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Hm. Hm. I am pretty sure it was Tahu, PoF, Pohatu and PoS back in like...april? march? Something. Sure's been a while.

I'm voting C for the latest poll. Long chases are good.

Also we should totally check in with dotcom, since he went off the grid a while ago. unless you're saving him for something.

bold names

Rank images, rank images all the way.

Just out of curiousity I checked amazon.de to see if they used the same preview as the US, then I checked .ca, and then I checked .co.uk, and then I got too lazy to check any other domains for amazon, but they all used the same preview, so I'm a bit more skeptical to the leak, but I'm staying hopeful.

The initial 6-page preview should be the same for everyone. But, if you log into amazon, you unlock random excerpts from the rest of the book. These are (probably?) unique to each person. Others have mentioned getting the fight against LOSS or something from the beginning of the summer story. I got some stuff with Pohatu arriving at the region of stone and Kopaka forgetting he has a scope on his face. That someone got an Onua and Korgot-focused preview is entirely believable. 

I can understand being cautious and everything, but sometimes it's unwarranted. There's nothing to indicate it's not a legitimate screencap, and Dina posted a complete page so that should really be that.

Well, the name is actually Bingzak, so at most he'd remind one of a search engine no one likes.

I don't feel like ranking these nor do I feel like I could do so in any meaningful manner, so here are My Thoughts on the anime I am watching this season so far.

-Charlotte: Like Terminus mentioned, the fact that the main character is kind of an huge jerk is pretty refreshing, and as a whole the entire idea of the incomplete superpowers is pretty interesting. So far nothing that intriguing has happened, but it's cool enough.

-Classroom*Crisis: It's alright I guess. Nothing has really happened nor do any of the characters stand out, so it's...there.

-DRRR!!x2 Ten: Pretty good thus far. It was cool to see Seiji/Mika/Namie involved in the latest episode since for the most part they've stayed out of the spotlight for a long time.

-Gatchaman Crowds Insight: Pretty sweet! Probably the most entertaining thing for me so far, but then I just like GC in general. It hasn't been that long since I saw the first season, but it's cool to see the characters again. I hope the original team interacts more eventually though, they're pretty spread apart and I don't think we've even seen OD outside of his show...

-Himouto! Umaru-chan: I'm an episode behind on this one, but anyway, the first episode was decent enough. Entertaining to a decent extent. Hope it proves more entertaining in the future.

-Jitsu wa Watashi wa: First episode wasn't particularly interesting but the second one was pretty fun, I didn't really expect that twist. (i thought she was just a robot) Kind of generic otherwise but the eccentric personalities of the girls could prove for more fun antics.

-Castle Town Dandelion: Not bad, but not really good either.

-Shimoseka: A pleasant surprise. Interesting themes, funny jokes, funny meta-gags, nice music, all around a good package. The censorship is good. Pretty fun so far.

-Sore ga Seiyuu: Pretty informative anime. I really like how they've had voice actors guest star as themselves, Kamiya Hiroshi's appearance in the latest episode was great. Other than the information and the guest stars (and the decent music, notably the fun ending) it's kind of bland, though.

-Wakako-zake: Man, I dunno.

-Wooser's Hand-to-Mouth Life Phantasmagoric Arc: The fact that episodes this season are twice as long as previous ones isn't. Super fun. Good ending as usual, though, and Darth Wooser is still cool.

On other news, I super lost interest in Ninja Slayer when it turned into 'let's see how far we can degrade nancy: the show' because wow do i not give a care about that. Even outside of that the gag's really run its course. I'm not sure how I'm gonna stand 12 more episodes of this.

Oh yeah, I watched Sakasama no Patema a few weeks ago. I liked it a lot. The concept behind it is one I've always wanted to see in a story, so I'm glad I found that movie. It could have used work in some areas, but all in all it was really neat.

 

(also "done a fair bit of research into anthropomorphic animal literature" is the funniest way i've seen anyone say "read a lot of furry fiction" like, not judging, but still, lol)

I'm taking a college course called Animal Studies in Fictional Literature.

 

Ah. That's still not an inaccurate descriptor, but yeah, ok. I assumed wrong, sorry.

Having done a fair bit of research into anthropomorphic animal literature, I suddenly realized how racist Chima is. An individual's characteristics are not defined by their species, not to the extent that Chima portrays them.

Well, I'm sure the ravens and wolves and gorillas of the world would be pretty offended by this blatant racism, if they weren't. You know. Incapable of understanding or caring about any of it.

To be fair, the characters in Chima can be pretty racist (Laval especially, particularly in the beginning), but the theme as a whole? Who cares, honestly.

(also "done a fair bit of research into anthropomorphic animal literature" is the funniest way i've seen anyone say "read a lot of furry fiction" like, not judging, but still, lol)

I put some y-joints on Tahu, Pohatu, and Lewa's spare torso joints.

Switched Gali's shoulder armor from her gearbox to her torso's spare ball joints. Switched out the red axles on her axe with black ones.

Gave Pohatu blue eyes, replaced the silver metallic shells on his legs with dark tan ones, added shoulder armor in the form of more dark tan shells, one with spikes, replaced his trans fluor green bones with black,his bohrok eyes with trans light blue, gave him a silver oof knife on his back instead of the guurahk staff.

Have all the pins on Kopaka's shield on the inside. (cause that looks better)

Switched all of PoF's lower limbs with black ones, gave him red 3m upper arms.

Gave PoW all black upper limbs and tr. light blue lower limbs, replaced the tr. blue torso shell with a dark azure one.

Gave PoS some silver back armor.

Gave PoI some forearms.

So much acronym in RPGs.

That's kaijuist. Some japanese monsters are perfectly willing to not destroy everything.

Ah, this review was excellent. I'm glad DeeVee got this one, the (great as always) photos really make Warrior look fantastic. He's been my favorite skull guy from the beginning. As the review says, he's simple, but does everything he needs to well. His mask is great, his colors are great. The asymmetry and two weapons give him some nice variety and he just. He just looks like a good set. I'm really looking forward to getting him.

No pink. Pink is an awful color and does not deserve to live.

Counterpoint: Pink is the best color, please Lego give us some???

I wish there was a skull guy with trans pink. Scorpio would look cool in that I think.

About 2, I didn't interpret those scenes as Cole turning back, merely as him learning to control his ghostly form and thus how solid he could make himself. It doesn't mean he would stop being a ghost, he's just learning how to be better at it. His emotions were stabilizing in that episode and he was learning how to handle himself in his new body. That's how I saw it anyway.

I like the fact that he stayed a ghost, for some reason. Now we have a robot ninja and a ghost ninja. If the future vision holds true, Jay may end up a pirate ninja. This is all incredibly silly and very fun. And I approve of that.

Anyway, I only skimmed a couple of the other points since I haven't actually seen the finale, but honestly I have a hard time caring about most of this stuff? They are all pretty minor inconsistencies in a series that has never ever actually bothered with such things. An off color here and there is pretty inconsequential, and lots of characters besides Nya got spinners despite the fact that no one but the Ninja and the sensei actually did Spinjitzu, so that doesn't really matter much. The entire order in which the ninja mastered Spinjitzu and then their elements is a bit of early installation weirdness, too, since it wasn't shown that the ninja themselves had powers until the following year. Knowing what we know now, it makes a lot more sense for Nya's training to have gone the way it did. As for Zane looking older...it's entirely possible that at some point he gets rebuilt again in an older-looking form. We don't know, is the thing. Lots of things could happen in The Future. Or he could really be an aging robot. It's Ninjago. Stranger things have happened.

Um, I guess it's a bit too late to matter much now, but considering the fact that the 10th episode aired just before you posted this, just stating spoilers like that is kind of in bad form? So that's not great, but ok.

Anyway, I agree that Clutch Powers may be a good possibility.

Well, obviously I don't know for sure, but perhaps one of them might be our reality. You know? Like our Earth. I don't think that'll be the case, but it is a possibility.

 
Hmm, you know, you may be on to something. Not necessarily "our" reality, but like, the "Real World" as it was portrayed in The Lego Movie? Maybe that is a realm in Ninjago canon. We know the Ninjago movie's going to be in the same continuity as the Lego Movie, so perhaps...
 

 

I haven't started every show I'm planning on watching this summer so I will save those thoughts for another post.

 

For now I'm just overjoyed (and overhyped) that Owarimonogatari has been officially announced, slated for this fall season. Turned what had looked like a really uneventful season into the most anticipated thing for me in an extremely long time. It's gonna be sweeeeet. (gotta wonder when we'll actually see koyomimonogatari though.) Between this new series and the translations of the novels starting in November with Kizu, this is going to be one fricking great year for Monogatari. Now I'm just hoping the universe will push the envelope with this and that more monogatari figmas will be announced at wonfes this month or something. I can only hope.

What's the __monogatari series all about? I've heard good things but know nothing except it has a confusingly large number of different titles/subseries/spinoffs.

 

At its most basic, it's about "oddities." Supernatural entities that afflict various people in different ways. The protagonist is a half-vampire, and the story at the beginning is about him meeting a bunch of girls afflicted by oddities and helping them out. Curses, ghosts, possessions, stuff like that. It has a lot of standard "light novel anime" tropes, but it is far from a standard series. It's an interesting series in that it is extremely "artsy" (It's Shaft at its Shaft-iest) and extremely dialogue heavy. Much of the anime is just people talking. It's also interesting because it is very, very smart. In its dialogue, its plot, its progression, its meta commentary and character interaction and development. It's characters are for the most part not very good people and everything and everyone is flawed. And although it is a harem, as the plot progresses things change and get challenged and there's a lot of really fun stuff the further along you go. (at least imo)

I would sort of describe it as the anti-Nisekoi. (or at least, when I watched Nisekoi, I thought of it as the anti-Monogatari) In that Nisekoi is about as generic a harem series as is imaginable, while Monogatari is everything but.  The anime are both from Shaft, so stylistically they have a bit more in common than one would think. 

It's a great series, but it's not for everyone. It's a very unique series in a multitude of ways. And parts of it are fairly sketchy (especially when the main character's sisters are involved). It can also be sort of an acquired taste...It is one of my favorites now, but I did not care for the first season (Bakemonogatari)  and actively hated the second (Nisemonogatari). It wasn't until the third proper season (...Second Season) that it really started blowing me away. But it's really a very well done series all around, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. The payoff is worth it. 

I haven't started every show I'm planning on watching this summer so I will save those thoughts for another post.

For now I'm just overjoyed (and overhyped) that Owarimonogatari has been officially announced, slated for this fall season. Turned what had looked like a really uneventful season into the most anticipated thing for me in an extremely long time. It's gonna be sweeeeet. (gotta wonder when we'll actually see koyomimonogatari though.) Between this new series and the translations of the novels starting in November with Kizu, this is going to be one fricking great year for Monogatari. Now I'm just hoping the universe will push the envelope with this and that more monogatari figmas will be announced at wonfes this month or something. I can only hope.

I feel fairly connected to air, since I kind of need it to live. Air is good, I think. 

I pronounce everything however the heck I want. 

I'm a native spanish speaker, so when presented with weird made up names and such, my first instinct is just to pronounce it phonetically as I would in spanish. (for the most part, anyway. obviously no silent h's because that would be silly) You know. Because, that is a language with mostly consistent pronunciation rules? Some of this stuff can get pretty ridiculous, as is evident by the above posters who like me interpreted the names differently. So honestly, at this point, some, what, 11 years after I got into it? I honestly don't care to find out how these made up words are actually pronounced. It all sounds right in my head, which is what matters. 

Definitely 2008 Takanuva. Massive, great color scheme, nice resemblance to his original form, all around a great looking set and a cool build.

Wow, yeah. this looks fantastic. So many minifigures (Misako finallyyyyyy) and the building itself is a beauty. It just looks so great. I am seriously tempted here. 

It's just a shame that it seems like the ninja do not come with their hairpieces. That would have really made the set, imo. And Dareth's expression here is not as accurate or good looking as the one from the polybag. I guess these are minor annoyances though. It's a gorgeous set no matter how you look at it. 

It looks pretty cool, though I wish it was the skull grinder or basher mask. I'll try to pick it up

Well, it...is the Basher mask? Scorpio and Basher have the same mask. Unless you mean, in his colors? Because if so, yeah I may have to agree with that, a trans bluish violet mask would be beautiful.

This is a pretty sweet mask. It looks cool and should look pretty interesting on Scorpio. I don't think I need it but it should be cool for people that do.

Most importantly, this means that the Bull Skull Mask is no longer the one (non-MoCr) 2015 mask that only comes in one color. So that's really cool.

No, you're not alone. I think it works great as an accent color, too.

And then there's this.

...so that's how Inika is pronounced. (#nineyearslater).

This commercial is pretty cool, anyway. I like how Grinder looks with the MoC.