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[i2amroy]

Finally got around to watching the last half of SAO II. I was fine for the first part but those last few episodes... ALL THE FEELS!

I was bawling for almost the entire last episode.

[IronyOwl]

So. Saw the first few episodes of HunterxHunter (the new one, apparently). Definitely winning the award for darkest series compared to how dark it seems to admit to being; you've got people straight-up dying left and right, but nobody seems particularly concerned or perturbed about it.

Now to wait for somebody the main characters know to die so they can give a half-hour cry montage over it.

Spoiler: Minor Spoilers (click to show/hide)

Also I'm kind of sad they beefed out Suit's backstory and motivations a bit. Previously he was easily the scariest of the main crew, because every other member of the main crew had the excuse of being some kind of straight-up monster. Some dude in a suit with a switchblade keeping up with two Chosen Ones just cause he likes money was a goddamned hilarious situation while it lasted.

[Zangi]

So. Saw the first few episodes of HunterxHunter (the new one, apparently). Definitely winning the award for darkest series compared to how dark it seems to admit to being; you've got people straight-up dying left and right, but nobody seems particularly concerned or perturbed about it.

Now to wait for somebody the main characters know to die so they can give a half-hour cry montage over it.

Spoiler: Minor Spoilers (click to show/hide)

Also I'm kind of sad they beefed out Suit's backstory and motivations a bit. Previously he was easily the scariest of the main crew, because every other member of the main crew had the excuse of being some kind of straight-up monster. Some dude in a suit with a switchblade keeping up with two Chosen Ones just cause he likes money was a goddamned hilarious situation while it lasted.

I think its a pretty long wait, if I remember correctly.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Pretty sure he has always been a not-greedy guy all along.  From the manga anyways.  Maybe.  It has been years...

[Frumple]

I think the saddest thing about the anime is it's probably not going to pull off that amazing scene with the speech bubbles and the naked pederast. Makes the whole manga worthwhile, that page does.

[ToonyMan]

So. Saw the first few episodes of HunterxHunter (the new one, apparently). Definitely winning the award for darkest series compared to how dark it seems to admit to being; you've got people straight-up dying left and right, but nobody seems particularly concerned or perturbed about it.

The new Madhouse anime of Hunter x Hunter is great. I watched like 50-60 episodes over this winter break.

I really loved the first arc with the Hunter Exam. I think it kind of weakens after that, but then gets better again. At least where I'm at.

Spoiler: I am at (click to show/hide)

The Greed Island game.

The York New City arc I think gets pretty good in the second half, and now we've got more GAME MECHANICS.

Basically, it's probably the best battle shounen I've seen in recent memory. Everybody watch the remake. It's kind of a battle shounen, but it feels a bit smarter and...darker.

And before anybody asks, Hisoka is amazing.

[Levi]

Yeah, first arc was the most fun for me too.  The rest of it is okay, except for the

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Stupid Ant Saga

but doesn't have the charm of the hunter exam bits.

[Execute/Dumbo.exe]

So, I've been watching 'Hagime No Ippo: The FIghting!" And may I say how much of a amazing series this is? I mean, those Impacts, Hype as shit.
Hagime No Ippo: The Hypest.
Anyway, just finished off 'the unfinished next counter!' and does anyone else think that was a bit of a cop-out?
Not the fight itself, visceral and punchy as usual, but the part about

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

the other fighters little girl being sick, I mean, for all he knows he just damned her to slow painful death.

[Reelya]

I wouldn't call that a "cop out".

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

a cop-out would be to make all the other fighters unremitting evil, so that our Hero or other major character can always be Mr Right beating up baddies. By having sympathetic backstories for the competitors it actually adds a whole dimension of grey to something that could have been black and white. A "cop out" would be when having a sick little girl on your side always indicated you were going to win that match, because the author wants to send the message that life is fair. Life isn't fair though, and people can lose even if they've got some moral thing on their side.

I can't remember specifically, but that fight involves Miyata? Did he know the circumstances? And if he did, would it be good writing if he deliberately threw the fight because of a sob story?

[Execute/Dumbo.exe]

True, bit heavy words for what I meant.
What I was talking about was when he

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

decided that fighting would be a better choice than trying to save his little child.

I get the part about honour, but still.

[Neonivek]

Well I am still having faith in Fairy Tale...

BAMN! first thing I see? People ask Natsu (Think of him like Luffy but twice as rowdy and fight happy... and with more ADHD then normal) to take care of their 4-6 year old child.

Seriously Fairytale? There MUST be better people then him...

Fairytale your breaking my heart!

Dang it what was that other anime... Gaddou? Gekkinu? DANG IT!

[Furtuka]

Huh, today's Aldnoah was surprisingly decent.

[Spehss _]

Vocaloid stuff? vocaloid stuff.

Ruby is a vocaloid that sings in english. And sounds pretty good actually. Like, dayuuum. I want more music with her voice in it ASAP.

Unfortunately she still seems in development as of January 23 2015, but she's supposed to be released in the upcoming VOCALOID4 engine. Which is supposed to release..."soon". That's the only info I can find on the release date, which I found on a vocaloid wiki. Vocaloid 4 also includes stuff like a "growl" feature meant to give vocaloids a realistic growling tone to their singing. Vocaloid english metalcore seems possible in the future.

[Reelya]

That's sounding pretty cool. I can just imagine a couple of generations (a decade or two at most) later this stuff is going to really be indistinguishable from human singers, and they'll probably ship with lots of parameters you can tweak to create your own "singer" at home rather than have so much which needs to be done in a studio. Does anyone know if it's possible to embed a vocaloid engine into games and the like? Or do you have to pre-record everything?

I really must get into this vocaloid stuff since I play instruments but can't sing to save my life.

[Sirus]

I don't get this vocaloid thing :/

[Reelya]

What don't you get? You don't get what it is, or don't get why people like it?

What it is, is software to synthesize a singing voice, which was developed by Yamaha. Yamaha then licensed the technology to studios, who sampled real singers and sold "voice packs" as add-ons for the core program. This was all marketed to recording studio professionals, and the voices were just sold as voices: "female voice A" and the like. Then, one company decided there was an untapped market of young home users. They created the voice of Hatsune Miku. But unlike previous studios selling voice packs, they created an entire character around the voice and hired a professional anime character designer to create her image. By creating a character / visual representation for the voice they created a whole new market and pushed sales of the Vocaloid engine software through the roof. So, Hatsune Miku started as a piece of software which is an add-on for the Vocaloid program. The expansion gives you new voices to use for the synthesizer, and has her picture on the cover. That's the whole story. Given the success of the first "character voice" this caused a huge shift in the market, and now no studio would consider just creating/selling a "voice pack" without creating a character to go along with it. You have all the typical franchise merchandizing opportunities then: Hatsune Miku figurines, games, cups, hats, etc.

As for why people like it, it's similar to the appeal of Touhou. Vocaloid is at heart, music creation software sold by Yamaha. The whole thing with characters like Hatsune Miku & Friends was created by smaller companies as a way to sell add-on packs for the program. The companies involved make a wide range of media featuring the characters and their voices. But since the software is also about creating your own music videos at home, a huge amount of fan created content sprung up around the franchise.