Chocolate Cornets are Best if not Consumed in Raspberry Heaven
Some months ago I finished watching the last of the Lucky Star TV series. Due to life issues, a review has been languishing in draft form for just about as long. Rather more recently, I watched the entirety of Azu Manga Daioh, having previously only seen the first half. Both of the shows are quite similar on the face of it: Both are based on 4 panel comic strips. Both follow a group of girls through the three years of Japanese highschool. Both have fairly dry humor, similar in tone to Shulz's Peanuts. Both have likely been reviewed in depth by every blog that features any anime reviews on this side of Antarctica save this one.
However, I found the tone and rewatchability of the shows quite different.
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A bold premise, stated forthrightly, sir! I shall watch the responses... on closed-circuit video... in a bomb-proof bunker 23 miles away from the "event". ;p
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Mon Jul 20 21:49:27 2009 (pWQz4)
Posted by: Wonderduck at Mon Jul 20 23:47:42 2009 (Duio9)
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Seriously, dude, do you even read what Steven wrote? Awarding Kagura the most advancement is the dumbest review idea ever.
Also, how can you review Lucky Star without Lucky Channel? That shit was worse than Kimura by 1.8km. What selective memory!
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Tue Jul 21 00:22:12 2009 (/ppBw)
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Interesting... it's been quite a while since I watched Azumanga, but I remember being bored by the Chiyo-dad sequences as well as the New Year's Dream episode (episodes?). Can't really relate to the rest of your complaints, though. Kaorin in particular was such a one-dimensional character that I never pitied her.
Lucky Star has a lot of flaws, but once you've gotten to know the cast it makes a first-class comfort anime.
Posted by: Andrew F. at Tue Jul 21 07:00:06 2009 (d5+fR)
5
I'm not saying Azumanga sucks, it kept my intrest for nearly all of 6
dvd's. Azuma is, after all, exceedingly talented. The unlikeability of
several characters put me off towards the end and, for me, its
rewatchability is low
Kaorin in particular was such a one-dimensional character that I never pitied her.
I agree that Kaorin is a one trick pony and the least fleshed out of the girls, however the crap she puts up with from Kimura is pretty awfull. That isn't the only reason she elicits sympathy of course. Just about everyone can relate to the heartbreak of unrequited love.
...can't they? ...or.....am I the only one who has had that happen? Oh dear..I suddenly feel so utterly alone.... .
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Jul 21 08:53:30 2009 (+QU+M)
6
Criticizing Azumanga Daioh is the third-rail of this hobby. That's the only review I've ever written, posted, and then taken down again because of all the crap thrown at me for my opinion -- which pretty much agreed with yours.
Seriously, dude, do you even read what Steven wrote?
Uhhh...a little... a loooong time ago...something about wanting a
varmint rifle Is all I remember..I avoided most reviews because I was avoiding spoilers as I had the thin pack for a time and intended to watch it. I never saw SDBs full review because
he got rid of it. (I think a bunch of angry Slavs invaded his comment
section or something
)
Awarding Kagura the most advancement is the dumbest review idea
ever.
Actually the review idea was that I find Lucky Star more
rewatchable than AzuManga, which I must say is an awesome idea, chock
full of win!
As to the question of Kagura, I agree that she is not well developed
as a character. We know very little about her as she has little screen
time and, like Kaorin seems to be included as a foil.
However, she is the only one who really grows and changes. This is
most obvious in the scene with the tent where she apologizes for her
asshattery and offers to rebuild the thing herself (to the scorn of
Tomo). She also buckles down quite noticeably in her studies towards
the end and seems to mellow on her competitive streak a little. The
character changes over time, in this case for the better. Most of the
other girls have stuff happen to them, and we find out more about their
quirks...they are fleshed out far better. However, the others don't
really change or grow emotionally, except perhaps Sakaki and her changes are less pronounced.
Also, how can you review Lucky Star without Lucky Channel? That shit was worse than Kimura by 1.8km.
I disagreeI feel that a 30 something man wanting to kindle a romance with his unwilling 17 year old student is worse than an amusing bipolar jaded celebrity by a full nautical mile. Now in fairness, when I sawLucky Channel first on a fan sub, my response was "WTF is THIS CRAP!?!1!". However, Sam Reigel and Stephane Sheh did a fine job with it in the dub. I found it amusing. A lot of people didn't. But, it is sufficiently detached from the show proper that I'd think anyone who didn't like it could just hit "SKIP" and be none the worse. Their stupidity is not integral to the story proper except for a few gags.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Jul 21 09:38:54 2009 (+QU+M)
8
Lucky Star -has- a Kimura. The difference is that it's Konata's dad. In Azumanga your sympathy is all with the poor girls, having to put up with this molester-wannabe (we hope). In Lucky Star, it's Soujirou that gets all the development, such as it is, and his "victims" never appear (possibly excepting how warped Konata turned out). It's not as bad because Soujirou never does anything (that we know about) and at least the same girls aren't subjected to him over a protracted period, but at the same time, he's no less of a perv (and quite possibly much more of one!) than Kimura ever was.
There's plenty you can criticize about Azu. It's true that Kagura is the only one who really develops. Everyone else coasts through the series, more or less exactly the same person they were before they got into high school, except with some happy memories to recall later on. And there's room for that kind of story too, of course, but it's not a literary masterpiece.
But there's the problem with comparing the two shows in the first place. With Lucky Star, the audience is expected to be "in" on the joke. Whether it's Kagami making fun of Konata for being a geek or Konata making fun of Kagami for being a norm, the fan watching the show is involved with the humor. (Which is one reason that Miyuki falls flat as a character - her jokes are flavored differently, and while "oh, look, she's done something absent-minded" is funny a few times, it can't carry the show.) Even Lucky Channel is in this mold, and this is coming from someone who is sworn to punch the hell out of Minoru Shiraishi should the opportunity arise, right?
With Azumanga, you can't be "in" on the joke because it's not joking. It's an idealized high school life, with most of the problems elided out, except for the obviously despicable guy who's SOOOO evil that he's a parody of the entire concept. Come on, they even have one wacky cool teacher and one serious cool teacher, both of whom are perfectly comfortable hanging out with them...
So comparing the shows like they're head-to-head rivals is mistaken in the first place. Sure, okay, slice-of-life. But Azu isn't a slice of YOUR life; Lucky Star is.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Tue Jul 21 20:30:59 2009 (pWQz4)
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@ Avatar All your points are good ones, although I don't find Konata's
dad particularly disturbing. He is very much what I thought Kimura might be before the seventh disc. That is, he
is socially inept, finds teenage girls attractive... and thinks out loud. We
never see him stalk anyone unless one counts a wistful glance in the credits and
in the later episodes we see him being a pretty good...if
unconventional...father figure to Konata and Yutaka.
I think that
bothered me most about Kimura was that the over the top creepy stuff towards the
end (most of which IIRC was not in the trade paperback) was supposed to be funny...that left a really, really bad taste
in my mouth.
I do think that Lucky Star flows somewhat better and has
better characterizations but the parts that so appeal to me are going to
alienate a lot of others. The post explains why I find LS more
rewatchable.
I heartily agree that the series are quite different shows
and comparison is more than a bit of a stretch. However, the comparison comes up
frequently and I've been asked more than once how I could possibly like LS more than
AzMD...hence the post. While the post is more than 140 characters long the URL
is not....making my life easier.
Your last paragraph is, of
course, spot on.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Jul 21 21:46:34 2009 (V5zw/)
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I can't figure out what it is Pete is referring to that I wrote.
I left a comment earlier but it seems to have vanished? An expanded version if it can be seen here.
Posted by: Andy Janes at Wed Jul 22 16:48:16 2009 (lNf10)
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Steven, I think he's confusing Kimura (the teacher) with Kagura (the student/jock).
Posted by: Wonderduck at Wed Jul 22 17:57:56 2009 (Duio9)
13
I think you're being overly harsh on Tomo. She's hyperactive and insensitive and has terrible impulse control, but she's not really evil. Her misbehavior energizes the others and helps keep them from getting into a rut.
The most overtly malicious thing that she does is come up with a plan to bully Chiyo with a harassing "home inspection." But that actually starts the chain of events that causes the group to bond as friends.
Kimura is loathsome of course, but I think even that serves a purpose in the story by reminding us of the darker side of adolescence (which is never far from the surface in this show.)
The show isn't trying to say that high school is a wonderful, carefree experience. It is saying that it is a good experience if you do it with friends, and miserable otherwise. (Even if the friends are less than perfect people.)
That is probably why Kaorin, who is only marginally attached to the group, suffers much worse than the others. (One can, of course, come up with more negative interpretations, e.g. the writers are predjudiced against lesbians.)
Posted by: Jonathan Tappan at Thu Jul 23 21:58:58 2009 (7wFYN)
I am not yet this far gone...
I am not yet this far gone I am not yet this far gone I am not yet this far gone I.... I wonder if they will be coming out with a Yuki Nagato in the fut.... I am not yet this far gone I am not yet this far gone I am not yet this far gone Link via
Stone Knives...Bearskins
An interesting example of living archeology. A 13 year old tries to survive using the primitive technology of his anscestors..
Star Trek
Be advised that despite being an odd numbered Star Trek film, this movie kicks rather than sucks ass.
The film is at least as good as The Wrath of Khan. Interestingly, its premise in some ways a mirror image of that film. Wrath of Khan explored the characters long after the series and how they had changed...or not...over the years. This film ostensibly looks at how the characters started out, but because of the main plot point the film is a total reimagining. This reimagining however is astonishingly faithful to the original.
The characters are all well developed. The development of the Kirk/Spock/McCoy trio is absolutely dead on. (Karl Urban in particular is absolutely brilliant as McCoy.)
The secondary characters are all well thought out too, Uhura is pivotal to the story and is every bit the genius she is supposed to be. Sulu, Scotty and Chekov all are well written and acted and its nice to see Chekov be presented as goofy-smart as opposed to...just plain goofy. Bruce Greenwood is superb as Captain Pike.
The villians, despite not being particularly engaging or interesting, work surprisingly well. The villany in this movie is a banal and simplistic evil that nevertheless wreaks untold havoc. The villans plan is, not to put to fine a point on it....WHACKED, but they have tremendous power, murderous intent and the determination of a pit bull.
Despite the assurances that the film is not aimed at Trekkies there are in jokes and references galore...(a particularly painful "red shirt moment" elicited tremendous laughter from the audience).
I expected the film to be decent or at least interesting, I did not
expect it to kick ass and chew bubble gum the way it did. To be sure there are a few logical quibbles and some plot points that are dubious, (mostly revolving around a bumpy bit of exposition at about the halfway point,) but the pacing is superb, the acting excellent and the action nearly non stop. As a sumer action flick this is great. As a Trek film it is one of the best.
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It is the best odd numbered Trek out there. But it is not better than Wrath of Khan, in my opinion. The reason Khan remains superior is not only the development of the characters, but the pacing of the movie. J.J. Abrams seemed to have only one gear in this movie: full tilt. That's nice in action scenes, but you need to have crescendos, rest periods (I know there is a better term but I can't think of it this morning), and then builds to the next crescendo.
Khan has a build up to the initial ambush sequence, then the aftermath where you how its affected the characters. Then it builds up to the first showdown on the Genesis planet, followed by the revelations of Kirk's past and his fears. Then it starts building up again to the Battle of Mutara Nebula.
By contrast, Star Trek doesn't seem to have this. It starts off dropping the viewers into first confrontation. Then with barely a moment to recover, you get the accelerated introductions to Kirk and Spock. Both of which keep going at the same pace. About the only build is in the Star Fleet Academy scenes. Everything else its like being a bullet train. It works in this film. But it would have been nicer to every once in a while slow it down a bit.
If only I could meld Nicholas Meyer with J.J. Abrams and it would produce the perfect Star Trek movie.
Posted by: Bill at Sun May 10 13:59:10 2009 (BtODw)
2
Did they leave out Nurse Chapel? (I hope I hope I hope)
Did they leave out Nurse Chapel? (I hope I hope I hope)
We never see her, but during a humorous scene where McCoy is trying to deal with some...medication side effects...he shouts at an offscreen Nurse Chapel for some medication. However, I'd have to watch again but I think that it was mentioned later in the film
that she was "on deck 6"along with Dr. Boyce. I gathered that almost everyone on deck 6 died. .
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon May 11 20:11:50 2009 (V5zw/)
More Uninformed K-ON! Blogging
I still haven't seen K-ON! yet, but this series went on my to-watch list when I first heard about it. Pixie has had the credits up for two weeks and has some thoughts (including a very considerate earworm warning for the opening). I just now got around to watching them....
Not that I'll be able to see it for a while but I blundered into these 3 .gifs from K-ON! this evening. Not having seen the series, I lack any context but they seem to show one of the protagonists enthusiastically enjoying, respectively, a waffle, a chair, and some acid. The animation and art seem to be to Kyo-Ani's usual standards. I'm still looking forward to this.
If anyone has a review feel free to link to it in the comments.
UPDATE: Avatar has thoughts on this and several other recent shows. He seems upbeat overall.
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If anything, the art's significantly below KyoAni's normal standard - the character animation is loose as hell. The best is quite good, but the average isn't nearly as high as usual.
Basic plot is that spacy protagonist gets lured into the "light music" club (thus, "kei-on"), which has three musicians looking to form a band. They need a guitarist, but Yui's never touched a guitar in her life. She's also got the attention span of a gnat who's been mainlining speed and Red Bull. Hilarity, as they say, ensues.
I'll do a post on it, just got to decide when...
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Thu Apr 23 14:56:22 2009 (pWQz4)
Not so far off, actually. It's not a waffle, though.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Thu Apr 23 17:50:33 2009 (Duio9)
3
Spacey but she has a "whim of iron." The episode in which she acquires her first guitar is hilarious, since I've know the same thing to happen with a budding teen musician, "bright, shiny, pretty!"
Posted by: toadold at Mon Apr 27 00:35:06 2009 (zcbXo)
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Nice try "Stephanie" Or should I say Vladimir Spamkovik. Pretending to
be a girl on the internet was your first mistake. Pretending to be a
girl that's actually interested in ME was so laughably improbable that you couldn't have
gotten Charles Fort to believe it. You're a bad spammer and a bad
person and will never amount to being anything other than a punch line
or a swear word. Quit now, wash your hands of this failure and go find
work where you are not a living embodiment of the Peter Principle.
This imaginary young lady has something to say to you as well.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Nov 5 05:15:33 2012 (e9h6K)
Anime News: Some Regrettably Accurate..Some Regrettably Not THAT Anime Blog has a roundup of most of the upcoming season. It makes an interesting comparison with this prediction I recently received via E-Mail.
As your brains may grudgingly recall, this time last year I predicted some of
the anime trends we'd be seeing soon. For those of you whom time has been a
balm to soothe the mind, let me rub raw some old wounds: remember Hobos,
Hairdressers, Veterinarians, and Mushrooms.
I confidently measure my
predictive powers against the track records of such luminous benchmarks as
Nostradamus, any economist (other than Adam Smith), and the Christian Bible.
As we venture forward further, the producers of Japanese manga and anime have
begun to make their intentions known. I predict 2010 shall be the year
of:
1) Demolition Derbys (a.k.a Banger Racing in Europe) 2)
Reptiles/Dinosaurs (listed separately because there are too many people on
this list who know the difference). 3) Gardening 4) Belgians
As
usual, at first the new elements will be introduced into fairly safe
territory:
Thumb Green : A heartfelt series about an orphan,
Tanazaki, who is adopted into a family of estate gardeners. Mom works in
topiaries and Dad prefers tea roses, but the adopted son follows in
bonsai-enthusiast grandfather's steps. When the last Japanese heir to the
estate dies and the manor falls to the young Belgian heiress, can Tanazaki
learn to forgive her shameful secret and teach her to live in harmony with
the back lawn? And will Tanazaki's new sister, who may feel more than
sisterly-affection for Tanazaki, ever perfect her compost pile? Look for the
hidden symbolism of the koi pond as it reflects the state of romance between
the heiress, the orphan, and the possibly-insane sister.
Crash 1911 :
A truly anachronistic and jingoistic offering, Crash 1911 is set in 1914(!)
in a Miyazakiburgstein (one of those generic Western-Central European with
steampunk touches) setting. "Crash 1911" refers to the undefeated reign of
driver Josef Tildeff's and his 1911 season winning twelve-competitor
collision. Now in 1914, most of the participants of that epic season have
returned with even more-outlandish cars and unlikely proteges, including a
deaf Mongolian, a Cajun zydeco-playing grandmother, and Tildeff's own protege
who is (you guessed it) a Japanese orphan. How will each of the competitor's
life experiences aid them in the upcoming derby? And why is it every
non-Asian character except the son of the Belgian calvary officer painted in
such a negative light? Still, all the mechanical designs will look like "the
Secret of Blue Water" meet "Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bag" to the point that the
only fan disappointment will be that none of the cars actually
fly.
Sensai Crocogator-san's Class Trip : Middle-school Crocogator takes
his students on a different class trip each week, visiting factories,
places of historical interest, zoos, etc. Students from different walks of
life (dirt poor, privileged rich, brains, jocks, and just-average-losers)
all learn important lessons each week while they face the challenges
of growing up Japanese. Each week at least one student will be eaten by
this pedagoguish member of Osteolaemus holtzus (common name: the
Too-Clever Crocodile), but never fear - they tend to reappear in the middle
of the episode with no apparent ill-effect. The series will impart a love
of history. Season highlights will include the hilarious Alligator-wrestling
episode and the tour of the Diet building.
Later, as fallow
ground goes further a-weed, we will see:
Caimen Maid Crisis! : This
rather pedestrian tale will be a complete ripoff of last season's
'Matic-Panic Stylist Yuki, except the cybernetic-valet will be replaced with
an alien Crocodilian Princess and the original threatening alien invasion
will be replaced by Atlantean golems. There will be no plot-twists that
couldn't be predicted by hyper-active ten year-olds. Sales of the figurines
of the Caimen Maid will convince the producers to put out 19 OVAs, each of
which feature her in a different provocative outfit that can be lucratively
merchandised.
Pumpkin Road-rage: It's the future, and a growing segment
of the transportation market features mutated, semi-intelligent vegetables.
The smartest of these appears to be Pumpkin Buggy, an orange sports-car with
a seed-spitting cannon. When rogue cars from the Belgian-based
Zucchini Biotechnical begin causing traffic havoc, Pumpkin Buggy and his
owner are drafted into the Tokyo Police Department to fight these
street-racing, squash-smashing renegades. It's "Jayce and the Wheeled
Warriors" meets "Speed Buggy" with a hint of "Riding Bean" and "ADP
Police."
(Name Witheld For His Protection)
Lest you judge my corespondent too harshly I would point out that he really did guess...unlike the above linked bloggers who I strongly suspect...peeked. Note too that unless there is some hapless cypher-nebish added to Queens Blade he was surprisingly prescient in not predicting any Harem shows.
Which is one of the few bright spots of the upcoming season (For me anyway)
Regards the actual upcoming season, my corespondents predictions certainly showed more innovation than the real thing. Queens Blade looks to likely to take 'fan service' well into the realm of diminishing returns...(the trailer is age blocked by You Tube...and rightly so ). However, while the reverse harem show Hanasakaru Sheishounen appeals to me even less, it is neat to see that there actually is one.
As to things that I'm actually looking forward to, the upcoming season is sparse pickings...with shows that seem to be ranging from the dystopic to the insipid. There are some things that seem to have some promise however. Providing I have any opportunity to watch anything, the long awaited sequel to Full Metal Achemistis certainly high on my "to watch" list, and I take comfort in the fact that it is the only one I'm reasonably confident will be brought over.
The brief synopsis given of of K-ON looks interesting...
The story about four high school girls that try to sustain their
school’s popular music club despite being unable to read music or play
instruments.
Heh...This could be cute.
The return of Hayate the Combat Butler is unlikely to suck, while the original was not high art it was enjoyably demented...For those unaware it tells the story of a competent and practical but...unlucky young lad who lands a job as a butler/bodyguard for an insanely rich and sheltered debutante and her bizzare household.
Of particular interest to me (being that I'm an utter geek) is, of course, that show the THAT crowd tossed onto the end of their post...as if it was an afterthought or something. (Infidels!) It appears that the next several weeks will see a straight up remake of... Mazinger Z!
Oh be still my beating childhood! Wow...Sad case of arrested development that I am, I fear I am going to have to watch this. I mean what could be cooler?
1
Hmm, that QB trailer looks pretty bad. I wonder if it were even possible to create one so bad for Sekirei.
K-ON looks like Manabi reprised, of course I'm watching that.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Wed Mar 18 22:43:10 2009 (/ppBw)
2
The character designs for K-ON are great, and the concept sounds like it could work well, so definitely on my list.
Queens Blade looks like a train wreck. And while a train wreck with boobies is still a train wreck, it is also still a train wreck with boobies. So I'll give it about half an episode. Maybe a little longer if the girl with the magic hair shows up.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Fri Mar 20 10:40:49 2009 (PiXy!)
Refined Cultural References For the Erudite Geek
Wonderduck has started a conversation about what sort of geekery geeks should grok.
I'm not one to really ask about this as video games are a big part of the geek culture that long since passed me by and...well...I don't play many video games. I can count the ones I have played over the last 5 years on 1 hand.
Interesting FindAmongst the 37 songs I've thus far hunted down and put in the Blogradio rotation is one I blundered into quite unexpectedly: The radio edit of Hoshi no DejaVu, the OP song from Southern Cross.
I've been told that the song, (rather unlike the show) was fairly popular in Japan, topping the charts in 1984 at one point. It's an oddball find and it sort of blends with the other stuff too...
Random Bits of Wrong
Christmas kept me away from most entertainment so this week I determined to had been considering seeing The Day the Earth Stood Still, however the reviews were not good and amongst my messages from an Email list I'm on were these lucid comments on the film by those less fortunate than I.
Save your money for the cheap show, or PPV.
"Just saw a movie that happened to have a title card
that read "Day the Earth Stood Still""...
...been
lurking around for many years, but I felt I had to say something ...and
this new disaster makes me feel like somebody threw a ton of raw, fresh
excrement onto me, in IMAX format, yet...what kind of Hollywood dumbass wrote
this thing?
I decided to go with Bobtm and see The Spirit instead.
Now I liked both Sin City and 300, the latter more than the former and this is the Spirit after all so I went i with high hopes.
I must confess that it was welcome to see that after all the fan service for the girls in
300 that this provided lots of fan service for the my demographic. It
was also nice to see Samuel L. Jackson having a completely batshit bonkers good
time as the Octopus...or perhaps he simply went batshit bonkers during filming and the
directors ran with it. On the other hand... What in the HELL!? That was an ODD film.... I didn't exactly hate it but it was really strange and more than a bit unsatisfying...
Anyway this evening I went on the internet and started doing some work on some upcoming posts, in the process I did an image search.... ...and encountered a picture where someone had perpetrated "Rule 34" on a Cadbury.. cream... egg....
Shudder....not that Cadburry cream egg tan wasn't sort of..cute...but damn....that ain't right.
2
I didn't hate it, as the sheer train wreck stupidity and was amusing at points. It was better than such execrable wastes of time as the Crow 2 or any movie with Leprechaun followed by a number in its title. As I said it was so bloody odd it kept one guessing as to what in the HELL was going on....."Can they really be that crack addled? YES THEY CAN!"
However, it was NOT a good film.
I part ways with the above-linked woman who likens this film to a Corman production. Corman is a talented filmaker who liked to experiment. He suffered from near nonexistent budgets and the fact that true experiments sometimes don't work.
The producers of this film had all the money in the world, a top notch cast and superb source material. Corman would have made this work. These guys had everything and blew it.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Wed Dec 31 13:17:58 2008 (kwKeD)
Mirelurks and Deathclaws and Raiders...OH MY!
Good lord! The sun...It's up...It's like Noon! This game is more cracklike than the most cracktacular crack to have ever cracked out of a crackpipe!
I am learning all sorts of things though...Heretefore, I thought the term "Fire Ant" meant something less....literal. I would also have thought that after 200 years cars would no longer be combustible. This is actually incorrect...so using them for cover is not recommended.
Having had no experience with the previous iterations, I'm hesitant to jump in at this stage. I feel like I'd be lacking the requisite experience to angrily mock it as "not really a Fallout game" with all the other alpha nerds.
Posted by: Will at Mon Dec 29 16:49:13 2008 (WnBa/)
3
It is indeed Fallout 3. Regards the "not really Fallout" griping, I'm not sure where that comes from. It is real time rather than turn based but it is remarkably true to the spirit of the 2 previous games. The freedom of movement in particular is astonishing. I am very impressed with this thing. It is one of the best I have ever seen.
I guess I'm just a Beta geek....
My only quibble is that there is no multiplayer option, but that would probably be exceedingly hard to pull off with the level of detail and freedom this game has, which is as great as some of the MMPORGs.
Posted by: Brickmuppet at Mon Dec 29 19:36:32 2008 (V5zw/)
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Well, I forgot to open my tag when I wrote that. Everything I've heard about the game is that it's Oblivion but better. Now, Oblivion is a game that sucked up many hours of my time (still not as much as Morrowind). That comparison speaks well of it to me, but I'm really not inclined to spend any money on a game that isn't likely to run well on either of my PCs. I also don't want to support their dependence on overbearing DRM.
It's the same reason I haven't gone out and dumped money on Red Alert 3, even though I desperately want to do so. EA has shown no regard for its paying customers (I'm speaking specifically of the continued unfixed bugs in games like Kane's Wrath) while turning the game into a long-term rental with limited activations and only hollow promises that they might someday maybe deactivate that requirement. I expect they'll go out of business and brick all those games first.
Posted by: Will at Mon Dec 29 22:46:02 2008 (oj5wx)
5
Now that's just plain weird. Last night when I left that comment, the first line said "I forgot to open my "sarc" tag", but I'd actually used < and > in place of ". It showed up just fine on the other machine where I wrote it. Now I'm on my other PC a few hours later and it's gone.
Posted by: Will at Tue Dec 30 09:44:03 2008 (oj5wx)
Momentary Memephilia
All the cool kids are doing it....
• What anime are you watching now? Bleach, Lucky Star
• What is your favourite time to watch? The middle of the night.
• And your favorite place? Within line of sight of the monitor (duh!)
• Who is your favourite auteur? Satoshi Kohn
• Your favourite OST? 3 actually, Space Cruiser Yamato, Grendaizer, Ghost in the Shell
• What is the most difficult anime you’ve ever watched? Serial Experiments Lain...but it was worth it
• What was the first anime you remember watching? Marine Boy or Speed Racer in '74
• Do you have a comfort show that you re-watch? I watch Arivadercci Yamato every Christmas. I also re-watch select episodes Starblazers,Mazinger series robot shows and VanDread from time to time. .
• What is the most erotic anime you’ve watched? As an American I am protected by the 5th amendment to the United States Constitution...
• Which classic should you have watched? Doraemon.
• Which series did you never want to end? Bleach....despite its Shonen Jump tropes, the characters are superbly realized and the story is engaging.
• What is your most overrated anime? Neon Genesis Evangelion
• Which character could you have an affair with? LOL whut?
• Who is your favourite character? Ichigo from Bleach...closely followed by Meia Gisbourne from VanDread
Other runners up that spring to mind immediately.. Vash from Trigun Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist Lady Eboshi from Princess Mononoke
• Which character do you most dislike? Probably Shinji from Evangelion
• Which character do you identify with most? Linna Inverse from Slayers....which is probably a sign of deep seated emotional problems.
Enlightened Opinion.....
Many of you have seen this bootleg vid of the trailer for the new Star Trek Movie....
There has been some grumbling from fans as there always will be. To me it looks seriously kewel despite the unspockular Spock. However John C. Wright has obtained the opinion of the only person who's opinion we care about...
Rocket Girls!Rocket Girls has been mentioned here in passing (mostly via pictures in science posts) acouple of times. Having been quite taken with the first few episodes that I saw at a party a while back, I eagerly looked forward to the US release.
Well, I recently saw the complete series in DVD format, alone, and unprotected on a comic store shelf. So despite financial issues, I went ahead and picked it up.
I watched it with a friend in one sitting.
The show had decent production values despite some jarring CGI. Rocket Girls is, as I hoped, an optimistic and uplifting show. Pro-technology pro-space with a very alt-space feel, the show at least tries to look realistic on the technical side. Despite some very real technical quibbles, and a decidedly unlikely series of events setting up the cast, the show provides an inspiring vision of near future manned crewed space exploration. While not, strictly speaking, a comedy, it is quite cute and has some funny bits. This show, however is above all an adventure yarn and it builds steadily to a thoroughly satisfying climax.
Alas, the show then continues for 6 more episodes with decidedly mixed (but still generally positive) results. Describing the setup of the first 2 eps necessarily involves spoilers and as such is below the fold. Subsequent spoilers are behind spoiler tags. more...
Black Lagoon, Second Barrage,Third DVD
Black Lagoon is a fairly dark show. Rather darker than I ordinarily like. The improbable story of 3 Americans and a Japanese Salaryman operating as a band of more or less ruthless modern day pirates out of northern Borneo is not happy or lighthearted in any way. It has, however been a perversely fun show, heavy on the action, snark, and over the top situations.
Volumes one and two of the second series had fallen into a pattern of one or two gruesome shows followed by a sad episode and then one or two shows very satisfyingly stocked with violence sarcasm, and girls in hotpants committing all manner of improbably spectacular theoretically reproducible violence while shouting obscenities. In other words "win".
Volume two in particular had this delightfully gratuitous bit of dreadfulness...
....Sawyer, the local corpse disposal expert who sidelines as an assasin is an implacable, mute, chainsaw wielding goth chick delivering her sinister one liners through an ultravoice.
I mean really....THAT is quality entertainment boys and girls!
When volume 3 came out I picked it up at once. I headed over to Allans house, we broke out the popcorn and popped the dvd in. Our reactions can be accurately summed up via the following illustration.
Holy hell that was merciless! We have finally discovered the point of diminishing returns in pathos, gratuity, and gutpunchery. Yikes!
1
Oh dear. That's what I was afraid of, after that last episode. And when you consider that the first dvd of Second Barrage earned the comment "f*cking harsh" from Dr. Heinous and I, that isn't promising.
Posted by: ubu at Mon Nov 10 00:31:37 2008 (qWAin)
2
I can't even describe it as a "bad end" because it isn't an 'end' to the story/situation...it's just the last episodes of the series. However, given the fact that the story arc in question is well and truly over. If there is a 3rd barrage I'll probably watch it.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Nov 10 22:58:16 2008 (UmRf5)
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