efaardvark

The first season of Clannad I thought was kind of boring tbh.  It is a somewhat odd HS hatsukoi story.  That's not really my thing and I actually dropped it about halfway through.  I only came back to it later, after I'd heard everyone talk about After Story.  So I started watching that.  I almost dropped After Story too, but it started to get more interesting in the second half.  I stuck with it and towards the end I found I'd gotten more invested in the characters and the story got pretty good.  There's also an episode that briefly takes you back to the beginning, so I thought I'd start the first season over with After Story in mind.  I wound up watching the whole thing, both seasons, start to finish all over again and came away with a much better impression of both seasons overall.

Taken in combination with After Story, the first season is pretty good.  It is silly and juvenile, but that's the way high school is.  In that context it's fine.  Without giving too much away, later Tomoya and Nagisa grow up and a lot of the silliness goes away.  It is actually pretty intense in places.  The ending was a bit too much "and then a miracle happens" for my realist sensibilities but it did bring together all the separate threads nicely, and like I said it did make me want to go watch the whole thing again.  Often the second season seems "extra", or somewhat separate from the first.  Sometimes it even seems like just a contrived and obvious attempt to cash in on the popularity of the first season.  I didn't get any of that with After Story.  It was definitely different in tone from the first season, but the transition was nearly seamless (After Story picks up exactly where Clannad leaves off) and the character progression from there is sensible and in character.  There's a bit of suspense in the threading - what's with the girl and the robot and the funny, glowing lights anyway? - but it all gets taken care of.  I think they did a really good job.

For some reason I got the urge to queue up Planetes for a rewatch this evening. 

Today I'm on a metal kick.  I put Blind Guardian on shuffle after lunch & currently am listening to The Curse Of Fëanor from their Nightfall in Middle Earth album album.  Any fans of Tolkien's The Silmarillion out there? 

Prior to that it was A Past and Future Secret from (IIRC) Imaginations from the Other Side.

14 hours ago, RyePotatoes said:

I tried drinking tea once and it was particularly Chai Tea. I was in the counter and for once I thought maybe I should try some tea since my so called I'm-an-adult-now-so-I-should-drink-tea self kicked in. While I was waiting for my change I took a sip and goodness gracious I almost spit the whole sip at the counter lady. It was bitter and sooo I decided. No tea for me  

I had the same problem with star-thatcoffeplacethatshallnotbenamed-bucks.  Ugh.  I don't know how people drink that stuff.  The only way I can tolerate it is if I add tons of sugar, cream, salt, caramel syrup, and everything else to kill the bitter "coffee" taste.  Of course then it costs $$.  Not to mention adds about 300 calories/sip.  (And there's my girlish figure to consider.*) 

But there's other coffees I can tolerate, even enjoy, even though I don't care for coffee in general.   With both beverages the trick is to find something you like and go with that.  It may take a while with tea.  One reason I prefer tea is because there is so much variety.  Breakfast teas, oolong, herbal, "chai" (usually meaning spiced tea, of which I'm not a fan either btw), matcha, rooibos, green, black, white, yellow...

(*not really.  )

1. I am older than the Internet, the Intel 8086 CPU, and Dungeons & Dragons. I had a boring childhood. (Thank god for books and science fiction.)
2. I watched the Apollo 11 moon landing.. live. One of my earliest memories.
3. I have two (slightly) webbed toes on my right foot. Yes, I am a good swimmer. On the internet nobody knows you're a frog.
4. I've never owned a Windows computer. I really don't know how I managed that. Probably too distracted by other things.  Commodore, old Apple - even a ][gs signed by The Woz himself, mac, linux. Yep. Been there, done all those. Bunch of handhelds too, some of which ran msdos or DOS-alikes like freedos. (Anyone remember the 100LX "palmtop"? Loved that thing.) But never Windows.
5. Bother.. I can't think of anything else atm. Wait.. Yes! I have string in my pocket! No magic rings however. Probably for the best, all things considered.

Felt like a Monday.

Yesterday we had some equipment malfunction and misplace a bunch of data at work. Today we got to go and find it (the data), (re)process it, and send it to the relevant owners. The data was from a science and relay satellite so we also had to take 1000s* of calls from scientists, engineers, and relay customers, all asking variations of "where's my data?" and/or "is it done yet?".

I think I got it all taken care of, but it was a long day. I didn't even get a chance to eat lunch! Fortunately where I work they run a 9/80 work schedule (9-hour work days M-Th, with 8hr Fridays and alternate Fridays off) and today was one of the off-work Fridays so a lot of people won't hear about it until next week, and by then it'll be old news. Monday the email storm will start though. Probably a few 1000 more phone calls too. Happy Monday! <blech>

On top of that I think I'm coming down with a cold.

(*ok, maybe only a few hundred & it just seemed like more.)

Tea, definitely.  Kettles and kettles of tea.

"S'Mores" cookies and tea... girl scout cookie season here.  

15 hours ago, Yona Hime said:

...watched the first 2 episode of  Ancient Magus' Bride. and it didnt really itrest me, maybe i should give it another try

If you just watched the first 2 episodes of the 3-episode "prequel", "Hoshi Matsu Hito" (aka "Those Awaiting a Star"), then yeah, I'd give it another try.  The background episodes in the prequel (and even the first episode of the main show as well) are kind of downers, but it's been different & getting better from there as Chise settles into a new home and comes into her own powers.  Kind of slow in places so if you're into action then it might not be your thing.  I'm ok with the more laid-back pacing tho, and I'm liking the artwork too.

16 hours ago, Yona Hime said:

yes i saw it too!! loved it, have more recommantions?!

 

Hmmm... not offhand.  I'd have to reach a bit for the older Ah! My Goddess!, but that's getting more into harem which may not be what you're after.  If you're into the supernatural aspect then I'll also say I really like what I've seen so far of Ancient Magus' Bride.

Also (re: Blue Exorcist) maybe Strike The Blood?  Similar vibe, though I have to admit I didn't finish BE.

Good luck!

18 hours ago, Yona Hime said:

Noragami

If you liked that then you might want to check out Kamisama Hajimemashita   It's a bit different but kind of in the same vein.

Off the top of my head it would have to be Clannad.  The first season isn't that bad.  It is just a somewhat odd - and boring, tbh - HS hatsukoi story.  In fact, I dropped the first season when it first aired and then had to come back to it after seeing the end of the second.  (Now though.. just remembering that first line, "kono machi wa kirai da", makes me want to go watch it all again.)  Even After Story takes a while to get started.  But then it gets serious!  Like wife-and-kids, life-and-death serious.  Poor Tomoya.. first Nagisa (OMG!), then Ushio too just as he's getting his act together again!  I wanted to yell at the writers to stop jerking him around.  Even the side arcs are basically built on sad.   Especially Misae's, or Fuuko's.  Quite the roller-coaster.  So much sad.  Not all, fortunately, but I don't want to give anything away for anyone who hasn't seen it.  (Note though, I strongly recommend the Japanese-audio version.  The English voicing/dub kind of messed up Nagisa's character and significantly changed the tone of the whole story.  IMHO, YMMV, etc.)

Honorable mentions to AnoHana and Shigatsu Kimi no Uso.

It's there.  Usually I find it mildly cringeworthy.  Occasionally it achieves amusing or annoying status.  Most animes could easily do without it.  Very rarely does it add anything significant to a story.  When I do come across it I generally just ignore it.  I tend to not care for the types of animes that are the worst offenders anyway (harem/romance).

53, male.. been enjoying anime basically my whole life.  Hyakujuu-Ou GoLion (known as Voltron here in the States), Kaze no Tani no NausicaÄ (aka NausicaÄ of the Valley of the Wind), Uchuu Senkan Yamato (Space Battleship Yamato), and Mach GoGoGo (Speed Racer) are some of the anime titles I grew up with.  I'm also a big (book) reader as well as anime watcher and in both media I tend to like "hard" sf themes best.  Planetes and Ghost in the Shell are two of my favorites from recent years.  Then again I'm presently enjoying Ancient Magus' Bride too.  I'm a believer in the Three Episode Rule and my tastes are pretty eclectic.  My preferences may have changed over the years, but "anime" is like "books" or "movies".  A different medium is all.  The variety of stories means there's something for everyone, everywhere, everywhen.

Oh no!  I started bingeing Ancient Magus' Bride.  I was going to just watch the fist half/season but it was too good and I didn't (couldn't) stop! 

Now up to ep15 (the latest on Crunchy) and I have to wait a week.  And then another week after that.  And then another.   And another.  

Nine more weeks!   Aaarrrgtpft!

I hate it when this happens!

2 hours ago, Roxeg said:

Ancient Magus' Bride

Just about to start this one myself...

iPhone 5S.  (It was the cheapest smartphone my cell company was offering when my old phone broke.)

I saw Hyouka mentioned above.. liked that one.  Last episode was a bit off, but overall it was fun.  Wish I could find it streaming somewhere again.

Not sure what exactly is considered "mystery" here so I'll just mention that I also liked Shinrei Tantei Yakumo (the end theme, Missing You is a favorite of mine ever since).  Higashi no Eden (East of Eden).  Another was more horror - nothing like starting off with an umbrella through the throat - but I liked that, and Tasogare Otome x Amnesia too while I'm at it. How about Suzumiya Haruhi (esp. "The Disappearance of ..." - almost made up for the "endless eight" arc.. almost)?  Or even Mushishi?

Sorry, not into Detective Conan.

I actually have a friend from HS who was/is a voice actor. I kind of knew anime existed before that, and I'd even watched a bit, but I got more interested and started actively seeking it out after hearing her talk about the work she was doing.  Back then it was a bit difficult to find a lot of anime over here in the US - occasional Westernized versions of stuff like Nausicaä or Voltron on network TV was about it - but following some of the work she's done over the years was motivation to dig a bit deeper or pay more attention than I might otherwise.  I'd usually look to see what came out every season, and look in the credits to see if she'd had a part in a new title.  That sort of thing.  Kind of kept me motivated and interested back before the 'Net or streaming services when I might have otherwise gone astray due to lack of material.

14 hours ago, ssjup81 said:

You know, I notice that with some people, if you say "Gameboy", they automatically think Pokemon.

For some reason I never got into the pokemon phenom, either in anime or gaming.  I've owned a lot of games on the GB and DS (and variants) over the years - Tetris, metroid, final fantasy, harvest moon (farmville before farmville), the settlers, boulder dash, quite a few pinball .. but I just never got around to pokemon for some reason.  Even the latest pokemon go craze didn't/doesn't tempt me.  No hate or anything, just.. not interested.

My first game was .. Pong!  Seriously.  It was on some dedicated console that I think we got from Sears or something way (way, way, way) back in the 70s.  (Hmmm. should I be admitting that? )  We're talking ancient technology here.. I think they'd just invented electrons the year or so before.  (jk)  I don't really know how to rate it.  It was extremely fun, but it was also unique.  There was nothing to compare it to.  At the time the other entertainment options were basically 1) watch one of the 3 network TV stations, 2) read a book, 3) go outside and play, 4) play a board game like Monopoly or scrabble, or 5) play a game of cards.  For me, my favorite activity has always been reading.  Pong was a close second back then, though by today's standards it wasn't that exciting.

Several years later my dad bought an Apple ][ and my brothers and I typed in a bunch of text games (in BASIC) from magazines like Byte.  There really wasn't anything like a game market back then.  You either learned to program and wrote your own (I did), you knew someone who could program and got them to do it for you (I wasn't that lucky), or you typed them in from books or hobby magazines.  I remember games like Star Trek, and  Colossal Cave Adventure (and being eaten by a grue).  There was even a text version of Oregon Trail.     Couldn't for the life of me tell you which one was first.  To tell you the truth, I was more interested in the programming.  It's certainly what got me started down that path.

A little later, maybe a year or two, Space Invaders hit the arcades.  That was what really got me into gaming on computers, and in a lot of ways that was my first computer game.  Certainly it was my first computer game as we play them today on consoles or PCs.  Rate it 9/10 at the time, though maybe 6/10 of all the games I've ever played.  Space Invaders, Space Wars, Lunar Lander, Asteroids, Galaxian, Defender..  My friends and I dropped sooo many quarters on those games down at the arcade!

I think the first "real" commercial computer game I played on my home computer was something called Akalabeth on the Apple ][.  It was a (very) primitive 3d dungeon exploration game written by Richard Garriot, a.k.a. Lord British, and a precursor to the Ultima series on various platforms.  I'd give it a 4/10.  It kinda sucked.  Wire-frame 3d, slow, low-res.  Home computers were not good for games back then.

I didn't play my first actual home console game until I was in high school.  My friend got an Atari 2600 a couple years after it came out & we played one of the bundled games to death.  I think it was called simply Combat.  Tons of fun though.  Almost as good as the arcades.  6/10.

I didn't get my very own gaming computer until Nintendo's (original, B&W) Game Boy handheld came out.  Of course the first game I played on that was Tetris.  Can you say "obsession"?     I carried that game everywhere for years.  I even have a version of it for my old 3DS that I still play from time to time.

1 hour ago, ssjup81 said:

For me, there aren't many anime in general that have "rewatch" value.

I'm pretty much the same way.  While I'll watch pretty much anything at least enough to apply the 3 episode rule, the list of ones I've watched (or wanted to watch) enough times to justify buying for my own collection is fairly small.  I've been watching anime since the 80s  but there's only about a dozen titles on my shelf.  Maybe another 2 or 3 on streaming sites that I'd buy if they disappeared or I lost access for some reason.

On 1/9/2018 at 2:43 AM, Zanixels said:

One of my favourites from the 90s was definitely Outlaw Star along with Cowboy Bebop, but youve probs seen them before

Outlaw Star was one I also looked forward to every episode.  Haven't watched it since though.  Might have to look that one up and give it another go.

Thinking of doing the same with Trigun.

Didn't care for a lot of 90s anime. Inuyasha, Dragon Ball, Gundam, Sailor Moon, Pokemon.  Not my thing.  Crest of the Stars was popular, but I was lukewarm on it.  Lain was good.  Also The Big O, Ah! My Goddess!, Trigun, Blue Gender, FLCL.  I'd have to look at dates.  Seemed like the early naught-ies brought a bunch of good anime - Haibane Renmei, Last Exile, Ghost in the Shell, Planetes - but I'm having trouble remembering anything interesting before that.  Nothing that makes me want to go watch it again anyway.

Just finished watching MMO Junkie. I quite enjoyed it, though perhaps for some of the wrong reasons. For one thing - and without giving anything away - I have suspicions that the Heart Of Gold’s infinite improbability drive was somehow involved in generating the plot. For another, I just finished (re)watching Kotoura-san a week or so ago, so the whole “Morimori-chan” thing had me cracking up, over and above anything MMO's writers intended.  (This was used as a gag in Kotoura-san as well, so it was still fresh in my mind and easily triggered.  “Morimori” means something like energetic or enthusiastic in Japanese, but it can also mean “bulging”, as in muscles or “heartily”, as in eating.  All of which for me just added something to the humor.)  Especially the dream sequence in ep11, pt2 had me ROFL!

And wait.. did Morioka and Sakurai share a dream there at the end?!  I mean, she's the one that fell asleep at the keyboard, but we also later see him starting awake in front of his keyboard thinking he's wearing the cursed armor, right?