Well, you see, there was this torrent which was a complete set of the Negima manga up through chapter 335. And I kind of downloaded it.
I spent about 2 hours unpacking it. Sheesh. Between inconsistent file naming, and weird directory organization, and the fact that about half of it was in RAR files (instead of ZIP), it was a real pain. But I finally got it all organized, into a series of directories, so that alphabetic order is also chronological order. And now I'm reading it.
I'm up to chapter 7, and I remember something I heard: When Akamatsu finished off Love Hina and wanted to do something new, the magazine told him he had to do another harem comedy. He didn't want to do a harem comedy, but they insisted.
So early on, Negima had all the trappings of a harem story. But he eventually morphed it into an action-adventure story, which turned out to be even more popular.
However, that hasn't happened yet as of chapter 7, and I can't say I really like this part. Where does it start getting serious? I'd like to do some skipping.
UPDATE: Looks like chapter 16 is where the Eva arc kicks in, and that's a pretty good choice.
1
"about half of it was in RAR files (instead of ZIP)"
But RAR files compress better than ZIP files. (Apparently for the kind of people who use RARs, that's the only consideration.)
Posted by: RickC at January 18, 2012 07:28 AM (6gf75)
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It depends on how you do the zip. They're both using the same kind of compression, and most zip programs allow you to choose a compression setting.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 18, 2012 07:37 AM (+rSRq)
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The only nice thing I can say about RAR as a format is that the unpackers are less likely to mangle kanji and kana in file names (ZIP tools are usually not character-encoding-aware). Since most of the RAR files I see have already-compressed data in them, there's no significant storage savings. I wouldn't be surprised if, in addition to the fun Steven had with filenames and directory structures, he also found an inconsistent mix of PNG and JPG.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at January 18, 2012 09:24 AM (2XtN5)
Yeah, that was the case, too. Lots of both, but no consistency. And you're right: PNG and JPG are already compressed.
None of the files had Japanese characters in their names, though. And I unpacked everything using 7-Zip.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 18, 2012 09:39 AM (+rSRq)
5
The last time I did a mass download of a couple entire series, I wanted
to strangle someone after hours of trying to deal with different folder
and file naming conventions. For one series it was bad enough that I
gave up on the available torrent and went to the the website one
scanlation group and just downloaded all their chapters individually,
but even then they weren't consistent over time, as apparently they
didn't always get their raws from the same place and wouldn't rename
whatever the raw group gave them.
I actually gave serious thought to writing an application to produce a
defined folder and file naming scheme from a collection of archives, but
decided that I didn't have the time. But the next time I need to do a
'home software project' to polish some skills, it's at the top of my
list.
Posted by: David at January 18, 2012 11:22 AM (+yn5x)
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Also on topic for this thread: Negima is the next series on my list to catch up on. I've been reading it in actual paper form, but with the change in publisher that recently happened, it's now even more ridiculously behind compared to what's available online. I figure I'm going to download the whole series for a re-read and continue to the present. I'm not looking forward to the download and unpack part.
I recall enjoying the first part of the series, with some chapters being better than others. I very much remember that when the action really started, the ability to go back to the block of chapters dedicated to an individual haremette to refresh myself on character design and such was very helpful, especially in the sections where there might be a dozen or so very similarly drawn characters running around in the chaos of a busy page.
Posted by: David at January 18, 2012 11:30 AM (+yn5x)
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I still have nightmares of trying to organize Detective Conan manga, but nowadays has gotten much better (save for some bloody exceptions). Thankfully Traders for the most part let's me download neatly organized zip files.
Posted by: Jaked at January 18, 2012 02:46 PM (sQpfj)
I have a utility called "batchname" which you can drag-and-drop large numbers of files and it will perform certain operations on their filenames for you.
It's not super-sophisticated, but it's good enough. There's another one that's vastly more powerful, but I don't need its abilities, and it's a lot more confusing.
It got used heavily in this particular process.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 18, 2012 03:53 PM (+rSRq)
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Do you have a link where I might find that piece of software? I tried a Google search, but got buried under SEO crud.
Posted by: Boviate at January 19, 2012 03:43 PM (q39AX)
There's a different program called Bulk Rename Utility which is a lot more powerful, but also more confusing. I have it, but it turns out that Batchname serves for most of my needs.
But I thought I'd mention it, just for completeness.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 19, 2012 08:38 PM (+rSRq)
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Thanks, Steven. I'll be sure to check them out too, hopefully they'll turn helpful in emergencies.
Posted by: Jaked at January 19, 2012 10:41 PM (jV/tp)
Seems like tomorrow is "Voluntarily screw up the Internet day". Wikipedia is going to shut down for 24 hours. And I just noticed that BakaBT is going to suspend their tracker for 12 hours. So don't get freaked if all your torrents suddenly turn red.
Pete needs the ability to watch BDs from any region. Various people are proposing hardware solutions.
Maybe it's because I'm a programmer, but I prefer a software solution: AnyDVD HD from SlySoft. It's true that you have to buy it again every year if you want to keep up on new patches. (Well, someone has to pay for their effort keeping up with new forms of copy protection.)
And I suppose the biggest objection is that it lets you play your BDs on your computer screen, rather than on your living room TV. But for me that's no issue; I don't have a living room TV.
The fact that it is illegal to own it in the US (because of the DMCA) doesn't seem to be much of a deterrent to anyone. Besides which, all the hardware solutions others have proposed are equally illegal.
1
I don't think the "can't play on your living room TV" thing is much of an issue.
1) It takes a simple adaptor to convert DVI output (which is most modern video cards anyway) to HDMI.
2) You can get video cards that have nothing but HDMI outputs.
...so you could use anything with an HDMI input as a monitor. I've played WoW on my 47" blab slab.
My $156 torrent box could be used to play BDs if I installed a BD drive. It would then cost more than $156 but the price would still be comfortably under $300, and using the blab slab's VGA input gets me 1920x1080 without a problem.\
Still not legal for multi-region BDs of course thanks to DMCA, of course.
Posted by: atomic_fungus at January 16, 2012 06:31 PM (4deSp)
Probably it's instinctive to want to keep and stockpile food, and to feel good when your food supply is secure. But having my shelves and freezer full always makes me feel good.
That's the kind of peanut butter that's made from peanuts and salt, and nothing else. It doesn't contain emulsifiers, so it separates. When you open a new jar which has been stored normally, you'll find a layer of oil on top of a very thick layer of peanut paste. It has to be stirred before you use it, a process which takes several minutes.
And you'll usually end up with an unstirred bit at the bottom of the jar. If you store the jar upside down, then the oil begins at the bottom of the jar and the paste is over it. That makes it a lot easier to mix it up and to get all of the paste mixed up.
Once I've opened a jar and mixed it, I store it with the lid upwards. But it works better to keep the unopened jars upside down.
By the way, it tastes a hell of a lot better than things like Skippy and Jif, which have added corn syrup and a lot of other things mixed in. The texture is better, too; emulsifiers suck.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 16, 2012 05:25 PM (+rSRq)
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As to why the tuna is upside down, well... it isn't, actually. Bumblebee did something weird with the labels on this particular kind of tuna, and I honestly don't know why.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 16, 2012 05:27 PM (+rSRq)
I agree about getting the GOOD peanut butter - it's worth it. It really does taste better without all that sugar/corn syrup added to it.
As for my fridge, it's an ongoing war between me and my wife/daughters. They do not understand how an engineer's mind works re: organizing storage space...
Posted by: Tex Lovera at January 16, 2012 06:00 PM (uw3L9)
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Hey, that's what I do with my peanut butter, too, and for the same reason!
Posted by: atomic_fungus at January 16, 2012 07:57 PM (4deSp)
Hope there won't be a problem delivering my groceries tomorrow!
Weather forecast is that we're supposed to get intermittent snow through Tuesday. But it's going to go above freezing each day (and it's above freezing right now, so I don't expect this to hang around).
UPDATE, ten minutes later: It's stopped snowing, and the sun is out. And it's already starting to melt.
UPDATE: It was just a light dusting anyway. It didn't even fully cover the grass.
That snow is now completely gone. You can't even tell it happened.
Which is pretty typical for snow around here. Snow that sticks, and is deep enough so that you can do snowballs, is maybe one year in three. Snow deep enough to justify shoveling -- maybe one year in ten. It hasn't happened in the six years since I moved back here.
It's ocean effect. Our weather here is more moderate year round than the same latitude 1000 miles to the east: cooler in summer, and warmer (and wetter) in winter. (We're at the same latitude as Ottawa.)
Portland specifically does get some amazing ice storms. Cold wind blows west down the Columbia River Gorge, and rainstorms blow east off the Pacific, and sometimes they meet here. Warm wet air aloft, and cold air on the ground, means ice up to an inch thick on everything.
I remember one ice storm, late 1970's. I stood next to a wooded area, and every minute or two there was a loud crash as some branch on some tree gave up and fell off. It was pretty amazing.
And it's scary to watch people trying to drive on it, especially on the hills.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 15, 2012 05:05 PM (+rSRq)
3
Either you're forgetting December of 2008 when you say there hasn't been snow worth shoveling in the last 6 years, or your opinion of not worth shoveling is pretty extreme. I had three feet of snow in my yard just South of you in Tigard, and even with chains on the car, driving around Beaverton was pretty scary.
This morning there was a very light dusting in the yard at 8am, and it was mostly gone a couple of hours later, but then just after noon a short but intense flurry dropped enough snow to pile about 3/4 of an inch on my car in maybe 15 minutes. But then the sun came out, and it mostly melted. But there is still some left on the trees and bushes, and pretty much anywhere that didn't get hit by the sun before it went down.
Posted by: David at January 15, 2012 08:53 PM (Kn54v)
I think that living in Massachusetts for ten-odd years may have changed my standards. I haven't seen anything here like what we got every winter there.
The last winter I was there we set an all-time record for snowfall by February, and it kept snowing through April. I moved away in November of that year, and the first major snowstorm happened the day after I flew out. (The moving truck carrying my stuff got caught in it.)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 15, 2012 10:36 PM (+rSRq)
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And the snow we get here is a joke compared to what Duckburg gets.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 15, 2012 10:38 PM (+rSRq)
6
Duckford. We actually just got our first snowfall of the winter this past Thursday. Just over five inches; Duck U. closed early to let the staff go home before the worst of it hit, and to prevent the night class students from having to come in. Considering that the city usually gets 10" of snow in December and we got nothing this year, I'll live with it. Heck, the day before the snow hit, it was 56°.
Actually, in the grand scheme of things, Duckford doesn't get all that much snow; around 40 inches per winter. The first winter I lived in MN, we got that much in one week, though that was with a 28" snowfall on Halloween.
Posted by: Wonderduck at January 15, 2012 11:26 PM (f/6aJ)
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at January 16, 2012 02:40 AM (GJQTS)
8
Avatar, we're getting it here. It's a cold and rainy winter down here, and further south they've been getting snow up in the hills.
Only thing is, it's supposed to be summer.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at January 16, 2012 07:00 AM (PiXy!)
9
I live about two hours' drive from the Duck. I got eight inches of global warming during that same storm.
...I was riding my motorcycle two days earlier. That's probably over now until March or April.
Posted by: atomic_fungus at January 16, 2012 07:28 AM (4deSp)
10
Dang, Avatar, you've lucked out. There have been several freezes north of you. That said, I think the low last night was supposed to have been in the 50s. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, though--it wouldn't be the first year when winter started in February and more than made up for its tardiness.
Sometimes, I do lust after the climate of the Willamette. No hard freezes (south of the Gorge)? No "northers" bringing in air straight from the Yukon? Summers that rarely--if ever--hit triple digits? Real mountains, that you don't have to drive 12 hours to see on the horizon, and a reliable 40" of rain to keep everything nice and green? Sign me up, please.
Posted by: BigD at January 16, 2012 02:05 PM (u0/7E)
11
I'm actually taking a sick day from work. I'm in a VERY narrow convergence zone. at the moment. This morning I had to drive down to Kirkland, and the highways were variable from clear to messy (And it turned out my mortgage broker couldn't get there, so a wasted trip) but up here in Lake Stevens, I've got at least 6-8" of Global Warming on my deck rails. It's not snowing south of Everett or North of Marysville based on the radar map, but this narrow band has just been sliding through lengthwise right over me.
I COULD make it to work in my little Subaru, but I'm very concerned about my ability to make it HOME safely tonight.
Posted by: Mauser at January 17, 2012 01:46 PM (cZPoz)
BigD, I think I've said this before, but what the hell:
I grew up in Portland, and when we studied history in grade school, we studied the Oregon Trail -- for obvious reasons, I think. And when I was grown up and started working, a couple of times I went out to eastern Oregon to a couple of places where the Oregon Trail ran.
I always wondered why people would go through such a trial. To leave everything they knew, pack a few belongings into a wagon, and travel thousands of miles to a place they'd never seen, in hopes that it might be better than what they left? They must have all been insane. -- or so I thought.
It wasn't until I moved to Massachusetts that I began to understand. The soil there is terrible. It's not very fertile, and it's full of rocks. They used to make fences around their fields out of stones -- not because other materials were scarce, but simply because they needed to put all the stones somewhere that they picked up out of the soil so that they could plow what was left.
The reports going back east from here were unanimous: the soil was wonderful, the weather was favorable, the Indians were not dangerous (and there weren't many in any case), and of course this being the era of homesteading, the land was free. Plus there was lots of game, and the streams and rivers were teeming with fish. After the trials of the trip, it must have seemed like they had reached heaven.
And they, in turn, would have joined the chorus sending messages back east -- hey, it was worth the trip!
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 17, 2012 04:21 PM (+rSRq)
RS is posting 1080p versions of the show, so naturally that's what I went with. For all I know it's an upscale of a 720p raw, but it might not be. Regardless, that's what I got.
It took forever to download. Only one real seed, and the average download rate was only about 15 KB/s. Sheesh. (Snore)
Anyway, all good things come to an end, and I finally got it. And, quite frankly, it was worth the wait.
They're doing character building on Marika. Too many shows make their female protagonist either a complete loser ditz or a supergirl. Marika isn't either one. She's strong but not infinitely so. She's confident in herself but isn't cocksure. She's got guts and brains but she's not a world-beater.
Yet.
I really like her. And I like Chiaki. She's still a mystery. But the two of them are beginning to click, and that's good. Chiaki is still distant, and seems to be a bit contemptuous of Marika, but as this episode proceeded Marika began to gain Chiaki's respect.
Sato is taking his time, and some people are impatient. I'm not. It's a two-cour show, and Sato is building his foundation thoroughly. When the time comes that Marika (inevitably) accepts command of the Benten-maru, it'll be believable that she does so.
Oh, and there was no overt fan service. Again. And lots of non-fan-service eye candy. Plus we got to see Marika fire a gun for the first time -- which was pretty cool.
This show still gets the thumbs-up.
UPDATE: I think I know what Aroduc's problem is. (heh) He wants gizmos, and Sato is telling a character story. The reason Sato hasn't rushed right out to space is because this show isn't about space. It's about Marika and Chiaki and Kane and so on, and we need to get to know them. It's also about Marika's mother.
Sato is giving us time with his characters -- and his characters are people, not space ships. For someone not in synch with this, the result seems dull.
Personally, I'm confident there'll be PLENTY of action. But it'll mean something, because the show will have built up the characters into people we care about.
Posted by: tellu541 at January 14, 2012 07:18 PM (pJ1uW)
The series preview showed us ship battles, or at least showed us the Benten-maru firing its main cannon at least once. I'm sure there's going to be action.
But as you say, when it happens, we're going to be more engaged because those doing the shooting, and being shot at, are people we know and care about.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 14, 2012 08:11 PM (+rSRq)
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It's a lot more deliberate than most shows out there today.. Out of the last season, I think Fate/Zero was another one that built up slowly, but it got away with it because of a pre-buiilt fanbase. Moretsu doesn't have that advantage,so it's getting an unfair rap.
Posted by: ubu at January 14, 2012 08:11 PM (GfCSm)
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Beautiful teenage girls, mini-skirts, zero-G...and not a single panty shot. Now, THAT's class, baby! I also really liked the discussion of electronic warfare. It'll be interesting to see if they make that an on-going factor in the battles to come. (And why am I not totally accepting of Chiaki's statement that she's not very good at it, either? Hmmmm???)
Posted by: Dave Young at January 14, 2012 08:31 PM (ZAk0Z)
There were several more cases of shots which, in any other show, would have featured panties, but didn't in this one.
It doesn't feel like Saki where they really wanted to do panty shots but were prevented by the TV station. It feels like Sato is trying to send a message: "This isn't that kind of show".
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 14, 2012 08:41 PM (+rSRq)
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Does anyone know why Chiaki continues to wear her old uniform? In Japanese schools it is rather significant.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at January 14, 2012 09:33 PM (G2mwb)
I think she's trying to be cold, distant, stoic. She's trying to hold everyone at arm's length.
It isn't quite working; she betrays a much nicer person inside on more than one occasion. But keeping her old school uniform instead of adopting the correct one is kind of a signal, "I don't belong here. I'm not one of you. Stay away from me."
At least, that's the way I read it.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 14, 2012 10:06 PM (+rSRq)
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There was one line from the opening intro of the first episode that really grabbed my attention:
They'd been talking about the war, and that this story begins more than 100 years later "...the war having ended in a surpising fashion." Surprising fashion, heh? I think this is our first clue that this may be a deeper story than some commenters seem to suppose at this time.
Posted by: Dave Young at January 15, 2012 10:00 AM (ZAk0Z)
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That caught my attention too... and isn't it just odd that a girls high school ends up with
one of the original seven privateer ships, of which the Bentenmaru is another. Even one of the pirates thought that was odd
Another thing... the green-lipstick pirate (name eludes me) was looking through the dossiers of several other students, with a "hm, this one might do" response at least once. I suspect they may recruit more than just a captain. Which brings me back to the the above...
Posted by: ubu at January 15, 2012 05:50 PM (GfCSm)
If they're pirates, they don't just sail around. They're taking ships, or cargo from ships, and someone else out there is getting angry about it.
Given that they're privateers, it's also a political matter. The government which issued the letter of Marque could, presumably, cancel it -- and hasn't done so. Which makes their predation something of an act of war.
Who is that enemy? I suspect it'll be a while before we find out, but once we learn that, we'll have a lot better picture of the real story being told here.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 15, 2012 08:12 PM (+rSRq)
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I just caught this episode last night, and I agree with Steven. It's designed to start as a character piece with the action to be fleshed out later. I think it's well paced, especially compared to the two mecha shows this season.
Aquarion EVOL has too much angsty silliness mixed with a creepy vibe about "unions" between boy/girl robot controllers. Rinne no Langrange's protagonist is way too cocksure, such that her brief moments of doubt are completely unbelievable.
I much prefer the Mouretsu Pirates approach where the characters are established first, which will give weight to future action.
Posted by: wahsatchmo at January 16, 2012 10:23 AM (r4uXE)
12
What I get out of the intro voiceovers is that there was a period of sub-lightspeed colonization, leading to a bunch of isolated planets, followed by the invention of a faster-than-light drive that allowed for real connected colonies and the possibility of interstellar invasion. This is the only way I see that Sea of the Morningstar can simultaneously be described as a "newly settled frontier planet" (episode 1) and "one of the earliest colonized planets" (episode 2).
So, the Galactic Empire grew out of the pre-FtL colonies, and the Stellar Alliance was set up as a series of FtL-connected colonies, of which Sea of the Morningstar was one of the first. The metal tile that Marika conspicuously steps on in episode 2 has the same logo that appears at the beginning of each voiceover, so presumably that represents the Alliance.
All speculation aside, can I just say that I admire the way Chiaki manages to look fierce and commanding while finishing off her chocolate parfait?
-j
Posted by: J Greely at January 16, 2012 11:31 AM (fpXGN)
I don't care how much nudity they've packed into the show. If this post is accurate, and I have no reason to think it isn't, then the show is vile and not worth being watched.
Sounds like it's going to rank down there with Milk Vampires on the "really rank" scale. No, thanks!
Which leaves me with just Mouretsu Pirates for this season -- which is still an improvement over the last one, where I had nothing at all.
UPDATE: The sad thing is that High School DxD will probably do very well. After all, Milk Vampires got a sequel.
There wasn't one for me in the fourth cour of 2011. Or the third, for that matter.
I'm sure there will be other people who find shows this season that they really like. But this blog is about my preferences, and right now it looks like I'm down to only one show. For which I'm grateful; it's better than nothing.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 13, 2012 10:51 PM (+rSRq)
3
Ah well, I was hoping it would be better. I'm trying to start a discussion on my anime blog about the concept of zombie soldiers. A theme I've noticed goes back at least as far as 3x3 Eyes, where the hero is a dead man resurrected and enslaved by some woman, in exchange for supernatural power.
Posted by: Mauser at January 14, 2012 12:17 AM (cZPoz)
4
Did you sample Chihayafuru last season and not care for it? Seems like the kind'a show you might have liked. (I don't recall you ever mentioning it one way or the other.)
Posted by: Dave Young at January 14, 2012 08:49 PM (ZAk0Z)
5
You're both misinterpreting it. The scene from the manga is this. Issei is fantasizing about his servants being like the triplets in Hanaukyo Maid Team and not considering them being unwilling. He can't force anyone to be in his harem like the reviewer feared because the contract has to be entered willingly and the devil must give the contractor something of equal value. For a servant, that usually means saving their life like Rias did for Issei. Issei is so low-powered he has trouble doing simple contracts, so him having servants is a long way off.
In the light novels, the nun becomes a devil servant of Rias and lives with Issei. He doesn't take advantage of her despite the temptation.
From the comments on the post, "Hmmm, apparently Gremori or Gamori, is the 56th Spirit of Goetia and the
Demon of Perverted Love. So I guess that totally applies to our main
protagonist. Nice to see that some of this is based on "Historicalâ€
fiction. "
So I decided to watch Kill Me Baby to see what I thought of it. And, well, it didn't do anything for me.
Problem is, I have an odd sense of humor, and a lot of things that other people think are hilarious will leave me cold. Things I think are funny often just confuse other people.
There isn't anything really subtle about the humor in this show. It gave me a smile a couple of times, but as of half-way through the show I realized I was bored with it. So I stopped watching.
1
One thing it does have is the stupendous ending dance sequence that's guarantee to send fans to the hospital as they inevitably injured themselves while trying to do it on camera.
Posted by: BigFire at January 13, 2012 12:15 PM (Kwn4z)
2
You want a dance sequence? Check out the new one at the end of High School DxD.
Emphatically N! S! F! W!
As for Kill me Baby! the manga description just didn't interest me, so I've avoided the anime. I suspect my reaction will be similar to Steven's.
Posted by: ubu at January 13, 2012 02:31 PM (i7ZAU)
As harem shows go, this one is a bit unusual. It almost feels like it's a "healing anime" (iyashi-kei), though of course it is not.
Iyashi-kei shows are usually aimed at girls, and harem shows definitely are not. Still, what's nice in this show is that it really is telling stories about each girl in the harem, and lets them all get resolution and contentment. Even the rejects; they all get their chance, and come to terms with the fact that they weren't the choice.
Which is why the ending is completely plausible in character terms.
All the girls conspire to get Kazuma and Ui to confess to each other, in front of an audience, at the top of their lungs. It's a very elaborate plan, too.
I don't understand why Ui isn't grotesquely overweight, considering how much she eats, but I guess we're not supposed to ask questions like that.
The Daigo character is a bit annoying, but he's supposed to be. He is a jerk, so that Kazuma can be shown in contrast to be a gentleman.
Often in a harem show I have a definite opinion about which girl the guy should choose. In Infinite Stratos it was definitely Charlotte. In Daimaou it's Junko. But in this show I don't really have any opinion.
Which is peculiar. None of them really stands out as being a notably good choice. I suppose that if I was really forced to choose, it would be Madoka, but mostly that's because I'm partial to mikos.
Tsumugi is, of course, smart and stunning, but she's not part of the harem. (I'm sure she was, in the original eroge, but not in this anime.) The serious part of the harem in this show is Madoka (the miko), Ibuki (the archer girl), and Ui (the one who eats so much). Hina isn't, really, either, though she gets her own episode.
Hina gets called out in the TVTropes page as being an Expy of Sakaki-san from Azumanga Daioh -- and there's a lot of truth to it. Tall, long dark hair, spectacular figure, extremely athletic, shy, admired from a distance by all the girls, utterly infatuated with cute things, soft spoken, really rather lonely. That's both of them; they could be cousins.
1
KIND'A spoilery:
In the episode where Daigo and Ibuki end up going into town on their own, I thought they might be going to take his character down a different path. To "de-jerkify him", because the two of them seemed to be making a genuine connection with each other -- but then they backed off from it at the very end. It was kind of a strange episode. I almost expected to see something in the final scenes over the closing credits indicating she might give him a second chance.
Posted by: Dave Young at January 12, 2012 12:05 PM (FD6YW)
2
The OVA turns out to be
Daigo getting a girlfriend. At least as best I can tell from looking at a raw.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 12, 2012 12:21 PM (+rSRq)
Posted by: Dave Young at January 12, 2012 04:27 PM (ZAk0Z)
4
What I thought was weird about this show, is that
Kazuma falling in love with Ui seemed to come a bit out of nowhere. But yes, I would probably go with Madoka as well, but only because Ibuki doesn't seem that interesting and Ui is just weird.
Posted by: Jordi Vermeulen at January 13, 2012 03:14 AM (AJZdn)
5
They did set it up, I think, but they were sometimes pretty subtle about it. For example:
When he and Madoka went out together, he kept bringing up Ui and her eating habits. If I recall, it's actually at this point that Madoka seems to realize where his attraction lies -- and it's not with her.
Posted by: Dave Young at January 13, 2012 09:23 AM (DYR2Q)
"