Category: Videos

At the midpoint

Number three:

[flv width=”640″ height=”480″]http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/ExcelEnd.flv[/flv]
Excel Saga, “Menchi Aishou no Bolero” by Excel Girls. I’m not posting the clean version because the words matter, and because some who frequent this corner of the otakusphere might recognize one of the names in the credits.

Counting them down

Number five on my list of best endings:

[flv width=”704″ height=”400″]http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/oedo-ending2.flv[/flv]
Oh! Edo Rocket, second ending, “I Got Rhythm” by Natural High.

[flv width=”704″ height=”400″]http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/oedo-ending1.flv[/flv]
I like both endings, so here’s the first as well: “100 miles~Niji o Oikakete” by Santara.

Counting down to the count down

I had planned to spend some time this evening rambling on about anime endings, but I’m dead tired. Instead, here are a couple of honorable mentions, plus an extra. The countdown begins tomorrow.

While it was introducing the characters, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei was fine absurd humor. Later episodes were hit and miss, with misses predominating. (Macademi Wasshoi seems to be following a similar pattern.) The ending is pleasantly nightmarish.

[flv width=”704″ height=”396″]http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/szs ending.flv[/flv]

The first few episode of Tweeny Witches left me cold, though I may give the series a second chance when I have time. The ending, with broomstick surfing, flying jalopy and Strauss, embodies all the fun that was missing from the show.

[flv width=”704″ height=”396″]http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/TweenyWitches.flv[/flv]

If this had been the actual ending for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, it would have been number one on my list. The real ending, which is pretty good as anime endings go, is nevertheless frustrating to watch: I want to see all the steps.

[flv width=”704″ height=”396″]http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/HareHareYukai.flv[/flv]

You can see the videos at their full width at my video page.

Count five and Miss Michiko

Astro is counting down his top five endings. It looks like fun, so I’ll probably post my own list, though it will have to wait until next week. Astro’s fourth choice, incidentally, almost made my list. It will be interesting to see if there is something we both pick.

As Astro notes, it’s harder to find good endings than good openings. Openings are intended to sell the show; often the trailer for a show is the opening. Consequently, producers typically lavish great care and expense on the opening. In contrast, the ending usually just serves to list the necessary credits, and the production is consequently perfunctory. Sometimes the ending tune might be worth hearing, but the visuals are rarely interesting. Nevertheless, I managed to come up with five that are worth both hearing and seeing.

*****

Here’s something I forgot to post back in October. It’s from the ninth episode of Denno Coil.

[flv width=”704″ height=”400″]http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/michiko stories.flv[/flv]

Just testing, part 2

Below the fold is the same brief video as in the previous post, this time as an flv file. In the past, I’ve used ffmpegX to generate flv files. It works, but it’s a pain to use. It often takes several tries to convert a Quicktime file to flv, and even then the video and sound are apt to drift out of sync. (See my video weblog for examples.) I was wondered if it was possible to skip the formatting headaches and embed Quicktime files in posts, but that presents a different set of problems. I recently found a couple of WordPress plugins that take care of the messy stuff, which I tested in yesterday’s post. They work, but it turns out that at least two of my readers, and probably quite a few more, refuse to install Quicktime on their computers. So embedding a Quicktime file is not an ideal solution.

This morning I looked for alternatives to ffmpegX and found a few. Some of them look dandy. Unfortunately, either the price tags have three digits to the left of the decimal point, or the system requirements are beyond the capabilities of my geriatric Mac. I did find one possibility, On2 Flix, the cheapest version of which is almost affordable at $39. I downloaded the demo, and it worked right the first time. You can see the results below the fold.

Continue reading “Just testing, part 2”