But I have to wonder if players really do die if their character dies. All they have is what they were told by the games creator and no way to verify if it is true. Also, if the have truly been in the game for two years, how is it they are still alive in the real world?
If people weren't killed upon death, I'd imagine the players would be forcibly removed from the game by people in the real world. As for how the physical body stays alive, I'd imagine after the first couple hundred died, the families and government would treat them like a comatose patient.
I've read and watched a bunch of sci-fi where the character gets pulled into a different consciousness, thinks they've been there for anywhere from a few hours to a lifetime, depending on the story, only to realize when they come back to the real world that a few minutes have passed. So I figure it's your idea and everybody's been put on life support or the above. I just hope the anime answers that question at the end and doesn't leave a bunch of stuff hanging.
It is possible they've only been in he game for a very short amount of time. Another possibility is they're all already dead and it's a whole ghost in the machine scenario.
I'm starting to really like RightStuf and Nozomi. After the incredibly pretty release of Revolutionary Girl Utena, they're releasing the 70s shoujo classic Rose of Versailles: http://www.rightstuf.com/rssite/comingSoon/rov789089jhfi-88u-11/
Right Stuf/Nozomi Entertainment has been one of the better anime localizers for a while now. And their sales are awesome.
Not even available in my country, and I'm still embedding it! I was on my phone earlier, so I wanted to add that I think Rose of Versailles (which was one of the earliest animes that got wider international distribution, though generally under the name Lady Oscar) is pretty much the quintessential 70s shoujo anime, together with Aim for the Ace! and stuff like Glass Mask. It has kept some of its popularity to the present day, and Takarazuka has done several musicals based on it. Probably because of the opportunity to use so many uniforms and frilly costumes. For those who don't know, it's a manga and anime about the court at Versailles during Marie Antoinette's life there, with the focus being mostly on Oscar Francois de Jarjayes, who was raised by her father to be the son he never had. It runs up the logical conclusion of such a story.
I had a history teacher once who I can honestly see being a real-life incarnation of the lead villain. Nobody is as good of a person as he was.
Ooooo, the Steins;Gate film won't be a retreading of the series but rather follows the events of the series. Actually, I'm not sure that's a good thing. The Steins;Gate OVA did the same thing and was incredibly weak sauce, the epilogue the series didn't need.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica is out on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK today, and I am counting down the minutes before I can get out of work and roam the city's HMV stores and acquire a copy I AM JUST THAT EXCITED. (302 minutes as of right now) (301 now but I'm not going to update this all day; that would be ridiculous.)
For our North American readers, Maria-sama ga Miteru is now available on youtube officially: http://www.youtube.com/show/mariawatchesoverus Marimite is an anime (and manga, and novels) about a Catholic girls' school in Japan and the relationships in the student council of that school. They're also the only Japanese novels I've read except for Twelve Kingdoms. Here's a totally representative music video:
One of the main characters appears to be an older version of Mikan from Gakuen Alice: This fact alone may cause me to have a trial watch.
It was also one of the main series that was blatantly stolen from by Ikuhara an inspiration to Utena, and it shows: Anyway, changing the subject completely the ADTRW simuwatch of Turn-A Gundam finished recently (hence new avatar). Mini-review: easily one of top three Gundam series of all time and a pretty strong contender for outright best. Starts off as not-War of the Worlds (with tall, long-legged mobile suits replacing the tripods and Moon-based spacenoids replacing Martians) and ends up as, well...that would be telling. It's the first show Tomino (creator of Gundam) did post-UC, it's one of the first he did after seeing a shrink and getting some meds and, although it's pacing can be a little uneven even for a 50-episode show and some of the mecha designs are slightly...unusual (that's what happens when the main designer is Syd Mead of Bladerunner and Tron fame) it's definitely worth a watch. It might technically still be licenced in the US but as Bandai have officially shelved all plans to actually, you know, release it I think it's pretty safe to fansub it up. (One last thing: The soundtrack is by Yoko Kanno and is gorgeous).
I'm not really a big anime guy but I did find out recently that the entire (subbed) run of Ranma 1/2 is on Youtube, so I've been watching that. I never got beyond season 3 or so BACK IN THE DAY (my anime watching career started and stopped nigh 20 years ago) and it is all very silly (and fun.) Even reading the manga, which I've never bothered with for anything else.
We're talking about Turn A now? Fuck yeah Turn A. The pacing is awkward, but it works - it's kept unclear exactly what the Turn A Gundam is until very close to the end, and the sudden shift in pacing when and shit hits the fan works really well. The shock and horror is palpable; it's an investment that pays off beautifully. And, yeah, that soundtrack is something else. Either Turn A or Zeta is my favorite Gundam series; which one depends on the day you ask me. Which is funny, since tonally they're polar opposites! As an aside: has Yoshiyuki Tomino ever actually encountered a human name? Because Agrippa Maintainer is not a name. I'm not sure what it is, but no one is called that.
I sort of figured you'd like that post. Yeah, it does work but it's something that does need to be mentioned for people expecting a more typical Gundam "War breaks out and suddenly mecha! Mecha everywhere!". I mean, there's a grand total of one mech in the first episode, all it does it land and hide, and it's not even the titular one.
Hmm, so, the mecha it does have, are they more typical Gundam, aka super heroes that just happen to be mecha, or is it more grounded, like 8th MS special team, or Votoms. I've found over time, that I really don't like the majority of Gundam series out there. Though I did enjoy Code Geass, and towards the end, that series definitely started trending towards the Gundam super-hero thing.
Turn A is... interesting in that regard. Major spoilers: In a weird sense, you can say that a large part of the series is watching the super robots become real robots.
Even when the mecha are being treated as by the not-American/earthlings, they're actually shown in the series as machines. They're a lot closer to tanks than supers until the reveals start piling up, and quite a bit of the very early episodes show in pretty solid detail what happens when a ~WWI civilisation goes head to head with one with 40m tall mechs with particle beams. Hint: It's not pretty. And of course it's actually by Tomino rather than 'inspired by', so one of the themes is "War is bloody and unpleasant" and the ultimate antagonist is
I am enjoying Shin Sekai Yori, it's set in on earth a thousand years in the future (?, can't remember exactly) where humans evolved psychic abilities in our time, and five kids growing up in a world that, as it turned out, may not have turned out so great. The main character seems to switch between being pretty useless and bursts of competence, which is annoying, but otherwise it's a nicely creepy story.
Speaking of currently airing shows, Girls und Panzer is one hell of a lot better than it sounds. Which, admittedly, isn't that hard. Concept: Alternate future where Axis won, and tank warfare is a school sport. For girls. (The school is on the back of a giant aircraft carrier, natch). Think of it as K-On! meets generic school team sport anime meets World of Tanks and you wouldn't be entirely wrong. Have a video of the Russian team turning up:
Oh yeah, I saw a youtube clip of that. It sounds terrible, but watcheable. How bad is the fanservice? I had to just stop watching High School of the Dead, it just got to inanely stupid levels of fan service, though of course it helped that the plot started to get stupider and stupider anyway.
I never watched Highschool of the Dead past the first episode or so, but this clip from it is probably one of my favourite youtube videos ever.
If you mean fanservice in the "actually did some research on the tanks", a fair bit. If you mean panty shots and the like, I don't remember any.
A follow-up to the above: http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=519963 I know it's probably somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but it says something about the current state of the anime industry where a director has to actually come out and say that.
Total Eclipse lost me completely six episodes and 18 minutes in, and makes me want to say "fuck anime" all over again.
Total Eclipse is a pretty fanservice-filled show. Skimpy, tight outfits, huge breasts that the camera has a tendency to follow, and an excess of shower scenes. And I can live with that, I've watched some pretty fanservice-filled shows in the past, and as a reader of American superhero comics, I am more than used to it. As long as the characters are cool/admirable/competent/whatever, I will gladly rationalise away just about any amount of fanservice - but if they take a hyper-competent character who survived as a soldier as her country was annihilated, and have her be disabled because she SPRAINED HER ANKLE (only one of them, apparently skipping on one foot is impossible because of the gravitational pull of her breasts?) so that hero-dude gets to carry her, I can no longer be bothered with that series.
