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Re-reading your Clannad review feels so good. Now a days peoples have so much hate boner for Clannad which makes me sad.

Haven't read the Chrno blog yet, because I still have to see the anime (I'm half way between expecting it to butcher the source material or elevate it astronomically with cinematic directing and music).
Just gotta say--I should put more faith in your recommendations. First half, I'd rated the manga a 7, and only came back to it on occasion, but half way through, it really picked up... and then that last volume.
Goddamn.
I've actually been trying to relearn the ability to cry the past couple years, as I've been under heavy stress that I can only get out as rage... and Chrno Crusade did it.

Interesting side note: while you value character depth and relation and I value plot, the rare mediums we agree on are those that manage both equally--I'm starting to think you might actually like Berserk. It does have a romantic plot beat via Gatsu/Caska, but the main plot of the series revolves around a bromance which is basically Shinkai x1000
Basically
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7hjdC8-jbw
But Guts and Griffith communicate/experience their connection so differently it leads to a schism which has a (literally) cataclysmic chain reaction. While the series is known for its gritty brutality, it really shines in the fact the characters are all very real, and very tragic, which I think you'd appreciate.

No problem with missed dialogue (you said that last time, haha), given your career/move I assumed you were busy, paired with not being active on here for years, and the fact I disable comments whenever my nihilistic misanthropy reaches critical mass (my PhD in misanthropology qualifies me as a JRPG villian! YAY!), Bob responses are considered omake.

I didn't see the actual .Hack, just the aftermath of not being able to log in for days. I guess the cool kids would also call it "meta" that a hack would reference Lain. Rewriting MAL's framework for reality is fitting. (I found the show overrated, due to lack of plot/character development, but I also watched it while doing a sleep deprivation/induced hallucination experiment, so it really mind fucked me at the time, especially right after MGS2 going crazy and the colonel codecing me that I needed to get some sleep).

Yeah, weird thing about Chrno is I thought I'd seen the anime, but it's not on my list, so it would have had to have been loooong back. I'm pretty strict on catching up with people who recommend things to me, even if it takes me millennia to actually get to them. (Pretty sure you recommended me Index Mahou bibliography footnote somethingorother once too, which I also never got to). I have a bunch Hikky had recommended, and some drama/romance/shoujo my ex insisted I read.
It took me years to get through Tsubasa Chronicle, so I went through the library to focus on shorter ones, and once I started Chrno it triggered the memory of who (I think) recommended it in the first place.

Only reading a volume a week at this pace, and have mixed feelings. I love occult/demonology fiction, and it really picked up the pace quickly... and then faltered into episodic after a couple chapters. If it coagulates into a more cohesive narrative, I'll love it, but if it sticks with the one-off story of the week type tales, I'll feel it was wasted potential.
(recall that it took me 20 years to finish Inuyasha, after rewatching from episode 1 five times, because the stretch of one-off filler episodes mid-way always killed my interest)

But your quote gives me hope. Even if the plot isn't overarching cohesive, looking at the character dynamics as the plot could help. That has been the strong point so far, and I do adore Rosette's spunky personality.
(also, I prefer more subtle relationship development than the anime tropes of everybody mindlessly obsessing over the "suki desu!" phrase. School Days already took that to it's ultimate conclusion. Just watching Princess and the Pilot a few hours ago, and loved the bittersweetness of a realistic connection--Some call it a romance, but it wasn't, at all. It's a movie about a soldier escorting a princess, and the bond they form in the process, despite the fact the world they live in ensures any such intentions of that bond are non-actionable. Much better than all the contrived BS that passes for romance in drama, in my estimation)

This will seem random, but was it you who recommended me Chrno Crusade years back?
If so, manga or anime? (I just started the manga, hence the random memory retrieval)

Nice Clannad review mate, i liked it, also just looking at your favorites make me feel relaxed.

No problem, MAL has always had a taste for eating messages. I just assumed you were busy with work and life and such.
You did start a previous message saying you were making your annual check-in, so I don't mind the wait--I just had a shitty enough week that if I didn't communicate with an intelligent organism I'd cross the line from misanthropy into outright nihilism.

Well I'm glad you get to keep your civil corruption...?
Yeah, don't know if The Wire is your cup of tea. Rather than just crime though, it does analyze the faults and effects of various infrastructurs, not just the police force and organized crime, but also the school system, politics, media and even the shipping industry.
Never saw Veep... or JLD as an anime girl... but I did love her in Arrested Development--comedy done right.

Oh god dammit. Don't make me actually write a comedic short story based on what was supposed to be a joke. This is actually now developing in a story in my mind now.
Problem is, the medium is already so tropey, it wouldn't even be recognized as parody and would probably actually become popular.
When I'm tending the arbor, I'll have to actually dress in a maid outfit just to confuse the neighbors. I can then pretend to be a woke "transitioner" by screaming at them for sexualizing me when they stare. (this is further hilarious when you keep in mind I'm a shaved-head goateed former-powerlifter with a Tommy Shelby walk--I think people's minds would just blank out the image for failure to process it)

"I am going through a nostalgic phase now"
That's a coincidence. Same here--it's why I haven't been on much to update my list. Rewatching oldies like Cowboy Bebop, Kenshin, FMA, Wolf's Rain and 90s OVAs. Ah, the nostalgia of turning middle aged!
Speaking of nostalgia, instead of upgrading to PS5, I ordered a Namco Noir and an adapter to hook it up to a PC for emulating arcades with a live quarter mechanism... BOTH are lost in shipping hell.

Dood, that pic is hysterical. I still think Yoko Taro is the least image conscious Japanese celebrity. lol

I'm bored.
Entertain me.

By which I mean, make intelligent observations about some entertainment medium in my general direction I can interact with.
(Skadi has shuffled off this anime coil, so her duties fall on you)

F

Wow, your words take my breath away that I can't see it seriously. Thanks for the sarcasm and the miniscule mustard-sized pea brain you have.

"far-right politicians keep popping up in key positions in Italy and France."
Jesus, the Italians don't learn, evidently. (I blame the church! :D) Germany has has been living in its own shadow for decades, constantly trying to compensate for its history. Japan's gone in the exact opposite direction... that Italy would be leaning back into its "glory days" is kind of ironic in that context.

Okay, stop telling me current events shit! I've been trying to avoid as much as possible because the world's crazy enough I'm just fed up with it and plan to go as off-grid as one can possibly be, but I'm constantly being bombarded by divisive American politics everywhere I look. That global politics are every bit as crazy as always doesn't do much to restore my dwindling faith in humanity.
(Ever play Final Fantasy VI? I'm seriously coming over to the "Kefka did nothing wrong" perspective)

"Yeah, I was never too invested on it in the first place. Only election I ever cared about was for mayor because in my opinion it's the only one that actually makes a difference in my life - town council are all marked seats predetermined by corruption and anything above municipal elections makes no difference these days."

Hah, this and your previous paragraph make me grateful there are still people who see the world rationally.
Have you seen The Wire? Despite being American, I assume some of the themes are universal. Aidan Gillen (Littlefinger, who's proved with The Wire and Peaky Blinders his Littlefinger was bad directing and not bad acting) plays a politician who moves up through the ranks; an idealist wanting to root out corruption and make a difference. By the time he's governor, he winds up "playing the game" and making necessary sacrifices and in the end nothing changes but the name of the king.
It's been years since I saw it and my memory is less than perfect, but I recall it was presented less as an overt incrimination of poltics than as a character study that the king is the weakest piece on the chessboard.
It wasn't so overtly Orwellian as "the pigs become the people," as just a natural look at politics and flawed human infrastructures.



"Stay tuned, though, Bolsonaro might try to pull a Trump and make his minions storm some government building later this year."

What I have to keep reminding people, that so many forget because it's now been so long there's a temporal disparity, and what two generations ago was fresh is now "just history and irrelevant," is that this is exactly how Hitler came to power.
Of course, the irony is that Biden has overturned more laws and constitutions and been more overall disastrous to the nation and its people and its economy that people seeing Trump as an admitted dictator doesn't seem so bad.
We overturned the Nuremberg Code so that mass vaccination experimentation would be kosher, but the media has people raging over the overturning of Roe vs Wade.
(maybe this is just Bernays and McLuhan speaking through me, but I blame the media for everything)

"Fun times!"
*Ron Perlman voiceover*
The world never changes. We just get old and wise enough to see it for what it is.

"(I hope you're doing the grape grinding the traditional barefoot way, while dressed as a cute anime girl)."
How did you know what my label was?!!!
I can already see the review: "Gothic Loljisan Chambourcin was the first wine to ever make me sick before I even uncorked it."


I see you didn't care much for Death Billiards. Part of this may be the chicken & egg conundrum. I saw the series as derivative, padding out the same concept for too many episodes, but without being as open-ended and thought provoking, but you saw the series first, so the original probably seemed lacking compared to the recurring character exposition of the series.
As to the "who went to where" I think was the greatest part, as I've read a lot of interpretations, and the OVA was deeper than you realize on first glance. I've seen people pick apart so much of the visual symbolism and offer theories that really fit with it... the series just felt so simple in comparison, like just another anime series pandering to otaku. Again, I didn't dislike it... but it was derivative of something that was rarely original in a medium starved for originality.


HAH!
It's actually funny that our tastes are so different. I actually used you as an example on a psychology forum once, citing that we both have a tendency to butt heads with mods/admins, but despite our divergent tastes seem to respect each other despite each having, realtively... erm.. shit tastes.
I recall the one Shinkai flick I really got into was the one you didn't like. I liked Toradora, and another one I can't even remember the name of, but True Tears was the only drama we actually both liked equally. And on my scale I think Eva and Dantalian are the only anime you've appreciated.
I find that interesting. We can discuss our disparate tastes without animosity, even though writing the same shit in reviews brings down the red right hand of the law.


"c'mon, this dude is about to trigger a civil war and you guys are discussing why We LiVe In A SoCieTy".

As usual, you dislike what I enjoy most, haha. (If they'd been going on about their feelings you'd have loved it :P )
Emil Cioran said that human beings are the only animal to derive so much pleasure from tormenting each other as to have to invent civilization.

"Oshii made a cameo appearance there."
Did he stil look like a hobo who just rolled out from under a bridge?

"Hah, I expected your reply to be filled with puns but you really outdid yourself this time."
I usually don't even notice when I'm doing it, it just comes naturally. A friend once said that everything I say is a double entendre with a reacharound.


"(wait! Is this what Trump had in mind all along!?)."
I think you're onto something.
Did people actually think he wanted to keep out the Mexicans? He was actually trying to make the world great again by isolating the infectious cesspool that is American culture!

"(hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times)."
That formula is pretty damn apt. Copying that to my notes.
Hopefully we can get back to good times before another world war. Tarantino has said that we're just in "The 80s part 2," and that it will eventually develop into a new 90s. On the flip side, Richard Grannon has said that society tends to over-correct, and so when the ultra-left socialism goose-step is done, we might see a lean into the far right. Oy vey.
heh. and if you're content (or rather, resigned) to watch the shitshow and not get caught up in it, it explains why you're one of the only people I can still tolerate, haha. I've seen some open-minded good natured people transform into literal Nazis over the past few years, and when I try to explain to them how much the media and our decaying culture has poisoned them, they rabidly insist it's the OTHER political party that's gone crazy and for me to claim THEY have changed, I must be a member of that opposite political party and represent all the evils they scapegoat onto it.
Is Ubermensch a political party? Because the more I see how crazy and stupid the masses are, the more I realize there's no logical reaction to them but to laugh at them or cry for them.
(you're welcom to join me in my cave, where we can laugh like lions at the food, I mean flock [instead of puns, it seems that this message is rife with Nietzsche references, haha])

Damn, didn't even know about Abe. Looked it up, and it seems the assassin's motivations were a couple bars crazier than wanting to impress Jodi Foster. Meanwhile, we've got people like Gates, Schwab, Biden, Trudeau, whoever the fuck is in charge of Australia, China, etc. and nobody's willing to act. But some dumb fuck kills a retired PM because of misplaced mommy issues. The fuck?!


Aw, I remember when you were just a bright eyed and bushy tailed whippersnapper! Now you're a full fledged working adult. Hopefully it doesn't grind you down into the character from Ikiru... or Breaking Bad. Winery won't be up and running for a while yet, so I can't send a congratulatory bottle for the new position, but I can at least raise a toast in honor of the fact you're doing well for yourself.

"Or I can mail Taro as ask him to make a novel adaptation of it, he did one for Automata anyway. Whichever has a higher realistic chance of existing."
Honestly, with Taro there's no telling. While I find Kojima overrated (brilliant and creative to be sure, but also pretentious and way too self-important [yeah yeah, irony, I know]), Yoko Taro seems like the kind of guy I'd actually want to hang out with and would wind up with crazy stories about mischief we got up to.

Playing Elden Ring for a year or so sounds accurate enough to explain why I'm half afraid to actually start it. I've sunk hundreds of hours into each of the souls games, which aren't even open world. I usually don't play games more than 2 hours a day, and I'm a stickler for getting work done, but Fromsoft and Bethesda games suck me in to the point I suddenly realize I've been playing for ten hours straight without eating.
On the bright side, Xenoblade 3 is coming out in a couple weeks, and those are usually a less lethal form of addictive.

I actually watched Death Parade a couple years ago. I liked it, but I found it overall inferior to its inspiration, Death Billiards (which I highly recommend if you haven't seen it).
Ohhh, and you watched Patlabor, eh? Did you see the second movie? I don't remember the series very well, but I remember Patlabor 2 was classic Oshii; slow-paced, but kinda nerdy and bleak with some intriguing philosophical themes.

Yo, Bob. Always good to hear from you.
"How are things up there in the good ol' north?"
Familiar with Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones? It's about like that. Except instead of fearing leaving the house because of white walkers, it's radicalized political extremists you have to worry about. It's really terrifying what a global propoganda machine in the hands of rich old men can accomplish.

And yes, I'm all about sticking men... wait, what?
Too bad you were passed up for promotion--if it's anything like America, the trick is to do as little work as possible, blame others for your failures, take credit for their successes, and suck up like an algae eater. Basically, adopt Machiavelli into your heart as your one true savior.
So you understand why my outspoken misanthropic ass navigated toward writing/booze-making.

Hah, sounds like Akebi-chan wanted to skirt the line between pandering and satire.
I'm reminded of how the Monogatari series sometimes went full-boar on the fanservice, but usually in a comical, tongue in, err... cheek.... way.
I was curious until you said SoL. I can't even force myself to watch SoL; my mind just wanders on it's own if there's no plot to keep my cat-like attention span.


"horrendous UGU AM I CUTE face"
Please, dear lord god, please tell me that was altered.

Thanks for reminding me of Fumetsu no Anata e... completely forgot to keep track of the second season. As usual, after watching two or three disappointing anime, I moved into a different medium; been on a crime spree lately.
I mean, binging crime movies/shows, of course.

I don't remember if we discussed Automata, but I know I've recommended it to others, so it's likely. I didn't think it was the best game of all time, as any and every console exclusive is praised as by console fanboys, but I did really enjoy it. Like you, I found a lot of the philosophical stuff overrated--probably because I've consumed so much philosophical stuff that robots emulating humans doesn't seem so incredibly deep as it does to 13 year olds--but I remember it really started impacting me toward the end.
I don't remember it very well, as it's been, what five years? (and I was going through BPD bunny-boiler breakup bullshit at the time) But it really does deserve another playthrough.

I liked the original Nier, too, although it's clunkier and I'd say more thematically narrow in scope than Automota (from what I recall, anyway--it's been like eight years since I played that one). I've been on the fence about Replicant because one of the "improvements" is that they made it brighter and more aesthetic... but I think the bleak dreariness of the setting was complementary to the story. So it's tough to choose between dated controls with a fittingly oppressive setting, or improved gameplay but an uncharacteristic visual style.

I haven't played the Drakengard trilogy, despite having all of them, because the first game was a clunky as fuck Dynasty Warriors game that made me rage quit after dying over 40 minutes into a mission multiple times. And I've read that the true final boss of the third game is one of the hardest in any game, ever.

I haven't been playing much lately; mostly on an arcade kick. Turning 40 this year makes me obligated to indulge in 90s nostalgia. I've been deliberately putting off Elden Ring, because even people who hate Souls games are raving it's the best game of all time, so as somebody who loves even the Souls games other people don't, like 2, (I loved all Fromsoft games ever since PS1 days) I know I won't be able to enjoy anything else for a while once I play it.

You are missing Frame Arms Girl from your Militarymoe stack, if you wanna add it.
- https://myanimelist.net/anime/34427/Frame_Arms_Girl

>Anyone who went through the VN knows the issue with this adaptation isn't hair colors, lack of action, adaptation length, any of those things you claim to be "VN readers' complains"

Nope. Those are the actual complains when the previews and early episodes are out. Probably check out other reviews too and they all resonant with my mentions. Since you are commenting 5 months after the premiere finished - you might missed out on those, probably?

>because everything is either speedrun

Not really. If it is actually speedrunning, we already came at post-Chomp moment. But it is not, yet. They do flesh out things in Coup arc as well.

>or emotionless

Probably. Maybe because BGM isn't captivating enough. I could admit it was a low on that department. Also that it wasn't even the heights of the actual story, I should say (the re-Unlimited arc is quite a slog of recaps and infodumps and Coup arc is just a prelude act for Alternative)

>but don't just make stuff up

Or you are the one missing my entire point of the review and my earlier comment.

Again, I should remind, the anime covers what should be covered in Alternative, and it already doing that job. Many reviewers lament that how it didn't represent Muv-Luv as a whole because of missing Extra and Unlimited context or how it was put on the same level of Chaos;Head or Tsukihime - but it is definitely better than both because both titles did bigger blasphemy. If I can give an equal case, Higurashi could be my example on how the quality went for an adaptation.

The fans overexaggerrating the problems - that's the hard truth. It has problems (esp when it is 2021 and such story type already aged than what the hype goes in 2006), I admit, but it is not entirely bad. They have their own pluses to add and lets not deny that.

Thanks, I do read it hence my comment. You are the one overexpecting the anime anyway, we know it is an Alternative anime, not the whole franchise. They will adapt it as is in Alternative.