Opinion Landfill Page

I think I'll always have a nagging feeling that these are the right characters in the right setting, but following the wrong plot. The conflict over the solar battery supply just feels like it should be a side-story rather than the main thrust, but I appreciate it for what it is. Consider me a fan.

One of my favourite anime movies, frankly essential viewing IMO (but do not skip the TV series!). A bolivian army last stand that stretches the entire runtime, it is frantic and messy and violent. You will not be the same person at the other end. Happy Birthday.

An unbloated action game, one of the few remakes that improves on it's original in every way, I always enjoy revisiting this. Can be beaten in ~12 hours, but I took my time to find all the hidden loot and upgrades, pushing my runtime to 15 or so. Some bosses are a pain in the ass even on lower difficulties, and the PS5 version played has an incredibly grating audio bug with one encounter that rendered a sound effect far too loud. Not the prettiest game, but I have a real soft spot for this era of Falcom's graphics with prerendered objects and low fidelity backgrounds.

A solid start, slightly streamlined storytelling and having foresight into the later stages really cleared things up for me, at this point first time around I didn't really understand the distinction between the Capital Army and the Capital Guard or the friction between the two. The additional scenes haven't yet added anything signifigant, but the toilet gag was really funny to me and the added "newtype" insight flashes between characters reminded me of the inner monologue scenes in Lynch's Dune.

I understood the broad strokes of the conflict but didn't completely follow every one of main casts motivations for fighting, the plot felt like scenes and large chunks were excised with notable timeskips, but the overall mood and vibe of the show was very impressive, with surreal architecture and "realistic" character interactions and comedic moments that have defined Tomino's style since at least the mid-late 90's (see : someone throws a wrench in space, it pings off a bulkhead and hits them in the knee, people bumping into each other and messing up handshakes, hilarious!). Looks very pretty, tropical landscapes and glowing neons. Feels like a true Turn ∀ successor for the aesthetic alone. Looking forward to watching the recap movies. Chuchumy!

If this stopped at simply trimming the material and colourising, it would be a perfectly decent remaster attempt for the modern attention span, but the tasteless new additions completely tanked my opinion on this, the CGI shot replacements don't even look like they exist in the same universe as the rest of the footage and inserted new footage looks far too sharp and modern to mesh. An interesting, revisionist experiment I hope doesn't replace the original in the general consciousness and hope they don't repeat, at least without a massive leap in production competency.

Decent enough installment, let down IMO by its generational structure spltting the story into 3 parts and not lending enough time to any one storyline, with a very weak and clichéd villian scheme at the center of it all. A weak storyline can be saved, but he just wasn't diabolical or charismatic enough to make it work! The main AGE gimmick with the Gundam parts being switched out was extremely underused, just didn't feel like it was worth the fuss. Any of the three eras could have been expanded on into their own full show. That said, I did enjoy several single episodes, with my personal standouts being an early one with a space colony core being removed as a lifeboat, and a later one where Kio (Protagonist #3) briefly lives among the enemy and befriends a sickly girl. No inclination to watch again, but not a bad ride.

Another of Egan's geometry themed novels, this one is in a universe where north/south is a "timelike" (not time... sorta, time-like) dimension with unusual geometric properties. Written in an in-universe style, some elements may seem inexplicable until you read the extensive supplementary notes on the authors website. The storytelling is solid, I particuarly liked the conjoined main character, Seth who contains his partner, Theo inside his own skull (!!!) working as an echolocator, really weird stuff! Their back-and-forth bickering was always entertaining and filled in what would have otherwise been stretches of dialogue-less writing. Gracious thanks to the author for leaving a comment on one of my confused twitter posts regarding the geometry.

Thrilling. Incredibly fun combat flight game, a slightly loony near alternate-universe Sci-fi story (set in then-present 2019), great soundtrack. The plot held my attention, but I did struggle to follow the geopolitics told via hammy comm chatter and interspersed news broadcasts, no matter. Communication discipline does not exist (not a negative, just funny). Features some of the latest and greatest planes from all around the real world, coupled with an eye-poppingly interesting trademark screen. Strong recommendation.

A fun exploration of a world splintered over a portal network known as "the hoops", the main character has some substance and I didn't have any trouble getting into her head and personality, but everyone else is a 2D plot accessory at best. The lack of any serious antagonistic forces or hostile characters hurts the narrative in the second half, but the application and discussion of the physics is enjoyable. There's something very romantic about balooning through a portal, I think.

The strong, creative imagery is greater than any other merit, has a few too many regrettable info-dump sequences that dispells much (but not all) of the mystery, an unfortunate Lovecraft trait. Liked the detail that goes into the pages on planning and running an expedition. Not deep (Unfortunately!), but lingers on the mind, will be thinking about this one for a long time.

Fairly macabre adventure story, some gruesome depictions of piracy, starvation and mutiny, borders on the esoteric at times, not Poe's strongest work, and unfortunately this is his only full-length novel. Would recommend reading his short story "The Maelstrom" and pretending they're part of the same fiction for some extra spice.