Now that the summer season has already started, Sea Slugs is fashionably late to the party.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 07:33 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I've gotten so used to subtitles that I don't even realize I'm reading them anymore. And it feels like I can understand the Japanese.

So watching a show without them is a bit strange. Bits and pieces of the Japanese come out; a word here and a word there that I know, but the substance of what they're saying is completely opaque.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 06:02 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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That's what I get for holding my breath.

I can't believe this. Hadena hasn't yet released Shining Hearts ep 12, and WhyNot hasn't done Mouretsu Pirates ep 26. Both of them seem to be busy doing stuff from the new season instead.

For Hadena this is a particular problem, because no one else was doing Shining Hearts. The raw has been out since Saturday morning. As to Mouretsu Pirates, right now if I really wanted that I'd probably have to go with HorribleSubs, and I'm boycotting them.

My daddy always told me to finish things before starting something new. Wish these two circles would follow that principle.

My first show of the new season (Binbougami) broadcasts on Wednesday.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 03:53 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Jonathon says that he thinks that Mouretsu Pirates is fundamentally a kid's show. And he makes a good case. I think he's right.

I wish that WhyNot would finish the last episode. Come on, guys! (And while I'm at it, I wish Hadena would finish Shining Hearts.)

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 05:38 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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One reason I don't like giving money to various causes is that doing so always, always lands you on a mailing list, where you get mail (or email, if it was all online) telling you how things are going, emphasizing how the need is still great and we'd really love it if you'd give us even more money.

I gave a bunch of money to the Aaron Walker legal defense fund, and they did that. I had to try twice to get them to stop sending the things, and I'm still not sure it worked.

It made me regret making my gift, and makes me that much less likely to do it again the next time something like this happens.

I shudder to think how much crap and annoyance I'd receive if I made a contribution to some politician's election campaign. The idea fills me with dread.

That's one reason why I as an atheist don't mind giving money to the Salvation Army. They don't do that. On several occasions (for instance, those terrible fires in Australia a couple of years ago) I've given donations to the Salvation Army, and I've never received any such begging come-ons afterwards.

They understand that when someone gives you a gift, it's immodest to nag them for further gifts. A gift is a boon, not an entitlement. A donor is a benefactor, not an opportunity. The proper response is gratitude, not hustling.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Rants at 12:15 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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Well, it wasn't what I expected, but it was really good. And it clearly set up for a sequel beginning with the fourth light novel. Let's just hope it sells well enough to justify one.

The one thing that worries me is that we aren't seeing any co-marketing going on. The only thing like that I've seen is a Marika nendoroid.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 09:53 AM | Comments (21) | Add Comment
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1 Just so you know, the Japanese broadcast ended with a (Space Pirates) movie announcement.

Posted by: DiGiKerot at June 30, 2012 10:17 AM (grc9q)

2 I was also surprised by the appearance of the Odette II.  Maybe they were intended as part of "Plan B" if Marika's main strategy failed. 

Alternatively, Marika may not have known about their intentions at all.  Gonzaemon/Ironbeard was apparently hired simply to bring the underclass students back to the their exams while the ship itself was "delivered" by the academy graduates, led by Jenny Doolittle.  To whom and to where the ship would be delivered were not stated, as I recall.

I was glad to note that Marika is fully aware that a lot of people are doing things to help her behind the scenes.  She's not clueless, she has simply decided that they appear to mean her well, and is currently willing accept their anonymous assistance.

Posted by: Siergen at June 30, 2012 10:36 AM (PuIGa)

3 Anime News Network article about future plans (no spoiler tag,, but you have to click to see it).

Posted by: Siergen at June 30, 2012 02:54 PM (PuIGa)

4 The only thing in the episode I was a little disappointed about was how casually Ironbeard's identity was revealed.  It's been a matter of speculation for so long that I was hoping we'd get a little more "juice" out of the reveal.  At least a little more emotion out of Gruier when she realized her good friend wasn't dead.  But if that's my "biggest" disappointment...that says something great about this show.

Posted by: Dave Young at June 30, 2012 08:24 PM (ZAk0Z)

5 On continutation:
Film project makes sense.  The series is selling decently well (about 7k BluRays per disc, though I believe they're 4 ep per on later discs, so not as much sales as some series).  They'd need 4 LNs to stretch another 26 episodes, but a full 3 LNs crammed into 13 might not work so well.  So, especially if there is more direct battles, making it a movie makes some sense.

I also get the feeling the money stream from movies tends to work out better than TV runs, at times.  We should also probably check if the series has helped the LN sales volume as well.

On ep 26:

That was pretty damn awesome. Every pirate ship had a trick up their sleeve, and some of them were damn huge.  I especially liked what Kenjo did to 1 of the ships on his own.  That was cool.

I also really liked the first shots of personal defensive shields.  Granted, it was made to look like a Ninjutsu, but the tech was hinted at for a while.  It was cool to see it in action.  And Schnitzer using a BFG was pretty awesome too.

Marika really thought out the situation well.  They had the combat data to work with, multiple & highly experienced EW crews and years of combat experience among the pirates.  As she pointed out, she was betting on that experience to carry the day.  Boy did it.  And it did it in glorious fashion.  Plus Marika boarded the Grand Cross in a really flashy Captain's space suit.  Another fine touch.

I think the Odette II crew was there either to pick up survivors or to witness the fight.  My guess is the location was suggested by Gruier, as it was in the middle of no-where.  Was nice to see Jenny around and I really loved her hat, haha.  But Dark Mami has to take the cake for "best supporting character" of the year.  She just keeps giving us the awesome.

Gonzaemon as Ironbeard was kind of a given, but it was nice to finally get confirmation.  Along with why Gruier had the control ring. And, yeah, the outfit suits her, haha.  I see she got Mami to make her one.

I was a little concerned about the last arc, but it came out really, really well.  It made sense and it was awesome.  That's a really good way to go out of a series.  Though Sato is generally really good with closing episodes.

Posted by: sqa at June 30, 2012 08:51 PM (5/dUV)

6 I have no evidence for this, but I think that Jenny paid Mami to make those uniforms for the Yacht Club. Jenny owes them, big time, and it's the kind of gesture that would appeal to her.

And frankly, Mami deserves to be paid. That was a hell of a lot of work.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 30, 2012 08:56 PM (+rSRq)

7 Or it might have been Gruier who paid, consider how Gruier's own costume ended up.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 30, 2012 09:26 PM (+rSRq)

8

About the location of the battle: They fought at the same location where the Golden Ghost Ship eventually appeared. I'm sure that was Marika's idea. Why there?

Because the whole area is lousy with Serenity observation drones, which Courier already knows how to break into.

And because Serenity Naval Intelligence can observe the battle, no matter how it comes out. Likely the other pirates don't care about Serenity one way or the other, but Marika considers them to be friends. And Gruier fed Marika important information which came from Serenity Naval Intelligence in preparation for this whole business.

Considering the advanced tech which was being tested in Grand Cross, the local star systems need to know about it.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 30, 2012 09:31 PM (+rSRq)

9 Novel continuity: I'm working from incomplete information here, but as I understand it, the event that sets off the story arc in books 4-6 is someone "repossessing" the Odette II. Having Captain Jenny The Yummy buy it instead (college yacht club? company fleet?) suggests some streamlining for the movie, which is probably a good thing.

-j

Posted by: J Greely at July 01, 2012 10:19 AM (2XtN5)

10 Was it just me, or was Jenny's hair a bit on the green side?

Posted by: Tom Tjarks at July 01, 2012 12:33 PM (g10cY)

11 On marketing, if you start clicking on the news items on the official site, you'll find store-exclusive posters for the BD releases (cute!), an upcoming cellphone game (lots of mobile stuff), a tie-in with an online RPG, the art book that comes out this week, a pair of Marika and Chiaki Android apps (only available in Japan, sigh), a manga adaptation (with character designs closer to the novels), etc. Not a lot of the flashy stuff some other series get, but not bad, and of course there's that set of cosplay outfits, now accompanied by a proper Marika wig. Oh, and coming at the end of September, a set of randomly-packed cellphone straps.

-j

Posted by: J Greely at July 01, 2012 02:10 PM (2XtN5)

12 But no figurines. For a show featuring lots of cute girls, it's a bit surprising that the only figurine we've heard about is a nendoroid.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at July 01, 2012 02:36 PM (+rSRq)

13 What that suggests to me is that they weren't sure the figure-buying audience would get hooked on a show that refused to deliver the usual level of fan-service, and then had all the real cheesecake feature grown women rather than schoolgirls. That audience is probably baffled by the concept of a show where there's nothing to de-censor for the BD release.

-j

Posted by: J Greely at July 01, 2012 02:58 PM (2XtN5)

14 Yeah.
The figurine demographic is unlikely to go in for this show in a big way and catering to it might actually be counterproductive.

It is a kids show and is likely aimed at little girls, so having the Chikaki/ Mami bondage-parfait figurine set would not help with their targeted broadcast demographic one iota. It might also dissuade parents from having their kids watch the show. 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at July 01, 2012 04:22 PM (EJaOX)

15 I'm not convinced that the modesty message is the complete explanation. It is likely to be a part, but perhaps Good Smile just cannot pump figurines fast enough for well-selling shows.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at July 01, 2012 05:19 PM (5OBKC)

16 Have we ever really discussed the factor that Ironbeard was narrating the series?  In hindsight, that kind of seems an important point.

Posted by: sqa at July 02, 2012 04:10 AM (5/dUV)

17 ANN doesn't have a credit for Ironbeard yet, so I'm not sure if that's the case. Where did you get that from?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at July 02, 2012 05:46 AM (+rSRq)

18 Ichika was the narrator for Asobi ni Iku Yo. Did that mean something? Not really, so far as I can tell, except that they made a joke of it in the OVA.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at July 02, 2012 05:48 AM (+rSRq)

19

...Chikaki/ Mami bondage-parfait...

I am intrigued by your idea, and would like to hear more...

Posted by: Siergen at July 02, 2012 11:08 AM (PuIGa)

20 What did I do to deserve this?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at July 02, 2012 01:18 PM (+rSRq)

21 You had a popular blog.  It happens. 

Posted by: ubu at July 02, 2012 04:47 PM (GfCSm)

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I wish I could watch the last episode of Shining Hearts, but it won't broadcast until Sunday.  So Hadena's sub of it will show up Monday or Tuesday.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 08:31 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I tried copying ep 25 of Mouretsu Pirates onto my Kindle Fire, just to see what would happen. I renamed the file to get rid of a lot of cruft and to shorten it, and put it in the "Video" directory on the Kindle.

When I tried the "Video" tab, it didn't show up there. Just for the hell of it, I tried the "Gallery" app, and it did show up there. But when I tried to view it, it told me it didn't understand it.

The file is MKV. MediaInfo says the video is AVC (High10) and the audio is AAC. High10 may be a bit esoteric; I should try something older, I think.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Computers at 05:24 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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Late, but they did finally show up. Turns out that both liners were broken and they both had to be replaced. But we got it done.

The lady noticed that I had slept in the living room, and she told me it was important that I move back into the bedroom. Bait, you understand.

If there's no one around, the bugs go dormant and wait, it seems. I need to sleep in there to bring the remaining bugs out, so that they'll get caught by "the product" (the poison) and killed.

If indeed they can go long periods without feeding, which is believable for a parasite like that, then I'm pretty sure I know how they got in here. Last November I bought new comforters for my bed, and I bet they were in one of them. No way to prove that, of course, even if I hadn't thrown them out, but I think that's what happened.

Anyway, I didn't buy that brand again this time. The new comforters (on which I slept last night, on my couch) are entirely different.

UPDATE: I expected at least one big ugly spot on either the mattress or box springs, but there weren't any. I mentioned the big ugly spot that was on one of the comforters, and that seems to have been the main nest.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Daily Life at 11:17 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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He's showing up again tomorrow morning at 8. The last thing he did yesterday was to put liners on the box springs and the mattress, which completely cover them top and bottom. I guess that's partly to hold in the poison, and partly it's to prevent any remaining live bugs from escaping.

Only problem was that the one he put on the mattress had a broken zipper, so it isn't closed all the way.

I didn't sleep on it last night. I slept on my couch, wearing my normal clothes. It wasn't very comfortable. I'm going to sleep on the couch tonight, but it'll be better.

First, I went to the store today and bought two new comforters and two pillows. (To replace the old ones, all of which went into the dumpster this morning.) Second, my couch is a futon and can be converted into a bed. I just did that, so tonight it'll be wider and more comfortable, and I'll have something covering me while I sleep.

(Covers, in summer? Well, you see, we're having an Oregon summer this year, which means it's overcast, cold, and rainy. It's been like that all of June and the weather report is that it's going to stay that way into early July, if not longer. Today was nice, but we're going back to rain tomorrow.)

The good side of sleeping on the couch is that it was never infected with bugs, and I'm sure I didn't get any new bites last night. I better not get any new ones tomorrow when I move back onto the real bed.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Daily Life at 06:55 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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