1
Yes!!! Finally somebody I can talk about the show and not spoil!!!
Everything we've seen about the empathions seems to indicate that they are some kind of mental energy, possibly produced by emotions or having feelings for others (the marriage Genius) and possibly produced by adventurer memories (the Moon thing).
OTOH, in a universe where physical laws are different, it may be something that's only tangentially related. That might explain why it's supposed to be okay to harvest in areas where the intelligences are not particularly high level, but harvesting from high level intelligences (like adventurers) is forbidden by the aliens' law.
I want Akiba to build a magic spaceship! If there's anything that would stir up the adventurers with acedia, spaceship building should be it! Of course, getting it done while still protecting the city and keeping an eye on Plant Hwyaden won't be easy. But it would be pretty darned amusing if an adventurer space race ensued.
The more we see of Nyanta, the more admirable he becomes. And for being such a showy character, he's always a model of both Japanese reserve and Western chivalrous behavior. His discussion with Serara was remarkably well done, as he managed to be encouraging for her future in general without raising any false hopes in particular. But we have seen some new hints that he's missing people back home and just not advertising it. What a guy!
I am really glad that the Minori love interest plot has been toned down so much this half of the season, and that the writers have made it fairly clear that Minori has adjusted her expectations somewhat.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue Mar 10 09:25:02 2015 (ZJVQ5)
2
So that's 42 songs, plus the pop songs introduced by Isuzu, plus the one she wrote?
A lot of people online seem to have disliked that plot. I disagreed, and thought it was moving and interesting. Possibly there are nuances I wasn't getting, but I thought it was an interesting exploration of being a bard, as well as the way our society tends to denigrate people doing music even at home if they aren't instant virtuosi.
(Witness the nasty remarks about Isuzu's voice actress, who was plainly someone who knew how to sing but was deliberately singing in a breathy, unsupported way to simulate inexperience. I don't even know how she managed to sing ever so slightly off key - not even flat or sharp enough to count, something like a quartertone off in just a few places. Maybe the voice actress sings traditional Japanese tonal music, or maybe she's just a good mimic, but it was a really good simulation of someone with solid instrumentals and not-so-solid vocal skills. Which is a fairly common situation in amateur music.)
There were also some who thought Isuzu was upset out of nowhere, but I think that was just a function of how disturbing it is to have Isuzu go off the rails. She's such a supportive and cheerful girl most of the time that people forgot she might have her own concealed issues. Apparently a passion for music without the skill level she expects of herself is her biggest issue, and now she has had to confront it head on.
The thing is, self-criticism is important, but music is also one of those gifts which are not given primarily for one's own enjoyment and use. Music exists primarily to be heard and enjoyed by other people, and it is more important that they get something out of it than that you feel satisfied with yourself. So sometimes, it's more important to do your best right now than to wait for perfection that may never happen. In a world where people have been deprived of more than just a little slice of music, even a half-baked amateur has an obligation to spread beauty.
I am a bit surprised that we haven't explicitly heard of Isuzu spreading this info to every bard in the city, and everybody who can whistle. The game-style physical laws probably make her kind of stuff difficult to do, but it would be worth some effort.
I also liked the way Rudy got some new respect from Isuzu. You can only do retriever jokes so long, and he's a great guy with hidden depths.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue Mar 10 09:46:26 2015 (ZJVQ5)
3
The town may have been larger because of the large number of low-level players who had to pass that way, back in the game days, and the large amount of money they would spend. It sounds like the magic bag quest was usually something you went after at a very low level, because everybody needed to have the expansion slots for equipment. The town may also have featured a lot of side areas for minor quests.
I do think the pacing was off in the town wyvern attack episodes. But they had a lot to put in. I do kinda wish they'd let Tohya just come out and say, "You are freaking amateurs at suffering, and I'll tell you my story straight out, and then I'll tell you when you have a right to despair." I honestly don't think the Odyssey Knights were in any condition to understand his Japanese-style implication speech, or they were deliberately trying not to hear.
The discussion between Minori and Roe-2: Yeah, that could have been better staged, but convincing a high level experienced player to help was a perfectly good use of Minori's support role, at least at the beginning of the battle. I did see some commentary about the questions Roe-2 asked being references to some kind of known philosophical theory about the common good, but I didn't really get it. Obviously something more popular in Japan than here.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue Mar 10 10:04:57 2015 (ZJVQ5)
4
I was totally wrong about the intelligences. I was so sure they were just fragments of AI for the game that had come alive, because of the farmbot that had come alive.
Even assuming that the aliens have the power to go from universe to universe, ripping open space/time and possibly causing havoc, I don't see how they inadvertently dragged in the adventurers. I guess we need to stay tuned for that.
Of course, it would be pretty funny if it turns out that going from world to world across universes is just traveling from computer game to computer game, a la Reboot.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue Mar 10 10:12:14 2015 (ZJVQ5)
5
The revelation that there have only been 40-odd songs was a pretty startling one. I don't get the rage at Isuzu's reaction, which was completely appropriate, especially given her love of music. I thought it was really neat (and kind of creepy). I suspect that part of that reaction had to do with the realization that the amazing response they were getting was not necessarily a reflection of the band's skill, as it was joy to hear something new("in the kingdom of the blind and all that") which probably stung her pride a bit...in addition to the gut punch which that whole revelation entailed. There is just so much in that little side plot...it's really just a few lines of flavor text that she sulks over for a bit while the main story is happening,but it adds a ton of depth.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Mar 10 11:12:53 2015 (ohzj1)
6
That's a good point about the gut punch about her performance skill... although really, the band was pretty good, and fresh entertainment is always welcome in a medieval-level economy. But OTOH, there's no sweeter sound to a songwriter than other people singing your stuff! So it evened out in the end.
I actually thought they were going to have Isuzu creating a bardic teaching/overskill, because logically a brand new song in that milieu might have serious god-level power. But if that's where they're going, they're not there yet.
In the light novel, I think they mentioned that most people who play bard characters just let the computer play for them, and so Isuzu is still one of the few bard adventurers who actually plays her instrument, instead of using bardic powers to do it. I suspect this would change big-time once people knew more.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue Mar 10 11:52:12 2015 (ZJVQ5)
7
RE: the marriage genius-it's strongly implied that the women who vanished beforeHarem Fantasy Inc, West Wind took the beast out are....gone. Where is unclear, were they married off, rendered for their 'empathions'...what? The side story with Kanami's group being referenced in flashback (where the monsters that were eating people were revealed to be djin) indicates that this is a serious threat.
RE: Empathions-I think you're right that this has something to do with the memory fragments lost during the 'resurrection' process. Roe-2 mentioning that she's decided they are all class 3 and therefore 'entitled to their world's resources' would seem to solve the problem...but it seems that the harvesters did not get the memo. Does this mean that Roe-2 is not being listened to? Is rogue?
RE: Unfortunate Implications- yeah I'm glad they backed off of that. I agree completely that the conversation with Nyanta really hit it out of the park.
With regard to Tohya's speech, his personal backstory wouldn't have moved the Odyssey Knights...the thing is that he is freed here, he has regained what he lost in the 'real world'. The guy who is trying to return to his fiance' has received no corresponding perk...just loss. I suspect that many of the less well adjusted were casual gamers who were conventionally successful in Japan. The only appeal to them is one of responsibility, and they were simply too far gone to be moved by that.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Mar 10 11:54:53 2015 (ohzj1)
8
Well, I dunno. I think I'd be shamed to know that a little kid was able to stick out bad stuff for years, with no end in sight, whereas someone who was practically a grown man couldn't stand being a little bit lonesome and got suicidal.
But of course, refusing to feel appropriate shame is a pretty standard way to portray villainy in Japanese shows, and here in the US, it happens in real life a lot these days.
Of course, I think the show would have been a little bit easier on the selfish suicidal mode, if the Odyssey Knights hadn't also decided that even if the People of the Land were real, it was okay to get them killed and destroy their town as part of the suicide quest.
OTOH, I think it's also fair to say that the Knights got so crazy (in part) because they didn't go for any feedback from the larger adventurer community in the cities, or accept/seek any feedback from the People of the Land. I don't blame them for not wanting to do Plant Hwyaden, but they easily could have gone to Akiba for help, recruited more knights, etc.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue Mar 10 12:58:44 2015 (ZJVQ5)
9
Man, do I feel sorry for that guy's fiancee. If he gets back, he'll probably have lost himself all memory of her and his family, as well as having transformed himself into a really nasty piece of work with a giant sense of entitlement.
Sorry for the wall o' text. I'm getting my friend to catch up on Log Horizon this week, but she is still more than half a season behind.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue Mar 10 13:30:41 2015 (ZJVQ5)
10
In context, Roe2's comment about how the Odyssey Knights "were generously donating empathions" makes quite a bit of sense...
So, question... given the opportunity, which of the main cast would go home? I'd say "Nyanta" but, well... he's kind of a hard-core role-player and he's in his role, so maybe not? The only other main cast member that I think would have any chance of going would be Minori.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Tue Mar 10 13:47:17 2015 (a38fD)
11
If you hold the shift key down and hit "enter" twice inside a spoiler tag, that gives you a new paragraph. (In HTML terms it gives you two "breaks" instead of closing a paragraph and starting another, and breaks don't... break the spoiler mechanism.)
12
Let's try that out with some off topic, but useful information.
Aluminum foil does nothing whatsoever to stop the RAYS from affecting one's mind. All it gives is a false sense of security as the omnipotent, ubiquitous "they" rummage through one's thoughts. Only TINfoil can protect against this.
It is no coincidence that tinfoil is now so hard to find and expensive.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Mar 10 15:03:14 2015 (ohzj1)
16
To take a stab at Avatar's question...I think the obvious one would be
Trappy McTrapchan...
...because being stuck in the purgatory between trap and trapped has got to suck. Akitsuki certainly was happy to get hold of one of the last remedies for that problem.
I confess that for a time I suspected Henrietta was in that situation.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Mar 10 20:11:33 2015 (ohzj1)
All things considered, you could argue that spoilerperson is the most well-balanced adventurer whom we have met, given the exceptional challenge being faced with great cheerfulness.
Naotsugu probably does well wherever he is, although apparently he doesn't get quite as much salary back home as his talents would seem to warrant.
OTOH, people like Shiroe and Akatsuki, or Marie and Henrietta, or the West Wind crew, seem to having much more fun and doing much more good in Akiba. They get to make full use of their talents. Of course, returning to the real world would now mean having a much larger pool of friends and acquaintances and allies. (Henrietta would probably want to get a bunch of people hired, and might start her own business now that she's done it once already.)
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Wed Mar 11 12:25:04 2015 (ZJVQ5)
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The real question is, how does this work out with respect to the Plant folks?
Obviously if you open the door home you'd have to be careful not to have the Odyssey gang trample each other going through it. On top of that, how does that affect people like Londark? It neatly eliminates his moral justification - if you want to get home, then you go home, but if you don't want to, you can't blame the world for subjecting you to it any longer; in essence you have to take responsibility for your morals from the perspective of the world as a real world. (Well, to the extent that you did in the first place; plenty of people go through real life with the thought that they don't owe the world anything to begin with, so it's not beyond the pale that some of them would take the same outlook into the game...)
It's not likely to sap Akihabara's strength much because that moral issue doesn't really exist - the people who are the base of Akihabara's strength are there because they're fully engaging the world on its own terms already.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Wed Mar 11 17:59:06 2015 (zJsIy)
19
A lot of the Plant people are apparently out for power, so they probably wouldn't mind much if a large proportion of Adventurer good guys went home without them. OTOH, they might oppose being made to go home and let the People of the Land work things out. Also, it's pretty clear that some of the new magic is pretty bad, yet many of the People of the Land are totally okay with oppressing their fellows with it.
Still, the siren song of the Internet would incessantly haunt even some of the worst villains. Facebook and cat videos are a drug that you can only access on one planet.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Thu Mar 12 15:27:01 2015 (ZJVQ5)
20
I'm just frustrated that they haven't done anything with Crusty this season. Every now and again, someone says, "Oh yeah, Crusty's still gone isn't he? What's up with that?"
And that's it.
I feel like I'm watching Homer Simpson pitch the character of Poochie: "When Crusty's off the screen, someone should ask, 'Where's Crusty?'"
Though he'll probably be on the moon, along with So-And-So's arm.
Posted by: wahsatchmo at Thu Mar 19 11:32:18 2015 (r4uXE)
Durarara!!
I just watched the first episode of Durarara!! season 2 which has been running for a month on Crunchyroll. It seems to be every bit as is every bit as delightfully wackadoodle as its predecessor.
I highly recommend that you watch the first series if you haven't already. Crunchyroll is also running the dub of the first season (which aired on Cartoon Network some years ago). The dub is quite good and is actually a benefit in this show as the story switches maniacally from one focus to another.
For those who are unfamiliar with the shows premise, it is set in Tokyo's Ikebukaro district and is basically a quiet slice of life show that follows several groups of apparently unconnected people as they carry on their day to day activities which are COMPLETELY NORMAL . That is their story and they are sticking to it...as best they can...which isn't well at all actually.
The first series was all kinds of off-beat fun, and I enjoyed it immensely. It's based on a series of light novels by Ryogo Narita who did such a good job with Baccano some years ago and has the same quirky style and mile a minute pacing, reminiscent of a Howard Hawks film or a '40s comedy. If you adored Baccano and never once winced while watching it, you may be deeply disappointed at the jarringly lower amounts of blood in Durrarara!!* However, for the rest of us, this was a feature and not a bug.
Here is a brief look at the characters from season one, minus any spoilers.
The show continues to focus on the trek of Minori's party. It seems that, due to circumstances, our plucky, peripatetic protagonists have lost their horses, and so must PUSH their colorful conestoga from town to town. They are thus far unable to solve (or frequently notice) any of the actual mysteries that they encounter, since they keep getting distracted by monsters who aren't wearing any rubber masks.
For instance, it's unclear if Serrara takes any rice with her mayo.
The meddling kids do find a new companion. Roe2 is the meganekko in the top left of the picture. In keeping with the saturday morning theme, this weeks special guest star teaches our viewers an important and cautionary lesson about min-maxing.
You see, she took "Vampire" as a subclass to get the absolute maximum out of some of her skills...Unfortunately, when one doesn't have the option of choosing when one plays, its associated characteristic "+14 to Sunstroke" is a non-trivial bother. So, while she is nominally a level 90, in daylight she is pretty much good for one shot before collapsing. Roe2 is on her way to Ikoma where she can loose her vampirism, though it will cost her many levels and a huge portion of her skills. She spends most of the daylight hours in the wagon being pushed by the kids. There are indications that she may have some connection to whoever or whatever set the whole chain of events in motion.
Along the way Serrera continues to be a tad creepy and there is a disquisition on the comparative merits and drawbacks of various sauces and philosophies...
Not pictured: Bolshevism.
Meanwhile, the adults back in Akihabara are dealing with political intrigues and societal issues...
The show is now beginning to touch on how dynamic societies begin their downfall. In stark contrast to what we normally see in American shows, the proposal of a rather extreme progressive income tax is not received as an unalloyed good and those pointing out the flaws with the proposal are not designated villains. Nevertheless the societal issues that spawned this dubious proposal are quite real. Additionally, it appears that Marrielle has been organizing the festivals specifically to address this issue in a less coercive fashion...albeit with limited success. One problem (strongly implied) is that the cross section of gamer culture that got transplanted here contained the expected number of NEETs.
All the while Minori's party continues to plod along their way doing good, discovering new things, and...making new friends.
...and those who have been watching the show long enough to know who the blonde bard really is have some idea of just how screwed our valiant venturers are.
This was a quiet episode which mainly consisted of conversations around dinner or the office, and yet it was thoroughly engaging, moved the plot along quite a bit and added materially to the shows suspense. There is a LOT more going on here than was previously apparent and they only have eight or nine episodes to pull it off, leading to some concern. Nevertheless, Log Horizon remains an enjoyable and surprisingly thoughtful show.
UPDATE: This show is solid enough that it's earned a dub from Sentai and the casting looks to be pretty decent, with lots of people from Highschool of the Dead, Gai Rei Zero and Baccano which were themselves above average dubs.
1
I have season one in my grubby hands, and the dub is quit good. It also helps that the subject matter translate rather well into English and that I've spend the past 10 years on World of Warcraft.
Posted by: BigFire at Mon Feb 2 14:48:57 2015 (02QJq)
2
Good replies in return of this matter with firm arguments and telling
everything regarding that.
Posted by: Juana at Thu Jun 18 02:45:37 2015 (5F45y)
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 didn't write it, it's just a cover of something I heard....somewhere."
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?
Posted by: Siergen at Sun Jan 18 21:59:07 2015 (r3+4f)
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...
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Mon Jan 19 00:52:14 2015 (zJsIy)
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.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Jan 19 09:23:20 2015 (DnAJl)
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.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Wed Jan 21 19:04:57 2015 (ZJVQ5)
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!
Posted by: topmaker at Wed Jan 21 22:30:54 2015 (2yZsg)
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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.
Posted by: Mauser at Thu Jan 22 03:24:13 2015 (TJ7ih)
Pressing Questions
There is this new show that , as near as I can tell, no one has gotten the rights to. It appears (despite having dubious art and being a shounen show) to be quite worthy.
Steven has been following The 7 Deadly Sins through his extensive network of underworld contacts and it does look like a hoot.
So, unable to watch it, I checked out the manga.
UPDATE:How can one screw up a manga review? One might have typos...people might disagree with one's conclusions...but to actually do the review WRONG is nigh impossible. Well, we here at Brickmuppet Blog pride ourselves in making the impossible happen....Responding to concerns expressed in the comments, I have flipped through the first volume and note that this online THING I blogged about bears very little resemblance to the dead tree edition of the manga, (which includes pigs, both talking and giant and seems to be much closer to what I've heard about the anime). I'm really not sure what the hell I reviewed here, but I SWEAR I read it..I've even got screencaps.
Perhaps it's a lost pilot episode issue...or something.
In any event, this thing exists and it might be of interest.
The questions at the end remain legitimate...well, actually there is probably debate on that too...
END UPDATE:
The premise is that some years ago in the Kingdom of Britannia (which is in or near the continent of faux-medieval-Europe), a group of 7 warrior adventurers consisting of swordsmen, wizards and even a fricking giant built a reputation of badass chivalry until they unexpectedly killed a whole bunch of innocents and began spreading seditious rumors such as "We was framed!" and "The Holy Knights are riddled with traitors who are trying to launch a coup d'etat and set themselves up as a Junta!" Well, the Holy Knights took care of this domestic terror group with extreme prejudice, reportedly killing them all (though there are rumors that one or more might have survived and fled to the wilderness). This band of nefarious villains passed into legend as the greatest most perfidious and terrifying criminals in the history of the kingdom. Now they are boogiemen used to scare children and are referred to as The 7 Deadly Sins.
That was years ago, our story begins in earnest when a disheveled, filthy and generally odd young lady staggers into a tavern on a dark and snowy night, asks for information on the 7 deadly sins and precipitates a bar fight which results in the bar being closed and the paying customers turned out into the snow.
After some initial confusion the non-paying customer confides to the barkeep the events that led to her being in such a state. It seems that, in a completely unexpected development, the order of The Holy Knights suddenly launched a coup d'etat and set themselves up as a Junta!
Furthermore, this filthy, somewhat odd street urchin is actually the only member of the royal family to escape their knightly wrath, Elizabeth Lioness, the third princess of the kingdom. She has set out on a quest to put together a force to liberate her people. Suspecting (due to recent events) that the 7 Deadly Sins might not have actually been, strictly speaking, evil, and taking the rumors that some of them survived in the wastes to heart, she decides to search for survivors of that extremely powerful group to help her in her quest. Her task has been complicated by the fact that, being the THIRD princess she has not been groomed for leadership and, having had a sheltered life, she is ill prepared for survival on the lamb. After getting cleaned up, she is mocked by the bartender, who insinuates that, being a bartender, and hearing things, he might be in possession of some of the information that she is looking for, but unless she can display that she has resolve he has no interest in giving her the time of day...
Well...It seems that our heroine is actually quite determined to save the kingdom and not in any way lacking in resolve.
Yes MAM! The time is 01:06!
The barkeep pledges to help her and provide her with the informat.....
...the Hell?
I'm with the government and I'm here to regulate!
It's the boss of the guys who lost the barfight! They were agents of the local EPA IRS NLRB Zoning Board ABC ATF EEOC Homeowners Association HOLY KNIGHT!
Well, the barkeep seems to be a bit more than an information broker. He is, in fact Meliodas, the leader of the Seven Deadly Sins...or at least he was before going into hiding. After the dust clears, the Holy Knight has been vanquished and Princess Elizabeth decides that this bartender is quite the useful ally. Due to her awkward circumstances, she takes the barkeep up on his offer of job as a waitress in his, ummm, traveling tavern, to pay for the damages she caused, build capital and network.
Hijinks ensue.
There are a couple of differences here between what I've read about the anime, most notably the lack of any talking pigs and it seems somewhat darker than the anime, based on descriptions. Still, it does look interesting and potentially fun.
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).
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..
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sat Dec 20 16:33:40 2014 (DnAJl)
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?
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....
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Sun Dec 21 15:22:46 2014 (ZJVQ5)
Various Things of No ImportanceCrunchyroll is holding a sale this weekend and while I generally do not do fannish accouterments any more, I figured I'd peruse it and check out their DVDs and look for gifts to....
79 Dollars for a nendroid!!?
Well then.
It seems that my absence from the weaboo brickerbrack market will persist for the forseeable future.
Also regarding Crunchyroll, I seem to recall that they had announced that they'd be carrying that show about the Teenaged Twintailed Transylvanian superhero, yet it's nowhere to be seen as of the end of November.
Well, even with three of the shows on my watch list unavailable and RWBY finished, I still have Log Horizon and the Fate Stay Knight remake, both of which which I'm enjoying. The latter is, surprisingly engaging, even for those of us who saw the original, as it has managed to have numerous surprises.
When Supernatural Battles Become Commonplace looks interesting but I haven't watched past the first episode. This is in part due to time constraints and in part to to a 'harem' vibe I got from it.
SAO 2, a horror show called Parasyte, the oddball looking Gugere! Kokkori-San, and possibly Wolf Girl and Black Prince all look look to have potential as well. While some of them will surely suck, this may be a red letter season. I normally can only find one or two shows to watch. This season there are 8 that I want to see in addition to the two I'm watching. My lack of time and the vagaries of licensing rather than a dearth of non-crepe seem to be the bigger issues this year, which is a welcome if frustrating development.
1
Which one was $79? They're not NORMALLY that high.
(Japan typically only does one production run for models, and if you don't get one from that, you can expect to pay above MSRP from anyone who still has one for sale, so maybe it was a situation like that?)
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Sun Nov 30 14:38:49 2014 (ZeBdf)
Posted by: Wonderduck at Sun Nov 30 17:26:36 2014 (jGQR+)
4
Your reasons for watching anime sound a lot like my reasons (and you're still younger than I am...)
Posted by: EdwardM at Sun Nov 30 21:53:20 2014 (0EhFY)
5
Crunchy has English rights to Twintails internationally except U.S., so that Hulu carries it here. At least such is the theory. We could ask Mr. Pixy to check down under if they actually stream it there.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Sun Nov 30 23:37:44 2014 (RqRa5)
6
"I found Dr. Who to be decidedly sub par"
I actually--mostly--liked the new doctor best of the new series so far. They've tamped down on the over-the-top camp and silliness, and been a little less "save the universe of the week".
Posted by: RickC at Mon Dec 1 11:09:58 2014 (ECH2/)
7
I actually like Capaldi, and I enjoyed most of the season, but the bit with the unbridled hatred of servicemen being presented as virtue...well not so much. I thought the season was working up to a refutation of that notion, but the finale not only doubled down on it but threw in a dollop of America hating as well. The finale also pushed the idea that soldiers are tolerable mainly if they are dead.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Dec 1 17:35:58 2014 (DnAJl)
Ah. Yeah, I agreed with that, but perversely, it annoys me less than a number of things that don't come to mind right at the moment. Oh, like the fundamental unseriousness of the new show in general, particularly 10 and 11s dilettantishness, and so on.
Yeah, yeah, Moffat hates guns and soldiers, blah blah blah, know what I mean?
Posted by: Rick C at Mon Dec 1 20:34:38 2014 (0a7VZ)
9
So, it's a vehicle for Moffat's hates, just like before it was a vehicle for Davies' er, loves....
Posted by: Mauser at Tue Dec 2 05:29:30 2014 (TJ7ih)
10
The season finale could have been amazing, but it failed to be audacious enough. Or at all, really. In the end, it was just okay.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tue Dec 2 07:42:05 2014 (2yngH)
11
Pixy--which show, DW or RWBY? Either way, what you said is accurate.
Mauser: I find that with the exception of the almost frothingly-rabid soldier-hatred, I can cope with Moffat's hates better than Davies' loves, apparently.
Most of the rest of the stuff I tend to chalk up to "it's like that in all the handful of modern British TV I watch" and mostly ignore it.
Posted by: RickC at Tue Dec 2 16:38:54 2014 (ECH2/)
12
If they hadn't promoted it so heavily as a Bold New Thing, this season would have passed as a baggage-clearing introduction to a new Doctor, with "throw it at the wall and see what sticks" character-building. The other big mistake was structuring it around Missy.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at Tue Dec 2 16:54:16 2014 (fpXGN)
Ugh. I could completely have done without her, although tbh I thought she worked very well in the mold of the original-series Master. I never liked the new character--too much of a buffoon for my tastes.
Posted by: Rick C at Wed Dec 3 00:21:18 2014 (0a7VZ)
14
Well, I could have done without the "leaps tall buildings in a single bound super-cannibal" aspect of The End of Time, but otherwise I thought John Simm worked well against Tennant's Doctor. Admittedly, I was looking forward to seeing Derek Jacobi's take on the role until they pulled the surprise regeneration, but they clearly wanted someone with a more contemporary feel.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at Wed Dec 3 12:04:24 2014 (1CisS)
SPACE FIDDLES!Suburbanbanshee is blogging again and amongst her recent posts she points to this gem fragment..
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.
In 13 days a new Yamato film will be released. It does not seem to be a remake or even imagining of any other Yamato project, though it does have some interesting elements from the second season.
It's unclear if there are to be any more after this, but given the general excellence of the series, it will certainly bear watching.
Log Horizon 8
In this episode, there was no cake whatsoever.
I think this lends some credence to 'the cake rule'.
The two previous episodes were quiet, one being a study in the psychological aspects of going to "Church"....the other was a training montage. Both were intelligently done and moved the story quite a bit.
This episode was less subtle. Akatsuki and Princess Lenessia being the keystones to the salvation of the city. However, they've changed the power dynamics of the city in the process, all while the very laws of nature are changing around them.
Despite its dumb as rocks premise and poor to mediocre production values, I'm really liking this show. The writing is really top notch and the silly premise is intelligently handled. Furthermore there are few shows that have really managed to integrate concepts like community and civics into an adventure yarn.
Integrate is the crucial difference here. Lots of shows will have an episode or two where a band of adventurers teach a town an important lesson about societal affairs...before leaving them to their dull lives while said adventurers head off to do great, exciting, and non-domestic deeds far removed from such matters as the 4-H Club. In this show, building and keeping a cohesive society is the raison d'être for the action and adventure.
The teamwork and tactics are well thought out too. These characters are SMART as well as determined, and that's pretty refreshing.
Next week it looks like we will revisit Shiro and company, though there is still no word on Crusty
who seems to have been eaten by his guild lieutenant's scythe in episode 6 (along with her arm)
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.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Mon Nov 24 17:22:01 2014 (ZJVQ5)
After the spectacular home run that was episode 11, the Finale of RWBY season 2 fell rather flat. The animation was off, and despite a several moments of awesomeness there was a rather perfunctory feel to the big climactic fight, which seemed disjointed and not entirely consistent. Basically everyone got a moment to shine though there was very little of the spectacular Monty Oum choreography that had been so impressive in previous fights and in fact the fight was so by the numbers and below the standards of the rest of the season that I suspect they ran out of money, time or both in this episode. On the non-technical side, there were some things that just didn't quite work.
Coco's minigun was just plain silly. All the other weapons that aren't super-tech (Penny) have had a logic to their operation, a mechanical consistency and a sense that they were, if not practical, at least compatible with Newtonian physics...This thing on the other hand just did not belong in her purse....
Of course the other problem had to do with a general lack of answers, though this is not nearly as egregious as it would normally be, since it's pointed out by Ruby herself while our heroines recover from the day.
"Wait.We helped arrest a bunch of very bad people but we didn't really solve anything!"
Like the fist season finale, this one did not feel like a climax at all, but rather seemed to be just another episode, steadily moving the plot along, with the rather sedate last half of the episode being in a lot of ways better than the nonstop action of the first half.
It's not a bad episode, but is also not up to the high standards the show had set for itself.
That being said though, this season overall has been quite enjoyable. While the first season of RWBY amused me quite a bit. The second season has (overall) been even better.
This is despite the fact that, in sharp contrast to the carefree whimsy of the season opener, the overall tone of RWBY season 2 is quite a bit darker than the first. Fortunately, the show avoids descending into something grimm depressing, thanks in part to its oddball, upbeat quirkiness.
Also: The super heroines get a corgi
While it is still obviously a very low budget show, the animation, art, pacing and voice-work are all much improved over season one. I've heard griping about what at first seemed to be an awkward subplot (involving side characters) that suddenly metastasized out of nowhere. However, unlike a similar digression in the first season, its resolution was both unexpected and satisfying. Plus, it ended up advancing the larger plot quite nicely.
The protagonists remain likable and have gained a bit more depth. Crucially, teams RWBY and JNPR consist of people that one actually enjoys rooting for. They are flawed human beings, sometimes wrestling with dark secrets, despair and self doubt, but they are not anti-heroes or cynics. These are an idealistic bunch who want to make the world a better place, want to do the right thing and are willing to pick themselves up and struggle on even if they get knocked down…hard. This is important because our heroes are punching well above their weight…rather more than they seem to realize.
The villains really came into their own in this season and are actually a pretty interesting lot…. Exactly WHAT their ultimate goal is remains unclear, but they are not incompetent and can think on their feet. They are, overall, quite worthy and occasionally terrifying antagonists.
These 12 short episodes were 144 minutes of my time that I do not regret. Despite the non-finale that was #12, I find that I’m eagerly looking forward to the third season.
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.
Posted by: RickC at Mon Dec 1 11:07:45 2014 (ECH2/)
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.
Posted by: RickC at Mon Dec 1 11:11:21 2014 (ECH2/)
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.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Dec 1 17:41:27 2014 (DnAJl)
4
They draw a dog much like Ein on Cowboy Bebop, and they name him Zwei? What, is Ruby an anime fan?
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue Dec 2 22:42:31 2014 (ZJVQ5)
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.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Wed Dec 3 19:40:21 2014 (DnAJl)
This Week, On a Very Special Episode of Log Horizon: Nothing Happened
Well almost nothing.
Akatsuki, the awesome, badass kunoichi spent the most of the episode being mopey and neurotic. This 27 year old woman who in her previous life was in graduate school, and in this world has established herself as one of the guild's most trusted and effective members is convinced that ...
A: She's been assigned royal escort duty because she's....weak.
B: She's being out competed in romance by a 13 year old.
Both of these fail the logic test. Regards A: It is blindingly obvious that Shiro gave her the (extremely vital) guard duty because he has confidence in her and trusts her utterly. If B were in fact correct then Shiro would, by definition, not be worth any of her time beyond that necessary to vivisect him for the good of humanity and therefore B should not be a problem one way or the other. Yet this generally awesome character spends the episode having some sort of midlife crisis, while the women around her eat cake and carry on conversations that for the most part fail the Bechdel test.
This near fiasco of an episode has actually given me a possible insight into the show. I shall call it the 'Cake Rule'.
Of course, like the last cake episode, inserted between the banality and the failure was what may well be a rather important development.
One of the lieutenants from the Harem Comedy Guild West Wind Brigade encounters someone who is able to initiate combat in the town (which has heretofore not been possible). She is defeated...but not in the usual way... That is, in fact, BLOOD on that sword.That stuff leaking out of our heroine isn't hit points...it's hemoglobin. This is the first time we've seen anyone bleed...she bleeds quite a bit and it doesn't appear that she is being reincarnated at the church. It looks like life here just got very real. ..and for her, I fear, tragically short.
Now, in fairness, not everything in the episode was disappointing or grim. One bit was not at all unpleasant, though it must be said that from a character perspective it also made little sense. However, I'm willing to cut them a bit of slack for it.
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.
Posted by: Siergen at Mon Oct 27 10:50:41 2014 (r3+4f)
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.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Mon Oct 27 12:15:25 2014 (RqRa5)
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.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Tue Oct 28 00:42:28 2014 (ZeBdf)
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.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Wed Oct 29 09:53:01 2014 (ZJVQ5)
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.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Wed Oct 29 15:54:37 2014 (zJsIy)
They can vastly improve a show, particularly a superhero show.
Season two of RWBY has taken that lesson to heart and run with it. The villains are genuinely frightening, with style, amazing choreography and snappy one liners...
"Pick any two."
Yeah...This show is not high art, but it is definitely a keeper.
First season was amusing, but occasionally painful to watch. However, the people making this have really honed their craft.
RWBY has been pretty good all season, but now, just over two thirds of the way into this season this show has really hit its stride.
My only complaint is that NEXT WEEK IS A WHOLE WEEK AWAY!
"We can wait!"
Which, when one thinks about it, is not a damning complaint at all.
For those who want an overview of the currently active plot thread, click here:
Over the last several episodes our heroines in team RWBY have been doing a bit of extracurricular work, investigating a criminal enterprise that Ruby stumbled onto way, way back in the series premier. Blake had discovered that this outfit is tied to the terrorist group she was associated with during her misspent youth, (when she was trying to kill Weiss's entire family). Weiss discovered (via Blake over-sharing in a moment of pique) that.... well, see point 2. Yang? Yang likes to punch things and is nigh invincible, so she is very happy to tag along. The girls discover that the villains are doing a recruiting drive for White Fang, a racial supremacist organization for "faunus" (the people like Blake who have animal features) and said terrorist outfit has pilfered a bunch of top of the line GIANT WARBOTS, one of which gives our heroines considerable trouble despite the fact that they wore much more rational and stylish outfits to that particular fight. They learn that the villains have a base in the abandoned town of Mountain Glen, but are unable to act on this since they aren't supposed to be doing the vigilante thing in the first place. Fast forwarding past the subplots about team JNPR involving dancing, awesome sparring matches, cross-dressing and true love, (as well as the one about Yang looking for her mom) finally brings team RWBY to Mountain Glen accompanied by DOCTOR Ooblek ostensibly on a class trip...though they are pretty sure that Ooblek knows that they know more than they are letting on.There they encounter, not crooks, but monsters that tend to sneak up behind them, and over the course of two days they find no indication of the base they were looking for until Ruby has the ground collapse underneath her and falls weaponless into the clutches of Roman Torchwick. Our heroes subsequently rescue her with the help of DOCTOR Oobleck's awesome thermos and pursue the neer-do-wells onto a (very wide gauge) train. The villains respond by blowing up the train cars as our heroes move forward, which DOCTOR Oobleck realizes is not actually about them, but a plan to draw in the many GRIMM monsters in and above the caves with the goal of having said GRIMM then pursue the train which will lead the monsters into the city of Vale....adding to the mayhem as the terrorists attempt to use their captured heavy weapons in an assault on the city. Our heroes are somewhat outmatched by the villains and after half of them get curb-stomped a series of awesome fights are unable to stop the train, which crashes through a blast door sealing off the abandoned rail line and well....mayhem ensues.
I do have a few questions for those who watch the show.
What is with the flaming corgi? Also: What is the villain's long term plan? Generally taking over the world involves having a world to rule...This episode seems to indicate there has been an oversight in the villains planning committee. Am I missing something?
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!
Posted by: Siergen at Fri Oct 24 17:50:49 2014 (r3+4f)
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".
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Fri Oct 24 22:13:46 2014 (DnAJl)
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sat Oct 25 00:38:20 2014 (DnAJl)
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.
Posted by: Mauser at Sat Oct 25 04:22:01 2014 (TJ7ih)
6
The Flaming Corgi? I'm really surprised you didn't recognize The Corgi-mite Maneuver.
Posted by: Mauser at Mon Oct 27 04:07:15 2014 (TJ7ih)
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...because being stuck in the purgatory between trap and trapped has got to suck. Akitsuki certainly was happy to get hold of one of the last remedies for that problem.
That is, in fact, BLOOD on that sword.
That stuff leaking out of our heroine isn't hit points...it's hemoglobin. This is the first time we've seen anyone bleed...she bleeds quite a bit and it doesn't appear that she is being reincarnated at the church. It looks like life here just got very real. ..and for her, I fear, tragically short.
They learn that the villains have a base in the abandoned town of Mountain Glen, but are unable to act on this since they aren't supposed to be doing the vigilante thing in the first place. Fast forwarding past the subplots about team JNPR involving dancing, awesome sparring matches, cross-dressing and true love, (as well as the one about Yang looking for her mom) finally brings team
There they encounter, not crooks, but monsters that tend to sneak up behind them, and over the course of two days they find no indication of the base they were looking for until Ruby has the ground collapse underneath her and falls weaponless into the clutches of Roman Torchwick. Our heroes subsequently rescue her with the help of 
