#and each arc is distinct enough to be memorable in their own ways

[ladsofsorrow24]

i really should further the "go reread chainsaw man" agenda because some people read it in one go then come out with Very Wild conclusion

[otakween]

Digimon Frontier - Episode 50 (Finale!)

Yay, it's over! (lol). I'm sorry, but this ending didn't do much for me. We barely got to see the real world at all and the epilogue amounted to a boring slide show (aside from Koji reuniting with his birth mom, that was sweet). In the end, these characters just didn't feel as fleshed out as those in previous seasons and the digimon connection was lackluster too (it's hard to see the spirits as separate characters). Oh well, I don't mind watching some bland anime now and then...

Notes:

Seriously, compared to previous seasons, this goodbye was so blah. They just get yeeted back to the human world immediately after the final battle and miss their chance to say goodbye to the digimon. Bokomon gets the longest goodbye monologue, but I never liked him so...yeah. (Remember when Adventure gave us sentimental goodbyes between each human-digimon pairing that were indicative of their distinct, defined personalities? Yeah...I miss that).

The spirits showing up and even striking the final blow was...okay I guess. The "bad guy" spirits were just silent and in the background again. There's just no emotional connection because we haven't seen the main spirits as characters before (aside from silently nodding from the digivice from time to time).

Neemon snapping his own pants was a funny gag. The slapstick between Bokomon and Neemon did grow on me. (Funny how Neemon never served a single purpose...)

The Susanoomon thing was weird. In the previous episode Susanoomon was created by combining all 10 spirits but only Takuya and Koji were "inside" him, but in this episode all the kids go "inside." Either way it's still 10 spirits. They should have just made him be a combo of all the kids from the start! So clunky...

Lucemon Satan Mode gave major Millenniumon vibes in his lil grubby form. I'm not sure if "fall down mode" or "Satan mode" is a dumber name.

Seeing the digicode flow out of Lucemon/the digivices and reform the digital world was nice. (Hopefully the moons came back too lol). I wonder if everyone's going to start from zero as a digiegg?

Lol sure, they just let a bunch of kids barge into an emergency room. Hospital security apparently sucks in Japan! I was a little confused what exactly revived Koichi. Was it Koji's love or something from the digivices? Well, either way it was pretty silly.

I don't know why I didn't even think about the human/digital world time difference. I thought when Takuya returned to the human world in that previous episode that everyone would be worried about him, but they have the nice "no time has passed actually" loop hole.

Now that I think about it, it kind of feels like they all had the same arc. The epilogue was all about the kids having learned how to get along better with others (except maybe Tomoki who learned to "not be weak," but even that had to do with how he treats others!) Instead of just seeing them hang out with their one-dimensional families and classmates, I think I would have just preferred an epilogue of them hanging out in the human world and getting pizza or something. Or maybe they could be supporting Junpei at a magic show! (Maybe what I really need is fanfic lol).

Bring back parents!! The kids' parents in Adventure and Tamers were a big presence and it made them feel more like real, relatable people. Here they're mostly just in the background. Also, maybe if I got to know Koji's dad more I wouldn't think he was such a weirdo for lying to his son! >:/ I wanted to hear his side!!

Digimon Frontier was...my least favorite season so far for sure. It's not like it was a total loss, there were some cool digimon designs and I liked the digivolution sequences. The characters were charming enough, but not super memorable. I think this series' shortcomings really highlight what made previous seasons work better. IDK much about how it was received back in the day, but hopefully they learned from these mistakes. Onto the next! (After a brief gaming interlude).

[cadybear420]

Cadybear's Reviews- High School Story (OG Trilogy)

Welcome to the third official Cadybear's Reviews post! Today I'll be talking about the OG High School Story trilogy, which (to the surprise of absolutely no one) I have ranked on the "Diamond Tier" at 10 stars out of a possible 10.

Everyone and their dog who knows me knows that this is my favorite Choices series of all time. And even that bias aside, I can in good faith consider this one of Choices’ best-made series too. 

Buckle up bitches, this is gonna be a long one. But I’ll try to keep it as concise as I can and break it up into each of the aspects that make the series so great. 

First, the MC. 

I do genuinely consider them among Choices’ best MCs. Probably unpopular opinion, but them being a blank slate works heavily in their favor, as it allows their character to be more flexible to what kind of character and story routes the player wants for them. You have different kinds of options in how you respond to things, a lot of which do have a significant impact on the actual story outcomes. The MC is a sort of an audience-surrogate character, but in a way that takes advantage of the interactive story medium and allows them to be proactive in the story, rather than making them bland or obnoxious or passive and then passing that off as self-insertable like a lot of modern stories try to do. 

Although there can be some noticeable traits reminiscent of a Mary Sue type character, they’re very minimal and never overbearing. The story rarely if ever makes a big deal of MC being popular, rather than turning them into some OP god/goddess where everyone else just blindly worships the very air they breathe. For the most part, being popular and winning hoco/GoH/prom are simply just bonus things for the MC rather than the crux of their entire character. 

Yeah, they can initially seem “too perfect”, but they’re really only perfect if you make them that way. You can make them do things like slip Koh’s secret to Isa, treat the incoming Hearst kids poorly, or be shit at their activity. You even get a few more gray decisions such as whether or not to turn in Myra or who to side with during the basketball game. And most of them do have consequential outcomes. Maybe not as major as the outcomes of stories like ILS or TH:M, but enough that they do significantly alter the story experience. I legitimately have so many different routes and versions of the MC I wanna try out in this series.

Second, all of the supporting/side characters. 

Along with ES, ILITW, and TH:M, OG HSS is one of few stories where having a large cast is handled well and benefits the story more than harms it. Although the high school environment can be a bit cliquey and some of the characters are based off of typical high school stereotypes, they each feel like their own unique individual person and there’s even a lot of subversion of the stereotypes they’re based on. The jocks aren’t all just meatheaded alpha males; the cheerleaders aren’t all just snobby mean girls; the nerds, despite being more sidelined, aren’t pathetic losers; and each of the LIs have some depth to their supposed high school stereotype traits. 

Aiden and Michael are my two most favorite LIs of all time. Aiden’s route especially is really genuine and earned and develops at a good pace, and I could probably make a separate post just about him alone. But really, all the LIs have some amazing growth arcs. And they, as well as all the side characters, are overall just interesting, down-to-earth, and memorable characters. Julian, Payton, Mia, Frank, Myra, Jade, and the rest all feel like distinct characters that I feel like I have actual reasons to give a damn about. Lest we forget the non-student characters. Characters like MC’s dad and Principal Hughs are especially iconic too, and give the story its own extra warmth and just that little touch of campiness. 

Even the antagonists were pretty compelling– although they maybe weren’t all the most common or realistic kinds of antagonists, the conflicts they created still felt believable and threatening, and they were utilized in their roles relatively well. Brian, Zoe, Isa, Max, and Kara are all characters where I can actually care about what they do. 

Third, the extracurricular activity system. 

This technically goes hand-in-hand with the MC, but it’s a big part of why this series is so immersive and God-tier for me that it deserves its own section too. There are quite a handful of choices in this series that have an impact on the story, but this one is by far the strongest one and it gives the story and MC a lot of flexibility and variance. 

Each book, you can choose sports, band, or cheer, and it gives you a very different experience of the story. Book 1 gives you a different conflict for each activity. Book 2, you don’t really get involved in your activity much, but it does affect how you may experience Isa’s reign and how characters will respond to which stances you take. Book 3 has pretty much the same base conflict in each activity, but the characters are all different enough that it does feel pretty distinct. 

 Not to mention that the different activities can give extra scenes with certain LIs. Romancing Aiden as a jock is still pretty damn good and I love it, but romancing Aiden as a band kid hits so much differently. You get extra interactions with him, a few more opportunities to score romance points, and you can feel this bit of extra connection between him and your MC. There’s a scene during the band concert where just before you play his song, they say that “you see a glint in his eyes that you haven’t seen before”, and after you finish playing it you see “his eyes gleam with pride”. 

Bonus points also for sports and cheer both being open to both m!MC and f!MC; getting to be a female football jock is very euphoric for me. Although I’d have loved more female jock rep and male cheerleader rep besides MC, Emma in Book 1 if you do the football route, Jade, Kieran, and one or two one-offs, it’s still incredibly enjoyable. Especially with how un-sensationalized it is– the jock guys on the team don’t pathologize or patronize or tokenize my f!jock MC– they just treat her as yet another normal part of the team. Which is how it should be. I haven’t done a male cheerleader MC route yet but I think it’s fair to assume that the same applies there. 

Obviously, this is probably not realistic to how most high school sports would work, but who gives a shit? It’s still believable and still makes the experience much more unique and enjoyable. In fact, nowadays there are some people advocating for sports to have a similar system to wrestling weight classes instead of gender/sex-based divisions, so if anything, this is kind of ahead of its time. To quote Caleb Mitchell, “If you’ve got the speed, who cares if you’re a guy or a girl?” 

Fourth, the storylines themselves. 

They’re not super emotionally deep or realistic stories, but that’s okay. They’re really fun and engaging, and if anything, that’s why they work so well. They’re able to think outside the box for what can be done within the high school setting. So we get situations that are fun and exciting and escapist, but never get overly absurd or juvenile or feel cheap in their conflicts, and are made to feel grounded with characters that are very down-to-earth and human. 

It’s a very idealized high school experience for sure, but it’s not without humanity or conflict and challenges, and overall it does feel organic. It makes you actually want to attend that high school, which is a pretty damn good accomplishment considering IRL high school more often than not is a traumatic experience for a lot of us. HSS is basically “high school but if it were actually good”. 

A lot of the conflicts are seemingly basic high school drama, but we see how it can have a very real influence on the characters and their personal struggles. Such as how band in-fighting and a screwed up half-time performance basically sends Aiden into a near breakdown over his fear of failure and strive for perfection in music. Or how the Ollie the Tiger statue being vandalized is deeply upsetting to Michael due to Berry being the one high school that was the most welcoming to him and his desire to preserve that. Or how people’s low energy for homecoming causes Maria to get frustrated and eventually snap from struggling with her leadership roles. Even if these situations are unrealistic to your average high school, it sure as hell is believable. Sometimes, it’s those seemingly small or petty issues that can be taking the biggest tolls on us. 

Fifth, no smut scenes. 

I mean, it makes sense, since I don’t think it would go down well for PB if they wrote smut of under-18 characters. But as someone who does not like how PB writes smut, I’m fine with that. Even if these guys were 18+, I wouldn’t want PB’s mediocre formulaic-ass smut writing to ruin the LI scenes, especially since characters like Aiden and Michael are my all-time favorites of Choices LIs. 

Granted the 30 diamond scenes we do get aren’t exactly immune to being formulaic either (I swear to God if they make my MC sit in Michael’s lap one more goddamn time instead of the other way around I will actually die on the spot), but it’s a lot less… glaring here. And frankly, I prefer it that way. Leave the NSFW bits (if any) of their relationships up to interpretation. 

Sixth, its relevance to its past installment, AKA the original High School Story mobile game. 

For the most part, I think it bridges pretty well with HSS Prime. I actually played Choices HSS before I heard about and downloaded the Prime game, and even then, I found all of the returning Prime characters like Julian, Mia, Ezra, Payton, Koh, etc. to be really memorable. Even Nishan and Sakura, who barely had relevance in the trilogy, were endearing to me. Hence going into the Prime game was like delving into the HSS lore and getting “The Origin Story” of the seniors and the school. 

Heck, I’d even say some of the characters– Julian, Mia, Koh, and Sakura in particular– got a bit of upgrade in Choices, being more mature from how they were in Prime. Honest to God, stuff like Julian’s over-machoness and Mia’s snobbishness could get pretty grating in Prime. While the Prime versions were obviously all more fleshed-out characters, seeing them the way they are in Choices is sort of like seeing how far they’ve come from how they were in Prime. Which I think is a pretty neat way for us to see them off as they’re about to graduate.

Returning for a second HSS playthrough after playing a fair amount of the Prime game, I was later able to notice all the Easter Eggs that showed up in the OG trilogy- Wes and Autumn’s history, Koh’s relationship with her grandma, Koh’s love for buffalo wings, etc. They were able to keep the two very connected, while still allowing OG to be able to stand on its own two feet. 

I also love how they make it so that the switch from the old MC and cast to the new MC and cast feels justified. The writers knew that taking HSS to Choices would need to be welcoming to both old and new fans, and to try and make the Choices trilogy continue the story of the Prime MC probably would have made that a bit more difficult. So they write off the Prime MC as having graduated the year prior and sort of set up the implication that the new cast was being “passed down the torch to unify Berry and take on Hearst”. Which works because it maintains some grounded relevance to the HSS franchise, but doesn’t alienate the fans who are new to HSS. 

It’s not perfect and it did have its shortcomings, but for the most part, it did feel like it was truly a part of HSS. 

Of course, the trilogy as a whole isn’t without its flaws. There are actually quite a handful of problems ranging from minor nitpicky general Choices problems to a couple that are pretty glaring. I think I’m gonna make a separate post for that, so stay tuned for “Everything right and wrong with each of the HSS Books”. But for the most part, they don’t really bring down the series all that much. 

Overall, I definitely consider this one of the best Choices series. It’s fun, escapist, immersive, a lot of your choices actually fucking matter, and it’s a good continuation of the HSS franchise.

[nerdynatreads]

 ☆☆YouTube | Tumblr | Instagram | Storygraph ☆☆

book review || The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro

video review || ARC Reading Vlog — The Haunting of Alejandra and Yours Truly

~Thanks to Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Haunting of Alejandra in exchange for an honest review. ~

Oh, wow, this doesn’t shy away from the heaviness this book is going to be covering as we open our meeting with Alejandra and see how much she’s struggling with everyday tasks. Her depression has become so debilitating that she has a hard time taking care of her children and her shitty husband who guilt trips her for struggling. She’s come to resent her relationship with him and is now beginning to have visions of a woman in white. I deeply want to give this woman a hug and encourage her to get help— which thank god, she does. The therapist she finds is also Mexican American and they connect over the stories of La Llorona and La Catrina, which gave some depth to both pieces of folklore I wasn’t aware of.

Prior to moving for her husband’s job, she’d been trying to reconnect with her birth mother and her culture that she wasn’t able to experience while growing up in the foster care system. I really love that she’s also trying to share the things she’s learned with her oldest daughter, Catrina, and am hopeful to see more of their relationship as Alejandra heals. The showcasing of generational trauma was exquisite. Each of the women in this family line’s perspectives felt similar and yet different enough to keep them distinct. We start with the first woman in the family line to interact with the demon. Her voice is just as somber and bitter but still stands apart from Alejandra’s. In all perspectives, though, La Llorona’s visits are so eerie and unsettling.

The plot itself is character focused as we watch Alejandra’s journey to learn more about her family line, and the troubles that have followed them, and work to heal from her own struggles so that she can save her children from suffering similar fates. I really adored the discussions around motherhood and identity in this story, the way these women took hold of their fates and made what they wanted up them. I felt just as empowered by their stories as Alejandra. The horror we see is in the visceral and gory descriptions of our character’s experiences and are amped up most when we see La Llorona, but I wanted more. There were a few moments that had me making disgusted faces, but nothing particularly memorable about the horror. I did, however, really like the final perspective and how it twisted the usual tale of La Llorona, showcasing her in a more sympathetic light.

My biggest complaint throughout this was the dialogue didn’t really seem authentic or flow naturally. Conversations feel long-winded or just unusual to how someone would speak. I also would have liked a bit more explanation of the demon in the end, it felt unresolved in the end and like a cop-out wrap-up.

4 / 5 stars

[fzzr]

I Have a Lot To Say About Monogatari

Monogatari, also known as Bakemonogatari after the first season, is one of the greatest anime ever made, but how the hell do you explain that to someone? It's 100 episodes and a three-part movie long, so selling someone on watching the whole thing is tough. Even if they were willing, you need to make sure they're not the kind of person to call the cops on you for recommending a show where the main character, a 17-year-old guy, has a middle school girl on his bed in only bloomers (and just wait until you see what he can do with a toothbrush). All caveats aside, I have many words about this series. Here are just a few.

With Monogatari I could start talking about what makes it great in many places, so I rolled a die and we're starting with dialogue. Monogatari is an extremely talky show. Characters do take action, like tearing out someone's intestines or flipping the skirt of an elementary school student, but fundamentally the conflicts are all psychological and philosophical, and those are things that require a lot of talking to get across. Luckily, Monogatari is very very good at making dialogue engaging.

Consider the trope of meeting your girlfriend's father for the first time. The Monogatari implementation of this scene has Hitagi's dad drive them to their first date, and the whole drive is used (deliberately, in-story) to push the awkward tension to the maximum. Koyomi is then left alone in the car with her dad. What one expects is the usual "are you good enough for her" conversation, but instead he opens with "please take care of my daughter", the stock phrase for approving their relationship. It's played off as a joke, but then her dad talks about their family's past and how he's seen his daughter change since getting together with Koyomi. He ends the conversation the way it started, "please take care of my daughter," and this time it's for real. It never drops the intensity of how it uses the tropes of the medium, and yet it comes together into a tender and emotional moment. Absolutely incredible.

All that has been about the dialogue itself. Just as important is the presentation of all this talking. Half of episode 3 is dedicated to a long conversation between Koyomi and Hitagi. This could have been done with a static two shot, or shot/reverse shot for reactions. Instead, it has them using various bits of playground equipment, like a seesaw or a giant rotating jungle gym. When the conversation gets heavier, they sit down on a bench. Even then, a ring of parallel bars drifts across the foreground, so there is some motion. For the next few beats, it zooms in back to still shots, but from various angles with exaggerated character poses. The conversation never feels stuck in place, despite how easy it is for that much talking to drag.

Speaking of Koyomi and Hitagi, Monogatari is blessed with a cast of very distinct and memorable characters. Araragi Koyomi, Hanekawa Tsubasa, Senjougahara Hitagi, Oshino Meme, Oshino Shinobu, Hachikuji Mayoi, Kanbaru Suruga, Sengoku Nadeko, Araragi Karen, Araragi Tsukihi, Ononoki Yotsugi, and more - each with their own mix of problems and quirks, vulnerabilities and strengths, recurring jokes and even varying degrees of fourth wall access... they are each special in their own ways. Screentime is not spread completely evenly, but each arc is named after the focus character and there are plenty of those to go around. Most arcs result in a substantial change to that character and others. Even when that's not the case, you can expect to at least learn something about their past or their true role in the story.

And about that story! The framework for the overarching storyline is being put in place from the very start, but the ways things fit together will not become clear for a long time. After the first few arcs, the story goes nonlinear. Sometimes incredibly important plot moments happen completely offscreen and only become visible when they go wrong in an initially unrelated character's story. One midseries arc takes place after the epilogue, but it is where it belongs due to how it develops its focus character and how it builds intrigue for things that happen before it in the timeline.

Music is another place where Monogatari shines. Plenty of anime do the thing where the theme song kicks in at a critical moment to enhance some moment to the peak of awesomeness. Monogatari does that to some extent, but its real strength comes in how it mutates its theme songs. A simple example is using a music box version of a theme to benefit from the play-the-opening impact in a quiet moment. With every arc having its own opening, those openings come to represent not just those arcs but those characters. When a character receives focus again in a future arc, they receive new opening as well. Those new openings are then able to lean on the previous themes almost like leitmotifs. One of those (which I don't want to name for spoiler reasons) used a very twisted reference in both song and animation in such a way that I had to pause and gather myself from the impact the first time I encountered it.

On animation, Monogatari in motion has an inimitable artistic vision. After watching just a few episodes, chances are if you saw another one with no context and no shared characters you would still know they’re from the same show beyond question within minutes. The basics are characteristic of Shaft of that era, sure (look at Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei) but it goes far, far beyond its peers. I already talked about how it uses limited motion to keep conversation engaging. In that and beyond, everything that happens is pushed to some extreme. If a character gives side eye, you're getting a close up with a musical sting and some very specific comment or a text card. It's not all about in-your-face energy either. Quiet moments can be heightened with the right amount of stillness or held tension.

Monogatari has the ability to push boundaries so close to the line that you need an electron microscope to find the distance. For many, the line is further back and Monogatari crosses it, but I’m speaking for me here and for me it doesn’t quite go over. The important thing is that it’s not doing it solely for edge, shock, or donger raising. Nearly everything lewd is incredibly funny, and the few cases where they’re not are tasteful without losing the necessary impact. It has some very brutal violence (eg. swinging a guy around by the intestines), but they art it up enough to make it clear that it’s not gratuitous. In a meta sense, Monogatari is deeply integrated with anime culture. It has the basics, like references to everything from Astro Boy to Attack on Titan, but it also gets into the meat of things. Any slightly meta anime can say “haha you’re such a tsundere”, but Monogatari takes it a step further and develops that both for humor and for genuine character exploration.

Conclusion

So what to do with an anime that, in at least a few ways, has no equals? To be a 10/10 you need to be 11/10 on something, and there are many 11/10 moments in this long series. Unfortunately, the Monogatari series just has a few too many caveats and weak points to make it to the podium. There are parts that drag. It's hard to keep up with flashing text, even though you can get by without it. Watching it in the order it aired shuffles things around in weird ways (I recommend watching the seasons and movie in the order the light novels were published.)

Score: 9/10. When at its best, the Monogatari series as a whole an incomparable experience. It’s not perfect, but if you have the time and the power level, you owe it to yourself to give it a try, or another one if you have before.

Recommendation: Monogatari requires a VERY high power level. Between the underage characters in unfortunate circumstances, the occasionally quite graphic violence, the inaccessibility of the freeze frame bits, etc. it's not really for everyone. That said if you do have the tolerance and the time, it's a sublime experience with no true peer.

Comparisons

There were so many tumblr's editor broke, so I split them into a second post, coming soon eventually.

Final Thoughts

Monogatari really is the complete package. I would say I wish it didn't require as high a power level as it does so that more people could enjoy it, but I also wouldn't want it to be watered down. Here's hoping the Off Season and Monster Season get the same treatment that the rest did in the end.

[mach-speed-spin]

I'M GONNA BE REAL HERE. GENUINELY DID NOT REMEMBER DR K HAVING AN ASSISTANT. actually i kind of forgot about jim having Anything notable too admittedly kane and salima are pretty much the designated Relevant Ones out of that quartet

i think the main thing that made those 5 snake pit battles fun to watch is that even if it's members aren't particularly distinct from one another, it's not like the show is stopping everything to try and make them seem more intimidating than they actually are.

also, while i never did watch most of metal fusion, dark nebula def seems like it benefits from having a specific pool of recurring members as opposed to making them all just one-offs.

thinking on it i actually kind of wonder if this is another case where just... cutting out the middleman and merging the psykick and zagart plotlines would've helped things? cause that way you've got the whole season to atleast establish a few goons, maybe bring king and queen in after the big halfway point, they could've had somethin there 4 sure if things were more planned out

MFB gave each member of the Dark Nebula (except the Kumade brothers, who are the least relevant members) at least one episode that heavily focused on them, with most members getting several focus episodes (and even those with only one still had significant moments in other episodes). The Snake Pit made 5 mooks and they were done with in the span of 3 episodes. The Dark Nebula members deserve to have this much time dedicated to them because they’re recurring characters with their own developed personalities, and most of them having their own reasons for joining the Dark Nebula. The masked bladers aren’t very developed characters (Black Eye and Azure Eye get superficial traits, while the rest get about as much as a V-Force mook), but since they collectively last 3 episodes (and not even 3 whole episodes), it’s fine

V-Force didn’t give any of their mooks the development needed to justify a full episode. Dennis (the dinosaur guy) is the least bad because, like the masked bladers, he didn’t last very long. He was disposed of early into his introductory episode and his only narrative purpose is to create a scenario that forces Max and Mariam to work together

The rest of V-Force’s mooks took up most of their episode with no character to show for it. It’s fine to make a villain with the personality of cardboard cutout if you can make the battle itself good enough, but V-Force’s battles weren’t that great (for an example of this done right, Rago in the third season of mfb is barely developed as a character, but taking on a dozen of the world’s strongest bladers and only losing because of the collective power of every blader in the world makes him memorable as the biggest physical threat they ever faced). V-Force’s mooks weren’t interesting enough as characters nor as challenges for the heroes to face, but they take up a lot of time

Even if the mooks were done after one episode (unlike the Dark Nebula’s recurring villains), they could still be more interesting. Metal Fusion episode 34 has Teru, a one-off rival for Gingka (he only appears afterwards in cameos). Teru is given a backstory about how he got into blading (and what he did before blading), we see his relationship with Gingka (admiring him but also wanting to surpass him), and he is given a full character arc (albeit most of it is told via flashbacks). V-Force, given the same amount of time in an episode with a very similar premise (main characters doing everyday things when a new opponent shows up to challenge them), manages to waste a lot of time on a battle where the only way for the audience to get invested is through spectacle (something V-Force isn’t very good at)

I don’t think more time needed to be spent on developing recurring mooks like the Dark Nebula (though that is one possible solution). I think each mook should’ve either been disposed of faster (Snake Pit), or the episode should’ve been focused on the individual mook and their character (Teru)

[whimsicaldragonette]

ARC Review: Enola Holmes: The Graphic Novels #4-6 by Serena Blasco

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Publication Date: December 6, 2022

Synopsis:

In Book 2 of the series, Enola is back on the case, deciphering clues and developing leads in each of three new mysteries. What she doesn’t know is that she, too, is being pursued—by her own brother! Once again, Sherlock Holmes’ brilliant, strong-willed younger sister takes center stage in this delightfully drawn graphic novel based on Nancy Springer’s bestselling mystery series. London, 1889. A woman is being held prisoner while she awaits a forced marriage. Another has been kidnapped, and yet another disappears… As Enola seeks to rescue the three women, her brother embarks on a quest of his own. When Sherlock receives a mysterious package, he knows he’ll need Enola’s help to decipher its meaning. In the end, the three Holmes siblings will have to work together to answer the question that started it all: What happened to their mother?   Book Two contains three engrossing mysteries: The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan, The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline, and The Case of Baker Street Station.

My Rating: ★★★★★

*My Review below the cut.

My Review:

This was delightful! I love the Enola Holmes adventures and this graphic novel compilation is an engaging and enjoyable way to experience them. I have not previously read the books this graphic novel is based on, but I had no difficulty following the story. The artwork is gorgeous! the watercolor illustrations are free-flowing enough to give the pieces a sense of movement. The colors are vibrant and convey the emotion of each scene excellently, as well as the personality of the characters. Speaking of personality, each character is drawn in a way that makes them ooze personality. They are unique, distinct, and memorable, making the experience of reading even more fun. In many ways the characters remind me of those one might encounter in a Charles Dickens novel. I love the way Enola runs circles around her brothers despite being only 14. She is inquisitive, has a brilliant mind, and is very resourceful. The story is a whirlwind where she leaves everyone in the dust as she rockets about solving mysteries. She gives Sherlock a run for his money. I hope there will be more volumes of these Enola Holmes graphic novels because they are loads of fun and I would love to read more. *Thanks to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing an e-arc for review.

[twofrontteethstillcrooked]

3 Oct. Suptober: Rainbows

With his finger, Dean traced the outline of one of the rainbows arced on Cas's knee. "Is it weird that rainbows remind me of you?"

s15 au; deancas

In hindsight, Cas was preoccupied, not only by the task at hand but by the person he was undertaking it on behalf of, which was likely why he didn't realize he had company in the bunker kitchen until Sam said, "Hey, Cas," and Cas almost fumbled the glass into the sink. 

"Oof, sorry," Sam rushed to say next. 

His expression was a variety of things, none of which Cas clocked as fundamentally apologetic while he refilled the glass. 

Sam cleared his throat. "Whatcha doing?"

Cas squinted at him. Maybe Sam was drunk, or ill. "Just getting a drink of water." He left the statement there; Sam had seen him consume water before.

Sam fidgeted with the hem of his t-shirt and did not look at Cas. "Sure. You." He made some kind of gesture with his hands that did not seem relevant to anything. "You seen Dean lately?"

"He's asleep," Cas offered, since he knew it to be correct.

"In his room?" Sam's voice cracked on the second word.

Cas drew out the word 'yes' into something of a question. What was Sam looking at on the ceiling anyway?

"His room. Which. You just left?" Sam bounced on the balls of his feet for a second.

Cas looked around for intruders, hex bags, strange fogs, spooky auras, blood stains, a bucket of empty beer cans -- something that might explain why Sam was speaking like someone who'd just learned English. 

"Yes, Dean's room." 

Cas suppressed a smile that wanted to surface as his thoughts quickly flitted to Dean -- Dean curled boneless beneath a body-warmed blanket, his eyelashes fanned dark against the tops of his freckled cheeks -- and back again. He sat the glass in the sink and stepped toward Sam carefully.

"Uh huh. Okay." Sam took a step backwards. His line of sight popped back up to the light fixture. "Wearing. ...What it is you're wearing?

Cas glanced down past his bare chest to the flannel covering his legs. "Pajamas?"

Sam nodded a series of tight little nods, like an invisible puppeteer controlling him was getting restless. "Okay. Okay. And Dean is." He didn't trail off as much as seem to run out of ideas for the rest of the sentence.

"Asleep," Cas reminded him. 

Another Sam nod. "Right." 

"He tends to fall asleep for a while within thirty or so minutes after we--"

"Dude," Sam said. 

Understanding clicked into place. "Ah. I apologize, Sam," Cas said, with a small sinking sensation in his stomach. "I did assume Dean had told you." 

He was leaving out some words, and he didn't mean to play coy; it just seemed like perhaps Sam would prefer fewer details over more with regards to -- how to say diplomatically? -- recent developments.

"Dean tell me? Really?" Sam stared at him directly for the first time the whole encounter. His pupils were big black dots reminiscent of the ones he'd had when they were all cartoons for a while.

"No." Cas paused. "But I did think maybe you just knew." 

An honest confession, since Sam, a skilled hunter with decades of experience beneath his proverbial belt, was often quite good at discerning patterns beneath the surface of verbal communication. Cas had not always been as certain of his own feelings as he was in the present. Indeed, it had taken years for what he felt for Dean -- unfamiliar, prismatic impulses occasionally strong enough to almost bring Cas to his knees -- to coagulate into something fierce and unshakeable that could in part be described in words, much less translatable to more tangible actions. Just because Cas had been slow to realize the depths of his own emotions didn't mean Sam had been.

Except.

Sam's eyebrows jumped into his hairline like worms fleeing chicken beaks. 

"What," he choked out. "Why. No. How would I have known about--" He was flinging his hands around again. "--This?" The hands flew toward Cas like Sam was casting a spell at him. "You are like my brother."

"Um," Cas said.

"And Dean is my brother."

"Uh--"

"And I have literally heard him refer to you as our brother."

"Right.”

"Like, we're all brothers here." Sam gave a helpless chuff of laughter.

"Okay."

"So you understand," Sam continued, "why I might be concerned that my two brothers are apparently sleeping together." The volume of his voice went lower in direct counter to its pitch by the end of the sentence.

Cas chose not to comment on this, nor on the shadow that lurked in the doorway and then dissipated. He said instead, "I don't really sleep all that much, but I take your point."

Sam buried his face in the palms of his hands. 

"I'm." Cas swallowed. He stood a bit taller, the way a soldier might when either respectfully yielding to an enemy or accepting that opponent's surrender -- not that Sam was a villain here. "I'm sorry you found out this way, Sam."

"It's." Sam took a deep breath, then coughed once. "You don't have to apologize."

"Sam, could you... There is nothing on the ceiling that could be that interesting."

"You have nothing to be sorry about." Sam spoke like he meant it, or at least wanted to mean it.

Cas let out an inward sigh of relief. "All right."

"The stress," Sam said. "What we do. Monsters. Apocalypses, plural. It's-- I know it's a lot." Now he had slipped into hunter wrangler mode, all rallying the troops and leftover law school pragmatism. "And I can see how the two of you might, you know, need to blow off some steam. Sometimes."

"Sam--"

"Dean always does get a little antsy when he goes a while without." Sam shook his head like he'd realized this was absolutely not a topic he wanted to think about. "You know."

"Sam," Cas said sharply.

"I'll stop talking now."

"I'm in love with your brother, Sam." Those truest words were spoken so easily that once upon a time it might have bothered Cas; in the present, it assuredly did not. He let Sam gape for a moment and then softened the statement with, "It's not just a casual, friends with insurance sort of thing for me. For the record. If that helps."

Sam looked like the human equivalent of the little tri-colored beachball that would spin and spin onscreen when one of his computer tablets got overwhelmed. Finally, his eyes cleared. "All right." His mouth quirked. "The phrase is 'friends with benefits.'" 

Cas blinked. "Insurance is often a benefit extended to citizens in the United States, isn't it?"

"Less often than's helpful," Sam said.

Cas nodded. The two of them stood there by the sink, not really looking at each other. A thought came to Cas.

"I love you too--"

"Dude," Sam said.

Cas held up a hand. "--But I'm not in love with you." This distinction was one that had taken him a long time to understand; it seemed worth sharing.

The ceiling had recaptured Sam's fascination, but he was smiling when he said, "I know." He clapped Cas on the shoulder. "I love you too."

Cas returned the smile. "You, and Dean, and Jack -- you are all my family."

"Yeah." Sam ducked his head, as if pleased. "Yeah, I know."

Cas picked the glass of water up out of the sink. He raised it to Sam in a small toast. "Okay. I'm going to go back to Dean's room now."

"'Night, Cas."

Cas padded back down the hallway, opened Dean's squeaky door, and crept inside the room. The bedside lamp had been turned on. He watched the blanketed lump in the middle of the mattress for movement before asking quietly, "How much of that did you hear?"

"Most of it." Dean sat up and yawned. He scratched at the side of his head where his hair was sticking out. The blanket puddled below his pelvis. Cas glanced away like he hadn't personally and enthusiastically pressed those hipbones into the mattress less than an hour before.

When Cas walked around and put a knee on the bed, Dean said, "I also wanted water."

Cas bumped his arm with the glass. "This is for you."

"Oh," Dean said, taking it from him. "Thanks."

"Because I don't drink all that much water."

"Right."

"Because I don't sweat as much as you do."

"Hmm. You sweat some," Dean said, a hint of slyness in his tone. He leaned away to leave the water glass on the bedside table.

Cas sat on the edge of the mattress and let Dean scoot up to him. "Are you bragging about making me sweat?"

"Mmm," Dean said, splaying his hand over Cas's clavicle. 

"You should probably talk to Sam in the morning."

"This is the morning."

"Later, then."

Dean wrapped his arms around Cas's waist like he owned the span of it. "Yeah, that's not going to happen."

"Maybe you could just--

"Nooo." 

A sharpness tapped underneath Cas's ribcage, an angel blade's point pressed with deliberate aim. It took a minute before he could speak. He gathered his courage. "If you want to stop--"

"No." The word fell from Dean like Cas had knocked it out with his fist. His eyes were fever bright and anguished, and another, better ache flooded Cas's chest at the sight. "No."

"I am very much in love with you." Cas took a breath. "Sam's reaction, I know, wasn't entirely out of nowhere." 

Dean tipped his forehead to Cas's. "I don't think he was objecting so much as he was surprised--"

"I'm only saying, I have thought of you both as my brothers, at various times in the past." Cas studied, not for the first time, a collection of freckles on Dean's shoulder. "I still think of Sam as a brother, in a way. He may not be incorrect that the situation, as it has evolved, is something a bit… Atypical." He considered a further implication. "And each of us is one of Jack's dads."

Dean huffed, a bluff since his fingertips were memorizing Cas's vertebrae like he planned to sketch them later. "Well. We can't all be the goddamn Waltons, or whoever."

Cas agreed, "We definitely do not live on a farm." He let himself sway toward the ardent way Dean was looking at him. "It might be nice to live on a farm, with cows and ducks, maybe some sheep--"

"And I am very much in love with you too," Dean said softly. He pressed his lips to Cas's cheek.

"Yeah?" Cas's eyes felt hot.

"Yep."

Cas thought to say, "You know, Sam is exactly who you raised him to be: a good man."

At that, Dean squeezed his eyes shut. "New rule," he said hoarsely after several seconds. He wiped his eyes and shook his head. "We cannot talk about Sam, like. When we're not even dressed."

Cas stretched out his right leg and wiggled his foot. "I have on these pajamas pants. Can no-one else see them? They're covered in so many things."

This was an understatement. Technically, the pattern contained no less than the following items: rainbows, unicorns, blue whales, yellow stars, shield-wielding pugs, and anti-whale flags, whatever and why-ever those were. Put simply, the pajama pattern was like an indecipherable code of images that seemed to illustrate the illicit drug use of the manufacturer's designer.

With his finger, Dean traced the outline of one of the rainbows arced on Cas's knee. "Is it weird that rainbows remind me of you?"

Cas thumbed a spot on Dean's throat, his mouth going dry with the desire to taste the pulse fluttering there. "In my celestial wavelength form, I suppose I would be more closely related to a visually-deducible electromagnetic wave than I would be a pug riding a whale into glorious battle."

"These pajamas are a work of art," Dean contended, kissing Cas's temple. "Hmm."

"What?"

"I guess that story about God -- Chuck -- using a rainbow to seal a promise about never again destroying earth with a flood is just apocrypha, huh?"

Cas thought about it. "Yes. Unfortunately." He tried not to sigh. "Sometimes I have to remind myself Chuck created some beautiful wonders despite...being who he is."

"Yeah. Going out after a hard rain and seeing a rainbow's colors arching through the clouds -- still seems hopeful." Dean started pulling Cas down beside him on the mattress. "Maybe that's what reminds me of you."

Unable to speak, Cas tucked his face into Dean's throat. 

Dean's fingers were slipping beneath the waistband of the pajamas, ever so slowly. "Anyway, these are mine." Cas hummed an affirmative. "I would like them back," Dean said.

"Now?" Cas heard himself gasp.

Dean pressed him onto his back to nose his way down the line of Cas's breastbone, his warm breath teasing over cooled skin and coaxing out a shiver Cas felt splintering through his whole body. 

"I would settle for you just not having them on at the moment," Dean said, using both hands to reclaim his property, and before raising up to kiss anything Cas might have wanted to say in response entirely out of his mouth.

[bleachbleachbleach]

Top 5 Bleach voices

When I first watched Bleach, “watching anime” meant loading three 7-minute segments in order to watch a single episode on YouTube--each of which you then had to buffer. And they’d have a combination of English or Spanish subtitles in like 320p and it was a whole affair. (This represents a level of dogged tenacity that I’m not sure I still have--oh, how weak we’ve grown, with our unlimited high-speed Internet and our streaming media!)

Under those circumstances, I feel like the question of “why this? why not just read the manga? why not continue memorizing the singular Inuyasha DVD we own?” looms large. The animation is what it is (and at 320p it is not a lot LOL) and imho the Bleach bgm is uniquely bad. But my answer is also very simple: I ABSOLUTELY ADORE ORIKASA FUMIKO’S RUKIA. SHE IS PERFECT.  A GODDESS. MY QUEEN. ADORATION AND ADULATION. 

My top five Bleach voices

1. Rukia (Orikasa Fumiko) -- My gosh, what do I even say. I literally watched this anime for her Rukia--what more is there TO say? But I guess a lot of what I love about Orikasa’s performance is how much of what I love about Rukia she’s able to carry into her voicework. Because you have this girl who can be archaic and otherworldy, but also codeswitch straight into Genial High School Classmate, but also be colloquial and masculine and rough around the edges. But ALSO be dancerly, but also a depressed tower queen, but also serious and firm, serious and deferent, but ALSO drama Rukia (I love drama Rukia ToT). Rukia stands out to me as a character who’s a lot of things all at once, flickering rapidly across all these pieces of her, and Orikasa nails all of it.

I love this scene because she’s Vanna Rukia but the second Rukia expects the camera to stop rolling her affect shifts entirely. Beautiful. 

(Me after I end the Zoom meeting.)

****** Would also like to mention that Orikasa also plays Ashisogi Jizou, the chirpy butterfly version, AKA my favorite of the manifested zanpakutou. The idea of Rukia and Mayuri’s freakin’ sword being played by the same person is just U N H I N G E D to me.

2. Ikkaku (Hiyama Nobuyuki) -- Literally any time anyone in any other anime does a battle cry or an ORAORAORA I’m just like, “Well, he’s no Ikkaku.” This man has the best battle cries in the entire world. I would make his oraoraora my ringtone. (And then like, to also be able to do this???)

3. Ichigo (Morita Masakazu) -- I like Ichigo’s voice well enough, and he is remarkably good at breathing (I have a friend who once did all of the breathing fx for a stage play’s soundboard and let me tell you--underrated skillset), but the reason he’s on this list is because of the way he cried at the end of the Fullbring arc. Just deeply, soul-rendingly sad. Ichigo being sad doesn’t need a lot of help to make me feel sad for him, but Masakazu’s voicework in that scene took it to separate planet for me. It haunts me. (He also has a tiny but really good scene for this in Fade to Black.)

4. Urahara (Miki Shinichiro) -- Similar to Rukia, I feel like to do a good Urahara you have to have a really wide range of affects and be nimble about maneuvering across them, and Urahara has such a great voice for someone who’s ready to be deeply weird in an inscrutable but adorkable way and then suddenly be deeply weird in a fucked up way at, well, the drop of a hat.

5. Mayuri (Nakao Ryuusei) -- Opposite Urahara, to do Mayuri you need a voice that’s deeply weird in only a fucked up way. But at the same time, you can’t be generically villainous because you have to be extra af about it. But not JUST histrionic, because you also need to be coldly, clinically sinister. It’s a difficult tightrope to walk! But Nakao’s Mayuri is so, so distinctive.

[tgsofu]

Numb is a long-running webcomic that sports a very pleasantly distinct mix of watercolors and expressive artwork. Its themes include horror, mystery and drama and the story is structured to complement this artistically innovative format. The cast is full of quirky and memorable characters which both stylistically and narratively combine familiar influences from modern day media with what I would describe as finer art medium. Not unlike many indie titles seen in the gaming industry, it is this funky and relatively uncommon combo that forms perhaps the most prominent identity for Numb, bringing together the best of both worlds and really works for the kind of story it has set out to tell. Numb is a comic that radiates with the deep passion, ambition, and love that its creator harbors for it, a trait not uncommon among many successful and popular works of fiction. It’s something that rubs off not only on the product itself but also the consumer, helping to bring every masterpiece to life on a whole new level.

Read more for a full review!

At this point I will point out that I will be reviewing Numb a little differently from how I would normally approach the process. Instead of shredding this passion project into a pile of opinionated pros and cons 1-4 star-rankings, I will be introducing you to the general concept of Numb and the aspects of it that resonated with me personally. Given that I know the artist personally and my relationship with the comic consequently more intimate, I doubt I would be able to remain entirely objective! But that is okay, after all, I tend to focus my reviews and precious time on media that I truly enjoy. And it is in that regard that Numb stands no different from anything I have reviewed thus far!

Back to the review, shall we?

The relationship dynamics in Numb feel very intuitive and real. The interactions are multi-layered and deep, with the characters’ emotions both positive and negative being beautifully portrayed through careful pacing, nuanced expressions, and punchy dialogue. It is a working mix of hilarious banter and meaningful conversations that are further elevated by the overall clever writing and colorful personalities of the featured cast. Already well established in the first part of Numb, which I read ages ago, I find the characterization only keeps getting better as the series enters its second instalment! Several points of view and plot threads are at works, which is an ambitious structural choice to tackle as it can hinder the reading experience if one character and their respective story arc prove less interesting than the other. In this case, however, they are handled with enormous care and the unfolding storylines support each other, enough so that I have not even once felt frustrated when dragged from one POV to the next.

The prominent element of mystery in Numb comes in the form of dreamlike, surreal portrayal of various events and environments that make good use of the comic format with how it plays with its layout. (There was a curious case of quite literal breaking of the 4th wall that was executed in a both playful and plot-relevant manner!) Aesthetically intriguing and packed with both open and hidden symbolism, they provide the reader with a lot to think about and plenty to look at. Not only do many pages function like stand-alone artworks worthy of their own corner in an arts exhibition hall, this lingering presence of mystery also effectively combines with the flow of the narrative. It mercilessly breaks the reader's expectations time and time again, which again is a brave direction to follow, as an unpredictable narrative can sometimes be an issue if it falls into the pitfall of betraying its audience. Numb fortunately has found a way to play this aspect in its own favor, as at least I find myself loving every moment of not knowing what to expect at the next page turn. There is also some fun meta-level commentary to be found, references and relatable themes! These little nods, be it the characters' own nerdy interests in familiar media such as anime or manga, jrock, movie industry or art as a medium, or even the messages hidden between lines of dialogue, all create an interactive atmosphere between the reader and the comic that had me smiling time and time again, all the while without taking away from the overall immersion. The comedic value of the writing is phenomenal, knowing where and when to introduce laughs, and is beautifully contrasted by the comics' darker nature ranging from its terrifying horror elements down to its heart-wrenchingly emotional tear-jerking moments. It shares that sort of multifaceted nature with masterpieces like Homestuck, Mother 3 and Undertale - a manner of storytelling that keeps coming out at the top over and over again, at least for my personal list of favorites!

Returning to this comic after a couple of long years, it fills me with cheer to see how far it has come and how strong it is still going. The artist’s expertise with the chosen medium has evolved at a steady pace and the product of their hard work has only grown more intriguing and competent with its increasing number of chapters. Numb is also one of those rarities that can be trusted to respect its audience’s emotional investment and keep it well fed as it is still updating at regular intervals years after its debut. I warmly recommend this comic to all of you with an appreciation for beautifully executed psychological mystery/horror and strong character-driven story. This, lads, is a bright star deserving of a spot in the sky of masterfully crafted works of art.

[scope-dogg]

SSSS.Gridman: Final Thoughts

Even though I watched it during its original run in 2018 just three years ago, I felt compelled to rewatch this show thanks to its inclusion in the upcoming Super Robot Wars, where it’s most likely the most exciting new inclusion in the roster for many if not most. I don’t think I ever wrote a full review piece for it during that original run, so I’ll use this opportunity to sort that out. It was one of two mecha series made by Studio Trigger in 2018 (you could argue that it’s not a mecha series really, but that’s splitting hairs, the appeal of this and various super robot shows overlaps heavily,) the other being Darling in the Franxx. It was Franxx that was probably the most highly anticipated of the two, with Gridman, as the soft reboot of an old, not-especially-popular toku Ultra-series knockoff from the 90s, probably rating a fair bit lower on the hype charts. In the end, reality defied at least my expectations if nobody else’s, with Franxx being somewhat of a letdown and SSSS.Gridman turning out to be excellent. On a repeat viewing, my opinion has changed somewhat - this time I enjoyed it even more than the first time around. I truly think that it’s one of, if not the best mecha (or mecha-adjacent if you want to be picky) series to air in recent years.

The plot setup is that one day, highschooler Yuta Hibiki awakes in the house of his classmate Rikka Takarada with a problem - he’s lost all his memories. More concerning still, he’s the only one that can see the giant, silent, unmoving monsters towering over the city, and an armoured figure inside an old computer calling himself Gridman and telling Yuta that there’s something important that he must do. Before he has a chance to reach the sensible conclusion that he’s gone insane, a monster that’s indisputably real attacks. Yuta is sucked into the old computer, and merges with Gridman, allowing him to manifest as a giant defender in the real world to fight back. The next day, however, nobody except for Yuta and his friends remember anything about the giant monster attack, and the city is as good as new - with the only difference being that history seems to have been rewritten so that those who died at the hands of the monster were actually killed in unrelated circumstances years prior. Unbeknownst to Yuta, those killed were specifically singled out by the creator of the monster - the most popular girl in his class, Akane Shinjou. Yuta, his friends, Gridman and a band of peculiar new allies must fight to protect the lives of the innocents living in the city from monster attacks while attempting to figure out just what is going on.

The plot setup is strange, similar to that of the original 90s Toku series, but the show does an incredible job of selling you on it and drawing you in. You want to know more about what’s going on and what will happen next, and the show wastes admirably little of its short 12-episode runtime in delivering on the promise of its narrative. Each new episode manages to deliver both new revelations and fresh excitement in equal proportions - there’s basically nothing from this series that feels like it’s missing, yet also basically nothing that feels unnecessary either. I sometimes despair slightly how many more recent mecha anime have gotten shorter, with 12 or so episodes seeming to be the norm for all except the biggest new releases, but if all of them paced themselves as well as this show then it wouldn’t be an issue at all. I recently watched one very long old show in the shape of Heavy Metal L-gaim, and one shorter recent one in Knight’s and Magic, with the former feeling like it’s treading water for far too long and the latter skipping over too much in an effort to cram too much into a shorter run - Gridman, by contrast, is a superb example of how it should be done. That great pacing is in service of a surprisingly interesting plot, as well - it takes its interesting setup to even more interesting places, and ends up using them to address some interesting themes. To say too much would be to spoil it, which would be a disservice, but broadly it’s about how humans approach reality and the conflicts that issue from that.

That the series succeeds on this front is largely because of a really memorable cast of characters. While Yuta, the hero, isn’t especially memorable, Akane, the antagonist, is very much so - figuring out her deal is arguably the primary driving force behind the narrative. I honestly can’t say I can think of an antagonist in a mecha series that’s quite like her - though it’s revealed that she’s the villain in the first episode, you wouldn’t be likely to guess as much on seeing her for the first time, as she’s outwardly cheerful and seemingly normal - though it soon becomes apparent that this conceals a penchant for doling out incredibly harsh judgement for incredibly petty slights, just one aspect indicating a highly disturbed mindset. The show increasingly centres around her increasingly as it nears its climax, in a way that arguably makes her just as important to the narrative as the protagonists. The supporting cast are pretty excellent too, with standouts including Yuta’s firends Rikka and Utsumi, both of whom contribute to the plot in their own ways, Anti, a monster created by Akane disguised as a young boy who’s utterly obsessed with striking down Gridman and has an incredibly memorable character arc, and others besides.

Plot and characters are just one half of why the show’s so great though - the other half is its striking presentation. Trigger’s notable for animating with a very distinctive flair, whether that’s Kill la Kill or their also-excellent feature film Promare - after all, it’s made up by much of the talent that worked on Gurren Lagann. However, their approach to SSSS.Gridman was different, if no less striking for different reasons. For me, the show’s aesthetic is defined above all else by the contrast between the ordinary and the extraordinary. The show puts a great deal of effort into portraying mundane things - city streets, school halls and the like - and then contrasting that against the bizarre and spectacular. A great example of this are the frequent shots of busy streets full of people minding their own business, completely unaware of the mysterious, ominous monsters towering over everything quietly in the background. This even leaks through into the one scenes are directed - most of the dialogue is written in a way that feels very natural, with people talking to one another much how you’d expect them to in real life, over mundane topics, even as strange and spectacular things are happening around them. It has a double effect of enhancing the air of mystery around the strange aspects of the world, and also making the spectacular events, especially the battles between Gridman and monsters, seem all that more exciting when they come around. The mechanical and monster designs alike are spectacular, and their battles are blockbuster events. The show uses a mix of 2D and 3D animation for these. While 3D generally has probably finally reached a stage where it’s generally good enough to stand in for traditional 2D animation, at least for mechanical fights, few other shows exhibit the level of mastery that Trigger exhibit when using it in this series - largely due to their deft blending it with traditional 2D for certain shots, and fantastic judgement of when to use what manner of animation. Much of the battle animation even pays homage to classic super robot shows of the past. Ultimately, I think this show’s action is close to the top of the pile when it comes to mecha shows in general - but as I said earlier it’s the blend of the ordinary and extraordinary that makes it really stand out, and the same level of care was put into the most mundane scenes. The result is a beautiful and exquisitely detailed series from beginning to end.

Overall, I think SSSS.Gridman stands out, not just within this era, which is arguably a relatively weak one as far as mecha shows are concerned, but even within the grander body of work of mecha shows as a whole - which nobody would have expected from a followup to a hokey old 90s toku show. While their recent feature film Promare was also a spectacular accomplishment from the studio, I think this show’s probably my favourite thing that Trigger’s put out in their lifespan thus far. With one worthy sequel having already aired this year in the form of SSSS.Dynazenon, another still in the pipeline, and the series achieving entry into Super Robot Wars, it’s already starting to accrue the legacy that it arguably deserves as an instant modern classic.

[brawltogethernow]

So on the whole, how useful would you say Death Note is for teaching someone how to write a convoluted plot between enemy chessmasters that's at least... 50% watertight?

General disclaimer that I haven’t touched the source material directly in many years, and all my dn posts are me feeling my feelings. But yeah, I can shake my 8-ball about this.

There are two components to dn’s approach to “a convoluted plot between enemy chessmasters”, and they’re only roughly stapled together. There’s the rivalry/characterization part, which is both compelling and silly, and is mostly about aesthetic. That never really concludes in a satisfying way. It’s not TRYING to, because the characters are pretty much there to hold up the thought experiment premise, which demands a lot of grit and unpoetic death and not solid foundations of character/relationship work. Like there’s stuff there but you’re really deep-mining for it and doing a lot of the work yourself, and that’s by design. All of the character arcs, which are pretty thin on the ground, trend in a negative/dismantling direction (because it’s a tragedy), and few of the relationships play out all the potential they have (because it’s not a tragedy about relationships).

The character aspect of the chessmaster stuff is heavily reliant on the conceit that once people are smart enough they will start reaching the same conclusions in the same way. Like there’s a single most ideal train of thought for every situation that even people who should have very different thought processes will reach with the assistance of enough little gray cells. This isn’t uncommon in smartboi stories, but dn went absolutely ham on it, if you want to make a study of that trope.

The biggest takeaway there is probably noting how the creative team seems to have been unaware that a lot of their audience was actually buying into that between the lead and their rival as a “meant to be enemies” kind of thing and didn’t realize that faction would be less interested once it became obvious that no, all geniuses in this world are taking turns using one brain. I’ll freely admit I deliberately misread this element to maximize my own investment.

Then there are the tricks and puzzles. The odd logical hole is inevitable, but overall they’re solid. They’re also just procedural plots delivered in a less formulaic story than that usually makes one think of. There’s nothing distinguishing them from the weekly puzzle of a House episode or a Detective Conan arc except for raw creativity and panache. There is rarely any characterization going on whatsoever. The twists require players, but you never get the sense that only whoever is being pulled to act could fill their part. They’re always stand-ins for perfectly generic individuals, putting their distinctive quirks and intense personal philosophies aside. This is that idea that there’s one way of thinking that everyone is accessing at staggered intelligence levels in play again. People are simplified until they can be pieces in contraptions no more complex than Light’s exploding desk drawer trap.

This is why the trick plots of dn don’t get pored over a lot by fans. They’re looped too loosely to the rest of the story to have an emotional impact that will make them memorable long-term. They’re deceptively simple, too. Kind of the opposite of a story twist that makes you rethink everything that came before it in a new light. You can’t dismantle dn and reassemble it like pentominoes very easily. A lot of it is grand set pieces, and if you tease out any of the puzzle plots they sort of lose structural integrity and flake away. This is why most canon divergence fic for dn is “diverging” by asking the question “what if Light were less of a shit”.

Ultimately, Death Note only gives the impression of being a complex engine made of moving parts. Its strong suit is its showmanship. It’s very good at carrying you along from twist to twist in a state of mild beffudlement that doesn’t quite escalate to belligerent and securing that “Oh wow! That was clever!” reaction. The mastermind-offs of are deceptively static, pretty much coming down to one party either failing or succeeding to thwart a plot laid out by another in advance without a lot of combating each others’ machinations in real time. Once resolved, twists vanish from the consciousness like disappearing gold. There’s no fiber to them, just flash.

This isn’t critique! Most elements of this story do what they’re deployed to do. (If the tricks needed workshopping, people would analyze them more, ironically.)

I’m myself shit at (de)constructing brain tingler twists and can’t really identify if dn’s are useful for instruction purposes. Not for people who don’t already have a natural talent for them, I guess! It might be interesting to identify why they’re not immediately identifiable as bloodless trick plots, except I suspect it might just be that the rest of dn is so insane and dissimilar from stories that usually contain those? Like I already compared it to two Holmes descendants, and it definitely has BBC Sherlock “let the asshole speak, genii are a protected species” vibes, and the criminal protagonist facing off with a detective premise is Arsene Lupin-y, yet I still feel weird identifying Death Note itself as in this broader genre because *gestures to all of it*.

It’s the least formula-reliant example of the breed I can think of right now, which is neat. (Annnnd also definitely feeds in to people being dissatisfied with it because they miscalled what it was trying to be. Dn is just generally pretty unique, and I imagine the team was making up a lot of its playbook from scratch as it went along, which leaves the audience in kind making up the experience of consuming it.)

All of the above is incidentally why dn is infamous for being very compelling in the moment but then having people revisit thinking about it and decide the he-knows-that-I-know-that-he-knows conceit is actually ridiculous and needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

So uh. This all SOUNDS like bad form, but that’s arguably me being a basic bitch who “likes when plot and character and aesthetic inform each other”, and that’s just fundamentally not what Death Note is. Also it’s kind of a lofty starting goal and writing is hard. Like! This approach worked! We are discussing a very successful property with many fans. (And a weirdly finite cultural impact for its popularity but this isn’t necessarily why.) I guess this is an acceptable playbook, and the takeaway is that you CAN successfully Frankenstein together different unconnected storytelling methods, and it will look dazzling and impressive and barely leave any of your readership feeling confused and hollow inside and likely to return and make fun of themselves for accidentally liking your work wrong.

Oh, also, dn as do’s and don’t’s of building a mastermind character. Do give headlining characters eye-catching, memetic traits. Don’t fail to trace those traits down so they actually represent something at your character’s core because you crossed over the line from “spinning characters out as foils and parallels who compare and contrast to each other in interesting ways” into “all of your smart characters are basically the same challenge-seeking misanthrope stamped with different surface features” -- except WHO ELSE IS GOING TO HAVE THAT PROBLEM? THAT’S NOT NORMAL.

So yeah you COULD study Death Note, or you could binge some crime dramas and then some X-Men issues that have battles in the center of the mind over the same weekend and get basically the same net effect.

[i-dreamed-i-had-a-son]

Although I'm sad the podcast is over, I really did not like the finale of the Magnus Archives. In short, this is because thematically, there was an abrupt shift away from everything we had previously been moving towards (along with a few other aspects).

Up until about the final act of the episode, things made sense. It was very much in character for Jon to try, once again, to "go it alone," and Martin calls him out on this. He's always been a headstrong character, and especially when it comes to his personal responsibility, he's unable to allow others to influence his decisions to any real degree. (Season 2 is a great example of this.)

And what I was expecting was very much what they seemed to be leading up to--Jon would essentially become the Extinction, destroying the entire world and resolving that Chekhov's gun which we've been waiting on for the better part of three seasons now. I was slightly surprised that they didn't make this connection more obvious, but I was willing to accept that it was something clear enough that they didn't have to outright state it; I had previously theorized that Jon would end up ushering in the Extinction, not becoming it, but this made sense too.

But they didn't do this. Instead, abruptly, Jon changes his mind and backs out of his plan. For the power of love, to make matters worse, which is such a tired and amatonormative trope that I hadn't expected it, solely because I thought it was beneath the quality of writing I'd been accustomed to from this show.

Now, looking at this decision with the episode behind me, I can understand what they were trying to go for. They were trying to show that Jon has grown, that unlike before, he is able to listen to people, he does change his plan because he cares about more than just his own feelings--and this would have been a great arc, if they had effectively established it. But the pacing was all wrong.

This entire season, to my great disappointment, has largely been a drag. The episodes, after a point, began to feel like thinly veiled filler. As opposed to Seasons 1-3, and even Season 4, the episodes here were rather disjointed; some were straight-up skippable, because they essentially were self-contained statements from fears we'd already seen. They lost the mystery that pulsated under every statement from earlier seasons, since the apocalypse had already happened. And, instead of replacing that mystery with consistent, poignant character beats, they wrote those beats in sporadically, leaving the rest of the episodes honestly lacking some of that special quality the earlier ones had had.

In other words, the core problem with Season 5, which manifested in the finale in its clearest form, is that neither the characters nor the story changed throughout the season. In the other seasons, each character had a distinct arc (Jon becoming untrusting and spying on others, Martin succumbing to the Lonely, etc.), and that was the core of the show, supported by a distinct and mysterious plot which developed as it went on. And because this did not happen in Season 5, it felt like nothing happened (even though, objectively, many things did).

This is what made that final shift so jarring. Instead of having developed this character growth over the course of the season, establishing that Jon is willing to change his behavior for Martin, the dynamic between them stayed essentially unchanged from the beginning of the season to the end. So to have Jon suddenly change his mind at such a climactic moment, with no more lead-up than Martin...yelling at him desperately once?...felt rushed. The whole episode, in fact, felt rushed, as though they were trying to fit a whole season's worth of character growth into a single episode.

And I can see the point being made of "well, they did establish this throughout the season! Martin and Jon fought several times and they always made up!" And while that is technically correct, two facts make this less impactful:

These moments were surrounded by so much unnecessary content that it essentially drowned them in filler. They didn't feel as memorable as they could have, because they were just moments, not a steady emotional through-line as we've had before, and

Jon, throughout the entire season, remained rather godlike. We saw him struggle a bit with his power, we saw some conversations about it, but he was missing that raw humanity he had had in earlier seasons. And while this makes sense, as he is growing less and less human, it also makes genuine, human, emotional connection more difficult for his character to have. Because of this, those emotional, character-driving beats didn't feel as notable in the context of the larger season. By necessity, we had to focus on other things, but this means that the ending we got should not have been where things ended up.

Ultimately, Jon's character hadn't been shown to change enough that his final change of heart at the last moment made sense. It felt unearned--even though the legwork was *technically* put in, it didn't land with me (and perhaps the larger audience? Is this why we've seen less TMA content for Season 5 than any season before?), leading to the conclusion feeling rushed and forced. Especially since it was all for love...but don't get me started on that.

In my opinion, what should have happened was this: we knew all along we were going to get an unhappy ending. So we should have gotten a definitively unhappy one. Don't leave things ambiguous (which feels like an unwillingness to commit to any real stakes, making the whole season, and ultimately, the whole show, feel inconsequential, since we've been told the stakes are deathly high the entire time), and give us a distinct, thematically consistent ending that resolves those unfired Chekhov's guns.

What I would have liked to see is Martin confronting Jon, Jon not listening to him and going ahead anyway (with some appropriately emotional arguments between them beforehand!) and then becoming the Extinction. Watching Martin fall apart as we see Jon become everything he never wanted to be: a monster, inhuman, someone who Martin couldn't love--watching Martin try to stop him, but fail, watching Jon cry as he sees how utterly he's destroying not just the world, but the only person in it who truly understood him, watching Jon go through with it despite the pain, because most of all he has to do what is right. He's done being manipulated, he's done being controlled, he's done letting his selfishness and his desire to pretend that everything can be alright hurt others (bringing back themes from earlier seasons), and he is willing to sacrifice everything to serve the greater good--despite knowing that the people who make up that "everything" don't want to be sacrificed. It is a fascinating, morally complex issue that has no happy resolution--but the in-character resolution, with the characters we were given this season, is a clear and definitive one.

Ultimately, because of the lack of attention paid to effectively developing these characters this season, no ending was going to feel satisfying. Our payoff to all of the growth really happened at Season 4, where Jon decided to do what he wanted, namely kill Lukas and inadvertently usher in the apocalypse. And since Jon hasn't changed, his decisions shouldn't either--he should still choose to do what he thinks is best, no matter the cost.

But at the very least, even though it wouldn't really have been a choice, even though it would have meant he failed to grow through all of these experiences, I still would have liked to see Jon decide to not just fall victim to the Web's manipulation. I would have liked to see him try, and fail, and prove ultimately that he is still a man, however godlike he might be, but to try at least to choose something other than what was already set out for him. That's what the whole show has been leading up to--the tragedy of something being so avoidable, yet so out of your control, that what happens in the end feels like both your choice, and the only option left. That's why the Web was the overarching fear, because fundamentally, at our cores, that is what we all fear: life. Life is making choices--in all its complexity of fate and free will, we are terrified of life and the way our choices, or lack thereof, will affect ourselves and everyone else. We don't get to take an easy out, which is what it feels like Jon did here, by allowing the Web's plan to move forward and continuing to be manipulated by it just like he has been his whole life. We have to struggle to break free. We have to make those hard decisions, even if there's no right one; we have to try to grow, even if we ultimately do not.

We don't get to choose death.

We have to live.

[aion-rsa]

Ranking Cinderella Adaptations

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A dream is a wish your heart makes, and if your wish is to see countless takes on the beloved fairy tale of Cinderella, then consider your dreams having come true many times over—including this year, with a new Cinderella by way of Amazon Studios. This latest adaptation seems to have combined qualities of many of its predecessors: it’s playfully anachronistic and eschews the traditional Disney or Rodgers & Hammerstein songs in favor of a tracklist of modern pop covers; it also engages with Cinderella’s career aspirations beyond fitting her foot into a glass slipper.

But this Cinderella owes everything to the other soot-stained girls, animated and otherwise, who wished with all their hearts for decades before her. How does the new adaptation compare to the modern fairy tales, animated classics, and another fairy tale riff with an outstanding Stephen Sondheim tune? Check out our ranking of Cinderella adaptations, from worst to best.

10. A Cinderella Story (2004)

This cult classic is a clever retelling, with peak early-aughts casting of Hilary Duff and Chad Michael Murray as the star-crossed, Cyrano de Bergerac-inspired lovers: Sam toils away at her late father’s Southern California diner, under the heel of a delightful Jennifer Coolidge as her vain stepmother, while Austin is the closest thing to high school royalty as the quarterback with a sensitive side. Regina King as the longtime diner employee-turned-metaphorical fairy godmother who gets Sam to the homecoming masquerade dance is the other key bit of casting, but you’d have to really be a fan of the “fairy tales in high school” subgenre to get on board. Plus, the stable of derivative direct-to-video sequels makes the sparkle wear off with each new, formulaic installment released.

9. Cinderella (2021)

Kay Cannon’s (Pitch Perfect) progressive plot urging entrepreneurial dressmaker Ella (Camilla Cabello), her bitterly materialistic stepmother (Idina Menzel), and other original female characters to choose themselves over the supposed security of marriage is not quite enough to balance the cringey modern soundtrack and anachronistic witticisms. It’s too bad, because this Cinderella puts forth ambitious ideas, and any production with Billy Porter as the fairy godmother should be nothing but fabulous. Compared to most of her predecessors, this Cinderella is a distinctively fresh role model for the next generation of kids, but adults won’t find much magic in her story.

8. Ella Enchanted (2004)

This is a tough one, because the source material—that is, Gail Carson Levine’s 1997 middle grade novel—is unquestionably one of the very best Cinderella adaptations: Ella’s curse of obedience is an apt commentary on manipulating young girls into giving up their agency under the guise of people-pleasing. But the film—despite its adorable, baby-faced stars Anne Hathaway and Hugh Dancy—overcomplicates an already daring plot with a throne-stealing subplot (that Cary Elwes, as the unnecessary evil uncle, can’t save) and an unforgivably cheesy cover of Queen’s “Somebody to Love.” Hathaway’s voice is sweeter than Nicholas Galitzine’s rendition in the new Cinderella, but the giants dressed in early-aughts miniskirts strain even the most loose definitions of fantasy. Despite all that, it (mostly) sells Ella struggling against abuses of her obedience in a way that’s still more revelatory than many straight adaptations. Still, you’ve got plenty of better movie choices; forget this adaptation and just read the book.

7. Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella (1965)

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II originally wrote their classic musical for television broadcast instead of the stage, though it has found its way to the latter. CBS’ second TV production (following the original 1957 version starring Julie Andrews) introduced a bright-eyed Lesley Ann Warren (a.k.a. Miss Scarlet from Clue) as Cinderella, and unlike its predecessor was able to be recorded in color. Between the vivid hues, Warren’s expressive acting, and the array of sets, it all contributed to the feeling of watching a taped performance—an incredibly charming one, at that. But the effect does come off as overwrought at times, making it the lowest of the three specifically Rodgers & Hammerstein adaptations on the list.

6. Cinderella (2015)

While visually Kenneth Branagh’s live-action adaptation of the animated Disney classic hews so closely to its source material that it feels like a lost opportunity to be more original, there are some sly plot tweaks. Lily James’ Ella is not hopelessly naïve about her abusive home situation, yet manages to keep up the mantra of “have courage and be kind” through even the worst mistreatment. Streamlining the classic songs to score strengthens the plot, with Ella’s rare occasion of singing being what ultimately saves her. Fans of the blue dress and romantic vibe will have much to swoon over, even if they’re not surprised.

5. Into the Woods (2014)

Or, then, what if I am? / What a Prince would envision? / But then how can you know / Who you are til you know / What you want? Which I don’t… Anna Kendrick brings us a relatably existential Cinderella in this movie adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical about various fairy tale characters who wind up with questionably happy ever afters—including Cinderella, who decides “not to decide,” then ends up with a philandering Prince. It’s not a complete Cinderella story, but it’s a more memorable performance in a handful of scenes than entire movies have attempted.

4. Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella (1957)

Despite only surviving in black-and-white form, CBS’ original TV broadcast shines thanks to its star: Julie Andrews, then performing My Fair Lady on Broadway, who makes this Cinderella both an amalgamation of her then-current and future roles and a performance all its own. You can see glimmers of her comic talents as Maria in The Sound of Music—this Cinderella also has more wit than other versions—but it’s her voice that elevates Rodgers & Hammerstein’s adaptation of Charles Perrault’s fairy tale into something timeless.

3. Cinderella (1950)

Few Cinderella adaptations have achieved the same sweeping sense of sheer romance in the Disney animated classic: the painted backgrounds, the dreamy sequences reflected in soap bubbles and sparkling through the palace gardens, the surprisingly high emotional stakes that make the resolution all the sweeter. And while it’s become a common Disney trope, the requisite scene in which the stepsisters cruelly rip apart Cinderella’s dress adds a layer of wickedness not present in the Rodgers & Hammerstein adaptations, nor successfully recreated in any of the live-action versions. The same goes for the goofy mice singing “Cinderelly, Cinderelly”—every subsequent CGI mouse lacks the warmth that goes into a believable animal companion. That said, the animated movie’s legacy is somewhat marred by its direct-to-video sequels of diminishing returns, though you also have to give them props for pulling an Avengers: Endgame 12 years earlier with Cinderella 3: A Twist in Time.

2. Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella (1997)

For many of us, Disney’s animated Cinderella was a childhood classic, but The Wonderful World of Disney’s ‘90s production was the first time the story truly felt magical. Rodgers & Hammerstein’s songs were updated with contemporary beats, bridging the forty years between the first broadcast and this version: “Impossible” is one of the best songs from the show, but it hasn’t been truly sung until Whitney Houston is belting it out to a starry-eyed Brandy. The production’s effortlessly diverse casting—Whoopi Goldberg as the queen, Paolo Montalban as the prince, Bernadette Peters as the stepmother—only amplifies the universal nature of the story. Almost twenty-five years later, this adaptation still feels like the television event it was when it premiered.

1. Ever After: A Cinderella Story (1998)

A truly successful adaptation is one that doesn’t have to feel beholden to its source material. By opening with the Brothers Grimm explaining the inspiration behind their own interpretation of Cinderella, Ever After rewrites all of the familiar themes into a historical fiction—specifically, Renaissance-era France—context. Danielle’s (Drew Barrymore) misfortune as an orphan servant girl is so believable thanks to the cruelty of her stepmother’s (Anjelica Huston, a legend) abuse, but so is her determination and ingenuity to rise above her station. While Disney’s animated Cinderella is romantic, Ever After is a romance: Danielle disguises herself as a comtesse in order to spend time with Prince Henry (Dougray Scott), and they develop an actual relationship, complete with rejection once her subterfuge is revealed. Plus, Leonardo da Vinci is there for comic relief and an unintentional fairy godmother assist! If you want your Cinderella story with a compelling feminist arc but you’re also burnt out on the songs, this is your happily ever after.

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Cinderella will begin streaming on Amazon Video on September 3rd.

The post Ranking Cinderella Adaptations appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[mahou-furbies]

☕️ transformation items in precure!

Overall I’m more tolerant for dumb designs with transformation items than in weapons so most of them get a positive or at least neutral reaction from me. However some still scream “we would never have used a design like this if it wasn’t for the toys”.

Let’s go through them all!

Futari wa Precure

Simple flip-phone like designs for the modern girl in 2004. I think these are alright enough but don’t raise a lot of emotions in me. Not a fan of the mascots transforming into items, like does the phone become a part of their body, that’s just creepy. I’d prefer if it was made clear that the phone is a separate item and the mascots just shrink to be able to fit in it. I prefer the original designs, the upgraded ones look busier.

Uhh... I got nothing on this. I guess it’s nice that the new girl gets an item that’s a bit different but also similar to the ones we already have.

Splash Star

Still got nothing, it’s the same thing again. Good that they started using different ideas from the fourth season onwards. I guess I prefer the Futari Wa ones since these somehow feel too small. Nice light? But let’s just say that while it’s just fine to use phone as a base for the transformation item, there’s quite many of them on this list and in general they are a bit boring when you can’t do anything else with them than press a few buttons in the beginning.

Yes! Precure 5

Simple design but it works, usually black is a good idea. Though it could do with some buttons because now it doesn’t look you can do much anything with this. It’s a nice detail how the henshin starts with the lid of the clock opening and ends with it closing.

Now we’re truly in the 00′s with the flip phones. I like how the henshin starts with the lid opening, and the rose button is cute. But there’s not a lot to say about this one and it’s pretty boring.

My second least favourite Precure transformation item. What is this even supposed to be? Some kind of makeup case? In that case I’d rather have the colous be actual makeup and not buttons. The handle also feels stupid.

Fresh Precure!

This doesn’t even try to pretend it’s not a phone, it even has the number buttons. Actually were the transformation items originally the Cures’ phones? Can they make regular phone calls with this? I’d like to see that. But this is cute enough, I can imagine that a real phone like this could have been popular with little girls. But maybe it could do with some extra detail to look more weird, now it feels a bit too mundane to be a magical girl item.

Heartcatch Precure!

I’m not a huge fan of beauty products in little girls’ shows, but they do make a lot of sense in a transformation sequence where you get to see the characters “apply” the magic themselves, and the fragrance bottles make for some great henshin animation and also fit a flower-themed season. I also like the white-and-gold palette, makes it look more regal than the usual shock pink.

I forgot this one even existed. I really can’t muster any emotion towards it, KiraKira did the compact mirror thing a lot better.

Suite Precure

Why are the colours pink-white-blue-purple and not yellow? I don’t have particularly strong feelings for this one in any direction, I guess on its own it’s a bit boring when it doesn’t resemble any real item I can recognise and you can’t do much else with it than press the button at the bottom, but I also think it’s fine to have an item like that every once a while. However I think the little mascot creatures that are needed to use this thing are uncute and that lowers the overall points.

Smile Precure!

Another makeup item, another chance for the characters to do the transformation themselves. I love the little tup tup! sound effect that comes from this. Otherwise great, but it’s just unacceptable that the canon Cures cover 5 of the coloured bead thingys but we don’t get a red or purple Cure. False marketing I say.

Doki doki! Precure

The mascot-items are back and I’m still not a fan of this living-creature-turns-into-hard-plastic-device thing. It’s a phone, but it’s also too bulky to comfortably feel like one. But I really like how they spell L-O-V-E with the heart, I thought that was creative.

They tried to make Ace all cool and mature and then her transformation item is the most kiddy-looking TOY makeup box ever. Even if the merch is plastic can’d she at least have actual makeup in the henshin? And what’s with the button colours, sure they’re the team colours this time, but the other Cures don’t even use this item. 

Happiness Charge Precure!

The idea that the Cures can choose different cards to insert is a super fun one, and it’s also nice that they can use it for more mundane outfit changes outside battle scenes too. The writing around the cards is atrocious though but that’s another story. As for the design of the device itself, I think it’s pretty weak, it’s somehow bulky and not very memorable.

Probably my least favourite item from this bunch. The Piano is yet another unrelated thing that is shoved into HapiCha’s confused world, there is nothing about making music in the themes of the season, or Iona as a character. I hate that this thing is the culmination of Hime and Iona’s character arcs. Also the design looks really cheap and the animation where Iona presses a couple keys to get sounds that don’t even try to hide that this is just a toy for three-year-olds wastes time.

Go! Princess Precure

Another makeup item. At least perfumes fit the princess theme... But Go!Pri has the best henshin scenes in Precure, and the Cures applying the tranformation themselves plays a part in that. I also love how they start the transformation by filling the bottle with their theme colour, and the little twist they do with the key is a nice change from the usual button presses. And like with Heartcatch white and gold makes for a good regal colour palette. I think you could get an actual pretty fragrance bottle for grownups with this design if you did it with glass rather than plastic.

Also there are the keys which I love because of course I’m going to love collectible frilly dress items. They give each transformation and attack something unique and I like the bit where all the keys show up in a chain at the end of the henshin (and thankfully otherwise hidden under frills so you don’t need to draw them every time), and it’s nice to get the lock-and-key theme to the henshin as well. So once again Go!Pri is the best Precure at something and now gets the award for Best Precure Transformation item.

(god flora is so cute in this frame)

Mahou Tsukai Precure!

My bias that ever since I was a kid I’ve never really liked teddy bears comes to play here. The idea that the Cures don’t have a distinct transformation item at all is fun and the jewel theme is nice too, but I’m just filled with negative emotions whenever I see Mofurun... I haven’t seen MahouTsukai outside the henshin scenes so who knows if she’ll turn out to be my favourite character (and not just by process of elimination from me disliking everyone else more)

Not a big fan of this one, is it supposed to be a smartphone, or do they have some kind of smart notebooks in Japan? Either way it doesn’t really fit witches or flower fairies. All the little engravings are pretty and the flowers are cute, but overall this feels just random.

Kira Kira Precure a la Mode

Mixing the attributes the character represents with a magic whisk and then transforming by covering yourself with the whipped cream is a super fun idea, and also one of the few Precure transformations where the girls apply the transformation themselves that is not based on beauty products. Or I guess this is a pocket mirror too but whatever. The item itself is fun and cute enough.

However as those who saw my Ichika fanart a few days ago I really really really don’t like that they have to fiddle with the pathetic tiny q-tip of a whisk, give them one the size of a microphone so they can put some strength into it!

Hugtto! Precure

I love how you can twist the end to make a heart, if I had one of these I’d click it back and forth while sitting at the computer and the hinges would be busted in no time. The grey things at the edge of the screen could be some other colour, now they look a bit like they’re made of rocks. I don’t think this one does anything special but it’s just so cute that I have to love it.

Star Twinkle Precure

These are fun but a bit wasted on a season that has nothing to do with art. But otherwise A+ idea, very active participation from the girls when they draw almost everything in their new look, and it’s not makeup-based. Quill and ink bottle are the most magical writing apparatus so that’s very fitting, and thanks to the space theme we get some stars too so it’s not just the usual hearts. The pink tone is a bit gaudy.

Healin’ Good Precure

And we end on a weaker note with mascot items again. And these are my least favourites since to me they come across as if they have the dead-eyed animals’ decapitated heads sticking out of them. The paws also feel somehow unbalanced, and should not be pink for the blue and yellow items. The bottles feel tacked on too.

I feel that the mascots have been treated a bit better than average in Healin’ Good so I suppose it’s not bad that they get to be involved with the fights too (It’s nice that the item is also used as a weapon) but I would really rethink the design since now I don’t think the different elements go too well together and the result feels unbalanced. 

[twentiethcenturymoviesandtv]

Star Trek: The Story

Every television show is built upon one simple thing: it’s foundational setup.  At its core, a setup is the baseline for each new episode.  It’s what the audience returns to on a weekly basis.  The core elements of the show enable each episode to build a new story upon it, and, in most cases, , a show is often only as good as its setup, so you’d better hope the setup is a good one.

When it comes down to it, whether or not the audience likes a premise is what can make or break a show.

Thankfully, Star Trek had a good one.

A five-year mission to explore the galaxy meant you could get a fair number of adventures out of it.  Exploration and missions meant a new planet every week, new characters and a different adventure to embark upon (although odds are, the new episode would still feature Kirk’s Rock).  Even better, the main cast of characters (7, with 3 forming the core main characters) is consistent, familiar, and solid.  The audience grows to know them, and knows how to expect them to act.

This premise is kind of perfect.

The stability of a main crew gives the audience well-known and well-liked characters to return to for every episode, allowing for a familiar ‘home base’ at the start of every episode.  The format of the five-year mission, clearly stated in the opening, also gives the audience a sense of familiarity with the overall plot: the reason that the Enterprise and her crew are out here in the first place.  Kirk and his crew aren’t just wandering around space for kicks, they have a purpose: exploration for Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets.

This base works very well too in also establishing the characters’ abilities.  Being well-trained in Starfleet, the crew of the Enterprise is competent, intelligent, and pragmatic enough to find their way out of some difficult situations.  This allowed the writers to find ways to let Kirk and his crew think their way out of any situation, without stretching the suspension of belief for the audience.  With the variety of difficult situations that the Enterprise crew came across, it was vital that the audience believed that they could handle it.

So yeah, Star Trek had a great premise.  How were the stories themselves?

That’s where things get a little tricky.

As it turns out, there is a massive difference between writing a plot for a movie, and writing multiple smaller plots for a television show.  In film, there is one major conflict, one major story arc that, once it is finished, doesn’t go anywhere (unless very well-done sequels are made).  In television however, it’s a whole different ball game.

There is no ‘one and done’ storyline.  You have to write multiple, smaller stories, over and over again, trying to keep it varied and interesting while remaining true to the show’s format and setup.  In the case of Star Trek, this meant that sometimes, the differences between some episodes are rather superficial, with many episodes and stories sharing common elements.  In your typical episode of Star Trek, you could expect at least one of three things:

Clever interpersonal character drama, pointed social and political commentary, or extreme camp.  In many cases, you would get some combination of the three.  Even here, there was often some variety.

Most episodes of Star Trek followed one or two basic formulas.  

In many episodes, some external force threatens the ship and crew, whether directly, mentally, or by up-ending the laws of physics by warping reality.  In many others, Kirk leads a landing party to the surface of a planet, where they are trapped and stripped of communicators.  A Redshirt or two dies, Kirk and the remaining party evade their captors and probably engage in a fight, and in the end, they escape.  In other cases, it turns out that the inhabitants of the planet are all worshipping something as a deity that is, quite simply, Not.  The Enterprise crew often ends up enlightening the people on the planet, setting them free.

In a lot of cases, the episode ends with a motivational Kirk speech.

There were often subgenres of these episodes.  Episodes like A Piece of the Action, The Omega Glory, Bread and Circuses and Patterns of Force dealt with societies crafted after pieces of Earth history, where commentary could be most easily or most pointedly made.  Transporter incidents could often kick off a plot, whether by splitting a person into two personalities (The Enemy Within) or transporting them to another universe (Mirror, Mirror). Other episode types would often pop up, such as time travel, (Tomorrow is Yesterday, Assignment: Earth), the court-room/clear my name episodes (Court Martial, The Menagerie, Wolf in the Fold), aliens with god-like powers are jerking the crew around (The Squire of Gothos, Catspaw, Plato’s Stepchildren, Who Mourns for Adonis? Spectre of the Gun, Day of the Dove, The Empath, The Savage Curtain).

Even more standard stories included crew members (typically Kirk, but occasionally others) falling in love and having to break it off by the end of the episode (Most tragically in The City on the Edge of Forever, but also occurring in Requiem for Methuselah, Wink of an Eye, The Enterprise Incident, The Gamesters of Triskelion, By Any Other Name, The Paradise Syndrome, and For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky)  It happened a lot.

Other common plotlines often included madness plagues, regular sickness plagues, Klingons (Or occasionally Romulans), or the Technology Gone Mad episodes.

So yeah, there were patterns.  Lots of them, in fact.  However.

For all the episodes that were a ‘different version’ of an already produced story, there were also many episodes that were different in their own right.  Episodes like Amok Time, Devil in the Dark, Shore Leave, Space Seed, Balance of Terror, The Corbomite Maneuver, The Galileo Seven, Metamorphosis, The Trouble with Tribbles, Obsession, or Journey to Babel.  These episodes, while sometimes containing elements of other plotlines, were distinct, ‘fascinating’ episodes that challenged the traditional ‘Star Trek’ structure.

While it’s always good to have new types of episodes (for the most part), it’s important to remember that even the formulaic episodes were fairly varied, with plenty of new forms of commentary or camp to offer.  Episodes like A Private Little War provided discussion on the Vietnam conflict, and Let That Be Your Last Battlefield is a pointed, on-the-nose, well-deserved criticism of racism.  These stories, while sometimes containing plenty of elements of previously used episodes, were typically still good.  The characters were usually still interesting and memorable, the bad guys equally so, and most of the time, the stories were interesting enough that audiences didn’t mind if they’d already seen an alien culture worshipping a computer or not.

Were there clunkers?  Certainly.  Episodes like Turnabout Intruder, The Way To Eden, Spock’s Brain, and And the Children Shall Lead certainly exist, and while some fans have soft spots for some of them, these stories are widely regarded as the worst of the worst.  But no show is immune to bad episodes, and Star Trek’s reputation, overall, has far more good than bad.  Like I’ve mentioned before, having a formula (or multiple formulas!) is not necessarily a bad thing.  Star Trek’s multiple formulas and occasional ‘new’ story made for interesting and dynamic television stories that stuck with audiences.

While only lasting three seasons, Star Trek managed to generate multiple fascinating examples of television storytelling that have resonated with audiences decades after their initial broadcast.  Even after the show went off the air in 1969, the show’s following only grew, with more fans after it had finished than while it was actually airing.  After three seasons, with the last on shaky legs, plenty of fans still come back to these stories, continuing to find value in them.

Why?

As it turns out, it’s because they’re just…good.

The episodes of Star Trek all relied on new concepts and adventures, driven chiefly by characters that the audience knows and likes.  These episodes rode on a sense of drama, a genuine concern for these people, this crew, the core setup.  On top of that, the drama, while sometimes a bit campy to modern eyes, was often interesting and gripping, and no matter how similar the concept of each episode, the execution and interpersonal conflict was always different, allowing the audience to experience familiar ideas in unfamiliar ways.  The stories weren’t happening to these people, they were about them, and as a result, only the episodes where the characters aren’t in character tend to be the ones that are looked at unfavorably.

As I’ve mentioned before, the real secret to television is consistency mixed with creativity.  And Star Trek had that nailed.  

For all of its formulaic styles, Star Trek was new and interesting, bringing creative stories and characters to previously-used templates to make genuinely engaging and innovative entertainment, while being somewhat familiar.  The points are not softened by the fact that we’ve seen ‘parallel Earth cultures’ before, the characterization is not nullified because we’ve already seen Kirk fall in love with a doomed woman.  Each episode brought something new to the table (admittedly, not always a good something new) and as a result, despite similar themes and concepts, each episode is its own memorable entity, containing equally memorable and iconic characters in heartfelt, earnest stories that does its best to make its audience think.

In the end, that’s a huge contributing factor to why Star Trek still has the following it does.  No matter how much time passes, these stories, written over fifty years ago, still pack a good amount of the emotional and philosophical punch that they did when they were first penned.  

Are the episodes a little campy at times?  

Sure.  Absolutely.

But that doesn’t make them any less effective, or beloved, over fifty years later.  Even now, these stories pack a punch, to which a very loyal fanbase is still a testament.  These stories still have something to say over half a century later, interesting, compelling stories to tell with characters who are just as gripping as they were in 1966.  

Not bad for an old science fiction show from the ‘60s.

Thank you guys so much for reading!  Stay tuned for the next article, where we’ll be discussing the genre and themes of Star Trek.  Don’t forget that the ask box is always open, whether for discussion, questions, suggestions, or conversations.  I hope to see you in the next article.