Michael Hopcroft

Re: Usagi Yojimbo HERO

Re: Nanotech! "This Molecular Disintegration Device was intended to store energy, but we must be caution -- it would be a terrible weapon in the wrong hands!" "There are right hands?" There are some technologies (some would say nuclear fission and fusion are among them) that are so inherently dangerous that their very eixstence poses a threat. Nanotech could be one of those technologies.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Randy Johnson pitching for the New York Yankees against the Kansas City Royals. Later tonight I'll be listeining to Seattle phenom Felix Hernandex taking on the White Sox. In both cases I'll be wishing I still had cable to I could watch the games on TV.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "That's funny, I heard the same thing from my secretary this lunch hour."

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "You just criticized the President. That'll be a $50 fee."

Re: Anime Champions? One thing that is lost in the translation is that when the Tachiokoa return at the start of 2nd Gig, they introduce themselves with the Japanese word that is used when meeting someone for the first time, implying that the government had wpied their memories. Batou in particular took that very hard, and the reaction of the viewers I talked to was the kind of horror you egt when reading about someone doing something really emotionally nasty to soemone. The implication is that sentient life in geenral has little to no meaning to the people who employ Section 9 and the society they protect. the tragedy of Major Kusanagi is that she often finds herself fighting on behalf of people who are unworthy fo her protection, both in terms of capability and in terms of morality.

Re: Nanotech!

Re: Concept help! Hair Powers Force Wall or Armor with the special effect that the hair spreads around the area and hardens into a shield. I don't know how you would model it in system for sure, but the use of very small nimbers of hairs for really find manipulation tasks like picking locks or undoing knots. Flash vs. Sight Group, HTH (wrapping your hair around an enemy's eyes to blind him). Cosmetic Transformk (the hair changes color for disguise purposes and grows and shrinks as needed -- about the only possible way a Secret Idenitiy can be maintained) Regeneration: Hair -- cut it off and it grows right back (so a villain can't render you powerless with clippers and a straight razor). Aid REC (defined as using your hair to make a really comfy, cushiony place to rest, making it easier to recover from fatigue and even injury)

Re: Nanotech! Most real-world developments, yes, because the planet is spiraling towards utter disaster. But there are some things that certain human beings do that do actually cause me to appreciate things. Mostly artists -- a species that could produce great art might actually have a place in the cosmos. But when one realizes that one's own life has been essentially a waste of food, water and oxygen, it's hard to feel good about the world as a whole. There are cattle that will never exist again because I have eaten steaks from them, and for what? Someone who has acoomplished more than I have in my life is homeless in Portland right now because I have an apartment he could be occupying. Why?

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "Adam West? ADAM WEST? You said I was going to be CHRISTIAN BALE!" NT: Signs that your "Summon Greater Divine Being" spell has gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "I was hoping that when tranformed from a frog into a prince I would not still be green."

Re: Anime Champions? There is one phrase that both Usagi and her cat have obviously thought at one point, as a consequence of magical tiem travel: "She's my what?!?" which implies that sometime in the future both of them will either a.) finally get it right or b.) forget their protection. (when i was involved with the AVA community I wrote a script for someone in which Artemis proposed a romantic night out: "You, me, a dead fish. It'll be perfect." Ah, sapient feline live.) By the way, there's a nice little riff on the magical-girl paradigm in the new series Ask Dr. Rin! which I thought was amusing. A middle-school girl with the power of Feng Shui secretly runs a website to give advice, but can't advise herself properly. Strangely enough, her castings are alwasy right, but in her case they often work in unexpected ways. Unfortunately for her, someone with their own mysic powers is trying to get at her -- and seems willing to kill anyone who gets in his way. So the comic premise (mystcially powerful girl who is inept in her own life) is crossed with a more serious adventure saga.

Re: Anime Champions? You must be one of those people who think the best couple in the history of American animation is Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. Although getting Harley out of that relationship with the Joker would do her a world of good..... hmmm...... Isn't ironic that the least dysfunctional couple in all of animation is Sailors Uranus and Neptune? Compared to them, Usagi and Mamoru are amateurs at this love thing.

Re: Anime Champions? You'd never see Tony Stark put on a swimsuit like that, though, at least not on camera. Apparentrly Daitokuji-san is the sort of doting father that scares a lot of people, and there is a throwaway gag in which he and B-ko are framed more like lovers than like father and daughter. If you think about Project A-ko too hard, you will go mad. Utterly, completely mad.

Re: Anime Champions? The epsidoe of 2nd Gig where the major finds that shop had me nearly in tears. It may have been setting up a story point, but it was to my mind incredibly moving -- a tale of sorrow and loss for the ages. Have you seen the Tachikoma-kun omakes for SAC? Although they are mostly comic, they are ina way sad too. The Tachikoma really do ahve feelings, needs and desires, yet they are essentially disposable weapons. Are they any less worthy than the heavily-cyberneticized beings referred to as "humanity" in that series? Is a being any less of a being because it was manufactured rather than born?

Re: Anime Champions?

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat Chick Sexer Lousy job, but a great title. NT: Signs that your newborn baby is one day going to destroy the Earth

Re: Anime Champions? And on a completely different note: Nagisa Ootori, better known to the Japanese public as nagisa Shiratori or simply "Nagisa-chan", is the heroine of the extremely strange comedy I'll Make a Habit of It. She is an example of taking an anime stereotype and turning it around completely on its ear. About fifteen years old, nagisa is the heri of the Ootori School, a martial arts form that combines techniques from jujutsu and karate. However, her school was so poor that the only students it could attract were forest animals like Kumakichi, the large bear that was nagisa's favotire sparring partner. Nagisa had to find disciples. Her plan was to become an idol. Despite Nagisa's complete lack of anything approaching musical talent, a well-orchestrated media blitz soon made her the most popular idol iin Japan, selling gazillions of records and selling out stadiums. Unfortuinately, this got her no closer to her goal. she then stunned her manager by chopping off her trademark pony-tails and announcing that she was going to enroll in a "tough" school -- as a guy, under her real name of Nagisa Ootori (she uses the stage name Nagisa Shiratori when performing). Alas, this didn't work either, as the gang at her new school proved to be rather below her caliber. Then Nagisa's luck changed completely, and her life turned completely upside-down. The gang from her school told her that a rival school's gang was going to have a brawl with them. She went to the brawl and there found the leader of the rival gang was an incredibly handsome boy named Hiroshi. For Nagisa, it was love -- instant, total and extreme. Unfrotunately, she was dressed as a guy! So all Hiroshi saw was a boyish-looking but extrenmely strong martial artist, who he swore to meet again on the battefield. The next day, Hiroshi turned up at one of Nagisa Shiratori's record signings, and revealed that he was in love with the female Nagisa! So in lvoe with her, in fact, that he proposed to her on the spot. In the process, he also revelaed that he was on a paralell to nagisa's own quest, looking for strong men to be disciples of his family's failing school of martial arts. Eventually it all got sorted out when they finally fought. Hiroshi caught Nagisa in a hold and -- well, let's just say he found hismelf grabbign something he didn't expect. having discoeverd Nagisa's secret, the lovestruck Hiroshi agreed to keep it. That's when things started getting weird around Nagisa. the way to happiness was open to her, but standing in her path were rival idols, strange martial arts schools, the presitigous Women's Academy for World Conquest, music-happy gangsters, a classmate with a head like a volcano and a temper to match, and the surprising fact that just about every idol singer in Japan but her had gotten their hands on pet alligators. Nagisa also ended up foiling a plot to re-establish the Tokaguwa Shogunate (it's kidn of hard to explain). worst of all, Nagisa has beooem the target of Red Beetle, a secret cabal which controls the music industries of every country except Japan and is determined to place their own idols on top of the charts. Not that Nagisa really cares. The most surprising thing about her life is that nobody believes her when she tells the world how untalented and graceless she is, even though she is telling the absolute truth. All of Japan loves Nagisa-chan, forcing her to take refuge at the junior high school on the wrong side of the tracks where nobody is aware that the toughest boy in the school is really the nation's greatest celebrity.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "Dear Abby: I'm dating a cute guy with N-Ray Vision: Always On. How do I stop him from looking at other women?"

Re: Anime Champions? Bubblegum Crisis is one of those stories where part of the question of "How do we save the city?" is "Should we bother? Is the city worth saving?" MegaTokyo thematically is very similar to the Gotham City of Batman Begins: a stinking pit with a glittering surface that all but the most quixotic have given up on. The Knight Sabers, of course, are prettier than Batman, but it's balanced out by the sheer number of dead cops in MegaTokyo. Arguments of 2033 vs. 2040 are sort of like the arguments over whether the Ghost in the Shell theatrical films are better than Stand Alone Complex. Both deal with the same issue (in a world where almost everyone is at least part machine, does the word "human" still have any real meaning?) in different ways. Stand Alone Complex is especially notable for the tachikoma, a series of robot tanks with artifical intelligences who are used by Section 9 as cannon fodder despite the fact that they are developing feelings and emotions.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat "Your husband will never know." NT: Signs the rookie hero on your team has a really lame superpower.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat ""No way that's a real Klingon."

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat Psst. Oddhat. You're Reply #3, amkign it your turn to select a topic.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat Describe the full extent and scope of every issue in your relationship, speaking only in Klingon.

Re: Rocketmen Hero? Let me guess, Diana also thinks Nick Sion is a massively desirable hunk. One other note: Nick doesn't care whether he lives or dies because his prother was killed by the bad guys. But unless he watched him die, it is a prototypical part of the genre for it to be a cover and for said borther to ahve actually joined the bad guys and gone totally, manaically evil. There is a lot of potential here. Any idea when the next web episode will be up of the cartoon?