(Sat Apr 25 2009, 03:09 AM)Toriban Wrote: As I'm typing this I'm watching the first episode of Code Geass R2. That I'm watching the second season is a sign that the first season was good.

Enjoy that, you're in for a bit of ride there! I'd like to hear your opinions about the ending of R2, though, if you could.

In the bizarre department and something that makes me want to scream "Why Japan you do this!? ;A;", I watched 24 minutes of the most hilarious exercise anime that was released yesterday. What's it called? Isshoni Training, or Training Together/Training with Hinako, featuring a 14 year old human who later is turned into a 16 year old anime character, named Hinako, who is well-endowed and gets otakus with infinitely deep pockets out of shape folks to do a 12-set repetition of push ups, sit-ups and squats; hey it is dubbed the world's first muscle-training animation! Now, during the "exercise performance" there are a various shots of Hinako in various clothing items (skimpy spaghetti-string shirt, undergarments, sports uniform, etc) and variation of shots mostly centered at her chest and all that jazz and jiggling. Hinako's pretty psyched to get whoever watches to exercise by making sure the viewer keeps it up, not to give up, and not to let you down (never gonna make you cry, never gonna lie to you...and hurt you, etc) and she'll make you understand how to do each action. After watching the first ~6 minutes, the remaining 18 minutes is repeated with pretty much the same footage and counting until the remaining 4 minutes when its just Hinako counting while making her bosom go up and down after each number is counted. Unless if you're really, really, really going to exercise (and I don't mean that sort of exercise (このやろう)! ) then go all for it, but other than that it's nothing but blatant fanservice.

Yes, you've been totally text rickrolled. やれやれ...

Okay, so I spent most of a night and day watching Code Geass R2, and here's some of my thoughts as I was watching it, in no particular order.

"Uh, WTF restart?"
"So, when I went from S1 dub to S2 subs, Kallen became Karen?"
"TB Chinese guy kicks ass"
"Knights of Rounds, now THATS Engrish"
"Wanted criminals love pizza"
"Rolo's kinda cool"
"Scratch that, Rolo's a douche"
"Correction, Lelouch is a douche (hehe Ledouche)"
"Jeremiah is important to the plot? Since when?"
"Alright, this is getting rather...contrived"
"Ninja maid? ...this development brings the awesomeness of this show into question"
"And nuking the cripple just knocked it back into position"
"The cripple nuking people back is making it better."
"ZOMG betrayal!!"
"Rolo is now completely irredeemable"
"Okay, now Rolo is the coolest frickin thing ever"
"Alright, so far I've seen: Command Geass, Mind Read Geass, Future Sight Geass, Dispel Geass, Time Stop Geass, Retcon Geass, Puppet Geass, and Contrived Deus ex Machina Geass"

As for the ending, I was starting to figure that Lelouch was getting mind-f@cked a little too much throughout R2 for him to have a truly happy ending. So, I think that overall, the ending is acceptable, but not exactly great or awesome or anything. Mostly "Meh, it could've gone a different way, but this is what we're stuck with."


My initial reaction to Eden of the East: the OP is in English. That's just weird. And when American characters are speaking, they actually speak English. Freaky.

Quote:"Uh, WTF restart?"

Yeah, same reaction. I had to make sure I was watching the correct first episode because it made absolutely no sense to me until the last few minutes.

Quote:"So, when I went from S1 dub to S2 subs, Kallen became Karen?"

Official name is Kallen in either language, but in Japanese it's pronounced as "Karen". Whoever did the subs chose pronunciation over the official spelling of her name.

Quote:"Knights of Rounds, now THATS Engrish"

Quote:"Wanted criminals love pizza"

Can't forget about Cheese-kun, Pizza-Hut Japan's official mascot!

Quote:"Jeremiah is important to the plot? Since when?"

Since he was called Orenji-kun in the first season and put in the OP sequence in the second.
I CONTINUE TO FIGHT! I CONTINUE TO FIIIIGGGHHHTTT!

Quote:As for the ending, I was starting to figure that Lelouch was getting mind-f@cked a little too much throughout R2 for him to have a truly happy ending. So, I think that overall, the ending is acceptable, but not exactly great or awesome or anything. Mostly "Meh, it could've gone a different way, but this is what we're stuck with."

There was some speculation, while the credits rolled, that Lelouch was the one driving the wagon (Spoiler follows, highlight to read: or that because there's C2 and V2, with R2 there might be something about that...), but roughly 2 months later a magazine article (can't remember which) confirmed that this was not the case and what happened really in the last episode did happen. Sunrise is saying that a possible new season of Code Geass is "in the works" that's a spin-off with new original characters (or something along those lines).

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Quote:My initial reaction to Eden of the East: the OP is in English. That's just weird. And when American characters are speaking, they actually speak English. Freaky.

Heh. I still have Black Lagoon's Revy speaking her Engrish and/or Chrome Shelled Regios' hilarious Engrish scenes stuck in my head that are bad examples of voice actors speaking English lines, but I was pleasantly surprised with the studios hiring native English speakers.

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By the way, Tengen Togga Gurren Lagann's a good show, recommended A+++++. Hot-blooded mecha action that's truly epic.

They're really counting on the Eden of the East movie to fill in the gaps, aren't they? Show's coming to a close and we've got nothing but hints and speculation to go off of, no definite answers. Sure, some of the answers are obvious, but still...

I doubt the next three episodes are going to be enough to tell us all about the other eight Selecao, Mr. Outside, Takizawa's remaining 6.7 billion yen bankroll, the fate of the Eden of the East members, the actual physical method of johnny-taker bitch's escape, Takizawa's past, the Supporter's identity, and the story of a man named "Pantsu."

On a somewhat related note, the copy of episode 8 I watched had a Star Trek commercial in it. Darn lazy raw providers.

On a less related note I now have Falling Down by Oasis stuck in my head at work at least two days a week.


K-on! was losing my interest for a couple episodes. Seems to have picked up a bit again though. Strange how they bothered to change the OP animation for Azu-nyan, but left the ED untouched. Probably just couldn't squeeze her in. Moe moe kyun!!


Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood: is still going through old crap, so meh, whatever. Haven't read that chunk of the manga in awhile, but I recall the series splitting at about this point. ("This point" being Lab 5 and Barry the Chopper for posterity's sake.) So we've got a bunch o' stuff that wasn't in the first series to look forward to: Ling and R/Lanfan and the different homunculi and Falman hangin' out with Barry and all that jazz. All without the PTSD chick's newborn baby giving a body snatcher the power to open the gate to WWI-era Germany. Yep. Can definitely do without that.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei episode three: The end of the episode evokes two words: Oh, snap!

Yeah, 3x24min episodes is not enough time to bring the series to a conclusion, especially with the recent 8th episode being slower than the others. There's some speculation out there that divides folks into two sides about the movie a.) it will summarize the series as a whole or b.) it will conclude the series, filling plot holes and whatnot.

For K-ON!, the Christmas episode made me cringe a bit, but there has to be an obligatory Christmas/New Year episode in most any series. So far there's 25 chapters of material to go through, and the anime just wrapped up the 17th chapter as of ep. 9; so I don't expect the anime to wrap up with their end goal just yet. My guess is that there will be a second season or some sort of OVA to wrap the group's final year. Nice Boat Bowl.

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Watched The Sky Crawlers, which I got a while ago but recently found out that it is available here in the U.S. now, and it's a very thought-provoking tale. The entire two hours dragged on and during that time I was trying to figure out the director's message was for the film and what will happen at the end. It's not an action flick, it's more of a psychological drama flick, although I was first expecting it to be mainly action due to the dogfight scene at the very beginning. After that it tones down and very quickly jumps back and forth between action and drama. It's remarkably simplistic which is similar to a film, Tony Takitani, I watched for class about a month ago with a melancholy tale of perhaps the world's loneliest man.

Completed Spice and Wolf and am looking forward to the second season coming this July. The series really is about macro-economics in the medieval times, no doubt about that. The main part of the series, apart from the economic aspect, is the chemistry between the two main characters. I expect that the second season will delve deeper into this as well; however there's a change of animation studios, so I'll have to take a look-see at the OVA released not too long ago.

Completed Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (Goodbye Mr. Despair Extreme) series and the 3-part OVA. I'll summarize it with one word: random. I've been left in despair...until July.

Gatchaman (aka Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, aka Battle of the Planets, aka G-Force) is... well, it's over thirty years old is what it is. This means of course that in order to watch it, you must be willing to accept certain things: cheesy dialogue, poor animation quality, static shots, animation re-use, essentially everything anime has been drifting away form for at least the last ten years. Thankfully, the phrase "Science Ninja Team", the biggest offender IMO, loses it's cheese factor after about the fortieth time you hear it.

Interestingly, I actually prefer the English dub over the original Japanese for one major reason: The VA's have the advantage in that they realize that this is a cheesy anime from 30 years ago. This allows them to add a little poke of fun here and there that would otherwise be lost within the "ninjas in bird suits with gadgets fighting evil peoples led by a disembodied face oh noes!!"

Example: in an early episode, there's a scene where a random enemy mook dies a horrible death. Joe's Japanese seiyuu says: abso-freakin-lutely nothing. His VA though, says, "Wow, that had to suck." Ken's seiyuu says at one point, "Science Ninja Team, let's move out!" and hi VA counterpart says, "Alright guys, are you ready to rock?!" It's little things like that that make me smile.

So, I finished Saikano, or She, The Ultimate Weapon or The Last Love Song on this Little Planet, yesterday on the recommendation from a few members over at MAL. For one, I do not recommend marathoning it like I did, but then again, you may be better off marathoning it (again, like I did, as well as those who recommended it to me) nor will I force recommend anyone to watch this series - it's up to you if you want to see it for yourself. To note: they said it was up to me to watch it, they did warn that it was, for lack of a better word, f-ed up. So I put it in my Plan to Watch list to see for myself what they were talking about.

Saikano is about this clumsy third year high school girl, Chise, who is secretly Japan's lost hope: she's an ultimate weapon with a devastatingly destructive power, and Shuuji, a male third year high school student attending the same school, and their, rather awkward, relationship together. Take note, that their relationship is during a time of war - the enemy unknown, the reason of the war unknown, and for what cause the war is about is unknown - and how both them and individuals around them change. Shuuji, eventually, finds out that Chise is an ultimate weapon and their relationship struggles throughout the 13 episodes. You'll feel melancholy and depression sink in as you watch this series (and thus, why the reason why it may be better to marathon it in one day rather than over a few days) until its final episode.

No, the ending is not satisfying as there are many questions left unanswered, and well, what happens in the second half of the last episode is left to our own conclusion. If you accept the conclusion of the series as it is without putting too much thought into it, then the ending might be acceptable. The overall series does what it's supposed to, show the struggle between two people and how a war affects everyone around them. I heard that the OVA 2-part special includes an explanation of why Chise was chosen as an ultimate weapon. Eh, I'll probably watch that after I watch something more cheerful or watch this first then counter it with something more cheerful.

Just a few thoughts about...

NEEDLESS: I had a certain suspicion about Cruz's older sister not being, well as seen in the first few moments of the first episode, in the state that she was thought to be. With ep. 15 recently watched with the events that unfolded there and with the next episode titled "Aruka Schild", my suspicions have been confirmed. Another is, I think it's blatantly obvious where Saten is getting his powers from, because Blade memorized his ability but it didn't execute and its made somewhat obvious what's missing in that scene. Now, I could be completely wrong about this one, but this was what I was thinking to myself as the episode dragged on while Cruz was thinking about what fragment Saten possesses.

Basquash!: Last week I managed to finish the last episode of this 2-cours series. Other than the the premise seems ridiculous since it is about mechas + basketball, but the action certain does keep me entertained until the end. I thought that the first half was very good, and toward the very end of the first half and until the ending was pretty much one gigantic story arc until its final conclusion. I found the ending to be OK, but could have been better as I would have preferred that Dan J.D. chose a different person to "hang out" with after the conclusion.

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0: Finished this one just now and it was an emotional ending. The story recounts Mirai's side of the story of the events that occur during and after an earthquake occurs in the northern Tokyo region to return to her home. Without delving too far into the story, I'll say that I was sad to see someone go. However, the open ending leaves the viewer to think that life continues as it always does and we always endure and adapt to those changes.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni Ep 16: News flash was about Dow Jones closing at 10,000 on October 14th. Thanks for the update, TV network folks! Keeping anime watching folks updated, even late in the night.

Just a quick note after watching a few episodes of Seitokai no Ichizon: wow, despite the main cast being mostly first-time voice actors (4 of the 5 are), they are really good. I mean they fit their characters so well that it could launch all of their careers quite well like what K-ON! did (and its ever growing and standing popularity) for the cast there. The only renowned VA would be Noto Mamiko who voiced the journalism club president as a supporting character. I'm still waiting on whether they'll actually have an episode that takes place somewhere else other than their school.

EDIT: The 7th episode got me. They actually went somewhere else other than the Student Council room. Hooray! Plus, it confirmed the location of where the series takes place: near Sapporo, Hokkaido.

We've entered an endless recursion of Code Geass.

If you haven't heard it already, this news is really making noise: the Code Geass series shall continue. With more details to follow sometime next year.

Oddly enough, this news comes from official mobile website for Code Geass, there is no news (at time of posting) at its (non-mobile) official site.
EDIT: the graphic was somehow taken down and has been replaced with the previous image featuring the R2 season.*
EDIT2: still there, sorta.
EDIT3: It's now showing up at the official website (non-mobile). It looks like the regular web page for the R2 season, but then a message is intercepted to the viewer, originating from Zero himself.



New Code Geass Project Start Green-Lit! Wait for a follow up in 2010!!
"This is a rebirth...it's a new day of birth.
Today, Geass has reached a new level.
Soon, you'll all encounter this new Geass.
Hope for it. Wait for it. Long for it!

Have you forgotten?
'Geass' is something like a wish.
That's right.
If you all wish for it, Geass will once more...
- ZERO"

There are a few works that the project can still scrape by for adaptation, such as the Nightmare of Nunnally which puts Nunnally in a totally different light or, interestingly enough, Tales of an Alternative Shogunate that takes place during the Edo period for example. That latter one looks to be a one-shot volume, so I don't expect it to be adapted into a full-fledged series; the former however is very possible. If nothing else, then it could be an entirely original series/plot Sunrise or Bandai conjure up. As long as it isn't like Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo which was another Sunrise original, a.k.a something like Code Geass in space with Lelouch-like space-traveling robot thing in space with a whacked up plot.

Whatever the case, I'm interested on the details of this revamp of the CG series. Milk that cow. Moooo.

P.S. I wonder if we'll see anything other than Pizza Hut in this new project. I hear Krispy Kreme is very popularity.
P.S.S. It could also take place from some other character's point of view like LONG LIVE BRITANNIA Charles the Man or the Eleven Suzaku (there is a short manga series based on his account of Lelouch's story) and their role in the original Code Geass story line.
*P.S.S.S. Apparently Dec 5th is Lelouch's birthday. Makes sense that this graphic was up for one day.

More (birthday) breaking news, voice actor Ohara Sayaka (Beatrice, Umineko no Naku Koro ni; Milly/Zhou, Code Geass; Erza, Fairy Tail; Yuuko, xxxHOLiC; Kimura's Wife, Azumanga Daioh) announced her marriage on Dec. 6th, her birthday, to an actor who is a year older than her - she's (now) 34.

An addendum to the new Code Geass project stuff, there's now a dedicated page for this new announcement, here.

The site is a message from the project's producer, Kawaguchi Yoshitaka, explaining that there are multiple projects in the works at the same time consisting of manga, music, product development, and visual media. Kawaguchi, however, did state to look forward to the January issue of Newtype that will be released on December 10th, and didn't want to go any further than that about the discussion of the new Code Geass project.

EDIT: A new manga series will be announced in Thursday's release of Newtype about some originally created character named Renya wielding a mechanical arm meeting "Reifuu C.C." and a man that sorta looks like Lelouch during the Edo period of Japan (a.k.a it's Samurai time). The name? Kooda Giasu; err...Code Geass: Renya of the Blackness. Renya or Lelouch-look-alike shall one day rule the Shogunate, or something. Now with picture of what looks like Renya...or maybe Edo-era Lelouch.

So, I (marathon) finished Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-Hen (True Mazinger Shock! Z-Chapter), the one that premiered in the spring and ended before the fall season started. For each episode, you can pretty much expect the same vocabulary said at least twice per episode: onore (curse you!/damn you!), kisama (you!), sono toori/iu toori (exactly/that's right), etc.

It's pretty much as action-packed and hot-blooded as Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann was but of course the Mazinger series was created years before TTGL - like 35 years before. If anything, they don't make many series like Mazinger anymore these days or as some sort of inspiration, which is what I think TTGL was inspired from.

Story wise, it's about these two brothers and their only last remaining relative, their grandfather, who are living out their lives as usual. However, their grandfather has a massive secret: he has created an combat robot that, with the right pilot, can be invincible in any battle. Kabuto Kouji, the eldest of the two brothers, is selected by his grandfather to pilot such a robot known as Mazinger Z. Both Kabuto Kouji and Kabuto Shiro's lives will change once they defeat their first two enemies in battle. They learn more about their past (like their parents who died in a car crash), the mystery behind the Mazinger Z, and ultimately the role of a two-faced Baron Ashura working for the evil Dr. Hell and their connection with the legends of the Mycenaean civilization. If they only knew what was up in store for them... There were a few unexpected plot twists that kept me guessing who was on the good or bad side, but it's all revealed in the last episode. At least those plot twists weren't like the trainwreck Code Geass was, but there may be a *tiny* similarity.

Now with the ending, especially the last 4-5 minutes or so, made me say the following:
"Now, how can you go wrong with the ultimate combo of a Hundred Rocket Punch with the clearly superior Big Bang Punch?"
"Wonderful, now with him defeated it'll probably end with some happy en..."
"...wha..?"
"What's going...so everything was..."
"Oh man, this is a bad situation."
"ONORE!"

Without going into much detail about it, let's just say that there will probably be some continuation of it someday. In the same last episode (or was it the 2nd to last episode?) a few characters broke the fourth wall and one of them gave a hint that this could be the case.

Naturally, the last two episodes of battle left an impression where I have to watch some show or play some game that has/can make tons of explosions until I'm satisfied. Or, perhaps after 9 hours of marathoning it, I need to take some sort of walk...yeah, walking in nearly 2 feet of snow at night sounds good right about now.

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EDIT:

Last episode of The Sacred Blacksmith: I guess sometimes villains are nice enough to wait during battle. I was thinking that there's no possible way it could end like that, so it felt like they rushed the ending and it's quite possible there will be a second season. Chances are low for me to continue it.

Keepin' it brief. I did have a somewhat TL;DR-like post, but...

Uminkeo ending: Rushed is the word I'd pick. Spoiler follows, highlight to read: Yeah, we'll see you again one day as well. Judging by the sales of the Umineko DVD/Bluray sales...things aren't looking to bright for the Umineko Chiru sequel which may or may not happen two years from now. Oh, if you wanted to see how it ended from an alternative point of view, watch this fanmade ending, the anime sort of left out the BeatoXBattler relationship that was seen in the visual novels.

Seitokai no Ichizon ending: I really hope there is a second season to this, despite the inside joke of them saying this will not be the case.

Seiken no Blacksmith ending: By the looks of it, they're forcefully asking for a second season.
Catching up on Letter Bee, message (and possibly if you get a notification sound) you might get in episode 11 was about a 4.6 magnitude earthquake off the coast of the northeastern side of mainland Japan that occurred earlier this month.

Yes, Lag certainly is a crybaby, but there are those certain moments where I just can't help but snicker/laugh because he is crying. From the first few episodes, it should be a given that Lag WILL be having some sort of crying scene each week, so it's better to get used to it (if not then あっち行け) - with that aside, it's still an enjoyable steampunk series.

EDIT: By the way, yes, all gaichuu are named after liquor. You see, the original creator has a great interest in alcohol.