[Dolmen 2.0]

Good lord I'm lost this cour. Nothing's drawing my attention for long. I'm now watching Gamers! It's quirky. I'm oddly fond of the MC. His inadequacy with dating sim games reminds me of my wasted youth.

[D'rek]

Next season seems to have a bunch of big sequels lined up. New seasons of Food Wars, Kekkai Sensen, Umaru-chan, March Comes in Like a Lion, Osomatsu-san, and Gintama. Other than Ancient Magus Bride, I haven't heard anything about any new series... but it's still over a month away.

[Maark Abbott]

Dolmen 2.0, on 29 August 2017 - 09:30 PM, said:

Good lord I'm lost this cour. Nothing's drawing my attention for long. I'm now watching Gamers! It's quirky. I'm oddly fond of the MC. His inadequacy with dating sim games reminds me of my wasted youth.

Hah, yep. Same. It's sort of fun for the nostalgia, even if the main story is a bit basic and derivative.

I'll have to keep an eye out when next season begins tbh. Initially I thought there was nothing this season and that it was trash, but here I am with more seasonals than I can manage.

[Silencer]

Maark Abbott, on 29 August 2017 - 01:00 PM, said:

Silencer, on 29 August 2017 - 08:07 AM, said:

Such a riveting back-and-forth. XD

Spoiler

Watch PrinPrin and join in kappa

In other news the manga store round the corner from my office carries SO MUCH MANGA so I of course got issues 1 and 2 of S-L/GG. Niceu.

I'll get onto Gakkou Gurashi shortly but I'm gonna wait for PrinPrin to finish before watching that.

Side note: the stupid Pokemon movie from 1999? The first one? Actually decent with subtitles. Not astoundingly better or anything, but definitely better. May also help that I believe it got some extra scenes and stuff between then and now which add to the backstory but I honestly don't remember the movie well enough to spot them. It just helps having less idiotic dialogue and without all the corners the dub painted itself into. Also, Mew is still the best Pokemon.

[Silencer]

LinearPhilosopher, on 29 August 2017 - 01:47 PM, said:

(subaru imprezas are nice and cheap to insure)

Also, Whaaaaat. In NZ (and I'm assuming Australia as well) they're horribly expensive to insure. They get stolen a lot and have a bad rep for use in street races and being modified in less than safe/legal ways. I mean, the smaller engine ones aren't so bad because they're slow, but even then the theft and rep stuff applies. Get one with a turbo and you're in for a horrible insurance premium. (worse if you're young, too, but still)

[Maark Abbott]

Silencer, on 30 August 2017 - 05:59 AM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 29 August 2017 - 01:00 PM, said:

Silencer, on 29 August 2017 - 08:07 AM, said:

Such a riveting back-and-forth. XD

Spoiler

Watch PrinPrin and join in kappa

In other news the manga store round the corner from my office carries SO MUCH MANGA so I of course got issues 1 and 2 of S-L/GG. Niceu.

I'll get onto Gakkou Gurashi shortly but I'm gonna wait for PrinPrin to finish before watching that.

Side note: the stupid Pokemon movie from 1999? The first one? Actually decent with subtitles. Not astoundingly better or anything, but definitely better. May also help that I believe it got some extra scenes and stuff between then and now which add to the backstory but I honestly don't remember the movie well enough to spot them. It just helps having less idiotic dialogue and without all the corners the dub painted itself into. Also, Mew is still the best Pokemon.

That's four weeks away, you could blitz GG in less than a week.

Notes on the manga:

Spoiler

There's a lot of differences between the anime and manga. The anime ends much like the start of the manga, with the balloons being released. The test of courage is issue 1, and the mall is issue 2 (they also visit Kurumi's house and that scene is heavy) where in the anime she turned down the offer. The backstories in certain aspects are more fleshed out, a bit less in others.

Related note: What the anime does with the episode previews was pretty clever, how in ep6 after the big reveal that Megumi is actually dead drops, and the preview has Yuki talking to her and then Megumi just fading away silently. And she's not in another episode preview after that, to my memory/

[Silencer]

Maark Abbott, on 30 August 2017 - 07:36 AM, said:

Silencer, on 30 August 2017 - 05:59 AM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 29 August 2017 - 01:00 PM, said:

Silencer, on 29 August 2017 - 08:07 AM, said:

Such a riveting back-and-forth. XD

Spoiler

Watch PrinPrin and join in kappa

In other news the manga store round the corner from my office carries SO MUCH MANGA so I of course got issues 1 and 2 of S-L/GG. Niceu.

I'll get onto Gakkou Gurashi shortly but I'm gonna wait for PrinPrin to finish before watching that.

Side note: the stupid Pokemon movie from 1999? The first one? Actually decent with subtitles. Not astoundingly better or anything, but definitely better. May also help that I believe it got some extra scenes and stuff between then and now which add to the backstory but I honestly don't remember the movie well enough to spot them. It just helps having less idiotic dialogue and without all the corners the dub painted itself into. Also, Mew is still the best Pokemon.

That's four weeks away, you could blitz GG in less than a week.

Notes on the manga:

Spoiler

There's a lot of differences between the anime and manga. The anime ends much like the start of the manga, with the balloons being released. The test of courage is issue 1, and the mall is issue 2 (they also visit Kurumi's house and that scene is heavy) where in the anime she turned down the offer. The backstories in certain aspects are more fleshed out, a bit less in others.

Related note: What the anime does with the episode previews was pretty clever, how in ep6 after the big reveal that Megumi is actually dead drops, and the preview has Yuki talking to her and then Megumi just fading away silently. And she's not in another episode preview after that, to my memory/

Ah, my bad, that was a poorly constructed sentence. I meant, "I am going to watch Gakkou Gurashi shortly." and "I am going to wait for PrinPrin to finish before watching PrinPrin." - reading back my actual sentence I can see how confusing that might have been. XD It made sense in my head!

[Maark Abbott]

Silencer, on 30 August 2017 - 07:55 AM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 30 August 2017 - 07:36 AM, said:

Silencer, on 30 August 2017 - 05:59 AM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 29 August 2017 - 01:00 PM, said:

Silencer, on 29 August 2017 - 08:07 AM, said:

Such a riveting back-and-forth. XD

Spoiler

Watch PrinPrin and join in kappa

In other news the manga store round the corner from my office carries SO MUCH MANGA so I of course got issues 1 and 2 of S-L/GG. Niceu.

I'll get onto Gakkou Gurashi shortly but I'm gonna wait for PrinPrin to finish before watching that.

Side note: the stupid Pokemon movie from 1999? The first one? Actually decent with subtitles. Not astoundingly better or anything, but definitely better. May also help that I believe it got some extra scenes and stuff between then and now which add to the backstory but I honestly don't remember the movie well enough to spot them. It just helps having less idiotic dialogue and without all the corners the dub painted itself into. Also, Mew is still the best Pokemon.

That's four weeks away, you could blitz GG in less than a week.

Notes on the manga:

Spoiler

There's a lot of differences between the anime and manga. The anime ends much like the start of the manga, with the balloons being released. The test of courage is issue 1, and the mall is issue 2 (they also visit Kurumi's house and that scene is heavy) where in the anime she turned down the offer. The backstories in certain aspects are more fleshed out, a bit less in others.

Related note: What the anime does with the episode previews was pretty clever, how in ep6 after the big reveal that Megumi is actually dead drops, and the preview has Yuki talking to her and then Megumi just fading away silently. And she's not in another episode preview after that, to my memory/

Ah, my bad, that was a poorly constructed sentence. I meant, "I am going to watch Gakkou Gurashi shortly." and "I am going to wait for PrinPrin to finish before watching PrinPrin." - reading back my actual sentence I can see how confusing that might have been. XD It made sense in my head!

Not a bad way to do it really, PP is easily enough digested that you could feasibly do it in a binge.

[Traveller]

Finished season one of Tokyo Ghoul.

It was a pretty brutal final ep, but also it seemed like

Spoiler

they effectively killed off the Keneki character in favour of a more powerful version - which is a shame as his journey is what made season one so watchable.

I watched ep1 of season 2 - and Kenekis decision makes so sense at all at this stage; which is why I guess it has unfavourable reviews. I'm tempted to leave it there - does anyone thats seen it think its worth progressing with? I really enjoyed season one.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 30 August 2017 - 08:36 AM

[Dolmen 2.0]

Traveller, on 30 August 2017 - 08:36 AM, said:

Finished season one of Tokyo Ghoul.

It was a pretty brutal final ep, but also it seemed like

Spoiler

they effectively killed off the Keneki character in favour of a more powerful version - which is a shame as his journey is what made season one so watchable.

I watched ep1 of season 2 - and Kenekis decision makes so sense at all at this stage; which is why I guess it has unfavourable reviews. I'm tempted to leave it there - does anyone thats seen it think its worth progressing with? I really enjoyed season one.

That switch is a source of big debate. Personaly i love his shift even if its a bit rough to see. I think the manga handles it well. You get more perspective from Kaneki, see that the person he is after is now just a traumatized version of who he was with a little Rize mixed in. The ruthlessness is deeply rationalized thanks to his new twisted perspective. The anime just has him acting hardcore minus all his internal dialogue and more personal discussions with other ghouls. I would really avoid watching season 2. Honestly it does the manga a huge disservice.

Edit:
If youre wondering what to watch next I think you'll love Psycho Pass. Just a hunch.

This post has been edited by Dolmen 2.0: 30 August 2017 - 09:17 AM

[D'rek]

Maark Abbott, on 30 August 2017 - 07:36 AM, said:

Silencer, on 30 August 2017 - 05:59 AM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 29 August 2017 - 01:00 PM, said:

Silencer, on 29 August 2017 - 08:07 AM, said:

Such a riveting back-and-forth. XD

Spoiler

Watch PrinPrin and join in kappa

In other news the manga store round the corner from my office carries SO MUCH MANGA so I of course got issues 1 and 2 of S-L/GG. Niceu.

I'll get onto Gakkou Gurashi shortly but I'm gonna wait for PrinPrin to finish before watching that.

Side note: the stupid Pokemon movie from 1999? The first one? Actually decent with subtitles. Not astoundingly better or anything, but definitely better. May also help that I believe it got some extra scenes and stuff between then and now which add to the backstory but I honestly don't remember the movie well enough to spot them. It just helps having less idiotic dialogue and without all the corners the dub painted itself into. Also, Mew is still the best Pokemon.

That's four weeks away, you could blitz GG in less than a week.

Notes on the manga:

Spoiler

There's a lot of differences between the anime and manga. The anime ends much like the start of the manga, with the balloons being released. The test of courage is issue 1, and the mall is issue 2 (they also visit Kurumi's house and that scene is heavy) where in the anime she turned down the offer. The backstories in certain aspects are more fleshed out, a bit less in others.

Related note: What the anime does with the episode previews was pretty clever, how in ep6 after the big reveal that Megumi is actually dead drops, and the preview has Yuki talking to her and then Megumi just fading away silently. And she's not in another episode preview after that, to my memory/

Ooooooh you're reading it? Cool!

How are you finding the tone/narrative quality/etc ? Just as good as the show? Maybe I should try reading it, too... I am curious about what happens in the story beyond the anime, and if the writing is good it'd be better to actually read it properly than to just wikipedia it.

[Silencer]

Dolmen 2.0, on 30 August 2017 - 09:14 AM, said:

Traveller, on 30 August 2017 - 08:36 AM, said:

Finished season one of Tokyo Ghoul.

It was a pretty brutal final ep, but also it seemed like

Spoiler

they effectively killed off the Keneki character in favour of a more powerful version - which is a shame as his journey is what made season one so watchable.

I watched ep1 of season 2 - and Kenekis decision makes so sense at all at this stage; which is why I guess it has unfavourable reviews. I'm tempted to leave it there - does anyone thats seen it think its worth progressing with? I really enjoyed season one.

That switch is a source of big debate. Personaly i love his shift even if its a bit rough to see. I think the manga handles it well. You get more perspective from Kaneki, see that the person he is after is now just a traumatized version of who he was with a little Rize mixed in. The ruthlessness is deeply rationalized thanks to his new twisted perspective. The anime just has him acting hardcore minus all his internal dialogue and more personal discussions with other ghouls. I would really avoid watching season 2. Honestly it does the manga a huge disservice.

Edit:
If youre wondering what to watch next I think you'll love Psycho Pass. Just a hunch.

This is actually a really solid rec going on from Tokyo Ghoul, though they're only somewhat comparable in tone and theme. Seconded.



So, as some of you may know/have noticed, I've been on a bit of a Pokemon bender lately. I've effectively ripped through three Pokemon games and am messing around with a fourth, in the past month alone. As noted upthread, I just rewatched the first Pokemon movie. Better than I remember (at least when subbed), but still kinda lukewarm due to the tired, kid-oriented nature of the Pokemon anime in general.
Now, I wanna spend a few moments talking about Pokemon Origins.

Quick facts: released in late 2013, it is a 4-episode miniseries based on the original Red and Green games. Obviously with only four 23 minute episodes, it skips a lot of the gym battles and actual catching of Pokemon that would occur in the game, opting to show the majority of these in flashbacks at the start of each episode to show the progress of our protagonist, Red. It closely follows the plot of the games with some exceptions. The rival is called Green in the Japanese version, and Blue in the dub (which is hilarious because he's still wearing a green shirt, but it nicely mirrors the way that the games were imported to the West originally).

Ultimately, what made this a win for me is that it drops a lot of what made the original anime terrible. Ash. "Trying harder" essentially being a win-button despite all evidence to the contrary. And the fact that the vast majority of what happens in the anime makes no sense relative to the games, and the characters are for the most part (bad) comic relief rather than people who show growth. Obviously Origins doesn't exactly make it into any top tens for character development, but it does a damn sight better in four episodes than the anime has done in hundreds. To the point where I pretty happily would have watched eight to ten episodes of Origins if it meant we got to see more of the journey.

Other things that were great: All the Pokemon sound like in the games, rather than arbitrarily conversing using two or three variations of parts of their names.
Battles are fucking brutal. Like, they actually tone down the rest of them in comparison, but the first battle between Red/Green is outright violent, and really rams home the comparisons to real-life dog fighting and the like. I actually sat back and said "holy shit" after that fight because I wasn't expecting it to be that full-on, despite knowing going in that it was "darker" than other adaptations.
Team Rocket is a legitimate threat, with their grunts being portrayed as competent, if card-carrying villains. No "blasting off again" rubbish here, these guys are professional thugs who catch Pokemon to use them in their business, including nets and another particularly dark scene involving a stun baton that gets...overused. It's a plot point so I won't say more.
Pokeballs, Great balls and Ultra balls are used and they all have the adorable (and potentially addicting, not that I would know >.>) "ting" sound and shooting stars when a successful capture is made.

The few things I didn't like are overall pretty minor compared to the overall quality of the series but: Red was a little *too* ignorant about Pokemon when he started. I mean, I know it's following the games and players were going into Red/Blue with very little knowledge, but this is a kid who's been dreaming of getting his Pokedex from Professor Oak and is clearly shown to be into Pokemon in general - but he apparently doesn't know about types or type-advantage, or that you can't throw Pokeballs at other people's Pokemon? (Although admittedly that second one was kinda a funny moment, especially as lately when I was playing on autopilot and forgot I was battling a trainer I have done that by accident once or twice >.<)
There are still overtones of the "heart/bond conquers all" in here - despite going to great lengths in the first episode to show Red learning about typing and such, there are a couple of matchups that just would not have gone the way they did in the games (though we don't know exactly what levels each of Red's Pokemon are at any particular point, a reasonably leveled Electric type should wipe the floor with any Water type that isn't vastly more powerful). *Although* I will give them that the way those battles went down were actually nice nods to realism, in a way - i.e. just because you have an Electric type doesn't mean it can beat a Water type if that Water type outweighs you by 60kgs and is a meter taller than you, and uses Tackle or Body Slam or something, before you can get an Electric type attack off/actually hit them with it. So this one is a bit of a give-and-take for me. Plus, the games do have a bit of the old "friendship strengthens your Pokemon" thing going these days.
There is also the biggest downside for me - I really wouldn't have minded seeing a few more of the Gym battles or general training/catching stuff. The stories they chose to focus on were good choices, but they did skip a LOT of potential content showing the journey Red took and more of the battles themselves. Though I figure with the way this one looks it might have cost a lot to animate (though who are we kidding, both Game Freak and Nintendo are absolutely rolling in piles upon piles of Pokemon money, if they really wanted to they could have made this a one-hundred episode extravaganza and not noticed if it made exactly $0 back).

But seriously. If you like Pokemon *at all*, or just never got into the anime because it was too childish/filler/sickeningly cliche, check this out. It's kind of like how I imagine a fully 3D Pokemon game should be like, in terms of visuals and battle style - seriously, if they released something like this but in game form it would be an endless time sink for me. And I'm not even that much of a Pokemon fan, recent binge on the games aside (I swear!).

Damn, that first battle though....so brutal.

[D'rek]

What brought on this sudden pokemon binge, Silencer?

re: Ash winning by trying harder... true in the average episode, though it's worth noting that

Spoiler

He has failed to win a championship tournament like 6 times, and not for lack of "trying harder". I especially liked the one in the Sinnoh league where the Tobias character comes out of nowhere with two legendaries and squashes everyone using just those two pokemon.

Apparently the Adventures manga is really brutal and dark at times, too. Like a sandslash slices another pokemon entirely in half at some point. And the characters all get turned into stone for a hundred years or something.

Also, the Blue/Green mixup thing happens in the manga, too. Worse, because there's both a Blue character (the rival, called Green in Japan) and a Green character (a thief girl who steals the 3rd starter from Professor Oak, called Blue in Japan). What a headache.


Anyways, if you didn't know there's also a Pokemon Generations short spin-off anime that aired in the last couple years that you may want to check out, too!

[Silencer]

D, on 30 August 2017 - 02:05 PM, said:

What brought on this sudden pokemon binge, Silencer?

re: Ash winning by trying harder... true in the average episode, though it's worth noting that

Spoiler

He has failed to win a championship tournament like 6 times, and not for lack of "trying harder". I especially liked the one in the Sinnoh league where the Tobias character comes out of nowhere with two legendaries and squashes everyone using just those two pokemon.

Apparently the Adventures manga is really brutal and dark at times, too. Like a sandslash slices another pokemon entirely in half at some point. And the characters all get turned into stone for a hundred years or something.

Also, the Blue/Green mixup thing happens in the manga, too. Worse, because there's both a Blue character (the rival, called Green in Japan) and a Green character (a thief girl who steals the 3rd starter from Professor Oak, called Blue in Japan). What a headache.


Anyways, if you didn't know there's also a Pokemon Generations short spin-off anime that aired in the last couple years that you may want to check out, too!

Honestly, I have no freaking idea what brought it on, lol. One weekend I just decided to pick up my 3DS again and Pokemon X was still in there so...about 30 hours later and I'd finished that, topped off my Y game, finished Sun, and bought Alpha Sapphire too. (Sadly Black 2 and White 2 are nigh-unobtainable these days it seems!). I'd probably have bought Moon as well but I don't like Sun as much as X/Y and the Ultra versions are releasing soon, so I might get Ultra Moon when that happens. Then I was at a bit of a loss and remembered that I'd heard the First Movie was better subbed and tried that, then remembered I'd heard good things about Origins. Apparently now I need to check out Generations too.


I do remember that Ash didn't actually win most of the League/Championship stuff, though his take-away from that tended to be "guess we need to work harder!" and off he'd set. Rather than, you know, getting a more balanced team, or evolving his goddamn Pikachu. XD (I actually don't hold the Pikachu thing against him, mind, I'm just being snarky. Heck, even in the games common logic is not to evolve to Raichu until quite a high level due to learnsets and stuff, and generally I keep my Pikachu as a Pikachu even if it does limit the overall stats...)
I also admit that I stopped watching a loooooooong time ago (think it stopped airing here in NZ for ages too) and only recently looked in on the XY series. How he is still 10 years old is beyond me.

I'd heard the manga could get really dark as well. It's funny that so much of the content outside the anime is way more mature than even the games, but it's good in a way that they've got that spread. Though honestly the character mixups sound just plain annoying. I don't understand what the obsession is with changing the names. Like, cool, we get it, when it got imported it got an overhaul and so we had Red/Blue instead of Red/Green. Literally has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the ongoing naming conventions of completely separate series in completely different mediums. Unlike Ash/Misty/Brock who they anglicized pretty much on the basis of "kids are stupid, better use English names" - and they then more or less stuck firm to that convention, if a character is literally named Red, Blue, or Green in Japanese (and not even Aka, Ao, or Midori! Actual English words!) they might as well just stick with those! No-one is going to look at it and be all "I don't identify with Green as the rival because my first game was Blue"!!!! Blegh.

RE: the spoiler (though this is pretty much unrelated):
The post-game for X/Y had me really conflicted. Like, I appreciate what they were doing with the inclusion of a post-game, but I've literally just defeated the Pokemon League and become the Champion, and you have me in this detective agency and send me into the city back-alleys to find kids who have gone missing. Upon arriving there, I am expected to engage in Pokemon battles with literal preschoolers (who somehow have level 40 Pokemon?!!?!!?), with my level 80+ team. Currently led by my most recent capture...Mewtwo.
I'm just not sure how I'm supposed to feel while crushing these children with a Legendary Pokemon (who can Mega Evolve), 30 odd levels above their own...who is actually my least powerful team member. I mean, if I really wanted to, I could send out my level 85 goddamn Jolteon and really wipe the floor with them, buuuuut....

XD

But yes. For whatever reason I've become moderately Pokemon-obsessed lately since picking up that 3DS, in a way that I've never been, even when I was a kid and struggling through Red and Yellow, and watching the show after school. *shrug* I sorta did this when I first picked up Y (thus why I already owned that and X, which I grabbed after getting to Victory Road in Y and deciding the slog wasn't worth it), but I burned out a lot quicker that time.

[D'rek]

On the other hand to the adventures manga being brutal and dark... it also has people with magical healing abilities, people who can telekinesis their pokeballs and Zapdos, Arcticuno and Moltres fusing into Zapmolcuno. So, let's say some ups and some downs

Yup, the name switch is just dumb.

XY-postgame (or any pokemon post-game) they should really just have the Elite-4+Champion act like the Justice League and once you win you get random calls to go to certain places on the map where Team Rocket is about to have 12 high-level Golems explode beneath a building and you need to defeat them to save the building or whatever.

[LinearPhilosopher]

I agree with a lot of silencers point. I watched it when it aired and liked the more "realistic/down to earth" take on on franchise especially with how vicious that charmander vs squirtle fight was.

Also drek that sounds like a fantastic mod.

Though at this point in my life my only real interest in pokemon is due to cosplay atm.

The full mecha-eeveelutions are schedule to make an appearance at fan expo this saturday in toronto if any of yall are in toronto (aside from silencer being NZ i have no idea where everyone else is), come on and say hi.(plzzzzzzz)

Also D'rek i highly reccomend you watch Shoukoku no Altair, fantasy anime though more towards low fantasy (similar setting to legend of arslan). Pretty good so far, the main focus of the shows is less on martial prowess and more the gathering and use of intelligence.

[D'rek]

Quote

Shoukoku no Altair

Set in the western part of the great continent Rumeliana, Mahmut is a young war orphan and the youngest Pasha in the Türkiye stratocracy who desires to ensure that war never occurs. Unfortunately, after an assassination of a politician, Türkiye is under the looming threat of the militaristic Balt-Rhein Empire. After playing a vital role in solving two schemes within his country, Mahmut sets out on a journey to see more the outside world, only to witnesses Balt-Rhein's growing influence on the continent. To protect his homeland, Mahmut and his companions travel across West Rumeliana to form alliances between his country and the other nations to face against the Balt-Rhein Empire and their frightening expansionist movement.

Could be interesting, worth a shot when I have time to add another show!

[Maark Abbott]

D, on 30 August 2017 - 01:39 PM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 30 August 2017 - 07:36 AM, said:

Silencer, on 30 August 2017 - 05:59 AM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 29 August 2017 - 01:00 PM, said:

Silencer, on 29 August 2017 - 08:07 AM, said:

Such a riveting back-and-forth. XD

Spoiler

Watch PrinPrin and join in kappa

In other news the manga store round the corner from my office carries SO MUCH MANGA so I of course got issues 1 and 2 of S-L/GG. Niceu.

I'll get onto Gakkou Gurashi shortly but I'm gonna wait for PrinPrin to finish before watching that.

Side note: the stupid Pokemon movie from 1999? The first one? Actually decent with subtitles. Not astoundingly better or anything, but definitely better. May also help that I believe it got some extra scenes and stuff between then and now which add to the backstory but I honestly don't remember the movie well enough to spot them. It just helps having less idiotic dialogue and without all the corners the dub painted itself into. Also, Mew is still the best Pokemon.

That's four weeks away, you could blitz GG in less than a week.

Notes on the manga:

Spoiler

There's a lot of differences between the anime and manga. The anime ends much like the start of the manga, with the balloons being released. The test of courage is issue 1, and the mall is issue 2 (they also visit Kurumi's house and that scene is heavy) where in the anime she turned down the offer. The backstories in certain aspects are more fleshed out, a bit less in others.

Related note: What the anime does with the episode previews was pretty clever, how in ep6 after the big reveal that Megumi is actually dead drops, and the preview has Yuki talking to her and then Megumi just fading away silently. And she's not in another episode preview after that, to my memory/

Ooooooh you're reading it? Cool!

How are you finding the tone/narrative quality/etc ? Just as good as the show? Maybe I should try reading it, too... I am curious about what happens in the story beyond the anime, and if the writing is good it'd be better to actually read it properly than to just wikipedia it.

See my photo a few pages up, there's a manga shop just around from where I work (!!!) which also happens to stock a metric fuckton of SF/F and anime as well. ^^;;

Tonally, it's much the same, issue one has a LOT of infodumps though and I'm gonna ST these for Silly who will be called Silly until GG is watched.

Spoiler

It actually starts with the original three girls. Miki appears at the end because they decide about 3/4 of the way through that they need to go to the mall for food. Miki is introduced after the balloons / pigeon fly out, she sees them drifting past her room's window. The fact that Megu-nee is a hallucination is already revealed, as is how she died (Yuki's flashbacks are very, VERY realistically handled, from experience). There's a lot said in the looks between Yuu and Kurumi when Yuki starts talking to Megumi (and there are a few times where they just show Yuki talking to an empty space or room). They do the Test of Courage in issue one, and there is a very notable art shift when Yuki sees the zombie in the library - her eyes go from full and darkish to absolutely ghostly (and not as in round Os, more along the lines of her irises lose all colour). It's very strong, even if it infodumps a little bit.

A brief roundup of things I've been watching this week:

HNG: Actually ended on kind of a sorrowful note this week. It's turned from a slapstick ecchi-fest into a very pure love story (Junichi reprimanding his friends for trying to peep and telling them to think of the girls' feelings? BLASPHEMY!), and right at the end when Junichi and Yukana are sat on the beach, very obviously in love with each other, the three other girls are shown looking heartbroken, before their characters are faded to black (but not the background around them).

Tsuredure was slow this week, not much by way of comedy. But Best Couple are in the episode preview for next week, so that should pick it up a little.

Aho-Girl: Lunacy! Boob jokes! Loud shouting! Physical comedy! Bananas! AHO-GIRL!

Honestly, Aoi Yuuki is probably my favourite VA now, and I love that she uses her Plantinum the Trinity voice for this show. It's golden.

SQ: I thought the general way that they handled Erika's flight and return was very good. I'm getting a bit of 'shop local' preaching coming from it, but nothing to spoil the story for me.

ITS: Seems to have slowed down, and it grates a little that the girls spend most of their time trying to impress the MC but then getting along like the best of friends all the time. I want some CONFLICT!

I've also been watching "And You Said There Was Never a Girl Online". Anything that ties into gaming is generally going to be a winner with me, and the fact that Ako has that ridiculous disconnect with reality is something I've seen in people before. Kind of predictable, but fun.

[Maark Abbott]

I mayyyyy have bought GG 3 and 4...

[D'rek]

Maark Abbott, on 31 August 2017 - 07:46 AM, said:

See my photo a few pages up, there's a manga shop just around from where I work (!!!) which also happens to stock a metric fuckton of SF/F and anime as well. ^^;;

Tonally, it's much the same, issue one has a LOT of infodumps though and I'm gonna ST these for Silly who will be called Silly until GG is watched.

Spoiler

It actually starts with the original three girls. Miki appears at the end because they decide about 3/4 of the way through that they need to go to the mall for food. Miki is introduced after the balloons / pigeon fly out, she sees them drifting past her room's window. The fact that Megu-nee is a hallucination is already revealed, as is how she died (Yuki's flashbacks are very, VERY realistically handled, from experience). There's a lot said in the looks between Yuu and Kurumi when Yuki starts talking to Megumi (and there are a few times where they just show Yuki talking to an empty space or room). They do the Test of Courage in issue one, and there is a very notable art shift when Yuki sees the zombie in the library - her eyes go from full and darkish to absolutely ghostly (and not as in round Os, more along the lines of her irises lose all colour). It's very strong, even if it infodumps a little bit.

Veeeery interesting. I'm surprised they switched things around to that extent. I think I like the anime ordering better, by the sounds of it, but it probably doesn't make that much difference either way.

Spoiler

Really glad they did the twist with Megumi, though. Having her be known as a hallu from the start isn't nearly as cool.

So if there's no Miki at the start, does the manga even do the first-episode twist with Yuki at all? Or is it just up-front about the zombies right away?