Board 8 > Tom resumes reading all the Bolo Household Manga Collection (spoilers)

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Tom Bombadil 07/02/19 6:47:07 PM #51:	Gatomon digivolves to Angewomon, and everybody LENDS HER THEIR POWER and she shoots Myotismon through the heart with Celestial Arrow. One form down! The gang gets an email from Gennai, containing a cryptic prophecy and a weak joke about recycling. Oh no Myotismon is weird looking now and he is MEGA LEVEL. It takes a couple of panels to figure out that Angemon and Angewomon need to shoot Matt and Tai, and a couple panels more to talk about holding hands while they get shot for the shippers. WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon are here! They identify VenomMyotismon's weak point (hint: it's the face on his crotch) and blow him up. Actually I don't think they even bothered to tell us VenomMyotismon's name, so I am gonna call him crotchfacemon if I have reason to mention him again. Yay we're done whoops the sky's weird now. A portal appears, so it's back to the Digiworld, with Kari this time. Some SHADOWY FORMS appreciate that we beat Myotismon for them (wait, aren't they allies if you go deep enough in the lore?) whoops wifebolo came home you'll have to read about the beatdown tomorrow --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:924160782] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>Gatomon digivolves to Angewomon, and everybody LENDS HER THEIR POWER and she shoots Myotismon through the heart with Celestial Arrow. One form down! The gang gets an email from Gennai, containing a cryptic prophecy and a weak joke about recycling. Oh no Myotismon is weird looking now and he is MEGA LEVEL. It takes a couple of panels to figure out that Angemon and Angewomon need to shoot Matt and Tai, and a couple panels more to talk about holding hands while they get shot for the shippers. WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon are here! They identify VenomMyotismon's weak point (hint: it's the face on his crotch) and blow him up. Actually I don't think they even bothered to tell us VenomMyotismon's name, so I am gonna call him crotchfacemon if I have reason to mention him again. Yay we're done whoops the sky's weird now. A portal appears, so it's back to the Digiworld, with Kari this time. Some SHADOWY FORMS appreciate that we beat Myotismon for them (wait, aren't they allies if you go deep enough in the lore?) whoops wifebolo came home you'll have to read about the beatdown tomorrow</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 07/02/19 7:03:51 PM #52:	wait she is waiting for tater tots to cook we got this We run into Chuumon, who wasn't important enough to show up before now, but at least he's not Sukamon who doesn't even get mentioned. The DARK MASTERS are here. Piedmon one-shots our shiny new Mega pals. Chuumon takes a knife for Mimi and is probably dead. Piximon shows up to vaguely help us escape and is probably dead. We've teleported to the beach, and beat Shellmon and Scorpiomon in two panels. (presumably- we don't even actually see the Scorpiomon fight) MetalSeadramon shows up to beat us all up, but Whamon makes the save. MetalSeadramon sics his squad of Divermon on us. They manage to force us to the surface, but Whamon gets them all. Research indicates that WarGreymon can beat MetalSeadramon (what the manga isn't telling you is that his claws are super effective against that family of Digimon). MetalSeadramon shows up and blows a hole through Whamon, who we actually see bleed and stuff. WarGreymon rips through MetalSeadramon. One down, Puppetmon on deck. My rating: 5/10 Okay NOW we are getting to where the plot is supposed to actually get good, and the pace (and tonal whiplash) is just murdering it. Wizardmon and Whamon have SOME impact, but not nearly as much as they should. We don't even really know Pumpkinmon or Gotsumon or Chuumon or NotAppearingInThisMangaSukamon so there's no reason to care when they get offed, and Piximon isn't much better. It was borderline traumatic watching our awesome high level team get absolutely beat down for like an entire episode, showcasing each of the Dark Masters in turn, and here it's like two hits from a single one of the four. I am actively mad at this adaptation now. --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:924161426] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>wait she is waiting for tater tots to cook we got this We run into Chuumon, who wasn't important enough to show up before now, but at least he's not Sukamon who doesn't even get mentioned. The DARK MASTERS are here. Piedmon one-shots our shiny new Mega pals. Chuumon takes a knife for Mimi and is probably dead. Piximon shows up to vaguely help us escape and is probably dead. We've teleported to the beach, and beat Shellmon and Scorpiomon in two panels. (presumably- we don't even actually see the Scorpiomon fight) MetalSeadramon shows up to beat us all up, but Whamon makes the save. MetalSeadramon sics his squad of Divermon on us. They manage to force us to the surface, but Whamon gets them all. Research indicates that WarGreymon can beat MetalSeadramon (what the manga isn't telling you is that his claws are super effective against that family of Digimon). MetalSeadramon shows up and blows a hole through Whamon, who we actually see bleed and stuff. WarGreymon rips through MetalSeadramon. One down, Puppetmon on deck. My rating: 5/10 Okay NOW we are getting to where the plot is supposed to actually get good, and the pace (and tonal whiplash) is just murdering it. Wizardmon and Whamon have SOME impact, but not nearly as much as they should. We don't even really know Pumpkinmon or Gotsumon or Chuumon or NotAppearingInThisMangaSukamon so there's no reason to care when they get offed, and Piximon isn't much better. It was borderline traumatic watching our awesome high level team get absolutely beat down for like an entire episode, showcasing each of the Dark Masters in turn, and here it's like two hits from a single one of the four. I am actively mad at this adaptation now.</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
5tarscream 07/02/19 7:59:10 PM #53:	What do you mean about early fandoms? Like people that liked things before they were cool? <cite>5tarscream posted [p:924163691] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>What do you mean about early fandoms? Like people that liked things before they were cool?</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 07/02/19 9:00:56 PM #54:	Some of the first stuff you liked --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:924166378] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>Some of the first stuff you liked</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
5tarscream 07/03/19 12:55:16 AM #55:	Ohhhh. I tend to stick with older stuff and get into newer things much later in just about everything from tv to video games. I read more than I watch I don't own that many manag I think I have the complete Dragonball set, a few Black Butler, a few Hellsing, the first few Pokemon and Bleach and that might be it. Oh and a few Attack on Titan and the first Vampire Hunter D. I only really know the mainline stuff and it's almost impossible to get English translations here anyway to expand my library. I couldn't even find any English translations of anything when I went to Akihabara last year. Guess I have to learn to read Japanese. <cite>5tarscream posted [p:924175179] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>Ohhhh. I tend to stick with older stuff and get into newer things much later in just about everything from tv to video games. I read more than I watch I don't own that many manag I think I have the complete Dragonball set, a few Black Butler, a few Hellsing, the first few Pokemon and Bleach and that might be it. Oh and a few Attack on Titan and the first Vampire Hunter D. I only really know the mainline stuff and it's almost impossible to get English translations here anyway to expand my library. I couldn't even find any English translations of anything when I went to Akihabara last year. Guess I have to learn to read Japanese.</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 07/03/19 5:52:28 PM #56:	Makes sense I suppose! :\ okay let's put this one to bed (sorta) Digimon Vol. 5 Today's BGM: Umineko music for no particular reason The cover of this one has a tearoff...bookmark?...advertising the upcoming Zero Two series. Would actually be pretty cool without the advertising text! We have a little burial service for our departed friends, and Mimi is singled out as being sad, but we don't have much time for that- the narration says so itself! We're gonna be up against Puppetmon next. He has vaguely defined voodoo powers, and uses them to screw around with the kids and make them fight and do silly stuff before getting bored and teleporting TK to his base. Tensions escalate between Matt and Tai, and Matt hecks off to go be a brooding antihero coolkid for a while. TK and Puppetmon are roughly the same maturity level. TK and Patamon wreck his voodoo setup, tell Puppetmon he has no friends, and leave him to question his life. Also he has a gun that was edited out of the dub! Matt is talking to Cherrymon, who tells him he needs to destroy Tai so that he can let go of his anger and hate that he apparently has. That's another scene that really could have used some more buildup and time to breathe but whatever the gang's back together again EXCEPT MATT IS ATTACKING TAI OH NO. It's WarGreymon vs. MetalGarurumon! The MegaPowers explode! The dream fight! The battle of the DigiCentury! The kids are even trading hands! Kari glows as she is possessed by, uh, the world? I don't remember how this actually resolved in the show but I don't think this was it, although she does get occasional cool power things later. She shwoops us into a flashback- first we see that Greymon/Parrotmon fight (and the younger versions of the kids seeing it) and then the eight eggs set aside for us. Piedmon attacks (still in the flashback), but Young!Gennai holds him off and escapes with the eggs. However, Kari's is dropped, and that's why she didn't connect with Gatomon initially like she was supposed to. Cool story, bro, but Matt's still leaving to go be edgy on his own for a bit. Mimi is also peeling off, tired of all the fighting and dying and stuff, and Joe goes with to keep an eye on her. Main team is down to five now, but we're gonna take on Puppetmon anyway. WarGreymon makes short work of him, but Puppetmon animates his house to attack! "Housemon" (opinions are split IIRC over whether that's a real digimon) gives the whole gang a rough time, but Matt shows up and blows Puppetmon away, and the house falls apart too. Anime Puppetmon had a whole quasi-redemptive arc where he started wanting friends and Cherrymon got in HIS head too, and then he just was too big of an immature jerk to pull off the face turn. Here he doesn't even have minions to bully though, so oh well. Joe and Mimi find Ogremon injured in the woods. Also METALETEMON, who is out for revenge, but SABERLEOMON makes the save. Okay fine this was kinda outta nowhere in the anime too but it's just cool. Apparently Leomon gained the ability to Digivolve from repeated exposure to the Digivices (they are kinda like Sonic Screwdrivers in that they can just kinda do stuff). Despite an assist from Zudomon, it takes a kamikaze attack from SaberLeomon to wipe out MetalEtemon. Good thing Leomon will continue to reincarnate, like all Digimon who die in the Digiworld! I'm sure nothing bad will happen to him the third time he shows up. I guess the point is that the fighting will find Mimi whether she wants it or not. --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:924205640] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>Makes sense I suppose! :\ okay let's put this one to bed (sorta) Digimon Vol. 5 Today's BGM: Umineko music for no particular reason The cover of this one has a tearoff...bookmark?...advertising the upcoming Zero Two series. Would actually be pretty cool without the advertising text! We have a little burial service for our departed friends, and Mimi is singled out as being sad, but we don't have much time for that- the narration says so itself! We're gonna be up against Puppetmon next. He has vaguely defined voodoo powers, and uses them to screw around with the kids and make them fight and do silly stuff before getting bored and teleporting TK to his base. Tensions escalate between Matt and Tai, and Matt hecks off to go be a brooding antihero coolkid for a while. TK and Puppetmon are roughly the same maturity level. TK and Patamon wreck his voodoo setup, tell Puppetmon he has no friends, and leave him to question his life. Also he has a gun that was edited out of the dub! Matt is talking to Cherrymon, who tells him he needs to destroy Tai so that he can let go of his anger and hate that he apparently has. That's another scene that really could have used some more buildup and time to breathe but whatever the gang's back together again EXCEPT MATT IS ATTACKING TAI OH NO. It's WarGreymon vs. MetalGarurumon! The MegaPowers explode! The dream fight! The battle of the DigiCentury! The kids are even trading hands! Kari glows as she is possessed by, uh, the world? I don't remember how this actually resolved in the show but I don't think this was it, although she does get occasional cool power things later. She shwoops us into a flashback- first we see that Greymon/Parrotmon fight (and the younger versions of the kids seeing it) and then the eight eggs set aside for us. Piedmon attacks (still in the flashback), but Young!Gennai holds him off and escapes with the eggs. However, Kari's is dropped, and that's why she didn't connect with Gatomon initially like she was supposed to. Cool story, bro, but Matt's still leaving to go be edgy on his own for a bit. Mimi is also peeling off, tired of all the fighting and dying and stuff, and Joe goes with to keep an eye on her. Main team is down to five now, but we're gonna take on Puppetmon anyway. WarGreymon makes short work of him, but Puppetmon animates his house to attack! "Housemon" (opinions are split IIRC over whether that's a real digimon) gives the whole gang a rough time, but Matt shows up and blows Puppetmon away, and the house falls apart too. Anime Puppetmon had a whole quasi-redemptive arc where he started wanting friends and Cherrymon got in HIS head too, and then he just was too big of an immature jerk to pull off the face turn. Here he doesn't even have minions to bully though, so oh well. Joe and Mimi find Ogremon injured in the woods. Also METALETEMON, who is out for revenge, but SABERLEOMON makes the save. Okay fine this was kinda outta nowhere in the anime too but it's just cool. Apparently Leomon gained the ability to Digivolve from repeated exposure to the Digivices (they are kinda like Sonic Screwdrivers in that they can just kinda do stuff). Despite an assist from Zudomon, it takes a kamikaze attack from SaberLeomon to wipe out MetalEtemon. Good thing Leomon will continue to reincarnate, like all Digimon who die in the Digiworld! I'm sure nothing bad will happen to him the third time he shows up. I guess the point is that the fighting will find Mimi whether she wants it or not.</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 07/03/19 6:20:11 PM #57:	Kari's sick, so Tai and Izzy head into the city to find medicine. That's Machinedramon's domain, and their adventure tips him off. Even with Andromon's help, he's a tall order for the team of five. He busts them down to Rookie, but Kari gives Agumon the energy to go one more time, and he does the stereotypical driveby-slash-pause-enemy dies bit. And the Numemon lived happily ever after, I guess. WaruMonzaemon too. Three down but we're running out of book! Piedmon shows up and beats the snot out of WarGreymon and MegaKabuterimon while the other three kids go for help. Matt is in some symbolic cave or something and starts pushing even Gabumon away, but then there's a glowy thing and we are told not shown how Gabumon and the crest of friendship helped him beat all his baggage or whatever all that was. No time for character development the kids are here! Matt makes the big save. Joe and Mimi have showed up at some point too. In one of the creepiest anime sequences, Piedmon turns the whole gang to keychains in two shots instead of like an episode, minus TK, Kari, and I guess Patamon, because TK is DETERMINED and he reaches MagnaAngemon. Gate of Destiny, and it's over. Man it's one thing to rush through plot points but now it's leaving out big chunks of stuff. Joe and Mimi were supposed to go around recruiting our old friends! The team was supposed to get keychain'd one by one in terrifying fashion! Thousands of boys were supposed to have an awakening during the LadyDevimon/Angewomon catfight! WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon (and Angewomon?) were supposed to be part of the finish! Unfortunately we found the source of the Dark Masters' power- it's Apocalymon. We fight. We lose. He breaks the crests and starts to dissolve everybody, but Possessed!Kari saves us. The real crests were inside us all along, everybody attacks, Apocalymon down. He's gonna self-destruct! We contain the blast with one last deus ex digivce. To be fair this was rushed as heck in the anime too- I think I saw on tvtropes that this was intended to be a longer piece with more satisfactory build. Time to go home, after some cryptic references to future digidestined. At least we don't have time to have everybody cry about leaving the digimon behind? My rating: 5/10 Not much left to say that I haven't already. There is so much character development and emotion in the Dark Masters arc that we...just didn't get, at all. Apocalymon barely felt like a bigger deal than a mon of the week, and Piedmon did only by comparison of how long he lasted. (like a chapter once the fight started?) Overall rating: 5/10 ...It gets a baseline of respect for being freakin' Digimon, or it'd be off to Half Price Books. It was faithful in the sense that they didn't, like, CHANGE anything, they just painted by numbers so fast that it lost all meaning. Given that they barely fit it into 5 volumes as-is, maybe they just needed a lot more space. I don't know I would've done much differently if I had to fit 52 episodes into 5 books, but...why did we have to? It coulda been fine at 10 books I think. Maybe it's the publisher's fault? The artist/writer didn't seem incompetent, unless the dumb humor at inappropriate times WASN'T from the localization like with the dub. Discussion question: What's the biggest pacing issue you've encountered? Up next: Digimon 02 and Tamers- I don't have as much love for them as for Adventure, and it seems I only got a volume each of those. Maybe I was tired of this adaptation, maybe I never found further volumes...we'll find out, sorta! --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:924206830] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>Kari's sick, so Tai and Izzy head into the city to find medicine. That's Machinedramon's domain, and their adventure tips him off. Even with Andromon's help, he's a tall order for the team of five. He busts them down to Rookie, but Kari gives Agumon the energy to go one more time, and he does the stereotypical driveby-slash-pause-enemy dies bit. And the Numemon lived happily ever after, I guess. WaruMonzaemon too. Three down but we're running out of book! Piedmon shows up and beats the snot out of WarGreymon and MegaKabuterimon while the other three kids go for help. Matt is in some symbolic cave or something and starts pushing even Gabumon away, but then there's a glowy thing and we are told not shown how Gabumon and the crest of friendship helped him beat all his baggage or whatever all that was. No time for character development the kids are here! Matt makes the big save. Joe and Mimi have showed up at some point too. In one of the creepiest anime sequences, Piedmon turns the whole gang to keychains in two shots instead of like an episode, minus TK, Kari, and I guess Patamon, because TK is DETERMINED and he reaches MagnaAngemon. Gate of Destiny, and it's over. Man it's one thing to rush through plot points but now it's leaving out big chunks of stuff. Joe and Mimi were supposed to go around recruiting our old friends! The team was supposed to get keychain'd one by one in terrifying fashion! Thousands of boys were supposed to have an awakening during the LadyDevimon/Angewomon catfight! WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon (and Angewomon?) were supposed to be part of the finish! Unfortunately we found the source of the Dark Masters' power- it's Apocalymon. We fight. We lose. He breaks the crests and starts to dissolve everybody, but Possessed!Kari saves us. The real crests were inside us all along, everybody attacks, Apocalymon down. He's gonna self-destruct! We contain the blast with one last deus ex digivce. To be fair this was rushed as heck in the anime too- I think I saw on tvtropes that this was intended to be a longer piece with more satisfactory build. Time to go home, after some cryptic references to future digidestined. At least we don't have time to have everybody cry about leaving the digimon behind? My rating: 5/10 Not much left to say that I haven't already. There is so much character development and emotion in the Dark Masters arc that we...just didn't get, at all. Apocalymon barely felt like a bigger deal than a mon of the week, and Piedmon did only by comparison of how long he lasted. (like a chapter once the fight started?) Overall rating: 5/10 ...It gets a baseline of respect for being freakin' Digimon, or it'd be off to Half Price Books. It was faithful in the sense that they didn't, like, CHANGE anything, they just painted by numbers so fast that it lost all meaning. Given that they barely fit it into 5 volumes as-is, maybe they just needed a lot more space. I don't know I would've done much differently if I had to fit 52 episodes into 5 books, but...why did we have to? It coulda been fine at 10 books I think. Maybe it's the publisher's fault? The artist/writer didn't seem incompetent, unless the dumb humor at inappropriate times WASN'T from the localization like with the dub. Discussion question: What's the biggest pacing issue you've encountered? Up next: Digimon 02 and Tamers- I don't have as much love for them as for Adventure, and it seems I only got a volume each of those. Maybe I was tired of this adaptation, maybe I never found further volumes...we'll find out, sorta!</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 07/04/19 6:30:30 PM #58:	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfJuJrqFhXM" data-time=" Wrong channel but CLOSE ENOUGH let's do some more Digi-speedrunning Digimon Zero Two, Vol. 1 (of 1) Info: same as last time I am not as into 02 as Adventure, but maybe that's for the best. The little character profile section shows some of the DNA digivolutions, so that is not giving me hope that this will be paced any differently. In the course of our first chapter, we've covered intros (sorta), gotten schlorped over, established that the Digimon Emperor is running things with Dark Rings (not Black Gears it's completely different!!), established that the old gang can't digivolve, met the new partners, and Armor Digivolved all of them to win our first fight. Hope you're paying attention or you'll miss that TK and Kari are on this team too! Now we are at least acknowledging the original names, but that is possibly MORE awkward than not doing so. (Ya got Daisuke "Davis" Motomiya, Miyako "Yolei" Inoue, Iori "Cody" Hida, Hikari "Kari" Kamiya, and Takeru "TK" Takahashi. Hm yep seems legit.) I will continue to use the dub names because I am a filthy casual who grew up on them. Also Davis manages to be MORE annoying even than his anime incarnation, working in a "yo" or a "dag" into pretty much every line because it's from a time when that's how you knew somebody was cool. TIMESKIP we've beaten a bunch of enemies that weren't important enough to show, but we still don't know who the mysterious Digimon Emperor is. Maybe it's this mysterious and brooding cool genius guy who is clowning on Davis (who describes his best effort as "wiggedy wack") in soccer. We figure out that we can knock down the Dark Spires to access the old Digivolutions, and we figure out that Ken is indeed the Digimon Emperor from a cut on his leg when he shows up to run interference. Flamedramon and the other four schmucks d. Deltamon (13:39, Fire Rocket) Emperor Ken runs off and upgrades his Dark Rings to Dark Spirals. Even more totally different than the Black Gears. We pretty much trip over three more Digi-Eggs, but can't lift them. Agumon has a Dark SPIRAL. It's better. MetalGreymon d. Three Schmucks (where are the other two?) but then the Eggs shloop over to us (why?) and we get our second Armor Digivolutions! Nothing is going to stop the power of Submarimon in a land battle! (the joke is he's a submarine and never gets used unless we're going underwater) Three Schmucks With The Same Rough Power Level As Before d. MetalGreymon. (2:33) TIMESKIP. We're attacking Ken's underwater base. His greatest creation is almost complete, but there's some sort of Dark Whirlpool that is A Bad Thing but we're too eeeeevil to care. Wormmon is concerned, but we only listen to named characters here. Kimeramon is here! I always thought that was a cool design- he has elements of all of the original partner digimon. We digivolve with a recycled panel from before, except Raidramon is badly photoshopped over Flamedramon this time. The humans decide to leave their partners to die, I guess, in order to split up and find and beat up? Ken. The guy who can run rings around our athletics guy. On his home turf. Lemme know how that goes. Davis finds...something? ("Dag, This thing's got the bling bling.") and takes a gamble that it'll be a digivolvey thing. It is- Veemon becomes Magnadramon. Kimeramon goes out of control and is attacking Ken. Now we're outside somehow, I guess. The Golden DigiEgg (I think that's what that was?) was the power source for the base, so it explodes. --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:924251195] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfJuJrqFhXM" data-time=" Wrong channel but CLOSE ENOUGH let's do some more Digi-speedrunning Digimon Zero Two, Vol. 1 (of 1) Info: same as last time I am not as into 02 as Adventure, but maybe that's for the best. The little character profile section shows some of the DNA digivolutions, so that is not giving me hope that this will be paced any differently. In the course of our first chapter, we've covered intros (sorta), gotten schlorped over, established that the Digimon Emperor is running things with Dark Rings (not Black Gears it's completely different!!), established that the old gang can't digivolve, met the new partners, and Armor Digivolved all of them to win our first fight. Hope you're paying attention or you'll miss that TK and Kari are on this team too! Now we are at least acknowledging the original names, but that is possibly MORE awkward than not doing so. (Ya got Daisuke "Davis" Motomiya, Miyako "Yolei" Inoue, Iori "Cody" Hida, Hikari "Kari" Kamiya, and Takeru "TK" Takahashi. Hm yep seems legit.) I will continue to use the dub names because I am a filthy casual who grew up on them. Also Davis manages to be MORE annoying even than his anime incarnation, working in a "yo" or a "dag" into pretty much every line because it's from a time when that's how you knew somebody was cool. TIMESKIP we've beaten a bunch of enemies that weren't important enough to show, but we still don't know who the mysterious Digimon Emperor is. Maybe it's this mysterious and brooding cool genius guy who is clowning on Davis (who describes his best effort as "wiggedy wack") in soccer. We figure out that we can knock down the Dark Spires to access the old Digivolutions, and we figure out that Ken is indeed the Digimon Emperor from a cut on his leg when he shows up to run interference. Flamedramon and the other four schmucks d. Deltamon (13:39, Fire Rocket) Emperor Ken runs off and upgrades his Dark Rings to Dark Spirals. Even more totally different than the Black Gears. We pretty much trip over three more Digi-Eggs, but can't lift them. Agumon has a Dark SPIRAL. It's better. MetalGreymon d. Three Schmucks (where are the other two?) but then the Eggs shloop over to us (why?) and we get our second Armor Digivolutions! Nothing is going to stop the power of Submarimon in a land battle! (the joke is he's a submarine and never gets used unless we're going underwater) Three Schmucks With The Same Rough Power Level As Before d. MetalGreymon. (2:33) TIMESKIP. We're attacking Ken's underwater base. His greatest creation is almost complete, but there's some sort of Dark Whirlpool that is A Bad Thing but we're too eeeeevil to care. Wormmon is concerned, but we only listen to named characters here. Kimeramon is here! I always thought that was a cool design- he has elements of all of the original partner digimon. We digivolve with a recycled panel from before, except Raidramon is badly photoshopped over Flamedramon this time. The humans decide to leave their partners to die, I guess, in order to split up and find and beat up? Ken. The guy who can run rings around our athletics guy. On his home turf. Lemme know how that goes. Davis finds...something? ("Dag, This thing's got the bling bling.") and takes a gamble that it'll be a digivolvey thing. It is- Veemon becomes Magnadramon. Kimeramon goes out of control and is attacking Ken. Now we're outside somehow, I guess. The Golden DigiEgg (I think that's what that was?) was the power source for the base, so it explodes.</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 07/04/19 6:57:11 PM #59:	Magnadramon is still fighting Kimeramon even though it has gone rampant. Wormmon does...something? And it allows Magnadramon to beat Kimeramon. He finally got his name used and then he sacrifices himself two panels later, that's rough. (He's Ken's partner, which you wouldn't necessarily pick up without knowing) Tai shows up from somewhere to tell us about Ken's tragic past and susceptibility to angsty heel turns. Some lady (it's Arukenimon) is annoyed. We're deployed again to repair some of the damage we've done with all the fighting. That has never been an issue before and I would be surprised if it has been since, but this way we get to split up. The lady (it's still Arukenimon) summons some more bad guys, and one of them beats up Raidramon until STINGMON makes the save and points out that we can just digivolve normally now. The creatively named ExVeemon beats Tortomon. Yolei and Aquilamon show up, having figured this out on their own offscreen. They decide to find Cody, but Stingmon (and Ken!) find him first, helping Armadillomon become Ankylomon. Ken apologizes to everybody but doesn't seem to be joining the team properly yet. Izzy is worried about that Dark Whirlpool from before. Dark forces are vaguely congregating, and Davis' lines are getting even stupider and spreading to the beginning-of-chapter splash pages! We investigate the old base, but it's under the control of SOME LADY (Arukenimon) and she deploys Okuwamon to wreck everybody. Stingmon and Ken show up to help, and Davis slaps Ken for not being a team player. Stingmon and ExVeemon DNA Digivolve to Paildramon. Davis and Ken go for cool poses, but Ken's missing an eye. We beat Okuwamon and some explosions happen to indicate that we have accomplished whatever our goal was here. Arukenimon (how did she actually get here?) reveals her true form to the kids except Kari doesn't make it into the shot. We send the girls to go get Ken for help. He's about to jump off a cliff because the Dark Ocean is calling him. Maybe it's another sudden depression metaphor? We pull him back ("Yeeg") but Yolei falls off instead but we save her with teamwork or something. Paildramon is a thing, and he has Arukenimon on the ropes when Mummymon saves the day and they run away. We follow them to a place, and she introduces BLACKWARGREYMON, made from a hundred of those Control Spires from before. But we got rid of all of those? Yoeli and Kari decide they can probably DNA Digivolve through the power of vaguely teased shoujo-ai, and Silphymon runs off BlackWarGreymon...FOR NOW dun dun dun I didn't buy volume 2 My rating: 4/10 ...Well they've gotten smarter about just outright skipping stuff they don't have time for, but I don't feel I know anything about these characters except "Davis is an idiot" and "Ken is Zuko from Avatar." And that's, y'know, two out of six kids (and their Digimon, and the current bad guys). This appears to cover about thirty episodes of anime, so geeze, we're going even faster now! I think this single volume passes the point where I stopped really watching this regularly, even. I think this one can be passed on. Tamers is on deck! I WONDER HOW IT'LL GO --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:924252201] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>Magnadramon is still fighting Kimeramon even though it has gone rampant. Wormmon does...something? And it allows Magnadramon to beat Kimeramon. He finally got his name used and then he sacrifices himself two panels later, that's rough. (He's Ken's partner, which you wouldn't necessarily pick up without knowing) Tai shows up from somewhere to tell us about Ken's tragic past and susceptibility to angsty heel turns. Some lady (it's Arukenimon) is annoyed. We're deployed again to repair some of the damage we've done with all the fighting. That has never been an issue before and I would be surprised if it has been since, but this way we get to split up. The lady (it's still Arukenimon) summons some more bad guys, and one of them beats up Raidramon until STINGMON makes the save and points out that we can just digivolve normally now. The creatively named ExVeemon beats Tortomon. Yolei and Aquilamon show up, having figured this out on their own offscreen. They decide to find Cody, but Stingmon (and Ken!) find him first, helping Armadillomon become Ankylomon. Ken apologizes to everybody but doesn't seem to be joining the team properly yet. Izzy is worried about that Dark Whirlpool from before. Dark forces are vaguely congregating, and Davis' lines are getting even stupider and spreading to the beginning-of-chapter splash pages! We investigate the old base, but it's under the control of SOME LADY (Arukenimon) and she deploys Okuwamon to wreck everybody. Stingmon and Ken show up to help, and Davis slaps Ken for not being a team player. Stingmon and ExVeemon DNA Digivolve to Paildramon. Davis and Ken go for cool poses, but Ken's missing an eye. We beat Okuwamon and some explosions happen to indicate that we have accomplished whatever our goal was here. Arukenimon (how did she actually get here?) reveals her true form to the kids except Kari doesn't make it into the shot. We send the girls to go get Ken for help. He's about to jump off a cliff because the Dark Ocean is calling him. Maybe it's another sudden depression metaphor? We pull him back ("Yeeg") but Yolei falls off instead but we save her with teamwork or something. Paildramon is a thing, and he has Arukenimon on the ropes when Mummymon saves the day and they run away. We follow them to a place, and she introduces BLACKWARGREYMON, made from a hundred of those Control Spires from before. But we got rid of all of those? Yoeli and Kari decide they can probably DNA Digivolve through the power of vaguely teased shoujo-ai, and Silphymon runs off BlackWarGreymon...FOR NOW dun dun dun I didn't buy volume 2 My rating: 4/10 ...Well they've gotten smarter about just outright skipping stuff they don't have time for, but I don't feel I know anything about these characters except "Davis is an idiot" and "Ken is Zuko from Avatar." And that's, y'know, two out of six kids (and their Digimon, and the current bad guys). This appears to cover about thirty episodes of anime, so geeze, we're going even faster now! I think this single volume passes the point where I stopped really watching this regularly, even. I think this one can be passed on. Tamers is on deck! I WONDER HOW IT'LL GO</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 07/05/19 2:50:57 PM #60:	Digimon Tamers, Vol. 1 (of 1) Alright this season I only dabbled in, so I'll be just as confused as you if we take the same lightning round approach as the others! Takato Mitsuki has a Japanese name, and meets Guilmon, who's more animal-like in behavior than previous partners. Digimon is just a (card?) game in this world....UNTIL NOW. Rika's Renamon beats a Lynxmon in Takato's dream...OR WAS IT A DREAM. His friends laugh at him. Takato follows his Digivice that he has, and finds Guilmon, so this is a flashback I guess. Oh right, he made up Guilmon at the beginning, but because I was paying sub-optimal attention, I missed that that happened in the flashback part, not right after he met Guilmon. Anyway. Takato Mitsuki has a Japanese name, and meets Guilmon. Takato puts on goggles to be like Tai. (there's a longstanding Digimon tradition that the main kid wears goggles in every iteration) But Calumon has popped out of the sky somewhere too! Dun dun dun... Guilmon shows up at school, not pulling off the cardboard box trick quite at Snake levels. He causes a ruckus, and Henry and his Terriermon chastise Takato for not being more careful. We find a better spot to park Guilmon for the future, but he gets the crazies and charges off, winding up in a fight with Rika and Renamon. Rika's gonna put him down like all the others because that's all Digimon do. Henry tries to stop the fight, but Rika insists, taking the Pokemon game approach of grinding for xp/data/shinies. Terriermon digivolves to Gargomon and starts shooting everything. Guilmon saves Rika at some point. This Gargomon thing has apparently already been an issue, as shown via flashback. Terriermon came from a game, and Henry digivolved him when he was about to die, and didn't like the whole fighting thing, so he wants him to stay at Rookie and stay in control. His dad points out that it's just a dang game, but no. And obviously it's not just a game now, so that's fun. Renamon is still grinding but can't evolve for some reason. Impmon mocks her for having a human partner. We get their background story- Rika was the best at the game, and would only accept the best partner, which Renamon took to mean herself. And then we continued to be competitive at anything that moved. Post-flashback, Renamon is having trouble with a Dokugumon. She takes a bad hit, Calumon is there, and Renamon digivolves to Kyubimon for the win and an increased social link. Whoops, Guilmon disappears into thin air, and something's up with Terriermon too. Rena is still too cool to be worried about MERE DATA, despite her character development a couple pages ago, but we still all team up to investigate. We follow a signal, find Guilmon tied up underground, grab him, and the place blows up. Kay. We have seen some mysterious folks monitoring the situation a few times now. Impmon tries to mock Guilmon, but he's too naive to care. He then terrorizes a couple named Jo and Mimi. I am not mad at all that that's the closest we're ever going to get to a canon resolution of that ship. Not at all. That's a great name for two randos on a date. Go off. --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:924284554] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>Digimon Tamers, Vol. 1 (of 1) Alright this season I only dabbled in, so I'll be just as confused as you if we take the same lightning round approach as the others! Takato Mitsuki has a Japanese name, and meets Guilmon, who's more animal-like in behavior than previous partners. Digimon is just a (card?) game in this world....UNTIL NOW. Rika's Renamon beats a Lynxmon in Takato's dream...OR WAS IT A DREAM. His friends laugh at him. Takato follows his Digivice that he has, and finds Guilmon, so this is a flashback I guess. Oh right, he made up Guilmon at the beginning, but because I was paying sub-optimal attention, I missed that that happened in the flashback part, not right after he met Guilmon. Anyway. Takato Mitsuki has a Japanese name, and meets Guilmon. Takato puts on goggles to be like Tai. (there's a longstanding Digimon tradition that the main kid wears goggles in every iteration) But Calumon has popped out of the sky somewhere too! Dun dun dun... Guilmon shows up at school, not pulling off the cardboard box trick quite at Snake levels. He causes a ruckus, and Henry and his Terriermon chastise Takato for not being more careful. We find a better spot to park Guilmon for the future, but he gets the crazies and charges off, winding up in a fight with Rika and Renamon. Rika's gonna put him down like all the others because that's all Digimon do. Henry tries to stop the fight, but Rika insists, taking the Pokemon game approach of grinding for xp/data/shinies. Terriermon digivolves to Gargomon and starts shooting everything. Guilmon saves Rika at some point. This Gargomon thing has apparently already been an issue, as shown via flashback. Terriermon came from a game, and Henry digivolved him when he was about to die, and didn't like the whole fighting thing, so he wants him to stay at Rookie and stay in control. His dad points out that it's just a dang game, but no. And obviously it's not just a game now, so that's fun. Renamon is still grinding but can't evolve for some reason. Impmon mocks her for having a human partner. We get their background story- Rika was the best at the game, and would only accept the best partner, which Renamon took to mean herself. And then we continued to be competitive at anything that moved. Post-flashback, Renamon is having trouble with a Dokugumon. She takes a bad hit, Calumon is there, and Renamon digivolves to Kyubimon for the win and an increased social link. Whoops, Guilmon disappears into thin air, and something's up with Terriermon too. Rena is still too cool to be worried about MERE DATA, despite her character development a couple pages ago, but we still all team up to investigate. We follow a signal, find Guilmon tied up underground, grab him, and the place blows up. Kay. We have seen some mysterious folks monitoring the situation a few times now. Impmon tries to mock Guilmon, but he's too naive to care. He then terrorizes a couple named Jo and Mimi. I am not mad at all that that's the closest we're ever going to get to a canon resolution of that ship. Not at all. That's a great name for two randos on a date. Go off.</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 07/05/19 3:00:36 PM #61:	Guilmon gets the crazies again, and winds up getting beaten down by a Devidramon. Takato (and Calumon) show up and he digivolves to Growlmon for the win. But he's scary. But he's not scary after the fight is over. But he's not going back to Guilmon either. (this also happened with Gargomon but I guess just kinda resolved offscreen at some point) Rika continues to tsun at everybody, even throwing in a jab at "that Davis kid on TV." IceDevimon attempts to partner with her by preying on her issues. Everybody shows up to help, and Takato/Henry/Their dudes are more use than Renamon. Renamon and Henry have a short debate over pacifism and bonds and all that stuff. The next mon of the week requires a Gargomon evolution to save a civilian, so maybe Henry will relax a bit now. The computer people are mad. My rating: 7/10 Oh my goodness we have, like, actual characters this time around, and maybe they even have arcs! And the humor is less prevalent and actually decent once in a while. Really didn't expect my least favorite of the three series to have my favorite manga, but that might be where we'd land if I got more of this. Discussion question: What's something you liked despite disliking an earlier installment in the franchise? Hint for next: I don't know if I am ready to trust this fandom again... --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:924284963] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>Guilmon gets the crazies again, and winds up getting beaten down by a Devidramon. Takato (and Calumon) show up and he digivolves to Growlmon for the win. But he's scary. But he's not scary after the fight is over. But he's not going back to Guilmon either. (this also happened with Gargomon but I guess just kinda resolved offscreen at some point) Rika continues to tsun at everybody, even throwing in a jab at "that Davis kid on TV." IceDevimon attempts to partner with her by preying on her issues. Everybody shows up to help, and Takato/Henry/Their dudes are more use than Renamon. Renamon and Henry have a short debate over pacifism and bonds and all that stuff. The next mon of the week requires a Gargomon evolution to save a civilian, so maybe Henry will relax a bit now. The computer people are mad. My rating: 7/10 Oh my goodness we have, like, actual characters this time around, and maybe they even have arcs! And the humor is less prevalent and actually decent once in a while. Really didn't expect my least favorite of the three series to have my favorite manga, but that might be where we'd land if I got more of this. Discussion question: What's something you liked despite disliking an earlier installment in the franchise? Hint for next: I don't know if I am ready to trust this fandom again...</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Eerieka 07/05/19 6:40:59 PM #62:	Tom Bombadil posted... Discussion question: What's something you liked despite disliking an earlier installment in the franchise? The Tales series absolutely defines this for me. I hated Symphonia, Legendia, Phantasia, and Destiny, so I'm not sure why in the world I kept giving this series chances, but I'm glad I did because I loved Abyss, Vesperia, and Berseria (and I haven't played any the other new ones) --- Account created-9/10/04. Just a normal GameFAQs user/leprechaun Ramza: rofl. Rofel: You say my name? -Eise <cite>Eerieka posted [p:924292714] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote><cite>Tom Bombadil posted...</cite> <quote>Discussion question: What's something you liked despite disliking an earlier installment in the franchise?</quote> The Tales series absolutely defines this for me. I hated Symphonia, Legendia, Phantasia, and Destiny, so I'm not sure why in the world I kept giving this series chances, but I'm glad I did because I loved Abyss, Vesperia, and Berseria (and I haven't played any the other new ones)</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 07/07/19 10:09:47 PM #63:	Gonna be on a bit of a break since I'm out of town and only brought two manga, one for the trip out and one for the trip back. Speaking of which Disappearance of Yuki Nagato Was kinda odd. It's a spin-off of Haruhi, now with significantly less Haruhi. And.... Vastly different personalities for everybody. Yuki is now a generic shy bookworm with a thing for Kyon. Tsuruya is kinda a bully and a big fan of Mikuru. Asakura backs Yuki against them for Kyon. 's weird. I have a complicated relationship with Haruhi. Season 1 was one of my favorites ever at the time. S2.... Maybe it got bad, or my tastes changed, or trying to slog through endless 8 legit was that bad an idea, but.....I couldn't finish it. Haruhi wasn't fun anymore, Yuki wasn't really participating, and the rest of the cast couldn't carry the slack for me. I didn't pick it back up even for best girl Yuki getting a movie either, even on promises it was what I wanted. This is really the first Haruhi thing I've consumed since then and it.... Doesn't have much to do with the original. It's probably some canon shenanigans, but....ehhh. This Yuki is cute. But she's not the "real" Yuki. My rating: 7/10. This goes in what I call the Star Trek (reboot) pile. It's fine as its own thing. But it just feels like a generic (albeit decent) rom com manga on which we slapped the skins of Haruhi characters. In this case there's probably a canon reason why half the cast is significantly OOC. I'm just not inspired to stick with it long enough to figure it out. Discussion: what's your Star trek pile? Ie a spin-off/remake/sequel/etc that is really not true to the franchise but is fine if you don't have that expectation Next hint: time for more mediocre (iirc) manga of things I really like! --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:924384268] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>Gonna be on a bit of a break since I'm out of town and only brought two manga, one for the trip out and one for the trip back. Speaking of which Disappearance of Yuki Nagato Was kinda odd. It's a spin-off of Haruhi, now with significantly less Haruhi. And.... Vastly different personalities for everybody. Yuki is now a generic shy bookworm with a thing for Kyon. Tsuruya is kinda a bully and a big fan of Mikuru. Asakura backs Yuki against them for Kyon. 's weird. I have a complicated relationship with Haruhi. Season 1 was one of my favorites ever at the time. S2.... Maybe it got bad, or my tastes changed, or trying to slog through endless 8 legit was that bad an idea, but.....I couldn't finish it. Haruhi wasn't fun anymore, Yuki wasn't really participating, and the rest of the cast couldn't carry the slack for me. I didn't pick it back up even for best girl Yuki getting a movie either, even on promises it was what I wanted. This is really the first Haruhi thing I've consumed since then and it.... Doesn't have much to do with the original. It's probably some canon shenanigans, but....ehhh. This Yuki is cute. But she's not the "real" Yuki. My rating: 7/10. This goes in what I call the Star Trek (reboot) pile. It's fine as its own thing. But it just feels like a generic (albeit decent) rom com manga on which we slapped the skins of Haruhi characters. In this case there's probably a canon reason why half the cast is significantly OOC. I'm just not inspired to stick with it long enough to figure it out. Discussion: what's your Star trek pile? Ie a spin-off/remake/sequel/etc that is really not true to the franchise but is fine if you don't have that expectation Next hint: time for more mediocre (iirc) manga of things I really like!</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 07/12/19 7:47:43 AM #64:	I'll read tomorrow but might not get the post up --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:924580867] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>I'll read tomorrow but might not get the post up</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 07/17/19 10:20:16 PM #65:	Disgaea This was a kinda funky one. It had the same pacing challenge as Digimon- cramming a very long game into a single volume, in this case. I think it handled that aspect well- instead of trying to retell the whole thing, it cut out all but the very most important plot beats and characters, changing a few things around and adding a good bit of original content to flesh things out better. My purist side is displeased, but realistically one volume wasn't going to be able to do the whole game justice. Where it fell down a bit was tone and character development. I feel like it wanted to be a comedy manga most of the way through, but tried to get a bit more serious towards the end. Unfortunately we didn't spend enough (quality) time with any of the characters for their arcs to make a whole lot of sense or have a whole lot of impact, and thus the ending fell a bit flat as well. Art style wasn't quite my thing either. My rating: 6/10 Better than I remembered, but....not great. I'm due for a replay though I think and that kinda whet my appetite. --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:924835863] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>Disgaea This was a kinda funky one. It had the same pacing challenge as Digimon- cramming a very long game into a single volume, in this case. I think it handled that aspect well- instead of trying to retell the whole thing, it cut out all but the very most important plot beats and characters, changing a few things around and adding a good bit of original content to flesh things out better. My purist side is displeased, but realistically one volume wasn't going to be able to do the whole game justice. Where it fell down a bit was tone and character development. I feel like it wanted to be a comedy manga most of the way through, but tried to get a bit more serious towards the end. Unfortunately we didn't spend enough (quality) time with any of the characters for their arcs to make a whole lot of sense or have a whole lot of impact, and thus the ending fell a bit flat as well. Art style wasn't quite my thing either. My rating: 6/10 Better than I remembered, but....not great. I'm due for a replay though I think and that kinda whet my appetite.</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 07/19/19 6:13:34 PM #66:	omg a live update will wonders never cease Disgaea 2, Vol. 1 of ? Whose fault: Tombolo By: Hekaton Today's BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8k69zZL6JY&list=PL1M8MWromo9PGi5DgB3Rd8kiFAY8Bux8s&index=1 As much as I love Disgaea, 2 was the first of several other games in the franchise I never beat. I did get a good ways into it, but I lack the connection to its cast and story that I had to the OG. Looks like we have more than one volume to work with this time though (can't see how many from where I'm sitting) so maybe it'll sell the story a bit better than its predecessor! New author/artist as well. We open with a montage about...Laharl and Flonne, who IIRC may or may not have even appeared in 2. Lots of gratuitous male gaze shots of Flonne, who...is not that type of character or design. Not a fan of the art style. This is gonna be a long one I think, but at least there's a Pleinair cameo. Laharl squashes a bunch of jobbers. Etna shows up and talks about how much she loves candy. (...she does?) They get in a fight over snacks and she leaves. We get a Three Kingdoms parody for the chapter break, lol. Flonne shows up at the castle, lessening Laharl's loneliness. Etna needs a job to start building notoriety but lacks credentials to register as an overlord. Bigger Pleinair appearance with a weird personality and a fanservice shot. Dark Assembly votes down her appeal to become a Beauty Queen. Chapter break: High School RomCom parody, complete with Mid-Boss cameo. So uh are Adell and those guys gonna show up at some point or? Flonne tries to be Etna, which goes about as well as expected. Etna shows up so she and Laharl can tsun at each other some more. She's gonna go beat up Zenon. Chapter preview: DBZ. So uh are Adell and those guys gonna show up at some point or? Boobs appear, and Ecchi Spot #1 plays out with Rozalin falling (from the sky) onto Adell. Halfway through the book, our main characters have appeared! But that's a flash forward. The world of Veldine has been turned into demons, except for Adell, the last human standing. His mom is trying to summon Overlord Zenon for him to defeat so they can become human again. They got Rozalin instead. Wasn't it Etna in the original, or am I confused? She's the daughter of Zenon and is stuck with Adell until Adell finds the real deal, to everybody's chargrin. Episode preview: Etna yells at Adell for not taking it seriously and works in a Glass Mask reference of all things. Axel is a washed up former star trying to reclaim his former glory while...shooting a travel show. We learn that Rozalin has been tucked away in a tower all her life. Adell reiterates his obsession with fair fights. Rozalin doesn't want him to fight her dad, so she tricks him into squashing Axel instead. Episode preview: nothing specific The TV station is announcing that Axel is dead, so he wants to prove he's not. The Prinnies try to kidnap Roz but Adell saves her, impressing her with his resolve. Himedere mode ACTIVATE. Episode preview: Cyborg 009, whoa --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:924915907] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>omg a live update will wonders never cease Disgaea 2, Vol. 1 of ? Whose fault: Tombolo By: Hekaton Today's BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8k69zZL6JY&list=PL1M8MWromo9PGi5DgB3Rd8kiFAY8Bux8s&index=1 As much as I love Disgaea, 2 was the first of several other games in the franchise I never beat. I did get a good ways into it, but I lack the connection to its cast and story that I had to the OG. Looks like we have more than one volume to work with this time though (can't see how many from where I'm sitting) so maybe it'll sell the story a bit better than its predecessor! New author/artist as well. We open with a montage about...Laharl and Flonne, who IIRC may or may not have even appeared in 2. Lots of gratuitous male gaze shots of Flonne, who...is not that type of character or design. Not a fan of the art style. This is gonna be a long one I think, but at least there's a Pleinair cameo. Laharl squashes a bunch of jobbers. Etna shows up and talks about how much she loves candy. (...she does?) They get in a fight over snacks and she leaves. We get a Three Kingdoms parody for the chapter break, lol. Flonne shows up at the castle, lessening Laharl's loneliness. Etna needs a job to start building notoriety but lacks credentials to register as an overlord. Bigger Pleinair appearance with a weird personality and a fanservice shot. Dark Assembly votes down her appeal to become a Beauty Queen. Chapter break: High School RomCom parody, complete with Mid-Boss cameo. So uh are Adell and those guys gonna show up at some point or? Flonne tries to be Etna, which goes about as well as expected. Etna shows up so she and Laharl can tsun at each other some more. She's gonna go beat up Zenon. Chapter preview: DBZ. So uh are Adell and those guys gonna show up at some point or? Boobs appear, and Ecchi Spot #1 plays out with Rozalin falling (from the sky) onto Adell. Halfway through the book, our main characters have appeared! But that's a flash forward. The world of Veldine has been turned into demons, except for Adell, the last human standing. His mom is trying to summon Overlord Zenon for him to defeat so they can become human again. They got Rozalin instead. Wasn't it Etna in the original, or am I confused? She's the daughter of Zenon and is stuck with Adell until Adell finds the real deal, to everybody's chargrin. Episode preview: Etna yells at Adell for not taking it seriously and works in a Glass Mask reference of all things. Axel is a washed up former star trying to reclaim his former glory while...shooting a travel show. We learn that Rozalin has been tucked away in a tower all her life. Adell reiterates his obsession with fair fights. Rozalin doesn't want him to fight her dad, so she tricks him into squashing Axel instead. Episode preview: nothing specific The TV station is announcing that Axel is dead, so he wants to prove he's not. The Prinnies try to kidnap Roz but Adell saves her, impressing her with his resolve. Himedere mode ACTIVATE. Episode preview: Cyborg 009, whoa</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 07/19/19 6:28:54 PM #67:	Time for a Rozalin bath scene, I guess. And Adell's loli sister Hanako, who at least doesn't get AS many fanservicey shots. Adell gets more excuses to talk about PROMISES. Maybe that's why I didn't get as into 2- I feel like all there was to Adell was PROMISES and FAIR FIGHTS and NOT LIKING WOMEN except PRESUMABLY WINDING UP WITH ROZALIN ANYWAY. Cancelling the contract would kill him, BTW. I imagine that will be important, like, at the end! Also btw we've made a big deal of Rozalin not knowing how to fight and being level 1. I think that was the excuse for having a tutorial in the game but I remember her being pretty strong. >_> Zenon is big and evil and scary and wants his daughter back. Two masked figures are seen talking to him. I remember that they're important, but not why. Episode preview: ....a cliffhanger! And that's that. We get...the same couple-page promo for this manga that we got in Disgaea 1 >_> My rating: 7/10 It got the tone pretty spot on! Spending half the book on "bridging" from 1 to 2 was kinda odd, but I'm not gonna complain about more Laharl and Flonne. I acclimated to the art style after a bit, although it's still not quite my preference. Lotsa fanservice of characters I don't really have any interest in sexualizing. (.....I'll concede the point on Rozalin, I guess) I'm guessing we have several books to go, because dang we haven't even joined up with Etna yet! I don't think I got more than 2 or 3 though. --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:924916518] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>Time for a Rozalin bath scene, I guess. And Adell's loli sister Hanako, who at least doesn't get AS many fanservicey shots. Adell gets more excuses to talk about PROMISES. Maybe that's why I didn't get as into 2- I feel like all there was to Adell was PROMISES and FAIR FIGHTS and NOT LIKING WOMEN except PRESUMABLY WINDING UP WITH ROZALIN ANYWAY. Cancelling the contract would kill him, BTW. I imagine that will be important, like, at the end! Also btw we've made a big deal of Rozalin not knowing how to fight and being level 1. I think that was the excuse for having a tutorial in the game but I remember her being pretty strong. >_> Zenon is big and evil and scary and wants his daughter back. Two masked figures are seen talking to him. I remember that they're important, but not why. Episode preview: ....a cliffhanger! And that's that. We get...the same couple-page promo for this manga that we got in Disgaea 1 >_> My rating: 7/10 It got the tone pretty spot on! Spending half the book on "bridging" from 1 to 2 was kinda odd, but I'm not gonna complain about more Laharl and Flonne. I acclimated to the art style after a bit, although it's still not quite my preference. Lotsa fanservice of characters I don't really have any interest in sexualizing. (.....I'll concede the point on Rozalin, I guess) I'm guessing we have several books to go, because dang we haven't even joined up with Etna yet! I don't think I got more than 2 or 3 though.</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 07/20/19 5:13:39 PM #68:	Disgaea 2, Vol. 2 (of 2) Rozalin has a nightmare about Zenon's rise to power. We're ready to try again, and maybe Rozalin will even cooperate this time. A love triangle is set up with the Dimension Guide, whose name is Friday. We meet a pervy demon who flips Friday's skirt and gets punted into next week trying it on Roz. The mysterious masked people haven't found Roz yet. Rozalin takes a guess as to where her castle is, and apparently gets it right. It's run down, though, and the only survivor is her friend Tink, who has rather appropriately been turned into a frog. He has a split personality, and Roz has the ability to access his good(ish) side with a spell. Zenon wasn't in the palace at the time of the attack, and in fact has never actually been to this one. Axel shows up, there's a lengthy misunderstanding, and Adell beats him in one punch. oh hey sudden evening plans we'll call it there --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:924952698] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>Disgaea 2, Vol. 2 (of 2) Rozalin has a nightmare about Zenon's rise to power. We're ready to try again, and maybe Rozalin will even cooperate this time. A love triangle is set up with the Dimension Guide, whose name is Friday. We meet a pervy demon who flips Friday's skirt and gets punted into next week trying it on Roz. The mysterious masked people haven't found Roz yet. Rozalin takes a guess as to where her castle is, and apparently gets it right. It's run down, though, and the only survivor is her friend Tink, who has rather appropriately been turned into a frog. He has a split personality, and Roz has the ability to access his good(ish) side with a spell. Zenon wasn't in the palace at the time of the attack, and in fact has never actually been to this one. Axel shows up, there's a lengthy misunderstanding, and Adell beats him in one punch. oh hey sudden evening plans we'll call it there</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 07/25/19 6:30:08 PM #69:	I'm really bad and going back and doing AFK recaps >_> Disgaea 2-2 saw tensions escalate as Rozalin is conflicted between her duty to her father and her feelings for Adell. Also Tink is here now. ....I dunno I'm kinda enjoying it. The plot has room to breathe and the characters have room to develop! Disgaea 2 just made it past one round of a STEAM BATTLE in the Tompic (cross-promotion!!) so maybe I'll see where all this goes. A new challenger appeared as I finally bit the bullet on Case Closed 1. I already had an idea what to expect after picking up volume 60-something randomly, and it didn't disappoint. The mystery manga I've been wanting! I was not close on either of the mysteries presented. Expect a slow trickle of further volumes over the next few years (which is probably how long it's gonna take me to finish this project >_>) I have already started a bit of the next one, but we'll join it in progress. Dogby Walks Alone, Vol. 1 By: Wes Abbott Whose fault: Tombolo Today's BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZUfiW3W1KY" data-time=" If I'm remembering right, this came into my awareness through the Rising Stars of Manga, which was a thing I was into for a while. (spoilers for like two years from now when I get to R) It takes place in the vaguely dystopian amusement park Happyplace, where everybody seems to be known only by their job title, or by their character name if they're a mascot. All sorts of shady stuff is going on- rival park Illusion Valley is raiding the place, and our main character's love interest has been murdered. (probably) Dogby is ON THE CASE, going full film-noir while running around in a mascot costume and never showing his face. His sidekick is Snack Girl. But now he has been CAPTURED. We get a trippy sequence where Dogby meets Princess (the murdered girl) and she warns him not to take the shoe, because he'll solve the case but somebody else will die and he won't like it. But it's just a dream, as Snack Girl and another guy whose name I don't remember (he looks like the stork from Vlasic pickles so I'm calling him Vlasic until informed otherwise) find Dogby's unconscious body and wake him up. Dogby confronts a guy in a hotel room. He got fired and banned from the park for stealing, as one of several apparent victims of Princess's games, and now he has burned through his life savings just to stay nearby. He didn't kill her, though. Meanwhile, our buddy Shift Supervisor has been implicated as ringleader of the recent heists, by questionable security footage! Dogby is on the footage as well, and security moves to get him. Our frenemy Catty-Kit makes the save, taking an M. Bison-style beating from the head of security so Dogby can escape. He makes his getaway in one of those little kiddy cars that go around tracks, complete with excited kid passenger. One of the best car chases I've ever seen ensues, but they get him in the end. Security tranqs Dogby, the kid, and several innocent bystanders. Upper Management Guy is worried about cryptic villain stuff. The chapter breaks are pretty great- one was done up like a comic cover, one like an arcade cabinet, and this one is MGS. --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:925182388] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>I'm really bad and going back and doing AFK recaps >_> Disgaea 2-2 saw tensions escalate as Rozalin is conflicted between her duty to her father and her feelings for Adell. Also Tink is here now. ....I dunno I'm kinda enjoying it. The plot has room to breathe and the characters have room to develop! Disgaea 2 just made it past one round of a STEAM BATTLE in the Tompic (cross-promotion!!) so maybe I'll see where all this goes. A new challenger appeared as I finally bit the bullet on Case Closed 1. I already had an idea what to expect after picking up volume 60-something randomly, and it didn't disappoint. The mystery manga I've been wanting! I was not close on either of the mysteries presented. Expect a slow trickle of further volumes over the next few years (which is probably how long it's gonna take me to finish this project >_>) I have already started a bit of the next one, but we'll join it in progress. Dogby Walks Alone, Vol. 1 By: Wes Abbott Whose fault: Tombolo Today's BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZUfiW3W1KY" data-time=" If I'm remembering right, this came into my awareness through the Rising Stars of Manga, which was a thing I was into for a while. (spoilers for like two years from now when I get to R) It takes place in the vaguely dystopian amusement park Happyplace, where everybody seems to be known only by their job title, or by their character name if they're a mascot. All sorts of shady stuff is going on- rival park Illusion Valley is raiding the place, and our main character's love interest has been murdered. (probably) Dogby is ON THE CASE, going full film-noir while running around in a mascot costume and never showing his face. His sidekick is Snack Girl. But now he has been CAPTURED. We get a trippy sequence where Dogby meets Princess (the murdered girl) and she warns him not to take the shoe, because he'll solve the case but somebody else will die and he won't like it. But it's just a dream, as Snack Girl and another guy whose name I don't remember (he looks like the stork from Vlasic pickles so I'm calling him Vlasic until informed otherwise) find Dogby's unconscious body and wake him up. Dogby confronts a guy in a hotel room. He got fired and banned from the park for stealing, as one of several apparent victims of Princess's games, and now he has burned through his life savings just to stay nearby. He didn't kill her, though. Meanwhile, our buddy Shift Supervisor has been implicated as ringleader of the recent heists, by questionable security footage! Dogby is on the footage as well, and security moves to get him. Our frenemy Catty-Kit makes the save, taking an M. Bison-style beating from the head of security so Dogby can escape. He makes his getaway in one of those little kiddy cars that go around tracks, complete with excited kid passenger. One of the best car chases I've ever seen ensues, but they get him in the end. Security tranqs Dogby, the kid, and several innocent bystanders. Upper Management Guy is worried about cryptic villain stuff. The chapter breaks are pretty great- one was done up like a comic cover, one like an arcade cabinet, and this one is MGS.</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 07/25/19 6:46:09 PM #70:	Locker room scene where we establish that Snack Girl is a lot more well-endowed than she appears, and probably has a thing for Dogby. Anyway, she helps bust him out of detention, and provides him with some mysterious packages. The chapter break images seem to be foreshadowing- the arcade one gave the head of security a movelist that he busted out in the ensuing fight, and this whole sequence has several MGS references as well as the appropriate general vibe. On the way out, we meet Duchess. (from the rival park, previously captured during a raid) We also bump into Catty-Kit, trying to stash unconscious soldiers in the same locker. We get out, make a few Mario jokes, and Dogby takes out Catty-Kit (with a special finish KO Powerbomb and People's Elbow) before absconding. We get away in Birdie's (that's the Vlasic Stork guy- he runs a boat tour) boat, but get picked up by a pirate crew that is involved with the heist but wants to test Dogby. We beat him with the cliche anime swordfight ending, and he gets eaten by a hippo. The crew takes us to Chinatoon, where we're supposed to meet Dogby's other friend (Shift Supervisor, maybe?). He confesses that he was planning to elope with Princess after the heist, but didn't kill her...security catches up with everybody! Dogby tries to help the guy get away, but he's shot. Head of Security lets the rest go. We leave Birdie behind- he's getting too old for this. Park Supervisor grabs Upper Management Guy, having figured out he set up Shift Supervisor and the others. The pirate guy from before is alive, and reports in to Ray Happy (the very top of the food chain). aw dang wifebolo got home right at the climax --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:925183155] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>Locker room scene where we establish that Snack Girl is a lot more well-endowed than she appears, and probably has a thing for Dogby. Anyway, she helps bust him out of detention, and provides him with some mysterious packages. The chapter break images seem to be foreshadowing- the arcade one gave the head of security a movelist that he busted out in the ensuing fight, and this whole sequence has several MGS references as well as the appropriate general vibe. On the way out, we meet Duchess. (from the rival park, previously captured during a raid) We also bump into Catty-Kit, trying to stash unconscious soldiers in the same locker. We get out, make a few Mario jokes, and Dogby takes out Catty-Kit (with a special finish KO Powerbomb and People's Elbow) before absconding. We get away in Birdie's (that's the Vlasic Stork guy- he runs a boat tour) boat, but get picked up by a pirate crew that is involved with the heist but wants to test Dogby. We beat him with the cliche anime swordfight ending, and he gets eaten by a hippo. The crew takes us to Chinatoon, where we're supposed to meet Dogby's other friend (Shift Supervisor, maybe?). He confesses that he was planning to elope with Princess after the heist, but didn't kill her...security catches up with everybody! Dogby tries to help the guy get away, but he's shot. Head of Security lets the rest go. We leave Birdie behind- he's getting too old for this. Park Supervisor grabs Upper Management Guy, having figured out he set up Shift Supervisor and the others. The pirate guy from before is alive, and reports in to Ray Happy (the very top of the food chain). aw dang wifebolo got home right at the climax</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 07/25/19 9:01:59 PM #71:	The culprit....is Queen Sunshine, Shift Supervisor's clingy girlfriend! Upper Management Guy revealed that Supervisor was planning on eloping with Princess, so the two of them set him up to take the fall for the heist. Queen Sunshine tries to talk Dogby into leaving together, but he ain't havin' it, so she pulls a gun. Snack Girl talks Dogby out of attacking, and OLD Shift Supervisor (the dude from the hotel two posts ago) runs in and tackles her off the cliff. He got shot, but he took her down with him. (and it's all poetic an' such because that's the same cliff off of which Sunshine pushed Princess) Turns out he was the one who helped Snack Girl bust out Dogby, too. Dogby disappears, leaving Snack Girl with the money and a note. He actually had played a (small) part in the raid, just out of friendship with Shift Supervisor, not for the money or for Princess like we'd all assumed. He'd actually been with her, and she was relatively genuine, but they both knew she was too much of a gold-digging butterfly for it to work long-term. He advises Snack Girl to find somebody better, and never sees her again. It seems that he's going to wind up in Alaska next volume, which may or may not have ever been a thing that came out. My rating: 8/10 I thought this was gonna be dumb, but eh, it was pretty fun! You had mystery, you had a bunch of silly references, and a weirdly compelling protagonist. (did I mention he never speaks, in addition to never showing his face?) I find it interesting that the series apparently moved on from the initial setting. There weren't many characters left alive and unresolved I guess, but it was just such a unique idea that riding off into the sunset seems odd. Ah well. Maybe I'll see if I can find Volume 2 someday. Discussion question: What's the weirdest setting you've seen? Hint for next: An old Wifebolo standby, but AFAIK with a lower ratio of ambiguously gay bishies than you may have come to expect from this topic. --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:925188831] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>The culprit....is Queen Sunshine, Shift Supervisor's clingy girlfriend! Upper Management Guy revealed that Supervisor was planning on eloping with Princess, so the two of them set him up to take the fall for the heist. Queen Sunshine tries to talk Dogby into leaving together, but he ain't havin' it, so she pulls a gun. Snack Girl talks Dogby out of attacking, and OLD Shift Supervisor (the dude from the hotel two posts ago) runs in and tackles her off the cliff. He got shot, but he took her down with him. (and it's all poetic an' such because that's the same cliff off of which Sunshine pushed Princess) Turns out he was the one who helped Snack Girl bust out Dogby, too. Dogby disappears, leaving Snack Girl with the money and a note. He actually had played a (small) part in the raid, just out of friendship with Shift Supervisor, not for the money or for Princess like we'd all assumed. He'd actually been with her, and she was relatively genuine, but they both knew she was too much of a gold-digging butterfly for it to work long-term. He advises Snack Girl to find somebody better, and never sees her again. It seems that he's going to wind up in Alaska next volume, which may or may not have ever been a thing that came out. My rating: 8/10 I thought this was gonna be dumb, but eh, it was pretty fun! You had mystery, you had a bunch of silly references, and a weirdly compelling protagonist. (did I mention he never speaks, in addition to never showing his face?) I find it interesting that the series apparently moved on from the initial setting. There weren't many characters left alive and unresolved I guess, but it was just such a unique idea that riding off into the sunset seems odd. Ah well. Maybe I'll see if I can find Volume 2 someday. Discussion question: What's the weirdest setting you've seen? Hint for next: An old Wifebolo standby, but AFAIK with a lower ratio of ambiguously gay bishies than you may have come to expect from this topic.</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 07/30/19 6:37:12 PM #72:	DOGS, Vol. 2 of several By: Shirow Miwa Whose fault: Wifebolo This is an old fave of Wifebolo, but not one she thought I would super like, so I am just now getting to it. No volume 1, so your guess is as good as mine what's going on! Shower scene right off the bat. Am concerned for this girl's nutritional state. A girl is talking to a dude in a confessional- she's looking for a killer with the same sword as her, but that's too vague for him to help. This person stole the girl's memory. Hey, it's the one character I recognize! (because Wifebolo cosplayed him back in the day) Badou meets a white haired anime boy, and they are being tailed by the girl from last scene. Apparently she's already confronted white-hair guy, and he denied being a hotshot assassin guy. She's following them anyway, claiming to have business with Liza, their elderly boss (client?). We report in and get a new job that we don't much like. Badou's just an info broker, maaaan. Girl presents Liza and Badou with a sword, which Liza recognizes. Girl got it from her father figure, but doesn't remember him at all. Liza knew the guy (Fuyumine) though. This is indeed the sword identical to whoever messed her up- apparently it's one of those "live and get revenge on me" scenarios. Girl gives her name: Naoto Fuyumine. Scene change: our dudes are in a gunfight, presumably with the gang referenced in their mission, which Whitey is enjoying a lot more than Batou. Meanwhile Liza is talking to Naoto. I'm having trouble following, but it sounds like kids were getting abducted, and the mentor guy was saving them and also training and then abandoning them? Anyway Badou and Whitey get annoyed, turn on their allies, and leave to get smokes. Naoto notices a pair of yandere-lookin' lolis approaching the scene. --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:925398468] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>DOGS, Vol. 2 of several By: Shirow Miwa Whose fault: Wifebolo This is an old fave of Wifebolo, but not one she thought I would super like, so I am just now getting to it. No volume 1, so your guess is as good as mine what's going on! Shower scene right off the bat. Am concerned for this girl's nutritional state. A girl is talking to a dude in a confessional- she's looking for a killer with the same sword as her, but that's too vague for him to help. This person stole the girl's memory. Hey, it's the one character I recognize! (because Wifebolo cosplayed him back in the day) Badou meets a white haired anime boy, and they are being tailed by the girl from last scene. Apparently she's already confronted white-hair guy, and he denied being a hotshot assassin guy. She's following them anyway, claiming to have business with Liza, their elderly boss (client?). We report in and get a new job that we don't much like. Badou's just an info broker, maaaan. Girl presents Liza and Badou with a sword, which Liza recognizes. Girl got it from her father figure, but doesn't remember him at all. Liza knew the guy (Fuyumine) though. This is indeed the sword identical to whoever messed her up- apparently it's one of those "live and get revenge on me" scenarios. Girl gives her name: Naoto Fuyumine. Scene change: our dudes are in a gunfight, presumably with the gang referenced in their mission, which Whitey is enjoying a lot more than Batou. Meanwhile Liza is talking to Naoto. I'm having trouble following, but it sounds like kids were getting abducted, and the mentor guy was saving them and also training and then abandoning them? Anyway Badou and Whitey get annoyed, turn on their allies, and leave to get smokes. Naoto notices a pair of yandere-lookin' lolis approaching the scene. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 07/30/19 6:37:41 PM #73:	The murderlolis, Luki and Noki, are happy to see big brother Whitey (who still hasn't been called by name AFAIK) and then slaughter all the mooks with giant weapons. This is not normally an archetype I want anything to do with, but somehow these two seem like a good time. They wanna play with people! :D :D :D They go after Whitey, but Naoto makes the save. They recognize her sword. One gets the upper hand on Whitey, possibly because he's holding back, and the other is evenly matched with Naoto. Naoto's twin identifies the sword as the same as "Fu-sama's," Fu-sama apparently being a woman who looks like a bishie and not the dude Naoto and Liza were talking about. We figure out that Whitey can't shoot (I suspect somebody who read vol 1 would know why) and refer to him as Heine. Well heck I saw that name earlier, I just didn't know we were talking about this dude. Batou appears to have like a berserker mode or something- he spends a lot of his time trying to stay out of danger but this is the second time I've seen him flip out. A couple pages later this is confirmed to be a result of his running out of cigarettes, as he proceeds to put both murderlolis on the ropes. BTW those two are from an underground facility that is pumping out weird super soldiers like them. I'm....actually having a lot of trouble following this action scene- I think there's another dude involved now too, or maybe it's just in Heine's mind. Giovanni (we've seen him but I don't have enough context to tell you what his deal is) is talking to somebody else we've seen before (I am presuming this is the twins' "Fu-sama") in a subway. He calls her "Fruhling" and she's going "above" with some troops to "do some hunting." Naoto and Heine d. Murder Lolis in 15:43. Heine nearly loses control and kills one of 'em. He's the same as them. They're superhuman, but vulnerable to headshots. This seems to be news to Batou as much as it is to Naoto, even though they seem to be pre-existing partners. The twins suddenly retreat, called by Fu-sama. She's annoyed when they report in. Extra: The twins dunk on some ex-mafia boss that seems to have gotten dunked on by Batou in the previous issue. My rating: 8/10 I kinda wish we had vol. 1, but this seems to have potential! --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:925398478] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>The murderlolis, Luki and Noki, are happy to see big brother Whitey (who still hasn't been called by name AFAIK) and then slaughter all the mooks with giant weapons. This is not normally an archetype I want anything to do with, but somehow these two seem like a good time. They wanna play with people! :D :D :D They go after Whitey, but Naoto makes the save. They recognize her sword. One gets the upper hand on Whitey, possibly because he's holding back, and the other is evenly matched with Naoto. Naoto's twin identifies the sword as the same as "Fu-sama's," Fu-sama apparently being a woman who looks like a bishie and not the dude Naoto and Liza were talking about. We figure out that Whitey can't shoot (I suspect somebody who read vol 1 would know why) and refer to him as Heine. Well heck I saw that name earlier, I just didn't know we were talking about this dude. Batou appears to have like a berserker mode or something- he spends a lot of his time trying to stay out of danger but this is the second time I've seen him flip out. A couple pages later this is confirmed to be a result of his running out of cigarettes, as he proceeds to put both murderlolis on the ropes. BTW those two are from an underground facility that is pumping out weird super soldiers like them. I'm....actually having a lot of trouble following this action scene- I think there's another dude involved now too, or maybe it's just in Heine's mind. Giovanni (we've seen him but I don't have enough context to tell you what his deal is) is talking to somebody else we've seen before (I am presuming this is the twins' "Fu-sama") in a subway. He calls her "Fruhling" and she's going "above" with some troops to "do some hunting." Naoto and Heine d. Murder Lolis in 15:43. Heine nearly loses control and kills one of 'em. He's the same as them. They're superhuman, but vulnerable to headshots. This seems to be news to Batou as much as it is to Naoto, even though they seem to be pre-existing partners. The twins suddenly retreat, called by Fu-sama. She's annoyed when they report in. Extra: The twins dunk on some ex-mafia boss that seems to have gotten dunked on by Batou in the previous issue. My rating: 8/10 I kinda wish we had vol. 1, but this seems to have potential! </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 08/02/19 6:11:20 PM #74:	DOGS, Vol. 3 Today's BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI76wS6tlKs&list=PLfR6C-Jk1bWtftxu684TTFha_CrH0XqDt A subway train is about to rear end another one somehow! Probably related to the vaguely bad-guy-seeming people. Batou gets tired of the (sexual?) tension between Heine and Naoto, and bounces. He meets Doug, who wants to know if Badou is still looking for his brother Nails. Nah, Nails is dead and it's better that way. We drip-feed Naoto a bit of backstory- Nails was (probably) killed investigating a thing, and that's (probably) where Batou lost his eye. We all head back to base or whatever, where a moeblob tries to patch up Naoto. That's another character I assume I'm supposed to know from Vol. 1. Back to the subway. The bad guys (?) are indeed ramming a civilian (?) train with their own, then slaughtering the passengers. But, here is the one other character I know from this series, I think! A middle aged guy who got on the wrong train wakes up, and is mildly annoyed at having to solo this squad of super soldiers. We toggle back and forth between this and Batou pressing Heine for his backstory. Heine has a "collar" scar, and his first memory is of waking up and meeting Giovanni in a dark place. There are a bunch of similar-looking people with him. (I am reminded of homunculi from the Fate franchise but I am guessing this came first) They're all dead now. Heine's flashback continues- nobody really knows what's going on, and a monster dude pops out and starts smacking them around. Angelika, the amazing yandere oneesan doctor shows up to start the fight officially and spout cryptic lines. The girl clone we were talking to rips the monster apart. The collars seem to be turning more of the kids into similar monsters, so we got us a bloodbath goin'. Our berserker friend calms down and is scared and crying. Batou comments that this sounds like a manga, and Naoto wants to go there but Heine doesn't remember how to get there. Meanwhile in Subway Land, Old Snake is fending off waves of attackers, trapped in the car with the remaining civilians. Some weird priest dude shows up to confront Fu-sama. I thought it was Giovanni but the dialogue reads like it's another dude. He wants to know why she and Einsturzen are starting a war. Fu and Priest Man clash briefly before he reveals he's blind, and refuses to give his name, instead sharing some cryptic insights. Old Snake got his arm run through by a sword in the process of clearing out the small army. He's annoyed about it. Moeblob kinda sucks at sewing (is she mute? she seems mute) so Batou takes over repairing Naoto's clothes. Fu-sama's full name is Campanella Fruhling. The murderlolis receive word that we're moving. I think the bad guy contingent just hangs out in a giant train or something? It's big enough that Batou and pals feel it moving, and Naoto and Moeblob seem particularly traumatized by it. Naoto doesn't appear to remember her whole past, but she sees Fruhling ride by on the roof of the train and they lock eyes, sparking cryptic but traumatic-looking flashbacks. Heine considers chasing the train, but Old Snake and Blind Priest show up to dissuade him. Heine recognizes Blind Priest but not Old Snake. Naoto screams for no apparent reason. Fruhling is more pissed than usual. Moeblob's name is Nill, probably. Naoto passes out. Some people I don't know react to something I can't parse. Some other dude I don't know and can't see takes a phone call about the subway explosion. Blind Priest re-introduces himself as Ernst Rammsteiner, a failed experiment (the first) of the bad guys and guy who saved Heine back in the day. My rating: 8/10 Boy I wish I had context for some of this! --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:925536890] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>DOGS, Vol. 3 Today's BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI76wS6tlKs&list=PLfR6C-Jk1bWtftxu684TTFha_CrH0XqDt A subway train is about to rear end another one somehow! Probably related to the vaguely bad-guy-seeming people. Batou gets tired of the (sexual?) tension between Heine and Naoto, and bounces. He meets Doug, who wants to know if Badou is still looking for his brother Nails. Nah, Nails is dead and it's better that way. We drip-feed Naoto a bit of backstory- Nails was (probably) killed investigating a thing, and that's (probably) where Batou lost his eye. We all head back to base or whatever, where a moeblob tries to patch up Naoto. That's another character I assume I'm supposed to know from Vol. 1. Back to the subway. The bad guys (?) are indeed ramming a civilian (?) train with their own, then slaughtering the passengers. But, here is the one other character I know from this series, I think! A middle aged guy who got on the wrong train wakes up, and is mildly annoyed at having to solo this squad of super soldiers. We toggle back and forth between this and Batou pressing Heine for his backstory. Heine has a "collar" scar, and his first memory is of waking up and meeting Giovanni in a dark place. There are a bunch of similar-looking people with him. (I am reminded of homunculi from the Fate franchise but I am guessing this came first) They're all dead now. Heine's flashback continues- nobody really knows what's going on, and a monster dude pops out and starts smacking them around. Angelika, the amazing yandere oneesan doctor shows up to start the fight officially and spout cryptic lines. The girl clone we were talking to rips the monster apart. The collars seem to be turning more of the kids into similar monsters, so we got us a bloodbath goin'. Our berserker friend calms down and is scared and crying. Batou comments that this sounds like a manga, and Naoto wants to go there but Heine doesn't remember how to get there. Meanwhile in Subway Land, Old Snake is fending off waves of attackers, trapped in the car with the remaining civilians. Some weird priest dude shows up to confront Fu-sama. I thought it was Giovanni but the dialogue reads like it's another dude. He wants to know why she and Einsturzen are starting a war. Fu and Priest Man clash briefly before he reveals he's blind, and refuses to give his name, instead sharing some cryptic insights. Old Snake got his arm run through by a sword in the process of clearing out the small army. He's annoyed about it. Moeblob kinda sucks at sewing (is she mute? she seems mute) so Batou takes over repairing Naoto's clothes. Fu-sama's full name is Campanella Fruhling. The murderlolis receive word that we're moving. I think the bad guy contingent just hangs out in a giant train or something? It's big enough that Batou and pals feel it moving, and Naoto and Moeblob seem particularly traumatized by it. Naoto doesn't appear to remember her whole past, but she sees Fruhling ride by on the roof of the train and they lock eyes, sparking cryptic but traumatic-looking flashbacks. Heine considers chasing the train, but Old Snake and Blind Priest show up to dissuade him. Heine recognizes Blind Priest but not Old Snake. Naoto screams for no apparent reason. Fruhling is more pissed than usual. Moeblob's name is Nill, probably. Naoto passes out. Some people I don't know react to something I can't parse. Some other dude I don't know and can't see takes a phone call about the subway explosion. Blind Priest re-introduces himself as Ernst Rammsteiner, a failed experiment (the first) of the bad guys and guy who saved Heine back in the day. My rating: 8/10 Boy I wish I had context for some of this! </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
5tarscream 08/03/19 3:48:50 AM #75:	It probably says a lot that I read that title as dongs first time <cite>5tarscream posted [p:925553984] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>It probably says a lot that I read that title as dongs first time</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 08/03/19 9:14:30 PM #76:	I am about 95% sure there's slash out there somewhere so you're probably not wrong it'd be 100% if I had ever heard of this manga from sources other than Wifebolo Dogs Vol. 4 (of 7, BTW) The police(?) are investigating the subway incident. They don't seem to know about any of this supernatural/sci-fi stuff, so good dang luck with that. Mihai (formerly known as Old Snake) is having a chat with Liza, but doesn't have info for her. He does have one of those swords though. I think that makes 3? Naoto's, his, and Campanella's? Ernst and Heine are fighting and talking- Heine doesn't seem to trust him despite their past, but he insists that they're on the same side against the weird lab people. Liza, Heine, and Mihai fail to put together what's going on, but the subway thing doesn't look related to the recent string of kidnappings. Liza dispatches Badou, but specifies she wants Information Broker Badou. (as opposed to go crazy and shoot everybody Badou, I guess?) Badou asks a cute associate named Mimi to look into those swords. She reminds him that he was going to avoid dangerous cases after the kidnapping incident with his brother. He flashbacks to his brother advising him to go big or go home. He doesn't wanna get killed, so he's gonna not do that. I don't think I believe him. Indeed, we next see him roughing up a gang for info on the kidnappings. (I assume this is the same string of kidnappings this whole time? IDK how far in the past this brother thing was.) All he gets is a fight and the name "Giovanni." Some talking and chasing happens before another flashback to what I believe to be Big Bro's (alleged) death. Badou's trying to chase his old leads. The rest of the gang is talking about somebody named "Bishop." Badou visits the old smoke shop he and Bro used to frequent. Apparently the clerk has some kinda PTSD or something where she gets confused about time- she mistakes him for Bro. Mimi reports back with the name Magato Fuyumine. Some dude I don't know slaughters a mob I don't know. This dude is in fact said Magato Fuyumine, and he has a chat with a shadowy guy named "Herbst." Magato appears to have ties to both Naoto and Campanella, and enjoys killin' folks. Flashback to Heine's Happytime Daycare and Dismemberment Jamboree. Also, cryptic talks with Yandere Doctor Mom and Giovanni. We've namedropped the title three times this volume now- Magato referred to underworld people(?) as dogs, Evil Mom called Heine(?) a dog, and Mihai has drawn a comically terrible picture of his attackers, saying they looked like dogs. Badou has received a mysterious invitation to an orchestra concert, which he sleeps through. :( The conductor was behind the invitation, and IT'S A TRAP he was the masked guy who put Badou's eye out. Magato catches Mimi poking around. The thing happened seven years ago, BTW. Magato is about to kill Mimi when Doug shows up. He has appeared before but didn't seem important, and in fact still doesn't. Evil Conductor Man discovered emotions after That Thing With Badou's Eye, and has left his former life behind, except he has a platoon of tuxedo zombie lookin' dudes to sic on Badou. He regrets Badou didn't bring Dorothy the Traumatized Store Clerk. Actiony stuff I have trouble following ensues. The Bad Guy Train is on the move I think, and may or may not have just wiped out that one jobber and his gang. There is a whole lot of shooting and none of it has killed Badou, somehow. --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:925583511] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>I am about 95% sure there's slash out there somewhere so you're probably not wrong it'd be 100% if I had ever heard of this manga from sources other than Wifebolo Dogs Vol. 4 (of 7, BTW) The police(?) are investigating the subway incident. They don't seem to know about any of this supernatural/sci-fi stuff, so good dang luck with that. Mihai (formerly known as Old Snake) is having a chat with Liza, but doesn't have info for her. He does have one of those swords though. I think that makes 3? Naoto's, his, and Campanella's? Ernst and Heine are fighting and talking- Heine doesn't seem to trust him despite their past, but he insists that they're on the same side against the weird lab people. Liza, Heine, and Mihai fail to put together what's going on, but the subway thing doesn't look related to the recent string of kidnappings. Liza dispatches Badou, but specifies she wants Information Broker Badou. (as opposed to go crazy and shoot everybody Badou, I guess?) Badou asks a cute associate named Mimi to look into those swords. She reminds him that he was going to avoid dangerous cases after the kidnapping incident with his brother. He flashbacks to his brother advising him to go big or go home. He doesn't wanna get killed, so he's gonna not do that. I don't think I believe him. Indeed, we next see him roughing up a gang for info on the kidnappings. (I assume this is the same string of kidnappings this whole time? IDK how far in the past this brother thing was.) All he gets is a fight and the name "Giovanni." Some talking and chasing happens before another flashback to what I believe to be Big Bro's (alleged) death. Badou's trying to chase his old leads. The rest of the gang is talking about somebody named "Bishop." Badou visits the old smoke shop he and Bro used to frequent. Apparently the clerk has some kinda PTSD or something where she gets confused about time- she mistakes him for Bro. Mimi reports back with the name Magato Fuyumine. Some dude I don't know slaughters a mob I don't know. This dude is in fact said Magato Fuyumine, and he has a chat with a shadowy guy named "Herbst." Magato appears to have ties to both Naoto and Campanella, and enjoys killin' folks. Flashback to Heine's Happytime Daycare and Dismemberment Jamboree. Also, cryptic talks with Yandere Doctor Mom and Giovanni. We've namedropped the title three times this volume now- Magato referred to underworld people(?) as dogs, Evil Mom called Heine(?) a dog, and Mihai has drawn a comically terrible picture of his attackers, saying they looked like dogs. Badou has received a mysterious invitation to an orchestra concert, which he sleeps through. :( The conductor was behind the invitation, and IT'S A TRAP he was the masked guy who put Badou's eye out. Magato catches Mimi poking around. The thing happened seven years ago, BTW. Magato is about to kill Mimi when Doug shows up. He has appeared before but didn't seem important, and in fact still doesn't. Evil Conductor Man discovered emotions after That Thing With Badou's Eye, and has left his former life behind, except he has a platoon of tuxedo zombie lookin' dudes to sic on Badou. He regrets Badou didn't bring Dorothy the Traumatized Store Clerk. Actiony stuff I have trouble following ensues. The Bad Guy Train is on the move I think, and may or may not have just wiped out that one jobber and his gang. There is a whole lot of shooting and none of it has killed Badou, somehow. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 08/03/19 9:19:01 PM #77:	Evil Conductor Man is controlling his mooks with his baton, or something. Badou doesn't want to hurt them, so he rushes the boss....but Mihai gets the guy from behind first. Cryptic bad/cool guy monologues happen. My rating: 8/10 This is getting hard to follow, but I'm invested anyway. I like the artstyle- all the guys are cool and all the girls are cute (and some are also cool) but some characters are hard to tell apart, and I've yet to have 100% confidence I've known what was going on in a fight scene. --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:925583660] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>Evil Conductor Man is controlling his mooks with his baton, or something. Badou doesn't want to hurt them, so he rushes the boss....but Mihai gets the guy from behind first. Cryptic bad/cool guy monologues happen. My rating: 8/10 This is getting hard to follow, but I'm invested anyway. I like the artstyle- all the guys are cool and all the girls are cute (and some are also cool) but some characters are hard to tell apart, and I've yet to have 100% confidence I've known what was going on in a fight scene. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 08/08/19 11:52:58 AM #78:	Should get some in today but it'll be AFK --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:925795060] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>Should get some in today but it'll be AFK </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 08/09/19 11:18:25 PM #79:	Dogs Vol. 5 We've got quite the climactic brawl going! Above ground, Conductor Man manages to give Badou and Mihai the slip. He's not WITH the underground bad guys, but he's working together with them on this shenanigan because it seemed fun. Mihai had him at gunpoint, but Conductor Man has home-field advantage, numbers advantage, and vague but formidable psychic powers. The concert hall is rigged to explode with Badou, Mihai, and his mooks inside. Below ground, the party has started, as endless waves of mask dudes attack. Heine gets his destined battle with Giovanni, while Naoto, Liza and pals, the police, and "special forces" from the mayor all battle the attackers with varying levels of success. Heine kills Giovanni, but he gets better. This isn't even the plan's final form! This was all just to get all the mask dudes in position, at which they all blow themselves up at a signal from Conductor Man, causing catastrophic damage. Also it looks like some of our bad guys are really gunning for the mysterious and probably evil mayor. Vol. 6 So yeah a ton of the underground was destroyed and also the blast sealed it off from above ground. And Giovanni got away. Mayor Guy Neubauten addresses his public, which is a first. This whole thing appears to have been a plot to get him to make an appearance, at which point Giovanni tries to take him out, and fails miserably. He has Fuhrer, the original Kerberos Collar Thingy. That and Naoto pressing Heine for his story makes it sound like EXTENDED FLASHBACK TIME Heine, Giovanni, and Lily were all a part of the Worst Kindergarten Ever. Creepy Mom decides to test Heine to see if he's compatible with Fuhrer, and he is, giving him dominion over all his buddies. She makes him make all of them fight in a big ol' battle royale. Since the Happy Clone Friends look even more similar when they're kids, and since I am still pretty unclear on what exactly the deal is with this tech, I...honestly am not entirely sure how this plays out, other than Lily and all our other friends dying and things being very traumatic. Anyway, oh hey Magato is here. I honestly forgot he existed. Naoto is less than thrilled to see him. My rating: 7/10 What is going on and also where are Campanella and the Murder Lolis --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:925867574] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>Dogs Vol. 5 We've got quite the climactic brawl going! Above ground, Conductor Man manages to give Badou and Mihai the slip. He's not WITH the underground bad guys, but he's working together with them on this shenanigan because it seemed fun. Mihai had him at gunpoint, but Conductor Man has home-field advantage, numbers advantage, and vague but formidable psychic powers. The concert hall is rigged to explode with Badou, Mihai, and his mooks inside. Below ground, the party has started, as endless waves of mask dudes attack. Heine gets his destined battle with Giovanni, while Naoto, Liza and pals, the police, and "special forces" from the mayor all battle the attackers with varying levels of success. Heine kills Giovanni, but he gets better. This isn't even the plan's final form! This was all just to get all the mask dudes in position, at which they all blow themselves up at a signal from Conductor Man, causing catastrophic damage. Also it looks like some of our bad guys are really gunning for the mysterious and probably evil mayor. Vol. 6 So yeah a ton of the underground was destroyed and also the blast sealed it off from above ground. And Giovanni got away. Mayor Guy Neubauten addresses his public, which is a first. This whole thing appears to have been a plot to get him to make an appearance, at which point Giovanni tries to take him out, and fails miserably. He has Fuhrer, the original Kerberos Collar Thingy. That and Naoto pressing Heine for his story makes it sound like EXTENDED FLASHBACK TIME Heine, Giovanni, and Lily were all a part of the Worst Kindergarten Ever. Creepy Mom decides to test Heine to see if he's compatible with Fuhrer, and he is, giving him dominion over all his buddies. She makes him make all of them fight in a big ol' battle royale. Since the Happy Clone Friends look even more similar when they're kids, and since I am still pretty unclear on what exactly the deal is with this tech, I...honestly am not entirely sure how this plays out, other than Lily and all our other friends dying and things being very traumatic. Anyway, oh hey Magato is here. I honestly forgot he existed. Naoto is less than thrilled to see him. My rating: 7/10 What is going on and also where are Campanella and the Murder Lolis </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 08/12/19 8:10:45 PM #80:	Dogs Vol. 7 Magato toys with Naoto and Heine for a bit and reveals a bit of info: -Magato was under Fuyumine in some respect, like Naoto. -The dog mask soldier dudes have swords like Fuyumine's -But Naoto has the real one which has power to kill the zombies (I guess those are the dog mask guys?) -Fuyumine rescued kids from being taken as experiments by the dog guys, and Magato helped for the lulz. -But really Fuyumine was "killing his own kind" -Magato has no collar and neither did Fuyumine We're about to stop monologuing and resume fighting when Campanella and the murdertwins show up. Campanella used to be the OG Naoto. Magato claims to have killed Fuyumine. We've got some good fights going, but the Special Forces show up to ruin our fun. Campanella reveals that Naoto was an escapee from the lab (not a rescue from the streets) and her parents were really researchers. Everybody disperses, but Hans (the special forces leader that I thought might've been Ernst because we're way past our quota of cool blond glasses characters) takes in Naoto at least. Badou and Mihai are investigating. The murder lolis got left behind after the previous scene so they've decided they're moving in with the gang. Some shadowy people I don't think we know have noted Giovanni's absence. Speaking of which, he is captured by some guy who wants him to ditch Creepy Mom. Heine can talk to his collar guy I guess. Campanella doesn't have a collar either. Magato shows back up and wants to go another round with Heine. People say cryptic things. Magato wants to fight Heine's collar dude form thing. Some girl shows up. ....And that's it! IDK if more exists, but we sure don't have it. My rating: 7/10 Overall: 8/10 Was a good time! I'd like to see it in anime form so I'd have a better chance of tracking with the action scenes and distinguishing all the kewl guys. I'd also settle for just having the parts I'm missing. >_> I'm invested now, dangit! Discussion question: What's the most annoying part of a series you're missing? Hint for next: This was big for like five years and then just vanished but it was doing one of the current trends before it was cool. --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:925985690] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>Dogs Vol. 7 Magato toys with Naoto and Heine for a bit and reveals a bit of info: -Magato was under Fuyumine in some respect, like Naoto. -The dog mask soldier dudes have swords like Fuyumine's -But Naoto has the real one which has power to kill the zombies (I guess those are the dog mask guys?) -Fuyumine rescued kids from being taken as experiments by the dog guys, and Magato helped for the lulz. -But really Fuyumine was "killing his own kind" -Magato has no collar and neither did Fuyumine We're about to stop monologuing and resume fighting when Campanella and the murdertwins show up. Campanella used to be the OG Naoto. Magato claims to have killed Fuyumine. We've got some good fights going, but the Special Forces show up to ruin our fun. Campanella reveals that Naoto was an escapee from the lab (not a rescue from the streets) and her parents were really researchers. Everybody disperses, but Hans (the special forces leader that I thought might've been Ernst because we're way past our quota of cool blond glasses characters) takes in Naoto at least. Badou and Mihai are investigating. The murder lolis got left behind after the previous scene so they've decided they're moving in with the gang. Some shadowy people I don't think we know have noted Giovanni's absence. Speaking of which, he is captured by some guy who wants him to ditch Creepy Mom. Heine can talk to his collar guy I guess. Campanella doesn't have a collar either. Magato shows back up and wants to go another round with Heine. People say cryptic things. Magato wants to fight Heine's collar dude form thing. Some girl shows up. ....And that's it! IDK if more exists, but we sure don't have it. My rating: 7/10 Overall: 8/10 Was a good time! I'd like to see it in anime form so I'd have a better chance of tracking with the action scenes and distinguishing all the kewl guys. I'd also settle for just having the parts I'm missing. >_> I'm invested now, dangit! Discussion question: What's the most annoying part of a series you're missing? Hint for next: This was big for like five years and then just vanished but it was doing one of the current trends before it was cool. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Eerieka 08/19/19 9:50:16 AM #81:	Tom Bombadil posted... Discussion question: What's the most annoying part of a series you're missing? Before doing any research into what I was getting myself into, I bought several volumes of Basara and absolutely loved it. One of my favorite mangas. And for some reason, later volumes are like... outrageously expensive. One volume was frequently over $100 on Amazon a decade ago or whenever I tried to buy it. I ended up reading it online, but I always wanted to get the complete physical collection. Tom Bombadil posted... Hint for next: This was big for like five years and then just vanished but it was doing one of the current trends before it was cool. Gonna guess the 'current trend' is isekai and I'm guessing you're close to the Es now, so I'm gonna guess the next one is Escaflowne. It's manga is quite different from the anime, but it's pretty good both ways. --- Account created-9/10/04. Just a normal GameFAQs user/leprechaun Ramza: rofl. Rofel: You say my name? -Eise <cite>Eerieka posted [p:926258672] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>Tom Bombadil posted...</cite> <quote>Discussion question: What's the most annoying part of a series you're missing? </quote> Before doing any research into what I was getting myself into, I bought several volumes of Basara and absolutely loved it. One of my favorite mangas. And for some reason, later volumes are like... outrageously expensive. One volume was frequently over $100 on Amazon a decade ago or whenever I tried to buy it. I ended up reading it online, but I always wanted to get the complete physical collection. Tom Bombadil posted...</cite> <quote>Hint for next: This was big for like five years and then just vanished but it was doing one of the current trends before it was cool.</quote> Gonna guess the 'current trend' is isekai and I'm guessing you're close to the Es now, so I'm gonna guess the next one is Escaflowne. It's manga is quite different from the anime, but it's pretty good both ways.</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 08/25/19 9:19:52 AM #82:	School is back in session which means this is gonna get a lot harder to keep going. I'll try to keep rolling but last year I got like 2 books done the whole school year >_> Also I am pretty sure this project was at least slightly responsible for getting me to pick Disgaea 2 back up lol Escaflowne was a super good guess, but alas we are not that far yet (I also wanna say we don't have the manga? Wifebolo really likes it but I think she's only into the anime IIRC) .hack//Legend of the Twilight Vol. 1 Whatever happened to .hack? I feel like it was a really big deal with multiple game series and anime and manga and a CCG and then it just evaporated overnight. I liked the first game but never managed to clear the last level so I never moved on to the others. Every so often I think about getting back into it but then all I ever see in stores is, like, volume 3 of G.U. for 80 bucks. Sounds like a job for Let's Plays, but anyway manga. This wasn't AS good as I remember it, but still a pretty fun time. Shugo and Rena are a brother and sister who win a contest to get Kite and Black Rose's avatars, and I guess that enough time has passed since the OG that their deeds have become shrouded in myth and legend. To be fair I remember virtually nothing about the plot of the smidge I played, so we're on even ground! Rena's into it but Shugo is more into girls. This volume is mostly expository stuff- Aria and the Twilight Bracelet are back and nobody really seems to know why, even people who lived through the first round of stuff. We meet our supporting cast- there's Mireille (IIRC a very blatant expy of Mistral), Orca (a female werewolf...wait wasn't there a dude named Orca originally?), Balmung (I don't remember what he was before but now he's an admin), and Hotaru (a pacifist Wave Master). We have a few seasonal events that don't amount to a ton but are still fun. Is there more to the legendary avatars than just cosmetics? Why are Aria and Data Draining back? Hmmm. One of the things that jumped out at me was the fanservice. There wasn't a lot of it by volume (unless you count Orca's outfit), but it was rather gratuitous even by anime standards, and was all featuring pretty young characters. (again, with the exception of Orca) (well, we only know Rena's age I think, and everybody is behind avatars, but the avatars don't exactly look legal age either >_>) This was pretty sweet when I was in roughly the same age bracket, and less so coming back now that I'm twice everybody's age <_< On the plus side, now jokes that went over my head back in the day make sense! (Mireille just happens to have a [rare] dog collar handy; somebody gets accused of playing one-handed) I'm also wondering if we're getting an incest route- it looks like we're building to Shugo/Aria and Rena/Balmung (....wait how old is Balmung) but I am getting some distinctly beyond-sibling vibes too. >_> But yeah I have been realizing this summer that there is probably something substantial to the whole complaint about anime tending to sexualize minors. I'm willing to let it slide a bit for like 16-18 but it doesn't seem to stop there -_- My rating: 7/10 Wouldn't mind seeing more of this and I like the artwork. Let's just have less fanservice and more getting around to the overarching plot. --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:926522075] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>School is back in session which means this is gonna get a lot harder to keep going. I'll try to keep rolling but last year I got like 2 books done the whole school year >_> Also I am pretty sure this project was at least slightly responsible for getting me to pick Disgaea 2 back up lol Escaflowne was a super good guess, but alas we are not that far yet (I also wanna say we don't have the manga? Wifebolo really likes it but I think she's only into the anime IIRC) .hack//Legend of the Twilight Vol. 1 Whatever happened to .hack? I feel like it was a really big deal with multiple game series and anime and manga and a CCG and then it just evaporated overnight. I liked the first game but never managed to clear the last level so I never moved on to the others. Every so often I think about getting back into it but then all I ever see in stores is, like, volume 3 of G.U. for 80 bucks. Sounds like a job for Let's Plays, but anyway manga. This wasn't AS good as I remember it, but still a pretty fun time. Shugo and Rena are a brother and sister who win a contest to get Kite and Black Rose's avatars, and I guess that enough time has passed since the OG that their deeds have become shrouded in myth and legend. To be fair I remember virtually nothing about the plot of the smidge I played, so we're on even ground! Rena's into it but Shugo is more into girls. This volume is mostly expository stuff- Aria and the Twilight Bracelet are back and nobody really seems to know why, even people who lived through the first round of stuff. We meet our supporting cast- there's Mireille (IIRC a very blatant expy of Mistral), Orca (a female werewolf...wait wasn't there a dude named Orca originally?), Balmung (I don't remember what he was before but now he's an admin), and Hotaru (a pacifist Wave Master). We have a few seasonal events that don't amount to a ton but are still fun. Is there more to the legendary avatars than just cosmetics? Why are Aria and Data Draining back? Hmmm. One of the things that jumped out at me was the fanservice. There wasn't a lot of it by volume (unless you count Orca's outfit), but it was rather gratuitous even by anime standards, and was all featuring pretty young characters. (again, with the exception of Orca) (well, we only know Rena's age I think, and everybody is behind avatars, but the avatars don't exactly look legal age either >_>) This was pretty sweet when I was in roughly the same age bracket, and less so coming back now that I'm twice everybody's age <_< On the plus side, now jokes that went over my head back in the day make sense! (Mireille just happens to have a [rare] dog collar handy; somebody gets accused of playing one-handed) I'm also wondering if we're getting an incest route- it looks like we're building to Shugo/Aria and Rena/Balmung (....wait how old is Balmung) but I am getting some distinctly beyond-sibling vibes too. >_> But yeah I have been realizing this summer that there is probably something substantial to the whole complaint about anime tending to sexualize minors. I'm willing to let it slide a bit for like 16-18 but it doesn't seem to stop there -_- My rating: 7/10 Wouldn't mind seeing more of this and I like the artwork. Let's just have less fanservice and more getting around to the overarching plot. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 08/26/19 7:04:41 PM #83:	.hack Volume 2 Today's unrelated BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCp77Yf54_k" data-time=" Summer! Swimsuits! Fireworks! Haunted house! Rena is our resident surprisingly-scared-of-ghosts character, and Shugo has become competent and started actually getting into the game at some point. Aura shows up...or does she? The BGM changes and the fireworks get rained out, probably at her doing, but this appears to be, like, a loli version or something, that thinks Shugo is her mommy. Her name is Zefie and her actual mom is Aura, who smells like the Bracelet. She doesn't get along with any of the gang except Shugo himself. Rena is jealous. I am running out of ways to believe this isn't going the incest route >_> and wifebolo is home so more next time --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:926581119] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>.hack Volume 2 Today's unrelated BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCp77Yf54_k" data-time=" Summer! Swimsuits! Fireworks! Haunted house! Rena is our resident surprisingly-scared-of-ghosts character, and Shugo has become competent and started actually getting into the game at some point. Aura shows up...or does she? The BGM changes and the fireworks get rained out, probably at her doing, but this appears to be, like, a loli version or something, that thinks Shugo is her mommy. Her name is Zefie and her actual mom is Aura, who smells like the Bracelet. She doesn't get along with any of the gang except Shugo himself. Rena is jealous. I am running out of ways to believe this isn't going the incest route >_> and wifebolo is home so more next time </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 09/03/19 7:39:16 AM #84:	so far not so great but let's believe --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:926899494] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>so far not so great but let's believe </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Llarian 09/03/19 11:24:11 AM #85:	Tom Bombadil posted... so far not so great but let's believe Does this not hold up all these years later? Is it very much a product of its time? --- well, what's wrong with a little destruction? <cite>Llarian posted [p:926905981] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>Tom Bombadil posted...</cite> <quote>so far not so great but let's believe </quote> Does this not hold up all these years later? Is it very much a product of its time?</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 09/09/19 6:45:00 AM #86:	my progress, I mean --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:927184575] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>my progress, I mean </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 09/09/19 7:30:40 PM #87:	except SURPRISE PROGRESS TODAY until Wifebolo gets home at least .hack Vol. 2, cont. Today's BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l9vh9pKY0M&list=PLh9hcS0tfUw0aadEWKl26XeL8IrDyTVoB&index=9 The Cobalt Knight Brigade are very serious about purging vagrant AI- see look Kamui just murdered that small child. That'll be bad news for our new loli friend. Also a new Root Town is gonna open. We're gonna visit it! There's foreshadowing storytelling time about a kid who overlooked a rusted coin and thusly couldn't buy anything and save a sunken city. Possibly the only competent information gatherer on the team, Mireille tracks down Wiseman, who seems to be somebody I'm supposed to know already. She trades info on her friends for info on Zefie's mom as Balmung lurks in the background. Kamui bumps into Rena and Hotaru, and hints them towards the .hack equivalent of the dark web. She's the bad guy in case you didn't know. Everybody logs off and goes to bed except Shugo needs to have bonding time with Zefie I guess. We're gonna look into "four years ago" as our best lead. We knew somebody IRL who went in a coma from this game back then, but I didn't get far enough in the games for that to be a thing. Balmung gets fired, probably through Kamui's politicking, and Kamui's Happy Fun Time Gang will be taking over the whole Shugo/Zefie/AURA thing. She immediately raids Shugo's base (on a tip from that comic relief rival guy) and arrests him for cheating. His character will be deleted and everybody else will be taken in for questioning, including Zefie of course. The verdict is that Shugo and Rena will be suspended, and the sidekick waifus must refrain from interacting with them. Omake: some little one-page comics and stuff, and a sample of Sgt. Frog. Also an ad for the .hack TCG. I REMEMBER this ad specifically. Probably I was more into Black Rose than I realized at the time XD I think I still have my cards around somewhere! My rating: 6/10 All the fun parts were in what I read like a week ago, so today's experience was kinda a downer. >_> --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:927212363] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>except SURPRISE PROGRESS TODAY until Wifebolo gets home at least .hack Vol. 2, cont. Today's BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l9vh9pKY0M&list=PLh9hcS0tfUw0aadEWKl26XeL8IrDyTVoB&index=9 The Cobalt Knight Brigade are very serious about purging vagrant AI- see look Kamui just murdered that small child. That'll be bad news for our new loli friend. Also a new Root Town is gonna open. We're gonna visit it! There's foreshadowing storytelling time about a kid who overlooked a rusted coin and thusly couldn't buy anything and save a sunken city. Possibly the only competent information gatherer on the team, Mireille tracks down Wiseman, who seems to be somebody I'm supposed to know already. She trades info on her friends for info on Zefie's mom as Balmung lurks in the background. Kamui bumps into Rena and Hotaru, and hints them towards the .hack equivalent of the dark web. She's the bad guy in case you didn't know. Everybody logs off and goes to bed except Shugo needs to have bonding time with Zefie I guess. We're gonna look into "four years ago" as our best lead. We knew somebody IRL who went in a coma from this game back then, but I didn't get far enough in the games for that to be a thing. Balmung gets fired, probably through Kamui's politicking, and Kamui's Happy Fun Time Gang will be taking over the whole Shugo/Zefie/AURA thing. She immediately raids Shugo's base (on a tip from that comic relief rival guy) and arrests him for cheating. His character will be deleted and everybody else will be taken in for questioning, including Zefie of course. The verdict is that Shugo and Rena will be suspended, and the sidekick waifus must refrain from interacting with them. Omake: some little one-page comics and stuff, and a sample of Sgt. Frog. Also an ad for the .hack TCG. I REMEMBER this ad specifically. Probably I was more into Black Rose than I realized at the time XD I think I still have my cards around somewhere! My rating: 6/10 All the fun parts were in what I read like a week ago, so today's experience was kinda a downer. >_> </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 09/15/19 8:26:34 PM #88:	the third and final volume is really thick --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:927489804] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>the third and final volume is really thick </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
5tarscream 09/15/19 8:54:10 PM #89:	I swear I'll catch up on this thread soon. Between work and the catastrophe that was my summer I haven't had much time recently. <cite>5tarscream posted [p:927491029] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>I swear I'll catch up on this thread soon. Between work and the catastrophe that was my summer I haven't had much time recently.</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 09/15/19 8:58:34 PM #90:	Good news is it's not moving very fast so it'll be easier! --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:927491234] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>Good news is it's not moving very fast so it'll be easier! </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 09/22/19 10:40:39 PM #91:	one of the many services I provide --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:927809619] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>one of the many services I provide </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 09/29/19 9:57:04 PM #92:	almost got one in yesterday --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:928121970] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>almost got one in yesterday </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 10/06/19 12:31:34 AM #93:	...almost --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:928395399] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>...almost </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Llarian 10/08/19 11:28:14 AM #94:	v.3 is the longest one, to be fair. --- halfway between Audrey Hepburn and Alex Kapranos <cite>Llarian posted [p:928499146] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>v.3 is the longest one, to be fair. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 10/12/19 7:59:41 PM #95:	New challengers approach and two of them start with B so .hack will have to wait a sec --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:928687685] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>New challengers approach and two of them start with B so .hack will have to wait a sec </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 10/14/19 7:59:53 AM #96:	The first of which is a large compendium of Battle Angel Alita. It's a deluxe edition that is gonna take a few sessions to get through. It's got a foreword and some colorized pages and a hardback and stuff! We're still in the early stages, but it's following (or I guess followed by) the movie pretty closely so far IIRC. Dr. Ido finds a cyborg in a scrap pile, and rebuilds her. She has lost her memory but is a highly skilled fighter. We find out that Ido is a bounty hunter in his spare time (after a misunderstanding that he was the serial killer he was hunting) and have a few tussles with our first major enemy. Alita gets a new, more combat-ready body, and whatshisface murders the underground fighting champion and takes his. We're gonna have some issues with this guy. It's about what I expected! It's from an era slightly older than my sweet spot, but the art is gorgeously detailed nonetheless. Everything's gorier than my tastes, but not as gory as it could be I guess- lots of heads and faces getting ripped off, but they don't proceed to have body parts all strewn about at least. Seems to be on track for a solid 8/10. --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Tone yo' flab <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:928744711] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>The first of which is a large compendium of Battle Angel Alita. It's a deluxe edition that is gonna take a few sessions to get through. It's got a foreword and some colorized pages and a hardback and stuff! We're still in the early stages, but it's following (or I guess followed by) the movie pretty closely so far IIRC. Dr. Ido finds a cyborg in a scrap pile, and rebuilds her. She has lost her memory but is a highly skilled fighter. We find out that Ido is a bounty hunter in his spare time (after a misunderstanding that he was the serial killer he was hunting) and have a few tussles with our first major enemy. Alita gets a new, more combat-ready body, and whatshisface murders the underground fighting champion and takes his. We're gonna have some issues with this guy. It's about what I expected! It's from an era slightly older than my sweet spot, but the art is gorgeously detailed nonetheless. Everything's gorier than my tastes, but not as gory as it could be I guess- lots of heads and faces getting ripped off, but they don't proceed to have body parts all strewn about at least. Seems to be on track for a solid 8/10. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 10/19/19 10:59:23 AM #97:	she's kinda cute in the way that only superpowered girls that could rip your face off casually can be --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Soon I will be done with the troubles of the world <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:928966429] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>she's kinda cute in the way that only superpowered girls that could rip your face off casually can be </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 10/24/19 1:52:42 PM #98:	stayin alive --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Soon I will be done with the troubles of the world <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:929184401] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>stayin alive </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
5tarscream 10/24/19 8:30:18 PM #99:	I thought the movie was actually nowhere near as bad as I expected it to be from trailers. I was happy that there was a least a little story and personality to the film. <cite>5tarscream posted [p:929200539] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>I thought the movie was actually nowhere near as bad as I expected it to be from trailers. I was happy that there was a least a little story and personality to the film.</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Tom Bombadil 10/24/19 10:13:27 PM #100:	I quite liked the movie. It could just be a case of not having seen the original (this is what happened with the Star Trek reboot) but I dunno it seems pretty faithful. Gonna be bummed if/when it doesn't get a sequel tho. --- https://imgtc.com/i/uWMMlnN.png Soon I will be done with the troubles of the world <cite>Tom Bombadil posted [p:929204442] in Tom resume... [t:77737720]...</cite> <quote>I quite liked the movie. It could just be a case of not having seen the original (this is what happened with the Star Trek reboot) but I dunno it seems pretty faithful. Gonna be bummed if/when it doesn't get a sequel tho. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Topic List	Page List: 1, 2, 3

Board 8 > Tom resumes reading all the Bolo Household Manga Collection (spoilers) (+) Yeah! (+)

Board 8 > Tom resumes reading all the Bolo Household Manga Collection (spoilers)