For those who don't know yet, there's a new Negima. And all I have to say is: that Negi face. You know which one I'm talking about if you've read this chapter.
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For those who don't know yet, there's a new Negima. And all I have to say is: that Negi face. You know which one I'm talking about if you've read this chapter.
Spoiler
If you mean the "it was you who started talking" face, then hell yes. Looks like after so much time posing as Nagi and fighting together with Kotarou some of their attitude is starting to bleed into Negi.
That aside, EPIC HANDSHAKE OF DOOOOOOM was/will be awesome. And it looks like we're going to get some much needed backstory on Fate, plus (hopefully) some info about what the heck happened between Arika's rescue and Nagi's disappearance. Yay.
Oh, and hello Zect, it's been a long time, how's life (?) treating you?
Edit: darn, clicked too fast. Anyway, just to put some non-spoilery content in my first post in the new thread, here's some stuff I've finished watching recently, and my thoughts on it.
Minami-ke: I remember someone (Terra?) recommending this some time ago. I'm halfway through Okaeri, but I think I've seen enough to say that I more or less agree with what seems to be the general consensus on this series: first season was awesome, Okawari was weak in comparison but not as terrible as I expected (stupid fanservice aside), and Okaeri improves on the humour but drops the drawing and animation quality quite a bit. Chiaki and (of course) Hosaka are awesome, and this is in my shortlist for future purchases. Fujioka :3.
Clannad and Clannad - After Story: Loved it all the way through, but AS in particular was just outstanding. Great animation (my KyoAni fanboyism keeps growing), nice music (won't be able to think about dangos for a while without remembering that damn song), and fantastic characters (well, most of them). I laughed, I cried, my heart was torn to pieces and then patched together, and I enjoyed every second of it, ending included. Currently working on the VN, about one third done with the first part. I think.
Higurashi: Did the right thing and bought the SNs from Mangagamer and played through them before watching the series. So glad I did. I mean, the anime wasn't bad, but some parts (Watanagashi-hen and Meakashi-hen in particular) worked much, much better in the original. That said, I enjoyed both very much, and even made my own little text file with my guesses and suspicions as I progressed through the chapters, just to see it all fall apart a bit later. I still managed to guess some key things right despite going in absolutely unspoiled. Great fun overall, in both formats, and what I've seen of the mangas looks good too. Umineko should come next, as soon as Ep8 is translated and I can marathon through the whole thing.
Stuff coming next: Sora no Woto (four chapters in, looks promising but I'm sure all the potential of the nice setting will be wasted in the end, sigh), Cross Game (I've been looking for something sports-related for a while, and this has a surprisingly high average score in AniDB), School Rumble (I've been meaning to finish this for half a year already ), whatever else I come across in the meantime.
Last edited by NeonBlack : 05-26-2011 at 06:39 AM.
My wife just finished watching both of these, with me half-paying-attention.
It seemed rather straightforwardly SOAP OPERA (first Dawson's Creek and then Days of Our Lives), although the starfish chick was cute, and it had an interesting way of handling a multiple-ending VN. Although it seemed like kind of a cop-out if you aren't a loser like me who looked up the original canon to see if there was a justification. And of course, KyoAni put the usual insane amount of effort into the animation that they do on everything except Lucky Star and K-On.
In conclusion: screw you, now I have the goddamn dango song stuck in my head again.
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My wife just finished watching both of these, with me half-paying-attention.
It seemed rather straightforwardly SOAP OPERA (first Dawson's Creek and then Days of Our Lives), although the starfish chick was cute, and it had an interesting way of handling a multiple-ending VN. Although it seemed like kind of a cop-out if you aren't a loser like me who looked up the original canon to see if there was a justification. And of course, KyoAni put the usual insane amount of effort into the animation that they do on everything except Lucky Star and K-On.
In conclusion: screw you, now I have the goddamn dango song stuck in my head again.
It also had characters in it that weren't Main Guy, Main Girl, and her family.
Although now that I'm remembering it further, her dad was, in fact, the best character.
Akio is awesome. I just wish his wife didn't cry just as quickly and run of as she does. That way she would have felt like a more well-rounded character and Akio could have had more things besides the bread-stuffing-in-mouth (though he luckily had several good scenes).
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For those who don't know yet, there's a new Negima. And all I have to say is: that Negi face. You know which one I'm talking about if you've read this chapter.
Can someone explain to me why they like Clannad? I just couldn't find anything good about the show. I mean, maybe soap operas aren't my thing, but I just couldn't see anything that anybody would like about the show.
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Kyonko avatar by Elder Tsofu. Revere them.
Higurashi: Did the right thing and bought the SNs from Mangagamer and played through them before watching the series.
*snip*
Awesome, it's good to know more people have read the sound novels for that. And yes, do read Umineko as well. I'm actually rereading the Higurashi sound novels in anticipation of the full Umineko Chiru EP 8 English translation.
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Oz Bezarius avatar by Kwarkpudding.
Honestly, Clannad is a straight melodrama. And no, I don't mean that as a slight. That's its actual genre.
It's in the same filmic realm as movies like All That Heaven Allows. Douglas Sirk, who directed that one, was very keen on the genre.
Clannad is actually good for its genre, I feel. At least, it was effective to me. However, the genre is not for everyone, and the blatant intent of melodrama to make things emotional is certainly not going to appeal to all people.
I wouldn't be surprised if you just aren't fond of the genre itself and its conventions, LoR.
But that's mere conjecture. As it is, I enjoyed Clannad because I enjoyed the characters, and the emotional roller coaster.
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Honestly, Clannad is a straight melodrama. And no, I don't mean that as a slight. That's its actual genre.
It's in the same filmic realm as movies like All That Heaven Allows. Douglas Sirk, who directed that one, was very keen on the genre.
Clannad is actually good for its genre, I feel. At least, it was effective to me. However, the genre is not for everyone, and the blatant intent of melodrama to make things emotional is certainly not going to appeal to all people.
I wouldn't be surprised if you just aren't fond of the genre itself and its conventions, LoR.
But that's mere conjecture. As it is, I enjoyed Clannad because I enjoyed the characters, and the emotional roller coaster.
I dunno, I certainly do like melodramas. The problem with Clannad is because I thought that the melodrama was not done well at all. The characters didn't feel like characters, only tools by the creators to try to jerk any sort of emotional reaction from you. I'm fine with having heavy emotions and drama in my series, it's just it felt... forced. Unnatural. It was sickeningly transparent how the series was trying to manipulate your feelings, like it was raising a card saying "Hey, you should be feeling sad now! WHY AREN'T YOU FEELING SAD NOW?!"
Honestly, had it been far more subtle, I probably would have enjoyed it.
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Fair enough! I shall admit my error in automatically going to "disliking the genre" even in the fairly nice way I said it.
Well, I dunno. I mean, don't get me wrong, the thing has problems at times, it's certainly not perfect. But my problems seem to be based on the artifacts involved with it being an adaptation of a visual novel, and trying to cram all the story arcs together.
I also felt that in the final story arc of the season, the girl's reason for being sad seemed quite disproportionately small compared to her reaction.
Compared to some of the other characters, one might be expect some of the other characters to get irritated and tell her to get over herrself.
Still, there are some excellent moments. Actually, my favorite moment of the first season is near the end, when the characters all realize all at once that the guy is into what's her face. It was a well-realized scene, and I found it enjoyable. My favorite moment of the second season was when he was talking about a certain dead person. I can relate to his feelings, and it felt very real, and very powerful.
Of course, to each his own, and I wouldn't blame anyone for not liking Clannad. With my friends, I find myself joking about using it as a weapon of psychological torture.
"If you don't do this, I'll make you watch Clannad! And then you'll cry! Mwahahahahahaha!"
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[spoiler]
Umineko should come next, as soon as Ep8 is translated and I can marathon through the whole thing.
Glad to hear that we'll have another member of our happy crew to talk about it, though honestly for me the best part of Umineko so far has been the speculation, so I imagine that marathoning it is going to be a very different experience that what I've had. I don't know, maybe drop in here after you've finished the first 4 episodes and make some guess so we can all cackle madly in our foreknowledge. Do know that moreso than with Higurashi, Ryukishi07 has clearly written each subsequent chapter with clear knowledge of the theories being bandied around at the time and ruthlessly crushed the ones he didn't like, while chiding the readers that came up with them.
To help steer this new exciting territory, I'm going to follow Neon's example and give some reactions to the last few shows I watched:
Flag: This show was just incredibly good. Its framing device worked out perfectly, and while at first I thought the whole "entire show is seen through the eye of a camera" thing was going to end up being a gimmick, it really set the tone of the series in a positive way and ended up being a good part of why I thought the show was so well executed. Also, while I started out watching it subbed, I switched to the dub on a whim one episode and never switched back because the dub really worked well with the setting. I would highly recommend this show to all of you.
Akagi: Before I started this show, I did go read through an introduction on how to play Mahjong so I wasn't completely in the dark, but it turned out to be mostly unnecessary, because enough rules to understand the game were clearly given, and what I understand to be the hardest part, memorizing all of the hands, you never need to do because the internal monologues we're privy to give you more than enough info to figure out the relative value of the hands. Either way, when this show was good, it was great, as a psychologically gripping tale full of suspense. However, the problem it ran into was one that any show with as impressive a main character has: you never honestly think that he's in any danger of losing. Its about the journey rather than the destination, but the journey dragged on a little during the last arc only to end suddenly without warning.
Kaiji : After the cold blooded meticulous playing I saw in Akagi, the more unpredictable, crying Kaiji was a welcome change. However, several of the games they ended up playing were a very poor substitute for Mahjong. I was a fan of the Restricted Rock Paper Scissors but I really did not like the "Walk of Heroes", and the ECard game was pretty good because it didn't have any randomness, but at the same time any number of card games would have had much higher levels of skill with just a little bit of randomness thrown in. I still need to start watching the second season of this, and I'm looking forward to it. Certainly not one of the best shows I've seen, but definitely consistently entertaining.
Gundam Unicorn So there's only three episodes of this out right now, right? Because I finally got around to watching this, and I want to make sure I'm current. I'm kind of enjoying it, but I realized when I was watching it that I've never actually watched any other seasons of Gundam, something I'd rectify if I was in a position to actually download anything (on an island with limited internet for the summer so I'm basically stuck with the stuff I have filling up my 1.5 Tb external). However, I have read through all of the manga for the original series so I do at least know whats going on in the UC timeline. Right now, I suspect that all of my criticisms of Unicorn would apply to just about any Gundam show in general (ridiculously fortuitous situations maneuvering the MC into an overpowered prototype suit, preachy morals, strange political situation engineered to create the current drama, ect), so right now I'm ignoring the niggling voices in my head and enjoying the pretty mechs.
The next couple series I'm likely to watch are Aria (all three seasons), Aoi Hana, Aoi Bungaku, Tweeny Witches, and Zipang. Oh, and maybe getting around to continuing watching Legend of Galactic Heroes and reading the Fate/Stay Night VN.
Last edited by mallorean_thug : 05-27-2011 at 05:59 PM.
Still, there are some excellent moments. Actually, my favorite moment of the first season is near the end, when the characters all realize all at once that the guy is into what's her face. It was a well-realized scene, and I found it enjoyable. My favorite moment of the second season was when he was talking about a certain dead person. I can relate to his feelings, and it felt very real, and very powerful.
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.
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Of course, to each his own, and I wouldn't blame anyone for not liking Clannad. With my friends, I find myself joking about using it as a weapon of psychological torture.
"If you don't do this, I'll make you watch Clannad! And then you'll cry! Mwahahahahahaha!"
Oh, it's still psychological torture, and I'll still cry. Just not for the right reasons.
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Gundam Unicorn So there's only three episodes of this out right now, right? Because I finally got around to watching this, and I want to make sure I'm current.
Yes, the next should be due this fall sometime.
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Right now, I suspect that all of my criticisms of Unicorn would apply to just about any Gundam show in general (ridiculously fortuitous situations maneuvering the MC into an overpowered prototype suit, preachy morals, strange political situation engineered to create the current drama, ect), so right now I'm ignoring the niggling voices in my head and enjoying the pretty mechs.
You will find a few of those in every Gundam series to one degree or another. I'd note for example that Banagher has nothing on Amuro when it comes to ridiculous possession of a mobile suit. Though the Laplace situation is really stretching next to the dead realistic politics that underpin the One Year War.
(That's assuming the Unicorn OVA turns out like the novels supposedly did, and the intent isn't an aesop on how politics gets waaay to worked up over stuff)
8th MS Team is probably the farthest from the "normal" Gundam series aside from G Gundam which isn't even in the same genre as its sibling series.
Kaiji : After the cold blooded meticulous playing I saw in Akagi, the more unpredictable, crying Kaiji was a welcome change. However, several of the games they ended up playing were a very poor substitute for Mahjong. I was a fan of the Restricted Rock Paper Scissors but I really did not like the "Walk of Heroes", and the ECard game was pretty good because it didn't have any randomness, but at the same time any number of card games would have had much higher levels of skill with just a little bit of randomness thrown in. I still need to start watching the second season of this, and I'm looking forward to it. Certainly not one of the best shows I've seen, but definitely consistently entertaining.
Man, when I first read it, I was really taken with Kaiji and spends like whole days binging on it non stop. But then it starts to get really tiring after a while, after you realizes that the whole thing is just a massive painful shaggy dog stories. Is this really a spoiler? I don't know. Would you be surprised that he won't get rich or get happiness no matter how much he win at this current game when the manga still got like twenty more tankoubons? And at first it was really intense, but at the end, the author spends like five books to deal with thirty seconds scene.
Glad to hear that we'll have another member of our happy crew to talk about it, though honestly for me the best part of Umineko so far has been the speculation, so I imagine that marathoning it is going to be a very different experience that what I've had. I don't know, maybe drop in here after you've finished the first 4 episodes and make some guess so we can all cackle madly in our foreknowledge. Do know that moreso than with Higurashi, Ryukishi07 has clearly written each subsequent chapter with clear knowledge of the theories being bandied around at the time and ruthlessly crushed the ones he didn't like, while chiding the readers that came up with them.
Well, you could always dig up your old speculation and post a link to where it start for each chapter - that way he could be sort of doing it with you albeit quite a bit later.
Question; do you know where to get a copy of episode 8? I had planned to get it from HimeyaShop or Palet mail but the former disappeared (sniff) and the latter ran out of stock before I had time to get it. -.-
Question; do you know where to get a copy of episode 8? I had planned to get it from HimeyaShop or Palet mail but the former disappeared (sniff) and the latter ran out of stock before I had time to get it. -.-
I got my copy of Episode 8 and Umineko Tsubasa from AmiAmi, very reliable and good service by my experience, and the shipping was suprisingly fast too.
Well, you could always dig up your old speculation and post a link to where it start for each chapter - that way he could be sort of doing it with you albeit quite a bit later.
That would rock. In fact, if anyone remembers in which thread or threads people were guessing/speculating about Higurashi I'd love a link to that, too, just to compare notes and guesses and laugh at common mistakes . I would have posted mine back when I was reading, but it seemed a bit pointless so much time after the fact. I will do for Umineko, though, whenever I finally decide to get started with it. Next month, most likely.
Oh, and somehow I forgot to mention before that I've also (finally!) watched The Girl who Leapt Through Time, and that it was awesome in almost every possible way. Way better than Summer Wars, which I had watched before, and that's something I wouldn't have thought likely before the fact.
I got my copy of Episode 8 and Umineko Tsubasa from AmiAmi, very reliable and good service by my experience, and the shipping was suprisingly fast too.
I got my copy of Episode 8 and Umineko Tsubasa from AmiAmi, very reliable and good service by my experience, and the shipping was suprisingly fast too.
Oh, look, a perfect excuse to finally preorder that Chiaki Nendoroid I linked to before. Too bad the Madoka one is already sold out three months before release .
Thanks for helping me decide to spend (more) money on nerdy stuff, Atelm .
Ohh man, I haven't posted on these sorts of threads in forever. What's all new? Is this topic still the formless mass of random anime talk like it always was?
Haven't been reading much anime news lately. Anyone hear of Fate/Zero? I saw the trailor and I was all psyched.
On the complete opposite spectrum of the whole Fate universe. I'm almost finished watching Shinryaku Ika Musume. It's actually pretty amusing and I enjoyed the simplicity of it.
Ohh man, I haven't posted on these sorts of threads in forever. What's all new? Is this topic still the formless mass of random anime talk like it always was?
Haven't been reading much anime news lately. Anyone hear of Fate/Zero? I saw the trailor and I was all psyched.
On the complete opposite spectrum of the whole Fate universe. I'm almost finished watching Shinryaku Ika Musume. It's actually pretty amusing and I enjoyed the simplicity of it.
Yep, its about the same as its been since I've joined in. We've lost some comrades, gained others, and watched a lot of anime. To me it seems like we're discussing currently airing stuff a little more nowadays, but that could just be a product me me finally following currently airing stuff starting last season. Speaking of that:
Ano Hana ep 6:
Spoiler
Well that was an enjoyable episode, though it definitely felt like a middle episode. No earth shattering revelations, but the characterization continued to be excellent. Not much else to say, by this point I am thoroughly invested in the characters, and looking forward to each and every new episode.
Current ending speculah, courtesy of a random anon:
Menma's wish is going to be to find out the name of the flower they saw that day.
And the name of the flower is going to end up being . . . .
Forget-me-not
*cue baww-fest as Menma disapears*
[C] ep 6:
Spoiler
I'm going to put this out here right away. I did not like this episode, and after last week's episode as well, I'm rather worried about the direction this show is heading. Kimimaro is as bland of a MC as seems possible, there is really seemingly no reason why he's special besides the fact he cares about his asset, and the only reason he really cares about his asset is because he's a ronery virgin and she looks like a rather hawt demon chick. I know quite a bit about economics, and even I'm confused about what kind of point they're trying to make, or how the financial district is really supposed to mirror anything. Mikuni has the most contrived generic backstory of any character I've seen in a while, and it does absolutely nothing for me caring about him as a character, or revealing his motivations (we already knew them). I feel like this episode was supposed to make us draw parallels between Kimimaro and Mikuni, but I really didn't see any kind of good parallels to draw besides the fact that they both treat their assets like wives.
Oh well, at least seeming "wasted potential" has been entertaining to watch, which is more than I can say for Fractale last season
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Originally Posted by Atelm
Don't mention it, you two.
Also, I don't think there was any speculation on Higurashi, if I recall, but there certainly was plenty on Umineko between mallorean_thug and me.
Oh thanks for digging up that link. Its rather interesting to go back and read my old posts on the subject. Though because Atelm managed to be patient and wait for EP8 to get 6 and 7, we never really had much of a discussion on either of those.
However, I would further strengthen Atelm's note and say that while that was right after I finished the first 2 VNs, I had already watched the anime which covers the first 4 and those posts contain copious spoilers for the 4th VN. Notably, I mention several times the fact that
Spoiler
Kinzo is dead
which while guessable, foreknowledge of makes several things in the first 2 VNs much more obvious.
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Originally Posted by Fri
Man, when I first read it, I was really taken with Kaiji and spends like whole days binging on it non stop. But then it starts to get really tiring after a while, after you realizes that the whole thing is just a massive painful shaggy dog stories. Is this really a spoiler? I don't know. Would you be surprised that he won't get rich or get happiness no matter how much he win at this current game when the manga still got like twenty more tankoubons? And at first it was really intense, but at the end, the author spends like five books to deal with thirty seconds scene.
I'll take your warning well in hand, but as I don't plan on picking up the manga, just watching the anime, I doubt that will become a problem because even with the currently airing second season, I can't imagine that schict getting old in only 52 total episodes.
Fate Zero is quite possibly more epic then FSN. I am personally looking forward to its anime version. The notion of the same production level that went into UBW animation applied to the Black Knight vs Gilgamesh in particular. And Rider, crazy awesome bastard better steal the show.
I have to get around to actually reading Fate/Zero... but it'd be nice if the adaptation was a little more comprehensible than UBW, even if it has to be slightly less pretty to make up for it.
If Deen ever beats Ufotable in the animation and eye candy department (given budgets on the same order of magnitude, of course), I'll eat my hat. And I don't even have a hat. So yeah, if anything I expect Zero to be prettier than UBW (which honestly, I thought looked good, but not that good). Call it unreasonably high expectations if you may, but heck, I'm pumped for it.
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.
Watching the trailer in the official site, the first thing that comes to mind is "heck, Saber looks a lot like Ryougi Shiki in that final cut!".
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