-san = standard Japanese name suffix, shows politeness.
ph34red = feared
Lov3 = Love
Piro speaks:
One of the main things about Megatokyo is that it is an attempt to use stark contrasts to bring out and illuminate things about characters, life, the universe, etc. There are lots of time when this works really well, and then there are the times where the contrasting really doesn't really work so well.
There's no question the stuff between largo and erika is more interesting right now, and i blame that mostly on the characters themselves. No matter how you look at it, Largo is more flamboyant, and he appears to be playing a very dangerous game with a very strong willed girl. Piro and Kimiko, on the other hand are like (as someone aptly put it) a battle of the zero egos. Which makes more interesting TV? you tell me :P
To make matters worse, Piro is kind of a do-nothing. He's the one who is used to picking up the pieces left behind by his friend's careening path thru life. Once they arrived in tokyo, the soon found themselves distracted by manifestations (real or imagined, i'll leave you to guess) that have them living out the little worlds they each occupy in only a small, internal way, back home. Largo has actually been doing what seems to be a pretty reasonable job with his world. Challenge after challenge, defeats and battles gone south... yet he picks himself up, dusts himself off, and keeps moving. Piro is surrounded by girls that either like him or respect him, he's doing all the responsible things like finding shelter, a job, working hard, etc... but how well is he really doing with his game?
I suppose in many ways i'm mocking the whole idea of dating sims in general. What you say in the games is scripted, and the actions the protagonist takes are often things that a player might wish he'd do, but often never would in real life. Hell, just the act of talking to a girl, something that seems to happen in these games without thought, is something most players are almost incapable of doing. Add to that the fact that you are often dealing with several girls, all of whom you are chasing to one degree or another. Maybe the problem isn't that the situations in the games (lots of girls who may be interested in you) isn't phony, maybe it's the actions of the protagonist (guided by the player) that are the biggest fantasy of all.
The largo side of Megatokyo will always probably be more entertaining just because it makes more noise. I try to contrast the largo side with the piro side to add spark to the story flow for the piro side and some grounding to the story for the largo side. Not an easy balance, and sometimes the contrast just makes the piro side look kinda... lame. I tried to hard to contrast things in some previous chapters and it didn't work very well. Contrast, when overused, isn't contrast anymore.
As for kimiko, by design she doesn't have a strong 'stereotype' to her like most of the other MT girls have. In fact, that is kind of her purpose. This has, from the beginning, been a problem. Personally, i feel like Kimiko will be the most complex, and hopefully one of the more interesting, characters in MT by the time i reach the end of the story, but she may not. MT is an experiment, as i've said many times before, and while some bits of it may do great, others may not work out as well. I'm certainly trying, of course. Time will tell. Fact is, we haven't really seen much of kimiko in the past six chapters, so maybe that's part of the prob :)
anyways, i try not to comment like this because i feel every damn word will be analyzed for some clue as to where the story is going or what hidden meanings there are here and there... feh. don't do that :) I'm just as curious as you are (if you are, of course) as to where things will really end up.