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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 6 years ago

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Michael in the Mainstream: Satellite City

So we all know Nostalgia Critic’s review of The Wall, right? I even did a foul-mouthed review of it a while ago, one that had me so legitimately angry I posted it early under the Michael in the Mainstream label. One criticism in particular I had was the nature of the sequence parodying “The Trial,” in which what I thought were a bunch of weird furry OCs made for the video began to espouse poor criticisms and opinions of the film.

As it turns out… this was not the case. Those creatures are the creations of Sam Fennah, and are the stars of his series Satellite City. This review, while reviewing something a little too off the beaten path for me to necessarily call “mainstream,” is one I wanted to approach in a respectful manner as an apology for jumping the gun and being far too harsh on these creations, though this could have been avoided entirely if Doug Walker had made it more clear what, exactly, the cameo was. Regardless, the cameo did its job, and got me interested, and I will say that the series does show a lot of promise. It’s not over, nor is the first bit of the overarching story even complete, so think of this as my initial thoughts on what has been shown so far.

The show has a simple premise – Sam Fennah plays Sullivan, a very strange man who lives in a manor in rural England that is host to a crazy cast of alien refugees called Kivouachians. Hijinks frequently ensue as they go about their daily lives, though here “hijinks” means “Lucy Lacemaker decides to decapitate someone and recline on their headless corpse.” It’s certainly not a show for those with clean senses of humor, that’s for sure. Also, I know I don’t usually do summaries anymore, but I think this show needs it due to its relative obscurity.

It’s interesting watching through the show from when it began a couple years ago to today; you can see the animation on all of the aliens improving, as well as the voice acting. I have to say a lot of the animation in the earlier episodes was a bit stiff and unpolished, though certainly not bad, with it always being remarkable work for a small nonprofit indie project like this. On the other hand, the voice acting tended to be awkward and poorly done. Lucy especially had a pretty weak voice until much later, I believe around the 2018 episodes, when Rikki Leigh Tiffurelli took over and gave her the best voice to date. In the more recent episodes, though, the voice acting is much improved in general; frankly I find it hard to give too much flak to indie internet shows for having weak voice acting early on. I mean, Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series had some seriously weird delivery and voice acting for a while, with things only really kicking into high gear in the second season (in particular once Marik’s voice settled into what we all know and love). What I’m trying to say is that the series has found a nice place to settle into in terms of production quality, I feel, though of course seeing it improve would be great.

There is a bit of an overarching plot at the moment, involving the sinister Grand Voice Locket returning and some political strife among the aliens, all while Sullivan kind of just does his thing and curses up a storm. There also seems to be some interesting character stuff being built up with the genetically modified squirrel Hyzenthlay, but as of yet no character arcs have really culminated into anything yet, which is fine, no need to rush into it or anything. I think for now it’s fun to just spend time around the characters that are already here.

Which brings us to the best part of this show: the characters. Each character has a unique and creative design; hell, even if a lot of the base designs for the creatures seems to be “Dragon,” Fennah always manages to add some creative spice to them so as to not make them feel samey. And there are plenty of creative, unique designs, with Locket, Ludwig, Wexle, Fontaine, and of course Lucy standing out among the crowd. Speaking of Lucy, she is easily my favorite character, though I’m sure this is a rather uncontroversial opinion as she’s practically the face of the series at this point. She’s just so amusingly depraved and sadistic with light touches of civility and compassion here and there underneath her extremely harsh and psychotic exterior. Honestly, there’s not really a bad character that can be singled out yet, as each of them has something going on, and there’s a lot of lore detailed on the official website that fleshes things out and gives even more insight onto what the deal with these guys are.

Overall, I find myself enjoying this series so far. Most of the episodes are relatively short, with them ranging anywhere from forty seconds to twenty minutes, which is not too much of a time investment. If you like weird, offbeat, dark comedies with a focus on character development and plenty of strange sci-fi trappings, well, this is the web show for you. I’m seriously looking forward to where this show goes from here, and going forward it’s going to have my wholehearted support.

So yes. I am extremely sorry for the negative remarks I made towards Fennah’s work in my review of Doug’s review. I’ve never been happier to be wrong about a show in my life, and I really regret jumping the gun and bashing the work without context just because it was encased in a horrible review.

#Michael in the Mainstream #review #web show review #Satellite City #Sam Fennah #Lucy Lacemaker #aliens #black comedy #sci-fi #web show #YouTube

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shacklesburst · 5 years ago

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I went to see the most recent Star Wars today (with @magureatari). Spoilers below the cut.

It begins haphazardly jumping between scenes, cramming a lot of basically exposition into the first ~45 minutes. Pacing, we hardly knew ye.

I’m not big on the new canon kinda sorta using EU stuff (like Sith holocrons) but ascribing new and usually fairly limiting use to them (a Wayfinder to Exegol). I mean, yeah, Korriban or the like are fairly overused by this point, but do we really need to rehash the exact same plot points from a plethora of former EU lore, then throw all of it out the window just to slap a new name on them and think it’s something new?

The second third is better overall, gets the story going somewhat. Some good old Star Wars fun with blasters blazing, sabers buzzing, fighting against and hiding from the evil empire. Then Rey “loses control” and unintentionally lets lose Sith lightning, seemingly killing Chewie? (Of course he doesn’t stay dead. Nobody of consequence dies in this move and stays dead. And no, Ben is not of consequence. Not really.)

And then the big evil thing is ... another fleet? Another weapon that can destroy planets? Star Wars is well known for its constant re-use of characters and plot points, but at some point you gotta ask questions of exactly what the Emperor was planning to rule over.

The ending is ... well. I’ve defended Rey against accusations of Mary Sue-dom before. And even if she is, I don’t really care. I love the trope and the amount of Mary Sue/Gary Stu-style fanfic I’ve consumed is likely higher than any other individual genre type. But the character felt really wooden in this iteration. In comparison to the other two movies of the new trilogy, there seemed to be no character development whatsoever. I can understand when there’s no growth. But no change at all? That’s a bit much.

The only one who seemed to change even a little bit was Kylo Ren, but for my tastes, his redemption arc (which we all knew was coming) was a hack job on another level. I’ve seen more raw emotion in Vader’s mask while Palpatine was torturing Luke than inside Ben’s close-up eyes throughout the entire movie. Yeah, it was built up a bit that he was struggling internally throughout the first two movies. In this one we don’t even really see him alone, dealing with his emotions at any point. He’s saved by good girl Rey on a purely physical level. The obviously wanted parallel with the wounded sand snake worked too well. His reaction seems like that of the wounded animal, mostly instinct driven and without any emotional depth. “Hey, I’m Zuko, but I’m good now” played straight.

Even the usually hope evoking notion of basically the whole galaxy coming together to defeat a great evil fell entirely flat for me. I don’t need to be surprised constantly to enjoy a movie. But some not entirely foreseeable development do spice up stuff quite a bit. No All Hope Is Lost moment lasted more than 20 seconds maximum in this. Then the super weapons are defeated once more and the biggest evil of them all, DIO -- I mean Palpatine -- finally as well, yadda yadda. Roll the credits.

What gets me most about this finale is that there was so much potential! We’ve gone 9 episodes now, just counting the main canon, and all of it always boils down to “restoring balance to the Force”. Why not end it on ... actually doing that? You don’t even have to be innovative to make that a plot point! Plenty of stories out there where magic is slowly getting weaker over time/leaving the world. Just think of LotR!

Imagine Rey actually digging a hole with her own two hands and burying the last two light sabers. No yellow saber for her, because Palpatine sucked everything into himself and she was just lent power by the combined will of the Jedi (the ... “Whills”, if you will. Heh.). Just an ending to a saga where the future lies beyond mysterious powers.

Not even the cinematography could save it. The lightning world of Exegor looks like any other Dark World™ in our superhero filled times. Most of the movies play on the three common types of planet in the new Star Wars universe: desert, jungle and Shetland Islands. Nothing like the legitimately cool shots from the white/red salt desert of Episode 8 nor even a somewhat more interesting planet like Kamino, Mustafar or Geonosis.

I went into this movie without high expectations. Big blockbuster movies usually don’t need much to be enjoyable for me. I go to the movies exactly because I want mindless entertainment. But this butchered the story line a bit much even for me. In comparison with e.g. ATLA and TLoK, the connection of the Avatar with the spirits of all former Avatars means something. Losing that connection nearly breaks Korra. In The Rise of Skywalker, drawing on all the former Jedi who have become one with the Force is simply a means for a quick power up for the finishing blow, remarked upon in passing once before and never after.

So yeah. I was not impressed.

4/10 overall.

#star wars #spoilers #reviews

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recentanimenews · 6 years ago

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THE GREAT CRUNCHYROLL NARUTO REWATCH Unleashes Sakura With Episodes 29-35

Welcome to THE GREAT CRUNCHYROLL NARUTO REWATCH! I'm Daniel Dockery aka That Dude That Won't Shut Up About One Piece, and I'll be your host this week as we make our way through all 220 episodes of the original Naruto. Last week, we covered episodes 22-28, and we continue this week with episodes 29-35.

This week, the theme is Naruto Minus Naruto, as we lose our title character pretty early on. But despite missing someone shouting about how they're gonna be Hokage one day, this actually seemed to work out pretty well, as it gave our favorite boy Rock Lee and the consistently underrated Sakura a time to shine. Sasuke did some stuff, too, I guess. We also got some bad guy reveals and Gaara being as Gaara as possible. So let's dive right in and let the Crunchyroll Features team give you their thoughts on a batch of episodes that didn't have an ounce of quit in them.

So, not a lot of Naruto in this set of episodes, huh? I mean, we've already gotten to know Sasuke, Sakura, Rock Lee, etc. pretty well so far, so it's not like they can't carry the story, but how do you like the show when the title character spends most of it unconscious?

Paul: I'm fine with it as long as the supporting characters have plenty of interesting things to do. Naruto's personal blend of lunk-headed enthusiasm hasn't really clicked with me yet, so I'm happy to see other characters take center stage now and then, and I like that Sakura finally got a moment to prove her mettle in these episodes.

Peter: This was probably Sakura's biggest moment in Naruto... possibly including Shippuden. I forgot they combined her special haircut scene with the Ino flashback. The whole situation with the sound ninja was kind of a cluster but I felt like that sequence was particularly well-done. Episode 30 is easily the best in the series so far, I forgot how well directed the moment where Sakura realizes she's alone is.

Danni: I've joked in my livetweets that I can't tell whether the main character of this show is Naruto or Sasuke yet, but that kind of became not a joke at all this time around, didn't it? That was kind of a shame, given that his material at the very beginning of this batch where he's chiding Sasuke is great. Luckily, the rest of the cast was great all around in this batch.

Noelle: It is pretty funny to have the protagonist absent, but it's clearly not just wasting time. A lot of stuff happens while Naruto is out cold, especially the big fight where Sakura shines, and she needed to shine! A protagonist doesn't have to be there all the time, even if they are carrying the story, and these segments are proof of that.

Jared: Having Naruto out for most of the episodes really made some other characters step up and gave them a time to shine like Sakura (finally) and Ino's group. You couldn't get away with having him be gone or KO'd all the time, but especially when the show just brought forth all these new characters, it worked.

Kevin: It actually helped to up the stakes a bit and create space for more character development. Sakura hasn't needed to do much until now, since Sasuke and Naruto could fight instead. In this set of episodes, the boys were unconscious the majority of the time, so not only did she need to push herself to look after them, but she also needed to fight opponents that even seasoned Genin like Lee couldn't stand up against. Running or hiding weren't options.

Carolyn: THIS is the Sakura I remembered and have been missing this whole time. I am fine with Naruto sitting out a spell so Sakura can rise.

David: While I like that the other characters are getting the spotlight, I'm also not a huge fan of how they're getting it. Lee? He's allowed to be cool for a little bit, but still has to be undermined by his limitations that also define his character. Sakura? We have to square getting her development with her entire character revolving around Sasuke. Oh, and Sasuke? Got cool powers from the new bad guy, so the whole thing feels a little artificial by the end.

Joseph: It kind of makes it seem like they just didn't know what to do with Naruto while other people have the spotlight, because knowing his character he would have to butt in no matter what, dattebayo! If it paves the way for more episodes like 30, which features out of this world choreography and animation, I'm all for it, dattebayo.

Kara: I'm a Doctor Who fan - having the lead unconscious or straight-up missing for major portions of story is familiar territory. That said, I'm glad it was used to good effect here. I was hesitant coming into the Chunin Exam arc because there are Just So Many Characters, and a lot of them are completely new but clearly important. Giving Nart some down time while we get to know how they work (and how characters we've seen before are growing) was a good idea.

These episodes are sort of bookended by two horrific reveals:

1) IT WAS ME, OROCHIMARU, THE WHOLE TIME

2)WTF, GAARA

How do you feel about these two? I've been playing a lot of Gaara in Jump Force, but I forgot that he pretty much opens his character arc in the show through intense murder.

Paul: I mentioned this on Twitter before, but although Orochimaru is clearly coded to be this big, scary, impressive villain, he strikes me as the ninja equivalent of that bad friend whom everybody kinda knows but nobody particularly likes. Orochimaru's the kind of guy who would get a little too drunk at the holiday ninja party, and then he'd awkwardly hit on your ninja girlfriend, and then he'd puke on your ninja couch cushion and then flip it over to hide the ninja vomit rather than tell you about it. Damn it, Orochimaru!

Gaara is just a comical murder-baby so far. Again, I know he's supposed to be frightening, but I just think he's a precious little sandy cinnamon roll.

Peter: Given what Orochimaru's done so far, I'm actually curious if Kishimoto had a plan for him at this point. One of this lines in particular speaking with Anko is hilarious in retrospect. I have a new appreciation for Temari and Kankuro. The scene where they were trying to get Gaara to calm down was particularly good. You got a sense of how desperate and afraid they are of Gaara. Also I don't remember Orochimaru using so many... wind ki blasts? I think Kishimoto wasn't sure what powers he had yet.

Danni: I'm a little disappointed that my perfect snake wife was just a creepy old snake man in disguise. I'm honestly more terrified of Gaara right now. Orochimaru seems like he actually has a plan. Gaara just seems a bit...unhinged...

Noelle: I definitely agree with Peter, where Orochimaru in his introduction definitely wasn't as cohesive power-wise, as opposed to the snakes and more snakes that he becomes later. He is set up to be extremely threatening, but at this point, it's definitely more potential than it is factual. As for Gaara, Gaara is one of my faves, even if he starts out as a murder machine. The murder does not stop my appreciation for him. You go, Gaara.

Jared: Now I want a redub of those scenes with Orochimaru except with the Higher Power reveal audio. They certainly make him seem to be a big deal, although it's still relatively shrouded in mystery. Gaara's showing fell incredibly flat for me. Unlike when we first saw him where he had this mysterious aura about him, this just felt like he was made to be the ultimate edgelord. Which if the folks above me are indicating, he gets better, so hopefully that happens sooner rather than later.

Kevin: For both of them, I feel like their introductions worked well to establish them as serious threats. Orochimaru as a somewhat unknown quantity that even the adults are scared of, while Gaara is a coldblooded Genin that doesn't bat an eye at killing people, to the point that even his teammates fear for their lives when around him. For Orochimaru though, I can't remember any actual reason why he's actually in the Chunin Exam. We'll get to future events in later installments, but why bother actually joining the Genin?

Carolyn: I remember loving Orochimaru the first time I watched the show and thinking he was a major villain. They certainly set him to seem that way. I'm interested to see if my thoughts on that change as we progress. I also remember thinking Gaara was quite impressive and mysterious, though he was never a favorite character of mine. Rewatching the show, they definitely hype up his skills.

David: Gaara having a team that is scared of him is significantly more scary than Orochimaru's clear long-term threat foundation going on here. It's kind of cheating but I think this matters a lot for how impactful this ends up being very soon, whereas Orochimaru's threat is much more broad and lore-spanning in the grand scheme of things.

Joseph: Between Orochimaru, cursed Sasuke, and Gaara, there's so much DANGER in these eps. I love it!

Kara: Holy crow, things got dark. I'm not saying that as a negative, either. I'll be curious to see what happens with Orochimaru, because that's some high-stakes stuff that got thrown into the mix. I had a feeling Gaara was gonna make Sasuke look like a ray of sunshine by comparison, but I'm with Akamaru on that whole situation.

If you had to get into intense anime battles in your actual, half-anime life, and you had to copy a Naruto character's techniques, whose style would you use?

Paul: I will continue to stan for my main man, Choji Akimichi, and his ability to transform into the boulder from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Also, they never kill the chubby comic relief characters, so my plot armor would keep me safe from harm but not from embarrassment.

Peter: I feel like the correct answer is Gaara since you can just stand in place writing poems while sand kills people. Practically I think it's hard to argue that Sasuke doesn't have the most "ninja-like" style incorporating the three "jutsus" and leaning heavily on misdirection and outmaneuvering. Each requires having a pretty particular thing though, so it's kind of a lottery by birth.

Danni: Probably Orochimaru. Less for his actual fighting techniques and more because his Mr. Fantastic powers could come in handy when lounging around the house.

Noelle: Gaara's, having sand do my bidding would be pretty neat, and it's not like I sleep much anyway.

Jared: Rock Lee's techniques are what basically what I imagined myself when I was younger when thinking of having anime type fights.

Kevin: I would probably go for the Sharingan, largely due to how versatile it is. It gives amazing kinetic vision, allowing the user to dodge more and land more hits, lets them copy any ninjutsu the enemy uses, can make [REDACTED], or [REDACTED] or even summon [REDACTED], and that's without even getting into the unique abilities from [REDACTED]! Basically, it allows for a lot of flexible techniques, and just with the slight drawback of [REDACTED].

Carolyn: Ooh, can I redact stuff, too? My favorite hasn't happened yet. Have I mentioned how much I love Shikamaru?

David: Is it wrong to want to be Sasuke just because he gets the most well-animated fight scenes? I want to be as cool as he is in those.

Joseph: I've always been a fan of the Shadow Imitation Technique of the Nara clan. I think this is the first time we've seen it in the anime, but throughout the manga I always found it awesome whenever, BAM, someone found themselves ensared out of nowhere.

Kara: Gonna have to say Ino and the body-hopping. I'm so clumsy, the only way I'll ever effectively beat someone up is if I project into them and beat myself up.

So, Sakura gets a few cool minutes in Episode 32. I especially like the reveal that it wasn't a substitution and that she was actually dropping on Zaku and gutting through those Kunai. However, it's kind of mired in a lot of flashback and a weird "How does my face look?" backstory. How did you feel about it? I will say, for a little bit, I got hyped. Bleeding Sakura descending like Batman on this goon is a dope visual.

Paul: I'm glad Sakura finally got a chance to shine, and I didn't feel that the drama of the scene was terribly undercut by her childhood anxieties about having such an enormous forehead. It contextualizes some of her earlier, snappish behavior, and I was impressed with her growth as a character when she expressed a genuine desire to protect Naruto and when she offered Rock Lee her heartfelt thanks.

Peter: I'm kind of two minds on this watching it for the second time. If anything I feel like her dramatic move was undercut by the fact that there were two more Leaf squads that could have stepped in acting as a sort of safety net rather than anything actually relying on her. That said, I think the balance between her efforts in the moment and Ino remembering the extremely dumb stupid kid reason they stopped being friends was great.

Danni: I adored it. A woman's body in media is often portrayed as a priceless work of art. It's an object whose fragile beauty is meant to be fawned over and protected. The slightest mark of imperfection is detrimental to the whole piece. This either leads to strong women whose bodies remain unscathed or weak women whose bodies exist to be tragically violated. Seeing Sakura use her own body as both a weapon and a shield in this fight was nothing less than refreshing. She cast aside the beauty of her long hair, took three kunai to the body in order to get closer than her target, straight up sunk her teeth into him like a wild animal, and took a beating without flinching or letting go. It was so incredibly refreshing to see a woman actually fight with her whole body rather than an objectified version of one.

Noelle: This is Sakura's big awesome moment, and she nailed it. She doesn't have signature jutsu like Naruto's clones or Sasuke's fire - all she really has are perfected versions of the basics. That she's able to use her intellect to her advantage; setting traps, tricking her opponents, it works for her character. The fact that she is unyielding is fantastic, considering that in a lot of anime fight scenes featuring women it it's rarely conveyed just how brutal they can get. Sakura's desperately fighting, and she will take kunai and even bite her opponents if it means she can help her friends. It's rough, messy, and great. Let girls have brawls too!

Jared: I'm a huge fan of the "cutting your hair to signify a big change" trope, so I was incredibly excited to see it here. This moment for Sakura was essentially what I'd been waiting for this entire time with her and it delivered. I was kind of surprised how much backstory we got here, but I think it fit well with everything that was happening around them with Sakura and Ino. Everything about how she attacks Zaku felt like she was desperately doing anything she could to survive, which included things like biting and not letting go. Plus, I'm surprised they showed her bloodied up.

Kevin: To put it this way, Sakura faking out Zaku is both my highest and lowest point of the week. I love that we finally got to see her fight and even out think her opponent, and I was even okay with seeing Ino struggle with their history when deciding how to act, seeing her friend-turned-rival in trouble. They probably could have cut one or two of the flashbacks and lost nothing from the storytelling though.

Carolyn: I actually loved the flashbacks explaining her desire for long hair to impress Sasuke and her rivalry for his heart mixed in with Sakura being an awesome fighter. We saw where she came from and we see where she's headed. Her cutting off her hair (epic) was not just a clever tactic, it was her moving past her fickle, shallow priorities and stepping up. (And incidentally, finally winning Sasuke's respect.) I liked that contrast and I thought it made her powerful moments more meaningful.

David: I don't like how being feminine was presented so constantly as a negative thing in the lead up to her 'level up', especially because it got immediately followed up by a line from Shikamaru to Choji about how they need to be the 'men' of the situation. I also don't like how it didn't end up even really helping the situation, but Sasuke's unintentional powerup did. I do like how the story clearly realized how drastically it was underutilizing its main female characters and tried to rectify that as well as it could within the characterization it had already established for them. So, basically, I like that it ended up where it was, but I wish it didn't have to do that in the first place.

Joseph: Sakura's moment makes up for a lot of her inaction in previous episodes. It made it feel like a much more significant turn, and I think it's another great argument for the power of anime adaptations in taking certain aspects of the source material to the next level. I would also be remiss not to mention how major of a role she played in stopping Sasuke after he awakened to some straight-up Final Fantasy IV midi cover music.

Kara: Sakura's characterization grew three sizes this week! Normally I have nothing against romance or a crush being a motivator (people in the real world act that way sometimes), but I was getting second-hand embarrassment whenever everyone and their mother used her emotions against her because she was that much of an open book. She was seriously dope in episode 32, and I do like that she didn't drop her feelings so much as compartmentalize them. Was it perfect? No. Was it better than what we've seen for the last few weeks? Very much. Plus we've spent so much time being told she knows her stuff, it was nice to see it in action.

If you've read the manga, how do you feel about the pacing of the anime at this point?

Peter: I appreciate they're not trying to draw things out, past a few recap episodes. The only real filler we've gotten was a few more social scenes that ultimately helped build up the individual Team 7 members more so I'm good with them. Visually the series uses the manga as a direct roadmap the majority of the time but the departures, like in Naruto's fight against Haku, were extremely good.

Noelle: It's definitely a little slower, especially since you can read the same amount content much faster than you can watch it. Different mediums lend to different speeds. At the same time, it's not significantly slower - not like One Piece - so it's pretty tolerable. I can't say I have much complaints with the pacing.

David: It's gotten slower recently, but it's still MUCH better than I expect from long-running shonen adaptations even today. I never feel like a half hour isn't used effectively, which is impressive.

Joseph: They've chopped a few minutes off the absurdly long flashbacks at the start of each episode, so it's much punchier now than when it was covering the Zabuza fight. The adaptation nails some of the big moments, so I think they do a fantastic job of making the most out of Kishimoto's story and characters.

Last but not least, what was everyone's high and low points for this week, along with anything else you want to shout out?

Paul: My high point was the fight between Sasuke and Orochimaru in Episode 30. Pierrot's animation team really pulled out all the stops for that one, and I was frankly blown away by how well-staged it was, especially since the previous episode was so janky, to the point where it gave us the "Naruto, you look kind of cool" silly face meme. My low point was the reveal that Rock Lee's ultimate technique is just a glorified Izuna Drop. I was disappointed by that, because I was expecting something really far out there.

Peter: I'd have to say everyone involved had a low moment against the sound ninja. Rock Lee could have actually just kicked the guys head off so I'm not sure why he pulled out his ultimate technique. The master strategist Shikamaru really handled the InoShikaCho combo poorly (why not just have Ino knock the paralyzed guy out then 3v1 the last guy?). Feels like there were too many cooks in the kitchen while Kishimoto was trying to let Sakura stand on her own. High point was Sasuke's epic fight against Orichimaru... or maybe Gaara being Goth Prime?

Danni: If you can't guess already, the high point of this batch for me is Sakura's battle. Naruto snapping Sasuke out of his daze and the whole fight between Sasuke and Orochimaru are close runner-ups. I can't say there were any real low, low points for me in this batch, but I could have done without the whole prolonged tension of them debating whether or not to open the scroll simply for them to move on without opening it. I really feel like that could have been a lot more condensed.

Noelle: It has to be Sakura's battle. She's the last member of the team who hasn't really had a moment of growth, as she's mostly been stuck fawning over Sasuke. Now she has a moment of her own, to show that she really can be one of their peers in combat, not just because she's assigned to be alongside them. Sasuke vs Orochimaru was also fantastic to watch. Low points would probably be the Sound Ninja fight when Sakura wasn't the highlight, it felt a little too long.

Jared: The true answer here is Sakura finally getting her moment as the high point. The flow of these episodes just kept moving until the end where things really slowed down, but that makes sense. Sasuke pulling out a Canadian Destroyer (front flip piledriver) was something I absolutely wasn't expecting. Maybe my low points would be Gaara's fight and then Naruto wanting to open up the scroll since it felt way too obvious that he'd do that.

Kevin: Sakura's fight somehow managed to be both the best and worst moments. The best moment was when she uses Substitution multiple times to trick her opponent into giving her an opening, even though she needed to take multiple kunai wounds in the process. It was awesome to see her thinking, and there might've even been a bit of Naruto rubbing off on her, given how brazen the plan was. Unfortunately, it led to the end of her plan... biting Zaku's arm and just holding on as he kept punching her head. Great plan, Sakura.

Carolyn: The squirrel and the hair cut were high points for me. Also, just seeing everyone have respect for each other. Sakura thanks Rock Lee, Rock Lee acknowledges Sasuke's ability. Good stuff.

David: It might not sound like it so far, but Sakura's fight is my high point for not just this bit, but the entirety of the show - it's one of the defining moments of the series to me, something that has stuck with me for decades at this point. So, criticisms aside, that matters a lot to me. Low point is how even when the show is trying to make Lee cool is still undermines him just as quickly, making it hard to believe it really appreciates his struggle.

Joseph: Episode 30 is an all-timer, so that's gotta be my high point. The low point was probably the Sound Ninja. Their powers are cool, and I understand jutsu is a term encompassing techniques in a wide swath, but to me they just had prosthetics and weapons. Hey, check out my jutsu *pulls out a gun*.

Kara: Can't decide between Sasuka vs. Orochimaru or Sakura finally Doing Things as my high point. Really liked both. Low point was probably every time I had to see Naruto squiggling around in snake guts.

COUNTERS:

"I'm gonna be Hokage!" count: 14

Bowls of ramen consumed: 2 bowls, 3 cups

Shadow Clones: 115

And that's everything for this week! Remember that you're always welcome to join us for this rewatch, especially if you haven't watched the original Naruto!

Here's our upcoming schedule!

-Next week, on FEBRUARY 22ND, we’re looking at EPISODES 36-42 as I, DANIEL DOCKERY, IN MY TRUE BEAST FORM, hosts as the Forest of Death continues to torment! THIS IS THE ONLY INSTALLMENT WE'RE ACCEPTING QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS FOR THIS WEEK!

-Then on MARCH 1ST, we’ll talk about EPISODES 43-49 as NATE MING returns as we enter into one-on-one competition including a showdown between Rock Lee and Gaara!

-On MARCH 8th, we move on to the final stage of the Chunin Exam with EPISODES 50-56, hosted by CAROLYN BURKE!

Thank you for joining us for the Great Crunchyroll Naruto Rewatch! Have a great weekend, and we'll see you all next time!

Have any comments or questions about episodes 22-28? What about our upcoming installment, featuring episodes 29-35?

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

Daniel Dockery is a writer and editor for Crunchyroll. He has a Twitter that he uses.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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junker-town · 5 years ago

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These are the best and worst sports in fiction, according to us

What is your favorite fictional sport and why is it Calvinball?

Inventing a sport is hard. The best fictional sports from movies/books/shows/etc. seem to fall into two categories: Either exceedingly clever games you have always wished you could play (and sometimes can!), or senseless, broken dreck that no one could possibly find fun, no matter what a story’s canon would lead you to believe.

Here are the best and worst fictional sports, as selected by SB Nation staff. There are a lot of other options out there, however, and plenty of discussion to be had about what sports even count as “fictional.” Does a sport you can “play” in a video game count? What about, uh, murder-based sports?

Let us know in the comments. Or just yell at us about our decisions. That’s fine, too.

Best: Jumanji

I wanted to consider the board game oeuvre of fictional sports, and considered Cones of Dunshire for the top spot. But Jumanji is it to me for the way it captured my imagination as a kid. Will it inflict untold damage, and potential death, upon you and everyone around for miles? Sure. It may also turn you into a cool monkey boy with a prehensile tail. Just roll the dice, dingus, it’s your turn.

Worst: Star Wars holochess (I guess it’s called Dejarik)

It’s kinda like Magic: The Gathering crossed with chess. The board looks too cramped for much strategy to take place, though. Plus you have to let the Wookiee win.

— Louis Bien

Best: Blernsball

Blernsball is the 30th-century version of baseball, which took place in Futurama (Season 3, episode 16, “A Leela of Her Own”).

The reasoning behind this being the best fictional sport, is that baseball in the future undoubtedly has to be better than baseball in its current form. It’s that simple. Baseball is good now, and assuming they were to actually evolve over nine more centuries, it could be great.

But that’s also a big if.

Worst: Poohsticks

The objective of Poohsticks (from Winnie-the-Pooh, obv) is to stand over some running water, drop a stick, and see whose stick gets down to the end first.

Go play Fortnite or Call of Duty instead.

— Harry Lyles Jr.

Best: BASEketball

A sport that combines all the fun of basketball with none of the running, jumping, or otherwise-needed athletic traits one needs to typically be good at basketball. Any game you can play with a beer in hand is a good one. Especially if all you have to do to play defense is remind opponents how their sister’s GOING OUT WITH SQUEAK.

Worst (but not really): Bouillabaseball

It’s just baseball with fish parts. I expected better from the ALF writer’s room, but I still stan the Equinox Weenies.

— Christian D’Andrea

Best/Worst: Vampire Baseball

Though I’m loathe to admit I’ve read “Twilight,” I would like to make fun of “Twilight,” so here we are. Basically, in the book, a real treat for our heroine was getting to watch Edward and his vampire family play vampire baseball. Wow, sounds fun, they have superhuman abilities I wonder what their sports will be like?!

Get your hopes down, it’s just regular baseball that’s louder. Because they hit the ball so hard. Great date idea Edward, Bella gets to watch your family game of regular baseball. She doesn’t even get to play. I can’t believe she likes Edward more than Jaco— I mean I don’t care, Twilight’s for children.

— Clara Morris

Best: The Running Man

I’m sure there are some prudes out there saying “but Jaaaames, murder isn’t a sport!” To which I would reply “it is the REALEST sport, even when fictionalized.”

The Running Man is unquestionably one of the greatest action movies of all time, which game us the best fictional sport of all time. It’s professional wrestling, with all its pomp and circumstance mixed American Gladiators with a healthy sprinkling of pure, unadulterated murder.

In case you’re not familiar with the plot, the basic concept is simple: Dangerous convicted felons are given a chance to fight for their freedom in gladiatorial battles against armed, themed enforcers on a dystopian game show. It probably says something about me that I like this so much, but here we are.

Worst: Taking the Stone

This is from the show Farscape and is the dumbest thing of all time. Rather than try to explain in my own words let me just share the entry from Wikipedia, which does a great job detailing how dumb this is.

“The game consists of jumping into a deep well, and chanting while falling. A sonic net at the bottom of the well, sustained by the participants’ voices, cushions their fall. When the youth reach the age of 22 cycles, rather than grow old and be deformed by the planet’s radiation, they stop chanting part way into the leap and die against the rocks. This death is called Taking the Stone.”

Jumping into a well. Maybe killing yourself. Bad sport.

— James Dator

Best: Cricket

Or, more specifically, the good Dr. Stephen Maturin’s take on cricket. At the beginning of Patrick O’Brian’s The Fortune of War, what can only be described as the hulk of the HMS Leopard drifts into the Indonesian bay of Pulo Batang. The crew, exhausted by their recent ordeal in the Southern Ocean, relaxes with a game of cricket against that of the HMS Cumberland. Or they try to, before Maturin, equipped with a bizarre, home-made bat, makes his appearance on the behalf of the Leopards.

A rapacious grin ran round the Cumberlands: they moved much closer in, crouching, their huge crab-like hands spread wide. The Admiral held the ball to his nose for a long moment, fixing his adversary, and then delivered a lob that hummed as it flew. Stephen watched its course, danced out to take it as it touched the ground, checked its bounce, dribbled the ball towards the astonished cover-point and running still he scooped it into the hollow of his hurley, raced on with twinkling steps to mid-off, there checked his run amidst the silent stark amazement, flicked the ball into his hand, tossed it high, and with a screech drove it straight at Jack’s wicket, shattering the near stump and sending its upper half into a long, graceful trajectory that reached the ground just as the first of La Flèche’s guns, saluting the flag, echoed across the field.

As far as rebukes towards English pretensions go, deliberate or not, it’s pretty hard to beat Dr. Maturin’s efforts. This is cricket as it really ought to be played: nonsensically and with maximum force.

NB: My favourite part of the above passage, incidentally, is the confusion it created amongst O’Brian’s significant American audience over whether Dr. Maturin was any good at cricket or not.

Worst: Quidditch

Take a perfectly good magical sport, with three goals, multiple balls, rogue and malevolent magical items designed to hurt you, and flying. The bones of quidditch are close to perfect, giving scope for brilliant tactical and individual play in three dimensions.

And then the Golden Snitch ruins it. There’s absolutely no need for the damn thing. The chasers, beaters and keepers are playing an interesting, well-constructed sport. The seekers, meanwhile, are playing a ridiculous version of hide-and-seek which almost inevitably overrides what everyone else on both teams are trying to achieve.

Not only does the hunt for the Snitch render the actually good part of the sport irrelevant, it also destroys quidditch as a spectator sport. Since the Snitch is so small as to be untrackable, the audience in the stands has no idea what’s going on at any given time, making this a sport that’s both nonsensical and impossible to follow.

Kill the Snitch, and then we’ll talk.

— Graham MacAree

Best: Crunchball 3000

Now I know what you’re all thinking. What the hell is CrunchBall 3000. Well it’s a computer game that has LORE.

The game has elements of rugby, soccer and football and is an excellent time waster at wo— I mean it’s a really underrated way to pass the time.

Worst: Quidditch ... but in real life.

*It’s not really the worst, I just wanted to talk about it.*

Don’t get me wrong, IRL quidditch is fun. I’m just mad that the one time I played, I was the seeker and the snitch could go anywhere. We were in a park and there were no boundaries. I stopped chasing them after three minutes. I have asthma, man. I was off it.

— Kofie Yeboah

Best: Calvinball

When I was a kid in my hometown, there were a few boys on my street who were around the same age as me. In the summer, we would all spend our hard earned pop-bottle deposit returns on buying used baseballs at rummage sales and then use them to play in an open field down the road from our houses. Baseball is actually a very loose term for what we played, especially once the ball was lost or the cover tore off. Then it was a free for all. Little did I know until later in my development that such games as those we played were already mastered by the titular characters in Calvin and Hobbes. Calvinball, you see, is a game with no rules, other than the rules you make up as you go along. No two games are allowed to be the same, and no rules made up on the fly are allowed to be duplicated. Throw on some masks, hit a baseball with a mop and go score some points by running seven times around the sprinkler. Wait! The sprinkler is now the loser zone, so you have to use a croquet mallet to hit a tennis ball over the driveway without it touching any dirt or concrete. If it does, you lose 10 points.

“Other kids’ games are all such a bore!

They’ve gotta have rules and they gotta keep score!

Calvinball is better by far!

It’s never the same! It’s always bizarre!

You don’t need a team or a referee!

You know that it’s great, ‘cause it’s named after me!”

As Calvin opined in the final Calvinball strip when a football game turned into one of the crazy contests, “Sooner or later, all our games turn into Calvinball.”

There really isn’t a better sport out there, real or fictional.

Worst: Star Trek’s parrises squares

Let’s keep this portion short and sweet: They never gave any rules to parrises squares on the show, but it clearly is dumb because there is no way the folks who made Star Trek: The Next Generation were able to come up with a cool sport. That’s probably why they didn’t bother showing viewers much of the game, which is played with an “ion mallet” on a padded playing field.

I know no other details. But it’s is clearly dumber than real-life quidditch, which is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever watched in my entire life.

— Sam Eggleston

Best: Rocket League

Video games are murky territory, and I’m not sure if most of them can be classified as fictional sports. Is Counter-Strike a fictional sport, or a simulation of a military operation? I’m not really sure. But Rocket League is unquestionably a game about a fake sport, and it is by far the best fake sport anyone’s ever invented.

Soccer is the most popular sport ever invented by humans. The coolest iteration of soccer ever invented is from Nike’s 3v3 Secret Tournament ad, which was played in a metal cage. Rocket League iterates on this concept further by replacing the human competitors with freaking rocket powered cars. If it was possible to create Rocket League in real life, it would be the world’s most popular spectator sport.

Worst: Professional wrestling

Oh no, I’ve exposed the business! It’s difficult to classify wrestling as a type of sports or entertainment, hence the term “sports entertainment,” but essentially it’s a TV show about a fake sports league. There’s no non-fixed sport that bears a strong resemblance to pro wrestling, so I think it’s fair to classify pro wrestling as a fictional sport.

Wrestling Twitter, don’t scream at me. I am not here to talk shit about the entertainment you love. I’ve watched thousands of hours of pro wrestling and I love it. But as an actual sport, it’s kind of a mess. There are no published rules, and the referees seem utterly incapable of enforcing the ones that broadcasters tell us about. Competitors are not punished for repeatedly assaulting referees. Any sensible sport would have introduced additional referees or an instant replay system after 100 years of consistent shenanigans, but the major pro wrestling organizations simply refuse. No fictional sport has less competitive integrity.

— Kim McCauley

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stevenuniversallyreviews · 8 years ago

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Episode 42: Winter Forecast

“Nah, I’m just killin’ time.”

There is no moment in Steven Universe, or arguably any show I’ve ever watched, that captures the pure wonder of childhood like my favorite scene in the series, and that’s the wordless ending of Winter Forecast. The way Steven intuits his friend’s arrival. The slow pan as she surveys the room. Her glasses-free smirk. The strange and specific sensation of being a kid and being awake while your parents are asleep. The way we follow Steven’s wide eyes from Connie to the window, then repeat the motion from his point of view. The sound of the wind, and the lingering shot of the snow, and the cut to black.

Our last look at Steven and Connie after their adventure could’ve easily been this, just two excited goofballs in an episode about two excited goofballs. But instead, it’s this:

It’s just so damned lovely. And this moment of unspoken connection is exactly the sort of thing Rose wanted so badly for her son. Steven Universe may be fun because of its action and lore, and it may be important because of its themes and characters, but it’s special because it takes the time to show us moments like this.

Still, like Steven, we oughtta go back to the beginning, because the episode preceding this scene is pretty nifty as well. This is the first time we’ve seen Connie since Alone Together, and their comfortable new status quo is great to watch after the initial awkwardness of Bubble Buddies and Lion 2 and the atonal backpedaling of Fusion Cuisine. Like I said in my very first discussion of Connie, she often prompts huge changes in Steven’s life, be it his first bubble, the unsheathing of Rose’s sword, the revelation of his healing powers, the introduction of school as a concept (which led to The Mirror and Lapis), his first in-battle shield summon, and his first fusion. But here, they’re just shooting the breeze, and Steven isn’t overtly changed by the end. Not everything with Connie has to be a huge deal, and I appreciate that.

If anything, the biggest change comes from Garnet, who continues to let Steven in on her secrets by revealing the ability to pass along her future vision. Winter Forecast thrives off the mystery of Steven’s multiple realities, but its solution downplays the new implication that Garnet lives through several bad future until she picks the right one on a regular basis. As upsetting as this sounds, it’s also at odds with her description of how her powers work in Future Vision, the way it affects her reflexes in Meat Beat Mania in Arcade Mania, and the way Steven sees the future in Jailbreak. I’d love consistency on how her powers work, but if that’s the cost of creative visualizations of a magical concept then I’ll take it.

But back to our leads. It’s a bundle of fun to watch Steven and Connie hang out, and the episode explores their growing friendship by blending moments of spontaneity (their snowball fight, scrambling to trick the grown-ups) with lived-in continuity (Connie’s interest in the mechanics of processed food, Steven’s awareness of how strict the Maheswarans can be). While many of these events are erased from time, they still show how close the two have become and how much Connie has evolved from her isolated Bubble Buddies self.

This is a Connie who’s fine with procrastinating instead of obeying her mother’s direct orders, who doesn’t freak out after Greg’s van slips, who isn’t even upset to trudge a few miles in a snowstorm. When the van breaks down in another timeline, she’s content to make a party of it with the Universes. But best of all is her phone call to her mother to say she’s staying at Steven’s, complete with a deep breath to prepare herself and a tone-perfect read by Grace Rolek, spouting out the words all at once to get them over with. The Crystal Gems have made a fellow rebel of her.

Steven has grown a lot since Bubble Buddies as well, but we’ve spent plenty of time watching it happen. Rather than showcase his development, we get to see him slowly learn a lesson about making good choices even when it isn’t fun. But that’s a boring lesson, so it’s sugarcoated in a brilliant sci-fi mystery constantly throwing Steven (and us) out of his (our) element(s!). From the moment he becomes transfixed by the glowing back flap of Greg’s outfit, his life is a whirlwind that’s just as bewildering to the viewer. Savvy fans may have noticed Garnet’s kiss on where his third eye would be on first viewing, but suckers like me were entranced by his slow and jagged drift into the past. Zach Callison can sell incredulity with the best of ‘em, which is a relief considering it’s Steven’s default state for most of the episode. Eternity really seemed injured for a moment there!

Outside of Lion 3′s brief recording, we haven’t seen Greg since all the way back in Watermelon Steven. In that episode, as well as many others, his fatherhood role extends to being a fun dad for a kid that lives with other people. Winter Forecast and Maximum Capacity give him back-to-back episodes to show off his responsible side, and each is a wonderful example of why he’s such a good father despite his flaws. He makes mistakes in several timelines of Winter Forecast, but they come from a very real place of insecurity, from wanting to wear the right clothes (Steven is right, those Saiyan-level eighties pads are amazing) to wanting to ensure Connie gets home safely even if it kills her.

Greg is trying to impress fellow parents, and is aware enough of his shortcomings to be embarrassed when he fails. And that insecurity gets so much deeper when we finally understand his own childhood from Mr. Universe: his parents were just like the Maheswarans, controlling their only child with a strictness that makes said child seek out a magic world. He isn’t just trying to make sure Connie can still have that magic by keeping both families on good terms, but the runaway whose parents never wrote back is looking to show somebody that he isn’t a screw-up. So he does his best in a variety of lousy scenarios, and earns his happy couch ending.

Finally, while the Gems stick to the background, Winter Forecast’s sudden veer into the ongoing Homeworld arc is magnificent. Heavy plot episodes and slice-of-life episodes tend to be separated, but jumping into the Gems blowing themselves up trying to warp the Shooting Star back adds cosmic perspective to Steven’s other bad timelines. Reminding us that life goes on without Steven is important, but turning it into a whiplash-inducing injection of drama is hilarious.

Like any of my favorite Steven Universe episodes, tone is everything in Winter Forecast. Like Rose’s Room, the mood shifts about throughout the runtime: in this case between silliness, embarrassment, fun, tension, drama, and relief. But it wears each of these hats with aplomb (which is more than I can say for the characters; come on, it’s snowing, you’re gonna freeze your ears off!) and begins and ends with two distinct but delightful depictions of childhood friendships. From goofing off with marshmallows to sharing a quiet secret, this is one of the greats.

(Also, Winter Forecast is a truly great name for this episode. What can I say, I’m a pun man.)

Future Vision!

Another snowy episode, Three Gems and a Baby, reveals Greg’s carabiner song is hardly a new composition. (But points off for that same episode having Steven say “I’ve never seen it snow like this before” post-Winter Forecast.)

Greg will continue to be a Cherry Man in Mr. Greg.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

Again, that last scene is my favorite in the series. But while I love the mystery element and the various alternate realities, it’s not quite as fun to rewatch after we know the big secret (compare this to Mirror Gem and Lion 3, which are just as great if not better when we know what the mystery is building to). It still makes the Top Ten, but it’s not ranked as high as the scene alone would merit.

Top Ten

Steven and the Stevens

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Winter Forecast

On the Run

Warp Tour

The Test

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Future Vision

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

No Thanks!

4. Horror Club 3. Fusion Cuisine 2. House Guest 1. Island Adventure

#winter forecast #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

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