#Cosmic Quest

[vertigoartgore]

2020's Thor Vol.6 #5 (LGY : #731) cover by artist Olivier Coipel and colorist Laura Martin.

[allianceuniversityeducation]

How can we inspire young minds to engage with the active developments in Indian space technology?

On August 23, 2023, India became the fourth country to land on the moon and the first to reach its southern polar region. In recognition of this historic achievement, the Government of India and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will observe August 23, 2024, as its maiden “National Space Day.”

Honoring this, Alliance University will be hosting a series of competitions — space art, debate, model making, robotics, and more — for school students between grades VIII and XII across India.

As the Chief Guest, Ms. Pallavi Mohapatra, retired Helicopter Pilot from the Indian Air Force and the first woman in India to live fire a missile — Akash — will inspire the next generation of space enthusiasts as India advances towards self-reliance and innovation in space technology, in line with ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat.’

To register: https://www.alliance.edu.in/au-events/national-space-day-cosmic-quest/

[kingofattolia]

Usually finding out you have something in common with a new acquaintance is a positive thing, but sometimes it's extremely dangerous. If I meet someone who's also into writing, that's like an even 50/50 on whether we should be best friends OR whether every time they open their mouth I will be manfully restraining myself from fistfighting them on the sidewalk outside this bougie downtown brunch spot.

[prokopetz]

On the origin of oozes:

When googling it seems that ooze type enemies came about with dnd.

Are you aware of earlier origins? It does not seem farfetched to assume that some fantasy book had them before that.

(also, best ooze in your opinion?)

It's broadly correct that the ooze monster in its modern form comes to us via Dungeons & Dragons (with considerable influence from D&D-inspired Japanese console RPGs like Dragon Quest). However, like many other classic D&D tropes, its antecedents were present in the sword and sorcery literature of the 20th Century – ooze monsters just seem like they sprung into existence fully formed in D&D's monster manuals because nobody reads sword and sorcery lit anymore.

While there are no doubt earlier precedents, I'd be inclined to point to early 20th Century cosmic horror fiction as the point where the modern giant-amoeba-like notion of the ooze monster really became a standard trope. We can see a clear prototype of the modern ooze monster in Lovecraft's shoggoths, first described in detail in At the Mountains of Madness (1931), for example; from there, the line to the sword and sorcery literature that would go on to form the basis of Dungeons & Dragons is a short one. This certainly isn't the first example of the type – I just don't have an earlier one at my fingertips.

As for my favourite ooze monster, I've gotta give it to the gelatinous cube, one of the few examples of the type which truly is original to Dungeons & Dragons – in fact, it could only have come from D&D, owing to the peculiarities of its creation. It started out as a sort of dungeon hazard, an "invisible" ooze which concealed itself by being completely transparent and conforming perfectly to the shape of any passage that it occupied; however, since old-school D&D expected players to produce their own dungeon maps as they went, and made their job easier by abstracting dungeon floorplans onto a grid of ten-foot squares, the idea of the gelatinous cube quickly shifted from "ooze which perfectly fills any passage it occupies" to "ooze which evolved to be a perfect ten-foot cube in order to block a standard ten-foot-by-ten-foot dungeon hallway". It's incredibly dumb, and I love it.

[babitim-royal-au]

The rest!

[gawrkin]

Sir Galahad, in Battle

[...]

[...]

From Vulgate Cycle -Quest for the Holy Grail

Link to a previous post about Galahad in Battle, in Post-Vulgate

[doctordaymytoiletsister]

Let's kill God.

[Should We Be Picking Out China Patterns Or What?, Bailey Herdé / The Borgias 3.10 / Normal People, Sally Rooney / The X-Files 5.19 / caption from Mythic Quest 4.05]

[aeternal-nightmare]

RANTEP AS PROMISED

[its-in-the-experiment-babitim]

Dunno why I never posted this trash.

[maluron]

Autumn of 2024 really said it's Multiverse Cosmic Gays season

[questintheskies]

[dgorringeart]

The black galleys from the moon of the dreamlands; these come to trade rubies for gold and the enslaved; their rowers are never seen, and the merchants with too-wide mouths and curious shoes have an evil mien. A terrible stench arises from those awful timbers, but men yet tolerate them for the jewels they bring. For this, I mixed together features of classical and Renaissance galleys, along with sails based on the forms of jellyfish (Jordan Peele's Nope really got into my head there!);-I think they twist and raise and lower and fill of their accord. The onion-dome towers along the deck are based on ones used on warships of the classical world; archers and slingers can sweep the decks of boarders from these vantage points, although the hideous denizens of the moon have not had to fight in a long time.

[treasuremoon25]

The Curious Case of 'Ninjaboys: Quest for the Cosmic Front'

Note: I’m not an industry insider. Some of the information is purely speculative and may not be fully accurate to what goes on behind closed doors, since specific licensing and distribution information isn't made public.

On February 11, 2016, a collaboration spin-off series between Nintama Rantaro and Cosmic Front NEXT, entitled Nintama Rantaro no Uchuu Daibouken with Cosmic Front NEXT (忍たま乱太郎の宇宙大冒険 with コズミックフロント☆NEXT, "Nintama Rantaro's Great Space Adventure with Cosmic Front NEXT"), premiered on NHK General TV in Japan with the episode, “Taiyoukei no Otomodachi no Dan” (太陽系のお友だちの段, “The ‘Friends in the Solar System’ Stage”). New episodes air sporadically with the latest one, "Hayabusa 2 Shouwakusei de Mission! No Dan" (はやぶさ2 小惑星でミッション！の段, "The 'Hayabusa 2 Asteroid Mission!' Stage), on NHK Educational TV on March 18, 2020. The series consists of self-contained episodes centered around the main characters of Nintama (Rantaro, Kirimaru, and Shinbei) learning about space through strange and colorful characters, such as the Moon Rabbit. 

Nintama Rantaro is a kids and family ninja comedy anime that has aired on NHK since April 1993. Based on the Rakudai Ninja Rantaro manga by Soubei Amako, it's about an ensemble cast of ninjas at the Ninjutsu Academy. Rantaro, the bespectacled protagonist and audience surrogate, is a 10-year-old boy who attends the school to become an elite ninja like his parents. He is mainly joined by money-hungry Kirimaru and gluttonous Shinbei in misadventures around the school and occasional outside missions. 

Cosmic Front NEXT is a scientific series dealing with the topics of space, astronomy, debunking myths, and answering questions related to the galaxy. Running on NHK from 2015 to 2020, it's a revamp of Cosmic Front ~Hakken! Kyoui no Daiuchuu! (コズミック　フロント～発見！驚異の大宇宙, "Cosmic Front ~Discover the Amazing Universe!") which ran from 2011 to 2014.

On July 17, 2017, Anime News Network reported that William Winckler Productions had recorded 2 English-dubbed pilot episodes of the spin-off, under the new title, Ninjaboys: Quest for the Cosmic Front. “Ninjaboys” comes from the regular series’ official English title, Ninjaboy Rantaro. WOWMAX Next was in charge of marketing and distributing the pilots to potential distribution platforms for release. The English dub cast consists of Elyse Bertani as Rantaro, Kelsey Kummerl as Shinbei, Kory Getman as Kirimaru, Frank Garish as Yamada, and Paul Stanko as Doi and the Moon Rabbit. 

On July 29 that same year, Old Clapperboard Productions uploaded a behind-the-scenes video on YouTube, offering a glimpse into William Winckler’s role in the ADR dubbing process. The video showcases his guidance of the voice actors’ performances, along with a brief look at the dub script. Viewers are treated to hearing the English voices of the characters– a rare opportunity, considering that Nintama has yet to receive an official release in the Anglosphere. As of 2025, this video remains the only available footage of the dub online. 

Was Quest for the Cosmic Front ever licensed? Yes…but not in the way you might expect. While most anime is licensed by major media companies like Crunchyroll, Netflix, Viz Media, and Discotek Media, it remains unclear if the pilots were ever solicited to these outlets. Based on the international publicity surrounding film festivals and science-focused distribution (e.g. planetariums), it’s highly likely that NHK and WOWMAX Next prioritized Quest for the Cosmic Front as an educational series rather than a commercial one. It was likely intended for a very specific market–festivals, schools, museums, and planetariums–where educational content takes precedence over entertainment. This aligns with how it’s marketed in Japan and NHK’s broader mission to promote educational programming and cultural preservation. 

K2 Studios acquired non-exclusive territory/rights restrictions to Quest for the Cosmic Front, meaning they could distribute the series under specific conditions but were not the sole distributor and were limited to certain regions or platforms. The studio specializes in producing and distributing science-focused content to specialty venues worldwide (e.g. fulldome), which could explain why they pursued the series. While there’s no confirmation online, it’s possible that the dubbed episodes were released in regions with large Japanese populations, such as Southern California and Hawaii. These areas have historically received niche Japanese content that doesn’t see a wide release elsewhere, or at least not for a long time (e.g. KIKU TV’s subtitled broadcasts of Crayon Shin-chan and the 1985 GeGeGe no Kitaro series). It appears the studio no longer holds the rights, as the series is no longer listed in their updated catalog.

It’s unfortunate that the English dub of Quest for the Cosmic Front has not received a wide release. If it had been released on platforms like NHK World or Netflix, it could have marked Nintama’s official English debut in the West. However, considering that these were just pilots–many of which never go beyond that stage–it's clear that they were likely intended for educational distribution rather than a large-scale rollout of the Nintama series. All we can do at this point is hope that NHK will consider expanding the series to Western markets in the future, whether with select episodes from the regular TV series or another entry. Who knows, they may already be planning it.

[babitim-royal-au]

Hey.. they're actually getting forms now?

Also I just found out that runes have different colors.

[e-nishka-aosh]

Without taking new screenshots, post photos of your OC as:

A Romanceable NPC

A Quest-Giving NPC

Final Boss

[dynamitekansai]

wwr_stardom: 『STARDOM CINDERELLA TOURNAMENT 2024 優勝決定戦』 3月20日（水・祝)名古屋国際会議場イベントホール