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mysterylover123 · 5 years ago

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Top 10 Bakugou Moments I Can’t Wait to see Animated!

MANGA SPOILERS AHEAD THROUGH 251

Our loudmouthed Lord Explosion Murder sure has grown up a lot, hasn’t he? While there was traceable growth in him even before The Thing happened (The Thing being Episode 61), he really shot off like a rocket on the Character Development Train following that grand wakeup call. Since he’s basically on hiatus from the anime until we get through the damn basement arc (sorry to those who like it, I just think it’s way too long) I thought I’d celebrate the Top 10 Katsuki Bakugou moments from the manga I can’t wait to see animated.

#10. “That’s a good look for you, dreamy boy!”

Chapter 166

I’m basically hyped to get to all of the Todoroki/Bakugou shenanigans from the License Retake mini-arc (every interaction they have here is gold) but this moment stands out as the most fun one to see transfer to animation. Bakugou actually laughs for once at a joke rather than his own triumph; his line is translated differently, either as an actual compliment to Camie or a borderline flirty, teasing comment towards Todoroki. Either way, it’s funny as hell, and a great BakuMoment I’m looking forward to seeing finally hit the screen (and to hear both Okamoto and Chapin try and make Bakugou laugh like that).

#9. “I came here to find what I lack”

Chapter 247

Bakugou really kicked off the self-awareness train post DVK2, of course. But this is one of his more self-aware moments since then, as he goes to intern with the #1 pro and talks about what motivated him to do so. Bakugou knows he’s great at many aspects of being a hero, and he’s even learned how to do the Saving and Teamwork thing from last arc, but he still feels like there’s something he’s missing as a hero. So he comes to learn from the #1, and gives this little speech (accompanied by another cute flashback with Baby Deku). Another moment I’m impatient to hear voiced.

#8. “Have you gotten any better?”

Chapter 168

After the first 120 chapters of being the Central dynamic of the entire series, post DVK2 Bakugou and Midoriya rivalry is a lot more low-key and very different in nature. Namely, Bakugou flips from being desperate to tear down every success of Midoriya’s out of fear to being surprisingly supportive of Deku’s success and quick to give him a push in the right direction. He speaks here to ask Deku how he’s doing, and challenge him to catch up. No longer afraid that he might, but practically demanding that he actually do it. That, my friends, is growth.

#7. “I’m gonna kill ‘em all with my sound”

Chapters 171-182

Culture Fest Bakugou is just a surprising delight from beginning to end. It’s one of those arcs that really reminds me he’s a teenager, immature and petty but learning to be better. There’s two specific scenes I’m excited for in the anime: firstly, of course, the aforementioned quote, as he protests the way the other classes are treating Class 1-A, and then during the performance itself, as he not only does great, but realizes that he needs to put his own ego aside and play along for the good of the class as a whole. It’s a very short little mini-arc for him, but another sign of how much more empathetic he’s grown.

#6. Post OFA breakdown concern

Chapter 217

I’ve got a number of the “Kacchan acts like a concerned, supportive friend for Deku” moments on this list, but this little sequence has a special place in my heart. Of course, there are the multiple close-ups on Katsuki’s concerned looking face during the match as OFA goes berserk, but then there’s the cut to post-Training when Kacchan spars with Deku to bring out his power, sits on the couch with him to consult about OFA, and serves as a very helpful intermediary between Deku and All Might, spurring Midoriya to realize some uncomfortable truths about OFA. Also, “Icy hot can be so smart and so damn dense at the same time.” Cannot wait to hear that one.

#5. “Didn’t hear of any time limit”

Chapter 218-219

Finally having their Provisional Licenses, Bakugou and Todoroki leap into action within less than an hour of getting them to save some civilians from a villain attack. Not only is that cool, but Bakugo once again shows his growth by prioritizing getting their stolen wallets back from the criminal, somehow managing to store them all inside those giant gauntlets. Pulling off teamwork with his (best friend) greatest rival, saving to win, and getting head-pat from All Might? It’s enough to seriously warm the heart.

#4. “Did something happen with One for All?”

Chapter 202

And my favorite of the “Kacchan worrying about Deku” moments, from Chapter 202. After nearly a year’s worth of complete hiatus from the Rivalry, Kacchan returns with a new attitude towards Midoriya, one where he actively inquires into his wellbeing, encourages him “in his own way”, to quote the Symbol of Peace himself, and nags him about being more cautious and trying harder. He just exudes such a kinder, better energy here, despite still exploding and covering it up with harshness, than he ever did before. I can’t wait to hear that new, more tender delivery from both Dub & Sub.

#3. “If you’re always looking down on people…”

Chapter 167

Ah, the climax moment of the License Retake arc. Not only does Bakugou figure out exactly how to reach the bratty kids (Bakugou!!!), but he takes a moment to pull the ringleader by the hand to join his friends and tell him the lesson he learned himself about self-examination and the consequences of looking down on others. Again, another moment I’m excited to see animated partly, yes, for the animation, but mostly for the sake of hearing Kacchan’s gruff voice actors pull this off (And of course, after the way they both nailed DVK2, I know they’ll be amazing).

#2. “He’d achieved a different kind of strength”

Chapter 208

The first moment when we truly get to see the new “Save to Win” dynamic play out on screen. Living up to his own hype to Deku and All Might, Katsuki not only leads his team to a perfect 4-0 victory (the first for Class A), but does so through 1. Teamwork and Cooperation with his classmates, and 2. Jumping into action to save Jirou from an upcoming attack. We’re reminded, in this moment, of those key words from the end of DVK2, as the person who brought about all this change in him (Midoriya) watches on in awe. I want to see the action, voice acting, and maybe a hint of the “Katsuki and Izuku” OST to start playing at this point. Hype!

Honorable Mentions: “It’s too damn early” Chapter 249, Christmas Kacchan, Chapter 242, Eating the Speech bubble, Chapter 194 (how are they gonna pull that off in animation?), grumpily waiting up for the Internship kids (Chapter 162).

#1. Saving Natsuo

Chapter 251

Yep. Most recent, most hype-a-ble. Kacchan finally getting to rescue someone from a real, honest-to-god crisis situation. This chapter went by really fast, so I’m hoping the anime gives us the proper animation and focus on Kacchan (the chapter was also way more focused on Todoroki’s thoughts than his). I want to see him have that switch flip, that Deku moment where he just moves to go save someone without thinking. And in this case, I think he does. He jumps into a action to save good ‘ol Natsuo from a dangerous villain and gets himself a hug from the #1 for his trouble (hugged by 2 #1 pros, wows). Definitely cannot wait to see this finally hit the big screen.

#my hero academia #katsuki bakugou #kacchan #bakugou katsuki #i do love making a top baku moments list #he's so lovable now #like he starts as the guy you think will be the villain #and then #all of a sudden #post dvk2 he's lke the unexpected heart of class a #you just wanna pat his head and hug him #jealous of endeav a little

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thecartoonuniverse · 6 years ago

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Currently Airing Cartoons to Watch: 2019 Edition Part 1

You may remember my list of upcoming cartoons to look out for last year, but this time around I would like to do something different! I am personally recommending cartoons that are currently airing (or are confirmed to get more seasons) and give my opinions on each of them. There may be other good cartoons out there, but if they are not on the list, it means I was not a huge fan of it, it’s a super popular show like Steven Universe or Star vs. the Forces of Evil, or I have yet to watch it. If you are looking for something to watch, this is the list!

Currently Airing:

The Dragon Prince

Summary: The Dragon Prince is an epic fantasy series by the head writer and director of Avatar: the Last Airbender. In the magical land of Xadia, magic comes from six primal sources. But when human mages create a seventh kind of magic, Dark Magic — they begin capturing and harvesting the unique magical creatures they need as ingredients. This sparks a catastrophic war between Xadia and the Human Kingdoms. Three kids from opposite sides of the conflict — two human princes, and the elven assassin who was sent to kill them — discover a secret that could change everything. They decide to join forces and go on an epic journey that may be their only hope of ending the war, and restoring peace to both their worlds.

Opinion: This is probably my favorite currently airing show right now, mostly since I am a huge fan of fantasy shows. Dragons, extremely hot elves, and magic- what more could you ask for? Every one of the characters is complex and likable (well most, depending on who you ask). But even the antagonists are compelling at there are always shades of gray present. Season 2 truly blew me away with how much the stakes were raised and the number of surprises that occurred. There is even going to be a AAA cross-platform video game coming soon set in the same world! The company that creates The Dragon Prince, is doing a fantastic job on their social media (it’s hilarious, trust me), and I cannot wait to see what else they create. A quick warning, the animation from season 1 will take a little while to get used to, but for the most part, it has been improved for Season 2.

Also, there a lot of memes, so get ready for that.

gen:LOCK

Summary: In gen:LOCK, Earth’s last free society is on the losing side of a global war, and recruits a diverse team of young pilots to control the next generation of mecha—giant, weaponized robot bodies. These daring recruits will find, however, that their newfound abilities come at no small cost. As Julian Chase leaves behind his life as a fighter pilot to become the first candidate for the program, he finds his endurance, as well as his very identity, will be tested beyond anything he ever imagined.

Opinion: For any current/past fans of Voltron: Legendary Defender- WATCH THIS SHOW! If you are a fan of mechas, you will surely enjoy this. But if you were more a fan of the character interactions from VLD, this show also has you covered. It has an amazingly diverse cast and even has a canon genderfluid character. It is a show made for adults, so the stakes are real and dark subjects are treated seriously. Even the romance is done very well with the characters acting like adults instead of arguing over each other like teenagers. Even from the first episode, you can tell that the show is willing to take risks and is sure to become one of the greatest shows of the decade. The animation is also beautiful, and is definitely the best looking show Rooster Teeth has created. The fan base is super small right now since the first season just aired and is RT First exclusive. But trust me, it is worth a watch.

Carmen Sandiego

Summary: Carmen is a modern day Robin Hood traveling the globe and stealing from V.I.L.E. and giving back to its victims. Carmen is publicly perceived as a criminal by most law enforcement agencies – correction, make that a master criminal due to the sheer scale and theatricality of her heists. We will follow her escapades and get to determine not only where but WHO in the world is Carmen Sandiego?

Opinion: This show really caught me by surprise- I was fully expecting a kiddy edutainment show, but what I got was something much more complex and intriguing. Carmen this time around, as the summary suggests, is an anti-hero, and not an antagonist or villain like she was in the past. While some may not want to watch it due to this, I think this take on her is done very well, and once you get past the two-episode backstory, you will find the show is fun with a diverse cast of characters from all over the world. This GIF doesn’t quite do it justice but trust me when I say this show has some one of the best looking art styles I have ever seen. Surprisingly the weakest aspect of the show is the educational factor, which is puzzling as it was very much promoted as a show to teach children geography. In some cases, I have seen posts/tweets pointing out factual errors the show made! Normally it wouldn’t be the biggest deal, but this is a show that prides itself for its educational value. Also, some of the characters have pretty flat personalities or are just straight up incompetent, but hopefully that will change as the show progresses further. The finale was amazing, and I am patiently waiting for the next season!

Tangled: The Series/ Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure

Summary: Set between the events of the feature film and the start of the 2012 CGI short film, Tangled Ever After, the animated series unfolds as Rapunzel acquaints herself with her parents, her kingdom and the people of Corona. Her irrepressible spirit and natural curiosity about the world drives her to the realization that there is so much more she needs to learn before she can truly accept her royal destiny. She boldly puts her crown and impending marriage on hold to seek out epic adventures, much to the dismay of the King who, after missing out on Rapunzel's childhood, must accept that his daughter is now an independent young woman. Accompanying Rapunzel on her journey will be Eugene Fitzherbert; the plucky chameleon sidekick, Pascal; the no-nonsense horse, Maximus; most of The Snuggly Duckling's pub thugs; and newcomer Cassandra, a tough-as-nails handmaiden, who becomes Rapunzel's confidant.

Opinion: This series is truly a delight, and definitely exceeded my expectations for a television series based off a Disney show (I did not expect much as most of those types of shows from my childhood weren’t the best). But I was truly wowed, and this is a must see for any Disney fan.The series does not ignore anything that happened in the movie, far from it. Events that occurred in the movie still impact Rapunzel and are treated seriously. The cartoon mixes comedy, adventure, lore, and mystery quite well. It is also very beautiful, much like Carmen Sandiego (both have similar styles but I like CS’s lighting a bit more). The show can even get quite dark, as is evident with the season 1 finale. This show deserves a much biggest fanbase, so give it a watch!

Hilda

Summary: Hilda follows the journey of a fearless blue-haired girl as she travels from her home in a vast magical wilderness full of elves and giants to the bustling city of Trolberg, where she makes new friends and discovers mysterious creatures who are stranger –and sometimes more dangerous– than she ever expected. Based on graphic novels by Luke Pearson, who storyboarded for Adventure Time.

Opinion: Hilda is definitely a comfort show, and if you liked Gravity Falls there is a good chance you will also like this show! The art style is simply adorable, and Hilda is a delight to get to know. I love the way that the show not only has magical creatures, but it goes in depth into how these creatures live and survive in a modern world. Having read all the comics, I personally enjoyed the addition of Hilda getting some human friends. I know some people did not like this, but she seemed quite lonely once she moved to the city, and I liked seeing her interact with children her age. Season 2 is coming out next year, so there is plenty of time to watch the first season! If you love a feel-good show with mystery and magic, this is the show for you!

Star Wars Resistance

Summary: The series is set between the events of Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi and Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens, in a time when the Resistance is still learning about the growing threat of the First Order. It centers on the character of Kazuda Xiono, a young pilot in General Leia Organa's Resistance who is tasked with spying on the growing threat of the First Order.

Opinion: This show was one I was not expecting anything from at all, but as the show has progressed throughout the first season I have begun to enjoy it more and more. This show, like many on this list, features a very diverse cast (including some aliens, of course). Probably the thing that surprised me the most was the fact that the main character, Kaz, is 20 years old! I feel like that is not something you see with action shows these days, as they usually make the protagonist 16 or 17 years old. I really like the animation style, as I always felt that without the big budget, the Clone Wars style just didn’t look that good in Rebels. Resistance is so... shiny! As for the plot itself, it is sad that most of my favorite aspects of Star Wars are missing, namely the Force, Jedi, and Light Sabers. But since it may eventually tie in more with the sequels, there is hope to see more of that eventually! It’s definitely not at Clone Wars level of good, but I am finding it more enjoyable than Rebels (excluding a few episodes and the season finales). It may never end up being as serious as Rebels, but I am sure it will get darker as time goes on and the stakes get higher.

Young Justice: Outsiders

Summary: Young Justice: Outsiders is the third season of Young Justice. The backdrop for the season is one that will touch on “all corners of the DC universe,” and this time the team is tasked with stopping a metahuman trafficking ring, as well as dealing with the “intergalactic arms race for control of these super-powered youths.” You can also count on new heroes Arrowette, Spoiler, Thirteen, Halo, and many more joining in the fight.

(^I can’t recall if this is the exact line from the show but this whole episode is the best)

Opinion: If you loved the first two seasons of Young Justice, it is easy to say that you should give this one a watch. But now that it is on DC’s streaming platform, DC Universe, IT IS DARK. Seriously, this is no longer a show for children. And that’s pretty great. I truly love that the show can now explore darker themes and have some adult jokes from time to time. However, unlike the first two seasons, I feel constantly confused about new characters or things that have happened to returning characters offscreen. Unless you are very knowledgable about DC characters, there is a good chance you will feel this way. So, it is sadly a bit more unwelcoming to those unfamiliar with the comics. I still love the show’s characters and superhero stuff, in general, is always a lot of fun. There’s also LGBT characters apparently already in the show (and some that were LGBT in the comics have appeared, but nothing in-show is confirmed), so hopefully, there is also that to look forward to in the second half of the season when it airs in June.

Big Hero 6 The Series

Summary: The series continues the adventures of 14-year-old tech genius Hiro and his robot pal Baymax. Joining the pair on their journey is control freak Wasabi, scientist Honey Lemon, fanboy Fred, and no-nonsense Go Go Tomago, whom together form the Big Hero 6 superhero team. As the new prodigy at San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, Hiro faces daunting academic challenges, not to mention the social trials of being the little man on campus. The stakes are also raised for the high-tech heroes when they must protect their city from an array of scientifically enhanced villains.

Opinion: Another very well made series based off a Disney movie. Once again, this show stays faithful to the source material. The art style is very interesting, and while not my favorite gives the show a very cool feel. Once the main villain is introduced, I was glad to report that he became a major threat very fast. And the season 1 finale was pretty great as well. My biggest issue concerning this series so far is that is still really hasn’t developed the side characters at all, despite them being in almost every episode. These are college students, so their families should still be quite important to them. But besides Fred, we have yet to really learn about them, and with that, a potentially important part of who they are as a person is missing. After a movie and a whole season, these characters should not seem as flat as they are, so I hope we learn more about them too. But we also get flashbacks of Tadashi, so for that alone the show may be worth a watch.

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Summary: Deep in the sewers of New York City, four mutant turtle brothers lurk. Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michaelangelo are in their early teen years, and the brothers go on new and exciting adventures. They tap into their mystic ninja powers to learn to work together as a cohesive unit and become a team of heroes as they navigate the modern world and other hidden realms. The brothers get a whole new look, new weapons, and new powers as they discover the hidden city beneath New York and find time for a slice of their favorite pizza.

Opinion: Okay I will admit this is one I haven’t actually seen all of yet. But the art style is just so cool I had to include it and will likely update this entry when I catch up. This show may be a worthy successor to the 2012 series, which I know a lot of people loved.

So that’s the end of my list. If I remember any other good shows airing, I may update it. But, if I got you to watch any, let me know and tell me your thoughts!

Shows to Look Foward to: Glitch Techs, Amphibia, Owl House, Twelve Forever, Hazbin Hotel, Villainous, Infinity Train, 101 Dalmatian Street

Shows Omitted due to being super popular already: Steven Universe, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, RWBY, Bojack Horseman, OK KO, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Duck Tales

Join my Cartoon Themed Discord: https://discord.gg/cartoonuv

And give us a follow if you enjoyed the post! We talk about cartoon related stuff a lot! I will probably do a part 2 later in the year when more of the cartoons to look forward to have aired. And I might even add some shows omitted or other shows I may have forgotten!

#tdp #the dragon prince #gen:lock #tangled #hilda #carmen sandiego #tmnt #bh6 #young justice #star wars resistance #rwby #she-ra

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blodreina-noumou · 5 years ago

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Tagged by: @blodkihci and @spyecho - tysm!!! I have already done this, but I watch a thousand TV shows, so I’ma do it again!

MY SHOWS (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER) :

The 100

The Good Place

Cloak and Dagger

One Day at a Time

The Dragon Prince

Under a cut, since it’s long!

QUESTIONS:

1. who is your favorite character in 2?

The cruelty of this question. The impossible task. I cannot choose, I love Team Cockroach all equally.

Wait, no, that’s a lie. Chidi. It’s Chidi. I love my surprisingly jacked, anxious, moral philosophy professor above almost all else.

2. who is your least favorite character in 1?

Of those who are still alive...Clarke and Bellamy, lmao. Before Abby and Kane kicked it though, they topped that list. Easily.

3. what is your favorite episode of 4?

Oh man, that’s really tough, too. I think the season finales are all up there. Elena’s family dancing with her at her quinceañera, when her dad abandons her, still makes me cry so hard. Penelope saying, “I’ve got you,” which is what her mom said to her earlier in the season, when Penelope couldn’t sleep without her husband around and she broke down in front of Lydia. That generational strength of women. The way Schneider and Leslie come in, because they’re family too. And don’t even get me started on the second season finale, there’s dozens of perfect moments, and the ending always gets my waterworks going in the best possible way.

If you haven’t watched One Day at a Time, what are you even doing??

4. what is your favorite season of 5?

The second season is really good, because by then, everyone is established and the story is clear. Plus the goddamn baby dragon is there, no longer in his egg, and he is the best. Him and Bait really help guide you through the pain and emotional turmoil.

God I need to rewatch The Dragon Prince again, it’s soooo good. Criminally underrated.

5. who is your favorite couple in 3?

I mean, that’s obvious, right? TnT, Tyrondy, The Divine Pairing. My sweet babies, Tyrone and Tandy.

6. who is your favorite couple in 2?

Cheleanor forever 💖

7. what is your favorite episode in 1?

That’s really tough, it’s such a long show now, and there are so many highs, and so, so many lows. My knee-jerk reaction is still “Spacewalker” I think. The reveal/retcon that Raven is the badass, spacewalking rebel, and Finn was her sweet and supportive boyfriend, combined with that heartbreaking twist at the end - it’s not just the best episode of The 100, it’s maybe one of the best episodes of television, ever. A true gem amidst a whoooole lot of garbage.

8. what is your favorite episode of 5?

This is mostly hard because I binged it super fast...

I think it must be “Heart of a Titan” - the one where Prince Callum reads the letter his step-father left him, and there are so many reveals so quickly. It’s a really emotional, beautiful episode.

9. what is your favorite season of 2?

The first season is really good. It’s a solid piece of television and the reveal at the end is perfect. But I think most of the best episodes happen in season two and three. It’s a tough call.

10. how long have you watched 1?

About three years now. I started when s3a was airing, so I watched the fandom burn itself to the ground while still getting through s1 and s2, lmao.

11. how did you become interested in 3?

I saw a lot of gifs about it and I got curious. People who liked Runaways said Cloak & Dagger was good too. Plus, Olivia Holt is a goddamn stunner, and Aubrey Joseph is beautiful. I’m pretty shallow, at the end of the day.

12. who is your favorite actor in 4?

Justina Machado, who plays Penelope. Everyone is amazing, but she’s an incredible lead.

13. which do you prefer, 1, 2, or 5?

Ugggggh, this is sooo tough. It’s not The 100. Honestly it’s probably The Good Place. It’s amazing how a show about death and the afterlife and hell and can be my happy place.

The Dragon Prince is so, so good though, more people need to watch it.

14. which show have you seen more episodes of, 1 or 3?

Welp, The 100 has six seasons, Cloak & Dagger has two. Do the math. (Also I haven’t seen the second season of Cloak & Dagger still...)

15. if you could be anyone from 4, who would you be?

Honestly, Penelope. I relate so much to her, with her struggles with PTSD, depression, and anxiety - except she’s a hardworking, determined, badass mother who has overcome so much, and will continue to, because that’s who she is. I admire her a lot, and aspire to that, deep down. (Less the motherhood part, but meh.)

16. would a crossover between 3 and 4 work?

I think a really funny episode could be made where Tandy and Tyrone are inserted into the world of ODAAT and have supernatural shenanigans and the show finds a way to explain them away. Plus, there’s only one degree of separate between C&D and Runaways, and Ariela Barer guest starred on ODAAT. It’d be a very silly episode, probably not canon - maybe some sort of coma/concussion episode with Elena, so she can Ariela can guest star and Carmen can return again?

That’s the one and only way I can envision it. It wouldn’t work in reverse. ODAAT cannot exist in the world of C&D.

17. pair two characters in 1 that would make an unlikely but strangely okay couple

I saw someone make a very compelling argument for Octavia and Murphy on this very survey, once. I don’t exactly ship it, but I could see it working. They’re both kind of outcasts, who rose in rank abruptly within their societies, after a long time being underdogs (to middling results.) They’re both jaded, sarcastic, edgy, and super beautiful in somewhat unconventional ways. Interestingly, they’ve rarely interacted on-screen, from what I can recall. But I think they’d make a fun, badass outsiders kind of couple. This is assuming Emori is not with Murphy anymore, for whatever reason.

18. overall, which story has the better storyline, 3 or 5?

I have to go with The Dragon Prince. C&D is good, but TDP is like, life-changing. It’s so dense, yet so lighthearted. There’s incredible, organic, natural representation of different skin tones, of people with disabilities, of blended families, of LGB characters. It raises interesting ethical questions, and provides you with some really fascinating, well-developed antagonists. It has an “epic quest” feel while also being a personal, intimate story driven by its characters and its setting in a believable way. Plus, it always finds lighthearted ways to include humor, adorable animals and moments, and romance.

It’s a perfect show.

19. which has the better theme music, 2 or 4?

Definitely The Good Place. It has such an iconic score, a very simple and memorable theme. I like ODAAT’s, it’s fun and energetic, but TGP’s manages to capture a lot about the show’s vibes in like, six notes.

Tagging: @bombshellsandbluebells @blodkru @johnmurphysreddit @twinzmoon @awesomenell65 @diytavias @captainwilldameron @dylanobrienisbatman and anyone else who sees this and wants to steal it! I’ve absolutely lost track of who’s done this and who hasn’t, so please feel free to ignore it, for any reason.

#tag games #not the 100 #but 100 adjacent #about me #stephspeaks

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kurogabae · 6 years ago

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Tsubasa: Trainwreck Chronicles

And Why Bee Train Personally Owes Me At Least a Grand; an Essay by Popular Demand

part 1 part 2

For those of you who might not know, I love Tsubasa Chronicle. So much. But for the love of Kurogane’s beautiful biceps is the anime awful. Now, I’m not one of those “manga purists” who always insists the manga is better than the anime, I tend to find them equal pretty often. This is not one of those cases.

Once upon a time CLAMP made a deal with Bee Train for a Tsubasa anime. Cardcaptor Sakura had done so well! CLAMP was a solid name to back! Bee Train had nothing to lose - except the trust of every CLAMP fan ever. I don’t know how hands on CLAMP (or rather Ohkawa) were in the production but I feel like “not at all” is a fairly solid guess. It was a mess folks. Production was rushed, story was disregarded, plot was cut up and Frankensteined back together, I’m not even going to talk about the English casting.

In fairness, it wasn’t without it’s good points. The soundtrack was flawless, the Japanese cast was amazing, and when Bee Train tried they really did manage to make the series look nice, which imo makes the rest of the subpar animation even more of a slap to the face. They even had some genuinely enjoyable filler episodes - the chibi episode and the Kero and Mokona episode are always the first to come to my mind - but overall? Not even a hot mess, just a mess.

Under the cut we’ll go arc by arc. I’m not going to rewatch the series just to write this so forgive me if I’m missing facts or if something I say is slightly inaccurate. Also, beware of spoilers for the manga if you haven’t finished reading it. That means you Nick. I’ll write you up a spoiler free copy of this later. Anyway, let’s go.

Opening and introductions:

You’d think, as the start of your series, you’d want the first episode or two to look really nice right? Catch the eye, impress the new viewer. Not Bee Train! [x x] The whole thing is subpar at best. Syaoran and Sakura’s introduction isn’t so bad for the most part, they’re cute and Bee Train tried to add a little more interaction between them before Sakura loses her feathers, which I am all kinds of behind, but... there’s a point where they run from castle guards. And Syaoran sort of just... grabs her and runs and Sakura is left literally flapping in the wind? [x] Also Sakura looks stoned out of her mind in like 90% of the shots she’s in. Touya probably thinks Syaoran is giving her drugs. But honestly, I don’t have too many problems with how the intro happens, mostly just the way it looks.

Fai’s intro can go by with almost no comment aside from the fact that his face looks like it’s melting. Sadly, this is not the worse his face will ever look. Pretty meh.

Personally I think Kurogane’s intro got the short end of the stick visually and I’m not just saying that because he and Tomoyo are my favorites. They both look pretty awful and, as always, where’s the beef???

Also Yuuko deserved better.

Hanshin:

If possible, the animation gets even lazier. We’ve added Mokona to the party and they cannot decide how big she is. I’m not being nitpicky either. Her size fluctuates wildly. Here are just a few examples set only in Hanshin. This problem persists throughout the series. Also I don’t know how to exactly put this into words but... everyone’s eyes are just extra jacked up.

Plot wise we mostly follow canon. Until they decide Sakura should get more screen time. “Great idea!” I can hear you say. “We love Sakura!” Well so do I. Problem: she has one (1) feather to her name and is comatose. Sakura is not really going to do anything. Yet the camera keeps going back to her- oh wait she’s awake. Sort of. Oh she’s getting dressed now, we even get a very weird little montage of her trying on clothes. Now she’s wandering the town, meets up with the leader of the Mohawk Gang whose kudan Kurogane beat the crap out of. Luckily she’s a super cute girl (who is barely conscious and doesn’t even talk? She’s so far from Mokona she probably can’t even understand these guys anyway but...) so they take her out to lunch instead of doing something Terrible. To the restaurant Touya works at. He serves her and doesn’t recognize her, meaning there is no Sakura in this world, at least not one related to him. This happens a lot.

In the anime Sakura is sometimes, for reasons unexplained and inconsistent, “drawn” to her feathers. She’s looking for her feather. There is an absurd Looney Tunes moment where she climbs some sort of tall thing (oil rig? construction site? world’s weirdest flag pole?) and jumps off of it before Syaoran and Co. (who have located her after Arashi, who would never have lost track of her in the first place let’s be real, tells them she’s gone AWOL) can stop her.

And then she flies. Literally and truly fucking flies. Through the sky. Thanks I hate it.

Syaoran catches her, brings her back home, and the story pretty much continues. One fun change was that the whole family had to share a room, they didn’t get separated like in the manga, so we get treated to this Gay Fucking Scene(tm) of Kurogane waking up and the first thing he sees if Fai sleeping while angelic music plays in the background. So that was nice.

Oh god hang on, I had to come back and add this because I literally always forget: Kurogane sees a version of Tomoyo in this world and goes running after her, leaving Fai and Syaoran to meet Touya and Yukito on their own. This results in both of them missing Kurogane’s kudan fight and Kurogane missing the “same face, different person” talk/reminder. They still can’t draw Tomoyo.

Also this.

Koryo:

Where’s the beef?

Much in the spirit of Hanshin, Koryo keeps mostly to the plot and has overall meh animation with a few choice moments of dear god why. Surprisingly, they made a few changes that I didn’t hate - the village had gotten a group of rebels together against the Ryanban. He also stole Chu’nyan’s mother’s body, making it so that her spirit could never find peace, making him even more of a dick.

This is where we see the first instance of the anime really being geared towards younger audiences than CLAMP had planned for. In the manga Sakura wins everyone new clothes via dice gambling, but in the anime she wins a lottery. Not a big deal, but we see more of this. Another thing change is that there’s a whole secondary plot added to everything when they try to, again, give Sakura a more active role. There are better ways to do this, but Bee Train sort of just tosses her into action and then tosses Syaoran in after her. It’s always bad and pointless and never amounts to anything.

Anyway, she ends up inside the castle, somehow Syaoran manages to follow after her. Goodness knows what the dads are up to. (Probably this.) Some Really Weird Stuff happens and from what I remember the spirit of Chu-nyan’s mother hops a ride out of the castle with Sakura. Who, uhh, teleports her and Syaoran out. Yeah.

The rest of the arc goes pretty much how the manga does with a handful of minor changes - like the fact that Kurogane never bought a manga in Hanshin, so in order to block Kiishim’s killing blow he’s tucked the hammer he was using to fix the roof in his shirt, which is a much smaller shield than a whole ass book and I think that’s dumb. Still can’t get Mokona’s size right, to awkward and hilarious results.

And remember kids, we won’t show you dice but we will show you this.

Big Lake and Shipper Fish:

The animation in this part is actually pretty nice. Considering. The things they changed were needless and weird.

Sakura and the fish talk. How? Why? We don’t know, it’s never explained or examined. We are meant to accept it Because Sakura, which only works most of the time. The fish tries to tell Sakura that she knows Syaoran - we all know this will not and cannot work. Why does this happen? What was the point of adding this? It is so weird and awkward. It messes up the flow and is so extra. I understand your desires Shipper Fish, but please, let things take their course.

Jade:

Fuck you and fuck your animation. It looks The Worst, which is a bummer because this world changes the fewest amount of things. Anything I could point out are really minor:

somehow Fai can read

they never show how the family gets their clothes, and 99% of the scene in the tavern is skipped

breaking and entering!

Mokona bites Kurogane in the ass

they don’t have horses

no Kuro-dork looking at the snow like an excited child

they nerf Kurogane’s BAMF

the feather isn’t hidden behind a wall, they need the pure hearts of children?

Kyle was a way lazier villain

Filler #1 - Lightning Jazz Hands:

Alright, that looked neat as hell, I’ll admit. My compliments end here.

Story: nosy little shits got themselves cursed. Gonna fight in a competition to win a Big Magic. Is the Big Magic a feather? Stay tuned! (It’s not, because then the girl would die and that would be Too Sad.)

So the people in this country can shoot lightning out of their hands, that would be awesome and possibly scary, but I guess Kurogane is water/ground type because he gets it and only says, and I quote, “it tingles”. So your lightning powers mean nothing, add no stakes, and the Fam can’t do it so what is the point?

This filler is also famous for its KuroFai baiting, which is impressive, seeing as the anime tried very hard to make them Not Gay. I mean it failed but yeah.

Syaoran is the only fighter they have left because Kurogane and Fai are children and Sakura is making friends with the cursed girl. Keefer... Keepha... fights Syaoran, and obviously Syaoran wins because we’re supposed to think this is a feather. They really play it up to, even after we learn the Big Magic isn’t a feather Syaoran still hesitates before handing it over. For dramatics I guess? I don’t know, there’s literally no reason for him to not give it to the needy couple.

Boring filler. Only fun was watching Kurogane get excited over fighting people.

tbc... with Outo

[part 1] [part 2]

#Tsubasa Trainwreck Chronicles #my meta #sort of?????#TRC #spoilersTRC

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psycho-alchemist · 7 years ago

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Hi so first of all you seem really awesome and your blog is amazing, I always love seeing what you've reblogged on my dash. Second, I was wondering if you had any anime recommendations of like your all-time favorite animes or series you think everyone should watch? I just finished a Fullmetal Alchemist rewatch and I'd love to find some new shows to get into. Thank you!!

Oh wow thank you, that’s so sweet of you!!

Three anime everyone should watch (not including FMAB, since that’s a given and you’ve already seen it):

Steins;Gate - Not many people talk about S;G anymore, but the people who have watched it pretty much unanimously love it. It’s about a man named Okabe and his friends who discover how to send messages to the past. But in doing so, they start to change their world too much, and suddenly all of their lives are in danger. Okabe has to undo the mistakes he made to save his friends’ lives and change the world back to the way it was. It’s a really cool time travel show! From what I have seen, most people who dropped it did so because it seems to move pretty slowly at first. I actually nearly dropped it too during my first watch, but upon rewatching I noticed that there are a lot of subtle hints dropped during the “slow” episodes that something horrible and tragic is about to happen. There’s this very faint, ever-growing feeling that something isn’t right, and suddenly it’s too late to fix anything.Time travel is a very very tiny theme in media, but I love it because it’s a great opportunity for pseudo-science and angst. The helplessness a main character feels as they try to fix things in a fucked up world when no one else around him even realizes how fucked up it is? 👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽 Steins;Gate handles the angst and plot twists really well, and it also manages to avoid all the plot holes that often come with badly written time travel stories. I am usually of the mindset that if I need to wait more than 4-6 episodes for an anime to “get good,” then it’s not worth it. Steins;Gate is a very rare exception to that rule, and I think everyone should watch it!!

Barakamon - I am not a fan of children, so an anime about a misanthropic twenty-something-year-old spending a summer on a rural island with a bunch of country kids is not something I would typically even glance at. When I originally saw it on the Summer 2016 roster, I wrote it off instantly. But during the first week of the new season I had finished all my other anime, so I watched it out of pure boredom. And boy, was I FLOORED.Barakamon is a surprisingly charming and hilarious story. Handa, the main character, is relatable to the average dramatic grump like me who would prefer to stay indoors during the summer, away from the bugs and sunshine and nature in general. The children are actually realistic, unlike a lot of the children or children-passing lolis we often see in anime. They’re a tiny bit bratty and very mischievous, but it’s actually really refreshing and endearing. The situations they get themselves into are ridiculous and hilarious. And despite Handa avoiding them at first, he ends up getting very very attached to them, and them to him.I was very reluctant to like Barakamon, but the first episode completely charmed me, and every episode thereafter. The humor was rarely an overdone punchline, it was situational and felt very authentic. I still laugh a lot just thinking about some of the scenes!

Psycho Pass (season 1) - This is only regarding season 1. Don’t bother watching s2 or the movie. But Psycho Pass was a special show for me, not just because of the very fascinating world-building but because of the way it makes you think about how morality works. How do we decide what is good and what is bad? How do we determine if someone is guilty or innocent? How do we make the judgment on whether someone deserves punishment or forgiveness? Psycho Pass made me think about those questions in a way I never really had. It actually made me agree with the psychopathic villain for once, which had never happened to me beforehand. (I’m pretty black-and-white so I usually side with the good guys and hate the bad guys without questioning it.) I understood and agreed with the villain’s philosophies, and it was really intriguing to consider that anyone could become a villain if they twisted their thinking the wrong way. In addition, Psycho Pass also brings up an interesting point of what would happen if humans didn’t go through any kind of stress or hardship. It suggests that perhaps stress and trauma are...not good exactly, but perhaps essential to the human experience.In short, Psycho Pass made me think about humanity and morality in a way I never had before. Again I am only speaking for s1, since s2 and the movie fell off that trend, but s1 was a fantastic watch and perfectly fine as a standalone series.

Those are the two I recommend to everyone, regardless of what genres they prefer. Here are my other favorites:

Haikyuu!! - If you’re a fan of sports anime, or would like to watch sports anime but don’t like the overdone sports moves, Haikyuu!! is a great watch. It’s funny, it’s inspiring, and the sports actually don’t defy the laws of physics. The characters are all very lovable and have a great dynamic.

Hunter x Hunter - If you’ve been looking for a fun action series, HxH is definitely worth it. It’s got great action and really cool storylines, and it has a fun shounen feel without being overbearingly so. It’s a pretty long one at 148 episodes, and I definitely understand how intimidating that can be, as someone who hesitates to watch even 2-cour series. But Hunter x Hunter was worth every single minute, and I cannot stress that enough. It’s so much fun to watch, the characters are so unique and interesting, and the last two arcs are Angst Central if that’s what you’re into. It’s got someone for action fans who love fluff and those who love angst, and I am so so glad I decided to watch it despite its episode count looming over my head.

Kaichou wa Maid-sama! - If you love a good rom com, definitely check out KWMS! The animation is done in a way that brings out each of the characters’ charm and really adds to the energetic, cute feel of the show. I’ve rewatched it more times than I can count, and it never gets old!

Kimi ni Todoke - If you love rom coms but want a slow-paced romance, KnT will do that for you. It’s still really funny (first anime that made me laugh so hard I couldn’t breathe!), but the romance is slow and steady. Some people have complained that the romance is too slow, and while I won’t disagree, I think the show still did a great job showing a very shy girl slowly establishing deep relationships, both platonic and romantic, with kind people.

Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou - Technically a rom com, but don’t expect too much romantic development! It’s more like a comedy anime with a side romantic plot. But there’s nothing wrong with that! I love the characters; they’re all super eccentric but go together perfectly. And don’t get me started on Brain Base’s gorgeous animation and the lovely soundtrack! Overall this is just a really pretty, aesthetic, feel-good fluff show. Perfect for casual laughs!

Hopefully this helps you! :) If you would like recs from one particular genre, just let me know and I’ll tell you what I like!

#ask p-a #anime rec #anime recs #Anonymous

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thisislizheather · 4 years ago

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Navigating November 2020

Wonderful, another month has come and gone. It’s hard to tell when I’m in a bad mood these days. I feel like all of my moods are sprinkled with bits of sadness since it’s been such a rough year on everyone. It seems hard to be hopeful and optimistic for the coming months because of everything that has gone on already, but I think I’ll continue on with my internal mantra of “fake it ‘til you make it” - that’s healthy, right? In any case, here’s what happened last month:

I usually don’t mention the things that I don’t do, but this one is notable: I didn’t have the Thanksgiving croissant from Milk Bar this year (because I’m in Canada at the moment). So this is really just a reminder to myself to go hog-wild on them next November.

I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned them before, but the ready-made roast beef sandwiches at San Remo’s in Etobicoke? A PERFECT SANDWICH.

I rewatched the original (better) Jumanji and goddamit what a great movie. How did I forget what a perfect movie that was? Miss Robin Williams so much. Which reminds me: I gotta rewatch Jack soon (Coppola’s greatest movie, in my humble opinion). Haven’t seen that one in ages.

Some thoughts on how to have a less expensive Christmas.

Love the new “Oat Milk Latte” nail polish colour at Urban Outfitters. Something about a boring neutral has been really turning me on lately.

The best new hand lotion I’ve used in a long time: this Kiehl’s Hand Salve. I put it on once in the morning and once before bed and it’s crazy how soft it makes them, even if you wash your hands numerous times a day (which, god, I hope you’re doing).

I know that I tend to live in the past at times, but are you ever needing to print some photos fast and don’t know where to get it done? Years ago, they had machines at Shoppers and then they disappeared. And I just discovered that Staples has those print-right-now machines! It takes seconds to print from your phone and it’s crazy cheap. I think you can only get 4 x 6 in size, but still. That’s great!

I’ll always love Cobs Bread (thanks to Marla years ago for introducing me) but I just tried their garlic focaccia and my god. Heavenly. It also makes a great base for any kind of at-home grilled cheese or even an at-home garlic bread using garlic butter.

So I tried the Popeye’s chicken sandwich that people were stabbing each other for and… I fully understand the murdering mentality. It’s an incredible chicken sandwich. I was expecting not to understand the hype, but here I stand before you, four chicken sandwiches deep.

I’ve been consistently using the Luna Night Oil from Sunday Riley (a small version that came with a gift set) and I think it’s really working well. My skin looks amazing in the morning after each use. So I might bite the bullet and buy the full size when I run out.

Just so sad to see Alex Trebek pass away. Favourite clip, followed by second favourite clip.

I simply cannot stop ordering the vegetable fried rice from Fortune Dragon in Mississauga. Can’t and WON’T.

I had such a terrible experience using Skip The Dishes the other night (there was a problem with an order and the restaurant refused to fix the problem and I was on the phone with STD (hahah, can we all call them this from now on PLEASE) for over an hour, just disgusting). So now they’re banned in our house.

And speaking of annoying food experiences, Scaddabush got rid of the best sandwich on their menu. What. the. hell. It was a prosciutto cotto grilled cheese with Italian cured ham, caramelized onions, mozzarella, and fig jam on a focaccia bun and IT IS NO MORE. I did attempt to make it at home one night and it was actually really good, but still. Who wants to spend their evenings caramelizing onions for hours in the kitchen? Well, I do, for one. But regardless! Bad move, Scaddabush.

I came across these actually helpful, fast TikTok beauty tips.

Excited to visit this new food hall in Long Island City one day.

Love these two new Tierra Whack songs.

I love hearing these kinds of butterfly effect stories, always.

This whole listicle made me laugh.

How on earth can someone build a roller coaster in their backyard? People continue to impress me. This is amazing.

It’s pure and complete trash that chihuahuas never win dog shows.

Look at this beauty from The National Dog Show.

Considering this beautiful palette for purchase even though I have plans to go nowhere, every night, for the rest of time.

I made these fondant potatoes and they were good! Love a new way to cook a potato.

I watched Coneheads for the first time and it was a surprisingly fun movie. It also happens to be the ultimate pro-immigration movie. Loved it.

I watched the Fresh Prince reunion and it was good! It was nice to see Nicky.

If you’re looking for a dog groomer in Mississauga, I can’t say enough good things about You Lucky Dog Grooming. They cut Baby Dog’s nails perfectly for $10 and it took less than five minutes. They were so gentle and caring, definitely only gonna go here from now on.

There were a few massive holes in the ceiling in my parents basement (an estimate said it would be $1000 to fix) so I went to Home Depot, got the supplies and did it myself. This is something I would never even want to do, let alone actually do, so the fact that it’s fixed now is insane. Here's what it looked like.

Above Photo: This whole job cost $17 from Home Depot. Nothing is impossible.

I made my niece Layla watch Sleeping With The Enemy and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for the first time and I think she liked both, which obviously I love. Love making people I love watch things I love.

Absolutely in love with this song. And this one, too.

So I got fake nails. Here they are.

Yes, I love them. Yes, they look perfect every single day and that’s amazing. But no one tells you the cons, so let me tell you what they are.

Pressing buttons is an annoyance. The buttons of debit machines especially (I’ve incorrectly put in my pin about three times so far), but also remote controls and car radio dials.

Peeling onions or garlic. Or cutting anything on a cutting board in the kitchen, basically.

You know after a shower when you towel off the wet parts of the inside of your ears? Can’t be done.

All zippers and buttons add at least five minutes to your life.

Look, I’m not an animal but sometimes your nose needs a little cleaning when a tissue ain’t gonna cut it. That being said, it is IMPOSSIBLE to pick your nose with these.

Typing at your regular speed.

Peeling clementines is simply out of the question (which is annoying because they’re so in season right now).

Putting on and taking off necklaces.

And most of all, yes you can still scratch parts of your body, but it’s an unfulfilling scratch. These nails aren’t as sharp as my real ones, so the scratch is lackluster.

That being said, I do love them. I’m not sure if I’ll get them again, but they’re beautiful and I can definitely see the appeal.

I watched a few episodes of Somebody Feed Phil with my brother Robbie and it’s a pretty cute show. I only watched the New York, New Orleans, Venice & San Francisco episodes, but I’m sure I’ll watch the rest soon. I think I liked it because the host really lets the guests be the charming, endearing ones, and most TV hosts aren’t very good at that.

So since we missed both Thanksgivings this year, we picked a random day to do our turkey dinner and this year I did the rub for the bird (Mom handled all the gross stuff) and it came out amazing! Also made my favourite salad dressing (love a shallot in a dressing), this perfect cranberry sauce and best garlic bread. And instead of a whole pie, we just got mini pumpkin tarts from Whole Foods. The next day, I finally made the moist maker sandwich (from Friends) and it turned out really well.

Best tweets of the month can be found over here.

Some things that I’m looking forward to this month: watching the new season of Big Mouth, doing the Polar Drive experience, there have been only two snowstorms so far and I can’t wait for more to come, and I’ve already started baking the chocolate chip Nutella cookies that I love to make this time of year but I want to try something new as well so I’m thinking about giving these ones a try. Christmas will of course be different this year, it’s looking like it’ll be me, my parents (since I’ve been staying here since October), Nathan & Baby Dog on Christmas morning, which actually seems like it might be kind of intimate and nice. It’ll feel wrong in certain ways because I love having my entire family here, but I’m going to try and make the most of it.

If you’ve got any interest in reading last month’s roundup, you can see what went down in October over here.

#monthly post #monthly roundup #November 2020 #Navigating November 2020 #this is liz heather #Liz Heather #Baby Dog #end of month post #end of month post November 2020 #Christmas #Christmas lockdown #pandemic #2020 #November #things to do #lists #monthly list

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amandajoyce118 · 7 years ago

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Friday Five: Simply Marvel-ous

Since we’re going to have a hiatus for Agents of SHIELD this month (The show cannot compete with Olympics ratings, so please don’t complain. You want the show to do well and come back for a sixth season, right?), I thought I’d theme my Friday Fives for the next several weeks around Marvel and/or Agents of SHIELD. Leading up to the 100th episode, it’s all Marvel, all the time. This week, you’re getting my favorite Marvel properties of all time, whether they are comics or tv shows. (Yeah, surprisingly, a comic book movie doesn’t make my top five? Who knew?)

One: X-Men, the animated series.

When I was a youngster in the 90s, I used to watch the animated X-Men series all the time. I would hum the theme song in grocery stories. I had a Jean Grey action figure. I used to pretend to be a mutant on the playground. I was obsessed. My dad got me hooked on the show before sharing comic books with me. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Two: Generation-X.

Generation-X was a comic book series that was most definitely a product of its time. It was the first series I was ever subscribed to, a gift from my dad that I managed to get my mom to renew every year until the series ended. This was back in the day when the subscription came directly from Marvel, mailed to your house, and it still had Stan’s Soapbox in the back of the issues. The book was for the next generation of X-Men fans. It was about teenagers figuring out life and mutant abilities, getting into trouble, and saving the world once in a while. I think it speaks to the same part of us that enjoys books like Harry Potter - a special kid in a crappy environment who gets to escape. I kept waiting for my X-gene to kick in.

Three: Mockingbird

Chelsea Cain’s Mockingbird comic book series just didn’t last long enough. Yes, I understand why long time fans of the character take issue with Mockingbird’s rape erasure that happens near the end of the series, but this is one of the few modern comics that has a similar tone to that of the MCU. It features the kick-ass scientist that is Mockingbird in a crazy story arc that involves her reconnecting with both Hawkeye and Lance Hunter (whose personality is totally the Nick Blood version, and it’s amazing), her ending up with a weird illness and trying to fix it, her being on the run, and her ending up stranded on an island with mercorgis offshore. Yeah, you read that right. It also ends with a threesome. So, sorry to spoil the ending for you? I wish it had gone on for so many more than 8 issues, but Marvel cancelled it, apparently due to it underperforming.

Four: Jessica Jones

Yes, yes, I know. Jessica Jones has been appearing in a lot of Friday Fives. What can I say? I love her. I love the show. I love the other characters on the show. I love how they’ve adapted this property for a live action series. I just love it all. I especially love this because until the show was greenlit, I wasn’t all that familiar with the character. The time that the Alias stories were published was during a time when I wasn’t reading as many comics, and definitely not anything aimed at “mature audiences,” so when the show was greenlit, I learned everything I could about the series (I even bought the trade paperbacks) and about the ABC series that never moved forward, and I was hooked before it even made it to Netflix. This is, what seems like, your weekly reminder that the second season returns on March 8.

Five: Agents of SHIELD

I am probably one of the few people who has consistently watched the show from the pilot. I know there are so many people who didn’t like the monster of the week format in season one and drifted away for a while, or people who got to the show late because they were interested in the relationships and not the comic book aspect, and those things are all okay. Everyone likes what they like for different reasons. I loved those monster of the week episodes as much as I love the serial format of the show now. Despite me getting nitpicky with some aspects of the show, I genuinely love the talent behind it and the storylines it’s brought to the MCU - even if the movies don’t acknowledge the show (yet). I love that the show is the most diverse of the small screen Marvel properties, that it made unknowns superheroes, that it’s been able to bring little-known comic book characters to life, and that it can make me laugh as much as it can make me cry. Yes, I enjoy the angst just as much as I enjoy happy endings. It’s probably up there in my top shows, not just Marvel or comic book shows, of all time. That’s how much I love it and miss it every time it goes on hiatus.

#marvel comics #mcu #agents of shield #jessica jones #generation x #friday five

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lilietsblog · 7 years ago

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my mirai nikki liveblog notes from last night

yandere is a gross and creepy fandom trope beloved by gross and creepy fandom dudes but I really like Mirai Nikki and personally Gasai Yuno, and I hope she finds some stability in her mind orrr she could kill either herself or Yukki to get the other to be the god of time and space and I'm honestly not sure which of those would be a healthier decision or more fascinating to watch. but i dont want this ending bc of the cop )= (my taste in anime is impeccable)

I like how Yukki is still majorly creeped out by Yuno, even if making out with her is no longer even a Big Thing for him

WHY DID THIS THING JUST HAPPEN THIS IS LIKE THE WORST POSSIBLE SCENARIO HONESTLY WHAT THE FUCK I like the girl just snapping photos of everything I aspire to be this chill

Yuno if you fuck up Yukki's friendships because you are jealous I'm going to be very cross with you that's exactly what you're going to do isn't it I mean you've been 100% right about Tsubasa and you've been actually very charismatic with Yukki's mom but I can just feel the trainwreck coming

huh, they all end up just hanging out together, that's surprisingly nice I'm glad things other than blood and carnage are allowed to happen in this anime it won't last long will it

shine shine shine wow Yuno maybe chill

Mao and Hinata, I swear I'm going to remember this

HINATA PLEASE OH PLEASE DON'T GET MURDERED BY A SERIAL KILLER WHAT THE FUCK ANIME WHY ARE YOU GIVING ME THESE THOUGHTS DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE HAVE ME BE RIGHT ABOUT THE FORESHADOWING

okay what followed was teeth snapping not blood from a bitten throat so maybe she won't die after all thank god

NO HINATA WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TRYING TO GET EATEN ON PURPOSE YOU ARE THE PUREST CREATURE IN THIS ENTIRE ANIME PLEASE DONT DIE

guys you are discussing it with them walking right behind you how well have you thought this through I guess they were further behind?

I SURE HOPE RUNNING CHANGED THE FUTURE AND SHE IS STILL ALIVE

Akise is another Diary owner isn't he

I feel Yukki on his Definite Overload With Everything

I sure hope those are not Akise's dogs that Akise deliberately set on them to engineer this situation

hm well at least this is not personally Akise, doesn't mean he's not affiliated with this guy at the very least they seem to share hair color

I love Mary tho

hmmm this might actually not be the guy with the flesh eating dogs, these look different okay I'm holding off on further speculation right now and giving it a tentative 50/50, as well as to Akise turning out to have been behind the attack

okay what the FUCK that looks like Hinata

fuuuck i am SO tempted to like Akise but that would also come with a sore wish to have him Join The Team and I hoped that for Tsubasa too >_> my heart can't take it

...that feeling when Yuno is being the Voice of Reason

aaand it's gone

shit I hope Yukki figures out what to do about this shit situation because I'm out of ideas HEY NICE PUTTING THAT DIARY TO WORK I SURE AS SHIT HOPE THERE WON'T BE AS MANY DEAD BODIES AS WITH THE SIXTH THO TO BE FAIR THEY WERENT NAMED CHARACTERS I HOPE THESE KIDS' PLOT PURPOSE IS NOT TO DIE POINTLESSLY HINATA WAS ENOUGH OF A SACRIFICE WHICH I WAS RIGHT ABOUT BTW DEPRESSINGLY ENOUGH STILL DIDN'T EXPECT THIS THO this anime just kind of keeps escalating in ways I fail to expect time after time

please Yukki don't tell them about your diary there's nothing about that that's not a bad idea don't drag them into this aaand of course that's what you're doing and once again, Yuno is me

aaand there's Mao isn't there fuck not the one I was expecting at least thank you Akase for it not being you

okay Hinata is alive that's fair enough except she won't be for long will she why must you take away Pure things from me anime why ugggghhhh

a Breeder's diary??? oh right dogs whew

oh my god Akise too????? okay this is kind of hilarious now I hope they go for a reverse of the temple thing and he actually gets to join the squad I guess the girls were doomed because of Yuno anyway but he has a chance

so I think Deus rigged this whole game specifically for Yukki his random observations diary made the future diary a very interesting idea and a very powerful tool but then Deus threw a bunch of various... interesting characters into it, and I imagine physical proximity (or ability and willingness to get around fast) and, ah, interestingness of character were the main criteria, and he went for ANY kind of diary at all, which made most of theirs much less potent

another thing I'm thinking is I've been noticing the small child holding hands with ?parents? in the end credits for a while, and it looks like Hinata, and she might be an important character

maybe this anime just burned through a few expendable characters at the beginning to set up the situation and create the athmosphere, and the main plot is going to be about a bunch of high schoolers after all, because that's just how anime rolls - high schoolers would be the major characters out of the whole bunch of diary owners

so maybe they're not all dying next episode is what i'm trying to say

Murmur is amazing btw

hum so Akise got his diary late? or does he not have one after all oh my god I love Akise so much already his expression here like 'i can't believe i'm going along with this' and yet he's going along with this like sure ok

aaand SUDDEN DORK MODE oh no I have a new favorite character please don't turn out to secretly be a mass murderer that's all I ask ;~; hum might he not actually have a diary after all dammit these are supposed to be post credit scenes not revealing plot twists I'm just confusing myself at this point aren't I

lol oh my god they thought Akise was a diary owner but he's just a guy who's good at investigation isn't he

or is he??? godfuckingdammit I need to stop doing this to myself theorizing is a bad habit that I get way too into I don't like bumpy rides of plot twists I like being able to follow what the fuck is going on )=

yeah he does not have a diary nor any idea what's going on does he lol I called it seconds before Yuno caught on it's kind of interesting how it seems her job is to be the genre savvy one, whose usefulness is however kind of fucked up by her brain cockroaches

Yuno??????? why are you doing this HE IS TRYING TO WIN BACK YUKKI'S DIARY WHY WHY WHY HE IS ON YOUR SIDE DOn'T FUCK UP HIS GAME

I guess she caught on that he was bluffing but??? ??? ???

and Akise's just going nuts and laughing because what else is left to do honestly

Akise why are you so fucking likable how dare you I'm actually angry at this development HAVE A FLAW DAMN YOU I CANNOT RELAX BECAUSE OF THIS SHIT I CANNOT TRUST WHAT I AM SEEING THIS FUCKING ANIME

oh man I thought they were lesbians when Mao first brought up that she's taken, but this is V Cute

oh my fucking god Akise have you MISSED Yuno's thing in your investigation or are you doing this ON PURPOSE

wait what just happened was that yandere on yandere combat or what

Mao what the fuck were you doing

Yuno you are an ASSHOLE I hope everyone other than Yukki keeps just ignoring everything you say and do

I love this one normal guy who's kind of a dick and just reacts normally to things and his contrast to Akise whom I love

honestly Yukki I agree I think I DON'T WANT TO is the only argument Yuno can be receptive to

oooor that only makes things worse huh Yuno honey please settle down believe in Yukki a little more than that

oh hey good solution even if it's just getting yourself deeper in I guess in a BLOOD DEATH situation it's kind of the best available option

"You don't want me to hate you, do you?" A+ game Yukki hit her where it hurts aka explain basic facts of human relationships >_>

aaand yep he's freaking out because he doesn't even like her that way and he's getting deeper and deeper in )=

oh my god Hinata's dad do you realize you've GIVEN HER YOUR DIARY YOU DUMB FUCK ALL ANYONE PRESENT NEEDS TO DO TO KILL YOU IS BREAK IT

uuunless that was a lie huh can't deny that possibility

lol Akise also has voice of reason tendencies <3

hum okay dammit I liked the cop a lot then again Akise is like him+ as far as having an Awesome detective character goes and Yukki has a Squad his age now I'm surprised by how well this went actually

another episode and I'm going to sleep (yes i'm aware these are Cursed Words but what if I'm lucky)

Yuno? Uh, are you okay?...

see the thing is I really can't find a way to apply to this anime the standards of 'healthy relationship with a mentally ill person' because PEOPLE ARE DYING AND EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE LET'S PUT THAT OFF UNTIL THE FUCKING GAME IS OVER like Yukki can't just ditch Yuno because she keeps fucking saving his life??? and Yuno can't just resolve to Not Murder because that keeps fucking saving both of their lives??? they can't do what would have been the Reasonable Thing To Do under normal circumstances because these SURE AS FUCK AREN'T NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES

oh please girl are you sure anyone's MAKING you do anything

wait what the fuck is going on here oh it's Murmur fucking around isn't it yep there it is

hum

okay I'm not sure what's happening like, what? seriously? what the fuck

okay so that's what happened huh that still leaves a lot of holes but okay

uh Akise why what makes you think this is a good idea I mean I've noticed you don't exactly have conventional emotional responses to fucked up stuff either but like seriously

oh Yukki you're starting to become more OK with murder that's just the world you live in huh

awww he cares about her when they are one on one as much as he cares about EVERYONE which he does because he is wonderful and I love him it's just in mixed company that Yuno's stalkerish shit gets lower priority to everyone else's normal shit and Yukki is 100% right in that

aha I'd been wondering whose last name I forgot

ahhh so that's what he was doing that makes more sense than him being a shipper on deck -_- just throwing Yukki under the bus for the sake of investigation that's p much normal... by this anime's standards...

also holy damn Yuno you can work when you try hum self-induced amnesia or something? that's almost a sensible coping mechanism I'm glad the anime is actually paying attention to that

augh what the fuck Kurusu why do you gotta hum and there's that other detective uuugh this anime has way too much going on I guess it IS 11 pm and I HAD decided to go to sleep after this

#mirai nikki #liliet watches mirai nikki

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mageinabarrel · 7 years ago

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Sometimes, the best thing you can say to a child is: “I love you.”

Back in the middle of my college years, I took an entire summer to go out to Denver, Colorado to serve on a 4-person team that traveled around the area putting on what was not exactly, but can be approximated as a week-long vacation Bible school program. There were a lot of good things that happened that summer (I fell in love and was rejected, made a lifelong friend, grew a lot as a person, etc.), but among the most unexpected benefits was the surprisingly valuable experience of spending the vast majority of my time surrounded by children between the ages of 6 and 12.

It’s probably true that there are few things in life that can test your patience as an adult as a fourth grader with an attitude or a second grader who just won’t sit down. But the other side of the coin is that these children, even the brattiest of them, are capable of some of the most uninhibited, generous kinds of affection. The emotional whiplash of dealing with kids is worse than the kind you get from watching airing anime go down the tubes, and yet the rewards—if you’re patient enough to receive them—are superb.

All this is to say that children are a very inconvenient, gratuitous kind of existence. There are very few things in this world less utilitarian than a child. I was listening to a podcast recently that described beautiful things as those things without usefulness, and while I don’t think such a description fully encapsulates the beauty, value, and importance of a child, I do think it serves as a useful point with which to begin considering Alice and Zoroku.

While there have been some recent anime with memorable child characters (Non Non Biyori, Barakamon, and sweetness & lightning come to mind), I would contend that the none of these truly make the child the center of their stories. While Tsumugi is a key element in the overall dynamic of sweetness & lightning, I think it’s fair to say that she is often decentered from the show’s focus for other characters. Likewise, Barakamon‘s Naru, while key to the show’s workings, is more important as an influence on protagonist Handa than she is as her own character.

Non Non Biyori actually probably comes the closest to really making its own child character, Ren-chon, the most important part of its story. The show often focuses specifically on Renge’s particular experiences and feelings, holding them up as valid and important. However, it’s ultimately the iyashikei mood and rural atmosphere that dominate Non Non Biyori – and Ren-chon’s perspective is just one method by which this larger goal is achieved.

That’s not to say these shows portray their child characters badly, it’s just that they all do something with them that Alizou does not: Make them useful.

For clarity’s sake I feel it’s important that I note that, yes, in some sense the children of Alice and Zoroku are useful to the anime as a whole; that is, it would not exist without them. In reverse, though, we might say that the show exists for them. It exists to tell their stories, to explore their needs, and to portray their growth as themselves. In essence, as a production—as a story—it values its child characters implicitly by elevating them over any other characters and never using them as useful devices to illuminate things about other, non-child characters. They remain at the center.

When I wrote about the nature of family in Alizou, The Eccentric Family, and Sukasuka, I called what Alizou depicts “the gravitational pull of a child.” And, really, that’s an accurate description of what Alizou as a show does – not only Sana, but also with its other child characters: Hatori, Ayumu, Yonaga, and Asahi. Like the sun to the earth, these children constantly pull the show’s story into orbit around them. Whatever else happens, the narrative is always about them – and, importantly, the attentions of all the important side characters almost as consistently are drawn toward them.

The first arc of Alice and Zoroku has taken some heat for being less enjoyable and less heartwarming the the much cozier second half, but I think the discomfort that exists there is absolutely critical to framing of Alizou‘s themes. Although we see Minnie C’s tragic backstory, her actions are inexcusable. Even as Alizou takes great care to provide nuance to Minnie C’s character by showing us her motivations (and thus avoid making her into a purely evil, villainous character), it also refuses to use her past as a justification for her present actions. Sad as it is, her selfish desires are cannot be given higher priority than the protection and care of Sana. Why? Because Sana’s a child, not an object Minnie C can use to achieve her goals.

Throughout the show, treating the children like tools is rather unambiguously portrayed as wrong, with even the more-or-less genial research facility being taken down because (in a thematic sense) it existed to use the children, not be of use to them. This stands in sharp contrast to the way Naito’s organization is validated in its concern for those with the Dreams of Alice (the choice that is narratively rewarded in its political triumph over its rival), but the foil winds up being more powerful because the research facility is never evil, per se – it just has the wrong priorities. The resultant rebuke is gentle, but firm – and there’s no need for a caricatured villain for the point to be effective.

This relative dismissal of the adult is paralleled in Alizou‘s second arc. In story terms, Hatori’s parents’ marital issues are very clearly shown as secondary to Hatori’s needs. Structurally, although Zoroku and Ichijou set out to help Sana and Hatori in Wonderland, the problem is almost entirely solved by Sana, Hatori, and Ayumu on their own initiative and by their own efforts. They are the stars; they, their interior lives, and the ways they attempt to figure out their lives are most important. All that’s left is for the adults to come in and shout away the clouds.

As I said before, the beauty of a child is not merely in their un-usefulness. It is not that children are valuable in an aesthetic sense because they lack value in a utilitarian one. It was never enough for Alizou to merely allow Sana, Hatori, and the others to lack in-universe and narrative utility. And so it takes great pains to validate their existence as children apart from any external scale, instead diving into their experiences. We see Sana’s talent for math balanced against her struggle with more qualitative subjects. We see the twins adjusting to life as schoolgirls, and the way that experience influences Sana. We see Hatori’s guilt and Ayumu’s love for her friend. In short, we see these children as the people they are – in the midst of growing, but with their own preoccupations, cares, and needs.

In the concluding episode’s final minutes, Naito makes an extremely important statement that both retroactively frames his actions within the story and makes concrete the thematic subtext the entire show has been pushing:

My jaw dropped at this line. Plenty of anime focus on characters in their teens and younger—an age range that could certainly be encompassed by the definition of “children”—but I had never seen an anime so explicitly cast children as the ultimate barometer of societal and narrative good. And by waiting until the end of the show, until Alizou had proven in execution its commitment to establishing this value system on all levels, made it all the more effective. It showed us what it means to make a good world, and then told us at the very end what it had done so we couldn’t miss it.

It’s all child-like, but the growth all of them display—particularly Sana—hints at one of the greatest, most astounding realities of children: Their capacity to grow. For what is a child but a ball of potential humanness? And who can say where the limits of that potential are? I’m certain a parent could speak more eloquently on this than me, but I think I apprehend at least a small part of the terrific wonder a child’s existence represents every time I hold a friend’s baby in my arms. Or, to return to my introduction to this piece, I may have seen some of that as I was teaching those kids out in Colorado. Somewhere amidst those times I was tired, annoyed, and fed-up, I simply just understood: These children are amazing existences. They are beautiful.

Alice and Zoroku, I am convinced, understands this too. And, further, it wants its watchers to understand it. Naito’s concluding thought isn’t just a nice sentiment. It’s an arresting challenge to anyone who finishes this show and witnesses the final frame of Sana, Hatori, and Ayumu heading off to school. Do we agree with Naito? Is a good world a place where children are happy and healthy? Is that the kind of world we want to create? For my part, I’d like to be part of making that sort of world. How about you?

Sometimes, the best thing you can say to a child is: "I love you." Sometimes, the best thing you can say to a child is: "I love you."

#Alice and Zoroku #Alizou #Childhood #Reflection

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aurimeanswind · 7 years ago

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Friends and High Places—Sunday Chats (7-9-17)

I’m in the sky. Yes, I can fly and write at the same time. No, but really, I am currently on my flight back home from Austin because apparently Sunday Chats don’t stop for NOTHING. Not since I missed a couple weeks in a row, because apparently people miss this when it’s gone. So let’s chat.

Friends from Far Long and Far Away Places

This weekend was incredibly special for me. Though I’ve definitely mentioned her on Sunday Chats before, today she gets a big dedication. It’s story time.

A little over three years ago my would-be friend Jazz started following me on Twitter because of a mutual love of Game Grumps. Some DMs later we’d be chatting back in forth together ever since August of 2014. It’s not often for me to have someone kind of ethereal, who you can hold a conversation with for almost three years without ever meeting them, but Jazz was that person for me.

It’s been a long time, and I often referred to her in my head as my “pen pal”. Sometimes you can meet people by total happenstance, and it all started with her DMing me about what I went to school for. From there, I found one of the best friends I’d have in my life, and like I said, a near-continuous conversation with the same person for almost three years.

I’m very privileged in this life. For a number of reasons, but one such is that I always try to avoid taking for granted are the folks I have befriended on my journey through writing and gaming. Jazz is a friend I made almost entirely separate from that, separate from any specific community or event. Separate from any one moment and almost entirely through luck and serendipity. It was just a lucky mutual follow.

This weekend I took a trip to Austin so I could finally meet her in person. It’s a trip I had been playing around with for a long while and decided to book on the same weekend as RTX so that I’d be able to see some other friends while I was in town.

I’m lucky that Jazz was totally okay with me selfishly wanting to take up her time and spend plenty of one-on-one time together. What did we do? Well, we talked of course. But more so, I listened. I got to sit and listen to her stories, to her life, about her friends, her opinions, her experiences, and just like that, the continuous conversation that’s already been going on was championed through this weekend. We even sat and watched her favorite movie of all time, Clue, which I had never seen before, and is really pretty great.

Listening to her, I can’t begin to convey to you all, you wonderful Sunday Chats readers, how incredible a person she is. She is fierce. She is strong. To me, she is power embodied. She is inspiring. She takes no bullshit, she is protective, and she is a total and complete badass. To list all the things I admire in her would be to carry on for far too long, and considering she is probably reading this, I’m sure she’d be suuuuper embarrassed if I did, but I’ll try and keep it succinct.

She’s an award winning journalist. She’s incredibly witty, smart, and balanced. She is an excellent conversationalist. She is maybe the funniest person I have ever met. She is gorgeous and has a fire that burns on the inside and out. She’s one of my best friends. She was even kind enough to listen to me rant on about my life, my troubles, and things I’ve never told anyone else in my life, because I can’t help but say too much around her.

I’d count her amongst three that I depend and rely on truly and completely. Through this last month and a half, where my depression has been incredibly troubling and I’ve been in one of the worst places of my life since 2012, she has been an endless resource of support and comfort, even though she herself is has been through the ringer. She inspires me, makes me smile, and reminds me of how lucky I am to be here.

There are truly only three people in this world I can speak so highly of. She is one of them. I know it’s incredibly sappy, I know it’s a weird thing to splooge about in a massive public post, but I feel like I’ve brushed this friendship to the side like it’s some big secret, this distant friend from the internet. If she will proudly brag about me to her friends in the anticipation of my visit, then guess what? I’m gonna do it to my wonderful readers on my way out of Austin.

Thank you Jazz, for your support, for letting me be a part of your life, and for being an inspiring, fierce, and unendingly kind and caring badass.

Love you lots, J.

What I’ve Been Working On

My workflow is still pretty stilted. I think there is definitely something I’m held up on, and while I’m writing every day with insistence, I don’t know if it’s a help or a hindrance at this point. I’m playing around with getting to the 1000 day mark, which should fall sometime in this coming December, and then stop writing for a little while. We’ll see where things go and if any projects lift off the ground between now and then, but tentatively, I want to throw that out there.

I’m restarting a piece I was working on a long time ago on Overwatch, and I’m retouching up my first Case Study. I’m going to reshoot the first episode of Case Study, and now that ExtraLife is out of the way and I have a super nice new computer, I’ll be able to edit video ago. I’m definitely very concerned for the process, since I’m more than a little rusty, but I’m excited to see how it turns out. I need to reconfigure a few things about how I shoot the show, but I think it’ll look pretty good and sound great.

I also wrote a few one-off blog posts this week, which you can read HERE. One was on the Fourth of July, and the other was after watching the first episode of Netflix’s Castlevania series.

What’s on Tap

Overwatch

Yo I’m still playing Overwatch

I think i am generally winning a bit more now

That new character Doomfist looks pretty goddamn awesome doesn’t he?

I really like Overewatch still. It’s now pretty much all I play until I get into Nier Automata and Splatoon 2.

Castlevania Netflix Show

I have now watched all four episodes of the first season of this show. And it is, in my humble opinion, fantastic.

It definitely has a bit of a Game of Thrones vibe, in that it feels like a lived in world that has an established history, but it doesn’t boggle itself down too much in character names and family houses.

It just jumps into a world and it’s first episode, which is all about setting up Dracula as a villain, is just absolutely fantastic.

The rest of the series is about Trevor Belmont, the protagonist, who ends up being just as interesting as Dracula, but has a much longer arc, and seeing him slowly evolve as a character is really great.

The show is definitely gory and brutal, which I expected, and I think with the artstyle and the animation it does it super well. I was definitely a bit triggered by the graphic scene of *spoilers* someone being eaten. But y’all know that’s my weird specific phobia, whatcha gonna do?

The way it ends leaves me begging for more, and it’s already apparently been renewed for a second season. I cannot wait for more of this show, and I am totally hooked. I really recommend it, because it is a very good interpretation of the Casltevania universe and the way its tropes and ideas, like the whip, are conveyed into visuals, is fucking awesome.

Tomba 1 & 2

So I finished Tomba 1! Yay! I’ve been replaying that after finishing Alundra

Tomba is a great game! I think for the first time I ddi every last one of the quests in the run, all 130, which was a ton of fun.

I started Tomba 2, which was in the big switch from 2D to 3D, and it actually still looks pretty great.

For a 3D game from that era, it’s definitely super chunky and blocky, but the characters are very distinguishable, and it is 100% fully voice acted. The voice acting isn’t amazing, but for the time period it’s actually relatively stellar!

Tomba 2 is just such an amazing Metroidvania/RPG/Adventure game. I cannot recommend it enough.

Zelda Breath of the Wild

Oh look at this one cropping back up. I decided to get the DLC before shipping off to Austin this weekend, and it was a great idea.

Though I haven’t really dipped me toes in any of the new content, using the new map feature, I’ve been able to explore the areas I missed before. In my initial 110-ish hours I was uh… surprisingly thorough, let’s say. But goddamn.

I still have a few shrines left, 17 now, I believe, and I really want to find all of them. I have yet to consult a guide.

Questions

As always you can get your question in Sunday Chats by replying to my tweet on Sunday afternoons with the hashtag #SundayChats in it!

Hrm. I really like them as they are, I’ll be honest. I don’t think they’re necessarily perfect. I think, and I had a recent conversation about this with Jazz actually, that the effort to make Snape a redeemable character all at the last minute felt a little forced. It worked for me, but I think if you wanted to make it really believably, for everyone, folks like Jazz who really hates him, you could have layered it out a lot more. We get a little bit of it in book 5 and the rest in book 7. Now I think the opposite works super well for Dumbledore, where you kind of learn about his troubled past in book 7, and it works so well because you can clearly tell he is aspiring and working toward redemption so much throughout the rest of his life. The kind of breaking down of his character in the final entry of the series hits so hard because we get to see that so well reflected through Harry.

I think there are plenty of characters that could have been fleshed out. I honestly would have loved to just spend more time in that world, more time in the classes, more time learning the history, but I don’t think that is a thing that would have worked in this story, Harry’s story, specifically.

I also haven’t read Cursed Child yet, still. And I’m still maybe a little concerned it’ll ruin a bit of the magic for me. I really enjoyed Fantastic Beasts though, in spite of its issues.

I mentioned it a little bit above, but yeah, I thought it was fantastic. Just the character work specifically worked so well for me. There was a lot of attention given to make Dracula such a sympathetic villain. Even though it’s essentially a trope we’ve seen before, I think it’s used really well, because beyond the incidents that set up his villainy in the series, we get this nice little glimpse at his past distaste for humanity. It leaves you with questions about history, ones that don’t need to be answered, but you want to be, which are always the best questions because consulting them in your mind engrosses you even more in the world.

And good god is everything about the last episode just fucking perfect.

This is a really hard one. If that’s something you’re going through, I’m sorry. It isn’t easy. I am someone who has never been broken up with, I am the break up-er. Not that that’s something to brag about, which I’m not, I just want folks to know the position I’ve been in.

I’ll say this, and please hear me out on this. Assuming things didn’t end with cheating or murder or physical/emotional abuse, assuming it was a thing where it was distance, fighting, anger or animosity, or just things not working out, remember this: empathy. Whether you’re the break up-er or the break up-ee, I think it’s really important to remember that the other person is a human being, and what’s more, they’re going to handle this in their own way. Intimate companionship is really hard to manage and it’s not a one way street. If both folks aren’t on the same page, it’s just not going to work out. This doesn’t mean you need to pocket blame, or hate the other person, or look for reasons why things aren’t working or didn’t work out. In my history, the moment you’re really questioning whether things are worth continuing means you at the very least need to have that conversation with your partner.

They’re human and you need to respect that. I don’t think either person should lob insults or take enjoyment out of a breakup. Again, we’re excluding the worst case scenarios here.

I think you should take a deep hard look at yourself, at your feelings, and genuinely ask yourself: do I still want to be friends with this person? I know for me the answer has always been no. I need that distance because being close to them would either fill me with guilt or pain, or just a general concern that the other is in pain any time they’re around me. That’s what’s worked for me, but if you or the other make that decision, I really believe you need to respect it.

To kind of top it off here, I think a lot of distance can do a lot of good. Stop checking their social media, unfollow/unfriend/or even block them if you need to. Get them out of your view and focus one what you need to do to get yourself in a stable and happy place again. You both need to do this, you both need to figure out how to make yourselves happy without the other again, and that’s not easy, but that’s the best advice I can give.

I know that’s pretty contrary to a lot of modern advice of be friends, be cool, be amicable, but I just don’t think that shit happens really. I’ve seen it, I’ve seen it myself, but it’s very hard, and it’s very rare, so don’t be afraid of opting for the easier choice. Do what’s best for you. Take care of yourself.

Haha, well this is hopefully my last trip for a hot minute. I don’t know. I don’t want to make any promises. This most recent trip to see a friend was special because I had never actually seen them before, so it was really important for me to meet them and spend time there. The next one? I really don’t know. I think I need to spend some time figuring some of my own shit out now. I have a lot on my mind lately and a lot of things I want to start and get done.

Oh, and very little money.

Ahh this is a really hard question.

I like the standards and the fast food burgers. I could go for any. But the best burger, that’s tough.

I’ll say this, I take my burger a very specific way. One, it always has to be a cheeseburger. If it’s not a cheeseburger you can just leave thank you. I always take my burger with Lettuce, Mayonnaise, and Ketchup. I know, it’s a weird combo, but it’s the best. I got it from my older brother Brady, though his included a tomato, which I just don’t fuck with, so that is my perfect burger wherever I go. I sometimes throw grilled onions on there if it’s an option too.

I don’t know if it’s my all time favorite, but there is this eastern chain near me called Cheeburger Cheeburger, and their 1/3 pound burger with my chosen toppings on it was really good. Their bread was always super flakey, and they were real-ass thick burgers too.

As a general style of burger that I love, you can’t go wrong with a good patty melt. My go-to usually if I’m at a new diner.

So my friend told me to listen to this song and now that I have, I see why. I know a bit of the story behind it and it is very... powerful. I mean, it’s hard to imagine the girl that did Tik-Tok is doing this song years later, but I think it really is reflective of her and her soul and her pain.

I thought it was really beautiful. I thought it was very poignant.

This is a tricky one. I’ll say I have two. I really love the triggers nowadays. Obviously the Switch does not have analogue triggers, which is unfortunate, but I get it what with it being a handheld console as well. But man do those Xbox one and PS4 triggers feel reeeeeal good. If i had to pick a specific one, it’d be the right trigger, because it usually does the shooty-bang-bang in the video games.

Outside of that, you can’t go wrong with the bottom face button. Usually jump, or hit, or fuck-up, as I like to call it. That’s A, or B, or X, depending on which controller you have, and it’s a rad button. Don’t futz with it.

Having been in Austin all weekend I have not gotten the chance to see Spider-Man Homecoming, but after hearing the words on it, it has skyrocketed up my must-see list. I may even go to see it tomorrow morning before I go to work. Goddamn do I want to see it. I did see Clue this weekend though! That’s a great movie!

But really, Peter Parker is like, my legit hero. I loved him as a kid. He is for sure my favorite Marvel hero, and probably my second or third favorite superhero in general, behind Superman and Batman, depending on the day. I wanted to be a photographer when I was younger, before I wanted to be a doctor and then enthusiast press, so when I found out that Peter Parker was a photographer too, I thought it was even more rad.

Did you know that the Polar Bear is the largest land carnivore? Or land predator, one of the two. When they stand on their hind legs, Polar bears can measure over 12 feet tall.

Polar Bears are fucking. Awesome.

The vacation was incredibly helpful. Being around someone who has been helping me get through such a troubling time in my life and also just sleeping in and relaxing was so, so helpful.

Of the Clue characters, it’s so goddamn hard to choose. I almost want to say Mrs White because of her absurd monologue in the last ending alone. I don’t know if I’ve laughed that hard like… ever. Good fucking god. Like holy shit.

I also just love Mr. Green because of every absurd physical thing he does in that movie, and Tim Curry is incredible. Just incredible. They’re all great, but those are the three standouts for me, I’d say, with maybe Mrs. White taking it.

Trevor is the villain in Clue. Though I see him as more of a Mr. Body character, who is playing everyone behind the scenes. He is the villain because he loves his power too much.

Jesus Christ Roger. I can only wonder what the people who don’t know you but only see your tweets in Sunday Chats must think you’re like.

I have never seen Grown Ups 2, nor do I think I ever want to. It’s an infamously bad movie, from what I understand. I mean, there is a podcast about watching it every week for an entire year that is literally called “The Worst Idea of All Time”. Also I take great offense to being compared to David Spade and I’m not 100% sure why.

I can’t speak to Star Ocean 3, but I loooove replaying old favorites. You can see from what i have on tap this week that I’m going and playing Tomba 1 and 2 as is. Those are two very old games, and while a little rough around the edges and certainly not perfect, they hold up for me quite a bit.

I think there is definitely a level of nostalgia that can get you through certain things. Like, when I went back and played Tales of Symphonia again within the last few years, it’s a lot less dynamic and fun than I remember it being. The voice acting is also a whole lot worse than I remember it being too, but I still really love that game. I still finished it and played it through to the end. I am someone who regularly goes back and replays games, and just like gaining something from a movie on a second viewing or reading a book through again, you’re almost guaranteed to get something new out of it. If you’re open to the idea of something maybe not holding up as well as you remember it doing, than I say go for it. Just don’t let that be all your time like it has been for me recently.

I think it totally is. Especially if you have an emissary of that nostalgia to boot. For example, I think Tim Gettys really reps the Crash games as far as nostalgia and looking-back-love is concerned.

I think knowing where you’re at with something is also super big though. Like, are you into 3D/2D platformers, or more importantly, platformers from that PS1 era? Because Crash Bandicoot sure as shit is one of those. I went back and played the first Crash again recently and I know it’s not a super great game. I just know that in my heart of hearts. But I also remember really liking Crash 2 and 3, especially 3, and I want to go back and see those two very much. I have yet to get back into the N-Sane trilogy, but I’m excited to, and I think I’ll get a good amount out of those later two games. Just set yourself up with the right expectation and know that if you’re trying to specifically “buy into someone else’s nostalgia” that you need to see those games through the same scope that they did.

This is a mean question. I mean honestly, if I could hangout with you every week you know I would.

Okay real answer time. It’s probably that fucking Mrs. White monologue. You hyped it up to me while we were watching it but good fucking lord. I cannot overemphasize this: it was solid gold.

Also, I want it to be known that Jazz was fucking saying the words along with the movie as we watched it, and multiple times I had to stare at her until she stopped and then apologized. She has seen that movie waaaaay too many times.

Spelunky and Overwatch. Both are incredibly well made and I’ve been revisiting both time and time again, with months of distance between play sessions, and they have not let me down.

Okay, well I’m not about to sit here and make some declarative statement like that. I think for me, yes, it is my favorite Zelda game. It even beats out A Link to the Past, and if you want to know specifically where I’m at with it, you can read my review here: http://irrationalpassions.com/review/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild/

I think to deny the ingenuity, courage, and grace by which Breath of the Wild is executed would be incredibly inept of any video game player out there. I understand that a lot more folks than I have issues with it, many of them being hosts on my very own podcast. I get it. I get that the story isn’t 100% there for them. It really was for me. I get that the gemaplay doesn’t seem as new and original to them. It was for me. I think Zelda refines and executes on ideas barely even approached in other video games, and it does it with grace, style, and little to no issue. Especially in a post-performance-patch world, it is something incredible.

I think there is an argument there. I don’t know if I am even the one to make it though.

At least... not yet.

The Checklist

It’s all about MBMBaM for me this week. If you’re not familiar, My Brother, My Brother and Me is one of my all time favorite podcasts. In fact, it’s my favorite non-video game podcast. I love and adore it, and I think you should go listen to it. When I’ve been depressed recently, I’ve just been re listening to old episodes of MBMBaM and it’s made me very goddamn happy.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/my-brother-my-brother-and-me/id367330921?mt=2

I also started watching Polygon’s Monster Factory this week, and hoooooly shit is it funny. In this series, McElroy brothers and Polygon staff Justin and Griffin McElroy make horrific creatures in video game create-a-characters and go ham with them. I’ll provide my favorite episode so far (not that far into the series), which is probably the disaster that Fallout 3 became pretty much immediately.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHBzVTCO3nM

I sat and listened to Nick Scarpino do a couple of great one-on-one GameOverGreggy Shows this weekend in my downtime, and I can’t pick between the two, so I am just linking both.

Overcoming Anxiety - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taPC2fOx5BY

Brian Altano - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD8W-kpK3ew

Okay. I’m done. I’m writing this at home, finishing everything up, formatting, and then posting. I know it’s posting super late, and I’m sorry about that.

I have a melancholy weight with me now. It’s time to start looking ahead and I really don’t know what’s ahead for now. Both exciting, but right now, I find myself more anxious than excited. It’s a somber note to end Sunday Chats with, but it’s an honest one.

But hey, thanks for reading, and do me a favor, eh?

Keep it real.

#video games #overwatch #castlevania #clue #friendship #friends #love #best friends

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asightsodivine · 8 years ago

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Best of: Anime/Manga

Countdown:

15. Black Lagoon

- This is a show about butts and bullets, my favorite. That’s all I can say to summarize... - REVY! Yes Revy is the greatest fucking character of all time.

- FUCK THE ACTION SCENES ARE HOT FUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK.

- The story doesn’t fixate on any specific subject for very long, though season two and the ova are better in that regard.

- Intro gives me a half-chub.

- “fuck” is said 259 times, not including the OVA.

- The casting for the dub worked very well, I love how Rock switched from bitchy to badass throughout the first couple of episodes

- this is a manly show, NO GRILLS ALOOWED.

- Won’t make you cry at all.

14. Your Lie in April - This is a tragedy about classical music and love and… well I don’t feel like spoiling any of it at all.

- I’m crying a lil while writing this and I haven’t been able to get through the first episode without breaking down.

- The soundtrack is mainly classical sounding music, though strangely enough, I cannot recall a single piece. Also the dub was produced rather well.

- The animation is beautiful, I hadn’t noticed a significant problem the first time, but I only watched it once because I hate crying.

- I don’t have a clever quip for this show, sorry, I just love it.

- Will make you contemplate suicide.

13. Elfen Lied

- Seeing as this is an infamous anime, you probably know by now that this show is known for naked women and vivid gore, as well as child murder. I fucking love this show, it’s one of my first anime, actually second come to think of it. - Reliant on coincidences to proceed plot, though is nonetheless intriguing and shockingly unique. - Naked, horned, pink-haired, humans who cut people to shreds? Fuck yes. - Not very impressive animation but some of the brightly colored scenes worked well with making an unsettling impression. Also I love the detailed gore sequences (e.g. Intro, Nana vs Lucy). - Nana is my love and my og waifu back when I was like eleven.

- Shitty ending, but the manga continues the story - Also the dub was fucking horrible, but apparently the sub was bad as well, I guess read the manga?

- Will make you cry, well probably.

12. Another

- This horror drama is focused around the curse of a middle school classroom, there’s this cute lil girl with an eyepatch and she’s outcasted along with the main protagonist.

- Gore, death, misery, and insanity. All my favorite things in one show.

- The animation, especially during the gore scenes, are beautifully detailed. I love the umbrella scene!

- Luckily there’s not much filler that is easily recalled, though some plot holes were bothersome. How unfortunate.

- Overall it’s a badass show with a nice twist ending, also I loved the dub! The first time I had watched it it was only available in sub but the dub was fucking amazing!

- I doubt anyone would cry from this show.

11. Deadman Wonderland

- Okay, so imagine Disneyland, but it has presidents that rival politicians relative to corruption. Also, it has gladiatorial arena-like events. Also there’s this guy called the wretched egg who like to fuck around and murder relentlessly. Fucking killer (no pun intended)!

- Lots and lots of gore!

- Interesting story, but read the manga, the anime totally fucks up because it was only 13 episodes long and didn’t finish the story at ALL!

- The characters are actually layered for the most part.

- The dub is not anything impressive. It’s not terrible at least.

- Minatsuki Takami is so fucking cool, badass, and cute as well (I’m into severely mentally unstable people).

- The manga ending may leave you sad, but the anime? Fucking doubt it.

10. Gunslinger Girl

- IN A WORLD WHERE CYBORGS ARE A REALITY AND THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT MANIPULATES PRETEEN GIRLS INTO BECOMING KILLING MACHINES, WILL THEIR HUMANITY PREVAIL (BWOOOM)? Okay so it’s about these lolis with traumatic past who become cyborgs, though the action is not what makes this anime so great or memorable but the contrast and conflict of the remaining humanity of the girls and their obligation to kill for their masters.

- Lolis killing criminals is a unique experience, especially when they hide their gun in a violin case.

- The characters and character development are surprisingly well-rounded and usually feel very real.

- Whenever I’m feeling nothing I can watch the Angelica arc and become riddled with sadness for like three consecutive days. Better than nothing eh?

- They never exploit any characters sexually, thankfully, because there are far too many shows that do.

- The dub was handled well for the main cast though some of the supporting can be weak links.

- Henrietta and Triela are the fucking greatest, especially in their first season.

- Every arc has it’s moments, especially the first season’s, but the Angelica and homicide (unofficial title) arc work especially well emotional wise.

9. Cowboy Bebop

- Fuck yeah, a classic. All I can hear when someone mentions Cowboy Bebop is “I think it’s time we blow this thing... get everybody and this stuff together. Okay three, two, one. Let’s jam!” Welcome to the life of some space bountyhunters aka cowboys.

- The animation stupendously impressive seeing as it wasn’t computer animated and the kinda dark undertone to the art style is unexpectedly appropriate.

- The dub for this show was amazing (I know I’m a broken record).

- The supporting characters were well written but it’s kind of sad seeing as it’s a different person each time.

- The story, especially by end was outstanding, they were able to develop the characters so well, EVEN ED!

- I loved Jet so much, Faye was sexy, and Spike was pretty hot if I’m being honest.

- This anime will make you bawl.

8. Baccano!

- This is a story, a story about criminals and immortals. And yet again, death, misery, and badassery. Another maturely themed anime that is so fucking amazing o mi lord.

- Just to mention, the intro is so amazing, it’s a hard bop piece of music similar to cowboy bebop’s Tank!.

- I legitamately have a crush on Ladd (like I said, the unstable get me flustered).

- The dub is awesome, some honorable mentions for characters are Ladd and Jacuzzi.

- idk I don’t have much to say, it’s just such a great show.

- This anime probably won’t make you sad at all.

7. Mirai Nikki: The Future Diary

- Dreams and truth; is there a tangible contrast? Well I guess in this show there is, strangely enough... So this show is about a deathmatch where the victor becomes GOD! They fight using cellphones or other items (it differs from person to person) which predict the future. It’s a bloody fucking mess of a show.

- The first intro was so fucking awesome but they switched half-way through. Fucking bitches...

- The voice acting was very well produced. Woo-wee! Yuno was especially fucking awesome.

- Yuno is best waifu.

- It was very satisfying to see them flesh out most of the characters throughout the series, it helps with empathy.

- The ending was fucking bullocks though so be prepared.

- This show won’t make you cry unless you’re super sensitive.

6. Berserk

- Fantasy isn’t usually something I indulge in, but I’ll make an exception for dark fantasy. This story is FUCKING DARK. The manga is better with showing off what it can get away with. Gatts, a skilled mercenary, joins the Band of the Hawks, a group that follows Griffith on his adventure to rule.

- The dub for this show was pretty gud. I know there was one bad character relative to that but luckily it wasn’t a primary character, also I can’t recall who he was so...

- Also, quick side note, the intro was really forgettable, the song that is, but the monologue was great, I still recite it sometimes.

- Caska is hawt 2 and Griffith is surprisingly feminine looking, not that that’s bad, so fuck off PC tumblr

- The ending to the anime was truly FUCKED. I loved the sense of dread and emptiness that burrowed in my soul. I personally love a tragic show, but the manga continues on and it gets even better, also I believe the 2016 anime continues as well, I’m not sure though, I’m waiting for the dub.

- This show will probably make you cry, manga... definitely.

5. Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad

- An average, BORING kid, Yuki speaks to his childhood crush for the first time in a long while. She brings him to meet Ryuske, a guitarist who played for some popular band, I can’t remember their name. Anyways eventually he is given a guitar and he starts to play and stuff and it’s basically a show about a kid becoming a rock star and stuff.

- The dub was quite stellar, in fact way above average, at least in my ears.

- The music overall was pretty amazing, especially the dubbed vocals, Tsunemi just has that classic punk voice, Typhoon was my personal favorite, I’m actually considering covering it. And the intro was pretty great aesthetically and musically.

- OOOKAYY. So... I’m personally not the type of guy to unironically obess over fictional characters, usually I mean. BUT MAHO MINAMI IS THE EMOBIEMENT OF PERFECTION, SHE’S NICE, SENSITIVE BUT TOUGH, INTERESTING, PUNK, AN ASSKICKER, AND SHE DOESN’T TAKE SHIT SHE’S SO FUCKING PERFECT ALSO SHE’S KINDA HOT.

- The character development was very well-written and nicely executed, it felt very smooth and satisfying.

- The ending is nothing special, they end at the climax of the manga, so yeah prepare to be disappointed because the studio never fucking continued it because people = shit. I haven’t finished the manga so I can’t say much.

- I doubt this show will make you cry much, but it will make you feel a flood of emotions. But I’m MANLY so I’m immune.

- Fuck off Buzzfeed.

4. Parasyte -the maxim-

- YES! The time has come. This is probably the most unique anime on this list. So... like this parasite thing attatches itself to this kid and tries to subdue his brain and shit but the kid stops it and then the parasite just becomes his arm and like they go on wild adventures and shit and it’s really gory and badass and the story is surprisingly well done.

- I loved the dub, Shinichi especially. He had a voice that really stood out and it fit his character perfectly.

- The intro is some shitty deathcore bullshit. NEWSFLASH: Metal and autotune don’t fit together, leave that shit with poppunk you pieces of shit, fucking burn.

- Sorry, no waifu mentions here, I wasn’t impressed by the main love interest, though... Shiniki actually was really hot, especially by the second half of the show. Just look at this picture (up). She’s so fucking badass and his personality is just fucking amazing and his character development was outstanding.

- The ending was very satifying and concluded well. I didn’t feel empty so that’s cool. Also the manga is the shit, I read it all the time when I was in elementary school or around that age at least.

- This show can get pretty upsetting, but not to an overwhelming extent.

3. NANA

- Meet Nana, a happy-go-lucky adult who is on her way to tokyo! And then meet... Nana, a punk rock star who is on her way to tokyo! So like most of this show is just a romantic comedy type story and it gets dramatic but it works itself out, usually. But by the end it gets super mature and serious. It was actually a nice contrast.

- The dub was mildly adequate.

- Fuck the second opening, but the first is pretty good, not the best though, not by a longshot.

- Eh. Also no waifu here. I really liked Takagi and thought he was kinda sexy and mysterious.

- The ending was good but not satisfying. I bawled if I’m being frank.

- THIS SHOW WILL MAKE YA CRY YOU PUSSIES!

2. Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni (Kai)

- So this is based off of a horror light novel lil meme. And basically this show takes all the events from every alternate universe and splits them into arcs, until they finally wrap it up in a nice bow. Basically this show has a groundhog’s day premise. But it’s very unnerving and gruesome, I loved it.

- The dub was apparently utter shit. I mean I didn’t think it was terrible. It wasn’t good but it was tolerable.

- The soundtrack was fucking amazing. God I love all the themes besides the OVA’s.

- Rena is best waifu, she’s in the picture I used. She’s a cute lil girl and she goes batshit fucking crazy and I fucking love IT SO FUCKING MUCH BECAUSE AS YOU KNOW INSANE CHICKS ARE FUCKING HOT!

- The ending to season one was actually really good, it gave me the feels. I can’t recall the second’s ending though. Also the manga was really badass and nice. I read the shit out of those. And don’t ask me about the light novels.

- It’ll probably make you cry if you have empathy.

Honorable Mentions!

1. Welcome to the NHK

- FINALLY. It’s down to this. This show is fucking magnificent.

- Welcome to the NHK follows the pervert, Tatsohiro Satou, who is a neet. Misaki meets him and instantly uses him for her “project” to cure him of being a neet. Throughout the story they go through many altercations and drama. It’s very intense and raw. Though it uses black humor to parade us through the story happily, regardless of how miserable literally ever character is.

- The dub was stellar I no criticism other than that one asshole at the offline meeting’s voice, but he has like six lines so whatever.

- The intro is very well made and it’s subtly melancholy vibe let the show kind of settle nicely right off the bat. The music in general is very emotional and nice.

- Misaki is extremely cute, she is manipulative, evil, sensitive, loving, compassionate, and tragic. She’s such a complex character that is never given any justice in the show, mainly because they make her a cliche tragedy case, which I was contempt with, though the manga had a much better character setup. Like, Misaki wasn’t some broken girl from an abusive home, she was a lonely, cynical, and tragic girl who tried to find someone to manipulate. And Satou wasn’t exactly a paranoid schizo, he was a chronic drug addict which resulted in schizophrenic behaviors and tendencies.

- The ending of the anime was satisfying for the most part, the supporting character’s fates were too cookie cutter but in the end, who gives a shit about Yamizaki the obnoxious dumbass? In the manga though, it isn’t exactly satisfying but it is still kinda a nice and fit the story well. The latter is my preference by far.

- This show will make you bawl, this book will make you bawl. It’s just such a wonderful show about characters who are all miserable fucks, trying to find something tangible to give them worth. It’s just so fucking good.

- I know I’m biased because this story reflects some of my life very accurately, scarily enough.

#anime #manga #black lagoon #elfen lied #your lie in april #another #deadman wonderland #gunslinger girl #cowboy bebop #baccano!#the future diary #mirai nikki #berserk #beck mongolian chop squad #parasyte the maxim #higurash no naku koro ni #welcome to the nhk

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angelluckovich · 8 years ago

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For my Flashing Prince, my handsome Battle Lover Cerulean, En Yufuin

this is my entry for @mindsebbandflow give away....

WHY I LOVE BOUEIBU!

Oh man! You asked me to know what Boueibu means to me and there are a lot of things I have to say about it, so let’s see no holding back at all!

Well, let’s be honest and start with the real story, on October 2014 my best friend sent us a promo image for Boueibu, we all laughed and say: “we gotta watch that anime to make fun of it, that’s totally ridiculous!!!” and so on January 6th that same friend (who became my Atsushi and my Kinshiro) wrote us: “did you watch the anime, it’s already on!” So I immediately went to one of the anime pages I know to watch the “unfamous magical boys anime,” I even remember my little sister looking at me and telling me: “OMG I’m so ashamed of you, you’re actually watching THAT thing!” and guess what, she became my Yumoto LOL. When I was watching it for the very first time I was like: “oh-oh… I’m in troubles I’m really loving this! How am I supposed to make fun of something I’m loving???!!!!”

That very same day, we started joking (not me to be honest, but I had to continue the joke cuz I’m an idiot who gets easily embarrassed to admit stuff….) about who will cosplay who, although before watching the episode, I had already said that En was mine, although at that moment I used to call him “el azul” (the blue one) cuz I didn’t know his name (to be honest, best random cosplay decision I have ever made!!!!) However, when we actually said we were going to cosplay them for sure was until episode 3 was aired, we started our first whatsapp group called: “Love shower!” and it was formed by Yumoto, Ryuu and En, we then got Atsushi (the poor Atsushi didn’t even believe we were being serious, our Atsushi realized that we were serious after a month) and then when we already decided who could be our Io we made another group called: “Grupal Love Making Grrrrrrr!” that group is still alive after two years, because let me tell you this is the most important part of Boueibu, it gave me the chance to have an amazing family that I love and protect, my cosplayers friends that actually call me mom….

The time was moving slowly on that 2015 thanks God, because in that way I enjoyed more every episode, but for the last two episodes I was already working in a certain call center, and I remember one of my friends texting about the ending on our chat group, and I wanted so badly to leave the place and go to watch the episode, especially because I was having such a bad day in that place! So as soon as I was off, and I got off from the minivan I played En’s song, cuz at that moment I already had it and started running to my apartment, I remembered a moto almost hit me LOL…. I was too desperate to get home, and as soon as I watched the episode I cried, I didn’t want to believe that this beautiful anime was over (at that moment I used to believe that I kill every anime I like, so I was afraid, very afraid that Boueibu wouldn’t have a second season)

And so, after this, we actually started working for our first Boueibu cosplays, we wanted to be the first group to cosplay them in my country, and we were actually the first ones! However, all the path and obstacles we had to overcome were awful!!!! Let’s say that in April, two of us were in troubles with the wigs we ordered (one because it seemed it wasn’t going to arrive on time, the other because it didn’t work for the character) at the end, the wig got on time, but it was awful (that’s in the case of En, so that’s me, I was so desperate that I cut my Edward Elric’s wig and try to make it less shining, it was all worthy for En, I seriously didn’t care at the moment, but I was too hurt to know that it wasn’t perfect for En) and for my other friend, well she got the chance to order Ryuu’s real wig and got it on time. Also, I remember that around April, my Atsushi broke her knee, so I went to visit her and we ordered together Atsushi’s wig…. That’s a cute memory from all that tragedy LOL. Then, it comes another tragedy XD… on May 15th we went to buy aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall the fabric…. We bought around 25 meters of fabric… like the lady from the shop was scared and wondering what we were going to do, and after we bought it all I got sick and let’s say I didn’t enjoy my lunch very much, but those were nice days because we were together and making some kind of relationships between us and the characters. That same day we gave the fabric to a girl who was supposed to work on our cosplays (because none of us dared to sew that) and we waited 3 weeks to see the result… which was the worst result ever!!!!!!!!!!! OMG! All the suits were wrong, the sleeves were wrong, the seizes didn’t match, everything was so awful!!!! It was so frustrating we only had 3 weeks before the con, we didn’t have more money, the girl said she will only refunded us a part of what we paid her and we needed to look for someone who could work on our cosplays in less than 3 weeks, at that moment I suggested one person I knew from my hometown, but not everyone could come to my hometown, so it was playing it all and make a random suggestion about Io and Atsushi’s measures… oh but at that moment my Atsushi was like: “no man, I cannot make this, I cannot keep on going,” and since Boueibu already meant so much to me at that moment I immediately said: “I’ll help you with everything you don’t have to worry about anything else!” I NEEDED MY ENATSU PICS I WAS NOT GOING TO LET HER OUT OF THE GROUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And she is my best friend, of course I was going to help her!

After that, we needed to work on the brooches, like we are the perfect example of Costa Rican people at that moment we left everything for the last weeks…. And let me tell you, I’ve been closed to death so many times thanks to Boueibu XD, when we went to buy material to work on the brooches, there was an accident with the train (daily life issues here in my country tbh) so the bus driver didn’t want to stop and let anyone to get off until the most dangerous point to cross streets… which I now call “Harulencia” but the real name is “La Valencia” (that happened on Haru’s bday, that’s why) thanks God we did survive crossing that street! And OMG I was so freaking tired that day! I worked a shift of 11 hours and I didn’t have enough strength, but still I run, and search and did everything I could to get all the materials that very same day with my friends! When we got back to the apartment, we ate and also drank to celebrate we were alive and the next day we actually got the brooches done, they were perfect for us because we knew how much they had all costed!

This cosplay experience was such an adventure, we got our cosplays one week before the event, we were not sure if the lady we requested help from really knew what we needed, but surprisingly that lady is the best and she did it 1000000 of times better than the other girl! We couldn’t believe it, because most of us were about to leave and quit everything, whether for wigs, shoes, or simply because we were getting tired of so much shit going on, but at the end we did it! We got all together to sleep at my apartment the day before the con and of course getting ready with final stuff (mainly how to put on the bows and brooches XD) to be honest, En Yufuin is my most important cosplay so far! The battle lover outfit has been the most difficult outfit for me to get all together, but it was completely worthy! We were so happy on the con because: 1. We were actually the first people to cosplay these characters here, 2. People love the result, 3. We got to be even closer and become more of a family!

I remember that a week after the event, I found the perfect wig for En-chan on ebay and I had to buy it even if the event had already happened, I had it on August 4th and got home to take some pics, my face looked completely dead on those because it was a very long day at work XD. After that we kept working on some cosplay projects like CMV or pictures, En-chan is the character that I love to cosplay the most, so since I have the greatest Atsushi, she proposed me that we should go with the high school version at the event for the end of the year and then changed to the Battle Lover outfits, I totally said yes, and we did… well pretty much… when we were changing outfits, she realized that she has left her bow so we couldn’t do it, she cried on my shoulder cuz she felt too sorry and up to now she keeps telling me that we have to cosplay them again together at some event, she is the greatest, cuz the truth is that she doesn’t really like Atsushi, but still she cosplays him because she knows how much En and En+Atsushi mean to me. After that, I had also cosplay Ibushi with the student council uniform and the Caerula Adamas suit, I really, really love the Caerula Adamas suit! It’s so elegant and so classy! And right now, I hope this year I can go for Haruhiko Beppu and En’s new battle lover suit! I need those to keep living!

Now that’s pretty much the part of why I love Boueibu and the things I have done so far for this show that I love so much (although I think I left some stuff out, but it’s to try to make this as summarized as possible), so I have to move now into why I love En-chan.

Yumoto, Io and Ryuu finishing with their bows... Atsushi finished mine so we were just taking pictures to them LOL

(this was the very first time we cosplayed the guys, I was extremely happy, but, I’m gonna hate that wig forever and I think I’m gonna cosplay En this Sunday just because I really need to cosplay him right!)

I’m actually really thankful with Boueibu cuz I have met wonderful people throught this anime, I’m happy and even thinking about how cute and wonderful could be to become something as “Boueibu” traveler, last year I met one of the greatest persons in this fandom, Myst, and this year I’m planning to go and meet d4ftka, so if I ever get the chance and the money to keep travelling and meeting amazing people, I will totally do it!

WHY I LOVE EN YUFUIN?

As I mentioned at the beginning, I chose En as my favorite character completely random (or actually cosplay character, but if you cosplay any character you gotta love him, so it was like the process in reverse(?)), it was because I saw a photoshopped image with Haru’s face instead of En’s face so I was like: oh he must be the cool guy like Haru, I like him…. and that’s how my love for En-chan was born(?) ok not like that, but it was sure the beginning. I am sure I chose him for that, and so you can believe my face of surprise as soon as we got into the show and he is talking with Atsushi and all of sudden drops this random “Atsushi, do you know there’s something I’ve been thinking about?” and for one moment one can believe that he is going to say something completely serious and stuff, but no, he is wondering about the Chikuwabu…. I looked at the image right in front of me and I was like: WTH dude?! But keep watching, like maybe that was something for that only episode, but no, En is the most random character and so one day that I was talking with one of my friends (the Ryuu one) she was like: why are you complaining about that?!! You are the most random person in our group! You totally fit as En-chan… and so I was like… well yeah I’m always like: here comes the random fact/thought/phrase or moment of the day and all of them get to be in silence for a moment until they can react, so that and the fact that I spent more of their chatting time sleeping, were the two things that makes me fall in love with En, two similarities in a character that I was afraid of not being able to represent very well.

After that, I got curious to try and draw him, I honestly don’t know how many time I have drawn En so far, but I know that it’s the Boueibu character that I have drawn the most, trying to get his expression in the best way possible, his hair was a pain in the ass at the beginning for me XD… it was just too hard to get all those bangs in the right way and I still think I need a lot of practice with that, it was the first time I really wanted to draw dead fish eyes perfectly, because being honest, before En I didn’t like characters with dead fish eyes XD, but I love his dead fish eyes more than any other pair of eyes! That perfect blue and the way they shine! It’s simply beautiful, especially when he is transforming, more specifically SECOND SEASON TRANSFORMATION! OMG THAT TRANSFORMATION KILLED ME! Coming back to drawing him…. I still fight with a lot of things that I want to get perfect every time I draw En, but I think he has been cursed with “favorite character cursed” it doesn’t matter how many times I try I’m not gonna get it completely perfect XD… still I wanna practice a lot with him, and it’s a character that even if I have been his fan for only 2 years I have tried to draw him in every possible way (trying to do almost all his outfits, I lost my faith of getting them all because there are many official arts with different clothes and I love them all and I can’t decide which one I like the most to draw him, but I do try as many poses as possible… to the point in which he has been one of the characters with the one I have made my firsts NSFW drawings…. Really like I thought I would never ever do something like that, but En-chan is too tempting to try it and so it happened XD)

(This is the very first drawing I made about En-chan)

(One of the most recent ones... I haven’t had time to scan newer drawings XD)

(Part of my drawing collection for Boueibu, here’s a little video most of the drawings are En-chan drawings

On this instagram you can watch part of my drawings.... there’s a little bit of everything on this account soooooo this is my favorite from Cerulean Week and this is my favorite from 2016 (IT’S NSFW!!!) )

En has also inspired me for something really important and that I really need in my life: how to chill, how? Well just listen to his first song, Ore wa Kyukyoku Taima Shugisha!! That song was my life when I was working at that call center, just playing it gave me life, made me smile, made me think about nicer things and got me to even imagine myself having a nice and relaxing bath! I listened to the song for the first time on March 11th that year and I couldn’t stop laughing when I read the lyrics, like OMG En this is so like you, you are a precious baby that will fight to defend what you think it’s right, because even if you are lazy you use such an energetic tune to get your point as valid! He totally got me with that, he gets his motivation from the most random stuff, going home, getting to know what a boy wants, using his powers just not to make a lot of effort, and the one I love the most protect what he loves the most. Episode 8 got me so freaking crazy on February 24th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I watched that episode 3 freaking times on the same day! I never do that, never ever!!!!!! But watching En-chan in that episode gave me so much life! It was a complete new side for his character, I mean I also love him from 1-7 (cuz for me he always has the best lines or the best moments! I just love him too much….(and in episode 7 I love him for being such a teaser!!!!!)) but episode 8 was such a bomb for me! His voice, his features, the way he went to protect Atsushi, the way he attacked the monster, being so decided to make the final attack and when he apologized with Atsushi!!!!!!!!!!! OMG! Everything was so perfect in that episode for En-chan! It made me so extremely happy!!!!! And let’s not talk about “kono hyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa” I even downloaded the audio, as well as the audio from episode 8 in which En is rolling on the floor, I had them on my cellphone and when I play random music and those play my friends stare at me like saying: “for real,” and I’m just “IT’S EN-CHAN!!!” so no one can complain about me downloading almost everything related to En-chan.

I also love him for how he behaved with the Atsushi-Kinshiro issue, we can see he never wanted to cause harm or separate the friends, he probably even tried to make them talk again, and that means so much, he really has a golden heart! And when he says he fights for Freedom, I cried for a lot of personal reasons, but I was really touched to see that that’s his reason.

During 2015 I was eagerly waiting for July 2nd, it was the first-time I knew my favorite character’s bday to celebrate it since the first year of being a fan, and I even got my Atsushi to go to my apartment (also cuz we needed to finish some stuff with some other cosplays and so on) and it was the first day I was going to try the first failed wig, so just imagine my broken heart when I couldn’t cosplay him on his bday because the wig was so wrong…. Literally it shattered my heart and I just remembered that I promise to myself that I would improve my En-chan cosplay and for the next year (2016) I will do a lot more for his bday (while remembering this I’m crying cuz it really hurt to wait 6 month to celebrate his bday and not being able at the end was awful) on 2015 I had to settle with just drawing him and I felt so damn empty because of that, it was so angsty to know that I will have to wait a whole year to celebrate his bday again.

Thanks God, a year went kind of fast and this last year for his bday was amazing thanks to mystandthemoon who decided to organize @cerulean-week(over there you can see all the collaborations I did), I helped a little bit organizing the week, but what made me even happier was the fact that I did at least 3 contributions per day, one cosplay picture, one fanfic, and one fanart, how did I have time to work on all of that? Only God knows cuz I swear I was too busy with my work and it was too hard to get at least one free hour to work on all of that, but I have to recognize I have the most incredible group of friends, we took all the pictures in just one day after coming back from one event (just imagine how tired we were, but still they were willing to help me, I love them so much, they know how much I love En-chan and how much I suffered on 2015 for the failed bday, so they really wanted me to get as much as I could for En’s week) in the case of the drawings I remember it was the first time I dared to draw in a bigger sketchbook… like I’m use to normal paper, and for all these En’s drawings I made them in a paper that was practically 6 times a normal paper XD…. Don’t ask me how I was able to do it, I’m still wondering about that (En-chan has some kind of magical spell on me, that’s for sure) and the fics, again I don’t know, but it was funny cuz at the end I got to link the some fics and then I got to link some others I wrote for Atsushi’s week. The bad thing about last year’s bday for En… that day I had a flight to take to Italy, so I woke up earlier than usual to draw him before leaving the country and to submit the collabs done for July then 2nd, and I was so worry cuz I didn’t know if I was going to be able to post the stuff I had for July 3rd, so when we got to France, around 2:30pm, I remember taking out my cellphone and begging that the poor old device could work and get the wifi signal to post what I have for that day, I remember at some moment walking slower to catch the signal (which was not allowed because we had few time to take the plane to Italy) and so once I saw that all the content was published, cosplay, fanart, and fic, I started walking normally, but to be honest, I also felt sad cuz half of En’s bday was spent flying… and the worst flight in all my life (as if I have taken a lot of flights… but well I know it has been the worst (also, GOSH! It was so difficult to watch Boueibu 2nd season first episode being in Italy, I was so desperate and looking as a crazy for a place, wifi, or something where I could watch it, at 11pm that day my little sis told me I should wait for the next day, and I almost cried, but then when some girls (that had wifi) came to the dorms, I woke up and took my cellphone and started watching the episode hahahahaha I was definitely desperate to watch the episode, and I remember I couldn’t hold my yelps when watching En’s new transformation, it was just too good to watching him and the others back and making me fangirl so hard!!!!))

AO3 ACCOUNT CERULEAN AND EPINARD WEEK FICS but over there, there are not all the fics, I published them here on Tumblr and I only got those on ao3 cuz those were the ones linked to each other.

(I still cannot believe this one had the most notes on tumblr... it was my less favorite TT.TT, but really thank you for the support)

Moving forward, being honest, I always have more ideas to create stuff related to En-chan, fanfics, videos, drawings… you can check my ao3 account… most of the fics I have published have En-chan as the main character and I need MORE, more situations for him, daring myself to write an AU where he can be the main character (I already have the idea, but I still need to convince myself that is good enough), more ships for him, I mean my OTP is EnAtsu, but as we were discussing one day: EN-CHAN LOOKS GOOD WITH EVERY ONE! So, he really needs more ships and more fics and more fanarts with every one…. In some other stuff… well I had promised myself a while ago that I was not going to buy anime merchandise ever again (it caused me a lot of family problems in the past) but I had a great friend, d4ftka, who make me realize that I deserve to spoil myself once in a while, so I started first with the lovebracelet, of course En’s lovebracelet, and the tiny purse of En’s face, it’s so adorable! I love it so much, and then I also bought THE NENDOROID!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was my ultimate bday gift, and when I received it I went to pick it up in the middle of a hurricane, it was the first day we were being hit by that hurricane and I was like: I don’t care my En-chan has arrived, I gotta go for my baby! My Endoroid is honestly my most precious possession right now, I don’t know what would I do without him, and well I also add an EnAtsu keychain and an En-chan plushie is coming its way, I’m hoping to get a job pretty soon so I can buy Atsushi’s plushie so En is not alone XD.

(I’m gonna admit it over here, En-chan has become my favorite character, I love him a bit more than Kai, and Kai had been my number one since 2003... so he has come to defeat the champion...

I’m also very eager to get a new job and have the chance to keep buying more,,,, ofc being responsible, but until I get a job I will just look at all the merchandise)

Honestly, I love En’s personality, I love everything that is related to En, like I can practically scream just by looking at one of his pictures, I wanna cosplay all his version (because even if I’m not the greatest En cosplayer I love him and I feel comfortable cosplaying him), I want to write as many stories as I can about him, giving him all the possible plots, all the possible ships, all the things I can imagine and create, I want to draw him in all I can produce, getting to find the perfect color combinations for him. I honestly don’t know what else I can say to tell how much I love him, and this is the part where I hate myself cuz I know there’s a lot more I want to say, but for me sometimes it’s too hard to express my feelings, especially when it comes to anime (my family has tried to block all my emotions in regards of anime and it has worked a lot), so I think this will be all, I love En Yufuin, Battle Lover Cerulean, my Flashing Prince, and it will be a honor to win this give away for him.

This is my instagram cosplay account, of course there are cosplay for every anime I like, but I’m totally sure that En is the character I have cosplayed the most so far.

And so I guess that’s all, En Yufuin has taken over my life and I don’t regret it, I’m actually hoping to see more about this character, to make more projects about him, I’m actually supposed to edit a video with the latest duet song, but I have been drawing and writing a lot.

Thank you so much for creating this give away, it’s really nice to express everything that has happened so far in regards of Boueibu and this gives so many hopes to keep going around the fandom and getting more Boueibu!

#boueibu #Boueibu give away #En Yufuin #Battle Lover Cerulean #Flashing Prince #wish me luck #I really want this give away #it's En's prize!!!!#and it also has an Arima!!!!#Ibushi Arima is my second favorite #please I really have to win this #crossing fingers

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recentanimenews · 4 years ago

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Life Under State of Emergency: Tokyo and Rural Areas

Shibuya Crossing (Photo: Daryl Harding)

Previously, we looked at how the state of emergency was affecting the lives of anime fans in Japan, focusing on the areas of Kyoto and Sendai. Today in part two, we speak with two people who live in Tokyo and a rural area outside of the main cities to get their perspective and feelings on how the “lockdown” is affecting them. We asked them all the same questions to get their differing points of view.

(Note: all answers have been edited down for clarity.)

Inside The Capital of Japan

An empty and close Tokyu Plaza in Harajuku, one of the most Instagram'd places in Japan (Photo: Daryl Harding)

I spoke to cosplayer, writer, and Tokyo native, Kaho Shibuya, who in her past has been a newspaper reporter, a TV, radio and YouTube channel host, and a teacher among a vast array of other colorful professions. She lives in the heart of Tokyo.

Firstly, how are you doing in the “lockdown,” even though it’s not technically a lockdown?

Under our current law, the Japanese government can’t force us to stay at home, so there are some people not behaving the way we’re advised to. Yet things have definitely changed when the prime minister declared a state of emergency: In major cities like Tokyo and Osaka, a great number of shops have closed, so you don’t have destinations for just hanging out anymore.

The transportation system, however, hasn’t been affected so people can still commute. With how punctual and on-time our train system is, people are still heading to school/work. The extremely crowded train ride in Persona 5 isn’t exaggerated at all and is still happening.

This means unless you can work at home or you work for a company where they care about your health your job puts you at a higher risk of infection.

How has the quarantine affected you personally?

Actually, I hardly go out to socialize other than work. As a non-drinker, I would be happy only going out to attend business meetings or networking gatherings. All my friends are business-related so when we naturally come together, we work together.

My hobbies are reading manga and watching anime, evidentially, alone. My favorite genre is RPGs, which doesn’t require another player. I live very close to my parents. Quarantine thus far hasn’t affected my personal life at all.

My work gives me an excuse to talk to people and be an extrovert, so I cherish it very much. Otherwise, I’m an indoor otaku detached from society.

What about professionally?

I have many deadlines to meet: weekly, biweekly, and monthly columns, plus my upcoming book. There is still a lot on my plate, though I usually visit a café or somewhere not my room to work. Staying at home makes it absolutely difficult to concentrate.

Usually, my favorite workplaces have been the worst locations to go to due to during the coronavirus crisis because of their confined spaces, like karaoke and manga cafés to name a few. Japanese people often use karaoke places for business talks because you don’t have to worry about others listening to your conversations and waiters won’t bother you. Manga cafés give you access to almost every popular show and magazines in print. You appreciate the sanctuary if you’re a classic physical book lover like myself.

Was there anything you were looking forward to that has now been canceled?

I’ve had the luxury of visiting quite a few conventions overseas as a guest and was looking forward to going more this year before you-know-what happened. My last con was Anime Los Angeles back in January, and I miss the geeky energy there.

I was going to voice the main role in a new anime show and was really looking forward to it, then the production was delayed due to COVID-19. In fact, a lot of TV series and movies I’ve been waiting for have been postponed such as Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- and Case Closed.

Is there anything you’ve started to do because of the lockdown?

I’ve actually joined Twitch and started streaming in April. With everyone experiencing isolation, I thought it’s important now more than ever to stay connected and share the same moments together live.

I don’t show much of my private side on social media, almost always posting pictures from professional photo shoots plus simple puns and messages, so streaming for hours from my room is definitely something new. It’s not only a good way to tell people how I’m doing through webcam, but what kind of person I really am beneath all those smug model pictures. Some might want nothing other than sexy from me, for sure, while others might relate more because I relate a lot to the topics Twitch users talk about.

Streaming on Twitch, I can practice speaking English since there are way more English-speakers on the platform than Japanese, and I get to talk passionately about manga/anime/light novels/games in the chat room with people who are really into those things and want to genuinely know about Japan. Especially with cons getting canceled where I get to weeb out together with my international fans whom I cannot see often because of the obvious long-distance in between, interacting with them and staying passionate about our favorite things is what I crave. Like talking about the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba stamp-rally I went to in Kyoto, or other Japanese-related anime events.

Although, if it weren’t for lockdown, I wouldn’t consider making my own account since I’m so not a tech nerd (just a nerd, period). But my friends offered to help out and I’m truly lucky that I have them. I’m in good hands and now thinking of setting up for game streaming and more!

What are you using to cope with being forced to stay inside?

Now that new episodes of seasonal anime have been suspended, I take this time to go back to older shows, like Bleach, Gintama, Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, Angel Beats, and Steins;Gate, all from 2004 to 2011 when I only have a vague memory of following every single episode because we didn’t have anime streaming sites to catch up. While the first two are very long to binge-watch, the middle two series have only 12 episodes, then the last one is somewhere in between plus its extra season Steins;Gate 0.

Currently, I’m watching Mob Psycho 100 in English, all thanks to Crunchyroll by the way! I want to digest amazing shows in English too so that I get to talk with more people about them.

Kaho actually put the A Certain Scientific Railgun puzzle together during the “lockdown.”

How has your neighborhood/town changed?

Considering it’s central Tokyo, the number of people I see on the street is now surprisingly low, especially on weekends and late at night. Some shops and offices have either closed or shorten their business hours, so it’s very quiet in the evening.

What are you looking forward to once everything is over?

Once this pandemic is subdued, I’m planning to have my first gig as an Anisong DJ! I’ve been practicing and was going to debut in April, so now I have to make my performance worth the wait!

I’d been to some clubs that played mainly anime songs in Japan, but when I attended Kawaii Kon in Hawaii, I made friends with AniParty members from NY at the LUMICA booth, and their energy and audiences were great. I wanted to be a part of that, bringing smiles and music to dance to, letting everyone know about stunning OPs and EDs.

In addition to signing, paneling, cosplaying, and emceeing, I’ve been eager to contribute more to events. Some other projects are going on too which I can reveal at my next con, whenever that is. This stay-at-home time is for me to grow, and after that, it’s time to show!

How do you feel about Japan’s response to the pandemic?

It was quite a long time before our government took things seriously. I mean, they should’ve regulated if not banned traveling, they were very reluctant to make that decision.

If such action was made earlier, I believe we could’ve been in a much better situation. Given that we have a bigger personal space in social interaction; we rarely hug or even handshake, and we’re used to wearing masks because of hay fever in the spring. And more than everything, our biggest city, Tokyo, is incredibly clean and safe compared to other big cities in the world. I hope you all get to visit when this international fear is gone …

Any other stories you’d like to tell?

A lot of my friends from overseas reached out to me to make sure I was okay, which was incredibly nice. In these hard times, you realize the importance of people around you, you discover who is really precious to you and who feels the same way about you in return. Without the quarantine, we are usually too busy living our own lives every day to ever think about things like that.

The Rounds in Rural Japan

Finally, I spoke to Ernest Lin, an American who has lived in Japan for the last three years and currently quite a way out of Tokyo — outside of the four main prefectures. He’s a senior editor at the video game website PlayStation Universe and works as a consultant in Japan in various fields.

Firstly, how are you doing in the “lockdown,” even though it’s not technically a lockdown?

Surviving so far — things for me could be worse but could be better.

How has the quarantine affected you personally?

There's an overall sense of anxiety that I feel has been cast over everyday life. There are days where my mood has been pretty gloomy. Obviously, not going out as much and being separated from friends and others has played a part in that. I follow the news of the COVID-19 situation in Japan and America a lot, so I'm especially worried about my friends and family around the world.

What about professionally?

Ah, unfortunately, it has affected me in that regard. I missed out on some work — there are a few of my on-going projects on indefinite hold until the situation quells. Additionally, it's been hard to get some other things off the ground.

Was there anything you were looking forward to that has now been canceled?

Oh, at this point it feels like countless things — anime and gaming industry events, other festivals here in Japan, various movies, and series releases. With everything else going on bringing perspective, the cancellations and delays are only slightly disappointments. I completely understand and support them if it means keeping more people out of harm.

Is there anything you’ve started to do because of the lockdown?

I started cooking more. The situation has given me time to work on bigger personal projects. Also, I've been able to catch up with loved ones, especially back in America, via voice and video calls.

What are you using to cope with being forced to stay inside?

I use some of the time to study more Japanese and organize my living space. Games have been a nice temporary escape (Final Fantasy VII Remake has been perfect for that!) and multiplayer ones like Fortnite have served as digital hang-out spaces to replace meeting up in real life.

Ernest traveling to Midgar in Final Fantasy VII Remake

Before the "lockdown," I hadn't binged many shows in a while since my job and other life stuff usually kept me really busy. Like everyone and their mom, I watched through Netflix's Tiger King. I've tried catching up on some anime shows I missed in the past. I recently finished Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai plus its sequel film and was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved them.

How has your neighborhood/town changed?

Places, in general, are a little less crowded and various public spaces and businesses are temporarily closed or at reduced hours. Almost everyone is wearing masks.

What are you looking forward to once everything is over?

Karaoke for sure.

How do you feel about Japan’s response to the pandemic?

Frankly, I do not believe the measures that have been taken have not been swift or adequate enough. It's one of the reasons I'm constantly concerned about the situation spiraling into something worse ... I hope it doesn't, but I'm always afraid it will.

Any other stories you’d like to tell?

A month or so ago, I was attending a meeting to check out a property for a project. I showed up at the entrance without a mask, and before we could proceed with the meeting, one of the staff made a remark about how I didn't have a mask. Embarrassed, I realized I had forgotten to wear one (I was born and raised in America, so I sometimes forget). Fortunately, I had extras in the car, so I ran back and came back with one on.

Around that time, I had a dinner meeting where the food was self-serve, buffet-style, but we were given gloves to wear while using the tongs and such. That was a first for me.

Thank you so much to both Kaho and Ernest for sharing their stories of isolation with us. Kaho Shibuya can be found in multiple places all over the web with most of her social media found on her website (NSFW warning), or you can find her streaming on Twitch. Ernest can be found on Twitter @erniichan.

If you have your own story about life in Japan you’d like to share, feel free to share it with me at any of the links in my bio below.

If you or someone who know is living in Japan, coronavirus-based English resources are available at NHK World Japan.

Daryl Harding is a Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs the YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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