Tag Archives: medium comparisons

Anime, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya, Manga, Medium Comparisons

Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei Herz! – Final Impressions

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Best Illyas

This particular season of Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya was something I was looking forward to. Somewhat-different-but-still-best-girl, it premiered on my birthday month, for one, and I honestly couldn’t wait to see Ko-Gil in action coming off from the manga.

Unfortunately, as enjoyable as it still was for me on its own, Silver Link did a mediocre adaptation job here compared to previous seasons. A lot of it isn’t their fault, but at the very end they kind of wrote themselves into a wall, terribly so, especially compared to how the manga version of 2wei flew seamlessly into 3rei.

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Anime, Fate/stay Night, Medium Comparisons

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works Epilogue & Sunny Day

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I've seen this shot about four times now

This makes it the fourth time I’ve seen this shot

Okay, so I’m back to wrap up the Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works post I started ages ago.

Instead of squeezing in the VN’s original epilogue at the end of the previous episode, Ufotable did a great thing by producing an entire extra episode with new material depicting what happens after the original route, alongside the remaining source material. As a result, I think episode 25 in itself is worth watching for readers of the visual novel regardless if you think the rest of the show is a bad adaptation or not (I personally thought it was great, but it was certainly a bit shaky here and there).

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Anime, Fate/stay Night, Medium Comparisons

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works 24 – 「武器の貯蔵は充分か」

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-I am the bone of my sword-
体は剣で出来ている。
-Steel is my body and fire is my blood-
血潮は鉄で心は硝子。
-I have created over a thousand blades-
幾たびの戦場を越えて不敗。
-Unaware of Loss-
ただの一度の敗走もなく、
-Nor aware of Gain-
ただの一度の勝利もなし。
-Withstood pain to create weapons, waiting for one’s arrival-
担い手はここに孤り 剣の丘で鉄を鍛つ。
-I have no regrets. This is the only path-
ならば、わが生涯に意味は不要ず
-My whole life was UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS-
この体は、無限の剣で出来ていた。

We’ve arrived at the “final” episode of Unlimited Blade Works, and thus, the real battle begins. Two owners, two “one-trick ponies”, one Faker. Was it able to satisfy me as a reader of the original visual novel? Find out after the jump.

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Anime, Fate/stay Night, Medium Comparisons

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works 23

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So long Sasaki Kojirou

Fake Assassin’s battle with Saber here is pretty damn disappointing, with how quickly it all went down. We didn’t even get to hear an anime rendition of Shippu no Kenshi, “Sasaki Kojirou”‘s own theme, in the anime. Dammit Ufotable.

It’s sad because this is the only route where Fake Assassin feels remotely relevant to the plot. He gets killed off-screen (most likely by Gilgamesh) in Fate and gets superseded by True Assassin (Hassan) in Heaven’s Feel. It’s a shame Ufotable didn’t give him much of a bangin’ exit.

It was cool seeing Shirou actually tracing a rain of swords in animation. I absolutely hated how DEEN screwed this up by not having him do that at all in their version of Unlimited Blade Works.

Anime, Fate/stay Night, Medium Comparisons

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works 22 – 「 Dolphins」

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Awkwaaaaard

Or rather, uh, sperm whales.

Losing the sex scene from the original visual novel isn’t much of a loss, in my opinion. With Realta Nua, Type-Moon likes pretending that the H-scenes in the original PC version never happened. And they honestly aren’t that necessary in Fate and Unlimited Blade Works. They only ever have a “significant” presence in Heaven’s Feel.

I just wished it was more… romantic though. Not that jackhammerin’ is very romantic, but just saying. For the record, Nasu did not write the sex scenes in Tsukihime (oysters!) or Fate/stay night. I cannot stress how annoying that misconception is. (Okay, it is kind of funny.)

Speaking of romance, love how they added Rin’s reason for falling for Shirou directly from Heaven’s Feel.

(P.S. I am being titillated by Shinji’s suffering)

Anime, Fate/stay Night, Medium Comparisons

Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works 21 – 「 My dream is not wrong」

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My dream isn't wrong!

And here marks the anime’s ending of Shirou’s epic therapy session. There were bumpy moments before this episode that made me doubt how they were going to handle the most emotional fight of Unlimited Blade Works, but in the end, Ufotable managed to pull through.

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Anime, Fate/stay Night, Medium Comparisons

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works 20 – 「 I am the bone of my sword」

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Back-to-back EMIYA

Back-to-back EMIYA

Looks like it’s time for Shirou’s epic therapy session. Arguably the most entertaining episode yet in terms of presentation. Although I have my gripes, it was… pretty dope.

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Anime, Fate/stay Night, Medium Comparisons

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works 19 – EMIYA

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Kill myself, I mean, yourself...

Afternoon News: Sexy Red Man attempts convoluted suicide plan

After a surprisingly weak performance last week, Ufotable manages to pull somewhat of a saving throw with this episode.

I do have minor qualms with what happened this week, but for the most part, I’m extremely satisfied by Ufotable’s efforts.

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Anime, Fate/stay Night, Medium Comparisons, Rants n' Ramblings

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works 18 – Dropping the ball

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I actually prefer the original CG to this

I must say… this is the first episode where I’ve been truly, utterly disappointed in Ufotable. Everything about this Unlimited Blade Works episode was just a giant step down from how awesome it could have been.

Experiencing these scenes before, only done better, probably contributed to my disappointment. But it’s not like a lot of my expectations were impossible to pull off within the medium of animation. Ufotable blew my mind with almost everything before this, and to fall short when they’re just getting into the best parts of the route is kind of depressing.

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Anime, Fate/stay Night, Medium Comparisons

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works 16-17

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Unlimited Rin Works

I’m glad that Ufotable picked the best answers to Lancer’s questions for the absolute best Rin reactions. Jeez, it’s almost impossible for me to go back to Rin’s old VN design. Ufotable managed made her 10x cuter than she already was. I was iffy on it at first, but now I’m sold.

I swear, this adaptation feels like it’s been 50% action, with the other 50% being Rin making cute faces. (Not really, but that doesn’t sound like a bad deal either.)

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Anime, Fate/stay Night, Medium Comparisons

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works 13 – Thoughts

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Based Illya, be nice to her

Please be gentle ;_;7

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works second season aired over a dozen hours ago in Japan, but I only just watched it a couple of hours ago. 780p encodes are all this terrible computer can handle. /sadface

Anyways, I wasn’t disappointed by what I saw. But that can be attributed to me already having experienced Unlimited Blade Works through the VN and just wanting to see it done faithfully by talented animators. It’s Ufotable, so it doesn’t take much to satisfy in that regard, but I wonder if the hype was worth it for people who only ever watch anime? That was a pretty killer wait and the hypetrain was like over 100,000,000km. Well, whatever.

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Light Novels, Lookback, Medium Comparisons, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Uguu Re-read! The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya

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The #1 cause for re-scheduling of anime

The SOS Brigade will be entering a baseball tournament!

Sup everyone! We’re entering one of the first volumes that comprise of “short” stories. In terms of this book, we have four:

  • The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya
  • Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody
  • Mysterique Sign
  • Remote Island Syndrome

The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya, the short story that this entire volume is named after, is sort of a filler. It’s a funny chapter about the SOS Brigade’s attempt at baseball, but nevertheless it’s really weak compared to the other Suzumiya Haruhi arcs, mostly because nothing truly jaw-dropping happens. It’s kind of justified though, since the chapter itself is actually the pilot of the series that was published two months in The Sneaker before The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya ever came out. So it’s only natural that the most we get from this story are very basic showcases of the cast’s personalities and nothing really spectacular. Also, just in case you were wondering, yes – it’s exactly the same as the anime.

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Light Novels, Lookback, Medium Comparisons, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Uguu Re-read! The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya (Light Novel)

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Haruhi shouldn't make anime

Danger draws near combat waitress Mikuru!

We’re onto the second Suzumiya Haruhi novel now in my series of light novel posts, and I’m still dying to get through all of the adapted stuff so I can talk about material that has yet to become an anime and will probably never become an anime (;_;).

The second novel is the making of the SOS Brigade’s amateur film, “The Adventures of Asahina Mikuru”. You’ve probably seen it in the anime, and of course, it’s not much different.

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Anime, Light Novels, Lookback, Medium Comparisons, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Uguu Re-read! The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Light Novel)

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I have no interest in ordinary humans

I have no interests in ordinary humans.

If you guys have been following this blog since my early high school days (back when I had a sense of humor. 2006? 2007? Man, I don’t even know how long I’ve been around in the anime blogosphere anymore), you may know that not only am I the biggest Cardcaptor Sakura geek out there, but I’m also a gigantic Haruiist. It’s the closest thing I have to a religion besides maybe my strange fascination with Buddhism.

Well, anyways. There’s scarcely ever any new material for Suzumiya Haruhi nowadays. Tanigawa Nagaru hasn’t written a new novel in over three years. Kadokawa hasn’t issued any new anime adaptations by Kyoto Animation because he hasn’t written a new novel in over three years. I’m definitely going to watch the The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan anime adaptation when it airs, but it… just isn’t the same.

The only thing that remotely satisfies my cravings is re-reading the light novels and re-watching the anime. So… here I am. Might as well write about it.

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Anime, Fate/stay Night, Medium Comparisons

Fate/stay night Unlimited Budget Works (1st Cour Impressions)

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UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS

-I am the bone of my sword-
体は剣で出来ている。
-Steel is my body and fire is my blood-
血潮は鉄で心は硝子。
-I have created over a thousand blades-
幾たびの戦場を越えて不敗。
-Unknown to Death-
ただの一度も敗走はなく、
-Nor known to Life-
ただの一度も理解されない。
-Have withstood pain to create many weapons-
彼の者は常に独り 剣の丘で勝利に酔う。
-Yet, these hands will never hold anything-
故に、生涯に意味はなく
-So as I pray, UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS-
その体は、きっと剣で出来ていた。

Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works is, hands down, the best anime adaptation I’ve seen of anything non-manga, period. It sounds like I’m exaggerating, but I’m not.

ufotable really outdid themselves here. Ever since their Fate/Zero adaptation, the studio’s really become Type-Moon’s little pet animation studio. For good reason, too. I don’t know if the animated openings for the original visual novel and its Réalta Nua PS2 port were done by Studio DEEN or some other company, but it was really easy to tell that Type-Moon switched to ufotable for the Réalta Nua openings on the Vita version. That distinct animation style, that quality…

There’s really talented staff working at that animation studio, and it shows. The only other anime I’ve followed from ufotable were just OVAs and movies, such as their Tales of Symphonia and Kara no Kyoukai adaptations, which are naturally some high-quality stuff when it comes to animation. But the animation for Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works, a *TV series*, feels like it’s almost about the same quality. In fact, bits and pieces manage to seem just a bit more polished than even their Tales of OVAs or their openings for the Tales of games in general. Dayum, son…

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Anime, Fate/stay Night, Kantai Collection, Medium Comparisons, Rants n' Ramblings, Satire, Video Games and Visual Novels

Cancerous Ship Girls Rant: The Expansion

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I have been tainted. Now I will never marry.

Image Credit: 蒼天空 from Pixiv

…Illness when writing that mess aside, I don’t think it needed to be any clearer for comprehension.

I was going to do another Cardcaptor Sakura post or a Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works post, but in light of certain reactions to my previous Kantai Collection post from denizens of the anime community’s infamous cesspool (I say “the”, but in actuality, there are quite a few of them – pick your poison) repeatedly missing the point, I feel the need to clarify more than a few things for others who might also misunderstand the context.

(The real reason is mostly because cramming for midterms in college sucks, and I’m finding an excuse to procrastinate and letting out stress.)
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Anime, Lookback, Manga, Medium Comparisons, Movies, Rurouni Kenshin

Rurouni Kenshin: Tsuiokuhen Manga/Anime comparison (term paper by Johnny Nguyen)

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Balls to the wall academic chinese cartoons

Wassup everyone. As I’ve stated here, I’ve been taking a Japanese Animation class this quarter at my community college, and as the quarter is coming to a close, there’s so many final assisgnments that I have to do. For Japanese Animation class, I have to write a term paper regarding one of the animated features we’ve watched in class. The topic I chose was a literary comparison between an adaptation and its source material, and since I’m a lazy man, I chose something I’ve seen/read a dozen of times and know by heart to save me the trouble: Rurouni Kenshin. To be specific, the first OVA.

And I’ve decided to post it here as well, because it seemed like it would make a good anime review for the blog. Note that since it’s supposed to be five pages long and I tend to be total poop when I’m writing under academic conditions (c’mon, everyone procrastinates on their homework!), it may seem a bit rushed in places.

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Asian Dramas, J-Drama, Live Action, Medium Comparisons, Movies, Rurouni Kenshin

Rurouni Kenshin (live-action film)

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My oath not to kill... my sakabatou!

My promise not to kill… This is my sakabatou!

I haven’t been posting because of the flu – I’ve had hellish nights during the past weekend.

I’m feeling better though, and no flu can possibly stop me from finally getting around to watching the Rurouni Kenshin live action movie. I was certainly hyped for this movie and I honestly lost my patience waiting for an eventual American screening – so I simply grabbed the Japanese Blue-ray and watched it anyway. Hell yeah!

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