A note until I get a proper Clannad AS review done
Although since I haven't gotten a Toradora review started and I haven't even waxed a single line of blog-like poetic on ef ~a tale of melodies~ - which I think did a better job of wrapping everything up and wrapping everything together than Clannad AS did - I doubt such a day will ever come.
Again the problem of ranking shows comes into mind; I wonder how MAL would look if they introduced decimals into the system. Maybe grade inflation has seeped its way into my list (although it's still much below average) but I need a grade between 7 and 8.
Clannad AS is a 7 because its ending was kind of eh, it didn't deliver the emotion promised - although maybe that's because I was spoiled up through the end of episode 21 and episode 22 alternated between blowing my mind so hard I couldn't feel emotion, and being overly cheese. After all, I managed to put AS down for about a month and only finished it out of near-obligation. I never felt like I -needed- to watch the next episode.
Clannad AS is an 8 because pretty much the entirety of it past the Misae and Yukine arcs cover material that no other visual novel / harem anime will touch in a million years. Marriage. Childbirth. Death. To abuse a word, it's 'deeper' than most others of its ilk. I value uniqueness and the willingness to break the mold and I think Clannad did that.
Clannad AS is fundamentally, on paper, a very good show, and its pedigree (first season, Key, etc) is excellent, and it had very standout episodes. The problem is, those episodes didn't come near the end, and so my final impression of it is less than satisfied.
What to do?
-CCY
ISML canvassing is a lot of work
2 M3 blog posts
1 SIVS blog post
1 MAL blog post
3 MAL clubs
2 CrunchyRoll groups
3 GameFAQ topics
1 post in another forum I frequent
1 Facebook status
one computer fixed on #ISML
even my virgin post on /a/ (although that didn't really work)
+ other factors
===
+74 votes from round 4 to round 5, and a 22 vote margin of victory. Thanks everyone~!
-CCY
International Saimoe League (Prelims): An Impassioned Plea
Those of you who are getting tired of this, may amuse yourself by counting how many different ways I've posted a variant of this message on the internet.
But I've undertaken the duty of campaigning for who apparently is becoming Key's most underappreciated girl, at least in the criteria of 'getting into moe tournaments like ISML', where she loses in comparison to Nayuki, Makoto, Mai, Ayu, Sayuri, -and- Misuzu, Nagisa, Kyou, Tomoyo, Kotomi, and Fuuko.
Hmm.
tl;dr Vote for Shiori Misaka in Round 5 of the ISML Preliminaries ... please?
http://www.internationalsaimoe.com/voting/
There's the link to the voting arena - go ahead and pick Shiori in Group C and whoever else you want in the other groups ... and if you need convincing? Here's a few images and a lot of FIERY PASSION words:
http://m3.dasaku.net/moe-makes-you-crazy-aka-the-shiori-misaka-post/798/
Thank you.
-CCY
ef ~a tale of NO SCREW YOU~ 10 minddump (spoilers etc)
"Yey, I got hit by a car. I think I'm going to go sit next to a tree and die now, because the driver of the car is obviously too much of an asshole to save a cute girl. Damn hit and runs."
Good job, ef.
She Dies At The End is relevant once again, I'll just say that.
Because I watched this almost like how I read narcissu.
I was equally jarred how everything was Super Awesome Happy at the beginning, just like how Yuuko and Yuu became Super Best Friends with Mizuk- uh, Miki.
Also this qualifies Mizuk- er, Miki for osananajimi status, because she and Kuze have a past and now Kuze is a lolicon. Amused at how everything's tying in, they even managed to add in the twins and Hiro.
Oh and it's time for DEEP MOMENT TIME:
maybe the moral is "life is unfair".
Just because we're always watching fiction, doesn't mean that every single action in life has to make sense. It seems unfitting for a person's life to end this way, but since when were things nice and roses for Yuuko?
Well, it's up to you to argue whether a story like this should be compelling and sensible, or whether it should brutally depict the darker realities of life at the expense of good storytelling.
In any case I really hate the OP song because it manages to evoke so much emotion in me by simply existing. It's such a beautiful song. It even makes really, really stupid deaths emotional and stomach-churning, even if I just facepalmed my way through the actual hit and run.
What I can tell myself is that, even if it's a stupid death, it's not a meaningless one. So I still feel affected by it.
Well, Yuuko's story isn't really over, I suppose. Maybe there is a greater piece to the puzzle, that's hidden in a corner for later.
Also pretentiousness and obnoxiously long pan-ups that would make Kyon stab someone. Oh and obviously the world is
devoid of color, tainting my broken world a cruel sepia with the blood of my beloved crawling in my skin etc etc
Sigh.
I don't know. There is meaning. There is always meaning. Isn't that what we were taught?
Perhaps I'm just frustrated from being affected by something that is so illogically, so irrationally improbable that really just breaks something inside of me, whether it be my suspense of disbelief or my heart. And yet you know it could happen too...
-CCY
(p.s. and I say all this having been spoilered on her death since episode 6)
Edit: Oh, and my favorite MAL forums conspiracy theory is that it's the same idiot who plowed into Chihiro that mowed down Yuuko. (obviously Nagi who hates everybody secretly desho desho?) Some people need to have their driver's license taken away.
Edit2: And of all the things you would cut for time, I think a death scene would be the least likely?
http://behind-the.nihonreview.com/20081212/voices-from-the-other-side-ef-melo-10/
Edit3: I need sleep
ef ~a tale of melodies~ 06 datadump
What I expected: Mindfuckery.
What I got: MINDFUCKERY.
Didn't help I was fairly mindscrewed already from real life today, but that's not tonight's story.
Random notes:
* Hey what happened to those cool title cards with the page numbers and German, I was just beginning to take note of those. Maybe related to the other story
* Mindscrew artsy imagery
* Oh so empty. Definitely got me on edge, as if watching half of the entire otakusphere sort of emotionally implode wasn't enough.
* Mindscrew artsy imagery
* Is Nagi going to figure into this eventually? Right now she's just playing the "oh hey I'm crazy too" card, because everyone in ef melo is crazy. Like it's been said on a few blogs, here everyone's already been hurt, compared to the 'damage control' of memories
* Mindscrew artsy imagery
* Additionally, ef melo stands out among VN adaptations I remember because the guys have tangible story and relation to the plot as well, unlike most I see
* Mindscrew artsy imagery
* Heheh, like Kuze's "go chase after her you idiot" head jerk during the violin performance
* This isn't a gag I'm entirely f'ing serious about the mindscrew artsy imagery
* You're talking too fast oh God no don't tell me this is going to be another insanity mental breakdown scene I don't have the capacity for another insanity mental breakdown scene where they just talk faster and faster and stop making any sense and end up just repeating the same thing over and over Himura God damn it just say something anything please scream or something
(there's an actual point here)
although at this point you're really fucked either way and can't do anything and I'm surprised you even managed to have that small outburst and keep some level of sanity in front not just a naked girl but a naked girl that is crazy
(end actual point)
and they're doing that thing where the screen slowly fills up with crap like wingding bite marks and holy shit the sound it's echoing everywhere and oh yeah
mindscrew artsy imagery
for the love of god yuuko's lost it and I'm just hoping she lives past another scene at this point becuase it's really never good when someone rants on for this long unchecked and stuff and I think it'll probably make me go crazy too even if I've seen this before and predicted it and everything and although I'm probably exaggerating it a bit by ranting on with all the textual prowess and skill of a 12-year-old naruto fangirl this is some seriously crazy stuff that only ef could do and I probably haven't clenched my hands this hard since higurashi or maybe the last episode of h2o yes I said h2o stop hating on it
* Credits.
oh god there's more
-CCY
Overall, I could kind of see where it was about to twist the plot from the first minutes or so, but that probably just heightened the tension when it all finally snapped. I think it's well done. I don't know. Gut reaction is absolutely floored with only a hint of 'c'mon I've seen this before' rattling around in the back of the head, but that's probably just cynicism.
In any case, I accidentally spoilered myself for what is probably a major development and now I'm going to be on DEFCON 1 RED ALERT tension for the next forever episodes. You might just break me, ef.
Temptation is a wicked force
OK, I know I'm writing an aniblogger VN, and I know I want to go through with it ... but the urge to make something that could use something I'm much more skilled at (programming, as opposed to writing) created this unholy idea...
"Behind the meteoric internet popularity of anime in the near future, lies the gritty stage of the otakusphere, where a brutal rate of burnout and fierce flame wars create a constantly-clashing, quasi-apocalyptic setting, where only the fierce, the charismatic, and the incredibly moe survive.
On this deserted battlefield, aspiring writers fight to fill the power vacuum and become the go-to source for the legions of this worldwide passion. They fight using the only way they know how ...
aniblogger danmaku."
-CCY
