Board 8 > The Jeff & Leon Same House Multimedia Cinematic Universe [JZLF]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Mac Arrowny posted...

Which major plotline? Were you hoping they'd do something different with Makishima?

I was hoping Akane would be able to stop Kogami from killing him. That was more important to me than whatever Makishima's ultimate fate was.
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I'll probably see it this weekend

Not really sold on this new Peter Parker yet, but Keaton has been pretty great in the last several movies I've seen him in.
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I like the idea of this Peter Parker being a kid who's grown up watching the MCU and now he's part of it.

he's supposedly the kid in the Iron Man mask at the end of Iron Man 2
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I think that's just made up, since that was a girl. Unless there's a secret backstory where Peter Parker is trans, which would be neat.
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Random thoughts.

Keaton is really good. Very intimidating and his suit looks incredible in motion.

Best post credits scene so far I think.

Feels like the strongest Spidey has been physically in live action.

Holland utterly kills it. Best Spidey/Peter easy.

Tony is probably the best he's been since Iron Man and is in the movie much less than the trailers imply.

The supporting cast, especially Ned, is really strong.
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I can't wait to go see Spider-Man

plan to go as soon as possible but I sort of made plans to go with someone already and they live 2 hours away, so I might have to wait a few days till I get the chance to drive out there
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Murphiroth posted...

Tony is probably the best he's been since Iron Man and is in the movie much less than the trailers imply.

Yeah, I kinda figured that the trailers pretty much showed all of his scenes because I guess he's a selling point now.
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Anyway, Doctor Strange is in the books, so we are ready for the Homecoming. I liked Strange a lot more than I expected, especially early on. Took a while to get going, but the visuals are stunning and the soundtrack is great. The showdown with Dormammu was excellent, too. Really fun movie.

Civil War > Winter Soldier > Age of Ultron >= Avengers > Guardians of the Galaxy > Guardians Vol. 2 > Captain America > Doctor Strange > Iron Man >= Iron Man 2 >= Iron Man 3 > Ant-Man > Thor > Dark World > Incredible Hulk
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I loved Doctor Strange. Definitely in my top 3, and a contender for #1.
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And with that episode, Kanon is in the books. I really enjoyed the last episode here, but anything where "hope" is a major theme with a big payoff works for me.

Eureka Seven continues to introduce absurd terminology this late into the game, and it looks like we've discovered...Lost Jerusalem? Sure, whatever, I'll allow it.

In Psycho-Pass, everyone tries to figure out what "WC" stands for, and we get a glimpse at how the past year and a half is having its stressful effects on Akane.
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Now Jeff Zero said he would have a hard time ranking the Kanon characters, but that is not such a difficult task for me!

Yuichi > Shiori > Mai > Nayuki > Sayuri > Akiko > Kaori > Ayu > Kitagawa > Makoto > Amano

New and Improved Female Character Rankings 2.0

Kurisu > Aqua > Mitsuru > Shiori > Namine > Valentine > Elizabeth > Cora
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Anyway, I'd ask for anime suggestions to fill the queue, but once we finish up with Homecoming, we're going to try to power through Symphonia as much as we can before Jeff Zero goes on another hiatus. We probably won't have enough time to finish it since it's such a long game (and it'll be even longer for him), but if we have to wait for him to get back to finish it, whatever.
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I've gotta make another topic before bed and I'll probably catch up on write-ups over yonder unless there's ample space here tomorrow.

Mac Arrowny posted...

I loved Doctor Strange. Definitely in my top 3, and a contender for #1.

Another hint for pending write-ups: I will not be ranking this movie that highly

LeonhartFour posted...

In Psycho-Pass, everyone tries to figure out what "WC" stands for

it's Winston Churchill

Yuichi > Shiori > Mai > Nayuki > Sayuri > Akiko > Kaori > Ayu > Kitagawa > Makoto > Amano

Nayuki > Yuichi > Sayuri > Makoto > Akiko > Shiori > Mai > Ayu > Kitagawa > Kaori > Amano
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Nayuki #1 huh

you really gave zero indication of liking her that much while we were watching

but ranking Makoto 4th yikes what a disaster

(also it's totally "water closet." Ginoza has to be right about something eventually)
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Mai >>> Everyone else tbh.
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Ginoza was already right to remove his glasses; he looks like Masaoka now and that improves him twofold

Nayuki snuck up on me toward the end. I'm not confident she wouldn't rank slightly lower if that stuff had happened earlier on; it was very much in my mind now, though

Makoto is pretty good; only real flaw is throwing a cat
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Mai is best girl.
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pyresword posted...

Mai >>> Everyone else tbh.

ha, yeah, maybe in backwards land

...where she somehow still ends up in the middle
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no she's a pretty solid third

it'd have been nice if you people who've actually watched Kanon would've contributed something more than "Mai's cool" while we were watching though
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yeah, like Nayuki being cool would have also been groovy
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well it beats the crap out of Wicklebee last time trying to convince me that Shiori was the worst thing ever created so whatever I shouldn't complain too much
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wh-why would he...? how?
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let's not tempt fate by revisiting that topic any more than me mentioning it in passing
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fair
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To be fair basically the only thing I remember from Kanon is Mai's arc being fantastic. Most of the show wasn't too memorable for me. Remembering shows from probably 4 years ago now is hard.

Eureka Seven I watched more recently but there's so much stuff going on there I could barely keep track of it while I was watching much less now.
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I do remember liking Shiori's arc at the time for what that's worth (definitely my second favorite), but like I couldn't actually tell you anything about it other than the main idea and then maybe one scene in the last episode of the arc.
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LeonhartFour posted...

Eureka Seven continues to introduce absurd terminology this late into the game, and it looks like we've discovered...Lost Jerusalem? Sure, whatever, I'll allow it.

thought i was joking when i said it was based on perfect works huh

~~~

Anyway, I just beat Trails in the Sky the 3rd. As in maybe 10 minutes ago.

Wow. This game. This series. I almost don't even know what to say. I guess I'll start with the headliner? I'm very confident this is my favorite ending in any game. I think that used to be Persona 3 for me but this was just... honestly this was about as close to perfect as I've seen. The 3rd as a whole? I'm having to resist the urge to say it's ahead of SC cleanly and my favorite in the series, and almost by default, a very strong contender for my favorite game overall. That, I think, is perhaps a slight overreaction of being in the moment. I do think that when/if I settle my feelings on this a bit more it'll be roughly equal with SC at worse and they might just flip back and forth depending on what day you ask me the question. This is just an incredible, incredible game.

I can field spoiler questions if anyone wants, but for right now I just want to write a general review type of post, plus I've been feeling increasingly bad at how I've caused the topic to fill with spoiler tags because that was not how I envisioned this playthrough going and I want to apologize for that.

The main plot/thread here is solid but like FC and SC before it which was really more about Estelle and Joshua, the real highlight here is Kevin and Ries. And it does not disappoint at all. It's a different kind of relationship between them too, so it never feels like a rehash of that. Estelle is still the best protagonist in the series, IMO, but Kevin made a hard run for the title before Estelle slammed it shut on him at the very end and somehow maybe even surpassed her peak SC form. And Ries is as integral to that, if not moreso, than Joshua was to Estelle's story. They're both incredible characters and I'm glad we got to see their story.

Really after the saga of FC/SC I'm just so invested in this cast and how they interact one another and it's just at its finest here. These guys are just the best. The very best. You have all these little subplots running throughout the group if you look for them, and some are more important than the others, but they all just make everything feel more connected and alive. After this my wishing for the Crossbell games to come here is even stronger than ever.

And the ending. This is how you do an ending. Really if I had to poke at SC, I'd say that in some ways I felt like it lacked some feeling of closure, that it ended a bit too soon. Yeah, the main threads were all tied up and you had a general idea of how things would resolve but I just wanted a little more from it. I have absolutely no such complaint this time around. I was blown away by how well this was handled. And really I think the ending may very well have been the highpoint of the trilogy. I had to stop at one point because the tears in my eyes made my vision too blurry to read the text. It was just a masterclass.

And I mean, I've gone on previously about how the music has been on-point and the gameplay is much improved (despite mostly being the same system) and even the minor graphical improvements are very appreciated, but I mean... at the end of the day I'm here for this cast and their world and The 3rd just delivers. There are plenty of other minor things I could talk about too, or have touched on in previous posts, but I see I'm running out of room in this one so I'll wrap here for now.

Provisional Trails Series Ranking (keep in mind they're all generally very close anyway so it's not uncommon for me to move these around at times): Trails in the Sky the 3rd >= Trails in the Sky SC >= Cold Steel 2 >= Cold Steel 1 > Trails in the Sky FC
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Just got back from Homecoming. This is why Spider-Man is the best.

Homecoming > Civil War > Winter Soldier > Age of Ultron >= Avengers > Guardians of the Galaxy > Guardians Vol. 2 > Captain America > Doctor Strange > Iron Man >= Iron Man 2 >= Iron Man 3 > Ant-Man > Thor > Dark World > Incredible Hulk
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xp1337 posted...

And the ending. This is how you do an ending. Really if I had to poke at SC, I'd say that in some ways I felt like it lacked some feeling of closure, that it ended a bit too soon. Yeah, the main threads were all tied up and you had a general idea of how things would resolve but I just wanted a little more from it. I have absolutely no such complaint this time around. I was blown away by how well this was handled. And really I think the ending may very well have been the highpoint of the trilogy. I had to stop at one point because the tears in my eyes made my vision too blurry to read the text. It was just a masterclass.

Renne's bit?

Me too, man.

Me too.

LeonhartFour posted...

Just got back from Homecoming. This is why Spider-Man is the best.

With this and all the other praise, maybe I should drop my usual plan of "no rush, I know I'll wind up seeing the movie eventually" and just watch it on sunday or something.
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take my review with a grain of salt because I am a humongous Spider-Man fanboy and I watched a bunch of MCU movies in a very short span of time just to be prepared to see this today

but it was wonderful, exactly what I was hoping it would be
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How did it compare to the Tobey Maguire ones?
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Honestly every bit as good and probably better. Tom Holland is excellent as both Peter Parker and Spider-Man (and yes, the distinction is important...!). I was on the edge of my seat during every action sequence because the amount of things they can do with Spidey is incredible. The supporting cast is really good, and the humor is spot-on. Keaton does a great job as the Vulture, too. Maybe my one gripe is that I wish they had done a little more with him in terms of fleshing out the character (I don't think his real name is ever said again after the opening scene), but like I said, it's nonstop thrills whenever he's in costume.

also all the Captain America Easter Eggs were fantastic
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Gotta clear out my MCU write-up queue, maybe tonight if possible. Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2, and now Spider-Man Homecoming. And then, finally, I'll have written on 'em all. Whew.
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dowolf: Yeah, that was the part where I had to stop and wipe the tears out of my eyes. I was already feeling it was my favorite game ending before then, but then that happened and pushed me over the edge of already being pretty emotional.
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xp1337 posted...

dowolf: Yeah, that was the part where I had to stop and wipe the tears out of my eyes. I was already feeling it was my favorite game ending before then, but then that happened and pushed me over the edge of already being pretty emotional.

Renne so good
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Minor Homecoming spoilers

My favorite line in the movie might be Happy's "I've been holding on to this since like 2008!" just because it's so meta and had my theater dying.

Also I loved the detail that Kenneth Choi's Principal Morita had pictures of Jim Morita from The First Avenger on his desk, aka the character Choi played in that movie. Identical grandson I guess, and probably explains why the school still uses those Cap videos when he's in disgrace to much of the world. Also a nice detail that he's wearing his Avengers costume during those, so they're pre Winter Soldier even.
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Well, since we're only watching two shows right now, we decided to double down on Eureka Seven and Psycho-Pass.

Things don't seem to be going very smoothly for Renton and Eureka, and Dominic continues to have the worst luck of anyone in this show. We also learn about Anemone's origins, which was pretty interesting.

Still not seeing any reason to dislike Psycho-Pass season 2. The overarching plotline seems interesting, as well as the contrasts between Akane and Mika as Inspectors.
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Jeff Zero has decided to watch at least one episode of FMA Brotherhood.

If there's one thing I can tell I like better than the original just listening to it in the background, it's that Caitlin Glass's Winry sounds more like Yakumo Tsukamoto than she does in the original.

(Yakumo is the best if you didn't know)
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Yeah, I rewatched the first two episodes. There's still some of that insipid FMA humor intermixed, but the ratio is far slimmer than in the original and it'll simmer down a fair bit after the first arc. Other than that, it's leaps and bounds ahead of the original already, even in the beginning when some folks say it suffers. Yeah, it glosses over the training and stuff, but frankly who cares? First episode goes in media res and seeds some doubt over Bradley; second episode flashes back to when their mom died and they lost their bodies, and it's good stuff. I remember that part sticking with me for a while when I first watched.

Music's leaps and bounds superior. Fully orchestrated, yes please. First OP is fantastic. I'd slay for a version of this story with a better Ed, but eh, at least he gets some great character development in the back half.

Anyway, Eureka Seven is really good right now. I'm with you, xp, this might be the best the show has been. The mystery of Renton and Eureka traversing the real world, the darkness of Dewey, the truth behind Anemone, Talho bravely accepted Holland pushing himself to the brink, and Dominic making a stand. Certain aspects in Dominic's arc right now are really reminding me of FMA: Brotherhood, which is what compelled me to start a rewatch outta nowhere.

Psycho-Pass Season 2 is fine so far. Maybe it falls off a cliff soon, but for now, totally fine. It isn't matching the mid-run heights of the first season, but we're definitely enjoying it. I'm loving time skip Ginoza.
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Dominic/Anemone > Eureka/Renton

I really loved them in the last arc which it sounds like is where you guys are now.
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Yeah, we have like 6 episodes left. Hype.
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Before I sleep tonight, this topic will reach 500.

Feel free to go wild, y'all. I'll do it myself if it ain't finished by the time I've finished writing my latest Babylon 5 review on GAF.
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I think I said way back when he first appeared that Dominic was secretly the best character!

pyresword posted...

Dominic/Anemone > Eureka/Renton

I really loved them in the last arc which it sounds like is where you guys are now.

yep

Jeff Zero posted...

Anyway, Eureka Seven is really good right now. I'm with you, xp, this might be the best the show has been.

What's crazy is that you haven't even reached the block of episodes I was thinking of! Though if you've gotten to Dominic's revelations/Anemone's origins then you're basically in that arc now so you're in the build-up to them.
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Oh, and I guess I'll ask since you want to finish this topic tonight. You said you wanted to reply to my Trails in the Sky the 3rd post. Should I move it to the new one so it doesn't get eaten by the purge or is it fine where it is?
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xp1337 posted...

Oh, and I guess I'll ask since you want to finish this topic tonight. You said you wanted to reply to my Trails in the Sky the 3rd post. Should I move it to the new one so it doesn't get eaten by the purge or is it fine where it is?

Oh right! Please transfer it over. This B5 write-up and a subsequent respond-to-stockpile-of-replies post are gonna take the last of my literary capability outta me for the evening.
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T0 500


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Estelle > Joshua
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