#also the two in the middle are a reference to an anime style promo made by katie mitroff

[nori-no-name]

I really liked this Mickey trend on tiktok, sad it only lasted for a short while (tho most things do on tiktok tbh) 🥀

I honestly love Greg and Rose together, it's really sweet that these broken wreckless kindred spirits got to meet each other and have a moment of happiness together.

Granted they enabled each other A LOT in not entirely healthy ways, but I think it was also something both of them needed at that point. Rose/Pink to closure and Greg to get a new beginning he didn't even consider before.

Stills under the cut:

[catbountry]

Kill. Murder. Rape. Suicide. Pedophile. Nazi. Hitler. Covid. Dead. Death.

When's the last time you watched a YouTube video or a TikTok video where some or even all of these words were censored, either by being bleeped out like what used to be reserved solely for swear words, or having sound-alike stand-ins (sewer slide, PDF File) or euphemisms (unalive)?

I'm not sure exactly where "unalive" came from, but I want to say it was in a similar batch of Roblox screencaps of children trying to creatively get past wordfilters by telling people to "go commit die." And I guess Fortnite played a role as well. Apparently "game-end" is attributed to a short film covered by Pyrocynical which was made to be family friendly, but I swear I have this memory of official Epic Games promo material using the term and I don't know if this real or not. I don't play Fortnite and I never will, so this was not considered important enough to really properly commit it to memory.

EDIT: It came from a Spider-man cartoon where Deadpool used it in an incredibly in-character way. Thanks, Guy I'm Going to Reference Later in this Post.

It's an incredibly childish word. It seems like it was one that used to be used ironically until TikTok, being owned by a Chinese company where censorship laws are much stricter than here in the U.S., decided that words like "dead" and "death" and even "hole" were too dangerous or something, causing users to start getting creative and adapting these absurd euphemisms and they became so popular that people started using it who weren't even using it as a cheeky way to get around these word filters, on other sites that didn't have these same restrictions.

YouTubers can say the word "death" and "die" and (usually) don't have to worry about demonitization. The self-censoring that I remember starting on this very website, done as a way to either prevent posts being found through search or possibly offending the most sensitive of followers, is now being used by users to get around the restrictions set by giant faceless corporations to protect The Children, whose parents are giving them unrestricted access to the internet at younger and younger ages. I watched a video from an adult YouTuber crying about Newgrounds-style animations that were on YouTube about My Little Pony and about how traumatized he was by these, while also insisting he had good parents.

Good parents would not have let you have unrestricted access to 2012 YouTube unsupervised at age seven. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I gotta be the one to tell you this. I'm sure your parents are very nice people, but they could have easily used the internet to find out what kind of stuff was available on the internet. That was an oversight.

I was an adult on the internet in 2012. If I saw a parent just sit their toddler in front of YouTube, I would have asked them what the hell was wrong with them. Now, I see my cousin's children with their iPads watching videos of a faceless person playing with Paw Patrol figures, and I feel uneasy, but a little more hesitant to say something since my cousin seems well aware of the kind of place the internet is, and is always nearby when his kids are watching things. The internet was a constant presence for me in middle and high school, in the late 90's to early 2000's, and I saw some shit I should not have seen. But the trade-off was that I had a space where I could express myself openly, a place my mom didn't care about and wouldn't see. I clicked things I know I shouldn't have because I was a dumb, curious kid, and my mom was happy to not have to deal with me and have me be quiet, I guess. And my cousin is only a little less than two years older than I am, so I imagine our experiences on the early internet weren't that much different, considering he's also a bit of a nerd.

So this YouTuber I linked to earlier aims his ire at the animators, who were making animations for other adult fans of the show (which he acknowledges), for daring to make edgy content of something made for children, holding up this children's media as a sort of sacred cow. For comparison, in middle and high school I was watching crude animations of frogs in blenders, stick figures bashing each other's heads into walls, and torture simulators featuring anyone from Pikachu and Elmo to Osama bin Laden. But because kids like him, kids brought up in the age of web 2.0, found these videos and watched them before their age had hit double-digits, those videos got lots of views from other children. And from that, we got Elsagate and Finger Family, videos that are still around but have mutated from featuring Elsa and Spider-man to now featuring Huggy Wuggy from Poppy's Playtime, or Pomni from The Amazing Digital Circus or Bluey from, uh, Bluey. These aren't edgy animations made for and by teenagers and young adults for a laugh, they're videos presumably made by teams of adults to mass produce and fill with as much shocking, click-baity content that doesn't even require being able to understand English to understand the plot, all to get watch-time to make money. There's no artistic merit to it. It's neither satire, nor is it an earnest expression of love for the source material, the latter of which, whether you like it or not, is where most rule 34 falls. No, these videos have only ever been content slop since this started around 2016. And this shit is still happening.

That same YouTuber has made a video about how we need to stop saying "unalive," which is part of what inspired me to post this at all, and I can't help but feel like this dude takes himself way too goddamn seriously, frowning upon "commit toaster bath" and "late term fetus deletus," which my edgelord, former 4channer millennial brain finds funny (it is too late for me, lads). This dude is in his early 20's and it's really interesting seeing someone discover pretty much things I've known since I was his age, but acting like they're these huge revelations. Like yeah, I've known about media influence on culture since I was in middle school, because of the internet, which was new and unrestricted by the Standards and Practices that shackled old media like radio and television. That used to be something that pretty much everybody on the internet was aware of; it's the reason why we came here in the first place. And you are right that giant corporations are censoring people, but also, the internet being corralled into a small handful of websites makes internet culture more homogenized and disposable. People can still meet life-long friends through the internet, but the sites where I first met some of my best friends are digital ghost towns, if they still exist at all, or they've become overrun with users infected by political brainworms that make them have incredibly strong opinions on a one-off promotional video done by Budweiser with a transgender TikTok influencer. You've got better luck making life-long friends through playing in the same Minecraft server together than you do being mutuals on Instagram or Twitter. And while Discord is the closest thing I've been able to find that replicates the feeling of both forum culture and chatrooms of the past, it's got its own set of problems unique to it. I can just say "Discord kitten" and most people who use Discord will know exactly what I mean.

Whoever decided to stop teaching kids about how to be safe online should probably be shot. Facebook made putting your whole-ass name and face and location on the internet not just normal, but people will find you suspicious if you choose not to do that. God, I fucking hate Facebook so much.

He's right, though, about the social contagion effect of language. This was a concern for me on this website a decade ago, but that was all social pressure. There was no corporate mandate cracking down on people, making them type "st*pid" to get around restrictions. That was all moral peacocking, baby. People did that shit to themselves.

Tumblr nowadays feels more sane, just because those of us left after the porn ban got a couple of years to grow up and chill out. But because of the porn ban, we can only really talk about the effects of it and complain, rather than be able to post our smut openly. Human sexuality expresses itself in some genuinely weird ways; I should know, and you should probably donate to Archive of Our Own to make sure there's a space where these things can be expressed without fear of censorship to protect The Children. But "unalive" is a symptom of a much larger problem, which is to sand off all the edges of the internet to make it marketable; the free market is more than happy to cater to the whims of the CCCP if they think it can make them more money. There's a lot of people in China, after all. The internet has more people on it but they're confined to much smaller spaces. Children don't have their own spaces online, and when they do, they're not as carefully moderated, instead opting for either overworked humans overseas, or dumb robots that just filter certain words and just become an obstacle to maneuver around to tell something to kill themselves with the creativity of someone who's at a sixth-grade reading level. People in their 20's are uncomfortable with nudity and sex scenes in films, perhaps under the assumption that it's always exploitation, that these scenes can't have artistic merit and are solely there to titillate, and given the sort of dumbing down of art thanks to Marvel and Disney, this seems like the only natural result when combined with the trauma of finding things online that you shouldn't have at way too young of an age. I do not like where this is going, and it's really saying something that those brought up in a sex-negative, American puritanical mindset only start paying attention when the censorship is affecting how we talk about death, something we have absolutely no problem with glorifying in our culture.

And if you're wondering why I wrote yet another long-ass essay bemoaning the slow death of internet culture and the Weenie Hut Jr's-fication of younger generations, well, it's because of this screenshot from 4chan.

Now if only they could bully out the tradcaths.

[coffee-n-bagels-comic-universe]

Inside Jokes and References in the Full Bios

Mainly for @spacelizardtrashboys and @kuruumiya

Also: Any time strikethrough text is used it's because it's meant to be secret information, for example on the small bios any time 'Lucifarian' truly isn't their last name their is strikethrough test after saying that it's not their real name. This is to say that no matter what is written or if it's strikethrough text or not, it is there for a reason.

Damien - Bio In-Jokes and References:

The Quote for him refers back to his 'King of Hell' gimmick, as does his middle name, Rex means king.

He's protective, like a dad, but also way too overprotective over the gimmicks for the girls. He's an old, old school guy so he enjoys card games with the boys.

He's supposed to sound like a young Hugh Laurie, mainly because if I heard a young Hugh Laurie say Damien's bio quote I wouldn't be able to take him seriously.

His main finisher (Seventh Circle) refers back to (a) him being the king of hell and (b) the seventh circle is for violence, and well, he's a wrestler, that's a pretty violent job.

He calls fans both 'peasants' and his 'loyal subjects' because he's like an asshole-ish king who'd quickly be dethroned if they rebelled.

Vickie - Bio In-Jokes and References:

The Quote for her refers back to her gimmick along with the old saying 'pride comes before the fall'.

She's called 'Victoria' because of both (a) it meaning victory and (b) the fact that Queen Victoria ruled back when Britain had an empire, then the empire fell (as in pride [Vickie] before a fall)

Both Her and Damien are born in August and are the only two to share a birth month as they are Father and Daughter (non-kayfabe, as in they share DNA)

She's raised Christian as back when she was growing up England was a lot more Christian than when she became an adult so she got lax in her beliefs

Her personality is supposed to make her come across as a vain, rich, arse of a person, yet deep down she's still redeemable, she's got a long way to go before she actually redeems herself though

She's the type of person who makes sure EVERY little detail of her matches and promos are PERFECT to the point that she will control what other people do or say, down to the moment it's said/done and the way it's said/done

She only likes the other D.O.D (Daughters of Darkness) members because she has only made enemies in the short while they've been in the company, she especially dislikes George 'The Animal' Steele because of his very messy style going against her 'everything should be perfect' views

She's the leader, the brain and the mouth because of her control over the group, if she let them have more control, there might be less arguments about her amount of control

Her named moves are also references to both her gimmick and other things. Beheader is named because of the Tudor monarchs of England having kind of a thing for killing people in this way (ex. Henry VIII).

Lineage Ender is named that because if she ever botches that one specific move (it'll make sense in context/ she does it during a training scene) it could end either her own Lineage or the person she's doing it to.

Lion's den is called that because she traps them in a near-inescapable crucifix pin, and normally if someone goes into a den of Lions, they aren't escaping in one piece.

Family Pride is named that because not only is her gimmick the sin of pride, but she's got pride in her family and she's her dad's 'pride and joy' because she's his only child.

Wish for this (her main finishing move) is called that because it's an inside joke of "you're gonna 'wish for this' to be over soon"

As she's Damien's blood daughter, a 'prodigal son' joke seemed somewhat appropriate.

Billie - Bio In-Jokes and References:

Her quote is a reference to the Guerreros and the whole 'Latin lover' trope

She was born in February because of Valentine's day, hence why her birthday is two days before the 14th

She's 1/2 Cuban (just in general - both Mexican and Cuban culture is interesting to me) But she's 1/2 Cuban in case I ever need to write for Razor Ramon, I can get away with making the joke of 'my Cuban accent's better than yours'.

Her casual style is 'Suggestive' because how else is Lust supposed to dress.

She dislikes Hulk Hogan because she finds him incredibly annoying and she dislikes Jesse Ventura because she dislikes his fashion choices.

I imagine her uncle Hugo looks like Luis Guzman and her dad's like Raul Julia. Try to imagine those two wrestling as a luchador tag team.

Her mother was basically a valet to her dad, which was usually Billie's role before she was part of the D.O.D.

Her move name references are all song references: Love me Tender - Elvis' song of the same name, Personal Aphrodite - a reference to / joke on 'Personal Jesus', Sexual Healing - Marvin Gaye's song of the same name.

Also, I hope to eventually use the joke 'The Babe, the babe with the power,' 'What power?' 'Power of voodoo' 'Who do?' 'You do' 'Do what?' 'Remind me of the babe' because of one of her commentary nicknames being 'The Babe'

P.G - Bio In-Jokes and References:

Her quote is in reference to her being greed and (right at the start of the story) her thoughts on money actually being able to buy her happiness

her surname 'Voronin' means crow, and well, crows like shiny things, like money

she wears 'fancy but simple' clothing because if she bought designer clothes she'd be in debt, but she still wants to look like she has more money than everyone else

she's cowardly in a Jimmy Hart way, she'll piss someone off during a promo and run away once she feels like she's in danger

she's a showman because she's more show than work, meaning she works exceptionally quick matches.

Her moves are basically jokes on the fact that she is greed, such as Gold-digger and Diamond Ring. However, Money Maker is also a joke on the fact that it's a facebuster and usually an actor's face is called their 'money maker'

She hates Hulk Hogan and Sgt slaughter because of how patriotic they are

Kirby - Bio In-Jokes and References:

Her quote is a reference to (a) the fact that she's Gluttony, (b) her being the only one who wears a mask constantly and (c) her basically being the group's scare tactic against people who think they can push them around.

I am planning on eventually making her a part of the machines, maybe as a valet, maybe as a wrestler, not 100% sure as of right now

Her mother is the Norwegian-Scottish one and her father is the Irish-Welsh one

She is the tallest (not the heaviest, that's Damien) but she's still 9 inches shorter than André.

She's willing to bleed hardway, but hates blading

She hates Big John Studd because of his disrespect, she hates Hulk Hogan because she thinks he's obnoxiously 'American', she dislikes Lord Alfred Hayes and Dynamite Kid because they are so insistent on calling her '1/4 Icelandic' whenever she talks about being 1/4 Norwegian. She hates Brutus Beefcake because he's just 'so, so much' energy-wise.

She's always been tall, always shorter than André though, she was 5'6" when she was 12, which is still taller than Sam, P.G and Eli.

Kirby's the best at using folk tales and mythology references in her promos and still keeping them dark and scary.

Her speaking voice is Jessica Hynes, but I imagine her singing voice (which will be important later) to be that of Deee-lite's Lady Miss Kier. On that note, I will be putting up a post on this part of the fic's canon.

Feeding Frenzy is meant to look similar to Roddy's wild punches, hence the 'frenzy' part of the name.

Organ grinder is named because it's meant to look really hard (like she's putting all her force and weight into it) as if she's grinding her opponents organs

Hungry for Blood is an in-joke of during her toughest matches she seems hungry to give the fans the sight of blood

Consummation is a joke of 'the match will soon be over, the match will soon be concluded, or consummated' not the sex-based meaning of that word.

Number of the beast, which is 666, is a reference to the 619, and is a modified 619 basically.

Vampire's Bite is a reference to her sitout jawbreaker looking like she could possibly bite someone's neck, like a vampire, as she performs the move

I didn't want to call her chops, chops, so I made a joke of 'oh it's chopping, like a butcher's knife'

Overfeeding is another basic gluttony reference. Cheshire Grin is a facelock-based joke. Let Them Eat Cake is a butt=cake joke

The ogress is a thinly-veiled way of the commentary team calling her ugly, because why else would she be the only one in a mask

Holly - Bio In-Jokes and References:

Her quote is written that way because I always wanted her to sound like she comes from New Jersey

She's very cuddly towards the rest of the D.O.D and thus gets called a teddy bear by the others

She's Pansexual because she doesn't care what your gender is, she loves people just being themselves

She's the only ginger because I've never seen a ginger wrestler from New Jersey

She was raised Catholic but lost her faith upon realising how bad gay people are treated by the church (Holly literally just goes "Y'all it is 1984, how are y'all gonna reject people based on who they love?")

Holly's very much the person who'll ask permission to cut a promo on someone but won't tell them how harsh she's going to be

She's the group's mom friend (mum friend?)

Before she started travelling with another member of the group (Holly travels with Sam a lot) she would accidentally no-show events

She does accidentally give incredibly stiff shots

Holly likes Gorilla Monsoon because their friendship is very much a weird pseudo-dad-daughter friendship, so basically, she's using him as her new dad

Her voice is Angie Harmon because I think Harmon sounds like a badass from New Jersey

Naptime, Dirt Nap and Lullaby are jokes of 'I'm gonna knock you out'

Eli - Bio In-Jokes and References:

Her quote is a joke of 'this is why she doesn't do a lot of promos'

She's the most likely to be on one of those 'too hot for TV' blooper reels from her promos

Both she and Sam hate people taller than them

Sam - Bio In-Jokes and References:

Her quote is a reference to the fact that her tattoos are her 'masterpiece'

she dresses athletically because she's always ready for a fight, especially because she's usually the one picking fights

She likes Lou because he's like a crazy uncle to her and she likes George Steele because, unlike Vickie, she likes the wild man side of his gimmick

She's voiced by Melissa Etheridge because she's still feminine but is the most masculine sounding

[interdimensional-anomalocaris]

“I just saw Disney’s Onward” or “The Problem with Disney’s Gay ‘Representation’”

So I just saw Disney’s newest animated feature, Onward (please be aware that this mini-essay contains spoilers) and I wanted to break down the controversy and why Disney’s approach to gay “representation” is ineffective and flawed.

The Film: Onward is a film set in a reality where the typical DnD fantasy is a part of their world’s history.  Fantastical creatures such as centaurs, mermaids, elves, and pixies exist, but they have lost the use of magic in their daily life and live relatively similar lives to ours.  Two brothers (henceforth referred to as Tom Holland and Chris Pratt) discover their late father was a wizard who left them a spell to bring him back for one day.  The film is your typical hero’s journey-style adventure with the brothers being two very different people who grow closer together throughout the course of the film.  It’s pretty much your standard Disney plot but performed relatively low for their usual standard.  Their opening weekend made about 40 million dollars, as opposed to other hits such as inside out, 98 million dollars.  

The controversy: You may have seen some posts and articles floating around Tumblr about this.  Some promo images dropped of a character called Officer Specter, who sources claimed was Disney’s first “openly gay character”.  Specter is played by openly gay black actor Lena Waithe.  Now, keep in mind Disney has introduced several first “openly gay characters” in movies at this point where they are shown for a few moments at most with most of them not even having lines. (Side note: I am not going to talk about the implications of a black queer character being a police officer in this post.  As a white person, I don’t feel I am qualified to speak on this aspect of the controversy.  If you are interested in the implications of this writing choice, I advise you to check out this news article, or this article, or if you are a black queer person feel free to tack on your thoughts!  Just know as you read this I am coming from a limited white queer perspective.)

Now, when I saw the first promo art of Specter, I knew this was going to be bullshit.  You know how I know?  Because this character wasn’t even in the trailer.  The only art of this character was the promo picture.  So going in I knew she wasn’t going to have a big role.  And guess what?  Specter was in the movie for about three minutes (aside from being in the background of the final climactic scene).  Her squad car pulls over Chris Pratt and Tom Hollands van for erratic driving.  Tom Holland, the wizard character, pulls some magic to impersonate his mom’s police officer boyfriend.  Specter and her police partner confront him, Holland talks about how raising kids is rough, Specter laments with him that her girlfriend’s kid is a real handful.  That’s it.  She has a brief scene.  She drops that she has a girlfriend.  She leaves.  She is never seen again.

The Problem: Why is this happening?  Why is Disney struggling so much with representation that satisfies the LGBTQ+ community? The answer: in attempting to appeal to everyone, Disney appeals to no one.  Disney is the most famous company for children’s content in the world.  They know that children with parents from all kinds of backgrounds purchase and consume their content.  This includes children whose parents are homophobic.  No matter what Disney says about pride or support, they still want to appeal to those audiences. But they also want to appeal to progressive parents too, so they give you “representation” in the slightest sense of the word.  They drop that this character is gay, then pat themselves on the back for ticking that box.  This has completely backfired for Disney because it leaves BOTH of their groups unhappy and unsatisfied.  If they worked with the queer community to create a well-rounded queer character who supports the values of the queer community and is allowed to express their queerness, we would see that movie in droves.  But because they, and I cannot stress this enough, do not care about you, they give a watered-down version that shows no forethought and consider themselves champions for equality.  However, what’s hilarious is that they don’t even appeal to the homophobic parents, because that tiny, 2 second, drop of the world girlfriend is still enough to set them off.  To them, because the character is now clearly very outwardly gay, the movie is no longer a “family” film.  Queer audiences don’t want to see it.  Conservative audiences don’t want to see it.  The truth that Disney doesn’t want to admit is that if they want to see real support from the LGBTQ+ community they need to put their money where their mouth is and release movies with diverse members of the community in starring roles, not just supporting ones.  Instead, they just keep trying to pander to the middle, throwing things at the wall to see what sticks, and not reaching either side.

**Also they’re a billion-dollar corporation who doesn’t care about you anyway so there’s that :) **

[sohma-stan]

Fruits Basket Screening Details & Thoughts (Dub Version)

Cast Interviews - Japanese

This was with Manaka (Tohru), Nobunaga (Yuki), and Yuma (Kyo). The cast is cute and super funny! These were just the questions I remember finding interesting. They also talked a lot about love for the fans all over the world and in America. They thought it was amazing that there was a promo image in Times Square for Fruits Basket because that’s the “big leagues”.

When did you get introduced to Fruits Basket?

They all three admitted it was during the audition process that they first read/watched Fruits Basket and it was a funny moment. They LOVE the manga now though and you can tell they’ve all read the whole thing and really get it by the references they make and how they discuss the story!

If you could transform into an animal of the Zodiac (or cat) what would you choose?

Manaka - A cat. She watches videos of cats and thinks they’re peaceful.

Nobunaga - A dragon BUT not a Fruits Basket seahorse dragon ;)

Yuma - Also a cat. They can climb high and get to places lol

Which character do you identify with the most/are you most like?

Manaka - She was very humble saying that she aspires to be Tohru, but she’s actually “filthy!” The other cast said she is basically Tohru and it was really cute.

Nobunaga - KAKERU (!!!) He said Kakeru is relatable and a good friend. He also admires Yuki and thinks he’s cool and loves that Yuki does a lot of growth and tries his best.

Yuma - Momiji! The others agreed, saying he is sensitive to always making people feel included and also can be silly like Momiji.

Any funny/interesting stories from recording sessions?

They just talked about Yuma eating food all the time and eating a lot lol

Cast Interviews - English

To be honest...this is all a bit fuzzy because randomly while the cast/director were talking about Fruits Basket’s comeback they were showing clips from the first 2 episodes and we were all losing our minds and squealing and stuff O.O

They interviewed the cast that voices Haru, Shigure, Yuki, Kyo, and director Caitlin Glass. They were mostly gushing about Laura Bailey, talking about the fans, how once in a while there would be a paper crane movement, or letter writing campaign to get more Furuba anime made. They’re so happy to finally be doing this. Jerry talked about having 20-something year old fans saying they watched Furuba when they were young. They’re all just super excited basically!

They were playing a song in the background that I am pretty sure must be the ending song :D

The Episodes (spoilers!)

Episode 1 was chapter 1, episode 2 was chapter 2 & 3. To me, it felt rushed, not because they actually rushed anything, but just because in the 2001 anime, we don’t get some of this content until episode 3. Although I do feel like they cut away from scenes more quickly, which maybe contributed to this.

Everyone sounds older. No dancing around it. I knew this would be the case and tried to mentally prepare, but it’s so hard to get used to! 

Laura’s voice sounds a lot older and I think she tried to compensate by giving Tohru an even more bubbly tone. 

Shigure just sounds like he’s in his 40′s instead of his 20′s. 

A lot more of Eric’s natural deeper voice comes through now and he definitely doesn’t sound like a teenager. When Shigure and Yuki have dialogue especially, it’s strange because it sounds like two middle aged men talking. I think his voice is going to take the most getting used to. 

Kyo’s voice is the closest to the same I would say, thankfully!

My favorite voices were probably the new additions. I loved Uo and especially Hana, they were fantastic!!

Everyone’s names are pronounced with a more Japanese style I would say. Although I can appreciate it, I don’t personally like it, especially when there are already so many other changes to get used to, but it is what it is. The biggest pronunciation difference being Akito. It’s like “Awwcky-Toe”, but in my head I kept thinking “Icky Toe” whenever Akito’s name was said lol so “Icky Toe” is gonna be my new nickname of choice for our Sohma leader xD

I really wish they had just used the honorifics (especially when they’re already pronouncing the names more accurately) because Tohru addressing Yuki as just “Sohma” is weird imo, but I do like Yuki addressing Tohru as Miss Honda and it means we’ll get the satisfaction of her calling him Yuki.

The detail in the animation and the fleshed out backgrounds and surroundings are so great! Everything is so beautiful!

The loudest cheer in my theater by far was when Kyo came through the roof :’) And soooo much tension/squeals when Kyo realized he accidentally hit Tohru with the table. And then when Kyo and Yuki fought the first time--so much excitement. Basically WE ALL LOVE KYO.

There wasn’t a whole lot of humor. It’s much more serious overall, though there are still a few great humorous lines. We were constantly laughing in the theater, but that was pretty much due to us all knowing and loving the characters.

The music was good--it has a similar feel to the 2001 version I think.

Kyo being all cute and blushing around Tohru is just the greatest okay

I love how in the manga Kyo jumps from the second floor, the 2001 anime the third floor, and now it’s the fourth floor and he does AIR SOMERSAULTS on the way down.

Seeing little rat Yuki in a flashback was the saddest cutest thing ever. 

The dialogue overall is sooooo much more manga accurate.

I love that they kept in details like clearly showing the hat and hat flashback, Hana curling Tohru’s hair, the cooking class.

Final Thoughts

As much as I love and support the English voice cast, I might have to switch to the sub :’( It’s just a bit too jarring for me. Maybe once I can watch it alone (and watch it multiple times) without an audience I’ll get used to it. I’m looking forward to experiencing the sub tomorrow.

Everything looks beautiful this time around! I’m still kind of concerned it’s a little too cutesy though and will need to see some darker moments to really establish my opinion here.

The dialogue is so much more accurate to the manga, which is great. I’m of the opinion that sometimes the dialogue in the 2001 anime flowed better though and was an improvement on the manga, so I’m sad to see some things go, but I know that’s an unpopular opinion.

Seeing this in a theater full of fellow fans who just get it was probably the best part of this whole thing. I loved that we all laughed and loved it together.

[legend-waitforit-harry]

11 Questions tag

I was tagged by the ah-mazing @stylessemantics Thank you, girl! And sorry for the delay

Rules-

1. Always post these rules

2.Answer the questions given by the person who tagged you.

3,Write 11 questions of your own  

4. Tag 11 people

1.Do you have a pet name? What is it and why, and if you don’t have/don’t like pet names; why?

I have loads of pet names which I don’t wanna say out loud, just because. And most of them are either word play with my name or based on my attitude or habits. And though they are extremely annoying, I think I kinda love it ‘cause it has become a part of who I am?

2. Tell me a joke.

As Harry said, this is the hardest way to say a joke.

3. Are you a plant inside the house person? if yes, fake or real plants. If not: why?

I’m not :/ I got no heat against it. It’s just one of those things of whose significance I don’t get. I mean, like highlighters. Like you can just underline the text, no need to make rainbows of your textbook.

4. Take me down memory lane and tell me a first. (first tattoo, first kiss, first time you saw the colour pink idc, just take me with you)

First of all, smooth Iv, very smooth.

Okay, no tattoos or kisses, yet. So lemme talk about the first time I saw the Himalayas which is misleading ‘cause I live in the lesser Himalayas but oh well   So, what it’s like to stand in the middle of white peaks and the cold wind numbing all your senses? Belittling, that’s what. When you realize how large and infinite the world is and how transient we are. It’s just so…. spiritual. Like falling back on the lap of nature and knowing that’s where we came from and that’s where we are going. Okay, I’ll stop now.

5. Pick one of Harry’s 8 unreleased songs and give me a prediction. What does it sound like? What is it about? Get creative and write a verse of the song if you want. Just for funsies!

Okay, I’m excited for all the songs ‘cause I abso-fucking-lutely love Harry’s song writing skills. But the names, “Sweet Creature” and “Only angel” intrigue me. I know I’m supposed to talk about one but I’ve similar opinion about both. Both the names have two words which usually don’t go with each other and sounds kinda contradicting. it’s like it is romantic but with a tint of darkness. Like “Sweet Creature” being about someone who is sweet and endearing but cannot be qualified as human exactly. Usually it is ‘sweet angel’ or ‘sweet *insert cute animal names*’ but no! It’s a creature which is usually not used in a good notion, but somehow he found it sweet.

Same goes with ‘Only Angel’ like whoever he is referring to is angel, but not just an angel, the only one. Like the only one deserving of that title, the only good one, the only pure one. And the rest? Are they just corrupted, evil? I feel this has some kind of message about today’s scenario as SOTT is assumed to have. But obviously I can be waaay off the mark.

6.You’ve just won a Grammy/ Oscar/ Emmy IDK. Thank you speech? Go:

I’ll go with Nobel ‘cause in my line of work that is the most probable one I can get as if *eye roll*

“Once upon a time, a girl with wild hair and wilder dreams dared to believe that all her dreams can come true. That she can climb Everest and vacate in Antarctica. And while not all dreams come true, some do. As long as you believe. And that’s the only difference between dreamers and doers, when you start believing that that dream will be your reality. Because today’s dreamers are tomorrow’s dream. So keep on dreaming, ‘cause that girl might have not been to Everest or Antarctica…. yet, but still can stand here and tell you, dreams do come true.”

This came out of the blue and totally sounded like Bieber’s Believe promo but hey! If I ever win something as if you got an exclusive sneak peek of my speech!

7. Fill in the blank: I instantly smile when ____ because ____

I instantly smile when I see Harry smile ‘cause it’s bloody infectious.

8. Favourite Harry trait? #AHarryLovePlatform

How he doesn’t give a fuck to gender norms

9. What don’t you understand? (besides this question, come on, be creative)

Ummm I don’t understand why is it so hard for people to grasp the concept of equality. Like, why does it have to be a cause, isn’t that a basic human right?

10. If a sandwich was named after you what would it be called (your name or something else)? What did you do to earn that honour? What’s in it? (taken from my 1 page at a time daily creative companion book)

‘Bitter kick’ made with chocolate and cheese. Most probably ‘cause the maker hates to love me. I might/might not say this from experience

11. Recommend me: a song, a book and a movie. (they can be Harry inspo or not. just give me art!)

A song- Falling for you by Secondhand Serenade (Marcel feels, idk why)

A book- I’ll give you more than one.

The White Tiger by Arvind Adiga

Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho

A movie- Trishna

My Questions:

1. What’s the name of your autobiography if you write one?

2. One incident you will never forget.

3. Lyrics that means a lot to you.

4. You’re winning a Nobel Peace Prize. What’s the cause you worked for?

5. If you are given all the money in the world but need to have a new identity, who are you and where are you?

6. Mountain or ocean?

7. If you were asked to do something out of your comfort zone, what would it be?

8. If you can kill anyone without any repercussions who would you kill and why?

9. Any childhood nightmares?

10. A song that makes you cry.

11. Recommend me: a song, a book and a movie. (Sorry, Iv! Stole your question)

I tag: @harryisthebaneofmyexistence​ @giveyouthisgiveyouthat​ @whoopsharrystyles​ @roseonhissleeve​ @yetanotherharry​ @weeklyfangirl​ @aesthetic-harry​ @kasiwrites​ @oh-styles​ @inwhichitrytowritesomething​ @packersbeanie And also! @stylessemantics because I want to see your answers to my questions​

[topicprinter]

With launching WriteMapper 2, I wanted a snazzy video to help promote it. Despite having no prior experience, I set out to make one.In keeping with the format of sharing DIY projects, here's the result first: https://vimeo.com/308966950Not bad for a half day of work from a first-timer like me, right?In this article, I'll be sharing the steps taken and tools used to create it, so you can do the same for your own product launches.Study PrecedentsAs with any other instance of trying to do something for the first time, I looked for examples that I could learn from and emulate in trying to achieve the desired end product.Things 3Cultured Code launched their Apple Design Award winning app, Things 3 with this professionally made promo video. And it is such a thing of beauty!The clip's clean and minimalist vibe is good news, as it's something that I can reasonably try to emulate in my own promo video.We're probably not going to be able to reproduce certain elements in this video, however, such as how they made the devices pan, zoom and rotate while previewing their software.ApolloThe best Reddit client for iOS, the Apollo app launched with a pretty good product video, which you can view on their website as well.The way screen recordings are played back for preview is much more straightforward to replicate, and more doable for an amateur to capture and create.Otherwise, this clip also uses a clean and simple aesthetic, and gives us more clues in how we can adopt this style in ours as well.Start Identifying PatternsOf these examples, we're trying to look out for patterns which we can use and replicate in our own video. For starters, both examples have a pretty similar sequence, looking something like this:IntroMain feature demosSub-feature demosList of more featuresOutroThis gives us clues as to how we should arrange the content in our own video. We now also know we're looking to make a video that lasts for a minute plus, and the breakdown of timings for each segment in the sequence will also help us in arranging our storyboard later on.We'll dig into how to use these precedents for our own video soon. For now, let's briefly cover the tools you'll need to get this video made.ToolsI used free software that came bundled with macOS, so the good news is you don't need to shell out extra for specialized programs that'll let you make videos or edit them.The bad news is, I don't know of the equivalents of these for Windows, so all I can simply say for this article is you'll need a macOS device to follow along.QuickTimeTo provide previews of our software, we need to be able to capture the behavior of it in order to play it back to the user. This is where QuickTime comes in super handy.KeynoteThis will be used to form the base of our video, from which we can style and animate elements in a medium many of us are already familiar with — the good old slideshow.iMovieThe time we'll be spending in iMovie will be short, but crucial: it'll help us add sound as well as make edits to our clip to give it its final polish.ResourcesYou'll also need a couple of other elements to create a complete video. Here's some resources I found helpful in helping with that.YouTube Audio LibraryEvery video needs an accompanying audio track, and one that fits the video well at that.YouTube's Audio Library seemed to be the most straightforward and easily accessible tool to use for this, according to some quick research I conducted (a.k.a. 1 x DuckDuckGo search).The music tracks on there are conveniently filterable by genre and mood, so it's easier to pinpoint one for your video. It's also great that you know copyright issues have been taken care of, and the tracks that need attribution for use are also clearly labelled.Of course, you'll still need to listen to the music itself to get a feel for it and know if it'll gel well with your visual content. I found that the best way for myself to do this was simply playing as many tracks as possible within the genre/mood of interest, and listening to each one for at least 30 seconds or so, and more if I liked it.With that, you should be able to pick a track that you like enough to use in your video. Also, be sure that its duration is long enough to span the length of your video!Fonts, Graphics & ColorsYou also want to make use of custom styles where applicable, in order to have the video come across as distinctly your brand, instead of as a generic slideshow.For example, the blue background for the sub-features in my WriteMapper video isn't a solid color, but rather a subtle gradient of two different hues of blue taken from the same gradient used in the WriteMapper product itself.You can of course take this concept further for your own videos, changing more things like the font used to customize the overall feel of the video you're creating.The StepsNow, we can finally get to the actual steps in creating the product launch video!1. Lay Out Your Video's StoryboardWe get started with determining the structure of our video clip. From studying the ones from Things 3 and Apollo, we roughly know how we're going to do this; what's left is to add in specific details of how each of these is going to look:i. IntroKeep things simple with the intro, showing your app's name and logo on the first segment, followed by its one-liner description or tagline. The intro should be a total of about 5 seconds long.ii. Main feature demosFor the main feature demos, we're going to need 2 to 3 of them, and each one featuring a demo clip about 9 to 20 seconds long.iii. Sub-feature demosAnd for these demos, each preview clip should last about 1 to 3 seconds long, arranged ideally from demos with the longest duration first, and ending with the snappiest demos.iv. List of more featuresAnd for all the title headings that are flashed before the actual video previews, those last about 1 second long per title — about half a second for the quick-fire ones that appear towards the end of the video. There should be a list of about 5 to 10 features in this segment of the video.v. OutroKeeping things simple like in the intro, finish with showing the app's logo and name again, this time supplementing with an extra information you'd like the viewer to know about your app, such as the platforms your app is going to be available on. The duration of the outro can be anywhere from 5 to 15 seconds, depending on how much information you're including in it and how you're syncing it to the closing music — which we'll address later on.From here, what's left is deciding what are the features or benefits of your product that you want to show the user in each segment of the video. Only you can decide this for yourself and you know your product the best.Overall, this structure should leave us with a video that will run for around 60+ seconds to a maximum of 90 seconds.Take all this information down on a note somewhere and we can move on to the next step.2. Capture Necessary Video ContentNow that we know what are the pieces of demo content we need for our video, we can go ahead and capture these one by one.This is where QuickTime comes in. With QuickTime, you're able to capture screen recordings on any Mac or iOS device. Here's an easy-to-follow link on how to record your screen on a Mac with QuickTime.To record the screen of an iOS device with QuickTime, first connect the device to your Mac, then select "File > New Movie Recording" from the menu bar, and click the dropdown icon next to the record button, which should reveal your connected device as one of the options available under the "Camera" section.For iOS-specific websites or apps, while iOS devices now ship with the screen recording function, it leaves a big red "screen is currently being recorded" icon in the recorded video, so that can be distracting when presented to a viewer and not entirely representative of how your app or software is supposed to function.QuickTime also sets the status bar information like battery level and time to generic values while doing a screen recording, so that's another nice advantage of using it.Another thing to note here if you're recording only a part of your screen, is not to record too small of an area as this might cause pixellation issues later on when you stretch out the screen in Keynote.Once you've gotten all the video clips you need, you're all done with this step!3. Create Keynote PresentationKeynote is where the majority of our video will be created. With the help of the software's timed animation capabilities, we can magically turn this into a moving picture!a. Build StructureFirst off, create a new project in Keynote. Referring to the storyboard that you've laid out for the video, add slides with titles of each of the features you want to include in the video, as well as the content of the intro and outro.This would also be a great time to add any graphics, fonts or styles you intend to include, such as your software's icon or logo. Be sure to position all elements as you would like them to appear in the final video, which is likely centered in the middle of the screen.It sure feels like we're making some progress! Now let's move on to the next part: adding the videos to this slideshow.b. Insert Video ContentOnce that's been taken care of, we can move on to adding the slides that will play the actual video demos which were just captured. For this, there's three things you want to take note of:i. Positioning & FramingDepending on the dimensions of your captured demo clips, you might need to resize them after inserting into Keynote. After resizing, position the video object in the center of the slide and place a frame around it using Keynote's shape tool.ii. Trim LengthYou might have gotten more than you need when capturing the demos — there's a handy trim function in within Keynote that can help with this. You can find it by selecting the movie object, and then accessing the Format > Movie option panel found in the top-right of the Keynote window. From there, simply drag the handles of the Trim section's slider to remove the loose ends of your video clips.iii. Uncheck "Start movie on click"Lastly, you also want to uncheck said checkbox (found in the same pane as the trim options) so that the movie automatically plays when the slide is entered, enabling our video of a slideshow to proceed smoothly.Repeat each of these as necessary for all of your videos in the slideshow. Don't worry if your video clips currently aren't exactly as you'd like them: we can make further edits later on in iMovie.All in all, this is what my slideshow looked like when I was done.Now, for (what I think is the) the fun part: animations!c. AnimateThis is where the magic happens — where a slideshow gets turned into a living, breathing self-playing sequence! I've split this section up into these couple of parts:i. Object AnimationsIt's kind of the point of a video to have things move instead of still frames. Here, we can take advantage of Keynote's animation capabilities to do things like animating in the titles of each of our features. A key point to note here is to configure the build order in each slide such that the animations play out automatically, and in your desired cadence. From the Build Order window, make use of the "Start" and "Delay" settings options to have this work as intended.ii. Slide TransitionsBesides animating objects in our slides, we also want each slide to move on to the next one automatically. To enable this, select the slide in the navigator on the left, and then click on the Animate pane in the top-right. From there, set the "Start Transition" value to "Automatically". You can also add a transition effect here, if you wish.iii. Video Clip DurationsOne thing you might notice after having put transitions between slides in place is videos getting cut off before they're done playing. To remedy this, set the automatic transition delay to a duration similar to the length of the video clip on that same slide.With all your animations in place, you should be able to hit the "Play" button in Keynote, and have the slideshow play smoothly from start to finish. Go back and add in the missing transitions or animations if this isn't the case.You can also take this opportunity to review the cadence of the sequences in the animations, and make any necessary edits. Once you're happy with the result, we can start moving out of Keynote, by turning this whole slideshow into an actual video file.4. Convert Keynote Presentation to VideoIf you look in the Keynote menu bar options, under "File > Export To", you'll notice there's a "Movie..." option which seems convenient for our current objective: to get the slideshow turned into a video file so we can edit and share it.However, that's not what we're going to be using — videos created using this export option are always of low quality, suffering from low framerate and resolution, making for a below-par viewing experience.Here, we can once again put QuickTime's screen recording function to use. Start the screen recording before hitting the Play button in Keynote, and capture the entirety of your slideshow in fullscreen mode. It's okay to have extra unwanted frames at the beginning and end of the screen recording at this stage as we can edit those out later on in iMovie.There we have it! A movie file to work with.5. Add Sound in iMovieThe main thing we want to do in iMovie is adding sound to our currently silent movie file. Bust out the audio clip you selected earlier, and drag it into the project in iMovie, making sure it lines up with the start of the movie clip.If you don't want the music abruptly cutting off towards the end of the video, you can set the sound to fade out towards the end by simply dragging a handle on the audio clip.We're almost done — just some more quick edits to go in the next step.6. Apply Finishing TouchesBesides audio, however, you can also spend some time in iMovie making edits to the video clip. If a segment of it happens to feel too slow, speed that segment of the clip up by adjusting its speed or splicing out unwanted sections of it. You can also add freeze frames to the video which prolongs the duration a certain frame in the video is displayed.Play the edited video to assess if further edits are required on top of the ones you've already made. Once you're happy with what you're looking at, great news: you're all done!Now all we need to do is export the edited video file out from iMovie, by hitting the button with the share icon in the top-right of the window, which will allow you to set export options for the video file. Wait a couple of minutes for that to process, and there you have it: your app's very own promo video!Now you get to play it back a couple of times for yourself and people around you and feel a slight sense of accomplishment. :)ConclusionAnd there you have it: your own product launch video ready to be shared with the world!To be fair, I'm sure professional video producers will be able find a million things wrong with the end product, but I think it's still pretty good given it's the result of a one-person, half-day effort. More importantly, it's able to fulfill its function of being a short and snappy showcase of your product to new customers who have never used or even seen it before.Thanks for reading, and I hope you've found this sharing helpful!---(This article was written with WriteMapper, a mind-mapping app available on macOS, Windows and iPad, which lets you turn your ideas into text documents in no time at all.)

[nickgrffn]

CREATIVE BRIEF AND OVERVIEW

NAME: Nicholas Griffin

Designer: Karim Rashid

PROJECT TITLE: The Rashid Introspective

TOTAL RUNNING TIME (TRT): 1-1.5 minutes

Objective (3-5 sentences):

What is the purpose of your promotion? What information do you want imparted on your audience? Since this assignment has a strong emphasis on type, how do you plan to use type as a primary component of visual storytelling? How will the type be animated? What other components will you use in your promo i.e. footage, photography, animation?

---The purpose of this promotion is to spread Karim’s designs to the widest audience possible. His bold and unique style of design is very polarizing and we plan to use it to the greatest effect when creating this promo. Large scale type and dazzling patterns will be used to convey Karim’s style. The text will be closely entwined with the patterns (maybe masking over) and will blow up in scale to take up most of the screen to help aid in transitions.  

Audience (1-2 sentences):

What demographic(s) are you targeting with your video? Who are the ideal viewers you want your promotion to attract or influence?

---The goal of the video is to reach the largest number of people as possible but the main audience is the young adult generation (20-35?) because they will be the most open to purchasing Karim’s work.

Film Structure (4-7 sentences):

In this section you will describe the order of information and imagery that you plan to show in your promo. Try to create a story arc with a distinct beginning, middle and end.

---I want to start out the video with the opening title that will fold out from one starting letter until the whole is visible. Next I will transition to some of the patterns that I have made that are inspired by Karim’s work which will be used as the background images. Then I will run text through the screen starting with oversized letters as is Karim’s style. The color illuminate the white text as I use one solid vibrant layer for each sequence. I also plan to mask some patterns into the text to help draw attention to the information.

Call to Action (1-2 sentences):

What do you want your audience to take away from your promo? If you are encouraging viewers to get involved, consider providing a URL or details about the event i.e date, location etc.

---This promo is to encourage the viewers to purchase Karim’s works and to gain interest from potential investors and clients.

Music/Feeling (1-2 sentences):

Describe the moods you plan to evoke in your promo (i.e. upbeat, serious, inspirational, sentimental). Provide at least three URLs for songs/SFX that you find inspiring and are considering incorporating into your animation/edit.

---The mood for this promo will be a playful tone as to mirror Karim’s designs. This genre of choice will probably be some kind of techno/dubstep/electronic/pop sound.    

---Sounds are posted on Tumblr

Analogues/Visual References:

Provide at least fours URLs that you would like to use as visual references for your promo, two that are designer/director-related promos and two that are type dominant videos. Feel free to provide timecodes for specific sections that you plan to emulate in your animation/edit.

My Visual References

Visual

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpM5nzSEyXE

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/7E9G/t-mobile-hottest-holiday-gifts

Type

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVmbi7rLzGY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS8IC5LXqIw

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Ancient Magus’ Bride 24 (FINAL) | ReLIFE OVAs 2 - 4 (FINAL) | Mahou Shoujo Ore 1 | Gakuen Babysitters 12 (FINAL) | Zoku Touken Ranbu Hanamaru 12 (FINAL) | Dances with the Dragons 1

The spring season came early on Crunchyroll, but HiDive is locking me out in exchange.

Ancient Magus’ Bride 24 (FINAL)

Aw, c’mon Chise. Beating people up is not how you do things, that’s a shonen protag’s role!

Noticeably, Elias seems to be “the child”.

Who’s the “weirdo”??? Chise? Elias?

The confetti kind of looks like flowers…

Alrightttttttttttttttt…this show just went into lecherous and out of the comfort zone territory when I remembered Chise is 15. Wearing a bridal outfit and exchanging rings. Yipe.

Wait, so what happened to Joseph’s eye? The dragon arm I get, but…

I was wondering what was under those gloves of Elias’s, so now you know. *The More You Know star shoots past*

I’m kinda confused. That ending was sweet but it was abrupt and didn’t solve much. Actually, I think it bred quite a few questions I won’t get answered anywhere but the manga…ergh. Dangit, manga!

ReLIFE OVA 2

Didn’t think I’d see Sumire (the volleyball teacher) again.

Interestingly the kanji combo for human and fish (in that order) is “mermaid” but the other way around is “fishman”…hmm…

I had some yakisoba recently. It has a distinctive flavour to it…dang, now I’m hungry.

It’s the brother again. He’ll be important, alright.

For reference, the ED is CHE.R.RY buy YUI.

Mahou Shoujo Ore 1

Yay! This show is my first debut for the spring season so I couldn’t be happier – I’m actually getting my magical boys (unlike my magical girls, which are likely to be locked away behind HiDive’s paywall)! It’s not about rocks (LOL) but ore in this case refers to the Japanese male pronoun.

Ah, this is so PreCure. It’s like I’ve come home. Welcome home, Saki!

Nice boat!

That “It was all a dream” definitely isn’t in the original, but it does set people’s expectations up, eh? The ol’ bait-and-switch.

Henshin = Transformation. It’s not “Transform” unless it has suru on the end.

The face in the song subs is a good touch.

Honeyed Flash, eh? (LOL)

Glass Galaxy is the ED if you’re not in the know.

Those stretched faces, kinda like Saitama’s…are from the original manga…(I feel sorry for admitting that now.)

Some animation of Saki is definitely 2010s, but it keeps feeling like this show was from 10 years ago from the stripped-back style. It’s quite the whiplash, but it’s not something I was ever bothered over (if you remember Saiyuki Reload Blast, that was a similar dilemma).

“…you’re an old hag once you’re over 15…” – Aside from vaguely calling back YOI’s young ages for retiring (which makes me kind of sad), there are PreCure girls who are over 15 (Cure Moonlight was 17) and the Outer Senshi were all older than 15 with the exception of Sailor Saturn, IIRC.

I think the OKAN on Sayori’s apron is meant to be short for okaasan, although I might be wrong there. (*still imagining what a wonderful world we live in, to be blessed with an adaption of this manga…even with two anime-original characters…*)

Okay…there was one shot there that reiterated why I don’t watch anime in public.

Monokubo, eh? (LOL)

Gakuen Babysitters 12 (FINAL)

Did Kotaro always call Saikawa Sai-chan???

Yikes, Kamitani isn’t that discerning about the age of who he hits after all. I thought it was just Taka-related abuse for most of the episodes…or maybe I’m generalising too much.

Eh, insensitive mu-oh, never mind.

Is the present for Ryuichi a smartphone? It is, isn’t it?

So that’s the end of another series. See you next time!

Zoku Touken Ranbu Hanamaru 12 (FINAL)

According to the rules of the game, you can only have one party in one time period at a time. Therefore, by bending the rules, you make for a more compelling anime…huh. They did it in Katsugeki too, although it was in a slightly different way.

Oh boy, I looked into this and this white-looking outfit is Yasusada’s Kiwame! Ooh, I was looking forward to this in Katsugeki and I finally get it! (I left before Kiwame was a thing, so I finally get to vicariously live out my Kiwame fantasies, LOL.)

If you’ve made it this far in TR, you obviously know how much Yasusada values Okita-kun…I’m so proud of my boy, even if he wasn’t a particularly special sword to me…

It’s wonderful to know that feeling – that I’ve supported TR from before the animes happened because of one measly sword known as Kashuu Kiyomitsu. That I now have friends all over the world with their own favourite swords who I can chat to anytime I want, because Toshiki Masuda got involved with a small franchise that got really big (in Japan). I think that’s a power of Boueibu’s “rookie system”, if I were to give it a name.

…With that, I say “farewell” to 2 seasons of Hanamaru! See you again someday!

ReLIFE OVA 3

Aw, Kariu and Ohga out on a lovers’ holiday…these guys are too adorable.

Arata says “You were made for each other” with such a straight face I can’t even…LOL.

Is it just me, or did they get more inventive with the backgrounds because the OVAs were straight to disc content?

My eyes have gotten so attuned to CGI I can tell the basket is CGI…I think that’s what made me toss (Space Battleship) Tiramisu off my list temporarily, come to think of it.

Arata still smokes? Oh dear…

Ferret Town, LOL.

Give Arata some eye contact, Hishiro! C’mon!

I think it’s kind of obvious, but they picked blue for the boys and pink for the girls in the background.

These picture slideshows are pretty cool (kinda like YoI…?). Less animation to do, as well.

The shop Hishiro looks at provides ramen and tsukemen.

Huh? For some reason, when I look at this “Genus Port” place, I’m reminded of a place which I think is in Los Angeles (or it could be in Las Vegas or Hong Kong, I don’t remember). There’s a bunch of shops around there, a fountain and a painted sky on the roof, plus a fancy yellow brick “building” in the middle somewhere. I think it was vaguely Italian or other European-looking in shop aesthetic, but that’s all I can get from the depths of my brain…

The words “grow up” have a very special meaning here in two different ways.

I’m still wondering, why does the guy always have to fall in love first? If the guy isn’t in love first, the girl sometimes gets laughed at or people just call it a transient crush. It’s quite saddening, to get your feelings crushed like that.

Score one! The song is La La La Love Song by Toshinobu Kubota with Naomi Campbell.

The final episode is called “Life”, which doesn’t match “Seed” or “Need” at all. Nor does it match “Date”. Fair weather charms would be teru teru bouzu.

ReLIFE OVA 4 (FINAL)

Did I see the map of Japan on the wall in the original series??? Or is that a new addition?

Aw, this scene where they just cry for a minute really got to me. Not that I cried, but it really hit me in the feels.

I’ve never heard this phrase before…”pat answer”? Okay…?

I think Onoya just wanted senpai to notice her, LOL.

The revelation that Arata wanted to work for the ReLIFE lab startled even me, and I tackled the series long before a lot of people got in on it!

Yoake-san’s got a moon on his icon. Considering his surname means “daybreak” and one kanji means “night”, it makes complete sense.

I couldn’t read the nameplate, but you can tell from the clothing colours that’s Ohga’s house.

I found this article on hikikomori one time and thought it would be relevant to share here, actually. It’s talking about a company that gets hikikomori to be social again through repeated correspondence…kind of like ReLIFE itself.

As soon as I saw the line “Fate may tear us far apart”, I knew the ED for this episode was “Button”.

Why do I get the feeling there’s still something left for me to see…?

I was so dang close to crying when they remembered each other! Gah! I need to recover, but I have some new episodes on tap as well. So, with that, it’s the end of our time with each other, ReLIFE. Farewell, and until next time.

Dances with the Dragons 1

I think, out of simplicity, I’ll call this show “Saredo” (“Even Still”) instead. As to how I was attracted to this show, it was because not only are there some great voices at the helm, but I think “physics x magic” could really go places as a concept.

Guy with big sword. It reminds me of a lot of shonen anime, like D Gray Man…or even Deltora Quest…

“SareRyuu”? That seems like a strange name, I think “Saredo” suits it better.

The only thing I fixated on in Gigina’s full name was the weird mention of “Ashley” somewhere in it. If anyone were to tease him, that would be a wide opening for them to attack him with.

This is looking like a Grancrest all over again, which spells bad things (LOL) about this show. Despite that, an Aini seems to be the spell Gayus (learnt his name from promo material) was using.

Gayus and Gigina have a great rapport. If they decide to go comedy with this show, it seems that would be very welcome here.

My mind is blown…it’s a sword, but it also provides armour and kind of acts like a gun in how it does that…amazing…

I feel like I’m really back in the driver’s seat, now that I’m getting my first new action anime in 2 seasons! Winter wasn’t bad but it can’t keep an action anime fan down!

Gigina’s a competent dragon slayer, eh? Slay me instead *wink wink, nudge nudge*! (LOL)

So an Altar is a special type of dragon, one that’s so special it has to be in a league of its own. Duly noted.

This show is screaming for a dub, for some reason…that’s my thoughts on it, anyway.

Notably, Kenryu in Japanese could translate to “sword dragon” with the right kanji combo.

Wow, this show is really political. I’ve getting Grancrest vibes all over again…

Uh…I guess I was wrong on the overall quality of humour in this show. The Horton joke was so black, I couldn’t see through it!

Is it possible in this world to arrest a dragon for murder? Or do you just slay it?

“They must be pretty good.”

Gayus is such a Kunikida, LOL. Except he drinks…uh…coffee? Tea? Not sure what his beverage of choice is, actually.

Juku and jushiki…are you trying to make my head spin with all the tongue twisters???

Wow, those green gems even have names like guns!

Well…Gigina isn’t quite Dazai, but I guess every straight man needs someone more frivolous to play off of…

“Falusi” appears to be a Hungarian word for villager (at least, Wiktionary said that when I checked it)…which obviously doesn’t work here. Stupid fantasy words…

The cut between the screaming man and Gayus wasn’t the best…

“Science-oriented”? Y’mean there are ones that are magic-oriented as well? Ooh.

*squints at this dude with black hair* He kinda looks like Ibusuki Ata (Boueibu Happy Kiss).

Someone went all out on the aesthetic for the ED! Wowee…

Even though these fantasy words and names are going to make my head spin and I’m sure this show isn’t for everyone, I’ll be keeping it on for now. You can tell it’s more competent than Mahou Shoujo Ore from the air it holds, but Mahou Shoujo Ore is a lot more fun…so this’ll be a tough decision if I have to cut either of them…