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Spring Anime 2012 II | Welcome Home Eureka

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I

Instro

Member
This new thread is beautiful. We got Ao taking the top spot, updated impressions an-

KyoAni sux. K-On sux. Kadokawa novels suck.
Click to expand...

iboUAaaJoRehYO.jpg
 
H

hosannainexcelsis

Member
Jarmel said:
We discussed the hell out of that and whether the religious analysis(which was only one of the theories we went through) was correct or not.
Click to expand...

I understand how a surface glance at Angel's Egg could lead one to think it's ambiguous, but listening to the one extended conversation about Noah's ark and looking at how the relationship between the couple and the egg develop over the course of the film makes it pretty clear that it's about the loss of faith.
 
J

Jarmel

Banned
icarus-daedelus said:
This is why you don't listen to anyone in art class. Or philosophy majors.
Click to expand...

We discussed whether the soldier was a Jesus figure, whether he represented the world, whether he represented Oshii and the trails of logic from there.


hosannainexcelsis said:
I understand how a surface glance at Angel's Egg could lead one to think it's ambiguous, but listening to the one extended conversation about Noah's ark and looking at how the relationship between the couple and the egg develop over the course of the film makes it pretty clear that it's about the loss of faith.
Click to expand...

Yes but whose loss of faith? The obvious answer would be Oshii but then we examined the state of the world and viewed it as the world's disillusionment with faith and the consequences of that.
 
K

Kagami

Member
Articalys said:
Cool, thanks... and so what are the settings for the full version of the walllpaper? http://soukyu.net/2012/04/14/1761
Click to expand...

【うーにゃー自動切換え】
Sets whether Nyarlko changes from Uu to Nyaa manually (手動) when you tap the screen, or automatically (自動).

【背景弾幕】
Sets whether the background NicoNico-style "bullet curtain" of (」・ω・)」うー！(／・ω・)／にゃー！ flies across the screen or not

【背景色】
Background color
Black, white, pink, blue, green

【アニメーションスピード】
Animation speed, fastest to slowest
 
Ultimadrago

Ultimadrago

Member
Instro said:
This new thread is beautiful. We got Ao taking the top spot, updated impressions an-

http://i.minus.com/iboUAaaJoRehYO.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]

lol!

[quote="Narag, post: 37117212"][b]Angel Beats 1[/b]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/PQUYQ.gif[IMG][/QUOTE]

You are encouraged to continue this venture. For further clarification to inform Angel Beat "outsiders" like myself!
Click to expand...
 
A

Articalys

Member
Kagami said:
【うーにゃー自動切換え】
Sets whether Nyarlko changes from Uu to Nyaa manually (手動) when you tap the screen, or automatically (自動).

【背景弾幕】
Sets whether the background NicoNico-style "bullet curtain" of (」・ω・)」うー！(／・ω・)／にゃー！ flies across the screen or not

【背景色】
Background color
Black, white, pink, blue, green

【アニメーションスピード】
Animation speed, fastest to slowest
Click to expand...
Fantastic, thanks! Now if I ever decide it's worth $2.50 I know what to expect.
 
C

cajunator

Banned
hosannainexcelsis said:
I understand how a surface glance at Angel's Egg could lead one to think it's ambiguous, but listening to the one extended conversation about Noah's ark and looking at how the relationship between the couple and the egg develop over the course of the film makes it pretty clear that it's about the loss of faith.
Click to expand...

Especially obvious since
the egg gets destroyed

Master Milk said:
It's been awhile since I've watched it, but I'm pretty sure it's the only anime I would say that I hate.



You were warned!
Click to expand...

Just because you hate a show upon watching it does not make someone bad for recommending it. you chose to go through with it, so its your fault for bad judgement.

Jarmel said:
We discussed whether the soldier was a Jesus figure, whether he represented the world, whether he represented Oshii and the trails of logic from there.
Click to expand...

I watched it for the cute angel and crazy people chasing fish ghosts.
 
R

Risette

A Good Citizen
Jarmel said:
We discussed whether the soldier was a Jesus figure, whether he represented the world, whether he represented Oshii and the trails of logic from there.




Yes but whose loss of faith? The obvious answer would be Oshii but then we examined the state of the world and viewed it as the world's disillusionment with faith and the consequences of that.
Click to expand...
Sounds like the philosopher folks in your class were the ones doing the jerkoffery. There's really only one way to interpret the movie, give or take a few different views of things person to person.
 
A Black Falcon

A Black Falcon

Member
Dance In My Blood said:
Saki From the South Side A 01
http://i.imgur.com/IAE3z.jpg
This was truly awful. Why does one of the girls look like she just walked out of Bodyline? Obviously she must be working it because everyone seems to be hitting on her.
Click to expand...
So you haven't watched the original Saki series that this is a spinoff of? I guess it stands on its own too, but it IS a spinoff, and while the five main characters of Achiga-hen here are new, many characters from the original series, like Nodoka there, appear in Achiga-hen, and the series expects that you know who they are, because, well, the main audience of course is people who have watched Saki (which is a great series, and does slightly more introduction to Mahjong than Achiga does, too).

Oh, and that character in the center is Nodoka, who likes wearing frilly clothes like that. She does so frequently in the main series too, where (as a 10th grader) she's one of the main characters.

The first five minutes went okay but after that it kind of just spiraled out of control. Not knowing mahjong everything revolving around the game was completely obtuse to me.
Click to expand...
There isn't even all that much mahjong in this episode... what confused you, can you explain?

Not world ending but it becomes immediately obvious that the show has no intention of explaining any of the intricacies.
Click to expand...
First, it is a spinoff as I said earlier so it's not doing as much explanation as the original series did, and second, they probably assume that the Japanese audience knows a lot more about mahjong than Westerners do on average, which is why even the original series was somewhat confusing for me. Still, it did explain more than the nothing this series does -- but that's fine in Achiga's case because, well, it's a spinoff. Must they re-explain everything every time?

Because of this I had to question, why mahjong? It mostly just seems like an excuse to tie the series to a specific subject and name drop terminology. Unlike Chihayafuru where the characters appreciation for the sport is pretty plainly laid out I have no idea why these girls like mahjong so much, and it doesn't seem like there's much love for the game in the way its portrayed in the show.
Click to expand...
Mahjong games are a big part of both Saki and Achiga-hen. It'll take a little while to get to them in Achiga, but the games are a big part of the series, and they're fun to watch, in my opinion, whether or not you know the rules, because special abilities, crazy moves with lightning and other special effects flashing, etc, are all over the place. Fun stuff.

So I was expecting some slow character build up that would maybe do some of these things and bring the girls together or something. Nope, nine minutes in you get the bonding montage. When things finally return to the story itself instead of the girls interacting with one another on any level there's a third party info dump on the older teacher and it turns out the group has to break up. Then there are multiple time skips without any context as to how much time has passed, and part of the group rejoins in their old stomping grounds to join forces to fight their old friend. Great, only I have no idea who is who because of the time jump. The only characters ever really put under the spotlight is the ponytail girl, so everyone else is just kind of irrelevant and its hard to really care about them getting back together in any context.
Click to expand...
As for the series explaining why they like mahjong, it would be nice if there was more of that, but one problem Achiga-hen has is that it's trying to cover a LOT of ground in a limited number of episodes -- this series needs to catch up to the national tournament quick, and it's only a half season I believe. So they don't have time to fill in anywhere near as many details as the original Saki series does, for example, where that ~25 episode series only gets to the beginning of the national tournament at the very last episode. Achiga-hen will be there in like 6-8 episodes, I expect.

I'd love to see a version of Achiga with the time, and additional episodes, to flesh out the characters a bit more, but it doesn't exist. Given the limitations, I think they do a pretty decent job of introducing us to the characters and their quirks and abilities.

Also, they do say how much time has passed. The series begins with Shizuka (the main character, in the coat w/ponytail) in 5th or 6th grade, as they start up the kids' mahjong club. Then, after stuff happens it skips to late in 9th grade, as she sees Nodoka win the jr. high national championship that year (3rd year middle school), and decides to go to Achiga and start playing mahjong again to meet her in the tournament.

Episode two begins in that same year, and covers a good 6-9 months before ending right at the beginning of their first year of highschool.

Then there's just the weird stuff about the show. Like what's wrong with this girl's face:
http://i.imgur.com/dghbC.jpg
Everyone else has a normal face. Is there some hidden meaning to this? Why do I remember her more than the other girls? Is she going to be some mahjong raid boss ten episodes in?
Click to expand...
That's Shizuka, the main character, with that face, on the left. Ako's the girl to her right, and Kuro's the one sitting on the right. They're three of the main characters, and yeah, Shizuka usually has a mouth like that -- look at her elsewhere in the episode, it's usually like that.

And the lady who scouts for pro mahjong teams looks like this:
http://i.imgur.com/w8pOq.jpg
Are monocles just mahjong attire? What is going on with the visual cohesion in this show? Or does she also shop at Bodyline?
Click to expand...
What's wrong with monocles? She looks fine. Unless you mean that it's weird she has a monocle at all? Why?

Also, there were a lot of leg shots. Like...a lot. It was probably easier to tell which girl was which by their legs than their faces because the camera spent most of its time down there. I might think it could be passed off as mistake or some kind of artistic decision, but the after credits lingerie lounging kind of incriminates the entire show.
Click to expand...
Achiga-hen actually cuts down on the fanservice from the main Saki series, in fact... there are fewer nopan shots in Achiga than there were in Saki. Yeah, because nobody wears underwear in this franchise they can't just do pantyshots, so they obviously went for more leg shots instead. You're right, it's being done for fanservice reasons -- Saki series are 99% nopan. Ritz Kobayashi must have something against underwear or something, I don't know. :)

Solune said:
ABF, Firehawk, Joule. Why did you guys lie to me?
Click to expand...
Lie to you about what?

Dance In My Blood said:
You could try it yourself. Maybe actually understanding mahjong unlocks some mystic deeper meaning to the show.
Click to expand...
When I started watching Saki, I knew nothing of mahjong other than what the tiles look like. It didn't hurt my appreciation for the series much, though as I said that series does introduce is a little more slowly than this does.

I mean, in my opinion, you don't need to know much about mahjong to like something like Saki or The Legend of Koizumi. Their crazy mahjong action transcends whether or not you understand what's going on.
 
J

jman2050

Member
A Black Falcon said:
The plot makes just as much sense as anything else Key has done.
Click to expand...

You're trying to help your case here right? Cause that sentence does the exact opposite.

They always involve something supernatural and tragedies. AB is no exception. They're very good at their tragic-supernatural writing, too, far better than anything else I've seen from anime.
Click to expand...

Yeah, just gonna completely disagree there.

The story was clearly planned from the beginning, and was well thought through from start to finish. There sort of is a shift of focus in the series, as the series plays with your expectations and then goes in an unexpected direction, but I think that was great -- it kept things interesting, and it made the story better than it could have been otherwise...
Click to expand...

There's no logical process to anything that happens in the show. That isn't being "unexpected", that's being stupid and confusing. Hell, I'm sitting here trying to rebut you and I'm realizing that I never actually understood the plot to this show and trying to organize in my mind what happened, why it happened, and what any of that shit has to do with anything is just leaving me confused again. That shouldn't happen!

I'm going to break character for a moment because I need to point something out. As much as I disliked the show, there was something there, some semblance of competency among the pile of nonsense that popped its head out for a short while before digging itself underground for good. I'm talking about the
Yui episode
, which is by far the best episode of the show and the only episode that left a lasting impression on me outside of confusion or apathy. It wasn't scatterbrained, poorly paced, or nonsensical like the rest of the show. There was actual focus. A structured narrative that had a beginning, middle, and end. Events that followed a theme, which incidentally was the same theme that the rest of the show had tried and failed to follow. The humor was standard stuff, but didn't clash with what the story was trying to do as a whole. And a concluding act that, combined with the rest of the episode, managed to make
Yui's
situation genuinely sympathetic. And then of course they ruined that in the final minutes by crossing the line from "sympathetic and thought-provoking" to "overwrought and cheesy" but damnit, they almost pulled something off there! THAT was what the show should have been all along. It wouldn't have been as erm... "unique" as it ended up being, but at least it would be watchable. At least there would be a point. At least it wouldn't give me a reason to hate everything about it and maybe I would be able to pay attention to what it was doing without me having to do a thesis in my head to understand the story.

and the lead girl is somewhat different as well.
Who'd have guessed at the beginning that the "main girl" wasn't the lead female at all... but no, it was obviously planned, and planned well.
The plot centers around the two of them, and the plot is good.
Click to expand...

I'll be fair and say I don't know how that would have turned out, because
I had already known beforehand that Kanade was the "main girl". How couldn't I with all the awareness the show generated over the past two years?
 
D

duckroll

Member
Fuck, I went through the OP and changed all the MTs to something that actually reflects MY opinion this time, and I added links to all the simulcasts for shows which have them. That was a lot of work! :(
 
Ultimadrago

Ultimadrago

Member
duckroll said:
Fuck, I went through the OP and changed all the MTs to something that actually reflects MY opinion this time, and I added links to all the simulcasts for shows which have them. That was a lot of work! :(
Click to expand...

And we appreciate it, but I better see all caps in that Fap/Zero space!

Edit: A "Fuck yeah!" is fine too.
 
F

Femmeworth

Banned
This thread has reminded me that I need to watch Angel's Egg. Then again, maybe I should just watch Oshii's major productions in chronological order.
wonzo said:
Sankarea 3
They really are going all out with the censorship to sell those BD's!
Click to expand...
Nah, they are probably just staying true to the manga.
 
C

cajunator

Banned
Kagami said:
【うーにゃー自動切換え】
Sets whether Nyarlko changes from Uu to Nyaa manually (手動) when you tap the screen, or automatically (自動).

【背景弾幕】
Sets whether the background NicoNico-style "bullet curtain" of (」・ω・)」うー！(／・ω・)／にゃー！ flies across the screen or not

【背景色】
Background color
Black, white, pink, blue, green

【アニメーションスピード】
Animation speed, fastest to slowest
Click to expand...

Kagami, can you PM me about how to install this. Because, reasons.

duckroll said:
Fuck, I went through the OP and changed all the MTs to something that actually reflects MY opinion this time, and I added links to all the simulcasts for shows which have them. That was a lot of work! :(
Click to expand...

And we appreciate it, Ducky.
 
C

cajunator

Banned
Femmeworth said:
This thread has reminded me that I need to watch Angel's Egg. Then again, maybe I should just watch Oshii's major productions in chronological order.
Click to expand...

You should. It's really short. NOt much time required and its interesting visually throughout. Plus, cute angel hnng.
 
C

cajunator

Banned
RIck's Bread is my surprise show of the season. After watching that ED I had NO hope for it being worth a fuck but substituting the word bread for...that other word really takes the show to as new level of awesome.
 
D

Defuser

Member
Although I would like to have Nyaruko on my android but considering I have to board a very packed train everyday it's a not a good idea for people to look over my shoulder and see what it is.
 
C

cajunator

Banned
Femmeworth said:
After I made that post, I figured that the first 100+ episodes of Urusei Yatsura would count as a major production. Maybe I'll just stick with films then. >_>
Click to expand...

But Urusei Yatsura is a highly enjoyable series and well worth watching.
Lum is...well shes SOMETHING. Something very very good.
 
C

cajunator

Banned
Defuser said:
Although I would like to have Nyaruko on my android but considering I have to board a very packed train everyday it's a not a good idea for people to look over my shoulder and see what it is.
Click to expand...

I have no such problem with social perception. Everybody knows I'm crazy so they kind of expect this from me.
 
F

Femmeworth

Banned
wonzo said:
I haven't read the manga but when you add a glaringly obvious blur and a half-assed black spot where
her guts should be hanging out
then that just screams censorship to me.
Click to expand...
Oh, I assumed that you meant
breasts and not gore. The manga definitely has gore. It's not Blood-C, mind you.
icarus-daedelus said:
Nah, many films are not good. Something like this would be best:

Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer
Angel's Egg
Twilight Q episode 2: Mystery Case File 538 (only 30 minutes long!!!)
Mobile Police Patlabor OVA
Patlabor: The Movie
Gosenzosama Banbanzai!
Patlabor 2: The Movie (THE MOVIE)
Ghost in the Shell
Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (he wrote it dammit!)
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
The Sky Crawlers (...sorry)

that's in chronological order if you insist.
Click to expand...
Thanks. :)

Huh, Netflix has all of the Urusei Yatsura movies except the second.
 
N

Narag

Member
Angel Beats 2

This is so fucking stupid yet I can't stop laughing. I'm watching this on netflix and the dub is amazing. It's like the first time I watched Shinesman. There's even a Shiina!
 
C

cajunator

Banned
Narag said:
Angel Beats 2

This is so fucking stupid yet I can't stop laughing. I'm watching this on netflix and the dub is amazing. It's like the first time I watched Shinesman. There's even a Shiina!
Click to expand...

The girl from Girls Dead Monster is really cute. You'll probably like her. I wish I could remember her actual name.
 
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