#I've just been part of the audience watching the hijinks

[cimikat]

Woohoo~

Inspired by Sims 4 gameplay at the PhoenixFlare Discord.

[crtter]

I'm curious, I've been following you a minute now and what is Iyami from? and what is it about him that makes you so lustful?

Iyami is a character from the 60s gag manga Osomatsu-kun and its animated adaptations, including the most recent one, Osomatsu-san!

Despite being virtually unknown in the west, Osomatsu-kun is very, very well-known and beloved in Japan (think something like Scooby-Doo or Wacky Races) and a big part of it is due to Iyami! It was aimed at kids and teens and it was about the wacky hijinks of the Matsuno brothers, a group of identical sextuplet fourth graders. Iyami was a supporting character and minor antagonist, a sly con man who’s always trying to make a quick buck out of the Matsunos with the help of his street urchin friend Chibita.

However, Iyami ended up being the most well-known character of the franchise, rising to main character status due to his trademark habit of striking a funny pose when he’s startled, the “sheeh” which became somewhat of a meme in 60s Japan! It was so famous they got the Beatles to do it when they visited Japan and Godzilla did it in a movie.

Osomatsu-san is much more well known to western audiences, being an spin-off more geared towards a young adult audience and set 10-odd years into the future with the sextuplets each having their own distinct personalities. It’s also pretty well liked on its own in Japan, having first aired in 2015 and having its third season wrap up in 2021, although the third movie of the series just aired a few months ago and future seasons not being off the table! In it, Iyami is again in a supporting role but he’s still pretty great (at least to me!) and has been my favorite ever since I’ve first watched the show in 2016.

As to why he makes me go full unga bunga caveman, I guess he just embodies a lot of characteristics I like! I love goofy characters, I love cartoony villains, I think wonky teeth is a super cute trait… he’s just the perfect silly guy to me!

[ilikekidsshows]

I don’t have fandom friends so I’m coming in ur ask box with this hope you don’t mind. Basically adrien was my favorite character ever. ML my longest fandom fixation, and I never really shipped anything before lovesquare. now it’s like a gaping hole from betrayal. I don’t find new favorites easily and I’m terrible at watching tv, I never finish series. Plus I’ve never been a writer, it scares me,I don’t have that faith in my ability. if i could start a new creative phase that would be amazing. I don’t know how or to make friends on tumblr.

do you have any recommendations or advice?

Hello! Okay, don't take this as definite correct answers for everything ever, but I've been around the fandom and creative block a few times, so I'll just share my experiences and maybe something there will be of use to you.

I’m going to say this about writing: your work is always going to look like a work in progress to you, because it’s your work and you saw the entire process of creating it. My advice is to pick something you really like and be as self-indulgent about it as possible. If you’re having fun writing it, it matters less if others don’t like it. However, there’s a big chance that those who do like it will like it for the same reasons that you do, that they’ll like the same things you do in general and you can have some fun conversations about those things.

As for how to make friends on tumblr, you’re kind of already doing a part of it. Interact with people. Make contact. Ask questions, state your own opinions and keep doing those things. My tumblr friendships are based very much on sending prompts for ask games and responding to posts made by people I think are cool. The ask game thing is a good tip for determining who to try this with too. If they reblog a lot of ask games, that means they want to be sent asks and be interacted with, otherwise they wouldn’t invite people to do so.

Now for the recommendations: I don't watch many romance-focused shows, but I do watch a lot of superhero shows and I have a preference for strong character dynamics, especially found families and friendships, so I have some recommendations I think might work. I'll give some details about how they're similar to Miraculous and the biggest differences in case you're looking for something very similar in a particular way.

Ultimate Spider-Man: I made an entire post series about how this show has the exact same energy as Miraculous. It's very kid-friendly, a more humorous take on a hero who often comes with a lot of emotional baggage, and Peter will not chill about his bestie Harry. The main difference is that big parts of the series are a bit more like the New York Special in that Spider-Man spends a lot of episodes meeting different Marvel universe heroes. The show is kind of a crash course on the big names of Marvel in addition to being a Spider-Man show.

Spectacular Spider-Man: This one is more romance-focused with some love triangle drama and secret identity hijinks. The target audience clearly veered more towards older viewers and it ended before its time so it doesn’t really have a satisfying conclusion. Although most shows on this list don’t really have a definitive ending, this show has a flagrant: “come join us for the next season (that never came)!” vibe. This is generally seen as the most high-quality Spider-Man show.

Teen Titans: Fun superhero team show with an actual main couple. On the other hand, it doesn’t really do anything with secret identities and the romance is only focused on sporadically. The team dynamics are really varied with the kids on the team all having different personalities that mesh and clash in different ways.

X-Men Evolution: Romance and high school hijinks with superhero action. This is a team show like Teen Titans, but actually has a double life thing going on. The show clearly telegraphs to you who the final couples will be, even if the way getting there might have some drama along the way. Far more focus on things to do with school than the other recs on this list. Not really secret identity hijinks since all the heroes and villains know who each other are; it’s the normal students who are being kept in the dark, so it’s more of a “don’t let anyone know this different aspect of the world exists” secrecy thing.

Danny Phantom: A Spider-Man clone with ghosts. This one also telegraphs who the main couple will be in episode one, but there isn’t really much development there, so the characters spend a lot of time focusing on other stuff. Like X-Men Evolution, this one also has more focus on school stuff, although with the whole “superheroics make school even harder for an awkward teen” angle. Some secret identity hijinks with Danny trying to keep his ghost-hunting family in the dark about his ghost powers, but his best friends are in on it from the get-go.

Batman Beyond / Batman of the Future: So, funny story: this team got told: “make a Batman show where he goes to high school” for relatability points, and their solution was: “a new Batman goes to high school in a cyberpunk dystopian future and gets mentored by the original”. This show is a sequel to the Batman the Animated Series, but you don’t need to have seen that show to follow this one, since it’s set so far in the future. Just having a concept of Batman and his usual supporting cast will do. Terry has secret identity hijinks, gets stuck between two girls, neither of whom he feels understands him fully, and saves the day from some pretty creepy villains. This one is definitely for an older audience because, as I just stated, the singular episodes can get creepy.

Kim Possible: This is a banger of a girl power show. The main premise is “Kim Possible: she can do anything. Ron Stoppable: he can’t.” Kim’s sidekick is her main love interest even if they take forever getting there and, despite his sidekick status, Ron is treated with a lot of respect as a character by the writers. He frequently gets his own focus episodes and he’s allowed to have opinions that go against Kim’s and this aspect of them is really showcased in how different they can be. Even so, you never question whether or not these two adore the heck out of each other even while they’re still trying to keep their relationship platonic. No actual super powers or secret identities, but there is some drama with trying to schedule your civilian life around your hero one.

W.I.T.C.H.: This show has peak “guy who starts off as strictly the love interest suddenly becomes a major player in the plot” development in addition to having another guy who’s there for the action from the get-go while also having a major romance arc with one of the main girls. In addition the girl team gets secret identity hijinks with their families and friends although they all know each other’s secret identities. Gets more serialized in season two, like the comic it’s based on, but each episode still has a bunch of meat to it.

Winx Club: This show is a bit more of a changeling fantasy story than a superhero story, but the main characters do need to save the day a lot and even start to view themselves as heroes the more the series goes on. The main point is the main lead having a Normal Teenage Girl perspective in a magical school. She and her friends basically all get their own romance arcs, all with different flavors so there’s something for everybody. Each season has a self-contained story that gets concluded by the end, but the quality of said stories decreases from season four onward (kinda like another show), so I recommend watching only seasons 1-3.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: This pick is mostly if romance is not a key factor. It doesn’t matter which one you pick; there’s barely any. The focus is on family first and foremost. But, the thing about this franchise is that it’s been relaunched so many times and the different versions are so different that there’s a high chance of there being a version for everybody. The 87 cartoon is kid friendly, until the edgy retooling that was panned and the 2003 cartoon is grittier until the lighter-toned retooling that was panned (almost like you shouldn’t mess with a working formula). Fortunately you can skip the seasons that don’t work, because of the “and the adventure continues” nature of Turtles shows; there is never a conclusive ending. The 2012 show is a zany CGI cartoon and Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the most anime-esque with Studio Trigger-like action scenes.

Power Rangers: @infinitysgrace and @chronicallylatetotheparty keep telling me early Miraculous and Power Rangers have a lot in common, so I’m downloading Mighty Morphin Power Rangers as we speak. Can’t say much more than that yet.

My tip for not wanting to deal with shows letting you down: wait until you can be reasonably sure of what the show is going for before you get into it. The thing about Miraculous though is that season four was a retooling of the series so it introduced some pretty bad curveballs that few people saw coming. Of course, that’s why my recommendation list is full of shows that have already concluded. Sometimes works that are already finished are better because the drama has already passed and you can check beforehand if you should be concerned about a particular character’s treatment in the show.

[novelmonger]

I just finished Trigun Stampede, and it's left me feeling so disappointed, because it could have been...so much more.

To be fair, I have to acknowledge that the storyline is distinctly different from both the first anime and the manga, and while it retains certain similarities to both storylines, it's kind of its own story--and not a bad story, either; it was engaging and interesting in its own right. I especially liked how it handled Vash and Knives's history, what it did with Wolfwood's backstory, and how it wrapped things up at the end.

But the point is that my disappointment with Trigun Stampede has nothing to do with which anime is a closer adaptation of the manga. (I'm due a reread of that anyway; there are a lot of details of the Trigun Maximum portion that I don't remember very well.) When I compare the two animes, I just...enjoy the first one so much more.

It's all very subjective, of course, but here are some of my thoughts:

Where's my girl Milly? :( Why'd they take her out? Did they really think Roberto was a good substitute for silly Milly, the giant girl with the huge gun and the innocent voice, who comes across as an airhead but is actually really sharp? I'm sorry, I'd much rather have her in the party than a jaded, world-weary alcoholic who honestly feels like a less-interesting Wolfwood most of the time. Also, having Milly around meant that Meryl could take the role of the straight man most of the time, whereas the Roberto-Meryl duo is like...two straight men. Just doesn't have the same spark as Meryl and Milly :/

Vash is so much less goofy in this one, he's practically a different person. I mean, yes, his heart is the same, and in a lot of ways the goofiness is a mask and something Vash uses to keep himself from despair (better to laugh than to cry and all that). But it's still a huge part of his personality, and a huge part of what I love so much about Trigun in the first place. I love how the first anime will switch back and forth between being utterly hilarious and dead serious. Trigun Stampede, on the other hand, is almost entirely serious. As a result, the serious moments don't have the same impact as they would have if they came at the tail end of a string of ridiculous hijinks. I probably wouldn't think of that if I hadn't seen the first anime and knew how the story would feel with that kind of tone, but there you are.

There's so much less time to get to know the characters. You can really tell that Trigun Stampede's primary target audience is people who are already fans of the story, because they don't let the story breathe in the beginning. I really got the sense that we're supposed to already know who these people are and why we love them, rather than getting introduced to lovable characters for the first time. I have to wonder whether I would care about any of them if I didn't have tons of episodes where I'd gotten used to them and their quirks and had the time to really learn what they're all about.

WHERE IS BRILLIANT DYNAMITES NEON?! HOW CAN YOU BRING IN THE BAD LADS GANG WITHOUT THEIR FABULOUS LEADER?!?!?

Okay, I'm going to say it: I hate the animation. Sometimes it looked really good (particularly everything with the plants), but other times--especially when it came to character animation, particularly facial animation--it was so...sluggish? It was like the mouth movements couldn't keep up with the voicework, and every movement a character would make would take twice as long as it should, like they were moving through water or something. I'm certainly not against CG animation in anime, but I've seen it done so much better than this. I didn't know such a stylized art style could veer into the uncanny valley, but that was the feeling I got over and over again while watching this anime. It was so distracting that sometimes I found myself staring at their faces without reading the subtitles, and had to back up.

Oh, that reminds me: I'm sure there's a whole host of reasons behind them changing Vash's voice actor, but...I'm sorry, Masaya Onosaka is Vash the Stampede to me. He did such a good job with both the serious and the goofy sides of the character. Yoshitsugu Matsuoka did a great job; I have no complaints with his performance. But...he's just not Masaya Onosaka. It's probably a good thing that this iteration of Vash wasn't as ridiculous and all over the place, because I'm not convinced Yoshitsugu Matsuoka could have pulled it off.

The new character designs were okay for the most part. Not my favorite, but generally not a problem (though I'm not a fan of Meryl's outfit; it makes her look like a kid somehow). The only real problem I have is that Vash's floppier, softer hairstyle makes Wolfwood's nickname "needle noggin" just...not work very well. It was clear why he would give him such a nickname when Vash's hair was sticking straight up like a shock of wheat, but this way? Doesn't look like needles at all. His hair isn't noticeably spikier than anyone else's.

There weren't really any surprises or suspense in the story, because everything was shown in a fairly straightforward way. Not necessarily a problem, I suppose, and it makes sense that they have to cut to the chase more quickly when they've only got 12 episodes to work with. But I missed the way the first anime would just drop hints, show a little bit of a flashback, then move on for another episode or two. Particularly when it came to the nature of what, exactly, Vash is. They basically tell you right away in the first episode what's going on, rather than letting you wonder and slowly piece it together over time. I don't like that.

All in all, Trigun Stampede just doesn't hold a candle to the first anime. Now I'm off to rewatch that one, and then probably reread the manga.

[i-don-t-believe]

Pep's media recommendations of the year!!

this list is based on media (video games, tv, web series) I've consumed this year and why I recommend them, spoiler free! Chances are you've seen me blog about them, so lets get into it!!

TWEWY: media type: Games | anime adaptation This video game is a story and battle game centered around one evolving mystery. Full of early 2000s slang, music, outfit choices, and much more, this game pushes the limits in its unique game mechanics and world lore. It's sequel NEO twewy came out just 2 years ago and follows its successor in its involvement of pop culture and new mechanics. This game deeply spoke to me and its story was one of the most interesting i've encountered this year. TWEWY shares the same origin on the ds and port to switch as Ghost Trick.

Trigun: media type: tv series | manga Trigun is a manga series that has now been adapted twice to tv, one an anime in the late 90s, and the other a 2023 anime that completely took over my life for months. Any fan of the series will tell you just how much this series digs into morals, complex characters, Christ allegories, transgenderism, and bodily autonomy. It is a tragic, funny, and deeply moving story about a far off world and future for humanity. You can experience the series in any order you like, but most hardcore fans will recommend the manga first.

The Murder of Sonic The Hedgehog: media type: video game As most of you know, I am an avid fan of Sonic. This silly little april fools game is one of the best characterized pieces of modern sonic media we've had in the peast 2 years maybe aside from the idw comics and frontiers - those of course taking their own styles of storytelling. I can't recommend this game enough to anyone who either barely knows sonic or is just getting into it, because it shows off some energy from the series I love. It's also a mystery game!

Lego Monkie Kid: media type: tv show Lego Monkie Kid is an extremely well animated and well written small kids series that is a modern continuation of the legend of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King from Journey To The West. It follows a spunky monster-of-the-week scenario for the first 2 seasons, and then splits off into season-long plots that involve a lot of hardcore character development and high stakes. If you're a fan of amazing visuals and superhero shows, this series is fantastic.

Bungou Stray Dogs: media type: manga | anime | novels | stage play adaptation | movie I've been into this series for a long time, and this year we got a lot more anime content for me to consume. Obviously this series is long stretching in terms of spin-off content and adaptations, but it's worth getting into if you're a fan of superpower content, detectives and mafia, and just generally insane hijinks. Go check it out!!

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective: media type: video game I experienced Ghost Trick within the span of two days while staying at my friends house, and was practically speechless the entire time when not trying to get through trick parts. This game is the most interesting mystery games I've ever played. It has insanely interesting mechanics and great characters, as well as one of the most fun takes on a whodunnit ever. Anyone who has played this game knows that it reaches so deep into instant spoiler territory that it is impossible to talk about, so I just leave you with this: Go Play Ghost Trick.

Generation Loss: media type: web series - youtube and Twitch Genloss is streamer Ranboo's longtime project that he had been working on as long as I had been watching him. His passion for this comedy-horror series adapted to livestream is easily seen in how much work went into this series. Genloss takes inspiration from a sort of dystopian streaming-service view and old horror tropes, with references to the saw series apparent in the second episode. The many streamers that play characters in this series are fun to see put on the big screen outside of just playing games to their audiences. Ranboo has many more goals and installments for this series, and I can't wait to see what comes out of it.

Persona 5: media type: video game | anime adaptation | manga This game has been out for years but I finally just got into it!! You probably don't need me to tell you to play it, but I genuinely can't find anything in this series that would turn anyone away from playing it. It may be lengthy, but it keeps me engaged by constantly having something to do at all times. Of course, the music is BANGING.

Puss in Boots 2: media type: Movie One of my favorite movies of the year, Puss in boots is both well animated and well written. Continuing with the story of Puss from his own spin off from the Shrek series, this sequel takes a much darker note by having Puss fight for his life constantly, at the end of his 9 lives. It also features a bunch of different villains, antagonists, and other big bads. It's very worth the watch.

Spider-man into the Spiderverse: The Spiderverse series has had a knack for revitalizing the animation industry with new techniques and showing off new skills, and this movie is no outlier to that. Its full of great twists, amazing characters, music, animation, and writing. Full of a great mix of jokes and series moments, I was hooked and cannot wait for the next installment. Go check out this movie and its previous edition.

That's all for now! Obviously if anyone who follows me or is mutuals with me gets into one of my interests i explode on the spot, but feel free to reblog with your own top choices from this year!! as always, i'll still be here in 2024 and for many years to come. Tumblr can't get rid of me. :3

[neon-lights-stardust-nights]

Favorite calm activity with Strange? What’s your favorite food Hook has made? Have you ever been on a date with Xigbar? What does a night out with 🚬 look like? (Hope you feel better! 🐹✨)

Waaaah thank you! I'm very

right now, but I'm trying to handcuff myself to the Be Gentle With Yourself table right now. Thank you for the stuff to ramble about waaaaaaaaaaaaa--

I'm answering these kind of randomly don't mind that ehehe

Xigbar and Xayvn have TECHNICALLY been on dates. None of them were planned, but Saix very quickly found a problem with assigning them both a mission: they inevitably wouldn't do it. They'd much rather skip town for ice cream and laughs than take care of what needed taking care of (for the most part.)

Xigbar's approach was usually to speedrun the task at hand, whereas Xavyn is the one who more openly encouraged straight up not doing it. Whatever it was, the expected mission time would be doubled by the hijinks, lowjinks, and midjinks they got into. Never send them somewhere with a circus in town, Xavyn will drag Xigbar away immediately to go see it. Similarly, a shooting range is a really good way to convince Xigbar away from their goals.

They were never official dates, but they were all dates nevertheless.

And 🚬!!!! Much like Strange, he's a man of culture. Revolutionaries still can have taste, even if 🚬 and 🦴 have different ideas of a good time. Faers favorite place to be is with a gun in one hand, a knife in the other, and the sweet, blaring sound of Blood Sex and Drugs techno.

If 🚬 picks the festivities though, a night out with him looks much more refined. Nice wine, a dinner place he has to wear a disguise to even get into... Disguising 🦴 can be difficult, but if breaking into the cities is no longer an option? 🦴 is plenty content with what exists outside them. There are still nice bars out there, and 🚬 is plenty willing to blow money on his darling little Dead Eye.

That said, he still occasionally would consider a night out a night of indulging 🦴 in said rampage. Fae's a wonder to watch work! Just... Wear kevlar if you're in the audience...

Speaking of my unethical doctor, one of many for the collection...

There is a surprising amount of domestic activity the both of them can agree on. Once Kronos got some confidence, fae was very quick to "I want to perform villainy the way drag queens perform femininity." Strange is Strange, I don't know if I need to explain why domestic and him don't always look like close friends.

Kronos is more than willing to drag him to the couch to watch things together. He never cared about anime, not broader than the things Kronos shows him... But he also can't say "no" unless he's busy--there's times where he's convinced fae doesn't even look that happy in bed. Rambling away the whole time, excitedly lamenting how fae can't just spit spoilers (until being reminded that he doesn't care, please. Indulge him. What the hell is going to happen?)

And similarly, Kronos is an attentive listener. Insatiable curiosity has led to one of their calmer activities simply being bringing him things to explain. Things within his field--"so what the hell does this mean?" Even if it usually leads to him using terms Kronos also has to ask about, fae absorbs it like a sponge. At a point earlier in things, Strange was a little tempted to scold faer for not taking notes. Little did he expect faer to remember it all--to site it when asking about newer concepts fae stumbled upon... And there is contentment in them both--in him knowing fae gives a damn about the subject at hand, and in faer listening to his voice... Idly kicking faers legs, fidgeting with a half finished gadget the whole time...

AAAA OKAY I'VE BEEN PUTTING HIM OFF BECAUSE EVERY TIME I TRY TO TALK ABOUT HIM I MEOW OUT THE BODY'S MOUTH AND IT'S APPARENTLY DECENT ENOUGH TO MAKE MY CAT GIVE US LOOKS AND STUFF BECAUSE WHENEVER I TALK ABOUT HOOK I JUST GO

LIKE A SCHOOLGIRL TRYING TO DESCRIBE THINGS ABOUT HER CRUSH I'M SO SORRY IF THIS SECTION IS LARGELY INCOHERENT!!!!

(fun fact, she bounces on time to the song I used as an example of "blood, sex, and drugs" techno.)

Glumiko didn't really know what to expect from human food, because basically everything the inky squid people ate was raw. They just kind of ate what they catched. The closest fae would get before getting with The Man Himself was people who dropped food while fae hung around the docks, but... That was mostly spilled liquor, and it gave faer a very funny impression of what exactly humans were eating up there.

Glumiko's first encounter real with rum was expectedly hectic and not relevant to discuss other than the fact that it turns out: getting the people made of ink drunk means you have lots of ink to clean later.

Inevitably, anything with fish Hook presented was received with less hesitance. Glumiko could probably tell you more about half those fish than anyone on board ever knew, too. He did accidentally give faer a taste for pork though. Turns out: squid people were missing out. Pig was where it was fucking AT.

He made pulled pork and it fucking blew faers mind.

Expected for a mostly carnivorous race: he couldn't get faer to touch vegetables tho :/

[consumeronionbulletin]

Melting Me Softly (2019)

I liked the premise and I've enjoyed the two leads in other roles, but this show did not know what it wanted to be, which is why I didn't want to finish it.

The show is about two people who got frozen in a cryogenics experiment in 1999 and woke up in 2019. But the sci-fi aspect gets quickly tossed to the side in favor of some kind of office comedy that touches on some age related cultural humor and nostalgic in jokes. I stopped watching after about 5 episodes.

The Good:

The first couple episodes have some promise, at least as far as campy humor goes. Won Jin-ah had some good moments dealing with Go Mi-ran's toxic (soon to be ex-) boyfriend. There were some touching moments with Ji Chang-wook and his character Ma Dong-chan's family and love life. I think the show did a decent job of trying to balance humor and everything else for the most part in the first two episodes.

The Bad:

The show quickly lost the plot after the leads wake up. The "sci-fi" parts of the show turn into some kind of campy nonsense with amnesia, mysterious murders, random hijinks, and a serious flaw in the cryogenics wakeup process that is supposed to be taken seriously. But the show never takes any of the science even remotely seriously, so why should the audience?

The Ugly:

We rush through the characters' life in 1999, so everything that happens with their family and friends in 2019 that's supposed to be sad just feels weird. There's alot of toxic romantic relationships that aren't fun to watch. The portrayal of Go Mi-ran's autistic brother was not very well done. Nothing was balanced right—the show either needed to be campier and completely ditch the pathos, or it needed to stop being campy and take itself seriously. It would take an excellent writer to even try and do both, and we just didn't have that with this show.

TL; DR:

The show could have been good, but the people making it couldn't figure out what they wanted it to be. So it wasn't good at all. Fortunately, the two leads already found better shows. So watch those instead!

[princesscolumbia]

So it's been long enough and I'm expecting to come back to it, but my oldest popular fanfic, Fission, is now up on AO3. If you're not aware, I started penning this work back in 2006 as Ranma 1/2 was starting to lose relevance in anime pop culture. Inu Yasha was taking its place as young women were becoming an anime watching demographic in the USA and, as gender-fluid (literally) as Ranma's core audience is, "Dog-demon-boy hearts girl" had greater appeal to the wider young women demographic than "boy-who-understands-how-important-an-emergency-tampon-is hearts girl".

It also was released in the age of After Fuku Fic (AFF). During the Fuku fic era, there was clone after clone after clone of the core idea of "what if Ranma were to become a senshi?" Every member of the Ranma cast got shoved into a seifuku, it seemed, and any characters on either the Sailor Moon or Ranma parts of the equation that didn't fit just so were often discarded. This isn't to say the sub-sub-sub-genre is bad (I'm writing for it, so clearly I don't think so) but people just got tired of it.

And I dropped Fission in the middle of that and found myself in the rare company of people who wrote a fuku fic that even people who'd been completely burned out on the idea still wanted to read it.

Life happened, and I wound up reading (and writing) MLP-centric fics, then She-ra, and lately dabbling in The Locked Tomb. And yet I still keep drifting back to this oldy but goodie because I've just got so many stories in that sandbox I want to tell.

So without further ado, I present to you...

Fission

A Ranma 1/2 & Sailor Moon fanfic

by Princess Celestia

Ranma is having A Day. The usual wacky relationship hijinks wind up with him tripping while running from his self-declared love interests (it has to do with martial arts, several foreign laws, and an okonomiyaki cart...long story) and falling off a roof (...again, long story) to pass through a stream of water from a broken pipe, triggering the magic that cursed him to turn into a girl with a splash of cold water. But today the wacky cranked right up into the weird when he DIDN'T collide with the other person who also happens to be standing in the spray of water. Usagi is having a pleasant day, actually. She's spending time with her boyfriend, taking in parts of Tokyo she doesn't normally get to, and in all enjoying herself when she gets a call about a monster attack. She ducks into an alley and starts to transform into Sailor Moon when a pipe bursts and sprays her with water right as someone...doesn't collide with her falling from the roof above. The destiny of both Ranma and Usagi has been altered by a random accident that nobody could have planned for or anticipated. Nobody around them is even remotely prepared.

Konatsu pulled his wooden sword and bounced a few more paces away from the youma, "Where are you going, Ranma-sama?"

Ranma was already pelting out of the room, "To get body armor!" he snapped back.

He darted into the next room and leapt into the pool. Body armor, body armor, body armor... ran through his head as he felt the water cover his form. He felt, for the first time, a surge of magic accompanying his transformation, then for no reason that she could at first figure out suddenly shouted out under water, "MOON... AQUA... POWER... ACTIVATE!"

Konatsu had backed far enough away from the monster while goading it onward that he was able to see what Ranma was doing in the next room. Suddenly, both he and the monster recoiled as water blasted from the pool, light and sound sweeping the room.

Ranma was caught up in a strange transformation like she had never experienced before. She somehow knew it was distinct from her usual Jesenkyo curse. She felt her clothes dissolve into magical mist, then felt ribbons brushing her form. She felt the fingerless gloves, the panties and bra, the fuku, the boots, everything form up on her body. She was even more intently aware of something even stranger going on just in front of her chest. She felt magic streaming out of her, but somehow leaving her even more replenished than if she had just taken a nap. Whatever was going on, it was additive, not subtractive. Two distinct colors flowed from her, one white, the other black. It began swirling together, forming the yin/yang symbol that was familiar to any martial artist, but most especially to her thanks to it's unique meaning for her life. It suddenly hardened into what looked like a crystal, then attached itself to her uniform at the join where her sailor sash met just below her neckline.

This all took place in under three seconds and was completely unseen by Konatsu or the monster thanks to the light show. What Konatsu did see was that, launching up from the explosion of water, light, and sound, was Ranma-sama, but not as the ninja had ever seen her before. He gasped in ecstatic surprise, tinged with a hint of girlish jealousy, "Sailor..."

"MOON..." shouted out an enraged Ranma, "CHESTNUT..." her boots slammed down in front of the youma, "STRIKE!" Ranma-ne-Moon's arms became a magically enhanced blur as she began raining blow after blow against the youma. Incredibly, the youma was blocking or deflecting the punches. Sailor Moon bounced away, and the monster lashed out with an unnaturally long reach against both martial artists.

To catch the whole thing before I write the next chapter, check it out on Archive of Our Own.

[tahitianmangoes]

I binged Uncoupled over 2 days which is unheard of for me as I don't usually have the staying power for TV shows and hardly ever binge watch.

I really liked it. I didn't think I would as I'm not a big fan of what I would call white American dramas but I saw that this was written by Darren Star who also write Sex And The City so I had to give it a go. SATC was something I found when I was around 14 on late night Comedy Central and although I couldn't see myself in these white, wealthy (despite what Carrie would have you believe), cis women characters, I was able to relate to aspects of them: a bit of Miranda here, a bit of Charlotte there. Of course it's all pretty dated now but still a comfort show of mine. SATC taught me about sex being normal (not talked about ever in my home), about sex positivity and about the importance of friendship - how friends can be your chosen family. I saw that very clearly in Uncoupled, too.

I loved seeing Jai Rodriguez who I've loved since OG Queer Eye. I think think pretty self aware and a lot of the jokes shouldn't be take at face value for that reason. I like that it focusses on older people and not a bunch of squeaky clean twinks. The male gay community is very often (and unfortunately so) vain; there is an emphasis on being young and skinny and beautiful and I know that exists in media in general but I often feel it's quite toxic in gay male spaces.

What I didn't like about Uncoupled was the lack of diversity which is something I look for in shows. I found the 4 black characters tokenistic at the beginning but I was glad their characters weren't as throw-away as they seemed in the earlier episodes. I do think their character development could have been done sooner, however. And I'm salty that there were 0 Asian characters but ultimately, I knew what the show was.

I've seen a lot of reviews from a few places and the majority seem to come from straight, white, cis women. I see why it would appeal to them as usually, these sorts of characters (queer men) are marketed towards them and often in heteronormative shows, there's a gay best friend getting up to hilarious hijinks somewhere. Always the side character, the comic relief. Many reviews from these people did seem to unfortunately fetishize queer male relationships. Some seemed to come from people who disliked men in general and were unhappy that a show that focussed on gay male relationships had "so many men in it" - I guess they hate women(!) But the majority of the reviews whined about the show. Whined that it wasn't "realistic" because the characters were too rich, too goodlooking, whined that it didn't feel "representative", whined that Michael was a "drama queen". Jesus fucking Christ, was SATC ever realistic or attainable to the majority of it's audience? Was Sam's sex life ever realistic? Were the clothes any of them wore ever attainable to a normal person? Could the apartments they lived in ever be lived in by a person on minimum wage? Was Carrie not over dramatic in every single episode but she was excused because she's a straight woman? We got 6 series of Carrie over reacting (not including the reboot) and she became an icon. It feels like condemning Michael for the same behaviour is perpetuating harmful stereotypes.

Saying the show is not representative of queer relationships is just misinformed. The show is literally written by a queer, Jewish man. How more realistic do you want it to get? Just because you might not understand hook-up culture or you're not a part of it does not mean that it doesn't exist. Just because you don't see yourself 100% in a character does not mean you can't relate on some aspects.

That seems to be what it boils down to. The inability to look at someone "different" and see any part of yourself in there.

Imagine complaining about not being able to see yourself represented in a piece of media, huh? Imagine not everything being for you. Imagine that.

Honestly, as a queer, mixed race, non gender conforming person I'm here to say get a fucking grip. Heteronormative, white relationships have been the norm onscreen FOREVER and Uncoupled, as I already pointed out, doesn't exactly push the envelope of diversity yet the mere mention of gay culture makes some people back away quicker than if they'd picked up a box of cockroaches. It's pathetic.

[commajade]

hey there! odd q but i'm watching the mmtg video with the space sweepers cast bc i came across it in a tag of yours, and i've yet to see the film myself yet (VERY excited to bc it's EXTREMELY up my alley but i want to watch it with a friend who's been busy/brain fried for a while) but bc of what they mention in that interview and me now watching it 'via' you + how you've been talking about techno orientalism recently, i'd be really interested in hearing and #thoughts about the film through that lens if you have any?

esp bc i feel like with the timing of space sweepers being picked up by netflix it falls very easily into being that dynamic of asian culture/land/etc being more valuable bc of it's ability to secure US financial and political interest that you've brought up a lot (me saying asian rather than korean bc it came at the same time of a lot of financial sucsess from other aquisitions of distribution rights for chinese and japanese media from netflix, though undeniably western response to kidol groups and parasite brings a specific appeal to korean works in this context), that imo mirrors media trends(?) like youtube prioritising english comments on korean youtube channels+channels with mostly a korean audience over the past few years to actively try and encourage american viewers to 'korean-appealing' content, but from that interview + what you've talked about wrt the film + what else i've seen about it it's clear that it occupies a different and potentially very new space within a conversation about techno orientalism, so i was wondering what your thoughts might be...... the added context does make this feel more like some kind of homework prompt lmao, if you feel not inclined to not respond to this ask even if you come to the topic later yourself that's totally fair! in any case hope you have a good [insert a time of day] etc ^^

hello!!!!!!!!! thank u for the ask i love talking about this kind of thing!!

lol one simple reason that space sweepers does not fall into that particular pattern is that space sweepers being distributed by netflix is not part of the original marketing and production plan. my dad told me that this was supposed to be the blockbuster of the summer but the pandemic closed all theaters so the release got delayed and then the team had to sell it to netflix to minimize losses. being on netflix is an unfortunate consequence of a really important korean film history moment being experienced in a disappointing way because of the pandemic. it's the FIRST korean futurist space romp, first big budget intergalactic blockbuster action movie it was very disappointing for koreans that it was not shown in every korean theater the way it was meant to.

space sweepers is honestly a very earthy very working class korean coworkers getting into life threatening hijinks kind of film and it was on purpose. there's lots of issues ofc but it's very anti techno orientalism and aware of its place in the narrative. it shows dorothy as a robot or a bomb but she's just a little girl that was supposed to die.

[revchainsaw]

Bumblebee (2018)

Good Evening worshippers, and welcome! Today the Cult of Cult goes a little more mainstream than usual. It's been a while since i've tackled a big Hollywood superhero film. But I do believe that these sorts of films will be remembered fondly my small groups of people in the future, especially the smaller films that are being overshadowed by the big bad MCU, films like 2018s Bumblebee.

The Messsage

Bumblebee was originally released as a prequel to the Transformers franchise that had started all the way back in 2007. However, reboots had really hit the market as a way to breath new life into struggling franchises, and the Transformers series had already gone to just about every absurd extreme you could imagine. No changes were made to the movie as it was released, but with it's more childish and heartfelt tone, and a new aesthetic that was softer, smoother, and all around just generally more pleasing to the eye, I think it was a wise choice to rebrand Bumblebee as a new beginning.

Our story is of two friends from two very different worlds and how they came together. Our first character is Bumblebee, then known as B- number sign/it doesn't really matter. Not yet Bumblebee is a soldier set with securing a safe location for the Autobots to regroup and make their home as they suffer a pretty serious defeat on cybertron at the hands of the tyrannical Decepticons. Optimus Prime, here again voiced by Peter Cullen and looking so much more like himself, assigns this task to Bumblebee promising him that they will meet him there when the time comes. Then Optimus fucks off for the rest of the run time making way for our little hero.

Bumblebee lands on Earth and is immediately set upon by John Cena and his military goon squad. It probably would have been wise for Bumblebee to avoid John Cena but in his defense, he couldn't see him. Hardy har har. In his attempt to flee his voice box is damaged, he seeks sanctuary by taking the form of a run down little VW bug, and suffers from amnesia.

Then we have Charlie. Charlie is not like other girls. She likes cars, all the retro music, which wasn't retro when the movie takes place, so I'm supposed to just think she's a rocker but it kinda seems like she'll listen to just about anything. I think in 2018 liking Motorhead and The Smiths (who are used ad nauseum in this movie) is perfectly common, but I feel like in the 80s that was a much different and much older attitude to take.

Anyway Charlie's poor family lives in a super fucking nice house and are poor because the dialogue keeps insisting they are so it must be true despite all the shit they have that actually poor people would sell blood and teeth to attain, but hell, this is Hollywood and Hollywood poor is like regular people upper middle class. Charlies family is so poor that instead of giving her a one time graduation/birthday present to buy a part for a car she already has, they just give her a moped, She also spends all her time at a pull apart where the manager (who might be her uncle that wasn't super clear) is willing to just give her a Volkswagen so I don't understand why she didn't already have the project car up and running. Whatever, it's a plot contrivance. All you need to know is that Charlie is tenacious and hard around the edges cuz her dad is dead and she's not yet mature enough to process that in a healthy way. Maybe her character arch will teach her to let others in, we'll have to find out.

There's also a wacky nerd named Memo, and some bad guys, and John Cena. They are all also pretty archetypal and contrived and don't really do anything of note that isn't just filling a beat that this kind of movie needs to walk. Charlie starts Bumblebee up, discovers he's a robot and the two begin to bond. Charlie learns to make a friend, and bumblebee is learning about himself. They get into hijinks and get revenge on a bully girl who makes Regina George look like a saint, she pretty much only picks on Charlie exclusively for having a dead dad.

The moment Bumblebee is woken back up, some technology goof em up that both he and Charlie are unaware of brings two Decepticon baddies into the picture. I don't remember their names, but since I love The Venture Brothers let's say they can be "Jet Boy and Jet Girl". Jet Boy and Jet Girl are sometimes cars, sometimes various flying military vehicles, and they make friends with the deep state and plan to get all the adrenochrome from all the orphans, or just to go find Bumblebee and beat his ass good cuz their bad guys. Let me tell y'all though, Jet Boy and Jet Girl are so bad that they don't even care that the government is listening when they reveal that they are planning on bringing a Decepticon Invasion and after they rough up Bumblebee real good they are going to destroy all life on this planet. So they start by killing a military scientist.

John Cena is after Bumblebee and he's homies with Jet Boy and Jet Girl until the military scientist butt dials him and he hears the evil plan. John Cena goes from heel to face and helps Bumblebee and Charlie save the day. It's a giant CG clusterfuck climax a la any superhero film in the last 10 years and I basically stopped watching. BumbleBee pulls a Hellraiser on Jet Boy, and then he hits Jet Girl with a freaking boat. Charlie uses her diving skills do dive down and save him, but he's a Giant Robot and he was okay and it was literally pointless for her to to except as a way to show that her character has completed her arch by doing the thing that was representative of her connection with her lost father.

Bumblebee turns into the Camaro from the first movie, meets up with Optimus prime, and the stage is set for this prequel to squeeze more prequels out. So it wasn't very creative, but was it bad? Let's find out.

Please Stand to receive the Benediction.

Best Aspect: Transform the Franchise

Bumblebee was directed by Travis Knight of Laika fame and it shows. This movie marks a stylistic change in the transformers franchise, as in it doesn't look like utter dog shit, but it also represents in many ways a tonal shift. It does hold on to a lot of gross sleaze that has unfortunately been forcibly jammed into the DNA of the franchise but it also attempts to be a more heartfelt entry. The characters of Bumblebee might all be sort of a waste of time, but at least they are doing something with emotions, even if the emotions of the characters are only explored as deeply as a children's cartoon I'm glad they are there. In the previous installments the only thing the characters did between running from action piece to seizure inducing action piece was drool over underage girls like a bunch of chimpanzees at the facility where they test experimental E.D. meds. It was nice to see that at least somewhat tampered. This transformers movie feels more like it's for kids and young teenagers, and strangely that more friendly tone makes for a much less juvenile product.

Worst Aspect: Remember I Love the 80s from the 2000s

I hope you really like Stranger Things. I do, but because Stranger Things was so successful it' s going to be everywhere. Not true Stranger Things just 80s nostalgia porn. This 80s nostalgia is going to be forced on you whether you like it or not, and it's not going to be fun. It's gonna be in your shows, in your music, in your Sunday like Bacon in 2010. It's that or Marvel Franchise Brand Whedonisms. Bumblebee is that brave movie that says, "Why not both?" It would seem fitting that a property as quintessentially 80s as Transformers should feel completely comfortable doing a period piece set in the 80's but it's so fucking half hearted it's depressing. It wasn't done to appreciate the roots of the IP, it was done to cash in on a trend and it feels it. All they did was throw up a date and insufferably force an 80s soundtrack down your throat as if that was enough to convince you that this movie needed to be set during this time. Other than that you could have told me this film was set in 2007 and I couldn't tell you any different.

Best Character: Charlie's an Angel

I liked Charlie. Sure her Arc is predictable, her taste is dumb, and she isn't exactly a master of her own destiny to any degree. But at least she is a woman in a transformers movie who's got something going on. Sure she's defined entirely by grief, but that sure is better than pretending that being able to work on cars is a feminist character trait instead of a weird fetish thing. They certainly do that thing with Charlie, but at least it's not the only thing they throw at the wall. Bumblebee is by no means out of the woods in this department, but it garners a lot of goodwill for trying. Like a racist uncle who just started his journey out of ignorance, but hasn't yet realized he has to stop asking mortifying questions to the barista at Starbucks. Okay, maybe that's an extreme metaphor. I'm saying that perhaps Charlie is not a great character but she's a great character for a Transfomers movie.

Worst Character: It's JOOOOHHHNNNN CEEEENA!!!!

Why is John Cena in this movie? I don't hate the guy, but his character seems pointless. You could remove him from the movie completely and replace him with any one of the random military goons at any point and it changes nothing. What was with that dumb salute at the end? It seems like they put him in this movie in post and it was just to pump up cast list. I wish he was given anything to work with. I can't remember his characters name, and it's not like John Cena did a bad job, I was just annoyed every time they kept giving him hero shots. I felt like I was watching a trailer for a different movie.

Best Actor: Optimal Primo!

Every time Peter Cullen speaks I want to listen. There's a reason they haven't had Chris Pratt or somebody with a bigger name come in and take over the role at this point. He's why the audience keep coming back. Peter Cullen IS Optimus Prime, and there's no changing that. He also wins twice. He's the best actor in the movie AND he's barely in the movie. Good call Peter.

Worst Actor: Mean Girls 2, Meaner and Girlier

I don't want to be cruel so I'm not going to go into to much detail, but there's an actress in this film who's performance is so mustache twirlingly evil and stupid that it ruined my suspension of disbelief when i knew going in that i was about to endure a 2 hour toy commercial about robots that turn into cars. Beldar Conehead was a more convincing human being than Tina.

Best Effect: Goo Be Gone

I really appreciated when the bad guys shot the government nerd into a blast of snot. That was pretty fun for me. Best part of the movie hands down.

Worst Effect: Live Action?

Bumblebee is a cartoon. It's a great looking cartoon but it doesn't sell itself that way. If we were doing a Roger Rabbit thing I'd have no gripes. However, I think CG is just getting worse. I'm criticizing this and it's still lightyears better than the previous entry's on the franchise. No transformation or fight sequence in Bumble Bee had me straining to make sense of what I was looking at. I think it was a great idea to start using some basic shapes and outlines to these characters, and return somewhat to their 80s designs. But at certain points, especially when there were no humans in the shot, i was pretty convinced I was watching Clone Wars. There may not be anyway around this, as the Transformers concept might not be able to be pulled off in any more effective manner. It's a minor gripe, but I just didn't think it looked like anything other than a very expensive cartoon, and in this franchise that's a compliment, because it least it looked like SOMETHING!

Best Scene: Space Opera

I am not a Transformers fan. I missed the boat on the cartoon as a kid. I would sometimes catch it at friends houses but I was more into Batman, Star Wars, and Ninja Turtles. By the time I came onto the scene the world had moved on to Beast Wars. I did one day arbitrarily decide that my favorite Transformer was Sound Wave. He looked great in this. I am a big fan of the return to form with a lot of the character designs in this. They really did keep the things that worked from the other adaptations, and they are steadily removing the things that didn't. For this reason, the scenes on Cybertron, particularly the battle with Soundwave (i prefer for personal reasons) looked great and were exciting to watch. I remember thinking Cybertron used to look like a Marilyn Manson shot a music video from inside to dumpster. This is so much better.

Worst Scene: Blocking the Box

There's a scene in Bumblebee where Charlie's family decides the best way to save their daughter was to cause a pile up of vehicles in an intersection, and it's pure contrived writing that saved any character in that sequence from being killed in a horrific traffic accident. It was stupid, played for laughs, and it wasn't exciting as much as it was anxiety inducing. I also thought that there was no reason the covert military group covering up extraterrestrial life wouldn't just disappear this family of fucking morons in their little piece of shit car. The logic of the scene was just so childish like, "No they won't hit me, I'm a good person."

Summary

Bumblebee may be remembered fondly in a decade. I think especially if the Transformers franchise were to end here. It didn't get the publicity of the other films, and that really is a shame. For my money, this was the best Transformers movie so far. I was very tempted to give Bumblebee a C, it does just enough to right what was wrong from the other movies to make me appreciate all that work. This movie has heart, and if you are at all into Transformers then l think you should see it. It's still pretty stupid, and pretty basic. It's not offering anything new to the genre, and it feels like a commercial for more movies. I really wish we could just get movies that want to tell a story. I thought it over and decided that it wasn't fair not to grade Bumblebee on it's own merits. Bumblebee is substantially better than the films that preceded it, but that's not saying a lot, when the films that preceded it are joyless exercises in self abuse.

Overall Grade: D

[hallmark-movie-fanatics]

'Wedding March 5': Josie Bissett & Jack Wagner on Olivia and Mick Being 'Two Feet In'

By Meredith Jacobs June 06, 2019

Mick and Olivia are back, and their relationship is better than ever in My Boyfriend's Back: Wedding March 5 on the Hallmark Channel.

Jack Wagner and Josie Bissett reprise the roles they played in four previous installments, and their characters are ready to celebrate an important milestone: the 25th anniversary of their first date. But those plans aren't without hijinks, and it's far from a drama-free time at the inn.

Wedding planner Annalise (Cindy Busby) wants to use a wedding at the inn to woo investors for her own company, but the best man of the ceremony turns out to be her ex-boyfriend, Brad (Tyler Hynes). Can Mick and Olivia help those two find their way back to each other?

TV Insider spoke with Wagner and Bissett to find out what to expect from one of Hallmark's June Weddings movies.

Going back to when you two signed on for the first Wedding March movie, what drew you to your characters and the love story between them?

Jack Wagner: I'm an executive producer, so I developed the story, so I just thought it was a very cool, little idea. I took a little from my past, my own personal life of being a pop star in the '80s and then thought it was cute to have these college sweethearts that actually were musical together and wrote songs. And then he took off 'cause he had an opportunity for a record deal and a band and a tour and then that relationship lost itself.

Then they find one another again at the wedding lodge, and it just set up for this, "Oh my gosh, they have all of these unresolved feelings, they're all still there, and let's see where this goes." I thought it was really fun and charming how they tried to suppress their feelings and then by the end of the movie, they really couldn't. They had to come out. She broke off the engagement and then eventually moved up to the lodge and that opened up for this journey of these two characters.

That was the goal, to create a story that would be charming and engaging enough that the audience would want to join along and see where their journey goes.

Josie Bissett: The very first Wedding March was our absolute favorite one out of all of them, except I have to say number five was a close second, right, Jack?

Wagner: Yeah, for sure.

Bissett: I just really was excited to, number one, do a movie with Jack, and number two, my character was just something different that I'd never really gotten to play a lot, just a romantic comedy, more light-hearted, so I just really enjoyed that aspect of it.

Now that you’ve done five movies, what do you still love about these characters and their story and what has surprised you about them after playing them multiple times?

Wagner: I love that he is persistent. I love that when he's passionate about something, he really goes after it, right? He sometimes is like a bull in a china shop, which I think is part of his charm, his flaws.

By Wedding March 5 now, we really see more of the development of the love between the two characters of Olivia and Mick, something I believe that has evolved. I think they've grown. That's what I really had hoped for the whole franchise, that the audience looks forward to that and we were able to play it out long enough where we really get that payoff in Wedding March 5 by the end of it. Where these characters had grown and how they've evolved together, with a very deep love and understanding of one another.

With a lot of comedy, too. It's a really cute movie. It's really charming and funny how we set it all up.

Bissett: I would have to say it's my favorite character I've played in my career. It's where I'm at in my life and playing just a character that has a daughter and has been married and in relationships that I resonate with. I would just say she's grown like every other human grows and we get to watch all the characters in the five Wedding Marches grow and evolve and watch their relationships grow and evolve, and what I love about playing Olivia is the real aspect of it.

It seems that going into this fifth movie that Mick and Olivia's relationship is settled, they're settled into their professional lives. Last we saw, he gave her a promise ring. The inn seems to be doing well. Do you think everything is very stable for them at the moment?

Wagner: Yes, I do. What I love about these movies is that the obstacles that they face are really very real to the audience. Every couple faces these things, right? That's what I believe gives the characters their charm and it gives the movies their charm, especially the other leads, the wedding couples and what happens with the storyline outside of just Mick and Olivia.

It's really about the obstacles and how those obstacles, how clumsily they're addressed, the problems that you face with it, the mistakes everybody makes. But ultimately, how you overcome the problems, and hopefully by the end of it, you have a real loving, kind of charming solution.

What can you say about the new couple, Annalise and Brad? What do Mick and Olivia see of themselves and their relationship in them?

Wagner: I think they see a lot of what they faced. I have scenes with Brad, Olivia has scenes with Annalise, just giving advice. And what we also see is that with the advice they give, Mick and Olivia are coming to an understanding themselves. The more they talk about it, the more they help the other characters, the more they realize, "Wow, we're really lucky. We've got something really special here together," and that's what really gives us our payoff at the end of Wedding March 5.

We know Mick and Olivia are going to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their first date. Even though they were apart for some time, what does it mean for them to have that milestone?

Wagner: They had to basically re-introduce, relearn, not only who they were as a couple but individually. I think it was a real growth. Every movie is primarily about obstacles and the growth of overcoming those obstacles. That's what I think has really been the core to both characters and how to deal with those obstacles and by the end of the movie, there's some sort of loving solution, hopefully.

Bissett: Hopefully? What do you mean? It's Hallmark.

Wagner: I'm trying to leave it so there's some sort of cliffhanger.

Bissett: What's really adorable about this particular movie is the planning that both of them have going on, not realizing that the other one is doing the same thing and thinking there's no way that they'd remember. Each of them is planning something very special and put time into it and it's very heartfelt in the end, which the audience will see. It's also really cute the way the character Duke is caught in between. It's really fun. It turned out really good.

Wagner: And what's different about this movie is that Mick has always been the one pushing everything, planning and doing, and what's so lovely is that Olivia acknowledges that and says, "Mick's always been the one. I really want to ... "

So, by the time it all does happen, where they really come together with their little surprises, it's so charming and loving that we see Olivia has gone two feet in and her trying to do something really, really lovely for Mick. I think both Josie and I just naturally felt the emotion and the love in our performances. It took maybe 10 hours to shoot this scene, a long day, but I don't think there was one take where we weren't connected and really feeling this place where the characters were in that they were really two feet in together.

Bissett: Throughout these last five movies, Olivia has been the one to want to take it slow and be careful. She was engaged to someone else when she first met Mick in that very first movie, so she wants to just be sure and cautious and take her time. You could tell this movie that she's really ready to dive into this relationship with Mick and open her heart and isn't afraid anymore.

SOURCE:

https://www.tvinsider.com/784110/my-boyfriends-back-wedding-march-5-josie-bissett-jack-wagner/