What I've always been wishing for is a Dragon Ball remake that starts at the beginning and gets us all the way to the beginning of Dragon Ball Kai, thus finally covering the entire Dragon Ball manga with modern animation/quality/canonness. However, that isn't what we got today. What we got instead is something almost equally as welcome -- a replacement for Dragon Ball GT.
GT was a great idea. What happens to everyone, especially the kids, after the series ends? It even had a good start, with Yuko Minaguchi playing a lovely young Pan. But then everything went horribly wrong. Instead of reasonable opponents like Frieza or Cell, all of the villains were stupid looking, stupid acting, and stupid rehashes of stuff we've already seen before. The heroes were strangely weaker than they used to be, instead of stronger like you would expect. The fights didn't feel epic at all. Worst of all, there were endless stupid eps like where Trunks crossdresses in order to trick a dinosaur into letting him into his cave, when Goku's the strongest being in the universe and should have just beaten the dinosaur up immediately. Just look at some sample episode descriptions from GT:
'Son Goku the Dentist'
'Trunks the Bride'
'Whisker Power'
'Dance Attack'
'The Resurrection of Cell and Frieza'
'Super 17'
Rehashes and lame joke episodes from start to finish. Baby taking over Z fighters and fighting with their strength is the exact same plot as Buu. It should never have existed. GT was just full of bad, weak ideas from start to finish.
This time, Dragon Ball Super is being supervised by Akira Toriyama. The overall script for the story is by Toriyama. The same nonsense mistakes won't happen again. We'll be getting genuine Dragon Ball from the genuine, high quality source. In fact, judging by how good the movies have been, Dragon Ball Super may be better than the average episode of Dragon Ball, instead of infinitely worse like GT managed.
A replacement for GT is probably worth even more than a remake of the original Dragon Ball. But I'm still leaving the Dragon Ball ranking at 8th, because until we get a remake of the original Dragon Ball, the story seriously makes no sense for those who start at the first episode of Kai. There are all these characters, none of whom have ever been introduced before, just flying around like old friends like it's totally natural. And if you start at the beginning of Dragon Ball, the art is so bad, the plot so dragged out with nonsense filler inclusions, that you'll end up hating yourself rather than liking the series. Perhaps the interest shown in Dragon Ball Super will be enough to convince them that a remake of Dragon Ball would be worthwhile, in which case there's still hope that this show can get better. But just replacing GT isn't enough to get this series to where it really belongs. Like Bleach, Dragon Ball will always fall short of its potential.
Dragon Ball Super starts this July, presumably right after the last episode of Kai. This just makes the summer anime season that much better, as if it needed any more hype than it already had.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Spring 2015 Anime First Impressions:
I finally got the chance to watch all the first episodes of the new spring anime season. Largely it was a giant pile of disappointments. However, a few promising shows did shine through. Let's take it item by item:
Kyoukai no Rinne: An obvious masterpiece from the start. The art is gorgeous, the humor is hilarious, the protagonists and setting are totally original and unique, and the pacing is quick and addictive. This is obviously the best new addition to the anime world. Not only is this a 'pass,' this is a masterpiece. Pass.
Hibike! Euphonium: This is the second most promising new series for the spring lineup. It looks like K-On! but feels more like Nodame Cantabile. This is a good mashup of ideas. If the story is executed well it could become great. It didn't have the instant classic feel of K-On!, but it could be a slumbering giant like Hyouka turned out to be. 'Pass.'
Ore Monogatari: There's a lot to dislike about this show and not much to like. Stopping a crime and saving a damsel in distress is a really lame way for a romance to begin. If this were the only way love could blossom, then the criminals are doing a public service by attacking people and therefore perpetuating the human race, since there's apparently no other reason a girl would ever want a boy around except as a bodyguard to stop even worse men from surrounding her instead. I like the art style and this is supposedly a famously good story, so I'll keep giving it a shot but this was not a good first impression. 'Pass.'
Yamada-kun to Nananin no Majo: I don't understand why the girl was willing to body-swap with him the second time and take his remedial classes. The first time was by accident and thus understandable. But the second? As thanks for his stopping the bullying that was happening to her? If so that should be a one-time only thing and therefore the plot should grind to a halt as the event never happens again. Explain to me why any girl would want to switch into an ugly boy's body, while giving said boy's mind full access to their own body to do with as he pleases while her mind is away stuck inside a male body instead? This may be a man's dream situation but it's unrealistic that the women are all so eager to please him by reciprocating. I'll give the show a shot because everyone else thinks it's great so maybe it gets better from here but. . .sigh. . . 'Pass.'
Danmachi: This is the third most promising new show of the season. It borrows too much from other stories and is just too blandly generic for its own good. But the art is good, the voice acting is good, and the characters are definitely likable, a rarity for the rest of the shows this season. I could see this show developing in all sorts of ways and shows a lot more promise when it's acting serious and life-and-death than when it goes for the harem ecchi comedy stuff. It's definitely worth keeping an eye on. 'Pass.'
Denpa Kyoushi: I'm getting tired of wish-fulfillment based anime. It's wish fulfillment to think that an otaku NEET can just waltz into a teaching job with no effort on his own part. Then it's wish fulfillment to think he can pull off criminal acts to stop bullying in his class with no repercussions. Yes, it would be nice if we could all dispense out vigilante justice as we saw fit the moment bad situations appear in front of us, but realistically speaking we can't do that and we'd be the ones who end up in jail, not them. Realistically speaking, wish fulfillment is not a good basis for a story. I do like the parts about inspring a girl to become a seiyuu because she found that fictional works really can have a positive impact on people's lives and therefore she wanted to do the same for others in the future. That positive message regarding anime is great in a world that tends to mock and demonize the medium. For that, I'll give this show a pass. 'Pass.'
Owari no Seraph: Despite this show being a total ripoff of Shingeki no Kyojin, it's still the 4th most promising new show of the spring season. It brought a lot of energy and depth to the characters, quickly and decisively. I like that in a show. Honestly, ripping off a great work like Shingeki is not a bad idea. Even if you're only half as good as the original, that's still damn good. If Owari no Seraph keeps up this pace and manages to mirror the quality of Shingeki no Kyojin throughout it might end up in my rankings too. 'Pass.'
Arslan Senki: I liked the depth and detail that went into this show. The setting, the characters, and the plot all felt realistic and reasonable. The most important aspect of a fantasy setting is that it should feel real, which is something Wheel of Time and Game of Thrones excel in. However, the next thing this show needs to work on is getting me to like the characters. If I don't like the protagonist, I have no reason to stay interested in what he does or what happens to him. Only by liking the characters can I actually end up liking the story, no matter how well written or well produced the show becomes. I feel like by the end of the first episode of Soul Eater Not! I was already in love with everyone. Why can't Arslan Senki be that good? It's the same thirty minutes both ways, and yet in one case I was totally head over heels, and in the other I was detached and shrugging my shoulders. Thirty minutes should be enough to get me to care about the characters if a story is done right. It's when a story is done wrong that you don't care, and that leaves me with a lot of worries about this show. 'Pass.'
Houkago no Pleiades: This show just didn't work from the outset. It's way too generic, and way too random/sudden. Things just happen without any characters making any decision. Everything just happens by random. Their entire situation occurred by random. Everything is just a mistake. I hate shows like this. I hate reluctant heroes who are driven into their situation instead of who choose it for themselves. Even though I liked the original ova's, this tv show didn't work at all. 'Fail.'
Plastic Memories: I sort of liked this show, until I realized it would never go anywhere. A job related story, it would just be an episodic repeat of the same things happening over and over again every episode. Mindlessly, endlessly, the same story will repeat every week with no change for the rest of this guy's life. He basically works as an undertaker. He goes around collecting corpses and burying them. As a side effect, he also has to spend a lot of time consoling grieving families. But there's no consolation you can possibly offer to a family that has lost a loved one. The fact that the people who die are young, not old, only makes it more impossible to offer any words of condolence. It's a shitty, hopeless situation and there's nothing anyone can say or do to make it better. It's a hopeless world and a hopeless job and I'd rather not spend any more time thinking about it. 'Fail.'
The remaining shows were so obviously terrible that I couldn't even sit through them all the way to completion. They were so aggravating and so boring all at once that I just gave up on each and every one of them:
Re-Kan, Mikagura Gakuen, Triage X, Urawa no Usagi-chan, Nagato Yuki-chan, Gunslinger Stratos, and Kekkai Sensen. They all Fail.
As a result, my weekly anticipation/excitement rankings for the spring season, what I'll be viewing for at least the next while, stands as follows:
1. Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works
2. Fairy Tail
3. One Piece
4. Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Vivid
5. Kyoukai no Rinne
6. Ansatsu Kyoushitsu
7. Dragon Ball Kai Buu
8. Grisaia no Rakuen
9. Hibike! Euphonium
10. Danmachi
11. Owari no Seraph
12. Hello! Kiniro Mosaic
13. Sailor Moon Crystal
14. Go! Princess Pretty Cure
15. Denpa Kyoushi
16. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
17. Oregairu
18. Arslan Senki
19. Yamadakun to Nananin no Majo
20. Ore Monogatari
21. Ghost in the Shell Arise (the last two non-filler episodes)
Twenty one shows is a fine showing for any season. If it can stay this high it would be a huge improvement over the winter season's 14. Getting Fairy Tail back from filler is also worth a lot, though losing a great show like Shirobako is hard to make up for no matter what you do. Spring had a lot of promise and ended up delivering on some of it. Even so, the upcoming summer season has a lot more promise and I expect a lot more to be delivered then.
Kyoukai no Rinne: An obvious masterpiece from the start. The art is gorgeous, the humor is hilarious, the protagonists and setting are totally original and unique, and the pacing is quick and addictive. This is obviously the best new addition to the anime world. Not only is this a 'pass,' this is a masterpiece. Pass.
Hibike! Euphonium: This is the second most promising new series for the spring lineup. It looks like K-On! but feels more like Nodame Cantabile. This is a good mashup of ideas. If the story is executed well it could become great. It didn't have the instant classic feel of K-On!, but it could be a slumbering giant like Hyouka turned out to be. 'Pass.'
Ore Monogatari: There's a lot to dislike about this show and not much to like. Stopping a crime and saving a damsel in distress is a really lame way for a romance to begin. If this were the only way love could blossom, then the criminals are doing a public service by attacking people and therefore perpetuating the human race, since there's apparently no other reason a girl would ever want a boy around except as a bodyguard to stop even worse men from surrounding her instead. I like the art style and this is supposedly a famously good story, so I'll keep giving it a shot but this was not a good first impression. 'Pass.'
Yamada-kun to Nananin no Majo: I don't understand why the girl was willing to body-swap with him the second time and take his remedial classes. The first time was by accident and thus understandable. But the second? As thanks for his stopping the bullying that was happening to her? If so that should be a one-time only thing and therefore the plot should grind to a halt as the event never happens again. Explain to me why any girl would want to switch into an ugly boy's body, while giving said boy's mind full access to their own body to do with as he pleases while her mind is away stuck inside a male body instead? This may be a man's dream situation but it's unrealistic that the women are all so eager to please him by reciprocating. I'll give the show a shot because everyone else thinks it's great so maybe it gets better from here but. . .sigh. . . 'Pass.'
Danmachi: This is the third most promising new show of the season. It borrows too much from other stories and is just too blandly generic for its own good. But the art is good, the voice acting is good, and the characters are definitely likable, a rarity for the rest of the shows this season. I could see this show developing in all sorts of ways and shows a lot more promise when it's acting serious and life-and-death than when it goes for the harem ecchi comedy stuff. It's definitely worth keeping an eye on. 'Pass.'
Denpa Kyoushi: I'm getting tired of wish-fulfillment based anime. It's wish fulfillment to think that an otaku NEET can just waltz into a teaching job with no effort on his own part. Then it's wish fulfillment to think he can pull off criminal acts to stop bullying in his class with no repercussions. Yes, it would be nice if we could all dispense out vigilante justice as we saw fit the moment bad situations appear in front of us, but realistically speaking we can't do that and we'd be the ones who end up in jail, not them. Realistically speaking, wish fulfillment is not a good basis for a story. I do like the parts about inspring a girl to become a seiyuu because she found that fictional works really can have a positive impact on people's lives and therefore she wanted to do the same for others in the future. That positive message regarding anime is great in a world that tends to mock and demonize the medium. For that, I'll give this show a pass. 'Pass.'
Owari no Seraph: Despite this show being a total ripoff of Shingeki no Kyojin, it's still the 4th most promising new show of the spring season. It brought a lot of energy and depth to the characters, quickly and decisively. I like that in a show. Honestly, ripping off a great work like Shingeki is not a bad idea. Even if you're only half as good as the original, that's still damn good. If Owari no Seraph keeps up this pace and manages to mirror the quality of Shingeki no Kyojin throughout it might end up in my rankings too. 'Pass.'
Arslan Senki: I liked the depth and detail that went into this show. The setting, the characters, and the plot all felt realistic and reasonable. The most important aspect of a fantasy setting is that it should feel real, which is something Wheel of Time and Game of Thrones excel in. However, the next thing this show needs to work on is getting me to like the characters. If I don't like the protagonist, I have no reason to stay interested in what he does or what happens to him. Only by liking the characters can I actually end up liking the story, no matter how well written or well produced the show becomes. I feel like by the end of the first episode of Soul Eater Not! I was already in love with everyone. Why can't Arslan Senki be that good? It's the same thirty minutes both ways, and yet in one case I was totally head over heels, and in the other I was detached and shrugging my shoulders. Thirty minutes should be enough to get me to care about the characters if a story is done right. It's when a story is done wrong that you don't care, and that leaves me with a lot of worries about this show. 'Pass.'
Houkago no Pleiades: This show just didn't work from the outset. It's way too generic, and way too random/sudden. Things just happen without any characters making any decision. Everything just happens by random. Their entire situation occurred by random. Everything is just a mistake. I hate shows like this. I hate reluctant heroes who are driven into their situation instead of who choose it for themselves. Even though I liked the original ova's, this tv show didn't work at all. 'Fail.'
Plastic Memories: I sort of liked this show, until I realized it would never go anywhere. A job related story, it would just be an episodic repeat of the same things happening over and over again every episode. Mindlessly, endlessly, the same story will repeat every week with no change for the rest of this guy's life. He basically works as an undertaker. He goes around collecting corpses and burying them. As a side effect, he also has to spend a lot of time consoling grieving families. But there's no consolation you can possibly offer to a family that has lost a loved one. The fact that the people who die are young, not old, only makes it more impossible to offer any words of condolence. It's a shitty, hopeless situation and there's nothing anyone can say or do to make it better. It's a hopeless world and a hopeless job and I'd rather not spend any more time thinking about it. 'Fail.'
The remaining shows were so obviously terrible that I couldn't even sit through them all the way to completion. They were so aggravating and so boring all at once that I just gave up on each and every one of them:
Re-Kan, Mikagura Gakuen, Triage X, Urawa no Usagi-chan, Nagato Yuki-chan, Gunslinger Stratos, and Kekkai Sensen. They all Fail.
As a result, my weekly anticipation/excitement rankings for the spring season, what I'll be viewing for at least the next while, stands as follows:
1. Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works
2. Fairy Tail
3. One Piece
4. Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Vivid
5. Kyoukai no Rinne
6. Ansatsu Kyoushitsu
7. Dragon Ball Kai Buu
8. Grisaia no Rakuen
9. Hibike! Euphonium
10. Danmachi
11. Owari no Seraph
12. Hello! Kiniro Mosaic
13. Sailor Moon Crystal
14. Go! Princess Pretty Cure
15. Denpa Kyoushi
16. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
17. Oregairu
18. Arslan Senki
19. Yamadakun to Nananin no Majo
20. Ore Monogatari
21. Ghost in the Shell Arise (the last two non-filler episodes)
Twenty one shows is a fine showing for any season. If it can stay this high it would be a huge improvement over the winter season's 14. Getting Fairy Tail back from filler is also worth a lot, though losing a great show like Shirobako is hard to make up for no matter what you do. Spring had a lot of promise and ended up delivering on some of it. Even so, the upcoming summer season has a lot more promise and I expect a lot more to be delivered then.
Saturday, April 25, 2015
200 Beautiful Anime Girls:
My list is back to a round number with the inclusion of my final two entrants: Hana from Hanayamata and Mamiya Sakura from Kyoukai no Rinne.
Rumiko Takahashi's characters have always been pretty but they've never been in HD before, so Kyoukai no Rinne is really startling in its attractiveness. With proper technology, this is how all of Takahashi's famous manga characters could have looked. It's a shame they're never doing a Ranma 1/2 remake. . .
Hana really is an ethereal fairy as described in the show of impossible to believe beauty. She looks good in anything she wears and no matter what she's doing. Kimonos, t-shirts, loose hair or twin tails, Hana is always right.
With four pictures of each of them updated to my beautiful anime girls list, my final 'hall of fame' post without a round number has a round number again.
However, that round number perfection is about to be broken because Kyoukai no Rinne is also going into my top anime rankings. I always said Kyoukai no Rinne would get into my rankings as soon as it started airing, and it's already in my great manga rankings, so it's no surprise that the anime will be featured in my hall of fame as well. Even so, I'm very satisfied with how bones has adapted the material. Everything looks great. Crisp, well shaded and lighted, well colored, and well animated. I couldn't ask for more. The question now is if there are any other spring series that will be joining Rinne in my top rankings?
Danmachi is okay but I'm not sure it's to the level of a 'must-see.' For the rest, it's just a matter of 'stay tuned.'
Rumiko Takahashi's characters have always been pretty but they've never been in HD before, so Kyoukai no Rinne is really startling in its attractiveness. With proper technology, this is how all of Takahashi's famous manga characters could have looked. It's a shame they're never doing a Ranma 1/2 remake. . .
Hana really is an ethereal fairy as described in the show of impossible to believe beauty. She looks good in anything she wears and no matter what she's doing. Kimonos, t-shirts, loose hair or twin tails, Hana is always right.
With four pictures of each of them updated to my beautiful anime girls list, my final 'hall of fame' post without a round number has a round number again.
However, that round number perfection is about to be broken because Kyoukai no Rinne is also going into my top anime rankings. I always said Kyoukai no Rinne would get into my rankings as soon as it started airing, and it's already in my great manga rankings, so it's no surprise that the anime will be featured in my hall of fame as well. Even so, I'm very satisfied with how bones has adapted the material. Everything looks great. Crisp, well shaded and lighted, well colored, and well animated. I couldn't ask for more. The question now is if there are any other spring series that will be joining Rinne in my top rankings?
Danmachi is okay but I'm not sure it's to the level of a 'must-see.' For the rest, it's just a matter of 'stay tuned.'
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Manga Extravaganza:
Today marks the last day I must go without anime. (Though, to be fair, I still ended up watching a lot of anime this month). It's a grim day of utter deprivation and famine. Or, it would have been, had the scanlating world not come up with like a trillion good new manga chapters to read today.
Finally, an accurate translation of Akame ga Kill chapter 58 has emerged over at MangaPanda. This also allows you to read Akame ga Kill chapter 59 as a bonus side effect.
There's also a new chapter of Hayate no Gotoku, with Hinagiku sporting Hestia's outfit in a gorgeous cover page.
Add in the latest chapter of To Love-ru Darkness, where Rito and Haruna actually kiss, the first kiss in this entire series -- though as a result of accidental falling like usual, so. . .
Then there's a new chapter of One Piece, featuring Luffy's gear 4.
If that weren't epic enough, the new chapter of Bleach has Grimmjow returning.
If that weren't epic enough, Naruto, remember that series?, has a new chapter out as well, with Sarad questioning her parentage of all things in a soap opera drama intensive new chapter.
Then there's a new chapter of Btooom, just to top everything off.
The last day without anime has turned into the biggest manga day ever. God works in mysterious ways.
Speaking of manga, Fairy Tail is now releasing two chapters a week instead of one. This is on top of Hiro Mashima drawing special end cards for each anime episode in the latest season. On top of his also writing and drawing for his other manga Fairy Tail Zero. On top of his recent Fairy Tail of the Dead omake chapter. On top of his no doubt necessary oversight for other Fairy Tail manga projects like Ice Trail and Blue Mistral. Where on Earth does he find the time and energy? Hiro Mashima is also a God who works in mysterious ways. I was worried that the Fairy Tail anime would end after the Tartaros arc, but now I suspect the anime is going to continue. This is because the anime is noticeably, intentionally, dragging the story out with flashbacks and long zooms and the like. It's looking a lot like One Piece and Naruto who also pulled these same tricks. Since the Tartaros arc is already finished, there would be no need to slow down the pace unless the anime was already looking ahead to the next arc after that. And with Mashima writing two chapters a week of that next arc, it doesn't seem unreasonable at all that it too will be finished by the time the anime covers the tartaros content.
Fairy Tail's new Tartaros season somehow looks different from its previous seasons. But I can't complain, because the girls are still knock-dead gorgeous. I added seventeen new pictures of Lucy and seventeen new pictures of Wendy to my beautiful anime girls post based on just the last four episodes alone. Their new outfits, their new emotions, and the various angles they're shown in are all riveting. The amount of costume changes in Fairy Tail is simply amazing compared to any other shonen artist. Only Card Captor Sakura can keep up with Hiro Mashima's imagination. And each time a character gets a costume change, her entire look is renewed, allowing all sorts of new beauty to emerge one never knew about before streaming outwards from the exact same character as before. Wendy dressed up as Haru from Rave? By God that's cute. . . I never could have imagined such a bombastic trick until I saw it myself. . .Over max damage attack. . .
Tomorrow I'll get to work on my Spring Season Anime First Impressions. Until then, there's a lot of fun in mangaland.
Finally, an accurate translation of Akame ga Kill chapter 58 has emerged over at MangaPanda. This also allows you to read Akame ga Kill chapter 59 as a bonus side effect.
There's also a new chapter of Hayate no Gotoku, with Hinagiku sporting Hestia's outfit in a gorgeous cover page.
Add in the latest chapter of To Love-ru Darkness, where Rito and Haruna actually kiss, the first kiss in this entire series -- though as a result of accidental falling like usual, so. . .
Then there's a new chapter of One Piece, featuring Luffy's gear 4.
If that weren't epic enough, the new chapter of Bleach has Grimmjow returning.
If that weren't epic enough, Naruto, remember that series?, has a new chapter out as well, with Sarad questioning her parentage of all things in a soap opera drama intensive new chapter.
Then there's a new chapter of Btooom, just to top everything off.
The last day without anime has turned into the biggest manga day ever. God works in mysterious ways.
Speaking of manga, Fairy Tail is now releasing two chapters a week instead of one. This is on top of Hiro Mashima drawing special end cards for each anime episode in the latest season. On top of his also writing and drawing for his other manga Fairy Tail Zero. On top of his recent Fairy Tail of the Dead omake chapter. On top of his no doubt necessary oversight for other Fairy Tail manga projects like Ice Trail and Blue Mistral. Where on Earth does he find the time and energy? Hiro Mashima is also a God who works in mysterious ways. I was worried that the Fairy Tail anime would end after the Tartaros arc, but now I suspect the anime is going to continue. This is because the anime is noticeably, intentionally, dragging the story out with flashbacks and long zooms and the like. It's looking a lot like One Piece and Naruto who also pulled these same tricks. Since the Tartaros arc is already finished, there would be no need to slow down the pace unless the anime was already looking ahead to the next arc after that. And with Mashima writing two chapters a week of that next arc, it doesn't seem unreasonable at all that it too will be finished by the time the anime covers the tartaros content.
Fairy Tail's new Tartaros season somehow looks different from its previous seasons. But I can't complain, because the girls are still knock-dead gorgeous. I added seventeen new pictures of Lucy and seventeen new pictures of Wendy to my beautiful anime girls post based on just the last four episodes alone. Their new outfits, their new emotions, and the various angles they're shown in are all riveting. The amount of costume changes in Fairy Tail is simply amazing compared to any other shonen artist. Only Card Captor Sakura can keep up with Hiro Mashima's imagination. And each time a character gets a costume change, her entire look is renewed, allowing all sorts of new beauty to emerge one never knew about before streaming outwards from the exact same character as before. Wendy dressed up as Haru from Rave? By God that's cute. . . I never could have imagined such a bombastic trick until I saw it myself. . .Over max damage attack. . .
Tomorrow I'll get to work on my Spring Season Anime First Impressions. Until then, there's a lot of fun in mangaland.
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Soul Eater Not! Blu-ray Done:
Many blu-ray projects seem to be ending simultaneously these days, projects that have gone on for years without any sign of progress. Synchronicity is a truly wondrous curiosity in this mysterious marvelous world of ours.
This time Soul Eater Not! has come out in blu-ray in full. By the nice fansubbers over at [Rush_Job], we get episodes 7-12 all at once. Soul Eater Not aired during the spring 2014 season, so we get the blu-ray's almost exactly one year later. That's a lot faster than poor Love Live Season 2, which barely has had any work done on it even though it's been over a year. This despite Love Live Season 2 being around ten times as popular as Soul Eater Not. Don't try to make sense of fansubbing. It never works. . .
Meanwhile, I've completed my New Year's Day resolution, wherein I've watched every anime in my top anime rankings twice within two years of its original airing, except for the ones that haven't gotten an upcoming promised HD release yet which I'm still waiting for. The last series on my list that had gotten an HD release but I still hadn't watched twice yet was the first season of Ojamajo Doremi. Today that season's rewatch was completed. Doremi's sequel seasons, starting with Sharp, are still in the process of HD remastering, so we'll just have to wait on that side. For now, it's 'Mission Accomplished.'
Meanwhile, I've added a fun feature at the bottom of my 'Anime Rankings' permapost. It has a running tally of the total amount of good anime included in my anime rankings, the length of all my shows combined. This number will continuously grow as franchises get new additions to long-running content, and new series are added to the list entirely. This is the mountain all anime fans must climb to be counted as true anime fans. Anything short of this is a lifetime of failure. This is also the number of episodes of anime content I've managed to watch not once but twice. Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair.
This time Soul Eater Not! has come out in blu-ray in full. By the nice fansubbers over at [Rush_Job], we get episodes 7-12 all at once. Soul Eater Not aired during the spring 2014 season, so we get the blu-ray's almost exactly one year later. That's a lot faster than poor Love Live Season 2, which barely has had any work done on it even though it's been over a year. This despite Love Live Season 2 being around ten times as popular as Soul Eater Not. Don't try to make sense of fansubbing. It never works. . .
Meanwhile, I've completed my New Year's Day resolution, wherein I've watched every anime in my top anime rankings twice within two years of its original airing, except for the ones that haven't gotten an upcoming promised HD release yet which I'm still waiting for. The last series on my list that had gotten an HD release but I still hadn't watched twice yet was the first season of Ojamajo Doremi. Today that season's rewatch was completed. Doremi's sequel seasons, starting with Sharp, are still in the process of HD remastering, so we'll just have to wait on that side. For now, it's 'Mission Accomplished.'
Meanwhile, I've added a fun feature at the bottom of my 'Anime Rankings' permapost. It has a running tally of the total amount of good anime included in my anime rankings, the length of all my shows combined. This number will continuously grow as franchises get new additions to long-running content, and new series are added to the list entirely. This is the mountain all anime fans must climb to be counted as true anime fans. Anything short of this is a lifetime of failure. This is also the number of episodes of anime content I've managed to watch not once but twice. Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Friday, April 17, 2015
Blu Ray Extravaganza:
It's not often two great series get a subbed blu-ray release on the same day, but that's our good fortune today. Finally, finally, someone has translated Little Busters EX episode 8. It wasn't Refrain Subs, sadly. It was the good people over at guhehe, who also translate the Haganai light novel series. This episode comes in the same package as the entire rest of both Little Busters Refrain and Little Busters EX in 1080p blu ray, something even Coalgirls doesn't have on offer.
Darkhollow Little Busters Refrain 1080p is target number one.
Target number two is almost as sweet a deal. Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun in blu-ray in full. Previously to now, Gekkan Shoujo only had its first two episodes out in blu ray, and suddenly now the whole series is done at once. The translator who tackled this project is a hero. Gekkan Shoujo was one of the outstanding new series from last year, and it's always a good time to rewatch Gekkan Shoujo. This new blu-ray release is just the excuse we were waiting for.
Neither Bleach nor One Piece released a manga chapter this week. But in their place, we got a chapter of Fairy Ice Trail and a chapter of Fairy Tail Zero. That brings Fairy Tail's total chapter count up to 491. Just 209 chapters behind Naruto now. Of course, it'll be harder to catch up what with Naruto serializing again starting this April, but that miniseries will also end in time, whereas Fairy Tail will just go on and on.
Darkhollow Little Busters Refrain 1080p is target number one.
Target number two is almost as sweet a deal. Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun in blu-ray in full. Previously to now, Gekkan Shoujo only had its first two episodes out in blu ray, and suddenly now the whole series is done at once. The translator who tackled this project is a hero. Gekkan Shoujo was one of the outstanding new series from last year, and it's always a good time to rewatch Gekkan Shoujo. This new blu-ray release is just the excuse we were waiting for.
Neither Bleach nor One Piece released a manga chapter this week. But in their place, we got a chapter of Fairy Ice Trail and a chapter of Fairy Tail Zero. That brings Fairy Tail's total chapter count up to 491. Just 209 chapters behind Naruto now. Of course, it'll be harder to catch up what with Naruto serializing again starting this April, but that miniseries will also end in time, whereas Fairy Tail will just go on and on.
Thursday, April 16, 2015
When Present and Future Collide, Truth Begins:
We have found tons of genes for intelligence by now, and brain scans are now capable of accurately predicting your IQ. In other words, science has moved past the point where it's even debatable that IQ is real, varies between individuals and groups, and is rooted in inherent traits. There's no point trying to raise the self-esteem of destined losers. Nor is there any real point in trying to educate them or give them jobs. The only thing you can do with the genetically ungifted is pity them and give them money so that they can live a comfortable life even without a job. In the modern world brains are all that matter, skills can only be acquired through rigorous study, and those who can't understand the content of books and lectures are unfit for any sort of job. Machines have taken over all muscle power based work and in twenty years are slated to take over half of our remaining jobs anyway. As such, welfare is going to have to include a larger and larger segment of the world's population no matter what we do unless we want half the world to starve to death right in front of us.
The amount of people a nation has on public support is a sign of its progressiveness, not a sign of failure. It's like the number of people who have access to clean water, electricity, or the internet. It's a basic human right and human necessity that everyone in the civilized world should have access to regardless of their individual life history. In the past 100 years, the average hours worked per person has halved. It's only going to keep going down as automation takes over more and more jobs. Wages have petrified at the 1970's level for the same reason. Workforce participation is at record lows for the same reason. It's the same anywhere you look. The world has way more people than it has useful jobs, which is the main reason people aren't reproducing anymore. They themselves can't afford the children, and they know for a fact their children would be screwed and even less likely to get a job thirty years from now, so what's the use of cruelly bringing them into existence in the first place? Until a basic income is guaranteed, giving birth to a child in these circumstances is just child abuse.
The majority of Americans think their children will have lower quality lives than they had. They are right, so long as we don't pass a basic income. That's exactly the cliff we are heading for. A land without opportunity, without work or welfare, but just starvation and death for all.
Until the majority of a nation, the common masses, understand the things the intellectually aware have known for a long time now (virtually every tech website has advocated for the citizen's dividend and warned about automation replacing everyone's jobs by now.), all we can do is wait.
The situation is very similar to someone with extremely good eyesight announcing to a crowd that he can see a pink elephant in the distance. No one will believe him, no matter how vociferously he argues for its existence, until the elephant gets close enough that all the normal eyesight can see it just as plainly as he can.
Intelligent people pretty much across the board, from Paul Krugman to Charles Murray, all want to pass a citizen's dividend. It's only the stupid people who are preventing this miracle solution from occurring, even though they are the ones the law would help the most. There's nothing we can do about this stupidity, because they are too stupid to even understand the arguments we make that are so convincing to our own group but utterly unconvincing to the stupid.
Events will eventually prove everything we said to be correct. Automation will replace employment in nearly all fields, and there won't be any new jobs boom in any new category of makework to pick up the slack. This is just a future fact. There is no doubt that this will come to pass. Likewise, there is absolutely no doubt that all the genes for intelligence will eventually be found, and that they will be found to vary between the races, thus proving once and for all that blacks are innately less intelligent than whites and Asians. It is impossible to keep learning about our genome and avoid learning this truth sooner or later. At such a time, both eugenics/genetic engineering and a citizen's dividend will suddenly dawn on the world as the right social policy, and the world will turn on its axis a complete 180 degrees from what it was previously thinking and doing. How can they possibly argue against it once the facts are definitively in?
Sometimes being intelligent is useless, because just knowing how things will unfold doesn't mean you can hasten them any quicker. You still have to wait just as long as everybody else until everybody else 'gets it.' This is why it's best not to focus your intellect on social policy.
To use up our excess brainpower, games and fiction end up being much more rewarding.
And in these categories, smart people still have a wealth of productive options to drawn upon.
Square Enix has just announced that it's producing Star Ocean 5. I've always liked Star Ocean, though it doesn't compare to the likes of Final Fantasy or Tales of Graces. It's still a very solid role playing game franchise and it's been a long wait since its previous PS3 entry which was also very fun.
Speaking of Tales, Tales of Zestiria has been announced to include dual audio tracks, so if people want to enjoy the game in its authentic Japanese voice talent they can finally do so for the very first time in the Tales franchise. (Dynasty Warriors has had this option for quite a long time, it's a shame it took Tales this long. Now we just need Final Fantasy to do the same.)
World of Warcraft is already hard at work on its new 6.2 patch, which will open up the Tanaan Jungle zone for the first time. Didn't this game just release a few months ago? Impressive.
Meanwhile, Fate/kaleid liner prism ilya 2wei subbed blu ray has come out in full, so now's the time to rewatch the show before Herz starts this summer and continues the tale.
The amount of people a nation has on public support is a sign of its progressiveness, not a sign of failure. It's like the number of people who have access to clean water, electricity, or the internet. It's a basic human right and human necessity that everyone in the civilized world should have access to regardless of their individual life history. In the past 100 years, the average hours worked per person has halved. It's only going to keep going down as automation takes over more and more jobs. Wages have petrified at the 1970's level for the same reason. Workforce participation is at record lows for the same reason. It's the same anywhere you look. The world has way more people than it has useful jobs, which is the main reason people aren't reproducing anymore. They themselves can't afford the children, and they know for a fact their children would be screwed and even less likely to get a job thirty years from now, so what's the use of cruelly bringing them into existence in the first place? Until a basic income is guaranteed, giving birth to a child in these circumstances is just child abuse.
The majority of Americans think their children will have lower quality lives than they had. They are right, so long as we don't pass a basic income. That's exactly the cliff we are heading for. A land without opportunity, without work or welfare, but just starvation and death for all.
Until the majority of a nation, the common masses, understand the things the intellectually aware have known for a long time now (virtually every tech website has advocated for the citizen's dividend and warned about automation replacing everyone's jobs by now.), all we can do is wait.
The situation is very similar to someone with extremely good eyesight announcing to a crowd that he can see a pink elephant in the distance. No one will believe him, no matter how vociferously he argues for its existence, until the elephant gets close enough that all the normal eyesight can see it just as plainly as he can.
Intelligent people pretty much across the board, from Paul Krugman to Charles Murray, all want to pass a citizen's dividend. It's only the stupid people who are preventing this miracle solution from occurring, even though they are the ones the law would help the most. There's nothing we can do about this stupidity, because they are too stupid to even understand the arguments we make that are so convincing to our own group but utterly unconvincing to the stupid.
Events will eventually prove everything we said to be correct. Automation will replace employment in nearly all fields, and there won't be any new jobs boom in any new category of makework to pick up the slack. This is just a future fact. There is no doubt that this will come to pass. Likewise, there is absolutely no doubt that all the genes for intelligence will eventually be found, and that they will be found to vary between the races, thus proving once and for all that blacks are innately less intelligent than whites and Asians. It is impossible to keep learning about our genome and avoid learning this truth sooner or later. At such a time, both eugenics/genetic engineering and a citizen's dividend will suddenly dawn on the world as the right social policy, and the world will turn on its axis a complete 180 degrees from what it was previously thinking and doing. How can they possibly argue against it once the facts are definitively in?
Sometimes being intelligent is useless, because just knowing how things will unfold doesn't mean you can hasten them any quicker. You still have to wait just as long as everybody else until everybody else 'gets it.' This is why it's best not to focus your intellect on social policy.
To use up our excess brainpower, games and fiction end up being much more rewarding.
And in these categories, smart people still have a wealth of productive options to drawn upon.
Square Enix has just announced that it's producing Star Ocean 5. I've always liked Star Ocean, though it doesn't compare to the likes of Final Fantasy or Tales of Graces. It's still a very solid role playing game franchise and it's been a long wait since its previous PS3 entry which was also very fun.
Speaking of Tales, Tales of Zestiria has been announced to include dual audio tracks, so if people want to enjoy the game in its authentic Japanese voice talent they can finally do so for the very first time in the Tales franchise. (Dynasty Warriors has had this option for quite a long time, it's a shame it took Tales this long. Now we just need Final Fantasy to do the same.)
World of Warcraft is already hard at work on its new 6.2 patch, which will open up the Tanaan Jungle zone for the first time. Didn't this game just release a few months ago? Impressive.
Meanwhile, Fate/kaleid liner prism ilya 2wei subbed blu ray has come out in full, so now's the time to rewatch the show before Herz starts this summer and continues the tale.
Monday, April 13, 2015
Don't Bully the Weak:
All liberal morality just amounts to this pitiful phrase. People shouldn't bully the weak. Therefore, if you're poor, a minority, have a history of belonging to a persecuted group, sick, disabled, ugly, stupid, mentally ill, unhappy, blah blah blah, you are immune to criticism and can't be held responsible for your actions.
In addition, all efforts must be made to redistribute good fortune from the fortunate and better off to the less fortunate and less well off, until such a time as everyone is equal again. Therefore it's ridiculous for a straight person, a white person, or a man to complain about unfair treatment until such a time as their quality of life is lower than the people being given a leg up at their expense. For instance, in South Africa, it's true that there are all sorts of discriminatory anti-white policies in place, but whites have no right to complain about this because even with these policies in place their average quality of life is higher than the black South Africans who are their neighbors.
Men still tend to earn more money than women, so they can't complain about anything women do yet. In addition, men are still in all the positions of power and prestige, like the US Congress, or the CEO's of major businesses, or the winners of Nobel Prizes. Until women get an equal share of all the money as well as all the power and all the prestige that rains down on men, men cannot complain about any single thing that goes poorly in their own lives.
Of course, since men and women are biologically different, equality will never happen. Men are more intelligent, more driven, and bigger risk takers, so women will never catch up with them in any field at the extreme right edge of the bell curve. As a result, men will never have a right to complain about women's behavior or being mistreated until the end of time.
Likewise, whites are biologically different from blacks, and straights are biologically different from gays, so all the statistics that favor whites over blacks and straights over gays, bisexuals and transexuals will be in place forever. The tragic lives of minorities will never reach the average quality of life of the healthy majority. Therefore, whites can never say anything bad about blacks or ever complain about their own treatment by blacks, and straights can never complain about gays or complain about negative externalities gays inflict upon them.
Jews are a special category in liberal logic. Because they uniquely were genocided in the Holocaust, it doesn't matter how rich, powerful, or prestigious Jews become. It doesn't matter if they win 1/3 of all Nobel Prizes, or if their average income is over $100,000 in America, or if they have total military dominance in the middle east, or any other factor that would, presumably, put them on the side of the 'powerful' rather than the 'people.' Jews, by virtue of being a numerical minority, are still subject to the threat of crazed genocidal violence by their majority hosts, and therefore must always remain a protected class you can never say anything about. Since the Germans were willing to do it, any other white host culture may also be on the brink of doing it at any time, and the only way to prevent this genocidal impulse in whites is to never allow any criticism of Jews for any reason to ever reach the public's ear. A Jew's quality of life may be higher than most people's, but so long as that sword of damocles of random holocaust violence hangs over their heads they'll never feel safe or comfortable no matter where they live, which makes them an honorary victimized minority like all the rest.
Similar to blacks, Muslims are generally poor and low status so it's unfair to criticize them because that would be 'punching down.' Instead all efforts must be made to give Muslims whatever they want so that they'll feel better about their lower lot in life.
As social politeness and graces may go, liberals may well be right. Going up to a poor ugly person who works at a low status job and saying, "Wow, you stink of poverty. Your vocabulary is pathetic. How many books have you read recently? Do you even know who Chaucer is? Sweeping the floors sure must be a lot of fun, since that's all you've done every day of your life." Is not polite behavior. It does not befit a gentlemen to lord over people who already know full well how miserable they are and don't need to be reminded by strangers of their own pathetic situation.
But turning this personal politeness into a macroscopic public policy framework is madness. It goes from not bullying the weak into actively promoting the weak into more and more positions of unearned wealth, power, and prestige, while undermining the best elements of your country, rendering them powerless, impoverished and demonized. The dysgenic effect is tremendous as more and more parasites flock to the giving open hand of plenty, all at the expense of taxpayers who now can't afford a decent middle class existence for their children and thus give up all hope of reproducing themselves. In addition, when people aren't encouraged to do their best, but instead just given excuses for why they should receive handouts, they don't work as hard at bettering themselves and end up at a lower human potential than they could have been. There was a time in the 1950's where black families were more or less stable, they dressed well, crime was low and it looked like they had assimilated into white middle class values. That was a period when whites demanded and expected good behavior from blacks and didn't give them any excuses for falling short of the white standard. By lowering standards you just encourage bad behavior and let loose the inner chimp inside them. The same for gays or any other group. If you discourage their promiscuity then they'll do less of it, but if you say it's a perfectly good alternative lifestyle then they'll go ahead and do more of it. The same for women. If you say cheating and divorce is no big deal, they'll do more of it, whereas if you publicly discourage it as immoral they'll refrain.
This pattern is true across all time and all cultures. Whenever you relax your criticism of a natural but unwanted behavior, you'll get more of it. This is why cultures must be eternally vigilant and never excuse bad behavior no matter who is doing it or what their excuses are. What you end up producing with this 'don't bully the weak' standard is not only dysgenics but moral pollution. The environment keeps getting worse and worse for the very people you wanted to 'help' by ceasing criticism of their actions and affording them excuses for all their actions. Blacks in 1950 lived much better lives than blacks do today, and all because they were stuck in the segregated south full of vicious anti-black bigots who wouldn't forgive a single error or trespass any black made against them. They may have wanted to sleep around, take crack, and play polar bear hunting, but none of that was allowed by society as a whole. As a result they grudgingly decided to form nuclear families, dress well, and obey the law instead. The primary beneficiaries of policing black morality were black families and black children themselves, who grew up in a wholesome and stable environment. The people liberals are hurting most by refusing to enforce standards on the weak and worthless are the very people they ostensibly are standing up for.
So yes, personally, it isn't nice to just randomly walk up to a guy and start insulting them. However, publicly, as a matter of public policy, it's important to have basic moral standards of behavior and shame those who stray from it. There must be universal disapproval in their faces and looks, they mustn't be allowed to find lovers like the Tsaernev brothers did, but should be shunned by all proper ladies, art must continuously be made that pummels into the lower classes the expected standards of behavior that 'people like them' they see on tv behave at. Everything must be geared such that they feel a great eye is watching behind their shoulder and will devour them whole if they ever go a step wrong. Those who undermine the conditions in which a country thrives -- in a place of eugenics matched with environmental utopia -- are just as guilty of wrongdoing as the actual people who go ahead and irresponsibly reproduce while polluting the social environment with their crime, loud music, drug use, slum housing, etc.
It's not about bullying the weak. It's about upholding societal standards of behavior. And the weak especially need to be lectured the most about what is expected from them, and when they are falling short of our standards. They are the people who most of all need to be singled out, taken aside, and told that we simply will not tolerate this sort of behavior. For their sake, for our sake, and most of all for the future's sake. There is no future for South Africa. That country is lost to barbarism. The majority of the men in that country are rapists and the majority of women in that country have been raped. (https://www.thetrumpet.com/article/11050.24.159.0/society/south-africa-where-corruption-rape-and-murder-are-normal
It's hell on Earth. We cannot afford to lose more countries in the same way we lost South Africa to the forces of depravity and disintegration. If that means hurting people's feelings and ruffling their feathers along the way, then so be it. The alternative is much, much worse.
In addition, all efforts must be made to redistribute good fortune from the fortunate and better off to the less fortunate and less well off, until such a time as everyone is equal again. Therefore it's ridiculous for a straight person, a white person, or a man to complain about unfair treatment until such a time as their quality of life is lower than the people being given a leg up at their expense. For instance, in South Africa, it's true that there are all sorts of discriminatory anti-white policies in place, but whites have no right to complain about this because even with these policies in place their average quality of life is higher than the black South Africans who are their neighbors.
Men still tend to earn more money than women, so they can't complain about anything women do yet. In addition, men are still in all the positions of power and prestige, like the US Congress, or the CEO's of major businesses, or the winners of Nobel Prizes. Until women get an equal share of all the money as well as all the power and all the prestige that rains down on men, men cannot complain about any single thing that goes poorly in their own lives.
Of course, since men and women are biologically different, equality will never happen. Men are more intelligent, more driven, and bigger risk takers, so women will never catch up with them in any field at the extreme right edge of the bell curve. As a result, men will never have a right to complain about women's behavior or being mistreated until the end of time.
Likewise, whites are biologically different from blacks, and straights are biologically different from gays, so all the statistics that favor whites over blacks and straights over gays, bisexuals and transexuals will be in place forever. The tragic lives of minorities will never reach the average quality of life of the healthy majority. Therefore, whites can never say anything bad about blacks or ever complain about their own treatment by blacks, and straights can never complain about gays or complain about negative externalities gays inflict upon them.
Jews are a special category in liberal logic. Because they uniquely were genocided in the Holocaust, it doesn't matter how rich, powerful, or prestigious Jews become. It doesn't matter if they win 1/3 of all Nobel Prizes, or if their average income is over $100,000 in America, or if they have total military dominance in the middle east, or any other factor that would, presumably, put them on the side of the 'powerful' rather than the 'people.' Jews, by virtue of being a numerical minority, are still subject to the threat of crazed genocidal violence by their majority hosts, and therefore must always remain a protected class you can never say anything about. Since the Germans were willing to do it, any other white host culture may also be on the brink of doing it at any time, and the only way to prevent this genocidal impulse in whites is to never allow any criticism of Jews for any reason to ever reach the public's ear. A Jew's quality of life may be higher than most people's, but so long as that sword of damocles of random holocaust violence hangs over their heads they'll never feel safe or comfortable no matter where they live, which makes them an honorary victimized minority like all the rest.
Similar to blacks, Muslims are generally poor and low status so it's unfair to criticize them because that would be 'punching down.' Instead all efforts must be made to give Muslims whatever they want so that they'll feel better about their lower lot in life.
As social politeness and graces may go, liberals may well be right. Going up to a poor ugly person who works at a low status job and saying, "Wow, you stink of poverty. Your vocabulary is pathetic. How many books have you read recently? Do you even know who Chaucer is? Sweeping the floors sure must be a lot of fun, since that's all you've done every day of your life." Is not polite behavior. It does not befit a gentlemen to lord over people who already know full well how miserable they are and don't need to be reminded by strangers of their own pathetic situation.
But turning this personal politeness into a macroscopic public policy framework is madness. It goes from not bullying the weak into actively promoting the weak into more and more positions of unearned wealth, power, and prestige, while undermining the best elements of your country, rendering them powerless, impoverished and demonized. The dysgenic effect is tremendous as more and more parasites flock to the giving open hand of plenty, all at the expense of taxpayers who now can't afford a decent middle class existence for their children and thus give up all hope of reproducing themselves. In addition, when people aren't encouraged to do their best, but instead just given excuses for why they should receive handouts, they don't work as hard at bettering themselves and end up at a lower human potential than they could have been. There was a time in the 1950's where black families were more or less stable, they dressed well, crime was low and it looked like they had assimilated into white middle class values. That was a period when whites demanded and expected good behavior from blacks and didn't give them any excuses for falling short of the white standard. By lowering standards you just encourage bad behavior and let loose the inner chimp inside them. The same for gays or any other group. If you discourage their promiscuity then they'll do less of it, but if you say it's a perfectly good alternative lifestyle then they'll go ahead and do more of it. The same for women. If you say cheating and divorce is no big deal, they'll do more of it, whereas if you publicly discourage it as immoral they'll refrain.
This pattern is true across all time and all cultures. Whenever you relax your criticism of a natural but unwanted behavior, you'll get more of it. This is why cultures must be eternally vigilant and never excuse bad behavior no matter who is doing it or what their excuses are. What you end up producing with this 'don't bully the weak' standard is not only dysgenics but moral pollution. The environment keeps getting worse and worse for the very people you wanted to 'help' by ceasing criticism of their actions and affording them excuses for all their actions. Blacks in 1950 lived much better lives than blacks do today, and all because they were stuck in the segregated south full of vicious anti-black bigots who wouldn't forgive a single error or trespass any black made against them. They may have wanted to sleep around, take crack, and play polar bear hunting, but none of that was allowed by society as a whole. As a result they grudgingly decided to form nuclear families, dress well, and obey the law instead. The primary beneficiaries of policing black morality were black families and black children themselves, who grew up in a wholesome and stable environment. The people liberals are hurting most by refusing to enforce standards on the weak and worthless are the very people they ostensibly are standing up for.
So yes, personally, it isn't nice to just randomly walk up to a guy and start insulting them. However, publicly, as a matter of public policy, it's important to have basic moral standards of behavior and shame those who stray from it. There must be universal disapproval in their faces and looks, they mustn't be allowed to find lovers like the Tsaernev brothers did, but should be shunned by all proper ladies, art must continuously be made that pummels into the lower classes the expected standards of behavior that 'people like them' they see on tv behave at. Everything must be geared such that they feel a great eye is watching behind their shoulder and will devour them whole if they ever go a step wrong. Those who undermine the conditions in which a country thrives -- in a place of eugenics matched with environmental utopia -- are just as guilty of wrongdoing as the actual people who go ahead and irresponsibly reproduce while polluting the social environment with their crime, loud music, drug use, slum housing, etc.
It's not about bullying the weak. It's about upholding societal standards of behavior. And the weak especially need to be lectured the most about what is expected from them, and when they are falling short of our standards. They are the people who most of all need to be singled out, taken aside, and told that we simply will not tolerate this sort of behavior. For their sake, for our sake, and most of all for the future's sake. There is no future for South Africa. That country is lost to barbarism. The majority of the men in that country are rapists and the majority of women in that country have been raped. (https://www.thetrumpet.com/article/11050.24.159.0/society/south-africa-where-corruption-rape-and-murder-are-normal
"Almost three out of four South African women have been sexually abused at least once."
"One recent study examined about 250 reported rapes from 2005 to 2007 that occurred in the vicinity of one small town. More than half of the reported victims were children. Yet, only nine of the accused were convicted. Only seven received jail sentences."
"An astounding 66,000 rapes occur in South Africa each year—one every four minutes. Interpol says this makes South Africa the rape capital of the world. According to experts, rape is so common, justice is so rarely served, and so many women have been raped so many times that many women don’t bother reporting it."
"A 2010 Medical Research Foundation survey found that more than 37 percent of men admitted to raping at least one woman. Seven percent said they had participated in a gang rape. The researchers found that with many of the men, the idea of forcing someone to have sex with them was trivial, and “seen as a legitimate activity.” A 2007 survey found similar results."
It's hell on Earth. We cannot afford to lose more countries in the same way we lost South Africa to the forces of depravity and disintegration. If that means hurting people's feelings and ruffling their feathers along the way, then so be it. The alternative is much, much worse.
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Meldy and Ultear:
My previous post wasn't precisely accurate. I thought my task was done yesterday. In fact, it finished today, with another two hundred pictures or so added. What happened?
I decided to add in two more Fairy Tail girls to the list, getting me back up to 198 beautiful anime girls. The two remaining presumably will come from new spring or summer season series, but we'll see. But these two girls are just too deserving to be left behind when so many other Fairy Girls are already included.
Ultear and Meldy are both shown at all stages of growth. In Ultear's case, it's from a newborn infant all the way to an aged granny. This means they have a great variety of beautiful forms to display to the outside world over time, giving them a pretty unique advantage over the rest of the Fairy crew. They also have a great dynamic when put together, such that a lot of their pictures are of both of them together, rather than either of them apart. (A lot like Mirajane and Lisanna.)
The other extra pictures come from more beautiful as always Lucy and Wendy pictures, as well as some bonus Lucy and Yukino holding hands footage that anyone would want to devour. There's also a sprinkling of new Mavis, Levy, Mirajane, etc pictures to fill out the entire Fairy Tail roster.
With these pictures added, my task is truly complete. Yesterday was a false alarm, but today for real! I really got this project done! Be sure to check out all my beautiful anime girls, including the newly featured Ultear and Meldy, in my permapost link.
Meanwhile, Ao Haru Ride is now fully out in blu ray subbed, thanks to Commie subs. That was fast! I swear Ao Haru Ride's anime only ended a few months ago. Well, nevertheless, it's time to rewatch the series, right alongside Hanayamata, which also recently got a blu ray subbed release.
With Grisaia airing, the spring season is now in full session. Unfortunately for me, my spring anime season doesn't begin for another 11 days. My first impressions post will have to wait a while longer. For now, there's beautiful anime girls.
I decided to add in two more Fairy Tail girls to the list, getting me back up to 198 beautiful anime girls. The two remaining presumably will come from new spring or summer season series, but we'll see. But these two girls are just too deserving to be left behind when so many other Fairy Girls are already included.
Ultear and Meldy are both shown at all stages of growth. In Ultear's case, it's from a newborn infant all the way to an aged granny. This means they have a great variety of beautiful forms to display to the outside world over time, giving them a pretty unique advantage over the rest of the Fairy crew. They also have a great dynamic when put together, such that a lot of their pictures are of both of them together, rather than either of them apart. (A lot like Mirajane and Lisanna.)
The other extra pictures come from more beautiful as always Lucy and Wendy pictures, as well as some bonus Lucy and Yukino holding hands footage that anyone would want to devour. There's also a sprinkling of new Mavis, Levy, Mirajane, etc pictures to fill out the entire Fairy Tail roster.
With these pictures added, my task is truly complete. Yesterday was a false alarm, but today for real! I really got this project done! Be sure to check out all my beautiful anime girls, including the newly featured Ultear and Meldy, in my permapost link.
Meanwhile, Ao Haru Ride is now fully out in blu ray subbed, thanks to Commie subs. That was fast! I swear Ao Haru Ride's anime only ended a few months ago. Well, nevertheless, it's time to rewatch the series, right alongside Hanayamata, which also recently got a blu ray subbed release.
With Grisaia airing, the spring season is now in full session. Unfortunately for me, my spring anime season doesn't begin for another 11 days. My first impressions post will have to wait a while longer. For now, there's beautiful anime girls.
Fairy Tail Pictures Complete!:
Blu ray Fairy Tail is a fantastic thing. It gave an unparalleled opportunity to take high quality pictures of the best looking art style around, Hiro Mashima's Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima doesn't scimp on fan service either, so you get excellent shots from all angles, in all sorts of outfits, displaying a full range of emotions, with bare flesh readily available at any moment.
Due to this unique convergence of events, my beautiful anime girls post has turned halfway into a showcase solely of various Fairy Tail girls. This isn't a bug, but a feature. They're just that beautiful, that they deserve half the limelight. The post that originally hosted around 600 pictures now hosts 1131. This is all due to how wonderful bluray Fairy Tail has been. There's frankly no amount of pictures of Fairy Tail girls that could do justice to how beautiful they really are, on both the outside and on the inside. These girls may well be the most lovable characters imaginable. It is not a coincidence that Fairy Tail is ranked 3rd place in all of anime. You don't get that high without having a strong cast of memorable and likable characters, and Fairy Tail is unique in having a gender-balanced slate of characters, or even a slight imbalance in favor of women, even though it's a shonen action series. That makes for a lot of well characterized, memorable, unique and outstanding Fairy Women.
Blu ray Fairy Tail currently stops at the end of the first 175 episodes. The second season suffers from the lower resolution and information density of a mere tv stream from here on. At the same time, the new Fairy Tail has a different art style, which sadly is just worse than the original designs. It lacks detail and feels more stereotypical and less impactful than its previous character designs. The girls are still gorgeous, to be sure, but in a more prosaic way you'd find anywhere in any show. As such, I won't have to upload nearly as many pictures as I had to in the past to fully showcase Fairy Tail's beauty like I had to for the blu ray episodes.
I actually deleted four people from my beautiful anime girls list, so I'm back down to 196 different girls on display. The four extra slots are so that if I find someone particularly pretty in the future, I can fit them in without surpassing my 200 girl round number goal. Hestia of Dungeon ni Deiai for instance is talked about a lot, though until I view the series for myself there's no telling if the hype is correct. In any case, it's good to have wiggle room so that pretty girls still get a shot at the title in the future.
With my constant new batches of pictures finally uploaded and complete, now's the time to check out my Beautiful Anime Girls permapost, now that it's reached it's nearly finished form. There's nothing left to wait for anymore, heaven is now on full display and the gates are wide open for traffic.
Due to this unique convergence of events, my beautiful anime girls post has turned halfway into a showcase solely of various Fairy Tail girls. This isn't a bug, but a feature. They're just that beautiful, that they deserve half the limelight. The post that originally hosted around 600 pictures now hosts 1131. This is all due to how wonderful bluray Fairy Tail has been. There's frankly no amount of pictures of Fairy Tail girls that could do justice to how beautiful they really are, on both the outside and on the inside. These girls may well be the most lovable characters imaginable. It is not a coincidence that Fairy Tail is ranked 3rd place in all of anime. You don't get that high without having a strong cast of memorable and likable characters, and Fairy Tail is unique in having a gender-balanced slate of characters, or even a slight imbalance in favor of women, even though it's a shonen action series. That makes for a lot of well characterized, memorable, unique and outstanding Fairy Women.
Blu ray Fairy Tail currently stops at the end of the first 175 episodes. The second season suffers from the lower resolution and information density of a mere tv stream from here on. At the same time, the new Fairy Tail has a different art style, which sadly is just worse than the original designs. It lacks detail and feels more stereotypical and less impactful than its previous character designs. The girls are still gorgeous, to be sure, but in a more prosaic way you'd find anywhere in any show. As such, I won't have to upload nearly as many pictures as I had to in the past to fully showcase Fairy Tail's beauty like I had to for the blu ray episodes.
I actually deleted four people from my beautiful anime girls list, so I'm back down to 196 different girls on display. The four extra slots are so that if I find someone particularly pretty in the future, I can fit them in without surpassing my 200 girl round number goal. Hestia of Dungeon ni Deiai for instance is talked about a lot, though until I view the series for myself there's no telling if the hype is correct. In any case, it's good to have wiggle room so that pretty girls still get a shot at the title in the future.
With my constant new batches of pictures finally uploaded and complete, now's the time to check out my Beautiful Anime Girls permapost, now that it's reached it's nearly finished form. There's nothing left to wait for anymore, heaven is now on full display and the gates are wide open for traffic.
Friday, April 10, 2015
Sailor Moon Crystal Season 2!:
Lots of good news. Utawarerumono is not only getting a 2nd game, but also a 3rd. The third game is supposed to come out a year after the 2nd releases. More Utawarerumono is always a good thing. But it also means the anime has become even less inclusive of the total worth of the franchise. So it goes.
In addition, the people over at Doremi have finally started on their remastering of Ojamajo Sharp. It looks incredibly better from the screenshot comparisons. The earlier version looks fuzzed out, jagged and draped in eternal gray shadows. In contrast, the new version is bright, colorful, clean and clear. It's like night and day. Only the first episode has been remastered, but someday this classic will be available in its full glory and people will truly understand why Ojamajo is such a beacon of greatness. Sharp is the season Ojamajo stakes its claim. The rest is just bonus.
Furthermore, Sailor Moon Crystal has a second season planned, which will start immediately following the end of the first season. In other words Sailor Moon isn't ending at all and you may as well consider it as just one long season. This new season means we can actually see Uranus and Neptune, the most fun part of the series. This is great news, but I still have qualms. Largely, the original Sailor Moon already did a fine job covering the 3rd arc of the manga, so Crystal won't be able to improve on that much. The arcs that need the most work are the 4th and 5th arcs, and it's not clear that even with a second season Crystal will manage to get to those. It all depends on how long Crystal intends to run. Will it truly retell the entire series, or is it slated to stop right after the most popular content, the Uranus and Neptune arc, is finished? I can't put a bead on Sailor Moon Crystal's value until I know the answer to this question.
The extension of Sailor Moon Crystal is a lifesaver. A classic series like that should get a true-to-source adaption, just like Dragon Ball Kai got.
In addition, the people over at Doremi have finally started on their remastering of Ojamajo Sharp. It looks incredibly better from the screenshot comparisons. The earlier version looks fuzzed out, jagged and draped in eternal gray shadows. In contrast, the new version is bright, colorful, clean and clear. It's like night and day. Only the first episode has been remastered, but someday this classic will be available in its full glory and people will truly understand why Ojamajo is such a beacon of greatness. Sharp is the season Ojamajo stakes its claim. The rest is just bonus.
Furthermore, Sailor Moon Crystal has a second season planned, which will start immediately following the end of the first season. In other words Sailor Moon isn't ending at all and you may as well consider it as just one long season. This new season means we can actually see Uranus and Neptune, the most fun part of the series. This is great news, but I still have qualms. Largely, the original Sailor Moon already did a fine job covering the 3rd arc of the manga, so Crystal won't be able to improve on that much. The arcs that need the most work are the 4th and 5th arcs, and it's not clear that even with a second season Crystal will manage to get to those. It all depends on how long Crystal intends to run. Will it truly retell the entire series, or is it slated to stop right after the most popular content, the Uranus and Neptune arc, is finished? I can't put a bead on Sailor Moon Crystal's value until I know the answer to this question.
The extension of Sailor Moon Crystal is a lifesaver. A classic series like that should get a true-to-source adaption, just like Dragon Ball Kai got.
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Overlap:
5 anime-related hall of fames, 1 manga hall of fame, 1 visual novel hall of fame, 1 video game hall of fame, one authorial hall of fame, and one hall of fame for live action tv and movies. But how much of it overlaps? How many times am I touting the same product just in different mediums?
In order of superior medium to inferior medium, it's always best to enjoy a work in the best medium available that remains true to the source. This order of superiority is:
Anime > Video Games > Visual Novels > Manga > Books. For live action tv and movies, they aren't overlapped by any other medium so they can safely be ignored.
When I say people should enjoy all of these products, it's quite the hefty list until you notice the overlaps. A seiyuu hall of fame, and a beautiful anime girl art hall of fame, can all be experienced just by watching my anime rankings hall of fame. The overlap here is 100%.
There are only a few good manga without an adequate anime adaption that can still be read in English -- Negima/UQ Holder, Freezing, Zettai Karen Children, Vinland Saga, I"s, Full Moon O Sagashite, Strobe Edge, Futari Ecchi, Niji-iro Togarashi, MIX, Mujaki no Rakuen, and Psyren. Twelve manga that have mainly been neglected by anime adapters. The other 88 good manga on my list you can enjoy in anime form, and then if you still want more you can seek out the manga for additional value (except of course for the ones with no English scanlation). You don't have to read the entire manga when the anime is already there for you.
In the good books section, there are similar overlaps. If you watch the Game of Thrones tv show, you don't need to read the books. The same for the Harry Potter movies, or the Lord of the Rings movies. There are live action adaptions to Sherlock Holmes, Ender's Game, Shakespeare's plays, Dune, and Fenimore Cooper's Last of the Mohicans. You don't have to overlap, just experience the joy of discovery one way or the other.
The same for the light novel authors. Every light novel author listed overlaps with a well produced anime, so there's no need to read them unless you really liked the anime and want to read deeper into the storyline.
Non-fiction doesn't have many overlaps so you'll have to actually buckle down and read those authors. Dynasty Warriors covers Luo Guanzhong and maybe the 300 movie covers Herodotus in a sense but largely you're on your own. . .
The best visual novels tend to have an anime adaption. English translated visual novels without an anime adaption = basically Rewrite plus Planetarian, two incredibly good 'key' works everyone should read without fail. So even though this looks like an imposing time sink of a category, it largely overlaps and only has to be sought out by people who liked the anime of the series and want to see more of their favorite girls.
The best video game franchises only have a little overlap with other categories. The only way to truly experience the joys of gameplay is to actually play the game. But people tend to have their own favorite genre of gaming and can thus reduce their 50 imposing game franchises down to a manageable few that suit their style.
What looks like a lifetime of effort can quickly be reduced down to just a decade of entertainment. My Hall of Fames are guides, not prison terms. There's still time to enjoy the featured products and have other pursuits and dreams as well. It's a shame the education system, which already sticks kids in cells anyway, isn't geared towards showing them this hall of fame content though. . .
In order of superior medium to inferior medium, it's always best to enjoy a work in the best medium available that remains true to the source. This order of superiority is:
Anime > Video Games > Visual Novels > Manga > Books. For live action tv and movies, they aren't overlapped by any other medium so they can safely be ignored.
When I say people should enjoy all of these products, it's quite the hefty list until you notice the overlaps. A seiyuu hall of fame, and a beautiful anime girl art hall of fame, can all be experienced just by watching my anime rankings hall of fame. The overlap here is 100%.
There are only a few good manga without an adequate anime adaption that can still be read in English -- Negima/UQ Holder, Freezing, Zettai Karen Children, Vinland Saga, I"s, Full Moon O Sagashite, Strobe Edge, Futari Ecchi, Niji-iro Togarashi, MIX, Mujaki no Rakuen, and Psyren. Twelve manga that have mainly been neglected by anime adapters. The other 88 good manga on my list you can enjoy in anime form, and then if you still want more you can seek out the manga for additional value (except of course for the ones with no English scanlation). You don't have to read the entire manga when the anime is already there for you.
In the good books section, there are similar overlaps. If you watch the Game of Thrones tv show, you don't need to read the books. The same for the Harry Potter movies, or the Lord of the Rings movies. There are live action adaptions to Sherlock Holmes, Ender's Game, Shakespeare's plays, Dune, and Fenimore Cooper's Last of the Mohicans. You don't have to overlap, just experience the joy of discovery one way or the other.
The same for the light novel authors. Every light novel author listed overlaps with a well produced anime, so there's no need to read them unless you really liked the anime and want to read deeper into the storyline.
Non-fiction doesn't have many overlaps so you'll have to actually buckle down and read those authors. Dynasty Warriors covers Luo Guanzhong and maybe the 300 movie covers Herodotus in a sense but largely you're on your own. . .
The best visual novels tend to have an anime adaption. English translated visual novels without an anime adaption = basically Rewrite plus Planetarian, two incredibly good 'key' works everyone should read without fail. So even though this looks like an imposing time sink of a category, it largely overlaps and only has to be sought out by people who liked the anime of the series and want to see more of their favorite girls.
The best video game franchises only have a little overlap with other categories. The only way to truly experience the joys of gameplay is to actually play the game. But people tend to have their own favorite genre of gaming and can thus reduce their 50 imposing game franchises down to a manageable few that suit their style.
What looks like a lifetime of effort can quickly be reduced down to just a decade of entertainment. My Hall of Fames are guides, not prison terms. There's still time to enjoy the featured products and have other pursuits and dreams as well. It's a shame the education system, which already sticks kids in cells anyway, isn't geared towards showing them this hall of fame content though. . .
All My Hall of Fames are Now Round Numbers:
Permapost updates complete!
Because non-round numbers are annoying in giant lists and rankings, I decided to take the plunge and make all my hall of fames have an even number of contestants.
For my books, I added one more author, Harold Covington, to make for a grand total of 100 good authors overall. Covington is the author of the Northwest Quartet, the fictional story of how a terrorist movement succeeds in creating a neo-nazi secession in the northwest corner of the USA. It's always nice when, at least in fiction, the good guy gets to win.
My good manga list got 9 new entries to reach a grand total of a perfect 100 good manga. Most of the new manga were all from the same author, Miyuki Obayashi, who specializes in shoujo romance tales, most of which have never been translated into English. There's also the shonen action series Psyren, the shamelessly ecchi Mujaki no Rakuen and the comedy shoujo drama Charm Angel to round out the list. Nine new entries was surprisingly easy to reach, though it's ridiculously difficult to actually get your hands on this material and actually read it, the fact that these series are actually really good is not in question.
To finish up my voice actors talent list, and bring it up from 95 to 100, I relied on some personal favorites and some extremely famous seiyuu that I probably shouldn't have ignored for so long anyway. Daisuke Ono, Yuuki Kaji, and Mamoru Miyano are practically household names they're so beloved in Japan. I like Atsushi Imaruoka for his role as Cobra in Fairy Tail, but he's actually pretty good in a variety of other famous roles too, like Stroheim in Jojo's or Jyubei in Basilisk.
I decided in the interest of round numbers that I would get an even 40 boy seiyuu and 60 girl seiyuu on the talent list, so this left room for just one more girl to enter my rankings. The lucky girl was Sayuri Yahagi, whose most famous role is probably Izumi Segawa from Hayate no Gotoku. She also plays the main love interest in To Love ru, Haruna Sairenji, and the girlfriend/wife in Bakuman, Kaya Miyoshi. Her role as Kaya is so central to why the entire Bakuman anime was so warm, friendly, and golden from beginning to end.
It wasn't hard to find five more talented voice actors to round out my list, I was just less personally attached to them than usual this time around. As for their actual voice acting talent, they're probably above the average of most of my previous entries. Their quality is beyond dispute.
In addition, I put my 'human accomplishment class video game franchises' into a ranking order, to parallel all of my other hall of fames. Now I properly have a top 1-50 list for my video game franchises, just like my manga, eroge makers, seiyuu, anime, tv, movies, and books lists. Everything is ranked. Everything is a round number. Everything is beautiful.
Speaking of beauty, my beautiful anime girls, still at exactly 200 members, got another dose of new Wendy, Lucy, Mirajane and Lisanna pictures from the brilliantly perfect series known as Fairy Tail, so be sure to re-check that out.
With all of my permapost hall of fames sitting pretty on a round number, I don't intend to mess with anything anymore. Only my great anime post will continue to grow (because it's too important to exclude a new great anime from the world.) For the others, it will take quite the entry to get over my sense of inertia. I don't want to ever mess with my beautiful round number entries again.
PapaKiki's 2nd oav detailed the ending of the 18th volume, revealing that Sora and Yuuta end up falling in love and marrying each other. Starting off as step-uncle and step-niece, and eventually as step-father and step-daughter, and then finally as husband and wife, these two have gone through a lot of step-incest to reach their utopian union. Sora loved Yuuta from the very beginning, and they're only 4 years apart in age, so I consider this the perfect ending to the series, and yet more proof that PapaKiki is practically unrivaled in quality. It is hands down the best story never translated, the biggest black mark on the fansubbing community to date. No one can possibly question the morality of their decision, because they didn't even confess to each other or kiss until Sora was already 18 and an independent woman. They both held back until the right moment, and then reaped their amazingly overdue reward when the crop had grown to perfect fruition. Those two were heroic saints to live together in a completely platonic, family relationship for so many years under the same roof. Criticizing people like that is ridiculous. I doubt any of the critics have a sexual modesty remotely as good as theirs.
Shokugeki no Soma is an amazingly bad series. I can't believe it's popular. It's total junk. It isn't even remotely good. Just bouncing some boobs around and showing blazing battle auras while cooking food does not make for a great new shonen action masterpiece. God help us, why does this sell?
I just hope the rest of the spring season's first impressions are better than this one. . .
Because non-round numbers are annoying in giant lists and rankings, I decided to take the plunge and make all my hall of fames have an even number of contestants.
For my books, I added one more author, Harold Covington, to make for a grand total of 100 good authors overall. Covington is the author of the Northwest Quartet, the fictional story of how a terrorist movement succeeds in creating a neo-nazi secession in the northwest corner of the USA. It's always nice when, at least in fiction, the good guy gets to win.
My good manga list got 9 new entries to reach a grand total of a perfect 100 good manga. Most of the new manga were all from the same author, Miyuki Obayashi, who specializes in shoujo romance tales, most of which have never been translated into English. There's also the shonen action series Psyren, the shamelessly ecchi Mujaki no Rakuen and the comedy shoujo drama Charm Angel to round out the list. Nine new entries was surprisingly easy to reach, though it's ridiculously difficult to actually get your hands on this material and actually read it, the fact that these series are actually really good is not in question.
To finish up my voice actors talent list, and bring it up from 95 to 100, I relied on some personal favorites and some extremely famous seiyuu that I probably shouldn't have ignored for so long anyway. Daisuke Ono, Yuuki Kaji, and Mamoru Miyano are practically household names they're so beloved in Japan. I like Atsushi Imaruoka for his role as Cobra in Fairy Tail, but he's actually pretty good in a variety of other famous roles too, like Stroheim in Jojo's or Jyubei in Basilisk.
I decided in the interest of round numbers that I would get an even 40 boy seiyuu and 60 girl seiyuu on the talent list, so this left room for just one more girl to enter my rankings. The lucky girl was Sayuri Yahagi, whose most famous role is probably Izumi Segawa from Hayate no Gotoku. She also plays the main love interest in To Love ru, Haruna Sairenji, and the girlfriend/wife in Bakuman, Kaya Miyoshi. Her role as Kaya is so central to why the entire Bakuman anime was so warm, friendly, and golden from beginning to end.
It wasn't hard to find five more talented voice actors to round out my list, I was just less personally attached to them than usual this time around. As for their actual voice acting talent, they're probably above the average of most of my previous entries. Their quality is beyond dispute.
In addition, I put my 'human accomplishment class video game franchises' into a ranking order, to parallel all of my other hall of fames. Now I properly have a top 1-50 list for my video game franchises, just like my manga, eroge makers, seiyuu, anime, tv, movies, and books lists. Everything is ranked. Everything is a round number. Everything is beautiful.
Speaking of beauty, my beautiful anime girls, still at exactly 200 members, got another dose of new Wendy, Lucy, Mirajane and Lisanna pictures from the brilliantly perfect series known as Fairy Tail, so be sure to re-check that out.
With all of my permapost hall of fames sitting pretty on a round number, I don't intend to mess with anything anymore. Only my great anime post will continue to grow (because it's too important to exclude a new great anime from the world.) For the others, it will take quite the entry to get over my sense of inertia. I don't want to ever mess with my beautiful round number entries again.
PapaKiki's 2nd oav detailed the ending of the 18th volume, revealing that Sora and Yuuta end up falling in love and marrying each other. Starting off as step-uncle and step-niece, and eventually as step-father and step-daughter, and then finally as husband and wife, these two have gone through a lot of step-incest to reach their utopian union. Sora loved Yuuta from the very beginning, and they're only 4 years apart in age, so I consider this the perfect ending to the series, and yet more proof that PapaKiki is practically unrivaled in quality. It is hands down the best story never translated, the biggest black mark on the fansubbing community to date. No one can possibly question the morality of their decision, because they didn't even confess to each other or kiss until Sora was already 18 and an independent woman. They both held back until the right moment, and then reaped their amazingly overdue reward when the crop had grown to perfect fruition. Those two were heroic saints to live together in a completely platonic, family relationship for so many years under the same roof. Criticizing people like that is ridiculous. I doubt any of the critics have a sexual modesty remotely as good as theirs.
Shokugeki no Soma is an amazingly bad series. I can't believe it's popular. It's total junk. It isn't even remotely good. Just bouncing some boobs around and showing blazing battle auras while cooking food does not make for a great new shonen action masterpiece. God help us, why does this sell?
I just hope the rest of the spring season's first impressions are better than this one. . .
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
50 Eroge, 50 Games:
Fed up with lacking clean round numbers, I decided to add games of whatever worth just to get to the round number of 50 in each category. For my visual novel post, I now have 50 game companies, not 49, by adding in FlyingShine, who are notable for their creation of Cross Channel. For the video game post, I added in Fire Emblem in the tactical rpg department, Dune II in the realtime strategy department, and Heroes of Might and Magic, Warlords, Alpha Centauri and Master of Magic into the strategy rpg segment.
None of these games are by any means weak additions. Cross Channel is famous (and available in English for anyone who's interested.) It was written by the same guy who wrote Kanon for Key, so it obviously has the talent necessary to be worthwhile.
Heroes of Might and Magic is a famous brand that originally came out in 1995 and extends all the way to the present day, with a planned Might and Magic VII release in 2015.
Dune II is a really interesting game that came before even the original Warcraft, in 1992. This game was the origin of almost all subsequent strategy game features like base construction and resource gathering mid-battle. It also had a fantastic soundtrack that really got you into the heart of the mood based on how the battle was going.
Fire Emblem began in 1990, and has extended all the way to the present with a game being produced as we speak. There are already fourteen main line entries into this gigantic franchise. The most famously good version of the game were the releases for the gamecube and the Wii, 'The Path of Radiance' and 'Radiant Dawn,' which together tell a fantastic story of gods and generals.
Warlords began in 1989 and stretched until Warlords IV in 2003. It's a game of empire instead of lowly base construction, with the goal of conquering whole continents worth of cities and either razing them to the ground or having them produce yet more units for your war engine. A variety of magic and magical creatures also feature in this game. The title has basically been abandoned, but it's still a fan favorite to this day in the strategy rpg genre.
Alpha Centauri is a sci fi version of Civilization again made by Sid Meier. It came out in 1999. Critics loved the game and it won several awards for its stand-out quality amid the genre as a whole.
Master of Magic was a 1994 game released by Microprose. Its most unique and standout feature was the use of two concurrent planes, reverse mirror worlds with different factions and abilities that only interacted with each other at set points or via powerful spells to transport your group from one plane to the other, which was later copied by Heroes of Might and Magic and others. In Master of Magic, you could choose which spell books your avatar studied and thus create your own unique faction bent on world conquest. The game eventually was inducted into the Hall of Fame, described "as a visually stunning game with "enduring replayability", due to its randomness and large variety of spells." Master of Magic finally got a sequel, 21 years later, in March 2015 titled 'Worlds of Magic'.
Fifty, in the end, is a small number. It's a lot less than the 170 quality anime series I keep going on about. As a result, it was quite easy to find respectable titles for all the remaining slots in both the visual novel and gaming community. With this, two of my hall of fames should be done. Unless a radically good new game appears, in which case I'll probably just kick out one of the previous entries to make room for the new one, rather than expanding the list any further. I like the number 50. I'm sticking to it.
None of these games are by any means weak additions. Cross Channel is famous (and available in English for anyone who's interested.) It was written by the same guy who wrote Kanon for Key, so it obviously has the talent necessary to be worthwhile.
Heroes of Might and Magic is a famous brand that originally came out in 1995 and extends all the way to the present day, with a planned Might and Magic VII release in 2015.
Dune II is a really interesting game that came before even the original Warcraft, in 1992. This game was the origin of almost all subsequent strategy game features like base construction and resource gathering mid-battle. It also had a fantastic soundtrack that really got you into the heart of the mood based on how the battle was going.
Fire Emblem began in 1990, and has extended all the way to the present with a game being produced as we speak. There are already fourteen main line entries into this gigantic franchise. The most famously good version of the game were the releases for the gamecube and the Wii, 'The Path of Radiance' and 'Radiant Dawn,' which together tell a fantastic story of gods and generals.
Warlords began in 1989 and stretched until Warlords IV in 2003. It's a game of empire instead of lowly base construction, with the goal of conquering whole continents worth of cities and either razing them to the ground or having them produce yet more units for your war engine. A variety of magic and magical creatures also feature in this game. The title has basically been abandoned, but it's still a fan favorite to this day in the strategy rpg genre.
Alpha Centauri is a sci fi version of Civilization again made by Sid Meier. It came out in 1999. Critics loved the game and it won several awards for its stand-out quality amid the genre as a whole.
Master of Magic was a 1994 game released by Microprose. Its most unique and standout feature was the use of two concurrent planes, reverse mirror worlds with different factions and abilities that only interacted with each other at set points or via powerful spells to transport your group from one plane to the other, which was later copied by Heroes of Might and Magic and others. In Master of Magic, you could choose which spell books your avatar studied and thus create your own unique faction bent on world conquest. The game eventually was inducted into the Hall of Fame, described "as a visually stunning game with "enduring replayability", due to its randomness and large variety of spells." Master of Magic finally got a sequel, 21 years later, in March 2015 titled 'Worlds of Magic'.
Fifty, in the end, is a small number. It's a lot less than the 170 quality anime series I keep going on about. As a result, it was quite easy to find respectable titles for all the remaining slots in both the visual novel and gaming community. With this, two of my hall of fames should be done. Unless a radically good new game appears, in which case I'll probably just kick out one of the previous entries to make room for the new one, rather than expanding the list any further. I like the number 50. I'm sticking to it.
Monday, April 6, 2015
WoW is Now Free to Play, For a Price:
Instead of paying hard earned real dollars, the right to log in to and play WoW for a month can now be paid for via in game currency, gold, that you earn with your virtual characters in the virtual world, just by playing the game during the previous month. So long as your gold income exceeds 30,000 gold a month, you can go on playing WoW for free indefinitely.
30,000 gold is a lot of gold, but now that people are level 90-100, it isn't actually as terrifying a concept as it sounds. Each item averages around 20 gold in value, and each quest complete is around 13 gold a piece. Imagine you complete a quest and get an item every five minutes of gameplay. In that case, if you play for 75 hours you'll earn enough gold to buy an entire month of additional WoW time. Or to put it another way, if you play WoW for 2.4 hours out of every day, you can earn enough gold to go on playing WoW for another month for free. Now, if you become some sort of money making machine and find a more efficient way to earn gold than just regular questing, these numbers can be adjusted accordingly. But this means that even a normal schmo can earn enough gold in game to keep the 'lights on' without any wizardry.
If people don't want to play 75 hours of WoW in a month, then maybe they shouldn't be playing WoW at all. Their heart clearly isn't in it enough to merit such a subscription. But if they are willing to play that much, Blizzard is basically saying they can now play their favorite game that they love to play for free. What a deal for their most loyal fans. In a way, the price may be set exactly at the point where hard core fans benefit the most, while casual players see little change in their bills. But even a less devoted player could, say, pay their subscription fee every other month via WoW token, and pay money on odd months, thus only requiring 1.2 hours of WoW a day to keep up. The WoW token will eventually help everyone as their gold supply slowly but surely trickles upwards.
If WoW isn't your thing, no fear. I've added three new games to my 'human accomplishment class game franchise' list. The three new entries are Dragon Quest, which was the first modern rpg ever made and the template for all future rpg's, Mortal Kombat, whose outrageous style and constant gameplay evolution as well as rich lore sufficient to give birth to some very good movies, books, etc, earns it an entry, and Guilty Gear, another fighter that specializes in anime-like looks and blistering pace and combos, which is uniquely fun and interesting compared to the alternatives.
Dragon Quest started in 1986, Mortal Kombat in 1992, and Guilty Gear in 1998, but all three have released new games in their franchise just this/last year and are still going strong. The longevity of these series forms a backbone for console gaming that keeps going back to them every generation.
If no video games are of any interest, there's still more fun stuff coming out recently. In a recent update, eight new chapters of the Akatsuki no Yona manga came out at once. Nanoha StrikerS has been released in blu-ray (though A's is still lacking a quality blu ray release, sadly.) Kentucky's unbeaten season was upended by a red-hot Wisconsin team that just keeps hitting its 3's. My good visual novel making companies list has expanded to 49 with the inclusion of Akabei Soft2, famous for making G Senjou no Maou and Sharin no Kuni. Just one more to go on that front. My Beautiful Anime Girls post has another deluge of new Wendy, Lucy, Mavis, Mirajane and Lisanna pictures.
As for light novels, I'm up to volume 17 of To Aru Majutsu no Index. I've despaired of this show ever getting an anime sequel, so I'll just read the damn novels myself. The novels aren't very good, they're sort of chuunibyou if anything, but it's worth it just to find out what happens in the end. Of course, this is a very long 'end,' because there's still an endless number of volumes left to go when you add in the New Testament stuff. PapaKiki, on the other hand, has just recently come to an end with volume 18 that came out at the end of this March. Still no English translation is available for anything beyond volume 3, so we can only imagine what a glorious ending the story came to. But for one of the greatest series ever written, it's nice to know it reached a proper conclusion even if we don't know what that was.
Speaking of manga though, the latest Fairy Tail arc is so awesome. I do so hope it gets an anime adaption, but what are the odds? The Tartaros arc can be adapted in just 26 episodes or so, which means there will only be 26 more Chapters of Fairy Tail left to adapt. Not nearly enough to reach the conclusion of this arc. In which case, what can the anime do except stop at the end of Tartaros? There's nothing left to adapt, and Fairy Tail filler isn't desired by anyone. This is why the Fairy Tail anime will always be stuck at #3, because unlike One Piece and Naruto there's no way it will reach all the way to the end and properly adapt its source from start to finish. The Fairy Tail manga could eventually compete for the slot of #1, but the anime is just plain doomed. Doomed!
30,000 gold is a lot of gold, but now that people are level 90-100, it isn't actually as terrifying a concept as it sounds. Each item averages around 20 gold in value, and each quest complete is around 13 gold a piece. Imagine you complete a quest and get an item every five minutes of gameplay. In that case, if you play for 75 hours you'll earn enough gold to buy an entire month of additional WoW time. Or to put it another way, if you play WoW for 2.4 hours out of every day, you can earn enough gold to go on playing WoW for another month for free. Now, if you become some sort of money making machine and find a more efficient way to earn gold than just regular questing, these numbers can be adjusted accordingly. But this means that even a normal schmo can earn enough gold in game to keep the 'lights on' without any wizardry.
If people don't want to play 75 hours of WoW in a month, then maybe they shouldn't be playing WoW at all. Their heart clearly isn't in it enough to merit such a subscription. But if they are willing to play that much, Blizzard is basically saying they can now play their favorite game that they love to play for free. What a deal for their most loyal fans. In a way, the price may be set exactly at the point where hard core fans benefit the most, while casual players see little change in their bills. But even a less devoted player could, say, pay their subscription fee every other month via WoW token, and pay money on odd months, thus only requiring 1.2 hours of WoW a day to keep up. The WoW token will eventually help everyone as their gold supply slowly but surely trickles upwards.
If WoW isn't your thing, no fear. I've added three new games to my 'human accomplishment class game franchise' list. The three new entries are Dragon Quest, which was the first modern rpg ever made and the template for all future rpg's, Mortal Kombat, whose outrageous style and constant gameplay evolution as well as rich lore sufficient to give birth to some very good movies, books, etc, earns it an entry, and Guilty Gear, another fighter that specializes in anime-like looks and blistering pace and combos, which is uniquely fun and interesting compared to the alternatives.
Dragon Quest started in 1986, Mortal Kombat in 1992, and Guilty Gear in 1998, but all three have released new games in their franchise just this/last year and are still going strong. The longevity of these series forms a backbone for console gaming that keeps going back to them every generation.
If no video games are of any interest, there's still more fun stuff coming out recently. In a recent update, eight new chapters of the Akatsuki no Yona manga came out at once. Nanoha StrikerS has been released in blu-ray (though A's is still lacking a quality blu ray release, sadly.) Kentucky's unbeaten season was upended by a red-hot Wisconsin team that just keeps hitting its 3's. My good visual novel making companies list has expanded to 49 with the inclusion of Akabei Soft2, famous for making G Senjou no Maou and Sharin no Kuni. Just one more to go on that front. My Beautiful Anime Girls post has another deluge of new Wendy, Lucy, Mavis, Mirajane and Lisanna pictures.
As for light novels, I'm up to volume 17 of To Aru Majutsu no Index. I've despaired of this show ever getting an anime sequel, so I'll just read the damn novels myself. The novels aren't very good, they're sort of chuunibyou if anything, but it's worth it just to find out what happens in the end. Of course, this is a very long 'end,' because there's still an endless number of volumes left to go when you add in the New Testament stuff. PapaKiki, on the other hand, has just recently come to an end with volume 18 that came out at the end of this March. Still no English translation is available for anything beyond volume 3, so we can only imagine what a glorious ending the story came to. But for one of the greatest series ever written, it's nice to know it reached a proper conclusion even if we don't know what that was.
Speaking of manga though, the latest Fairy Tail arc is so awesome. I do so hope it gets an anime adaption, but what are the odds? The Tartaros arc can be adapted in just 26 episodes or so, which means there will only be 26 more Chapters of Fairy Tail left to adapt. Not nearly enough to reach the conclusion of this arc. In which case, what can the anime do except stop at the end of Tartaros? There's nothing left to adapt, and Fairy Tail filler isn't desired by anyone. This is why the Fairy Tail anime will always be stuck at #3, because unlike One Piece and Naruto there's no way it will reach all the way to the end and properly adapt its source from start to finish. The Fairy Tail manga could eventually compete for the slot of #1, but the anime is just plain doomed. Doomed!
Thursday, April 2, 2015
Ryoko Ono:
The newest addition to my great seiyuu list, 'anime voices,' is Ryoko Ono. She's the voice talent behind Mirajane in Fairy Tail. There's just something unique about her kind and comforting voice when she plays the role of this ultimately melancholy girl. It's like she's always fighting depression in herself, and that plays out in her trying to make everyone around her happy as well.
Mirajane, in other words Ryoko Ono, has a hauntingly beautiful singing voice, to the point that she even ends up singing the ending theme for the show herself. If her role as Mirajane weren't enough (and it is), she's also important as Sasara, the student council president, in To Heart 2, and a variety of roles in lesser works. It would certainly be nice to hear her sweet chiming voice in other places, but so long as Fairy Tail keeps airing Ryoko Ono will continue to shine well into the future, and that works out fine too.
Meanwhile, my Beautiful Anime Girls list has been updated with lots more pictures of Lucy, Wendy, Levy and Mirajane because they're even more captivating than before in blu-ray.
To cap off my permapost improvements, I included a ranking system for visual novel making companies, to coincide with my ranking system for seiyuu, manga, anime, authors, movies and tv shows. I figure the more information the better, and rankings are a good way of informing people of the most vital things, so why not add rankings to the visual novel section too, right?
There are currently 49 visual novel companies worthy of mention. If I notice more, I'll add them in. It would be nice to hit 50. For seiyuu, the list is now 95 voices, just five more until I reach one hundred. Talent, talent, everywhere.
Meanwhile, Hanayamata is now fully out in subbed blu ray, thanks to Sally Subs. Now's the time to start rewatching from the glorious beginning.
The Iran nuclear deal is a good idea. I don't honestly care whether Iran gets a nuclear bomb or not, because Iran is not an aggressive country and hasn't invaded anyone in centuries. If anything they're the constant victim of aggression from abroad, and could use nukes for self defense. If people haven't noticed yet, all the terrorism against America has been due to Sunni terrorist groups, like Al Qaeda, and the Iranians are fighting those very groups as we speak. We should consider them our friends and allies, not our enemies. But whatever. If we can't just let Iran free, the least we can do is make a deal like this where we don't end up in another stupid Middle Eastern war. This is loads better than what McCain had in store for us. Yet again I'm thankful for Obama's election, the seemingly only sane individual in America, while Republicans are constantly calling for wars with Russia, China, Iran, etc, etc, etc. Can't we just leave well enough alone?
Mirajane, in other words Ryoko Ono, has a hauntingly beautiful singing voice, to the point that she even ends up singing the ending theme for the show herself. If her role as Mirajane weren't enough (and it is), she's also important as Sasara, the student council president, in To Heart 2, and a variety of roles in lesser works. It would certainly be nice to hear her sweet chiming voice in other places, but so long as Fairy Tail keeps airing Ryoko Ono will continue to shine well into the future, and that works out fine too.
Meanwhile, my Beautiful Anime Girls list has been updated with lots more pictures of Lucy, Wendy, Levy and Mirajane because they're even more captivating than before in blu-ray.
To cap off my permapost improvements, I included a ranking system for visual novel making companies, to coincide with my ranking system for seiyuu, manga, anime, authors, movies and tv shows. I figure the more information the better, and rankings are a good way of informing people of the most vital things, so why not add rankings to the visual novel section too, right?
There are currently 49 visual novel companies worthy of mention. If I notice more, I'll add them in. It would be nice to hit 50. For seiyuu, the list is now 95 voices, just five more until I reach one hundred. Talent, talent, everywhere.
Meanwhile, Hanayamata is now fully out in subbed blu ray, thanks to Sally Subs. Now's the time to start rewatching from the glorious beginning.
The Iran nuclear deal is a good idea. I don't honestly care whether Iran gets a nuclear bomb or not, because Iran is not an aggressive country and hasn't invaded anyone in centuries. If anything they're the constant victim of aggression from abroad, and could use nukes for self defense. If people haven't noticed yet, all the terrorism against America has been due to Sunni terrorist groups, like Al Qaeda, and the Iranians are fighting those very groups as we speak. We should consider them our friends and allies, not our enemies. But whatever. If we can't just let Iran free, the least we can do is make a deal like this where we don't end up in another stupid Middle Eastern war. This is loads better than what McCain had in store for us. Yet again I'm thankful for Obama's election, the seemingly only sane individual in America, while Republicans are constantly calling for wars with Russia, China, Iran, etc, etc, etc. Can't we just leave well enough alone?
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Talent, Talent, Everywhere:
99 Great Authors, 170 Great Anime, 94 Great Seiyuu, 91 Great Manga, 48 Distinguished Eroge Companies, 41 Distinguished non-eroge video game franchises, 200 Beautiful Anime Girls, 20 Good Live Action movie franchises and 10 Good Live Action TV franchises.
That's a lot of hall of fames, when you add them up and put them together. The Great Anime list will continue to rise, as it always has ever since I started it, due to new good anime constantly coming out every season. The Great authors list is pretty much done, as it's unlikely a new good author will appear out of nowhere who hasn't already been identified as good this late in the game. The same is true of the great Seiyuu list, most of them are old talents who have been in the industry since forever. The same is true of the Good Manga list. It takes years for a new manga to establish itself as worth reading, so it's unlikely the list can grow much from where it presently stands. It takes a really good game for a new company to break into the eroge industry. When you're competing against known quality works coming out virtually every month, dumping $100 onto a complete unknown is pretty difficult to swallow. As a result, I don't see my featured companies list growing much larger any time soon. The same is true of video games, but for a different reason. Game development is so expensive that seldom does anyone stray from established good franchises and try out something new. As a result, it's unlikely any new good franchises will ever be invented again in the gaming industry. The movie industry has the same curse. Enormous budgets are required for a single movie, so you're taking a huge risk when you go outside the established fan favorites. As for TV shows, the reason they're never any good is just plain lack of talent. Aside from sports programs, which cater naturally to television viewing, a good tv show is as rare as a blue moon.
It's so nice having exactly on the dime 200 Beautiful Anime Girls to point to. If only all my rankings were such perfectly round numbers. However, I suspect this perfect symmetry will be broken eventually, because anime is constantly churning out more bishoujos alongside its new good series, so this list will have to grow concurrently with the growth of great anime series it tends to coincide with.
It would be great to get the Great Anime List up to 200 someday, the Great Seiyuu list up to 100, the Great Manga list up to 100, the Distinguished Eroge Companies up to 50, and the Great Video Game franchises up to 50. There just needs to be more talent in the market to justify such round numbers, you can't force things into categories that don't belong there without spoiling all the fun.
That's a lot of hall of fames, when you add them up and put them together. The Great Anime list will continue to rise, as it always has ever since I started it, due to new good anime constantly coming out every season. The Great authors list is pretty much done, as it's unlikely a new good author will appear out of nowhere who hasn't already been identified as good this late in the game. The same is true of the great Seiyuu list, most of them are old talents who have been in the industry since forever. The same is true of the Good Manga list. It takes years for a new manga to establish itself as worth reading, so it's unlikely the list can grow much from where it presently stands. It takes a really good game for a new company to break into the eroge industry. When you're competing against known quality works coming out virtually every month, dumping $100 onto a complete unknown is pretty difficult to swallow. As a result, I don't see my featured companies list growing much larger any time soon. The same is true of video games, but for a different reason. Game development is so expensive that seldom does anyone stray from established good franchises and try out something new. As a result, it's unlikely any new good franchises will ever be invented again in the gaming industry. The movie industry has the same curse. Enormous budgets are required for a single movie, so you're taking a huge risk when you go outside the established fan favorites. As for TV shows, the reason they're never any good is just plain lack of talent. Aside from sports programs, which cater naturally to television viewing, a good tv show is as rare as a blue moon.
It's so nice having exactly on the dime 200 Beautiful Anime Girls to point to. If only all my rankings were such perfectly round numbers. However, I suspect this perfect symmetry will be broken eventually, because anime is constantly churning out more bishoujos alongside its new good series, so this list will have to grow concurrently with the growth of great anime series it tends to coincide with.
It would be great to get the Great Anime List up to 200 someday, the Great Seiyuu list up to 100, the Great Manga list up to 100, the Distinguished Eroge Companies up to 50, and the Great Video Game franchises up to 50. There just needs to be more talent in the market to justify such round numbers, you can't force things into categories that don't belong there without spoiling all the fun.
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