General Anime Discussion: Area 11

[mallorean_thug]

Why does everybody seem to think that ufotable's only work is Kara no Kyoukai. It isn't, and it isn't a good representation of their work for a tv anime because it was on movie/OVA budgets. Go look at the animation on Coyote Ragtime Show, or Futakoi Alternative, or Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight. It really isn't any better than DEEN at all. That said, I do have high hopes for Fate/Zero, but none of them have to do with how pretty I think it may end up being.

Also, I'm currently enjoying Aoi Hana. Also, dear lord have my tastes in anime and viewing habits changed drastically in the last year, because I don't think I would have ever considered watching this show before.

[Soras Teva Gee]

And I wouldn't worry about it being as much of a mess plot-wise as the UBW movie was, unless they also try to cram the whole thing into a 90-minute movie, and everything I've read about it seems to say otherwise. The lack of multiple routes also removes most of the problems the original F/SN anime had with trying to fit small stuff from other routes in places they really couldn't.

It rather obvious they just plain didn't care with UBW and made it for pure fanservice via epic battle scenes.

And yes Fate/Zero should be much easier since even throwing out bad ends and multiple routes I dare say its shorter then a visual novel route.

[Tengu_temp]

New Negima.

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It's too easy to imagine Secundum talking in Anime Tenchou's voice. Not just any Tomokazu Seki, Anime Tenchou specifically.

[kamikasei]

Good point on the single-narrative issue. Nor had I realized it was going to be a show rather than a movie or OVA. That seems promising, all right.

Although the trailer was almost entirely content-free (perhaps less so to people familiar with the books). Still, I'm looking forward to it.

Negima:

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Woo, Arika!

[Soras Teva Gee]

Negima:

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Nagi being pressed hard for once is kinda refreshing.

Did anyone else have trouble keeping straight exactly where each particular scene was taking place. Some was obviously in Istanbul, but others scenes seem too near in time in the magical world. Perhaps there's a Gateport in Istanbul?I'm worrying too much I think.

Secundum so has smug snake written all over him, I'm going to enjoy his inevtiable defeat

[Terraoblivion]

Negima:

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If I remember correctly, there is a building looking pretty much exactly like the Hagia Sofia in Ostia, so that's probably what we saw. It would keep the scene straight as taking place in the same location throughout it.

[Soras Teva Gee]

Negima:

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If I remember correctly, there is a building looking pretty much exactly like the Hagia Sofia in Ostia, so that's probably what we saw. It would keep the scene straight as taking place in the same location throughout it.

Hmm well:

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So help me I ONLY remember that building in Asuna's flashback waaaaaayyyy back. Which wasn't tied to a location explicitly then. However we know from Iincho that Nagi disappeared in Istanbul, thus revealing the Asuna flashback as sensibly in Istanbul and right before Nagi's disappearence. Supported by Fate having a known connection there.

Ostia I don't recall anything close to that at all. We are treated to numerous shots of the city and I don't recall anything matching the proper scale versus its surroundings. Also no airships in the sky and Rakan is explicitly not capable of being there. Ergo its the real world

I recognize multiple locations (and times) here I just think they are unnecessarily hard to distinguish.

And after some research in another shattering display of showing his work Akamatsu has NOT depicted Hagia Sophia. Its the Süleymaniye Mosque and I invite you to compare here. That little stone pier is fictional, but I dare anyone to tell me those aren't the same city. I swear to God I must have googled the same image Akamatsu did or something, even a few of the little buildings match. Though there are others similar taken from the Galata bridge in Istanbul.

[NeonBlack]

Oh wow, Negima 327 is also up, that was quick. And in it, we get a very important piece of information!

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We get the reason why Fate likes coffee so much!

Also, bye bye Secundum, you won't be missed.

[Nerd-o-rama]

See, it's scenes like these that make me hate Clannad so much. There was honestly a chance for a great melodrama in here. It's just that I never once forgot that I wasn't watching television during its whole run. The best way to ruin a melodrama is to try to force one emotion down the viewer too hard. The viewer picks up that the storyteller is trying to manipulate them, and he/she becomes angry because it breaks their suspension of disbelief.

What I'm trying to say here is that they tried too hard. Honestly, this is a situation where they could have made a thousand times better by putting less effort into it.

I "enjoyed" it by zoning out except during the comic relief moments and providing my wife somebody to cry on, so I probably agree with you (also my wife cries really easily at TV).

Re Gundam Unicorn: it's pretty much every other Gundam series distilled down into an OVA, so don't worry if it's tropetastic. That's by design. If you want to know the immediate backstory, ZZ Gundam and Char's Counterattack are probably the most important, though you can get by on the information provided in the OVA. You just miss out of stuff like "ZOMG, it's the Nahel Argama" or "isn't Char supposed to be dead?"

I'd have spoilered that last one, but Char's presumed dead at the end of every series he's in, so it's not exactly a surprise.

Re Mahjong anime: why are there so many of these?

[Tengu_temp]

Negima 327

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Fate's flashback turns out to be depressing. Who saw this coming!

Re Mahjong anime: why are there so many of these?

To rub it in my face. Legend of Koizumi is awesome but I find the rules of Mahjong completely incomprehensible.

[Nerd-o-rama]

To rub it in my face. Legend of Koizumi is awesome but I find the rules of Mahjong completely incomprehensible.

Well, Legend of Koizumi appears to be Yu-Gi-Oh with Mahjong and famous politicians. The rules don't seem to actually matter.

[Tengu_temp]

Or maybe "it's legal to cheat if you don't get immediately caught" is an actual rule in Mahjong.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Or maybe "it's legal to cheat if you don't get immediately caught" is an actual rule in Mahjong.

So is turning your opponent into an overloading nuclear reactor a valid strategy, or does that only apply when your opponent is Josef Mengele?

[mallorean_thug]

Maybe they're incomprehensible from other shows, but I felt I picked up most of the rules from watching Akagi.

Though thinking back, there wasn't a single match of Mahjong played in that entire show that didn't include blatant cheating(the first half of the show) or being played with house rules that completely change how you play the game (the second half of the show).

[Prime32]

Or maybe "it's legal to cheat if you don't get immediately caught" is an actual rule in Mahjong.

Originally in chess, it was possible to put a random piece next to the enemy king and get checkmate right away. See, you can only challenge an illegal move while the game is in play...

[Tengu_temp]

Like here?

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[Mindfreak]

Image Dump of Awesomeness:

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[Soras Teva Gee]

Like here?

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I always found the fuss over this silly. Not being a chess fan the only reason I fail to see why this is "illegal" when its in essence just overly melodramatic way of conceeding a match.

[Nerd-o-rama]

I always found the fuss over this silly. Not being a chess fan the only reason I fail to see why this is "illegal" when its in essence just overly melodramatic way of conceeding a match.

Because chess has some of the most anal-retentive rules of any game in existence - that very fact being what makes it so strategic - and we're well past the point in history when people can blatantly cheat new rules into existence (I'm looking at you, en passant capture).

However, it was a flagrantly silly and over-the-top thing to do, so it's 100% in-character for any Britannian royal.

Unless White there was declaring that he had checkmated Black, that would just be stupid. I still haven't seen R2.

[Soras Teva Gee]

Because chess has some of the most anal-retentive rules of any game in existence - that very fact being what makes it so strategic - and we're well past the point in history when people can blatantly cheat new rules into existence (I'm looking at you, en passant capture).

And no matter how historic it may be I will still say I find a rule that you can't put your own king into check meaningless.

However, it was a flagrantly silly and over-the-top thing to do, so it's 100% in-character for any Britannian royal.

Unless White there was declaring that he had checkmated Black, that would just be stupid. I still haven't seen R2.

You haven't well then...

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Schneizel here is putting his moving his own king and instead of immediately taking the king and winning the game Lelouch moves his own king instead. Because Lelouch says that good 'ol Emperor Chuck would do so in without a thought. And Lelouch has to win better then that.

I don't care for the scene myself but always thought it about the mind games being played by the players, and winning a chess match of the least importance. Hence I don't care what the rules of chess say.

[Nerd-o-rama]

I don't care for the scene myself but always thought it about the mind games being played by the players, and winning a chess match of the least importance. Hence I don't care what the rules of chess say.

Yeah getting upset over the rules there does seem to be missing the point, in that case. Code Geass is all about people doing insane things to prove a point, after all, and by this time they weren't playing chess. They were playing an over-the-top allegory for how they were fighting a war, which as noted by other hack Sunrise series has no rules, points, or way of determining game over.

[Tengu_temp]

You can't put your king into check because, technically, the king cannot be captured. What should the opponent do if your king is in check at the beginning of his turn?

And I know that scene is more about mind games than real chess. I don't care. Code Geass is all about quoting stuff out of context.

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Because chess has some of the most anal-retentive rules of any game in existence

#1 on the list is surely Magic. Zing.

[Nerd-o-rama]

#1 on the list is surely Magic. Zing.

Yeah but they keep changing those so they can make more money (it's the Wizards of the Coast way! Double zing!) Chess is so public domain I think the rules existed before any modern languages existed to write them in.

[Kato]

So, to throw in some off-topic discussion (yay): A friend bugs me to watch/catch up with MariaHolic but as I'm kind of busy (and watching Tiger&Bunny, Dog Days, Steins;Gate and X-men this season already) and the first episodes though with a nice setting didn't really catch me as that great I wonder if any of you can give me a recommendation if it's worth the time. It's just... dunno, I get it's pretty weird and a bit over the top and I like schoolgirl lesbians as much as the next guy but just being weird doesn't make a series funny, does it?

[mallorean_thug]

Yeah but they keep changing those so they can make more money (it's the Wizards of the Coast way! Double zing!) Chess is so public domain I think the rules existed before any modern languages existed to write them in.

Now thats just not fair. Magic's rules keep changing so they can do cool new things. For example, a couple days ago, we got an unofficial leak of this card that will be coming out in one of the Commander precons this summer:

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Skullbriar, the Walking Grave

Legendary Creature - Zombie Elemental (b)(g)
Haste
Whenever Skullbriar, the Walking grave deals combat damage to a player, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
Counters remain on Skullbriar as it moves to any zone other than a player's hand or library.
Illus. Nils Hamm 1/1

If you're at all familiar with the byzantine corridors of the Magic comprehensive rules (I am as a Rules Advisor), you'd know that this card is breaking several pages worth of rules about counters and zones, and when its officially spoiled will come with some appropriate rules additions. Which is a good thing, because now we have a fun new card to play with, and the designers have more design space to make more fun new cards.

That said:

#1 on the list is surely Magic. Zing.

Spot on. There's a reason the comp rules are 188 pages long

@Kato We're talking about Magic and Chess and you're talking about anime. I don't think you're the one off topic. That said, I have nothing to offer on the subject of Maria Holic.

[kamikasei]

It's just... dunno, I get it's pretty weird and a bit over the top and I like schoolgirl lesbians as much as the next guy but just being weird doesn't make a series funny, does it?

Maria+Holic is not about schoolgirl lesbians. It's about one schoolgirl lesbian raging pervert anemic and the (sometimes deserved, sometimes not) abuse she suffers at the hands of a) fate and b) a sadist.

I found it pretty entertaining, but more in the vein of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei than anything else. If you watch it with that expectation, I'd say you might get your time's worth out of it, assuming you like SZS (or have seen it at all to make the comparison meaningful). There were one or two jokes casually threatening sexual violence that made me O_o, though.

[Soras Teva Gee]

And I know that scene is more about mind games than real chess. I don't care. Code Geass is all about quoting stuff out of context.

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Hey now:

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[Lord of Rapture]

I know I'm supposed to do the obvious joke here.

And no. No I'm not doing it. It was funny the first couple of times, but now it's just annoying. Cookie for whoever gets where that comes from.

[Soras Teva Gee]

Switching topic I'd like to share with everyone the pinkest Saber cosplay ever seen courtesy of Dog Days which I've recently had time to catch up on:

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Spoilered only for size since I'm probably the only otaku on the planet watching it nobody will know what's going on!

Amusingly enough this series also marks the first time I've notice a VA in Japanese without any prior knowledge.

[NeonBlack]

Spoilered only for size since I'm probably the only otaku on the planet watching it nobody will know what's going on!

Make that two. And yep, that costume was amusing. In fact, "amusing" can be perfectly applied to the series as a whole, too. In a good way, of course.

Amusingly enough this series also marks the first time I've notice a VA in Japanese without any prior knowledge.

Norio is quite hard to miss, even more when he's going all out like here. The VAs as a whole are really having a lot of fun with this series.