Orius

I thought it got a lot of hate back then. "Suck Art Online" used to be a thing people would say. In fact, it's still a widely-hated anime now. Hardly overrated IMO.

Great topic! I love trailer music. A lot of songs I like came from watching movie trailers. [spoiler=Rise of the Avenger]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF-gEn6JVXo This is quite a popular Brand X song you'll hear often. [spoiler=Lacrimosa Dominae]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcKaCCedjQY Can't talk about trailer music without mentioning Immediate Music and their most overused song of all time. [spoiler=Casino Royale]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afVq5jB-F-w Another very common theme by Pfeifer Broz. Music you could find in any post-Die Another Day James Bond trailer (be it video game or movie). [spoiler=Nature Boy]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UId41fRHvkA An appropriately haunting piece by Aurora found in Alien: Covenant's trailer. [spoiler=Thousand Eyes]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ2qoiB0GtE The song by the famous Of Monsters And Men from the Jessica Jones trailer. The song made the trailer catch my immediate attention and got me to watch this amazing show. There are no regrets.

lol I was referring to those Japanese Marvel anime, like Iron Man and Wolverine. Not worth checking out IMO.

That's one of my favorite action movies of all time due to how over-the-top the action was. That shooting during the sex scene was awesome. And of course, cutting an umbilical cord with a gun.

Finally finishing up Corpse Party on the 3DS. Just have a few more of the "Extra" bonus chapters to go, having completed the main story. The ending was sweet, but like I said in my review, I wish they could've given Sachiko that closure featured in the anime. That was nice. Now I just have to look forward to NOT being able to play Corpse Party: Blood Drive till much later. lol At least I'll have Steins;Gate 0 to accompany me, along with a few other VNs I haven't completed like Umineko no Naku Koro ni and euphoria. Yes, that euphoria.

Considering that anime adaptations are becoming more ubiquitous (Ghost in the Shell, for example), I'd say it's at least becoming more widely accepted as a proper type of animation one could take seriously. Anime and manga were simply far more inaccessible before the dawn of the Internet, and gathering together as fellow fans felt more like a cult than anything else. Now everybody could get their hands on anime and it's become a social club. Remember when rap music used to be associated with gangster and violence back then? It's something like that, more socially accepted these days than a stereotype to mock to basement dwellers. Also, a lot of American animations have started to imitate the art style of popular anime, so there's that. This goes back to the discussion of "genre vs. medium" as to whether if anime has a distinct art style or not, but that's another discussion for another day. Marvel also seems to have depended on anime too to promote their franchise, albeit not too successfully.

lol This thread is bound to have some major disagreements. I've already listed the underrated anime in another thread recently, so I'll just do overrated: - Death Note - Kill la Kill - Hunter x Hunter (2011) - Fairy Tail - Code Geass, especially R2 - The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya Just to throw out a bunch of underrated ones I didn't mention in the other thread: - Mushishi - Kino's Journey - Memories - Asura

Based on the classic PC game of the same name, Corpse Party tells the story of nine students who perform a ritual from an urban legend. Unfortunately, things go wrong, and they find themselves trapped in an alternate dimension in another school - Heavenly Host Academy, the cursed school ground with a history of gruesome murders. Now, they have to seek a way out before they join the spirits of the damned forever. Generally, there are two types of audience when it comes to anime adaptations - those who have followed the source, and those who didn't. The latter might find some amusement in the cheap gore and shock factor of the show, as "Tortured Souls" has been known to be one of the goriest entertainment among anime, often compared to the likes of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Elfen Lied. However, I feel that even if I haven't played the game, I probably wouldn't have gave a s*** about the characters either way, even with all those uncanny and gruesome manners of death. Tortured Souls is a perfect example of a rushed anime. Five chapters lasting at least four hours of playtime (depending on your reading speed) are cramped into the four episodes lasting 30 minutes each. The writing is terrible, and the character motivations were utterly butchered due to either altered dialogue or scenes that were cut out. A notable example was the fight between Naomi and Seiko, where Naomi spews some impatient remarks that drive an angry Seiko away, making the latter look like a petty person (in the game, Naomi's insult is far more devastating because it involves Seiko's late mother). Because a lot of scenes were cut down, you have little time, if any at all to connect with any of the side characters. Both friends and enemies of the main cast are just shallow caricatures waiting to be murdered. The result is a lot of senseless and superficial violence that lacks the necessary context. The ending to the series is a great display of just how little the writers themselves cared about the characters, going for a cheap shocking death the likes of B-horror movies rather than offer any form of closure. It's the final insult on the beloved characters of Corpse Party and the entire franchise, leaving me with a bad taste as a parting gift. The animation quality also looks mediocre compared to many other anime, and not just horror ones. The animation looks washed out, like it's done with the cheapest technology available. The lighting quality is terrible, so it can often be hard to see the details. Even in terms of its much-praised blood and gore, it also falls flat on its face as it pales in comparison to Higurashi, where the very details of the gorged eyeballs and spilled intestines are shown in their full glory without cutting away. The gore in Tortured Souls, however, feels held back as if the animators don't really have the stomach to draw such grotesque images. There are a few things that kept me from giving the anime the lowest score possible, however. The opening theme, for starters, felt much more emotional than the video game version as it balances between bleakness (its opening verses) and hope (its chorus). It's a nice choice of song that feels thematically appropriate for a horrifying story about the gruesome fate of innocent little kids. In spite of my earlier complaints, most of the scenes and dialogue were faithful in adaptation and only look bad because a lot of context was cut out. Last but not least, and perhaps the most surprising of all, the scene with Sachiko at the very end is also done far better than the game version as it provides a nice closure for the little dead girl as well, and it would have made me tear up if not for all the bad writing that came before. As an adaptation, it fails on nearly every level. As a standalone anime, it's bad storytelling without proper pay-off. Those who seek two hours of cheap thrills could find them here in the forms of throwaway characters and b-movie gore, but there is so much of that already in American horror films I wouldn't know why you would put your soul through the torture (ba-dum-tss!). I regretted wasting my time watching this piece of s***, and I would advice horror fans to seek much more satisfying titles out there like Higurashi, Elfen Lied, Shiki, and even Umineko Naku Koro ni, another rushed anime that's much better made than this travesty. 5/10

[spoiler=Jim Cunningham Scene]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE3hXKdTmRs As a kid, I was like Donnie too in some aspect when it comes to motivational speakers like Jimbo here. lol Of course, I never had the wit like Donnie to stand before the school and call someone the antichrist. I just thought that those speakers were full of BS, just spewing platitude without giving any real advice. I love it too. It just shows how easily the Joker was able to sway people's hearts with a few simple choice words. Love him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mGBaXPlri8 Runnin' through my head, runnin' through my head!

There were some questions I was unsure of, so I'm not how accurate this is. But from the description other sites offer of ISFP, I do feel it is correct. According to the FMA chart, I'm Alphonse, the big hunk of metal. lol A lot of ISFP characters seem to be shy by default, and I agree I can be quite shy in many social events... that are offline anyway. Online, however, I could talk to just about anybody with ease. Also, I do contemplate artsy fartsy stuff a lot, so "The Artist" sounds right for me, especially when my ambition is to be a filmmaker. I've tried my hands on writing too, so there's that.

Something that deconstructs familiar tropes. I love shows with deconstruction, as it provides the opportunity to do something new with something old. More than that, I would want to do a crossover featuring some of my favorite anime characters. If there's another thing I love, it's variety, and featuring characters from different genre of anime would provide a very interesting experience full of variety (kinda like Durarara, where you get many different anime archetypes). But above all, I want to make my audience cry like a little b****. I think it's the most wonderful thing in the world to cry as you watch a show. It's cathartic, giving you the relief you'd need on a bad day, so I would love to provide that service for my audience. Plus, I just like emotional stories like that. Don't expect my anime to be light-hearted though. I feel that, with my taste, my anime will definitely turn out to be very bleak and depressing. I'm not even sure if there's a happy ending.

It's not as bad in Singapore, partly because it's an Asian country. Watching anime is a lot more normal around here as opposed to America, where people constantly misused the term, "weeaboo" (it means non-Japanese who pretend to be Japanese, by the way, not people who watch anime; there's a difference). I do still feel a bit awkward around certain peers about bringing up the subject of anime since I know they're definitely not interested at all, going so far as to not consider them serious shows worth paying attention to by anyone above the age of 10. So yes, it gets a bit harder talking about anime to those kinds of people. But like I said, I don't think it's as nasty around these parts, probably because anime fans here are less... disgusting. They're not the stereotypical kind dressed in anime wigs and walking around with some big-ass katana, so it might have lessened the stigma.

"You and I will never get along. It's a shame. I'd rather avoid drama like this. I've got better things to do in my life."

[spoiler=Skyfall - Tennyson's Ulysses]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlBF1kNeNnU After the fiasco of Die Another Day, the franchise needed a wake-up call so that Bond could be taken seriously again in the modern world. Chasing down world-dominating super villains with the aid of fancy gadgets and femme fatale was just a little too '80s for the millennia. Thus, it's Martin Campbell to the rescue again as he revives the franchise a second time with Casino Royale (the first was Goldeneye). While I absolutely love Casino Royale, I do think it wasn't until Skyfall that Bond finally integrated into our modern times as the spy he's meant to be, particularly in the scene above, where M explains why such cloak and dagger is still necessary - especially necessary - today, more than ever. It's an electrifying speech that makes the business of real life spies look much more epic. "And the truth is what I see frightens me. I'm frightened because our enemies are no longer known to us. They do not exist on a map, they aren't nations. They are individuals. And look around you - who do you fear? Can you see a face, a uniform, a flag? No, our world is not more transparent now, it's more opaque." [spoiler=Iron Man - One Line Changed the World]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyjwkav3h_0 "I'm here to talk to you about the Avengers Initiative." This was the moment all geeks everywhere have been waiting for. When "SHIELD" was mentioned by Phil Coulson in the movie, I was already ecstatic, but this really takes the cake. The audience reaction at the cinema was, naturally, explosive. Everyone went out of their minds. "HOLY S***! Holy cow! Did he say Avengers?!" It's delightful. [spoiler=Captain America: The Winter Soldier - This Isn't Freedom]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqZz7I9_Sjo Nick Fury: "For once we're way ahead of the curve." Steve Rogers: "By holding a gun at everyone on Earth and calling it protection." Nick Fury: "You know, I read those SSR files. Greatest generation? You guys did some nasty stuff." Steve Rogers: "Yeah, we compromised. Sometimes in ways that made us not sleep so well. But we did it so the people could be free. This isn't freedom, this is fear." Nick Fury: "S.H.I.E.L.D. takes the world as it is, not as we'd like it to be. And it's getting damn near past time for you to get with that program, Cap." Steve Rogers: "Don't hold your breath." Compared to Iron Man, Captain America isn't exactly everyone's favorite superhero. He's the Superman of Marvel, as in nobody likes him because of his nerdiness, his boy-scout attitude, and his incorruptible optimism. And yet, he's my second favorite superhero of all time (no, the first isn't Batman; it's a certain web-slinger). I'm a very cynical person by default, but it's heroes like Steve Rogers that makes me admire his nature to rise above all the pain he has and become someone grander. In the above scene, in spite of being confronted by someone far more imposing than him (played by Samuel L. Motherf-ing Jackson no less), Steve stood his ground and stood by his principles. Not only do I respect that, it made me love his character even more. He's willing to strive for the most idealistic outcome in every scenario regardless of how tough it is, a pure beacon of hope that everyone could look up to, all thanks to being born in a much simpler generation when his allies were united. I felt like, in our cynical times, he's exactly the hero we need to balance out all the gritty heroes like Batman and Punisher, and the scene above shows why he's the perfect man for the task. [spoiler=Captain America: The Winter Soldier - Alzheimer Peggy]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG_bk2LXCLw Another great character-defining scene in the movie that further shows how much pain Steve goes through in his life, and he doesn't become a bitter and harder man because of it. [spoiler=Spider-Man 2 - A Hero In All of Us]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVX-cUJGdxs I'd always used to turn to this speech whenever I was feeling down or depressed. Spidey's my favorite hero of all time because of his amazing perseverance, his capability to tolerate against all odds and remain the light-hearted friendly neighborhood wisecracker he is today. Much like Steve, Peter has seen a lot of hardship, perhaps much more than Steve even. The scene above thus felt very appropriate in a Spider-Man movie, reminding us to hold on one moment longer in spite of how dark the days can be.

Seeing as there's an appalling little number of movie-related threads, I feel like I should contribute my share. We all have our favorite memorable moments from our favorite movies, whether they made us cry, laugh, or even reflect upon our otherwise mundane life. Here in this thread, I would like us all to gather round and share these precious moments as fellow movie fans. Which movie moments were your favorite? And just what is it that made them so memorable to you? Here's my list of favorite movie scenes in no particular order: [spoiler=The Dark Knight - Agent of Chaos]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iwf20t9J1k I love clever movies. Not necessarily intelligent movies, just clever ones with a sleight of hand like a magician, amazing me with unexpected twists and a sharp wit to match. The Dark Knight had a lot of good things going for it, but Heath Ledger and his cunning persona, The Joker, was one of the biggest reasons why it was so successful. Not only was his plan carried out like some kind of magic trick, it was done with a few canisters of gasoline, a few bullets, and some fancy words to sway people's hearts. He's like the Devil incarnate. More importantly, as displayed in this scene, his ideals can seem justified depending on your perspective. An ambiguous villain such as this is always my favorite kind, someone you couldn't help agree with because his words resonate with some human part of your soul. Terrifying. [spoiler=Mission: Impossible - Vault Heist]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-oVuQpjG3s Unlike most people, the first Mission: Impossible is my favorite. It retained that dark and gritty espionage vibe that the later sequels are devoid of, even though it also made attempt to include light banter. Tom's emotional-range in the film is also commendable, and also a relic that I miss. In recent years, I feel that Tom is being type-cast into films that don't make good use of Tom's acting caliber. The above scene is easily my favorite part of the film due to how beautifully it was executed. Do you notice something off about this scene? Usually, in a spy thriller like this, such a scene would include a very important element: a background score. But nope, Brian De Palma boldly relies on using the silence as suspense. It's very effective and raises the tension significantly as opposed to having some cheesy BGM blasting away. [spoiler=Mission: Impossible 2 - Bare Island]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3P0SMpqK-8 The nickname I gave this scene is from the name of the BGM you hear in the background, Bare Island, from the movie soundtrack. Unfortunately, the video cut off the track just as it was getting to the theme. It's easily my favorite version of the Mission: Impossible theme yet. And of course, this scene alone was also my favorite scene from the movie, that epic face reveal as Ethan triumphantly pulls off his mask at the end while Ambrose screams in agony at the death of his friend. It's just such an epic and over-the-top scene that could only be pulled off by John Woo. [spoiler=Toy Story 2 - Jessie's Abandonment]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElhbTsKsros I'm a major Pixar fanboy. I love how most of its movies appeal to adults as well with very mature themes that only the older audience would understand. In terms of storytelling, Pixar is like the Key of American animation (as in the company that made Clannad). Its goal is to make you cry as hard as possible, regardless of your age. And with its critically most successful movie of all time, still holding a 100% Fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, Toy Story 2, my most favorite movie in the entire history until now, tackles themes of existential crisis, and in the scene above, parental abandonment. At least that's how I see it. You could interpret the scene differently, but I feel like it's a metaphor for abandonment of the parent-kind, or it could even be the reverse, where children dump their parents in nursing homes once they become a burden. It's heartbreaking to watch the scene when you think of it in that context, and it also amazes me just how amazing Pixar can be. Sarah McLachlan's "When She Loved Me" made the scene doubly unbearable even when I've rewatched it countless times, tugging on what is essentially a broken heartstring. [spoiler=Casino Royale - Bond Meets Vesper]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5C7LMOWyYc In my opinion, this is one of the most well-written exchange between two characters. At the very least, it's a very entertaining exchange to watch as Bond and Vesper have their back-and-forth quips. Bond is a character of escapist fiction, one who men fantasize to become, winning women's hearts everywhere with his infallible charm. As Daniel Craig has proven time and again, being charismatic isn't a problem for him, but that also meant that he needs a woman of equal intelligence and wit. In comes Vesper and this conversation, capable of standing off against chauvinist men like Bond in a room without flinching. Perfect.

Nice. But still, even when ported to PC, I'd probably still use a PS4 controller to play it. The thing with fighting games, I tried playing Mortal Kombat X with KBM, and the controls felt really awkward, very difficult to execute the correct combos in time. A controller is therefore more suitable since all the buttons are literally at the palm of your hands. Another advantage consoles have over PCs, in some sense.

Just to throw it out there: Injustice 2, now hailed as one of the best fighting games of all time, is also a console-exclusive. It's a shame, because I just watched a review on how many cool features it has. Not only does it have two different endings, it has loot drops you could add to your fighting style and costume changes, and the character stories for each hero in Campaign Mode seem to be top-notch and very well-written, all very interesting characters to play. It's games like this that make me want a Playstation 4 so badly.

Video games. I was never a huge video gamer as opposed to being an anime fan or Internet surfer. And of course, I would never give up my own life. Who would want that? Animation or live action?

Give up pork. Pork is 'alright' compared to the rest of those meat. Could never give up beef though. Cheeseburgers aren't the same without them. Here's a simple one: Long John Silver's or Mcdonald's?

Yeah, it sucks. I could understand the need for punishment in schools, but I feel there are less scarring methods.

7/10. It was okay. Rehash of Gurren Lagann, especially its character designs. Dropped at episode 21. I'm one of the few who actually didn't go crazy over the (over)hype of this anime. Gurren Lagann

I got to the ending of Chapter 9 of Steins;Gate, and I'm not happy with one specific change the anime made. For those who've played the VN, you probably know what I'm talking about. At the end of Chapter 9 and episode 20 of Steins;Gate, Mr. Braun is revealed to be [spoiler=Steins;Gate VN Spoiler]a Rounder agent working for SERN. He kills Moeka, and then proceeds to kill himself afterwards. That's not how it happened in the VN, where Mr. Braun deliberately acted coldly towards Moeka to drive her away in order to protect her. Before killing himself, he didn't kill Moeka like he did in the anime. This totally destroyed Mr. Braun's character in a significant way, making him an unsympathetic puppet who blindly obeys SERN's orders like a true cattle. And that's not the only change. There's also another change involving Nae... [spoiler=Nae Spoilers]In the VN, Mr. Braun didn't kill himself in some construction site. He killed himself at his home, where Nae was sleeping in the next room. Naturally, Nae witnessed the suicide, and assumed that Okabe and Moeka were responsible for his death. 15 years later, she time-leaped back to present day (2010) to kill Moeka. THAT's how Moeka died, not by Mr. Braun's hands. She also vowed to kill Okabe 15 years later, claiming that she couldn't kill him at the time being for some unspecified reason. Both changes were appalling, especially the first one. I could somewhat understand why they cut the second one due to the violence of it, but still, I felt like what happened to Nae was effective in further emphasizing just how much pain Okabe's invention has brought everyone. More than that, it was very interesting to see that someone could I admit that it could have been handled with more tact in the VN. [spoiler=Nae Spoilers]Nae claimed that the way she killed Okabe in the future was by torturing him in every known way possible till he begs and cries in his own piss and s***. I felt that was a bit too much, but I wouldn't mind if they kept the rest of what happened to her in there. Nae's fate was disturbing, but I feel like it should've been kept in the anime to really show the dark side of time travel and all its consequences, and how some forces of nature shouldn't be messed around with, least of which time itself.