You know... for all the shit Misao had to go through during the course of this show, they basically threw her one big bone for her. Also, I have to give props for not having to rely on Monster of the Week to actually pull this episode off.
A bit more like Doremi actually.
Definitely something I would've liked Sailor Moon or Precure to do something like this, not relying on a MotW formula.
Man, can Ramia at least feel terrible for the shit shes done? I mean she's merely upset at her failure. At least her Brother isn't a complete douche.
At least there was some sick Hideaki Anno fighter jet animation!
If this was your reaction to Crystal Triangle, there's no doubt that your eventual Laws of Eternity writeup is going to be........something special. I can't pretend that this isn't me waiting for it:
Miki's stressing out over Saionji and Anthy makes more sense now.
I still don't know what's up with Miki's stopwatch though. Must pay closer attention and dissect everything.
"I'm so young I can barely remember it." YA DON'T SAY. THERE IS NO POSSIBLE WAY THIS COULD BECOME IMPORTANT LATER. NO WAY. NO. WAY.
The pillar of light from the castle is actually the light of the projector! A kind of mirage... Saionji you have no idea.
Not specifically related to this episode, but
Anthy really did manipulate everyone, didn't she? Didn't pick it up on my first go, but the cat, the piano, etc. Always had the perfect thing to trigger the duel, always perfectly innocent.
Anyway, as I said I'm not rewatching the whole series immediately because that would probably kill me from Utena fatigue, but I'm definitely going to do it at some point.
Miki's stressing out over Saionji and Anthy makes more sense now.
I still don't know what's up with Miki's stopwatch though. Must pay closer attention and dissect everything.
"I'm so young I can barely remember it." YA DON'T SAY. THERE IS NO POSSIBLE WAY THIS COULD BECOME IMPORTANT LATER. NO WAY. NO. WAY.
The pillar of light from the castle is actually the light of the projector! A kind of mirage... Saionji you have no idea.
Not specifically related to this episode, but
Anthy really did manipulate everyone, didn't she? Didn't pick it up on my first go, but the cat, the piano, etc. Always had the perfect thing to trigger the duel, always perfectly innocent.
Anyway, as I said I'm not rewatching the whole series immediately because that would probably kill me from Utena fatigue, but I'm definitely going to do it at some point.
Ikuhara at his finest, definitely deserving of a rewatch. Would love a nice remastered Blu-Ray set at some point. I had been thinking of getting those somewhat recent DVD sets with all the sagas.
And this is where we decide to use different techniques to let you know this ain't your standard Pretty Sammy episode. Clearly the reason is due to...
....
......
Losing Pixy Misa as a result ;-;. Saddest episode just for that. Props for Misao being willing to dress up as her to freak Sasami out though.... but damn, that's not exactly something you want to wear considering what Pixy Misa did.
But seriously, this feels like an episode where I wish I had more technical knowledge for this medium to really give my thoughts out, but I'm really lacking here.
Like I said earlier, Misa is Misao, just with all inhibitions stripped. It's no accident that Ramia picked her, as both Tsunami and Ramia picked magical girls very much like themselves. Yea, Pixy Misa gave a lot of people trouble and trashed the city, but Ramia's influence was only part of it. With Sasami's help Misao was able to accept all of herself, even the part that wants to be loud and lash out. Misao herself knows Misa didn't have to be evil.
"Ikuhara says that Chu-Chu tried to be more like Akio so that Anthy would like him, but at the end he removes his tie and earring in the worlds cutest gesture of independence and change."
Don't want to read too much, since a lot of the fun is figuring stuff out yourself, but I always want to look up other people's interpretations of stuff. Did the same thing with FLCL when I finished it (another thing I plan on rewatching at some point). But yes, no more now think of other things.
Like I said earlier, Misa is Misao, just with all inhibitions stripped. It's no accident that Ramia picked her, as both Tsunami and Ramia picked magical girls very much like themselves. Yea, Pixy Misa gave a lot of people trouble and trashed the city, but Ramia's influence was only part of it. With Sasami's help Misao was able to accept all of herself, even the part that wants to be loud and lash out. Misao herself knows Misa didn't have to be evil.
I guess it makes sense. I mean, the Tsunami/Sasami thing can be done just by looks, but at the same time, when you consider how fortunate Tsunami is based on promising very little in order to be queen, and just look at Sasami being really fortunate with the family she has (And I still think that's an understatement), it just drives the point home in just how much Sasami is like Tsunami. And then you have Ramia, who isn't as lucky, and picked someone like her. Although it's more of a stickler for Misao, especially since she's not willing to be Misa... although Sasami wasn't exactly willing to be a magical girl either.
...Actually, going back to the Pixy Misa thing, was the constant use of English a metaphor as well? It kinda seems like one when you consider Pixy Misa is another side of her. Maybe it's related to her dad traveling the globe as a pianist or something. I'm probably looking too hard into this.
Gazoinks: Everyone has their own viewpoint, so there's nothing lost in reading up as long as you don't forget your own take. Discussing things are part of the fun!
Gazoinks: Everyone has their own viewpoint, so there's nothing lost in reading up as long as you don't forget your own take. Discussing things are part of the fun!
Yeah, of course. I'd just like to go into a rewatch mostly fresh, and then read other people's takes since I don't want my own opinion to be influenced that much.
That shot of the enemy fighters taking off from the space carrier was just plain ugly. Thankfully the rest of the dogfight looked good.
The Gamilan language sounds German-influenced, at least to me. I wonder if that's actually true or if it's all just in my head.
This series certainly doesn't waste time getting to the Symbolic Female Haircut.
Why do I get the feeling that when Yuki is talking about
going home, that she means Iscandar?
That powering up scene reminded me of a combination of the fifth angel fight and the planet giving Goku energy for a spirit bomb.
The ships in the first episode made me expect that the Yamato itself would look a little less like a WWII-era battleship with a rocket stuck on the back, but I suppose tradition makes certain demands.
Gazoinks: Everyone has their own viewpoint, so there's nothing lost in reading up as long as you don't forget your own take. Discussing things are part of the fun!
I guess it makes sense. I mean, the Tsunami/Sasami thing can be done just by looks, but at the same time, when you consider how fortunate Tsunami is based on promising very little in order to be queen, and just look at Sasami being really fortunate with the family she has (And I still think that's an understatement), it just drives the point home in just how much Sasami is like Tsunami. And then you have Ramia, who isn't as lucky, and picked someone like her. Although it's more of a stickler for Misao, especially since she's not willing to be Misa... although Sasami wasn't exactly willing to be a magical girl either.
...Actually, going back to the Pixy Misa thing, was the constant use of English a metaphor as well? It kinda seems like one when you consider Pixy Misa is another side of her. Maybe it's related to her dad traveling the globe as a pianist or something. I'm probably looking too hard into this.
Part of the joke is that Sasami and Tsunami are the same person in the Tenchi OVA. Also, take note of how Ramia always acts nice and friendly in front of Tsunami, such that Tsunami thinks they're good friends.
At the very least, the English is to heighten the contrast with Misao's normal softspokenness and have it more brash and American. You may be right on the desire to be with her father though.
Part of the joke is that Sasami and Tsunami are the same person in the Tenchi OVA. Also, take note of how Ramia always acts nice and friendly in front of Tsunami, such that Tsunami thinks they're good friends.
At the very least, the English is to heighten the contrast with Misao's normal softspokenness and have it more brash and American. You may be right on the desire to be with her father though.
Now that you mention though, based on what little I remember, I did have a hunch that they were the same person in Tenchi... nevermind both their names sound similar as it is.
While I'm in a mood for pimping stuff I'm watching, I'd just like to discuss Magical Girl Pretty Sammy for a few paragraphs. Wait, wait, don't run yet! I promise that there's actual merit to this endorsement.
Thanks to some helpful prodding from Hito I recently began going through the Tenchi Muyo franchise because it's essentially the bridge between Urusei Yatsura and the harem genre that Tenchi Muyo spawned through its adaptation of the Ataru-Shinobu-Lum love triangle that defined early UY. At the very least, the first and second Tenchi Muyo: Ryo-Ohki OVA series are pretty solid works that skillfully blend and balance science-fiction, comedy, drama, and romance to create a product that, for its time, was actually pretty novel. It's clear why TM: Ryo-Ohki was so instrumental in shaping the tastes of both Japanese and early American anime fans.
Anyway, probably to ride the wave of Sailor Moon's enormous popularity among otaku, Pioneer released a magical girl parody spinoff OVA Magical Girl Pretty Sammy in 1995. It was apparently popular enough that an entire 26-episode series based on the concept was greenlit and debuted the next year. It essentially repurposed a few characters from the Ryo-Ohki OVAs as mildly-different versions of themselves in an alternate reality where Sasami, who in the OVAs is the little sister of core triangle member Aeka and largely relegated to the outer fringes of both the serious narrative and the harem stuff, becomes protagonist and is dropped into a typical magical girl scenario. Sounds like a sleazy, cynical cash-in, but let me try to explain why it's actually really good.
Most importantly, it's not the "bad" kind of magical girl parody. It's not lascivious in its presentation--several magical girl parodies are just lolicon garbage clothed in a scattering of genre tropes or otherwise think that the only way to subvert magical girl tropes is to defile what is normally innocent. I hesitate even to call Pretty Sammy a parody because there's an association of mockery there, and while it is certainly a satirical take on the genre, it also manages to be genuine at the same time. It plays with the expectations of those who are familiar with the genre while still operating in the typical genre framework, and in terms of comedy, it's very much an antics show in the legacy of Sailor Moon. I don't make the comparison lightly--Sammy is genuinely fun in the same "stick to the formula but mess around as much as you possibly can within the formula" way that SM is.
The big difference from Usagi is that Sasami is perpetually exasperated, fully aware of just how ridiculous her circumstances are and yet powerless to resist fulfilling her duty. This is only half of the dynamic that shapes the comedy, though--the other part of the equation is the incredibly entertaining rivalry between Sasami and her perfect foil, the evil magical girl Pixy Misa, who appears every episode to usher in the Monster of the Week fight. Pixy Misa is undoubtedly the single best thing about the show--brash, egotistical, loud, uninhibited, and gleefully antagonistic, she absolutely overflows with charisma, thanks in part to a singularly unique and spirited performance from tragically-underused Kasahara Rumi (who recently resurfaced out of nowhere as Ain in One Piece: Film Z of all things.) Pixy Misa's banter with Sasami is always hugely entertaining and full of subversive commentary on magical girl tropes, all amplified by the central conceit that
Sasami and Misao (Pixy Misa's civilian identity) are best friends in real life, yet unknown to each other are enemies in battle.
Pixy Misa also receives the lion's share of the quality characterization, given that
Misao and Misa are polar opposites in personality. In each episode, Misao is hypnotized and forced to transform by the real antagonists. The transformation has the effect of embodying Misao's true self when uninhibited by her painful shyness and rigid, isolated upper-class upbringing, both of which are explored over the course of the series and contribute to how her relationship with the much more extroverted Sasami evolves. Probability of Misao having to come to grips with her "true self" at some point in the series? Take a guess.
Pretty Sammy actually does devote a decent amount of time to more serious dramatic fare, which is well-integrated, personal, and always feels earned (another Sailor Moon commonality!)
It's also worth mentioning that there's a decent-sized supporting cast that's also really well-utilized, so as great as Misa is, it's not totally her show. There are Sasami's parents (but especially her father, who is an unhinged super-badass Gary Stu performed amazingly by Kazuki Yao), Sasami's classmates including the Helga Pataki-esque Konoha and discipline-obsessed Eimi, bumbling, covetous, short-fused antagonist Rumia and her beleaguered, skeptical, reluctantly-complicit little brother Rumiya, Tsunami (who thrusts Sasami's mission upon her and skewers the "benevolent other-dimensional monarch" character a decade before Precure had a chance to run it into the ground), and idiot-savant Mihoshi, the dissatisfied and serious Kiyone, and eccentric mad scientist Washu, who all basically reprise their roles from Tenchi Muyo.
I hate that I really can't go more into the specifics of the humor with examples of what the "good" stuff is, but dissecting jokes is a tedious exercise that only serves to permanently ruin what it's explaining in the process. Basically, I highly recommend the series to anyone who likes the genre, but especially anyone out there like me who has had difficulty filling the Sailor Moon-shaped hole in their heart after finishing it. It's easily the most SM-like magical girl series I've seen, in all the best ways. You do lose something if you're not familiar with the Tenchiverse given that the part of what makes the premise fun is seeing how Tenchi lore surrounding the Juraihelm succession is twisted into a magical girl premise, and, furthermore, several characters make minor appearances as totally unrelated characters in the Pretty Sammy alternate universe, but it's still fine as a standalone work. Watch it!
oh I guess it was also called Magical Project S in America or something.
I think the only thing I've done that for off the cuff was Steins;Gate. I could do a big episode or series analysis review if I wanted to put the time into it, I just don't.
I find it really hard to believe that Exp Pots wouldn't be restricted to only allow use by the player they're given to and/or restrict the trading of them altogether try and stop Gold Farmers from exploiting the system by creating a shitload of extra accounts.
Other than that, I'm really digging out how this show's coming together.
I find it really hard to believe that Exp Pots wouldn't be restricted to only allow use by the player they're given to and/or restrict the trading of them altogether try and stop Gold Farmers from exploiting the system by creating a shitload of extra accounts.
I think madp's commentary on Pretty Sammy is pretty apt in describing part of just how good Magical Girl Pretty Sammy is. Also gives a bit of a regret on my hand in regards to genre recommendations.
Magical Girl Pretty Sammy 22
Moving into the final arc, there's definitely some trickery going on here.
Mainly making you think Konoha will be the third magical girl, but it ends up being Eimi. I'm not sure if this was intentional on their behalf, but hey! Konoha was already a magical girl for one episode. And she sucked at it. Maybe that's another hint.
Still liking the transition to the more serious tone, since it wasn't suddenly thrusted upon you, it just let it seep through over time (a short bit, but enough at least). I think the other part that I enjoy, is that there's not a constant reliance on pushing toys to justify a power up, something that because excessively prevalent in Smile Precure and Doki Doki Precure (the former basically being a statement that they're the weakest fucking Cures ever, and the latter just being one big derivative season with justified
as in it makes sense to think they are driving the
In ways that make things not fun, sure. All MMORPGs try to stifle player progression though, so an obvious exploit to level faster would never reasonably make it through.
Log Horizon uses the pieces of an MMORPG without understanding them. It's been doing this since the start. You just kind of have to shrug off the inaccuracies and roll with it.
Log Horizon uses the pieces of an MMORPG without understanding them. It's been doing this since the start. You just kind of have to shrug off the inaccuracies and roll with it.
Whilst I've never thought about it that hard so I've never really noticed major issues (the fear of non death stands out more to me than other stuff), but generally I'm in favour of storytelling over getting MMO mechanics right.
this is all a way of getting Yuki back to Iscander (because she's obviously from there) for whatever reason.
That launch was mega hype. I'm ready to kick some alien butt.
I really love the amount of detail that goes into the art for all the technology. My only real problem art wise (although this is only kind of an art problem) is that it invokes the "all the men get regular uniforms all the women get catsuits" trope, which always slightly annoys me.
Now let's see this series really get going! Tomorrow!
Whilst I've never thought about it that hard so I've never really noticed major issues (the fear of non death stands out more to me than other stuff), but generally I'm in favour of storytelling over getting MMO mechanics right.
Moving into the final arc, there's definitely some trickery going on here.
Mainly making you think Konoha will be the third magical girl, but it ends up being Eimi. I'm not sure if this was intentional on their behalf, but hey! Konoha was already a magical girl for one episode. And she sucked at it. Maybe that's another hint.
Konoha being in the photo. Konoha running off to find the ball alone. That noise and reaction before the scene change. Not to mention it's not till the last minute does Eimi go off on her own. The entire episode was building for Konoha but kept Eimi in play on the side.
Heh. I'll admit I'm a soloer who never sticks to one game long, just exploring for a bit till I get bored and then jumping to the next shiny object.
But the story over mechanics feeling goes far beyond turning MMOs into fiction. Probably started with the licensed game fiction of my youth. I never really got upset that the ruleset wasnt used in fiction with 100% fidelity.
Heh. I'll admit I'm a soloer who never sticks to one game long, just exploring for a bit till I get bored and then jumping to the next shiny object.
But the story over mechanics feeling goes far beyond turning MMOs into fiction. Probably started with the licensed game fiction of my youth. I never really got upset that the ruleset was used in fiction with 100% fidelity.
I think Log Horizon is really close on the line of explaining too much about its universe though; especially with all its flawed and poorly balanced skills and the fact there isn't even a game behind it that they're using as a reference.
All in all it reminds me of Yu-Gi-Oh if Yu-Gi-Oh never developed past the original story into the real card game.
I think Log Horizon is really close on the line of explaining too much about its universe though; especially with all its flawed and poorly balanced skills and the fact there isn't even a game behind it that they're using as a reference.
All in all it reminds me of Yu-Gi-Oh if Yu-Gi-Oh never developed past the original story into the real card game.
Konoha being in the photo. Konoha running off to find the ball alone. That noise and reaction before the scene change. Not to mention it's not till the last minute does Eimi go off on her own. The entire episode was building for Konoha but kept Eimi in play on the side.
In a way, I was thinking more on if they the villians were intending to use her, but I think that's what you meant. But in a way, I was kind of referring more to the fact that because Konoha was already a magical girl for one episode, that she wouldn't end up being the actual culprit despite the hints.
Speaking of which....
Magical Girl Pretty Sammy 23
Well that failed... things are alright. AND OOOH SHIT! YEEEEEEAH
Fucking Cool Red! fucking sentais up in here! Gotta have something because Sasami really fucked up with one of her tricks. I guess the show can still have its wacky side.
More importantly, I was wondering when
Ryoko would appear. It would only make sense that she'd come here, not because of the fact that we have to make every possible tie in as possible, but because Ayeka appeared, and is essentially the final boss from the look of things. You know, wanting to kill earth.... which is what she was going to do if Pretty Sammy didn't get in the way anyway.
Mihoshi certainly was a teacher during this. We should be proud of her. There's also one glimmer of hope which might actually happen, and I think it's a bit obvious on what that is. It'll make me really happy.
Huh. This plot is a fucking mess isn't it? I mean I really love the artstyle and the animation quality but none of this shit makes any sense. So I tried googling it to see if there was a better summary of most of the plot threads and if the fans had a better idea of the first three episodes. They don't. I know Imagawa went up and bailed after the first three episodes but did he take the script with him as well? The first three episodes seem like a prologue that is promptly forgotten about and mostly used for staging purposes.
This is really well directed as a whole but the problem is that the script seems like a jumbled mess of plotlines that were abandoned. I love the tone of the show but I just wish I could make better sense of it.
