#The backstory of what’s going on here is I’m trying to make another group composition for LR esp since they won another thing again

[oriolus]

These gamers on my mind

[panharmonium]

round 3 of in-progress naruto thoughts, featuring me crying tears about pretty much everybody

[spoiler policy disclaimer first, as always: i’m only still in the early stages of shippuden (we just finished the asuma arc).  i literally had zero interest in naruto growing up, so i remain unspoiled for virtually everything that happens past this point.  i would love to stay that way, so please don’t interact with this (tags included, because the notifications now show them to me automatically) with any spoilery commentary, including even general things like “oh i love this show but it gets less good after X point” or “X season is better than Y season” or any general assessments of quality/likability/etc re: future seasons.  Thank you! <3 ]

- well, folks.  i have apparently reached the point in my viewing experience where i am deeply emotionally attached to virtually all of the characters and i care when bad stuff happens to even the most minor of them, because the asuma arc really ripped my heart out and used my feelings as ping-pong balls

- that said - i have to admit, if you’re going to kill a character, that was the way to handle it.  it wasn’t glossed over or dropped like a hot potato; it had a huge arc attached to it and major development for the other characters involved and it came full circle at the end in such a quiet, complete way.  i was hoping from the very beginning that the answer to “who’s the king” was going to be “children” (all i could think about was asuma yelling at kazuma “children aren’t pawns to protect the king!” during the sora arc) and ultimately that ended up being true, and i found that so satisfying.  (painful.  but satisfying.)

- SHIKAMARU.  HERO.  i always loved him, but what an incredible arc he had.  and that episode, “team 10″ - WOW.  wow.  they really kicked it up a notch for that one - that was legitimately beautiful television, not just “good by naruto standards.”  gorgeous animation/composition/editing...this show is in fact capable of magic, when it takes its time.

- grow up, you three.  the shadow of death hangs over us all.  some deaths may be harder to accept than others, but if you can’t get past that, there can be no future!  

^^ this is legitimately my favorite line of the series.  i can’t stop thinking about it.  i love how tsunade is speaking from her own experience, and how she’s not wrong - nobody in this confrontation is wrong, really; shikamaru has his stuff more together than tsunade realizes, and tsunade is just telling the truth, and i just love how this entire line relates so closely to the thematic heart of this arc, which is the sanctity of children and the future they represent.  like...so many characters in this show have seen so much death and tragedy, but we see children/the promise of the future pulling people out of that hole and back into a hopeful place.  it’s literally tsunade’s whole story with naruto.  she’s speaking from the heart, and it’s one of those lines that you can feel resonate across the whole story.

- kakashi, once again, coming to destroy me with his level of devotion to the kids.  not even his own kids, this time.  when he shows up at the end of “team 10″ and offers to take over for asuma and go with shikamaru’s group - i lost my mind.  he’s been keeping an eye on those kids the whole time.  nobody told him about what they were doing; he has no reason to be out at the gates at that time of night - he’s been keeping tabs on them.  he knows exactly what they’re going through.  he knows how they must feel.  he wants to make sure they’re okay.  and when he sees that they’re in an appropriate frame of mind for what they’re planning (aka, not unbalanced by rage or grief or the desire for revenge), he immediately offers himself up as an adult support figure.  he inserts himself into that situation and assumes responsibility for making sure nobody gets hurt.  he puts himself into a position where he can escort them through this experience safely (in more ways than one).  he lets shikamaru take the lead and achieve closure, all while simultaneously monitoring the situation to make sure every choice the group makes is the safest, smartest thing to do.  and then in the battle, he puts himself in between the kids and certain death over and over again - he saves their lives so many times. 

the kids are so grateful to him for doing that.  they respect him so much for it.  they feel supported.  they feel looked after.  they feel validated.  three kids who just lost their adult mentor in such a sudden, violent way - for them to have another grown-up step in and temporarily assume that role, for them to feel a pair of capable, steady hands propping them up before they fall down - that is so important!

kakashi is beautiful to me because he takes every horrible thing that ever happened to him and turns it into an unwavering commitment to help other people navigate the same rocky waters.  everything he does is designed to catch people when they fall, particularly when it comes to children.  he doesn’t have to take that kind of interest in asuma’s team.  none of the other adults are monitoring them like that.  but he understands what they’re dealing with and he knows they could hurt themselves if somebody doesn’t take care of them and so he steps in and assumes that responsibility himself.  and then he does the same thing with team 8′s kids, too, in the next arc, when kurenai is out of commission.  he takes all of his own painful experiences and turns them into ways he can protect other people from stumbling into the same pits he fell into, and i’ll tell you this for damn sure - he’d rather take a deadly hit himself than allow another cohort of children to be wiped off the face of the earth before their time. 

i love that about him.  i love that he turns all of the trouble he’s seen into ways he can be a source of strength for others.  i love that he is always thinking about the kids.  that’s the whole point of this arc: children are king.  kakashi knows that just as well as asuma did, and the way he consistently throws himself in front of the children to keep them safe is my favorite thing about him.

- fucking LOVE that shikamaru turns down the feudal lord’s offer because he wants to stay in the village in case his friends need him.  i feel like this kind of choice is never portrayed as a good thing in media - it’s always shown to be better to get yourself out there, try something new, leave old things behind, take a risk, make a change, as if staying home is somehow the same thing as settling or wasting your potential.  i love how asuma lifts up shikamaru’s decision to stay rooted in his home as a worthy and admirable thing.  the will of fire, indeed.

- the EMOTIONS i felt every time kakashi was helping naruto figure out how to complete the rasengan....when kakashi tells him “i truly believe you are the only shinobi who can surpass the fourth hokage” and then while walking away yamato’s all “you sweet-talked him” and kakashi immediately sets him straight like “no.  no.  i believe he can do it.”  SOBBING.  

- “good old asuma.  he must’ve known you inside and out, huh?”  i’ll be over here crying in the club, folks

- kakashi having conversations with sasuke in his head was Too Much for me ;__;

- we watched a bit past the asuma arc and are now into the part about the gemstone lady but the only thing i have to say about this new arc so far is about jiraiya and honestly i’m going to have to gif it to do it justice.  that scene with him and naruto where naruto falls asleep on him just...struck me down where i sat.  i was actually about ready to cry for real.  my feelings couldn’t take it.  i used to not really care too much about jiraiya in the shonen jump days (and yes, there’s some stupid stuff with him that you have to just look past if you’re going to enjoy things) but i love him so much now and i am finding myself so moved by the way he is rejoining the village and (re)building his connections with the people there, and how much meaning has been brought back into his life by the opportunity to work with naruto in particular, and how like...i mean, this is just my own impression, because i haven’t seen his full backstory yet, but he strikes me as someone who’s been running away for a long time, who had very little hope for the future, someone who experienced some terrible things and gave up, just like tsunade, until he runs into naruto.  and now things have changed for him, and it warms my heart to see it.  i love watching him take naruto on training field trips, and i love the depth of care we see from him towards naruto now - a far cry from the “i don’t like kids” of early shonen jump.  i love seeing him collaborate with kakashi - tag-teaming their teaching and climbing in through the window to check on him in the hospital and teasing him about how silly he looks with a sheet over his nose.  i’ve just become so touched by his progression and by the way the establishment of these relationships with “his” kids and the village as a whole (bonds, connections, all the things that this show can’t shut up about) has almost been a...healing sort of thing for him and has changed his entire outlook on life and given him a new sense of hope/meaning.  

like.  i can’t believe i am out here having jiraiya emotions after how little i cared about him when i first met him, but...here i am.  

[natsspammityspamspamham]

Dino Watches Anime (Jan 13)

With the snow outside and cancellations everywhere, I have more time to kick back, relax, and not do anything. Seriously, playing out in the snow and being an absolute bum is my specialty.

Dropped

Darwin's Game 

It just seemed like Mirai Nikki but updated to smartphones instead of flip phones and with a new interface and system. Seriously, it’s like someone watched Mirai Nikki and went “I can remake this and rake in the money”. The animation wasn’t good (according to our local sakuga geek, there were less than 10 animators who worked on the 40 min premiere because of the inhumane conditions of the studio which adds to the yikes), the soundtrack was great (but I won’t watch a show just for the soundtrack/seiyuu cast), and overall, I felt like I didn’t want to put myself through a show like this.

Uta no Prince-sama

I couldn’t do it fam. I watched two episodes and nearly cried on the inside because it felt like Kiniro no Corda but with a new bland face with new bland characters. I never watched either of these fully. I tried to watch just for the seiyuu (*ahem* Miyuki Sawashiro), but imagine having your life hobbies made into an absolute joke by a character who can’t even read music and is in the composition department while her main song of choice is “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and the ikemen around her and swooning over it and writing their own songs for her. The guys all have the same faces too! They’re triangle heads that can only be differentiated by colour palette. I’m telling the difference based on voices at this point. I don’t want the ikemen, but I would like people to be into my music too ya know! You may think that I’m dropping this anime purely out of spite for the story and characters, and you’re damn right I am. 

Seasonal Stuff

Pet

This is this close to being dropped, and I don’t mean for the strong BL vibes. It’s a little cringy but not that bad (I’ve watched a lot of cringe straight romance and to me it’s all the same). It just feels so poorly constructed right now. The universe just hangs by a thread with characters I feel ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for. Everything in this anime feels so cheap. I’m giving this one more week before I give it the axe.

Rikei ga Koi ni Ochita no de Shoumei shitemita 

Okay, this anime is stupid, but we all went in knowing it was going to be very stupid. You’ve seen the screencaps. You’ve seen the cliches. Now get ready to have a pretentious science spin on it as if you haven’t seen these scenes a million times before elsewhere, and the characters (at least one of them) know it. The art... it’s present. I mean, character designs are giving the guys of Reddit what they want (especially with Sora Amamiya being really popular and singing the OP along with voicing the main character). Yuuma Uchida is also there. Nothing really worth noting here except “stay in school kids so you can become a pretentious science kid with no people skills!”

Dorohedoro

I might just watch this anime in place of “Pet” because this anime has a much brighter outlook and despite being CG genuinely looks better anyway. It’s the horror that I wanted to fill the void with (since Pet genuinely isn’t scary or innovative). Everything was pretty good with the first episode! I’m looking forward to seeing more!

From here on out, the rest of the seasonal list are the ones I look forward to the most! Get that head lizardman!

Runway de Waratte 

At first, this doesn’t seem like something that would come out of Shonen Weekly, but it inspires a good message about being who you want to be even with limitations if front of you. You have a girl too short to be considered a model and a guy who designs fashion without having the money to pursue it further. I know nothing about style, but I do know things about being short! Maybe that’s why I have such a soft spot for it...

ID:Invaded

This anime gets more interesting as we go along. I’m all into murder mysteries and things like that, and with the sci-fi mixed it, I checked to make sure I was up-to-date with this one. Each episode gives a new mystery with more details outline our jaded and imprisoned detective’s motives and backstory. I wasn’t sold on the character designs at first, but once you get over that hurdle, it’s all good. I like the psychological aspects of it too!

Kyokou Suiri 

Ever wish you had a female protagonist who was upfront about her romantic motives? Ever wanted to watch a show involving youkai? Here’s the show for you! Plus, her character design is so cute. Mamo sang the ED for this anime too. The animation is great, the story looks amazing (read ahead a few chapters in the manga), and this is one of my most highest anticipated anime for the season!

Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun

Here’s one of my favourite pilot episodes! This anime left such a strong impression on me that I went straight to my non-otaku friends going, “You’ve gotta see this guys”. The art style is consistent with the manga, and according to the not-so-quiet manga readers, we’re in for a really good anime. 

All the characters in this anime are also adorable and really simple-minded on the surface. Hanako-kun being a boy is a really funny twist on the local urban legend (I’m one of those kids who never dared to say “Bloody Mary” in the washroom so what can I say?)

Recently Completed

Hana to Alice: Satsujin Jiken

Remember Aku no Hana? This is what happens when rotoscoping has a bit more budget. This anime was slow, a little cringy, but it felt really real. The voices felt real, the characters felt real, and the story felt... mostly real. I don’t regret watching this movie art style and all because I think it captures a bit of the exaggerations of being a teenager (rumours blow up like balloons)

Sennen Joyuu

Satoshi Kon really has a certain way of telling stories. I’ve watched Perfect Blue, Paranoia Agent, and Tokyo Godfathers, and while this didn’t have as strong of a punch as the latter, this film was still strong. It shows a story of a young maiden’s resilience, perseverance, and undying love... all things I can’t relate to... but it was good!

Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo

This show was a trip. You thought it was a fanservice anime until things got really heavy. This anime was funny, it made me feel things with the themes it took on, and it made me remember that the best girl doesn’t always have to win to be a good anime. The art was cute and sweet, the voice acting was so fricking funny (according to the cast, the improv wasn’t always included but the ones that were left along with the dialogue were pure gold), and the story was exceptional for an anime which seemed to have no base whatsoever. And plus, this had something a lot of anime don’t... A CONCLUSIVE ENDING. Give this anime a watch if you haven’t. It’s melodramatic comedic romantic teen drama at its finest.

Orange

Speaking of melodramatic romantic teen dramas, here’s another one that fits that bill! Minus the comedy, more suicide, and far less cohesive plot. Imagine throwing letters into the Bermuda Triangle and having your 16-year-old selves really reading those letters. I was wondering how they were going to explain sending their letters to the past, but they should’ve come up with better BS than that. Aside from really bad plot holes, this anime was alright. It was slow... really slow. I finished this whole 13 episodes plus the movie in about 2.5 hours after trimming the slow recaps. 

The art was alright. The story was slow, but near the end (excluding the last episode and the movie) it got really heavy. It hit close to home. I struggled with suicide for years, and I felt what this character felt. Certain lines of that dialogue just hit hard. It was depicted in a way that didn’t feel as romanticized. He wasn’t saved by just one person, his trauma didn’t go away just like that, it took a group of friends and planning to help him realize that there was more to life then just regrets.

Would I recommend this? I mean, it was recommended to me, but I’m not forcing this anime on anyone... not because of the themes but because it was darn boring and cliche 70% of the time.

Still Watching

Darker than Black: Kuro no Keiyakusha

Same things apply as previous entries

Hunter x Hunter (2011)

My brother expected me to finish this a while ago but I put it on the back-burner because the number of episodes seemed daunting. Everything else is good though.

Sousei no Onmyouji

I only watched the first episode.

Boku no Hero Academia Season Four

Same things apply as previous entries. It seems like the Overhaul arc will end in the next episode or two (depending on how much they milk this).

Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu

Groundhog Day but isekai. Seriously, this is a pretty big staple in terms of big isekai. Everyone’s fighting over who’s the best girl meanwhile Subaru is trying his best not to die every five minutes. Seriously, Subaru is a champ and what I’d want out of a Mary Sue isekai protagonist. Get em Subaru. Prove to me you’re not a car.

This will be me for the next few days because it’s getting colder where I am so watch me slip on the ice and die!

[thatbanjobusiness]

Album Showcase #1: A Tribute to Fiddlin’ Paul Warren

One of my all-time favorite American fiddlers is Paul Warren. There’s a wide variety of fiddling styles in bluegrass, from Kenny Baker’s velvety gliding to Paul Warren’s energetic double-stop chopping. For me personally, Paul’s playing evokes something that feels close to myself, and it’s for this reason that his playing incited me to try to learn fiddling myself. Paul was an old-time hoedown fiddler, meaning that he played a lot of old, traditional fiddle tunes dating back to the Civil War or thereabouts, and he played them in an energetic, quick-paced, choppy style with heavy double-stops (double-stops, for those of you who aren’t familiar, are when you play two fiddle strings at the same time in harmony with yourself). I’m someone who loves to play with energy, and while I might not have the most consistent technical execution or sappiest tone, I feel as though that old-time hoedown style is something my playing abilities and soul understand.

During his career, Paul Warren played and recorded with Johnnie & Jack and Kitty Wells, but he’s most well-known for his long-term career with Flatt & Scruggs. He joined their band in 1953 and played with them until they broke up in 1969; then, when Lester Flatt formed his own band (that was virtually identical to Flatt & Scruggs, sin Scruggs), Paul continued to play with Flatt until his health began to fail. And this is where we get into some of the interesting—and emotionally evocative—backstory behind this album I want to talk to you about today.

During the time Paul’s playing was at its best, lots of bandleaders were selective about what their sidemen could and couldn’t do. And one hella common thing was that sidemen didn’t record their own albums. Flatt & Scruggs actually had one exception to this; their comedy duo, Jake and Josh, recorded their own album while still members of that band, filled with the novelty tunes they often performed on television or onstage for variety. I’m not sure, but part of me suspects that might have been the first (at least one of the first) albums released by bluegrass sidemen. Now. Anyway. The idea for an album showcasing Paul Warren was brought up and thought about. It was certainly floated around. But nobody acted on it in time. When Paul was getting ready to leave Flatt’s band by 1977 due to decreasing health, they suggested he do that feature album, but he reluctantly declined it, knowing his playing was no longer in his prime.

Paul Warren would only get an album in his name released posthumously. He died at the age of 59 about a year after leaving the band (on January 12, 1978), and it was then that Flatt’s manager fished through recordings of performances and live radio shows to compile the album’s tracks. I have that album, and while it’s a unique treat to hear live performances (I LOVE old bluegrass live performance recordings), it’s definitely not what it should have been. We lost the chance to have Paul in his prime do a studio-quality album.

There’s further emotionally poignant details to go along with this. See, in 1977, Paul Warren did some simple at-home recordings shortly before his passing. Paul Warren’s fiddling is fun enough, but Paul was also an extraordinary and I would argue important wealth of information, carrying along with him a staggering number of American fiddle tunes. He undoubtedly took many of these songs with him to the grave. They may be forgotten forever now. However, with his at-home recordings, he was able to save some of his knowledge last-minute before his passing. He recruited one of his sons, Johnny, to play guitar for him as he did the recordings. And he also taught Johnny, who was himself a fiddler, many of the tunes he knew.

Today his son Johnny Warren is a Grammy winning old-time fiddler who plays in a remarkably similar style to his father. The album I’ve been listening to recently, A Tribute to Fiddlin’ Paul Warren, is one way in which Johnny Warren has commemorated and carried on his dad’s legacy. Johnny learned some of the tunes his father recorded in those at-home 1977 tapes, took them to the studio, and gave these songs the life that Paul didn’t have the time to. He recorded these songs with his longtime friend, banjoist Charlie Cushman.

On Flatt & Scruggs television shows, radio shows, and live stage performances, Paul Warren and banjoist Earl Scruggs used to play the old-time fiddle tunes, just the two of them. It’s some of my favorite music. There’s an extraordinary richness to just the fiddle and banjo playing to their fullest and complementing one another. It can be intricate, harmonically complex, contrapuntal, and rhythmically satisfying with just these two instruments, and anyone who wants to poopoo folk music as “secondary” to classical music I think should take a look at these fiddle-banjo duets. It is mostly this format that the album A Tribute to Fiddlin’ Paul Warren takes. Many tracks are banjo and fiddle duets, though other bluegrass instruments and more musicians make their appearance.

The fiddle tunes have charmingly entertaining folk titles. Some of them are normal, like “Hollow Poplar” or “Love Somebody.” But other songs’ names are bemusingly weird. “Wait in the Kitchen ’til the Cook Comes Home.” “Sugar in My Coffee-O.” “Little Black Mustache.” “Two Hog Weeds and One Stalk of Corn.” And my personal favorite title: “Ole Joe Can’t Play Fiddle ’Cause the Bow’s Too Short and Broke in the Middle.”

Unfortunately the songs from this album have not been uploaded on YouTube. My personal favorite from this album is “Sugar in My Coffee-O,” which I have quickly found to be different than other versions I’ve found of this song. Their version of “Sugar in My Coffee-O” begins in a wonderful, deep minor sound before switching to major in the B section. I haven’t heard the same chordal structure in other versions of the song. HOWEVER. I did find some live videos of Johnny Warren and Charlie Cushman playing with one another, including the song “Over There,” which is one of the tracks in this album.

There are several unique songs in this collection. Two songs are compositions by Johnny, one of them named after his daughter Lorie (“Lorie’s Reel”), and the other named after his son Paul (“Little Paul”). I know, I know, there’s lots of family goodness in the history behind this album.

And as I mentioned, sometimes other musicians beyond Johnny Warren and banjoist Charlie Cushman play. Other contributors include several of Johnny Warren’s old bandmates and big names in bluegrass. Let me give some background for them...

Remember how I said Paul Warren became most well-known for playing with Flatt & Scruggs? Earl Scruggs himself appears on one of the tracks. Another long-time member of the band, Curly Seckler (who amusingly enough by this point had become Johnny’s stepfather), also appears. And a third man, a dobroist named Tim Graves, is a nephew of another longtime member of Flatt & Scruggs (dobroist Josh Graves).

And do you remember how I said Paul Warren played in Lester Flatt’s band until his health failed? Well, several years after Paul Warren left the band... Johnny Warren joined the same band as the new fiddler. By this point, Curly Seckler had taken over the band. I already said Curly Seckler is one of the people in this album. Another member of that band (albeit one who didn’t play with Johnny), badass mandolinist Marty Stuart, is also in this collaboration.

I sadly do not know much about the final musician in this album, Kent Blanton, but the bassist TOTES deserves recognition so I’ll give his name here!

Altogether, these people who joined Johnny Warren and Charlie Cushman are people who would have interacted closely with Paul, would have been good friends with Paul, and would have played professionally with Paul for years in the same band. I think it’s really heartening to see people come together for a special project like this.

And I absolutely have to say, the track where Earl Scruggs plays banjo instead of Charlie Cushman... is wild... because it absolutely sounds like Earl Scruggs and Paul Warren playing together again. They play the song “Buck Creek Gal,” which I’ve heard Earl and Paul play on live performances and television show episodes before (see above). For shits and giggles, I edited a segment of a recording with Earl and Paul and led directly into a segment with Earl and Johnny... and when I wasn’t paying attention, I actually hadn’t noticed the change in fiddlers! You can certainly tell it’s a different man playing the fiddle, but Johnny’s style absolutely captures the same spirit as his father’s playing.

This is not the only tribute that Johnny Warren has done honoring his late father. For starters, there is another album titled A Tribute to Fiddlin’ Paul Warren Vol. 2. Hopefully I’ll be able to get to that soon. But beyond that, Johnny Warren, Charlie Cushman, and several companions got together to form their own band, the punnily named, Grammy Award winning The Earls of Leicester, which is a tribute band that seeks to emulate the energy and heart of Flatt & Scruggs as close as possible, so that new generations and new audiences can feel what it was like when Flatt & Scruggs were onstage. This group is totally worth checking out! My goal: someday check them out live.

[creative-type]

Chapter 218 is Amazing and Here’s Why (Continued)

So I had intended to finish my analysis of chapter 218 of One Piece in one post, but things were starting to run a little long and I split it in two. Here’s Part 1 for those who are interested. For the rest of you, let’s jump in where we left off

I know I say this a lot, but I really like that panel. For one thing, Usopp is using a desk lamp. Knowing him, he probably invented it himself just for the occasion. 

On a more serious note, the entire feel of this scene is completely different than the last time the Straw Hats as a group interacted with Robin. I wrote extensively on chapter 114 here, but what I want to draw attention to now is how the tables have (supposedly) turned. Remember how Robin held all the power and was seated above the Straw Hats while tossing them around like a bunch of punks?

Yeah, that’s no longer the case. Robin is surrounded by Usopp, Zoro, and Nami, the three Straw Hats who distrust her most. And while Usopp’s too much of a chicken to be intimidating, there’s no mistaking Zoro and Nami’s body language. They’re closed off, guarded, and Zoro at least has his weapons close at hand. 

At the same time, the way the speech bubbles are placed draw attention to Chopper and Luffy. You can barely make out a hand, and one might assume it’s Sanji’s, as he’s the only Straw Hat not visible. 

Which, of course, it’s not

This set up is the impetuous for three hilarious pages where Robin one by one wins over the Straw Hats (except Zoro, because he’s a killjoy). I recommend reading the entire sequence to get the full effect. It’s classic Oda humor from start to finish that makes me smile every time I read it

(especially this)

Now going back a bit, Robin tells Usopp that she’s an archaeologist from a long line of archaeologists and has been on the run for twenty years. Never once in this entire “interview” does she lie. In fact, I can’t recall Robin ever  lying in the entire series, except for when she didn’t give Crocodile Pluton’s location. 

There are a couple of different reasons for this. For one, it’s convenient for the narrative if the audience doesn’t have to second-guess everything the main characters say. On the whole the Straw Hats are pretty honest people - Usopp being the obvious exception. (Nami is also a bit of a wheeler and a dealer, but since Arlong Park is more prone to using her good looks and force of will to get her way over straight-up lying. That, or stealing what she wants outright.)

Secondly, Robin has had a bounty on her head for a long time. The Ohara incident was publicized around the world. There’s no reason to hide certain aspects of her backstory when it’s essentially public knowledge. 

Still, it’s interesting to note that the one Straw Hat who is known world-wide as a demon who has betrayed every group she’s joined tells the truth here. It’s obvious that in addition to winning the Straw Hats over, Robin is using her ability to direct the attention away from herself. One might even suggest that Robin tells Usopp she’s an assassin to rattle him enough to avoid more personal questions. She does a masterful job of using each of the Straw Hat’s weaknesses against them. 

It becomes more apparent later on that Robin is an incredibly private person. When Chopper and Sanji are looking for her on Water 7 they don’t know where to even to start, because there are no ancient ruins about, and that’s the only place they can think of where she would go. 

Now, this falls more into the realm of theories and head canons, but since Robin’s whole dream focuses around finding The Truth and since her whole life has been ruined by vicious slander and falsehoods, I would imagine that Robin hates lying more than the average person. She will misdirect, avoid questions, or tell bits and pieces of well-known information without giving context, but she won’t lie.

Moving on, Robin uses the same intelligence and playful nature that was established in chapter 114 to avoid any more of Usopp’s questions (consistent characterization, gotta love it) before having a private word with Zoro. I like how Robin doesn’t even try the same tricks she used with the rest, because I think she knows it won’t work. Instead she addresses him more or less as an equal.

Assuming this is a nuanced and accurate translation, when Robin says “This isn’t that bad” we can make the assumption that she thought it would be bad. It’s understandable that she would think this way - the Straw Hats were her enemies not too long ago - but it brings up the point that Robin willingly stowed away on a ship she knew she wouldn’t be welcome because she had no place else to go. When Zoro affirms that the Straw Hats are basically a bunch of dorks, Robin smiles.

Now Robin smiles an awful lot for someone who wants to die. It’s basically her default expression, and it’s nothing but a front to hide her real feelings. She even smiles when she’s just been stabbed and is about to be buried alive after living a miserable, meaningless life without accomplishing anything she’s ever set out to do. That’s one deeply-rooted defense mechanism.

This is the first time we see Robin really be happy, and her surprise at learning that the Straw Hat Pirates are fun-loving and cheerful even when traveling with a former enemy is the kick-start to Robin’s character arc.

Because make no mistake, the Robin who joined the Straw Hat Pirates was the same Robin who joined Crocodile. All the stuff at the beginning of the chapter helps flesh her out into a fully-realized character instead of a cardboard Vivi replacement, but at this moment Robin’s beliefs about the Straw Hat Pirates are challenged, and a character can’t change if they aren’t challenged. 

There’s a cute Zoro-pouty face to that ends this scene, and our focus swings back to the Straw Hats as a whole. An undetermined amount of time has passed because now they’re talking about the weather and Zoro is back to lifting weights

I don’t know if you can have foreshadowing that’s paid off in one panel, but Oda doesn’t waste a beat with the little clacks of wood against wood. For the second chapter in a row there’s an amazing twist at the end that no one could have seen coming. I already shown this spread in my last post, but it’s so epic it deserves a second viewing

I can’t remember if this is the only time Oda has used a real life quote in One Piece, but if not, it’s one of very few. And honestly, what could be more appropriate for a series like One Piece? The whole composition of this page is beautiful, and all the little details take my breath away. I really don’t get it when people say Oda’s art is ugly, because they’re wrong. 

Anyway, things get crazy for a couple of pages while the Straw Hats try not to capsize. Oda has this thing he does when he uses square or rectangular panels for his dialogue and uneven shapes like trapezoids for action scenes. I think that’s pretty standard procedure for comics (I’m by no means an expert) but here Oda helps sell the chaos by composing his pages so it feels like the panels are tilting with the ship

There’s also a nice gag with Usopp that doubles as a character moment. Instead of grabbing hold for dear life Usopp sits and closes his eyes to pray, completely ignoring the problem in hopes that it goes away. It’s funny here when he gets a skeleton to the face, but it highlights a huge flaw that finally comes to a head during the Water 7/Enies Lobby arcs.

After that we get this sequence of panels

Please forgive my horrendous edit, but I wanted to show how the speech bubble fits into curve of the wave in the second panel and leads the eye through the rest of the sequence even though the individual images don’t really relate to one another. Oda constructs this scene in such a way that we feel the chaos, but he does so in an orderly fashion. Each panel gets smaller and smaller - similar to the “fade to black” technique I talked about previously, and it leads directly the last splash panel on the page

The chaos ends just as abruptly as it began. The Straw Hats are mystified, and, honestly, Oda could have ended the chapter here. It’s such a high note, a good dose of Grand Line craziness after so much focus on the crew. But Oda isn’t satisfied with stopping here. He ends the chapter with what I believe to be one of the best story hooks in the series, tied only with Zou for sheer “WTF, the Straw Hats are going where?” moments in all of One Piece.

Skypea isn’t my favorite arc in the series. A lot of people say the same. But if you can pretend that you’d never read/seen what was coming next and take the end of 218 for what it is - and that’s pure hype - then you’ve got to admit that Oda has done his job.

So that concludes our look into chapter 218 “The Log Pose and Why It Is Round”. To summarize my thoughts on the chapter and why it’s amazing

Ships fall from the sky

Oda never forgets 

But he does lure us into thinking he does

Ships fall from the sky

Robin is established as a “protagonist” without necessarily being a “good guy”

Symbolism

Excellent page composition

Gags that reveal character

Consistent characterization with hints of further development to come

and last but not least

      10. Ships falling from the sky

(Thanks to everyone who has the patience to read this far. Next I’ll continue my Nico Robin study with chapter 253, specifically looking at Robin’s place in the Skypea arc and how Oda prefers stealth development over big character moments. See you next time!)

[thesinglesjukebox]

DEMI LOVATO - ANYONE

[5.92]

As debuted at the Grammys...

Jackie Powell: As someone who struggles with anxiety and depression, "Anyone" reflects a very familiar set of emotions and experiences. Depression is accompanied by loneliness and shame. The phrase "I feel stupid when I sing" -- I've been there. The heaviness that comes with feeling like you're a fraud or a fool when you are doing what you are meant to is all too real. Lovato spoke to Zane Lowe before she embarked on her unofficial comeback tour, and she uttered something that also hit home: "There's only so much that music can do before you have to take responsibility and you have to take the initiative to get the help that you need." That's a sentence I also remember with clarity. Music was a temporary band-aid for me during a rough time, and it takes that shape for many, including me and Demi. I watched the second phase of Lovato's comeback tour last night and it was obviously incredibly different in tone and timbre from her premiere of "Anyone" at the Grammys. It was meant to be. "The Star-Spangled Banner" which is one of the hardest songs to sing ever, by the way, is meant to be clean sounding and strong. "Anyone" a week earlier was strong, potent even, but it was coarse sounding. Although Lovato enunciates each word she sings, the track isn't conventionally beautiful and isn't polished. For once in my life, I agree with Jon Caramanica when he notices that the track doesn't move "totally steadily." He realized the parallelism to the subject matter: "recovery is not a straight line." It shocks me that Lovato needed five other songwriters to fine-tune this track. While I usually use that number as a vehicle for more criticism, here I won't. I would have loved to have been in the room with this group of people. I think it's inspirational and equally ironic that in lieu of the isolation discussed on "Anyone," it is clear that by the end of the track's completion and release, Lovato had her "someone" in the studio and in her orbit who would and could listen. [9]

Brad Shoup: "Anyone" marks one of those times where the machine opens itself up for inspection. It's true, there are 100 million songs walking this earth that will not get recorded, and it is a matter of great fortune that Lovato's will, and that she is sufficiently healthy to sign off on their release. Holding the "fuck" until the second pre-chorus... that's craft. Singing "I feel stupid when I pray"... that's a brand-new move -- in American pop anyway. The authenticity is beside the point, for me. It's the choice to deploy: the blowout power-ballad vibrato that doesn't quite crack but still permits the entry of rage, the clomping piano accompaniment that suggests someone auditioning to "The Climb." It is rough but refined, gauche yet graceful, a moment to note and to wonder if there is shame in noting. [8]

Katie Gill: It's very hard to talk about this song. Demi Lovato's had a VERY HARD 2019 and this song feels like a very direct, very personal response to said trauma. You listen to this song and it hits you hard with what she was going through and her mental state at the time. Which is why I feel completely awful when that chorus hit and my only thought was "oh dear, this is the wangsty version of 'Beautiful.'" If this helps her process trauma in a healthy way then you do you, Demi Lovato, write that song, release that power ballad that's an awkward marriage between an honest expression of grief and a big views-generating #GrammysMoment. But this feels aggressively overwrought in a way that I know would be memed to death if we didn't have the backstory of Lovato's addiction/hospitalization and aggressively personal in a distracting way. I can't help but feel that this shouldn't have been released and promoted the way it was and am honestly curious as to who the fuck on her team decided to release and promote this the way they did. Just because the world has the ability to read someone's diary doesn't mean that they should. [5]

Thomas Inskeep: Lovato applies her massive lungs to a big, vulnerable single that speaks loudly; you can hear her personal pain in these lyrics -- and in her performance. As someone who lives with depression and anxiety, it means plenty to me that she put these feelings to paper, and later, recorded and released them for the world to hear. That takes guts. The production here is suitably understated, the better to let Lovato's voice, and especially those lyrics, shine through. [8]

Michael Hong: A little past halfway through the Grammys ceremony, the producers finally found someone to do something everyone else was trying to do. Here was a woman whose last appearance was a soul-shattering confession, whose very publicized addiction and overdose never stopped following her. Here was a woman who survived. And finally, on the Grammy stage, here was a woman whose voice was strong enough to blow everyone away and whose voice conveyed enough pain and emotion to demand the attention a line like "nobody's listening to me" demands. It's an incandescent performance from Demi Lovato, but as a standalone single, it falls flat. Instead of swooping and swooning across like the best of her ballads, it becomes another overwrought addition to the list of capital Demi Lovato Ballads. Similar to how the lack of restraint in Lovato's voice on "Warrior" or "Father" lessened the emotional impact of the tracks and instead felt like a lengthy scream into the void, the rawness of her vocal makes "Anyone" a difficult, almost painful and grating, track to hear. It's a hell of a show there on the Grammy stage, completely deserving of the standing ovation, but on its own, it's confusingly both underwhelming and excessive. [4]

Katherine St Asaph: I teared up at the Grammys when this was on, and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's that, after hours of limp, perfunctory piano ballads from artists who deserve better (Billie Eilish?!), it was jarring to hear one one with heft, albeit old-fashioned Diane Warren-y heft. ("Anyone" was actually written by Bibi Bourelly, who also wrote Rihanna's equally raw-sounding "Higher" -- a fact that suddenly contextualizes this perfectly.) Maybe it's the songwriting, how the default answer to "nobody's listening to me" -- "but by definition I am" -- is just a thought away from "aw, but I am." Maybe it's that I feel stupid 20 hours per day, and, the remaining 4, I'm probably just not conscious to notice; of course I'll react hearing that mirrored in song. Whatever it was, it doesn't carry over to the studio recording, sterile by comparison, the over-belting in the chorus seeming less like being caught in the emotional moment, and more like using the wrong vocal take. [4]

Alfred Soto: Sincerity has resulted in good and bad art, as Demi Lovato and her five co-writers understand. Belting the buds out of your ears isn't a bad rhetorical strategy -- hell, it worked at the Grammys. Away from environs inclined to laud this approach, "Anyone" sounds wobbly but still showbiz fake. [3]

Tim de Reuse: There are only a handful of truly poignant lines here, and you have to read the entire Demi Lovato narrative into them for the rest of the song to have any impact; taken on their own terms, they don't communicate much at all. The line "I feel stupid when I sing" is brilliant in isolation, yes, but what other sentiments in the song does it really build off of? Despair is referenced only in generalities, and the circumstances that created it are nearly absent. (The line "I used to crave the world's attention" is the closest thing we get to a fuller picture.) On this half-finished foundation, the repeated full-force restatements of the central refrain sound detached and generic -- it doesn't help that she belts out every single line of the chorus with equal intensity, causing the track as a whole to feel dynamically flat. [4]

Alex Clifton: Oof. Like "Sober" before it, "Anyone" stings more once you know the backstory of the song's composition. Lovato has described this song as a cry for help, and it's definitely one that makes you shake your head and say "Why was nobody helping this girl?" I'm still caught off the line by "I feel stupid when I sing," as it's a level of vulnerability I've rarely heard in music. Writers frequently disparage themselves, but I find it much harder to find examples of musicians doing the same in their songs, noting the futility of art when trying to hold on to sanity. "Anyone" isn't as strong as "Sober" for me, and it's a hard listen both in terms of subject matter and composition (I cannot listen to this on repeat), but it's a brave return to form for an artist I was scared we would lose. [7]

Andy Hutchins: Definitely a song that makes one think its singer needs to be out in the world performing rather than focusing intently on managing the ups and downs of the entertainment industry and bipolar disorder, this. I do not fault the intent: It is toweringly brave to try to live this life and the one that has been bent on killing her at the same time. But I could certainly deal with never hearing Demi belt again, were that the way to ensure her survival as a person -- and to be blunt, her diminishing creative returns and continued appeal on attempted tour de force comeback singles suggest this is a path being walked with Scooter Braun at her side to steady her for commercial and not artistic reasons. If nobody were really listening, would "Anyone" exist? [4]

Nortey Dowuona: Demi slides along the sandy piano chords, slipping below the keys into the darkness, slowly climbing upwards on her swaying, thin voice, then swinging towards a glimpse of light. She falls back, swinging harder and yet still does not let go of her trembling voice and fall away from the light. Demi restarts climbing with a greater force than before, her voice shaking and shimmering, sometimes disappearing, but Demi climbs slowly and sets her hand on the keys and pulls up, before the hand holds out a trembling pinkie and Demi climbs aboard it, relieved, and is carried away into the light. [10]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: It was more than 10 years ago that I found myself listening to Demi Lovato's early demos ("Trash," "Open," "Shadow," "Stronger"), unable to sleep because of my infatuation with them. The scrappiness of those songs and the teenaged, diaristic confessions they held were moving. Me and Lovato are the same age, and every time I listen to one of her ballads, I'm reminded of those early songs and how much of who she was has remained today. It's easy to complain that "Anyone" is more of the same, but any such frustrations harbor the same complicated feelings of communicating with anyone in a vicious cycle of self-hatred -- it's not like Lovato isn't privy to the familiarity of her Big Ballad press cycles. "Am I all alone again? [...] I'm sick of always being the one to always break down, to always melt down in the end," she sang on "Open." You can feel those same cries echoed here. Lovato initially aims for a "Hallelujah"-like lilt but opts for shouted proclamations. It feels desperate, forced, performative: perfect in her own way. [5]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

[jakesplanetbuilderblog]

The Planet

Okay, so I guess this is the best place to start, actually deciding on a planet to build. 

Currently, the working name in the stories it has been mentioned in is ‘Xingo’ (pronounced ZIN-go). Why? I don’t know, just sounded good at the time. I’ll come up with a backstory later. 

I’ll be honest, I’ve got a few things prepared for this blog, like I’ve got a few creatures designed for this planet already, as well as a few elements of lore for it, so just be warned, not all of this is a brand-new-come-up-with-it-on-the-spot kind of a deal – I’m just trying to build on ideas and see what the internet might think about it all.

Okay so, we’ve got Xingo. Generally, the back story I came up with is that it’s a planet in the Milky Way, relatively close to Earth. It has been used as a ‘truck-stop’ fuel planet some 70 million years ago in the planet’s past by a long-gone intelligent species which basically turned up, mined it of everything useful, and disappeared. This has left a lasting impact on the evolution of life since that period of time, leaving the planet with considerably higher greenhouse gases than would be expected, a significantly raised average temperature, and a dense, darkened atmosphere.

The life on Xingo subsequently underwent a mass extinction event during and after this period of time but has somewhat bounced back in the time since. 

As a result of this, most life on Xingo evolved from only a few groups of life which survived, and a majority of it does not rely on a form of vision to perceive its environment. 

Okay now back to the actual planet. 

In terms of size, I settled on something like a radius of 5000km, making it smaller than Earth, but larger than Mars – probably somewhere in the middle:

Mars mean radius: ~3,390km

Xingo mean radius: ~4,970km

Earth mean radius: ~6,370km

Gravity

I also decided that the gravity on Xingo would be about 0.7G (compared to Earth’s 1G), so life on Xingo is likely to have evolved to be larger than life on Earth (generally speaking, anyway). This relatively high gravity for its size is due to the composition of the planet – having held a great deal of heavy, radioactive metals in the planet’s composition. (Maybe that’s why the ancient civilization mined it?...) I’m sure I’ll work more on the geology and such of the planet in due course, but let’s see what else we’ve got to sort out.

System

The star: I’m going to go out and say it, I know very little about the ins and outs of star habitability: I’m relying mostly on Mark Rosenfelder’s marvellous book ‘The Planet Construction Kit’ for this bit (and I’m sure it won’t be the last time I use it.). I’m going to go by the age of life itself on the planet and work out the age of the star by working backwards in time. So, let’s get a few significant events in first:

(Accumulative millions of years indicated after the event.)

The ‘pollution event’ occurred sometime around 70 million years ago, and up until this point, life was thriving. (70mya)

Let’s say that complex life on Xingo isn’t as old as life on Earth, and assume that it evolved 300 million years prior to the pollution event. (370mya)

Now, here’s where it all goes a bit mad in Earth’s timeline, so let’s assume single-celled life (or Xingo’s equivalent of it) evolved ~2300 million years before that. (2670mya)

Before this, we don’t even know much about Earth’s history, so I’m going to say that life on Xingo evolved as soon as physically possible, once the planet had cooled from its formation around its star, around 700 million years earlier. (3370mya)

On top of this, we’ve got the pre-formation of the planet as an accretion disc around the star, and it seems that things move pretty quick at this stage, so I’m only going to add another 20 million years (utter guess to be honest with you). (3390mya)

And finally, the development of the star. As far as I understand, the last two stages I’ve mentioned sort of go on at about the same time, so as this is entirely made up anyway, I’m going to say that the age of the system is staying at around 3400 million years, or 3.4 billion years. 

And, as I’m a zoologist, not an astronomer or a physicist, I’m going to make the star similar to our own – after all, it’s the only known star with life in orbit around it, so who am I to argue? And of course, Xingo sits in the habitable zone around the star, far enough away that it is not tidally locked, but generally on the leading edge of the zone.

I’ll go into orbital periods and rotational periods some other time – my brain hurts right now.

Satellites

Playing it quite safe here too, Xingo has two moons, X1 and X2 (to be named later). X1 is the larger of the two, and sits around 250,000km away from Xingo, and is half as small as Earth’s moon. This means that it is not as likely to have a massive tidal effect on the planet. X2 is a captured asteroid much like Mars’s Phobos or Deimos. It has a mean radius of about 20km, and sits between the orbit of Xingo and X1, at about 90,000km. Both satellites are captured satellites, perhaps from the formation of the system, however, X1 is a more ‘established’ moon, having formed into a more spherical shape, similar to Ceres in our Solar system.

Another point I want to add is that Xingo has rings which orbit low to the planet as a result of artificial satellites which were placed in orbit during the pollution event. Over the 70 million years since then, most of what is left of them are nothing more than shards of metal and dust, the vast majority of which has fallen to the planet.

Atmosphere

As I’ve mentioned before, this planet has been royally f*cked up by some ancient spacefaring species, and as a result, has a disproportionate percentage of what we consider ‘greenhouse gases’ such as carbon dioxide, methane, ozone chlorofluorocarbons, etc. The assumption being that this ancient race was prepared to utterly destroy the ecosystem for a quick buck, and used the cheapest and easiest fuels available to mine radioactive materials from the ground – that being carbon-based fuels.

This means that for the millions of years following the intelligent species’ disappearance, the atmosphere was dark, and very few photosynthetic organisms would’ve thrived. Only now is it beginning to recover, evolving biological systems to recapture the carbon from the air. But more on that in the future.

Water

So far, every example of life known to man needs water to survive, or probably even evolve in the first place – so I’m going with a safe bet here to avoid having to justify the biology or chemistry at play in anything I come up with.

So, we’ve got liquid water – and most of it is locked up in the atmosphere as water vapor. (This is undecided, but) the planet itself has only two small-ish seas, both about the size of the Mediterranean, linked together by a small strait. The rest of the bodies of water aren’t going to be bigger than Lake Victoria (but there’ll be plenty of them.) 

Until Next Time

Okay, so that’s what I have so far. It’s far from perfect, and I’m sure there are a myriad of practical and physical problems with what I’ve come up with, but this is a work in progress, so I appreciate any constructive feedback or ideas... if anyone’s actually reading this. 

Next one coming soon – let’s get to the fun bits... life!