tenkiforecast

I watched it on recommendation from one of my high school friends. The Dude: Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man. ^^This is one of the greatest things ever. I enjoyed it. I thought the show was well-written, it had very good animation, and spoke to the inner music nerd in me (SONDHEIM COVERS. SONDHEIM. EEEEEEEEEEE~~~). Do I obsess over it? No, not really. I'd recommend people to watch it, as it is a genuinely good show, but it's not something like Batman: The Animated Series or Avatar: TLA. It's still an episodic comedy series that happens to be well-written and treats its audience with intelligence. That, and the tribbles episode was great.

Like most people, I first learned about the series by playing SSBM and unlocking Marth and Roy. I did not think anything else of it, I knew there were games/series that were not brought to the US shores. What actually got me into FE was my cousin playing FE7 and talking about how difficult the game was. The two of us barely being teenagers, difficult meant Lyn Normal mode. ... Still kind of humiliated when I say that. Anyway, because I was a bandwagon person in regards to my relatives at the time, I decided to get it. I fell in love with the game and its actual degree of difficulty compared to some of the others I'd played recently. It expanded from there.

All I know is that it releases tons of endorphins into the brain. That's about it.

Here is the weird thing with Penguindrum. It is directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara, who previously directed the S season of the Sailor Moon anime, and his most famous work, Revolutionary Girl Utena. Along with the Utena movie. The impression I get is that Ikuhara does wonderfully when he is on a limited budget and has someone vetting what he can and cannot put into his series, not in terms of "too offensive", but in terms of "keep it SANE." Sailor Moon S had tons of limitations, but majority agrees that it is the best season of the anime (not saying much). The Utena anime also had a lot of restrictions due to a low budget. You can tell that Utena was made with a limited budget. Every shot has a purpose, every scene has a point (except for the filler episodes...) and the series is stronger for it. The Utena movie? Ikuhara had almost no restrictions whatsoever. What we got is a pretty simple story with OH MY GOD WHAT ARE THESE VISUALS WHY ARE PEOPLE TURNING INTO CARS. I get the feeling that Penguindrum did not have the same sort of 'vetting' that Utena did, but moreso than the Utena movie. It can get pretty incoherent. The arc with Ringo in particular is messy, because that is the first half of the series, then Ringo is kind of dropped off the face of the Earth to focus on Kanba. Space it out, don't make one a giant chunk and then forget about it until the finale. It gets to be a mess, it really does. Still, notable because it is a mess because it is not planned out perfectly. I think it is still worth watching and better than most anime series coming out right now, you just need to have an open mind when watching it. Or get smashed and enjoy the insane visuals. ROCK OVER JAPAN. *brain explodes from the sheer wtf*

Stay safe, that's all I can say. The middle east, truthfully, has been in a state of chaos since the 1800s. Downfall of Muslim empires, Western European involvement, all of that. What made *everything* worse, was World War I, and the Middle East was no exception. You see all those countries carved out in the Middle East? That's thanks to WWI and the Allied countries. They concerned themselves with THEIR territory, their own interests, and their wants. They made multitudes of deals with the Muslim powers in the area, and betrayed every one of those deals because, in essence, "They are not Christian, so they are not human." Woodrow Wilson tried to stop this, but he gave up a lot of his views to pin his hopes on the League of Nations, which collapsed because he had no consensus in the USA. So until 1949, the US was seen as a savior in the Middle East because we protested the occupation and divvying up up Muslim Lands. Then WWII happened, because of the Holocaust the Western world felt obligated to do something to "make up for" our ambivalence and prejudice towards fleeing European Jews (the USA banned most of them from entering the country, actually, only the famous ones got to the US--Oh hi Einstein), so creating the nation of Israel ceased being an idea proclaimed by a fringe group of the Jewish community (Zionists were around back in the 1920s, truthfully I do not know how widespread the idea really was) and became a reality, with President Truman being the first to recognize Israel as a country. The century of European/American interference in the Middle East and the creation of Israel is why many Muslim countries despise the United States and Europe. It is easy to understand why--would you want some other nation with different values dictating what you can and cannot do? That's one of the reasons why most Muslim countries hate Israel, it is the ultimate symbol of Judea-Christian interference in their lands.

My aversion towards most yaoi/yuri is based on how most writers only know how to create rape-subtext characters or ones with absolutely nothing else notable about them. The whole "this character is homosexual" is the only thing worth mentioning aspect. What are some good examples of homosexual/bisexual characters in media? Dumbledore (duh) Utena, Anthy, Juri Touya Kinomoto (Cardcaptor Sakura, I can't remember the other guy's name though) I actually can't think of any others off the top of my head.

-__-; I have many, many, many observations to challenge that statement. One of these is the fact that Earth's climate is CONSTANTLY changing. Ever hear of the Little Ice Age, Medieval Climate Anomaly, heck, the actual Ice Age and Cretaceous climate were vastly different from the current climate. I'm not even going to talk about the human impacts--Earth's climate changes naturally. It's evident in climatological records and proxy data sources, but also in historical texts.

It is useless to try and halt the winds of change. Civil Rights as a movement is tied with the economic shifts in world history. The US in particular, they picked up in force due to economic prosperity in the US after WWII, and the realization of African American soldiers that our allied countries--England, France--did not treat them as sub-human, and saw them as equal. Civil rights for homosexual people are going to follow a similar path, but this takes time, it takes a long, long time. Deep held beliefs do not change quickly or at all, new generations are what allow shifts to occur.

There is a break between genuine crazy and paranoia (UN Troops have not been effective at *anything* since the Korean War). A lot of FOX Commentators are, I think, genuinely crazy or paranoid. Most of these extreme cases are tied to mass hysteria or paranoia. The idea of a mass secession movement does not worry me. For better or for worse, the country is too economically and culturally tied to allow that to occur. That is not what worries me. The worry is that our country currently resembles pre-empire Rome. The way things are right now, with our politicians acting like 10-year-olds and unwilling to compromise on anything means that nothing will happen. While some on the right see this as a good thing, when our policies expire or severe crises occur, this is a *really* bad thing. See the Debt Ceiling debacle from last year. The Republicans nearly ruined the US economy to try and make Obama look bad. No matter what any pundit says, going into default on anything is a terrible idea. In this environment, the only person who would actually manage to get things accomplished would be a dictator. Like Julius Caesar--that is why he came to power. More were in power before Caesar, Sulla was his mentor, but they rose in the same sort of environment. The fact that our country is setting itself up for a dictator is what scares me, not the idea of another civil war.

I'll try to respond as best I can. I'm not that good in debates, and I do not have a huge knowledge of Fate/Stay-Night, only what I remember when I tried to read it. Needless to say, this is why I was hesitant to state that I do not like Fate/Stay Night, I knew there would be some sort of reaction. It's not a hatred for the series (that's reserved for two mangas I've read), more of a frustration because I do see potential in the story, but I feel like it is wasted. What I mean to say is a matter of context and presentation. A particularly clever moment in the manga "Bakuman" has the protagnoists discussing how events can be made interesting while one is sweeping the floor. When the one sitting down comments that this event could make for an intriguing scene, the one sweeping considers it, and brushes it off. Exposition does not need to be boring. You get pretty much the same information in the beginning of Fate/Zero as Fate/Stay Night, the difference is execution. Fate/Zero's is not perfect (5 minute scene of Kirei Sr. and Tohsaka walking around Kotomine talking), but the overall set-up is much improved over one person detailing the rules. Waver finds out through research, some explanations are offered when the heroic artifacts are brought up among the rest of the cast, and it is not presented in one massive infodump. I got more out of Fate/Zero's presentation than Fate/Stay-Nights. Yeah, I get picky, I am aware... I guess I attribute Slice-of-Life tropes to harem shows because I tend to shy away from slice of life series, most of them put me to sleep, so I am more exposed when they are in a harem or harem-esque series. That, and my undying hatred for Love Hina (one of the two despised series) kind of skews my views... There is a degree of opinion to this. It is not necessarily that the cooking aspects are completely out of place, but it is the same problem that I have when meteorology is brought up--I can't stop talking about it. To me, these scenes seemed to go on and on...it gave me the impression of padding instead of a character trait. I'll use Persona 4 (the game) as an example--one could infer that the protagonist is a good cook based on the pseudo-quest prompts that show up, and how it relates to the rest of the cast is kept brief. I probably wouldn't have a problem with this if it did not feel like padding. I'll probably never be appeased about this. Inserting sex into a story is a huge risk for me. It either turns out really well and fits with the characters (Utena, Berserk, Wolf's Rain to an extent--the divorced couple, and that's in flashback) or it turns me off from the series. Part of the problem is...writing a sex scene is really, really difficult. Of the ones that I actually think fit, Berserk barely skirts the line because the scene with Guts and Casca gets pretty brutal. Not to mention the amount of violent sex in that series is staggering, which makes me need to specify the one scene that has an impact on me that is not horror. Fate/SN is not alone in, what I would call, badly written sex scenes. A good number of the lines (yes, I have read some of them) sounded like they came from a rape sequence or were so hilariously impossible that I couldn't take it seriously. I know there are other series that use sex in the story, but none of them really appeal to me. SImply put, I'm not the target audience. I am aware that elements of it were kept in Fate/Zero. I was really glad they cut them out in the anime adaptation for the reasons I outlined above. Sex scenes tend to derail a series for me, and very few manage to return without compromising the narrative. Parts tended to be overly described when I tried reading F/SN, and the cooking/slice of life stuff bored me to tears. It is not inherently bad, I just felt like there is a larger story going on so, for example, why are we spending so much time watching Rin being tsundere? I don't overtly hate slice of life, heck, I love Azumanga Daioh and Yotsuba&. Probably depends on pacing, both of those series tend to be more rapid-fire comedy or bizarre situations (Chiyo-chichi... my lord) so I don't lose interest. This is actually my complaint with Lucky Star. I can't watch it because it bores me to tears...get to the joke, don't spend two minutes setting up a reference pun. Maybe I don't have a high tolerance for it, I do not really know. Alright, the main characters: Shirou: There is potential with his character, but the aspect that always bugged me was that he always seemed to be correct in any decision. I do like that his views were malleable, one of Kiritsugu's main flaws is that he would not change his views. Heck, that's one of the major "bad endings" for Fate/SN in Heaven's Feel, refusing to change values. The problem is that whenever it occurred, whenever Shiro was confronted, it felt like he always did the right thing. I do not remember how much he struggled with each decision in each route, that is something that would need to be clarified for me. I remember getting the impression that it was a rather quick decision or spurred on by someone else... Heaven's Feel, it was Ilya, I believe. I guess the major issue for me is that Shirou came off as the morally-correct protagonist who will always do the right thing. I tend to not like those characters in stories beyond generic shonens, and Fate/SN always felt like it was trying to be more ambitious in its story than a One Piece/Toriko/DB style series. Rin: I do not find Tsunderes endearing or charming. They tend to be really, really obnoxious when I watch a story with tsunderes. Tiger and Bunny, I did not start liking Karina's character until she stopped being so antagonistic towards Kotetsu. Part of the problem is that tsunderes act that way to appeal to a specific fanbase. Rin gives me that vibe. Yes, it can be explained as being part of a historically important family and arrogant/prideful as a result. The degree is what bugs me, she shows very few traits outside of "tsun-tsun dere-dere" and the writers let it define her entire character. This one is probably just personal preference, but...yeah, Rin bugs me. Saber: I find less offense with her character, and more the way that her development is portrayed. I get the idea--learn to enjoy life as a human being and not isolate yourself. The problem for me is in the presentation. I got the impression that her development was tied more to "She is so kingly/lonely/isolated because she never fell in love with a good man that would make her whole because women need a man in their lives." I may be more trigger-happy on this, but given the attitude of most of my relatives towards women's rights and teachers, I respond with more intensity. Hell, I could be wrong, but this is always the impression I received. Saber was never loved, and now she is so she is healed~~maybe my own emotional issues make me look at this argument with scorn, and how I still struggle with depression even after receiving clinical treatment for over four years. It is not that simple...and yes, I am aware that it is not necessarily Shirou that serves the "loved one" role, Rin takes it too. Actually, this makes me roll my eyes more, making Rin more of a fetishy character. Sakura: Her entire character is defined by horrific abuse, Freudian issues, and love towards Shirou. I really can't say much about this, except how much it unnerves me. It feels like she was introduced to be the abused character, and outside of that, she is defined by her relationship to Shirou. The Bechdel test is not perfect, but my lord does Sakura fail that test. Well, I was wrong there. I saw that as more of a split personality thing from all the abuse. I found it the opposite, personally. That, or the dynamic between Saber/Alexander/Gligamesh/Lancelot made up for a lot of the character faults. Motivation is more influential with me, and I felt like the motivations in Fate/Zero were more complex. That, or I was reading the morality aspects more. So much of Fate/Zero is defined by a gray view of morality, with less absolute good/evil. Shirou is almost always pure good in some form or another, whichever aspect of his ideals are being used. Saber is always on the side of good. Rin is only slightly not always good, and that's the arrogance breaking through. The protagonists of Fate/Zero, Saber is again good but her ideals are challenged in a more pronounced way (to me, at least). Kiritsugu is absurdly gray, having committed crimes and hurt the people he loves in name of a "greater good" which is almost shattered by the end. The ending of Fate/Zero is particularly brutal in this since, his reaction upon finding Shirou was "At least I saved one life." Archer is the main exception in Fate/SN, but even then, he never left the same sort of impact. Fate/SN, the major villains have motivations and goals that are for the evulz. This is the same to an extent in Fate/Zero, but there is progression towards that end. Fate/SN, Gilgamesh and Kotomine struck me as very static. Their motivations felt more boring to me in Fate/Zero. This may be one of those "Agree/Disagree" moments. I rolled my eyes at the cast of Fate/SN more than Fate/Zero, that's the gist of it. I guess that points to different genres. The question of "who is the servant/master" never really bugged me. I liked seeing the interaction between servants in Fate/Zero, and it was the most enjoyable part of the series for me. This led to more reasons why the servants fought each other--not just because it is a battle royal for the Grail. I never got that feeling in Fate/SN. Kiritsugu points this out when Lancer dies in Fate/Zero, in a way, that the idea of always searching for strong, honorable opponents gets more people killed. For me, it is the question "Why are these people in conflict?" and not getting an answer besides Good/Evil/Treasure. That type of conflict is not interesting to me. Most of the conflicts in Fate/SN did not interest me for this very reason, the grail was the only reason they fought each other. The interaction between the servants helped me become interested in the story in Fate/Zero, if not why I was interested. Maybe that makes Fate/SN and Fate/Zero two different genres altogether, with a more mystery aspect towards Fate/SN. I don't know how best to explain it. The reason I mentioned how the rules were paced out is a matter of pacing and exposition. I mentioned this earlier, how exposition can vary depending on how it is delivered, and I thought the grail war was explained better by Fate/Zero because exposition was tied towards events in the story or character development. Yes, there were some scenes in Fate/SN that helped explain that, Rin summoning Archer, for example, but in my mind, the tedium of Kotomine's infodump blocks it out. You can use that amount of text, that amount of information, I just felt that it was misused in Fate/SN. Hopefully that helps explain my views, and if it didn't, I'm sorry.

It can be done for a variety of reasons. Drama is one, but I think there is a more important aspect. A main character dying at the end of a story serves to complete their arc, in a sense. It is the end point for their story, as it is for the vast majority of human beings. In the best uses of a hero's death, it is to symbolize their full development as a character, or to show how they have progressed, or their qualities in the story. See Supergirl's death in Crisis on Infinite Earths, where it is her resolve and ultimately, bad luck (aside from editorial mandates) that lead to her death. My favorite is Spike at the end of Cowboy Bebop. His is actually more twisted, in a sense. He lets his past control him utterly and completely, and dies as a result. He does not need to fight Vicious at the end, but he cannot let himself leave his past. These are only two examples...it really varies from story to story. How it works outside of the story also changes. This is not advocating to kill off the main character or a supporting member (Cry for Justice is horrendous in that regard. Yes, kill off Roy Harper's daughter in one of the WORST WAYS IMAGINABLE), but make it have meaning. Stories are not reality, and people want a death to have meaning to the narrative. Without that meaning, the story is weakened.

Nope. Too many relatives have health issues from smoking for +20 years (my grandmother can't even breath on her own anymore, she needs oxygen carried around with her), plus it would be too much of a financial drain. It's expensive, and I'm paranoid about spending money anyway.