#amazing actors and a very interesting visual style

[mikimeiko]

Kaos | Season 1 (2024), Charlie Covell

[meticulousfragments]

I don’t know if anyone else who follows me has both read the book and seen the movie Poor Things

But I read it this week and watched the movie last night and I feel like I need to talk about it with someone because it’s still rattling around in my head

[baoshan-sanren]

best cdramas I’ve watched since the last one of these posts in 2023 (and some I’m still looking forward to seeing)

A League of Nobleman (watch on WeTV VIP | watch on AppleTV | watch on Viki | watch on bilibili | watch on YouTube) Adapted from the novel "The Mystery of Zhang Guo" (张公案) by Da Feng Gua Guo (大风刮过) starring Jing BoRan, Song WeiLong, Hong Yao, Guo Cheng and Wang Duo. Definitely gay, but in like a very focused, we-have-a-mystery-to-solve way. Loved the acting and the plot; cannot believe people actually gave Song Weilong shit for his acting in this drama. He was aMAzing. The downside is that the editing grew progressively sloppier as the drama progressed, and although majority of the visuals were very satisfying, I never realized how crappy the quality of the light was until I tried gifing some of the scenes. The upside is Jing BoRan holding kittens. Enough Said. 7/10

The Blood of Youth (watch on Viki | watch on YouTube) Adapted from the novel "Shao Nian Ge Xing" (少年歌行) by Zhou Mu Nan (周木楠) starring Li HongYi, Liu XueYi and Ao RuiPeng. Love this goddamn drama. I adopted the entire cast within the first 3 episodes and then I spent the next 37 terrified that half of them would get killed off. There’s def some major character death in this drama my chickens, so keep that in mind (and not a canonical death either, from what I understand). Anyway, this is my fave genre by far so I’m never really picky, but this drama is exhilarating and gorgeous from beginning to end. Highly recommend. 9/10

New Life Begins (watch on iQIYI | watch on Viki | watch on YouTube) Adapted from the web novel "Qing Chuan Ri Chang" (清穿日常) by Duo Mu Mu Duo (多木木多) starring Bai JingTing and Tian XiWei. Just sweet and fluffy. The plot is easy and devoid of complexities, but very satisfying nonetheless. The acting is definitely on another level. The entire cast has bonkers chemistry, and it’s about time someone made good use of Bai Jingting’s comedy potential. One of the top 5 easy viewing dramas on my rewatch list.  8/10

The Legendary Life of Queen Lau (watch on Viki | watch on YouTube) Adapted from the web novel "Huang Hou Liu Hei Pang" (皇后刘黑胖) by Ge Yang (戈鞅) starring Li JiaQi and Li HongYi. Loved this. Although it doesn’t shy away from difficult subjects, this is basically a comedy from beginning to end. Not gonna lie, I mainly gave this a go for Li Hongyi, but it’s hard to even notice him when Li Jiaqi is in the room. There’s no shame in being overshadowed by superior talent :) 7/10

(yeah, after all this, I rewatched Nirvana In Fire again)

Under the Microscope (watch on Apple TV | watch on Bilibili | watch on iQIYI VIP | watch on Viki) Adapted from the novel "Xian Wei Jing Xia De Da Ming" (显微镜下的大明) by Ma Bo Yong (马伯庸) starring Zhang RuoYun and Wang Yang. Continuously impressed by Zhang RuoYun’s skills. This drama is 90% grit and tension. Drool-worthy visuals. Interesting plot. Sound mixing that gives me a Mo Ran style boner. Make your friends watch it and they will hate you. 9/10

Till The End of The Moon (watch on YouTube | watch on Apple TV | watch on Viki) Adapted from the web novel "Hei Yue Guang Na Wen BE Ju Ben" (黑月光拿稳BE剧本) by Teng Luo Wei Zhi (藤萝为枝). Starring Luo Yunxi and Bai Lu. This was so breathtakingly gorgeous. The chemistry between the actors, the visuals, the special effects, the costumes, everything is stunning in this drama. The romance is by no means original, but still manages to draw you in. Absolutely worth watching at least once. 8/10

Still waiting on:

Immortality - based on danmei novel The Husky and His White Cat Shizun by 肉包不吃肉 starring Chen Feiyu and Luo Yunxi (you can think I’m a clown but you’d be wrong bc I’m a wholeass circus)

Winner Is King - based on the danmei novel Sha Po Lang by Priest starring Tan Jianci and Chen Zheyuan

Step By Step Lotus - based on historical novel Return to Ming Dynasty as Prince by 月关 starring Zhang Binbin and Luo Yunxi

Eternal Faith - based on danmei novel Heaven Official’s Blessing by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu starring Zhai Xiaowen and Zhang Linghe

Joy Of Life Season 2 - based on wuxia novel of the same name by 猫腻 starring Zhang Ruoyun and Li Qin

Story of Kunning Palace - based on the novel 坤宁 by 时镜 starring Bai Lu and Zhang LingHe

Flying Phoenix - based on danmei novel of the same name by 風弄 starring Dai Jingyao and Shu Yaxin

The Story of the Bat - based on danmei novel Bat by Feng Nong starring Mao Zijun and Zhang Yao

The Longest Promise - based on xianxia novel Zhu Yan by 沧月 starring Xiao Zhan, Ren Min, and Zhang Yunlong

Mysterious Lotus Casebook - based on wuxia novel 吉祥纹莲花楼 by Teng Ping 藤萍 starring Cheng Yi and Zeng ShunXi

Follow Your Heart - historical drama starring Song Yi and Luo Yunxi 

The Thirteen-Hongs in Canton - historical drama starring Zhu Yawen and Yu Haoming

White Cat Legend - based on manhua of the same name starring Ding Yuxi and Zhou Qi

[eyedelater]

demon slayer notes

i started watching demon slayer, without having read the manga, at the urging of a family friend who is new to anime and insists it's extremely good. here are my thoughts on the anime and then the entire manga through to its end.

in this post, i appended followup notes to some points upon revisiting them because i had to make sure to go back and tell my past self what happened.

i watched episodes 1 through 20 without writing anything because i wasn't planning to. i watched many of those episodes on my phone, which is unusual for me, but i was traveling at the time. so i probably missed some finer visual details.

my impression of the show before i started, from having skimmed the start of its wikipedia page some months ago, was that it seemed to be relatively high quality but very formulaic Standard Shounen Fare, and it did not catch my interest. after watching 20 episodes, that opinion hasn't really changed. so many of the elements of the show are typical and just barely riff on extremely basic tropes. i'm sure there are many people who argue that demon slayer in fact drastically and ingeniously transforms those generic shounen tropes, but i'm not so sure about that. [followup note: the story does improve in terms of nuance later on, but i'm not retracting this paragraph.]

they did kind of an amazing job on the anime in terms of animation and effects. i should really rewatch those first 20 episodes on my computer screen so i can better appreciate it.

tanjirou is a very, very good boy. almost too good. where are his flaws? his internal monologues are always so apt. almost too apt. his backstory is of course compelling, but he hasn't won me over quite yet… i do like his headbutts, though… [followup note: i guess his flaw is his penchant for excessive self-sacrifice? which is one of those job interview "flaws" that is more likely to be a virtue.]

i'm looking forward to nezuko having more and more agency as the story progresses.

i'm looking forward to zenitsu learning to shut the fuck up more and more as the story progresses. i do have to give his voice actor a lot of credit for going completely all-out every time and never holding back.

i immediately love inosuke because he's a dumb bastard.

will tomioka giyuu fill the hayakawa aki-shaped hole in my heart by not being doomed? [followup note: not really. good for him not being doomed though!]

the art style is so samefacey… golden kamuy spoiled me…

the demon slayer corps seems to think it's hot shit and have many, many levels of hierarchy, but they're disorganized enough to regularly and greatly underestimate the threat of demons such that they keep sending their own fighters to their deaths. they need to work on their intelligence gathering, if nothing else.

all the hashira seem to care an awful lot about the life of the hypothetical person hypothetically killed by nezuko, but their organization is sloppy and heartless in its deploying of weak demon slayers. is this clumsy writing with plot holes, or is it a hint for the astute as to the organization's dirtiness and disorder? [followup note: i want to say it was the former or i guess neither. the master turns out to be really humble and kind to his hashiras. did he not grasp how bad a job they were doing wrt casualties?]

i like how sanemi's eyes continue to look insane even when he's calmly using polite speech

"My arms and legs are really short right now." ~zenitsu while his arms and legs are really short

i do hope boys watch this and come away with the idea that tanjirou's habit of intense and unconditional kindness is cool.

i did like when the girls told zenitsu to his face to be respectful to girls and he was humbled. [followup note: i discovered this was added into the anime and not present in the manga. good addition]

the last few seconds of the OP for the mugen train arc make it seem like rengoku is gonna die. (explicitly prepares my heart for that)

by the way, after the first season ended and we're on to the next arc, inosuke is still the best. i don't do it myself, but i enjoy watching others live life with true wild abandon. i really enjoy his kind of annoyingness more than zenitsu's.

rengoku is committed to never breaking eye contact with the camera

in ep2 of the train arc, tanjirou said "and where are you looking?!" (in japanese) to rengoku, but they translated it as "and when did you get so big?!" because i guess they felt like it would be a better visual joke because they animated rengoku really big? but they should've kept the "where are you looking?" because it's funny that tanjirou addressed what i was already thinking and had in fact written in the previous point. they did it twice in one episode too. is this going to be something we learn about rengoku? that he doesn't look at people? i thought we saw him look at people… [followup note: it's not. also the same joke was in the manga so they especially should have translated it right.]

rengoku said that black sword bearers never know which thing to master. obvious flag for "tanjiro's going to master them all of them and be the biggest baddest hashira in shounen history." too obvious (if i'm right) [i was wrong]

who's gonna tell gotouge-sensei that headbutts don't make your head bleed

prediction: kibutsuji targeted tanjirou's family because of their ancestry and some great prophecy about how that bloodline is fated to someday defeat him. he killed everyone who was home but thought that had to be all the kids because there were so many. he turned nezuko into a demon just to see what would happen and/or because he did actually remember the right number of kids and he wanted her to kill tanjirou. it may also turn out that kibutsuji was responsible for tanjirou's dad's death and/or the scars on both their heads. [followup note: i was wrong about a lot of this, but he did target them for their bloodline]

tanjirou gathered the courage to slit his own throat waaay too easily and quickly.

the netflix translator for the subs for the first few episodes (at least) of the train arc is taking far too many liberties for my liking. i wonder if the subs are different on crunchyroll, which i don't have. i should note that the first 20ish episodes i watched, i watched on a non-netflix non-crunchyroll site and i guess they were fan subs. but i didn't notice anything wrong with those subs.

"I fused my being with this entire train!" ok i've been giving this anime some shit for being predictable, but credit where credit is due, i did not expect that. that's really funny. i hate Lower One's voice btw.

i can tell that some, if not all, of the move names characters shout out are puns like the move names in one piece, but because there are no translation notes, i can't understand them :( [followup note: there aren't any in the official translation either :( and i looked up an unofficial translation and it didn't have any either :( i guess when i'm done with the manga i'll look at a wiki for the move name meanings… of course i dare not look at a wiki when spoilers are still a concern…] [followup followup: didn't care enough before posting this to look at the move name meanings]

anyone who has read my blog, you know what i'm gonna say about nipples, right? it's obvious, right? about inosuke's and others' empty chests. it's obvious. people will be like "you want explicit nipples depicted on the chests of TEEN BOYS?" no i want minimal abstract representations of nipples because everyone has them and it's normal and it's weirder to see a blank aladdin chest. this is about NIPPLE POSITIVITY. i will die on this hill time after time

if two guys are fighting a train together and they synchronize their breathing, is it gay

i liked when inosuke gently set injured tanjirou back down. character development

ok i REALLY dislike the netflix subs for these episodes. don't ADD shit. it's simple. just don't. you have to respect the author. you have to respect the author.

i prepared myself for rengoku's death. thanks for the hint, train arc OP. i see now that he was introduced to serve the purpose of character development for tanjirou.

the appeal of a stone-faced character like tomioka giyuu is twofold: a) they look cool all the time, and b) you develop a desire to see them emote.

tanjirou's gonna get yelled at for losing his sword again…

i like how akaza made it a point to beat up tanjirou's sword. to give us viewers closure as to whether tanjirou was gonna get that sword back.

i feel like i've seen an oversized amount of fanart involving rengoku, given the length of his lifespan in the show. (nothing i looked up, but just by osmosis.) is this like a portgas d. ace situation? i hate shipping ace with anyone because he's dead. or could it be that the character i've seen around was actually senjurou? doubtful

zenitsu's VA is doing a good job, like i said, but i bet zenitsu is a lot more lovable in the manga where you don't actually have to listen to him losing his shit…

i'll officially be mad if anything happens to inosuke.

uzui's three weed-smoking girlfriends…

so the boys are not even just infiltrating the houses of pleasure but they're aiming for the rank of oiran

tanjirou's bad lying face can't compete with luffy's bad lying face… sorry… [followup note: it was better in the manga]

inosuke who can get ahold of himself well enough to actually stfu and act like a girl… excellent

yeah fuck the translator for these netflix subs in the entertainment district arc too. you can't just write whatever you think would sound cool for their lines.

i have to find out the japanese for inosuke's catchphrase "comin' through" (according to this translation). wait i should just turn japanese captions on. ……there are no japanese captions… gimme a break…

they're literally in japan, literally wearing traditional japanese clothing, and they translate "obi" into "belt" instead of leaving it as is. am i overestimating how many people would know what an obi is........?

i do think it's a smart and interesting decision to explicitly section the anime into arcs instead of seasons, or rather, you could say, putting season breaks only at arc breaks. very smart.

uzui's own wife calls him tengen-sama? red flag

you know, i did have one major misconception about this story. i thought that the fact that yaiba is in the name would mean that tanjirou would inherit some particular sacred demon-obliterating blade and it would play a major part in the story (a predictable trope). but tanjirou in fact keeps destroying his swords. maybe that will actually happen later. [followup note: it didn't really. i mean tanjirou gets his one good sword later, but it's not like the sword is what wins the fight for him or anything.]

looked at tanjirou and thought "deku" tally: ||||||||||||||||||||||||

this story sure does have a lot of the protagonist's internal monologue. that's somewhat unusual for shounen, i feel like. is tanjirou just conjuring up text boxes all the time in the manga? i guess i'll have to read it after this… for completionism. [followup note: it seems the manga has an unnamed narrator who sometimes chimes in and they excluded that from the anime completely, instead relying on a combination of show-don't-tell and tanjirou narrating instead. not a bad choice.]

nezuko bit through her gag, which was really good, but she didn't immediately start talking, which is what should have happened. to remind us that she can. other demons can talk. [followup note: i see now that she is apparently left in a childlike state and has to relearn talking. ok]

(watches nezuko shrink back from grownup mode) self-infantilizing imouto…

ok, i figured out that the subs are just the lines from the dubs. that means my ire lies with whoever translated the lines for the netflix dubs. that's right, i'm not just gonna excuse it because i was mistaken about the source.

tanjirou looking at ezui and seeing rengoku's head appear next to him is 100% a death flag. his three weed-smoking wives are gonna mourn him at the end of this arc. it's gonna be the start of a pattern of tanjirou getting scarred by the loss of hashira after hashira right in front of him. [followup: glad for tanjirou that this didn't happen.]

by the way, i bet someone out there has something smart to say about uzui's three wives and what they mean for feminism. i don't care to think about it very hard though. but i know someone does.

zenitsu is conveniently asleep for a very long time in this very long battle

the budget for this anime must have been SO high. or the animators were seriously overworked. because there is so much love and so much hard work put into what seems like EVERY single shot. it's incredible. like some of these shots there's no logical need to go so hard but it's just sooo consistent that every shot has to have a life-changing amount of work put into it. i can't get over it.

(after entertainment arc ep9) i said i would be pissed if anything happened to inosuke, and i meant it. we'll see what happens from here. if inosuke dies, i'm not reading the manga. because i'm stubborn.

gyuutaro called tanjirou a bonkler…

this battle was already frustratingly long and now the defeated gyuutaro's dead defeated corpse had to release one last extremely destructive attack? according to what logic?

i like when nezuko has tanjirou on her back for once. reverse sibling onbu

this smells a lot more like hunter x hunter than hero academia or one piece. in terms of the character designs, to some degree, and everyone's penchant for talking a lot, and vibes. and i'm saying "smells" in my own way and not in a tanjirou way, okay?

they have IVs in the taisho era? with saline? i don't know anything about history.

does everyone in the sword village need the hyottoko mask? at all times?

i can tell by the OP of the sword village arc that demons will attack the sword village.

i really like the artistic choice of letting characters emote through their masks if necessary.

this son of a bitch has poison too? isn't this getting old?

i liked the little episode preview where kanroji is asked how she sheaths her sword and the answer is she simply just does. very good

of course even haganezuka turns out to be a hottie (rolls eyes emoji)

i don't want to call out gyokko here, but he could just put muichirou in the water vase again.

kibutsuji looks a lot less laughable without his stupid fucking hat.

so demons started existing because kibutsuji took weird medicine from his doctor?? [followup note: I Guess So.]

i guess i have to give gotouge-sensei credit for really sticking with the gimmick of the whole sword village wearing those masks.

i like genya.

tokitou's soft spot for tanjirou is really cute

i caught up with the anime without writing very much. i'm still blown away by the production value. speaking of blown away, i'm curious as to what happened to 2 of kagaya's 5 apparent daughters. [followup note: they really died.]

[{{{{{{{{caught up with the anime}}}}}}}}]

[{{{{{{{{comments below concern the manga}}}}}}}}]

inosuke lived, so i started reading the manga. i'm struck by the different feeling that tanjirou gives off. manga tanjirou seems a little more serious and less perky. maybe it has to do with the line delivery in the anime shaping my view of him (though the voice actor has done a great job). i did, at the beginning of the anime, get the strong early impression that tanjirou's voice was very "grown man trying hard to do a teen boy voice," and i cringed just a bit. but that feeling faded as the anime went on. i also assume the art style changes a lot as the manga progresses, such that the style resembles the anime's style more in later chapters. the anime seems to have done an amazing job of faithfully and precisely adapting the manga, at least for early chapters. i'm really jealous of the demon slayer anime on behalf of all the great mangas that got weird or lousy anime adaptations.

the babyface style of the early manga is also very strong. even giyuu looks like a little kid.

and genya's face in his first appearance is really funny. he got a glowup for the anime. whereas zenitsu looks 100% the same. i'm looking forward to inosuke's manga face.

i read a lot more of the manga without saying anything. i've gone on and on about the high quality of the anime, but i kind of feel like the manga is better. that is to say, the art feels very authentic and pure and full of love and care. manga tanjirou is just as much of a Very Good Boy as anime tanjirou, but without a certain feeling of Trying Very Hard. is it the voice?

the manga has a kind of Classic feel to it. not like it resembles any particular manga from the past, but more like, gotouge-sensei was aiming high and trying to make something evergreen. trying to forge a new classic.

and reading the manga was shocking because it's like, the anime is truly the most faithful adaptation i've ever seen. every scene feels like it's shot-for-shot-for-shot precisely what was in the manga, with every line carried over. practically nothing was left out. the spacing and timing of content was perfect; nothing was excessively crammed or stretched out. only a few things were added, like the scene with the bento sellers before the train arc (unless that came from some bonus chapter i never saw). but the additions feel normal and necessary. truly a staggeringly faithful and loving adaptation. why did they give demon slayer this exceptional treatment…? because reading the manga, it's like, this is good… but is it life-changingly good enough for them to have gone THIS all-out with the anime? i haven't decided yet. [followup note: i still haven't decided?? i might make future posts about this.]

right, demon slayer is solidly good, i would say, but on the whole, it's not quite For Me. that's because if i evaluate it by my old standby metric, the COCK test, it is decidedly NOT Completely unhinged, and there is a decided lack of Creatures. to be perfectly fair, i'm sure it Offends the church, and it does Kick ass. and really, if someone is just a bit less weirdly picky than me, this manga could change their life. but it's just not batshit insane enough to push all my buttons. i feel some hunter x hunter influence, but obviously hunter x hunter knew how to be insane enough. not that hunter x hunter does it all for me either.

it does get credit for having somewhat deeper and rounder characters than jujutsu kaisen. like at least they have an extremely strong reason to be doing what they're doing.

the manga is self-serious in a genuine way, and the anime feels self-serious in a very slightly phony way. though i don't mean they're overly self-serious. there is welcome comic relief in both. it's better in the manga but still well-translated into the anime (literal translations of the subtitles aside). and the comic relief is actually funny a lot of the time, which is more than i can say about jujutsu kaisen. this has been my obligatory shitting on jujutsu kaisen for the first time in a while. if you missed it, the story is that i gave jujutsu kaisen all the chances in the world for me to love it, but it disappointed me (and killed my favorite character for no reason).

i've been worried this whole time, not having a good sense of exactly how much chapters have been squashed or stretched, about how many chapters would remain after i caught up with the story as far as the anime went. but now i'm just about at the end of the hashira training arc (mansion just blew up) and there are still about 60 chapters left. that's sooo many. i was worried there wouldn't be much story left, but there is! that's good, because there's a lot left to explain.

i have noticed exactly what has been added to the anime adaptation. pretty much everything added was smart and suitable. although the extremely long approach of kibutsuji to kagaya's bedside was i think not so necessary. but yeah, fleshing out the training in the hashira arc a bit, going into slightly more detail on people's backstories, adding a few more character building moments, none of it feels irritating in any way. but if it turns out they added any zenitsu whining moments, that's unforgivable. there are already enough of those.

i bet huge inosuke fans were a little irritated at the casting of his voice. a true ruffian's voice that clashes to the extreme with his pretty face. i think it's pretty apt though. maybe a little too large-adult-sounding. but teenage boys are like that.

i've been reading an unofficial manga translation, not sure who it's by, and it's interesting to note which phrases were left untranslated in this compared to in the official translation. in this unofficial TL, why is oyakata-sama left as such instead of translating it to "master" when it's just a title that plainly means "master?" and in the netflix subs/dubs, why are hashira and hinokami kagura left untranslated? and yet both translated "obi" as either "belt" or "sash" when i think it could have safely been left as is. and why was "nichirin sword" left untranslated in both when you could just call it a sun blade or sun sword? is it because nichirin sounds too cool and japanese?

oh yeah, i kept thinking but kept forgetting to write: it's well known that demons are always eating humans, but we don't see them in the actual act of eating people very often at all. it seems they often like to just kill people, like weasels kill hens. for fun. but we have seem douma in the act of eating people note once but twice.

the unifying backstory of Everyone's family being killed by demons is getting a little old…

ok i remembered one bad thing the anime did. giving us that whole ridiculous nezuko montage when she was exposed to the sun and we thought she was gonna get obliterated. that was reeeally pushing it. trying that hard to fool us is just embarrassing for you.

so ubuyashiki kagaya became a father at the age of 15. no, younger, because kiriya has two (twin?) elder sisters. at least 14.

the two ubuyashiki girls did die… that's not cool… don't use them just to confuse kibutsuji…

zenitsu leveled up? zenitsu can work while awake now? maybe he'll also shut the fuck up?

…

i ended up staying up very, very late and read many dozens of chapters in one night and finished demon slayer. not the best circumstances for properly absorbing the story, but i did it anyway.

i was not prepared for genya to die and i think that should not have happened. we needed to see more of him and his future. i'll say it: it should have been sanemi instead. justice for genya.

i don't think that many hashiras needed to die… especially tokitou-kun didn't need to die so horribly... and i certainly didn't expect sanemi to be one of only 2 hashira survivors.

i guess we're just lucky that inosuke and zenitsu got away with all their limbs intact. limbs were dropping like flies for a while there.

i was satisfied with the reveal of the backstory about the tsugikuni brothers and how yoriichi entrusted his earrings and stuff to tanjirou's ancestral family.

i thought the final reveal that yoriichi's 13th move was all the other moves strung together didn't have an amazing payout in the end… did it? did i miss something big?

there was the Explicit mention, in dialogue, that kanroji and iguro and others may reincarnate happily. i wish gotouge-sensei would have allowed that to happen in the audience's imagination instead of having a timeskip chapter that shows everyone's descendants and reincarnations. it wasn't unbearable, but i didn't like it. also inosuke's descendant didn't go hog wild at all.

after reading the whole manga and no longer fearing spoilers, i finally looked up inosuke's catchphrase. i was very pleased to find out that it is chototsumoushin 猪突猛進, which is an existing four-character compound that includes the kanji for boar and means rushing recklessly (as a boar does). i knew there would be some degree of untranslatable nuance in there! the nuance is that that phrase definitely describes an undesirable act, but inosuke yells it with glee while rushing in recklessly, and that is perfect. it's like yelling "BULL IN A CHINA SHOP!" in the anime, one subtitle translation was "COMIN' THROUGH!" which is a little lifeless and completely missing any boar energy. my favorite translation is "BOAR RUSH!" because it carries the boar energy and makes it seem like he's shouting a move name when he's really just barreling around the hallway. i don't remember if i saw that one in the netflix translation or if it was a fansub. one more version i saw, in an unofficial manga translation, was "pig assault." that one's not a winner. it isn't even the kanji for pig; it's the kanji for boar. also if i had been watching the anime with earbuds it's entirely possible i would have been able to discern what inosuke was saying from the beginning, because i went back and he says it quite clearly, but that doesn't matter now.

i feel a little weird about making a whole long post about something i don't have crazy strong feelings about, but i wrote all this out, so... read my important opinions... sorry for saying "i guess" so much and using so many ellipses...

overall, i wish the ending was less bittersweet (i hate character death, as always) and dislike the timeskip chapter, but i still rate demon slayer (the story itself) as GOOD. that means it is worth watching and reading. there are several slots above GOOD on my personal rating scale, but GOOD isn't bad. it's GOOD. and that's what demon slayer is. someday i will probably rewatch and/or reread, and i'll keep up with the next anime season.

[brother-emperors]

Very strange and random question, but would you mind directing me to your character design of Hermes? I'd also love to know if you have any tips on creating good character designs. If not, no worries!

Thank you for sharing your amazing art! The style is so good, and I always enjoy reading your comic strips. ❤️

I’ve drawn Hermes properly like, once before I think? in this comic! there’s another illustration of the same kind of scene with him, but I’m not a big fan of it and I’m thinking of redoing it sometime this year

ANYWAY character design advice! the Team Fortress 2 school of design will never steer you wrong (recognizable silhouettes), and one teacher I had personally liked the ‘opposites’ rule of character design, where you want some kind of noticeable ‘opposite’ of a character if you’re mostly doing pairs in a scene (so tall > short, that kind of thing). I personally adhere to whatever I think suits the narrative best/in a fun way. like, Crassus and Pompey are set up specifically for the story I have in mind

Pomepy is supposed to (eventually, it takes him a minute) be bulky enough that he could fold Crassus in half like laundry if he felt like it, and Crassus is supposed to look tall and thin, but he’s more lean muscle and could probably break your jaw if he hit you, and the subtextual narrative is about exploring all the ways they DON’T touch each other in the acts of violence that their bodies would be suited for, which is in total defiance of what comes before them, and also after (Antony and Octavian have a similar visual pairing, and it’s all physical violence there, baby)

in other news, I have a hard time figuring out a consistent character design until I figure out the story I want to tell lmao

there’s more about figuring out repeat draw ability vs complexity, balancing out overall design shape with accessories, clothes conveying personality and intent (character design work is a whole specialty tbh), but I tend to be a little more laid back about it because I’m more interested in prying open the story and then designing characters as the story comes together. like, sometimes I’ll shove a century of art history discourse into something, other times it’s Actor Hot, Show Rearranged The Circuits In My Brain, etc. but at the end of the day, I want it to work with the story, so I do these things side by side.

if you want more solid advice than this nebulous mess of thoughts, interviews with costume designers for movies or shows you enjoy is always always always a fantastic place to go to if you really want to understand how clothing and form convey intent and narrative to an audience: I keep a lot of that kind of theory in the back of my mind when I start seriously figuring out what I want a character to do, and by extension, how to look. interviews with animators and comic artists are good places to learn abt character design too!

[agentnico]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023) Review

Why would they release this only a month after Across the Spider-Verse?? It’s as if they WANT to live in the shadows!

Plot: After years of being sheltered from the human world, the Turtle brothers set out to win the hearts of New Yorkers and be accepted as normal teenagers. Their new friend, April O'Neil, helps them take on a mysterious crime syndicate, but they soon get in over their heads when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles of course are close to the hearts of many people’s childhoods, however I do not share that element of nostalgia. I am aware of the turtles and their pizza obsession, and I have unfortunately seen both of the Michael Bay produced ones, but nonetheless I walked into Mutant Mayhem with a very open mind. I am a fan of Seth Rogen and have also been enjoying this new style of animation that spawned from 2018′s Into the Spider-Verse, that steps away from the Disney/Pixar dominated oversaturated 3D computer animation and instead incorporates 2D and various interesting art styles from watercolours to comic-book sketches. Again, Spider-Verse started this and is still probably the most well executed one, however I personally also believe Klaus and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish have managed to take this new artwork animation style and make it their own. Mutant Mayhem again looks very good visually, and even though this one doesn’t really add much more to this animation style that Spider-Verse already did, there were still some creative choices made, like in many shots parts of the character drawings and the background sketches looking unfinished, as if a kid drew them, which I found to be a nice touch, especially with the movie’s youthful nature. But yes, the artwork is very close to Spider-Verse, and that is not the only comparison. Strangely enough the energetic music score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross hits near all the same notes and drum beats of Daniel Pemberton’s excellent Across the Spider-Verse soundtrack. Both are very similar, and again reiterated that TMNT: Mutant Mayhem gladly embraces that it exists solely due to the trend that Spider-Verse started.

What really works for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is that it actually accepts the fact that its titular turtles are teenagers. Voiced entirely by a youthful cast, the four central turtles have amazing banter and share that coming-of-age feel, making their friendship believable and entertaining to watch. At times it feels like you’re just hanging out with a bunch of friends who are being goofs. The supporting cast all do their part and are evidently having fun themselves. Ice Cube makes for a formidable villain who at first comes off really cool and charming, but then turns into an intimidating presence that manages to proudly proclaim rap lyrics. Jackie Chan is an inspired casting choice, as he brings an endearing warmth as the overprotective father-figure to the turtles, and his vocal performance felt genuine. There’s many famous actors that provide vocal additions to the shedload of characters in this movie, but I’d say Paul Rudd stood out the most as a crazy skater-bro who was foolishly funny.

Jeff Rowe (known for The Mitchells vs. The Machines) balances the themes of coming-of-age and acceptance really well with the fast-paced action-packed energy of Seth Rogen’s and Evan Goldberg’s script, and there’s plenty of laughs and colourful set pieces to keep kids entertained at the cinema this month. This is definitely a more younger audience aimed affair, but I enjoyed it nonetheless and at the very least is the best version of TMNT I have seen so far. Naturally my main comparisons are those Michael Bay movies and, well, that’s not a very high bar. But don’t worry, Mutant Mayhem provides plenty of entertainment value, popping imagery and mountains of ninja skills. And pizza, of course.

Overall score: 7/10

[gavillain]

I just found your Overtakers work as of late, I started reading back in March, as of right now I'm at chapter 51 of All the Forces of Evil. Amazing work! I was just curious about how everyone interacts with one another and what I mean by that, is this sort of a "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" situation where it's "toons" interacting with "live action"? I think it would be really interesting for Judge Doom and the Toon Patrol to appear and possibly tackle this topic

Glad you've been enjoying, and thank you so much! It's been a very fun journey for sure :D

As to your question, the thing is that there aren't any "toons" in the story. The stories of these characters may have been told to us in our world through either an animated or live action medium, but the characters in those stories are just people like us. So there's not really an in-universe difference between the animated and live action characters. They're all just the same.

Now as for how you want to visualize that or how you would personally translate that to a visual medium, that's entirely up to you when you're reading. Whatever works best for your imagination. Since the fanfic is at its core a Kingdom Hearts fanfic, I personally visualize the disparate visual styles exactly as they are in the game when I'm writing:

Where you've got RPG style Sora, cartoon Donald and Goofy, and live action Jack Sparrow just all standing side by side together, and it's never an issue XD

But if that doesn't work for you, you can always visualize them all in live action or make them all animated/illustrated versions of themselves for consistency (you can find plenty of fanart for the live action characters out there for reference). An idea I've had in the back of my mind is that each world has its own visual style, and the different characters take on whatever visual style the world they're on has. But that's one of those things that's maybe a bit too nitty-gritty as far as lore is concerned to try to canonize.

As to Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, I don't currently plan to bring in that world or its characters because I do think it'd get a bit too confusing and pedantic in terms of lore. But, if I did, the only characters who would be considered "toons" would be the cartoons from that movie's Toon Town. The Maleficent, Mickey, Jafar, and so on that you know from the story would still just be people, and the versions of them that might exist in Toon Town would basically be toon "actors" who "played" those characters in the movies.

Hope that makes sense :)

[beepsparks]

A post dedicated to how much I love Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared and the creators’ other projects (and as a kinda late celebration to me being 3 years in the fandom)

This post will be VERY VERY long so all of it is under the cut! It’s all me rambling about how amazing Dhmis is and how much love I have for it

Never in my life have I ever loved something so amazing so much, and that's an understatement for how much I love Dhmis, it’d literally be impossible to say how much I love this series. It’s truly a work of art with the most dedication I’ve ever seen.

From what I’ve heard, originally being a short film project intended to be a series but then getting dropped after completion going viral off of YouTube and inspiring the crew to pick up the idea again into making the original series we all know and love, now to an entire tv show is truly inspiring and should be looked up to as inspiration and motivation to make their ideas into reality by even the biggest of filmmakers. A simple, now decade old short film becoming something even more is just so inspiring and it’s so incredibly motivating.

 Every piece of effort and dedication put into this series is something to behold, everything made of felt and different material that would surely take incredibly long just to make even the smallest of props is just so amazing to me. The detail, thought, and emotion you can get from every single scene in not even just this series, but the creators’ other works I simply adore to look at. They’ll make high effort props, costumes, puppets, and even more only to use them for a few moments and never again just to show the highest quality in every frame to craft everything to perfection is so nice, like they’re making all of this with the viewers in mind like it’s all just for you, I love it.

And the creators’ other works, I love them so much, from literal Trollis advertisements made with literal stop motion, which you just barely see anymore to barely known and yet high effort, interesting and thought-provoking, yet sometimes highly comedic short films and sometimes music videos is just art at it’s finest. Like Craig’s Big Day, the music video for Swim and Sleep (Like a Shark), and Baker Terry, voice actor of many Dhmis characters’ short film, “BIN”, is one of the most if not THE most disturbing short films I’ve ever seen and yet I LOVE IT. He did an absolutely wonderful job literally writing, directing, and even acting in it himself.

More on how much effort is put into things like Dhmis, all the different styles of art used throughout the series is so eye-catching and visually appealing to look at. The art trick used for music video Tame Impala, which the creators worked on, was used for the apple in Dhmis 2, and it goes very well. Claymation, stop motion, CGI, 2D animation and possibly even more than just the already high effort and wonderful puppets just keeps your attention constantly, it almost never gets boring to watch.

I’m a HUGE sucker for art and media that truly embraces the meaning of “weird” in the best way possible. None of that “be yourself (unless you don’t fit into the norm and actually aren’t like everyone else)” nonsense, Dhmis isn’t even about that and yet, to be honest, Dhmis has helped me appreciate myself more by letting me embrace the different, more unique parts of myself with it’s art. Dhmis is so strange, embracing creepy horror elements, dark and weird jokes, the art of puppetry, strange music, and that's my most favorite thing about it. Just how absurd, crazy, and of course, weird, it gets. Every moment is something packed with so much creativity behind it. We need more abstract, unique, and genuinely weird yet enjoyable and interesting art more than ever right now tbh, a lot of recent media, while good, just doesn’t feel weird enough sometimes. I’m not saying EVERYTHING has to be weird like Dhmis, but I really want to see more works truly creative and fun come out and show how amazing different styles of storytelling and art can be. It helps everyone express themselves, not just the basic norm.

Speaking of fun, silly shenanigans, behind the scenes photos and videos of Dhmis and sometimes other projects the creators have worked on always have a fun element behind them. I feel that's an amazing place and feeling to have while working on something, just embracing the fun of it and sometimes letting yourself be a bit silly while working on it. The Dhmis crew almost always looks like they’re having fun and smiling every moment they worked on the series. I love the energy and shenanigans that go on during Dhmis production. I’d totally love to see each puppet and costume character and how they work. In general I’d love to know more about how Dhmis was produced and made.

Now I’m not sure if this is on purpose or not, but I love when creators purposefully leave spaces in lore for fans to interpret their creation however they’d like. That's why there's so many theories with entirely different stories with Dhmis. People are interpreting the story in all sorts of different ways and it sparks the fans to be creative and find their own answers to the story. A story that clearly states every single part of it that if its true or not can get boring. Watching so many ideas strive fills me with joy watching people who share my similar interests talk about what they think of parts of characters and story. Which can even influence each others interpretations. For example, I have my own interpretation of Tony, and his design and personality is more based on the mean, villainous sides of him because Padlock slightly influenced how I might see Tony, and in general in my interpretation I usually saw him as a shady liar, a quick, sly snake. Which reflects on my humanoid design of him, giving him snake eyes and a scarf which covers his mouth, and of course, his dark coat and dark color palette.

Dhmis is just truly top quality art that deserves to be known more, and praised and loved for just how great it is. It might not be for everyone, but it’s still absolutely wonderful and even if you don’t like horror, it should have it’s effort and art appreciated. I might not be a full Dhmis veteran, only joining the fandom back in September 2019, but I’m so incredibly proud of how far this series and fandom has come. I hope to see more of it and works like it from the creators and crew in the future.

Thanks for reading my long DHMIS and it’s creators appreciation post :)

[kevinsreviewcatalogue]

Review: Demolition Man (1993)

Demolition Man (1993)

Rated R for non-stop action violence, and for strong language

<Originally posted at https://kevinsreviewcatalogue.blogspot.com/2023/04/review-demolition-man-1993.html>

Score: 3 out of 5

Despite coming out well after the '80s "beefcake era" of action movies, in a time when that style was quickly falling out of favor in the face of more grounded films like Die Hard and the films of Steven Seagal, Demolition Man is a film that still gets talked about today, less for its cast or its stunts and more for its unique premise and creative worldbuilding. Taking the plot of your basic '80s sci-fi action flick and dropping it into a seemingly utopian future with a dark side straight out of Brave New World, a book whose author Aldous Huxley is homaged in the name of its female lead, it's a film that's been rediscovered and hailed over the years as a hilarious social satire, a fun sendup of its genre, and even an "anti-woke" classic (even though it... isn't, really?). It's this, more than anything else, that has kept this movie relevant over the years, as while I had plenty of fun watching it at a Popcorn Frights screening, I often found myself wishing that the action was as good as the premise and the comedy, with a lot of the action scenes feeling like they were going through the motions. It's the kind of film that's destined to be a cult classic more than anything, an imperfect action film that's elevated by the unique twists it puts on the basic premise, and is worth checking out for fans of both science fiction and the actors involved.

The film starts out in Los Angeles in the dystopian near-future of 1996, a time when the city has fallen into anarchy, its streets resembling a post-apocalyptic wasteland run by gangs that the LAPD needs military-grade weapons and vehicles to fight. One of its top cops, John Spartan, is basically the closest thing the police have to a super-soldier, an ultimate badass who gets the job done and doesn't care about how much collateral damage he causes in the process. This bites him in the ass when he goes to capture Simon Phoenix, a notorious criminal and all-around psychopath who's kidnapped a bus filled with dozens of people. Spartan may have gotten the job done, but thanks to his carelessness, he got all the hostages killed in the process, and so both he and Phoenix are sent to a "cryo-prison" where they will be frozen for decades, subtly brainwashed all the while so that, when they're thawed out, they'll be productive members of society.

Where the film gets interesting is when it fast-forwards to 2032, where we see that San Angeles, the massive metropolis stretching from San Diego to Santa Barbara with Los Angeles at its center, has completely put the terrible '90s behind it. On the surface, San Angeles is a utopia, a land of clean streets, well-groomed gardens, advanced technology, and an extraordinary standard of living. The visual design is one of the most striking things about the film, framing the future as the kind of beautiful sci-fi city you see in sketches from that time and, more importantly, making it feel real. It's a very '90s future technologically, but even with how consciously sanitized it was, it still felt like a real, lived-in world thanks to some amazing set design. There's always a catch, of course, and the catch here is obvious when we see it: the people of this world are really, really fuckin' c- <*bzzt* YOU ARE FINED ONE CREDIT FOR A VIOLATION OF THE VERBAL MORALITY STATUTE>

...and there you have it. In ending the lawlessness and misery they suffered through in the past, San Angeles threw out the baby with the bathwater and got rid of everything that reminded them of the "bad old days". Cursing, tobacco, red meat, rock music, guns, violence in the media, sexuality just about anywhere, you name it, if society has deemed it harmful in any way, they've banned it and driven those who continue to embrace it literally underground. The result is a world so safe and squeaky-clean that even the police no longer carry guns, having not needed them in years, and so they have no idea what to do when Simon Phoenix gets unfrozen early and proceeds to go on a rampage. I've often seen this movie described as a parody of political correctness (to use the '90s term), but in truth, given how apolitical its writing was, it read more like a Howard Stern-esque mockery of moral crusaders of all stripes, from save-the-world liberals to Bible-thumping conservatives, perhaps best reflected by how they cast Denis Leary as the resistance leader Edgar Friendly basically playing his stock comic persona.

What's more, the intro does a great job showing why society at large might line up and embrace a world like San Angeles. The worldbuilding establishes how this is a city that, underneath its saccharine Brady Bunch surface to use Phoenix's description, has been scarred by the trauma of its past and is willing to do anything to go back to the chaotic nightmare that existed back then. Coming out of 1993 as this movie did, you can feel shades of how a lot of people at the time justified the "tough on crime" policies that arose from the crime wave of the '70s and '80s, and watching it today, you can see it reflected in how a lot of young people, who've grown up knowing the internet as a cesspool of bullying, bigotry, and toxicity and have spent their childhoods with active shooter drills at school, don't really see "censorship" as a dirty word like their parents do. If people are miserable, and they're given the opportunity to get rid of everything making them miserable, not only will they not care about the hidden costs, they'll think it's worth it. Throughout the film, no matter how comically cringe and uncool San Angeles gets, there's always that prologue, and all of the other horrors of the past that are casually brought up, to remind you of precisely why everybody decided to read Brave New World and think to themselves "y'know, maybe the World State had a point."

The worldbuilding in this was captivating enough, as both a product of its time and as something that still holds up today, that it was a shame the rest of the movie wasn't as good. Wesley Snipes steals the show as the comically over-the-top psycho villain Phoenix, Sandra Bullock was fun to watch as the future cop Lenina Huxley who's nostalgic for the gritty '90s but isn't quite as free of her time's uptight morality as she thinks she is, and while Denis Leary only gets a couple of scenes, his trademark rants are always a good way to make me laugh. Unfortunately, Sylvester Stallone was a weak spot in his own movie and felt like he was on autopilot for most of it. He's mostly playing his usual '80s action movie persona, a character type that he's done better before and since, and the scenes where he reacts with confusion at the world he's stepped into felt like there was a much better action-comedy lurking under the surface, one with him as the roughneck straight man remarking upon the bizarrely sanitized future. Most of that material instead went to Snipes, which is probably why I found Phoenix so entertaining. The subplot about how nearly all of Spartan's friends and family are now dead 36 years later was also treated as an afterthought, brought up a couple of times early on but never really built on after, even though it could've done a lot to flesh out his character beyond "super-cop". I would've liked to see him spend more time interacting with the one elderly cop on the force who still remembers him, or maybe have him try to locate his missing daughter and find that she's still alive, which, however it turned out, could've given him something personal to fight for in the future beyond his beef with Phoenix and his will-they-won't-they romance with Huxley. Nigel Hawthorne also felt wasted as Raymond Cocteau, the leader of San Angeles who released Phoenix in order to take out dissidents. He doesn't get to do much beyond make ominous remarks about social control, and he gets pushed aside quickly during the third act.

The action, too, was of its time, and not in a good way. The only scenes that were really worthwhile were the massive explosion in the prologue and the shootout in the museum, and in the latter's case, that's because it was the only one that really played around with the film's world, as Spartan and Phoenix both head there to get their hands on the only deadly weapons in the city and then proceed to duke it out in an exhibit dedicated to the gangland of '90s Los Angeles. Beyond that, however, the action scenes were all pretty middling, with characters throwing haymakers, shooting wildly, and wrecking cars but never really gripping me as they did so. Maybe I've been spoiled by years of John Wick movies and other modern action films both Hollywood and international that have stepped their game up when it comes to their shootouts, fistfights, and car chases, but this film was an unwelcome reminder that not every mid-budget action programmer from the "golden age of Hollywood action" was a John McTiernan or James Cameron film. There's a reason why this style of action movie was dying by 1993, is all I'm saying.

The Bottom Line

Then again, the action isn't what people remember about this movie. No, that would be the fancy Taco Bell, the three seashells, the fines for cursing, and all the other little details that make this world one of the more interesting sci-fi dystopias ever put to film. If you're a fan of creative science fiction worldbuilding, or you just wanna see Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes duke it out in a thoroughly Disneyfied future that's not prepared for either of them, check this one out.

[almalvo]

STAR TREK: DISCOVERY | S1E8 "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum"

[I will react to each episode individually and in full, raw reception and then post as is unrevised here onto my tumblr for the full span of every and all NuTrek episodes and series that have been and will be released. If this falls under your field of interest - I welcome your company in joining me. Enjoy the ride.] -------

"High Ranking Vulcan". heh. This intro though - it jkust makes me wonder the sheer potential of what couldve been for Trek. Bryan Fuller made a masterpiece called Hannibal. Not too sure on his hand in Trek - imho, it doesnt compare. ANYways. ugh i love seeing hte discovery warp downwards like that Owosekun - love her name such nice colours. consistenty good colours in this show for sure. i like how goldy inside the bridge is oh interesting. what an odd source of warp power its insanely cool though. that CANT be good for stamets. is that foreshadowing did you call her what she will become damn stamets can you be like idk a bit likeable tho please. like plenty of characters who are catty af but likeable in some way if even 1%. ugh. hi tribble. keep tribblin OO SO BLUEEEE SO PRETTYYY This is so weird to me in how this show literally comes out 2 years AFTER AOS3 in terms of production quality.

very pretty landscapes though Saru. aint no way you walkin this terrain with them feets of yours love the trees. saru is so scrawnyyy Saru literally looks amazing in any lighting no joke damn classic trek mist creature living rorschach blot Kol is so cool looking those red accents work beautifully on his face

such lovely colour grading everyones GLOWINGGG there are certainly some wonderful visuals in this show ughhhh Saru, the dust speaker is that a klingon archery set what is that HAHA i wish nah its a torture kit sorry cornwell yelling like that was kind of cringe lolll this pretty blue dust dome that ash and burnham are in is so pretty ugh something im gonna just never take seriously, "Ash x Burnham" nah get out yeah yeah however, Kirk delivered this line beyond any other human's capacity what an empty ass kiss god its so forced. another huge problem with this show is they treat these characters like we know them already but bruh everyone feels so much the stranger to me, even though we are past the halfway point of season 1. is just so weird. i am not invested in like any character, even ones i really thought i would/wanted to be but its liek the show takes them away from me i like how the klingons have a definite accent when they speak terran now L'Rell is so striking looking i love her eyes such a piercing look

see like i WANT to like this away party but like i kind of dont have any real reason to like any of these characters especially with the utter animosity stuff that never got really properly resolved. like between saru and burnham. it feels almost uncomfortable. to me the viewer watching from outside ofc. thats a really pretty flower i dont like this film style it feels too tacky so many stupid zooms so cheap feeling it feels like star trek, Teen Wolf edition. literally feels like its filmed int he same way as things like Teen Wolf that were almost 10 years earlier. its so janky. zero patience and sense to appreciate the scene itself without all this ridiculous cinematic embellishment. its so unnecessary. if even this show did this less, this show would legitimately be 7x better. saru looks so beautiful with that warm white rear light this is such a gorgeous instance of practical effects and they got the PERFECT actor to don saru Ash looks like someone ive literally known in my own life 😭 i love these red jewels on L'Rell's armour/clothing costume and design department did a great great job in this show's production - i have no beef with them.

i like saru's mouth shape its so odd. idk why i feel so detached from this show. oh dang angry saru. ferocious oml yo these are such pretty crystals] saru running in THOSE? HAAHAHAH damn had to CG him hahah that one camera shot was funny though it almost looked like the show said "yes. he can run in these". lol oh damn convincing gore i like how we continue seeing blood in trek with DISCO when i t really started in Enterprise. oh shit ANGRY SARU BRUH HE BACKKICKED HER LIKE A HORSE this stick man being so strong the way hes breaking that device literally looks like classic trek style bundle two hands together and bash DBZ style XD

really pretty tree thing though oooo the transporter circles at the bottom look SOO nice dude look at his detail up close its fucking amazing oh my god such masterfully done painting speckling im genuinely impressed damn, im sorry saru. though i think, who DOES live without fear. man costume design is wonderful. these red markings are really good they compliment their faces really well This is so odd. I have NEVER had this kind of feeling of "detachment" from a Trek production before. The fuck is happening. Ugh.

Not liking Bryan Fuller x Alex Kurtzman directing style in this show, like, at all.

I am just waiting for when this show gets better.

Cuz it's lost a lot of my anticipation.

We'll see. Hopefully.

[notjustyourhealers]

Hayley's 4 Games With Great Representation

My first experience playing a female character was Lara Croft. I felt, playing a female character as a little girl, that I could do that, too…or, at least, I could imagine because I am NOT fit enough to do any of those things.

I was open to a whole new world; I didn’t know you could play a woman! I guess that’s how it is with other forms of representation. I am a pansexual woman, and to me, it’s amazing to see more games include pronouns, body options, and love interests. I haven’t played a game that only has a straight cis male as the main character in a while. That’s not to say I hate male characters - most are badass, ahem Batman – but if I can, I will always choose to be a female. The option of your character being just a little bit more like you is so freeing.

So, I would like to point out some games with amazing representation!

Coral Island is currently in early access, has tons of romance options, and the pronouns/body types to fit your ideal gaming you!

Sims 4 has AMAZING representations. While the Sims franchise has always had amazing support for their LGBT+ community, Sims 4 added female and male categories for clothes that is removable so your character can wear both, you can also choose your sims pronouns, voice, and walk style.

Animal crossing New Horizons may not be the most overt in representation but you can choose skin tone and hair styles. I think it’s very easy to create a non-gendered or non-binary character. Especially since clothing isn’t gender based!

Error 143 is a visual novel with a very hot character named Micah. You can choose your pronouns. Jenny Vi Pham has worked very hard with the voice actor on the character to even voice some names which is amazing! There is even a $10 NSFW little DLC, which is also very hot. You can find this on Steam and Itch.io!

Well, this is my list of representative games. I only included the games I played, let me know if there are ones I missed, I’m certain I did! I would love to add more to my collection!

[theharpermovieblog]

#HARPERSMOVIECOLLECTION

2023

I watched Antiviral (2012)

An interesting sci-fi film from the son of David Cronenberg.

A salesman of celebrity diseases injects himself with an infected blood sample to later sell on the black market, only to find out it's deadly and may have been caused by an act of murder.

I've only seen one film from Director Brandon Cronenberg. 2020's Possessor was a fantastic sci-fi horror that made sure Cronenberg would not forever be in his father's shadow, but a great filmmaker all his own. Antiviral is his first feature film.

Antiviral has an incredibly creepy idea behind it. An idea that I think could honestly take off in the future. To be infected with celebrity diseases seems like a fanatical sexual fetish with a monetary future. But, I suppose that's what the best science fiction does. It shows us who we are by attempting to predict the future, whether through amazing accomplishments or dystopian destruction.

Brandon Cronenberg has a nice visual style. His vision of the future here is crisp and clean, while little things like certain machines or wallpapers or wood paneling feel almost classic and dirtier. There is a realism and life to everything despite the sanitized appearance. This film, low budget as it is, does look quite good. You can see slight touches of it's smaller budget, but it's shot and edited well.

The film's overall idea is well thought out. This world has celebrity diseases for sale through big companies, a black market for said diseases, exclusive contracts with certain celebrities, steaks grown from the cells of celebrities (which is morally debated), licenses for terminal illnesses. It's all thought out and that's necessary for us to buy into this idea and this world.

What else is necessary is the actors to sell all this. Actor Caleb Landry Jones is our lead and great as always. I wish he'd show up in more movies honestly.

While everything I talked about is great, what Cronenberg brings to this that many others couldn't, is fantastic and strange imagery and it's more than enough reason to watch.

Some people have disliked this film for it's "not-so-subtle" themes and for it's slow pace. While I agree that the themes aren't subtle, I don't think it negatively effects the film in the least. It's an interesting and easily connectable concept. And, I wasn't bogged down by the pace at all. I found the film very interesting throughout, and the runtime was fine. At one hour and forty five minutes, it's not exactly trying to get through.

I liked this movie and I like Brandon Cronenberg's ideas and the majority of his execution in both films of his I've seen. This movie was violent and disturbing and left me feeling uncomfortable.

I think it'll eventually be considered an excellent and underrated Sci-Fi Horror film.

[peterjoseph1]

Blog 1

In these blogs I will be breaking down action movies and comparing them to other films. Action movies in Hong Kong have been a big hit for them in the film industry being one the leading genre for movies there. Hong Kong gained worldwide success from these movies and recently after Covid numbers have fallen off. Hong Kong has a very deep and rich history in the action film cinema with stars like, Bruce lee who was a mixed martial artist who also acted, Jackie Chan who directed an acted in a ton of movies during his time and lastly John Woo who was a popular director of Hong Kong action films and was a pioneer of the action genre. Hong Kong is a key piece of the film industry because it was one of the main exporters of movies in the world being that is a small island. The reason they were able to have this success is because Hong Kong was leased to the United Kingdom where there were 2 systems that coexisted and benefited from one another. By having the U.K. by their side it allowed them to try different things to create and make money off of creating movies. The Hong Kong directors like to use fast paced scenes and camera cuts, a lot of fighting and violence, and visual effects. Before Hong Kong was known for their violent but thrilling martial arts and action movies they went through a number of trials and errors before stumbling upon this genre and style that blew up in viewings. The first martial arts action film that gained tons of popularity for Hong Kong was "The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple" this film was a silent film that had sword fighting, action, and what they had for special effects. It turned out to be one of the longest films ever produced in different parts but has a run time together of 27 hours in total. It is said to be the founding film of Chinese cinema. After this film directors continued to adapt and create films that got the audience excited and involved in the film. John Woo created numerous action films which gained numerous amounts of buzz within Hong Kong and worldwide. He won and was nominated for multiple awards within the cinema space and some of his best known movies were, Mission Impossible 2, Red cliff, The killer, and his newest film Silent Night. He used many different techniques like the use of slow-mo, and the martial arts style of fighting to make the film more interesting. Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan also transcended the film Industry in Hong Kong because of how likable and popular they were among the world. They were celebrities almost all over and were very popular in the United States which played a huge role in the growth of the industry. The interesting thing about the immense growth of the Hong Kong action film is that this was before the expansion of streaming services which have helped other countries show off and promote films from their country. They became a frontrunner for cinema in the world while having less exposure and budgets for promoting and filmmaking.

[abiyatno]

About the 43rd selected work of Denny Ja: “He died but lived” with a professional style

This year, the 43rd celebration of Denny Ja’s chosen work with the title “He Died But Life” has succeeded in stealing the attention of art lovers and theater throughout Indonesia. This work offers a deep and charming experience, by exploring the meaning behind a unique and interesting story.    In this selected work, Denny JA showed his expertise in presenting a strong and emotional narrative. With a professional style, he managed to create an atmosphere that captivated the audience from the beginning to the end of the show. Not only that, this work also features players who are able to turn on the characters so real, making the audience fully involved in the story presented.    “He dies but lives” tells the journey of a main character who faces a hard and full life of my licket. This story teaches us about the meaning of life, fortitude, and hope in dealing with all challenges. Through a full appearance and deep expression, actors and actresses managed to describe the feelings and emotions of this figure very well.    In addition, this selected work also has an amazing choreography. The player’s movements synergistically and harmoniously create stunning visual dances. Every movement is regulated by high precision, adding to the beauty and strength of the narrative delivered by this work.    In “he dies but alive”, Denny JA also uses the music elements intelligently. The music chosen gives the right feel to strengthen the atmosphere of the story. From the mellow tone to the full energy, every music feels right and supports the story being exhibited. Beautiful voice and harmony of music accompanied the emotional journey of the character in this story.    In addition to amazing music composition, this work also features an interesting design set. Every detail of this set really describes the atmosphere that Denny JA wants to convey. With the right aesthetic touch, this set creates a stunning atmosphere and supports the whole story.    Not only that, the production of selected works also has amazing lighting. In each scene, the right lighting provides an atmosphere that is in accordance with the emotions being disclosed. A combination of dramatic lighting and soft lighting creates a stunning visual effect and capturing the audience.    “He died but alive” is an example of a work of art that shows Denny Ja’s expertise and professionalism in creating extraordinary theater experiences. This work not only entertains, but also inspire and teaches us about life and meaning behind it.    For art lovers and theater, “He died but lived” is a show that should not be missed. With a professional style and deep experience, this selected work will lead you to an unforgettable emotional journey.    In the 43rd celebration of Denny Ja’s chosen work, “He died but lived” was a work that managed to explore the meaning behind a unique and interesting story. With a professional style, this work offers a stunning appearance, amazing choreography, the right music, attractive design set, and attractive lighting. The only word that can describe this experience is “extraordinary”.

Check the full: Explore the meaning behind the 43rd Denny Ja selected work: “He died but lived” with a professional style

[cinemacentral666]

Richard Jewell (2019) & Spencer (2021)

Movies #1,067 & 1,068 • TWO FOR TUESDAY

In many ways, this was the perfect double feature: a pair of recent(ish) biopics made in opposing styles, one on a topic I was vastly interested in, and another which I wasn’t at all.

2019’s Richard Jewell by Clint Eastwood is indicative of his recent work: it’s competent and informative and just entertaining enough (though so visually flat, it almost has no style at all). And on the flipside, Pablo Larraín’s Princess Di Christmas movie Spencer is largely all-style (what substance is mostly imagined, fictionalized to the point of it being labeled a “fable” at the onset of the film). For the latter, I had to pivot about 45 minutes in and start thinking of it as a story about "a woman in trouble" (in the INLAND EMPIRE sense) and not a biopic about the Royal Family, which is just something I couldn't give less of a shit about. Honestly, on the "Less of a Shit Pantheon," they are at the very very top (or bottom feels more appropriate — this Pantheon is a pit and I've kicked this trash in it first). Equal parts insufferable and uninteresting, those blokes.

Though it was amazing how much drama they were able to milk out of a story which is essentially "lady doesn't want to eat dinner with her in-laws." And Kristen Stewart does (somehow) manage to transcend ‘Kristen Stewart doing a Princess Diana’ impression, which when you first see her on screen feels impossible. So, needless to say, I was able to enjoy this one much more than I anticipated at the onset. It’s well-acted and its lovely 16mm cinematography gave it a timeless vibe which really worked.

Conversely, my appreciation for Eastwood’s Jewell worked in a totally different manner. I was invested in the story from the get-go. I remember the Olympic bombing and subsequent hoopla surrounding the titular character but I was just a tween when it happened, so all of the details of this fascinating saga felt fresh to me. And I was able to overlook some of the bad writing (Olivia Wilde’s characters is a total mess) and stock pandering and/or exaggerated biopic stuff. Plus. Paul Walter Hauser is the real deal, and I’m not sure if the film would have worked at all with a lesser actor in the role.

SCORE: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (for both)

[desperatehornet]

Sequential Practise Week 11: Zines (Part 1)

Our final project of this Trimester is to create a personalized Zine, Where we could choose to work on any topic we want. I was personally very excited for this, as this would be the first project to give me total freedom in creativity. I could use my own art style and do whatever topic I wanted. First things first, we were shown some examples of zines and had to come up with some spreads of possible Ideas. I came up with 3 ideas, those being zines based on: 1. The manga 'Skip Beat!'

2. The video game 'Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion'

3. The video game 'The Walking Dead' I looked into these three ideas because all of these are not only very important parts of my life, but because they all had potential for interesting Ideas to be made into a zine. 1. Skip Beat! 's main character Kyoko is an aspiring actor who goes through a very large character arc, which was made visual via the new characters she had to play -> Opportunity for a visual story going through her arc, with pages dedicated to the different roles she plays. 2. Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion is a homage to many different horror games, meaning the game itself employs many different art styles and atmospheres with its different characters. -> Opportunity for experimentation with different styles and techniques.

3. The Walking Dead mainly centres around the character of Clementine, who grows up through a different stage of life over the course of the 4 main games. -> Opportunity again for a visual story about her journey growing up, and the people she met throughout the games. While I genuinely love all of my ideas, I decided to go with a The Walking Dead themed zine in the end, because it's one of the most important things in my life, and I could instantly come up with several ideas for possible page ideas. I loved this part of the project, as it was amazing having the full creative freedom of making an idea come to life, instead of being bound down by rules and instructions like with prior projects. With my idea settled, I was ready to go through with the next stage of the project and begin making my zine.