#I hope really really hope there'll be an animated series of it

[jimekas]

That scene from Ewilan's Quest 

I loved that book series (from a French author!) and for a few years now they have started to be made into beautiful comics :D Last week I discovered in a library The Other from the same author was also be made in comic and having never read it, I tried to see.... Well now, I'm dying to read the books too XD But yeah I thought back of Ewilan and that scene in particular, with the Lady.

[nocandnc]

Besides kn8 i can see you're in a ton of fandoms and I'm curious to ask, what are some good mangas you've read/animes watched that you'd recommend? I'm bored and desperate to binge lol

Aaaaaah, this is tough to answer because I like sooo many things of sooo many varieties lol I'm afraid liking Kn8 as much as I do is very unusual for me since I normally find battle Shounen tiring... but every now and then, there'll be an exception!!

One manga I've been reading since it first started is Rumiko Takahashi's MAO, published in Shounen Sunday. If you've enjoyed some of her past works (Ranma 1/2, Urusei Yatsura, Inuyasha, Kyoukai no Rinne, Maison Ikkoku, etc. etc.) then this one is definitely worth checking out. It may not be the flashiest series ever - the author is in her sixties after all - but she's put out quality stories for decades and MAO is no exception. Rather, it's one of my favorite Takahashi works by far. Plot-wise I'll say it's something of a murder mystery at heart, though there's also time travel, onmyouji magic and romcom fun as well. Currently ongoing at 250 chapters, there's plenty to keep you busy lol

Another manga I have to recommend at every opportunity is Yugami-kun ni wa Tomodachi ga Inai. There's no official English translation, but the series is complete at 81 chapters and fully translated by fans online. It's a slice of life series about Chihiro, a girl who's just transferred to a new school and is desperate to make friends after years of moving from town to town. There she meets the titular Yugami-kun, who prides himself on being a loner who doesn't need or want friends. Simple, right? Yes it is. Just a simple slice of life. But trust me when I say, IT IS THE GREATEST SLICE OF LIFE YOU'LL EVER FIND. In my opinion lol

As for more popular things, I'm also keeping up with Dandadan and Spy x Family these days ^^;; Dandadan is wild insanity in the funnest way possible, but also covers a lot of really heavy topics which I appreciate. Spy x Family is delightful of course, but also not without dark times - I really do love stories that are incredibly fun, but not afraid to go to dark places - while staying hopeful. Always hopeful. That's the most important part, and what I love about Kn8 as well!!

And... this is a bit random, but there's a scifi anime on Netflix called A.I.C.O. Incarnation that I really like. It's a flawed series, but scifi are hard to come by and it's a biotech scifi in particular which is always very interesting to me. It's a tight anime-original storyline of 12 episodes, with consistently good animation and a standout cast of characters. Said characters also wear battle suits for the majority of the episodes, firing guns and carving their way through monsterous attacks... so not unlike Kn8 in that sense lol

If you have any specific rec requests (manga/anime similar to XYZ series or something of a certain genre) then feel free to let me know - there are lots of great shows and manga I enjoy but it's hard to narrow everything down when my brain's a tangled mess >.<;;

[hypersomniagame]

HYPERSOMNIA JUNE DEV LOG : “FASHIONABLY LATE”

Hi! I already wrote this entire dev log but I closed the tab by accident, so it's now 10:55pm and I'm going to try and speedrun writing something that took me an hour to write.

For all of you who follow HYPERSOMNIA, you should already know what the gist is here I've been saying this for 6 months.

if you don't know what this is or are confused on what HYPERSOMNIA is read the other dev logs i've said this like every time lol

So, just as a heads up this log isn't going to be super long with new content because I have been insanely busy these last few months! I just graduated High School and the last few months have been me cramming to make sure I pass and could graduate and now I am!!! Yay!!!

I won 2 awards at my grad (One of them being excellence in arts :D) and the other I was given a check for 200$ so I snagged one of these!

Super happy I finally got a display tablet for drawing, I've wanted one of these since I was like 14 and it feels awesome to have one now. I got this thing super cheap too, this thing usually goes for like 300-350 Canadian and I got it for 130! Super super happy about this.

That's all from me personally, but I would like to say just as 1 last thing before the updates, Happy Pride Month to all who identify as LGBTQ+, I myself am queer and just want to remind all of you that you are loved and accepted. Hopefully I can get this out before midnight so it's still pride month LOL

OK! NOW FOR UPDATES! I don't have too much to share today but I do have somethings I want to show off.

First things first, I've been respriting some characters! Ross and Jack are the biggest edits I've made so far so I'd like to show them off.

(Left is old, and right is new!)

Ross' walking sprites were updated! I was kind of dissatisfied with how Ross looks like he's struttin' everywhere so I redid it to give him a more casual walk. I'm very happy with this change and I plan for it to be the base walking animation going forward. I also updated his side profiles slightly to look closer to the key art I illustrated.

Jack also had his idles redone! He I think was the biggest thing I needed to resprite, his old sprite is kind of cluttered and poorly detailed so for his new one I simplified a lot of the shading and reshaped his hair and mask. I think it came out really well.

Also, just earlier I was working on music for the game.

I'm really happy with how this came out, I just got high and made Half-Life music (Which is what I was aiming for LOL)

Hopefully I can get to a point where I can finish off the soundtrack for the demo and post it all. Some friends of mine were a bit sad I delisted the tracks I had up initially so I hope to get those up again soon.

I've also been storyboarding out some early game cutscenes, I can't show a lot because it's all a bit spoiler-y but I will put this in the log.

And one last thing too, THE MOTHER DIRECT!

on July 27 at 6PM ET, MOTHER FOREVER will be hosting the MOTHER Direct, which HYPERSOMNIA is a part of!

There'll be a ton of indie games, fan projects, and other things relating to or inspired by the MOTHER series! Please give it a watch if you can. If you can't make it, the event will remain on MOTHER FOREVER's YouTube channel, and I'll be uploading HYPERSOMNIA's trailer on YouTube, Twitter, Steam, and here. If you do catch the stream or end up watching it after, leave a comment! Tell 'em Ferris sent ya. Do it, or I'll cry. I'm expecting at least 1 "Ferris sent me!" or I'll cry. I swear, I will do it!

If this is your first log you're reading, or even your first time seeing ANYTHING relating to HYPERSOMNIA, I got a whole bunch of links for you to check out if you wanna know more about me and my stupid little game.

TWITTER

YOUTUBE

STEAM

UNIQUE INDIE RPG'S [SHOW US YOUR GAME!]

[PREV] [ABOUT HYPERSOMNIA] [NEXT]

[theowlhousefanboy]

Notable And Underrated Anime That Have Excellent English Dubs, In My Opinion - A List (With Some Extra Banter or Whatever)

The works of Shinichirō Watanabe, ranging from Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Space Dandy, and Carole & Tuesday (so much so that they're better off disqualified from lists likes this, due to being way too obvious choices... moving on)

FLCL (heck, would even say the same to the otherwise derivative Progressive and Alternative)

The Read or Die OVA, alongside its sequel series R.O.D the TV (so good, that even the likes of Yomiko "The Paper" Readman changing accents actually doesn't feel as jarring as I thought it would be)

Azumanga Daioh (on a side note, Ayumu "Osaka" Kasuga sounds a bit like Steven Universe's Amethyst and The Owl House's Vee Noceda; can't really say why)

Lucky Star (so, which part of the Choco cornets should we eat first?)

Nichijou ('nuff said)

K-On!/K-On!! (might sound a bit jarring if one also watched Puella Magi Madoka Magica on the English dub (a bit good, but nothing compared to the Rebellion movie and maybe the compilation films; case in point, Mio Akiyama, Ritsu Tainaka, Tsumugi Kotobuki, and Azusa Nakano are Homura Akemi, Kyubey, -bloody- Hitomi Shizuki, and Madoka Kaname respectively)

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan (kinda sucks that the two compilation movies don't have dubs; would have loved seeing the extra hamminess of the characters' English voices in those)

Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water - ADV (even if the occasional accents are inaccurate, the emotional delivery of the VAs is hard to deny, especially the vile Gargoyle's)

Kill la Kill (if one has witnessed it, then you know that they sure had a lot of fun playing the characters in this extremely fun gainaxy romp)

Toradora! (...basically the closest we get to seeing Madoka verbally beat down Kyubey in romance and stuff)

Ghost in the Shell, both the movie duology (1 and 2: Innocence) and Stand Alone Complex, including the Tachikomatic Days extras and the Solid State Society movie (so much so that the latter's DVDs are mostly set with the English dub on default, reportedly even in Japan)

REDLINE (can't speak enough for it so to describe its epicness)

Dead Leaves (you can actually watch it on YouTube... it might overwhelm you)

Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt (telling that it's way more raunchy than even the original Japanese)

Golden Boy (you know, at least the show didn't continue on, lest it might have gotten way too weirder like the manga it's adapted from)

Black Lagoon (so good, that it resulted with the Roberta's Blood Trail OVAs having the cast reprise their roles due to fan demand)

Excel Saga and Puni Puni Poemy (so madcap, the former's titular character's VA broke her voice halfway through the show)

Honorable mentions:

Neon Genesis Evangelion - particularly the ADV dub, with Manga Entertainment's efforts on The End of Evangelion and the Director's Cut versions of Episodes 21-24 (it might be correctly deemed as flawed, but nowadays, it sure has proven its worth, albeit at the cost of the Netflix dub being derided as lacking in emotion and perhaps also nuance)

The Manga Entertainment dubs for the Patlabor movie duology (a shame the OVA series preceding it doesn't share the same cast, while the Patlabor TV series dub... eludes me)

GaoGaiGar (flaw: it's unfinished, and thus never even reached the FINAL parts)

In the meantime, hopeful readers, feel free to put on personal recommendations, in case there'll be a second part, if not a commenter's edition.

[harleyquilt]

The Pain in Death, the Hope in Life (Frieren fanfic) - Chapter 1

Summary: A small series focusing on the themes of loss and closure presented throughout the series of SnF, exploring some early moments between the characters, as well as their responses to grief.

In this chapter, I'll be focusing on Fern and Frieren shortly after Heiter's death, and how Frieren struggles to find the words to comfort her new apprentice.

Words: 1,543~

Notes: This will probably be 3-4 chapters long, with relatively short chapters. I just love all the dynamics presented in the show and wanted to explore them further ^_^ There'll be no spoilers, since I'm anime-only, with some very slight divergence, in that it'll later involve a mini adventure of my own making. Please enjoy!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A young Fern watches Frieren from a slight opening in the door. Surrounding the elf mage is a variety of leatherbound grimoires, all taken from Heiter's library. Frieren’s eyes scan over each tome, jumping from book to book, before circling back to the first, indecisively comparing each one against the others. It has been a few hours since Fern instructed Frieren to only take one, insisting that any more would be a waste of limited space. Frieren eventually relented, but was now dragging her feet in deciding which one book to pick. Fern frowns, watching her master from nearby.

She thinks to trudge in and demand that Frieren pick one immediately, stressing that they must leave as soon as possible. And she almost does, her hand on the door handle. But she hesitates and questions why exactly she feels the need to rush – Frieren certainly felt no urgency, despite being the one to say that they would soon leave following Heiter's death. No, there is no reason to act so urgently, yet Fern felt a rising need to leave now that Heiter no longer occupied this small cottage; even though Fern knew that, logically, nothing had really changed, with Heiter gone, the walls felt strangely cold and hollow, like there's an emptiness pervading this space she once called home. It no longer felt like a home to her, even with all the pleasant memories this small cottage has given her. It is simply not enough to push through the gloom encompassing her heart. 

It is likely why, when seeing Frieren casually browse through the grimoires, that she feels this discomforting agitation bubble up. Pouting, she shuts the door and makes an effort to stomp up the stairs to her room, hoping that Frieren will take notice of her anger. 

“She probably won't,” Fern mutters, throwing herself onto her bed. She hugs her pillow, pushing her face into it. “She never does.” 

An hour passes and she slips into a light sleep, her face set into a grimace. Frieren knocks on the door, and opening it, Fern groans and turns her head towards the door, cracking open one eye. Brows raised, Frieren holds a book in her hand, watching Fern pull herself up into a sitting position. 

“I've picked one.” Frieren says, entering the room. “We can leave now, if you like.” She looks to the window, noticing the evening sky. “We could leave tomorrow morning, since it's already late.” 

Fern rubs her eyes, frowning. “You took too long.” Her voice is sharp, even with her sleepiness. 

Frieren awkwardly rubs the back of her head. “You're mad.”

“Not really.” She turns her head away, lips pinched together. “We should leave now.” 

She rises and moves past Frieren, leaving behind her a chilly trail. Sighing, Frieren follows her from behind, wondering what exactly to say. She mulls over it for a moment, before Fern turns back, her brows knitted together. 

“Why are you not upset?” Fern asks, a strain in her voice. It surprises Frieren at first, though it is not the first time she's heard this question from others, all equally as angry with Frieren’s lack of emotion. She doubts it'll be the last either. 

“What do you mean, Fern?” Frieren asks, only adding to Fern's annoyance. “Are you referring to Heiter?” 

“Of course I am.” She huffs and looks away. “Nevermind…” 

Walking away, Frieren thinks to stop her and explain herself, but seeing the girl’s anger, she thinks better of it. Fern has a surprisingly short temper, she finds, and any attempts to approach her will leave both of them smouldering. She ultimately decides that it will be better to give Fern the time and space she needs to cool off, knowing she'll be burnt to a crisp if she tries to interfere now. 

Frieren has never been good at dealing with conflict, opting to avoid rather than confront any issues that may come her way. The whole ordeal of these misunderstandings exhausted her, though that is not to suggest that she cares little for those involved. She just struggles finding an easy solution to an otherwise complicated matter. After all these years, it is one of the few shortcomings Frieren has yet to overcome. Then again, Frieren thinks, this is hardly an issue that can be ‘solved’, not permanently at least, as Fern has proven to her time and time again. 

Frieren shuts the front door behind her, Fern already a few feet away. The young woman looks back at the cottage, her eyes glazed with the distant memories of her childhood, of the man she once saw as a father. Lowering her eyes, she turns away, a familiar ache in her heart. This would be the last time she'd see this place as her home, their path ahead unclear. Frieren has not clarified where exactly she plans to go next, but as her apprentice, Fern will follow her for a long time to come. It was a bittersweet feeling, her melancholy and irritation warmed with the promise of the future. Frieren walks ahead, carrying her luggage, and Fern follows, the sun hanging low in the sky. 

It's dusk by the time they reach the outskirts of the nearby village, an hour away from the cottage. From the hilltop, the two can see the small market square, with most of the villagers heading back to their homes for the night, or to the inn for a drink or two. It's this inn that they decide to stay in for the night, ordering themselves a warm meal and a shared bedroom once they arrive. The regulars are already familiar with the two, having seen them during their past visits across the years, and out of consideration for Heiter's recent passing, they insist on dismissing their bill. Frieren readily accepts the offer, and thanking them, they finish their meals and head to their room. 

It all happens in what feels like a blur to Fern, who, all the while, is kept preoccupied with her own tumultuous thoughts. Her anger has simmered into a discontent she struggles to find the words for, feeling a little ashamed for accusing Frieren in such a harsh manner, but also bothered by Frieren's apathetic response, even while knowing this to be her usual demeanour. Having lived with her for years at this point, and remembering Heiter's warning, she should be familiar with Frieren's personality and expect this behaviour from her. And yet, during moments like these, Fern still craves some warmth from her sole companion, mentor, and peer. Was that something too far beyond Frieren's understanding? Was Fern wrong to hope for anything more? She continues to pout as these questions swirl around in her mind. 

Entering the room, Frieren watches Fern move to one of the two beds, a rather glum expression on her face. Sighing, Frieren sits on the other bed, clasping her hands together on her lap. 

“I am sad about Heiter passing away.” Frieren begins, catching Fern off-guard. “For elves, it takes us some time to process what it is we're feeling.” Frieren looks up, meeting Fern's eyes. “When my master died, I didn't cry. I had watched her age in what felt like a blink of an eye, and then she was gone. I had experienced loss before, but…” her hands tighten in her lap. “Still, it felt like something was missing following the years after her death. I know now that what I was experiencing was grief.”

“Miss Frieren…” Fern sits onto her bed, unsure on how she should respond. Frieren, however, smiles before continuing to speak. 

“Then Himmel passed away, and I–” she frowns, carefully picking her next words. “It was only then that I realised how important he was to me. But by then, it was already too late, and I lost my chance to tell him these words. That's why I spent these past few years trying to help Heiter, so that I wouldn't feel that same regret after his passing.” She smiles again, moving her hands to her side. “I'll surely miss him, but I'm glad I was able to create so many memories with him. I'll cherish them, with all the others. Does that make sense?” 

Fern nods, the warmth in Frieren's words seeping into her heart. “I'm sorry, Miss Frieren.” She bows her head. “I shouldn’t have assumed you to be so callous.” 

“I know you're upset.” Frieren reaches out and places a hand over hers. “I'm…not very good at comfort, but I'm trying my best to understand. I guess I still need to improve, in that regard.” 

Fern tilts her head to one side, a small smile on her lips. “Maybe just a little.” She sighs – a sigh of relief, as the tangled mess of emotions that had been building up within her unravels into a content acceptance. “I'll try to be more honest next time.” 

It'll probably take her a while to adjust, Frieren thinks, knowing herself how difficult she found it to change to new circumstances. In the end, she is reminded of how familiar the two of them are, despite their many differences. With this thought, she pats Fern's head, who blushes in turn, but makes no effort to push Frieren's hand away. 

[whumpedydump]

I think it’s time for an introduction.

Hi, I’m gonna call myself Dye for now (don’t think too much of it, I’m terrible with names) and use they/them pronouns.

I have been reblogging whump stuff for a while now, and recently also started to post my own thoughts. (Currently using the rambles tag for those) You can expect whump art in the future.

I have an ao3! It's Dye_Iguess and I write whump, currently for genshin, mha and one piece, but there'll probably be more when I get sucked into another fandom.

I like kidnapping and physical torture kinda whump, restraints and gags, but I’m not really a fan of sick fics. Also you’ll find little comfort here probably.

People I like are @knivestothroats, their in the woods somewhere series was the first real whump story I read (it’s absolutely amazing, I think it put my standards up), @suspicious-whumping-egg was one of the first whump blogs I followed, currently in love with their low profile series, @silversanimewhump has absolutely gorgeous whump gifs and convinced me to watch some really good animes and @freshbloodmoney makes absolutely gorgeous art. I probably forgot to mention many people but yeah there are really talented people here it’s great.

I don’t know what else to put here so yeah, I hope we’ll have a good time and I’d love to work with y’all.

[harmonytre-reblogs]

MP100 Reaction

I just watched MP100 for the first time and wrote down my reactions to nearly every episode! I thought it'd be fun to share, even with them being small. I'm not fixing typos because I think it's funnier to show the full emotion I was feeling lol. This has to be my favorite anime of all time.

I unfortunately didn't write out for Season 1, but DID share some thoughts with friends:

I'm not finished watching, so please no spoilers, but DANG Mob Psycho 100 has to be one of the few shows I can NOT see the twists coming. /vpos (I'm on the final episode of season 1)

And I now see why Reigen's a fav. I didn't get it at first but now it's ASDFGHJKL

The way people talked about him, I went into the series expecting him to be a jerk or something. But it turns out he has a huge heart, kindness, and strong morals, while also being an odd mix of collected and confident or screaming and frantic.

Goes from being very expressive with his hands to -_-

Scam artist but "hey don't you dare hurt these kids I'm their guardian now and harming people is a low low idea"

and now he can see ghosts which is VERY fun

the end segment of the finale when he picked like, 2 tons (?) of mushrooms I was like "go autistic king"

they all autistic in different ways I can see it (mostly Mob and Reigen atm)

Now I binged liek 5 episodes when I was supposed to draw maaaaaaaaaan

SEASON 2

MP100 S2 E1 Reaction: I don't think I like Emi. Maybe there'll be a growth in future episodes, but DANG the "you don't have feelings" line gives me a very bad taste in my mouth. I did find it cool when Mob grabbed all the papers though. And Tsubomi watching from the sidelines is intriguing.

MP100 S2 E2 reaction: bad idea to watch that episode before bed last night, but luckily I didn't get nightmares lol

MP11 S2 E3 reaction: Dimple ace?? Reigen ace or ace adjacent?? Oh…the second half of this episode OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH I love Mob. I love Reigen. grarararrararara MY HEART Dimple's a little gremlin but his plan failed so it's better than fine

Episode 2 had me going "people said this season was better?" Second half of Episode 3 had me "UAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

MP100 S2, E4 reaction: Reigen is very observant. I found "Is he a chihuahua?" a little too funny. LITTLE GHOSTIE MOB IS SO CUTE?! I hope Mob gets out of this without fully changing who he is. Oh and Dimple protecting Shigeo's body is a W.

MP100 S2, E5 reaction: I giggled when Mob grew a flower on top of his head. And when he joked with Dimple with the little smile on my face, I verbally let out an "oh AWWW" and strtled my brother. The fight was cool, but Sheo with anime eyes is oddly enough unnerving XD "???%"???????????????? YOOOOOOO??? I love Mob so so much. Reigen feels iffy this episode, but I'm unsure if it's a front or not hmmm.

MP100 S2, E6 reaction: Yeah Reigen really messed up with Mob and I'm glad Mob is getting more confident and taking time to be a kid! And Dimple sticking with Mob is cool too. But DANG the scene with the emails and the computer as Reigen realized it was his birthday and he had no in-person friends? DANNNNNNNNG THAT HIT HARD. Both because it's close to home, and because the sound design and timing and layout of that scene was absolutely perfect and gut-wrenching.

MP100 S2, E7 reaction: OH I HAVE STRONG FEELINGS ABOUT THIS EPISODE OH MY GOSH????????? I didn't expect that ending and oh my gosh I'm stimming so much and I'm freaking CRYING. He's done it all because of Mob and Mob knew this WHOLE TIME. I knew he probably did, but saying he stuck around because he knew Reigen was "a good guy" OH MY GOOOOOOOOOSH MY HEART IS EXPLODING. They are friends, your honor. hey love and care for each other OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH.

I'm crying so hard oh my gosh

I haven't happy cried from shock like THIS since the DBH ending.

I got so caught up in the ending I forgot to mention I find it funny how this is the first show I've watched to not only acknowledge the existence of memes, but to verbally mention it. I also found all the social media logo parodies to be fun!

OH AND the first season outro whiteboard marker style making a return and becoming made IN COLOR was so so impactful.

MP100 S2, E8 reaction: I was gonna say how much I appreciate how Mob has such a strong support group now. And then that freaking ending. The fire. The corpses. What the FRICK.

MP100 S2, E9 reaction: Thank goodness. I kept telling myself they weren't real bodies but the fact I spent so long putting off the next episode [3 days] tells you something lol. Also now he can pinpoint exact locations and fly so that's cool. They've made a huge mistake messing with Mob oopsie. Oh phew the parents are just at a spa. Still don't think "daddy issues" is a good excuse for burning a home and placing fake bodies. I also loved Reigen and Dimple this episode. Poor Mob is so tired and shouldn't have to deal with all this ;^;

MP100 S2, E10 reaction: BODY IMPROVEMENT CLUB W!! Also some fun Dimple scenes let's gooooooo.

MP100 S2, E11 reaction: Mob now has an intimidating presence in the best way. I also LOVED his speech about creating things on your own. Reigen's self-defense punch made me wheeze out-loud. And that last "Dimple, stay with him" from Reigen has a tone that- oof.

MP100 S2, E12 reaction: VERY good episode. I adore Shigeo. He can take and give powers now eugh. I'm sorry, in the middle of a very serious scene, the "You're annoying. Begone" took me EXTREMELY off guard and I guffawed. "No one should be able to put value on someone else's way of life." I LOVE THIS. Reigen being his usual very calm turn into very panicked, I love it. Shigeo's PISSED.

MP100 S2, E13 reaction: Shigeo staying with the boss oh my gosssssssh my heart. And he healed everyone with his blast? Awesome! The little "I think I just peed a little" made me wheeze. The giant broccoli has finally come into play . . . OH SERIZAWA IS THE THIRD GUY I KEEP SEEING IN FANART!

SEASON 3

MP100 S3, E1 and 2 reaction: I don't have much to say about these yet except "Mob smiles" make me very happy <3

MP100 S3, E3 reaction: Chad Mob isn't real, it can't hurt you. Chab Mob . . . I don't have feelings about the monkey shirt but his pink hoodie is SO CUTE! Dimple looks creepy yeah. Also very worried why everyone's phones were out of service . . .

MP100 S3, E4 reaction: I watched it this morning, but? Fear.

MP100 S3, E5 reaction: Shigeo doesn't want to hurt Dimple and Dimple's making that verrrrrry difficult ;^;. I didn't expect the episode to end with the monkey shirt tbh. I still don't get it.

MP100 S3, E6 reaction: Oh. I did NOT expect this episode to hit hard. Mob and Dimple friends and Dimple just wanting to be SEEN? OUGH/pos. Mob walking away while Dimple makes an illusion of himself. Dimple carrying the broccoli into space. Mob CRYING in his blanket?????? Owwwwwwww.

MP100 S3, E7 reaction: Oh this is a fun one! I like Takenaka, and Mob smiles a lot in this episode. Plus, Reigen totallyyyyyyyy (/sar) not excited to drive a bunch of friends to see UFOs.

MP100 S3, E8 reaction: In general, this episode was super cute! I'm a sucker for friends just hanging out and doing weird things, especially this group. Inukawa being taken at the very end was funny at first, but the implications are ehhhhh and then he got kawaiified asdfghjkl.

MP100 S3, E9 reaction: In general, I loved this episode because I love when autistic-coded characters are able to unmask and Shigeo seems so happy! Of course, there was the ending…. I must have seen fanart or something, because as soon as I saw him at the crosswalk with flowers, I was filled with dread. The cat was saved and I was relieved, then immediately proven right. Guhhhhhhhhhhhh.

MP100 S3, E10 reaction: GUHHHHHHHHHHHH MOB DIED AND LEFT ONLY HIS POWERS BEHIND. This is gonna be an emotional doozy for sure. Teruki's battle with him and all Mob can do it watch. And the photo slowly sinking in for Reigen HURT.

MP100 S3, E11 reaction: GUHHHHHHHHHHH RITSU. And jvghdkbvgn,fzsbdxfhvkdcg Reigen too. And Mob trying SO SO HARD to stop himself.

MP100 S3, E12 reaction: I cried for a large majority of this episode and am still currently crying oh my gosh. Mob exccepting all of himself and Reigen revealing everything and Dimple's return and Mob's major improvement in the Body Imporvement club and everyone throwing Reigen a birthday party (I started stimming like crazy when I noticed)and Mob LAUGHING WITH HIS FULL HEART

MY HEART IS FULL AND I AM SOBBING /VPOS

[coral-island-player]

The dev blog update

The February dev blog update is out, and I haven't seen anyone talking about it so here is what I think. Spoilers ahead for the dev update so go read it if you haven't already

Town rank S seems super cool so far. I don't progress very fast in game (that's just how I prefer to play) so it'll probably be out by the time I get rank A. I wonder what the prize for getting it will be? Hopefully something really good.

I like the new systems for museum and heritage sites. I wonder what the ocean one will be, but we'll probably see it in the April dev update.

We'll also have a new category which is attractions - these are a great addition since a lot of these things have been suggested in game before (the ramen shop and the mural). I'm really looking forward to that part. I wonder if there'll be new features with these places or are they just for town points? Either way, I like it.

We also have tourists now. That sounds good! I wonder if they'll be befriendable. I hope so, but I understand if not - there's plenty of NPCs already.

We also can hang out with the marriage candidates now - I'm really happy about that. I like how there's many places and activities.

New animals and outfits are exciting as well. So is being able to wear hats normally.

But this is what I'm most excited about (sorry guys):

Pufferfish decor - does that mean we can join them? I wonder how that'll go. I'm not evil, but it's a nice thing to be added in game.

[umihoshi]

Autumn anime 2023 is so STACKED, it's illigal!

Aside from the obviously amazing continuing shows, there's TOO MANY great new ones.

Based on first episodes, here's my top ranking (may be subject to change cuz Apothecary Diaries isn't out yet. And excluding SpyxFamily, dr. Stone and Tokyo Revengers which are all *chef's kiss*)

1. Kamonohashi Ron: Deranged Detective

you had me at Detective. and then you had me at Deranged. Also, I'm a big fan of Amano Akira's other works, Reborn and eldLIVE (Psycho-Pass not so much, but she only did the character art) Depressed adult who is too curious for his own good, what's not to love?

2. Undead Unluck

I saw the manga before and had been really anticipating the anime. They're such a fun duo and their personalities and abilities compliment one another really well. looks like there'll be a lot of cool unusual superpowers. Reminds me a lot of Blood Lad, just hoping this anime won't end with virtually nothing solved T~T;

3. Kingdom of Ruin

Bit on the over the top side with the amount of tragedy, but the worldbuilding seems very interesting. I'm a slut for witch hunting too. May end up severely traumatized if I continue, but we'll see how it goes.

4. My New Boss Is Goofy

My soul is healed, my crops are growing. Grown men doing stilly stuff is comfort food for the eyes. Looks a bit yaoi baiting, but can't complain if it's cute. Reminds me of Cool Douji Danshi.

5. Migi & Dali

I don't even know what's going on at this point, it's so surreal. Elder couple wants to adopt one child and genius twins thought 'we can work with that'. The silly love children of Johan Liebert and Sakamoto desu ga. (same author as Sakamoto too. it sure shows.)

6. Crash course on Naughtiness

Last season, I was confronted with the pet-peeve of feeble waifu syndrome (I finished My Happy Marriage, but I'm sorry, I could not stand that girl...) And this season around, I realized the formula that breaks the curse of feeble waifus: a batshit crazy counterpart. This man is just bullying her with kindness. plus points for another excelent job done by Sugita Tomokazu.

7. Frieren

As a big fan of DnD, I can't say no to such a DnD-based series. Plus the pressure of having to live such a long live as elves do is very interesting. It's a bit slow to my liking, but the characters are amusing and layered.

8. Yuzuki family's 4 sons

a young man who has to take care of his 3 little brothers after his parents died, give me some napkins Q-Q not a single person looks or acts their age (the youngest has better vocabulary than I do;;) but it's all fun and sweet and trying to find your way in an unusual family-hirarchy

9. I'm in love with the villainess

My eyes hurt from looking at this. But the over the top artstyle works quite well with how silly the story is. I too would like to say 'step on me, mommy' to my favorite villain. Just hope it won't become repetitive in its jokes.

10. Tearmoon Empire

Wow, will you look at that. Another reincarnated villainess. Luckily, this one has no memories of living in a different world or something. Just her future self's diary. Enjoying the concept where she's not suddenly a saintly good girl for a change.

11. Oujo to Banken

This dude is on THIN fucking ice. I commonly enjoy age gaps very much. but in no way what so ever, would I support a relationship between a teenager and the 10 year older guy who basically raised her. Him being her parent figure is where I draw the line. That said, I'm eating up the amount of over-protectiveness and yakuza-logics. It has the amount of spice I had hoped to find in Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting that wasn't there.

12. Ragna Crimson

I'm sorry. just...... you can't make me believe that the ditsy loli-girl is the best dragon killer in the world. stop. The maincharacter is quite interesting, though. I like how it's like... his actual own power that he has for his OP special snowflake thing. Borrowing tomorrow's energy for today.....that's the description of a burn out I read the other day;;; But you do you, boy. good luck dying very early in life.

[magicalyaku]

August felt soo long. At first, it was great with my vacation and a successful convention and great books and then reality came crashing back in with developments at work that left me reeling for a bit. I'm bad with change. /D Anyway, on to the books! I had a lot of train time this month, so there's quite a few.

Slippery Creatures, Subtle Blood, The Sugared Game (The Will Darling Adventures 1-3) (KJ Charles): Ooh, these took me by surprise! I read two of the author's other books last month and needed something light and easy for my train trips. These were so much more delightful than I expected. I read all 3 of them within five days. Fun! Adventure! Intrigue! Characters I actually like! No really, I loved Will and his attitude. Sure, he has kind of a short temper and resorts to violence quickly, but … everyone deserved it! (And it's just a book.) This is my fantasy, you know. Actually spitting people in their face when they annoy me. Actually telling them off no matter the consequences. Hah. I guess, this is why I like this sort of character. (The Tarot Sequence's Brand and All for the Game's Andrew come to mind … Interestingly, just like Kim in here their partners are lying little shit's as well. And seen from that angle, Laurent and Damen of Captive Prince fit that category as well. I'm starting to see patterns in what I like to read. :'D) So anyway, I had a lot of fun reading this series! <3

Lose you to find me (Erik J. Brown): I have things to say. 8D First of all, yes, it's cute. It made me smile when my day was shit and while the characters had their annoying phases I'm glad it turned out how it did in the end. Before reading, though, I was so disappointed it was just a contempory romance. After All that's left in the world with it's postapocalyptic but not too outlandish setting I was hoping I'd get more of that "a little different". Yeah, didn't work out, but the pain eased a little because the book was nice actually and we reconciled for real with author's afterword. And to be fair, usually, I'm all in when authors do different things with each book instead of writing the same all over again, so I have to give him credit for this. But there's still one more thing I have to mention. Why is there no content warning for SEVERED BODY PARTS?! Like what the hell seriously. I'm not squeamish usually but one of my coworkers cut off a part of his finger permanently at the beginning of the year, so this was waaay too real to me. A warning would have been appreciated. /D

Prince in Disguise (Perilous Courts 2) (Tavia Lark): More stuff that's easy to read. I liked the first volume better because the stakes were higher but it was still pretty okay. I definitely like how close these volumes are in timeline and story while still being separate adventures. I wish Whisper's mission in this would have had a little more impact but well, it is what it is. (I think I just like Whisper more than Bell or Rakos 8D). Also new mascot animal. Cute! I wonder if there'll be one in volume 3 as well … 8D

Afterglow (Golden Boys 2) (Phil Stamper): After Lose you to find me I was in the mood for more contemporary YA and as it turns out the themes in this one are similar. High school graduation, college applications, self-discovery. It also felt very American to me. As a European reading books like this is always like a cultural study. :'D I think, what I liked most about Golden Boys was its quiet tone. It had its dramatic moments but, at least in my memory overall, it was more calm and understated and while I love my adventure stories reading something nice and calm was a good change of pace. And the sequel takes it even one step further. While there's anxiety towards the future it's never the kind of overwhelming where I have to squeeze my eyes shut and take a moment to calm my nerves before I can continue reading. 8D In terms of content this works because it's a sequel and we already know everyone and their previous struggles. I have a lot of respect for the writing process. Juggling four boys and the timeline? Ugh. And yeah, I liked the book and the paths the boys take. All these different perspectives on life. It's not just another "where's the next party" and "oh he doesn't like me what should i do" but focusses on the characters and their indivual worries and their friendship. It's nice and it's warm. :)

Sir Callie and the Champions of Helston (Esme Symes-Smith): Well … I wish I liked this better than I did. The story is fine, the characters are fine (in comparison to the next book below they a stellar), the themes are important and I can see what it wants to do and most of it it does pretty well, but … Yes, in order to overthrow a system you first need to establish it. But the first third of the book was hard to get through as the world Callie steps into is very rigid in its rules surrounding gender and stuff and it's making Callie hurt, angry and defensive and even though I knew it would eventually lead to a better place, it was making me angry as well and I get angry easily everytime I step outside, I don't really need that in my books. It gets better once the kids actually meet for real and spend more time with each other. But there's the other part that I didn't like: There's something jarring about the writing style. Like bumps on a smooth road - the more bumps we ride over the more annoying they get. It happened most noticably with distances and the passage of time. The hole that Callie's mother left in her heart took years to grow over, but never fully healed. But they've only been away from said mother for two years. When Callie confronts Peran, Papa draws them backwards, Neal steps between them, yet Peran's face is so close, they can see coloured specks in his irises. He's also way taller than them, so how does that work? At one point I wondered if the author might have less visual imagination power than I do because all the descriptions of distances around the castle, the town, the bridge and the forest just felt jumbled to me. (Or maybe I was just not reading well.) Last example: Callie and Edwyn circle around the dragon and attack their back with swords and it's said in a single simple sentence like it's nothing. But that dragon must be huge, because their face is as large as a human, and also it was flying a few minutes earlier and directly afterwards it's said how there's fire all around them. But yeah, apparently that swing was super easy to do, so one sentence is enough to say it happened. It just felt weird and it happened so often. And I feel bad for picking at a book for kids with a good cause but damn. All these things are so easy to make better and more coherent. :I

The Last Fallen Moon (Gifted Clans 2) (Graci Kim): Ugh, I don't know, this might be the first middle grade book I read where I'd say "I'm too old for this." Not really a fan of the humor and the attempted quirkiness, the pop culture references (and how it basically says that all (Korean?) celebrities are witches which I find actually offensive. Pretty sure none of the kids reading these books will have any magical abilities, so they won't ever make it to stardom or what no matter how hard they try? Hmm.) It was also hard to be patient when things are so obvious and still get treated like a big revelation pages after (The Stairbucks toilets?!) And the characters felt so bland to me. I couldn't tell you a single interesting thing about any of them. Things got better towards the end, when everything starts to fall into place instead of being a string of small tasks that can never be completed because there's suddenly some new issue. The two things I liked are that Riley gains a brother rather than a love interest (or a brother who is a love interest … 8D) and that her sister has an active part this time. Will I read the next installment? …. Probably not?

Waiting for Godot (Samuel Beckett): Oops, something totally different in here for once. I like theatre, but liking in this case means, that I know all plays by Eugene Ionesco and Oscar Wilde, topped with a singular Wedekind and this one. :'D I'm terribly picky and not actively seeking out new stuff. But the Theatre of the Absurd especially has a way with words and weird situations that I always found fascinating. I read Godot a long time ago and went to see it on stage a couple of years ago but when I thought of it recently I realised I didn't remember anything so I reread it and well … I understood why my memory failed. I don't know if I'd actually call the piece good. It's weird, it's weirdly sad and therefore it's weirdly endearing. But most of all it's a giant "what the fuck is going on". It made me think of all that "Is our life a simulation"-crap since Estragon seems to be the only one capable of remembering previous events. But I'm not going to try to think about what it all could mean as it will lead nowhere anyway. :'D

Dark Rise (C.S. Pacat): The sequel is coming in November so I thought it time to refresh my memory! I own the English edition but went and borrowed the German edition from the library for all the things I might have missed and because it's interesting to read the translation vs. the original. I remember having a blast reading this for the first time (I think this was the first time for me writing something book-related on my blog because it was just too wild to contain 8D). And now, knowing the twists and turns it was delicious to look for the foreshadowing (and the twists and turns were delicious as well like hnng!!). And now waiting for the next volume is even harder. Damn!

For September I have planned something nice! Please look forward to it!

[anishenanigans]

Pspsppspspss hey I'm kinda curious about S5 stuff. I don't think I have the full context and I'm wondering why it a) took so long and b) has different animation

So the first 4 seasons were all animated by Flying Bark, but for some unspecified scheduling issues (commonly speculated to be caused by them working on the ATLA movie) they were unable to finish the animation for season 5. Thus, the animation was outsourced.

I'm guessing there was a period where no work was being done on the season at all due to legal/internal complications resulting from the studio change, which would explain it being delayed. By the time Season 5 comes out it'll have been a full year since the last episodes released, instead of the usual 6-7 month interval.

The studio handling season 5 is Wildbrain, a reputable company that's done very nice 2D animation in the past (eg Carmen Sandiego and the new Peanuts stuff). However. The work they did for S5 is... not great. Weird proportions, messy animation, overall very flat and stiff looking. To the point where people were speculating it was fanmade or a publicity stunt.

While people did voice concerns about how Wildbrain would handle the animation, most people (me included) thought it'd turn out fine considering Wildbrain's track record + them having Flying Bark's storyboards to work with. So I'm genuinely shocked that this is the end result.

I suspect the animators over at Wildbrain had to rush so the season could be finished in time to release alongside the corresponding wave of sets, so it's possible any future seasons they do will look much better. I'm sure they'll benefit from having more time and experience.

Anyway. I have a lot of respect for both animation teams, but I really wish the show was in the hands of a studio more qualified to animate at the level expected for LMK. The hand drawn animation was such an iconic part of the series and it's really frustrating that they were so quick to abandon it. Very unfortunate situation for everyone.

For reference: Season 4 trailer vs Season 5 trailer

Holding out hope that there'll be some moments where the animation still shines through. There are a few shots in the trailer that look pretty nice and I don't want to totally give up on it.

[silvertsundere]

Silver Talks AniManga (17/03/24)

not much to say this week but that's cause next week the season is gonna start wrapping up and a handful of shows are gonna end so there'll be a lot to say then looking foward to next season cause I'll only be watching a fraction of the shows I am now so I'll have a lot more time to read stuff I've been meaning to

blue - finale/completed

Anime

Dungeon Meshi Ep11

incredible episode like just wow I saw a post saying something like "anime onlies are in for doozy" and it was probably talking about the "twist", which is not a twist at all cause mfers been posting manga spoilers for years, even if not directly cause I already knew this was gonna happen but I won't get into tangents so anyway. one of the best eps so far easily, there's been cooler/more impressive action sequences but this was still really good, not to mention very well directed, not just the dragon scenes that really did a great job showing off it's scale and weight but also the other ones like the one from this cap, or the flashback scene. I guess next episode is the one that one specific marcille page I've seen 17 billion times, and that meme that has most of the manga as "hey what the FUCK", comes from so looking forward to that 👍

Manga

Pension Life Vampire Ch24

well that was a nice little series. knowing that the author's previous work was yuri and all the teasing in this gave me some hope, but it never moved past the teasing pretty average overall so not much to say, it wasn't bad, it wasn't great, it was just enjoyable and easy to read will def check out the author's next work if it gets picked up

[xian1na]

buncha words 'bout some spring animes #3

Still here, still watching, still writing. Can't believe it's May already. I remember having this weird feeling last time I was watching seasonal anime - that I can't wait for the next episode to come out but once it does, I realise how time flies. It's almost scary! Many of the series that have only just come out are already at the halfway point. ...But let's not think about the inevitablility of time passing and instad talk about them animes. Enjoy!

Hell's Paradise (ep. 5) - After episode 4 I was a bit wary of where Sagiri's plot was going but episode 5 assuaged my worries somewhat. I used to get very annoyed whenever an action show would introduce A Sexist character. Why aren't the female characters just allowed to be badass without anyone putting them down, I was thinking to myself. Why can't I just have a nice escapist fantasy? But somehow I don't mind it here. I'm not sure why - whether it's because I changed or because (so far) Jigokuraku handled this subject better, or at least differently than other series I've watched. We'll see what comes next. As for the rest of the episode, I feel like the series is still at the phase of setting things up and I really hope the plot moves forward next time. Nurugai is Very Good.

Oshi No Ko (ep. 4) - I won't be a stinker this time, I quite liked this episode. We got to see Aqua acting and I got this great idea for battle-shounen like manga about acting, where the main character has to analyse their surroundings and gather data about their fellow actors to know how to rile them in front of the camera, so that they act well. (I'm going to pitch this to President of Anime whenever I get the chance.) I'm curious how will that reality TV show that Aqua got hired to act in go. As for the school plot... I don't watch many idol shows but I recall 'school of idols' is a recurring theme. Will Oshi No Ko subvert it somehow or play it straight? No idea. I'd assume the former if not for plethora of colour-coded female characters we've met already. I appreciate this series' commentary on show-business harsh truths a lot but it somehow doesn't feel grounded in reality because of the visuals, particularly character designs. And I REALLY hope there'll be more male characters in the main cast, although judging by the opening, that might not be the case.

Tengoku-Daimakyou (ep. 5) - We focus more on Maru and Kiruko this time, which is good because They Are Great. By the way, I've been reading a little about this series' production and I was surprised to learn that it's really speeding through the manga - but does it so well that it doesn't feel rushed or anything like that. It doesn't happen often in anime, I think. I'll probably read the manga once the series ends just to see how does the story unfold there (and to see all the quality K&M content that's been cut from anime). Also I absolutely need to cite one sentence from ANN's weekly review of T-D because it was simultaneously the best and the worst sentence I've read in a review in a while: "And while Maru's boner gets in the way of their hug, we can see that it's not getting in the way of their friendship." Absolute perfection.

Skip and Loafer (ep. 5) - I've already written how I appreciate what they do with Egashira in this series and episode 5 fleshes her out even more. I think my favourite moment was after Egashira's and Mitsumi's clash with the third-years in the gym - how Egashira made sure to remember the names of the students who were rude to them, while Mitsumi remembered the name of the one who helped them. It's a very telling character moment for them both. Skip and Loafer is really growing on me, it might even end up as my favourite series of this season. I'm literally feeling happier after watching every episode, it's that powerful.

My Love Story with Yamada-kun ar Lv999! (ep. 5-6) - As I thought, the matter with Runa is solved pretty quickly and she's already Akane's bestie in episode 6. That's pretty good in my opinion. Even if Runa's change of heart may be a bit sudden, I don't think she'd make a compelling long-term antagonist. That 'gamer guy' from episode 5 gave me massive creeps and there was some great direction in that scene in the toilet. I like that even though ultimately nothing bad happened, the guys from the guild immediately went to the rescue because they knew the potential danger. Then episode 6 is back to usual shenanigans and I thought it was very funny. And one important note: Kouki Uchiyama's acting when Yamada was talking to Eita right after waking up was Extremely Good.

And in the backlog section:

The Witch from Mercury (season 1, ep. 7-9) - You know guys... maybe it's because the Internet was screaming about Prospera lately (I didn't catch any spoilers, thankfully) but I'm starting to get a feeling she might be a bad guy! On a serious note, it's very interesting how Prospera is contrasted with Delling and papa Jeturk (whatever his name is, I don't even care). All three of them are shitty parents but whereas Delling and Jeturk are very openly shitty in how demanding, strict and cold they are towards their children, the way Prospera treats Suletta is just chilling. Only three episodes left in season 1, I have no idea what might happen in the finale but I'm definitely looking forward to find out.

Spy x Family (ep. 6-7) - As I knew that The Face was coming, I actually appreciated The Punch more - that was a real good piece of animation. Damian's developing crush on Anya (including the special romanticised version of her in his eyes) and Loid suspecting that Becky obviously must be plotting a political sabotage or something because he just doesn't get kids were hilarious. Also, I totally forgot about Yor's and Anya's time together (or maybe it wasn't in the manga, though I think it was). It was great! I'm not going to be original by saying that Yor often feels a bit secondary in this family, so it was real nice seeing her getting more screentime. Next episode Yuri will show up - I think his visit was the last thing I've read in the manga, so I have no idea what happens next.

Aaand that'd be the end of this week's musings and ramblings. I start a new job on Monday but I think I should be able to keep up with all the shows. At least I must find some time for more Skip and Loafer. Hope you enjoyed reading and see ya!

[hieronymus-botch]

Happy 16th anniversary of iCarly, everyone! Ok, so I've been putting this off for a while, and probably the hype has died down such that no one will care about this at this point, but I finally got around to watching the iCarly revival, and I have some Thoughts. (sidenote, I didn't even realize today was the anniversary until yesterday, I had to marathon the entire third season this morning and am currently typing when I should be sleeping so I can prepare for my birthday trip to Dallas tomorrow so I can get this out today.) Spoiler alert: They are generally not positive thoughts. Disjointed rambling potentially spoilery details below the cut.

Ok, I'm just gonna come right out and address the elephant in the room: It just isn't the same without Sam. I have nothing but respect for Jennette McCurdy and utmost sympathies for what she went through and cannot blame her at all for not wanting to reprise her role, but none of that changes the fact that of the problems I have with this show, a solid 80% of them are at least partially attributable to a lack of Sam.

With the sole exceptions of Kevin and Sully because I am a sucker for cute animals, ever single new character the reboot introduces sucks. Harper is a cookie-cutter sassy black woman stereotype, in season 1 Millicent is just straight up an asshole to everyone for no reason, and even in the subsequent seasons where her assholishness is toned down, "11 year old businessperson" is an incredibly cliche character archetype that every sitcom ever has used and she does not do a particularly unique or interesting rendition of it, and all of the other characters don't have enough of a discernible personality for me to say anything about them other than that they're annoying and not funny. I especially didn't like the show's pre-season 2 approach to a supporting cast where instead of introducing secondary characters and then having them come back periodically, it would introduce a character, have them be the focal point of roughly three consecutive episodes, not be funny or interesting for any of them, and then disappear into the ether and be replaced by a new one. Also, Paul is quite possibly the worst of the bunch and I suspect that the only reason he wasn't phased out like most of the others is they already got all the actors from the original they could and were willing to settle for actors from different classic Nickelodeon sitcoms just to activate people's nostalgia glands.

Despite in theory being the defining feature of the show, the iCarly webshow is so rarely relevant to the plot of this show that I'm pretty sure if it were any less relevant, calling the show iCarly would legally constitute false advertising. It's occasionally tangentially relevant to the plot and once in a blue moon there'll be an episode that can generously be called "about the webshow", but if you just go through each episode and make a list of the things they're about, "the iCarly webshow" doesn't even make the top 5. As previously mentioned, I suspect this is because they don't know how to make the webshow segments work without Sam.

Due to a combination of the lack of Sam, severely reduced presence of the webshow, and the characters being adults now, a majority of the original series's sources of conflict are no longer available. The writers have chosen to compensate for this by making Carly into an insecure moron who repeatedly tells off-the-cuff lies she has no hope of backing up for no reason other than to seem more talented or successful than she is to people she ususally doesn't even particularly respect, and also intermittently turning Spencer into a douchey asshole who forces his wacky ideas on other people whether they want them or not.

I really really hate how Freddie's mom's deranged and abusive behavior is treated like a cute quirk and he continues to put up with it even after he has the means to do otherwise, and after the episode where he decides to keep living with her even though he has a job and a girlfriend and a kid, all of the awful shit she did to him is just implicitly forgiven without her ever apologizing or admitting wrongdoing at all and now she's just Part Of The Gang. If I were Jennette McCurdy, I would probably interpret this as some kind of incredibly fucked up slight against me by the writers for declining to reprise my role, but more charitably they probably did it this way because her actress was one of the 4 from the original who were willing to reprise their roles on a regular basis and they're desperate to cling to anything that maintains a connection to the original series.

It's especially funny how the show confronts the fact that in the original the gang practically tortured Lewbert for the crime of being ugly and having an annoying voice, but like, de-confronts Mrs. Benson's insane helicopter parenting, which the original pretty much did acknowledge was super fucked up but the revival as previously mentioned doesn't?

The whole love triangle/will they or won't they romance element was always my least favorite aspect of the original, and I don't like it any more now that there's even more focus given to it. Creddie is frankly the most boring generic "he was a boy she was a girl can I make it any more obvious" ship imaginable. Perhaps I'm being paranoid but I think a lot of small subtle things I don't like about this show can be attributed to the fact that they knew all the queer fans would lose interest as soon as there was no sam to ship carly with so they pivoted hard to the "aggressively normie straight girl" demographic. If Sam were on the show at all I am 100% certain they would've made sarly canon but due to circumstances beyond anyone's control but Jennette McCurdy's thankfully dead mom she isn't so they instead chose to give us even more of the same generic interchangable hetero Main Boy X Main Girl romance the original already had.

None of the Spencer romance episodes work for me either, because in the original, spencer's girlfriend of the week would have some kind of unique trait of her own that would put spencer in a unique situation, wheras in the reboot the joke is always just "spencer is a weird goofy guy and has weird goofy relationship habits."

Why the fuck did they keep the laugh track. They've already changed a million different other things both big and small, even the music and sound effects specifically are noticeably different, why the laugh track of all things. No more laugh tracks. Society has progressed past the need for laugh tracks.

I fucking hate Carly's apartment. This is 100% unironic. Designing a set that looks unique and distinctive while still being a space the protagonist could believably live in is genuinely a very important part of making a sitcom at which the original succeeded and the revival fails. You could probably take someone who's only ever seen one episode of iCarly several years ago and show them a picture of Spencer's apartment set without any of the actors and they'd recognize it. I could go on Zillow or Airbnb right now and find a thousand domiciles that look identical to Carly's apartment.

On a more positive note, I found it genuinely very sweet how Carly tried her best to go all out for Freddie's birthday despite the fact that she hates hers.

Once again I'm probably just being paranoid but I'm suspicious that they wrote iCause a Cat-astrophe and titled it that so people would presume that the "cat" in the title referred to Cat Valentine from Victorious in order to generate more hype.

I'll admit, the finally learning about Carly and Spencer's mom and the big cliffhanger ending of her showing up at the wedding was pretty exciting, but like, they're calling out their mom for walking out on them, but not their dad for choosing to go live on that submarine when they were already down one parent and forcing his son to take on a parental role for his younger sister that he didn't sign up for?

Beyond this point the thoughts basically stop being criticism and start being minor nitpicks:

The original series repeatedly pointed out how weird and sad it was that Spencer didn't have any adult friends, but after 10 years he now has even less friends that aren't via his sister given that T-Bo appears to have skipped town. In the draft of this post I had in my head before I watched season 3, I was also gonna mention Socko being conspicuously absent and make a joke that since this can't be explained by his actor saying no because he didn't have one in the first place, that maybe this is a Ken Penders type situation where Dan Schneider somehow personally owns the rights to Socko specifically somehow, but then Socko and his various unusually aptly named cousins abruptly went from being mentioned zero times in seasons 1 and 2 to 3 times in season 1, so like, is that actually what happened and it took them until season 3 to get the rights to Socko back from him somehow?

In the original series Webicon was supposed to be like Comic-Con and Vidcon at the same time and in the reboot it's a Fyre Fest expy and I am immensely curious how exactly they got from point A to point B.

There is no way in hell Fredward Benson became the coolest most popular kid at school in the like 6 months between Carly and Sam leaving town and graduation. As previously mentioned this show has a lot of contrived plots but that one takes the cake.

I notice they make a lot more pop culture references than they did in the original, even to kid-friendly media. Probably this is due to different IP-related restrictions on streaming vs traditional TV. Some of them are genuinely good but a lot of them were very dated and cringey even when the episodes aired.

What the hell does Mrs. Benson do for a living? Possibly she's old enough to be retired now but she had no visible signs of a job and ample time to abuse Freddie in the original. Is she just getting mad alimony from Freddie's dad?

There were both an episode about Carly throwing an Italian dinner party and a whole arc about Spencer opening a restaurant and Spaghetti Tacos are mentioned in NEITHER of them. This is automatically unforgivable.

In the cold open of i'M Wild and Crazy where they're all playing Never Have I Ever, spencer says "never have I ever gone skydiving", when uuuh, yes, yes you have spencer, you all went skydiving, it was a major plot point in iGo to Japan, a special movie-length episode that was one of the most memorable in the series.

Why are the pearphones shaped like normal phones now? Could the prop department really not have been bothered to make the pearphones again so they just stuck pear stickers on real cell phones and called it a day?

Given how he was a full-on core cast member by the end of the original, I find it very weird how Sam is repeatedly mentioned and we get a cute little lore reason why she's not in the show but Gibby is just treated as if he never existed.

In conclusion, honestly, I think if they wanted to make a continuation of iCarly aimed at adults who grew up with the original, the best way to do it would've been to make it about Spencer. Actually cast someone as Socko, maybe introduce some new characters like a snooty, pretentious more successful artist to be spencer's rival with, or a cute art supply store cashier who he has a will they or won't they with, that kind of thing. It could sort of be a spiritual antithesis to Frasier, y'know, snooty uptight academic vs goofy manchild artist. Failing that, I think they really should've just left iCarly to rest.

[elzifelzi]

Seen images from the new Velma show and it actually looks very good? Like shit looks really promising. The art style is way better than the usual crappy artstyle used for adult cartoons and their's so much color and flair like I don't get why people are so against

Love the idea of a diverse cast,with new looks cuz imma be honest I'm tired of every new rendition of the franchise just keeping the exact same looks for all the characters, yeah and i get their classic and timeless and allat but once in awhile i prefer something new.

Love the idea of it having a more "adult" tone.

Love the idea that it isn't just a copy paste of shit we've previously seen before

Scooby Doo is a franchise where you can legit do anythingg with it and so far most iterations largely stick to the same formula.

As far as I see this isn't a Scooby-Doo show in the slightest it's an adult comedy mystery cartoon that borrows elements from the scooby doo world,it's not meant to be a reboot the way the Ben10 reboot is to it's original series. It's more or less it's own thing which SHOULD be a good thing.

I've seen people complain about the lack of Scooby and the lack of a mystery machine and I feel the need to point out that well this was advertised as an Origin story for Velma and the gang so it makes sense that the gang aren't really friends yet,makes sense that they don’t have scooby or the Van yet.

If the show does well I can see Scooby possibly appearing and I'm damn near certain that they'll drive around in a Van of sorts it'll just probably not be the mystery machine.

I've also seen people claim that they won't watch the show because apparently Velma isn't a lesbian like in the recent animated movie(haven't seen it yet) and thaf it's lesbian erasure while I get that sentiment It should be said that

1.While the show and the movie were likely in production during the same time frame(The show probably longer) it's possible that since Velma being lesbian was supposed to be somewhat of a surprise to viewers it's very possible that the writers of the movie never shared that idea with Mindy Kaling or the writers of the show.

2.They simply did not make her a lesbian in the first season but plan to do so in later seasons.

3.since Velma is canonically lesbian in the new direct to video movie universe its extremely possible that there'll be more storylines involving her and her sexuality.

Also I mean at the end of the day Scooby Doo Canonically has a multiverse so does it even really matter?Like I'm stoked that Shaggy ermm i mean Norville(goofy ass name) is finally black But if the next rendition of shaggy isn't black that won't change the fact that I finally do have a version of Shaggy that is black.

Anyways I'm psyched for it and if it turns out to be good i hope it gets alot of seasons if not then so be it.

[clarktooncrossing]

HEY THERE PEOPLE OF TODAY AND ROBOTS OF TOMORROW! IT'S ME, CLARK!

On New Year's 2024 I vowed to myself that I'd be more productive than ever, streamlining all of my ideas and making a decent living on commissions. While doing that I figured I'd keep my creative muscles limber by posting the occasional DUDEL or Sketch BOOM every now and again. Now chances are these won't be a daily thing. There'll be some days when I'm just feeling too bushed to scribble my silly ideas down on paper or I'll be too busy binging the likes of Steven Universe or Burn Notice. Yes, I am fully aware that those two shows make for a weird combination. Just imagine Michael Westen trying to help out the Crystal Gems, I'd totally watch that. Then again, I have a weird imagination as this DUDEL is about to illustrate.

Christopher Robin had many companions living in the Hundred Acre Woods. Though perhaps none plushy pal holds as special a place in his heart as his dear friend Edward Bear, or Pooh for short. Pooh was not a bright bear. Solving complex equations or discuss the philosophies of Plato were of little use to one who has fluff where his brains would be. Luckily brains aren't required to be intelligent. Old Edward more than made up for this when it came to his immensely large heart. Weather is was protecting his pal Piglet from Jagulars, helping his friend Eeyore find his tail, or simply bouncing around with Tigger, Eddy was the bear everybody turned to. Including Matt Whimsy, the animation magician of Hollywood responsible for Freddy and Fiona Fox. He and his animation team at Whimsy Studios adapted the classic tales of this lovable teddy bear into a series of movies over the years that have outlived A.A. Milne, Matt Whimsy, and even Christopher Robin himself. Now today fans of the characters can meet them at Whimsyland in California whenever not riding Edward's Excellent Expedition, helping the gang from the woods find the fabled North Pole!

Maybe I can help them find it after completing an entire Sketch BOOM. This was meant to be the start of one right up until Rosie Stardust foiled my plans. Dang that Cosmic Cutie and her alien design! Having said that, expect more from my multiversal adventurer later. For now I couldn't let a good design go to waste. What prompted me to draw this was Whimsyland, my answer to the question of what is Brooklyn Nine Nine took place at a theme park instead of a police precinct. Realizing I needed more recognizable characters for this fictional park, I decided to go with the ones that were thankfully in the public domain. Really the challenge was coming up with a design that wasn't similar to those used my a certain company, which I think I succeeded in doing. What helped was going back to the original designs by E.H. Shepard and keeping to the simplistic mindset. My biggest hurtle was Pooh's attire since, despite wearing one in the original freak'n book, I couldn't dress him in a tiny red shirt. So instead I settled on a scarf to fit with his adventurous life style. Here's hoping we'll see more of Old Eddy, Piglet, and Tigger in the future. For now-

MAY THE GLASSES BE WITH YOU!

PS: Oh, you noticed the logo on the bottom, did you? We'll talk about that later...