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May 28, 2008
I stumbled onto this manga when I was looking for a good one-shot to spend my time on. The apocalyptic premise of the story appealed to me immediately, and the cover looked promising as well, with the skyscrapers half submerged into the glittering ocean. Furthermore, hotel was the highest rated one-shot on this site and so I decided it would be a good investment of my time.
I still think it was, but I'm not sure I would rate it as highly as the others who read it. The poignancy of the story is marred by a rather bizarre and hilariously bad attempt
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at making Keira Knightley (yes) a main character. She's married to a Japanese professor in the manga and doodles all over the hotel's supercomputer. It's admittedly a little funny but the oddity of the starlet's appearance and the inconsistency of the slapstick humor with the backdrop of a doomed world leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Once past all that though, the story gets significantly better. I really enjoyed the recounting of the supercomputer's attempts to stabilize its environment and protect the last DNA storehouse on earth. It's a beautiful variation on the Noah's ark theme and the mangaka does a good job at illustrating all the difficulties the AI had.
My only other complaint is that there seems to be a certain patronizing symbolism towards the end of hotel. It's not quite racist per se and it's likely the artist meant no harm, but it's still something that may bother people who catch the implications.
Overall, I did enjoy the one-shot a lot though. I just think it would have been better if the author had stuck to a more serious beginning.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 25, 2008
Dennou Coil is an anime series about a circle of children who are growing up in a city that is becoming increasingly virtualized. The female lead, Yasako, owns a cyber pet. Giant robots named Satchii wander the city applying software patches (even the city buildings are part virtual) and eliminating viruses and other illegal or malicious software-- using lasers, apparently. The characters wear special cyberglasses that have all the features of modern computers and much more. It's all pretty cool if a tad unrealistic and I was hooked after the first episode, although it took me pretty long to finish the
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rest.
To start off, the story is pretty good. The anime slowly draws you deeper and deeper into the central mysteries of the series, always letting you know enough to keep you satisfied but not to the point where you can tie all the loose ends yourself. You always get the feeling that there is something deeper in the background, pulling the strings, manipulating the protagonists like a bunch of puppets.
The main storyline has several branches: a search for what killed Kenichi's childhood friend, and the resolution of Isako's brother's fate. This puts the anime on a rather tragic path, but surprisingly the writers manage to keep the emotional appeal stable, never letting the anime descend for too long into excessive melodrama at the expense of the sense of fun and adventure of childhood that the series is fundamentally about.
There are many side stories interspersed throughout the series. Most of them are interesting and woven quite well into the overall framework (eg The Last Pleiosaur being one of my favorites), but a few of them are kind of sleep-inducing (mostly due to poor pacing), to be honest. This is especially the case towards the early middle of the series, which was when I stopped watching for a couple months, only coming back later to finish. Some of the stories have a "slice of life" kind of feel, and I'm not a particular fan of that genre, so maybe that explains it.
The art is fantastic. It is very reminiscent of Miyazaki's style for some reason, and in fact the storytelling itself feels very much the same. Dennou Coil is like My Neighbor Totoro meets Mushishi, with a strange cyber twist. Don't get the wrong idea though. The series is not cyberpunk. The anime is not gritty, though it can be dramatic. There is no attempt to really explore the implications of AI or emergent behavior. The nature of objective reality, and its relationship to virtual reality, is examined, but the themes and the conclusions drawn are more akin to classical Japanese fantasy than cyberpunk.
For instance, one unique part of Dennou Coil's fictive universe is the meta-tags, which are apparently snippets of code on ofuda scrolls or something similar (ofuda scrolls are those things that Rei from Sailor Moon uses, in case it isn't clear). Another example would be the spirit-like "null illegals" that wander the obsolete cyberspace. These are clearly inspiration from Shintoism and, while they are interesting, they are part of a large reservoir of reasons why the universe feels like a wannabe fantasy world rather than a real cyber world. All the tech is just magic with a modern twist. Don't expect anything to make real scientific sense. Instead, see Dennou Coil for what it really is: a beautiful supernatural story recasted in modern terms. It succeeds wonderfully in this regard.
Some who have seen the anime will notice that some interesting parallels can be drawn to Fullmetal Alchemist. The "encode" system utilized by some of the hackers in Dennou Coil is very similar to the alchemy system in FMA. Interestingly, the symbols and patterns, despite being apparently pretty much just magic, are justified as "science" and technology in both series. Like Fullmetal Alchemist, Dennou Coil is also very much a "coming of age" story that has somewhat dark tones occasionally, especially towards the end. So I would suggest that fans of FMA take a look at Dennou Coil, though it's definitely not going to be the cup of tea of every FMA fan.
The music and the sound effects are generally good but not outstanding. The opening and ending, however, are absolutely wonderful. They project an aura of mystery and hopeful melancholy that captures the spirit of the series very well.
The characters in Dennou Coil are quite good. Sometimes during the series I felt like, somewhere, sometime, somehow, these people could actually really exist. The circle of children is composed mainly of girls and they all act realistically for the most part. Don't expect the stereotypical bubbly lolis you see in a lot of modern anime. The characters are charmingly human in their range of emotions and will feel quite familiar.
My only complaint with regards to characterization is Isako. She was a much more interesting, respectable character before the series made her out to be a tsundere. Personally, I felt this transition deviated too much from her original presentation, and rather than adding depth to her personality, turned her into a stock character. But aside from this, I would say that the characterization in the series is very strong.
Overall, this is one of my favorite anime series so far, but I don't think it's for everyone. If you are a fan of "coming of age" stories and/or enjoy Miyazaki movies (in particular the aforementioned My Neighbor Totoro), this is a must watch. If you like FMA, you might like this. If you enjoy science fiction, you might like it, as long as you don't place too high a premium on plausibility. Last but not least, if you found the strange universe of Mushishi fascinating, you might also like the universe in Dennou Coil. As for myself, I fit in all those categories.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jan 24, 2008
This anime is something like 2 hours when you watch all the episodes in sequence so this review will be short.
Doujin Work is good for some nice cheap laughs. It's about a girl who wants to go into the doujin business, because of all the profit that can be made there. *snicker*
Ahem, anyways, it's really funny. The episodes (the anime parts I mean, not that extra crap they tagged on) are about 12 minutes each or something so it's a decent way to get your daily dose of giggles during a break.
The characters are reasonably original, ranging from the naive doujin artist
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wannabe and her stalker childhood friend to the faux-innocent rape manga enthusiast (my favorite of the bunch) to a jealous loli and more. It's superficial entertainment, but amusing enough and well executed. The series shines at its best during the first 6 episodes, and kind of goes downhill from there, getting a bit more serious and also reusing some of the gags from earlier.
The art and sound aren't great but they're functional and won't bother you.
One note about the jokes-- they are mostly about doujins and otaku subculture. If you're not really interested in that stuff or don't find similar stuff (eg Genshiken) amusing, you won't like Doujin Work either. There's also, obviously, some perverted jokes (what, the tidbit about the rape manga enthusiast didn't tip you off?). If that's not your cup of tea, don't bother with this series, since half the jokes revolve around sexual innuendo.
Overall I recommend it heartily to the bored comedy connoisseur who just needs to blow an hour away.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 23, 2008
Honestly I feel a bit like I wasted my time. It's not really bad or anything but it's not all that great either. The story is a cliche among cliches. Boy gets to live in a girl's dorm. Wow. Haven't seen that before. I expected better from the mangaka.
The characters are weak. They don't evolve. They are stereotypes and have stayed the exact same up to the last volume I read (the fifth). I would be lying to say I could distinguish all the random scenarios in this manga from the billion other similar
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ones like Love Hina and so on. Heck the characters even look the same as in all other typical harem manga. For Christ sakes, not yet another bipolar girl with pigtails that likes the protagonist but doesn't realize it. And yet again, she is apparently on track to be the protagonist's main love interest. Sigh. And oh, what do we have here, the glasses girl with big tits who is yearning for attention but doesn't get what she deserves. And the sexy teacher. Yawn.
Okay, I'll be fair. It's not all garbage. There are some original parts. The protagonist has a specific fetish for "parts" of females. He doesn't believe in aesthetic gestalt, he appreciates only the specific parts of a girl. And in no terrible act of coincidence, the girls he meets at the dormitory each have only one part he wants. One girl has great tits, another has great eyes, and so on. A decent premise, actually. But the mangaka (a famous one too) seems to waste all the potential by jumping on the cliche train for everything else.
One thing that is a bit unusual, and the reason I didn't bring the character rating down to a 5, is that the protagonist, at least, has some actual balls in this manga versus all the other typical harem manga. He's not a weakling and is very straightforward about what he wants. He doesn't get all emo and whatever about random stuff. I'm not sure this is enough to salvage the overall rating to more than a 6 however.
This all said, it's not actually *bad* per se. Just somewhat trite and repetitive. If you haven't read very much harem manga it'll be a decent read. Even if you have, you might still like it, if only because ecchi manga is basically the Japanese equivalent of pulp fiction. Easy to read, quick to understand, and steadily consumed by all males with a pulse no matter how ludicrous the scenarios get. Enjoy, guys.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 22, 2008
This review is for Kigeki (Comedy).
Wow. I don't really know what to say. It's good, that much is certain. It's basically a dark fairy tale about a swordsman and his hobby, and the little girl who finds out about it. I really can't say much more than that without spoiling anything, since it's so short. Just go watch it, there really isn't any excuse since it's just 10 minutes. The animation is very breath taking, in fact it is hauntingly beautiful, and appears as though it was shot through an old film camera, you can see all the artifacts
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and the fleeting frame inconsistencies-- very atmospheric. The artists who did this did a superb job, the effect is not cheesy, surprisingly. Like the other reviewer said, the art is so dark and yet so bright at the same time. The animation is just indescribable. The only thing I didn't like was the rather exaggerated portrayal of the "evil English," which made me laugh. But it's a minor quibble and does not ruin the overall effect. As for the story, it is not very innovative, but it's simple and well executed, as a 10-minute fairy tale should be. Thumbs up.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jan 22, 2008
It was alright. It's nowhere near the masterpiece that I thought I was going to watch, based on my friends' excited, rather fanboy-ish reactions, but I can't say that it was a waste of my time. I definitely do recommend it, but with the following disclaimer: don't believe the hype, just enjoy the action, but don't expect anything too lasting.
The story, first off, is a trainwreck. I'm not going to regurgitate the details here since I'm not supposed to and I trust the reader has access to Wikipedia, but let's just say it's an insult to the FF7 legacy, and
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I'm saying that as someone who thought FF7, while a fairly good RPG, a classic for sure, isn't, say, in the top 10 of my list and likely not even top 20. The antagonist is a generic raving, cackling lunatic and almost none of the FF7 protagonists save for Cloud and Tifa get any reasonable amount of character development or even dialogue. It's just ridiculous. They basically threw characters into the movie just to placate the angry mob of fans that would be disappointed if their favorite wasn't in.
The entire movie is just an extended series of fight sequences. Very good fight sequences, actually, probably some of the best I've seen in my life, as far as CG goes. But still just fight sequences. For anyone who has not played FF7 or does not have any background in the material (not myself but a few of my friends who watched with me), none of it will make any sense whatsoever. Heck, I played the game a long time ago and so even I was occasionally confused, wondering "who the hell is that?" during the scene with Aeris and Zack [<-- didn't figure out it was him until after the movie]. They never really gave the characters a proper introduction.
The sound accompanying the animation is very good-- basically new, usually improved versions of the FF7 original soundtrack in most cases. Can't use the MIDI's, after all. So, no complaint there, as it would be improper to introduce significantly new music.
So, um, I'm not sure where that leaves me. I want to write more, but there's so little to write about. The overall content is quite shallow. They would've been better off just animating FF7's original storyline, with some cuts here or there. Instead we get a pale shadow that tries to steal all the best parts of the game, going so far as to even recreate a "new Sephiroth." Sigh.
That's not to say that there aren't any decent scenes in the movie. There's some good humor, particularly the famous scene with Tifa and the cellphone (can't spoil it). But the overarching storyline is quite weak and million dollar action scenes are no excuse.
Conclusion: great action scenes, wonderful animation. Some of it is genuinely ground breaking. A must watch for that reason. But don't believe the hype. This is not a classic, and altogether, it is a somewhat disappointing ending to Cloud's story.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 21, 2008
Zombie Powder is a bit of a mixed bag. It's really impossible to not compare it to Bleach, since Zombie Powder was the mangaka's previous work (a relatively commercially unsuccessful one, I should probably add). It's probably not altogether fair to make the comparison, but it can't be helped since I already saw Bleach (both the anime and the manga) so I might as well just go ahead honestly with that perspective in mind.
As far as art goes, it's very similar in style to Bleach-- good but not quite great. I would say that the mangaka's style hasn't really changed
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too much.
People who have read/seen Bleach will notice very obvious parallels between Ichigo and Gamma, both of which utilize ridiculously large swords and whose bodies contain some greater, dark being holding tremendous power. Both of these darker sides are at once the protagonist and not, and you see Ichigo/Gamma noticeably suppress them. There are some other character similarities (Inoue and "Wolfgangina" [<--- that really is her name, I'm not kidding] look very similar) but they're not quite as evident.
The characters are fairly well developed, better so than in Bleach, if you only go up to volume 4 (the last volume in Zombie Powder) to be fair. Some of the characters are pretty cool, my favorite of the bunch is probably CT Smith, a charismatic gunslinger who offers some of the best humor in the series. The characters are a bit more balanced than in Bleach (where Ichigo is by far the strongest of the original team that went to Soul Society) and can take care of themselves fairly well without always having to rely on Gamma-- something I appreciate.
In terms of settings, the Bleach and Zombie Powder universes are almost polar opposites. Bleach is a supernatural Japanese universe complete with swords and spirits while Zombie Powder is a sci-fi Western (think cowboy movies w.r.t to the Western part) universe with guns and outlaws. Between the two settings, I honestly prefer the supernatural Japanese one, although I will admit it is rather trite and Zombie Powder's setting is much more original (though it has a possible cousin in the form of Trigun).
As Zombie Powder is an action manga, it would be a tremendous oversight to discuss it without mentioning a bit about the action scenes, which I think are fairly good. They're actually quite similar to Bleach-- clean art, lots of plot twists in which it'll seem one guy is coming out on top but hey, go figure, he actually isn't, a generous helping of humor both during and between action scenes to keep the mood light. Also lots of bizarre "special" attacks and villains, ranging from a crazy circus magician to a titanic fat woman. It's a bit wacky, but if you've read the Bleach manga up to the latest chapters (with the rather bizarre and gruesome Szayel vs Mayuri fight) it's nothing you haven't seen before, anyway.
In conclusion, not a bad manga but I can't help but feel something is missing. Maybe that is due to the fact that this manga never really ended, the mangaka stopped abruptly. Maybe it's because some of the mechanics in the manga are a bit too similar to Bleach. It might also be because of the really cliche premise of the story-- essentially a search for "Rings of the Dead" to construct Zombie Powder to gain immortality. I think in the end, this was a worthwhile read for me, if only for historical purposes. If you like Western settings in manga, or if you really liked Bleach a lot and would like to see a similar series, or hey if you just have some free time, maybe take a quick look at Zombie Powder and see if you like it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 20, 2008
The first season of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is absolutely brilliant. For those who are not familiar with this series, it's a spinoff of the 1995 movie Ghost in the Shell, which has influenced many directors, not least of which are the Wachowski brothers who later created The Matrix.
Cyberpunk anime is relatively rare, and in this chest of obscure goods, Stand Alone Complex arguably shines the brightest.
The main storyline, which follows The Laughing Man incident (per the Review Guidelines, I'm not going to elaborate on the plot details, if you really want them, see Wikipedia), is a gripping thrill
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ride through the dark underbelly of a fully cyberized society. The series explores a host of typical cyberpunk scenarios, ranging from sensory perception espionage to corporate terrorism to cybernetic body swapping and much more. Philosophical issues typical in cyberpunk media are incorporated relatively seamlessly into the series, such as the identity problem and emergent behavior.
Carefully considered references to relevant Western literature (particularly Catcher in the Rye and The Laughing Man by JD Salinger) appear in the anime often, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that, unlike in most other anime, they actually tied into the plot quite well and in many cases foreshadowed the future in unpredictable fashion.
The series is action-packed but tasteful in its portrayal of violence. People die in various ways, and just enough blood and gore is shown to keep the experience visceral, but not to the point of offending anyone. I liked the honest representation of warfare (a lot of other anime will just have the protagonists "knock out" enemy combatants; this series doesn't hold back in this regard, people who are shot can and often do die-- something I appreciate as it maintains tension well.)
I don't usually describe a series in this way, but SAC is just, simply, "cool." The Section 9 team uses a variety of equipment, ranging from thermo-optical camouflage (essentially invisibility) to high powered sniper rifles. The way the team (an elite group of special ops veterans) plans and executes their missions is very professional and the directors paid careful attention to tactical details normally ignored in other anime.
The art in this series, btw, is spectacular. The team in charge very clearly made good use of computers, particularly when they did their cartoon shading for the Tachikomas. The result is a clean, very detailed and yet natural style.
The series does have its weaknesses of course. The stand alone episodes (those unrelated to the main storyline) vary greatly in their quality. Some episodes are too predictable, such as Episode 3 in which (surprise) an AI doesn't behave as it should and Togusa wonders whether it gained a "ghost" (a term in the series that's semantically similar to "soul"). Why is it that practically every plot-relevant AI encountered acts like it has gained a ghost?
Character development was not very even in this anime. Batou, Togusa, the Major, and Aramaki are the only characters with significant character development. Saito and the rest remain enigmatic and don't have any backstory until the 2nd season. Even the talking, thinking tanks (Tachikomas) are more central to the plot than the rest of the Section 9 team. At least they get a couple episodes mostly to themselves.
Some people who are paying close attention will also notice some annoying misconceptions, eg "offensive" firewalls being the most annoying and conspicuous.
But all in all, it was a great season. It's too bad the 2nd one is so disappointing in contrast.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jan 20, 2008
The 2nd gig is a real disappointment compared to the first season of Ghost in the Shell. There are two interconnected storylines (Gouda and the Cabinet of Intelligence; The Particularist Eleven) that run side by side and eventually are tied together. It's an interesting storytelling approach but wasn't executed particularly well. They should have taken a more conventional approach by having the storylines run more in parallel within each episode, and not have episodes dedicated mainly to one or the other. I can't help but feel some coherence was sacrificed for this interesting innovation.
As far as stories go, there
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was nothing all that original. We have the scarred, evil antagonist (Gouda) on the one hand and the revolutionary with a heart of gold (Kuze) on the other. These are very transparently obvious archetypes and it becomes a bit underwhelming. The story gets worse over time. I'm not going to spoil anything (you can't spoil anything which is already rotten, after all), but let's just say the ending reveals that Gouda was involved with a certain country that was going to secretly use nuclear weapons on Japan. Sigh. A weak plot with stereotypical characters, leading up to a predictable, weak finale.
Oh, for sure, there were some decent parts. Saito and Pazu finally get some reasonable character development (sorely and very conspicuously missed from the first season), with episodes (13&14) dedicated specifically to the backstory of those two characters, how they joined Section 9 for example. We also get some interesting history on the Major and the other characters. Still, as before, only the Major, Aramaki, Batou, and Togusa get any real action. The rest of the Section 9 team doesn't really do or say much of interest.
We are treated to some well done computer-assisted art, although it pales when compared to the first season here as well.
There were some annoying, noticeable gaffes. Like in the first season, we still have to put up with the nonsense about "offensive" firewalls (there's no such thing, firewalls are software that intercept and block or filter traffic, you can't use them to damage any software, just lock nosy people out or keep spies within from sending stuff out.) Also, encryption only prevents people from understanding your communication, it does not prevent people from realizing that a connection is being established (the series makes this error in Episode 10). There are more annoying mistakes but I will not bore the reader with them.
Unlike the first season, the second season does not make any clever references to Western literature, which was disappointing, as I was quite impressed by how the first season worked the J.D. Salinger angle into the Laughing Man incident.
All in all, a disappointing follow up to a terrific first season.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jan 20, 2008
I'll just cut to the chase. I don't recommend this anime. I'll start out with the good things. The art is superb and very atmospheric. It's drawn in a unique style and it might be worth watching an episode or two for just this fact alone. If I were ever to direct an existentialist anime, I would definitely turn to this series for some major inspiration. The opening theme is well chosen and the sound effects are fairly good.
Now for the bad-- everything else. Serial Experiments Lain tries to tackle the problem of existence and identity
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but it completely fails. The parts that are supposed to be creepy are unconvincing and incoherent, and the attempt to create tension instead collapses into unbearably slow pacing in the storyline. Dialogue is much too short and yet drawn out. Entire scenes go by that neither attempt to interest the viewer nor advance the plot. Each episode except maybe the first one could have easily been cut in half without losing any content. The series could've been much better as a result.
The typical theme of weakening of identity as technology advances was handled very clumsily in the series, as if the writers thought that bringing up the issue alone was sufficient to be profound. It's not. The theme is nothing new in modern media.
Some reviews (not here) by mainstream critics claim that the series asks "deep" questions about contemporary life and the nature of reality, but this really is not true. The questions are old and the answers given are nonsensical and shallow. We are presented with several common plot devices in cyberpunk-- the near omnipotent digital entity that wants Lain (the protagonist) to abandon the flesh and become one with the cyber world, the use of dissociative identity disorder to symbolize Lain's mental fracture due to virtualization, the embodiment of humanity's collective unconscious made possible due to the new internet, etc. This stuff isn't new, which would be fine if at least SEL executed these things to perfection, but it doesn't. Instead the directors plod slowly onwards and resolve the philosophical dilemmas with absurd, silly conclusions about what Lain really is. It's just like they reduced everything down to magic.
Don't get me wrong, I really wanted to like this series. I enjoy cyberpunk and philosophy and wanted to look for a well done series that incorporated the two. I had heard many good things about this anime, but it just did not meet almost any of the most basic expectations I have for either anime or cyberpunk.
If you are interested in cyberpunk, Ghost in the Shell is very much the superior choice in all aspects, except possibly the art, though it's no sloucher there either. If you are interested in a coming of age story for children in a virtual world, Dennou Coil is better. For those just interested in really crazy, genuinely weird stuff-- that still makes actual sense-- try Paranoia Agent or Paprika.
That isn't to say you, the reader, might not like Serial Experiments Lain. If you have no prior exposure to cyberpunk or the philosophical issues raised within, or if you have very high tolerance to long scenes in which absolutely nothing advances the plot, or if enjoyment of the artistic merits of a series is sufficient for you, this just might do it. But it's not really enough for me.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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