730 replies to this topic

[kirant]

http://blaqcat-art.t...ship-is-sailing

Well...if you'll excuse me, I have to pick up all the feels I just dropped.

Context (Click Here To Hide/Show Text)

Canon (female character) is a very expressionless individual who's lived in a war torn world and purely used to taking orders. The first time you meet her, she's tearing apart Kazuki (the male) and his mech. It takes about half the first season for her to be anything but emotionless when he forces her to make a decision; it's because she's just glad someone actually bothered to talk to her. The last thing she says in that episode (right before credits roll and while nobody can hear her) is a lamentation over wanting to speak to him more.

Skip ahead a bunch and she's got a one-sided crush on Kazuki. Kazuki can't pilot the series' mechs without risk of death...but at the same time, he can't help but feel useless outside of that role. One smaller point of the series has been Canon's continual push to get him to stop wanting to pilot period; she'd reprimand him or even going to the hanger. He signs up for what's basically a suicide mission (namely, a long-term piloting role to protect another group of individuals).

This is practically the last piece of dialogue before the end of the episode (cliffhanger notwithstanding).

Also note that I've been a huge fan of the Kazuki/Canon ship for...practically a decade now.

[^Leo^]

i watched fooly cooly...i wish i could say more but there's really nothing to be said...i watched the whole show and still don't know what the hell it was.]\

Edit: not bad...just...strange. after watching the first episode you'll know if you will like the rest.

[Fire Blazer]

oh man I don't know what's going on in what you posted, Kirant, but that looks like one crazy sad departure scene, lol. Also kinda curious what the rings on her fingers were.

@zac I watched a tiny bit of that show and I also didn't get what was going on, sadly I figured it wasn't really my thing and I dropped it lol

as for anime I'm watching: Log Horizon 2, Assassination's Classroom, and The Rolling Girls. All great/very enjoyable in their own way, with LH2 and TRG being super confusing, lol. Not a very populated season of anime but I'm ok with it as-is. They've all got some solid action too (TRG has some amazing action/fight scenes).

I also watched a lot of Hunter x Hunter (the newer version that's also already finished airing), got up to early on in the Chimera Ant arc and stopped, it's solid but there were some things I didn't like Hisoka, too many training arcs, too weak MCs, I'll probably continue it slowly/as I feel like.

[^Leo^]

You bashing my boy hisoka >.> I don't know why but I loved his character. I agree with your other complaints though. Gon does break your complaint about weak MCs later, but that includes a big spoiler so I'll leave it at that. Chimera ant arc ends in a rather disappointing way imo. And everything after that is kinda meh. Worth watching if you're invested into the story, but otherwise I wouldn't bother.

[Elwood]

Well let's see... I'm rewatching Lucky Star, and I also watch Naruto Shippuden, One Piece and Fairy Tail as new episodes are released because I watch dubbed.

[kirant]

QUOTE (Elwood @ Mar 22 2015, 05:59 PM)

I've never really understood this mentality. Most people who hold this position seem to have the Japanese comprehension skill of "it's moon speak" or "weaboo" (which means they learned from anime...heavily stylized compared to actual Japanese). So how the hell can they tell if the original voicing is good or bad?

[Fire Blazer]

lol Hisoka seems to be well-liked but I took his personality and such rather uh straight-on and I just seriously don't like him, he's way too creepy and obsessed with fighting for me and I don't enjoy seeing him >_> (though I suppose even he has his moments... which kinda pisses me off even more, because I don't like him lol)

bleh Chimera ant arc is ok but ugh another training bit getting boring for me >_>; it always feels like they're either fighting uphill battles or the battles are just total pushovers to the point that they're not even really battles (e.g. early on in the Heaven's arena and those guys they knocked around at the end of the Greed Island arc or such). it's not inherently bad but I think I'm just a little too old for this now and don't have the patience for it and I like to see more fights that are even-sided or where the enemy is the underdog but still puts up a really tough fight. uphill battles are nice, but only if they're built up to, not when it's constantly uphill. not to mention that even when Gon does win, it doesn't feel like a real win/it's by a thread, mostly.

I like the concept of Nen fights being up in the air and not just being about aura/who is inherently "stronger", but despite what they're lecturing, it doesn't actually FEEL that way. Gon needs more techniques, more gimmicks, etc., all this time and he only has hand-to-hand combat and 3 other techniques (as far as we've seen), I'd like to see an all-out fast-paced battle where there's no constant dialog interruptions, constant pauses/thinking, etc; a real fight only has short moments of thinking, and in a good anime fight, the battle switches constantly (uphill/downhill for people) with each side being somewhat dynamic in their strengths and such and having a good line of aces up their sleeve and a trump card, IMO. having dialog, thinking, etc. is fine, but it shouldn't ruin the immersion of the fight or be the majority of it... *shrug* somehow this turned into a ramble, sorry lol

@Elwood Lucky Star is a classic I think haha, and there's nothing wrong with watching dubbed shows, some people prefer not to watch them, some can't stand them and only watch subbed, some are flexible (I watch both; I like hearing English, but there ARE cases where the English dub is just awful or it's not available yet, in which case I'll listen to the English sub with Jap dub), there are probably even people out there who only watch dub, lol. I think the only people worthy of being criticized are those who can't respect others' watching decisions! for instance, elitists who hate on anyone who watches dub saying that the Japanese voices are way better and that dubs are constantly awful and such (that's just an opinion; don't treat it like fact or else keep it to yourself), or people who hate on sub because it's Japanese and "weeb" (there are less of these people than the other type of elitists though, at least from my experience...).

tl;dr I'm totally not judging you for watch dubbed, I've watched plenty of dub myself, they're easier to get immersed into and it's easier to relate and such, I mean you actually UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY'RE SAYING, without reading it, without having to pause the video to read, and you can even repeat what they're saying and such, and hey some dub voices can even be better than the sub

so yeah TAKE THAT WORLD /idk

[Fire Blazer]

just going to double post because I can and we need more posts anyway

QUOTE

I've never really understood this mentality. Most people who hold this position seem to have the Japanese comprehension skill of "it's moon speak" or "weaboo" (which means they learned from anime...heavily stylized compared to actual Japanese). So how the hell can they tell if the original voicing is good or bad?

I understand it but only in the "I literally can comprehend it" sense, I don't really agree with it or think it's a very well-thought-out stance. I think people can't tell the nuances of the language and therefore can't find the same flaws in the voice acting and all that is encompassed (pitch, tone, inflection, accents, stylization, cheesiness, etc.) that they do in a language that they know very well (e.g. English). Thus they inherently think that the Japanese dubbing is better because they don't find those flaws, and they perhaps in their head can match up the text to the Japanese that they hear. Some people might even go as far as subconsciously reciting the line in their head in the way that makes most sense to them or that sounds best to them, meaning that because they're reading it, it will always sound better to them or something (think of like someone reading a book: unless something is worded very awkwardly, we can pretty much come up with a head-voice for characters that fits what we want to imagine them as or such and who's going to complain about how a voice sounds when you're the one deciding what it sounds like?)

Personally now that I know a small bit of Japanese I can tell the difference and I can see when VA's are doing relatively "good" or "bad" performances and such (granted, it's an opinion, but there's things that are generally agreed upon as being good or bad in a VA performance, so yeah) and I can even recognize VAs I've heard before more easily (again, kind of the same concept, it's harder to tell the common VAs in Japan if you don't know the language, so people might complain that in English dubs, they hear the same voices, when in actuality the Japanese dubs might not have THAT many more voice actors than over here... I mean they probably have more but it's not like every character has a different VA )

[Elwood]

I absolutely agree. If you want to watch subbed or dubbed that's your choice. My thought process on subbed is if I wanted to read it I would just get the manga. In some cases I have actually gotten the manga but that can get expensive. But yeah, how other people watch doesn't bother me at all.

[Fire Blazer]

Well I don't agree with that because anime is still voiced, colored, and... well, animated, all things to consider compared to manga; also in manga you see the entire page (or 2 pages) at once, compared to anime where you only see the equivalent of a "panel" at once, in a sense (in other words there's a key difference in the presentation of the "images" in animation vs. comics)

point being I think there are merits to everything and there's no simmple reason to watch/not watch or read/not read something, we just do what we find best and most convenient/comfortable really XD

[kirant]

QUOTE (Fire Blazer @ Mar 22 2015, 09:26 PM)

I understand it but only in the "I literally can comprehend it" sense, I don't really agree with it or think it's a very well-thought-out stance. I think people can't tell the nuances of the language and therefore can't find the same flaws in the voice acting and all that is encompassed (pitch, tone, inflection, accents, stylization, cheesiness, etc.) that they do in a language that they know very well (e.g. English). Thus they inherently think that the Japanese dubbing is better because they don't find those flaws, and they perhaps in their head can match up the text to the Japanese that they hear. Some people might even go as far as subconsciously reciting the line in their head in the way that makes most sense to them or that sounds best to them, meaning that because they're reading it, it will always sound better to them or something (think of like someone reading a book: unless something is worded very awkwardly, we can pretty much come up with a head-voice for characters that fits what we want to imagine them as or such and who's going to complain about how a voice sounds when you're the one deciding what it sounds like?)

This is basically the limit of my understanding. I figure though that people are smart enough to recognize that they actually don't know if it's a good performance or not and can't make an opinion.

Granted...it is probably me overestimating people's ability to actually apply logic. Or to ignore a topic that is ultimately worthless to them (what language others use to watch their entertainment).

[^Leo^]

What made you think people actually use logic and common sense? I've seen no evidence recently that those things even exist outside a relatively small group(compared to the population of the entire earth anyway).

Watched the first half of UBW, and I'm very impressed. I already know the story and all, but I can't wait for the next half. I guess my only complaint is the pacing, but UBW has a ton of information to deliver and their time is limited. Can't complain too much about it.

[Fire Blazer]

Yeah sadly I think it's just people not thinking hard enough about it/applying enough logic. Even if we're smart enough to do various things I don't think most people use even a fraction of their full potential, lol. It's stressful, they don't want to, they don't know how to, they aren't used to it, and in some cases they just aren't capable or are too stubborn/have other personality issues preventing the effective use of "common sense" and "logic", whatever the reason is, people don't really seem to be on the level of "smart" that you're implying they should be, here, at least from my experience XP

@zac yeah I agree sometimes pacing is one of those things where you kinda want it to be slower or faster-paced but it can't be helped (I think people lean towards "it should be faster-paced" but there were times where I was mad because something was being WAY too rushed as well). UBW was great from what I saw but unfortunately between knowing the story and hating Kirei I dropped it and despite a bit of pressure still haven't picked it back up again, lol, one day... one day

[Seraphinox]

Should be watching more but haven't had the time recently, and sometimes I just can't sit still enough for 20 minutes so I get nothing watched.

In the last two weeks though I've watched

First 10 episodes of Death Parade.

Interesting, beautiful and brought a tear to my eye on more than one occassion, damn feels. Not perfect but extremely engaging and interesting, one of the few bright spots from this season.

First 10 episodes of Durarara X2

It's Durarara, it's visually extremely nice, the characters (all 50 billion of them) are all interesting and engaging and it's narrative style is always fun to watch, I look forward to this every week and always enjoy it.

[Fire Blazer]

Seraph the trick for that, at least for me, is to do something else while watching anime.

One of the easiest things to do is to eat because it doesn't require you to take your eyes off the screen very much and you can certainly chew food while watching.

great after those two lines I now feel more compelled than ever to watch both of those... dang you 24 hours in a day not that having more hours would help because then we'd just be given more work to do. I just need 24 hours extra a day special for me and no one else

[Fire Blazer]

*Fire Blazer comes back

ok double post because laziness/we need more posts LOL

so I should probably comment that AFAIK two shows I really enjoyed are ending next week: Log Horizon 2, the second season of Log Horizon which IMO has been mostly better than the first and despite some rough and slow spots, was generally engaging and exciting (perhaps even more-so because I had someone to discuss it with, something I appreciate greatly >_>) and The Rolling Girls, a show that is hard to follow and a bit chaotic but full of lots of awesome moments; the show is (IMO) colorful, artistic and full of passion, has some excellent animation, some great fights, lots of interesting characters though no one characters is too deep, a bit silly and unpredictable, and overall just beautiful. It's going to be another sad finale though I think there have probably been worse considering it's just two shows.

Log Horizon probably won't get a 3rd season anytime soon due to a lack of content to adapt (it seems like they're rushing to create what's probably a non-canon temporary ending/"no-ending ending" of sorts here), and The Rolling Girls had a lot of IMO dumb complaints about how the show wasn't just crazy fights between gangs like in the first two episodes which IMO would have been boring in various senses and resulted in something much less original and interesting than what it is: instead of having OP main characters fight it out, TRG actually shows the power of normal people struggling to make an impact but still doing something, even if it's just small things or cheering people on. It sends across a strong message that is a slap in the face to people who think that just having power solves everything and that problems can simply be solved by fighting it out. It also shakes things up because the main characters aren't really special people, they're normal people, and in so many shows it's about special people with special powers or circumstances or whatever, and it never moves away from that, never powers-up the main characters so they can brawl with the best, and that really drives the point home and again, is a slap in the face to people who wanted something much more predictable and shallow.

/opinionsandstuff

as for next season, I think Assassination Classroom's second-half and Oregairu Season 2 are the only ones on my for-sure watch list right now. I might pick up one or two other things but I didn't this season that is now ending, so we'll see. F/SN is solid but I'm not interested in picking it up and the other stuff either seems like crap, isn't my thing, or is highly questionable, pretty much. (There's also Nisekoi S2 but that got kinda poor and lackluster so I'm not interested in watching the second season) *shrug*

[Cero]

Finally watched Battle of Gods. It was pretty good. With Dragon Ball Xenoverse and this movie my love for Dragon Ball has pretty much been reignited.

[^Leo^]

You know there's another dbz movie coming soon right? Mid April iirc.

BTW blazer I feel you on hating kirei. I don't hate him, but his character is fucked up big time. I would have gotten depressed designing him honestly.

[eckirion]

Currently watching:

Black Cat
Ayakashi
To Love-Ru ( OVA to Darkness OVA ( Rewatching ))
Sinbad: Magi no Bouken
Seitokai Yakuindomo OVA
Isuca
Medaka Box
Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Specials
Ansatsu Kyoushitsu

Plan on Watching:

Denpa Kyoushi
High School DxD BorN
Nisekoi:
Trinity Seven OVA ( No Subs )
Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches
To Love-Ru Darkness 2nd
Danna ga Nani o Itteiru ka Wakaranai Ken 2-Sure-Me

[Mercurius]

QUOTE (kirant @ Mar 22 2015, 08:04 PM)

QUOTE (Elwood @ Mar 22 2015, 05:59 PM) I've never really understood this mentality. Most people who hold this position seem to have the Japanese comprehension skill of "it's moon speak" or "weaboo" (which means they learned from anime...heavily stylized compared to actual Japanese). So how the hell can they tell if the original voicing is good or bad?

The same reason I can tell a German or Frenchman is angry by their tone of voice. (I could also tell how characters were feeling in Infernal Affairs by their presentation, even though every time I hear Cantonese in real life I swear to god everybody's trying to have a bitching duel. Almost everybody you hear speaking naturally IRL will count as a "bad voice actor" even when the only one they have to be one for is themselves.) A voice is recognized by the sound produced. It's not like I have trouble understanding or appreciating the intentions of American Movie OSTs because I listen to too many Japanese Video Game OSTs or something.

Additionally, there is often a tendency to change what they're actually saying for the sake of lip-syncing or other reasons.

It's also somewhat harder to make Japanese sound awkward because of how "fixed" their pronunciation usually is (compared to English where you can probably get 20 different guesses on how to say something) although this is compensated by their hilarious engrish ruining scenes. Even when the english is good it ruins the scene since you're all like WOAH WHAT IT'S ACTUALLY GOOD. Of course, that's not to say that there aren't better or worse ways of presenting a character via how they sound, but at least the words themselves are usually consistent.

The heaviest stylization of Anime-speak is from how the voice actors go out of their way to "sound like an anime character", that is to say, usually it's particularly clear, and somewhat exaggerated and limited in pitch. The latter becomes particularly obvious when they try to make a character meant to be cutesy and crazy at the same time, but I guess since the voice actor themselves can do it, it's not that weird to have such different sounds for the character. There are also a lot more voice actors in Japan than there seems to be in America, although that's not to say there aren't some that are really common in some "era" of anime.

What they're actually saying is determined entirely by subject matter. You're going to have way more trouble trying to understand modern Japanese if you watch too many Japanese historical movies(that are meant to be accurate) or something, because that has way more specialized vocabulary for like every single sentence that comes out of anyone's mouth. So much that it warrants giving Japanese people a class on classical Japanese. (do Brits have a class on Middle English?)

I don't really feel any difference from language-specific nuances (probably because I'm too dense to care) but then this is coming from someone that usually wants English subtitles for English audio. Since I'm Asian I can get away with the excuse that "I don't speak English that often" when I mishear someone IRL but that can only fly so many times when I don't have an unusual accent.

It should be noted that there are some cases where I absolutely despise the Japanese voicing (this is usually limited to one or two characters) though.