Softenni 01 - Group of four girls and their male coach fanservice-filled (tennis) comedy series. The setting's slightly different -- it's rural, and at least some of the characters live on farms, with cows and all. There's even a field with cows in it right next to the tennis court. Other than that though, expect lots of underwear shots and fantasy sexual references (the excuse for the latter being that the main character girl apparently has an active imagination). Parts of it are enteritaing, parts are dumb.
firehawk12 said:
Softenni - so this is what K-On! would look like if it was made for pervy otaku.
That is a good description of it. The way the main character girl turns everything the coach says into sexual references gets annoying after a while... There were some amusing parts though, such as when the food-obsessed girl (who can't hit a tennis ball at all pretty much) manages to grab a rice ball out of the air with her teeth when the girl tossing the balls throws one of those instead...
Geneijin said:
Nope. Judging by your impressions of Episode 1, I would have enjoyed the OVAs more.
You should watch the OVAs then. They're definitely better than the TV series, if the first episode is any indication of how the rest of it will be...
Gross-out humor is not a good replacement for sex and alcohol...
icarus-daedelus said:
I dunno, you've apparently seen them both, you tell me! Which one has the superior lesbian subtext and gravity-defying breast action?
Sengoku Otome is flat out terrible, so I guess A-Channel it is by default, even if it was very bland and kind of messed up.
firehawk12 said:
The only time it worked for me was with Mayoi Neko Overrun, but that's because I love in-character commentaries.
So are you saying that you didn't like the Kampfer OVA, or haven't you seen it yet?
I haven't read much fantasy - mostly because I keep trying to start an epic 10+ volume universe and get burned out by the first half of the first book. I feel like I should be reading Journey to the West or Three Kingdoms or something if I wanted fake sounding names and quests and whatnot.
Then I guess I need to mention Tad Williams again... his first fantasy series, Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn is three books (though book three is 1600 pages, so in paperback it's in two volumes making it four books pretty much), Otherland (a near-future cyberworld series) is four books, he's got one standalone book ('person from today brought into the world of faery', except it's a somewhat dark version of that classic tale), and Shadowmarch (fantasy again) is in progress, with two books of the planned three released so far. His books are quite long, but the series don't go on forever. Very good writer too, as I said, one of my favorites in the genre.
Science Fiction is different because it isn't as strictly defined as fantasy, but even then, a lot of the stuff I thought was good really isn't as great as I thought it would be. Card, Philip Dick, Heinlein, Halderman, Le Guin etc... I almost don't want to revisit them only because I don't want to discover that most of their work is bad tripe with interesting themes.
I admittedly don't read as much sci-fi as I do fantasy, even if I think that some sci-fi is deeper than a lot of fantasy I just like fantasy more... I always have found the middle ages really interesting, loved castles from when I was little and such.
As for those authors, I have read some of Orson Scott Card's books; I'm not a fan. I just don't like his plots, or how his politics (quite right wing) sometimes gets into his books. If I want right wing politics in a book I'll read Terry Goodkind (fantasy author, and Objectivism fan), even if that volume of The Sword of Truth whose message was that pacifists who submit to evil dictators are themselves evil unless they fight back and kill the dictators was ... unpleasant to say the least. (I never did read the last book of that series though, I got through 11 books before finally it wore me down...)
Anyway, sci-fi... what about some of the masters of the genre, like Azimov and Ray Bradbury? Foundation, Bradbury's short stories, etc... great stuff. (On that note, the Ray Bradbury TV series, with half hour episodes based on a bunch of his stories, was really interesting and is definitely worth watching). Turning to more recent authors I also like Jack McDevitt, who has some post-apocalyptic books and some futuristic ones.
Of course, then you branch out to Science Fiction films and TV and anime and the quality dips dramatically and I've seen so much of it that unless it's fuckballs crazy (Macross with the singing, Aria with the lack of real conflict), I'm hard to impress.
Yeah, as far as sci-fi goes, most of the depth just ... disappears ... when you go from books to TV or movies. Sure, they have some, but it just doesn't usually compare to the original stories, most of the time... but at least they're better off than fantasy, where aside from stuff like the Lord of the Rings movies (some of the best movies ever) things have always been awful as far as American TV goes. I mean, at least there are plenty of great sci-fi TV series - Star Trek, etc, etc -- but fantasy? I can't think of any. Beastmaster was terrible. The Sword of Truth series is pretty bad (and nothing like the books really, it's just generic fantasy instead of generic fantasy that turns to Objectivism after four books). I can't think of much TV fantasy that's actually good... at least anime has some, even if lots of it is really generic at least it exists!
I still like Neal Stephenson though. The Baroque Cycle is either a work of genius or the ramblings of a well researched madman who had too much time on his hands.
Yeah, Neal Stephenson is great. I like Neil Gaiman' stuff (books, TV, and movies) too.
mAcOdIn said:
Nope, three more, including the recap with a touch of a new scene that still demands watching just because of it, fucking recaps. I hate recaps. I hate recaps that toss something new in more because you miss out if you skip them.
Last Exile was particularly bad at that, you'd be tempted to skip the recap AND the OP each episode since it's a fucking recap and the OP BUT every fucking once in a while the recap wouldn't be a recap or would have a new scene. Fucking Gonzo! Same with those assholes who usually don't show shit after the credits but every once in a while they will. Fuck those guys. Why do that? I get it for the last episode, that's just one damn episode that you have to skip through and be sure there's no real ending or some crap but just on random episodes? Fuck that. Fuck that.
It's just done to get you to watch, like the end of Kirby's Dream Land 1 where after the credits it gives you a cheat code to play the game in Hard Mode, and then after the credits in Hard Mode it gives you a cheatcode for a special menu with a sound test and lives/health select... but as far as recaps go, why not, in a complex series with a lot going on? Not everyone's going to remember everything that's important that happened before.
But anyways, if you find this guy's arc boring you can skip it, it's part of the world but not really part of the story and is just mentioned in passing.
I'll watch it anyway, it's not THAT bad, just nowhere near as good as what came before it, and about different characters.