I watched the first three episodes of this series and decided it was idiocy and dropped it. What I read about it later did nothing to disabuse me of that impression. Zombie Apocalypse caused by mutant psychic gerbils? Please.
So the 12th and final episode just ran and I decided it wouldn't be fair to write a scathing review of the whole thing without watching it.
And you know what? It was stupid but it was fun. Maybe the biowarfare part of the story got explained earlier; in any case it didn't sink (heh) the final episode.
It took mammoth suspension of disbelief but a degree of Rule of Cool helped a lot. The main disbelief was that with all this firepower going on, apparently no one got injured let alone killed. (Given how many zombified crew there were on Musashi, it's hard to believe no one died there, but they kind of airbrushed all of that. We only saw them once, for about one second, during the boarding action.)
I'm still not sure I could manage to get through watching the whole series, because that would mean fully embracing the stupid, and there was a lot of stupid. Maybe I'll go back and read RandomC's episode reviews for them all.
But the last episode really was pretty awesome. I think I'll watch it again.
UPDATE: It wasn't as good the second time; too many "Wait a minute" moments. Sometimes a show improves on second watching (like the Girls und Panzer movie) but sometimes they get worse.
I want to know the back story about the zombie plague but I'm not sure I'm willing to invest several hours and a lot of brain cells I can't spare in order to find out.
Just now I started watching beginning with episode 8, and it wasn't terrible. For one thing, that's arguably when the final plot arc begins. For another, it explained the zombie plague. Not very well, of course, but it's at least an explanation. And there was a lot of good action, handled well. Finally, at that point Harekaze was no longer considered to be in mutiny. (I assume that happened earlier.)
No one is going to claim that this ranks up there with GuP, but it isn't quite the horror I thought it would be.
3
Everything being relative, it ranks higher than most of this past season.
I have to give Bakuon!! a watch, since you seem to rate it fairly well.
Posted by: topmaker at June 26, 2016 07:24 PM (6stZH)
4
The thing I enjoyed (practically the ONLY thing I enjoyed) about this show was that the "physics" of the ship movements seemed very realistic, including the firing of the cannons. I thought they did a good job with the sound effects too. The CGI animation was well done.
But the suspension of disbelief required by the storyline was just toooooo much.
Posted by: Tex Lovera at June 29, 2016 08:11 PM (2lQRS)
Elizabeth II, God bless her, has been Queen of England (and Scotland and Canada and Australia and Wales and not the United States) my whole life. She just turned 90 and I know no one lives forever, though her line lives remarkably long. The Queen Mother lived to be 102.
Yesterday the voters of the UK decided there should continue to be a UK for Elizabeth to be Queen of. A superb decision, for a lot of reasons, and so in honor of this tremendous achievement today's search term is "Union Jack".
(Full size version) On June 23, 2016, Brits looked at the gold-plated chains offered them by the EU and by their own leaders, turned their backs, and marched away.
I got curious and went back and found that third image again. All those are British shipgirls from the Chinese game that's competing with Kancolle.
And though most of you (probably all of you) know this, then just for completeness, "Si vis pacem, para bellum" is a Roman aphorism that means "If you seek peace, prepare for war." The 9x19 Parabellum pistol cartridge is named for this aphorism.
4
Mystery TwinTail is, allegedly HMS Dreadnaught, however, this seems dubious as that ship had no secondary turrets and.....was never fitted with flying off platforms.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at June 24, 2016 07:30 PM (/4jFR)
Perhaps the smaller turrets symbolize HMS Dreadnought's wing turrets? But clearly the "flying off platforms" are the ship's innovative turbines.
Posted by: Wonderduck at June 24, 2016 11:30 PM (Hdexn)
6
I toasted Hirohito's death when it finally came.
I toasted the first Elizabeth's death at an Outback dinner.
I couldn't stand either ceremony extolling the supposed virtue of
these megalomaniac psychopaths; one willing to command every deluded
Japanese man, woman and child to their deaths so he could save his own
skin, the other an Honor-less wench who was willing to see her people
conquered if only to rule as a puppet monarch for the Continent.
I will toast Elizabeth's death as well.
And I will raise a glass to our Founders who, Praise the Lord, broke the
false religion and psychological yoke of self-styled God-Kings and
Emperors.
Posted by: Rykehaven at June 27, 2016 07:28 AM (BSgMR)
Why yes, my good man. And the same was true for her husband George - the Third. He died a couple of centuries ago, but in spite of their posh lifestyles, I'm outlasting all of these limey Royals.
Bottom's up!
Posted by: Rykehaven at June 27, 2016 07:07 PM (BSgMR)
Whatever other faults the English monarchy has, 'God-kings' has not been an issue ever since the Glorious Revolution.
False.
The issue of Divine Right was an overriding Royal crutch leading right up to the American Revolution, long after the "Glorious Revolution".
It was during this time that British Loyalists (Tories), Parliamentarians, Aristocracy, the Anglican Church, etc, condemned Americans in religious terms - and these pronouncements were perfectly in keeping with the over-arching philosophy of the time:
A) It is God's Will that the King rules.
B) The King delegates this Power to his Lords/Nobles/Aristocracy.
C) The Lords/Nobles/Aristocracy govern the King's "subjects" (a term derived from the latin "subiugare" which literally means "to place under the yoke").
This is not a philosophy of causality, but one of temporal and spiritual resolution. "The way things are" or "God's Will" so to speak.
So it was perfectly normal for the Church of England (actually, anybody of official or high position to include bureaucrats and academics) to swear allegiance to the King (the religious icon and head of the Established Religion and Imperial Church) under God and with hand on the Good Book; to obey/support him in all things in accordance to that holy Oath, including the condemnation of heretics like George Washington.
Today, Americans swear a derived Oath of Allegiance to the Constitution, not to a King. The Oath of Supremacy alone would outrage Americans if they were taught the heresies of the British Empire.
For the British in 1776 (and British Loyalists), the American rebels weren't just committing treason.
For the British, they were committing an act against God.
By the reckoning of both sides, the American Revolution was a religious war which sought (and succeeded) to turn the prevailing World Order upside-down.
A) It is God's Will that the King People rule.
B) The King People delegate this Power to the Nobles/Lords/Aristocracy Legislature/Judiciary/Government.
C) The Nobles/Lords/Aristocracy Legislature/Judiciary/Government submits Laws to the King President.
The Glorious Revolution had nothing to do with this awakening (jsut as Magna Carta had nothing to do with our Founding documents).
It is one thing for a supposed God-King to be stripped of Power by men who seek themselves to be God-Kings, who then reinstate a separate system based on the same phony Divine Right to delude a subjugated "peasantry".
But it is entirely another matter for an otherwise unremarkable and fallible man to hold in his hands the Divine Right of a King - only to relinquish it willingly. That is a moment that can truly be called "Divine", for it broke the spell of any future God-King over the American People.
That - and not the "Glorious Revolution".
Posted by: Rykehaven at June 28, 2016 08:59 AM (BSgMR)
I guess you would take issue with Alexander Hamilton too.
I have no problem with getting side-tracked and debating along with someone if they decide to go off on tangents, but given some blog-owner might not appreciate long-winded responses to loaded, but off-topic, jibes...let's get back on topic:
Elizabeth II, God bless her, has been Queen of England (and Scotland and Canada and Australia and Wales and not the United States) my whole life.
Yesterday the voters of the UK decided there should continue to be a UK for Elizabeth to be Queen of.
Steven, these are statements based on a false assumption.
You assume, if obliquely, that Elizabeth II would be pleased with the Brexit vote to leave the EU.
You are wrong.
Aside from the fact that the postwar British Crown is historically for European integration, this is more about the Queen Mother and her regnant daughter personally, rather than a prejudice of history going back before the hundred Year's War. It's their personal history; specifically, their role in the pre-war and WW2 era where one faction favored allying with the United States (led by King Edward and his understudy, Winston Churchill) and the other faction which envisioned a European alliance (led by the Queen Mother and her understudy, Neville Chamberlain).
Long story short, the Queen Mother, George, and their daughter have ever been supportive of integration on the continent in the interests of Her Majesty's Royal Court. And when that plan failed spectacularly, instead of doing everything in their power to prevent disaster and at the knowing cost to their subjects, their one unerring concern was to exile Edward to protect their reign.
I don't care about the British People (We are not "cousins", and I am not enthusiastic about the Brexit result for differing reasons), but there is something wanton and unseemly about foreigners who sell out their own people - even when they're selling out to my country.
For this, I abhor Elizabeth II, as surely as I abhor Hillary.
I will sake my abhorrence of both when they meet the Lord.
Posted by: Rykehaven at June 28, 2016 09:06 AM (BSgMR)
12
Enough, OK? This was just a cheesecake post, nothing more.
Press cluelessness
The picture at the top of this news post is strange: the magazines are backward. The cartridges are pointing towards the rear of the rifle.
It's not my country and it really isn't my business, but I have to confess that I hope "leave" wins, mostly for shadenfreude.
But it won't make any difference. Even if "leave" gets a huge victory, this vote is non-binding. If the UK is to leave the EU, Parliament would have to pass a bill. And they won't.
There have been many elections in various parts of Europe about the EU over the last 25 years or so, and they have never made any difference. If the voters give the wrong answer, either the government ignores them or it schedules a new vote, to give the voters a chance to correct their error. It's a slow-motion non-violent political coup pitting Europe's snobs against their slobs. The snobs know the answers (or think they do) and they're not going to let the slobs stand in the way. And so it is, here.
Even if "leave" wins big, this Parliament won't even debate such a bill, let alone pass it. The snobs have already decided that European unity is too wonderful an idea to let a bunch of slobs stop it. The only political effect will be to strengthen the UKIP, and the only way Parliament will consider leaving the EU is if UKIP is in majority. Even in the best of scenarios it would take years to reach this point.
So from the American Schadenfreude point of view, the only amusing aspect of this if "leave" wins will be to watch Cameron explain why the vote didn't actually matter, and why he and his party are justified in ignoring it.
I'm watching the vote count on the BBC, and right now "leave" has a slight edge. But it's only about 1 million votes total so far and that's maybe 2% of the ultimate total. As the wise man once said, it ain't over until it's over. And apparently that won't be until late this evening my time (i.e. morning in the UK).
As you might imagine, over at Metafilter the consensus is that "stay" should win, so another source of schadefreude is reading all the moaning as "leave" continues to lead. And, of course, anyone who votes to "leave" is a drooling racist. It's obvious, isn't it?
UPDATE: At the Guardian, this interesting comment from Andrew Sparrow:
You can always tell who is losing on an election night - it's the side where they start blaming each other. Earlier, when it looked good for remain, we saw Vote Leave have a go at Nigel Farage.
But now the recriminations are breaking out on the remain side, where Labour is blaming the government.
UPDATE: About 2 million votes counted now, and "leave" has about a 150,000 vote lead. This could get interesting. But the fat lady isn't warming up yet.
UPDATE: Now "leave" has a 175K vote lead. This is getting more awesome by the minute.
There will always be an England, and England will be free,
As long as England means as much to you as England means to me!
UPDATE: Well, lots of votes from the London area came in, and now "remain" has a 115K lead. But the fat lady isn't warming up yet; this is still only about 10% of the vote counted. And London isn't representative of the whole country.
UPDATE: And now the "remain" lead is down to 32K. I gotta stop doing this.
UPDATE: And now "leave" is back up to an 18K lead. Yeah!
UPDATE: "Leave" is almost 300K ahead now and has been pulling away for the last hour.
This guy says "remain" has no chance of winning, as in zero. He's using some sort of predictive model.
UPDATE: "Leave" has a 420K vote lead now and more than half the votes have been counted. I think I heard the fat lady starting to warm up.
UPDATE: I've been sitting here all evening with a big grin on my face. Some of that comes from reading the Metafilter thread. Lots of moaning, groaning, and gnashing of teeth going on there.
"Leave" now has a 600K lead and it's hard to see how anything can put "stay" back into the lead.
UPDATE: AND the fat lady just started her solo. The BBC just called it for "leave" and so did CNN International. "leave" is more than 800K ahead with about three quarters of the votes counted.
Meanwhile, financial markets all over the world are going nuts. The Pound has dropped like a stone relative to other currencies. The Dow is reported to be down several hundred points.
I think most of that economic gyration is idiocy and it'll all damp out in a few business days, but in the mean time the headlines in the WSJ are going to be interesting.
I wonder if you can sell schadenfreude futures?
UPDATE: All the cars are off the track, and here's the final result:
You can, but don't be shocked if people laugh at you when they go pear-shaped.
Posted by: Wonderduck at June 23, 2016 09:29 PM (Hdexn)
3
There's some jokes about "throwing off the yoke of oppression" and other things to send to the Brits, but the situation is actually far more similar to the events that lead to the American Revolution than people really want to admit. So the impulse that set off one world-changing event is still there in the Isles. Which is good.
The only problem, tossing in another American Revolution reference, is that this is only the Lexington & Concorde moment in the European Nationalist vs Globalist war. History presses ever onward, and we, at times, are just witnesses.
Posted by: sqa at June 23, 2016 09:34 PM (clIbv)
4
And David Cameron has announced he'll be resigning as PM once the party chooses his successor.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at June 23, 2016 11:30 PM (PiXy!)
5
UKIP is the big winner in this election. Expect them to pick up plenty of seats.
Posted by: BigFire at June 23, 2016 11:56 PM (pNmmq)
6
Excerpt from comments by the head of BBC political research:
"There are many millions of people in the UK who do not enthuse about diversity and do not embrace metropolitan values, yet do not consider themselves lesser human beings for all that. ... the metropolitan political class, confronted by them, seems completely bewildered and at a loss about how to respond ('who are these ghastly people and where do they come from?' doesn't really hack it.)"
So, flyover country has spoken. In Britain, at least
7
Although the global markets are convulsing now, the only scenario I can see for long-term negative economic impact of Brexit is if the remaining EU members decide to "punish" the British voters with high tariffs or trade embargoes. And what are the odds of the EU ruling class being that vindictive...
Posted by: Siergen at June 24, 2016 06:25 AM (De/yN)
8
Pretty good. After all, our president said there'd be consequences. And one of those should be President Trump adding Britain to NAFTA, in effect if not name. (Of course, some Brits might think that's worse than the EU, but it doesn't come with our bureaucracy....)
I am indifferent to Brexit, though I am inclined toward the Brits staying the Brits. But there are always opportunity costs, and I know people who do not like 'Leave' winning, because their stocks and bonds, and businesses are now under threat. In fact, it appears that some companies have already announced relocation plans from the UK.
Also, there are renewed eagerness among the Scottish nationalists and Irish Republicans for an independent Scotland and/or a reunified Ireland. Those might be good for England - but it will not be a United Kingdom any longer.
The American Interest (William Russell Mead and company.) noticed an observation made by a professor in the UK - UKIP went in big among the working class communities usually represented by Labour MPs, and got a correspondingly high level of support from them. Parliament might have no choice but to vote on Brexit - and approve it.
Posted by: cxt217 at June 24, 2016 12:55 PM (ihsfL)
10
After the result, was there a meltdown on Metafilter similar to the one Megan McArdle saw from journalists and pundits?
Posted by: muon at June 25, 2016 09:19 PM (IUHrD)
11
Yeah, pretty much. The demographics are different but the hyperbole is about the same.
What is really ironic is that amidst the ranting about 'Leave' voters being stupid and racist, the Mirror published exit polling that shows that 53% of 'Leave' voters put 'laws being made in the UK and not in Brussels' as their most important reason for voting - something that sounds very much like what Boris Johnson and his group was saying. Immigration, despite Nigel Farage (Who I dislike because of his association with the Kremlin.) and UKIP, came in second at 34%.
Meanwhile, 67% of the 'Remain' voters regarded 'economics' as their most important reason to vote. If 'Leave' supporters were really the stupid racists that 'Remain' voters suggest (And I see a lot of that - from Americans - on my Facebook feed.), they would be calling the 'Remain' supporters a bunch of greedy, money-hungry pigs.
Posted by: cxt217 at June 26, 2016 08:58 AM (ihsfL)
13
One interesting thing is that the vote didn't follow the usual political patterns. Both Leave and Remain were basically 50/50 left/right. Which is why the conservative PM resigned and the left-wing Labor Party is tearing itself to pieces today.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at June 26, 2016 09:56 AM (PiXy!)
14
Wait, Labour party. The Australian version dropped the U for whatever reason. We have an election here in a week... Joy.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at June 26, 2016 09:58 AM (PiXy!)
The one smart thing that UKIP did this time was to go big and heavy for 'Leave' votes from among the working class communities in traditional Labour seats - and it worked. The fact alone is why I doubt Parliament can put off voting on Brexit - or voting it down.
I have been seeing Democrats trying to use Brexit and Nigel Farage as a rallying cry against Trump, not understanding that the America version of the 'Leave' voter base would see the majority of working class Democrats voting against Hillary.
Given the unique nature of Britain's membership in the EU means I am unsurprised that many in the rest of the EU have no problem seeing the UK go. Germany probably prefers one less nation drawing subsidies from it - which is the other big reason why I doubt an independent Scotland will be allowed into the EU (The other being a desire from certain members of the EU not to give ideas to domestic separatist movements.).
Posted by: cxt217 at June 26, 2016 11:01 AM (ihsfL)
It will be a lot easier to extract the UK because the UK kept the pound. Extracting a nation which uses the Euro will be more complicated.
All the people who are talking about how this will end the UK, with Scotland and Northern Ireland wanting independence -- well, maybe. But they seem to imply that this would be unprecedented, and that's bogus.
First, the USSR broke up. Remember that? Then there was Yugoslavia, though a lot of that was because of outside military force.
But there was also Czechoslovakia breaking up -- peacefully, and apparently successfully.
17
USSR had a common currency, too. But I think that Austo-Hungarian empire is a more appropriate example. It included many of the same peoples stuck in EU now.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at June 26, 2016 06:01 PM (XOPVE)
Czechoslovakia is the odd duck among them, due in no small part to Vaclav Havel. The other two required a certain amount of violence to achieve, and any further secession among the nations of continental Europe will, with the possible exception of Belgium breaking up, not follow the example set by Prague and Bratislava.
(As a sidenote, I amused a few years ago when the progressive left was calling for Obama to follow Boris Yeltsin's example and use force against Congress. Given that Yeltsin had the military shell the White House to cow the Russian legislators, and the progressives might not like the imagery that comes to mind.).
Pixy, I feel your pain. Your choice seems to be similar to what faces us here in the US. Tim Blair may be on to something when he took 'delcon' and ran with it.
Posted by: cxt217 at June 26, 2016 06:03 PM (ihsfL)
19
Oh, we're a lot better off than you in the US. We have two disagreeable but mostly adequate choices (plus the batshit-crazy Greens, as always).
They're remarkably unexciting candidates, but neither one is or wears orange.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at June 26, 2016 06:51 PM (PiXy!)
20
The famous shelling only happened in the finale of the struggle. The commies based there started taking over key positions in the city, such as the City Hall (former SEV Building). They tried to take over the central TV station in Ostankino, but the police unit that defended it lasted for a couple of days that was enough for the army to see that the commies didn't have enough support base. The army units stopped to ignore their deployment orders and started pushing back. In a couple of weeks of low-intensity street fighting around city landmarks culminated in the ultimatum and shelling.
In American terms, it would be equivalent to Congress was full of Muslim terrorists and took up arms against the rest of the U.S. Government, laying waste to Supreme Court chambers, as well as Georgetown University. I'm not exactly sure if talking about this sort of thing as "Constitutional" or not even makes sense.
I defended the White House when it was Yeltsin's HQ in 1991, but I did not participate in the 1993 uprising on either side. Gradually getting wiser, I guess.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at June 26, 2016 07:12 PM (XOPVE)
I'm glad that kind of thing doesn't happen here. The last time I know of that anything like that happened here was in 1957 when the governor of Arkansas called out the National Guard to prevent black students from entering a traditionally white-only high school, and Eisenhower responded by sending in the 101st Airborne.
Eisenhower had placed the 101st Airborne on standby for deployment to Little Rock if the Arkansas National Guard had not followed federal orders. Fortunately for all concerned, Creighton Abrams (Yes, the officer that the tank is named after.) had his orders obeyed.
Lyndon Johnson had apparently did threaten to send the military against Congress. So did Richard Nixon secretly at the height of Watergate, only for Abrams to tell him on behalf of the services chiefs that they would pretend that they had not heard that.
Posted by: cxt217 at June 26, 2016 08:45 PM (ihsfL)
Let's get something clear from the get-go: I don't think the mangaka is trying to hide a serious story here. It's an ecchi comedy and that isn't going to change. But I do think there's a lot of story background here he's only revealing slowly. It's the skeleton onto which he's hanging a lot of good jokes and it's going to stay that way.
Nonetheless, I think it's there. And in particular I think there's something pretty interesting about Lime sempai. She's always been strange and mysterious, and I don't think that's random or haphazard. The mangaka knows the truth about her, and all the things that happen relating to her are consistent and driven by his unrevealed back story about her.
This is a monstrous spoiler about the whole series so it all goes below the fold.
1
So the Stig's Japanese School Girl Cousin is a kami.
Makes a lot of sense, actually. (There's a joke about Zen & the Art of Motorcycle maintenance in there.)
So 5 episodes done and 144 candidates so far. I've been noticing that a lot of scenes in this show, taken out of context, are extremely confusing. Like that one; if you have seen the show you'll know why a crane is lifting a Ducati with a side car.
Now that I understand what's going on with Lime,
I'm seeing a lot of hints about her in the earlier episodes that I just breezed by the first time. I'm grabbing evidence as it appears for my theory about her and I'll make a post about it once I've finished the plundering pass.
Somebody named Dylan Matthews is either the troll to end all trolls or else he suffers from a case of cluelessness that sets all new records.
Possibly both.
Matthews has a bright idea: Obama should use a presidential decree to stop all gun sales, immediately.
His idea faces a couple of big hurdles. First, the Bill of Rights. (That part's easy; you just declare it obsolete and ignore it.) And Article II of the Constitution. (That's obsolete, too, so you ignore that as well.)
Second, there are already more than 300 million guns in private hands in this country, legally. Stopping new sales immediately wouldn't achieve the goal Matthews thinks he's solving.
And seizing all of them, without "due process" (which, recently, has been another thing lefties find really annoying because it keeps getting in the way of them implementing their program)... anyway, just finding them all would be tough. Once you know where they are, seizing them will use up a lot of police officers. Like hundreds of thousands of brave men taken to graveyards.
Actually, coming up with that many men willing to sacrifice their lives for the Progressive Agenda is a serious problem as well, considering the way Progressives generally treat brave men. Maybe we can get women to do it.
Some lefties have come up with a clever argument: The AR-15 didn't exist when the Bill of Rights was written and ratified, and therefore the Second Amendment doesn't protect them. Nor, in fact, does it protect any kind of firearm except muzzle-loaded black powder rifled muskets.
To which someone else pointed out that offset printing didn't exist then, either, and therefore by the same logic the only "freedom of the press" that should be protected by the First Amendment would be hand-set printing using movable type and screw-presses. On hand-made rag paper, to boot.
The left has always been more than a bit loony in this country but it seems like it's gotten a whole lot worse in the last couple of years. And I can't really think of anything that could happen now that would bring them back to their senses (which assumes that they were ever to their senses, which may be dubious).
I honestly think that if Iran nuked NYC, the progressives would figure out a reason why it was really the fault of Republicans and Gun Owners, and therefore the entire Bill of Rights should suspended and every Republican and every Gun Owner should be rounded up and confined.
For their own good.
It's been a good run, but I'm beginning to wonder whether this country can continue as a Republic for much longer.
I'd like every gun in America to disappear and/or be outlawed. I realize that there are no doubt many non-profits out there who work in this space. Which is the non-profit organization that is most productive/most active/most efficient/most likely to get closest to getting guns outlawed?
If the other side is this stupid, maybe there's hope.
