zero 7, muteki 7, higurashi 20, stargazer 2 discussion

An unholy combination of four posts into one. Think I can top 4,000 words?

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I’d like to start off by saying that I enjoy writing these discussion posts quite a bit– I get to have a bit of fun and meander off-topic more in this format… and I love meandering off-topic. 90210! Jessica Simpson! “If we wanted them to be wusses, we’d name them Dr Quinn and Medicine Woman!” Also, I find it hilarious that AoMM started as a commentary-only anime blog shunning the episode-by-episode format and now more than half of AoMM posts are now episode-by-episode when people like Jeff and moyism who started out doing episode-by-episode gave it up. There’s pros-and-cons with it… maybe I’ll write out those points in another post someday. But, for now, let’s start off with thoughts of Louise and Jessica…

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Saito’s definitely right, you can NEVER gather too much “information” on the female anatomy, especially when it’s with someone as hawt as Jessica ^_^ – Alpha123

I’ll just get it out of the way first: yep, these are my readers.

since u’ve asked for and i was fooling around photoshop, ok, i’ve photoshoped mikuru on it, there it goes heheheh – berz

ありがとうございます.

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Wheel of Time tavern wenches are inevitably “plumply pretty,” i.e. fat. Robert Jordan likes fat girls. I love how Jessica puts Saito in her bed while he’s wearing a dirty kitchen apron. She, also still wearing her apron, then has a go at him. Poor sheets. – Korovyov

A couple of years ago, my old roommate dragged to go to a Robert Jordan book signing. He reminds me of a pre-stomach-staple John Popper. Still, I love typing “tavern wenches” for some reason, and it’s even better that I have a perfectly legitimate reason for doing so. Tavern wench.

I’ve been trying to think of other anime tavern wenches in the past, and I’m having a major roadblock. I guess I just don’t watch enough fantasy-styled anime, and the ones I do watch don’t have tavern wenches. Though they could have tossed one or two into Scrapped Princess with the flow of the story.

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(BTW, Bleach recently debuted a tavern wench. I think I just caused a tiny traffic spike at TT.)

ok, siesta AND jessica are love. – Unscrupulous Sousuke

Siesta and Jessica are the bread to a great tasting sandwich.

Jessica is a great (looking) addition to the cast; hope she is a recurring. Zero’s harem gets a better grade in looks, but Haruhi’s is better overall. – Nemo_N

I’d say. We need more maids, either the “noble servant” type (Siesta) or the “tavern wench” type (Jessica).

Seeing an all out brawl between two maids, a buxom “Ardent” noble, a cute queen, and a seemingly-loli-but-actually-isn’t noble would be extremely good to watch, but seeing the plotlines up ahead, it wouldn’t be too wise to insert that into the story.

Instead, I propose a Zero no Louise-tan omake to resolve things once and for all. Heck, JC Staff even pull off a “Shana VS Louise” duel skit for good time’s sake. – meganeshounen

You can never have too many meido. I’d love to see a Zero no Louise-tan omake… I really enjoyed the Shana-tan ones, and I actually like them better than the blatant fanservice barrage that’s Mai Hime/Otome omake.

I think something is wrong when the male lead of the animation adaptation of a barely known novel already pimped about most of the female characters of the show while the male lead of the animated version of a h-game went “Saber!” until the end of the show and not even did single questionnable act on any other female. – Sheba

Type Moon started by cranking two highly popular h-games: Tsukihime and Fate/Stay Night. Both had complex and engrossing plots as well as, uh, lot’s of h.

Adam Sandler started by cranking out highly popular comedies after leaving SNL: Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison, and Waterboy. None of them will be confused with Shawshank Redemption.

Type Moon thought they had everything figured out and decided to push out a more mainstream product and go away from their roots (anime F/SN and Tsuki).

Adam Sandler thought he had everything figured out and decided to push out a more dramatic product and go away from his roots (50 First Dates, Bulletproof).

Basically, stick with what you’re good at.

Everytime an anime uses a cliché i cry, REALLY HARD. – SH

Anime is nothing but cliches. If you want originality, may I suggest network TV? Oh… look… another reality TV show! Another cop show! Another lawyer show! As with anything in life, once someone has a good idea, it’s immediately copied and beaten into the ground. Do you remember the season right after Who Wants to Be a Millionaire aired? There were like instantly ten other game shows on primetime. Originality in anything is… theweakestlink.

Now That’s quality entertainment!
Love the football comparisons Jason- seems like a lot of other series this season are “three and out”. – jjshaka

Thanks, I’ll give you another one… from what I’m hearing, Honey and Clover 2 is like 2006 Clinton Portis compared to the original H&C and 2004 Clinton Portis. (In other words, I don’t think Clinton Portis is going to go in the first two rounds of my upcoming fantasy draft.)

Just think – Siesta and Jessica are actually related, and the novels have Jessica as a recurring character. And Siesta REALLY likes Saito. So, apparently, does Jessica.

Forget the FMP:TSR twins. ;) – Haesslich

negative, why leave them out of all the fun? – Unscrupulous Sousuke

Is it just me, or has there been an explosion of the twin moe mode in anime following Futakoi? What’s even more interesting is that a lot of these pairings are either slightly incestuous or slightly murderous… a lot of shows feature them: Higurashi, Shana, TSR, Rozen Maiden… and coming on deck… Black Lagoon with Hansel and Gretel. I can’t be happier about this development. (Thanks to Ragz for the Youtube clip of season two’s promo. Revy is death.)

Time for a ramen break…

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When are Miki and Megumi gonna realize that their open hostility towards each other, is actually caused by a denial of their mutual but deeply buried sapphic attraction. – Baka-kun

I’ll just get it out of the way first: yep, these are my readers.

Try Ramen with slight touch of curry and cream of the mushroom soup. Add little bit, remember, just a little bit, or cooked grounded beef, green onions, and perhaps shredded tamagoyaki ( this is actually the Korean style where you make thin noodles from just eggs and use it to add color and flavor to your dish ) and then try it. The key is not over do any of the ingredient and have some cold steamed rice handy to cool off the hot ramen and finish the remaining broth. – wontaek

For quick and tasty ramen, I prefer green onions (necessity almost), sliced up Costco pork loin, and drop in an egg. My dad was just awesome at cooking the egg intact with the ramen… I’m still not there skill-wise.

who would win the 8 way battle royal? shinji, he’d bitch and everyone woukld kill themselves. – SH

No way. Shinji would be the first to die. Miki, Revy, and the rest can smell weakness. I’d vote for Honey-sempai to last to the end, just because Rena would side with him due to his cuteness.

I haven’t watched this yet, but the more I hear about it the more I need to. – Lisa

Muteki Kanban Musume is just a fun show. I can’t describe it any better than that: fun.

Megumi, naturally, needs a father in the bakery, to balance out Miki’s mom. His absense injuries my sense of symmetry. – Pete Zaitcev

Wait, wouldn’t symmetry require a mother for Megumi? Or make Megumi a man? I’d vote to give her Epyon… it’s the only way she’s ever going to win against Miki.

Although, one must admit, Megumi really IS cute – if you take looks into account, Miki’s like Strike Gundam to Megumi’s Freedom or Providence Gundam – completely overpowering in comparison, although their skills are equal otherwise. – Haesslich

First off, Megumi is definitely hawt. If this were a harem series, I’d be commenting on that over and over and over and over again. If this were a harem series and a popsicle was involved, I’d instantly toss up a “more seductive popsicle licking” poll. Secondly, isn’t Freedom a step above Strike? Miki doesn’t lose to Megumi– ever. How about Miki is Destiny to Megumi’s Destroy? Toshiyuki could be Infinite Justice, and Miki’s mom is most definitely Strike Freedom with METEOR. Of course, featuring Akihito as Dearka. Speaking of Gundams…

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Sunrise’s next project on the SEED series: Grand Theft Gundam: ORB City. That’s what this is leading to. – Taka Todo

I’d love to be able to play a GTA-class game with a Gundam license. Imagine mobile suit-jacking everything from Strike Freedom to Zeta to X? But it still wouldn’t sell as many copies as To Heart Gundam X-Rated. Meer is a healthy girl (when alive).

At least Sven was smart enough to read about Albert Einstain… I just love Alternative Universe. – Syaoran Li

I completely forgot to mention something about this book as well as A Brief History of Time. Reading these books doesn’t prove that you’re smart: just you’re a nerd. The paradox of it all is the physics that Einstein and Hawkings worked so hard on pretty much make the existance of Gundams impossible. I think it would have been better seeing Sven read Crossroads of Twilight, The Devil Wears Prada, or even Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Something like this was also in gundam wing, when Heero is being examined. Some text (supposedly medical details) flys past. If you freeze it, you can read it as the installation instructions for an archaic version of photoshop. – Ukatoton

Yeah, I remember this. They should just go to Sourceforge, find some obscure program, and cut out random bits instead. Is that too hard? Instead, we get shoddy HTML.

On a separate note, today I also learned that I am STARG. – Kabitzin

Epic. I feel the creation of a new meme.

I liked when people actually had to work to win a fight, like in 08th MS Team. The first episode seemed to follow this. The first few seconds of this episode seemed to take the bus, give a 1043 degree turn, and crash into a ditch. – Beowulf

Great comment. Insightful. Funny. Rips on Sunrise. I have nothing to add.

Switching gears from train wreck giant robots to train wreck killer lolis…

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I’ve finally figured out the secret behind Daddy Sonozaki’s buttonless suit from Himatubushi-hen 1, and it’s obvious if you look closely at the 14th image.

Shion = Trap Keroro.

–therefore–

Daddy Sonozaki’s buttonless suit = Pekopon-jin suit.

Mystery solved… – QuiGonKenny

Speechless. Pure genius. Now excuse me while I perform lobotomy on myself with a Taco Bell spork to get the image of Reverse Amphibian Trap Shion-Keron Frog out of my head.

Series…….SAVED! I’m feeling like these are the Demoned Away/Watanagashi days again. The lolinesss, the popsicles, the innocence, the killer-loli-bitch fights, the msot disturbing death scene in an anime ever, they can’t sub these fast enough! I just hope they saved the best for last. – Maxtreme

I think Higurashi ends up being a controversial series not because of the content but because of what people get out of it. It’s definitely not good enough to be considered pantheon quality, yet it’s not bad enough to be considered shit and lose. There’s a perfect analogy: it’s the Jake Plummer of anime. Denver fans, if I were you, I’d whack Jake the Snake on the knees so Cutler can play. But that’s just me. Enjoy those 400 yard passing games where Plummer tosses for two touchdowns but five interceptions. Most of all, enjoy watching the Jake Plummer “I can’t believe I just threw across my body into triple coverage” face.

You know it’s nice to see some people actually giving some thought to this show. Instead of “This show isn’t meeting my expectations and isn’t explaining everything clearly like I’m four years old. Therefore it sucks.” – Ete

Let me put it to you this way, a lot of people thought Jake Plummer was the answer to Denver’s QB problems. That’s the expectation level. So it’s not exactly a vote of confidence when the team traded to grab the third best QB prospect in the draft. In other words, expectations work both ways… praise when they’re met and exceeded (i.e. Larry Johnson, Tom Brady/Haruhi), criticize when they’re not met (i.e. Ryan Leaf, Jake Plummer/Higurashi).

Giving clues to solve the mysteries doesnt seem to be the strongpoint of this show. – Kalm

I’d toss “animation,” “Engrish,” “romance,” “pacing,” “bikinis,” “sticking Shion/Mion in Angel Mort outfits,” and “timing” into the list as well. What does the show do well? Killer lolis. Emo. “Nii-pah!”

(This was originally such a fun show with Playful Rena and her KFC doll… WTF happened?)

casey and friends is getting good again. – wackedfoo

I’m not sure what’s a worse meme for this series: Casey and friends or stuffed crust pizza. Just too out there for me. I’ll stick with killer lolis, thank you very much.

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Himatsuboshi explained that Rika is able to foresee the future – marmoo

You wrote a long comment, marmoo, that took some time to digest. But I think everything fundamentally comes down to Rika. Rika knows that she’s going to die and about when, so she’s doing all she can to stop it from happening. The problem is that her options are limited: who does she go to for help? Sonozakis? The police? K1? In the end, she fails each time, but she activates a trigger as I explained previously in my comparion to TNG’s Cause and Effect.

Why did Shion go all the way for Satoshi? It’s because she hasn’t had a full conversation with him for 10 minutes I say. Maybe people tend to get blinded regarding his/her first love since Shion don’t know anything about him yet so she regards Satoshi as a very perfect person. Almost all relationship tended to get sour after they get along, don’t they? Imagine if Shion got together with Satoshi and she learned that Satoshi isn’t like what she has imagined. She might probably torture rape him on the spot.- Gains

By this logic, I’m anxiously waiting for the School Rumble arc where Tenma stabs Yakumo because Tenma thinks Yakumo is eyeing Karasuma. Then Tenma axes Eri, hammers Akira, poisons Mikoto, and burns everyone else alive. Frankly, there’s still time.

Then again, didn’t Kira basically betray everyone on Archangel by returning Lacus to Athrun after like ten minutes talking with Lacus? Didn’t Shinn pretty much run off to save Stellar after an afternoon with her? The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced Higurashi was originally the plot to Gundam Seed Destiny Zwei only they decided to take out the giant robots at the last moment.

(I think if Shion were alone with Satoshi, she’d definitely jump him. Since he’s probably gay, he’d push her aside, then Shion would taser him. Next thing he knows, he’s riding a wooden horse with Shion whipping him. Just like Saito and Louise in Zero no Tsukaima 11.)

Of course, said psycho babe licking an ice cream bar, tormenting her half-naked, slightly less psycho twin sister, and laughing maniacally while covered in loli blood has it’s merits as well… – QuiGonKenny

Shion’s the best. Covered in loli blood is a new moe mode?

It would have been nice if they could have done a quick montage with Shion and Satoshi to explain her falling so badly for him. – jjshaka

Maybe they could show Loli Shion and Loli Satoshi going to the zoo while they were little. They could even get wet and be forced to strip nakkid while their clothes dry. Loli Shion would then ask Loli Satoshi to the Watanagashi festival, only Loli Satoshi says that he’s busy. Then Loli Shion sees Loli Satoshi getting friendly with Loli Rena at Watanagashi. Or is this plot line already taken?

Do you have any idea what this means to a teenage girl who’s been deprived of love and caring all her life? Is it so hard to imagine how eager she was to find a hero in her life? – justanothergirl

Thankfully, no. I guess teenage girls deal with that lonliness by hooking up with sketchy guys. Teenage guys going through similar things would probably up end as hikikomori. Love is a great thing, but it can also make us do crazy things.

(Does this explain why Britney hooked up with Kevin Federline? Or was it her white trash upbringing? I’m leaning towards white trash, but I’ll keep an open mind about this.)

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Say bye-bye to anime, if this show gets ever licensed by an US distributor. – Chris

There’s a lot of h-titles out there that are much worse. I find it funny that less known stuff like Kite, Higurashi, and Elfen Lied (whose manga was just brutal) maintain their gruesomeness yet popular franchises like Ten Ten and F/SN tighten up and refuse to show the same level of service. Again, the Adam Sandler effect.

ANAKIN: You are so beautiful!
PADME: It’s only because I’m so in love …
ANAKIN: No, it’s because I’m so in love with you.
PADME: So love has blinded you?

I’ll take Shion and Satoko over this anyday. – FubaredByAnime

Nah, even though Anakin is completely dysfunctional and made of emo, Padme was excellent and was just playing down to his level. Casting Natalie Portman as Padme was just a waste of her talents. They could have cast Nicole Richie and not made the movie any worse. The situation reminds me a lot of The Replacements where Gene Hackman mailed in his role after seeing that he was co-starring with Keanu. Same with Al Pacino in Devil’s Advocate. Actually, happens a lot with movies with Keanu… the Keanu Effect is fearsome.

I choose Option 4: “Nii-pah!” – Bluestreak2

I’m so glad that I didn’t offer (5) Change her into a meido outfit.

the drug that was injected into k1 and rika is probably an anticonvulsant – 7 47 4

But would it cure Yuzuha?

The sight of Shion licking her popsicle is disturbingly erotic. Disturbing, if we remember what kind of anime we are watching. – Sheba

Would you feel better seeing Tamaki-sempai lick a popiscle on Ouran?

Still if I was her boyfriend and I saw dead bodies on the floor while she was cooking with a bloody knife and I told her what she was doing and she said…oh nothing sweetie just taking out the trash…I’d hit that XD (J/k I have a girlfriend myself and shes nothing like shion). – Jason Isenberg

Yep, these are my readers.

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25 Responses to “zero 7, muteki 7, higurashi 20, stargazer 2 discussion”

  1. I’m talking in terms of LOOKS: Megumi simply overwhelms Miki in the appearance department. In terms of skills, Miki is Kira to Megumi’s Shinn – Shinn got in ONE got hit on Kira, but afterwards kept failing no matter how hard he tried (for the ‘hit on Kira’ example with Megumi, see Ep 7 and how she handled Miki’s attempts to sabotage the bakery).

    And is it just me, or are Hansel and Gretel patterned in the Gothic-Lolita style? I mean, Gretel reminds me of Anju but with a machine gun…

  2. I bet if you had worked in the new Kanon promo stuff (OP/ED and the new shots including Kyon getting smacked by fangy) you could’ve topped 4,000. :-p

  3. Although, at the same time, I suspect part of Megumi’s issues are a lack of confidence – she can nail flies with her skewers, something we’ve yet to see Miki do… but Miki’s just plain mean, while Megumi’s rather petty. Skills.. well, Shinn’s problems weren’t his skills so much as his stupidity too.

    Oh, and Fukuda.

  4. Problem is, Megumi did not intentionally aim for the fly. That was purely coincidence. It was by accident( and a lucky one at that).

    That said. Yeah, I was delighted when Megumi finally got to triumph over Miki in Ep07.

  5. shana > louise

  6. btw jason, is there a picture of yourself on teh INTARWEB somewhar? i’m rather curious as to WHAT YOU ARE TEH LOOK LIKE.

  7. As an aside, I wonder if I’m the only Kankuro fan.

    NYA!

  8. Pink haired chick saying nya is a win. Blue hair, nya and a penis… not so much.

  9. Maybe they could show Loli Shion and Loli Satoshi going to the zoo while they were little. They could even get wet and be forced to strip nakkid while their clothes dry. Loli Shion would then ask Loli Satoshi to the Watanagashi festival, only Loli Satoshi says that he’s busy. Then Loli Shion sees Loli Satoshi getting friendly with Loli Rena at Watanagashi. Or is this plot line already taken?

    What a completely new and original idea. Lets do it! We can add alot of gore, incest, and triple up the loli factor. It’ll be great! We’ll make millions.

  10. Intense posts, man. And yes, there’s an epidemic(?) of moe loli going berserk and showering themselves with virgin blood or something. Must be the cicadas driving everyone nuts.

    And another one. I’d love to see a 7-way orgy with Saito, Louise, Tabitha, Kirche Seista, Henrietta, Jessica and probably throw in Tiffania (novel only) and Montmorency for good measure.

    Or maybe not. They won’t be able to get up the next day for school. :P

  11. This needs no introduction…

    http://img242.imageshack.us/im.....ionkd3.gif

  12. ^Man, I hope that, for the sake of Higurashi, you left out the good parts of that scene!

    XD

  13. weeeeeee, saw my name ^^;

    Tsukaima has been alot fun so far (just watched 8, getting some story going at least, but still mostly fanservice)

    on a totally unrelated topic, just saw the preview DVD of Kanon
    if the whole thing gonna be like that, i’d forgive KyoAni for cut Haruhi short

  14. >>> My dad was just awesome at cooking the egg intact with the ramen… I’m still not there skill-wise.

    The key here is the timing. I assume you want to achieve the state where yolk is warm, but still fluid, while all the white is coating the noodles. There are several ways to achieve this, but fastest way is to add the egg the moment you cut the heat. With a chop stick or a thin skewer, stir in the white, but don’t get close to the yolk. Since yolk needs plenty of time and heat to solidify while white quickly becomes solid, you will see that you have made the solidified white into something like shredded form mixed in rest of the ingredient, while your yolk, still in brilliant yet deep yellow color, sits in the middle.

    If you really want to put some effort to it, you could even try the next level: cooking the broth and the noodles separately. Separate the yolk and the white gently so yolk retains its shape. Mix the white with some seasonings and other small things you like to add.Prepare the broth first with some water and whatever you like in your ramen. Boil another pot of water with some of the seasonings and cook your noodle until it starts to move around. Take out the undercooked noodle and mix it well in the seasoned white, trying to form as uniform a coating of seasoned egg white on your noodle as possible. After coating the noodle, put it back to the noodle water and apply high heat for 45 ~ 60 seconds. Either take out the fully cooked noodle and add to the broth, or just mix the two pots together. Pour good portion of the noodles, broth, and extra on a bowl and top it with the Egg yolk. Wait a minute or so for the whole thing to come down to temperature suitable for eating and yolk to warm up; If your broth has cooled by this point, the yolk could be warmed by being added on top of the final heating ( 45 ~ 60 sec part ) of the noodles, but this means that you have to gently add in the broth to the noodle pot in the end. Enjoy. This method takes lots of time and preparation, as well as some practice in order to preserve the integrity of the yolk, but the end product will be something you can boast to your whole family. Of course, your mother will still criticize you for making a junk food, but you have to do the whole Thanksgiving dinner by yourself to avoid that anyway.

  15. 7 47 4 Says: “shana > louise ”
    What what what??!?
    Shana gets a bigger reaction out of melonpan than out of Yuji in 3/4s of the series. Louise managed to out-emo Shana in the first 3 eps. In short: I disagree.

    But that’s a midget fight compared to the awesomeness of Siesta (newly converted Siesta fan since ep 8… I surrender)

  16. nub you are Decel, you don’t understand the truth of moE

  17. meganeshounen
    And another one. I’d love to see a 7-way orgy with Saito, Louise, Tabitha, Kirche, Seista, Henrietta, Jessica and probably throw in Tiffania (novel only) and Montmorency for good measure.

    Remove Saito 4TW

  18. the real truth:

    surise is oyashiro-sama and is screw up all the series…but due to the fact that this is sunrise some series are saved for those idiots (mainly Haruhi,Lagoon,and tsubasa(atleast i think so….)if there are more sorry bout it)

    now that i wrote i soooooooo hope it doesnt get jinxed….OH GOD MUST DELETE NOOOOOOOOOOO!

  19. higurashi is just elfen lied without a plot that makes sense (elfen lied made sense IMO) the only good thing higrashi’s got going for it is massive amounts of blood/gore and random fanservice….so not enough for us to stop watching….so cruel *starts bawling cause download is slow*

  20. The NFL analogies are seriously helpful. Comparing Jake Plummer to Higurashi made perfect sense to me. And I laughed for a minute while I was picturing him throwing across field into triple coverage….LOL….however please do not ever put anybodys name next to Ryan Leaf’s again.

  21. >>btw jason, is there a picture of yourself on teh INTARWEB somewhar? i’m rather curious as to WHAT YOU ARE TEH LOOK LIKE.

    There was, I think. I seem to recall seeing a picture some years back, it was some restauraunt setting and a lot of people in it.

  22. Cutler does look pretty damn good, huh Jason.
    Higurashi is to anime as Plummer is to quarterbacks- genius.
    To me it’s the very definition of a guilty pleasure.

  23. Hahaha Jason you actually added what I said ;p. I usually dont say stuff like that but when you see Shion kick so much ass in one episode you got to be thinking something hot XD. Well done on all the eps, kudo’s m8.

  24. >>> criticize when they’re not met (i.e. Ryan Leaf, Jake Plummer/Higurashi)

    Come on! Jake Plummer is not Ryan Leaf Bad! Ryan Leaf Bad would be to find one’s name discussed in worst QB ever.

  25. >> And is it just me, or are Hansel and Gretel patterned in the Gothic-Lolita style?

    Gothic-Killer-Twincest-Lolis are back in style. The Rozen Maiden effect.

    >> As an aside, I wonder if I’m the only Kankuro fan.

    That’s like wondering, “I wonder if I’m the only one wearing a Doug Christie” jersey.

    >> Come on! Jake Plummer is not Ryan Leaf Bad! Ryan Leaf Bad would be to find one’s name discussed in worst QB ever.

    I wasn’t comparing skill level. I was comparing expectation levels. Both had very high expectations. The funny thing was that we all knew Plummer would self-destruct at the worst time… dude’s just not clutch.

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