And the craziness begins! Seriously. What is with the red balloon?
So now we know there are foreign people and foreign megadeuses.
Episode 13. Confused again. I think the main goal of this show is to confuse you till you go crazy. If so, I give it an A+. Again, I do like this show, but I'm very confused and I can't remember if all this stuff gets explained later because I don't remember what happened. There is this whole assasin thing where they try to trick you into thinking it might be Dorthy with the OLDEST tricks in the book. Then there is a bunch about people born outside paradime and an old man growning synthetic tomatoes, an and old building. We see Angel dressed like the assassin but she isn't the assasin. Roger has a vission where megadueses are flying above and a group of young boys. Was that the cataclysmic event, the megadeuses? Whats all this talk of how to use the megadeuse correctly and does it control the user?
Episode 14. What is going on? Roger is in a battle, but we get flashes of people, possibly what those people are currently doing, some of it from the past, all intermixed with the battle. Roger keeps asking who am I. Then he is in a subway station looking very unRoger-like with unshaven face, shirt half tucked in, and a dull look in his eyes and scratches on his shoes. He is in Para Dime but a different one where people didn't lose their memories. There are no domes, the subways are still used, the sky is bright blue with sun shine, nothing looks rundown or broken, lots of color and families and cars. Is this the past, how the city used to be? Is it how the city would have been if the memories were never lost? Is it the future? Did he pass out from blood loss? We don't know. Nor do we know what is up with what all those flashes of people were talking about. And then it goes to acting as if this were a play. A play with poor acting. Can this get anymore confusing. Is this what happened before the domes and memory loss? Is this who these people had been 40 years ago? Except then the old man says he lost his memory 40 years ago and Roger doesn't know of Big O. Eventually it goes back to the battle but may I just point out that NONE OF THAT MADE ANY SENSE WHATSOEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Episode 15. With all these giant robots walking around and popping out of the ground, how is any of the city still standing!!
What is with the tomatoes?? Why tomatoes?
And so now there are foreign countries and its common knowledge? And they have agents and Angel is an agent?
And Rosewater has a tempertantrum.
And so apparently there aren't other countries. The foreigners are just random people outside of this large city. Confusing!!!
May 9, 2014
Big O Review Episode 1-12
I imagine at least some of the following is explained later in the series. I have watched the whole series before but that was at least 7 years ago and I don't remember what happened. Therefor I'm reviewing as if I never saw it before because I don't remember enough of it to do otherwise.
I do like this show, but a lot of it never made much sense to me. Supposedly, 40 years ago everyone lost their memories. Only this one place exists, at least to the knowledge of the characters. If foreign countries do exist, then there is no contact with them. Apparently, they have androids, megaduses, fancy watch looking devices, video communication in their cars, and so on and so forth, but no computers that have google. Or did all the computers lose their memory too? One would think there would still be books and websites and artifacts to tell them about the past. It should be almost impossible not to know. The way they make it sound, everyone just woke up one day without any memory of the past. Some of them do apparently find bibles and there is at least one holiday similar to one we all know. However, if everyone just "woke up one day without any memory", first of all, there should have been chaos for some time. Second of all, how would they have managed to organize a police force. How would anyone have known how to mend clothes. How would anyone have known how to make clothes. How would they know how to speak. Yes, the brain is capable of handling many things. Eventually, there would be a language and government. Erasing memory doesn't erase human nature. But it wouldn't necessarily end up being any previously existing language since language is learned. Also, unless somehow it was destroyed, there would be books if not computers. There would be history books and math books and books about cultures and countries and how to farm and how to build etc. Obviously they have some knowledge. They would have to in order to keep civilization as it looks. Did whatever took their memory away only take certain types of memories. Something was left because otherwise, all they would have is what they were born with and what they could gather from surroundings. Though I guess if they have no memory whatsoever, it argues my earlier point about books because they wouldn't be able to read them. They have to have some memory because the saxophone player could read old sheet music and those people that sung in the church could read the religious songs. Basically, none of it makes any sense. Forty years isn't enough to go from caveman to technology genius. Which if they had lost all memory, is pretty much what they would have been doing.
Also, what is up with the domes? Why are some parts of the city in domes? Why is there never any sun? Also they talk about how cats and dogs are rare and we also can tell just by looking that plants are too. If that's the case, what happened to the dogs and cats. I can see how human kind could have killed much of the plant life before memories were lost, but what happened to the cats and dogs? And if cats and dogs are rare, they why aren't other animals? Obviously they have to have farms with plants and animals somewhere and people with the knowledge to farm or else they wouldn't have food and drink. They have to have factories somewhere too, but most of what I see is skyscrapers and city buildings. So where does their food come from. Electric city had some forest, are there other places with forests and things. Are animals just rare in the city? And if there is a place called electric city, is it ruled by the same government? Is it part of Para dime? Why weren't there any domes there? Are there more cities like that one. Are there ones for water purification, farming, factories, etc? What happened to cell phones and radios and CD's? They have generators and giant robots and all sorts of things that are rather advance technology either standard in our present day or beyond our current technology, but then they are lacking technology that the real world has had for decades.There are just so many holes. I cannot believe that if this is their reality, that so many people are satisfied in not having answers to these questions. That only a few people like that reporter want the truth.
Another confusing thing is the topic of memories. Okay, so some people regain some of their memory. After forty years, I don't know how likely it is the brain would regain memory, but that that's not what confuses me. Sometimes they talk about memories as in what is in our hippocampus, in our mind, and other times they talk about it as an object like a computer memory. They talk about so and so ragaining his memory, but then they talk about selling memories and gathering them. Do they call knowledge about the past memories as well as what is in the mind? When Angel complains Rogers destroying the memories, he isn't destroying a persons mind. Is there a box full of computer memory disk things that he is punching??? Or is it knowledge that he is destroying. Is he destroying paper and computers and artifacts?
What about the sea? We see the sea (haha) surrounding buildings. Were those buildings on lower ground? Did the ice caps melt and raise the water levels to cover all that? How do some of those buildings still have electricity? Why isn't the electricity in technology under water electricuting them?? How is there papers floating around in the water as they might in dry air, when clearly anything down there should have at least begun to disentigrate, but the ink would also be blurred too. That still doesn't explain how some of the buildings under water don't have water filling all of them up. What about the fishing docks. True, if it's sea water, anything built on or near will age faster, but those docks still look older than forty years and they look as if they were built on the sea where it steep which would mean the ground the docks come off of drops very steeply before getting to the other buildings. I can't think of anywhere with skyskrapers built on that kind of land. That water looks more than several stories deep. Back to the dock issue though, does that mean the sea overtook part of the city before the memory loss?
How come no one has contact with other countries? On one hand it seemed like they had been completely wiped out and this one city was all that was left of the human race, but then it seemed like one guy had knowledge that other countries did still exist and that no one in the city knew. If that's true, then what about these other countries? Did they all lose their memories as well? Why don't they make contact? Was all contact destroyed before the memory loss? Surely if it wasn't, someone would have at least accidently made contact. And people with megadeuses could have flown to see if there were others. Did some apocalyptic like event occur before the memory loss? Is there contact between countries that no common folk know about? In forty years, with the technology they have, surely they know whether others exist in the world. And no, you cannot expect me to believe that no one was curious enough to find out. That's not human. We are currious creatures. Curiosity and imagination help us move forward. Some people may be content with unanswered questions, but there are always plenty who aren't. Someone would have to be curious enough to find these things out.
While it may be an interesting show, it has so many holes it's not even funny. The events in the episodes are confusing sometimes too. They don't always happen in order and sometimes seem to jump around.
I do like this show, but a lot of it never made much sense to me. Supposedly, 40 years ago everyone lost their memories. Only this one place exists, at least to the knowledge of the characters. If foreign countries do exist, then there is no contact with them. Apparently, they have androids, megaduses, fancy watch looking devices, video communication in their cars, and so on and so forth, but no computers that have google. Or did all the computers lose their memory too? One would think there would still be books and websites and artifacts to tell them about the past. It should be almost impossible not to know. The way they make it sound, everyone just woke up one day without any memory of the past. Some of them do apparently find bibles and there is at least one holiday similar to one we all know. However, if everyone just "woke up one day without any memory", first of all, there should have been chaos for some time. Second of all, how would they have managed to organize a police force. How would anyone have known how to mend clothes. How would anyone have known how to make clothes. How would they know how to speak. Yes, the brain is capable of handling many things. Eventually, there would be a language and government. Erasing memory doesn't erase human nature. But it wouldn't necessarily end up being any previously existing language since language is learned. Also, unless somehow it was destroyed, there would be books if not computers. There would be history books and math books and books about cultures and countries and how to farm and how to build etc. Obviously they have some knowledge. They would have to in order to keep civilization as it looks. Did whatever took their memory away only take certain types of memories. Something was left because otherwise, all they would have is what they were born with and what they could gather from surroundings. Though I guess if they have no memory whatsoever, it argues my earlier point about books because they wouldn't be able to read them. They have to have some memory because the saxophone player could read old sheet music and those people that sung in the church could read the religious songs. Basically, none of it makes any sense. Forty years isn't enough to go from caveman to technology genius. Which if they had lost all memory, is pretty much what they would have been doing.
Also, what is up with the domes? Why are some parts of the city in domes? Why is there never any sun? Also they talk about how cats and dogs are rare and we also can tell just by looking that plants are too. If that's the case, what happened to the dogs and cats. I can see how human kind could have killed much of the plant life before memories were lost, but what happened to the cats and dogs? And if cats and dogs are rare, they why aren't other animals? Obviously they have to have farms with plants and animals somewhere and people with the knowledge to farm or else they wouldn't have food and drink. They have to have factories somewhere too, but most of what I see is skyscrapers and city buildings. So where does their food come from. Electric city had some forest, are there other places with forests and things. Are animals just rare in the city? And if there is a place called electric city, is it ruled by the same government? Is it part of Para dime? Why weren't there any domes there? Are there more cities like that one. Are there ones for water purification, farming, factories, etc? What happened to cell phones and radios and CD's? They have generators and giant robots and all sorts of things that are rather advance technology either standard in our present day or beyond our current technology, but then they are lacking technology that the real world has had for decades.There are just so many holes. I cannot believe that if this is their reality, that so many people are satisfied in not having answers to these questions. That only a few people like that reporter want the truth.
Another confusing thing is the topic of memories. Okay, so some people regain some of their memory. After forty years, I don't know how likely it is the brain would regain memory, but that that's not what confuses me. Sometimes they talk about memories as in what is in our hippocampus, in our mind, and other times they talk about it as an object like a computer memory. They talk about so and so ragaining his memory, but then they talk about selling memories and gathering them. Do they call knowledge about the past memories as well as what is in the mind? When Angel complains Rogers destroying the memories, he isn't destroying a persons mind. Is there a box full of computer memory disk things that he is punching??? Or is it knowledge that he is destroying. Is he destroying paper and computers and artifacts?
What about the sea? We see the sea (haha) surrounding buildings. Were those buildings on lower ground? Did the ice caps melt and raise the water levels to cover all that? How do some of those buildings still have electricity? Why isn't the electricity in technology under water electricuting them?? How is there papers floating around in the water as they might in dry air, when clearly anything down there should have at least begun to disentigrate, but the ink would also be blurred too. That still doesn't explain how some of the buildings under water don't have water filling all of them up. What about the fishing docks. True, if it's sea water, anything built on or near will age faster, but those docks still look older than forty years and they look as if they were built on the sea where it steep which would mean the ground the docks come off of drops very steeply before getting to the other buildings. I can't think of anywhere with skyskrapers built on that kind of land. That water looks more than several stories deep. Back to the dock issue though, does that mean the sea overtook part of the city before the memory loss?
How come no one has contact with other countries? On one hand it seemed like they had been completely wiped out and this one city was all that was left of the human race, but then it seemed like one guy had knowledge that other countries did still exist and that no one in the city knew. If that's true, then what about these other countries? Did they all lose their memories as well? Why don't they make contact? Was all contact destroyed before the memory loss? Surely if it wasn't, someone would have at least accidently made contact. And people with megadeuses could have flown to see if there were others. Did some apocalyptic like event occur before the memory loss? Is there contact between countries that no common folk know about? In forty years, with the technology they have, surely they know whether others exist in the world. And no, you cannot expect me to believe that no one was curious enough to find out. That's not human. We are currious creatures. Curiosity and imagination help us move forward. Some people may be content with unanswered questions, but there are always plenty who aren't. Someone would have to be curious enough to find these things out.
While it may be an interesting show, it has so many holes it's not even funny. The events in the episodes are confusing sometimes too. They don't always happen in order and sometimes seem to jump around.
Mar 23, 2014
InuYasha Ranting Review Episodes 1-5 (review/summary)
Warning: I have watched the whole series so there may be some spoilers about future episodes.
Episode one.
Who ever is in charge of continuity needs some help. First of all, the centipede demon scratched Kagome on her left side, however, later in the series, we see Kagome as a baby and the jewel looks to be closer to the middle of her chest. How on earth did it make it to her left side? Second, there is blood that comes out when the jewel is released from her body, as blood normally does when one is scratched. There should be blood on her shirt where the tear is. She also should have felt some pain, as the wound had to be deep enough to fit the jewel. After the attack though, there is no blood on the shirt and she doesn't seem to even notice that she got hurt. After being scratched like that and then being squeezed, there should be blood on her clothing.
This is just the first episode so I guess they are warming up.
Episode two and three
InuYasha may have a lot of suspense and action and sorts but it's also rather comical. I love that about this show. It can be serious, funny, suspensful, and heartwarming.
I find it interesting how well Kagome handles her situation. Suddenly she is in feudal Japan with demons and no phones or showers or shampoo or her family. She is suddenly hit with all this responsibility. She doesn't even know if she will be able to get back home and yet she doesn't cry or freak out, at least not till she goes back home. Of course for her, she probably learned all about this stuff in history class. I didn't. If it were me I would probably freak. It's still to early in the series to say much about the events or characters or to analyze it much.
Episode four
It's still too early to say much, but now we start seeing a bond slowly form between InuYasha and Kagome. The real question is, why did she not take a moment to explain to her family what she was doing before she went back into the well? Also, did anyone else notice that Kiate speaks stranger than anyone else?
Episode five
We meet Seshmaru. He is of great interest to me though I don't want to say too much and spoil the rest. It is made obvious to us right away that he cares not about the lies of the others. It is also made obvious that he hates his half brother. We see right away what kind of character he is. We see the two half-brothers bickering and we learn about their father and InuYashas mother. Seshomaru shows himself to be quite cruel using InuYashas dead mothers spirit to torture InuYasha. However it shows that he is able to bring back souls though we don't learn how until later.
Kagome also brings a bike to feudal Japan. Now how the hell does that work. There were no bikes back then. One would think such an item would be a bad idea to introduce to that time.
We also meet Mioga in this episode. In fact this episode does a lot of explaining and introducing of new characters.It is also interesting that in the beginning of the series we see Kagome in various outfits but then later she is almost always in her school uniform.
Episode one.
Who ever is in charge of continuity needs some help. First of all, the centipede demon scratched Kagome on her left side, however, later in the series, we see Kagome as a baby and the jewel looks to be closer to the middle of her chest. How on earth did it make it to her left side? Second, there is blood that comes out when the jewel is released from her body, as blood normally does when one is scratched. There should be blood on her shirt where the tear is. She also should have felt some pain, as the wound had to be deep enough to fit the jewel. After the attack though, there is no blood on the shirt and she doesn't seem to even notice that she got hurt. After being scratched like that and then being squeezed, there should be blood on her clothing.
This is just the first episode so I guess they are warming up.
Episode two and three
InuYasha may have a lot of suspense and action and sorts but it's also rather comical. I love that about this show. It can be serious, funny, suspensful, and heartwarming.
I find it interesting how well Kagome handles her situation. Suddenly she is in feudal Japan with demons and no phones or showers or shampoo or her family. She is suddenly hit with all this responsibility. She doesn't even know if she will be able to get back home and yet she doesn't cry or freak out, at least not till she goes back home. Of course for her, she probably learned all about this stuff in history class. I didn't. If it were me I would probably freak. It's still to early in the series to say much about the events or characters or to analyze it much.
Episode four
It's still too early to say much, but now we start seeing a bond slowly form between InuYasha and Kagome. The real question is, why did she not take a moment to explain to her family what she was doing before she went back into the well? Also, did anyone else notice that Kiate speaks stranger than anyone else?
Episode five
We meet Seshmaru. He is of great interest to me though I don't want to say too much and spoil the rest. It is made obvious to us right away that he cares not about the lies of the others. It is also made obvious that he hates his half brother. We see right away what kind of character he is. We see the two half-brothers bickering and we learn about their father and InuYashas mother. Seshomaru shows himself to be quite cruel using InuYashas dead mothers spirit to torture InuYasha. However it shows that he is able to bring back souls though we don't learn how until later.
Kagome also brings a bike to feudal Japan. Now how the hell does that work. There were no bikes back then. One would think such an item would be a bad idea to introduce to that time.
We also meet Mioga in this episode. In fact this episode does a lot of explaining and introducing of new characters.It is also interesting that in the beginning of the series we see Kagome in various outfits but then later she is almost always in her school uniform.
.hack//sign
So I have finished watching .hack//sign. If you are reading this hoping for some great answer about the ending, sorry, I don't have it. I don't plan to write too much about the actual story line till I have watched it a second time through. I watched the dub version (because listening to other languages gives me a headache) and one of my biggest pet peves about it isn't the end, it's how they don't translate everything. What I mean is, during the parts without dialogue where there are just words written on the screen, they didn't translate the words into English. What those words say are important to understanding what is going on. Yes, what happens during those scenes is later said by Bear, but not all of it and it's still helpful to know. I found out through youtube users. It isn't that hard to redo the text in English. If everything else is going to be in English, the text should be too, especially since it is so important. I cannot see any reason for leaving the text untranslated other than laziness or ignorance.
The ending is also annoying though. I don't like major cliffhangers. I don't even like it when shows end with everything sort of explained. I always want more. I want to know everything until ever character is dead, and even that probably wouldn't be enough. In this case though, they didn't even really end it. One minute they were all facing this huge monster and then Suburu and Tsukasa met and then.....what? Too many questions unanswered. What happened with the monster. What was the monsters purpose? Did they defeat it? Did Mimiru and Tsukasa go shopping. Did Tsukasa take Bear up on his offer? Did Tsukasa go to boarding school? And what the hell does Bear do for a living? It is brought up over and over throughout the show but we never find out! What about Silver Knight? What about the girl? None of it is explained.
It's hard enough to understand what is going on through out the show. The mystery and confusion is what kept me hooked. It's why I kept clicking on the next episode and almost finished the whole series in a day. I wanted to understand and figure it out. I figured it would be explained, but then it never was. All that build up leading to nothing just made the end more disappointing. After finishing it, I went on google to search for an explanation for the ending, especially episode 26 which didn't seem to have anything to do with the rest of the series for the most part. Sadly, I didn't find much. Most people said you had to read the novels and mangas and play the games and watch all the series to really understand it all or that you had to at least play the games. Some claimed this was a great marketing technique. Well I'm not business major or anything but it seems rather crappy to me. I don't play video games. I don't have anything to play any on unless you count a broken DSlite or whatever the hec it is/was. Nor do I have the time to sit here and try to figure out what order to watch everything in and what to read and play etc. I'm not even really interested in watching any of the other .hack series after the disappointing ending of this one. It was a great series but the ending is awful, or rather the lack of an ending. Even though I have tried to find on google what order the series are in and what goes with what and after what, it's all so confusing.
The series isn't a total loss. It had it's good points. Some dislike it for it's lack of action scenes, but it was never really meant to be an action series. It was based on psychological and sociological themes such as anxiety, effects of abuse, escapism, compensation, and depression. I do wish there had been a little more action every once in a while just to liven things up a bit. However, I thought they did a pretty good job on exploring the themes.
Character development was somewhat flat, however, it is a short series. Still, the characters we watch aren't in any real danger and don't even feel. We don't know what they do for a living or why they escape to this world. We know a bit about Tsukasa, a bit about Suburu, and a bit about Bear. We know Tsukasa is in a coma in a hospital and has been abused. We know he/she suffers from anxiety and depression. We know Suburu is in a wheelchair and unable to walk. It is possibly from some sort of disease but we never really find out. We know that she likely has anxiety but that she is also very strong and courageous. We know Bear has a son and that he feels he failed as a parent. We actually meet the sons character briefly. We also know that Bear is 47. All we know about Crim is that he acts very differently in the game from how he acts in the real world. We know he is a business person of some sort. As far as BT is concerned, we don't know much of her other than she doesn't like lettuce and she has met Crim outside of the game. We don't really know anything about Mimiru outside the game. There are things we can assume or infer about the characters but we don't really know them. I didn't really become attached to any of them because of that. While the themes were explored decently, I don't think they were explored deeply enough.
It wasn't a bad series, but it wasn't great. Usually when I finish a series, I feel attached and I don't want it to be done. I don't feel like I could watch anything else. Sometimes I restart it right away. However, I didn't get that with this one, even though the ending was a cliffhanger. I'm not entirely sure what the intentions of this series were or why they did what they did with it, but as a series alone, without considering any other related games or series, just considering .hack//sign alone, it left a good bit to be desired.
The ending is also annoying though. I don't like major cliffhangers. I don't even like it when shows end with everything sort of explained. I always want more. I want to know everything until ever character is dead, and even that probably wouldn't be enough. In this case though, they didn't even really end it. One minute they were all facing this huge monster and then Suburu and Tsukasa met and then.....what? Too many questions unanswered. What happened with the monster. What was the monsters purpose? Did they defeat it? Did Mimiru and Tsukasa go shopping. Did Tsukasa take Bear up on his offer? Did Tsukasa go to boarding school? And what the hell does Bear do for a living? It is brought up over and over throughout the show but we never find out! What about Silver Knight? What about the girl? None of it is explained.
It's hard enough to understand what is going on through out the show. The mystery and confusion is what kept me hooked. It's why I kept clicking on the next episode and almost finished the whole series in a day. I wanted to understand and figure it out. I figured it would be explained, but then it never was. All that build up leading to nothing just made the end more disappointing. After finishing it, I went on google to search for an explanation for the ending, especially episode 26 which didn't seem to have anything to do with the rest of the series for the most part. Sadly, I didn't find much. Most people said you had to read the novels and mangas and play the games and watch all the series to really understand it all or that you had to at least play the games. Some claimed this was a great marketing technique. Well I'm not business major or anything but it seems rather crappy to me. I don't play video games. I don't have anything to play any on unless you count a broken DSlite or whatever the hec it is/was. Nor do I have the time to sit here and try to figure out what order to watch everything in and what to read and play etc. I'm not even really interested in watching any of the other .hack series after the disappointing ending of this one. It was a great series but the ending is awful, or rather the lack of an ending. Even though I have tried to find on google what order the series are in and what goes with what and after what, it's all so confusing.
The series isn't a total loss. It had it's good points. Some dislike it for it's lack of action scenes, but it was never really meant to be an action series. It was based on psychological and sociological themes such as anxiety, effects of abuse, escapism, compensation, and depression. I do wish there had been a little more action every once in a while just to liven things up a bit. However, I thought they did a pretty good job on exploring the themes.
Character development was somewhat flat, however, it is a short series. Still, the characters we watch aren't in any real danger and don't even feel. We don't know what they do for a living or why they escape to this world. We know a bit about Tsukasa, a bit about Suburu, and a bit about Bear. We know Tsukasa is in a coma in a hospital and has been abused. We know he/she suffers from anxiety and depression. We know Suburu is in a wheelchair and unable to walk. It is possibly from some sort of disease but we never really find out. We know that she likely has anxiety but that she is also very strong and courageous. We know Bear has a son and that he feels he failed as a parent. We actually meet the sons character briefly. We also know that Bear is 47. All we know about Crim is that he acts very differently in the game from how he acts in the real world. We know he is a business person of some sort. As far as BT is concerned, we don't know much of her other than she doesn't like lettuce and she has met Crim outside of the game. We don't really know anything about Mimiru outside the game. There are things we can assume or infer about the characters but we don't really know them. I didn't really become attached to any of them because of that. While the themes were explored decently, I don't think they were explored deeply enough.
It wasn't a bad series, but it wasn't great. Usually when I finish a series, I feel attached and I don't want it to be done. I don't feel like I could watch anything else. Sometimes I restart it right away. However, I didn't get that with this one, even though the ending was a cliffhanger. I'm not entirely sure what the intentions of this series were or why they did what they did with it, but as a series alone, without considering any other related games or series, just considering .hack//sign alone, it left a good bit to be desired.
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