Dagger

Mm... I would say yes, since I think it's a tad misleading to describe games like that as porn, but at the same time, pornography is so hard to define in the first place. So I can't object really strongly if people want to call them that. EDIT: There's also a continuum in place that makes it tough to draw the line. Some games are heavy in both ero-scenes and story/character development. Sometimes the sex seems like a vital aspect of the story; sometimes it feels extraneous. ~Dagger~

I think it's safe to say that most visual novel eroge (for instance: Tsukihime, Air, etc.) are story-driven, and that people literally play them for the story. This sounds ridiculous until you think about the proportion of ero-scenes to regular scenes; like Avenged says, why bother reading a novel-length (or longer!) work for the sake of one or two sex scenes, when you can just go download/buy some regular porn? Which raises the question of why so many visual novels continue to incorporate token ero-scenes. Then again, why is that even a question? It's not like they're more explicit or more suffused with sex than, say, the average American urban fantasy novel. Laurell K. Hamilton quite outdoes the majority of eroge in terms of the amount of sex in her stories. And because there are only a few CGs (illustrations) per ero-scene, eroge occupy an interesting middle ground between comics, radio dramas/movies (because they have voices) and novels. As for the games--visual novels and otherwise--in which sex is definitely the primary factor, everyone has their preferences. I'd assume it's hard to read a book and get off at the same time, too, but ero-manga is a pretty big industry. ~Dagger~

Still glad to hear that others are enjoying ef. It succeeds in some areas and not so much in others, but overall you can really tell that they're trying, and it's much more than a straightforward game adaptation. Points for ambition, and added points if they clean up some of the sloppier areas (visually speaking) for the DVD version. I hope SHAFT makes a second season after the second half of the game comes out. ~Dagger~

That's misrepresenting it a little, I think. Sex & sexual innuendo come out in different ways in different cultures. Japan has way more ero-based games than western countries (plus stuff like Hard Gay, haha). At the same time, it seems that female pop stars (for instance) are expected to cultivate this absurd virginal image, which is almost the exact opposite of celebrity culture in the US. ~Dagger~

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v632/DaggerIX1/071114_lucky_z.jpg[/IMG] [url=http://dps.dengekionline.com/2007/11/ps2_cg21_1.html][u]CGs from the upcoming PS2 game[/u][/url] It's more like the comic art than the anime art (I greatly prefer the anime designs) but still fatally moe. :animenose ~Dagger~

Here's a double-header. :catgirl: [b]Name:[/b] Miyako Miyamura [b]Source:[/b] ef - a tale of memories [b]Status:[/b] One of the main heroines. In high school. [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v632/DaggerIX1/miyamiya.jpg[/IMG] - Her casual intelligence. She doesn't seem like the brilliant type, but she's actually a bit of a lazy genius. - Gorgeous character design by Nanao Naru (Sola, Da Capo, Canvas 2) - The way she always acts on impulse - Her refusal to smooth things over for others; she says exactly what's on her mind - Yellow hair ribbons + green eyes - How purely she lives in the moment - Doesn't fret about making others worry or hurting their feelings, which is refreshing in a female character [b]Name:[/b] Midou [b]Source:[/b] Kichiku Megane [yet another BL game] [b]Status:[/b] In his early thirties and, despite that, a member of the business elite. He demands a lot from his subordinates, but they respect him. [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v632/DaggerIX1/midou.jpg[/IMG] - The best male tsundere I've ever come across - Keeps quiet about suffering so as to protect his pride - Falling-snow confession scene = guaranteed death by moe - The way he tries to suppress his dere-dere side in the office - Always sharply dressed - Recognizes the capabilities of others, even if he dislikes them ~Dagger~

Well, depends on what you're talking about. There are definitely CG-rendered games that are pretty much 100% sex... haven't played any myself, so I couldn't tell you how the gameplay functions, but I assume it's more about making choices once in a while than button-mashing (as it were). There are also vast quantities of 18+ visual novels, which are also always PC games. These are 2-D, though, and like the name suggests, it's more like reading a book than playing a regular game. Some kind of Japanese regulation keeps adult material from being released on consoles, so when ero-games get console ports, they're remade as all-ages stories. ~Dagger~

Re: the current season, I'm down to Shugo Chara, ef, Clannad and Gundam 00. There aren't enough hours in the day for KimiKiss, and I'm not going to prioritize Ghost Hound until I get my technical difficulties fixed. I'm writing a term paper on the relationship between [b]Bakeneko[/b] & traditional kaidan (ghost/monster stories), so I'll be re-watching both the Ayakashi and Mononoke versions of it for a while... ~Dagger~

I'm a little surprised that no more news has come out. Maybe, with the announcement of the second season, we were just supposed to assume that it'd be their next (i.e. spring) project? At the least, I can't imagine them letting it hang much longer after having made it public and everything... (and why do I feel like I've posted the same thoughts before in this thread? :animeswea) ~Dagger~

Some of the best OPs out there are instrumental. [b]Baccano[/b] and [b]Gad Guard[/b] have awesome jazzy songs & snappy animation; I have yet to get tired of watching either of them (the shows themselves are a whole different matter, haha). [b]Gungrave[/b] is a good example of an OP that's more than the sum of its parts; neither the piece ("Family") nor the visuals are enormously arresting on their own, but they work great together. My favorite animated OPs are actually for eroge. Makoto Shinkai (Voices of a Distant Star, 5cm Per Second) has directed several OPs for games by minori, including Wind - a breath of heart (which got two OPs!), Bittersweet Fools, Haru no Ashioto, and ef - the first tale. They're just as gorgeous as his movies. ~Dagger~

I've been putting off watching this because I've been having audio problems with the episodes (grr), and my attention is stretched a little too thin with various other things to bother figuring out/fixing it right now. That said, it still seems like a very cool show, and I'll be really happy when I can see more of it. ~Dagger~

That's a possibility, but I think the whole child-soldier thing would have been more than enough trauma for anyone. There's also the fact that (as Lockon mentions in episode 6), the Exia is basically Setsuna's entire life; anyone touching it ends up being a personal affront to him. Ep. 6 ended on quite the cliffhanger, at any rate... really looking forward to seeing more of [spoiler]Ali, plus Setsuna's past.[/spoiler] I don't have a favorite character yet, although out of the girls, I like Sumeragi and Felt best (Soma also shows promise), and out of the guys, it'd probably be Lockon or Allelujah. What can I say... in the latter case, I'm a sucker for [spoiler]split personalities,[/spoiler] and Lockon radiates awesome no matter what he's doing. I like the fact the main character isn't necessarily the group leader. If anything, Setsuna is the weakest link, being the youngest and most frequently targeted. Tiera remains an enigma. I'm pleased as punch that they've made the most feminine-looking pilot the most vicious & judgmental. ~Dagger~

So far, Gundam 00 is the perfect weekly show. It's not so mind-blowing that you get fed up with having to wait for the next episode, but it keeps your interest just enough for you to go "Hey, cool" when it does come out. :) ~Dagger~

I must confess that I'm in no position to argue with math. :animeswea That said, for whatever reason, the upscaled Air Blu-ray set was spread across four discs. May have been because they didn't encode it in h.264? (I wouldn't really know...) ~Dagger~

[quote name='Desbreko'][color=#4B0082]About the only thing I care about for HD-DVD and Blu-ray as video standards is that we'll hopefully see the end of the utter crap that is 3-6 anime episodes per disc. I want to see full 26 episode series on one disc, which will be possible with the increased capacity and the use of the h.264 video codec.[/color][/QUOTE] I'm not sure that, in the end, the increased capacity will make much of a difference. Older non-cel series won't benefit much from being in hi-def, so it'll certainly be possible for them to get re-released on one disc, but I can't imagine the price would be any different from a regular multi-disc collection. I'm under the impression that true HD material takes up so additional space that remastered cel-animated shows and newer hi-def shows (like Kanon and Gundam 00) will probably have to be split across more than one disc, even in the new formats. ~Dagger~

Man, you guys are fancy. All I need is vodka & cranberry juice. Although really, I'm fine with anything that smothers the taste of the alcohol sufficiently... ~Dagger~

Yeah, I thought ep. 5 was the best yet. (Although that was in part due to the pangs of nostalgia from the gorgeous violin theme that came up when Kuze was walking Chihiro home). I love MiyaMiya-sama (bow-girl). Her harshness toward Kei really surprised me when it first came up in the game, but it makes her a more interesting character. Despite the way she wafts around, she's got a clear and uncompromising way of looking at things. ~Dagger~

Just watched episodes 4 & 5. I'd heard that 5 was a filler (compared to the manga), but I was quite impressed with it. It definitely stood up to the previous episodes (if anything, it might've been better--the soccer animation was awesome). If all the anime-original material is going to be like this, I'd welcome more. Loved the sinister moment with teacher-whatshisname. Next episode: [spoiler]new Chara-change![/spoiler] Speaking of which, I dropped by the bookstore today and picked up the first two volumes of the manga, currently being released by Del Rey. I'd thought about getting the JP edition, but the Del Rey version is a nice-looking release, and I don't want to get too far ahead of the anime. I think I'm going to hold off on reading them for now, at any rate. ~Dagger~

Heh, it's funny to have two parallel discussions of the show going on at the same time. Interesting, though. I don't have much to say about episode 2 except that the scenes with Tomoya's dad were handled well (the girls' introductions, in contrast, felt kind of awkward). The [spoiler]Nagisa waiting in the rain scene[/spoiler] fell flat for me at first because the exact same scenario popped up in ef last week, but I liked how that brought out the reason why Tomoya had to quit basketball. So glad to hear it moves faster than Kanon. ~Dagger~

Right now I'm focusing on [b]Kichiku Megane[/b], a BL game from Spray. In some ways, it's a huge power trip (almost like Death Note). The main character, Katsuya, is weak-willed and easily depressed until he gets a pair of glasses that transform him into a self-confident business hotshot (and, incidentally, a predatory seme :animeswea). There are five attainable characters, and thirty-four different endings. These are actual endings, even the bad ones--it's not like you just take a wrong turn and die suddenly. So there are multiple seme and uke routes for each character, depending on how much Katsuya uses the glasses, etc. I was underwhelmed by the first route I played. It felt kind of abrupt, and Katsuya (glasses-version) was way too harsh for my tastes. But then I played the same character's route with uke-Katsuya, and I realized that he was a total bastard who deserved every second of it. So now I kind of want to go back to glasses-Katsuya and make him act crueler, haha. Although none of the routes are long, having multiple parallel routes for the same character (with the relationship dynamic developing differently each time) is really satisfying... it adds up to a much fuller picture of both the character in question & Katsuya. Not all of the routes are great by themselves, but taken together, they make for a much more psychologically interesting game than I'd expected. When I'm playing visual novels, I usually do the first route on impulse, making whatever choices I feel like, and then use a capture guide for the subsequent routes. In Kichiku's case, I think I'm going to try getting all the endings on my own. There are a lot of choices, and part of the fun is calculating what other endings there might be and how to reach them. ~Dagger~

[B]Name: [/B] Alice [B]Source:[/B] Messiah [another 18+ PC game] [B]Status:[/B] A supporting character who lives in Kou's mansion (he's the guy in the picture below). In some routes, it's revealed that she's literally [spoiler]Lewis Carroll's Alice, who has been liberated from the novel and now survives as a kind of psychic vampire.[/spoiler] Despite her young appearance, she's been around a lot longer than Kou, and so she tends to be very protective of him. [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v632/DaggerIX1/arisu.jpg[/IMG] - Gothloli costume - Ojou-sama speech patterns ([i]Ara[/i]?) - Childish tendencies mixed in with immortal wisdom - Her maternal/big sister reliability and persistence - Her spunk, and how she pretends to be easily offended - Her determination to keep Kou safe, even against his wishes - Cute selfishness (like making Kou tie her hair ribbons) - Slight tsundere streak - Those massive blonde curls - Her teary-eyed expression when she's worried ~Dagger~

[url=http://www.amiami.com/shop/?vgForm=ProductInfo&sku=HOB-FIG-7202&template=review.html][u]Catgirl Yuki figure[/u][/url] :animenose I would so get this if it weren't for the color-changing gimmick. (It's from Bandai's Metamo line--the paint job changes based on temperature. They also have a [url=http://www.amiami.com/shop/ProductInfo/product_id/85866][u]Haruhi[/u][/url].) Because of that, the overall quality doesn't really match some of the other Haruhi-related figures out there. ~Dagger~

I hope they don't try to go the ultra-expensive LE route, like they did with Haruhi. But I'm pretty sure Kadokawa & Bandai recognize that Haruhi was more or less a one-time phenomenon. Lucky Star should be marketed differently. ~Dagger~

What I've been playing since I last posted here-- [b]Saya no Uta[/b]: A brilliant & disturbing gem of a VN. When you start a new game, you get to choose from different censorship options (since there's a lot of gore). I chose no censorship, and for the most part I don't regret it, but there was one CG that made me wish I hadn't eaten pastrami for lunch... :animedepr [b]Jingai Makyou[/b]: Also known as the game that spawned a thousand [url=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v632/DaggerIX1/makyou2.jpg][u]Ignis[/u][/url] figures (and once you look at her character design, it's easy to see why). I got all thirty-four endings, most of which involve the main character dying violently, but I'm missing one random CG. That's going to nag at me. Fun story, though. [b]Messiah[/b]: I swore to god I wouldn't play any more BL games, but I'm glad I crumbled. Messiah is fantastically awesome. I particularly like the fact that the female characters are well-developed & important. Now I have to play Core's other BL game (Fanatica); I'll be happy if it's even half as great. ~Dagger~

The Otakulypse timing was unfortunate. Although it completely slipped my head that the marathon was going to be this past weekend, I would've probably remembered if the site had been up. C'est la vie... :animeswea ~Dagger~