SALE SALE SALE

Colleen Doran is having an art sale.


From the artists mouth...

For collectors, we have a limited number of first edition GN’s still available. My BOOKSTORE IS HERE. We only have about a half dozen of the original Volume I left. They will be gone by NYCC, I am sure. First come, first served.

My previous edition covers are now for sale HERE. Volume II cover has already sold. These are already reduced prices, but I accept payment plans. I will also consider a reduced price if you buy more than one painting.

NVCC is New York Comic Con so it's all over by the 11th.

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More Sword Art Online

Sword Art Online, despite its stupid premise, continues to impress me.

Asuna, the female lead, is particularly well realized. She's not a shrinking violet. She does not exist to show how awesome the male lead is. Asuna is a full fledged hero in her own right who at this point has unambiguously saved the heroes ass once more than he's saved hers. Unlike Kirito, Asuna was not an experienced gamer and certainly not one of this games Beta Testers, yet she has through sheer determination become at least his equal. She helped form and is now second in command of a guild that is fighting its way through the upper levels, she is however quite close to burnout when she meets Kirito for the second time.

_{(She's so buff that she could even afford to buy up her cooking skill to the max...my God, she's perfect!)}

On the other hand, Kirito, the male lead WAS a Beta Tester and as such is something of a pariah. The beta testers were deeply resented by the other gamers because they knew where everything on the lower levels was, and they did not share with the other players or train them.  Kirito did do a bit of mentoring, but is haunted by the mistakes he made early on and at one point early in the series he abandons clearing the game to schlep amongst the lower levels where his skill levels (about 3 times what is common in those regions) make him almost godlike. He spends several episodes doing good deeds and trying to be a hero with decidedly mixed results before realizing that his place is on the "front lines" and heading back.
At this point he's far past any areas he covered in Beta and so has no innate advantages. Though far from perfect he's an interesting and decent person, however he is weary and close to dispair when he by chance, encounters Asuna for the second time.

Kirito has developed as a character quite a lot over the course of the series but its the relationship between the two that is most interesting.

These two people really complement and complete each other. They have one of the more realistic and mature relationships I've seen on TV. This is a sad commentary on something since it is a...cartoon...about a virtual relationship...in a video game... but its damned nice to see.

The honeymoon episodes were cute too.
I do like the way the game handles marriage..." Wait!" "We have access to each others whole inventory? I can use his +6 sword!"   

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Bakemonogatari Continues.

Episode 3 almost entirely consists of a quiet conversation in a park. The dialog is interesting, though I'm not sure the subtitles are doing it justice. While intriguing, the episode really reinforces my belief that this show cries out for a good dub.

Compared to the previous episodes the character designs are occasionally off model in this one...

While mostly a character episode they did manage to work in some completely unexpected Kung-Fu fighting.


One thing that did not come out in the first two episodes is that our hero, while quite smart and well intentioned, is a bit of a doofus.

This is a seriously odd show.

I'm not sure that it's good.

But it is quite clever and I'm liking it.

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Comics Can Have a Positive Impact

Wonderduck has a poignant post on the impact a well written comic can have. Go read the whole thing.


...then go buy Yotsuba@!.

It really is that good.

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Ninjas Needed!

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Sword Art Online

Its the year 2022, and a new MMORPG is coming online. This one has the latest in interface technology. namely a VR headset that operates through direct neural stimulation. The game is from a well regarded developer and highly anticipated. Our hero, who goes by the online handle of Kirito was one of the games Beta Testers. He logs on and mucks about for a bit, gives pointers to a new player and then tries to help the new player log out...but he can't.
There is no log-out option.
Enter the godlike online Avatar of the games developer who informs the 10,000 odd players that this is by design, and that he is informing the world of his deed. Oh....and if they die in-game their interface helmets will fry their brains. If anyone tries to unhook them, the helmets fail safe will kill them (which happens immediately to over 200 players as frantic loved ones watching his broadcast fail to heed his warning).

Now about 9800 people are stuck in a virtual Tolkienesque world. before he logs himself out, the madman leaves them with one tenuous hope...his assurance that they can escape if they clear all 100 levels.
OK let's say right up front that the premise of this show does not inspire confidence.

Sword Art Online greatly exceeded my expectations however, and at 11 episodes in, I'm going to recommend it.

This show has exceptional character development, not only of the male lead but also of Asuna, the heroine, who is smart, tough and genuinely heroic. Although she's not present for a good portion of the show she is surprisingly well realized and has grown noticeably as a person during the course of the series. Asuna  is one of the best female action leads in years.

Kirito, the male lead, is the main focus of the story early on and develops noticeably in the first few episodes. He is run through the ringer, but Kirito, while far from perfect learns from his mistakes and does evolve as a person.  His development is actually quite believable. Kirito is also smart which is always a pleasant surprise in these shows.

The show can be grim. The premise means that there will be a body count, but it is not gory and there is an optimism that runs through the whole thing.  The show  touches on things like ostracization, survivors guilt, ethics, love, the definition of happiness, and the difference between bravado and courage far better than one has any business to expect from a cartoon...let alone one about being stuck in a video game.

I am astonished to be so thoroughly enjoying this show. I just hope that they don't completely bollox it toward the end, as is the fate of so many initially good shows.

^{However, with much of the staff of Moretsu Pirates involved, I'm allowing myself a bit of optimism here.}

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Grrrlzz

It seems there really are none on teh internets.


From Sword Art Online episode one, which, despite its uninspiring premise, is actually turning out to be kind of interesting.

UPDATE:
OK maybe a few.
Also: Why haven't they starved?

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Oh So THAT'S How It's Done

I noted this in passing the other day on YouTube and I wondered..."How?"
The second opening credits song to Nichijou simply does not seem to lend itself to a trance version in any way shape or form.

Turns out, it's easy as pie...

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Bakemonogatari EP 1

Crunchyroll has now started streaming Bakemonogatari in a possibly futile attempt to have its sequel (Nisemonogatari) make sense.

I'd heard generally good things about this series so I'm giving it a shot. I must say I was unprepared for the sheer SHAFTacular SHAFTieness of this SHAFT production.

How SHAFTy is it?

This is the staircase at the school....
This is a hallway in the same school...
Yes, SHAFT tends to be aggressively surrealist in its art direction and this show rather maxes that out. It's quirky look accentuates the otherworldly feel of the story. The use of "lighting" is particularly effective.

Despite its striking visuals this is not a show that relies on imagery to tell a tale. It is VERY dialog heavy...and text heavy...with episode one having several flashes of 'textposition' that are onscreen for such a short period of time that they frequently defy even the pause button. Despite this one annoyance and opening with one of the most gratuitous panty-shots I have ever seen this is a pretty intelligent and intriguing show.

Our hero, Kyomi Araragi...
 ...is a senior at the academically challenging and architecturally improbable Naoetsu High School. He's your typical high school senior with the minor exceptions that he's smart and organized enough to be vice president of the student council and he's a former vampire, having spent much of his junior/senior vacation as a blood sucking creature of the night. He's better now, but struggles with lingering eosophobia which frequently makes getting to first period on time a challenge. 
His closest thing to a friend in school is...

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Golly...

I guess it HAS been that long.

Lord, I'm old.

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MGFX : What's Missing?

I discussed Mysterious Girlfriend X a couple of times when I started it. Now that its done I must say it's pretty good.
It's quirky and odd, but it's kind of touching in a socially maladjusted way. 

However, I noticed something else as it progressed.
No cellphones.
Also, the camera. It's a camera...not a cellphone ap and seems to use film.  Furthermore, Urabe doesn't seem worried about infinite digital copies.
So the show is set in the past.
Is it really a period piece?
If so when is it set and what are the little period trappings that I'm missing?
The "UFO" that Urabe uses on her pencil was seen a lot in the '80s (on Urusei Yatsura for instance) but that might not count.

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"I Try To Go Straight...But They Keep Dragging Me Back In"

So I'm looking for shrines and such and places that are of historical interest. JNTO, The Japanese National Tourism Organization, has a category for "Sacred Places"

This is the categories icon on their website...

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Oh What the HELL is This?

I've just restarted Mysterious Girfriend X, and am now on episode 4.
Oh my.
This quirkfest is getting...creepy.
It's also damned interesting.

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Upon Reflection, Patti Was Right

...the song does have sort of a "Hari Hari feel".

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Occupy Gothan

more...

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Well, I Didn't Expect THAT Instrument to Figure so Prominently

...in a rave tune.

As for the A part of the AMV, I'd seen .gifs from this bit of animation around for years and was curious as to what it was from. I'd initially thought it was an ad or some such, but as this makes clear it's from something called Yogurting.

Wait...Yogurting? Well, with a name like that I was kinda hoping for a show from the burgeoning fermentation genre...like Moyashimon. Alas, it's a Korean  MMORPG set in a high school with a mystery emphasis and apparently no lactobaccillus at all.

So the video source is a bust as far as any interest for me. But damn! Points for the 'pipes..

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Those OTHER Shows

As I've mentioned previously, Bodacious Space Pirates was, for me, the runaway hit of the spring season.

Three other shows had piqued my interest, two of which I've finished.

Haiyore! Nyaruko-san was mentioned here before. For most of its run this Magical Girlfiend/ Lovecraft comedy was worth at least a couple of laughs an episode, though only to  a very narrow segment of humanity that has read Lovecraft, still watches anime and who are sufficiently un-sociaized to get gags like this...

Despite its scattershot nature, the show built on each silly development and was fairly consistent with its admittedly stupid internal logic. I must admit though, that it did grate at times.

Towards the end there was considerable buildup to a story that was going to be set in the Dreamlands. This looked looked to be quite promising. Unfortunately, the last few episodes seem to have been replaced with a stock harem comedy ending  that came out of nowhere, derailed the plot and was sappy, cliched, boring and pointless.  I'm not sure what was going on there. The ending really feels like it belongs to some other show. 
Aside from the unfunny ending, I found it to be enjoyable fluff, but this show is definitely an acquired taste...


The original Queens Blade series, was refreshingly devoid of any pretensions of respectability. Set in a fantasy kingdom where the empress is chosen not by heredity but by the perfectly reasonable method of a gladiatorial catfight tournament, it did not take itself at all seriously, tempering its over the top cheesecake with a couple of interesting side characters. It was not a good show by any means but I watched it at a friends house a year or so ago and it was something of a guilty pleasure.

This seasons installment, Queens Blade Rebellion combines vulgarity, pretentiousness, a nonsensical plot, lots of lolis, faux futanari follies,  several unlikeable characters and a side order of sadism to produce one of the most execrable shows I have ever had the poor judgement to sit through. This is just dreadful. I cannot do justice in mere words to how wretched this show is and I refuse to go back and wade through that cesspit to grab frames to put behind a NSFW tag, so you'll have to take my word for it. It stinks on ice.


Mysterious Girlfriend X is interesting but I've only seen 3 eps so far. I hope to catch up over the next week. If I'd watched this instead of that Queens Blade abomination I'd be current with the show and likely be a much happier person.

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Robot & Frank Trailer

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Prometheus

  Ridley Scott’s Prometheus is an uneven film that alternates between the best and worst Hollywood has to offer. Blessed with superb production values and some very interesting concepts, the film suffers from a lack of focus, a lack of believability, and most unfortunately for a horror film, a lack of actual suspense.

The film follows a pair of archeologists who have become convinced that life on Earth was seeded by aliens. They convince the CEO of an exceedingly wealthy conglomerate to finance an expedition to a distant star they believe is the home of the aliens who engineered life on earth. They find out that they might be right, but in the process discover unspeakable ancient horrors.

 Ridley Scott’s films tend to be visually striking and this one is no exception. The shipboard sets are futuristic in the extreme, yet they appear quite functional. The lighting and subdued color in certain exterior shots give a genuinely unearthly feel to the alien world. The set designs of alien passageways achieve a particularly interesting effect, giving at once impressions of the grandeur and massive scale of the structure while also conveying a sense of profound claustrophobia. When alien life is encountered, it does indeed look quite alien except in once case where the familiarity in appearance is the point. Even handheld tools loot futuristic but practical. A combination computer notepad/ flashlight/ sample collection kit is particularly well designed. The spacesuits are based on some of the latest work by NASA and MIT. Yet they have subtle touches that harkens back to ‘50s sci-fi in a brilliant blending of retro and futuristic design elements. On the other hand  the flamethrowers look really toy-like and also lead to a believability question: "Why are they bringing FLAMETHROWERS of all things?”

That failure to suspend the audience’s disbelief is one of the major problems of the film, the flamethrowers being the least egregious example. A few others include:

A woman, who gives herself a cesarean and spends the rest of the film doing action heroine physical antics.

A group of scientists on an alien world who just take off their helmets when they discover the atmosphere is breathable (alien germs be damned).

The film is billed as a horror movie. However, there is little in the way of actual suspense. Two scientists behaving quite stupidly, die horribly and very predictably. There is betrayal aboard the ship which the audience most likely saw coming a mile away. The scares all have a very perfunctory feeling to them and the only real surprise is the shocking and quite disturbing visual of the aforementioned cesarean operation. This bloody endeavor removes not a child, but a quite hideous and very active tentacle monster.  This is no doubt supposed to be the jaw dropping moment of the film much like the famous chest-burster scene in Alien. It is quite graphic, but in the theater, the audience was giggling at that point.

   The movie is not a direct prequel to Alien, but it does establish what is going on in that universe. It also has some interesting concepts but they are only slightly explored.

    Michael Fassbender plays David, a rather sinister android and he does a superb job of conveying his nonhuman perspective. It's implied that he has developed a rigid code of ethics...just not human ones. He seems to have aspirations as well. This is something the rest of the characters tend to miss and it is a neat transhumanist twist. Fassbender gives a deadpan performance with subtle tics that convey a palpable sense of frustration and yearning without expressing any actual emotion. However, this is never explored to any depth.

There is a fatalistic and  yet inspiring message about heroism. One plot point revolves around a character sacrificing himself in such a way no one will ever know that he saved all of humanity. The main plot with its Lovecraftian overtones has tremendous potential as well, but this is never fully realized.

Instead the film wastes all its good effects, visuals and quirky ideas on a disjointed story that has a decidedly paint by numbers feel to it. The films excuse for suspense is a collection of haunted house and slasher film tropes.

 Prometheus is an intriguing, gorgeous but ultimately quite disappointing film. I had high hopes for it but they were largely unfulfilled. 

 

 

 

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Bodacious Space Pirates: The End

Well, an awesome space battle, a spectacular boarding action and a bit of exposition wrapped up one of the most enjoyable and interesting series that I've seen in a long time. 

No she doesn't normally wear the dorky pirate hat on EVAs, but she's being intentionally flashy here to send an important message. "We kicked your ass wearing our Sunday best, and we did so with panache. You have completely lost. "

Most surprising of all, the show pulled of a thoroughly satisfying climax and wrap-up while leaving it open ended enough for a sequel.

Also, I must say that I did not see THIS coming: 

^{I demand a spinoff!}

Did she....STEAL it.?...Did she BUY it? Has she got a letter of Marque? If so from whom?

A note regards speculation as to what she thought she might have been able to do had she arrived in time:
The Odette 2 was revealed to have an impressive EW suite in the early episodes.  Given that the battle plan relied on Electronic Warfare, she might have been useful as an addition.

UPDATE: Also, from the comments at Chizumatic,  it might have been intended that the Odette 2 act as an unarmed neutral to pick up any survivors if things went badly.


This show will leave a considerable gap.
I will definitely be picking up the DVDs. (SENTAI is indeed bringing it over, and has actually put out for a dub by Bang Zoom. which is one of the best outfits in the industry.)

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