#Or Dark Side of Dimensions but I have the DVD so it's cool

[nubelo]

Yu-Gi-Oh about to catch an STD with how it keeps bouncing from streaming service to streaming service.

[calliecat93]

I was 9 years old when I first watched the original Yu-Gi-Oh anime. I’d seen it around, but I wasn’t all that interested in it. But I got into it the same way I did everything else back the : I was bored and put it on the show cause nothing else was on. The episode that played was Episode 13 where Yami Yugi dueled Yami Bakura and regular Yugi and the gang were stuck as cards. That ended up catching my interest and I began watching the show regularly, and I fell in love with it.

I watched all of the original, GX, and most of 5D’s. Sometime during 5D’s my interest overall wavered and Zexal didn’t appeal to me so I mostly left the franchise behind. While GX and 5D’s were cool, the original remains by and large the true Yu-Gi-Oh to me. I watched both the 4Kids dub and the Japanese version. I played the card game for a good while. I read tons of fanfiction and even developed an OC for it. And OC I’ve since repurposed for my original work, which may have never happened if not for YGO. I still have my copy of the Pyramid of Light film DVD that I got over a decade ago. I even watched the Seaon 0 series from Toei back then YGO didn’t revolve on the card game and that was really fun! Unfortunately I didn’t read the manga or watched Dark Side of Dimension fully yet, which I may need to rectify now.

Hearing about Kazuki Takahashi’s passing is such a shock. YGO was such a big part of my childhood and early teen years. It and Sailor Moon were pretty much what got me into anime and into the deeper world of fandoms. For better or worst, YGO did a lot for me and while I did eventually move on from it, I never forgot it. Thank you Takahashi for your creation and for all that it did for me. May it continue to live on alongsode your memory.

[the-elemental-sides]

Urban fantasy AU: The Sides are four spirits trapped in an amulet. When Thomas finds it and puts it on, he gains the powers of the four elements…or that’s what should have happened, but mistakes were made. Now the Sides have to coach him in their respective elements while Thomas deals with both his new powers and his ability to see into the magical realm. Not only is magic real, but there’s some pretty intimidating stuff out there, and only Thomas and the Sides have the power to stop it.

A/N: I consider this chapter the end of Part I. How many more chapters there are remains to be seen. Hope you like it! Warnings: References to panic attacks, mild distress.

Taglist:  @shinylyni, @hissesssss, @vexation-virgil, @madd-catter, @rptheturk, @ed-tries-to-be-cool, @nienna14, @ryuity, @asofterfan, @robanilla, @k9cat, @ab-artist, @absoluteamethyst, @a-box-o-jills, @captain-loki-xavier, @lynisnotamused @literally-just-for-fanfics, @alix-the-skeleton, @generalfandomfabulousness

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

***

Thomas’ first instinct was to throw a rock at it.

But he was transparent, so his powers didn’t work. The rock sailed through the dark blob harmlessly, and Thomas flinched when it sort of shifted and flattened out, like a shadow stretching itself across the ceiling.

“Thomas…” warned Virgil.

He couldn’t take his eyes off the thing. There was an aura about it that felt paralyzing and wrong—the way Thomas felt when there was a huge spider nearby and he couldn’t stop looking at it despite how much it scared him. Thomas took a step back, then rapidly backpedaled into the next aisle. There was a great clang of food item/freezer door/shopping cart noise as the spirits hastily tried to sort themselves out and follow him.

But his eyes were open now, and Thomas was aware of the dark, purple-black blobs, which seemed to be everywhere, though none were as huge as the one in the freezer aisle. There were only two others he could see that bobbed in the air, but several more were lying on the ground, oozing like mud, with visible shoeprints tracking the brackish substance across the floor.

Virgil was the first to reach him. “Thomas, are you all right?”

“What...what is that? It’s flipping gross, man!”

“Tell me about it,” Roman muttered, joining him.

“I can barely even look at it. There’s something...I don’t know, it makes me feel sick.”

“If you weren’t feeling that way, we’d have a problem,” said Logan. “That, Thomas, is pure negativity. Remarkably, there’s none to be found in your apartment, but in public places like these, it can spread like wildfire.”

“Has that always been there?”

“Of course, kiddo,” Patton said softly. The sight of the dark blobs seemed to be making him uncomfortable. “They’re always around on the spirit plane. You just have to look for them.”

“What do they do?” asked Thomas.

“Ever had a bad mood swing?” said Roman. “Short temper? Lapse in judgement?”

“Panic attack?” added Virgil.

“One of those things might have been the cause,” Roman continued. “It causes a reaction if it touches you—usually no big deal. But they feed off emotions and get bigger. And they multiply.”

“Sure wasn’t fun to see how many were in my room once I could see them,” muttered Virgil.

Thomas kept eying them. “So then...what do I do about them?”

“You fight!” To demonstrate, Roman tossed a crackling fireball at the nearest blob. It went up in flames. Logan immediately slapped Roman’s hand and started stomping out the fire to prevent it from spreading.

“I just...kill it with fire? Or wind, or whatever?”

“Those aren’t just elements you’re summoning, Thomas,” said Virgil. “Remember, there’s some of your soul in the mix, too. You’d be surprised at how effective you can be.”

“So give it a shot!” Roman encouraged, his attention partly occupied by the slapfight he’d gotten himself into with Logan. “Whichever power you’d like. You’ve at least grasped the basics of all of them, right?”

Logan released Roman’s hands. “Patton and I will keep a lookout on the aisles. Roman, please allow Thomas to reassume solid form. I think you’ve lost your human privileges.”

Muttering, Roman did as he asked. Thomas took a deep breath and allowed himself to stop being translucent. The transition out of the spirit world made him cold, like he’d passed through a chilly patch of air. Thomas squinted. “I can’t see the...blobs, anymore?”

“It’s harder when you’re not a spirit,” said Virgil. “Concentrate.”

After a few seconds, Thomas’ vision adjusted. The world did look kind of grimy in places. He aimed at those spots as best he could. He raised his hands as if he was a conductor about to start off a piece. Virgil took a step back.

A tornado of wind exploded from Thomas’ hands as a small storm raged through the aisle. Canned vegetables swept off the shelves and clattered onto the floor. The darkness was dissolved by the wind—power-cleaned away like piles of dust under a bed. When the windstorm stopped, the only disruption came from a small can rolling off a shelf with a clunk.

Patton poked his head around the shelf, smiling. “That was great, kiddo!”

“Adequate,” said Logan. “I would have suggested something less chaotic.”

“Sorry, guys. I’m still learning.” Thomas bent to pick up the cans, and Patton quickly sprang to help. Logan and Virgil followed seconds later.

“Excellent! Now are you ready for level two?” asked Roman.

“Already?” Thomas said in surprise. He cast his eyes at the freezer aisle. “You mean the giant blob back there?”

“Exactly!...well. ‘Giant blob’ doesn’t have a nice ring to it. I was thinking we’d give it a proper name.”

“I’m not sure…”

“You don’t wanna just leave something that dangerous hanging around a supermarket, do you?” Patton worried.

“Well, no! I don’t want it to hurt anybody on my account,” Thomas admitted. Logan looked deep in thought, but Roman was nodding enthusiastically. He felt like he didn’t want to let them down...they were the ones who’d given him his powers in the first place, after all, so why not put them to use?

“Then...I’ll give it a try.”

***

Eventually, the store cleared out, and Thomas and the Sides seized their opportunity. Stepping back into the freezer aisle was physically difficult to do. The shadow was much easier to see now that he knew what to look for. It was like a dark smudge on an old TV screen.

“Try not to destroy the store,” suggested Logan, stepping back to give him space.

“Yeah, no. I’m gonna try earth this time.” Thomas created another rock and tossed it up and down, trying not to drop it. He locked eyes on his target and steadied his hand from shaking. “Uhh…do I just….”

“Three,” said Virgil.

“Two,” said Logan.

“One,” said Patton.

“FIRE!” Roman yelled, and Thomas pitched it. The rock propelled itself forward as if by magic and hit the shadow square in the middle.

The effect was instantaneous. The blob reacted, spiking like an animal bristling its fur, and turned on Thomas instantly, bringing a wave of cold and that sick negative feeling with it. Thomas dove for cover, and the Sides—who’d all turned back into spirits by this point, and all looked like Thomas again—followed.

“Ooh, this beast does need some kind of formidable name…..” Roman contemplated. “Ah! How about ‘Bill?’”

“Move, you idiot!” Virgil shouted.

Roman had gotten distracted, and the shadow whipped toward him. Starting off as a long snakelike rope, it veered into the floor and splashed into the second dimension. It flattened and shaped itself into a disc three feet in diameter beneath his feet. Roman stopped struggling to move. His face went pale, and then gray, as the color literally started leaching out of him.

“Princey!” Patton cried in horror.

“ROMAN!” Thomas yelled—his battle cry as he launched himself straight at the shadow. Or Bill, whichever. He ignored another exasperated shout from Virgil.

Unfortunately, his powers had not given him the ability to super-jump. Thomas ended up falling short and landing hard on his stomach on the floor. Immediately, the black disc distorted and stretched from Roman to him. Thomas felt as if the floor dropped out from under him. Old fears and anxieties rushed into his mind like he’d been slapped with them. The shadow was dragging his fear and self-hate from his mind and using it like weaponry. Suddenly the world was a little more gray, his friends were a little more distant, he was forgetting who he used to be...

Somebody yanked hard on his ankle. Thomas woke up enough to see Virgil, equally furious and terrified, dragging him backwards. Patton was clutching Virgil’s shoulder.

“Get up!” Virgil growled in a layered voice that shocked Thomas from the spell. “Roman needs you!”

Thomas scrambled to his hands and knees. The black disc frantically danced beneath him, freezing his hands wherever he placed them down. Virgil tossed water over the floor, rinsing bits of Bill away wherever it touched.

“Thanks,” Thomas gasped.

“You’re the only one of us who can destroy it,” said Virgil, pointing at the ground. Unlike with Thomas’ magic, which had destroyed the blobs entirely, the larger shadow’s dissolved pieces were already reforming.

“Roman’s not waking up!” Patton said desperately. The prince was standing rooted to the spot, eyes wide with whatever the shadow had done to him.

“Hold on,” said Virgil, who was working with Thomas to keep the shadow dissolved as long as possible. “Logan’s—“

Suddenly, a scream of “aaaaaAAAAAA—“ echoed through the store as Logan sprinted through the aisle and shoved a DVD case into Roman’s hands (technically, since Roman was in spirit form, straight through). “Roman I have obtained a copy of a Disney movie that you will find satisfactory!”

“No way! For me?!” Roman brightened instantly, and literally. He flipped over the copy of Tangled and enthusiastically scanned the back cover. “Now he’s a prince I could get behi—hey, hold on, Monitor Wizard, weren’t we doing something?”

“I knew it, Logan said in relief. “All he needed was a shock to the system.”

Roman blinked. “What—what happened? Does that mean you’re not buying this for me?”

“I will buy all of you one thing if you help me, because I think this has gone very wrong!” Thomas warned.

He tried to do the tornado thing again, forget the mess, but he only ended up pushing the shadow out of his and Virgil’s reach. Bill sprang off the floor and reformed into a cloud that started coalescing into itself. It got darker and darker as it changed from insubstantial smoke to something heavy and tangible. Even as it shrank to the size of a bowling ball, a point of red light flickered in its core. Almost like it was charging up for something….

“What’s—what’s it doing?”

“Um,” said Virgil, “we’d better abort the mission.”

“Yeah, Thomas, I’m not feeling so great,” Roman said weakly.

“Wait,” Thomas said, stepping back until his back hit the side of the aisle.

“Thomas, kiddo? They’re right. I’ve seen this before,” Patton said, and this time his face was definitely white and his voice held more than a trace of panic in it. “The thing’s—it’s gonna—Thomas, please move!”

The black sphere launched itself at Thomas with frightening speed. It was inches away from catching him straight in the center of the chest and—well, who knew what it was planning? But Thomas leaped out of the way and ripped a freezer door open at the last second. The second the shadow rammed into the freezer, rattling every carton of ice cream on the shelf, he threw the door closed.

Bill didn’t seem very hindered. It pinged around the walls for a second, then started oozing back into fog and creeping toward the door. Thomas slammed his hand on the freezer with all his strength, and every bit of ice in the freezer melted. It splashed down, pummeling the shadow to the floor and making it writhe almost like it was in pain. Steam rose up where the water and the shadow made contact.The latter darted around on the floor, dissolving into smaller and smaller pieces, until it finally shuddered to a stop, broke in half—and was gone.

Thomas rested his head against the freezer door, too tired to care about the hot mess the aisle was in.

“You did it,” said Logan, stiffly patting him on the back. “That shadow will no longer bother anyone else.”

Virgil exhaled loudly. “We took way too a big a risk. We shouldn’t have asked Thomas to handle one that powerful.”

“It’s fine, guys. Patton’s right. If those things exist, and I’m one of the only ones who can get rid of them...it’s time for me to learn how to fight better.”

“I’m sorry!” Patton said when Logan looked at him critically. “I didn’t think the fight would get so tense, honest. Roman, are you all right?”

“Me? Psssh! I’m fine!” Roman said confidently.  But it was clearly a lie, since his face was still pale.

“At least now we know how shadows affect spirits,” Logan said. He seemed like he wanted to be angry that Roman hadn’t been careful, but he didn’t push the issue. “May we leave now, Thomas? The best thing after contact with a shadow is lots of self-care. So if Roman desires it….I guess I will watch this children’s animated movie with him.”

“Sweet!”

“Thomas has to buy it, though.”

“You guys can just pull it from my memories, can’t you?” said Thomas, but every one of the Sides gave him a big-eyed look. “Okay, fine. Movie night it is.”

Patton whooped. “Party at Thomas’ place!”

Considering everything—and considering that Thomas was the only living being in his apartment—the Tangled party turned out pretty sick.

***

Next Chapter

[qorillas]

happy d-day it’s a national holiday so i stayed up all night to write y’all a fic and had to go to a 12.5 hour work shift on no sleep so fucking. appreciate this

2000+ words, studoc because this is my house. d-day gives me lots of emotions

When Stuart walks into the living room at 4am for a glass of water, the last thing he is expecting to see is Murdoc digging through a chewed-up cardboard box of old cassettes as if his life depends on it.

“What’re you doing,” he asks bluntly, and it’s a testament to how many things he’s had to put up with over the years that this is phrased like a statement rather than an actual question, and that there’s no real surprise behind his words anymore. Stu’s been through the wringer, okay. You don’t get spirited off to a parallel space dimension and force-fed an entire fridge by an anthropomorphic slice of pizza without losing a bit of astonishment for everyday things like this.

Murdoc looks up, startled, for a second, then plunges his arms back into the box and starts rummaging around loudly again. “Found some old VHS tapes in the back of the garage,” he says, then stops for a second and yanks one out with much more vigor than is strictly needed and a loud clatter. He barks out a victorious laugh and shoves the box off to the side, kicking the tapes he’s already scattered across the floor out of his way and kneeling down in front of the television set. “C’mere, come look at this.”

“‘S 4am, Muds,” Stuart protests, but he shuffles over and plops himself down on the battered couch anyway. “What is it?”

Murdoc has somehow managed to coax the TV set into accepting the VHS tape and is fiddling with the knobs at the bottom of the screen. “Y’know how we got Noodle that video recorder that first Christmas we had her?”

Stu hums in agreement and wraps a throw blanket around himself. He can’t remember much about something back that far, but there’s a faint memory of Noodle tearing open a box and shrieking with delight as she ran around shoving a chunky, early-2000s camcorder in everyone’s faces. “Those her tapes?”

“No, they’re my amateur pornos.” The screen flickers to life and Murdoc settles back on his haunches before looking at him and grinning, illuminated by weak blue light. “Only joshing, I keep those on DVD.”

“Y’know, it says a lot about you that I can’t tell if you’re really joking or not about that.”

“Fuck off, not like I’d let you see ‘em anyway,” Murdoc says, then adds with a leer, “Least, not when you’ve got the real thing right here.” He makes his way back to the couch and settles into the other side, shoving his cold feet under Stuart’s legs and dragging more than half of the blanket over himself.

Stu makes a noise of protest. “Oi, that’s my blanket, get your own.”

“What’s yours is mine, love,” Murdoc says, and Stuart promptly shoves his heel into his crotch. “Argh, for the love of—”

They kick each other for a few seconds before Murdoc relinquishes part of the blanket back, pressing himself closer to Stu so that they can both fit underneath. “Look, you’re missing the whole fucking thing, pay attention.”

“You started it,” Stu mumbles, but leans back, satisfied. On screen, a practice session, probably from the band’s first few months, has already started. The scene isn’t centered in the slightest; half of it is obscured by an amplifier sitting in the way, and every few seconds the camera jolts as a tiny Noodle picks it up and moves it to a new position. She’s obviously sitting on the floor, trying to set it up so that the camera records them as they practice. Finally she manages to set it at an angle where it’s tilted up at the band, and runs out from behind to take her place next to a much younger Stuart, who has his hand down his trousers and is scratching himself, oblivious to the presence of the camera right at his feet.

“Nice,” Murdoc cackles from beside him, and scoots away as Stu aims another kick at him under the blanket. “Absolutely lovely. No, really, look at you, Dents. Satan, what a catch. Twenty years later, and nothing much has changed, eh?”

On the television, Murdoc steps forward into the shot, shoots a furtive glance at Noodle and Stuart, faced away from him, and sticks his hand down his jeans to scratch himself as well.

“Oh, nice,” Stuart parrots back at his own Murdoc, who is looking much more sour now. “Twenty years later and not much has changed, ‘s that what you said, yeah?”

“Will you just — shut up. Not like anybody noticed.”

“Muds, get your hands out your damn pants,” Russel says from somewhere off to the side of the camera. “You touch our instruments with those, nasty-ass—”

Stuart’s snickering and Murdoc’s groan almost drowns out the faltering voice of the Stuart onscreen. The sound is a little bit tinny, but pretty decent for a tape that’s just spent two decades in a moldering cardboard box. “Hey, uh, what song’re we doin’ again, because, uh, I know we just said, but I wanna make sure I’m singing the right one—”

“It’s Re-Hash, idiot, just like it’s been for the past four times.” Although Murdoc’s voice is the same as ever, Stuart notes, the years have had an unmistakable effect on his looks. The bassist plucking at his strings on the television has a much rounder face and tanner skin than the one sitting next to him now, and the red contact that used to be omnipresent in his left eye has long since been discarded. The bags under his eyes are much less pronounced, as well, making him look soft, round and baby-faced in comparison to his current, more angular appearance, although Stuart doesn’t think he’s any less handsome.

Murdoc notices him sizing him up out of the corner of his eye (how he does it, Stuart doesn’t know, since he has no pupils to show where his gaze is lying.) “What?”

“Nothing. Y’look different, that’s all.”

“Twenty years can do that to a person. You’re no spring chicken yourself, mate.”

“No, I know, but I didn’t mean it like bad-different. Just, different-different. You look less like a baby, ‘s what I’m saying. More like a — a velociraptor, or somethin’."

“A velociraptor.”

“Pointy, y’know.” Stuart motions helplessly. “And green.”

Murdoc’s voice is dry. “Pointy and green. What a compliment, 2D, thank you. Really, I appreciate it.”

“Look, I dunno, it’s 4am, Muds, ‘m tired.” Stuart sighs and wraps himself tighter, leaning his head against Murdoc’s shoulder. “Can’t we watch this tomorrow?”

“Hush up,” he says with no real vitriol, and threads his fingers through Stuart’s hair. “I just wanna see this part.”

The light pours off the screen in shades of cyan, casting long shadows across the living room that jump erratically with the occasional roll of static. Stuart likes to watch it, likes the blue darkness that pools in the corners of the room, settles in the folds of his blanket, collects under the fringe near Murdoc’s eyes. He thinks it’s like being swept under a wing, or sleeping in a blanket fort right up against a window, cool and safe, free but protected. Maybe it’s a little bit like what moonlight must feel like, or maybe moonshadows. Something intangible. Something that blankets your heart.

“D’you ever think about what it would have been like if it didn’t happen?”

Murdoc’s voice is low and musing, less of a question than a thought opened to the air. He’s still looking at the screen, and if Stuart hadn’t been paying attention, he might have thought he didn’t say anything at all.

“If I didn’t happen, I mean. To you.”

It’s a question that Stuart’s asked himself periodically over the past twenty years. Sometimes more often, sometimes few and far between. There have been many times that he has looked in the mirror and not recognized himself — he remembers that sometimes, when they were recording the self-titled, or even Demon Days, he would wake up and stumble into the bathroom and start screaming because he had forgotten what had happened to him and he didn’t recognize the black eyed, toothless face that stared back. There have been many times that he has looked at pictures of himself from the past and not recognized himself either — they had all gone to Crawley to visit his mother and the headless Cyborg for his last birthday, and when his mother had brought out the old photo albums Stuart had not for the life of him been able to pick himself out of a group of his school friends. At times he has thought about this question and squashed down the thoughts that roiled up deep inside of him because all the what-ifs and could-haves made him want to vomit. At times he has looked around him, looked at Murdoc, and thought that he would not have wanted it any way else.

Of course he thinks about what it would have been like. Of course. He’s only human, after all.

Onscreen, Noodle interrupts a muffled argument that had broken out between them all with rapid Japanese and launches into the beginning, jangling riffs of Re-Hash. Murdoc’s eyes have still not left the screen, but the question still drifts in the air.

“I think,” says Stuart, “that if you hadn’t happened to me, then everything would be different. But not bad-different. Just. Different-different, right? And maybe — maybe there’s other worlds out there where you didn’t happen t’me, and maybe there’s some where you happened too much. Maybe there’s infinite worlds out there, and everything and everyone that’s happened to me, or you, or anyone, did or didn’t happen, in all the different combinations possible.”

He’s singing now, on the television, and it’s strange to hear his voice coming from the Stuart that he is and the Stuart that he was simultaneously. Re-Hash rolls over them, humming in the background like static:

It’s a sweet sensation over the dub

Oh, what a situation that don’t wanna stop

It’s the drugstore soul boy over the dub

With the sweetest inspiration, we don’t wanna stop

“The point is,” he continues, and the light is stretched across Murdoc’s face now as he looks down at him, piercing and straight on, curving electric down his cheek, stark against his dark eyes, “that I do think about it. It’s something that happened, and not something anyone can ignore. And sometimes I’m happy about it, ‘n sometimes I’m sad, and mostly I don’t know. But I can’t change it, and you can’t change it, ‘cause this is our reality, right? All we can do is make peace with it, really. ‘S different-different, and for me, at least, I think that’s okay.”

It is very quiet, the barest hint of music floating out towards them from the video. Then Murdoc nods, and gently presses his lips to Stuart’s temple.

“Guess you’ve changed over the past twenty years too, Stu.” The pad of Murdoc’s thumb brushes Stuart’s cheek, and Stuart lets his head fall to press against Murdoc’s chest, feeling his heart beat as the TV plays, and thinks that, just maybe, Murdoc had to happen to him, like someone out there’s writing their lives out like a story, like no matter what, it couldn’t ever have been any other way. Maybe that makes them soulmates, he supposes. Just a little bit.

He can hear his own voice singing in tandem with Noodle’s, and Russel’s, and Murdoc’s on the television. He’s always liked Re-Hash, because it was the first song they ever wrote and performed together as a band, and because it’s the only song where they all sing together as one, his own voice pressing them forward, Russel steady underneath, Murdoc rumbling low at the bottom, and Noodle skating over the top. Stuart leans back into the couch, facing the television again, watching himself crowded around a battered microphone with Noodle and Murdoc, Russel at his drumset in the back. He reaches up to the hand cupping his cheek, twining his fingers into it, and he squeezes gently, and softly, tentatively, Murdoc squeezes back.

The darkness crouches in the corners like a lingering embrace, the light spilling bright across the two of them together in comforting blues, and in that moment, everything that has ever happened is meant to be.

[two-are-the-trees]

10 Best Twilight Zone Episodes

So I really love The Twilight Zone. It was one of the very first things I ever ordered from Netflix as a child (back when you had to have Netflix DVD’s mailed to you) and my whole family would gather around to watch each episode we recieved. Over the years, I have seen my fair share of the show and I always end up introducing my friends to my favorite episodes, so I thought I’d do the same for y’all in case you haven’t had the chance to check them out yet. Obviously there are many many good episodes and it was really hard to narrow the list, so this is all just personal opinion. Let me know what your favorites are if you have different ones! 

10. Little Girl Lost: This one is a family favorite and it may seem a little odd because the acting is a little hokey, but it’s so enjoyable to watch. It has one of the more unique premises of all the show’s episodes: Two parents wake up in the night to the sound of their daughter crying, only to find that she is nowhere to be found. They can hear her clearly crying out for them, but they cannot see her and she cannot see them. They do what anyone would rationally do in this situation: call their neighbor, who happens to be a theoretical physicist (I know, it’s pretty ridiculous) and he manages to find a sort of passageway to another dimension in the daughter’s bedroom wall. The way that the episode brings such insane scientific concepts into such an innocent setting as a little girl’s bedroom is pretty cool and the way they actually depict the other dimension is really trippy. It’s a neat little look at the theoretical concepts that got people interested at the time. 

9. To Serve Man: I think the ending of this classic is pretty well known in popular culture, but for those who don’t know, it’s one of the best twist endings of all time. I won’t spoil anything here, I’ll just say that it’s a story about what would happen if aliens really did land on earth. What’s cool about this episode is that they really do handle the idea pretty seriously, with all the world’s countries coming together, attempting to keep the event as peaceful as possible, while still hiring military experts and code-breakers to keep an eye on the strange invaders. Through the whole episode, you aren’t really sure when to let your guard down and who you can really trust, making the ending all the more unexpected. 

8. The After Hours: I don’t know if this one is really that popular, but it’s one of my personal favorites, mainly because they take such a mundane activity and turn it into an intensely mysterious ordeal. A woman named Marcia is just trying to buy her mother a present at a department store when she meets a strange saleswoman on the 9th floor, only to find out later that there is no 9th floor. Frustrations are high in this episode as all of the characters are confident in themselves, leading to Marcia fiercely arguing that her experience really happened to her, while everyone else fiercely argues that it didn’t. No one knows what is going on and it gets more and more ominous until we get a genuinely creepy climax in the closed department store at night, when Marcia is all alone and thinking she hears voices. This one also has a great twist ending that I really didn’t see coming when I first saw it, and it has now become one of my favorites for how unique it is. 

7. Time Enough At Last: This was the first episode of The Twilight Zone I ever saw and I think it really apeals to us introverted book lovers. A mild-mannered man just wants to spend all his time reading, but no one in his life seems to allow him the pleasure. His wife, his job, his friends, all of these aspects of his life are just obstructions in his effort to have some peace and reading time. They really make you feel for him in this episode, making all the other people seem like insentitive jerks. When an unprecidented tragedy strikes, it turns out that our main character might have just the chance he’s always wanted to read all he can. The ending of this episode is one of the best examples of irony I can think of. It’s pretty famous too but I won’t ruin it here. Let’s just say that everyone I’ve ever shown this episode to has the exact same reaction at the end: Throwing their hands up in frustration and yelling “Aaaaaaw come on!” 

6. The Hitch-Hiker: Talk about creepy, this episode will have you on the edge of your seat the entire time. A woman is driving alone on a cross country road trip when she begins seeing the exact same hitch-hiker in different places. It seems that he is following her, showing up exactly where she goes and trying to flag down her car. The sight of him begins to fill her with dread and she becomes more paranoid and desperate to get away from him. You feel like you are unraveling with the main character as you watch, with her internal monologue growing more and more panicked. The dark, lonely scenery as she drives through undeveloped countryside doesn’t help either. It’s chilling and heart-pounding the whole way through. 

5. Nightmare at 20,000 Feet: This one is an absolute classic with many selling points, the first of which being that William Shatner is in it. But besides that, this episode has such a specific set up, and yet I think everyone can imagine the fear of this situation, especially those of us who don’t like flying. A man is finally returning home after being released from a mental hospital where he was treated for a nervous breakdown involving an airplane. Now he must face his fear and endure the flight home in order to prove to himself that he can. During the stormy flight, however, he starts to see some suspicious sights on the wing of the airplane, but anytime he tries to warn anyone, the mysterious monster that he claims to see vanishes. It’s the perfect setup of characters and situation and creates a sense of intense frustration and paranoia as even the viewers aren’t exactly sure if the main character is really seeing this monster or if he is experiencing another breakdown. It keeps you guessing to the very end and makes you consider maybe traveling by train next time. 

4. The Shelter: I love when The Twilight Zone gets involved with uncomfortable moral dilemmas and this one is a doosy. A neighborhood party is interrupted by news that a missile is heading straight for the area and that everyone should take cover. The main character and his family hide in their bomb shelter that the rest of the neighborhood previously mocked them for building. Soon, all the neighbors, who were just earlier enjoying their time together, come knocking on the shelter door demanding to be let in. The main character refuses, telling them that he only has enough supplies for his family. The neighbors outside become more desperate and more vicious, fighting with each other and showing the truly hateful sides of their personalities. What is wonderfully horrible about this episode is that we get to see all of the characters devolve from loving, kind people, to absolute monsters with terrible prejudices hidden just below the surface. All it took was a threat to their own survival for all relationships and well-meaning to disintegrate. It’s a great example of people showing their true character in trying times. 

3. Living Doll: Everyone loves a good creepy doll story and this one is the original. A girl brings home a new toy doll, called Talky Tina, only for her stepdad to discover that it may not be as innocent as the package advertises. The doll begins to say disturbing things to him, but whenever he tries to show his wife or stepdaughter, the doll goes back to its usual catch phrases. The stepdad begins going crazy trying to get rid of the doll, frightening his wife and daughter in the process. Besides just the delightful creepiness of the doll herself, which is a lot of fun, what makes this episode great is that it kind of twists around who the villain of the story really is, leaving you on an ending that is dark, sure, but also carries a surprisingly good message. It’s an episode you won’t forget, just like Talky Tina’s famous lines. 

2. The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street: Another one of those morally grey episodes that I love so much; this episode takes it a step further than The Shelter by upping the tension and upping the violence. A quiet street is disrupted when a mysterious object flies overhead and everyone begins to believe that aliens are the cause when electronics start behaving strangely. People start to suspect that the aliens must have sent down a scout ahead of time and that one of their very own neighbors is really an alien in disguise. It gets really dispicable as people start to reveal just how suspicious of their neighbors they have been all along, admitting to spying on each other, holding prejudices, and even going after children. The situation is tense and no one knows what to believe as the conflict escalates to riot levels. No one is safe and no one is innocent, leading to all the darkest parts of society revealing themselves. The ending, one of my favorites in all of Twilight Zone, truly sums it all up and really makes you think about what we’re made of. 

1. Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up: If the last episode had one of my favorite Twilight Zone endings, then this episode has my absolute favorite ending. Two officers are investigating reports of a UFO that crashed in a lake, only to discover a trail of footprints leading from the lake to a nearby diner. Inside, they find a group of travelers and their bus driver waiting out the storm outside. The officers block the entrance to the diner and decide to have a good old-fashioned martian hunt, not letting any of the travelers leave until they figure out which one of them is the alien in disguise. The characters are all unique and memorable, each of them suspicious in their own way. It feels very much like a classic detective story or a game of Clue, but with that extra creepy sci-fi edge. Everyone comes up with their own theories and suspicions, including the viewers watching, and the experience of watching the episode is fun, chilling, tense, and extremely mysterious. You really want to know how it’s all going to turn out. The ending is absolutely perfect and one that I think really throws a lot of people for a loop. It’s a classic mystery with a not-so-classic twist that encapsulates everything great about The Twilight Zone. 

[tigerlover16-uk]

Anime I need to watch (May 2017 update)

... Yeah, I’m a day late with this because I never had the time to sit down and do it yesterday. It’s been a bit busy for me around here, so let’s just get started.

Luckily this one should be quick because honestly... I didn’t actually make much progress this month. Even though I keep meaning to get back to it, I still haven’t watched any more of Yu Yu Hakusho than I had last month, though I fully intend to catch up on it this month. Mostly I just kept getting distracted from it, especially since I got ahold of some DVD collections for other anime. Doesn’t help probably that I was re-watching the Frieza saga of DBZ for fun this month, plus some old movies like the first Yu-Gi-Oh film (I won’t give my thoughts on those since those are things I’d already seen before).

To count, I only watched 3 movies on my last list and I’m part way through 2 other series, Soul Eater and Fairy Tail, which I’ve been watching on DVD.

First off, continuing my catch up on the Pokémon movies was the duology Pokémon Black and White movies... which have probably the dumbest gimmick for a movie I’ve ever seen. Seriously, all the little differences here and there really don’t justify making two different versions of the exact same story. The games can get away with this because it’s been a tradition since the start and different versions give us different Pokémon to catch, but you can’t get away with this idea for movies where the story is the entire point.

And the story isn’t even very good. Honestly, I watched both versions and I still only have a vague recollection of what actually HAPPENED throughout half of these films. A lot of the stuff I do remember was pretty underwhelming. The battle between Reshiram and Zekrom was one of the most anti-climactic in the whole franchise and not even fun to watch for how short it is. Victini is cute, but doesn’t really offer anything that a bunch of other cute legendaries can’t offer in these movies. The climax was a bit dumb, and honestly it was just a dull, forgettable experience. I’m having trouble finding words to really describe these films, they were just lackluster.

And the sad thing is, I can’t seem to find the DVD’s for practically any of the other Pokémon movies that I still haven’t watched besides the most recent one that just got released in my country. So I haven’t watched any more Pokémon movies this month. Honestly looking around, I’m not even sure most of them even have UK dvds made for them, which would be a pain in the neck if that’s really the case. Luckily I do have the Kyurem movie now though, so expect my thoughts on that by the end of June. I just hope I can watch some of the other films by then.

And since I was feeling nostalgic for Naruto, I decided to finally check out some of the movies, starting with the first one Naruto: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow. Which was awesome. Oh, it was nothing spectacular or amazing, feels like it would have been a fairly typical arc for the show in some ways. But as a movie it really works as a cool action movie that embodies the charm and spirit of the first half of Naruto. The production values are great, the action is good, there’s plenty of fun moments and Princess Koyuki was an interesting character. It wasn’t anything groundbreaking or up there with the best stories from the show, but it was a great film, I’d gladly watch it again. I can’t really remember if I had any issues with it, though I didn’t go in with a critical eye so who knows.

And then I also watched the first Shippuden movie. Kinda felt like a somewhat less good re-tread of the former film in some ways, honestly. Shion was a good character but I didn’t really like her as much as Koyuki, the villain was alright, and the story was pretty good, and it was nice to see Lee and Neji get some screen time. Though at the same time, it didn’t feel quite as enjoyable as Clash in the Land of Snow. But maybe that’s just me. I don’t remember quite as much from this movie as the first one though.

Also this month I ended up watching the first 48 episodes of Fairy Tail after buying the first two DVD collections, and honestly... I’m loving it so far. It starts off a bit meh with the first few episodes, but once it gets to the first real arc it’s a really good show. Kinda silly and stupid at times, but it’s pretty fun. The characters are likeable, I like the art and music, and really it’s just the kind of fun, kinda cheesy yet awesome show that I enjoy. I know it gets a lot of flack for being stupid, having overpowered characters, constantly hammering in the whole “Friendship is awesome” concept in really thick and having a laughable amount of fanservice, but honestly I don’t really find any of those to be an issue so far (And if I’m being honest, having watched some of Soul Eater straight after it, I think that show has more frequent and obnoxious fanservice at times, Fairy Tail doesn’t seem all THAT bad compared to several anime I’ve seen honestly. Though I hear the anime tones it down a lot, so what do I know?). But then again, I’m only 48 episodes in, so who knows.

Honestly so far it’s just a really fun, charming show. A little cliché and relying on some stereotypical shonen tropes, but honestly I don’t mind that sort of thing when the overall experience is an enjoyable one. I’ve got some more dvds in the post this week, so I’m happy to watch more of it. Honestly, Fairy Tail feels like the kind of crazy fun anime I’ve been looking for to pass the time with. I’d give my thoughts on the whole show, but honestly a lot actually happens in those 48 episodes, I probably wouldn’t be able to cover everything and this stupid update is already late, so I’ll just leave with those general thoughts and maybe go into more detail in a different post if anyone cares.

And as I mentioned I also watched the first 28 episodes of Soul Eater. I’ll save my overall thoughts for next month when I’ll have probably finished the whole thing, I’ll just say that for the most part it feels like a just above average anime with some really good elements, some weak points and it’s overall decent, but so far I don’t think it’s anything special.

Aaaaand... I guess that’s it for now. I didn’t watch nearly as much anime as in April, but I had a lot of other things going on this month (And I’ve still got plenty of stuff to sort out right now, especially with this stupid car of mine) and other shows to watch. I don’t really know how productive June is going to be, at the very least I plan to finish Soul Eater and hopefully Yu Yu Hakusho, or at least the next arc of it. I know I’ll be watching Yu-Gi-Oh: The Dark side of Dimensions whenever it arrives in the post (I’m so excited to finally watch it), I’m going to watch at least one more Pokémon movie and 5 Centimetres per second. And definitely some more Fairy Tail. Other than that, it’s all a bit up in the air right now. I’m just going to try and sort out my personal life more than anything. So sorry if this update ended up short and skimping on details, I just don’t have as much to say. Looking forward to the next month of anime goodness though.

One Punch Man (Seen four episodes a while back, looks good)

Mobile Suit Gundam

Outlaw Star

Cowboy Bebop

Digimon Frontier

Digimon Data Squad

Digimon Fusion

Yu-Gi-Oh 5D’s

Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal

Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V

Sailor Moon (Watched the entire first season and was about halfway through season 2. Should really get back to watching the full series)

Sailor Moon Crystal

Yu Yu Hakusho (Up to episode 67)

Ranma 1 ½

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (2012-onwards series)

Hunter x Hunter (2011)

Fullmetal Alchemist

One Piece

Astro Boy (Any series. I just want to be able to say I’ve watched something from this franchise).

Kill La Kill

Gurren Lagann

Fairy Tail (Up to episode 48)

Little Witch Academia

Tenchi Muyo!

Death Note

Yuri On Ice

Fist of the North Star

Soul Eater (Up to episode 28)

Code Geass

Food Wars: Shokugeki No Soma (I watched about 9 episode, need to catch up)

Your Lie in April

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Mob Psycho 100

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

Phoenix Wright anime

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

Natsume’s Book of Friends

Revolutionary Girl Utena

Eureka 7

Black Cat

Black Shooter Rock

Gunbuster

Afro Samurai

Space Dandy

Vision of Escaflowne

magical girl lyrical nanoha

Shin Sekai Yori

Baccano

Cyborg 009

Gaogaigar

Danganronpa

Yo-Kai Watch

Pretty Cure

Future Boy Conan

Yona of the Dawn

Movies:

Your Name

Garden of Words

Paprika

Tokyo Godfathers

The Boy and the Beast

5 Centimeters per second

Millenium Actress

Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro

The Digimon Adventure Tri Movies

Yu-Gi-Oh: Bonds Beyond Time

Yu-Gi-Oh: The Dark Side of Dimensions

Pokémon: Genesect and the Legend awakened

Pokémon: Kyurem vs the sword of justice

Pokémon: Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction

Pokémon: Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel

Pokémon: I Choose You

Ghost In The Shell

Memories

Perfect Blue

Naruto: Legend of the Stone of Gelel

Naruto: Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom

Naruto Shuppuden: Bonds

Naruto Shippuden: The Will of Fire

Naruto Shippuden: The Lost Tower

Naruto Shippuden: Blood Prison

Naruto: Road to Ninja

Boruto Movie

Fairy Tail the movie: Phoenix Priestess

Fairy Tail the movie: Dragon Cry

Godzilla: Monster Planet

Mary and the Witch’s Flower

[imintoanimerightnow]

[Afterthoughts] Boruto, Episode 1: “Boruto Uzumaki!”

Lord help me, I despise Naruto’s son and I feel bad about it.

(side note, Grammarly keeps trying to correct Boruto to Naruto, and honestly I agree with it.  Give me back my sweet but very troubled Naruto-kun.)

The anime itself looks good, but I really, really, really hate Naruto and Hinata’s kid right now.  I don’t want to hate him.  I desperately want to enjoy the adventures of the son of the Gutsy Ninja and his Stalker Bride, but this is tough.   I watched the Boruto movie twice in theaters, and I own it on DVD, and I’ve read the manga every month when it comes out, just hoping that eventually things would change and I’d find something in my heart that would make me care at all about Naruto’s very gifted, very whiny, and very annoying son.

Do you remember the episode of Naruto: Shippuden when Naruto goes into the Waterfall of Truth to confront his angry, petulant and eternally hurt inner-child?  

It’s as if that’s the part of Naruto that was given to Boruto, along with the hair, whiskers, and blue eyes.  I’m not sure any part of Hinata’s personality resides in the boy, but then - Kishi’s lack of development for female characters means that Hinata could secretly be an awful brat and we’d never know it (but I strongly doubt it).

That said- I will keep watching this show out of concern for all other characters, and because I like Konohamaru’s adult design.  I hope the story gets beyond Boruto’s daddy issues very soon though.  I’m not sure exactly where we are canon-wise in relation to the events that happened in the movie (the Chunin exams) but I’m happy to believe there might be an end to the pouty daddy-blaming times fairly soon.

So now that this episode is up (Crunchyroll link), let’s talk it out:

-What is Boruto’s eye ability?  It didn’t look like the Hyuga’s byakugan, and it doesn’t look like any other inherited ocular abilities that we’ve seen so far in this universe.  Edit: Naruto Reddit says it may be the tensigan, or something close to another of the Ōtsutsuki eye abilities.  If so, Boruto is probably going to very quickly become a god.

-Who the hell is Kawaki and where did he send Naruto?  I don’t think he actually killed him, since it is damn near impossible to kill Naruto at this point without being an actual god, AND that guy would absolutely have to get through Sasuke + the Konoha 10 (RIP Neji) first - which wouldn’t happen.  I’m thinking he sent him to another dimension (that happened a lot toward the end of the Shippuden battle arcs).

-Why and how did the village get destroyed *again*?

-War is just going to keep happening, but there is an emphasis on the village getting more and more modern technology.  Will ninjas be replaced with drone strikes?  I really hope not, for a lot of dark and sad real-world reasons.

-Who is Denki’s dad?  We see him in this episode, and I don’t recognize him at all but he apparently did great things during the 4th ninja war.  Unless he was part of the Konoha 11, he was likely fodder nin who somehow survived and then made a business on the back of some war stories.  Good for him (seriously).

-Is Denki actually an important character?  His character design looks like a filler-creation, but he’s in the OP, so I guess he’s part of the gang now?  I don’t really remember him from the manga.  Who is controlling him with the seriously terrifying chakra or a seal of some kind?  It would seem like Orochimaru’s kind of thing, but it seems more likely that Deki’s pops implanted something in him to make him physically stronger, but it has really terrifying homicidal side effects.

-They really did just make Shikadai a straight up clone of Shikamaru, huh.  I honestly have no problem with that, since his parents’ personalities are so alike.  I would have liked to have seen Shikamaru and Temari trying to raise and relate to a really upbeat, loud, cheerful, go-getter of a child though.  I do like that they’re establishing at the start that Shikadai is Team Uzumaki, just as Shikamaru was the first of the Konoha 12 to recognize Naruto’s talents and compliment him publicly (I don’t count Sasuke’s grudging recognition because it was coming from a crazy place).

Overall, I liked the art and the anime has potential once we get past the events of the Boruto movie.  The opening scene gave me hope for Boruto, given that his teen(?) design looks pretty cool.  I wish the manga had a more frequent publishing schedule (currently once a month) so that we don’t have to endure loads of filler episodes while waiting for story resolution.

Just... don’t actually kill off Naruto and leave his kid in charge.  My heart can’t take that.

NO.

[manifestdestany]

I finally managed to drag my husband and son somewhere over Spring Break! A few years ago, I had heard that Who North America was located not far from us - in Indiana, no less! My husband I only recently got into watching Doctor Who, but I knew we needed to see this store! Especially because it's only about 2 hours from us. I'm trying to make sure, but I want to say this is the only store of its kind in the US.. When you first walk in, you're greeted with a replica of the T.A.R.D.I.S. (for those who don't know, that stands for Time and Dimensions Relative in Space). On the show, it serves as the Doctor's "time machine," but at the store, the other side of this is a display for retail. It's filled with little Doctors hehe

Visiting the store this weekend was this Cosplay Dalek - I assume it's Cosplay because there was a guy inside the costume haha He's from Ohio, and he was there for a Make a Wish Foundation event at the store. Lesson learned for us to make sure we check the Facebook page to see if events are happening. We walked into a madhouse. ANYWAY. This Dalek guy was great. I was taking pictures of it, not knowing a person was in there, and it turned to me and asked "Do you want to take a selfie with me?" haha! And after I said I had it on video, it turned to me again and said "WELL THIS DALEK HAS VIDEO OF YOU, TOO."

There have been a lot of Doctors over the course of both incarnations of the series. We are on the 12th Doctor right now (and I'm not fond of the 12th Doctor, but I think that's just me). My favorite is the 10th Doctor, played by David Tennant. Below are just a few of the 10th Doctor items from the store. There was SO MUCH MORE.

 If you ask a lot of current Whovians to name an episode they liked, more than a few will say "Blink," which is an episode that introduced the Weeping Angels. If you watch them, they stand still, but if you don't, they advance and, well, kill you. It's really a scary episode. Below are just a few of the Weeping Angel merchandise at the store. My husband bought a Weeping Angel squishy stress toy haha!

One Doctor made bow ties cool, so of course there were bow ties! He also wore a Fez, and yep, they had those, too! Lots of other hats worn by other Doctors were also available, and replicas of their coats and scarves could be purchased, as well. There was also several bolts of material with various Doctor Who designs.

I mentioned 10 was my favorite Doctor, right? Well they had cardboard stand-ups! haha This is 10 in the middle, with his soulmate and first companion, Rose, on the left, and Captain Jack Harkness on his right. Captain Jack had his own series, as well. Then, of course, I had to have a selfie with my favorite!

Here was our purchase! I got socks because, well, I really need some new socks :) The birthday card and one of these items is for my son's Doctor Who-obsessed friend. The packs at the bottom are "blind packs," which means we didn't know what was in them when we opened them. Unfortunately, it was 2 white Daleks and a Roman soldier. Nobody fun.

Before leaving, I had to take a selfie with the T.A.R.D.I.S. I told the secretary at my son's school that I hoped to go to the store over break, and she told me to send her a picture. This is the one I posted on Facebook! :) haha

So there you have it - our trip to Who North America. Have any of you ever been? Or perhaps a store like it? I'm really wondering if this is the main store in the US, in which case, Indiana actually has something super awesome for fans! They did have a few other fandoms at the store, too. Torchwood, Sarah Jane Chronicles (both are Doctor Who-related), but they also has Dark Shadows (the old vampire TV series), Stargate and a few Sherlock-centric items, mostly DVDs. Tho, it's important to note the Sherlock items were not Cumberbatch. You can check out the Who North America website or the Facebook page for more details. **DISCLAIMER** I was not paid for this post by anyone. I either purchased these products myself or was given it as a gift.

[tigerlover16-uk]

Anime I Need to Watch (March 2017 update)

I was debating whether I should do these list updates at the start or end of each month, and whether it was worth updating it right now since I only made that list a week ago. But, I did want to add some things I forgot, and I’m too impatient to wait until tomorrow or the end of April. So, screw it, I’ll do this now and update these lists at the end of each month.

There’s not a lot of stuff that needs updating, but so far I did manage to watch a few things. I’ll describe what anime I’ve watched this month and how I felt about them briefly down below.

First off, I finished Trigun. And honestly, I really enjoyed it... but I’m not sure if I’d put it in my top 10 anime just yet.

I dunno, I enjoyed the series and it was really good, but something about it just kinda felt like it was really good, but not great. But I think this is a me thing, I’ll admit I’m not really a big fan of westerns and there wasn’t much wrong with Trigun, it’s a really good show with a lot of heart, good action, okay comedy and some good writing. There’s some stuff that made me pretty emotional too, and I really like Vash and Wolfwood’s characters (Meryl and Milly were just kinda okay to me). I really don’t know, maybe I just need to re-watch it again when I’m in just the right mood. I enjoyed Trigun a lot, don’t get me wrong and I’d gladly re-watch it again sometime. I’m just a little confused that I feel I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as I should have, but I can’t really describe why I feel that. Maybe it’s just hype backlash or something.

I also got a chance to watch the Fist of the North Star movie from 1986, since Linkara recently got around to reviewing a chapter of the manga through patreon request I thought I might as well watch something from this franchise. Aaaand...

It was alright.

Yeah, the movie was firmly in the realm of okay for me. It’s pretty clearly dated and with the way a lot of it’s written you can definitely tell it was a very condensed version of the manga story, a lot of stuff could have been fleshed out and explained better, and the fights were really nothing to write home about. And that ending felt so forced and out of nowhere.

But that said, the movie does have it’s charms as an 80′s action flick. I liked the heroic characters well enough, and while I don’t usually like ultra violent and gory stuff, this film did make it’s gory action kinda fun in how over the top it got. And while the production values haven’t aged well, there is something charming about the film’s animation, there were plenty of cool moments and some good music.

So, yeah, nothing special and the film has some problems and could be kinda dull, and a tad stupid and confusing at parts, but I enjoyed it. I also decided to watch the first episode of the Toei anime adaption of Fist of The North Star and I enjoyed that a bit more, so I’ll probably watch the whole anime at some point soon after I get through the next two shows I’m watching. However long that takes.

Most notably, I decided to start watching Yu Yu Hakusho, which my buddy @dbzebra considers his second favourite anime after Dragon Ball. Seeing how we share a lot of the same interests and I trust his judgement, I decided to give it a watch. I just finished the whole first season, and so far, I’m LOVING it!

Honestly the show got me hooked by the end of the first episode, and it’s only gotten better since. I’ll probably go more into detail on my thoughts on this one in next months progress report, since it’ll probably take me most of April to finish the show considering it’s over a hundred episodes, but honestly if it keeps being as good as it’s been so far, it’ll easily make my top 5 favourite anime by the time I’m done, maybe top 3. I really love the characters, the story and just the general feel of the show. So yeah, thanks DBZebra, I probably wouldn’t have watched this if I didn’t know you liked it so much.

So, yeah. That’s my anime bingeing progress for the end of March. So far my plan for April is to finish Yu Yu Hakusho and also get back to Shokugeki No Soma (Food Wars!), an anime I was watching on the suggestion of my friend Hayley566 and I was really enjoying, but I got distracted after watching episode 9 and I haven’t got back to it. I hope I’ll finish it by the end of the month. After those shows I’ll probably go with something shorter, like Yuri on Ice or One Punch Man.

I also just got the Ghibli movie Only Yesterday in the post today, so I’m going to watch that right now. I’ve also ordered the dvd’s for Akira, Pokémon Destiny Deoxys and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, so I’ll have watched those movies soon, and hopefully more before the end of the month.

And again, I welcome any recommendations I get from people. Not that anyone’s really interested in hearing me ramble on about my stupid viewing habits, but oh well.

One Punch Man (Seen four episodes a while back, looks good)

Mobile Suit Gundam

Outlaw Star

Cowboy Bebop

Digimon Frontier

Digimon Data Squad

Digimon Fusion

Yu-Gi-Oh 5D’s

Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal

Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V

Sailor Moon (Watched the entire first season and was about halfway through season 2. Should really get back to watching the full series)

Sailor Moon Crystal

Yu Yu Hakusho

Ranma 1 ½

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (2012-onwards series)

Hunter x Hunter (2011)

Fullmetal Alchemist

One Piece

Astro Boy (Any series. I just want to be able to say I’ve watched something from this franchise).

Kill La Kill

Gurren Lagann

Fairy Tail (What? Why’re you looking at me like that? I like cheesy stuff like this, alright!)

Little Witch Academia

Tenchi Muyo!

Death Note

Yuri On Ice

Fist of the North Star

Soul Eater

Code Geass

The Devil is a Part Timer

Food Wars: Shokugeki No Soma (I watched about 9 episode, need to catch up)

Your Lie in April

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Mob Psycho 100

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

Phoenix Wright anime

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

Movies:

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

Your Name

Garden of Words

Paprika

Tokyo Godfathers

The Boy and the Beast

5 Centimeters per second

Millenium Actress

Only Yesterday

Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro

The Digimon Adventure Tri Movies

Yu-Gi-Oh: Bonds Beyond Time

Yu-Gi-Oh: The Dark Side of Dimensions

Half of the Pokémon movies

Akira

Ghost In The Shell

Memories

Perfect Blue

Naruto: Ninja clash in the Land of Snow

Naruto: Legend of the Stone of Gelel

Naruto: Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom

Naruto Shippuden The Movie

Naruto Shuppuden: Bonds

Naruto Shippuden: The Will of Fire

Naruto Shippuden: The Lost Tower

Naruto Shippuden: Blood Prison

Naruto: Road to Ninja

The Last Naruto Movie

Boruto Movie