#It's almost like you can look past some funky animation for the sake of the characters/plot/storytelling

[is-that-sand-in-my-waffles]

the whole "I couldn't get into Rebels because of the animation" excuse irks the heck out of me because. You certainly seem to have gotten into The Clone Wars despite the Quality of the pilot/seasons 1-2 animation.

[taggerbug]

tell me why I just saw a post about how some modern animation fans refuse to watch tales of Arcadia because it's 3D??

Listen, I understand the knee-jerk reaction to cgi animation. If you've followed me for any period of time, you know I am That Guy. I don't like most modern 3D productions because they tend to place technical achievement over any kind of artistic or narrative value, thus sacrificing the potential of cgi for an impression that all new 3D pieces are cash cows created solely for maximizing profit. It's very easy to find my criticism of The Mouse and my praise for studios that get it right, like Cartoon Saloon and Laika Studios. I have an instinctive distrust of 3D animation for fear that I'll watch it and find out it's actually a soulless waste of time meant only to sell merchandise.

Which is why I was so impressed that Tales Of Arcadia isn't like that!

The focus in ToA animation isn't realism, but artistic advancement! Characters are clearly stylized and have funky designs. The textures are detailed and refined, but not to the point where you wonder why they didn't just film it in live action. The lighting and color theory is phenomenal. This is gorgeous animation for THE SAKE OF gorgeous animation.

Perhaps most importantly, the writing is very good. It's not perfect, but it's pretty damn good, especially for a kid's show. ToA very much achieves the effect of reaching an older audience than it was meant for. To an adult viewer, the story is not only enjoyable but thoughtful. The characters face real consequences, most of which are permanent. Small actions have huge repercussions later on. Imperceptible details lay the foundation for incredibly clever foreshadowing. Is there filler? Sure, like any children's show! But at least the filler has meaning and is used for character development. By and large, the writing in ToA is refreshingly good.

There's also the obligatory name-drop of its creator, Guillermo del Toro, the visionary behind movies like The Shape of Water and Pan's Labyrinth and legendary proponent of hot monster characters. His hand in the ToA trilogy is very apparent and lends a rich undercurrent to the narrative that, frankly, most animated shows nowadays don't have. For that matter, the genuine appreciation and talent of the entire crew really shines through in every episode through the attention to detail and artistic innovation.

If you've read all that and haven't been put off... here's a summary of the trilogy! Its genre can best be approximated as "science fantasy", and includes the shows Trollhunters, 3Below, and Wizards in that order (as well as a feature film coming in 2021 called Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans)!

Trollhunters begins with Jim Lake Jr., our protagonist, inheriting the role and title of Trollhunter - a chosen warrior who is bound for life to protect "good" trolls from Gunmar the Black, a troll warlord who was banished to a realm called the Darklands with his army. Meanwhile, Gunmar's vicious son Bular roams free in the world of men with the singular purpose of killing Trollhunters and looking for ways to bring his father back to Earth. Jim has only the Amulet of Daylight, which gives him magical armor and a sword, and a couple of overeager troll mentors to protect him as he struggles to navigate his new duties alongside typical teenage shenanigans and supporting his single mom, Barbara. It begins as a fairly typical "teenage hero with a secret identity" plot but quickly grows past that and introduces interesting new twists and characters. The writing is especially strong in this one, and it's beautifully cinematic.

3Below begins off-world, on an alien planet called Akiridion-5. The main characters, Aja and Krel, are children of the king and queen, who are almost immediately overthrown in a military coup led by the previously exiled General Morando. Aja and Krel are forced to flee to Earth with their badly wounded parents and a bodyguard, and have to try to blend in with human society and avoid intergalactic bounty hunters while they wait for their parents to heal. The real strength of this show, in my opinion, is how it explores the characters' relationships with each other and the metaphor of Aja and Krel being immigrants. It's handled very well.

Finally, released only yesterday at the time of writing, we come to Wizards. Wizards focuses more on expanding the concepts introduced in Trollhunters, and continues to put the protagonists in extremely difficult situations as previously introduced characters are fleshed out and given a chance to develop. Despite a controversial ending, Wizards was by and large an utter delight to watch - the animation in Tales of Arcadia somehow improves from series to series (even though Trollhunters sets a high bar to begin with), and you can clearly see that progress in the absolutely stunning composition and execution in Wizards.

I can't wait for the feature film Rise of the Titans next year. Tales of Arcadia not only delivers a solid narrative, but also lays the groundwork for expansive fan exploration in a richly detailed universe that manages to tie together mythological creatures, aliens, and high fantasy spellcasters in one world and one story. If you're on the fence about 3D animation, I can say with authority that you should give Trollhunters a try. Watch the first season and see what you think. You won't regret it.

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Deca-Dence 4 | Maou-jou 2 | Fruits Basket 2 24 (49) | Magatsu 1 | IWGP 2 | Koi to Producer 11 - 12 (FINAL) | HypMic 3

Still chugging away at these summer and spring anime...sorry for the delay...(LOL, that rhymed without me meaning to.)

Also, I’ve been on the fence about whether to keep Golden Kamuy, since almost no one I read the reviews of follows it now and it’s a week’s wait (when accounting for my AniList challenge)...so I’m putting it on pause so I don’t have to suffer later.

Deca-Dence 4

“…who possesses the will to fight.”

…Great. Kurenai is absolutely tethered to Kaburagi in a one-sided love. Just when I thought Natsume had an independent role model to look up to.

Maou-jou 2

Oh, this is from Shonen Sunday? Didn’t know that until now.

“Demon Shroud: A demon with 99 clans. A cloth demon that puts on airs that it won’t be used before it’s finished off, due to its wonderful fabric. It is full of beautiful ghostly power, so its skin is smooth. However, the hero (who commonly uses things he finds in his surroundings) caught one, so now the princess has zeroed in on them. The princess doesn’t need the hands or the head of these demons, so it’s a cycle of killing and taking revenge for them. Their fighting style is squeezing the life out of things.”

Apparently, the teddy is acceptable, LOL.

I like how the window stopped displaying text at one point.

I saw someone with a huge plait in the ED. The queen, maybe…?

I noticed the laughs dropped off significantly in comparison to last time, but it’s still good. I can flex my translation skills even if I can’t laugh at one part.

Fruits Basket 2 24 (49)

…jumping to the 2nd-last episode in a season is pretty unprecendented, but I’m going to watch this for the sake of Jon’s Creator Showcase…then again, I need to finish this anime anyway, so it’s just cutting and changing the order for something I already know the outcomes of.

I used to lose myself in movies so much that I would lose all sense of who I was and would have to “regain the bearings of myself”, so to speak. I would have to reconstruct who I was, even though I technically hadn’t “been broken” and I knew once I did that, it felt different. Like I’d travelled through time and past me would never be the same as present me. That’s why I kind of get what Machi means.

Oh, I didn’t listen to this OP much…probably because I’m emphasising bingeing the spring and summer series I left behind and now that I can skip the ads on most of my anime, I’m leaving behind the anime I’ll be slower on.

The manga was written when there weren’t as many cell phones around, much less smartphones.

Rin’s on bad terms with everyone…

…if I remember the year of the dragon correctly, the last one was 2012, then the one before that is 2000…around the turn of the millennium, huh? Froob is showing its age here, albeit unintentionally.

Now that I’m closer to the Musketeers’ age, I can kind of empathise with their scenes a bit more.

“If I always blame someone or something, I’ll never change.” – True. I realised I’ve been a bit too haughty lately (what with the HypMic anime going on and it being the first thing I could research extensively before the anime’s debut, my feelings are of course reaching fever pitch – combine that with continued COVID lockdown and you get me being all defensive of HypMic, for better or for worse) and so I may have acted like a jerk to someone, but since I only know them online and generally when I try to apologise to people online they don’t see the things I apologise for as things in need of apology, I know the fault lies with me to rein myself in. I guess this means changing yourself is the only way to move forward.

I wonder how Hatori did his doctor training while avoiding hugs from girls who aren’t Sohmas…?

Shigure vs. Gentaro (of HypMic, of course)…a writing competition! That would be fun.

…Crow’s note here makes sense (<- this is why I changed the order). Shigure was clearly asking a question there.

Come to think of it, HypMic and Froob have some similar characters. The stoic doctor is Hatori/Jakurai, the energetic smol one is Momiji/Ramuda, the teasing author is Shigure/Gentaro…that could make for some good fanfic material, really.

Magatsu 1

…that title is an absolute killer, man. Anyways, I’m here for the director, who also worked on Hataraku Maou-sama.

Is this a no guns thing, like IWGP is a no drugs thing?

…this OP has lyrics?! I just hear strange squeaky noises, the kind you hear on some autotuned sogs to make them seem more ominous (I can’t remember if there’s a similar sound in G-Anthem of Y City or Yokohama Walker, but one of the MTC songs has similar noises).

I kinda guessed Leo’s package was the one Schaake and her partner were looking for. I was right.

That CGI (on the truck) is…kinda conspicuous.

These backgrounds are gorgeous.

“The definition of in dubio contra reum is "in doubt, against the accused", meaning that, where there is doubt, the accused in a trial is not given the benefit of that doubt; they are assumed guilty.”

I wonder: how many protagonists start out as absolute wimps, unwilling to fight because they either know or don’t know their own power? It’s a pretty standard introduction for things with fights.

This battle track is nice. I listened to some of the Magatsu music under Masaru Yokoyama’s name on Spotify and it’s pretty cool, but since it’s background music, there’s not a lot of demand to listen to it (from me or anyone else, I don’t think).

Why is there only a single shield if they know the enemy has heavy artillery?

…what the heck is a Zeits? Update: You can see a “Zeits” (or however it’s spelt) in the credits list, suggesting Zeits is a character in this.

I knew this was my last premiere and this might have made or broken my entire watching schedule, but this is just a pretty down-to-earth premiere for a fantasy mobile game. While that cliffhanger compelled me to continue, I don’t think it’s good enough to beat its competition in the long run.

IWGP 2

I know I said Magatsu was my last premiere, but just to be sure, I’m watching this one.

This dance scene is beautifully orchestrated. The fact there’s no music means you focus entirely on the motion.

The OP seems to trade more in colour and spectacle than actual “cool factor”.

…wow, $2.90…? That’s some cheap food.

You know I hate 1st person cam with a passion, right? So…uh…

Eyyyyyyyy…this is basically McDonald’s, curry style.

I think I can almost see Ichiro of HypMic in how the G-Boys seem to mostly be reformed delinquents or actual delinquents.

…yeah, but what’s your name, random messenger guy? Update: We find out later his name is Isogai.

“It’s because I suck at working and communicating.” – Yep, that me.

Ikebukuro licence plate. I still have no idea exactly what places get licence plates in Japan.

There are actually 2 characters before “Hospital”, but no one confirms the reading of those characters…which is probably why they’re omitted.

…oh gosh, if this were a BL, Mitsuki and Masaru would be star-crossed lovers…*sigh*

Maybe it’s an unrelated 3rd party??? (In mysteries, you can never dismiss the work of a 3rd party.)

You can tell exactly which group is which based on the colours they wear. Makoto isn’t affiliated with anyone, so he’s wearing black and had yellow earlier.

I think an anime is cowardly – or trying to save budget – if they deliberately choose an angle where they can’t show the moment of impact clearly.

E! News, LOL.

Archangel, huh? So like a 2nd in command?

I think IWGP is moving in the direction of pushing the gangs against each other in the way Makoto describes in ep. 2.

As for what I think of it now, it's decent if you want something down-to-earth, but it seems to be missing some kind of "wow factor". Like it's afraid to commit to deeper characterisation, even though it has Makoto as the ostensible lead/viewpoint character.

Koi to Producer 11

“Cognitive Science Association” - I thought it was the Cognitive Psychology Association…? (Psychology is shinrigaku, science is kagaku.)

My boy (Lucien)…why must you be so evil??? Why do I keep falling for the tall but mysterious doctor??? (<- guilty as charged re: Jakurai)

…that’s some funky seatbelts.

What’s that look in Victor’s eyes…? Fondness, or something more…?

…ah, so there is “Science” in the place’s name. It was just being less loosely translated then.

Oh dang. Stuff escalated really fast, huh?

You actually set this in 2020, huh, staff? What happens ten years from now and people watch it, only to realise 2020 and 2030 aren’t so different? That’s what happened when people had the Y2K bug.

That yellow sign on the side says “exit”. It’s not of any use.

That’s not a recoloured Kiro, is it? It’s not Shaw, either (who I think we saw somewhere in the previous episodes)…so then who is it?

…geesh, they even changed Helios to Ares. I guess it makes sense: Helios is the god of the sun, but Ares is the god of war.

Koi to Producer 12 (FINAL)

I read on the wiki Lucien’s power is copying powers. No wonder I couldn’t get a solid handle on it!

So that Helios wasn’t a mistake in the credits list in the previous episode???

Can we even hear what Helios says when Protag-chan is pulled away? Based on the lack of subs, probably no, but I wanted to ask anyway. (Or maybe he said “Watashi”, since that’s the pronoun Protag-chan goes by?)

…so that really is Kiro, huh?

Military…what? When did Protag-chan’s father have a military squad???

LOL, at the very end you can see Gavin gesturing at Greenie (the pot plant, presumably a succulent). I logged on to the game 7 days straight (they have a Discord channel!) and got a Gavin R card with Greenie on it, which is how I know about it.

Anyways, that was a fun show. Not the best, but still fun.

HypMic 3

*snickers* Just look at my boi! He’s so tall, he has to bend down for kids! (I don’t mean that teasingly, I mean that endearingly, but lately I’ve been no good at expressing myself…Must be the lockdown.)

If TsudaKen was a guest last time, then Degarashi and Irihatoma could be voiced by guest seiyuus too…

What is Jakurai, hmm? (A Transformer, LOL?...I’m kidding, of course.)

All I knew about this episode going in was that it was an MTR episode. Maybe they’ll cover the stalker story from the manga…?

More literally, Hifumi’s sign says “will you monopolise me until morning?”. This reminds me of the MTR truck one of the servers I was in was talking about…it looked like a giant billboard.

“The most notable thing about Doppo is that he has no notable characteristics.”…and yet, he’s still one of the most popular characters of the series.

Suddenly, HypMic becomes a mystery…? I’ll take it!

Yup, “Doppomine” is now confirmed as “Doppo-chin”.

If all the mysteries I’ve consumed say one thing, it’s “never forget there might be someone out there with a grudge against you willing to pin a crime on you”…or alternatively, “never forget there may be an unrelated 3rd party who would be willing to pin a crime on you”.

These guys (Tom etc.) are just food critics, I swear…(LOL)

Oddly enough(?), googling “Shinjuku waffles” reveals there are several waffle places in Shinjuku…you wouldn’t expect so many waffles away from the home of waffles (probably Belgium), but there you go.

All the results on Shinjuku French toast point to this Café Aaliya (give or take an H at the end). Apparently, it’s so popular, people line up for it on weekdays.

Oh, so Tom’s a (street) photographer…what are Iris and Rex then?

The CGI on that car looks really bad, man. It may be dark to disguise it, but it still looks bad.

Jakurai’s dad car strikes again!...Was it white? I don’t remember, but I’m pretty sure it was a lighter colour than this.

I was quite worried about how much swearing they were going to throw in the MTC episode, but then…they kicked it down a week. So…start worrying about next week, folks!

I…thought he would call Jyuto for some reason. (giggles) I’ve never seen Samatoki look so happy in relation to Jakurai, but maybe that’s because he’s just chilling. (Or maybe he was meant to have a neutral but slightly happy face and they messed up the angle. I know I do that sometimes in fanart.)

There’s Jyuto, right on cue…LOL, that kick to the guts was so random it became epic!

Uwabami…what sort of snake is that, again? *checks* Giant snake. That’s no help. (That host could have a guest seiyuu too.)

Ooh, I’m fairly sure that’s an automatic car.

Jakurai went Jitsu wa kyoumi bukai desu ne?. “Fascinating” isn’t a wrong translation, but they did forget “In fact…” or “Really…” from the start and possibly the “?” at the end (depending on interpretation). Update: It might actually be Jitsu ni, but same deal.

They struttin’ down Kabuki-cho all fancy-like…Doppo sure does get a lot of punchlines, though.

This random guy at the club could also have a guest seiyuu…

…what’s with the random Tahoma?

…oh, hey. If Hifumi’s jacket acts as a security blanket of sorts against women and he gave it to Doppo for extra warmth (presumably), then…he’s trying to protect Doppo, even in his own sort of unique way.

Mimimi vs Hifumi? This is gonna get confusing…(hey, did they actually make a flourish noise when Hifumi put on his jacket? Does the distinction need to be that clear…?)

…see, never forget the presence of an unrelated 3rd party.Wait, so we have motive…what’s the relationship of Mimimi and the dude she killed? Who is that dude? Update: We find out later.

Notice Mimimi says “Hifumi-kun” – she’s still on an outside layer compared to Doppo, who just uses Hifumi’s name. Also, I noticed Mimimi called herself Hifumi’s “onna” – “woman” – explicitly, as if she belonged to him. The subs reflect that, but it seems to have less meaning in English because they outright translated it as such.

Well, they got to demonstrate Doppo’s snapping. I’m more than happy with just that. Also, Hifumi calls Doppo with a -kun here.

LOL, this song is gonna be known as “catchy”, ain’t it? Anything with an easy-to-sing-along chorus like “nananana” is. Update: Or maybe not even a chorus, it’s just lyrics.

Hmm…I noticed the “use Mr with me” line isn’t actually reflected in the subs, but the lyrics are so fast, I don’t know how they are reflected.

Did you notice the da in the lyrics in romaji?

…and s*** goes ka-blooey, as you’ve come to expect by now.

Mimimi-kun…?

Oh, so the background from Hypnosis Mics can get caught in photos? I never thought of that.

It’s almost as if they’re nodding at the Doppo fans through the 4th wall regarding his appeal.

It seems they’re not switching out this Buster Bros track, which is…okay, but I was hoping for an MTR ED. (Tofubeats was on this track IIRC and the anime website didn’t list a future ED, so that’s why I’m okay with it.)

…Okay, so Irihatoma is Mutsumi Iwanaka, who’s a rookie in the seiyuu world. *goes to consult Anime News Network*

Oh! Mimimi Hibakari! I get it! (It means “me, me, me all day” when written differently to her name.)

Uwabami was Shugo Nakamura and Degarashi was Mitsuaki Hoshino. I’ve never heard of these guys – except for Nakamura’s role as Teru in Idolm@ster Side M – so it’s interesting they contrasted TsudaKen with them…eh? Heilong? Whossat? (Probably the guy whose…parts…almost got crushed by Jakurai with a billiards cue.) This Hiroya Eto is even more underground than those guys.

A-hah! Today’s new song is “WELCOME U” (that’s how it’s spelt, don’t diss me for it!) by Kohei from SIMONSAYZ.

Update: I thought that kid at the beginning was Yotsutsuji, so it scared me for a second.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 003: Superhero Academy Entrance Exam

Chapter 3 of my not-actually-live liveblog of Boku no Hero Academia! And I have to say, this one is my favorite chapter so far. We’ve got new characters, we’ve got weird video game point challenges, and we’ve got a new crowning moment of awesome for our protagonist! All this, and a guy with the power of jeans. What more could I ask for in life.

Notes: As of posting this I’ve read up through chapter 6 of the manga and watched episodes 1-5 of the anime. My comments (aside from ETAs), however, are from my initial readthrough of the chapter and are unedited. And despite residing here on tumblr where BnHA is a trending tag like every week, I somehow continue to remain almost totally unspoiled (boy that feels like I’m jinxing it).

hey it’s some random speech bubbles just spitting out facts about U.A.! how convenient and helpful

damn, they only accept 1 in 300 people... that’s a 0.33% acceptance rate. I’m pretty sure even Harvard accepts like 5 or 6% of its applicants, so this is... yikes

All Might magnanimously declined the People’ Choice Award lmao

“Best Jeanist.” oh my god. for years I’ve thought Eiichiro Oda was hands-down the best mangaka when it came to creating off-the-wall new characters. but this character’s name is Best Jeanist and he’s wearing a turtleneck denim jacket and has onion hair and I just. I don’t know anymore. my world is shook

what makes it better is the implication that there are other jeanists out there. but he is the best

so much the best that he’s won the best jeanist award eight years running

what is his power?? jeans??

shout out to this other guy Endeavor who I’m completely ignoring because he had the misfortune to be standing next to my homeboy Best Fucking Jeanist

Deku actually went home and took a shower and packed and then got on the subway for a forty-minute ride. holy shit this kid is cool under pressure. probably took a fucking nap on the train too

DID HE EAT THE HAIR??? I ASSUME YES? GODDAMMIT THIS IS BULLSHIT TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED RIGHT NOW

is this the school? I like the trees just chilling out in the entrance lobby there

“there was no time to test out the power All Might had given to me” -- fjkalsjdfj ARE YOU SERIOUS

THEN WHY DIDN’T YOU IDIOTS DO THIS LAST WEEK

YOU COULD HAVE PACKED THE NIGHT BEFORE

THE SHOWER IS FINE, SHOWERS ARE IMPORTANT, BUT YOU COULD HAVE DONE IT FASTER

HE DOESN’T EVEN KNOW IF THE HAIR ACTUALLY DID ANYTHING?? YOU SPENT THE PAST 10 MONTHS BUILDING UP TO THIS? YOU WERE CARRYING THAT BALL FOR TEN FUCKING MONTHS ONLY TO DROP IT THREE FUCKING HOURS BEFORE THE EXAM SFKSHLHK I’M FUCKING LOSING IT

I DON’T CARE IF HE’LL OBVIOUSLY BE FINE, I NEED SOMEONE TO GO AND SMACK HIM PLEASE

-- OH LOOK IT’S MY PROBLEMATIC FAVE

HOLY SAVAGE FUCK THAT “IGNORE + WALK PAST” WAS OFF THE FUCKING CHARTS

“ever since that day, Kaachan never tormented me again”

the answer is yes, right? no? are you sure?? damn

wow they still remember the sludge monster and call it the “sludge incident”

here I was thinking this kind of shit happened on the daily in this crazy superheroes&supervillains society, but I guess some incidents are more memorable than others

also it’s nice that he stopped harassing Green Tsuna, but when my previous (I shouldn’t say “previous”, actually... more like “still current”) favorite Gokudera “GOAT” Hayato had his life saved by his protagonist, he not only stopped tormenting him, but he immediately swore his eternal fealty and dedicated his life to serving him, so that’s a pretty high bar. I will give Baku the benefit of the doubt, though

I’m still obviously on board this ship, as evidenced by the fact that Deku thought “I gotta stop flinching instinctively” and I was like “aww they’ll be lovers any day now”

I don’t understand it either

hey hello I’m cracking up in real life here

wow I thought he was gonna fall and that was hilarious, but instead he’s somehow just... floating there? which is somehow even MORE hilarious

HEY A NEW CHARACTER. [takes notes]

WHY ARE YOU SORRY FOR STOPPING HIM IT WAS A NICE THING TO DO

“[SMILES BROADLY] THIS SURE IS NERVE-WRACKING!” HEY I’M SORRY, BEST JEANIST, BUT YOU CAN FUCK RIGHT OFF, THIS IS MY NEW NEW FAVE

HIGH FIVE, GREEN TSUNA. YOU’RE DOING GREAT

“Everybody say hey” this motherfucker better be saying this in fucking English goddamit. (ETA: he is!! yessssssssss)

nobody said hey

“well that’s cool.” nice recovery! gamfuckingbatte you funky boombox man

YEEEEEEAH

nobody said yeah

my god this is a tough crowd. the practical test could just be warming these stone-cold motherfuckers up and it would 100% explain the abysmally low acceptance rate

I love how Deku talks to himself all the fucking time. I want to watch movies with him. we’ll both talk quietly while trying not to annoy people and probably not succeeding.

they’re sitting next to each other oh my god they were roomaaaaates

no but it’s seriously so cute??

there are probably thousands of people there, they didn’t HAVE to sit with each other. (unless seating arrangements are determined by school)

ETA: which they probably are come to think of it. hahaha)

they can’t take the test together though, aw

look at these fucking Mario silhouettes. did Nintendo sign off on these?

is it allowed because they’re blacked out? how fucking sneaky

(ETA: actually in the anime they didn’t make any Mario references at all, which makes me think there actually was a copyright issue)

these rules seem simple enough. actually seems almost too simple. the amount of different quirks they’re dealing with and the lack of guidelines on how not to use them seems to be asking for trouble. but I guess they probably know what they’re doing by now

I thought this was a high school, why is this 40-year-old man here asking questions about the exam

OH SHIT DEKU HE’S CALLING YOU OUT FROM TWENTY FEET AWAY

we would so get kicked out of movies together

now they’re literally referencing Super Mario Bros by name huh

and calling it an “old retro game”... sob

I actually love the pop culture reference so much and hope that more of these follow. this is how people talk in real life. none of that coming across a zombie and not actually calling them “zombies” because that concept somehow doesn’t exist or any of that bullshit. no sir. “you guys know thwomps from Mario? this thing is like a thwomp from Mario”

here we go. this set-up reminds me of Choice from KHR. please dear god don’t actually be like Choice from KHR

yeah, come to think... how big is this school

there’s a guy whose arm bone is sticking waaaaaay out of his elbow and it’s making me so fucking uncomfortable

please go away

THE GIRL IS HERE

AND THE FORTY-YEAR-OLD MAN IS HERE TOO DAMMIT

all these people who don’t even fucking know Deku are still picking on him for some reason. ugh. just more people to show up, Izu. you got this dude

I’m getting strong Hunger Game vibes here

oh damn they sure did run

thd thd thd thd

relax, Deku, I’m sure there are plenty of monsters to go around. plus most of those guys appear to be morons and I’m sure the smiley girl and the forty-year-old man are the only ones in the group who’ll actually pass somehow

oh fucking FINALLY a flashback to him eating the hair!!

he’ll START to feel SOMETHING in A FEW HOURS?!!!

and there he is running off to take a shower as previously established

I am glad he is confirmed as having good personal hygiene, though

“prepare for some real kickback” noooo I’m getting nervous

when you use One for All, clench up your butt

ssshhf this giant fucking robot literally interrupted his flashback right before we got to the good part??

DEKU. CLENCH YOUR BUTTTT

“why can’t I move?” MAYBE YOU CLENCHED TOO TIGHT. SHIT

some bishounen with a crotch laser just appeared out of nowhere and blasted it!

whew

“merci!” you’re welcome, Tuxedo Mask

wow he’s been standing around for four minutes already?? I take back what I said before, Deku. fucking run

everyone else has killed basically all the enemies. fuck why do I feel like he’s about to face a fucking thwomp. how many points were those again

...lmao zero. well shit

these Ender’s Game test-makers have deemed Yuri on Ice over here a “decision maker”

who am I to argue

BAKUGOUUU

YESSS MY ANGRY SON WHOM I’VE ADOPTED FOR REASONS THAT STILL CONFUSE ME HAS GOT THAT .3% ACCEPTANCE RATE LOCKED UP

OH NO IT’S THE YARUKI SWITCH

WHAT’S A YARUKI SWITCH

ah

now feels like a good time to speculate on just how fucking expensive this fucking test is with the giant robots and the entire fucking city built for the sole purpose of being leveled in ten fucking minutes all for the sake of a test which only 1 out of every 300 people will even fucking pass

somewhere out there I hope there are people whose quirks are just “building lots of things really cheaply and effectively”, otherwise this feels like such a waste

haha now everyone is running again but in the opposite direction this time

and so is Deku. NOW he can move, huh

aaaaaand he’s crying again

something better happen or else he’s screwed

oh fuck me, the girl fell, of COURSE it had to be the girl

(ETA: actually upon reflection I think they redeemed this due to two things: (1) tying it back to her not letting him trip and fall earlier, and (2) the fact that she’s not the first person that Deku has had to heroically rescue, and the person who WAS first was not only a guy, but the angry explosive prodigy character. so I’ll give them a pass here)

(ETA 2: after watching it in the anime, a bunch of debris fucking fell on her, so I take back all of my complaining. good show)

AHHHHH HE’S RUNNING BACK TOWARD THE GIANT MONSTER DOING THE HEROIC “I JUST ACTED WITHOUT THINKING” THING AGAIN AHHH

AHHHHHHHH

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

THIS IS THE COOLEST THING I’VE EVER SEEN

HOLY SHIT WAY TO BRING ME BACK DOWN

-- AH?! NOOO WHY IS IT OVER

I’M GONNA GO READ THE NEXT ONE RIGHT NOW

(ETA: and you better believe I did)

BUT FIRST

BONUS:

”I’m glad he came out so unlikable.” HAHA JOKE’S ON YOU

”his face just screams ‘I’m a rotten thief’” LMAO SOB WHY IS HE MY FAVORITE

GOOD CALL CHANGING HIS PERSONALITY THOUGH BECAUSE THIS VERSION NEEDS TO BE PUNCHED IN THE FUCKING FACE:

I HATE HIM

AND THAT’S IT THAT’S THE CHAPTER????

holy fucking shit.

[mysterylover123]

Attack on Titan: Levi [ISTP]

MYSTERYLOVER123 NOTE: Originally submitted to Funky MBTI in Fiction; however, Charity doesn’t allow Anime typings, so I forward them to my own blog and publish them here. Enjoy, AoT fans!

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD (for Attack on Titan anime Seasons 1 & 2, Levi’s backstory OVAs, and character interviews)! In order to write the best profile I could, I used some of the specific details that led me to type Levi as I have. Please do not read this if you don’t want to be spoiled. Also, I use “Scouts” instead of “Survey Corps” (SC) in this analysis. I hope that doesn’t bug anyone too much!

UNOFFICIAL TYPING BY: luminousglorygrace

Introverted Thinking (Ti): Levi believes, and acts based upon, the things that make the most logical sense to him. While he is physically talented, he doesn’t jump without looking, so to speak, as much as an Se dominant character might (such as Eren, an ESFP). Levi’s words and actions at Eren’s court hearing (season 1) reveal his use of Ti. He says that he personally believes that pain is the best tool for discipline. Not that pain is objectively the best tool, not that he recommends all leaders implement a system of pain for discipline, but that he, personally, thinks pain is effective, and so he uses it to demonstrate his ability to control Eren. He also plays a role in convincing the military police members, and the judge, that he and Erwin are correct in taking Eren under the Scouts’ wing by laying out the inconsistency of the MP’s thoughts. In the scene, Levi is beating Eren, and the MP leader tells him to stop because he fears Eren will get angry and turn into a titan. Levi points out how ridiculous that concern is. In essence, he says to the MPs, “you’re here telling us that you will torture Levi, but I’m currently torturing him, and you’re afraid? That makes no sense. It proves that I can handle him, that the Scouts can handle him, and that the MPs can’t.” (Not a direct quote, I am paraphrasing). Ti users value consistency and accuracy of thought, so Levi’s actions in the court room are classic for skilled Ti users.

We also get a small window into Levi’s inner-musings when he tells Eren (while running from the female titan in season 1), that he often wonders whether it’s better to trust oneself and one’s own skills or to trust and count on capable teammates. Looking beyond his words, this tells us that Levi’s thoughts have an undertone of “what makes the most sense to me? What is the right choice for a successful result?” Not so much for a moral/ethical reason (it’s not “which choice makes me a good person,” or “which choice is morally correct”) like an Fi user might consider. Instead, Levi wants to understand which action would produce the most successful outcome (beating the enemy, preserving life). We know that he lost his dearest childhood friends in the past because he chose to trust them (OVAs), and now he is constantly wondering what the best course of action is when faced with the same choice (trust or work alone).

In the character interviews (please see link below), Dot Pyxis says that Levi “seems to dislike the inherent irrationality of this world.” Ti users are definitely frustrated by the irrationality they see in the world. Finally, and this is a bit stereotypical, Levi is more of a reserved, introspective guy, which further suggests he’s an ISTP versus an ESTP.

Extroverted Sensing (Se): Levi is known as Humanity’s Strongest (or Greatest) Soldier. His combat skills are unmatched, and everyone deeply respects his talent. He has a clear perception of the environment around him and of his own body, so he is able to act quickly (and with deadly precision) in battle. For example, he moves so fast fighting the female titan (season 1) that she is unable to harden her skin in time to defend herself. In the OVAs, we see Levi’s unique style of holding his blades. At first, he is criticized for it, but he is aware of his body, and he can feel that holding the blades the way he wants will work for him. In the end, because of how he holds the blades, he can perform his cool spinning-slice technique. Levi is also great in crisis situations because he is in tune with his surroundings. When Eren accidentally turns into a titan, Levi is able to stay calm, get in front of Eren, and tell everyone to stand down. When his squad asks him why they should be calm he says something like “I have a feeling.” It’s almost like he can sense that Eren doesn’t mean any harm, and it’s probably because he hears Eren’s panicked breathing, hears his confused exclamations, sees him trembling, etc, while his squad is so panicked that it’s hard for them to notice how Eren is responding to his titan form. Finally, Levi seems to delight in physical sensation. He enjoys the taste of black tea (so much so that he wants to open a tea shop if he lives long enough and the world around him is safe), he likes to be in clean spaces, and he likes the feel of flying through the air with ODM.

Introverted Intuition (Ni): Part of why Levi’s battle skills are so incredible is because of his tertiary Ni. He has a good sense of what will happen next in a battle, so he can act quicker than others can. His speed in a fight is due to a combination of his physical ability and his ability to understand what his opponent will do next—he can move his body quickly, he is in tune with the world around him, and his quick perceptions of the world add up to him knowing what will happen next. He can move and attack based on what his opponent will soon do, not just what they are doing in the moment. My favorite example of this is during his battle with the female titan after he loses his squad (season 1). He knows that his spin technique is one of his best, so he prepares the necessary grip (Ti; this is my strength, it’s pretty special, she may not be ready for it, it makes sense to me to use this move). We see that his eyes are razor-focused on her running form, taking in every detail of her movements via Se. All of those Se impressions tell him when she’ll punch (Ni), and, before she’s even finished throwing her punch (Ni again, acting on something that isn’t fully realized in the real world), he’s already spin-slicing up her arm (Se). A really cool TiSeNi moment and a nice example of how an auxiliary Se user’s perceiving functions interact.

Extraverted Feeling (Fe): It’s clear that, underneath it all, Levi is a bit of a softie. When the Scouts are retreating to the wall, and Erwin makes it clear that the troops are to outrun the titans chasing them (season 1), no matter the cost, Levi tells the soldiers in the back to dump the bodies with a heavy heart. He even tries to ease their guilt by saying “we’ve had to leave bodies before.” He could’ve given them a strictly logical argument, like “it’s the only way we’ll move fast enough,” but he understands the pain it will cause, and he cares about his peers, so he tries to soften the command. There is also profound hurt in his eyes when he sees Petra’s body being thrown off of the cart, and he is openly stricken when the troops return to the wall, and Petra’s father talks about the fact that she likely wanted to marry Levi. Levi also gives one of the soldiers (Dieter) a wing patch to remember a fallen friend. When Levi gives Dieter the patch, Levi hints that he also keeps patches as proof that his friends once lived. Dieter is moved to tears by the heartfelt gesture. At multiple points in both season 1 and 2, when Levi talks to Erwin, Levi is openly regretful about the amount of lives that have to be lost for the cause (whereas Erwin is much more stoic about the fact that they have to do whatever it takes and sacrifice as many lives as it takes). In the OVA, Levi rampages against the titan that killed his friends, while screaming from the emotional pain, and, once he’s killed the titan, he openly weeps. Finally, for further proof of Fe being in Levi’s stack, I read a few “character interviews” going around on tumblr, and in those interviews both Erwin and Dot Pyxis talk about Levi actually being a warm and considerate person who helps bring positive emotions to the troops. Here are the relevant quotes from those interviews:

Part 1 (Erwin’s comments. Source:http://yusenki.tumblr.com/post/141836483282/au-smartpass-erwin-levi-close-up-interview)

Erwin (E): …Alright. Starting with Levi…I think he is excellent at shouldering important duties. With the title “Humanity’s Strongest” as part of the SC, our reputations have also been elevated. On the battlefield, he has also faithfully completed the tasks I have assigned to him. Despite his warmhearted nature, I’ve asked him to carry out some cruel missions…

Journalist (J): Is Captain Levi very…”warmhearted?”

E: You’ve already interviewed his subordinates, right? Then you must have heard just how much they trust their captain.

J: Indeed. I even heard the same thing from new recruits who are not from his squad.

E: He just has a rude attitude…but he cherishes his comrades’ life more than anyone else. His reputation cannot be established based on strength alone, Humans can subconsciously detect how much concern others have for them… and when they notice this kindness, it inspires power…That is something that I can’t do.

J: But I don’t think Commander Erwin is not trusted by your subordinates.

E: As the commander of SC… As the person who stands on the frontlines of humanity’s battle, I must make countless decisions that risk my soldiers’ lives. Of course, I’m able to do that because of their trust…However, I wouldn’t hesitate to make those sacrifices when we’re under dire circumstances.

J: Is it all for the sake of humanity’s future?

E: Yes. However, if I stand alone in this authoritative position, I wouldn’t be able to maintain the SC. Because he’s at my side, the SC soldiers are able to fight heroically. Levi and I’s positions cannot be exchanged.

Part 2 (Pyxis’ comments. Source:http://yusenki.tumblr.com/post/131152292543/levi-close-up-report-part-two)

Pixis (P): I have thoroughly checked Levi’s interview… Well, I think this is enough. Above all, as long as the better facets of his personality are being shown on the article, it’ll do.

Journalist: What can you say about his personality?

P: He might look violent and impolite but fundamentally he doesn’t hate humans. He seems to dislike the inherent irrationality of this world and that is why he doesn’t want to leave the memory of hurting someone…You can see that he’s full of consideration when he’s talking about his comrades. Those young soldiers subconsciously feel it and that’s why they are following him.

NOTES/Final thoughts: I know that this was long (and that this section is also long lol), so thanks for reading! I really love Levi’s character, and I think he’s a great example of a relatively balanced ISTP. I wanted to get this right! Again, this typing is based on Seasons 1 & 2 of the Attack on Titan anime, Levi’s 2 backstory OVAs, and the character interviews I found on tumblr. I do not read the manga, and those who do may have a different view of Levi!

I have seen a few people argue that Levi is an INTJ. While I certainly respect different opinions (the guy is a fictional character after all!), I admit that I’m confused by those who think Levi is an INTJ. Levi is first and foremost an extraordinary fighter. While INTJs do have Se in their stack, I argue that Levi is such an incredible fighter because Se is high in his stack. Also, when we look at why Levi is so valued by his teammates, and even why a lot of real-life fans love him, it’s because of his fighting prowess and calm demeanor…not so much because of his ability to lead the army, create high-quality battle plans, see courses of action that others can’t see, etc. In fact, I believe it’s Erwin, not Levi, who possesses the latter characteristics. I don’t see a lot of evidence of Levi having a driving, central goal, that guides his life work and motivates him to do long range planning, and I don’t see him noticing or passionately seeking some sort of truth about the world (traits we might associate with Ni users). I also don’t see him focusing on project completion or system implementation (some kind of structured, real-world manifestation of his ideas), nor do I see him trying to get others to do things in a way that he deems objectively correct (traits we might associate with a Te user). For example, Erwin really values establishing a plan of action and making sure everyone follows orders and sticks to the plan. Levi, on the other hand, is more flexible. For example, when Eren is debating whether or not he should turn into a titan to fight the female titan (season 1), Levi basically says “do it or don’t do it. Neither choice is wrong. It’s up to you.” This suggests use of the more individualistic Ti. In the same situation, we might expect Erwin to say “this is the order. Follow it,” using the more directive Te.

I believe that Erwin is the XNTJ (I haven’t thought about E versus I for him). Levi believes in Erwin’s competence and leadership abilities, so he willingly follows Erwin’s orders. After the female titan escapes (by calling other titans to devour her body; season 1), Erwin instructs Levi to replenish his supplies. Levi says that this doesn’t make sense to him (he essentially says, “we need to hurry, and I have enough to get back”). But Erwin, who is thinking several steps ahead of everyone else and preparing for the female titan to reemerge, tells Levi to follow orders and replenish. Levi listens because he trusts Erwin’s vision and plans.

Also, when the Scouts are retreating after the failed attempt to catch the female titan (season 1), 2 titans start chasing the group. Levi says to Erwin (roughly) “I don’t see any trees or buildings. We can’t fight them.” Erwin responds by saying something like “it’ll be faster to keep moving to the wall,” and Levi follows Erwin’s orders. To me this is a nice, albeit quick, interaction of TiSe (Levi) and TeNi (or NiTe; Erwin). Levi says, “here’s what I’m seeing, and here’s what I think does/does not make sense.” Erwin says, “our goal right now is to survive, because if we lose too many people we can’t continue pursuing the overarching goal of learning the truth about titans. In order to survive right now, we will take this action. Objectively, it is the best. Follow my lead.” Again, Levi listens.

Finally, in his backstory OVAs, Levi says something like: “this guy [Erwin] sees things that I can’t see [hinting at Erwin’s use of Ni], and I think he’s onto something, so I’m going to follow him.” Erwin is also the one with the clear goal of learning the truth about titans and saving humanity. He thinks of innovative ways to pursue his goal, he expects people to follow his orders, and he is willing to make difficult decisions and sacrifices to achieve this goal (qualities that speak to TeNi or NiTe). People look to Erwin to feel secure about plans and the direction of the Scouts’ work, whereas they seem to rely on Levi to be level-headed and victorious in combat (and to show them moments of tender camaraderie like the ones I described above). That’s all folks! I can’t wait for season 3 =)!

[ratherhavetheblues]

CLAIRE DENIS’ ‘THE INTRUDER’ “You’ll never pay enough”

© 2019 by James Clark

 One of the only things I don’t like about the endeavor of Ingmar Bergman, is his hatred of the work of Michelangelo Antonioni. On starting upon fathoming Claire Denis’ film, The Intruder (2005), I was more than pleased to realize that we’re both on the same page concerning this important matter.

It wouldn’t be Denis, if the launch-pad were not brimming with explosives of Bergman’s incendiary theatrical dialogue. But, in our film today, easily 95% of the action proceeds wordlessly. The wiring of Bergman’s film, The Seventh Seal(1957), has been expertly switched on. But, instead of honeys of dramatic sophistication, we end up with wilderness and a ticket to ride. Bergman, himself, was well aware that his disclosures would never reach the terminal decadence of normal respectability. This left him with a paradox which his sensibility would not ignite (on the order of rejecting, repeatedly, an exotic organ—a fully operating heart, for instance). Clearly seeing that problematic, Denis essays, in this production, to liberate the vehicles of acrobatics and juggling (stemming from The Seventh Seal) in a bid, endlessly demanding, to find in her art some life on earth which surfaces more than a few forgettable seconds.

Though it might, were such a thing possible, have him spinning in his grave, our adventure today—in full dedication to Bergman—invokes Antonioni’s L’Avventura (1960). You’ll recall, that The Seventh Seal reveals a medieval Swedish knight, Antonius Block, obsessed with reaching certitude about his eternal soul. As such, he stages a series of chess board events imagined to be opposing him in the form of a black-garbed, pasty-faced personification of death, who has seemingly promised him to open heaven itself if he can defeat the apparition. Thus distracted, Block falls short of cogent animation. True to form, our protagonist, Louis Trebor, a man of our century with great wealth and a track record of distant travels (Block having come to bear as just returned from one of the crusades), has become obsessed with the technology and accessibility of heart transplants.

But, to add to that business, there is an expansion of Block/ Trebor, along lines of a travelling circus player, Jof, the poet-inventor of the beauties of acrobatics and juggling. Jof passionately looks forward to his baby son becoming a tower of those binary skills. Trebor, on the other hand, had fathered a son in Tahiti many (funky) years ago; and now, he too, has become passionate—but simply about finding and  fostering the boy, within a labyrinth of years, regardless of performance. (Adding to the distress, Trebor, now living in the French Jura mountain region, hard by Switzerland, has brought there another son, now adult, and married with two young children; and they hate each other, very seldom meeting.) Jof sees an “impossible” and yet quietly desperate exigency reaching the cosmos itself. What Trebor sees comprises the problematic heart of this film.

Louis, when we first see him in his somewhat Nietzschean bailiwick, seems well inured to the monosyllabic priorities of triple-x rurality. What seems to be his theme song, flaring up long before we see him, and ushering in the title, is a sharply clanging, persistent report from out of the Iron Age, recalling, perhaps, the caged witch, in The Seventh Seal, about to be torched for, very ironically, bringing the plague to an otherwise Triple-A health regime. A nudge, toward the days of black-and-white cinematography, occurs in the introduction to the iron-ore-rich rock-faces of his domain. Overtaking (and not well transcending) those rude pasts, we are faced with the man of the hour, a burly Cro-Magnon—nude, in the sun and looking up, and then turning over to hug one of the two identical Japanese Akita Huskies, near a lake embraced by a fine, green forest. Soon he is in the water, floating on his back like a large rodent. The  exquisite, Eastern Hemisphere dogs, far more picturesque, and far more resolved than he, regard him from dry land as a primate, loyal but limited. As he proceeds to swim, he soon experiences pain. He favors his chest and the bid for gratifying motion disappears. Back in his cave-illumination cabin nearby, we have a more extensive view of his physiology. His skin is heavily wrinkled, moles of various description abound and a barely discernible five-inch horizontal scar over his heart indicates a bid to undergo unblocking something. And yet, withal, he sports a managerial mane of hair and patrician visage, perhaps the remnants of plastic surgery. Coinciding with this stressful register, while feeding his dogs they begin to growl and he picks up a shotgun and blazes away at something in his makeshift yard.

To anticipate, for the sake of rounding out this rather complicated take-off of non-Bergmanesque conflict (and yet having Bergman written all over it), we’ll take the license of revealing what that firing-range was about. Perched at a border region, Louis, bedeviled enough by personal cares, would be buffeted by the days, and especially the nights, of will-o’-the-wisp illegal immigrants from ancient and dysfunctional lands. (That they would choose Switzerland, the most insular and unwelcoming spot in Europe as a promised land, would seem to be an instance of Denis doing black comedy. On the other hand, however, there will be evidence that at least some of the renegades are terrorists, taking aim against an exceptionally unyielding, wealthy, influential and small infidel. More to that point, we also have the phenomenon of flagellants, from The Seventh Seal, hurling themselves toward punishments in hopes of a heaven to inhabit forever, just as Block tears himself inside-out in order to find assurance that disappearance will not happen. That Louis would, when younger and bolder, have readily shot down such desperation and distraction, is an important ingredient of this mystery. Where we find him, at the outset of the story, he’s neither renegade nor mundane.) Later that night, the dogs are spot on, and he slits the throat of a young man near his front door, which prompts him to check an unused out-building discovered to be used by a terrorist cell. (Revolutionist trespassing of that sort was to reappear in Denis’ film, White Material [2010].) In his skill with the Russian language (due to his upbringing and the source of his vast wealth stemming from an  émigré fortune), he reads on a laptop there, “I opt for the emergency solution. The emergency process is underway. The surcharge is to be paid upon your arrival…” Linking as in a dance of death, we have had in the film’s prologue the deceased’s associate, a young woman, who lights up a cigarette and who gets the show smoking with the home truths of her oracular, witch-like pronouncement: “Your worst enemies are hiding inside…in the shadow…in your heart…”

Terrorist insurrection is, in fact, far down the list of our protagonist’s interests. Since we have to beat him up quite a bit here, let’s give him some credit owing. A narrative aspect looming large is that long-ago trip to Tahiti where he produced a child, only to bugger off. Give him some evidential credit, however, that his rich-boy wondering (from a lineage of ease and glittering appetite, like a hereditary knight) entailed a concern to put it right, however messy, with the world—no small motive, especially where the “respectable” smarts and solicitude constitute a non-stop neutron bombing of intrinsic grossness, middling radiation, in lieu of real intelligence and real love.

Though virtually alienated from his son nearby, Louis frequently communes with atmospheric heights and his almost mystical dogs. (That his home is a grotty shack, speaks volumes about his being overwhelmed by the work at hand. He has a woman friend, who ferries to him his steady doses of heart medicine, she being a pharmacist; and, though lovemaking is a care, impotence rules. She, too, has many black moles on her face and body, whereby the aforementioned plague—so salient, in The Seventh Seal— makes headway.) Trebor has a near-neighbor, a young woman, always dressed in Hermes apparel (presumably some kind of environmentalist), who breeds large, Western Hemisphere, huskies. On the first meeting we see of her, our ailing think-tank addresses her, “My respects to the lovely otter of the valley.” (In this quip, he poses the possibility—driving him crazy, in fact—of being a denizen of two dimensions [land and water]. Her upper front teeth are far apart.) One look at the hate in her eyes, as she laughs off Louis’ mockery, and you know the woods have been intruded with one more poison. She feeds her large pack with top-of-the-line steaks and pork tenderloin, perhaps having overbought viewings of the red queen, in Alice. Slipping into the role of the Mad Hatter, he soon invites her to look after his dogs, while he’s away, permanently away, in fact. Her succinct response gives her a T-bone steak meal, to wit, “No, they’re as crazy as you are!” Showing what he’s made of, at this juncture, Trebor suspends the pet care after that one rejection. (In addition to the setting in relief how our protagonist envisions priorities, the abuse of dogs happens to remarkably galvanize a sizeable constituency of indie/ avant-garde filmmakers, including Denis, who apprenticed with that patron saint of the movement, namely, Jim Jarmusch, whereby, for instance, in his film, Patterson [2016], despite a large majority of effete, Humanities viewers swooning over laughable poems by the protagonist, the neglect of his dog is where the action is. Similarly, with Kelly Reichardt’s Wendy and Lucy[2008], the future of the abandoned Lucy, the golden lab, is far more to the fore than that of petty Wendy. Note, though, that here the abandoner, not much of an aristocrat, still needs to be watched closely.) That Iron Age chime fills the air, as the Zen siblings haplessly chase his car headed for Geneva and his bulging safety deposit box, with the first point of the agenda being, ironically, an improved heart.

A heresy for Bergman’s engine, but not for Denis’, is the full-scale resort to the lovely and loving surround, making a valuable point without a word. As the dogs, Toti and Sligo (the latter name recalling a Spaghetti Western), follow their dream which has become a nightmare, the greenery along the winding country road in mottled sunlight becomes a blur, a form of strange action, more landscape than Lassie. There is also a trumpet motif, along lines of taps. A cut from them to Trebor, in close-up profile, sees him gloomily peering into the rear-view-mirror. A second cut finds him now in silhouette, falling, by visceral means, into the beginning of an eradicable death trap. Outside the window, there appears a farmer in his pasture, with some cows and a scythe.

Coming to us in a supplementary manner, there is Trebor’s tangential relatives, first glimpsed in the form of his daughter-in-law, on the job as a customs inspector on the Swiss border, with a specialty of deploying a golden retriever to find illicit drugs. “Search! Search!” she calls, as the gentle beast goes to work. “He found it! Good boy!” she sings. She hugs that partner and dances around the car in a victory lap. We subsequently never see such joy within her family. Her stay-at-home-husband attends to the children correctly, but very low-key. On her return from work he seems starved for incorrectness—a sinister spate of Gothic, the context of Block. “You’re in a fir forest. It’s dark… You’re throat is tight. You’re on a hunt… You’re not well. Which is why I’m here. That’s my job. I’m going to count…”As he counts, he undresses her… She cries in pain when he enters from behind. “Search!” it seems,  has something to do about transcending a disappointing planet. (And all this comes about without sophisticated theatrical dialogue.)

Someone else who didn’t—for a while, anyway—underestimate hugging his dogs was Louis, finding far more sustained buoyancy in them than ever occurred in long-ago Tahiti. Moreover, the accoutrements, of rich green saplings and hoary tree-trunks in the Jura risk-taking, would constitute a nagging vision about something missing. We see him cycling in the splendid hill country on a chic bike in chic apparel; and there is a remarkable spate of downhill cruising amidst a startling fertility being overtaken by inertia. The plunge of the hard kinetic is, it appears, no match for the ease in abundance.

The layering, in the service of reaching a position which will not rot overnight, might come to a clarification of sorts, by fleshing out the customs lady’s dilemma. Like the son of protagonist Borg, in Wild Strawberries (1957), who has been weighted down by a death-wish, the grown son of Louis, constitutes a range of motion spanning, badly, the universe. Not until our protagonist was about to leave the Jura redoubt for hopeful repairs, do we realize that the joyless first responder had been an adjunct  of his father’s safari to a carriage-trade spa. Whereas, in those days, Trebor was open for what he could find, his stringalong son, by all accounts, could not thrive  upon Bohemian exigencies. The latter bumps into Louis during his last-minute shopping preparations for leaving France forever. (Louis XVI made it that far; and then he was captured and guillotined.) The estranged son glares at the life-long student/ elite, and declares, “I recognized your car.” “Taking a walk?” the uncomfortable chit-chat runs. “Sure, I have nothing better to do,” the snotty ironist flicks out. This draws from patrician-Louis, “I’m out of cash right now. I can’t help you” [this clearly the only thread remaining between them]. The baby-sitter argues, “I haven’t bugged you too much till now.” “Things are tough for me, too, not just for you,” the imminent exile, recent murderer, and major surgery subject declares. The wife and exponent of “Search!” comes along, and it’s clear the grampa doesn’t even know the gender of the quite recent baby. That the woman’s name surfaces—Antoinetta, in fact—fills out the conflict area of this non-family. (Marie-Antoinette having been Louis XVI’s queen and been also executed for being out of step of a wave of the future.) In the background, there are two shops, easily recognized: a shop of antiquities; and a shop of jewelry. The new baby has been called Louis. “Like you,” the mom, mentions. “Really!” the travelling man exclaims. He touches his namesake’s hand. As a result, Louis changes his tune: “Look, son… Here [comes to light a wad of bills]. Let me hear from you, from time to time’’—that being exactly the phrase used by Borg, in Wild Strawberries, as the trio of hitch hikers, only coming into view that morning, to disappear forever, hit the road. Borg displays resilience, generosity and depths during his saga.  Louis evinces an aristocratic imperative; but, like his ancient namesake, he lacks the gravitas to be more than a warning. His final action here is to commandeer a croissant from the busy and fed up couple’s shopping bag. After all, he paid for it! Like the demoralized “magician,” in Bergman’s The Magician (1958), Louis, with hard and self- lacerating eyes, says good-bye. “What a lunatic!” his son growls. (The sneering breeder of the dog pack also regards Trebor as “crazy.” Her closing the film with a team of obliging sleigh-dogs reminds us of Death, leading the knight and his retiring retinue, in The Seventh Seal.)

In the course of fetching a heart transplant—the first step being chic Geneva, where an agency promises to deliver like a Swiss watch—Trebor, parked by the car so ardently invested in, now in a suit and white shirt, shaves as the sunrise itself arrives to do more than Switzerland, if only given a chance. To pass the time he buys an expensive watch. His first choice (rather old-fashioned) is countered by an erudite woman-retailer, who points out, “This is much more contemporary…Dauphin hands…so it has the Geneva Quality Hallmark…With this watch, you can admire the beauty of the movement…” Contemporary movement does not reveal its mysteries to semi-effete softies, those turning away from an alloy of hardness and deftness and joyousness. (The Dauphin touch involving the heir apparent to the French crown.) Just before this discharge of irony, there was a cut to the Jura-border where a military unit was intent on justice. Also in the area were Louis’ dogs, looking in a patch of garbage to find a means of survival, a means of holding on to a justice far more germane, far more contemporary. A series of rifle shots gives them a start—the last we see of them in real-time. A site of acrobatics of various kinds.

After a cordon bleu dinner, Louis, the sputtering king, falls asleep in his palatial hotel. And he dreams. He dreams that two young riders, a woman and a man, gallop across a snowscape, on top-of-the-line horses. After a period of dynamics, more technical than true, we see that they are dragging a figure across that terrain, Louis, in fact. Battered and bloodied, he dies soon after they pause to see how he’s doing. Before he dies, he tells them, as he might have told his rather distant relatives, “I already paid.” The young woman replies, “You’ll never pay enough…” On waking up, he pulls out from the bed table an expensive dagger. He places it under his plush pillow. And in doing so, we have Borg, the protagonist of Wild Strawberries (1957), coming out of a nightmare showing himself in a coffin. In being thus frightened, he opts against a scheduled plane ride. The dagger is Louis’ insurance, as tangled up in the vicissitudes to come. He holds his heart. Skipping from nightmare-to-nightmare, he wakes up in snowy Seoul, Korea, where his new heart (pointedly a young man’s heart) has been installed. He had dreamed of his dogs, scavenging in the snow, and being brought by a young woman (in a huge overcoat carrying a huge shotgun) to Louis’ abandoned cabin. En route, she clears away some snow on the ice of a lake. This reveals Louis’ dead face. Once again, the Bergman coffin comes to bear. And the time-pieces in Geneva recall time-pieces without hands. The Borg who choked, pulled himself back from that weakness and went on to a breathtaking moment of vision. Our protagonist today has reached a moment of irrevocable farce, with no Jof and Marie (from The Seventh Seal) to lift the mood.  (The conclusion of the Korean nightmare entails the over-sized young woman smashing her way into Trebor’s redoubt, sensually having a bath with the fireplace licking; and then being seen to have been butchered by two men resenting her contemporaneity and dumping her out in the yard as positioned upon her now-bloody coat. There is a pan shot of a blood-red heart resting on an expanse of ice. One of his hungry dogs begins to eat it. Fear, paranoia and guilt. From here to the end, atmosphere carries the show, theatrical drama recognizing its limit in contemporary movement.)

Even before the nightmares, skittish, soft and threatened Louis, would have begun a dash to the totally (and monied) mundane, in the form of a return to Tahiti to shower riches (and what he could imagine to be love) upon his elusive son (elusive, sort of, like the elusive debutante, in L’Avventura). Shrugging off the less than stellar performance of his new heart—the quality-control nurse being sensitive but blind—he purchases a large freighter at Pusan, Korea, not the bathtub toy he might have provided years ago, but now an inroad to easy street, for the boy; and a pedestal for himself. A trademark of Denis’ mise-en-scene, consists of a naïve painting acting as a logo for an outrage. Here that factor, from a shipping company brochure, deploys the toy-like attraction in a rather wry mode. Cut, then, to the real craft at its christening with the traditional champagne smashing upon the prow. What isn’t traditional is a ragged rendition of the Eisenhower-era pop-song, “There’s No Tomorrow.” (The preamble to the ceremony has included Louis, in a kimono, being on-hand to see, as best he can, a striking passage of black-ink-like waters rippling uncannily. Before that, his kimono was playfully pushed by a sea breeze in brilliant sunshine. What could have been a fine spectacle, a giant globe being exploded and discharging a blizzard of confetti, along with brightly-colored streamers dancing in the wind, fails to soar, for a lack of nuance and pacing. Acrobatics going every which way, due to the absence of a pilot.)

That night, he’s in a bar alone, and a drunk young man comes up to his table and tries to sing the Elvis song, “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” This  brings from both of them a brief homage to the King. Outside, on a dark street with some neon signs, he’s stalked by the Geneva woman who had kicked things off for the surgery. In return for his anger, she tells him, “Your heart is not sick anymore. It’s just empty.” There is, then, a cut to another predator, the son in France with a family living in an apartment block resembling, from the outside, a jail, who invades Louis’ cabin and reads drafts of letters he had sent ahead to Tahiti. “Beloved, Son, how I’ve missed you. I was absent from your life for so long. You’ll see, I’ll make it up to you… Every day that has kept us apart weighs on my heart like an entire year…” Such maudlin sentiment for a chimera, whereas the flesh and blood means nothing! The terminally depressed dad had failed in Trebor’s own eyes, when the latter could still care about going for broke. As “just empty,” our failed monarch would be no longer looking for substantive quality.

Gaugin came to and stayed in Tahiti for many years, closely pondering the mysteriousness there.   Here Denis gives us her sense of what Gaugin was getting at, by way of the camera work and the sound design of her film. Young Trebor, escaping the chilly, grotty and annoyingly egalitarian Russia of his youth, and now leaving a parody of a paradise in the capital city, moves on to the island where he imagines having made an impact. Indigo seas and closely matched skies with lilting progressions, welcome the freighter and its crew and its owner in terms calling out for appropriate response. The prospect, from Louis’ fixer-up of a home, shifts into 1950’s post-card styling (reverting, that is, to the logo). With sensuous resources of real frappe in play, the kitsch is almost as painful as the winding down of our protagonist’s warrantee of Swiss perfection. He is told by many of the residents that he doesn’t belong here, and that the boy is seldom seen; but that doesn’t prevent them from putting on a meat market to find a plausible “son” and then grab the crazy give-away and distribute it to the village. The interviews run in this way: “He looks a bit like a white man…” “Too short… A midget’s bigger than him…” “This one’s a bit too slanty-eyed. He looks Asian…” “Too Short and too fat…”

With ailing Louis first bedridden, and then hospitalized, a guy comes by and asks, “I hear you’re looking for a friend. I think we can do business.” Louis tells him, “Toma, you don’t belong here.” And he hands over to the most recent predator a roll of bills. Cut to Toma, on the street; and along comes a guy with a Santa Claus hat. (In Wild Strawberries, a science-lover shows his hatred of the poetic by making an equivalence between God and Santa.) Back at the hospital, a nurse tells him, “Make an effort. Don’t let yourself go…We’ll wash you up. You’ll be fine. You can’t be seen like this…”

Cut to the Swiss gold-digger—or, more accurately, her silver-grey silky dress, displaying the elegance of the subtle patterning of the design, and its textural fluidity. She may be just another write-off; but her outfit is something else, something not only transcending, “You’ll be fine,” but lighting up the cosmos, susceptible to small attentions and large attentions. The cleaned-up washed-up does, finally, find the long-lost son, on a slab at the local morgue. The latter’s chest shows that he, too, had experienced a failing heart-transplant. (The polished, gun-metal, contiguous grey panels, each containing a corpse, recall the linked, dead souls dancing along with the apparition of Death, in The Seventh Seal.)

There are unimpressive dogs lolling around the precinct of the morgue. Then there is the freighter-guy directing a backhoe carrying a coffin onto the deck. Then, now off-shore, there is another moment of something else. In very dark cloud-cover, the hills and the lost forests of the islands stand motionless. And the sky is a calm riot of greys and blacks and whites of the most fervent engagement toward those who die.  There is, once again, the urgent clanging, soon joined by those taps we heard as Louis’ dogs were thrown to the wolves. Then a cut to daylight and the chairman of the fleet lolling on a futon and giving instructions to a young deckhand. The destiny of the second-best; the execution of a minor soul being overshadowed by his betters.

The last note swings back to snowy, hilly France, where Louis’ former neighbor and enemy has put together a well-fed sled-dog team which she might have been cued-up for by way of a glossy magazine. (The instance of Jof and Marie, in The Seventh Seal, and their breakaway, puts to shame this new-age nonsense.) Her single-minded acrobatics shows in the hatred of her eyes while smiling at and cheering the dogs as they thrust through deep snow on a sunny day. (Failing to juggle toward humans being not  a prerogative.) She’s dressed for a Hollywood Arctic saga where the snow would be fake. Despite her elaborate silk blouse, carefully exposing her chest, and Parisian bomber jacket, she wildly lacks credibility as a dynamic force obviating a pack of careful bores. She becomes on track to represent yet another factor of Death, whipping along a gullible company.

Antonioni well knew about such dead-ends. And his architect instincts knew where to find a source to deal with them. Within the acrobatics of those knowing about tempering a slide, the upsurge of pristine physicality constitutes a treasure of incomparable stature. Denis, a formidable exponent of the history of cinema, has embedded, within her filmic conundrum a horrific defeat, and a pathway of rich playfulness.

At the outer limits of this transaction she has boldly, first of all, as noted, concluded the dream of the woman-intruder into his place in France being butchered by two of the intruders teeming, presumptuously, at the Swiss/ French border. Later in this back-and-forth, the surly boy/ father—not in a dream—prowling around the interior of Louis’ cabin in hopes of plunder as a respite to baby-sitting, notices a bloody wrist-band which figured in the nightmare of the big-coat/ body-bag; but it would seem, not to be in real time. How did that brutalist-style accessory get back to the mundane residence?  Louis’ terminal dream would—wonders never ceasing—touch upon the ground-work of violence whereby nightmare and reality reach a continuity that will never leave us. What else will never leave us is intruders into the fantasy of immortality, more or less unwittingly declaring war.

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Houseki no Kuni 3 - 6 | Girls’ Last Tour 3 - 6 | Boueibu OVA | Netjuu no Susume 6 | Juuni Taisen 7 | Mahoutsukai no Yome 6

Apparently there’s a bonus if you watch until the end of the 5th ep of Netjuu no Susume…I’ve seen it, or else I wouldn’t be telling you it exists.

I’ve rolled out the simulcast commentary tags for the seasonal shows that don’t have tags yet (aside from Netjuu no Susume’s replacement when that time comes).

Plus, as you can see in the title…there’s the Boueibu OVA in this bundle of notes, for completion’s sake.

Houseki no Kuni 3

That snail sure is a lively thing.

Really? A poop joke? Well, that’s one way to rub Phos’s new state into Dia’s face.

…welp, not much to talk about this time, I guess.

Houseki no Kuni 4

What the heck? The snail has a type???

This OP is lovely. Its best aspect is the visuals, though. It sounds kind of plain compared to even Saturday Night Question (Netjuu no Susume).

That snail makes a nice wig for Master Kongo, doesn’t it?

I’m listening to this show for the first time, and Phos uses “boku”, interestingly enough.

The snail's urge to go back to its home in the sea reminds me that lots of Chinese people go back to their country for Chinese New Year. I wonder if the same sentiment is involved in both instances?

The ED is nice, but not as good as the OP.

Houseki no Kuni  5

Watermelon? I feel sorry for the gem which has that name.

Ahh! These jellyfish are cute (and practical)!

“No getting all weak-kneed now!” – Says Phos, who’s got legs potentially harder than their body.

Houseki no Kuni 6

Trust exercises. I did some with some members of my anime club once. (Haha.)

I noticed the spikes were blue, so they might be Sapphire. It’s kind of like Rabbit’s necromantistry (Juuni Taisen), but…in a slightly different form.

Girls’ Last Tour 3

Kanazawa???? *thinks about King’s Game, where the protag and the author share the surname Kanazawa*

There’s some extremely glaring CGI during this episode. For a moment, you can discern Chi’s made of CGI while in her Kettenkrad.

Please don’t ship the grown man with the loli.

That’s some grim humour they attempted with Kanazawa. Kinda like Zetsubou-sensei (Nozomu Itoshiki).

Boueibu OVA

I almost wasn’t going to cover this, because it’s an OVA, but hey, why not make an exception? This may be the last time we Boueibu fans can talk about this stuff again…(Plus I think I’ll have volume for the entire thing if I hurry.)

Haha, the volleyball scene. Notice En talks first.

Yumoto’s being basic as always. *sighs happily*

Trump, eh? The word for playing cards is trump, but…y’know?

(about “graduating in a storm of cherry blossoms” and En saying it sounds lonely) I was just about to say that, En. However, that may just be OVA feels speaking.

Itsumo Ichiban? Rememer that guy? Well, there’s Itsumo’s brother on Kin-chan’s list. You can tell because he’s literally Itsumo Nisan. Geddit?

(about Zundar’s meeting with Kin-chan) The manga! It was correct after all!

Yep, that’s exactly how it went 2 years ago. In fact, I think it might be recycled content…(?)

Wombat speaks very formally. I learnt about keigo in the past year so I only picked up on that this time around.

The word used by Aki is “sad” according to the subs, but hazukashii means “embarrassing”, which puts a new spin on it.

They’re literally just using montages of s1, which is why I want Pony Canyon to bundle the OVA with s2. It’s more money, but for the consumer, it’s more worth it. However…having Bi…Egoism in an anime segment at all is new.

Akoya must be popular in the fandom. Either that or the staff are acknowledging how unloved he is.

Yay! It’s Star the VEPPer!

It’s good that each of these side characters is getting their own montage. Plus we’re getting official translations of the character songs, which is the best thing you can get for free when character songs aren’t distributed normally in most cases.

4th wall breaking! I guess you never expected that, eh? (Actually, you probably did, considering it’s been a montage for almost everyone now.)

(I love En’s little snarks in the middle of the song.) The only one left after this is Atsushi, right? Update: Oops, forgot Kin-chan. Sorry Kin-chan.

I never really realised Atsushi’s song was so hard rock compared to En’s more pop-like one.

“But do I really have that fire inside of me?” – I think I heard the song go atsui which is a real funky (in a good way) pun on Atsushi’s name.

Aww, they missed out in such a good pun! Haru went haru and Aki went aki. The translator didn’t pick up on that though…aww.

Whoa! Yumoto got all scary! Botan Yuzuru though…gotta look into that later for magicalgirlsandcerulean.

This (Spanish?) guitar reminds me of this track from The Dog Island.

A-ha! This is what you get when you translate the Japanese in the ads too.I was quite right indeed, although it really is the dang 132nd graduation ceremond.

It’s literally a button monster. Don’t wanna mash his buttons! (I bet you’re all groaning from my jokes, ahaha…)

Dadacha’s voice sounds kinda ridiculous now because Yasumoto is clearly using the deeper voice he normally uses for Zundar.

Notice the monster’s face is made from the character 高 (the first character in the Japanese word for “high school”).

Salty Sol is still salty after all this time…sad life.

That train station is the same one from the beach episode!

I’ve seen enough spoilers so I know where this is going…I already identified in the spoiler chat what Wombat is going to catch as a reference to a Kenji Miyazawa work.

This train is somewhat obviously CGI…

Spinach curry? When’d Wombat eat that?

Ths slideshow appears to be all the clean art for everything they’ve ever produced in the Boueibu canon! Even events and collabs!

“So wipe away your tears.” – I’m not crying, you are…*tear leaks from corner of eye*

I don’t recognise two of those pictures…(EnAtsu beach pic and a yukata one with the Defence Club on the roof.)

Oh…my…it’s over? Well, frankly I was expecting the fandom’s end in 2015…so, here’s to the future. Farewell, and remember: love is forever! Separations are only a new beginning!

Netjuu no Susume 6

That was a really bad Glico man in the back (of Koiwai)…

I think something’s wrong with my eye. It just gave off a few tears…(kidding tone)

Whose car is this that Morimori-chan is sitting in??? Update: It’s a taxi. Whoops.

I think Morimori-chan used the word douryou (colleagues, coworkers) instead of employees. The word for employees would probably be very different.

Nikunokiya??? (thinks about Kinokuniya)

(Koiwai goes Ai no chikara ne…) Boueibu reference…kind of.

Notice Koiwai said he was low on health in the text but he said zombie in the Japanese. That’s where Fruits de Mer comes in for Morimori-chan.

“There’s no way I’d say something like that!”

I think the cup this ED is new. Plus the headphones.

Oh! I spotted Morimori-chan with the medium length hair in the background of Sakurai’s bit of the ED.

There are some blurry pictures of Koiwai in the ED and they’re so hilarious!!!

So the ED actually evolves along with the show. Interesting.

Juuni Taisen 7

Rabbit stores his blades in his tail. That’s weird, but funny.

Literally, the episode title is “Dragon Head, Snake Tail”.

Dragon and Snake really are like the Beppus! I keep thinking that. I want a crossover fic now…

Tatsu = dragon.

I only just realised but…a naga is a snake. Nagayuki is the younger bro, isn’t he? Dangit, Nisio Isin! You bested me again.

150 doesn’t have any significance in regards to the number 12 now does it?

It’s Rabbit! Who’s not wearing his trademark booty shorts or high heels! Rabbit in a waiter’s outfit is really something, though.

“Hot guy”? Not by most people’s standards Tora/Kanae, considering he’s currently missing his head.

It’s tiger versus…aww. It’s not tiger vs dragon…

How can Ushii still talk after being strangled by Snake’s arm???

Whoa! Incendiary components are cool in Bond movies, but fiery liquid? That’s a step up!

Mahoutsukai no Yome 6

Admit it. You saw it in the next ep preview (unless you skipped it or read the manga)…It’s TITania time!

“She touched me for the first time.” – Elias, what a dork you are…

The birbs around Chise are so fluffy and adorable! It’s cute.

Geez, it really is TITania…these fanservice wiggles are destroying my Mahoutsukai no Yome experience…

Seing the Faerie Queen facepalm…is something else. *sweatdrops*

In the same way I want a koala sheep from Avatar the Last Airbender, I want one of those sheep bug things.

“Every creature of the night, including she and you, are my adorable little children.” – No wonder you have such big hooters, TITania…

A wild SIMON appeared!…Thought we’d forgotten about him for the rest of the episode. He would’ve made a better brick joke if his return were prolonged, y’know.

Strange question, but do priests wear pants?

Girls’ Last Tour 4

I’m listening to Ugoku Ugoku for the first time and it’s…strangely catchy…

That thing with the face is really creepy…

That thing is a stone statue???

“What IS cheese?” – Considering sometimes cheese tastes pretty bad, I don’t blame you for not knowing what cheese is.

Couldn’t they check the camera for what Kanazawa was doing with it?

I just saw the number 3230 on the camera’s inside frame for taking pictures (whatever you call it). That might be the year this show is set…

Notice the word for temple that’s used is jiin, a Buddhist temple. A Shinto version of that might be jinja.

Kanazawa was voiced by Akira Ishida? The guy who did Kiku (SGRS)??? NOOOOOOO! I missed a prime opportunity! I’ll have to go back for it later.

The ED is even more catchy than the OP. Is that even possible???

The camera breaks in the ED…that’s so ominous…

That post-ED scene was cute. A little bit.

Girls’ Last Tour 5

The slightly-electronic-sounding OP doesn’t quite fit the show, does it?

The phrase used was definitely ie dake ni. I’m not quite sure what that means, but…okay. I’ll just believe the subs on that one.

I wonder if Sentai is planning to dub these…I can imagine this show being dubbed.They wouldn’t need to pay too many VAs for it, for one thing.

Akogare is the word for desire or longing. It would be no surprise f there was an akogaru or akogarareru made from it as well.

Notice it’s “Yay!”, but with the word for house (ie) emphasised.

What is this fish dream, a metaphor for lesbians…?

The soundtrack guys must’ve had lots of fun striking cans or whatever.

I think this ED is different to the one last ep…Its name appears to be Amadare no Uta and it’s sung by the main VAs.

I bet the soundtrack guys hit a bell or two there…

Girls’ Last Tour 6

Oh no! It’s an Anime Scientist! Last time we had one, it was Shinawa (Kado), and you know how badly that went…

Interesting that the word for “takeoff” is “separation [from the] ground” literally.

Okay! I’m caught up to the weekly episodes now!