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Dragon Slayer
The Wildcard
Full Dive: This Ultimate Next-Gen Full Dive RPG Is Even Shittier than Real Life! Episode 6
Osamake: Romcom Where The Childhood Friend Won't Lose Episode 5
Super Cub Episode 6
Osamake: Romcom Where The Childhood Friend Won't Lose Episode 5
Super Cub Episode 6
Gemsy-chan
Shrine Maiden
Eps 1-6 of Cautious Hero
D1tchd1gger
Shrine Maiden
Planetes ep 1
Super Cub ep 6
Koguma gets her Rin on.
Super Cub ep 6
Koguma gets her Rin on.
ayase
State Alchemist
Renkin 3-kyū Magical? Pokān Episodes 7-12 (rewatch)
Just when you thought the show couldn’t get any more ridiculous, it takes a swerve away from SoL into parody territory, with some genuinely amusing commentary on the repetitiveness of mecha/tokusatsu shows and even a bit of social commentary about the fickleness of fame/the idol industry, but my favourite has to be the one in which Uma becomes Penny Crayon for the day* and uses her new power to make Aiko's dream of riding the Galaxy Express come true. Yes, you read that correctly. And yes, the results are predictably terrible, but there is some genuine heart and touching friendship here.
Then there’s the episode most likely get the show banned by the BBFC as the girls visit an onsen and receive some advice and encouragement from more worldly (and definitely more well endowed) women... until everything goes south in a big way. Ultimately we get back to (what passes for) reality with A Very Pokan Christmas and spending an episode searching Akihabara for a digital to analogue converter so they can use a VCR. Such is the varied life of the MagiPoka girls.
Probably the greatest spectacle here though is the girls attempting to learn English, which I feel should really be watched with subtitles off for maximum effect. Playing a game where they have to identify things around their home in English (or suffer the consequences) results in plenty of “zis is a CHAIR” and “it’s carpet!” but still few things crack me up like Pachira’s sudden confident declaration when put on the spot of “zhu beautifuru photographu!”
Then it’s on to the actually very sweet finale, where Uma really tries her hardest to make her magic work properly (for once) for a good cause, but whether it really does or not proves irrelevant as her friends rally around her to make her, and someone else’s, day. Aw.
One last note on musical pokan, which is also delightful. There are four versions of the ED, one for (and sung by) each character where a cheerful melody is accompanied by frank, often self-depreciating and bordering on desperate lyrics (which only gets better in the OVAs, but that’s another post). Something I didn’t catch the first time around was characters occasionally humming along to the background music during scenes, and how anyone tuning into the show whose first exposure was the over the top, verbose and serious seeming OP would react to what followed I can only imagine. But I also imagine engineering that exact reaction was entirely the point.
*I happened to see an episode of Penny Crayon recently, and her nonchalant attitude to sentient life is frankly terrifying in a way that I had never registered as a child. Penny quite literally has the powers of a god, and no qualms whatsoever about creating life to serve her purposes and then promptly disposing of it afterwards.
Just when you thought the show couldn’t get any more ridiculous, it takes a swerve away from SoL into parody territory, with some genuinely amusing commentary on the repetitiveness of mecha/tokusatsu shows and even a bit of social commentary about the fickleness of fame/the idol industry, but my favourite has to be the one in which Uma becomes Penny Crayon for the day* and uses her new power to make Aiko's dream of riding the Galaxy Express come true. Yes, you read that correctly. And yes, the results are predictably terrible, but there is some genuine heart and touching friendship here.
Then there’s the episode most likely get the show banned by the BBFC as the girls visit an onsen and receive some advice and encouragement from more worldly (and definitely more well endowed) women... until everything goes south in a big way. Ultimately we get back to (what passes for) reality with A Very Pokan Christmas and spending an episode searching Akihabara for a digital to analogue converter so they can use a VCR. Such is the varied life of the MagiPoka girls.
Probably the greatest spectacle here though is the girls attempting to learn English, which I feel should really be watched with subtitles off for maximum effect. Playing a game where they have to identify things around their home in English (or suffer the consequences) results in plenty of “zis is a CHAIR” and “it’s carpet!” but still few things crack me up like Pachira’s sudden confident declaration when put on the spot of “zhu beautifuru photographu!”
Then it’s on to the actually very sweet finale, where Uma really tries her hardest to make her magic work properly (for once) for a good cause, but whether it really does or not proves irrelevant as her friends rally around her to make her, and someone else’s, day. Aw.
One last note on musical pokan, which is also delightful. There are four versions of the ED, one for (and sung by) each character where a cheerful melody is accompanied by frank, often self-depreciating and bordering on desperate lyrics (which only gets better in the OVAs, but that’s another post). Something I didn’t catch the first time around was characters occasionally humming along to the background music during scenes, and how anyone tuning into the show whose first exposure was the over the top, verbose and serious seeming OP would react to what followed I can only imagine. But I also imagine engineering that exact reaction was entirely the point.
*I happened to see an episode of Penny Crayon recently, and her nonchalant attitude to sentient life is frankly terrifying in a way that I had never registered as a child. Penny quite literally has the powers of a god, and no qualms whatsoever about creating life to serve her purposes and then promptly disposing of it afterwards.
Gemsy-chan
Shrine Maiden
Eps 7-12 of Cautious Hero (complete)
Kite
Pokémon Master
Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan - Demon Capital
Episodes 1 - 24 (plus the 2x Recap episodes)
2nd season of the action/fighting series, character development with new characters added on both the good & bad side. Although the ending was a bit weak My body isn't strong enough so I'm heading back to Hell to come back later! like they were hoping for a 3rd season to be made (assuming the manga went back to that open ending).
Episodes 1 - 24 (plus the 2x Recap episodes)
2nd season of the action/fighting series, character development with new characters added on both the good & bad side. Although the ending was a bit weak My body isn't strong enough so I'm heading back to Hell to come back later! like they were hoping for a 3rd season to be made (assuming the manga went back to that open ending).
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing (Japanese audio) - Episodes 32-40
Zombieland Saga: Revenge episode 6 Errand run.
Beautiful Bones -Sakurako’s Investigation- episodes 11-12 (Complete. A solid series exploring various forensic-driven investigations by the titular enigmatic Sakurako and her student assistant. A shame there wasn’t a second season.) 3.5/5
Also some more Miami Vice, moving into the third season now.
Beautiful Bones -Sakurako’s Investigation- episodes 11-12 (Complete. A solid series exploring various forensic-driven investigations by the titular enigmatic Sakurako and her student assistant. A shame there wasn’t a second season.) 3.5/5
Also some more Miami Vice, moving into the third season now.
Dragon Slayer
The Wildcard
Adachi and Shimamura (English Dub) Episode 12 (Complete)
Cells at Work!! 2nd Season (English Dub) Episode 3
Cells at Work! CODE BLACK (English Dub) Episode 10
The Quintessential Quintuplets II (English Dub) Episode 8
Godzilla: Singular Point Episode 7 - 8 Kaiju abound.
How Not to Summon a Demon Lord Ω Episode 6 Overwhelmed.
Zombieland Saga Revenge Episode 6 Errand and tailing.
Cells at Work!! 2nd Season (English Dub) Episode 3
Cells at Work! CODE BLACK (English Dub) Episode 10
The Quintessential Quintuplets II (English Dub) Episode 8
Godzilla: Singular Point Episode 7 - 8 Kaiju abound.
How Not to Summon a Demon Lord Ω Episode 6 Overwhelmed.
Zombieland Saga Revenge Episode 6 Errand and tailing.
Geriatric hedgehog
Pokémon Master
I loved this episode for those points but also the heart-wrenching ending in particular! So far seen just the next two episodes, which are a bit more generic & introducing other characters in the team, whereas the first was almost a bit artsy I thought, but still I'm quite enjoying this series so far.
D1tchd1gger
Shrine Maiden
Planetes ep 2
Cestvs: The Roman Fighter ep 5
The fight continues.
There's some weird interjections from the narrator about modern scientific reasons behind what's happening which just interrupt the flow of it.
Zombieland Saga: Revenge ep 6
Dance off, bro.
Cestvs: The Roman Fighter ep 5
The fight continues.
There's some weird interjections from the narrator about modern scientific reasons behind what's happening which just interrupt the flow of it.
Zombieland Saga: Revenge ep 6
Dance off, bro.
Yeah, I really liked the dynamic between Misaki and Maeda, I wanted her to hang around for a little while longer at least
Much as I still appreciate the attention to period detail, it is as you say - they seem to have reverted to something a bit more ordinary in the next couple of episodes. It's fine, but I dunno, I might end up shelving this one until we hit a quieter season.
Geriatric hedgehog
Pokémon Master
Ah, I see where you're coming from now and very true, she would certainly have been a very interesting character to watch, especially given how powerful she was depicted and further implied to be. Though at the same time, as her sacrifice was unexpected, I thought it also nicely broke away from the more common role of being the antagonist's tool to dangle & torture the main character with over the course of the series. I think if they can inject such pathos in the other character's stories it can certainly be a very good series, let's see..Yeah, I really liked the dynamic between Misaki and Maeda, I wanted her to hang around for a little while longer at least
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And yet the four reviews posted on MAL give it 8, 8, 9 and 9.
I notice that Aya Hirano (Haruhi in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Misa Amane in Death Note) is among the series' voice cast. In a little bit of trivia, Hirano appears in another 2006 anime with renkin in the title: Busō Renkin. In fact, all four of the anime mentioned in this post are from 2006, so she was a busy voice actress that year.
ayase
State Alchemist
Neil, please, stop, it hurts. I can’t take any more reminders of how long ago that was and therefore how old I am. Remembering how long it had been since I originally watched MagiPoka was bad enough. I was wrong, it was actually twelve years ago. ;_;
But yes, Aya does indeed play Pachi-chan (not racist, that’s her name). While you’re here, does Pokān actually have a translation? No-one who has translated the title appears to have bothered with that part, the first bit is variously translated as “third-rate alchemist” or “third-rate alchemy” (and “magical” is pretty obvious) but obviously, having no official release it doesn’t have an official English title, so I stick to using the Japanese.
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing (Japanese audio) - Episodes 41-49 (Completed)
Gundam Wing has been a very enjoyable watch. While the story gets a bit overloaded by factions splitting into different factions that split into more factions then merge into another faction, it can get a bit mad in terms of what's been happening, followed by characters that share a bit of unbalance on development and motivations. That being said, the final act paid off even though it felt like a happier version of Char's Counterattack but at least it works for the most part.
I plan to watch the OVA version of Endless Waltz soon (saving the movie version until I watch the Operation Meteor recap series later in the year).
Gundam Wing has been a very enjoyable watch. While the story gets a bit overloaded by factions splitting into different factions that split into more factions then merge into another faction, it can get a bit mad in terms of what's been happening, followed by characters that share a bit of unbalance on development and motivations. That being said, the final act paid off even though it felt like a happier version of Char's Counterattack but at least it works for the most part.
I plan to watch the OVA version of Endless Waltz soon (saving the movie version until I watch the Operation Meteor recap series later in the year).
I was wondering about that myself, actually, so I did a quick search and turned up this site:
Translation of ポカーン from Japanese into English
English translation of ポカーン - Translations, examples and discussions from LingQ.
www.lingq.com
It gives the translation as "vacantly; blankly; listlessly; absent-mindedly". It sounds more like an onomatopoeic word to me, though, so I kept looking and found this:
ぽかん, ポカン, ぱかん, パカン, pokan, pokan, pakan, pakan - Nihongo Master
vacantly,blankly,absentmindedly,openmouthed,with one's mouth wide-open - Meaning of ぽかん, ポカン, ぱかん, パカン, pokan, pokan, pakan, pakan. See complete explanation and more examples and pronunciation.
www.nihongomaster.com
That one uses a short a sound instead of the long ā, but it adds "openmouthed; with one's mouth wide-open; gaping; flabbergasted" to the list of definitions, as well as the onomatopoeic "with a whack; with a thump", so... take your pick? You'd be a better judge than me, having seen the show.
I wanted to ask, actually: how did you first come across it anyway?
And lastly, also from your post...
Out of its original context, that sounds like the kind of thing that would be very disappointing to hear in the wrong context.