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DragonBlaze67
Combat Butler
Baka and Test S2 eps 5-10
Smeelia
Thousand Master
Funnily enough, I had already searched for the thread after you had mentioned it before (in the Nadia thread, I think). I've been trying to read along as I watch and there have been some interesting comments there. I think it is quite a good show for giving people the chance to have alternative interpretations of the content.Professor Irony said:
On a related note, I watched Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig Episodes 7-12 (or 33-38).
I enjoyed most of the episodes.
I wasn't really sure about the Trial episode (episode 10), it had a few good moments but I mostly found it frustrating. I'd have thought that Togusa would have the most experience of being at trials due to his history in the police and should really have been able to handle it better. That being said, I also wasn't sure how much Togusa was doing deliberately. I didn't feel the defence lawyer was being clever or manipulative enough to justify the way people responded. The actual defence they were using didn't have much to do with anything being discussed and while the prosecution objected a couple of times I couldn't see why they didn't do so more often. I think the worst part is that it's a Togusa heavy episode and it didn't feel like Togusa was involved at all.
Nevermind though, when the next episode came around it more than made up for the last one. I'd say it was one of my favourite episodes of both seasons. I guess it was simple in many ways and perhaps even obvious but everything just worked really well. Even the more minor moments with Batou and Togusa were great (to be fair, they often are) but the main story of the episode was especially brilliant. I have to wonder if I'd be happier having episodes like this all the time and just doing away with the main storyline of the series.
On the other hand, episode 12 had some good story progress. I haven't really been sure about the main story at times but I think I'm getting into it a little more now. Still, I'm finding it slightly disappointing that Goda (Coda? Koda? Ghoda?) seems to be a bad guy. I thought he was such an obvious candidate for being a bad guy that having him turn out good would be more fun, especially since he could still kind of be an opponent of Section 9 without being an actual villain. It could still happen but probably won't after his actions during the courier mission.
I do like that there seems to be two (or more) sets of bad guys who may also be at odds with each other and have their own ideas about how to do things. I think there's a lot of potential here, although I wasn't entirely sold on Goda's explanation of his ideals/purpose. It'll be interesting to see how things go, I could end up enjoying it a lot but it's also possible that my own ideas about how it could go will get in the way of enjoying what actually happens.
Even if the main story doesn't work out though, I think there's a good chance I'll end up enjoying the series well enough just for the characters and some of the side stories (unless everything suddenly goes all "Nadia filler" or something).
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From Thursday 27th August 2015:
School Live! (Japanese audio) - Episodes 07-08
From Today aka Friday 28th August 2015:
Prison School (Japanese audio) - Episodes 08
Food Wars! (Japanese audio) - Episodes 20-21
Charlotte (Japanese audio) - Episodes 08
School Live! (Japanese audio) - Episodes 07-08
From Today aka Friday 28th August 2015:
Prison School (Japanese audio) - Episodes 08
Food Wars! (Japanese audio) - Episodes 20-21
Charlotte (Japanese audio) - Episodes 08
Smeelia said:
Well, there is that one episode where Batou tries to write a song on the automatic ukulele...
mangaman74
Akatsuki
Someday's Dreamers II Sora Episode 12
The Eccentric Family Episodes 6 - 9
The Eccentric Family Episodes 6 - 9
Gemsy-chan
Shrine Maiden
Ep 9 of Gate
Ep 21 of Shokugeki no Soma
Eps 1-13 of Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory
Ep 21 of Shokugeki no Soma
Eps 1-13 of Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory
Gate Ep9
Well that was a disappointment. It felt like they were just treading water this week, which seems to make the show's faults all the more apparent. It's nice to have a competent protagonist, but Itami seems to have been built up into a complete Marty Stu now. I had hoped the introduction of his ex-wife might have shown us a different side of his character, but even she appears to be there purely to make googly eyes at him and expand his ever-growing harem. Not even the comically evil Americans could save this one; their commando raid at the end was dull and notable only for the lame F/SN joke.
Well that was a disappointment. It felt like they were just treading water this week, which seems to make the show's faults all the more apparent. It's nice to have a competent protagonist, but Itami seems to have been built up into a complete Marty Stu now. I had hoped the introduction of his ex-wife might have shown us a different side of his character, but even she appears to be there purely to make googly eyes at him and expand his ever-growing harem. Not even the comically evil Americans could save this one; their commando raid at the end was dull and notable only for the lame F/SN joke.
black1blade
Thousand Master
Lame fate joke you say. Crap, your making me want to watch it now....Professor Irony said:
It's not worth it, honestly. The operatives in the Japanese special forces team have Fate characters for codenames and their signals reference parts of the grail war.
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Smeelia
Thousand Master
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig Episodes 13-16 (or 39-42).
Quite a strong group of episodes these ones. Three of them are basically character episodes without much of the main story and they're all quite strong. It was good to get a bit of background on some of the "little guys" who aren't quite main characters but still appear a lot. I guess the fourth episode was also a character episode of sorts but was more focussed on the main story, it was quite good too.
I particularly liked the Poker episode. I think it was mentioned in the first season that Saito only has cybernetic replacements for his eye and one hand, so it was interesting to see the reason for that (I had previously assumed it was to enhance his sniping). I liked the way the game ended too, you don't necessarily need the best hand, just a better hand and I think it kind of tied into the way the battle from the story ended too.
It was also quite impressive how they did a lot with very little in the face designer episode. I think I could understand the idea behind the woman's actions. I think she was also right about there being more to Pazu than is immediately obvious. I suppose you could say the way the episode goes is almost a representation of Pazu itself, in that it doesn't really give a lot away and while you think you can maybe see what's really going on you're never entirely sure. I also liked the understated moment between Batou and Pazu, with Pazu acknowledging Batou's friendship by giving him the information on where he was headed. At least, I think that's what it was supposed to be. It was also neat that Batou went to keep an eye on Pazu but respected his choice to deal with things himself.
The PAT episode was quite good, although maybe spent a bit too much time talking about philosophy (it didn't really work as well for me as the talky episode in the first season). The later parts were quite good though and kind of made up for it.
It'll be interesting to see what happens next, I'd imagine there'll be more of the main story going forward (although I hope they sneak in a few Batou and Togusa episodes, I'm looking forward to that Ukulele at least).
Quite a strong group of episodes these ones. Three of them are basically character episodes without much of the main story and they're all quite strong. It was good to get a bit of background on some of the "little guys" who aren't quite main characters but still appear a lot. I guess the fourth episode was also a character episode of sorts but was more focussed on the main story, it was quite good too.
I particularly liked the Poker episode. I think it was mentioned in the first season that Saito only has cybernetic replacements for his eye and one hand, so it was interesting to see the reason for that (I had previously assumed it was to enhance his sniping). I liked the way the game ended too, you don't necessarily need the best hand, just a better hand and I think it kind of tied into the way the battle from the story ended too.
It was also quite impressive how they did a lot with very little in the face designer episode. I think I could understand the idea behind the woman's actions. I think she was also right about there being more to Pazu than is immediately obvious. I suppose you could say the way the episode goes is almost a representation of Pazu itself, in that it doesn't really give a lot away and while you think you can maybe see what's really going on you're never entirely sure. I also liked the understated moment between Batou and Pazu, with Pazu acknowledging Batou's friendship by giving him the information on where he was headed. At least, I think that's what it was supposed to be. It was also neat that Batou went to keep an eye on Pazu but respected his choice to deal with things himself.
The PAT episode was quite good, although maybe spent a bit too much time talking about philosophy (it didn't really work as well for me as the talky episode in the first season). The later parts were quite good though and kind of made up for it.
It'll be interesting to see what happens next, I'd imagine there'll be more of the main story going forward (although I hope they sneak in a few Batou and Togusa episodes, I'm looking forward to that Ukulele at least).
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qaiz
Pokémon Master
City Hunter 2 (1988) - Episodes 7 - 16 (out of 63)
Episode 16 continues and concludes this story as the girl; Katherine discovers the truth and finds the true culprit of the murder of her father all those years ago with the help of Umibozu. In the end, these were two great episodes that were both tense and enthralling.
So I just got done watching ten episodes of City Hunter 2 last night, yes the show is that good, I couldn’t stop watching and had to literally force myself away from the screen in order to stop for the night. Kicking things off is Episode 7. Both Ryo and Kaori head off to a remote island for a job that they’ve received. Turns out that a girl lives by herself on the island, but due to the riches that exist on the island people want to force her off of the island so they can keep everything for themselves. Right off the bat they try to sabotage Ryo and Kaori’s journey to the island by destroying their plane, but that won’t stop them. In the end it’s a very funny episode in which Ryo is forced to live a peaceful and quiet life for a few days, away from any sort of stimulation which drives him mad. Even when he’s alone on an island with a girl he still fails to get any mokkori. Also, half way through the episode, the show turns into what Kaori dubs a gourmet manga as they fall in love with the girls cooking.
In Episode 8 a mokkori babe forces Ryo to pretend to be her boyfriend when meeting up with her father, the classic setup. As the father questions Ryo in regards to his life and job, he makes up anything he can on the spot, further digging himself into a hole including telling the father that he’s a detective that works for the metropolitan police, and like that he’s a policeman for the day. He gets the help of his friend, Saeko a police officer herself, and having racked up reams of IOU’s for Ryo due to the many times he’s helped her out only to get the cold shoulder, she is used in order to help get him into the police force in order to show the father around the station. Ryo also manages to ‘borrow’ a police car however when a dispatcher asks for assistance, Ryo has to respond to the crime scene in order to prove himself.
Saeko takes a day off in order to go out on a date with Ryo in Episode 9 but he doesn’t buy it, she has to be planning something! Apparently she’s not bluffing, but while going for a cruise, she spots an important suspect and like that she’s back in detective mode, following the car. The suspect figures out that he’s being chased and thus speeds off in order to lose her, but as she pursues at high speeds she’s pulled over for speeding. Since it’s her day off and she doesn’t have her ID on her, and since her suspect is getting away she dumps Ryo onto the police woman. She’s pretty cute but also innocent and oblivious to all of Ryo’s moves. Meanwhile, Kaori buys a designer coat for herself and is super happy, but the next morning Ryo is awoken to shrieking as she finds out that she’s purchased a forgery. Maybe the suspect Saeko was after earlier is behind the fakes? Episode 9 is another hilarious episode that features a lot of sexy vehicles, cute girls and many great moments all around and a pleasure to watch as always.
The next episode is split into two parts, a trend that I’ve noticed a lot thus far in City Hunter 2. Episode 10 revolves around a princess and her lady-in-waiting. They’ve come to visit Japan but go missing, so when they call Ryo for help he’s surprised. When he arrives at the place they told him to meet up, he comes face to face with a beautiful lady, however it turns out at the little girl accompanying her is in fact the princess and the beautiful lady, Salina is the servant. Regardless, Ryo wants to have some Mokkori time with Salina, but when the princess offers him his very own harem on the condition that he can’t do anything to Salina, he’s put into a tough spot. As time goes on however it becomes clear that they have feelings for each other. Of course it wouldn’t be a City Hunter episode without some bad guys and as such they’re after the princess. While Ryo and Salina are taking a stroll in the park they the bad guys decide to attack but as always they’re no match for the mighty Ryo. In order to keep Ryo off of Salina, the little girl tricks him into thinking that Salina is a man so when she casually approaches him he of course runs off. Salina figures out what they did and pretty much breaks down and cry’s as she admits that she’s fallen in love with Ryo and the idea that he thinks that she’s a man embarrasses her. It’s a really good episode with lots of funny moments as well as emotional moments that put a few tears in my eyes. Episode 10 is a beautiful episode for sure.
Episode 11 continues where the last one left, with Salina running off. Turns out that Salina was the princess after all and the reason that she and the little girl ran off was so she could relax and enjoy life a bit. The little girl admits that she played a prank on Ryo, admitting that the princess is a lady, and Ryo runs after her where she confesses her love to him, well almost. It gets emotional as she hugs him, which is when Ryo gets some perverted ideas. One look at his perverted expression and the princess decides to confess later. While this is all going on, both Kaori and the little girl are ambushed and the little girl is kidnapped and taken hostage and so the princess, Kaori and Ryo go to rescue her. In the end, the princess decides to go on a date with Ryo before she heads back to her home country. Surprisingly Ryo actually manages to be romantic and the whole thing is emotional. In the end, nobody told him that she was in fact the princess, but deep down Ryo knew, but he decided to treat her just like an ordinary woman, something she obviously values and appreciates. Two fantastic episodes that had me laughing, upset, and just engaged the whole way through. These two episodes really embody the heart, soul and essence of City Hunter.
Episode 12 follows a professional female wrestler who is harassed by a bunch of Yakuza who want her to lose in the next match since they’ve put a lot of money on the bout. At first she objects to Ryo being her bodyguard as she’s tough enough to look after herself, and doesn’t need a mokkori pervert looking after her, however by the end she realizes that Ryo means well and just wants to see her smile again.
Ryo has some toothaches in Episode 13, but having a huge fear of dentists he decides to sort it out himself with an elaborate trap, however it fails. Just the sight or sound of any dental apparatus sends him into a frenzy. Kaori drags him to the dentist but when he finds out that the dentist is cute, he endures the procedure. Anything for a little Mokkori. Prior to Ryo turning up at the dentist, another man was getting a crown removed; however this is no ordinary crown as it contains a microchip inside of it. The dentist drops it my mistake and when the man becomes impatient, she hands him a random crown from the drawer in order to usher him away. The man later finds out and wants his crown back and so he targets the dentist, but luckily Ryo is there in order to protect her, however since she’s so cute, Kaori has to also protect her from his Mokkori ways.
Episode 14 features a girl who makes men pay her for everything, valuing money over anything else. She goes on a date with Ryo, he touches her shoulder twice, her back three times and holds her hand briefly, 2650 Yen please! An old man hires three womanizers in order to gain her love as the ultimate proof that they should inherit his business. As the episode goes on each one of them fails and Ryo figures out the heart-breaking truth as to why she values money over everything else, and in doing so gains her love and trust.
In Episode 15, the daughter of Umibozu’s deceased partner comes back in order to kill him. She believes that Umibozu is to blame for her father’s death and has been training for the last 8 years in order to kill him. Umibozu asks Ryo to look after her since he cares for her, but no matter how much they try to explain that Umibozu is innocent she doesn’t want to listen, but Umibozu himself doesn’t mind, as long as the daughter of his friend is at peace once she kills him, he’s fine.
Episode 16 continues and concludes this story as the girl; Katherine discovers the truth and finds the true culprit of the murder of her father all those years ago with the help of Umibozu. In the end, these were two great episodes that were both tense and enthralling.
Although I watched 10 episodes, there’s still plenty more to go, and as always I can’t wait to watch more. Not a dull moment goes by in City Hunter and I’m constantly laughing, smiling and just downright excited. MOKKORI!
Buzz201
Mad Scientist
Charlotte - Episode 09
So finally we hit the big payoff shock twist, and it's quite frankly enormously underwhelming. People have already guessed large parts of it, and some of the parts they didn't guess seem to have just haphazardly been thrown in, not only that, but this twist is so poorly done and explained for most of it's runtime, I thought it might have been a dream sequence - it wasn't, but the thought that it might have been did lessen the emotional impact of the scenes in question.
From what we've seen of this twist so far, it doesn't particularly make any sense either. Hopefully they'll be able to explain away some of the big flaws in future episodes, but for the most part, I'm really disappointed. It wasn't a bad episodes though, I still really enjoyed it, and I'm certainly not demarking the show or writing it off just yet.
Prison School - Episode 08
I'm fairly certain there were no gags this week, but they toned down the fanservice shots, so it came across a lot better than last week's joke free episode.
Ushio and Tora - Episode 08
There is nothing that can be said about this show, it's as dependable and enjoyable as ever.
Rinne - Episode 20
This show is so overwhelmingly middle of the road that it hasn't really gained any kind of traction with audiences, but every so often it has a few really clever jokes and it's a shame they're lost in a sea of romcom cliches and silliness. Also it's seemingly pitched at a fairly young audience, but a lot of the jokes are probably going to go over their heads.
I also really like the score and songs that have been picked for the show, just a shame there isn't a lot of scoring for it and they have to keep reusing the same songs.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - Episode 07
More of the same from JoJo, but with added toplessness and whipping.
So finally we hit the big payoff shock twist, and it's quite frankly enormously underwhelming. People have already guessed large parts of it, and some of the parts they didn't guess seem to have just haphazardly been thrown in, not only that, but this twist is so poorly done and explained for most of it's runtime, I thought it might have been a dream sequence - it wasn't, but the thought that it might have been did lessen the emotional impact of the scenes in question.
From what we've seen of this twist so far, it doesn't particularly make any sense either. Hopefully they'll be able to explain away some of the big flaws in future episodes, but for the most part, I'm really disappointed. It wasn't a bad episodes though, I still really enjoyed it, and I'm certainly not demarking the show or writing it off just yet.
Prison School - Episode 08
I'm fairly certain there were no gags this week, but they toned down the fanservice shots, so it came across a lot better than last week's joke free episode.
Ushio and Tora - Episode 08
There is nothing that can be said about this show, it's as dependable and enjoyable as ever.
Rinne - Episode 20
This show is so overwhelmingly middle of the road that it hasn't really gained any kind of traction with audiences, but every so often it has a few really clever jokes and it's a shame they're lost in a sea of romcom cliches and silliness. Also it's seemingly pitched at a fairly young audience, but a lot of the jokes are probably going to go over their heads.
I also really like the score and songs that have been picked for the show, just a shame there isn't a lot of scoring for it and they have to keep reusing the same songs.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - Episode 07
More of the same from JoJo, but with added toplessness and whipping.
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Charlotte (Japanese audio) - Episode 09