January 02, 2015

Intermission

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December 20, 2014

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. 

I do have a few questions though.
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December 13, 2014

Attack on Diane

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December 04, 2014

Ark of the Stars Teaser

The first 9 minutes of Ark of the Stars, (the new Yamato movie) has been put up on YouTube for a short time. 


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November 30, 2014

Various Things of No Importance

Crunchyroll 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. 

Similarly,  Amagi Brilliant Park and the very intriguing 7 Deadly Sins do not seem to have a legit release. 

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.


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November 23, 2014

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. 

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November 22, 2014

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

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While We Await Actual Content

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November 16, 2014

RWBY Second Season Ends

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.

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.


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October 31, 2014

Boo!

 
RWBY in costume by Elf-Jy
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October 27, 2014

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'.



Any episode of Log Horizon that prominently involves a large variety of cakes will be sub par. 

Of course, like the last cake episode, inserted between the banality and the failure was what may well be a rather important development.
 

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.
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October 24, 2014

Remarkably Watchable Badass Yarn

Villains...
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: 

 

I do have a few questions for those who watch the show. 


There are, I believe, still 5 episodes to go. 

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October 11, 2014

No one Would Have Believed

..at the end of the first decade of the 20th century that the war that would soon engulf the world was even possible. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. Then, not halfway through the second decade of the 20th century, came the great disillusionment.

Here is some recently restored film footage of that terrible, perilous time. 

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October 10, 2014

I Am Confused but Elated


Though it has some elements familiar to fans of the old show , this looks vastly different from any of the original series or films. However, Yamato 2199 was one of the best space shows of the last 10 years or more so this new project (due out in December) certainly bears watching. 

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October 08, 2014

Well, I Guess It HAS Been That Long

PowerPuffage by Tjota.

Good grief I'm old....

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October 07, 2014

Log Horizon 2: First Impressions

Log Horizon was huge surprise to me last year and a pleasant one. This season hardly feels like a break at all as the series starts pretty much where the last episode left off (actually a bit before that). It takes a somewhat different tack almost immediately and the looks like it will continue to be interesting. 





  It was successful enough to warrant a second season but not enough to get a bigger budget, or even a new theme song. However, this reinforces the feeling that the show is simply continuing. Marielle is one of a few characters off model, possibly in an attempt to add some detail, though like the first season, it continues to have mediocre art and animation at best. It has been the intriguing story and the characters that have really carried it and made this one special. 

This is starting out slow, but it remains clever.

 it's still available on Crunchyroll and I recommend it highly, hell in a week or so you can be caught up!

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October 05, 2014

Well...Damn

There was a post here...with a typo.

I tried to edit it and then managed to delete the post. 

Derp.

Anyway, as to the post, here is a related video with a minor RWBY spoiler.


The true measure of a man is not his attire but whether he keeps his word.




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October 04, 2014

An Epiphany

For some time I've noted the existence of Nightcore, which has become the bane of my existence whenever I browse for AMVs. I'll come across an AMV of a song thinking "That has has potential."only to discover that it is the Nightcore cover.


Kids...My lawn...Off it...GET!

Then the other day, it occurred to me.
This is just The Chipmunks for today.  

I guess this is what Vocaloid sounds like to native speakers of Japanese?

This genre is not without its merits though. It's perky, you can dance to it and after listening to that for an hour and a half, I find myself so disillusioned with humanity that I'm not really all that concerned about Ebola anymore.


"That's why I like Nightcore almost as much as negligence and stupidity!"

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October 03, 2014

Low Tech Electronica

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September 22, 2014

Further Thoughts on Murder Hoboes



In an earlier post, I linked to this piece which, using Medieval Europe as a template, discussed the probable economic ramifications of an adventuring party in the D&D universe. 

My friend BOB!1! disagreed with the premise and attempted to comment but was thwarted by a comments glitch. He has an interesting take which I'll attempt to relay and expand upon here.

Emily Dresner makes the case that bands of adventurers gaining large rewards for services rendered\ and then spending their gains in small towns disrupts the social and economic order. Furthermore this activity risks a sharp inflationary cycle that will further wreak havoc on the society. 

 BOB!1! points out that the Middle Ages (and the D&D world) were characterized by a severe deflationary cycle associated with a civilizational collapse. Money was tightly locked up in savings and held largely by feudal lords. It was not in circulation except to pay for rotating debts and wars. Travel and trade were hindered by roving bands of orcs (or Vikings, bandits, wolves and occasionally Arabs) and there was little pressure to invest in infrastructure or mercantile projects. 

Into this come our adventures who as Ms. Dresner points out. shake things up mightily and put gold that has been squirreled away into circulation. This does indeed shake things up and it will eventually cause considerable upheaval in the social order....

...BUT THE SOCIAL ORDER SUCKS! 

Feudalism boasts impressive stability and a certainty of ones place in the world....because one's place in the world is almost certain to never ever ever change. Like the Subcontinent's caste system and myriad other systems considered exotic or 'indigenous' it has certain undeniable merits if one is a nobleman or a passing hipster tourist, but is rather less appealing to those who sustain it.

However, given the premise put forth in D&D, the adventurers and the craftsmen they trade with are a blossoming middle class, which is a good thing. 

Note too that the corollary between Medieval Europe and D&D is not precise. Dragons are a deflationary pressure not present historically. (The inflationary potential they represent if slain might be analogous to the Aztecs however.)

 Likewise. the dungeons themselves are vast, incredibly numerous, and indicate a far more advanced precursor civilization than Rome. Once cleared of monsters, traps and megalomaniacal necromancers they represent vast tracts of useable (though probably not arable) real estate. The release of such infrastructure to settlement and the introduction of the monetary hoards within into the economy would mirror on a smaller scale the effect of the black death on land availability and money per person in circulation, but without the near total disruption of what trade there was. On the contrary, by reducing the threat of orks and bugbears the 'murder hoboes' would greatly facilitate trade even as the huge injection of gold into the economies would cause an inflationary spiral that would encourage investment in various enterprises. No longer could wealth be best managed by hoarding it. Rather, with the value of gold dropping, one must use it or loose it. Investment would be the key to riches. Ms. Dresner uses the example of 1500s Spain to suggest that this would be a disaster. However, Spain encountered difficulties due to micromanagement and regulation of the economy in an attempt to keep the feudal order in place rather than the more trade oriented one Spain's gold had made possible. It's worth noting that other countries embraced the change and ushered in a rising standard of living and ultimately the enlightenment. 

Finally, since the adventurers in D&D tend to be polyglot associations, and demonstrated the advantages of various races working in consort, and since financial success comes from appealing to the largest demographic possible, prosperity would tend to favor kingdoms that take a tolerant view of racial equality and miscegenation and a dim view of provincialism. This could conceivably even be extended to some of the orks if the analogy of the Vikings is used. This means that the kingdoms that emerge from this time  would be well on their way to an equivalent to the Renaissance and/or Enlightenment that might well outstrip the historical one.

Dresner is correct that the adventurers make the feudal D&D world they start out in unsustainable in a few years if they are at all successful, but far from being unwitting agents of chaotic evil, the adventurers are likely to end up being forces for chaotic or lawful good...whatever their alignment. 

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