No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow.
Sunday, January 27
Kotoura-san
Wow. Talk about mood whiplash. This show flip-flops between cheap sight gags and a brutally honest and realistic depiction of how people in such a (admittedly far-fetched) situation would respond.
I'll keep watching for sure, but it's leading the pack for most uneven show of the season.
1
From what I'm reading, this show is one I shouldn't watch. It would give me flashbacks to how I was hazed in grade school (for being the "smart kid").
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Sunday, January 27 2013 11:41 PM (+rSRq)
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Yeah, it can get uncomfortable, given that it's a realistic treatment of an unrealistic situation. That part of it is handled quite well - so far, anyway - but as I noted, the tone of the show is extremely uneven, so I don't know how well it will hold up over the season.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Monday, January 28 2013 12:16 AM (PiXy!)
Vividred Operation: At least they choose from only the finest cliches.
Tamako Market: That chicken/parakeet thing needs to go.
Kotoura-san: Much better first episode than I had expected. Could turn out to be genuinely good.
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Tuesday, December 25
We Interrupt This Special Bulletin For A Program
So I'm on holidays for a bit, and I was planning on catching up on my anime watching between bouts of Minxing and spring cleaning. I've already assembled two new computers and a RAID array and fixed my old RAID array, so I deserve to relax a little.
On my to-watch list at present are:
Hidamari Sketch season 4
Strike Witches (all of it, haven't seen any)
Dog Days (again, all of it)
Mouretsu Pirates (watched the first few episodes, then got bushwhacked)
I've missed most of the past five or six seasons, so any suggestions from that time frame would be welcome.
Sounds like you missed Asobi ni Iku Yo. If you watch it, definitely watch a BD rip so that it isn't censored. Also, you missed Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou. Same thing: watch a BD rip.
But watch Mouretsu Pirates first.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Tuesday, December 25 2012 03:12 AM (+rSRq)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Tuesday, December 25 2012 04:42 AM (+rSRq)
4HidaSketch S4 is wonderful, probably the best there's been in the franchise.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Tuesday, December 25 2012 09:01 AM (cymHZ)
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Steven, I did watch half of Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou and part of Madoka. I rated them both a meh. I know I differ with a lot of people on the latter, but many of them also liked Eva, which makes them wrong.
I was going to put Girls und Panzer on the list, but saw you mention that they'd bobbled the production schedule and it has no ending yet, so I'll leave that for another day.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, December 25 2012 09:49 AM (PiXy!)
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I would not advise Girls und Panzer at this time. Eps 11 and 12 won't air until March.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Tuesday, December 25 2012 09:52 AM (+rSRq)
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I recommend the Summer Wars movie, and Bakemonogatari.
Conrad
Posted by: conrad at Thursday, December 27 2012 02:46 AM (Wh+XA)
With many sadnesses, I gave up on Moyashimon Returns after three episodes. It's just not the same.
What I have been watching is that show about the high school club with no clearly defined purpose that has two boys and three girls as members and one of the girls ends up falling off a bridge and/or horse and landing on her head but then gets better.
THAT are following both Kokoro Connect and Tari Tari if you are seeking detailed reviews. Well, mostly they're shipping for Inaban x Taichi and any girl x any other girl, but they post reviews as well.
Both shows are solid if not groundbreaking (though Kokoro Connect at least has that potential), but involve Japanese teenagers, so a default Category 2 angst warning applies.
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Wednesday, July 18
My Little Zombie Can't Be This Cute
Sankarea.
What? No, I mean seriously, what? Spectacularly uneven show, a mishmash of romantic comedy, slapstick comedy, drama, tragedy, horror, harem, and fanservice. While it pulls off most of the individual elements pretty well, the whole is about as cohesive as a sack full of angry raccoons.
And worse, while it's clear that no-one involved had any idea where the story was headed, the events within the story are tiresomely predictable.
On the balance, I rate it two little zombie kitties out of four.
My usual sources, THAT and Sea Slugs, didn't touch this one, but Random Curiosity provided full (and warning, spoiler-laden) coverage.
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Sunday, July 15
Cute Pandemic
A trap in full gothloli costume gazing rapturously up at an industrial rice polisher? Moyashimon has Returned.
Kokoro Connect. This is the one that looks just like K-On! only with boys* as opposed to Tari Tari, the one that sounds just like K-On! only not with boys.
First episode was pretty good. If it continues this way, as a character-driven series circling around the McGuffin, it could be a standout, because the characters are generally quite engaging.
Music and animation are decent enough, if unremarkable. The character designs are fine, as are the voices, particularly Miyuki Sawashiro as Inaba. (She played Celty in Durarara!! and the landlady in Hidamari, so it's another unexpected but oddly perfect voice in the line of last season's girl-shaped space bee.)
So I'll be watching this one - assuming I don't end up dead again, which is not a given.
Now, when does Moyashimon Chronic start? Huh, Miyuki has a role in that too. Wait, it's already on? Why does no-one tell me these things?!
Episode 2 Update: Huh. It did an Immelman Turn when I was expecting it to zig. Interesting, though.
* Some.**
** Sometimes.***
*** Probably.
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Wednesday, July 04
The Nargun And The Pop Stars
For a rock, that thing has a wicked sense of humour.
Natsuiro Kiseki.
(THAT, which has a talent for this, titled the show Magical Rock Trolls Four Girls.)
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Friday, June 08
Ano Natsu De Matteru - Fin
I previously wrote about this series back in January, and then a spaceship crashed on top of me and I died.
Or something like that.
Anyway, I just finished watching it, the first series I've finished since, I think, A Channellast October. It's been that sort of year.
So, inconvenient spaceship collisions aside, what about the show?
It's pretty good. Enjoyable. It's a slow-moving nostalgia warm-fluffy one-hanky piece (has to be some drama involved) with cute girls (the boys are outnumbered eight-to-two among the regular cast), lush rural scenery, a weird little mascotty thing, and railcars. So all the essentials are covered.
Not much in the way of any actual plot, though. That's not necessarily fatal; A Channel skated by on charm and won my heart. Ano Natsu de Matteru is... Well, it's nice. It's a pleasant watch. It's not going to set the world on fire, it's not a classic for the ages, but it's well-crafted and enjoyable, with some genuinely funny and surprising moments.
The ending doesn't try to resolve everything, but it does provide closure; I found it satisfying. Watching episode 12 I couldn't remember if it was a 12 or 13 episode series, but no, that was it, no episode-long coda. (Not that I would have minded.)
So recommended, yes. You don't need to put it on the top of your watch list, but just the thing for a rainy weekend.
Three out of four little mascotty things, the same as I gave it originally.
Update: Steven took a look, and it pegged his angstometer. So be warned on that respect.
The 5-person (!) love scrum was a bit artificial, but hey, it's all in good fun.
Also, you know what?
The "old" Mio was way more moe than the "new" one. If I were in Tetsurou place, it would disadvantage her, ironically. I'm not talkig about the haircut specifically, but actually yes, that too.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Friday, June 08 2012 10:34 AM (5OBKC)
It may help to think of her as a girl-shaped space bee.
The ick factor aside, this is not only the best-show-from-the-worst-premise for the season, it's possibly the best show starting this season. Nice old-fashioned designs, great artwork, it moves at its own pace but without putting me to sleep (Hyouka).
Well, based on one episode, which is all I've had time to watch due to bizarre networking issues at my day job.
Oh, and minor spoiler:
Urabe's voice is surprising when you first hear it, but after just a few minutes, it seems entirely natural. Good casting there.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Friday, April 06 2012 03:00 PM (+rSRq)
2
There's a version of this on vimeo.com: http://vimeo.com/39758142
(I apologize for not mastering the way of making that a real link.)
This looks like the director's own upload and it has a bunch of credits with links (and he has a tumblr with .gif versions of various scenes). The director (Takuya Hosogane) also has a 'making of' video for it (showing rough animation and sketches for various sections) and other, earlier videos.
(Credit goes to people on Twitter, who linked to the Vimeo version.)
Posted by: Chris Siebenmann at Saturday, April 21 2012 06:14 AM (YmdZq)
Right. That reminds me why I don't like this sort of game.
I don't have any problem at all with the game subject or material; they're fine, and deftly handled. It's the shallowness of the decision tree that I have a problem with. At least when Mass Effect screwed you this way, you could mostly either apologise or shoot someone. Sometimes both.
It's more like a giant "Choose Your Own Adventure" book.
That's the point he's making. You don't get to choose much. Rins path is the worst in that regard. Hannako's is by far the best as far as logically relevant choices.
On balance I liked most of the characters, and 3 of the 5 stories, but I agree that gameplay was lacking.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sunday, February 19 2012 05:12 PM (EJaOX)
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I note that Katawa Crash has more actual game play (you can slow yourself, give yourself a boost a limited number of times and of course choose your initial trajectory)...you also get to kick Hisao around and there's a sharktopus, (which the VN sorely lacks).
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sunday, February 19 2012 05:20 PM (EJaOX)
4
And that's my point (which I also made in my review). KS isn't a game by Western standards, and comparing it to Mass Effect, even in passing, isn't fair to either.
If you object to calling KS a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book, then I'll just call it five novellas wrapped together by a computer program. There is no gameplay, just a lot of reading.
Having said that, I had more fun reading KS than I have any of the last five books I've picked up.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Sunday, February 19 2012 05:30 PM (ZNgWw)
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The problem I have is that you're presented with two or three choices, none of which are quite what you want to do, and which don't accurately represent what your character will do or say (a sin which Mass Effect also commits, which is why I mentioned it) - and then you just press the space bar for a long while.
If you read the credits, you'll see they had a writing team, an art team, a music team... And no-one at all on game design.
I agree that it's a fun read, and the characters are engaging. But I think that all that creative work is sadly let down by the shortage of meaningful choices.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, February 19 2012 05:56 PM (PiXy!)
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I'll give it another go, to get some more of the story out. I do like the story (so far). It just needs about three times as many branch points.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, February 19 2012 05:59 PM (PiXy!)
7
The real culprit there was, the, er... "development cycle", I guess you'd call it. The first chapter was produced as a demo/test the waters/holy shit this is really happening piece, and actually has a lot of decision points and branching etc etc. But the rest of the development doesn't run with that at all - if you don't end up on the Kenji bus, your ride will take you completely to the end of one of the girls' stories.
A game developed in more organic fashion would have spaced that out more, so that you didn't have a Future Destiny With _x_ by the school festival. But it would have also been a long, hard slog with the initial development team - they needed to have something out there to convince people that this was a real, serious project devoted to taking what sounds like a terrible joke of a concept and making a good experience out of it.
That said, there's something to be said for the roller coaster. Contrast with Type Moon's stuff, for example. The Tsukihime game had a bunch of branching options, but only a single determiner between whether you were on the Arc path or the Ciel path... and it wasn't the game asking you "so would you prefer to be bonking Arc or Ciel" either. It was entirely possible to go into the game and play it with a strong preference for one character, then do that particular choice wrong, starting you on the path for the other with massive, insuperable penalties (because, well... Ciel very much does not like Arc and Arc's just jealous in general.) So your game was doomed at that point... but it wouldn't say "oh yeah, you're so dead by now", you'd just play for a few more in-game days wondering why you're suddenly getting all these Ciel scenes when you'd been a lot more friendly with Arc.
Which is to say, designing these stories with a lot of branching points is hard, because an "oh darn, nobody likes you very much" ending is a highly negative experience, especially if you can't exactly work out what you did wrong. FSN had a few problems with this too. If you're playing the game worried that answering "wrong" when you get asked about your favorite vegetable will result in hours of wasted gameplay, you're not going to have as much fun.
Some games get around this by having a strong default option - Sakura Wars (not exactly a dating sim...) rigs it so it's quite difficult to get EVERYONE mad at you, and even blundering your way through the game without much of a focus will have you end up with Sakura. Other games get through it in this fashion - you've got choices that can lead to different scenes, but in ways that aren't story-important (the infamous White Ren/Black Ren selection event...) Some games just blow it and become crapware.
It's fair to say that KS doesn't have a whole lot of user interaction, but eh, it's a visual novel. More interaction doesn't necessarily equal a better experience.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Sunday, February 19 2012 09:43 PM (GJQTS)
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More interaction doesn't necessarily equal a better experience, but in this case, and for me, it definitely would.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, February 19 2012 11:25 PM (PiXy!)
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Hey, Pixy. I can't log into blog.mu.nu. I'm getting an Internal Server Error page. Could you have a look at that? Thanks! :-D
Posted by: Tuning Spork at Monday, February 20 2012 11:40 AM (yh6+P)
10
Spork, I'll get that fixed ASAP, but in the meantime try the backup login at blog2.mu.nu.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Monday, February 20 2012 03:49 PM (PiXy!)
Do you remember when I whined incessantly about the spam on Ace's blog, and you finally tried to block me while you and Den Beste shamed me for my awesome ability to whine about stuff?
Well, sorry for all of that, but more importantly, congratulations on fixing the spam problem! If it's not a secret, how did you accomplish it?
*fingers crossed that it was one of my ideas*
Posted by: Kevin at Monday, February 20 2012 07:26 PM (3o64G)
12
I'm not sure exactly what did the trick. I updated the spam filter to scan the database for repeat offenders, find all the IP addresses they use, and ban them en masse.
I also spent several hours manually identifying spam and zapping the hell out of it (and banning people the same way).
It worked a lot better than I'd expected; spam levels have gone way down.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Monday, February 20 2012 09:12 PM (PiXy!)
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Thanks, Pixy! The main login is still out, but the backup worked like a charm.
Posted by: Tuning Spork at Monday, February 20 2012 10:25 PM (yh6+P)
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Original address should be happy again now as well.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, February 22 2012 11:42 AM (PiXy!)
Which one, though? One of the stable ones or one of the metastable ones?
Wan.
Where did those come from? I'm sure they weren't there before.
Aww, now they're gone again.
Guess it's one of the metastable ones then.
Wan.
The robot fights are formulaic, but the characters and the character designs work for me, as does the art style generally and the music, both op/ed and incidental.
It's nothing groundbreaking, but it has a beat and you can dance... I mean, it's enjoyable enough so far.
Two and one half little fishies out of four. Wan.
Now you see 'em...
Now you don't.
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Wednesday, January 18
Ano Natsu De Matteru
Also known as spoiler.
This one is actually good - funny, well-written, well-acted, beautifully drawn, and willing to hit the tropes head-on or dodge them balletically as its whim takes it.
One thing that intrigued me while watching the show was when it was set. One, no cell-phones or computers anywhere; can't be twenty-first century. Two, skirt length, can't pre-date the mid-60's. Architecture (the school has a large, curving glass wall, for example) and transport (the very few cars we see are neither boxy nor sleekly curved) both suggest the 80's or 90's. The male lead has a Super-8 film camera, and it's not highlighted as an anachronism, which points to the early 80's. But there are shelf stereos - CD only - and the cordless phones are bulky but not that bulky, which suggests at least the late 80's, probably the 90's.
That aside, it has a busty redhead, a tomboyish girl who goes hmph, and a twintailed girl who goes ufufufu.
Oh, and railcars. All in all, it's a real throwback, a 90's style comedy with 2012 production values, and definitely one I'll be watching.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thursday, January 19 2012 10:02 AM (PiXy!)
3
There's apparently circumstantial evidence that the series is set relatively recently. The source I ran across is 8thsin's TL notes and observations.
Posted by: Chris Siebenmann at Wednesday, January 25 2012 04:02 AM (YmdZq)
4
It's good to know that I'm not the only one suffering from Engineer's Disease.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Wednesday, January 25 2012 04:22 AM (+rSRq)
5
This show is definitely relevant to my interests. Why is it, then, that I can't get more than two minutes into the first episode without sighing and closing the player?
I want to watch it. I wanted to watch it the moment I heard about it. I like Please Teacher, I LOVED Please Twins, I should be drooling over this one like something that drools a lot.
Maybe it's my mood.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Wednesday, January 25 2012 04:40 PM (f/6aJ)
6
Possibly. There are shows that I really like but can only watch at certain times.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, January 25 2012 05:31 PM (PiXy!)
Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai! Also known as Oh, right, the whole of Wikipedia is blacked out.
A college-aged boy ends up looking after his niece and step-nieces after their parents are lost in a plane crash. Some genuine moments of comedy and tragedy, but the storytelling is heavy-handed and it strays too close to ick territory for my liking.
Could be worse. Knowing the Japanese, could be a lot worse.
Two little fishies out of four. Maybe half a point more if we get to see more of the monorail. Monorails are good.
1
I dunno, what is the system? If it's ALWEG, I'll take it, but the hanging French shit buys no favours from me. Even the Moscow-style Intamin leaves me cold.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Thursday, January 19 2012 08:21 AM (G2mwb)
It's a card game. When a card shows up on the table that a player wants, he has to slap it. If both players want it, it's a contest of speed.
What makes me laugh about all this is that back when DiGiKerot used to do comics for his web page, and when Saki was running, he satirized it by having his girls be in a Snap club (instead of mah-jong, you understand).
Sure wish he'd start doing those again, but of all people I particularly can understand getting burned out.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Monday, November 14 2011 03:57 PM (+rSRq)
Got the chance to finish watching this series this evening, and it really is an underappreciated little gem. While it treads ground covered by shows like Azumanga Daioh, K-On!, and Hidamari Sketch, and while it's a bit uneven in places, its charm holds up throughout.
And the sixth omake is brilliant.
There's an OVA on the way, so that's something to look forward to. With only two volumes to the manga I don't know if there's enough material for another full season, much as I'd like to see it.
Recommended.
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1
Heck yes. But by now I am afraid to approach it with a fresh hope as I did 3 times prior.
BTW, mee.nu is dead, reports "too many templates".
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Sunday, August 14 2011 05:12 AM (9KseV)
2
I was filled with trepidacity with the third season, but it was almost entirely unwarranted. So I'm feeling only a little apprehensness for this outing. Nazuna is a cabbage, but not to such a degree that she diminishes the overall awesomery.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, August 14 2011 04:15 PM (PiXy!)
3
And mee.nu seems to be okay now, just full of spam. Sigh.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, August 14 2011 04:15 PM (PiXy!)
4
If this new season follows the 4th book of the manga, and there's no reason to suspect that it won't, we'll discover that Cabbage actually begins to grow something of a skeletal system. Not much of one, and still rather soft and floopy, but it's there. Not enough to make me like her, but enough for me to acknowledge that she's no longer dragging on the show like a fifty-ton weight attached to an kayak.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Sunday, August 14 2011 05:00 PM (KBBJ+)
This Site Is Now One Of Just Three Hits On Google For
"She really is a crazy busy bee."
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Monday, July 25
Wait, What? (Insect Edition)
Maya the Bee was anime?
I always thought it was a European series. But then, I was watching towards the end of my don't-care-so-long-as-it's-animated period, so I wouldn't have noticed either way.
The American dub had a different - and lame - theme song. The version we got in Australia had the original tune* with translated lyrics, which is apparently the case for most of the rest of the world:
France
Germany
Poland
Russia
Hungary
Czechoslovakia, as was
German remix, apparently broadcast in Spain (the Spanish theme is less lame than the American version, but still not the real thing)
Polish polka version, sung by an unreasonably talented 11-year-old
Finland
Slovenia
A live Czech version (Karel Gott sang the original German, Czech, and Slovak versions)
Israel
Greece
A German / Czech co-production
Portugal
Wait, Spain had the real thing too, as well as their German remix and their Latin alternate-universe version
Another German version on Spanish TV or... something - this one actually changes languages midstream
Netherlands
Croatia
Honestly, you could hum the tune of this show to anyone in the world between the ages of about thirty and fifty and form an instant friendship... Except for America. Oh, and Italy. They messed it up too.
The odd thing, though, is that English version is not the song from my childhood. That version went:
There is a land that you can't see, Although it sometimes isn't there; And that is where you'll find a bee, With so much happiness to share. And if you ask her for her name she'll say it's Maya, The one and only little bee called Maya, Maya has so many friends you see; She really is a crazy busy bee. She's always going to exciting places, Maya, Meeting friends with different faces, Maya, Maya, everyone loves Maya. Maya (Maya), Maya (Maya), Maya tell us about your day.
I got most of that from memory, and then found this page which had all but the opening verse, and in the right order. (As soon as I saw it I realised I had some lines the wrong way round.) I found the opening verse on some random page on Facebook.
Now, let's see if I can find that one as well.
...
Mmmmmno.
Oh well, here's another version in... Don't know any more. I think that's Croatian. (Looks up.) Yes, Croatian, which I speak fluently... To the extent that I can recognise Pcelica Maja when I see it twice just a few minutes apart.
* And by "original", I mean the version composed by Czech songwriter Karel Svoboda. The Japanese theme song is nearly as bad as the American version.
1
Hardly anyone here remembers it now but the US version of Maya the Bee was actually legendary back in the '80s as an example of bad American dubbing.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tuesday, July 26 2011 09:24 AM (EJaOX)
So I had a free half hour when things weren't actually on fire, and I watched the first episode of this. I still have the latter half of last season's shows to watch, but I wanted to pick up one episode of something, and Usagi Drop was something that sounded like it might be good.
And it is. It is very good indeed.
Oh. What's it about? It's about a thirty-year-old guy who moves in with his aunt, who scolds him all the time. Yes. Yes, that's what it's about. Heh.
Four plummeting bunnies out of four.*
* Just as a reminder, the scale is out of four, and the scores range from -1 to 5.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, July 13 2011 04:12 AM (PiXy!)
4
Hmf. Ace I'll have to leave until morning; those guys are slightly smarter and I'll need to write a little script to zap them all.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, July 13 2011 04:14 AM (PiXy!)
5
Ah, I'll re-run the commenter stats at mu.nu. That will find the bad guys for me, then I can just bulk-erase them.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, July 13 2011 04:16 AM (PiXy!)
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Exotic, because the stable state is two cutinos, one chaon, and one oneeon, and to form Mashimarium a third cutino has to be captured; it will divert the oneeon, and the chaon will get lonely. But nobody likes the chaon, so it's okay.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Wednesday, July 13 2011 06:18 AM (mRjOr)
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Still Short But Not Quite As Short Take
Yes, I really watched the whole of the new series of My Little Pony.
The thing is, while there is no question but that the show was created solely as a cynical exercise in manipulating little girls into getting their parents to exchange their hard-earned dollars for mass-produced plastic toy horses, it is actually pretty good.
