March 20, 2016

Cue Beavis and Butthead

Pete says:

But the titular character is what makes Galko so enjoyable.

heh heh heh...

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March 18, 2016

GATE -- ep 23

This episode was a vast improvement over the last one in terms of plausibility, not to mention being major league exciting.

Permission finally comes from Tokyo to launch a military raid on the Empire's Capitol to rescue Japanese diplomatic personnel and friendly senators, who had been captured and imprisoned, and several air-borne units get sent.

There's a picture-perfect parachute drop, for one thing. Zorzal has never seen, never even imagined that such a thing could be possible.

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Japanese diplomats are in Pina's Jade Palace, and her Rose Knights have been doing their best to defend the place, but it's looking grim.

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Or not so much...

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Somebody local is going to make a fortune collecting all that brass.

Anyway,

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March 16, 2016

Musaigen no Phantom World -- ep 11

When are they going to get into some kind of underlying story? This was another filler episode. The series is beginning to remind me of Kamichu which didn't actually have any kind of underlying plot. It was all the noteworthy events of Yurie's first year as a kami. The only thing they had in common was Yurie herself.

We have been told that there is a real story here, and a whiplash is coming. Well, it better be soon; they're running out of time -- unless this is two cours.

In this episode Haruhiko is reduced to a little kid. The members of the team decide they can't leave him alone, so he moves in with Mai, who takes care of him until they can figure out what happened and how to correct it. And the ending and solution actually did make sense -- I'll give them that. But it didn't contribute anything to the overall plot line (even assuming there is one) except for character building.

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March 13, 2016

Dragon Ball Super -- nice images

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They're playing fast and lose with the canon in this series. For example, the Room of Spirit and Time. In the original series you could only spend two days (our time, i.e. two years inside) in the room, and both Vegita and Goku have already reached their limit. According to Mr. Popo, if you run over the door vanishes and you're stuck inside forever.

And the door is already gone: Piccolo destroyed it in an attempt to trap Majin Buu inside.

But as of this series it's back and there's no longer any limit. Vegita and Goku spent several more days inside, training with each other and not bothering to shave.

Some other changes: Bulma has an older sister named Tights. The Supreme Kai has figured out how to undo his merger with Whosisface and is back to his original form, which we were told was impossible. And Whosisface is back, too.

There are TWELVE universes, and each one has its own pantheon of deities, including its own God of Destruction. They are in pairs. Universes 1 and 12 are similar; 2 and 11 are similar, and so on. All this time we've been in universe 7. The God of Destruction in universe 6 is named Champa and he is the twin brother of our God of Destruction Bills/Beerus/whatever. Champa has an aide named Vados who seems to be the older sister of Whis, aide to Beerus.

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Champa and Beerus are apparently competing, or at least Champa is. He seems to think that his universe has the best food, and he shows up with six bird's eggs which he claims are the most delicious food there is.

Well, they're just ordinary eggs, nothing special. Then Beerus brings out instant Ramen from Earth, and blows Champa away with how good it tastes.

And then it gets silly.

I'm not watching it regularly, but every once in a while I catch up.

And now I'm going to go hardboil three eggs and eat them.

UPDATE:

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March 12, 2016

Luck & Logic -- ep 10

I dipped into this episode three or four places for just a few seconds, and it was exactly what I expected it to be. It's also a complete waste of time. I know exactly how the series is going to end.

Yawn.

All three of my series this season have turned out to be crap, and they're getting worse by the week. Just lousy, uninspired writing from one end to the other.

And they aren't even giving me much in the way of fan service.

UPDATE: Spoilers and bitching below the fold.

more...

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March 11, 2016

Illegal streaming

Pete asks how big a problem illegal streaming is. Obviously I can't provide an exact answer, but there is some information available which may give some indication.

BakaBT's front page says that they have 160,568 registered users, of which 65,286 are "power users".

A power user is someone who has an exchange rate of at least 0.5. (It used to be 1.0 but that ended up being too restrictive.) Power users are therefore significant and probably regular users of the site.

On the "Top 10" page (which may not be accessible if you aren't logged in) the #1 uploader has uploaded 3.02 petabytes and the top downloader has downloaded 41 terabytes.

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GATE -- ep 22

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That is a Kawasaki C-1 transport. What I want to know is, how did they get it through the Gate?

I'm getting less and less enthused with this series as it goes along. It's getting harder and harder to give a damn. This episode mostly refocused attention on Lelei, and that still didn't help.

UPDATE: I'm also getting tired of deus ex machinas.

UPDATE: Also,

UPDATE: Some serious carping, including spoilers, below the fold.

more...

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March 09, 2016

Musaigen no Phantom World -- ep 10

AND... it's another girl-of-the-week episode. This week's girl is Ruru.

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After Haruhiko steps on her, she wants to be big. So a deus-ex-machina shows up and grants her wish.

I got 8:30 into this episode and stopped watching. If this is one cour, they only have two episodes left to explain that device from way back in ep 2 and to start telling us what's really going on. If it's two cours, then it's being painfully stretched. Hell, it's already painfully stretched. (When the planning for this series began, there was only one novel available. Usually anime made from light novels will adapt three or even four volumes in one cour.)

This entire series has been filler. Of course, I shouldn't be that surprised since this is from the studio that brought us "Endless 8".

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March 06, 2016

Spring 2016 season

Well, it's about that time again. Let's see what horrors await us. As usual there are a bunch of shows that don't even merit mention. Of the others:

Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta? -- another competitor for "absurdly long title". This one is about a hikkikomori who happens to be a gorgeous, stacked girl who confesses online to Our Hero. He and his friends decide to help socialize her and get her out into the world. She thinks she's a magical girl, and Our Hero's friends who are helping out are all cute girls too. So it's another high school harem show. Pass.

Usakame -- is a spinoff of Teekyuu, a show I've been meaning to check out but haven't gotten around to. Teekyuu is a 3-minute gag show, and I assume this will be, too.

There's a new Gundam show and a new Macross show. The Macross show is about 5 girls in an idol unit battling alien invaders and snore... Oh, sorry about that.

Kyoukai no Rinne gets a sequel. I haven't watched it (and won't) but I gather it's about the wacky hijinks of a death god trying to get by in the world. Yeah, those death gods are just loads of fun, aren't they?

Bakuon!! is about a group of shapely high school girls who love motorcycles. It seems to be based on a game of some kind, likely played on smart phones, so it's another extended advertisement. I predict it features a lot of fan service. (Though it might be motorcycle fan service rather than girl fan service. What kind of high school girl can afford to buy a Ducati?)

Shounen Maid is about a cross-dressing grade school boy and... blech.

Joker Game is nostalgia for the good old days of 1937 in Japan when men were men and the Army ran everything. Good times!

We need more idol shows! Gekidol is here to fill that need.

Anyone up for an anime about Phoenix Wright, defense attorney? Objection!

We need more cute-girls-doing-cute-things shows: Pan de Peace

We need more shows about girls with big boobs! Onigiri There's probably something Freudian about that name for this show and I don't want to know what it is! Quote:

Anime adaptation of CyberStep's MMORPG. Onigiri thrusts its players into mystical Japan, a land filled with mythical creatures of Japanese legend. Starting as a lone Oni, players fight against the malevolent influence of the Kamikui as their miasma spreads over the land. 8 NPCs, each with their own distinct personality and skills {and impressive figures -- SCDB} ally themselves with the player to help build a legend, and quell the evil that has arisen. As you grow stronger together, so do the bonds binding you to each other.

How in hell do you do an MMORPG like that, with every player wandering around with their own harem? Sounds like a setup for a single player game. Anyway, it's the latest anime fantasy-harem adaptation.

Hai-Furimight be good but probably won't be. Two high school girls join a military training academy. The girls aren't stacked or at least their school uniforms don't emphasize their figures, so it likely isn't a source of cheap thrills.

Nothing here reaches out and grabs me. I'll give some of them one ep: Onigiri, Netoge no Yome etc., Pan de Peace, Bakuon, Hai-Furi. It's barely possible that Hai-Furi will be worth watching for characters and story. The others? The search for cheap thrills continues because Christ knows there's nothing else there.

UPDATE: Knowing me, I'll probably end up watching the entire season of Bakuon. I looked it up and "bakuon" is the sound of an engine revving. I also looked up all the makes of motorcycles, and aside from the Ducati they're all Japanese. So my guess is that the meganekko, who rides the Ducati, is probably a rich girl.

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March 05, 2016

Luck & Logic -- ep 9

They've been telegraphing the final plot arc for most of the series, and with this episode it begins. It's about Lucifer and Olga.

I'm supposed to be sympathetic to Olga; he's supposed to be a tragic figure and I'm supposed to be rooting for him. The problem is that he's such an asshole that I don't care what happens to him. I don't care if he ever gets a partner; I don't care if he ever joins the team. The team would be better off if he walked out the door and they never saw him again.

And if I feel that way about him, how can I get into the story they're telling about him?

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