Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:53 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Myriad Colors Phantom World wrapped up with episode 13. Despite having to cram about half a dozen episodes worth of material into 23 minutes, this whirlwind episode manages to have quiet, even touching moments of introspection and character development interspersed with all sorts of delightfully escalating violence. The writers do resort to expediting the plot with a somewhat unlikely hacking montage...

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...is pandering to the audience, so here is a rendering of Hephaestus by Shima Shima.

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If you understand this message, it is meant for you. 

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...so watch out for snakes.

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Please Tell Me Galko-Chan! has been getting some positive buzz, so I decided to give it a whirl.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:49 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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1 I'm afraid I didn't set the expectations forcefuly enough. At least for me, the best part of Galko was the characterization, rather than the subject matter of the conversations.

For example, I mentioned the case of Charao fixated on Galko while on a date because something like that happened to me when Kojiharu's pictures in bed with some actor pretty boy were floated around. I remember that for some couple of days after that, I sometimes found myself wondering randomly why Kojiharu is so dumb and what's wrong with her (news reports at the time indicated that it was a part of her attempts to shed a "good girl" image - it was almost like Brittney Spears serial marriages). And it's not like I care about entertainment personalities in general. I'm not her fan in particular either. I have the Heart Ereki CD, but mostly for unrelated reasons. Likewise, Charao isn't in love with Galko either... He just can't help getting fascinated by the damn shirt.

The pool shota was phenomenal too, I thought. It wasn't quite powerful like the assberger shota of Initial D who had his balls drop at the sight of Mako's slender legs. Galko's focus was once again how she combines all the appeals of playful exterior and kind personality in a certain kind of life example (not only for the shota, but for his lowlife girl classmates as well, hopefuly).

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Mon Mar 28 13:50:18 2016 (XOPVE)

2

I got far enough into the first episode to where they were talking about whether the aurolea (or however that's spelled; I refuse to look it up) on an eponymous also was big. And one of them draws circles on a balloon with a magic marker.

And then I decided I didn't care anymore.

It didn't help that I'm repelled by the character art.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Mon Mar 28 18:54:27 2016 (+rSRq)

3 So...while reading one of the comments I came across these words typed in this order...

"The pool shota was phenomenal too"

...and I'm thinking that there has got to be context that I'm missing 'cause that just does not look like it belongs in a pitch that's attempting to get me to watch something.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Mar 28 21:50:25 2016 (/4jFR)

4 Aww man, I went and rewatched 01. The best part is when Otako brings the pillow. Her intelligence and foresight are off the chart. I could never have done that for my best friend in school: even if I figured it out, I would've forgotten it in the morning.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Mon Mar 28 22:03:57 2016 (XOPVE)

5 Yes but that was a fairly fancy pillow and now it probably needs to be burned.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Mar 28 22:09:37 2016 (/4jFR)

6 It was a donut pillow; getting sat on by people with tender rears is what it's for. ;p

I had a couple of friends who had the same reaction as Steven. "Ugh" and nope'd right out. And that's a fair reaction - the show is not merely earthy but outright fertilizer here and there. If that bugs you, definitely not worth it to wade through.

I liked it because, frankly, at this point I'm pretty jaded; I've also developed the "don't create a mental image of that" perk that has served me well over the years, so I can talk about disgusting topics without inconvenient visualization. ;p And underneath the discussions of nipples, anal hair, and feminine hygiene products, the characters in the show are pretty good. Galko will make a great mom sometime.

Maybe I should say that it's offensive, but in a genuine way rather than one intended to titillate the viewer.

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Tue Mar 29 03:49:05 2016 (v29Tn)

7

They're good friends, which is rare.  They, esp. Outo, make some mistakes about that, but it's a pleasant show to watch.

Offensive?  Titillating?  I've two teenage daughters on a highly competitive swim-team.  You'd be amazed at what girls talk about; and these days, they could care less who's listening.

Good show; thanks for the post, BM.

Posted by: Clayton Barnett at Tue Mar 29 18:40:33 2016 (lU4ZJ)

8 Okay, in case you didn't notice. All niknames except Ojou's are made by using a characteristic word, or its stem, then either applying "~ko" for girls and "~o" for boys. Thus...

Gal-ko is "gal". You know about the Gal subculture, right? Mika Jougasaki etc. I still remember when this sort of thing was called "kogal".

Ota-ko is "otaku". Duh.

Niku-ko(-cchi) is "meat". Because it wasn't so funny in Haganai.

Boys are a little harder. Well, not Spo-o, whose name means "sport". Ota-o is male Otako. But why Chara-o? He is supposed to lampoon a VN character? Or what?

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Tue Mar 29 21:26:05 2016 (XOPVE)

9 There's a Kogal in "Re-Kan". She's one of the ghosts, and Hibiki calls her "Kogal-san".

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Tue Mar 29 21:28:14 2016 (+rSRq)

10 "chara" = "flashy" (in the "shallow" sense).

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Tue Mar 29 22:17:59 2016 (/lg1c)

11 Thanks. What about Okako? It's the tall girl who stoops. Also plays in a hard rock band.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Tue Mar 29 22:46:53 2016 (XOPVE)

12 That one I don't know. (More like, I got through the show without learning that was her name...)

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Wed Mar 30 00:50:01 2016 (v29Tn)

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Because Frankly, this picture does not look at all incongruous.

Note that the rushed schedule seems to have caused some considerable truncation and omissions from the original series of light novels. In particular, it's offhandedly revealed at the climactic celebration that several minor characters are dating. It appears from some of the light novel art making the rounds that at least one of these romances was something of a plot point in the original books.  

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:40 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Episode 12 of Phantom World begins with an explanation of the legalities that make folktale fanfic the safest fanfic...

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So this animation apparently showed up on the Kyoto Animation webpage recently. I gather that the translation of the text at the end "Thank you for everything!"  caused some...speculation.

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Phantom World Episode 9 continues the writer's habit of breaking the fourth wall....

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 Instapundit reports that Nicholas Meyer will be executive producer on CBS's new Star Trek Series!

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This episode was just a weird occurrence at the school and was pretty episodic.. 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:23 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Holy crap.


Ozpin engages Cinder and sends Pyrrha and Jaune to get help...but his fight is a short one and Cinder makes for the tower. Pyrrha kisses Jaune good-bye and after making sure he cannot follow her into the fight runs off to buy time for the others to gather and stop Cinder.

Pyrrha, who has been an awesome character and , in many ways, a Mary Sue done right, puts up a tremendous fight against Cinder, but the villainess is, by now, something of an eldritch horror. Pyrrha does everything right and genuinely annoys Cinder, but it was to no avail, An arrow she actually  disintegrated in flight reforms and imbeds itself in her heel, and, thus paralyzed, the proud heroine suffers the ignominy of being on her knees when the death blow is delivered and is reduced to whimpers as Cinder consumed her soul and her powers.



The screen cap can't do the scene justice...THAT was hard to watch. The quivering and the gasping, and the visage of this awesome person paralyzed in a position of utter supplication was the stuff of nightmares and made for one of the more disturbing death scenes in recent years.

Meanwhile, Jaune  (who Pyrrha had kissed, stuffed in a locker and propelled to the other side of town) suffers the cumulation of his worst nightmares. He could do NOTHING except beg Ruby and Weiss to try and save Pyrrha...he has to confront the fact that he is AGAIN the fifth wheel, the failure, the man who cannot rise to the occasion. That he has punched far above his weight and exceeded all expectations can be of no consolation to him as his inability to offer so much as a distraction has resulted in the woman he loved, the only person who ever showed him a kindness not founded in pity, dyeing the most horrible death imaginable. The only mercy shown him is that he did not witness her death.

That wretched visage is reserved for Ruby, who unlike Jaune is able to arrive just in time to be too late. She goes a little nuts and.....























The last 20 minutes are a brief montage of the characters dealing with the ramifications of the battle. It seems that Ruby has a rather spectacular hidden power that is activated by watching awesome characters die. It also results in her being in a coma for some days, and it does not actually thwart the villains plan so much as alter it slightly. The tremendous Lovecraftian abomination that was oozing out monsters was put to sleep by Ruby's manifestation of her powers, however, while not adding to the local monster population it , in its slumber serves as a beacon drawing in all the creatures of darkness to the university section of the city, which has been largely abandoned except for the various monster hunters trying to retake it. The global internet and communications array is down and the planet's various kingdoms and smaller outposts of humanity are now isolated. 

Blake is missing, Weiss has been recalled to her nation by her father and Yang, now missing her right arm, is sinking deep into a bitter depression. Before leaving, Ruby's uncle Qrow confides in her two pieces of information.  Ruby's late mother had a similar power and while it is known, it is so rare that is literally the stuff of legends.Also, with Ozpin gone (presumably eaten by Cinder) Qrow is taking over his organization and heading off to the Kingdom of Haven to carry on the fight in the shadows.

Fall turns to winter and Ruby quietly slips away to trek off to Haven, in the hopes that she can help to avenge her friends and save the world from the encroaching darkness.

She is joined by three highly motivated companions...



So, whether it's titled RWBY,  JNRR, AVRR, RAVL, RRAV, NJRL, LAVR, RALV, RLAV ,NARR, VAR,L NRAR, JNR,L ARVR, VARR, NRLJ, NRJL, ARLN, ARLV, JRRV or perhaps LRVA there is a good chance that we'll be seeing more of this story, which is good as the many worrisome implications of that stinger really need to be elaborated upon.

On the other hand the prospect of seeing Jaune burned at the stake is a bit off-putting.  

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