#I haven't read the whole thing yet but based on what I've seen so far I'm not impressed at all

[akiizayoi4869]

All I have to say is this: fanfiction exists for a reason

[blackened-angel]

I'm personally not looking forward to the Netflix adaptation of Devil May Cry.

With the new trailers, I wanted to share my opinions again but I will say that this post isn't recommended for those who only have praise and that any criticism is forbidden.

It's a pretty long post where I try to explain what is my main problem with the adaptation and that is the person who is directing it.

I highlighted some parts that I hope you can at least read those ones, but if I were to give you a TL;DR it would be this:

If you want to make an adaptation based on an IP that's been around for a while, even if you proclaim that you're fan, at the very least be modest and try not to cause trouble with your audience, given that you're supposed to be a professional in the industry and perhaps trying desperately to please everyone isn't such a good idea because you might be hanging with the wrong crowd and that will reflect on your image.

Sorry but I'm not interested to coddle that guy so if that brief summary is enough to make you displeased, I'm asking you not to read any further.

So, will talk about why it's difficult for me to praise Netflix Devil May Cry. It's because of the person attached to it.

I've criticized aspects of this adaptation before and while the majority will get angry because the show hasn't come out yet, thus any criticism is invalid, personally, what I have seen so far has been enough for me to have a disdain for it because one of my favorite series is being handled by someone who has never done anything with it before.

Proclaiming to be a fan doesn't automatically mean that it will be a masterpiece and for someone who is allegedly a professional in the industry, their conduct reflects on the product and others that are involved.

Also, just saying, that I refuse to use the word "anime".

Pseudo-anime perhaps but I'm sorry, DMC The Animated Series from 2007, that's the only Devil May Cry anime. I don't see any 'bishounen'/ biseinen' . Have you?

Anime, to someone like me who has been into anime and manga for two decades, is animation produced in Japan, primarily for the Japanese audience, with aesthetic that is different from Western animations.

So yeah I'm just gonna say Netflix DMC.

Ok, so, let's return to the subject, but first, I want to ask you and of course, you can provide examples because from my experience, I haven't seen anime studios acting so desperate like Shankar.

Please tell me if you have seen anime studios on their social media accounts being so friendly with people?

At most, there are some who on some occasions retweet fan creations like art or cosplay but in general they just post information regarding what they are producing, trailers or key visuals, but they don't engage much with the audience.

They are just working on the stuff they want to deliver to their audience, hoping they will enjoy it and look into feedback afterwards.

How many anime studios have you seen bragging like Shankar has been doing?

He actually said on Twitter "I never miss."

Oh and on a few occasions, this grown-ass man kept referring to himself in 3rd person, somehow thinking his fans will find it...cute? Yeah, so it was more like "Adi Shankar never misses."

It's obnoxious. You can tell me that he was joking, but he seems committed to his whole "I never miss with my projects" bit, so it's kind of hard to tell.

Oh and do you think it's also adorable when he reposted people's fanart without crediting? Even when some of them had watermarks?

Like I'm not kidding. If you follow him on Twitter, there were a few times when he was called out for not properly crediting artists and you'd think he'd stop after being told once but no.

In addition to that, one time when I was reading the comments on a reposted artwork, there were only two people that mentioned the artist while the rest of them didn't even ask things like "Hey did you draw this? Did the animation team do it?"

It seemed that even though they must have known it wasn't art made by Shankar or the ones doing the animation, they treated like it was no biggie if he was reposting.

As a professional, allegedly, he should have never done such a thing, but most of his followers seem treat him like "oh he's just enthusiastic, cut him some slack, don't be mean to him".

And we know that in general, anyone else who would do that sort of thing just once would get torn apart by others, but with that guy apparently we must be indulgent.

When caught in the act, he did apologize but like...shouldn't he know better? He most likely expects that everyone will forgive him for anything he does.

Thus, can you understand why I'm having a tough time to like something from that person? Who keeps bragging, promising the best anime ever, acting as if he invented DMC...

That's a person who is supposed to be a professional in the industry, yet he as only been acting like a redditor...And of course he promotes a lot of memes. Gee, I wonder who's the intended audience?

He's been desperately trying to please everyone.

This is why I like the way anime studios conduct their promotion for their projects. They are humble and want to avoid causing problems t and that's why they generally just post information, artwork, trailers etc..

That's something I personally appreciate.

Shankar has only been off-putting...Honestly, what the heck was Capcom thinking?

Apparently he wanted Dino Crisis, but Capcom was like, have DMC instead. It feels like they were saying "yeah do whatever with this IP, doesn't matter", as if DMC isn't popular, which was proven by the popularity poll they hosted.

I feel like this adaptation is mostly for the people that know DMC just from memes and I'm sorry for the long time fans that will most likely get insulted and told to shut up by the people who will only watch this generic Marvel/DC looking animation and be told that DMC is only good because of Shankar or think he should be in charge of other Devil may Cry projects.

So yeah, to me, above all is that narcissistic man who has been trying so hard to please everyone.

No, I don't think it's endearing when he spoke in 3rd person and claims that he never misses with his projects. I did not find it cute when he went on to say stuff like Vergil is a hero and other bullshit, because some people would believe those will actually be the characterizations in the show, only for Shankar to post something like "I'm joking, I'm just a troll" after those kinds of posts, wanting to gain sympathy from people, to see just how much of a fun guy he is and you must definitely watch his DMC "anime".

We already had the reboot that was supposed to appeal to the Western audience because Capcom thought the original series isn't appealing to westerners, but man were they wrong. Still hate it for the fact that they mocked the OG series and here we are again, another production that's mostly for the western audience.

So yeah, I'm just not a fan of how much that man has been boasting and assuring everyone how great the show will be.

Perhaps, for some of you, it will the greatest "anime" ever, he keeps telling you that! But not for me. I don't appreciate the shit I've seen him do on Twitter done and as much as he brags that failure never happens for Adi Shankar, not everyone is of the same opinion.

If it turns out that it might fail the expectations of those who only praised, what then? Will they keep praising despite being disappointed so that the series keeps getting content, even if it might be the same quality or even worse?

I think that will send the message to the bigwigs that those people are willing to consume anything.

Like I've mentioned thought out the post, I personally would have appreciated humbleness instead of someone trying so desperately to please everyone.

I'm not sorry for what I said and I know there must be others who share my opinions.

If you have made it this far, I thank you!

[ladyhallen]

Solving the Wonder Woman Problem

So, for the past few days, I've been reading DC (specifically batman) and PJO crossover.

Let me preface this in that I only vaguely know people's origin stories in DC and that I mostly know PJO, even if slightly faded since I haven't read it in a while. I'm basing Wonder Woman's origin story from the movies.

Now, it's a delicious crossover. There's heroes (JL) and then there's Heroes (PJO Demigods). These nice, morally upright people might also have some opinion on the survival rates on demigod children, child neglect, etc. And there's also the potential hilarity of these two worlds interacting, because some abilities these kids have are just straight up terrifying and we need some normal people reactions to this shit.

But, and it's a small but, I've noticed a glaring issue.

And Yes, it's Wonder Woman.

Look, in Diana's origin story, she was crafted from clay, given life by Zeus himself and stuff. Okay, cool.

However, if both these worlds exist in the same plane of existence, it also presents a problem. Because why would Diana, who left Themyscira (who has her mother, and her sisters and was basically paradise) to fight for the good of the world of man(which, arguably, is not paradise. It's very far from it.), leave these underaged heroes to fight two wars with basically no support? Hmm?

Most authors I've found, would either do the following:

Make Diana unaware that the demigods exist, which. HMM. Sus.

Make Diana Not Care/Not Realize that the Second Titanomachy and the Second Gigantomachy was actually the war these kids were fighting.

Make Her be OffWorld at the time. (Which I haven't seen many people do?

You can see the problem.

Solution:

The Romans.

No no, don't boo. I'm not done, I'm not crazy, I have a point!

Let me Just paint the scenario for you.

It's WWII, and Diana is newly arrived to the World of Man, and she decides to fight in the war.

In the PJO books, it was said that the involvement of the demigods caused the war to escalate to crazy proportions, so it's not out of left pocket for Diana and some demigods to meet, do the spiderman pointing meme, and then realize some truths here.

But here's the thing.

What if the demigods she meets are Roman demigods?

Think about it. Those Roman kids thrive on structure. On orders. On following rules. There's only two ways a kid raised on that kind of environment would go. One, they would go completely the opposite way and be a wildcard and follow no rules, or Two, they would find comfort in the rigid structure of rules all their life.

Ergo, Roman demigods would mostly thrive in bootcamp and would probably excel at it. And then Meet Diana.

They become friends, etc, etc. It's a whole montage of two people realizing that they can relate to weird upbringings. Gotcha. (I mean, their demigod children, if not up to standards, are eaten by Lupa, WTF)

Now, how would the Romans lead to Diana not wanting to get involved in demigod affairs now?

Let's see, they called their city in Camp Jupiter New Rome. What did Rome have? A lot of assassinations, backstabbing and power grabbing. There were schemes and shit. Octavian was not an outlier, he was probably the mouthpiece a lot of discontented people in the senate.

In the PJO lore, it was said that the American Revolution was devastating to both camps, because they didn't get a long and it was implied that the Original Festus fell because the camp was invaded. Thalia's tree didn't exist yet and so the magical border of the camp didn't exist either.

Bunker Nine's existence indicates that perhaps each of the gods have their own separate buildings. Maybe Cabin 6 had a library rivaling Alexandria, maybe Cabin 12 had a vineyard and sold wines. Who knows, perhaps Cabin 3 had a waterpark to help troubled ocean animals.

But the thing is, Bunker Nine's existence can stretch that to maybe, New Athens existing. Maybe there used to be a space for Greek demigods existing. Maybe that space was destroyed when the Romans invaded.

What makes the Roman-Greek war so hard and devastating, is that both sides have advantages and disadvantages over the other.

The Romans have a clear line of command, structure, they recruit from legacies etc. It also means they don't really think on the fly once command structure is broken.

On the other hand, the Greeks are descended more closely from the gods, and thus have stronger powers. They also don't always get along and sometimes work at cross purposes when irked (see, Apollo Cabin and Ares Cabin in TLO).

Enter Diana.

Look, I know I know that people's memories were erased so that both camps didn't know of the other's existence and that the American Revolution was entirely earlier than World War 2, but memories being erased doesn't erase entirely written records. War has transcripts, logs and maybe someone left a diary. Maybe someone figures it out. Maybe there's a second to the last Invasion of Camp Half Blood.

Picture this, one enterprising Roman Senator invites Diana during the invasion. Someone uses the Mist on Diana so she doesn't realize that she's fighting children.

Once the fighting ends and the haze of battle disappears, Diana realizes that she's devastated New Athens to rubble and weeps, realizing that she's been used.

Then and there, Diana swears on the River Styx that she won't interfere in demigod fights unless the gods themselves order her to.

This doesn't stop her from making safe spaces for demigods, but fighting for them? NOPE. Unless there's a direct order form on high, she won't do it. She's learned that lesson. She won't do it again.

Now, in the TLO, during the second Titanomachy, demigods do try to contact her, but she ain't falling for that again. No sirree. Chiron does a facepalm like, right, I forgot she swore on the Styx. He explains. The kids are devastated but understand. Lots of resentment, but they understand.

Now, the gods are lowkey aware of her, and that she could help. They assumed she would help. But they are not aware of her oath and are doing the pikachu surprised face when they seal Typhon and find no Diana helping the demigods defend Olympus.

I'm just saying. It's the Romans fault.

[marzipanandminutiae]

Do you know much about historical cuisine? Saw yet another anime with friends and they went the whole 'modern food always tastes better' bit. I feel tired of the trope and am wondering how different historical cuisine would taste compared to modern times. So anything you happen to know as a historian would be cool to know!

That varies MASSIVELY based on time and location. Like. Much more than fashion does, even, I'd imagine (in a given sub-region- I can talk about Mainstream European and Euro-American Fashion of the 19th CenturyTM but the food was so different in different countries that were dressing the same, if that makes sense? just as an example).

Food is often more globalized in a lot of places nowadays, so the characters might have more diversity of flavors from the regional norm than they're used to. But this could be a good or a bad thing- a woman from 17th-century Japan might love pizza and much sweeter Western pastries, or she might absolutely hate them. Which is not to say regional cuisines haven't evolved, too- a museum here in Boston used to have tastings of 18th-century-style hot chocolate, and it was very different from the modern sort. But that's the largest blanket difference across the globe that I can think of, food-wise.

Not sure what anime this was, so it could have been Japan-specific, but I feel like this gets applied the most to the 19th-mid 20th century UK and United States. The whole Captain America line about "food's better; we used to boil everything," for example, and the general belief that everything was bland mush in those areas until the 1950s and then it was incomprehensible Jell-O mold horrors until approximately the 1980s. And of course, none of that's true- there were plenty of dishes that used spices and different cooking methods, many of which are still popular today. See also: Jonathan Harker, a Normal 1890s Englishman, getting so rhapsodical about paprikahendl that he simply must have the recipe for his fiancee to make. There also WERE bland mushes and fluorescent nightmares, but there's less than ideal food today, as well.

(Note that I'm much less confident talking about the whole English StodgeTM thing as we get into the 20th century. That is outside my history wheelhouse and there's a lot of different stuff embroiled in it relating to class and such that I don't want to talk out my ass about. All I know is that I've seen plenty of recipes from as late as the end of the 19th century, from England and some from urban Scotland if I recall correctly, that made ample use of spices. Nutmeg, mustard, black pepper, rosemary, caraway, and cayenne pepper were especially popular (not all together obviously). There was a belief among the middle and upper classes that strong flavors of garlic and onion were distasteful to ladies, but the fact that cookbooks and such feel the need to mention it implies that those elements WERE being used in cooking generally, in the UK, at that time. So wherever the idea that All British Food Is Beige And Tasteless came from, it wasn't mainstream late Victorian cooking for adults as far as I can tell)

(They gave kids a fair amount of the beige and tasteless because they believed their digestive systems couldn't handle strongly-flavored- okay now I'm getting off topic. Read Ruth Goodman's "How To Be A Victorian." Anyway!)

tl;dr- The answer to "is modern food better?" is "that's literally impossible to answer as a blanket statement, since it's massively dependent on the character's original time, place, social status, and personal taste- and where they end up in the present, of course."

Now, I do agree that the trope is annoying the same way every single princess being totally shocked and appalled when her marriage is arranged gets annoying- not because it can't be true based on history and human behavior, but because fiction treats it as some kind of universal precept. Mix it up a little sometimes! Have a Regency character who comes to the present, finds out that her favorite local cheese isn't being made anymore, and loses her entire mind!

[oh-biwan]

[rattling cage] Do you have any Obikin fics that you've enjoyed? Your beautiful art made me slip right down the ship rabbit hole and now I need recs, any rating/theme.

-blushes, clears throat- Hi!

I like a lot of different flavors but, to keep it simple, I'll try to match my recommendations to the theme I'm cultivating on this blog so far.

First of all, I have to mention skyl_tales, they wrote some of the absolute Obikin classics and I love their work, it's very dear to me. If you haven't read anything from them yet, I strongly recommend taking a look at their works and going for anything that captures your attention!

Alright, now my conscience is clear and we can move on:

Armageddon Game by posthumous_vigor

One of my more recent obsessions. Basically, padawan Obi-Wan gets captured by Sith Anakin and then groomed to the Dark Side. What I enjoy about this one is how, even despite the unfavorable cards that Obi-Wan has been dealt, he cleverly chases down his goals... but not without twisting himself in the pursuit as well. He is an active actor in this play and ultimately it is not Anakin who Obi-Wan plays against. And by recommending this I'm recommending the whole series :).

Untouched by objectlesson

This fic has one the most predatory padawan Anakin I've ever seen. This child is just so deliciously fucked up in the head. I... I think I'll just let the author's summary speak for itself: In his darkest moments, Anakin began to think of it as his right. To control Obi-Wan’s sleeping mind, force it into a box, shut it up so he could take what he deserved. Warm skin, slack face, soft snores. And then—then—more.

pleasure, little treasure by objectlesson

A guilty pleasure of mine. And probably a very hard pill to swallow, so careful there. In this one, Vader goes back in time, kidnaps Jedi initiate Obi-Wan, and makes him his apprentice. Yes, it's very dark, a psychological horror, but this author writes with such skill and poetry that I trusted they could make me enjoy reading stuff I'd normally avoid... And I was right. The beauty in the abominable. That's why I love this author, the things they write are so refreshingly daring and so deeply fucked up on so many levels, but served in a way that makes me swallow it all up without question. (oh, I should probably mention that as of now this fic is unfinished, I seldomly pick up unfinished works, but with this one, I have no regrets :))

hold my heart more gently than you do my throat by tennessoui

This is a role reversal omegaverse AU. Master Skywalker has been captured by the Separatists, and behind the Council's back, his omega Padawan sets out to save the master in distress. It is debatable if the master in question needs the saving -noises of massacre in the background- (he did need the saving, in my opinion :)). What I really love about this fic are the horror vibes of little Padawan getting chased down the hallways of the enemy base full of dead bodies, and an unknown monster breathing down his neck, but the only thing on his mind is how to find his master and rescue him. Also, I enjoyed the final twist and how the story unfolded in the end. Satisfying. If omegaverse is your thing I definitely recommend this one.

game plan by treescape

Out of all the recommendations, I consider this to be the tame one. If all of the above made you hesitant to try, this is the one to go with. The summary: Vader keeps capturing Obi-Wan during the Wars. Obi-Wan keeps escaping. It's kind of a thing. I'm recommending this one for the banter. Some of it is just next level. Very amusing to read. Chef's kiss.

[doppel-drop-distance]

Madoka Exedra: I have...thoughts. (WARNING: LOTS OF RAMBLING)

Yes, that's the best title I could come up with after an extended hiatus, did you really expect anything else from me?

I wanted to detail my thoughts on Exedra in a post because I have... a lot of them. They are pretty mixed, I will warn you. But they come from a place of cautious optimism.

In summary, I'll say this: I think the game has a lot of potential, as it has a battle system that's very simple, with the possibility of becoming more complex and interesting as time goes on. However, a lot of my interest in will rely on how it develops its story and characters. And the gacha...sure does exist!

Keep in mind that as of writing this game has not even been out for a week yet, so things can and probably will change.

Also if I'm wrong on any of this, please correct me - especially the math stuff because I forever suck at math.

Here are some more of my thoughts in no particular order, in case you're interested in reading them:

I used to play HSR, so I'm already familiar with this kind of battle system. I'm very fond of the strategizing that comes with turn-based RPGs, so this gameplay appeals to me by default. In my eyes, this battle system is a much, MUCH simpler version. This makes it more appealing to newcomers, and is easier to pick up and play - HOWEVER...

I prefer more complex games, things I can puzzle out and strategize around. This game is not there yet. And to be fair, I would not expect it to, at this phase. But most battles are pretty much break enemy -> deal damage -> repeat. I prefer a little more to it than that, but this is one of the complaints I'm sure will be resolved as time passes.

I like the graphics. I think the animation looks quite nice. Though, of course, it's pretty obvious which models they put the most effort into...

While I do think the model quality on the girls varies a little bit, the Familiars and Witches all look great so far. They managed to translate their designs into 3D without losing their style, which I really appreciate.

The story...hmm. Um. Okay, so...

This is probably not the first time you've heard someone say this, but...I am not fond of the choice for the story. It does make thematic sense for them to retell Madoka Magica, but...there are so many better ways for you to experience that story than this. Namae and A-Q's story is more interesting to me, but it's only been explored in small, fairly repetitive bits in-between all the anime story. I wish they could have a little more room to breathe.

I haven't reached the end of the first arc yet, but I've heard after that, they go into Magia Record. I'm not exactly thrilled for a recap on that either, but I can justify it a bit more since both Magia Record servers are offline now. The question is whether it will follow the game story or anime story.

My worry is that the game will only iterate on existing stories and not create anything new. I do really hope that will change, but so far we have only seen existing characters and existing stories. If nothing else, I hope the event stories will bring new interactions.

I really like the depiction of the Witch's Labyrinths. They look great, and the ability to unlock them as a panorama you can scroll around in is cute. You also get to see more of the Labyrinths you wouldn't normally, which I really like!

That being said...BOY are the "exploration" points an absolute joke. There is no exploration ! You just walk in a straight line, collect things, and battle. The only other things that have happened so far are occasionally unlocking alternate paths and clicking on something sparkly to get secret items. Which is cool, but these things are so infrequent that it really means I can't auto through the whole thing.

The flashback points are also rather dull. The cutscenes go over things that happen later in the story, so...what's the point? I do like hearing Namae and A-Q comment on them, but I have noticed the dialogue following a formula of -

Namae: I feel this emotion.

A-Q: This emotion is called X. Anyways, keep collecting more Memsparks.

Namae: Ok.

And it does start to feel formulaic after a while. I understand that Namae is meant to be an "empty" character who is rediscovering emotions for the first time but like, you saw a Witch chomp someone's head off, can we talk about that?????????

The battle system is definitely the most engaging part to me. Even if it's not at the difficulty or complexity I would prefer just yet, I still like exploring character's kits and building teams.

The sound design is really good. The new music is great - though that goes without saying for a Madoka title - and I really love the clashing sound that plays when you break an opponent. It's so satisfying!

Okay, I've taken long enough...time to talk about the gacha.

It's bad. It's really bad.

Well, gacha is ALWAYS bad. And Magia Record's gacha was pretty bad already, with its abysmal rates, but the Coordinator Coins at least made saving for specific characters doable. It also got a rate boost close to the end of its lifespan.

But this gacha is worse for a couple different reasons. First, regarding the actual system itself, while it does have an above-average 5* drop rate of 3% (which is better than Magia Record's)...it has no pity system. Now, maybe a lack of a pity system would be alright if you needed to pull like, 70-100 times to buy a character from the shop. But no, you need 200 coins - 200 pulls, 20 tenpulls - to buy a character from the shop.

So that means, if you wanted to save to guarantee at least one copy of a character, you would need to save 60,000 gems. Do you realize how ridiculous that is? Now, you can argue that with these rates you would probably get at least one copy of that character with 100 pulls, but this is all luck. Someone really could be that unlucky to not get that character within 200 pulls. And having the only "guarantee" system be so ridiculously unattainable is BAD.

The other reason the gacha system is worse is because of the gem economy. There are no gems to get from events. No gems to get from the PVP mode. The only gems you can get are from quests and missions. If you're just going off of daily and weekly missions, you get 50 gems a day from dailies and 150 gems from weeklies. So, let's say you play the game for one month, logging in every day, doing all the daily and weekly missions. You would get a total of...around 2,250 gems. Now, granted, my math may be off. But if I'm right, that's not even enough for ONE tenpull. Even if it was closer to 3,000, even 5,000, that would still be bad. You would have to save for MONTHS just to get 100 pulls, and that STILL wouldn't be enough.

The fact that keys expire 90 days after acquisition is stupid. I know it's only standard banner characters, but what if I want to save my keys for when new characters get added? What if I want to save them because I like to see the number go up? Literally why?

Legacy medals (the currency you get from duplicate Kioku) also expire after 180 days, which is also stupid, because like, unless you're pulling constantly, how would you possibly save up enough before the expiry date? You would have to pull like 200 4* Kioku within 180 days to get enough for the guaranteed 5* key.

Also you know what no pity system also means? No 50/50 system. Which is good but also means that when you pull a 5*, you are not getting a 50% on-banner vs. 50% off-banner chance. You are actually getting a 0.750% on-banner vs. 0.107% off-banner chance.

I really hope they change this, even if it's just for the limited banners, because it is exceptionally player-unfriendly for a game that wants to attract newcomers. I definitely think it's possible for limited time events to have better gem economy, and I KNOW it's very early in the game's life cycle, but it's important to point these things out because gacha is an inherently predatory system. None of these design choices are by mistake; they are done specifically to get as much money out of you as possible.

And on THAT note, the options for spending money aren't even good!!!!! You have to spend like $30 USD for one tenpull - don't even get me started on what the calculations for 200 pulls with THAT would look like. They have some good deals right now for launch but all of them are temporary. Magia Record's microtransactions also kind of sucked though so this isn't much of a surprise.

Also, while getting a free month of the Exedra Passes is nice, the benefits are not worth it. I know that when I read "5* Kioku Guaranteed Magia Key Shard x10" I thought, oh cool, you build up to a free 5* by the end of the pass, right? Wrong. You need 30 SHARDS for one 5*. 30. So you would have to spend around $60 total in order to get one 5*. It's really stupid. If it was like half that price maybe you could make an argument for it. Maybe. But paying $60 for 9,000 gems, a couple keys, and 1 guaranteed 5* is not worth the amount of money you put in.

Phew. Okay. Sorry I got kind of heated there.

I'm almost done, promise. I know this is already way too long...

Uhh what else okay I don't like that you can only play event quests a limited number of times a day. This may be a permanent event-only thing but I still don't like it. Maybe the game doesn't want to be as grindy, but this is still grindy, you're just forced to play less.

I miss the transformation sequences...The gacha animations are cool, but the 5* animations are just their Special Attack, not even a new animation. Transformations are so quintessential magical girl, it's a real shame not to have them.

I also don't like that the PVP is full auto. It's not the first game I've see that does PVP this way, but it does take some of the strategy out of it. Especially since the AI feels the need to spend SP literally whenever it can.

I do like that the tutorial gacha gives you a guaranteed 5*.

I also like that upon deleting an account for the first time, you have the option to skip the tutorial when making your next account. You still have a little tutorial left to go through but it makes rerolling much easier.

...Also, while I'm not really surprised that Global doesn't let you enter your Magia Record transfer code...I'm still disappointed :((((

Um, yeah, that's pretty much all I can think of for now. Sorry if it ended on kind of a negative point - the gacha really irks me, and I don't want to make excuses on it just because I used to spend money on Magia Record.

I know that it hasn't even been a week yet and I probably sound ridiculous. We haven't even had our first limited character, or our first limited event. I think I just still feel the burn from NA Magia Record's closure, you know? I still get paranoia that they'll do the same with Exedra. So I really hope the devs are receptive to feedback and improve things. IF NOTHING ELSE, I hope they at least improve the gacha, because if a newcomer enters the franchise with this kind of gacha system I don't think they will be leaving with a favorable impression.

Okay, rant over.MAN that got long. Sorry again for rambling this much over a game thats been out for like four days. And sorry that it was kind of negative. I do really want to like this game, and I do find it enjoyable - that's why I'm still playing it, after all! But I think with something you love, it's natural to want it to grow and evolve. So I hope Exedra does!!

[pjowasmy1stfandom]

This is something I should probably save for when I'm not supposed to be asleep. Ce' la vie or whatever

I've been wondering about what exactly Morro did to deserve getting banished to the Cursed Realm bc why not. Anyway, I have a headcanon as to how he got there exactly (taken from an amazing fic I'll probably talk about later) but I wanted to know if there was a canon reason so I went to the wiki

I guess this turned into an essay of sorts so I added a cut bc it got long what the heck

Summary isn't proving helpful. What 'previous actions'? Cause if you're talking about his being willing to defy fate, I think that could honestly be taken as either arrogance or desperation

Again with the arrogance vs desperation. He's been told by Wu for years or however long he's trained that he's the Green Ninja. He essentially was taught to associate his self-worth and competency with being the Green Ninja. And then that got taken away from him

Audacity??? Really?? Did the person who wrote the wiki watch the same episode as me?? He hadn't even hit his growth spurt yet, he still had the tiny legs! Okay, yes, waking a Grundle. Not smart. He's what, a preteen/teenager? That's kinda what they're known for

Okay, now we're getting somewhere! Aaaand nevermind. The link just took me to the summary of the episode where they do the whole entire exposition dump. From Wu's perspective. Hmmm. I wonder how the way the story was written would change if we heard it from Morro instead?? Anyway, they say he's committed atrocities, but the only atrocities I've actually seen any real proof for are the things he did during Possession, not before he ended up in the Cursed Realm. I'm not saying he didn't commit them, I'm just saying if they want me to believe he actually deserved to get cursed, they needed to give me a better idea of what he did wrong. So far, I'm just seeing a kid with an identity crisis

Oof. Awful way to go out. I mean, it could have been worse, but still. The fact that the Master of Wind died underground... Yeah, that's all sorts of levels of irony this post isn't about. Anyway, still haven't gotten any clear idea of what his 'actions' were and why they were so horrible

And honestly, I'm not even gonna touch what the wiki's saying about his personality rn. Let me just summarize it as 'literally everything is negatively spun, even the good things'. Which, yes, I get bc he is a literal antagonist, but at the same time...

Okay, moving on! Trivia!

I mostly knew this already but. Wow. That's a teenager. I'm somewhere around that age and yeah, being that age is hard. Having an extra identity/existential crisis on top of all that and having no way to actually healthily deal with that... Yep, I can see why he went evil

Okay, that's it? Just 'some bad act'??? Wait, as he perished?!? But he was in an explosion... We don't see any other skeletons around him, right? I think that'd be mentioned/shown at least ONCE. So I don't think he killed anyone...

Anyway, cool cool cool. I learned... Pretty much nothing I didn't already know. Nice. I wanna fist fight the wiki now

If anyone's curious, my headcanon is based off Land of the Living on Ao3 by CaptainBrookeworm. Basically, Morro accidentally managed to curse himself just by saying the wrong thing at the wrong time (and I highly recommend reading the fic if you haven't already, it's one of my absolute favorites)

[bearpillowmonster]

Nine Cancelled Disney Projects I'd Bring Back

I've talked about my knack for cancelled stuff and Disney has a treasure trove so I wanted to dive in the public stuff and give you what I think is worth salvaging. This is working off of stuff that was far enough in development to at least have pictures. If there isn't enough info on it then I can't really add it.

Gigantic - The idea of a giant world that borrows from the Jack & The Beanstalk source and twists it up just fits the Disney brand. I read the synopsis and some parts could use work, like the storm giants being the main antagonists and Imma (Be?) being 11 and treating Jack like a doll (feels too cliche) but I haven't read the script so I can't say. Cancelled because *ahem* *ahem* "Creative Differences"

The Hero from Otherwhere - I don't know what I can compare this to but having two unlikely troublemakers that don't even get along with each other shipped out of school and isekaied into another world just sounds like something interesting and judging from the art, it looks fantasy-ish. It says it's a live action hybrid but I'd scratch that because they made Narnia. Couldn't find a concrete reason it was shoved.

Where the Wild Things Are - I don't like the live action movie and I never felt like it could be adapted after that because well, it had the right ingredients. But I see this test animation and I just adore it. It is actually a little bit of a staple in the animation industry given its use of the technology with 2D people and 3D backgrounds that has been incorporated into so much since then. This was what, the 80s? Yeah, the textures have aged but man does it get the camera angles and everything else right. They considered it too time-sensitive and expensive to make at the time.

Mort - I never read it but the idea of this kid following the Grim Reaper around sounds different and cool. Far from Disney but could've done something different enough with it. Cancelled because they had to buy rights to not just that book but the whole franchise.

Treasure Planet 2 - I don't really miss direct to video sequels but if there is one in particular that I'd give the time of day, it'd be this. It didn't get its due diligence the first time around and now would be the perfect time to reboot it. We don't need the whole school thing they had proposed but it was actually pretty far in before the whole sequel production machine idea was scrapped.

My Peoples - This one sounds more for another studio but there was a lot done. The dollmakers and dolls have potential to have nice chemistry, it was a romantic plot that there was a spell to make the main forget about his love but it fails and brings the dolls to life. I think I'd make it that it worked and he did forget but found himself making her as a doll and then that doll came to life like a sort of Pinocchio thing. Maybe that love would rub off on the doll and she goes to find the real girl and they adventure to get this guy's love for her back. The head of Disney Animation resigned and the new head didn't like it as much so canned.

The Seven Dwarfs - Might be the one I want most on this list. Seeing the style, it's barely aged, it's actually incredible and hearing the plot of it being a pseudo prequel to Snow White. Give me this, forget 7D, forget live action, this is what they should've done all along AND there was a game based before this movie called Dwarfs made by OBSIDIAN. This is obviously no run of the mill sequel prequel deal, this is real yet it fell under the same umbrella thus the studio was shut down and everything went along with it. This was art.

Tinker Academy - I'll say that I don't really care for the Tinker Bell movies, she had enough, they were very much direct to video yet they found a successful audience and even to this day some people defend it. I've seen bits and pieces, I like the idea of her being trapped in a human house for one of them but whatever, this one actually had an interesting concept. Me and my sister used to play Roblox together and this was this game called Royal High where you played as fairies and flew around school attending classes, pageants, dances and things of the sort and honestly this one isn't far off and I'm surprised they didn't start with it. Also...Disneytoon so...yeah. I'll also throw in Tink Meets Peter both to end the franchise and that one also seems the way to do it, I mean, who hasn't wondered how they met?

Planes 3: Beyond the Sky - I don't like Planes, man I've said that for more than I haven't it seems. Look, it doesn't have art but a title so I'll keep it. (also there's a leaked test footage clip if you look hard enough) Why include it? Well, just like Tinker, this seems to break the mold enough to be a satisfying conclusion. Ok, a cropduster becomes a speedplane and then a rescue plane, so what? Now a space plane...that's another story. It's so wild and childish that I kind of have to see. I don't have to say why it was cancelled, do I?

[our-honeybee-transfem-experience]

hi again, im the person who submitted the ask about having been excited to learn a new term, and then getting upset by the stuff i'd been reading

came back to check for a response, saw you asked for more context, so i've scrolled through the blog as far as i did before (a bit over a week) and im going to try? (note that i can fully believe any individual instance of this being accidental or reading into something, but the overall pattern was what got to me - please don't read this as me singling anyone out, i was asked for examples so im trying to provide examples)

as a warning, this will be long because im trying to be detailed, and i'll be writing this in a messy back-and-forth way, so unless i spend an extra thirty minutes rereading it to clean it up, it'll be a bit of a mess grammatically and structurally (i've been known to start typing something, then quickly look at something else and forget i started, so there's a high risk of remarks that were started and never completed) (also this is largely based on how i felt reading stuff, which is always going to be a hard thing to speak concretely about or add sources to)

i read the ask that said "the ethno-nationalists of trans womanhood" and thought that felt a bit extreme, and later felt it was part of a pattern of seeing trans women as aggressive

i kept seeing the alternative to being a honeybee transfem as being an "amab transfem", and got really put off by that - while i was assigned male at birth, i don't treat it as part of my identity, and i don't really know anyone trans who gives their assigned gender pride of place next to their actual gender? so it just kinda felt like when clueless cis people keep repeating "used to be a man" every time they mention trans women

that feeling was extra-strong with the "I can count on two hands the number of cis men I’ve known who have experimented with identifying as trans women" post, which left an unpleasant undertone that non-honeybee trans women are cis men trying out being women who just haven't given up yet

also i couldn't help but be extremely aware that almost all mentions of non-honeybee trans women were complaining about exclusionists and calling them terrible things - terfs, ethnonationalists, etc - to the point when at least once that detail was just elided, "I’ve seen so much “TERF” rhetoric from amab trans women lately"

i read the ask that said "One of the main things the trans community has been fighting to get recognized is that gender identity exists outside biological sex.", and felt that the underlying statement was that im not a woman, im a trans woman, and that those are distinct things? im not a trans woman out of any connection to masculinity, im a trans woman because im a woman and have had to go against the grain of society to even consider myself as such - being a woman had to be a whole complicated messy thing, with some amount of becoming, and with a huge amount of pushback against being a woman at all (and im lucky enough to've had supportive family and friends when i came out! but turns out, the whole weight of societal transphobia is a lot of pushback even with that luck...)

"if we came to be accepted as transfems, we’d become a better version of themselves, the transfemininity bar would be set way higher" i... well i think this one kinda speaks for itself? and the later clarification clarified it as "I ididn't mean that afab transfems were better than other transfems of course, but that we would be perceived that way by society and by other transfeminine people" which is still the same, saying that non-honeybee trans women are just worse at being women...

and to close out, there were also at least a couple of asks that i saw that really felt like they were implying that they saw themselves as transfem because they had "hunky" masculine traits, which. i really hope they do know that trans woman doesn't mean masculine woman? but even if they do, it's still going into some delicate territory in a world where trans women are often at best seen as masculine women, when seen as women at all, and adding fuel to that fire (i have had to consider whether to voice train for safety or comfort, despite liking my voice already, and someone telling me "i like your voice too, it's so masc!" would. probably make me avoid talking in their vicinity and reconsider voice training)

so. yeah it really really felt like a decent amount of talking about how non-honeybee trans women have masculine traits and are aggressively hogging the term transfem and a lot of emphasis on non-honeybee trans women being amab

cant read all of it cuz im kinda lazy and my eyes hurt but from what i skimmed i think 1. yeah the etho-nationalist take was extreme 2. the reason we mention amab tfems so much is bc its just a distinguisher, not saying it affects ur gender at all 3. that thing abt bio sex vs gender isnt supposed to mean anything bad, it means that bio sex and gender dont always align

and also a lot of the reasons amab tfems are only mentioned when theyre being mean to us is because thats the only time the distinction matters, not anything to do with agab but just for lack of a better thing to say

[onyx-archer]

Hunter: A Casualty of Cancellation

Been a hot minute since I did one of these for the Owl Show, and because someone I don't think is very smart tried to act like my opinion on Hunter was "objectively wrong," I'm writing this out of spite. That said, I am still going to approach this much like I did my previous posts about TOH of this ilk (which you can find HERE and HERE if you wanna see those and haven't yet, the latter actually hints at the existence of this post as a possible thing, so the prophecy has been fulfilled).

As post's title should explain, the subject of this post is Hunter, a very popular character in the TOH fandom. He's a character that I have pretty mixed opinions on because of how he was handled. On one hand, I think he meets the criteria to be a "good" character (for whatever that subjective view is worth), but on the other, I don't think he's got much in the way of substance. While I don't have a problem with a character lacking a bit of depth, it's one of those things where I don't get the hype. A lot of that comes down to how the show is written in Season 2, namely it's second half. I'll explain what I mean under the cut.

Now, as I mentioned in the Stringbean post linked above, there are a few things within the show I consider "casualties" in the writing department due to the cancellation. Stringbean was the highest on that list, for reasons stated in the other post. The Collector is second highest, because I don't really care as much about him getting trimmed down to the bare minimum. And bringing home the bronze is ironically the Golden Guard himself.

I want to make something abundantly clear: I don't hate the character of Hunter. I'm not his biggest fan, sure, but I don't think he's a "bad" character. I think he meets a sort of "bare minimum" standard of "good," as I mentioned earlier. I'm only putting the words "bad" and "good" in quotes because quality is an extremely subjective concept, and while this is a post detailing my opinion, I know some more anally pedantic people reading this are going to try and insist otherwise. Those people know who they are, and I hope they know I think they're stupid.

With that said, I don't think Hunter has a lot of substance/depth, or at least to the capacity that other fans do. I've seen the show a number of times, and I've never really saw him as anything special. Given what I've said about him in the past, I think it's obvious that a lot of why I think this comes down to him being a Cancellation Causality™, having been unable to reach his true potential as a character.

A lot of people like to latch onto a character based on the potential the character has, and not necessarily the character as they are written in the source text. This isn't an inherently bad thing, as we all do it. I do it all the time. It's fun to think of all of the fascinating things you can do with a character that an author doesn't really utilize to their full potential. I think Hunter is one of those characters for a lot of people.

It's undeniable that the character is not "whole" as far as his character arc is concerned. Yeah, he has a complete arc, for all intents and purposes, but much like a lot of things within The Owl House, the cancellation had an impact on how he was written. Part of this is because the show had to expedite a lot of things that they likely would have spent more time on had they gotten more time, with Hunter's growth as a character likely got some changes when they needed to get down to the bare essentials to have the show end in a reasonably satisfying way.

As I mentioned in the Stringbean post, I'm aware this is fueled by a lot of speculation, but I'm willing to bet that Hunter's arc to becoming a member of the "Hexsquad" (as the fandom has collectively agreed to call Luz and her Hexside friends' group) was going to be a more gradual process. We likely would have seen him be more prickly with the group for longer than we do in the final product, even if a lot of key events of Season 2B stayed the same. I personally doubt that would be the case, given the pacing ramping up more, and plot points being dropped.

We know that starting with Season 2B, there were cuts. We know that the Galdorstones because Dana herself stated as much. We also know Galdorstones are an "ingredient" in making a Grimwalker, and what is Hunter? Oh, right, a Grimwalker. The Galdorstone plot elements likely would have been in Hunter's arc as a character, with some kind of self-acceptance of his Grimwalker identity.

Hunter being a Grimwalker in the series feels just like a convenient way to have him feel isolated from the rest of the main group (outside of his lack of natural magic abilities), and ultimately means nothing for the character. Him being a clone of Caleb Whittebane means basically nothing in the greater context of the narrative, and like a footnote of Hunter's arc. Part of this is because we don't have much context for Caleb beyond brief mentions and whatnot, but also because we know next to nothing about Grimwalkers. At the end of the day, this is a thing that adds the illusion of depth without really doing much.

Of course, I understand why we don't get the details/additional context for Grimwalkers and Caleb Whittebane; those details don't really matter for Luz's arc, which, as the main character of the series, takes precedence over literally everything else. Dana and the team had to make a choice, and they chose to focus on Luz's arc (which I cover in my post about people "not getting" what her arc is), rather than Hunter's arc, or any other character's arc. It was more important for the sake of the show ending in a satisfying way in what little time they had.

With that said, however, it does leave Hunter as a character with this vague idea of having substance under the surface (i.e. character depth), but it's been shaved down to the bare minimum for the sake of brevity. We can all assume things about his upbringing and whatnot, but that ultimately doesn't mean much because we don't see that stuff. It's not in the show, and because the show has a distinct lack of in-universe supplementary material, it means nothing. We can assume a lot about who Hunter is because of how Belos views him as an object, and subjected him to things that we can certainly label as "abusive," but as an abuse survivor, I don't really need Hunter for that when Amity exists and has a more tangible arc that involves her abusive parental figure.

Speaking of, that abusive parent thing is really only used well in one episode for Hunter, in my view, and that's in the episode "Eclipse Lake." Hunter contrasts Amity in that episode in a very good way from a writing standpoint. Both are kids that come from crappy homes, and both of them are hunting the same thing. He is able to effectively weaponize Amity's insecurity caused by her mother's abuse to make her think Luz is going to break up with her if she fails in finding the Titan's Blood, and he's able to because we know he's in a similar boat to what he projects onto Amity and Luz's relationship. It's the one time where Hunter's arc highlights what the character's journey could have been, as they could have returned to this insecurity angle later in a proper Season 3, and have Amity be someone who helps Hunter understand that his new friends won't cast him aside if he "doesn't get results." They could have done this in either realm, but they didn't have time.

Then there's his budding feelings for Willow. It's a sweet relationship at it's core, and the fact that the show never got the chance to properly explore it in canon, it's become the fandom's favorite ship to write that isn't Lumity, and sort of dominates a lot of the fanfics I see now because Lumity has been explored so much by comparison (it's honestly a little annoying, as a Lumity fan). Dana even implied that it's canon in a livestream after the finale, but because it didn't get explicit confirmation within the show, it is just that: implied. It could have been something that not only expanded on Hunter's character, but also Willows (not that I think she really needs the added depth at the end of the day, but that's a discussion for another day), and that's just what cancellation does to the non-essential characters in a story.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying a character needs to be "essential" to justify their existence in a story, nor do I think characters like Hunter or Willow are "unimportant." I'm just saying they simply become less essential to the broader narrative of the series.

Ultimately, that leads into why I think Hunter is such a bloody frustrating character to think about: all of the things that make him who he is feel like they were done better elsewhere with other characters, or had to be trimmed down to a sliver of relevance for the sake of getting things done within the time limit the cancellation of the show put on things, because it wasn't an essential piece of the plot when cuts had to be made.

I can't really accept that he has "depth" in the way a lot of people do because I don't equate headcanons and assumptions with depth. Hunter's a character that has the visage of a character with depth and intrigue and all of the qualities of what most would consider a "good character" on the surface, but lacks a lot of that, at least to me, because he didn't get the time devoted to him that is required.

Amity serves as a strong point of comparison to me, because she has the time put in pre-cancellation to be interesting. We see her gradual arc from "Mean Girl at the top of her class" to "dorky sapphic girl that's happier than she's ever been" over the course of her many appearances, and I feel like if the show had gotten a proper 3 Season order, we would have seen more of that from Hunter. We would have seen him gradually open up to others, and gradually become happier and have his "Amity breaking the pendant" moment equivalent where he gets to finally accept that he deserves to be happy.

We get hints that he's happier in the Human Realm because he is allowed to spread his wings and discover things he's passionate about, but we don't really get much beyond that because the show didn't have the time to properly explore Hunter's progression as a person up to that point. It's like a sandwich that had chunks of it's filling taken out of it before you get it. You might still enjoy the sandwich, but you might also be like "man, I wish it had more stuff in it."

Those are my thoughts on Hunter put into a post. Ultimately, I know there's gonna be people who say that I'm still "objectively wrong" about any of this, because some people don't actually know what objectivity is... but that's to be expected. Hopefully there's enough people out there who understand where I'm coming from. I'm not really looking to debate my position, but I'm open to hearing others' opinions.

Until the next random Tumblr essay!

[animehouse-moe]

The Iceberg of Online Manga - A Reading List and Print Wishlist

We get a lot of manga in English, but that's only the tip of the iceberg. We get a hell of a lot of fan translated manga, but even that doesn't cover the whole thing. Separated by language and culture, the "untapped" potential of manga is foreign to a lot of readers, myself included really. But it's because of that deficiency that I decided to start taking a look at interesting fan translated titles to find series to recommend to publishers (and potentially read), so this is a sneak peek into my ever-growing list.

It's also an open request for people to share their favorites from the online manga sphere! As a single person it's impossible to find all the hidden gems, so being able to share titles between one another can really help widen horizons.

Sui and Neri of the Twilight Planet / Tasogare-Boshi No Sui To Neri

In a way, it reminds me of Girls Last Tour, a sunsetting planet that explores the oddity of a du in their life. Not quite as bittersweet or contemplative through what I've seen so far, but still very pretty and detailed. Lots and lots of hand drawn background art, and some really good layouts and paneling.

Poison Poison Forest Forest /Doku Doku Mori Mori

Mushroom on Mushroom violence, with a healthy side of grim visuals. It's got all the punch you could expect, and has a pretty novel approach to what you could consider a revenge story. Still early on so not a mountain of stuff to go off of, but at the very least what there is is good.

Captain Momo's Secret Base / Momo Kanchou No Himitsu Kichi

Tsuruta Kenji, the mastermind behind the art of Emanon (and other series), need I really say more? Regardless, with Tsuruta's art behind a lighthearted and curious series of a woman travelling through space alone with a cat, it's an undeniably enjoyable ride. Though do be warned, there is quite a bit of nudity featured as Momo prefers going commando to wearing clothes.

Every Every Night / Yona Yona Yona

An incredibly strikingly designed robin hood-esque story, Yona and her crew go on nightly missions to try and steal back art that was originally stolen by a corrupt police force. Creative, expressive, fun, and impressively detailed and unique, it's got quite a bit of potential!

The Feared Witch of Tasihou / Taishou Kitan Majo

Mixing the Western practices of Witchcraft with a Taishou-era Japan setting? A cultural combination that I'm truthfully surprised we haven't really seen yet. Add onto that the incredibly unique and sketch-like art style (and the wonderful color pages) and it's just a super easy pickup.

Welcome to Hotel Metsäpeura / Hotel Metsäpeura e Youkoso

A little hard to explain succinctly, but this is the story of a trio, two men and a teenager who they find standing outside their hotel in the Finnish wilderness in the middle of Winter. Characters with... interesting pasts, it's a story about providing not just a house, but a home to this young boy on his own.

The Ends of A Dream / Yume no Hashibashi

This is one that I'm really quite desperate to get in print. It's an emotional story of a pair as they retrace their forbidden romance through the years that have evaded them as they reach the end of their lives. A painfully beautiful concept that I really hope to see licensed someday.

Will You Clean This For Me? / Kirei Ni Shitemoraemasuka

Alright, something a little more light and fun! A story of a laundry (though it's really sorta general cleaning) shop as they go about their daily life, even offering a few tips and tricks to better cleaning things. Simple idea that has some pretty clear care put into it, and is just the right thing to relax with.

Amber Days and Golden Nights / Kohaku no Yume de Yoimashou

Let's keep the good vibes rolling! Another specific interest series, this time about craft beer. Kenzaki Nana's a burnt out employee at a Kyoto advertising firm, but happens to stumble across the Shirokuma bar. With just one night she ends up pulled into the world of craft beer, and our story begins! Very fun and light, and a really cool area to see explored by manga.

The Dragon, The Hero, and The Courier / Ryuu to Yuusha to Haitatsunin

Nothing like some good old comedy at the expense of someone else. Yoshida, a half elf, is a mail carrier for the Imperial City of Idazig that will deliver mail to anyone, anywhere. With the breadth of fantasy and middle-ages history expressed early on, there's a lot of creative potential for humor alongside the really wonderfully scratchy and sharp art.

Deep Sea Aquarium Magmell / Magmell Shinkai Suizokukan

My friend Phantom would kill me if this wasn't on the list. Anyways, it's a series about a deep sea aquarium employee in Tokyo. Very cool, very informal, and incredibly beautiful. I love how much they work with blacks and darkness in the art.

A Coffee Shop in the Unwaking Town / Samenai Machi no Kissaten

I love stories that are incredibly odd and quiet, and this is no exception. Suzume one day finds herself unable to wake up, stuck in the unwaking town Lutetia. It's in this town that she works at the coffee shop known as 'Quatre'. From the moment I laid eyes on it I knew I'd enjoy it, a unique concept paired with standout art, it has such a comfortable feeling to its experience (as well as offering a few recipes).

Living In an Antiquarian Bookstore of The Karakida Family / Karakida-ke no Kosho Gurashi

A simple story about three girls inheriting their grandfather's shop in the heart of the largest collection of used bookstores, Kanda-Jinbouchou. A very calm and borderline mundane story that is supplemented with some truly beautiful art.

And that's all this list has in it for now! Of course I've got more I can chat about, but I thought these to be the most promising in my perusing of the internet. Best of all though? All of these are available (to some degree) on MangaDex! If you want to give them a shot they're there. And really, do feel free to add to this list with your own online finds, I'd love to find all sorts of unique and creative manga that we don't get to hear about in the English sphere!

[skysiren41]

(minor spoilers)

So a while back I was gonna post my initial thoughts on a TV show that I watched called Wonda, at the time when I first saw it I thought it was a fine show, nothing amazing and a bit generic but nowhere near the worst show I've seen. However while I was looking to see what others thought of it, I found out Wondla was actually based on a book trilogy of the same name. I immediately fell in love with the art style of the book and was curious about the changes the series made. So I bought the books and having read the first one (The Search for Wondla), my opinion of the TV show changed...and not for the better

While on it's own Wonda is just fine at best to painfully mediocre at worst, when you compare it to the book it's based on, it becomes one of the disappointing adaptations to a book I've seen in a while. And this coming from someone who only just read the first book, I can't imagine how disappointing it must've been to those who grew up with the trilogy, got excited that it was getting a TV show, only to turn out like....this

I wanna make it clear that changing some things from a book when adaptating it to fit a show/film format isn't inherently bad. In fact it's pretty common for stories, character designs or personality, or even scenes to be either changed or cut out. Hell one of my favorite TV shows of all time Trollhunters was also based on a book, and both are completely different from one another. But I don't mind it there because even with the changes, the show still stands strong on it's own and there are plenty of other examples of adaptations that do change or remove some stuff while still being good. But Wondla sadly isn't like that, every change and cut felt like it was done to tone down a lot of the darker and more mature aspects, and if anything the changes and cuts they do make end up severely hurting the story

And I don't wanna hear the whole 'it's for kids' argument because 1. The book was also for kids and wasn't afraid to show some pretty tense and dark scenes (such as Besteel straight up killing and eating a tardigrade in a pretty brutal way, which we later find out was actually Otto's mate who he had to watch get killed and eaten right in front of him) and 2. Just because something is for kids doesn’t give it the excuse to dumb itself down. There are multiple examples of shows/movies that while yes have kids as their main target audience, doesn't dumb itself down and can actually be enjoyed by everyone

I know I may come across as incredibly harsh and like I said on it's own Wondla is far from the worst show I've seen. But it's just so disappointing just how much missed potential the show had, at least in adaptating the first book. I haven't read the second book yet and season 2 hasn't been released at the time of posting this, I just really hope the quality of the writing improves, though I'm doubtful

On a positive note to end on, I'm still glad I watched this because it introduced me to a genuinely great book, and I highly recommend checking the series out and I can't wait to read the other books

[ryanscabinlife]

It’s been roughly a month and a half since I transplanted these cabbages in the ground. I originally planted 12 but right now there’s only 10 left due to slug damages. They’re about a foot tall and they are starting to form small cabbages. It’s so fascinating to watch these plants that came from teeny tiny seeds slowly growing the cabbage heads that I’ve only seen in supermarkets.

Slugs loves these plants. Just a couple of days ago they knocked a whole plant down by nibbling on the stem. Above is an example of a "minor" slug damage. They usually leave a gooey-mucus-like trail. I routinely go to the garden during sunset and first thing in the morning, specially on rainy days, to keep the slug population in check.

That little thing above is a flea beetle. Another creature who loves these types of plants. And below it is, again, a "minor" flea beetle damage. I bought diatomaceous earth to combat these pests but haven't used it yet because I haven't seen any severe damage thus far. Although it's safe for humans and very effective (based on what I've heard/read), it also kills beneficial insects in the process. So if I can avoid using it, that'll be great.

9-Jul-2023

[thedemonscrawler]

gonna procrastinate on writing by talking about writing woo

So, fun fact! Permission Slip is usually being written on two different documents at once, which should be but are not actually identical? And neither of them match the actual AO3 version you guys read?

1st Draft

The first draft is written with a combination of OpenOffice and Google Docs.

(I'll get to why that says Mobile Copy in a sec)

The OpenOffice document is meant to be the Master Draft of the fic. It's the entire story so far-- outline, notes, all the chapters written and the bits of chapters we haven't gotten to yet.

Yeah, it's lengthy. The reason it says 'Active Version' is starting around Chapter 5, I began saving a copy of the document up to the most recent chapter finished.

This is because of how I write scenes out of order, and having an older draft lets me go back for things that got rewritten. It's also really neat to see how various ideas evolved over the story, or how old some of the scenes are.

OpenOffice has the Master Draft, not just because it can handle it, but so I can put my laptop into airplane mode and write offline if I really need to focus. But the story doesn't stay there!

If you've seen the snippets I've shared, you know that sometimes they're highlighted in grey, like this:

(yeah you enjoy that snippet from Chapter 15)

The grey highlights are a system to tell myself 'this is a section that needs to be copied over to the other document', almost always a section I have just written that session. Feels good to have a whole page in grey.

So from OpenOffice, the grey sections are copied over to GoogleDocs, and become the 2nd Draft.

2nd Draft

..okay, so there are actually TWO GoogleDoc copies of Permission Slip. One of them is a 'master' version, just like the Open Office file. The other is the Mobile version. The master version has all of the chapters and outline and stuff, while the Mobile copy only goes back one or two chapters prior to the current one. Why?

Cos it turns out that when a document gets to be around 110 pages long, Docs starts being a little bitch and lags real bad on mobile, or starts crashing. So the mobile version was made so I could type on my phone. Same deal, new sections are highlighted in grey and copied back to the OpenOffice version when I'm on the laptop again.

Since the GoogleDocs version can be worked on from multiple locations, it's the one that gets the most edits. If there are substantial changes made they'll be copied back to the OpenOffice document, but minor edits aren't as crucial, and there are some sections that are pretty different between the two now.

From the GoogleDocs version on to the final(ish) version:

3rd Draft

The AO3 version should match the GoogleDocs version, and for the most part it does-- but not always. That last minute readthrough to catch all the spaces added after italics is also a time for minor edits. Missing words, dialogue rewrites, etc. There's one chapter that had a chunk written in the editor, but unfortunately I can't remember which one it is now 8'D only that it's between chapters 9 and 12. Naturally the AO3 version is the one you guys get to see.

Uuuuh yeah so. Overcomplicated system, go!

Also if you want a word processor for free, I recommend LibreOffice! Its based on the same open source software as OpenOffice, only it's actually still being updated and stuff (I still use OO just cos it's what I have 8'D).

Unfortunately I have yet to find a word processing app with cloud-based storage that can be edited from multiple devices, so I can't replace GoogleDocs with something better.

[conventionalwisdomcomic]

Weekly Digimon Comic: Digimon Tamers - page 0.5

Okay, the act of posting these pages is going to feel a bit weird for me over the next several weeks.  In case you missed me saying so in the previous comic, what the general public is going to experience one piece at a time over the course of a month was originally cranked out to Patreon in just over a week.  There's every chance that these will end up reading in this new context than they did when they all came out in one big blur, so that'll be fun to find out.  I mean, we're already half a month into this and I still haven't technically started talking about the first episode yet.  (Speaking of which, in case you also missed THIS last time, I'm gonna try adding "point five" or whatever to pages where I've got more than one comic out of an episode to try and keep the page count and episode number in sync) But yeah, Digimon was my first experience actively plugged in to a fandom, by which I mean directly interacting with a community at large as the franchise was active and popular.  Like, I'd been a fan OF plenty of things, but I was either a passive observer or it was something too old and obscure for there to be any new developments to keep up with.  Even with Pokemon, all I ever really did was consume the product.  Digimon was my first experience truly interacting with the fandom of a property that was actively pumping out new content for that fandom to have an opinion over.  Unfortunately, that mean it was ALSO my first experience with fandom drama, and it was a bit deflating to watch whole chunks of the community I'd seen build itself around the first two seasons crumble away because they just didn't like Tamers.  I realize it probably sounds really quaint of me, by I must reiterate that I spent most of my childhood consuming media that already hadn't been popular for decades by the time I got around it.  This sort of real-time flame out was a whole new thing to me.  And sadly, it was far from the last one I'd witness.  It was especially unfortunately for Tamers, though, since the implosion of Saban and Fox Kids meant there wasn't anywhere near enough promotion to draw in NEW viewers to replace the ones who were rage quitting.  But that's something we'll presumably get into later.

Also, just to be clear, it genuinely WAS a frequent complaint that the lore people had built up around their fan characters based on the previous shows wasn't compatible with the new setting.  And that's especially ironic giving something I KNOW we'll be get into very soon! Conventional Wisdom / Patreon

[gio-dude]

any more thoughts on paper mario so far?

I LOVED it honestly and the only reason I'm not playing TTYD is because I'm waiting for my new pc to get fixed cus my laptop is 🥔

Not as much as I did at the start, unfortunately. I've done a few more posts in different formats, but after the prologue and chapter one it's been a game and the humors been there but not quite as funny as that first chunk for me. Like, the attention to detail is absolutely INSANE throughout the whole game so far (the hidden spots, the funny npc dialogue, the dizzy eye animation, the text effects when people are speaking to show emotion and emphasis, etc), and some of the clues and stuff have been really well done where it guides you, sometimes by even straight up telling you what to do, but only if you like talk and interact with everyone and it sounds like gossip. I love how much world building they put into it, and like all of your companions get letters, so like Kooper is going to join Kolorado in an archeology adventure after helping mario, bombette is going to help cut the ribbon for a new train station since she cleared the tracks of the toad town one, they all have really cool stories for AFTER the game, which I really love and appreciate since I don't remember that from TTYD.

But yeah PM 64 has had solid characters and great world building and I am baffled at how complex and absolutely massive it feels to me for its time (I mainly played the pokemon stadium [1 & 2] mini games and kirby 64 shards and the OG ssb for comparison/context, and like kirby felt big but the open world of mario and the dynamic background where things change each chapter and characters reacting differently based off what degree of fighter you are make it feel massive) (also the timing of enemies for blocking and command attacks feels like each one would need its own code for, and there have been a lot of enemies and I'm only on chapter 3!)

It's been very interesting playing PM 64 after TTYD, since TTYD had a LOT of polish which, I hadn't realized, made it incredible. And like I watched a video or read an article ages ago about other games like the first two paper mario games and the mario and luigi series (both series, best games) and it was talking about how TTYD took a LOT of inspiration from PM 64, almost to the extent of copy+pasting, like "you did a train mystery in the first game and so let's do another train mystery" and "you get a smart Goomba, a small town koopa, a bomb-omb with character, and a ghost as a companion, so let's do that all again". And it's true (I haven't gotten to the train bit yet but I know it exists since there is a PENGUIN detective and we love penguins), but like all of the characters in TTYD had WAAAAAY more character and although both games' companions are charming, the added character design in TTYD was great.

Final thoughts are for both the paper mario and the mario and luigi series as a whole and their successors, both spiritually and literally.

As for the literal successors of PM and M&L, M&L has stayed true to its nature and although the stories are different and the abilities raise the stakes unnecessarily in my opinion, they still play like M&L games. PM on the other hand...

I feel like the bowser sections in TTYD directly influenced mario and luigi: browsers inside story, which was spectacular and probably the strongest in that series (partners in time will always hold a special place in my heart and I love it. Super stars was okay, the story was amazing but the fighting felt more tedious than the later games. Dreamy luigi was alright, I wasn't a fan of the new art style [that all the remakes, unfortunately, decided to continue to use] I don't think I ever beat it since it never hooked me in the same way. And I've seen NO ONE talk about that one cross over with paper mario, so I know nothing of that one.)

Paper mario and M&L are like my favorite games since I like that you still interact in battles even when it's not your turn. I hate JRPGs with a passion since I would literally rather play around in excel sheets all day (which I get paid to do) than click the same buttons over and over again without thought and then have to wait for the enemy animation when it could all just be text and skipped and be done with.

These games add the element of skill, albeit a pretty small element that can be boring and tedious and repetitive too, but it adds engagement for the entire time you are battling and battles are directly and immediately impacted by your skill, as compared to mainly "strategy" (pick the strongest move) in JRPGs. I care about getting each action command and each block in PM, my skill directly influences the outcome of the battle compared to sheer luck (there's a little luck with like status effects but that isnt the same as variable damge based on luck). If I'm playing a game I want to be engaged with it the whole time, not constantly mashing A while checking my phone since I'm spamming the same attack agaim since there is nothing else to do (glares at pokemon).

I feel like undertale was a spiritual successor to these games based on the bullet hell dodging in combat and the timing of attacks. The dodging was actually way more engaging and difficult in undertale than in PM and M&L and I think that was a large part of its success. I'm really surprised so few games have taken this approach to the rpg formula, of making the whole battle actually engaging, but there are a lot in development!

One that's out already is bug fables and if you have not checked that one out PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE CHECK IT OUT! It's glorious and the best successor to TTYD I've ever seen. There's also born of bread of which I've heard mixed results on and haven't check out myself yet, and there's also a sea horse one in development still also I had checked. There's also "OTHER:her loving embrace" which takes a more similar approach to combat as undertale but instead of bullet hell dodging it's a seconds long mini platformer where you have to run around dodging and you can even counter attack and it looks like everything I've ever wanted from a game and I am INCREDIBLY excited for that one. I'd also be down for a bug fables 2.

Now, disclaimer, I haven't actually played any other paper mario games than 64 and TTYD since they have all sounded awful. Sticker star had all moves be dictated by one time use stickers so your combat move options were constantly changing and combat seemed slow and not engaging (like a usual turn based jrpg) since I think it was just the stickers gimmick the whole time? 64 had some funny paper gimmicks, and TTYD really stepped up its paper inspired mechanics, what with the mario curses (airplane, tube, boat, etc.) And like busty genie's blowing ability, and then the one paper mario for the wii (super paper mario? I'm not willing to look it up) seemed to build more upon that with being able to like turn the world sideways and stuff, which makes for a cool puzzle game but I don't know anything about the combat that I can remember- that's how unmemorable it was despite looking into it multiple times because not enough of these types of games exist. I've heard nothing of the PM x M&L crossover as I've said above, and from what I heard about origami King the story was cute but a little shallow and the combat got switched up YET A-FUCKING-GAIN. It seemed liked an interesting combat system, but it sounded like it got extra tedious really fast since I think it involved having to draw a path through enemies that surround you in a circle and again, seemed cool but it wasn't paper mario. I once played a cooperative star trek board game that seemed to have similar mechanics, and like, as a combat system I could see it being really cool, but just not good for paper mario which has refuses to go back to what made 64 and TTYD so successful and charming and wacky, since Nintendo wants M&L to be the big rpg mario line games, which like... GIVE US BOTH.

So, yeah! Thank you so much for giving me an excuse and outlet to ramble and get all my thoughts out, it may be a bit more than you bargained for but you asked for thoughts! And paper mario was vague so I couldn't tell if you meant the 64 game specifically or the whole series, so you get the whole series!

Although I have this typed out on the 23, it's nearly 11 pm and I have work in the morning and I want to go through and edit this since I am notorious for having awful spelling and skipping whole words when I'm thinking anything quickly and I want to make sure this all looks and sounds good and at least has some coherence with the order it covers topics so thou must be patient.