Dagger

:devil: I bought my mom and sister these soft, fuzzy socks for Christmas* (I forget what the brand was, but the slogan was something about living happily, and they were [i]really[/i] darn fuzzy). Later I got some for myself as well. They don't feel like normal socks--it's more akin to having your feet turn into cuddly stuffed animals. *I gave them other stuff as well--not that the right socks wouldn't be a magnificent gift by themselves. Least favorite type of sock: toe socks. ~Dagger~

To be honest... it looks like someone had a little too much fun with the Pen tool in Photoshop. :animeswea Maybe the apple is supposed to be partially peeled in random places? ~Dagger~

Some of the voices, but not all of them. They definitely took fans' votes into consideration; they just didn't make that the sole deciding factor (which was the way it should have been, I think). I'm not that enthused about the dub either. People who went to SakuraCon have said that Crispin Freeman is very, very good as Kyon, but I'm not a fan of Wendee Lee (Haruhi) even at her best. All the subsequent special editions (after v. 1) really get you are the broadcast order discs and the CDs--and the broadcast order can technically be recreated with the regular editions, if you have the energy for it. I think the CDs might also be sold separately. ~Dagger~

[url=http://www.famitsu.com/anime/news/2007/04/11/681,1176273241,69983,0,0.html][u]New NERV and Seele logos[/u][/url] (for the movies). Seele I can live with, despite the neck-cricking asymmetry. NERV? Not so much. I hope they didn't waste too much time coming up with that one... ~Dagger~

I look forward to your thoughts on the rest of the show. :) The Haruhi artbox + volume 1 set is absurdly expensive (seriously, anyone who isn't that into the show to begin with should resist the call of the gorgeous design and extras). Still, I'll be getting it... and I'm really curious about the Haruhi cosplay ribbon they're including. Not because I plan on ever cosplaying, but because if it's well-made, it should be cute enough to wear casually. [i]If[/i] it's well-made. That's what I'm worried about, but we'll see... ~Dagger~

Apparently Near's seiyuu has been confirmed as [url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=282][u]Noriko Hidaka[/u][/url] (Kikyo in Inuyasha, Jean in Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water). I haven't heard much by her recently, although it's amusing to know that she was Akane in Ranma 1/2, given that L's seiyuu was Ranma. But I have total confidence in her because of one past role: Seta Soujirou in Rurouni Kenshin. I will be delighted if she plays Near the same way. :catgirl: People at 2chan are saying that Mello is [url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=1012][u]Nozomu Sasaki[/u][/url], which would be unbelievably awesome. He's played Johan in Monster, Eriol in Cardcaptor Sakura and Yuusuke in Yu Yu Hakusho. (Take this with a grain of salt until episode 26 has been seen more widely, though.) ETA: Okay, the A Part is an impressively rapid recap. New material starts in the B Part, just like Syk predicted. We don't see Near and Mello's faces until the preview. ETA 2: HAHA! The sparkles are back! ~Dagger~

[quote name='Syk3]My predictions for how they'll animate that (FUTURE SPOILERS): [spoiler]most of the next episode will be a recap, but then at the end Light will be promoted and Mello and Near will be introduced, leaving it open for the next arc. The following episode, then, will have the time skip.[/spoiler'] If they do that, the first 26 episodes will fit together rather nicely, and it will fit in with the episode titles. But damn, that leaves 10-11 episodes for 5 volumes. Good luck to them.[/quote] Good luck indeed. I just really hope they don't half-*** the second arc because it was more controversial than the first; there are still a lot of people out there (myself included) who like it as much as, if not more than, the first part of the manga. Still, I think the compression will be doable. It'll certainly keep things eventful and exciting throughout the remaining episodes. I have my fingers crossed for the next episode not being a recap--maybe they didn't want to show new scenes in the preview for whatever reason. (Haha, wishful thinking). ~Dagger~

Oh, wow, take a look at one side of the R1 [url=http://www.animeondvd.com/forum/fbbuploads/1176140909-968460.jpg][u]artbox[/u][/url]. I can't believe they're promoting it like that, haha. The North American market being what it is, I thought for sure that they'd play up the mass murder aspects of the show. At the same time, it'll be worth it if this suckers even one person into thinking he's bought some cute, fluffy series about nothing... :devil: The manga has not been licensed yet, unfortunately. It also bears mentioning that a second season is supposed to start in Japan this summer. ~Dagger~

I'm going to be all over PotC, and my roommate is a Spiderman fanatic, so those are the two I'm definitely seeing in theatres. I'll wait on reviews for Shrek 3. Anything after that... not so interested. ~Dagger~

Yeah, Clannad is slated for the fall by most reports. I'm really interested in your take on the start of Lucky Star... despite its uber-moeness, it's different from anything they've done before because of its 4koma roots. The artwork is very bright and appealing, and there's nowhere that the animation falters--but it doesn't have much of a chance to shine, either. One gets the sense that they're taking a break between the more detailed/drama-intensive Kanon and Clannad. Episode 1 was decent. Although it didn't wow me or anything, anime comedy usually doesn't, and watching it was pleasant and relaxing. It left me with a smile on my face. I was surprised by the extent to which it's dialogue-based; there were almost none of the physical gags that you tend to get in this type of show. Part of me wishes they had brought in someone like Akiyuki Shinbo to liven things up, but I guess there are already enough Pani Poni Dashes, Negimas and Hidamari Sketches in the world. Your snake eating its own tail comparison is spot-on. In just the first episode, we have the main character (Konata, with the long blue hair and Aya Hirano's voice) pointing out Miyuki's moe clumsiness and Kagami's moe sleeping face. (In one scene, Miyuki cutely walks into a wall or something. Konata: "She should be like that all the time." Tsukasa: "It must hurt...") ~Dagger~

[CENTER][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v632/DaggerIX1/lucky-ch_top.jpg[/IMG] [/CENTER] [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjEFUY7unks&eurl=][u]Opening sequence movie[/u][/url] Dance, puppets, dance! :devil: [strike]Haruhi 2[/strike] [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Star_(manga)][u]Lucky Star[/u][/url] is a [url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=7222][u]new[/u][/url] [url=http://www.lucky-ch.com/][u]anime[/u][/url] from the studio that made The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Much like Azumanga Daioh, it's a mostly plotless comedy about the lives of high school girls. Except in this case, the girls are otaku/gamers. I'm not sure how I feel about them making the OP so much like Haruhi's OP and ED, but I suppose that they have the right to capitalize on their own success. Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing more of the show. For better or worse, chances are that it'll achieve at least Haruhi's level of cult popularity. ~Dagger~

Oh, so I'm not the only one! Interesting. Like Des suggested, I tried blowing out the disc drive (if dust can be problematic, it's a pretty likely culprit, with my shelf being in the state it's in). So far it hasn't happened again. *keeps fingers crossed* ~Dagger~

*throws thread a Phoenix Down* So I've been playing Xenogears, and I'm about ten hours in. Twice so far, the game has basically broken down at random points--everything turns into huge blocks of color and the music gets stuck. Although I got it used, the disc looks fine to me (maybe a tiny scratch here or there, but I'm sure I've played fine with worse). Is this likely to be a issue with the console? I've had it for about four or five years and haven't used it that heavily. For now I'll just keep playing and saving often, I guess. I was planning to get a slim PS2 eventually anyway, but this might force my hand, heh. ~Dagger~

I'm in love. ;) It was a very nice first episode. It's hard not to weigh this against Gankutsuou on some levels, although it doesn't have Gankutsuou's wild art direction. Young Montague is the spitting image of the Count, and I have an awful feeling that poor Benvolio is saddled with the exact same problem as Franz and will end up the same way. His conversation with Romeo about love was more like a punch in the stomach than mere deja vu. At the same time, even though Junichi Sato is the voice director and not the overall director, it sure feels like one of his shows. Classic Sato humor and all that. It also bears even less resemblance to the original story than Gankutsuou did to The Count of Monte Cristo. People have been throwing around Kaleido Star comparisons, and I suppose I can see that, because Romeo x Juliet has a ton of heart. If I end up adoring Juliet even half as much as Kaleido Star's heroine, this could get dangerous... I have to confess that I quite dig the OP. I like the Japanese lyrics a lot better than the English lyrics, actually. Anyway, I'd be very interested in reading other people's thoughts on this. ~Dagger~

[QUOTE=Ikillion][COLOR=#0e1030][SIZE=1][FONT=Trebuchet MS] What I [I]really[/I] loved though was after [spoiler]Rem made her attack runs. The way she hovered and disappeared into the darkness after writing down Watari's name. The sound of L's voice as he called out to him. It took a seemed to take a while for L to die though, which isn't a bad thing. [/spoiler][/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/QUOTE] Yeah, that was well done. In general, I think the creepy red or glowing eyes are much more effective with the shinigami than with people. I also liked how they worked in [spoiler]Rem dissolving as a part of the church bell montage;[/spoiler] that ended up being more poignant than if they had focused on it as a separate thing. Yamaguchi's voice acting really shone in this episode. [QUOTE][COLOR=#0e1030][SIZE=1][FONT=Trebuchet MS]I have a question though, now that [spoiler]Rem is dead, does that mean that the Death note that she gave Misa doesn't work anymore or something? Since she's dead and all.[/spoiler][/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/QUOTE] I might not be one hundred percent right about this--I'm awful at keeping it straight--but I think [spoiler]the notebook she originally gave Misa was the one that came from Jealous. The notebook she was writing in was her personal notebook. The one that Higuchi was using and that later entered L's possession was the one Ryuk dropped and Light picked up in episode 1. Since Jealous' notebook kept working, Rem's should as well. Basically this means Light now has three Death Notes to play with.[/spoiler] [QUOTE][COLOR=#0e1030][SIZE=1][FONT=Trebuchet MS]EDIT: I was kinda surprised though at the fact that [spoiler]many of them were so surprised at the fact that Rem killed them. I mean she [I]IS[/I] a shinigami. Wouldn't a person expect one to do that?[/spoiler][/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR][/QUOTE] I guess they were surprised because [spoiler]they had already gotten over their dread and horror of her. If she were going to do anything to them, theoretically there'd be no reason for her to hesitate about doing it right away. So since they had been hanging around her safely for a while, they assumed there was no more risk. They also may not have been aware that she had her own notebook[/spoiler] (can someone correct me on this?). ~Dagger~

I added spoiler tags to your post, hiei luver92. I'm also going to move this to the main FMA thread in a bit. There's actually an interesting story behind this. What kalon says is correct--but the picture you saw wasn't mislabeled, either. Back when the manga was still pretty early on in its run, a group of Chinese fans made a doujinshi FMA game called Bluebird's Illusion. In one of the game's endings, Ed becomes the homunculus Pride. Hence the picture(s) of Ed as Pride--it's the main thing for which the game is known. :) ~Dagger~

You've been here long enough to know better than this, dear. Thread closed. ~Dagger~

Just saw episode 25 (for the first of what will be many, many times). It's one of the single best anime episodes I've ever watched--not because of the images, voice acting and visual direction (which are excellent in and of themselves), but because of the sound direction. Seriously, the sound direction was outstanding. I want to go through and point out every part that made an impression on me, but the resulting post would be far too long. The rain; the use of silence; the bells... those aren't even the best examples. They're just what come to mind first. Red Garden could take a lesson or two from this episode on how to use an amateur-sounding (not an insult but a reflection of the intent) song to set the right mood. Some of my favorite scenes were anime-only material, from [spoiler]Misa's song[/spoiler] and [spoiler]L and Light in the rain[/spoiler] to [spoiler]Wammy's House[/spoiler] and [spoiler]Watari with young L.[/spoiler] I actually think the best moment in the whole episode was not [spoiler]L's death,[/spoiler] as one might have expected, but the part in which he asks whether [spoiler]Light has ever said anything true in his life, and the whole scene goes quiet for a second.[/spoiler] Every change made was for the better. I loved the idea that [spoiler]L knew what was going down, and Light knew that he knew, but they proceeded down the paths they had laid for themselves anyway.[/spoiler] Although I was very skeptical when I heard that they had cut out [spoiler]L's last line,[/spoiler] I absolutely agree with that decision now that I've seen it. It wouldn't have worked any other way. And they even let [spoiler]L be the Jesus figure[/spoiler] for once! Good Madhouse. *pats lovingly* The preview has some people wondering whether the next episode might be a recap. I hope not... but if they're going to do [spoiler]an L-centric episode, they may as well throw fans a bone and make up some new Wammy's House scenes or something.[/spoiler] This is one case in which a part is much, much stronger than the whole. While 25 will undoubtedly continue to be the best episode out of the show's entire run for weeks yet, I'm hoping that they'll be able to reach the same level for the episodes which animate chapters 104 and 107. ~Dagger~

[QUOTE=Farto the Magic][FONT=Trebuchet MS][COLOR=DarkGreen] Another thing that makes me mad. French fries. Waffle fries are superior. Anyone want to debate that?[/COLOR][/FONT][/QUOTE] If properly seasoned, waffle fries are delicious indeed, but my heart will always belong to sweet potato fries. Lucious, bright orange and straight out of the fryer... :animenose ~Dagger~

I would say that DN uses Judeo-Christian religious imagery--I mean, it'd be kind of hard to ignore it--but no more so, and no more significantly, than countless other anime and manga. Anyway, I got bored and kept reading the 2chan thread (insofar as I'm capable of it) in lieu of watching the episode. Other interesting comments... - Detailed drawings (even for Misa); almost theatrical quality - The visuals seem more like Production IG's work, which I assume is a compliment (they're the ones who did Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex); the effects are also great - It's as if the staff somehow woke up, heh - Light is [spoiler]"so dark" and "too evil"; it's the "perfect checkmate"[/spoiler] - It's Light's [spoiler]best evil smile ever[/spoiler] - It's the climax of the first arc, so naturally they're putting more power/effort behind it - Madhouse must have worked hard to put out this and the first episode of Claymore on the same day ~Dagger~

Holy crap, 2chan is [I]flipping the hell out[/I] over episode 25. The art and everything looks really really amazing. And is that seriously [spoiler]L washing Light's feet!?[/spoiler] A Biblical reference? A desperate play for BL fans? (Opinions seem to be split, but the commentary is hilarious--腐女子へのサービスｷﾀー！and ホモホモ and やらないか etc.) Well, I hope the visuals hold up when I'm actually watching it (which will be this evening if I'm lucky). ~Dagger~

I'm going to wait on Gurren-Lagann for now. I didn't care for FLCL very much beyond its visual zaniness and the rare moments that were subdued & emotionally evocative. Likewise, I had fun with Diebuster but mainly value it for its ending. If Lagann turns out to have more than just high caliber action and wackiness, I may watch it (assuming it isn't licensed by then). The premise of Bokurano sounds fascinating. GONZO being GONZO, though, I want to make sure they're going to follow the manga reasonably before I commit to it. [b]Seirei no Moribito[/b] has been pre-licensed by Geneon. Hopefully the DVDs will come out in a timely manner. I wonder if it has a chance of getting on Adult Swim? (After all, it's so close in style to Ghost in the Shell, although the setting and content are very different.) I haven't watched any of it yet, so I don't have a feel for whether or not it's AS material. What I have seen at this point are the first episodes of two excellent-seeming shows. [b]Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS[/b] will kick your butt, my butt and everything in between. The first episode is an action fest that takes the series further away from typical magical girl material than it's ever been. I actually think this might be a good place for people who haven't seen the first two seasons to jump in, since they're reintroducing the core cast at the same time that they add new characters. As long as you're into action anime, it should be a wild ride. Please don't let the magical girl concept scare you away. [b]Heroic Age[/b] is from the team behind Fafner, minus the crappy writers--and it's turning out to be everything I'd hoped for and more. When you have entire planets being destroyed in the first episode, you know it's going to be epic. There were some really creative backgrounds & strong animation as well. ~Dagger~

There is no fourth season planned at the moment. If one does come along, it'll probably have to wait until after Lucky Star, Clannad and a second season of Haruhi Suzumiya. The studio that has been producing FMP since FMP: Fumoffu traditionally only works on one anime series at a time, and right now they're booked up until at least 2008, with no FMP in sight. On the bright side, with the popularity of the novels, you can probably assume that more of the anime will appear eventually. Feel free to post in the existing FMP thread(s) if you wish to discuss the first three seasons. ~Dagger~

[spoiler]Getting all his memories back at once must have been a pretty intense experience. I imagine that would trump the time he whiled away with L, especially now that he knows it was part of his master plan anyway.[/spoiler] I am struck by the irresistible urge to skulk around muttering [spoiler]KEIKAKU DOORI.[/spoiler] The twelve episodes left after 25 are going to have to cover [i]five volumes[/i] of material. It's perfectly doable, but heads will roll if the animation is as variable as in the first arc. :animesigh I did read that episode 27 is titled [spoiler]"Kidnapping"[/spoiler] or something of the sort, which is a good sign as far as pacing is concerned. Also: where the hell are the seiyuu for Near, Mello and Mikami? I'm astounded that nothing has leaked out about them yet. ~Dagger~

I can't comment on D.Gray-man, but I think Sanae Kobayashi's best male role is Akira from Hikaru no Go. On the female side of things, she shows a lot of versatility as Lucy and Nyuu in Elfen Lied. ANN also has her listed to play Oscar in the Rose of Versailles movie, which (if true) should be interesting. In the latest episode of Death Note, I almost wet myself when [B]Mamoru Miyano[/B] (Light) said [spoiler]計画通り。[/spoiler] It was way too magnificent for us peons. However, overall I'm more impressed by [b]Jun Fukuyama[/b] as Lelouch in Code Geass. Their acting is of the same caliber, but Fukuyama has this incredible timbre to his Lelouch voice that makes it impossible for me to believe he's the same person who played Albert in Gankutsuou. ~Dagger~