May 31, 2007
Melancholy DVD
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.
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1
So, wait... all that money and you get crap subtitles? Or is "future men" the dub lingo?
I'm starting to wonder if I'm ever going to want to shell out for these things.
Posted by: GreyDuck at May 31, 2007 05:11 PM (CdXfx)
2
The official subs are probably more correct than the fansubs. But they don't "sound" right, if that makes sense. The literal translation probably IS 'future men', but we're more used to 'time traveller'... not just from the fansubs, but IN GENERAL.
It's a good term, time traveller. Makes perfect sense to any science fiction reader... but the translator may not be a SF fan.
If someone who knows Japanese (Jeff, you out there?) heard it, they'd probably be better able to confirm my guess.
And, to be fair, AFK's subber has a knack for taking
correct and making it
good.
Posted by: Wonderduck at May 31, 2007 05:47 PM (2nDll)
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I'd bet that they had miraibito and went for the literal. What's it sound like?
Posted by: HC at June 01, 2007 04:30 AM (V+5Zy)
4
I honestly don't recall what Japanese term was used for "sliders" and "time travelers" in the show, so I can't say. Was "future men" used in place of only one or was it used for both combined?
Posted by: Jeff Lawson at June 01, 2007 06:20 AM (VgF1Y)
5
異世界人 (
isekaijin) is the Japanese word rendered as "sliders" (a.f.k.) and "otherworlders" (Bandai subs). I'd always thought it was "risekaijin", but luckily I have the original novel to check against.
未来人 (
miraijin) is the word translated as "time travelers" (a.f.k., Bandai dub) and "future men" (Bandai sub). HC is almost right, but 人 is read as "jin", not "bito".
So who's correct? Others may differ, but IMHO this is a fine object lesson on the perils of overly literal translation. In both cases, the Bandai subs are more correct, if you equate "correct" with "literal".
Isekaijin, broken into its component characters,
does mean other-world-people, just as
miraijin is a compound of the words for "future" (
mirai) and "person" (
hito, read as
jin here). "Otherworlders" does have the advantage of being more comprehensible to the general viewing population than "sliders", but "future men"? When the only
miraijin in the entire show is, um, a woman?
Posted by: Andrew F. at June 01, 2007 11:22 AM (46297)
6
Jeff, "Future Men" was used for both sliders and time travellers.
"When the only miraijin in the entire show is, um, a woman?"
But when it's first used in the show, we've not yet met Mikuru... I actually don't have a problem with using the term to include Mikuru, since she didn't exist yet... that we, or Haruhi, knew.
It's looking more and more like my guess of "overly literal" is right...
Posted by: Wonderduck at June 01, 2007 12:09 PM (A5s0y)
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Strange how they combined the two. Or skipped over "isekaijin" all together.
Anyway, it does indeed look like a case of "too literal" a translation. Technically speaking, it's correct... but it's definitely weird.
Posted by: Jeff Lawson at June 01, 2007 03:17 PM (VgF1Y)
8
When I finally got impatient and wanted to watch all the rest of Shakugan no Shana, I downloaded the last 8 episodes as fansubs, then watched the four DVDs I had followed by those fansubs.
At the point where I transitioned to the fansubs, I immediately noticed a significant difference in the translations. One thing in particular was that the fansubs used the Japanese words for certain things, such as "fuzetsu". But that wasn't all there was to it.
When my DVD 5 arrives next week, I think I might try comparing some of the subtitles between the two to see.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 01, 2007 03:30 PM (+rSRq)
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Check out the subtitle geometry. Sub's full, too full to fit "time traveler" or "people from the future". I'm told "future men" is the only thing that would fit. (Honestly, I'd rather change the rest of the wording to shoehorn it in, but meh, judgment call.)
One of the biggest constraints on a professional sub is space - you need to stay inside the "title safe" area, more or less, because you're playing the darned thing on an NTSC TV. I've had to re-word stuff before because what I really wanted to say couldn't be made to fit on two lines (and time kept me from breaking up the sub).
I've actually worked for this guy, and his font's just fat - 'bout 20% less space/line than what I'm used to working with, maybe 30% from ADV's latest font. Readable, very, but it forces compromises in the actual subtitles, like this one.
Anyway, classic example of it being really hard to tell from a finished product where something in particular went off the rails...
Posted by: Avatar at June 01, 2007 04:19 PM (dlP4b)
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Avatar, I noticed that the subs were larger than normal... in that I could comfortably read them without my glasses.
It became glaringly obvious, though, during the 'Yuki explains it all to you' segment, when there's subtitles both at the top and bottom of the screen. There's frightfully little space in between for, y'know,
anime.
Posted by: Wonderduck at June 01, 2007 05:10 PM (A5s0y)
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Heh, you ought to have seen some of the scenes in Gasaraki... three separate two-line subtitle streams, six total lines up there, for a period. Ugh, ugh, ugh. Yes, yes, carrying interesting information, but you get to a point of information saturation - nobody can read all that.
But my major point was that, well, you're always striking a balance between legibility and having enough room to subtitle the dialogue; when the subs get too big, sure, they're plenty easy to read, but suddenly they're not matching what's being said so well, which means pretty directly that they're not doing their -job- that well. For some shows, you can get away with that, because they're written pretty colloquially; Haruhi is not that show.
I don't generally like comparing fansubs to professional subs, because -usually- the first one you see "sounds" right even when it turns out to be really wrong, no matter which one it was. But then again, sometimes the "professional" sub is terrible too...
Posted by: Avatar at June 01, 2007 05:36 PM (dlP4b)
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Generally bandai does a competent job with their subs, translation wise. Most of the professional companies do. Fansub translations are generally unspeakably horrible, and if you don't know Japanese you'll never know what you're missing.
That said, "Future Men" is a bit of a stretch.
Posted by: Adam at June 02, 2007 04:11 AM (ff/q8)
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Adam, I'm not denying that most professional translators do a decent job (though the
Read or Die OVA leaps to mind as a contrary example... yeesh!).
I
will disagree with you on fansubbers, though. The well-established groups, like AFK or Eclipse, seem to know their stuff. While I don't understand Japanese (other than what I've picked up via anime and some casual self-taught stuff), I do know this: most fansubbers do a BETTER job of making a translation that 'sounds' better. As mentioned before, it may not be
literally correct, but they sure
feel right.
Probably something to do with doing it because they love what they're doing.
Posted by: Wonderduck at June 02, 2007 04:45 AM (A5s0y)
14
Fansub translation quality is, as you'd expect, all over the map. The -best- fansubs are as good as anything a commercial company might put out (and quite a lot better than some things that have gone out commercially...) The average fansub is generally marginal - sometimes it's just a missed reference or two, or some kind of mistranslated technical term which is more or less impossible to catch without a script. There's plenty of fansubs that are way below that level, where you're missing major plot points because the translator didn't follow (or they're working from a Chinese translation that was totally wrong to start with). Sometimes I get the impression I could do a better job myself, and folks, I am -not- a translator nor fluent in Japanese. ;p
I won't deny that Bandai generally does a good job, but hey, I've been doing a bit of contract work for them lately. And I can't -really- complain about Haruhi, because (a) Haruhi is a hard case, and (b) I got some other work sent my way because other people were busy working on it.
As far as the love goes, nobody subtitles anime for the money. ^^ One downside to working off a good translation is that, well, sometimes the original dialogue is lousy or stupid. If you have low confidence in your translation of a particular line, but you have to subtitle it anyway, you're definitely going to make sure it sounds good, no matter what it was supposed to be saying...
Posted by: Avatar at June 02, 2007 06:47 AM (PyY3O)
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May 29, 2007
"...Angel" Update
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...
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May 26, 2007
The Kanon Project, Update #6: "...Angel." is RELEASED!
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!
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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Nothing unintentional about it, Ubu. I'M a KyoAnimaniac.
...and welcome back!
Posted by: Wonderduck at May 27, 2007 02:06 PM (2nDll)
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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)
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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 21, 2007
Ladies And Gentlemen!!!
May I introduce...
...the stupidest mecha design I have ever seen!
from Tenga Toppen Gurren Lagann, ep1
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1
I dunno. That's not as dorky looking as the ones in "Sakura Wars".
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at May 21, 2007 05:45 PM (+rSRq)
2
Just wait for them to start combining. That's when real fun starts.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at May 21, 2007 06:59 PM (9imyF)
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Context is indeed important...
Regards mech...yes dorky....loks like a Dr. Hell cast off. I'm still looking forward to this though, the premise sounds kinda cool.
Posted by: Ken Talton at May 25, 2007 02:17 PM (V5zw/)
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May 19, 2007
Sometimes...
Sometimes, it's
really good to be an anime fan.
from the final episode of Ikkitousen: Dragon Destiny
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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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May 18, 2007
What's Wonderduck Watching?
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...
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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"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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May 15, 2007
Explosive Corrolary
Steven says:
20070514.1140: From the "Everything I needed to know I learned from anime" file: Any robot or machine which is damaged enough so that it can no longer function will explode in a tremendous fireball.
The corrolary to this statement is quite clear:
Everything explodes. Everything.
Be afraid. Be very afraid...
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Is that from Noodle Fighter Miki?
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at May 15, 2007 02:20 PM (+rSRq)
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No, that's the infamous melon from
Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro Na, better known as "Crescent Love."
I believe Pete Z. had a rant about that specific melon a few months back...
Posted by: Wonderduck at May 15, 2007 02:33 PM (A5s0y)
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Actually, I think it's supposed to be a head of lettuce. Or cabbage. It is a mystery.
Personally, I think she's about to murder some poor, unsuspecting
Haro.
Posted by: Jeff Lawson at May 16, 2007 04:48 AM (YUrs6)
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I just checked the file name... "mutantlettuce.jpg". Hm.
Posted by: Wonderduck at May 16, 2007 10:37 AM (fQiSx)
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May 11, 2007
The Kanon Project: Update #5
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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So when are you going to post the thing? Curious minds want to know...
Posted by: astro at May 11, 2007 04:59 AM (q4NkN)
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Well, I need to hear back from the other betavictims, then I need to go back into Premiere and make whatever small changes they suggest that I think would make it a better video.
Probably within a week it'll go up at AMV.org, and if I can get someone outside of The Org to host it, like Papa Pixy, I'll link that here.
I thought you disliked
Kanon, 'Stro?
Posted by: Wonderduck at May 11, 2007 08:28 AM (A5s0y)
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For the most part, yes, although Mai and Sayuri are two of my favorite characters from any series. I'm just interested in seeing what you came up with - I wouldn't fault it just because it is based on Kanon.
Posted by: astro at May 11, 2007 11:09 AM (q4NkN)
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May 06, 2007
The Kanon Project: Update #4
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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May 04, 2007
Hold Onto Your Hats...
... 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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