In an attempt to force myself to actually put content up on this blog more than once or twice a year, I’ve decided to start actually writing a bit about anime that I finish. This is sort of continuing along the same theme that I started when talking about Slayers Next about a year ago. This is actually the third one of these I’ve started, but this time I’m finishing the bastard off.
I’m not interested really in summarising what I’m talking about or anything, since it’s not like there aren’t dozens of blogs who post summaries and have much better (and less lazy) writers. Not to mention that summary info can generally be found on ANN or Wikipedia or the like. I’ve also got no intention of holding off on spoilers. I assume if you’re bothering to read my long-winded bullshit then you’re actually familiar with the anime at hand, or if not, you don’t care.
Continue reading ‘Closing Thoughts: Kaze no Stigma’
I really want to support initiatives like Crunchyroll and stuff, especially with the way their lineup has been expanding lately, but I find that I just really, really hate watching stuff streamed. It seems frightfully inconvenient and annoying to me, and I’d much rather have local copies. Partially this is because of Australia having anal data usage caps, and decent quality streamed anime chews that up quite quickly, especially if you accidentally navigate away from the page etc and it’s got to start over. I also like to be able to tinker, extract specific frames, etc. While it’s easy enough to save the CR video stream to disk, they make it annoyingly difficult (requiring reverse engineering some DRM) to get hold of the subs they stream which makes it pretty much hopeless. Worse, it often seems like I’m the only person on the planet who really dislikes watching anime in a browser window. I feel like I’ve been left behind and this is one of those generational gap things and I’m one of those angry old dudes yelling at the damn kids to get off his lawn.
Nagi pointed this out to me while looking at some of the new squenix game screens released just recently.
Coincidence, or something more sinister?
Just wanting to get a bit of a show of interest here. A while back I attempted to write down the process that I go through to complete a vector, since at the time people were asking me about it. Assuming I get around to making another one some time soon, I was considering recording what I do via a screencasting program. That way I can demonstrate the steps while actually narrating it and you can listen to my sexy Australian accent* and stuff. I think that given what we’re talking about, having someone demonstrate and explain what they’re doing is probably far more valuable than having it written down. Probably make it easier for people who actually know what they’re doing to tell me how shit I am at it too.
* technically my accent is a blend of New Zealand and Australian and I sound very boring
So I was reading this entry at ANN, specifically Enoki Films ‘presenting’ Slayers R, the imminent new Slayers show. Now, putting aside that I thought Enoki had been dead for years and the implication that this show might actually have been pre-emptively licensed, the ‘plot summary’ really grabbed me.
Part I - Episodes #1-#13
The story unfolds in the usual pattern with Lina involved in a fight with bandits in the woods. Gourry arrives to her rescue and escorts her to Atlas City. Lina and Gourry struggle to defeat Rezo the Red Monk, who has awakened as the Demon King after finding the Stone of the Wise. Lina is interested in Gourry’s sword, the “Sword of Light” and allows him to accompany her after leaving Atlas City.
Amelia and Xellos the Priest join Lina and Gourry and they encounter many weird incidents relating to the Demon Tribe. Lina realizes it’s because the weapon she used to defeat Rezo, “the Giga Slave”, is empowered by tremendous forces. Hellaster Fibrizo takes Gourry as a hostage and demands that Lina give him the Power – Giga Slave. Can Lina defeat this powerful enemy and save Gourry?
Wow. Just wow. We’ve waited what, ten whole fucking years since Slayers Try, and they’re going to piss away the first half of this by summarising the first eight novels again just so they can retcon Slayers Try out of existence? What the hell? I want to believe that I’m reading this wrong and there’s no way they’d try to condense something that took maybe 45 episodes (when you cut away the filler) into the space of only 13? For the love of god, why? Sure, they changed a few things towards the end of Next in order to fit Try in, but why can’t this just make a few small changes and continue as if Try never happened?
I hope this doesn’t mean that they’re trying to pitch Slayers at a brand new audience rather than the sizeable existing one. That could bode very, very badly for the characters - the last thing I’d want to watch would be Lina reduced to a tsundere moeblob.
Guess we’ll have to wait and see. This news knocked my interest down significantly, though.