Random Anime Picture #92: Giant Holographic Space Sharks

Because there hasn't been enough Rio Rainbow Gate! around here recently.  No giant holographic space sharks in the shot, though Rio will be jumping on the back of one any second now.

God, I love anime.  It lets me type sentences like that with a straight face.

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Random Anime Picture #91: I Don't Need A Reason...

...to post something from ARIA, now do I?

-ARIA the Origination, Ep01
It's quite amazing, the emotions this show causes.  Just hearing a few seconds of the opening themes can cause tears to well in my eyes.  That's powerful stuff.

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Random Anime Picture #90: Tess And Strension

-Yokohama Shopping Trip: Quiet Country Cafe, Ep01
I needed me some of that something awful.

-Yokohama Shopping Trip: Quiet Country Cafe, Ep02
That too. 

Alpha's got it right.

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Yes You Can

While I'm putting the finishing touches on the fourth "First Episode Writeup", I want to address something that our friend Steven said a couple o' days ago.  To whit: "You can't go wrong with red half-rim glasses."

Steven, Steven, Steven... oh, my friend, have you forgotten?  THIS IS ANIME!  Saying things like that are like poking a duck-billed platypus with a stick... everything is fine until it leaps at your face, wraps its front legs around your head, then jams its ovipositor down your throat while it rips at you with the spurs in its hind legs, spurs that are coated with a strong neurotoxin that'll leave you in agony for months, during which time its alien babies dig their way slowly out of your body via the soles of your feet.

Here, let me show you what I mean.

-My Neighbor Seki-kun, Ep 19
Is that going into your collection, Steven?  IS IT???  Why do you make me do these things, man, why???

*sob*

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Random Anime Picture #89: Company

-ARIA the OVA: Arietta
It still gets me every time.  The combination of wonderful joy and quiet introspection (and occasional sadness) that is the ARIA franchise.  I was considering doing S01E01 for my next episodic writeup and found that I just couldn't.  It doesn't deserve it. 

The show isn't flawless, but the flaws are buried so deeply by the good that you don't care.  Or it's too slow-paced and sappy for you, one of the two.  That's okay, too.  It'll be waiting for a time that you need it.

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Random Anime Picture #89: Endless

I forgot just how good The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was.  Even "Endless 8", which I really enjoyed.

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Random Anime Picture #88: Do I Need A Reason?

-Fate Stay/Night Unlimited Blade Works, Ep05
I don't even really need to say anything here, do I?  Nah, didn't think so.

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Au Contraire!

"That blonde sure is nicely built. Is she a candidate for my top rotation?"

"Is there a reasonable supply of cheesecake mixed in with all the lunches?"

"It looks like most of the pictures of her also include at least one guy."

"Oh, well; too bad."

I think Shaga has made a case for top rotation, Steven!

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Random Anime Picture #87: Say Hi, Jiro!

I just finished watching The Wind Rises, Ghibli's fictionalized account of the life of Jiro Horikoshi, designer of both the A5M "Claude" and A6M "Zero" fighters.  I have mixed reactions.  As far as Ghibli films go, it's far and away my favorite of all of them.  Its no coincidence that it's also the least preachy of all of Miyazaki's films: the two go hand-in-hand. 

It should come as absolutely no surprise that it's a gorgeous film.  Again, it's a Ghibli.  That's to be expected.  There's just something about The Wind Rises that doesn't sit right with me, and I think it's the main character.  Jiro Horikoshi in this movie comes across as a completely dispassionate, yet heroic, leading man.  Brilliant, relatively athletic, a leader of men, and he does it all with the same nearly blank expression on his face.  Only when he's discussing airplanes does he begin to show some emotion... not much, but some.  His wife is dying of tuberculosis?  Blank look.  Tokyo destroyed by an earthquake?  Blank look.  In Germany?  Blank.  The voice acting of Hideaki Anno, who sounds like he has a stuffed nose, doesn't help a whole lot, either.

Still, it's got the Hosho in it.  Which is always nice.

All in all, it's certainly worth watching.  I'll give it 3.5 stars.  It just could have been so much more.

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Random Anime Picture #87: Say Hi, Tony!

For the most part, I really don't much care for Leiji Matsumoto's WWII OVA entitled The Cockpit.  Of the three parts, only the middle one, "Sonic Boom Squadron", is any good.  Which doesn't mean that the other two don't have a bit of eye candy.

This is from part 3, "Knight of the Iron Dragon," and that's a Kawasaki Ki-61 Army Type 3 Fighter, better known as the "Tony".  It was the only Japanese fighter in WWII to use a liquid-cooled inline engine and proved to be pretty good, all in all.  Over 3000 were built, and served all the way until the end of the war.

I still don't recommend The Cockpit, but it's not all that often planes like the Ki-61 get any love.

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Random Anime Picture #86: Tiro Cinque!

-Magical Girl Madoka Magica the Move III: Rebellion

It looks beautiful, at least as good as any anime film ever.  Truly, Rebellion is an awesome movie to look at.

It's a darn shame the Powers That Be decided to ruin the thing via the story.  Just criminal.

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Random Anime Picture #85: Station-ary

-Rail Wars! Ep01
I have hopes for RW.  Through one episode, it hasn't sucked.  It won't be legendary viewing, but that's okay.  Just keep givin' us red-hot coal shovelin' action, and us railfans'll keep watchin'.

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Random Anime Picture #84: Monocular

This hairstyle seems to be a little... what's the word I'm looking for here?  Unwieldy.

"How does Fury even see these screens?"
"He turns."
"Sounds exhausting."

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Random Anime Picture #83: Dangerous

-Black Lagoon Ep22
It's a dangerous show, Black Lagoon is.  I went looking for a quick screenshot and wound up watching three full episodes instead.  Happens all the time when it comes to the series; it's just that darn good.  Not everybody's cup of meat, sure, but if you like a little bit of "dark" and "grim" and "grimdark" in your anime, there's nothing better.  And Revy's voice in the original Japanese is pure liquid sex.  Don't get me wrong: she'll kill ya soon as look at'cha, but when she's not trying to speak English, her voice sends the right kind of chills up a guy's spine.  And then she shoots you, but nobody's perfect.

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My Brain At The Moment

Yep, that covers it.

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Random Anime Picture #82: On A Horse

-Tari Tari, Ep11

I have no idea what's happened in this picture, since Tari Tari is about a group of friends who want to sing in a choir.  I'm assuming it's a fantasy sequence.  I hope.  Otherwise, the series appears to have become Glee with horse archers.

Which doesn't sound like a bad idea, actually.

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More Half-Frames!

-Megane na Kanojo, OVA #4

I wrote about this "series" a few years ago.  At the time, I reviewed just the first two installments, as that was all that was available.  The remaining two were released shortly thereafter, and held up nicely to the standards set by the the earlier OVAs.  For whatever reason, this evening I decided to rewatch the series, and lo and behold, there's a set of red half-frames in it.  More for Steven!

Y'know what?  MnK might be one of the nicest shows I've seen recently.  It's not great by any stretch of the imagination.  There's dozens of better series out there.  But you watch it with a half-smile on your face for the entire time, and when it's over, there's this little sigh of contentment that you'll inevitably emit.

It's very much focused on a certain fetish... glasses are hot!... and if you're one of those people who don't "get it," you'll probably have a substantially different reaction, but for those that fall into the correct niche?  It'll be half-smile and sigh time.

They don't all have to be high art, folks.  In fact, it's probably better that they aren't.

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Random Anime Picture #81: PIKA!!!

-YuruYuri Ep09
...and then the Science Lab blew up.  Again.

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Random Anime Picture #80: I'm Confused

-Love Lab, Ep01

Love Lab is a perfectly inoffensive show, revolving around the wacky hijinks of the girls from the Student Council of Fuji Girls School.  It's nothing earth-shaking, and it's also nothing that's forcing me to watch it.  I might be losing my taste for "cute girls doing cute things in cute ways" shows, particularly when there isn't anything behind it, like interesting plot.  The above character, Riko, has proven to be particularly hard for me to deal with, though.  We all know about the "cute little fang" trope, right?  Riko is a rare example of someone with two of them... or, at least, she's supposed to have two cute little fangs.

In reality, she just comes off as looking evil and demonic.  She's not, she just looks like it... which isn't a plot point, it's a mistake.  She's a "sporty, athletic" girl, not the spawn of evil!  The rest of the show was "meh," but the twin fangs drove me up a wall, confused and wondering when she was gonna shiv someone.  I'll probably watch another episode to see if it gets better, but yeesh.

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Random Anime Picture #79: Jack, You're DEAD.

-OreImo S2, Ep02

The last thing you'll ever see before she rips your throat out and punches out your blood.  All of it.

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