Anime

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Check out what I’m watching on Crunchyroll! http://www.crunchyroll.com/didnt-i-say-to-make-my-abilities-average-in-the-next-life/episode-1-you-said-id-get-a-do-over-in-a-new-world-789445

It remains to be seen of this series will bore or chuckle me to death, but I have to admit that the “Flat chested” semi finale to episode made for much chuckles.

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Crunchyroll Announces Fall 2019 Anime Lineup!

Hmm, sounds like this fall will be more than a few fantasy series to watch.
Given how much they’ve been pushing content in various languages, usually dubs, it’s kind of nice to see the announcement is being made available in multiple languages. As opposed to native English and that’s all.
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Fruits Basket – s01e22 – Because I Was Happy.

I kind of hoped that Hanajima’s history would pop up sooner than later. Thus making an episode filled with more than a bit sad and some good humor as well.

The role of Tohru and Uotani in the story, strikes me as showing their essential natures without losing the episode’s focus on Hanajima. If you want a good story: the characters are where it’s at.

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Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin – Advent of the Red Comet

Settling in to watch this now that it’s pretty much complete, and in a way it is both very nice and refreshing. On one hand it isn’t the ’70s no more but familiar faces and styles abound.

Watching the opening episode, it’s especially curious to see that old man Zabi may have been a competent old bastard during his rise to power. Likewise, I’m reminded of how dangerous and insidious Kycilia was and what a gorilla Dozle was.

By far though, I think the most interesting thing is seeing Ramba Ral so young and full of piss and vinegar. It’s quite the contrast from the old war horse of ’79.

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I remember coming across various wallpaper worthy images from Is This A Zombie? and adding them to my collection.

Seeing my desktop select this one of Eu out of its random rotation of wallpapers, I was rather surprised how well this one works on a 1080p display.

These days most of the wallpapers I’ve collected over the past eon, I see on my tablet screen. Because that’s the computer I use most often. At work, usually SFW stills are statically set. At home though, I still keep my PC’s set to a random rotation.

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Catching up on my backlog of Fruits Basket, I’m kind of glad to see episodes 16 and 17 tell some of Uotani’s story.

Uotani is a very nice supporting character. Despite the gruff personality that comes with her rendition as a delinquent, there’s also a kindness that balances the character out well. Long before this part, you can see how Uo and Tohru could end up great friends. As usual, Tohru’s late mother is a source of wisdom.

Most often the strength of a story rests upon it’s characters, and I’d say the characters make this series far more than the concept.

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The painful math of availability: when you start calculating the cost of pre-ordering a recent series about to land on disc, versus how much of your wishlist could squeeze into the same price.

I’m a touch tempted to nab the pre-order of That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime Season while the first part of season one is both available and cheaper than release pricing. But at the same time checking my Amazon list: the same price range when you factor in shipping (and Prime) would equal nabbing two series–older ones more likely to disappear. Where as Rimuru might disappear before I get around to acquiring it someday.

Many series see a western releases these days but I’ve generally find availability becomes a problem within the decade. One of my favorites is quite expensive and very scarce if you want the Blu-ray, and the series only aired ~5 years ago; even its license holder only offers DVD versions on their store front :'(. Many older series often I can only find DVD releases if they made a bargain bin recycle or apply a bit of careful hunting. One in particular on my shelf kind of fit both scenarios but over a decade ago, having been adapted from a visual novel that is now ~15 years old and quite damned unavailable today.

This leads me to worrying about how much good stuff might simply disappear.

Actually that makes me think about Robot Jox. As a film that impacted me greatly as a child, I kind of leapt at the DVD offering and was disappointed by the ultra-craptacular release. It was nearly unwatchable. And then bloody amazed when the Blu-ray came out with an excellent transfer–for a film so little known that I never really expected a post-VHS anything to happen.

Sigh. It’s both a good and a bad thing that I don’t buy many discs per year, be it anime or film. Actually, I’m pretty sure Marvel’s release schedule would bankrupt me otherwise, lol.