For Steven
If he ever comes by, these are from Accel World episode 6. The woman is "Aqua Current", who helps our pudgy hero when he spends too many points leveling up and is at risk of getting knocked out of the game.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at December 31, 2013 03:42 AM (PiXy!)
2
It is definitely reminding me of what I hate about arena combat anime, and really forced harem elements. But I do like the character designs. A third of the way in though, and they're already adding more rules to cover the fundamental errors in the design. They added factions based on colors (colors being related to the area of strength the game avatars (which are different from the VR avatars show above)) and when the red "queen" wants to track down Cartman, I mean, Haru, she blows through 200 points just trying to start matches against everyone coming out of his school in order to find out his real world ID. The whole business of her arc just breaks believability.
Posted by: Mauser at December 31, 2013 04:47 AM (TJ7ih)
3
Oh jeez, and now in episode 10, they REALLY stuck a fork in it. Each player is only licensed to bring in ONE new player as a "Child" on their license (and so on). So, as players get knocked out of the game, that says to me it would REALLY tail off, worse that the "Ocampa" (The "prey" species Kes was a member of on Voyager) that could only reproduce once, bearing one child. Gan you say geometric regression? Where'd the initial population come from?
Plus, the installation can fail, blowing your one install. Anime Writers are not good at math.
Posted by: Mauser at December 31, 2013 05:03 AM (TJ7ih)
4
Ah, they finally figured out a way to add Gil farming to it. reaching level 4, you can hunt NPC monsters for about 10 points each on a special field that costs 10 to go into.
But that doesn't solve the population decline issue they added.
If Black Lotus weren't so cute, I would have not made it this far.
Posted by: Mauser at December 31, 2013 05:27 AM (TJ7ih)
5
I had great hopes for Accel World, but only survived 3 episodes. It was an uncomfortable watch and I wasn't in the mood.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at December 31, 2013 07:42 AM (RqRa5)
6
Weird how they dropped Aqua Current after the arc. She could have been a good ally.
I saw it through the end but the final arc really dragged. They then finished the arc in a flourish. Not very good arc management.
Posted by: topmaker at January 01, 2014 09:58 AM (2yZsg)
7
Oh, and what do you guys use for screen grabs like the above? Does it work with DVD/BD or just online viewing?
Posted by: topmaker at January 01, 2014 09:59 AM (2yZsg)
8
The image capture is the ctrl-I feature of Media Player Classic (MPC-HC) I use it with downloaded videos (.mkv, .mp4, .avi), It might work with DVD's, I haven't really tried in a long time. It doesn't do streaming that I know of.
I actually edited the key to take off the Control. It used to capture without subtitles whether they were there or not, now it does, and I have to turn them off if they obscure the pic.
I'm only up to episode 14 so far.
Posted by: Mauser at January 01, 2014 10:41 AM (TJ7ih)
9
Thanks for the capture advice. I will try it out, but my computer is so old right now I have difficulty with anything larger than a 480.mkv. Your images are so clear they must be larger than that.
I hope I didn't spoil too much if you are at ep 14. I can say I am glad I watched it through.
Posted by: topmaker at January 01, 2014 04:48 PM (2yZsg)
10
Computer hardware is so cheap these days, it's easy to get one that will support full 1080p. You'll be glad you upgraded.
Posted by: Mauser at January 01, 2014 07:04 PM (TJ7ih)
11
Yeah, not too thrilled with the final arc, and I'm utterly unsatisfied with the final disposition of the bad guy (Aside from the logical holes in the wrap up one could throw a oh, I dunno, Blog through).
Posted by: Mauser at January 05, 2014 01:21 AM (TJ7ih)
12
I tghought the series was worth a watch, but it seemed better in the exposition and the first half than the second. Too bad.
Another downer for me in the last arc is they employ a technique that truly repulses me:
The use or threat of blackmail or other sexual exploitation. This is both in the threat to the childhood friend as well as framing the MC with the locker room camera. Not to mention that the childhood friend can act as a witness to the bad guy's confession, and add that he threatened her with blackmail. I know that would expose the game, but she was not into the game that much anyway, and the bad guy stood more to lose than they did. I know it is used a lot, but that is one area that gets a revulsion out of me, even compared to barbarity and etc.
Posted by: topmaker at January 05, 2014 09:35 AM (2yZsg)
13
I guess part of the problem that allows that kind of exploitation to work is Japanese culture. While Cartman, er, Haru might not have the chops to take out that asshole himself, the first thing I'd be doing is figuring out a way to ambush him and beat the ever-loving fuck out of him, and promise more if said blackmail material ever comes to light.
Story-wise, I can kind of understand why they'd want to take the single strongest chess piece off the board to develop the other characters, but frankly, I would much rather see the princess than the fat boy. She really was quite lovely.
(Although if you do the math, she apparently got started in Burst Link when she was 7! And reached the top rank by 13!)
Posted by: Mauser at January 05, 2014 07:20 PM (TJ7ih)
Mauser
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