The Professional Gamer - December 14, 2015

Welcome again, to another week of "The Professional Gamer"!  This week I ended up watching a substantial amount of anime, and solving a complex design problem at work.  I think I'll tell you more about the former, rather than the latter.  But if you are interested in hearing about it, let me know!

This past week, Crystal started watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and I decided to join in while not occupied by work.  This is either my second or third time watching through the series.  Overall, FMA holds up very well to repeated viewed.  The emotional moments are still striking, and, compared with my first viewing, I feel that I understand the Homunculus and the Truth much better.  

I also decided to finish watching The Seven Deadly Sins.  In summary, while I think it is interesting that Netflix is exploring anime production and localization, I feel they may not have made the best choice for their first experiment.  Sins is full of some rather cringe-worthy fanservice, poor pacing, and a plot that doesn't stand up to more than a few seconds of scrutiny.  The animation quality deteriorates rapidly after the sixth episode, and it suffers greatly from a deus ex machina resolution.  Also, as far as I'm concerned, the lecherous hero / old man / whatever trope, really needs to die.  The English voice acting is, for the most part, very good, certainly on par with serials that have been localized by Funimation or Aniplex.  Finally, Sins may be available essential for free (if you have a Netflix subscription), but if you value your time you may want to avoid this show.  On the other hand, if you are getting impatient waiting for the next season of Fairy Tail, maybe this will help tide you over.

When I didn't get up quickly enough to shut down my WiiU after then end of Sins, I ended up starting another series: Yuna Yuki is a Hero. Man, what a palate cleanser that was.  A modern magical girl anime, with a good sense of humor.  This show also has some odd, and uncomfortable fanservice, but certainly not to the same degree as Sins had.  I've only watched a few episodes so far, but there is a lot that I like (cell phones as transformation items is perfect modernization).

That's all I've got for this week.  Let me know if you want to hear more about my adventures at work.  Have a great week, and game on!