Now? You want to do this now? I have a right to know! I'm getting married in four hundred and thirty years!
Friday, October 19
Shion No Ou
This is the story of Shion, a young girl who lost the ability to speak when her parents were brutally murdered. I looked that up on Wikipedia, because I gave up watching it after seven minutes; the blandness of the voice performance being matched only by the blandness of the characters themselves.
The fact that the show seems to have a total animation budget of 85 cents doesn't help either.
Zero amoebas.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
07:25 PM
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Thursday, October 18
Cutie Honey - The Live
Yes, it's another outing for our robotic quick-change superheroine, and as the name suggests, it's a live-action version.
It is, of course, terrible. But it has its attractions...
Mikie Hara mightn't be another Eriko Sato, but she still has the essentials. Cutie Honey is supposed to be a tall busty redhead, and two of those properties being somewhat scarce in Japan, they make damn sure of the other.
And the costume design is less worse than the film:
What's more, there are two other costumed cuties fighting either alongside or against Honey-san (I haven't seen either one yet, so I don't know which):
Rating: Two amoebas for Honey / tokusatsu fans. One amoeba otherwise.
My favorite headline: 'Brain-eating amoeba' unlikely here, experts say.
And as if the assault of brain-eating amoebas wasn't depressing enough, this morning I hear from Insty that Dr. Bussard's passed away. Oh well, the Polywell fusion power project goes on. At least he got it re-funded and under way again (with Congressional backing, according to rumor) before he passed away.
Posted by: TallDave at Wednesday, October 10 2007 10:42 AM (r1Ip+)
2
I did hear about the brain-eating amoebas in the US; the concept is funny but the results are tragic.
Shame about Dr Bussard. I've read about his recentwork on fusion power. I don't think it will work; the scaling factors he quoted looked out of whack to me. But for the relatively small amount of money involved, worth pursuing.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, October 10 2007 11:02 AM (PiXy!)
I give Polywell a 1 in 3 chance. Of course, if it works the way Bussard claimed, it changes the world considerably, not least because the mass-thrust ratio makes interplanetary travel a reality almost overnight. Then there's the small matter of reducing energy costs by an order of magnitude. Seems too good to be true, doesn't it?
According to Bussard, the scaling B^4*R^3 with R^2 losses. It does seem extraordinary that the gain can increase at the 5th power of the radius. If you haven't read his Valencia paper, I highly recommend it.
It is important to emphasize that there is nothing significantly new to be gained by further tests at sub-scale sizes (i.e. less than that needed for net power). This is an inherent consequence of the way in which the fusion power output (Pf) and system gain (Qf. ratio of fusion power to drive power) scale with the machine size (R) and electron-confining magnetic field (B). Fusion power scales as the fourth power of the B field and the cube of the size, thus Pf = (k1)B
4R3, while the unavoidable electron injection drive power loss scales as the surface area of the machine, thus is proportional to R
2. Assuming the use of super-conductors for the magnetic field drive coils, the electron losses are the only major system losses. Then, the ratio of these two power parameters is the gain (Qf), which is thus seen to scale as Qf = (k2) B 4R3/R2 = (k2) B4R. Because of this B4R3 scaling of fusion output, which makes fusion power scale as the 7th power of size, and the corollary 5th power scaling of system gain, it is obvious that little can be gained short of building the next system at full-scale.
We'll know more when the WB-7 is built and tested. That's happening now; I would imagine results are done in no more than a year, no less than a few months. Then, I am told, if those results pan out, they will attempt to build a 100MW full-scale device, for about $200M, and then we'll find out for sure about scaling.
I've seen some character art for Clannad, and I found it disturbing. The faces were off; the eyes were too large and placed too low and wide.
Almost all anime characters have unrealistically large eyes; it's part of the style. But Clannad and a few other series like it take that to extremes that I find a bit repulsive. (Kanon did, too.)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Wednesday, October 10 2007 02:17 PM (+rSRq)
5
I was thinking the same. On the one hand, not so good for binocular vision. On the other hand, they must get a 240 degree field of view with their eyes on the sides of their head like that.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thursday, October 11 2007 10:00 AM (PiXy!)
This is the succubus one. Not total rubbish, but not a lot of surprises either.
Two big bouncy amoebas.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
11:34 PM
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Rental Magica
This is the first of the new season that gives the impression that some real talent went into the animation (though Mokke is nice enough). The opening action sequence is definitely cool, particularly the rocket broom. And the obligatory cute meganeko witch.
The story, unfortunately, is stupid.
Maybe that will improve. But for now, just two amoebas.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
11:06 PM
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Kimikiss Pure Rouge
High school romance. Childhood friends separated and reunited. Fortunately uninfiltrated by the squeaky voice brigade - better production qualities all round, in fact.
Not amazing, but a solid two amoebas.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
10:39 PM
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Night Wizard
The girls with guns genre needs a little livening up, Tanaka-san. What can you give us for the fall season?
Anno... Hotties with howitzers? Cuties with crossbows?
Tanaka?
Hai?
You're fired.
Failed Shana-wannabe. One amoeba.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
09:54 PM
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Myself Yourself
I was going to give this no amoebas based on the first minute, then bumped that up to one amoeba after the second minute, then two amoebas during the opening credits... Then back down to one amoeba. And a small, sickly one at that.
High school romance. Childhood friends separated and reunited. Indifferently animated; while digital animation ensures that everything is clear and colourful, I don't get the impression that anyone particularly cared about this show.
Oh, and wait for the dub. Trust me on this.
Rating: One amoeba. With a wooden leg.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
09:45 PM
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Blue Drop
Who gave the UN space planes? This can't end well.
And just how many exclusive Swiss finishing schools are there in Japan?
We have: One (1) mystery girl who has
lost her memory, one (1) mystery girl whose
eyes light up like blue LEDs, one (1) shy meganeko, one (1) cute teacher, twelve (12) incidental characters who may or may not play roles in the unfolding story, and two (2) apparently unconnected subplots.
Worth watching a second episode. Could be good if the story is handled well. Artwork, character designs, animation and music are all okay, but unremarkable. We'll see.
1
"Worth watching a second episode" is just about what I decided, too. My main problems were the angsty-as-hell lead and the intensely random bit of physical comedy (which fell flat, mind you) partway through. It's like the show doesn't know what to make of itself.
If you're interested, we have a few "first episode impressions" going on over at AEIOU as well.
Posted by: GreyDuck at Wednesday, October 10 2007 12:00 AM (2Yvi7)
2
I sent it to the wastebastet sight unseen to make company for Simoun. Maybe I was wrong. It would be hilariously ironic if Blue Drop floundered upon being crap rather than a snakepit of raging lesbians.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Wednesday, October 10 2007 04:24 AM (9imyF)
Not sure exactly what this show is about - the first episode features giant mystical brain-eating amoebas - but I like the artwork, background music, and characters well enough.
Two sisters with minor spiritual powers have moved from the city to live with their grandfather, who is apparently a Shinto priest. Slice of life with monsters unfolds.
The younger sister looks and acts like a nine-year-old Megumi from Ah My Goddess, which is a plus in my book. Good enough to make me want to watch the second episode.
Score: Three amoebas out of four.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
08:38 PM
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