[Maark Abbott]

Started on Lostorage Incited Wixoss yesterday which had been on my queue since the start of last season. I don't usually pay attention to card battle animes but the animation quality had me interested.

Happily, it's rather good. The fact there's a persistent sense of danger for the characters, and the past and present dynamics of and between the two leads... I'll be seeing it through to the end unless it majorly screws up.

[D'rek]

Briar King, on 17 February 2017 - 10:52 PM, said:

Started back on SAO Excal arc. So good to be in Fairy land again!

I was wondering whether you were ever going to pick that back up after dropping GGO.

Apparently there was a new SAO movie that just came out recently, and with it they announced they were going to be doing another season of the TV series in the near future, too.

Briar King, on 17 February 2017 - 10:52 PM, said:

Netflix reco The Irregulars to me. Any good?

Never heard of it... and I can't find anything by that name online either...

[Maark Abbott]

WRU:

Tanya: I'm annoyed. This week's episode was a round-up of the last six with nothing new. I'm sure there's a reason but if it's going to be a 12 episode season we just don't need it.

Kobayashi: This series continues to be good fun. It's sometimes nice to get away from series with constant danger and gruff, angry characters and into something slightly surreal but otherwise SOL.

KonoSuba: Continues to be very funny indeed. The ending this week made up for a slightly slow episode.

I've also started and finished Lostorage Incited Wixoss which I very much enjoyed, and have done the unexpected and picked Sword Art Online up again (mostly for want of any seasonals to watch that day). I've just finished episode 14 and it just got really good out of nowhere over the last two or three episodes.

[LinearPhilosopher]

Briar King, on 17 February 2017 - 10:52 PM, said:

Started back on SAO Excal arc. So good to be in Fairy land again!

Netflix reco The Irregulars to me. Any good?

Do you mean the irregular at magic school?

It`s absolute garbage. The main character makes kiritos frequent deus ex machina powerups seem reasonable.

tanya:glad to hear its a recap episod ebefore watching it XD saves me 20 minutes of my life.

Also whats wrong with GGO, i for one really enjoyed it from memory, mainly due to how effective tension was being used in how certain moments were drawn out and it was nice the series didn`t 100% revolve around kirito for a chance and introducing some legitimate character weaknesses in what is otherwise just another gary stu male empowerment fantasy for all the awkward weebs.

This post has been edited by LinearPhilosopher: 18 February 2017 - 02:48 PM

[D'rek]

Briar King, on 18 February 2017 - 03:31 AM, said:

I got the title wrong, was going off memory from little pic of recos. It's The Irregular at Magic High School.

As LP said, it's pretty terrible. The production is good enough - decent animation and music, good effects - but the story basically boils down to (a) Gary Stu claims he has weaknesses but wins at everything all the time, ( over a dozen different girls want him and constantly talk about how he's amazing, and © super awkward incest vibes between him and his sister.

Silencer said he really liked the LNs, but whatever the appeal of those are it didn't translate well to the anime.

Maark Abbott, on 18 February 2017 - 05:58 AM, said:

Tanya: I'm annoyed. This week's episode was a round-up of the last six with nothing new. I'm sure there's a reason but if it's going to be a 12 episode season we just don't need it.

It's the first show that that studio has produced. I'm not surprised there are some hiccups.

LinearPhilosopher, on 18 February 2017 - 02:45 PM, said:

Also whats wrong with GGO, i for one really enjoyed it from memory, mainly due to how effective tension was being used in how certain moments were drawn out and it was nice the series didn`t 100% revolve around kirito for a chance and introducing some legitimate character weaknesses in what is otherwise just another gary stu male empowerment fantasy for all the awkward weebs.

There's parts of it that are quite good, but it also has a lot of drawn out boring exposition/dialogue segments, I found. And too many butts.

[LinearPhilosopher]

So i got the legend of the galactic heroes light novels off amazon the other day.(i hope some of the proceeds go directly to the author). Turns out its the same guy who penned the heroic legend of arslan.

Only 3 volumes out and i've read 2 of the three so far.(i do hope vol4 gets translated in the near future)

Not bad kinda like how through the books you get a more direct access to the characters thoughts which adds another layer to some of the scenes.

I can`t get over how great of a franchise it is after watching all 110 episodes, 3 tv movies and the 2 OVA series.

Took a while (started early november at youmacon) but it was worth every moment. kinda wish there was something else in anime to fill the void now.

Briar King, on 19 February 2017 - 07:03 PM, said:

I'm enjoying Irregular quite a bit. I still don't know what fascination Jap has with brother/sister incest but it seems quite common in anime. Other then that it's cool.

Im thinking its a fetish of some sort.

D, on 18 February 2017 - 05:46 PM, said:

LinearPhilosopher, on 18 February 2017 - 02:45 PM, said:

Also whats wrong with GGO, i for one really enjoyed it from memory, mainly due to how effective tension was being used in how certain moments were drawn out and it was nice the series didn`t 100% revolve around kirito for a chance and introducing some legitimate character weaknesses in what is otherwise just another gary stu male empowerment fantasy for all the awkward weebs.

There's parts of it that are quite good, but it also has a lot of drawn out boring exposition/dialogue segments, I found. And too many butts.

You can never have too many butts`

Unless its keijo.

This post has been edited by LinearPhilosopher: 20 February 2017 - 11:45 PM

[Maark Abbott]

No, Keijo was the right amount of butts. As in GATTLING BUTT CANNON.

That show was stupid but so much fun.

I've actually binged the SAO ALfheim arc and I gotta say if the show had started off this enjoyably I'd have not moaned about it. In the Aincrad arc, even though death in the server meant death in the meatspace, it never felt like the characters were in any palpable danger.

[LinearPhilosopher]

da fuq did i watch



Butt gattling?

[Dolmen 2.0]

Briar King, on 23 February 2017 - 05:04 PM, said:

Twerking

Olympic level twerking in actual fact. But whose talking about that? Not me, no sir!

Also Lets not talk about how cerberus can sniff out her opponents...

In other news im skipping everything and watching the latest monogatari installment. Tekketsu? Its all about the big bad vampire queen that turned the protagonist. 5 mins in and its looking promising!

[Silencer]

Dolmen 2.0, on 23 February 2017 - 05:46 PM, said:

Briar King, on 23 February 2017 - 05:04 PM, said:

Twerking

Olympic level twerking in actual fact. But whose talking about that? Not me, no sir!

Also Lets not talk about how cerberus can sniff out her opponents...

In other news im skipping everything and watching the latest monogatari installment. Tekketsu? Its all about the big bad vampire queen that turned the protagonist. 5 mins in and its looking promising!

Dammit, I really need to get proper Internet back!

[Dolmen 2.0]

Silencer, on 23 February 2017 - 09:56 PM, said:

Dolmen 2.0, on 23 February 2017 - 05:46 PM, said:

Briar King, on 23 February 2017 - 05:04 PM, said:

Twerking

Olympic level twerking in actual fact. But whose talking about that? Not me, no sir!

Also Lets not talk about how cerberus can sniff out her opponents...

In other news im skipping everything and watching the latest monogatari installment. Tekketsu? Its all about the big bad vampire queen that turned the protagonist. 5 mins in and its looking promising!

Dammit, I really need to get proper Internet back!

DUDE. Kizumonogatari is like...wow.

Possibly the best animation Shaft has produced yet.

[D'rek]

Dolmen 2.0, on 24 February 2017 - 05:37 AM, said:

Silencer, on 23 February 2017 - 09:56 PM, said:

Dolmen 2.0, on 23 February 2017 - 05:46 PM, said:

Briar King, on 23 February 2017 - 05:04 PM, said:

Twerking

Olympic level twerking in actual fact. But whose talking about that? Not me, no sir!

Also Lets not talk about how cerberus can sniff out her opponents...

In other news im skipping everything and watching the latest monogatari installment. Tekketsu? Its all about the big bad vampire queen that turned the protagonist. 5 mins in and its looking promising!

Dammit, I really need to get proper Internet back!

DUDE. Kizumonogatari is like...wow.

Possibly the best animation Shaft has produced yet.

Is this the recent movie trilogy?

[Dolmen 2.0]

Yes it is! Its 2 of the 3 out since last i checked.

[D'rek]

I haven't watched any of the monogatari series and even know that those films have amazing animation! The hand-on-fire scene is especially fantastic and memorable.

Do you think someone who hasn't watched any of the rest of the series could watch these movies just on their own? Or would it make no sense at all?

[Silencer]

D, on 25 February 2017 - 10:34 PM, said:

I haven't watched any of the monogatari series and even know that those films have amazing animation! The hand-on-fire scene is especially fantastic and memorable.

Do you think someone who hasn't watched any of the rest of the series could watch these movies just on their own? Or would it make no sense at all?

Not having watched the movies, all I can say is this:

Given the rest of the series makes very little sense most of the time *anyway*, I doubt the movies would make even one lick of sense watched by themselves. XD
(no, seriously, the dialogue in some episodes is literally and deliberately incomprehensible)

[Silencer]

Unrelated note - I've just been rewatching Noein, and after 19 episodes the 20th one does not have the original audio. So I've just spontaneously been forced to shift to the dub and not only is that inherently disconcerting, but the dub is TERRIBLE.

I am, naturally, alternating between shaking my head in abject despair and laughing my ass off at some of the more atrocious performances/lines being flung out.
I don't remember this happening the last time I watched but I'm pretty sure it did (and was just this one episode). Man, the mischaracterisation here is intense. XD

[Dolmen 2.0]

D, on 25 February 2017 - 10:34 PM, said:

I haven't watched any of the monogatari series and even know that those films have amazing animation! The hand-on-fire scene is especially fantastic and memorable.

Do you think someone who hasn't watched any of the rest of the series could watch these movies just on their own? Or would it make no sense at all?

Hard to say. These 3 Movies are effectively an origin story...Things make more sense for me after watching the first one.

I think you'd need to watch bakemonogatari...just to get the context down. Everything after that can, in my opinion, be watched in any order you like.

Like Silencer says, it's not easy to follow the "storylines" or "plot arcs" and this is done on purpose. its moment to moment rather than action to action. lots of symbolism to add emphasis to wording, sort of like a synesthetic experiment in dialogue, text and visual content.

Regardless of all the above it's a singular experience to watch.

Any anime fan walks away liking something from the series if not all of it.

[Silencer]

Yeah, the monogatari series is definitely one of my favourites. SHAFTs particular brand of insanity with the animation really makes it work, imo. Totally worth a look. Just be prepared to be a bit lost with all the convoluted dialogue and stuff that appears for half a second in between scenes that adds context but no one has time to read. XD

[D'rek]

It's one of those long series I want to try and tackle at some point, but I just don't have the time right now. Like Legend of Galactic Heroes. Someday, someday!

[Maark Abbott]

Weekly roundup:

Tanya: It was nice that this went back to how things should be - explosions, action and intrigue. For some reason I was expecting [spoiler]the commander of the garrison to be Viktoriya's father being that the little girl he spoke to at the start of the episode looked so similar to her[/spoiler, but I guess not.

KonoSuba: Slow episode this week, not very much happening. A few good chuckles but I think given the subject of where the group were heading it was a deliberate setup to tweak people's noses. For this, I approve. Someone also likened it to British comedy; I can see this, and this is probably how it works so well.

MKDM: Episode picked up in the second half. The part at the comicon was great, with some more genuinely funny moments.

Non weeklies:

I finished the ALO arc and movie of Sword Art Online. Frankly I'm a little surprised at how much the quality picked up going into ALO. The movie I could probably have skipped to the last twenty minutes, but... ehhh.

I've also started on the last episodes of Chain Chronicle. I'm hoping for a big finish on this one.