Lurker > pyresword

To be fair, I can see the broad scope of the game/story being interpreted as a lack of focus on the series' part.

And I mean I think it juggles everything quite well while still maintaining a strong focus on the central characters, but if you don't think that then I see Crispy's post making sense when viewing the game through that lens.
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Well I'd only consider describing one of the songs from that day as bad, to be fair, and ultimately I probably wouldn't even say it for that song.
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Spear of Justice
Twilight of the Gods
Dark Prison

It's because we voted for the good songs.
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End of All (Land)
Scrap I/O
Count of Darkness
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Well I don't know how much you should listen to me because I wasn't too big on episode 1 either.

I also like Nozaki-kun somewhat less than the anime community overall, though I did still like it.
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Still mostly withholding judgment on Tada-kun. I actually liked the new characters (well, two of them anyway), but the second half of the episode wasn't that great I didn't think.
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Spear of Justice
Twilight of the Gods
Dark Prison

Spear of Justice is close to my least favorite Undertale boss theme, but it is still reasonably decent. It's not particularly melodically interesting to me (well, compared to other Undertale songs at least), but it does do a good job maintaining tension for sure. I don't really like Glass much though to be honest. The whole thing just feels "there" to me. Like I don't get any sense of forward progression or anything like that, and it's also pretty boring to me when taken as an atmospheric. I don't know it just doesn't work for me I guess.

Man though this second match is so much better than the first. Neither of these songs should be out r1. I'm not a huge fan of the vocals at the beginning of Twilight of the Gods. (Not that they're much different later on, but I don't think this is a style you should be starting the song with) By the end it develops a really great bombastic sound. Cloudscapes and Speed also really good in a similar-ish way. It doesn't have quite the impact that the choir chanting and aggressive instumental/percussion sections of Twilight of Gods does, but it definitely makes up for it with better instrumentation and some really cool melody lines. Going to give the edge to Twilight of the Gods because the impact thing is a pretty big deal for the type of song these are both trying to be, but I like both a lot. (Not that these songs are trying to do exactly the same thing, but that statement does apply to both I think)

Obstacles is another song I'm not big on at the start, which I guess is the theme of today. The end is very nice though. Vocals are powerful while still remaining somewhat calming and peaceful-sounding, and it's a really cool effect to me at least. Dark Prison is also a pretty solid song. It certainly serves its function as a tension-maintaining song. Unfortunately the melody doesn't quite hold my interest as much as I'd like, but I think it's actually just that it feels lackluster in comparison to the similar-ish but much better songs from match 2. In any case I still like it a decent amount and enough to vote in this match over a solid opponent. (Though it was close)

Twilight of the Gods> Cloudscapes and Speed > Dark Prison > Obstacles > Spear of Justice > Glass
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Blackscar posted...

It's generic JRPG

I don't disagree with this statement.
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TexasZea posted...

whoa, I'm surprised you haven't attack on titan

The visual aesthetic (the color palette pretty much) is really bothersome to me, and a bunch of other factors make it seem like a story that I won't care about enough to watch it anyways.
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Anime I haven't seen in the top 50:

Assassination Classroom
Attack on Titan
Daily Lives of High School Boys (am actually watching now though)
Furiko
Hajime no Ippo
JoJos Bizzare Adventure (have seen like 5 episodes of S3 I think?)
Kurokos Basketball
One Outs
One Punch Man
Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt
SKET Dance
Sayonara Zesubou Sensei
Summer Wars
The Seven Deadly Sins

Note: Read the Scum's Wish manga but did not watch the anime

Actually a higher watch rate than I expected tbh.
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This topic must be kept alive at all costs.
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How am I the first Rawk Hawk vote wtf
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2. Toradora
3. Madoka Magica
4. FLCL
5. Mawaru Penguindrum
6. The Tatami Galaxy
7. Aria

Will hold on to my last one for now.
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Id ~ Purpose
Fateful Confrontation
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Tag so I can nominate stuff and then ragequit 20 days in when everything I care about is out.

Also may as well get this nom out of the way now.

A Place Further Than the Universe
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Some day Mangagamer will release chapters 6-8 of the VN and I will actually be able to talk about Higurashi
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There are definitely better isekai than Konosuba imo.

Also I cannot see Roba liking Re:Zero to be honest.
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Trails 3: Yeah the Raven door is kinda bad. I think that's the worst that they get though, unless you really hate one of the minigames in the Sun(?) doors for some reason.

I also kept Kevin on Grail Sphere because it's pretty useful as a backup in case you screw something up. His stigma is pretty cool though.
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If you ask me that's just a problem with Persona 4 in general other than maybe Kanji.
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Teddie is in my top 1 Persona 4 characters tbqh.
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I'm just surprised Rise is the one that got pushback from my post. I thought I was the only one who liked Teddie.
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Teddie/Rise the top 2 P4 party members tbh.

Trails 3: I am a fan of Schera's moon door. (Of course I like almost all of the moon does but still.) I really liked the scene when they're staying overnight in that house or whatever it was.
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Ar-ciel Ar-manaf
Sunleth Waterscape
Diptera Sonata

Another Charge Cycles song against another one of my top VGM songs of all time. Easy pick here. This one is worse than the other Charge Cycles we had, though I wouldn't say this one is like aggressively bad either. It's just kind of ambiant music that's just there. Really weird and glitchy ambiant music, but it doesn't do anything I outright hate, and there are a few cool lines actually. But, again, it's still not good either, and Ar-ciel is a top tier VGM song. I also gushed about this last year but that cathartic line at 3:30 is so good.

I'm not the biggest fan of FFXIII's soundtrack compared to the rest of the series, but The Sunleth Waterscape is pretty great (as are most variants of this melody). I actually prefer the vocal version of Fabula Nova Crystalis (not actually from the game itself or the OST I don't think), but this upbeat version of the melody is still great also. I really like the way the vocals and piano mix in this song. Zenith also really great actually, though I can't think of anything particular to say about it. Still voting Sunleth Waterscape, but it was a lot closer than I anticipated.

I'm having trouble pinpointing exactly why, but Clap Your Hands irritates me way more than I feel it should. The singer puts some kind of like...tremolo or something into his voice? Something about the dynamic inflections or something just feels totally off and it's bugging me. Diptera Sonata is a song I've heard way too many times on account of my college roommates playing Binding of Isaac all the time, but it is a pretty solid song. I wish it was slightly less passive of a song, but well it's still definitely good as is.

Ar-ciel Ar-manaf > Sunleth Waterscape > Zenith > Diptera Sonata > Transformer Robot Sings Wheels on the Bus > Clap Your Hands
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Well I've decided I'm going to watch Daily Lives of High School Boys finally.

It's been not even two minutes and already the fourth wall has been shattered to pieces, our protagonists have been nearly vaporized by a trio of mechs that descended from outer space, and one of the main characters was seen crossdressing in a female white mage cosplay.

What a show.
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tazzyboyishere posted...

The biggest kicker is how these events don't even change Riko as a character. I mean, you would think that after suffering something as traumatic as she does in episode 10, there would be some kind of psychological damage.

I thought the implication was that she knew exactly what she was getting into from the start and that she was already mentally prepared for things like this.

Of course you can very reasonably claim that's not a believable character trait, but I think that's the show's explanation for why she can still remain optimistic.
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Inferno (Cinder's Theme)
Rivellon
Simon Belmont's Theme

No time for full writeups. Only song I really care about today is Rivellon, though that one is really great to be fair.
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Mac Arrowny posted...

The Doors are the whole point of Trails 3rd tbqh. Much more enjoyable than the main game.

I don't agree with the latter half of this at least. The "main story" is also really great imo.

Though I do agree that the game should mostly be taken as a short story collection.
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Watched episode 1 of Tada Never Falls in Love. Will mostly withhold judgment for now. The first episode was solid, and I like the characters. However depending on how good the show actually is at comedy I could see this either ending up fantastic or becoming stale very quickly.
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I've always thought Trails in general has pretty weak OP music honestly. Even the ones I actually like (3rd, Ao, Cold Steel 1) are only OK at best imo.

Ok Cold Steel 1 I actually might be willing to call good after listening to it again just now. Liking it more than I remembered when actually playing the game.
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Durarara > Baccano

I'm a pretty big fan of Durarara, even the later seasons. I agree the first cour of S1 is still the highlight, but I also thought there were some pretty great parts in the remainder of S1 and S2. In particular I think the finale of the series was near as good as the show has ever been.

Best characters imo are Mikado, Masaomi, Celty, and Izaya. I also liked the Russian girl that was new in season 2 quite a bit.
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Mobile GameFAQ's has never been not broken.
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I only read the manga for Orange, but the explanation was always almost an afterthought to me. I thought the finale of the series was underwhelming anyways, but not really because of that specifically. (I mean it's dumb obviously, but also not that important to the story I don't think.)

I really liked the first half of the manga though. Both because of what you say about depression, and because I liked the way it presents the present-day MC superimposed with the regrets of her future self.
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Did you ever use characters other than Shulk? That was actually the difference between the game being the game being unfinishable and landing in my top 20.

To some extent though I think you just have to like the MMO-esque structure . The main reason I like it is probably story, though I also like how it presents its world.
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Also watching My Hero Academia now. This show does a lot of things well but I forgot just how absurdly good the character designs are in this show. Honestly can't think of any other anime off-hand that even comes close to MHA in that category.
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Ok I haven't heard a lot about this show, but are other people planning on watching Hisone to Maso-tan? The description and character art is a bit off-putting to me, but I just watched the trailer, and it looks...really good. Definitely going to be checking this out. (Assuming I can? No idea where or if it's streaming)
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What have you done LtM
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I think my problem with Watamote was that the incredible amount of exaggeration they put into Tomoko's character killed any relatability which she might have had for me, and caused her character to veer from endearing to awkward and uncomfortable.
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I'll Save You All My Justice
Hopes and Dreams
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Both songs in the first match are pretty similar. I'll Save You All My Justice is just better though imo. More interesting melodies and a stronger backing/rhythm part. I'm normally a fan of the instrument, but I just don't think the piano/keyboard does much in the Tekken song. It doesn't have enough impact for what the song's trying to do.

Like both the songs in the second match a lot. First match wasn't bad either, but this is way stronger. Vagrant Vines is a ridiculously catchy and infectious song that I like listening to a lot. Unfortunately though it's against one of the top songs from the Undertale soundtrack. Really love the upbeat power ballade sound that this song has, and it gains some points for how it's used in-context also. I did actually have a reasonable amount of trouble deciding this match though.

Side bracket later.
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I'm convinced everyone loves My Hero Academia lol.

I am very much not a shounen fan, but it's probably in my top 25 or so?
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Hinamatsuri episode 1 pretty cool. Not expecting a 10/10 or anything but it's looking like an enjoyable show at least.
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I mostly liked Amanchu, but it had a few vocal haters here if I remember.
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Oh that was like the one new show I had any interest in this season. Maybe I will actually try it after all.
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The Azure Arbitrator
Light of Nibel
Innocence and Emptiness

Merciless Savior > Azure Arbitrator. Both are better than Resurrections though. Most of the song is boring, and while the last 3-4 minutes are more ambitious, something about the melody bothers me there. (specifically the way the pitch on some notes tends to bend, such as at 7:35)

Light of Nibel has always been a favorite in mine. In fact, whenever this was first nominated for the contest it actually got me to buy Ori and the Blind Forest. I tried to play through it, but my laptop couldn't actually handle the graphics even on the lowest setting...pretty fun game though. In other news, it's impressive how many of my pet peeves ENDYMION managed to hit. It's not quite my least favorite from the contest, but that's not for lack of trying.

Preserved Valkyria is a pretty cool song. The melody is more frantic than I typically like, but for some reason I think this one works well. Ok I didn't really like the beginning of Innocence and Emptiness (I am not a music box fan), but after 2 minutes or so it turns into a really great, tense song. It also keeps things fresh enough that it never really lets up for the remainder of the time. Take note songs from the first match, this is how you make long songs not boring.

Light of Nibel > Innocence and Emptiness > Preserved Valkyria > The Azure Arbitrator > Resurrections > ENDYMION
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I love Trails 3 from a story perspective, but sometimes it does things I'm not such big fan of from a gameplay perspective. This split-party dungeon was one of them. Bleh.
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Also I actually think the default battle theme of Trails 3 is the worst of the Sky games honestly. One of the only weak points of the OST.
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Trails 3 a top tier OST.
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MycroProcessor posted...

it's still following all the same distinctly zun tropes in composition it's just not as bombastic and takes longer for the stereotypical zun instrumentation to be present.

I don't really disagree with any of this, but the bolded part is a pretty big difference as far as I'm concerned.
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Lullaby of Deserted Hell
Reflection (Mirror Night)
Tunnel Vision

Not gonna lie this first match hurts me a lot. Love both of these songs. Ar Nosurge can be a bit of a mixed bag. This is one of the ones that work for me though, and the ones that work generally work well. Like both the aggressive and the pretty parts of this song, and the contrast between them is quite nice. If I were to complain about anything it would be the monotonous drum rolls that play during the pretty vocal part, but it's definitely a minor complaint. Lullaby of Deserted Hell is a song I actually hadn't heard before this contest, and it surprised me a lot. It's a Touhou song but without the frenzied nature of a typical Touhou song, and the result is actually really pretty. Think I'm going to go with the more focused melody of Lullaby here, but I really do love both songs.

Reflection (Mirror Night) is another song I really like. Piano songs are almost always really nice, and this is no exception. Unfortunately the whole song is not as strong as the intro, but it's still great overall. Chaos is also mostly solid, but it's out of it's league in this fourpack either way. Also am not a huge fan of the solo-esque part at 1:40.

Not the biggest fan of fake me, which is kind of unusual for a Kanako Itou song. Not a fan of the transient style of the vocals in the beginning. The middle and end are better, but even then the melody doesn't really do much to inspire me. Tunnel Vision is a pretty nice crescendo, though I wish it actually crescendo'ed into something meaningful instead of just continuing and eventually falling back down. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and assume that one way or another it makes sense in context, but this isn't something I could easily listen to by itself.

Lullaby of Deserted Hell > Hydra Heteromycin > Reflection (Mirror Night) > Tunnel Vision > Chaos > fake me

Side bracket is a tad underwhelming, but this is a really strong day in the main contest.
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Yeah they're my fourth lowest on MALGraph, and the only ones lower are all studios that made stuff I watched only as a kid that I felt obligated to give low scores to for some reason. (The studio that made Pokemon, for example)

I liked Baka and Test and Yuri Kuma Arashi, but everything else I've seen by them I've disliked.
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