ATLA release news: Thanks, Nickelodeon, for fucking us over again.

::stares::

http://www.amazon.com/Book-Fire-Full-Dol-Sen/dp/B0017VG67C?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1208730960&sr=1-1


Holy shit. The fourth and I believe final Avatar DVD is on Amazon with a release date of July 29th. The new episodes (3x12 onward) are scheduled to air on July 14th, based on the ATLA panel at Comic Con NY in April.

There's very little arithmetic necessary realize the big WTF of those dates. Unless they plan to air 8 episodes over, let me see, FIFTEEN DAYS.

I mean, seriously, how many times is this network going to screw over its most popular and criticically acclaimed cartoon? We've all bitterly adjusted to the fact that a book with the final events was released early (many went into hiding, like myself) and to the fact that there's now episodes available on DVD that won't air until July, but I honestly thought they'd keep it in their pants with the finale DVD, at least. At least! Quelle nightmare.

The last time I saw a show get jerked around as much as ATLA has was Firfely, but that was only half a season. Avatar fans have suffered through this bullshit scheduling for three seasons.

Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Ep.#00

It's a good thing someone on my flist warned me strongly about the first episode, because it is very bad. Incredibly offensive and fairly stupid. But, once you realize the joke of what you're really watching, and WHY it is so bad, there is a kind of demented humor in it. ( Read more... )

Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Ep.#01-02

The episodes I'm watching list the "home video" as episode "00" and the 'second' episodes as episode "01", so I'm going to go with that distinction. They're DVD rips so presumably that's the numbers they were released with.

I watched episode 0 in subs but once I realized the I had the dub, I switched to that instead, but with subtitles still on. That's my preferred way of watching anime, so I can compare the subs to the dub translation.

Episode 1

I think I'm going to like this show. Already the writing is better than a lot of anime, in terms of dialog flow and pacing. For example, I just watched 2/3 of an episode being set in a classroom, narrated by one character's voice over, and pretty much nothing significant happened. And yet I wasn't bored at all; the pace is quick and the tone is vibrant and amusing. It's weird, but it's a very approachable kind of weird. ( Read more... )

This feels like a complete converse of the Ouran High School Host Club main pair: Haruhi and Tamaki. Haruhi of Ouran is a modest, level-headed, intelligent, slightly introverted person who gets along with most people and isn't afraid to speak her mind. Tamaki is loud, weird, charismatic, and possibly insane. The dynamic is very similar to the one in Melancholy, albeit flipped in context as well as gender. In Ouran it's the school setting that's insane/extreme, and Haruhi is alone, a single "normal" person in the madhouse. In Melancholy, the people of the school so far are normal, and the world is normal, but Haruhi Suzumiya is insane/extreme. In both shows, one lead character's "normalness" reflects the other character's eccentricity. Haruhi Suzumiya, like Tamaki, makes the people around her into reflections of her own strangeness.


Episode 2

Haruhi's total domination of everything is amusing. She's not a sensitive person, is she? And she's offensive...she manhandles people. She sexually harasses the redheaded girl.

I think she actually might be the antagonist. Which makes the title even more...piquant.

The colors and animation in this series is stellar. Everything has a kind of glow to it, and all the colors are vibrant.

( Read more... )

game: six word stories!

Hemingway: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”


For kicks:

Great costume! Are those tentacles AAAAAAAHHGRRHH!?!!!


Stage right: a love story sabotaged.


Dump me? You better avoid crosswalks.


What happened to the last volunteer?


Watermelon seeds grew in my stomach.


Bird, sunlight, window: the first lesson.


Drama: breakfast, dinner, but never lunch.


Jealousy's born green but bleeds red.