Hey! I've been back in California for a while so everything going well. Recently got interviewed for two jobs so that's off my back for now. I'm also helping two of my friends and my brother with writing. It's easy with my little bro since he knows I'll give my honest feedback on what he writes, but my other two friends they won't. They're afraid of me as if I'll tear apart whatever they write lol. I also manage to get rid off my stalker.
It took about a month to get my restraining order since it wasn't a domestic case and the filing would take longer to approve if I didn't have proof that she was a potential threat. I got her father who is divorced and he helped me out. Sadly, he said my case was tame in comparison to the 38 year old she went out with first. WTF came to mind when he said that to me. There was other things in the process like paperwork and an attorney look over it, but my money. Man, having it go into things I never thought I would ever need does not put a smile on my face.
When I did get it approve I was given the option of either doing the process in court, delivering the restraining order by mail, and do it personally. I was confused since I always thought it was done in court, but oh well. Pittsburg school system is broken so I should have expected the same for how its city is run. So I call Briana from a friends phone and tell her to meet me in a park. I bought a bouquet of flower and a nice looking envelope.
At night, when we're alone in some random park. After giving her some flowers I spout some BS about second chances. I make it appear like I'm going to confess to her with a poem before opening it up and saying in a over the top manner "RESTRAINING ORDER BITCH" shoving the papers in her face. Her face went from being happy to being absolutely shock to looking like she was about to cry. I still go on, telling her if she ever follows me around, my family, appear anywhere near me intentional or not I will call up the police and have her arrested. Her dad would help me out because of some unknown family issues. When she was about to show what I assume was her showing some humanity and getting the point that we never were a couple says why to me. The only thing that came up to my head at that time was the last time I broke with a girl by saying she's a Clingon. I'm pretty sure it went over her head like everything else she disliked hearing, but that seemed to have resolved it. She stopped bothering during the rest of my time their.
Status update and other stuff
I finally quit my job at Sugar Creek (the bacon factory I worked at here in Pittsburg). Right now, I'll be enjoying some down time before heading back to California and starting the process again of maintaining a steady life on my own. Sadly in August, I'll have to do some more packing and moving around personal items. So I still won't be very active here until I get to California in about three weeks, but at least I get more opportunities to be on MAL compare to before.
There's still some things here that need fixing like a broken car engine and some bad floor work, but with my help I was able to put my family in a much better position than when I came here. They don't have to worry about not having food or loosing the house for a while. I also bought them a couple of nice things on the side that they've wanted. I would consider it a success, even if everything is not exactly fix. Some things are out of my control; like the terrible roommate my parents won't kick out for some reason. In my short time here I helped my folks out more so than their roommate ever does. It doesn't help matter that the roommate doesn't even pay for child support so on top of being a terrible roommate who eats allot. It wouldn't be much of a big deal if he put more than 50 dollars for grocery, but nope sometimes he gives less to my folks which pisses me off. Off course I can't do anything since I don't own the house, and also my dad can prove to me he's not hypocrite when it comes to parenting. Our relationship is complicated.
So I'll get out what happen here in Pittsburg, Kansas in this spoiler. Be warned though, working a full month (as well as overtime) without a day off has my head sorta fuzzy at the moment.
Terrible Coworkers Chronicle
Now that I finally ended my time in Sugar Creek I might as well go over some of the issues I had with working with some of them. I didn't have must issues with most of them since they were good people and never made feel uncomfortable in any way. They were very good people. Some however pissed me off during my time there. Lets started of with the cousins coworker by the names of Steven and LD (I'm serious, even his state ID only has two letters). They were basically suppose to help me run my line which had me checking metals in meats, grinding meat and putting it back on the conveyer belt, filling boxes with thousands of pounds of a specific product, doing paper work on the side, cleaning the Octo a machine that cool downed the cook meat product, making no oil spills, and a couple of other things on the list. On a slow day I'm able to handle, but when it goes fast it can be difficult to manage. Add a coworker who spends most of his time talking it makes it more difficult. LD "helped" me out the most which is putting it kindly. He could hardly keep up with my pace and needed to supervise him sometime just to make sure he did something correctly.
Every day we worked together he would ask me if he go to the restroom and take like fifteen minutes before returning. He would also ask me if he go vomit and tell me he couldn't do heavy lifting the whole day. I should have mentioned that LD apparently had military training and told me he's in the army. That's right. A soldier in the army couldn't handle doing my job. The most my exercise amounts to is typing on a keyboard or moving my fingers when playing video games. So someone who types reviews on the web from California is more suited to multitasking a production line by himself than someone from Pittsburg who joined the army. That's quite sad. The way LD exit from Sugar Creek pissed me off. So for the week he left several times without telling me. One day he left in the middle of a swift without telling leaving exhausted checking several machines. I almost lost a dozen of pounds of bacon when LD simply went to call his mom. It wouldn't have pissed me off if he told he was going to make a call when I had my hands full. Then he outright just quits because it's too hard even though I did 90% of the work. I could do the job by myself, but LD couldn't which tells you what a big help he is. He was a terrible coworker.
Then his cousin Steven was just as bad. Everyday he would come to me and complaint how cold it was in the section I worked at. I kept telling him to put on a extra shirt or get a different jacket, but couldn't get that idea in his head so I had to listen to "It's cold in here" from May to June every single time he wanted to talked to me. He was better than LD, but the job wasn't suited for him. Like LD, he would take to many restroom break and ask me to cover for him. With the list of things I had to it wasn't much to my liking as you would expect. I did it several times for him. My other coworkers didn't like him either since he wasn't much of a hard worker. When he got fired I really wasn't surprise since I knew him during his short time working their.
My supervisors also were an issue. Sometime they would make my job allot harder than it needed to be. There several times where a machine would break simply because they didn't want to change the settings. Regardless if I did something they wanted me to do if something went wrong I would get in trouble. This includes my exposure to Nitrogen which passed as nothing serious me reporting affecting my performance at work. It was a rarity when a supervisor actually helped me out. It was more surprising when I was in demand to work in other sections of the plant. Despite me being one of two people who know how to do the job it was annoying being moved around allot. I don't mind helping out, but if the workers are incompetent at doing the job they were you know train to do than they should probably consider hiring more people.
People were actually sad I was leaving and wanted me to stay. The fact the factory is in Pittsburg Kansas already makes it unappealing. They would have to sweeten the deal allot before I even considered returning back to this place letalone willingly work there again. Aside from being a pain it ate way too much of my time to the point overtime was common. If it wasn't for the fact I quit last month I would have barely had any time off in a month. That's right. I had to go an entire month without a break. It paid well, but if my well being isn't a concern for the company (like getting red eyes) than good riddance that I left.
Another nice bonus is there's hasn't been any snake incidents these pass three weeks which is a relief. I sort of have a fear of snakes. I didn't expect to come across them as frequently as I did here. Then again my life (so far) in general has mostly been filled with odd experiences. On that university matter there's quite a bit of interesting aftermath to that story.
Not only that, but I involuntarily screwed over so many people at PSU all because I wanted the university to not blackmailed me out of money they didn't deserve or owed to them.
One thing you won't find in any local papers around this here parts is how they attempted to blackmailed a former student out of money in any articles. It's not the first time this city wants to keep things the rug. There was this incident at the University like two years ago where students got killed because of some cult and there was an explosion in one of the buildings on compass. So yeah, there's a University more concerned for the image than you know, quality education or the well being of its students. From personal experience I can tell you that it's a waste of 5000 dollars. There were other local stories that were reported on the local news, but you won't see the local paper printing them or posting them on any website. I knew the education at PSU sucked, but this matter was way worse than I expected.
My Stalker and Me
So to recap my stalker didn't want to leave me alone even somehow getting my cell phone number. I simply didn't use it for a month which seemed to have work. I tried avoiding my stalker, but that didn't work since there ain't that many places to go in a small town. Her desire to talk to me bugged me, more so than doing allot of singing. Yeah, one thing I didn't expect to do was sing as much as I did here letalone virtually all the instances being because of my stalker. I asked her before what her deal with making me sing, and kept repeating how when we "not dated" I told her to sing for me.
Briana was annoying, but more hazardous to my health. There were situations were she would make me look bad in public so someone might beat me up. Some actually wanted to, but I repeated the process of kicking the guy in the balls, and then running away like a coward. Except for one time I simply skipped the balls kicking and just ran for it. For a while I attempted to figure how to get rid of her before eventually giving up. Then afterwards I went to a Starbuck where a friends of my brother wine to him that he couldn't get a girlfriend. I had my headphones on so I didn't catch that immediately. It was only when my little brother made a quick introduction between us that the idea passed into my head. I'll be leaving soon either way back to California anyway, but if I could divert her attention away from me that would better. So I lied about Briana to my little brother friend making her out to be better than she actually was. He bought it and than commence phase two..
So picture this; in a open campus you have guy playing acoustic guitar, another guy helping his friend sing, and the guy in the center singing to the girl to get a date. You think I would intentionally try to pick a song for this guy to sing to get rid off Briana attention from me. Nope, I decide it was a good time to do something cartoonish. I told the guitar player to listen to 2gether "U + Me = Us" and learn to play it on his guitar. If you've never heard the song here are some of the lyrics.
I'm loosing my hair
And my vision is shady
Last night I dreamt of an overweight lady
I need a young thing to keep up with my pace
To hold me close
And take me straight to second place
I know my calculus
It says you plus me equal us
The crowd got a good laugh at the "you plus me equal us" lyrics. Funny thing is we kept going and embarrassed Briana in the wrong way. Of course I sang something called "U + Me = Us" out in public, but it's Pittsburg and frankly I don't give a Van Damme about how I come across to people here. As you would imagine that didn't work. As for the rest I am currently in the process of handling that. So wish me luck!
I manage to squeeze in time to see a couple of anime series, but sadly for most of them I don't have much nice things to say about. Lets start with Blood-C which is essentially the anime equivalent of being rick-rolled. Except of being mildly annoyed it makes you feel like you wasted your whole time when the twist in a 12 episode series basically amounts to saying "We knew this suck, but we still did it either way". There was plenty of things wrong with it from the weak writing and repetitive episodes structure. The really cheap animation didn't help matter. Backgrounds are usually deserted so when a episode tries to make it look suspicious that an entire school campus was empty you just assume is business as usual. I laughed when the characters acted like it was a big deal not to see people outside when most of the series have a lack of background characters. The music was forgettable all of which sounded like stock music you could find for free on the web. Pretty much it sucked. The only thing enjoyable about it was mocking the opening theme with my little brother and just laughing at the fact our mocking of how voice actor sounded (we basically joke it was more fitted for a mystical dragon) like actually turned to be a plot twist.
Another series I also finished here was Knights of Sidonia. Oh where to begin with this trite. It's basically the most uncreative and generic sci-fi story ever written. Granted allot of the ideas it uses have been done to death before, but in Knights of Sidonia it plays them straight without effort to go against an establish genre norm. It was a boring series to see because I able to predict every plot twist and who was going to die in the series within seconds of introduction. Now it does have the same issues Attack on Titan has like the lack of characterization before characters dies and inconsistent pacing, but it was twice the length of Knights of Sidonia so things like the world building, some developed characters, and some engrossing moments were pulled of successfully. In Knights of Sidonia since its shorter the issues are harder to forgive since the aliens never feel like a major threat. At one point in the series there's a montage of the MC killing Gana (or as I called them Ganerea since making fun of it was entertaining while predictable things occur). The length is my biggest issues with the anime. Due to it being 12 episodes there's major tonal shift causing for some unintentional hilarity. In one episode the ship crew made a big deal of turning the ship left and dozen of people got killed. I laughed at the fact the crew didn't bother taking into account the Gana can make turns acting like it would act tension. For a series that has future tech the people in the universe are really stupid.
In one episode around 300 Knights disobey orders to save a single person, yet in the final battle in the anime when fighting against a planet size Gana around thirty are sent. Surely some of those knights would disobey military orders to save Sidonia since those same knights put Sidonia in danger when leaving it in order to save Tanikaze. There's also odd humor about making fun of the fact the only person who can save Sidonia needs to eat more.
For me it was too familiar to too many sci-fi stories that did nothing to separate itself from the crowd. In the anime medium I don't see it as anything special either. It doesn't have the tight writing or fantastic character moments like Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2199/Space Yamato 2199 nor the style or entertainment of Cowboy Bebop. Like I said in the last paragraphs it shares many of the same issues I have with Attack On Titan (though I love it, the flaws makes it interesting to discuss with other), but due to the length and lack of creativity of seeing anything new being done it’s a forgettable viewing experience.
Another series I saw here is a 3 part OVA called Garzey's Wings. Oh man what was absolutely rushed train wreck which words cannot do justice to. It's currently only the fifth anime I have given a 1 too (the others being Mahouka (obvious reasons as to why), Green Green, Blood-C: The Last Dark, and a one hour movie). It was rush, had terrible animation, hilariously bad voice acting, and altogether was incomprehensible beyond belief. To top it all off I see the studio behind it in the closing credit is J. C. Staff. This made Garzey's Wing an even stranger experience since it's completely out of character to what J.C. Staff usually does.
I am enjoying a couple of anime don't worry. I'm currently watching Yona of the Dawn which has a typical story if your familiar with the princess outcasted from her kingdom storyline making it predictable. However, the pacing works to its favor since it provides time to develop characters, include world building, and at around be just a pleasant watch. I was actually surprise I had a better time seeing the first episode than I expected since at the time I just first episodes of Death Parade, Steins;Gate, Monster, and another series I can't remember which failed to hook me in any way. Yona of the Dawn comedy is also pleasant helping it feel different from my experience with the fantasy genre. I would still recommend you try checking it out even story beats will familiar to you.
Monster I'm liking a good deal. I do have issues with it like there being allot more plot convenience than expected and switching focus frequently. As a whole though the slow pacing is to my liking. I do favor slow pacing despite what animes I have on my favorite list since more time spent to developing a story properly I have a great appreciation for. The characters are interesting, the mystery surrounding Johan keeps it interesting, and that music is godly. I'm not kidding. As soon as I heard the opening theme I made sure to obtain a copy of the OST for monster. Another series I'm liking is Log Horizon. I'm almost done with it, but unfortunately my work held back from finishing it for some time and the fact my little brother wasn't in the mood to see it together.
Reviews wise I sadly didn't plan anything in advance. My free time got eaten up more so than expected. Sometimes I would just go home, lay down on my bed, and just knock out without noticing. I do know what I want to reviews since I did recently see a couple of series I just can't stop thinking about for good and bad reasons. One of them being Death Parade. Though I have my list of issues with it trying to properly convey them in writing turned out to be a greater challenge than expected. There's also Steins;Gate a series I don't have much of an high opinion of. I went over my complaints with my little brother who liked it at first, but later came around to having a opinion to me on the series the closer we got to finishing it. I'll tread lightly on Steins;Gate, but after posting my Aldnoah.Zero review I shouldn't be surprise if I get angry PM's regarding it and possibly saying I have no right to complaint about it flaws when I have Attack On Titan on my favorites.
I always feel stuff, but I guess it feels like that since I worked at Sugar Creek. So far the only place that was able to demoralize me. Whatever job I end up getting when I get to California (though it'll pay less) will be better than in the miserable company that is Pittsburg, Kansas.
Got to make this quick! Finished Space Yamato 2199. Loved it. The last three episodes weren't what I expected, but they were nothing short of great. Get to you on it in greater detail next time I have time to log on.
Vice versa. Lets get the first thing out of the way. Happy Birthday Apolex! I made sure to make time in my current erratic schedule just make sure I wrote this.
Finally got around to replying to the rest of your previous. With internet Pittsburg, Kansas is at least bearable, but without it I'm pretty much bored to death since there's nothing much to do in a small town. My only access to anime is watching whatever I downloaded before coming here. I mostly got stuff my little brother didn't get finished seeing like FMA: Brotherhood, Samurai Champloo, and Parasite. The ones I got that I didn't see were Mahouka, Wolf Rain, Space Yamato 2199 (unfortunately episode 19 didn't work, though by the time you probably read this I likely would have finish the series by now), Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji Ultimate Survivor, Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, and a couple of other anime.
I don't prefer downloading anime much because sometime there are missing episodes. Like I downloaded a file of Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji Ultimate Survivor that has three episodes missing so I can't complete it because of that. Also, that's a great series. If you like Light Yagami allot you'll also like the MC in Kaiji Ultimate Survivor since he also puts allot of thought into his situations that you get a good feel for who he is. Anything new airing this season I'll have to play catch up with once I return to glorious California. So I can offer any thoughts or impression on anything airing. What sucks most is there's whole of friends I can't talk too.
I might as well share with you a story I shared with Dex on his profile if I haven't already done so on his. I wrote this ahead of time so who know if I finally got around to post anything on his profile. So some context, when I used to live here in Pittsburg, Kansas I had a green hair stalker by the name of Briana. I was a senior in high school and she was a freshman. She told me directly she liked me so I told her we could be friends. In her head she thought it meant we were dating so I cleared up the misunderstanding, and unfortunately that wasn't where it ended. I had the misfortune of running into someone I couldn't remember until he spouted out some awful pickup lines. To be truthful, "You're so fine, you must have wrote the book" I wouldn't consider a pickup line or the way worse "Every second your electric like a thousand bolt". He invites me to a party on a college campus. Somehow my Oscar the Grouch colored hair stalker Briana knew I came back to Pittsburg somehow. Creepy.
I go to the party and she put me on the spot to sing karaoke. I didn't recognize her at first since she had change her hair color. So I took the mic saying I'm going to free verse it and sing a song from the top of my head. So try to imagine a room of confuse college students hearing someone they never seen on campus saying "Shake your skeleton" several time. Despite my bad singing, I was still the best person who performed and at that point my stalker revealed herself to me. Putting me on the spot of how I made her cry when I told her we were just friends. Don't know what's she up to, but don’t really like having a stalker XD. Especially now that she now blends into the background.
The spoiler is for everything related to Aldnoah.Zero
I finished seeing the original Mobile Suit Gundam and Aldnoah.Zero copies allot from it. However, the one thing it didn't copy was characterization and a fair representation of both sides participating in the war. Of course, that only applies to those who have seen the original Mobile Suit Gundam. Even then that's pretty sketchy for the general view on it since more users on MAL have seen Aldnoah.Zero than they have seen Mobile Suit Gundam. I hated Aldnoah.Zero before even completing the original Mobile Suit Gundam anime because of bad writing. The villain claims the King manipulates the masses for his own benefit in war, yet sends his daughter to bridge peace in the first episode so the villain didn't think his plan through. Then there's also the clear shipping of Princess Asseylum and Inaho, but that romance and their interaction don't have anything going for it since Inaho showed emotion when he presumably saw her die in the first episode. These two aren't everything, but there's a couple of other reasons why the writing is the source of the issue.
It took like 20 episodes before Inaho and his team actually had to fight multiple Martian mechs at once. That sort of scenario shouldn't be a special occasion in any mecha. The original Mobile Suit Gundam made in the late 70s had the MC going against overwhelming odds; Ray Amuro would face multiple trained soldiers at once and even fight the general of that faction within the same battle. Another thing I like about it is how even the minor characters death were made important. Characterization wasn't equal for all characters, but the characters express how the lost of their own men effective them. One thing I liked about the first half is how they showed enemy reaction at the moment of their death. I remember how in one episode when the main characters shoot an enemy soldier on a ship, one of the enemy soldier catches his comrade who got shot, tries to wake him up, and then cries out at his lost. It doesn't last for more than ten seconds I think, but that level of subtlety and without putting it in the viewer face gives the war a much greater sense of importance. It also makes watching battles conflicting since you want the main characters to stay alive, but at the same time death effect the other side. In Aldnoah.Zero is was clear who the good guys were and what the bad guys wanted without giving the Martian a fair portrayal.
Code Geass was also a clear good vs evil series, but they actually developed the main characters and the world that made their message meaningful regarding war. I think it was in the second season of Code Geass when Lelouch thought Nunally died in a nuclear like explosion in one battle that effected Lelouch greatly. In Aldnoah.Zero the one scene where the characters react to a person death is rendered meaningless when discovered the actual princess is alive. Aldnoah.Zero protagonist doesn't show any emotion for anyone so if he doesn't care about anything besides eggs why should the viewer care if anyone close to him die. He shows no pride fighting for Earth, is never mortified by his first killing (like Light Yagami who has a greater kill count), nor has any permanent scars from his battles. One thing I would have done if in the writing position is make the mechanical eye have drawbacks to his organic eye. Perhaps making it with every episode that he loses more of his eyesight in his organic eye and have Inaho express how he hates seeing everything in numbers and static now because of his mechanical eye. It would be hard to buy, but at least it would get across scars from war aren't benefits since in season two his mechanical eye all it was is a plot device. The fact he removed proved it was never a characteristic and thus is the number one proof that peace was achieve post war without consequences. Imagine if FMA: Brotherhood ended at episode 63 without 64 when Mustang says he'll dedicate himself for a better cause. That scene addressed that despite the world being saved there's still work that needs to be done. It got across true peace wasn't a simple matter by simply eliminating a greater threat to everyone. Aldnoah.Zero addresses neither the true work that needs to be put into bringing peace and also forgets how judgment over your enemy after a war doesn't go away overnight.
As for action scenes I've seen over 200 action movies. I learn from watching that many that a good action scene doesn't have to be impressive. For example, all the action scenes in the movie John Wick weren't impressive for me when compared to the complex gunfights in Hard Boiled or just the big scale opening scene in Skyfall since they are action scenes you won't find done the same way in other movies. In John Wick the action scenes you could find in other action movies, but they are well done because the people behind them understand choreography/staging, camera placement, editing, performance, and context. Budget has nothing to do with it. Ninja 2: Shadow of A Tear (yes, that's the actual title) the budget isn't above a double digit budget, yet the climatic fight scene in that movie is far better than something like Thor 2: The Dark World because Ninja 2 had thought put into everything.
Aldnoah.Zero action scenes had the cover & shoot approach for virtually every action scene. In FMA: Brotherhood the fight against Gluttony near the end of the series at night didn't work because the lighting was too bright and therefore didn't properly show what the characters were seeing. For multiple episodes I was wondering how the characters couldn't see in a area that clearly wasn't that dark. In Mobile Suit Gundam, the protagonist in a episode isn't able to notice everything in the surrounding area so an enemy behind him gets a shot at him at night time. Because of how it's done what the character sees at night time is conveyed properly to the viewer.
One thing Aldnoah.Zero does correctly is particle effects. For some reason not many see the importance how far something like bullet piercing, intensity of an explosion heat, the crumbling of debris, among other tiny things can visually add to an action scene. That's about it. In Akame Ga Kill they at least had variety of battles; one vs. one, team vs. team, two vs. one, two vs. three, team vs. one, and can't forget the weaponry is also accountable. In Aldnoah.Zero it was mostly a single experience Martian pilot versus large numbers of humans. That became boring immediately. The Martians mostly used particle weapons for most of the battles while the humans used projectile weaponry. Inaho also won every battle without difficulty and by pure luck. If Inaho friend actually listened to him I think in episode 5 to stay on the ship Inaho would have lost. It was luck they didn't listen to him and used the crane to damage the Martian mech.
Aldnoah.Zero doesn't take everything it has in order to use it to its own advantage either. The FMA series in general doesn't have a single action scene I would call impressive, but since both adaptations utilize everything in their disposal I still consider them good action scenes. I remember Lang and Edward fighting Envy inside of Gluttony stomach and the action scene that took place took into account the difference in abilities, the size of the human characters compared to the homunculus transformation, and the environment to full use. AZ does not take the basic of combat into account which makes the lack of proper staging noticeable. All non-important main cast soldiers don't bother to attempt evading from enemies attack. When this is repeated throughout the series the action is simply a snooze to see. Take into account environmental hazard as well. Ray Amuro mech in Mobile Suit Gundam wasn't suitable for air combat and the characters took that into account. In AZ when the characters fight in space for the first time the fact there's no gravity in space and debris floating around doesn't cause the heroes to change up their plan in any way. It's as if no adjustment needed to made on the spot. Ray Amuro in several occasion does have to change his tactic in order to survive going away from the original plan if required. AZ the characters came up with a plan and were never caught off guard. There was the one episode where three Martian mech appeared at once, but that's it. When everything always goes according to plan what suspense is their.
Not all the Terrans will happily accept the peace treaty with the Vers especially when or if they ever learned a Martian terrorist was responsible for the whole thing starting. Only the Japanese government and military division is seen making contact with the Martians. If this was an era like 1940s it would be understandable if the anime didn't show how other parts of the world felt. Except it takes place in a advance futuristic era so the fact that only one country has seen them and made contact with them would come across as sketchy to everyone else in other parts of the world. This would be seen Japan nuclear bomb just like the US had during WW2 as its trump card. Creating some uneasiness with other continent. The last episode threw several issues like these under the bus and didn't look at them. I would reference some historical events, but no internet around my area and the local library was entirely with the WW1 books they had. I look through one it said it started in 1924.
If we want to bring all real world influence than resources will be an issue. The Martian don't have water nor is it ever discussed exactly how they get their food. So lets ignore how the Martian get food on their planet. Earth doesn't have unlimited resources and as it is now animals have gone instinct within my lifetime. Now, lets add another specie like humans what you got in the end is food consumption that far greater than the Earth can provide. With twice the consumption of resources on Earth will dry up faster. It's an issue the ending of Aldnoah.Zero entirely ignores. Mars had water (that had not) ran out which is why they wanted Earth. If the Martians population is in the billions like Earth (it never addressed how other parts of the world were doing) than the problem isn't fixed. There would need to be an entire system setup to make sure resources aren't dried up escalating into another war.
The reason I brought up WW1 is because the circumstances in Aldnoah.Zero is paralleled to what triggered WW1. In both occasions someone from royalty was making a trip, both people from royalty get assassinated, and that trigger a war. If we take everything from history into account than in AZ post series ending would have invented a planet destroying weapon in a cold war. If we only take WW1 context and events than nothing is fully resolved. Peace isn't anything you can simply tell the viewer was accomplished at face value. There's allot of work put into it and once Inaho removed his mechanical eye it tossed aside any potential drawback from years of war. Morality wise it showed Inaho didn't care for the lives he took during the war. Ray Amuro even buried the wife of an general he killed even though the wife tried to kill him. That's just one instance where Amuro actually shows he cares for doing whats best for his people, but not to the point where he forgets his humanity to become a killing machine. Inaho was a killing machine from the getgo never reflecting on anyone lives he's taken. He claimed he didn't care about war, but never for the people who only followed order or didn't know the full picture. In that respect, war through Inaho eyes is a child's fantasy that overlooks the actual difficulties that form from it.
The Vers would benefit from continuing the war since they have the greater advantage won't have to share any resources with Earth should they win. A crater from the moon hit Earth and a character that was close to it when it impact survived. A crater from the moon! Also, a crane damaged a Martian mech, yet explosive from a grenade launcher and ship didn't. So the science of our world wouldn't apply to it. If we go by the science used in Aldnoah.Zero (like firey explosions in space) than a longer war wouldn't effect it. There wasn't an episode while the war was taking place that showed long term consequences.
Last time I checked Rayet Areash is still alive and it was her fault too for causing the war. Slaine didn't want war and Inaho provoked him to take the action he did. Inaho shot his plane down even though Inaho had no good reason for shooting him down; Slaine helped him fight against a Martian for an entire episode and before that just barely saved his life, yet Inaho doesn't consider him an ally because he doesn't have boobs. Rayet who does despite killing the princess double and then attempting to kill the actual princess for once again no good reason Inaho still consider her an ally. That's hypocritical like the main characters in Akame Ga Kill; we hate the government for not giving the people food and living lavishly in their castle, even though we live lavishly in a huge castle and have food which we also don't give to regular folks. Inaho also attempted to grab his gun to shoot Slaine even though Slaine clearly shown distraught when the princess was shot. What part of him shooting his commanding officer when he shot the princess did Inaho consider untrustworthy? Slaine also didn't shoot an unarmed Inaho immediately upon seeing him. So clearly Slaine is in the wrong here. Rayet faces no punishment despite killing the princess double starting the war and nearly killing the real one which if successful would have left Mars with no source of power since the king was on his death bead whereas Slaine never tried to kill her. What an injustice the one Martian who didn't want war gets punished and the one who contributed to starting war gets off scott free. Boohoo her dad died, that gets counter acted when she shows no regret for doing that causing millions of Earthicans and then attempting to kill the Princess again.
I saw a bit of OreImo and wasn't impress by it at all. That first episode had a obvious contrivance by having the brother bump into Kirino in the first episode all because he forgot to put juice back into the fridge. I found that one action odd, and unfortunately turned out to be an example of bad writing.
My little brother seems to like it, but that's only because he could relate to it. I could relate to Light Yagami, but if I removed that familiarity with Death Note it still has other things going for it. For my brother, I think that's the only connection he has to it and actually laughed at OreImo jokes more so than I expected. However, we are watching Mahouka at the same time which also has incest done incorrectly among other things. In Mahouka the MC sister personality is basically saying Onii-Sama and loving him. In comparison OreImo attempt to cover that same topic in a comedic fashion is more commendable in comparison. Right now I think it's meh to be honest. If it keeps going the way it is than the best I could hope for is average from that anime. I got similar complains, along with the added it doesn't make a strong argument for being otaku in Japan.
What bothered me is how it didn't address in general how every form of media has that if its only a one sided view you're seeing it from. Grand Theft Auto for instance is often bashed by the media and parents for apparently promoting violence, yet that isn't the case in the actual game since if you kill anyone the crime won't go unpunished and most the characters actually suffer for what they do in their life. It's like if my parents saw an episode of High School DXD and then assumed all anime was like that without seeing anything else. In OreImo, the brother argument against his father was it's okay to be weird since she was perfect in every way. Or something close to that in the anime. It only works if the person is in a similar position to Kirino and not for everyone. That same argument wouldn't work for someone whose failing their classes for pursuing their hobbies.
Watamote was a good slice of life anime, but unfortunately it suffered from the failure to move past the status quo. The reason I don't see much slice of life anime is because the status quo doesn't change so my commitment to it has no big payoff. The humor was a one trick pony, but it was varied with the type of jokes it did. Another thing that gets overlook is the anime is never actually mean spirited towards Tomoko. No one actually mistreats her in any hurtful way even her brother. Everyone around her is nice to her and don't ever shunned her for being a loner. That's far from an accurate depiction I can tell you from personal experience (in most of my sophomore classes I played the loner). If you liked Watamote you might want to try out Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun. It's a fun slice of life anime that subvert some common trope in the genre, but it falls victim to the status quo. The only slice of life I've seen avoid that issue has been Bakuman so far. I'm sure there's other slice of life anime that actually progress the story. I just haven't come across them yet.
I'll try getting to the Attack on Titans OVA eventually. If it wasn't circumstantial I would only have myself to blame for not getting around to seeing them as soon as possible. I like the world so more world building for me is a plus. I have faith in season 2 at least being entertaining, but then again the director hasn't ever done a second season of anything he worked on to be honest. Still, his direction will make it worth watching at least. The live action movie on the other hand is what I'm worried about. Asia in general doesn't have a good track record with digital effect compare to the West film industry. You'll be surprise to learn when a movie does have CGI (like The Social Network) it's shocking.
I planned on finishing Space Yamato 2199 before writing my reply, but unfortunately episode 19 that I downloaded didn't work. I was going to send you another message with my thoughts on it, but who knows when I'll get another chance to do so. By the time you reply or I'm able to get online I would have already finished it. I still have a hard time accepting the same studio responsible for all anime adaptations of To Love-Ru (an ecchi) did Space Yamato 2199. There were shots were I did go like that's what I expected from them, but in general it was refreshing for me to see the studio, Xebec I think, tackle something I wouldn't picture them doing. Consider the spoiler below my impressions on 2/3 of third of it for now. I doubt my good impressions will change considering how many things it did correctly already.
Space Yamato 2199
There are some highlights from seeing the series. One of them is seeing a robot that works on the Yamato communicating with an android and wanting to stop it from committing suicide. One scene stood out to me in that episode and that was the moment when a human crewmate told another crewmate he was the one that isn't human. I think it was episode 9, but the way they approach consciousness in machines was different than how I seen it done in sci-fi. Usually in sci-fi there is a long, winded conversation where a group sit around a table or away from the machine to discuss how a machine developed consciousness and if its human. In Space Yamato that isn't really the main focus as so much as a machine preventing another machine from killing himself. What also helped it was that story in the book it told in the background about a lonely soldier who turned out to be robot himself. I felt that story in a clever way pretty much addressed if emotion and humanity can applied to just a single thing without actually being direct. Anime nowadays would have likely dedicated an entire scene to explaining or addressing these things, but Space Yamato trust the audience to make the connection and conclusion on the matter instead of ending with a "Does that make them human" question from some character.
In general what I liked about the series allot is how small things are able to make a huge impact in the story. For example, in episode 11 Zer Ghale stops his car, and gets out of his car to pickup the flowers a little girl wanted to give to him in the middle of a parade. A simple moment like that showed how much the people love him, and when he stopped to pick up the flowers a little wanted to give to him it showed exactly why he would be a beloved figure to his people. That act showed him in a small way he does care about his people and common men without him actually having to say it to another character. I find these small things in the story commendable for their inclusion. Another highlight for me from these indirect moments was a conversation between two people before leaving Earth and being unable to contact Earth until completing their mission. A character talks to his comrade and ask if he made a phone call. His comrade replies he didn't since his relationship with his father is rough, but after the conversation when the person who tells him how he lost his father he changed his mind. Those two weren't important characters, but that went a long way in creating sympathy for the entire crew. It made it the entire crew of the Yamato that much more human.
The animation you already saw. I can't really add much to add it besides the cell-shaded 3D worked seamlessly with the 2D portions. When it came to making explosions I noticed at times it would be a mixture of both 2D and 3D animations. How it was implemented is some of the best uses of 3D I've seen in animation. I also recently just finished the first OVA of Mobile Suit Gundam Origin. Most of the 3D animation is used in the first 4 minutes, but man it'll make your jaw drop in how amazing it looks and how complex it must have been to make everything on screen move while having the camera follow a quick moving robot.
Well the music is pretty awesome. Giving off a classic vibe to it mixing retro music with modern instrumental. I haven't seen the original so I wouldn't know they're actually just remixes from the original series, but regardless of the answer they're fantastic tracks. Whenever they played it immediately grabbed my attention. Sadly this where I got to put the rest of my thoughts on hold. Don't worry, when I finish it I'll prepare my complete thoughts on it in preparation to share.
Thanks for the birthday greeting. I don't mind it being late, it still means alot to me. I would reply to the rest of the comment. Unfortunately my phone isn't exactly suited for indepth discussion. Whenever I get time I'll write a proper reply. Got a stubborn bank that won't close my account and a expired state ID (the bank won't believe who I am) holding me back from that for now.
I'm not surprise by the reaction to the reaction to Aldnoah.Zero. It appeals to a specific audience even if means sacrificing traits of what makes a great anime. It's kinda like watching an action movie that has clear inspiration from classics film; more empathizes is put on creating cool scenarios than actual storytelling like what inspired it. Some will like it for pure escapism and blockbuster like entertainment, while I will dislike it for wasted opportunity and in general boring battles. I still can't believe a mecha that's over 30 years old has me more excited for it mecha battles than something made last year.
Inaho isn't really an interesting analytic lead. He doesn't change like Light Yagami or is as over the top as Lelouch Lamperouge in his personality. In episode 10, there's a opportunity for Inaho to get character development and justify his emotionless personality. A supporting character asks Inaho sister why he doesn't show emotion and all she answers is he does. It's unexplained why he's like that; my personal theory is a long time ago his parents probably died. Unless it explained in season 2, so far the anime hasn't addressed what happened to his parents. If there was a line of dialogue the explain something bad happen to someone important to him than I would be easier to except him as he is. Other than he's like that just because. I prefer Amuro Ray in the original Mobile Suit Gundam (which I found out had a remake) because there's chances for him to loose, and in the recent episode I saw he was involved in real combat without a robot. There's a moment in the anime where Amuro Ray is in shock that a women wants revenge of killing her fiance in a battle. He's shaken up by the fact and further dawns on him the consequences of fighting in a war. Inaho never expresses anything for anyone he kills. Even Light Yagami of all people who killed who knows how many was shaken up by his first killing. In all areas, Inaho just isn't worth an investment for me.
My rant actually is longer when all put together. I like over 5000 words when combined to together. As for the camera thing I still stand by it. Even if there was smoke the enemies bullet wouldn't penetrate the shield so a simple solution would have been to wait, and then resume the attack. Trillram was ordered to kill soldiers, but instead wasted his time chasing a truck against order. By simply waiting Inaho entire plans crumble. Not even the action did it for me because the pilots simply accepted death. Inaho was the only pilot who bothered to move. As for the sword wielding mech that armor is inconsistent. It take an explosion blast directly without getting a scratch, but a crane with a metal shipping crane is greater than a explosion to dent the sword wielding mech. It took a blast from a battleship which if applied physics it would break several laws. Also, if Inaho friends listen to him that also would have been another case where he died because if it weren't his friends not listening to him he would have died. The ending...well I hate it no surprise. I didn't connect to any of the characters, it didn't feel much like a worldwide conflict, and in a earlier scene Inaho gave a anti-war speech of sorts. So yeah that ending is another discussion in general.
Ouch! OreImo sounds....rough to see. That little sister sounds horrible to be around. I like slice of life like Bakuman where there is some growth in the characters into maturity, but in general I don't bother seeing them much.I might see it to share the pain since that's the reason I Aldnoah.Zero. A friend of mine kept talking about terrible the story was, so I gave it shot. I went in it with a open mind, but as soon as Inaho showed more emotion for a sales for eggs than when the Princess is getting killed (which is why I don't buy their romance either) in front of him. If I do decide to see it (pretty unlikely given what I want check out soon) I'll know your suffering.
Watamote I would say in general is one a person show. If you dislike Tomoko than the whole anime doesn't work because it has allot of referential humor and doesn't change up its brand humor much. I would say it's a decent anime, but something that audiences in general put allot more depths into than there actually is to be found.
Good news. I finally started Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2199 after you recommended it to me like months ago. As usual, I give my first impressions on it and then maybe if I don't procrastinate actually give you my full thoughts on it soon. Right now, I'm only two episodes into the anime. So, it pretty much took less than a minute before I was sold on seeing it. Not since the opening of Yu Yu Hakusho have I been won over so easily in such a short span of time. What I like right off the bat is the animation and the great usage of 3D. The battles look awesome and with fine directing make them appear bigger than life. The characters that were introduced I can see promise in growing and the little glimpse of the crew interacting with someone before they board Yamato is a subtle to say that everyone has something to loose and fight for on this journey.
So I finished the first season of Aldnoah.Zero and...I hated it XD. The music was fantastic however. Sawano never disappoints me whenever he composes a score. Only if the writing was just as good. Now I'm in season two...not a good impression. Oh man, I definitively now understand why the first episode frustrated so many fans.
Notice you're watching allot of Oreimo. How's that anime for you?
I had the same problem with Space Dandy too. My least favorite episode in the series was the zombie episode in season one. That second half was just awful XD. It was the worst episode in the series for me. The amount of variety it had is was kept me coming back. I remember reading the director wants to do a season 3 which I'm all for, but who knows if that'll happen. As for Uchuu Senkan Yamato I'll probably check out the original eventually, but I'll start with the remake first. It'll basically be a reverse viewing of the original Mobile Suit Gundam where I'm checking out the original first even though it has a remake.
Good thoughts on both Fullmetal Alchemist adaptations. You're the fan of the series I came across who despite liking Brotherhood more doesn't consider the original trash. Heck, even my little brother who never saw the original says Brotherhood is better. I say otherwise, but that's mostly because of personal preferences. I liked how I constantly kept worrying about the Elric brothers fate. In Bortherhood I knew how it would turn out and my guess were correct. Though, the ride their was just as well written even if it felt familiar in certain area like other shonen.
Also, I'm seeing the first season of Aldnoah.Zero...basically I hate it right now. Oh man, I think Inaho is now my low standard for MC. He sees a sale for eggs and gets excited. Within the same episode, he sees the princess of Mars get blown up and remains stoic. There's clearly something wrong about that picture. Of course, I love Sawano music for it. Though, there's a track on the OST that sounds similar to a track use in Attack On Titan. Aside from the technical stuff, nothing about it is really connecting with me.
I also stumble upon a great short film from 1956 that you might enjoy. I remember you telling me you're not a fan of old animation, but you might be surprise by it like I was when I first saw it. It reminded me of Gankutsuou and how I've never seen that sort of animation before. It doesn't use the same art style as Gankutsuou, but rather looks like it was done by puppets which looks stunning thanks to the masterful usage of lighting. The short film is called Yuuer Sen/The Phantom Ship. It's a pretty simple story about revenge, but man those visuals are splendid being completed by a good score. The only bad thing about it is how very few people have seen it.
So I finally finished Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood today. Well actually, I pretty much marathon like a dozen or so episodes on Friday, Sunday, and today so I literally saw something like over 8 hours of Fullmetal Alchemist in less than a week. I wasn't hooked on it like when I was when I watched Death Note. It felt more like seeing multiple episodes of Attack on Titan at once; I like the series allot to multiple episodes in a single day, but not enough where I feel it's addicting to see. Be prepare because reading this entire comment might take time.
Lets get the obvious out of the way. I like the original Fullmetal Alchemist better. I think both are great anime, but there's certain things the other one does better over the other. For instance, the female characters in Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood are better done. They are allot more of them in Brotherhood and most of them are better developed. Except for Winry who stills get sideline, but since she's in more episodes in Brotherhood it makes it that much more unnoticeable that she isn't contributing much to the story. The original had me wondering if the Aleric brothers would get their bodies while in Brotherhood I was wondering when are they going to get their bodies back. It was mostly because Brotherhood had traits of a typical shonen and had the lead saving the world story which made certain plot point easy to predict. Like I expect a coup d'etat once Bradley was revealed to be a homunculus. With the original I could never guess where it was going to go making the journey allot more impactful and tense for me. It wasn't a shonen where the leads goes on to save the world which in turned led to allot genuine surprises.
In terms of story both would be a tied for different reasons. For example, the homunculus in the original had a larger role and how each of them tied to someone trying human transmutation was a stroke of genius writing. Can't forget that Lust death in the original had more effect since the character had a larger role. Same goes with Maes Hughes in the original being more effective there more time spent with the character before his death. There was also a stronger sense of family bonds between all the characters. Especially where it matter most between the Aleric brothers. Since they acted like actual brothers fighting and getting along each other throughout their journey barely separating from one another. It also made the final episode allot more impactful because of everything that was building up to it. In Brotherhood it felt undermine by having a end of the world climax.
Brotherhood on the other hand a larger cast, but the pacing just like in the original took it time with everything. While it did occasionally forget about certain characters for long period of times upon introduction like the Chimeras, Kimblee, May Chang, Lan Fan, Fu, and can't forget about Sheska was written out entirely after two episode. They were well handled for the most part and with the exception of the Chimeras (since they were recurring characters) the important players were fleshed out enough to care about. Another area where it improved on the original was Van Hohenheim role. In the original I found his part in the entire thing fantastic, but did come out of nowhere whereas Brotherhood did provide hints towards his past. His role felt more significant to the story and his backstory added that much more to the conflict. In both versions the villains had great motivations, but in Brotherhood is was furthered fleshed out giving it the extra push.
Brotherhood had the better ending hands down. I found the ending in the original to be genius, but Brotherhood doesn't leave anything ambiguous which provides a complete sense of closure for it. Both series despite how good they were didn't make me cry in the slightest. The original came close getting a tear out of me with Maes Hughes death, but with Brotherhood there wasn't a moment that got me to react in that way. The ending in Brotherhood did leave me happy with the results. In general, both anime stories I like for different reasons.
In terms of animation both are fine, but the clear winner would go to Brotherhood simply because of the action scenes. In the original, the best action scenes were all in the intros all of which had no bearing on the series. Brotherhood did have some cool action scenes in their intros, but they also had good action scenes in the series where it actually mattered. In terms of music I would say it's a tied between both. In the original I liked all the ending tracks and in Brotherhood I liked all the opening songs. Golden Time Lover (the third opening track) is awesome track I can't stop listening too. The same goes with the intros and outros for both series. Even if the opening and closing animation had terrible songs playing I would still say seeing those always adds to an anime viewing. Voice acting would also be tied since both pretty much have the same cast.
In general I prefer the original because it story wasn't predictable whereas Brotherhood because of it shonen traits was a dead give away on some things like the ending. For my taste the original is far better suited for me, but Brotherhood on the other hand I find to be an execellent shonen for how it does it.
My bad on the somewhat late reply. I was taken by surprise this month to find like six new request in my inbox when logging on and also helping out two users on their reviews. Nothing like editing, but more like encouraging them and also giving my thoughts on some of their ideas. I did not at all expect my friendlist to grow like it did.
The two episode structure of Darker Than Black made it hard to get into, but once the second half developed the main cast it got easier to stick with it. They managed to create allot of good characters and memorable storyline in that series. While slow, at least the pacing paid up in the end no matter how rough it was in the early goings to get into it. Monster with 74 episodes I'm not as surprised by the slow pacing. For me, Berserk nails down the slow pacing perfectly that at times it's surprising when an episode ends. Which I did not expect from it. Monster is in the plan to watch of my list, though with 74 episodes that'll take a while to finish. I don't mind slow pace series so long it's done well like overpowered characters. Don't think you over interpreted Gankutsuou. I did see it rather irregularly, but wouldn't be surprise if there was something I missed while seeing it for the first time.
It's like an animated documentary. An Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict. It's a fantastically told story and to date I think still the only fully animated documentary. The visuals really help it in recreating some of the scenes the veterans recall from their perspective. It's unique in how effective it is. The story is not exactly something everyone will get into since it does discuss war in a very lengthy manner. At the same time though, there is no animated film like it. If you finished reading Watership Down you'll be amazed by the film adaptation. The director worked on another movie called The Plague Dogs which is just as good. Unfortunately the director only made two animated movies which is a shame since if he kept on making mature animated movies than the mindset of animation in the US would likely be different from how it's viewed today.
I like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann allot, but the fights did feel repetivie. In almost every fight a new power or weapon got introduced which took away from the suspense. Also, fighting spirit is no different than the power of friendship or believing in one self. Except in Gurren Lagann is played up to an extreme over the top manner that makes allot of fun as well the battles gradually getting bigger as it reaches the ending. I couldn't take most of the supporting cast dying in the second half since they didn't much personality. That ending though was fantastic. I do agree Kill La Kill perfected the formula Gurren Lagann tried out. Though, I'm guessing the Matoi costume is probably the only reason why the series isn't as big or more popular than Gurren Lagann for doing a similar thing, but in a much better fashion. Uchuu Senkan Yamato keeps peaking my interest. Once I'm done with the remake I'll try out the original.
SMT is sorta niche and the publisher makes a tiny amount of physical copies when releasing them. So likely you're better off getting a digital copy than a physical one since they're hard to find. They stand out from the typical JRPG franchises that even the major players like Square Enix has taken some inspirations from it. I played Skyrim a bit, but like with Fallout 3 I couldn't get into the game play. The story is fine, but playing it feels like a drag to me. As for Fire Emblem there's a new one announce. Unless it's for the DS I'm out of luck since it's the only Nintendo system I own. Don't rush your play time with video games. Enjoy them at your own pace.
I saw three episodes of Assassination Classroom and seems like it'll have the same problem Akame Ga Kill did with the tone. It's mostly lighthearted, but then takes some serious tonal shift when it tries to be serious. There's no smooth transition. Although, at the moment it's entertaining. I do expect the humor to be a one trick pony since the studio hasn't expanded on the joke, but I'll wait and see how it turns out.
It was quite the anime, though the series never explains why he calls himself the Count of Monte Cristo. I didn't mind the pacing. Unlike Darker Than Black which also had a slow pacing I Gankutsuo had an overarching story to tell from beginning to end. It just took some time before I came across something in that anime that got me hooked. You must really love that series. You have so have so much thoughts on it. My experience is a bit more scatter so recalling stuff is hazy. Agree on the music, though still found it good. The ending track is the closest I would probably would listen to without seeing the anime.
Ghibli has allot worth checking out, though most of what they make aren't as deep as Grave of the Fireflies or Mononoke Hime". In "From Up On Poppy Hill" there's a twist in the movie that's really does nothing for the story. It's about teenage love and life which would have been fine. However, when the story introduces a twist it doesn't explore the topic they could have explored with that twist. The young couple are unsure how they feel about each other now with the learned information. It's more insulting when by the end of the movie they drop it completely. I would still say to see it since it's a pleasant film. There's also Pom Poko which is direct about it's save the environment message. I suggest seeing it since the animation is imaginative. Though do prepare to see allot of Raccoon balls lol and using them for all sorts of things like faking being humans being. If you check out everything from them you'll be fine. Aside from Tales of Earthsea, they tend to have at least one thing to like about their films. So you're safe with them. There's The Plague Dogs, Watership Down, and Waltz With Bashir I would recommend seeing in your free time since Mal doesn't have them on their site.
If you want something you could add to your list then go for The Girl Who Leapt Through Time/Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo. It's escapism at finest in portraying the best of youth and eventually growing up into an adult. I highly recommend it and it has a good female character. Same goes with Summer Wars which is directed by the same person as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. I would also suggest Millennium Actress (2001) which has a deep story and on a visual level it's lovely. Actually, anything by Satoshi Kon you should try to check out. There's also another animated movie about an hour long called Hal that sounds interesting. It's about a girl who lost her boyfriend in a plane accident and has a robot in her place. If you ever see any of these please share your thoughts.
Not much of an FPS fan either. The two FPS I like the most were Timesplitter: Future Perfect and Resistance 3. Aside from those two, I haven't replayed many. Online multiplayer isn't a draw. I prefer third person shooters in general like Uncharted and Sleeping Dogs. I've played Fire Emblem: Awakening. The gameplay is great while the story is solid. It just doesn't bother to develop the characters. It's pretty much up to the player and how they play to see if they want to see it developed.
Shin Megami Tensei I got a lot to say about. To put it shortly, it's a RPG series that lets you decide the fate of the world. It's awesome because you either follow your own path, side with the demons, or the angels in almost every game. That sort of branching path isn't offer much in RPG's let alone an entire franchise that lets you do that.
Shin Megami Tensei is a series of novels that actually got adapted into a RPG video game and then from their turned into a video game franchise. I played a fair amount of video games in that series and they all tackle similar issues regarding philosophy and religion. In general, the storyline in most SMT games are about the protagonist (the player) and his group of friends in the center of a war between the demons and angels for control. Both sides of the war are presented in view point as being right, but flawed in the overall way they want to control the world. For example, the angels want to get rid off every single person who's evil or goes against the world of god. So if I say the f a couple of times I'm dead or have pay off my sins depending on how the decides to deal with sinners. In one game, the angels literally left me with clean up duty for the entire world because I went against his agenda.
Most of the SMT games take place in modern time which goes every other RPG which usually take place in the past or some sort of fictional fantasy land. The characters in SMT differ from game to game. They tend to use the high school student for most of their games, but not of them go to high school. In Soul Hacker for instance you play a hacker who can summon demons while going through a vision quest. In Devil Summoner you play a detective who solves supernatural crime with the help of a demon and a talking cat. The protagonist still a teenager, but is set further in past to like early 20th century Japan I think.
The most popular games in that series are Persona which break from the traditional SMT formula. In general, SMT tends to be very difficult RPG were playing smart is rewarded over simply leveling up. Depending on the game, you can sometime capture demon, negative with them, and in all of them you combine them to make a powerful demon. Persona games is easier than every other SMT games. The first two are more traditional to the formula having some difficult boss fights and a huge map to explore where it's unsure to know where to go next to progress. The 3 and 4th entry in the Persona series are the most popular in the series. They strip away the difficult navigation down to a easy to navigate map, you get to date the female cast member (one of which is a robot), and have more characterization into their characters.
In general SMT likes to take risks traditionally going against the norm of thinking. They like to make players think on a number of topics. Despite the serious stuff they tackle they aren't above putting in comedy in it to break up tensions. If you like a challenging RPG I suggest you check out the series. Persona 3 or 4 would be a good start since they're easier for non-experience SMT fans. If you like those two, try out other in the series which offer a different experience. I could say more, but then I would go on forever talking about the series.
For currently airing anime I don't have much to offer. I would say stay away from Yuri Kuma Arashi at the moment. It doesn't have much to offer unless you want to see lesbian girls teasing the viewer with a possible kiss. So far, the first episode makes it come across as if it's just going to offer fanservice. I say check out Assassination Classroom and Death Parade. I haven't seen them, but have a friend who has. I trust them their opinions and have faith in those series too. Watamote go for sub. That voice actress nails it.
Hey Apolex! I finally finished Gankutsuou just today. I might like a month late in finishing that series I planed to finish watching it in December, but got wrapped up in other stuff. To put it shortly I found it to be a great series, even if some of the supporting cast get sideline until they're needed to progress the story forward. Unfortunately I can't make a direct comparison to the novel since it's been years from the last time I read it, but will admit it took me a while before any of the anime events started to click with me. I was wonder why none of it seemed familiar to me, and then I finally figured out the point of view of the anime story is told from Albert perspective where in the novel it was told from The Count of Monte Cristo perspective. It took me like 17 episodes before I came to that revelation. Either way, time to dabble on it.
For the first four episodes I felt the style was used in order to cover up a weak execution of a good premise that showed promise. That was until episode 8 where the story delivered a good hook for me and made me want to see what happened next. In episode 8, The Count buys a new mansion which he states is haunted and plays a game with his game to see if they could find the haunted room that is left untouched. Before that episode the plot was thickening showing clear signs that all these people were in some way connected to The Count, but building on the mystery instead of showing it immediately. Past that Episode 8 it was smooth sailing from their and my viewing experience grew in favor of it with each passing episode.
The only time I actually was questioning what in the world I was watching was Episode 18 with the duel between Franz and The Count. That was some awkward looking 3D, but the episode before that I felt was one of the best. Usually in series when a character announces a deal it occurs with in the same episode. So I was taken by surprised when it ended with no deal. It's welcoming for me. For someone who study writing in several classes over the years I welcome that small unorthodox narrative choice. The same with the pre-finale episode. All the pieces were in place for Episode 23 is be the big finale to end the series on a high note. With everything that occurred in it I was certain it was the last episode, but it wasn't. The last episode was smaller and a more proper ending for the anime. If it ended with Episode 23 I still would have been happy, but the actual last episode that shows what happened five years later give it further closure for me. Showing what happened to the characters made the journey all the more worthwhile.
I can't really comment much on the Japanese voice acting since I only saw the English dub. If it has Johnny Bosch Yong in a lead role there's no question which version I'm seeing first. Though his performance was underwhelming. He didn't get many opportunity to change his approach so for most of the series his performance feels the same from episode to episode, though when he when allow to show a different side to his character he pulled it off. Without a doubt the best actor in the English dub was Jamieson Price as The Count. His performance for the character was spot on and he aced literally every single scene he was in. The animation style is unique and left wondering how in the world Gonzo Studio managed to animate it the way they did. It give the look of a classic painting. I do know for certain they use photoshop for some parts since some the trees I notice were somewhat live action images, but past that I stuck at being amazed and left wonder how it was done. You don't need me to tell you, but the soundtrack was magnificent. It's nothing I would listen to repeatedly, but they were all good tracks. Especially the opening which was made better by the end of series.
Hopefully this I'll manage my anime viewing allot better, though I'm not off to a good start. Been playing a lot of Far Cry 4 and Kingdom Hearts on my PS3 recently. The story in Far Cry 4 is weak (and has one a terrible ending), but it's an improvement over the third entry in the game play department. I actually enjoy playing it this time instead being annoyed by a specific design choice that tarnish the experience in the long run. Kingdom Hearts I got both HD releases, but haven't finish a single game in them yet. I'm liking it allot more than expected. I can't tell you how glad I am that a current release game doesn't have some sort of bug on day one. It's a blast, though with Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker set to be release this year which it will take my time. Same goes with Persona 5 (I'm an Shin Megami Tensei addict, need me my dose) a franchise I'm a huge fan off so I will dedicate some time to it. Aside from that though, I don't think anything else this year will eat much of my time when I decide not to watch anime.
See you started the first episode of Tokyo Ghoul root A (haha, that title). I'm planing on seeing too, but first got to get to finishing some of the anime I'm currently watching. Got to make space of for Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2199 and other anime I'm planning on seeing this year.
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It took about a month to get my restraining order since it wasn't a domestic case and the filing would take longer to approve if I didn't have proof that she was a potential threat. I got her father who is divorced and he helped me out. Sadly, he said my case was tame in comparison to the 38 year old she went out with first. WTF came to mind when he said that to me. There was other things in the process like paperwork and an attorney look over it, but my money. Man, having it go into things I never thought I would ever need does not put a smile on my face.
When I did get it approve I was given the option of either doing the process in court, delivering the restraining order by mail, and do it personally. I was confused since I always thought it was done in court, but oh well. Pittsburg school system is broken so I should have expected the same for how its city is run. So I call Briana from a friends phone and tell her to meet me in a park. I bought a bouquet of flower and a nice looking envelope.
At night, when we're alone in some random park. After giving her some flowers I spout some BS about second chances. I make it appear like I'm going to confess to her with a poem before opening it up and saying in a over the top manner "RESTRAINING ORDER BITCH" shoving the papers in her face. Her face went from being happy to being absolutely shock to looking like she was about to cry. I still go on, telling her if she ever follows me around, my family, appear anywhere near me intentional or not I will call up the police and have her arrested. Her dad would help me out because of some unknown family issues. When she was about to show what I assume was her showing some humanity and getting the point that we never were a couple says why to me. The only thing that came up to my head at that time was the last time I broke with a girl by saying she's a Clingon. I'm pretty sure it went over her head like everything else she disliked hearing, but that seemed to have resolved it. She stopped bothering during the rest of my time their.
I finally quit my job at Sugar Creek (the bacon factory I worked at here in Pittsburg). Right now, I'll be enjoying some down time before heading back to California and starting the process again of maintaining a steady life on my own. Sadly in August, I'll have to do some more packing and moving around personal items. So I still won't be very active here until I get to California in about three weeks, but at least I get more opportunities to be on MAL compare to before.
There's still some things here that need fixing like a broken car engine and some bad floor work, but with my help I was able to put my family in a much better position than when I came here. They don't have to worry about not having food or loosing the house for a while. I also bought them a couple of nice things on the side that they've wanted. I would consider it a success, even if everything is not exactly fix. Some things are out of my control; like the terrible roommate my parents won't kick out for some reason. In my short time here I helped my folks out more so than their roommate ever does. It doesn't help matter that the roommate doesn't even pay for child support so on top of being a terrible roommate who eats allot. It wouldn't be much of a big deal if he put more than 50 dollars for grocery, but nope sometimes he gives less to my folks which pisses me off. Off course I can't do anything since I don't own the house, and also my dad can prove to me he's not hypocrite when it comes to parenting. Our relationship is complicated.
So I'll get out what happen here in Pittsburg, Kansas in this spoiler. Be warned though, working a full month (as well as overtime) without a day off has my head sorta fuzzy at the moment.
I manage to squeeze in time to see a couple of anime series, but sadly for most of them I don't have much nice things to say about. Lets start with Blood-C which is essentially the anime equivalent of being rick-rolled. Except of being mildly annoyed it makes you feel like you wasted your whole time when the twist in a 12 episode series basically amounts to saying "We knew this suck, but we still did it either way". There was plenty of things wrong with it from the weak writing and repetitive episodes structure. The really cheap animation didn't help matter. Backgrounds are usually deserted so when a episode tries to make it look suspicious that an entire school campus was empty you just assume is business as usual. I laughed when the characters acted like it was a big deal not to see people outside when most of the series have a lack of background characters. The music was forgettable all of which sounded like stock music you could find for free on the web. Pretty much it sucked. The only thing enjoyable about it was mocking the opening theme with my little brother and just laughing at the fact our mocking of how voice actor sounded (we basically joke it was more fitted for a mystical dragon) like actually turned to be a plot twist.
Another series I also finished here was Knights of Sidonia. Oh where to begin with this trite. It's basically the most uncreative and generic sci-fi story ever written. Granted allot of the ideas it uses have been done to death before, but in Knights of Sidonia it plays them straight without effort to go against an establish genre norm. It was a boring series to see because I able to predict every plot twist and who was going to die in the series within seconds of introduction. Now it does have the same issues Attack on Titan has like the lack of characterization before characters dies and inconsistent pacing, but it was twice the length of Knights of Sidonia so things like the world building, some developed characters, and some engrossing moments were pulled of successfully. In Knights of Sidonia since its shorter the issues are harder to forgive since the aliens never feel like a major threat. At one point in the series there's a montage of the MC killing Gana (or as I called them Ganerea since making fun of it was entertaining while predictable things occur). The length is my biggest issues with the anime. Due to it being 12 episodes there's major tonal shift causing for some unintentional hilarity. In one episode the ship crew made a big deal of turning the ship left and dozen of people got killed. I laughed at the fact the crew didn't bother taking into account the Gana can make turns acting like it would act tension. For a series that has future tech the people in the universe are really stupid.
In one episode around 300 Knights disobey orders to save a single person, yet in the final battle in the anime when fighting against a planet size Gana around thirty are sent. Surely some of those knights would disobey military orders to save Sidonia since those same knights put Sidonia in danger when leaving it in order to save Tanikaze. There's also odd humor about making fun of the fact the only person who can save Sidonia needs to eat more.
For me it was too familiar to too many sci-fi stories that did nothing to separate itself from the crowd. In the anime medium I don't see it as anything special either. It doesn't have the tight writing or fantastic character moments like Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2199/Space Yamato 2199 nor the style or entertainment of Cowboy Bebop. Like I said in the last paragraphs it shares many of the same issues I have with Attack On Titan (though I love it, the flaws makes it interesting to discuss with other), but due to the length and lack of creativity of seeing anything new being done it’s a forgettable viewing experience.
Another series I saw here is a 3 part OVA called Garzey's Wings. Oh man what was absolutely rushed train wreck which words cannot do justice to. It's currently only the fifth anime I have given a 1 too (the others being Mahouka (obvious reasons as to why), Green Green, Blood-C: The Last Dark, and a one hour movie). It was rush, had terrible animation, hilariously bad voice acting, and altogether was incomprehensible beyond belief. To top it all off I see the studio behind it in the closing credit is J. C. Staff. This made Garzey's Wing an even stranger experience since it's completely out of character to what J.C. Staff usually does.
I am enjoying a couple of anime don't worry. I'm currently watching Yona of the Dawn which has a typical story if your familiar with the princess outcasted from her kingdom storyline making it predictable. However, the pacing works to its favor since it provides time to develop characters, include world building, and at around be just a pleasant watch. I was actually surprise I had a better time seeing the first episode than I expected since at the time I just first episodes of Death Parade, Steins;Gate, Monster, and another series I can't remember which failed to hook me in any way. Yona of the Dawn comedy is also pleasant helping it feel different from my experience with the fantasy genre. I would still recommend you try checking it out even story beats will familiar to you.
Monster I'm liking a good deal. I do have issues with it like there being allot more plot convenience than expected and switching focus frequently. As a whole though the slow pacing is to my liking. I do favor slow pacing despite what animes I have on my favorite list since more time spent to developing a story properly I have a great appreciation for. The characters are interesting, the mystery surrounding Johan keeps it interesting, and that music is godly. I'm not kidding. As soon as I heard the opening theme I made sure to obtain a copy of the OST for monster. Another series I'm liking is Log Horizon. I'm almost done with it, but unfortunately my work held back from finishing it for some time and the fact my little brother wasn't in the mood to see it together.
Reviews wise I sadly didn't plan anything in advance. My free time got eaten up more so than expected. Sometimes I would just go home, lay down on my bed, and just knock out without noticing. I do know what I want to reviews since I did recently see a couple of series I just can't stop thinking about for good and bad reasons. One of them being Death Parade. Though I have my list of issues with it trying to properly convey them in writing turned out to be a greater challenge than expected. There's also Steins;Gate a series I don't have much of an high opinion of. I went over my complaints with my little brother who liked it at first, but later came around to having a opinion to me on the series the closer we got to finishing it. I'll tread lightly on Steins;Gate, but after posting my Aldnoah.Zero review I shouldn't be surprise if I get angry PM's regarding it and possibly saying I have no right to complaint about it flaws when I have Attack On Titan on my favorites.
I always feel stuff, but I guess it feels like that since I worked at Sugar Creek. So far the only place that was able to demoralize me. Whatever job I end up getting when I get to California (though it'll pay less) will be better than in the miserable company that is Pittsburg, Kansas.
Finally got around to replying to the rest of your previous. With internet Pittsburg, Kansas is at least bearable, but without it I'm pretty much bored to death since there's nothing much to do in a small town. My only access to anime is watching whatever I downloaded before coming here. I mostly got stuff my little brother didn't get finished seeing like FMA: Brotherhood, Samurai Champloo, and Parasite. The ones I got that I didn't see were Mahouka, Wolf Rain, Space Yamato 2199 (unfortunately episode 19 didn't work, though by the time you probably read this I likely would have finish the series by now), Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji Ultimate Survivor, Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, and a couple of other anime.
I don't prefer downloading anime much because sometime there are missing episodes. Like I downloaded a file of Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji Ultimate Survivor that has three episodes missing so I can't complete it because of that. Also, that's a great series. If you like Light Yagami allot you'll also like the MC in Kaiji Ultimate Survivor since he also puts allot of thought into his situations that you get a good feel for who he is. Anything new airing this season I'll have to play catch up with once I return to glorious California. So I can offer any thoughts or impression on anything airing. What sucks most is there's whole of friends I can't talk too.
I might as well share with you a story I shared with Dex on his profile if I haven't already done so on his. I wrote this ahead of time so who know if I finally got around to post anything on his profile. So some context, when I used to live here in Pittsburg, Kansas I had a green hair stalker by the name of Briana. I was a senior in high school and she was a freshman. She told me directly she liked me so I told her we could be friends. In her head she thought it meant we were dating so I cleared up the misunderstanding, and unfortunately that wasn't where it ended. I had the misfortune of running into someone I couldn't remember until he spouted out some awful pickup lines. To be truthful, "You're so fine, you must have wrote the book" I wouldn't consider a pickup line or the way worse "Every second your electric like a thousand bolt". He invites me to a party on a college campus. Somehow my Oscar the Grouch colored hair stalker Briana knew I came back to Pittsburg somehow. Creepy.
I go to the party and she put me on the spot to sing karaoke. I didn't recognize her at first since she had change her hair color. So I took the mic saying I'm going to free verse it and sing a song from the top of my head. So try to imagine a room of confuse college students hearing someone they never seen on campus saying "Shake your skeleton" several time. Despite my bad singing, I was still the best person who performed and at that point my stalker revealed herself to me. Putting me on the spot of how I made her cry when I told her we were just friends. Don't know what's she up to, but don’t really like having a stalker XD. Especially now that she now blends into the background.
The spoiler is for everything related to Aldnoah.Zero
I saw a bit of OreImo and wasn't impress by it at all. That first episode had a obvious contrivance by having the brother bump into Kirino in the first episode all because he forgot to put juice back into the fridge. I found that one action odd, and unfortunately turned out to be an example of bad writing.
My little brother seems to like it, but that's only because he could relate to it. I could relate to Light Yagami, but if I removed that familiarity with Death Note it still has other things going for it. For my brother, I think that's the only connection he has to it and actually laughed at OreImo jokes more so than I expected. However, we are watching Mahouka at the same time which also has incest done incorrectly among other things. In Mahouka the MC sister personality is basically saying Onii-Sama and loving him. In comparison OreImo attempt to cover that same topic in a comedic fashion is more commendable in comparison. Right now I think it's meh to be honest. If it keeps going the way it is than the best I could hope for is average from that anime. I got similar complains, along with the added it doesn't make a strong argument for being otaku in Japan.
What bothered me is how it didn't address in general how every form of media has that if its only a one sided view you're seeing it from. Grand Theft Auto for instance is often bashed by the media and parents for apparently promoting violence, yet that isn't the case in the actual game since if you kill anyone the crime won't go unpunished and most the characters actually suffer for what they do in their life. It's like if my parents saw an episode of High School DXD and then assumed all anime was like that without seeing anything else. In OreImo, the brother argument against his father was it's okay to be weird since she was perfect in every way. Or something close to that in the anime. It only works if the person is in a similar position to Kirino and not for everyone. That same argument wouldn't work for someone whose failing their classes for pursuing their hobbies.
Watamote was a good slice of life anime, but unfortunately it suffered from the failure to move past the status quo. The reason I don't see much slice of life anime is because the status quo doesn't change so my commitment to it has no big payoff. The humor was a one trick pony, but it was varied with the type of jokes it did. Another thing that gets overlook is the anime is never actually mean spirited towards Tomoko. No one actually mistreats her in any hurtful way even her brother. Everyone around her is nice to her and don't ever shunned her for being a loner. That's far from an accurate depiction I can tell you from personal experience (in most of my sophomore classes I played the loner). If you liked Watamote you might want to try out Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun. It's a fun slice of life anime that subvert some common trope in the genre, but it falls victim to the status quo. The only slice of life I've seen avoid that issue has been Bakuman so far. I'm sure there's other slice of life anime that actually progress the story. I just haven't come across them yet.
I'll try getting to the Attack on Titans OVA eventually. If it wasn't circumstantial I would only have myself to blame for not getting around to seeing them as soon as possible. I like the world so more world building for me is a plus. I have faith in season 2 at least being entertaining, but then again the director hasn't ever done a second season of anything he worked on to be honest. Still, his direction will make it worth watching at least. The live action movie on the other hand is what I'm worried about. Asia in general doesn't have a good track record with digital effect compare to the West film industry. You'll be surprise to learn when a movie does have CGI (like The Social Network) it's shocking.
I planned on finishing Space Yamato 2199 before writing my reply, but unfortunately episode 19 that I downloaded didn't work. I was going to send you another message with my thoughts on it, but who knows when I'll get another chance to do so. By the time you reply or I'm able to get online I would have already finished it. I still have a hard time accepting the same studio responsible for all anime adaptations of To Love-Ru (an ecchi) did Space Yamato 2199. There were shots were I did go like that's what I expected from them, but in general it was refreshing for me to see the studio, Xebec I think, tackle something I wouldn't picture them doing. Consider the spoiler below my impressions on 2/3 of third of it for now. I doubt my good impressions will change considering how many things it did correctly already.
Space Yamato 2199
Inaho isn't really an interesting analytic lead. He doesn't change like Light Yagami or is as over the top as Lelouch Lamperouge in his personality. In episode 10, there's a opportunity for Inaho to get character development and justify his emotionless personality. A supporting character asks Inaho sister why he doesn't show emotion and all she answers is he does. It's unexplained why he's like that; my personal theory is a long time ago his parents probably died. Unless it explained in season 2, so far the anime hasn't addressed what happened to his parents. If there was a line of dialogue the explain something bad happen to someone important to him than I would be easier to except him as he is. Other than he's like that just because. I prefer Amuro Ray in the original Mobile Suit Gundam (which I found out had a remake) because there's chances for him to loose, and in the recent episode I saw he was involved in real combat without a robot. There's a moment in the anime where Amuro Ray is in shock that a women wants revenge of killing her fiance in a battle. He's shaken up by the fact and further dawns on him the consequences of fighting in a war. Inaho never expresses anything for anyone he kills. Even Light Yagami of all people who killed who knows how many was shaken up by his first killing. In all areas, Inaho just isn't worth an investment for me.
My rant actually is longer when all put together. I like over 5000 words when combined to together. As for the camera thing I still stand by it. Even if there was smoke the enemies bullet wouldn't penetrate the shield so a simple solution would have been to wait, and then resume the attack. Trillram was ordered to kill soldiers, but instead wasted his time chasing a truck against order. By simply waiting Inaho entire plans crumble. Not even the action did it for me because the pilots simply accepted death. Inaho was the only pilot who bothered to move. As for the sword wielding mech that armor is inconsistent. It take an explosion blast directly without getting a scratch, but a crane with a metal shipping crane is greater than a explosion to dent the sword wielding mech. It took a blast from a battleship which if applied physics it would break several laws. Also, if Inaho friends listen to him that also would have been another case where he died because if it weren't his friends not listening to him he would have died. The ending...well I hate it no surprise. I didn't connect to any of the characters, it didn't feel much like a worldwide conflict, and in a earlier scene Inaho gave a anti-war speech of sorts. So yeah that ending is another discussion in general.
Ouch! OreImo sounds....rough to see. That little sister sounds horrible to be around. I like slice of life like Bakuman where there is some growth in the characters into maturity, but in general I don't bother seeing them much.I might see it to share the pain since that's the reason I Aldnoah.Zero. A friend of mine kept talking about terrible the story was, so I gave it shot. I went in it with a open mind, but as soon as Inaho showed more emotion for a sales for eggs than when the Princess is getting killed (which is why I don't buy their romance either) in front of him. If I do decide to see it (pretty unlikely given what I want check out soon) I'll know your suffering.
Watamote I would say in general is one a person show. If you dislike Tomoko than the whole anime doesn't work because it has allot of referential humor and doesn't change up its brand humor much. I would say it's a decent anime, but something that audiences in general put allot more depths into than there actually is to be found.
Good news. I finally started Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2199 after you recommended it to me like months ago. As usual, I give my first impressions on it and then maybe if I don't procrastinate actually give you my full thoughts on it soon. Right now, I'm only two episodes into the anime. So, it pretty much took less than a minute before I was sold on seeing it. Not since the opening of Yu Yu Hakusho have I been won over so easily in such a short span of time. What I like right off the bat is the animation and the great usage of 3D. The battles look awesome and with fine directing make them appear bigger than life. The characters that were introduced I can see promise in growing and the little glimpse of the crew interacting with someone before they board Yamato is a subtle to say that everyone has something to loose and fight for on this journey.
Notice you're watching allot of Oreimo. How's that anime for you?
Good thoughts on both Fullmetal Alchemist adaptations. You're the fan of the series I came across who despite liking Brotherhood more doesn't consider the original trash. Heck, even my little brother who never saw the original says Brotherhood is better. I say otherwise, but that's mostly because of personal preferences. I liked how I constantly kept worrying about the Elric brothers fate. In Bortherhood I knew how it would turn out and my guess were correct. Though, the ride their was just as well written even if it felt familiar in certain area like other shonen.
Also, I'm seeing the first season of Aldnoah.Zero...basically I hate it right now. Oh man, I think Inaho is now my low standard for MC. He sees a sale for eggs and gets excited. Within the same episode, he sees the princess of Mars get blown up and remains stoic. There's clearly something wrong about that picture. Of course, I love Sawano music for it. Though, there's a track on the OST that sounds similar to a track use in Attack On Titan. Aside from the technical stuff, nothing about it is really connecting with me.
I also stumble upon a great short film from 1956 that you might enjoy. I remember you telling me you're not a fan of old animation, but you might be surprise by it like I was when I first saw it. It reminded me of Gankutsuou and how I've never seen that sort of animation before. It doesn't use the same art style as Gankutsuou, but rather looks like it was done by puppets which looks stunning thanks to the masterful usage of lighting. The short film is called Yuuer Sen/The Phantom Ship. It's a pretty simple story about revenge, but man those visuals are splendid being completed by a good score. The only bad thing about it is how very few people have seen it.
Lets get the obvious out of the way. I like the original Fullmetal Alchemist better. I think both are great anime, but there's certain things the other one does better over the other. For instance, the female characters in Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood are better done. They are allot more of them in Brotherhood and most of them are better developed. Except for Winry who stills get sideline, but since she's in more episodes in Brotherhood it makes it that much more unnoticeable that she isn't contributing much to the story. The original had me wondering if the Aleric brothers would get their bodies while in Brotherhood I was wondering when are they going to get their bodies back. It was mostly because Brotherhood had traits of a typical shonen and had the lead saving the world story which made certain plot point easy to predict. Like I expect a coup d'etat once Bradley was revealed to be a homunculus. With the original I could never guess where it was going to go making the journey allot more impactful and tense for me. It wasn't a shonen where the leads goes on to save the world which in turned led to allot genuine surprises.
In terms of animation both are fine, but the clear winner would go to Brotherhood simply because of the action scenes. In the original, the best action scenes were all in the intros all of which had no bearing on the series. Brotherhood did have some cool action scenes in their intros, but they also had good action scenes in the series where it actually mattered. In terms of music I would say it's a tied between both. In the original I liked all the ending tracks and in Brotherhood I liked all the opening songs. Golden Time Lover (the third opening track) is awesome track I can't stop listening too. The same goes with the intros and outros for both series. Even if the opening and closing animation had terrible songs playing I would still say seeing those always adds to an anime viewing. Voice acting would also be tied since both pretty much have the same cast.
In general I prefer the original because it story wasn't predictable whereas Brotherhood because of it shonen traits was a dead give away on some things like the ending. For my taste the original is far better suited for me, but Brotherhood on the other hand I find to be an execellent shonen for how it does it.
The two episode structure of Darker Than Black made it hard to get into, but once the second half developed the main cast it got easier to stick with it. They managed to create allot of good characters and memorable storyline in that series. While slow, at least the pacing paid up in the end no matter how rough it was in the early goings to get into it. Monster with 74 episodes I'm not as surprised by the slow pacing. For me, Berserk nails down the slow pacing perfectly that at times it's surprising when an episode ends. Which I did not expect from it. Monster is in the plan to watch of my list, though with 74 episodes that'll take a while to finish. I don't mind slow pace series so long it's done well like overpowered characters. Don't think you over interpreted Gankutsuou. I did see it rather irregularly, but wouldn't be surprise if there was something I missed while seeing it for the first time.
It's like an animated documentary. An Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict. It's a fantastically told story and to date I think still the only fully animated documentary. The visuals really help it in recreating some of the scenes the veterans recall from their perspective. It's unique in how effective it is. The story is not exactly something everyone will get into since it does discuss war in a very lengthy manner. At the same time though, there is no animated film like it. If you finished reading Watership Down you'll be amazed by the film adaptation. The director worked on another movie called The Plague Dogs which is just as good. Unfortunately the director only made two animated movies which is a shame since if he kept on making mature animated movies than the mindset of animation in the US would likely be different from how it's viewed today.
I like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann allot, but the fights did feel repetivie. In almost every fight a new power or weapon got introduced which took away from the suspense. Also, fighting spirit is no different than the power of friendship or believing in one self. Except in Gurren Lagann is played up to an extreme over the top manner that makes allot of fun as well the battles gradually getting bigger as it reaches the ending. I couldn't take most of the supporting cast dying in the second half since they didn't much personality. That ending though was fantastic. I do agree Kill La Kill perfected the formula Gurren Lagann tried out. Though, I'm guessing the Matoi costume is probably the only reason why the series isn't as big or more popular than Gurren Lagann for doing a similar thing, but in a much better fashion. Uchuu Senkan Yamato keeps peaking my interest. Once I'm done with the remake I'll try out the original.
SMT is sorta niche and the publisher makes a tiny amount of physical copies when releasing them. So likely you're better off getting a digital copy than a physical one since they're hard to find. They stand out from the typical JRPG franchises that even the major players like Square Enix has taken some inspirations from it. I played Skyrim a bit, but like with Fallout 3 I couldn't get into the game play. The story is fine, but playing it feels like a drag to me. As for Fire Emblem there's a new one announce. Unless it's for the DS I'm out of luck since it's the only Nintendo system I own. Don't rush your play time with video games. Enjoy them at your own pace.
I saw three episodes of Assassination Classroom and seems like it'll have the same problem Akame Ga Kill did with the tone. It's mostly lighthearted, but then takes some serious tonal shift when it tries to be serious. There's no smooth transition. Although, at the moment it's entertaining. I do expect the humor to be a one trick pony since the studio hasn't expanded on the joke, but I'll wait and see how it turns out.
Ghibli has allot worth checking out, though most of what they make aren't as deep as Grave of the Fireflies or Mononoke Hime". In "From Up On Poppy Hill" there's a twist in the movie that's really does nothing for the story. It's about teenage love and life which would have been fine. However, when the story introduces a twist it doesn't explore the topic they could have explored with that twist. The young couple are unsure how they feel about each other now with the learned information. It's more insulting when by the end of the movie they drop it completely. I would still say to see it since it's a pleasant film. There's also Pom Poko which is direct about it's save the environment message. I suggest seeing it since the animation is imaginative. Though do prepare to see allot of Raccoon balls lol and using them for all sorts of things like faking being humans being. If you check out everything from them you'll be fine. Aside from Tales of Earthsea, they tend to have at least one thing to like about their films. So you're safe with them. There's The Plague Dogs, Watership Down, and Waltz With Bashir I would recommend seeing in your free time since Mal doesn't have them on their site.
If you want something you could add to your list then go for The Girl Who Leapt Through Time/Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo. It's escapism at finest in portraying the best of youth and eventually growing up into an adult. I highly recommend it and it has a good female character. Same goes with Summer Wars which is directed by the same person as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. I would also suggest Millennium Actress (2001) which has a deep story and on a visual level it's lovely. Actually, anything by Satoshi Kon you should try to check out. There's also another animated movie about an hour long called Hal that sounds interesting. It's about a girl who lost her boyfriend in a plane accident and has a robot in her place. If you ever see any of these please share your thoughts.
Not much of an FPS fan either. The two FPS I like the most were Timesplitter: Future Perfect and Resistance 3. Aside from those two, I haven't replayed many. Online multiplayer isn't a draw. I prefer third person shooters in general like Uncharted and Sleeping Dogs. I've played Fire Emblem: Awakening. The gameplay is great while the story is solid. It just doesn't bother to develop the characters. It's pretty much up to the player and how they play to see if they want to see it developed.
Shin Megami Tensei I got a lot to say about. To put it shortly, it's a RPG series that lets you decide the fate of the world. It's awesome because you either follow your own path, side with the demons, or the angels in almost every game. That sort of branching path isn't offer much in RPG's let alone an entire franchise that lets you do that.
For currently airing anime I don't have much to offer. I would say stay away from Yuri Kuma Arashi at the moment. It doesn't have much to offer unless you want to see lesbian girls teasing the viewer with a possible kiss. So far, the first episode makes it come across as if it's just going to offer fanservice. I say check out Assassination Classroom and Death Parade. I haven't seen them, but have a friend who has. I trust them their opinions and have faith in those series too. Watamote go for sub. That voice actress nails it.
For the first four episodes I felt the style was used in order to cover up a weak execution of a good premise that showed promise. That was until episode 8 where the story delivered a good hook for me and made me want to see what happened next. In episode 8, The Count buys a new mansion which he states is haunted and plays a game with his game to see if they could find the haunted room that is left untouched. Before that episode the plot was thickening showing clear signs that all these people were in some way connected to The Count, but building on the mystery instead of showing it immediately. Past that Episode 8 it was smooth sailing from their and my viewing experience grew in favor of it with each passing episode.
The only time I actually was questioning what in the world I was watching was Episode 18 with the duel between Franz and The Count. That was some awkward looking 3D, but the episode before that I felt was one of the best. Usually in series when a character announces a deal it occurs with in the same episode. So I was taken by surprised when it ended with no deal. It's welcoming for me. For someone who study writing in several classes over the years I welcome that small unorthodox narrative choice. The same with the pre-finale episode. All the pieces were in place for Episode 23 is be the big finale to end the series on a high note. With everything that occurred in it I was certain it was the last episode, but it wasn't. The last episode was smaller and a more proper ending for the anime. If it ended with Episode 23 I still would have been happy, but the actual last episode that shows what happened five years later give it further closure for me. Showing what happened to the characters made the journey all the more worthwhile.
I can't really comment much on the Japanese voice acting since I only saw the English dub. If it has Johnny Bosch Yong in a lead role there's no question which version I'm seeing first. Though his performance was underwhelming. He didn't get many opportunity to change his approach so for most of the series his performance feels the same from episode to episode, though when he when allow to show a different side to his character he pulled it off. Without a doubt the best actor in the English dub was Jamieson Price as The Count. His performance for the character was spot on and he aced literally every single scene he was in. The animation style is unique and left wondering how in the world Gonzo Studio managed to animate it the way they did. It give the look of a classic painting. I do know for certain they use photoshop for some parts since some the trees I notice were somewhat live action images, but past that I stuck at being amazed and left wonder how it was done. You don't need me to tell you, but the soundtrack was magnificent. It's nothing I would listen to repeatedly, but they were all good tracks. Especially the opening which was made better by the end of series.
Hopefully this I'll manage my anime viewing allot better, though I'm not off to a good start. Been playing a lot of Far Cry 4 and Kingdom Hearts on my PS3 recently. The story in Far Cry 4 is weak (and has one a terrible ending), but it's an improvement over the third entry in the game play department. I actually enjoy playing it this time instead being annoyed by a specific design choice that tarnish the experience in the long run. Kingdom Hearts I got both HD releases, but haven't finish a single game in them yet. I'm liking it allot more than expected. I can't tell you how glad I am that a current release game doesn't have some sort of bug on day one. It's a blast, though with Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker set to be release this year which it will take my time. Same goes with Persona 5 (I'm an Shin Megami Tensei addict, need me my dose) a franchise I'm a huge fan off so I will dedicate some time to it. Aside from that though, I don't think anything else this year will eat much of my time when I decide not to watch anime.
See you started the first episode of Tokyo Ghoul root A (haha, that title). I'm planing on seeing too, but first got to get to finishing some of the anime I'm currently watching. Got to make space of for Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2199 and other anime I'm planning on seeing this year.