Codicier

Seems that Space Dandy is a Watanabe production so I'll probably give it a chance based on that alone. Would it be at all accurate to say Space Dandy kinda seems like if Muugan from Samurai Champloo was given his own show? SC certainly wasn't actually that far from that description at a few points, but I guess there was always a strong narrative pulling everything on & 3 very different characters to stop it getting boring.

I love the way each major character had their own theme within the show, it's such a great detail and such a old fashioned thing to do. In some ways that attention to detail is both what I love and hate about the show, because as much as I want to excuse some of its cringe worthy moments as mistakes or whatever, the amount of thought that goes into everything else makes me think they have to be purposeful. (For instance: I recently discovered that the eyepatch of one character is a very distorted Kanji which relates to her name.) Honestly though Anime character design confuses the feck out of me at times. I mean look at Ryuko's & Ragyo Kiryuin's eyes in Kill La Kill, both utterly different from every other character. My hunch is one of those is a design choice that means nothing, and the other is a key plot hint, but there's really no way to tell which is which. It's almost as if they don't want us to be able to see the Forrest for the trees. In the end though given the utterly desolate state of this seasons offerings (I'm not sure there's a single new show that has caught my eye) there's not really gonna be much else to talk about until Mushishi S2 hits or The Wind Rises gets out on DVD

Wow that's some serious application of the nerf stick. But all in all, much (if not all) of it deserved. Pretty much every top tier deck took a hit apart from Legandary Druids, and Control shamans (who arguably are boosted by the damage done to some of the high tempo decks). It's good to see blizzard happy to shake up the meta so significantly, though I still retain my misgivings about the lack of traditional control elements and the sheer power level of legandaries. It feels like we are bit by bit heading to a time where everyone build's 'good stuff' decks just picking cards on raw power rather than a overall synergy or strategy.

You can build a legitimately powerful murlock for very little dust indeed. Check reddit or hearthpwn for variations on decklists Overall for a card game still in its first set I think HS is doing pretty well, however I do think they need to have a think about just how powerful card draw has become in this meta game. And perhaps throw some nerfs at the one turn combo decks. Unlike Mtg for instance there is very little hand disruption or counterspell type cards to hold them back which means it feels like the problem is just going to get worse.

There haven't been many shows where I have hit a scene mid episode and been so downright disgusted that I switched off there and then never to return, but HSotD is one. I think I can honestly say it inspires a legitimate hate in me. I honestly feel this is giving it waaaay to much credit. Even disregarding the character designs the way the female characters behave towards the male ones makes it pretty much irredeemable. It's not a show like Kill La Kill which has Cheescake but mocks it's male characters reaction to it, it was (at least up to the point I left it) one that nigh on worshiped them.

The NHS is one of few things that will genuinely inspire national pride in many Brits of my generation. However the argument we are starting to see in the UK a lot is that some people put significantly more strain on the health service by their life choices (be it smoking, obesity, drinking or whatever) than most, so because it cost a disproportionate amount of money to treat them we should consider limiting access to certain things if someone doesn't live a 'correct' lifestyle (as we already do to a limited extent with certain things like surgery). So while in general I'm in favour of letting people live their lives as they see fit I can see the arguments of those who say that if those choices harm others by straining the limited resources we have, then perhaps we should do something to discourage them.

Today is my birthday, I could go off about how I'm another year older (although not much wiser), but instead I want to say a quick thanks. Having somewhere on the internet where I can have a reasonably intelligent adult conversation about games and life in general, while not having to put up with people pedantically correcting every little grammar or spelling mistake I make is a pretty damn nice thing to have as a dyslexic. So thank you fellow readers and the thumbs crew, a big birthday baboo/thank you from me to you.

It feels a bit as if this is a case of a logical idea based on the idea of creating a better society vs the pure gut instinct that most people (including myself) have about people having to earn their way. As twig puts it: if a basic income creates a better society for everyone, does it matter if some people don't actively positively contribute to it? I wonder though if a basic income wouldn't create inflationary pressure, but then again I'm sure smarter minds than me have thought long and hard about this sort of thing, so in the end it would be great to at least give it a limited trial and for once see if evidence supports dogma one way or another.

I think saying that it's a far from eye catching lineup is a pretty fair assessment. That said The Eccentric Family probably ended up being my favourite show of 2014 and it didn't seem particularly compelling in previews etc.

Just finished up Kyosougiga and it's a extremely easy to like series, I never felt it wasted my time, and although the characters weren't especially original they were all likeable enough. It's like someone drew a Venn diagram of Kill La Kill & The Eccentric Family, managing to grab a lot of the good things but not quite ever hitting the high moments of either. I'd still say it's definitely worth watching once but I don't think I'll ever feel the need to re-watch any episode.

Watched Charlie Brooker's 2013 Wipe last night, and was surprised to find myself bored for large parts of it. I wonder if there's been to many big easy targets this year for a satirical news show like this to really tell any jokes I haven't already heard a thousand times.

Wait there's a Mushishi OVA coming!?! That news has pretty much ensured a very happy new year for me. Its a long time since I read it but if I remember correctly the manga didn't add much that wasn't in the series and had a similar meandering pace(still worth reading though). Shin Sekai Yori was a pretty decent series overall, thinking back in hindsight after having seen all 25 episodes it kinda needs to work they way it does, kinda reminds me of a good old fashioned 60's-70's American hard sci fi novel in someways despite it's very Japanese fixation with psychic powers etc. Guess all the praise being lavished on Kyousougiga means I'm gonna have to make some time and give it a watch.

I actually think the timing and presentation of the cornetto in this film is actually a good clue to what they are aiming for. As a audience we don't get to have our cake/cornetto and eat it. Sure we get the whole "triumph of human spirit" vs "superior (alien) intellect" ending, but unlike normally in a alien invasion sci-fi things don't work out perfectly after. The Worlds End's finale is basically saying that just focusing on that one aspect of humanity as our defining characteristic is pretty stupid.

Sometimes I feel the conversations between Mako & Ira Gamagoori are basically a meta commentary on the whole series

So just watched Episode 12 of Kill La Kill, overall it's been my favourite series of this particular season. Yes it is undoubtedly far far from perfect, however it's managed to do a lot with what could have easily just ended up as trope characters. It has a huge amount of visual noise, every episode is full of sound and fury which in the end seems to signify precisely bugger all. It's almost as if a visual choice is made and then never given a second thought. Which all in all gave us something profoundly unrefined but perhaps better for it. I've also been watching http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_the_Boundary Which is perhaps the most polished but in the end underwhelming anime I've seen for a long time. I can only assume there must have been a fairly huge budget thrown as the animation is as smooth as in a many big budget film, and even more impressively it's all traditionally done.

There's also a few good deals on iOS currently, Anomaly 2, Ghost Trick, Were 69p each as are Bastion and Frozen. Synapse. Also got The Room, and Angry Birds Star Wars 2 for free . There are a few board game adaptations cheap now too both Agricola and Small world are £2.99 which is about as low as they have gone & a lot cheaper than the cardboard version

In the UK whether or not a library has a good collection of graphic novels is almost entirely dependent on whether it has a member of staff who is prepared to advocates for them. I know from my time working in libraries that their issue rate once they're on the shelves (and have enough presence to catch the eye) is pretty good, and libraries like things which have a good issue rate because a lot of what their funding depends on is the amount of customers they can prove they serve.But because sadly there still exists a few specimens of certain kind of librarian who looks down on them with what borders on distain, you do need that one person to advocates of them strongly to get them on the shelves in the first place.

I have recently visited my local library and having not headed in for a while, they had nicely refreshed the graphic novel section, So picked up and quickly devoured a couple of the new books http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterios_Polyp & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandville_(comics) Quite enjoyed Grandville but I'm not sure it quite meets some of the hyped reviews I've seen of it but a good well paced page turner is never anything to feel to badly about having read. Some of the hype for Asterios Polyp I think may however be justified, and I think I'll join the line of people who think it should be considered part of the modern comics canon. Must admit though this is probably due to having some quite strong personal empathy towards the protagonist. Perhaps the only thing I'm not sure I liked was at the very end where it just seemed even though the story had been tied up, the author wanted to throw one more thing in as almost a personality test for his readers (do you think this final twist is silly? Yes: then your like the protagonist)

Nice sketch Tegan. Seems like there's some nice varation in those lines, is that just a lot of brush setting tweaking or does Manga Studio work well with pressure sensitivity hardware? Also can it handle natural media effects like water colours etc?

I went to see gravity today and i was just utterly awe struck at times. It's just one of those perfect films where the director neatly accomplishes everything he aims to. Also feeling kinda sad. It made such good use of every inch of the cinema's screen and even the 3D was very effective, and I'll likely never get to see it in that format again.

I'm surprised to hear that it is so underrepresented in Anime. There's been a lot of talk recently over how japan is expected to be a big growth markets for soccer, and how the main demographic is people under the age of 30, exactly the sort of demographic I would have thought watched a lot of shows. I'm kind of under the impression that they are going to introduce a previously teased big bad next episode. So if they give it/her any amount of screen time that's going to make it quite difficult to fit a full fight between Satsuku & Ryuuko into the time they have left.

Sadly the DVD version seemed pretty basic apart from the commentary (I borrowed it from the library), however I do think Del Torro covered some of the same ground in a podcast which someone recommended in one of the other threads. So while it may not be the same as having him talk along as the film plays it's still a good follow up to a viewing. http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/tt/tt130802guillermo_del_toro_p

If the digital version comes with the directors commentary I 100% recommend a second sitting just to hear Del Torro talk about the film itself and more generally (and with what seems like genuine affection) the movies that inspired it.

The animation there is quite slick, personally not too fond of that sort of highly muscled stylisation but I guess with sports anime that's gonna be par for the course. Will check out a regular episode and see how stuff actually is 'in episode' the budgets expended on the openings often hide the amount of huge shortcuts a series will take in production.Kinda surprised that Gargantia gets a re-commissioned, seemed like a supremely average series first time round. I mean it had solid enough art design in places, and quite a nice central conceit, but there never were any characters that really felt they stood out as likeable or interesting. Also have Tried out a episode of The Knight in The Arena and wasn't that impressed with what was on show, too many freeze frames with speed lines, and footballs getting distorted out off shape and other shortcuts Guess I'm a fussy 30 year old watching stuff meant for unpicky teenagers though so probably not going to be that impressed. Considering just going straight to the season finale episodes where they have probably blown 3/4 of the budget. It does feel though that if done right you could take those visual tropes and do something interesting with them, but going highly stylised doesn't seem like a route that would be that commercially viable for the genre. Guess Kill La Kill is weirdly gonna be the closest thing to that I'm likely to see (fighting is kinda a sport right!?). Speaking of which I'm still enjoying it, mainly due to Ryuko, Mako (and even Satsuki) being such overwhelmingly likeable characters, and having a decent interplay with the supporting cast. That all said though it still hasn't done anything to justify/excuse the inclusion of its worst cheesecake moments.

It's sad but I don't think that streets decorations like that awesome dinosaur would last any time in the UK someone would probably just kicked them down or something. I grew up with plastic trees being the norm. Think it wasn't until a few years ago my parents ditched their old faithful fake tree and started buying 'real' ones.