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doomrider7
Joined: 17 Sep 2006
Posts: 104
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Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2024 3:21 am
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I'm 100% up to date with the manga so I know EXACTLY what's going to happen next and am fighting all of the temptation to post anything about it, but the comments on here are great to read.
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smurky turkey
Joined: 30 Jan 2022
Posts: 2453
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Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2024 6:12 am
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Blood- wrote: | Point is that it's way past time for the show to start really dealing with this stuff. Jesus, we're 19 episodes in and there's only been a few scattered bread crumbs amid all the, "zomg, isn't Rakuro just, like, the most amazing gamer, evar???" stuff. I'd like to think with six remaining episodes we are FINALLY going to see more of the so-called "secrets" this game holds as mentioned in the ANN plot summary, but I have a sneaking suspicion that actually what we're gonna get is a boatload more of, "zomg, isn't Rakuro just, like, the most amazing gamer, evar???" stuff. |
I for one can appreciate the slow burn of information. I went into the anime mainly just wanting to have fun seeing a weirdo explore a game world and that has been 95% of the anime thus far. Hell, I would be fine if there was no big isekai like twist or there being some illuminati type dev group.
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Edjwald
Joined: 03 Aug 2017
Posts: 1426
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Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2024 6:30 am
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Personally, I'd be cool with the show going back to another long arc of gaming stuff too. That's pretty much all "Bofuri: I Don't Want to Get Hurt Yada Yada" has done for 2 seasons, and I'm fine with it. We're however many episodes in, and the only one I've disliked was the recap episode. Because...y'know....it was a recap episode.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter
Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 24064
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Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2024 8:17 am
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@ smurky turkey & Edjwald - fair enough. That certainly isn't enough for me to enjoy this title as much as I'd like to, but again that probably stems from me not being a gamer myself, therefore a relentless focus just on gaming ain't gonna do it for me. ... Unless, of course they start throwing out tons of gratuitous ecchi-ness...
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Hiroki not Takuya
Joined: 17 Apr 2012
Posts: 2615
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Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2024 11:27 pm
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Edjwald wrote: | No, see, it's not a steel trap. It's a steel trap door..tombguarder (okay, fine, Wethermon the Tomb Guard, happy now? ).
Wow, I didn't mean to write that much. Anyway, that's some of the stuff I've been keeping on the old mental backburner. |
To the first part, sorry I wasn't sure and I grok you, I just had to get calibrated. It's fun and as I am also a member of the Gina Szanboti School of Writing I do the same, just less liberally. Also, as an aside Gina, I can say categorically that there was no such scene in SF but sort of sounds like what the devs/mods in Bofuri were about, just without the suits but I assume you weren't thinking of that. Doesn't match anything I've seen...
I can say you and Blood- are definitely on the same wavelength and you guys have come up with some interesting possibilities. I just think the terminology relates to elements of the game backstory/lore that haven't been revealed yet rather than being integral with the show's "top level" setting.
A tidbit I checked up on is Wethermon is stated in the Japanese dialogue to be a "hakamori" which has the usual translation of "grave-keeper" so "tombguard" is inaccurate unless the localizers were intending some other connection with the terminology. It made me wonder why one would need to guard a grave unless there were a vampiric connection or worry about graverobbing but I assume Setsuna wasn't buried with riches or "forbidden technology". However, an alternate explanation IRL is that the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers has a perpetual guard for a memorial observance and that connection would work here.
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Edjwald
Joined: 03 Aug 2017
Posts: 1426
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Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2024 3:26 pm
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I didn't see the last posts on page 7 when the thread skipped to page 8.
Gina - I've never heard of or seen Zegapain, but I'll see if I can find it. I think the anime you're confusing with this one - the one where a bunch of dudes in suits talk about how a player's progress is affecting things - is "A Certain Middle-aged Man's something something Log about his VRMMO life." I almost dropped that show multiple times, then regretted that I didn't when I watched it all the way to the last episode.
Hiroki - the anime could still go several different directions. But I feel pretty confident that it does have an ultimate endgame however long it takes to get there. No real reason for that either. Just that it's been so well done up to this point that it gets faith points.
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Gina Szanboti
Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11543
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Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2024 5:14 pm
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Edjwald wrote: | Gina - I've never heard of or seen Zegapain, but I'll see if I can find it. I think the anime you're confusing with this one - the one where a bunch of dudes in suits talk about how a player's progress is affecting things - is "A Certain Middle-aged Man's something something Log about his VRMMO life." |
Oh, yeah, I do kinda remember that, now that I looked it up to remember what the series was about (I'm fair at IDing series characters in context (like with the rest of the cast) and then remembering watching it, but names of series, characters, attacks, my coworkers, pets...if it has a name, I usually won't remember it. :/ Anyway, it could've been that scene I'm thinking of. I'd need to rewatch to see if it pings harder than could've, but I don't wanna.
I really need to rewatch Zegapain myself - it's been on my rewatch list for a few months now. I liked the ED song a lot, and the series ending was the kind of melancholy sad that's my jam. It's Sunrise, so mecha, so it might not be yours.
Hiroki not Takuya wrote: | It's fun and as I am also a member of the Gina Szanboti School of Writing I do the same, just less liberally. |
Would that be the Speculative Fiction sub-discipline or the Prolixity as a Virtue seminar?
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Edjwald
Joined: 03 Aug 2017
Posts: 1426
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Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2024 7:50 am
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Gina Szanboti wrote: |
Would that be the Speculative Fiction sub-discipline or the Prolixity as a Virtue seminar? |
Geez, Gina. I don't know what Hiroki said to cheese you off, but there's no call for that kind of language :
I watched 3 episodes of Zegapain BTW, and I'll watch more. My learned review is that it's kind of awesome, kind of dumb in some early mecha anime ways, but ultimately it didn't give me an excuse to make that mega-pain pun that's just sitting there. I like the central relationship and the mystery around it, and yeah, the anime does give off a slight Clannad or Kanon vibe.
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Hiroki not Takuya
Joined: 17 Apr 2012
Posts: 2615
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Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2024 11:10 pm
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Gina Szanboti wrote: | ...Would that be the Speculative Fiction sub-discipline or the Prolixity as a Virtue seminar? |
Well, I don't consider Prolixity a Virtue, but certain people like to assert inoffensive comments and have alternate offensive meaning when concisely worded, so I have to use enough words to be precise and unequivocal. I am definitely into SF and a particular fan of the Implication and Commentary via Metaphor and Analogy classes...
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Edjwald
Joined: 03 Aug 2017
Posts: 1426
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Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2024 8:45 am
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Welp....lots of bits and pieces.
- Utopia has officially been shown to be peopled. Not only that, it's peopled by people who seem like real...people. Not the sinister seeming soulless suits (don't worry, the extra alliteration is free, so go ahead and enjoy it) that one would normally expect in a VR world anime.
On the other hand, all these hint drops about the secret truth of the world, the academics studying Shangri-la frontier in virtual libraries, and the strange fusion of magic and technology in the game itself all suggest that things are more complicated than just a company that created a good VR game. So I'll keep looking for clues.
- Still hoping that the three gaming freaks will band together again soon, but it sounds like they intend to do separate quests for a bit.
- I'm guessing Psyger-san will be meeting Sunraku again when her guild gets on his trail, and there will be some complications there.
- So did Pencil-Gon start a new character from scratch or not? She seemed to be imitating Sunraku's original quick-start...rushing to town to establish a save point, going to Thirdemia...so is she like, level 3 now? It's going to be a little rough if she looks the same and has a new pencil themed name when all the people looking to pry open the game's secrets or get a little PK payback come looking for her.
- The storage bracelet zone looks crazy. Sunraku could practically start his own Power Ranger team if those aren't just trophies on display....
Edited to change a verb to past tense because it was bugging me.
Last edited by Edjwald on Sun Feb 25, 2024 2:25 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter
Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 24064
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Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2024 10:25 am
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Episode 20
Very satisfying episode for me. The curtain finally got drawn back a bit on the, er, "brain trust" behind SLF and they are delightfully goofy. However, finally meeting some of them does make me question my "the game may eventually be a portal to a real isekai" theory. I can't say the theory has been officially debunked but given the goom-bahs in charge, it does seem less likely than before.
Nice to see my gal Psyger-0 get some screen time and of course I had to chuckle at her interpretation that the PK guild's abandoned stuff were "gifts" for her from Sunraku. What a sweetie.
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doomrider7
Joined: 17 Sep 2006
Posts: 104
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Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2024 2:00 pm
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Edjwald wrote: | Welp....lots of bits and pieces.
- Utopia has officially been shown to be peopled. Not only that, it's people by people who seem like real...people. Not the sinister seeming soulless suits (don't worry, the extra alliteration is free, so go ahead and enjoy it) that one would normally expect in a VR world anime.
On the other hand, all these hint drops about the secret truth of the world, the academics studying Shangri-la frontier in virtual libraries, and the strange fusion of magic and technology in the game itself all suggest that things are more complicated than just a company that created a good VR game. So I'll keep looking for clues.
- Still hoping that the three gaming freaks will band together again soon, but it sounds like they intend to do separate quests for a bit.
- I'm guessing Psyger-san will be meeting Sunraku again when her guild gets on his trail, and there will be some complications there.
- So did Pencil-Gon start a new character from scratch or not? She seemed to be imitating Sunraku's original quick-start...rushing to town to establish a save point, going to Thirdemia...so is she like, level 3 now? It's going to be a little rough if she looks the same and has a new pencil themed name when all the people looking to pry open the game's secrets or get a little PK payback come looking for her.
- The storage bracelet zone looks crazy. Sunraku could practically start his own Power Ranger team if those aren't just trophies on display.... |
Pencilgon kept the same character and just started nearly from scratch. Levels are the same, but she starts with NOTHING since she lost it all in the duel.
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Edjwald
Joined: 03 Aug 2017
Posts: 1426
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Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2024 2:28 pm
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doomrider7 wrote: | Pencilgon kept the same character and just started nearly from scratch. Levels are the same, but she starts with NOTHING since she lost it all in the duel. |
Thanks for the clarification. It'll be interesting to see if the world will let her give up on PKing just because she's bored with it.
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smurky turkey
Joined: 30 Jan 2022
Posts: 2453
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Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2024 3:25 pm
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Edjwald wrote: |
doomrider7 wrote: | Pencilgon kept the same character and just started nearly from scratch. Levels are the same, but she starts with NOTHING since she lost it all in the duel. |
Thanks for the clarification. It'll be interesting to see if the world will let her give up on PKing just because she's bored with it. |
Well, given that she has been killed and thus lost her PK status (which made her drop all her loot) there is no real incentive to go after her. There is revenge I suppose, but is that worth no reward and putting yourself up against a strong player?
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b-dragon
Joined: 21 Apr 2021
Posts: 491
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Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2024 9:33 am
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Much has been made about the game being well-designed, as opposed to the trash games Sunraku normally plays. And I think this episode walks a lot of that back. Setting up narrative progression for the entire server behind a one time only raid boss with secret spawn conditions? Oof. Giving players a large degree of freedom and not planning for cheesing strategies, sequence breaking or players otherwise being unpredictable gremlins? I have to think that's common sense for anyone who has ever designed or run a game before.
Maybe that's me projecting my tabletop DMing experience, but in a game with as much freedom as Shangri-La Frontier offers, you need to accept the notion that players can and will vary wildly from the laid-out progression expectation. That Utopia didn't account enough for this seems...odd.
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