This week's loot (12th October 2014)

This week's loot (9th November 2013)

First of all, not loot but I went and watched the new Madomagi movie. AGAIN.
 
I said this before but I'll say it again. It's good. Typically, when given time to think about a film or game or whatever my opinion of it tends to drop over time as I start to notice more of the flaws. Also I hate Shaft (I find their stuff to be kind of pretentious, so much as to be obnoxious) and didn't even like the Madomagi TV series that much. Despite all this I FUCKING LOVED THE MOVIE. It's that good.

Anyway yeah loot.

Madomagi stuff (part 1). Soul gem gasha got me Sayaka and Nagisa's grief seeds, and post-transformation soul gems Kyouko x1 Sayaka x1 Homura x2. I now have two each of both pre and post transformation Homura's soul gems. Yay.

And yeah two more pamphlets in addition to the one I had before (previous one was first ed, got another first ed + regular version, will probably be giving one away to someone).

QB thing is a "smartphone stand" which is basically a small cheap QB figure with a suction cup on his tail you can attach to a smooth surface (say, the back of a smartphone) so he can hold it up. Pretty cool I guess but definitely not worth 1200 fucking yen.

Also, two key animation clear files.

Contents are random and I got Sayaka and the secret one. Not too bad I guess. Also another different series clear file, and the week 3 bonus film strip.

Other stuff. Just comics and Todokanai Koi '13. I loved that song before, I love it even more now. Nonnonbiyori is fun (Komari is the best). Arpeggio is... kind of disappointing, actually. Eh.

Anyway Madomagi secret key animation clear file and film strip:

まどマギ新編の感想をツイッターで投稿したがせっかくなんでこっちに転載しとく。

俺の場合、ゲームにせよ映画にせよ、クリアした・観た直後の評価と時間を置いて思考を巡らせた後の評価を比べると後者のほうは明らかに低い。魔法が解けて、欠点があらわになるからだ。誰も気づいてないだろうけど、俺のエロスケを見ると新しい作品を評価する際、他の、前に既に評価した作品を再評価することがかなり多い。そしてほとんどの場合、その再評価で点数は落ちる。例えばこの前クリアしたＴＴＴ２だが、クリアした直後は７５。数時間後よく考えたら７０だった。そして数日後６５になった。もちろん、色褪せない作品は確実に存在する。だけどそれに該当するのはごくわずかである。前置きが長くなったが要するに俺が今言いたいのは……

まどマギ新編を今日、再び観た。もちろん初見と比べて欠点がよりよく見えるようになった。とくにシャフ度の多用がくどい。あと一部のシーンで作画が映画のものとは思えなかった（激しい動きの「隙間」のフレームとかそういうのじゃなく、ほとんど動いてない会話シーンで顔がおかしいとか）。

だけどそんなものは大したことなかった。何故ならばこの映画の美点は欠点を遥かに凌駕している。ネタバレになるから詳細はあえて挙げないでおくが、前回観た時に気づかなかった小さいディテールとかが結構あった。こんな短い期間で映画館で同じ映画を2回も観たのは初めてだが、後悔はまったくない。むしろ2回も観て、良かったと思ってる。まどマギ新編はそれほど一つの作品として完成されている。あと前回も言ったが、テレビ版はそれほど好きでもなかったし、劇場版の前編と後編は興味がなくて見なかった。そんな私がこれほど新編を評価している。

以上でござる。

追伸：しかし「覚悟を持って観ろ」とか映画を観たビフォア＆アフターは理解できんな。前者は観た後でも意味不だし後者は映画を観ずにネタでほざいてるだけとしか。万が一どちらも本気で言ってるとしたら…これはアレか。たまに耳にするゆとりの豆腐メンタルか。ニコニコ動画で鳥肌注意とか書くニワカスなのか。ニコ厨ってやたらと「全米が泣いた」をネタにするがてめーらの鳥肌涙腺崩壊注意報のほうがよっぽど信用ならんわボケ。

What the hell might as well write it in English too.

My thoughts on the movie (based off my comments on twitter in Japanese): Typically after I complete a game or watch a film or whatever, what I think of it immediately after the fact and some time later after I've had some time to think about it differs significantly- When I have time to think about it, my opinion of the subject clearly drops. That's because the magic has worn off and the flaws are now more apparent. If you pay close attention to my erosuke (though I don't know why you'd be doing that) you'd notice how whenever I review a new game, I also tend to re-review games I had previously rated. And almost all the time this results in their scores dropping. Take my most recent game, Tears to Tiara 2. I started off giving it 75 right after clearing it, but just a few hours later I realised that that was totally inappropriate and lowered it to 70. A few days later I came back and figured 70 was still too high and it's now 65. Of course, there are games and films and books and whatever that don't lose their magic with time, but they're really the tiniest minority. But anyway, what I want to say is... Well. I watched the new Madomagi film again today. Of course, its flaws stood out more than they did the first time (like with the stupid Shaft neck bend that irks the shit out of me being overused as fuck). Also some scenes had really terrible quality (I'm not talking about in-between frames during action scenes, but stuff like long dialogues during which there is no movement and DUDE WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH HER FACE HERE).

BUT! These flaws were ultimately totally insignificant. The film's strengths heavily outweight its flaws. Also, while I won't go into specifics because spoilers, there were things, details that I didn't notice the previous time that I did this time. This was the first time I've ever gone to see the same film at the cinema within such a short period, and if you asked me before watching the movie what I thought of that I'd say it was ridiculous, a waste of money wait for the fucking BD, that sort of stuff. But I did not regret the decision. If anything, prior knowledge of what's going on let me pick out more stuff and enjoy the movie even more. This movie is really just that good. I've said this before, but I didn't like the TV series all that much, and didn't even bother watching the other two movies. And I hate Shaft. But holy shit this movie is fucking good.

PS: There are people (on Twitter and such, mostly in Japanese duh) going "prepare yourself before watching the film" and doing before and after reaction pictures where supposedly the movie left them super depressed or something. I have to call bullshit on them. The prepare yourself thing- I don't fucking get that at all. And the before and after shit- I have to wonder, did these fuckers even watch the movie? Or are they just that new generation of semi-retarded yutori kids who go all *****HUR PREPARE YOURSELF FOR ALL THE TEARS THIS BIT IS SUPER MOVING!!!!!!!***** and shit on Niconico? God I hate those fuckers. Anyway they're full of shit. Just saying.

Edit: Do note that I'm a regular reader of Comic Yurihime though.

Edit: Just these things

White Album 2 Closing Chapter (3)

Cleared it about a week ago actually, just didn't get around to writing a post about it.

Overall, this may very well be Maruto's greatest work ever.

It keeps the general themes of White Album (winter, singing, love triangle) intact while being something completely different.

The first three routes were all fantastic (unrelated but I liked Chiaki's the most), and Setsuna's route in Coda was great. Unfortunately both of Kazusa's routes (i.e. the grand finale to the whole thing) were a bit disappointing. During and after IC I was totally more for Kazusa than Setsuna, but somehow the delays to CC, the novel that came with it, and the entire second part with her not around resulted in me being unable to empathise with Haruki in Kazusa's routes. Eh.

Oh and the drama CDs and books? Just stick them in the game damn it (I know the books are included in digital form in the game but I mean REALLY make them part of the game).

Overall... I enjoyed Parfait more, really. Don't get me wrong, White Album 2's definitely one of the best games I've ever played. But eh, love triangles and bad endings aren't really my thing. So yeah, I enjoyed Parfait more.

Comic Market 81 loot

Comic Market 81, day 1

Updating from phone.

Staying in a cheap hotel in Shimbashi, taking the first Yurikamome as usual.

Holy SHIT is it cold.

Anyway, got most of the stuff I wanted today. Only Falcom, Favorite and 5pb left (I'm giving up on 5pb is the line is too long though, I just can't take standing outside freezing; Leaf had me doing so for almost two hours today and I thought I'd die of frostbite or something).

Doujinshi on third day as usual, but I might go browsing tomorrow If whatever I get doesn't weigh me down too heavily.

Edit (1/1/12): Back home, reuploading photos-

Funds

Arrival at Ariake

Dawn

Merry Christmas

Been playing White Album 2, and haven't left my room in over 50 hours. Yay!

White Album 2 Closing Chapter (2)

IT IS HERE


MY PREPARATIONS ARE COMPLETE

Don't think I'll be leaving the house for the next few days.

Today's loot (21st December 2011)

But more importantly...
WHITE ALBUM 2 TOMORROW FUCK YEAH
It's like a year late but no wait seems too long these days thanks to Muv-Luv (where the hell is Chronicles 03 anyway).

White Album 2 Closing Chapter

>>White Album 2 Closing Chapter
>>2011.12.22 On Sale

YEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS ABOUT FUCKING TIME

White Album 2 -introductory chapter- (2)

Finished the novel a few days ago and cleared my second playthrough today.

Damn.

Like, fucking DAMN.

All of a sudden I hate Haruki.

Damn.

Kazusa is definitely a Maruto heroine.

This may very well turn out to be Maruto's greatest work yet, WHERE THE FUCK IS THE NEXT GAME DAMN IT?

Edit:
まーた規制されてやがる

White Album 2 -introductory chapter-

Finally got round to starting on White Album 2.

It's good. Not that that should be at all surprising, considering how it's Maruto and all (Parfait and Konnyaku would definitely be in my top 5 list if I had such a thing).

Also,
lol wut

Edit:

Well these are annoying.
1) I'm using a fucking laptop, I don't want to stick the disc in all the time.
2) If you want me to leave the disc in then STOP FUCKING CHECKING IT EVERY FIVE SECONDS. This is probably Windows but I'll navigate to a different hard drive and the fucking disc drive starts whirring and clicking. Or I'll do a virus scan and it starts whirring and clicking. Or I start up an entirely fucking unrelated game and guess what, it starts whirring and clicking. If you can't tell, I'm finding it really fucking annoying.
3) Do you guys really think disc checks stop piracy? Seriously? Man, I'm tempted to just go fucking crack this already and be done with it.

Seriously, what's the fucking point of not allowing disc-free play? It's just annoying. Stop it already. Serial keys are enough.

Also, hooray for weird bugs.
At least this doesn't actually do anything too bad. TH2AD on my other, older laptop was terrible, sometimes the text and/or graphics would just refuse to display at all and sometimes it'd just crash, leaving me with no options other than a forced restart.

Edit (23rd December): Cleared the game.

Holy shit that was good.

I was expecting something unfulfilling for the ending due to the whole to be continued be sure to play part 2 thing but it wasn't too bad, considering.

Everything from Setsuna's birthday party to the ending was just wonderful.

I'm actually now pretty glad that I put off playing it for this long because this way the wait for the second half won't be as long. HURRY UP DAMN IT.

Edit: I'm still missing two CGs and was going to start on my second playthrough but I took a look at the novel that came with the game (first edition) and the foreword says to read it after the first playthrough but before the second.
Guess really clearing the game will have to wait for awhile.

Also I'm starting to feel like playing Parfait again.

Also

>>WHITE ALBUM2 ～closing chapter～
>>今冬予定

嘘つき。Leafの嘘つき。嘘つき、嘘つき嘘つき、嘘つき！


Totally unrelated but the results for that Amazon eroge character poll are out.
...I voted for Chihaya.