Blogging Legend of the Galactic Heroes Episode 17

Not only does Heinessenpolis rip off the Cristo Redentor, it also has a rip off Sydney Opera House too

The 17th episode of Legend of the Galactic Heroes takes a little break from the action that was seen in the last few episodes. Instead, it alternates between a look at life within the Alliance as it looks ever more fragile, and an Imperial plot to push it over the edge.

Fifty Posts for (Less Than) Fifty Readers: Spring Post Part 3

This seems a fitting way to mark my half century of posts.

For the first time since I attempted to follow multiple shows that were newly airing, Fall 2004 if anyone cares, I’ve managed to trim the field of series to a small group. The curious amount of fantasy series has played a large part, though. So I present a 20%-ish recap of the shows I have been watching.

Blogging Legend of the Galactic Heroes Episode 16

Adrian Rubinsky simply oozes supervillain-like charisma.

The 16th episode of Legend of the Galactic Heroes marks a transition in nearly every way possible. The Battle of Amlitzer comes to an end, as do the existing structures of power in the Alliance and the Empire.

Blogging Legend of the Galactic Heroes Episode 15

Admiral Borodin doesn't even attempt to live through the battle.

The 15th episode of Legend of the Galactic Heroes focuses exclusively on the Empire’s decisive response to the Alliance’s invasion. While the Alliance fleets prepared for some sort of counterattack, they were still caught on the backfoot with tragic results.

Blogging Legend of the Galactic Heroes Episode 14

If only they would not have held their secret banquet, this man could have lived.

The 14th episode of Legend of the Galactic Heroes continues with its look at life on the planets being occupied by Alliance forces in their invasion. Over the course of the episode, Reinhard’s strategy exposes the ineptitude of the Alliance at the top and causes the citizens of at least one village to be killed needlessly by the force that was originally liberating them from Imperial rule.

The Most Slightly Above Average Spring Ever Part 2

Everything certainly is better with exploding helicopters

Day 2 of this little spring anime adventure saw me tack on two more first episodes. So it’s not quite the worst spring ever, but it’s not really great either. I don’t even need a proper sample size to determine that.

The Worst Spring Ever Part 1

The new anime season started a couple of days ago, and I haven’t really written a recap post in a couple of weeks (I just really, really suck at continuing on with shows I find boring).  So I’ll see how long I can last with daily…weekly…monthly…yearly recaps of the new season. By the way, the title is ironic, or not as may be the case as the season progresses.

Blogging Legend of the Galactic Heroes Episode 13

Even Legend of the Galactic Heroes cannot break away from the childhood marriage promise cliche.

The 13th episode of Legend of the Galactic Heroes focuses mainly on life on the first planet that will experience the Alliance’s invasion. It also serves as a break from the Yang and Reinhard dominated episodes of the past few weeks and instead focuses on how a simple plan can have a large impact on those far away from the decision making.

Blogging Legend of the Galactic Heroes Episode 12

The right hand of the statue of Alliance founding father Heinessen, which is clearly modeled after Christo Redentor. Balancing military strength with democratic ideals becomes increasingly difficult.

Episode 12 returns to Alliance domestic politics and a decision on whether to invade the Empire or not. The role of Phezzan also comes further into the light, but the political race to the bottom continues.

The Overanalysis of Nogizaka Haruka

Dismissing itself as disposable content in the first minutes of the OP, or perhaps a reflection on the subculture it is catering to

I hinted at it in the weekly recap…which no one reads:*(, but I’ve decided to push on with a little look to see whether anything interesting can be extracted from Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu. It’s been nearly 9 months since the series started airing, so any effects of hype should be out of my system and I can look at this as a neutral.

The Week That Was March 11-18

Lack of feedback has left me looking in unusual places for social commentary. Mmm. Pancakes.

Yes I crammed a bunch of this in on Wednesday night when I normally write this (though it’s always Thursday for my UK and Philippines-based readers), but at least I can offer a bit more from my weekly recap than normal.

Blogging Legend of the Galactic Heroes Episode 11

So much class in the Imperial Court

As we hit the ten percent mark on this journey into Legend of the Galactic Heroes, we once again return to the craziness of court life in the Empire. The main theme of this episode is the Kaiser’s unwillingness to deal with certain issues, though this is nowhere near the level of high level government dealings.

Not Really The Week That Was March 5-11, but a Request

Apropos of nothing, 2 things to note in this picture. First, how on earth was that press box considered safe even by 1960 standards? Second, the goalkeeper's outfit on the far left of the picture.

Because MAL decided to crap the bed and wiped out any history of what I’ve watched in the last week, and because I doubt you’d want several hundred words devoted to episode 9 of Asu no Yoichi! and only that, I’ve decided to try different. Actually, it’s really just a desperate ask of my 1.3 commenters.

Blogging Legend of the Galactic Heroes Episode 10

Yang is denied both by a friend and terrorists. The world conspires against him it seems.

After the exploration of civil society within the Galactic Empire in previous weeks, episode 10 marked a return to life in the Alliance. A special election in Thernusen, a city on Planet Heinessen provides the backdrop to the events in this episode. Here, we are presented with a fragile democracy struggling to hold together in the midst of an ever less popular war.

The Week that Was February 26 – March 4

I'd write something hilarious if I was any good at writing in a faux-Glaswegian accent.

I’ve come to realize that I don’t really watch all that much during the week, and can only really be bothered on the weekends. That’s alright surely. Anyway, some different shows from last week while I continue to fall further behind on what everyone is really watching.

Blogging Legend of the Galactic Heroes Episode 9

The Marquis Klopstock with his cane before taking his dose of methadone. Sorry, wrong show.

This week’s episode of Legend of the Galactic Heroes takes place within a single day of typical court life in the Galactic Empire. At least it wasn’t real time or I really would never really be able to finish a summary on it. The episode takes a look at the darker side of court life under a Kaiser who reluctantly holds his position.

The Week That Was February 19-25

It was a week in which a crater and volcanoes in general became a contentious political issue.

After last week, I was always going to watch more this time around. However, I may actually have a bit less to say than I did last week. Blame Norman Cook for it if you want.

Entering the Dilemma

Pic unrelated, I thought you deserved a nice picture of the Townsville, Australia skyline before reading this.

So ghostlightning worries about the anime blogging microculture. It seems a bunch of blogs have halted and that this may point to a trend. A while back I read that there were probably millions of blogs that were dead and no longer being updated (including 4 of my previous efforts I’m sure). People losing interest in something is pretty much human nature considering the workload some put themselves through.

For me personally, the idea of someone blogging anime as a profession is patently absurd. Maybe in 20 years time, but not now. So for now, it exists mainly as the passion of those who write them. There’s a certain level of utility at which someone will keep writing. Commenters and other factors may increase that utility, word count and brainstorming may decrease it, but at some point someone will stop.

With this blog, that pattern fits me. I know I can’t do an episodic blog for the fact that it would seem more like work than actual fun. What I can do is watch a show the best part of 2 decades old once a week and put my thoughts together, and put up a weekly summary of new shows filled with references that no one has yet acknowledged as getting. Though I wish I could actually get comment discussion going, it’s not really essential for this to be the fun exercise it’s meant to be.

While rewatching episode 8 of Gurren Lagann a billion times may be mandatory, I've rewatched this episode at least 12 times.

And as of now, there are no plans for this blog to stop despite the groans I can’t actually here from my non-existent readership.

Redeeming Factors Are Everywhere

Google Image Search put this up as the first result for "Redemption." Can't say I really disagree with the result.

As a response to this entry, at a site I will from here on out refer to as Rebranded Anime Blog, I’ve put together a list of redeeming features of various not-so-high quality anime. It reflects on the fact that nearly everything bad has a redeeming feature, though it’s hard to say that they actually make it any good.

Blogging Legend of the Galactic Heroes Episode 8

The founding of the Alliance, you would struggle to think this story was set in space.

The eighth episode focuses on three main issues, Reinhard’s plans for his ascent to power, the Empire’s reaction to defeat at Iserlohn and its ramifications and the history of the Empire itself.

Celebrating a Milestone Without Revealing What it is

Even Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink is outraged at my decision to write this post.

I crossed a milestone yesterday on my hit count. You think it is the stale meme of OVER NINE THOUSAND!, but alas I might be finished with my Legend of the Galactic Heroes posts by the time I hit that. Instead, I will look back at the approximately three months I’ve been writing on this blog which yielded a nice round number of 30 posts. Plus, some pathetic attempts at comedy too.

The Week That Was February 12-18

Rebranding at it's finest, you'd hardly think that this company sells tobacco would you?

Let’s just call this a week where I struggled for motivation to watch anything. With a grand total of 2…TWO new episodes watched this week, this post will surely not be very long [or interesting – Ed.]. So read on as I cry hot tears of shame as I pad the length of my interpretations of two episodes.

The Worst Stuff I Have Ever Watched #1

Who had 3:14 in the comedy death pool?

Mars of Destruction

Strengths:

• Less than 20 minutes in length.

• Remarkably, someone actually got work after appearing in this

• From a production standpoint, the music budget of zero looks a real bargain

• Unintentional comedy level of 88 out of 100.

Weaknesses:

• Public domain music is actually the best aspect of the sound

• Amateurish directing complete with a plot that can be described as the destitute man’s Evangelion.

• Looping animation…in something that lasts 20 minutes…Jesus wept.

• I’ve already spent more time on this post than I did watching it

In conclusion, you pretty much have an adaptation of a game which combines too many genres, directed by someone by someone who watched the entire Gainax back catalogue in the week before production started, but still did not know what they are doing, dialogue which sounds as though someone put a towel over the mic, BGM which could probably be improved by using my random classical playlist and pretty much failing at every sort of conceptual level possible. Yet, I don’t think this is the worst thing I could ever watch.

Any suggestions on what I should masochistically subject myself to next can be put in the comments…assuming anyone actually reads this.

Blogging Legend of the Galactic Heroes Episode 7

Running into an axe wins the comedy death sequence of the month for February.

Episode 7 of Legend of the Galactic Heroes sees the conclusion of Yang’s plan, some Holocaust decision-making by Imperial admirals and thinly-veiled references to the end of World War II. In all, it was an episode with a solid beginning and end, but with a baffling middle section.

The Week that Was February 5-11

Rafael Marquez sent off in another 2-0 defeat for Mexico against the United States. Even with how much the world has changed in the last year, some things never change.

The sixth week of the year went by and I watched a bit more than last week. Overall, I’d put it at merely average, though, my opinion may actually over the course of this little recap.