Since I never finished watching the first series, and the second was coming out, I powered through it this weekend. It was actually pretty good for a Mecha show, with some interesting side stories that come from the setting (A colony seed ship passing through territory infested with the same monsters that destroyed the Earth, and no compunctions by the leadership against a little genetic engineering on the population.) There are of course, those moments where you facepalm over physics (They have artificial gravity, but maneuvering with the main thrusters is not compensated for). But the MC, while a bit confused at first because he was virtually a bubble boy - raised in the catacombs beneath the city with no companionship but the flight simulator and his grandfather, the best fighter in history and the man he was cloned from - is not some ball of angst like most leads in a mecha show. He gets past his cluelessness, except about girls, and the not-quite-a-girl who really likes him (genetic engineering, again).

But the interesting thing I just ran across is this.  Here's an image generated with the character models on Deviant Art. Apparently the producers of the show have released some of the character models, with armatures, compatible with Blender, at sidonia-3dmodel.com. I haven't tried to navigate the site yet, but I will. Because Thigh Boots.

Posted by: Mauser at 11:38 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 230 words, total size 2 kb.

Just saw a trailer for a Live Action Attack on Titan. Annoyingly, Facebook doesn't show YouTube links, so I couldn't find it off the cuff like this comment, but if this sounds like your thing, it's out there.

ETA: Found it:

Posted by: Mauser at 04:24 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 80 words, total size 1 kb.

Over on my writing blog, I've written a post about the Hugo voting system and a possible improvement. One that isn't quite as politically targeted and mathematically incomprehensible as what they're discussing over at Making Light.

Posted by: Mauser at 05:04 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 43 words, total size 1 kb.

One of the most irritating things about trying to follow anime (Aside from not having enough time to watch it (Damned mandatory overtime and higher priority household chores)) is that since it's an unpaid fan activity, well, it's not always reliable.

And man, when it comes to unreliable fansub groups, can I pick 'em or what?

I'm especially good at picking groups that start off strong, get the A+ rating, and then fall apart three episodes before the end, when you're entirely invested in their version of things. Given my download speeds, invested is a carefully chosen word. (I have found some tricks, like changing my port to 80, since my ISP would DIE if they blocked web traffic, but since UDP port 80 is reserved for their network management, it kills a lot of trackers, unless I start on a random port then switch over after I've got enough peers. I have graphs that are appalling proof of their practice, just waiting for the FCC.).

It's probably more prevalent on shows that HorribleSubs is also running.  My latest ire is directed at DameDameDesuYo, for their slow releases of Junketsu no Maria. Episode 10 just came out. everyone else is up to 12. But everyone else is HorribleSubs, and all the groups that re-encode HorribleSubs. (I really don't get the point of that).

The shows that I've been downloading, but not watching as loyally, they're finishing up on time.

Before, it's been Commie that drives me up the wall. But whatever it is, I just have this uncanny ability to hitch my wagon to the slowest mule.

Updated to add: DDY came though, and I just got the last couple of episodes. Maria had a happy ending. In fact, everyone had a happy ending, it was almost too pat, how it all got wrapped up. But actually, I was satisfied with it. Definitely not a typical story. I'm not entirely sure how to approach the write-up.

Posted by: Mauser at 04:11 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 331 words, total size 2 kb.