Quite some time ago I posted my fall preview with the series I was looking forward to. Said Fall season is now underway, and the reason I have not been blogging is that I’ve been soaking in tons of Episode 1s (as far as you know). So as I decide which ones to blog, I thought I’d revisit the preview post and see if the series are living up to my hype. If something isn’t in this post that was in the original, it mean I have not found a fansub yet.
We all know what the second to last episode means - drama! As with everything in this show, the drama comes from an obvious source, but they still had to force it on us, more on this later. But first, we have to start with a fairly typical event - a birthday party!
Note the date - I’m sure it will be a trivia question soon (more…)
There is a new disturbing trend on the fansub.tv site, that of subing groups grinding out fast, poor quality subs to make it to distribution first. And while it’s impolite to judge a book by it’s cover, you can usually identify them by their name, which range from childish to offensive. And the more my desire to see the latest episode overcomes my better judgement, the more havoc I see wrought. Take, for example, this comparison of first the early release of Special A Episode 24, and the later release from the established sub group.
Not only does the second one make a lot more sense, there is no relation between the two what so ever! This isn’t a translation mistake, it someone making up random lines to fill in gaps. So be warned, you have to wait for quality, and more often then not, you will be enriched by the experience.
That being said, the end of Special A still sucked in both versions.
Here we are at the first series wrap up of the season. Looking back, I complained bitterly about the direction of this show, and yet for the last episode, I loved the fact that it fell back onto the ridiculousness that I hadcomplained about in the first half of the series. Almost as if they took away something I didn’t know I missed, and when it came back, it was fabulous. But then they TOTALLY ruined the whole thing. Let’s start there.
Sometimes, you need to work to make a point. You need to drive home an argument over and over from different angles until something final drives it home. This can take time, and can be grueling to endure. Especially when it’s something that should be simple, like saying “sorry you caught me grouping our mutual friend”.
I have been meaning to praise Macross Frontier for it’s recent intensity in the storytelling. These are quickly becoming some of my favorite characters this season, and they are developing at a pace not seen in more light hearted fair. But for some reason, this episode seemed off. It was more sinister, and the problem is there was nothing sinister about what was going on. I have no idea if it was deliberate or not. Let’s see if we can figure it out together.
Why is everything beyond 5 posts down on the front page in italics? Why doesn’t the iPhone Wordpress app work with my old theme? These are other fascinating questions are currently driving me crazy. Hell with it, I always liked green anyway.
Special A is coming up to the end, as are a bunch of series that I have not blogged about in a while, so I need to catch up and fast. So, episodes 20 to 23 in one big post. Episode 20 doesn’t even get a mention - it’s the Sakura/Jun wrap-up episode, and then Sakura is quickly forgotten in the ensuing chaos. So we’re going to start with episode 21, which starts the four episode arc to the end. Naturally, Hikari can’t believe it’s over.
This story get simpler and simpler, to the point that just about anyone can plot out the, er, plot points that are going to crop up. So when you see the following scene, where Haruka comes to visit Yuuto at school where he was setting up for the festival with Shiina, you know what is on the other side of that door.
But how did we get here? Let’s deconstruct this episode by taking the plot points backwards to the source. Get ready for another magic journey into experimental blogging that can’t be missed! (more…)
