Oh and that's certainly Guts' sword...

Never seen the show but once I had to review a Japanese copy of the Dreamcast game. The gameplay was straightforward enough for someone who knows little Japanese to figure out, but what the fuck was going on in those cutscenes?

The anime...really doesn't quite do a good job of selling the series. I originally watched several episodes of the anime, like, ten years ago, or so. Lost interest, didn't pick up anything to do with it again, until just this last week, when I binged the manga.

I strongly recommend reading said manga. The artist/creator is going to give you better visuals than an anime ever could, and the actual story is told without an arbitrary cut-off/beginning point that an anime series without an ending to the story can deliver.

Now I get to suffer through hiatus hell with everyone else, too, so there's that.

There was some video a while ago explaining how PewDiePie's location allowed him to game the way Youtube's recommended algorithm worked to make him the most viewed channel.

I'd love to see that video, Nominal, if you can find it again.

Gmork - his blades are fun and inventive, but they're also cheaply made and would never work in a real fight. He doesn't make "great swords", he makes great wallhangers.

Millions of 13-year-olds are not going to watch anything approaching complex with a runtime of an hour with their phones when they get out of the class.

@Evilhomer I've got some bad news for you..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arquebus

What about?

Mr. Bouncer's right: sometimes I watch LPs just to see what the gameplay is like on some game I'm considering buying, and just turn it off or mute it once it gets annoying. But they already got my view.. I guess building a giant sword isn't something I think about getting every day.

Honestly, how many people do you think want to watch an hour long video of a guy making a sword?

Swords have been superseded Evilhomer! In the pantheon of personal weapons, *all swords* would never work in a real fight, relatively speaking.

OK, no. First off, there is nothing in the phrase "real fight" which implies that the fight MUST be conducted with firearms, nevermind with the most powerful weapons available in our time (firearms have been superseded by many things, including tanks, rapidfire grenade launchers, and nuclear missiles). It is still possible to have a "real fight" with swords, just as it is possible to have a "real fight" with your karate skills, or with flamethrowers.

Second, there is no rule which says swords cannot be used in a gunfight. They are usually not very good, of course, but if you are in close enough quarters, and your opponent has a shoddy enough firearms, stabbing him is a perfectly feasible option. Which brings me to...

Third, arquebuses were crap. Good en masse in a battlefield situation, a single soldier armed with an early firearm was nonetheless at a severe disadvantage one-on-one against all but the most useless swords. Which finally brings us finally to...

Fourth, the uselessness of the "swords" made by Mr Cthulu. In actual fact, the size, weight, and general unwieldiness of his overwrought conversation pieces mean that, regardless of the battlefield situation and the weapons being used by your opponents, you'd have a better chance of winning if you threw his sword away and fought barehanded. And I put it to you, that if one is worse off _with_ a given weapon than one would have been _without any weapons at all_, then the weapon in question is demonstrably "useless". QED.

(I thought you were going to bring up gunblades, which I believe Mr Cthulu has made before (?), but whose utility was thoroughly debunked by Skallagrim almost two years ago.)

Unless we're talking Cinderella Girls, in which case Ranko is the best idol.

What if we're talking any series, any reality? Out of all agencies, anime, vocaloid, or IRL, who is your Jpop oshimen?

Nico Nico Nii!

Yui Metal for me! Any idol who says her two biggest influences are Ariana Grande and Cannibal Corpse is OK by me. (I wish Amuse Inc would hurry up and make them into an anime series.)

For 2D, my favorite is Athena Asamiya.

I'd love to see an idol anime which is set in a post-apocalyptic, neo-medieval fantasy world, and all the idols are in a power metal band. They'd have sword-guitars, magical rocket-firing drumkits, and all kinds of other crazy gadgets. You know how Sonic and Robotnik were designed to be easy for children to draw? Well, we'd design the idol's gear so as to encourage people like Mr. Cthulu to build replicas!

In my mind, Athena is a fighter first and an idol second. She's still a damn fine choice, though.

As for 3D, it'll always be Ayumi Hamasaki for me.

Yeah, Ayumi is great! I don't really consider her an idol - I think she's too big, too old, and too solo for that - but she's definitely the queen of 3D J-singers, no doubt.

I'm actually not THAT big of an Athena fan. I loved the original Athena (the one from the NES game), and I have nothing specifically against her modern-day descendant, but sadly the doujinshi scene gives way too much attention to her, at the expense of better characters like Mai, Angel, Mary, and May.