This... started out on a much different tone than how it ended.
Had a Discrete exam today. I'm feeling pretty good about it, so we'll see.
Incidentally, on the direct path from the suite buildings to where my classes are (the path without detouring to the dining hall and student center), there's this row of bushes along one of the buildings, and I think there's a rabbit burrow in them, because in the afternoons when it's been nice out (ie often lately) and when I've been going to class, I've seen a rabbit out there. Consistently there, and not just once, but at least three times now. Which is pretty awesome, I think.
Also, according to the Probability professor, the word 'snafu' (which I don't use with any regularity but I've heard on occasion) is an acronym. I never knew that before.
And now, off the topic of college and onto the topic of fictional stuff. Specifically, the awesome that has been this last week or so.
~ A sixth season of Digimon for later this year has been practically confirmed, which I am so very excited about. There's only one poster out there about it (unless I missed something, which I might have), but I'm looking forward to it already. ^^ (Drill + Garurumon = Dorurumon. That's... the only one I've learned the name of yet, but it looks awesome.)
~ In anime club the last Friday of March, we watched the first Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann compilation movie, and this past Friday we watched the second one. They now have me wanting to watch the actual anime, they are so awesome. ...And odd in parts, but hey, what do you expect. Now, at least, I understand where certain... things came from.
~ World of Warcraft Cataclysm class previews have been coming out - all of them except for paladins, in fact. I'm not going to say anything about them except this: Life Grip sounds AWESOME. (...Okay, it's actually called "Leap of Faith", but even the Blizzard poster called it Life Grip, so. It's a new Priest spell that pulls a friendly target toward you, apparently, so that you can save DPS from the fire if they're too slow. And the ways this could be fun to cause havoc with, by the sound of it... *ahem* I mean, it's always useful to get the DPS out of the fire that much sooner.)
~ Pokémon. Fifth Generation. Colors = Black and White. I can't wait for more information about them...
~ New opening and ending themes for FMA and 5Ds. I wasn't expecting a new set for FMA so soon, and I really liked Period, but Rain is nice too. And 5Ds... the new ones are very refreshing, considering that I was honestly getting sick of the previous ones. Not much is going to top Last Train, and I know that, but Freedom was getting on my nerves.
~ And on the subject of 5Ds, with the understood risk of my opinion on the subject being unpopular, it's been two years (give or take) since it premiered. I remember back when it started I said I'd give it one, and it's at least been interesting enough to keep me watching for two now. I will say this, however: it has been boring me lately. Like, ever since the Dark Signer arc ended.
I mean, what has happened since then? We've got vague details on the Tenors who are apparently(?) the season's main antagonists, want... to do something(?) having to do with robots and tablets from outer space or something, live/work/something in a dimension that I can't help but compare to the Aliens' dimension in Tokyo Mew Mew (on a related note: this shot from the new ending opening I know where I get my screenshots from honest = this shot from Tensou Sentai Goseiger, yes/no?), are so obviously working for Ha-chan (prove me wrong if you dare), and have mostly been just sitting on their rears laughing at people for nearly 40 episodes. We've heard the term "Accel Synchro" thrown about on occasion, but it's rarely if ever expanded upon. Aki's learned how to ride a D-Wheel. We've got a girl named Sherry who is a complete clone of Edo down to the important card plot device (Bloo-D, Z-ONE... see a pattern?). We've got a guy named Bruno who is so obviously a robot and the obviousness of the future tomato-in-the-mirror plot hurts. We spent two months with an arc featuring just Yusei and Kiryu, and while it was great to see what Kiryu is doing, it dragged on and on and on. And now we've got another structured tournament arc. Fun fun.
Honestly? I'd have to describe the grand majority of it as 'tedious'. I can understand that after a plot-heavy arc the writers might find it logical to have a bunch of small character-building arcs. But you know, it falls flat when they attempt to develop characters that you don't care about and leave characters that you do care about hanging. I mean, constantly, we've got episodes centering around Yusei, Jack, and Crow. Your mileage may vary, but personally? I don't care about Yusei. I don't care about Crow. I only marginally care about Jack more than those two, and that's mostly due to his subplot with Carly. I also can't bring myself to actually care at all about Sherry or Bruno. The episodes centering around the Twins, like the one with the mansion in the forest or the pair where they learned how to ride motorized skateboards and faced Luciano? Those were interesting. Ushio and Mikage's subtly growing relationship? That is interesting. What would I find interesting? More episodes with the Twins, or perhaps Ushio winning a duel (for once) against a random red-shirt criminal or something. But interesting stuff like that is almost always tossed to the side in favor of 'let's have Yusei duel again this week' or 'look what Crow can do!' Especially glaringly in the episode with Mr. Does Not Deserve And Should Not Have Chronos' Deck. Ruka could have fought there. Heck, it would have been more interesting if Tenpei had fought there. Also, whatever happened to Yanagi? Or Hirumo? Or Rally?
I have no comment on Aki's characterization, by the way. I can see the argument where she was derailed, as well as the argument that she wasn't. I don't mind where the writers have taken her. Episodes centering around her tend to be somewhat more interesting than those centering around TeamSat regardless, so.
I will say that episode 104 was the most interesting episode I've seen in a while, though. Team Unicorn didn't interest me much, but Team Catastrophe... well, if Placido gave that guy a card to eliminate people or whatever, then that's actually plot relevant. Could we actually be getting plot soon? I certainly hope so. Would be a nice change of pace.
(And at least the new opening and ending acknowledge Bug Dragon Thing as one of the Signer Dragons again. I was rather annoyed by Blackfeather Dragon, to be honest - it made Ruka's dream sequence wrong, implying that her abilities are weak. But if it's just a Sixth Ranger and Bug Dragon Thing is still there, then that's better.)
Incidentally, on the direct path from the suite buildings to where my classes are (the path without detouring to the dining hall and student center), there's this row of bushes along one of the buildings, and I think there's a rabbit burrow in them, because in the afternoons when it's been nice out (ie often lately) and when I've been going to class, I've seen a rabbit out there. Consistently there, and not just once, but at least three times now. Which is pretty awesome, I think.
Also, according to the Probability professor, the word 'snafu' (which I don't use with any regularity but I've heard on occasion) is an acronym. I never knew that before.
And now, off the topic of college and onto the topic of fictional stuff. Specifically, the awesome that has been this last week or so.
~ A sixth season of Digimon for later this year has been practically confirmed, which I am so very excited about. There's only one poster out there about it (unless I missed something, which I might have), but I'm looking forward to it already. ^^ (Drill + Garurumon = Dorurumon. That's... the only one I've learned the name of yet, but it looks awesome.)
~ In anime club the last Friday of March, we watched the first Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann compilation movie, and this past Friday we watched the second one. They now have me wanting to watch the actual anime, they are so awesome. ...And odd in parts, but hey, what do you expect. Now, at least, I understand where certain... things came from.
~ World of Warcraft Cataclysm class previews have been coming out - all of them except for paladins, in fact. I'm not going to say anything about them except this: Life Grip sounds AWESOME. (...Okay, it's actually called "Leap of Faith", but even the Blizzard poster called it Life Grip, so. It's a new Priest spell that pulls a friendly target toward you, apparently, so that you can save DPS from the fire if they're too slow. And the ways this could be fun to cause havoc with, by the sound of it... *ahem* I mean, it's always useful to get the DPS out of the fire that much sooner.)
~ Pokémon. Fifth Generation. Colors = Black and White. I can't wait for more information about them...
~ New opening and ending themes for FMA and 5Ds. I wasn't expecting a new set for FMA so soon, and I really liked Period, but Rain is nice too. And 5Ds... the new ones are very refreshing, considering that I was honestly getting sick of the previous ones. Not much is going to top Last Train, and I know that, but Freedom was getting on my nerves.
~ And on the subject of 5Ds, with the understood risk of my opinion on the subject being unpopular, it's been two years (give or take) since it premiered. I remember back when it started I said I'd give it one, and it's at least been interesting enough to keep me watching for two now. I will say this, however: it has been boring me lately. Like, ever since the Dark Signer arc ended.
I mean, what has happened since then? We've got vague details on the Tenors who are apparently(?) the season's main antagonists, want... to do something(?) having to do with robots and tablets from outer space or something, live/work/something in a dimension that I can't help but compare to the Aliens' dimension in Tokyo Mew Mew (on a related note: this shot from the new ending opening I know where I get my screenshots from honest = this shot from Tensou Sentai Goseiger, yes/no?), are so obviously working for Ha-chan (prove me wrong if you dare), and have mostly been just sitting on their rears laughing at people for nearly 40 episodes. We've heard the term "Accel Synchro" thrown about on occasion, but it's rarely if ever expanded upon. Aki's learned how to ride a D-Wheel. We've got a girl named Sherry who is a complete clone of Edo down to the important card plot device (Bloo-D, Z-ONE... see a pattern?). We've got a guy named Bruno who is so obviously a robot and the obviousness of the future tomato-in-the-mirror plot hurts. We spent two months with an arc featuring just Yusei and Kiryu, and while it was great to see what Kiryu is doing, it dragged on and on and on. And now we've got another structured tournament arc. Fun fun.
Honestly? I'd have to describe the grand majority of it as 'tedious'. I can understand that after a plot-heavy arc the writers might find it logical to have a bunch of small character-building arcs. But you know, it falls flat when they attempt to develop characters that you don't care about and leave characters that you do care about hanging. I mean, constantly, we've got episodes centering around Yusei, Jack, and Crow. Your mileage may vary, but personally? I don't care about Yusei. I don't care about Crow. I only marginally care about Jack more than those two, and that's mostly due to his subplot with Carly. I also can't bring myself to actually care at all about Sherry or Bruno. The episodes centering around the Twins, like the one with the mansion in the forest or the pair where they learned how to ride motorized skateboards and faced Luciano? Those were interesting. Ushio and Mikage's subtly growing relationship? That is interesting. What would I find interesting? More episodes with the Twins, or perhaps Ushio winning a duel (for once) against a random red-shirt criminal or something. But interesting stuff like that is almost always tossed to the side in favor of 'let's have Yusei duel again this week' or 'look what Crow can do!' Especially glaringly in the episode with Mr. Does Not Deserve And Should Not Have Chronos' Deck. Ruka could have fought there. Heck, it would have been more interesting if Tenpei had fought there. Also, whatever happened to Yanagi? Or Hirumo? Or Rally?
I have no comment on Aki's characterization, by the way. I can see the argument where she was derailed, as well as the argument that she wasn't. I don't mind where the writers have taken her. Episodes centering around her tend to be somewhat more interesting than those centering around TeamSat regardless, so.
I will say that episode 104 was the most interesting episode I've seen in a while, though. Team Unicorn didn't interest me much, but Team Catastrophe... well, if Placido gave that guy a card to eliminate people or whatever, then that's actually plot relevant. Could we actually be getting plot soon? I certainly hope so. Would be a nice change of pace.
(And at least the new opening and ending acknowledge Bug Dragon Thing as one of the Signer Dragons again. I was rather annoyed by Blackfeather Dragon, to be honest - it made Ruka's dream sequence wrong, implying that her abilities are weak. But if it's just a Sixth Ranger and Bug Dragon Thing is still there, then that's better.)