anarchic-miscellany

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Finally playing "Metal Gear Solid V" all these years later, and it is ludicrously fun - sneaking into a base and kidnapping/stealing every single person and object not nailed down, as the panic amongst the dwindling future kidnap victims escalates will never not be fun. Especially when I do it to a rocking 80s soundtrack. I do, however, forget how much Hideo Kojima's writing boils down to "just vibes, man". I appreciate it: never pay attention to his nutty story about a Skull Cowboy and his Robot army trying to take over the world and being stopped by a naked rain sniper and her boss who has a robot arm and a supervillain base, just go with the Cold War tech flow and "The Man Who Sold the World" (yeah I prefer the Midge Ure cover, always will, fight me.)

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Shoutout to my favourite piece of storytelling in 16-Bit games (spoilers for an old game) In "Final Fantasy 6" when the villain blows up the world, your crew are scattered, and the first party member you find as Celes the redeeming magic knight is Setzer: the gambler whom you hired for his airship, and stuck around because he got a crush on Celes and then grew a conscience. Good arc. Then you need a new airship because the old one exploded, fortunately Setzer knows just where to get one! He knows about an old sky pirate named Daryll, who went missing years ago. You go to a dungeon to go get it back. Across one screen, you descend some steps, and you get flashbacks of Daryll and Setzer in the past, having fun, disappearing... Down these steps across maybe 15 seconds of game, you get more about Setzer, his relationship with Daryll, who she was to him, how he felt when losing her, and how it has affected him to become the man he is today; than you do across most entire video games (ESPECIALLY later "Final Fantasy" titles). It's honestly fantastic storytelling there, genuinely heartbreaking.

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Until the trailer for "Superman" I don't think I realised just how much I missed movies being brightly lit. It's refreshing

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I love how the Metal and Post Hardcore and any number of genres and big name artists have just adopted Babymetal. It's so wholesome. (check out the performance they did with Rob Halford: one half is them being elated to be performing with Rob Halford, the rest is Rob Halford being even happier to be performing with Babymetal) In hindsight it was hilarious that the fragile bitches calling themselves "metalheads" tried to gatekeep them. But to be fair it was funny at the time too

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"Looking forward" to the shit-tier intercinine discourse sure to sprout up around "Queer" (it's pretty good, I enjoyed it: sets an excellent mood. Meanders a lot, but that's par for the course with Burroughs' writing - the man was made of heroin and bad decisions). Not the "should straight actors play gay characters" but "this is problematic because Burroughs, and the character is a dick" discussions and the speed-running of popular opinion. Dudes, we can throw this shit around in castles all day, debating "bad Versus no representation", but down there in the shitty cesspits of society, people are barely evolving beyond the branch of "gay people exist? Eww!". A lot of this discourse is going to be monkeys looking at monoliths. Anyway, my Universal Soldier sequels arrived today, fuck yes!

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Never use "optimum" strategies in games where you can pick characters, you'll deny yourself brilliance. Yeah, magic rules in "Chrono Trigger", but you want to miss out on best character and bisexual queen Ayla? You want Wavemasters in ".hack" or do you want weaboo Sanjuro and best girls Gardenia and Natsume? You want to beat "Tekken" by showing off your skills as Yoshimitsu or do you want to play as Paul Phoenix? You want to do "Final Fantasy 6" with a broken "all Magic" party or do you want best gang Cyan, Setzer, Shadow and Strago the Punk Grandpa?

Follow your dreams, and the best characters

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Rewatching "Pokemon 2000" and I'm pretty sure that the villain from that, with his skull fortress and obsession with Lugia and legendary bird Pokemon, burned down the Twin Towers because he thought it'd bring about Ho-Oh.

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Rightfully seeing a lot of love for "The Substance". You kids should check out "Society" too! I was humming that film's version of the Eton Boating Song all through the wild final act in the cinema

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Anora (2024)

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Reading "One Piece for the first time: Part 13"

A brief one just to show you that I am still alive. Appreciate the return of "Captain Smoker" and his 2 fat blunts, as the only competent villain we've had so far, using an actual brain to confront the morons of this "Baroque Works" on his ship Odd that they all communicate through snail telephones (I choose to believe it's a pun about "Snail Mail" even though I know that it's simply a case of the author putting down whatever the 10 foot zebra god made of bees only he can see told him to). The giants were fun, I'll miss them. The Giga Chad having to explain how illness works to the bumbling fuckhead he has for a Captain got a chuckle out of me, I'll give it that. The Himbo wants to get stronger. If it means he gets to kill Cringe Lord Dracule Mihawk in a single panel, I'll take removing him from the manga for 800 chapters. If you will not grant me this wish, Oda, then to HELL with you!

Guys, quick pop quiz: You see a hovering clown on the ocean after barely surviving a typhoon. Do you: A. Run for your fucking life? B. Unload the cannon at it whilst moving backwards? C. APPROACH IT AND BE SURPRISED IT IS AN AMBUSH?! Appreciate an actual pirate here though: trying to nick their ship, plunder their shit, you know, PIRATE stuff. Even if he does eat stuff like this is "Crimes of the Future" Man I should watch "Crimes of the Future" again

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The Tove Lo collaboration on the latest Kylie Minogue album ("Tension II", beating me to the punch to all the "if Tension is so good, why is there no Tension 2?" jokes. Well played Ms Minogue) feels, in the best possible way, like that Kristen Stewart meme.

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After watching the adorable interviews with the legendary Michael Ironside and Clancy Brown on the 2022 DVD release of "Extreme Prejudice", I want a movie where the two of them play grandpas off to rescue their grandchildren on a roadtrip.

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go back to the clUuUuUuBbbB

I want to say that I hate this movie (and it sucks so so so so so so very much) but that line made it worthwhile

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I love "Shadow Hearts" for many reasons (its oddly involving plot, unique setting, colourful characters, genuinely nightmarish beastiary, and its cool battle mechanic to shake things up a bit) and special mention must go to my favourite party member Lord Valentine the Vampire of Germany. Rather than having him be something eloquent or era appropriate like "Hans" or "Gunther", the makers opted to call him "Keith". Rather than evoking a debonair, mysterious swordsmaster and sultry vampire, it brings to mind a honking great big Cockney lad who'll put the frighteners up ya for messin' about with Big Mickey. It's a delightful game.

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I still get chills every time that I think about the emotional rollercoaster of "Anora", it's one of those movies which feels like a draining, wild night out. Finding out that there was a poster to Strawberry from the absolutely spectacular "Red Rocket" was icing on the cake. I now want Mikey Saber (legitimately my favourite performance in a film), the shark who never stops swimming, coming into the orbit of Anora (you absolutely know Strawberry went off on her own and ditched his sorry ass) and sparks flying as these two maniacs go on their adventures. She'd absolutely know he was playing her, and he would know she sees through his bullshit, but they'd have this toxic parasocial dance going on, I'd love it. Electric performances in both movies. I need to watch "Red Rocket" again

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Genuinely heartbreaking to open this month's "Neo" and discover that it is the last ever issue. I'll miss Jonathan Clements' columns on the state of the industry, and his delightfully droll deep dives into the magazines in Japan; I'll miss Andrew Osmond's consistent previews and reviews; cherish David West's enlightening interviews (some of the only ones around with his subjects) and in depth reviews of the movies; the consistency of Alex West; and forever cherish the delightful stories of Emily Lovell and Mark Guthrie as "boots on the ground" - and all of it held together with the infectious drive of Gemma Cox. And that's just the current legendary crop. It brought me many, many wonderful discoveries, recommendations and nuanced pieces of news, for somebody who still enjoys a haptic, tactile copy to treasure and refer to, tangible and real. I felt in wonderful company with it.

I discovered not just series which I adore and cherish now ("Penguindrum", "Tiger and Bunny", all time great "Baccano" and "Durarara" to name just a few) growing ever excited for their release or (and now I really feel old) re-releases, but also some movies I now absolutely cannot get enough of, and these legends were even the only ones who told me about Guitar Wolf playing 4 dates in the UK, well over a decade ago, which remains one of the greatest and strangest gigs of my life, and a fond memory forever shared with dear friends. I still disagree with them on "Code Geass" though, it sucks. I'm sorry, I just attack "Code Geass" unprompted, it's reflexsive. They'd talk about the series from the past I love, in deep dives, and help me plumb the depths to find things I discovered anew, like "El Hazard" and "Gunbuster". In the digital age, where "traditional journalism" is seen as a dying breed, and everything must be constant, online and freeform - we shall see. It is time for "the future" to put up or shut up. Mr Clements summed it up best: "Goodbye, everybody. All these worlds are yours."