#She has gotten shafted so many times by the narrative

[thanidiel]

Simulacrum

The body has a problem with realising when things have really changed.

It’s simply not made with that sort of paranoia, hypervigilance, in its nerves. It is an effort, an education, to have the sort of perceptual sensitivity that Xiaohu is so infamously known for amongst her fellows. Or maybe more than that; some days she thought of it like a rewiring. Like those before had pulled her squirming channels from her and threaded something more cool, mercurial/reactive, into her.

With more forgiving suns, moments of revelation like this debunked that conspiracy. Brought her feet just a little closer to the soil.

It is not common to be so placidly adaptive - to forget the onset of newness until a coincidental look over shoulder reminds her that there used to be yellow earth where a sea lay; blood where a smile forms.

It is something very innocuous in someone who is more ambiguous than that.

And it is something that only strikes her when she is engulfed in it, this, them, us.

This is calm.

This is calm. Not calm as in, quiet. Nor calm as in, there is no reason to be otherwise. Not the kind of calm she feels in most other moments, people, where the dearth in her is like an impossible weight. This is calm like, she is only existing and nothing more intensive than that.

What a rare, delightful, circumstance.

Could she say she has felt this same lax note outside of this?

Not really.

Not with other people.

And it doesn’t feel this same sort of pretty when it’s just herself.

It feels inaccurate to attempt to say that she’s gotten close. She’s never gotten this close, not under this name, this life, with those others. Nor the skin previously worn. Calm as in, steady and accepting, is not the same as calm as in, comfortable.

Avenai’s always been her respite from it all - that sanctuary to slam the door shut on, to barricade with her shoulders riding against wood, and to breathe within. Always, always, and always. Ever since the start, before anyone else, after anyone else. No one could even move to deny that bond between them, to overwrite it. To say that she loves Avenai is too shared of Xiaohu’s feelings with others. It feels better to label it as she is connected with the stark woman.

Torithas, well, Torithas was a bit more new to this, them, us. But not unappreciated and never unwelcomed. He is his own sort of safety. Not a room, nothing so bleached (and thus so uniquely Avenai), but an oak. A gnarled thing bigger than a person will ever be, everlasting and enduring. A metal shorn-and-scarred thing that simply crept its wood over attempts to shape it. Someone she could always shelter under and speak to, and observe the fashion in which his very grain hears.

That is calm.

Calm as in, comfortable.

This, them, us.

They crowd her currently, atop of this bed meant to be grandiose to Eastern travelers, and thus entirely too small to contain the two Garleans. Nevermind adding herself to the mix, nevermind the meals taking up the scant space not occupied by form, and nevermind how they all have made reverent room for the little booklet centered here.

This, them, us.

“...everything is a story, like I was telling Torithas. The doublespeak in how we speak - allusions to previous literatures, people. But then it goes deeper than that. The language, itself, is structured like a story. It requires a sort of interpretation that is not there in the same way as Eorzean or what was spoken in Ilsabard.”

"It is the knowing of calculus before physics and architecture. Without the formative context, the varying levels beyond are without concrete source and explanation...  or, the way statesmen utilize history and understanding of the propagated narrative to cajole concessions. The methodology goes deeper, the way you describe—— as though the self referentialism comes down to the very syllables and rhymes in the words, which I do not believe is shared in other languages, for the most part."

IT IS NOT. ABSTRACT. Decisive motions of his broad hands communicating thoughts as lengthy as their own in such few ‘words’: this commentary on the unfamiliar poetic fashion of language that Xiaohu has been introducing to the man more and more. Its keen contrast when held up to the concrete, uninterpretable, and demanding language insisted to the two militant individuals here. Strange, this idea of communicating through ideas as ‘optional’ as these stories.

“‘Bingo’,” the foreign slang rolls from her tongue as she presses her fingers delicately against a column of characters. “We’re starting with proverbs, tastes of wisdom, because I think it’s the easiest way to get an idea of how this all pulls together. Let’s look at this one for example:”

自

“This is the character for ‘self’ from ‘eye’. Look at it side-ways, and you see that eye. The sclera flanking top and bottom, and the iris in the middle. Then you see this dot right here, yes? That’s a finger, it’s pointing at the eye, the individual, like you’re pointing at yourself.”

知

“‘Arrow’, see how you can see the head, then the shaft, then the fletchings in this context. And ‘mouth’ because it’s open like one does. This is what makes a word for ‘knowledge.’ Knowledge is swift and sharp, like an arrow, and it comes from you speaking; your mouth.”

之

“You see that dot again from ‘self?’ It shows up here again because you’re pointing again, but with a different context. Those strokes below are a foot. You are pointing at a moving person; thus you are speaking of someone outside of you. This is a character you use for others.”

明

“‘Bright’, the first character is ‘sun,’ the second is ‘moon.’ Sources of the world’s light. Following?”

“Yes.” YES.

“Put it all together without looking at it as a story, without being artful about it, and you get gibberish - self knowledge other bright. It sounds wonderfully unbright, it’s a crime, really, to read it this way. But if you read it more delightfully, with more spirit and more willingness to have fun with it, you get something much more meaningful. Let’s look back at this character again,”

之

“This is a proverb that deals with the self as we’ve established, right? So now this character is no longer as literal as it is when you force it to stand by itself. It’s as abstract as the pictogram that forms it. This is no longer ‘other’ but an extension of the self. You are looking at yourself as you would look upon others. You are examining yourself objectively, this is what this means now.”

Her fingers drags back down to 明.

“And this is not literal in this context either. Now we source the context that we are speaking of something to do with knowledge. Now it means bright as in, wise; intuitive; comprehending; understanding.”

自 知 之 明

“‘Know oneself’, this phrase says, in a nutshell. Wisdom comes from being able to look at yourself objectively; judge yourself accurately; these are just a few ways, out of many permutations of the common tongue, we could understand the phrase, right?”

"A calculation that has many answers, variable by..." she watches Avenai pause, lips pursing, "...context. It seems... an artistic method of communication, rather than concrete." Another gap of her words, and then a raise of her mismatched eyes above. "It suits."

SUITS repeats after the engineer; agreement, simple as that. MANAGEABLE CONFUSION, he’ll figure it out as they go, simply. That comparison of ‘muscle memory’, training, given to him earlier is still prominent in his approach to many new bewildering concepts introduced.

Then she watches him concentrate, thoughtful and deliberate as always, then demonstrate his feelings about the lesson entirely. Something not missed by the other, who follows up right on his heels, committing that signing to her mind in snapping gesture.

This.

ENJOY TeEnAjCoHyteach.

Them.

Her smile is more closed than Avenai’s, but no less in its magnitude. It is only more wryly applied, more observational than simply pleasant. This view of their quirks tumbling together, this exchange of their feelings. She feels more good, more calm— calm as in, comfortable— than she has before. And she’s felt this way since they’ve started this vacation of their’s, since they have shared this much time with one another.

Us.

“Now, here’s how you actually say...”

@stormandozone @trained-trainwreck

[ravenfirelair]

Long review of my thoughts on wizards. *spoilers*

so yeah, I finally finished the final series in the tales of arcadia series: wizards and oh boy, was it a lot to take in. while overall it was good, but there some problems here and there. first, for the most part it did feel rushed, I really feels like content that could have been made for 2 seasons was squashed down into one. Why they even didn’t bother with a second season is beyond me. At times there was so much going on it was hard to keep up with it all. I did like douxie as the main character, I’m glad this series focused more on him to flesh out his character more. 

With morgana it feels like she switches sides to drastically too much, she goes from magic is good, we must protect all magical creatures to destroy all humans to I need to save my brother king arthur too much. Plus it was weird that when the arcane order pulled her out of the shadow realm she didn’t want to fight anymore and just wanted to be at peace. You would think she would be more hellbent on revenge after the ending of trollhunters. As for steve, at first I was excited to see him in the poster to see what he does in the show, and I honesty a was a bit disappointed, he doesn't do that much at all besides get in the way and be annoying and he is just kind of there without serving much of a purpose. Usually his annoyingness was toned down in trollhunters and 3 below, but in wizards it was upped to 100 percent and it gets really cringe worthy at points. In all honesty I would of liked it better if toby was the one that fell through into the time travel portal with douxie and the others, it would of served better narrative to the story to have the original trio back together and toby would have been a less useless character. Plus I feel toby and jim’s relationship has gotten servery sidelined since claire came more into the picture.

I liked the idea of hex tech, a secret society of wizards secretly working as tech repair people, i wished that idea was explored more in the series and to know exactly how many people are secretly wizards in arcadia. I liked this series portrayal of the lady of the lake, certainly different from what you would expect. I really liked the dragon character as well, I hope to see more of him in the movie. I was kind of disappointed only one 3 below character showed up in this and was not involved more in the story and it was not the big crossover we were hoping would happen in the series, but then again there is the movie going out, so maybe the big crossover is saved for then. And yeah, that means no tronos in this, which is disappointing, but not surprising, but a lot of other people’s favorites characters only got small cameos or didn’t show up at all. so I feel like I was not the only who got shafted, but then again like I said, movie coming on the way so maybe all the characters we missed in wizards will show up there. I think the show was certainly bold to kill off both king arthur and merlin in the short time frame of the series. Killing off mostly important characters seems to be a theme in this series.  I did like how the show gave a little bit backstory on Arrrgh and blinky, how arrrgh became good and became friends with blinky, that was nice.

This series had me really conflicted on merlin, he is still very much an ass throughout the series, but this series did show some really good moments of him too, like how he really cares for douxie and wants him to succeed at being a powerful wizard and in the end was willing to sacrifice his life for his apprentice.  And that merlin and douxie did have a good relationship, even if merlin was a strict grumpy old cunt sometimes. I know it doesn't excuse him for the horrible shit he did to jim and the bad decisions he has made, but still it did show that merlin did had a heart. Another thing I’m really conflicted about is jim turning back into a normal human at the end, on one hand yes, I’m glad jim can finally go back to his normal life, but on the other hand it made the tough decision merlin placed on him seem to have less impact and all the stuff merlin said about the change being permanent kind of meaningless. And yeah, I felt the magical tear from claire was kind of cliché. But then again it’s a kids show and most kid shows can’t get away with sad endings. Overall, I thought the series was pretty good, didn’t really reach all my expectations, but I thought it did good enough job to further wrap up the story.

I did feel the ending of the series left a lot of unanswered questions, like who are this arcane order and what to they want? I want to know more about the genesis seals and how they are used to destroy the world? How does jim and the others continue that fight without the amulet? Without the amulet, does that mean there will be no more trollhunters? Why couldn’t jim pull Excalibur out of the stone? Did the other trolls ever reach their new home in new jersey? Will the rest of the characters really show up in the final movie? Hopefully all these questions will get answered in the final movie coming out.

[calliecat93]

Seriously though, the thing that annoyed me most about the Kelvin Timeline films is how is really did not understand Kirk, McCoy, or the Triumvirate dynamic. I don’t want to rant on the AOS films too much, they’re perfectly fine movies and being a newbie fan maybe I just don’t have the understanding of things tat I thought. But after spending two months watching all of TOS and loving it so much because of that dynamic... it just irks me. I know that reboots have to do things differently. Things have to change or you get an urban copy with no identity for value on it’s own. But at the same time, you have to understand that original property and put in the time and effort to make it work. Reboots like Ducktales 2017 worked because that effort was make. Reboots like The Powerpuff Girls 2016 failed because no effort was made at all. The AOS films made an effort, don’t get me wrong. But aside form Beyond, it just feel like they either didn’t understand how The Triumvirate and their respecitve dynamics worked and hwy it was so essential (and even then Beyond ain’t perfect int hat area) or decided that it was better to stick to pop culture interpretations despite those almost ALWAYS being exaggerations.

Kirk is a risk-taker and could be reckless and arrogant at times. But he was also perfectly level-headed and responsible as well, and no him being younger (if anything TOS said he was kind of a serious, overly studious person int he Academy so shouldn’t his arc be int he opposite direction?) or this being an alternate timeline (with the films doing NOTHING to explain/justify the changes the event that triggered it made) is NOT a valid excuse. This was the film going by the pop culture interpretaiton of Kirk. A reckless, arrogant, rebellious, womanizing idiot who has a heroic soul, but is a pain int he ass. Which sure it’s fun to joke about, but that is a shallow reaidg of James T Kirk. He was brave, responsible, charming, and VERY dedicated to his duty. Sure he’d go against Starflee’s orders sometimes, but he knew when to judge whenw as the time, hece hwy he needs Spock AND McCoy with him. He needs the logical half (Spock) and the emotional half (McCoy) to find the balance. To make the right choice. Sometimes it may be best to be logical. other times it’s best to be emotional. Sometimes it’s a combo of the two. But Kirk had the ability to take those options and make the right choice and f he makes the wrong one, find a way to make it right. Sometimes it meant going against Starfleet’s orders, sometimes he abided by it. Sometimes he could be rational, other times his emotions or circumstances got the better of him. But regardless, this was a man who proved over and over why he is a Starfleet Captain and one of the best. AOS Kirk got there eventually, but... let’s just say that he never should have gotten that captain chair in 2009.

McCoy has always pretty much ben given the shaft compared to Kirk and Spock since the former is the main character and the latter is the breakout character. Event he TOS movies are guilty fo sidelining him, though at least those tried to keep him involved. TOS is guilty of it too, but they also put a lot into his character even if not everything made it onto the screen. My point is... what is McCoy’s role aside from Chief Medical Officer? He is the one who gets Jim to took at the emotional/human aspect of situations. He is the who challenges Spock and his repressed emotions. If Spock is concerned about the needs of the many, McCoy is the one concerned with the few or the one left behind. He’s a doctor. A psychologist. A caretaker. It’s his JOB to look after the well-being of everyone especially Kirk physically, mentally, and emotionally. Essentially, he is the opposite of Spock. Spock is the logical one. The big picture person. The one whose roll is to keep Kirk on task and remind him of what’s truly at stake depending on their success or failure. He’s not emotionless, but logic will be what he leans towards first unless certain circumstances forces him otherwise. They are the opposite ends of the spectrum. Because AOS made Kirk the opposite end of the spectrum compared to Spock, McCoy loses his roll nor does he take up being the balance between the two ends. Essentially Kirk and Spock have to sort it out on their own, which... well if you read my watchthrough post you know I didn’t care for how it was done. McCoy’s part was sorely missing. He was just...t here. he filled the sarcastic best friend spot well, don’t get me wrong and he DID feel like McCoy because Karl Urban is a great actor who cared about what he was doing. But the narrative clearly didn’t feel the same way.

Here’s what I think, and again as a newbie fan maybe I just don’t have the proper understanding. I apologize for that. But TOS was at it’ best, imo, when these three were together. They were great on their own. Their respective broken up dynamics (Kirk and Spock, Spock and McCoy, McCoy and Kirk) were all also great. But went they were together? Even during the show’s lowest points, they were at their best. heck Final Frontier, while NOT a good movie, was enjoyable because of these three being together and doing their thing. Sure TOS might not gave given McCoy the attention he deserved and maybe Kirk and Spock hogged too much of the attention due to their main character (and Shatner’s ego) and being the most popular character respectively which affected EVERYONE else, not just Bones. But you can tell when the writers realized what they had with The Triumvirate, and they took advantage of that. I can only speak for myself but while I was liking ST TOS alright, it was near the end of S1 when they began focusing more on these three with the finale seeming to be when it truly clicked into place that I went from liking it to becoming a fan. Because the dynamic was just that good.

AOS just... didn’t seem to get it. Beyond did, but even then they spend most of the movie part so it can’t really shine fully. Now they are films. They get two hours a piece at most. TOS had an hour runtime, but got over 20 episodes a season and six films. It had PLENTY of hours to form and showcase the respective characters, relationship dynamics, and the three together. But tbf again, the films were made when TOS was about 40 years old. But they ultimately decided to go how they did, and it just... missed the mark. Kirk wasn’t Kirk and given McCoy’s most emotional traits without his common sense. McCoy lost hi importance and relegated to side character. Spock... honestly he got it the best of the three, through given a LOT more unnecessary angst when his TOS story already gave him everything he needed to be sympathetic and relatable. Seriously, Amanda dying still pisses me off especially HOW she died. But he at least maintained his role and played it mostly well. The dynamic that made TOS so great was broken, and I highly doubt that was the big change that was supposed to signal how this timeline is broken. Which, sorry to say this, but it is just an easy excuse for whatever changes are made without having to put the work in to justify it. Which when it comes to reboot, is one of my biggest issues.

Again, I don’t mean to bash the AOS films. I don’t hate them. I liked watching them. It took a bit but the characters did grow on me. Whether it continues or not, there is potential in it and I can see fanon getting very creative with it especially because there’s so much that allows so much creative freedom. Plus they DID bring this era of Star Trek back to popular conscious, hence why Spock has likely been brought back in Discovery and soon Strange New Worlds. But I just feel so... annoyed by it because it took the thing I loved most about TOS, and cowered away from it. I was so excited to see these three together again after being so sad when I finished TOS, and it just... wasn’t there. I expected it to be different, not essentially non-existent. But ah well, guess I have fanon at least. I can only hope that if this reboot continues or a new one emerges, they will do better there. Because I want to see them again and it’s okay fi they’re different form TOS. I just want those differences to come with the understanding and respect of what came before. And AOS, at least int his area, did not until it was arguably too late. It’s not even close tot he worst reboot I’ve ever seen though and like I said, Beyond showed signs of hope. But only time will tell if they lead to anything.

[space-malex]

So happy that bitch was fired! She treated Alex like shit and was always jealous of his popularity over her protégé Vlamis🙄

I’m going to be totally fair and say that I feel like Alex got a good arc overall in both season one and season two. Probably the best on the whole show if I’m being honest. That being said, I think a big reason for that (at least in s2) is because he was immensely popular and there was probably at least some pressure from the CW due to the fandom’s love for him. Yes, Alex definitely gets the tragic gay treatment at times, but he has also gotten a lot of development and hasn’t been totally shafted the way that Maria or Kyle has. I do not by any means think that Carina hated any of her characters, but I do think there might of been a little bit of resentment toward anyone who wasn’t Guerin because she had her favorite character and favorite actor and expected the audience to follow suit and they did not. I think she was of the opinion that her constant promoting of Vlamis/Michael would sway the audience into loving him the most, and although many do, he isn’t far and away the favorite. Especially when you take the general audience’s feeling into perspective. I feel like Liz and Max are just as popular as Michael and Alex are. All the characters have their fans. In the fandom, I do think Alex is the most popular, but among the GA, I think Liz, Max, Alex, and Michael are all pretty equal. But Maria, Kyle, Isobel, Rosa, and Jenna have plenty of fans too. I think the resentment toward Alex specifically comes from the fact that the narrative in many ways painted Michael much more sympathetically than it did Alex, especially in season one and the beginning of season two. And not just with Alex. This happened overall with Michael in the narrative. He was always on “the right side” narratively, even when what he said or did was wrong. Unfortunately, that kind of treatment ended up sort of backfiring and a lot of people felt a lot more sympathy toward Alex than they did him, especially after what happened at the end of season one. And then in season two, even though the love between Michael and Alex was obvious, there were many times that Michael acted like a different person and wasn’t exactly nice to Alex. I think that pissed a lot of the audience off further. And I do think that it personally bothered Carina that people didn’t automatically take Michael’s side, no matter how much of a “sad boi” she made him. It was just the most obvious with Alex because that’s the most significant relationship Michael has on the show. Even when you had a couple of characters like Isobel and Alex and Maria call Michael out on some of his self-destructive behaviors, it was still done in a way that was supposed to make the audience feel badly for him instead of agree with what was being said. 

[phantoms-lair]

❧ ❧ ❧

Three huh, hooboy

~~

Ritsuko wasn’t sure what she was expecting from the third child, no one was since Gendo had lost him, but the smile boy wearing an honest to god black cloak and ornate rings wasn’t it.

“So you’re telling me I was asked to come here in order to pilot a giant robot to fight that giant angel thing?” Shinji asked. “You can’t be serious!” Misato protested. “He’s had no training.” “AWESOME! And they said coming here was a bad idea! It’s even my color. Load me up!”  Misato resisted the urge to facepalm. Where was this fearlessness on the way in?

A1 Clips attached Shinji was brought in the entry plug and the LCL started filling in. “Should I be concerned?” Shinji asked, still remarkably calm for the situation.

“The liquid is breathable, you were oxygenated this way for nine months after all.”  Ritsuko explained calmly.

“Not what I was worried about- oh hey, this stuff tastes great!” Many of the the bridge workers, who’d grown to tolerate the smell of LCL looked at Unit 01 in confusion and a little disgust.

Gendo’s Kid Ritsuko reminded herself. “Unit 01 Launch.”

“Sure he climbs into the giant robot, but not my car.” Misato grumbled. “Okay Shinji, I need you to focus on walking.” The mecha took one tentative step. Then another. Shinji giggled and the robot began to bounce on it’s toes, before slipping and landing on it’s behind.

“Shinji are you okay?” He didn’t seem damaged from the feed, but the life sign readers were malfunctioning and not telling Ritsuko anything. “All okay-dokey.” Shinji said in a sing-song voice before straightening himself out. “Oh look, there’s the Angel. LET’S WRASSLE!” “Ritusko what the hell is going on?” Misato asked as Shinji attempted to suplex the Third Angel. “He wasn’t acting anything like this before.” “It just a hunch, since we don’t have enough data and the readouts aren’t calibrated properly to him,” which sounded better than saying they weren’t working, “But I believe he’s having a unique reaction to the LCL which is putting him in a hyperoxygenated state which-.” She sighed, realizing she had to simplify. “He’s getting high off the LCL.”

“That can happen?” Misato asked, aghast.

“There’s no evidence of it happening before, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. He’s been getting progressively more twitchy the longer he’s in there.” She gestured to the plug feed where Shinji was drumming his fingers on the controls, tapping his feet, and grinning like a loon.

“Oh God, we have to pull him out.” MIsato had paled considerably. She didn’t even want to think about the damage that could be done in this state. “Shinji you need to-” “DEATHTRON HAMMER!” Shinji charged at the Third Angel shoulder first. The AT Fields clashed, creating a red aura around Shinji as he broke through and began pummeling the Third Angel before suddenly retreating and climbing on top of the deployment shaft.  “And now the grand finale. Passed down through the Valentine Family, ARTEM BUSTER!” Cackling he leapt off the shaft and landed elbow first, right on the Third Angel’s core. The resultant explosion blew him off, causing him to ragdoll through the air, before landing in one of the mountains.

“We got lucky,” Misato said grimly. 

~

Section 2 seemed all to happy to shove the boy at Ritsuko. He was still under the effects of the LCL and was talking a mile a minute, occasionally going into a fighting pose and punching the air a few times as if to make a point.

Ritsuko pinched the bridge of her nose. As Misato said, they’d gotten lucky he’d defeated the Angel in this state. He clearly wouldn’t be able to pilot until they could counter whatever he was reacting to in the LCL. “Shinji, we need to give you an exam since the senors in the EVA were malfunctioning and not picking up anything.” Shinji paused in his reenactment of his fight. “You mean like beating and heartbeat and stuff?” He went back to his play fighting the air.

“That’s correct.” Ritsuko felt a headache coming on. “Your sensors are probably fine.” Shinji tried to do a spin kick and failing. “I just don’t have any.”

“You don’t have any life signs?”  “Nope.” Shinji gave them a big grin, with canine teeth that were a little too long and sharp. “I’m a vampire.”

The two college roommates looked at each other. “Shinji, vampires aren’t real.” Misato started to explain.

In response Shinji turned into a purple hued bat and began an erratic flight in circles, cackling all the way, not knowing how many plans just went up in smoke.

~~~~

Shinji raised by someone else is a common enough trope in fanfiction. I at one point thought of trying my hand at it and went with the Valentine Vampires from Shadow Hearts. It never got past the planning stage, but damned if this wasn’t going to be a fun Shinji

(Note: Shinji ‘died’ in a car crash before being brought back as a vampire by Hilda, so he’s terrified of being in cars)

(More under cut)

~~ “Later, I need to talk to you. About The Case.” There had been a time when 'The Case' had been the drunk driver that hit his wife. Now it was the dark cloud that had hung over Inaba for nearly a year.

Yuu froze. “Is something wrong?”

“No I just – I just need a little more information,” Dojima decided. A hell of a lot more was more truthful.

Yuu nodded. “After Nanako goes to bed, I'll tell you anything you want to know.”The emphasis on the word 'want' puzzled Dojima. As they sat down Nanako reach for the remote and flicked on the TV. Dojima felt a slight chill down his spine, knowing that his daughter had once gone through a similar screen.

Then it hit him. The reason for Yuu's odd manner of speech was to give Dojima an out on some things he might be disturbed by. What little Dojima knew about the occurrences was frightening and mind blowing. Yuu was giving him a way out, trying to protect him from having his world blown apart even further.

Stupid kid, always trying to protect everyone around him. It was moments like this that Dojima would never admit to. Watching his nephew shine in sports and academia was something for any family member to be proud of. But it was watching how he cared and looked out for people, how he protected everyone he came across with the same ferocity that Dojima himself had, that made him wish Yuu had been his son, not his sister's.

Still, Yuu could protect his friends, Nanako, and any other passerby he met, but trying to protect his uncle was taking it too far.

The evening seemed to crawl by at a snail's pace. It seemed a small eternity before Dojima finally finished reading his daughter a bedtime story and turned out her lights.

Yuu was waiting for him in his room, two cups of tea steaming on his table. Dojima tried to start the conversation, but his nephew cut him off. “Ten minutes”

“What?”

“It normally takes Nanako about ten minutes to fall asleep. I don't want her listening in on this conversation.” And thus began the longest ten minutes in Dojima's life. 

Finally Yuu put down his tea and looked Dojima in the eye. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything.” It's more than just the details of the murders. It what his nephew has been through this past year and why on Earth he didn't tell anyone. He did muttered Dojima's subconscious. Twice

“This is your last chance to back out,” Yuu warned. Receiving no reply, he sighed. “It began the day after Yamano's body was found. Yosuke was treating me to a meal as a welcome to town and Chie came along. We met Saki-sempai...” Yuu stopped and shook his head. He hadn't known and there was nothing he could have done at that point. “As we parted, Chie told us about this Urban Myth, the Midnight Channel. That if you looked into a turned off TV at midnight on a rainy evening, you'll see your soulmate.” 

Dojima raised an eyebrow. 

“Don't give me that look. I know how childish it sounds, but I had already seen Chie play the Nutcracker Suite on Yosuke with very little provocation, and besides, what could it hurt? It wasn't like anything would actually happen.” Yuu chuckled self deprecatingly.  “As the clock struck midnight, I looked out the window. Three streetlamps glowed; red, yellow, and blue. The rain was light, but you could still hear the patter on the roof and pavement.”

Dojima felt a chill run up his spine in a way that he hadn't since he was a small child. The faraway look in his nephew's eyes told him he wasn't just telling the story, he was narrating it as he relived the events in his mind.“When I first heard static coming from the television, I thought it was my imagination. I turned around to see the television, that has been off a second ago, was on. I saw flashes of a girl, running from something in fear. The images only lasted a few seconds, then faded to nothing, leaving only the slight glow of a TV that should have been turned off. That's when I heard the voice.”

“I'm still not sure what it was, Izanagi perhaps,-” Yuu continued, ignoring the question his uncle was about to ask, or perhaps too far gone in the memory to realize Dojima had been about to interrupt. “-it's voice seemed to cleave my body in two. I thought my head would explode from the pain. It's word echoed through me: 'I am Thou and Thou art I. Thou art the one who opens the door'.And then – silence.” 

Tension left Yuu's frame. “The only sound came from rain, the only light from the streetlamps. I wasn't even sure if what had just happened was real or not.” Yuu turned from his uncle, towards the TV. “I don't know what I was thinking. At that point, I'm not even sure I was. I just reached out...” Following his narrative, Yuu stretched his right hand out, his fingertip barely touching the screen.

Dojima felt his heart leap into his throat as a ripple pattern flowed across the screen from the contact. Yuu had yanked his hand back, the tentatively reached out again. This time he didn't pull back, pushing his am into the screen nearly up to his shoulder.

Yuu looked at him calmly, completely unphased by how impossible what he was doing was. “This is how it started Uncle. If I hadn't stayed up that night, perhaps I never would have gotten involved.” He pulled his hand back out. “The voice in my head, the images that showed on the Midnight channel, the power that lets me pass through the door, all were important to solving the case.”

“You have a lot of unused vacation time. It's time to call it in. I knew eventually you'd want to know the whole story and we'd discussed how to explain. We decided the best way was to walk you down our path, to reenact the major moments of the case. Tomorrow we'll head to the one place that was the key to our investigation. I'll continue the story there, where we first got involved.” Yuu's expression softened. The take charge tone he had been using evened out to the gentle voice he associated with his nephew. “I know what you just saw isn't easy to accept. It wasn't easy for me either, for any of us. There's no nice way to explain everything that happened-”

“There's never a nice way to explain murder,” Dojima growled, trying the quiet his thumping heart. A large part of his mind trying to find some explanation for what he just saw.

“No, there isn't, but this...it got messier in far more personal ways. You'll see. Rise and Naoto are coming over tomorrow to play with Nanako. And we'll begin on the path of the investigation. You should get some rest.” 

“And you expect me to just fall asleep tonight?” Dojima asked dryly, not sure if he was being serious or trying to lighten the mood.

“It would be best, tomorrow will be tiring. That place always is.”

“That place?”

“Trust me,” It wasn’t a statement, from his nephew, but a plea. Because Dojima hadn’t trusted him on the important things. And because of that a bunch of kids had to face a murderer alone.

“I do.” More of a promise than a statement. That he wouldn’t discount what his nephew  told him ever again.

~~~~ One of the few things that left be dissatisfied in Persona 4 was Dojima’s whole ‘lets not talk about it’ after the fact. He’s the type of person who’d need to know and understand before he could put it to bed in his mind. So this, Backside of the TV would be the group walking him through it to try and gain that understanding.

~~

A haunted looking man stared into his reflection in the bathroom mirror. He had come so far, from the child of poor farmers in his home country to being one of the top programmers in a large-scale American cooperation. Was he really prepared to throw it all away?

There was no doubt about it, a product recall at the late stage would destroy global trust in the company. Competitors could easily move in and remove his company from the picture. Not only would he certainly be fired, but he would be unhireable. All for something that had less than a one in a million chance of happening.

But what if it does happens, eh?  His conscience whispered at him. Could you go on living with yourself knowing some poor soul gets hurt because you did NOTHING?

The man splashed some cold water on his face. It wouldn't do to lose control of his emotions. There was only one thing he could do, and he was going to do it with pride and dignity. Drying his face with a towel, the man marched out of the restroom with a renewed sense of purpose. He marched to the main meeting room, where all the major stockholders and even the company president were waiting.

Trying not to let his fear show, he moved to the podium, sliding his notes and proofs into the small cubby within it. One final deep breath and it was time...

“Gentlemen,” began Rodrick McStewart, “The Pinnacle chip is flawed.”

“A 'flaw'?” Armando Guitierrez's voice sounded innocently curious, but it was all Roddy could do to keep from shivering. “What kind of 'flaw'?”

“One I've never seen before,” Roddy answered honestly. “If activated, the chip's ability to increase the rate of information flow goes into overdrive, the consequence of which are, to say the least, dire.”

One of the stockholders leaned forward “What do you mean 'dire'?”

McStewart sighed. “The computer would start downloading information from the internet at an unseen rate. And not just one or two files, it would try to download the whole bloody thing. Rather than slowing down as this continues, it speeds up causing the system to critically overheat in under a minute. It's not unlikely the computer would explode, causing serious damage to the user in the process.”

It was silent as a morgue.  “W-What are the odds of this happening?” Another suited man asked.

Crud. He was hoping that wouldn't come up. “I've calculated the odds at four hundred and fifty million to one.” As he feared, he watched the entire boardroom relax, joking amongst themselves that they had been scared of nothing. The fools saw such a large number as unreachable. But the truth was the chip had already sold over 60 million units on pre-order alone.  In under a year it would reach five hundred million, practically guaranteeing at least one accident.

Guitierrez took a deep breath. “Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Roddy. I will discuss this with the shareholders. If you would please wait in my office, we can discuss this further and see how we can salvage this.”

He knew he was being dismissed, but it was more than he had thought he would get. At least Guitierrez was willing to listen to him in private, even if he was going to spend the next hour telling the stockholders there was no problem.

Guitierrex's office was a long rectangular room, the north side of which was completely glass. The mahogony deck used the window as a backdrop. Roddy flopped down in the wheeled leather chair in front of the desk and pulled out his notes. On one of the pages was a picture of the Pinnacle chip focused in on it most important feature, the 'Broken Arrow' core. Many times McStewart wished he could have spoke with the R&D team that had developed it. It's power was amazing, McStewart was sure the chip he had built around it wasn't accessing a fraction of it's true power. 

“Thank you for your patience Roddy, no sit, sit” Guitierrez  gestured  for the programmer to remain sitting in the wheeled leather chair. “How could this has happened?

“The Broken Arrow core is so powerful. Moreso than we ever could have guessed. A system built around it would probably be the most powerful system in existence, but a normal computer just can't safely handle it.”

“I see,” Guitierrez walked to the north wall of his office, which was a solid glass window letting in the cold December sun. “We shall have to rally as quickly as possible. How many other developers are aware of the flaw?”

“None, I didn't want to start a panic, not until I was completely sure.”

Guitierrez turned his back from the window “A wise move Roddy,” He gripped the back of Roddy's chair. “I thank you for your final service to this company.” 

Roddy had expected to be fired. What he hadn't expected was for his employer to start pushing the chair at top speed towards the window. He also hadn't expected the window to not me made of hurricane glass.

Shards of shattered glass fell with him as he tumbled out the window. He hit a tree branch with a thud that probably broke all his ribs but halted his fall enough to survive it. As quickly as he could he made his way to his car. He wished he could just call an ambulance, but he didn’t want to give Guitierrez the chance to finish the job.

Elswhere, Debbie Douglas put in the preorder for one of those Pinnacle chips. It would be just the perfect thing to give Dexter for Christmas.

~~~~

An attempt to redo Freakazoid as a more serious superhero story. Not much more to be said.

[theshinsun]

Tag game!

Thanks for the tag @ahobaka-trash!! <3

Rules: List your 10 favorite female Characters from 10 different fandoms and tag 10 people!

Aight so, in no particular order (I’m also gonna give a short explanation bc I need to talk about these ladies sm):

1. Diane Nguyen (Bojack Horseman) - Diane is such a layered and complex person (as all of bojack’s characters are, I had a hard time picking between her and PC tbh but she wins out), I relate to her on so many levels and she provides this show with such a realistic, human lens. She’s flawed and damaged, and she’s not always in the right, but you still can’t help but feel for her, she’s just... so well-rounded and fleshed out, I could go on for ages about how well her character is written.

2. Alex Garcia (Kuroko No Basuke) - She gets shafted just a bit in the show but I was just reminded that in the manga, this lady is an absolute queen. 10/10 LA babe and a hella good mentor for the boys, I wish she’d gotten just a little bit more development but seriously I love her (I love all the KNB ladies ofc but she comes out on top). 

3. Azula (Avatar: The Last Airbender) - Top-tier female villain, jesus. She’s terrifying and malicious and so over the top it’s fantastic. She’s complex and multi-layered, but at the same time so straightforward and I appreciate that so much. I love that she’s awful, and cold-blooded, and socially awkward, and emotionally damaged... She’s so good, probably my favorite of the ATLA girls.

4. Asami Sato (The Legend of Korra) - She’s a gorgeous badass, she’s funny, she’s super intelligent, I love this gal. I love her relationship with Korra, and the exploration of the falling out and imperfect resolution with her father, I love that she’s a non-bender but still formidable and extremely capable in a fight. TLOK has so many wonderful female characters but in my humble opinion she’s just the best.

5. Haruhi Fujioka (Ouran High School Host Club) - Haruhi is a whole-ass mood. Even the first time I watched Ouran as a kid, before I knew anything about my own gender identity, I related to her so much and felt for her struggle, and all the shit she has to go through with all the ridiculous rich people around her. She’s the one down-to-earth person in a completely bonkers show, and that’s what makes her such a joy to watch and root for.

6. Chel (The Road to El Dorado) - We stan a queen. Chel is presented as this vulnerable, scantily-dressed petty thief in need of rescue, but she very quickly proves that preconception wrong and becomes this funny, knowledgeable, sharp-as-a-whip partner in crime for the main boys; every word out of her mouth is a rebellion against the role her environment is trying to put her in, and though her motivations to join the boys in their elaborate con aren’t explored in too much depth, they’re still understandable and really lend some depth to her character. 

7. Yachi Hitoka (Haikyuu!!) - Yachi is such a great character, honestly. She’s anxious, she’s unsure, but she goes and breaks out of her comfort zone anyway, despite her mother’s misgivings, and ends up really enjoying it by the end. She works so hard to learn and understand volleyball even though she has no experience with it, and she challenges herself to interact with people even if they’re terrifying. She’s also just, really sweet and compassionate and her friendships with Hinata and Shimizu are so pure. I will protect her to the ends of the earth.

8. Rosa Diaz (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) - B99 honestly has some of the best written characters I’ve ever seen, and the women are no exception. Rosa is so enjoyable to watch, she’s cold and scary and hard to read but she also has real emotions, she’s hilarious and has lots of friends that she obviously cares for. Her family life is complicated, especially her journey with them coming to terms with her sexuality. She just feels so real and there’s so much depth to her, where I feel like other shows would keep her as the two-dimensional badass cop archetype and leave it at that.

9. Aunt May/Olivia Octavius (Into The Spider-verse) - Okay this one’s a tie and I just can’t break it no matter how I try. I love these two ladies so much, even though they’re rather minor characters, they’re both fantastic in very different ways and I’m living every time they’re on screen.

10. Haru (Beastars) - Like with Chel, we’re given an idea early-on that Haru is this tiny, fragile, helpless thing in need of protection, but both she and the show itself subvert that image time and time again with how tough and witty and shameless she is. She stands up for herself, she gains a reputation for sleeping around and hey, turns out it’s actually true, but her reasons for it are so meaningful and not shallow and it’s just... amazing what the narrative is able to say about her character, often without saying anything at all. Haru is cute and hilarious and also sympathetic and just an all-around great character and I loved her almost immediately.

Tagging: @fuchsiafantasy @meiyanaalexia  @hadenxcharm @spaztictwitch  @vanilla-daydreams @choking-on-roses @kagabutt @hybristophilica @pueppiesblog @fiftyshadesoftaiga and anyone else who wants to do it!

[abenignsmile]

Some Reinhardt Posting

Reinhardt has quite a.... unique place in Ciela’s place and story, and I’ve kinda been making some stuff about him with Ciela, especially following the resplendent art I made of him recently.

Stuff’s under cut. CW for yandere content.

Reinhardt is basically the first five stars that Ciela got (either him or Brave Ike, who was my first free unit since I started due to CYL I think), and this made him hold quite an important spot in Ciela’s place. Initially I thought of him being like the nice guardian/older brother kinda thing since canonly in Ciela’s Askr-verse, him with Performing Arts Azura (who happens to be my first seasonal unit) were Ciela’s sorta... guardian, older siblings, retainer thing. She sort of projects her thoughts about her elder siblings (who were the only nice people she remembered from her world) into them and that’s how their relationship has been thus far. 

With Reinhardt though, he’s actually falling into the side quite a bit, esp after I stopped playing FEH for quite some time after the first anniversary (I think I stopped right after the TT with Sigurd, Quan, and Ares). Returning to it when CYL2 drops and I got Veronica and many other newer units such as Laegjarn or Legendary Robin, Reinhardt is really untouched for many times, until recently (or like late last year) I started giving him more attention and made him a +10 unit. He happened to be the first unit I +10-ed too. 

Once I get the right build and team for him, he really is becoming as powerful as how he works in the meta. The introduction of resplendent heroes and how he gets to have that form in the story also sort of furthers his use in my team.  So I just thought how this narratively would work in Ciela’s story, and so... Yandere Reinhardt sorta born that way =))

Some analysis done by some pals in the FEH summoner discord server talked about him being so.... reliant on being dependable. He has a noble disposition and great persona liked and hated by people at the same time, and seemed to relish on being someone dependable. He was sort of shafted when Ciela met Brave Veronica, but with him getting back into play, let’s say that he’s just very glad he could get Ciela’s attention back too, eventhough she’s been having him as her “brother” all this time, but I guess it may never be enough for him. 

That’s why he started to plot to take over Ciela’s attention and trust back along with his rising power. 

Also, someone gave me this meme then saying, “This is Reinhardt, but Myrrh is Veronica”.

And I guess like, that’s not wrong!! That’s probably one of his attempt into coaxing Ciela’s trust back since quite a funny thing happened recently. 

So I saved a lot of orbs (over 100 ish) in order to save for spring banner. Then FEH Anniversary happened and they announced CYL banner reruns. Having Brave Veronica only at +3, I decided to use the orbs there so I can at least have several more merges of her. So it happens that I got her on my 3rd round of pulling after 2 full rounds to build up pity rate. I just had good feelings that I can get more of her, and I still have quite a number of orbs left. 

And well, you can say that what happens after that is just, not great. Overall when the banner ended, I got two Brave Hector (he’s great though), and then got pitybroken twice by Jaffar and Elise. But before that, in my desperate attempt to grab orbs, I decided to grind some multichallenge maps that I didn’t do (mostly so they become my back up orbs reserve) with newly built Reinhardt. I got quite a lot of them and pulled a lot but still no Veronica in sight. 

Someone then pointed, that Reinhardt just prevented Veronica to come home. And it just, clicks so well. He literally cursed the orbs we got so Veronica stopped growing stronger and becoming more threat to him to win Ciela’s affection.

So the whole thing revolves around that basically. Reinhardt being smitten with Ciela and trying to coax her out of her fascination with Veronica. She’s so hard to get, why she’d bother? He’s powerful and can do a lot of things for Ciela. 

Of course, Veronica won’t take this slander. She catches his ploy right off the bat (this is actually a sequel to the resplendent Reinhardt comic I posted above)

Veronica would probably show her overprotectiveness (or even goes yandere herself??) to prevent Reinhardt swiping Ciela from her. Her PDA probably grows stronger than before and she just glares over him so many times.

Recently with how I use the units in my barrack again, and ended up S-Supporting Thrasir (since meta wise she’s one of the units I used the most recently) I thought how such change would reflect in the story. So I guess maybe Veronica and Reinhardt’s tension has gotten quite... unbearable to Ciela so she just ran away and hide behind Thrasir.

Thrasir just called these two people stupid. She probably made them wear the getalong shirt and hold hand together the whole time until they stopped snarking each other. Will they ever stop? We don’t know yet =))

Anyway.

In reality I think nothing would probably ever turn Ciela from loving Brave Veronica since (1) Ciela is a full blown lesbian and (2) I don’t think Ciela’s Reinhardt would ever go that hardcore to get her attention, but according to a friend, sometimes “you just want to indulge in stinky behavior” and it’s ok so... I guess that’s Reinhardt posting for now XD 

[asiryn]

Have you seen the optional cut scene in The Final World in KH3 where if you talk to one of lingering hearts (stars??) Sora actually ends up speaking w/ Namine? Nomura why do you keep teasing Sora & Namine development when it also seems like you wont let it amount to much??? Plz let Namine play a bigger role in finding Sora she's an expert at finding ppl at this point & give her a fresh trio while you're at it I'm begging you Nomura

Yes, I did see that scene (and I pretty much cried the whole way through XD)! It’s how I know that Namine was the one who sent the Lingering Will in to save their asses. And it’s also how I know that, no, they still haven’t had the resolution promised to us all in the end of CoM, and they still haven’t fulfilled their promise, bc Sora explicitly said that this conversation didn’t count towards that, and that he wanted to do it right and in person. 

I also 100% agree, Nomura is a dirty tease, and I am so salty that Namine barely got to be in this game at all. Also: tbhhhh, yeah, pls let Namine help find Sora, god knows that she is an expert, and also, if the entire series has proven nothing else, it’s that Namine is still the character who’s gotten the most shit done out of the entire cast. 

I would want to hope that all of Sora’s relationships get more respect from the narrative going forward, but apparently Nomura doesn’t agree with me. :/ (imo, all of Sora’s relationships, including even Riku, got brushed to the side to force the idea that his bond with Kairi is suddenly sooo much more important than all the rest, but tbhhh, even his relationship with Kairi got shafted, as they were apart for 90% of KH3 (and lbr, the series as a whole too), and Sora didn’t even mention her once for the majority of the game; like…..the paopu fruit scene is the first time they’ve had a conversation with each other in this entire game!! And iirc, the last time we saw them have an interaction in person was before Sora’s Mark of Mastery exam in KH3D!! There are so many fucking things wrong with this!!)

Okay, I need to stop ranting. The main point is, you are entirely correct, Namine deserved better, and really, so many people deserved better in this game. But I guess, when the next KH game comes out and the new arc starts, probably about ten years from now, we can only hope that the writers and Nomura do better next time. ://

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

I swear Quidditch only caters to Skye fans (which there aren’t even that many of) smfh. Giving the least popular character development is fine & sometimes even needed when they’re as hated as she was but that doesn’t mean the others should be shafted especially when Skye’s arc is over. There’s literally no reason to keep sidelining them anymore.

The developers have their clear favorite characters and I do understand as much. Like...main characters are a thing in stories. Penny and Merula being all over the place is fine in the main story, because that's an ongoing narrative and it's clear that the Year 1 kids are the main characters. But that really doesn't explain why, in the side-quests and TLSQs, they're still so omni-present when they don't have to be. I know, I know they want the quests to be able to drop as early as possible, but with the way the Journal system has worked out so far, it's very possible for them to amend it further. Ultimately, there's no reason quests ever have to "drop" at all. Have them be unlockable in the Journal, and maybe add a subscript to declare what year they canonically take place in. You can even add an "Are you sure?" message if someone tries to open a quest that is from a year they haven't gotten to yet. This would also solve the problem of characters with precarious places in the story like Rowan and Rakepick, and allow them to appear in more TLSQs then they do now.

As for Quidditch...yes, Skye is probably meant to be the main character. I mean, she was the first one introduced, and the storyline of the first two seasons revolved around her. But the thing is...the first season (still the best season, sadly enough) didn't really establish Quidditch to be "The Skye Show." Not really. That came later, in Season 2. The first season was pretty good about doling out screen-time and significance to Orion and Murphy. While Erika still got the short end of the stick, I sort of took that as being a result of her being introduced later and having the role of the antagonist, that she would be properly fleshed out in Season 2 after getting a pretty cool introduction in Season 1. But even her Friendship Quest was all about Lady Parkin. I don't know why they're doing this, even now when Skye's story is basically over. I guess they feel like they've set her up as the lead and now they have to stick with that? But guys, Jam City...you really don't. Please, oh please. Give someone else a storyline in Season 4. Please let us learn more about our lost and forgotten Quidditch boys, I beg of you.

[analogscum]

ENEMY TERRITORY (1987, d. Peter Manoogian)

I don’t often like to bring up social or political issues on this site. For me, and I assume for many of you, these movies that I write about are a respite. When I want to escape the reality of what modern life in this country has become, then I want to watch something that looks and feels as far away from that reality as possible. And furthermore, I don’t want to shove my own social and political beliefs down anyone’s throat. I don’t know what you believe, and I don’t want to alienate a reader on a site that’s about exploitation cinema based on something that is outside of that sphere. Or even worse, you already agree with me, and I’m preaching to the converted, which is a complete waste of both my time and yours. Anyway, this is all a preamble to say that I find it impossible to talk about today’s movie, 1987’s Enemy Territory, without talking about social and political issues. Because, while this movie is undeniably entertaining, it’s also undeniably racist as hell.

These types of movies were all over the place in the 80s, the Assault on Precinct 13, Escape From New York type of urban jungle, ragtag group of heroes have to survive the night with a bunch of psychopathic baddies hunting them down. And yes, it is no secret that New York City in the 80s was a grimy, crime-ridden hellhole. So perhaps it is not that shocking that Enemy Territory does not present, shall we say, the most subtle or diverse view of black life in America. But this goes far beyond being a product of its time and environment: Enemy Territory represents a conservative white male’s nightmare vision of the black experience. Nearly every black character in this movie is either a gleeful villain or a morose victim. There are scenes in this movie where I couldn’t help but hear our internet troll President droning on about how crime-ridden and poverty-stricken and joyless he and his ilk think modern black life is in my head while it was playing. I’d like to think we’d have gotten better with understanding race relations in the 31 years since this movie was released, but all signs point to nope.

Enemy Territory opens with one of those urban blight montages, just scenes of infrastructure decay and abject poverty, while a Grandmaster Flash knockoff blares on the soundtrack. Everything is covered in graffiti. In fact, we see the title itself being spray painted on a wall, before it pops out onto the screen. Movie magic! We then meet our protagonist, Barry. Barry is an insurance salesman, and it seems that things aren’t going so well for him. He’s arguing with his ex-wife over the phone about money problems. Then he opens his desk drawer, and wouldn’t you know it, but there’s a giant bottle of Jack Daniels inside. Say it ain’t so, Barry! For some reason, Barry’s boss is like, ok Barry, you’re a total drunk fuckup, but I like you, so go get a signature from this old lady named Elva who just took out a $100,000 life insurance policy, and collect the premium. By the way, this old lady happens to live…in the ghe-ttooooooooooo.

Meanwhile, we meet a phone company repairman named Will, who is played by Ray Parker Jr. Yes, THAT Ray Parker Jr. I’m going to do my best to refrain from Ghostbusters puns here, but no promises. As it turns out, Will is also headed over…to the ghe-ttoooooooooo, because he has a lady friend there that he wants to pay a visit to. Makes sense, because I heard he likes the girls! Dammit!

So Barry arrives…in the ghe-ttoooooooooo, and immediately these kids are like, hey you white cracker honkey ass piece of shit motherfucker, give us two dollars to watch your car. And since Barry is so white he makes Dave Chappelle’s uptight white guy character look like Rudy Ray Moore, he’s like well gee golly, here’s your money, I don’t want any malarkey! And he walks away, at which point the kids start robbing his car. He’s not even out of earshot. Ugh, whatever, movie. Inside the building, Barry taps a kid on the shoulder and asks where Elva’s apartment is. The kid responds very reasonably, and is happy to help him find…nah, I’m joking, the kid is like what the fuck you say to me you white devil cracker ass jive bitch motherfuck shit cracker ass punk, and pulls a switchblade on him. UGGGGGGH, whatever, movie. Luckily, the building’s ancient security guard shoos him away, and helps Barry find Elva’s apartment. Every single line that this security guard has is about how bad the building is, how crime and gang-ridden it is, how they’re probably going to die because they’re roaming the building at this hour, etc. When Barry goes and gets the signature and the premium from Elva, every single line that SHE has is about how bad the building is, how crime and gang-ridden it is, how he’s probably going to die because he’s roaming the building at this hour, etc. Tomi Lahren probably thinks that this movie is a documentary.

Barry and the security guard head back to the elevators, but oh no, there are a bunch of gangsters waiting for them! Turns out that the kid that Barry tapped on the shoulder was a junior member of The Vampires, and now he must pay, with his blooooood!

OK, time out. This is how you know a white conservative wrote this screenplay: there has never been a street gang like this in reality ever. The Vampires are corny as hell. They refer to white people as “ghosts” and black people who help white people as “blood traitors,” have silly nicknames like Psycho, and do a little salute to one another where they make fangs with their index and middle finger, and hiss. Oh, and their leader calls himself The Count, and the most evil thing he does for the entire movie is break Elva’s glasses. Speaking of Dave Chappelle, the Player Haters Ball would have a field day with these clowns.

However, despite being totally unrealistic and silly, Tony Todd, who plays The Count and went on to play Candyman, is easily the best part of this movie. He takes all of this nonsense about how The Vampires own the night and the building is their castle and plays it with the verve and seriousness of Shakespeare. He chews the scenery, yes, but his presence is magnetic. You can’t take your eyes off of him whenever he’s on screen. The movie gave him a bunch of garbage to sell, and he sells the HELL outta that garbage.

So there’s a scuffle, and both switchblade kid and the security guard end up getting shot and killed. Ray Parker Jr., having heard something strange in the neighborhood (shit, sorry!) runs out of his lady friend’s apartment and helps Barry get to safety. The movie really kicks into gear here, and I’ve gotta say, becomes rather exciting. They keep the pace going, keep the characters on their toes, and I was surprised to find that I started to become really invested in these characters. I know I’ve been giving him a hard time, but Ray Parker Jr. really isn’t that bad of an actor, you could at least say that he skates by on charisma. But anyhow, these two eventually meet up with Elva’s granddaughter, Toni, played by Stacey Dash (who must’ve felt right at home with all this right wing dog whistling). They decide that the safest place in the building is Mr. Parker’s apartment, as he’s the only person that The Vampires are scared of.

We finally get to Mr. Parker’s apartment, but not before Barry has to stab a Vampire to death, which reduces him to a blubbering mess. Mr. Parker’s door looks like a maximum security jail cell door, and there’s a slot through which he sticks out a gun. Eventually he lets them in, and holy shit, his entire apartment is covered in reinforced steel, wired with booby traps, and Mr. Parker himself turns out to be a kooky crazy Vietnam vet in a fancy, weaponized wheelchair (!!!) played by none other than Jan-Michael Vincent. He goes on and on about how he left one war and found himself in another and says some pretty racist stuff about his fellow tenants and is like, you know why I’ve got this pet bird? So that if there’s a gas leak, I’ll know about it because he died first! And then he’s like, you know why I got this pet cat? So that it can eat my food first, and test it for poison!

At this point, I knew that this character wasn’t going to be in the movie much longer. One, because when you introduce a character this larger than life this late in the narrative, then it’s too good to be true. Two, because at the time, Jan-Michael Vincent was well into his torrid love affair with drugs and alcohol. Despite the fact that Mr. Parker is in a wheelchair, his legs are constantly twitching. You can’t help but speculate that they gave the character a wheelchair because JMV was too drunk to stand up, and considering the sorry state of his health today, that wheelchair becomes almost a harbinger of things to come. Anyway, The Vampires show up and almost immediately kill Mr. Parker. But not before he can give his machine gun to Elva. Chekhov’s machine gun!

Barry, Toni, and Ray Parker Jr. somehow manage to escape, and they find a little boy who claims to know a secret way out of the building that not even The Vampires know about. On the way, they encounter the aforementioned Psycho, who has a giant geri curl that made me chuckle, and they throw him down an open elevator shaft, which also made me chuckle. So they get down to the basement, gingerly stepping over Psycho’s corpse, and make their way to the secret exit. But guess what? PSYCHO ISN’T DEAD! At this point, I got very excited, because, holy shit, what if The Vampires…ARE ACTUAL VAMPIRES?!?! If the movie suddenly went in THAT direction, that would’ve been so awesome. But, alas, they just kill Psycho again, this time for good. RIP, Psycho.

Eventually the kid leads them to the secret exit, but its a really tight squeeze, so Toni decides to run to the nearby NYPD building for help. Of course, she is almost immediately raped and murdered by an entirely DIFFERENT gang as soon as she leaves the building, because the movie hadn’t shoved its racism in your face in awhile. Without giving too much away, eventually Barry and Ray Parker Jr. also get out, The Count has an amazing, borderline operatic (seriously!) death scene, the rest of The Vampires are shot at by Elva and her new machine gun (yaaaaay!) and in the ultimate example of this being a right wing fantasy, the NYPD, yes, the NYPD, arrives right on time to save the day. Hoooooo boy.

So what else is there to say about Enemy Territory? Yes, it is entertaining. It is a well-constructed action movie with some surprisingly good performances to back it up. I haven’t even discussed the cinematography, which is easily the film’s best technical asset, seeing as it was done by the legendary Ernest Dickerson, who shot all of Spike Lee’s best movies. I can’t imagine it was easy for Ernest to look Spike in the eye after participating in a movie like this. And here’s the thing: Enemy Territory isn’t just racist now, it was considered racist for the time, if you can imagine that. After it was released, on May 22, 1987 (the day I was born!), the film played in New York City for a week before it was pulled from theaters due to overwhelming outrage and protests from black activists and civil rights groups. Though it would make its money back on VHS, the film has never made it to DVD, and there seem to be no current plans to change that. Which is fine by me. Enemy Territory is a shiny piece of entertainment that rots from the inside; what purports to be a gritty look at the big bad city is really nothing more than a collection of racist dog whistles directed at a section of the white population whose view of other races is myopic and bigoted. There are plenty of great 80s action movies that won’t make you queasily think of Bernie Goetz, or the Central Park Five, or Amadou Diallo. After all, real life is bad enough, wouldn’t you rather escape?

[stuffandsundry]

Lemme preface this with a big hello there! I didn’t actually expect anyone to reply to this post, and so comprehensively either, haha!

dynamojacks replied to your post: Alt. P5 Justice Confidant

Hrrrrrmm. Can’t say I agree with all of this. It’s not like ‘being foil to the protag’ is the flaw with the interaction - or characterisation, of all things - it’s mostly the way said interaction is framed. Also, he’s less of a direct foil to him and more an 'equal and opposite’. Goro isn’t supposed to relate to the protag entirely, that’s kind of the point. He envies him. But he’s on his level, so to speak. It’s that aspect that draws him to him.

I think we’re using foil in a two different ways here. I use it as shorthand for “we, as third parties to this story, are supposed to compare and contrast these characters”. So, yeah, he’s set up as an equal and opposite you are totally correct there, but Goro aint the one relating to the protag, we as the audience are the ones comparing them. And that’s when problems arise, because quite a bit about the protag is so open to interpretation.

He also kind of KNOWS he’s special because he’s.. seen him, and Morgana, in the Metaverse (see: pancakes ‘gaffe’). It’s not just a one-sided perception, he’s absolutely right and this is a big fuck-off hint that he’s a wildcard in hindsight.

yo what seriously? i thought that the pancakes thing happened in the hallway of the TV studio how the hell did i misremember that badly holy shit

I agree that this should have been dealt with better, and that we needed more interaction with the PT to build a collective bond. A WHOLE, WHOLE lot more. I live and breathe any writings that bring them all together, like really. But to narrow the issue down to the protag being foil just seems flimsy. They ARE fated rivals per se and for good reason, it’s just that this aspect was shafted to buggery when it got down to it.

It’s not protag being foil that’s the problem, it’s “protag is the foil, focused on almost exclusively to the detriment of any meaningful interaction with the rest of the cast.” like, yeah, it does work, to a point. but it also could be a lot better, by giving the others a chance to shine.

The ‘god’s game’ apparently meant nothing in the grand scheme of things. That was exceptionally bad writing. To build up shit like that, but for Goro’s role as wild card to mean next to zilch.

Oh yeah, that resolution was very much so missing, which is a massive pity. Like you said, the whole fated rivals chosen to duke it out by god is a pretty interesting concept. I’m interested to know more about why you think that Goro’s role as a Wild Card mean zilch, though. Personally, I’ve been looking at it as: “Goro did had the potential to choose many different paths that could shape the world around him, signified by the Wild Card, but he locked himself very quickly into one path where he was simply being used as a tool by Shido. This, in combination with him holding everyone at arms length, meant that he didn’t form any significant bonds either aside from the real fucked up one with Shido, and so he inadvertently crippled his own Wild Card ability from the beginning” Actually, on that note, maybe he couldn’t have formed confidants. Whenever you initiate a Confidant in-game, it’s Lavenza’s voice that you hear, not Caroline + Justine. Would Lavenza have reached out to Akechi? Hmmm...

Also regarding Goro and fame, he’s not as hung up on it as Ryuji is/was, not NEARLY as much. One, mistranslation (not ‘public image’ or 'celebrity’, but 'reputation with adults’ and 'charisma’), and two, he knows his fame is fickle and dangerous in itself, having lived it for long enough. Ryuji romanticises it, Goro does not. Goro resents that those people do not know him for who he is, Ryuji thinks that fame will make him beloved.

Yeah!!!! This right here!!! This is a great contrast to have, they’d be amazing foils!! Ryuji and Goro are practically complete opposites, but they also share a lot of similarities too despite that. I spent like 5 min on this section the first time, so these are just the things that instantly popped into my head, but you could also draw parallels btwn the fact that Ryuji’s dad being in his life made it worse, while Goro’s being absent made his worse, or they way that Ryuji always had his mother with him vs Goro who’s mother left him alone, or the way that Ryuji is very bluntly honest about everything vs Goro who tries to keep everything hidden behind a veneer of politeness, or public perception of ryuji as a no good thug even if he honestly just wants to do the right thing vs the perception of goro as the person who would uphold justice/stop the breakdowns even if he was the very same person who was causing them, but DESPITE ALL THIS CONTRAST, ryuji is one of the most empathetic members of the team and absolutely would have tried to help Goro if he’d only known sooner what kinda trouble he was in (re: first impressions of makoto as a prick vs jumping in front of a car in order to rescue her)

(Speaking of Makoto, she’s absolutely the person that has the most parallels to Goro, and she should have been his rival. Both joined the team through some form of blackmail, both have incredible pressure but on them by the adults in their lives, both very similar characters vis-à-vis approaches to life in general, actually wait one second i have a quote from a friend on this.... “But I think Makoto works really well in terms of how they’re narratively set up as opposites? idk, like Makoto’s approach to subterfuge is to orchestrate the people around her while Akechi’s approach to subterfuge is to manipulate the people around him, Makoto’s impulsivity means she can be prone to direct confrontation while Akechi is on guard until he’s literally right at the breaking point, I just think…. it would’ve been so much more interesting to explore more of this than putting the burden on protag to carry Akechi Interest”)

and oh god im babbling sorry I HAVE OPINIONS

As for Yusuke? Madarame’s exploiting of his talent to his own ends (check), Yusuke wanting to please him but also trapped and nigh desperate to leave (check), Madarame being essentially responsible for his mother’s death (check), Yusuke having to rely on him to survive, for roof over head (check), and would be ruined, and even die one way or another if he tried to escape (check, check, and double check).                                                                      A comment Yusuke makes in Okumura’s Palace is extremely telling- about how someone who is oppressed will ‘desire for it’ (paraphrase). What’s even more telling, is when Yusuke said about Goro, quote: 'had I not met you all, I would have turned out like him as well’.   Haru? They’re both puppets to their fathers. Both are manipulated for the sake of political goals. Both are actually sweet by nature- at least, not ruthless, and really have to be pushed to be (SIU Director’s comments about the plot to FRAME the PTs as being ‘too brutal’… imagine how much more actually KILLING would be..). And both started out with a naive(ish), idealistic core, if Robin Hood and his fixation on Featherman R is anything to go by.

Eyyyyyyyyy this is some pretty hella meta, kudos to you. Like yeah!!!! YEAH!!!!!!! GORO AND PHANTOM THIEVES INTERACTIONS.... THERES THE POTENTIAL FOR SOME REAL MEATY, REAL GOOD STUFF IN HERE....GIVE US MORE OF THAT PLEASE...

And part of the reason why opinion changed per se, was realising just how flimsy Goro’s own resolve was, and how vulnerable. He wasn’t hell bent on bringing disaster, he was clinging on to straws in desperation. Ryuji’s comment, urging him to realise that he was his own person, makes this much clear. Their ire was more focused on Shido at this point. Still, they did not really forgive Goro, and made this much VERY clear. In any event, the last point might have been down to cultural differences. I’m.. not sure, but to those who understood this scene, it didn’t come ‘out of nowhere’, so you can’t necessarily say that’s a writing flaw on it’s own.    

Mmmm, sorry if I was unclear, but the two times I used ‘out of nowhere in this post were in regards to how i dislike goro approaching protag with little prior warning? So.... im not quite sure what you’re trying to say here. Out of nowhere is too strong of a term to use for this scenario, so if its a thing I’ve said someplace else in regards to the last scene then sorry, I’ll clarify now. It’s not out of nowhere, however, it stands in stark contrast to the entire team’s opinions of Akechi up until this point. Not necessarily a terrible, awful choice, but it is certainly jarring in a way that is completely avoidable. Which, again, brings me back to “give Goro and the other PT a larger share of attention instead of focusing on Protag”. Sae’s Palace would have been a perfect place for Goro’s facade to slip a little bit, and give the rest of the team a little bit of an idea of how he’s like when he’s not constantly on guard. Instead, Sae’s Palace focuses on setting Goro up as smart which............. he’s a teen detective that works with the police. We know that he’s smart already. We should have gotten more characterization in there instead! Giving us some form of transition, like, “he’s an enemy of the Phantom Thieves” -> “hmm, there seem to be some circumstances that we can relate to that made him the way he is now” -> “we understand why you did the things you did. we still can’t agree with it, but we know now.” ...Granted, the reason that I think of it as an abrupt about face could have been due to the face that they never mention Goro again after his battle. A short scene after Shido’s Palace had been cleared to look back on the impact that Goro had had on the PT would have been a great help.

thank you for your thoughts! c:

[gywair]

I finally watched Endgame. I’d put it off a week since its release. It felt like planning to attend a funeral. This series has been part of my life for a decade. Going to see the cumulation of over twenty films felt too heavy to see. Putting it off only made the tension build though. Finally, bite the Infinity Stone and ordered tickets.

First, I watched it in “4DX”. This is similar to the theme park rides that started popping up that are a mixed medium experience. So the seats move, air blasts at you, there are water effects, lights flash, and even smells get pumped into the room. In theory, this seems really interesting but usually, I go to movies I don’t care about to try out new gimmicks. My first 3D film was My Bloody Valentine. It was silly and fun. It also helped me adjust to what a 3D movie would be.

My first 4DX-like experience was the Empire State Building ride as narrated by Kevin Bacon. A sentence that makes me feel like I suffered a stroke while writing but is a real thing that exists that I have experienced. It’s been a few years since that and I think it lasted less than 20 minutes (probably less). Sitting for an entire movie seemed like a whole different worm can.

For me, I didn’t really like it. The water, lights, and smells were cool. The smoke was nice too. The seat, however, is made for someone slightly smaller. So when Iron Man gets kicked in his kidneys, oh spoilers BTW, the seat hits you too like a demented message chair. I think normally it would softly strike you in the back on your rib cage. For me, it went straight to my soft organs. This made the fights are to concentrate on (a problem for a movie about fighting). Likewise, little jets of compressed air go off just above your head. For me, they were pointed directly into my ears. So each time they fired off, I couldn’t hear and had the painful sensation of a ghost giving me a wet willy (I’m also blessed with ear problems so your experience may vary).

Anyway, big thoughts:

The Good:

The job of wrapping up 20+ movies was a big task. This film does that. It has a large cast of characters and several errant storylines to wrap up in a short timeframe. Cause even with 3-hours, this felt like there was still more to say. Which isn’t bad cause that means there can still be more films but for a chapter closer it was ambitious.

I was satisfied by the investment I’ve made into the franchise. This was a fitting close to this chapter. Each film contributed in ways that made the complete journey feel fluid and necessary.

It makes several subversions of expectations. Not just for characters but for narrative design. It kept me guessing the entire time. Even with seeing a handful of tiny spoilers, I was never sure what was going to happen.

Avengers served up heaping mounds of gratuitous fan service in the best ways possible. Sometimes this can be very bad like in animes when the whole episode is about boys spying on girls in a hot tub. Here, it’s Captain America fighting a copy of himself or Professor Hulk half-assing some smashing. One of the best parts of the film is about time travel. Here they show off fan-favorite Loki popping up at different points in history.

One important aspect to me for a story of any kind is how much foreknowledge a viewer needs before starting the work. If you watch Pirates of the Carribean 3 or Return of the Jedi, you will be pretty confused. However, you can pick up just about any Marvel movie anywhere in the series and have a fair idea of what is going on. This continues in this installment. Some context is lost or hidden but anything you need to know is shown/told/explained to you. This, for me, is what makes a story stand on its own legs.

See?! This scene just makes sense all on its own.

The Bad:

With so many cooks in the kitchen, there are still weird dangling problems in the continuity. Things still feel left open to interpretation. Even the filmmakers didn’t agree on how elements in the film worked which is something that should have been determined before the first Avengers movie was written. It feels haphazard with how certain things were written off or ignored.  This plays well into feeling like a comic book where different creators retrofit things to fit their narrative but it still felt jarring.

For example, in Captain Marvel, the cat has a stone. Well… so does Thanos… but also now Loki… There is a lot going on and even a whole (if well delivered) exposition still didn’t completely cover all their bases. It feels like they slapped it together at random at times. I get that they can play with the timeline literally but I feel like there were still a lot of open questions that should have been answered that weren’t.

I could rewatch all the movies (read as: will eventually) to get the full context. This makes the act of enjoying these films more academic though than just for pleasure viewing. It’s not that I don’t want to do this but for casual viewers, there was a lot of backstories to keep up with to get each nod.

The Ugly:

After years of hearing that fans want more women characters, the film tried to give them the limelight for an action sequence. The rest of the film is mostly about a boys’ club rushing around doing action hero stuff. Yes, Nebula and Black Widow make important contributions to the plot but they feel sidelined or overshadowed by the boys. The problem here is that the women are treated more like set dressing than people important to the plot to move ahead. If Spiderman had finished running the Infinity Glove to the van it would have served the same device. Instead, they made a big show of having the girls team up for a few seconds.

Supposedly this movie was gonna have a “Big Gay Film Moment” TM that would make people happen. Instead, it just suggested that gay people do actually exist. IDK man, like that, is a pretty cold take. If Warmachine and Bucky had started making out after the big fight I would have been cheering my head off. I’m not upset by any means. This is more of a missed opportunity for the filmmakers to do something and instead, they took the safest path.

  Hope you weren’t invested in Starlord and Gamora cause that entire trio of films is pretty much null now so far as character development for Gammy. She had an awesome arc. Then they killed her off. Then she comes back but now she doesn’t know Quill. Okay, well this means that other dead people come back… right? Oh, no? Vision and Black Widow are still gone? Weird… I heard this is cause they were killed pre-Snap BUT so was Gamora and they got her back. I think they were just running out of time. I hope Scarlet Witch gets to go back to her robo-boyfriend.

Was that all just a wild middle finger to Gunn? That’d be drama.

The funeral… why isn’t anyone crying? Everyone seems so calm. Is this like when you have already been to like six superhero funerals that week and five are already back on their feet?

I told myself I wasn’t gonna cry.

Characters:

Alright, so this film had way too many characters to really cover perfectly as a group. I have some stray thoughts on several, however.

Hulk is my new boyfriend and I will fight you for him. Banner has made peace with himself and created a half-way point between Hulk and himself. Now he is permanently strong and smart. This is wonderful for character development as he finally finds the peace and belonging that he has wanted since Edward Norton tore up downtown as the rage-y green giant. His new hipster persona felt satisfying and fresh for the film universe. Something of a reversal of the Ragnarok Hulk.

Captain America finally bangs and accepts his position as “America’s Ass”. I’m so proud of my boy. He’s all grown up.

It took Iron Man a decade but Tony Stark finally discovered how to care about something other than himself. His character arc is the film universe’s arc to this point. He was the foundation for everything that came after. This film serves as much an Iron Man movie as it is an Avengers’.

Black Widow kind of gets the shaft here. She began as a coldhearted assassin and ends up as the corporate mom leading the heroes’ home base. There is so much to still unpack for her. Her character has so much potential just under the surface but no one seems to be interested digging into it. I mean Scarlett Johansson “kills” in the role but this movie doesn’t really give her anything to do except talk to Hawkeye…

Hawkeye tried to be the Marvel Aquaman comeback kid and he just comes off as edgy but not in a good way. More like a midlife crisis day buys a motorcycle than the Crow. Like, he tries to make it sound like his entire career of being an assassin was more good than being an assassin now. He does get a brutal back story but I feel like he falls short of reaching his character potential here. He does get some cool scenes and then just gets shoved to the back of the movie.

Thor is bae. He has a brutal journey to this movie but he gets a lot of character work here. His beer belly hermit hijinks provide a much needed comedic break. I also cried like a baby over him.

Rocket has finally gotten some growth as a person. In this movie, he gets to interact with the core team more. This was a lot of fun because of his sass with characters like Iron Man. Also, he finally dons his iconic blue flight suit and red scarf–not important but it was a fun Easter egg.

It only took two Guardians and an Avengers but they finally let Karen Gillan really make Nebula rule. Gillan is a fabulous actor so it was always painful that Nebula just ran around screaming. In Endgame, she finally gets to have some real personal moments that don’t feel weird. Paper football was the best scene honestly for the emotion and narrative. I mean, her whole career as a sour rage junky comes to a boiling point and then she FINALLY gets to open up the tiniest bit with Tony. I really hope there is something… anything in the future where she gets to be this new fun Nebula. It’s like your weird aunt went on vacation and actually had some personal growth and brings you back some neat shells and a guy named Desmond for herself.

Ant-Man got some funny moments in but nothing to really write home about. He was our Joe McEverydude here and it worked fine. I’m baffled at the taco scene but it was worth it for Hipster Hulk to share with him. Like, I know Scott Lang as a character isn’t super bright. That’s his whole thing. But, I just can’t understand what would drive him to go outside the fancy building to eat tacos on a bench facing the jet landing pad.

Warmachine got some interesting developments here. I’m sad now that he didn’t get to build a romance with Nebula (that is just barely suggested here). He felt like a full member of the team rather than just a sidekick from movies past.

The Falcon & Bucky were there. I really wish there had been some kind of closure or growth moment for them. In Winter Soldier, they were at each other’s neck. Now they seem cool. A friendly word or a high five could have sold me on their growth but they kind of get forgotten instead. I was never gonna see my Falcon-Bucky slash make it to the silver screen but would it have killed the Russos to have one heated kiss between these two obviously boyfriend material lads.

**EDIT** —–> THERE IS A SPIN OF THESE DORKS. OMG.

Alright. I’m psyched for this.

Captain Marvel comes in at the end of this list just like she did in the movie. That’s right, she shows up as a Deus ex Machina and looks cool but really got burned here. She deserved better. She just drops in for a minute to help and then jets. Still cool but she gets no development here. Her movie rules though so I’m gonna forgive it. Mostly. That said, it was wild to see basically an Amy Dangerous on screen and that was special for me.

Closing Thoughts:

It was a really fun movie. I may never watch it again. Just like the other Avengers, it’s a good time but it feels more like a spectacle than a great film. That’s not bad but when I watch a film, I wanna see characters grown in new unexpected ways. I want to see hard choices and emotions. Those moments were there but as little islands between big budget action scenes. I really enjoyed it but for the same amount of time, I might just watch Ragnorok again or Detective Pikachu. Finishing this movie felt like the end of a long (20 movie) hike. It was a great adventure. The fun of it was the friends we made along the way. I don’t regret a minute of it.

But it feels good to be at the end.

For now.

Endgame Thoughts I finally watched Endgame. I'd put it off a week since its release. It felt like planning to attend a funeral.

[celticheartedfangirl]

Some thoughts on A&E and the Rumbelle fandom as we head into the finale . . . . .

First of all, I’m very grateful for Rumbelle for many reasons -- the best being it sparked my writing muse again and that it’s brought me many new, wonderful friends.  I’m grateful it was created and it exists and will CONTINUE to exist for decades to come in fanfic.  (All you folks worried about no more fic or art -- fandom doesn’t work that way.  If this is your first fandom experience, you will still be able to find Rumbelle stuff when you’re in your 70′s to show to your grandchildren. Count on it.)

All that being said . . . . I’d like to address two things in this post: The way that A&E handled Rumbelle and the way the fandom reacted to it.

First A&E:

I’m convinced that A&E fully intended for Skin Deep to be a one off episode.  They had no intention of exploring the pairing further, and only did so because of fan reaction.  There is absolutely ZERO evidence to the contrary.  In fact, all evidence in their subsequent writing proves me RIGHT.  They wanted Rumple to be and remain a shady character until the end, and with a character like Belle as his love interest, that wasn’t possible.  Which is why they constantly had to find ways to fridge Belle and break them up.  They couldn’t figure out a way to write her into the narrative without making adjustments to the story.  And they REFUSED to budge on that one sticking point: Rumple.  They were willing to budge on everything else but him.  (See: Neal Cassidy.  I won’t go into that here, you know what I’m talking about.  That’s just ONE example.)  

I also don’t think that A&E really understood how popular Beauty and the Beast were and ARE and I don’t think they grasped that a BatB story should NEVER be a one off.  They aren’t side characters, there are and always should have been a power couple on the show.  But A&E dug in their heels and refused to acknowledge that.  That was a serious mistake on their part.  Not only fandom, but the GA was willing to embrace them, as a complex couple.  

If we’d had a better writing team, we would have gotten that.  But we didn’t and now here we are.  We’re approaching what is possibly the end of the series, and PROBABLY the end of canon Rumbelle.  And the fandom is no more secure than it was when the pairing first took off.  It’s very frustrating and aggravating and I really wish A&E could see how utterly cruel they come off in regard to Rumbelle.  Especially Eddy.  

Speaking of the fandom . . . . . ahem . . . . . where do I begin?

The Rumbelle fandom took a VERY sharp turn in S4 and has become more and more fractured over the last two years.  We have factions, we have this group that hates that group and this group that won’t even acknowledge that those people are even IN the Rumbelle fandom and we have fandom policing and people blocking people left and right -- I just don’t get it.  

For those of you who hate me (and are only seeing this because someone you don’t hate reblogged this and you’re quietly cursing them for doing so because now my shit is on your dash) -- here’s a fun fact for you:

There’s a blog out there called @bellematters.  This blog was created in S3 by a Belle fan who has loved Belle since seeing BatB, who has been inspired by Belle and who was even moved to LEAVE HER ABUSIVE HUSBAND because of Belle.  Belle changed that person’s life.  She was tired of seeing Belle constantly shafted and sidelined and basically treated like an unimportant entity by the writers.

I AM THAT PERSON.  I CREATED THIS BLOG.

I walked away from the blog last year and left it to the other mod who volunteered to help me, because I could no longer support who Belle had become on the show.  I didn’t like the way she was written, I didn’t like the way she was being portrayed (no offense to Emilie -- I just felt very chilled by some of her performances from 4B on, I’m sorry), and I especially didn’t like actual words that my former abuser had said to ME coming out of my hero’s mouth.  

But don’t you DARE tell me I don’t love Belle.  I fucking ADORE Belle.  I could write a whole dissertation on how this character literally saved my life.  

Because I chose to point out that Belle was being written OOC, that she was being mean, saying mean things, doing mean things, and often displaying hypocritical behavior -- I was blocked.  I was shunned.  And so were many of my friends who were also seeing what I was seeing.

I really hope, when all is said and done, that somehow the Rumbelle fandom can rebuild and stop with the infighting and taking sides and all of that nonsense, and it IS nonsense.  It is stupid.  And it’s very naive to think that the people who ship the same thing you do should only ship it in the exact same WAY you ship it.  I really thought the Rumbelle fandom was bigger than that. I wasn’t asking anyone to agree with my perspective.  I was simply asking that people understand that it EXISTS and it’s just as valid as your perspective. It especially frustrates me when people who have me blocked that I don’t have blocked (I have THREE Rumbellers blocked -- literally THREE.  There are reasons for that beyond “I don’t like their attitude.” If you can reply to this post, you aren’t one of them.) reblogging and liking my posts.  Or seeing them on Twitter saying EXACTLY what I’ve been fucking saying over here.  Cause we’re really not that different.  I just have a more cynical viewpoint.  I’m an old lady who still fangirls and I’ve got a different perspective on things because I’ve been burned BADLY in my fangirl life and never have I been burned by writers more than I have been with Rumbelle. And yeah, that pisses me off, because I really thought maybe I had found a ship that wasn’t going to screw me over in the end.  Sue me.  

So I’m putting an olive branch out there to anyone who has me blocked, shunned, whatever -- come into my inbox and ask me stuff.  You can do it on anon, I’m fine with that.  I usually don’t like anons for stuff like this but in this case I will make an exception because I’d really like to see the fandom be a united front and not a divided mess, and that’s not going to happen if we don’t start talking to each other without judgment.

http://charmedrumbelle.tumblr.com/ask

Finally . . . . . remember the @rumbellelibrary?  Yeah, that was me too.  I kind of abandoned that in S4 because A) my then laptop was on the fritz and I couldn’t deal with it plus I was having difficult issues with my life in general, and then B) I found myself not caring because of all of the reasons I just listed above.

That is NOT a side blog.  It is an individual blog because at the time I created it I didn’t understand that side blogs were a thing.  (I’ve mentioned I’m OLD right?) 

After much thought, I’ve decided I’m not going to return to running that blog.  Ever.  And since it’s a dormant URL, I think anyone who is interested can take it over.  If you want it -- it’s yours.  It’s up for grabs.  Take it.  Rework it, delete it, do whatever you want with it.  I’m sure someone can do something with it -- if not, it will remain a Tumblr relic.  I’m just not interested.  I want to focus on my own fanfic and my original stories that I’m writing and I don’t have the time for it.  

All I ask if you do take over the library is that you please don’t block anyone, no matter how much you dislike them or disagree with them.  I made that blog for everyone.  Please respect that.  

If you want the blog and are having trouble claiming it (I really don’t know how that works) please let me know and I’ll find a way to get it into your hands.  

Whatever happens on the show this week, I’m pretty sure that I, personally, won’t be happy about it.  The show has burned me, personally, too much to enjoy it any longer.  But I’m still a Rumbeller.  I always will be.  And so will the people that enjoy the outcome.  We all love Rumbelle --- shouldn’t that be the thing that matters most?  

[arkus-rhapsode]

Fairy Tail Chapter 524 review

Alright lets dive into chapter 524 “Black Future”

Our cover page is Cana and yes we’ve gone back to glamour shots.  Also Cana seems to have Midnight’s reflector magic given the way the city is bending.

We open with Acnologia’s return and hopefully some actual quality will return to the narrative.

Okay points to Mashima for remembering that no one except Zeref and Irene know Acnologia has a human form.Also just walking past Erza like a mother fucking boss. Only way to make it better is if he had one arm out like he did with God Serena

Okay lets all be fair after the shit Irene put us all through for 4 weeks, tell me who wouldn’t want to do this to her.

Don’t know how this is a sin but hey maybe we’ll get more on it.

So we cut away to Natsu and Zeref’s fight.

So after a few pages of some decent action we get Zeref’s monologue.

Okay first, I did a whole post theorizing Natsu and Zeref’s power and I’ll just sum it up that in term of strength Natsu and Zeref are equal but due to the fact Zeref is Immortal there really is no way to win. So I don’t think Natsu is too outclassed here.

Also Natsu says here “the power of Me”. Now that does seem out of character as Natsu seems to talk a whole lot of the power of Fairy Tail, but you know what, I’m glad it’s something different. That a character actually has total confidence in their own strength to justify why they can win.

Yeah Zeref I know you want to die but I don’t think it was your goal to wipe out humanity. You wanted to die with Acnologia but the power of Fairy Heart would destroy everyone when released.

We cut to August vs Gildarts and Cana

Say August I’m surprised how up your majesty’s ass you are, tell me what’s it smell like.

THANK YOU CANA! See we needed more moments like this especially because honestly we’ve heard this shit from Natsu, Lucy, Erza and Wendy so many times it doesn’t matter but when we have side characters declaring they’ll protect what’s precious to them it actually seems like this war means something, that it isn’t just a fight for team natsu it’s a fight for everyone. Now I do think this could’ve been stronger if say a character from another guild like Lyon or Kagura said this but y’know Cana hasn’t gotten to do anything so I’m good with this.

YES YES YES

Oh come on!

Seriously why can’t this ever work on people? Okay with Bluenote I was okay with it because we had Cana getting a brand new power and she doesn’t know how to use it. But come on she’s used it since and to great effect.

Wow this really is the Bluenote fight all over again, Fairy Glitter fails and Gildarts now has to fight back. Also I know it sounds cheesy with “not knowing the magic of love” but remember in this series magic is influenced heavily through people’s emotions and love is a very strong one, I just hope it doesn’t become totally cheesy. Also August if you’re a master of all magic do you have some lost magic. Because it seems you’re a master of only well known magic granted that is a large variety. Also next chapter we are going to most likely go a get something on Larcade, thank god.

Post Chapter follow up: this was a okay chapter. I’ll get my cons outta the way. Why can’t Cana and Fairy Glitter ever do a damn thing against people. It’s not even like Hiro hasn’t made Cana look cool before, he has,but when it comes to fights she usually gets shafted. So this big moment of using FairyGlitter feels like a waste. It be better if Cana used Fairy Gltter and August took damage and was able to stand up to it would affirm that he is Gildarts level but also give the side character some credit for weakening him.

My other issue is just a nitpick but Zeref even seems to be conflicted again. I know he’s this being of contradiction but now it’s starting to get too confusing at this point.

But on the plus side, I really like the atmosphere of everyone feeling Acnologia’s power, it’s just great tension building. Also Acnologia stomping on Irene is just so great.

The fights are pretty good and I actually like Natsu vs Zeref having Natsu say I believe in my power because while it is something that seems out of character and out of the series message, it still is something different and nice to see.

Cana standing up to August is great but as I said it could’ve been stronger if another character from another guild did it to once again show that this war affects everyone.

Final Verdict: 6/10

Just above average

I Do dislike the pointlessness of Fairy Glitter

The tension is still strong

action was pretty good

[recentanimenews]

Crunchyroll Favorites 2017: Anime and Manga

Another great year for anime! It's our sixth year of Crunchyroll Favorites so we'll be sharing what we loved most with another three-part series on the highlights from the past year! Part One is anime and manga released in 2017 by our newswriters, features contributors, and staff, so let's get into it!

  PETER FOBIAN (@PeterFobian)

Land of the Lustrous: I discovered the first volume of the manga at Kodansha’s booth at Anime Expo and read it three times through before the convention was finished. Ichikawa’s panel compositions and the world she created are absolutely riveting and studio Orange did a tremendous job adapting the work to 3D animation. Through these alien gem creatures Ichikawa is digging for the root of human nature, peeling away our superficial layers like an onion. We haven't reached the center yet, but there have been plenty of tears...

Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju: I loved the period drama of the first season of Rakugo and the second season brings it home with one of the most intense personal narratives I've seen. Ever. We’re treated to the conclusion of a story spanning 50 years as Bon’s tragic past shapes his interactions with the next generation of his craft and the future of their niche form of theater hanging in the balance. Some of the scenes will never ever leave you as long as you live. Rakugo shows you all the pain and beauty, the fear and love, that make up lives which these performers pour into their work.

Eccentric Family: An anime that’s difficult to describe, revealing the secret supernatural world just beyond notice but every bit a part of the unique culture of Kyoto. The eccentric family is the Shimogamo clan of tanuki who often find themselves at the center of otherworldly politics. This series spent much more time on Yasaburo’s brothers and gave us a new perspective on the mysterious and fickle Benten. The climax left us in an odd place but the experience of this season was unforgettable, with highs among the floating pleasure ships of the fire festival and lows reaching into the depths of hell.

March comes in like a lion: The first season of this personal drama following a young shogi prodigy carrying the burden of chronic depression deeply resonated with me and the second season hasn’t missed a beat, delivering what may be the most heartbreaking subplot of the entire series. Every cloud has a silver lining, as rallying together against tragic circumstances begins to break down the barriers Rei built between himself and others. Beautifully animated by SHAFT, this series has been a pleasure to follow.

In This Corner of the World: There are movies that you have to hold yourself together through and movies that don’t leave you the leeway to do anything but shatter into a million pieces. Five years in the making and painstakingly researched to ensure historical accuracy in every single frame. It’s dedication to realism ensured a story of both tragedy and humor, with a laser focus on the small injustices that war commits against the common people. The transition from comedy to tragedy is so insidiously slow, by the time you notice it's already too late.

A Silent Voice: I was lucky enough to discover both the manga and the anime this year. For a high school drama, A Silent Voice may be one of the most ambitious stories I’ve ever read, fearlessly and compassionately tackling tremendous social issues with a story told from the perspective of someone who has both committed and become the victim of immense cruelty. Accepting you will never experience certain joys of life and seeking redemption for stealing them from others is the heart and soul of this story.

The Ancient Magus Bride: I can't overstate how deeply touching I found this manga. Chise's journey from empty pessimism to empowerment is fascinating and fulfilling. Seeing her learn to find joy in life through helping others and, through their interaction with her, finding a way to value herself is immensely compelling. Her empathetic joy when helping others find happiness is palpable and her resultant overcorrection to an indivdual who is recklessly altruistic feels genuine and organic. 

Made in Abyss: Not quite the immense narrative experience of any of my other top picks, Made in Abyss nevertheless makes it into this list for the spectacle of the series. A beautifully conceived world presented with all the care and beauty of a Ghibli production with wonderful additions like nightmarish creatures animated by Koh Yoshinari in his signature style, giving them the feeling of being out of place. Learning more about this immense pit is a fascinating experience with a few scenes of such intensity or tragedy that you’ll be thinking about them for weeks.

Happiness: One of the newest manga by Shizu Oshimi, the creator of Flowers of Evil. This is one of my favorite finds of the year, beginning with a premise similar to Tokyo Ghoul but taking it into the darker direction I was hoping for in Ishia’s work. Oshimi uses a dreamlike style to articulate the vampire’s perception of the night and impressionistic images to describe their thirst, creating a wonderfully surreal and disturbing experience. The most recent volume completely pulled the rug out from under the story in the best way.

The Promised Neverland: Probably the most tragically underrepresented title in Shonen Jump, The Promised Neverland finally had a physical release to allow us to read past the first three chapters available on VIZ’s website. It has all of the clinically exact scheming of Death Note set in a story not unlike a German fairytale. The children of an orphanage set in an idyllic countryside discover a dark purpose behind their home’s happy facade. Describing too much willl run the fun, but this manga has some panels that make your heart stop after turning the page.

  MILES THOMAS (@MilesExpress999)

Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju: I don’t think it’s unfair to call Rakugo Shinju the most compelling drama I’ve ever seen in any medium. Season 2 had a lot to live up to, but luckily for us viewers, [spoilers] Sukeroku and Miyokichi would not be truly dead until Kikuhiko died as well [/spoilers], allowing the story to evolve with the times and its new cast without abandoning the relationships that made me call the first season “perfect" as well.

The Eccentric Family: While there’s some part of me that’s sad that I went into 2017 with a pretty good understanding of what my two favorites would be, the rest of me is very very very happy to have gotten a second season of The Eccentric Family. The pain, the joy, and the unending sense of family from the first season are back in full force, an accomplishment I thought would be impossible without the framing from the first season…but I guess I’ve underestimated this gem twice now.

In This Corner of the World: Though this film was not originally released in 2017, this was the year it got its Western release, and I would have absolutely included it last year had I gotten the chance. In This Corner of the World is on my shortlist of animated films that use the medium to create something more real and lifelike than any other medium could provide, and uses this power to tell a desperately heartbreaking story that’s heightened by the movie’s slice-of-life elements.

Kino’s Journey ~Life is Beautiful~ The Animation: The first Kino’s Journey was one of the pivotal series in my life as an anime fan - it helped me overcome my disdain for episodic series, opening my eyes to the beauty and skill that go into crafting a narrative tightly restricted by broadcast time slots. I’ve seen a lot of commentary about how this show doesn’t capture the magic of the original, but having rewatched the first season recently, I can’t disagree strongly enough - the new aesthetic may not have the storybook feeling of the first edition, but the stories are just as good or better, with one or two notable exceptions aside. A Kino’s Journey that holds a candle to the original in terms of its parables would be one of my favorite anime of the year…but one that can sometimes exceed it is absolutely worthy of the top of my list.

Saga of Tanya the Evil: While she was reviewing my list (her top picks are Land of the Lustrous and ACCA, for those curious), my wife was most surprised about this inclusion, particularly its spot so high among my favorites. Of everything on my list, Tanya is probably the most “anime” of them all…but that’s exactly why I love it. Tanya doesn’t really dwell on tropes, not exactly. But everything that Tanya *does* do feels exclusive to the world of anime, from its obsession with the minutiae  of battlefield strategy to its…small young girl protagonist. And Tanya loves these things with intense conviction, and because of that, I do too.

Made in Abyss: For as many series as there are with an adventure at the center, I’ve found few that actually capture the spirit of adventure. Made in Abyss’s greatest strength was just that: the slow but satisfying sense of progression, the exploration of the unknown - this was a real adventure, the kind so enthralling that it’s usually the backstory before the “real story” begins.

ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept: I never expected that my competing interests of the intricacies of government bureaucracy and Natsume Ono would ever share the screen, but here we are. ACCA is a weird one to watch and recommend due to its pacing and general vibe - you’re not going to want to binge this, and for me at least, it demanded a certain mood from me as a viewer - but if you’re willing to give ACCA a little of yourself, it’ll give you far more back in return.

Girls’ Last Tour: I don’t have much to say about Girls’ Last Tour. It makes me happy. It’ll make you happy too.

Princess Principal: When I saw the PV for Princess Principal, I had no personal expectations for the title. Neither the steampunk aesthetics nor the character designs held much interest to me, and even though I adore pulpy spy stories as a rule and had fallen in love with Director Masaki Tachibana’s previous effort, Barakamon, this gave a more similar vibe to Studio 3Hz’s underwhelming Dimension W than anything else. I couldn’t have been more wrong. My fondness for Princess Principal is simple: it was the most fun I had watching anime all year long. It was stylish, it was sensational, it made me buy into every character beat and silly storyline, and I am ready for more.

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: This slot has rotated between Sakura Quest, Land of the Lustrous, My Hero Academia, and Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, but I had to go with KyoAni’s charming domestic comedy. Out of all the anime I’ve watched this year, this made me feel the most vulnerable, the most charmed, the most satisfied after every episode. Some people have Hallmark Movies, some have Chicken Soup for the Soul, but I have Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, and I would never want to give it up.

  RENE KAYSER (@kayserlein)

Interviews with Monster Girls: One of the series I didn’t really expect to mean anything for me at the start of the year turned out to be one of my favorites. While I was skeptical at first (the only major monster girl show in recent memory had been a raunchy harem, after all), I was quickly drawn in by its message of acceptance and understanding each other through open dialogue. Combine this with smart tackling of tackling cultural prejudices by substituting them with mythological beings and you get a show whose heart really displays the benefits of simply listening to each other some more.

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: This one’s a easy pick for most of us, I assume. Not only is Kyoto Animation home to some of the best animators in the industry to begin with but what we’re getting here is simply breathtaking in its earnestness. Providing the perfect blend of cute, silly and the little bit of seriousness it needs to really hit you, Miss Kobayashi is really the perfect guide on How to Date your Dragon. (Also, how could I refuse Kanna a spot on this list?)

My Hero Academia: A show I wasn’t really interested in at the start. We didn’t get it on CR here in Germany, so I skipped on the first season back in the day - but oh boy, do I regret that! Talk of the Tournament Arc got me interested to finally check the series out and the way it handles its characters and plot so completely new and outright earnest fit my personal taste so well that I got out to buy all manga volumes the Monday after my binge weekend. Sometimes, you just do have to give in to the hype … people might know what they’re screaming at you about~

The Ancient Magus’ Bride: It’s hard to give a definitive judgment on this adaptation of Kore Yamazaki’s manga since it hasn’t finished airing yet - but what we did get until now has simply been magical (yes, it’s the easy pun. Let me have this!). Its source material was already wonderful but the anime not only adapted it perfectly, it outright improved on it with fantastic direction and the best soundtrack anime has gotten all year. This will be a show we’ll talk about many years down the line, I am sure of it!

Dragon Ball Super: I wasn’t expecting much since the buzz at the start of the show had been low (mainly due to them retelling both recent movies) but once we got past the first two arcs, DBS gave me what I never knew I wanted: A combination of the fights of Z and the silliness of the original Dragon Ball. It doesn’t have the intensity of the Cell saga, but certainly got me back in front of my TV each weekday like I used to during my school days.

  KARA DENNISON (@rubycosmos)

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Before this series came out, I had no idea I needed a dragon maid harem show in my life. Unexpectedly silly and adorable in all the right places -- and I might be Miss Kobayashi. I can neither confirm nor deny. Please give it a try, even if your first instinct is that it’s not “your style.”

The Ancient Magus’ Bride: Several of this got to see this at Crunchyroll Expo, and we were wowed by everything from the story to the animation to the unique score. I especially loved the dig into English folklore, something I don’t often get to see done well in anime.

The Laughing Salesman: It’s dismal, cynical, and extremely dark. So of course I loved it. The return to the classic, Doraemon-styled series was a weird and wonderful watch. The jazzy opening by NakamuraEmi is never leaving my playlist.

Interviews with Monster Girls: This was another unexpected hit. What looked like a harem series turned out to be a wonderful metaphor for living with disability. As someone who suffers from several pre-existing conditions myself, I’ve pointed to specific episodes as ways to help my friends understand things I go through. This deserves much more attention than it ever got.

Anime-Gataris: What if Otaku no Video but with lots more girls? The off-brand anime titles and passionate love of the genre are the best things about this show. But I love the character designs, the self-effacing humor, and the music. Oh, and Neko-sensei. Of course.

Kino’s Journey: The return to Kino’s adventures was done just right. I was a big fan of the earlier series, and there’s always a bit of worry when you see a new version of something you loved. But it was like coming home and seeing that your room’s been left as it alway was. Comforting and a bit weird, just the way I like it.

WILHELM DONKO (@surwill)

Tsukigakirei: What at first glance might’ve looked like a plain teenage romance story, turned out to be quite the refreshing surprise. Tsukigakirei broke with some often annoying genre conventions, and really managed to tell a genuinely charming and well-constructed story about adolescent love, which surely many of us found highly relatable. The anime is one of the few actually exploring all of the difficulties and hardships a young couple has to face during their first relationship. While the show’s animation was a bit wonky at times and didn’t fully hold up, the backgrounds were always beautiful to look at.

In This Corner of the World: A visually stunning movie with an inspiring story about a young woman who always tried to keep a positive outlook on life, even during the most horrible times imaginable. The movie’s highly accurate depiction of Hiroshima and the nearby port town of Kure during the times of war will surely leave no-one indifferent. I first got to watch it on a flight to Japan, and it had such a strong impact on me that I just couldn’t get it out of my head for the whole duration of my trip.

Love Live! Sunshine!!: I’ve already poured too much time, tears, and money into this franchise, that I couldn’t have possibly left it out of my list this year. The second season is just as goofy, cheesy, and melodramatic as the first one was, and managed to further strengthen the bond of the already tight-knit idol group. I’m also glad that the show gave some of the characters I wasn’t so fond of more time in the spotlight this season. All of Aqours’ songs were already a significant step up compared to the Muse ones in terms of CG, but this season’s performances have been looking especially pretty. Yousoro~

The Eccentric Family: What a fantastic return! Finally seeing Yasaburo again, lazing around and being up to no good, really made me realize just how much I missed The Eccentric Family. I’m glad that we got to spend some more time in the show’s magical and whimsical rendition of Kyoto, in which humans, the noble tengus, and the furry tanukis all go about their daily lives, trying to coexist, and not end up in a hot pot.

Land of the Lustrous: I basically knew next to nothing about Land of the Lustrous going in, and while I figured from the trailers that the show would offer some beautiful imagery, a fantastic soundtrack, and a unique setting, I was simply not expecting these characters to be such utterly lovable idiots. Outside of the numerous action highlights, and the straight-up stunning backgrounds, this highly likeable cast of gemstones really turned this into one of my favorite shows of the year.

Gabriel DropOut: A show about fallen angels and good-natured demons attending a regular high school in Japan. That kind of absurd setup naturally leads to countless hilarious scenarios, skits, and plenty of running gags, which made this my favorite comedy of the year. Especially the dynamic between the vainly villainous future queen of hell, Satania, and the mischievous angel, Raphiel, made the show so consistently entertaining to watch.

NICK CREAMER (@b0bduh)

Rakugo: Following up on a stellar first season, Rakugo’s second half offered more of the thoughtful character drama and stirring performance setpieces that make this show so special. Rakugo’s second season was ultimately less tightly composed than the first, but still a wonderful time. I’m excited to see whatever its director Shinichi Omata cooks up next.

The Eccentric Family: Like Rakugo, the second season couldn’t quite live up to the strength of the first. Fortunately, even a slightly less good Eccentric Family is still one of the best shows around, offering a gorgeous magical realist vision of a Kyoto not so distant from our own. I will never get tired of watching Yasaburou and his strange companions navigate the many perils of duty, family, and pursuing a life well-lived.

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: I really didn’t expect a show about a dragon who’s also a maid to be this good. Not only was Dragon Maid one of the strongest comedies of the year, and a beautifully composed show on the whole, but it also turned out to be one of the most poignant family dramas I’ve seen. Come for the goofy dragon shenanigans, stay for the cozy familial love.

March comes in like a lion: Whether you focus on the tail half of season one or the opening salvo of season two, March comes in like a lion delivered striking psychological drama, compelling sports action, and cozy family scenes all year long. Even if its visual execution was a little inconsistent, the fundamental strength of March’s dramatic material was just too consistent to ignore.

Made in Abyss: Fighting hard for the throne of most beautiful show of the year, Made in Abyss also excelled as a starry-eyed paean to adventure. The show’s titular abyss was such an intriguing mystery that every episode felt far too short, and I can only hope we’re soon able to continue following Rico and Reg into the depths of their fascinating world.

Just Because!: A painfully accurate evocation of the end of adolescence, the moment when you realize you’re not a kid anymore, but aren’t really sure what you are now instead. Its thoughtful characterization result in a romantic drama that sometimes feels too relatable to be enjoyable, offering one of the most well-observed character stories of the year.

Owarimonogatari: Monogatari’s final act has plenty of its own pleasures, but I find it most impressive for how well it ties together years and years of buildup material. The conclusion to Monogatari feels so right to this story that I couldn’t imagine it ending any other way. A fine conclusion to one of anime’s greatest modern sagas.

My Hero Academia S2: The second season builds on the great strengths of its source material to offer one of the best shounen action platforms in years. The show doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but instead iterates beautifully on a well-worn template, demonstrating that a Shonen Jump story told right is still a wonderful thing.

Kemono Friends: Rising from the humblest of origins in terms of both project genesis and creative resources, Kemono Friends somehow turned out to be one of the best stories of the year. Offering a consistent combination of comfy slice of life, surprisingly sharp comedy, and subtly strong scifi, it ultimately overcomes its rags-to-riches reputation by virtue of its consistent, no-caveats-required narrative excellence.

Land of the Lustrous: Combining deliriously active CG action with phenomenal art direction, great psychological drama, and intriguing worldbuilding, Land of the Lustrous may offer the most altogether impressive package of any show this year. From its comedy to its characterization to its philosophy to its fights, Land of the Lustrous offers something for everyone, excelling in every single thing it tries.

  THOMAS ZOTH (@ABCBTom)

GARO -VANISHING LINE-: Bringing the dark atmosphere and stylish action of GARO to a very New York City-like setting and multiracial cast and the results are much more up my alley. The series is only halfway complete but I feel comfortable in saying the series will deliver all the way. And best of all, you don’t have to be familiar with any other Garo series to jump in: The connections between series are reminiscent of Final Fantasy’s shared mythos of designs and motifs.

Made in Abyss: This series is almost universally celebrated now, but when it was first announced, those familiar with the manga spoke in whispers about how brutal it was- and those fans weren’t wrong. But Made in Abyss earns its impact by crafting a breathtaking and terrifying world. None of the shocks are cheap- they’re earned, and the TV series edges up against a near theatrical level of craft. Not to be missed.

Land of the Lustrous: One of the first 3DCG anime to earn my grudging respect, Lustrous is noteworthy for other reasons. It’s based on a brilliant, compelling manga that mixes horror and preciousness in a strikingly unique way. Main character Phos is a terrible brat, but she is a terrible brat for all of us sinners. Sakuga purists might be tempted to pass on this due to its CG animation or facile comparisons to Steven Universe, but this would be a terrible mistake. Another must-see in a stunning year.

Anime-Gataris: An amazingly patient anime. The premise teases that the anime club that stars in the series is ignoring an impending apocalypse, but the anime merely hints at larger phenomenon slowly, giving you a funny, updated Genshiken for a more internationalized anime audience. The latest episodes show that the writers do intend to deliver on their insane narrative promise, and the series looks headed for a metafictional explosion the likes of which hasn’t been seen since Samurai Flamenco. I am thrilled and love every minute of this series.

The night is short walk on girl: I was fortunate enough to see this at the AnimeFest premiere in Dallas, having not seen Tatami Galaxy, an anime from the same original author. My enjoyment was not hurt in the least, and I was treated to a fantastic night of sights and sounds that brought to mind comparisons with Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer, one of my favorite anime ever. It’s a fantastic experience and one I hope US audiences are able to see with a license and theatrical run ASAP!

Goshogun: the time etranger: A fantastic, bizarre existential horror film from the director of the Pokemon movie franchise. Loosely based on a mecha series, pilot Remy Shimada finds herself in a foreign land, in a country ruled by a suicidal cult… but really she’s comatose, struggling for life after a near-fatal car accident. A bizarre and somewhat hammy mix of action, horror, childhood flashback, and relationship drama, there’s really no other film like this. Kudos for Discotek for bringing this passion project on Blu-ray.

  JOSEPH LUSTER (@Moldilox)

My Hero Academia: No single show got me as unabashedly hyped up on a weekly basis as My Hero Academia did this year. I haven’t been keeping up with the manga, which is something I aim to fix soon, but for my money BONES has done a better job than most in bringing shonen action, drama, and heart to explosively colorful life.

Made in Abyss: I was kind of wary going into this series, especially since the character designs did absolutely nothing for me. Any doubts were quickly washed away as I got sucked into a harrowing, and occasionally upsetting journey into unexplored depths. Despite the direction in which our plucky protagonists are headed, the staff at Kinema Citrus managed to hit some real highs along the way, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Attack on Titan: The wait for Attack on Titan season 2 was more colossal than any of its towering terrors, so how could it possibly live up to all the excitement? That’s what I thought until I got a few episodes in and found myself enamored by the twists and turns all over again. A few of the big reveals are pulled off in unconventional ways that I think we’ll look back on even more favorably in the future.

In This Corner of the World: It’s been years since I watched a truly stirring anime film, and Sunao Katabuchi’s In This Corner of the World totally fits the bill. Equal parts gorgeous and heartbreaking, this is one of those movies you shouldn’t hesitate to show to your anime-adverse friends or family members.

  ISAAC AKERS (@iblessall)

Land of the Lustrous: I don’t even remember at this point what got me to check out the first volume of the Land of the Lustrous manga. Probably it was just an off-hand tweet. Whatever it was, though, I’m grateful – because this story, both the beautiful manga and stunning anime adaptation, is exactly the sort of thing I come to this subculture for. I won’t say it was made for me, as that always feels like a rather presumptuous statement, but gosh dang, Land of the Lustrous sure is exactly my kind of thing.

Alice & Zoroku: If you ask me, Alice & Zoroku is the most underrated show of the year, a simultaneously adorable, emotional, and ultimately important work that holds up children as the precious beings they are—capable of incredible empathy, possessing of stunning potential, and worth protecting, cherishing, and guiding. The show’s unflagging belief in this principle and its commitment to showing it in action brought me to tears time and time again. It was truly beautiful.

New Game!!: As a creator, the first season of New Game! hit me hard with its reflection on working in a creative job, the challenges that come with wanting to improve, and the difficult dynamics between fellow creators. The sequel season was somewhat less focused on these aspects as it explored other themes, but when it returned to them, it did so with incredible impact—and those powerful moments are the ones I’m going to remember most.

Knight’s & Magic: This show gets it. It gets the giddiness of loving giant robots, the way the desire to share the exhilaration watching these fictional machines spills out, and the positive effects a healthy personal fandom can have on others. It’s rare that we get shows whose primary charm is just how darn good-natured they are, but that is certainly the case for Knight’s & Magic. Combined with its love of giant robots, that made it one of my most-anticipated shows to watch all year.

In/Spectre: Based on a novel written by Kyo Shirodaira, the crazy mind behind titles like Blast of Tempest and Spiral, InSpectre is a curious blend of romance, urban fantasy elements, and modern day technology. All of the volumes that have been released in the States to date have been focused around one arc and display Shirodaira’s trademarks of intriguingly unique storytelling ideas, a fascination with quirky mysteries, and strong dynamics between the characters. It’s the rare manga that keeps me buying it blind, and I’m looking forward to what comes next!

CALLUM MAY (@CanipaShow)

Little Witch Academia: What originally started out as a short film to promote young animators has since become the most recognisable brand from the GAINAX veterans at Studio Trigger. It’s not the first of the Young Animators Training Project to receive further entries (Death Parade had that honour in 2015), but it is the most beloved. The original story had this simple narrative arc of Akko striving to be like her idol, Chariot, with her final achievement within the film being a replication of the magic she had witnessed as a child. Her story grows in complexity and the world expands immensely in the TV series, allowing me to dive into a world that I’ve been intrigued by for the past 5 years and introduced themes that clash complementarily with the first two films.

Made in Abyss: I’m a sucker for deep mysterious worlds and Made in Abyss had the deepest world in a show this year (PUN ABSOLUTELY INTENDED). However, even with a narrative that constantly intrigued and made me worry for our fragile heroes (one of them, anyways), the thing that constantly stole my attention was the atmosphere. With background art directed by former Ghibli artist, Osamu Masuyama and music by the genius composer Kevin Penkin, it became a difficult show to pull my attention away from. Masuyama embraces realism, not just in terms of adding detail, but adding it in meaningful ways that creates hidden narratives and beauty in the face of terror.

WorldEnd: During a time in my life where I was incredibly busy and struggled to keep up with even huge hits like My Hero Academia and Re:Creators, WorldEnd was the series that I stayed up until late at night to watch. Set in a world that clashes steampunk science fiction with a world that feels eerily similar to The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, it explores a strained romance between Ctholly and our protagonist Willem as he observes her battle from the sidelines.

NATASHA H (@illegenes)

Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju: When the first episode of the first season of Rakugo aired last year, I was blown away. It would continue to surprise me with its intricate character drama. Above all else, Rakugo is a story about people who tell stories - the importance of weaving this fabric between lives and passing down what’s left of us to the next generation. Season 2 raises the bar by focusing on that tale as we skip from the past and enter the present. It’s a show that features some of the richest and emotionally packed writing I’ve seen in years, aided with Shinichi Omata’s subtle but powerful direction.

Land of the Lustrous: Featuring philosophical themes on trans-humanism, existentialism, and Buddhism, the show is beautifully tragic and wondrous, reminiscent of one of my favorite animes, Casshern Sins. Not only that, but it boasts what’s most likely one of the best soundtracks of the year and has taken the potential of 3DCG anime to new heights. Land of the Lustrous is consistently surprising me, and Phos is a new favorite kind of protagonist, as unfortunately doomed as they are in their journey to find meaning and purpose.

Just Because!: For a couple of months, I was starting to think romance dramas in anime were no longer my thing. I’m happy to say that Just Because! has proved me wrong. If all goes well, it could likely become one of my favorite romance drama animes of all time. Not only does it balance an incredibly realistic cast of awkward teens against the quiet and meditative backdrop of an urban setting, it captures that dramatic phase of finding what you want for yourself. There are no simplistic, overdramatic misunderstandings; no drawn out conversations; something incredibly rare and precious in a show about nervous teenagers graduating from high school.

Kizumonogatari III: I’m by no means finished with the Monogatari series, but I have the confidence to say that Kizumonogatari is one of the strongest entries in the franchise for me. The first two movies enriched two fundamental relationships that make up much of the TV shows, and the third closes the curtain with revelations that shake your perceptions of why these characters are the way they are. It’s a tragic tale from which Bakemonogatari arises, filled with stunning animation, moments of heartbreaking character development, and witty dialogue - a standard (but still fantastic) Nisio Isin tale.

  Little Witch Academia: Space Patrol Luluco was my favorite TRIGGER show until Little Witch Academia came along and stole my heart. Akko Kagari is infectiously endearing and joyful to watch as she progresses from a stubborn and single focused person to one that manages to overcome her own shortcomings through hard work and determination. Little Witch Academia carries the TRIGGER spirit, but in an accessible way that I can easily recommend to people of all ages, whether they’ve seen anime or not.

SAM WOLFE (@_Samtaro)

Your Name: Your Name finally made it to U.S. shores this year, so that means I’m technically allowed to talk about it!

  The film uses its fantastic premise to create moments where the audience can feel the raw emotion of being a hormone-addled youth in way over their head. It isn’t about figuring out the mystery of why Taki and Mitsuha are waking up in each other’s bodies, or why they didn’t notice some glaring details about their situation, it’s about missed connections, becoming an adult, and exploring the emotional depth of not knowing what it is you’re missing, but recognizing that it isn’t there. It may not have won over all audiences, but in my theater at least, when that pen dropped, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

Land of the Lustrous (manga/anime): Simply put, nothing about this story should work; its setting is esoteric and vastly different from our reality, and yet despite that fact it’s great. The endearing cast, the haunting story, and the glamorous artwork kept me turning page after page until I was chomping at the bit for the next manga volume to be released.

Land of the Lustrous was also adapted into a beautiful 3D anime. In defiance of the naysayers who say 3D anime looks bad, Land of the Lustrous’ adaptation is nearly as flashy and stylish as the manga. I would invite anyone who thinks using CGI to create their anime is the kiss of death to watch this gorgeous show. If the visuals don’t hook you, it’s riveting story and passionate characters certainly will.

A Sister’s All You Need: Look, this isn’t what it looks like. Ok, it’s exactly what it looks like, but I didn’t pick A Sister’s All You Need as a favorite because of the imoto stuff. I could try to defend myself by saying that I like that it explores the creative struggle of being a writer in an increasingly commercial industry, or its emotional portrayals of dealing with failure, but I don’t think that will get me very far.

No, A Sister’s All You Need caught my attention early on because of something in the background: protagonist Itsuki’s monstrous board game collection. When I noticed my favorite board game (Avalon) on his shelf, I had to start asking questions. As it turns out, Japanese hobby chain Yellow Submarine was on the production committee for this one. In almost every episode the characters play a new board game, a real board game, that you can go out and buy. The Japanese website even keeps a running tally of board games shown in the anime. Moreover, its recently come to my attention that the beer they drink all the time, Outou no Shizuku, is also a real product, and has, in fact, quadrupled in sales since the show first aired.

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That's it for Part One of our three-part series! Be sure to stay tuned for PART TWO: VIDEO GAMES! If you're still in the mood for past CR Favorites, check out the previous years' features here:

  2016 Part One Part Two Part Three

2015 Part One Part Two Part Three

2014 Part One Part Two Part Three

2013 Part One Part Two Part Three

2012 Part One Part Two Part Three

2011 Part One Part Two

  What were your favorite anime and manga of 2017? Comment below and share with us! Remember, this is a FAVORITES list, not a BEST OF list, so there's no wrong answers!

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Peter Fobian is an Associate Features Editor for Crunchyroll, author of Monthly Mangaka Spotlight, writer for Anime Academy, and contributor at Anime Feminist. You can follow him on Twitter @PeterFobian.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[ultraericthered]

Anime Update 40

CLANNAD After Story - That was it. I am officially done with CLANNAD. It feels really strange to finish something that I started on Day One of this little undertaking. Yeah, I know I could’ve said the same about Toradora, Excel Saga, and Ace Attorney, but this one lasted longer than those. And I was more familiar with those other ones to start with, whereas I went into this series almost totally blind. So there’s a special feeling that comes with starting and ending it.

The extra episode this time was focused almost entirely on Nagisa during her initial Senior Year before the series proper even began, back when Tomoya, Sunohara and the rest were Juniors. It was just a nice little look back to how Nagisa was like at the start of her character arc to contrast to how far she’d come later, same going for Tomoya, who was an unrepentant yet often disinterested delinquent back then. This was also back when Sunohara was the worst, but since this was written with a better handle on his character (and better voice acting from Greg Ayres), he’s entertainingly obnoxious rather than just plain obnoxious. The episode’s climax was the funniest part, with the big prank intended for the freshmen that Sunohara set up getting passed by until Nagisa shows she’s stupid enough to walk right into it, with dramatic slow motion build-up to what’s about to befall poor Nagisa...and then she just gets conked on the head and falls to the ground with a cartoony sound effect. That had me laughing for a good while, though the ending with Nagisa’s theme and showing what message Tomoya wrote on the banner was appropriately heartwarming. The OVA episode for this season did a similar thing to the Tomoyo Route AU from the first season, only with Kyou and Ryou as the main focus. It was alright, and I was more sold on Tomoya/Kyou as a couple than I was on Tomoya/Tomoyo. But damn, I feel like poor Ryou is always getting the shaft. Not only can the dub not decide on a pronunciation for her name (Is the Y silent or is the R silent? Make up your mind!), but the way a Tomoya/Kyou/Ryou threesome option was treated as out of the question (Sunohara literally suggests it and Tomoya acts like it’s a bad joke) was disheartening in how polyphobic it was. The final episode was like a curtain call, right from the final Next Episode Preview that showed all the major characters one by one. It was basically a short audio drama of Tomoya telling the whole story of the series to Ushio (and Fuko, who’d already gone to sleep) before Nagisa calls them all back. A nice recap to cap off a wonderful series.

With all said and done, I can absolutely see why this series means so much to so many people. Out of all of Key’s series, CLANNAD and Angel Beats! seem to have gotten the best reception and most popularity here in the West. I’ve said before that when comparing the initial season of CLANNAD to Angel Beats!, the latter wins out for me in my heart. (CLANNAD has a better developed main cast and a far better leading male character, but Angel Beats! had even better comedy and a deeper, stronger narrative possibly even because the time in which it had to tell it got cut down by half and it had no Visual Novel material to go by. Both series’ are top notch with feels). But if (and only when) you add After Story to the equation, then CLANNAD beats out Angel Beats! as Key’s strongest property. It captures the essence of living life in the realm of the physical just as powerfully as Angel Beats! does with life in the realm of the spiritual, and offered an emotional roller coaster of a journey that I do not regret taking.

And sending me off is sweet, adorable, precious cinnamon roll Nagisa Furukawa with “Big Dango Family!”

Dragon Ball - Did I watch it this week? I honestly can’t remember. I know I’ll having something on this to report next week at least...

Love Live Sunshine! - Now that Aqours is a nine girl group, they get to engage in their own largely filler episode down by the beach, making food to sell to tourists and promote their school in hopes of gaining it enough applicants to prevent the merger that looms over it. But wait! Just as they’re set to give their first big public performance as a full group, Riko has an important piano recital in Tokyo that she has to commit to! Oh, but that’s alright - Chika just has to be really charming and convincing in getting Riko to stay in Aqours with them and they can all perform their big number toge...wait, Chika’s letting her go? She’s even encouraging her to go for it? And she actually goes and does it? Well given what happened with Honoka and Kotori in the first season finale of Love Live!, that certainly subverted my expectation! I love how pure, wholesome and affectionate Chika and Riko’s relationship is, right down to Riko admitting her love for Chika to Chika’s face. This unfortunately gets You feeling very insecure about her own place in Chika’s heart, as she was her friend longer and was even the first to join Chika in her school idol escapades, so it feels unfair to her that Chika devotes so much attention to Riko. But I really liked how her fears of her and Chika drifting apart were addressed and alleviated by Mari, who’s just coming off reconciliation with the friends who’d drifted apart from her, and I could totally buy into her sincerity and kindness, which shows remarkable growth from her in just a few episodes. But of course, the final push for You to see how foolish she was being and how much Chika trusts and values her as a friend had to come from Riko herself, leading to a heartfelt moment between Chika and You outside of You’s house. Aqours’ concert being intercut with Riko’s recital (with the piano providing background music) was a perfect touch for the episode’s conclusion.

I’ve been enjoying this season so much that the stuff that bothers me is pretty easy to spot, and one such thing is the overuse of the word “shine” and constantly talking about “shining” in pretty nebulous ways. I get that this is “Love Live! SunSHINE”, but aside from some bits in the School Idol Movie, I don’t recall that ever being a big thing in the previous series. Forcing it as a big thing in this series might be one part of it’s efforts to distinguish itself that I could do without.

My-HIME - I skipped this one this week but I’ll be heading into the final arc next week so that I’ll be getting to the end of it soon.

Assassination Classroom - While I enjoyed this one just like the previous episodes, it was impossible for me not to notice that it was made from two different parts of the manga so the A half and the B half were completely divorced from each other. In the A half it’s an episode about Okuda trying to make a poison good enough to possibly kill Korosensei, then getting suckered by Korosensei into making a power-up juice for him, but benefiting from that because Korosensei was intent on turning it into a lesson all along...and then it turns into an episode about the entire E Class traveling to the main academy building for an assembly? These things don’t exactly connect. But at least the second half starts touching on some very interesting material and furthers this series’ scathing critique on the educational system in Japan, with not only public shaming and disparaging of the students seen as hopeless failures without any bright futures ahead of them being encouraged, but the principal admitting to this alienation being deliberate in order to motivate the “good” students to strive for better, to excel and achieve more. It also confirmed what I suspected to be this case but didn’t know for sure until now: the main school is not aware of who’s actually teaching the E Class and of what he’s teaching them. Seeing the E Class actually showing up the rest of the school by Mr. Karasuma, Bitch-Sensei, and a ridiculously disguised Korosensei coming in was great, as was seeing Nagisa S. standing up to the snobby bullies through just a glare and a sheer intimidating presence befitting an assassin. But the evil school principal doesn’t seem one to tolerate such disruptions to his school’s status quo. Something tells me that Korosensei and his teaching job could be in serious danger now...

Nadja of Tomorrow - Remember that one Dragon Ball episode where Goku just dicked around the city until he got to Capsule Corp? This was Nadja’s version of that. Not a big fan; was not much to say.

Future Diary - Aaagh, just as we took a big step forward, we had to go and take a big step back! While the arc was overall not quite as bad as the Cult of the Sixth one, I’d gladly watch either of those episodes again than rewatch the sheer cringe that was Episode 10. Aside from the very start with Yuno digging her “big fat hole for Yuki” and then forgetting about it, and the very end where that came back into play (thanks, Detective Kaworu!), it was an irritating affair first with an extended flashback of one of Minene’s past exploits that butchered her character and saddled her with this really boring police officer who just grated on me for whatever reason, and then with Yuki and Yuno out shopping and doing some fake wedding crap that evoked no feelings in me whatsoever because the tone here is just all over the place in a very bad way. Single weakest episode in the series to date. The following two-parter where our leads contend with Fourth, who out of the blue turned into a complete villain, implicated them in the murder of the guy he shot, and manipulated them into committing offenses so that he could lead a manhunt for them, was a slight improvement, but much like Sixth’s arc, it was weighed down by bullshit that seemed set against making it work - in particular the part I was most anticipating: Yuki and Yuno’s team-up with Minene. This should’ve been like Gohan and Krillin working together with Vegeta on Namek. I was so ready to enjoy it...and for the most part, it underwhelmed me, especially since Minene stays in the stupid nurse outfit and gets saddled with that dumbass detective guy again. And like Episode 2, this shit would have been so much more effective and appropriate were it occurring at a later point in the series. That way Yuki and Yuno would’ve had more time to develop their Actual Couple relationship, Minene would’ve had more time to develop her character, and Kurusu would’ve had more time to develop his plot (as in we’d actually fucking GET foreshadowing and build-up to his wife and hospitalized son, and to him turning from friend to foe. Also, he should’ve gotten the relationship with Minene, not his dopey assistant!) Episode 12 has a very powerful climax and some great story and character beats that could really enhance the narrative being developed...if only this arc had been better placed and that narrative actually been properly developing at this point!

Mobile Fighter G Gundam - So just as George seems gung-ho about facing Domon in their fight, the king of Neo France goes and confiscates his Gundam Rose! No surprise that this greatly upsets George, as well as Marie-Louise and Raymond (Hey, he’s back!). So George finds he has no choice but to do what before was considered unthinkable to him...he steals back his Gundam and defies his king, all but committing treason against the nation he fought to honor. The most compelling part of the episode was George acknowledging how, as a knight, he’s always been fighting for the sake of others even when in cases like this it gets in the way of what he personally wants, and so just once he wants to put himself first and fight for what his heart desires. Other highlights of the episode were the fight between Domon and George itself (not quite as intense as last week’s fight, but still pretty intense), Marie-Louise being willing to side with George and defy her own father, and us even getting to see Minister Wong in sleepwear with a large teddy bear in his room. God, I just love that smarmy, evil dork. Next up is what’s outright promised to be the most difficult fight yet - Neo Japan VS Neo China rematch!