Will posted something painful down in the comments a few posts back that made my head hurt. It seems to have done the same to Brickmuppet, who puts out a plea for someone... anyone... who knows what the halibut is going on, to please explain it.

I second that... and please, do it quickly. I'm running out of ways to keep my brain from leaking out my ears...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 06:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This is just... wrong.

Update: In comments, Pete points towards this, which might be even MORE wrong.

Which, in it's turn, reminded me of my favorite clip from AMV HELL 3: The Motion Picture... said clip can be seen HERE.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:13 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Got my SE Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya DVD 1 box on Tuesday, and while I don't have the time to do a full review of it at the moment, I will mention a few things:

1) The dub is, quite possibly, the worst professional job I've ever heard. see below for updated information.
2) Creditless OP/ED for Episode 00? Gosh, thanks Bandai!
3) Goodbye, "time travellers" and "sliders," hello "future men." I swear, why don't they just hire fansubbers?
4) It feels wrong to be watching the shows in chronological order. The series makes more sense that way, I'll admit, but it just isn't right.
5) The video quality is stunningly good. The Pond's tv isn't the greatest, but there wasn't the slightest hint of color bleed, pixel crawl, or anything like that. I know it's computer animated, digital master and all that, but it still surprised the heck out of me how good it was.
6) The box is great!
7) The hairband made me chuckle.

More later, perhaps with photos.

UPDATE: Okay, I've watched the first two episodes (not episode 00) using the dub, and have changed my opinion somewhat. Only half of the cast is miserable... hey, it's a start.

Kyon, voiced by Crispin Freeman (who's done so many VA roles that it's impossible to list them all), is... acceptable enough. A little more snark would go a long way, though.

Wendee Lee's Haruhi comes off more than a little stilted; she sounds like a cross between a valley girl and a Brooklyn taxi driver.

It's when you get to Mikuru (Stephanie Shea) and Yuki (Michelle Ruff) that everything goes ass over teakettle. Mikuru's voice is even more annoying than the original, so incredibly high-pitched that my neighbor's dog started whining in pain. Yuki, on the other hand, comes off as a Hot Topix-wannabe punk; "whatever" should not be passing through her lips, but there it is.

Special mention should be made of Bridget Hoffman's rendition of Asakura... it's the perfect example of someone mailing in their performance. Yeesh... if she was a major character, the pain would be too much to bear. Learn to act. Please.

On the plus side, the dub script is much better than the sub. Time travellers is here, and while many of the jokes and one-liners are 'Americanized', they do work. I didn't want to gouge my eardrums out with a pencil... that's more than I can say about most of the dubs I've heard. Change the grade from a low 'F' to a middlin' 'C'.

Would have been nice if Haruhi's VA actually sounded like, y'know, a teenager (or something close!), instead of a 52 year old woman trying to act teenagerish.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 03:36 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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I'll fully admit that this post is nothing more than self-trumpet-blowing.

Every week, a list is created by AMV.org, called the "Top Star List." This takes every AMV that's been given any 'stars' for the past week, and ranks them by "score", and "stars" and total stars earned.

I searched all vids that earned more than 20 stars for the week of 5/21 - 5/27, and what came up?

150 "...Angel."
Wonderduck ( Wonderduck) 3.68 3.67 21

In less than two days, "...Angel." came up as the 150th ranked vid with more than 20 stars. I'll take that, I think. It's also averaging a 3.68 out of 5.00, which is a perfectly good score for a first video.

Thank you, everybody!

Head... swelling...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 03:36 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It's now official...

...has gone gold!

If you're a member of AMV.org, the 43mb file can be found and downloaded HERE.

If you're NOT a member, then Jeff Lawson has been kind enough to host a copy over at Hop Step Jump, where he also has a very kind blogpost on the video as well.

It's been quite the project, making this video. From the moment it first jumped to life in my head, to today around 330pm Pond Time, it's about nine weeks or so.

I started out with no clue how to use Premiere, or for that matter, how to use any sort of real video editing software (I had played with Windows Movie Maker a couple of times, and MGI Videowave 4, which was such a discouraging program that I wanted to take the cd-rom it was on and go target-shooting).

But even before that, I had to learn how to use VirtualDub, so as to be able to take the beautiful RAWs (from l33t-raws) of Kanon 2006 and chop them into workable clips. I made a couple of fundamental mistakes in so doing, both of which would bite me on the tailfeathers down the road...

THEN, I had to learn the ins-and-outs of Premiere. Not just the simple placing and trimming of clips; that's relatively straightforward. No, it's things like the settings for output, what each transition does (and how), opacity, running clips backwards, and just about anything else you can think of... that's what I had to learn.

Unfortunately, on my first attempt, I got SO confused with what I was doing that I burned the whole Premiere project to the ground and started over. Turns out that might have been the best thing for me, as I then had a 'trial run' under my belt. Things got a lot smoother from then on. Except for one of those two mistakes I mentioned earlier popped up, and caused me to tear my feathers out. I had consistently made my source clips too 'tight'. This made it difficult to manipulate them as I needed to, and in some cases forced me to go back and recreate the clips from the original RAWs... and I didn't take notes on where things were. Oops.

Of course, it helped that whenever I had a question (or two/four/whatever), I had a tech guru, in the form of Jeff Lawson of 'Hop Step Jump!' Jeff, who's made a slew of AMVs, was able to explain the answers to all my questions... in English, no less, as opposed to technicalese. He took the time to do all this, even though he was about to change jobs and move to a new abode. I can't thank him enough for that.

Just as everything was going smoothly, and I was nigh on finished with "...Angel", the second mistake appeared, and caused a three-day delay. I had created the clips at a frame rate of 29.97 per second (NTSC standard)... and Premiere hated trying to output at that. So much so that some clips (like the last 30 seconds of the video, and the credit sequence, and even some bits of the audio tracks) just... disappeared. I'd render the video, and those clips would just show up as black space.

Not knowing that 29.97fps was bad (and Premiere listed it as an option for output, though that might just have been because that's what my clips were at), I had no way of diagnosing the problem... and because my tech guru was halfway across the country, he had no idea I had used a wonky frame rate to solve my problem, either. It was just luck that I stumbled on the solution at random.

Then it went out to the betatesters; the Lord of the Mu/MeeNuVians hizzownself and the president of the Duck U. Anime Club, who is known as 'The Accountant', gave me good feedback, and Jeff sent me a two-page document going scene-by-scene (more or less). All of their input was incredibly valuable, and led to a revision, which then got revised again into the final version you can download today.

*phew*

Now, about the video itself. If you've seen Kanon 2006, you know how it ends. But what happens to Yuuichi, Ayu and Nayuki AFTER the show is over? Well, "...Angel" could be one of the possibilities. Yuuichi and Ayu have split up for one or another reason, and both have hooked up with other people (Yuuichi with Nayuki, much to her delight, and Ayu with... well, you'll find out). Then one night, the phone rings...

If you've never seen Kanon 2006, it'll all make sense, I think. I've shown it to three people who've never seen the show, and they got it right off the bat.

It's not a groundbreaking video by any means. There's no new techniques or startling special effects... just (I think) good storytelling. And without that, all the SFX in the world couldn't make this AMV work. The only SFX I could use would be to composite Ayu into one particular scene; it could be done, with the right programs, but it'd be gloss, and it's not vital to the piece at all.

If you do watch "...Angel", think about leaving a comment at AMV.org or here, or at Jeff's place. If you don't like it, PLEASE leave a comment here, or at Jeff's place, or at The Org. I won't be able to improve without critiques.

Total time involved? Probably in the vicinity of 120-150 hours, maybe as high as 180. For every night I didn't work on it, there were nights that I put 5 or 6 hours in. As I told Jeff, "I don't care if it wins awards... I just don't want it to suck."

It doesn't.

So what are you waiting for? Download it already!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 12:49 PM | Comments (15) | Add Comment
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1 Most impressive, Wonderduck!

Glad I finally got to see it. The effort you put in shows - it is very polished. Hopefully the learning curve you experienced will make the next one much easier and less time consuming.

I'll admit I didn't quite figure out the Yukito angle, though. I guess I need to watch it again.

Great job! You know that I'm not a particularly big fan of Kanon, nor really of that song normally, but you made them both work well together and the AMV was very enjoyable to watch.

Posted by: astro at May 26, 2007 02:41 PM (q4NkN)

2 Listen to the lyrics at that point, 'Stro... all should become clear.

For what it's worth, Jeff had the same problem you did... I tried to change the scene, but couldn't figure out a way to do so and still make myself happy.

Posted by: Wonderduck at May 26, 2007 03:36 PM (2nDll)

3 Not too shabby, especially for a first effort. (Beats the hell out of mine, but that's not saying much unfortunately. *wry grin*)

I think that if one doesn't read your introductory blurb, the plot of the AMV is a bit obscure. It looks more like an Ayu fanvideo (once the initial setup sequence is past) than an actual story, though that may be by simple virtue of the fact that it was probably hard to come up with enough of the right kind of footage to support the concept.

Overall? Not bad. Here's hoping you're similarly inspired again some time soon so we can see how your skills progress.

Posted by: GreyDuck at May 26, 2007 03:57 PM (CdXfx)

4 Speaking as someone who is a big fan of Kanon, I liked it. Technically, it's quite impressive for someone who had never done anything like this before. As you mentioned, it doesn't use a lot of effects, but they're well-executed where they are used. Timing seems a wee bit off in places, but that may just be me.

On the artistic side of things, it feels pretty conventional. All the iconic clips one would expect to see in an Ayu-centric video are here--biting into the taiyaki, colliding with the tree, sprouting wings and the rest. Not that sticking to convention is at all bad (it's probably the best way to go for your first video), but as someone whose favorite AMVs tend to be more unconventional I can't get all that enthusiastic about it. Nothing that I can fault you for, really, just a difference in taste.

All that said, watching it multiple times in order to form an opinion wasn't at all difficult, and I'm looking forward to your next project. Well done!

Posted by: Andrew F. at May 26, 2007 04:17 PM (ncbLS)

5 *quack*
I like. Yuuichi and Nayuki as an implied item doesn't really rub me the right way, them being cousins and what-not. I never got any kind of a romance vibe from either of those two in the show. Makoto may have been a better choice because of her genuine crush on Yuuichi, but finding approriate scenes between them prior to her becoming, (well, you know) would have been difficult. Otherwise everything else is quite solid. You managed to turn down Ayu's toothaching cuteness enouch to make a serious video.

Just a little aside about that song. Girls love that song, which to my mind can only mean they all consider themselves the mistress, not the woman being cheated on. How screwed up is that?

Posted by: Will at May 26, 2007 06:50 PM (olS40)

6 Nice for a first-time. I'm in the middle of making my first video as well, so your video has been helpful.

That said, I hate the premise of your video, but liked everything else.

Yea, I'm a Nayuki person.

Posted by: omo at May 27, 2007 01:32 AM (gHLqv)

7 Will says "I never got any kind of a romance vibe from either of those two in the show."

Not from Yuuichi, no. Nayuki, on the other hand, practically lives for him during the show.

Omo says "I hate the premise of your video..."

Can you expand or explain, Omo?

Posted by: Wonderduck at May 27, 2007 01:53 AM (2nDll)

8 The only thing I didn't like about it was that Yukito was with Ayu. I'm a Misuzu and Yukito fan.

Posted by: Madame at May 27, 2007 04:51 AM (wkF7L)

9 Awesome video! I have to say that not only is it a stunning first effort, but it's amazing, period.

One other thing you've done, perhaps unintentionally, is showcase why KyoAni fanboys rave about the art.

Posted by: ubu roi at May 27, 2007 12:44 PM (II3cW)

10 Nothing unintentional about it, Ubu. I'M a KyoAnimaniac.

...and welcome back!

Posted by: Wonderduck at May 27, 2007 02:06 PM (2nDll)

11 Not from Yuuichi, no. Nayuki, on the other hand, practically lives for him during the show.

I'm not entirely certain about that. Ther was certainly affection there, but I can't tell how much of it was romantic or familial. To me they seemed to play the roles of older-brother to younger-sister. If/when I decide to go through the show a second time, I'll keep an eye out.

The problem is pretty much all the girls live for Yuuichi, which I think is part of what drives a lot of people away from the show. It's a harem show with angst, sorrow, and dread instead of eichi, nosebleeds, and the funny.

Posted by: Will at May 27, 2007 05:12 PM (olS40)

12 Will, did we watch the same show? I don't think it's a harem show at all. Yes, there's multiple girls. One at a time.

There's also a ton of funny... 'woof'.

Posted by: Wonderduck at May 27, 2007 05:17 PM (h/YdH)

13 We did watch the same show, but we are seeing different things in it.

There are multiple girls, and early on, they are all vying for some of small bits of Yuuichi's time. The difference between this and other harem shows (and it may be what disqualifies it from harem status) is that the girls are spread out and never get into catfights over him. And the more I think about it, Yuuichi's somewhat distant oniichan attitude toward most of the girls diffuses a lot of conflict.

It was a forgone conclusion who he would pick, and I don't think he felt anything truly romantic for any of the girls until his memories fully returned at the end. By that point, all the other girls had dropped out one by one, because none of them ever stood a real chance in the first place.

I'd never had any exposure to Kanon prior to watching this, so I had no idea what was coming. I puzzled out pretty early that something terrible had happened to Ayu and that it had tainted Yuuichi's realtionship with all these other girls. That made most of the light little moments sprinkled throughout the show more bitter-sweet than fun for me.

I'm going to have to write a bit more of this down somewhere. It'll get filed right next to the second half of the Seikai novel review I have yet to finish.

Posted by: Will at May 28, 2007 04:55 AM (olS40)

14 Generally explaining jokes ruin them, so I'll refrain and hopefully you will get what I mean.

Posted by: omo at May 28, 2007 03:54 PM (gHLqv)

15 As my name would suggest, I love the 2006 version of Kanon! In fact, it was what got me into watching anime on a regular basis

Love the song, clips fit well except Yurito....totally didn't pick up on that angle....which resulted in a WTF kind of moment lol......

Also, if you want the video to be viewed as a story, I think you have to have that introduction attached somewhere when you post it on websites

Overall, I give it an 8/10.......the score would probably be higher if I hadn't been hoping against hope for a Nayuki ending lol .......Although it will never happen, it would be awesome to see a Yuiichi x Nayuki OVA

@ Will:

Nayuki DEFINITELY has a thing for Yuiichi ....It's a common theme in a drama/harem show.... (ex. Kouta and Yuka in Elfen Lied)

Posted by: Kanon_fan82 at May 29, 2007 01:06 AM (X4Eu+)

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May I introduce...

...the stupidest mecha design I have ever seen!

from Tenga Toppen Gurren Lagann, ep1

Posted by: Wonderduck at 05:35 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Sometimes, it's really good to be an anime fan.

from the final episode of Ikkitousen: Dragon Destiny

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:10 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 Isn't that from ep 12? It's a 13 ep series.

When I saw a frame grab from that sequence (with an older man fondling the butt of the brunette) I decided the series had to have completely jumped the shark. Catgirl maids? Say what?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at May 20, 2007 07:03 AM (+rSRq)

2 I'm afraid Anime News Network and the actual series disagrees with you, Steven. If there's a 13th episode, it's going to be amongst the most boring 24 minutes of all time, as the story is over and the battle is won in ep12.

The last few minutes of ep12 is made up of "what happens to our heroes afterwards?" vignettes, which is where the picture comes from. Mou-chan and Hakufu work in a cosplay cafe to earn money "to go on a fighting tour of Europe." Of course, it's Hakufu's idea. I might post the screenshot of what happens to the guy that gropes Mou-chan... it's not pretty.

Posted by: Wonderduck at May 20, 2007 08:59 AM (h/YdH)

3 I guess I was confused then.

I figured she beat the crap out of him.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at May 20, 2007 09:09 AM (+rSRq)

4 Of course, there could be one more episode anyway -- it's been done. It would be an onsen episode, of course.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at May 20, 2007 09:10 AM (+rSRq)

5 There was a hot-springs episode in the first series, but it was actually plot*-related.

There IS a festival episode in I D, does that count?

*used very loosely.

Posted by: Wonderduck at May 20, 2007 09:13 AM (h/YdH)

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It's the burning question that's on everybody's mind, I'm sure: What's Wonderduck Watching?

Well, if you click below, you'll find out! Lots of pictures, so dialup beware! more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:25 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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1 Damn. Now I think I may have to give El Cazador a shot. I own and generally like (but not love) Noir, while Madlax left me bewildered after a few episodes. Hmm.

And, indeed, Xenoglossia is more entertaining than it has any right to be...

Posted by: GreyDuck at May 19, 2007 03:24 AM (CdXfx)

2 I'd be more enthusiastic about Idolmaster if the fansubs weren't so shoddy. Serin is a new group, so I'll cut them some slack (unlike, say, Doremi), but it's frustrating nonetheless. Almost enough to make me wait for the R1 DVD release, but then the score is by my favorite anime composer, Tsuneyoshi Saitou, so I'm sticking with it for now.

The original work creeps me out, though...

Posted by: Andrew F. at May 19, 2007 03:22 PM (ncbLS)

3 Huh. Andrew, I hadn't noticed anything particularly poor regarding Serin's fansubs. I might have to go back and rewatch them... darn. What a shame. Twist my arm. :-)

The game "Idolmaster" is... um... interesting, yes. Urk.

Posted by: Wonderduck at May 19, 2007 04:08 PM (h/YdH)

4 No fair counting series which you plan on watching! If you didn't add Gurren-Lagann, we'd be neck and neck. I swear, "Nagasarete Airantou" was on my list too...

The motif of "normally I hate mecha, but in this case" is really common. I used that line myself in case of Stellvia, although in reality I reassessed my relationship with mecha after seeing the Dai-Guard. I was mentally prepared to accept Stellvia. Or, look at SDB and Vandread. Need I list more of the same? Mecha is the genre which "serious" people feel obligated to hate, and no wonder. Thank you, Gainax, for ruining a good third of all anime!

BTW, a few people who have seen both said that Manabi Straight and Hidamari Sketch are largely isomorphic, and typically Manabi wins. I still want to see Hidamari myself, in order to know for sure if I'm losing anything. Manabi's situation with fansubs is bad as well. It was stuck, then restarted with awful softsubs... But it had such a big impact on me that I armed myself with dictionaries (both paper and electronic), placed my cursor on the "Pause" button, and fought my way through raws. If Hidamari is even 50% as good, I know I should watch it... although maybe wait for fansubs or R1 DVD.

Similarly, I think we need someone not as invested to watch both Vandread and Stellvia and compare them. Personally, I consider them to be a fairlily even match, but then I only saw Vandread because of Steven, so I was prejudious. And you know how important the frame of mind is in anime.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at May 19, 2007 05:56 PM (9imyF)

5 Actually, Pete, you misunderstood my feelings regarding mecha shows. I don't hate them at all. I just better identify with PEOPLE, as opposed to giant robots.

I don't blame Gainax for 'ruining mecha for serious fans,' I blame Sturgeon's Law... and I LIKE Evangelion up until the final two episodes. *shrug* Not enough to suggest it to anybody, but I don't feel I wasted my money on the show.

Ah well, I've always wanted to watch Vandread, even before SDB started blogging it up.

Posted by: Wonderduck at May 19, 2007 08:20 PM (A5s0y)

6 Maybe I was a bit harsh on Serin's subs... rewatching episode two, there were a few spelling and grammar errors, but not as many as I had remembered. A few names were misspelled, and there was a minor translation error ("My apartment is waiting!" should be "Wait at my apartment!"), but considering they're doing this for free I should probably quit bitching about it. Something about watching fansubs just brings out the grammar Nazi in me...

Posted by: Andrew F. at May 20, 2007 05:53 AM (ncbLS)

7 I prefer to think of it as "idiosyncratic" spelling... and the fact that they understand Japanese AND English well enough to translate it into something I can understand means that they can be a little 'idiosyncratic' in my book.

Posted by: Wonderduck at May 20, 2007 05:56 AM (A5s0y)

8 In Nanoha Strikers, they -are- protecting Japan! More or less by not being there. Whole show is taking place in another dimension.

Watch the first two seasons of Nanoha, definitely. The third one is okay so far, but it's seriously running off the goodwill the first two built up. (Downside, you've more or less spoiled the outcome of both seasons. But it's still good, especially A's. Also, no Subaru or Tiana in those seasons, as they take place 10 years earlier...)

Posted by: Avatar at May 20, 2007 07:26 AM (PyY3O)

9 The nice thing about El Cazador is that they've finally fessed up to basically cloning Noir. See the pan up through the city-scape about 3/4 through episode 4.

I tried the first Episode of Lucky Star, but it didn't bite me. Now you're making me curious.

Posted by: Will at May 20, 2007 04:35 PM (SOx9v)

10 What, you mean the "Noir Building"? Got a laugh out of me, I'll tell you that.

Lucky Star starts slowly, no question, but it hits it's rhythm around ep4. If you can get past the random conversation storytelling before that, it'll pay off.

Posted by: Wonderduck at May 20, 2007 04:41 PM (A5s0y)

11 Yeah, the building with the giant Noir facade. I was chuckling for quite a while after that.

Well... sounds like I need to grab a couple more of those episodes then. Episode 5 of El just showed up on the tubes, along with episode 4 of Rocket Girls and 7 of Xenoglossia (a show with a name that strikes a chord with me because of my fondness for the Xenogears and Xenosaga RPGs).
I've never really pushed my limits on bandwidth with my cable provider. This fan-sub nonsense is getting redonkulous.

Posted by: Will at May 20, 2007 05:25 PM (olS40)

12 Pete, how about Chris Beveridge? He rates by DVD, which he views one-at-a-time when they're released. His scores:

Vandread: B+ B- B+ B+
Vandread Second Stage: B+ B+ B+ B+

Stellvia: B B B B B+ C+ C+ B

So he gives a slight edge to Vandread.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at May 21, 2007 02:13 AM (+rSRq)

13 Beveridge's rating graph is a good match with my own feelings about Stellvia. The show deteriorated somewhat in the second half, and only recovered in for the grand finale. I'd give it almost same letters.

In Vandread, I liked the first half more too. Mostly it was a bunch of small things, like art changed with the variable-thickness confined lines and pontier chins. It saw some serious character upgrades, e.g. Bart, and some not quite as big, e.g. Barnette, so it was good. However, every time the idiotic bickering started in the kitchen or infirmary, I clenched teeth. And of course, the ending sent me into orbit with the steam out of my butt. Being prudent as I am, I made the posting about it private, to unscreen a few years down the road. So Chris' graph is constant and mine would be more like the Stellvia's, with a good D in the end.

But to answer the quiestion in short words, yes, Chris' feedback is about what I was looking for. I am going to continue considering these two shows as equals, but I'll keep his ratings in mind.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at May 21, 2007 05:27 PM (9imyF)

14 "I'd be more enthusiastic about Idolmaster if the fansubs weren't so shoddy. Serin is a new group, so I'll cut them some slack (unlike, say, Doremi), but it's frustrating nonetheless. Almost enough to make me wait for the R1 DVD release, but then the score is by my favorite anime composer, Tsuneyoshi Saitou, so I'm sticking with it for now.

The original work creeps me out, though..."

Serin aren't that new of a group (relatively speaking of course). They've been around for at least a year. But I agree on the subs though... absolutely shocking

Posted by: arkon at May 21, 2007 10:04 PM (BRQCR)

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Steven says:

The corrolary to this statement is quite clear:

Be afraid. Be very afraid...

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The AMV has gone to the betatesters. I've already gotten one fast response back, and the reaction was favorable... and I'm relieved. I've been staring at the thing for so long, I may have lost track if it's good or not.

So far, so good...

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Big McLargeHuge breakthroughs recently! For some reason, I've found myself working backwards from the end, and that worked well enough that I managed to finish the entire second half, and the first quarter, of the thing.

That's right, I've only about one minute or so of video left to do... and that (I hope) will be done tonight.

Then I need to render it, watch the resulting video (with all the transitions and filters in place and active; you can't do that with the version of Premiere I've got), go back in and make any changes to obvious problems. Then it's re-render, DivX encode, and off to the beta-victims!!!

Just in time, too: it's buyback week at Duck U. and busy will be my middle name for the next seven days...

UPDATE: First draft is DONE. Betavictims, prepare yourself, you should be getting a DivX version in a few days...

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... The Agent Aika prequel fansub is out. I took a quick glance at it, just to make sure the d/l was good... and boy, does it look BAD.

I'll be reviewing it later. Gleefully!

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A fate worse than death has befallen our beloved Kan-u Unchou! Tremble in fear at the visage of... more...

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I hit a brick wall around 10 days ago. I couldn't get past the first 15 seconds of the AMV-in-creation, and got REALLY frustrated.

...and then I got smart and said "$*&@# it, it's called a non-linear editing system for a reason."

So, I started jumping around inside the AMV, doing chunks that I was secure with. Three seconds here, a chorus there, guitar solo in the corner, hey presto! I've suddenly got about half the video done and still have a bunch of the easy parts to go!

Suddenly the frustration has been replaced with a feeling of elation! There's a lot of work left to do, but there's been major progress made.

Anybody want to volunteer for betatesting duties?

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Steven:
"And to the kind person who shared this with me, I'd give you an 'Order of the Duck', except that I'm not a duck and anyway you already have one."

That's Order of the Honorary Duck, my friend.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 03:33 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Over at Chizumatic, Steven is asking:
How much of the legend, or perhaps "cult" would be more accurate, of Suzumiya Haruhi is the creation of the fansubbers? For instance, the fansubbers have translated the name of Haruhi's club as "SOS Brigade"... ...So where did "brigade" come from? Well, it's funny, of course. But did the original author make it funny, or did the fansubbers make it funny?

I think Steven forgot that the anime ISN'T the source material: the novels are. In the first book, there's an explanation as to why they're using 'brigade' as opposed to group or association... unfortunately, I'm rushed for time and can't find the exact quote right now. IIRC, it goes something like "we don't have enough people to be a group or an association...".

Of course, the version I've read is fan-translated, too, so is therefore suspect, right? Yes, but... the 'offical webpage' of the US anime release is using 'brigade' too, so SOMEONE got something right.

I will point out that two or three fansub groups, working independently of each other, all wound up with the same translation (brigade). No 'regiment', no 'army', no 'squadron' (actually, that one would have been funnier)...

UPDATE: Steven responds, saying that since the source could have been a fan-translated effort, it may very well be wrong, which I acknowledged. However, I'll point out that, without actually having the original novels (in the original Japanese), we don't really know. Either way, it certianly appears that the various companies involved accept it.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 02:07 AM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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There comes a time in any anime fan's viewing life when he or she comes across a show that they find a show that... well... that they can't make up their mind about. Do I hate it? Do I dislike it? Do I like it? Do I love it?

For this duck, that time is here. And Lucky*Star is that anime.

People are saying that it is Azumanga Lite, in that it's based on a 4koma about high school girls that has no visible plot. They also say it's the Seinfeld of anime, in that it's about nothing. Like both of these shows, my initial reaction towards Lucky*Star is, at best, 'meh.' I actually didn't like Azumanga Daioh the first time I gave it a shot (now it's my favorite anime), and I never did learn to like Seinfeld.

Like many other people out there on the intartubewebb, I really wanted this show to be good, and maybe it will be. After an episode where 10 minutes is spent discussing the best way to eat desserts ("Do you eat the strawberry on a strawberry shortcake first or last?"), I'm leaning more towards the "...the hell?" camp.

I can praise two parts of Lucky*Star unreservedly, however. First is the animation, which is quite lovely to look at. From all I've read, it follows the source 4koma very closely, which is a plus, which results in a... well, cartoony appearance quite different from other shows done by KyoAni (Haruhi and Kanon 2006, to name the two most recent).

Second would be the OP, which you can view by clicking this linky right here, and may St. Fangio The Quick have mercy on your soul. It's like sugar-coated, chocolate-covered crack for your eyes and ears, as the Brickmuppet has already learned.

As of right now, I can't recommend Lucky*Star. There just isn't enough THERE there, but I'll watch a few more episodes, see what comes of it and let you know.

There is one thing I noticed, however:

... sometimes I wonder about KyoAni. Are they doing this on purpose, or is it just a coincidence?

Posted by: Wonderduck at 06:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Right, it's taken a little longer than expected, but here's the status report on The Kanon Project:

Clip creation is (tenetively) finished. Six Gigabytes worth of clips, to be exact... at roughly 10mb/second of video.

Audio is confirmed finished. It's not just the song, it's some incidental sound, too (telephone ringing, wind blowing, that sort of thing). There's one optional audio clip that I may need to create, but that's something on the back burner for the moment.

Mental storyboarding is (mostly) complete. I know what I want to do, I just have to make the clips work for it, or change the storyboard to fit. Unfortunately, one clip that was essential to the original plan is unusable; I forgot that there was scrolling text at the bottom of the scene, courtesy of BS-i. I'm not sure how I'm going to work around it, but I'll figure something out.

Actual creation of the AMV in Premiere will begin on Tuesday, I think. Having never actually used Premiere before, it's going to be a 'learn-as-you-go, where's-the-tutorials' sort of thing. Fortunately, there are some good, free, tutorials online (including one for a college class that I suspect I'll be leaning on heavily).

I'd be remiss if I didn't thank Jeff Lawson again. Whenever I had a question come up (usually twice a week, more or less), I would shoot him an e-mail, and he was kind enough to reply with an answer that was both understandable to a neophyte AND in-depth, not to mention timely. I'd still be trying to figure out VirtualDub if it wasn't for him, but now I'm fairly handy at the thing.

So... that's where she stands at the moment. The pieces are off the sprues, covered with primer, and the epoxy is all set... all I have to do is put the thing together.

Further updates as events warrant.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 06:30 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I have finally managed to acquire all the l33t-raws episodes; those last two just weren't being seeded, but some kind soul appeared Wednesday afternoon who had a big tube and the episode I needed. Went from 56% d/l'd to done in less than an hour.

Wish I had broadband at The Pond, but at least I have access to it at times.

Also, the tune has been purchased on CD, ripped at high-quality, and ready to go.

Clipping has started, though with work and life, it's going slower than I expected. Saturday should be a good day for that sort of thing. Hopefully I can start stitching things together sometime in the very near future.

More updates on the AMV as warranted.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 12:23 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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A little over a week ago, a concept for an AMV snaked its way out of the depths of my brain and positioned itself, fully formed, in front of my face (metaphorically, of course).

I said to myself, "hey, that could work! All I need is the RAWs of all the episodes of Kanon 2006, a copy of the song, and learn how to use Adobe Premiere, and I'm all set! Oh, and how to create clips for use in the vid, can't forget that."

...with dialup, to boot. Yeah, it looked doomed from the very first step. But then a miracle occurred: using two different computers that had broadband, I managed to snag 22 of l33t-RAWs' episodes of Kanon. I still need those two missing eps, but I can at least start making clips!

Except I still didn't have a clue how to do THAT. That's where the ubercool Jeff Lawson of Hop Step Jump! came into play, as I fired off a quick e-mail asking for his help.

He came through with a long, detailed e-mail explaining the whole procedure to me, and an offer to help with any questions I had in the future. SOMEONE's gonna be inducted into the Order of the Honorary Duck when this is all said and done...

So. As if my life wasn't cluttered enough, now I've got this project beating me about the head and neck... and it's one of those things that will NOT go away until I finish it, I can tell already.

My first AMV. I hope it doesn't suck...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 02:43 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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