Seems that the original Ikki Tousen has been released on BD. I was curious if it was an upscale, like the Haibane Renmei BD was.
It doesn't look like it to me. Here's a 1080p picture of Hakufu's boobs (NSFW). It looks like they applied a bit of sharpening to it (you can see light fringes around the black lines) but it wasn't terribly aggressive.
I guess it was digitized again at higher resolution. The show came out in 2003, which is a bit early for end-to-end digital.
UPDATE: When you have nothing else to post, post cheesecake!
1
Even when digital painting first came in, there were always different processes for it. Some of them left data that upscaled very cleanly. Others, didn't.
Then there's Card Captor Sakura, which was put to 35 mm film stock for some strange reason, so you can have a native 1080p release.
Actually, they explain it.
First, Shinku is there because he's Biscotti's hero, honored guest, and because Yuki wants to spend some time with him. Eclair is there because she and Shinku usually fought together during his last visit. Besides which, she's the head of the Princess's guard knights, and can use the training, and Yuki likes her too. (I think Yuki likes everyone and everything except for demon swords, which she hates with a passion.)
Noir is there because... Galette doesn't have any equivalent of the anti-monster ninja corps that Brioche and Yuki lead. What with the terrible thing that happened at the end of the first series, it's a significant weakness and both Leo and Gaul want to be better prepared the next time something like that happens, if it ever does.
So they've asked Noir to create, and lead, such a formation (presumably based on felines instead of canines). Noir will continue to be part of Genoise, but this will be additional duty for her. Leo asked Millefiore for help in this, and Millefiore has directed Brioche and Yuki to help train Noir to carry this out. That's why Noir was there. It looks like the plan is for Brioche eventually to teach all three of them her special demon-destroying-and-sealing attack.
I wonder if it will turn out that Noir recruits Jaune and Vert for this, too, and make it into a Genoise job.
Pete, somehow I had it in my mind that "san" was an honorific, despite all the other girls running around in this series whose names are two digits (like Ichiroku).
Boviate, it did seem a bit odd that Australia would be doing things like that. They're a good country, but not exactly state-of-the-art in design.
6"That's just how it is with me. My stock's loose." (Only I'm not "in" on this one. Wha-what?)
Pretty much what it sounds like. The AR-18 is not the best made weapon in the world. The original version had a folding stock that was prone to loosening.
"Once again I have shot a worthless object."
It's a knockoff of Lupin III's resident swordsman, Goemon, and his catchphrase: "Once again, I have cut a worthless object."
Posted by: Wonderduck at July 24, 2012 03:46 PM (jrLZL)
8
That -san may be a honorific, the joke still works.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at July 24, 2012 04:24 PM (5OBKC)
9
The idea of shooting a full auto "Gangsta Style" to use the recoil to help sweep the room only works well with a machine pistol. The Mauser M-712 Schellfuer (A full auto Mauser broomhandle with a detachable magazine, and a detachable wooden shoulder stock that doubled as a holster) was reputed to be very good for that technique, and one of the first used that way.
Of course, with only 20 rounds in the magazine, you'd have to reload with every room you cleared that way.
Posted by: Mauser at July 25, 2012 02:21 AM (cZPoz)
10
Indeed, it was a translator's error. The subs I watched, when we met Aug later in the series, described her as an Australian. I didn't know that was wrong until Boviate's post just now.
Posted by: jcm3 at July 25, 2012 11:30 AM (OU30d)
11
But she is Australian. Australia is the biggest user of AUG. I'm not even certain Austria's own army uses it.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at July 25, 2012 01:04 PM (5OBKC)
12
Ugh, sorry, Steven. I don't think the comment box likes me, or my browser, or something, because I'm pretty sure I used the link tool to put them in. At any rate, if you didn't read the links, the AR-18 sometimes has a wobbly stock.
Posted by: RickC at July 26, 2012 02:05 PM (A9FNw)
I suppose this makes the second episode more interesting than the first (the only one I've watched so far). Although if class is based on caliber, these girls are never going to graduate.
I imagine the Barrett and Denil KTW will be in college.
Posted by: Mauser at July 18, 2012 12:50 PM (cZPoz)
I'm going to be interested to see if we run into anything that uses .50 BMG. My guess is that if so, it'll be a husky male gym teacher in the high school, not a student.
I've never seen one in person but I've seen film of people holding .50 BMG rounds, and those suckers are immense.
3
I have a few empties that I found in Blackrock desert. In the 50s, the Navy used Blackrock Point as a target for practice strafing. In places, you can still find cases and chain links. We also climbed the Point and found a .50 bullet where it struck the rock.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at July 18, 2012 03:09 PM (5OBKC)
4
Dummy 50BMG rounds are a common gun-show keychain. Hard to lose, hard to carry in a pocket, hard to explain...
-j
Posted by: J Greely at July 18, 2012 03:10 PM (fpXGN)
5
BTW, Russians accepted a machine-gun into inventory that fires 12.7x103. It is not only man-portable, but can be used by a 2-man team and fired by one. It's is the only practical "lightweight heavy maching gun" in existence. As you can see, progress occurs since Soviet times
Sadly, we're not going to see a Russian girl who never washes in this anime. Sorry.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at July 18, 2012 03:14 PM (5OBKC)
6
As for the firing live ammunition at each other, it's going to be handwaved explicitly in ep.5 or so. Not going to spoil it under the tag, not worth it. You'll see it soon enough.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at July 18, 2012 03:19 PM (5OBKC)
8
Excellent episode review! I actually liked this episode more than the first, despite the stupidity of using live rounds to shoot balloons. As Pete says, the handwave is not worth the spoiler, and there'll be more handwaves toward the end of the series. Which also suck.
You're pretty sophisticated to avoid a joke using "pole" in regard to FNC "penetrating" the high school boys changing room to capture the flag. A better man than I, you are.
You also gave me a hankerin' to play another Telltale Games series with your Sam & Max reference. Not that I wish to derail anything (but I will do so anyway), anyone played Hector: Badge of Carnage?
Posted by: wahsatchmo at July 18, 2012 06:07 PM (gY5xe)
Hello, boys and (girls? probably not, I would think) other boys. Today we're going to learn something, and have fun doing it!
Yes, Upotte is edyukayshunnal. It's also funny and ecchi. As to which of those is the real point of the series? Well, only time will tell.
Fact is, I don't know. When this originally broadcast I only watched the first two episodes, and then recoiled in squick. But fate has called upon me to review this piece of exploitative trash wonderful work of art, and who am I to deny fate?
Besides, I deserve it. I forced Wonderduck to review High School of the Dead, and I tried to stick him with this one, too. What goes around comes around.
Every post in this series, however long it goes (I may not last to the end) will contain spoilers and NSFW frame grabs.
By the way, the second episode contains an extended exposition about the L85A1's history and its problems. I gather that it has a reputation as a distinctly second-rate firearm.
2
Yeah, full auto is gone from the M-16A4 in US service; there are export variants that still have it, though.
See, since a skeleton stock is pretty... um... revealing, it's equated to a thong. I can only assume that the old full wood stock on the AK-47 would end up being like what Railgun wore under her skirt.
See? This episodic review stuff ain't easy, and it's doubly hard when you've got crepe-all like Upotte!! to work with. You have NO idea how happy I was to see that Ben-To won...
Posted by: Wonderduck at July 16, 2012 09:14 PM (Kv7m+)
3
Actually, the hardest part was keeping track of and uploading all the images.
4
Den Beste takes one for the team! As well as for the unaffiliated populace at large who use search terms incorporating "guns" and "upskirts" and "disappointing."
I managed to get through the whole series (spoilers: I deleted it off my hard drive) and it was somewhat set up like The Idolmaster in that Producer-san (Sensei) was prominent in the first episode, but not really the focus of the series.
You all watched The Idolmaster, right? Like all grown men would? Right?
Posted by: wahsatchmo at July 16, 2012 10:44 PM (gY5xe)
5
How does it work that when anthropomorphic rifles go to the shooting range, they shoot rifles themselves, instead of turning into rifles and getting shot with?
Posted by: Jordi Vermeulen at July 17, 2012 12:56 AM (AJZdn)
6
It's more like they can summon themselves at any and all times. Even if they're still the guns themselves.
The weird thing about this series is that it's beyond "gun porn". It'll give you a really good background in the history of the weapons and some of the wackier tricks they use with them.
So there's this really weird situation where this is one of the most explicitly "real world history" educational animes you'll run around. I kid you not. It was an interesting watch (and I've watched a LOT worse) It's also only 10 episodes.
Posted by: sqa at July 17, 2012 02:39 AM (5/dUV)
7Actually, the hardest part was keeping track of and uploading all the images.
I used to upload and put the pics in the post before I wrote anything... that's how I did all of Ga-Rei Zero, for example. Sometime during Rio Rainbow Gate!, I switched to watching the episode while I blogged... videoplayer open, stop, take a screenshot, upload, write whatever, then continuing on. I did the whole of HSotD like that, and I found it works really well for my writing style. Your mileage may vary.
Posted by: Wonderduck at July 17, 2012 05:25 AM (cx8j7)
It's not quite completely opaque how these girls can be guns. Remember, Shinto is an animist religion, so the idea of inanimate objects being somehow alive, occupied by a minor kami, isn't really foreign to them.
In Omamori Himari there's a character who runs a tea shop. She's the spirit of an ancient tea cup, and the tea cup is there too and sometimes she's shown carrying it around. I'm assuming that this series is somewhat the same kind of thing.
10
I wish they explained when "jyuu" is used, and when "teppou" is appropriate. The only time I heard "teppou" was in Strike Witches 01, when Yoshika delivers a spare machine gun to Mrs. Sakamoto. Otherwise it's quite rare. Perhaps it is supposed to mean a military weapon, when "jyuu" is just any kind of gun.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at July 17, 2012 07:35 AM (5OBKC)
11
My wildassed guess is that teppou is more archaic, an older word, and jyuu is more modern, more recent.
12
I suspect you're both right. Teppou is é‰„ç ² = "iron cannon", while juu is 銃 = "gun"; words using ç ² tend to involve big weapons (anti-aircraft, broadside, artillery, ballista, etc), words with 銃 tend to involve small arms (carbine, revolver, shotgun, matchlock, gun control, etc).
-j
Posted by: J Greely at July 17, 2012 10:06 AM (2XtN5)
Posted by: tellu541 at July 17, 2012 11:01 AM (Nu03Y)
14
I tend to write the review first, then take a bunch of screenshots (WAY too many) to try and illustrate the points I raised, then I cull the screenshots, resize, rename and upload, sometimes one by one, sometimes 10 or so at a time, depending on the layout.
I REALLY wish there were a bulk upload screen, or drag and drop, or even FTP. (and if there is, please tell me!).
I also wish there were a way to preview showing the BBCode images before making a post public, so I can catch errors, like forgetting to "size=640x" my embiggenable images.
(Still working on MGX 13, but I've been transferred to a new section with lots of overtime.)
Posted by: Mauser at July 18, 2012 01:58 AM (cZPoz)
16
There is a bulk upload method coming (using Javascript). Also the ZIP file support is working in the new release, and I may be able to back-port that to the current version
Posted by: Pixy Misa at July 18, 2012 04:36 AM (PiXy!)
1
She needed a space license in order to do that? Well, I suppose
she could be considered a hazard to navigation. That other ship was passing awfully close to the windows in order to get a better look at her...
Posted by: Siergen at June 09, 2012 12:52 PM (PuIGa)
6
Well, I was close... considering you're too old for her (by your own admission), I figured it was "I can't get no satisfaction..."
Posted by: Wonderduck at June 09, 2012 07:03 PM (V/OLv)
7
Or "time for some satisfaction", given the usual translation of her old catchphrase.
I'm really going to miss this show when it ends. Season 2 and an OVA, please! (and if the OVA somehow involves Ririka fighting off unlicensed pirates in that outfit, I'll take two)
-j
Posted by: J Greely at June 10, 2012 09:02 AM (2XtN5)
8
She had a good long run as a Pirate, retired to raise a daughter who is approaching legal age. Steven, I don't think she's THAT much younger than us, just MUCH better preserved.
Posted by: Mauser at June 10, 2012 07:42 PM (cZPoz)
That's in range. I had relatives 16 years apart who had a long and happy marriage. (Until the husband passed at 97. I attribute his longevity to waking up every morning next to someone almost young enough to be his daughter.)
And I have it on good authority that "half your age plus 7" is how young you can go and not be creepy.
Posted by: Mikeski at June 10, 2012 08:43 PM (1bPWv)
By the way, there's every reason to believe that their medical technology is as advanced as their other technologies by comparison to our own. There's ample evidence of that.
For instance, Oyaji-san
was a kid at the first pirate council, which took place more than a hundred years ago. He ain't any spring chicken any more, but he's healthy and still working, and to my eye is "middle aged".
So it's not massively surprising that a 40 year old mother could look as spectacular as Ririka does.
14
I figure she started Piracy at legal age: 18
Ten years for a career in piracy good enough to be known as awesome: 28
Retires when she gets knocked up with Marika, raises her to legal age: 46 minimum.
Depends on how long she was Blaster Rerika. She could be pushing 50, and still looking damned fine.
Posted by: Mauser at June 11, 2012 11:09 PM (cZPoz)
15Is there an age limit for space pirates? I haven't seen any cops going after Marika or the
yacht club. Then again, considering the yacht club's reputation, the local police might figure it's safer to look the other way...
Posted by: Siergen at June 12, 2012 03:52 PM (PuIGa)
That's from episode 3. Most of the girls in the harem in this show are bizarre, but this one may be the worst. She's got this little stylized toy horse which can speak. Not just to her, as far as I can tell; everyone can hear it. (I'm not totally sure about that. I'm going through it without subtitles and with the sound turned off.)
Anyway, in episode 3 she spends fully six and a half minutes of air time in the bath (naked, of course), alone except for the toy horse, talking to the horse and being angsty about the male lead. She's got a very nice bod.
The horse is floating on the back of the rubber duck.
But they all have nice bods; every one of them is at least a C-cup. In ep 2 there was a bath scene with all five of them, so there isn't any mystery about it. (And that nude scene ran two minutes.) They're all way above normal for Japan, even though all but one of them is supposedly Japanese.
This show should have been named "Please take your clothes off for me." Good Lord.
UPDATE: Or maybe "Please take a bath for me." Ep 4 begins with the blonde German taking a bath. That scene runs six minutes.
Damnit, I can't find pictures I can use in nude sequences!
UPDATE: OK, it looks like episodes 3 and 4 are "girl of the week" episodes, except that they're two-girls-each-week. Ep 3 was the archer girl and the katana girl. Ep 4 is the German girl (she fights with a saber) and the one who uses the naginata. And her half isn't bath scenes. That takes care of everyone except the battle-axe childhood friend, and I bet she doesn't get one.
UPDATE: The show teaser before the OP each time has been about the archer girl trying to seduce the male lead. It's an old joke and getting older by the episode.
For crying out loud, this show really is trash. If I don't hit a beach episode soon, I'm gonna give up on it. I've already got 39 candidates; I could stop any time.
UPDATE:
Left to right: archer, naginata, saber, katana.
UPDATE: Ep 5 is yet another girl-of-the-week. Whole episode, and she's not part of the harem, as such. Apparently there's an inner harem (who live in the same dorm as him and do nude scenes) and an outer harem (with this girl, and who knows how many more).
The lead in this is a classic Marty Stu. All the girls want him; all the guys admire him. But what else do you expect from the player avatar in an eroge? (Which is where this began.)
Well, all the girls except one (the battleaxe) and she's the one he wants. Sheesh.
UPDATE: Ep 6 was a festival episode, but nearly useless for my purposes. Ep 7 is another angst-of-the-week episode, and this time it is the battleaxe.
UPDATE: End of ep 10. The show finally got serious about two episodes back, and there's been a lot of fighting. I'm getting shots from it; 60 candidates now.
One thing that's kind of a twist: Our Hero is easily the worst fighter among the characters in the show, and he keeps getting captured by the bad guys, let alone nearly dying once. "Doofus in distress"; it's a change from "damsel in distress". Not necessarily a pleasant change, mind...
The battleaxe is up into DBZ territory in terms of power and combat skill, including super speed, ki blasts, and several other things. She could probably beat Yamucha as he was when the Saiyajins landed on Earth. (Admittedly a low standard.)
UPDATE: OK, I think they aren't being totally serious. In the final battle, Our Hero ends up piloting a mech, and he's controlling it with a game pad.
Five more minutes to go in the last episode, and I have 76 candidates now.
I'm not actually sure how far I'm going to get in this. Last time I think I gave up after two episodes (though it might have been three). This time I just finished the second episode and the pain is already excrutiating.
4
I barely made it through the first episode. The insertion via helicopter (I think it was a helicopter) just made me sad, as did the male lead's "disability."
Mayu's quite the looker, though.
Posted by: Wonderduck at May 30, 2012 04:44 AM (q2lfL)
5
Hey, I remember that show! It was... okay it was really dumb. But it was fun enough in its way. I remember the ending getting pretty gloomy, though.
Posted by: tellu541 at May 30, 2012 05:24 AM (q5Mzl)
There is nothing highbrow about this series. It is kind of funny at times, but it doesn't try to explain anything. If nothing else, watch the omakes at the beginning of each episode. The first couple are pure fanservice, but then they get funny. The "cult of DFC" had me in stitches.
As crappy a show as Medaka Box is, it has to be admitted that Medaka is good eye candy. I just downloaded the first four episodes and went through them for top rotation candidates. But a couple of them broke my heart. I really want to use them, but I'm not sure whether they're too ecchi.
So I'm soliciting opinions. There are seven images below the fold. Two I can definitely use. One I definitely cannot. And there are four that are really borderline, and might be considered NSFW. You have been warned.
I can't see myself mining the entire series, but a couple more episodes are probably in the cards. I found about 40 candidates in the first four episodes, but I'm not sure how many of them I can use -- and that's the main reason for this post.
1
In order of most-acceptable to least, I'd rank the borderlines 3, 2, 1, 4. 4 for the O-face, 1 for the melon-mirror. In 2, the head and fan keep the boobs from dominating, and in 3, the dynamic pose and shirt make it a classier pin-up; she's actually doing something, not just showing off the goods.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at May 02, 2012 11:11 PM (2XtN5)
2
Dunno if I should say. Since I read this at home and couldn't at work anyway, NFSW is not a consideration for me.
Posted by: Mauser at May 03, 2012 12:11 AM (cZPoz)
4
I guess I should make clear: I'm not looking for opinions about the esthetics. I'm looking for a straight yes/no: Are they too ecchi to include? Will they get my readers into trouble?
5
The original version of my post did include something to the effect of "if all you want is hits, post pr0n. But if you want readers..."
Posted by: Wonderduck at May 03, 2012 04:46 AM (6CHh4)
6
I was trying to think about the three female co-workers most likely to walk in and ask me questions, and how likely each one was to trigger a negative response. By that standard, I think 3 and 2 would pass, and 1 and 4 wouldn't, for the reasons I gave.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at May 03, 2012 06:58 AM (2XtN5)
7
Definitely #4 is no good. #2 and #3 are acceptable IMO. Since I consider #1 to be borderline I would err on the side of caution and not use it.
Posted by: Doyen at May 03, 2012 07:19 AM (nV9J4)
8
I would feel uncomfortable having coworkers see any of those, to be honest.
Long, long time ago I remember a Dave Berg cartoon in Mad where a girl at the beach is changing her clothing. The door to the changing room opens briefly and shows her partially undressed, and she screams and pulls it shut again. Then at the end she comes out wearing a really skimpy bikini, which shows far more than anything seen in the previous frame, and she is completely comfortable in it.
That picture has been part of the top rotation ever since I switched to the flash file, and no one has ever objected to it. It reveals far more than any of these pictures here do.
...But it's a swimsuit, not a bra, so that makes it OK. Why?
10
IMHO, it's the attitude difference between "skin showing" and "showing off skin"; here, Rio isn't engaging the viewer and shoving the goods into the camera.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at May 03, 2012 10:06 AM (2XtN5)
14
For what it's worth, 95% of your readers won't have seen the scene in question (and the other 5% won't care), so you have to fall back on "swimsuit vs unmentionables" again.
Not to argue it or anything.
Posted by: Wonderduck at May 03, 2012 05:36 PM (6CHh4)
15
Frankly, how many people can claim a work-related reason to visit chizumatic during work hours?
If you use that metric, then the fact that you're looking at any of this at work could be grounds for dismissal. The relative states of undress of the girls in the top rotation picture is icing on the cake for the HR types.
Posted by: Mark A. Flacy at May 03, 2012 06:01 PM (Zdi7L)
17
Even for my day job. Since my work revolves around the analysis of memetic flow in social media, I can claim a work-related reason to visit everything from Lambda the Ultimate to 4chan.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at May 04, 2012 03:39 AM (PiXy!)
18
IMHO? Use everything but the "boobs only" pic; that one's beyond the pale but the others are fine.
Posted by: atomic_fungus at May 04, 2012 09:49 AM (vq4t5)
