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Toonami |Jun15| Thread made with armor plating from a SPACE BATTLESHIP

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Seda

Member
once we skipped a few Bleach episodes when they were rerunning. I think that was the only significant abnormal scheduling we've seen.
 
DBZ Kai - The pacing of this episode is odd; there are three rather distinct story phases here, and the show blows through them all in 20 minutes. First, we have the continuation from last week with the Dragon Balls changing hands. Second, we have the focus on Gohan's power-up and the almost-fight that ensues. Finally, we have the Ginyu Force and the team-up it creates between Krillin, Gohan, and Vegeta. Not that moving along with a storyline is bad, but when you don't have much of a buffer between these changes in the plot, when they feel almost instantaneous, it makes them feel a little pointless. The episode kind of feels like everyone is just running around aimlessly until the Ginyu Force shows up; it's not boring because of how quickly it moves, but it never feels truly integral to the plot. Maybe my impressions are colored by how much I enjoy it when things fly in the face of the "SERIOUS BUSINESS!" image some people have of this franchise, but I love the Ginyu Force's very silly entrance. I think it almost single-handedly makes the episode.

Kill la Kill - The story of Kill la Kill has gone more or less off the rails, as we watch characters all get thrown at each other with lots of shouting and lots of clanging and lots of explosions. This can work if it's done well, because quality storytelling isn't really what the show's going for; it wants style and flair and fun. But it's none of that, because the execution can't live up. Nothing really...happens. We watch Nui bounce off various characters, we watch Satsuki trade monologues with Ragyo, we get backstory for the sake of an underwhelming and sloppy twist, but what's the point? Where are the interesting, inventive moments? Where's the good animation and choreography? They pop up here and there, but up until the end Kill la Kill demonstrates how you don't handle a show that largely eschews the importance of its plot: you make it boring. On the other hand, the ending is how you do it right. Ragyo putting on Junketsu is unexpected and outstanding in its impact, even if it doesn't make a ton of sense. Likewise, the twist with Ryuko is poor because it concerns a plot point just introduced ten minutes prior, but the fact that it also concerns Ragyo pulling Ryuko's heart out makes it all worth it.

Sword Art Online II - Gratuitous ass shots return, reaching the height of their stupidity in a scene that is framed in such a way that Kirito seems to find the answers in the crack of Sinon's virtual ass. The explanation for Death Gun is a boring one; it's plausible, but it leaves a distinct feeling of "that's it?" The fact that it's so conventional is supposed to be clever and unexpected, but it just comes across as a disappointment because of its simplicity; it feels like a lot of pointless theatrics. This gets worse when you realize that the show essentially conjures up the image of Death Gun sitting in Sinon's room, watching TV and continuously checking his watch as he waits for her to lose at a video game. Kirito's explanation feels like it just appears out of thin air, too; I see how he gets there initially, but the connections he makes to figure out the whole thing feels nonexistent. We spend almost the entire episode in this cave, jumping between the dull explanations and the hilarious melodrama and the jarring fanservice, and the only time we get out of the cave is when we go to the harem to get a recap of the events up to this point...as well as a completely inadequate explanation for why the government cannot track down Death Gun.

InuYasha: The Final Act - I get that the whole conflict with the jewel is supposed to come full circle, but the show has done such a poor job of building up that conflict that it feels very thrown-together. Worse, that conflict is one of the most anti-climactic I've ever witnessed because it amounts to just this: InuYasha talks to some demons, InuYasha calls out to Kagome, InuYasha uses the Meido somehow, InuYasha and Kagome kiss, Kagome wishes the jewel away. It's such a bare-bones finish with no real tension to speak of; the whimper the jewel goes out with borders on comical. From there, we trudge through several minutes to the very obvious conclusion of Kagome returning, when the show becomes...okay. It's nice to see how everyone gets along after a timeskip, but that's about the only positive I can mention for this episode. Goodbye, InuYasha. You were never fantastic or anything, but I'm still sorry The Final Act ended up being a rushed pile of shit.

Naruto Shippuden - Things that happened this episode: Sora transformed. Sure, some other stuff happened, but was it really relevant? Some poorly-animated fighting between Asuma and Kazuma. Some poorly-animated fighting between Sora and the other kids. Some poorly-drawn transforming from Naruto, only to have him put it away again in favor of screaming "SORA!" for the entirety of the episode. I'm almost numb to the whole "you're just like me" storyline at this point. I just want it all to end. Really this episode is just an awful jumble of screaming and fighting, dragging its feet to the finale.

One Piece - We begin with a rather long check-in on all the characters which is funny even if it outstays its welcome a bit before we finally return to Luffy vs. Lucci. And their fight kind of proves my point about how the action choreography of a flurry of blows is boring and lazy: when they escape the water, they begin trading punches with another on a looped animation. Then they break away from it, and suddenly they're sending new attacks each other's way, and they're dodging them and they're aiming them and the leap in quality is immediately apparent. It's the best fighting we've seen from the show's run since it started on the revived block; it's fluidly animated and the blows are all huge in impact, culminating in an impressive finish with Luffy's explosive Third Gear. It almost makes up for the general disjointed feel of the fight. Almost.
 
DBZ Kai - GINYU FORCE RULES GINYU FORCE RULES GINYU FORCE RULES GINYU FORCE RULES GINYU FORCE RULES GINYU FORCE RULES GINYU FORCE RULES GINYU FORCE RULES GINYU FORCE RULES GINYU FORCE RULES

Kill la Kill - The last episode I actually remember as being good and I was actually excited for the show again until the following week(s)

Sinon's Ass Online II - Kirito wills a bullshit convoluted plan into existence while we get to look at Sinon's ass

Naruto - lol

One Piece - The "This hand is a hand of a giant" scene is still cool.
 
I was playing Smash and lost to someone names Kirito. I feel like I let ToonaniGAF down
GliYqoE.png


Not even Smash is safe from the Beater.
 
DBZ - Ginyu Force the best. That song was amazing and made up for the pretty nothing episode otherwise.

KLK - Best episode so far. Good amount of fun to be had where I never found myself bored. Still don't think this show is great or anything, but I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes. And I guess Satsuki just got delegated to sidekick status now.

SAO II - This writing is the worst. I love it.

Naruto - 1 more episode!

One Piece - I love this show way more than I should with its constant recaps and need to stretch things out longer than they should. Ennies Lobby is fucking great. Also, that animation towards the end of the episode was great and the colors looked way better on the characters. Great episode.

TV, computer, phone?

That's probably what I'm gonna do, just got to figure out which stream I want on each system. Probably gonna put NBA on the phone unless the wrestling PPV gets real bad.
 
Man. Tonight's going to be busy for me.
NBA Finals
GOT, Silicon Valley and Veep
Bethesda Conference.

E3 is always crazy for me.



On another note: The new show promo look amazing. Love the art style.
 

Man God

Non-Canon Member
3rd party E3 conferences have never been exciting to me, besides that one Konami one.

I'm finally home, but went over to my folk's house to do some excavating and just got through my own cave episode of the Wii U's eshop.
 

ckohler

Member
This week’s theme was: Fanservice. Half the shows had copious amounts of booty… one of them being DBZ no less! Now, on to the reviews:

Dragon Ball Z: Kai - It started out mediocre with everyone just trying to catch up with each other. However, once Vegeta realized the Ginyu Force was arriving, things swung into high gear. I loved how quickly everyone was willing to cooperate at that point out of fear, including Vegeta! The tension felt real. The scene with Bulma was mildly funny but the best thing by far was the epic arrival. Holy shit! That song. Those poses. That blush. Absolute perfection. I was laughing for several minutes after that. Rating: GINYU FORCE RULES!

Kill la Kill - One of my favorite episodes. Every character gets their moment to shine; some quite literally! Once Ryuko and Senketsu realize 100% life-fiber sync, we get to witness the annoyingly cocky Nui finally getting legit worried for once and it’s delicious. Lots of new information was dropped in this episode, worth pointing out. For example, when Satsuki beheads Ragyo, her head comes clean off. However, some life-fiber strands remained. It seems Satsuki’s sword Bakuzan, a sword made to cut life fibers, can not PERMANENTLY cut ALL life fibers. Some are stronger and can reattach themselves. This is an important plot point to remember for later. Second, the big reveal that Ryuko is really Ragyo’s dumpster baby explains how Ryuko has been able to summon such great power recently without Senketsu. It also explains a few other little details such as that red stripe in her hair (it’s actually made of life fibers) and why her eyes have those little stitching marks in them. It also sorta explains her general, angsty disposition. During her childhood flashback we saw that she’s been fighting kids her whole life and a big reason for that is likely due to the angry life fibers in her body. They were there all along, after all. Rating: World’s Best Mom

Sword Art Online II - Toonami’s #1 comedy series continues to deliver in all the wrong ways. For an episode that was almost completely exposition, I was laughing non-stop at all the ridiculous plot holes and “backstory”. I’m not even sure where to begin. Let’s see, there’s the fact that the show can’t seem to decide if players can or can not log out. At first it’s revealed that they can’t but then why was Kirito trying to convince Sinon not to in this episode? Then there’s the reveal that players are straight up unconscious when playing SAO/GGO and their bodies are completely vulnerable to anything terrible happening IRL. That’s not dangerous or anything! Also, they mentioned the US admins for once but too bad communicating with them “takes too long” as if they communicate using carrier pigeon or something. LOL! But the most wacko moment of the entire night was watching Kirito figure out Death Gun’s murder sceme by simply staring long enough at Sinon’s sweet ass. It wasn’t even remotely subtle… the camera straight up ZOOMS IN on her butt and for no reason, he suddenly figures it out. Amazing. I was cracking up the entire time. Best comedy on the block by far. Rating: DAT ASS

InuYasha: The Final Act - Like with DBZ, the first half of this episode felt lackluster with the characters basically slowly realizing that the obvious wish was for the jewel to be destroyed. I was hoping it was going to be something more original. Still, once the jewel was destroyed, the rest of the episode was really good. I liked that they were separated for three years beyond their control (good guy Well made sure they were of age before letting them get back together, lol) and when they reunited, it was actually a really sweet moment that got me a little emotional. The best thing was the epilogue by far. Seeing how all these characters ended up was great and the whole ending sequence worked for me. Moroku and Sango banged like rabbits (to be expected), Rin learned to start trusting humans, and Sesshomaru even got to be a reluctant “onii-chan”. That was actually pretty funny when he grumbled. We even got to see the modern day people’s eventual outcomes. All in all, while the final battle between the Jewel an Kagome/InuYasha was totally lackluster the heartwarming epilogue more than made for a fulfilling ending to the series by giving fans what they most wanted… to see these characters live out their lives in peace and to see the full realization of Kagome’s and InuYasha’s love. Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Naruto: Shippuden - In a night of great episodes, this was the only dud. No amount of constipated Jinchūriki posturing could hold my attention. All I really remember was a bunch of of chess metaphors being shoved down my throat and a half-ass attempt to replicate the ending of Akira. The worst part though is that they are basically now attempting to make Sora into Crona from Soul Eater, with a scene where Maka, er, I mean Naruto tries to enter his mind and save him. Bleh. Thank goodness this filler ends next week. Rating: Checkmate

One Piece - I would have been bored to death with this episode if it weren’t for the last five minutes of pure, unadulterated awesome. This is becoming a real trend with One Piece. It started with just a ton of recaps and characters running around pointlessly. Water is coming. We get it. But once the episode FINALLY decided to focus on something it picks the best place to be… the fight between Luffy and Lucci! The animation was actually really great during this. I guess Toei can animate when they want. Lucci looked quite powerful but he’s no match for the power of THIRD GEAR! I was pleasantly surprised when the episode actually showed Luffy using it. I totally expected him to just shout, “Third Gear” and immediately cut to “To Be Continued” but instead we got to see the full attack and, DAMN, it was epic. I’ll be happy to endure another 20 minutes of boring recap next week if it means we’ll get another five of this fight. Rating: Nya Nya Nyaaa

All in all a great week for Toonami! Shippuden was still crap but the rest of the block really delivered and was entertaining. One of the best weeks in a long time and next week we get a new show, too! Woo!
 

Man God

Non-Canon Member
One benefit to making DBZ KAI gifs is I get to hear the great version of Dragon Soul.
One curse to making One Piece gifs is I get to hear the full version of Crazy Rainbow Star.
 

Akainu

Member
Catching up.

Sucks that I miss the episode that the ginyu force show up.

SAO is ridiculous the thing that confuses me about these ass shots is that it's not even impressive. They could have at least made it good. : /
 

ckohler

Member
So am I the only one who kind of dislikes the Michiko and Hatchin promo? I think the beginning part goes on too long and the rest feels disjointed.

I kinda feel the same. It doesn't sell the show to me. Michiko looks great as a character design, and the animation looks solid, but that's about it thus far. I can't really gleam any story aside from them being on the run.
 

ckohler

Member
Yeah, it was a little boring.
Without having seen it, I'm betting that was mostly taken from the first episode which probably means 90% of the first episode is only about Hanna's crap life and ends with Michiko smashing through the window.

I could be completely wrong but that's the impression I get.
 

LOLDSFAN

Member
So am I the only one who kind of dislikes the Michiko and Hatchin promo? I think the beginning part goes on too long and the rest feels disjointed.

It felt like there's going to be a lot less violence/action then the promo led on. I could be wrong though (don't tell me if I'm wrong).
 
Without having seen it, I'm betting that was mostly taken from the first episode which probably means 90% of the first episode is only about Hanna's crap life and ends with Michiko smashing through the window.

I could be completely wrong but that's the impression I get.

I think you're right on the money. I'm sure this will be a show we all love but that bombs in the ratings.
 

grandjedi6

Master of the Google Search
Without having seen it, I'm betting that was mostly taken from the first episode which probably means 90% of the first episode is only about Hanna's crap life and ends with Michiko smashing through the window.

I could be completely wrong but that's the impression I get.
Are there any Toonami promos that aren't just taken from one episode primarily?
 

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
Is Final Fantasy X pretty good? I picked up the Vita version a few months ago and haven't played it yet.

It was one of the last good Final Fantasy games. If turn based combat doesn't bother you then you'll have fun. Play with the international sphere grid though, it gives you way more combat options as you get abilities quicker and there are less filler upgrades. All that said the combat doesn't live up to it's full potential very often, there's some really cool fights--like on the boat--but not nearly enough. Not to say it's bad, but you can very easily see that they could do a better job with it if they had wanted to.
 

ckohler

Member
Are there any Toonami promos that aren't just taken from one episode primarily?

Most include 80-90% from the first episode with a few brief shots from future episodes. It's really the only way to they can cut a promo without spoilers so it's to be expected.
 
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