yaiba

I attribute the flub to it being an engineer trying to explain a biological process. Not an uncommon occurance in my experience

With Hikaru and Misa there was hope for a future. With Sheryl it's practically pallative care.

I just bought the Minmay Guard from HLJ recently, but I have not seen it available anywhere else. I also picked up a set of the Minmay Guard Paris concert decals as well. There is also somebody in HK that is making just the Minmay Guard decals, but buying the decals separately and a battroid model end up at about the same price. The only thing I don't like about the model is that it does not have a hand that will allow you to make the pose on the box art, so I will have to sculpt a separate hand.

She probably used machine guns located in the chestal region like all fembots. The self-grope in the preview was to make sure that her ammo was fully loaded.

It can be sprayed as is, but most people dilute it down.

:PUNCH: that would be the worst ending ever. Would a smiley (or three) help?

Cut to scene of morning light filtering through a window. Minmay wakes up and yawns. "I had a really strange dream... Oh well, today's the big air show!"

They lingered on the picture of Alto's mother in that scene. I get the feeling that Alto may have been in a similar situation before. There may be more to his rebelliion against his father than not wanting to be a kabuki actor.

I doubt Alto sexed Sheryl as well. a) He's a prude b) I doubt he would know what to do with a woman even if she served herself up naked with a strategically placed ribbon c) Sheryl wouldn't risk infecting him with the virus

Dave Fleischer's Gulliver's Travels (1939) anyone?

Future has not been discontinued. They just changed the name. The formulation of the replacement is supposed to be the same. I think the new name in the US is something like "Pledge with Future Shine" or something like that.

Speak for yourself

These are a given [in a general sense]. I'm no expert in viruses, but I have yet to hear of an earth virus that hijacked an ATP pump through any mechanism. Bacteria yes, but not viruses. Viruses as we know of them code for a polymerase (to replicate their DNA or RNA), a coat protein (to encapsulate the DNA or RNA), and a some sort of receptor protein to allow them to attach to target cells. They pretty much don't have room for much else. The v-type virus in MF may in fact have room for other stuff since its a big phage-type virus, but in any event, there is no earth analog that I am aware of. Here endeth the lesson.

All I find is information on v-type ATPases, which has nothing to do with viruses. The closest thing in viruses would be those that have a v-type domain, In this case v = variable. This does play a role in viral susceptibility, but I don't think that it is what the "v" in the v-type virus stands for.

I totally agree. She had no time to recover between the time she got socked in the gut by what she saw between Alto and Sheryl and the Vajra attack. Was the matter trivial? Perhaps, but certainly not to her. I certainly don't believe in coddling a diva, but if Michel and Alto had switched positions, you can bet they wouldn't have had this problem. Ranka: Boo, hoo, I don't wanna sing! Michel as Alto: Hey baby, you know it wasn't like that. I like you the best! Ranka: Really? Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [sings Aimo] Sheryl: ... [damn, I really wanted to slap her!] The singing at the wake thing was totally off the cuff and weird as well. I don't see what she could have done. Let's face it, she does not have any appropriate songs in her repetoir.

She called him in the middle of the night to give a final (futile) shot at trying to win Alto over, but probably more so to say good-bye. Was this childish? Yes. But she is a love-sick child, so I see nothing unusual about her actions. I was actually expecting her to reveal Ai-kun right off the bat, but the way it turned out, I wasn't so sure that she intended for Ai-kun to show up when he did. Ranka wanted some quiet time with Alto, and Ai-kun showing up was kind of a Crying Game moment for them. P.S. As I stated previously, Ai-kun has done harm to nobody. Killing Ai-kun for the death of Michel would be acting like those guys who murdered Wagar Hasan who was cooking burgers in a grocery store "in retaliation" for the WTC attack. Thinking that "all of them are the same" may let a person rest easy at night after a day of butchery, but it doesn't make it right.

The world does not revolve around Alto for her anymore. She is moving on to more important things. By the time Brera kicked Alto to the curb, she already realized there was no point in asking Alto to go with her. She merely said she *had wanted* to ask him to go with her. Her attitude seemed totally fatalistic, suggesting that she believes this will be a one way trip. "I wanted to be with you forever" seemed like shinju-speak to me. If you want to criticize her for that, I'd buy it, but my take is that she wasn't really expecting him to go anyway since she thinks he is in love with Sheryl.

In the manga, Nausicaa does communicate with the Ohmu, and I believe in one instance she is able to calm a ushiabu in a well without the whistle. I agree with you that Ranka is certainly nowhere near Nausicaa as far as being heroic goes, but can Nausicaa pull off the kira pose?

Not content to sit on the sidelines, Grace swoops in and takes the prize in the triangle.

She obviously didn't think it through, but the tickets were probably the highest money value items she had in her possession. Lot's of people think expensive gift = good gift, without bothering to think if its something the recipient would appreciate. I mean sure a new watch if fine and all, but what I really wanted was that Hasegawa limited release VF-1S Minmay Guard! Damn!

For some reason, that scene is one that has been burned in my memory. It was one of those little background touches that makes the events even more powerful.

There seems to be a lot of anime fans who like the whole bossy-woman thing, but believe me it gets old real fast if you're on the receiving end. I do admit it is amusing to observe as an outsider though.

I made no judgements. How characters 'are' and how they 'could be' are also entirely subjective. I merely made an observation that it you took away her kindness and added drunkeness, Sheryl would be yet another privileged blonde celebrity with a sense of entitlement. It does not take much effort to make a character entirely unlikeable. Okay, maybe I did judge Paris Hilton, but I guess I prefer to save my contempt for real people rather than cartoon characters.

People always bring up the selfish Ranka/selfless Sheryl comparison, but the arguments are totally subjective. People who dislike Ranka always attribute the worst possible motivations for any of her actions. They also portray Sheryl's actions in the most positive light. I don't dislike Sheryl, but if were not for her kindness, she would be just one [mis-]step away from being a Paris Hilton-type character.