K-On! : amps not required

Slowpoke, etc.

Still, isn’t something… missing?

Nico Nico All-Stars

(Or Meteor Storm, however it’s Anglicised. The page was “niconicostars”, so bah.)

(Linked.)

As noted by Sankaku Complex (watch this there if you don’t have a Nico account for some reason) – this is your Nico Nico Douga crash course. And just ridiculously, awe/facepalm-inspiringly, awesomely, entertaining.

PS: HQ here.

McRoll the sequel

I don’t usually catch meme mutation much (late or otherwise)… but you have got to be fucking kidding me.

(Though I think this can be easily taken as Flandre’s canonical personality. And what was Wriggle doing in there?)

EDIT: And just to prove nothing is sacred (or too late to post), Mystia’s version.

This just makes me hate Mystia’s Spell Cards even more. But not as much as I hate myself for not being able to resist posting these damn things. Aaaargh.

U.N. Owen insanity

Late as usual, etc.

In this case, nooooooooo difference whatsoever.

The man’s right – no words can describe this. Though to be honest, my primary motivation for playing Touhou is the music.

PS: And as a pointless note, this was linked to from Flandre’s article.

PPS: By the way, a mix that does the song justice (without feeling too different) (Brain fart, it already is the version used in the above. Still, COOL&CREATE goodness):

Now I must leave before I fanboy any further.

PPPS: (Sudden Flandre affinity!)

Speaking of which, I have never cleared Flandre’s stage, ever – Sakuya already makes my fingers twitch…

PPPPS: What’s with all the Touhou all of a sudden? Shrug.

Haven’t gotten around to playing it yet, but… um, Subterranean Animism looks hard.

Gundam 00 : it’s shit, right?

Normally, I would be berating the show yet again, but really, it’s long past the time for caring, and perfect time to sit back and enjoy what will be similar to eighteen miniguns strapped together and remotely fired by strings – a clunky metaphor for, “great light show but oh God what’s with the execution.”

Like most people – I hope – I watch anime for satisfaction, which is a complex business that nonetheless can be dealt with fairly easily using some predictable elements. You can have relationship drama and occasional comedy like Toradora!, get moving and philosophical and psychedelic like Kara no Kyoukai, or start multi-classing (and preferably not crash and burn) like Seto no Hanayome, which tends to devolve into a widget series at times but maintains the utter awesomeness.

Gundam 00 gives no satisfaction from these positive aspects. It does give satisfaction, but in a guilty-pleasure sort of way. It’s once again the befuddling problem with Code Geass. It had a decent setting, it did take decent first steps, it could have been a decent show – but it’s not. Let’s just get to the point and call it a train wreck.

It started out as, oh, something about energy disputes, complex political situation, cold war, et cetera. Now it’s back to white-vs-black-vs-grey, good-vs-evil, love-conquers-all – which wouldn’t actually be bad, if there was an actual transition between that and the premise. Right now it’s just Sunrise running off a cliff with a parachute then crashing into a plane midway. Or something.

But what the hell, I know very well that I’ll still watch whatever creative ejaculate Sunrise pumps out next. Damn this “hope” thing.

PS: Why is the ending theme light years better than the opening? It can’t be just to placate all the annoyed viewers.

PPS: Stupid metaphors, I know. Don’t ask me why.

How Double-0 will end

Whew, that was one busy New Year.

***

Lockon – jailbait pursuit, or exceedingly clever investment?

That’s right, it’s fanwanking time again!

(If any of this has already been mentioned or contradicted in some magazine or somesuch… meh.)

1) Smirnov(s) die

(Or somehow disabled for the rest of the series which will fail to mention their condition except from brief asides to remind the viewer that they aren’t dead, just useless.)

That’s obvious. Considering the recent episode in which Senior got screentime for no particular reason, even Junior got more than his usual single-scene appearance via a flashback. But the clincher is probably that, when I look back on it, the second opening never shows him directly, only his back. Really now.

I expect Junior to die in some inglorious way and confess to Louise with his dying breath which will naturally melt down all of Louise’s previous grievances, leading to that strange vacation with Saji in Italy or somewhere.

2) The final boss(es((es)))

Three-way tie between Graham, Ali, and Ribbons. Innovators are supposed to be the be-all-end-all at the moment, but Graham is the biggest contender for the Really Last Boss. Ali is a wildcard as he never had much point beyond the first half of season 1, yet he continues to exist for… some reason. Lockon’s revenge, most likely. Tieria really has his hands full, but then again, that’s why Seravee’s got eight of ‘em, right?

3) Transfiguration of Setsuna

Setsuna becomes the next (or it is predecessor?) Jesus Yamato, crying freedom and justice on the battlefield while wielding the biggest whacking sticks around. I won’t put it past Sunrise for another last upgrade to 00-Raiser (beyond the dual-core engine that deflects laser beams and gives incredible speed, the Trans-Am mode, and the Death Glider I mean).

But Setsuna will still have trouble with Graham, because Graham makes up for the difference in specs with raw skills that came with his newfound Japanese-ness. “Mr Bushido” will probably die in the last epic battle by splattering blood all over the monitor from a combination of battle wounds, excessive G’s, and his strange internal disease that causes blood to leak from his mouth yet doesn’t inhibit motor skills or mental abilities in the least. In the end, Setsuna will hover over the battlefield, take the same pose as 0-Gundam in the prologue, and bouts of, “A PEACEFUL GODGUNDAM IS I” will ensue.

Louise would be the second-last boss, considering her, em, “Seeding out” (that Innovator glowing-eye thing). Ali will be a sub-boss for Tieria, not to mention the Innovators, a few of whom will probably split off to give some semblance of a raison d’etre to Allelujah and Marie beyond “happily married couple on a frickin’ space warship”.

4) The “major” characters that, in the end, don’t actually matter

- (H)Allelujah: Um… “Four is Death”? At least Soma/Marie was a legitimate threat (cough) in season 1.

- Lockon 2.0: Side romance aside (heh heh), considering that ol’ Patches Lockon is now talking in people’s heads, was there ever a reason for him? Well, except the sharpshooting, I suppose. Couldn’t you just mount a big honking gun in Ptolemaios (or however you spell it) and use the Haro’s for target acquisition? Then Saji could just be the manual adjustment – think Starship Operators. At least, that’s how I think StarOps works.

- Saji: Like the above, the only reason for his continuing existence is his opposite.

- Marina: Did Sunrise really invest in her for the past 30 episodes just to make her sing a song? (Well… yes, evidently.) Plot Device Bint if ever I saw one.

- Smirnov(s): Surprisingly high amount of screentime for people who are almost guaranteed an explosive death. As for Senior’s “emotional support to Soma/Marie” excuse, that post could have been taken up by “already useless halfway through season 1″ Allelujah.

- And the usual/rest: bridge bunnies* and the crew in general, Arr0wz guys without glowing eyes or custom suits, the generic resistance groups, the even more generic Earth military…

* Though if there’s one thing great about OP2, it’s the female nudity starting at the 0:00 mark… haplessly balanced by the male nudity.

5) Minor characters who should bloodily rip the “major character” post from the above

- Nena: While Louise is admirably filling up the “murderous psychobitch” position, Nena would definitely be more interesting if only because she’s all grown up.

- Er…