What anime are you currently watching?

[Maxine MagicFox]

^_^ I'll try to help out. For what it's worth: I do enjoy you ranting about the manga stuff.

[Twat]

[Kimiko]

I finished re-watching Madlax tonight, then watched My Neighbor Totoro again (both are semi-recent purchases).

Madlax's final episodes are a little depressing because [spoiler]two main characters are killed off for no good reason.[/spoiler] Although a complete reset ending would have been meh I still don't see what the need was for the suffering. And unlike Maxine I'm no fan of making main characters suffer just to watch them be sad. Despite that, it's still a great anime. And the soundtrack is superb.

Totoro was great as always. The totoros are so cute

[Kinokokao]

I wish other people were legit about their shit instead of being shameless pirates. I can only discuss what I own on DVD, not what I steal from Japan.

Now, excuse me while I download Sims 3.

[scy]

Then that makes me a shameless pirate. And I really don't fucking care~ Especially in regards to shows that are currently airing.

The Sims 3 is interesting, though not without some issues (notably the toggling off of progression doesn't actually stop it~).

[spoiler]A tip: Writing makes tons of cash. Romance, Vaudeville, and Masterpieces can easily sustain a family if you keep someone writing constantly. My top Political Sim who has had the job for fucking ever only brings home like ~25k per week whilst my writer brings over 100k T.T[/spoiler]

[Kimiko]

[scy]

Well, yes and no. The reason it is so successful is that you can finish books at a ridiculous pace (Masterpiece, the longest book at 2000+ pages, takes ~50 Sim hours to finish) so you can make quite a bit of money by finishing multiple books. You get one payment per week (~15,000 per Best Seller Masterpiece, roughly a third of that for a Romance novel [~700 pages]) for 6 weeks ... but my current writer gets something like 12 Royalty checks per week.

If it took a realistic amount of time to finish a book, this would definitely not be worth it. A dedicated writer can probably do two Masterpieces per week. Just the whole stacking of royalty checks makes it an outrageous earner.

Edit:
[spoiler]That or the fact you make terrible money even at the max job. Political Rank 10 job is like 800-ish an hour, 4 hours per day, 4 days per week. You earn raises though and mine gets two per week (plus any Opportunities during the week) and is up to I think 1600-ish an hour? He still makes more money off his few Royalty checks than that.

Edit: Currently at $1,871/hour, 4.5 hours per day, and 3 days per week. I've had that job for ages now though and still only pull in ~$25258 a week. My Writer sim's best selling Masterpiece so far is $19,193 a week and she currently pulls in $130,507 a week. She'll finish another Masterpiece that week probably so closer to $145k a week when that book is done.

Writing is one of those "eventual" money makers as you max out the skill, earn all the little bonuses and unlock all the novel categories. If you don't dedicate ALL your time to writing, it isn't a ridiculous amount of money.

That and 6 Sim weeks, on the Normal play time, is half your lifetime (90 days is the default; 960 is Epic and there's the option for aging disable). You'll honestly not be able to finish more than like 4 or 5 good selling books in a Normal lifetime if I had to guess, and definitely no more than 1 or 2 Masterpieces (due to the time to get to Writing 10/10 and write the pre-requisite novels).

Edit: Let me put it this way, a Best Seller Masterpiece Novel (i.e., the BEST Writing can do) will make LESS per week than the top job in any field. The bonus, however, is that finishing the novels gets you 6 guaranteed payments, even if you quit writing/die the day after you finish. Due to this, you can then finish multiple books and earn more money. Writing a single novel won't make you a ton of money but writing can be a great source of income if you dedicate yourself to it. Plus, you can work on this skill starting from Teenage years.

My Writer is taking time off to work on Painting to see what those top out at out of curiosity. Think my Political sim will start moonlighting as a Guitar player (easiest way to meet people ever is to play for tips in the park >>) just because I can. Plus it entertains me that the President of the Free World is chilling in the park playing a Guitar for tip money. I wonder if he can be assassinated ... >> >> >>.[/spoiler]

[Kinokokao]

[hotspot]

[Twat]

[scy]

Kemeko Deluxe
[spoiler]


Hayakawa is easily the best character so far~ That isn't even including the voice (Kugimiya Rie). In a series of so far absolute absurdity (IN TWO EPISODES), she stands out as being even more absurd. I have no idea what makes her awesome but it works. Probably her weird fascination with violence and women (and her downright lewd personality).



I reeeeally hope that the series ends with a pairing resolution (the obvious one at that, M.M and Sanpeita).

...that said, jesus christ the OP and ED are annoying. I think the creator just has a thing for weight watching or something fuck I don't know. The actual events are absurd and I'm just pretty much fucking confused. I think that's the point though. I hope. Fuck I don't know.

I will say that it has a rather robust VA cast (Kugimiya Rie, Kitamura Eri, Tomatsu Haruka, Kawasumi Ayako, Chiba Saeko, Goto Mai ... and that's like half the cast).

I think I'll just go and finish up Koukaku no Regios and Kurokami before this.

"A~na~ta~"

Line of the forever: "YOU MUST BE THE RUMORED HOMO!"

o and guest appearance from:

NO ITEMS
FINAL DESTINATION
[s]FOX[/s] [s]METAKNIGHT[/s] KEMEKO ONLY[/spoiler]

[scy]

Umineko no Naku Koro ni (EP1)

The OP, at first, was a little disappointing after the creepy from Higurashi. Akiko Shikata (Ar Tonelico I and II OPs) does fairly well in the cult-ish sounding songs (her AT intros sound like chanting ... probably because they are) so it fits the theme of the show.

ED ... surprised me when it first started with the chanting. The song is rather depressing and weird. Not really a fan of it, to be honest.

Considering over half the female voices in the cast also have a great singing voice (Kugimiya Rie, Marina Inoue, Kobayashi Yu, Horie Yui), I can't help but wonder why the ED song is so awkward. Just a nitpick, I suppose.

As for the actual episode...
[spoiler]I don't get why they skipped the ENTIRE SCENE ON THE BOAT. Or was that a manga only thing, I forget. It was the first bit with creepy Maria if I remember though.

And I don't know why I didn't expect them to keep it but the Battler/Batora fascination with breasts, notably his cousin's, is intact and makes for ... I guess lighthearted humor.

"But she really doesn't look likes she's 18 ... Lemme squeeze your tits!"

Really though, this episode is all the set-up and introduction of the characters (in shotgun rapid succession manner) and the rationale behind everyone on the island, the legend of Beatrice, and lots of yelling at each other to set up motive.

"UU~! Beatrice exists! Witches exist! UU~UU~~"

Oh god, Maria's "UU~"s are going to drive me insane. God damn you.

I think events were slightly jumbled though or at least rushed? Not sure. It went from arrival to the argument between the siblings to the garden (UUUUUU ANY MORE AND I WILL GO INSANE OH JESUS) to the "arrival" of Beatrice (Maria with the umbrella).

Not a fan of Coalguys or gg most the time, though gg surprises me with some quality subs sometimes. Coalguys is still bottom of the barrel stuff (and aren't they disbanding?) so I'll probably find more subs to compare as they come out.

Worth noting the voice cast is fucking superb. Fucking. Superb. Jesus christ, I think everyone vaguely important (of a cast of like 32) is voiced by someone "famous."

Also, I think everyone has breast implants. Notably, Natsuhi and Shannon, though I think they were the most well endowed members of the cast in the game anyway. Still, it seems everyone is relatively stacked (Jessica, Kyrie, Rosa, Eva) with the exception of durdurdur Maria.

"UUUUU~ UUUU~~ UUUUU~~ UUUUU~~!!!" is so much less creepy animated than in writing. Maria almost seems normal now.[/spoiler]

[Kimiko]

How many eps. long is Umineko going to be?

[scy]

It's slated for 26 Episodes I believe.

[Kimiko]

Good