Akazora

Cure meh cold.

Nah, most animation studios work on things by the week. If they show a preview, that's usually about all they've already animated. When episodes are made, they aren't made from beginning to end. Every scene is worked on simultaneously, or as simultaneously as possible, akin to the way torrents are downloaded. Because episodes are pretty much made in the course of one week, you can sometimes tell where a lot of the time and budget goes. In some anime you can watch a terribly animated 6th episode only to watch a gorgeous 7th episode a week later because all the skilled animators were ordered to spend 2 weeks to work on one episode, perhaps for an action-packed or climactic scene, and let the less skilled people work on episode 6, which maybe consisted mostly of stills and/or talking scenes. Neon Genesis Evangelion is notorious for it's horribly animated last episode or two, because the animation studio admitted to having had run short of funds. And of course there are studios like KyoAni who have sold their souls to the devil for a bottomless pit of animation money in exchange for having nearly all of their anime characters, regardless of series affiliation, look like blood-relatives ever since K-On. A bit of a mess, the anime industry is. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, I got around to watching Nichijou which is something I've been considering for a while now. Regrettably, I didn't find it as entertaining as Kenzi found it. While it was objectively a very good show, the humor never resonated with me. I chuckled a couple of times and smiled a bit, but for the most part I didn't really find it that funny. Maybe it's because I have a bad sense of humor or something. I don't mind slice of life, and I usually like it a lot, but there weren't many times I thought to myself "oh man, I know exactly how [insert character here] feels". The randomness didn't bother me either. Random silliness can be really great if done well, but it wasn't in this case. My biggest gripe is probably with the characters. I didn't find a single one of the six main characters according to MAL likable (except for perhaps Sakamoto). The one that I especially disliked, almost hated, was Hakase. Everything from her design to her personality irked me. Sigh, maybe I'm just not very good with children, but God damn that kid really ruined what I could have considered to be a decent show and made it average at best. However, I must say I adored the supporting characters and cast. If more scenes and gags focused on them, I probably would have liked the show more and even have forgiven Hakase. Ah, it's too bad, I really wanted to like Nichijou, too.

From what I can tell, the roster is unbelievably balanced. Even characters I had previously felt were kind of loose and hard to play as, notably Ness, Wario, Peach, Donkey Kong, and Mr. Game and Watch, feel sharp, crisp, and powerful. Honestly, so many characters feel so good in my hands it'll be a long while before I settle on a go-to main. And I guess Mario Kart DS was kind of easy, considering how quickly I managed to pick it up. I never played Mario Kart Wii, but Mario Kart 8 doesn't seem to be that hard. It's definitely harder than MKDS, but I've mastered 100cc and fare rather well in 150cc. It's actually a ton easier to get three stars for every Grand Prix, unlike in MKDS, since all you need to do is get first place in all four races instead of whatever ambiguous measurement was used for the DS version. I've actually decided to run through Diamond with that Silcoon. I traded it over to my Pearl version to EV train and it's a hefty Beautifly now. It won't be as easy to run through with as the Slack Off/Nasty Plot Infernape I had originally planned on, but it's holding up really well so far. It has terrible IVs though (single digits for everything except for 18 in speed) and it's Hidden Power is useless Grass type. I'm running a Bug Buzz/Psychic set and it would have been great coverage to have a Hidden Power Ground, or at the very least Fire, Fighting, or Water. Ah well, it'll make the solo run a bit challenging at the very least. Ah, I've been to Key West before. It was a long time go, but we took a cruise down there. I can't remember much of it, but I don't think I disliked it. The cruise, of course, was a ton of fun. I think vacationing by cruise boat is the best way to travel. By car would be second, since road trips can be a lot of fun, and I suppose to cap things off plane trips that provide free movies are great. Ehem, geez, I need to stop myself from straying off topic like this. If you ever feel the need to talk about your trip in more detail and have the time for it, PM me. I would definitely be interesting in hearing about it, haha. My parents used to be rather against Japanese stuff too, but they've somewhat warmed up to anime (as long as it's dubbed in either English or Mandarin). Wait, so then are you Chinese, too? I suppose you could also be either Filipino or Korean, considering those countries have been affected by Japanese war crimes back in the day as well. Well, now that winter break is practically over my parents have taken away my Wii U until college decisions are in, I guess. Ah well, I don't mind much. Though when the Ike and Sheik amiibos that I pre-ordered are delivered I won't be able to start training them immediately. I also plan on getting a Marth amiibo (when it's restocked, hopefully) and Lucina, Dark Pit, Ganondorf, and Palutena amiibos (when they're released). I guess I'll be investing most of my time in the Diamond run through, and maybe a bit in Y if my parents haven't relocated the 3DS. Oh shoot, sorry Kenzi, I never got around to playing either Super Meat Boy or Cave Story. Gah, I actually didn't have as much free time as I thought. I didn't realize so much stuff had built up over the months waiting for the break from school. I'll try to play them both as soon as I can though. (Um, I may need to seriously start spoiling everything I post here, because I wrote too much again...)

I was about to recommend the Music Awareness Thread, but it looks like you've hit that one up already. "Running Through the Stars" -- Rei Kagaya

Ah, cool cool, let me know what you think of it once you're done.

Medicine ^I'm sure that's counted as food in some places

You posted this in the wrong section. However, the drawings are not too bad for a 7 year old.

Did you already finish Fate/Zero or was my advice ignored?

Not the biggest fan of Crunchyroll, but better than Funimation. I actually prefer Funimation's translations to Crunchyroll's, but prefer Crunchyroll's typesetting to Funimation's. For now I'll just stick to FFFansubs since they're doing a splendid job, but when Crunchyroll overtakes them and releases episodes on time, I guess I'll convert.

I think the animators took liberties with that design, since OVA 9 Sonoko looked completely different from movie 5 Sonoko, if I recall. Gosho probably has his own unique design he'll use when the time calls for it.

Oh my gosh, "Kan-chan" reminded me of Mawaru Penguindrum.

OMM: It's so dry and cold in my house my hands hurt. How am I to trounce my cousin at Smash like this?!

So you wouldn't trust your own post?

Just finished watching it. It was a cute movie that loosely adapted books 1, 2, 4, and 13 from the Magic Tree House series and was targeted toward kids. The animation was good enough, though a lot of the aspects felt dumbed down. Jack and Annie were more childish in this rendition, and there were a few too many anime original scenes that take place outside the tree house and aren't executed that well. It was bizarre seeing suburban America in an anime though. Stop signs made me do a double take. Ah well, didn't really expect too much and it's not like I remember the books at all. Mouse Morgan was cute though. On a separate note though, the 48th Magic Tree House book, A Perfect Time for Pandas, has them go back to China during the Great Sichuan Earthquake of 2008. That can't even be considered history or myth really. That was practically yesterday. This one book is ruining my head cannon. Do Jack and Annie age? Has my childhood been ruined? Why am I up so late? It's almost four in the morning. Okay, yeah, I'm sleep deprived; going to sleep now before I embarrass myself further. (Happy New Year everybody... wooho...)

OMM: Discovered that there's an anime movie adaptation of the Magic Tree House books. I'm going to spend the beginning of the new year watching it; sleep can go to hell (sorry sleep, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, honest). Time for a nostalgia trip!! Let's go!!!

So Kid the Phantom Thief and I are tied for first place while Kenzi qualifies for third. The real question is though, who does the blue shell hit? Maybe we're all in the blast radius and suffer the same fate.

Wit Studio, the animation studio, is busy with a bunch of other works. They have Rolling Girls coming out in January and Owari no Seraph coming out this spring. They even announced a third show, Koutetsujou no Cabaneli, which will probably air this summer since Owari no Seraph is going to be split-cour with the second half airing in October. And of course, the second season of Attack on Titan is slated to air sometime in 2016, so Wit Studio is completely and thoroughly booked. They're probably working away at the next Levi OVA slowly but surely.

"The Celestial Railroad (Opening Theme Music)" -- Rei Kagaya ^This man's music and his brother's art are things of indescribable beauty. They're completely underrated and unheard of, and while part of me wishes more people appreciated their work, another part of me is glad they haven't (and probably never will) go mainstream.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Almost 2 hours until the new year!

Those little mini hot dogs.

I don't have a phone. I think I won this one.