Akazora

Episode 8 has been fansubbed! The more Akako the better, is how I see it. For whatever reason, this episode wasn't as bad as the others. I can't tell if it's because of Akako or if it's because the art and animation was a bit more consistent this time around.

If I'm not mistaken, episode 13.

All this romantic development teasing at the end of the series is getting tedious. Because of how this case ended, we're practically guaranteed another mini-London arc involving Heiji and Kazuha in the future when the time could have been spent on something more pertinent to the plot. I'm just hoping for some more legit info on RUM; I don't want his/her involvement to be as drawn out and as eventually disappointing as Bourbon's.

Mentioned this before, but at that point I had only started this book: A Farewell to Arms by Earnest Hemingway. This shouldn't even belong here, since this is a thread for "good" books not average books. AFtA was average at best. It peeked at chapter 9 out of a total of 41, which was unfortunate. It's more of a cringe-worthy love story than a war novel, so read it with your expectations in check unless you want to be disappointed. The two main characters were nothing to speak of, unless you want to consider Catherine as one of literature's most poorly written "yanderes". The ending was also terribly predictable, and it evoked absolutely no emotion from me. Well, I did stop yawning by the second half of the last chapter, but at that point it was already too late. Okay, scratch average, this book was below average and dances very close to bad. I was never a fan of Hemingway's style to be honest, so I might be biased. I don't recommend you read it unless school forces you to.

Dugtrio isn't exactly one of my favorite Pokemon either, so I can understand how you feel. Its shiny form isn't all that good. And I've actually changed my mind and decided to EV train the shiny Flabebe. It shouldn't take too long with Super Training, and when it's fully EV trained I'll stick it in my party and use it as a motivator to not stop playing Y, haha. Since I'll be getting a lot of new games in the coming weeks and months, I don't want Y to be forgotten. Florges as a Grass/Fairy would make more sense, but I guess the flower isn't exactly park of the Pokemon, kind of like how Spiritomb is always shown coming out of the Odd Keystone but it's not Ghost/Rock or Dark/Rock. I wish I could keep it as a Floette, because she has a really cute design. Maybe that YouTuber got some kind of "advance copy" of the game? I'm only guessing we got a Mega Audino because we needed some 5th generation Megas. They could have picked something better, like a Mega Druddigon or something. I'm definitely not going to use it, that's for sure. I would have loved to see a Mega Milotic and Flygon! I like Milotic's design and it would be interesting to see how they handle an even more beautiful Pokemon. And I've used Flygon enough in my Sapphire runthroughs to want a Mega. Well, when I run through the game I'm most likely going to use my Mega starter, so I don't think there'd be much time to experiment with others until post game anyway. Heck, I may end up being so greedy I just stick an Amulet Coin on my lead Pokemon and just roll in the cash, avoiding Megas completely.

Well, the most efficient way to use Super Training is to participate in the Super Training regimen. You have your Pokemon stand on a plane and throw soccer balls at an inflatable balloon with baskets on it. Each time you score enough points you complete a round and get a set number of EVS in the stat you had predetermined before starting the round. Depending on which level you're on, you can receive either 4, 8, or 12 EVs. What's more, after each round you get a free punching bag for that same stat, which randomly gives you another 4, 8, or 12 EVs. That's a potential total of 24 EVs just for playing one round of a kind of awkwardly handled mini-game. In this way its not that hard at all to completely EV train a Pokemon just standing on the same tile without having to spend a single dollar. I personally find it kind of redundant and the controls aren't that great, but it is convenient in a pinch. Not to mention, if it can save money for all those clothes I want to buy, I'm all for it! Hm, it would be nice to switch Pokeballs around, but then again each Pokemon and their Pokeball has a story behind it. Even if Dugtrio looks hideous in that Timer Ball, there are memories that go along with it, right? Actually, on the line of shinies, I was messing around with Wonder Trade today and landed myself a really awesome shiny Flabebe. It's holding a yellow flower and doesn't look very different from its normal coloration, but it'll look better as a shiny Florges. I don't really like Florges's design, but I think it'll grow on me. It's Bold natured, which is nice too. I might treat my Y version a bit more special now. But I probably won't get around to EV training it, not even Super Training it, until after the main plot. I've played the ORAS demo, and it looks great. It's a lot smoother, mainly because you're not forced to choose between free-form skates and running on tiles like in X and Y. I never liked the skates much because I always bumped into things, but whenever I ran with the D-pad, my character was forced to follow the grid which can be convenient at times but doesn't look at all that smooth. In ORAS, using the circle pad allows you to run, not skate, with free-form motion while the D-pad is running with the grid. It feels a lot better, and I'm really grateful for it. If you've ever played the GameCube games, Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness, it feels just like those motion controls now.

Monster I only just finished it yesterday, but by God is it good. I'm going to watch the anime adaptation when I have time, maybe next summer before I go to college. I definitely recommend it to everyone. As of now it's the best manga I've ever read (though I haven't really read much manga, but take it as you will).

I like not using emoticons. So I guess I dislike using emoticons? Not really, I just don't use emoticons.

I wish it would be Saturday. Because that would mean I've gotten past this rotten week and all its school work!

Live through "Y"? As in live vicariously?

Tell me about it. I'll admit I listen to Christmas music year round, so for me Christmas feels near even in the summer!

Redbubble is my go-to place. I buy t-shirts from them all the time and they're amazing. Redbubble is a site where you order anything from shirts to posters to phone cases to mugs to tote bags with special designs on them. It doesn't specialize in anime and manga material, but is rather an open forum where users submit their own art and designs to sell on items. Original creators of designs get a small profit from everything they sell, too. It's a really great site and everything is reasonably priced given the flexibility of the system. Also, I've found that actual products end up looking better than the previews online.

Super Training isn't something I've actually ever done to fully EV train a Pokemon, only because my goal is to run through Y as fast as possible, but I like how your Pokemon can just randomly find a punching bag as you wander around and play the game. Then you can invest a few seconds punching that bag which gives you EVs. It's also cool how, right on the bottom screen in the Super Training menu, you can check the total EVs of every Pokemon in the party as well as a rough idea of how many EVs a Pokemon has and has left. And you can also clear all EVs with a a Reset Bag, which I've already picked up two of! It's definitely convenient, though if I need to I'll probably just EV train the old fashioned way by battling and use Super Training to make sure I'm on the right track. And I guess I only stopped using Master Balls because I wanted to save them for shinies, just in case. So I pretty much only use my precious Master Balls for those rare guys. And I guess Pokeballs that correspond to types would look rather nice. Never really tried that, since it's easier to just blindly chuck plain Pokeballs. I did like the Emerald Frontier's atmosphere. Ruby and Sapphire just had that tower on the island, which was really lame. We have that "Episode Delta" thing confirmed for ORAS, so from the looks of it there'll at least be some sort of new post-game adventure, which is awesome. Kanto was never really a very interesting region, given it was the first one ever made, so even its remake in FRLG and its appearance in HGSS couldn't really make it exciting. Given you've already played HGSS, you've explored pretty much all of FRLG. Maybe not the old Cinnabar Island or all the Sevii Islands, but those weren't that interesting anyway. Phew, we've strayed so far off topic. This has become almost our personal Pokemon discussion thread instead of a general video game discussion thread. I also just played that! Only for an hour, but it was all the time I could manage. The Wii U is an amazing console, it still blows my mind. I also recently played through A Bird Story, which is a PC game "pseudo-sequel" to To the Moon. And I messed around with the Sm4sh 3DS and ORAS demos for fun. Anticipating the release of both ORAS and Sm4sh Wii U on Friday!

Colorful (anime movie)

According to Wikipedia, it's derived from the Arabic phrase al-jebr which means "reunion of broken parts". In my own words, it's one of the simple and basic concepts in math involving variables to solve for unknown values. Personally hated that subject by the way, and pre-calc was no better.

That thing conspired with the rest of the conics to slaughter my math grade in cold blood a few years ago. Never forgave that monster.

I did purchase the DLC and it's really awesome. Link is fun, but I'm not sure if I'll main him. I guess I can't exactly throw together a build yet until I've unlocked all the carts and bikes and parts yet anyway. I haven't played much, just a bit to get a feel for the game. My favorite course is probably The N64 Rainbow Road remake. It seems to receive a lot of criticism because it's "boring", but I like it because the plane-view city lights at night are so dreamy. It's gorgeous and I'm swooning over the course as we speak.

I found out rain is guaranteed for tomorrow. As in the forecast says 100%. They must be pretty damn sure.

Thought you meant "which tongue" for a stupidly frightening three seconds, until I realized you meant "which brother".

Cool, did you finish it yet? How did you like it?

I only use forums and never blogs, so I honestly cannot relate to that urge in any possible way. ... and did you make an account just to say that? Also, what did you just read? Maurice's original post or mine?

I understand where you come from, but I can't help but disagree with some of your points. You say it would make more sense to compare Magic Kaito 1412 to Detective Conan but that in itself would be a terrible comparison. Magic Kaito 1412 is produced by A-1 Pictures while Detective Conan is made by TMS Entertainment. Gosho is the original illustrator for the manga of both series but is not responsible in any way for the animation in the anime adaptations. I am not saying Magic Kaito has bad art. I like Gosho's style as it's clean, detailed, and recognizable. However the animation is directly related to the studio: A-1 Pictures. It has absolutely nothing to do with Gosho. Furthermore, I compared MK1412 to Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso because both are made by A-1 Pictures and are airing at the exact same time. The studio has everything to do with the animation while the orginal mangaka does not, so my comparison makes more sense. I don't mean to sound rude, but looking at it any other way would be making too many faulty connections and would miss the bigger picture on how the anime industry works. Just remember, art =/= animation. I respect your opinion to only have an interest in retro anime. However, I view anime as much as a form of art as it is a form of entertainment. I only complain about MK1412 because of its consistency, which, even by retro standards, is not very good. This is nothing like Sailor Moon Crystal vs. the older Sailor Moon series. Both Sailor Moons have clean art, consistent faces, smooth animations, and good directing given their respective time periods. People only prefer the old one over the new one (or vice versa) because they have a stylistic preference. I want to make it clear, I don't dislike retro anime. Old anime can have very good art, like Revolutionary Girl Utena or Neon Genesis Evangelion. I dislike MK1412 however, because it has inconsistent art and bad directing. No matter the time period, this is inexcusable. No offense, but to say the animation is "well laid out" would be a bit of an insult to objectively better animated series, even "retro" ones like Cowboy Bebop. I don't mean to sound too harsh, because I do respect everyone's opinion as long as it is an informed one. Also, we have strayed too far off topic. We should keep this an anime-this-season discussion thread. If you have more to say about things that don't pertain directly to MK1412, feel free to private message me.

Wow, it was like, the middle of the week for me. Tomorrow's the weekend though! Played Mario Kart 8 for the first time, and only just realized how impressive that frame rate is...