Raiyuu

[font=trebuchet ms][quote name='Hanabishi Recca][font=verdana][^ I think this is spam'][/font][/quote][color=red]Nope. Short posts aren't spam unless they don't contribute to the discussion. Please leave spotting spam to the Mods. Also, I hate to break it to you, but [b]your[/b] posts in this thread are closer to spam than Corey's. Try taking a bit more care when you post, and then you might iron out the little mistakes, like "your" instead of "you're", or missing punctuation.[/color][quote name='Hanabishi Recca][font=verdana]I'm just going to ignor the rest of your post [...'] I won't even try to discuss such a thing with you.[/font][/quote]To be honest, that holier-than-thou attitude is more effective at alienating other people from what you believe than any religious statement you could make. Surely when people "shrug off reasons" you can simply provide persuasion and backup to your arguments? It's quite an understanding community here, bar the odd opinionated stoic. Why not try us, if you have something to share?[/font]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS][quote name='Avenged666fold][font=verdana]It [b][the Jabberwock][/b'] also gives people riddles and If they cna't solve them the people die.[/font][/quote]There's nothing about that in the poem either. All we're told is to beware the teeth and claws. The Sphinx killed people if they couldn't answer its riddle correctly. Perhaps whatever book this was in got the two mixed up (somehow :animestun ).[/FONT]

[font=trebuchet ms][b]The Omen[/b] isn't the only product taking advantage of the date. Finnish pop-metallers (and runaway Eurovision Song Contest winners) [b]Lordi[/b] are releasing their Eurovision song, [b]Hard Rock Hallelujah,[/b] in the UK today. The world didn't end on New Year's Day 2000, or New Year's Day 2001. I don't see why the prediction about it ending today should be less of a pile of tripe. Although ... it's blazing sunshine here in the UK right now. That [b]never[/b] happens. Abnormal weather, hmmm. At least there aren't any clouds for it to [color=red]rain blood[/color] from.[/font]

[quote name='Ikillion']We did? -apparently wasnt reading close enough- Wow I though we were still in the same week or whatever, but none the less yay.[/quote][font=trebuchet ms]At the bottom of the "Howling Tempest" title page there was a line of text that said "October 29th, Karakura Town, Underground Vizard Training Centre". I think some of the translation groups forgot to translate it. Yay for my meagre knowledge of Japanese! Also, Shinji said Ichigo had been training [b]for a month[/b] and still couldn't [spoiler]keep his mask on for more than ten seconds[/spoiler].[/font]

[quote name='visualkei][font=verdana][b]Raiyuu,[/b'] I'm surprised that you talked about your summer job at your local orchard so casually. It seems to me like it's tough work. Do bugs bite you big time out there? Do they pay you by the case/weight of fruit you pick?[/font][/quote][font=trebuchet ms]It's physical labour, sure. But I'm such a computer geek most of the time that it's refreshing to get out in the open air and build up some actual muscle. :animeswea The only really taxing bit is lifting great big crates of apples on and off the tractor, and I'm a lot better exercised this year, so it should be easier than last summer. Other than that, the job is just repetitive, but you can use the time to talk to the other pickers, listen to music or plot out your next novel. I tend to think of it like meditation - focusing on a menial task, to allow the higher parts of the brain to focus on higher things. And it pays by the hour. So I guess there isn't much incentive to get loads of work done, but it [b]is[/b] casual, cash-in-hand work, meaning that you can get fired in the blink of an eye if you slack off. No "clear out your desk in two weeks," just "don't come back tomorrow". Oh, and bugs aren't much of a problem in the UK. We just have to steer clear of the orchard's south end at around eleven am - there's a beehive there because the farmers sell honey as well as fruit, and they tend to swarm at eleven. Get between the swarm and its hive and you're in trouble![/font]

[font=trebuchet ms]This is pretty much on the same topic as Gun Preacher's 'What happens when you die?' thread, and I can see a lot of responses coming out very similar. So I'm merging the two.[/font]

[font=trebuchet ms][color=red][b]Point One:[/b] Up4anime, please take a look at the [thread=52331][u]Otaku Lounge Rules Sticky.[/u][/thread] You've been here a while now, you really should have read it already. We expect more from thread openers. [b]Point Two:[/b] taperson, Wolf2gto and Drako, please take a look at both the Sticky linked above and at OtakuBoards' [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/rules.php?][u]Rules[/u][/url] and [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/faq.php?][u]FAQ.[/u][/url] We expect more in terms of general post quality than has been shown here. [b]Conclusion: Thread locked.[/b][/color][/font]

[font=trebuchet ms]Hooray, we're back to form after several weeks of Emo-Hime on centre stage. She's interesting and all - [spoiler]the revelation that her hairpins act like a Zanpakuto certainly makes her powers make more sense[/spoiler] - but it's good to have some shifting focus once in a while. And thank goodness for the timelapse! We've gone a month forward in time, meaning we don't have to sit through three months of training. [spoiler]Ichigo and Grimmjow won't rematch next chapter, but I'm hoping for the introduction of some new Espada, and maybe the results of Chad's training. Now we know Yamii's the tenth Espada I'm positive Ulquiorra is one - he's evidently much stronger than the brute - but I'd like to know what number he is sometime soon. My money's on One.[/spoiler][/font]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS][color=red]Thank you, everyone, for rescuing this thread from Gun Preacher's terrible opening post. Gun Preacher, there is information on our expectations of thread openers [thread=52331][u]here, in the Otaku Lounge Rules Sticky[/u][/thread]. The Sticky doesn't bite. Please read it, and take it into account before starting any more threads. Need clarification? PM me, or any other Moderator.[/color] [/scary Mod voice] I'm basically with Retribution and co here. Asked what I'd [b]like[/b] to happen after my death, I'd probably go with reincarnation. But I can't know, and it's useless speculating. Heck, I don't know what I'm going to eat for dinner tomorrow. How can I think as far ahead (and yes, I'd like it to be [b]quite[/b] far off) as my death?[/FONT]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS]I've been ringing up to try and go back to the job I did last Summer, at the local fruit orchard. It's minimum-wage work, but it's out in the open. I don't tan when I go on holiday to the Mediterranean - I just burn - but I tanned last year doing four or five weeks of pruning and picking. Money and a tan, you say? Bargain. Since it's Summer [b]now[/b] (the weather here in England is currently stupendous) I guess my work this week counts too - setting up all the lights and what have you for the university's Summer Ball, a great big two-day festival-type extravaganza. Today I got paid for sitting lazing in the sunny, grassy quad for seven hours; technically I was turning away members of the public for not having hard hats, but once we closed the gates the job sort of did itself. We weren't complaining.[/FONT]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS]I think a large part of the problem is the low priority English-speaking countries place on learning foreign languages. At my school, French was compulsory until GCSE (16 years old), and Latin until year 9 (14 years old). I carried Latin on to GCSE level, and you simply [b]cannot[/b] pass that exam without a solid knowledge of what the conditional tense is, how to conjugate a verb and decline a noun. Translating Latin is like breaking a code; you have to spot the little clues that tell you [i]this[/i] word is the [b]subject,[/b] this the object. Being taught how to identify different tenses / declensions / what have you in another language makes you more aware of the same features in your own. Plus, having a solid grounding in those principles is helping me to a huge extent with my latest little project, learning Japanese. So yeah. British and American schools should teach more foreign languages, for longer. You can't learn a new languages without being able to speak your own first, right?[/FONT]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS]I'm truly sorry to say it, but I think this thread has run its course. Over the last few pages the quality replies have been outweighed by the terrible ones, despite valiant efforts by a few members to keep the game from descending into spam, and despite numerous in-thread and PM warnings. It had a good run, but the magic's worn off. [b]Thread locked, unfortunately.[/b][/FONT]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS]You spelt separate right ... and I haven't noticed any different spellings ... but that's not what this thread's about. Thankfully! The two locations sound like a good plan, although those of us appearing in Neo Chicago might need a different 'waking-up' message - perhaps some revelations could be hinted at through the contradictions between the Paris 2 and Neo Chicago messages? I'm seeing Neo Chicago as something along the lines of City 17 from Half-Life 2 - war-torn and cratered, but with the areas controlled by Second Faction in better repair. Armed soldiers patrolling around the place. Sound about right? The only problem I see is co-ordinating link-ups between the threads. To have phone conversations like you've suggested, James, could lead to some stilted or contrived action, in order to manoeuvre both characters to a phone at the same time. I'm sure it's a surmountable problem, though.[/FONT]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS][quote name='Ezekiel][font=verdana][size=1]I bought a Saiyuki RELOAD boxset a couple of years ago which was...eye-stabbingly bad. //snip// The fact that it was poorly animated and subbed has now put me off it entirely, but that is besides the point.[/size'][/font][/quote]On the sub/dub front, the same goes for the first [i]Saiyuki[/i] series. Yet another victim of speaking-too-slowly disease. Having said I was going to dissect some English dubs, I've now realised it's an area in which to tread carefully, as the dub isn't always the fault of the distributor. I know ADV have their own subbing team - Spike Spencer and Tiffany Grant in particular pop up in almost every ADV-released series. But MVM have released [i]FMA[/i] and [i]Trigun[/i] here in the UK with the same subs FUNi and Geneon gave them in the US, so I assume they don't have their own pet voice actors. I will point out something odd I noticed on the [i]FMA[/i] subtitles. They seem to be designed as English hard-of-hearing subtitles, not translations for those watching the Japanese audio. They follow the English dub word-for-word (where in most cases the sub will be truer to the literal Japanese translation) and are timed to the English audio, so if you try to watch Japanese audio with English subs the timing goes all wonky. It's weird, because I haven't had this problem with [i]Samurai 7;[/i] in fact the subs for that are excellent, even leaving in the Japanese honorifics all us die-hards feel are so important. Right, Manga Entertainment, then. I find myself wishing they released more series; they only ever seem to distribute feature films. Looking over my shelf I can see my [i]Ghost in the Shell[/i] collector's edition, the [i]Akira[/i] double-disc box set and the three disc gatefold edition of the [i]Evangelion[/i] movies, all by Manga, all in pretty collector's cases. Oh, and [i]New Dominion Tank Police,[/i] so they do release series occasionally. Unlike ADV and MVM, Manga releases get included in HMV's '3 DVDs for £20' deal, which happens for about one week in every two months, so it's easy to pick them up for a reasonable price (at least in the UK); they also tend to feature in PLAY.com sales where other distributors don't. No idea why. Being feature films, the extras are usually better than on series DVDs; you can generally expect fact-file type things (almost a whole disc of them in the [i]Eva[/i] box set), English cast/crew commentary tracks and often making-of documentaries or production reels. The scene-selection menu on [i]Akira[/i] is a bit iffy and hard to navigate. That's me scratching around for something to criticise. I think perhaps distributing fewer products allows Manga Ent to give the films and series they [b]do[/b] handle the attention they deserve, and therefore to give consumers the value for money [b]we[/b] deserve.[/FONT]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS][quote name='Maryohki][FONT=Verdana']Uh, please excuse my idiocy, but what is MVM? And I thought FUNimation had FMA?[/FONT][/quote]MVM Films are another anime DVD distribution company like ADV and FUNi. You can find their (unutterably fugly) website [url=http://www.mvm-films.com][u]here[/u][/url]. They definitely handle [i]Fullmetal Alchemist[/i] here in the UK (it's in the catalogue on their unutterably fugly website), though obviously I can't speak for the US. I'm pretty sure FUNi's logo is on the DVD cases somewhere as well, so I suspect either MVM is a subsidiary, or they bought the British distribution rights off FUNi. I'm pretty sure the dub/sub/extras/etc are the same as the US release.[quote name='SunfallE][FONT=Verdana][COLOR=RoyalBlue]The best I?ve gotten from them so far was Fruits Basket.[/COLOR'][/FONT][/quote]I remember seeing some [i]Fruits Basket[/i] at an anime all-nighter and not being at all impressed by the English dub. It just didn't have as much [b]pep[/b] as the original Japanese audio. The mark of a terrible dub (in my opinion) is when the characters end up speaking slightly ... slower ... than is normal, because the Japanese lines take longer to say than their translation. But they sound like excellent value for money, at six eps per disc. I don't think I've ever seen more than five on a UK release. Of course I missed Manga Entertainment out of my Distribution Holy Trinity, as well. More on them in the morning, when my brain resumes normal service.[/FONT]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS]When I'm writing novels or short fiction, most of the time I will literally use the first appropriately-gendered name that pops into my head. Or, occasionally, I'll be constructing a character in my head and feel like s/he really needs a 'fitting' name, in which case I walk around with said character in my head for a day or so, running through names mentally until s/he goes "that's me!". Sounds weird ... but [b]I'm[/b] weird. [b]Sur[/b]names, now those are the real rotters. When it comes to last names, I always decide on the rhythm before the actual name: the pattern of stress-unstress I want it to have when added to the first name I've already thought of. Once you know the 'beat' the surname has to conform to, it narrows down your choices. I haven't read your story idea, so just be aware these methods work best ... well, firstly, they work best for [b]me,[/b] and might not work for you at all. But also be aware I write in contemporary or near-future settings and use these methods to generate 'normal' names. If you're after something more fantastical listen to Ikillion, not me. One thing I would absolutely advise you against is using an online name generator, no offence to Chi. I've done it before and the character somehow stops feeling like they're [b]yours,[/b] knowhadimean? Character names should come from the author, not from some hastily-thrown-together Javascript app. .:EDIT:. Ikillion, if you got the name 'Asmodeus' from typing out random letters I'd get down to the nearest exorcist right away ... he's a [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asmodeus][u]genuine canon demon[/u][/url] ... wooOOOoo spooky![/FONT]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS][b]What are your views on the different English-language anime distributors out there?[/b] The [b]Big Three[/b] that I'm aware of are ADV, MVM and FUNimation. By no means definitive; there are smaller companies, and often smaller outfits retain their morals better. Any come to mind? I've never bought a FUNi-licensed DVD. So I can't comment on them. But I can do a quick compare-and-contrast of ADV and MVM. In my opinion, ADV have declined in quality since I began buying anime. My [i]Martian Successor Nadesico[/i] DVDs are nice, my [i]Full Metal Panic![/i] collection less so. Back in the day when I was collecting [i]Nadesico,[/i] six DVDs would net you the anime-standard 26-episode series. The first four discs of [i]Nadesico[/i] each contain four episodes, the last two have a juicy five each. For some series, they put five on the first two discs, instead of the last, to draw you in. Not a very long time later, when [i]Full Metal Panic![/i] became my next target (does it show I'm a mecha fan...?) I discovered, horrified, four discs in, that this series would be released on [i]seven[/i] discs: five four-ep offerings, two [i]three[/i]-ep. Consider that most feature films retail at around the £15 mark, and are usually 90 to 120 minutes long. Disregard the opening and closing sequences and three anime episodes come to about sixty minutes. Anime DVDs retail at £20 a pop. Three eps a disc means you pay a [b]large[/b] premium. ADV extras are pretty standard. Textless opening and closing animations, three or four trailers and (if you're lucky) character profiles. My [i]Nadesico[/i] DVDs have these profiles; my [i]FMP![/i] discs do not. More evidence of a quality decline? My experience of MVM comes from [i]Fullmetal Alchemist,[/i] which I've avoided buying on principle (for reasons I'll detail in a sec) and [i]Samurai 7,[/i] the first disc of which I bought and watched this week. [i]Fullmetal Alchemist[/i] is a double-length (52-ep) series. Consider [i]GetBackers,[/i] an abnormal 48-ep series. ADV released [i]GetBackers[/i] on ten discs of four or five episodes each. Reasonable, yes! MVM are releasing the four-episode longer [i]FMA[/i] on no less than [i]fifteen[/i] discs. The series is fifty-two episodes and still they insist on releasing discs containing only three episodes. Nicht so gut, in my opinion, and this is why I'm holding off buying this, my favourite series possibly of all time, until a better-value box set option becomes available. But having railed like this, I've been very satisfied with [i]Samurai 7[/i]. The disc doesn't have any more than the usual knobs and whistles (textless OP/ED, trailers, character profiles) but the dub and sub are both top-notch, more than I can say for a fair few of ADV's offerings. I could go into a more detailed comparison of the two companies' subs and dubs, but this post is long enough already; if some discussion gets going I'll post that stuff later on. If we can get a definitive 'pros and cons' of all the current distributors out there, I may even write it up into a theOtaku article. Could be useful for first-time buyers, no?[/FONT]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS][quote name='dumbdorkbob][FONT=Verdana]Plus, even though [Sharingan'] can see jutsus, the user still needs to stop the justu somehow.[/FONT][/quote]Same applies to Byakugan, though. All it gives you is sight - how well you act on what it allows you to see depends on your fighting skills. Besides the aforementioned miniscule blind spot, Byakugan has [b]*no*[/b] weaknesses. There's been no evidence of negative side-effects that I've noticed (although I'm purely a manga reader, so there may be extra material in the anime I don't know about). Sharingan, on the other hand, can render the user useless for as much as week afterwards, if lots of high-speed copying was used. Not to mention Itachi's Mangekyou Sharingan, which (it has been hinted) can cause some sort of permanent eye damage if used repeatedly. Add this to the issues already raised in the thread, like the Byakugan's greater versatility and Chakravision, and Byakugan wins. I think the only category where it loses out to Sharingan is prettiness :p [/FONT]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS][color=DarkGreen][b]Name:[/b] Curiosity [b]Age:[/b] As old as mankind ... what's that? How long has he actually [i]existed?[/i] About three years. How old does he [i]look?[/i] Well, ask that, then! He looks about twelve or thirteen. That's the age little boys start to get, not innocent-childhood-eating-turds-to-see-what-they-taste-like curious, but [i]parent-embarrassingly[/i] curious. About [i]those[/i] things. [b]Profession:[/b] Anthropomorphic Personification. Feline Disposal Expert, somewhat absent-mindedly. [b]Backstory:[/b] Curiosity's existence is the result of a combination of things, namely the intense magical field generated by the goings-on in Unseen University, a slow-pudding day in the UU kitchens leading to a faculty even more irritable than usual, and the overuse of metaphor in some stern tellings-off administered to the students in the High Energy Magic Building. Given the powerful disdain wizards feel towards finding out new things, the general consensus was surprise that he hadn't popped into existence earlier. The wizards all call him Curi or Rio, because wizards are lazy like that. He's taken to following the Arch-chancellor around, because the Arch-chancellor goes interesting places. The Arch-chancellor doesn't mind in the least, because when Curi enters a room its occupants tend to hurriedly cease all finding-out of things, just in case he's learned to understand The Metaphor yet. If he comes within six floors of the Library, he's liable to find banana skins being thrown at him by a very defensive orang'utan. Because he doesn't know any better, Curi is on the side of [b]Unseen University.[/b] [b]Personality:[/b] Curi is humanity's Curiosity personified, but - and this is a very important distinction - this is Curiosity [i]from the wizards' point of view.[/i] He's highly inquisitive, but always feels guilty about it afterwards. Poor Curi isn't very bright, and is very confused about his purpose in existing. He knows on a deep, primal level that he's supposed to kill cats whenever people seek new knowledge, but he isn't sure why. The students in the HEM building have taken to keeping a store stocked with unfortunate felines for the inevitable occasion when he wanders in and catches them searching L-space or whatnot. The faculty have recently been trying to explain that the cat in The Metaphor is representative of someone called the Painter. Curi isn't good at metaphors (luckily for UU's student body) but has resolved to kill the Painter's cat no matter what. [b]Stuff:[/b] Curi carries a knapsack in which he collects int'resting things. It's stuffed with funny-shaped stones, shiny pennies, pretty feathers, a notebook and pencil for noting down int'resting turns of phrase or drawing int'resting scenes, and sacks to put cats in. [b]Talents:[/b] Curi has an excellent memory for int'resting things, and is possibly the only being in history to have successfully drowned a cat in the river Ankh. [b]Gender:[/b] Appears male, but of course he is fundamentally composed of sexless thaumatic particles held together with belief.[/color][/FONT]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS][quote name='Corey][FONT=Verdana][SIZE=1]Slower speeds in car accidents is not a determination of how badly people are hurt.[/SIZE'][/FONT][/quote]It's not purely a case of 'lower speeds = less serious injuries', although that is the angle the British government are pushing. We keep getting adverts about how hitting a child at forty miles an hour is X percent more likely to kill her than at thirty. It's also about stopping distances. Speed limits are put in place for a reason; on a bendy country road with lots of blind corners, you have less time to react and therefore you should be driving more slowly, to minimise your stopping distance when you [b]do[/b] round the hairpin and find a deer in the middle of the road. On the motorway you can see trouble coming from a lot further off, so it's not as much of a problem that your stopping distance is a hundred metres instead of twenty.[/FONT]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS]It's actually a fairly large pet peeve of mine - people that complain about speed cameras, that is. I keep on hearing the same old arguments: "the government's just using them to line their pockets," "they're all placed uber-sneakily to try and catch you out". The government here in the UK has had to bow to voter pressure and make all their speed cameras fluorescent orange and reflective, and place them in easily visible locations. Basically, people can complain as much as they like. The fact is, in my eyes, that [b]they shouldn't have been speeding.[/b] Hiding behind ostensibly righteous indignation at their ill-treatment by the government doesn't change the fact that speeders are breaking the law and need to be curbed [b]somehow.[/b][/FONT]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS]I've noticed that on some other vBulletin forums, when you post there's a "Check Spelling" button alongside "Submit Post" and "Preview Post". Considering OB's emphasis on good spelling, amongst other post quality issues, this would probably be a useful feature - it would certainly be easier than writing out the post in Word, checking, then copy & pasting. So, to anyone who actually understands vB: is this a feature OB is capable of implementing, or is it something only available with newer versions of vB? Because if it were a default option, I'd assume we'd have turned it on before now. [[URL=http://www.bleachforums.com][u]Bleach Forums[/u][/URL] is the site where I've seen this feature, if that helps.][/FONT]

[font=trebuchet ms]As Tical said, animetruth, your post quality could do with cleaning up. Your advice is pretty useless if no one can understand what you're saying. Use Caps where appropriate, separate your sentences in sensible places and lay off the "ya da somtin dis".[/font]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS]If we're talking car-related pranks, cracking an egg into the windscreen-wash bottle is a good one, provided you can get the car bonnet open to reach it. Some guys did this to our headmaster on the last day of school. It's delayed action, because unless you're caught in the act they won't notice until they try to wash their windscreen, at which point instead of soapy water the car will squirt out sticky gloop, which causes the wipers to get stuck. The worst I've done [b]personally[/b] is swap around the bags in all our boxes of cereal, so someone tips up the cornflake box and gets muesli instead.[/FONT]

[font=trebuchet ms][color=red]Right, this is this thread's [b]absolute last warning[/b]. SunfallE posted a general warning only [b]yesterday[/b] saying that (as Lost Lightbulb puts it) "one-sentence deus ex machina" answers will result in thread closure. Look up. Scroll up just a little bit. Look at Lost Lightbulb's reply. Look at pretty much every one of Gavin's replies. They are holding this thread together right now. The rest of you, make more of an effort or this thread will be closed, closed, closed.[/color] [/scary Mod voice] The grapevine's gone eerily quiet on the subject of tanukioh. No one's spreading rumours about him any more. Good for him, you might think, except those rumours were mostly about his scary martial arts powers! Now no one's whispering about how "tanukioh can knock you out with his pinky finger" or "I heard tanukioh totally beat up Chuck Norris this one time", and so all the haters that steered clear out of fear start to regain their courage. tanukioh gets mugged a lot over the next few days. [i]I wish I had a cinema season ticket.[/i][/font]