Ranma

Posted on April 5, 2008 by Ubu Roi

I need to pull some of my thoughts and comments on various other blogs about Ranma all together into a coherent post.

Too bad it isn’t going to happen. I’m too tired.

From Jason’s:

I watched Otome wa Boku, and was not broken.
I could not watch Miname-ke, and was not broken.
I didn’t bother watching Okawari and was not broken.
I thought the trap in Moyamishon was really ugly, and was not broken.
I quit watching H20 before the trap was revealed, and was not broken.

Tonight, I loaded up an old classic for the first time: Ranma 1/2.

NOW I’m broken, dammit! (But does it count if he really turns into a girl?)

Ranma-chan makes a cute, sassy girl. Too bad, she’s as tsundere as Akane.

From Chizumatic:

Well I’ve gotten through the first disk myself. The humor quotient is ok, though the series is quite uneven. Every time it starts to spin up into insanity, it bogs down in angst. It’s good, a hell of a lot better than anything I watched this season, but not as great as its reputation.

At least not yet. And I only ordered the first series. I’m wondering how my opinion will develop due to watching it in order?

That assumes, of course, that I order the second series, which is probable at this point. If it ups the zany factor, I’ll probably place this show as one of my favorites — at least for a season or two. The problem is, from what Steven’s said, the plot goes nowhere, and the Akane-Ranma romance doesn’t advance, which I consider a huge failing. It killed all the enjoyment of AMG for me, and was a significant negative in Inuyasha! Of course, the other problem with Inuyasha was that the plot didn’t really advance that much after the first 20 episodes either. The story advanced, but the plot didn’t; they just couldn’t complete their task or the story would be over. Something had to interfere to prevent the re-assembly of the shards.

From Chizumatic again, a little later:

Ok, having watched through the hair match and into the next one, I have to say that I disagree. It’s a matter of taste. The wrestling match was dumb and contrived, but it was still good fun. However, I am finding the whole “waifu of Dr.Tofu” to be dreadfully familiar from bad American TV sitcoms, and I’m only to candidate #3. I hope it stops there. It probably will, because they’re not going to make the girl he actually wants one of the candidates.

But while the candidates will stop there, the torture will go on a few more episodes, I’m sure. Blech.

Much to my surprise, I was wrong. They ended it that episode, and Shampoo is about to be intro’d. I think this must be the point where the production team realized there was a serious problem. Thank god. I was NOT looking forward to 2 or three episodes of non-romantic misunderstandings.

One more disk to go, and it’s got a new cute girl. What could possibly go wrong?

(he runs for cover….)

UPDATE: I knew I should n’t have said that. Most. Unsatisfying. Season. End. Ever.

Posted in Series Reviews | 2 Comments

Not Quite April Fool’s; Order In.

Posted on March 31, 2008 by Ubu Roi

I’d been sitting on an order for a while, given that my last waste of money went so well for me. I decided enough time had passed, and reading about the silliness of Ranma 1/2 over at Steven’s place persuaded me to try another classic 80’s/90’s series. A while back, I ordered Urasei Yatsura, and that didn’t go so well for me either (though it involved less money wasted), mostly for the very same reason Steven complained; the protagonist is a not a sympathetic character — he’s someone to laugh at or make fun of. Doesn’t work for me–I finished the first episode, put it away, and never went back.

Ranma looks like it will be bit more entertaining. So, my order this time is:

Ranma season 1 thinpack
Kanon DVD 1
Kanon DVD 2 w/box
Witchblade DVD 4
Witchblade DVD 5
The Third DVD 4
The Third DVD 5

The Third and Kanon are obligation buys of two series I enjoyed, even with their flaws. While I’ve enjoyed some of Witchblade, I’d basically label it as a notch or two above Godannar, and leave it at that. At least it takes itself seriously, and it’s better put together. And it doesn’t have mechas. Well, sort of…there’s those X-cons, which violate every sub-clause of the laws of the conservation of matter and energy.

I need to finish these obligation buys, because Code Geass is coming… in fact S2 should open this coming Sunday. The only thing that could be better would be a surprise season 2 of Haruhi. Not expecting that, though.

Posted in Fandom | 1 Comment

We’ll Never Get Rid of ’em!

Posted on March 25, 2008 by Ubu Roi

“Furry” otaku. Not even in the 31st century.

Posted in Random Nonsense | 2 Comments

They Get Crunchy, Fansubbers Get Rolled?

Posted on March 24, 2008 by Ubu Roi

Well, I’m sure Gonzo felt they were the ones getting rolled, previously. A week ago, I wrote:

While I was looking up Slayer’s references, I ran across more evidence that not all of the Japanese studios are as stupid as Evil Skippy Bandai:

The main administrator of Crunchyroll, a video-streaming website with many unauthorized anime videos, has said in an online post that the Gonzo/GDH anime production company contacted the site. According to Crunchyroll, the two companies have been “trading ideas about what we can do together so everyone will benefit.” … Funimation and Bandai Entertainment issued statements yesterday expressing concern over copyright infringement, and both said that they notified the site of infringing content…. GDH has confirmed that it has been talking with Crunchyroll. GDH is planning a formal press release in the next two weeks or later regarding newer Gonzo titles.

Well, it could be spin, as in GDH might really be sending a lvl 70 tier 6 equipped Mohawk (“Mr. T, there is no such class as Mohawk in World of Warcraft”. “Shut up, foo’!”) to tell Crunchyroll “Die, plz. kthnx.” But I would expect GDH to be clearer if they were really hammering Crunchyroll instead of trying to co-opt it.

Well, it’s been revealed that Crunchyroll has licensed two of Gonzo’s anime series:

more great news about some new stuff coming out in a couple weeks:
Crunchyroll is going to simulcast 2 brand new anime series from gonzo,
The Tower of DRUAGA -the Aegis of URUK- and BLASSREITER, the same day it airs in Japan!

The Tower of DRUAGA -the Aegis of URUK- premieres on April 4th and is directed by Koichi Chigira, who also directed some of my favorites like Full Metal Panic! and Last Exile!
BLASSREITER premieres on April 5th and is directed by Ichiro Itano, who’s worked on Gantz and Macross Zero!

The best part is the streaming will stay FREE and any ads on it will help pay for the costs and go back to the creators too! There will also be a lot of other cool stuff i can’t talk about yet ^_^

Update: Yup, it’ll be subtitled.

Emphasis added. Now, it’s not just Crunchyroll; there are actually three sites involved, according to ANN.

The Japanese media company GDH has announced that the YouTube, Crunchyroll, and BOST online video services will be streaming new titles from GDH’s Gonzo animation studio — worldwide and on the same day as their Japanese broadcast. The video streams, which will be in Japanese with English subtitles, will start with The Tower of Druaga: the Aegis of Uruk (pictured at right) and Blassreiter anime series. Druaga will premiere on April 4, and Blassreiter will premiere on April 5.

About. Damn. Time. We’ve been doing closed captioning in real time (granted, much easier than translating) so it seems like this should have been possible long ago with scripted works. But don’t start ordering party balloons just yet:

All three video services offer their content via streaming, although GDH also mentioned “fee-based download of high-resolution movie files” in its press release. America’s Viz Media offered NTV’s Death Note episodes for download within half a year of their Japanese broadcast, but GDH’s new initiative is the first global, simultaneous streaming of multiple series from a major anime studio.

So it might be simulcasting with an option to purchase later. What do you want to bet the simulcast will be about 200 x 300, no widescreen?

Now the really interesting thing is this: a number of C&D orders have been received by groups working on the series Rosario + Vampire, leading many to assume that it has been licensed to Crunchyroll. Which would be really, really interesting from several points of view — especially legal. Y’see, Crunchyroll has all the Ayako-Bakawolf fansubs on its site.

If they’ve licensed R+V (which I doubt) its going to be a hoot to see them trying to make money off of someone else’s fansub.

Oh. isn’t that interesting; there’s no more advertising on Crunchyroll’s site, so they can’t be said to be “making money.” Directly, that is…. Things that make you go hmmmmmm. More interesting: Crunchyroll got to where it is and into a position to make these licensing deals because they were a repository of fansubbed works. Illegal fansubs, but not-for-profit — and it’s quite obvious that Crunchyroll is profiting by having made them available to everyone.

Are they gambling that no fansub group will dare surface publicly and sue them? Now that could be interesting if they do….

Posted in Anime Industry, Random Nonsense, Upcoming Releases | 7 Comments

Winter Really IS Boring

Posted on March 19, 2008 by Ubu Roi

Steven laments the bad winter animé season, and that all his favorite framegrab sites have bailed on the major fanservice show he was interested in, Rosario + Vampire. I’m pretty much in agreement with him that it’s been a negative season, but it hasnt’ helped that I’m “just not feeling it” about blogging. I’ve had an article barely started about Shana episodes 21 and 22 — working title: Shark Jumped the Show. Why not? They got everything else bass ackwards. Massive spoilers: Hey, Yuuiji is a tactical genius! Hey, Sabrac’s still alive! Hey, Chigusa’s pregnant! Dad: “By the way son, you were borne a twin, but the other one didn’t survive.” Ike: “Yoshida, I love you!” Yoshida: “Too bad, so sad, you cry now.” Shana: “Hey Yoshida, tell me how to make babies!” Yoshida: “. . . .” Shana and Yoshida: “Yuuji, decide tonight who you love!” Yuuiji: “Shit, Someone get me out of this! I’d rather be ripped in two.” Hecate: “That’s my cue…Hi, and [*rip*] thanks for the Reiji Maigo!”

I just haven’t been feeling it, and even after I copied my comment from over at Jason’s the article won’t finish itself. That’s as close as I’ve come to getting my snark on.

Even if I didn’t have much to say, I could always throw up a half-dozen pics and make some lame comments, but that’s become difficult now. I took a double whammy when I moved to the new computer. For some reason, Zoomplayer on the XP will only framegrab the first frame of the file, no matter what. (yes, I’ve gone to the forums, read the info from everyone else, and taken some from readers. None of it worked) I also don’t have Paint Shop Pro on the new system, and Gimp 2 is no replacement. This means resizing screenshots I can take is just too much trouble.

On top of SnS being a howlingly bad disappointment from the 3rd episode on, KimiAru is annoying me by never developing a plot — every time they act like they’re going to actually treat one of the characters seriously, the issue is just left dangling while they go off in a different direction, and they’ve really started pimping the PS2 game and breaking the fourth wall in the last few episodes. Well, this last episode was actually an exception to the dangling characters, as all the hints that Yume’s low self-worth and depression were based on her relationship with Shinra finally boiled over. It just didn’t ring true though.

The other fanservice show, R+V finally lost me with episode 10. They not only butchered Ruby’s story, they butchered her character, the overall story, logic clear back to the day of Aristotle, and most of the space-time continuum. It was that bad. From screenshots of the episode 11 raw, we do get the Public Safety Commission as the final story arc. And the animation still doesn’t improve.

Grump. Level 66 in WoW, and counting.

Posted in Bitching, Snap Reviews | 3 Comments

Life in General and The Return of the Stainless Steel Brat

Posted on March 15, 2008 by Ubu Roi

I’ve been kind of slow posting on the animé side for several reasons; what little I’ve done have been quickie episode reviews. One being, I’m busy at work, which means I’m not up to doing anything above “Mindless” level when I get home, let alone “Intelligent.” At best, I think I’ve risen to “Somewhat Adept.” What little energy I’ve had has been spent on political issues for the last few weeks.

Most of the time, I’ve simply played WOW, as my rogue is finally approaching 70. Yes, that’s the infamous Pipiro…who was supposed to be named Pipiru but for my failing memory. What a time sink! But it’s cheaper than anime. And I’ve hardly had the interest to download any episodes. At this point, I’ve kept up with only Shakugan no Angst Haze, Bad Animation and a Vampire, andThey are my Ecchi Masters. The first one revels in disjointed battles with no rhythm (when it’s not eyebrow deep in angst), the second in bad art or bad animation (or both) plus it has finally “done a Gonzo,” and the third is a sexy tease pimping the PS2 game (literally, and in the show!), yet without a semblance of a plot. The latter seems to be following a recent trend of adapting hentai games without replacing or changing the plot; in fact, KimiAru (to use it’s Nipponese appellation) seems to be trying to include as many of the ecchi situations from the game as it can, without actually carrying through to the hentai scenes.

You can’t imagine how much that disappoints me.

There was another show I remember dropping a while back, something about Pepper and Doggy? Don’t remember. It gets the 2008 award for best Engrishy OP or ED though, unless someone else really comes through. Which is possible–the ED song’s English is actually quite good, nothing like Otome wa Boku’s OP. On the one hand, I’m terribly disappointed at how crappy this season has been. On the other hand, I’ve picked nothing but lightweight diversion to watch; how could I expect quality? (Haibane Renmei glares at me from its space on the shelf.) Well, I did watch Slayers: the Movie. I liked it; the girls were pretty fun and the mood reminded me a lot of Outlaw Star mixed with Dirty Pair, only less serious than either. Too bad this series is so much in the past that it’s hard to find. Have to see if the new one is any good.

While I was looking up Slayer’s references, I ran across more evidence that not all of the Japanese studios are as stupid as Evil Skippy Bandai:

The main administrator of Crunchyroll, a video-streaming website with many unauthorized anime videos, has said in an online post that the Gonzo/GDH anime production company contacted the site. According to Crunchyroll, the two companies have been “trading ideas about what we can do together so everyone will benefit.” … Funimation and Bandai Entertainment issued statements yesterday expressing concern over copyright infringement, and both said that they notified the site of infringing content…. GDH has confirmed that it has been talking with Crunchyroll. GDH is planning a formal press release in the next two weeks or later regarding newer Gonzo titles.

Well, it could be spin, as in GDH might really be sending a lvl 70 tier 6 equipped Mohawk (“Mr. T, there is no such class as Mohawk in World of Warcraft”. “Shut up, foo!”) to tell Crunchyroll “Die, plz. kthnx.” But I would expect GDH to be clearer if they were really hammering Crunchyroll instead of trying to co-opt it.

As for Katie, my readers’ favorite teenage brat (assuming they don’t have one of their own), I haven’t had much good material lately, but her being quiet usually means evil is being plotted, not an absence of evil. Seems she was taken clothes-shopping by her grandparents recently, and ended up coming home with a WWII-era katana.

I suppose that’s what all the cool kids are wearing now. T-shirts paying homage to satanic death-metal bands are so five minutes ago.

Recently, a male friend of hers at the school obtained a kilt, I would assume through some family history sort of thing. Or maybe he just wanted a kilt; who knows? His girlfriend (not the SSB) dared him to wear it to school, so of course, being a Typical Male Teen (i.e.: more testosterone than sense), he had to do it. It’s in the rules. Upon encountering each other in the hallway, the guy asked Katie what she thought of it. Her answer: “You don’t have the legs for a skirt.”

This prompted her dad, the heinous DrHeinous to remark: “You were just upset there was an evil plot and you weren’t in charge of it.” I have no difficulty in believing those two are related….

Posted in Life, etc. | Leave a comment

Uniform by the Ukrainian Army….

Posted on March 10, 2008 by Ubu Roi

Hat tip by Instapundit (to Strategypage)….

… and photography by Gonzo.

Continue reading →

Posted in Random Nonsense | 5 Comments