Notes taken with a 0.7mm pencil.
I won’t spoil the details, but we learn that Ahmey is very definitely dead, so GONZO is not going to pull Gascogne on us. But we knew that, right? Just didn’t want to believe.
We still don’t know what the heck the kerchief meant.
Moero Amazon has a tiny item about Shipuuden 98, with a screencap that includes a consumer TV:
This is bound to raise more questions about the lack of cellphone service in Konoha.
BTW, the sign appears to say that 2011/7/24 is the end of analog broadcast, if I get it right. Konoha is a step behind America here.
IIRC SDB wondered once in comments what Japanese do to make lyrics to fit the rhythm (can’t find the post now, sorry). The answer is, same as Americans do: they cheat. Especially for plain (informal) language, speakers can drop particles a lot… or keep them, if it helps singing. Here’s an example from Koi da mon of Xenoglossia Best:
God Haruka is cute.
Ahem… Getting back on topic, when translated word by word, “無茶な勝負突撃よ” means “crazy battle charge [yo: new information imparted]“. I kinda wish they kept a few particles in.
Not that I want rewatch it, but Figure 17 was a great show. I had some money left on a gift card with which I paid for Ani-nouto’s server, mitsuki, so I used it.
Also, I noticed just now that it’s a Media Blasters release. Surprising. I came to think of them as bottom feeders, not purveyors of boutique masterworks. [Update: Steven says that it was their policy to release one big-name series per year.]
DVDs don’t have volume numbers on them anywhere I could find, so I marked them.
UPDATE: I probably should not dig deeper when in a hole, but “getto” is a weaboo for “get”.
Youtube continues to deliver the “holy crap” experience. Back when Haruhi was overhyped, I only decided to watch it because of those adorable “Nyoron~” comics and Chiruya; needless to say, the anime was a big disappointment in that regard!
Now Kadokawa decided to fix that little problem postfactum, by animating the 4coma, and uploading it (via Diego). And they even had Ryoko! Who also was adorable! Tears of happiness are streaming down my cheeks while I laugh out loud.
UPDATE: Melancholy of Haruhi-chan is kinda ok too. But not as nice. Not as adorable, I guess.
Since I’m not watching anything [1], I cannot criticize the critique, but the list at Karmaburn seems pretty sensible to me. I don’t deny a glee at the failure of Maria+holic. Too bad for Sorakake, I had hopes for that.
[1] It’s an official lie. I continue to see anime in secret. But it’s just not the same after Nanoha, and I don’t feel like blogging it.
The raise of artificial entertainment characters is an idea so obvious that even Hollywood took a stab at it (fortunately, I forgot the title of that movie). However, why stop at what already is? Enhance the entertainers! This actually happens today, just look at Miku’s impossible hair. I’m pretty sure the real Sharon Apple is not going to look anything like the anime one.
Speaking of Miku, there’s something called Miku Miku Dance, which I think runs on Wii. It’s a different software core from Idolm@ster, and the video it produces does not look quite as refined, but it is very flexible. The two most famous clips are Balalaika (via Evirus), where Miku copies someone from Morning Musume, apparently (I wonder what J. thinks about Miku’s progeny displacing his faves), and inimitable Gekido.Obu.Hatsune: poor Shamus became second best with his bowling video.
As far as realtime kinematic and dynamic are concerned, there is an Western game called “Catch the Groove” or something like that. It plays like a fighting game, only the opponents dance as players mush buttons instead of pummeling each other. No motion capture, that. All that’s left is taking the Groove’s real-time mechanics, Idolmaster’s real-time rendering, and maybe Miku’s flexibility, and we’ll create a monster: hikkis from all over the Internet race to create their own Sharon Apples… And one of them might even win.
UPDATE: J. e-mailed to let me know that he had posts dedicated to the lady dancing with Miku, and he’s not a fan. He writes: “Koharu’s dancing would be fine if she just never opened her mouth. :-)” I can see now that my shoutout may be read in different ways. I meant that once Miku is done destroying Koharu, she’s bound to move to someone more talented. And she’s a singing computer program in the first place.
Using the sparkling new 500GB Samba share on the home network, Ana-sempai watched my fansubs of Sekirei… and liked it. Apparently the appeal was that all characters were sympathetic, including Minato. We had a vigorous discussion in MacDonald’s about various harem leads. Where SDB places the line at “gets the grip”, she divides them into “annoying” and “not annoying”. Therefore, Minato is classified as useless but not annoying, which is the key.
On the other hand, she dismissed my interest in Tsukiumi with “everyone likes tsunderes”. Is it that simple? I liked both Rin and Saber equally, and thought that Taiga did not hold a candle to Ami, despite being a semi-titular character.
Anyway. A survey of Strike Witches buyers’ breakdown by sex may be surprising.
It’s positively impossible to stay dead when things like this video are happening (I was just browsing lolcats videos and it was suggested…).
With a long history of giving it a chance, I came to detest the 3D anime and 3D in anime indiscriminately. If 3D is inserted, it invariably mixes poorly, even in the best series by best creators. I grit my teeth even at buildings in ZKC, what to say about LOL GONZO. But if the contrast is removed by going 100% 3D, the motions of characters are terrible, even in theatrical releases.
Thus seeing how Haruka et.al. move in the Idolmaster game was a big surprise. DiGiKerot and Evirus were right and I was blind… blind!
UPDATE: Some are in high quality. And yes, Makoto is oddly feminine.
UPDATE: Although, maybe not so much in her intro.
UPDATE: Steven e-mailed to say that it was only a motion capture. I guess the implication is, I should not be in too much awe over the Idolm@ster’s software and Microsoft’s hardware. Which is probably true… Also, once everything is motion capture, why have animated characters at all? Just go live action with computer touch-up, right? Where does the magic end?
UPDATE: According to Webster, a tautology is a repetition of the same meaning with different words (the “どうごはんぷく” is it too), whereas “Those who are dead are dead” is the use of the same words to express a non-redundant meaning (that those who are dead should remain dead — hello DBZ — to say more would be a major spoiler (ok, here’s a good spoiler: Yoko lives)). One can say it’s the opposite of a tautology.