dog as they try to keep their club active in the face of a downright hostile faculty and student body, School Live! has been rather more emotionally engaging than one would expect.
It's actually been quite the tear jerker at times.
However, despite some quite heart-wrenching moments...
"You have been and always shall be...My friend."
and the fact that one of the overarching themes is the importance of seeing the world as it is (ugliness and all) rather than how one wants it to be...
"Oh please. It's not about me. It's about my students"
...this show has maintained a surprisingly upbeat outlook overall.
All in all, School Live! has managed to stay quite solid (if sometimes emotionally taxing) all the way through. There really weren't any weak episodes and it stands as one of the absolute best in its genre.
This last episode, the graduation episode, is especially poignant. People say their goodbyes...
"OK Point of order: Th...Wait. Who's missing?"
...various plot lines are wrapped up and, intriguingly, some new ones are started. The show's ending is surprisingly open ended and hints at a sequel...which would be a most welcome development, as this series was outstanding.
...so I'm especially hopeful that they do produce another series. I highly recommend it.
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September 19, 2015
GATE Ends
...sort of.
For a show that has had some truly sublime moments, this last episode was something of an anti-climax, being nothing more than a set up for another cour. That makes it less than satisfying as a series finale.
This isn't isn't any sort of cliffhanger as such, it just puts political and procedural roadblocks in the way of the dark elf from the last episode.
Who has TWO ears.
She's the last hope for her people and the burden is weighing heavily on her.
One neat bit of detail; the different languages continue to be an issue.Yao Haa Dushi, the aforementioned dark elf is thwarted mainly by the language barrier until Leili provides translation (after which she continues to be thwarted by other means). Several other minor characters lament their limited knowledge of other languages and phrase books are shown to be precious things that can be the key to a decent job for the locals.
This episode did throw out a few other character/plot threads. Tuka, the crazy cracker elf may be shell-shocked and broken, but she is highly functional and sharp enough that she able to hold down a job in the refugee camp that requires at least a degree of literacy,
It turns out that the lepus lass who runs one of the bars, is actually Delilah with a radically different hairstyle.
'Dem earrings...
She was one of Kain's praetorian maids from Italica introduced in episode 7. It's unclear if her coiffure is intended as a disguise or is the result of access to modern conditioner. She certainly seems to have some ulterior motive, though whether she's working for Kain, the Empire or a third party is unclear.
The harpy mage who went from POW to security guard actually has a name, (Myutie)...
...and thus might be more than a nice continuity nod.
The male fans having been generously provided with a cornucopia of maids, the production staff has thrown a bone to the otakuettes as well....
...to complement the yaoi appreciation subplot.
Finally, in a truly inspired moment, Leili is applying science to her magical theory. She has gotten hold of a middle school chemistry book...and is modifying her sorcery to take its wisdom into account.
This is completely logical and totally in character for her. Her teacher is quite impressed and seems to grasp the potential of her refining his techniques with the science of the other world.
This episode was certainly neat and had a lot going on, but as a season ender it was rather unsatisfying.
The series high-point was probably Rory's speech in episode 8.
The detail and thought that has gone into the story of this show is remarkable and the characters tend to be quite interesting. Aside from the unspeakable mess that was episodes 9 and 10, everyone and every group has had realistic and well thought out motivations and are astonishingly well realized (though Itami is coming close to Gary Stu territory). Note that hose two episodes (9&10) are so different in tone and they really don't contribute much to the story (aside from the flower laying ceremony) that I'm unsure if the weird and incongruous divergence wasn't some sort of executive meddling...it does not seem to fit with the meticulous thoughtfulness of the rest of the series.
All in all this was one of the better shows in recent years Episodes 9&10 nearly killed it for me, but it bounced back immediately and it is a testament to how good the show is that despite those, I'm looking forward to this show's continuation in January.
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September 18, 2015
An Aluminum Foil Lining
The Crunchyroll release of episode 12 of Gate is delayed untill at least tomorrow, but it appears that the series will continue....in January.
OH!
She does have two ears.
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'Eh?...!"
From this week's episode of School Live...
Wow.
So...
There are about 130 hours until the next episode huh?
This is going to be a long week.
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