Saturday 30 August 2014

"The Broken Eye" by Brent Weeks

1) If you like fantasy and havn't read any of the lightbringer series so far go out and do it now
The Black Prism is book 1
The Blinding Knife is book 2
The Broken Eye is book 3
and in a few years The Blood Mirror will be book 4.

And then after you've gotten all those books go get the night angel trilogy.
unless you have a bit of a weak stomach.... but seriously it's really good so yeah... go read... go read now.

2) I may swear. I try to stop myself but i won't be surprised if a few slip through.

3) no spoilers.... which in turn means i can't really sum up much of the plot. I'll do my best.

Okay, now that all that is out of the way.

The light bringer series follows Kip, a Fat lazy child with dark skin and blue eyes that make him feel like he just never really belonged.
stuff happens.... and he finds himself in the custody of his estranged father (who just so happens to be the most powerful person in the world as he can use every type of magic while most can only use 1-3) and is on the way to the largest town to learn how to use magic and fight.
More stuff happens and Kip ends up being part of something larger then he could ever imagine.... even if it's not what anyone was expecting.

A huge oversimplification of the series? hell yes.
so i'll have to go into other details as to continue not spoiling anything.

The book is written in 3rd person from certain characters perspective, this mean the story jumps around from character to character but we only see or feel what the character who the focus is mostly on. this is both amazing cause you can see the same event from different points of view... and awful cause just when stuff gets good they jump to a character you probably give no shits about at that moment.

So while Kip is the main character, other characters like Gavin, Karris, Teia and even a few antagonist get almost an equal amount of chapters. The world feels really flushed out thanks to this.

Um the only other thing i think i can say without being a spolier is that it has been quite a bit of time from the events of book 1 and Kip has changed quite a bit while it still feels he has lots of room left to grow.

OH... and the magic system in this book is based off light and colour which i just think is the coolest idea for a magic system, also so many colour puns and references... just makes my artist heart jump for joy.

Also it really does feel like you have to worry for every character... while they are not all on death row like some other books they also don't come out of bad situations unharmed or unchanged.

This book made me cry twice, Chapter 24 (which is not as far in as it sounds) for the way it illustrates what that kind of event can do to a persons thought process
and Chapter 97 because fuck that.
a) that is just so evil, is it as bad as don't trust the wolf? maybe... but i'm just so mad, i almost threw the book (and it's nearly 800 so... that a bad idea).
b) how long till the next book is out? i'm terrible at waiting that that.... UGH.... NOT FAIR *pouts*

I highly recommend this book (unless you hate fantasy that has a slight jovial side... i swear this book will make you laugh as much as it makes you surprised or angry or enchanted... also if you hate swearing maybe you wont like this, there is a lot of swearing)
Also read the acknowledgments (do that for every book, i know they seem boring but they may surprise you)

Seriously though i am bummed i have to wait... that is not fun.

Okay side story...
I actually got this book a few days early and i planned to have the 'ramble' ready for release day but this was the busiest week i've had in a long time... and you can't multitask and read... still i would assume it took me 10ish hours to finish? no more then 15 but i didn't read it in one chunk so i can't tell.

But yeah, go read night angel, read all the light bringer series... more people need to read these wonderful books.
I think the price for the hardcover of this one is $30... i got it for 15 (cause the store had it on sale for half off during the preorder, not complaining but yeah... was weird.) and i think Amazon still has it at a lower price.
ok... i think i've calmed down enough to get some rest... that last chapter.... brutal... just evil if you ask me.
you even hinted at it you rotten bastard.

but yeah... great book... sorry i couldn't explain more. but give it a shot and you'll probably enjoy it.

Saturday 23 August 2014

Noragami Manga vol 1

I was not expecting to cry first thing in the morning today.
So quick story.

I really like Brent Weeks Novels, i have been waiting for "The Broken Eye" for at least two years (or is it three... either way... long wait)
However i'm not the biggest fan of the pre-order process especially for books cause the place i shop from used to charge a 5 buck pre-order fee for every book.
However one day the pre-order for the book was 50% off.
so.... 15 bucks for a 30 buck hardcover...... SOLD
however 15 dollars puts me under the free shipping line.... i hate paying for shipping (especially for a store that has multiple locations all extremely close) so i check the amount and it's 20 dollars.
I knew the Noragami manga comes out early september... it would mean waiting to get my book a week late BUT i would be getting two things i desperately want....
So i order it and put it out of my mind knowing that sometime early september i'll get my order.
Yesterday morning i get a shipping notification.

This surprised me because i almost always get my orders from this place within a day (if not same day) once the shipping notification is sent.

But it didn't make sense.... yeah the book was close to release but Noragami was still over a week and a half away.
however later that day i got a package.
(it's actually september 2nd not 5th but to lazy to fix it, besides my writing is terrible anyways and writing on a tablet can be awkward)
So i was super happy i got my stuff pretty early.... but there was a catch.
Normally when i get a book i have been waiting for i lock myself in a room and just read.... only stopping for food and sleep if i must.
The broken eye isn't a small book, it'll easily take a day to read, the other books in the series took me around 8-10 hours and i'm pretty sure this one is bigger.
Right now i've been working on commissions.... so i can't really afford to take a day off to read my book.... so i told myself.... no book till this commission is done, then you can put commissions on hold and read.
I went to get to work and.... immediately get called away from my computer for the rest of the night.... *sighs*
Still... i wanted to read..... and i figured... i didn't put any restrictions on reading the manga....
So i read about half last night and the rest this morning....

I'm not going to talk about plot but i will say if you like shows where the line between fantasy and reality are blurred... you go out right now and you buy this book... it is so good.
if you unsure if it's your thing go over to funimation and watch the 12-13 (can't remember... too lazy to check) episode anime, it's pretty kickass and deserves lots of love.

So i read it and think this is really good, i love how it's a bit slower then the anime allowing for time to explain... and i get to the last page and theres an in memory of column.
I look over to my shelf and notice Alive, a series i had heard had been done by the same people who did noragami but that wasn't completely accurate. There were two names on Alive, only one on Noragami.
Reading the afterword broke my heart, most of the time those are funny or previews or talkign abotu the crazy stuff that happened.
This just described how lonely it was to lose the people you looked up to, the fear and confusion when you get thrown into something, the sadness of losing a teacher and a friend.
It was just very honest and touching and yeah.... made me cry...

after that were the translation notes.... the glorious translation notes.
most of the time they are tiny paragraphs that tell you the bare bones of what you need to know.
not norgami, there are PAGES of in depth translation notes that talk about the double meaning of words, where they had to change things to make sense to an english audience, why they didn't translate certains things exactly like the anime (regalia vs shinki) and yeah... it was amazing... if all kodansha comics are that in deth i may endeavor to get a few new series (because 4 bookshelves of manga is not enough i say!)

but yeah... go order Noragami, it comes out september 2, it is still ongoing and considering how long Alive was it's probably going to be huge (this only had 3 chapters and there are about 40 out at the moment.)
ok... time to finish the commissions and then lock myself away to read.

Friday 15 August 2014

Strobe Edge

I'm running a bit of a fever so i may ramble or misspell things... but who are we kidding i do that anyways.

This season there is a show called Ao haru ride (blue spring ride) and it's simulcating on crunchyroll... and it's really really good.
it's easily my fav show along with captain earth this season.
I look forward to mondays because thats when it's on... and the last episode (6) had me both yelling and crying at the screen.
I really do have a sweet spot for shoujo.... and i wanted more of the story.... and i'm possibly the most impatient person i know so i looked up to see if the manga is licensed.
It is..... in french and German.... but not english.
I could get it in french and be fine though i have lost a lot of my french skills since i have no one to speak it with.
but dammit i want it in english, translating is exhausting and i just wanna be overcome with feels.
so i looked at what other series the artist had done.
I had heard many great things about strobe edge but i never got around to reading it...
luckily it was only 10 volumes long and in stock at the book store i prefer to order from.
So i did the only sane thing.... ordered it all on the spot and hoped i would like it (i did actually preview on chapter but i was practically ordering it while reading)
Yesterday while i was tetrising up my bookshelf i posted a picture of my miniscule game 'collection'

I did find a few more of my games so it's a little more full now but yeah... thats it....
what i didn't show (and i don't have a pic of cause it's still pretty unorganized) is the fact that i have 3 bookshelves dedicated to manga... and most of the series i read ar on the shorter side (only a handful go over 10 volumes)
so yeah thats why i have barely any space for things like dvds and games... and yet my brai nstil lsaw nothing wrong with buying a 10 vol series... oh well.

I really enjoyed it, the art is lovely (though some characters look very similar in certain scenes, had their been colour it would have been fine but in a black and while medium it can get confusing)
The pacing is perfect, the guys don't feel like "omg i'm gunna win you over at any cost despite your feelings" it just feels like a nice little slice of life sometimes shit doesn't work out the way we hope or expect. but at the same time just cause life can be random doesn't mean happy endings are out of the question.

one bad thing i could say is that because there are so many characters and because no one is really 'bad' sometimes you want a character to pull through but it just doesn't happen.... and thats a bummer (but understandable)

The english Manga is published by Viz' shoujo beat series of manga and if you like shoujo titles then this is a really good one to pick up.
it was never made into a show but considering how well Ao haru Ride is doing who knows? (though it is a little older so it's unlikely)
but now that i've had my fill of Io Sakisaka i need to go back for waiting for monday to arrive... (even if it's only for another 6 weeks... 12 episode shows are the worst... . so short)
but right now i should get back to bed and do what sick people are supposed to do....
however i'm not good at resting so i'll probably just play disgaea 4 more... yes that sounds like a plan.

Wednesday 13 August 2014

Guardians of the Galaxy

You know... sometimes i do some stupid stuff.... mostly caused by not thinking through the entire situation....
*sighs*
Today my brother goes up to my father and repeats the word "movie"
He does this when he wants up to do something and he has the patience to know we will eventually cave. 
However he very rarely tells us what movie so we go through the list and he latches onto Guardians of the galaxy
great, heard nothing but good things... we all pile into the car and then it hits me... there is an extremely high probability that there will be shit i can't deal with in a film that had galaxy in the title... and i'll be trapped in a movie theater..... WONDERFUL.

Still there was a chance that none of the things would trigger me so i didn't hop out of the car and bus home... i sat down and took deep breaths when needed.

The movie was really good, wasn't happy with all the establishing shots but they were short and the humor made it easier to bear. The things that would easily be the worst parts of other things were the best, the music fit, the acting was good, it was extremely funny without ever feeling like it was trying to hard to fit a joke in there.

It is a little silly but most comic book movies are (at least the good ones) and it's still an interesting experiment as far as lets try and tie all these movies together in a way that doesn't exclude people but rewards those who watch it all.

However i do not plan on watching again any time soon... that was enough space to fill my quota for a while and if captain earth goes back into space it may be too much for me (though probably not cause i really do love that show)

Also, just to make sure you understand where my opinion comes form.
I'm not terribly into comics, do not like space, have not seen all the other marvel movies (but i have seen most), only sat through 4 episodes of agents of shield and i still really really liked this movie... it's just fun... which is more then i can say for other movies as of late.

Sunday 10 August 2014

Rant. feel free to ignore [edit]

There are three main school of though when it comes to how a show should be dubbed/translated

  1. The Purist: Translations that are as close to the source material as humanly possible with most, if not all, cultural influences in tack.
  2. The interpretation: Translations that are still incredibly close to the source but will change things so they will make more sense to the viewing audience
  3. The re-interpretation: Translation is there for the base of the story but things are changed left and right and more often then not editied and censored to appeal to a younger (or different) audience.
There are more of course but those are the basic ones... Most people i know prefer the Purist route, i find it a bit to close minded since you can't expect everyone to understand certain references. I prefer the interpretation where none of the story elements are changes but wording ot references are done in a way to make more sense.

Why bring this up?
The other day i got Cardcaptor Sakura Bluray from NISA, a company i have loved since they were solely doing video games and a company i have very recently praised for their dubwork.
After watching the toradora dub i was so excited for this... while the original english dub for this show was by no means bad it was hacked to hell.  I was expecting this to be really good.

Episode one:
Sakura: Tomoyo's dad owns a big toy company
me: .... her dad is never mentioned... thats the ongoing joke... that her mother owns the company, never speaks of tomoyo's father and only ever hires women for her company up to and includign tomoyo's body guards... making the father own the company is almost like saying "well a woman couldn't possible do it" which was the whole point of the character in the first place

Tomoyo: my dad bought me this camera
me: . . . the original line is "I bought a new camera" showing that Tomoyo not only has the means to purchase expensive equipment but also that she doesn't rely on her family to get her things like that.

It seems like a minor change but it actualyl affects the character arc of tomoyo and her mother.

Then we get to the sealing wand and the magical incantation.
Directly translated: The key that holds the power of darkness. Reveal your true form to me. I, Sakura, command thee under convert. Release!
Animax dub: Reveal your secret powers, Reveal your true power to me, my name is Sakura and i command you. Release!
 and for fun
Old English dub: Key of Clow, power of magic, power of light, surrender the Wand, the force ignite. Release!

which one of those sounds best? well it sure as hell isn't the animax (the one NISA used) one... did they even try? and don't tell me lip flaps because the only part where we see the mouth moving is "Release" and it's always in english.
Still it's a minor change right?
actually... no
In the second season she needs a new incantation because the wand no longer works on magic based in darkness and light... it's works based on stars. The incantation as it is now though wouldn't give her the hint she needs to know to change the incantation since it's REALLY generic.
all they had to do was slip in the line "key that hold the power of darkness" instead of repeating the first line again.... and it would be okay... still bland but fine.

But bland seems to be the flavor of this show.
i know it's not the voice actors... i've heard most of these people in other things and they were really good, Especially sakura's Voice actress who plays Rue in princess tutu and gives one of the best performances of the show.... but in this her dialogue is stilted and nasally... which i do not blame her for a second, i'm thinking this was the directors choice.
all the characters sound so bored, there are odd accents creeping in and out of certain characters, there are random lines of dialogue that make no sense and then contradict was is said right after....
I hate to say it...
the old dub, if you forget how censored it was, it was way better... it actually tried really hard and i just can't say the same for this.
and it's not nostalgia, i am betting you could put the two side by side, pick and episode with little to no changes and people would think the old dub was more professional.

Oh.... another major thing they changed... also major spoilers

In the new dub kero mentioned "clow caught all the cards to stop a great disaster from hitting the world"
no, he didn't
Clow Made the cards in such a way where their powers couldn't get out of control HOWEVER if they were set free a great disaster would befall the world.
whats the difference?
well the disaster in question isn't one that actually affects the world... it's still terrible and earth shattering but moreso to some then others...
see cards get attached to those that write their name on them... so if the cardcaptor is deemed unworthy by Yue the judge erases the cards memory of the one they care for the most... however it goes further then that... he also erases the memory of the most loved ones from anyone who had any kind of contact with the cards.
it's a commentary on "is it better to have loved and lost then never loved at all"
the dub saying "he just went around and caught these" changes so much
a) why would he need to... only to risk havign his own memory erased?
b) it diminishes his power cause instead of actually making the cards/the book/theguardians he's just going around capturing stuff
c) it completely ruins the point of sakura needing to re-create the cards later cause Clows magic is not longer whats keeping them alive... if they existed before clow then why would they need a new source of magic to keep existing... how did they exist before?
d) why is the seasling wand pink? we know it's cause clow made the wand specifically for sakura since he knew all and saw all but if he just used the sealing wand himself why is it pink, why is his wand in season 2 different? hell in season two why is he able to create know life if he simple captured keroberos and yue.....
....
ok.... i'm done...
the dub isn't bad.... the changes are.... the lacklister directing is.... but the dub isn't bad...
but i can't wait to rewatch this in japanese.... for now though.... i will sit through the english and just hope it gets better... or more importantly that it stops changing key story elements.

well... one last thing
Kerberous?
really?
you know the japanese only gave him a K cause they don't have C right?
no?
ugh.
why not just call him "keroberous" in english then.... like the old dub

EDIT:
Things change for the better in episode 7, the incantation refers to darkness, the talking in circles is less (but still occasionally happens) the acting continues to get better though some accents are still surprisingly thick.
oh and apparently tomoyo never mentions her father... you know other then that one time in ep one...
still i am enjoying it more as the direction and writing gets better 

Saturday 9 August 2014

Figure Photoshoot: Sayaka

Out of the main 5 girls in Puella Magi Madoka Magica i think theres one thing almost unversally agreed upon.

Sayaka has the best outfit.
I wish it were in red, but honestly it is really the nicest design.
At a con a few months ago there were three figures in this series. Madoka, Sayaka and Mami... and though i almost went for madoka (cause my friend bought one of the sayaka's) i decided screw it and bought sayaka cause i actually have a few madoka figures and she isn't my favorite part of the show.
Still this figure is nice, i wish the connection between her feet and the pegs was a bit tighter but i still love the pose and the movement.

Also she is big, i would think around 1/6 scale size but i believe it's classified no scale.
I would love to own the entire set one day but Sakura (who has my least fav outfit... despite being my fav colour) is a lot more expensive then the others so i may not happen.

Still i do love this figure and got some good pictures before the light faded.


but this has to be my fav shot
I did manage to get some batteries for my Proplica moon wand so maybe i'll post video of that eventually... still have lots of pictures to take/upload so i hope you wont be too annoyed with all these figure pictures. (i just really find it fun and i do hope you like it)



Friday 8 August 2014

Figure Photoshoot: Kuroko Tetsuya

While season two left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth i still am really enjoying Kuroko's basketball (aka Kuroko no Basuke, Aka The basketball which kuroko plays)
My favorite character is easily Kuroko and when i originally saw this figure and his pose i wanted it.
It sold out damn near instantly.
So i waited for a re-release which came but.... i either missed it or i wasn't too interested since i am running low on space for things like figures.
Then at Con Bravo i got to see him up close and i ended up buying it cause it's just such a nice figure.
It's just such a dynamic pose, he is my only One support figure that isn't screwed into the base... i have no idea if he's metal on the inside but he feels really study... over time he may bow a bit... poses like this tend to warp over time but seriously it's just so nice.
also because the pose was so dynamic he's interesting to view from any angle.

plus the sculpt is pretty much perfection, it takes the style of the show and has realiztic golds and muscles... just so nice.
all being supported by this
it's pretty crazy, i do have Kagami and Aomine on order so looking forward to those arriving.
now for some more interestign pictures.

Gotta love close ups, though because this figure is fairly large with my new set up i'm trying to find way of still having a nice BG... didn't always work out.

Still i did manage to get one shot i really really liked.
but yeah, i am excited for the others and i look forward to them shipping eventually.
Hopefully the clouds will go away so i can take a few more pictures of things... i still have the petit chara sailor moon figures, the proplica moon wand, Snow miku 2013 and probably something else i can't remember at the moment.
anyways i hope you enjoy these occasional photo heavy Blog posts.

Thursday 7 August 2014

Figure Photoshoot: Petit Chara Natsume Yuujinchou

It has been far too long since i have taken pictures of my new pictures.... no reason why.
well... one reason why...
Conbravo.... i have pictures of me on the camera... i HATE looking at pictures of myself and will avoid it like the plague.
It's silly..... really silly...
but hey now i have seen the pictures, know my hair is a frizzy mess and i can ignore them for the rest of time~ yay

Now onto good pictures.
So you may not know this about me... but i like Natsume's Book of Friends. Like A lot.... too much.
So when i saw the Petit Chara Four seasons set of 6 (5+secret) after i stopped squeeing i bought it right away.
one problem.... Blind box... Technically this should mean that you are not guaranteed a full set when you buy... and i really wanted all 6.
So i bought 2, i have a good friend who also happens to like the series and i figured i could sell her any doubles i get and if the one box happened to be a full set i would just sell her the sealed second box.
So... i open the one box and yeah... full set, so i guess despite being blind box it still means full set? guess i'll find out when my friend opens it.
but look how cute these are.


This is Winter, i love the little snowman Nyanko


Summer, i Wish Nyanko didn't cover all of natsume's yukata but still so cute.



One of my favorite poses for one of my fav seasons Autumn/Fall, also the little dragonfly is just an adorable little touch

Spring is also one of my favs, even though he's small the details on his kimono jacket thingy are so pretty.... also Nyanko with Booze makes me smile.

Now for my fav of the set... and it's not a season



It's Nyantsume~ Believe it or not this figure, like all the others has Both Nyanko and Natsume in it... makes me so happy.

So thats the core 5.... now when i heard there was a secret one i wondered what it would be.
I guessed that it would Probably Houzukigami Natsume or Yokai Natsume... of the two i thought the latter was more likely because it's a simpler costume and followes the trend of box Nyanko and Natsume looking unique.
So... i'll be honest when i did open the secret i was a little sad.... i love it, but it's just a colour variant but still it is really lovely.
The secret version is... Spring!

I also love that Nyanko is more drunk in this version.
lets see the two side by side

and now for all 6 lined up!

I love these figures, i hope the second box i got is also a full set cause i think it would make my friend happy.

This brings my total of nastume figures up to 13
11 of them are of natsume... i may have a problem.
plus i'm still waiting for the re-release of that one really nice figure....
*sighs*
I was going to put this in the same post as my new Kuroko no basuke figure and sayaka but... this has been image heavy enough.

Like my new set up? we have a deck now so i was taking full advantage of having a super nice table on it. Also i love natural light but if you perfer the old setup... well just let me know.



Tuesday 5 August 2014

The Princess and the Pilot

Yet another lovely NISA box to put on my shelf.

This is a story set in the same world as Pilot's love song (though i don't know how close or far the two are from each other... i know this was made first but thats mean it's chronologically first). Juana is a princess who is engaged to a kind prince from another land that happens to be in the middle of a war. He promises her they will wed in a year after he's stopped the fighting.
Over a year passes and now the enemy wishes to kill the princess, her last hope is a undercover escort mission where she will fly with the Pilot Charles to her new home and hopefully safety.
however one careless message from the prince has potentially compromised the mission and the two must work together to survive the long journey.
However the story is Equally focused on Charles.
He was born in a way where everyone considers him as low as vermin. He worked in the castle as a child and happened to meet the princess once before being fired. Above all else he wanted to be free so he became a pilot and quickly rose to be one of the best. the problem was his title as a Bestado (half blood between a local man and a women from the enemy faction) means they will not let him climb up the ranks.
The only reason he gets the mission at all is because they needed the best and had to put aside their biases for the safety of the princess.

yeah i thinks thats all that i can say without going into spoilers

The story is very good with decent pacing and some interesting visuals. It shares some similarities with Pilot's love song... especially the overall tone, if you liked that series you will probably like this film and it was interesting seeing more of the world.

it does have a few moments of "well isn't that convenient" as well as some plot threads may not be resolved the way you want them to be... still I really enjoyed this movie and I will be happy to display it next to NISA's boxset of pilots love song.... whenever that comes out.

The good:
The animation, the story and the quiet moments are really nice.
It's only 99 minutes so there are very few pacing issues.

The not so good:
extremely minor gripe but Mad house has an incredibly easy to recognize style and for me at least it was a bit distracting.
I would have liked a few more spcial features but NISA hasn't really been able to give that on any of their series yet so... i just gotta continue to hope.

If you wanna watch the film you can see it (and pilot's love song) on Crunchyroll, if you like it  i suggest buying the bluray from NISA and hopefulyl soon Pilot's love song will have a lovely box set from them as well soon.

Monday 4 August 2014

Kids on the Slope

In my Original ramble about this show i said this.
this show will probably never get to be licensed thanks to it's amazing music. No company would want to willingly license it wen they know they have to license all the other songs since i don't think any were public domain
well..... i was apparently wrong... and i couldn't be happier.

Also, i watched this immediately after watching Honey & Clover 2... so when i heard the kickass intro song again this time i was hit with a sense of the familiar unlike i had when i first watched the show.
Seriously thought watch the intro here and then watch the rest cause it's good
Well the answer is pretty simple same group did this and the Honey and clover songs and it was pretty nice making that connection.

Anyways i was completely wrong about it not being Licensed, Sentai picked it up AND they even gave it a dub.
The main characters are great and like a wave of nostalgia for me because it's pretty much all the ADV actors i knew and loved....
The supporting characters on the other hand made me watch the show in Japanese cause i wanted to enjoy my DVD... The teacher quite literally said "oh you are Kay-oh-rue?" Instead of Kah-oh-rue and i flipped the language setting.... I will watch it in english once i get through all the stuff i bought recently but yeah it's really strange having such fantastic voice acting next to some characters sounding so off.
Also, and this is not the dubs fault this is a language barrier thing, the main character is called a variation of a term used for wealthy/ proper boys. I can't find the exact spelling but it sounds like Bon. The closest english translation is "Richie" and i guess it makes sense when Sen says it but pretty much everyone in the show calls him this by the end.... and like i said i couldn't sit through the english but if they kept that aspect it may sound strange.
conversely when they have only heard him called Richie they wouldn't know his name is Kaoru. I guess i'll find out later but yeah

The other thing i wanted to mention was that a lot of this show is Rotoscoped (pretty much any time they are playing an instrument) and i'll be honest i'm not a fan of rotoscoping normally but here it's just so damn pretty, it has a livelyness that anime seems to lack while still having a cohesive style that Rotoscoping tends to ruin. It's probably the best use of the tool i have ever seen and it came out all the way back in 2012. Flowers of evil was an interesting idea but if i had to pick between that kind of rotoscoping and this i would pick this so fast.

Anyways what i'm trying to say is you should watch this show, it's about two people with nothing in common except their love of Jazz. I hadn't rewatched it since it first aired but i love it as much now as i did then and i am so happy to own it.

You can give it a try over on Crunchyroll where all 12 episodes are free.

You can also pick up Sentai's release of it, it's all 12 episodes in one set and goes for a fairly reasonable price. It's a bit lacking in bonus features but it does have a dub (which i know i've made sound like a bad thing but it's actually a really good thing and i was so happy about hearing voices like Luci Christian and Chris Patton) and yeah... I just loved this show and i hope more people watch it cause it really is a Gem.

now i'll probably watch Letter Bee (which sadly does not have a dub...) until Cardcaptors sakura arrives (which does have a new dub) and then i'll stare at the trails in the sky anime i can't watch till they release Secodn chapter... and then maybe i'll watch this in english and update if any of my opinions change.

Saturday 2 August 2014

Not again...

I think i've mentioned it before by my taste very rarely lines up with with popular... I don't know why... i like what i like is the best explanation.

Every once in a while i feel like i'm watching something that IS popular and well received and well known.... only to have the world inform me that No one has heard of it or that those who have hate it.
This happens way too often and it bums me out every single time.

Before todays incident it was Samurai Flamenco which i thought was a wonderful satire of the Sentai formula nad yeah it got stupid near the end but had me smiling the entire time.
And no one liked it... I found maybe 4 other people (one of them being my friend) who enjoyed it... and i dunno it made me sad cause it was very funny and a nice commentary on the genre.. .and yeah... no one likes...

Still i thought today was different.
I drew this
This is Manatsu Daichi, he is one of the 4 main characters in Captain earth.
I thought Captain earth was going to be stupid but after watching it i was won over by the lovely music, the lovely and vibrant art and the story which yeah has some unexplained stuff but they are giving it piece by piece... which is better then "here is all this world specific info, enjoy!"

It has really high production value, the animation is really nice and the character designs are adorable.
Surely this must be well liked!
NOPE.
Not only is it not well liked... it's pretty much universally hated (which is new for me... the stuff i like tends to at least have a niche audience)
I found this out because I try to submit my art on DA to Fandom specific clubs.... and i couldn't find one.... this is a site with a ton of people... surely one made a group.
nope
so i look for fan art
i find 2 pieces.... on the entire site.
so i look on tumblr.
i see one piece of fanart.... oh no it's happening again.
I check it's rating on MAL... 6.75
I check it's rating on crunchy, average 3 stars
Anime News network?
mostly scoring in the yellow zone.

Now i'm not saying something perceived as average is 'bad'
but you have to remember.... the internet never rates shit on 1-10
it's almost alwasy 5-10.... and even if that isn't the case the reviews i have seen for just whats out are completely scathing.
I don't get it.... am i just biased cause of Teppies voice? (spoilers it's hiroshi kamiya)
am i just so happy i've found a sci-fi show that doesn't give me anxiety attacks i'm missing a shitty show?
or is this just a case of "my taste is strange...."
i think it's that last one
I like what i like... half the time i don't even know why.
I'm sad i can't find ANYONE to fangirl over the moments of the show that make me smile but i can see it has problems... it's not for everyone...
apparently it's not for anyone
oh well... Sentai licensed it so i'll be buying it... unless the last few episodes really screw it up.

actualyl side note
Gargantia was well liked... and it hasn't been licensed... but this show was..... WTF
not getting Kuroko no Basuke any time soon either... *pouty face*

oh well, i'll go enjoy my captain earth *nods*
Ever had something like this happen to you? you figure something is well liked but it's just..... not... at all? let me know~