Messages

1

Anime / Re: The Season So Far...

« on: April 15, 2014, 07:07:24 am »

So I ended up watching things I least expected to, so far.

Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei is about as good as expected so far, even more so since it's going to be 2 cour (Scorched Halloween will probably close off the second cour). The only thing I can complain about now is the choice of some VAs - I didn't expect HanaKana voicing Mayumi, or Hayami Saori for Miyuki, and I still don't think this was the right choice. But that's not my call, so... And the "visualization" of the magic casting, there's a (mildly) plot-relevant reason why I don't suppose Tatsuya's casting would have looked the way it did during practice, but I digress.

Kanojo ga Flag wo Oraretara - Underwater picked it up, so it's quite neat. I've only read the manga (LN isn't even among teaser/pending projects on Baka-Tsuki, sadly) and I notice numerous differences, but I suspect that's because the manga itself reordered a few things. Playing with clichés, decent plot and great girls make this show a good watch.

I picked up Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?, but the first episode wasn't all that great. It's cute and fun, but not enough to keep me watching. And then there's Akuma no Riddle, which I hope will skip to some fun action soon. I'll probably wait a few weeks, see if there are any recommendations, and maybe pick up something in addition to all that.

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Anime / Re: What Did You Just Finish?

« on: March 26, 2014, 07:11:54 pm »

I somehow got around to watching Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio: Ars Nova, a series best described as "enjoyably mediocre."
The series starts a bit chaotic. At first the NATO fleet fights Fleet of the Fog, then a sudden jump nine years into the future, and a few minutes later - two years back, to explain why a teenager is (successfully) commanding a powerful submarine with a loli at his side. There's also his crew, but they are never properly introduced nor explained. All we know is that they are all fugitives who are hired by various people. To top it off, the animation of people is plain bad by today's standards, with awkward and unnatural gestures, lacking cel-shading, weird-looking eyes, and lack of fluidity, and the music is hardly there.
Despite all that, the show is quite enjoyable and entertaining. The story, even if not the most original and lacking in explanations, is enticing and has some more or less unexpected developments. Fog ships' Mental Models, as the anthropomorphisations are called (for some unexplained reason) are quire diverse in design (especially Haruna, wearing nothing but a cute set under her big coat) and with interesting personalities (save for Iona, for the most part, who is as bland as main heroines go). And, most importantly, the battles.
If there's one thing the show does right, it's the battles. The ship models might not be on the level seen in Strike Witches or Vividbutts, but they sure do look amazing, and the glowing "decals" only add to the charm. The fights are intense but not flashy, good enough for me to not worry too much about the more technical details (like the unreasonably spacious bridge on I-401). And they feature the most (decent) music in the entire show, so that's another plus.

All in all, the show could have gained a lot if only the technical bits were a tad better. A little unoriginal, but clearly entertaining, which earns it a 7.

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Manga / Re: Krozam's Manga Diary

« on: December 08, 2013, 07:17:27 pm »

So I've kinda been asked to write a post about a rather unique manga, and it was about four months ago. But, well, better late than never, right?

Bonnouji
by Aki Eda

In an unspecified condo somewhere in Japan lives Oyamada Zenji, a bespectacled programmer whose brother is travelling around the world and sending various interesting (and most often bizarre) gifts. A few floors above lives Ozawa Michiyo, an OL in her twenties, who happens to meet Zenji on the day she broke up with her boyfriend. One thing led to another and they start hanging out together, along with Oyamada's childhood friend Shimamoto, a mahjong addict.
The story isn't very dynamic, far from it. It's a slow (but not too slow) and relaxed love story about two adults who by chance managed to find their soulmates in one another, who try to make it all work out, maybe a bit clumsily. There's no big drama, just a simple and soothing story, where almost nothing goes wrong.
This is a rather unique story. Many are likely to find it plain boring and uninteresting, but for me it was a welcome change - it was nice to see everything working out in the end, I was even under an impression that their problems were more real(istic?) than in many others... Aki Eda's drawing style is both a little rough and a bit cute, striking a near-perfect balance. Her other stories are very similar too - the volume of her original stories titled "Itou-san" and all the Touhou doujins released as the circle Rocket Fuel 21/Rocket Nenryou ★ 21 (warning: they are mainly gay).

I guess the post turned out a bit short, but there isn't really a lot to say about this manga. It's cute, lovely, mature, relaxed, predictable and finished, and I will gladly recommend it to about anyone, having given it 9 out of 10.

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Visual Novels / Re: New VN's announced for official English releases by JAST

« on: September 20, 2013, 06:56:41 pm »

Guess what?
You can now preorder Steins;Gate, for mere 60 bucks!

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Visual Novels / Re: New VN's announced for official English releases by JAST

« on: July 10, 2013, 03:32:10 pm »

So OsaDai fandisc will get released. That's great! The novel, while short, was certainly amusing so it's good that they'll release the sequel-ish thing. More maid Irina, alien loli sex and hopefully lots of meta humour.
Steins;Gate - it's a great idea, also because of the glossary. Let's hope they will translate it properly, because it really is helpful to people who haven't had much opportunity to see many of the terms before playing. Like yours truly.
Little Witch Romanesque looks interesting, but can't say much beyond that. I don't tend to jump on fantasy unless it's good.

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General / Re: Post your collection!

« on: March 25, 2013, 08:25:24 pm »

shawurai, ever considered adding some tags with names/descriptions to the plastic bags? A small sheet of paper on a short string put through hole in the bag, or even just a post-it note. These should make searching a lot easier.

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General Discussions / Re: It has been a good run

« on: January 21, 2013, 09:33:07 pm »

>4chan
>nice
>mfw

Springu, if losing an argument on the internet is enough to make him quit anything, then he's better off staying away from it.

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General Discussions / Re: It has been a good run

« on: January 20, 2013, 05:52:49 pm »

It's the internet, so take it with a grain of salt.

Or rather, take salt with a grain of the internet :|

@OP: you lost the moment you decided to argue about anything. When you argue about something you have no actual knowledge about... Welp, you're in deep shit. The funniest thing s that your ragequit has proven your ultimate loss. I never understood people that argue for the sake of arguing because of all their hypocrisy and you just happened to prove my point, I'm afraid.
tl;dr - you did this to yourself

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Anime / Re: The Season So Far...

« on: January 14, 2013, 11:51:58 pm »

Much less to say, for my second term at university has certainly started.
I was planning to pick up Maoyuu, especially considering the fact that I greatly enjoy the manga and even wrote a manga diary entry for Krozam. But then I did not pick it up yet, possibly wary of seeing everything once again for no good reason, maybe other than staring at the blatant volume of... err... Maou. And the art style does not entirely convince me either.
My first pick from this season is Kotoura-san. Escaping the dark topic presented within the first ten minutes with very light-hearted comedy and no hint of dark humour seems to be not an easy task, and yet the show seems to have succeeded in it so far. Kotoura-san will be probably very enjoyable, up to the point where they turn to joking about her quite painful past. Which, I hope, will never happen.
My second pick is Sasami-san@Ganbaranai. This shows confirms SHAFT's expertise in adapting weird series of all kinds. Sasami-san herself is quite cute, though I suppose the "relationship" she shares with her brother does not help much (for I am a sucker for such cases of brocon). Other than that, the show seems to be emanating weirdness, even despite the choice of the studio (if memory serves me right, Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita was not adapted by SHAFT either, and yet it turned out quite... peculiar. Not that I mind, though).
Waiting for watch is Senran Kagura, mostly for Katsuragi. Her habits, as well as somewhat mysterious relationship between two of the other girls, have certainly piqued my interest - though not so far as to have me sit through one episode completely, making it a very likely candidate for being dropped before first episode.
Another show I am not certain about yet is Vividred Operation - various opinions call it similar to Strike Witches, and that might be enough of a reason for me to watch it. So, whenever I have time this week, probably.
Tamako Market as KyoAni moeblob, GJ-bu with interesting synopsis, maybe Mondaijitachi due to Hano's comparison above - no clear opinion, tempting to at least try. Shouldn't hurt to do so...

I could end it here, but I will spare some space for two shows. Firstly, OreShura - rarely do I use the phrase "generic harem shit", but I might start to do so more often if series like this will continue to be adapted. Main character's indecisiveness, as well as the comedy in general falling within the pattern of "a gag where every girl reacts to <insert event/challenge/item here> in her own single-dimensional and typical way" make the series go stale and boring, even close to becoming repetitive.
Haganai NEXT is equally as bad, though for completely different reasons. Well, save for repetitive comedy - the plot is mostly driven by Yozora and Sena's sickening obsession over one another, and visit to Sena's house does not help the case. Yukimura might as well be replaced with a prop, rare occurrences of comedy stemming from the conflict between Maria and Kobato, with the characters themselves being almost as intolerable as the others. Over-the-top tasteless humour with schematic, one-dimensional characters is what I do not enjoy watching nor reading. The only saving grace for Haganai would be the series of events between Kodaka and Rika, who turns out more sensible than she looks - though that is only in the ending of volume 7 and the beginning of volume 8.

And so ends up my "much less"...

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Requests / Re: What anime is this girl from?

« on: November 25, 2012, 08:27:34 pm »

This is Oshino Shinobu, also known as Kiss-shot Acerola-orion Heart-under-blade from -monogatari series, starting with Bakemonogatari. An excellent title, by the way, definitely worth watching.

11

Manga / Re: Krozam's Manga Diary

« on: November 25, 2012, 01:07:31 am »

Figured I might as well just go and post it here, in the middle of being utterly frustrated with homework.

Amidst all kinds of manga I read, I enjoy absurd comedies about the most (second only to yuri). At some point, however, they tend to lose their freshness - jokes seem repetitive, new characters (heck, old ones usually too) are one-dimensional and overused running gags are overused, not to mention the fact that majority of those (as it is usually the case with gag series) are 4komas.
But there are exceptions. One of them is Fujimura-kun Mates by Shiki Seiichi.

Fujimura Haru Is a delinquent (kind of). Having no friends to enjoy the school with (and being feared in general), he skips classes until he is found by class representative Usami Eriko. She claims to be sent by a teacher to find out why is Fujimura skipping, and she tries to convince him to go back to school. All is fine, until... let's just say that Eriko has a few (hundred) screws loose. And she's not the only one. Through a series of unexpected events, Fujimura ends with three school-sanctioned (with a grand ceremony-slash-election) girlfriends - aforementioned Usami Eriko, who seems to enjoy sexual innuendos with Fujimura (and has slight yandere tendencies, sans jealous fits), Yumizuka Subaru, who was once harassing a girl who then got saved by Fujimura, and Urabe Shizuru, both the most and the least crazy of the bunch, total airhead who fell in love with Fujimura due to a misunderstanding. All three, as well as rest of the cast, do their best to drive the Only Sane Man Fujimura crazy.
This is one of the few gag mangas that manage to stay fresh and hilarious (and completely unpredictable) even after 74 chapters. With new chapters of SYD or Working!! the best I can muster is a smirk, while every new release of Fujimura-kun Mates has me dying of laughter. For the art, it's very pleasant to the eye - girls are very cute, while the level of detail is quite high. It's not in yonkoma format, which makes it even more interesting for a gag series.
I can definitely recommend this manga to anyone who likes to have a good laugh. It's been enjoyable so far and it seems it will be for a long time. My score is 10/10 - I might even consider re-scoring several top titles on my MAL, since this is one heck of an amazing read.

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General / Re: Post your collection!

« on: November 24, 2012, 08:23:56 pm »

Be damned, my new object of envy - shawurai! I will get those too, someday!

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Development / Re: Bugs

« on: October 31, 2012, 09:33:23 am »

Okay, this part got fixed. Apparently I forgot to change the GET parameter for searching in the taglist.

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Development / Re: Tag errors

« on: August 24, 2012, 06:35:11 pm »

Thanks for the input. Everything has been taken care of so far.

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Development / Re: Bugs

« on: August 24, 2012, 11:04:33 am »

Of course there is no such thing as Firefox bug.