#PLEASE MY FAVORITE ACTOR IN THE ADAPTATION OF MY FAVORITE VIDEO GAME
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
caityjay13 · 3 months ago
Text
Dear Followers,
This is a PSA. Hikaru no Go (2020) is now available to stream on Prime Video. You should watch it.
But Caity, you may ask. Why should I watch this Chinese live action drama based on the popular turn-of-the-millenium Japanese manga and anime of the same name? The answer, my friends, is because it is fucking phenomenal.
Hikaru no Go is my favorite sports anime. It was one of the first manga I ever read. When I own a home someday and have bookshelves, it is one of the only manga series I wish to own in its entirety in print. The story is deeply compelling, moving, funny, relatable. It truly has something I haven't found in another animanga in twenty years.
And the Chinese live action adaptation takes that perfect, beautiful source material and creates something equally perfect and beautiful (if not more so? feels blasphemous to say, but boy howdy I'm not NOT saying it).
The way in which the original Japanese story—the characters, the culture, the game of go—is translated into Chinese is really masterfully executed. The story is incredibly faithful to the original, and when it does differ, it does so in really creative, thoughtful ways that really work.
The actors fucking nail it. Honestly all of them, but I'm looking at the kids in the first two episodes in particular. Blown away by the performances of a couple of ten-year-olds. Kids have a bright future ahead of them, damn.
This show has the budget. If y'all know me at all, you know I'll enjoy a low-budget wuxia flick because it's a good time, but damn, if I had standards, they would be met and exceeded by this show. The hair, the makeup, the costumes, the effects (there is an effect every time the "ghost" is on screen where he is partially translucent. It is perfectly executed and incredibly impressive, at least to my layman eyes). The very first opening credits scene is super beautiful, the end credits are beautiful, it's all just so pretty and polished and feels good on my eye holes.
Honestly, I cannot gush enough about this show. It ranks up with Nirvana in Fire in my heart (which I do not say lightly, considering I went through my entire list and lowered the ratings I'd given each show accordingly after I first watched nif so that the 10 weighed more heavily).
tl;dr: If you liked the hikago animanga, you should watch this show. If you never read/watched hikago, you should watch this show. If you did not like hikago, you should watch this show. Please watch this show, I am begging you.
Sincerely, A Rabid Hikago Fangirl
174 notes · View notes
tunguszka20 · 5 months ago
Note
infodump about Epic please- I know nothing about it but it sounds awesome and where do I watch it? :)
Okay okay okay. Let me get my thoughts together.
So let's start from the begging. There's this amazing man called Jorge Rivera-Herrans (Jay), who started making a musical adaptation of the Odyssey by Homer because. He can. He's super enthusiastic about the project, if you look up his videos on yt, his enthusiasm and energy is basically contagious. He's also super funny.
So the tricky things about EPIC is that. It's not done yet. So you can't watch it (well you... Can in some way but not like you can watch Hamilton or any other normal musical). Jay puts puts new "chapters" of the story whenever he has one ready (they're called Sagas. There's 9 sagas in the whole musical, 6 of them are out. These are The Troy Saga, The Cyclops Saga, The Ocean Saga, The Circe Saga, The Underworld Saga and The Thunder Saga). 5 Sagas are in Act 1 and 4 in Act 2. Both acts have 20 songs, so a total of 40 songs.
When a new Saga comes out, there's usually a watch party (it's also streamed on YouTube), where Jay streams the songs with the lyrics, and with some scenes they recorded/animatics.
The Thunder Saga came out today, but this time Jay didn't only stream the current saga, but the whole thing (My friend @randomfangirl32 recorded it, if she'll let me, I can send you the links so you can watch the whole thing we have so far, if you want). It was because they had to re-record the first two sagas due to... Financial stuff, idk how to explain it, Jay has a video about it.
And also. The actors. The actors are SO perfect. My favorite ones are Talya Sindel (as Circe), Teagan Earley (hope I spelled her name right, and she's playing Athena), Steven Rodriguez (as Poseidon), Luke Holt (as Zeus), Anna Lea (as Penelope), but seriously, everyone else is awesome too 🥹
And then. You'll get my favorite songs. Because I can't just choose one.
From released songs:
Full Speed Ahead (it's pretty underrated imo)
Warrior of the Mind
My Goodbye
Keep Your Friends Close
Ruthlessness
Puppeteer
Wouldn't You Like (HERMES 😭😭)
No Longer you
Suffering
Different Beast
Thunder Bringer
(but like. I love every song so muchh)
Not released (there are snippets in yt):
Little Wolf
Legendary
God Games
Dangerous
Charybdis
The Challenge
Hold Them Down
King
Gracie. Thank you for this question. From the bottom of my heart. This is literally a once-in-a-lifetime question, and. I'm so happy 🥹
Anyway if you still have questions I'll. Gladly elaborate.
25 notes · View notes
thebroccolination · 2 years ago
Text
Be My Favorite - Intro
WELCOME TO KEY’S SUMMER FIXATION SERIES. \:D/
Hello! I’m Key, and I’ll be your Be My Favorite historian and enthusiast.
Tumblr media
I’ve been really excited for Be My Favorite ever since the series was first announced in December of 2021. The premise grabbed me right away since I’m a big fan of time loops (please watch Triage if you haven’t already, I’d say it’s the strongest BL series to date), and Krist’s one of my favorite actors, so it was an instant five stars of anticipation for me. Then in September of 2022, Gawin (another favorite of mine) was cast, and I had a dream casting I think I might have joked about once. (So I did this, you’re welcome.)
Whoever cast Gawin, I’ll send you a basket of whatever you love and aren’t allergic to.
THE CASTING HISTORY
Be My Favorite had a rocky road to casting.
From what I’ve been able to follow, it was initially meant to be a KristSingto comeback vehicle. (Their last BL together was the SOTUS Our Skyy episode in 2018.) However, in 2022, Krist tentatively told fans at a fan meeting that Singto’s schedule didn’t work out with filming. Seeing as GMMTV didn’t want Krist acting in BL series without his brand partner, I think they knew Singto wasn’t planning to renew his contract, so they cast Mike instead. Personally, I was excited to see Krist step outside his comfort zone with a different actor, and he’s close to Mike, so I figured it’d be a good match. I was also happy for Singto, because he’s wanted more independence in his career. He’s into photography and directing, he’s made his own studio, formed his own fan club in Japan, etc. (I think it’s likely he and Krist will work together again, though. They’re still very close, they play video games online with their friends from university fairly regularly, and Singto went out of his way to organize a KristSingto concert in December of 2022 through his Japanese fan club. KS used to hold their GMMTV-sponsored concerts there annually before the pandemic, so I think it was both a “final chapter” to one part of their lives and evidence that they can collaborate again if they want to.)
I didn’t have strong feelings about Mike’s casting. I haven’t seen him in much, but I liked him in the teaser, and he’s already close to Krist, so I was on board. After seeing Singto improve through his series with other actors (something he might have had to fight for, but that’s pure speculation), I was just excited for Krist to get the same opportunities.
Tumblr media
And then…Gawin. [seventeen sparkle emojis]
Tumblr media
As I said on Twitter the day Gawin’s casting was announced, “I could not be more pleased and delighted that I’ve built a reputation for myself that makes people think, ‘Krist and Gawin? QUICKLY, LIGHT THE FIRES AND TELL KEY,’” because I woke up to not one but three separate friends letting me know about it.
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
I went from excited to feral in the four seconds it took my brain to go from, “This can’t be real,” to, “Finally, bizarre breaking news that isn’t actively traumatizing.”
Truly, I have to hand it to Krist, because he's wanted this project to do well from the start, and he's stuck with it and worked hard on it through potentially three scene partners. And he really seems to have grown and learned from Gawin, so good on him.
THE WRITER/DIRECTOR
Tumblr media
My one worry was that I haven’t enjoyed most of Jittirain’s adaptations.
But then I found out that the director, Waa, directed The Gifted and also has screenwriting experience. Krist has worked with Waa before and speaks highly of his process. There are a lot of scenes in the first episode of BMF that seem very clean and well edited, so I have hope.
On top of that, I’ve also seen fans mention that Be My Favorite is “inspired by” Jittirain’s novel, not adapted from it, which I think is a crucial distinction. (I don’t know the source for that, but I want it to be true, so I’ll believe it for now.)
Krist has said that they changed a lot from the novel, and based on what I know, the first episode has already departed quite a bit, so I have put my faith in Waa.
POSTPRODUCTION
For many reasons, some series just get the short stick with the amount of postproduction and budget they get. Some series are still filming as they start airing, some have budget cuts during production, etc.
Filming for Be My Favorite began on November 19th, 2022 and wrapped two months ago on March 24th. That same day, Waa shared on Twitter that he’d be starting work on intense editing right away. That was a great sign to me. With filming complete and two months of postproduction, he was almost certainly able to do a cleaner job than if he’d had to struggle under continued filming and simultaneous editing while the show was airing.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Also, BMF definitely seems to have money behind it. For example, this upgrade from the trailer to the first episode. In the trailer, as Kawi makes his first trip to the past, there's a bright, swirling glow around him.
Tumblr media
When the episode aired, the effect looked a lot cleaner and had scenes from future episodes woven in.
Tumblr media
Also, I loved this transition shot with the blurry background, and the dandelion seed floating across the screen was a cute detail, since that's the flower in the time loop globe.
Tumblr media
Little things like like this tells me they’ve had the time to do this series well, and that there's a lot of love and effort going into it.
THE ACTING COACH
This February, the acting coach for BMF did an interview (1 & 2) that I really enjoyed. She said she’ll be sharing a video of their workshop now that the series is airing, so I’m keeping an eye out for that.
THE ACTORS
Tumblr media
Like I said, I love both of them. I first watched SOTUS and the Kiss series in 2020, so I became a fan of both right around the same time.
In April of 2022, I made a top ten list of what I thought were the best acting performances up to that point. Krist was on it, and so was Gawin. I admire both of them a lot, and I think they’ve both improved tremendously over the years.
Krist, from what I can tell through interviews, leans toward method acting. For example, in the scene I included on my list above, Arthit was apparently meant to cry a few lines later on, but Krist lost it earlier than scripted because in order to channel the emotion he needed for the scene, he imagined how he’d feel when Singto followed through with a long-time dream of studying overseas. It ended up one of their strongest scenes together because it was genuine.
Meanwhile, Gawin was interviewed in November of 2022, and while I think the whole interview is a great read, I wanted to emphasize this part:
“When I prepare for a role, I really have to dig into the story of the script,” [Gawin] explains. “Sometimes they do the last scenes of the series on the first day of being on set. So, you have to be really prepared with the entire story. You’ve got to know the whole thing, what emotions that character went through, and the changes with that character.” 
I think part of what makes Krist and Gawin a good combination is that they’re strong actors with different energies who might just have different ways of preparing for a role. I’d love to hear both of them talk in more detail about their processes, but it seems to me like Krist looks inward for personal experiences to connect with the character, and Gawin creates the character he’s playing based on research.
Another interesting point is that In that same interview, Gawin says he thinks Saifa from Enchanté most resembles his personality (easygoing, music lover, etc.), but he got his start as Mork from the Kiss series (attitude issues, perfect sasspot, etc.). Meanwhile, Krist had an easy link to his first major role, Arthit, in that he’d also been head hazer in university. So Krist started his career able to access a common point with his character, so that might’ve influenced his approach to future roles. Whereas Gawin started off with a character completely unlike himself, so he started from a place of more emotional detachment and probably a more research-oriented approach.
Also, they just seem to have connected on a personal level.
Tumblr media
Working with someone so different gives actors the opportunity to learn from each other. When interviewed, Gawin said he and Krist discovered they have a lot in common, and it seems like they bonded over music and spent a lot of time on set singing together. (Their harmonizing is genuinely beautiful.)
Krist’s OST for the series is one of my favorites and Gawin has a ballad coming up later in the series, but I hope they give them a duet at some point. (It’d be a huge missed opportunity if they don’t.)
CATS???
One of the sponsors for the series is fucking Wiskas.
Tumblr media
This could just be because Krist is their brand ambassador. (The man has four cats. He has an army to feed.)
Tumblr media Tumblr media
OR there is a feline presence in the show. If this is true, I will die, because Triage, series of my soul, also had cats in it.
Listen, I will send TWO baskets of whatever Waa likes if he's enabled me to make the "if I had a nickel for every time there have been cats in a Thai BL time loop series, I'd have two nickels. It's not a lot but it's weird that it happened twice" joke.
CONCLUSION
Tumblr media
Big fan! Love it all! (PLEASE CATS.)
I’ll leave this here as an introductory post, and I’ll make separate posts for my individual episode thoughts using #key watches bmf.
59 notes · View notes
lannisterdaddyissues · 1 year ago
Note
Hi, how are you doing today?
55. Favorite sci-fi movie?
56. Movie you completely nerd-out over every time it’s mentioned?
57. Movie that you’ve seen all the behind-the-scenes action for?
58. Movie where your favorite actor was the only good part?
59. Movie from an actor you hate that was better than you expected?
Please and thank you!
hello dear friend!! thank you so much for the asks as always <333 i'm doing pretty okay right now but i've been more inactive than usual since classes started, i hope that won't stick 😭
55. Favorite sci-fi movie? well i think we all know my favorite, and since this is asking for one movie and not a trilogy i won't say star trek aos either. therefore, my second favorite is doom (2005), which is a really great alien action horror flick with a sci-fi setting! it has decent suspense, great characters, and an awesome cast! i just rewatched it last night actually, and for an obscure video game adaptation from 2005 it holds up SO well today
56. Movie you completely nerd out over every time it's mentioned? ooh man, lots of them but probably the prestige is the most common lol
57. Movie that you’ve seen all the behind-the-scenes action for? edge of tomorrow :))))
58. Movie where your favorite actor was the only good part? i cursed every single second that tom cruise wasn't on screen in interview with the vampire (1994). loved the movie overall but HATED brad pitt and he was in every goddamn frame
59. Movie from an actor you hate that was better than you expected? the only actor i really hate is ezra miller and i don't watch anything with them in it
thank youuuu <3
2 notes · View notes
theladydimitrescu · 4 years ago
Text
PLEASE MY FAVORITE ACTOR EVER IS GOING TO BE JOEL IN THE LAST OF US THIS IS THE BEST NEWS IVE EVER GOTTEN 😭
I LOVE PEDRO PASCAL SO MUCH
11 notes · View notes
artist-issues · 2 years ago
Text
What’s the most depressing movie you’ve ever watched? Run Lola Run, because it’s not only stressful, but it never stops being stressful, and you know from the outcome of all those different scenarios that her future isn’t going to look much less stressful! Ack!
What’s the most disturbing movie you’ve ever watched? I usually switch the movie off if I get too disturbed. Like, if I feel like the movie is rubbing my face in some topic that doesn’t need more than a teaspoon of exposure to get the point across, I’ll turn it off. But I guess Nosferatu was the most disturbing one that jumps to mind.
An actor/actress you’ve seen in more than 8 movies? Name the movies. Tom Hanks! (He’s…he’s in everything.) Saving Mr. Banks, Toy Story, Castaway, A League of Their Own, The Polar Express, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, Toy Story 4! And many moooore 🎶
A film you could watch on repeat for the rest of your life? Too many! But we’ll go with East of Eden. (I can’t. Stop. Watching. It. I’ve seen the movie 5 times now of my own free will. And I keep popping up like a gopher next to everyone I know and asking them if they want to watch it with me.) Honorable mentions to Jurassic Park, Saving Mr. Banks, Captain America: The First Avenger, Rebel Without a Cause, Zootopia and Lilo & Stitch.
What’s the very first film you remember watching? The Lion King.
A film you wish you hadn’t watched? Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. I hate that movie.
A film you wish had a sequel? I’m starting to lose my taste for sequels! I wish it weren’t so. The best sequels are sequels to animated movies. So I guess it would be neat to see another Zootopia.
Which book would you like to see adapted into a film? I don’t know about film, but Wagner the Wehr Wolf would make SUCH a good miniseries.
The most aesthetically pleasing movie you’ve ever watched? The Little Mermaid.
What’s your favourite movie director? Living? Rian Johnson. Dead? Elia Kazan or Billy Wilder. I think you can tell a lot about a director by the way the actors come across on screen, and all the actors I’ve seen in the above men’s movies have been at their best under their direction.
Your favourite movie genre? I think animation, but sometimes I wish it weren’t a genre of its own. So with that in mind, my favorite genre is drama. But I LOVE old old horror.
A movie that holds a special place in your heart? Saving Mr. Banks, because I think, when Tom Hanks says, “that’s what we storytellers do. We restore order with imagination,” my whole heart exploded. But also The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, because everything in it is exactly as it should be for Narnia. And Lilo & Stitch just needs to go without saying for this ask game.
Your favourite comedy film? Fantastic Mr. Fox!
A music video you would love to see developed into a film? Is this a thing? …Jumpsuit by Twenty One Pilots.
A film everyone loves but you hate? I hate all Live Action Disney remakes except for Cinderella 2015, so far.
A film you love but everyone else hates I love The Last Jedi. And everyone everyone everyone else hates it! 😬 To be fair, The Last Jedi was easier to defend before Rise of Skywalker came out. But I still love it as a stand-alone movie.
Which cinematic universe would you like to live in? Midnight in Paris, but I don’t think that counts as a cinematic universe, so I guess the Universal Monsters cinematic universe! I wouldn’t want to live in the MCU, as much as I love it. But Universal Monsters? Think about it! You’re living in the 40s and 50s, and yeah there are vampires and werewolves and such, but oooo how cool! And Midnight in Paris is all about being able to visit the artistic “greats” of times gone by, and have them comment on your work and get a greater appreciation for your own time. And I just think that’s neat
What’s your favourite biopic? Saving Mr. Banks.
Mainstream movies or indie movies? …Mainstream movies. I know it’s not very cool to think that. But I basically think like Dipper: “The Top 100 are the Top 100 for a reason, darn it, they’re catchy.” I think if your movie can appeal to huge amounts of people and stand the test of time, it’s done it’s job as a great communication tool. Anything else is like whispering in a crowded room to get attention. It works, but it just makes you look self-absorbed and weird, and only willing to communicate with the people who lean in and make you the center of their focus.
Old movies or contemporary movies? Old movies! Old movies! I’m doing Bryan McDonald’s Film Diet, and I was just telling my mom, “I don’t know if they really don’t make them like they used to, or if I just haven’t been watching the RIGHT contemporary movies, but old movies are so much better than new ones.” There’s this thing. In Rebel Without a Cause. It’s the famous scene where Jimmy is arguing with his parents about telling the police what he’s done. And there’s all this tension surrounding Jimmy and his dad’s relationship, but they never talk about it to one another. And the mom keeps getting around in front of Jimmy and making him look at her and talk to her and interrupting the dad, but Jimmy keeps addressing the dad…but never turning to face him. And it’s like, that’s their whole problem. Jimmy won’t face his dad because he doesn’t like what he sees. And Jimmy’s dad won’t stand up because he knows Jimmy doesn’t like what he sees, and he’s a coward. And barring James Dean’s improv “stand up for me!” They don’t ever talk about it until the very last few lines of the movie. But you, the audience, know that all of that is happening in subtext because even though it’s not necessarily subtle, the way they communicate it is more realistic. It’s in the body language and the things the characters don’t say to one another and in their actions. But nowadays everybody just says exactly how they feel to each other in wittier and wittier screaming matches. Also the thing about Jurassic Park. Jurassic Park only shows dinosaurs for 11 minutes of screen time. The rest of it is pacing and suspense and real characters. The movie’s not about dinosaurs, it’s about trying to seize control of something you shouldn’t, and it’s about life (not dinosaurs, but hermit-like men learning to teach and take care of the next generation) finding a way. Contemporary movies don’t do it like that.
A film with an amazing soundtrack? Ratatouille! …what? It is
9 notes · View notes
dialovers-translations · 4 years ago
Text
DIABOLIK LOVERS MORE, BLOOD OFFICIAL VISUAL FANBOOK ー Interview Vol. 1 feat. Saki Ito
Tumblr media
Source: DIABOLIK LOVERS MORE, BLOOD Official Visual Fanbook
Release date: 2013
Huge thank you to @keithvalentinex​ for providing the raw scans!
SECTION 1: Q&A
Q1. How did you feel when a sequel game got green light?
A: Not only were we fortunate to receive many passionate messages and feedback from the players, but we also received the news of an anime adaption alongside a game sequel, so amidst the joy, I also remember a distinct feeling of responsiblity and pressure.
Q2. Does the feedback you received from the players reflect in any parts of the game?
A: The series features characters who all have very strong and distinct character traits, so they tend to stand out based solely on these specific elements, which is what made us reflect upon the scenario parts of the previous game. Therefore, in the sequel, we decided to flesh them out so we let Idea Factory know that we would like to create sceranio’s on events of their pasts, so we can give a better understanding of how they think as individuals. We received a positive response but this ultimately required quite a bit of scenarios so later both me and Nakamura suffered because of it. (lol) However, even though there is still room for improvement, I would like to think that we succeeded in creating scenario’s in which the players will get to know them on a deeper level.
Q3. Who did you struggle most with when creating the setting for the new characters?
A: Ruki. Both in terms of design and personality. At first we thought of having him be on an almost equal footing with Karlheinz in terms of power and status, so basically the character who stands at the very top of the Mukami family, with everyone following his lead as they have no other choice but to acknowledge his superiority . But he’s a Do-S...We played with various ideas like that.
Q4. What did the process of creating these characters look like?
A: After settling on their visuals and personalities, we moved on to building a set image of them. I was impressed that at the time of initial recording where we would add the voices to these characters, there was already an agreement amongst the production staff about how they viewed these brothers inside their minds. 
Q5. Were there any moments during the recording which left a strong impression on you?
A: I am sure everyone feels the same in this regard, but I was very much impressed by Midorikawa Hikaru (Ayato’s VA) and his ability to voice a single line in so many different ways and apply minor adjustment time after time. I was baffled how the same phrase could be voiced in so many different ways, and while this may be embarrassing to admit as part of the production staff, I felt as if I could learn a lot from him.
Q6. How did you approach the blood-sucking scenes?
A: We start by creating a fixed image inside our heads of how each character would suck someone’s blood. However, we initially opted to leave things up to the casted voice actors. We figured that if their voicing was somewhat off from how we envisioned it, we would guide them into the desired direction afterwards, but so far that has yet to happen! The voice actors seem to understand that the blood-sucking scenes are a huge selling point of the Diabolik Lovers franchise, so they anticipated on this and had already thought about which personal quirks they want to include in these scenes before the recording. Afterwards they would tell us things such as ‘I wanted to make it sound a little dirty’ or ‘I imagined ____ would suck blood like this’, showing us their effort to voice these characters while thinking about their personalities, which is why we - the production staff - were able to feel the unique traits of these boys through their performance as well, I believe. I cannot express with words just how greatful I am for everyone’s excellent voice work. 
Q7. When writing the scenario’s and the character dialogue, were there any conscious changes you made from the first game?
A: In the first game, there were very little interactions between the different characters, but with the introduction of the Mukami brothers, we focused on these kind of interactions where one of the Sakamaki brothers would fight with one of the Mukami brothers. Additionally, this would allow for us to express the changes in their feelings towards the main character.
Q8. What did you struggle the most with while writing the script?
A: There were just so many different scenarios to write, I recall feeling as if there was no end to it. Every time you think you’re done adjusting one part, you have to move on to the next and by the time you’re done with that, something just doesn’t feel right about the first scenario again...This game includes many scenarios about the characters’ pasts so there would be times where we suddenly went ‘...Hold on!? I feel like the previous scene doesn’t quite make sense anymore...,’ So we’d have to go back and make sure everything remained consistent.
Q9. Which character caused you the most problems while writing the script?
A: Every single one. In case of the Sakamaki brothers, all because of the same reason. For starters, despite this being a sequel game, the intial setting remains the same as before with the main character having arrived at the Sakamaki manor, , so we were worried whether or not the audience would accept this without it feeling weird or off. The Mukami brothers are then added on top of that, so we struggled a lot expressing the wavering feelings of the main character. Each of the Mukami brothers has their own dark past and setting which we came up with beforehand, so it was very difficult to then later add the element of romance to this.
Q10. Is there a character who underwent drastic changes compared to the last game?
A: No. Although the ‘MORE, BLOOD’ games feature the Sakamaki brothers struggling with an immense ‘thirst for blood’ which is different from our previous approach, so we hope this allows the players to enjoy a different side of them.
Q11. The endings are now named ‘Vampire Ending’, ‘Manservant Ending’ and ‘Brute’ Ending. Could you tell us what kind of thought you put into these names?
A: They do each have their own fixed image attached to them. We divided them into the ‘Vampire Ending’ which is supposed to be the most natural ending. The ‘Manservant Ending’ which emphasizes the element of sadism the strongest and lastly the ‘Brute Ending’ which is the most violent. Depending on the character, there might be minor changes such as the main character developing sadistic tendencies herself or it being another character who grows violent. We hope the audience will enjoy this wide array of endings.
Q12. What are parts which have greatly improved or parts you want us to focus on in comparison to the first game?
A: My apologies for repeating myself, but it would have to be the scenarios. Also please pay attention to the upgraded sprite artwork for everyone, as well as the addition of the sprites for the brothers as children!
Q13. Why do you think the series has received such a great amount of support?
A: During the development of the first set of CDs, we made them with a specific niche audience in mind, so never did we expect the franchise would grow this large. We truly are grateful. We would like to believe that Satoi-sama’s illustration are the biggest contributor in this case. I was already acquaintanced with Satoi-sama at that point but due to certain circumstances, we weren’t able to work on a project together. However, when the development for Diabolik Lovers started, I immediately reached out to her. I believe that the way she draws these Do-S Vampires as handsome guys is what the fans enjoy the most!
Q14. Please leave a message for the fans.
A: First of all, thank you all from the bottom of my heart. If it wasn’t for you guys’ reactions, we wouldn’t have been able to deliver this much content. I won’t go as far as to tell you to continue to loving ‘DIABOLIK LOVERS’ and its characters forever...! Even if it’s somewhere in the very back of your mind, I’d be happy if you could at least hold onto the fond memories of these characters. Honestly, thank you so so much.
SECTION 2: THEIR FAVORITE EPISODES
Sakamaki brothers: Laito’s Vampire Ending. It conveys that feeling of loving someone, yet still keeping you on the edge of your seat as he doesn’t quite fully want to admit to his own feelings, even though you can tell that he does properly love the main character, which made me feel joyful inside.
Mukami brothers: Rather than one specific scene, I loved the interactions between the Mukami brothers. When they are all enjoying a meal together, they would fight over the food, or Kou would make a fuss because he wants to eat Vongole Bianco. I found it cute how they would talk in a way you’d expect from normal high school boys. 
SECTION 3: SAKI ITO CHOOSES ー SITUATION-DEPENDENT CHARACTER SELECT
Who would you choose in these situations? What’s the developer’s opinion?
S1. To sleep together with?
Best: Shuu, he probably wouldn’t bother me.
Worst: Reiji, he seems like the type to get upset if you don’t keep perfectly still while sleeping.
S2. To go on a trip together with?
Best: Ruki, I feel like he would come fully prepped. 
Worst: Azusa, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy my trip if I get hurt because of him.
S3. To eat together with?
Best: Shuu, I feel like our eating styles would match.
Worst: Reiji, I’d constantly feel nervous.
S4. To study with?
Best: Ruki, I feel like he’d be able to explain things in a comprehensive manner.
Worst: Laito because he might just blow air into my ear all of a sudden.
S5. To go on a date with?
Best: Kou, he probably knows all the good places so it could be fun.
Worst: Kanato, I can’t stand the thought of him suddenly lashing out at me.
S6. To play a video game with?
Best: Yuma, I feel like he wouldn’t be the best at it, but it’d still be enjoyable regardless.
Worst: Subaru, he would destroy the console!
S7. To play sports with?
Best: Kou, I can imagine his sweat sparkling in the light as it bounces off him.
Worst: Reiji, he seems stiff.
S8. To go on a drive with?
Best: Ayato, it just seems fun.
Worst: Yuma, he strikes me as a speed devil. 
92 notes · View notes
m0e-ru · 4 years ago
Text
Tumblr media
eight months in somebody actually asked me abt visualive instead of me immediately annoying ppl about it without former notice. I might actually write properly for once 😳😳😳
OK OK!!!!! In this essay I will.... I will.... Visualive Adachi.... Visu/BURSTS INTO TEARS/
OKAY OKAY for real I just care Visualive so much (as someone who can’t fully understand Japanese AHAHA)
First I’ll add some foundation about what Visualive really is, then I talk abt Adachi in the latter parts of it because this is technically the first time I’m properly talking about this hehe 🐿
T....table of contents???
Visualive
Visualive the Evolution
Masami Itou
Visualive Adachi
Visualive the Evolution Adachi
Terms and Legend
VL - Visualive
VLE - Visualive the Evolution
stage - shortened for “stageplay”
面白い - omoshiroi (it’s just that specific)
Yuuya - VL Hero name
Hayato - VLE Hero name
Baba - Hero
Masami - Adachi
Taniguchi - Dojima
Saotome - Daisuke
Mamiya - Izanami
I add honorifics but sometimes I forget the hyphen intentionally or unintentionally I’m sorry if it makes it hard to read lol
all links have automatic timestamps for easy viewing. i mean. i hope the timestamps work
VISUALIVE “Persona 4.” A stage adaptation of SMT: Persona 4 by Atlus. It adapts the first part of the story, from the hero’s arrival to after recovering Mitsuo Kubo from the TV world. It also ends on a cliff hanger, showing a teaser of Shadow Naoto being projected on the screen.
It takes up a speedy recapitulation of the hero’s spring life, before slowing down and showing in depth his school life in summer. A day before Morooka-sensei’s death, there is a little skit with Kou, Daisuke and Adachi. The hero walks into the conversation before the two other boys leaving, and Morooka-sensei walking in on the student and detective. The next day follow’s the teacher’s death and the Investigation Team (IT) begin investigating their new lead.
From the words “visual” and “alive,” the niche of this stage was meant to be the fusion of live acting and visual digital projections. All seen from the stageplay with the colorful cast of actors and CG animations being projected on the screen. This offers an opportunity for characters to summon their personas, perform cool visual effects, change the backdrop, or even confront their own Shadows.
Performed in Sunshine Theater from the 15th to the 20th of March 2012. The screenplay was written and directed by Shintaro Asanuma from the theatrical group “bpm.” The video production produced by Shutaro Oku, a film director and visual planner. He later takes over as director for VISUALIVE THE EVOLUTION, the sequel stage. The stage music was produced by Shunsuke Wada, with a special show exclusive vocal track sung by Shihoko Hirata.
On this note, I haven’t seen any sort of original soundtrack released for any of the stages and I’m SO SAD. The last song in Mitsuo’s boss fight was such a BANGER and literally EVERYTHING ELSE Marvelous, Wadasan please take my MONEY
Regarding the cast, there were some special accommodations for Teddie, Rise, and Nanako, all of which did not have live actors at the time. During the casting, actors for the three characters could not be found or simply left the directors unsatisfied they couldn’t cast anybody. An exception for Rise, who was able to have a live actor in the sequel stage. It has been stated that there weren’t any “pretty boy” actors that fit the “Teddie Criteria.” While there weren’t any child actors that were believed to portray Nanako well.
Teddie was only ever seen in his bear costume while Rise was busy talking through a call, all voiced by their video game cast. Nanako has never appeared on stage, only being scarcely mentioned in the script. Again, this is different in the sequel stage where her role was extremely important and was shown as a screen projection.
VISUALIVE “Persona 4” THE EVOLUTION. A sequel stage. Beginning abruptly in the middle of Shadow Naoto’s boss fight, the story continues from there until the “true end” of the game’s original story. *Certain characters are introduced while others have been reintroduced. And on a personal note, when it’s all comedic in the beginning, it’s all for what’s coming right after.
I don’t know if I’m salty or just find it really funny AHAHA I might go talk abt it some other day with more context ehehe
Performed in The Galaxy Theater from the 3rd to the 9th of October 2012, only a few months after the PSVITA Persona 4 Golden release, which is July 2012. The screenplay was now written by Jun Kumagi while directed by Shutaro Oku. And music production finally taken over by Shoji Meguro himself.
---
HAHAHA this is starting to look like a wiki page. moving on. I might start rambling rn
(warning LONG !!!! aaa,,)
My thoughts on the stage adaptations. For the first Visualive (VL) I believe it’s pretty close to canon! I enjoy the characterization and how much love and care was present when handling the entire production.
Actors were busy playing the game itself, wherein a PS2 was present in the practice room. Along with magazines and game guides explaining the game’s story and the characters itself. Actors performing together and even improv acting together to get a grasp of their characters. All of them knowing well of Persona 4 as a well loved game, delicately handling their characters and hopefully performing them right while making the audience happy.
The staff taking care of each other while the director and video producer, Asanuma-san and Oku-san, working together well to make their vision into a reality.
The same thing happened with VL the Evolution (VLE) and literally every other good stage. Except... I feel the script kinda got out of hand with too much liberty where it feels a bit more disconnected from canon. But! It makes up for it in its content, whether comedic or (INCREDIBLY) dramatic! It’s great as its own story at that point. So in this case, I like to take the first VL and get to connect it canon, while I don’t know what the hell happened in VLE to the point I’ll just enjoy it as its own content.
These opinions deserve its own essay, post whatever bc I have SO much to say abt this. ANYWAY. VL ADACHI
---
Tohru Adachi is portrayed by Masami Itou (伊藤マサミ), a screenplay writer, director and an stage actor himself. He does have a single character voice role along with a fellow troupe member in the same franchise, but mostly works as the former three. He is part of Asanuma-san’s entertainment group “bpm.” On a similar note, Masashi Taniguchi, Dojima’s actor, was also part of their group from 2011 to 2016, which may explain their good synergy as the boss and the bumbling fool dynamic. I mean, somebody’s gotta get hit in the head every few skits.
With Masami-san being an important part of the cast, he doesn’t appear as often as Taniguchi-san in backstage content like the VL bonus disk or the official blog. Mentioned in his own personal blog, he had been busy with his roles as assistant director (I am assuming also for VL).
Also fun to note, because his role is mainly comic relief, he has been using his liberty to change up the material almost everyday making each performance exciting. This also leaves some other actors jealous of his freedom in his role, such as Saotome-san, Daisuke’s actor.
---
VL Adachi really has a... how do I say this? an adorable speech pattern (THE SAME SPEECH PATTERN THAT DROVE ME MAD TRYING TO DECIPHER I THOUGHT YOU WERE A CITY BOY OSSU OSSU MY ASS /shakes you violently/). Overall, he really fits the loose lipped bumbling fool, and his accent really makes him seem more casual and invested. What I’m saying is... VL Adachi either actually has genuine empathy or he actually has more energy to fake it (compared to some other edgelord. i mean you saw my p4ga analysis. I’m sick of him lol ahaha).
One of my favorite ways to explain this (OTHER THAN CHAIR CAR ADVENTURE MY BELOVED WE’LL GET TO THAT LATER) is the rice field scene with him and Dojima. It’s overanalyzation time 🎉
youtube
(43:04)
While investigating, Adachi whines about being tired while Dojima smacks him in the head. In this case, it’s established that Adachi doesn’t want to be there, yes? It’s the country, it’s hot and it smells like green.
"Ah... Dojima-san..! Why don't we take a break? (...) There really is nothing out here... Is the criminal still even here at all? (...) I wonder if I've passed being a rookie yet. Haha, but this city doesn't even have convenient transportation. I can't go to leisure lands (recreation, amusement parks, arcades, ect.) and head home at all."
Adachi then tries to tell Dojima a story. “when I got to this city after being newly assigned, I met an interesting guy (...) Yeah, I remember that the cherry blossoms haven't bloomed yet. So, I was driving my car and got near the station and--” Dojima gets a phone call.
Adachi politely puts his hands down waiting for his boss to finish so he can finish the story. Again and again, Adachi attempts to talk to Dojima about a story he’s so persistent trying to tell someone about. It was so 面白い that he would find someone to talk to about it. Even being polite and patient enough to wait for a chance to speak. He even gets fed up with it and blows up in front of his boss, clearly irritated he’s not given a chance to talk.
Sure, it could be Adachi feeling fed up like a normal person where someone agreed he to listen to him, before being constantly ignored. Or Adachi trying to be a more annoying whiny brat, depending on where you look at it.
If the story wasn’t too “interesting” to Adachi, he would’ve just brushed it off and stopped talking to Dojima entirely, or start up new small talk, or even complain some more. But no, he had a story he wanted to voice out so bad that he got irritated that the one person in the vicinity couldn’t listen to him.
Only after Dojima told him to continue their investigation elsewhere did Adachi finally stop and focus on something else. Maybe that story was for another day, or maybe it was never meant to be told.
What if it was just original (game) Adachi? He’d find a way to squirrel out of the investigation as usual, or push Dojima to “investigate” elsewhere. “Hey boss, don’t you think it’s hot? Why don’t we go elsewhere? We’ve seen this place too many times to count and I doubt anything new’ll turn up. How about we take a break at Junes, y’know? Where it’s cool? C’mon boss,” something like that.
og Adachi is just really annoying and silly to me. Some grown man thinking he can freeload because he never gets anything out of putting in more energy and effort? I don’t care how tall he is, I will smack him in the head.
Yeah VL Adachi whines, too, but at least it doesn’t look like he’s going to escape and waste his time somewhere else. He just sucks it up stops trying to leave the situation.
Or maybe I’m getting this all wrong and VL is exactly the same and my rage just gets dampened because of Masamisan’s execution of character hmm...
SO. What was his story about anyway? The one he really wanted to share to Dojima?
I mean... it’s obvious enough
youtube
First day in town? Spring? Actually mentioned driving a car when literally out of every single persona 4 media at the time was there not a SINGLE mention of Adachi having a car OTHER THAN the same stageplay it’s being mentioned in?
A story, from somewhere around uhh four? five months ago? was something that he remembered so dearly and was willing to share despite it obviously embarrassing him even if he puts the blame on a certain somebody in the same story?
Or maybe it’s because he really had nothing to talk about ever since he realized all his stories from the city weren’t actually that funny or interesting in the first place.
BUT then that would mean out of all the things he could talk about—more whining, complaining, complimenting, small talk—he insisted about talking about this story in particular.
Okay, look. I’m just. Just. As someone who talks too much, of course I have things I actually want people to hear out of all the bullshit that comes out of my mouth. And if the thing I actually want people to listen to doesn’t even get heard, I’d go mad.
Sure, Adachi’d be fine when his complaints or intentionally unfunny jokes get brushed off. But a story of a guy that he thought was so funny, interesting, 面白い gets ignored, he really blew up, even just for a split second, maybe.
And ALL the things that happened in that story—on his first day in Inaba! His car got dented, he had to deal with a weirdo dumbass employee that knew zero personal space, yelled in his ear, who didn’t know how to do their job, got his station reputation messed up on the first day, got his ass grabbed, got (unintentionally?) mocked for his lame stories, and got his car dented for the SECOND time. Probably MORE
And he STILL wanted to talk about it /punches through concrete wall/
yes I’m overthinking about this of course i am
This little tidbit of VL Adachi kinda makes me go insane sometimes—his entire characterization in VL in particular. It was really refreshing to see and how they included both of his characters in it, his facade and how irritated he is of a lot of things underneath. And how flexible his character is immediately working with other characters when there’s sudden improv to balance the situation. Like him and Dojima, Morooka, the attendant, or even Yuuya (hero) himself.
I’ll take Taniguchi-san’s messing around in the VL bonus backstage disc in place of Masami-san being so busy he couldn’t appear in it as often as other characters.
For stagetime that lasted for fifteen minutes or less, my appreciation for VL Adachi, even if he was just comic relief, really rocketed. I say VL, bc Adachi the edgelord he’s supposed to be in literally every other media is something I analyze separately.
I haven’t even gotten to VLE oh my GODDDDD
Like I said, I don’t really regard VLE close to canon but as something to be appreciated for what it is by itself. But the way Adachi was characterized there, in or out of character, still struck me.
---
Yes, there was his strange fan-agreed-canon which is,,, now canon obsession with cabbages (not that that’s a bad thing lmao). There was also him being a lot more jumpy and intimate in a clowny way, patting people on the shoulder or even downright hugging them just to mess around. Even FORGETTING who the same goddam loser who grabbed his ass almost a year ago is. But like, can’t blame him they literally changed their actor (and screenplay writer) AHAHAHA
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
ha... no more comedy, only dorky sword fights now
(speaking of sword fights I think it’s a fun thought how Mamiya-san [Izanami, also one of the youngest in the cast] admitted it was his first time doing sword fight choreography and even thanked Masami-san and other staff members for guiding him)
One thing unintentionally in character was Adachi accidentally nabbing the sushi overdosed in wasabi. Masami-san didn’t actually account for a joke sushi and didn’t immediately eat it—until Taniguchi-san (who also made Dojima go off his shits compared to VL) jokingly yelled at him and even riled up the audience for him to eat it. He even went off stage to get water just for him to eat the goddam sushi.
And Masami-san did! (kinda choked, but he’s fine).
Continuing from the same scene, while being overly giddy about sushi dinner (and I mean overly--he was singing about it while hopping to the Dojima residence), he tried to remind the two, Dojima and Hayato (hero), that Nanako was sleeping. Probably where she was sick if the scene was translated from the game.
youtube
(30:07)
And... the dramatic parts of VLE
Adachi was the one who reported to the IT that Dojima was chasing Namatame in the rain. While Naoto was discussing Namatame’s journal entries, Adachi, as giddy as he is, took it from Naoto’s hands and reveled in the discovery of evidence so childishly(?). He even ran to Dojima when he began regaining consciousness and immediately called the nurses to help him wheel Dojima to the ER.
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Then, The Hospital Scene™️, right after Nanako flatlines.
youtube
(1:02:02)
Adachi, who recently walked into the scene, immediately worries about Dojima and IT who were ALL crying. He looks down, devastated—before yelling how Dojima’s heading to Namatame’s room.
He yells in terror and the same grief at his injured boss, all while running past and even jumping over children, who fell to the ground sobbing, to get to him. He continues yelling in a pained fashion while immediately reprimanding Dojima to stop. He gets carried by the collar before being tossed to the ground at Hayato’s feet, all while being pat by the same boy.
Dojima makes his speech about how unfair it is for the ‘killer’ to be alive when his daughter isn’t. When he finally falls to his knees, Adachi rises from the ground, humbly saying he’ll do his best to take care of Dojima (or something like that I’m in tears I literally can’t do VLE’s hospital scene i h8 this). He finally starts crying along with everyone else, being pushed away again but still tries again, trying to usher his boss away from the door.
With the help of the guard in front of the door, they all disappear off stage
please... I know this scene doesn’t need that much translation because of how important this scene is in the entire story. and I know my narratives aren’t enough so just,,,, just watch it please it’s so much more than this. everyone’s acting was just spectacular
youtube
(1:08:47)
So, after the IT (YOSUKE. JUST YOSUKE. good job Mae-chan) stop themselves from k wording Namatame, it was ADACHI who reported Nanako’s miracle recovery. He ran to the same corridor where they all cried in, even panting and falling to the ground in relief trying to report the good news. Then he pats Hayato on the shoulder and says he’s going to Dojima.
With this... /slaps roof of half of VLE/ ALL of this....adachi.... adachisan.... he Cares™️..... holy shit.....
now. comparing to the game. do you even remember what og Adachi did? did he.. even do anything?????
youtube
(56:39)
NO!!! he just stood there!!!! being a bumbling fool but.... inappropriately!!! man. he didn’t act concerned enough.
adachi: /walks into a bunch of kids crying outside a hospital room/ “lmao why tf are y’all crying? did uhhh what’s her face uhhh nanako. did she d word or something? rip, I guess lol” LIKE????? CAN YOU IMPLY FASTER
and then he’s like “wgat hmm Where’s Dojima-san Heading Because That’s Not The Way To His Room 🤔” and only when he’s asked he actually mentions he’s heading to Namatame’s room and still needs to get choked by a first year for the room number like..... zero consideration
and his boss??? where his daughter he loves so much just??? di*s???? and he’s so devastated he’s doing what he can that very moment while he’s so numbed of thinking of the consequences???? And adachi goes “uhh boss that’s illegal” LIKE. BITCH. /punches through a concrete wall but harder/
---
And??? His confrontation scene??? Like, I know they mashed it up w his tv confession scene to save stagetime for other scenes BUT IT WAS SO MMBMBMBMMGN /gestures in a good way/
youtube
(1:15:56)
UM?? guy behind everything??? in a vulnerable area where he could easily get physically assaulted bc hes not in the tv world w his persona?? Trash talks women like he absolute misogynist he is??? getting yelled at by a bunch of kids and YELLING BACK IN THE SAME AGITATED MANNER even TAUNTING THEM then and there to GET HIS ASS?????
og Adachi was such a pussy he got caught and just scurried off into the TV world where he ended up having powers like...ok....scared of getting beat down by a bunch of highschoolers unless you have powers...ok....
he only taunted them to get him when he was in the tv world too.....he rlly couldn’t say shit in the real world huh... lol
(yeah yeah this shows how VLE Adachi knew abt his TV world powers which would make you think if he ever went into the tv world and came back out alive. Or he’s really just a badass who doesnt give a shit abt anyone’s opinions and CAN beat anyone’s ass. i have a separate thing abt this but bc i like to laught at vle rather than overthink its own lore i might. not. idk lol)
and ??? VLE Adachi can??? He can swordfight??? he doesn’t even NEED a gun—he even reflects bullets w his blade (but apparently he can still get slapped by a flying fan more often than any other attack). His fight choreo was just...so poggers. He’s like short villains done good—like??? he’s short compared to everyone else!!! but he makes up for it for stuffing all the energy inside him while is bursts out making him him the over energetic gremlin he is!!! go VL adachi!!!!
(am I low key making fun of Madono-san in the TUUSH stageplay I’ve seen four minutes of? maybe)
OK!!! Yes I was gushing abt Masami-san again back to Adachi.
It’s portrayed that while not being afraid to admit his crimes, he also goes out of his way to be a bastard and have the gall to get a bunch of kids to fight him, one on eight. He can use a katana, probably a narrative dark reflection of the hero, Hayato which I thought was nice—and he can fight!!! It also shows his persona, yes, but...it doesn’t make it clear if he’s overwhelmed by his Shadow like in the game, where his eyes were yellow and he was emitting a dark aura.
But it gets interesting how he sees he’s getting overwhelmed and starting to lose his edge towards a bunch of kids. He falls to the ground even banging the floor like a whiny brat while literally the IT tries to tell him to turn himself in. Again, like a brat he tells everyone to shut up—before getting incapacitated. While some of the IT rejoice, he bolts up unaccepting of his defeat—before getting hit in the stomach.
youtube
(1:23:54)
And his words from when he drops his katana, “Why..?” He grabs the foldable chair against his stomach, and with a remorseful look in his eyes, he says “I’m sorry..!”
THEN HE BACKFLIPS—then Hayato slashes him.
In a tone of disbelief, he goes “no way...” and collapses to the ground, being possessed by Ame-no-Sagiri.
Blah blah blah then Teddie rockets himself into the eyeball spy cam and then they both explode aaaaa
Teddie survives but I really don’t know where Adachi went. Not even a mention by Dojima if he turned himself in or was ever found—or I need to review VLE for the 48274827482nd time hehe
WHOO then the whole cast appears for the dance number at the end of show YAHOO
Tumblr media
19 notes · View notes
pastryjay · 4 years ago
Text
I hate that people use 'fiction affects reality' to mean fiction always affects reality. I also hate when people use 'fiction doesn't affect reality' to mean fiction never affects reality. Both takes are completely wrong because there isn't a simple right answer that fits all situations for both. Here are some examples of why both can be true.
Fiction affecting reality;
The Jaws effect - people who watched/ read/ even simply heard of Jaws believed sharks are evil killing machines. This has lead to real people hating and hurting sharks in real life. This can be seen in other cases e.g. Muslim men being typecast as terrorists can falsely lead viewers to relate Muslims with terrorism.
People who like fictional media can be influenced to adapting small quirks and sayings of favorite characters.
Fictional media can be very reflective of the real world in a way that can teach viewers both facts and life lessons.
Romantically shipping characters played by actors involves people visualising said characters. This is fine most of the time but when it involves the likes of child actors being visualized sexually because of a ship, it is no longer fake.
Fiction not affecting reality;
No fictional character ever has hurt a real person, only other fictional people. Hence why every rational person who loves villainous characters wouldn't like them if they were real, instead of dramatized characters made for entertainment.
Shipping fictional characters is not the same as shipping real people. Real people are real, they don't like their personal lives being invaded or people being obsessed with their relationships to the point of real friendships being hurt. Fictional characters aren't real so don't care who you imagine them with, in fact they don't care what you think about them at all.
Video games don't cause violence.
Other than freak occurrences, fictional characters committing crimes doesn't make real people commit the same crimes against other real people.
I'm sure there are many more examples for both, but you get the jist. I was prompted into making this post after reading a post by someone who claimed that because the Jaws effect exist, liking fictional villains makes you a bad person. No. Please can people have nuance here and understand that fiction can affect reality but only in certain contexts.
My logic here can also be applied elsewhere. Too many people are overly keen on fitting anything and everything into a catagory of right or wrong or good or bad. Most things, wether that be a person, piece of media, idea, item or activity are far to complicated to ever fall neatly into a catagory. Not everything has to have one set answer and trying to force that just makes a mess.
12 notes · View notes
revchainsaw · 4 years ago
Text
Sonic: The Hedgehog (2020)
Tumblr media
Sonic: The Hedgehog (2020)
Greeting my flock of film freaks and welcome again to the Cult of Cult. Todays offering is a bit more of the mainstream blockbuster variety, but as films based on Video Games are still actually quite niche and vastly underestimated I think we should open our hearts to Sonic: The Hedgehog and hope that we find it a pleasing tithe to the cult. I am your beloved minster, The Reverend Chainsaw, and welcome to today’s service.
The Message
I must confess to the congregation that I was drinking mighty heavily of the lord’s Tennessee sour mash when I was taking in this movie. That said, I think that this is a great movie to have a drink with and I mean that in the best possible way. 
Sonic: The Hedgehog is of course based on the Sega video game franchise and stars Ben Schwartz as the titular blue rat. Schwartz brings his brand of high energy enthusiastic comedy to the voice role. While Schwartz is particularly on brand for Schwartz, is he on brand for Sonic? I’m not entirely sure, but I’m also not entirely sure I was ever in love with the old ways. I am not an avid fan or consumer of Sonic media and perhaps that means I am in a poor position to say. I am most familiar with the Sega games and Sonic cartoons from the 90s, and from what I have grasped the more recent entries with their more anime centric and high lore plots still owe quite a bit to the attitude era of the 90s. Sonic was a hero but he was also a bit of a cross between Mickey Mouse, the Flash, and Bart Simpson. As an angsty 90s boy I wanted to eat chili dogs and go very fast that was very appealing to me, but I’m not so sure it would be appealing to a vast audience of older millennials, or even todays kids. And though I think it would be a fair criticism to say that Ben Schwartz is playing sonic as basically the superhero version of his Dewey Duck from the VERY VERY good DuckTales reboot, I don’t think that it’s necessarily a bad thing. 
Dewey Duck the Hedgehog is a small mammal (also not a rodent, I wanted to say rodent and apparently hedgehogs are not rodents, just googled it) from an alien planet where his adoptive mother, an owl named Long Claw, fears that he will be hunted for his special powers, which I think is just super speed but it might be other things. In line with these concerns after an attack by pursuers Longclaw gives Sonic the Moses treatment and floats the special blue boy down the metaphorical river. Unlike Moses, however, Sonic is not found by ultra rich ultra powerful extra special people but is instead alone. Sonic lives alone in exile outside a small American town as a sort of local cryptid.
Thus begins a charming adventure. Through a poor decision to use his powers while working out some personal issues, Sonic inadvertantly draws the attention of the U.S Government and their nasty big brain baddy Dr. Robotnik. Sonic recruits a small town police officer with big city dreams to assist him in finding his magic rings so that he might flee from earth to an uninhabited mushroom kingdom. 
Now about these two human characters. Officer Everyman is played by cyclops from the X-men franchise. The actors name escapes me and so does the characters, and while, yes, I just looked up if hedgehogs were rodents, I will not be looking up this information. I like the review better this way. It makes me laugh. And while I don’t remember his name, I do remember that he used to live In Mt. Juliet, TN.  Anyway, what you should know about Officer Goodguy is that he drives a Toyota Tacoma!
That Toyota Tacoma is also continuously abused by the mad machinations of our films biggest draw: Jim Carey as Dr. Robotnik. If we were to pitch a Sonic movie, I don’t think anyone would jump to Jim Carey as the must have for the role, but after seeing this film, boy was it the best choice. The way he chews the scenery and plays off the rest of the cast and situations is just so much fun to watch. It’s fantastic to see Jim Carey back in a larger than life role. The Decision to play Jim Carey as the kind of condescending nerd who has taken their lack of social skills and leaned in as opposed to working on themselves was a brilliant choice. We’ve all known that kind of guy who tries to play the misanthrope just because they are too egotistical to recognize their flaws. Here Dr. Robotnik has given up on human connection in favor of subordination. His intellect is his only value, and thus he demands everyone around him acknowledge intellect as the only quality that matters as he has. It was a great choice.
From the point the chase begins the film becomes a road trip flick, and despite the fact that Sonic could supposedly cover the distance required in the blink of an eye we watch the ins and outs of our heroes relationship as they learn what home, and being a hero mean to them. By the climax it is pretty by the numbers, Sonic has come to feel at home on Earth and now that he has friends who care for him they can begin to make a world from which neither will have to flee; and of course, they beat the bad guy. FOR NOW. we are treated to an even crazier Dr. Robotnik stranded in the Fungus Dimension bent on revenge.
The Benediction
Now for all things Holy and Profane in this film, please rise for the Benediction.
Best Scandal: Sonic the Cosmic Horror
The original look of this film was mired in dread when the early footage and trailers dropped revealing a hideously uncanny hedgehog monster in the form of sonic. The memes are amazing, the toys are unsettling, there’s still plenty of Quasimodo Sonic stuff out there floating on the web and I suggest that you search it out, the laughter is good for your heart. Also if anyone wants to send me any creepy sonic merch I’ll take it. 
Thanks to the work of online fans and internet harassments, the studio felt it was going to lose money on the project and reeled back the release allowing for the design department to give us a more cartoony but less frightening alien monster. I mean he’s a cartoon, it’s okay for him to look like a cartoon. 
Best Scene: Noodle Dance
It’s hard to choose, and it feels a bit biased, but there are a few scenes with Dr. Robotnik that are just what make the movie more than a forgettable IP adaptation. Not that Ben Schwartz wasn’t doing great as the character but I feel Sonic as a whole would be lost in the milieu of CG spectacles and Super Hero Origin stories that we are bombarded with every year if not for Jim Carey’s performances; and even with them Sonic: The Hedgehog is not completely out of those woods. That said, I think Dr. Robotnik’s Alone Time Dance Party has to be the stand out sequence in my memory. I can’t really speak to what makes it so enjoyable, but damn if it isn’t just the best scene in the movie.
Best Character: Silicon Valley Dr. Robotnik
Do I even need to say it? It’s Dr. Robotnik. I’m not a fan of this villain from any other media. I always found Dr. Robotniks look unappealing, I’m not a huge fan of his powers, or using robot henchman. it always struck me as pretty boring how Sonic didn’t have a cool rogues gallery (i’m talking about 90s sonic) the way Mario did. However, they did something with the design, characterization, and performance that just made him such a fun villain. Also, my friend Jacksons mom said I looked like him and it didn’t hurt my feelings so.
Best Actor: Jim Carey
Jim Carey. It really seems like he’s all I’m talking about in this movie. Once again, I think Ben Schwartz did great and Sonic IS basically Dewey Duck in this movie. Dewey Duck is my favorite part of the rebooted DuckTales series, BUT he is just outmaneuvered by Jim Carey in this role. I think it’s a compliment enough to say that Ben Schwartz was even able to keep up with his energy, let alone play his quicker perkier foil. 
Worst Scene: Toyota Tacoma Commercial
Sonic: the Hedgehog’s worst scene would probably have to be the forced friend fight between Sonic and Officer Wachowski  during the car chase. It’s an overproduced weightless car chase scene with a contrived buddy cop controversy meant to force apart our heroes so that they can ultimately grow a little and come back together later in the movie. Not that I mind a movie like this to be so by the numbers, but it just felt like two of the blandest things on this movies plate being forced into one scene. I do like the idea of giving me the crap part of the dish in one flavorless generic bite, but that still doesn’t save it from being the worst scene in the movie. 
That Toyota Tacoma took a beating though.
Worst Feature: Nothing Ventured/ Nothing Earned
I’m sure many fans would feel that the worst feature of the film is that it isn’t loyal to any previous lore laden version of the character, (probably the one they like the most). In the portrayals of both Sonic and Dr. Robotnik there were decisions made that drastically differed from the ways they have been portrayed before. Sonic is naïve and idealistic, a bit childish, Dr. Robotnik is driven by a lot of insecurity. Where are the Chaos Crystals and my original character Grindy the Wolf Cub?
But I think that these are over all positive choices in a film that otherwise chose to play it incredibly safe. In their cautious approach to appeal to the widest possible audience the film makers gave us a pleasant and appealing cartoon romp but we are left with little to hold on to. The worst feature of Sonic: The Hedgehog is it’s safety.
Summary:
Sonic: The Hedgehog is often touted as “the first good video game movie”. A label that I disagree with wholeheartedly. It is certainly a good video game movie, but it’s not the first, and it is not by leaps and bounds better than other video game movies as a whole. It’s a sub genre that gets a ton of disrespect, and in a world where the biggest criticism levied against the Super Mario Bros is that it’s not a faithful adaptation, I don’t understand how Sonic the Buddy Cop/ Road Trip comedy is escaping that attitude.
All that said, I had a good time with this movie. But it felt like playing on the playground as a toddler. You have fun and then you leave and you don’t really remember what you played or who with. I’ll think about Jim Carey and Dewey Duck, but I had a hard time hating or loving anything this movie did in any strong way. I usually feel that a movie that is “bad” or “corny” or “shlocky” is always better than a movie that is generic, or pointless, or boring. Sonics pleasantness and cheerful energy just barely save it from being another Transformers franchise. I get that origin stories are hard, so I’m eagerly awaiting the next installment, and hopefully it’s going to do something that sets it apart. Probably not. 
Overall Grade: C
James Marsden! I just remembered!
2 notes · View notes
vndooms · 4 years ago
Note
4-5-6-14-15-16-17-21-22-30-34-38-45-46-47-57-67-68-69-99 ☺️☕️ go all out bb
thank you anon!!!!! just woke up hehe gonna do these to get my brain moving for the day
4 favorite character? big surprise it’s imposter. it used to be sakura then it was asahina and now it is imposter!!
5 best girl? asahina!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ahhh!! i actually love asahina so much, i think her character has a lot of interest and depth and i think abt her a lot.
6 best boy? fuyuhiko! he literally shook me so much this time watching sdr2...... when he greeted them for the first time... thinking abt it DAILY!! i really didn’t like him at first but of course the sdr2 trials are so intense i was already warming up by the end of the second trial n then through the game... uhg... hes so good.
14 what do you think about the danganronpa 1 anime? i watched the first episode when it came out and i was sooo excited but then the animation wasn’t very good and also i don’t think video games adapt well to anime for a reason so i never finished watching it... i’ve since found that a lot of people actually got into dr from the anime tho so i’m glad for it for that.
15 your absolute otp? i answered this one: imposter/ryota is who i think about Every Day!!
16 your absolute brotp? asahina and naegi are important to me and close to my heart 🥰 i’m also still thinking abt mukuro and rantaro and also mukuro and imposter a lot.
17 do you have an ot3? naegirigami!!!! ahhhhhhhh they’re so ideal.... all three relationships involved are so dynamic and interesting and in love!!! i think abt them often. also ive created a hallmark christmas movie for them in my mind and it’s good.
21 favorite voice actor? this is a hard one...... probably teruteru’s though.
22 favorite talent? ultimate cook!!! ultimate chef!!!! teruteru’s free pass to do whatever he wants is bc the second i found out there was a chef he was already a fave!!! the passion for food and making people happy!! but also just proving your the best and being a snob!!! it’s great. great talent.
30 which character would’ve deserved to survive? hmmm... oh ibuki. genuinely when she died i was so upset bc i love her but also she brought a special heat to trials that the comedic survivors just couldn’t match... like imagine her there in the finale??? i actually can’t but that’s why it would’ve been so good... she was smart but random and silly...
34 best character design? i literally do love twogamis design sooooo much!!! other than him, probably rantaro!
38 favorite eyes? i don’t have an answer for this...... ibuki?
45 unpopular opinion? i think fuyupeko have too much baggage wrt their existing relationship w each other to ever have a healthy romantic relationship.
46 unpopular headcanon? oh hm... i’m not sure if i know this fandom well enough to know if any of my headcanons are unpopular.... um imposter is nb And uses he/him pronouns? i think people usually just give him they/them pronouns exclusively when they hc him as nb so. this counts.
47 a headcanon you have about a character? i think abt these characters all day long and then the second i need to recall that it’s all gone 😭😭 ok lemme try... naegi drinks instant coffee bc coffee snobs kirigiri and togami have a whole obnoxious coffee setup in the kitchen and one time he tried to use the french press but didn’t change the grind setting to coarse on the grinder and he got dragged to hell for that one so he just went out and bought some instant like he used to drink when staying up all night to cram for exams and is like listen. i can’t do this guys. you’re just gonna have to accept me for me.
57 character who should’ve lived longer? i just wish imposter could’ve been in a trial 😭😭😭😭😭 it’s just not right!!! i know there’s no other way this could’ve shaken out but..... i’m so depressed.
67 which character would you never want to meet in real life? i mean.... junko
68 which character would you want to meet in real life? imposter join my relationship and help me pay rent 🥰
69 choose a character to go with you on a trip? yasuhiro. i just think he’d bring a certain heat also we could fall in love perhaps.
99 your absolute notp? disregarding the obviously horrible ones, togami/fukawa.... please can i never see them interact again it’s absolutely painful 😭😭
5 notes · View notes
glassvines · 4 years ago
Text
Thoughts on 2020 Favorites
Thoughts on all my favorites from 2020! Sadly, I witnessed what is most likely the demise of one of my favorite hobbies: going to the movies. I hope all my local theaters don’t close up for good this year, and I start going more regularly again in 2021 but. I don’t know if it’s ever going to be the same again. TV Shows 1. Battlestar Galactica (2004) - Getting into this one rather late, but I just discovered I can watch it for free on Peacock haha. Absolutely loving it. Been meaning to finish it ever since I watched the 2003 mini series a few years ago. Stylistically brilliant, and I love that the theological-laden dialogue appears to have a plot-driven point to it. 2. Evil (CBS) - I love this show! Hope it gets another season. It manages to pull off that fine line between silly and creepy most of the time, and all the actors come off as sincere. Also Michael Emerson is there which makes everything even better. Also, also a plus: I'm used to the media portraying Catholics in two different ways: lapsed or bigoted. Muslims? Devout and spiritual or terrorists. It's nice to see a series centered around a devot Catholic, a lapsed Catholic and an ex-Muslim who are all the good guys. Fantastic central characters dynamic. Animation 1. Hilda, season 2 - One of Netflix's best imo. The new season was gorgeous, and even got me to shed a tear at one point. I want to read the comic it's based on. 2. Infinity Train, seasons 2 + 3 - Excellent follow-ups to a great first season. Both were good seasons, but I really enjoyed s2 for Jesse and MT's instant chemistry. 3. Castlevania, season 3 - This show is going to end up breaking my heart but damn if it isn't a really fun watch. Fight scenes continued being top-notch in s3. 4. Bee and Puppycat, season 2 - Yeah, this isn't getting an offical Netflix release until 2022 (what the fuck), but I watched the leaked episodes and enjoyed them a lot. The show feels un-polished and the plot is surrealist nonsense, but those aspects of the show also make it creative and original. I'd like more seasons in the future, but given how disorganized to the point of incompetence the s2 release is, I'm not counting on getting anymore. I don't like seeing the popularity of this show squandered so it's a huge shame. 5. Amphibia, season 2 - Best Disney show airing right now. Characterizations and animation continued being great and I'm looking forward to s3. 6. Wolfwalkers - We all needed a beautiful Cartoon Saloon movie in 2020. It did not disappoint! Hope it has a bluray release soon so I can rewatch it somewhere other than Apple TV+ :/. 7. The Willoughbys - More Kris Pearn directed films please. This movie's character design style was so charming and cute. Loved the Ricky Gervais Cat Narrator. I watched this one with my family after having been separated from them for some time due to the lockdown. It was probably one of the happiest evenings of this year for me. 8. Soul - I enjoyed Onward quite a bit, but Soul hit me in that old-school Pixar feels way. A film about inspiration and finding purpose, so it had a message very similar to Ratatouille. Only Soul ponders on one's worth if they are "not doing what they're meant to do". This movie really knocked that message out of the park.
Video Games 1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - I played this rather religiously. Definitely kept me from moping during those times when my work hours were cut. 2. Creaks - Amanita Design is offically one of my favorite indie game studios at this point. I adore the atmosphere and music in this game; it's one of the most chill puzzle games I've ever played. 3. Hylics - This game is so bizarre. I've never seen anything like it. Really want to play the sequel.
Films 1. Emma - May officially be my new favorite Emma adaptation. I loved everything about it. The stylized look to the cinematography, the costumes, the music, the actors. Everything. 2. Doctor Sleep - Was surprised at how much I enjoyed this one, as I completely missed it in the theaters. An excellent sequel to a classic, and a well-done good vs. evil story. 3. The Vast of Night - Fun little sci-fi/indie/1950s period piece. I hope streaming services start distributing more films like it. 4. Prospect - My dad recommended this one to me and we watched it together. I was blown away by the dedication to detail; how everything worked in this future setting. Pedro Pascal's character was constantly surprising me too. (Also see: very handsome.)
Podcasts This is only here so I can mention that my favorite new thing was 100% The Magnus Archives. I listened to a lot of new stuff in 2020, but it all paled in comparison to TMA. Good spooky times, great characters and character dynamics, interesting plot direction. The lore is so, so good; I'm impressed with how thorough it is with explaining the seemingly unexplainable, without fully taking away the air of mystery.
Honorable Mentions 1. The Mandalorian, season 2
Things I'm Looking Forward to in 2021 1. Hopefully we'll finally be getting that PacRim series?? 2. The French Dispatch 3. I just want to go the movies again sighhh
Some Creative & General Goals for 2021 I actually managed to do a proper job this year with the journaling and taking more photography! I've started serveral journals, as well as a digital one. So, at least I managed to keep up with one of my creative goals. Managed to have a fairly successful deck garden this year too. My sugar peas didn't die on me haha. Hope to expand on it more this spring/summer. Moving forward this year: 1. Continue to keep up with journaling: drawings, gardening, travel (fingers crossed) and tv/film commentary. 2. Seriously organize my photography this year, as well as post online more often. 3. Help my brother this year with some of his own creative projects! He's always asking for art and I'm usually too busy, but this year I want to get more serious and contribute to his projects. 4. Maybe get back to an old goal of learning how to play the guitar. I want to drop some cash on one this month so I can practice at home.
4 notes · View notes
beyondtheborderridiculous · 4 years ago
Text
Why I love A3! and am content being stuck in actor hell
In this essay I will
No seriously. I really love this game and I have no otaku/weeb friends irl that would ever play this with me. And I just want to fangirl and have no other outlet than writing a massive post just spilling out my love for this game. Read at your own risk, lol.
For me, what makes me fall in love with a game, more than their game play, is their story. I play games for their stories because I am a story lover. I love stories so much, that I majored in literature, lol. So for me, I only really play games that are story-centric. But even though I’ve been playing video games for as long as I can remember, I suck at them. My coordination is always so bad, and I’m so bad at grinding, that sometimes, when a game is too hard, I stop playing halfway through and never end up finishing the story out of frustration. There’s a lot of games on my switch and other apps that I’ve played that are on hiatus due to this reason.
But A3! is really simple to play. Took a while for me to get the game mechanics of it, and I was a bit confused at first, but unlocking the next chapter is a pretty simple feat. (The fact that I downloaded this game during the period where all the main story acts were accessible also helped.) So I got to read all of Main Story 1 and I FELL IN LOVE.
I fall in love with stories if I fall in love with the characters. And as a story consumer I am so impressed by the amount of thought the game developers had for each and every character.
My first impression of how the story would unfold was that Sakuya would be the main focus of this game and that other than Masumi, the other characters would fall to the way side. Sakuya was your typical shounen hero character, the optimistic, untalented but hard working guy (the Naruto in the early arcs of that series). He’s not my favorite type, but I understand that he’s a necessary and in my first impression, the most important character of the story. Then there’s Masumi, the kuudere/tsundere talented bishounen who’s the rival (i.e. the Sasuke). The fact that he falls in love at first sight with the player (or Izumi) was a hilarious surprise, and he became an instant fave. I know that some don’t like his obsessive yandere tendencies, but I find them hilarious and am quite fond of them (but I would never condone it irl). Honestly, during Harugumi’s act, I honestly thought that the focus would solely be on them. But it wasn’t.
Tsuzuru got the chance to pursue his dream of becoming a playwright and he dwells into some regrets of not pursuing his dream earlier. (The fact that he straight up dies after each script is written cracks me up every time. Seeing it in the anime adaptation killed me.) Citron is the comic relief. He’s necessary to gel a team of strangers together. But during this act, his past and background is hinted and it doesn’t seem to be all sunshine and rainbows (To be honest, and spoilers for the EN server here, but before I read Main Story 2, I straight up thought that Citron came from a different planet, lololol). And then Itaru. Chigasaki Itaru my man, my all time fave. To be honest, when I first saw him I didn’t have a favorable impression. The prince-like bishounen is the type I dislike the most. But he’s an otaku? A closet gamer? But to be honest, even when that was revealed, I didn’t think much of it. I initially thought, ‘Oh, they made a gap mode character, cute.’ And again, I thought that he would be put into the backdrop. BUT THEN HE WANTED TO QUIT AND HARUGUMI PERFORMED A STREET ACT TO CONVINCE HIM TO STAY AND I DIED (Omg, Citron in the anime adaptation killed me). I thought that only Sakuya and Masumi would be the focus, but I was very very pleasantly surprised to find that all characters had their own major screen time (Maybe save for Citron. His was kind of the smallest, but that’s for a reason. At this point, I’m tempted to make a first impressions vs. current thoughts post of every single character. Would anyone be interested in me doing that?). 
By the end of Act 1, I fell in love with Harugumi. And to be honest, I was apprehensive of reading Act 2. I became so invested in Harugumi, and now I have to start a new journey with a new set of characters? I just wanted to read more about Harugumi and I was disappointed because I thought that I wouldn’t see those characters again. But again, I was pleasantly surprised to see that that wasn’t the case. Act 2 is Natsugumi’s story, but Harugumi characters were sprinkled here and there. And I thought that it was cute that Temna, a really prideful actor, looked up to Sakuya and asked him for advice. And then you have Sakuya saying that he didn’t really do anything as a leader, LOL. Save for sleeping on the stage together. And then Temna proceeds to follow this advice by going to Izumi and saying that after much research, the answer to a better team was sleeping together. LMAO TEMNA YOU IDIOT (I love you)! Natsugumi’s story was adorable, and I adored it.
Main Story 1 is the introduction and formation of every troupe. By Act 3, I was expecting it to become repetitive. What was impressive to me was that it wasn’t. Every single character is so vastly different from one another. They have their own personalities and fully fleshed out backstories. In Main Story 1 alone, that’s twenty characters. That’s highly impressive, especially like I mentioned beforehand with Act 1, everyone got their own screen time and character development. And for those that didn’t it’s because there’s a reveal/plot twist later down the line that’s at least hinted. You don’t always see that in t.v. shows/anime/manga with an ensemble cast (Voltron Legendary Defender, I’m staring at you. But that’s just one example, there’s others too). 
But the game developers didn’t stop there. For each of those twenty characters, the writers developed not only their personalities and backstories, but also their own personalized relationship dynamics with other members of the company.
Each troupe is very unique in their dynamics. I have a very hard time picking a favorite troupe because I am just so fond of them all. The relationships that the members have with each other in each troupe is so different, so special. I think the reason why I love anime/manga so much is because found family or nakamaship is usually a prevalent theme in them and I am a sucker for these. One of my favorite genres is slice-of-life just because I love reading relationships, whether they be platonic or romantic. And each troupe has these in spades.
BUT IT DOESN’T END THERE.
By Act 3, I thought that I figured out the pattern. Harugumi supported Natsugumi during Act 2, so in Act 3, Natsugumi would do the same for Akigumi. And then Harugumi will fall to the wayside. But I was pleasantly surprised again (do you see the pattern here?) to find that wasn’t the case. Fucking Itaru became the outside support/advice giver for Banri LOL. What made me fall in love with the game even harder, and what made me impressed with the game developers even more, was that not only did they write relationships within the troupe, but they also created and personalized intertroupe relations for ALL TWENTY CHARACTERS. Like how?! That’s so much work and so much to juggle with! As an avid story reader, that was just so crazy impressive to me. 
So that’s just me geeking about the narrative and character and relational development. Let’s talk about the gaming side of things, shall we?
I’m pretty familiar with app gatcha games as I’ve played my fair share of them. A3! strangely focuses more on the story aspect than the game aspect, which I am totally okay with. But what impressed me from the gaming perspective was how A3! handles events. Most gatcha games I’ve played, the event story line had nothing to do with the main story (SWD Obey Me and FE Heroes being prime examples here). Events were used as fanservice in order to get money from the consumers. And my first event was the Summer Beach Episode, so I initially thought that that was the same case for A3!. But it wasn’t.
When Main Story 1 ended, I was satisfied and at the same time I wasn’t. The story was good, and it ended well, but I wanted more. The game seemed to hint at more, so would I ever get more? And then I find out that all of the events (or most of them anyway) is the continuation of Main Story 1. That’s crazy!!! As a gamer, and as someone who has a family member that works in the gaming industry, I was crazy impressed because I haven’t seen this done before. I thought that that was immensely smart on the game developer’s part. Honestly, I know that not everyone plays the events in app games. But by making the events canon, and not au, gamers will be more inclined to play the event games. And I also know that it’s crazy easy to get bored of games, especially if the main story ended or the gameplay/story line isn’t that interesting. But the beauty of app games is that they could constantly be updated; their stories could continue to be added to. And with A3!, the event story line dwells deeper in these character’s backstories. Remember what I said about me initially thinking that the story will only revolve around protagonist and rival character? With each troupe play event, the lead and support actor constantly change. Everyone straight up gets their time to shine and their character development continues. Along with their relationships with others within the company. As someone who’s already invested in these characters, there’s no way that I would miss these events! I’m determined to play all of them! And that’s why I really think that the game developers came up with a smart strategy to get their gamers hooked. 
My biggest regret is that I downloaded this game recently, so I missed the prior events. PLEASE, LIBER AND CYBRID, I WOULD PAY MONEY TO HAVE ACCESS TO THE PREVIOUS EVENT STORIES. I don’t need the gatcha cards pertaining to these events, I just really really want to read the previous event story lines. I am forever grateful to yaycupcake that I was able to read what I missed (and the future events), but it’s not the same as experiencing it myself. 
What’s also smart, is that you have to read the event story lines, or else you won’t be able to completely understand Main Story 2. There’s aspects of things in the event that Main Story 2 will touch  upon. So as a consumer, you really do want to participate in all the events. 
Let’s talk about Main Story 2. I somehow discovered that in Main Story 2, each troupe is going to get an additional member (the BRBrookies). And I didn’t know how I felt about that. I liked the dynamic that each troupe has now. Wouldn’t an additional member ruin that? And could I really get myself to like these four new characters? The joke’s on me because I severely underestimated the game writers. You would’ve thought that I would have more faith in them since they impressed me so much. But I was a fool. Main Story 2 is great, and it didn’t seem like anything was pulled out of nowhere because it was all hinted at either in Main Story 1 or during the event stories. And each rookie is a perfect fit for their troupe and each troupes’ bonds continue to grow stronger and I cry every time. I can’t wait for it to come to the EN server. 
Now I’m a talk about the music.
For a while, I was aware that in the otaku/weeb community, that there was an idol craze. But I never understood it’s appeal. This game is starting to make me understand, lol.
I may not have understood the idol craze, but I do like vocaloid. When I first listened to vocaloid, I thought that it was weird that I was listening to a computer program sing. But what really attracted me was the stories told in the songs (again, story lover here). As an example, I’m going to talk about Evillious Chronicles. The Evillious Chronicles told a story in each song that was all a part of a story, and it was also my introduction to vocaloid. Storytelling through songs was just genius to me, and I fell in love with it. Granted, I know that it’s not new to vocaloid, and that not every vocaloid song is part of a series or tell a story, but it was what drew me in.
So vocaloid may seem like a tangent here, but to me, the A3! music was kind of like vocaloid. I accidentally stumbled on it when I was actually searching for someone doing a gameplay video of the Alex in Wonderland event. I couldn’t find any, but instead I discovered Alice in Wonderland Go Go. I gave it a listen, and fell in love with the melody. The music fit the theme of Alice in Wonderland so well. And then I listened to Susume Pirates next. It fucking slapped. These two songs became my gateway to A3! songs. 
I’m a go on a bit of a tangent here, but I’m a talk about the voice actors for a bit. As someone who’s also pursuing voice acting, I always appreciate when voice actors go the extra mile for their fans. Despite the vastly polar opinions of Voltron Legendary Defender, I adore the voice actors for their contribution to the fandom. Especially Josh Keaton (Shiro’s VA). So imagine my surprise, that I discover that not only is the Main Story completely voiced in A3! (which is very impressive and high production for a f2p app game), but the voice actors sing too in these songs too!
The A3ders sing the theme song. But each troupe has their own song, and each song is so vastly different from each other because these songs reflect the dynamics of their specific troupe, and I love that. But not only are there troupe songs, each character has their own song! And once you read the main story of each character, their song just becomes so much deeper! I give mad props to the song writers for tailoring each song to fit the character. I’m not going to lie, I bawled while reading the Manju Fist event, and then when I listened to Taichi’s character song afterwards? My mom thought that someone died since I was crying so hard. And did it end there? No! There’s a song that’s fucking tailored after every play! And they’re all bops!
The amount of times that A3! has impressed me is just way too much to count. It’s a fucking amazing game, story wise and music wise. And the love that the developers have for A3! is just so evident, and I love that. It definitely deserves its five star rating, and deserves an even bigger fandom here in the west.
So there, that about wraps up my massive essay on my love for A3!. If you read this far, I tip off my hat to you. If you also want to talk about A3! hit me up! I need someone to fangirl with, lololol. 
15 notes · View notes
allthefilmsiveseenforfree · 5 years ago
Text
Sonic the Hedgehog
Tumblr media
I never played Super Mario Bros. until I was in college - we were a Sega household or we were nothing. While my friends were busy rescuing Princess Peach and throwing barrels as Donkey Kong (is that how that game works? I have no idea), I was zipping along collecting rings and fighting a mad...robot...doctor? Not really sure what Dr. Robotnik’s whole deal was, but the point is I was a Sonic girl through and through. In spite of feeling a little silly, that means I was genuinely excited about the movie adaptation, which is frankly ridiculous as video game movies couldn’t be less of a cursed movie genre. Even amongst horrifying character redesigns (why the TEETH??) I kept my optimism intact. 
I loved Sonic so much as a child that, as an adult 20 years later, I adopted a pet hedgehog named Hamish. Those of you who know me well have probably met Hamish or have seen his pictures on the internet in his annual Halloween costumes (tiny hats are key). He was most people’s first hedgehog friend in real life, and I delighted in learning as much about hedgehogs as I could so that I could teach people fun hedgehog facts. Despite normally living 1-3 years in the wild and 2-4 years in captivity, Hamish kept right on trucking, running miles and miles every night in his wheel and eating dried grubs out of my hand as a treat for almost 7 years. He got sick a couple weeks ago - stopped eating and drinking, and when I took him to the vet he got some meds and supplies for syringe feeding and it seemed like he might be able to recover. It had been a really stressful few days, and I was constantly worried about Hamish, so I wanted a little bit of escapism - a fun, probably forgettable family movie sounded perfect. And after I got back from seeing Sonic the Hedgehog, I gave Hamish his medicine and food and held him in my hand for the last time. He passed away that night while I was asleep. I’m not usually the type to ascribe significance to coincidences like that, but it felt like there was a reason I saw this movie on the day I did. Was my faith misplaced? Was this a mere trifle or a fitting tribute to Hamish’s memory? Well...
I think the things that I loved about the movie are many of the same things that I loved about Hamish - a playfulness, a sense of humor, and in spite of a silly-looking exterior, a beating heart full of affection and comfort. I was all primed for disappointment - I had high expectations, the studio went through that costly redesign, and I was already in a pretty emotionally tangled up place. Not the best circumstances going in, which makes it all the more impressive that Sonic is one of my favorite films I’ve seen this year by far. 
The basic plot is simple - Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) is an alien who had to leave his home planet in a hurry, and uses magical golden rings to travel portal-like to other planets where he will be safe from any enemies who want to harness his powers. So he’s been hanging on Earth for awhile, hiding out in a teeny town in Montana. Sonic is kinda obsessed with the town sheriff, Tom (James Marsden) and his wife Maddie (Tika Sumpter), who are a nice, normal, kind couple who love each other and their town - all Sonic wants is to be friends with them because he’s so lonely. One night, that loneliness manifests in a big way through his superspeed powers - enough to garner the attention of Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey, returning to the rubberfaced comedy that made him famous). In his efforts to escape Dr. Robotnik, two things happen: Tom discovers Sonic’s existence and subsequently makes Sonic lose his magical rings. So you know what that means - oddball buddy road trip movie time as they go on a quest to get the rings back!
Some thoughts:
Ben Schwartz is amazing in this role. It’s perfect casting, and a great voice performance as he injects so much joy and wonder into every moment. You really feel Sonic’s outsider status, his loneliness, his yearning, and his ceaseless joy at every new experience he has. 
There is a Very Good Dog in multiple scenes of the movie! He is doing the best job!!
Such a fantastic surprise to see Adam Pally in a supporting role as a deeply earnest and clueless deputy. 
And is there any more reliably affable actor than James Marsden? I have never NOT liked him in anything I’ve seen, and he seems like just a general good-natured stand-up guy. His chemistry with Sonic is really great, which is always impressive when you imagine him acting next to a tennis ball or otherwise strange CGI stand-in. 
One of my favorite things about the film is Tom and Maddie’s marriage. Even though Tom is one half of the madcap buddy duo that makes up the bulk of the film, Maddie is his equal partner. They are shown to genuinely like each other, and she is never depicted as the nag or the lame wife who is trying to stifle his adventures or act as the Voice of Reason who is demanding he come back for his safety. She supports this crazy ride because Sonic is in danger and she has a big heart and wants to help him too. I’m particularly glad they didn’t shove her into a subservient nonexistent wife role, or an Angry Black Woman role. I just think it’s so good for kids to see this married couple who are working together to help someone and who love AND like each other.
The biggest highlight is obviously seeing Jim Carrey return to his form as a sort of evil, power-hungry Ace Ventura. He’s over-the-top, his whole body is made of rubber, and he’s having the time of his life. Case in point - he has a dance sequence in the middle of the film that made me grin so hard my face hurt. He’s cartoonishly evil in the best way, and it works because Dr. Robotnik is one of those villains that wants to fuck shit up just cause. That’s difficult to buy into, but Carrey’s madcap performance and his absolute commitment to being the smartest person in any room and hating everyone else for it really makes it work.  
I was so delighted by how tight Patrick Casey and Josh Miller’s script is from start to finish. There’s an actual good reason Tom and Sonic are stuck together. Sonic loves watching action movies (from the bushes outside Tom’s house) so the movie is full of fun classic action movie homages and lines that keep things light and fun even in the midst of some peril. And there’s real emotional and physical stakes here as Sonic tries to find a friend and a place he can call home where he won’t have to worry about running from his enemies. 
Did I Cry? I teared up a little near the end at some very tender friend talk!
There are two extra scenes during the credits - don’t miss them, particularly if you are a fan of the whole Sonic mythos in general!
This movie is sweet, fun, genuinely funny, and just as quick as its namesake. I went into it just for a little escapism, and came out with a movie that will forever be tied to my memories of one of the best friends I’ve ever had. I think Hamish would be proud, Sonic, and I’m glad I got to have the time with both of you that I did. 
If you liked this review, please consider reblogging or subscribing to my Patreon! For as low as $1, you can access bonus content and movie reviews, or even request that I review any movie of your choice.
35 notes · View notes
haknew · 4 years ago
Note
hello!! just thought I'd stop by and say thank u for making content for us!! your little creations help make my day go by a little better :) also I thought I should ask whats your favorite thing about each tbz members if you dont mind? I'm in the mood to adore these boys more! 💞🥰
ahhhh i’m glad i’m able to brighten someone’s day with my content ! that’s all i could ask for ^~^ hmm i might end up writing an essay so here goes:
(also i might mention two things for some just bc 1 is more about them as a person in general and the second thing is about them as performers!)
sangyeon - for sangyeon, it might be a bit on the nose but i really think my favorite thing about him is his leadership, esp when oneus were collabing with tbz on rtk, he has really good people skills and knows how to talk through and guide conversations and group dynamics !
jacob - this is a bit,,, tough ,,, as a performer jacob is a good all-rounder, i absolutely adore his vocals and his dancing and i think he’s one of the strongest members in both categories... in general terms though, my favorite thing really is what everyone probably said too which is how kind, considerate, and angelic he is... i know he said he likes keeping his own problems to himself because he doesn’t want to burden anyone else with it, but then he goes around trying to take a little of everyone else’s problems to try and make them feel better,,, he really loves and cares about everyone around him;;; and he never really complains or take it out on anyone else and i just- ... yea i’m love he :((
younghoon - i think my favorite thing about younghoon is how unique (?) / eccentric he is,,, he tends to think very divergently / outside-of-the-box and considers stuff i never would have even dreamed of coming up with,,, and he’s just proud and unapologetic about it too ! he’s silly but bright and i think that’s the really cool thing about him :))
hyunjae - my fav thing about hyunjae is his tendency for acts of service ...? if that makes sense,,, he uses actions to express things just as much as his words ;;; like he did this vlive with haknyeon once where he adjusted the camera to include hak even tho it wasn’t intended to be a two person vlive anyway, or on chanhee’s bday vlive where he told off bbangkyu for blocking chanhee,,, it’s really just how much he tires his best to take care of others even when he’s jokingly teasing them despite it !
juyeon - my fav thing about juyeon is his ... what i’d call a perfect combination of self confidence and humbleness haha,,, he knows his strong points and he knows how to utilize them best and to his advantage but he never lets it inflate his ego bc that’s just how down-to-earth he is :,,))) you can kind of tell in the way the other members always prank him but he’s just so trusting of the people around him, he never shows off without immediately getting a bit shy after and i think that’s very admirable and wholesome of him :,)
kevin - HHHH okay let’s see... my favorite superficial thing about kevin is this one smile he has where,,, when someone says something he finds funny or he’s talking to fans and he smiles so wide it looks like his cheekies are about to burst from how happy he is and ..... yea ok i’m- going to say something serious now,,, this is also from his gen z interview video but i think the thing that i love the most about kevin is just how aware he is... of those around him,,, during mafia games for example, he’s always peace keeping and giving members the chance to defend themselves and he’s always trying his best to adjust his own behavior to fit in with what he thinks other people want ;;;; and i just,,, really adore him for that,,, i hope he can feel comfy and unapologetically himself too of course, and i think he is when he’s drawing and being artistically active and so i’m just *heart eyes* i guess *sigh* 
chanhee - hands down my favorite thing about chanhee as a performer is his voice... i talk about this a lot bc i was a choir kid for 4 years but, chanhee is a spectacular vocalist, and his voice is so distinctive too,,, falsetto king, he’s got this light airy / breathy timbre and it’s so beautiful to me ;;;; and his. adlibs!!!!! as a person... this is actually really difficult for me to put into words bc i just want to say my fav thing about chanhee is he’s tinie LOL but what i mean by that is,,, he’s got this,,, delicate sensitivity ? idk i feel like we’re similar in many ways which is probably my fav thing about him,,, he clings to the other members despite their teasing but he always tries his best to avoid embarrassing stuff and he’s introverted ... ok yea please give me one pass i cannot pick just one fav thing about chanhee i am a mess
changmin - hmm i think my favorite thing about changmin is just how genuine he is,,, i think he likes to just... talk ! about anything he wants which is why he goes on vlive so often, and i’ve noticed he is pretty straightforward and says stuff directly ! it’s not a bad thing i admire him a lot for it, actually, he really just talks with so much open honesty about how he feels and what he thinks that it’s almost second nature to him... i really love just listening to him talk about anything honestly his vlives are like having 3am conversations over the phone with your best friend... that kind of feeling 
haknyeon - THIS IS THE HARDEST T^T i love so many things about haknyeon... ok as a performer, my favorite thing about haknyeon is how adaptable he is and how he completely (?) absorbs a concept,,, like it doesn’t matter if it’s cute like keeper or darker like reveal,,, he fully embodies whatever concept it is almost to the point you would never guess how he is irl,,, i really think he’d make a great actor just bc his stage presence is so powerful and convincing and his facial expressions are killer... as a person,,, i think my favorite thing is something i’ve talked about before but he has this natural wonderment in his worldview... i think it’s his confidence like he talked about in the generation z video but he treats everything as something new he can learn from,,, he gets so so excited over the smallest things and is easily intrigued by anything and everything around him and he treats it all as a personal challenge, like if he tried hard enough he could do literally anything  (i compare him to a cat going outside of its house for the first time and getting to see a butterfly that kind of vibe ;;;;)
sunwoo - my favorite thing about sunwoo is how caring he is ? i’m not sure a lot of people catch it but despite his endless clowning and bullying of the other members, he’s also always one of the first members to praise them or shower them in compliments. he’s also so whipped for all of them T-T he (mostly) always laughs at any of their jokes, dumb as they may be, or agrees with whatever they’re saying, the teasing and shading is all a front almost :,)) it’s really cute of him
eric - my favorite thing about eric is his pure earnest enthusiasm for everything,,, i know all the tbz members work their hardest at everything they do as performers, but eric,,, he tries his hardest and then 54396 times more,,, i think it comes from him being the youngest member maybe, but he works so hard at anything and everything, may it be games or performing... he just acts as if he’s always trying to prove something, our energy eric T^T ! he never lets up even for a second and i adore him so much for that, goofball that he may be !
10 notes · View notes
queeniewritesce · 5 years ago
Text
Recommendations (1/2)
This was written for a @mrs-captain-evans 2,5K followers Writing Challenge. Congratulations on the milestone and here’s for 2,5K more!
I chose “Well, this is awkward…” as my prompt because as I was scrolling through the options the scene that particular scene just jumped at me.
Summary: Twitter is a strange place. But once in a while, you connect with someone.
Word count: 3,564
Warning: mild language, 35 seconds of angst, could be less if you read it fast.
Warning2: there will be a lot of Trump bashing at the beginning of this story. If you’re offended then maybe this isn’t a story you should read.
Author’s Note:  All rules regarding verified accounts and how they behave were taken from Twitter.com.
Tumblr media
It all started innocently enough.
Chris had opened Twitter to post a video of Dodger playing with his stuffed lion, knowing his dog was a fan favorite, when Trump decided to give his opinion on a National Geographic article about Global Warming.
GOD, he was a moron. A dumb, squinty-eyed, toupee wearing, orange moron. Chris seethed as he clicked on retweet with comment and called out the man he had the displeasure of calling President.
A few seconds later his notifications started to pop up. He switched tabs to Mentions and Replies where thousands of retweets with GIFs and other memes were pouring in before he filtered the tab so only verified accounts were shown. Mark retweeted his reply, Don wrote a snarky and an awesome comeback, Ellen Page tore the man a new one and an MIT professor he met during a flight home to Boston mentioned him and your account as prime examples of the generation who could make a change. He liked some favorites, retweeted a few others and was about to close the app when a new mention popped up, this time from your account, thanking your mentor and sharing a blurb about being cool because you were now linked to Captain America.
Curiosity got the best of him and Chris clicked on your handle. The header was a picture of Diagon Alley at the Warner Brother’s Harry Potter Tour in London and the picture to the side was of a woman dressed up as a Gryffindor student, wand, scarf and a pointed hat. He noticed you were also a verified account and your small bio read ‘Y/N, 30something.’, ‘You can be anything you aspire to be. I chose to be a nerd’ and ‘Director of Media Studies at MIT’.
That is an interesting combination, he thought while looking through your latest tweets. Chris immediately found your own retweet of the orange moron and he laughed when you called him a dweeb, deeming the man unworthy of being president of your dog’s agility class, much less president of your country. You also quoted him in a series of articles that could be found at the Congress Library website and citing other articles from different countries, asking him to please trade his Rich Richie comics for something an actual president needed to know ‘You know, like Obama’.
You had an incredibly sharp mind for a woman who spent her free time dressing up as a fictional character, he thought before shaking his head when he looked down at his costume. Yeah, better not judge.
Chris spent a good chunk of his downtime between takes that day going through your tweets. Every time his PA called him to block a new scene or to film a close-up, he would carefully lock the phone without closing the app so he wouldn’t have to scroll down again.
Later that day he was back on his trailer resting, they wouldn’t be going home that night till the first Thanos fight scene was over but he was now free of his Captain America clothes and could relax. He took a shower in the small trailer bathroom, put on a loose pair of boxers and picked up his phone again, opening the Twitter app, happy to see it was exactly where he left.
Chris was now looking at your tweets from two years ago. He scrolled down on some retweets, mostly articles about social media and its influence on people, thoughts about the latest Game of Thrones episode, a tweet about watching Captain America: The Winter Soldier again after the results of the presidential election and how it had changed your views of the movie and a trip to London to guest lecture on a seminar in Oxford, with a link to watch your lecture on Youtube.  You’re funny, witty, and after watching your lecture on Book to Movies Adaptions: Bridging the Gap in the Fourth Dimension, he realized he was enthralled not only by your pretty eyes and lush lips but also with your mind.
He saw pictures of your adopted one-eyed blue merle Cardigan Welsh Corgi aptly named Captain Hook which you confessed was rarely used because you liked to call him Hooker, calling his name out loud around Cambridge Square just to get a reaction out of people. He laughed long and hard imagining you walking up and down Tudor Street asking if anyone had seen a one-eyed Hooker prancing around.
He worried his bottom lip for a moment before closing the app and opening up Safari quickly founding what he was looking for on his saved links. A new window opened and Twitter.com was now on his screen but instead of the usual @chrisevans handle, the account belonged to @BostonBrains81.
The Patriots logo stared back at him from the top of the page and a random shot of the crowd in one of the home games stood over a simple bio: Boston. Beer. Patriots.
The account he used to interact with his friends back home, like their baby pictures, sign in to various sites and go even crazier over the Patriots than he normally would on his main.
He looked nervously around his trailer before he searched for your handle, clicking the follow button before he lost his courage.
You are now following @Y/H
Was he really going through with this? His index finger hovered over the reply button on your latest tweet, the one where he was also mentioned.
“Ok Chris, you can do this.”
BostonBrains81 @Y/H you’re a lot cooler than Captain America. Wicked answer to the resident Oompa-Loompa, but I gotta ask, you think he knows how to read?
There, he did it.
_
That had been the first of the many 280 characters conversations you had with each other.
At first, you wondered if he was just a creep that followed you because Professor Travis mentioned you and Chris Evans on the same post; you had gained almost a thousand followers because of that, but they quickly unfollowed you when you didn’t gush about Chris Evans or they realized you didn’t actually know the actor. Not @BostonBrains81 though, he stuck around, commenting on some old articles you shared, liking all the pictures of Hooker you posted and even replied to the one where you shared his name asking if calling out for a Hooker in Cambridge had you stopped for solicitation at any point. You laughed at his joke and decided to follow him back.
The guy, you assumed it was a guy, was incredibly intelligent, always had a smart comeback to your jokes and could make you laugh in less than 100 characters. You shared most of the same views, from politics to music and books, the only point of contention was football. He was probably the biggest Patriots fan you had ever met and you being originally from the west coast was a Seattle Seahawks fan. He told you he had a working buddy who was a huge Seahawks fan as well and they had watched the Superbowl together in Arizona a few years back.
He’d ask you for a new book recommendation every few weeks and confessed his line of work had him waiting around quite a bit. You believed he was a flight attendant because he more than once replied to you from different parts of the country. You wondered if you should let him know the location settings were turned on.
You quickly got into a routine of checking his page to see if he was online that day and a little over two months since you first ‘talked’, you moved on to Direct Messages and conversation become more serious. Thoughts on religion, the #MeToo movement, gay rights, all were candidly discussed and you now actively sought his opinions on some of the subjects you taught your classes.
For a flight attendant, the man had some strong opinions and knew how to keep a conversation going. You chastised yourself for your classism, just because he had a blue-collar job didn’t mean he couldn’t have a sophisticated mind.
Some people are incredibly well educated and never set foot inside a college corridor, you remembered Professor Travis lecturing an advanced Media class you sat as his aide. Take Captain America for an example, I met the young man who portrays the superhero during a recent flight from Atlanta to Boston and I was highly impressed. He could very well be a post-doctorate student here, but he chose to follow his own footsteps to Hollywood and I thank him for it. I quite enjoy the dichotomy he brings to his portrayal of Captain America and Steve Rogers during The Winter Soldier and Civil War. If you haven’t, please watch those movies as we’ll be discussing them in our next class.
Professor Travis had been your theses supervisor and was one of your closest friends, even though he was thirty years your senior. The man had one of the sharpest minds you knew and his classes on Comic Books and the Juxtaposition to Modern Politics was always full, with a waiting list that never got any smaller. You usually sat those classes as his aide and he called on you often to share your views on what the media contributed to the political storm brewing on the horizon and what comic books contributed to that. Captain America had become one of Travis favorite subjects as of late, the whole Hydra and Nazis making a comeback after the last presidential election.
The fact Chris Evans engaged in politics and wasn’t afraid to speak up his mind played a huge part in why you started following him after Professor Travis met the guy. Sure, the man was eye candy to your often-tired eyes but he had a lot to offer than just those huge biceps, that amazing tight ass, and that soft-looking facial hair. You got a kick of his self-deprecating humor and once or twice you had jointed down a few books he mentioned and truly enjoyed them.
It was a really nice coincidence @BostonBrains81 had read them as well.
By the end of summer you were feeling lonely and thinking of asking another professor out. You wanted a male opinion on the idea, preferably one not in the same circle of friends and your best online friend was just the person to ask.
Well, does he make you feel nervous?
No, why would he made me feel nervous? He’s a very nice guy.
See, if you’re not nervous around him that means he doesn’t make you feel anything. If you don’t feel anything for the guy, why waste your time? And a nice guy? God, that’s the worst thing a woman can say about a man. A nice guy is as bad as saying a girl is okay. Is she beautiful? Meh, she’s okay. Does he melt your insides? Meh, he’s a very nice guy.
Seems like you gave this a lot of thought.
I’ve had more girlfriends than… jobs. When I broke up with the last one, I decided to wait for the right woman instead of getting into another destined to fail relationship. There’s no shame in stepping back and deciding you’re worthy of more than just an okay girl.
Or a nice guy.
Exactly.
Being alone is not easy though. We jump from one relationship to the next because we’re already used to the normalcy of having that steady presence in our lives. It doesn’t matter if we know that person isn’t right for us or they might even be prejudicial for us in the long run. The relationship fills a void we don’t like, that feeling there’s something wrong with us because we can’t maintain a partner.
Who let you in my head when I wasn’t looking?
Sorry for getting too deep.
You’re absolutely right though.
Thanks for the talk, no dates with nice guys from now on.
Don’t go for the bad guys either.
Well, that considerably narrows the option pool. Who am I dating then?
How about me?
Good one funny boy.
What’s wrong with me?
Barring the fact that I don’t even know your real name and you could very well be catfishing me, not much.
Catfishing?
You know, trying to make me believe you’re someone you’re not.
.
You there?
Sorry. Yeah, I’m definitely not trying to make you believe I’m anyone but myself. Name’s Chris by the way.
Nice to meet you, Chris, I’m Y/N.
Your conversations with @BostonBrains81, better yet, Chris, were now a daily occurrence and included questions about your daily lives and personal family stuff, Chris had three siblings, the youngest had been adopted and you spent a whole afternoon discussing the effects of adoptions on both the family and the child, you commended his parents for going through the processes and he opened his heart about normalizing the girl when she first came to live with them but now she was his favorite sister and he couldn’t imagine life without Shanna in it. He told you about moving away from home at eighteen to pursue his dream job, you shared how difficult adapting to Boston was at first but how you couldn’t see yourself living anywhere else now. He confided in you his work had him burned out a little and how much he missed home. Since his location had been stationed in Atlanta for the past three weeks, you deduced he worked for Delta Airlines.
Hey, you there? Can we talk?
Sure, I’m just lounging, you good?
I’m still at work, everyone is being a dick today and I’m having a hard time coping, plus I’m tired and a little cranky.
I’m sorry. Coworkers can be a pain in the ass sometimes, no matter what the field. Have you tried the exercises you told me about?
Yes. More than once. They seem to work for a while but then I have to head back in and someone else decides it’s his turn to be a dick. And now the… execs are here and they want to change some of the stuff that’s already done so that means more work and more dick-headed people all around.
When it’s your turn?
Uh?
Well, since everyone is having a bad day, why can’t you lash out? Be a dick too?
It’s never my turn. Chris is always the good guy, Chris is never a diva.
You don’t need to be a diva to demand respect. Demand respect while being respectful, but put your foot down. The old you get more flies with honey. Do you need to be there?
I’m supposedly done for the day.
So go home, take a bath, sleep in clean sheets. I know how hard it is to turn off work, sometimes I stay in my office for hours after I’m my shift, but it’s not healthy. If they truly need you, they know where to find you.
They do yeah.
Go home, Chris. Pass on the shield.
What?
Like Captain America did in the comics. Let someone else do the job.
Oh. Okay, yeah, that makes sense.
I make a lot of sense when I’m drinking wine.
So your advice comes from your inebriated mind?
I’m hardly inebriated. It’s one glass of wine while reading a book in the bathtub. This is my me time.
I’m sorry for interrupting your naked me time. Thanks for the visual though, it’ll help me with my own time when I get home.
Go home, Chris. It’s the wine’s order.
You were now on a territory you swore you’d never slipped into; flirting with a stranger online. You tried to talk yourself out of it, tried to curb this insane idea manifesting inside your head and your heart, you were a scholar for goodness sake, you taught your students to never engage romantically online, therefore, you should know better.
You most certainly didn’t.
I’d like to take you out for coffee sometime, you could show me around MIT.
Maybe. When you get back from Atlanta, let me know.
How do you know I’m in Atlanta?
Your location setting is turned on.
Is it? Damn.
Yeah, I should have told you sooner. Working for Delta Airlines must nice though.
Yeah… I guess. Blue collar job though.
Don’t be like that, you should not be ashamed of what you do for a living. If it makes you happy, it’s all that matters.
You’re right, I’m pretty happy doing what I do. So, coffee?
Sure. I usually get my caffeine fix from ‘Bean there, Doughnut That’ over at Arrow St. It’s always full of students.
Smart girl, going for a place where you can find a friendly face if we don’t get along.
That, and you could be a serial killer, I need witnesses to remember your face. It’s not like I *really* know you.
I look forward to changing that. I’ll be home after Columbus Day. Could we meet then?
Yes, sure. I want to finally put a face to the man I’ve talking for the past four months. It’s a date.
A date uh? I like that. I like that very much. I hope you like my face when you see it, I kinda have an ugly mug.
I’m sure your face is fine. Besides, I already like your personality and that’s the part I always have trouble with.
Checking Twitter had become your new guilty pleasure and you’d close the app with a frown if Chris didn’t post anything every few days, exactly what was happening right now.
He had been offline for a whole week and you missed your usual banter, his witty sense of humor and how he took to calling you Professor Hottie. The Patriots lost the second game of the season and you wanted to gloat a little but most of all you just wanted to know if he was okay.
Biting your lip, you clicked on the direct message button.
Been a while since you’ve been online, did you get lost on the way back from Boston Market?
I see that you turned off your location sharing. Was I being too stalkerish?
I guess you’re busy or maybe you just don’t want to talk to me. I’ll leave you be.
Had you come on too strong? Did you sounded desperate and scared him off? You read your past conversations and nothing sounded too eager on your part, maybe he just wasn’t interested anymore.
Well, that was that.
You sighed and refreshed your home page one last time, checking your latest tweets and was surprised to see a new Tweet from Chris Evans, another Chris who had been MIA lately.
ChrisEvans Officially wrapped on Avengers 4. It was an emotional day, to say the least. Playing this role over the last 8 years has been an honor. To everyone in front of the camera, behind the camera, and in the audience, thank you for the memories! Eternally grateful.
Interacting with celebrities were never really your thing but you would miss Captain America, you were sure they would have to kill him if Evans would not play the iconic soldier anymore, so you took a chance and clicked on reply.
Y/H @chrisevans thanks for making Cap cool again, you made him justice and gave the tired soldier a new and improved multifaceted personality. We’re gonna miss him.
Satisfied with your chosen words you smiled as you hit send. You got a few likes notification right away, some of your students and MIT faculty retweeted your post, Professor Travis included.
ChrisEvans @y/h thank you. Having people like you and @TravisMIT giving Cap your stamp of approval certainly makes me think I did a good job.
Wide eyes blinked back to the screen when you read his response. He not only thanked you but for some reason he held your opinion to a higher standard? How was that possible?
Your mentions exploded with people asking you similar questions and you had to switch to verified account only to stop the barrage of notifications for new tweets coming through.
Your phone beeped with a new direct message and a small glimpse of hope that your Chris was back made you forget about Evans.
Hey, sorry for the disappearance act, work has been crazy lately. You’re definitely not stalkerish, that title actually belongs to yours truly but I’ll tell you more over coffee. Don’t ever think I don’t want to talk to you, our conversations are the highlight of my days. I missed you a lot these past ten days.
You cocked your head side to side while reading the message, twice, three times, trying to understand exactly what was going on. You should be happy, it was exactly what you wanted to read after being ghosted for over a week.
There was only one problem. The DM did not come from @BostonBrains81. It came from @ChrisEvans.
You hovered your mouse over the reply button but your brain was short-circuiting. You started and deleted dozens of replies, none of them conveying what you were feeling well enough. Deceived. Betrayed.
New direct messages appeared one after the other.
               Well, this is awkward…
               I can explain.
               Please talk to me.
               Look, I was stupid for not telling you sooner but doesn’t change how I feel about you. Can we talk? Please?
You’re now blocking @ChrisEvans.
You’re now blocking @BostonBrains81
63 notes · View notes