Dagger

[quote name='Zidargh']You aren't going to be thought highly of by staff if you keep associating yourself with moderator's roles. (This doesn't go towards everyone in here, just a few members.)[/quote] *nods* Nothing kills my opinion of a member like playing mod. It's funny because the most stuck-up people tend to be those who were rather bad newbies themselves. And in reference to the thread creator's remark about crappy first posts becoming more common, I can't say I've noticed such a trend. On the contrary, over the course of the summer I've seen a lot of older members backsliding in subtler ways. ~Dagger~

If you would like to discuss Cowboy Bebop, please post in the official CB thread (which can be found by looking at the Directory sticky located at the top of the first page). And generally speaking, when creating a new topic it's a good idea to provide us with a bit more information. In this case, you could have summarized or described the Cowboy Bebop manga, compared it to the existing twenty-six episode TV series, and so forth. Thread closed. EDIT: Ahaha, that's too funny. Sorry, Solo, I thought I'd closed the topic. I must have done it two seconds after you or something. ^_^;;; ~Dagger~

I'm glad you liked RahXephon's ending, Solo. :) The movie sort of allows you to experience the best of both worlds, because while it's obviously related to the series and sheds a lot of light on [spoiler]fourteen-year-old Ayato and Haruka's relationship,[/spoiler] it also makes some interesting plot-related changes. The endings of Pluralitas Concentio and the TV series differ, but not quite as much as people seem to think. In fact--and I'll have to re-watch the film before I can say this conclusively--I believe that they aren't mutually exclusive. ~Dagger~

AFF's version of episode 8 was released earlier today. It was interesting to learn more about [spoiler]Jin's past,[/spoiler] although the information was delivered in such a bizarrely circuitous fashion that it didn't create as much of an impact as it could have. Aside from that single revelation, I thought this ended up being one of Champloo's weaker episodes (but so far, episode 2 continues to be my least favorite). On the other hand, the frequent [spoiler]beat-boxing[/spoiler] was utterly priceless. ~Dagger~

Midnightsnow, that type of attitude is very much unwanted here at OtakuBoards. If you had looked before you leaped, so to speak, you might have noticed that this thread was started long before Fruits Basket became available in the States. Any other posts which unnecessarily disparage fellow members will be deleted without the luxury of a warning. ~Dagger~

Speaking of Eowyn... If I recall correctly, Tolkien added her to the story solely at the behest of his young daughter(s?). I've always found that immensely amusing. In response to DW's comments on the previous page: While Galadriel doesn't have a huge role in the films or even in the original trilogy, she's still a frighteningly powerful character with some heavy responsibilities. I'd rather mess with Eowyn than with her, heh. ~Dagger~

[quote name='Monkey_Orange][COLOR=DarkOrange']Seriously, for those who are currently watching fansubs like Naruto, Kyou Kara Maou, and Monster--are you seriously gonna stop once licensing has been annouced? Most likely not. I'm not. KKM and Monster has already been licensed, AND their fansubs haven't even been out that long.[/color][/quote] Monster is licensed? o_O It's still listed at AnimeSuki... I don't plan on trying to take the moral high ground here, because that's not really possible. The thing is, though, I don't watch subs of licensed series unless I absolutely plan on buying them. However, I stopped downloading Kyou Kara Maou because I love the show--I find watching series on DVD much more enjoyable than watching them on my computer. As a result, I don't have a problem with waiting for Geneon to start dubbing and releasing KKM. Fansubs are a nice way to discover series that you might never otherwise have touched, but there's just no excuse for downloading something that's already physically available in one's region. Some fansub sites pretty much list all of the anime you might find at a local Best Buy, and it pisses me off. Ethically, downloading fansubs--licensed or unlicensed--is wrong. However, if you buy every single one of the series that you've watched (via fansub) to completion, at least none of the companies involved will lose money. [quote][color=darkorange]Cover art and summary are just not enough. If you don't want to purchase and beat-up manga volume, then rummage through the back. If the only one that is left is crappy, then wait for the next shipment or make a special order. I, personally, don't care if my volume has been flipped through. Shrink-wrapped? No.[/COLOR][/QUOTE] Here's the way I see it. If you're willing to wait for the [i]next shipment[/i], which could take weeks to arrive, the manga in question obviously isn't going to be an impulse buy. Assuming that cover art and a blurb aren't enough to convince you one way or the other, ten or twenty minutes' worth of research online should produce a wealth of scans, official artwork, reviews, fansites, etc. Maybe we differ in our purchasing habits, but I usually look up titles I'm interested in before heading to the store. It saves time, if nothing else. Because there's so much information about every manga imaginable available on the Internet, I don't think shrink-wrapping would be horribly inconvenient in terms of preventing access to artwork or whatever. Tony-- Blech, I hate campers. They end up blocking enormous chunks of the shelves and are nearly impossible to navigate around, much less avoid stepping on. ~Dagger~

[b]Sept. 5, 11:25[/b] Soushi threaded his way through the crowd, grinning like a lunatic. A reception meant food--preferably food with shocking amounts of sugar and enough chocolate to kill a baby elephant. He dodged a crash-landing mecha and waved cheerfully at its pale, trembling occupant, whom he had never seen before in his life. Must be another of those Anonymous Freshmen. It took a great deal of footwork to avoid stepping on follow students, much less jostling them in such a way that an innocent stumble might be interpreted as some kind of sexual overture. Given the number of aliens running about, even casual hand gestures ran the risk of severely offending and/or propositioning some purple-tentacled teenager. Soushi sighed; cultural differences were so difficult to overcome. His maniacal smile grew, if possible, even wider as he spied one of his favorite people in the entire world (who, incidentally, could not stand being around him for longer than thirty seconds). "Jessica!" Soushi cried, darting over to her side. The sophomore responded with a sour sort of stare. As usual, despite the fact that she looked as though she'd just chomped on a lemon, Jessica Hikari was stunningly pretty. It was her curse. "Hi, Soushi," she said reluctantly, side-stepping his enthusiastic attempts at glomping her from behind. "You know, I haven't seen a single freshman who thinks that you're a boy. Valentine's Day should be fun." Calming down a bit, Soushi took her by the arm. Jessica cringed reflexively, but managed to avoid smacking him upside the head--over the course of their year-long acquaintence, she had gradually grown desensitized to the senior's extreme touchy-feeliness. At least she had managed to cure him of calling her "Jessica-chan." "You seem surprisingly un-cynical," he commented, sounding worried. Her scowl intensified, and enormous black thunderheads instantaneously gathered overhead. "I hate life," she said suddenly, glaring at a nearby Anonymous Freshman. "That's the spirit!" Soushi exclaimed, clapping her merrily on the back. He spotted a table covered with cookies and various bizarrely shaped delicacies (some of which appeared to be... alive). "Now, if you'll excuse me, the complimentary food is calling."

Well, be careful. My friend ordered a Trigun "box set" from Amazon's auction shops and was quite surprised to discover that he'd bought a bootleg. In any case, this thread is supposed to deal with general recommendations; talking about which stores to buy anime from is a whole different topic and one that's not quite as suited to the purposes of the forum. ~Dagger~

My answer: yes. Whenever I go a bookstore and take a look at the manga section, I [i]always[/i] find at least two or three people hunkered down in the aisles, busily reading volume after volume of various series. Reading a manga and then walking out of the store without buying it is no different from downloading fansubs of licensed anime and rationalizing it by subsequently deleting the files. If you like the book enough to read it, surely it must be worth at least $9.99 (give or take a few dollars). This isn't a problem with regular novels, due to the fact that most people don't sit in bookstores for hours or days on end. Manga, however, can be finished quite quickly. Cover artwork is usually all you need to determine whether or not you like a manga's character designs. Blurbs and summaries, while sometimes inaccurate (thanks, Tokyopop) almost always indicate the genre and basic premise. The average person should be perfectly capable of making purchasing decisions based on those two pieces of information. It's just not fair to the companies who translate and publish this stuff that people can enjoy their products without having to pay a single cent. I wouldn't be against retailers displaying sample volumes from popular manga, but shrink-wrapping would stop fans from working their way through entire series without ever leaving the store. ~Dagger~

Welcome to the forums, otaku_ignea. ^_^ You can find the link to our official Ranma 1/2 thread in the Directory sticky. The next time you try to start a series topic, do so only after making sure that there is no pre-existing discussion. You'll also have to say something about the show in question--summarize its plot, explain why you like (or dislike) it, whatever. Simply declaring your love for a certain character, who not all members may be familiar with, won't do much to encourage quality dicussion. I suggest that you take a look at OtakuBoards' Rules and FAQ before posting again. Thread closed. ~Dagger~

Regarding geography... I assume we'll be making up some locations on the fly (i.e. "I'll meet you by the broken-down mecha" and so forth), but are there any prominent campus features we should know about? ~Dagger~

Five episodes in, and people are already calling this series a RahXephon knock-off... oddly enough, because pretty much the only thing they have in common (other than certain elements found throughout the Eva-Rah-Gasaraki genre) is the fact that both anime take place on an island. So far Dead Aggressor has followed a pretty typical "boy meets mecha" plot, with some love triangles and mystical-sounding German thrown in for good measure. The character designs are by Hisashi Hirai (Infinite Ryvius, s-CRY-ed, Gundam SEED), and as a result they look [i]really[/i] familiar. He's only made one deviation from his regular style, which is the addition of Saikano-esque blush lines to almost every character's face. That having been said, I think the cast of this series generally appears less stiff and plastic than, say, the cast of Gundam SEED. The animation is solid, and the OP theme is hideously addictive. While Dead Aggressor doesn't have any glaring flaws, it also hasn't done much to distinguish itself. I can't even say I feel fond of many of the characters--Soushi and Maya are alright. Kazuki seems a bit bland, and Shouko is way too fixated on him to be interesting. I like the show (perhaps mainly because I just love the genre, and there isn't anything horribly wrong with Dead Aggressor's execution). However, I'd be very interesting in finding out what other people think of it. ~Dagger~

Chobits... hmm. Supposing you really, really want to buy it, I'd recommend getting just the manga. The anime isn't worth the money, and although I found the manga disappointing, it had a much better ending than I expected (I skipped straight from book 5 to book 8, heh). Bear in mind that Chobits is a shounen romance and comes with several staples of the genre. ~Dagger~

Welcome to OtakuBoards, KrystalAsakura. ^_^ Consecutive posting is a violation of the forum rules, as is creating topics that cannot possibly lead to any kind of meaningful discussion. If you wanted information on Naruto or Yu Yu Hakusho, you could have 1) used Google, or 2) perused those shows' pre-existing official threads. Before posting again, please attempt to clean up your act--readability is highly valued at OtakuBoards, and your posts here are both completely random and rather difficult to decipher. Thread closed. ~Dagger~

Note-- Since the only people participating in this spar are oshi and myself, and since we're already familiar with each other's characters, I thought it would be a little redundant to start a recruitment thread. If anyone's desperately curious about the terms of our battle and such, I suppose we could create a topic in Adventure Underground. Reid is unusually untalkative in this segment, heh. ^_^;; [center]-----------------------------------------------------[/center] Counting silently, Vestemona waited for her eyes to grow accustomed to the darkness. She reached inside her pockets and extricated an enormous tangle of jewelry--rings, bracelets, chain-link belts, none of which let out the slightest clink or clatter. All were fashioned from the same lightly burnished steel. "Change of plans," the demon announced, threading a formidably sized hoop through one of her earlobes. "I don't think they mean to kill you." Arveragus managed to avoid rolling his eyes. "Pity," he muttered tensely. "Indeed. You should go out the way I came," Vestemona ordered, fixing him with a chill-inducing glare. The wall where she had entered abruptly parted at her touch. Arveragus needed no further prodding to scramble through the already-shrinking hole and set off down the pitch-black passageway beyond. The metal shuddered and sealed itself behind him. Again in a good mood, Vestemona nudged the cell door open and slipped outside just in time to see the short assassin vanish. Yes--it was the man clad in a loincloth who had disappeared; she remembered wondering whether he was cold, and then turned her attention to the orange-eyed one remaining. "Oh, don't worry. I [i]will[/i] kill your companion," she said pleasantly. "When the time comes, at any rate. He hurt my little brother. I don't have much of a vendetta against you, but I am considerably repulsed by the fact that you actually touched the noble." The man had not moved. He regarded her in silence, expression hovering somewhere between disinterest and amusement. She would remedy that, she decided; fear and anger were more interesting emotions, adrenaline more productive. She seized a torch, calmly ripping its metal bracket from the wall, and flung a shower of fire and molten iron in his direction. Though he seemed to slide out of sight, almost as though swallowed by the air, she felt him materialize at her back. So he was the one who possessed such powers--not his absent friend. The other end of the corridor was littered with flames and tiny globes of hardened metal. He shifted sooner than she had expected, seizing her arm and bending it with a kind of easy strength; her wrist was pinned between her shoulderblades. His free hand found her side, fingers sinking deep into the gaps between her ribs. Ignoring the paralyzing flare of pain, the demon closed her eyes and memorized his position. She estimated she still had a second or two until her arm snapped altogether. Vestemona waited. She could hear her bones involuntarily straining against his grip, nearly cracking as the assassin continued to twist her limb. Another quiet breath and then she focused on her rings, forcing them to uncurl and slip like liquid down her hand, moving almost too quickly for human sight to glimpse. He was not an average man, if he was in fact human at all--he sensed the danger and began to pull back, but the metal rivulets became nail-like spikes and gored his forearm, instantly burrowing further in. Gasping, Vestemona tore away and concentrated on forcing them to find his arteries, to worm their way up to his torso. Her right arm was badly fractured. Her opponent calmly dug inside one wound and wrenched the slowest sliver free, vanishing almost simultaneously. This time he reappeared at her side; she lashed out with a knife instantaneously formed from her largest bracelet and opened a shallow slash across his stomach as his fingers found a tender nerve beneath her ear. She nearly screamed. This assassin had an enviable knowledge of anatomy: the reflex was to drop her weapon, to let her muscles fall slack as the pain shot down her spine. But she too was well-trained, and shakily darted away when he vanished once again. He materialized close to where she'd guessed, and the demon found herself just beyond his reach. Smiling coolly, he side-stepped her sudden lunge swiftly enough to avoid losing an arm. "Good." Vestemona paused, not quite panting. "You're most impressive." She could feel the fissures in her bones slowly knitting together. "Tell me your name, and I'll keep those pieces of steel from reaching your heart."

I'll get around to that as soon as I have the chance. ^_^ As for afterwards... well, we've already gone exploring. The only other activity which immediately pops to mind is, um, sitting around the campfire and roasting marshmallows. ^_^;; So I think I had better second your call for ideas. ~Dagger~

I can't wait for us to start coming up with a senior prank. ;) Oh, and I'm going to pick up some extra classes, just for kicks (Hair and Beauty, Hero Ethics, Metalwork and Forgery). ~Dagger~

Vash IDK: Please try to stay on topic. Trigun11: If you're thinking of getting the Stand Alone Complex Special Edition, wait a couple of weeks (at the very least). I don't know of any problems with the regular DVD, but the volume 1 SE currently comes with an inexcusable number of errors; the Japanese DTS is faulty, and the accompanying OST has several tracks which are either melded together or erroneously split. In order to get the most mileage from your money, you might want to consider buying some inexpensive brick sets (TRSI's Boogiepop Phantom and ADV's Devil Lady are among the anime offered in this format). Don't purchase anything related to the Vision of Escaflowne--there's a cheap collection coming out sometime this fall--or Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040, which will soon be re-released with a very low MSRP. Berserk should also become a brick fairly soon, and Martian Successor Nadesico (like BGCT) is getting an "Essential Anime" re-release. Revolutionary Girl Utena and X TV are definitely worth collecting (despite their relatively high disc counts). I can't recommend RahXephon or Evangelion Platinum highly enough. Fruits Basket is an incredible bargain, with all 26 episodes divided across four DVDs. Now might also be a good time to check out Last Exile; the final disc is coming out in December. ~Dagger~

[quote name='natetron46']Do you mean privately imported to be sold?[/quote] Nah, for personal use. As I understand it, quite a few North American fans buy R2 Japanese DVDs, and there's also a contingent of European anime lovers who prefer to order R1 DVDs rather than wait, possibly indefinitely, for a series to be licensed in their region. The legality of this is somewhat murky--I don't think Japanese citizens are allowed to import North American DVDs (which are almost always significantly cheaper than the corresponding Japanese products). ~Dagger~

I recently bought the first volume of Neon Genesis Evangelion Platinum (the R1 name for Renewal, the remastered and partially re-animated version of the series). On a purely materialistic level, it's easy to tell that ADV put a lot of effort into making this release as appealing as possible. The new artbox is stunningly attractive; the DVD's packaging and insert are also top-notch. Of course, what makes it all worthwhile is the fact that the show looks and sounds noticeably better (no more annoying jitter!). I'm glad I waited so long to start purchasing Eva, heh. ^_^ ~Dagger~

An Escaflowne rip-off? *grins* I think you probably mean Evangelion, heh. Personally, I just find it odd that people who accuse RahXephon of being an Eva clone almost always cite the [i]differences[/i] between the two series when explaining why they like Eva better. Well, I finally wrested my copy of the movie from my neighbors. :rolleyes: To be honest, I went into the film with pretty low expectations... but I ended up loving it. I actually think I prefer the alternate ending which Pluralitas Concentio presents. The movie really delivers in terms of focusing on [spoiler]Ayato and Haruka's relationship. A lot of the people involved with its creation say that she was intended to be the main character, and for the most part I agree.[/spoiler] While I don't think this film would work as well as a stand-alone piece of cinema, it complements the series perfectly. I like the simplified relationships; in my opinion, [spoiler]Quon's character doesn't suffer much from being relegated to a background role, and Itsuki is rendered surprisingly sympathetic by virtue of the purity of his feelings.[/spoiler] I had expected very little new footage, so it really pleased me to see how many scenes had been altered or reworked altogether. A lot of Ayato's emotional responses seem more logical, such as [spoiler]his reaction to Hiroko's death and his original reason for wanting to pilot the RahXephon.[/spoiler] The whole [spoiler]"Observer of Time" shebang made sense once I read the booklet, heh.[/spoiler] As for the classroom sequence toward the ending, I think [spoiler]the young Ayato and Haruka were kind of like two Ixtlis--the embodiments of the two RahXephons, who had both become Observers of Time so that the real Ayato could stay with Haruka.[/spoiler] I'm not totally sure, though. >_> ~Dagger~

[spoiler]But didn't they specifically say there was an Elder assigned to that job? *shrugs* I was actually thinking that it might have been Noah when the animals first appeared, but.... eh. I interpreted the remark about him making the creatures real as having to do with his death (since the Elders were going to attribute it to Those We Don't Speak Of, and TWDSO had never "killed" anyone before).[/spoiler] The film would have worked better as a pure love story, with less of an emphasis on things that go bump in the dark. ~Dagger~

It's been a while, heh. Just let me know if I've left out any important details. ^_^;; [center]---------------------------[/center] "'Don't do anything stupid?'" Maia recited skeptically. "Maybe we should try to make this quick." Shrai'i gave her what might have been termed a wolfish grin, had it been worn by anyone less lovely. "Consider it a test. He'll live. If Luthian isn't capable of retaining his possessions and limbs after half an hour or so in this sector of the city, we can feel certain that he isn't worth our time." "Oh, I'm sure he can take care of himself." The redhead paused to glance at a booth filled with jewelry which seemed to be fashioned from human bones. Her nose wrinkled, and she abandoned any thought of casual thievery. "I'm just worred that he might... well, overdo it. You're already attracting plenty of attention," she added wryly, observing how every man--and quite a few of the women--they passed by invariably turned to stare at Shrai'i's retreating back. "They're merely surprised that I've returned," Shrai'i replied. She graced one loitering storekeeper with a particularly stunning smile; he paled and promptly dashed inside. Maia smirked. "I see. There's nothing like old debts." She dodged the lunging arms of a particularly audacious pickpocket and felled him with a single chop to the back of the neck. As the girl threaded her way between several groaning drunks, she spotted a cadre of heavily guarded horses. They were beautiful, aristocratic creatures--easily the best-bred she'd ever seen. A pudgy, well-dressed dealer presided over the animals and a group of hulking bodyguards. "I'll take those," she told Shrai'i, scarcely able to contain her glee. The other woman nodded, satisfied by Maia's choice. "Good. I'll begin collecting information, among other things. I know a stable where you can safely store the horses." She quickly gave Maia directions, using the street cant they were both familiar with, and finished by saying, "Just tell the owner my name. You may meet me in the first bar beyond the archway when you're finished." Maia watched her backtrack several blocks and disappear inside a brightly lit tavern. Once Shrai'i had fully vanished from her sight, she began to plan her heist.

Methinks Alex is going to have a total field day with this movie. First of all, The Village is aesthetically appealing. The cinematography seems nice (though I'm not the best judge of such matters) and Ron Howard's daughter is both gorgeous and a good actress. However, it's not at all frightening or even creepy; the only part that really gripped me was the scene in which the camera pans back to show Ivy [spoiler]standing in a field of red berries.[/spoiler] Unlike Signs, the film has an excuse for the [spoiler]incredibly doinky monster designs.[/spoiler] But while the twists--or whatever one would call them--do make sense, they feel unnecessarily gimmicky. The Village just isn't very emotionally compelling. The ending [spoiler]is too happy and doesn't resolve any of the movie's larger issues. It doesn't make much of a difference whether it was people or monsters who skinned and mutilated those baby animals. We never learn which Elder had that particular task, and frankly I think anyone who would willingly perform it must possess some serious psychological problems.[/spoiler] ~Dagger~