HTF Anime Discussion Part VII - Page 27

Rob Lutter · 05-29-2004, 01:36 PM

How does it use the sun to play?

Jez, most of us gamers don't go outdoors (especially in Florida's heat!)

Eric F · 05-29-2004, 11:16 PM

I finally got around to picking up the last few volumes of Noir so I rewatched it. Say what you want about the pacing, the sound mix is the best I've ever heard.

Slow in parts, it's starting to really pay off towards the end. Good stuff. I bet Tarrantino saw this one.

Rob Lutter · 05-30-2004, 12:12 AM

I'm starting to play catchup on Naruto... I watched about 10 episodes today. Man, what a great show... hopefully someone will do this justice in R1 (although I am betting THAT company will get it *cough* Hollywood Mew Mew *cough*)

Alanna · 05-30-2004, 09:25 AM

Ahhh Boktai has this little solar chip in it that is like the entire basis of the gameplay. It was dark and nasty outside yesterday so I couldn't do anything with it. In the game you are this spikey haired vampire hunter and use a "solar gun" to stun or kill the undead critters. Of course you have to be out in the sun to "charge" up the solar gun but it can also "overheat" too. This is not a big deal because you can sit out for a few minutes and soak up enough to hit a couple of dungeons - BUT you HAVE to have contact with the sun to kill the vampire (after you haul his coffin out of the dungeon). So I played for 15 minutes, went through the dungeon, hauled the coffin out and then it informed me I needed sun contact to operate the solar generator things.

ugh.

Oh and I watched all of Galaxy Angel Vol. 2. The show is cute and amusing but nothing groundbreaking. They are still looking for the Lost Technology but not much is really put into it so its still going along the same formula of little unrelated shorts that focus on one or two characters. And have waaaaaay too much of the talking missle thing in the ugly stuffed animal. Oh well.

JohnAD · 05-30-2004, 10:53 AM

I was a little too busy watching DVDs yesterday to post, but here it is:

On Friday, my wife abd I watched Sky High (R2), the latest movie from Ryuhei Kitamura (Versus, Azumi). Really well done. Not an especially deep movie, but good characters, action, and effects. IMHO, it's his best movie yet. Fans of Kitamura with all-region players should get this movie

.

On Saturday, I watched volumes seven through ten of Rurouni Kenshin, which I can sum up in one word: whoa. The last episode of vol. 7 just blew me away. On the technical side, the PQ is better, but not perfect, and they just can't seem to get OP songs that go with the series. Now, the ED songs have been good. I also watched the last six episodes (disk 3, sides A & B) of The West Wing season 1, so that pretty much filled up my day.

I'm not sure if I'll get a chance to watch any anime today, but I'll try and get another disk in.

John.

Ted Lee · 05-30-2004, 04:17 PM

hey all, what's your opinion of memories?

i saw it at bb and almost picked it up.

Alanna · 05-31-2004, 09:47 AM

I didn't really like Memories but then again I don't really seem to like that type of anime much. I dunno? One of the segments is better than the others however and (almost) makes it worthwhile. Not worth $20 that I've seen it going for.

ChristopherDAC · 05-31-2004, 12:18 PM

Has anyone else had any exposure to Jigoku Sensei Nube? Last year, in one of my periodic trolls for anime LDs I picked up a copy of the [a?] movie, title translated by me as "Nube Dies at Midnight", one of those 45 minute features the Japanese make for showing on double or triple bills [now unknown in the States, alas] -- the people at a local used book store said "well, we think we have one, but we can't tell what it is" so I went out there, realised it was an import disc, and after studying it for a while decided that it was probably worth buying [I want to avoid buying, say, Urotsukidouji]. Anyway, from what I've been able to work out from the film and from what references I've read, it appears to be a kids' television show, which however is well enough done to be enjoyable to other audiences; it concerns a rather unsuccesful Japanese excorcist who makes his living teaching middle school, an occupation in which he encounters any number of evil spirits which require his attention. I'm not sure how realistic this is, I didn't go to middle school.

I say he's rather unsuccessful: he has one hand which is posessed by a demon, thanks to a botched exorcism, and he has to keep it under control, although it does give him some help in emergencies due to its supernatural abilities, and it appears to be very useful for scratching.

Anyway, I enjoy it, and I wanted to know if anyone else had seen it.

Rob Lutter · 05-31-2004, 12:54 PM

LOL, but I would love an import copy of Urotsukidoji

Me and a friend were in the hentai room at one of the anime cons I go to (which is one of the most fun rooms to be in, I might add) and we saw an OVA ep of Urotsukidoji or one of it's sequels... man, that was the greatest anime ever.

It was like Shenmue meets The Terminator meets Alien meets Initial D meets La Blue Girl!

JohnAD · 05-31-2004, 04:11 PM

Rob:

That's frightening

.

All:

I did manage to watch some anime yesterday and today. Between the two, I watched vols. 11-14 of Rurouni Kenshin. I know Woo wanted a write up, so here it is

.

Technical - As I said in my first impression, the PQ seems to have gone up over the disks in the first boxed set. Since I doubt MB remastered them, those of you who have already purchased the series will agree. The 2nd OP is just as bad as the first one, but a couple of the ED songs were great (T.M. Revolution and L'arc-en-ciel). The last one was forgettable, and I was skipping the OP and ED the last couple of disks. Also, MB needs some serious quality control on their subtitles. I don't think I've anywhere near as many mistakes as I have seen with this series. The box and packaging were pretty much the same as the first one, and they stack really well. I'm still not thrilled about the cardboard sleeves; I'm keeping the disks themselves in ThinPaks.

Content - To start off, it's been a bit since I watched the disks from the first boxed set, but I managed to remember stuff fairly quickly. I would say that my impression of the series so far at the end of disk six was that the series was a 'B' - good, but not outstanding. Disk seven moved that up a couple of notches. The last episode on disk seven really blew me away. Disk fourteen matched that with its intensity. The disks between weren't quite at the same level, but overall, they were really well done. I have to rate the disks in the second boxed set an 'A-'. It will be interesting to see how the series finishes up.

John.

ChristopherDAC · 05-31-2004, 06:29 PM

Why would you want an import Urotsukidouji? I wouldn't have it at all, in fact have avoided buying it when offered me, but why the Japanese release LD [I am unaware of a DVD... there may be one] over the American LaserDisc set, which presumably has the gov't censor masks removed?

Though the LDDB entry shows it as having subtitles, and maybe you wouldn't want to be distracted.

Subtitled hentai amuses me -- I mean, does "Urgghh!" "Ooh!" "Aaangh!" really need translation?

I dunno about hentai at cons... I sat through two really vile Kitty [U.S., the s-m people] releases and several episodes of Ebichu because I wanted to see what was going on in one of those rooms... the viewers were good entertainment though, spared me having to watch the picture... although one was from a VHS so bad that the picture was indistinguishable...

I'm not opposed to hentai on first principles, but I've sure never been offered any I'd want to buy.

Ted Lee · 05-31-2004, 10:13 PM

thx alanna -- that was kinda the vibe i got as well. think i'll skip it for now.