UPDATE: And finished. 129 candidates. (Probably 110 when I'm finished.)
This one's for the duck.
It strikes me that this is one of the better ways to die violently. (Shades of Monty Python!)
UPDATE: OK, they're all trimmed now, and the yield turned out to be 107. Which is reasonable; it won't overwhelm the rotation but it's a considerable contribution.
I already processed my grabs from Da Capo III, and ended up with 69. I have 95 new grabs from Fairy Tail and 126 from Girls und Panzer, not yet trimmed. And once I get done trimming those, I think it will be time for another update to the top rotation.
I've also got 19 from Medaka Box Abnormal and 13 from Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, but I think I'm not going to bother with those.
There were a lot of images from Senran Kagura I couldn't use (i.e. Katsuragi groping Asuka's boobs, which happens a lot). This one is borderline but I'm going to use it:
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At first I thought she was holding the scabbard in her left hand, and everything was OK. But no, that's a second sword, and she's using a reverse grip that's also backwards. I guess it's for the same reason that movie gangsters hold their pistols sideways- because it looks cool.
Posted by: Boviate at March 27, 2013 01:40 PM (KvJTj)
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That's her fighting style. That hand-hold is how she gets them just after drawing them, but she flips them around most of the time and has the blades extending out from the thumb side of her hand.
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Someone unfamiliar with the genre* would ask "just after drawing them from where?"
* - MCSAs, and Heisenberg's Anime Clothing Uncertainty Principle. Or whatever you call the effect that gives Miss Blue-and-white her bikini top when her shirt goes away.
Posted by: Mikeski at March 27, 2013 05:07 PM (DU6Ja)
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If you're actually watching it there is no mystery. Just before she draws her blade the scabbards materialize, and after she draws them the scabbards fade out again. In both cases they're surrounded by ki-glow.
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It's 2003 JC Staff. It's very possible it was rendered to some form of higher scale digital film stock. Somewhere around 576p or so, so the upscale really just needs some smoothing. It really just depends on what mastered it to.
There are actually some older series, like Card Captor Sakura, that was rendered to 35mm. No one seems to know why, but it does look very good.
Though a lot of that stuff, especially the Gonzo stuff from that era, that was mastered at slightly below DVD quality in the first place. That makes for those horrible upscales.
Posted by: sqa at February 24, 2013 08:04 PM (dvTNf)
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Really, doesn't everything need a bit of Ikkitousen?
Posted by: Wonderduck at February 24, 2013 08:37 PM (Nf6le)
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If, in fact, it was originally done all-digital, and if it was properly archived, it wouldn't have been all that hard to go back and re-render it to a larger size.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at February 24, 2013 10:26 PM (+rSRq)
With 7 episodes in hand, I was able to get 50 candidates.
And I saw enough to make clear that my decision to drop the series was a good one. It goes above and beyond the call of pandering. The harem dominates the series. Ep 7 was particularly egregious: one of the girls got sick and Our Hero carries her home. The she asks him to help her undress, so he ends up helping her remove her bra and panties. And then he spent the night.
I suppose I could have turned on the subtitles to find out what was going on and how it was nominally innocent, but quite frankly I didn't care.
I have to get next week's episode, though; it's swimsuits.
UPDATE: By popular request (No, no one asked but I know what you're all thinking) some selective frame grabs from ep 7 below the fold. NSFW.
So I just finished the Laxus arc (ep 48), and what I'm beginning to realize is that the battles in this show are kind of like the ones in DBZ, in that they seem to last forever. There really wasn't any good reason for the battle between Laxus and Natsu to take so damned long; it felt like filler.
Still, a satisfying ending to the arc.
And it began with a Fairy Tail beauty contest:
I'll give them points for this one: we finally saw Mirajane fighting, and it's easy to see why she is rated S rank. She's terrifying. She's also nearly out of control.
Anyway, about Gajeel:
In "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" the Prof says something to the effect that the problem with double agents is that it's hard so tell where, if anywhere, their loyalties lie. I wonder just were Gajeel's are? Apparently Makarov trusts him. I hope he doesn't betray that trust.
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In the parade in 48, didn't they have the girls dressed up in something interesting? Or did I completely misremember that episode? (Always possible, haha)
Posted by: sqa at December 17, 2012 09:40 PM (iCuS2)
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Yeah, there was some impressive eye candy in that one.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at December 17, 2012 11:54 PM (+rSRq)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at December 18, 2012 03:02 PM (+rSRq)
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Ezra's powers is a wonderfully thought out idea. Because you get to have a logic reason to dress her up in questionable armor that's got a massive amount of flair and strange head gear. Yet, it seems both practical and what should work in that situation.
Weird that. But, yeah, never had much of a reason to complain about the eye candy in Fairy Tail.
Posted by: sqa at December 18, 2012 06:13 PM (iCuS2)
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Sorry ubu, I'll see about getting that fixed today.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at December 18, 2012 08:17 PM (PiXy!)
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BTW, Fairy Tale rotation picture #71 seems to have a guy in it.
Posted by: Mauser at December 19, 2012 01:42 AM (cZPoz)
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Once in a while I make an exception to the "no guys" rule if the primary image is good enough. There are a few like that. For instance, one of the Dog Days pictures of Leonmichelle has Godwin in it.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at December 19, 2012 05:43 AM (+rSRq)
After 29 episodes, I have about 115 candidates, and that's enough. I hung on to ep 29 because it had this image:
which was just too nice to leave out. Lucy is gorgeous. Anyway, I realized this morning that I had used the AsoIku OVA but hadn't used the regular series, so that's next. But first I'm going to process all the ones I got from Fairy Tail and add them to the top rotation. Which needs more Lucy.
UPDATE: By the way, regarding Loke:
Now I know the story about him, I can see how they were leaving all kinds of hints lying around. Which episode is the one where he gives Lucy his key? I want to watch it.
UPDATE: I should have known this would happen. I can't stop yet, episode 31 is an onsen episode.
UPDATE: As to my question, it was ep 32, and I had tears in my eyes watching it. Just about the best thing in the show so far.
UPDATE:
Another 30 images up through ep 32, and now I really am through.
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Fairy Tail is quite a good series. It's still got a lot of shounen trappings (especially in the later arcs), but a lot of moments really do work very, very well.
Of course, having Lucy and Ezra around is never going to hurt a series. Though Fairy Tail does have a tendency for far too much male nudity. /stares at Gray. Though you might like Juvia, as well, but she doesn't show up for a bit.
Posted by: sqa at December 15, 2012 04:47 PM (iCuS2)
One thing that's nice is that it has female protagonists, who aren't invariably treated as damsels in distress or only as fan service object. Lucy and Erza are gorgeous and they themselves know it and like it that way, but they're also good wizards and the show never forgets that. This isn't Ikki Tousen.
It's interesting how many wizards from Phantom end up joining Fairy Tail eventually, isn't it?
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at December 15, 2012 05:51 PM (+rSRq)
Even Aquarius showed up for it. I guess since Lucy was risking her life to save Loke, even Aquarius had to demonstrate approval.
By the way, this is Lucy's 7th gold key.[/spoiler
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at December 15, 2012 06:02 PM (+rSRq)
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Oddly enough, it's become a running gag that Lucy always get matched up with the antagonist that she's least able to deal with. She doesn't end up "damsel in distress", more "damsel running for her life".
You're getting close to the "Tower" arc (forget the full arc name), but Ezra gets some supremely great moments in that arc.
Posted by: sqa at December 16, 2012 08:04 PM (iCuS2)
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Fairy Tail never really disappoints. The series is actually quite enjoyable, if you like shounen fare.
I do find it funny that the mangaka's previous work, Groove Adventure Rave, while enjoyable, didn't have quite the same success. The difference? All of the females in Fairy Tail have much bigger breasts. Lesson well learned.
Posted by: sqa at December 13, 2012 04:07 AM (iCuS2)
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I'm up to about ep 19. I had thought I'd gone through all of these last time, but I didn't remember the Demon Island arc at all. (I thought that I had gone through all the episodes up to the one where Lucy goes home again.)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at December 13, 2012 06:34 AM (+rSRq)
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By the way, she's pretty good with that bullwhip.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at December 13, 2012 06:34 AM (+rSRq)
OVA! An opportunity to do things you can't get away with doing, and show things you otherwise couldn't show, on broadcast, possibly? Um, yeah, that's what they did, alright. NSFW below the fold.
UPDATE: There are rumors that Yuki will get a two-ep story. I sure hope so. I don't think that Becky or Nanami have been told yet that Yuki is a god, and that'll come out in such a story. But I'm also hoping we'll get to see Yuki transform into a giant fox, with multiple tails.
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I went and found the translated post again. It's eps 6 & 7 that are a "true" two parter. Yuki should get most of ep 11 to herself. Not sure how much else she'll be in, as her breasts are required to be in every episode.
Posted by: sqa at August 13, 2012 02:47 AM (Hvn3s)
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We just got episode 6, and it didn't end in a cliffhanger. It did leave the status of Adelaide and Calvados unresolved, though.
