#THIS IS THE FUNNIEST JOKE IN THE ENTIRE FUCKING SERIES

[byfulcrums]

been rewatching rtte

toothless is called T multiple times, but the letter T doesn't exist in the alphabet of this world

i think hiccup was also called H???

hiccup went to the wedding of the man who tried to kill him and his family multiple times. no wonder he thought he could change drago's mind

snotlout is canonically a theater kid

"you're so small and cuddly" "please never say that again"

the twins are really smart, but they're also just stupid

hiccup straight up disappears when he's working on something

heather had a super noticeable crush on astrid

fishlegs got a love interest!! a plus size main character actually has a cool, badass love interest!

it was super hetnormative but it was cute

there was an island full of flying women who were implied to regularly commit cannibalism

hiccup taught all the riders how to fly with toothless, that's so sweet

everyone is a flat earther except for the twins

hiccup almost directly killed a lot of people

and killed a LOT more when destroying their ships

“scalding– cal..ding--" "toothle, plama bla!" was pretty much the funniest part of the entire series

dagur was bullied as a kid by a guy 8 years older than him who literally tattooed an imagine of him beating up little dagur in his arm??? What was that all about

actually we need to talk about how messed up everything about dagur is and about how the things that could've/did happen(ed) to him may be the reasons why he's Like That

just why was he imprisoned by the outcasts??? he didn't do anything to them directly

oof my brain is spiraling. "he loved you" "ig now we'll never know" what do you mean he didn't know if his dad loved him

there's a technically musical episode

tuffnut became hiccup's defense attorney and immediately got him the death sentence

hiccup regularly jumps off cliffs

he also jumped off a boat, with his arms tied and without toothless. just where did he think he was going

snotlout's annoying attitude is actually because spitelout pressures him too much and he feels like he has to be perfect for his dad :((

THE 'HICCUP'S EVIL MIRROR' VILLAIN THEME DONE RIGHT YESS!!!

viggo is the best httyd villain change my mind (you can't, swords at sundown, you may bring backup but i will win on my own)

skrill comeback skrill comeback SKRILL COMEBACK!!!!

"COMEEE TO DADDY"

what is a boar pit???

oh my god i had missed this series so much. it has no right to be this funny

this was my childhood. it has forever shaped the way i am

berserker heather the unhinged >>>

actually good disability rep! yay

hiccup complains about his peg leg pinching him

he straight up cannot walk without it and it is shown many times

"well, there are the benefits of a metal leg" after it got caught in a bear trap

funny moments, like snotlout trying to steal it to use it as a weapon

the jokes!! toothless laughing at the jokes!!! hiccup being so fucking done with the twins, who are always making the jokes!

there's an episode where everyone is so sleep deprived they actually start spiraling

astrid becomes a happy go lucky girl, hugs snotlout and tells him he's handsome

the fucking mood swings snotlout got were insane

the twins were straight up just hallucinating

"i sent them to wash their dragons, how could they mess that up?" cut to heather falling on her face with a bucket full of water in her hands

fishlegs becomes so paranoid, he's yelling at everyone all the time

"don't you know the trapper's trap can trap the trapper?? ...oh gods, i must be losing it, i'm quoting dagur"

YOOOO VALKA!!!! it's so nice to see her

hiccup tried to murder dagur to stop him from getting to toothless, which is scary bc it shows just how far he's willing to go for his bff, but also funny because hiccup. that was not going to work

oh the hiccstrid slowburn, how i have missed you

the twins's made up language

there was a beach episode turned murder mystery and a musical episode held at gun point

hiccup has a whole little speech that he periodically gives astrid to remind her that the twins serve a purpose

[jiimjaaam]

been thinking about this bit from NTBTS on-and-off for months now and i've realized that it might be the funniest joke in the entire series to me, not because it's a particularly funny joke on its own, but because in the entire context of the show it hits so fucking hard and it knocks me on my ass with laughter every time. the idea that Matt, a man who has spent the last decade of his life, maybe longer, trying to get a show at the Rivoli, and who is in a band called Nirvanna the Band, and who says the word "band" about 8000 times a day, and who spends every fucking day of his life trying to get his band a show at the Rivoli by pulling off insane publicity stunts, would finally think of just asking the management to book a show (and still sees it as some kind of "genius plan" and not just the normal fucking thing to do), and then mishear a Rivoli employee saying "Okay, your band?" as "Okay, you're banned?", and then not ask for clarification on the employee's phrasing, and then spend the next half of the season trying to get unbanned from a place he's not even fucking banned from might be the most brilliant bit of comedic writing ever put to television

[gaywineauntsstuff]

“Tim Drake never got enough recognition in Gotham.”

ARE YOU JOKING???

HES THEIR LIL GUY???

There isn’t one hero from the main Batfamily who doesn’t canonically like tim???

Hell even Jason think Tim is “the best of us” (much to my chagrin, the beef between the two middle children is always so iconic to me) and JASON HAS TRIED TO KILL HIM

Like Jason?? If it was Jason??? Who never got enough respect I’d get it?? Not entirely bc in recent comics (Nightwing -specifically the 2021 annual for one instance but honestly anytime these two interact in rebirth and Gotham war)

Dick isn’t in Gotham bc he didn’t get any respect and he fucked off and became the justice leagues favorite lil guy and then turns out Bruce just sucked at people thing and he was actually secretly also his lil guy

Babs is literally depicted and omnipotent 1/2 the time and while I think fanon exaggerates her strengths a bit too much (or just leaves her out entirely) and canon disrespects the sanctity of her character all the time the CHARACTERS in the series don’t

Anyway

THE PERSON WHO NEVER EVER GETS ENOUGH CREDIT AND IS LOOKED OVER BY BW THE MOST

Is STEPHANIE MOTHERFUCKING BROWN

NOT ONLY WAS SHE THE FUNNIEST, MOST CHARMING AND LIKABLE BATGIRL (I’m right be quiet) SHE WAS AND IS ALWAYS JUST A BREATH OF FRESH AIR AND WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE MUCH LATER STAGES OF BATMAN AND ROBIN (dick and Dami edition) SHE GETS DOGGED ON

BRUCE DOESNT THINK SHES GOOD ENOUGH FOR WAYY TOO LONG

JASON (fun mirror horror landcore but yeah they’re not friends)

DICK DIDNT THINK SHE COULD DO IT (he was wrong, he realized this like a good boy)

TIM GOD DONT GET ME STARTED ON THIS LIL SHIT (affectionate)

[chronicdisasterwrites]

alcohol isn’t for the weak gojo satoru

pairing: gojo satoru x f!reader, geto suguru, shoko ieiri

genre + warnings: -underage alcohol consumption, a lot of swearing, reader slaps gojo around, pining, overall FLUFF!

word count: 3,380 (i was gonna write more but i’m lazy)

authors note: So this is the sequel of my fic “gotta keep these kids on leashes”. The dynamic quartet is back and up to no good yet again :3 There will for sure be a continuation and it just might end up being a series going through their lives. Also, this takes place before Riko and Toji, so basically their teenage days when everything was good and dandy :’)

enjoy this chaos <3

“You absolute, fucking lightweight.”

With tired bones, eyes, soul and mind, Geto’s glare remains steadily fixed on the drunken mess sprawled on the ground before him. Gojo Satoru was a complex human being. The strongest jujutsu sorcerer in the world; the first person in 400 years to possess both Limitless and the Six Eyes, his strength knew no bounds - except when it came to alcohol.

“Suuuguruuu~” Gojo slurred along with several incoherent words mushed in between giggles.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Geto leaned his head against his ajar door and shut his eyes, thinking of all the incredibly painful ways by which he could murder and then dispose of his best friend’s wasted body. His anger wasn’t uncalled for, of course. It was a long day for Geto and all he wanted to do after spending an entire day killing one particularly difficult curse followed by a couple extra (albeit easier to defeat) surprise curses was take a nice long shower, go into his dorm and sleep like a corpse. He had a feeling it was too good to be true when he didn’t get 30 calls from Gojo by the time the sun had set and he had stepped into campus. He was even more surprised when he got out of the shower and came back to 0 notifications from the “pain in everyone’s ass” sorcerer. Gojo always knew when Geto had missions, and more so he would always know when Geto would be gone for the entire day. On days such as this one, he would usually go and bother literally anyone else he could find around him; when desperate, Yaga, but that would never end well for him, so that would only be reserved for very special occasions.

“Satoru, just why…” Geto sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and wondering what he did to deserve this torture.

“I had soooo much fun t’dayyy,” Gojo slurs and laughs much too loudly considering the time.

“Les go out, the night is youuung like you and me and Mochi and Shoko- but…” He pauses, sits up then looks directly at Geto, suddenly serious. Geto squints, expecting something stupid as per usual.

“...Not like…” Cracks appear on his half-assed poker face and the corners of his eyes crinkle slightly as his lips twitch. “Not like…Yaga AHHAAHA-”

Laughter explodes from his chest as he falls back on the ground, rolling around clutching his stomach as if he just cracked the world’s funniest joke. Geto on the other hand, was not phased. In fact, he was preparing to be violent. Inhaling and then exhaling deeply, Geto stood straighter, thinking of ways he could make this night go his way. A few weeks prior to this moment in the present, Gojo along with his posse played an almost funny practical joke on Geto, which ended up costing him a date with a girl and 10 of his brain cells. Since then, Geto had been pondering day and night on exactly what he could do to get Gojo back. There were a few weaknesses the strongest sorcerer had which Geto knew of. One being, his obvious lack of alcohol tolerance, and two being his stupidly obvious crush on you. (not Shoko, although he definitely finds her hot).

Geto knows all about Gojo’s embarrassing feelings for you but he still has no solid evidence on whether the feelings are reciprocated or not.

Suddenly, his train of thought comes to a stop as his eyes glint with mischief. He grabs Gojo’s arm and starts to drag him along the hallway. Gojo doesn't even bother standing up to walk. Instead he lets his best friend drag him like a sack of potatoes, with no care in the world as to where he might be taking him.

“What the heck?! Suguru?! Where are we goin-”

They stop and Geto aggressively knocks on a door. Freshly painted, different from the rest. Immediately, he drops Gojo’s arm and sprints back to his dorm before Gojo’s little brain could even begin to process what had happened.

“Satoru…what the fuck?”

You rub your eyes and glare at the drunken mess sprawled before your dorm door and rub your eyes again, hoping he’d disappear the next time you look. He doesn’t. And you actually hear a mechanical click in your brain when the idiot starts grinning as if it wasn’t 3am and he didn’t just ruin your perfect slumber. Yet again.

“Mochi!!! You’re here! I missed yo- HEY! OUCH! WHY- STOP HITTIN ME-”

“I SHOULD KILL YOU-” slap

“IDIOT,” slap

“WHY CAN’T YOU EVER LET ME SLEEP IN PEACE?!” slap

You wanted to throttle him. But you figured 3 slaps were enough for now. You honestly felt kind of bad seeing him curled up in a ball on the floor and you worried whether you went too far or not.

“I’m sorry… I just missed you s’all,” His voice was soft, gentle even, and that made you feel even worse. Your shoulders slump and your head drops as an exasperated sigh escapes your mouth.

Why is he like this?

You crouch next to his curled up form and stare at his disheveled silver hair. He doesn’t look at you, in fact his eyes remain closed. His hands cover his ears and he literally looks like a kicked puppy and you feel so awful. You roll your eyes and sigh.

Ugh, damn him.

“Okay. Satoru, I’m sorry for hitting you.”

He doesn’t move.

You pinch your nose bridge and decide to take the high road. He is drunk after all, you think. Reaching out, you run your fingers through his soft hair. His shoulders relax at that and the corner of his mouth quirks up ever so slightly. You stifle a laugh at his childishness and grab his chin, tilting his head to face you. Finally, he opens his eyes and stares at you as a gradual, natural smile slowly takes over his face. You smile back and at the back of your mind, you think how stupid you two must look right now. In the middle of the night, your dorm door wide open, Satoru sprawled on the floor of the hallway, you crouched near his head while the two of you stared at each other like something straight out of Spiderman. Except, you won’t kiss him. That’s never going to happen.

You let go of his chin and flick his nose. He huffs a short laugh, rubbing the spot and attempting to return the favor. You grab his wrist before he could deliver the blow and say, “You still drunk?”

Satoru hums, eyes shiny, “A little?”

He grabs your face and squeezes your cheeks, snorting as you glare at him.

“Y’know… you don’t look as scary with your face like this,” He emphasizes his point with ‘awww’s’ and ‘you’re so cuteee’s’ and you can’t help but laugh at this blatant humiliation. You move his hand away and stand up, holding out your hand and expecting him to take it.

“Alright, c’mon. Get up.”

Satoru groans much too loudly and proceeds to throw his arms down and stretch his legs like a starfish.

“Noooo, just stay w’ meee,” He whines like a petulant child and you smile.

Damn him.

You consider bringing him into your dorm and spending the entire night with him doing nothing. Maybe talking, laughing. But you quickly discard that horrifying thought. He’s Gojo Satoru. Your best friend. Nothing romantic could ever happen between you two because he is Gojo Satoru and you are nobody. He is the one person who could even come close to changing the world. He holds the balance of the universe in the palm of his hands. He is everything, and you hate that. You hate how much he means to you, and you hate how much he has on his shoulders. You hate the fact that you can’t even help him ease those worries. You might be strong, but you’re not nearly as strong as him. He knows it, everyone knows it. So, you ignore these feelings. You bury any semblance of hope, of potential ‘maybe’s’ and ‘what if’s’ and you keep your guard up. After all, he is your best friend and you’re his. That’s it.

But then, why does he keep looking at me like this?

“Mochi?” He mutters, eyes suddenly clear and gaze fixed at you. You hum. He waits a while without saying anything and then sits up cross-legged and holds his hand out. You ponder for a moment and eventually you hold his hand and he attempts to pull himself up with your help. You steady your feet and help him up and… wow, he’s ridiculously tall.

You clear your throat and let go of his hand, to which he makes a little noise of protest. You roll your eyes and put his arm around your shoulder, ushering him towards his dorm, “Alright Satoru, let’s put you to bed.”

He nods his head one too many times and starts to walk with you, slowly but surely. You held onto him as he held onto you, and you walked at his pace. He smelled nothing like he usually did. The pungent odor of sake wafted off him in waves and it almost made you want to throw up. He was dozing off, eyes almost shutting. Those cerulean blues were almost a shiny navy color now. You wonder what made him want to drink so much tonight. So you asked.

“Satoru?”

“Hm?” He looks down at you and musters a tiny smile. You hold his waist a little tighter.

You rephrase the sentence a few times in your head before asking.

“Why’d you drink so much tonight? Is everything okay?”

He stares at you for a while, then purses his lips and tips his head down, exhaling loudly. You know something happened, but you don’t know what it could be. Satoru was always an enigma. He was always an open book, and yet so mysterious at the same time. He always kept a smile on his face and always did the stupidest shit. Yet sometimes, he would change completely. His eyes would look sad and distant, he wouldn’t talk as much, he’d look out the window like some kind of tortured main character in an indie movie. Satoru was never easy to understand. He has his vices.

Finally, he looks at you with hazy eyes and a soft smile. Using the arm slung over your shoulder, he holds you in a headlock and kisses your forehead. You can’t see your face but you can feel just how red it must have become. You struggle to try to get out of the headlock but to no avail. Even when drunk, Satoru was still stronger than you and you hated that with a passion. He laughs and releases you, returning his arm back over your shoulder as he leans against you, basically using you as a crutch to walk.

“Satoru?! What the fuck was that all about?!” You sputter. Angry? Not really, it was nice. You’re more confused and freaked out, and why do you feel drunk when you’re the one who’s completely sober?

“No reason, you’re just cute s’all,” He giggles and ruffles your hair. You glare at his stupid face and he laughs again.

“Plus, I had nothing to do all day. Suguru was gone, you were busy and Shoko was-” He pauses. “Well, wherever she was.”

You sigh and pick up your pace which makes Satoru look like Bambi trying to walk on ice for the first time. He giggles all the way there.

—

Fucking finally…

You open the door to his dorm while dragging Satoru’s half limp body inside.

“Alrighty, now lie down,” You say as you gracefully lay him down (more like unceremoniously drop him) on his bed and take his shoes off. Satoru groans and proceeds to almost slip off the side of the bed. Thankfully, you noticed and pushed him further away and more towards the center of the bed. You leave his clothes alone and stand up straight, turning to leave.

“No, wait,” His hand grabs your wrist, without any force whatsoever and you think you’re going to straight up melt when you turn back around to see him looking up at you with ridiculously childlike eyes it’s not even fair.

“Stay, please.”

Your breath hitches and you know you have to leave. You have to wake up early in the morning and also you are not going to spend a night with Gojo Satoru while he’s drunk. It's not a matter of safety; you know he would die before ever hurting you. It was more a matter of heart.

“Satoru…” You try to wrench your hand free from his grasp.

He lowers his hand and wraps it around your fingers. His voice is quiet as he says, “A lil’ bit. ‘M sorry…”

You quirk an eyebrow in confusion, “For what?”

Your question is met with only snores. You shove him and call his name to which he opens his eyes with a “huh?”.

“What are you sorry for?”

He looks bewildered, “Oh um…”

You wait.

He continues sleepily, “For ruining your sleep.”

You chuckle as his hand slowly falls to the bed and snores fill the emptiness.

“Idiot.”

You pat his head and leave.

—-

Satoru wakes up very cold. And wet. Not in a good way.

“Woah- what the fu-”

“Rise and shine, princess,” Suguru announces with a shit-eating grin on his pretty face. He keeps the empty glass on Satoru’s side table and crosses his arms.

Satoru rubs his drenched face and stares incredulously at his so-called best friend, confusion etching his hungover face, “What the hell was that for?”

Suguru snickers, “It was for ruining my sleep last night.” He sits on Satoru’s bed and crosses his legs, resting his head on his hand, enjoying Satoru’s discomfort.

Satoru groans and puts his pillow on his face. His muffled voice says something Suguru makes out to be, “My head is killing me.”

“Not surprised, you were completely wasted.”

Satoru moves the pillow and glares at Suguru, to which he only receives a grin.

Suguru asks liltingly, “So? What happened last night?”

Satoru gets up and makes his way to his bathroom, the sound of water and teeth brushing resonating around the room. Suguru waits for a reply that doesn't come.

Impatient, he asks again, “Did you get your ass kicked?” Satoru gets out while putting on a new uniform jacket. He glares at Suguru until realization hits.

His eyes widen and he points a finger and exclaims, “You took me to her room?!”

Suguru processed that light bulb moment with wide eyes and burst into a hearty laughter to which Satoru only gaped mouth open and eyes unbelieving.

“You- you didn't remember how you got there but you remembered being there?” More laughter, louder this time.

Satoru scoffs and picks up his sunglasses, “I can't believe you…”

Suguru’s laughter dies down and he receives a slap on the back of his head for his incompetence. He laughs and rubs the site of injury.

As Satoru makes his way out of the dorm, Suguru follows close behind. He asks with genuine curiosity, “Did you confess?”

Nothing.

“Did she confess?”

Silence, except for the birds chirping cheerfully and the metronomic footfalls of the two boys.

Suguru sighs, “Did anything happen?”

Satoru puts on his sunglasses and shoves his hands in his pockets, “Nothing happened, as far as I remember.”

Suguru raises an eyebrow. Satoru rolls his eyes and says in a low voice, “Anyways, I'd remember if anything happened.”

Suguru smiles and ruffles Satoru’s already disheveled hair. He scoffs but laughs when Suguru laughs at his lovesick state of being.

“Forget it, Suguru. It’s never gonna happen,” Satoru mutters dejectedly, kicking a stone. Suguru stays silent.

“Like, she’s so… just- y’know?” His sparkling sapphire eyes glittering with admiration and so much love, Suguru can’t help but smile at his friend’s hopefulness. He continues rambling incoherently, hands waving around like it actually does anything to explain his feelings for her. In reality, nothing Satoru is saying makes any sense. Or more so, it wouldn’t make sense to anyone else. Suguru, on the other hand, understands Satoru. So no words are required.

—-

“He’s such an idiot.”

You sigh and twirl your pen, “Tell me about it…”

Shoko knows all and sees all. She knows all about Gojo’s stupid crush on you and she knows all about your crush on him. She doesn’t approve of it, because she firmly believes you deserve better and Gojo is an immature idiot. But after countless sleepless nights of talking about life and love, she saw just how much you liked him, despite your lackluster denials to her allegations. You were adamant on hiding your feelings, even with Shoko. You don’t know why exactly you lied to her about this. Probably because it seems too out of reach, or maybe because you know she’d disapprove. But you know Shoko loves you with all her heart. She would support any decision you make, no matter how much she hates it. Your happiness is paramount and she will never make you feel less than or stupid for anything you tell her. You just can’t tell her about your crush yet, because it’s just too embarrassing and you can’t deal with Shoko’s side-eye.

Shoko closes the book she was reading staring at, kicks up her feet on the desk and crosses her arms across her chest. You look at her, then look at her neglected textbook and sigh, shifting your attention to your own textbook.

“Y’know you’ll never even pass at the rate at which you’re going…”

She says with a giggle, “Relax, will you? It’s just class tests.”

You muster your best side eye, to which she just snorts. She kicks back her chair and stands up, holding out her hand for you to take. You raise your eyebrows, silently questioning whether she’s serious or not.

“C’mon let’s take a break, we’ve been studying for hours.”

You put down your pen and cross your arms, properly facing her now, “You mean, I’ve been studying for hours.”

She shrugs, “That’s what I said.”

“Ha-ha,” you deadpan.

She actually laughs and tugs your sleeve, “Come onnnn.”

You sigh and hang your head. Shoko takes that as a sign to collect your items and pack them into your backpack and you know you’ve lost. You always lose to her arguments. She’s too quick and too laid back to ever lose an argument. Even when something really serious goes down, Shoko will be the last person to freak out. You can’t even argue with her because she’ll just come up with some random logic that you don’t even know how to counteract. You watch as she packs your stuff and you smile. She looks at you and smiles back, albeit in a confused manner.

“What?”

You shrug still smiling, “Nothin’.”

Shoko mutters a small “okay” and grabs your shoulders, hunching down to your eye-level and staring into your eyes with a kind of scary expression. Shoko has never been serious in her entire life, except for a few times when you made bad decisions.

“Listen to me, and listen well. I love you. I will always be here for you. Even if you and Gojo date and that doesn’t work out, you don’t have to worry about us, ever,” Shoko’s grip on your shoulders was ironclad.

Your eyes widen and face heats up furiously, “W-what? Where is this coming from?!”

“Because I am your best friend, you absolute braindead idiot! I know you. I don’t know why you’re not just coming clean with me but I’m here always, so come to me whenever,” she ends her monologue with a sweeter than sweet smile and stands up to her full height while you were down there stunned, touched and offended all at once.

You get up, put your bag over your shoulder and stare at Shoko concerningly, while she just grins.

What the actual fuck was that?

“Hey, let’s go get some food, I’m starving.”

You glare at her as she loops her arms through yours, “You’re paying.”

Shoko laughs, “No way. Gojo’s paying.”

taglist: @thepup356, @porridgesblog, @stray-npc, @daisy-the-quake, @reignsaway, @ainetx, @icarusignite, @mariapierce789

[lollytea]

The absolute funniest thing about the entire Wicked series is Elphaba's Nanny who was already riddled with dementia and wandering around Kiamo Ko when Elphaba died. And then throughout the books whenever characters return to the castle, they find that she's STILL not dead. She's not lucid but she's alive and happy. It gets progressively more ridiculous the more time passes and by the end of the final book, it's been 26 years since Elphaba's death and Nanny is more spry than ever. I fucking love this joke. Every time it's revealed that the old bitch is STILL ALIVE, I lose my shit. She's like one of those little miserable crusty white dogs that would not die even if you begged.

[howsitduud]

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3 REVIEW

God, Shadow is so fucking cool.

It's honestly refreshing seeing the increase in quality with the Sonic movies. The first one I wasn't as big on as everyone else seemed to be. I thought it was a fine, generic kid's movie about a cartoony character getting sucked into the real world and trying and failing to blend in while being a nuisance to a human character, which has unfortunately become its own genre. Sonic 2, on the other hand, is exactly what I wanted the first Sonic movie to be, with much better action, writing, and story than the first one. It was nice seeing a video game movie that was so unafraid of being one and unafraid of including cheeky references to its source material and having the climax center around the Death Egg Robot and the Chaos Emeralds.

And now we come to Sonic 3, easily the best live-action Sonic movie we've gotten so far (I haven't seen the anime movie with Metal Sonic in it, for all I know, it's better than Citizen Kane). I'm not a big fan of Sonic in these movies, I just think he's too annoying, I did think his arc of not being too irrational and going at his missions alone was fine enough. What I liked about the character writing in this movie is just how Team Sonic plays off of each other. All 3 of them get plenty of great moments to just riff off of each other, and Tails and Knuckles are just as fun to watch as Sonic is. I did also feel something when Sonic and Knuckles started arguing at the end while Tails desperately tried to defuse the situation, and it ending with Knuckles saying that even though Sonic broke his trust, he still respects him as a friend is a nice way to end the scene.

But who cares about Sonic, Shadow is the guy on the cover, that's who this movie is about! I love everything to do with Shadow in this movie, he's just the coolest. From him fighting his way out of G.U.N. headquarters to his first fight with Sonic where he rides through Tokyo on a motorcycle with a gun to him going Super at the end is just incredible to watch. Having played Sonic Adventure 2 and generally knowing his entire story through cultural osmosis, I wasn't too shocked by any of the flashback scenes with him and Maria, but I did like how it mirrors Sonic's story of being an alien who was met with hostility, save for one human who genuinely cares about him. I wish that it was more subtly told and that they didn't beat you over the head with the message, but whatever, this movie is made for children. Funnily enough, there were only 4 people in the theatre with me watching it, all of them were adults. That's actually hilarious.

The only other thing worth noting about the movie is Jim Carrey as both Robotniks, and just like the last 2 movies, he does a great job. Most of the funniest jokes in the movie came from how he delivered his lines and how the movie is just so unsubtle with the fact that Stone and Eggman are gay for each other. Eggman's final line in the movie lays that point on thick as well. As a wise hedgehog once said, "My fucking god, these bitches gay! Good for them."

Overall, Sonic 3 is one of the best video game movies out there. It's no Mario Movie or Detective Pikachu, but it's still stellar nonetheless. If you're a Sonic fan or even interested in the Sonic series, this is well worth your time.

8/10, that scene where Tom did blackface sure was something, wasn't it.

[eris-snow]

𝐀𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐥 𝐅𝐨𝐨𝐥'𝐬 𝐃𝐚𝐲

✨April Fool's Day

Tags: Bakugou x fem!reader, bakugou' birthday series 2023

Stupid Dunce face and his shitty jokes. Fuck if he cares that it was all a prank. He doesn't like you.

"Did you know Y/n likes you, Bakugou?"

Stupid Dunce Face. With his shitty yellow hair and stupidly forward words.

Bakugou whips his head to the blond, practically snapping his neck off "What the hell?"

"Yeah," Denki continues, laying it on thick. "Said she couldn't wait for you to ask her out."

"Really?" Bakugou grits his teeth, voice hitching with feigned amusement. "How the fuck would you know that? Sunshine don't hang with you that often. She's too smart for your one brain cell to keep up."

"Bakugou!" Denki winces, offended tone prominent in his voice. "That isn't very nice!"

"Spewing other people's personal feelings is worse," Bakugou counters, slumping down in his seat. "If Sunshine wanted to tell me, she'd do it at her own fucking pace. Stop meddling, asshole."

The words of teasing die on Denki's tongue. There's silence for a moment, one bloody, hopeful second that makes Bakugou feel a sliver of respite before...

Denki starts cackling with laughter, doubling over like he just pulled off the funniest joke in his 16 years on the planet. "It was a joke, man!" Denki shouts through fits of giggles, wiping tears away from his eyes. "I can't believe you actually believed it that easily!"

It takes three slow and painful seconds for the realisation to fill the pit of his stomach.

One.

Why the fuck is Denki losing his shit? Is he making fun of him or something? The hell-

Two.

It's a goddamn joke. He really has the nerve to pull this shit on Bakugou at 8 fucking am in the morning on a Saturday. It's his one free day off in the entire week and this is what he gets-

Alarm bells. They're ringing so loudly in his head he can barely think straight. Bakugou rechecks his mental schedule for the day, thoughts finally clicking as he remembers today's date.

Three.

It's First April.

It's April Fools Day.

...

Fuck.

Bakugou's cheeks scald red in embarrassment and anger as that damn blond wipes his tears away. "That was so funny-"

"You fucking asshole," Bakugou snarls, leaping off the couch with explosions firing off in his hand.

He has two very strong, overwhelming feelings he's in the mids of experiencing now. Anger, obviously, and a deep sense of humiliation for taking the quirky imbecile so seriously.

Naturally, he leans hard into the overwhelming fury and tackles Denki in a fit of rage.

It was just a silly little prank.

A silly little prank that was only meant to get his hopes up and get his shit together to confess to you.

Denki has impeccable timing.

He shoves his thought of you away and pretends his scarlet cheeks aren't because of you because, you seriously, don't mean a thing to him.

His heart didn't leap at the thought of standing a chance with you. In fact, he wasn't going to even think of your bright and cheery self the entire day.

He. Did. Not. Like. You.

As if on cue, you walk into the common area while rubbing your eyes, yawning and stretching as if you just got out of bed. Of course you could pull off your bed hair effortlessly. "Mnh...what's going on guys?" You mutter, blinking away your sleepiness as you stared at Bakugou and Denki.

His heart writhes at getting his hopes up and pulverised, at seeing you with that innocently oblivious expression plastered on your face

He pulverises Dunce Face even more.

[possiblylando]

Whats the deal with the death devil? (YOSHIDA REAL?)

I made this fucking 'joke' back when 146 came out and I keep fucking thing about it cause its so fucking funny and I can one piece this theory into making sense hang on

I went ahead and made this chart to show the feelings towards the death devil. Both Makima and Fami wants the Death Devil dead however its unknown if they do that out of any animosity as their motives seem to be saving humanity from death. Yoru doesn't give a shit and Nayuta is in the same boat as Fami except she has no hatred towards DD. So that leads to the question, What did DD do to make them that mad? Here are the options based on what we know; 1. They don't hate DD at all they just want her to stay in hell because theoretically her presence on earth would mean the extinction of all life. 2. They HATE DD because she did something in the past that REALLY pissed them off. 3. Its a misunderstanding 4. Something else. Will the arrival of the Death Devil cause all extinction of life? (By Extension, Is She evil?) Using what we know of the other 3 Horsemen its a fair assumption to make that DD isn't pure evil or a natural disaster. For the most powerful devil to be a blank evil slate, It would be kind of boring. Even if it's something like the Darkness Devil, We've seen it happen before. We know that Primal Fears are weird and different as well because Darkness and Falling is completely different from each other. Given that I doubt DD's goal is to cause the extinction of all life, Especially because without humans there would be no fear, Thus there would be no devils.

Do they HATE the Death Devil? I think this one can be ruled out given the information we currently have as their reasons for wanting her dead seem to fall into the "Stop humanity from going extinct" angle. We could get some big reveal that DD ate the entire thanksgiving turkey one year but I doubt that'll happen. Could it be a misunderstanding? Given Fujimoto, This is a definite possibility. However I doubt the final antagonist of the series will be so easily resolved as 'Oh you're not actually evil mb'. There would be more too it. DD is probably malicious to some extent but not as much as it seems. It's also possible DD is completely uncaring for destruction and has no evil plans what so ever and just wants to visit her sisters. Because Death itself is cruel and impartial to who and what it takes. So what else could it be?

By FAR the funniest fucking option is that Yoshida actually IS the death devil and the rest of the horseman hate him because he's Trans and ruins their Sisters of the Apocalypse Gimmick. I'm not joking when I say this could ACTUALLY be the fucking solution and it's so fucking funny I keep fucking giggling at this stupid fucking One Piece Theory ass idea. Given what we know about War and how quickly Makima was reincarnated into Nayuta, It's likely that the Horsemen all have true devil forms similar to War and Pochita.

The bodies they currently inhabit aren't actually their Devil bodies and are instead hosts. Again, Given what we know of War, It can be inferred that Horsemen possess the ability to create a special kind of Fiend which is what Nayuta, Fami, and Yoru/Asa are. They're probably on par or only slightly weaker than their pure forms. As such these are more akin to host bodies than anything else. So then what if Yoshida (DEATH DEVIL REAL) is actually just DD's current host body? Yoshida is a weird case in general because he has basically no backstory yet seems related to Kishibe in some way. What if its a Nayuta and Denji situation? But then why would none of the other Horsemen recognize him as death when they met despite the fact they seem to have an intuitive knowledge of their sisters. It's possible that they don't recognise Death as Yoshida because he's actively hiding his identity as to not get outed. The Control Devil's one desire was to truly be loved and understand humans. So it's to go against their primary directive as a Devil; Be loved without control. Fami's motives are still a bit weird but they seem to just be "Eat a bunch of stuff that tastes good." Which again is against her MO as a devil; Feed the hunger instead of succumbing to Famine. Yoru, Who knows shes just a little freak. So thus the idea that the Death Devil's wish would be something like "Live among humans and keep them from dying" would somewhat match an inverted directive. Yoshida is a devil hunter after all who by extension stops humans from dying. So Illustrate how funny this would be if it was true:

But this requires Yoshida to not get fucking pwnd next chapter by another weird Queer Woman.

Time is a flat circle

[castleinthemist]

Still technically a couple more weeks left of the year and I was hoping to try and finish at least one or two of these before then but ah well...

Anyway here's my end of year game list. If you've been following me for a while it probably isn't too surprising to see what's on here. My main rule for end of year lists is 'have to have finished it' but there's a couple of games on here that I like what they're doing enough of, and that i've played a fair bit this year, that lets them make the cut.

Without further ado:

1000xResist A blend of 3d visual novel meets simple adventure game all wrapped up in a bombastic sci-fi story of clones existing under the ALLMOTHER and everything that entails that and the world they live in. Excellent stuff. Really excels at understanding the medium it has chosen to tell its tale in (even if it is light on the gameplay). High contender for my goty if I did those.

Seabed I've said it before and I'll say it again: A mystery, yuri visual novel that makes use of quiet mundanity to propel its tragedy to a staggering effect. Entwines the day to day lives of the women it focuses on to make for a fairly comfortable read if often mysterious one that builds itself up well.

Super Junkoid A romhack of Super Metroid, Super Junkoid ( I really should've played Junkoid first) is just an absolute blast of a game the entire length though. Nails the atmosphere that makes SM while very much doing its own thing with it and recontextualises abilities in such a fun way. Likely one of my all time faves now.

UFO 50 Just awesome. Awesome game that is a collection of games. Still making my way through them and will probably be for a long while but what I have played has been such an exciting mix of things. Designed for designers sake in a way. Exploring the medium through a lense of 80s video games for explorations sake.

Cataphract OI Did a mini-review of this in attract mode but I'll echo some thoughts on it here: Really engaging with the mechanics of an RPG and recontextualising them in such a fascinating way - frontline/backline positioning in battle, command based menu for exploration, a constant push-and-pull of risk-reward due to the time limit. Really creates this sense of desperation that's so excellent. Didn't get the chance to finish it because it is quite hard but I'll def come back to it.

Rule of Rose Where do I even begin with this one? Miserable and mostly boring to play, actively trying to not let you finish it? An absolute gut punch of an ending that's like the final twist of the tragic knife? I wouldn't change a single thing about it. Abrasive and wholly cohesive for it.

Anthology of the Killer One of the funniest games I've ever played. Brilliant in execution and critique. Really a joy to watch it strengthen through each game of the anthology. Play as BB the zine-maker looking for her next scoop and get into scooby-doo style chases from the horror-of-the-week. A weaker game would allow for fail states in the chase sequences but this game keeps it rolling and often gives you a good joke to boot. Another high contender for my goty (if i did those).

Prey (2017) In some way I can see why people bounced off of this title (I did initially too) but it's such a fucking awesome game in how it plays and the overall Talos I space station and its open world within (and outside of!) that's it's a blast to wander around it. Just that real excellent Arkane world stuff they do ya know? Trolley problem the video game. I love how it quietly tracks choices and actions you make and do (and not so much love how it tosses that out right at the end to give you a lame dichotomous choice).

Shiren the Wanderer: Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island The sixth game in the long running Shiren Mystery Dungeon series (you may be familiar with that title from the Pokemon spinoffs), Shiren 6 is a return to classic Shiren form bringing in more approachability to newcomers for the wonderfully emergent rouglike gameplay of these "mystery dungeons". A real feast of a game that will have you full for a very long time. High contender for my nonexistant goty.

Drakengard Probably one of my favourite things I played this year for its cohesivness. They really wanted to make a great game and they made a mostly janky one. Kusoge game of all time. 100%'d this game which is not something I do often or at all for any game, and especially noxious to do for a Yoko Taro lead title but I think it made me love it all the more to see it through to the end. Surprised to see no-one has really taken "Ace Combat but with Dragons" as a game premise and ran with it.

ZeroRanger Finally finished this one. Fun as hell shmup/stg that just really is a love letter to the genre. True ending took a good while to get to and now I'm trying to 1cc it. Just one of those games that knows what it is and does what it does super well.

Helen's Mysterious Castle Another RPGMaker game that plays with form and really excels at making a fun and unique combat system. Battle feel like this snappy back and forth as the game displays all turn order information with a "wait" system that ticks down per action allowing you to make quick judgement on which weapons or abilities best suit the moment.

Ys: Ancient Ys Vanished Omen (aka Ys 1) Played the EGGCONSOLE port of this, which is the PC-88 version of the game (no translation). Damn, bump combat is so fun! The level design is really engaging even when somewhat tricky and the story elements are so very there and classic feeling - there's a lot this game does well and very solidly that makes it a extremely fun rpg/adventure romp. Also the final boss is the equivalent of a DVD screensaver and I love that.

Thirty Flights of Loving Despite being a longtime fan of Gravity Bone, this game and Quadrilateral Cowboy I had somehow never actually played Thirty Flights of Loving? Well I did this year, and it is still such an exciting, short vignette of a game. Best credits drop. More games need to make use of jump cuts. .

Ringlorn Saga Now this is actually a title I haven't finished just yet and, to be honest, it took me a few tries to really get into it - I'm not even sure I like it *that* much. Yet I came back to after playing Ys and getting more comfortable with bump combat; Ringlorn Saga takes more inspiration from Hydlide than Ys but it's got a great sense of classic rpg overworld exploration to it, and does just enough interesting things that I find myself continuing to drift back to it.

Dread Delusion Another title I haven't finished (I really thought I would've by now but alas), and while there are aspects of the RPG'ing I wished it did more strongly or with more player expression, the acid fantasy world of the floating Oneiric Isles is such a engaging and oddball-yet-so-classic sense of place that it's hard to not enjoy it. Can't wait to unlock and airship and travel to the giant floating nautilus with the city built within it.

The House In Fata Morgana I was of two minds about this classic visual novel for a long time, dispersing my playthrough with month long breaks between chapters, only to eventually lap up the home stretch of the final few chapters of the game earlier this year. I think it is a title I will enjoy exponentially more on a re-read. A must read for tragedy enjoyers.

Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind (SNES remake) With news of the new Famicom Detective Club title, and my love for murder mystery adventure games, I had been keen on playing this classic duo of games for a while. Sadly there isn't any fan-translations of the first game, and the official remakes are a bit pricey for my liking so...fan-translation of the 2nd game it is! It's solid, likeable, got a good mystery and payoff. A few weird interactions to progress the story brings it down a bit but otherwise I had a blast with it.

That Which Gave Chase Remember a few games ago how I said I wish more games had jump cuts? Well this game delivers! Surprising in-depth-yet-simple-enough-to-grasp sledding controls, That Which Gave Chase builds a tense narrative as you sled through the Arctic with your guide, chasing something he is after. Introduces new gameplay bits in short enough bursts to never really be boring and nothing overstays its welcome (I played this some short time before Mouthwashing came out and it does several similar things but I think it does those things "better")

Judgement Silversword 2024 Year I Really Got Into Shoot 'em Ups. A classic, simple yet really understands how to make the player feel good at it. Still need to finish it haha

Crow Country Nice, solid survival horror game. Its real strength is the ability to play in a classic survival horror mode or choose an "adventure" mode, where the puzzles are deliciously substantial enough that it can do something like that and still be cohesive as a game. Not anything super excellent but I did really enjoy my time with it. Highly recommend if you're looking to dip your toes into the genre (but might be a tad but scared of horror) due to the adventure mode.

Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter I would've preferred to have finished this to speak about it as a cohesive whole but like goddamn dude. Shit rules. Likely to be abrasive to many people due to the limitations it places on you, yet deeply conscious of how you will be replaying it, BoFV is a game that is set in a oppressive world where the main three party members are trying to escape upwards to something better. Every aspect of this game is in lockstep with it's mechanics and theme. Pure gold that's so rare to get. Batting for some really risky changes that I think it nails well.

Dishonored Death of the Outsider After Prey I was on a bit of an Arkane kick and decided to do a no powers re-playthrough of Dishonored 2. That was heaps of fun and led me to finally try and properly play Death of the Outsider, which, for whatever reason, I seemed to have never stuck past the first two levels for. It's like a real distilled essence of the Dishonored games, mechanically - Billy has less abilities and you can't upgrade them but I think it allows for some tighter design in the game. The narrative, like 2, is a bit whatever though. Also, it has a extremely fun bank heist level. We love a good bank heist.

Fate/Stay Night Technically I played Ultimate Blade Works and Heaven's Feel, the last two routes this year and like...it's Fate what do I need to say about it? It's a classic visual novel for a reason. I played the fan re-translation of the first two routes with the final route being the older fan-translation of it. Keen to check out the recent official release properly even if it doesn't have the classic music in it :(

Sephonie I'm a bi fan of Analgesic's games but I avoided Sephonie for too long since it's a platformer (and I'm not particularly fond of them). It asks for patience to understand it and, much like the way the scientists in game come to understand the island of Sephonie, you too with find much rewarding here if you spend time with it. I think due to it being a very non-standardised 3d platformer, and really playing around with the form of those, it strikes a good balance of "newness" and comfort for me. There's this playfulness about it with the way you unlock new abilities that almost makes it feel metroid-like in a sense...I find the puzzle game while linking with creatures really fun too, quiet calming if anything.

[lifeina-glasshouse]

I think for every athf season I watch I'm gonna do a series of quick reviews for each episode. I like jotting down my final thoughts

Season 1

Rabbot- A pretty good pilot episode tbh, I really loved their dynamic here with Shake being so uppity about getting things done yet so uncaring at the same time and Frylock just kinda going with it. The shitty lipsyncing took a bit to get used to, but great start. Also HAHA HE SAID THE FUNNY DANCING IS FORBIDDEN LINE

Escape From Leprechaupolis- Fun concept. Didn’t get too attached to the leprechaun guys but Carl and Shake were especially funny, and Meatwad’s big sunshine and rainbows speech at the end had me holding back laughter.

Bus of the Undead- Wasn’t enthusiastic for this one. Not a fan of zombies, which is what usually comes to mind with “undead” but it was completely nonexistent vampires so that was a relief. Tangential rambling aside. the moth guy was cool and while I don’t remember too too much about this episode, I remember it getting some of the best laughs from me.

Mayhem of the Mooninites-

Ignignokt and Err’s debut in which they entirely destroy Meatwad’s morale and Frylock acts like a guardian to Meatwad, and really what more could I ask for? I love me some mama Frylock. And of course the stars of the show, the Mooninites, do not disappoint. Ignignokt has a whinier voice than I remembered, but I don’t mind because that homestly makes him even funnier, and Err has some really aggressive lines that caught me off guard in a good way(“GO BACK INSIDE! WE’RE FIGHTING!”). Fave moments have to be when they lazer Carl and when Meatwad tries to give “the finger” and just morphs into a hot dog. I was very giggly during this one.

Balloonenstein- Fun premise that just spirals out of control the further into the episode it goes. I like the first half where Meatwad has control of the whole household when he gets electricity from being spun around in the dryer. And the literal plothole that’s just a random massive vortex that shows up for plot convenience is honestly hilarious.

Space Conflict from Beyond Pluto- Favorite episode of the season, no contest. I was in tears by the end of it, my cheeks hurt from smiling too much, I was so amused throughout you don’t even know. Possibly the funniest fucking thing I’ve seen and I don’t even know why. The jokes just get thrown at you nonstop again and again and again and stellar vocal deliveries + terrible(/pos) character dynamics + stilted animation = just… perfection. Fave joke is definitely the running gag of all the buttons triggering balloons and confetti(“Did… Did we blow it up?” “YOU ARE TOYING WITH ME!”). I didn’t think the Mooninites would be outclassed by the Plutonians but here we are.

Ol’ Drippy- Was totally unsure what to expect and was very pleasantly surprised. Ol’ Drippy was a super pleasant addition to our nice little list of characters, big fan of the entirely decent character hanging w the total dipshits trope and it's stellar here. Poor dude, I hope he returns for another episode one way or another. Yea, can you tell he steals the show this ep? Such a soothing voice too.

Revenge of the Mooninites- Hear me out but I think this is the worst of the "these aliens are stupid nuisances" episodes of the season. It's kind of just a retread of Mayhem; They come to earth for essentially no reason, take advantage of Meatwad, terrorize Carl, and run away after an anticlimactic showdown. I mean it's still good, like a solid 7/10 episode, not that I'm giving them number ratings, but not very original. I think I would have liked it more if this premise were saved for next season.

MC Pee Pants- Scared of spiders... a little freaky, but I honestly loved the premise of "giant spider coerces innocents to use their brain waves to drill a hole to the center of the earth for candy." it's as nonsensical as it sounds, and i don't have lots to say on it but it's good.

Dumber Dolls- Wasn't a huge fan. I don't have much of a reason, I just thought everything was done pretty average, and there weren't a lot of laughs. I dunno, I wasn't feeling this one.

Bad Replicant- The replica Shake is really goofy, definitely ringing a bell for Emory, which is funny because he's also here. They're kinda just... guys. And I love that. Plutonians are hilarious as always, got tons of laughs from everyone... Great episode.

Circus- I enjoy how many fuckass blob characters this show just throws in 😭 First the Plutonians, then Ol' Drippy, then Randy the Astonishing, today's new flavor of alien! I'm not even getting tired of the aliens, all of them are terrible in their own ways and it's great. Randy gets tons of laughs, and Shake in the circus was really funny.

Love Mummy- Weird premise I'm digging. I really love how absolutely none of these plots are tropey or already established episode archetypes, at most being something that seems tropey and then is totally flipped on its head(e.g. aliens come to earth... but only to corrupt the impressionable with drugs and crime. a biohazard mess becomes sentient... but the monster is friendly and does everyone's dirty work.). I do find the mummy grating after a certain point, but still for the most part fun.

Dumber Days- Now it starts to fall into trope territory, and I'm not even mad because I love this kind of episode. It's the Patrick Smartpants of the show, and I'm running out of things to compliment, dude... Funny!!! Go watch it damnit!!! Good show!!!

Interfection- Shake and Meatwad being total fucking nuisances 💖💖💖 They really did predict just how bad subscription models would get though... I thought Shake would be more internet savvy but him just clicking on ads like a grandma is really funny. The scene where Frylock is trying to retrieve Meatwad from the scene of ads is great.

PDA- The monster of the week format works so well for this show... This and the previous one especially feel like a cracked out version of Regular Show, they're more similar than I would have thought at first. I wonder if there was any inspo from this show. Love how Shake just gets the random ahh tar monster's PDA, and the actual tar pit tour scene was 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴𝔂... Enjoyed this one.

Mail-Order Bride- I wasn't big into the premise of this one. Kinda sucked, not a lot to say. It felt like it dragged on for a good ten minutes longer than it was.

Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future- The way the robot's story stretches on and on here is really funny, he just like me frfr(yapping). Everyone being so fucking done with him was great, and the twist at the end was really funny.

BEST TO WORST: Space Conflict from Beyond Pluto, Ol' Drippy, Bad Replicant, Mayhem of the Mooninites, Rabbot, Circus, Bus of the Undead, Interfection, PDA, Dumber Days, Balloonenstein, MC Pee Pants, Escape from Leprechaupolis, Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future, Love Mummy, Revenge of the Mooninites, Dumber Dolls, Mail-Order Bride

OVERALL: I thought I'd like the show, obviously... but I think I'm hooked. It's got its teeth into me for sure. The comedy isn't the lowbrow shit I expected from an adult animated comedy, and I'm hungry for what's next in S2!

[jade-kyo]

RvB 20th rewatch: s1

Here it is, after giving myself some time to let the post restoration emotions settle I am finally commencing my 20th rewatch of RvB 1-13. I’ll be sharing my thoughts as I go and doing a few other special things. I’ll also be rewatching the PSAs, miniseries, and some of the extra stuff that’s on the dvds! Welp let’s get started with season 1!

Trocadero really didn’t have to go that hard right out the gate but they did that for us

Grimmons and chucker really started it all huh…

Also the way one of Sarge’s first lines is a grimmons joke istg

The way the characters are so well established right from the get go- they say so much with so little. Like right away you get that Sarge doesn’t like Grif and Simmons sucks up to Sarge without them ever directly saying it. They just have natural flowing and sounding dialogue that allows you to infer all this information so easily and I just RAAAHHHH THIS SHOWS DIALOGUE IS SO GOOD

“A walrus” “didn’t I just tell you to stop making up animals!” Is one of my favorite lines in the whole show I quote it so frequently

DONUT MY BELOVED REMEMBER WHEN YOU WERE JUST A NORMAL DUDE

Remember when Caboose called Tex a slut? Absolutely wild times fr

I love how this show allows its characters to have bad comebacks and lame jokes. It’s part of what makes the characters feel so damn real cause let’s face it- we all fail to have witty comebacks from time to time

“WHO IS RUNNING THIS ARMY” a line that came back to bite RT in the ass so many times lol

Love how the character that can’t aim for shit had the sniper as his signature weapon. One of the funniest bits in the show.

Also love how in the time that they spent arguing over the teleporter they could’ve walked to Donut 😂

“What the fuck are you babbling about” is also one of my most quoted lines

Donut really was the only normal one in the beginning lol

Ah the true inciting incident- Church’s first death. If that hadn’t happened we’d probably have an entirely different show.

Remember when Vic was also normal

TEX MY BELOVED

“That makes you a gay robot” Caboose predicted the entire story in one line

Church: explaining that he’s a ghost. // Tex who knows the entire truth: oh I am going to milk the shit out of this

Girlie really just said yes and to a bit Church didn’t know he was a part of

GOD THE UNINTENTIONAL FORESHADOWING IS CRAZY FROTHING AT THE MOUTH

“I never told him… he was my son” imagine if In restoration when Sarge dies he told Grif he was his son… honestly that single throw back could’ve redeemed the entire season for me could you IMAGINE I would have LOST IT

Church’s determination to save Tex being their downfall is such an established thing all the way back in season 1 and it follows the entire series and I just AGDJGAKSHSKHSKDGDJHD

They were doomed from the start

They could never escape the cycle

O’Malley my beloved

Holy shit the nostalgia hit hard during those credits, it’s only season 1 and I’m already getting teary eyed I’m not gonna survive this rewatch

Welp season 1 is done! God I love this show so much. Truly there are no words for how much it means to me. It just feels like coming home every time I watch it.

[robo-cryptid]

I love your writing! Please give director’s commentary on part 4 of the pipeline, any parts you’d like to share but I also need to know about the bath in the kitchen!

Thank you! And oooh, that's such a fun one. So this is probably going to be a director's commentary on that fic specifically but also on the series as published so far.

FIRST, the bathtub thing. I was just googling to get a sense of what would be appropriate for Abrams' apartment, and I found several articles talking about why some older NYC apartments have bathtubs or showers in the kitchen. Here's one example. It was just one of those cases of finding more answer than I expected to find and thinking it would be a funny way to create sexual tension.

One of the funniest things about this series as a whole is how it's transformed over time. Part 4 really should have been part 2 or 3 according to my original plan (or my second original plan. Plan A was truly just a PWP, and then the sickness took hold).

So for example, the first was sort of spawned by too many jokes about how awful Lash's dirty talk would be and what character would be willing to fuck him anyway (or what situation could I create to make it plausible they'd go through with it). Then the initial idea for it as a series was, lol, "Lash belongs in the cuck chair."

Several things conspired to change it from there. The first was learning Abrams' VA is Samoan. And I am not arguing that Abrams being blue makes him a man of color in game universe, nor do I think he's necessarily meant to be read that way with the info we have so far, buuuut it did make me pause and at least think through what I wanted to put out in the world, given the racist tropes in a lot of cuckolding porn. Obvs people can still have cuckolding fantasies without this baggage, but it was worth exploring the question anyway, and while there are still some elements of cuckolding fantasy remaining, I think it pushed me in a slightly different direction.

The second thing was just my general habit as a writer where the longer I spend with characters, the more I start to humanize them in my head, which meant shoving Lash in a corner to laugh at him was less funny and the story got to take a more emotionally interesting (and soapy) turn, I guess, than if I'd stuck with the original plan of actually just smut.

And third, I asked myself, "What is the most cursed thing I could do here?" and the answer was not some weird crackfic idea. Instead, it was "Make readers actually like Lash." Teehee.

Anyway, because of those changes, even though the series does still operate on a lot of Porn Logic, I had to then make a more emotional argument for "why Abrams?" than simply "well, he is hot and generally nice and not Lash." Which is how we get to "New Leaf" (and even more so in part 5) and establishing that he and Pocket have met before, they have a bit of history, Abrams knows who they really are and genuinely cares about them.

Pocket is just walking Daddy Issues, so I think they have a complicated relationship with people caring for them. Obviously, they don't want to be seen as helpless, but I think they're a little starved for it, which makes Abrams' pretty open and genuine affection really inviting. Plus I thought Abrams' bluntness would be an interesting contrast to the way Pocket speaks and thinks so indirectly and often offloads the responsibility for their actions onto circumstances or other people.

I think Abrams is a bit starved for affection too, but for entirely different reasons. He has the sort of job that is dangerous and lonely, and now that he has the tome, it's even more dangerous and more lonely, and then Pocket is all but handed to him on a silver platter, lol.

Finally, because of that loneliness and Abrams' sense of protectiveness, I wanted him to be a bit Too Much for some readers (in a very different way than Lash is too much) by making him sort of saccharine and overly careful and precious with Pocket. It's sweet! But it also could easily become suffocating if left unchecked, especially for someone like Pocket who is guarded and shies away from scrutiny.

I have rambled TOO MUCH probably, but here you go! <3

[moongothic]

I need to make a confession

I genuinely do not understand Buggy simps

Like I thought y'all were joking with the whole rooting for Buggy-thing but. No. People are actually seriously rooting for him. And I just don't get it.

Like. I can't tell if I'm missing something or if people are somehow completely misinterpreting his actual character. Like clearly it's meant to be one or the other and I can't tell which and I feel like I'm losing my mind because of it

'Cause the thing is that. Like. Until now, Buggy has been a pure gag character. He's no different from characters like Ceasar Clown and Spandam in that sense, he's just nowhere near as vile a human being as those other gag characters so he's marginally more lovable in what a pathetic fuck he is. But in the end, Buggy's just been there to be a punching bag (quite literally), because it's funny as hell to watch him eat shit And the reason it's funny IS because Buggy is a piece of shit. Again, not nearly as bad as Spamdam and co, but he's still a lying, cowardly, spineless douchebag who uses others for his own benefit and is willing to ditch anyone to save his own skin. Like Buggy was going to ditch his entire crew and flee by himself when the Shichibukai System was taken down and the Marines came for his head. He was going to leave his crew to die by themselves, without participating in the fight at all. Buggy was the one telling them to do the hard lifting while he'd escape, while the crew had no idea their beloved Chairman was going to abandon them. Literally the only reason Buggy failed to do that was because he was too slow and Crocodile got there before he managed to skedaddle.

He is essentially Usopp if Usopp wasn't willing to get beaten to death to protect his friends and their honor. Even fucking Luffy thinks Buggy is a pathetic idiot, and Luffy is the biggest indicator in the whole series on how to tell whether or not the readers should like a character or not. Not to mention, all the in-universe Buggy simps have been portrayed as (precious) idiots who can't see through Buggy's bullshit. Like every step of the story Oda has been trying to tell us that Buggy is an absolute loser.

So when people are like "Mihawk and Crocodile are going to see Buggy's ambition and become full Buggy supporters themselves!" I just

Are we reading the same comic???? HELLO????

Like I'll give you this, it would be objectively the funniest fucking outcome imaginable, which would be on-brand for Buggy and his trend of falling upwards.

But between Mihawk respecting people who are willing to abandon their honor to protect someone dear to them, and Crocodile's deep trust issues (possibly rooted in being betrayed in the past), I can not fucking fathom the two ever genuinely siding with Buggy the "I will leave you to die by yourself to save myself" Clown. Not when the two (and most other characters, including fucking Galdino and Daz) have been able to judge Buggy's character accurately (like how Crocodile was like "I thought you'd have ran away by now" when he arrived at Emptee Bluffs, and Buggy was like "yeah no shit")

Not unless Buggy grows enough of a spine that he'd be willing to sacrifice himself for someone (or at least get hurt on someone else's behalf to protect them), more specifically Mihawk and Crocodile. And let's be real, right now, Buggy probably wants nothing more than to run away from the two before they do actually kill him.

I just

Buggy simps. I do not understand you. I don't understand how you've reached your reading of the character.

[lividria]

i felt personally insulted when i learned about how metroid: other M handled ridley's appearance, because iirc that's like samus' 7th time seeing him in the timeline (or, well, this was a clone of him, but still) and only then does she have an actual reaction beyond "dammit, not this guy again", only for him to die off-screen anyways after having so much build-up with the little birdie & mystery creature

and now i'm even more angry about it because i just had an epiphany, you could make that work so much better with a single change: it's not a clone of ridley, it's another space dragon that was captured and given a home in the bottle ship (space dragon isn't just something i made up, it was used as a name for ridley's species in some random noncanon manga or something that was officially licensed iirc so)

that would make this work so much better that you could probably even argue you could leave samus' panic attack in (albeit rewritten to fit the new circumstance) and it would make sense, because if i was samus even if i was just tired of fighting the same guy over and over again at that point i would also break down if i was given the revelation that the sadistic overpowered dragon monster that killed my family and has been hellbent on killing me ever since that i finally got rid of for good like a week ago was just one of an entire extant species that are all just as horrible

and instead of having them die off-screen to the queen metroid like they're a fucking joke, replace the fucking inexplicable phantoon cameo with space dragon 2 showing up to finish the job as you try and escape the self-destructing ship, because i'd imagine ridley's tenacity and grudge-holding isn't unique and that'd make for a much more compelling climax (side note, someone i know once complained ridley is the final boss too often in the series, it happened one and a half times bro and only in remakes how do you even mess that up)

i read on a metroid wiki that the main guy behind other M said in an interview that he would change nothing about the game and it turned out to be the perfect realization of his vision or something idiotic like that, only for the page a few paragraphs later to mention the game is tied with METROID PRIME: PINBALL for second worst reviewed metroid game (first was federation force) and a nintendo higher-up called other M a huge waste of time or something along those lines, and that is one of the funniest things ever i needed to include this here i could never write anything that funny myself and it was written completely seriously & naturally and probably not even meant as anything

[animebw]

Seasonal Reflection: Spring 2023 Anime

Now that’s more fucking like it. I was feeling pretty down on anime after a disappointing winter season, but spring has come in like a freight train to remind us why this medium is so damn important (just in time for summer to let us down again because my god this new crop of shows is looking thiiiiiiiiiiin). Making the choice not to stick with shows I wasn’t enjoying just for the sake of completion was clearly the right call, because not only did that leave me with fewer bad shows sucking my my free time and motivation, it meant I was able to much more happily appreciate the bevy of excellent offerings that Spring 2023 had to offer. From an absolute top-tier run of rom-coms to a slew of entrancing fantasy series, I was never at a loss for things to enjoy. I’ve already shared by thoughts on Vinland Saga’s flawed but excellent second season (8/10) and the abysmal, overrated trash heap that was Oshi no Ko (3/10), as well as quick thoughts on all the series I ended up dropping. But if you want to know my thoughts on the other shows I watched to completion? Then read on, and see which spring offerings are worth checking out!

Uma Musume To the Top: 4/10

One of these days, I’ll be able to better articulate why this franchise leaves me so cold. What is it about Uma Musume that made fans go gaga for historical racehorses anthropomorphized as cute anime idol horsegirls that I’m not getting? Cause from where I’m sitting, the whole thing is just a bloated, overwrought exercise in hacky melodrama and shrink-wrapped moeblob pandering with the occasional actually pretty decent sports anime arc thrown in there. The whole thing just feels so cynical and calculating, from its lazily slapped-together premise that feels like three random popular anime genres shoved in a blender with no rhyme or reason to the obnoxious soap-opera histrionics that define its attempts at tugging your heartstrings. And while this 4-episode OVA certainly has the best, most exhilaration animation of the bunch- seriously- it is stunning how good the racing looks- it also makes the unforgivable mistake of having zero Gold Ship content. They got rid of the funniest character in the show and I will never forgive them for it.

Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible: 4.5/10

I think 2023 is the year that something officially snapped in me. I have just entirely lost patience with middling rom-coms that exist for no other reason than to sell the fantasy of a perfect manic pixie dream girl who’ll love your totally bland forgettable self. I mean, not like I had much patience for them to begin with in the first place, but watching Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible felt like staring the futility of mindless wish fulfillment itself in the face. Does it have some good jokes? Yeah. Is the animation pleasing enough? Sure. But between the embarrassingly forced whimsy in the soundtrack and the treacly sweet presentation that tarts up this bargain-bin Takagi-san like some sweeping, romantic ideal, the inherent emptiness at the heart of the fantasy it’s selling just becomes impossible to ignore. Boys, I beg you: get higher standards for yourself and the shows you watch. You will not cure your loneliness by losing yourself in the illusion of a perfectly sweet, doting girlfriend who’ll never ask you to outgrow the things you hate about yourself. You deserve better than settling for endless self-indulgence at the hands of an industry that doesn’t believe you’re capable of more than that. Or just, you know, at least only watch anime of this kind that actually are good, compelling stories in their own right with more to say than “Gee, wouldn’t it be great if Kana Hanazawa was the only person in the whole world who I mattered to?” There’s even one of those later in this list! You don’t have to settle for mediocrity! Seriously!

My Home Hero: 4.5/10

I feel bad for this show, because it’s one of those cases where it’s obvious you’re getting a vastly inferior version of the story. The concept of a cat-and-mouse thriller where the protagonists are just a normal family of everyday middle-class busybodies trying to outwit a yakuza conspiracy after killing one of their goons is a pretty unique one, and the writing goes a long way to sell out on the fact that these are just an ordinary middle-aged couple thrust into a hectic situation and doing their best with the limited skills at their disposal. Even if the writing can be overly convenient at times with how much they’re able to plan ahead, there’s some good stuff here. Unfortunately, it was adapted to anime by Tezuko Productions, one of the most bafflingly incompetent studios to still get reliable work. So the animation falls apart any time it has to depict anything more complex than characters talking and walking, the art direction is uniformly ugly and stilted, and the horrendously conceived score tries so hard to sound epic and edgy that it turns every potentially gut-wrenching moment into a laughingstock of poorly executed melodrama. If you’ve got any interest in this story at all, just go straight for the manga and forget this turd exists.

Yuri is My Job: 5.5/10

Something to know about me: I hate cringe. And if there’s one type of cringe I can’t stand above all others, it’s watching performers mess up on stage and ruin the show for the audience. As a former theater kid, nothing makes we want to curl up in a ball and die more than a stage play going off the rails and the actors being left lost and adrift while the audience stares and murmurs in worry. I say all this to tell you that I watched Yuri is My Job- a show that is primarily focused on watching actors almost fail in live performance over and over again in the messiest. most emotionally charged ways possible- and I almost managed to make myself like it. What can I say, I’m a sucker for subversive yuri deconstructions that explore the liminal space between ambiguous Class S-style stock yuri tropes and real feelings of lesbian love. Especially when they’re willing to let their characters be this messy and difficult. But man, there were times I had to watch this show with my hands over my eyes from sheer concentrated cringe. Do not let the yuri fool you into thinking this is just another soft and sweet gay girl romance, this shit gets rough. But as long as you have a stronger stomach than me for this kind of thing- and if you don’t ask too many questions about what these girls’ lives are like when they’re not play-acting for customers in a yuri schoolgirl cafe because we never fucking leave this location- you might find something really worthwhile here.

Otaku Elf: 5.5/10

Every season, there’s one anime that sneaks under the radar at first but slowly accrues more and more good will over time, establishing itself as an underappreciated gem for anyone smart enough to go looking for it. And this season, that show was Otaku Elf, an inconsistent but enjoyable blend of chill slice-of-life antics- centered on a young shrine maiden looking after the titular shut-in elf who serves as her temple’s local deity- and bite-sized history lessons about the life and culture of people in Japan’s Edo period. It’s got some surprisingly warm and nuanced character writing for its two leads, and their relationship as they push and pull from different perspectives on life leads to a handful of emotional moments I’d genuinely consider magical. Sadly, the further the show strays outside that central relationship, the less interesting it gets, with most of the side characters- the maiden’s perfectly angelic younger sister, other elves enshrined as deities as their caretakers- coming off as half-baked in comparison. It’s a bit of a crap shoot whether any given episode will pluck at your heartstrings or bore you to tears depending on what it chooses to focus on. But when it’s good, it’s really good, and it’s worth a look for anyone who enjoys historical trivia mixed in with their comfort viewing.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2: 6/10

In retrospect, I’m really glad I went back and re-evaluated my opinion on Magus Bride season 1 before this new entry came out. Not just because it helped me realize how much I’d underappreciated one of the most captivating fantasy anime of the modern era, but because it drives home that this second season’s sluggish pace is, in fact, an issue. Magus Bride has always been a very slow and ruminative series, trickling through moments like streams through a mud-clogged riverbed en route to its big character moments. But even by those generous standards, this has been sloooooooooooow going. Lots of table setting, lots of new characters with new conflicts, lots of buildup for multiple different plotlines that don’t always feel meaningfully connected and will require a damn good payoff to make this slow start worth it. Luckily we’ve got a second cours coming in the fall, so there’s still plenty of time to turn Chise’s experience at magic college into another worthwhile entry in this powerful series. Until then, I’ll hang tight to the things this series still does well- its primordial depiction of magic, a wonderful soundtrack, the complexities of Chise and Elias’ relationship, Chise’s continued journey toward understanding and cultivating her self-worth- in hopes the end result will be just as magical as what came before.

Birdie Wing Season 2: 6/10

Is there a point where a series who’s primary appeal is how brazenly over-the-top it goes starts to run out of steam? Believe it or not, being stupid and bonkers is an art unto itself, and it takes real talent to sustain. For every Akiba Maid War that constantly ups the ante until it blows its stack with an absolute barn-burner finale, there are countless Highschool of the Deads that slowly dribble away their incredible manic energy over time, leaving nothing behind but the same tired anime cliches as always. And as much as I enjoyed seeing the rollicking madness of Birdie Wing come to close, I can’t deny that I felt my interest starting to slip as this second and final season went on. It just doesn’t do enough to surpass the bar it set with the insane high-stakes golf mafia death matches in the first season. Which I acknowledge is a high bar to clear, but for all the hilariously overdramatic soap opera twists and sudden power-ups that dominate the matches in this season, it never quite manages to measure up to that wonderful madcap energy that made its first season such a lightning-bolt success. Or, I dunno, maybe they shouldn’t have split up the main goddamn couple for basically the entire season. Especially when the same studio was already doing another, much better handled lesbian separation arc over in G-Witch. Seriously, Sunrise, anything you want to get off your chest? I feel like you might have some issues.

Ranking of Kings: Treasure Chest of Courage: 7.5/10

It feels like we’re heading into a very bizarre trend in side story “season 2″s lately. First Ranking of Kings, Horimiya next season, and the Quintessential Quintuplets somewhere down the line, so many shows are spending entire seasons on side content going through stuff from the source material they either skipped over or rushed through. And I can’t help but worry that sets a bad precedent for anime adaptations; we seriously do not need to legitimize shows hacking their source material to pieces for the sake of modern broadcast standards any more than they already are. On the other hand, though... man, it’s hard to complain when the end result does such a great job living up to its source. The Treasure Chest of Courage is every bit as whimsical, emotional, and gorgeously animated as the first season of Ranking of Kings, all the same heart and imagination in bite-sized pieces exploring the finer details in ways that make you appreciate the base story even more. It even fixes a few of my big issues with the main show’s back half and sets things up for an apparent proper season 2 sometime in the future! We’ll see if Horimiya and Quints can keep up those high standards, but for now, this is an exceptional interquel that’s bound to make you fall in love with one of anime’s best modern fantasy yarns all over again.

The Dangers in My Heart: 7.5/10

If you started watching The Dangers in My Heart only to drop it after the very first scene, I can’t blame you. The prospect of putting up with a school-shooter level misanthropic loner of a protagonist gleefully fantasizing about brutalizing his crush was almost enough to make me nope out right away. But thank god I kept watching, because once you get past that horrifically unrepresentative opening scene, it quickly becomes clear that The Dangers in My Heart is actually a genuinely wonderful little rom-com that fully understands just how much edgelord middle school nonsense is just insecure kids trying to figure out their place in the world. So few rom-coms like this really get the precise blend of hormones, awkwardness, insecurity, and cringe that defines so many middle school foibles, let alone one that understands the interiority of its female characters well enough to make them feel more fleshed out than trophy wives. But this show nails that early adolescent hellscape without ever coming off exploitative of it (well, almost; there are some obnoxious fanservice moments that really didn’t need to exist, thankfully few and far between). And really, who else but the director of the similarly true-to-life Teasing Master Takagi-san could pull that off so well? Just make it through that opening scene and you’ll very quickly find yourself falling for these idiots just like I did.

My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999: 8/10

God, it’s so fucking good to have shoujo rom-coms again. We went through such a drought period where the genre basically faded into nonexistence save for the Fruits Basket remake, but it feels like they’re finally coming back into fashion. And what better way to remind the world how marvelous the world of shoujo romance can be than another collaboration between the studio and director that graced us with the masterpiece My Love Story back in 2015... with another show called My Love Story? You couldn’t ask for a more surefire winning formula, and sure enough My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999 is a delight from start to finish. It’s nominally about failgirl extraordinaire Akane meeting the socially awkward and emotionally distant hot boy Yamada through the RPG they play together, but the game stuff is actually a pretty small part of it. At heart, this show is about the messiness of young adulthood, and the ways people fumble through the highs and lows of coming of age as they develop into fully concrete people. And it captures that chaos with all the sharp, creative direction, thoughtful character writing, and feel-good romantic fireworks you should expect from this creative team. It’s a gut-busting, feel-good, achingly sincere gem of a show, and I recommend it to everyone in need of a little more whimsy in your life.

Skip and Loafer: 8.5/10

It’s absolutely insane to me that the Skip and Loafer manga is published in the same seinen magazine as Vinland Saga, because this is one of the most authentically shoujo teen coming-of-age delights we’ve had in a long time. Small-town girl Mitsumi moves to the big city to excel at a prestigious high school and make her dreams of rebuilding her hometown come true, only to have her perfect plans derailed by the chaos of growing up, from friends to crushes to high school curveballs. It’s so rare for a story to capture adolescence this authentically, the moments both big and small that define our paths toward maturity as we begin to figure out who we want to be. Watching Skip and Loafer made me reflect on my own high school experiences, good and bad alike, and be grateful for all the steps I took that brought me to where I am today. And any show that can get me so introspective about myself is a show worth celebrating. Plus it’s got the legendary Tomoyo Kurosawa in the leading role, and it’s got a prominent adult trans side character (Nao-chan is perfect and needs more screentime in season 2 or I riot), and the OP makes my cheeks hurt from smiling too hard... yeah, PA works has once again knocked it out of the park. Somebody stop them, they’re growing too powerful!

Heavenly Delusion: 8.5/10

To summarize Heavenly Delusion in a single sentence is, I’m afraid, impossible. I could say it’s a post-apocalyptic mystery thriller that feels like the love child of Shinsekai Yori and The Promised Neverland, but that doesn’t quite do it justice. I could say it’s a dizzying double-track story that does a better job than pretty much any other series as letting you pick up clues on your own, but that’s doesn’t tell you enough either. I could say it’s host to one of the most staggering, masterpiece anime productions ever put to television with no shortage of the greatest singular episodes and individual cuts I’ve ever seen, but even that falls short. I could even say it’s a deeply flawed, intensely problematic series that’s trying to unpack so many different ideas about gender and sexuality with no guardrails to keep it from hurtling off track, but even that leaves out so much. Ultimately, though, the only way I can describe Heavenly Delusion is that it is Heavenly Fucking Delusion, and it’s one of the single most mesmerizing anime I’ve ever had the pleasure to watch. It’s a tour-de-force capital-E Event the likes of which we so rarely get nowadays, and if you think you can stomach the dark places it goes in its exploration of humanity’s corrosion and reconstruction, then you absolutely owe it to yourself to give it a watch. Just be aware there’s a content warning for an incredibly upsetting scene of sexual assault near the end, and I mean that seriously. I like to think I’m pretty desensitized and even I felt kind of sick and unclean by the time that scene was over. Watch at your own discretion.

Insomniacs After School: 8.5/10

So fun fact: this is the rare series where I’ve actually read the manga before the anime was even announced! One of my Discord friends introduced me to Insomniacs After School, and despite my normal aversion to manga, I fell helplessly, recklessly head over heels in love with it. And if this adaptation made you feel any inch of that magic, then you owe it to yourself to check out the manga right away. Not just because there’s more story to cover beyond the anime’s admittedly pretty perfect stopping point, but because Lidenfilms’ workmanlike production is only able to capture, like 70% of what makes this series so special. And this stirring tale of two insomniacs learning to navigate the trauma of their sleepless nights together deserves to be experienced at its full, unblemished power. It’s an absolutely wonderful slow-burn romance that captures the nuances of teenage friend groups and coming of age like so few series I’ve consumed, and its portrayal of Nakami and Magari’s growing companionship under the night sky is sure to melt your heart into a sugary-sweet puddle. It’ll make you learn for your lost youth more palpably than any other show you’re likely to watch this year. And even in a season already jammed to the gills with exemplary rom-coms that really, truly get what it means to be a teenager or young adult, this slightly subpar take on the material still stands head and shoulders above them all.

Mobile Suit Gundam: the Witch from Mercury Season 2: 9/10

Be honest: did any other show even have a shot? For all the wonderfully realistic rom-coms and ambitious seinen mindfucks this season gave us, there was only ever one true contender to the throne. And I’m thrilled to say that after a fantastic first season putting all the pieces in perfect order, Gundam: Witch From Mercury stuck the landing with a riveting second season that smashed the game board and  sent everything spiraling out of control in the best way possible. It’s like Ichiro Ookuchi took all the right lessons from his work on Code Geass- a seamless blend of high school melodrama and gut-wrenching mecha warfare, dizzying plotting that leaves you gasping for breath at the end of every episode, a sheer unrivaled confidence in the chaos of love and war- and refined them to a razor’s edge, delivering a never-ending roller coaster of jaw-dropping battles, explosive emotional payoffs, stunning twists that all make sense in retrospect, tears, laughter, hard choices, flawed characters overcoming their weaknesses, and a true coronation of Suletta and Miroine as one of the all-time great anime yuri couples. At times you can’t help but wish for more time to explore the many worldbuilding details and side characters that fall by the wayside as the chaos takes hold; two cours just isn’t enough to do justice to all the complex, interconnecting ideas this series is juggling. But the fact it works as well as it does, and bring it all home for such a satisfying finale, is proof of just how damn miraculous this series has been from start to finish. I couldn’t ask for a more perfect introduction to this storied franchise, and I couldn’t be more excited to see what this creative team will come up with next. And if you somehow haven’t gotten around to watching it yet? Fix that as soon as possible. You won’t regret it for a second.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Sideshow Bob

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

For over thirty years now The Simpsons has provided the world with all manner of wacky shenanigans.  And when it comes to cartoons, what better way to cause shenanigans than by having a villain show up to wreak havoc? Most often the villain is the decrepit billionaire Mr. Burns, but sometimes you get a hilarious and memorable one-shot character like the affably evil Hank Scorpio. But in the middle, between being a major member of the cast and being a guest character, there is one man: Sideshow Bob.

The man with the palm tree hair and multiple attempted murders under his belt has cemented himself as one of the most iconic antagonists in television history as he seeks vengeance against Bart Simpson for thwarting his original scheme to get Krusty the clown arrested. With a little over a dozen major appearances across the history of the series and zero successes to his name, he is very much the Wile E. Coyote to Bart’s Roadrunner, and it’s typically as funny as that sounds.

But as we all know, many characters on the show have suffered the curse of flanderization, where key parts of their initial personality are magnified until that’s all they’re about, so named because fellow character Ned Flanders had his religious beliefs cranked up to 11 as time went on. The same could be said about Bob, with his desire to kill Bart overriding any sort of closure he receives at the end of every episode… But does this diminish his quality as a villain?

Motivation/Goals: Fitting for an animated sitcom, Bob’s motivations aren’t the most complex in the world. In his first appearance, he merely wanted to frame Krusty to take over his show and turn it into something more high brow, but after Bart helped thwart his schemes his new goal became to murder Bart, and that’s mainly what he’s stuck with. “Sideshow Bob’s Last Gleaming” and “The Day of the Jackanapes” mix things up a bit by having him target Krusty as well, but Bart dying is something that would have inevitably come to fruition if he’d succeeded.

Frankly, this just makes Bob even funnier as a character. This dude has beef with literal fucking children and despite being a genius he literally never wins. He truly is the perfect second banana to a clown, always suffering for the gag while never getting the limelight he feels he deserves.

Performance: Perhaps the single thing that makes Bob stand out is that he has always, in every appearance, been voiced by none other than Kelsey Grammer, AKA Frasier Crane from Cheers and Frasier (Or Beast from X-Men: The Last Stand). I think it’s pretty obvious he kills it as Bob, bringing just the right air of menace and class to have Bob be seen as a legitimate threat while also being able to deliver some great jokes. Also, he gets to sing quite a bit, which is always a treat.

Final Fate: Every single time he appears, Bob is inevitably thwarted and sent to jail, usually worse off than when he started the episode. There are a few unique examples where Bob gets it a bit  worse than usual; “Brother From Another Series” has Bob save the day but then get arrested anyway because Wiggum is a fucking idiot, while “Funeral for a Fiend” features him going completely insane.

Best Episode: It does not matter how much time has passed, “Cape Feare” will always remain the #1 greatest appearance of Sideshow Bob. It has it all: Movie references, musical numbers, murderous plots, and classic gags! And speaking of gags, the episode contains one of the single funniest gags Bob has ever been a part of.

Coming in at a close second would be “Sideshow Bob Roberts,” where Bob rigs an election. The entire episode really shows just how little conservatives have changed over nearly 30 years; the episode aired on October 9, 1994, and its jabs at the right wing are as timeless as ever. It also helps that the episode is a riot, with tons of good gags. “Krusty Gets Busted,” “Black Widower,” “Brother from Another Series,” “The Day of the Jackanapes,” “The Great Louse Detective,” and “The Bob Next Door”  are all solid entries as well, and feature Bob at his most cunning, though they’re always gonna be in the shadow of “Cape Feare” (and “Sideshow Bob Roberts” to a lesser extent).

Best Quote: It’s gotta be this one, if only for the sheer absurdity of how posh Bob makes catcalling sound:

Final Thoughts & Score: Previously I compared Bob to fellow animated antagonist Denzel Crocker, in the sense they both became increasingly flanderized and their roles began to make less and less sense as time went on with the show, with Bob’s murderous impulses never going away even when there’s plenty of reason that they should. Both “Brother From Another Series” and “Day of the Jackanapes” give pretty nice end points for Bob’s arc; the former, if they had cut out the mean-spirited ending, would have had Bob redeemed and finally given him a bit of peace, and the latter has him actually reconciling with Krusty (and getting the death penalty). But they continued to bring him back, with “The Great Louse Detective” also giving a great end point for Bob, complete with a musical number! But then he’s back for “The Italian Bob,” the worst of his appearances, which then ties into his next appearance in “Funeral for a Fiend,” which also gives us a nice stopping point. But no, he keeps coming back with the same goals each and every time: Kill Bart (or sometimes Krusty).

But the thing with Bob compared to Crocker is that while the latter shows up a lot in his series to the point he’s a main antagonist, Bob is used extremely sparingly. He has 15 major appearances over the course of The Simpsons run, with one of those being a “Treehouse of Horror” segment and some of those appearances happening several seasons apart. The lack of oversaturation helps make the flanderization sting a bit less; sure, he’s always sliding back into the same old evil routines, but he doesn’t show up enough where it becomes completely stale. Some of his later appearances end up being a bit less impressive than earlier ones, but he’s still enjoyable enough that none of his episodes are downright awful.

A lot of this is thanks to Kelsey Grammer’s voice work. He’s really a perfect fit for this egotistical, classy attempted murderer, and considering Grammer’s a decently big name thanks to Cheers and Frasier, it’s probably not without reason they use him sparingly. Still, I think what ultimately keeps Bob great compared to a lot of other cartoon villains is that he’s just such a ridiculous concept that it’s hard for him to not end up being fun whenever he appears. This is a former sidekick to a TV clown who wants to murder a small child, he has a long-standing rivalry with rakes, and he enjoys singing opera. He has stolen a nuke, stolen someone’s face, rigged an election, and attempted to assassinate a clown by hypnotizing a child and rigging him with explosives. His schemes are wacky, convoluted, and cartoonish, but Grammer’s performance will convince you that these actions are the most brilliant a criminal could conceive of.

Has Bob lost a little bit of luster over the years? Sure. But much like the show he’s part of, writing him off completely because of a few weaker showings is a bit disingenuous. Bob’s a high 9.5/10, leaning a bit more towards the 10, and maybe they’d get there if they could commit to giving him a proper ending. But hey, even if they never do, I’m not gonna complain when I hear Grammer drop a “Hello, Bart” for the fiftieth time right before Bob steps on a rake.