Oh, for crying out loud. I abase myself. My deepest apologies. I have committed multitude sins. And so on.
Pete used the word "titular" correctly. It just seemed strangely appropriate to use it to refer to a character whose defining characteristic is huge boobs.
I wasn't trying to make fun of Pete for ESL errors. He makes them, sometimes, and I just let them go because I know that the fine nuances of English usage are really difficult to pick up. It wasn't anything like that.
I would have posted the same thing in response if Pete had been born and raised in New York City and had made that post.
Good grief. Maybe I should do a cheesecake post featuring Galko-chan, even though I think she's gross looking.
6Pete used the word "titular" correctly.
INDEED. His discourse was delightfully deft. That is the sublime beauty of the situation. I wasn't mocking him either.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at March 22, 2016 09:42 AM (/4jFR)
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I am reminded of Stephen Jay Gould's essay on Nicolas Steno, "The Titular Bishop of Titiopolis."
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.
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.
Or not so much...
Somebody local is going to make a fortune collecting all that brass.
Anyway,
they got everyone out that they were tasked with rescuing. Pina wasn't on the list and she's still in Zorzal's dungeon. Itami and his team were on the road this entire episode and arrive at the capital just after everyone else leaves. Next episode is the last and it's obvious he's going to rescue Pina and get her out. Whether he also gets Molt out remains to be seen. (If they can get him out, and cure him, and make him a friend, that would be a game-changer.) Whether Zorzal gets killed remains to be seen. Whether Tyule gets killed remains to be seen. (I don't like seeing women get killed, but for her I'll make an exception.) How many people get slaughtered by Rory remains to be seen, but I don't think there's any place in the capital that Rory can't get into if she wants to.
1
Tactically, this doesn't seem like the right time for a parachute drop. You do that to get in the enemy rear and cut off their lines of communication, you don't do it to attack a strongpoint.
A helicopter insertion would be a much better idea. I've seen Japan's 1st Airborne Brigade practice fastrope insertions with my own eyes, I know they can do it.
Posted by: Boviate at March 18, 2016 02:07 PM (XRvFv)
2
Well, you don't do it to attack a strong point that has seriously ranged weapons. Quick googling says that English archers armed with longbows would have had a range of maybe 400 yards. And that's if they'd been already deployed and ready. So I'd say it was safe enough under the circumstances.
But, they don't seem to be making much use of archers; The Rose Knights would be dead meat to even a handful of good archers.
Not much military use of mages, either. I'm surprised at that, have the mages established a rule that they simply won't participate in wars? I suppose they're dangerous enough they could make it stick.
Posted by: Brett Bellmore at March 18, 2016 02:26 PM (l55xw)
I think this was simply a case of "We need X infantry there, and we don't have a lot more than that, so we have to use all our air-mobile forces."
They did use helicopters, too, but they didn't have enough choppers to deliver all the forces the plan required at the same time.
When you watch it, you'll see that this wasn't "move in and occupy". It was "quick in-and-out", with the Chinooks making several trips at the end to evacuate everyone. The whole operation only lasted a couple of hours.
Also, of course, because the writer wanted to do a paradrop.
6
There's a greater chance for scatter and (while it doesn't appear to apply here for a couple of reasons) a paratrooper hanging in the air from his parachute is a perfectly valid target for people on the ground to shoot. Pilots are considered to be no longer fighting when floating down, but paratroopers are just about to start doing so.
Posted by: Mark A. Flacy at March 19, 2016 05:30 PM (ATlQg)
7
I suspect that, as these were "line" airborne, and not commandos, they dropped at their normal training altitude, since there weren't any threats forcing them to deviate from that training. I'm not sure how many jumps they get a year, and these are supposedly *not* the cream of the JSDF (since the best units were held back to deter other nations). So, no sense in taking risks.
I wonder if the original story contained that level of detail--you'd expect to find it in any Clancy-esque story, at least. Another possibility is that the anime director took liberty with the scene.
As a non-subscriber, I'm a week behind everyone else. The timing of events did feel off to me as well, but I decided about halfway through that the different plotlines were not happening in direct chronological order; that is, the Itami scenes had already occurred before the showdown at the palace had really begun. I've seen that device used to make the climaxes of different plotlines line up to heighten suspense, even when one had to finish before the next could really begin.
Posted by: Big D at March 19, 2016 09:34 PM (VKO9N)
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.
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.
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.
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.
Olga would be considered to be trancejacked by Lucifer except that Olga isn't resisting. He's going to cause lots of problems, what with releasing all the foreigners from the jail and lots of other things, and our team isn't strong enough to fight him. Nor is anyone else. So Athena is going to convince Our Hero to Overtrance, and he'll win the day. But he'll lose his magic again, and this time it will be permanent. 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.
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.
1
But these are almost by definition the people who do not use illegal streaming sites. If you can and do torrent, why bother with streaming (which gets its material from same torrents).
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at March 11, 2016 10:44 PM (XOPVE)
2
I didn't recognize that distinction. My apologies.
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.
Lelei presented her paper and it got a positive response. In other words, she passed. But she isn't a master yet because the current situation has to be resolved, or so they say. Why? There's no excuse in character for why that should be. My guess is that if she's accepted as a master, she has to stay at Rondel and they (the director and original author) don't want her to drop out of the story at this time.
Baloney.
UPDATE: Also,
we saw her fighting against her sister, tossing around energy blasts and other things. I don't believe that when the last two attempts were made on her life that she'd just freeze and look scared. She should have blown Shandy to bits, in particular.
UPDATE: Some serious carping, including spoilers, below the fold.
Word sure traveled fast about Pina's imprisonment. Granted there were a few days passing here and there. But why was the order to move the paras so slow in coming? The decision was made in the prior episode, long before the current series of attacks got started at the Jade Palace.
Also, when you said "deus ex" I expected you to carp on the one that had me rolling my eyes. "I took advantage of the bridge repairs to send a messenger." On cue, breathless messenger shows up.
I think they're cutting a LOT out, and this mess is resulting.
Other points:
1. If everyone was waiting for an attack, why didn't the old wizard get splatted?
2. Itami and his group are famous, so the wizard probably didn't know what a 9mm was, but knew it was something being pointed at him by a guy who killed a dragon. And there was a god's avatar smirking in the background. Yeah, I'd think twice.
Word sure traveled fast about Pina's imprisonment.
I don't think so. Shandy was brainwashed, and the bad guy knew it would motivate her. I think the bad guy didn't know it was actually going to happen; he lied to Shandy just the same way he lied to everyone else.
Itami had a bead drawn and plenty of time. At at least had enough time to say "I won't make it in time" and then to have a multitude of magic blasts cast.
Posted by: topmaker at March 11, 2016 05:54 PM (6stZH)
They took the wings and tail off, then pushed or pulled it through. They can get multiple tanks abreast through the Gate, a cargo plane fuselage should fit just fine. Then they just reassemble the thing on the other side.
Posted by: Wonderduck at March 11, 2016 09:56 PM (KiM/Y)
I'm not sure I believe that it could be disassembled like that, and reassembled again, and that it would be sufficiently strong afterwards to be able to fly safely.
In particular, it may be that the wings could be taken off, but I don't believe the tail could be.
I was willing to grant the show the possibility of Phantoms being handled that way, but a transport jet is another matter.
It's done to C-130s for inspection and maintenance purposes. It's not rot done every day of course, but the tail section is "simply" bolted on. Sure, you need a crane to remove it, but if you're moving tanks, planes and helicopters through the Gate, a crane or two is just another vehicle.
Posted by: Wonderduck at March 11, 2016 11:47 PM (KiM/Y)
AND... it's another girl-of-the-week episode. This week's girl is Ruru.
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".
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.
1
The Phoenix Wright thing caused me to realize that I'm not aware of any anime that are murder mystery series. An anime take on Columbo could be awesome.
Posted by: Boviate at March 06, 2016 09:26 PM (XRvFv)
2
...You know what, I totally forgot about Detective Conan. I worked too much this weekend, my brain is fried.
Posted by: Boviate at March 06, 2016 09:42 PM (XRvFv)
5
Anime being anime, most of the detective/cop shows wind up being comedies, supernatural series, or sci-fi. Dirty Pair, Patlabor, You're Under Arrest, Burn Up!, Ghost in the Shell:SAC, Rin - Daughters of Mnemosyne... Not much in the Columbo vein.
When They Cry (Higurashi no naku koro ni) is a serial about murders. And probably as far away from Columbo as you can get and still be that... (Umineko etc... probably is, too, but I haven't seen it.)
Posted by: Mikeski at March 07, 2016 12:09 AM (LIUK5)
6
Bakuon!! is actually a manga. (The game on the website is probably a flash promotion.) The meganekko is Hijiri Minowa, daughter of the CEO of the Minowa group. She wants to be a renegade and quotes James Dean. Since she's too young to have a motorcycle license, she rides in a sidecar on the motorcycle her butler rides. First it was an Augusta F4 750 series Oro, then she switched to the Ducati 750SS (it's on the website at her profile). Her butler reassures them that the Ducati's frequent breakdowns are a myth, then has a replacement helicoptered in when it does break down. The manga goes beyond fan service into motorcycle porn. The character profiles for the anime even have the engine sounds.
Posted by: muon at March 07, 2016 04:47 AM (IUHrD)
7
Well, I don't know if this counts as "girl fan service" but it does seem to be "yuri fan service". Yikes!
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?