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What are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)


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GeminiDS85



Joined: 10 Jul 2009
Posts: 391
PostPosted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 5:01 pm Reply with quote
DuskyPredator wrote:
But I would aslo say that the characters felt more badass this time, originally brought up by Mari who was spoiler[crazy/awesome/reckless, which was a good change from Shinji and Rei in the first movie].


Unfortunately, (Minor spoilers for Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo) spoiler[Mari never really evolves into anything beyond this. Her screen time in Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo is slightly reduced compared to the second movie, and during the times she is onscreen, we are not presented with anything that develops her character past her introductory characteristics.] However, this may very well change in the fourth movie.
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CrowLia



Joined: 24 Feb 2012
Posts: 5500
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 12:21 am Reply with quote
Mari actually disappointed me big time. I liked her design a lot, but after the second movie was over, I was left wondering what was the point of adding her, when she brought nothing to the table. Her participation had little to no relevance to the story and it seemed more like an spoiler[unnecessary replacement for Asuka] and a contrived excuse to sell more figures. GeminiDS85's post seems to confirm my suspicion, which is incredibly sad. I have nothing against selling figures -heck, I might even like a Mari figure, because like I said, I liked the design- but if they're gonna make characters for the sake of selling figures, might as well those characters add something to the story other than looking cool
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 12:57 am Reply with quote
I might also complain that it did not feel like Mari was properly blended into the main story as one scene she has been sent into to the town and had no idea who Shinji was. But when she runs into him next it is like they are mor familiar and knows about him piloting Unit 1, despite her not having a clear explanation of why she was there (or did I just miss it?). There was not much character interaction as there should have been with her character, but her crazy actions were still super cool.
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 5:45 am Reply with quote
Watched First Squad, rated it Decent.

It's alright - decent action, sympathetic lead character, great visuals - and I found it pretty cool to hear Russian voices for a change instead of Japanese or English. But there's very little depth in here, which is not surprising given the short runtime. Worth a watch though, and the premise has plenty of potential. This would probably do well as a proper one- or two-cour series.

----------

Watched Aim for the Ace! (the 1979 movie version), liked it more than I thought. Rated it Very Good.

You know, this movie is pretty dated. Not just the character designs but pretty much everything about it, including the crap animation and the folksy music and the stoic coach and the once-progressive (now normalised) themes. And yet this movie's core transcends time and resonates. It shouldn't be held back just because the technical merits of the time were not so good. As a story about a teenage girl who overcomes her reluctance and her fears to end up enjoying tennis, and her coach who pushes her to succeed at all costs, it is quite solid. Not spectacular, but I felt like I watched a good clean uncomplicated story and a plucky lead character who got a clear development arc. It's well worth the watch.
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Errinundra
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Joined: 14 Jun 2008
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Location: Melbourne, Oz
PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 6:12 am Reply with quote
Crest of the Stars

Reason for watching: This sequence of posts in the Quote Guessing Game starting here and ending here. Although Admiral Spoor had already been on my radar to some extent from the time of the Coolest Character / Biggest Badass Tournament a while back, those posts nudged me into action. I received a bit of Christmas money and Madman Entertainment had given me an on-line discount token to the value of 20% on any purchase so I ordered the series along with Kurau Phantom Memory.

(I had a good Christmas for anime. I used the money to also get volumes 2 & 3 of Toradora! (episodes 14-25 and the OVAs); the complete Eden of the East collection and Claymore - all from JB Hi Fi.)

Synopsis: The Abh are genetically modified humans, specially adapted for space travel. Their empire endeavours to control all the space between the various star systems although they tend to be indifferent to what happens on the surface of planets. An alliance of four democratic systems instigate a war with the Abh for control of the space routes. Though not genetically Abh, Jinto is a young nobleman of the empire who must relocate to the capital for military training. When the ship on which he is travelling is about to be attacked by seemingly overwhelming forces the Captain orders Lafiel - a female trainee pilot who also happens to be second in line to the Abh throne - to take Jinto to the capital by shuttle craft. The two form a strong bond as they struggle to overcome the obstacles on their journey. As they travel the war in space intensifies.


Left: Lafiel and Jinto: smart, earnest and out of their depth. As Jinto (and Baron Febdash) learn, you don't trifle with Lafiel.
Right: Another impressive Abh woman - Captain Lexshue, who battles against the odds for her "precious" crew.


I'm going to get my most serious criticism of the show out of the way from the start: the goofy character designs that undermine the characters as they are written, make the series look older than it already is (from 1999) and spoil an otherwise good looking show. For sure, with the exception of Captain Lexshue, all the characters have a comic edge to them but the designs, with heads generally too large for the bodies, thin necks and, in the case of the Abh, long pointy elf ears, push things too far, leaving the script to valiantly try to make up dramatic ground when called for. The pictures I have chosen for this post show the characters at their best but it's still hard to believe that the series is more recent than Cowboy Bebop.

The next thing to note is that Crest of Stars is anime space opera in the tradition of Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Even the spaceship designs are a nod to the older series. But, although almost all the characters have a comic side to their roles, this is not the spoof or satire of the kind you will find in such series as Irresponsible Captain Tylor or Martian Successor Nadesico. The humour is more there to temper the otherwise serious tale being told. That serious intention is flagged from the moment the OP opens with its thundering tympani, which never failed to raise my pulse each episode. It was a blessed relief from the J-pop the opens almost all anime (not that that is necessarily bad in its own right) and a vast improvement on the god-awful songs that introduced Legend of the Galactic Heroes. It's also gratifying to watch an anime that takes itself seriously, humour notwithstanding. So much anime has a pretentious nudge, nudge, wink, wink attitude that says that I know that you know that I know this is all a bit of a joke. Yet, for all that, Crest of the Stars is enormous fun. Certainly a lot more fun than LotGH, which took itself even more seriously.

It doesn't hit you in the face with political or historical philosophising but various points are made with little fuss. I found myself barracking for Jinto, Lafiel, Lexshue, Spoor et al but, when I stopped to consider what the galactic war was about, it could only be described as being between a dictatorship keen to control all trade routes and a loose federation of democracies trying to assert their independence while, at the same time, getting a slice of the pie. The writers had deftly provided only one point of view - an appealing and memorable bunch of empire characters. You could think of it as Star Wars told from the other side, where Darth Vader and the President have lovable, ironic personalities and where the rebels are nothing but a bunch of scheming opportunists.


Left: Rear Admiral Spoor steals the show the moment she appears.
Right: Inspector Entryua switches from hunting the protagonists to becoming an unexpected ally.


The strengths of Crest of the Stars lie in its clever humour, its sharp story telling and its great characters, especially the women. So, thank you to Tuor_of_Gondolin and Key for encouraging me to watch something that hit all the right character buttons for me. Lafiel is initially icy (although I like that trait in a female character) but that stems more from her sense of failure and her wariness towards an unfamiliar male, Jinto. She soon demonstrates her capabilities as a pilot, then her Abh ferocity when crossed, and, finally, her appreciation of the everyday capabilities that Jinto possesses and that she lacks almost entirely. They make a good team. I liked how their initial relationship was expressed by their reserve toward each other, rather than the angry pouting and blushing that happens so often elsewhere. I also liked how their steps forward come through understated acknowledgements of appreciation, rather than florid outpourings of emotion.

As much as I like Lafiel as a character, two of the older women have moments when they outshine her completely. The first is Lafiel's first commanding officer, Captain Lexshue, who probably has the most poignant and tragically ironic role in the series. The irony comes through the relationship between Lexshue and Lafiel being deeper than their military roles would suggest, and through Lafiel not knowing, although we do, what the ship's fate is after she and Jinto are ordered to leave. The courage and strength of character of Lexshue are highlights of the series. Even more memorable is Rear Admiral Spoor, who seems to be the most famous character of the franchise. I can understand why - from the moment she appears she puts everyone else in the shade. There's a cruelty about her that is entrancing because it is so gleeful, so witty and so unerringly skewers her victims - in particular her executive officer whom she toys with unmercifully. Her tactical nouse is so second nature that, even when the threat of annihilation is it at its most intense, her greatest problem is dealing with overwhelming boredom.

Although the men aren't so unforgettable, there are some choice examples all the same. Chief of the Abh military, Admiral Trife, is a mixture of strategic acumen and incompetence, but saved overall by his desire to have 100 per cent knowledge of the facts before committing to an action. Surrounded by a team of advisors who loathe him, he has the good sense to follow their judgement when it's better than his own. One fellow, in particular, takes delight in shooting down Trife's more reckless plans. Their interactions are hilarious. Baron Febdash is an unctious, weaselly character who rules a planetary system with a total population limited to fifty fawning maids and his imprisoned father. In the hectic final episode, Lafiel and Jinto find themselves hunted by a local policeman seemingly straight out of a hardboiled detective story, Inspector Entryua, and an increasinlgy demented Four Nations Alliance military officer, Lieutenant Kyte, determined to exterminate any Abh within his purview. The two men find themselves increasingly at odds with each other on what should be done with or to the protagonists.

Crest of the Stars is serious fun, notable for some great story telling and an ironic sense of humour, but most of all, for its endearing characters. For an adventure come space opera it has a central pair that readily gain our affection and, in her few appearances, in Spoor has one of the most singular characters in anime. Shame about the character designs, though. It's also a shame that Madman aren't licensing any other instalment of the franchise.

Rating: excellent


Lafiel: I thought the character designs undermined the overall tone of the series.


Last edited by Errinundra on Wed Nov 08, 2017 11:12 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Tuor_of_Gondolin



Joined: 20 Apr 2009
Posts: 3524
Location: Bellevue, WA
PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 11:34 am Reply with quote
errinundra wrote:
Crest of the Stars is serious fun, notable for some great story telling and an ironic sense of humour, but most of all, for its endearing characters. For an adventure come space opera it has a central pair that readily gain our affection and, in her few appearances, in Spoor has one of the most singular characters in anime. Shame about the character designs, though. It's also a shame that Madman aren't licensing any other instalment of the franchise.

Rating: excellent

First, I'm glad you liked the series. Smile

As for the Ehb having pointy ears: only the Royal Families have those. The vast majority of Ehb do not.

The political entities that the Ehb end up fighting are often "democratic" in name only. In both Crest of the Stars and, later, Banner of the Stars, we only see them fighting with the United Mankind, and United Mankind is a very strict nation, as can be seen by how they treated the locals near the end of Crest, and by the officer trying to capture Lafiel and Jinto.

The Ehb only care about controlling Space. One of the main reasons for this is to prevent interstellar wars from breaking out and ruining habitable planets. The Ehb are a bit like the Roman Empire in that they establish a sort of Pax Ehb (Romana): the other nations *do* interfere with the planetary governments, often to a great degree.

The Ehb aren't perfect by any means. But what I'm saying is that it's not a black-and-white issue. I don't think the Ehb Empire is like the Empire of Star Wars.

Finally, I think there should still be copies of Banner of the Stars I and II out there. You might try the usual suspects online and see. But if any are left, they won't be for long.
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CrowLia



Joined: 24 Feb 2012
Posts: 5500
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 9:40 pm Reply with quote
I've had to put Katanagatari on hold, which makes me insanely sad, but I did watch the second episode, and I loved it as much as the first one.

I started watching Accel World and I find it seriously disturbing (no, not because the MC is fat, seriously, don't). I'm only down to episode 6 and I'm already uncertain about the point of the show. We have Haru, who has not only a terribly low self-esteem, but a deep and horrible slave complex, babbling about being a servant and a disposable pawn to Kuroyukihime all the freaking time. And then there's Kuroyuki, who for no reason whatsoever wants to rule the underground internetz. That whole story of how the spoiler[Level 9 Kings had signed for peace, yet she betrayed them because she wanted to be level 10 "to learn the secrets of the mind"] is so, sooo BS -and even worse because Haru passionately fights to "protect her [ridiculous] dream".

The kind of society that is portrayed in the series is also very unnerving and worrying. That the main couple are basically fighting to get to be the best cheaters in life -because from what I gather, that's the only benefit in Acceleration- makes me feel awful while watching. If the show addressed this as an actual problem -whatever you achieve through Acceleration is as good as getting it with cheating- I'd enjoy it a lot more (somehow in the way that I enjoy Psycho-Pass), but that it makes it something desirable is completely nerve wracking.

I think one redeeming point for the series, as far as I am, is how spoiler[Taku and Haru actually come clean to Chiyu and tell her the whole truth of all the horrible things they'd done]; this rarely happens in anime -communication is usually a major issue- so I really appreciated it.

I'm also around 15 episodes into Trigun. It's very fun and utterly, a really cool show. Vash is such a cool and fantastic protagonist. Really, the only word that comes to mind is "cool" when thinking of this anime. Vash reminds me a lot of Kenshin, a lonesome hero with amazing ability, who doesn't want to kill anyone, and who wants to make ammends for his sins and come to terms with his past, all the while bringing "love and peace" to those around him. I enjoy it a lot in spite of the godawful Latino dub (the script makes me cry tears of blood).
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 10:05 pm Reply with quote
CrowLia wrote:
I enjoy it a lot in spite of the godawful Latino dub (the script makes me cry tears of blood).


What are you doing watching the horrible Latino dub in the first place? The show already has a great English dub you can use, and of course there's the excellent Japanese dub (of which fansubs and official subs exist for it).
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DerekTheRed



Joined: 19 Dec 2007
Posts: 3544
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 11:19 pm Reply with quote
Tuor_of_Gondolin wrote:
errinundra wrote:
Crest of the Stars is serious fun, notable for some great story telling and an ironic sense of humour, but most of all, for its endearing characters. For an adventure come space opera it has a central pair that readily gain our affection and, in her few appearances, in Spoor has one of the most singular characters in anime. Shame about the character designs, though. It's also a shame that Madman aren't licensing any other instalment of the franchise.

Rating: excellent

First, I'm glad you liked the series. Smile

As for the Ehb having pointy ears: only the Royal Families have those. The vast majority of Ehb do not.


It's easy to not realize that if you've only seen Crest, because the basically the only Genetic Ahb who you see after the second episode is Lafiel. It's not like in Banner where almost all the characters are genetic Ahb.
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CrowLia



Joined: 24 Feb 2012
Posts: 5500
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 1:41 am Reply with quote
dtm42 wrote:
What are you doing watching the horrible Latino dub in the first place? The show already has a great English dub you can use, and of course there's the excellent Japanese dub (of which fansubs and official subs exist for it).


I might as well come out and say that I live in Mexico, where a good majority of Anime never gets released legally (actually, in the last ten years, the only official release we got was Lost Canvas and the first four episodes of FMA) so a good deal of the anime I watch comes from pirated DVD that my brother buys, and unlike me, he's not particularly picky of what language the show is in (we actually watched Gungrave in Spanish dub. As in, made in Spain, which is even worse than any Latino dub because Spanish accent is so weird in anime)

That being said, I'd rather watch the horrendous Latino dub a thousand times rather than the English one. I've never been able to watch cartoons speaking in English, the few I've watched, I've always felt the speech is too forced and over-vocalized and sounds weird

But I do regret not being able to watch it in the original Japanese, as I've heard Masaya Onosaka voices Vash, and I'm a fan of his voice
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xcoser123



Joined: 07 Jan 2013
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 3:05 am Reply with quote
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Errinundra
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Joined: 14 Jun 2008
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 4:20 am Reply with quote
DerekTheRed wrote:
Tuor_of_Gondolin wrote:
...As for the Ehb having pointy ears: only the Royal Families have those. The vast majority of Ehb do not.


It's easy to not realize that if you've only seen Crest, because the basically the only Genetic Ahb who you see after the second episode is Lafiel. It's not like in Banner where almost all the characters are genetic Ahb.


That would explain why Spoor and Trife don't have pointy ears. It would also explain why some characters fawned over or were infuriated by Lafiel before they even knew who she was. And why Jinto was so keen to cover her ears when they were on the planet.

Tuor_of_Gondolin wrote:
...The Ehb only care about controlling Space. One of the main reasons for this is to prevent interstellar wars from breaking out and ruining habitable planets. The Ehb are a bit like the Roman Empire in that they establish a sort of Pax Ehb (Romana)...


I take your point. I was trying to highlight the irony (by normal sci-fi standards) of an Empire being the good guy while the supposed democracy was the bad guy. There are good emperors and bad presidents.
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TF



Joined: 09 Nov 2003
Posts: 354
Location: Belgium
PostPosted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 3:12 pm Reply with quote
Saw Nodame Cantabile: finale yesterday after the rest of Nodame.
The first Nodame Cantabile is still the best of the 3. It had the most humor, especially at the beginning. The plots were a bit standard for such a series but the makers succeeded in making it very interesting.
Starting from Paris-hen, it became a bit more serious, a bit less humor and i found that disappointing. The ending was not satifying for me. I was hoping that spoiler[ Nodame would do a concerte with Chiaki, that Chiaki would say that he loved her or would kiss her or something the like. Unfortunaltely, nothing of it happened.]

I also read opera-hen (not animated part). It remains interesting and the end is a bit better but i remain unsatisfied.
result: I stuck with the anime blues for a couple of days.
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 10:23 pm Reply with quote
I'm watching Moetan. Anime hyper

Because my friend wanted to watch it and she really likes ecchi anime. She likes hentai too but I refuse to watch THAT.

So yeah, Moetan is quite ecchi and quite stupid.....and we are both quite amused by it so it's all good. Anime hyper Besides, Ink is cute and some of the jokes are truly hilarious!

And it's dtm42's favorite anime. :p
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 10:37 pm Reply with quote
Chiibi wrote:
I'm watching Moetan. Anime hyper

...

And it's dtm42's favorite anime. :p


Oh, absolutely. I just love visits from the FBI. We always have such delightful chats. I even know their names and how each one of them likes to have their tea.
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