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Oddjob OTP said:
Pretty sure that's Uncharted Waters New Horizons (but it a goofy style not used in the game) which was a pretty cool "Koei tries to make Sid Meyer's Pirates" game on like DOS/Win 95. Story and combat was absolute ass
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I resent that, it's one of my favorite games, at least from childhood. I played it on the SNES tho, so there may be some differences. Still, it was great, you had six characters to choose from, depending on what kind of role you wanted to play, from trader to pirate to explorer to pirate hunter. Each had a storyline that intertwined with the others. It had this really cool system where you'd discover natural and cultural wonders from all over the world (some a bit anachronistic tho), and some storylines even led to a big battle outside the Lost City of El Dorado. It also had a full world economy system, with different places having different products at different prices for buying and selling, It had sea battles, sword duels, customizable ships, sailing logistics, etc. Of course it's all a bit primitive because it's a fuckoff old game, but it was great for its time.

I've been desperate for something that scratches that itch ever since; AC Black Flag came close in some aspects, but all the Assassin shit sucked. Also I know the Uncharted Waters series continues to this day, but it's all MMOs, and I think even the New Horizons remake was some kind of NFT/AI cashgrab.
Premium Gonzo said:
Fuck didn't they just have a big gig a couple of months ago?
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They'd been touring (Japan only I think) for like a whole year, so maybe they decided to stick it out until the concerts were done. In any case, they had their last concert, playing all deep cuts and no famous hits, and announced the break up the next day. It was really abrupt, at least outwardly.

And the announcement even says something like "don't get any hopes of a reunion", so something must have been quite rotten in there.
 
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Nick Obre said:
I resent that, it's one of my favorite games, at least from childhood. I played it on the SNES tho, so there may be some differences. Still, it was great, you had six characters to choose from, depending on what kind of role you wanted to play, from trader to pirate to explorer to pirate hunter. Each had a storyline that intertwined with the others. It had this really cool system where you'd discover natural and cultural wonders from all over the world (some a bit anachronistic tho), and some storylines even led to a big battle outside the Lost City of El Dorado. It also had a full world economy system, with different places having different products at different prices for buying and selling, It had sea battles, sword duels, customizable ships, sailing logistics, etc. Of course it's all a bit primitive because it's a fuckoff old game, but it was great for its time.
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Nah if you were playing it you were playing for trading/exploration. Combat was an idle game where the 9 other AI controlled ships in your fleet did whatever. Dueling was ass but admittedly I can remember nothing about it because I last played... ehh 20 years ago. Stories were fetch quests and were so tied to the character's trope that you could anticipate every story beat. It was a fuck off old game but it was Japanese Pirates Gold and had worse combat and that's the scale I'm rating it on.
Nick Obre said:
I've been desperate for something that scratches that itch ever since; AC Black Flag came close in some aspects, but all the Assassin shit sucked. Also I know the Uncharted Waters series continues to this day, but it's all MMOs, and I think even the New Horizons remake was some kind of NFT/AI cashgrab.
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Well, I know of two Uncharted Waters-likes I put some time into. Both have fantasy settings and procedurally generated maps so if historical setting is a requirement they won't satisfy.

It's airships flavored and it doesn't take very long (I spent exactly 10 hours on it and got all the achievements) but it's very good at trading and decent at everything else.


I'd say it's even glaringly more UC-like in most ways but thankfully it's more of a FFT like in combat with a fairly deep class system I plan to come back to it at some point. But I did fuck off somewhere in the middle and I recall it was because I felt forced into a rep grind for story purposes.

For completeness sake I'll mention:
Kind of shit, it's designed to be a weird single/multiplayer Pirates! with MMO-style gear scaling for some reason.
 
Bit of a swerve, but it's the birthday of this VA:

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Say whatever you want about the shows that she's in, she does not give a single bad performance.
 
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WelperHelper99 said:
Wait, Japan got a Megatron VA for Beast Wars- Beast Wars got dubbed into Japanese???
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Yeah, Japan got all the original Western TF shows. They even got the Marvel comics. Japanese Beast Wars is interesting because they made a gag dub, which is why Beast Wars II, Neo, and RID2001 (which is the distant future of Japanese Beast Wars) are very comedic. Japanese Transformers dubs tend to be opposite the original tone -- Animated was super serious and dark in Japanese (hence its great JAM Project OP), and Prime was another gag dub.
 
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HexFag said:
It's crazy that Shigeru Chiba's best performance is a literal filler character. Happy birthday to a great VA.
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Which one? Is it Megane from Urusei Yatsura who technically did appear in an early chapter in the manga but whose role was greatly expanded in the anime?

Megane being a major supporting character is one of the main reasons why I prefer the classic Urusei Yatsura anime over the original manga. I always thought that Megane was a much more interesting friend/antagonist classmate compared to Mendou.

LightDragonman1 said:
Bit of a swerve, but it's the birthday of this VA:

View attachment 6937719
Say whatever you want about the shows that she's in, she does not give a single bad performance.
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It's been over 16 years since Kannagi first aired (autumn 2008) and I'm still wishing that it could get a second season (there's enough manga left for three more 12 or 13 episode seasons).
 
sasazuka said:
Which one? Is it Megane from Urusei Yatsura who technically did appear in an early chapter in the manga but whose role was greatly expanded in the anime?

Megane being a major supporting character is one of the main reasons I prefer the classic Urusei Yatsura anime over the original manga. I always thought that Megane was a much more interesting friend/antagonist classmate compared to Mendou.
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Yes it is Megane. He's easily one of the best characters in the original and I don't think he would be nearly as popular if it weren't for Chiba's excellent voice work. It's still crazy to me that the Lum's Stormtroopers are mainly an anime original thing because Oshii and the team thought it'd be funny.
 
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I watched Mars of Destruction, and between this and Skelter Heaven, I can't honestly say that Idea Factory is this god-awful anime studio responsible for the worst anime in existence. I didn't really find any issues with Skelter Heaven (in fact, the robots with angel wings that are actually blades were pretty cool, and bonus for having a launch sequence), and the only real issue with Mars of Destruction is that it used Barber of Seville during a serious action sequence (though I'm willing to go easy on that and say it's because of budgetary issues). Mars of Destruction has some cool stuff too, like the power armour and how the power armour guy rises out of a truck like in Tetsujin FX, and it has an interesting backstory as well (so does Skelter Heaven, but Mars of Destruction's is cooler). The main issues people seem to have with these Idea Factory anime are the low-budget animation, but budget doesn't mean much for quality -- I'd much rather watch Skelter Heaven and Mars of Destruction than the latest MAPPA junk, and these Idea Factory things arguably have better stories than Demon Slayer or Chainsaw Man or whatever. The other thing these OVAs have going for them is that they take themselves seriously and aren't annoying, and that's something you'd be hard-pressed to find in a lot of anime today. Maybe I'm okay with these Idea Factory things because of their short length, in which case I must ask what their longer OVAs like Generation of Chaos are like aside from "LOL low budget plus Idea Factory". I guess I'll watch Panzer Dragoon next; I think I read a manga based on a similar video game a while ago and that was cool.
 
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HexFag said:
Yes it is Megane. He's easily one of the best characters in the original and I don't think he would be nearly as popular if it weren't for Chiba's excellent voice work. It's still crazy to me that the Lum's Stormtroopers are mainly an anime original thing because Oshii and the team thought it'd be funny.
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I can't find a clip of it but I really love the scene in Urusei Yatsura episode 10, "PItter Patter Christmas Eve",, when Megane is ranting about Ataru not being suitable for Lum where the visuals are quick cuts of Megane and the Stormtroopers/Lum's Guard eating at six different kinds of fast food establishments (three of which seem to be ramen shops).

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(By the way, in case it's not too obvious, the "Taco" stand is serving takoyaki, fried and breaded octopus balls, not "taco" as in the Mexican-American food with seasoned meat in a tortilla shell.)

Here's. a clip of Megane's tyrannical laugh from later on in the same episode.


 
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Betonhaus said:
Question. is the reason why Uma Musume Cinderella Gray has a perfect score on MyAnimeList is because of the Yakuza? I'm aware that the Yakuza is why there has never been pornographic fan fiction of the original series
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That's pretty funny, but in all fairness, if otaku degenerates really want horsegirl porn, Monster Musume is open to it.
 
Kari Kamiya said:
That's pretty funny, but in all fairness, if otaku degenerates really want horsegirl porn, Monster Musume is open to it.
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If you go horsegirl might as well do centaurs. But it does raise the notion that if men in nice suits would beat the shit out of anyone releasing porn of underage characters the world would have been a better place.
 
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Hammr2 said:
I feel like you may wanna watch the movie real slow again, instead of being a "Florida man".
Anime itself is Mononoke (vengeful spirit), not Kusuriuri (medicine seller). So I don't agree on Mad Max comparison. Beside whole incident is in women area of the regional Lord palace. It isn't like kusuriuri himself can be main story telling perspective or being that active in first half of story. As you said, it's only first part of trilogy, there are still more things not explain in that weird place. The whole shrine, the well and maybe more inner palace politics.

You may lay off culture war or whatever Western internet thinking. Just because two people of the same sex hold dear to each other, that doesn't mean they are gay to each other. And "stronk women". Apparently it's really that unrealistic for women to pursue a proper occupation. If somehow Asa can write, read and put way more effort in her job than other maid not convincing enough in era where being literate is a minority. Try watching again around 29 minutes in, head maid Utayama compliments Asa not being an ordinary new - un experience maid.
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Also, entire movie repeats a few times, everyone at Ooku is preparing for the Birth Celebratory Ceremony. New women (with proper pass) go there starting as servants first. Beautiful ones manage to caught attention of the Lord, then they likely go up their rank to concubine. Having some form of royal connection will make it easier. Others with less so beauty prove their talent and become head maids instead. For sake of simplicity, anime already has the Lord having eight concubines already (three in the movie) and not so much looking for new one.
I'm not sure why you'd even complaining about Asa wanting to be a scribe - head maid instead of concubine, literally 20 minutes in and at 33 minute in the movie. Movie length is 1 hour 30. I guess you don't really want any explanation for Asa motivation either or slowly teasing about Kitagawa.

The rest of movie is literally just jealousy between head maids, finding out secrets in Ooku and the slow ramping up of Mononoke due to how much Asa is almost walking in the same path of old scribe lady Kitagawa. Sacrificing friendship or "human compassion" for work.
I can give you with maybe the story being kinda lenient on Kame (womanchild) not cutting out to work in Ooku and monster fight is being try hard flashy.
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Nah, i'll just watch better movies. You should too. And typically people develop out of needing the name if the series to be the name of the MC around elementary school. Tell me, who do you think is the main character of Neon Genesis Evangelion? The gas, the Bible book, or the religious movement?

The medicine peddler is clearly the main character of the series. And the movie, being both the first piece of mononoke media in a while and the beginning of a trilogy, utterly failed to reintroduce him to audience. He spends half the movie literally sitting out of the plot, and the other half staring at scales. He doesn't interact with anyone except the gate guard who is a non-entity. Then he just spouts out his backstory when he draws the sword? It's such a poor and clunky way to handle exposition. How is the audience supposed to be excited for the second movie in his trilogy when even the writers don't care about him in the first?
Hammr2 said:
You may lay off culture war or whatever Western internet thinking. Just because two people of the same sex hold dear to each other, that doesn't mean they are gay to each other.
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Oh, you're one of those people who pretends not to see this stuff. All those scenes of the two main girls tangled up under the covers, fingers intertwined, blushing, talking about how much they mean to each other were totally platonic, and us gaijin could just never understand. You can't even argue that they're good friends. By the time Asa is telling Kitagawa that Kame is her "most precious thing in the world" they've only known each other for 2- 2 1/2 days.

And I'm calling out Asa yapping about her wanting to be a scribe because she did it DURING ORIENTATION, not 15 minutes after she walked in, talking back to her orientation lead, her supervisor, AND the head of the Ooku. She wouldve realistically been thrown out on the spot if the entire movie didn't revolve around her like a black hole. Her being able to read and write shouldn't matter. It's the Ooku, the place where the top 10% of japanese women go. Everyone there is expected to be the best of the best. Hell, even Kame can do it.

And that's a huge problem with the plot: the hyper focus on Asa. There's huge emphasis that the Ooku has super deep political intrigue, as much as the shogunate. But none of that happens. Asa arrives, all of her superiors and political rivals get killed by the mononoke within 3 days, and she becomes the head scribe and presumably the head maid with no one so much as batting an eyelid or asking questions.

The plot needed trimming down, and a refocus from Asa to characters with actual personality. Kame should've been the main pov character with a desire to be head scribe (her inexperience makes her an audience surrogate, she has an actual character arc, it would've explained her connection to the mononoke, and would explain why shes good at calligraphy). Asa and Kitagawa should've been the same character. Currently kitagawa has almost no presence in the movie. She has two scenes before the big reveal. By giving her all of Asa's scenes it fleshes out the mononoke and makes the audience actually care when it's exorcised, y'know, like in the anime. The medicine peddler should've been with the two shogunate samurai when they were conducting their investigation of the Ooku. This would've given him a bigger role in the movie and more opportunities to interact with the cast and the audience. Ffs, the movie takes place in a women's only location and no one even mentions that he's wearing women's clothes. Have the gateguard yell at him assuming he's trying to sneak in or something at least.

I stand by my original assertion that the movie is a massive disappointment.
 
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