Anime

[Gollgagh]

well it's not funny and it's certainly not cute

[Native Jovian]

well it's not funny and it's certainly not cute

Neither are you but you don't hear us complainin'.

[relyanCe]

OH SNAP

DUDE

YOU GOT

yknow never mind

[Gollgagh]

l AM COMPLETELY UNAPOLOGETIC AND CERTAINLY NOT ABASHED

[Theophany]

l AM COMPLETELY UNAPOLOGETIC AND CERTAINLY NOT ABASHED

We should be friends. There should be no such things as enemies on OCR. I do solemnly swear never to invoke the name of mods again, if you swear not to care about it anymore.

What say you?

[Schwaltzvald]

wait what the hell happened?

[Native Jovian]

We're making friends.

Don't you want to be our friend, Schwaltzvald?

[Malaki-LEGEND.sys]

Friends are just enemies who you haven't killed yet.

[Schwaltzvald]

We're making friends.

Don't you want to be our friend, Schwaltzvald?

I thought I've always been one

Besides I've done away taking the role of the loner long ago.

Which reminds me, I'm having a hell of a time finding those damn "Mint Jam(?)" albums and am about considering my "alternative" solution.

Which basically means me ripping off from videos online and using my tools to up the quality as best as possible...

OH AND I FINALLY FIGURED OUT HOW TO PLAY "HIoPBM,WDIDTDT?!". I was doing it wrong.

[Gollgagh]

Which reminds me, I'm having a hell of a time finding those damn "Mint Jam(?)"

I know right?

just about the only place that I've ever seen with any of their stuff at all is galbadia hotel and they only have GIGs 1-4

in is in v0 VBR though so it's pretty good quality

[Schwaltzvald]

I know right?

just about the only place that I've ever seen with any of their stuff at all is galbadia hotel and they only have GIGs 1-4

in is in v0 VBR though so it's pretty good quality

Well if you want you can direct me to the ones you want/can't get and I can work on making them as high quality as possible. I doubt I'd make them as good as the previous ones ya mentioned but hey, up to you.

Besides it'd give me a break from my current task & joy of going through about over 500GB of Touhou albums I've managed to collect and selecting which ones I wish to convert into mp3s for my mp3 player.

Rather amazing what one can do on real slow days at work and when no one is around during break.

[K.B.]

Backtrack time!

okay K.B. I've watched the first two eps of Stand Alone Complex

in HD no less

Oh sweet in a thread I never thought I'd read no less (seriously this is the first time I clicked on it. ever.).

That sounded too sarcastic. Attempt no. 2.

Awesomeness. How you liking it? Wait wait, don't respond until you've watched at least one complex episode. Wait wait, you already finished it? Efffff so much for the running banter.

Also, NJ, I hate you. I hate you so much. So much that my hate is so powerful that it has grown its own hate and even that hate hates you.

I've thought about asking for a GitS sig for a very, very long time. So long that I have multiple screenshots. I'm still undecided on the issue though.

And btw, since I just randomly put on the second movie for the first time last night, don't bother with it unless you loved the first movie. It's even more into the pretentiously presented philosophy than the first movie was. Speaking of the first movie, while I wouldn't recommend it in and of itself, I consider it a perquisite for full appreciation of the series (this point is a mite moot now that I understand you've actually watched the entire first season [the better season]). And the third movie, of course, is simply a 1.5h episode continuation of the series and therefore enjoyable but completely nonessential.

I recently just finished watching The Big O (Christmas present from a buddy of mine). Enjoyed it quite a bit, and its rekindled my interest in Giant Mecha anime. Although, I think the ending was done for the sake of causing tons of discussion, when there really is no de facto ending.

Was it a giant piece of televised programming? Was all the nonsense about cloned humans legit? Didn't Schwartzwald (not to be confused with someone else on these here boards) look like a creepier version of Batman's Scarecrow.

We will never know....

If you like The Big O, Schwaltz is more than willing to talk about it (as am I). He actually got me into the series, for which I am forever appreciative. Well, back into, as I found the couple/three episodes I saw back on the Cartoon Network to be interesting (film noir ftw), but I never, ever would have remembered it had it not been for the Schwaltz himself.

As to the ending, my personal take is it's a deliberate attempt to jerk you around. That is, screw with your perceptions of reality, as the show is really a commentary on human knowledge, memories, perception, etc. And even if it is exactly how it appears at first blush, what's to say that's not how life truly is? Goes without saying that there are multiple interpretations, and if you can get past the initial 'cop-out' shock it's rewarding to give the series another playthrough.

Also, R. Dorothy is one of my favorite androids

Funniest commentary I ever read on that, regarding one of the episodes: R. Dorothy as a maid... pure fan-service right there.

And I've said it before, but Roger the Wanderer is one of the greatest episodes of any series ever. (though it's not self-contained, so unfortunately you can't skip to it and fully appreciate it)

[Schwaltzvald]

If you like The Big O, Schwaltz is more than willing to talk about it. He actually got me into the series, for which I am forever appreciative. I never, ever would have remembered it had it not been for the Schwaltz himself.

[K.B.]

omg HAWT

Also: nice edit (ps I started typing before you posted [edit: that is, on my previous post, I started typing before you posted, so that part of it wasn't intended as 'slobber all over Schwaltz'. Though I am becoming a broken record with this Big O business.]).

Man, even my bs thread is slow as molasses tonight. I just might put on an episode if the late night crew doesn't start coming through...

[Gollgagh]

redownloaded astro fighter sunred

for anyone that hasn't seen it yet, it's a parody of the super sentai genre

Sunred lives at his girlfriend's house and is generally unemployed, but he certainly doesn't go out of his way to fight bad guys, but they try to attack him all the time anyway

[Native Jovian]

Also, NJ, I hate you. I hate you so much. So much that my hate is so powerful that it has grown its own hate and even that hate hates you.

Wait, what? What did I do now?

(this point is a mite moot now that I understand you've actually watched the entire first season [the better season]).

There are people who actually liked the first season of GitS:SAC better than the second?

Huh.

[Thin Crust]

There are people who actually liked the first season of GitS:SAC better than the second?

Huh.

That's what I thought. Season 2 blew me away.

[K.B.]

Wait, what? What did I do now?

Apparently I'm the only one who found the tachikomas creepy. They're robotic death machines with the voices of particularly shrill children. Even worse, they're occasionally discarded for a fleeting tactical advantage (as is natural for an unmanned unit), and they typically shriek in pain in their shrill childish voices while they "die".

For effect, I had to drill in the absurdity of this statement (in hindsight I should have quoted rather than assuming you'd know it was the post of yours right after the one of Gollgagh's I quoted). None of them ever died except... well it's already been said but I'm not going to re-spoiler it for those who happened to miss it. And they're not death machines! They're a manifestation of the (ipso facto wrong) philosophy that sentience can be gained from programming and the entertaining (and humanistic) aspects of childish discovery. And while they are treated as disposable machines at the start, their treatment changes drastically to parallel (with lag) their development.

I suppose it still could be GitS without them, but it wouldn't be nearly as good. If nothing else, they're a well-met offset to the near-constant seriousness of the rest of the cast.

So yeah. Grrrr to anyone name-calling my Tachikomas.

There are people who actually liked the first season of GitS:SAC better than the second?

Reverse that. That's my question.

The stand-alone episodes of the first season tied in with the main plot, whereas the second season had completely off-the-wall episodes. Not to say that the latter is bad, but the former gives a far more coherent and engaging plotline. And my goodness the second episode of the second season was awful. 'We're running short on episodes this season guys let's rehash some old themes with a postcyberpunk twist and call it good!' Effffffff.

And let's be honest: those character-background episodes were dead weight. Not bad, no, but ultimately pointless.

The first season was also far more suspenseful. It wasn't too hard to venture a guess at the Laughing Man (though, with a few pen-strokes, it also wouldn't have been far-fetched to find yourself wrong in that guess), but the motive and the history were shrouded in mystery and only fed to the viewer in bits. At some point, I was so intrigued that I went back and watched every episode again so I could glean every detail. I wanted to solve this puzzle, not give up and have the answer told to me! I was rewarded in my efforts, as I saw a few things coming, but the twists didn't stop until the very end. And my goodness, those last few episodes... brilliant.

But the second season? It was an insult to my intelligence. Not only is (spoiler) the initial obvious villain the actual villain, but after taking the time to piece together the puzzle, what am I rewarded with? An episode devoted to nothing but beating me over the head with what I've already figured out. You know, the episode where the Major infiltrates and hacks into face-only-mama-can-love's memory banks. The ONLY thing that was new in that entire dialogue was his motive. Everything else was a giant middle finger to everyone who made the effort to pay attention and assumed that this season would be as intricate as the previous one. Hardly.

I remember having far more gripes than this, but it's been several months.

The second season is good, as GitS:SAC is good, but it pales in comparison to the first season.

But everyone who hasn't seen GitS:SAC should just ignore my ranting and go out and watch it because it is an incredible series. I'm no authority on anime, but it is - by far - my favorite series.

[Native Jovian]

Er, wow. That's... awkwardly passionate. It's just a TV show, dude, you know?

Re: tachikomas -- I put "died" in quotes for a reason, they are death machines (they're WEAPONS, they are for KILLING THINGS), I realize that they're not discarded so cavileerly later on (which is why I said the practice was "occasional" rather than "consistent" or "constant"), and most importantly, they're not "your" tachikomas, so chill out a little, yeah?

Re: season one vs. season two -- basically everything you mention is why I liked season two better. The pacing was a lot less wonky (I mean, Jesus, the first season had an episode that consisted entirely of the Major discussing the Laughing Man in a chatroom), the villains were more interesting (the "riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma" characterization thing doesn't do it for me, at all, plus I found the "lol I can hack an entire crowd full of people in real time" literal plothax to be a very dull way to handle him), and (something you didn't mention but I want to anyway), the Major finally bought a pair of pants. It's incredibly difficult for me to take someone seriously when they go to work in a leotard and a bomber jacket. Especially when we're repeatedly beaten over the head with how much more competent and generally superior she is to everyone else. Seriously. Put on some goddamn pants.

That said, I still liked GitS:SAC overall, but we obviously like it for entirely different reasons, so I'd rather not trade arguments with you over who's "right" and just agree to disagree on this particular issue.

[OverCoat]

the Major finally bought a pair of pants

I seem to remember this event, for some reason, if only because Aramaki says something like "what's with that outfit, are you trying to seduce me?" and I sat there like "what? because she got pants? what"

then I fapped

[K.B.]

That's pretty much spot-on.

[Triad Orion]

Re: tachikomas -- I put "died" in quotes for a reason, they are death machines (they're WEAPONS, they are for KILLING THINGS), I realize that they're not discarded so cavileerly later on (which is why I said the practice was "occasional" rather than "consistent" or "constant"), and most importantly, they're not "your" tachikomas, so chill out a little, yeah?

Ah, but here's an important theme from the show: The Tachikomas might be weapons and utterly not flesh and blood. But the question is... did they develop ghosts over the course of the seasons? And if they did, doesn't that make them no less human than say, the Major, Aramaki, Batou, or Togusa?

Because if the answer is yes, the result is a truly tragic loss of life.

[Guifrog]

One Piece!

Definitely, this anime quite inspires me. The whole "befriends-with-dreamers-and-search-for-your-dreams" thing's just my nirvana, you know ;P

I've been watching the japanese version with english subs, though. They say 4Kids ruins the whole plot, and I could confirm it when I decided to view some YouTube videos - merged/jumped episodes, changed objects and speeches, etc.

[Native Jovian]

But the question is... did they develop ghosts over the course of the seasons? And if they did, doesn't that make them no less human than say, the Major, Aramaki, Batou, or Togusa?

Because if the answer is yes, the result is a truly tragic loss of life.

Or is it? If their experiences/memories/whatever are pulled from their bodies as they "die" (didn't they have a discussion about how they felt themselves "floating upward" after they died and eventually realized that it was because their programming or whatever was being uploaded to a satellite? Holy crap, that was retarded), does their ghost (assuming they have one) go with it? If it does, doesn't that make them effectively immortal, as long as their recovery infrastructure remains in place? And if that's true, then doesn't that make it ethical to treat them like the disposable unmanned units they originally were, given that destroying their bodies doesn't actually "kill" them?

One Piece!

I hear from a lot of people who say that this is really really good, but goddamn I cannot get over how ugly it is. Seriously, it could be the anime equivalent of sex, and I would not be able to force myself to watch it just because of the art style.

[relyanCe]

I hear from a lot of people who say that this is really really good, but goddamn I cannot get over how ugly it is. Seriously, it could be the anime equivalent of sex, and I would not be able to force myself to watch it just because of the art style.

this AND the fact that its run for like 400 episodes

no show that runs that long can possibly be worth the time invested