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[icecream]

Icecream is indeed right this time. Kokoro Connect is quite good stuff.

Well, of course! And not just this time >_<

Too bad that wasn't what the show was about.

It it exactly what the series is about. Whether you got that impression or not from the superficial appearances of the anime is your own prerogative. But at its core, that is Oreimo's theme.

icecream is one of the people in delusional denial about what oreimo's really about.

One could say instead one of the many who's are able to look past its initial pretense and see what it's really about!

OreImo is a failed social commentary. The fanservice is nothing more than explicit fanservice and does not reflect the main intentions of the show.

Exactly. Geneijin understands~

The fanservice is a result of the show's overall intent of showing the audience exactly what they want to see, within reason of course. The show is full of poor, thinly-veiled wish fulfillment.

The fanservice serves as a distractor. Just because the series chooses to mix it in for external reasons does not detract from the actual theme of the show. If the show was trying to serve as a pure incest harem fantasy, it's certainly being very obtuse about it when it doesn't have to be. The standard otaku segment that such things pander to would have eaten it up even without all of the development and characterizations in play.

I don't really know why else anyone would watch OreImo to be honest. Unless you mean that you're supposed to like the other girls in the show more.

You can have a passion for any of the girls. It's what people do when watching characters of a fantasy work. They relate and favor a certain character over others and become attached to them throughout the show. But that doesn't mean it necessarily has to be the central theme of a work. And it's certainly not the point of this series.

If OreImo really wanted to make Kirino fans out of the audience, it wouldn't have been a cumbersome harem show instead.

Agree again!

OreImo is wank fodder central and it's based around Kirino. Why does this have to be spelled out?

Because you're wrong? Because just because that's all you take out of the series doesn't mean that's what one is supposed to take out of the series?

Oreimo is a romcom harem using younger sister wish fulfillment shenanigans along with other stock character types thrown in to wide the pool of prospective consumers.

Anime as a medium in general likes to stick to stock character types, because, well, they are safe and generally liked by the audience. But claiming that the characters in Oreimo are at that level of generic is doing them a disservice. Sure, they have their clichés, but they also have more layers than the average trope characters. And for a show that is about character, that is important. Without well-built characters, any character-driven show falls flat on its face.

Also Kirino is clearly designed to be an appealing character to the audience for better or for worse, I have no idea how anyone can say otherwise.

Perhaps she has her pandering points (being a cute girl who epitomizes all that is stereotyped about the socially outcast otaku), but does that really make the points she brings up any less valid?

 

[Uchip]

thats like a one man oreimo defense force right there

 

[Chet Rippo]

Gurren Lagann Parallel Works 2

I'm still waiting for a Kiyal's Magical Time spinoff show.

 

[Typographenia]

Typographenia is putting Black Falcon to shame.

Me and shame go hand in hand.

 

[Dresden]

Sword Art Online:
I would rock at this.

Spoiler

How would the players' bodies survive?

Minor spoilers:

Spoiler

they move all those afflicted into hospitals.

 

[madp]

Really, it has some very high highs. It's just that certain scenes kind of bring it down to "just good" if not a tiny bit lower than that. For like 2 volumes straight, there's a really long-winded mind game that's more convoluted than it is interesting (like say something like Kaiji or some of the strategy-heavy shounens like JJBA).

The good parts will be good though. I imagine certain things will look VERY good animated.

So, if I had to pick a series as my benchmark for "shounen that wasn't great but I managed to slog through because the characters were kind of endearing and I was huffing the fumes of a couple of past high points" it would probably be something like Ao no Exorcist. If it's at least that watchable animated, I think I'll be fine.

A shounen with an excessive amount of plotting doesn't sound necessarily bad to me anyway, so I suppose I'll just have to see. I read virtually no manga so I have a pretty shallow reference pool for stuff like this.

Eh, guess I just don't like magical girl/super sentai tropes.

Oh come on, I'd never actually not take you seriously because of something like that

 

[dakkumauji]

Would this include an explosion?

...no explosion?

Only at the ending. Everything ends with an explosion.

Really, it has some very high highs. It's just that certain scenes kind of bring it down to "just good" if not a tiny bit lower than that. For like 2 volumes straight, there's a really long-winded mind game that's more convoluted than it is interesting (like say something like Kaiji or some of the strategy-heavy shounens like JJBA).

The good parts will be good though. I imagine certain things will look VERY good animated.

I won't lie, the whole debate was really good and pretty much cemented my like for the series.

Hopefully the anime will have some KyoAni level exposition imagery during those scenes.

 

[Ultimadrago]

Me and shame go hand in hand.

on 3x3 Eyes

So Typo,

Spoiler

the "romance" between the two mains dies for a more shallow guy and girl relationship?

I remember you said that you weren't really satisfied with how it developed in the first place. Would you say this is worst because they already attempted at a deeper relationship or just a "flat line" of disappointment because the relationship was never well built in the first place?

 

[Crash Station]

I won't lie, the whole debate was really good and pretty much cemented my like for the series.

Hopefully the anime will have some KyoAni level exposition imagery during those scenes.

Well maybe it was better all at once. Spread out over a few months, it was confusing.

 

[Narag]

I'm still waiting for a Kiyal's Magical Time spinoff show.

I... I would watch that.

 

[wonzo]

Space Bros 15

Mutta would make the ultimate Kaiji antagonist if he had a boatload of money, his way with words and the way in which he manipulates people is quite something.

Spoiler

Damn, maybe Fukuda's a secret spy brought in by Jaxa?!

True! Though, I don't think wonzo ever read the manga.

I did say I was gonna check it out after the anime finishes it's run and with how strong the first episode was I don't see that changing any time soon!

I'm still waiting for a Kiyal's Magical Time spinoff show.

NAKAMA

Me and shame go hand in hand.

a true anime fan

 

[firehawk12]

Super Space Brothers 15

Mutta continues to be awesome, while the one guy on team B is actually proving to have some sort of evil streak. Should be interesting to see where both plot lines go next week.

Am I being cynical when I think that this run of episodes is meant to be a money saver of sorts?

Or that the mangaka was lazy and thought they could get away without drawing any new backgrounds for a while?

 

[Dresden]

I've actually kind of diluted much of the hype with that, lol. Before Dakkumauji and Dresden picked it up, I was the ONLY person in mangagaf that had even heard of it (unless flawfuls just decided not to speak up about it). I always considered it squarely mid-tier shounen (despite having a VERY strong intro).

Zetsuen retrospective:

Spoiler

vol1: lots of action, questions are raised, i think i'm okay with this

beginning of vol2: wow shit is getting real they're talking now i wonder if this is going to end soon--the main duo kinda reminds me of guilty crown with shu~

end of vol2: they're still talking

vol3: they're still talking

vol4: okay i guess they're finally done talking. i don't like how the whole thing is setup to guarantee asspulls. wow maybe we'll get some answers. but wait wtf one month timeskip???

 

[Defuser]

Sword Art Online ep 1
Exceeded my expectations, decent beginning with a dark twist to it. Looks like I'm gonna enjoy this although it slightly bugs me that this also written by the author of Accel world. Both MC share the same traits where they escape to the virtual world to get away from problems.

 

[Dresden]

Note however that there was a good number of beta testers, like Kirito, who did get above the first floor. Yea the testers are probably playing much more cautiously however there is something to be said when nobody has still gotten past the first floor. Kirito was bragging how he was going to hit the 8th floor in a month and nothing has happened with him over a month. I mean if people haven't succeeded after an entire month for what is probably the easiest floor then that isn't a great sign for latter adventures. There are a 100 floors, people are going to die from old age in this game.

It's permadeath (+ actual real microwave death) that's tripping everyone up, probably. On a venture like this you're just going to have a lot of experienced people stocking up and grinding while everyone waits to see who goes first.

Also remember that pvp is real.

 

[Typographenia]

on 3x3 Eyes

So Typo,

Spoiler

the "romance" between the two mains dies for a more shallow guy and girl relationship?

I remember you said that you weren't really satisfied with how it developed in the first place. Would you say this is worst because they already attempted at a deeper relationship or just a "flat line" of disappointment because the relationship was never well built in the first place?

You know, I honestly don't know how to even answer the question.

Spoiler

When things got so ridiculously complicated in the end with Howasho, it seemed like Yakumo began to question if he loved Pai, loved the idea of Pai as she was when she was possessed by Howasho, or if he just loved Howasho. I'm probably projecting a lot of that myself, as he only made confused faces in a conversation. During the course of the three episodes of the volume, he was still very much a "I LIKE PAI BECAUSE I SAID I DID," but his final conversation with the Sanjiyan before she left for the "holy land" made him seem completely unsure of it all.

They did such a poor job of resolving anything that I don't know how I feel about it in the end. It almost felt like they amicably split, but I don't know that's what I would have wanted. It just feels like they rushed everything last minute.

Honestly, I was more disappointed they never followed up on the implication that there was some kind of tragic twist to the Sanjiyan/Wu relationship that would allow for Pai to become human. The Sanjiyan suggested something of that nature in volume one, but, as I stated in the post, they didn't follow up on any of the Pai wanting to be human stuff.

So many loose threads...

 

[Brazil]

Sword Art Online ep 1
Exceeded my expectations, decent beginning with a dark twist to it. Looks like I'm gonna enjoy this although it slightly bugs me that this also written by the author of Accel world. Both MC share the same traits where they escape to the virtual world to get away from problems.

I didn't get that vibe from Kirito.

 

[mAcOdIn]

Yeah, I think I'm more a fan of the "gentle" vomit myself.

 

[Typographenia]

I just want you to know that I read your entire post and that this was my favourite line of all.

It was the most truthful of the lines. : (

 

[Defuser]

Space Bros ep 15
I'm getting tensed now for what's happening. Next week should be good for various reasons.

 

[mAcOdIn]

Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai

Alright, not feeling this stuff. So the main male character can just walk around everyone else and be totally natural while saying his perverted thoughts, which I'm totally fine with, but with the main female he's some kind of blabbering fool? Eh. And they did the same to the main girl, she uses him pretty early on initially and turns into a blabbering fool herself afterwards. Eh. No consistency here. I don't really get how the girl can be the type to toy with and use someone in the beginning but every scene after that is always caught off guard, nor how the guy goes from a person who's totally rational at dealing with his desires but then turns into a wanna be rapist.

Campione!

I really have no idea what this shit is going on about. It just kinda moves from scene to scene. Like:

Spoiler

So they go to deliver the book and decide to stay at the witches house, why? Then they throw in a random drinking scene, why? Bedroom locks from the outside, why? Girl's a fan of riding on top of cars, why? Of course the big battle at the end was pretty silly, so that God with the long name gave him a power because he wants to be defeated, it's starts to happen and he acts surprised, shouldn't he be going out with a smile here? Kiss power up for the main? Well, supposedly using that power's supposed to kill him but since the story's told from his point of view as a recollection I'm guessing he lives. Sigh.

Was pretty shitty.

Binbougami ga

Also pretty lame, not sure if it's worth bothering with. It has a fast moving energy that if combined with something actually funny or interesting could be fun but the first episode was neither.

 

[NomarTyme]

Wow, Sword Art Online is pretty damn interesting. I'm already hooked to this anime.

 

[firehawk12]

Was pretty shitty.

Anime season in a nutshell.

 

[wonzo]

HxH 2011 38

yeah, a tremendous piece of shit

Interesting, they switched back to the original intro sequence for some reason. I thought the next ep was gonna be a shitty recap one but it looks like they're starting the goddamn Yorknew City Arc instead! FUCK YEAH GET HYPE!!!!

Hopefully we get a new OP as awesome as the second OP for the original HxH was but I doubt it.

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

Jinrui 1

Really dull at first, but from the introduction of the fairies to the end of the episode, it just got better and better. While Binbougami Ga has dat Sakura, Jinrui had me laughing much more.

If it can maintain this level of humor, it'll probably end up being my show of the season.

Sword Art Online ep 1
Exceeded my expectations, decent beginning with a dark twist to it. Looks like I'm gonna enjoy this although it slightly bugs me that this also written by the author of Accel world. Both MC share the same traits where they escape to the virtual world to get away from problems.

Kirito seems to be playing out of apathy for the real world, whereas Cartman is actively escaping from his moeblob physique and shitty life. They're similar motivations, yeah, but I think they're sufficiently different.

Of course, we don't really know much about Kirito's life so I could be completely wrong about this.

 

[chickdigger802]

Saki 5

wooo. training/hotspring eps. I'm gonna guess the broadcast version had more fog around the underaged girls' buttocks.

I do find it strangely adorable that boobs keeps the penguin under the boobs. maybe that's why the boobs defy gravity.

Also, more yuri blushes.

Prez is best girl though (and not just because of the VA).

 

[Articalys]

Am I being cynical when I think that this run of episodes is meant to be a money saver of sorts?

Or that the mangaka was lazy and thought they could get away without drawing any new backgrounds for a while?

*shrug* I have no idea how long this arc went on for in the manga or how much they're expanding/compressing it for the show. I don't mind the fixed scenery, at any rate. Characters are where this show is at, and it's delivering just fine there for now.

 

[Femmeworth]

Blue Submarine No. 6 Ep. 1

Dear god, that was hideous. *memories shattered* The only redeeming aspect of that was the music. They must have been so preoccupied with whether or not they could,
they didn't stop to think if they should.

 

[Narag]

Oh man, I want to revisit that myself. Never did finish it and I'd completely forgotten about it until it reappeared on the April Fool's Day Toonami.

 

[Defuser]

Kirito seems to be playing out of apathy for the real world, whereas Cartman is actively escaping from his moeblob physique and shitty life. They're similar motivations, yeah, but I think they're sufficiently different.

Kirito looks sad when Klein rejected him, this tells that he does have issues which is why he plays mmo or maybe it's just me looking at it too closely.

 

[firehawk12]

*shrug* I have no idea how long this arc went on for in the manga or how much they're expanding/compressing it for the show. I don't mind the fixed scenery, at any rate. Characters are where this show is at, and it's delivering just fine there for now.

These last few episodes have been built around complications rather than characters though.

Although between this arc and Defying Gravity, I suppose I prefer the mundane over the preposterous. lol

Saki 5

wooo. training/hotspring eps. I'm gonna guess the broadcast version had more fog around the underaged girls' buttocks.

Heh, you should watch the picture dramas.

 

[Dresden]

Kirito looks sad when Klein rejected him, this tells that he does have issues which is why he plays mmo or maybe it's just me looking at it too closely.

 

[chickdigger802]

kuroko basketball 14

I can see why DTL wasn't thrilled about this. Boobs invading the BL land.

The humor was spot on. Dog is cute. Other girl was cute but definitely has more to it than just cute.

B cup manager <3

 

[Uchip]

enjoying sword art online so far
the scene where he calls him cute was really weird though

 

[dakkumauji]

Jinrui 01

No idea why I didn't watch it till now.

It's cute, funny, wtf and pretty interesting to watch. I love the little fairies, their expressions and pretty much lots about them.

Those three girls that kept saying Sensei~ pretty much gave me flashbacks back to those Shining Heart bread girls. Boo.

Will keep watching.

 

[Branduil]

He's a Hikkimori who hates life and wants to spend his time playing games. He reads magazines and blogs about game creators and probably spends his time debating about the merits of the RMAH on blizzard.com or Japanese NeoGAF.

But suddenly, he's trapped in this game where he has power via his gamer skills. He was once a loner but people start to appreciate him for who he is and fall in love/lust/like with him.

It's exactly what happened in Welcome to the NHK. Dude thought he could just play FF11 forever and make money selling items while finding hot girls to date. But whereas that dude learned the harsh reality of being a gold farmer with no life, SOA celebrates that life as a viable alternative (however imaginary).

It's not just that it's a power fantasy. I have no problem with girls wanting to be Precures or boys wanting to be Straw Hats. This is an introvert's power fantasy. And that's just sad.

Why do you hate introverts?

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

Jinrui 01
http://i.imgur.com/ywpbK.gif[IMG]
No idea why I didn't watch it till now.

It's cute, funny, wtf and pretty interesting to watch. I love the little fairies, their expressions and pretty much lots about them.

[B]Those three girls that kept saying Sensei~[/B] pretty much gave me flashbacks back to those Shining Heart bread girls. Boo.

Will keep watching.[/QUOTE]Oh my god, I almost dropped the show on the spot because of that. If I never hear the word "sensei" again, it will be too soon.

 

[Uchip]

NHK's mmo was different
it had cat girls and trolls

 

[firehawk12]

NHK's mmo was different
it had cat girls and trolls

There are no girls in MMOs.

 

[Femmeworth]

There are no girls in MMOs.

I would call BS, but I don't play MMOs.

Why do you hate introverts?

He's one of those self-hating introvert types.

 

[Kincaido]

Sword Art Online

An anime similar to .hack? Sign me up! Pretty great first episode. Was expecting half of the female characters to actually be guys.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Saki 5

wooo. training/hotspring eps. I'm gonna guess the broadcast version had more fog around the underaged girls' buttocks.

Yes indeed, they significantly upped the fanserviceyness of the hotsprings scenes in the DVD/BD releases.

I do find it strangely adorable that boobs keeps the penguin under the boobs. maybe that's why the boobs defy gravity.

Hmm, I don't know, could be. It's certainly not a bra holding them up, so the penguin hypothesis might work...

Also, more yuri blushes.

You can never have too many yuri blushes...

Prez is best girl though (and not just because of the VA).

Yeah, Hisa is pretty awesome.

Heh, you should watch the picture dramas.

Yeah, do watch them, but don't watch them all before you watch the series... they came with the volumes, of course, so the scenes should be spread out through the series.

I'm sure they could find a way to draw it out for as long as they want if they wanted. lol

Probably so. The first Saki serise added that part on the individual tournament to extend its length, for instance; it caught up to the manga before it ended. The manga doesn't actually cover the individual tournament, though it's mentioned at some point that the anime's individual result is indeed canon.

Now that the sidequel is caught up though, I wonder if they'll speed up Saki. Probably not though, since the manga probably brings in the cash too.

Yeah, I wouldn't guess that the main series will speed up either. The only way to do that really would be to get Ritz to draw faster, or something, and I doubt that's happening...

It's like hockey... or any winter sport to be honest. lol

Well, there are some parts of the US which like hockey reasonably well (such as this area, for instance), but I don't know of anywhere that cares too much about curling... we only have an olympic team because the US does everything in the olympics, I'd think.

The Big Windup!

I think I've heard the name before, but haven't seen it and don't know anything about it.

 

[chickdigger802]

Dog Days' 1

More cute dog/cat/squirrel girls. Case of girls increase. More fights. More tsundere.

Feels good~

 

[Crash Station]

Tanken Driland 1

Meh. Seems like a pretty generic Popolocrois clone or something. I mean I guess seeing SD people in legit fights is refreshing, but the one in this episode wasn't really that good...

Don't think I'll be keeping up with this one.

 

[firehawk12]

I think I've heard the name before, but haven't seen it and don't know anything about it.

I wouldn't say it's necessarily good - although because it's written by a woman who played softball and got a degree in sports medicine, it seems to be "accurate".

After reading some comments about it though, I can't help but see the author fantasy working in the show though - a sexy female coach who helps a group of young men become good baseball players. Although the main BL-goggled relationship between the pitcher and catcher is funny simply because... the catcher is the pitcher and the pitcher is the catcher, if you know what I mean.

 

[SDBurton]

There are no girls in MMOs.

Sure there are.

Spoiler

Guys In Real Life

 

[firehawk12]

Sure there are.

Spoiler

Guys In Real Life

The best lesson learned in Welcome to the NHK.

 

[dakkumauji]

I wouldn't say it's necessarily good - although because it's written by a woman who played softball and got a degree in sports medicine, it seems to be "accurate".

After reading some comments about it though, I can't help but see the author fantasy working in the show though - a sexy female coach who helps a group of young men become good baseball players. Although the main BL-goggled relationship between the pitcher and catcher is funny simply because... the catcher is the pitcher and the pitcher is the catcher, if you know what I mean.

I remember watching like half of the first season.

So much delicious friendship.

 

[SDBurton]

The best lesson learned in Welcome to the NHK.

Indeed.

 

[Narag]

Sailor Moon SuperS 131

Spoiler

God damn it. Not Naru again! Leave that poor girl alone, she deserves better than this shit.

Tuxedo Mask making up for that terrible rose throw from earlier too at least.


That's some interesting reading material there, Tiger's Eye.