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 So this is the thread for the anime adaptation of sprite/fairy’s Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm visual novel. Originally released in November 2014, it almost immediately was greenlit for an anime adaptation, which will be handled by Gonzo. Crunchyroll has picked it up for simulcasting and it will be airing on Mondays starting January 11th at 12:35pm PST/3:35pm EST. Fumitoshi Oizaki (Etotama, Lotte no Omocha, Acchi Kocchi) is directing, and Reiko Yoshida (too much to list) is on series composition. As a VN it did VERY well and is considered by many to be one of the best VNs of 2014. There’s also a translation for the VN itself that I’ve played the VN and I enjoyed it immensely, and I’m really hoping Gonzo can at least somewhat do it justice. I’ll start with a very brief overall summary in case you just want to find out if this is something you’d be interested in and don’t want to read all the other bullshit, but it’s there if you do! TL;DR: Aokana is a story set in the near future when a certain sport called Flying Circus is played with special anti-gravity shoes that allow the user to fly through the air. It follows the story of one young man who suddenly gave up on the sport at the height of his career, and how he is unexpectedly drawn back into it by his friends as they form a club to compete in their high school league and aim for victory in the summer tournament. There are plenty of entertaining characters, action-packed matches, and even a couple of hot-blooded PUSH YOURSELF PAST THE LIMIT moments. Not sure how close the anime will stick to it, but the VN had a nice balance of competition and training scenes to the “daily life” and emotional/romance stuff, making it kind of a cross between a sports anime and a romcom. It’s also worth noting that there’s no harem bullshit, for the most part the romance didn’t start to develop until you chose a girl’s route about halfway into the game and the other girls were not really involved after that point. Adapting VN route content is one of the most difficult things for an anime adaptation to do properly, so handling this correctly will be a big part of if Gonzo can pull this off or not. Here’s a subbed version of the recent PV. Want more details? Here we go! SETTING In the near future, humanity discovers a particle capable of nullifying the gravitational pull of the earth. Decades of research go into this phenomenon and eventually devices are created and built into shoes that allow people to effortlessly fly through the sky. These anti-graviton shoes, or “Grav-Shoes”, have started to become widely used by the general public and everyday life is changing to accommodate them. This is especially prevalent on the Four Islands Archipelago, where our story is set. Grav-shoes have made traveling between the islands much easier and faster, and the population has increased as a result. Naturally, humanity’s love of competition has lead them to figure out how to use this newfound technology in sport, and Flying Circus is created. FLYING CIRCUS (FC) What is Flying Circus? Somewhat of a combination of racing and tag while flying through the air around a course marked off by antigrav buoys, generally situated over the ocean. The matches are 1 vs 1, and the participants wear special grav-shoes and flying suits that enable them to fly at much higher speeds and perform techniques you wouldn’t normally be able to do with civilian grav-shoes. Here’s a short comic that should explain things further:  (translation courtesy of the Aokana Translation Project) There’s a fair bit of depth to the sport despite its simplistic concept. Players choose to focus on speed, dogfighting, or a mixture of both, and “tune” their grav-shoes accordingly. Many techniques exist (some inspired by classic aviation maneuvers) to gain/lose speed quickly or maneuver and position oneself around the opponent. CHARACTERS Masaya Hinata  (VA: Ryota Ohsaka) Our protagonist. At one time, he was a quickly rising star in FC and destined to be a world-class player. But the pressure of success and a certain crushing defeat affected him significantly, and he suddenly decided to quit the sport. He resumed a normal school life at Kunahama Academy and wanted nothing further to do with FC. However, one day a curious transfer student arrives, and because of her influence he ends up coaching Kunahama’s FC club, though he continues to steadfastly refuse to actually play. Apart from his athletic ability, Masaya is a pretty normal guy, albeit somewhat introverted. His knowledge of FC is vast but his true capabilities are locked up in the regrets of his past. Asuka Kurashina  (VA: Misato Fukuen) Recent transfer student to Kunahama Academy. Prior to moving, she did not have any experience with grav-shoes, but a chance meeting with Masaya shows her the thrill of flying through the air and she immediately becomes interested in FC. She joins the Kunahama FC club and somehow ropes Masaya in with her. An energetic and cheerful girl. When she finds something she’s interested in, she jumps in head-first and dedicates herself to it fully. Misaki Tobisawa  (VA: Azumi Asakura) Kunahama Academy student and friend of Masaya. She ends up joining the FC club out of boredom. An udon fanatic and capable of absurd feats of food consumption. Not a morning person. Misaki is carefree and somewhat lazy, and dislikes it when people try to make her do things. She prefers to live her life at her own pace. Mashiro Arisaka  (VA: Nozomi Yamamoto) Also a student at Kunahama Academy. She joined the FC club to be with her beloved Misaki-senpai. Her family runs an udon shop named Mashiro Udon, a fact she is slightly embarassed by. A cute and lively girl, but she’s got a bit of a thorny personality. Utterly devoted to Misaki for a certain reason. Rika Ichinose  (VA: Madoka Yonezawa) A student at Takafuji, another school with a large FC club, and Masaya’s next door neighbor. She is a member of Takafuji’s FC club and works hard to become a better player. Studious and kind, but a bit naive. What she lacks in talent she makes up for in dedication. Supporting Characters  Shion “Buchou” Aoyagi - (VA: Takayuki Kondou) - The only member of the Kunahama FC club until Masaya and co. showed up, thus making him president of the club. A chill dude who loves FC and being STRONG.  Madoka Aoyagi - (VA: Naomi Wakabayashi) - Everyone’s favorite super pretty girl FC club manager Madoka-chan. Shion’s little sister. Secretly wishes she was the heroine, but still believes her time to shine will come, someday. She’s a bit strange but loves her club and works hard for it.  Kazunari Shindo - (VA: Kazuyuki Okitsu) - President of the Takafuji FC club. A very skilled FC player. He’s a friendly and cordial young man off the field, but when it comes time to play FC he shows a different side of himself.  Reiko Satou(in) - (VA: Risa Taneda) - Vice President of Takafuji’s FC club and daughter of the wealthy Satou family. A self-proclaimed ojou-sama who plays the part perfectly. Enjoys ruining the reputations of competing academies and INSISTS that you call her Satouin. The last name thing is a weird kanji gag and I’m interested to see how they translate it  Aoi Kagami - (VA: Megumi Ogata) - A well-known former FC player and Masaya’s mentor. Now retired, she watches over Masaya and his friends as a teacher at Kunahama. ...and even more, but this OP is getting long enough! VN Translation Project edit: As mentioned, there's some really dumb drama surrounding this TL project (no one is surprised) and it's progress has effectively been "reset" as of March 2016. There may or may not be a 2nd TL group working on it as well but they're not really saying anything other than they were targeting release for the 2nd half of 2016. It's POSSIBLE we may see something by September or October from somebody, but don't get your hopes up. I'll post updates in the thread if anything actually interesting happens. Check out the Aokana Translation Project site for updates on the progress of the translation. I definitely recommend playing the game once it’s out if you have any interest in the story. The art is fantastic, the way they use the VN engine and portraits to simulate the flight and action is great, and it will almost assuredly cover way more stuff character-wise than the anime will have time to do. If for whatever reason the anime bombs real bad then maybe we can just turn this into a thread for the VN? Or hopefully you’ll at least get some entertainment out of me getting mad about whatever is wrong with the adaptation. Please don’t gently caress this up, Gonzo… Anyway, hopefully this got you a little interested and we can have some fun seeing where this goes! cathead fucked around with this message at 17:30 on Mar 24, 2016 |
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Jan 10, 2016 17:40
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is best girl
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Jan 10, 2016 17:47
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I'll check it out. and Gonzo has survived this far, in spite of everything. They must have some fighting spirit.
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Jan 10, 2016 17:48
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i finally know what the sport is
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Jan 10, 2016 17:52
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Space Flower posted:I'll check it out. and Gonzo has survived this far, in spite of everything. They must have some fighting spirit. Sore ga Seiyuu was actually pretty well done, though it's a pretty different kind of show compared to this one. Prior to that was the Blade and Soul anime though, which was pretty bad... I guess that makes it a 50/50 then? Thing is, the VN seems to have deliberately made itself easier to adapt, it breaks up most of it's story beats into "episodes" replete with little "previews" in the usual style. If they don't try and deviate from that too hard I think it will organize itself pretty well. The major problem is deciding how to handle the content after things split up into the different routes. I think the smartest thing to do would just be to concentrate on Asuka's route, as it's definitely the most exciting and FC-focused one, and then maybe pull in what character stuff they can from the other routes. A lot of VN adaptations try to do it all and just go through the routes sequentially and just handwave the repetition, but that usually results in things feeling very awkward or having to fit too much stuff in too little time and it losing it's impact (Grisaia's Michiru episodes, I'm looking at you), so I'm hoping they don't stray too far into that kind of thing. The other big sticking point is going to be the FC scenes. They're a large portion of the story, and the VN was very good at giving them the impact and energy they needed. I realize they're probably going to resort to using CG a lot which will probably work fine for the long shots, but the close-up stuff is what's really going to matter. They barely showed anything in the PV which has me a little nervous but we'll see!
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Jan 11, 2016 02:38
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I am very disappointed that your thread title does not have a monty python joke.
Pavlov fucked around with this message at 04:46 on Jan 11, 2016 |
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Jan 11, 2016 04:43
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Pavlov posted:I am very disappointed that your thread title does not have a monty python joke. Hey, I thought about a couple of these but nothing was good enough to make me go "yes I want this in the title permanently" so I gave up. I figured someone would call me out on it at some point.  Here were some ideas: Monty Python and the Holy Grav-shoes (I think this was the only one that ever got real consideration) Monty Python's Life of Masaya Monty Python's Anime Titties Monty Python's Anime Future Sport And Now For Something KIND of Different
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Jan 11, 2016 10:34
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Ministry of silly air-walks. It has to look silly at least for someone new to it.
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Jan 11, 2016 11:11
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lots of pictures in that OP maybe I'll check this out, thanks cathead.
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Jan 11, 2016 16:37
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cathead posted:Hey, I thought about a couple of these but nothing was good enough to make me go "yes I want this in the title permanently" so I gave up. I figured someone would call me out on it at some point. Ok I forgive you then. I would have gone with "Aokana: A Very Great Impetus to Stay in the Air" youtu.be/4ra5h17EbC8?t=125
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Jan 11, 2016 18:58
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Well, that was about what I expected. It could have been a lot worse but I naturally ran into some stuff where I was like "uhh why did they change this". A lot of the episode was setup, for the obvious reasons of them having to introduce the technology, sport, and all the characters in a short amount of time so they can devote the other episodes to the story proper. I think my biggest beef with the first episode is they kind of exaggerated the personalities of the characters, maybe because they've got less time to develop them and want to give the illusion of more significant change in that time. Asuka comes off kind of annoying at some points which I don't think really fits her overall character. What little we got to see of FC was actually pretty competently animated though, so that (along with the ED) gives me some hope for future episodes. I'm in this for the long haul no matter what but I'd urge people to stick around for another episode or two just to (hopefully) see some proper FC and see what you think. That being said, if the anime just isn't doing it for you but you still have some interest in the concept/story, maybe stop by again in a couple weeks and see how things are going because holy poo poo, the game is almost finished!. The routes are all translated and edited and the translation team is moving into a 2nd pass for checking, final adjustments, menu editing, etc. Apparently they have some RL stuff to take care of so progress will be slow for a bit, but it sounds like we're fairly close to seeing a release. They haven't given any kind of ETA though, so it could be a few months still. cathead fucked around with this message at 21:29 on Jan 12, 2016 |
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Jan 12, 2016 02:07
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Wait wait, "Airspeed velocity of an unladen highschool girl". Ok I'm done. You'd think short skirts would have fallen out of style what with all the aerial acrobatics people seem to do.
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Jan 12, 2016 04:26
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Definitely checking this out. I can only pray that there are Imonen turns, straight out of Last Exile. I don't play many VN's (I still have Steins;Gate sitting at like 1% completion because I never get going on it, and I LOVE me some Steins;Gate), but I might at least give this one a shot since it sounds pretty good, and I like the idea of not having harem B.S.
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Jan 12, 2016 07:49
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My thoughts as I watch: I like the dark-haired girl. Anemia moe... super cute! Her underclassman seems to agree. No one said anything when they saw Asuka's panties, how polite. Anti-gravity flip turn kicked rear end. I'm looking forward to these FC mechanics. and holy freaking crap! Kawada Mami!! Now I'm really excited.
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Jan 12, 2016 08:13
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Space Flower posted:My thoughts as I watch: I like the dark-haired girl. Anemia moe... super cute! Her underclassman seems to agree. No one said anything when they saw Asuka's panties, how polite. Yeah, Misaki seems to be pretty popular so far based on people I've talked to. They actually changed some stuff to try and work her into the story more early on, but that might be a plus since people seem to like her so much. I'm a Mashiro fan myself, but Asuka and Misaki definitely have the best routes in terms of cool story and FC stuff. I also noticed there's a pretty heavy focus on Asuka compared to Masaya so far. I'm wondering if that will continue or if we'll get deeper into Masaya's story as the show moves forward. I didn't notice until I heard her, but Satouin got a new VA compared to the VN. Risa Taneda seems to be doing a great job though so I think the character is in good hands. They actually handled her surname gag quite well in the subs. I wish they'd stop trying to make cat puns for Misaki's nyas though, it gets old pretty quickly. If you guys are digging the FC strategy already you'll really have some fun later on!
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Jan 12, 2016 17:16
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Asuka's parents should never let her out of their sight.
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Jan 12, 2016 20:28
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cathead posted:That being said, if the anime just isn't doing it for you but you still have some interest in the concept/story, maybe stop by again in a couple weeks because holy poo poo, the game is almost finished!. The routes are all translated and edited and the translation team is moving into a 2nd pass for checking, final adjustments, menu editing, etc. Apparently they have some RL stuff to take care of so progress will be slow for a bit, but it sounds like we're fairly close to seeing a release. Judging from the language used in that post, it looks like it'll be significantly more than a couple weeks before he releases it. Not only did he say progress would be slow, but he also said he had to play through the whole thing again to edit it, which probably takes at least a couple weeks on its own (assuming it's as long as most VNs are, particularly if you do all the routes). While he didn't give a specific expected time frame, it sounds like at least a couple months.
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Jan 12, 2016 20:57
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Ytlaya posted:Judging from the language used in that post, it looks like it'll be significantly more than a couple weeks before he releases it. Not only did he say progress would be slow, but he also said he had to play through the whole thing again to edit it, which probably takes at least a couple weeks on its own (assuming it's as long as most VNs are, particularly if you do all the routes). While he didn't give a specific expected time frame, it sounds like at least a couple months. I actually more meant that as like "check the thread in a couple weeks and see if anything happened" not that it would literally be done. Sorry if that wasn't clear, I'll edit it a bit. Given what I've seen of other translation projects at this stage I don't think it will be THAT long, but I agree that it could be another couple months. I would hope that they'll throw out a demo or something at some point soon to tide people over though.
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Jan 12, 2016 21:27
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I liked the start of the show, and the action part was pretty cool. I hope ojusama girl keeps showing up with dumb bets
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Jan 12, 2016 22:19
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Pavlov posted:Wait wait, "Airspeed velocity of an unladen highschool girl". Ok I'm done. Yeah, they kind of had the perfect reason to mix up the traditional school uniform and just opted not to for the obvious gag. It looks like the formal competition uniforms are closer to a leotard, though if anything I think they're more fanservicey than a skirt. At least that'll make some sense though since that kind of clothing should cut down on air resistance. I doubt I'll get my dream of someone competing in a thoroughly unfashionable bodysuit and either a shaved head or a swimmer's cap. A nice enough show so far, it's relying a bit too much on over the top anime faces for my liking but Flying Circus should be rad.
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Jan 13, 2016 02:09
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its good
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Jan 13, 2016 23:53
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I know this isn't really the kind of show where I should be worrying about this, but the premise is really confusing to me. So they invented anti-gravity shoes. And they're cheap enough to mass produce? But they only work around these few islands? Even though they only work here, there's a whole sport based around using them? But even though there's a whole sport based around using them, this island has normal towns and schools, instead of just being one giant play area for the mega-rich?
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Jan 17, 2016 10:46
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Seems that way
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Jan 17, 2016 14:32
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i think they work everywhere, it's just that the islands are the only place where civilian grade flyshoes are legally allowed cause that's certainly gonna stop people from flying around elsewhere
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Jan 17, 2016 15:22
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The_White_Crane posted:I know this isn't really the kind of show where I should be worrying about this, but the premise is really confusing to me. Phobophilia posted:i think they work everywhere, it's just that the islands are the only place where civilian grade flyshoes are legally allowed Yeah I didn't quite understand that line because it doesn't make sense. I'm not sure if it was a translation error or writing oversight or what. As you will see later, FC is a worldwide thing so the technology has definitely spread. I don't remember if the VN really mentioned anything about it being specific to the Four Islands, but it's been awhile since I played it. Anyway, my theory is it's probably more likely that grav-shoes for FC were designed first and have been around longer, since it probably takes awhile to get all the extra safety features into civilian shoes and flight laws established and stuff like that. That's why the sport had spread around the world already but people like Asuka had still lived in places where civilian shoes were not used, so she didn't have any experience with it. I wouldn't think about it too hard, though.
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Jan 18, 2016 12:31
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what is li men ding zhou
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Jan 19, 2016 01:08
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I'm guessing it was some made-up video game reference, since she seems to like games. I'm liking this so far, I'll definitely keep following it.
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Jan 19, 2016 10:26
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Oh no, I'm playing a visual novel because weekly episodes is archaic and dumb in 2016 Asuka is a lot less annoying
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Jan 20, 2016 12:18
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ilifinicus posted:Oh no, I'm playing a visual novel because weekly episodes is archaic and dumb in 2016 They definitely hammed up Asuka's uhh... excitability and Mashiro's game addiction. I feel like Buchou and Madoka are about the same as they are in the game though. Minamo also was suitably adorable and it was great to see her finally show up.Anyway, I thought the FC stuff in ep 2 actually looked pretty good! They seem to be using CG in the right spots so it's not super jarring and the camera angles and cuts have been good. I definitely have some hope for future matches. The plot speed is a little jarring to me given how I remember it but I don't know how it feels to people not familiar with the story. Poor Rika though, all she gets is the same joke 2 episodes in a row.  Looks like she'll finally get proper screentime in the next ep though.Davincie posted:what is li men ding zhou I'm fairly sure this is some kind of super move, probably from dynasty warriors or something similar.
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Jan 20, 2016 16:59
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Well if any of the 5 people paying attention to this show were still on the fence I'd definitely recommend watching ep 3 at least. It had two of the first major FC matches and I thought they did a pretty drat good job with them. It was nice to see them dedicate a large part of the episode to them, they're good highlights of the different playstyles and basic maneuvers and strategy. Finally Rika got some time to shine as well, I feel like a lot of her stuff has gotten cut for time so far (though she kind of has the least interesting route in the VN too, rip).
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Jan 27, 2016 03:46
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I'm watching at least until I find out how dumb the trauma that made the MC quit 'the Circus' is.
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Jan 27, 2016 15:30
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I'm gonna guess the love of his life (the teacher, Kagami) got married
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Jan 27, 2016 15:46
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Space Flower posted:I'll check it out. and Gonzo has survived this far, in spite of everything. They must have some fighting spirit. Just wondering, do you play league of legends? If you do. Get rekt
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Jan 28, 2016 11:14
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Kinji posted:Just wondering, do you play league of legends? If you do. Get rekt Thanks for coming out from lurking for three years to share this good, hype, epic post  Have you watched k-on?
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Jan 29, 2016 01:00
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op is incorrect Kurashina is the protagonist !!!!!
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Jan 29, 2016 17:34
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show is cool enough but the sport itself seems like a pretty weak way to compete with gravshoes like surely there are more creative things you could be doing than playing tag while racing
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Jan 29, 2016 17:38
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Super No Vacancy posted:op is incorrect Kurashina is the protagonist !!!!! Well the OP was mostly written from my knowledge of the VN, which spends a lot more time on how the girls affect Masaya and the issues with his past. The show definitely leans a lot more on Asuka (which is probably good, as her route is the best and most exciting one to adapt). Super No Vacancy posted:show is cool enough but the sport itself seems like a pretty weak way to compete with gravshoes like surely there are more creative things you could be doing than playing tag while racing Idk I thought it was a pretty cool way of letting people go really fast and do sweet tricks while also allowing for impactful dogfights where people are gettin in there and slamming into each other and stuff. I guess you could do some more creative stuff with balls or some other kind of sports implement, but for a game they made up for an anime video game I was kind of impressed at the amount of detail they put into it.
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Jan 29, 2016 20:25
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Their English teacher is terrible!
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Feb 1, 2016 22:46
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how come?
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Feb 1, 2016 22:50
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Demicol posted:Their English teacher is terrible! The circles are correct answers, looks fine to me based on spelling at least.
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Feb 1, 2016 23:04
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