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My Japanese is beginner tier at best but, the middle portion is "things she likes" which is listed as "singing a song" (appropriate for the source material, but has that actually been established about Laura yet?) And the bottom portion is her profile which says something like she is "doing whatever it takes to pursue her dream of becoming a queen"
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# ¿ Apr 9, 2021 04:30 |
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# ¿ Apr 17, 2024 20:49 |
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I think it's worth explicitly clarifying that the dream sequence was specifically Laura's dream sequence, that she was the one who is convinced it was a power up, and that both of those things are incredibly on brand for her if you think about it. She's the best and I am so very glad the series decided to make her the best.
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# ¿ Apr 11, 2021 06:57 |
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Larryb posted:Huh, maybe I missed it. I just recall her calling the attack and it cutting immediately to the rain of papaya slices. I just double checked, she definitely turned into a giant papaya.
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# ¿ Apr 11, 2021 18:14 |
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Larryb posted:Back to Precure, Asuka bringing up her dad and brother in this episode makes me hope we’ll get some more focus on the Cures’ families eventually. I'm almost certain that Sango's mom is going to turn up again sometime. She runs a cosmetic shop in a series that is, at least partially, about cosmetics and makeup. I would be surprised if there isn't a Sango character episode sometime down the line related to the store and her mom. Semi-relatedly, what was the status of Sailor Jupiter's family? Do we know? I'm just wondering how liberally they're lifting for Asuka.
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# ¿ Apr 18, 2021 17:56 |
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Larryb posted:Also apparently the new Doremi movie (which seems to be more about a group of women who grew up with the series as opposed to a continuation the series itself) is out now, did anyone have a chance to watch it? If so, how was it? I'm scheduled to watch it tomorrow. I'll let you know.
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# ¿ Apr 25, 2021 19:01 |
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Larryb posted:Since they seem to be going all in on the upcoming Madoka anniversary (I believe some new merch got announced a little bit ago as well), I imagine it also probably won’t be long at this point until we get a release date for the second season of the Magia Record anime as well. I imagine that Clear Card will probably be finished once it's finished. As for the Madoka sequel, the only information we have is that apparently it was written around the same time as Rebellion, which is at the very least a little bit interesting.
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# ¿ Apr 26, 2021 05:14 |
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On the other hand, the last episode had a major subplot about Laura wanting to do more with the cast, this episode is entirely predicated on Laura doing things and pretending to become a student and getting in trouble and the ending reiterates she wants to do more with the rest of the cast, and the next episode is apparently entirely about Laura and some of her back story and more personally relevant information about her (we will apparently finally get stuff about her singing which is allegedly something important to her). It feels like the show is very deliberately doing things to move towards the point where Laura becomes a precure. Also, the show has been consistently very good with its cast and its themes and its episodes and in a tokusatsu adjacent series like this that is more than enough to carry a show between major plot points.
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# ¿ May 16, 2021 05:36 |
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Tropical Rouge has been extremely good so far and Laura is absolutely fabulous as the fifth team member. Her development has been nothing short of excellent, and I like that they are just running with the idea of her pretending to be human and hopping around. I think one of my favorite shots of the episode is when Laura and the other four are in position and about to transform and you realize that she really is a part of the team. When Laura becomes a Cure almost none of their dynamic is going to have to change. Next episode will be interesting both for the character dynamic (Laura and Minori are just about diametrically opposite in terms of personalities) but also just to see whether Laura will be able to transform. The episode could very well be a dry run for Cure La Mer, or alternately we get a temporary mermaid version of Cure Papaya which would also be cool. Either way, it wouldn't surprise me if what happens next week is a big reason why Laura eventually joins the team as a fighter proper.
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# ¿ May 30, 2021 05:34 |
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I'll be completely honest, I am totally fine with the mascot character not doing anything and having an actual character character pull double duty.
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# ¿ May 30, 2021 20:13 |
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About what I expected tbh.
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# ¿ Jun 1, 2021 02:19 |
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I'm a little bit sad they swapped voice actors, it would've been more fun to hear Minori's voice actor playing Laura after they swapped, and vice versa. And it's not the lack of range, looking at their acting credits each actor has played characters quite like their counterpart in the past. Heck, Rina Hidaka who voices Laura did the shrinking violet character Ophelia who showed up not even a month ago in Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song, that performance would've been really on point for playing Minori. And no, I'm not bringing that up because Vivy is my anime of the season if not the year and I will take any opportunity to gush about it. It totally is why I'm ringing it up. Anyways, Laura becomes a precure in T minus 2 episodes…
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# ¿ Jun 6, 2021 05:48 |
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The text of the top literally just says "the movie".
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# ¿ Jun 19, 2021 22:14 |
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I think my favorite bit of the episode is them basically skipping past the question of where Laura is going to stay from now on and just doing the obvious thing. I am really happy with how the show is pacing itself and making a point of generally only spending time on interesting things; there's been very little in this season that's felt perfunctory, like they were doing it just because they gotta. All of the mandatory bits were done and portrayed in a way that had a lot of energy.
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# ¿ Jun 20, 2021 18:34 |
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I once again appreciate the incredible economy of function in this season, quickly answering whether Laura can just transform freely (yes) to move on to the more enjoyable part of the episode which is Laura, expectation versus reality, which is a great way to quickly integrate her into the setting in a very Laura kind of way. The fact she still has absolutely no preservation instinct remains hilarious, she was totally going to transform at the end there if the rest of the cast hadn't immediately tackled her..SatoshiMiwa posted:I don't know what you mean. No way the new Transfer student Laura La Mer could have anything to fo with Cure La Mer! To be fair, basically nobody really seems to know about the girls in general being that they're essentially in a fugue due to monster attack. Which is probably for the best, because if they weren't Laura would make absolutely no effort to hide her identity because she never does.
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# ¿ Jun 27, 2021 06:56 |
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Larryb posted:
Mixed reviews are appropriate because it's a pretty mixed show. SatoshiMiwa has the right of it though, AFAIK it came out at exactly the right time to be lost in the shuffle. It's not as consistently on as a good season of precure, it doesn't have the flash and style of Nanoha or Symphogear, the cast and world don't shine like CCS, and the writing is nowhere near Ojamajo Doremi or Princess Tutu. It was very much positioned as an also ran to Sailor Moon, and not even Sailor Moon was consistently good Sailor Moon. It's not like it's unwatchable or anything, though, it just didn't really excel. On the other hand, I'm not surprised it's getting a remake, it did manage to land a chunk of the market share back in its day and we are about a generation off so it's now officially a nostalgic property.
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# ¿ Jul 23, 2021 03:21 |
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Summer's is "Land Beat Dynamic" and La Mer's is "Marine Beat Dynamic" for the record.
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# ¿ Aug 31, 2021 18:35 |
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I love the monster was literally just Mazinger Z this week.
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# ¿ Oct 24, 2021 06:12 |
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Or healthy food vs Junk food.
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# ¿ Nov 3, 2021 18:04 |
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Larryb posted:-The Witch’s minions were able to infiltrate the palace fairly easily, almost as if one or all of them were former Grand Ocean subjects themselves Laura states explicitly in the episode that only mermaids and sea fairies can open the way to the Gran Ocean, suggesting one or more of the villain squad either is or was a mermaid or sea fairy. quote:-There is a machine deep within the castle that can suck out memories. As I don’t recall any of the villains mentioning building such a thing it’s therefore implied that said device was there before. It's much more explicit than that, one of them says flat out that the memory stealing machine was already in the palace when they infiltrated it. They DIDN'T make it or move it, they just used it to suit their purposes because it was already there. This week's episode was all about making it clear that there's definitely something fishy (ha ha) about whatever happened between the witch and the legendary precure. It also called back to another dangling plot detail, the bracelet Laura uses for her bubble gun. Manatsu's home island has a legend about a mermaid, and it turns out that buried underneath it was a genuine mermaid artifact with perfume that matches the scent of flowers from the Gran Ocean, and puzzlingly it was also with a chalice of what might have been stolen Motivation Power. I wonder if the reveal is going to be that the witch was actually also precure who fought alongside the legendary precure. Maybe she's Laura's predecessor, the previous equivalent to Cure La Mer who went bad for some reason. Perhaps the Butler turned her into a Dontwanna? It would explain why she wears a mask, so we don't see the distinctive eyes. That could also be the payoff for showing you can make one out of the living creature as well. Hypothetically the legendary precure beat the witch (that explains why she felt so sad in Manatsu's dream), but couldn't save her, maybe because she couldn't return her motivation to her because she wasn't a mermaid and couldn't use the Aqua Pot? Maybe the chalice actually was the witch's Motivation Power to begin with and the legendary precure left it as a memento to her lost friend. On the other hand, when it comes to questions that actually were answered it makes more sense that Laura wants to be the queen of the mermaids without explicitly stating she is related to the current Queen if mermaids are born magically from clamshells.
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# ¿ Nov 17, 2021 19:29 |
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Yep, we are definitely in character capstone territory. Given we have five leads I wouldn't be surprised if the next four episodes (up through 42) are all concluding episodes for their respective arcs leading into a three-part finale. Looking at the episode, I really liked how they resolved things with Asuka and Yuriko, mostly because they decisively put Asuka over Yuriko in a way that I'd been waiting for for a long time. The match ended with Asuka in a dominant position, with the score against her in the fourth game being because she was legitimately surprised by Yuriko admitting she still wanted to be friends with her, and that actually makes sense considering how cold Yuriko has been this entire season. Asuka was beating Yuriko in the game pretty decisively, but what really made her the better of Yuriko was by being the better person and doing the right thing. It reflects on the themes of the series (do the most important thing for you right now) both in the moment and in the back story that caused the two of them to have their falling out in the first place.
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# ¿ Nov 28, 2021 06:26 |
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SatoshiMiwa posted:Right we could worry about that or worry about real serious things like how Cure Papaya has lied to us for 39 episodes having never eaten a Papaya till this most recent episode Truly, one of the top ten anime betrayals. Also a cute episode.
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# ¿ Dec 12, 2021 19:53 |
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This week was indeed a clip show, and it reminds you that if you do it only once in a blue moon and your show is good enough then even a clip show can be highly watchable and enjoyable.
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# ¿ Dec 19, 2021 06:04 |
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Larryb posted:Off the subject of Precure, this could potentially be something: Not really. By the end of XV they had tied up all the ongoing plot threads, dealt with every single villain and villainous organization the show introduced, answered basically all of the remaining series questions, decisively resolved one of the major cosmological aspects of the entire show, gave absolutely everyone a sendoff, and then Hibiki and Miku held hands. It was very apparent that around GX they had started angling specifically for this particular ending with the intention of it being the definitive ending for the show. Which isn't to say that they couldn't do a sequel or a side story or what have you. Even setting aside the mobage, Symphogear is a setting that is wide open for random poo poo to just happen. At the start of season three there's a random bit of text reporting that sometime between G and GX Hibiki and the rest apparently fought a mad scientist who was extorting Nevada with an earthquake machine and also there is apparently just a Minotaur somewhere underground in Greece (though they didn't fight it). Meanwhile, officially canonical material explains that the EU imploded economically sometime during the course of the show and now Europe is "the dark continent" (except for Greece, Greece is doing just fine) and all sorts of bad things are happening there and this is completely unimportant to the events of the show except as an excuse for why the cast are doing superhero search and rescue offscreen.
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# ¿ Jan 6, 2022 22:32 |
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Larryb posted:On a similar note, was the Symphogear manga ever translated? And if so, is it just a straight adaption of the anime or is it its own thing? I can name two different Symphogear manga both of which have fan translations. The first was just a condensed manga version of the first season with one or two changes or embellishments that don't really shift the story much. The most notable thing about that one was it added a bunch more things with Kanade prior to her dying so if you really care about her that's nice. The second, ongoing one is a cooking manga starring Shirabe. Also, most of the dead characters are alive and around to hang out for explicitly no reason. It's essentially just a Symphogear version of "Today's Menu for the Emiya Family", so yeah 10/10.
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# ¿ Jan 7, 2022 23:57 |
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Larryb posted:Neat, the wiki article for the series only mentioned one manga that ran from 2011 to 2013. What’s the second one called? Senki Kanshoku Symphogear ~Shirabe Meshi~/Symphogear: Feast of the Valkyries ~Shirabe's Cooking~
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# ¿ Jan 8, 2022 01:37 |
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Larryb posted:Also guess the Witch is just dead now but at least she got to be with her girlfriend again at the end. Kind of surprised Chongire didn’t get reformed after his Yaraneeda form got taken out as well Let's not be hasty on that last point, there are still two episodes left...
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# ¿ Jan 16, 2022 06:13 |
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Larryb posted:I also wonder how exactly her gang got past the Gran Ocean barrier twice considering that only mermaids and sea fairies can enter it, maybe one of them used to live there or something. Assuming Darth Walrus' take is correct (and it could be) maybe the secret is somewhere in the nature of mermaids themselves. We know that mermaids spawn independently from clamshells, and we know that the Witch apparently came into being ex nihilo as a destructive force, is there any reason to believe that she and her cadre aren't kin to the mermaids? It may also have something to do with the reason mermaids aren't allowed to spend time with humans, the explanation behind that still hasn't been given…
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# ¿ Jan 17, 2022 23:39 |
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Larryb posted:Weird how some of the townsfolk were just immune to having their motivation taken though. The show actually did establish that people can naturally recover from having the motivation taken. Manatsu had her motivation stolen twice and both times managed to recover on her own, and the episode where Numeri was impersonating the Queen she said that the people of Gran Ocean were starting to recover on their own (so they sent a monster to do another sweep of the city). And the people who were shown getting up and doing things were Yuriko, Manatsu's mother, and the aquarium director who were all probably strong-willed enough to recover more quickly on their own. As for the final battle, I kind of appreciate that the cast never second-guessed themselves even after being knocked down. It feels on brand for the show and its tone that I got right back up again.
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# ¿ Jan 23, 2022 05:23 |
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Good, but not great. The overall plot was pretty thin and the central theme was okay but never fully explored all that deeply. To a certain extent it's the same with the cast, this wasn't the best or most impressive team of Cures the franchise ever mustered, but they were still really fun and Laura definitely carried a lot of the show. On the whole Tropical Rouge seemed quite content to just run episodes of the cast doing things and getting into shenanigans and rely mostly on their charm and the infectious energy of the whole shebang to carry it. And overall I would say it did, I had a lot of fun and I would gladly recommend it to anyone interested in the franchise. At the same time, this is a show that feels like it came up just a wee bit short. It's certainly not dethroning my top three seasons, I'll say that much. So there you go, good, but not great.
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# ¿ Jan 31, 2022 18:43 |
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Malsangoroth posted:Well, now you've got my curiosity running -- what are your top 3? Heartcatch, Gopri, and Hugtto in some order.
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# ¿ Feb 1, 2022 19:15 |
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My one point against the first episode: Yui didn't get smacked in the head by her fairy. Heck, I don't think she suffered any cranial trauma, that's not how you introduce a lead Cure!
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# ¿ Feb 6, 2022 05:45 |
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Larryb posted:Based on the OP it’s pretty clear that Takumi is getting some kind of power of his own eventually, I’m curious how that’s going to work and what his transformed state will be called. After much consideration I would like to option a potential name: "Tuxedo Mask"
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# ¿ Feb 6, 2022 07:18 |
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Poochner Fluffwoof Sweetpup Yeast Pamwich has very strong Laura energy. And Precious doing the whole superhero bridal carry after the fight also has strong energy. This show is vibing and I dig. They also backed off from the narrator a bit in this episode, which was probably for the best.
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# ¿ Feb 20, 2022 06:03 |
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Larryb posted:I figured that, I was just explaining how it worked (Bandai doesn’t really have a lot of security measures on their toys in general to be honest) And to be fair, this may be because installing lots of security measures on your toys sounds like an incredibly stupid thing to do for product that is ultimately disposable. Fortunately for us!
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# ¿ Feb 22, 2022 03:58 |
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Larryb posted:Speaking of TMM, was the manga any different than the original anime out of curiosity (as I’m assuming this new series will be sticking a little closer to it like is usually the case with anime reboots)? I believe that the manga and anime have most of the same plot points, just faster since the manga is like four volumes and the anime ran for four cours.
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# ¿ Feb 23, 2022 05:36 |
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Nodosaur posted:Saaya had barriers, I believe Yep, though it is understandable you'd forget that because it wasn't as big a a thing for Cure Ange as it was for, say, Cure Rosetta or even Cure Coral from last season.
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# ¿ Feb 27, 2022 05:03 |
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SatoshiMiwa posted:Wasn't expecting Fuwa to fall as hard for Yui but I'm here for it Having seen the episode, yeah, she is really, unsubtly into Yui.
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# ¿ Feb 27, 2022 07:00 |
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Meanwhile, my take away from this episode is that Prettyholic is doing quite well for itself if it can set up branches in other precure shows.
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# ¿ Mar 6, 2022 05:58 |
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Nodosaur posted:Cure Ace was fine dammit Seconded.
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# ¿ Mar 7, 2022 04:01 |
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# ¿ Apr 17, 2024 20:49 |
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Larryb posted:Tropical Rouge is good though and there are fansubs available for the entire series if needed (but then again you hated Smile if I recall correctly and TR has a very similar tone so you might not feel the same way, I’d at least give it a fair shot though) I hated Smile and really dug Tropical Rouge, so take that as you will.
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# ¿ Mar 19, 2022 17:09 |