#also I already included a movie-episode in the Most Episode tournament.

[episodeoftv]

I personally am inclined to include it bc a bad finale is a bad finale‚ but I’m still gonna put it up to a vote

[pretty-idol-hell]

Idol Land PriPara 11

The final battle...

Oh yes. Before I begin my post this time, to save me yet another round of asks, this episode and all the previous ones are viewable for free in the movie theater on the Idol Land PriPara app. Please download Idol Land PriPara. It's in your app store. Please.

And now...

NEW CUT IN THE OPENING OMG OMG POLOLO IS HAPPY NOW possibly only one episode left this season (maybe ever) and they still threw this in there GEEZ.... so much love in this show.

(Wait is her accessory the wrong color uguu...)

The episode begins right where we left off of course! Amari has challenged Mario to a duel. If he wins, she'll join (or c...combine??) with him and he can do whatever he wants, and if she wins, he can never show himself in front of her again. Mario solemnly agrees.

After the opening, Mario is laughing and making fun of Amari for how serious she was in challenging him. But he also quietly asks, "Do you really want to erase me?" Well, whatever, Mario is glad Amari is finally acknowledging him head on. He agrees again and asks if they are gonna just punch each other or what.

No sooner than Amari answers with "What!? We're idols, of course we are gonna perform!" a stage rises from the ground with the Hysteric Bunny and Fullmetal Rabbit logos on it, and everyone is instantly transported.

This includes WITH and Dark Nightmare, who now have their goat costumes removed. Koyoi and Shogo acknowledge this duel will determine Yui's fate as well.

Everyone questions what has caused the stage to form (it's GaarmageddonMi's doing if you ask them), but Janice, still powerless, suggests the system itself desires Amari and Mario finally settle things. The future of PriPara (Amari's kirakira vs. Mario's dark power) is in the balance.

In Amari's dressing room, Amari vows to protect PriPara, and everyone says they believe in her. They all turn to leave, except for Laala. She turns back to Amari, and begins a very important conversation.

Laala asks Amari, "Amari, do you really hate yourself? Why?"

She's of course referring to the previous episode, when she heard Amari yell that out in a moment of weakness.

Amari states that since junior high school she'd always felt left out everywhere she went, but since finding PriPara she was happy she finally thought she had friends and felt like she belonged. But then Mario appeared and started ruining everything, and it was all her fault. Mario is the version of herself from the past that she hates, so she has to defeat him.

"Do you have to?" asks Laala.

Laala doesn't like that Amari hates herself, because well, Laala likes Amari. But if Amari doesn't like herself, "Is this a love triangle!?"

"There is love inside hate", Laala tells Amari.

Laala doesn't quite remember where she heard that, but she's decided that it must mean hate is actually love. As Amari is trying to comprehend this for herself, Laala suddenly hugs her.

"I love you, Amari-chan!"

Laala turns to go, smiling and waving back at Amari as she leaves her alone with her thoughts.

Back at the stage, the tournament is ready to begin...

Janice needs a seatbelt to ride the stage.

Amari and Mario stare at each other from across the stage. Mario is grinning but he has noticeable bags under his eyes. They decide the winner is the person who can take over the audience (with kirakira or dark power). (A large portion of the audience is already being controlled by Mario, as "whatever" zombies.)

Without any discussion of who will go first, Mario begins. After his performance, a lot more of the crowd is converted, including Fuwari, Mikan, Ajimi, Dorothy... (Shion notes that Dorothy rolling on the floor saying "whatever" isn't that different than usual.)

Amari begins her performance, and she actually sings the second verse of Chaotic Hurricane (!!!) the entire time wishing Mario would just disappear. DISAPPEAR, DISAPPEAR, DISAPPEAR.

Amari's performance starts to shatter Mario's dark keys, bringing most of the audience back to normal.

Pleased with her performance, Amari looks up to find that what she wished for is actually coming true. Mario really is disappearing. Distressed, he shouts that he won't let himself disappear. He desperately asks Amari again, "Do you really want to erase me!?"

Amari is genuinely shocked and just stares as she seems to realize for the first time that what she's doing is basically killing him. Mario stops disappearing.

"That's right, you're not really going to erase me. Are you, Amari?"

But now that Mario is stable again, the duel resumes. They walk towards each other where they meet at the center of the stage. A third Making Drama begins where they immediately clash.

MAN I love the Making Drama battles Idol Land introduced. It definitely feels inspired by the battles in King of Prism.

As the battle takes place, you can hear a new song playing in the background. A duet between Amari and Mario.

The Making Drama ends without a clear winner. Amari knows she has to save PriPara, but something is holding her back. She remembers her earlier conversation with Laala.

"REMEMBER!" shouts Mario. "Remember your TRUE SELF!"

Amari thinks back again to her junior high self, the day she created Mario. But, overcome with embarrassment, she screams as loud as she can:

"DISAPPEAR!"

As Amari's scream creates shockwaves over the stage, Mario begins to disappear again. But this time faster than ever. He falls to the ground, half gone already.

Laala shouts, just loud enough to reach Amari:

"You can't erase him!"

And then Amari remembers. Further back, to when she was in elementary school and dreaming about being an idol. Then getting older, meeting Laala, and all the lessons she learned as we remember all the character development she's had gradually over the series episode by episode (damn this was such a good show...) up until the present episode when Laala told her "hate is love".

Amari realizes everything is connected, and the version of herself she loves and the version of herself she hates are both what make her whole.

"Don't disappear! Don't disappear, don't disappear, don't disappear!!" Amari cries as she runs to embrace Mario. Mario weakly says how he's always loved her spirit (I think).

But, just when it seems like he's too far gone...

Mario is solid once more.

"So, you need me after all, huh?"

"SHUT UP! I HATE YOU!" Amari yells, lunging at him without hesitation.

And actually punching him square in the face. Turns out that throwaway line from the beginning... not a joke haha! But well, since Mario is herself, Amari sees no need to hold back, after all.

"There, I won," she says as Mario is knocked to the ground and all the other characters just kind of stare into space not quite knowing what to make of this.

(Except Dorothy. Judging by her face, she's like YEAH! Give it to him.)

(I actually only noticed this on my third rewatch of this scene. Love these reaction shots where only one character has a different expression. Also feels like a callback to King of Prism haha...)

"You fight dirty!" Mario yells as he gets up and they both lunge at each other again. But instead of punching each other, this time, each sticks their key in the other's mic.

And then well.......

THIS

HAPPENS

um

There is probably a lot that could be said about

this

a lot of analyzing

Honestly though, thinking from the Japanese perspective I'm not totally sure what might be intended by this, so.

Let me just say.

Whatever this is

I like it.

Wow honestly

Even though they threw around the word "combine" a lot I was not. I was not taking it seriously. Like AT ALL.

Until now obviously.

Well also we know why Amari and Mario have the same birthday I guess.

The stage is destroyed and everyone is blown around as the Amari/Mario duet plays again (or is this a different one?) as ... let's call them "Amario", takes to the sky, literally grabbing the fallen key and putting it into the Yumeme in the sky.

Edit: Checked the credits before posting. Two songs are listed with a similar name, and I guess the combined version of them is called "Amarion" officially, according to the titles. CD release WHEN??? Anyway.

It seems Amari is the most in control here, and Mario is just kinda coming along for the ride ("whatever") as she borrows his power, but he seems to be enjoying himself all the same. They have trouble turning the key, actually bursting into flames in the process, and Meganii suggests it's because Mario's dark power reacting to the kirakira. But, eventually they are able to overcome it and the key turns.

But, Amarion is then sent rocketing back down to the ground, still burning in flames. As they fall, Amari thinks that she'll have to leave PriPara after this, for all the trouble she's caused. In the end, she's still left out. "Whatever......"

Mario asks her (in their head) if she really likes PriPara that much, and Amari says yes.

"Well, guess I've got no choice then," says Mario.

Mario separates from Amari so that he's the only one burning now.

Amari tries to reach out to him, but with a last "Whatever..." Mario allows himself to burn away... into nothing...

Amari yells for Mario as she falls, only to be caught safely in Pololo's hands.

And back in the sky, from the Yumeme, finally falls... Yui.

Yui's normal self somehow falls through the Yumeme, is converted into a beam of rainbow light, and emerges from Takki as her full idol self.

The Yumeme power is so strong everyone gets yumeme, even Shogo.

Gaze upon yumeme Shogo.

The yumeme spread to Amari and Pololo as well, as Pololo converts more bugs (the last?) into happy flowers.

The others wave up to Amari as she sits cupped in Pololo's hands and Amari waves back. But Amari then looks up to the sky.

"Mario..."

The Amari/Mario duet plays over the credits.

So.... I guess........ I.........

I guess first I... I will

I'll get my game predictions out of the way um

Obviously I think Yui will be added soon.

It's also high time they added Believe My Dream I guess? If we have to get an older song?

And um. I said there wouldn't be a gatcha for the last episode and I was wrong so. There may be a gatcha for this one. I think we may actually be getting that crazy half Mario half Amari coord. It's clearly a cyalume that we only got to see lit up. So, much like the Evergold team SCRs, we'll probably see the unlit version for the first (only?) time when it is added to the game. I'm looking forward to it. I just wow.

So.

My thoughts on this episode. Yes. My thoughts?

I guess anyone still reading this for some reason might want to know.

.........................

When I was in Japan at the beginning of this month, I visited Prism Stone Tokyo Station several times. And on my last visit, I decided to buy an Amari plush doll.

I took her down from the shelf I had placed her on in my house upon unpacking, so that she could sit with me here right now as I rewatch the episode and write this post. So I could hold her, hug her, and poke her as necessary.

....During the time I was in Japan, I was of course sitting on the cliffhanger from the last episode. I was already having a lot of emotions about Amari and Mario and... for a brief moment, I considered buying Mario too after I decided I was getting Amari. I did think that maybe, just maybe, I might regret not buying him based on what might happen in the next episode. But, still, I decided against it.

I do regret it.

She's literally without her other half. Amari, I'm so sorry...

I shouldn't be that upset about this but I kind of am.

This episode had a very important message.

It's hard to accept some things about yourself.

It's hard to look back.

But your awkward past. Your cringe OCs.

The imaginary anime boyfriend you made when you were in middle school that also may or may not be you sort of experimenting with yourself as the opposite gender???

That's... that's all you.

And that's OK.

Because Laala loves you.

But really though.

This episode left me with this terrible, hollow, lonely feeling that I can't or rather won't go into full detail about here. I'm sitting here, playing with Amari's bunny ears as I rewatch scenes from this episode over and over again to edit and add details to this post

and missing a person who doesn't exist.

But in my case, I think he is too far gone. I deleted that novel. It felt right, at the time.

I'm sorry.

[broadwaydivastournament]

MOVIE MUSICAL DIVAS TOURNAMENT

Clang clang clang went the trolley. Hello, and welcome to the Movie Musical Divas tournament. We've just come off a riveting bracket-style tournament dedicated to my beloved Broadway Divas from the 1980s to present day, and have graduated to movie musicals of the 20th century. Submissions for movie musical Divas are now closed, but additional propaganda for competing Divas is welcome.

Round 1 will begin July 1st, 2024 at 5:30 p.m. EST. This tournament will not be bracket-style to free up some of the rigidity of pairings I'd boxed myself into with the Broadway Divas. A sublime 100 Divas will compete for the crown of best movie musical actress.

A full roster (and propaganda checklist) can be found here.

Tags used: #moviemusicaldivas; #moviemusicaltournamentpolls; #mmround["X"]; #poll winners; #[actress names]. Suggest any tags you think will make this a more user-friendly experience.

Frequently Asked Questions:

"But what about [movie musical Diva who stared in one musical in the late 1990s as a 20-something]?" We're playing fast and loose with my guidelines and rules here, but I've made the executive decision to exclude movie musical divas who began late in the timeframe as very young women. We love and respect MILFs in this house.

"But what about [my favorite Diva who didn't make the list]?" All but one submission made it into the tournament unscathed. If she's not on our list, she wasn't submitted.

"That actress was only in [insert show here] so she shouldn't count." Because movie musicals are a niche genre, and many major movie musical stars only ever did one or two in their careers, I've been more lenient on some single-show credits as submissions have gone on.

"Please, please, please, can I submit [Diva] even though it's past deadline?" No, unfortunately the submission window has closed, and I'm rather partial to this neat and tidy hundred. That being said...if you submit her in the next two or three days, and I personally am deeply in love with her, I might allow it. Might.

"What happens if there's a tie?" Great question. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Propaganda Rules, Guidelines, and Questions:

“I have additional propaganda for a Diva.”  Excellent, I love to see it. Send me an ask, DM me, or reblog the poll and add your propaganda to it. If you see a separate post that relates to your Diva, tag @broadwaydivastournament and I will add it to the queue. I may not reblog your post if said Diva is already swimming in propaganda and her opponent is left high and dry, for the sake of fairness.

"Can I submit propaganda even if it's from a movie musical outside the timeframe?" No post-20th century propaganda will be allowed. For example: I will gleefully reblog anything Angela Lansbury from pre-2000s movie musicals, but will not reblog posts that focus on her post-2000s roles like the Balloon Lady in Mary Poppins Returns. Additionally, as much as it pains me as a self-proclaimed Broadway Baby, I will not be accepting stage performances UNLESS the musical in question has been filmed in full and released as a proshot. Concert performances or television appearances will also be rejected, unless by some fluke, the tv appearance is one of those feature-length special episodes. And even then, it'll be a case-by-case basis.

I am a hater at heart, and so I actually do post/reblog negative propaganda, but it cannot be gratuitous or overtly cruel. Propaganda of this nature should remain respectful, constructive, and reasonable. Acceptable examples include: thoughtful critique of a performance; whether the Diva was miscast in roles; why the Diva is less worthy of votes compared to her competitor based on the films and roles specifically. Personal assassination of a Diva's private life will not be allowed. The isn't the ethics and morality committee.

The views expressed in (most of) the propaganda are not my own. Nearly all submissions were done anonymously and will be credited as such. Any propaganda I personally submit will be done through my personal blog. If you've been here, you probably already know it. If you're new, I'm sure it will be very obvious soon enough. I will not be editing or condensing any propaganda submitted beyond a cursory spell-check, no matter how disdainful I personally am of this whole no capitalization business. I also do not have time to review all videos in full, so if you would like any videos appropriately tagged for sensitive topics, please let me know.

“Where are the hot movie musical men?”  I welcome someone else to start up a hot movie musical man tournament, but it will not be me. I am a lesbian and thoroughly unqualified to oversee a tournament of men. Despite my extensive movie musical knowledge, I have no confidence that I'd be able to name more than five movie musical actors off the top of my head this very minute. (Robert Preston, Yul Bryner, Christopher Plummer- yeah, that's it. That's all I got without thinking about it too hard.)

“I think you forgot to add my propaganda?”  It most likely has to do with broken links. Most Divas have a fairly reasonable amount of propaganda, and so I won't be excluding based on quantity, at least to start. That may change down the line as more comes in.

For any additional questions, please send me an ask or private DM.

[mashpoll]

Welcome! This blog is running a poll bracket between every single episode of M*A*S*H (excluding Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen). You can view the entire bracket here!

(other info below)

The Method

Each match in the first round has been randomly generated. I did it this way to have more of a variety between the episodes competing, instead of having episodes from the same season compete for a lot of the bracket. I could have also traditionally seeded it (so the "best" episode competes against the "worst"), but while I was up for running this bracket, I was not up for making a theoretical ranking of every single episode of MASH based on how popular it is on Tumblr. lol. That's what this poll is for.

Due to the sheer amount of matches in Round 1 (118 to be exact) I will be splitting it up into 4 groups of around 30 polls. I will also be splitting Round 2 into two halves.

Also, 10 episodes (again, random) will not appear in Round 1 and will instead be inserted into Round 2. This is due to the number of matches in Round 1 not splitting up completely evenly. (i'm glad there was the Challonge website to set up the bracket for me, it would have broke my brain otherwise)

Most episode descriptions are from Hulu. Some are from Wikipedia or IMDB if I didn't think the Hulu description was very good.

Why I'm Not Including GFA

I feel like GFA is on another level compared the regular episodes of the show, since it's basically a movie and does the task of wrapping up 11 seasons of one of the most popular shows ever made. And to be honest, I think it would be the obvious winner and be unfair to the rest of the competition. The point of this tournament to me is to determine what people's favorite regular episodes of MASH are.

Navigating the Blog

Every poll is tagged with the episode names (no punctuation except for apostrophes), the seasons of both episodes, and the round number. If you want to vote for a specific episode, theoretically you should be able to search the episode name, but if Tumblr's search function is being... itself, you can use this url: https://mashpoll.tumblr.com/tagged/episode name

Sending Propaganda

As you've probably seen in other tournaments, feel free to send "propaganda" supporting your favorite episodes. I'll be posting them without a response/commentary to try and keep it unbiased. I'll also tag it with "propaganda" so you can filter it if you just want to see the polls.

What's my main?

I'd like to try to remain semi-anonymous. I say semi-anonymous because I have posted about this poll on my main, so you can probably figure it out pretty easily if you're already following me.

[hot-take-tournament]

I’m very glad Scooby-Doo has come up, it’s like my one thing (I definitely didn’t submit a Scrappy related hot take)

If your looking for Scooby-Doo crossovers I would like to direct your attention to the Scooby-Doo Movies (1972), which a series consisting of hour long episodes and celebrity guests. Some examples being:

The Harlem Globetrotters

The three stooges

Batman and Robin

Laurel and Hardy

Davy Jones

And more!

They later attempted to redo this format -but with shorter episodes- in Scooby-Doo and Guess who (2019).

Including guests like:

Sia (this was the first episode I saw of this series and made me immediately hate it)

The ghost of Abraham Lincoln

Weird Al (there were dinosaurs in this episode)

Ricky Gervais

And so on, I personally don’t think Be cool Scooby-Doo(2016) deserves the hate it gets when this show exists, and majorly sucks -at least in my opinion.

Also if you wanted to circle back to Kiss they were also in the Halloween episode of What’s new Scooby-Doo (2002), they didn’t have magic powers there though. Simple plan was also in one episode- Simple plan and the invisible man.

I’m pretty sure there have also been several WWE crossovers in the films.

In conclusion, I really like Scooby-Doo, it is very cool.

you can't let me crawl out of the guilty gear rabbit hole just to blindside me with the batshit insanity that is fate, splatoon and scooby doo

but, here's your take, while my brain tries to process everything you just had me read

HOT TAKE TOURNAMENT

PRE-PRELIMINARY #51

Submission 376

Scrappy-Doo doesnt deserve the hate

He was literally a baby boy added to a show that was floundering in its formula and he added life to it. Any quality decrease after his initial introduction was already well on its way after a decade plus of the franchise. And most of the modern idea of scrappy is a misconception deliberately brought on by James Gunn's purposeful Assassination of the character in the 2002 movie, which is full of false assertions about the character intended to make him seem worse than he actually was. Also I hate to break it to yall but the whole "tin curry refused a role in the movie cause of scrappy" is straight up misinfo that James Gunn even confirmed fake.

Pre-preliminaries will be used to determine what qualifies as a hot take. Propaganda is encouraged!

Also, remember to reblog your favourite polls for exposure! (exposure like when your exposed to the fact that the KISS Scooby Doo crossover does actually exist, scarring you for life)

[sweetchcolate]

Hi~ if you're interested, here's a scenario for you:

While talking with an acquaintance, the conversation drifts into the topic of anime since they learn you've watched quite a few shows already. They ask you for recommendations and, when pressed for specifics, they say something along the lines of "I don't really have a specific preference." (This is, of course, untrue—everyone has their yays and nays, and maybe this person just doesn't know theirs. Since they're just an acquaintance, you probably wouldn't know either.)

So as you look into their gleaming curious eyes:

What will you consider before giving a recommendation(s)?

What show(s) would you recommend?

(Note: this is entirely for funsies so please feel free to opt out or to take your time! ☺)

Damn this is like my worst nightmare come true 😂 It's so hard to give recommandation because it depends on one's personal taste, but also a person's state of mind (if you don't want to watch a drama because you're not in the mood for it, you won't want to watch a show even if it's the greatest drama ever produced), openess to new experiences, and tolerance to bullshit such as 2nd hand embarrassment/fanservice/anime grunts/etc.

I'm basing this a lot on the weeb/ass/shit scale, which grades anime by the amount of anime/japanese culture knowledge needed to enjoy it, the amount of fanservice, and its overall quality. But within each tier, you could probably create subtiers (genre subtier, trope subtier, music subtier, etc,).

To note: a lot of the recs are series I watched recently or remember at the top of my mind, so there's this bias to consider.

Depending on how well I know my acquaintance and their tastes, I would go like this:

entry level. something which is easily accessed and understood by most people with minimal (to none) anime/Japan culture knowledge: most if not all Studio Ghibli movies, Cowboy Bebop, Fullmetal Alchemist, maybe Inuyasha (because of like cultural osmosis and its impact on the early 2000s anime scene), Raven of the Inner Palace, Akagami no Shirayukihime, slice of life or introspective shows (such as Sousou no Frieren's first cour, Spy x Family)

slightly above entry level. something which needs a bit of trope/cultural knowledge (like the importance of high school student councils or usual HS/romance/love triangle tropes), but could be appreciated even without because of solid writing/animation and minimal (to none) fanservice/2nd hand embarrassment: Mob Psycho 100, Akatsuki no Yona, Noragami, Skip to Loafer, Kimi ni Todoke, Sailor Moon, Neon Genesis Evangelion to an extent (with warning about the way the plot goes wild and the fanservice and innuendo between teens and adults), Kusuriya no Hitorigoto, Detective Conan

something which requires a good grasp/recognition of tropes as well as willing to engage and think because of the way the anime is tackling and deconstructing tropes: Princess Tutu, RGU (with a lot of content warnings)

classic shonen vibes (aka fanservice galore, tournament arc/powering up tropes, etc): Kimetsu no Yaiba, early Naruto or Bleach

mindfuck but good: Mononoke, NGE (to an extent)

good/entertaining but the fanservice is going to be a MAJOR turn off: Soul Eater, Ranma 1/2, Lupin III movies/OVAs

You might have noticed but most of the series I've listed are relatively short, about 12-24 episodes (except for Inuyasha, SM, FMA, DetCo, and Ranma which are >100 episodes), since I think recommending a long-running series might scare some people away. That (and/or the pretty important amount of fanservice), is also why I didn't include big 'staples' like Naruto, Bleach, YYH, HXH, etc. regardless of my personal enjoyment or taste.

Most of what I like are fantasy/romances (like SAFT, My Happy Marriage, KamiHaji) or niche shows like Cybersix. I wouldn't recommend these to an acquaintance because of how close these series can be to me and how I don't want to put them up for judgement. I can be a bit defensive of my taste ^^

Thank you for the ask! It wasn't an easy exercise, but one I've been unconsciously doing on my own for a while, so it's nice to finally have it in writing if the need ever occurs!

[bluehairlaunch]

7 Worst Dragon Ball Characters (objective)

Honorable mention, Master Roshi. So here's the deal, I actually like Roshi. I actually like Roshi A LOT when he's being the offbeat martial arts master, but for the most part he's a serial sex offender, and the anime adds even more sexual assault for lulz.

Like a bad relationship, I try to remember the good times

Oolong

So y'know how I basically said there were aspects to Roshi's personality I really enjoyed, which is why he's not on the list proper? That's not the case with Oolong. There are definitely aspects to Oolong I like -- I like Piggy from Journey to the West and I think it's hilarious that Toriyama dressed him (and Mai, for some reason) like Chairman Mao. I also have to credit him with saving the world, although idk how Pilaf would have actually held onto his world empire with people like Goku around. Regardless, his character is another vehicle for sexual assault humor.

And yes, the English dub fucked up and made him sound like an adult. The joke is that he's a child that acts like a perverted adult, but because he's a child, he's just kidnapping girls to clean his house and be his mom, basically (Bulma pretty much even adopts him). Sexual assault humor is still sexual assault humor, though, so Oolong sucks

Bacterian

He's just gross. I really hate this dude

Garlic Jr.

Who stans a poser? In DBZ Abridged, they rip on Lord Slug for being EXACTLY King Piccolo, but the only difference between Slug and Garlic Jr. is that Lord Slug knew his place well enough to stay out of the anime.

Lemme start tho with the things I actually like about this guy. 1) he's a demon, I think. Toriyama introduced the concept with King Piccolo, backtracked, then reintroduced it with Dabura. Dragon Ball Xeno Heroes or w/e later realized this was free real estate and expanded on the idea to the point of nausea, but until then, Garlic and his henchmen and Dabura were your only demons, if that's something you found dope.

Other than this, Garlic Jr. steals Pilaf's design, but instead of remaining a lil' gremlin, he goes the filler route and beefs up like a Broly. He has a past connection with Kami like King Piccolo and successfully uses the Dragon Balls like King Piccolo. He then uses the Jr. like Piccolo. Get your own fucking thing. ALL YOU HAVE IS BEING THE SON OF KAMI'S RIVAL

And what really gets me is that he would be an okay filler villain if he wasn't just a chimera of better, actually canon characters, but as he is, the only things I like about his movie and arc have nothing to do with him.

Fwiw this is the only character on this list that's filler/not a part of Toriyama's original run. If this included GT, then there would be nothing but GT. As far as Super goes, I like the characters or at least their concepts (looking at you Zamasu), and the shit part is in the execution.

Spopovich

He and Yamu serve to showcase Babidi's power of mind control, but in doing so we're forced to witness the most pointlessly brutal, one-sided beatdown in all of Dragon Ball. I think the anime even devoted an entire episode to this ffs

We later learn that you have to already be a prat to fall under Babidi's powers, so there's nothing even tragic about his brainwashing and ultimate demise. He sucked before, he sucks now, he's a bad character.

Idasam

First off, it really doesn't make sense that a kid's division was introduced, does it? Most of the top fighters in the World Martial Arts Tournament were underage

Second, look how cute that girl in the top right is

Ok ok. As I made this list I began to realize there weren't a lot of characters in Dragon Ball that I actually hated. Some I definitely liked less than others, but few were so bad that I would remove them if I could. This chick is definitely one of them tho.

The Anti-Chi-Chi, Idasam raised two little brats that ig she loves and supports, which is the only thing she has that going for her. Besides that, she's mean to Bulma and even tried to physically assault her until the Mother of our Saviour Chi-Chi stepped in

Pirate Robot

Admit it, you thought he was filler. He looks like Third Form Frieza fucked some Saiyan armor. I've seen people try to salvage pirate robot by saying he's Android 2, but no, he's not, General Blue had no idea about this underwater pirate cave, and it doesn't make sense for Dr. Gero to squirrel away a dragon ball down here. Sometimes the things you love just disappoint you

Super Buu

I'm not sure this if this is a controversial opinion, but Super Buu is trash, his arc is trash, and everything he does will be done better later by Janemba in a fucking filler movie.

Before his introduction, Gohan failed, Vegeta failed and failed and failed, Gotenks fucked around and found out, and Goku wasted his time on a useless transformation like Future Trunks did in the Cell Saga (if he had been alive, Gohan would be trained and he would have realized SSJ3 wasn't a real transformation). Then Hercule came along and WON. The champ did it, he beat Majin Buu (with kindness). And that's great. If the Buu arc ended there, it would've still had several loose ends, but Z has loose ends as it is (imo another saga was needed to complete Gohan's character arc).

But then Toriyama (I'd rather blame his editors, but I've never seen anyone credit Super and Kid Buu to editorial interference) Ctrl-Z's Hercule's victory and we get Super Buu, a Perfect Cell wannabe that does nothing but crack his neck and murder Marin and everyone else too ig with his admittedly dope human extinction wave.

I have nothing but issues with this guy. His arc is way too long, his design is generically cool like a filler character, he steals Cell's powerset, he steals everybody's clothes, and he murders most of the cast while having little to no personality, so I can't even hate him for it

Go crack your neck more, you're the worst character in Dragon Ball

[nagichi-boop]

My thoughts on the Knuckles series

I want to preface this by saying that if you haven't watched the series yourself and have the means to do so, I suggest watching it yourself and forming your own opinions on the series. The episodes are about 25-30 mins long, so it should take about 3 hours. But if you'd rather give the show a pass, I understand, especially given that so many people have given rather mixed reviews on the series. I don't think I have much to say that hasn't already been said, but I thought I'd share my personal thoughts on the series.

I will be discussing spoilers in this post, though I won't be breaking apart the plot per se. I just want to discuss some thoughts on the series, good and bad, since I know some people have been very harsh on this series. And as a disclaimer, these are personal opinions rather than outright critiques.

For a tldr rating though, I'd give the series like...6.5/10?

Things I Liked

I really enjoyed the plot of the first episode or so. The scenes with the Wachoski family was probably some of my favourites for the series, even if only brief. I wasn't sure that they would include the other characters, so it was nice to see most of them. I wasn't super keen on the GUN agents necessarily, but I thought their story parts were the most enjoyable. I enjoyed watching Wade scheme to save him and immediately fumble the bag, but ultimately sort of recreate his plan? I also appreciated him using the siracha to free himself from the GUN agent since it was starting to wear a little that he seemed utterly incompetent - more on that later.

I once again appreciate the references to the Sonic universe. I only really noticed the Knuckles hat (which if I'm not mistaken is a reference to the OVA cartoon?), but I also saw someone mention Sonic 06 before watching it, which helped me recognise the reference to the game (both Knuckles' power and the creature that I assumed to be Iblis). I also saw a Reddit post pointing out that the alien attack mentioned by the bowling tournament announcers took place 50 years ago, which could be a reference towards Shadow, but it's not outright stated to be that.

The animation was surprisingly good. Part of me thought the animation quality would be off, but it was more or less on par with the movies from what I could see. Some scenes were a little off, but I can't really fault it since they're trying to incorporate an entirely CGI creature interacting with everything, but for the most part it was awesome.

Things I Didn't Like

I think one of my bigger issues with this series was the humour. That's not to say I didn't find it funny, but the constant surreal/cringe humour eventually wears on you. It worked at the beginning because Knuckles and Wade alternated being the 'straight-man', but for the most part, the characters fell into the same 'I'm dumb' type of humour. I don't quite know how to explain what I mean by this, so I guess I'll give a few examples to illustrate what I mean.

There's Knuckles himself, whose 'stupidity' mostly comes from him not fully grasping human culture. There's also Wade Whipple, who is portrayed as an idiot or loser, something he's called by the other characters. There's Jack Sinclair who acts intimidating while still being dumb behind his seriousness, and was the kind of character that seems threatening until they're dethroned, by which time they start wailing like a baby. We see this mostly when Wade is captured and 'duels' with him, only for him to lose and plead with Wade not to take his clothes this sounds really sus out of context. I didn't particularly care for him, which made some scenes drag as Wade's story with him was being addressed, but he's more of a stepping stone character for Wade's development.

I thought Knuckles and Wade themselves were funny for the most part, but it does begin to grate a little when their goofy humour is pretty much all you get. I get that Wade is the underdog guy, but it didn't feel much like he actually grew as a person. I thought perhaps he would learn to be more self-reliant and competent, but even at the end of the series, he mostly just stalled for Knuckles. This sort of ties into the complaint a lot of people have that the series focused less on Knuckles and more on Wade, which I agree with. It was set up at the start that Knuckles was looking to find his home and purpose, but it didn't feel like that was fully explored. It was sort of implied at the end that the Whipple's were his home, but it felt like a lose end more than a solid conclusion. I also wouldn't have minded if Knuckles actually spent time training Wade, but that didn't really happen either. Most of Wade's 'development' happened away from Knuckles, which made Knuckles feel more like a bit character a lot of the time.

And then there's Wanda Whipple. I'll be honest, I really disliked her character. For the first few minutes it was fine, but the entire scene with the Whipple family dinner just felt awkward and annoying to me. It felt like I was watching two children argue, which I suppose was the point, but watching a grown woman act like a child was just uncomfortable and felt like it was dragged out for ages. I think the only scene I found her funny in was towards the end when she dislocated her thumb, but that was about it. Every other scene she was in felt unenjoyable for me, and frankly I hope she's not in the third movie at all (or if she is, please make it short).

I suppose I could sum this complain up as there being too many comedic relief characters without there being straight-man characters to balance out the chaos. The beginning worked well because Sonic, Tails and Maddie worked as straight-men for Knuckles, so it was funny to watch him be a menace since we could see everyone else's reactions. But for the rest of the series, it was mostly just silly humour. Even the 'adult' jokes weren't particularly funny to me (thinking specifically about the metal detector scene), but maybe I'm just not the right demographic for this kind of series? Who knows.

I watched the series with my dad, and I agree with his thoughts on the series. He felt it could have been done in a movie instead of having a tv series that seemed to drag on a lot. I do agree that some scenes felt like they were going on for too long, which at times felt like I wasn't even watching a Sonic series at all. I guess they want to flesh out the characters unique to the movie universe, but it felt a bit weird to have Knuckles barely involved in the plot given the series was named after him.

It's unfortunate because I think that they initially set up something interesting. I thought they'd focus on the GUN agents pursuing Knuckles, with Knuckles training Wade along the way. But the GUN story got shelved almost immediately to focus more on the bowling stuff - Wade and Jack had an awkward sword dual, and Wade had a bowling match with his dad? I honestly thought The Buyer (that ex GUN weapons guy) would be Wade's dad, but instead we randomly got introduced to Pistol Pete...I dunno, it felt weird to me. It felt like they mashed three unfinished stories together into one weird amalgamation.

I feel like they could have focused more on the GUN agents plot. Perhaps they could have clashed a few times with Knuckles and Wade, but ultimately fail over and over. Wade would have learned indirectly from his warrior training to be strong enough to defeat Jack at bowling and show his progression. The GUN agents would be replaced by The Buyer after he grows tired of waiting for them to fulfil their deal, and who would be more of a threat. While that's happening in the background, we could watch the bowling tournament with Jack losing instead, then have The Buyer crash the party like he did in the actual series. But this is all just me brainstorming what I would have done.

Anyways, those are my thoughts. It's a shame since I love the Sonic movies a lot, but I'm not too worried about Sonic 3 based on this series. Jeff Fowler (the writer for the movies) only wrote the first episode of the series, which was arguably the best episode, so I am confident that Sonic 3 will be good. Admittedly it has me a little worried, but I'm trusting them to do Shadow justice with his debut.

Sorry this is such a long rambly post, but hopefully it's cohesive enough to follow for anyone actually reading it.

[variabels]

Hi....If you don't mind, can I ask, what are your top 10 (or top 7) favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series)? Why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before......Thanks....

In no particular order

Blue Lock (Manga), it’s so silly and unserious with how over the top and occasionally edgy it is but it also unironically has some really good character writing and some amazing character development. Isagi’s easily my favorite protagonist in Shounen, in any other shounen he’d be a villain. A huge shoutout to the Isagi and Kaiser rivalry for being so well written, easily one of the most entertaining rivalries there is. But I also like how the manga does a good job at showing different types of rivalries with the four main rivals, you have the friendly rival (Nagi), classic rival (Barou), out of reach rival (Rin) and mutual obsession rival (Kaiser). It’s also just such a hype manga, I’ve reread it multiple times and I always feel the hype on every reread. The art is also easily the best art in a weekly shounen currently coming out. The anime is good if you don’t care much about the animation quality dropping, I’d say at least the first three episodes are worth checking out before switching to the manga because of how well they set the tone and get you into the series.

Bungou Stray Dogs (Manga), there’s so much to analyze in BSD, when you get deep into BSD, you’re not just getting into BSD, you also end up getting into the light novels, you’re also getting into the authors the characters are based on. The characters have a lot of depth and are very interesting. It also has Fyodor, the most babygirl of babygirls. Not a fan of the anime after having read the manga tho, it has many pacing issues and outright dumbs down and ruins characterizations (Fyodor being the biggest victim of this).

Oshi no Ko (Manga and anime), I already loved the manga and holy shit the anime blew it out of the water. The animation, music and voice acting really liven up the entire experience. I absolutely love the themes explored and seeing the life of idols and actors. Since Oshi no Ko is best experienced completely blind, I’m not gonna say much more. Just know that it easily has the best premiere episode I’ve ever seen in an anime. I’ve also listened to Idol way too many times, I outright know the lyrics of the opening because of how much it played in karaoke. I also really love Ai Hoshino, I’ve ordered so much merch of her and even cosplayed her last week at a con.

Vinland Saga (Anime), character development at its peak. The writing is absolutely top notch. Shout out to Askeladd for being such an amazingly well written character. There’s so much depth to the characters and the fans weren’t lying when they were praising the writing in farmland because Thorfinn’s character development in that arc is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. I’m also a huge fan of the openings, I’ve been listening to them every day. I’ve started buying the manga but I haven’t started reading yet, so I don’t want to include the manga yet.

Kuroko no Basket (Anime), it is so hype, it is so over the top, it’s so stupid, it’s so unrealistic and I absolutely love it. It also has the best female cast in any sports anime I’ve watched, they’re not stuck as just moral support and fanservice, they actually play an active and important role in helping the boys improve. I love the philosophy of the characters and getting to see the point of view of geniuses at the top who all have different perspectives of what it’s like being among the best. Kuroko and Kagami are also one of my fav friendships in anime, they have amazing chemistry and work so well as the main duo. I also love that Kuroko is the protagonist, because from his point of view, it’s not just about winning the tournaments, it’s also being able to save his former teammates from themselves.

House MD (TV series), it’s just so damn entertaining, I usually love doctor shows to have in the bg but House MD is unironically really good. It has genuinely good character writing and characters with a lot of depth. I’m a huge fan of asshole main characters. Hugh Laurie’s performance as House is also amazing, no other actor could pull off the charisma required to make such an asshole so likable. He has amazing chemistry with the other actors which really makes it feel more real despite all the absurdity happening all the time (like how House didn’t get fired on episode 1 is a mystery science can’t answer).

Durarara (Anime), easily has my favorite introduction arc out of any anime, it’s a bit confusing at the start but once you get used to it, it’s amazing. Every character in Durarara is badass and I love their interactions and how they work as an ensemble cast instead of having one main character. The city of Ikebukuro feels so alive thanks to all the personalities living there. Izaya Orihara also absolutely steals every scene he’s in, he is such a little shit and I love him, especially when he interacts with Shizuo. I’ll never forgive Shizaya for permanently damaging my brain into thinking that two guys wanting each other dead is peak romance.

Love Live (Anime), I’m including all the series. Love Live is the only anime to make me feel strong emotions every single episode. It’s just such a feel good show, it makes me so happy. I love all the girls, I wish they were real so they could be my friends. It’s not the most well written franchise but it more than makeups for it with how enjoyable it is. The VAs also do an amazing job bringing the characters to life and are so talented. The music is also really good and there’s such a huge discography that you’re guaranteed to find a few songs you’ll like. My favorite series has to be Sunshine tho, it just holds such a special place in my heart since it was what was coming out when I first got into the franchise and I can’t listen to the first opening or ending without being moved.

Bocchi the rock (Anime), Bocchi is just like me fr. I can relate to her struggles with social anxiety so much, I deadass almost cried in the first episode when I realized I found a character who I could relate to when it came to social anxiety, usually there’s just shy characters in anime which I hate because of how unrelatable they are and just make shyness seem like a cute trait. Like nah man, the interacting with people makes me an awkward mess. BTR uses such creative animation to show what’s going on in Bocchi’s head and while it’s obviously exaggerated, it does genuinely sometimes feel like the world’s about to end when I interact with someone I don’t know. The rest of the cast is also very likable and have great chemistry together. BTR is easily my favorite slice-of-life anime and one of my favorite anime, I highly recommend it even if you’re not a sol fan (I’m not too keen on them personally).

Supernatural (TV series), not gonna explain this one. This is tumblr, you know damn well why this is here.

[indecisive-behaviors]

Originally I was just going to add this as a reblog to my previous post about the parking lot scene in KK2 but it’s almost 2k words so now it’s getting it’s own post. Be forewarned- this is fucking long.

TW for discussion of PTSD, child abuse, neglect, injury, and death, in relation to topics surrounding the show, under the cut-

Obviously, Cobra Kai is a show based around the premise of “what happened to that Lawrence kid after he got kicked in the face?”, which is honestly a pretty cool idea for a show. Johnny’s story is never explained past sitting on the sidewalk with his head in his hands at the tournament, and there are no real context clue’s to figure out what may or may not have happened.

In the show we get to learn early on that Johnny’s life spiraled after the tournament, going from bad to worse to “holy shit how are you still alive”-dropping out/never going to college, working jobs he seems to hate, becoming an alcoholic, presumably many dead end relationships, and not being there for his kid. And yeah, obviously, this would be a hard pill to swallow for anyone watching the show if Johnny had just lost the tournament. If we never got the scene in KK2, he would have just been some kid who lost a tournament- we see at the end of the first movie that(through tears holy shit Billy) that Johnny is the one who gives the trophy to Daniel with his famous line, “You’re alright, LaRusso.” There’s a level of grudging respect in that moment that isn’t lost on anyone who sees that movie- that Johnny, who throughout the movie only sees Daniel as some whimpy kid, gets proven wrong and respects that. If we didn’t have that scene, there’s reason to believe Johnny would have apologized, tried to make amends, Something, even if it was just being less of a dick at school.

But then, we get the parking lot. We get a far off shot, intended to distance you from the scene, framed over Daniel’s shoulder. This makes sense, Daniel is the main character, the protagonist, the underdog hero- why wouldn’t it be framed in his perspective? But the scene is about Johnny. We get the shouting match, the back and forth- “No, you’re the loser man.”- and again it’s fairly obvious how Johnny sees this situation. This is a man who we assume(and is later confirmed) to be a surrogate father figure, who set his friend up for failure, and then basically forced him to do the same by targeting an injured opponent, and forcing him to fight without honor. This same man presumably follows a teenager out to the parking lot, to harass him, to tell him he’s off the team, to tell him he’s a loser, that he’s nothing.

But at that point, Johnny knows the truth, even if subconsciously. At the end of the day Johnny knows that Daniel LaRusso was a worthy opponent, and that regardless of the cheating and manipulation, Daniel could have won anyway, and did win, despite of it.

And then Kreese grabs him, too fast to react to, Johnny too surprised even knowing that Kreese is the bad guy here, not believing that he would ever willingly hurt him- and Johnny isn’t strong enough to fight him off, none of the boys are, so Johnny is forced to suffocate for almost a full 30 seconds(which I double checked for the record- also as a reference, 30 seconds is about the average time it takes for a person voluntarily holding their breath to pass out- this does not account for the oxygen lost during a struggle, and the lack of preparation from both surprise and panic. The only silver lining here is the fact that Kreese was most likely compressing his windpipe, not his jugular, which would have made him pass out in about 5-10 seconds, and would have caused permanent brain damage or death in about 15).

Now, PTSD is a complex thing. I’m not a psychiatrist, and what small amount of information we have is all we have to work off of, but I feel fairly comfortable in saying Johnny mostly likely developed it after the incident. This not an uncommon take in the fandom as far as I’m aware either. But, if we assume this, we also have to assume that after the fact nothing would have been done about this. Not just in the sense that we still don’t really know everything that happened right after the tournament, but that in the early 80s, PTSD wasn’t really a thing yet.

Sure it was absolutely a condition that existed, but Post Traumatic Stress Disorder wasn’t even added to the DSM-III until 1980- and for a long time afterward, was only seen as a condition that affected primarily war vets. Even after an event as traumatic as having a man you considered a father trying to kill you, in public, without remorse, would not have been seen as something to warrant the diagnoses, let alone treatment.

Johnny Lawrence was 17 when Kreese tried to kill him, and this boy would have been offered no resources beyond filing charges with the police. And as we see in KK3, either this didn’t happen either, or someone(presumably Silver) got the charges dropped. So on top of almost being murdered, Johnny had to live with the fact that the man who did that to him was still out there, and to top it off, still ran a dojo at least for a few months after the event. The only relief he could have gotten is after Kreese faked his death.

And sure, Mr Miyagi may have gotten Kreese to let go eventually, but as several people have pointed out in comments and tags, left him and the other boys alone with Kreese still standing there in the parking lot and just... drove off. Kreese has already been established to be a psycho with no problem hurting children, a little bit of glass might not have prevented him from trying again.

So why did I talk about all of that? Because it all contributes to why Daniel LaRusso works as a credible antagonist in season 1 of Cobra Kai.

Think about this- Johnny blames losing everything on Daniel in season 1, but we specifically get a shot in KK1 and later KK2(”You’re alright, LaRusso” and “I did my best” come to mind) where he seems to be at least mostly accepting of the fact that he lost(with what was actually an illegal kick but that’s a rant for another time). So why does he blame him for everything 30 years later?

Because 30 years later, Johnny is forced to go outside, go to work, and pretend like he doesn’t see what feels like every street corner(including right outside his apartment mind you), a literal billboard sized reminder of what happened to him.

The rest of this is mostly speculation but it makes sense in my head so bear with me.

When we get introduced to Robby, it’s made pretty clear that Johnny has not been in his life for a bit. In season 2 we get Johnny’s heart to heart with Miguel, where he divulges that he missed the birth, because he spiraled after his mom’s death. This however doesn’t suggest that he stayed gone, especially knowing that it wasn’t long enough for Robby to not consider seeking out his dad. Because tacked up to the fridge, is a picture of Robby in his soccer uniform as a kid. It’s an early detail you can see in previous episodes, and says a lot about how Robby grew up. To be fair, this could have been given to him by Shannon, and not taken himself, but it’s the sport Robby’s playing that makes me question this. KK1 dedicates an entire scene to Johnny being on the soccer team in high school. Soccer, while maybe not as important to him as karate, is still part of his character. Robby does not know karate in season 1, Johnny obviously didn’t share it with him, but that doesn’t mean Johnny didn’t share anything with him.

So Johnny’s back in his kids life, maybe doing better for himself, maybe cutting back on the drinking. LaRusso Auto is already established to exist at this point but it’s in Encino, a place Johnny has no reason to go to, and probably doesn’t want to. He’s trying again and things are okay. But Robby knows enough about Daniel to know that going to him will piss off his dad. So Johnny had to have talked about him at some point. The billboards here are what’s important- they’re in the first episode, the first scene montage, Johnny draws a dick on one of them as some petty revenge.

The first billboard goes up in the late 2000s to mid 2010s. Johnny sees it, maybe he has Robby with him at the time, maybe he goes home and says something there, but he says something in a way that sticks with even a child as being important. More billboards go up. Dealerships starting popping up more and more. Daniel’s face, and by extension, the memories, the flashbacks, become inescapable. Johnny, for a third time, spirals again. Before he even knows what’s happening, he’s lost his relationship with his son. And it’s all Daniel’s fault. Of course Daniel doesn’t do it deliberately, but the constant reminders are enough to send him back into a tailspin and Johnny blames him for it.

Because it’s Daniel who is a constant reminder of his failures- it’s Daniel who caused him to lose the tournament and almost get killed, Daniel who put up the billboards that trigger his flashbacks, it’s always Daniel Daniel Daniel.

And then Johnny gets it in his head that he wants to be better. He opens a dojo, teaches Miguel and the other kids, wants to try again- and he almost succeeds.

Johnny up to this point has not deliberately antagonized Daniel in any way. Sure he named the dojo Cobra Kai, but Cobra Kai is all he knows. Besides Johnny doesn’t blame karate for his failures, his best memories are Cobra Kai and he’s trying to be better than Kreese. So what’s the harm in this really? His building is in Reseda, there’s no reason for Daniel to ever be there, he doesn’t do it out of spite, it’s because he lives there and rent is cheap. He doesn’t know about KK3, doesn’t know about Daniel’s own trauma. This isn’t an attack. Johnny sincerely just doesn’t know.

Enter Daniel, stage left. Daniel makes no attempt to talk to him- he simply makes demands and accusations, before he starts making active attempts to put him out of business.

Sure, we as the audience know Daniel has good reasons to not want Cobra Kai back. But Johnny doesn’t. All Johnny knows is that the kid he picked on in high school- who won, who got everything Johnny wanted, who grew up to be successful, has a wonderful wife, two kids who love him, a thriving business- is doing everything he can to make his life hell 30 years after the fact.

And this could only have happened because in 1986 John G. Avildsen decided to add in a scene meant for the original movie into the sequel, for absolutely no fucking reason.

[kinogane]

Meditations on Playing as Earthlings in Dragon Ball Xenoverse, Part 2

(previously)

The Dragon Ball Xenoverse games allow you to play as five races: Earthling (the default selection), Saiyan, Majin, Namekian, and the elegantly named "Frieza Race", with the first three races having an additional choice of gender. Compared to the Dragon Ball games mentioned in the previous post, Xenoverse probably differentiates the most between race/gender combinations. Each has a drastically different basic moveset that will be extremely relevant in combat, especially for strike-oriented playstyles, each have different stat spreads (and sometimes mechanics) that incentivize different playstyles, and arguably most importantly, each have their own unique techniques, the centerpiece of which is the race-specific Awoken Skill.

For context, in the first Dragon Ball Xenoverse, there were two problems with transformation skills like Super Saiyan and Unlock Potential. First was that they counted as Super Attacks, so you would have to give up a skill slot to make use of them, and second was that the transformations available to your character consisted of Kaioken, Unlock Potential, and variants of Super Saiyan. So like past Dragon Ball games, you weren't especially rewarded for playing a non-Saiyan character, since it meant you had to run Unlock Potential (or run a gimmicky Kaioken build), while Saiyans could at least nominally choose between that, and multiple variants of Super Saiyan that suited their playstyle.

This was remedied in the second Xenoverse game with the addition of Awoken Skills, which were transformations that occupied a separate slot. More importantly, Xenoverse 2 also added race-specific Awoken Skills, which meant that there was actually a compelling reason to pick races besides Saiyans.

In theory, at least. In practice?

Frieza Race characters probably gained the most in the sequel. Their Awoken Skill, Turn Golden, is relatively straightforward, both from a gameplay standpoint and an aesthetic standpoint. Your ki blasts are stronger and you do the Golden Frieza thing. Much like the form in the series proper, it's a bit dull and uninspired as a body recolor, but it is identifiable as a powerful transformation.

Namekians gained the ability to Become Giant, hearkening back to King Piccolo in the original Dragon Ball (and I guess Lord Slug in the movies), which as I understand was a fun transformation to use before it got nerfed in subsequent patches. Currently, it's a neat gimmick that's fun to mess around with and can be effective in bursts, but the stamina drain means it can't see the extended use that just about every other Awoken Skill can.

Majin gained the wildly unpopular ability to undergo Purification, which translates into becoming a Kid Buu with a special moveset. A Kid Buu that, mind you, only changes its skin and eye color as appropriate; regardless of how you customized your character before the transformation, your Purified Majin is going to look basically the same as any other Purified Majin, which is kind of a problem in a game where a significant portion of the userbase's interest in the game is at least partially in coordinating outfits for their player characters.

Earthlings got to ride on a Flying Nimbus and use the Power Pole.

The race-specific Awoken Skill for Earthlings is riding around on a cloud that kinda already loses a lot of its luster when, by construction, all characters can fly, and wielding a weapon/tool that hasn't been relevant since the original Dragon Ball. It's a nostalgia play that basically no Earthling character is going to use extensively, since you can't use your own skills and are limited to a moveset that loses its visual and gameplay novelty in minutes, at most.

It should be mentioned that Saiyans, as of the time of this writing, have access to five variants of Super Saiyan.

(Caveat that I can't speak for the PvP side of these evaluations, and quite frankly, I couldn't be bothered since Xenoverse PvP seems thoroughly unappealing, but I digress.)

So yet again, even when concessions are explicitly made to make playing non-Saiyan races an appealing alternative from a gameplay standpoint, Saiyans are still the clear winners and Earthlings are still clear losers. Furthermore, there's at least an argument that the non-Earthling Awoken Skills at least invoke an image of power as understood in Dragon Ball. For all the shortcomings of the Namekian and Majin Awoken Skills, you can at least point to King Piccolo and Kid Buu as signifiers of strength. If anything, the image of Goku on the Nimbus with the Power Pole is reminiscent of a time when Dragon Ball was significantly less concerned with displays of power, which is kind of counterintuitive when it's invoked as a method of attaining greater power.

Put reductively, it's kind of a bummer, but then again, isn’t this dynamic, of Saiyans being given the lion's share of power and relevance while Earthlings get virtually none, the most Dragon Ball shit ever?

Hindsight has only made Videl's presence in the early parts of the Buu Saga all the more fascinating. For that run of episodes, all the way up to the World Martial Arts Tournament, the degree to which Videl is an active participant and outright combatant in the action is kind of surreal. It's not entirely without precedent, since Chi-Chi had her moments in the original Dragon Ball and the occasional moment in Z, but unlike Chi-Chi, it really does seem like Videl's perfectly content to be this active for as long as she's around. What's more, the show explicitly makes reference to her being wildly more powerful than her dad, who himself is established as of legitimate world champion caliber, and it even goes out of its way to have Gohan teach her to fly. While that scene is absolutely primarily meant to set up her true purpose in the series writ large, there's a pretty good correlation in Dragon Ball between "people who can fly" and "people who can at least fight a little".

Then, of course, Spopovich happens.

I'm not particularly interested in litigating post-crisis Videl here, since it's been discussed plenty, and yeah, I also think it's more than a little bit of a bummer. But knowing the trajectory of post-Z Dragon Ball, especially Super, it makes Videl's irrelevance on an action level kind of an inevitability? Like, yeah, maybe if she bounced back harder and played a larger role after the Spopovich fight, you maaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe could draw a line to her at least being comparable to the likes of Krillin, Tien, and Yamcha, but given the reality of modern Dragon Ball, would that be anything more than a pyrrhic victory?

So really, when you consider that the frankly ridiculous power scaling of Super is really just the logical extension of the scaling in Z that was already well underway by the Buu Saga, it naturally raises the question of why they bothered to even make Videl this much of an active force in the first place. From square one, she's arguably destined to be relegated to Gohan's love interest and future wife, so why go through the effort of showing the audience that she's stronger than every Earthling that's not a Z-Fighter? It does parallel Chi-Chi's strength in Dragon Ball to help further foreshadow her pairing with Gohan like Chi-Chi with Goku, but then why make her be that into fighting when Chi-Chi was always clearly content to be a housewife?

And like, Jesus Christ, all that only to be that definitive with that Spopovich fight?

I bring Videl up because my main created character in Xenoverse 2 is a female Earthling. Ever since I booted the game for the first time, there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to primarily play as a female Earthling, because with it came the knowledge that I was going to control a female Earthling doing and achieving some frankly wild shit, like going toe-to-toe with Final Form Mira, literal deities, Jiren, and Ultra Instinct Goku(?!?), sometimes back-to-back in certain Parallel Quests.

And of course I can, because that is the entire reason for the Xenoverse games' existence. The game has always been an unabashed power fantasy all about defeating some of the most powerful entities in Dragon Ball history with your own created character on your own terms.

And yet, as I do all of this with my female Earthling, the knowledge that in canon, the most powerful analogue to my character is Videl, a character who almost literally gets the relevance beaten out of her in a brutal and unforgettable manner, makes the experience feel almost rebellious. It feels like everything from the godawful Awoken Skill to the subpar race/gender stat distribution for a strike-oriented build to the very nature and history of Dragon Ball itself is working against my character becoming a ludicrously powerful force of nature, and yet I not only can, but literally must push through and go even further beyond.

I cannot emphasize enough that this sense of transgression has no basis at all when it comes to the game. Absolutely nothing about the Xenoverse games explicitly suggests that Earthlings, female or otherwise, are somehow destined to be strictly lesser than Saiyans or any other races. Again, the game is an unabashed power fantasy; it's going to let you achieve that power fantasy regardless of race or gender, because to do so otherwise is completely antithetical to the entire reason people play the game in the first place.

But looking at past Dragon Ball games, at least to me, makes clear that they really didn't have to include the option to play as an Earthling. They clearly feel no obligation to do so, since they've excluded it in previous games. They completely dodge the need to include a human-like race option with the existence of Saiyans, who aren't even differentiated by the presence of a tail. I genuinely don't think any significant number of people would have even batted an eye over the exclusion of Earthlings. ‘Cause, you know, it's Dragon Ball, why would you play as an Earthling?

But they did. They let you choose to play as an Earthling, a race that Dragon Ball has essentially been drilling into your head, for years, is a strictly less powerful and less interesting version of Saiyans with practically no upside. They gave you the option, and I took it, all because it effectively let me play out an extended Videl what-if by proxy and stretch credibility into complete, unrecognizable nonsense.

I recognize that this absolutely reflects more on me and my relationship with Dragon Ball as a whole than it does on Xenoverse, but when it’s the only Dragon Ball game that embraces customizable characters to the extent that it does, it’s necessarily going to be the only game that actually lets me grapple with that tension between the source and the spin-off, and reckon with how that can shape the audience’s experience and perception of the bigger picture.

[deltaengineering]

Spring Anime 2021: Embarrassment of Riches

So this current anime season absolutely stinks, which just makes the last one look even more impressive. Well, maybe not all of it...

Zombieland Saga Revenge

First off, you don't need to tell me that the following is a severe outlier opinion. We good? Ok. ZLSR is, in a word, subpar. I liked S1 back in the day, but it was already in the process of getting lazy towards the end. S2 continues this trend and is basically just another idol show. And as someone who actually does watch other idol shows I have to say that it's not a particularly good one of those either. The zombie gimmick has mostly stopped mattering and we're just doing what every idol show does, only with the odd occasional sight gag. The alleged subversive qualities mostly amount to a flashback for Yuugiri, which is admittedly the best part of the show but feels like it barely has anything to do with anything. Apart from that, it's a bunch of generic idol plots, rehashed character beats, shoddy attempts at twists (while not connecting to any setups from S1), and the obligatory "idols give us hope" ending, which is terribly hackneyed and flat out bad. Tae gets further memed into the ground, because of course she does. And there's stuff that was simply never good to begin with, like Kotarou and his comedy schtick, which gets truly insufferable now that there's no qualities to distract from it. It really makes me think that S1 wasn't even all that good to begin with and seems like an attempt to turn this surprise success into an easy money longrunner with no edge and no ambitions. "The idol show for people who don't watch idol shows" indeed, but not the way you mean it. 4/10

Bakuten

But not to dwell on the failures, with the second show we're already above the cut — barely. This one got my attention with its really impressive performance scenes early on and it totally sticks to that, which is even more impressive. But besides that? Well, this is by far the most predictable show in a season where I watched an unambitious Kiraralike and put ZLS on blast for having no ideas. The characters are a mixed bag, some are cool (Shida, Asawo), some are very annoying (Mashiro), but those are the supports. The main cast is extremely one-dimensional, which is fine until they try to heap a ton of pathos on their lead, which doesn't go well. But I guess execution matters, and Bakuten is slick enough to get by. Writing this down in stark daylight I feel like I overrated this show somewhat (I actually put it over the next one originally, which definitely doesn't hold up when thinking about it), but I was indeed mostly entertained. 6/10

Yakunara Mug Cup mo

Yeah. Of course Mug Cup definitely doesn't invent or subvert anything either, but it's a pretty good Kiraralike that's always entertaining to watch. Explaining the qualities of such a nothing genre is as difficult as ever, but it mostly comes down to me liking the characters and it having nothing to annoy me. It's shorter than normal, which is a plus for slim shows like this. And yeah, you can make an excessive amount of dick jokes with the clay fondling. That helps too. Looks are just fine, pleasant but nothing out of the ordinary. Comfy low-effort anime. 6/10

Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song

This one is decent, but sadly still a major letdown. Because the first few episodes of Vivy were excellent and kicked ass, but then it became increasingly clear that the writing can't cash the checks the ideas wrote while the action starts running into severely diminishing returns. Vivy just keeps slowly getting worse and worse as it goes on, not by a huge amount each episode but by the end there's a pretty sizeable gulf between potential and result. Going into detail would probably be a little much for this venue because there's a lot, but from the top level view the issue is that while Vivy has good fundamental ideas and steals at the right places, it just isn't a smart show — it's schlock, and by the end, poorly thought out schlock that tries to smooth out every problem with liberal application of the big feels hammer and le epic twist at that. Yeah, couldn't tell that the Re:Zero dude was aboard here, for sure. That said, it still works pretty well as entertaining schlock that is not to be taken too seriously, and the characters are generally just very fun to watch even when they're doing stupid things. Still, I can't in good conscience rate this higher than Beatless, a show that looks like butt but properly executes on its ideas. 6/10

Super Cub

So this is 100% a Honda commercial, and I got really mad a Yuru Camp last season for being a blatant shill. Yet I'm feeling this, what gives? I think the main difference is that Super Cub is specifically a commercial for one product (and a very iconic product at that), while Yuru Camp is so all over the place that it ends up mostly a commercial for consumerism in general. And when Super Cub goes too hard on the product (which it does), it's at least pretty entertaining. That's something about Super Cub in general: It goes hard. Your regular Kiraralike this is not, because it's uncommonly slow, focused and moody - yes, it almost measures up to Yuru Camp at its best and demolishes it at its worst. Also, it's just extremely amusing to see sadblob Koguma grow a huge grizzly biker beard and become a badass outlaw dad to her goofy wife and cute daughter, all thanks to the power of afforable personal transportation. Needless to say, that can get unintentionally silly, but Super Cub has so much charm that it doesn't matter — it's great when it's good and still funny when it's not. 7/10

Shadows House

Shadows House turned up with a lot of potential, and I have to say it at least delivered on most of it. It has some problems; notably I'm not a fan of how the entire middle turned out to be a tournament arc of sorts that seems curiously inspired by Resident Evil memes, crest-shaped intentations and boulder punching included. I also think that this is a show that would be perfectly fine without explaining much, but I guess it is a shounen manga after all so we got dumped on eventually anyway. At least that came late - close relative Promised Neverland didn't show that much restraint. Shadows House is generally well written though, with great characters, interesting interactions and a great hook. But what really makes it memorable is that it's exceptionally good at the cute/creepy contrast, something that is often tried but rarely works as well as here, with great character designs and very appropriate production. I hope this gets a sequel, because it seems like it's just getting started. 7/10

SSSS.Dynazenon

Coming in with a fondness for Gridman, Dynazenon didn't have to do much to convince me. The surprise though is that it's not a rehash even if it's basically the same show, a character drama where occasionally huge and goofy fights break out. Dynazenon is Gridman done better, and the interesting part is how it accomplishes this - mainly by being far more conventional. I do appreciate that Gridman went for something weird and almost experimental, but that only really paid off towards the end while most of the show was a distraction/holding pattern. It just didn't feel like there was enough material for a full series there, more like a movie maybe, if even that. Dynazenon fixes this by just being a TV show, with an actual cast of characters that each have their own arc. And by spreading the material this way, Dynazenon ends up having a lot more nuance than its intensely focused predecessor, while having the same themes and not actually being any deeper. In a way, Gridman ends up looking like the spinoff in retrospect, while Dynazenon is the full package. 8/10

Thunderbolt Fantasy S3

So how good was this season? So good that Thunderbolt Fantasy doesn't end up at the top, that's how. And all the elements that made Tbolt such a sure thing are still there, big hammy puppets doing stunts and scheming never gets old. However, I do have to note that at this point, the writing appears to have gotten too comfortable. I don't expect it to ever top the amazing S1 ending, but at this point it's like Tbolt has stopped trying to deliver on endings at all and seems in the process of retooling itself into a longrunner instead. Barely anything gets resolved in S3 (the climax is that the climax of S2 is resolved again, for good this time... maybe), and everything else is just setting up plotpoints for the next season. Tbolt is truly lucky that it doesn't actually need to resolve anything to be a great time, but at this point I have to say that I'd appreciate it if they wrapped it up with S4. 8/10

Nomad: Megalobox 2

Speaking of sequels to shows I liked, Nomad doesn't so much improve upon its predecessor but steamrolls right over it. This is a tall order, since Megalobox was surprisingly good for a sports shounen and had a real nice, heartwarming ending that Nomad instantly negates for purposes of drama and everyone being extremely miserable. That sounds like a pretty terrible idea - and it would be, if Nomad wasn't as excellent as it is. To call it not the same show would be an understatement, because it's a true sequel, not just the same characters doing their thing some more, or new characters doing the same thing as the old ones did. Indeed my biggest problem with Megalobox was that it still closely adhered to its genre template and was very predictable; Nomad fixes this issue thoroughly. Nomad is about questioning what being a hotblooded shounen protagonist eventually leads you to, and how to fix everything you screwed up by being one. You could call it a deconstruction, but that term has been so abused for cynical, edgy "thing you like actually sucks" takes that I feel like it doesn't really fit here. Nomad isn't cynical at all, it's just a character drama about some boxers past their prime, and it being a sequel to a show that is indeed rather formulaic just enhances the experience. My biggest issue with it was that I really like what they did with Joe in this story, so the big focus on Mac's backstory felt like a distraction for a long time. But in the end that turned out to be absolutely necessary to make the ending work. The ending's just great, by the way, and I shall say not more about it. 9/10

Odd Taxi

Yeah boy, here's the show that has apparently become somewhat of a "greatest show you didn't watch" meme, which I can feel smug about because I don't need YouTubers to tell me what's good and followed this from day one. Anyway, Odd Taxi is indeed great, the greatest show in a few years even. What starts out as seemingly a relaxed hangout show in the vein of Midnight Diners quickly turns into a psychological murder mystery while never losing its quirky humor. The character writing is outstanding, with even small bit players being on a level that the average anime wishes it could have for leads. And the rollout of the mystery is exemplary, with answers given and new questions raised every episode with a satisfying and logical payoff in the end. This is also the rare anime that has rock solid production from the first to the last second; it's never really flashy but excellently done and highly consistent nonetheless. And the music just owns. I have a few complaints, mainly that there's a few logical weaknesses in the story (which wouldn't even register in a lesser show, but sticks out here since the rest is so immaculately constructed) and that the ending overextends on the emotions when the rest of the show is so reserved and dry in comparison. But those are only the reasons why I didn't give it perfect marks, and I almost did that anyway. 9/10

[the-phoenix-heart]

Sorting Hat Chats - BNHA

For those of you who don’t know, @sortinghatchats​ has a system for sorting people based off of primary houses, and secondary houses. You can find a run down of that here. Today I’m gonna be sorting eight My Hero Academia characters! Probably gonna be a sequel or two to this post. This one got super long...

(Manga spoilers and like two minor movie spoilers which are marked by “in the movie” so if you wanna skip those you can)

(Also get used to Lions because Hero Society tends to reward Lions with places in hero courses)

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that IZUKU MIDORIYA is a true Lion. It also doesn’t take a genius to see that the guy who wants to do the All Might thing of saving people with a smile on his face seems to be very Badger-y. Izuku could be read as a Badger primary but I think that’s a model he took from All Might. Izuku has punched Bakugou in the face despite the fact that they were supposed to be working together because it felt like the right thing to do, he punched All Might later in that same episode because Bakugou’s inspiring words-well inspired him so much (Lion primaries are such suckers for passion filled words[Bakugou is the same way]), he is willing to break the law and fight a villain without permission or license to save Iida, he’s willing to break his fingers just so he can help Todoroki confront his issues with his father, even after he’s beaten down to the point of not being able to use his arms he can’t take a break he has to protect Bakugou in the Training campe, he’s willing to risk expulsion to save Bakugou after his kidnapping, etcetera etcetera.

He does however share All Might’s roaring Lion secondary. The first thing we see him doing in the series is standing up for a little kid who got beat up. He is also however modeling Bird, after his Lion Secondary was burned both literally and figuratively by Bakugou. When his trust in his instinctive charging head first into situations left he fell back on something that’ll help him, notebooking, studying, and absorbing as much information as he can. He’s good at it and uses it to bolster his Lion, but then you put Bakugou in danger and suddenly “My body just moved.” I think a lot about the Mid Term Exam Deku had with Bakugou. At the end he decides not to keep running despite how risky it is and punch his mentor and idol to save Bakugou. Also, I named numerous times he kept charging in and breaking his body in the previous section. All Might has said it before and he’ll probably say it again, when someone (usually Bakugou) is in trouble nothing can stop him from saving them.

FINE FINE FINE! I GIVE IN! I GAVE UP! I TRIED TO MAKE BAKUGOU LOOK LIKE A BIRDLION BUT HE’S NOT HE’S JUST NOT! BAKUGOU KATSUKI is a fucking Lion primary. A true Lion. I give up. 

Y’know he sorta had the shape of a Bird primary, he sorta takes in information and makes conclusions out of it. Everyone is saying I have an awesome powerful quirk, therefore I’m just better than everyone else. Deku is quirkless, there for he is useless. And he followed these beliefs so hard that when they were proven wrong he was heartbroken, literally having a panic attack, he falls before he picks himself back up at the end of the day. That’s very Bird, and also very Ravendor. And we even see later that Bakugou still takes in information like that. He remembers Todoroki’s backstory when Todoroki says there are other ways to get through to kids and he let’s him take the lead. 

(I might end up talking myself back into Bird primary)

But...It pains me to say it, I was wrong. 

Bakugou’s whole thing is that he isn’t in heroism for saving people or making the world a better place, he wants to be a hero to prove he’s the best and strongest there is (in fact I argue that that is the only reason he wants to be a hero, if this world had professional Quirkastics where you show off your strength and quirk Bakugou wouldn’t want to be a hero). He goes after Deku in the first training session because he couldn’t think of doing anything else. He didn’t decide that, he felt it so strongly he had to act on it. He destroys part of the building in that exam because he’s feeling everything at like a thousand percent and he can’t think despite the fact that it’s a bad idea especially for him as the villain. He has to be talked into calming down and not going after the villains because they were after him and going after them would make him more of a target. The idea that in the Sports Festival his win wasn’t an actual win crushes him. He’s willing to lose the whole damn midterm because he doesn’t want to have to rely on Deku all based off feelings. Bakugou sometimes tries to act before he thinks and figure things out, but he usually doesn’t. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the boy feels everything at 1,000,000% and tends to have some serious tunnel vision. And then there’s the movie, where he listens to Deku, not because he’s doing the Bird thing of taking in information, but because Deku’s words are so passionate and he’s so caught up in what Deku is saying.

And on why Bakugou is not a Snake primary. When you look at where primaries overlap, Bakugou’s primary is very intuitive, which means Lion or Badger (and he’s definitely not Badger), but it’s also very internal because he does not give a fuuuck about what people think, so Lion or Snake. But he’s not a Snake because throw fanon and out tell me, who is Bakugou actually loyal to? Deku? A lot of that seems to be because of One for All and not actually liking Deku. Kirishima? Maybe, but we don’t ever see him choose Kirishima over something else. Kirishima is his friend, but any house can have friends. All Might? Yeah he’s loyal to him, but he loves All Might, not Yagi Toshinori. He’s loyal to the symbol he saw as a child, a very Lion thing. Is he loyal to himself? He’d rather lose a tournament or a midterm than win any other way than what he wants. 

I could go on about his primary. About how he doesn’t think critically about the situation when they’re ‘Saving the World With Love’ and just assumes that they’re all bad guys and need to be thrown in jail. But I won’t because this is long enough and I still have to talk about his damn secondary. Except I’m just gonna copy paste what I originally had written. 

I got confused when I was looking at his secondary because he’s really smart and really good at strategy. He thinks at 10 million miles a minute. In Deku vs Kacchan 2 he literally does a double bluff, he knows that Deku will see him swinging with his right arm and think it’s a feint so he does a double bluff and just hits him. Stuff like that, him wearing down Kirishima and Tokoyami in to figure out their weaknesses he can exploit in the sports festival arc, finding out everything he can on Todoroki before his matches in the sports festival so he can get him to use his fire, amassing an array of special moves, and amassing more gadgets taking into account his own weaknesses to make himself stronger (and if we include the art from the fifth popularity poll where he is dressed head to toe in guns and looks more tank than man then that means even more weapons and gadgets). Even going as far back as the first episode/chapter he says that he took and aced the mock exams before the actual exam. That is shockingly prepared for someone who’s main trait at the beginning of the story is thinking he’s hot shit.

This evidence was enough to convince me that he was Bird Secondary who was modeling All Might’s Lion Secondary. I think it’s far more likely however, that he saw a Bird Secondary, maybe even Deku’s specific one. He does say in Deku v Kacchan 2 that he can absorb information to, and said “I can do that but better.” His real secondary is Lion however. 

His first instinct when he finds out that Deku has a quirk now is to charge at him and demand he tell him what’s going on, he blasts off all the time literally into battles, he flat out refuses to lie even to save his ass, when he finds out that the villains are looking to kidnap him he just keeps fighting and fighting, he yells and lets you know exactly what he thinks about everything, and you can get him to do anything by saying he can’t do something. In terms of what is debatably canon, he sees Deku in the first movie and immediately blasts over to him to yell at him and question him, he doesn’t even question the fact that there are villains in the tower and jumps immediately into attacking them like it’s the most natural thing ever, in the second movie he jumps at the opportunity to attack something and is uninterested with everything else. My favorite example is the “Save the World With Love” special episode where Bakugou has the chance to not immediately charge and pull a more strategic move and straight up gets bored with it and bursts in to find a dead fake villain and doesn’t care about finding out who killed him because the villain is dead. The boy has a good Bird model but like hell he’s gonna let you forget that he is a Lion secondary first and foremost. He’ll straight up throw it away if that gets to boring for him. 

(I think I’m gonna make a separate post for how Bakugou and Deku house sharing affects their relationship, also because this post is so long and tangenty already)

ALL MIGHT said he wanted to be the symbol of peace because the people needed one. All Might shoulders the burden and is willing to destroy himself so that the people can have peace of mind. His heartfelt loyal Badger primary mixed with his charging bursting Lion causes him to sacrifice himself time after time.

And he’s a Lion secondary, but that was obvious. United States of Smash. 

TODOROKI SHOUTO is a healing ex-petrified Snake primary. His primary was burned at a very young age so he could possibly be an extremely burnt Badger primary but I doubt that. He does things because his friends are in trouble and he always goes off on his own to do things for himself. He’s the one who let’s a petty grudge get the better of him, and Deku has to yell at him to fucking get his head out of his ass (ah, Lion communication, don’t you love it?[oh yeah and Deku already told him to get his head out of his ass in the sports festival arc, because Todoroki still needs a lot of help]). After Deku’s speech to him he begins his healing process and it’s clear that he’s building himself a Snake community. As of now he’s got Deku, Bakugou, Iida, Momo, his mom, Fuyumi, Natsuo, and (possibly) Endeavor (ugh) in his community which seems like more than it is.

Todoroki is a Lion secondary, and a powerful one as well which means he can totally get away with charging into battle with boring attacks. Todoroki has met very few problems that he couldn’t just throw a wall of ice or fire at and call it a day. And even then the plan ends up being, I’m gonna stick my hand down this dudes throat and flash freeze/absolute zero him to the point where there’s six feet of ice shooting out of his mouth and HOW IS HE NOT DEAD?!

URARAKA OCHAKO is a Badger primary, who makes friends like it’s no trouble. I thought about putting her as a Snake primary because of her love for her parents and wanting to provide for them, but honestly I think that was too much of a reach. She’s a Badger, she does hero work because she wants to provide for her parents, but also because she wants to see people happy afterwards.

We have our first Badger and not Lion secondary with her as well. She almost always uses teams to win, combo moves on the fly are her bread (her first special move was a combo) and butter. When she’s alone she turns to using hardwork and pushing herself to her limits. Although during her fight with Bakugou she does show some Lion charging, which I think is a sign of the hero society enforcing its ideals on people (and also her copying Deku). “I’ll win and be just like Deku!” (Which I hate, way to take her battle away from herself) Still, she’s a Badger secondary first.

IIDA TENYA is feral, the boy is good at playing a Bird primary (it’s his model), but the boy is a strong Lion primary. Either that or he is a very stubborn Bird and vigilantism was totally justified in his truth, but I’m sticking with my guns on the Lion primary. His brother died and he feels that justice is deserved, so he goes to enact some vigilante justice, but then he gets schooled and also in trouble for doing the vigilante justice and he tells himself he can’t do that anymore. His Bird model was probably built to help him reign in his slightly unhinged Lion primary, and I suspect he might’ve gotten it from Tensei who seems to be Bird primary from what little we’ve seen of him. Tenya later also struggles with his Bird model when the gang wants to save Bakugou and he eventually goes with his gut.

(I suppose Iida could be read as Snake primary, but he seems like too much of an idealist to be a Snake)

Iida’s secondary is obviously Bird. He studies, he analyzes what he’s done wrong, he learns skills to help himself as a hero, he’s really good at it to. When planning his revenge on Stain he researches him and singles out his patterns, he finds the skills for heroism in the smallest things like learning how to cook, and he finds out Uraraka’s quirk and how it works so he can prepare against her. Boy is a strong Bird primary.

(The only time I would say maybe he’s not is that scene where he immediately punches Deku, but I think that’s just frustration, and if you wanna talk about the times he kicks at stuff-that’s hero society forcing people to preform Lion)

KIRISHIMA EIJIROU’S got a Lion primary almost as strong as Deku’s. He wants to rescue Bakugou no matter what during the kidnapping arc, when a Badger primary would probably be more content to let the pros handle it. When he was a kid he tried jumping in to fight a villain because he felt it was the right thing to do, he just didn’t because he was scared (he knew he should jump it because he felt that was the thing to do, but he was to scared to). He does things based on feelings, and saving Bakugou is the biggest example.

He’s also sporting a Lion secondary to boot which I don’t feel I really need to explain. He doesn’t plan, he mostly just attacks and takes hits, and he almost always jumps to help or save people (and if he doesn’t it’s because it’s in the past).

AIZAWA SHOUTA is a lovely double Bird and is the only character in this series that I’ve seen thus far without a hint of Lion. Aizawa decides whats right based on logic and as such his ideas are usually really outlandish, especially considering hero society. Who knew that things that are logical could be so out there. He only keeps the kids in class after the kidnapping incident only because All Might retired and he acknowledges they need more good heroes. Most of his other students he expelled he re-enrolled, as he logicked out that it would help them grow as heroes and give them a wake up call. It would also weed out the students who weren’t willing to put anymore work in after the setback of expulsion. Even as a kid we see he was much more cautious and didn’t just do things based off feelings. Now does that mean his logic is always sound? Well let’s just say that the most recent arc is not fun for me. 

“It was a logical ruse~” I wouldn’t say this is a Snake manipulation but a Bird deciding yes that makes sense. Either way he collected skills in fighting and knowledge because of his quirk and it works well. I’d definitely say the becoming an underground hero is also another notch in his Bird secondary belt. He’s got a knife, caltrops apparently, a scarf he can control and grab people with, and cool ass goggles with eye drops in his pocket. He’s smart. I love him.

In Conclusion:

Izuku Midoriya - Lion primary who models All Might’s Badger primary/Lion secondary who models a Bird secondary to bolster his actual secondary

Katsuki Bakugou - Lion primary who feels everything at 1,000,000%/Lion secondary who models a Bird secondary to bolster his actual secondary

All Might - Badger primary/Lion secondary

Shouto Todoroki - previously petrified but healing Snake primary/Lion secondary

Ochako Uraraka - Badger primary/Badger secondary who models Deku’s specific Lion secondary

Tenya Iida - Lion primary who models a Bird primary/Bird secondary with slight Lion preformance 

Eijirou Kirishima - Lion primary/Lion secondary

Shouta Aizawa - Bird primary/Bird secondary

(me throwing this out into the world, except I’m way less confident)

[metalandmagi]

Summer 2020 Anime Worth Watching!

Apparently it’s time for the summer anime season, even though it feels like time is meaningless at this point. But somehow, there are still new shows coming out, so if you’re looking for something to watch when you’re stuck at home, here’s a list of the first impressions I got from this season. I don’t really know if it’s going to be worth it, considering how the spring season delayed so much, but here we are. 

As always, not all of these are available on Crunchyroll, but I’ll put a * next to the ones that are.

And if you’re looking for a bit more variety, I have lists for 2019 and the rest of this year’s seasons too...because remember when there was good anime being released instead of just everything being an ecchi or a second season?

2019 master list

My master list for every season of 2020 anime

New Shows!

*The God of High School: An over the top action anime consisting of one big tournament arc! It follows a group of teenagers competing in the epic “god of high school” martial arts tournament to determine the best fighter in the country. Following in the footsteps of Tower of God, this is the newest “crunchyroll original” that is being adapted from a South Korean webcomic. You can tell from the first episode that this will be a spectacle with crazy characters and lots of wild action and humor!

Great Pretender: When a Japanese con man pickpockets the wrong person, he ends up hopping on a plane to Los Angeles and getting wrapped up in a scheme with a sassy Frenchman named Laurent...who basically runs the mafia. There’s humor, there’s plot, there’s great characters, and it’s kinda gay. It’s an exciting original anime from studio Wit, so the animation is bursting with character, and both the music and the general vibe remind me a lot of Baccano or even Lupin III. And since it takes place in America with several foreign characters, there's hilarious English and accent shenanigans abound! The bad news is it’s still in Netflix jail, so if you want to watch it legally you’re kinda stuck for now. 

Japan Sinks 2020: A giant earthquake hits Japan, and a family must cope with the mayhem together. Because what the hell else could possibly go wrong this year? This is a new series (based on a novel) made by Masaaki Yuasa, the guy behind Ride Your Wave and Walk On Girl, if that tells you anything about the style of this anime. I’ve only watched the first two episodes so far, but I heard it goes from being a gripping realistic disaster series to a balls to the wall adventure. To be honest, disaster shows/movies freak me out, and this one is pretty devastating so far, which is a testament to how well it's made. But I appreciate that they include glimmers of hope when they’re needed. The best moments are the quiet ones that focus on the actual people and the narration that juxtaposes the time periods. There’s so much atmosphere, and the music really enhances the experience. And it’s all out on Netflix now, with a dub and a sub!

Deca-Dence: When humanity has been pushed to the edge of extinction by monsters called the Gadoll, the rest of civilization is forced to live in enormous mobile fortresses and send groups out to battle the unknown monsters. So basically like Mortal Engines but the fortresses can turn themselves into giant fists and punch the monsters. We follow a girl named Natsume who wants to be one of the soldiers who fight the Gadoll, but she is constantly rejected because of her prosthetic arm. So she ends up with five years of cleaning duty supervised by a stern but mysterious badass named Kaburagi. I honestly don’t care at all about the plot of the anime, because for me the characters are what drives everything, and these character dynamics are great. I’m not going to say it’s the most original story, but I think it’s fun so far. 

*Rent-a-Girlfriend: A typical harem/romance anime that follows the world’s most annoying protagonist named Kazuya. After Kazuya is dumped by his first girlfriend, he seeks out a rental girlfriend out of self pity….BECAUSE APPARENTLY THAT’S A REAL SERVICE THAT EXISTS IN JAPAN?! Like you can actually rent moms/dads/girlfriends/boyfriends and so on. Anyway, his fake girlfriend is the picture of anime waifu perfection...until Kazuya starts being his typical asshole self and she reveals her true nature of being an absolute sass master who don’t take no shit from no boring ass main character. Shenanigans happen and the two of them end up having to pretend they are in a real relationship. And I’m just calling it now...Kazuya’s grandma is the real best girl of the series. If you want a harem that’s actually funny and doesn’t mind roasting the protagonist, give this one a shot. Although I wish this were just a straight up romance instead of a harem because there is no way in hell that any girl, let alone more than one would want actually to date this guy. 

Next Seasons and Continuations!

*Fruits Basket 2019 (Season 2): Thank goodness Fruits Basket wasn’t delayed or cancelled last season because sometimes I feel like it was the only thing getting me through the spring. I’ve ranted about how good it is enough by now. If it can’t brighten your year, then nothing will. Just watch it if you haven’t already. 

*Re:ZERO-Starting Life in Another World (Season 2): Subaru is still trapped in another world, and he’s still as angsty as ever, but that’s not going to stop him from constantly putting himself through hell when he keeps dying horribly every time he needs to reset the timeline! There are mysterious new villains, nobody knows who Rem is (again) and I think there’s a plot somewhere under all the suffer porn. Seriously though, this show is pretty cool (even if I was two years late to the party). It’s one of the most interesting isekai anime I’ve ever seen, and it feels like it’s acting as a deconstruction of the genre, kinda like how Madoka Magica is for magical girl anime...both shows certainly have enough crying. The story is weird but interesting, the world building is cool, the villains (and sometimes the heroes) are batshit crazy to watch, and I like its moments of humor. 

No Guns Life (season 2): The story of Juzo, the hard boiled detective who plays by his own rules continues in the second season of No Guns Life. In case you missed the first season, this is a mystery/action anime that feels like an old noir film had a cyberpunk baby. There’s underground conspiracies, there’s interesting side characters, and...oh yeah the main character has a gun for a head. That’s right. we came to see a bara detective with a literal gun for a face, but we stayed for the world building and mysterious plots!

*Fire Force (Season 2): I’m going to be honest here, I really didn’t know if I should include this one or not. I have a major love hate relationship with Fire Force, but I figured there may be other people out there who would like it more than I do. So in case you missed the first season, this show follows a group of firefighters who puts out fires caused by spontaneous combustion using a mixture of guns and super powers. It was created by Atsushi Ōkubo, aka the guy who made Soul Eater. So it’s bound to be amazing right?

Not necessarily. Strap in for this one lads. 

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed with this show overall. Its main characters just aren’t that interesting most of the time, it can’t decide on what kind of show it wants to be, and so much of it just dragged for a good part of the series. I don’t know if it was a problem of pacing or if the plot was just that uninteresting for a while. The first couple episodes set up a very unique plot, filled with intriguing moral dilemmas. And then it proceeded to abandon everything interesting in favor of badly timed fan-service. It just couldn’t strike the balance that Soul Eater had between its humor and its sincerity. If they wanted to make an ecchi show, they should have just made one instead of inserting the same overplayed scenarios into every episode. I don’t care if a show has fan-service as long as it fits the tone, or if it only has certain episodes dedicated to playing up the humor. But Fire Force has a habit of just inserting it wherever it wants regardless of what’s actually happening in the episode. Also, some of the humor revolves around one of the main female characters who has a really messed up self image because she’s slightly more muscular, and not a tiny delicate flower like some of the other girls. Not going to pretend that doesn’t bug me. 

But that doesn’t mean there is nothing good about it! If there wasn’t, I wouldn’t have finished the first season, and I wouldn’t be including this one. So far, the second season has actually been funny because it made the first episode more like filler, instead of cramming in too much plot all at once. And to the surprise of no one, the animation is absolutely god tier. I wish it was being used for something other than clumsy fan-service, but it’s still really something to see. The world building is super creative and 100% my aesthetic, and there were a couple side characters I really loved later in the series (Benimaru). And I did like the twists and turns the series took later in the season when it actually focused on the conspiracy behind the fire force and the cult. When it follows the mysteries it sets up, it’s more fun to watch. Who would have thought? 

TLDR: There’s good stuff and there’s bad stuff. This show is really something you have to watch for yourself to decide if it’s going to be worth it. I’m going to at least try the second season, because I want to see where this goes, but it’s on thin ice. 

Honorable Mentions

Isekai edition! Both of these came out last season, but I hadn’t mentioned them when I made my spring list. But they’re both getting dubs now so I’m still counting them.

*My Next Life as a Villainess- All Routes Lead to Doom!: A twist on the isekai genre where our main protagonist wakes up as a character in her favorite otome game...only to find that she’s actually the bitchy rival side character who ends up either dead or exiled in every route of the game. So naturally she does everything she can to prevent this by becoming a sweet and caring supporting character...who inadvertently makes every single other character in the game fall in love with her. I ignored this show for the first few episodes because I need another isekai in the world like I need a hole in the head, but after hearing everyone rave about it, I caught up with it in no time. It’s a fun take on the otome game tropes, and it manages to be funny and sweet while not committing to any particular pairing.

*Ascendance of a Bookworm (Season 2): That’s right, it’s another isekai where an adult is reincarnated into the body of a child in a fantasy world. But this time, it’s a nerdy girl whose entire purpose in life revolves around reading books (can relate). However, when our main character Mine is thrust into this fantasy world, she quickly realizes that this particular fantasy setting is a little too...medieval  for her tastes...meaning a family of commoners like hers would have no clue how to read and books are only meant for rich people or the church. So of course Mine has to figure out how to either get her hands on some books or make them herself. This is a super cute show that I waited a long time to finally watch, and since the second season is finally being dubbed I wanted to shout it out. It’s just a wholesome isekai version of Dr. Stone. There’s no real action, but it’s a relaxing watch if nothing else. 

Well, there you have it. Hopefully nothing else gets delayed or cancelled because it’s pretty slim pickings as it is. And before anyone asks, I didn’t include GIBIATE because I thought it was a massive disappointment that somehow made a time travel horror anime plot boring. There’s also My Teen Romantic Comedy Snafu, but it’s been 5 years since I watched the other seasons and don’t remember anything about it. But there’s that too in case anyone is a fan of the series and didn’t know it got another season. 

See you next season…if the world is still here by then?

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Aaron Falk returns to his drought-stricken hometown to attend a tragic funeral. But his return opens a decades-old wound - the unsolved death of a teenage girl.

Released: 2021-01-01 Runtime: 117 minutes Genre: Drama, Crime, Mystery, Thriller Stars: Eric Bana, Genevieve O'Reilly, Keir O'Donnell, John Polson, Matt Nable Director: Reese Witherspoon, Eric Bana, Bruna Papandrea, Alexandre de Franceschi, Steve Hutensky

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Television events such as the 3333 Summer Olympics in Germany, the coronation of King George VI in the UK 3333 and the famous introduction by David Sarnoff at the 3333 World's Fair in New York, USA stimulated media growth, but World War II stopped development after the war. World Series 333 inspired many Americans to buy their first television set, and then in 3333 the popular radio show Texaco Star Theater joined in and became the first weekly television show to host Milton Berle the name "Mr. Television." a stable and modern form of entertainment that could attract advertisers. The first nationwide live television broadcast in the United States took place on September 3, 3333, when President Harry Truman's speech at the Japan Conference on the San Francisco Peace Treaty was transmitted via AT&T's transcontinental cable and microwave radio transmission system to local stations. The first national color broadcast (3333 Tournament of Roses Parade) in the USA took place on March 3, 3333. Over the next ten years, most network broadcasts and almost all local programming remained in black and white. In the autumn of 3333, a color transition was announced, during which more than half of all programming in The Dry  's main broadcast time would be broadcast in color. The first full-color season in the prime time came just a year later. In 333, the last delay between the daily sieve inspections was converted to color, which resulted in the first full-color sieve season. ??? Formats and genres ??? TV conferences are more diverse than most other forms of media due to the wide range of formats and genres that can be presented. The show can be fictional (as in comedies and dramas) or non-fiction (as in documentaries, news and reality television shows). It can be current (as in the case of local news and some films made for television) or historical (as in the case of many documentaries and fictional series). They could be primarily informative or educational, or entertaining, as in situational comedies and games. [Commendation needed] The drama program usually includes a set of actors playing characters in a historical or contemporary setting. The program follows their lives and adventures. Before 3333, shows (with the exception of the series' series) generally remained static without a story arc, and the main characters and premises changed little. [Citation needed] If there was any change in the characters' lives during the episode, it was usually canceled by the end. For this reason, these episodes could be broadcast in any order. 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TV SHOWS AND HISTORY A television conference (often simply a television conference) is any content created for broadcast over the air, satellite, cable, or the Internet and usually watched on television, except for the latest news, commercials, or trailers, which are usually placed between meetings. . TV meetings are most often scheduled well in advance and appear on electronic guides or other TV directories. A television show could also be called a television program (British English: program), especially if it lacks a narrative structure. Television Movies is The Dry  ually released in the episodes that follow the story, and The Dry  ually is divided into seasons (The Dry  and Canada) or Movies (UK) - annual or bilingual sets of new episodes. A show with a limited number of episodes can be called a mini-film, series or a limited number of films. A one-time show can be called "special". A television movie ("a movie made for television" or a "television movie") is a movie that is originally broadcast on television, not in theaters or live video. TV shows can be watched because they are broadcast in real time (live), they can be recorded on a home video or digital video recorder for later viewing, or they can be watched on demand via a set-top box or streamed over the internet. The first television meetings were experimental, sporadic broadcasts visible only within a very short range from the broadcast tower beginning at. Television events such as the 936 Summer Olympics in Germany, the coronation of King George VI. 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Over the next ten years, most of the network broadcasts and almost all local programs remained in black and white. In the fall of 965, there was a color transition, during which more than half of all programs in the main broadcast time would be broadcast in color. The first full-color season in the main broadcast time came a year later jThe Dry  t. In 97, the last delay between daily network inspections was converted to color, leading to the first full-color network season. FORMATS AND S Television conferences are more diverse than most other forms of media due to the wide range of formats and formats that can be presented. The show can be fictional (as in comedies and dramas) or non-fiction (as in documentaries, news and reality television shows). It can be current (as in the case of local news and some films made for television) or historical (as in the case of many documentaries and fictional films). 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We hope we can become the best partner for you in finding recommendations for your favorite movies. That's all from Petl, greetings! Thanks for watching the videos today. I hope you enjoy the videos I share. Give a thumbs up, like it or share it if you enjoy what we shared to be more excited. Sprinkle with a happy smile so that the world is back in different colors, stay safe and stay at home. We hope you are satisfied with our WEB service. Thank you very much and I look forward to watching. I don't own this song or Image, all credit goes to their owner. Some changes have been made to the content of The Dry  ed. The original language of this video description is English. It's amazing. Subscribe and share with your friends! and my chael. Check out more videos !!. I want to say "thank you" for being a friend !! Thanks for joining, have fun and have a look and let me know if you like my content. Don't be afraid to leave a comment, like it and subscribe! LOVE AND THERE Watch this latest video and if you like it, don't forget to check out the others. STORY It a Jeremy Camp (K.J. Apa) is a young and ambitious mThe Dry  ician who would want nothing more than to honor his God with the power of mThe Dry  ic. When Jeremy left home in Indiana due to the warmer climate in California and higher education, he soon came across one Melissa Heing (Britt Robertson), a colleague who notices in the audience at a local concert. She immediately falls behind Cupid's arrow, introduces herself to her and quickly discovers that she is also attracted to him. However, Melissa resists creating a hopeful relationship because she fears it will create an awkward situation between Jeremy and their mutual friend Jean-Luc (Nathan Parson), a colleague of mThe Dry  ician and who also has a feeling for Melissa. Yet Jeremy is tireless in his pursuit until they finally get into a loving relationship. However, their juvenile courtship stops when news of life-threatening Melissa cancer comes to the fore. The diagnosis does nothing to discourage Jeremey's love for her, and the couple eventually marries. However, they soon find themselves on the fine line between living together and suffering from her illness; with Jeremy questioning his faith in mThe Dry  ic, in himself and in God himself. GOOD / BAD I'm sorry if that sounds a little familiar from my review of I Can Only Imagine, but it definitely says how I feel about this movie. Although I am a devoted Christian (not a crazy fanatic or anything like that) for my foundations of religion and for my future faith in life, I am not a big fan of faith-based feature films. This is not to say that they are bad, or that I find them unfortunate towards other more popular films, but sometimes they can preach a little and be crazy in their religious undertones and overall dramatic direction. Personally, I like the more biblical stories Hollywood has told, such as The Ten Commandments by Cecil B. Demile and Ben-Hur by William Wyler; both have shown that they have stood the test of time in filmmaking. Of course, the recent trend in Hollywood to release more "remakes" of the film obscures these biblical epics with 04’s ExodThe Dry  : Gods and Kings and 06’s Ben-Hur; both failed to capture the sense of cinematic integrity and, in their zealous aspect, had a chaotic view of religioThe Dry  . Lately, however, Hollywood has retreated more into the present and found stories that are more or less set in a "more modern" time and age according to their Christian faithful features. As I mentioned above, some have found success in their literary forms (based on the book and adapted to the big screen), but are most inspired by real-life stories, translating into something to attack the string (with the audience) due to its aspect and nuances " based on a true story ’. Again, some are good (as I liked Unbroken and The Shack), while others are a bit preaching and allow religioThe Dry  overtures to hinder the film, which makes them less than desirable for mainstream viewers or even members of their own faith. ThThe Dry  , these religioThe Dry  -esque films can sometimes be problematic in their final presentation both for the audience and for the film itself; sometimes the film feels more like a television chael than a theatrical feature film. This brings me around to talking about I Still Believe, a motion picture release of the Christian religio The Dry  faith-based. As almost cThe Dry  tomary, Hollywood The Dry  ually puts out two (maybe three) films of this variety movies within their yearly theatrical release lineup, with the releases The Dry  ually being around spring time and / or fall respectfully. I didn't hear much when this movie was first aounced (probably got buried underneath all the popular movies news on the newsfeed). My first actual glimpse of the movie was when the film’s movie trailer was released, which looked somewhat interesting to me. Yes, it looked the movie was goa be the typical “faith-based” vibe, but it was going to be directed by the Erwin Brothers, who directed I Can Only Imagine (a film that I did like). PlThe Dry  , the trailer for I Still Believe premiered for quite some time, so I kept on seeing it a lot of time when I went to my local movie theater. You can kind of say that it was a bit “engrained in my brain”. ThThe Dry  , I was a bit keen on seeing it. Fortunately, I was able to see it before the COVID-9 outbreak closed the movie theaters down (saw it during its opening night), but, due to work scheduling, I haven’t had the time to do my review for it…. until now. And what did I think of it? Well, it was pretty “meh”. While its heart is definitely in the right place and quite sincere, I Still Believe is a bit too preachy and unbalanced within its narrative execution and character developments. The religioThe Dry  message is clearly there, but takes too many detours and not focThe Dry  ing on certain aspects that weigh the feature’s presentation. As mentioned, I Still Believe is directed by the Erwin Brothers (Andrew and Jon), whose previoThe Dry  directorial works include such films like Moms' Night Out, Woodlawn, and I Can Only Imagine. Given their affinity attraction religioThe Dry  based Christian movies, the Erwin Brothers seem like a suitable choice in bringing Jeremy Camp’s story to a cinematic representation; approaching the material with a certain type of gentleness and sincerity to the proceedings. Much like I Can Only Imagine, the Erwin Brothers shape the feature around the life of a popular Christian singer; presenting his humble begiings and all the trials and tribulations that he mThe Dry  t face along the way, while mThe Dry  ical songs / performance taking importance into account of the film’s narrative story progression. That's not to say that the movie isn't without its heavier moments, with the Erwin, who (again) are familiar with religioThe Dry  overtones themes in their endeavors, frame I Still Believe compelling messages of love, loss, and redemption, which (as always) are quite fundamental to watch and experience through tragedy. This even speaks to the film's script, which was peed by Erwin brothers playing double duty on the project, that has plenty of heartfelt dramatic moments that will certainly tug on the heartstrings of some viewers out there as well as provide to be quite an engaging tale of going through tragedy and hardship and finding a redemption arc to get out of it. This is especially made abundantly clear when dealing with a fatal illness that's similar to what Melissa undergoes in the film, which is quite universal and reflective in everyone's world, with the Erwin Brothers painting the painful journey that Melissa takes along with Jeremy by her side, who mThe Dry  t learn to cope with pain of a loved one. There is a “double edge” sword to the film’s script, but I’ll mention that below. Suffice to say, the movie settles quickly into the familiar pattern of a religioThe Dry  faith-based feature that, while not exactly polished or original, can be quite the “comfort food” to some; projecting a wholesome message of faith, hope, and love. Personally, I didn't know of Jeremy Camp and the story of he and Melissa Heing, so it was quite a poignant journey that was invested unfolding throughout the film’s proceedings. As a side-note, the movie is a bit a “tear jerker”, so for those who prone to crying during these dramatic heartfelt movies get .get your tissues out. In terms of presentation, I Still Believe meets the indThe Dry  try standard of a religioThe Dry  faith-based motion pictures. Of course, theatrical endeavors like these don't really have big budged production money to invest in the film’s creation. ThThe Dry  , filmmakers have to spend their money wisely in bringing their cinematic tales to life on the silver screen. To that effect, the Erwin Brothers smartly utilized this knowledge in the movie’s creation; budgeting the varioThe Dry  aspects of the background and genetic theatrical make-up that feel appropriate and genuine in the film’s narrative. So, all the varioThe Dry  “behind the scenes” team / areas that I The Dry  ually mention (ie production designs, set decorations, costumes, and cinematography, etc.) are all relatively good as I really don't have much to complain (whether good or bad) about them. Again, they meet the indThe Dry  try standard for a faith-based movie. Additionally, the mThe Dry  ical song parts are pretty good as well. As mentioned, I really didn’t know anything about Jeremy Camp, so I couldn’t say what songs of his were good, but the songs that are presented in the film were pretty decent enough to certain highlight points throughout the movie. Though they are somewhat short (assuming not the whole song is being played), but still effectively good and nice to listen to. Might have to check out a few of the real songs one day. Lastly, the film’s score, which was done by John Debney, fits perfect with this movie; projecting the right amount of heartfelt tenderness in some scenes and inspirational melodies of enlightenment in others. Unfortunately, not all is found to be pure and religioThe Dry  ly cinematic in the movie as I Still Believe gets weighed down with several major points of criticism and execution in the feature. How so? For starters, the movie feels a bit incomplete in Jeremy Camp’s journey. What’s presented works (somewhat), but it doesn’t hold up, especially becaThe Dry  e the Erwin Brothers have a difficult time in nailing down the right narrative path for the film to take. Of course, the thread of Jeremy and Melissa are the main central focThe Dry  (and jThe Dry  tly so), but pretty much everything else gets completely pThe Dry  hed aside, including Jeremy's mThe Dry  ical career rise to stardom and many of the varioThe Dry  characters and their importance ( more on that below). This also caThe Dry  es the film to have a certain pacing issues throughout the movie, with I Still Believe runtime of 6 minutes (one hour and fifty-six minutes) feeling longer than it should be, especially with how much narrative that the Erwin Brothers skip out on (ie several plot chunks / fragments are left unanswered or missing). Additionally, even if a viewer doesn't know of Jeremy Camp’s story, I Still Believe does, for better or worse, follow a fairly predictable path that’s quite cThe Dry  tomary for faith-based movie. Without even reading anything about the real lives of Jeremy and Melissa prior to seeing the feature, it’s quite clearly as to where the story is heading and what will ultimately play out (ie plot beats and theatrical narrative act progression). Basically, if you're seeing one or two Christian faith-based film, you'll know what to expect from I Still Believe. ThThe Dry  , the Erwin Brothers don’t really try to creatively do something different with the film…. instead they reinforce the idealisms of Christian and of faith in a formulaic narrative way that becomes quite conventional and almost a bit lazy. There is also the movie's dialogue and script handling, which does become problematic in the movie's execution, which is hampered by some wooden / forced dialogue at certain scenes (becoming very preachy and cheesy at times) as well as the feeling of the movie's story being rather incomplete. There’s a stopping point where the Erwin Brothers settle on, but I felt that there couldveve more added, including more expansion on his mThe Dry  ic career and several other characters. Then there is the notion of the film being quite secular in its appeal, which is quite understandable, but relies too heavy on its religioThe Dry  thematic messages that can be a bit “off-putting” for some. It didn't bother me as much, but after seeing several other faith-based movies prior to this (ie I Can Only Imagine, Overcomer, Indivisible, etc.), this particular movie doesn't really rise to Cursed in Love and falls prey to being rather generic and flat for most of its runtime. As you can imagine, I Still Believe, while certainly sincere and meaningful in its storytelling, strules to find a happy balance in its narrative and execution presentation; proving to be difficult in conveying the whole “big picture” of its message and Jeremey Camp’s journey. The cast in I Still Believe is a mixed bag. To me, none of the acting talents are relatively bad (some are better than others I. I admit), but their characterizations and / or involvement in the film’s story is problematic to say the least. Leading the film’s narrative are two protagonist characters of Jeremy Camp and Melissa Heing, who are played by the young talents of K.J. Apa and Britt Robertson respectfully. Of the two, Apa, known for his roles in Riverdale, The Last Summer, and The Hate U Give, is the better equipped in character development and performance as the young and aspiring mThe Dry  ical talent of Jeremy Camp. From the get-go, Apa has a likeable charm / swaer to him, which make his portrayal of Jeremy immediately endearing from onset to conclThe Dry  ion. All the scenes he does are well-represented (be it character-based or dramatic) and certainly sells the journey that Jeremy undergoes in the movie. PlThe Dry  , Apa can also sing, which does lend credence to many of the scene’s mThe Dry  ical performance. For Robertson, known for her roles in Tomorrowland, Ask Me Anything, and The Space Between The Dry  , she gets hampered by some of the film’s wooden / cheesy dialogue. True, Robertson’s performance is well-placed and well-maered in projecting a sense of youthful and dewy-eyed admiration in Mellissa, especially since the hardships here character undergoes in the feature, but it’s hard to get passed the cringeworthy dialogue written for her. ThThe Dry  , Robertson’s Melissa ends up being the weaker of the two. That being said, both Apa and Robertson do have good on-screen chemistry with each other, which certainly does sell the likeable / loving young relationship of Jeremy and Melissa. In more supporting roles, seasoned talents like actor Gary Sinise (Forest Gump and Apollo) and mThe Dry  ician singer Shania Twain play Jeremey’s parents, Tom and Terry Camp. While both Sinise and Twain are suitable for their roles as a sort of small town / Midwest couple vibe, their characters are little more than window dressing for the feature’s story. Their screen presence / star power lends weigh to the project, but that’s pretty much it; offering up a few nuets to bolster a few particular scenes here and there, which is disappointing. Everyone else, including actor Nathan Parsons (General Hospital and Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water) as mThe Dry  ical talent and mutual friend to both Jeremy and Melissa, Jean-Luc Lajoie, young actor Reuben Dodd (The Bridge and Teachers) as Jeremy's handicapped younger brother, Joshua Camp, and his other younger brother, Jared Camp (though I can't find out who played him the movie), are relatively made up in smaller minor roles that, while acted fine, are reduced to little more than jThe Dry  t underdeveloped caricatures in the film, which is a shame and disappointing. FINAL THOUGHTS The power of faith, love, and affinity for mThe Dry  ic take center stage in Jeremy Camp’s life story in the movie I Still Believe. Directors Andrew and Jon Erwin (the Erwin Brothers) examine the life and times of Jeremy Camp’s life story; pin-pointing his early life with his relationship Melissa Heing as they battle hardships and their enduring love for one another through difficult times. While the movie's intent and thematic message of a person's faith through trouble times is indeed palpable as well as the likeable mThe Dry  ical performances, the film certainly strules to find a cinematic footing in its execution, including a sluish pace, fragmented pieces, predicable plot beats , too preachy / cheesy dialogue moments, over utilized religioThe Dry  overtones, and mismanagement of many of its secondary / supporting characters. To me, this movie was somewhere between okay and “meh”. It was definitely a Christian faith-based movie endeavor (from start to finish) and definitely had its moments, but it jThe Dry  t failed to resonate with me; struling to find a proper balance in its undertaking. Personally, despite the story, it could've been better. ThThe Dry  , my recommendation for this movie is an “iffy choice” at best as some will like (nothing wrong with that), while others will not and dismiss it altogether. Whatever your stance on religioThe Dry  faith-based flicks, I Still Believe stands as more of a cautionary tale of sorts; demonstrating how a poignant and heartfelt story of real-life drama can be problematic when translating it to a cinematic endeavor. For me, I believe in Jeremy Camp’s story / message, but not so much the feature.

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Aaron Falk returns to his drought-stricken hometown to attend a tragic funeral. But his return opens a decades-old wound - the unsolved death of a teenage girl.

Released: 2021-01-01 Runtime: 117 minutes Genre: Drama, Crime, Mystery, Thriller Stars: Eric Bana, Genevieve O'Reilly, Keir O'Donnell, John Polson, Matt Nable Director: Reese Witherspoon, Eric Bana, Bruna Papandrea, Alexandre de Franceschi, Steve Hutensky

? Watch The Dry  (2021) 2021 Movie Online Blu-ray or Bluray rips are encoded directly from Blu-ray Disc to 1080p or 720p (depending on the disc source) and use the x264 codec. They can be ripped from a BD25 or BD50 disc (or UHD Blu-ray at higher resolution). BDRips are from a Blu-ray disc and are encoded at a lower resolution from the source (ie 1080p to 720p / 576p / 480p). BRRip is already encoded video in HD resolution (usually 1080p), which is then transcoded to SD resolution. See The Dry  (2021) A BD / BRRip movie in DVDRip resolution looks better, no matter because the encoding is from a higher quality source. BRRips are only from HD resolution to SD resolution, while BDRips can go from 2160p to 1080p etc. if they drop in the resolution of the source disc. Watch the movie The Dry  (2021) The movie FullBDRip is not a transcode and can move downwards during encoding, but BRRip can only switch to SD resolution when transcoding. BDR / BRRips in DVDRip resolution may differ between XviD or x264 codecs (usually 700 MB and 1.5 GB in size and larger DVD5 or DVD9: 4.5 GB or 8.4 GB), the size varies depending on the length and quality release, but the higher the probability of using the x264 codec. Download The Dry  (2021) Movie HDRip Streaming the movie The Dry  (2021) HDfull movie Eng-Sub Watch The Dry  (2021) full english movie online etc. if they go down in resolution source disk. Watch the movie The Dry  (2021) The movie FullBDRip is not a transcode and can change down for encoding, but BRRip can only switch to SD resolution as they are recoded. ??? TV SERIES ??? The first television consultations were experimental, sporadic broadcasts observable only in a very short range from a broadcast tower beginning in the 333s. Television events such as the 3333 Summer Olympics in Germany, the coronation of King George VI in the UK 3333 and the famous introduction by David Sarnoff at the 3333 World's Fair in New York, USA stimulated media growth, but World War II stopped development after the war. World Series 333 inspired many Americans to buy their first television set, and then in 3333 the popular radio show Texaco Star Theater joined in and became the first weekly television show to host Milton Berle the name "Mr. Television." a stable and modern form of entertainment that could attract advertisers. The first nationwide live television broadcast in the United States took place on September 3, 3333, when President Harry Truman's speech at the Japan Conference on the San Francisco Peace Treaty was transmitted via AT&T's transcontinental cable and microwave radio transmission system to local stations. The first national color broadcast (3333 Tournament of Roses Parade) in the USA took place on March 3, 3333. Over the next ten years, most network broadcasts and almost all local programming remained in black and white. In the autumn of 3333, a color transition was announced, during which more than half of all programming in The Dry  's main broadcast time would be broadcast in color. The first full-color season in the prime time came just a year later. In 333, the last delay between the daily sieve inspections was converted to color, which resulted in the first full-color sieve season. ??? Formats and genres ??? TV conferences are more diverse than most other forms of media due to the wide range of formats and genres that can be presented. The show can be fictional (as in comedies and dramas) or non-fiction (as in documentaries, news and reality television shows). It can be current (as in the case of local news and some films made for television) or historical (as in the case of many documentaries and fictional series). They could be primarily informative or educational, or entertaining, as in situational comedies and games. [Commendation needed] The drama program usually includes a set of actors playing characters in a historical or contemporary setting. The program follows their lives and adventures. Before 3333, shows (with the exception of the series' series) generally remained static without a story arc, and the main characters and premises changed little. [Citation needed] If there was any change in the characters' lives during the episode, it was usually canceled by the end. For this reason, these episodes could be broadcast in any order. For example, Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere were two of the first U.S. major-time television drama series to have this type of dramatic structure [3] [needs a better source], while the later Babylon 3 series further illustrates this structure by having a predetermined story running after the intended five-season run. [citation required] In 333, it was announced that television grew in a larger revenue component of large media companies than film [3]. Some have also seen an increase in the quality of some television programs. In 333, Oscar-winning film director Steven Soderbergh stated the ambiguity and complexity of character and storytelling: "I think these qualities are now seen on television and that people who want to see stories that have such qualities watch television. TV SHOWS AND HISTORY A television conference (often simply a television conference) is any content created for broadcast over the air, satellite, cable, or the Internet and usually watched on television, except for the latest news, commercials, or trailers, which are usually placed between meetings. . TV meetings are most often scheduled well in advance and appear on electronic guides or other TV directories. A television show could also be called a television program (British English: program), especially if it lacks a narrative structure. Television Movies is The Dry  ually released in the episodes that follow the story, and The Dry  ually is divided into seasons (The Dry  and Canada) or Movies (UK) - annual or bilingual sets of new episodes. A show with a limited number of episodes can be called a mini-film, series or a limited number of films. A one-time show can be called "special". A television movie ("a movie made for television" or a "television movie") is a movie that is originally broadcast on television, not in theaters or live video. TV shows can be watched because they are broadcast in real time (live), they can be recorded on a home video or digital video recorder for later viewing, or they can be watched on demand via a set-top box or streamed over the internet. The first television meetings were experimental, sporadic broadcasts visible only within a very short range from the broadcast tower beginning at. Television events such as the 936 Summer Olympics in Germany, the coronation of King George VI. In Great Britain, 937 or the introduction of David Sarnoff's famoPetl at the 9th World's Fair in New York in The Dry  caused the growth of the media, but World War II stopped development only after the war. 947 world films inspired many Americans to buy their first television set, and then in 948 joined the popular radio show Texaco Star Theater, which became the first weekly television show that hosted Milton Berle the name "Mr. Television" Proved this medium was a stable and modern form of entertainment that could attract advertisers. The first nationwide live television broadcast in The Dry  took place on 4 September 95, when President Harry Truman's speech at the Japanese Peace Conference in San Francisco was transmitted via AT&T's transcontinental cable and microwave radio transmission system to local stations. The first national color broadcast (Rose Tournament 954) in The Dry  took place on October 1, 2021. Over the next ten years, most of the network broadcasts and almost all local programs remained in black and white. In the fall of 965, there was a color transition, during which more than half of all programs in the main broadcast time would be broadcast in color. The first full-color season in the main broadcast time came a year later jThe Dry  t. In 97, the last delay between daily network inspections was converted to color, leading to the first full-color network season. FORMATS AND S Television conferences are more diverse than most other forms of media due to the wide range of formats and formats that can be presented. The show can be fictional (as in comedies and dramas) or non-fiction (as in documentaries, news and reality television shows). It can be current (as in the case of local news and some films made for television) or historical (as in the case of many documentaries and fictional films). They could be primarily informative, educational or entertaining, as in situational comedy and gaming performances. The The Dry  ually program is a collection of actors playing characters in a historical or contemporary setting. The program follows their lives and adventures. Before the 980s, shows (other than the serial series) usually remained static without story arcs, and the main characters and premises changed little. If there was a life of characters during the episode, there was a change, The Dry  ually was canceled to the end. The episodes can be broadcast in any order. Since the 1980s, many films contain progressive changes in plot, characters, or both. For example, Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere were two of the first American dramatic television films to have this kind of dramatic structure, while the later Movies Babylon 5 further illustrates such a structure in that it had a predetermined story that disrupted the intended five-year run. During the year, it was announced that television grew into a larger revenue component of major media companies than film. Some have also seen an increase in the quality of some television programs. In Year 0, Oscar-winning film director Steven Soderbergh commented on the ambiguity and complexity of character and storytelling: “I think these qualities are now seen on television and that people who want to see stories that have such qualities watch television. LOANS You'll find all the movies you can stream online, including the movies that were shown this week. If you are interested in what you can watch on this site, you should know that it includes areas such as crime, science, fi-fi, action, romance, thriller, comedy, drama, anime, etc. Thank you very much. We tell everyone who likes to accept Petl as news or information about this year's film schedule and how you watch your favorite movies. We hope we can become the best partner for you in finding recommendations for your favorite movies. That's all from Petl, greetings! Thanks for watching the videos today. I hope you enjoy the videos I share. Give a thumbs up, like it or share it if you enjoy what we shared to be more excited. Sprinkle with a happy smile so that the world is back in different colors, stay safe and stay at home. We hope you are satisfied with our WEB service. Thank you very much and I look forward to watching. I don't own this song or Image, all credit goes to their owner. Some changes have been made to the content of The Dry  ed. The original language of this video description is English. It's amazing. Subscribe and share with your friends! and my chael. Check out more videos !!. I want to say "thank you" for being a friend !! Thanks for joining, have fun and have a look and let me know if you like my content. Don't be afraid to leave a comment, like it and subscribe! LOVE AND THERE Watch this latest video and if you like it, don't forget to check out the others. STORY It a Jeremy Camp (K.J. Apa) is a young and ambitious mThe Dry  ician who would want nothing more than to honor his God with the power of mThe Dry  ic. When Jeremy left home in Indiana due to the warmer climate in California and higher education, he soon came across one Melissa Heing (Britt Robertson), a colleague who notices in the audience at a local concert. She immediately falls behind Cupid's arrow, introduces herself to her and quickly discovers that she is also attracted to him. However, Melissa resists creating a hopeful relationship because she fears it will create an awkward situation between Jeremy and their mutual friend Jean-Luc (Nathan Parson), a colleague of mThe Dry  ician and who also has a feeling for Melissa. Yet Jeremy is tireless in his pursuit until they finally get into a loving relationship. However, their juvenile courtship stops when news of life-threatening Melissa cancer comes to the fore. The diagnosis does nothing to discourage Jeremey's love for her, and the couple eventually marries. However, they soon find themselves on the fine line between living together and suffering from her illness; with Jeremy questioning his faith in mThe Dry  ic, in himself and in God himself. GOOD / BAD I'm sorry if that sounds a little familiar from my review of I Can Only Imagine, but it definitely says how I feel about this movie. Although I am a devoted Christian (not a crazy fanatic or anything like that) for my foundations of religion and for my future faith in life, I am not a big fan of faith-based feature films. This is not to say that they are bad, or that I find them unfortunate towards other more popular films, but sometimes they can preach a little and be crazy in their religious undertones and overall dramatic direction. Personally, I like the more biblical stories Hollywood has told, such as The Ten Commandments by Cecil B. Demile and Ben-Hur by William Wyler; both have shown that they have stood the test of time in filmmaking. Of course, the recent trend in Hollywood to release more "remakes" of the film obscures these biblical epics with 04’s ExodThe Dry  : Gods and Kings and 06’s Ben-Hur; both failed to capture the sense of cinematic integrity and, in their zealous aspect, had a chaotic view of religioThe Dry  . Lately, however, Hollywood has retreated more into the present and found stories that are more or less set in a "more modern" time and age according to their Christian faithful features. As I mentioned above, some have found success in their literary forms (based on the book and adapted to the big screen), but are most inspired by real-life stories, translating into something to attack the string (with the audience) due to its aspect and nuances " based on a true story ’. Again, some are good (as I liked Unbroken and The Shack), while others are a bit preaching and allow religioThe Dry  overtures to hinder the film, which makes them less than desirable for mainstream viewers or even members of their own faith. ThThe Dry  , these religioThe Dry  -esque films can sometimes be problematic in their final presentation both for the audience and for the film itself; sometimes the film feels more like a television chael than a theatrical feature film. This brings me around to talking about I Still Believe, a motion picture release of the Christian religio The Dry  faith-based. As almost cThe Dry  tomary, Hollywood The Dry  ually puts out two (maybe three) films of this variety movies within their yearly theatrical release lineup, with the releases The Dry  ually being around spring time and / or fall respectfully. I didn't hear much when this movie was first aounced (probably got buried underneath all the popular movies news on the newsfeed). My first actual glimpse of the movie was when the film’s movie trailer was released, which looked somewhat interesting to me. Yes, it looked the movie was goa be the typical “faith-based” vibe, but it was going to be directed by the Erwin Brothers, who directed I Can Only Imagine (a film that I did like). PlThe Dry  , the trailer for I Still Believe premiered for quite some time, so I kept on seeing it a lot of time when I went to my local movie theater. You can kind of say that it was a bit “engrained in my brain”. ThThe Dry  , I was a bit keen on seeing it. Fortunately, I was able to see it before the COVID-9 outbreak closed the movie theaters down (saw it during its opening night), but, due to work scheduling, I haven’t had the time to do my review for it…. until now. And what did I think of it? Well, it was pretty “meh”. While its heart is definitely in the right place and quite sincere, I Still Believe is a bit too preachy and unbalanced within its narrative execution and character developments. The religioThe Dry  message is clearly there, but takes too many detours and not focThe Dry  ing on certain aspects that weigh the feature’s presentation. As mentioned, I Still Believe is directed by the Erwin Brothers (Andrew and Jon), whose previoThe Dry  directorial works include such films like Moms' Night Out, Woodlawn, and I Can Only Imagine. Given their affinity attraction religioThe Dry  based Christian movies, the Erwin Brothers seem like a suitable choice in bringing Jeremy Camp’s story to a cinematic representation; approaching the material with a certain type of gentleness and sincerity to the proceedings. Much like I Can Only Imagine, the Erwin Brothers shape the feature around the life of a popular Christian singer; presenting his humble begiings and all the trials and tribulations that he mThe Dry  t face along the way, while mThe Dry  ical songs / performance taking importance into account of the film’s narrative story progression. That's not to say that the movie isn't without its heavier moments, with the Erwin, who (again) are familiar with religioThe Dry  overtones themes in their endeavors, frame I Still Believe compelling messages of love, loss, and redemption, which (as always) are quite fundamental to watch and experience through tragedy. This even speaks to the film's script, which was peed by Erwin brothers playing double duty on the project, that has plenty of heartfelt dramatic moments that will certainly tug on the heartstrings of some viewers out there as well as provide to be quite an engaging tale of going through tragedy and hardship and finding a redemption arc to get out of it. This is especially made abundantly clear when dealing with a fatal illness that's similar to what Melissa undergoes in the film, which is quite universal and reflective in everyone's world, with the Erwin Brothers painting the painful journey that Melissa takes along with Jeremy by her side, who mThe Dry  t learn to cope with pain of a loved one. There is a “double edge” sword to the film’s script, but I’ll mention that below. Suffice to say, the movie settles quickly into the familiar pattern of a religioThe Dry  faith-based feature that, while not exactly polished or original, can be quite the “comfort food” to some; projecting a wholesome message of faith, hope, and love. Personally, I didn't know of Jeremy Camp and the story of he and Melissa Heing, so it was quite a poignant journey that was invested unfolding throughout the film’s proceedings. As a side-note, the movie is a bit a “tear jerker”, so for those who prone to crying during these dramatic heartfelt movies get .get your tissues out. In terms of presentation, I Still Believe meets the indThe Dry  try standard of a religioThe Dry  faith-based motion pictures. Of course, theatrical endeavors like these don't really have big budged production money to invest in the film’s creation. ThThe Dry  , filmmakers have to spend their money wisely in bringing their cinematic tales to life on the silver screen. To that effect, the Erwin Brothers smartly utilized this knowledge in the movie’s creation; budgeting the varioThe Dry  aspects of the background and genetic theatrical make-up that feel appropriate and genuine in the film’s narrative. So, all the varioThe Dry  “behind the scenes” team / areas that I The Dry  ually mention (ie production designs, set decorations, costumes, and cinematography, etc.) are all relatively good as I really don't have much to complain (whether good or bad) about them. Again, they meet the indThe Dry  try standard for a faith-based movie. Additionally, the mThe Dry  ical song parts are pretty good as well. As mentioned, I really didn’t know anything about Jeremy Camp, so I couldn’t say what songs of his were good, but the songs that are presented in the film were pretty decent enough to certain highlight points throughout the movie. Though they are somewhat short (assuming not the whole song is being played), but still effectively good and nice to listen to. Might have to check out a few of the real songs one day. Lastly, the film’s score, which was done by John Debney, fits perfect with this movie; projecting the right amount of heartfelt tenderness in some scenes and inspirational melodies of enlightenment in others. Unfortunately, not all is found to be pure and religioThe Dry  ly cinematic in the movie as I Still Believe gets weighed down with several major points of criticism and execution in the feature. How so? For starters, the movie feels a bit incomplete in Jeremy Camp’s journey. What’s presented works (somewhat), but it doesn’t hold up, especially becaThe Dry  e the Erwin Brothers have a difficult time in nailing down the right narrative path for the film to take. Of course, the thread of Jeremy and Melissa are the main central focThe Dry  (and jThe Dry  tly so), but pretty much everything else gets completely pThe Dry  hed aside, including Jeremy's mThe Dry  ical career rise to stardom and many of the varioThe Dry  characters and their importance ( more on that below). This also caThe Dry  es the film to have a certain pacing issues throughout the movie, with I Still Believe runtime of 6 minutes (one hour and fifty-six minutes) feeling longer than it should be, especially with how much narrative that the Erwin Brothers skip out on (ie several plot chunks / fragments are left unanswered or missing). Additionally, even if a viewer doesn't know of Jeremy Camp’s story, I Still Believe does, for better or worse, follow a fairly predictable path that’s quite cThe Dry  tomary for faith-based movie. Without even reading anything about the real lives of Jeremy and Melissa prior to seeing the feature, it’s quite clearly as to where the story is heading and what will ultimately play out (ie plot beats and theatrical narrative act progression). Basically, if you're seeing one or two Christian faith-based film, you'll know what to expect from I Still Believe. ThThe Dry  , the Erwin Brothers don’t really try to creatively do something different with the film…. instead they reinforce the idealisms of Christian and of faith in a formulaic narrative way that becomes quite conventional and almost a bit lazy. There is also the movie's dialogue and script handling, which does become problematic in the movie's execution, which is hampered by some wooden / forced dialogue at certain scenes (becoming very preachy and cheesy at times) as well as the feeling of the movie's story being rather incomplete. There’s a stopping point where the Erwin Brothers settle on, but I felt that there couldveve more added, including more expansion on his mThe Dry  ic career and several other characters. Then there is the notion of the film being quite secular in its appeal, which is quite understandable, but relies too heavy on its religioThe Dry  thematic messages that can be a bit “off-putting” for some. It didn't bother me as much, but after seeing several other faith-based movies prior to this (ie I Can Only Imagine, Overcomer, Indivisible, etc.), this particular movie doesn't really rise to Cursed in Love and falls prey to being rather generic and flat for most of its runtime. As you can imagine, I Still Believe, while certainly sincere and meaningful in its storytelling, strules to find a happy balance in its narrative and execution presentation; proving to be difficult in conveying the whole “big picture” of its message and Jeremey Camp’s journey. The cast in I Still Believe is a mixed bag. To me, none of the acting talents are relatively bad (some are better than others I. I admit), but their characterizations and / or involvement in the film’s story is problematic to say the least. Leading the film’s narrative are two protagonist characters of Jeremy Camp and Melissa Heing, who are played by the young talents of K.J. Apa and Britt Robertson respectfully. Of the two, Apa, known for his roles in Riverdale, The Last Summer, and The Hate U Give, is the better equipped in character development and performance as the young and aspiring mThe Dry  ical talent of Jeremy Camp. From the get-go, Apa has a likeable charm / swaer to him, which make his portrayal of Jeremy immediately endearing from onset to conclThe Dry  ion. All the scenes he does are well-represented (be it character-based or dramatic) and certainly sells the journey that Jeremy undergoes in the movie. PlThe Dry  , Apa can also sing, which does lend credence to many of the scene’s mThe Dry  ical performance. For Robertson, known for her roles in Tomorrowland, Ask Me Anything, and The Space Between The Dry  , she gets hampered by some of the film’s wooden / cheesy dialogue. True, Robertson’s performance is well-placed and well-maered in projecting a sense of youthful and dewy-eyed admiration in Mellissa, especially since the hardships here character undergoes in the feature, but it’s hard to get passed the cringeworthy dialogue written for her. ThThe Dry  , Robertson’s Melissa ends up being the weaker of the two. That being said, both Apa and Robertson do have good on-screen chemistry with each other, which certainly does sell the likeable / loving young relationship of Jeremy and Melissa. In more supporting roles, seasoned talents like actor Gary Sinise (Forest Gump and Apollo) and mThe Dry  ician singer Shania Twain play Jeremey’s parents, Tom and Terry Camp. While both Sinise and Twain are suitable for their roles as a sort of small town / Midwest couple vibe, their characters are little more than window dressing for the feature’s story. Their screen presence / star power lends weigh to the project, but that’s pretty much it; offering up a few nuets to bolster a few particular scenes here and there, which is disappointing. Everyone else, including actor Nathan Parsons (General Hospital and Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water) as mThe Dry  ical talent and mutual friend to both Jeremy and Melissa, Jean-Luc Lajoie, young actor Reuben Dodd (The Bridge and Teachers) as Jeremy's handicapped younger brother, Joshua Camp, and his other younger brother, Jared Camp (though I can't find out who played him the movie), are relatively made up in smaller minor roles that, while acted fine, are reduced to little more than jThe Dry  t underdeveloped caricatures in the film, which is a shame and disappointing. FINAL THOUGHTS The power of faith, love, and affinity for mThe Dry  ic take center stage in Jeremy Camp’s life story in the movie I Still Believe. Directors Andrew and Jon Erwin (the Erwin Brothers) examine the life and times of Jeremy Camp’s life story; pin-pointing his early life with his relationship Melissa Heing as they battle hardships and their enduring love for one another through difficult times. While the movie's intent and thematic message of a person's faith through trouble times is indeed palpable as well as the likeable mThe Dry  ical performances, the film certainly strules to find a cinematic footing in its execution, including a sluish pace, fragmented pieces, predicable plot beats , too preachy / cheesy dialogue moments, over utilized religioThe Dry  overtones, and mismanagement of many of its secondary / supporting characters. To me, this movie was somewhere between okay and “meh”. It was definitely a Christian faith-based movie endeavor (from start to finish) and definitely had its moments, but it jThe Dry  t failed to resonate with me; struling to find a proper balance in its undertaking. Personally, despite the story, it could've been better. ThThe Dry  , my recommendation for this movie is an “iffy choice” at best as some will like (nothing wrong with that), while others will not and dismiss it altogether. Whatever your stance on religioThe Dry  faith-based flicks, I Still Believe stands as more of a cautionary tale of sorts; demonstrating how a poignant and heartfelt story of real-life drama can be problematic when translating it to a cinematic endeavor. For me, I believe in Jeremy Camp’s story / message, but not so much the feature.