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CountVonNumenor

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Everything posted by CountVonNumenor

  1. Just when we thought it was over, it seems like the user likes coming back every now and then, and add a new post. For the past two months, I have forgotten to keep a log of what was going on, so I will have to catch up with everything in one post (like always, the art is still provided by siw0n, and the translations posted by The_Entire_Circus once every few days): Fox-posting galore Not gonna fall into that trap, bunny I guess Christmas was rough for someone The WHAT? [bat bonk] No horny... Obligation chocolate... ouch Nice to see Koishi has such a caring older sister
  2. Besides the obvious "I would not have given green light to that game to begin with"... The game has been up for almost three years (counting the original server), and there seems to be no sign it will die soon. Which is a paradox, given the fate of the previous Touhou mobile games (Cannonball and DanKagu). However, for as long as LostWord has been up, especially after getting a global server, there have been numerous complains about the nature of this mobile game and the way it has been run. And there are some who just deny the entire existence of this game/don;t want to recognize it as part of the Touhou community as a whole. Even one of my original threads at the Shrine was one in which I was criticizing LW and the shortcomings of its systems. Only for afterwards to turn the thread into the news roundup, which lasted until January 2023. I am sorry for not having updated the news ever since, I just feel like I lost the whole drive to do that. Everything is quite stale, and outside the release of the next arc in the Beach Episode Chapter 4, there has been nothing significant going on, or worth mentioning. Therefore, the need for a fresh approach, one that can actually turn into something constructive. Here are some of my opinions on shortcomings. To be fair, I do not really have a solution for them, as much as I would like to think of one - especially when it comes to making the game profitable: the very nature of LostWord being a gacha game; we all know too well how predatory gacha tactics are the story, somewhat coherent until the first half of Chapter 3, is going off the rails in the second half of that chapter and stays so ever since in terms of coherence being a gacha game, the story can be extended indefinitely, just so you could milk the series for more money and add new OCs based on the original 2hus the very premise of the game (having a self-insert isekai protagonist who gains the trust and affection of the 2hus) and the OC (funny how the OC is a woman - not complaining about that) is way too close to other games of the kind, best examples in my mind being Azur Lane and Kantai Collection the characters are also quite shallow, relying a lot of fanon personalities and canon stuff being randomly thrown around just to look smart in a trivia section speaking of which, I have not fully checked it yet, but LW seems to be quite close to being just a clone of Azur Lane, just that with a Touhou skin and slightly less horny Fantasy Rebirth (marriage under another name) seems to also be inspired from games like AL; it is not the first Touhou fangame that introduced the concept (as far as I am aware, it existed even in older, more appreciated games like Fantasy Maiden Wars with the "wife" mechanic), but it becomes a little bit questionable at points - overall not my cup of tea, but some costumes do look cute the game system, even if having an interesting premise on the use of elements, eventually ends up in one of the two - either you just "Auto-Play"/"Auto-Replay" because of boy, THE GRIND NEVER ENDS, or ends up in the creation of new, stronger units for stupidly hard challenges and on the same line, since we have a gacha, you always need to push out new content; and that is not not an easy task, given this game is an adaptation of an already established series, you can pull just that many characters from ZUN's collection until you run out of them; also not to speak about power-creep... the game...just became boring; after almost 2 years of daily checking it out, I am not longer feeling too much excitement; it's more like a chore than anything else And probably one of the worst parts, despite being mostly a repeat of the first point, is that this is a gacha game. However, there are other problems. If it was not a gacha game, how would you have ensured the survival of the game? It eats a lot of money to be maintained, and you need a constant flow of cash to keep it going. From the stats I have seen, the situation is not really that hot, at least in terms of global server. This is the revenue situation of the game. Even with all the gacha tactics and that, it seems to be mostly in the red through last year on Global (or at least the JP players are more willing to invest money). If this game was not a gacha, I am afraid it would not have gone past the first year, and would have never come outside Japan. It is also scary to think that if a game is not a gacha, the "mobile game" industry will not provide too much revenue on that project. Some of the stats I have seen recently show that mobile games earn more income than PC and console COMBINED. And that some gacha games can earn in the tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars a single year. Therefore, I am not sure how could this game be better executed. And this is where YOU guys come in. And for that, I am launching the following question: what do you think are the greatest shortcomings of Touhou LostWord, and how would you you have created/developed this game if you were in charge of the development team?
  3. Actually, you have just given me the idea for a new thread. As it looks like my original discussion about LW seems to be mostly dead, perhaps something new could take its place. Something fresh, and constructive in its nature... On this kind of line, I have the feeling you you also don't have too high of an opinion about artist like Fusu? (don't worry, I don't think too high of him either...). You know, with turning the 2hus into generic anime girls confessing their love for you, the self-insert from whose point of view those images are built (and don't get me started on all the porn of these characters that just confessed he is drawing, still in point-of-view perspective, just that riding you or doing funny things to your manly parts) Example (of the former, of course): (I had to go through this so you don't have to) I just can't help but bring again and again the following image whenever whenever Fusu is mentioned. I think it was probably one of the best reactions from the "counter-revolution" of r/touhou in November 2021 against anything regarding both Fusu translations and those who made fun of them (everyone was just sick of what was going on, and wanted the thing to end - both the suger-coated translations of out-of-character 2hus and the parodies hat started clogging the forum). More about the author, I have talked in some previous threads, including the "Horny Touhou" trilogy and the "Return of Fusu-posting" Yeah, pretty much...
  4. I was supposed to answer this about a couple weeks ago. Hooo boy... This is something I have noticed as well. ZUN seems to be alright when it comes to writing the plot for a game. However, when the scale gets greater and in a series spanning for many years, problems start occurring. Just like you pointed out, the Human Village is a very goo example of that. I would have also talked about the lack of a unified vision in the depiction of the characters due to a great variety of artists employed to draw the 2hus, each with their own unique style, but I think I have already mentioned that in the opening post of this thread. Also yeah, Seiran and Ringo seem to be like a sore thumb in that whole "youkai come to the Village undercover" thing. And now that you mentioned Perfect Memento, ZUN WHERE IS THE THIRD VOLUME OF THE GENSOKYO CHRONICLE? WE HAVEN'T HAD A NEW ONE SINCE SYMPOSIUM OF POST-MYSTICISM, 10 YEARS AGO! As far as I am aware, CDS/FDS is an extreme mess of a manga series. From the Mokou vs Mizuchi fight chapter, all I can remember is the fact Reddit went all over the fact that we basically got the first, on-screen canon depiction of a 2hu basically topless (as Mokou's shirt burnt off, and there is nothing to be spotted underneath it - also she looks to be flat). As for the fans creating much better explanations than the author himself, I really have no words. By now, does ZUN still really care about the series? I am glad he is still making games (therefore it means he still has some interest in Touhou), and I just hope things can only get better from where we are now for as long as it will last. I am not really an expert when it comes to the field of music, but there is just one thing I can say. A lot of songs are rather forgettable to be honest, or just do not stick to my mind. To me, Touhou 16's OST is mostly a blur to me (but to be fair, that game as a whole is mostly a blur for me). At the very best, all I can add here is my list of impressions when it comes to as many songs I could remember from the series. And even there, a lot of the contributions come mostly from fan-made arrangements that I associate with that song, rather than the original theme. I have written this all the way back in June last year, when the Top 10 Original Touhou Tracks thread was going. I have written quite a bit on the topic in the past, so I will not repeat myself. Instead, I will just redirect talk towards the following threads: Yeah, it looks like I talked about it quite extensively last year... You actually caught my attention at the Suwawako part. His content is... alright at least. Probably one of the more enjoyable channels to watch that rose last year (even if my favorite still is GensouChronicle). As for his videos, I am still surprised I made a cameo in the Touhou Drama video. Or better said one of my comments from the DMCA era in regards to the Twitter vs Touhou Wiki event. Of course he had to read my comment on the voice of a stereotypical, greasy basement-dweling neckbeard out of everything... The paragraph Suwawako featured was the following one: Oh, how naive I was back then... Same. I feel like the gacha tag has been what made that game get such a bad wrap. How would you have done the game so that you could still have it reach a high audience, lack the predatory tactics of gacha, yet still be a commercial success? I feel like that is a very hard task, to which I really do not have a god answer. I am aware of the "Grimsokyo" interpretation, but what exactly do you define as moeblob? Or what sor of fan works/fanart would you count into that category? I am not very sure what to add here, especially since you have pointed it out much better than I could, and also in a much sorter way.
  5. Hello! If there is one thing I would like to ask, that would be the following: if you had the time, means and determination, what would you like to contribute to the community and world of Touhou fan-works? Alternatively: is there any topic you find more interesting when it comes to Touhou, be it related to the official works or the community? We are here to help, and have a nice chat no matter what it would be.
  6. Alright, I was supposed to write this review a long time ago. Since my previous one, I have actually finished two story arcs, so I think I will go with a double feature. It is the middle point of the season, so why not. Therefore, let's just get to the story: The Nakata Sae arc In these 4 episodes, we are getting into yet another new kind of situation. The trope is that of that os the shy girl that has to overcome her fears and get the courage to speak up (or at least just speak...). I will try to keep things short, as spoiler free as possible. There are still some things though that I can mention without giving away too much information: if people think Junichi is a perv, his younger sister Miya is not so much behind him (quite a bit of a surprise, but it was executed in a way that was rather fun) and speaking of Junichi, a series of unfortunate coincidences - some situations that are very easy to take out of context, which attracted the anger of his sister twice despite all the accidents, Junichi has good intentions, and shows one of his positive aspects through the episodes - you will see what I mean if I though there was an increase in the amount of fanservice through the Kaoru arc, this one really takes the cake with several scenes and speaking of Kaoru, she really does seem to appear in every episode at least once; same goes for Umehara - they are both Junichi's best friends, so I guess it makes sense "imagine moment" happens (with a fun answer from Junichi and Umehara afterwards): I will not give context for the following image: Keiko laughing sure is something I was not expecting to see. Looks like she has more moods than just being angsty and shy to confess her feelings... The Nanasaki Ai arc First, I would like to point out a significant change. All the way to Episode 12, we have had one intro sequence (represented in a previous review through the Keiko scene) with the song I Love by Azusa. Starting with Episode 13, there is a new intro, with the song Kimi No Mama De by the same Azusa. The original intro song The second intro song Now, for the story itself. I am not very sure where to place it in terms of reaching an archetype, but it sure is somewhere. All I would like to say, without spoiling the story, is that we start from a rather cold relation between the two characters, which is only improving through time. Also, we finally get to see another trait of Junichi - his talent at Mathematics, as well as its use for good means (he is also very good at comforting people/make them feel better). And without giving away too much of the end, I find it interesting that apparently the best and bad endings have been combined for the anime adaptation. Now for a few quick notes: I can confirm, there has been no episode as of yet to lack featuring Kaoru in any shape or another; even when you don't expect, she will be there. Guys want to check on a new librarian chick? She will come to check too. Get a hallucination where you see a gender-bent Kaoru going hand-in-hand with Keiko? You sure will get that. and speaking of Keiko again, it sure was a surprise to see her dressed in a Santa outfit (the cat in the bag is included) Maya Takahashi (the teacher) is getting more screen time; I was not expecting her to get drunk though at the students' food stalls though (show spoiler territory below) Anyway, time to go to the next arc. The story will cover Rihoko Sakurai However, there is one thing concerning me. I have heard about the reputation of this specific arc, which was apparently butchered by the network. Therefore, things will go a little different from how we got used to the formula of this show...
  7. I would like to thank everyone who has contribute to the thread as of yet. This is still open for discussion, so anyone is welcome to join the talk...
  8. I think it is also part of the fact the series started long ago. As far as I understood, it began in 1980, as part of a cultural movement in Hungary. And for a cartoon made in the Eastern Bloc before 1989, it actually does look good. Like I said, I had the Hungarian Folk Tales, Bolek and Lolek (a cartoon made in Poland in the 1960s) and Tales of Mathias Corvin as part of the old programs coming from neighboring states. They do have their own charm however. And then, there's the Soviet animeted adaptation of Treasure Island, the one that turned into a meme last summer thanks to their depiction of Dr. Livesey: It seems to be some sort of custom in our area to keep stories in their original setting, as in a way they are considered to have a timeless value. People are just not interested to adapt them to modern times, as the original setting is considered to be just as effective. Out of all the stories presented in Hungarian Folk Tales, it seems that First the Dance, Then the Feast might be the most recent story in terms of setting. There are a lot of indicators that seem to set it in the late days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire: the town hall has a picture of the Emperor, which looks like an obvious caricature of the portrait of Franz Joseph (Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary from 1848 to 1916), as well as hoisting the red-white-green flag of Hungary the Gendarmerie sent to calm the situation seems heavily inspired from the Hungarian gendarmes of early 20th century (as seen below) the troops sent to the town are obviously based on the Austro-Hungarian Army; those could be from one of the common army (K.u.K - kaiserlich und königlich) regiments, but the know on the trousers might place them as part of the Hungarian troops, the Honved (Royal Hungarian Landwehr) the double-headed King is actually quite a fun reference to the ruler of Austria-Hungary; just like I mentioned earlier, the two heads are to symbolize the two great titles of the ruler - Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, title established after the formation of Austria-Hungary in 1867 the other king seems to have a loose, extremely stylized resemblance to that of King Ferdinand of Romania and just as I mentioned in the opening post, the soldiers brought by the invading king have a very strong resemblance, even if stylized, to the Romanian uniform worn through the First World War - they even got right the unique shape of the field cap and the "petlițe" (arrows) on the collars (fun fact: the green arrows were used by the light infantry - the Vânători/Chasseurs) There is an interesting comment I have seen thrown around about this episode, but I have not managed to confirm it. There are people who say that, besides being just a simple story told by peasants to make jokes on the ruling class, it is also apparently a mockery of the Hungarian Bolshevik Revolution of 1919. Short story: Hungary became a republic when the Empire dismantled, a Bolshevik party took power due to people not being satisfied with the previous regime and several wars are triggered against the Romanians, Slovaks and Serbs in an attempt to recover lost territory. Hungary lost the war, Romanian troops occupied Budapest, and the Bolshevik regime was replaced with the rule of Admiral Horthy (which would last until late WW2). It seems to be a thing about stories from out area of Europe to have a level of violence and cruelty still maintained. Similar to many stories from the West, before they were greatly sanitized by people like the Grimm brothers, Hans Christian Andersen or Disney. I guess the Disney-ification process just never happened here. And besides morbid themes, Hungarian Folk Tales also had a few cases of nudity being presented in a children's cartoon. For that, I will just quote from TVtropes (as I can confirm after seeing said episodes): Yet just like in the case of dark themes, I find it funny how the perception of nudity in cartoons has changed. A few years ago, I was watching a very old French animated series for kids - Il était une fois...l'Homme (Once Upon a Time...Man). The cartoon, or better said the original series from 1978 (it got several reboots and spin-offs in the 1990s and then in the 2000s), was basically a recap of world history up until that point. For me, it will probably remain best known for the intro, always in the music of Bach. That also featured a large amount of nudes, especially in the first episodes. What I find funny is that. at least in the case of Hungarian Folk Tales, there have been some issues with specific episodes when they were brought to Romania for broadcast. Again, to quote TVtropes (oh, also a fragment about gypsies/Romani I really forgot about): Anyway, fun times and most likely a perception that has greatly changed at local level in the past few decades. The Diligent Girl and the Lazy Girl is also a story we have in Romania, the only difference being that we have it known as Fata Babe si Fata Moșneagului. The two stories are pretty much identical. Also as a fun fact, we actually do use in common speech the metaphor "fata babei" if we are to refer to someone as being selfish and/or lazy and greedy.
  9. AMA is the short form for "Ask Me Anything". The other recent AMA I was talking about was one that I organized at the beginning of January, but I see that people started to adopt the habit, which is pretty nice. This was mine, from a month ago:
  10. I would like to open this thread in order to bring back some pleasant memories. One cartoon I've grown with was "Hungarian Folk Tales" (Povesti din folclorul maghiar). It is originally a cartoon made a few decades ago by our Hungarian neighbors, and was brought on our (Romanian) television in the early 2000s (the animated series itself started in 1980, but has been going until 2011, counting an entire 9 seasons). Earlier today, after a random search on YouTube, I had the luck to get over it. Initially, I found 40 of the episodes that got translated in my language. After that, I found another set of 100 episodes in English, which was quite pleasant. If if now I'm almost 17 and in my childhood I was a great enemy of the fairy tales, I still enjoy watching them, and I like to make comparisons between Romanian and Hungarian story themes and motifs, which I find very similar in many places (probably do the geographical and cultural area where I live). The episode shown below is one of my favourite: There are a lot of fun references made to make it rather clear in what historical era the story is placed, at least in regards to this version of the story. Which just makes it even funnier if you have a bit of basic knowledge of Austro-Hungarian history. Also by looking into the episodes and stories they present, I cannot help but notice some very similar themes and motifs to that from Romanian folk tales we were taught in school. I guess that is what shared culture makes out of people (and I am not saying that just because I live in Transylvania, where we truly have a shared history and culture at many points) It is fun that Hungarian Folk Takes can actually be found on an official channel on YouTube, where all the episodes have been uploaded at high quality and voiced over to English (with subtitle options as well). https://www.youtube.com/@HungarianFolkTales Funny enough, we used to have a lot of cartoons brought from neighboring countries, be it from Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and so on, just voiced over to Romanian for the young audience. For Hungary, we had both Hungarian Folk Tales and Tales of Mathias Corvin (Povestiri despre Matei Corvin), probably one of the better known kings of Hungary. Even now I can remember the jingle that cartoon was opening with...
  11. Yeah, I really think I am starting to have problems with either burnout or procrastination. Therefore, why I am so much less active in the past and sluggish with answering threads/writing new threads. However, now it is time to finally answer to this round: C-CLAYS - Rest in Dark Night This is the first time I am coming into contact with C-CLAYS or the "RnB" style of music. All I can say is that the song sounds energetic from the very beginning. And keeps that vibe all through it. I fail however to identify anything out of the original song that inspired this arrangement. And overall, it is not really something to write about, or come back for a second listening. Not bad, but... ehh? (EDIT: this was supposed to be based on Oriental Dark Flight? I did not really notice that. I mean ODF is not really a song I tend to think of often, or really place it too high even among the Marisa themes - to me, probably the two songs I tend to always associate her with would be Love-Colored Master Spark from IN and Vessel of Star ~ Casket of Star) Overall, I will rate this song at 5.5/10 Virus Key - 氷精たちの踊り Virus Key is yet another music group I am listening to for the first time (it seems like a lot of the stuff in this Remix Tournament are a "first time" for me...). Oh, symphonic arrangement for Cirno. This is already a good start. I like symphonic music for how relaxing it is to listen to, and I think it is quite a nice idea to combine it with Cirno's theme. A little silly idea, yet which works fantastically well. This is very entertaining, so I would probably give it quite a bit of praise. At the end, I will probably give it a 9/10. Waltz is nice, I like that feeling of grace, elegance and grandeur it offers. O-Life Japan - Dawn Sky of the Myouren Temple This time, a group I have listened to in the past, and have a little bit of familiarity (even through probably 2-3 songs as of yet). This song, in the opening part, sure does have that "good morning" vibe, with everyone waking up. And then, there's the sudden Byakuren theme. Now everyone is up, ready to go for they usual daily business. It is quite a cute sounding song, with a lot of... how to define them... "sweet" instruments? Oh wait, that might just be the effect of symphonic music. Things just sound very well put together. In the end, I will probably give this a nice 8/10
  12. How did you come into contact with Touhou, and what is the thing you are enjoying the most about the series until now?
  13. I feel like my mood is rather mixed as I already passed into Tuesday. Oh boy, this Valentine's Day sure will be brilliant... I am in the middle of my two weeks break from the courses, so far from anyone I know or I could meet (Romanian academic autonomy made it so my break did not coincide with that of my closest friends). And since I do not have anyone to cherish this day with, all I can do is just stay in front of the computer and watch some more anime (probably Amagami) and wait to attend an introductory course in the evening. Usually, I just do not care about this day, and just treat it like any regular day in the week and calendar - so completely dismissing all the meaning and symbolism it was given. However, I do have some momentary slips every now and then and...maybe start regretting I do not have to to cherish this artificially fabricated festivity day with? So... how are you going to be spending this day? For me, I will just be at home, focusing on the beginning of the next college semester. I just want a break, and forget of everything for a couple weeks before going back to hell. Since we are finally having our courses face-to-face, but literally nobody attends the courses (usually due to professors asking for just low attendance or no attendance at all), I still did not manage to meet and befriend many of my new colleagues. Especially with the "do not date group colleagues" getting so staunchly reinforced, I still have to look in other places for that someone special. So no Valentine for me this year... But I grew kind of used to it, and only hope remains for the next year. Maybe next time...
  14. Hello. Only now I noticed this thread was here, so I accidentally answered your question regarding recent activity in the other thread (short version, it might be something temporary). As for question, I will probably think of something. I did organize an AMA myself at the beginning of the year, and it was quite fun.
  15. Hello @Saathi, and welcome to the forum. Hope you are going to have a great time here. Unfortunately, it seems like recently the forum had less activity than usual. And to be fair, it is very possible that many of us were busy dealing with other trouble in our lives. For example, just as I finished with the exams. That really left quite a mark on me unfortunately, as it only made worse a trend of procrastination I started to get in terms of getting back to the forum and post. I really need to get back to my normal posting schedule...
  16. When I do not listen to rock or anything symphonic, it seems like I have been listening to more and more music from Japan (be it Touhou related or other series). Therefore, the recent example of two songs from Amagami SS: The opening theme of the show for the first half of Season 1 The end credits theme for the second arc of first season. Episodes 4-7, Tanamachi Kaoru (voice and singing: Rina Sato)
  17. Thank you @Eulogous for the contribution, you have really saved this thread. I was starting to lose hope anyone else would contribute with their own take. Unfortunately, I can't write a developed answer tonight, since I finally finished with the exams and made my way back home. But from tomorrow on, I should be back to being just as active as I used to be. Therefore, get ready for kind of a long answer to some of the points you have raised...
  18. Yeah, it is actually quite a surprise that LostWord (out of any Touhou media, official or fan-made) has decided to actually go with the canon designs of those two nameless mid-bosses for their units from the EoSD retro universe. I also posted a fanart based on that sprite in the previous reply. It is a nice design, I will not lie, even if most likely it was not supposed to be anything special when the original game came out back in 2002. The only difference is that in my post I have also added a few more canon depictions of "Koakuma", in other outfits she was dressed in for official sources. It is just that her most recent official art (besides any feature in CDS), the one from Strange Creators of Outer World, has decided to fixate her outfit to the business lady tuxedo one people got so used to due to g=fan culture gathered in almost 20 years between EoSD and first edition of Who's Who of Humans & Youkai.
  19. Oh, this is actually an interesting point. Would you like to detail it a little more? I feel like I might be again dominated by stereotypes and misinterpretations (you have already seen how much I got wrong about the media coverage and general interest in Japan for anime), so any bit of explanation is actually useful.
  20. Well, this was nice for as long as it lasted. Guess we will be back with a new round in a few months? It was quite fun, so I might organize it more often (maybe once or twice a year)
  21. Holy shit, I am sorry for delaying the Remix Tournament again I am feeling like drowning in exams and assignments, and yet I have just a few more days until I can get some deserved rest. Anyway, with that out of the way, time to review the songs of this round: TsuBaKi - Artemis Wept Interesting song. I have never heard of this music group before, so it is a new experience for me (something that I greatly appreciate at each Remix Tournament). The intro and outro of the song did not give me at first the vibe it would turn into rock but it sure was a surprise. I like metal, but I am not very sure yet about the "screaming util you destroy your cords and lungs" part of this kind of music. However, the female singer has been very good, and I appreciated that. The original song sounds familiar, yet I still cannot recognize it - a little bit of help just like last time, please? Overall, it was not bad, so I will give it a 7/10 Lycoris - Hammersmith in the Sky I absolutely love the presentation for this one. The whole tape thing is something I have not seen in a very long time, and reminds me of childhood (even in the early 2000s, you still might have had a music machine at home that used tapes). And the sound of music reminds me exactly of that times. Plus, the song itself is good too. A nice arrangement for Greenwich in the Sky. I just had one of those singalong moments as it was going. It sure had brought up some old nostalgia. Given how good of an impression and old memories it gave me, I will give it a 10/10 - definitely need to use the music machine ("combină" as we tend to refer to it in Romanian, as it has incorporated a radio, a player for VHS tapes and a player for old vinyl disks). MA's ATTACK - Hartmann's Youkai Girl HOLY MOTHER OF SEAL CUBES, ALMOST 10 MINUTES? I have to admit, the intro to the song has a very eerie feeling to it. Ok, the more this song is going, it starts to sound a little less eerie, even if that vibe still persists (definitely not helped by the background choice). Otherwise, I am not very sure what to say. It sounds like a slow rendition of Koishi's theme, and as I am only halfway through, I still have not noticed anything special besides sounding chill in a slightly weird way? I am slowly getting close to the end, and I have to notice anything special... (as you can see, I am writing as I am listening to the song). And now I am suddenly getting an eerie feeling again. Like a set of footsteps in the middle of an empty room, coming from nowhere, as the song ends. I guess this song has been mostly some sort of ambient stuff I am not very sure what rate to give to this song, so would probably go with a 5.5/10
  22. Alright, so I finished watching the second arc. All I want to say is that I have not felt so happy in a very long time. I might be extremely biased, since it was the Tanamachi Kaoru arc, but I really had a great time with it. Last time, I was wondering if the timeline just resets at the beginning of each arc - YES, it does. Interesting though, this time we received a little more of the flashback, as a continuation of the first arc's opening flashback. Maybe in time we are going to build a greater image of what happened during the fateful Christmas Even from 2 years prior? Anyway, back tot he arc itself. If last time, the story kind was that of "romancing the popular high school girl", this time it was more of a "two old friends end up developing feelings for each other, even if they initially deny it". And from there, all the build-up through 4 episodes leading to a cute resolution. I would like to talk more about the episodes, but I would prefer not to spoil the synopsis for an anime from 13 years ago. However, some highlights: Kaoru really knows how to punch, and will jump in an instant to defend her friends, even if it means potentially picking a fight overall, she is quite a tomboy in her general attitude despite being seemingly strong, Kaoru does have her weak spots - it will become more clear in the second half of her arc the Keiko subplot - hinted from the intro, we got some of it through the arc; I feel though there might be more to it in the future though; it's cute though how Junichi and Kaoru would end up helping her; a little bit of a payback later, organized by both Keiko and Masayoshi our protagonist is also quite acrobatic, given she can climb a tree, retrieve something stuck there, then come back to the ground gracefully, just like a cat this arc overall has had, surprisingly, more fanservice then the previous - not that I am complaining; part of it comes from the imagination of Junichi only now, 8 episodes in, did I realize that each character has their own music theme, sang by the voice actress of the character; in the case of Kaoru, her music theme in first season is Kitto Ashita wa... ("Surely Tomorrow Will...") - all I can say is that I love that song, and without a joke, Rina Sato really has talent for singing: (funny how on Spotify, for the song author, they have decided to first credit the character, then the voice actor for it) I've felt a little weird as a side effect. I have felt so much happier than I usually am, and for a few days really developed a crave for sweets. Could there be any connection between the general happiness and crave for sweets? An the fact I have been listening to the song for the past few days since I found it. Yes, I am starting to believe that Amagami is the new big thing happening to me after Touhou. Not that I am going to drop any of them, alternating the two things (as well as Warhammer and BattleTech) can prevent a burnout. And all of this sated because of a single character, found long ago through a random image on Pinterest... And now, after watching this arc, the following meme feels even more justified: And for a bonus, a list of characters voiced by Rina Sato (Satou? It's a weird "o" with accent - this thing ō) in 20 years of activity until now (not all, since the list might be much longer): Next time, I will return with a spoiler-free review of the Nakata Sae arc.
  23. I mean Alphes is already known to have drawn Touhou characters with larger chest than usually depicted in official media. Anyone remembers his version of Yuugi? And speaking of Yuugi, that also appeared for most of her depiction ever since. Be it in the background sprite from Hopeless Masquerade... ... or even if you want to consider her portrait from Who's Who of Humans & Youkai to count in that category: What exactly do you mean in the case of "Daiyousei" and "Koakuma"? If you mean people not depicting them as they appeared in the little spites from EoSD, there are still, even if rare, artists who drew them as in those sprites: Thing is "Koakuma" did appear in canon art the way most people depict her, in that tuxedo thing. Her EoSD robes have been a one-time thing, then official art switched to what she is better known for: From Strange Creators of Outer World This is an interesting alternate outfit from Cheating Detective Satori (yes, I prefer this name for the series instead of the current "Foul Detective") Also Koakuma in the (albeit non-canon) Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth
  24. Oh, do not worry. Last week was the flu week for me, accompanied by strong coughing. This week however was the one that brought the exams, and that's how I'll for the following couple weeks as well. Holy shit, I never noticed that. Nice detail! I think I may have only once noticed it in another official work, and that was in Forbidden Scrollery in regards to Reisen:
  25. I am sorry for my long absence. It is time to give some answers to a few points, as they cleared some things I may have misinterpreted in the past: Thank you. This is interesting to know. Also, I am honestly feeling very confused about the meaning and use of the word "moe". Besides referring to something that is cute, how much does the explanation of the word expands? Even if to be fair, I think there was an explanation in the "why do we like waifus" video in regards to the whole "moe" thing, as well as how it spread to become so common, if not the most common view of anime. This part reminds me quite a lot about some criticism I have heard in the past regarding ZUN writing. It was about the fact that stories feel stagnant, and that instead of a land and its inhabitants evolving and changing through time, it ends up becoming more of a "trivia-churning machine", as if being a collection of "oh, by the way...". I am not sure how much it applied to all written works, but I did feel it a little bit while reading Forbidden Scollery with how much mythology and Japanese culture references ZUN tried to shove in at every corner. That does not detract though from the fact I really enjoyed reading that series. Thank you for the honesty. Next time when I have multiple text chunks like that, I was thinking of something. Would it work if I put the original paragraph in spoiler, and write a TL;DR version below? That way, one could get the main idea out of the text, and can get to the original as well if they actually intend to read the whole text. Honestly, I think I may have held this as a big misconception when I am thinking of modern Japan and the spread of media/exposure. The first image that comes to my mind is indeed the of Akihabara from Tokyo, but somehow my brain ended up turning it into a generalization instead of an exception/rare case. Oh, I think that actually makes for a very good, and easy to understand analogy. Again, the problem comes from my (sometimes faulty) thinking, when I end up generalizing things and applying them to an entire group when it may be more likely the case for just a number of individuals within that group.
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