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Shura no Toki 21 - 26

That was really good. Kind of caught me by surprise I wound up liking it that much. Also, I have to say, what else caught me by surprise was that it had some of the funniest darn dub outtakes I've ever listened to. I guess because it's such a serious-minded show it made it hard for the VAs not to want to goof around with it. I think my favorite was "I have some news about sushi (when he was supposed to say Soushi)... it's gone bad. LOL

Edited by Dark_Cloud_Overhead
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Earwig and the Witch

That was disappointing. CG didn't bother me at all like I thought it would. What wound up disappointing me actually was that it felt like just when the story was gonna really get going, it ended. I think they should have made this into a series rather than a movie. Don't know if the orginal novel had that much more plot to it or not, but I somehow can't believe that's all there was to it.

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Well that's not that really surprising to hear honestly. Still, I think it was just really poorly conceptualized right from the start, and all the passion in the world probably couldn't have save it from turning out like it did when there's just such a skeleton of a story you're working with. On top of that, I have to say the main character was pretty unlikeable and never really changed at all. If that's all there is to her in the original novel as well, makes me wonder why they even chose to animate any of it in the first place. The only positive thing I think I can actually say about it is it's made me quite interested in picking up the book, just so I can see for myself exactly how faithful they were to it.

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Platinum End 1

Spoiler

Well this was a fun show to riff on. My personal favorite was after Mirai's family exploded and the picture he drew flew away in the aftermath. "My homework! But more importantly, my family!!" That said, Mirai did too much angsting and not enough killing his uncle for my tastes, so hopefully he finds the time to do that before the plot goes full Future Diary.

 

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Showtime! Uta no Onee-san Datte Shitai 2-4 (NSFW discussion below)

Spoiler

Okay, this is shaping up pretty good. I do think it's funny how they've already moved onto the hardcore stuff just three episodes in, albeit with a condom. Minami didn't even know the guy's name until they were deep into it. And then the following episode... oh boy, sex on a ferris wheel again? I was going to make a comment about Skirt no Naka and how when that show did it, it was utterly cursed. But, with the ravages of time, I now see it as blessed, if a little surreal. Please tell me Shouji brought some stuff to clean off the seat with, at least.

Actually, speaking of that show... I wouldn't be against revisiting it. I've accepted that ComicFesta runs a tight ship with the shows they air, and I guess I can look past the non-consensual sexual stuff knowing that most of this hentai is like that. I still think it'd be a little transphobic, you know, but I unironically like some stuff that's that way.

Bakuon!! OVA #1: "Bakuon!!"
(not legally streaming)

Spoiler

Oh man, it's been a while for this one. For me, this show represents my content ratings enterprise at the intersection of Obama and Trump. It was a crazy time, and I think we all ended up better off for it. So anyway, this is the first of two OVAs for this show that I'll be covering. I was going to wait for Sentai to license them and all, but it's been long enough since their BD release that I don't think it's ever going to happen. So here I go again into the moral grey area, but it's not all bad. When offered forbidden fruit, few can resist.

What's interesting about this one is that was actually made before the series, as a DVD with a manga volume. Though I originally watched it after a prior rewatch of the show, I'm opting to go by broadcast order this time. Does it offer a good introduction to all the characters? You tell me. It starts with Onsa, Hane, Rin and Hijiri (plus Hayakawa, still voiced by the dearly departed Unsho Ishizuka) getting some reps in on the highway, while the former spouts an improvised poem. At the same time, Raimu is stuck at the high school w/ her senpai doing menial paperwork. The four of them wish she could be there. Then, Hayakawa uses his mad driving skillz to get Hijiri through two big trucks. It soon starts raining, but in the midst of confusion Hane makes them miss the turn-off for the gas station. Nards. Fortunately, the rain eventually stops and they go inside a little convenience store, with a meaningful slow pan over their smouldering vehicles. Now that's the good stuff.

The four girls are immediately drawn to the sight of coffee w/ little motorcycles in cups on the top. There are a lot of Suzukis there, because the dude running the place (in a weird mask with the manufacturer's logo) is fond of them. Too bad they're not selling. Rin manages to find a Katana after some more confusion, but it gets broken in a series of comic coincidences. And it soon seems to hang like a sword on the quest to find... what, exactly? Some coffee. More coffee, anyway, so Hane couldn't drink hers, at some place called Blind Alley. It's supposed to taste awful, but having to drive a hundred miles for it makes it all better. But then things to go shit: Onsa's battery dies, Hane runs out of gas, the Ducati Hayakawa is driving falls apart. The usual shit. Good thing Raimu caught her senpai sleeping and decided to ride out to meet her friends ASAP.

In the end, the shopkeeper of Blind Alley ended up moving away, presumably because no one liked his brew. But after Onsa goes all emo for a hot minute, Hane brings up the fact that everyone already bought coffee. They can still have the Hundred Mile Blend, and then go to an onsen afterward because LOL OVA sex. It's even a bit more detailed than when they did it in the show. I certainly got my money's worth out of what I didn't pay for it.

Random thoughts:

  • So overall, I did enjoy the OVA. And I guess it functions as a nice introduction to all the characters in the most nebulous sense, though if you're new to the series, I'd settle with watching the first episode proper. Actually watching this, on the other hand, was a little woozy. My torrent source has 480p quality (because it's from a DVD) and subs burned in from a separate file, which also happen to be comically huge. As in, this big. And the sub script is okay, but has a few errors here and there that could be fixed, mostly in punctuation. Poke could never tolerate that.
  • On top of decent animation, there's some CG throughout the OVA that's actually used pretty well, most notably at the beginning, with the dramatic zooms in on everyone's bikes. Also, when Tazuko comes in and sees Raimu's note that she's gone on and left, that's in CG, w/ drifting subtitles to match.
  • No idea what the deal was with the losing Popsicle stick embedded in the ground near the convenience store. Maybe Raimu managed to overcome it, and bring good luck with her?
  • The scene of everyone posing in front of the coffee shop feels like a mirror of the shot in the OP where they're standing in front of Mount Fuji. Not sure if that's intentional, but it if is, it's pretty clever, although Chisame is added to it later on when she wasn't there.
  • And with the onsen comes another good look at Rin's Suzuki birthmark. You know, maybe she's a little better in front. 🤭
  • Idol scouting report: So as I previously mentioned in a CG post, Ms. Suzunoki is voiced by Nao Toyama, same as Mizuki Kawashima. There's another Cinderella Girls alum who plays a character in the second OVA, but I'll get to him/her after my rewatch. More interestingly, we have three seiyuus from the Million Live branch of the franchise:
    • Hane is voiced by Reina Ueda, who plays Umi Kousaka, the super-sporty idol. A pretty big talent; if you know her as anyone else, it's probably Akane from Gridman.
    • Hijiri is played by Rikako Yamaguchi, who plays Rio Momose. The contrast between these two characters is pretty funny: an ojou-sama with mild manners verses the sexiest idol in the whole series... and one of the most childish personalities. And then there's the thing where the idol who acts the sexiest is a legal loli, but that's somethin' for another time.
    • And then Chisame, whom I certainly haven't forgotten, played by Ibuki Kido, who portrays Kana Yabuki. A seiyuu with a weird history: she started out at the unfortunately ripe age of 14 after being a finalist in a seiyuu contest/audition thing, voiced the character in ML who's an airhead and supposed to be bad at singing (but only in her spare time), and then Kana got this subplot in the iM@S movie where she's too fat to be a background dancer. Yes, really. And I guess there's some sort of meme where Ibuki brings bad luck because she always stars in shows that don't do too well. Not sure what to say about that, but I think this series has done well enough for itself, with a few manga spin-offs that are still ongoing.
    • For bonus points, Hane's sister Yume (also not appearing in this episode) is voiced by Asuza Tadokoro, who I've learned was actually the winner of that open audition. She plays Shizuka Mogami in the idol series. I know of two major roles she's had in shows I've watched, but the one that really matters is Hiro from Himegoto. At this point, I'm just geeking out and checking off boxes.
  • Rated TV-14S.
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5 hours ago, Blatch said:

Actually watching this, on the other hand, was a little woozy. My torrent source has 480p quality (because it's from a DVD) and subs burned in from a separate file, which also happen to be comically huge. As in, this big. And the sub script is okay, but has a few errors here and there that could be fixed, mostly in punctuation. Poke could never tolerate that.

The sub errors, I've seen enough of to deal with. The sub size, on the other hand... Yeesh, that's a huge typeface.

Life Lessons with Uramichi-Oniisan 7 (dub)

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