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Man, Mikey, you're so predictable. I quit checking the forums for months, come back and spot a typical "bait" thread and sure enough, within 2 pages you're wasting your time calling out the OP for being a loser/fool/troll. Don't  you get tired of doing this stuff?

Sounds like ice skating is a popular choice. ININ, I nominate you to do the research on good places, times, and rates for skating on a Saturday. ;)

Of course, there will be more to the gathering than that, probably some good old-fashioned hanging out in the food court and all that. I look forward to seeing new faces as well as those of people I haven't seen in quite some time (hi there Mordyan).

whoa, old names showing up. maybe i should make an appearance.. D:

Yes. Yes you should.  Bring yo' homies, too.

[Darker Than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini takes the cake]

Oh man. Anime is full of bad endings. If it's not a filler series where they only advance the story in the first 2 and last 2 eps (see Onegai Twins, Ai Yori Aoshi, and a million other series), then it's probably a rushed ending that doesn't make any sense because the manga it was based on wasn't over when they made it (See Pandora Hearts, Hellsing TV, BECK - mongolian chop squad). Or maybe they don't even try to end it, because there's a chance for another season (Kaiji, Saki, Spice and Wolf).

Sometimes they don't even have a good excuse. Studio BONES is the master of this one. I like a lot of their work, but man, they make disappointing endings. Scrapped Princess's ending was almost acceptable, Darker Than Black's first season ending was pretty unsatisfying, Xam'd: Lost Memories was doing great and then it fell apart in the last few episodes... I have to say, though, Darker Than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini takes the cake. Not only does the ending not resolve any of the outstanding questions of the first season, nor most of the core questions of the second season, the last episode introduces even MORE questions that don't get answered. Although, contrary to a previous poster, I think Fullmetal Alchemist (disregarding the movie) had a really solid ending -- sort of enjoyably open-ended and hopeful.

A few bonus bad-ending cases, for the heck of it:
Tytania - The entire story feels like the prologue to a greater epic that doesn't exist. Apparently the source novels are like that, too.
.hack//Roots - Not only does it not resolve anything (at least .hack//SIGN's ending wrapped up one of the series' central conflicts), the last episode of Roots is confusing, spends a lot of time an awkward and out-of-place cameo, is poorly-directed (the ragtime-ish music over the serious scenes doesn't fit in the least), and it makes you feel like the undid all the progress made in the series. (I actually think that watching Roots does provide some good context for playing .hack//G.U. but even that is debatable.)
Akagi - One of the worst offenders I know in the abrupt manga-isn't-over non-ending category. Right after potentially the most crucial turning point in a mahjong game where lives are on the line... the narrator goes, "Their battle is not over!" and then it shows a brief clip from 34 years later with someone who might be Akagi walking down the street (implying that he survived but not explaining how).
Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~ - The main character spends several episodes deliberating and learning that s/he can't have both and needs to pick a girl, finally decides, and then AFTER THE CREDITS in an unvoiced sequence they hint that s/he changed his/her mind. The series tries to have it both ways, so viewers can interpret it whichever way they want it to be. Talk about hypocritical!
Simoun - The ending to this series was just all over the place. It felt sort of open-ended but sort of composed, it almost answered some major questions but didn't really... some characters got depressing endings, some got hopeful ones... There was no decipherable message, feel, or theme to the ending as a whole.
Mnemosyne - I would've been satisfied with this series if the last episode did one, single, obvious thing: "Mimi... omizu choudai." It didn't. Instead we got some convoluted, cheesy, mood-killer ending. Good grief.
Tsubasa Chronicle TV Season 2 - As if the manga weren't dragging on enough, the TV had to make up a brainless filler arc where they obtained more feathers than in the rest of the series-thus-far combined, and then it had the gall to say that everything up to this point was only a fraction of the feathers out there. The show was thereafter canceled and rightly so.
Shangri-La - The entire series was awful from start to finish. 'nuff said.

I could go on forever at this stuff but I'll call it a day there. *phew* Ranting like that felt kinda good.

Iv'e never ice skated before and have no ice skates.>.>

I'm sure you can rent some skates at the rink for a reasonable price. That's what most people do. As for learning how... I haven't been skating in a long time but I don't remember it being very hard to do the basics, except stopping gracefully. (I always just kinda let myself slow down and then rammed into a wall to stop when I went as a kid.) Still good fun.

I'm guessing Loktera's name became ^2 because he forgot the password or something to his old account (~~Loktera~~).

I have my doubts about this "How To Train Your Dragon" movie...

Bowling sounds fun. I haven't been for a while. Unfortunately the alley by Oakridge is kinda expensive. Minigolf isn't bad either, and I could play some DJ Max Technika at the Golfland arcade, which otherwise is a pretty sucky arcade. ;)

I could definitely bring some more "portable" board/card games for us to play, like Wheedle for example.

Oh, I'll also have my DS with me (Bomberman, anyone?) as well as a few decks of Weiß Schwarz in case anyone else wants to play. [Warning, though, W-S requires some basic Japanese to read the cards.]

Hey, this sounds cool. Count me in! Any Saturday is fine. What movies are gonna be in theaters around then? Will Prince of Persia be out yet?

The ß is Weiß is pronounced "ss". It's German. It's more accurate to write it "Weiss Schwarz". Or, on Windows, you can use the keystroke ALT+0223 (using the numpad) to input the ß symbol.

Several of us on the forums have been playing this game for a few months - Tsubasa, ININ, Spiritsnare, Chun, and me - though none of us post much here anymore.

Personally I have cards from Disgaea, Fate/stay night, My-HiME+My-Otome+Sora KAKE Girl, CLANNAD, CANAAN, plus a few promo cards like the Kara no Kyoukai cards and a Nanoha promo from NyanType magazine. Oh, and I have a box of Little Busters! cards, but I'm waiting to finish the game before I open it. Luckily, it doesn't take an exceptional amount of Japanese knowledge to read the cards. I've even made a computer program that looks the cards up on the official site and generates a translation, which works to varying degrees on different cards.

Pino was pretty annoying IMO. When it's Ergo Proxy, RE-L is the only one who matters.

Do have any interests besides Hellsing?

P.S. OVA6 was OK.

[He Is My Master]

He Is My Master is the only manga i have ever read

0.0
Really? You should try They are my Noble Master @o@

How about Master Keaton?

Damn I wanted to go to this, but I have been sick for the last 2 days. I got up this morning fully planning on going but I am still feeling like crap. I am gonna stay home and rest and not contaminate every one else.

Bummer, you were missed.

I had a right fun time playing more mahjong (as expected) and Liar's Dice. Plus I got a little time to rep Weiß Schwarz. I was expecting the thing to last longer, though. Seems like most people split well before midnight!

Damn Studio 4C is in on it too. Bill Gates must have offered them a new airport or something.

What are you talking about? Studio 4°C is always, like, the first one to jump on any "America wants an anime!" bandwagon. OK, sorry, make that the second, #1 being Production IG. Bones is another non-surprise (what with Afro Samurai under their belt and all).

Anyway, this sounds just like the Batmanime, which was pretty good at times and kinda dull at times. I expect something similar here.

we all know where the hype is.

I've been spending a lot on Weiß Schwarz cards lately. Great game.

I'm inclined to take quality over quantity, but then it feels really hard not to pick a harem based on one particular individual. I mean, Tsukihime gives you great twin maids, a bad luck vampire, an S-tier main girl and (if you include Plus Disk) a cat-loli... but you also have to deal with the bitch of a sister (too much tsuntsun, not enough deredere) and... curry ass.

For that matter, if you consider Oh My Goddess! to be a harem (seems dubious since most of 'em aren't actually interested in Keiichi) there's another S-tier character that kind of overshadows the shortcomings of the other characters.

CLANNAD is pretty good all-around, though. A+ main girl, a genius childhood friend, a sexy yet diligent student council president, the best mom in the world, the mature-yet-attactive dorm lady, a warm-hearted bookkeeper, an obnoxious tomboy and her adorable-yet-secretly-quite-bold sister, a starfish maniac, and the best dude-friend you could hope for...

Some harems that would be not as good:
- Onegai Twins. Sure, one of 'em is pretty cute but the other is annoying AND she's your biological sister.
- Elfen Lied. One is a split-personality mass murderer, one basically has no arms and legs (or self-esteem), and one's your cousin. Bad times.

I guess in the end, the winner is... Code Geass. Because, after all, anything with Orange-kun is an instant win. It's kind of unfair.

So the series "CANAAN" just started. It's based on a section from Chunsoft's 428 visual novel for Wii, a section that has story collaboration and character designs by Nasu Kinoko and Takeuchi Takashi of TYPE-MOON. And... well, it's really good. Animation is by a new studio, P.A. Works, and the first episode is pretty high quality all around - except for the 3DCG, which is... kinda blegh. But that doesn't matter. What does matter is that the show is good, it's pretty TYPE-MOON, and you should watch it.

OP by Faylan (Ga-Rei -Zero- insert songs) is pretty solid, too.

Episode 1 discussion:

Sorry but you are not allowed to view spoiler contents.

Most of the seiyuu and music types I really want to see are so big time that I would be pretty dubious of their making it. Perhaps Yuki Kajiura/Kalafina/FictionJuanction would be possible - she was at Anime Boston this past year during Fanime - but then again, maybe not. I would be shocked if Yoko Kanno made came to Fanime, being as she makes very few public appearances to begin with.

Voices such as Kugimiya Rie, Noto Mamiko, Sakamoto Maaya, Wakamoto Norio and Nakata George... even Makino Yui and Nakajima Megumi. I really wish we had a chance of getting them. I guess it's worth mentioning on the rare chance it could happen. But I'm not holding out hope.

As for a more realistic one, how about Nomico? She's done endings for Moe-tan and Akikan! and some vocals for Touhou songs. That's a solid, if budding, resume IMO.

Then there are bands like Last Alliance - they were a good band to begin with, and they got an Ouran ED and Real Drive, plus they do the OP in the new Hajime no Ippo series, too.

A bunch of my friends at Anime Remix said something similar when BECK was just coming out. It didn't last.

I'm sick of this "Obey Haruhi"  business. There's nothing that says you have to obey her. Maybe if you believe in her highly dubious powers you might humor her, at best. But really now, did you even pay attention to the show?