[D'rek]

LinearPhilosopher, on 14 December 2015 - 01:50 PM, said:

Watched the latest Owari no Seraph episode. I for one can't wait for the english dub of this latest episode. If the writing staff is any good, the homosexual undertones will make for hilarious dialogue

"Is that a demonic sword in your pocket, or do you just want to suck on me?"

[Dolmen 2.0]

Dimension W

Preview 1

http://2.bp.blogspot...xGYIW0BAN0w=m22

Preview 2

http://2.bp.blogspot...ZI4J3r6Nw0w=m22

One guy reading the Manga described it as Cowboy Bebop meets Salty Rei.

I am keen for this show.

[LinearPhilosopher]

D, on 14 December 2015 - 11:52 PM, said:

LinearPhilosopher, on 14 December 2015 - 01:50 PM, said:

Watched the latest Owari no Seraph episode. I for one can't wait for the english dub of this latest episode. If the writing staff is any good, the homosexual undertones will make for hilarious dialogue

"Is that a demonic sword in your pocket, or do you just want to suck on me?"

did u actually watch the episode? The subs did a decent job but my god those two were arguing like a gay couple. Was hilarious.

[D'rek]

LinearPhilosopher, on 15 December 2015 - 07:46 AM, said:

D, on 14 December 2015 - 11:52 PM, said:

LinearPhilosopher, on 14 December 2015 - 01:50 PM, said:

Watched the latest Owari no Seraph episode. I for one can't wait for the english dub of this latest episode. If the writing staff is any good, the homosexual undertones will make for hilarious dialogue

"Is that a demonic sword in your pocket, or do you just want to suck on me?"

did u actually watch the episode? The subs did a decent job but my god those two were arguing like a gay couple. Was hilarious.

No, I'm not watching any of this cour of it. I almost went crazy trying to watch the last cour's stupidity. Once was enough.

[D'rek]

Dolmen 2.0, on 15 December 2015 - 06:10 AM, said:

Dimension W

Preview 1

http://2.bp.blogspot...xGYIW0BAN0w=m22

Preview 2

http://2.bp.blogspot...ZI4J3r6Nw0w=m22

One guy reading the Manga described it as Cowboy Bebop meets Salty Rei.

I am keen for this show.

I'm going to keep my expectations low on this one.

This is the synopsis:

Quote

In the year 2072, the world's energy problems seem solved by a network of cross-dimensional electric-field inductors—"coils"—that extract energy from a seemingly infinite source. That source is the W dimension, a fourth plane that exists beyond the X, Y, and Z dimensions.

In this world, unofficial "illegal" coils harness powers that the police can't hope to counter. Dealing with these coils is the job of coil-hating repo man Kyoma, whose run-in with the unique coil android Mira leads the two to form a reluctant partnership.

...which to me sounds like a whole bunch of gobbledegook that will serve as a token explanation for creating a pseudo-magic "Coils" power that can do anything the author wants to and justify whatever technology, superpowers, loli-robots, etc, but won't ever be explored or explained in any depth.

From the PV, the art and CG look great but if the plot is just "protagonist and his sidekick go around fighting people with miscellaneous SuperCoilPowers" then I think it'll just be a fun popcorn ride and not much more.

But hey, at least the MC isn't a high school student! So more of a Darker than Black or Trigun kinda thing.

And the director is Kanta Kamei, who directed Usagi Drop, which I haven't seen yet but people say was really good, so I'm ready to be surprised by this if it does turn out to be great.

[LinearPhilosopher]

actually if anything it reminded me of the armitage series

[Bulwyf]

Caught up on 2.5 seasons of RWBY.

I liked it overall Production Quality increased greatly for season 2.

[D'rek]

Bulwyf, on 16 December 2015 - 01:59 PM, said:

Caught up on 2.5 seasons of RWBY.

I liked it overall Production Quality increased greatly for season 2.

Yeah, second season was a huge quality improvement across the board - animation was cleaner, colouring wasn't so overly shiny, better voice acting, and just generally more time put in (so no more greyed out characters), etc.

That being said, I think the story went totally off the rails. The first season was nicely focused around the 4 main characters and a few side-stories of the B-team. Tertiary characters (Penny, Sun, the teachers, etc) only came to the forefront as necessary and then shuffled back so the story could stay centered on the main 4. In season 2 (and so far same in season 3) though they added a ton of new tertiary characters and keep bringing them to the forefront instead, so the main 4 aren't really doing anything anymore and the character development is pretty poor.

Each season is only a few hours long... I think they bit off more than they could chew with all these attempts to show all sides of things. Would've been better off never showing the bad guys or the secret teacher meetings, and just letting the audience find that stuff out at the same time that the A-team does.

[LinearPhilosopher]

agreed, no need to show the badguys, comes off as a bigger surprise later on

that being said, quality of the show as a whole has gone up i'd say. I wasn't big on s1 as i thought it was just a walking cliche with no depth but it is growing on me and does have depth. Take weiss sister. First episode i saw her im like, how big was the hedgehog that crawled up your ass? Next episode she actually has a good relationship with her sister that isn't the stereotypical im serious and perfect and blah blah blah....

I think the show is doing fine for what it is for dvp. At this point im not really sure how the main cast could be dvped further.

[D'rek]

LinearPhilosopher, on 16 December 2015 - 03:22 PM, said:

agreed, no need to show the badguys, comes off as a bigger surprise later on

that being said, quality of the show as a whole has gone up i'd say. I wasn't big on s1 as i thought it was just a walking cliche with no depth but it is growing on me and does have depth. Take weiss sister. First episode i saw her im like, how big was the hedgehog that crawled up your ass? Next episode she actually has a good relationship with her sister that isn't the stereotypical im serious and perfect and blah blah blah....

I think the show is doing fine for what it is for dvp. At this point im not really sure how the main cast could be dvped further.

Well, they're obviously going with the family issues this season. Weiss and her dad/sister, Yang and her mom (possibly Ruby and her mom, too, but that's more backstory I think). But I don't feel like we've had the necessary build-up to really understand what the relationship between any of those combinations really is or how the characters feel about them other than shallow "Weiss is torn between being heir to her family and being a huntress" and "Yang wants to know more about her mysterious mom". We haven't seen nearly enough actual interaction between Weiss and her father or seen any sort of conflict between her two possible choices to have as much understanding or empathy as we did for, say, Blake when she ran away in season 1.

Heck, how much lines have Yang and Blake even had so far this season?

The fights in S2 were fantastic, and so far S3 is mostly living up to that standard, despite no longer have M.Oum, so those are still great fun, but what used to be fun, wacky hijinks between fights and a focus on the A-team's development and sleuthing has become nothing but tertiary characters expositioning to each other. Which sucks, because I loved the wacky hijinks parts. It just feels kinda more popcorny to me and less interesting for its actual story or characters anymore. I have a really hard time caring about Qrow when he shows up just for the sake of fighting and complaining about muddy "strategies" that make no sense... feels like he's only there because some fans were probably clamouring over the idea of finally seeing him.

[LinearPhilosopher]

D, on 16 December 2015 - 05:22 PM, said:

LinearPhilosopher, on 16 December 2015 - 03:22 PM, said:

agreed, no need to show the badguys, comes off as a bigger surprise later on

that being said, quality of the show as a whole has gone up i'd say. I wasn't big on s1 as i thought it was just a walking cliche with no depth but it is growing on me and does have depth. Take weiss sister. First episode i saw her im like, how big was the hedgehog that crawled up your ass? Next episode she actually has a good relationship with her sister that isn't the stereotypical im serious and perfect and blah blah blah....

I think the show is doing fine for what it is for dvp. At this point im not really sure how the main cast could be dvped further.

Well, they're obviously going with the family issues this season. Weiss and her dad/sister, Yang and her mom (possibly Ruby and her mom, too, but that's more backstory I think). But I don't feel like we've had the necessary build-up to really understand what the relationship between any of those combinations really is or how the characters feel about them other than shallow "Weiss is torn between being heir to her family and being a huntress" and "Yang wants to know more about her mysterious mom". We haven't seen nearly enough actual interaction between Weiss and her father or seen any sort of conflict between her two possible choices to have as much understanding or empathy as we did for, say, Blake when she ran away in season 1.

Heck, how much lines have Yang and Blake even had so far this season?

The fights in S2 were fantastic, and so far S3 is mostly living up to that standard, despite no longer have M.Oum, so those are still great fun, but what used to be fun, wacky hijinks between fights and a focus on the A-team's development and sleuthing has become nothing but tertiary characters expositioning to each other. Which sucks, because I loved the wacky hijinks parts. It just feels kinda more popcorny to me and less interesting for its actual story or characters anymore. I have a really hard time caring about Qrow when he shows up just for the sake of fighting and complaining about muddy "strategies" that make no sense... feels like he's only there because some fans were probably clamouring over the idea of finally seeing him.

"if you were one of my men i'd have you shot"
"if i was one of your ,en i'd shoot myself"

How canu not like this badass

[D'rek]

Speaking of RWBY, I just got caught up.

Somebody has to fight Penny in the festival? That's just unfair!

Spoiler

So Cinderellady hacked into the school servers. Ruby caught her in the act. It's not like there was anything in that room except computers. Do Ozpin/Qrow/etc not suspect that hacking their servers is exactly what the mystery infiltrator was trying to do? How did they not check the servers, change all the passwords, etc and block her out? And how the heck does getting access to the school servers give her details on Penny, the super secret project that only the admiral guy knows about... why would his secret data be on the school servers instead of, say, his personal computer on the flagship?

Durrrrrr this evil plan is duuuuuumb.

[D'rek]

Pretty Fun Article: (ANN) 10 Moments of Spectacular Animation from 2015

Lots of great picks, and really cool to see a little highlight reel of the year's best visuals and see some of the ones I missed. The article is full of links to even more great ones, too!

The Shirobako one is a little bit spoilery, so might want to skip past that. Otherwise they're all safe!

[D'rek]

Well, One Punch Man is over. Very good finale...

Spoiler

HE'S ON THE FUCKING MOON!!!

...with the same quality of animation, choreography, music, jokes, etc, that the show has consistently been delivering all cour.

I really liked how they paired up the music and that one quick cut of a heartbeat from the first episode with Boros in the last episode, a clever bit of linking ideas there.

Overall, I wouldn't call the show a masterpiece, as I think it didn't really have a lot of story or theme to it, but it is a show that has fantastic execution and basically doesn't do anything wrong. It actually lived up to the hype!

[LinearPhilosopher]

Enjoyed the OPM finale. Was quite fitting, and symertrical.

Also of note, noragamis' been a great watch in terms of how it expanded upon it's own premise and delved into old characters while at the same time still increasing the cast sizy. Exposition was minimal and done organically.

A decent season of anime, but i think we can all agree winter 2016 is gona be a great season of anime

[D'rek]

LinearPhilosopher, on 21 December 2015 - 08:26 PM, said:

Also of note, noragamis' been a great watch in terms of how it expanded upon it's own premise and delved into old characters while at the same time still increasing the cast sizy. Exposition was minimal and done organically.

Glad to hear! I really loved the first season of Noragami, but I watched it dubbed so I'm waiting for the English dub before watching season 2. Can't wait!!!


Also, I just started D-Frag. It is basically a high school gag comedy, where the protagonist is the only relatively sane person surrounded by crazy people that are up to crazy antics, which is not necessarily all that original of an idea but D-Frag does it really, really well. The characters are a great blend of wacky but still feel real, it makes fun of itself and its own tropes, and the main character often finds himself participating wholeheartedly in the shenanigans.

I think what works best about it is that even when it's getting really crazy, it sticks to plausible real-world rules - they don't do the "character is so mad they pull a machine gun out of their pants and strafe the hallway" kind of jokes. It's not the world that is crazy and over-the-top, it's just the characters themselves and their melodrama.

Anyways, I'm loving it. It's not innovative or sophisticated, nope, its just silly characters, gags and boob jokes. But they're, like, really good gags and boob jokes (and I'm normally by default already sick of those before the first one!).

[LinearPhilosopher]

someone mind explaining to me why every time i see dialogue between girls in anime its always about boob size (or lack thereof) or weight???

Pretty sure thats not all of what women talk about.

[D'rek]

LinearPhilosopher, on 22 December 2015 - 03:49 AM, said:

someone mind explaining to me why every time i see dialogue between girls in anime its always about boob size (or lack thereof) or weight???

Pretty sure thats not all of what women talk about.

Indeed it is not. But it is apparently what adult Japanese writers think young Japanese men think teenage girls talk about and/or what adult Japanese writers think young Japanese men want to see/read teenage girls talking about. I say young Japanese men because, AFAIK, that is overwhelmingly the demographic that buys those particular kinds of manga/LN/VN/anime.

Let's face it, LNs, manga and VN are not exactly a high-brow art form. There are a few here and there that are really visionary and amazing, but there's also hordes of them that are guttural crap. I don't know a whole lot about how the industry works but it sounds like there are a TON of them being published and it's not *that* hard to get published - lots of publishers seem to run web contests or talent competitions where the top prizes include having your work get published for X issues.

Whether it's because the authors lack imagination, or because the people buying them don't seem to get tired of the same old cliches, one way or another the endless high school club stories, girls comparing boobs, boys with mysterious evil powers in their right hands, exceedingly dumb protagonists who don't realize they have a harem, etc, etc, all seem to somehow keep selling and therefore publishers keep green-lighting more of them... and then keep financing anime adaptations of them to help them sell more.

Yeah, I'm totally a cynic about that stuff and it usually immediately tanks my opinion of a show. I wouldn't say I respect D-Frag, but the fact that it actually manages to still actually make some of those same old gags funny after countless pathetic instances from other shows is at least worth a bit of praise from me.

[LinearPhilosopher]

D, on 22 December 2015 - 05:02 AM, said:

LinearPhilosopher, on 22 December 2015 - 03:49 AM, said:

someone mind explaining to me why every time i see dialogue between girls in anime its always about boob size (or lack thereof) or weight???

Pretty sure thats not all of what women talk about.

Indeed it is not. But it is apparently what adult Japanese writers think young Japanese men think teenage girls talk about and/or what adult Japanese writers think young Japanese men want to see/read teenage girls talking about. I say young Japanese men because, AFAIK, that is overwhelmingly the demographic that buys those particular kinds of manga/LN/VN/anime.

Let's face it, LNs, manga and VN are not exactly a high-brow art form. There are a few here and there that are really visionary and amazing, but there's also hordes of them that are guttural crap. I don't know a whole lot about how the industry works but it sounds like there are a TON of them being published and it's not *that* hard to get published - lots of publishers seem to run web contests or talent competitions where the top prizes include having your work get published for X issues.

Whether it's because the authors lack imagination, or because the people buying them don't seem to get tired of the same old cliches, one way or another the endless high school club stories, girls comparing boobs, boys with mysterious evil powers in their right hands, exceedingly dumb protagonists who don't realize they have a harem, etc, etc, all seem to somehow keep selling and therefore publishers keep green-lighting more of them... and then keep financing anime adaptations of them to help them sell more.

Yeah, I'm totally a cynic about that stuff and it usually immediately tanks my opinion of a show. I wouldn't say I respect D-Frag, but the fact that it actually manages to still actually make some of those same old gags funny after countless pathetic instances from other shows is at least worth a bit of praise from me.

makes sense. I was watching Hinike euphonium (that link you posted earlier got me interested). Im really enjoying the show thus far, i guess what may have accentuated that was that i was watching episode where all the girls gets their physicals done. Maybe that's a bit more believable. Started with ep 5 and so far enjyoign the show im a few eps in. I like the practise parts of episodes as it reminds me of my own practises for choir (not a religious one though, i couldn't stand that)

[D'rek]

Having routine medical check-ups done at school is one of those weird things that seems like a weird anime/manga thing and then turns out to be actually really common across Japan... same as opening school ceremonies, students cleaning the school, a huge emphasis on club activities, student councils actually running a budget, etc etc...

Anyways, yeah, at least Hibike!E makes it more believable by putting it in a bit more context. Teenage girls don't constantly talk about and compare breast sizes, but that's not to say they never bring it up either, and having it happen during the weight measurement part of a school medical exam is at least a lot more natural of a setting than random walking-down-the-street conversation.

And Hibike!E just goes to show how hard it is to get away from these silly tropes. Sure, having that little bit in there works as far as showcasing Kumiko's insecurity further, but there's plenty of other ways to do that and Hibike!E does use lots of other ways to show it, so they really didn't even need to indulge in that trope. Thankfully, AFAIR it is pretty much a one-and-done, you won't see them stoop to that point again (unlike so many other shows that bring it up again and again and again and again...).