#I who have never known men 7/10 too much filler

[mouthfulloftoothpasterry]

On my 13th book of the year :p

[shirophantomvox]

What Would a Card Game with Hisoka Be Like? Hisoka x S/O

This is part 2 to my previous headcanon post about how to get the Adult Trio to blush. Check it out now!

Hello anon and thank you for this wonderful ask! Your question is very unique because it asks about card-playing and Hisoka. I’ll be honest, I have never thought about Hisoka actually playing a card game but since it is a part of his aesthetic, I’m sure it’s possible. You and I are wondering the same thing…how would a card game go with him? How would Hisoka enjoy a night at a Casino? He’d love it! The thrill of intense game playing, stupid wagers, and fancy hotels with beds as soft as the clouds?! I mean, he has stated before that he learned card tricks from his mother. I used “lady” in here as a context filler just to make the story but anyone can insert themselves in this story. As usual, I have to incorporate fluff in here somewhere. Say no more! Buckle up, people; we are about to go on a fast ride to satisfaction-Ville.

♠️ Tonk, survival of the fittest ♠️

It is common knowledge that playing cards are Hisoka’s strength. I’m not sure if he knows how to play cards or if he only uses them as weapons. Either way, he somehow perfects his moves. Sometimes playing a game of cards with him are loads of fun and sometimes they turn into heated and naughty dares session if one loses a certain amount of rounds.

Headcanon 1: Hisoka is the king at bluffing. He’ll say anything to pressure you into dropping your hand on the table. Don’t be surprised if he expresses how he’ll cater to your every whim if you drop your hand in an instant, but do not fall for it!

Headcanon 2: Drama makes him full; more than oatmeal. He’ll talk about how horrible you are at card games and that you move slowly like an old person just to make you angry so you can quit at the game. He often gives you the evilest glares from across the table. Sometimes they can be so bone-chilling that you turn your head to make sure no one had anything to your neck. But something about those evil glares made you break a sweat not from fear but from arousal. It’s something about that thin, smug smile that makes you want to say “Take me here.” The anticipation is eating you both alive.

Headcanon 3: Most of the time, he likes to include a wager to make the game more interesting. This can be something as simple as giving him a massage to who will be handcuffed that night. One time he bet $1,000, convinced that he was going to win a game of Gin but when you beat him in the first 10 minutes, he was flabbergasted.

Headcanon 4: Hisoka isn’t afraid to admit to defeat. If you won the game fair and square, then so be it. You have won a surprising amount of card games. Since this magician is the master at card tricks, it would seem like he’d win, but you and he were nearly even. After you won this round, he’d slightly throw his hands up and laugh.

“I didn’t know you’d catch on so quickly and quite well, I might add.”

“Well...I learned from a great teacher…”, you pause for second sipping from your cup and fluttered your eyes, “...Hisoka.” The purring of his name pushed a slight groan of relief from the magician as he held his 5 cards in front of his mouth, leaving only his nose and golden eyes exposed.

Headcanon 5: Hisoka doesn't cheat at all when he plays cards. It isn’t fun if a person continuously cheats because the game would be over in seconds. Although he doesn’t cheat, he often distracts you with physical touch. Sometimes he’d rub his fingers on your hand as it rests on the table or blows you kisses. This is done to divert your attention from the game and focus on his passes. Well...I guess you could call this cheating. If you’re having a hard time trying to pull a card for the win, sometimes he will give you a pass and allow you to discard one card to put you ahead of him. If you’re taking absolutely TOO LONG to pull, he’ll throw his stack of cards on the table, come over, and demonstrate for you. To add insult to injury, he’d bend over placing his sharp chin your should on purpose so his mouth could be by your ear. He is now taking up the majority of your seat (doing squats for so many years finally paid off) and is guiding both of your hands mimicking how to pick cards to win a game.

Headcanon 6: Flirting is his strength. He already knows that he is eye candy to everyone and uses it to his advantage. As he explains his methods, within each explanation he takes a card (without Nen) and grazes it against your jaw or arm, and whispers what card it is.

“...Here we have a Queen of Hearts. Look familiar?”

You nod and frown. “No.”

“It’s you, silly.”

Ah! Those cheesy pick-up lines! You never get tired of those

“A 2 of Spades, a 4 of Diamonds, and a Joker card.” His deep voice tickled your eardrum as he spoke softly. “Are you paying attention, kitten?” He knew that you weren’t but continued to pull your finger anyway.

As he continued to fiddle with cards, he gently places a few kisses on your cheek to see if you can still focus while doing so. Truth be told, it wouldn’t be fun for either of you if you developed a stone heart like how he had.

♦ ♥ Casino Night ♥ ♦

Headcanon 7: He loves to participate in exciting Casino Games and have you attend as his “partner in crime”.

On a Casino Date Night, he often chooses a dress for you and you choose his suit. Red and black or black and gold always look flawless together.

The casino is his favorite place to go when he accompanies Illumi on missions. The Zoldyck boy is often irritated by the fact but allows him to do whatever he pleases as long as he doesn’t attract too much attention to himself. That is such a stupid thing to ask of this magician. He is eye candy after all. How can he go unnoticed? If you are with him, he is bound to be noticed. People would stare in awe and jealously at how you two were beyond a power couple.

Hisoka often engages in stupid and dangerous wagers that almost cost him his life but knowing the excitement he gets from it, he doesn’t care.

He has placed bets with members of the Mafia and gang-bangers betting his house and jewels but somehow always manages to win. To make matters worse, the sore losers would often call you horrible names simply because they were angry because they lost to a sly young man.

He refers to you as his “good luck charm ♣” which seems to be true. Every time you are with him, he wins the riskiest wagers.

Headcanon 8: He despises the slot machines. He believes they are rigged to not match on purpose so you can continue to waste money. He forbids you to play them especially when you are using his money.

Headcanon 9: When in “Gamer’s Den”, he is much more protective of you than anywhere else. The Gamer’s Den is a Den of thieves; they mainly consist of money-hungry men that prey on people and their vulnerabilities and/or have committed crimes before (example: robbing winners when walking to their cars). Keeping his arm around your waist, he glares at everyone in the room to establish a sense of dominance AND to let it be known that he is not to be messed with.

Headcanon 10: His kitten (you) is not to be flirted with. You were in the Lion’s Den; something similar to a piece of steak in front of warm-blooded mammals. Of course, wolf-whistles were heard when you walked by, but your man was by your side; it was easy to ignore. Some of the men disregarded his stares and began to flirt with you hard. It made you cringe. Who would want a 50-year-old man with too much cologne on, in your face smiling with a yellow tooth showing? The man only backs up when Hisoka throws his Joker card at him, grazing his cheek causing it to be scratched. One man pushed you to the ground because you ignored his passes. Hisoka began to laugh, sounding a bit psychotic.

“Sir, you do not put your hands on a lady. It shows how much of a coward you are for not excepting that she isn’t interested.”

“Shut up you bag of bones! There’s no way she’s with your skinny ass,” the older man yelled. “You young people annoy the crap out of me! I could break your thin ass in half in a matter of seconds!” His face was red, ready to burst into flames yet he wasn’t ready for the surprise he was about to get.”

Hisoka walked over, helped you up, and dusted off your dress. The man started in confusion. He couldn’t bear the thought of such a beautiful person to be with someone like him.

The man continued to hurl insults at Hisoka but before he could react, security had already thrown him out.

“What a pity. I was going to show him what a ‘skinny’ man can do. Oh well.

Headcanon 11: You enjoy playing pool more than he does. Again, he takes this opportunity to distract you as much as possible. The touch of his cold moist lips from drinking wine on your warm neck causes you to jerk, missing the hole you were shooting for. After pouting, nearly about to jab him in his stomach (because you were playing for money), Hisoka chuckles in a teasingly way.

“I adore that look,” he says sipping from his wine cup.

“I’m sure you do.”

[punchdrunkdoc]

Updated K-drama list (3)

4 more shows DONE and there’s been some changes to the rankings...

FAVOURITES

1. Crash Landing on You

He’s from North Korea. She’s from South Korea. They never should have met, but they’ll change each other’s lives.

This was my first K-drama, and its still my favourite. The full cast of characters is great, the lead romance is ANGSTALICIOUS and its genuinely, laugh out loud funny (when its not making you cry or swoon).

Male lead: Officially the best boyfriend ever. With added dimples.

Tear-jerk factor: 4/5

2. Healer

The lives, and pasts, of a hot shot reporter, a spunky young tabloid journalist and a mysterious thief-for-hire intersect.

This was so addictive - the plot was tight and engaging, and this is one of the few shows I’ve watched where there didn’t seem to be a lot of filler. I loved the central 3 characters, and the romance was amazing. I especially loved that the male lead started off such a brooding loner, but he became super-affectionate as soon as he admitted his feelings. So many good hugs and lots of face-cradling in this one.

Male lead: Effortlessly beats up 2 henchmen while comforting his girl over the phone. What more do you need?

Tear-jerk factor: 1/5

3. Itaewon Class

A young man’s life is forever altered when he runs afoul of a powerful family.

This felt like a big step up in quality from everything else in this list, in terms of the production, soundtrack (which was brilliant), the lack of annoying sound effects, and just the overall ‘real world’ feel of the show. All of the characters were fleshed out and 3-dimensional, and they all had their ‘moment’ to shine. The story itself was gripping and so well done - some of the twists and reveals had me gasping! And what can I say about the 2 leads? I love them, both separately, and together. He is so wise beyond his years, and his journey will break your heart and inspire you. She is borderline sociopathic, but I adore her.

Male lead: Tenacious, principled, kind, innocent, caring, driven, loyal…and he can cook!

Tear-jerk factor: 2/5

4. Descendants of the Sun

A special forces Captain meets a capable and beautiful trauma surgeon. They feel an instant bond, but their jobs and philosophy on life get in the way, threatening to tear them apart.

Halfway through this show, I seriously thought this might overtake CLOY as my No. 1 fav. I absolutely LOVE the male lead character, and the romance was beautiful…but it didn’t quite nail the angst and the last minute was a bit twee which dropped it down the rankings a bit.

Male lead: A cocky, charming, absolute BADASS with the most adorable, cheeky smile.

Tear-jerk factor: 2/5

5. My Holo Love

A lonely woman falls for a holographic AI and then meets his creator...

I love the concept of this show (I’m a big sci-fi nerd), and it was beautifully shot. The lead relationship is well developed and it doesnt fall into a typical love triangle. I’ve come to realise it utilises a lot of K-drama tropes (face-blindness! shared childhood trauma!), but it does it really well, imho.

Male lead: Tortured loner genius. My catnip.

Tear-jerk factor: 2/5

6. Goblin

A 900yr old immortal guardian finally meets the ‘bride’ who will end his existence

Once I got over the slight ick-factor of the age difference between the two characters at the beginning, I really fell for this show and it’s world. It had me in tears. And I especially loved the secondary character of the Grim Reaper.

Male lead: Surprising innocent and funny for a 900 year old

Tear-Jerk factor: 5/5

7. What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim

An personal assistant decides to quits her job in order to get a life. Her boss has other ideas.

I loved the female lead in this - I’m a sucker for uber-competent people, and the actress is STUNNING. Her boss is self-centred, entitled and vain...but over time, somehow that just becomes endearing! This show also has lots of very good kissing scenes...and when he started to unbutton her shirt during one encounter, I was SCANDALISED (did I mention these shows are usually very PG!!)

Male lead: Like I said, somehow makes vanity and narcissism endearing. Also not afraid to get his shirt off and flash his 6-pack. Bonus.

Tear-Jerk factor: 0/5

8. Legend of the Blue Sea

A mermaid comes onto land to find the man she loves

The (literal) fish-out-of-water scenes in the first half of this show were hilarious - the actress is a comic genius! The romance was nicely done, and there wasn’t a lot of extraneous plot or too many characters. I couldn’t stop watching this one!

Male lead: Cocky, arrogant conman with a soft mushy centre

Tear-Jerk factor: 1/5

9. Fight for my Way

Two life-long friends decide to go after their dreams

I found this during my Park Seo Joon binge and, even though I fast-forwarded large chunks of it (I wasn’t interested in the secondary couple at all), it still made my favourite list because I love the leads - both as separate characters and as a couple. This is one of the best friends-to-lovers stories I’ve seen, mainly because you truly buy that these 2 have known each other their entire lives (their  bickering and teasing feels so natural). And then when they take the next step, they’re so affectionate and refreshingly open with their feelings.

Male lead: I love his contradictions. He’s goofy and childish…but can really turn on the sexy charm; he’s a badass MMA fighter…who loves when his girlfriend sticks up for him and protects him.

Tear-jerk factor: 0.5/5

10. Suspicious Partner

A young, hardworking lawyer has her life turned upside down when she is put on trial for murder.

This has been officially bumped up to my favourites list - partly because I’m now a massive Ji Chang Wook fan, and partly because I’ve rewatched scenes with better subtitiles and it made everything10x better. Its still overly long, but the serial killer plot had some nice twists and it was central to the story, so it didn’t feel extraneous like some of these types of plots do. I really enjoyed the central romance - the 2 characters sparked off each other well and I loved their evolution from sort-of enemies to lovers.

Male lead: Its Ji Chang Wook! He’s so good at playing serious guys who are secretly big dorks

Tear-jerk factor: 0.5/5

Notable mentions

These are shows which I completed and enjoyed but they didn’t set my world on fire. Usually because they were overly long, or the plot got in the way of the characters/love story.  

1. The K2

An ex-mercenary takes a job as a bodyguard protecting the illegitimate daughter of a politician. A sort-of Snow White retelling.

This started off really well, with some amazing fight sequences (hello, shower room scene!). However, the back half became too bogged down in double crosses and manipulations, and it focussed too much on the politicians. The writers did well to give these characters some layers, but they were all essentially doing bad things for the wrong reasons, and I just didn’t care about them. The show was much better when it was following K2’s journey. The romance also started off well, but was a bit underdeveloped (mainly because they barely interacted).

2. I Am Not a Robot

A man who is allergic to human contact finds companionship with a robot…or does he?

I honestly thought I wouldn’t make it passed a couple of episodes of this - the concept was just too ridiculous. But I’m glad I perservered, because it developed some real depth and some proper good angst towards the end.

3. My Love from the Star

Alien stranded on earth meets an actress soon before he’s due to be rescued.

I finally gave this another chance, and I’m glad I did. The female lead got a LOT less irritating, and I enjoyed the present-day romance and all the flashes back to the past. However, the ending was really abrupt and disappointing (which kept it out of my favourite list). There should have been 1 less filler episode in the middle, and a decent, fleshed out finale instead.

4. Her Private Life

A talented art curator tries to keep her professional persona separate from her fangirl obsession with a pop idol.

This was cute and I loved the central relationship - he was so supportive of her, and their interactions were refreshingly mature and their banter felt really natural. Ultimately, it was a bit forgettable (I’m not dying to rewatch any of it), and the last minute tacked-on childhood trauma subplot was really unnecessary.

5. Strong Girl Bong-Soon

A woman with inherited super-strength gets a job as a bodyguard for an eccentric young CEO

The lead couple in this are AD-OR-ABLE and I loved their relationship. But there was a weird tone issue in this show. The romance is super cute...but there’s a whole dark sub plot involving multiple women being held captive by a psychopath. I ended up fast forwarding most of that, and just concentrated on the romance.

6. Touch Your Heart

Star actress rocked by scandal works at a law firm to prepare for her comeback role

This starred the secondary couple from Goblin and I really like them, even though they are playing very different characters in this (more opposites attract, than doomed lovers). At first I found this too ‘cutesy’, but I’ve since realised the sound effects/graphics are a K-drama thing and not unique to this show, so I’m not as down on it as I was. I still had to fast forward a lot of the secondary romances which I wasn’t invested in.

The others…

1. Hyde, Jekyll and Me

A woman becomes involved in the lives of 2 men, who share one body

This stars Hyun Bin from CLOY and he is sooo watchable, especially as the slick-haired, glasses-wearing, uptight Seo-Jin. And the show started well...but quickly went off the rails into a convoluted, dragged-out revenge plot.

2. Melting Me Softly

Two people are accidentally cryogenically frozen for 20 years. They have to navigate the modern world and their new lives together.

Another good concept, but it ultimately descended into little more than a light work-place romance. Had a couple of good kissing scenes, but it was overall a bit forgettable.

And the DNF:

My Secret Romance

I started watching this because I was looking for something a little less PG - the characters have a one night stand in the first episode! But I couldn’t get passed the bad acting and cheap production.

Master’s Sun

I liked the premise but the 2 leads weren’t very attractive (at least in comparison to the insanely beautiful actors/actresses in the shows listed above). Call me superficial, but I couldn’t see myself spending 17 hours watching them and willing them to kiss.

[paunchsalazar]

hey!! bro ur my number #1 source for lupin III content so can I ask like how in the hell I go about watching all the series / movies / etc for it in order??? I’m really pumped for the live action so I wanna at least dip into all the other stuff. thanking ya kindly //tips hat

hello!!! what an honor!! oh my… ok I’m so sorry in advance… I’ve gotten a few similar asks and I started writing out a list and it was getting over 1500 words long so I had to try to chill out…so…

LUPIN III CRASH COURSE

I’m sorry that this is so long.. and consider I cut it down! but here is my intro because I know this franchise is huge and confusing!! (I’ve had multiple instances of friends being like ‘I tried to find that Lupin thing you like but I could only find the third one?’) 

I kind of liken it to Scooby Doo? it stretches some 60 years and has been handled by many different writers, directors, and animators across very different eras? most important to know! the order doesn’t really matter and things aren’t really sequential (save for where the three most recent shows) so you can jump in and explore whatever seems compelling! it’s overwhelming because there is so much but also nice because there’s something for everybody! if you like fun and pure, edgy, etc. etc. 

feel free to disregard everything coming… I will say my personal priority order is

- Castle of Cagliostro

- some episode of part 2

- part IV, ideally all of it! there’s filler but it’s hard to know which ones

- part I (or some episodes of it? up to you!)

- Fuma Conspiracy

- part V 

- part III (it’s great too!! just not as sequential as IV and V)

- First Contact… truly indulgent but its so cute!

(below I broke down a little about each and my favorite episodes, where to find them, etc. and there’s so much more but just doing everything below is a whole lot)

TV (All the shows except for The Woman Called Fujiko Mine are on Crunchyroll!)

Part 1 (1971) - crunchyroll!

The beginnings kind of a weird feeling because the first half was directed with one vision vs. the second half being co-directed by Takahata and Miyazaki, there’s a shift in Lupin’s personality and most significantly they sought to shed his ‘sense of apathy’ and make him more of a hero? something that’s echoed later on! honestly, I don’t think the transition is as dramatic as some people find it? but it does shift across the episodes and end on a sweet note!

truly they all have something to enjoy but I made note of 

episodes 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 16, 18, 19, 23 

for some reason? really really suggest watching the last episode! but get a bit of the first and second half beforehand!

Part II/Red Jacket (1977-80) - 155 episodes - on crunchyroll dubbed and subbed

there are a lot so I tried to narrow it down to a few of my favorites/ particularly noteworthy ones? I bolded my absolute favorites! I’m sure I missed a few but save for a few two-episode arcs you can jump in anywhere and it’ll be fine.

episodes 1-79 are dubbed on Crunchyroll! In my personal opinion the script makes it worth it!! there are a bunch of non-dubbed episodes anyway if you want to get a feel for both

(these episode titles are often hilarious, misleading, and/or horribly embarrassing?)

1 - ‘The Return of Lupin the Third’ - just a good starting point!

5 - ‘Will the Leaning Tower of Pisa Be Standing?’

6 - ‘Tutankhamen’s 3,000-Year-Old Curse’

7 - ‘Venetian Super Express’ - I want to say this is a cute little road trip episode? it’s been so long

9 - ‘Steal the FIle M123’ - this dub… madness. very strange Christopher Walken impression for absolutely no reason?

10 - ‘Bet on the Monaco Grand Prix’

15 - ‘Crude Reproduction, Perfect Frame’ - Lupin keeps committing strange and uncharacteristic crimes, but he has no memory of doing so!

29 - ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ - Lupin has some mysterious Levitation Technique and everyone is after it 

32 - ‘Lupin the Interred’ A famed hitman is after Lupin!

34 - ‘But Your Brother Was Such A Nice Guy’ - this episode is one of the zaniest ones and that’s saying a lot… Vampires? Jesus? Really really funny moments though especially in the dub

42 - ‘Cruisin’ in Drag’ Lupin infiltrates the ship of a wealthy bachelor disguised as a woman 

45 - ‘Diamonds and Minx’ kind of a mess of people stealing from each other? 

46 - ‘The Island of Dr. Derange’

57 - ‘Alter-Ego Maniac’ - Inspector Zenigata goes criminal

62 - ‘Church of the Poison Mind’ - Jigen and Goemon stumble into a religious cult

69 - ‘Zenigata Getcha Into My Life’ - this title is awful but this episode is great. 

78 - ‘Ice, Robot’ - an inventor has made a machine that can cry diamonds!

79 - ‘Baton Death March’ 

81 - ‘Fujiko, Men are a Sorry Lot!” - Fujiko gets engaged to a Prince, the rest of the gang goes after the monarchy’s Golden Bell

96 - ‘Lupin’s Gourmet World’ tbh this is a vore episode but there are some great gang moments here and a really fun third act

99 - ‘Fighting Jigen’ - first anime episode (I think like in history? but I could’ve misread) in stereo! And I believe the first to air of the TMS staff’s work, you can tell because the style shifts to a more Miyazaki/Cagliostro look and this will keep happening for the rest of the show

101 - ‘Fervent Love at Versailles’ - a crossover episode with Rose of Versailles! 

103 - ‘The Wolf Looked at an Angel’ - Goemon is an angel I can say little else

104 - ‘The Most Dangerous Golden Bed’ - debut of perhaps the best opening! I love this episode?? so much?

112 - ‘Danger! Goemon’ 

122 - ‘An Unusual End to an Expedition for Napoleon’s Treasure’ 

143 - ‘The Miami Bank’ 

145 - ‘Wings of Death: Albatross’ - ah yes, one of the famed Miyazaki-directed episode, truly so worth it

151 - ‘To Arrest Lupin, the Mission at the Highway’ - another not exactly Miyazaki episode but a lot of the people he trained? They depart from the part 2 style(s) again but its a good bit of fun all around! Really lovely character animation

152 - ‘Jigen and the Hatless Pistol’ - Jigen loses his hat and thus his ability to shoot

155 - ‘Thieves Love the Peace/Farewell, Dear Lupin’ - the finale episode! Miyazaki-directed as well, and just beautiful 

Part III (1984) - 50 episodes - crunchyroll!

I’m still very early in this one so I can’t say much yet! But it gets a bad rep? Perhaps for being more inconsistent stylistically and a bit on the zanier end! But I really like it!! these drawings are such a blast! I think each bit has its merits and this one is no exception. Plus with all their freedom animation-wise they can do a lot of fun stuff!

The Woman Called Fujiko Mine (2012) - 13 episodes - on kissanime for certain and I think animetake?

this is the most dramatic departure from the rest of the shows/films/specials. Fujiko Mine is the star of this part! It definitely has less obviously plot-important episodes but it’s one narrative from start to finish. I must note that it’s by far Lupin’s edgiest, I think it’d be safe to deem this part as R-Rated. There’s sex, violence, sexual violence, abuse, bodily mutilation, obsession… a gay character who gets a pretty tragic fate (at first I was excited by the very existence of an LGBT+ character but he really goes through the wringer and never gets a resolution.. I don’t want to spoil). This is probably Lupin at his ickiest? I do like Jigen’s personality here! And his dynamic with Fujiko, but it’s a lot more disjointed than the other parts. She meets each of them separately and towards the end, Lupin and Jigen interact more but there’s barely a time when they’re all together. That’s not meant to be a deterrent but personally, I’m a sucker for their friendship and love them as a group so it’s a bit of a bummer. Sequential plot-wise though! This one is definitely captivating, a bit disturbing, and there is a plot-twist that really got me. The villain design is really cool too!

Part IV (2015) - 26 episodes - on crunchyroll, also dubbed on Funimation

This part is narrative-based and sequential! It still has some more standalone episodes but there’s definitely an overarching story throughout! I think they’re all worth watching and might leave little important bits that’ll be confusing later on. Essentially this part takes place in Italy for the most part and starts with Lupin getting married to a multi-millionaire heiress/model/celebrity who wants to get into the thief business. This one feels like a good combination of old and new, it’s not quite as silly as the earlier parts can be, but it’s full of nostalgia while still feeling original. I really had a good time!

This dub isn’t bad but!! It comes with a different opening and soundtrack, I guess Lupin’s pretty big in Italy and perhaps there were licensing issues? I’m not sure? But it’s a bit of a bummer to be without the Yuji Ohno soundtrack. The alternate opening feels more like a collection of stills and footage found throughout the show? It’s not horrible, just different! Regardless, the Part IV Japanese OP (vs. the Italian/US one) is worth a watch!

Part V (2018, airing on Adult Swim right now, summer 2019!) - 23 episodes 

I’m actually not done with this part but its good fun! more directly tied to part iv then the others are to each other. It’s more sequential as well with a few sub-arcs and since it fell on the franchise’s anniversary it has callback episodes with Lupin in various jackets in various tones. Interesting Lupin characterization here… he seems… sadder, wistful? and we get hints of Lupin lore! Lots of fanservice but… I love it! I still think they could’ve pushed it more? it feels somehow more reserved than part IV in some ways, which is already different from the 70s and 80s, but it’s got a lot of lovely moments!!

Films/TV Specials

From 1989 to 2011 they had a special every year!! So much!

Castle of Cagliostro (1979) - Available on Netflix! 

perhaps the best-known piece of media in the Lupin franchise? And rightly so. This film is Hayao Miyazaki’s directing debut and a blast from start to finish! This characterization of Lupin is definitely Miyazaki’s more than Monkey Punch’s but that seems to be the strange nature of the Lupin franchise! I could really go on forever… please watch it!

The Fuma Conspiracy (1987) - 

perhaps harder to find, but it’s on Kissanime! Goemon is getting married but before the ceremony is over the bride is taken by the Fuma ninja clan and the gang helps him to get her back as well as learn the story of a family heirloom? Really great stuff from everybody! Adorable Zenigata, the fluffiest and most handsome Goemon, cute Jigen, Fujiko, and Lupin interactions, a really really incredible car chase! Even with Cagliostro’s fame, this one has got some serious pizzazz

Episode 0: The First Contact (2002) - on Kissanime as well! 

A journalist asks Jigen how he met Lupin III, this is probably my favorite TV special? And features one of my favorite opening scenes in the whole franchise. The instrumental!! Perhaps each member of the gang at their purest, whatever that means, really great moments between everybody and peak Lupin and Jigen meeting and somehow signing up to be life partners

[kuuderekun]

https://jaredmithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2020/01/tv-anime-writers-and-directors.html

As I've said I want to start talking on this blog about how I think Directors often get too much credit and we should maybe start paying more attention to the writers.

The thing that makes TV Anime a particularly interesting medium in this case is how there are usually less writers then directors.

The "Series Composition" credit seems to be the writing equivalent of being the Series Director, it's a job that in theory could be done by someone not writing individual episode scripts at all, but it generally isn't done that way.  Usually the writer with that credit also writes more episodes then anyone else and that includes the first and last episodes and a few other of the most definitely not filler episodes.  And there are usually only 4 or 5 writers in total, often only 3 who could be said to have written a significant amount.

However there are usually between 7-10 Episode Directors, and the first and last episodes usually don't have the same director.  And the series director probably actually episode directs less then he would have if he he weren't the series director.  And no director even comes close to directing as many episodes as the "Series Composition" person writes.

Some shows fail to give a Series Composition credit, at least on the main Database websites (MAL, ANN and AniDB), but it's easy to guess who was serving that function by looking at what and how many episodes the writers wrote.  Like Sukehiro Tomitia for the first season of Sailor Moon who I've already talked about.  He also seems to be this again for the Black Moon saga, but for the Doom Tree arc I would argue the most important writer was Shigeru Yanagawa.

For Sailor Moon S things are a bit different.  Tomita seems to no longer be obviously the most important writer, Megumi Sugihara wrote the most episodes for S, but still not as many as Tomita wrote for prior seasons, she wrote 10 episodes of S.  She had been around since season 1 but not quite from the start of it.  S had more writers total because of the newcomer, Youji Enokido who wrote 9 episodes.  Tomito did write the first and last episodes, but S is structured so different from season 1 that even that doesn't mean as much, the last episode of S is literally filler.  Tomita wrote 7 episodes total.

Three of Sailor Moon's writers including Tomita would leave after S to go work on other projects, to some extent I think they were writing less during S because they were doing the prep work for those projects.  The one I talked about in the Cutey Honey Flash post was the lead writer of Gundam Wing, if you've ever felt like Wing is the most Shoujo of all Gundam shows, that's because it was written by someone who spent most of the 90s writing Magical Girl shows.

Sailor Moon SuperS is the first season to actually have a Series Composition credit, which is given to Youji Enokido. Kind of surprising as he was the complete Newcomer for S, Megumi had seniority but I guess you can't have the lead writer of a show for girls actually be a girl.  Enokido also wrote the Screenplay for the SuperS movie, Black Dream Hole (the first two movies were written by Tomita).

Megumi and Enokido both left Sailor Moon after SuperS creating a situation where Sailor Stars the last season had no writing staff overlap with the first 3 seasons and two writers who had no prior Sailor Moon experience at all.  If you think Sailor Moon's quality went down hill it was definitely the writing staff that changed more then the directorial staff, the Series Director of Stars had been part of the Sailor Moon directorial team since Goldfish Warning!.  But I don't think the Stars writers are overall inferior writers, they were just at the time less experienced, some of them I know went on to write stuff that can compete with the early seasons of Sailor Moon.  When Sailor Moon started Toei hired some pretty experienced writers and directors because they knew this would be one of their most important shows.  But once those writers wanted to go on to other things they were replaced by relative newcomers.

The first 6 episodes of Sailor Stars I feel would work really well edited together into a 2 hour movie. What's interesting here is each one has a different director, but it was all written by two writers, the only two Stars writers who were veterans of SuperS, so ideally placed to write that season's epilogue.  Though they had no experience writing the Outer Senshi since Enokido did their episode of the Special, in which case they did surprisingly well.

Megumi doesn't seem to have done much after leaving Sailor Moon.  Enokido while doing SuperS wrote 4 episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion, all of them from the first half of the show.  I at first thought the only reason he had writing credits in the Rebuild films is because the first two redo/remake stuff from his episodes.  But then he also has a credit in 3.33 which has no connection to any episode he wrote.  So either their credits by default list everyone who worked on the original or they did consult him on something.

The first thing Enokido did after he left Sailor Moon was being the head writer of Revolutionary Girl Utena.  Yes I'm applying my maybe we give directors to much credit to even the most revered work of one of Anime's most worshiped Auteur Directors.  Utena definitely looks the way it does chiefly because of Ikuhara, and the basic idea of it's story started with Ikuhara.

But there is a segment of the fanbase who thinks Utena is the only (completely original to him) Ikuhara show that's great and are not so infatuated with his over hyped 2010s stuff, like WhiningAboutYuri on Tumblr, and that could be largely because the 2010s shows had completely different writers.  I personally enjoy his 2010s stuff, and probably consider Penguindrum more rewatchable then Utena.  But Utena is the only Ikuhara show I'd ever really put on a favorites list.  And YuriKuma's final act frustrates me, on a list of 2010s Yuri shows it'll always fall below Citrus on my rankings.  Of course even with Penguindrum I'd have preferred a happier ending.

And also on Utena Ikuhara was never even an Episode Director.  So he was at the top of the pyramid but there was a lot of delegating.  It was a collaborative effort on every level.  It's almost like when that one comedian makes fun of Steve Jobs getting all the credit for the iPhone.  Enokido may well have done more writing then Ikuhara did directing.

Enokido wasn't Utena's only writer.  One I already made a post about due to my love of some of his other work.  But a lot of the other writers seem to have Utena as the only Anime they ever worked on.  Including the person who wrote most of the Nanami episodes, how is it that person hasn't gotten more work when they're obviously a comedic genius?

Enokido however had the Series Composition credit and wrote 20 episodes, just over half.  They include the first five, episode 7, and 9, the two not as filler as you think recap episodes and almost all of the final Apocalypse Arc.  And he wrote the Screenplay for the movie.

Enokido would have a lot of post Utena work.  Not always stuff that is still well known.  He wrote 5 episodes of RahXephon, a show often compared to Evangelion that in my opinion is far better.  Maybe that's partly because Enokido wrote more of it then he did Eva.  He also wrote Redline which seems to be a popular racing movie.

But perhaps the most notable thing Enokido has done in the last decade years is Stardriver.  I haven't seen Stardriver yet mainly because it lacks a dub, but at this point I doubt it ever will get one so I might as well just give in and watch it subbed.  It's been described as like if Eva and Utena had a baby who grew up to do musical theater.

Stardriver's director is the same director as Sailor Stars, who had been an episode director on Sailor Moon going back to season 1 and also worked on Cutey Honey Flash.  He then worked on Fun Fun Pharmacy and a number of the shows that proceeded Pretty Cure in it's time-slot, and did episode 8 of the first season of Pretty Cure.  His visual style is certainly an interesting one to combine with the writer of Utena.

Gen Urobuchi is a rare example of a writer who's name gets mentioned more then the directors of the popular shows he wrote.  But sometimes his association is with the source material rather then the Anime directly, it varies.  I find it interesting how many of his shows have Yuki Kajuria on the music even though nothing else connects them.  Maybe they just naturally go together.

All that is just the tip of the iceberg.  There are plenty more Anime where I think the writer is more why I like them then the director.  I'll likely make more posts on this subject in the future.

One detail I'd like to point out before ending this post is that the two most popular up and coming Female Anime directors of the last decade also had female writers on their most notable work, who also wrote plenty of stuff directed by men.

[thepensiverambler]

Little by little

26th I woke as usual, sweat on my brow to find another still day. Today was hot. Really hot. In my opinion it was no hotter than any other day only we didn't have a nice cooling breeze. I tried to get into the kitchen to make myself some breakfast on their was a great big lock in the way. After searching long and hard for a key (little over a minute) I resigned myself to wait for the others to wake and come and find the key. Once they did come and we were finally all sat at breakfast chatter began to wander towards the daily plan. I had had aspirations of starting to flatten the ground on which to dig the volunteer house and to dig it's foundations. It became clear to me that no one was keen on doing any strenuous physical activity. I helped Cuba with the minor chore of cutting away to filler he'd used on the walls in the kitchen. I decided I would go and help Hanna to rake field. We needed to get rid of all dry grass and other plants in order to transform it into a nice area for workshops. We decided to burn the grass in a metal drum as we were Coldingham the grass. The burning was talking too long so we tried burning the grass in clumps on the ground. We took precautions to contain the fire such as digging a small trench to around the fire, wetting the ground around it and we watched it closely armed with watering cans. The fire escaped after a while and crawled 2 or 3 metres aways before we spotted it and jumped into action with our emergency water. At the end of the field was a patch of ground I hadn't noticed before on which nothing grew. Perfect for our fire. I told the others that was the place for us. I was called a genius and we set to work, for about 5 minutes. Ali shouted at us all saying that we were all going to the beach. Now at this point I know a lot of you may consider me grumpy but I really didn't want to go to the beach. I'd had a day off the previous day, and I had a task in hand that was different to mixing concrete. I had’nt come to Turkey to simply go to the beach when it was a little warmer than was comfortable. After a little rebellion I and 3 others remained at the village to work whilst the others left to the beach. I was alone in the field. A vast expance to clear with just a bucket and a rake. I set to work. I worked nonstop for 4 hours. Well I took water breaks of course. And one for a coffee. And a few dates. And maybe a slice of water melon and a fig. After my tireless work I had got to about halfway through the field, there was now a large mound of hay at one end of the field but all I could see was the work still at hand. The four of us took lunch (pasta and a salad). As we finishing our post lunch coffees the minibus of beach goers returned. To get out of the way I went back to my field to get on with the job. I had the aim of finishing it by the end of the day and I knew that if stopped too long I wouldn't be able do it alone. Bit between my teeth I worked without regard for the sweat dripping of my nose and occasionally into my mouth. No regard for my t-shirt stuck to me with a large T written across my chest in slightly darker maroon than the original. Hoping all the while my morning crew would return and lighten to the load yet team never did. I had to employ the help of another volunteer, Eros. We worked for an hour together until at last my herculean task was complete. I had a haystack down one end of the field large enough to feed the entirety of the Grand national horses for a year. It was huge. Easily 6 feet in height, 10 feet long and another 6 feet in width. Now for the fun part or the day. The fire. After a few safety precautions we torched the lot, played a little ‘cricket’ as it burned. Cricket consisted of being tossed a ball and trying to pull the ball (stone) so that it might rain down on the others that were still building the kitchen. The bat was a slat from a pallet, not quite the fine piece of willow to which I'm used but a bat nonetheless. The shot need to travel around 60 metres but even my best times shots were falling 10 metres short. I had to go to the cafe to get wifi to find out when I would be going to University. Yes I should probably have known this before I came out and started to plan travelling Turkey but I didn't. I got on the pink bike and enjoyed a nice cycle into town. I spent a little time sorting my life out until I met a couple of the new volunteers. One was a 19 year old Norwegian girl that I’d chatted a little at the village earlier in the day. We sat and chatted for a while, to put it nicely she talked too much, to put it less nicely the girl had verbal diahorrea. I don't mean to be too rude because I thought she was a sweet girl but good lord she enjoyed talking about herself. I enjoy meeting new people because you never know what they'll be like but there's only so much I want to talk about exams and university. I would have assumed that being the same age we'd have had a similar experience over the past year of everyday conversations about university and future. I'm sick of it. I don't care what uni you're going to. I don't care what you're studying. I don't care if you're nervous, excited or unsure about the experience. I really don't care if you're looking forward to freshers or not, it doesn't matter either way we both know you're going to turn up at freshers, get too drunk one time and think you're now a ‘hardcore student’. Regardless of this it's the common ground we found and, wishing we were both into football I covered the usual topics as though ticking them from my checklist. After some dinner we had delivered I got a lift home and went to bed. 27th I was picking up stones in the field when Beret came to me and asked if I wanted to come to the police station to distribute to a group picked up trying to cross to Chios that morning. Yes. Of course I did. We got in the car and drove to the shop picking 48 bottles of water and countless loaves of bread. We then drove to the cafe and picked up toys for the children and tinned beans. 200 metres down the road was the police station which was right on the sea front between 2 fancy bars. I nearly walked straight past it but the others turned in and we walked up the narrow steps into a courtyard. I was expecting to find 15 or so refugees sat in a hostile, white synthetic room with water coolers and cork boards. This was not the case, 30 or so refugees sat in the courtyard struggle to find shade from the midday heat. We went round handing out bread, water and toys for the children. The groups ranged from large families of women and children to couples to lone men. I didn't find out where they were from which would have such an impact on their future. It seems strange to think how these people could be treated so differently to me due to their place of birth. How they could be treated so differently to each other depending on whether they were Syrian or Iraqi. During my visit we were fortunate to be supervised by a nice police officer. He was friendly, opening a tin of beans for us and even fetching another loaf of bread when we ran out. We are lucky in Cesme that the police station is quite nice to give us a call when they've made arrests so that we can come and offer some relief. We're lucky in Cesme, to have quite a cooperative police station which will call us when they've made arrests. Sometimes they'll feed them, sometimes they won't. The police argue they don't have enough money to spend on food for refugees. Some policemen aren't as nice as the one we were supervised by today. Every volunteer who has spent a significant amount of time in a camp has witnessed violence from police officers. The worst thing as a volunteer is in these sorts of situations there's nothing you can do. If you interfere you jeopardise the relationship with charity and police which endangers the welfare of far more future refugees than the one receiving the beating. The situation reminds me of that of Rwanda when the UN force was sent in during the mass genocide with a mandate that wouldn't allow them to interfere with violence. Cases were reported where UN officers had to stand by whilst they watched the slaughter of men,women and children. The effects of the genocide has given both murderers and UN officials PTSD. I'm sure this crisis will do the same. I'm fortunate not to have witnessed much violence in my brief time volunteering. It's seems silly that in the total 4 or 5 days I've spent in the presence of both refugees and law enforcement that I should feel fortunate not to have witnessed grave violence. Cesme police station treats it's detainees well to a point. They often leave it a few hours until they call us, leaving refugees to grow more and more uncomfortable and hungry in the midday sun. I see no point in treating refugees poorly in detention. Some argue that it's to act as a deterrent, to teach them a lesson. These people are willing to risk their lives to get to Greece a few hours of discomfort is not going to do well as a deterrent. The proof of this is easy to find, today I heard of a man that had attempted the crossing 8 times unsuccessfully. So why not treat these poor people as human beings and not animals to be punished for attempting to improve their lives. 28th The news came that last night a boat had sunk attempting to make the crossing. 7 dead, 10 alive. It shook me a little as I'd been to a departing beach just days before, met with refugees that had attempted the crossing just yesterday. It made me think and question whether I doing all I could at this moment in time. Surely it's more important to save lives than to improve them. But what life can you lead without the possibility of betterment? Just crossing your fingers and hoping that you'll be able to save enough money over the summer to feed yourself for the winter. I was told in Calais that whatever we do will never be enough and it's true. You can be working 20 hours a day 7 days a week and you won't think that it's enough. All we can hope to do is improve lives little by little to a point where they can start to improve them on their own.

[lovenerdthings-blog]

This Week in Review

May 7 – 21

 FANTASY

Once Upon a Time

Season 6: Episode 20 – The Song in Your Heart

In flashback, Snow and Charming make a special wish that Emma will be protected. The result of their wish has the whole kingdom bursting into song which infuriates the Evil Queen. Meanwhile in Storybrooke, the Black Fairy announces her plans to unleash another curse on the town while Emma and Hook prepare for their wedding.

We wait 6 seasons and finally we get a musical episode. For a show that is based on Disney stories, which are mostly musicals, this had to happen eventually. And they did not let us down. Each song was catchy, entertaining, and effort was put into it by the actors, the writers, and the musicians. Of course, as per usual, the villain gets one of the best songs, but that is par for the course. They had to tease us with the Evil Queen asking Rumple to sing… we thought he was going to do it, and then that little laugh we love so much. The story about the curse coming and the wedding added to the flavor of this episode. But I think the best parts were the songs throughout the whole episode. It really brought the magic of the fairy tale to life. But now we face a new challenge. Where is the Black Fairy taking them?

Season 6: Episode 21-22 – The Final Battle

Henry awakens to a cursed Storybrooke and discovers Emma has been in the mental hospital, and the Black Fairy is the new mayor. Henry attempts to help Emma regain her memory while Gold tries to find out what has really happened to Belle. Meanwhile, Snow, Charming, Regina, Zelena and Hook are trapped in a crumbling Fairy Tale Land and desperately try to figure out a way to be reunited with Emma and Henry.

What a great season finale. We went from hope to despair, to almost utter ruin, back to hope and that reminder that good will always triumph over evil. Hook made such a moving speech to David about his love with Emma before they climbed the bean stalk. It’s true; their love was not easy, it was not love at first sight. They had to fight for their love, and they made it through. Snow and David’s love may have been true love that never fails, but Hook and Emma had something amazing that grew over time. The battle itself did not last long, but the meaning behind it, the trap behind it, was very clever. Gold’s final decision, to try to do the right thing was heartbreaking, knowing it wouldn’t work. But in the end we all got our happy endings… or were they beginnings. This was a great season finale, everything got wrapped up nicely, and Gold and Belle were able to raise their son after all. And there was an interesting lead into the next season, though I’m curious if they’re just going to do the same story over again.

  PARANORMAL

Lucifer

Season 2: Episode 15 – Deceptive Little Parasite

When it is discovered that the flaming sword is the only hope for the family returning home safely, the pressure is on for Lucifer to control what he has never been able to control before – his emotions – in order to ignite it. Meanwhile, Chloe wants to air some emotions of her own, but when a therapist and head of admissions at a prestigious private school turns up dead, the team must get to the bottom of it

We learn in this episode that it is not anger that will fuel the blade, but pain. Something that Lucifer has a difficult time showing. But, in true Lucifer fashion, instead of going to his therapist to find out how to control and properly express his emotions, he goes to the private school with Trixie, and tries to find out how best to control and channel his emotions. We also learn more about the character of Trixie in this episode. Her character is much more complex than just Chloe’s daughter. Maize gives us the comic relief as always, listening to music instead of listening to Chloe’s problems. It was a filler episode to say the least, but we learned about the flaming sword and Lucifer’s fate as the Light Bringer.

Season 2: Episode 16 – God Johnson

When a grisly murder takes place at an insane asylum, the prime suspect calls himself God. After realizing that this man could actually be his father, Lucifer struggles with his feelings towards him and tries to find the truth, all while trying to discover who the real killer.

Nicely done by the actor who played “God”. He had a really interesting vibe to him that actually had the audience convinced he could actually be Lucifer’s father. There was some comedy with Lucifer and the character, but it was mostly dealing with Lucifer’s angst. The actual killer in the episode was a bit obvious, but it seemed that the murder was a background plot and the real part was Lucifer finding his “dad”. The show really threw us when God and Lucifer’s mother met once again. It would have been interesting to see them fighting, but we enjoyed what we got instead. Too bad it was only for a short time.

NEXT WEEK

Season 2: Episode 17 – Sympathy for the Goddess

When the man who had the final piece of the Flaming Sword is murdered and the piece goes missing, Mom joins Chloe and Lucifer on the case to track down the killer. But when Lucifer gets sidelined, Maze recruits him to help save Dr. Linda's endangered career and confronts him about the secrets he's been keeping

 IZombie

Season 3: Episode 6 – Some Like it Hot Mess

To help Clive solve the murder of an irresponsible narcissist, Liv consumes her brain and literally becomes a hot mess. Meanwhile, Peyton learns some shocking news. Lastly, Ravi experiences a major setback.

Irresponsible Liv was interesting to see. It made me think of her if she had lost about 10 to 15 years in age and become completely irresponsible. Peyton’s discovery was sad in some points, and enraging in others. It would have been interesting if we didn’t get this reveal, but it is better storytelling to have got it. It seems we were all convinced of Blaine’s amnesia, and yet… it was only partly true. It seems he was just the same old con artist just trying to absolve himself of his past guilt. Poor Peyton.

Season 3: Episode 7 – Dirt Nap Time

When Liv and Clive work together to solve the murder of a very charming, but womanizing, preschool teacher, things get interesting when they bring his jealous girlfriend Piper in for questioning. Meanwhile, Peyton is assigned a very interesting case. Lastly, Blaine finds himself in a bad situation.

Who didn’t love Liv on preschool teacher brain? That was extremely entertaining. It is difficult to interrogate someone who is on a “time out”. It seems that some old murder is coming back into Peyton’s view as she uncovers more evidence. And poor Blaine cannot catch a break. He is sleazy and a con artist, but he’s one of those ones you can’t help but to love.

NEXT WEEK

Season 3: Episode 8 - Eat a Kinevel

Liv shares the brain of a former daredevil with her new boyfriend, and the experience brings them closer. Blaine is back to his old ways. Meanwhile, Ravi makes progress in his new research. Finally, a discovery is made that could put Major in grave danger.

 Supernatural

Season 12: Episode 21 – There’s Something About Mary

Sam and Dean are alarmed when they learn hunters are being killed by suspicious “accidents” all over the country. They decide it is best to find Mary and make sure she’s safe. Meanwhile, Toni is back in the states and she and Mary face off.

It seems that everyone is out to get the hunters these days… Men of Letters, Lucifer, Crowley, and who knows what else. This episode focused more on Mary’s ‘conditioning’ as opposed to the boys searching for the hunters and their mother. It seems they slowly put the pieces together and figure out the puzzle, but by the time they do that… it’s too late. This episode would have made a great finale, with how it ended, but luckily we have two more episodes to go. I wonder if they will find a way to save Mary, or if this is her last season.

Season 12: Episode 22 – Who We Are

Caught in a dangerous situation, Sam and Dean only have each other to rely on. Meanwhile, the fight between the American Hunters and the British Hunters comes to a head.

This episode was slow to begin with, and that worked out really well. It would have been pointless if they had escaped the bunker on the first try. Not to mention we got some great Dean one-liners “we’ll Shawshank this bitch” was one of my favorites. When Sam went with the hunters to take the fight to the Men of Letters, and Dean stayed behind to work with Mary’s mind, the dream kicked me in the feels. The conversation Dean had almost to his mother about Sam, and the upbringing they had, made me worry for Sam’s safety during the fight. The fight itself seemed almost too easy and rushed. This is supposed to be a high-tech organization, and yet the hunters were able to storm it without a problem. This episode seemed very slow-paced and that worked well for the subject matter, and the show made up for it in the finale…

Season 12: Episode 23 – All Along the Watchtower

Lucifer battles Sam, Dean and Castiel for control of his unborn child.

And here we are, the season finale. I think Doctor Who is fighting for that SuperWhoLock crossover when Castiel spoke of the rift in space and time, but that’s just my opinion. This episode had more action in it and gave us so many directions for next season to go. It was interesting to see an old face in the alternate world, known as the world without the Winchesters. It will be really fun to explore that world next season; if that is the direction they go in. It is hard to say where we are heading next, but as far as cliff-hangers go, this season was actually quite relaxed, apart from what Sam found in the nursery. But now we have to wait a whole 5 months to find out… what are we going to do?

SCI-FI

The 100

Season 4: Episode 11 – The Other Side

Clarke faces the consequences of her fateful choice

It is strange that we are seeing the repeat of the Arc from season 1, where the teenagers are now making the same decisions that they fought against in the beginning. It is also interesting that Octavia has now become the one seeking unity, whereas it has been Clarke in the past few seasons. It seemed out of character for her to side with Jaha in this episode, and Bellamy was the one who acted out, just as he did in the past. It is a good thing that he did, as it would lead to war and massacre if Skykru were the only ones who got places in the bunker. This was certainly an Octavia and Bellamy episode. With all the possible moments in this episode to kick us in the feels it was the Monty and Jasper scene that got me tearing up. Such a great performance by both actors, and it really caught the audience by surprise. This entire episode was full of events and much foreshadowing to come. Who thinks that Raven is going to be the one to save everyone in the end?

Season 4: Episode 12 – The Chosen

Jaha and Kane disagree over how to handle their grim reality. Meanwhile, Clarke leads a group to save a friend.

Octavia really comes into her own in this situation. When the people of Skykru start to disagree with the situation and try to enforce their own opinion, she points out that the other 12 clans had already chosen their 100 and Skykru is no different. What they end up doing to decide is heartbreaking. It was difficult to watch Kane making the calls as to who lived and who had to die. Clarke and friends make it to Raven, but sadly without enough time. Are they really going to go back to the arc? So next season will most likely be about the trip to the arc, or how the 13 clans will get along in the bunker. Though, there is one episode left, and The 100 is well-known for its twist endings. So who knows what will happen next.

NEXT WEEK

Season 4: Episode 13 – Praimfeya

It's a race against the end of the world as Praimfaya arrives forcing our heroes to make impossible decisions to ensure their survival.

 Doctor Who

Season 10: Episode 5 – Oxygen

The Doctor, Bill and Nardole answer a distress call in deep space, and find themselves trapped on board space station Chasm Forge. All but four of the crew have been murdered – and the dead are still walking! In a future where oxygen is sold by the breath, and space suits are valued more highly than their occupants, the TARDIS crew battle for survival against the darkest evil of all…

So, while watching this episode, who remembered “Silence in the Library” from Series 4 and wanted one of the suits to say “Hey Who turned out the lights”… no? Just me? Oh well. This was an interestingly creepy episode. The idea that everything is sold and measured in breaths of air, as opposed to steps or time. It really makes you think about how many breaths you take in a minute’s time, not to mention the question… will there come a day when we become so obsolete that the suits that keep us alive will be more important to our employers? Of course Bill shined in this episode and is becoming more and more a great companion. The way she talks back to the Doctor reminds me very much of Donna Noble, again from Series 4. This was a great episode with a wonderful twist of an ending, the Doctor losing his vision... It will be interesting to see how he continues to be a brilliant as he is now, without being able to see.

Season 10: Episode 6 – Extremis

In the Haereticum – the Vatican’s secret library of blasphemy – there is an ancient book known only as The Veritas. Throughout history, anyone who has ever read it has immediately taken their own life. Now a new translation is online, and the danger is spreading. The Vatican appeals to the Doctor. Will he read The Veritas? But can even the Doctor survive the ultimate truth?

This is the Matrix… I mean Doctor Who. At first it seems this book is the danger that everyone is worried about, but upon reading it, and upon Bill’s discovery with random numbers, we learn something completely different is going on. Bill seems more curious than some of our last few companions, who does what she likes. This endears her to me, as she won’t just blindly follow the Doctor’s instructions without question. I do enjoy a companion who thinks for herself. At the same time, we also learn who was in the vault that he had been guarding all this time. Who was surprised to see Missy in the vault? I had my guesses, but was not certain. It will be interesting to see her interacting with the Doctor once again.

NEXT WEEK

Season 10: Episode 7 – The Pyramid at the End of the World

  Please be advised that the comic book shows will have their own weekly post this season, just changing things up a bit. Please keep an eye out for the Superhero Low-Down

If there are any shows that you think we should check out or that we have missed, please send us a private message or leave a comment below.

Until Next Time...

Thanks for Watching

[tomruffproject-blog]

100 Days, 100 Albums

Hi Friends:  As some of you know, on January 1st, I decided to embark on a little musical adventure of discovery, that I colorfully referred to as #100days100albums.  That project is coming to an end on April 10th, and I wanted to share some thoughts...   Back to the beginning, I did this for a few reasons… a long commute… a failed, fantasy football season and presidential election that left me wanting absolutely nothing to do with any podcasts whatsoever for a while… a newly acquired subscription to Apple Music, and all the albums that are available… and, a planned “lighter-touring-year” for many of my bands. I already had a pretty sizable music collection - spanning classic rock, 90s, jam bands, and a lot recently discovered jazz.  The bulk of my listening is typically a combination of live shows and albums from my favorite bands (the top 5 being Dave Matthews Band, Phish, the Grateful Dead, the Beatles, and Pearl Jam - in no particular order, but there’s also a lot of “2nd-tier” favorites as well).  You won’t find any albums by the “big-5" on this list, because this project was about taking a break, but you will find some albums from that “2nd-tier”.   The original plan was to revisit a lot of albums, that I hadn’t heard in years, but I set a goal of listening to AT LEAST 100 albums that I had never heard in their entirety before.  That means that I may have known certain songs from those albums, or, I may have known nothing at all.  As I start to write this (with a few days to go), I’m up to #108 (Innervisions by Stevie Wonder, if you were wondering), and by the time I publish this, I am hoping to get in a few more (Updated on 4/10 – I did).  In addition to the official list of “new" albums, I did manage to get to another 30+ of those “revisits”, which are not on this list, but if you’re wondering, included a lot of Led Zeppelin, the Who, Pink Floyd, the Doors, etc.  As for where the albums that are on the list came from - I asked friends, family, and co-workers for suggestions - and did my best to get to as many of them as possible.  I reached for albums that I had read about or heard about that sounded interesting. If you’re looking at this list, and thinking “where’s Abbey Road, Dark Side of the Moon, Music From Big Pink, and Let It Bleed, etc.?” - you won’t find those on here - or many others - as they’re just already favorites.  What I did do... I dug deeper into the back catalogs of bands that I didn’t know as extensively as I thought I did (i.e. Neil Young, and solo McCartney and Lennon).  I consulted the "Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums of All Time" list for ideas… and I looked at some of my wife Alexis’ favorite artists and albums.  She’s credited with getting me to listen to all 12 Billy Joel albums in time for the upcoming Dodger Stadium show, as well as some R.E.M., Elliot Smith, and Simon & Garfunkel among others.  When I found something I liked, I went down a rabbit hole.  That’s why you’ll find a lot of repeat and similar artists in here.  For every album I listened to, I read the Wikipedia article, and well, you start clicking, and next thing you know you’re reliving the British invasion…

You’ll notice that there is no jazz on this list.  I spent a large part of 2016 (especially the fall and holidays) in that space, and intentionally stuck to rock with this.  I’ll get back to jazz soon. Also, I didn’t review these individually, and I’m not going to, but I did want to highlight some things that I learned…  1) My tastes are flexible, but also kind of are what they are.  I discovered new bands and albums that I now love, but if I didn’t really care for a genre before, that didn’t really change. That being said, I completely appreciated everything I listened to in the last few months.   2) I didn’t really intend to focus this much on classic rock - but, when you research albums you "should have heard", most of them are... classic rock.  Maybe next time I’ll dig a little deeper into indy, or maybe rap… 3) Although so many of my personal favorite albums come from the CD era (being born in 1980 will do that), the compact disc was actually, IMO, the worst thing to ever happen to the album - not digital downloads and streaming.  Why? Easy - 60+ minutes is entirely too long… not just because of attention span - but also, because it takes a really special album to maintain quality for that long (aka no filler tracks).  It’s no coincidence that so many of the "greatest albums of all time" come from an era in which 38-45 minutes was the standard, and I think it’s great that in the iTunes era, albums have gotten shorter again.  There is less expectation of length, when you don’t have to “fill a disc”.  4) You’ll notice that I went through waves of specific artists and/or genres.  I listened to a lot of psychedelic rock.  I got on a Clapton kick (with Cream and Derek and the Dominos), and, I dug deeper into Jimi Hendrix, Warren Zevon, Bruce Springsteen, Dr. John, and most importantly Bob Dylan.  I was actually surprised by how many of their biggest albums I had never actually listened to all the way through before.   5) The 80s will never be my favorite era of music - and this applies to both 80s artists, and, albums by classic rock legends that were put out in the 80s.  The production, the synthesizers… in general, just not for me.   6) I still don’t love punk, but I am really glad to have listened to a few albums.  Can totally hear the influence on Pearl Jam, and other bands I do love.   7) The 60s was by far my favorite decade of this project - and I feel like I could easily find another 100 albums to dive in to. 8) I put all of these albums on a playlist to shuffle - so although I’ve only listened to most of them in their entirety once - I’ve been getting to know a lot of these songs and artists a lot better.  Now that I’m done, I can go back and re-listen to some of the ones that I really want to get to know better.  9) Here’s a few unexpected stand out albums/artists of note:

-Allen Toussaint - Southern Nights (Track 1, Last Train is a new favorite.  Interestingly, this was the first album, I listened to.)

-Soul Coughing - Ruby Vroom (The best band I never knew I should have loved.  Thanks to Dave Matthews for having plugged them on a live album)

-Spirit - 12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus (Don’t let the name trick you - this album is amazing.

-The Zombies - Odyssey and Oracle (One of the stand-out albums from my tear through the British Invasion.)

-The Revivalists - Men Against Mountain (A new favorite modern band, which will be in heavy rotation for summer 2017.)

-Neil Young - On the Beach (I had never heard of this one, and it’s very chill.  My favorite of the “new to me” Young Albums)

-New Pornographers - Twin Cinema (Dug this enough to grab their new release that came out over the weekend.) 

-Chuck Berry - Berry On Top (I’ll be honest; I looked this up and listened to it the day he died.)

-Paul McCartney - McCartney 2 - (Noteworthy as the worst post-Beatles album by far - just listen to “Temporary Secretary” and bust out your WTF Emoji.)

-David Bowie - Hunky Dory (Which features my favorite Bowie song - Life On Mars.  2nd only to Ziggy Stardust IMO.) 

-13th Floor Elevators - The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators (Another “band I wished I’d heard of years ago - if you like psychedelic rock.)

-Frank Zappa - Hot Rats (The album opens with Peaches en Regalia - one of my favorite Phish covers, and is like everything I love about jazz done with rock.  Very cool.)

And finally, there’s a lot that I couldn’t get to in the past 100 days, but I’ve got some summer tours to follow, and 2017 albums to focus on for a while.  I’m going to try to keep this going with #FullAlbumFriday for a while.    Here’s the full list of “first-time" albums, in order from January 1st to April 10th… 

1 - Allen Toussaint - Southern Nights 2 - Billy Joel - Piano Man 3 - Allman Brothers Band - Idlewild South 4 - Car Seat Headrest - Teens of Denial 5 - Billy Preston - I Wrote a Simple Song 6 - Soul Coughing - Ruby Vroom 7 - Little Feat - Waiting For Columbus 8 - The Doors - The Doors 9 - New Pornographers - Twin Cinema 10 - Billy Joel - Turnstile 11 - S.C.I. - 'Round the Wheel 12 - Spirit - 12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus 13 - Dr. John - In the Right Place 14 - Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced? 15 - Simon & Garfunkel - Sounds of Silence 16 - U2 - Joshua Tree 17 - Crosby Stills, and Nash - Crosby Stills, and Nash 18 - Billy Joel - 52nd Street 19 - Cat Stevens - Tea For the Tillerman 20 - The Doors - Strange Days 21 - The Zombies - Odessey and Oracle 22 - Bruce Springsteen - Born In the U.S.A. 23 - The Byrds - Sweetheart of the Rodeo 24 - R.E.M. - Up 25 - Billy Joel - The Stranger 26 - Frank Zappa - Hot Rats 27 - Luther Allison - Bad News Is Coming 28 - Jimi Hendrix Experience - Axis Bold of Love 29 - Mother Love Bone - Mother Love Bone 30 - Yes - Close to the Edge 31 - Allman Brothers Band - Brothers and Sisters 32 - Warren Zevon - Warren Zevon 33 - Billy Joel - Storm Front 34 - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers (Self-Titled) 35 - Cream - Wheels of Fire 36 - Soul Coughing - Irresistible Bliss 37 - Buffalo Springfield (Self-Titled) 38 - The Velvet Underground - Velvet Underground & Nico 39 - Cream - Disraeli Gears 40 - Billy Joel - The Nylon Curtain 41 - Lee Baines III & the Glory Fires - There Is a Bomb in Gilead 42 - Paul McCartney - McCartney 43 - The Meters - The Meters 44 - Janis Joplin - Pearl 45 - Derek & the Dominos - Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs 46 - The Revivalists - Men Against Mountains 47 - Traffic - Mr. Fantasy 48 - Elliott Smith - Figure 8 49 - Buffalo Springfield - Buffalo Springfield Again 50 - Billy Joel - An Innocent Man 51 - Santana - Abraxas 52 - The Hollies - Evolution 53 - The Byrds - Turn, Turn, Turn 54 - Dr. John - In the Right Place 55 - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Long After Dark 56 - Bob Dylan - John Wesley Harding 57 - Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes 58 - The Decemberists - The Crane Wife 59 - Warren Zevon - The Envoy 60 - Neil Young - On the Beach 61 - 13th Floor Elevators - The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Elevators 62 - Elvis Costello & the Attractions - Armed Forces 63 - The Yarbirds - Roger the Engineer 64 - David Bowie - Station to Station 65 - Iron Butterfly - In-a-Gadda-Da-Vidda Baby 66 - Bob Dylan - Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan 67 - Van Morrison - Astral Weeks 68 - Ry Cooter - Into the Purple Valley 69 - Chet Atkins & Mark Knopfler - Neck and Neck 70 - Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde 71 - Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland 72 - Talking Heads - Speaking In Tongues 73 - Billy Joel - River of Dreams 74 - Jeff Beck - Truth 75 - The Doors - Waiting For the Sun 76 - Radiohead - Hail to the Thief 77 - Soundgarden - Superunknown 78 - Paul & Linda McCartney - Ram 79 - R.E.M. - Document 80 - Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow 81 - The Rolling Stones - Aftermath (UK) 82 - Yes - Fragile 83 - Chuck Berry - Berry Is On Top 84 - Moby Grape - Moby Grape ’69 85 - Bob Dylan - Bringing it All Back Home 86 - R.E.M. - Out of Time 87 - Peter Gabriel - So 88 - Huey Lewis - Sports 89 - The Ramones - Ramones 90 - Alabama Shakes - Sound & Color 91 - David Bowie - Hunk Dory 92 - Billy Joel - Cold Spring Harbor 93 - Talking Heads - 77 94 - Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms 95 - Rush - Moving Pictures 96 - Bob Dylan - Desire 97 - Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska 98 - Flaming Lips - Transmissions From the Satellite Heart 99 - Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo's Factory 100 - John Lennon - Plastic Ono Band 101 - Creedence Clearwater Revival - Willy & the Poor Boys 102 - Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison 103 - Marvin Gaye - What's Going On 104 - David Bowie - Diamond Dogs 105 - Sex Pistols - Nevermind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols 106 - Frightened Rabbit - Pedestrian Verse 107 - Allen Toussaint - Sweet Touch of Love 108 - Stevie Wonder - Innervisions 109 - Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker 110 - Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town 111 - Talking Heads - Remain In Light 112 - Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road 113 - Neil Young (Self Titled)

  Special thanks to everyone who gave me suggestions over the last few months, and to anyone who is still reading this!

 As for this week… it’s Pearl Jam week, in honor of their Hall of Fame induction…

-Tom

  *Apparently I am not the first person to use this #100days100albums hashtag...