...comes out next month, and I haven't even talked to you guys about Overlord 2 yet. Which just completed about 8 weeks ago. And no one expected to ever even happen, because promotional anime for light novel series just don't get sequel after sequel.


Unless the anime is uncharacteristically deep with interesting characters and a world you really sink your teeth into, I guess.


Kind of like Crest/Banner of the Stars, if anybody remembers that gem anymore.


Anyway, Series 2 ended right at the point where I stopped reading the light novels, so I honestly have no idea what happens next.


Thus giving me a serious impetus to maybe write up Series 2 like I did Series 1.

Maybe.

If anyone figures out who made it, let me know (UPDATE: there are several links to the artist's work provided in the comments. They appear to go by "Nuri" or some variation thereof, and the image can be found at all of the provided links):


Kaga, Akagi, Hiryuu, Souryuu

I also found this one, but haven't really figured out if it's pure fantasy or connected to the game somehow:

My overall impression:



There's a ton of stuff I can nitpick. The Imperial Star Destroyers on Corellia, for instance. The "yes/but/kindof/sortof" barge pusher/escape pod thing. But what can you do? They actually tried with a lot of that stuff. AT LEAST they actually tried. They didn't just hand wave it or try to BS it.

There are a lot of really, really dumb dialogue choices; made more obvious by the inconsistency. A lot of the dialogue is NOT dumb. It's almost like some producer or bad script doctor went through and picked several things as "this isn't obvious enough. Make it MORE obvious. Our audience is REALLY STUPID for the most part." But mostly the dialogue is...OK.

The music is NOT GOOD. The effects are OK. I didn't like how muddy dark some of the movie was.

Han "Solo" (I DID NOT LIKE THIS CHOICE) is actually quite good, I thought. I mean, SURE he's not Harrison Ford, but you weren't gonna get Harrison Ford. Whats-his-name does JUST FINE. I bought it. Not necessarily all of the back story worked well for me, but it's FINE. Chewbacca was great. Han WITH Chewbacca was almost always fantastic. Lando was good, and sadly underused, really.

In the end...hey, what can I say? It's fine. It could have been better, but it didn't shit all over itself like The Last Jedi and it wasn't quite as pointless and canon-spinning as Rogue One.

It's fine.

Hey, guys! I was a special* guest on The Godzilla Podcast! We talked about Godzilla! I'll link the actual show when it gets posted. I want to thank Drew and Joe for putting on a great show about everyone's favorite King of Monsters, and deigning to have me appear with them to discuss the Big Guy! We talked about so much, and even then we didn't get into some amazing things like the Godzilla/Nagato theory, or the motivations behind why different movies were made the way they were.




*I bribed them

UPDATE: The podcast is now live at The Godzilla Podcast!

Also:

It's Episode 10, and it's almost Christmas. (I haven't been writing about this show, and I really should, but each episode only goes so far) With 3 regular members, and 1 trial member, and 1 maybe someday member, the OutClub finally gets "assigned" an advisor: the new fill-in teacher Toba-sensei. Of course all of the VIEWERS know who Toba-sensei is, but as she walks around with her eyes mostly closed and has a calm, disinterested demeanor, Rin-chan and Nadeshiko haven't figured it out yet. But the dawn is coming. As Toba-sensei first joins the OutClub while they're planning for their Christmas trip to the Asagiri Highlands, she knows JUST what a trip to such a prestigious camping ground calls for:



Rin-chan is a camping goddess, and Pinky has the kind of joy my withered old heart delights in. Chiaki is an adorable doofus, and Aoi has dead-pan wit to go along with a knock-out body. But they are high school girls, and I am not (quite) Kimura-sensei. A woman with such priorities is a beacon of hope in the world.

From Amazon's description of After The Rain episode one:

Masami Kondo is a dull, middle-aged man who's a manager at a restaurant where the female high-school student, Akira Tachibana works at. He can't show dignity to his employees, and cringes to the customer's complaints. Akira gazes at Kondo sharply since he can't do anything right. Kondo gets depressed by Akira's expression of despise. Their lives start to change vividly when their gaze meet.

That is not accurate. I can't really say "not accurate AT ALL", because there are certain groupings of words that individually are correct, such as "...middle-aged man who's a manager at a restaurant where the female high-school student, Akira Tachibana works at..." although the implied context is incorrect. So let's re-write this, keeping in mind to avoid revelations from later in the series.

Masami Kondo is a middle-aged, divorced father who gets by managing a small restaurant. Looked down on by his employees, even Kondo considers himself a washed-up failure. Part-time waitress and high school student Akira Tachibana has a crush on her much-older boss, although her stern, piercing eyes and no-nonsense manner convince Kondo she must hate him. The story of these two people begins as the rain pours down.

There. Much better.

I never really finished up talking about Godzilla fan culture, but I think now might be a good time. Not in this post, this is here just because I need to get a thought out. Both American and Japanese Godzilla fans mostly liked Shin Godzilla, while Godzilla Monster Planet has been much less well received. And I don't get it. I found Shin Godzilla to be dated, out-of-step, lazily-made, a bit boring, and overall an unpleasant to watch and ill-conceived movie. By comparison, Godzilla Monster Planet comes off as a riff on the Legendary Godzilla. While the setting is transplanted, the Monster Planet Godzilla is a natural force, albeit grander in scope. Humans set out to defeat the King of Destruction, and even in success, discover their efforts are futile. Humans are fighting a force that seemingly exists specifically because humans believe they are capable of defeating entropy itself.

To me, that's a hell of a lot deeper than re-treading World War 2, or pollution. Godzilla has always been best when his raison d'etre is the hubris of mankind. That hubris can be tied to something specific *in the right context*; i.e. nuclear weapons tests in 1954 is topical and powerful, but making specific comments must be done with care.

On a more nit-picky level, I really don't understand people who praise Shin Godzilla for having Godzilla be/do something new, then criticize Monster Planet for having Godzilla be/do something new. Or people who praised the Legendary Godzilla for making the story more personal to humans, then complain that Monster Planet centered on the humans too much. Stuff like that I really don't get.

Anyway, I'll likely review Monster Planet episode 1 (yes, episode 1, supposedly) and contrast it with Shin Godzilla and Legendary Godzilla.

The moonlit Fuji-san scene in episode 1 of Yuru Camp reminded me of this C.W. McCall/Chip Davis song (yes, that C.W. McCall; yes, that Chip Davis):