Horizon Ii, No allowances made for newcomers

Like the first season, this second season begins by firing on all cylinders, and, if anything, is even more silly than the first season (for some reason the Spanish invaders all operate on various sports metaphors --- baseball, track.

Tori Aoi is at his annoying worst. Fortunately, he also annoys the invaders, too good effect.

This episode has some excellent blushing.

But, nothing to convince any nay-sayer that the show is worth watching.

You'be surprised. First time I watched it I straight-out couldn't stand it. But after a second watching I got curious, and after a third watching I finally get it---after getting past the fanservice, of course.

Of course, the anal-retentive melancholy in me keeps wondering at what stage in life these kids get thouse shoulder things implanted in them in order to make augmented reality 'magical items' turn up...

This post has been edited by Wavehawk on Jul 9 2012, 05:51 AM

Oh, I loved the series ( though only enough to have watched it only twice, so far). I just have a lot of sympathy for the nay-sayers' inability to see past the fanservice and the extravagant mess of a plot and world-building.

Awww shit. I've been waiting for this. Actually, I rewatched the last few episodes from the first season last night.

I did like Kimi Aoi's reminder to the shrine maiden that her bow isn't the only weapon at her disposal.

I don't really remember her name. I think it was mentioned like, once in the whole first season.

all i see is that figure of her being solicited everywhere. or just a huge image of it on yaraon.

i'm glad they didn't beat around the bush for the first episode of second season and kept going full steam.

also, why is it that every damn horizon thread has some nag about the fanservice aaaaaah let's not go there.

'Cause it's the first thing a lot of people notice, and sometimes it's the only thing they notice. Gotta let them know that it's not the only thing there to notice.

It's also easy to miss that there's sense beneath the apparent chaos of the plot, and being distracted by perfectly reasonable anti-fanservice distaste makes that especially hard to see.

This post has been edited by dm on Jul 9 2012, 04:12 PM

I never cared about fanservice, which is unusual for me, because i historically avoid shows with excessive fanservice. I guess watching shows like Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls and High School DxD sort of broke that trend...

I think the only thing I thought about it was "lol", especially with beach ball breasts that always seem to be just stuck on, and skintight bodysuits that seem to be applied with an airbrush, all shiny and glossy wtf.

Tomo Asama (I keep wanting to call her Tori Amos). Miko of the Asama Shrine.

Hanami is the name of her familiar.

Oh, i remember I dropped this show at least three times when i was watching it too, mostly because it was nonsensical and chaotic.
It's mostly nonsensical until later when shit starts making sense and you're like "Oh, okay."

Hmmm. Speaking of "oh, okay", I just got the "Argent Loup" part of Nate (Neito?) Mitotsudaira, which makes sense why Tori would say "nice girl, stay stay" in the first season.

...oh god. And Tori Aoi's contract to stay happy... bluebird of happiness.I'm like, "Really?" I swear there's all sorts of shit like this through the whole thing.

This post has been edited by Nestor on Jul 9 2012, 06:35 PM

yeah. there aren't really all that much fanservice if you dig into it. more reasons why i get annoyed by dm's excessive reaction to this stuff.

which is pointless to talk about in this thread, you realize. and if they are too shallow to go beyond that it's really their loss! don't blame it on the work.

i think the chaos of the plot is more to blame than the fanservice. by a lot.

also what part of lets not go there do you not understand~

You've noticed that witch Margot runs a Delivery Service, yes?

I'd be tempted to write off "Tori Aoi/Bluebird of Happiness" as coincidence, but for the fact that Margot finished off the God of War in the first season with a "money shot" (repeated in this episode, though it fizzled this time). Therefore, I don't put bilingual puns beyond them.

The whole little prince/wheelchair-girl discussion about sex had a "who's on first" element to it, too.

This post has been edited by dm on Jul 9 2012, 10:55 PM

That'll have to be explained to me.

When it comes to fanservice, I think this episode avoided it a good deal. A lot of the 'camera' angles didn't emphasis what they could have. The new girls weren't equipped with beach balls, and it was mostly the flatter girls who got the most screen time. Likewise, the most skin we saw... Lets skip that.
But speaking of which, why!?
And that said, the second I saw the girl explain her deadly sin weapon, I thought of the shameless Tori.

Also, the ninja finally did something! *undo*
And with that, his accomplishment was made void.

"Witch's delivery service" (Majou no takkyubin) is the Japanese name for "Kiki's Delivery Service".

I saw that at the very least a decade ago. Maybe fifteen years.

Yeah, that was pretty obvious. Though the effect it had on Horizon seemed significant.

Episode one was just as confusing and just as fun to watch as before. We probably should have started this thread with this and this. Lots of info that I sort of knew, but really didn't. Like I thought Masazumi and Futaya were actually sisters but they're just 2nd cousins. (Siblings being raised in separate households for political reasons is a feudal meme.)

So that España mech had a wolf form, then it uses a spell that evokes a field of wheat.... sounds familiar.

And I'm pretty sure I've already read that doujinshi. At least, Asama is a popular topic for fan works.

- Archer called. Do you want me to put him on hold, or should I tell him to call back?

- A large-chested miko with heterochromia voiced by AmiKoshi. Yeah, I can see where SOME of her fanbase comes from.

In all honesty, though? I can see them making an Armor Girls Plus figure of her (much like the Infinite Stratos ones that are coming out). Tomo with all the stabilizing gear and that bow and arrow actually looks awesome.

Am I odd for loving the series for its extravagant mess of a plot and world-building? Emphasis on the extravagant part. I guess it's just a really refreshing change from "let's introduce you to all the characters, their relationships, and the mechanics of the world one at a time. And then we'll start on the political factions!". It hardly slows down to explain anything to us, but all the explanations are out there somewhere (light novels if you hate being confused). I can see how people are put off by it, though.

It's an odd point, but I'm kind of impressed by the relationships in Horizon. Excepting Tori and Horizon's, they are just there in the background. And it has been explicitly stated that one of those is a physically intimate relationship, as revealed by a casual statement in a conversation. In an anime. What I'm trying to say is... why is a lesbian relationship between technomage witches with wings one of the more- I don't know- normal portrayals of a relationship that I've seen in anime? Some one slap me (figuratively) and tell me I'm wrong, here...

after watching the raw i watched it on CR.

hmm. on one hand i understand more with the subs, on the other it's a bit of a crap job. in fact this is probably one of the worse sub jobs i've seen recently.

Not at all. It's why I love the series, too.

Sometimes a mess of a plot is just a mess because there's nothing underneath (and people are generally right to dismiss such series), sometimes it's a mess because there is so much underneath (and those are the series I like the most).

This isn't just restricted to "couples". The old farts meeting in the inn have a conversation that has echos of things in their shared pasts. There's a scene in the classroom where the background banter makes it clear that these kids have been in classes together for years. And yes, Margot and Malga.

I only picked one example, but... STOP READING MY MIND!

It's freaking me out, man...

A Crunchyroll-mediated second viewing of this new episode was definitely worthwhile. I can't say that I picked up anything new, but I still enjoyed the re-viewing.

I didn't really notice anything about the subtitles, though, aside from translating Tomo's nickname as something other than "sniper-maiden".

It's nice that Crunchyroll is getting the right to translate a lot of the songs.

it's possible they went back and fixed things. i guess i could take a look again later