Liberal Arts Major
That's just poor design! [/spoiler]
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
Silica was pretty cool. Hopefully she wasn't a one-shot character. [/spoiler]
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
Oh yeah, we hit marathon mode. I'll probably finish this up tomorrow. I'll try to keep this mostly in episode order but really it'll be mixed up.
I get the feeling this series is going to peak early. Because Kirito (and occasionally Asuna) fighting crime is the best. Well, I got that feeling around Episode 12. After Episode 14 it's looking like that might be safe, but we'll see!
Fun Fact: When I saw Laughing Coffin I half-sarcastically went "Giving decent odds that the creator of SAO is the guild master." That turned out pretty close, I just had the wrong guild!
Kirito makes the rest of the game look so bad it's kind of funny. Soloing raid bosses hahaha. I'd actually say it kind of sounds plausible given it seems the standard strategy in SAO is "be overlevelled" but still, it also seems like in theory the bosses are supposed to counter that.
My initial reaction to Kirito then being almost immediately CALLED OUT for a duel following this almost had me laugh. Because seriously given the situation I refused to believe Kirito could lose. Which also turned out more or less right because Kirito only lost through literal cheating. On that point, I assumed the guy had time stop or manipulation and was almost going to conclude, "Oh, well that's too OP even for Kirito" but then I figured it was something else entirely. I was immensely disappointed when the duel didn't lead to the return of Kirito, Ace Detective spending the next while figuring out wtf. It did however tell me that guy was going to be a villain or something later because there was absolutely going to be a rematch where they explained that.
At the time though, I wasn't sure how endgame was going to play out. I figured Laughing Coffin and "that guy" were going to be human antagonists but I never really fit that in with the 100 floors thing. Kind of figured that'd just happen in the background.
Also bugging me was that crazy guy who tries to PK Kirito. Mainly because I refuse to believe he could actually deal any notable damage to Kirito. Kirito was like Level 96 or something at the time, had one-shotted this guy's weapon in a previous duel, and the only time Kirito lost required time manipulation. I don't for a minute think he couldn't just tank what probably should have been scratch damage until paralysis wore out.
Then Asuna took us on a near genre-shift that in theory I'm fine with but man Yui and fishing episodes not sure if that's the way I wanted the side trip into Slice of Life to go! Figured Yui was an AI immediately, but that wasn't exactly a hard call.
Floor 75 Boss man what was that. It's one-shotting the top players casually, Kirito almost goes into despair at how ineffective they are and can't even knock off its HP and then all of a sudden it's gone. But all that gets overshadowed in (well actually the whole, "what the it lost" happens in)...
Episode 14. Man Episode 14. This deserves its own section because hahaha this episode. This was maximum trolling. I was on board with it when "that guy" revealed he was the Creator because really it made sense more or less. Then he CALLS OUT Kirito again and I'm like "Kirito is smart enough to turn this down" and then I'm like, "uh oh wait maybe not." Then I went through a weird process where I was thinking, "Well, okay, but Kirito can't actually win this fight, they're on Floor 75" to "oh my god actually he really is going to win, and not just because he really should based on last time but also because of this episode being called 'End of the World'"
And then Kirito loses, but loses Asuna who saves him at the last second. Then he just flat out loses and through all of this I'm starting to wonder if there's illusion magic and this is just trolling/a dream sequence/kyoka suigetsu (I thought Asuna was given Immortality before the fight but then she clearly didn't have it!)
But it wasn't. Kirito just powers through death to win. And then Kirito and Asuna live? Well, Kirito does and it looks like Asuna did but there better be an explanation for Asuna at least!
man that episode.
can we please go back to:
kirito and asuna. they fight crime. [/spoiler]
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
Marathon over.
Looking back I think I was right that SAO peaked with Kirito fighting crime but the ALO arc rebounded better than I thought it would!
Still, pacing is so weird in this show. You have SAO jumping all over the place and ALO isn't but it still feels weird. Kirito rolls in with his SAO stats so he can get right back to being the best in the game immediately and just embraces the absurdity of that fact. This arc starts pretty slow and then just kind of goes into comical overdrive.
First aside, I kind of refuse to believe the name "Kirito" was free for use here. ALO had been up for, what, a year at that point? Kirito has to be famous by now and the name has to be known. Someone would have taken it just to pretend they're the real Kirito. In fact, people should have noticed the name and wondered!
Also, time out here to lament the absence of the superior Kirito design. I never quite got over this! He at least gets the coat back but it just wasn't the same! I'll revisit this later.
Yui is pretty much the only real SAO arc returner and confirms that really my issue last time was the pacing because she's fine here (and in retrospect was in the SAO arc.) Still, I was hoping Kirito would be able to round-up the old SAO side-characters and just wreck ALO.
Of course, what Kirito chooses to do instead is almost as hilarious. Just goes full troll and bluffs a major faction and then beats the strongest player in the game. The best part was he almost did it with scrub equipment. We'll revisit that again too but first given that ALO was established to have its combat relate to your actual athleticism and all that I assume it nevertheless confirms Kirito is world-class IRL at this stuff.
Meanwhile, back with Asuna, she's mostly gone this whole arc and her side of things ranges from fine to "what the." That said, she displayed such severe lack of judgment when she gets caught that she really deserved it. She should have seen it coming from a mile away! Should have just bailed!
Then my favorite Kirito troll moment in this entire arc:
Suguha/Leafa: And so, that concludes my lecture on why the only way up the tree is through the raid dungeon.
Kirito: **** YOU I'M KIRITO! *Does exactly what Suguha just told him wouldn't work*
Because that's basically what happened. I was kind of hoping he'd succeed too, for comedy value.
Speaking of, that raid dungeon:
Suguha/Leafa: Wait, you can't go in there solo even the biggest raids have failed!
Kirito: lmfao raid bosses please. I'm Kirito.
Also, given how damn close Kirito came to succeeding I honestly think he would have if he put any thought into it. Keep in mind he charges in there with the same scrub equipment that gets called out in his PvP fight earlier. If he had just taken Suguha's sword so he could dual-wield or just bought some other scrub sword even I think he actually makes it. If he actually bought raid-tier equipment he probably beats the unbeatable encounter too!
But he doesn't so he loses and gets bailed out by Suguha. Another time out here for how neither of them figured out who the other was earlier. Did Suguha never ask Kirito what happened in SAO? Or read the news? Or read the internet? Again, "Kirito" has to be famous and she should know who he is! And I'm kind of shocked Asuna's name never came up in conversation before that point!
Anyway Kirito gets in once everyone helps and I'm kind of surprised that GM Card worked. Thought Yui said they needed a terminal, but whatever! Kirito the best for totally losing focus at this of all times:
Kirito: WTF? Where's the castle? ****ing quest text lied to me!
Yui: ...are you serious
So Episode 24. Okay, this show has some issues with how to wrap up these arcs/games. Because what the hell happened here. Kirito loses immediately because cheating is the one way to defeat Kirito in combat. At this point, instead of paying attention to Sugou because seriously wtf, I started wondering how Kirito would get himself out of this, what with being pinned to the ground by a sword impaling him. The only thing I could come up with was, "Kayaba is going to come back because ALO is like a phantom SAO and he's the only one who can reverse this situation."
AND THEN IT HAPPENED! And better yet, he practically takes on misunderstood hero status by even Kirito at this point! For a second there I thought Kirito was trying to summon Heathcliff which would have been the legit greatest, but no he just used it to get GM powers. Based on the conversations before I thought him turning the pain absorber to 0 meant it was SAO rules and so he just got consumed in revenge but it turns out no.
So, Kirito wins again and he and Kayaba have a chat and it's totally obvious it's a new MMO of some kind but I was originally thinking it was SAO. Sugou shows up in the real world which shocked me because again, thought the fight in ALO was for real, but guess not! That SAO player school looked great, should have spent episode time there tbqh!
Back in ALO (seriously lost track of exactly what happened here in terms of MMOs and The Seed but whatever) Kirito reveals he made the worst decision ever. He had the choice to revert to his SAO design and turned it down. That crushed me so hard. Worst decision Kirito has ever made, and will ever make. Then Aincrad comes back and makes it worse because it's the best excuse for him to retake the old design!
At least Kirito acknowledges the SAO Arc end was BS and he has 25 more floors to clear.
And we got Crossing Field again so that was great.
So, all in all, I enjoyed SAO but man there were some real issues here. Pacing was the big one, but missed potential is so huge. The worlds in SAO and ALO had so much you can do with and it doesn't happen and argh! [/spoiler]
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Advanced
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Red solo cup,I fill you!Lets have a party!Lets have a party!
I love you red solo cup!I lift you up!Proceed to party!Proceed to party!
(Toby Keith's red solo cup song)
Liberal Arts Major
It's an anime about a bunch of people playing a new MMORPG who find out they can't log out. Then the game creator tells them the only way out is if they beat the game by clearing all 100 floors. And that if they die in the game, they die in real life.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
We don't get it here in Canada, at least on Bell anyway. Cartoon Network / Adult Swim Canada is being extremely anal about bringing their anime library over.
<->
"What the fuck is Alice doing in Wonderland anyway? Who the fuck told her she could leave the god damn kitchen in the first place?" -Random guy on Xbox Live
http://www.backloggery.com/kodan882
Liberal Arts Major
I enjoyed it (My SAO spoiler blocks are me watching it) but I think you have to not take it seriously eventually because if you do you'll probably just become quite unhappy with it.
It has some pretty ridiculous pacing issues though and doesn't know how to conclude an arc well at all.
I'd probably give it like a 7/10 or something in spite of all that. Again, so long as you try not to take it too seriously it's a pretty fun watch. Great music and design too, IMO.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
The only thing that Bell gets (And the only thing WE get) on the channels they offer is Pokemon, Bakugan, DBZ Kai. Stuff like that.
We HAVE Cartoon Network, and Adult Swim here in Canada, but those fuckers aren't interested in importing the anime lineup, which is fucking bull shit.
Hell. Most of their lineup, save for like, 3 shows (Tim/Eric show or whgatever, Squidbillies and I forget the other) already exist on another bloody channel.
The one channel that aired anime weekly, was YTV. They aired anime every friday night, later changing to saturday, and then completely killing their anime block off after like, 20 years of it airing in various formats.
But, they were TERRIBLE about re-runs. When America was on episode 140 or so of Bleach, it had just started replaying reruns at like, episode 68 or something here.
<->
"What the fuck is Alice doing in Wonderland anyway? Who the fuck told her she could leave the god damn kitchen in the first place?" -Random guy on Xbox Live
http://www.backloggery.com/kodan882
Advanced
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Red solo cup,I fill you!Lets have a party!Lets have a party!
I love you red solo cup!I lift you up!Proceed to party!Proceed to party!
(Toby Keith's red solo cup song)
Liberal Arts Major
I've always meant to watch it but never have though so my info could be a bit off. I've played the PS2 games though and the .hack//G.U. trilogy is probably my favorite game series.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
<->
"What the fuck is Alice doing in Wonderland anyway? Who the fuck told her she could leave the god damn kitchen in the first place?" -Random guy on Xbox Live
http://www.backloggery.com/kodan882
Liberal Arts Major
Well, that's the most simplified way to portray the concept, but I think more people probably remember it for the rivalry between the two main characters.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
<->
"What the fuck is Alice doing in Wonderland anyway? Who the fuck told her she could leave the god damn kitchen in the first place?" -Random guy on Xbox Live
http://www.backloggery.com/kodan882
Liberal Arts Major
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
<->
"What the fuck is Alice doing in Wonderland anyway? Who the fuck told her she could leave the god damn kitchen in the first place?" -Random guy on Xbox Live
http://www.backloggery.com/kodan882
Liberal Arts Major
TSUKASA
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~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Liberal Arts Major
<->
"What the fuck is Alice doing in Wonderland anyway? Who the fuck told her she could leave the god damn kitchen in the first place?" -Random guy on Xbox Live
http://www.backloggery.com/kodan882
Liberal Arts Major
___
~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Liberal Arts Major
<->
"What the fuck is Alice doing in Wonderland anyway? Who the fuck told her she could leave the god damn kitchen in the first place?" -Random guy on Xbox Live
http://www.backloggery.com/kodan882
Editor
.hack//Legend of the Twilight Bracelet
also like two arcs in Yu-Gi-Oh for whatever dumb reason
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"You're childish. What are you getting? Are you getting strawberry? Ha! That's such a childish flavor, only children eat strawberry."
Liberal Arts Major
Kids love videogames!
___
~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Liberal Arts Major
<->
"What the fuck is Alice doing in Wonderland anyway? Who the fuck told her she could leave the god damn kitchen in the first place?" -Random guy on Xbox Live
http://www.backloggery.com/kodan882
Liberal Arts Major
___
~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Advanced
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Red solo cup,I fill you!Lets have a party!Lets have a party!
I love you red solo cup!I lift you up!Proceed to party!Proceed to party!
(Toby Keith's red solo cup song)
Liberal Arts Major
man what happened
this isn't evangelion
But at least the GREATEST thing happened:
[Spoiler for Rebuild of Evangelion 2.22, click to show]Kaworu coming down from the moon in his EVA to just shut down Shinji and Unit 01 from causing Third Impact after the credits so great. I'd like to think he actually threw the Lance of Longinus from the moon and his aim is just that good. [/spoiler]
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
New Moderator
Anime
K
Okay, I've seen it called K, [K], K Project, other stuff. But apparently it is officially called K. This is a wonderful anime. I am sort of split on whether 13 episodes was too short or just right. However, for reasons that will be revealed below, it works out better than I first thought.
The animation here is beautiful. I don't normally care much about animation quality, but gosh, it's worth remarking on here. It makes the setting even nicer, and I do like the setting of it being an island with a really cool-looking school. Love the opening, and the ending has a nice song as well. Props and stuff for those.
But the fact is, I judge more on characterization and story. The story here uses a method I wish I saw more often with its foreshadowing. It has very subtle hints that you are unlikely to draw conclusions from. However, after a few episodes, it drops more obvious ones, allowing the viewers to guess the outcome shortly before the reveal. It's nice, it lets the reader connect the dots without it being figured out way too early.
The characters are a diverse cast that I like a lot. I find it bizarre that two of the 'weaker' characters, in my eyes, turned out to be fantastically popular for pairing and fangirling over. Yeeep I sure see why those two get more attention than the really good protagonist, compelling companions of his, and more spotlighted and developed guys. Oh yeah and the villain came out of Higurashi from the looks of the contorting faces, that's a thing.
Highly recommend, worth watching if you can.
Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo?
Also known as 'that anime with a really long name.' A friend of mine said this was his favorite anime of the season that it came out in, so I watched it mostly on his recommendation. In the long run, I was glad to have seen it. But it is nowhere near my favorite anime in any capacity.
So, props to the main trio, they are all pretty well developed. Too bad most of the other characters are boring. Ms. Fanservice is dull as dirt (what a shock), and the enemies are pretty flat (character-wise, you could certainly argue the fanservice woman over there as not being 'flat'; get a better costume, lady). This part made me especially puzzled. How do you make a personification of the Black Plague BORING?! Gosh darn it guys. On the bright side, there is this perverted demon woman who is actually hilarious in conjunction with the main male character. Scenes with them are amusing.
Story is fairly straight forward. World is interesting, and the games done are well enough. But then we hit a huge 'what' factor. This is a series that sets up for a long tale, like a shonen anime. So what do we get? Ten episodes. TEN. Along with a single OVA episode that is pure fanservice. It's nowhere near enough.
To be fair, this is based off a light novel series, and only two light novels had apparently come out at this point. Plus there should be a continuation of the series. But it felt like it needed more. On the bright side, nice intro and outro, though not on K's level.
This series is, in a word, fun. Fun series are nice and enjoyable, but if all it is is fun, it can't get very far. Worth watching, but not nearly as high ranked. I have to admit, it also got very unfortunate to be sandwiched between K and Kino's Journey, seeing as those two were so good.
Kino's Journey: The Beautiful World
Have you seen Kino's Journey? No? Then what the heck are you doing? Stop reading this and go watch it. Now. Like, now now.
Okay I guess I should clarify this further. Kino's Journey is not for everyone. It's an episodic anime with only two constant characters, Kino and Hermes. Kino is the traveler, Hermes is her talking motorcycle (motorrad). I can sum up the series in one sentence: Kino and Hermes travel to multiple countries on a journey. There, that's the whole thing.
But that does nothing to capture its brilliance. I love the writing in this series. I could go on for a long time about why, but we get into spoiler territory if I do. Let's just say it's extremely well done and a great mixture of emotions.
For only having Kino and Hermes most of the time, it seems like the characters might be limited. Not so. A lot of the one-shot characters made a bigger impact on me than protagonists in other series. Mind you, that might be more of a dig at said protagonists, but the truth remains in that statement. Hermes is a great companion to Kino, and Kino is, simply put, one of my absolute favorite anime characters.
The series is thirteen episodes with an OVA and two short movies. All of it is worth watching. Oh, and it sweeps the opening and ending categories too. Much as I love K's, Kino's Journey has some of my absolute favorite opening and ending songs. Highly, highly recommended series.
Manga
Deadman Wonderland
Okay, if you've read Death Note, this... is nothing like Death Note for plot or characters. But do you know that sort of narmish quality Death Note has going for it? That's what I thought of when reading Deadman Wonderland. Like it tries to be serious but is ultimately rather silly.
This series has some well-developed characters. I certainly wanted some of them to survive and make it out to a happy life. Others I didn't care about at all. And one had a really obvious plot twist that I saw coming from chapter one and was like "seriously" when it was played dead straight. Good one, series.
But oh man. The gratuitous violence falls straight into Elfen Lied territory. The human body does not have that much blood nor can you tear off arms that easily, guys. The gore is for shock/squick value but it winds up being hilariously over the top. There's not much point to it, either. You lose a fight, you lose a body part. Why? Cuz WE'RE EVIL HUR. Speaking of evil, the main evil character for a while is the biggest For the Evulz guy I have seen in forever. It's so stupid it winds around to amusing.
The story is decent for the most part other than that. The fights are pretty well done. Some emotional moments did get me to tear up. That's more than I can say for some series. Artwork isn't bad for the most part either, even if the main female character has the stupidest clothing ever.
I have a lot of complaints, but there are parts I can praise as well. It's an okay series overall. I didn't regret reading it since some sections really will stay with me. But it's not amazing or anything.
Immortal Rain
Now this is a good series. I came across this one randomly a while ago and bookmarked it for later reading. Came back to see what it was, and got a pleasant surprise.
The story's a bit odd in that it does not explain everything at work here, even in the end. Not a big deal, though, because some of these answers would probably require a stupid amount of forced writing to get into the story somehow. The setting is all right, not hugely developed or fleshed out but it has enough for us to have the story work.
The characters are the shining point. The two leads are really well done. The side characters are also memorable and develop. I do have some qualms with how the villain is handled in the long run, but frankly, it's also hard not to feel badly for him. That guy is insane for a really good reason, to say the least.
I admit, the first ten or so chapters are a bit slower than the rest. I liked them, and they made me want to read more. But it gets especially good after that first section, so that's worth noting for any would-be readers. As an odd remark to make, I sort of got a Trigun vibe from this, even if the two series are really nothing alike. Might be the art, the world, or just how the main character acts, I dunno.
There's a prequel that is very much worth reading, and I give a high recommendation to this series. Get a box of tissues for some parts though. All my feels.
K (Manga)
Yeah, K got some manga series. I read as many as I could. Two were completed, two were not.
First one was K: Memory of Red. This fleshes out one of the factions in the anime. Tons of the characters that were just background people get actual stories and development here. I can't tell you how welcome it is. I understand why it wasn't in the anime, but releasing the stories makes it so much better for a rewatch. You can be like, "oh yeah, that's that guy, I know him now!".
Second was K: Stray Dog Story. Prequel about my favorite K character? Yes plz. It also contains an Iron Chef episode. This is as hilarious as it should be. But it also is a really sweet story overall and I enjoyed it greatly.
Third was K: Days of Blue. Not much of it out now, but what was out was okay. The problem with this is that Memory of Red tackled, in my opinion, the vastly more interesting faction. Days of Blue focuses on one that I really don't care much about beyond, uh, two people? If even that? Still has decent stories.
Finally, K: The First only has one chapter, and it seems to be a straight adaptation of the anime. I like the anime more so far. Not much to say.
Worth reading all of these, but only do it after seeing the anime.
Gravitation
Hahahahaha why. ...Okay, so I read this because I heard it was a good series. By a lot of people. Guess what, it isn't.
So basically this is a romance between two boys with one of them being a musician. This latter point is an issue. There is barely any of the performances shown, and the ones there are, well, guess what, IT'S A MANGA! You can't hear his music so there goes that experience! The other guy is a romance novelist which makes NO SENSE given his lack of understanding actual romance. ...Unless the only people buying his novels were Twilight fangirls, then that'd work.
The characters are pretty bad. The main character is annoying and wimpy and needs to be slapped. His love interest is a jerk, though he at least gets some character development... really late into the series, ugh. The side characters are... well, some I liked. Some I questioned why they existed. Some were laughably bad.
The setting here is baffling. Apparently 'safe weapons' exist. See, the thing is, it's part comedy, part serious. But the two do not mingle well in this manga. It's especially jarring when you see people getting shot left and right without any dying, yet the love interest is in such a bad state because he KILLED SOMEONE. These two elements don't mix.
Oh, and most insulting of all is the rape usage. Long story short, a rape occurs that is used more for shock value than anything else. This is wrong and disgusting and NO. When you use rape, use it seriously. There is NOTHING that could not have been accomplished here that a gang beating the character up would not have. And on top of that? THERE WAS A REASON THAT RAPE COULD HAVE WORKED. IT WAS IGNORED. ARRRRRGH. This only happens once and it's not treated like it's a GOOD thing but this really, really annoyed me and soured the whole experience.
I should note the translations here were pretty awful at parts and some of the writing might have been better than I'm giving it credit for. But it's still a bad series. Some people claim the anime is better, I might see it just so I can hear the music, which is apparently really nice.
Random Short Stories
No that's not a title. I tend to read some short stories, or one volume mangas, between others. I didn't really read any recently that I recall enough to talk about. But I did read them so there you go.
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"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears