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[PoeticProse22]

Magi 6

This was a really good episode, due, in large part, to the focus on Morgiana throughout, which was quite welcome, since she's a thoroughly compelling character and, up until this point, the only one with minimal development. Also, due to the solid pacing and intense action sequences, it was definitely one of the more engaging and enjoyable episodes.

I greatly enjoyed the heightened level of insight into Morgiana's past, since it illustrated a necessary element to her characterization. As such, the intermittent flashbacks to said past were very well-utilized, as they allowed for an effective portrayal of the difficulty she found in

Spoiler

her attempts to shed the psychological chains that had continued to restrain her

.

The moment

Spoiler

Morgiana began to recite the immense amount of suffering that was inevitable once she and the girl were forced into slavery

in such an emotionless manner was quite revealing, as it deftly illuminated how deadened

Spoiler

her emotions gradually became due to the suffering she endured throughout the cruelty of her previous enslavement

. I liked that she finally

Spoiler

joined Aladdin and hopefully they'll find Alibaba soon

, since their interactions as a group should be fantastic. Also,

Spoiler

Aladdin's unexpected reappearance

was hilarious.

The animation was great, especially during the majority of Morgiana's impressively brutal action sequences. On the other hand, the music is highly inconsistent in it's effectiveness, as, once again, there were several particularly jarring selections used throughout, displayed most evidently in the conversational scene

Spoiler

between Fatima and the thief and Morgiana's subsequent attack

.

All in all, Magi has improved considerably throughout the last three episodes, particularly in regards to the execution of the narrative, in which it has begun to excel at. Hopefully, due to the likelihood of a more gradual, relaxed pace throughout the eagerly-awaited Balbadd arc, the excellence of the material won't begin to diminish once Yoshino returns to handling the story. Judging by the momentary preview for the next episode, I'm really looking forward to

Spoiler

Sinbad's introduction

.

 

[R_thanatos]

HUNTER X HUNTER - 55
pfiou..another spot on episode the preparations are now complete ... next episode is the start of second part of the york shin arc ... i'm not even remotly ready for the awesome ...


that aside killua face during this part :

was very funny ..

will the new serie manage to do better than the first set of oavs ?

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

Chihayafuru 1-25 [END]
I am glad I came back around to watch this one. The character interactions, the rivals and games were, generally, a joy to watch. Heck, I didn't even despise episode 16 for being a recap episode due to the little shorts in-between.

Such a great show. While the show sometimes struggled to balance the karuta action and the character development perfectly, it was great no matter which side it was focusing on. I really loved all of the characters in the series, and I'm looking forward to the second season.

You know, with these posts close together, it made me think about how I reacted to both of them. Chihayafuru became the incessantly boring sports anime that I didn't want it to be (I would have preferred it all be Taichi vs the loser emo guy if I had to choose), but Cross Game had the... well, the thing that Jexhius reacted to way back when.

I think I'd prefer the improbable manufactured drama to the constant barrage of sports if it came down to it. Not much of a choice, but what can you do. lol

I think there's plenty of room for both types of stories. Chihayafuru had some shifts in terms of which sides of the story got more play, but the karuta action was still very much about how it affected the individual characters. There wasn't any real resolution, but it was also an adaptation of an ongoing story.

Cross Game focused far more on the off the field stuff, so if you don't have any interest whatsoever in the sports-esque action, it will obviously have more appeal to you.

Me, I think both are great, but that might just be partly based on my specific interests as a fan. I like sports manga and anime in general, so I was fine with Chihayafuru occasionally focusing more on the karuta matches.

 

[Jex]

The year is 1990. Hideaki Anno, animator on films such as Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind and animation director on Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise has recently directed Gunbuster, Gainax's first major commercial success. Gainax have now been given the opportunity to make their first full length TV series and Anno is to be the director. The result is Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water.

[Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water] - 1

The strangest think about watching this episode is that you have to keep reminding yourself that this is a Gainax series. The reason you might forget that fact is because it feels like you're watching a Hayo Miyazaki TV series. Obviously the production value isn't as good as Ghibli work and direction isn't patch on the master himself but all the elements feel like they've fallen directly fro Miyazaki's head - a girl with a mysterious crystal:

on the run from humorously dressed villains, a male with an interest in planes and flying (who has lost his father) that takes interest in her:

wacky action sequences and a general sense of adventure. It's not too surprising, then, to discover that this series was based off a series that Miyazaki pitched to Toho in the 70's. It's not that Anno is copying Miyazaki's ideas from his films - it just happens to the be the case that Miyazaki ended up using the ideas that he came up with in the 70's on later movies like Castle in the Sky.

Of course, being based off an idea by Hayo Miyazaki (from back when he still had cool ideas, apparently) doesn't automatically make your show good. In fact, there's plenty of reasons why this episode might not work. The Jules Vernesque world might come across as ridiculous, the need to appeal to children might make the show too sanitized or stupid, the characters might be unlikeable etc etc. Thankfully none of that happens here. Well, not yet anyway.

Our lead is Jean, a 14 year old genius inventor. Unlike other, more well known Gainax leads, Jean isn't the quiet reserved type. As soon as he spots the titular Nadia:

he moves to pursue her. Perhaps his chat up lines aren't the best but at least he's trying, that's more than I can say for many protagonists:

Nadia responds coldly:

This pretty much sets up everything you'll need to know about their relationship. Amusingly, Nadia remains aloof despite the severity of the situation:

Now to be fair to Nadia she can actually take care of herself. Like a true Miyazaki heroine she's independent, has her own objectives and she evade the bad guys. Unfortunately, because this isn't an actual Miyazaki work she does end up as the girl who needs rescuing.

In true Miyazaki style this episode even manages to feature a number of improbable chase scenes involving both land and air vehicles:

All of which adds to the sense of adventure that this episode successfully encapsulates. There aren't many shows like this around so the best comparison I can make is to Castle in the Sky, which is to say that this episode is just enjoyable to experience in all it's silly and impressive ways.

One interesting thing that you can really tell about the staff who made this episode is that the Gainax plane nerds worked on it. The amount of detail lavished on the plane designs, their flights, and the actual science of flight is quite unnecessary for a show of this type.

 

[Kazzy]

[Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water] - 1

This strikes me as being hugely reminiscent of Kiki's Delivery service, particularly with the dynamic between the two protagonists.

 

[Crash Station]

Teekyu 6

I will never get tired of this randomness. Best thing Mappa has done.

 

[Andrew J.]

Smile Precure 38

PRECIOUS BABIES! I, I can't. I am simply unable to can. (Cuteness can't give me a heart attack, but it can turn me into a tumblr fangirl.)

Going by the next episode preview, SDBurton needs to get caught up quick. Fuck your Nissan Combo shit, I've got five words for you:

Spoiler

Cinderella Miyuki and Prince Reika.

 

[SDBurton]

Teekyuu - 06

Nasuno and her 1% swag.

If only these were full length episodes.

So good it hurts.

 

[/XX/]

Oh well, I was hoping for a "What is happening about Little Witch Academia" new update today, and the recent release of the Arve Rezzle promotional video made me think it was their time to do so, as they promised it would be seen around this time, more... or... less, maybe (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=43732851&postcount=6241).

Teekyu is still a masterpiece. I wish they would make a real anime in this style.

I love it! If by real you mean typical-length episodes then... I also want! But what I don't want is Mr. Itagaki to die of exhaustion in the process, he is indispensable for this to work!

 

[duckroll]

Is it coincidence? Or is it fate? This week, we have two shounen action shows with pretty much the same scenes in it!

- In Code:Breaker, Yuuki dashes through the sky in super sonic speed before slamming into enemies on the ground creating a huge impact.

- In Magi, Morgianna dashes through the sky in super sonic speed before slamming into enemies on the ground creating a huge impact.


- In Code:Breaker, Yuuki uses sonic powers generated from his voice to knock a bunch of enemies back.

- In Magi, Morgianna uses sonic powers generated from her voice to chase a bunch of hyenas away.


- Both Yuuki and Morgianna have red hair.

 

[Chet Rippo]

I dunno, there's a point where it can start to become kinda gross.

No.

*Horizon art*

No.

 

[spyhunterzero]

Well, this is an interesting page to come back to.

 

[wonzo]

Kyousogiga 2012 3

A neat little short on how people usually go about getting rid of unneeded things.

 

[BluWacky]

Someday, I really should watch Nadia. I got into anime at the wrong time, really; it had just come out on DVD I think, and everyone kept going on about how awful they thought the Island arc was, and so I never got around to watching it. Jex, is that just upscaled DVD footage or is it taken from the HD broadcast from earlier this year?

Instead of watching Nadia, though, I watch modern animu, slower than other people do...

Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun 5

I was ready to drop this... before the conversation between Haru and Shizuku at the end of the episode, which I thought was really nicely done and actually "brought the feels", which I find this show has trouble doing. I don't find it particularly funny, but nor do I particularly care about the characters - except for that bit. So we'll see if episode 6 can hold my interest.

Psycho-Pass 4-5

Two-parters suit this show much better, even though it continues to suffer from being CSI: The Anime - you can't make investigation interesting when the people on screen barely move, so whenever they're standing around making deductions the show becomes incredibly boring to watch. It could also do with remembering that the ensemble cast is rather larger than the show seems to want us to think - while admittedly I can't remember any of the character names outside of Akane and Shinya, the Serious Lady Cop and the Genki Man Cop are so sidelined they even got deliberately sent off to a different place from everyone else in episode 5!

I'm also finding the literary references irritating, partly because I don't get them. I can philosophy wank with the best of them, but referencing plays from 1968 that I can't find any useful information on although they're by the guy whose theatre troupe inspired Utena is monumentally frustrating

Robotics;Notes 4

Fujoshi girl is mildly entertaining, I suppose, but the end is a little ominous; I'm not sure how the glowing forehead girl from the first episode is going to affect the show. I suppose it's not really that good anyway, so I guess I shouldn't care too much.

JoJo 4

Background noise while I did something else, really, although I did like the idea behind the fight at the end. But I get better fights from...

Zetsuen no Tempest 5

So many words, but who cares when the execution is so good and the ending was so WTF?

C0de;Breaker 5

I guess, because I have absolutely no emotional involvement in this show at all and don't really take it seriously, this episode didn't bother me in the slightest. It continues to be dumb super-powered shounen action, and given that I don't really care what happens to anyone as long as the special effects look okay and Sakura doesn't completely suck I'm not going to complain.

Suki-tte Ii Na Yo 4-5

It's a shame this show has abandoned all the interesting stylistic touches that marked the first episode. Fortunately it's still emotionally engaging, if remarkably sappy.

 

[Chet Rippo]

Well, this is an interesting page to come back to.

Seems normal to me.

 

[Tomat]

Caught this in the second episode of K

"What's wrong with your faaaaaaace?!"
That is some Goldeneye syndrome.

 

[Brazil]

JoJo's Bizarre Adventures 6

I wonder if

Spoiler

Zeppeli is gonna die.

If only it was more obvious.

Still as manly as ever.

Sword Art Online 19

Hahahaha! Oh my God!

Don't get me wrong, the fighting scene was fun, but

Spoiler

"Illusion magic is USELESS!"

followed by Kirito

Spoiler

becoming the goddamned Baphomet and wiping out a 12-man raid with his teeth

was fucking ridiculous. This show can't even follow rules it established five minutes earlier.

I'm kind of glad I skipped most stuff while skimming through the novels because I still get wonderful surprises like this, haha.

 

[Jarmel]

Don't get me wrong, the fighting scene was fun, but

Spoiler

"Illusion magic is USELESS!"

followed by Kirito

Spoiler

becoming the goddamned Baphomet and wiping out a 12-man raid with his teeth

was fucking ridiculous. This show can't even follow rules it established five minutes earlier.

I'm kind of glad I skipped most stuff while skimming through the novels because I still get wonderful surprises like this, haha.

That was pretty weird. I thought he was still using his sword and there was only the illusion he was a monster. Then they later tell me he was actually using his teeth. That's not illusion magic, that's transformation magic. It's kinda a durr moment that they mixed it up that bad.

 

[BGBW]

Are you talking about the same UK market where even some high profile shows don't get blu-ray releases or get incomplete blu-ray releases because it has become impossible to make money back from the release? Sounds like a great market!

Oi oi. It's my job to shit on the UK market. It's rare for me to give it any props.
Hey it's improving, they moved the five anime BDs available in the UK from the martial arts section to foreign films. Now I can look like an intellect while looking at the back of the Madoka box.

At least /a/ has a sense of humor.

A shame you have to look hard for a good joke on /a/

Spoiler

especially as I have stopped posting there fufufufu

. It's like trying to find a man in YuruYuri.

As usual, Funimation has a new seasonal survey up for Autumn. Give your input for the R1 industry here:

https://s.zoomerang.com/s/funimationfallsurvey

Also, 10 lucky respondents each win a pair of BD/DVDs of their choice, one for you and one for a friend.

Wow. I could actually click on this link and see the survey. I was worried they'd send the FBI after me for attempting to view their site from foreign soil.

Tomat, how does it feel to be a prophet? The forces are gathering...

This is not an attack again anime gifz, but tublr gifs.

yep,

also love me some Higurashi Face.

if only more anime could be like it.
http://www.chihiro-subs.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/kon12.png

Anime sure can be morbid. (I guess I should say NSFW just in case)

Oh hey, we've got a PV for the upcoming Kotoura-san 4koma adaptation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx5dV6vUBIc

And yes, Kana Hanazawa is in this show too.

No spirals on the glasses = no sale.

But Kaiji moe is real.

The best counter point for anyone who says moe just means cute little girls.

I wish I could shoot hearts out of my butt.

Spoiler

This is seriously the cutest show ever

If I have too much vindaloo I'll not be shooting my heart out of my arse but pretty much all my vital organs the next morning.

But apparently Lord Sugar has it even worse.

http://akb0048.jp/

AKB0048 returns for a second season on Jan 5th 2013!

Yay! It's an early birthday present for me.

Yondemasu yo, Azazel-san is getting a second TV season.

Wow the presents keep on coming!

Why the fuck is there so few SAO posts? It's fucking SAOturday.

Perhaps it is because it was a fairly decent episode and the more decent the show the less there is to talk about.

I would like to buy this now, please.

This looks a bit familiar.

Interesting... so this is apparently the new DBZ movie:

I knew terrible things would happen when they gave Japan the license for Watership Down. I heard they're getting AKB48 to butcher Bright Eyes as well.

----And that wraps up the quotes----

Hmmm... what did I watch recently... ah yes.

Chuunibyou 6
Ah, the boys have finally received their comeuppance for the old rating the girls in the class shindig. I of course never had to worry about this matter, mostly because there were no girls in my school. But since this show is all about a bunch of people who roleplay offline and didn't even think it was worth my time to roleplay online the small matter of not identifying with the characters and their perils isn't really a concern. In fact worrying about a haircut is another thing that never bothered me. I've always had luscious locks. Is there anything I can identify with this show? Well I did wear school uniform I suppose and I took the train to school.

So that just goes to show that I have no idea what I'm talking about and I babble too much.

I give it four Welsh Mice out of five.

Girls und Panzer 5
Glad I took the time to catch up with this show as it is rather entertaining. I enjoyed

Spoiler

the stealth mission. They certainly love their first person shots don't they

.

I give it four animation cels from a previous ED out of five.

Polar Bear Cafe 32
Took a page out of Joshiraku's book and gave us a tour section. A tour of the back garden. Expect unlike Joshi's tours this was more entertaining, but that's because traditional comedic story telling is rather dull.

I give it four prickly chestnuts out of five.

Psycho-Pass 5
I found it quite funny that they had questions

Spoiler

after shooting the culprit dead. Guess the idea of paralysing him and taking him in for questioning never crossed their mind

. On an unrelated note let me just say I really like the way some of you are and I hope you never change.

Just to add, while some of the drawing can look a little off, overall the show is enjoyable and I don't think a bit of QUALITY is enough to detract from that enjoyment. But I have watched a lot of shitty American cop shows so I can say my tolerance levels are pretty high.

I give it four 25 year old Highland Darks out of five.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure 6
It's JoJo I ain't gotta explain this fabulousness. And this is just the beginning, the logic goes shooting out of the window as we get further into the show and despite that you always feel it makes sense. Yes, even the idea that knights would kill themselves and thus decrease their numbers just for the sakes of training.

I give it four luck decreasing Ps out of five.

Sword Art Online 19
Wow, a fairly decent episode. Guess what? Stuff actually happened and there was some form of plot to engage the viewer's interest. Kirito apparently learnt nothing from this time in SAO as he is a shitty fighter. Stop hitting the shields and go round.

Though I found the

Spoiler

illusion magic

rather questionable. I thought it would

Spoiler

act as a smoke screen and Kirito would attack normally while his opponents think he looks like a giant monster. But apparently he is the giant monster. Also I wonder what he was initially planning to do with the last guy. Having seen Blood C I have a hunch it involved a drink of wine.

Also some of the music reminded me of Chrono Trigger.

I give it four fluffy things out of five.

Space Brothers 32

I find it quite hard to say much about Space Brothers apart from it's a great show and after 30 episodes it hasn't waned. Nice to see a bit of Azuma's backstory since he's literally just been the imposing angry guy all this time. It always makes the characters feel more human when we see another side to them. Though I must say they really do love using of the launch footage. Lets see if they manage to squeeze it in again next week.

I give it four jiving lobsters out of five.

 

[Articalys]

Oh, it looks like there was actually a longer, voiced PV for Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko at AFA that wasn't shown on the Nicovideo stream; here's an offscreen video of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjDeQ0N30F8

Seems that the lead characters will be played by Yuuki Kaji and Yui Ogura.

 

[firehawk12]

This post takes me back to when we first met...

Let's yuri!

Man, I can't forget Mr Garrison's weird bike when I see that. lol

I think there's plenty of room for both types of stories. Chihayafuru had some shifts in terms of which sides of the story got more play, but the karuta action was still very much about how it affected the individual characters. There wasn't any real resolution, but it was also an adaptation of an ongoing story.

Cross Game focused far more on the off the field stuff, so if you don't have any interest whatsoever in the sports-esque action, it will obviously have more appeal to you.

Me, I think both are great, but that might just be partly based on my specific interests as a fan. I like sports manga and anime in general, so I was fine with Chihayafuru occasionally focusing more on the karuta matches.

For me, the problem with the focus on karuta was the fact that Chihaya's is just boring. She's awesome except when the plot needs her to lose, and then she's not. I suppose that could be said about all sports shows, but you start to see the seams when it starts repeating itself (and hell, it's not like there were a lot of matches played). I still think the best part of the show was the first four episodes (which I call the lie lol) and then followed by the formation of the club.

The problem with Cross Game wasn't really the fact that it didn't focus on the sports balls, in fact, that's why I appreciate Adachi. It's the big twist that happens in the middle third of the series that is so insane that it is suspension of disbelief shattering. lol

But then again, I'm a big fan of Aim for the Ace, and that's mostly because of its batshit-craziness (and its awesome OP/ED), so what do I know.

 

[Tomat]

The BGBW Ranking System Algorithm

Is it anime?
if(anime)
rank (4 out of 5)

else
find anime to rank

 

[Narag]

Man, I can't forget Mr Garrison's weird bike when I see that. lol

God damn it.

 

[firehawk12]

God damn it.

I was going to post a pic of it but you know... lol

You know, since they are animu fans, maybe that's where they got it from!

 

[Brazil]

http://i.minus.com/iywjHs0mxHWgA.gif[IMG]

I wish I could shoot hearts out of my butt.

[spoiler]This is seriously the cutest show ever[/spoiler][/QUOTE]

Wow. I've already watched that episode, but I didn't pay much attention to that particular scene.

... Wow. Wow, man.

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

For me, the problem with the focus on karuta was the fact that Chihaya's is just boring. She's awesome except when the plot needs her to lose, and then she's not. I suppose that could be said about all sports shows, but you start to see the seams when it starts repeating itself (and hell, it's not like there were a lot of matches played). I still think the best part of the show was the first four episodes (which I call the lie lol) and then followed by the formation of the club.

The problem with Cross Game wasn't really the fact that it didn't focus on the sports balls, in fact, that's why I appreciate Adachi. It's the big twist that happens in the middle third of the series that is so insane that it is suspension of disbelief shattering. lol

But then again, I'm a big fan of Aim for the Ace, and that's mostly because of its batshit-craziness (and its awesome OP/ED), so what do I know.

I thought Chihaya was a perfectly fine protagonist, but Taichi was clearly the star. I did find the first half better than the second, but I still enjoyed watching the matches and seeing how Chihaya and Taichi dealt with the situations they wound up in. But I enjoy that type of sports drama in general. I would have liked to see more focus on the romance and character interactions in the second half of the show for sure, but I was still greatly enjoying watching the tense karuta matches (something I never would have thought I would say a year ago), so I think it all worked out fine, even if the balance could have been handled better.

The twist I assume you're talking about in Cross Game (

Spoiler

Oh my god, there's a girl who looks just like Wakaba

) was indeed stupid. It's rather infuriating, since

Spoiler

not only is it never explained in any way, but it also never really matters to the plot except to give Akaishi a love interest

. I can forgive it because of how great the rest of the series is.

I enjoy the way Adachi doesn't focus so much on the sports, but I also can love something like Hajime no Ippo where the sport is pretty much the sole focus for 90% of the series. Adachi is the master of the genre, but he's almost working in an entirely different genre to other series, and I like both takes on sports manga/anime.

 

[Articalys]

We need .gif for that Zeppeli sequence, its ended up as great stills but what more stand out to me is when he stop walking and raising his hand followed with that end-card, sogood.jpg

Sorry, super late on this but my gif making skills suck so it took a while to find a good one.

 

[wonzo]

Ixion Saga DT 6

I always knew Ahoge's were the devils work.

 

[Chet Rippo]

Wow. I've already watched that episode, but I didn't pay much attention to that particular scene.

... Wow. Wow, man.

Clearly you need to pay attention more.

 

[ckohler]

Someday, I really should watch Nadia. I got into anime at the wrong time, really; it had just come out on DVD I think, and everyone kept going on about how awful they thought the Island arc was, and so I never got around to watching it.

I only lurk in this thread (don't really watch much anime anymore) but as someone who was big into anime in the late 80's and 90's I can tell you that Nadia is worth watching. Yes, the island arc is as bad as you've heard. So, be forewarned.

However, what is really disarming about Nadia as a series is that it keeps tricking you into thinking it's a just a lighthearted romp of a kids' show akin to Pokemon or something and then suddenly it will slap you in the face with some downright dark storytelling or deep morality issues. It's like it can't decide if it's a show for kids or adults so it does both. For the time it was made, it was really daring, I think.

Also, the dub is interesting as they hired actual children to do the voices and they aren't half bad. They're not amaizing or anything but it does add an extra bit of authenticity to it. Jean's and Maria's voices can get a bit grating at times but the girl they got to dub Nadia does a great job.

 

[wonzo]

Oh hey, we've got a PV for the upcoming Kotoura-san 4koma adaptation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx5dV6vUBIc
And yes, Kana Hanazawa is in this show too.

Those are some truly awful noses.

 

[OceanBlue]

Wow. I've already watched that episode, but I didn't pay much attention to that particular scene.

... Wow. Wow, man.

Now that I look at it again, I can't help but notice that the hearts cover where her panties should be long enough for her skirt to go back down.

Lol.

 

[firehawk12]

I thought Chihaya was a perfectly fine protagonist, but Taichi was clearly the star. I did find the first half better than the second, but I still enjoyed watching the matches and seeing how Chihaya and Taichi dealt with the situations they wound up in. But I enjoy that type of sports drama in general. I would have liked to see more focus on the romance and character interactions in the second half of the show for sure, but I was still greatly enjoying watching the tense karuta matches (something I never would have thought I would say a year ago), so I think it all worked out fine, even if the balance could have been handled better.

The twist I assume you're talking about in Cross Game (

Spoiler

Oh my god, there's a girl who looks just like Wakaba

) was indeed stupid. It's rather infuriating, since

Spoiler

not only is it never explained in any way, but it also never really matters to the plot except to give Akaishi a love interest

. I can forgive it because of how great the rest of the series is.

I enjoy the way Adachi doesn't focus so much on the sports, but I also can love something like Hajime no Ippo where the sport is pretty much the sole focus for 90% of the series. Adachi is the master of the genre, but he's almost working in an entirely different genre to other series, and I like both takes on sports manga/anime.

You know, the thing is that I was/am a big fan of OoFuri because of how obsessed with the sport the show was. The anime showed what amounted to two full baseball games with pretty much every single pitch analyzed and explained by the characters.
But for me, I only needed to see something like that once. Even if they did a curling anime, I probably would hate it if it did something like that. lol

My hatred of Taichi aside, I find it interesting that you find him to be the better protagonist. It seemed like the mangaka was trying to shoujo-hero him by making him troubled with his relationship with his mother, but all of that doesn't really go anywhere because well... the show isn't interested at all in what happens to these people outside of how it affects their ability to play the game.

That said, I pretty much want every sports show to be like Friday Night Lights (and that's something I never thought I would have said a year ago if only because I avoided that show like the plague), so that's where I'm coming from anyhow.

 

[R_thanatos]

JoJo's Bizarre Adventures 6

I wonder if

Spoiler

Zeppeli is gonna die.

If only it was more obvious.

Still as manly as ever.

Sword Art Online 19

Hahahaha! Oh my God!

Don't get me wrong, the fighting scene was fun, but

Spoiler

"Illusion magic is USELESS!"

followed by Kirito

Spoiler

becoming the goddamned Baphomet and wiping out a 12-man raid with his teeth

was fucking ridiculous. This show can't even follow rules it established five minutes earlier.

I'm kind of glad I skipped most stuff while skimming through the novels because I still get wonderful surprises like this, haha.

That was pretty weird. I thought he was still using his sword and there was only the illusion he was a monster. Then they later tell me he was actually using his teeth. That's not illusion magic, that's transformation magic. It's kinda a durr moment that they mixed it up that bad.

that's because leafa didn't know what a high level illusion magic could do ... illusion magic is kirito race speciality and kirito has broken stats/skills

 

[Brazil]

that's because leafa didn't know what a high level illusion magic could do ... illusion magic is kirito race speciality and kirito has broken stats/skills

That's no excuse for what happened in this episode. Are we supposed to guess what you said? Because the show goes out of its way to explain that illusion magic is useless, and when proven wrong it puts its tail between its legs and pretends nothing ever happened.

 

[PorcellainThrill]

That's no excuse for what happened in this episode. Are we supposed to guess what you said? Because the show goes out of its way to explain that illusion magic is useless, and when proven wrong it puts its tail between its legs and pretends nothing ever happened.

Well it might be useless to dirty scrubs but obviously not to Kirito.
Have you seen this guy?
So good.

 

[Dresden]

Unless there was some omniscient narrator explaining that to the viewer, there's room for error. If it comes from the imouto, even better - misconceptions reign in online games all the time, even for properties that's been around for years (hunters still leave growl on, and no one knows what symbiosis does). She's probably not one of those people who trawl forums and theorycraft all day.

Doesn't sound like a gotcha moment.

 

[OceanBlue]

I just assumed that there aren't many huge monsters in ALO and Kirito took the design of one of the bosses from SAO. Illusion magic (in this case, shouldn't it probably be called transformation magic?) would probably be weak if there weren't many imposing monsters to change into.

This is what happens when you just jump to episode 19...

 

[R_thanatos]

That's no excuse for what happened in this episode. Are we supposed to guess what you said? Because the show goes out of its way to explain that illusion magic is useless, and when proven wrong it puts its tail between its legs and pretends nothing ever happened.

Fact 1 .. kirito arrived in Alo with a bunch a skill at MASTER and all his stats at high level ( said in ep 16 )
Fact 2 .. leafa doesn't see spriggans often or at all ( their territory is very far and all factions at are war with each other ) she doesn't know about high level spriggan spells ..in this episode kirito must learn them from his skill list ..
Fact 3 leafa said that illusion magic is useless in term of battle strenght not that it's useless overall .. Had everyone keep their formation and not getting scared , kirito would have lost ( his damage output was the same ) why .. because kirito Himself says that .. had he be alone , regardless of his illusion skill or not , he would have been defeated "it was a good plan" said in the anime..
Fact 4 ..why would a race exist in that world if all their skills were useless ? Conclusion leafa doesn't know about spriggan skills so you shouldn't trust blindly what she says about them.. this is also why yui was the one who told them that they had this way of using them ( since neither of them knew )..

i mean ..i haven't used facts unadapted from the Vns yet .. and i think i could have reached another conclusion than the one you arrived to.

 

[Brazil]

Fact 1 .. kirito arrived in Alo with a bunch a skill at MASTER and all his stats at high level ( said in ep 16 )
Fact 2 .. leafa doesn't see spriggans often or at all ( their territory is very far and all factions at are war with each other ) she doesn't know about high level spriggan spells ..in this episode kirito must learn them from his skill list ..
Fact 3 leafa said that illusion magic is useless in term of battle strenght not that it's useless overall .. Had everyone keep their formation and not getting scared , kirito would have lost ( his damage output was the same ) why .. because kirito Himself says that .. had he be alone , regardless of his illusion skill or not , he would have been defeated "it was a good plan" said in the anime..
Fact 4 ..why would a race exist in that world if all their skills were useless ? Conclusion leafa doesn't know about spriggan skills so you shouldn't trust blindly what she says about them.. this is also why yui was the one who told them that they had this way of using them ( since neither of them knew )..

i mean ..i have used facts unadapted from the Vns yet .. and i think i could have reached another conclusion than the one you arrived to.

I understand that lorewise it makes sense for illusion magic to be awesome and for Kirito to be able to use it. My criticism was pointed at how the show handled all of that within the walls of episode 19.

 

[spyhunterzero]

Seems normal to me.

Your not a normal man good sir.

 

[wonzo]

Smile PreCure! 38

 

[R_thanatos]

Ixion Saga DT 6

I always knew Ahoge's were the devils work.

man this episode was superb
Best episode yet ( ep 5 was good but this one was freaking excellent )..

 

[Defuser]

Oh, it looks like there was actually a longer, voiced PV for Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko at AFA that wasn't shown on the Nicovideo stream; here an offscreen video of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjDeQ0N30F8

Seems that the lead characters will be played by Yuuki Kaji and Yui Ogura.

Nooooooo, no hanazawa

Yuuki Kaji is in everything.

 

[OceanBlue]

Nooooooo, no hanazawa

Yuuki Kaji is in everything.

Seriously. Ogura is okay, but she's no Hanazawa. I guess the only saving grace is that Tsukiko's inflection probably doesn't vary too much. Still, it's a missed opportunity.

 

[hosannainexcelsis]

Kyousogiga (2012) 3

With the short, focused scenarios of last episode and this one, Kyousogiga is settling into a nice groove. It's still weird and random, but there's a method to the madness now that wasn't present in the original ONA which makes it quite enjoyable to watch. I genuinely hope we see more than just two more entries of this.

I'm a fan of the documentary conceit, so I like how that was incorporated into this; it made good use of the fake camera for some visual gigs.

Go Shiina's doing a good job with the soundtrack, by the way; I liked his electronic score for this episode.

 

[Instro]

Teekyu 6 & Kyousogiga 2-3

Both of these shows are insane.

 

[dimb]

Where did I go wrong for my life to become this?

 

[firehawk12]

Smile PreCure! 38
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/18780843/misc/wonzotombstone.jpg

Ah right, BabyCures.

 

[wonzo]

Where did I go wrong for my life to become this?

Indeed, using the new YouTube interface is truly the lowest of lows.