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Winter 2012 Anime Thread 2.22: You Can (Not) Outpost Cajunator

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iavi

Member
Yeah, I posted about it this afternoon when I looked her up. She's pretty fucking lucky, considering. :p

She is. You've probably looked up her previous works then too. I just did, and the one that catches my eye is Silver; the series cancelled, while in-progress, because of that debacle. Its synopsis below:

mangaupdates said:
During the prefecture tournament competition, in the midst of the cheering in the gymnasium, the scream of Aoba who collapsed echoed through it. Aoba, who was terribly injured who only lived life as an athlete went into despair. In the midst of that, a classmate, Gin, who is a little strange, nominated Aoba as a volleyball member for the ball tournament. “I want to play with you”… is how the two of them met and now, they are discovering the reason why them met and the real love. A sweet and painful, miraculous pure love story

It's like she started Chihayafuru, only realized how similar to Silver~ (exasperated maybe by the residual feelings/perceived connotations held over its cancellation) it was sounding chapters in, and then switched to a story purely sports to avert from it...but doesn't know how to continue but with seemingly infinite bouts of Karuta.
 

Branduil

Member
Flower Declaration of Your Heart 1

Why do they need to include so much dumb fanservice when the background art is so great? This is all the fanservice I need, don't try to distract me with animated girls:

iYdWV0AgmvAEl.jpg

I'm pretty sure I've seen this story before. Madoka sure is the anti-Shinji. I guess the show's main draw is how great it looks. The art and animation are both pretty top-notch. Even the CG elements work. Although it's funny how lazy the character design on
the alien dudes
is compared to the girls.

Man does that "secret" base's security suck.
 

Thoraxes

Member
Pssst, we don’t need to agree, but I just like having a discussion/debate cause it’s fun and you can always learn something from someone else’s opinions. Also, i'm pretty sure at this point we're watching/watched the show with completely different standards. (and well, everyone has a pretty different definition of enjoyment) (Also, it's definitely a good show, but to me it's not a great show, imo)
As for the below reply, apart from the part about Texhnolyze, I don't know if there's even one sentence of this post which I could agree with at all, which is why I took so long to decide if I wanted to actually reply or not...

That part was expanded? Well then, they did a great job in expanding on it, and it definitely adds something to the series. Making that part longer was a good idea indeed. :)
I disagree but that’s just opinion at this point (and most of our differences are, and that’s totally cool by me, cause you know, half the words we throw around have no real solid application and are shades of grey). You can easily tell what doesn’t belong though.

That's not true at all, until they figured out who she was there was some definite tension there.
The introduction of
Gruier from being an unknown threat to revealing who she was and that she was no harm
(and I went back to watch the end of 7 to the start of 8 and time it) lasted roughly a whole ~3:25. Maybe we have different concepts how of long things should take to build to be appropriate tension, but I don’t think that ~3:25 is a long enough duration for me to feel the kind of tension you obviously felt. Even from the start
she was trapped/locked herself in, and the bridge already knew she had no explosives or anything to do major damage judging by how fast she answered Marika in response to the threat. In addition to that, at the end of episode 7 they also identified that it was a child with no mechanical or electronic noise. It was never anything of serious consequence to the crew’s lives.
I can agree that using it as a cliffhanger was effective, but other than that, it was played off quickly, and was establish in that previous episode that they had nothing to cause collateral damage to the ship on their person.


Which part are you talking about? The cruise with the girls, before she moved to the Bentenmaru? They were certainly in danger. You're either misremembering, intentionally ignoring stuff because you don't like the show, or something else, but while they weren't in real danger most of the time, in the final episode of that arc, they absolutely were in real danger, and the rest of the girls reacted appropriately once they relealized it -- up to that point they'd thought it wasn't anything that could actually be harmful, but once the other ship started shooting all of them except for Marika and Chiaki got scared... if one of those shots had hit them, as it certainly could, they'd have been in a lot of trouble.

Marika, of course, calmly figured out what to do and won the fight, but there was definite danger. The buildup from the initial cyber-attack to the final battle were done very well, as the tension slowly built...

If you're talking about something on the Bentenmaru, what you're saying there would make even less sense, of course.
I’m not ignoring any of it, I just didn’t think I’d have to write it all out.

For the first one on the cruise; They literally had backup the entire time (because you know, you gotta watch the future inheritor’s backs), and once shots started to fly at them, both parent vessels moved in to take care of it quickly. Also, they were in a fortified ex-pirate ship of the original 7 that were/are galactically famous, with all working systems still in tact (I think it was 7, right?). From the way they played up the greatness of the original 7, I highly doubt a couple shots with unassisted firing from an extreme distance would’ve done enough damage to kill everyone on the ship and ruin it. Not to mention they purposefully threw themselves into danger by avoiding calling the responsible authorities right away when they knew something could be up. We knew the electronic attacks wouldn’t work before they even started (as far as electronic warfare went) because we got a ~2 minute tutorial on how a dummy system works before they made it. We knew right when they discussed electronic warfare against this enemy that anything the enemy would do would be ineffective. They knew/had an inkling and planned for the danger that was gonna be there in advance because of the events around the first tutorial on electronic warfare in the port. All of these revelations and happenings ruin what good they had building up at all.

Also, some of the setup in there was not good. Why do they constantly have Marika make decisions even though she’s not the highest-ranking person on the ship? It seemed kind of forced that they were purposefully trying to hone her “captain senses” the whole arc, which is why I have a problem with the deviation from them just being flashbacks (cause you can totally tell what was forced in).

This is all true, but while its style is different, Space Pirates also does a good job of making a slow pace work brilliantly. But yeah, with Texhnolyze at least you're right.
Agreed (but I think Space Pirates doesn’t utilize the medium enough as a storytelling mechanic enough). There’s so much potential that they haven’t used that I can’t help but feel the anime inferior to the LNs.


There have been plenty of moments in the show which make good use of the visual medium, though -- Marika's first spacewalk and the scene that follows (one of my favorite parts of the eps 2-5 arc), for instance, or more recently, the tense, creaky journey through the space storms and rival fleet threats in ep. 11. The show has great visuals when it wants to, or when they have the budget for it or something. It is often slower and character-focused, but it's almost all done very well, so that's not a problem at all.

I don't know how good the novels are though, I haven't read them. Oh, and as for my complaints about the show, as I've said before I don't like the blatantly anime element of her of course working at a maid cafe (classy-style one, sure, but still a maid cafe), and that Marika's a somewhat generic protagonist. Also, while I and everyone else have often compared it to Star Trek, it is slower than Star Trek, and much more serial as opposed to episodic. I think the style works great almost all of the time, but it is a difference.
Sure, it’s pretty to look at (and yeah, space is cool), but what was the importance of that scene? What purpose did it serve in the arc and what did it supplement to the overall arc itself? What visually was it supposed to convey that writing could not? The point I’m trying to make is that while yes, eyecandy is awesome (and the LNs aren’t colored much, so cool here too), the visuals in the show rarely do anything to forward the narrative. It has that advantage being in an anime form, but rarely does it ever use it to do so, and I would totally love it if they could (because of the separation of sound and visuals, you can convey multiple narratives at once, which rarely happens here). The show is rather cross-cut, and I think it can afford to expand it's dimensions way more instead of sticking to one plane the entire time.

I watched about half of Nadesico years ago, and thought it was alright to good, but not incredibly great, and obviously not quite interesting enough to stick with and finish... maybe I'll go back sometime, I'm not sure. The two series are very different, though -- that's a harem action sci-fi show, while this is something quite different from that, classier and with a better plot and without Nadesico's definite tonal dissonance (or harem elements and generic action/mecha focus). I'm not much of a mecha fan, but love scifi shows like Star Trek, so I think it's fantastic that Bodacious Space Pirates is a much more Star Trek-ish sci-fi show, instead of yet another probably boring mecha series (not talking about Nadesico in specific there, just generally).
I only used Nadesico because it has technobabble (which is always introduced rather unobtrusively on the greater flow of the show), spacefaring in a space ship, how the crew deals with relatively grey issues, foreign worlds, world building, a bridge and crew (each with a specific specialties, and with order superiority; the captain being at the top), and well, the sci-fi-ness (and because I’m almost done with it). Nadesico’s delivery of a lot of these elements is really subtle most of the time, and is usually covered up by action, hijinks, etc., but the underlying themes in each episode are always really interesting (once you realize that they’re totally in there I had to do some double-takes just to come to the full realization that yes, that really happened).


On the note of my issues with the show, I do find the fact that the ship requires a child of teh captain to be captain to be one of its problems, yes. Classic Carribean pirate captains were very definitely not things to be inherited; indeed, it was usually an elected office. And yet here while otherwise they take the style from that era, randomly it's made inherited. I do find that kind of stupid.

As for her ability, though, she clearly is a very good tactical thinker, which is why it's not just nepotism -- she has the ability to be captain. She clearly inherited her parents' skill at captaining, and it's shown from the first episode that she's a good spaceflight tactician as well. She is clearly better at it than any of her crew members. Less experienced, but with more upward potential. She doesn't just suddenly learn anything, either -- she knows the basics of space flight from the beginning, thanks to her Yacht Club, and learns the rest through study. I mean, she's not doing badly in school now for no reason, obviously she's putting her focus into learning how to be a captain now. There was that training episode with Chiaki, too.
I can agree with this too, but my only question is, in the club, why isn’t she in charge then if she clearly is more superior to her classmates? Why haven’t they agreed to let her captain the girls? Saying that captaining ability is genetic is a little bit of a stretch for me, because captaining isn’t just be one singular ability; it’s something that incorporates many abilities simultaneously. Maybe they could’ve said from a young age her mom did X and Y, or that when she was growing up she always had an interest in A and B, or would always do C and D. I just would prefer something a bit more convincing for her skills other than it’s just genetic. Hell, I would even be happy if they said that her mother showed her pirate movies when she was growing up; just anything to show why she would be interested and decent at pirating.


They don't play the grades thing off too lightly, it's been mentioned at length, and times where she tries to study but gets interrupted have happened multiple times too. I'm sure it won't just go away as an issue. It's far too early to say that it has no consequence. I'm sure it will in time.
We’ll have yet to see about the grades. I mean, she has such a long grace period to make an excursion so why not let her focus on grades and only plan an excursion when necessary and when she’s more in control of her grades? For all the forward-planning they seem to do and for all the time they have between the required excursion periods, why don’t they make use of it more? Surely they can plan a little smarter ahead of time to deal with this issue instead of ignoring the importance.

I just can't agree here. Yes, electronic warfare gets the most prominent role in the 2-5 part, but it still matters some at least, even if she now has someone good at it... and knowing how important it is helps appreciate her skill at it too, I would say.
While it helps her appreciate the skill, they never really show it anymore. To me anyways, It kinda felt like a waste of all that good material because it doesn’t have any focus anymore even though it’s still necessary.



tl;dr: Make Chiaki the protagonist, keep the ED; it’s awesome (and i'm buying it), tension doesn’t only mean one thing with no flexibility, source material is almost always better, I don't understand claiming a show to be the greatest show of the season almost every episode without looking at any of the faults critically can make something the best (it's the same reason why my derivative enjoyment from Lagrange is high but I can't rank it up there with the greats at all on a critical levell).
 

cajunator

Banned
Precure smile 03

Yes. I survived. I don't know how. Probably because I saw it coming.

Cure Peace is the equivalent of taking a field of sugarcane, refining it intro sugar and pouring the whole goddamn thing into your mouth. that's really all that needs to be said.
She is the epitome of a moeblob and a damned great one.
 

ZetaEpyon

Member
Oh god, I thought I was going to die without my constant fix of this place...

What's the general impression of Okami-san and Her Seven Companions? I see that it's due to be released soon on BD, and I was considering grabbing it. I never got around to it while it was airing so I really don't know much about it.
 

Steroyd

Member
Oh god, I thought I was going to die without my constant fix of this place...

What's the general impression of Okami-san and Her Seven Companions? I see that it's due to be released soon on BD, and I was considering grabbing it. I never got around to it while it was airing so I really don't know much about it.

It's pretty standard JC Staff averageness, with a narrator that's crap at breaking the fourth wall or being amusing in any form, a tsundere + weakling nerd combo that's been done a billion times by said JC staff and there's even a kugiloli (not main character shockingly enough) that's appeared in an abundance of JC Staff shows and the hair designs are lol.
 
Birdy the Mighty: Decode 1-2

Tsutomo complains too much for being able to possess the body of a hot alien chick. I mean yeah, she did kill him and all, but at least they're nice enough to repair his body. Would definitely break up the monotony of a typical boring life, especially when inhabiting someone like Birdy is like a roller coaster every day. Tute seems cool too.

This is going to be fun.
 

madp

The Light of El Cantare
I'm so happy that people are picking up Birdy. It's one of my pet underrated series that I always champion (though mostly for S2. Keep watching.)
 
Fate/Zero 10 wasn't a bad episode - it was quite well-made and well-directed. The problem with it was its positioning, interrupting the main narrative for the adventures of unimportant side characters. It would have worked well as an OVA special.
 

Envelope

sealed with a kiss
Birdy the Mighty: Decode 1-2

Tsutomo complains too much for being able to possess the body of a hot alien chick. I mean yeah, she did kill him and all, but at least they're nice enough to repair his body. Would definitely break up the monotony of a typical boring life, especially when inhabiting someone like Birdy is like a roller coaster every day. Tute seems cool too.

This is going to be fun.

You're supposed to be watching HeartCatch, not Birdy!
 

hellclerk

Everything is tsundere to me
Yeah, the second episode Kuttsukiboshi (yuri) is coming on May 12:

NSFW:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tK-DXIun-28#

That is the most low QUALITY animated firehawk I've seen all week. Since it's basically just a schoolgirl lesbian porn OVA, as much should be expected. I DO kind of wonder how the story is though, there's so little good romance out there, let alone yuri-mance...

Edit: Oh wait, that was ANOTHER lame yuri ova I was thinking about. If this is all done by one guy, eh, I can dig it.
Edit2: WITH
INCEST NTR
NO LESS. Good God, I'm being tempted to watch it to hate myself now...

Also, I seriously need to catch back up with the shows I'm watching. I'd be disappointed in myself, but I was playing BF3 and starting to design a game and writing a screenplay, so I'm good.
 

Envelope

sealed with a kiss
That is the most low QUALITY animated firehawk I've seen all week. Since it's basically just a schoolgirl lesbian porn OVA, as much should be expected. I DO kind of wonder how the story is though, there's so little good romance out there, let alone yuri-mance...

they ntr each other for someones big brother. Or something. It's shit.
 

Ultimadrago

Member
More Waver, really cool. But Rider with the others always is fun. Actually more Gilgamesh.

I'm interested in seeing more Gilgamesh, just to see whether I end up liking the character by the end.
As for now, Poor Man's Excalibuuuuur!

Curious as to how, or if, he will teach ol' boy the joys of "pleasure" and importance of primal self-gratification.


Fate/Zero 10 wasn't a bad episode - it was quite well-made and well-directed. The problem with it was its positioning, interrupting the main narrative for the adventures of unimportant side characters. It would have worked well as an OVA special.

Was probably my largest problem with it, also never been a fan of the
"curious kid saves the day filler"
premise. With only 3 eps left in the season, it was not what I was hoping for. As an OVA, I would have minded it less so, perhaps.
 

e_i

Member
That is the most low QUALITY animated firehawk I've seen all week. Since it's basically just a schoolgirl lesbian porn OVA, as much should be expected. I DO kind of wonder how the story is though, there's so little good romance out there, let alone yuri-mance...

Edit: Oh wait, that was ANOTHER lame yuri ova I was thinking about. If this is all done by one guy, eh, I can dig it.
Edit2: WITH
INCEST NTR
NO LESS. Good God, I'm being tempted to watch it to hate myself now...

I'm pretty sure this will have a GOOD END. I think the trailer gave away the ending though.
 

hellclerk

Everything is tsundere to me
I'm fairly certain it ends with NTR, too. And how is lesbo NTR better?

The second episode? No, that's just the first. The second episode looks like GOOD END is a foregone conclusion.

Also,
yuri NTR is better because within social normalizing and hetero NTR, it wrongfully emasculates the male MC on one end, or has the "vulnerable" side (the feminine) betrayed on the other. In this instance, the yuri couple occupies neither of these since they can't really be emasculated (being female) and they're both "vulnerable" as well. There's no strong audience reaction from associating with one side or another. The squick factor in this one isn't necessarily the NTR, I'd say it's the incest.
 

Envelope

sealed with a kiss
The second episode? No, that's just the first. The second episode looks like GOOD END is a foregone conclusion.

Also,
yuri NTR is better because within social normalizing and hetero NTR, it wrongfully emasculates the male MC on one end, or has the "vulnerable" side (the feminine) betrayed on the other. In this instance, the yuri couple occupies neither of these since they can't really be emasculated (being female) and they're both "vulnerable" as well. There's no strong audience reaction from associating with one side or another. The squick factor in this one isn't necessarily the NTR, I'd say it's the incest.

So are they the same characters in the second episode, or is it a different couple?
 
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