July 06, 2024
2.5-jigen no Ririsa
I first learned the word jigen to be a counter for dimensions from the ED of Space Dandy (You know, the one that starts "Hey Everett!". Weird song by a weird girl, but it has that breathy delivery that I've come to like.) I'm not sure when exactly the terminology for 2D girl (drawn or animated) vs. 3D girl (live) came into being, but that distinction has brought about the term 2.5D girl to refer to cosplayers (i.e. a 3D girl portraying a 2D girl.).
And of course, in Otaku culture, 2D girls are considered superior to 3D girls because they are perfect, beautiful, and demand nothing of you (except all your money for their collectable merch). Being the debased lowest members of society, Otakus resent 3D girls because in spite of sometimes desiring them, real women look at them with disgust and derision, so eventually they turn their backs on real women and become near hermits, in love with their 2D "Waifu"
Yeah, all two of you who read this already know this.
Okumura is a second-year and the only member of the school's Manga club, because his three seniors graduated, and he's turned the room into his personal hangout where nobody bothers him, especially not girls, and made it a shrine to Liliel, his favorite character from The Ashford Chronicles. On this day, while he's enjoying the finest Ashford Chronicles OVA, the worst possible thing happens. There's a knock at the door, and it's a girl asking to join the club.
It's Ririsa Amano, a first year who really loves Manga. She has pink hair and full rim red framed glasses (SO close.) Now, Livechart spells her name Lilysa, but the subs are Ririsa. But they have the title as Ririsa. Okay, so allowing for the typical R/L confusion, there's a pun in the title, because if you plug 2.5-jigen no Ririsa into DEEPL, it comes out as 2.5 Dimension Seduction. Or it could just mean 2.5D [the girl's name]. I mean, you'd probably have to dig deeper into the Kana to see if she really was named Seduction....
Okumura's only hope is that the Liliel Shrine nature of his private man-cave will scare her off. She gets to the shelf full of figures and accidentally touches the "Cast Off" figure, and the clothing parts practically spring off at her touch. Instead of being appalled, she starts going into a technical discussion about the white panties the figure is wearing, and how it really isn't shown in the program, but that she thinks the character would actually be rocking black lace, and she shows a depth of knowledge not only about the show, but even about the Hentai Dojinshi that particular figure is based on.
Okumura is impressed by her knowledge, and silently agrees with her, but he's still desperate to find a way to drive her off. In the meantime, she has an attack of embarrassment for talking about how sexy the character would be. They then launch into impassioned explanations about why they love the character, and Okumura is taken aback that anyone could love Liliel as much as he does, let alone a girl, but she caps it off by saying she wants to BE Liliel.
They gush over the old OVA, both screaming over what appears to be Liliel's death (it's only temporary, she comes back as an angel). Then Ririsa confides in him, asking if he could help with a weird hobby she has (wait, she's got one weirder than this?). She opens her backpack and pulls out a collection of CosRoms, Cosplay ROMs (DVDs full of pictures and video). She confesses that she wants to make one. She has always loved sexy costumes and imagined herself wearing them. She never told anyone until she wandered into her first convention and saw so many cosplayers, and women loving them too. (Until she got kicked out for being underaged). She asks him if he'll be the photographer - since she doesn't trust the usual photographers you'd find online - and says she wants to make a CosRom of Liliel.
So he relents. He allows her to join the club, and says that Cosplay is part of Manga Fandom, and swears that she doesn't have to worry about him because he has no interest in 3D girls, and Liliel is his Waifu. He realizes that gender aside, she's a true Otaku, and they have plenty in common.
And then... she starts stripping right there in the club room. Mind you, the room is on the first floor, and has a giant window looking out into the commons, which has no curtains (that's how she saw the Liliel posters on the wall when she was there to take her entrance exam). Thinking fast, Okumura drags a freestanding whiteboard in front of the window. She changes, and tells him it's okay to look. The music surges, he turns around, and is literally blown away by the sight of his dream girl given form.
And then, just as he manages to calm himself down, she shows off how accurate her costume is by showing off her panties... totally obliviously....
When he comes to, she's holding a cold cloth to his head while giving him a thigh pillow, still in costume. He then concludes that 2.5D Girls are worth giving a try.
The next day he gets to educate her about a rare OVA that she was never able to get, and play the game together, and he realizes it's great to have a friend to share his passion with, even if she is a filthy girl.
And then she shows off more costumes for him....
And you know, even though this is never going to stand up to My Dress-up Darling, it's actually not bad.
Even if it does get a little shouty in spots. Something you have to accept in anime, I guess.
Even if it does get a little shouty in spots. Something you have to accept in anime, I guess.
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July 04, 2024
Mid-life Adventuring Crisis
Continuing the trend of stealing short titles from .clue. Because we ain't got time to keep typing Shinmai Ossan Boukensha, Saikyou Party ni Shinu hodo Kitaerarete Muteki ni Naru or "The Ossan Newbie Adventurer, Trained to Death by the Most Powerful Party, Became Invincible".
My god, that is the WORST OP song I have ever heard fifteen seconds of. Even muted, there were at least three WTF reactions elicited from me.... Fantasy world building, with RPGs, missile launchers, and a rocket powered scooter? I'm not sure a busty dark elf maid with really stickin'-out ears can redeem this.... But let's continue.
I'm sure the loli demon/succubus is going to annoy the fuck out of me.
Guild headquarters... that's a LOT of alcohol on the wall. Our Hero Rick is there to take his E-rank test, and look, it's his old co-worker, Nami from One-Piece! And a drunken adventurer is hitting on her! Oh No! And... nothing of note happens. He passes out before he gets a well-deserved beating from either of them. (Only it turns out later he laid a hurt on the guy without anyone noticing.)
But just as well, Reanette, the busty dark elf maid is outside waiting for him. We can tell because it takes quite a while for the camera to move up and show her face, concentrating on her more distinctive features instead.
Don't worry, he doesn't linger on it long before he stares at her tits again, and she calls him on it. I'm sure this is the start of a running gag. Or limping. There isn't any budget for Gainaxing, alas.
So, Testing sequence. Hey, it's the magic measuring crystal ball from the last show making another appearance. And the same gag about it cracking. Although our hero Rick measures an F-. Clearly there's something afoot magically.
At the punching bag test, enter antagonist #1, the Duke's 11 year old son who is tremendously full of himself. He casts a fireball that is barely a damp fizzle, and everyone's impressed. Then we cut to a flashback of Rick getting chased down by a bus-sized fireball the loli shoots at him for training.
The gimmick should be pretty obvious at this point. His trainers were so over the top that while he thinks he barely measures up to them, he's light years past everyone else. So when he goes to punch the green slime bag, after training fifty-thousand punches on a GOLD slime bag, he annihilates it, and the wall, and covers every horrified person in the room with slime. Same kind of thing with defensive magic. And then he aces a written test because he was a Guild Receptionist.
When Antagonist #1 finds him outside on a bench with Reanette, he starts crying about how he was supposed to make a fantastic debut and Rick ruined it by outshining him. Enter Antagonist #2, his big sister Angelica, who blames him for making Freed cry. (The smirk on his face when she turns on him makes it look like it was an act.) She challenges Rick to a duel. You can guess where this is going.
Yeah, she's overconfident, being the Royal Knights equivalent of a B-rank adventurer. She proposes that the loser be the other's slave for life. Rick is intimidated, still not believing in his own strength. Her skill is super speed, which seems molasses slow to him. He keeps dodging her attack until she trips on a rock and stumbles, and her spinning "attack" as she tumbles impresses him, although he still dodges it. The next time she trips and slides at his feet, he punches the ground and leaves a substantial crater. She realizes that if that had connected, it would be game over, so she surrenders. And then backs out of her promise by running away, at speed.
Okay, hopefully they've used up this joke by the end of this episode. We get it, he thinks he's e-rank, but he's actually a monster. Enough already.
Reanette is basically a piece of furniture, delivering supporting lines and has the camera focused on her bust about as much as her face is shown. She's busty, sure, but there's not enough there there to make her a character worth following. She's barely animated at all. But then, nobody seems to be. She doesn't move enough to dislodge a single hair, let alone jiggle.
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Isekai Cheat Yada-Yada
I think J. Greely's short title is a worthwhile substitution for Hazurewaku no "Joutai Ijou Skill" de Saikyou ni Natta Ore ga Subete wo Juurin suru made. AKA "Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells" That shit's just WAY too long.
It might have some interesting secondary characters joining the Protagonist's party. We've already seen a preview of a big tiddy elf with slightly less ridiculous elf ears (Nice change). But the first episode is there just to make you hate everything and everyone in the show. It's a bold strategy Cotton, lets see if it pays off for 'em.
I wasn't sure what to say about it until I just had a revelation:
This is a grown up version of Shinka no Mi: Shiranai Uchi ni Kachigumi Jinsei, AKA "The Fruit of Evolution: Before I Knew It, My Life Had It Made". You know, with the fat kid who gets no powers when the whole class is abducted to be heroes (And then they get fucked over by the king). Hopefully the elf is smarter than the pink gorilla who turns into a girl. We'll probably have to wait for the second episode to see if there is a plot to abuse the rest of the class.
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Boku no Tsuma wa Kanjou ga Nai - Ep. 01
Here's an idea for a potentially lethal Anime Drinking Game.
- Watch Boku no Tsuma wa Kanjou ga Nai
- Every time Takuma pounds a beer. Match him.
- Flip a coin:
- Heads: Hit on an inanimate object.
- Tails: Die of alcohol poisoning.
Seriously, instead of cute it's just sad. Hopefully it gets over this when they introduce other characters. Of course, I'm only 14 minutes in so far.
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June 29, 2024
Tonari no Youkai-san ep 12 - 13
Feh, the most common cop-out, Everything goes white with all the characters floating around, and then they somehow fix everything by the power of heart (or in this case Kotodama).
So I checked AnimeChart, and there is one more episode to go. Good thing too, because it looks like the end of the world.
The rift has let "Oni" through from an alternate, nullified dimension. They are hollow shells, but deadly beasts as well. But even worse, this is having an negative effect on certain types of the Youkai, basically cancelling out the magic that is required to keep them alive.
There is reference to a similar event 500 years in the past, when the Tengu who taught Jiro's grandfather how to do the Tengu thing sacrificed himself to close a rift. The question I have is that if Jiro has to do the same thing, will he find a way to live through it? And how much will Mu-chan cry before he turns out to be alive?
Feh, the most common cop-out, Everything goes white with all the characters floating around, and then they somehow fix everything by the power of heart (or in this case Kotodama).
But for a while there things looked heavily fucked. Youkai and Ayashi were keeling over left and right. Wagen-san turned back into an ordinary car, Bucchio turned back into a dead cat. It was grim as hell.
But then everything went back to normal-ish, because the kids in the white space remembered everyone (or was it just everyone who counted?). There was still some permanent damage and a few didn't make it.
Cop out ending with tear-jerking disaster? Yeah, but that's what you have to do to wrap up a slice of life show with no antagonists. Because real life doesn't follow the Hero's Journey or any other story pattern.
Still have no idea what those small fans on the power poles were. Way too small for any significant power generation.
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June 18, 2024
Just when you think
that Tonari no Youkai-san is just gonna be a slice of life in a slightly different world, BAM, a crack opens across the sky as the barrier between parallel worlds fails.
It's episode 11, so I'm sure that will close right up.
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June 15, 2024
Stacked
Second chapter of my Dr. Mauser work in progress (or first real chapter if you count the Prologue from last month separately) is up on Substack. I figure if I post one a month, I will run out soon enough to be shamed into getting back to work on it.
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Kaiju No. 8
It's such a cliche. It was inevitable, Kafka has to reveal himself to prevent everyone from being nuked after they've all been thoroughly trounced by a level 9 Kaiju. And when the dust settles, the captain doesn't recognize him as Kafka Hibino any more, only as Kaiju No. 8. And pulls out her sidearm to arrest him.
Mind you, he's been read as a level 9.8 Kaiju. He just STOOD there and shielded everyone from the equivalent of a 20 k-ton nuke. WTF is she thinking that popgun will do to him? Hurt his feelings? (Well, it probably would.)
Hey, lets ignore the fact that in every single sighting of No. 8 he has been benign, and has helped and rescued people. Let's ignore that he just saved all your asses. And lets ignore, Captain, that you personally knew him before this Kaiju ever appeared, which should make it clear that he's Kafka first.
Nah, we've gotta play it this way.
Seriously, at this point the cards are on the table, can people just TALK for once?
Oh, next episode is 11. Yeah, I guess they'll talk it out a bit, then a bit more, then have a bureaucratic battle with superiors who don't understand... and end episode 12 with a freeze-frame of everyone going into battle.
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June 12, 2024
What part of No doesn't Microsoft Understand?
All of them, apparently.
Got home from work today to my computer's lock screen. That doesn't happen too often with the new build, thankfully. I logged in and was greeted by Windows asking me to upgrade to Win 11. The options for Yes right now and Yes in a little while were way on the other side of the screen from "Keep Windows 10." but at least it wasn't as hidden as last time. And then you had to say No again.
I'm sure I will have many more opportunities to decline opening up my computer to their data miners in the future.
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May 27, 2024
Musically....
Of all the shows I've been watching this season, Shuumatsu Train Doko e Iku? has had the most memorable theme music. Urusei Yatsura traditionally has a few bangers in their soundtrack as well, but I'm not up to the current season yet.
MediaHuman has a free YouTube to MP3 utility (As well as a video player that lets you avoid the ads, and a non-free video downloader). I fired it up on these videos, which are nice in that they have translated lyrics:
Or is that TRAINSlated? :-)
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