Wonderduck's Pond

February 08, 2021

Winter 2021: Don't Tell Me It's Awful!

There's always somebody out there. "There's nothing to watch," they'd moan and kvetch. "It was better before this." Any maybe those people are correct. But not this anime season, they aren't. Here's a look at what I think is a remarkable Winter!

It's a winter of their discount tents...

more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:10 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
Post contains 1129 words, total size 9 kb.

December 25, 2020

Christmas 2020

It's cold out there, young ladies. You should really put more clothes on.

I'm sorry, I don't know where that came from either. Hope everybody had a Merry Christmas, or a pleasant Friday, or whatever you wanted it to be.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:30 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 42 words, total size 1 kb.

November 05, 2020

FGO Players, It's Not Too Late!

You know in your heart it is true.

This concludes one of The Pond's very rare forays into political discussion.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 05:13 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 26 words, total size 1 kb.

August 31, 2020

Thanksgiving Coming A Day Early This Year

In one of the bigger out-of-nowhere announcements I've heard in the anime/manga world, Kadokawa and Nagaru Tanigawa released a statement revealing that Light Novel #12, The Intuition of Haruhi Suzumiya, is being released on November 25. Note that this will be #11 in the States, as the last two Japanese novels were combined into one here. In Japan, it's been nine years since the last release.

Providing us with more evidence that Yen Press loves us and wishes us to be happy, they put out a tweet stating that they'll be releasing the digital version in English simultaneously. And, because that simply wasn't enough good news they're intending to reprint all of the light novels in physical form as well. Which is great, because old copies are selling online for stupidly high prices. It's not unusual to see the full US sets of 10 books selling for over $500.

Which is, of course, patently absurd.

I am greatly amused by the timing of the announcement here in the States... August 31st is, after all, the last day of the Endless Eight time loops.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:04 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 190 words, total size 2 kb.

August 20, 2020

August 17th, Today, Is The Day The Time Loops Of Endless 8 Start.

Just thinking you might like to know.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:44 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 20 words, total size 1 kb.

August 19, 2020

Today, August 17th, Is The Day The Time Loops Of Endless Eight Start.

I thought you would like to know.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 04:09 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 20 words, total size 1 kb.

August 18, 2020

Today, August 17th, Is The Day The Time Loops Of Endless 8 Start.

Just thought you'd like to know.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 05:20 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 19 words, total size 1 kb.

August 17, 2020

15532 To Go

Today, August 17th, is the day the time loops of Endless 8 start. Just thought you'd like to know!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:22 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 22 words, total size 1 kb.

April 16, 2020

Now THIS Is The Sort Of News We All Need

There is an ARIA movie in the works.

It's coming sometime late this year. If there was ever a year that we need new ARIA content, my god it's this one.

This is a 15th anniversary project for the series. Information is sparse at the moment, but it's officially sparse, as the announcement is up on the publisher of the ARIA manga's website. I think we all assumed that after Avvenire, our trips to Neo-Venezia had come to an end.

I've never been so glad to be wrong about something in my entire life.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 03:22 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 104 words, total size 1 kb.

December 25, 2019

Christmas 2019 - Haruhi Style

MUCH nicer Christmas than last year's disaster. Oh, the Christmas itself wasn't the problem, it was the leg injury that occurred for reasons that are still a mystery to me... and that led to me being stuck in bed for 24+ hours. From there, it's an easily-drawn line to where I am today.

None of that happened this year. Therefore, it was INFINITELY better. And it allegedly hit 61 degrees too. In December. On Christmas. In Duckford, IL. What in the blue blazes...? In any case... huge thanks go out to Ph.Duck and Rn.Duck for putting up with me for another year, and the annual bottle of lingonberry will die happy soon enough.

And of course, you... the proud members of the Pond Scum. I've been letting The Pond down over the past year, which I hate but haven't been able to do anything about. Hopefully, next year will be better in all sorts of ways! Merry Christmas!!!

I just started playing Fate Grand Order. I'm fairly sure an opening draw of three lancers (and one of them duplicated!) and an assassin is pretty cruddy. Welp, we'll just see where it goes from here.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:23 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 199 words, total size 2 kb.

1 I gave FGO a spin a while back, ended up bouncing off of it but that might have had more to do with my chuggy old tablet than anything specific to FGO's gameplay. If you stick with it and need a buddy/guildmate/whatever, let me know. I'll probably have some gacha-game bandwidth available before much longer. Depends on how Crossing Void does long-term, really.
(Crossing Void has my attention probably more for the "Index-verse characters and SAO-verse characters and butterfly chick from Accel World all at once, sweet" value than for anything it actually brings to the gameplay table, I admit.)

Posted by: GreyDuck at December 26, 2019 01:06 PM (yisPP)

2 I'm honestly surprised you haven't tried out Azur - that one isn't so much "up your alley" as it is "let itself in your front door and is camped out on your couch". Though what they did to Mutsu is a crime, just a crime...

Posted by: Avatar at December 26, 2019 07:30 PM (v29Tn)

3 Well I'll tell ya, Av... I've watched a few episodes of the anime and it honestly left me feeling quite tepid. I'm not a huge fan of the Iron Sakura (or whatever that fleet is called) character designs, and what they did to HMS Unicorn is a travesty.
It's just a Chinese bootleg of KanColle, only as a 2D shooter. I mean, I'm willing to be convinced otherwise, but...

Posted by: Wonderduck at December 27, 2019 04:50 AM (cTMj+)

4 I don't think "bootleg" is the most accurate way to describe it, as the goal of the game is card-collecting the characters, which predates KanColle. I personally would say it rips off the idea of KanMusu...although even there you have to ask whether KanMusu is a unique idea, or was it just a spin on Tank Girls and Plane Girls, etc.

What is is, undoubtedly, is a cash-in on KanColle's popularity.

I quite like the anime, even with the apparent low budget. It takes a few episodes to figure out what story they're actually trying to tell. I don't know if that's budget, planning, or direction.

Posted by: Ben at December 27, 2019 10:18 AM (osxtX)

5 The anime is not impressive. It's bad enough they're going to delay the last episodes until -March- (presumably in despair of getting a single in-between cel drawn in that time...)
Azur had a few hooks for me: the actual game element is more fun than Kancolle, it's in a language I can actually read so playing it isn't a pain, and I do like most of the character designs. (Unicorn is not one of those, but I do get that they're selling it in Japan, so that sort of thing is going to happen. Would be nice if Warspite somehow got some -pants-, too.) I also know a couple of people who were playing the JP version, and being able to talk shop with friends definitely helps interest in these.
Story-wise, it's a slice over Kancolle only in that they kinda tried; it's not a GOOD story and FGO is going to win out there.
I'll say that FGO has a reputation as a game that is very hard to play as a free player, whereas by contrast Azur is almost absurdly generous (without spending money on resources for ships, I've gotten almost everything from every event).
But in the end it's about whether you think it's cute or not, and if you don't, the rest isn't gonna save it...

Posted by: Avatar at December 27, 2019 12:33 PM (v29Tn)

6 I think you nailed it, Av...I like the designs, so I'm getting more out of it. Unicorn is one of the big tests, and Nagato and Mutsu (I think they're cute). Doesn't mean I don't like KanColle, either; I do...I just keep the two properties separate.

Now if I could just figure out who Ayanami reminded me of...it's on the tip of my tongue...

Posted by: Ben at December 27, 2019 12:47 PM (osxtX)

7 "Now if I could just figure out who Ayanami reminded me of."
Just in case you're NOT joking, it's Kantai Collection's Speedslut with ears.

Posted by: Wonderduck at December 28, 2019 02:11 AM (cTMj+)

8 I wasn't joking, but oddly that isn't what I was thinking at all. Low pigment in the hair, expressionless face, and monotone voice. Add to that the creators have tended to "on the nose" allusions and characterizations, I think she's intended to invoke NGE's Ayanami.

Posted by: Ben at December 30, 2019 12:22 PM (osxtX)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

December 16, 2019

Today Is December 16th...

...and you know what THAT means:

The morning of December 16th... it was so cold... and I mean cold. That if you took an ice pick and plunged it into the ground, you'd shatter the Earth into a million pieces.

- Kyon, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya

Posted by: Wonderduck at 01:54 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 51 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Oh, Haruhi. On the one end of the spectrum you had Endless Eight. On the other... Disappearance, a film that only makes sense in context and is useless to the newcomer, but that doesn't matter because it's superbly well-done.
I'm very "over" the Haruhi thing nowadays but I have fond memories of some of it, at least.

Posted by: GreyDuck at December 16, 2019 12:00 PM (rKFiU)

2 Never watched any of it, but apparently there are people who make watching this an annual thing.

Posted by: Mauser at December 17, 2019 10:03 PM (Ix1l6)

3 The Haruhi anime properties by KyoAni are modern landmarks, moreso than I think they're given credit for. The two anime series deserve credit for experimental filmmaking. They also were produced right as KyoAni was really upping the standard for quality art and anime, from "these guys are pretty good" to "the benchmark for tv series production". The sourced material deserves some credit for the storytelling, at least to the extent of providing and setting that made all this possible; but I have to admit I find the English translations to be rather pedestrian reading. It's possible the books read better in Japanese, as you can load more levels of subtle meaning in sentence structure and the use of various kanji and kana.

Posted by: Ben at December 18, 2019 09:04 AM (osxtX)

Beg to disagree. I find the first season to be entertaining enough, but the second season was very much a monotonous bore (Something that the English VAs discovered to their dismay.). However, KyoAni's experimental production actually decreased my enjoyment of the series, and represents the classic 'Just because it is different does not mean it is good' - which was something that was apparent to me back when fans were gushing over how great Season 1 was (IIRC, one guy on AnimeTV actually called it the greatest series of the decade.). The original light novels were about as readable as Monogatari, and after a while, less interesting. I would prefer reading anything by Kinoko Nasu than have to read Haruhi again...Though at least it is better than the works written by Kazuma Kamachi.

In terms of production quality, I would agree that KyoAni did an excellent job, but I always found to their anime to be just a hair under the best, even at their best. There never seem to be enough difference in the quality to stand-out against, say, anime from A-1, assuming equal budgets.

Posted by: cxt217 at December 19, 2019 12:42 AM (LMsTt)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

November 06, 2019

She Needs Us

On November 7th, 2009, this video was posted to Youtube for the first time:

Now on the verge of the 10th anniversary of God Knows being made available to the world by the SOS Brigade, a concerted effort is being made to push the video over 100 million views. At the time of this writing, it's only 36000 views short. I call on the accumulated members of The Pond Scum: let's make it happen!

You don't want Haruhi to be disappointed.

Edit: changed the target from ten million to the correct one hundred million.

Another Edit: Nine hours to go until Midnight Pond Central Time, and we're less than 18000 views away from the goal.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 05:32 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 118 words, total size 1 kb.

September 28, 2019

"...And I Shall Call Her Mini-Me."

Two from the Haruhi Collection, which are legion.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 02:32 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 14 words, total size 1 kb.

July 18, 2019

Kyoto Animation Arson (updates at bottom)

Around about 10pm Wednesday, Pond Central Time, some maniac walked into Kyoto Animation's Studio 1 building, poured gasoline around, and set it on fire.

As I type this at about 1am Thursday morning, some solid information has come in. First, the arsonist is a 41 year old male, and is in custody. Second, there has been one confirmed death (edit: police are now saying ten dead), and many injuries... the most common number seems to be right around 30. There are also 20 "missing". NHK is reporting that at least ten of those were found lying on the floor of the second level... and left there are the search for survivors went on.

There are reports that the arsonist said "Let's see if this burns" as he poured the gasoline.

KyoAni has a number of different office locations around Kyoto. Studio 2 is where their offices and their retail store is located, for example. None of those other locations have been targeted. Some 70 animators reportedly worked at Studio 1.

I'm hoping this wasn't some crazed otaku's way of "getting back" at KyoAni... "I hated Endless 8, blah blah blah..." Reportedly, they're one of the best studios in Japan to work for, so maybe a fired employee? We'll find out soon enough, I expect, but no matter the reason, this is horrible.

Update: 241am - According to one report, among the missing are Tatsuya Ishihara who directed AIR, the Haruhi Suzumiya series, Kanon 2006, Clannad, and Hibiki Euphonium. Or, in other words, all of my favorite KyoAni shows (and Air, which I'm not fond of). Other directors missing are Ishidate Taichi (Violet Evergarden), and Takemoto Yasuhiro (The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya movie), and others.

Update: 855am - The death toll is now up to 33. I've seen unconfirmed reports that Takemoto is among the dead. Of the 70 people known to have been working in Studio 1 at the time of the arson, 69 of them are dead or in hospital for injuries of various severity. Many of the dead were reportedly found in a stairwell leading up to the roof, felled by smoke. It's important to note that this building was in a residential neighborhood; there were no fire escapes, only one stairwell, and only one way in, the main entrance. Oof.

Reportedly, the arsonist was yelling something that might translate out to "you plagiarized me." As KyoAni has only done two original works, Munto and Tamako Market, this seems unlikely. He had purchased 40 liters of gasoline in two containers just a half-hour before, and apparently brought them on a cart to the building. He reportedly told the people at the gas station that the fuel was for his generator. The president of Kyoto Animation has said that they've been receiving threatening e-mails for a few years... no idea if they're connected to this case.

This is now the largest mass murder in post-WWII Japanese history, displacing the Sagamihara massacre.

Update: 1009am - Sentai Filmworks, the American distributor that has done much work with KyoAni (either currently or in the ADV era), has begun a GoFundMe campaign to help those affected.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 12:26 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 529 words, total size 4 kb.

June 27, 2019

AMVs To Make You Have Some Reaction.

So today is the first time I've honestly had to shut Pond Central up and turn on the air conditioner. As I type this, it has just reached 86° F, but it's not very humid. Really, just sitting in front of a fan has been comfy all day, but a look at the forecast for the next week convinced me. Nighttime lows in the low 70s, daytime highs right around 90, and I'd really like to have the place temperature controlled before that sets up shop. "But Wonderduck," I hear you say, and you really should get that lump looked at, "what does any of this have to do with AMVs?"

To which I answer, "Have you ever read The Pond before?"

Over the past few days, in between frantic bouts of cleaning at 4am, I've managed to trip over a bunch of pleasing AMVs... some funny, some exciting, one or two just clever as hell. To you, I bring them now.

Enjoy, will you not?

more...

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:48 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 633 words, total size 5 kb.

December 25, 2018

Christmas 2018

Merry Christmas from all of me here at The Pond! I hope Santa brought you everything you wanted and nothing you needed...

Edit: Bring in the dancing Kumikos!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:18 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 30 words, total size 1 kb.

December 21, 2018

Plans Derailed. Schemes Foiled.

Perhaps some of you may have heard that Christmas is this coming week? I know, I know, it surprised me too, don't worry. Still, I figured it out soon enough.

^{An accurate representation of the parking lot at work}

Unfortunately, my bosses did not. Despite all the Christmas events we had this past week, despite the Big Boss playing Christmas music over the phone intercoms at random times, despite a dozen decorated Christmas trees populating the office (I very much liked the Santa Vader tree... Darth Vader helmet on top with Santa cap, black "cloak"... actually a black bag of toys... over it's "shoulders", illuminated light saber flashing red and green alternately, and TIE fighter ornaments), despite all these clues and hints, they never figured out that Christmas was next week. When they did, they had to scramble to give the staff a little something extra to go under the tree. So they gave us all the normal 10 hours of overtime as a gift.

^{An accurate representation of the supervisors at work.}

Now yes, they did this to us at Thanksgiving too. But this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over, a new... oh fer the luvva, sorry, didn't mean to break into song. THIS IS CHRISTMAS. Bad enough that we're open on Christmas Eve, and yes I know retailers will be open but I got out of retail for reasons like that. And being fired. But also for reasons like that. That's bad enough. Now they expect us to put in overtime on Christmas Eve, too, because otherwise you're doing 10 hours in three days. That's not gonna fly.

^{An accurate representation of something not flying.}

So my options are limited... indeed, my options are 1) Kill Myself With Overtime, or 2) Work On Saturday. Neither option is particularly palatable. But I just got home from an 11 hour day, and I really don't want to do that next friday, particularly since I get a five-day weekend. So I'm probably going to work on Saturday, which kinda derails my plans for the "writeup warmup" I want to do. I'll still give it a shot, but instead of going into it with a nap under my belt I'll be going in grumpy after work. Which, come to think of it, might just be the perfect way to approach it. Stay tuned folks, it's gonna get crabby up in here.

^{An accurate representation of a crab.}

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:46 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 413 words, total size 3 kb.

December 18, 2018

Plans And Schemes

Okay. Here's the plan, here's my scheme. You ready for this?

Anime writeups are coming back. January 12th, 2019. That's a Saturday. That night, I will begin (and hopefully finish) the writeup for Episode 01 of Magical Girl Spec Ops Asuka.

It's been over three years since my writeup for Gakkou Gurashi died a miserable death. I do believe I'm a little out of practice, so I intend to do a little sumtin' sumtin' this weekend... y'know, get the juices flowin', stretch out the ol' arm, see if the old man has still got it in him. Maybe it might even be good. Who knows?

Look forward to it, won't you?

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:27 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 114 words, total size 1 kb.

October 22, 2018

What A Time To Be Alive!

First, TokyoPop announced they'd be bringing ARIA: The Masterpiece over to our shores. If you're unfamiliar, it's essentially a collector's edition with a bigger format, better covers/binding, some new artwork, and improved paper quality. The first one comes out in February, and we've finally got a chance to actually see all of the ARIA manga released over here officially.

Then a new volume, #9, of "Sunshine" Sketch came out a few weeks ago, after nearly three years of waiting.

Now a new volume of Yotsuba!! is coming out on November 13th, after two-and-a-half years of waiting.

And they've just announced that Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka is going to be an anime, premiering in January.

...and there's a darn good chance that's gonna be a possible writeup candidate, too!

Really, this is the best of all possible worlds! what a great time to be alive!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 11:37 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 150 words, total size 2 kb.

May 19, 2018

Idol Threats

One thing I've been able to do while I've been... um... hobbled, is watch anime. Take the laptop into the bedroom, set up a book holder on the bedside printer stand (what, you don't have a bedside printer stand?), open the laptop, put it on the holder, and voila! Anime viewing station, perfectly angled for me to see the screen while in bed (I have a low bed).

What I've mainly been watching is Love Live Sunshine!!, the second installment of the Love Live idol-fantasy franchise. I've gotta admit: I'm enjoying the hell out of it. Well, duh, it's Cute Girls Doing Cute Things In Cute Ways While Wearing Cute Costumes (CGDCTICWWWCC?), of course I'd like it!

The one complaint I have, however, is that almost all the songs being sung by our heroes sound alike. It's always the same themes: "shining", togetherness, happy, etc etc... very Up With People, if you're old enough to get that reference. I mean, sure, that's all fine and dandy, and the music is done well, but it got dull. That is, until Ep08 of the first season. That's when these two show up:

I freely admit to groaning when we first meet them... it was obvious as hell that the Production Staff intended them to be The Great Nemesis, the "final boss" our heroes would have to defeat to win the competition and save their school. I didn't want that... the series was perfectly fine without an ArchEnemy to worry about. And then...

...I didn't care anymore, if it meant we'd get more music like "Self Control." I'm very near the end of the series... I just finished the 20th episode last night... and their first performance is still the best "in concert" in the show. It goes without saying that the song is in heavy rotation on my mp3 player. Calling it a huge (but pleasant) surprise goes without saying, but a greatly welcome one.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:28 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 325 words, total size 3 kb.

89kb generated in CPU 0.37, elapsed 0.6391 seconds.
63 queries taking 0.4072 seconds, 327 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.

Search Thingy

Monthly Traffic

Pages: 19307
Files: 13923
Bytes: 1197.4M
CPU Time: 152:46
Queries: 1035347

Content

Posts: 3833
Comments: 13192

Feeds