Glorious Escapism Roleplay

Rabukurafuto · Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2011 2:43 am Post subject:

It might. It feels so much like an idea I have though that I feel weird about it.
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Phil the Time Wizard · Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2011 2:49 am Post subject:

Yeah. Its quickly becoming one of my favorite shows ever, and I know a lot of other people here really love it here.... so it might happen anyway.
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Phil the Time Wizard · Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 12:27 am Post subject:

Spent the last two days catching up on anime.

My thoughts on the winter shows after catching up are as follows:

Freezing: Watched three eps. So we have the Nova show up now? A nice development. Makes everything feel a little more grave. The Prom episode before all that was a nice last taste of fun before the seriousness started. Loved some of the outfits from that. I don't have too much to say about it beyond that. Sattela is hot.

Gosick: Two eps. The first was a conclusion to the arc about Victorique's mother (who as it turns out might be alive, if the last scene is any indication). It was interesting and wrapped things up nicely enough. The second episode I watched started the next arc. It's kind of disappointing that Victorique was away from the action this time. But she was just super moe in this episode so its all right. She seems to be getting increasingly deredere as things continue. Since I really love the kuu part of her personality, I have mixed feelings about that. Still, she is undeniably awesome and cute.

Beelzebub: Ah, Aoi, you are exactly what this show needed. The two Beelzebub episodes I watched were two of the most majorly rewarding yet because of you. It was refreshing to see the show take on a at least some sort of plot arc for a while. It still hasn't given me a good fight. Aoi versus Hilda was the closest yet, but it was still over before it began. Ah well, I must say I look forward to where this goes next.

Level E: Three episodes here. The first two were a little mini arc involving an alien princess and a serious reverse trap... It was actually quite well conceived and seemed rather difficult... but then for the second time, this show did something I don't care for. It had the Prince wave a hand and magically explain away the conflict with some anti climactic throw away end. I felt shorted. The third episode was a little one off return to the Color Rangers as they saved a sexy mermaid alien. Peculiarly for this show, it did not once feature the Prince. That was actually kind of refreshing in a way.

IS: Two episodes. The first was the beach episode. So there were plenty of sexy swimsuit shots. Laura really is adorable; and I love her command center full of nothing but sexy eyepatch girls. There were a few moments of noticeably horrible animation in the episode, which was a little distracting (it was during a fanservice shot too... which made it even more bizarre and noticeable). The second one I watch was a more serious turn. It was kind of meh. The highlight was the introduction of least interesting girl in the story, tsundere Houki's amazing older sister Tabane. She is pure amazing and is just instantly one of my favorite characters. So perfect.

Fractale: Two episodes. This show remains a favorite. It's well paced, interesting and consistently beautiful. Some rather emotional moments in there, especially in episode 8. Clain doesn't work as a trap quite as much as I thought he would though. His face just isn't right for it. It's all quite compelling. I'm eager to learn what's next for Clain, Phyrne and Nessa.

Zombie: Two episodes. The first was better. This show does silly better than serious. Still, both were pretty good. I loved Eucliwood actually brining out her badass scythe. So awesome. I love Eu. Sera with cat ears was moe. Haruna's deredere is great. Poor Eucliwood...

Madoka. I actually watched episode 9 like a week ago but never commented on it. Poor Kyoko and her Sayaka love... Episode ten really was amazing though. Gripping really. When it ended I was just left stunned, because it felt to me like it had only just begun (probably an intended effect from Shinbo, what with foregoing the OP sequence until the end, thus making the entire episode feel like one massive pre-OP sequence). I was never perfectly sure when it came to Homura. I mean, I liked her, but she was never a favorite. Now I understand her completely, and she's one of my absolute favorites (Might like Kyoko more still, but its close). Her and her Madoka love is just beautiful. I hope for a happy end where their love can blossom beautifully. But with this show, I do realize the naivety of hoping for any happiness... Must have more...

I also watched the first ep of the Baka Test OVA. It's a lot of fun if you liked the series. it was fun returning to these characters. Shouko might have provided the absolute highlights for me, but Hideyoshi was amazing as usual. Akihsa even stepped up his trap game and got some nicer than usual results. But yeah, I'm usually pretty bad with actually watching OVAs, but I think I'll try with this one.
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Phil the Time Wizard · Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 5:36 am Post subject:

Yeah... episode ten of Madoka really did leave me hungry for more.

Ended up downloading and reading all the manga chapters.

The Puella Magi Madoka Magica manga currently has two volumes out. It's essentially just an ultra condensed version of the source anime with a different art style and a little more blood. If you're a Madoka fan it should be fun to read, but it's not so vital at this point (though the author may ultimately take it in a different direction. We'll have to see.)

There's also another manga belonging to the series but having completely different characters. It's called Puella Magi Kazumi Magica and only two chapters are out so far. It's a lot lighter than Madoka so far, and seems only vaguely related. Just from the first chapter, it could have been a completely unrelated magical girl manga. It also has a lot more (pie) fanservice than Madoka. It is certainly different from Madoka, but it's intriguing and I plan to follow it.

Once Madoka's done a third manga will start called Puella Magi Orito Magica. It's going to be a prequel that mainly focuses on Kyoko, Mami and some pie named Orito. This just sounds awesome and it is the manga I am ultimately most excited about. Should prove fun.
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Phil the Time Wizard · Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2011 12:11 am Post subject:

I have a bit of Madoka deprivation going on, what with the episode being delayed (though I understand that entirely given the circumstances, and from what I understand the SHAFT guys wanted more time to perfect it anyways). So yeah, any Madoka news I see now gets me quite excited.

I just read that Akiyuki Shinbo wants to do a second Madoka series. Not an official announcement, granted, but if the interest is there, I see it happening; SHAFT is usually one studio great with making sequels to just about everything (as Maria Holic proves; I'm not sure that show was even all that popular really. At least general western opinions of it seem kind of low). I for one would love to see this "slice of life" version of Madoka Shinbo is considering. As awesome as this story is, I'd love to see the characters just living their daily lives in a sort of Lucky Star type way. It would mean Kyouko and Mami (probably my two favorites) would get a lot more time as well, most likely.
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The mutant 0408 · Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 10:38 pm Post subject:

I just watched the end of Fractale. Glad you talked me into watching this one Wizard-Sama.

It was well paced and the story was good too. I can also think of a lot of other animes that are worse visually (Wolverine for instance).

Anyway quite the good show.
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Phil the Time Wizard · Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 10:44 pm Post subject:

Still haven't seen the last few episodes myself.

I still think it's one of the best animated series of the season, and perhaps even beyond it that I've seen.
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Phil the Time Wizard · Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 11:44 pm Post subject:

Alright, so I am finally done with all the shows from the winter season that have since ended. I'm still behind on Gosick and Beelzebub (not to mention I have a lot of Index to watch still), but I can worry about those later. Now I can officially move my focus to the spring shows.

My final thoughts on the shows I followed are as follows.

Infinite Stratos: For me, this really came across as an exercise in mediocrity. It did some things right. I have to say I love the visuals. The action sequences looked good. I love the designs for the ISs themselves and how the girls looked in them. The characters were mostly pretty good. Ishika wasn't anything special, but I've seen worse. His unintentional harem wasn't bad with characters like Charlotte and Laura really coming across strong, but it focused in the end far too much on the driest and least interesting of the cast, Houki, who it seems is the one who wins. My biggest complaint with the show is that there is absolutely no tension. There is no villain. There are no faces attached to the threat. How can you have an action series like that? It just doesn't click. I never felt like the characters were fighting anything that mattered. When the show ended, I kind of felt like I had spent six hours with these characters and absolutely nothing of importance had happened. Not a good thing for an action show. If there is a second season, would I watch it? Maybe. There are some good characters, after all. I just expect a little more from things. This show just kind of fell short in so many ways.

Freezing: Freezing on the other hand had a very strong final act. I was surprised actually. I had long since given up hope on Freezing living up to the promise of the first episode. But this was exciting, and well paced action, that just felt right for the show. It gave it a sense of completion, which makes me find it odd that they seem to leave the door open for a second season, but I won't question that. Sure, some things didn't work perfectly. I think Ganessa's sudden sacrifice(though she survived it) in the final episodes was a bit too sudden. There really wasn't enough character development from here. There weren't enough scenes hinting that she wasn't the bitch she appeared to be. She's clearly tsundere, but the anime never showed enough deredere for her, which cheapened the effect a little. Rana ultimately felt a little useless as a character too; I don't know. She contributed so little to the final arc. That said, Freezing succeeded at doing what it wanted to do, which was be a kind of dumb fanservice action show. Far from one of the best anime I've seen, and I probably wont' remember it long term, but I would watch a second season.

Level E: The writer of this show is ultimately just as annoying as the main character, a character who is actually named Prince Baka. That is my general thoughts after finishing the series. There were moments of pure brilliance in this show, but so much of it is tarnished by the author's apparent need to have some sort of twist occur at the end which destroys the viewer's expectations, but in completely the wrong way. Surprising us is good, but if you kill the tension you've expertly built up along the way, it all just ends up falling flat and confusing us. I was willing to accept this after the first arc, but then the same thing happened in just about every other arc, including the end. The only difference here is that it was someone else besides the prince who brought the hammer down on audience expectations. I do still give some credit to the ending though. It was more interesting than the ending to most of the story arcs. Overall, Level E was a frustrating, uneven show, but not a horrible one. I enjoyed it. It was fun, funny and had some good characters.

Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? - Hmmm. This was the show to beat starting out. I honestly thought it might overtake Madoka with it's unique, ridiculous humor and simply brilliant characters. To put it simply, it didn't. A lot of this has to do with the final main story arc. It just didn't really work for me. It was animated nicely. It looked good. It had some good imagery. It just didn't feel like the right show. It lacked the tone. It lacked entirely what I saw in the first episode that made me declare the show's brilliance. If the show had kept things light and simple, I think it could have become a new anime classic, but this over-serious final arc really does sort of bog down an otherwise stylish silly and free comedy masterpiece. But, the show was smart enough to admit it's mistakes and save the final episode space for a return to form. After the dreary final arc was done, the last episode, with all its joyful silliness reminded me exactly what made me love the series in the first place, and made me ultimately come away with a very positive feeling. Is it the anime comedy masterpiece I wanted. No. Was it still one of the best anime of the season, yes. Definitely. And my love for Eucliwood is still so very real. Her real voice is awesome, by the way.

Fractale. With the way the director was talking going into this anime, I entered it high on the skepticism. I've always thought that you can't force brilliance just because you want to be brilliant. But there is something called talent that certain people have, and with it they can make brilliant things on a relatively regular basis. I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised then that one of the key forces behind the success of the Haruhi Suzumiya anime would be able to strike gold again. After a slow beginning, Fractale really took off and presented us with an exciting, well paced adventure. The end pay off was fantastic and these were characters that truly did grow. Clain is a protagonist I can truly respect, and who I loved to watch grow (even if he grew a little slow for my tastes early on). Phyrne has a great deal of depth to her character, which makes her fascinating. Nessa is a fantastic ball of moe wonderment. Other characters like Sunda and Enri are subversively endearing. The show was animated beautifully, occupying the space between conventional anime and a Miyazaki film. Everything just worked in the end. Better than anything, it all just felt complete. In a normal season that didn't have things called Puella Magi Madoka Magica in them, I would happily call Fractale my favorite series of the season. But here, it should be happy to hold a strong second place. I will keep a close eye on Yutaka Yamamoto and his studio Ordet in the time to come.
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The mutant 0408 · Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 3:49 am Post subject:

IS ended so badly. I quite honestly think it hurt me somewhere. . .

Freezing's ending was awesome, Even though I also though Ganessa's sacrifice was absurd, I was touched by Arthur(?)'s breakdown over it.

I actually enjoyed Zombies final arc. Not like the other arcs? yes. Bad? No, even the angsty end arc was done really well.

Really upset with Madoka right now. . .

Need to watch Wolverine's last episode, I forgot all about it over X-Men.
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Phil the Time Wizard · Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 4:12 am Post subject:

IS kind of just never took off for me at all. Maybe because I just generally don't like harems. I wanted it to be an action show, and I kind of think that aspect just sort of took a backseat the whole time.

I agree with that. Arthur honestly was a more developed character. We had a lot more invested in him then in Ganessa. Only naturally that his emotional stress would be more compelling.

I'm probably being hard on Zombie. My expectations were just set so high with the first few episodes. This final arc, while not bad by any stretch, just wasn't what I wanted from the show.

I don't know what SHAFT is doing to Madoka that's making it take this long... First episodes generally require a lot more time and effort than the bulk of episodes in a series so as to grab the attention of potential watchers. It's my guess then that, Shinbo has decided to hold off for now on Madoka, so that his team could focus on the first episodes of the two new shows he has this season. Hopefully, now that they're out, SHAFT can turn their attentions back to perfecting Madoka.
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The mutant 0408 · Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 4:19 am Post subject:

You would think that episode 11 was already almost done. . .

Hey, wizard-sama, Kyubey has a home world, right?

That means theres a planet full of creatures JUST LIKE HIM.
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Phil the Time Wizard · Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 4:22 am Post subject:

Yeah... From what I recalled hearing, they were actually on schedule to air the episode until they got word that the TV Station wasn't going to show it. Only then did they pull it completely.

I was kind of under the impression that Kyubey was a collective creature. That there are many, but they all share the same thoughts and memories.
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The mutant 0408 · Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 4:24 am Post subject:

He defintly mentioned a "home world"
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Phil the Time Wizard · Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 4:33 am Post subject:

Yeah. I remember that. I'm just not sure if there are many individual Kyubeys.
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Phil the Time Wizard · Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 7:47 am Post subject:

...

I don't even know what to say to start this. This might get kind of rambling. Maybe I should have waited a while before making this post. But I just can't... Just wow. Wow. There are anime that have excited me until the end, there are anime that have exhilarated me until the end, there are anime that have made me cry, anime that have just awed and astounded me, anime that have blown my mind. And then there's Puella Magi Madoka Magica, which pretty much does it all...

Watching the final two episodes of an anime i was already calling my favorite ever, for which I have been waiting I think over a month now, my expectations were needless to say, high. I'm surprised then to find that not only were they met, but they might have been exceeded. This was that incredible. That perfect.

Looking at the episodes individually, starting with 11, we have one of the most emotionally torturing, intense things I've ever seen. It's also features eye candy spectacle that tops anything thus far in the show. Seriously, Homura vs the Walburgis Night is just a new level of awesome. Mami's muskets, Sayaka's sword, not Homura's full arsenal is where its at. This might be the single most over the top exciting action sequence I've ever seen and it's all from Homura, as while the Walpurgis did look kind of cool, it didn't really do too much that was spectacular. Elsewhere, I have to say I love the scenes with Madoka's mother. Those are emotionally wrought and just great. And Kyubey is just so... so wonderfully evil in just the right way. And just... it's just awesome.

Episode 12 needed to give us an ending. I had kind of wanted a everyone dies, Kyubey wins ending, but I'm more than happy with this. I cried during the scene with Madoka and Homura. That was just moving to me for some reason. I think it was the acting. Chiwa Saitō is just so perfect, so vulnerable, so impressive, I was just entranced and felt every emotion. When (I say when because I refuse to believe something so mind-numbingly amazing will not get localized and dubbed) Madoka gets picked up for an English dub I really feel for the voice actress tasked with filling her shoes. Looking beyond that, I don't really want to say too much. It's too good to spoil. It managed to do something unique. It wasn't a contrived Mai-HiME reset ending where they all live happily ever after. Even after Madoka's made her stand to save the world, a lot of darkness exists, especially for Homura. I respect and appreciate that.

In less words, I still say this is the best anime I have ever seen because I can just not think of a better one. Akiyuki Shinbo and Gen Urobuchi have my infinite respect (as do the rest of the SHAFT team who put this masterpiece together) and I will eagerly continue to follow the work of them both. Studio SHAFT needs to make more original anime.

I am now super pumped for Fate/Zero, super pumped for that Kyoko/Mami prequel manga, super pumped for any and everything Madoka Magica related that's still to come.
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