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Durarara!!x2 Shou (Japanese audio) - Episodes 10-12 (Complete)

33% of Durarara!! Season 2 is done! It was unfortunate that I delayed my plan on watching this series for quite some time. I was going to follow it during simulcast but it's one of those shows where I feel going through them in a marathon would work better because of the story and characters.

I know a lot of people were disappointed with Shou and I honestly felt the second half was much better especially in the last few episodes. There's more Shizuo which is good! The best thing to me about Shou was Mikado's rise to becoming a darker character, especially in the last episode when he was told that he's considered 'too normal' for Ikebukuro so in return he becomes the Blue Squares leader and stabs his underclass with a pen for a contract.
 
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Hunter x Hunter - Episodes 16, 17 & 18

Because the one thing Hisoka needed to make him even more weird and creepy was to turn him into an actual genuine paedophile.

"I'm a very cautious man" A very cautious man that's telling the entire world what his plan is. Maybe try interior monologue next time...

IncendiaryLemon said:
If you feel that strongly about it, I'd be interested to see what else you have to say.
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You really don't, my notes just basically turned into quotes surrounded by a lot of swearing. Took me about 90 minutes to get through the episode, because I kept pausing it to rage.

The big rages were; since when has somebody losing a board game been funny? And why does every anime seem to think it is?

Also, and I cannot stress this one enough, WHAT KIND OF ASSCLOWN COMES UP WITH A PLAN TO STORM A BUILDING WITH SEEMINGLY EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THEIR ORGANISATION PRESENT, EXCEPT THE PERSON WHO WILL BE DOING THE ACTUAL BUILDING STORMING?

That was probably a little aggressive :(, but that entire sequence pissed me off no end, especially the bit when Shunsuke is basically yelling the plan at Yu, like it's somehow his fault, and even when he upsets his brother (who goes into an off character emotional monologue), he still proceeds to be a dick to him...

It looks to me like they had 10 episodes of plot, and Aniplex demanded 13, now they've added 3 episodes of guff, which may explain why so much of the episode is out of keeping with the rest of the series. I wouldn't have been bothered if the show was tonally uneven from the first few episodes, but to suddenly abandon everything you've built up on your eleventh episode (of thirteen) is unforgivable.
 
It's not often I watch a show and think 'this could have done with more episodes', but I've definitely felt like that multiple times watching Charlotte. Not that it's overly bad in its current form, but it feels like it would have far more emotional heft with a bit of time and space given to flesh out both the world and the characters more. The times when I've felt it's succeeded best is when it handles universal themes like romance and relationship building that don't really require any outside knowledge to empathise with - as soon as it gets into the heavy 'these are the rules of this world' stuff again, the cracks start showing.

I have to admit, while I've enjoyed the time travel stuff on a purely superficial level, it's incredibly weakened for me by the fact it's almost the exactly the same as what Steins;Gate and Madoka did.
 
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Yowanda-san said:
Also, you think that having time leaped multiple times, Shunsuke would have prepared a back up plan for these kind of eventualities and put a thumb on any potential agents before they go rouge (i.e. having a family), I mean, they admit themselves that they're dealing with terrorists and even then, no one gets angry about it, no blame is cast on anyone even though that driver quite clearly ruined everything for everyone.

I guess what I'm trying to say, is that the whole thing felt kind of detached. The job of writer is, after all, to get inside the head of the character and ask those kinds of questions; how will the react to "this"? What's the "best" way to deal with "that"? How do I feel about "this"?

If you can't even do that, you probably shouldn't be holding a pencil.
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Pooh says agents are supposed to retire when they get a family, and casts the blame on the driver, but later Shunsuke says he gave him approval to have a family. There was a definite anger in Shunsuke's voice as he was telling the driver he hadn't done anything wrong (when really the driver hasn't done anything wrong). It's one of the numerous things that made him completely unlikeable for me in the episode, since basically everything that happened was his fault and he does nothing but blame other people and criticise them.

It sounds like your issue with the episode is the same as mine, but for completely different reasons. I get the distinct impression Jun Maeda wrote 10 episodes and Aniplex ordered 13, and as a result the characterisation and tone are falling apart as he tries desperately to cram an entire arc into the final three episodes, whilst making it relevant and emotionally connected to the rest of the series. Unfortunately, it seems when characterisation and tone left, they took basic storytelling logic with them.
 
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Hunter x Hunter-Episodes 102-104

Episode 102: Well Meleron certainly has an interesting power. Still unsure how trustworthy he is though, I mean what's his end game after defeating the king? I'm also very curious about how that girl at the end will 'change the King's fate' as teased by the Narrator.

Episode 103: Still unsure where they're going with the blind girl. I hope it's building to something interesting.

Episode 104: I didn't really realise until now just how powerful and skilled Morel is. That smoke can really do a lot.

Nichijou-Episode 18

I'm pretty surprised they went back to that weird space princess bit but I'm so glad they did.
 
IncendiaryLemon said:
Hunter x Hunter-Episode 102

Well Meleron certainly has an interesting power. Still unsure how trustworthy he is though, I mean what's his end game after defeating the king? I'm also very curious about how that girl at the end will 'change the King's fate' as teased by the Narrator.
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Ahhh, you're just getting to the really good bit now. I swear when I got to this part I couldn't stop watching and had to get through the rest of the Chimera Ant episodes in a matter of a day or two, I was that hooked.
 
Lutga said:
IncendiaryLemon said:
Hunter x Hunter-Episode 102

Well Meleron certainly has an interesting power. Still unsure how trustworthy he is though, I mean what's his end game after defeating the king? I'm also very curious about how that girl at the end will 'change the King's fate' as teased by the Narrator.
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Ahhh, you're just getting to the really good bit now. I swear when I got to this part I couldn't stop watching and had to get through the rest of the Chimera Ant episodes in a matter of a day or two, I was that hooked.
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Well I have tomorrow and the day after off so I'll see about that haha.
 
Hunter x Hunter - Episodes 19-26
"Promise me one thing. Never betray your friends." "I promise. I'll never betray them." So Killua's going to betray them at some point then.

Now I've finished the arc, I have a question about something that happens really early on (Episode 3). There's a rather sinister moment where they imply a character has already been disqualified, before even beginning the examination. (They clearly say 404 applicants go through to the first round, then cut to a close up of Gon, who is candidate #405.) I don't remember anybody being disqualified that episode, and it never gets brought up again, so I guess I missed something. Who are they referring to?
 
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Log Horizon - Episodes 01-06
I'm really enjoying this, even if it is quite derivative (and not just .hack), just about everything it does seems to have been 'influenced' by another work. It looks like it's about to become more political, so maybe it'll be able to break out and do it's own thing there. I'd also like to see more about characters non-game backstory though, but I've no idea how they would actually do that, whilst keeping the series fairly action packed?

Is Naotsugu using a nickname for Shiroe or are Crunchyroll's subs terrible? In one episode, Naotsugu calls him Shiro, and the very next line spells it Shiroe.
 
Buzz201 said:
Log Horizon - Episodes 01-06
I'm really enjoying this, even if it is quite derivative (and not just .hack), just about everything it does seems to have been 'influenced' by another work. It looks like it's about to become more political, so maybe it'll be able to break out and do it's own thing there. I'd also like to see more about characters non-game backstory though, but I've no idea how they would actually do that, whilst keeping the series fairly action packed?

Is Naotsugu using a nickname for Shiroe or are Crunchyroll's subs terrible? In one episode, Naotsugu calls him Shiro, and the very next line spells it Shiroe.
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I can answer the backstory question for you, I'll spoil tag it just in case you don't want to know if it happens or not

It does

I enjoyed the first season of Log Horizon, it's no game changer but it's definitely a good show with a kick ass opening.
It's a shame the second season dipped, the bloody kids arc had me ripping my hair out, horrible. Can't even blame the studio as LN readers said it was lame to read too
 
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Dannielle said:
I can answer the backstory question for you, I'll spoil tag it just in case you don't want to know if it happens or not

It does

I enjoyed the first season of Log Horizon, it's no game changer but it's definitely a good show with a kick ass opening.
It's a shame the second season dipped, the bloody kids arc had me ripping my hair out, horrible. Can't even blame the studio as LN readers said it was lame to read too
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Thanks, I was assuming it wouldn't, because it seems to be setting them up to live in the MMORPG forever.

And as a Durarara!! fan, I can more than deal with a disappointing second season... :p
 
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Buzz201 said:
Dannielle said:
I can answer the backstory question for you, I'll spoil tag it just in case you don't want to know if it happens or not

It does

I enjoyed the first season of Log Horizon, it's no game changer but it's definitely a good show with a kick ass opening.
It's a shame the second season dipped, the bloody kids arc had me ripping my hair out, horrible. Can't even blame the studio as LN readers said it was lame to read too
Click to expand...
Thanks, I was assuming it wouldn't, because it seems to be setting them up to live in the MMORPG forever.

And as a Durarara!! fan, I can more than deal with a disappointing second season... :p
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Oh dear, I haven't seen any of the new Durarara yet, I'll set my standards low then ;)

The backstory of some characters is more prominent in the second season, it never goes into super detail but it's interesting nonetheless. I can only recall on hint of backstory in the first but I maybe wrong..
 
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